"I've told you two or three times,"' replied Bince, "that I'd let you
have it as soon as I could get it. I can't get you any now."

"If you haven't got it, Mason Compton has," retorted the creditor, "and
if you don't come across I'll go to him and get it."

Bince paled.

"You wouldn't do that, Harry?" he almost whimpered. "For God's sake,
don't do that, and I'll try and see what I can do for you."

"Well," replied the other, "I don't want to be nasty, but I need some
money badly."

"Give me a little longer," begged Bince, "and I'll see what I can do."

Jimmy Torrance sat a long time in thought after the Lizard left. "God!"
he muttered. "I wonder what dad would say if he knew that I had come to
a point where I had even momentarily considered going into partnership
with a safe-blower, and that for the next two weeks I shall be
compelled to subsist upon the charity of a criminal?

"I'm sure glad that I have a college education. It has helped me
materially to win to my present exalted standing in society. Oh, well I
might be worse off, I suppose. At least I don't have to worry about the
income tax.

"It is now October, and since the first of the year I have earned forty
dollars exactly. I have also received a bequest of twenty dollars, which
of course is exempt. I venture to say that there is not another