* * * * * The following morning another visitor--a well-dressed man with a diamond pin in his scarf--walked up and down Fitz's office awaiting his arrival--a short, thick-set, large-paunched man with a heavy jaw, a straight line of a mouth, two little restless eyes wobbling about in a pulp of wrinkles, flabby cheeks, a nose that was too small for the area it failed to ornament, and a gray stubbly beard shaven so closely at its edges that it looked as if its owner might either wear it on his chin or put it in his pocket at his pleasure. "Down yet?" asked the visitor in a quick, impatient voice. "Not yet, Mr. Klutchem. Take a seat." Then the clerk passed his hand over his face to straighten out a rebellious smile and hid his head in the ledger. "I'll wait," retorted the banker, and stepping inside Fitz's private office he settled himself in a chair, legs apart, hands clasped across his girth. Fitz entered with an air that would have carried comfort to the Colonel's soul--with a spring, a breeze, a lightness; a being at peace with all the world; and best of all with a self-satisfied repose that was in absolute contrast to the nervousness of the day before. "Who?" he asked of his clerk. "Klutchem." "Where?" The clerk pointed to the office door. Fitz's face straightened out and grew suddenly grave, but he stepped briskly into his sanctum and faced his enemy. "Well, what is it, Mr. Klutchem?" Before his visitor opened his mouth, Fitz saw that the fight was all out of the Head Centre of Consolidated Smelting. A nervous, conciliatory smile started from the line of Klutchem's mouth, wrinkled the flesh of his face as far as his cheeks, and died out again. "We got hit pretty bad yesterday, Fitzpatrick, and I thought we might as well talk it over and see if we couldn't straighten out the market." "Then it isn't about Colonel Carter?" said Fitz coldly. He had all the Consolidated he wanted and didn't see where Klutchem could be of the slightest use in straightening out anything. "I'll attend to him later," replied Klutchem, and a curious expression overspread his face. "You heard about it, then?" "Heard about it! I bailed him out. If you wanted to lock anybody up why didn't you get after some one who knew the ropes, not a man like the Colonel who never had a dishonest thought in his head and who is as tender-hearted as a child." "You don't know what you're talking about," flared Klutchem. "He came down with a cock-and-bull story and wanted me to take----"