"Hasn't run away, then?"
The Missouri colonel squared himself doggedly in the suppliant debtor's chair, which was the one Kinzie had placed for him. "What are you driving at, Dave?" he demanded.
"We'll tackle your end of it, first," said the banker curtly. "Do you know that you and your crowd have come to the bottom of the bag on that dam proposition?"
"No, I don't."
"Well, you have. You've got just this one more day to live."
The Missourian fell back upon his native phrase.
"I reckon you'll have to show me, Dave."
"I will. Have you seen the weather report this morning?"
"No."
"I thought not. I've had a trained observer up in the eastern hills for the past week. The river rose four feet last night, and there are predictions out for more cloudbursts and thunderstorms in the headwater region. The snow is melting fast in the higher gulches, and you know as well as I do that there is at least a strong probability that your dam won't hold the flood rise."