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salary!"
He wrung his hands, and Cowperwood shook his head sadly.
"This isn't as bad as you think, Albert. He won't do what he says. He can't. It's unfair and illegal.
You can bring suit and recover your salary. I'll help you in that as much as I'm able. But I can't
give you back this sixty-thousand-dollar check, because I haven't it to give. I couldn't if I wanted
to. It isn't here any more. I've paid for the securities I bought with it. The securities are not here.
They're in the sinking-fund, or will be."
He paused, wishing he had not mentioned that fact. It was a slip of the tongue, one of the few
he ever made, due to the peculiar pressure of the situation. Stires pleaded longer. It was no
use, Cowperwood told him. Finally he went away, crestfallen, fearsome, broken. There were
tears of suffering in his eyes. Cowperwood was very sorry. And then his father was announced.
The elder Cowperwood brought a haggard face. He and Frank had had a long conversation the
evening before, lasting until early morning, but it had not been productive of much save
uncertainty.
"Hello, father!" exclaimed Cowperwood, cheerfully, noting his father's gloom. He was satisfied
that there was scarcely a coal of hope to be raked out of these ashes of despair, but there was
no use admitting it.
"Well?" said his father, lifting his sad eyes in a peculiar way.
"Well, it looks like stormy weather, doesn't it? I've decided to call a meeting of my creditors,
father, and ask for time. There isn't anything else to do. I can't realize enough on anything to
make it worth while talking about. I thought Stener might change his mind, but he's worse rather
than better. His head bookkeeper just went out of here."
"What did he want?" asked Henry Cowperwood.
"He wanted me to give him back a check for sixty thousand that he paid me for some city loan I
bought yesterday morning." Frank did not explain to his father, however, that he had
hypothecated the certificates this check had paid for, and used the check itself to raise money
enough to pay the Girard National Bank and to give himself thirty-five thousand in cash besides.
"Well, I declare!" replied the old man. "You'd think he'd have better sense than that. That's a
perfectly legitimate transaction. When did you say he notified you not to buy city loan?"
"Yesterday noon."
"He's out of his mind," Cowperwood, Sr., commented, laconically.
"It's Mollenhauer and Simpson and Butler, I know. They want my street-railway lines. Well, they
won't get them. They'll get them through a receivership, and after the panic's all over. Our
creditors will have first chance at these. If they buy, they'll buy from them. If it weren't for that
five-hundred-thousand-dollar loan I wouldn't think a thing of this. My creditors would sustain me
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