CHAPTER XIV.
As the police withdrew from in front of Ward & Co.'s office, the crowd returned.

It flowed into the corridor of the office building, a sullen, silent mob, full of repressed anger that required only the slightest spark to transform it into a roaring flame.

They massed about the locked door, gazing at the lettered panel as at a corpse.
Out in the street newsboys were crying the failure of the banking house.
They did a brisk business.

Mourners everywhere are feverishly anxious to read of the deceased, his achievements and his failure and his demise.
And these mourners, gathered at the funeral of an institution that held for them so vital an interest, devoured every detail of its expired life.
Inside the office, the clerks worked with their customary deliberation, tallying the accounts for the receiver.

No tentative statement of assets and liability had been announced by the court's representative.