"And there's more like that! Papa never intended to do anything, that's as plain as daylight. Mr. Foster, the treasurer, comes from that county. He thought papa was going to have to do something, so he's holding back the payment of the state bonds just to frighten papa. You see, the state owes the Bronx Loan and Trust Company that two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and if it isn't paid June first the state will be everlastingly disgraced." "Oh, yes; I'd forgotten about that." "I don't see how you could forget about it. That must be almost as much money as there is in the world, Mr. Ardmore." "We've got to raise it, anyhow, even if we go to the pawn-shop. I pawned my watch once when I was in college and Billings--he was my guardian--had shut me off. Grissy--he's my friend--Grissy says pawnbroking is only a more vulgar form of banking. There was a fellow in my class at college who pawned his pawn ticket to get money to pay his laundress, and then gave the new ticket to a poor blind man. He's a big man in Wall Street--has a real genius for finance, they say. But please don't worry about this rascal Foster. We'll put some digitalis into the state's credit when the time comes." "I think your telegram to the sheriff is all right," said Jerry, reading it again. "If you'll go to the door and whistle for the messenger we'll get it off. I'll sign it with the rubber stamp. Papa hardly ever signs anything himself; he says if you don't sign documents yourself you can always repudiate them afterward, and papa's given prayerful thought to all such things." Ardmore addressed himself once more to the map. It was clear that the Appleweight gang was powerful enough to topple great states upon their foundations. It had, to Ardmore's own knowledge, driven a governor into exile, and through the wretched Foster, who was their friend, the credit of the state was gravely menaced. The possibilities of the game fascinated Ardmore. He was eager for action on the scene of this usurpation and defiance. Responsibility, for the first time, had placed a warrant of trust in his hands, and, thus commissioned, the spurs of duty pricked his sides. "I'll wait for the sheriff's answer, and if he shows no signs of life I'll go down there this afternoon." "Then you will undoubtedly be shot!" Jerry declared, as though announcing a prospect not wholly deplorable. "That has its disagreeable side, but a great many people have to be shot every year to keep up the average, and if the statistics need me I won't duck. I'll call up my man on the telephone this forenoon and tell him to put my forester at Ardsley to work. He's a big fellow who served in the German army, and if he's afraid of anything I haven't heard of it. If we can drive the gang into South Carolina, right along here, you see"--and Miss Dangerfield bent her pretty head over the map and saw--"if we can pass the chief outlaw on to Governor Osborne, then so much the better, and that's what we will try to do."