It is dangerous to start rumors against even the soundest of banks, because our present-day finance is no more than a house of cards built precariously on Public Confidence. No bank can pay interest, or even do business, if it keeps all its money in the vaults; and yet in times of panic, if a run ever starts, every depositor comes clamoring for his money. Public confidence is shaken--and the house of cards falls, carrying with it the fortunes of all. The depositors lose their money, the bankers lose their money; and thousands of other people in nowise connected with it are ruined by the failure of one bank. Hence the committee of Blackwater citizens, with blood in their eye, which called on John C. Calhoun. Since the loss of his mine Wunpost had turned ugly and morose; and his remarks about Eells, and especially about his bank, were nicely calculated to get under the rind. He was waiting for the committee, right in front of the bank; and the moment they began to talk he began to orate, and to denounce them and everything else in Blackwater. What was intended as a call-down of an envious and destructive agitator threatened momentarily to turn into a riot and, hearing his own good name brought into question, Judson Eells stepped quickly out and challenged his bold traducer. "W'y, sure I said it!" answered Wunpost hotly, "and I don't mind saying it again. Your bank is all a fake, like your danged tin front; and you've got everything in your vault except money." "Well, now, Mr. Calhoun," returned Judson Eells waspishly, "I'm going to challenge that statement, right now. What authority have you got for suggesting that my cash is less than the law requires?" "Well," began Wunpost, "of course I don't _know_, but----" "No, of course you don't know!" replied Eells with a smile, "and everybody knows you don't know; but your remarks are actionable and if you don't shut up and go away I'll instruct my attorney to sue you." "Oh, 'shut up,' eh?" repeated Wunpost after the crowd had had its laugh; "you think I'm a blow-hard, eh? You all do, don't you? Well, I'll tell you what I'll do." He paused impressively, reached down into several pockets and pointed a finger at Eells. "I'll bet you," he said, "that I've got more money in my clothes than you have in your whole danged bank--and if you can prove any different I'll acknowledge I'm wrong by depositing my roll in your bank. Now--that's fair enough, ain't it?" He nodded and leered knowingly at the gaping crowd as Eells began to temporize and hedge.