e stock transfer? Very well." He drew from
his pocket a bundle of shares and tossed them across the table to
Senator Lowe.

Henry made his way to his father's side; they withdrew to a corner and
bent their heads together, murmuring inaudibly. Gray watched them with
unblinking intensity; he nodded to Buddy Briskow, and the latter, as if
heeding some prearranged signal, removed his hands from his pockets and
stepped farther into the room. He, too, watched the agitated pair.

"Why--look here!" the secretary gasped, after a moment or two.
"This--this gives you control!"

Bell Nelson raised a stricken face. "Control?" he repeated, faintly.
"_Control_?" He strode to the end of the table, and with shaking hands
he ran through the sheaf of neatly folded certificates. "Sold out, by
God!" He fell to cursing certain men, the names of whom caused Swope
and Murphy and Gage to prick up their ears.

Gray was still staring at the junior Nelson; it was to him more than to
the father that he spoke: "Sold out is right! It came high, but I think
it was worth the price. We intend to vote our stock."

"By that I infer that you're going to take the bank over--take its
management away from Bell and Henry?" Bennett Swope ventured.

"Naturally."

The elder Nelson voiced an unintelligible exclamation.

"That's a pretty rough deal. Bell has put his life into it. It is
an--an institution, a credit to the community. It would be a misfortune
if it fell into the hands of--into the control of somebody who--" The
ranchman hesitated, then blurted forth, angrily: "Well, I don't like
the look of this thing. I want to know what it means."

"I'll tell you," Henry cried, unevenly. "I'll tell you what it means.
Persecution! Revenge! Hatred! I quarreled with this man, in France.
He's vindictive; he followed me here--tried every way to ruin me--cost
me thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Father and I were--we
were pinched. We had to realize some quick money to protect our oil
holdings--offsets and the like--and we sold a lot of our stock with the
understanding that we could--that we would buy it back at a higher
figure. We only borrowed on it, you might say--hypothecated it. We
thought we were dealing with friends, but--_Friends_! My God!" The
speaker seized his head.

"The stock was not hypothecated. You sold it," Gray said, quietly, "and
we bought it in."

"It is all a personal matter, a grudge."

"Is that true, Mr. Gray?" Swope inquire