 CHAPTER VIII. It was now well on in May, and most of the people of Montague's acquaintance had moved out to their country places, and those who were chained to their desks had yachts or automobiles or private cars, and made the trip into the country every afternoon. Montague was invited to spend another week at Eldridge Devon's, where Alice had been for a week, but he could not spare the time until Saturday afternoon when he made the trip up the Hudson in Devon's new three hundred foot steam yacht, the Triton. Some unkind person had described Devon to Montague as a human yawn, but he appeared to have a very keen interest in life that Saturday afternoon. He had been seized by a sudden conviction that a new but little advertised automobile had proven its superiority to any of the seventeen cars which he at present maintained in his establishment. He had got three of these new cars, and while Montague sat upon the quarter-deck of the Triton and gazed at the magnificent scenery of the river, he had in his ear the monotonous hum of Devon's voice discussing annular ball bearings and water-jacketed cylinders. One of the new cars met them at Devon's private pier and swept them over the hill to the mansion. The Devon place had never looked more wonderful to Montague than it did just then, with fruit trees and full blossom and the wonder of springtime upon everything. For miles about one might see hillsides that were one unbroken stretch of luscious green lawn. But alas Eldridge Devon had no interest in these hills except to pursue a golf ball over them. Montague never felt more keenly the pitiful quality of the people among whom he found himself than when he stood upon the portico of this house, a portico huge enough to belong to some fairy palace and a dream, and gazed at the sweeping vista of the Hudson over the heads of Mrs. Billy Alden and several of her cronies playing bridge. After luncheon he went for a stroll with Alice and she told him how she had been passing the time. Young Curtis was here for a couple of days, she said. General Prentice's nephew he asked. Yes, he told me he had met you, said she. What do you think of him? He struck me as a sensible chap, said Montague. I like him very much, said Alice. I think we shall be friends. He is interesting to talk to. You know he was in a militia regiment that went to Cuba, and also he's been a cowboy and all sorts of exciting things. We took a walk the other morning and he told me some of his adventures. They say he's quite a successful lawyer. He is in a very successful firm, said Montague, and he'd hardly have got there unless he had ability. He's a great friend of Laura Higgins, said Alice. She was over here to spend the day. She doesn't approve of many people, so that is a compliment. Montague spoke of a visit which he had paid to Laura Higgins at one of the neighbouring estates. I had quite a talk with her, said Alice, and she invited me to luncheon and took me driving. I like her better than I thought I would. Don't you like her, Alan? I couldn't say that I really know her, said Montague. I thought I might like her, but she did not happen to like me. But how could that be, asked the girl. Montague smiled. Tastes are different, he said. But there must be some reason, protested Alice, for she looks at many things in the same way that you do. I told her I thought she would be interested to talk to you. What did she say, asked the other. She didn't say anything, answered Alice, and then suddenly she turned to him. I am sure you must know some reason. I wish you would tell me. I don't know anything definite, Montague answered. I have always imagined it had to do with Mrs. Winnie. Mrs. Winnie exclaimed Alice in perplexing wonder. I suppose she heard gossip and believed it, he added. But that is a shame, exclaimed the girl. Why don't you tell her the truth? I tell her, laughed Montague. I have no reason for telling her. She doesn't care anything in particular about me. He was silent for a moment or two. I thought of it once or twice, he said. Or it made me rather angry at first. I saw myself going up to her and startling her with the statement. What you believe about me is not true. Then again I thought I might write her a letter and tell her. But of course it would be absurd. She would never acknowledge that she had believed anything and she would think I was impertinent. I don't believe she would do anything of the sort, Alice answered. At least not if she meant what she said to me. She was talking about people one met in society and how tiresome and conventional it all was. No one ever speaks the truth or deals frankly with you, she said. All the men spend their time in paying you compliments about your looks. They think that is all a woman cares about. The more I come to know them the less I think of them. That's just it, said Montague. One cannot feel comfortable knowing a girl in her position. Her father is powerful and some day she will be enormously rich herself and the people who gather about her are seeking to make use of her. I was interested in her when I first met her, but when I learned more about the world in which she lives I shrank from even talking to her. But that is rather unfair to her, said Alice. Suppose all decent people felt that way and she is really quite easy to know. She told me about some charities she is interested in. She goes down into the slums on the east side and teaches poor children. It seemed to me a wonderfully daring sort of thing, but she laughed when I said so. She says those people are just the same as other people when you come to know them. You get used to their ways and then it does not seem so terrible and far off. I imagine it would be so, said Montague with a smile. Her father came over to meet her, Alice added. She said that was the first time he had been out of the city in six months. Just fancy working so hard and with all the money he has. What in the world do you suppose he wants more for? I don't suppose it is the money, said he. It's the power, and when you have so much money you have to work hard to keep other people from taking it away from you. He certainly looks as if he ought to be able to protect himself, said the girl. His face is so grim and forbidding. You would hardly think he could smile to look at him. He is very pleasant when you know him, said Montague. He remembered you and asked about you, said she. Wasn't it he who was going to buy Lucy Dupri's stock? I spoke to him about it, he answered, but nothing came of it. There was a moment's pause. Alan, said Alice suddenly, what is this I hear about Lucy? What do you mean, he asked? People are talking about her and Mr. Ryder. I overheard Mrs. Landis yesterday. It's outrageous. Montague did not know what to say. What can I do, he asked. I don't know, said Alice, but I think that Victoria Landis is a horrible woman. I know she herself does exactly as she pleases, and she tells such shocking stories. Montague said nothing. Tell me, asked the other after a pause, because you've given up Lucy's business affairs. Are we to have nothing to do with her at all? I don't know, he answered. I don't imagine she will care to see me. I have told her about the mistake she's making, and she chooses to go her own way, so what more can I do? That evening Montague found himself settled on a sofa next to Mrs. Billy Alden. What's this I hear about your friend Mrs. Taylor, she asked? I don't know, said he abruptly. The fascinating widow seems to be throwing herself away, continued the other. What makes you say that, he asked. Vivy Patton told me, said she. She's an old flame of Stanley writers, you know, and so I imagine it came directly from him. Montague was dumb, he could think of nothing to say. It's too bad, said Mrs. Billy. She is really a charming creature, and it will hurt her, you know. She is a stranger, and it's a trifle too sudden. Is that the Mississippi way? Montague forced himself to say Lucy is her own mistress, but his feeble impulse toward conversation was checked by Mrs. Billy's prompt response. Vivy said she was Stanley writers. I understand how you feel, continued the great lady after a pause. Everybody will be talking about it. Your friend Reggie Mann heard what Vivy said, and he will see to that. Reggie Mann is no friend of mine, said Montague abruptly. There was a pause. How in the world do you stand that man, he asked, by way of change in the conversation? Oh, Reggie Philz's place was the reply. And Mrs. Billy gazed about the room. You see all these women, she said, take them in the morning and put half a dozen of them together in one room. They all hate each other like poison, and there are no men around, and there is nothing to do. And how are you to keep them from quarreling? Is that Reggie's role, asked the other? Precisely. He sees a spark fly and he jumps up and cracks a joke. It doesn't make any difference what he does. I've known him to crow like a rooster or stumble over his own feet. Anything to raise a laugh. Aren't you afraid these epigrams may reach your victim, asked Montague with a smile? That is what they are intended to do, was the reply. I judge you have not many enemies, added Mrs. Billy after a pause. No special ones, said he. Well, said she, you should cultivate