“You are asking too much of me, Marsh.  If I could finance you I’d cut out cards in the future.  How about the judge,—­no?  Well, I just threw that out as a hint, but I suppose you have been there already, for naturally you’d compliment him by giving him the chance to pull you up out of your troubles.  Since your own father won’t help you, how about Linscott?  Is he going to want to see his son-in-law disgraced?  I guess he’s your best chance, Marsh.  Put it on strong and for once tell the truth.  Tell him you’ve dabbled in forgery and that it won’t work!”

Langham had dropped back in his chair.  He was seeking to devise some expedient that would meet his present difficulties.  His bondage to the gambler had become intolerable, anything would be better than a continuance of that.  The monstrous folly of those forgeries seemed beyond anything he could have perpetrated in his sober senses.  He must have been mad!  But then he had needed the money desperately.

He might go to his, father, but he had been to him only recently, and the judge himself was burdened with debt.  He might go to Mr. Linscott, he might even try North.  He could tell the latter the whole circumstance and borrow a part of what was left of his small fortune; of course he was in his debt as it was, but North would never think of that; he was a man to share his last dollar with a friend.

He passed a shaking hand across his eyes.  On every side the nightmare of his obligations confronted him, for who was there that he could owe whom he did not already owe?  He was notorious for his inability to pay his debts.  This notoriety was hurting his professional standing, and now if Gilmore carried out his threat he must look forward to the shame of a public exposure.  His very reputation for common honesty was at stake.

He wondered what men did in a crisis such as this.  He wondered what happened to them when they could do nothing more.  Usually he was fertile in expedients, but to-day his brain seemed wholly inert.  He realized only a certain dull terror of the future; the present eluded him utterly.

He had never been over-scrupulous perhaps, he had always taken what he pleased to call long chances, and it was in almost imperceptible gradations that he had descended in the scale of honesty to the point that had at last made possible these forgeries.  Until now he had always felt certain of himself and of his future; time was to bring him into the presence of his dear desires, when he should have money to lift the burden of debt, money to waste, money to scatter, money to spend for the good things of life.

But he had made the fatal mistake of anticipating the success in which he so firmly believed.  Those notes—­he dashed his hand before his face; suddenly the air of the room seemed to stifle him, courage and cunning had left him; there was only North to whom he could turn for a few hundreds with which to quiet Gilmore.  Let him but escape the consequences of his folly this time and he promised himself he would retrench; he would live within his income, he would apply himself to his profession as he had never yet applied himself.  He scowled heavily at Gilmore, who met his scowl with a cynical smile.