"I have just seen him; but he says it must be returned to-day."
"He does?"
"Yes. He wants to use it."
Wilkinson stood thoughtfully for some time.
"Can you return the sum in a week?" he then asked.
"O yes; easily."
"Very well I'll go and ask him to loan me three hundred for a week. He'll do it, I know. You shall have the use of it for the time specified."
"If you can get me that sum, you will place me under an everlasting obligation," said Ellis, with more feeling than he wished to display.
Twenty minutes afterward the money was in his hands. It had been obtained from A—, and during the morning returned to him in payment of Ellis's loan.
So much accomplished, Ellis turned his thoughts towards the ways and means for raising the seven hundred dollars yet required for the day's business. By twelve o'clock all of his borrowed money was returned; but his notes still remained in bank. In view of the difficulties yet to be surmounted, he felt that he had erred in not making it the first business of the day to take up his notes, and thus get beyond the danger of protest. But it was too late now for regrets to be of any avail. Four hundred dollars must come from some quarter, or ruin was certain.