some. Enemies are the spice of life. I mean it really, she declared, as she saw him smile. I had never thought of it, said he. Have you never known what it is to get into a really good fight? You see, you are conventional and you don't like to acknowledge it. But what is there that wakes one up more than a good vigorous hatred? One day you will realize it, the chief zest in life is to go after somebody who hates you and to get him down and see him squirm. But suppose he gets you down, interposed Montague. Ah, said she, you mustn't let him. That is what you go into the fight for. Get after him and do him first. It sounds rather barbarous, said he. On the contrary was the answer. It's the highest reach of civilization. That is what society is for. The cultivation of the art of hatred. It is the survival of the fittest in a new realm. You study your victim, you find out his weaknesses and his foibles, and you know just where to plant your sting. You learn what he wants and you take it away from him. You choose your allies carefully and you surround him and overwhelm him, and then when you get through with him you go after another. Then Mrs. Billy glanced about her at the exquisite assemblage in Mrs. Devon's Louis S. Drawing Room. What do you suppose these people are here for tonight? She asked. CHAPTER IX A WEEK or two had passed when one day Oliver called his brother on the phone. Have you or Alice any engagement this evening? He asked. I want to bring a friend around to dinner. Who is it? inquired Montague. Nobody you have heard of said Oliver, but I want you to meet him. You will think he's rather queer, but I will explain to you afterwards. Tell Alice to take my word for him. Montague delivered the message, and at seven o'clock they went downstairs. In the reception room they met Oliver and his friend, and it was all that Montague could do to repress a look of consternation. The name of the personage was Mr. Gamble. He was a little man, a trifle over five feet high, and so fat that one wondered how he could get about alone. His chin and neck were a series of rolls of fat. His face was round like a full moon, and out of it looked two little eyes like those of a pig. It was only after studying them for a while that one discovered that they twinkled shrewdly. Mr. Gamble was altogether the vulgarest-looking personage that Alice Montague had ever met. He put out a fat little hand to her, and she touched it gingerly, and then gazed at Oliver and his brother in helpless dismay. "'Good evening, good evening,' he began volubly. "'I am charmed to meet you, Mr. Montague. I've heard so much about you from your brother that I feel as if we were old friends.' There was a moment's pause. "'Shall we go into the dining-room?' asked Montague. He did not much relish the stairs which would follow them, but he could see no way out of the difficulty. They went into the room and seated themselves, Montague wondering in a flash whether Mr. Gamble's arms would be long enough to reach the table in front of him. "'A warm evening,' he said, puffing slightly. "'I've been on the train all day.' "'Mr. Gamble comes from Pittsburgh,' interposed Oliver. "'Indeed,' said Montague, striving to make conversation. Are you in business there?' "'No, I'm out of business,' said Mr. Gamble with a smile. "'Made my pile, so to speak, and got out. I want to see the world a bit before I get too old.' The waiter came to take their orders. In the meantime Montague darted an indignant glance at his brother who sat and smiled serenely. Then Montague caught Alice's eye, and he could almost hear her saying to him, "'What in the world am I going to talk about?' But it proved not very difficult to talk with the gentleman from Pittsburgh. He appeared to know all the gossip of the metropolis, and he cheerfully supplied the topics of conversation. He had been to Palm Beach and Hot Springs during the winter, and told about what he had seen there. He was going to Newport in the summer, and he talked about the prospects there. If he had the slightest suspicion of the fact that all his conversation was not supremely interesting to Montague and his friend, he gave no hint of it. After he had disposed of the elaborate dinner which Oliver ordered, Mr. Gamble proposed that they visit one of the theatres. He had a box already, it seemed, and Oliver accepted for Alice before Montague could say a word for her. He spoke for himself, however. He had important work to do and must be excused. He went upstairs and shook off his annoyance and plunged into his work. Soon after midnight, when he had finished, he went out for a breath of fresh air, and as he returned he found Oliver and his friend standing in the lobby of the hotel. "'How do you do, Mr. Montague?' said Gamble. "'Glad to see you again.' "'Alice has just gone upstairs,' said Oliver. We were going to sit in the cafe awhile. Will you join us?' "'Yes, do,' said Mr. Gamble, cordially. Montague went because he wanted to have a talk with Oliver before he went to bed that night. "'Do you know Dick Ingham?' said Mr. Gamble, as they seated themselves at a table. "'The steel man, you mean?' asked Montague. "'No, I never met him.' "'We were talking about him,' said the other. "'Poor chap, it really was hard luck, you know. It wasn't his fault. Did you ever hear the true story?' "'No,' said Montague, but he knew to what the other referred. Ingham was one of the steel crowd, as they were called, and he had been president of the trust until a scandal had forced his resignation. "'He is an old friend of mine,' said Gamble. He told me all about it. It began in Paris. Some newspaper woman tried to blackmail him, and he had her put in jail for three months. And when she got out again, then the papers at home began to get stories about poor Ingham's cutting up, and the public went wild and they made him resign. Just imagine it!' Gamble chuckled so violently that he was seized by a coughing spell and had to signal for a glass of water. "'They've got a new scandal on their hands now,' said Oliver. "'They're a lively crowd,' the steel fellows laughed the other. They want to make Davidson resign, too, but he'll fight them. He knows too much. You should hear his story.' "'I imagine it's not a very savory one,' said Montague, for lack of something to say. "'It's too bad,' said the other earnestly. I have talked to them sometimes, but it don't do any good. I remember Davidson one night. Jim,' says he, "'a fellow gets a whole lot of money, and he buys him everything he wants until at last he buys a woman, and then his trouble begins. If you're buying pictures, there's an end to it. You get your walls covered sooner or later. But you never can satisfy a woman.' Then Mr. Gamble shook his head. "'Too bad, too bad,' he repeated. "'Were you in the steel business yourself?' asked Montague politely. "'No, no oil was my line. I've been fighting the trust, and last year they bought me out, and now I'm seeing the world.' Mr. Gamble relapsed into thought again. "'I never went in for that sort of thing myself,' he said meditatively. "'I am a married man, I am, and one woman is enough for me.' "'Is your family in New York?' asked Montague in an effort to change the subject. "'No, no, they live in Pittsburgh,' was the answer. "'I've got four daughters, all in college. They're stunning girls, I tell you. I'd like you to meet them, Mr. Montague.' "'I should be pleased,' said Montague, writhing inwardly. But a few moments later, to his immense relief, Mr. Gamble arose and bade him good night. Montague saw him clamber laboriously into his automobile, and then he turned to his brother. "'Oliver,' he asked, what the devil does this mean?' "'What mean?' asked Oliver innocently. "'That man!' exclaimed the other. "'Why, I thought you would like to meet him,' said Oliver. He is an interesting chap. "'I'm in no mood for fooling,' said his brother angrily. "'Why in the world should you insult Alice by introducing such a man to her?' "'Why, you are talking nonsense,' exclaimed Oliver. He knows the best people.' "'Where did you meet him?' asked Montague. "'Mrs. Landis introduced him to me first. She met him through a cousin of hers, a naval officer. He has been living in Brooklyn this winter. He knows all the navy people.' "'What is it anyway?' demanded Montague impatiently. Is it some business affair that you are interested in?' "'No, no,' said Oliver, smiling cheerfully, purely social. He wants to be introduced about, you know. "'Are you going to put him into society by any chance?' asked the others sarcastically. "'You are warm, as the children say,' laughed his brother. Montague stared at him. "'Oliver, you don't mean it,' he said. "'That fellow in society!' "'Sure,' said Oliver. "'He wants to. Why not?' "'But his wife and his daughters,' exclaimed the other. "'Oh, that's not it. The family stays in Pittsburgh. It's only himself this time. All the same,' Oliver added after a pause. "'I'd like to wager you that if you were to meet Jim Gamble's four prized daughters, you'd find it hard to tell them from the real thing. They've been to a swell boarding school, and they've had everything that money can buy them. My God! But I'm tired of hearing about their accomplishments. But do you mean to tell me,' the other