104 DEEP FURROWS 



amount. I have even gone so far as to draw up the 

 document for signature, if it meets with your 

 approval." 



"What about that, Kennedy? Spencer?" 



" Guess we've got to do it," nodded Kennedy. 



" Looks like it," agreed Spencer. 



" Then down she goes !" decided Partridge, dipping 

 his pen in the ink. The others signed after him. 



" That means we three go down with the ship," 

 he remarked quietly after the door had closed upon the 

 bank manager. " I appreciate you two fellows signing 

 that thing." He got up and shook hands with each of 

 them in turn. " If bad gets worse and we go to 

 smash " 



" It can't get worse and we're not going to smash," 

 reassured the others. 



But that remained to be seen. Although placing 

 grain in the East was robbing them o f pmfifa, itjvas 

 the best that could be done to tide things over. The 

 three active officials were on the anxious seat from 

 morning till night. It had got down now to a question 

 of meeting each day's events as they came and fre- 

 quently the lights blazed in the little office till two and 

 three in the morning while the provisional officers 

 raked the situation from every angle in an endeavor to 

 forecast the next day's difficulties and to prepare for 

 them. 



For three months the overdraft at the bank had aver- 

 aged $275,000, due almost entirely to the conditions 

 resulting from the action of the Exchange. It was 

 useless to worry over the amount of interest which this 

 accommodation was costing and the profits which 

 might have been rolled up had things been different ; the 

 real worry was to keep going at any cost. For, as the 



