"It's all perfectly simple. Old Hank and me used to be implicated together in the cow business down on the Concho. One of the Goliad Bergmans--early German settlers." Here Hudson hung up and made interruption. "Bergman says the check is right," he reported. Johnson resumed his explanation: "As I was sayin', I reckon I know all the old-time cowmen from here to breakfast and back. Old Joe Benavides, now--one of your best depositors; I fished Joe out of Manzanillo Bay thirty year back. He was all drowned but Amen." Wetting his thumb he slipped off the next paper from under the rubber band. Marsh eyed the sheaf apprehensively and winced. "Got one of Joe's checks here," Pete continued, smoothing it out. "But maybe I won't need to cash it--to-day." "Johnson," said the vice-president, "are you trying to start a run on this bank? What do you want?" "My money. What the check calls for. That is final." "This is sheer malice." "Not a bit of it. You're all wrong. Just common prudence--that's all. You see, I needed a little money. As I was tellin' you, I got right smart of property, but no cash just now; nor any comin' till steer-sellin' time. So I come down to Tucson on the rustle. Five banks in Tucson; four of 'em, countin' yours, turned me down cold." "If you had got Bergman to sign with you--" Marsh began. "Tell that to the submarines," said Pete. "Good irrigated land is better than any man's name on a note; and I don't care who that man is. A man might die or run away, or play the market. Land stays put. Well, after my first glimpse of the cold shoulder I ciphered round a spell. I'm a great hand to cipher round. Some one is out to down me; some one is givin' out orders. Who? Mayer Zurich, I judged. He sold me a shoddy coat once. And he wept because he couldn't loan me the money I wanted, himself. He's one of these liers-in-wait you read about--Mayer is. "So I didn't come to you till the last, bein' as Zurich was one of your directors. I studied some more--and then I hunted up old Hank Bergman and told him my troubles," said Pete suavely. "He expressed quite some considerable solicitude. 'Why, Petey, this is a shockin' disclosure!' he says. 'A banker is a man that makes a livin' loanin' other people's money. Lots of marble and brass to a bank, salaries and other expenses. Show me a bank that's quit lendin' money and I'll show you a bank that's due to bust, _muy pronto!_ I got quite a wad in the Merchants and Miners,' he says, 'and you alarm me. I'll give you a check for it, and you go there first off to-morrow and see if they'll lend you what you need. You got good security. If they ain't lendin',' he says, 'then you just cash my check and invest it for me where it will be safe. I lose the interest for only four days,' he says--'last Monday, the fifteenth, being my quarter day. Hold out what you need for yourself.'