protested, that your friends will stand for a man like that? Some of them will. He's got barrels of money, you know, and he understands the situation perfectly. He won't make many mistakes. But what in the world does he want? Leave that to him.' "'And you,' demanded Montague, "'are you getting money for this?' Oliver smiled a long and inscrutable smile. You don't imagine that I'm in love with him, I trust. I thought you'd be interested to see the game. That's why I introduced him.' "'That's all very well,' said the other, but you have no right to inflict such a man upon Alice.' "'Oh, stuff!' said Oliver. She'll meet him at Newport this summer, anyway. How could I introduce him anywhere else if I wasn't willing to introduce him here? He won't hurt Alice. He gave her a good time this evening, and I wager she'll like him before he gets through. He's really a good-natured chap. The chief trouble with him is that he gets confidential.' Montague relapsed into silence, and Oliver changed the subject. "'It seems too bad about Lucy,' he said. "'Is there nothing we can do about it?' "'Nothing,' said the other. "'She is simply ruining herself,' said Oliver. "'I've been trying to get Reggie Mann to have her introduced to Mrs. Devon, but he says he wouldn't dare to take the risk.' "'No, I presume not,' said Montague.' "'It's a shame,' said Oliver. I thought Mrs. Billy Alden would ask her to Newport this summer, but now I don't believe she'll have a thing to do with her. Lucy will find she knows nobody except Stanley Ryder and his crowd. She has simply thrown herself away.' Montague shrugged his shoulders. "'That's Lucy's way,' he said. "'I suppose she'll have a good time,' added the other. Ryder is generous at any rate.' "'I hope so,' said Montague. "'They say he's making barrels of money,' said Oliver. Then he added, longingly. "'My God, I wish I had a trust company to play with.' "'Why a trust company particularly?' asked the other. "'It's the easiest graft that's going,' said Oliver. "'It's some dodge or other by which they evade the banking laws, and the money comes rolling in floods. You've noticed their advertisements, I suppose?' "'I have noticed them,' said Montague. "'He is adding something over a million a month I hear.' "'It sounds very attractive,' said the other, and added dryly. "'I suppose Ryder feels as if he owned it all.' "'He might just as well own it,' was the reply. "'If I were going into Wall Street to make money, I'd rather have the control of fifty millions than the absolute ownership of ten.' "'By the way,' Oliver remarked after a moment, the Prentices have asked Alice up to Newport. Alice seems to be quite taken with that young chap, Curtis. "'He comes around a good deal,' said Montague. "'He seems a very decent fellow.' "'No doubt,' said the other, but he hasn't enough money to take care of a girl like Alice.' "'Well,' he replied, that's a question for Alice to consider.' CHAPTER X One day, a month or so later, Montague, to his great surprise, received a letter from Stanley Ryder. "'Could you make it convenient to call at my office sometime this afternoon?' it read. "'I wish to talk over with you a business proposition, which I believe you will find of great advantage to yourself.' "'I suppose he wants to buy my northern Mississippi stock,' he said to himself, as he called up Ryder on the phone and made an appointment. It was the first time that he had ever been inside the building of the Gotham Trust Company, and he gazed about him at the overwhelming magnificence, huge gates of bronze and walls of exquisite marble. Ryder's own office was elaborate and splendid, and he himself a picture of aristocratic elegance. He greeted Montague cordially, and talked for a few minutes about the state of the market and the business situation, in the meantime toiling a pencil in his hand and watching his visitor narrowly. At last he began, "'Mr. Montague, I have for some time been working over a plan which I think will interest you.' "'I shall be very pleased to hear of it,' said Montague. "'Of course, you know,' said Ryder, that I bought from Mrs. Taylor, her holdings in the northern Mississippi railroad. I bought them because I was of the opinion that the road ought to be developed, and I believe that I could induce someone to take the matter up. I have found the right parties, I think, and the plans are now being worked out.' "'Indeed,' said the other with interest. "'The idea, Mr. Montague, is to extend the railroad according to the old plan with which you are familiar. Before we took the matter up we approached the holders of the remainder of the stock, most of whom, I suppose, are known to you. We made them, through our agents, a proposition to buy their stock at what we considered a fair price, and we have purchased about five thousand shares additional. The prices quoted on the balance were more than we cared to pay in consideration of the very great cost of improvements we proposed to undertake. Our idea now is to make a new proposition to these other shareholders. The annual stockholders meeting takes place next month. At this meeting we'll be brought up the project for the issue of twenty thousand additional shares, with the understanding that as much of this new stock, as is not taken by the present shareholders, is to go to us. As I assume that few of them will take their allotments, that will give us control of the road. You can understand, of course, that our syndicate would not undertake the venture unless it could obtain control. Montague nodded his assent to this. "'At this meeting,' said Ryder, we shall propose a ticket of our own for the new board of directors. We are in hopes that as our proposition will be in the interest of every stockholder, this ticket will be elected. We believe that the road needs a new policy and a new management entirely. If a majority of the stockholders can be brought to our point of view, we shall take control and put in a new president.' Ryder paused for a moment to let this information sink into his auditor's mind, then, fixing his gaze upon him narrowly, he continued. What I wished to see you about, Mr. Montague, was to make you a proposal to assist us in putting through this project. We should like you, in the first place, to act as our representative, in consultation with our regular attorneys. We should like you to interview privately the stockholders of the road and explain to them our projects and vouch for our good intentions. If you can see your way to undertake this work for us, we should be glad to place you upon the proposed Board of Directors, and as soon as we have matters in our hands we should ask you to become president of the road. Montague gave an inward start, but practice had taught him to keep from letting his surprise manifest itself very much. He sat for a minute in thought. Mr. Ryder, he said, I am a little surprised at such a proposition from you, seeing that you know so little about me. I know more than you suppose, Mr. Montague said the other with a smile. You may rest assured that I have not broached such a matter to you without making inquiries, and satisfying myself that you were the proper person. It is very pleasant to be told that, said Montague, but I must remind you also that I am not a railroad man and have had no experience whatever in such matters. It is not necessary that you should be a railroad man, was the answer. One can hire talent of that kind at market prices. What we wish is a man of careful and conservative temper, and above all, a man of thorough going honesty, someone who will be capable of winning the confidence of the stockholders and of keeping it. It seemed to us that you possessed these qualifications. Also of course you have the advantage of being familiar with the neighborhood and of knowing thoroughly the local conditions. Montague thought for a while longer. The offering is a very flattering one, he said, and I need hardly tell you that it interests me, but before I could properly consider the matter there is one thing I should have to know, that is, who are the members of this syndicate? Why would it be necessary to know that, asked the other. Because I am to lend my reputation to their project and I should have to know the character of the men that I was dealing with. Montague was gazing straight into the other's eyes. You will understand, of course, replied Ryder, that in a matter of this sort it is necessary to proceed with caution. We cannot afford to talk about what we are going to do. We have enemies who will do what they can to check us at every step. Whatever you tell me will, of course, be confidential, said Montague. I understand that perfectly well was the reply, but I wished first to get some idea of your attitude toward the project, whether or not you would be at liberty to take up this work and to devote yourself to it. I can see no reason why I should not, Montague answered. It seems to me, said Ryder, that the proposition can be judged largely upon its own merits. It is a proposition to put through an important public improvement. A road which is in a broken down and practically bankrupt condition is to be taken up and thoroughly reorganized and put upon its feet. It is to have a vigorous and honest administration, a