"He must have felt so sick that he forgot all about it. You don't imagine that there is anything wrong about it?"
"Oh, no! I guess it is all straight enough. Aronson must know that he couldn't get any such money out of us unless everything was as straight as a string."
"Perhaps Mr. Powell could get the twenty thousand dollars for us."
"Maybe he could. But that isn't the point, Tom. I told you before that we want to 'stand on our own bottom.' Besides, it isn't a fair thing to ask any one to put up money like that without offering good security."
"But we don't want to lose the fifteen thousand dollars that father has already invested."
"I know that, too. It's a miserable affair all around, isn't it?" And Dick sighed deeply.
When Sam came back from his errand he brought news that under ordinary circumstances would have interested his brothers very much.
"I was coming through Union Square Park when whom should I see on one of the benches but Josiah Crabtree!" he exclaimed.
"Crabtree!" cried Tom. "Then he must be out of the hospital at last! How did he look?"
"He looked very pale and thin, and he had a pair of crutches with him," answered Sam. "I didn't see him walk, but I suppose he must limp pretty badly, or he wouldn't have had the crutches."