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associates should, for any reason, modify their decision in regard to calling his loans, he would
not. Would Stener make a row about this if he so secured this check? Would the city officials
pay any attention to him if he did? Could you get any district attorney to take cognizance of such
a transaction, if Stener did complain? No, not in all likelihood; and, anyhow, nothing would come
of it. No jury would punish him in the face of the understanding existing between him and Stener
as agent or broker and principal. And, once he had the money, it was a hundred to one Stener
would think no more about it. It would go in among the various unsatisfied liabilities, and nothing
more would be thought about it. Like lightning the entire situation hashed through his mind. He
would risk it. He stopped before the chief clerk's desk.
"Albert," he said, in a low voice, "I bought sixty thousand dollars' worth of city loan for the
sinking-fund this morning. Will you give my boy a check for it in the morning, or, better yet, will
you give it to me now? I got your note about no more purchases. I'm going back to the office.
You can just credit the sinking-fund with eight hundred certificates at from seventy-five to eighty.
I'll send you the itemized list later."
"Certainly, Mr. Cowperwood, certainly," replied Albert, with alacrity. "Stocks are getting an awful
knock, aren't they? I hope you're not very much troubled by it?"
"Not very, Albert," replied Cowperwood, smiling, the while the chief clerk was making out his
check. He was wondering if by any chance Stener would appear and attempt to interfere with
this. It was a legal transaction. He had a right to the check provided he deposited the
certificates, as was his custom, with the trustee of the fund. He waited tensely while Albert
wrote, and finally, with the check actually in his hand, breathed a sigh of relief. Here, at least,
was sixty thousand dollars, and to-night's work would enable him to cash the seventy-five
thousand that had been promised him. To-morrow, once more he must see Leigh, Kitchen, Jay
Cooke & Co., Edward Clark & Co.--all the long list of people to whom he owed loans and find
out what could be done. If he could only get time! If he could get just a week!
Chapter XXIX
But time was not a thing to be had in this emergency. With the seventy-five thousand dollars his
friends had extended to him, and sixty thousand dollars secured from Stires, Cowperwood met
the Girard call and placed the balance, thirty-five thousand dollars, in a private safe in his own
home. He then made a final appeal to the bankers and financiers, but they refused to help him.
He did not, however, commiserate himself in this hour. He looked out of his office window into
the little court, and sighed. What more could he do? He sent a note to his father, asking him to
call for lunch. He sent a note to his lawyer, Harper Steger, a man of his own age whom he liked
very much, and asked him to call also. He evolved in his own mind various plans of delay,
addresses to creditors and the like, but alas! he was going to fail. And the worst of it was that
this matter of the city treasurer's loans was bound to become a public, and more than a public, a
political, scandal. And the charge of conniving, if not illegally, at least morally, at the misuse of
the city's money was the one thing that would hurt him most.
How industriously his rivals would advertise this fact! He might get on his feet again if he failed;
but it would be uphill work. And his father! His father would be pulled down with him. It was
probable that he would be forced out of the presidency of his bank. With these thoughts
Cowperwood sat there waiting. As he did so Aileen Butler was announced by his office-boy, and
at the same time Albert Stires.
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