new and adequate equipment, and a new source of traffic. The business of the Mississippi Steel Company, as you doubtless know, is growing with extraordinary rapidity. All this, it seems to me, is a work about the advisability of which there can be no question. That is very true, said Montague, and I will meet the persons who are interested in talking out the matters with them, and if their plans are such as I can approve, I should be very glad to join with them, and to do everything in my power to make a success of the enterprise. As you doubtless know, I have five hundred shares of the stock myself, and I should be glad to become a member of the syndicate. That is what I had in mind to propose to you, said the other. I anticipate no difficulty in satisfying you. The project is largely of my own originating, and my own reputation will be behind it. The Gotham Trust Company will lend its credit to the enterprise so far as possible. Sire said this with just a trifle of hauteur, and Montague felt that perhaps he had spoken too strenuously. No one could sit in writer's office and not be impressed by its atmosphere of magnificence. After all, it was here, and its seventy or eighty million dollars of deposits were real, and this serene and aristocratic gentleman was the master of them. And what reason had Montague for his hesitation, except the gossip of idle and cynical society people? Whatever doubts he himself might have, he needed to reflect but a moment to realize that his friends in Mississippi would not share them. If he went back home with the name of Stanley Ryder and the Gotham Trust Company to back him, he would come as a conqueror with tidings of triumph, and all the old friends of the family would rush to follow his suggestions. Ryder waited a while, perhaps to let these reflections sink in. Finally, he continued, I presume, Mr. Montague, that you know something about the Mississippi Steel Company. The steel situation is a peculiar one. Prices are kept at an altogether artificial level, and there is room for large profits to competitors of the Trust. But those who go into the business commonly find themselves unexpectedly handicapped. They cannot get the credit they want. Members overwhelm them in floods, but Wall Street will not put up the money to help them. They find all kinds of powerful interests arrayed against them. There are raids upon their securities in the market, and mysterious rumours begin to circulate. They find suits brought against them which tend to injure their credit. And sometimes they will find important papers missing, important witnesses sailing for Europe, and so on. Then their most efficient employees will be bought up, their very bookkeepers and office boys will be bribed, and all the secrets of their business passed on to their enemies. They will find that the railroads do not treat them squarely, cars will be slow in coming, and all kinds of petty annoyances will be practiced. You know what the rebate is, and you can imagine the part which that plays. In these and a hundred other ways the path of the independent steel manufacturer is made difficult. And now, Mr. Montague, this is a project to extend a railroad which will be a vast service to the chief competitor of the Steel Trust. I believe that you are a man of the world enough to realize that this improvement would have been made long ago if the Steel Trust had not been able to prevent it. And now the time has come when that project is to be put through in spite of every opposition that the Trust can bring, and I have come to you because I believe that you are a man to be counted on in such a fight. I understand you, said Montague quietly, and you are right in your supposition. Very well, said Ryder, then I will tell you that the syndicate of which I speak is composed of myself and John S. Price, who has recently acquired control of the Mississippi Steel Company. You will find out without difficulty what Price's reputation is. He is the one man in the country who has made any real headway against the Trust. The business of the Mississippi Company has almost doubled in the past year, and there is no limit to what it can do except the size of the plant and the ability of the railroads to handle its product. This new plan would have been taken up through the company, but for the fact that the company's capital and credit is involved in elaborate extensions. Price has furnished some of the capital personally and I have raised the balance, and what we want now is an honest man to whom we can entrust this most important project, a man who will take the road in hand and put it on its feet and make it of some service in the community. You are the man we have selected, and if the proposition appeals to you, why, we are ready to do business with you without delay. For a minute or two Montague was silent, then he said, I appreciate your confidence, Mr. Rider, and what you say appeals to me, but the matter is a very important one to me as you can readily understand and so I will ask you to give me until tomorrow to make up my mind. Very well said Rider. Montague's first thought was of General Prentice. Come to me any time you need advice, the General had said. So Montague went down to his office. Do you know anything about John S. Price, he asked. I don't know him very well personally, was the reply. I know him by reputation. He is a daring Wall Street operator and he's been very successful, I am told. Price began life as a cowboy, I understand, continued the General after a pause. Then he went in for mines. A minute or fifteen years ago we used to know him as a silver man. Several years ago there was report that he had been raiding Mississippi Steel and had got control. That was rather startling news for everybody knew that the trust was after it. He seems to have fought them to a standstill. That sounds interesting, said Montague. Price was brought up in a rough school, said the General with a smile. He has a tongue like a whiplash. I remember once I attended a creditor's meeting of the American stove company which had gotten into trouble, and Price started off from the word go. Mr. Chairman, he said, when I come into the office of an industrial corporation and see a stock-ticker behind the President's chair with a carpet-worn thread-bear in front of it, I know what's the matter with that corporation without asking another word. What do you want to know about him for, asked the General, after he had got through laughing over this recollection. It's a case I'm concerned in, the other answered. I tell you who knows about him, said the General, Harry Curtis. William E. Davenant has done law-business for Price. Is that so, said Montague, then probably I shall meet Harry. I can tell you a better person yet, said the other after a moment's thought. Ask your friend Mrs. Alden. She knows Price intimately, I believe. The Montague sent up a note to Mrs. Billy, and the reply came, Come up to dinner, I am not going out. And so, late in the afternoon, he was ensconced in a big leather arm-chair in Mrs. Billy's private drawing-room and listening to an account of the owner of the Mississippi Steel Company. Johnny Price, said the great lady, yes, I know him. It all depends whether you are going to have him for a friend or an enemy. His mother was Irish, and he is built after her. If he happens to take a fancy to you he'll die for you, and if you make him hate you you will hear a greater variety of epithets than you ever supposed the language contained. I first met him in Washington, Mrs. Billy went on reminiscently. That was fifteen years ago when my brother was in Congress. I think I told you once how Davy paid forty thousand dollars for the nomination and went to Congress. It was the year of a democratic landslide, and they could have elected Reggie Mann if they had felt like it. I went to Washington to live the next winter, and Price was there with the whole army of lobbyists fighting for free silver. That was before the craze, you know, when silver was respectable, and Price was the silver king. I saw the inside of American government that winter I can assure you. Tell me about it, said Montague. The Democratic Party had been elected on a low-tariff platform, said Mrs. Billy, and it sold out bag and baggage to the corporations. Money was as free as water. My brother could have got his forty thousand back three times over. It was the steel crowd that bossed the job, you know. William Roberts used to come down from Pittsburgh every two or three days, and he had a private telephone wire the rest of the time. I have always said it was the steel trust that clamped the tariff swindle on the American people, and that's held it there ever since. What did Price do with his silver mines, asked Montague. He sold them, said she, and just in the nick of time. He was on the inside in the campaign of ninety-six, and I remember one night he came to dinner at our house and told us that the Republican Party had raised ten or fifteen million dollars to buy the election. That's the end of silver, he said, and he sold out that very month, and he's been freelancing it in Wall Street ever since. Have you met him, asked Mrs. Billy after a pause? Not yet, he answered. He's a character, said she. I've