“Well, John, I am tired; I think I’ll take baby and go to bed.  Don’t sit up and get blue over your troubles!”

As she left the room, Fletcher drew a long breath.  What an accent of despair was borne on that sigh!  His busy brain was active in laying plans which his vacillating will could never execute without help.  Often before, he had determined to confront Sandford and defy him; but as often he had quailed before that self-possessed and imperious man.  What hope was there, then, for this timid, crouching man, as long as the hand of his haughty master was outstretched in command?  None!

CHAPTER IX.

STATE STREET.

The stringency of the money-market began to frighten even Mr. Sandford who had been predicting a panic.  There had been but few failures, and those were generally of houses that ought to fail, being insolvent from losses or mismanagement.  Mr. Sandford studied over his sheet of bills payable and receivable almost hourly.  The amount intrusted to him by Monroe had been loaned out; for which he was now very sorry, as the rate of interest had nearly doubled since he made the last agreement.  This, however, was but a small item in his accounts; other transactions of greater magnitude occupied his attention.  As he looked over the array of promisors and indorsers, he said to himself, “I am safe.  If these men fail, it will be because the universal bottom has dropped out and chaos come again.  If anybody is shaky, it is Stearine.  He believes, though, that Bullion will help him through, and extend that note.  Perhaps he will.  Perhaps, again, he will have enough to do to keep on his own legs.  He fancies himself strong because he owns the most of the Neversink Mills.  But he doesn’t know what I know, that Kerbstone, the treasurer of the Mills, is in the street every day, looking like a gambler when his last dollar is on the table.  A few more turns of the screw and down goes Kerbstone.  Who knows that the Mills won’t tumble, too, and Bullion after them? He may go hang; but we must look after Stearine, and prop him, unnecessary.  That twenty thousand is more than we can afford to lose just now.  Lucky, there he comes!”

Mr. Stearine entered, not with his usual smile, but with an expression like that of a man trying to be jolly with the toothache.  A short, but dexterous cross-examination showed to Sandford, that, if the twenty-thousand-dollar note could be extended over to better times, Stearine was safe.  But the note was soon due, and Bullion might be unable or unwilling to renew; in which case, the Vortex would have to meet it.  That was a contingency to be provided against; for Mr. Sandford did not intend that the public should know that the credit of the Company had been used for private purposes by its officers.  He therefore called in Mr. Fayerweather, the President, and the affair was talked over and settled between them.