This done, he resigned and went to the leading bank, where he opened an account by depositing a check drawn upon a Chicago institution for fifty thousand dollars.

McWade made it a practice always to have a few blank checks on hand.

Airily, but in all earnestness, he invited the Texas bank to verify the check at its convenience.
So many were the strangers in Wichita Falls, so great the rush of new customers, that the banks had no means of investigating their accounts except by wiring at their own expense.

This was Saturday afternoon, which gave McWade two days of grace, so he pocketed his new pass and check books, then mingled with the crowd at the Westland Hotel.

He bought leases and drilling sites, issuing local checks in payment thereof--nobody could question the validity of those checks with the evidence of fifty thousand dollars deposited that very day--and on Sunday he sold them.