"I am here for my money," was the defiant reply. "I have presented the note, and I await payment."
"Don't you think this is rather sudden?" asked Mori, with a suspicious calmness in his voice. "It was negotiated but yesterday. Why this haste?"
"I want my money," was the only answer vouchsafed.
"And you at the door," continued the Japanese youth, turning his gaze in that direction. "Are you here for the same reason?"
Some one in the rear rank replied in the affirmative.
Mori's eyes flashed. Taking a private check-book from his pocket, he rapidly wrote several lines therein, and, detaching a leaf, tossed it to Grant.
"Pay them, every one," he said, carelessly. "You will find that sufficient, I think."
The lame youth eagerly read the check, and then his face became suffused with emotion. The amount called for was thirty thousand dollars! Mori had placed his whole fortune to the firm's account! Afraid to trust his voice, Grant hobbled over to the youthful native, and, in the presence of the whole assemblage, threw his arms around him.
"God bless you!" he exclaimed. "You are a friend and a man."