As Butler stepped into the buggy with his son he was thinking about this, and it was puzzling him greatly.

“Cowperwood’s just been here,” he said to Owen, who had been rapidly coming into a sound financial understanding of late, and was already a shrewder man politically and socially than his father, though he had not the latter’s magnetism.  “He’s been tellin’ me that he’s in a rather tight place.  You hear that?” he continued, as some voice in the distance was calling “Extra!  Extra!” “That’s Chicago burnin’, and there’s goin’ to be trouble on the stock exchange to-morrow.  We have a lot of our street-railway stocks around at the different banks.  If we don’t look sharp they’ll be callin’ our loans.  We have to ’tend to that the first thing in the mornin’.  Cowperwood has a hundred thousand of mine with him that he wants me to let stay there, and he has some money that belongs to Stener, he tells me.”

“Stener?” asked Owen, curiously.  “Has he been dabbling in stocks?” Owen had heard some rumors concerning Stener and others only very recently, which he had not credited nor yet communicated to his father.  “How much money of his has Cowperwood?” he asked.

Butler meditated.  “Quite a bit, I’m afraid,” he finally said.  “As a matter of fact, it’s a great deal—­about five hundred thousand dollars.  If that should become known, it would be makin’ a good deal of noise, I’m thinkin’.”

“Whew!” exclaimed Owen in astonishment.  “Five hundred thousand dollars!  Good Lord, father!  Do you mean to say Stener has got away with five hundred thousand dollars?  Why, I wouldn’t think he was clever enough to do that.  Five hundred thousand dollars!  It will make a nice row if that comes out.”

“Aisy, now!  Aisy, now!” replied Butler, doing his best to keep all phases of the situation in mind.  “We can’t tell exactly what the circumstances were yet.  He mayn’t have meant to take so much.  It may all come out all right yet.  The money’s invested.  Cowperwood hasn’t failed yet.  It may be put back.  The thing to be settled on now is whether anything can be done to save him.  If he’s tellin’ me the truth—­and I never knew him to lie—­he can get out of this if street-railway stocks don’t break too heavy in the mornin’.  I’m going over to see Henry Mollenhauer and Mark Simpson.  They’re in on this.  Cowperwood wanted me to see if I couldn’t get them to get the bankers together and have them stand by the market.  He thought we might protect our loans by comin’ on and buyin’ and holdin’ up the price.”

Owen was running swiftly in his mind over Cowperwood’s affairs—­as much as he knew of them.  He felt keenly that the banker ought to be shaken out.  This dilemma was his fault, not Stener’s—­he felt.  It was strange to him that his father did not see it and resent it.