The Colonel did not answer. He had noticed Fitz's concentrated, business-like manner, so different from his bearing of the night before, and had caught the anxious expression on the clerk's face as he bounded past him on his way to the street. It was evident that the situation was grave and the crisis imminent. The Colonel rose from his seat and held out his hand, his manner one of the utmost solemnity. "I have heard all about it, Fitz. I am here to stand by you. Let us go inside where we can discuss the situation quietly." Fitz looked at the clock--it was a busy day for him--shook the Colonel's hand in an equally impressive manner, glanced inquiringly at me over his shoulder, and we all three entered the private office and shut the door: he would give us ten minutes at all events. What really perplexed Fitz at the moment was the hour of the Colonel's visit and his reference to the "stand-by." These were mysteries which the broker failed to penetrate. The Colonel tilted his silver-topped cane against Fitz's desk, put his hat on a pile of papers, drew his chair close and laid his hand impressively on Fitz's arm. He had the air of a learned counsellor consulting with a client. "You are too busy, Fitz, to go into the details, and my mind is too much occupied to listen to them, but just give me an outline of the situation so that I can act with the main facts befo' me." Fitz looked at me inquiringly; received my helpless shrug as throwing but little light on the matter, and as was his invariable custom, fell instantly into the Colonel's mood, answering him precisely as he would have done a brother broker in a similar case. "It is what we call a 'squeeze,' Colonel. I'm through for the day, I hope, for my bank has come to my rescue. My clerk has just carried up a lot of stuff I managed to borrow. But you can't tell what to-morrow will bring. Looks to me as if everything was going to Bally-hack, and yet there are some things in the air that may change it over night." "Am I right when I say that Mr. Klutchem is leadin' the attack? And on you?" "That's just what he is doing--all he knows how." "And that any relief must be with his consent?" "Absolutely, for, strange to say, some of my defaulting customers have been operating in his office." The Colonel mused for some time, twisting the fish-hook end of his goatee till it looked like a weapon of offence. "Is he in town?" "He was yesterday afternoon." The Colonel rose from his chair with a determined air and pulled his coat sleeves over his cuffs. "I'll call upon him at once." Fitz's expression changed. Once start the dear Colonel on a mission of this kind and there was no telling what complications might ensue. "He won't see you." "I have thought of that, Fitz. I do not forget that I informed him I would lay my cane over his back the next time we met, but that mattuh can wait. This concerns the welfare of my dea'est friend and takes precedence of all personal feelin's."