I weathered that and a couple others
until I've got where I'm stumped. A bank has got the right to decide for
itself what it wants to lend money on; it can decline a loan on any
security or all securities offered, and what are you going to do about
it? The trust companies are carrying all they can and besides they're
being squeezed themselves. As a matter of fact, with solid properties
worth to-day in the market from fifty-five to fifty-seven millions, of
which we own sixty per cent., there isn't a bank in town will lend us a
hundred thousand dollars. The word has been passed around and those who
are independent don't dare. I need two million cash by day after
to-morrow, absolutely must have it, and they know it and Haggerdy's
coming here to look me over, examine my pocketbook and say, 'What have
you got that we want!'"

At this moment the butler came with a card.

"Did you say any one was here?" said Drake, studying the card.

"No, sir."

"Show Mr. Haggerdy in when I ring," said Drake, with a nod of dismissal.
He rose and beckoning Bojo placed him in the embrosine of the window,
where a slight recess hid him completely from the rest of the room.

"No need of a record; take it in just for your own curiosity," he said,
returning to his desk.

Mr. James H. Haggerdy came in like a bulky animal emerging from a cage
and blinking at the sun. He was not the man to beat about the bush, and
in his own long and varied experience in Wall Street he had been called
many names, but he had never been branded with anything petty, a fact
which made a certain bond of sympathy between the two men.

"Hello, Dan!"

"Hello, Jim!"

Haggerdy moved to a chair, refused a cigar, and said directly:

"Well, Jim, I suppose you know what I've come for."

"Sure, to carry off the furniture and the silverware," said Drake,
laughing.

"That's about it!" said Haggerdy, nodding with a grim twist of his lips.
He had a sense of humor, though he seldom laughed. "Dan, they've got
you."

"So they seem to think."

"And they want your Eastern C. and I. stock."

"That's quite evident. Will they accept it as a present or do they want
me to pay them for taking it?" said Drake grimly.

"What's the use of faking," said Haggerdy. "Gunther wants the stock and
is going to have it. Do you want to sell now or hand it over. You're a
sensible man, Dan; you ought to know when you're beaten."

"I'm not sure I am a sensible man," said Drake facetiously.