"But I tell you I must have money. Two hundred dollars tonight and fourteen hundred inside of two weeks. And you'll get it for me. You understand that. And listen, now." Smith's voice slowly uncoiled itself to Champers' senses as a snake moves leisurely toward a bird it means to draw to itself. "You say you have signed my name for me and transacted business, handling my money. If you care to air the thing in court, I'm ready for you anytime. But do you dare? Well, bring me two hundred dollars before tomorrow and the other fourteen hundred inside of two weeks. And after this look out for yourself." The threat in the last words was indescribable, and Champers would have shuddered could he have seen Smith's countenance as he left the room. "So he taunts me with being a coward and a brute, a thief and a cut-throat; dares to strike me in the face when I've given him a living so long he's forgotten who did it. I'm done with him. But he don't dare to say a word." He shut his lips tightly and slowly clinched his hands. "For wy you stare so at dat door yet? Where's Champers?" Hans Wyker demanded as he came in. "The game's between us two now," Thomas Smith declared, turning to Hans Wyker. And a grim game was plotted then and there. Hans, who had been a perpetual law-breaker since the loss of his brewery business, had let his hatred of John Jacobs grow to a virulent poison in his system. While Thomas Smith, whose character Darley Champers had read truly, followed so many wrong paths down the years that conscience and manhood were strangers to him. From being a financier he had dropped to the employment of a brewers' association. His commission was to tempt young men and boys to drink; to create appetites that should build up the brewing business for the future. In the game now, Smith was to deliver beer and whisky into Wyker's hands. Wyker would do the rest. Whoever opposed him must suffer for his rashness. It was cooler in the large dining-room where Thaine Aydelot and Leigh Shirley had met by chance at noontime. Leigh's face wore a deeper bloom and her eyes were shining with the exciting events of the day: the going of Pryor Gaines and the business that had brought her to Wykerton. Something like pain stabbed suddenly into Thaine Aydelot's mind as he caught sight of her, a surprise to find how daintily attractive she was in her cool summer gown of pale blue gingham and her becoming hat with its broad brim above her brown-gold hair. "I didn't expect to find you here," Leigh said as Thaine took the chair opposite her at the little table. "I came over to Little Wolf with Rosie Gimpke and some other colts. Then I walked over here to catch a ride to Careyville, if I could," Thaine said carelessly. "You can ride with me if you want to. I'll be going soon after dinner," Leigh suggested.