"He said that what I called 'my word' wasn't a collateral.

Wanted something better.

So I've got to hunt for it somewhere else." "And he wouldn't give it to you ?" cried Peter indignantly.

"No, of course not! A man's word doesn't count with these pickers and stealers.
Half--three-quarters--of the business of the globe is done on a man's word.

He writes it on the bottom or on the back of a slip of paper small enough to light a cigar with--but it's only his word that counts.
In these mouse-traps, however, these cracks in the wall, they want something they can get rid of the moment somebody else says it is not worth what they loaned on it; or they want a bond with the Government behind it.