marked precisely, over his shoulders, "the white
shoes and ammunition and silk fishing lines --
didn't you intend to pay for them?"

"Yes, I did, and will. And when you said,
'Gordon, help yourself, load up, try those flies';
and 'Never mind the bill now, some other time, old
friends pay when they please,' didn't you know I
was getting in over my head?, didn't you encourage
it... so you could get judgment on me?, sell me
out? Though what you settled on me for, what you
see in my ramshackle house and used up ground, is
over me."

Simmons flashed a momentary, crafty glance at
the other. "Never overlook a location on good
water," he advised.

Gordon Makimmon stood speechless, trembling
with rage. For a moment Simmons' pen, scratching
over the page, made the only sound in the small
enclosure, then, "The provident man," he continued,
"is always made a target for the abuse of the
-- the thoughtless. But he usually comes to the
assistance of his unfortunate brother. You might
arrange a loan."

"Why, so I might," Gordon assented in a thick
voice; "I could get it from your provident friend,
Hollidew -- three hundred dollars, say, at hell's per
cent; a little lien on my property. 'Never overlook
a situation on good water.'

[[45]]

p044 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p045w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p046

v?