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 pocket a promissory note which he tossed on Angus’s desk.

“I want fifteen hundred dollars,” he said, as an autocrat issuing a command to a slave.

Angus picked up the slip of paper, held it in his fingers for a moment, and studied it before replying. He turned it over, observing that there was no endorser.

“You want to borrow fifteen hundred dollars?” he asked.

“You heard me say so.”

Angus turned his chair and looked up at the Judge. “Will you be so good as to give me a list of the sums you have borrowed elsewhere within the past two months—and of your various liabilities and assets. A complete financial statement.”

“It’s none of your business what I’ve borrowed. All you have to do with the matter is to loan the money I ask. I don’t want any impertinence from you.”

Angus’s face was expressionless. “We already have your unsecured note for two thousand dollars,” he said.

Judge Crane bristled with rage. “Where is Mr. Woodhouse?” he demanded hoarsely. “I wonder what he’s thinking of to leave a whippersnapper like you to be insolent to customers?”

“Mr. Woodhouse left me in charge of the