His purposes now were of the future, not of the past.
And naturally, he turned first to the office of his father's attorney,--the bleak place where he had conferred so many times in the black days.

Old Judge Mason, accustomed to seeing Barry in time of stress, tried his best to be jovial.
"Well, boy, what is it this time ?" "Money." Houston came directly to the point.

"I've come back to Boston to find out if any one will trust me." "With or without security." "With it--the best in the world." Then he brought forward a copy of the contract.

Mason studied it at length, then, with a slow gesture, raised his glasses to a resting place on his forehead.
"I--I don't know, boy," he said at last.

"It's a rather hard problem to crack.