J. J. Bell

“ It was beyond Lismore to make any sort of response. The man looked stupefied, helpless.
“You seem upset, Mr. Lismore,” she said at length. “If you will sit down, I will state my business.”
He seemed to grope his way to the chair at his desk, and sank upon it.
“You poor creature!” she murmured. “Have you no fight in you?”
Stung, he drew himself up. “I—I am not very well. Your sudden entrance gave me a shock. What is your business, Miss Gosling?”
“You shall have it in the fewest words possible. The first part is concerned with a matter of nearly twenty years ago. ”

“ CHAPTER XIV Miss Gosling Again Intervenes AT his desk, Harold Lismore raised a troubled countenance from one of the letters he had received that morning.
“Heimberg refuses to renew the loan, even for a month.”
“Taken fright at the continued fall in copper, I suppose,” Stormont remarked easily. “No wonder! Still, he's a mean skunk; he gave us to understand that there would be no difficulty about a renewal three months, if we wanted it.”
“The note is due this day week. What am I to do about it?”
“Tell him to go to the devil, and look on the bright side. ”

“ Stormont rose, glanced at himself in the mirror over the mantel and flicked a speck of dust from the lapel of his coat. “Well, I'm going out,” he remarked. “Write to Heimberg that the note will be met on its due date. By-by!”
Shortly after this Lismore got up and opened his safe. He took out two papers; the strip given to him by Rufus Cran, and a clear copy in his own writing of the completed document with the figures as in the original. It was headed “Rufus Cran's Instructions.” He was about to carry those papers to his desk when a tap sounded on the door. ”