"Is that so? I am very sorry to hear it. Then you are transacting his business for him?"
"Yes, my brother and I are running this business now."
"And yet you said you did not know why I had called," continued Mr. Aronson, in apparent astonishment. "That is strange. Did not your father tell you about his investment in the Sharon Valley Land Company?"
"I never heard of the company before," returned Dick, promptly.
"I heard my father mention it," put in Tom, "but I never knew that he had made any investment in it."
"What? How surprising!" ejaculated the visitor. "He has something like fifteen thousand dollars invested in that concern, for which I have the honor to be the agent. He has another payment to make on the investment, and that payment falls due just a week from to-day. Some time ago he asked me if that payment might not be deferred. I put it up to the managers of the company, and they have now sent me word that the payment will have to be made on the day that it falls due."
"And how much is that payment?" faltered Dick.
"Twenty thousand dollars."