heard Davy tell about the first time he struck New York, as a miner with huge wads of greenbacks in his pockets. He spent his money like a coal-oiled Johnny, as the phrase is, a hundred dollar bill for a shine and that sort of thing. He'd go on the wildest debauches, you can have no idea of it. Is he that kind of a man? said Montague. He used to be, said the other, but one day he had something to matter with him and he went to the doctor, and the doctor told him something, I don't know what, and he shut down like a steel trap. Now he never drinks a drop and he lives on one meal a day and a cup of coffee. But he still goes with the old crowd. I don't believe there's a politician or a sporting man in town that Johnny Price does not know. He sits in their haunts and talks with them until all sorts of the hours in the morning, but I can never get him to come to my dinner parties. My people are human, he will say, yours are sawdust. Sometime if you want to see New York, just get Johnny Price to take you about and introduce you to his bookmakers and burglars. You meditated for a while over his friend's picture. Somehow or other, he said, it doesn't sound much like the president of a hundred million dollar corporation. That's all right, said Mrs. Billy, but Price will be at his desk bright and early the next morning, and every man in the office will be there too, and if you think he won't have his wits about him, just you try to fool him on some deal and see. Let me tell you a little that I know about the fight he has made with the Mississippi Steel Company. And she went on to tell. The upshot of her telling was that Montague borrowed the use of her desk and wrote a note to Stanley Ryder. From my inquiries about John S. Price I gather that he makes steel. With the understanding that I am to make a railroad and carry his steel, I have concluded to accept your proposition, subject of course, to a satisfactory arrangement as to terms. CHAPTER XI. The next morning Montague had an interview with John S. Price in his Wall Street office, and was retained as counsel in connection with the new reorganization. He accepted the offer, and in the afternoon he called by appointment at the law offices of William E. Davenant. The first person Montague met there was Harry Curtis, who greeted him with eagerness. I was pleased to death when I heard that you were in on the steel, said he, we shall have some work to do together. About the table in the consultation room of Davenant's offices were seated Ryder and Price and Montague and Curtis, and finally William E. Davenant. Davenant was one of the half-dozen highest-paid corporation lawyers in the metropolis. He was a tall, lean man whose clothing hung upon him like rags upon a scarecrow. One of his shoulders was a trifle higher than the other, and his long neck invariably hung forward, so that his thin, nervous face seemed always to be peering about. One had a sense of a pair of keen eyes behind which a restless brain was constantly plotting. Some people rated Davenant as earning a quarter of a million a year, and it was his boast that no one who made money according to plans which he approved had ever been made to give any of it up. In curious contrast was the figure of Price, who looked like a well-dressed pugilist. He was verging on stoutness, and his face was round, but underneath the superfluous flesh one could see the jaw of a man of iron will. It was easy to believe that Price had fought his way through life. He spoke sharply and to the point, and he laid bare the subject with a few quick strokes as of a surgeon's knife. The first question was as to Montague's errand in the south. There was no need of buying more stock of the road, for if they got the new stock they would have control, and that was all they needed. Montague was to see those holders of the stock whom he knew personally, and to represent to them that he had succeeded in interesting some northern capitalists in the road, and that they would undertake the improvements on condition that their board of directors should be elected. Price produced a list of the new directors. They consisted of Montague and Curtis, and Ryder and himself, a cousin of the ladders, and two other men who, as he phrased it, were accustomed to help me in that way. It left two places to be filled by Montague from among the influential holders of the stock. That always pleases, said Price succinctly, and at the same time we shall have an absolute majority. There was to be voted an issue of a million dollars' worth of bonds which the Gotham Trust Company would take, also a new issue of twenty thousand shares of stock, which was to be offered pro-rated to the present stockholders at fifty cents on the dollar. He was to state that his clients would take any which these stockholders did not want. He was to use every effort to keep the plan secret, and would make no attempt to obtain the stockholders' list of the road. The reason for this came out a little later, when the subject of the old-time survey was broached. I must take steps to get hold of those plans, said Price. In this, as well as everything else, we proceed upon the assumption that the present administration of the road is crooked. The next matter to be considered was the Charter. When I get a Charter for a railroad, said Price, I get one that lets me do anything from building a toothpick factory to running flying machines. But the fools who drew the Charter of the northern Mississippi got permission to build a railroad from Atkin to Opala. So we have to proceed to get an extension. While you're down there, Mr. Montague, you will see the job through with the legislature. You thought for a moment. I don't believe that I have much influence with the legislature, he began. That's all right, said Price grimly. We'll furnish the influence. Here spoke Davenant. It seems to me, he said, that we can just as well arrange this matter without mentioning the northern Mississippi Railroad at all. If the steel people get wind of this we are liable to have all sorts of trouble. The Governor is their man, as you know. The thing to do is to pass a blanket bill providing that any public service corporation whose Charter and to dates a certain period may extend its line within certain limits and under certain conditions and so on. I think that I can draw a bill that will go through before anybody has an idea what it's about. Very good, said Price. Do it that way. And so they went from point to point. Price laid down Montague's own course of procedure in a few brief sentences. They had just two weeks before the stockholders' meeting and it was arranged that he should start from Mississippi upon the following day. When the conference was over, Montague rode uptown with Harry Curtis. What was that Davenant said about the Governor, he asked, when they were seated in the train? Governor Hannes, you mean? Said the other. I don't know so very much about it, but there's been some agitation down there against the railroads and watermen in the steel crowd putting Governor Hannes to do nothing. It was rather staggering to me, said Montague after a little thought. I didn't say anything about it, but you know Governor Hannes is an old friend of my father's and one of the finest men I ever knew. Oh, yes, I don't doubt that, said Curtis easily. They put up these fine, respectable old gentlemen. Of course he's simply a figurehead. He probably has no idea of what he's really doing. You understand, of course, that Senator Harman is the real boss of your state. I have heard it said, said Montague, but I never took much stock in such statements. Hmph, said Curtis. You'd take it if you'd been in my boots. I used to do business for old watermen's southern railroads, and I've had occasion to take messages to Harman once or twice. New York is the place where you find out about this game. It's not a very pleasant game, said Montague soberly. I didn't make the rules, said Curtis. You find you either have to play that way or else get out altogether. The younger man relapsed into silence for a moment, then laughed to himself. I know how you feel, he said. I remember when I first came out of college, the twinges I used to have. I had my head full of the beautiful maxims of the old professor of ethics, and they took me on in the legal department of the New York and Hudson Railroad, and we had a case, some kind of a damaged suit, and old Henry Corbin, their chief counsel, you know, gave me the papers, and then took out of his desk a typewritten list of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State. Some of them are marked with red, he said. You can bring the case before any of them. They are our judges. Just fancy, you know, and I as innocent as a spring chicken. I should think things like that would get out in the end, said Montague. Curtis shrugged his shoulders. How could you prove it, he asked. But if a certain judge always decided in favor of the railroad began Montague. Oh, pssh, said Curtis, leave that to the judge. Sometimes he'll decide against the railroad, but he'll make some ruling that the higher courts will be sure to upset, and by that time the other fellow will be tired out and ready to quit. Or else, here's another way. I remember one case that