Jan Steppe, dropping the letter, pushed his chair back from the desk. A thousand shares in Klein River were at issue, he could not afford to tear bullheaded at Ronnie Morelle. So this was the bear--the seller of stock! Ronnie had done something like this before, and had been warned. Steppe let his fury cool before he got Merville on the wire. When, in answer to the summons, Merville arrived, Steppe was pacing the floor, his hands deep in his trousers pockets. "Huh, Merville? Seen Ronald Morelle lately?" "No: he hasn't been to the house for a very long time." "Hasn't, huh? Like him?" The doctor hesitated. "Not particularly: he is a distant cousin of mine. You know that." Steppe nodded. He was holding himself in check and the effort was a strain. "He's selling Midwell Tractions: you know that?" he mimicked savagely. "I'll break him, Merville! Smash him! The cur, the crafty cur!" He gained the upper hand of his tumultuous rage after a while. "That doesn't matter. But I sent him a cheque and a transfer--one minute!" He seized the telephone and shouted a number. "Yes, Steppe. Has a cheque been passed through payable to Ronald Morelle--I'll give you the number if you wait." He jerked out a drawer, found the stub of a cheque book and turned the counterfoil. "There? March seventeenth. Cheque number L.V. 971842." He waited at the telephone, scowling absentmindedly at the doctor. "Huh? It hasn't been presented--all right." He smashed the receiver down on the hook. "If he had paid in the cheque I would have got him--the swine! But he hasn't. I sent orders to transfer his Klein Rivers. I thought I was doing him a good turn--just as I thought I was doing one for you, Merville." "And he refused to allow you to make the sacrifice," said the doctor drily. "I don't like that kind of talk, Merville," Steppe's face was dark with anger. "I want you to come with me. I'm going to see this--this thing. And I'm going to get the transfer! Make no mistake about that! Call up the filthy hound and tell him you are coming round. Don't mention me. It will give him a chance of getting rid of his women." He listened to the telephone conversation that followed. "What was he saying?" "He asked me if there was anything wrong. It struck me that he was anxious--he asked me twice." "That fellow has an instinct for trouble," said Steppe. Ronnie was dressed, which was unusual for him, at this early hour. And the doctor noticed, could hardly help noticing, that the library was gay with flowers. This also was remarkable, for Ronnie disliked to have flowers in a room. There were daffodils, _pierce-niege_, bowls of violets, and through the open casement with its curtains fluttering in the stiff breeze, Merville saw new window boxes ablaze with tulips.