With accrued interest, that claim amounts to over five hundred thousand dollars." "Yes, but--" "That note binds Rodgers Warren's estate to pay that claim.

His own personal estate! And that estate is not worth over four hundred and sixty thousand dollars! If this stockholder should appear and press his claim, _your brother's children would be, not only penniless, but thirty thousand dollars in debt_! There! I think that is plain enough!" He leaned back, grimly satisfied with the effect of his statement.
Captain Elisha stared straight before him, unseeingly, the color fading from his cheeks.

Then he put both elbows on the table and covered his face with his hands.
"You see, Captain," said Sylvester, gently, "how very serious the situation is.

Graves has put it bluntly, but what he says is literally true.

If your brother had deliberately planned to hand his children over to the mercy of that missing stockholder, he couldn't have done it more completely." Slowly the captain raised his head.