I had that old Corbin told me I'd be sure to win, and I took eleven different exceptions, and the judge decided against me on every single one. I thought I was gone sure, but by thunder he instructed the jury in my favor. It took me a long time to see the shrewdness of that. You see, it goes to the higher courts, and they see that the judge has given the losing side every advantage, and has decided purely on the evidence. And of course they haven't the witnesses before them, and don't feel half so well able to judge of the evidence, and so they let the decision stand. There are more ways than one to skin a cat, you see. It doesn't seem to leave much room for justice, said Montague, to which the other responded. Oh, hell, if you'd been in this business as long as I have, and seen all the different kinds of shysters that are trying to plunder the railroads, you'd not fret about justice. The way the public has got itself worked up just at present, you can win almost any case you can get before a jury, and there are men who spend all their time hunting up cases and manufacturing evidence. Montague sat for a while in thought. He muttered half to himself, Governor Hannes, it takes my breath away. Get Davenant to tell you about it, said Curtis with a laugh. Maybe it's not so bad as I imagine. Davenant is cynical on the subject of governors, you know. He had an experience a few years ago when he went up to Albany to try to get the Governor to sign a certain bill. The Governor went out of his office and left him, and Davenant noticed that a drawer of his desk was open, and he looked in, and there was an envelope with fifty brand new one thousand dollar bills in it. He didn't know what they were there for, but this was a mighty important bill, and he concluded he'd take a chance. He put the envelope in his pocket, and then the Governor came back, and after some talk about the interests of the public, he told him he'd concluded to veto that bill. Very well, Mr. Governor, said the old man, I have only this to say, and he took out the envelope. I have here fifty new one thousand dollar bills, which are yours if you sign that measure. On the other hand, if you refuse to sign it, I will take the bills to the newspaper men and tell them what I know about how you got them. The Governor turned as white as a sheet, and by God he signed the bill and sent it off to the legislature while Davenant waited. So you can see why he is skeptical about Governors. I suppose, said Monogue, that was what Price meant when he said he'd furnish the influence. That was what he meant, said the other promptly. I don't like the prospect, Monogue responded. The younger man shrugged his shoulders. What are you going to do about it? He asked, Your political machines and your offices are in the hands of peanut politicians and grafters who are looking for what's coming to them. If you want anything, you have to pay them for it, just the same as in any other business. You face the same situation every hour. Pay or quit. Look, Curtis went on after a pause. Take our own case. Here we are and we want to build a little railroad. It's an important work, it's got to be done. But we might haunt the lobbies of your state legislature for fifty years and if we didn't put up we wouldn't get the charter, and in the meantime what do you suppose the Steel Trust would be doing? Have you ever thought what such things will lead to, asked Monogue? I don't know, said Curtis. I've had a fancy that some day the businessmen of the country will have to go into politics and run it on business lines. The other pondered the reply. That sounds simple, he said, but doesn't it mean the overthrow of Republican institutions? I am afraid it would, said Curtis, but what's to be done? There was no answer. Do you know any remedy? He persisted. No, I don't know any remedy, said Monogue, but I'm looking for one. And I can tell you of this for a start. I value this Republic more than I do any business I ever got into yet, and if I come to that dilemma it will be the business that I will give away. Curtis was watching him narrowly. He put his hand on his shoulder. That's all right, old man, he said. But take my advice, and don't let Davenant hear you say that. Why not ask the other? The younger man rose from his seat. Here's my station, he said. The reason is it might unsettle his ideas. He's a conservative Democrat, you know, and he likes to make speeches at banquets. CHAPTER XII. In spite of his doubts, Monogue returned to his old home and put through the program as agreed. Just as he had anticipated, he found that he was received as a conquering hero by the holders of the northern Mississippi stock. He talked with old Mr. Lee, his cousin, and two or three others of his old friends, and he had no difficulty in obtaining their pledges for the new ticket. They were all interested and eager about the future of the road. He did not have to concern himself with the new charter. Davenant drew up the bill, and he wrote that a nephew of Senator Harmans would be able to put it through without attracting any attention. All that Monogue knew was that the bill passed and was signed by the Governor. And then came the day of the stockholders' meeting. He attended it, presenting proxies for the stock of writer and price, and nominated his ticket, greatly to the consternation of Mr. Carter, the president of the road, who had been a lifelong friend of his families. The new board of directors was elected by the votes of nearly three-fourths of the stock, and the new stock issue was voted by the same majority. As none of the former stockholders cared to take the new stock, Monogue subscribed for the whole issue in the name of writer and price, and presented a certified check for the necessary deposit. The news of these events, of course, created great excitement in the neighborhood. Also it did not pass unobserved in New York. Northern Mississippi was quoted for the first time on the curb, and there was quite a little trading. The stock went up nearly ten points in one day. Monogue received this information in a letter from Harry Curtis. �You must be prepared to withstand the flatteries of the steel crowd,� he wrote, �they will be after you before long.� Monogue judged that he would not mind facing the steel crowd, but he was much troubled by an interview which he had to go through with on the day after the meeting. Old Mr. Carter came to see him, and gave him a feeble hand to shake, and sat and gazed at him with a pitiful look of unhappiness. �Alan,� he said, �I have been president of the Northern Mississippi for fifteen years, and I have served the road faithfully and devotedly. And now I want you to tell me. What does this mean? Am I?� Monogue could not remember a time when Mr. Carter had not been a visitor at his father's home, and it was painful to see him in this helplessness, but there was nothing that could be done about it,� he said, �his lips together.� �I am very sorry, Mr. Carter,� he said, �but I am not at liberty to say a word to you about the plans of my clients. Am I to understand, then, that I am to be turned out of my position? I am to have no consideration for all that I have done? Surely I am very sorry,� Monogue said again firmly, �but the circumstances at the present time are such that I must ask you to excuse me from discussing the matter in any way.� A day or two later Monogue received a telegram from Price, instructing him to go to Riverton, where the works of the Mississippi Steel Company were located, and to meet Mr. Andrews, the president of the company. Monogue had been to Riverton several times in his youth, and he remembered the huge mills which were one of the sites of the night. But he was not prepared for the enormous development which had since taken place. The Mississippi Steel Company had now two huge Bessemer converters in which a volcano of molten flame roared all day and night. It had bought up the whole western side of the town and cleared away half a hundred ramshackle dwellings. And here were long rows of coke ovens and two huge rail mills and a plate mill from which a rose sounds like the crashing of the day of doom. Everywhere loomed rows of towering chimneys and pillars of rolling black smoke. Little miniature railroad tracks ran crisscross about the yards, and engines came puffing and clanking, carrying blazing white ingots which the eye could not bear to face. Opposite to the entrance of the stockaded yards, the company had put up a new office building, and upon the top floor of this were the president's rooms. Mr. Andrews will be in on the two o'clock train, said his secretary, who was evidently expecting the visitor. Will you wait in his office? I think I should like to see the works if you can arrange it for me, said Monoghue. And so he was provided with a pass and an attendant and made a tour of the yards. It was interesting to Monoghue to see the actual property of the Mississippi Steel Company. Sitting in comfortable offices in Wall Street and exchanging pieces of paper, one had a tendency to lose sight of the fact that he was dealing in material things and disposing of the destinies of living people. But Monoghue was now to build and operate a railroad, to purchase real cars and handle real