agree to lend him thirty thousand dollars—­a paltry sum.  Joseph Zimmerman would only risk twenty-five thousand dollars.  He could see where, all told, he might raise seventy-five thousand dollars by hypothecating double the amount in shares; but this was ridiculously insufficient.  He had figured again, to a dollar, and he must have at least two hundred and fifty thousand dollars above all his present holdings, or he must close his doors.  To-morrow at two o’clock he would know.  If he didn’t he would be written down as “failed” on a score of ledgers in Philadelphia.

What a pretty pass for one to come to whose hopes had so recently run so high!  There was a loan of one hundred thousand dollars from the Girard National Bank which he was particularly anxious to clear off.  This bank was the most important in the city, and if he retained its good will by meeting this loan promptly he might hope for favors in the future whatever happened.  Yet, at the moment, he did not see how he could do it.  He decided, however, after some reflection, that he would deliver the stocks which Judge Kitchen, Zimmerman, and others had agreed to take and get their checks or cash yet this night.  Then he would persuade Stener to let him have a check for the sixty thousand dollars’ worth of city loan he had purchased this morning on ’change.  Out of it he could take twenty-five thousand dollars to make up the balance due the bank, and still have thirty-five thousand for himself.

The one unfortunate thing about such an arrangement was that by doing it he was building up a rather complicated situation in regard to these same certificates.  Since their purchase in the morning, he had not deposited them in the sinking-fund, where they belonged (they had been delivered to his office by half past one in the afternoon), but, on the contrary, had immediately hypothecated them to cover another loan.  It was a risky thing to have done, considering that he was in danger of failing and that he was not absolutely sure of being able to take them up in time.

But, he reasoned, he had a working agreement with the city treasurer (illegal of course), which would make such a transaction rather plausible, and almost all right, even if he failed, and that was that none of his accounts were supposed necessarily to be put straight until the end of the month.  If he failed, and the certificates were not in the sinking-fund, he could say, as was the truth, that he was in the habit of taking his time, and had forgotten.  This collecting of a check, therefore, for these as yet undeposited certificates would be technically, if not legally and morally, plausible.  The city would be out only an additional sixty thousand dollars—­making five hundred and sixty thousand dollars all told, which in view of its probable loss of five hundred thousand did not make so much difference.  But his caution clashed with his need on this occasion, and he decided that he would not call for the check unless Stener finally refused to aid him with three hundred thousand more, in which case he would claim it as his right.  In all likelihood Stener would not think to ask whether the certificates were in the sinking-fund or not.  If he did, he would have to lie—­that was all.