Since the loss of his mine Wunpost had turned ugly and morose; and his remarks about Eells, and especially about his bank, were nicely calculated to get under the rind. He was waiting for the committee, right in front of the bank; and the moment they began to talk he began to orate, and to denounce them and everything else in Blackwater. What was intended as a call-down of an envious and 260destructive agitator threatened momentarily to turn into a riot and, hearing his own good name brought into question, Judson Eells stepped quickly out and challenged his bold traducer.
“W’y, sure I said it!” answered Wunpost hotly, “and I don’t mind saying it again. Your bank is all a fake, like your danged tin front; and you’ve got everything in your vault except money.”
“Well, now, Mr. Calhoun,” returned Judson Eells waspishly, “I’m going to challenge that statement, right now. What authority have you got for suggesting that my cash is less than the law requires?”
“Well,” began Wunpost, “of course I don’t know, but─”
“No, of course you don’t know!” replied Eells with a smile, “and everybody knows you don’t know; but your remarks are actionable and if you don’t shut up and go away I’ll instruct my attorney to sue you.”
“Oh, ‘shut up,’ eh?” repeated Wunpost after the crowd had had its laugh; “you think I’m a blow-hard, eh? You all do, don’t you? Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do.” He paused impressively, reached down into several pockets and pointed a finger at Eells. “I’ll bet you,” he said, “that I’ve got more money in my clothes than you have in your whole danged bank–and if you can prove any different I’ll acknowledge I’m wrong by depositing my roll in your bank. Now–that’s fair enough, ain’t it?”
He nodded and leered knowingly at the gaping crowd as Eells began to temporize and hedge.
261“I’m a blow-hard, am I?” he shouted uproariously; “my remarks are actionable, are they? Well, if I should go into court and tell half of what I know there’d be two men on their way to the Pen!” He pointed two fingers at Eells and Phillip Lapham and the banker saw a change in the crowd. Public confidence was wavering, the cold fingers of doubt were clutching at the hearts of his depositors–but behind it all he sensed a trap. It was not by accident that Wunpost was on his corner when the committee of citizens came by; and this bet of his was no accident either, but part of some carefully laid scheme. The question was–how much money did Wunpost have? If, unknown to them, he had found access to large sums and had come there with the money on his person, then the acceptance of his bet would simply result in a farce and make the bank a byword and a mocking. If it could be said on the street that one disreputable prospector had more money in his clothes than the bank, then public confidence would receive a shrewd blow indeed, which might lead to disastrous results. But the murmur of doubt was growing, Wunpost was ranting like a demagogue–the time for a show-down had come.
“Very well!” shouted Eells, and as the crowd began to cheer the committee adjourned to the bank. Eells strode in behind the counter and threw the vault doors open, his cashier and Lapham made the count, and when Wunpost was permitted to see the cash himself his face fell and he fumbled in his pockets.
262“You win,” he announced, and while all Blackwater whooped and capered he deposited his roll in the bank. It was a fabulously big roll–over forty thousand dollars in five hundred and thousand dollar bills–but he deposited it all without saying a word and went out to buy the drinks.