iron and steel, and the thought was in his mind that at every step of what he did he wished to keep this reality in mind. It was a July day with not a cloud in the sky, and an almost tropical sun blazed down upon the works. The sheds and railroad tracks shimmered in the heat, and it seemed as if the cinders upon which one trod had been newly poured from a fire. In the rooms where the furnaces blazed, Monoghue could not penetrate at all. He could only stand in the doorway, shading his eyes from the glare. In each of these infernos toiled hundreds of grimy, smoke-stained men stripped to the waist and streaming with perspiration. He gazed down the long rows of the blast furnaces, great caverns through the cracks of which molten steel shone like lightning. Here the men who worked had to have buckets of water poured over them continually, and they drank several gallons of beer each day. He went through the rail-mills, where the flaming white ingots were caught by huge rollers, and tossed about like pancakes, and flattened and squeezed, emerging at the other end in the shape of tortured red snakes of amazing length. At the far end of the mill one could see them laid out in long rows to cool, and as Monoghue stood and watched them the thought came to him that these were some of the rails which Wyman had ordered, and which had been the cause of such dismay in the camp of the steel-trust. Then he went on to the plate-mill, where giant hammers resounded, and steel plates of several inches thickness were chopped and sliced like pieces of cheese. Here the spectator stared about him in bewilderment, and clung to his guide for safety. Huge traveling cranes groaned overhead, and infernal engines made deafening clatter upon every side. It was a source of never-ending wonder that men should be able to work in such confusion with no sense of danger, and no consciousness of all the uproar. Monoghue's eye roamed from place to place, then suddenly it was arrested by a sight even unusually startling. Across on the other side of the mill was a steel shaft which turned one of the largest of the rollers. It was high up in the air and revolving with unimaginable speed, and Monoghue saw a man with an oil-can in his hand rest the top of a ladder upon this shaft and proceed to climb up. He touched his guide upon the arm and pointed, "'Isn't that dangerous?' he shouted. "'It's against orders,' said the man, but they will do it. And even while the words of a reply were upon his lips, nothing happened which turned the sound into a scream of horror. Monoghue stood with his hand still pointing, his whole body turned to stone. Instantaneously, as if by the act of a magician, the man upon the ladder had disappeared, and instead there was a hazy mist about the shaft and the ladder tumbling to the ground. No one else in the mill appeared to have noticed it. Monoghue's guide leaped forward, dodging a white-hot plate upon its journey to the roller, and rushed down to the room where the engineer was standing by his machinery. For a period which could not have been less than a minute, Monoghue stood staring at the horrible site, and then slowly he saw what had been a mist beginning to define itself as the body of a man whirling about the shaft. Then as the machinery moved more slowly yet, and the din in the mill subsided, he saw several men raised the ladder again to the shaft and climb up. When the revolving had stopped entirely, they proceeded to cut the body loose, but Monoghue did not wait to see that. He was white and sick, and he turned and went outside. He went away to another part of the yards, and sat down in the shade of one of the buildings, and told himself that that was the way of life. All the while the din of the mills continued without interruption. A while later he saw four men go past, carrying a stretcher covered with a sheet. It dropped blood at every step, but Monoghue noticed that the men who passed it gave no more than a casual glance. When he passed the plate mill again he saw that it was busy as ever, and when he went out at the front gate he saw a man who had been pointed out to him as the foreman of the mill, engaged in picking another labourer from the group which was standing about. He returned to the president's office and found that Mr. Andrews had just arrived. A breeze was blowing through the office, but Andrews, who was stout, was sitting in his chair with his coat and vest off, vigorously wheeling a palm leaf fan. "'How do you do, Mr. Monoghue?' he said. "'Did you ever know such heat? Sit down. You look done up.' "'I have just seen an accident at the mills,' said Monoghue. "'Oh,' said the other. "'Too bad. But one finds that steel can't be made without accidents. We had a blast furnace explosion the other day and killed eight. They're mostly foreigners, though—hunkies, they call them.' Then Andrews pressed a button, summoning his secretary. "'Will you please bring in those plans?' he said, and to Monoghue's surprise he proceeded to spread before him a complete copy of the old reports of the Northern Mississippi Survey, together with the Surveyor's original drawings. "'Did Mr. Carter let you have them?' Monoghue asked, and the other smiled a dry smile. "'We have them,' he said. "'And now the thing for you to do is to have your own Surveyor's go over the ground. I imagine that when you get their reports the proposition will look very different. These were the instructions which came in a letter from Price the next day, and with the help of Andrews Monoghue made the necessary arrangements, and the next night he left for New York. He arrived upon a Friday afternoon. He found that Alice had departed for her visit to the Prentices, and that Oliver was in Newport also. There was an invitation for Mrs. Prentice to join them, as Price was away he concluded that he would treat himself to a rest and accordingly took an early train on Saturday morning. Monoghue's initiation into society had taken place in the wintertime, and he had yet to witness its vacation activities. When society's bells and dames had completed a season's round of dinner parties and dances, they were more or less near to nervous prostration, and Newport was the place which they had selected to retire to and recuperate. It was an old-fashioned New England town not far from the entrance to Long Island Sound, and from a village with several grocery shops and a tavern. It had been converted by a magic touch of society into the most famous and expensive resort in the world. Estates had been sold there for as much as a dollar a square foot, and it was nothing uncommon to pay ten thousand a month for a cottage. The tradition of vacation and of the country was preserved in such terms as cottage. You would be invited to a lawn-party, and you would find a blaze of illumination and potted plants enough to fill a score of green houses and costumes and jeweled splendor suggesting the field of the cloth of gold. You would be invited to a picnic at Gooseberry Point, and when you went there you would find gorgeous canopies spread overhead and velvet carpets underfoot, and scores of livery blackies and attendants, and every luxury one would have expected in a Fifth Avenue mansion. You would take a cab to drive to this picnic, and it would cost you five dollars, yet you must on no account go without a cab. Even if the destination was just around the corner, a stranger would commit a breach of the proprieties if he were to approach the house on foot. Coming to Newport as Montague did, directly from the Mississippi steel mills produced the strangest possible effect on him. He had seen the social splurge in the metropolis, and had heard the fabulous prices that people had paid for things. But these thousands and millions had seemed mere abstractions. Now suddenly they had become personified. He had seen where they came from, where all the luxury and splendor were produced. And with every glance that he cast at the magnificence about them, he thought of the men who were toiling in the blinding heat of the blast furnaces. Here was the palace of the Wyman's upon the lane out of the grounds of which a half a million dollars had been spent. The stone wall which surrounded it was famous upon two continents, because it had cost a hundred thousand dollars. And it was to make steel rails for the Wyman's that the slaves of the mills were toiling. Here was the palace of the Eldridge Devons, with a greenhouse which had cost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and which merely supplied the daily needs of its owners. Here was the famous tulip tree which had been dug up and brought a distance of fifty miles at a cost of a thousand dollars. And Montague had seen in the making the steel for one of the great hotels of the Eldridge Devons. And here was the Walling Establishment, the three million dollar palace on a desert as Mrs. Billy Alden had described it. Montague had read of the famous mantle in its entrance hall made from Pompey and Marble and costing seventy-five thousand dollars. And the Wallings were the railroad kings who transported Mississippi steel. And from that his thoughts roamed on to the slaves of the other mills, to the men and women and little children shut up to the toil in shops and factories