"A hundred thousand fiddlesticks! This old jailbird swindled another crook, Bloom—"
"Oh, Bloom was a crook too, was he?" chuckled Mr. Tutt. "He worked for your firm, didn't he?"
"That's nothing to do with it!" retorted Greenbaum angrily. "Your swindling client traded some bum stock in a fake corporation for Bloom's stock, which he received for bona fide services—"
"Like Elderberry's?" inquired Tutt innocently.
"Your man never paid a cent for his holdings. That alone would throw him out of court. The mine isn't worth a cent without the Amphalula vein. We're taking a big chance. You've got us down and we've got to pay; but we'll pay only ten thousand dollars—that's final."
"I ain't any more of a swindler than you be!" said Doc with plaintive indignation.
"What do you wish to do, Mr. Barrows?" asked Mr. Tutt, turning to him deferentially.
"I leave it entirely to you, Mr. Tutt. It's your stock; I gave it all to you months ago."
"Then," answered Mr. Tutt with fine scorn, "I shall tell this miserable cheating rogue and rascal either to pay you a hundred thousand dollars or go to hell."
Mr. Tobias Greenbaum clenched his fists and cast a black glance upon the group.