Crozier spoke without passion and with a coldblooded insistence not lost
on Burlingame. Taking down a calendar from the wall, he laid it beside
the paper on the table before the too eager lawyer. "Examine the dates,"
he said. "At twelve o'clock tonight Messrs. Bradley, Willingden,
Baxter, & Simmons are free to act, if the money is not at the disposal of
the syndicate by then; but till then my option is indefeasible. Does
that meet the case or not?"

"It meets the case," said Burlingame in a morose voice, rising.
"If you can produce the money before the stroke of midnight, why can't
you produce it now? What's the use of bluffing! It can't do any good in
the end. Your credit--"

"My credit has been stopped by your friends," interrupted Crozier, "but
my resources are current." "Midnight is not far off," viciously remarked
Burlingame as he made for the door.

Crozier intercepted him. "One word with you on another business before
you go," he said. "The tar-and-feathers for which Mrs. Tynan asks will
be yours at any moment I raise my hand in Askatoon. There are enough
women alone who would do it."

"Talk of that after midnight," sneered Burlingame desperately as the door
was opened for him by Crozier. "Better not go out by the front gate,"
remarked Crozier scornfully. "Mrs. Tynan is a woman of her word, and the
hose is handy."

A moment later, with contemptuous satisfaction, he saw Burlingame climb
the picket-fence at the side of the house.