“Oh, yes,” murmured the banker. “On the sixteenth, I believe. I trust you are prepared to pay it.”
“Well, no, I’m not,” Connie admitted. “But with a six months’ extension——”
“I am afraid that is impossible, Miss Carl,” the banker said quickly. “I should like to do it, of course, but I must think of my depositors.”
“But Mr. Haynes, you don’t realize what this will mean!” Connie cried. “I’ll lose my ranch—everything! If only I had a little more time, even three months——”
The banker smiled tolerantly but shook his head.
“If you had a year, Miss Carl, it would not help. Ranching is no longer the profitable industry it was in your father’s time.”
“I could make it pay if only I had a little time,” Connie insisted desperately. “I’d take summer boarders—dudes from the city.”
“I fear you haven’t the capital for that,” smiled the banker. “I know exactly how you feel, Miss Carl, and I only wish I might help you.”
Connie left the bank feeling discouraged and almost ill. Mr. Haynes’ attitude had stunned her. She had never believed that he would refuse to extend the note.
“Somehow I must raise fifteen hundred dollars before the sixteenth of the month,” she told herself grimly. “But how? There’s no possible way.”