David’s face indicated some annoyance.  “Oh, shet up,” he exclaimed.  “You’d keep that yawp o’ your’n goin’, I believe, if it was the judgment day.”

“Wa’al,” said Dick with a grin, “I expect the’ might be some fun to be got out o’ that, if a feller wa’n’t worryin’ too much about his own skin; an’ as fur’s I’m concerned——­” Dick’s further views on the subject of that momentous occasion were left unexplained.  A significant look in David’s face caused the speaker to break off and turn toward the door, through which came two men, the foremost a hulking, shambling fellow, with an expression of repellent sullenness.  He came forward to within about ten feet of David’s desk, while his companion halted near the door.  David eyed him in silence.

“I got this here notice this mornin’,” said the man, “sayin’ ’t my note ‘d be due to-morrer, an’ ’d have to be paid.”

“Wa’al,” said David, with his arm over the back of his chair and his left hand resting on his desk, “that’s so, ain’t it?”

“Mebbe so,” was the fellow’s reply, “fur ‘s the comin’ due ’s concerned, but the payin’ part ’s another matter.”

“Was you cal’latin’ to have it renewed?” asked David, leaning a little forward.

“No,” said the man coolly, “I don’t know ’s I want to renew it fer any pertic’ler time, an’ I guess it c’n run along fer a while jest as ’t is.”  John looked at Dick Larrabee.  He was watching David’s face with an expression of the utmost enjoyment.  David twisted his chair a little more to the right and out from the desk.

“You think it c’n run along, do ye?” he asked suavely.  “I’m glad to have your views on the subject.  Wa’al, I guess it kin, too, until to-morro’ at four o’clock, an’ after that you c’n settle with lawyer Johnson or the sheriff.”  The man uttered a disdainful laugh.

“I guess it’ll puzzle ye some to c’lect it,” he said.  Mr. Harum’s bushy red eyebrows met above his nose.

“Look here, Bill Montaig,” he said, “I know more ’bout this matter ’n you think for.  I know ‘t you ben makin’ your brags that you’d fix me in this deal.  You allowed that you’d set up usury in the fust place, an’ if that didn’t work I’d find you was execution proof anyways.  That’s so, ain’t it?”

“That’s about the size on’t,” said Montaig, putting his feet a little farther apart.  David had risen from his chair.

“You didn’t talk that way,” proceeded the latter, “when you come whinin’ ‘round here to git that money in the fust place, an’ as I reckon some o’ the facts in the case has slipped out o’ your mind since that time, I guess I’d better jog your mem’ry a little.”

It was plain from the expression of Mr. Montaig’s countenance that his confidence in the strength of his position was not quite so assured as at first, but he maintained his attitude as well as in him lay.