The question is how the devil is it to be paid--and paid quickly.

I can't have you pointed out as a spendthrift and a dodger.

No, this has got to be settled at once." He threw himself into a chair, his mind absorbed in the effort to find some way out of the difficulty.

The state of his own bank account precluded all relief in that direction.

To borrow a dollar from the Patapsco on any note of hand he could offer was out of the question, the money stringency having become still more acute.