"Friday afternoon he said to me, 'I fear that the farmers will make a run on the bank tomorrow. There are always a lot of country folk in town on Saturday. There are some of these farmers who are alarmed—fear spreads rapidly in a crowd. I must be prepared. You take my car and drive to Wilford Springs and borrow thirty thousand dollars from Jim Stover to tide us over.'
"I took plenty of collateral and did as directed. Stover pumped me as to the condition of the bank and elicited from me the information that Babcock had fifty thousand dollars of the city funds in his own bank unsecured in any way.
"After hearing my request for a loan, he said, 'I will go down with you this evening and fix Babcock up all right.' That evening he loaded fifty thousand dollars into his car and we drove to Zala. The conference lasted until a late hour, at the home of Babcock. Stover impressed on his mind again and again that with the small amount of cash that Babcock had on hand, if there were a run on his bank the following day, the bank would fail and with the city funds in his own bank it would be very embarrassing for him and might result in criminal charges being brought against him. Mr. Babcock was extremely nervous. 'What would you advise me to do?' he asked. 'Make an assignment to me. If a run is made on the bank I can show them that I have bought you out and placed all of my resources back of it,' Stover advised. Babcock agreed to this, and the next morning Babcock transferred his stock to Stover with the understanding that it should be reassigned to him when the danger of a run had passed."
"Were you present when the transfer of stock was made?" King asked.
"Yes."
"Was anything said about Stover's taking the stock in payment of money due him from Babcock?"
"Not a word. I am sure Babcock never owed Stover one cent. After the assignment of the stock Babcock showed Stover the combination to the safe."
"Do you remember the combination to the safe?"
"No, I don't believe I do now. I haven't had any occasion to recall it."
"Mr. Babcock tried so hard to recall the combination to some safe and finally said he had recalled it."