“Possibly; but not necessarily so,” he said. “Drake agreed to sell last night. Perhaps he merely got wise to himself--to use his own phrase--and decided to sell out and go home while the going was good. Jones would be his natural associate, the two having been bucking the game together; but Jones expects to get clear of his debt by sticking to me. He could gain nothing by telling Drake. We are too powerful. He knows there is no way to make us disgorge--disgorge is the word, I think, in this connection. I find Jones most amusing, myself. If he wearies me----” “Don’t you figure Jones for any easy mark,” warned Scanlon. “If he tries to hand us something--look out! He is a bad actor.” “Leave him to me,” said Baca with a tightening of the lips. “I’ll take measures to improve his acting. Never mind Jones. We have now satisfactorily adjusted the preliminaries, have we not? It is established, I believe, that Mr. Scanlon and myself constitute a clear majority of this meeting. Any objection? In that case, let us now get down to the sad and sordid business before us. It is the sense of the meeting, as I take it, that Mr. Bennett shall bring to this room, by ten o’clock to-morrow--no; to-morrow is Sunday--by ten o’clock on Monday, the purchase money for the Double Dee cattle.” “Oh-h!” It was a mournful howl, a dog’s hopeless plaint to the moon; emitted, however, by one of the gentlemen present. “Objection overruled. You will, also, Mr. Bennett, provide twenty-four thousand dollars to satisfy the other equities, here held in the Drake estate.” Scanlon held up a finger. “Cash, you moind! No checks or drafts, to be headed off. Coin or greenbacks! I will not be chipracked by this slippery ould man. He is the human greased pig.” By a prodigious effort Bennett pulled himself together; his face was very pale. “To provide that much cash, without warning, is impossible. I should have nothing left to do the bank’s business with; in fact, I have not half that amount of actual cash in the safe.” He stood up and grasped the back of a chair--his knuckles were white as he gripped; his voice grew firmer. “I’ll be open with you, gentlemen. I am too much extended; I am bitterly cramped for ready money. Give me time to turn round; don’t force me to take this money out of the business now. Once let the ordinary loans be refused to a few customers; let the rumor of it go abroad; let my Eastern creditors once hear of it--and I must inevitably stand a heavy loss. They will demand immediate payment, and that I cannot make without sacrifice.” “What would your creditors think if they knew what we know?” answered Beck. “You’ll make your sacrifice right now, within forty-eight hours, for your preferred creditors, here present.”