“Frank,” he said, “you’re a wonder.  You’ll have a network of suits spread here shortly, which no one can break through.  They’ll all be suing each other.”

Cowperwood smiled.

“I only want a little time, that’s all,” he replied.  Nevertheless, for the first time in his life he was a little depressed; for now this business, to which he had devoted years of active work and thought, was ended.

The thing that was troubling him most in all of this was not the five hundred thousand dollars which was owing the city treasury, and which he knew would stir political and social life to the center once it was generally known—­that was a legal or semi-legal transaction, at least—­but rather the matter of the sixty thousand dollars’ worth of unrestored city loan certificates which he had not been able to replace in the sinking-fund and could not now even though the necessary money should fall from heaven.  The fact of their absence was a matter of source.  He pondered over the situation a good deal.  The thing to do, he thought, if he went to Mollenhauer or Simpson, or both (he had never met either of them, but in view of Butler’s desertion they were his only recourse), was to say that, although he could not at present return the five hundred thousand dollars, if no action were taken against him now, which would prevent his resuming his business on a normal scale a little later, he would pledge his word that every dollar of the involved five hundred thousand dollars would eventually be returned to the treasury.  If they refused, and injury was done him, he proposed to let them wait until he was “good and ready,” which in all probability would be never.  But, really, it was not quite clear how action against him was to be prevented—­even by them.  The money was down on his books as owing the city treasury, and it was down on the city treasury’s books as owing from him.  Besides, there was a local organization known as the Citizens’ Municipal Reform Association which occasionally conducted investigations in connection with public affairs.  His defalcation would be sure to come to the ears of this body and a public investigation might well follow.  Various private individuals knew of it already.  His creditors, for instance, who were now examining his books.

This matter of seeing Mollenhauer or Simpson, or both, was important, anyhow, he thought; but before doing so he decided to talk it all over with Harper Steger.  So several days after he had closed his doors, he sent for Steger and told him all about the transaction, except that he did not make it clear that he had not intended to put the certificates in the sinking-fund unless he survived quite comfortably.