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 ride before long. And he knows cattle, Mr. Tulloss. All sorts of men come in to see him, and ask him things. But of course they want men with the outfits who aren't handicapped."

Mr. Tulloss abruptly ceased to be the old family friend, and became the banker.

"That's natural. A man handling cattle needs all his arms and legs and then some. Tom had better put cattle out of his mind and get something else to do."

"But he knows cattle; he doesn't know anything else."

"He can learn. I had to. So have a lot of others."

Kay sat forward desperately.

"I think he ought to get out of town, Mr. Tulloss."

"Has he been drinking again?" he asked, shrewdly if brutally. She flushed.

"Just the first night, a little. Not since. But—if you could only lend him money, to start in business for himself!'

"What kind of business?"

"He only knows one thing. But he does know that."

"And on what am I to lend this money? It isn't my money, you know. On what security?"

"On character. Character and experience. You do that, don't you?"

He laughed grimly.

"Once in a blue moon," he said. "What between the inscrutable acts of Providence and the Federal Farm Loan, a man who lends on character these days is plumb out of luck. Then, just now Tom's character"

Quite unexpectedly she reached up and fumbled at her neck.

"Then, on these?" she said. "They were my grandmother's. She left them to me. I believe they are quite valuable."

She laid a string of pearls on the table. They were still warm from her neck when Mr. Tulloss, surprised into silence, picked them up. As if that shocked him he put them down again quickly.

"I could get some imitations," she told him breathlessly. "They make quite good ones. You see, I don't want Tom