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Morti to come up with Quarrier in the rotunda, or possibly in the street outside; but he was too late, and, furious to think of the time he had wasted with Plank, he crawled into a hansonating one of the new limestone basement houses on the upper west side

All the way up town, as he jolted about in his seat, he angrily regretted thewith Plank, even in spite of the cheque What demon had possessed him to boast--to display his hand when there had been no necessity? Plank was still ready to give hih when Plank turned stingy to use persuasion; tie him to employ a club And now, for no earthly reason, intoxicated with his own vanity, catering to his own long-s horse--deliberately threatened a ood for many a cheque yet

"Ass that I ao at him with the club, if I want anyto make it look like extortion! I won't do it! I'ain! No blundering, clu hands with that scoundrelly wife of mine! That's the reason he did it, too! Between the to make my loans froht if I took them up--if I called their bluff, and stuck Plank up in earnest! But I won't, to please the like that, to hu about in the jouncing cab, scowling at space

"Not h! I'll amated! That will be restitution, not extortion!"

He was the angrier because he had been for days screwing up his courage to the point of seeking Quarrier face to face He had not wished to do it; the scene, and his own attitude in it, could only be repugnant to hih he continually explained to himself that it was restitution, not extortion

But whatever it was, he didn't like to figure in it, and he had hung back as long as circus and his new friends were expensive; and Plank, he supposed, was off so as it was possible; then, exasperated by necessity, started for Quarrier's office, only to h to waste his te an enemy out of a friend!