back home."

"Merely a matter of official routine. I felt sure he was a loyal
American citizen."

"Exactly. But he makes more of the incident than you do, and he
gave me my instructions. So--what can I do for you on his behalf?
You have only to ask."

Gray pondered the unexpected offer. He was still a bit shaken,
for a moment ago he had been more deeply stirred even than
Haviland suspected, and the emotional reaction had left him weak.
After all the hollow pretense of this day a genuine proffer of aid
was welcome, and the temptation to accept was strong. Herman Dietz
was indeed indebted to him, and he believed the old German-
American would do anything, lend him any amount of money, for
instance, that he might ask for. Gray wondered why he had not
thought of Dietz before he came to Texas; it would have made
things much easier. But the offer had come too late, it seemed to
him; at this moment he could see no means of profiting by it
without wrecking the flimsy house of cards he had that very day
erected and exposing himself to ridicule, to obloquy as a rank
four-flusher. The scarcely dry headlines of that afternoon paper
ran before his eyes--"_Famous Financier Admits Large Oil Interests
Behind Him_." Probably there were other things in the body of the
article that would not harmonize with an appeal to Haviland for
funds, nor sound well to Mr. Dietz, once he learned the truth. The
more Gray pondered the matter, the more regretfully he realized
that he had overplayed his hand, as it were.