“Do that,” I said. “I’ll be back in half an hour, and I want to be ready to roll.”

I went out to a restaurant, ordered the biggest steak on the menu, and polished it off with mince pie à la mode. I went back to the automobile agency to pick up the car. They had pinned my check to the top of a pile of papers.

“You’ll have to sign your name here two or three times,” the salesman said.

I noticed that someone had written in indelible pencil in the upper left-hand corner of my check, the word “Okay,” followed by the initials “GEC.” I signed the name Peter B. Smith two or three times, shook hands all around, climbed in the car, and drove out. I went directly to the First National Bank. It lacked about fifteen minutes of closing time. I went to the counter and drew a sight draft on H. C. Helmingford for five thousand six hundred and ninety-two dollars and fifty cents. I drew a counter check for one thousand eight hundred dollars. I went to the cashier’s window and said, “I’m Peter Smith. I opened an account here today. I was looking for some investments. I have found one which is going to require immediate cash. I have here a sight draft drawn on H. C. Helmingford. I want this presented to him through the Security National Bank of Los Angeles. It will be honored immediately on presentation. I want it rushed.”

He took the draft and said, “Just a minute, Mr. Smith—”

“It isn’t necessary,” I said. “I don’t want you to give me any credit on this. Simply handle it as a collection. Have your Los Angeles correspondent wire back at my expense.”

He gave me a receipt for the draft. “And you wanted some cash?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, and handed him the counter check for eighteen hundred dollars, looking at my watch as I did so.

He said, “Just a minute,” stepped back to the bookkeeping department to verify the balance and my signature. He hesitated for a moment, then came back and asked, “How do you want this, Mr. Smith?”

“In hundreds,” I said.

He gave me the money. I thanked him, drove over to the Bank of Commerce, got into my safety deposit vault, and put the eighteen hundred dollars in with the other money in there. Then I climbed in the car, drove out of town and crossed the bridge over the Colorado River into California. I parked the car for about half an hour, sitting there smoking and letting my dinner digest. Then I started the motor and drove on the few yards that brought me to the California quarantine station over on the right-hand side of the road.