and mines for these people who flaunted their luxury about him. They had come here from every part of the country, with their millions drawn from every kind of labor. Here was the great white marble palace of the Johnsons. The ceilings, floors and walls of its state apartments had all been made in France. Its fences and gates, even its locks and hinges, had been made from special designs by famous artists. The Johnsons were lords of railroads and coal and ruled the state of West Virginia with a terrible hand. The courts and the legislature were but branches of old Johnsons' office, and Montague knew of mining villages which were owned outright by the company and were like stockaded forts. The wretched toilers could not buy so much as a pint of milk outside of the company store, and even the country doctor could not enter the gates without a pass. And beyond that was the home of the Warfields, whose fortune came from great department stores in which young girls worked for two dollars and a half a week and eeked out their existence by prostitution. And this was the summer that Warfield's youngest daughter was launched, and for her debutante dance they built a ballroom which cost thirty thousand dollars, and was torn down the day afterwards. And beyond this, upon the cliffs, was the Castle of the Meyers, whose fortunes came from coal. Montague thought of the young man who had invented the device for the automatic weighing of coal as it was loaded upon steamships. Major Venable had hinted to him that the reason the coal trust would not consider it was because they were selling short weight, and since then he had investigated the story and learned that this was true, and that it was old Meyer himself who had devised the system. And here was his palace, and here were his sons and daughters among the most haughty and exclusive of society's entertainers. So you might drive down the streets and point out the mansions and call the role of the owners, kings of oil and steel and railroads and mines. Here everything was beauty and splendor. Here were velvet lawns and gardens of rare flowers, dancing and feasting and merriment. It seemed very far from the sordid strife of commerce, from poverty and toil and death. But Montague carried with him the sight that he had seen in the plate mill, the misty blur about the whirling shaft, and the shrouded form upon the stretcher dripping blood. He was so fortunate as to meet Alice and her friends upon the street, and he drove with him to the bathing-beach which society had purchased and maintained for its own exclusive use. The first person he saw here was Reggie Mann, who came and took possession of Alice. Reggie would not swim himself, because he did not care to exhibit his spindle legs. He was watching with disapproving eye the antics of Harry Percy, his dearest rival. Percy was a man about forty years of age, a coutillion leader by profession, and he caused keen delight to the spectators upon the beach by wearing a monocle in the water. They had lunch at the casino, and then went for a sail in the Prentice's new racing yacht. It was estimated just at this time that there was thirty millions worth of steam and sailing pleasure-craft in Newport Harbour, and the bay was a wonderful sight that afternoon. They came back rather early, however, as Alice had an engagement for a drive at six o'clock, and it was necessary for her to change her costume before she went. It was necessary to change it again before dinner, which was at eight o'clock, and Montague learned upon inquiry that it was customary to make five or six such changes during the day. The great ladies of society were adept in this art, and prided themselves upon the perfect system which enabled them to accomplish it. All of Montague's New York acquaintances were here in their splendor, Miss Yvette Simpkins, with her forty trunks of new Paris costumes, Mrs. Billy Alden, who had just launched an aristocratic and exclusive bridge-club for ladies, Mrs. Winnie Duvall, who had created a sensation by the rumour of her intention to introduce the simple life at Newport, and Mrs. Vivy Patton, whose husband had committed suicide as the only means of separating her from her count. It chanced to be the evening of Mrs. Landis's long-expected dinner-dance. When you went to the Landis mansion you drove directly into the building, which had a court so large that a coach and four could drive around it. The entire ground floor was occupied by what were said to be the most elaborately equipped stables in the world. Your horses vanished magically through sliding doors at one side, and your carriage at the other side, and in front of you was the entrance to the private apartments with liveried flunkies standing in state. There were five tables at this dinner, each seating ten persons. There was a huge floral umbrella for the centerpiece, and an elaborate color effect in the flowers. During the dance screens were put up concealing this end of the ballroom, and when they were removed some time after midnight the tables were found set for the supper with an entirely new scenic effect. They danced until broad daylight. Montague was told of parties at which the guests had adjourned in the morning to play tennis. All these people would be up by nine or ten o'clock the next day, and he would see them in the shops and at the bathing-beach before noon. And this was society's idea of resting from the labors of the winter season. After the supper Montague was taken in charge by Mrs. Carolyn Smith, the lady who had once introduced him to her cats and dogs. Mrs. Smith had become greatly interested in Mrs. Winnie's anti-vivisection crusade, and told them all about it while they strolled out upon the loggia of the Landis Palace and stood and watched the sunrise over the bay. "'Do you see that road back of us?' said Mrs. Smith. "'That is the one the Landises have just succeeded in closing.' "'I suppose you've heard the story.' "'No,' said Montague. "'I haven't heard it.' "'It's the joke of Newport,' said the lady. "'They had to buy up the town council to do it. There was a sightseers' bus that used to drive up that road every day, and the driver would rain up his horses and stand up and point with his whip. This, ladies and gentlemen, he'd say, is the home of the Landises, and just beyond there is the home of the Joneses. Once upon a time Mr. Smith had a wife and got tired of her, and Mr. Jones had a wife and got tired of her, so they both got divorces and exchanged. And now Mrs. Smith is living in Mr. Jones's house, and Mrs. Jones is living in Mr. Smith's. Get up!" CHAPTER XIII. Alice was up early the next morning to go to church with Harry Curtis, but Montague, who had really come to rest, was later in a rising. Afterwards he took a stroll through the streets watching the people. He was met by Mrs. DeGraphenried, who, after her usual fashion, invited him to come round to lunch. He went and met about forty other persons who had been invited in the same casual way, including his brother Ollie, and to his great consternation, Ollie's friend, Mr. Gamble. Gamble was clad in a spotless yachting costume, which produced a most comical effect upon his expansive person. He greeted Montague with his usual effusiveness. "'How do you do, Mr. Montague? How do you do?' he said. "'I've been hearing about you since I met you last.' "'In what way?' asked Montague. "'I understand that you have gone with the Mississippi Steel Company,' said Gamble. After a fashion the other assented. "'You want to be careful. You are dealing with a smooth crowd. Better even than the men in the trust, I fancy,' said the little man. And the little man added, with a twinkle in his eye, "'I'm accustomed to say there are two kinds of rascals in the oil business. There are the rascals who found they could rely upon each other, and they are in the trust. And there are the rascals the devil himself couldn't rely upon, and they are the independents. I had to know what I'm talking about because I was an independent myself.' Mr. Gamble chuckled gleefully over this witticism, which was evidently one which he relied upon for the making of conversation. "'How do you do, Captain?' he said to a man who was passing. "'Mr. Montague, let me introduce my friend Captain Gill.' Montague turned and faced a tall and dignified-looking naval officer. "'Captain Henry Gill of the Allegheny.' "'How do you do, Mr. Montague?' said the Captain. "'Oliver Montague's brother added Gamble by way of further introduction.' And then, aspiring someone else coming whom he knew, he waddled off down the room, leaving Montague in conversation with the officer. Captain Gill was in command of one of the half-dozen vessels which the government obligingly sent to assist in maintaining the gayities of the Newport season. He was an excellent dancer, and a favorite with the ladies and an old crony of Mrs. DeGraphenreeds. "'Have you known Mr. Gamble long?' he asked by way of making conversation. "'I met him once before,' said Montague. My brother knows him. "'Olie seems to be a great favorite of his,' said the Captain. "'Queer chap,' Montague ascended readily. "'I met him in Brooklyn,' continued the other, seeming to feel that acquaintance with Gamble called for explanation. He was quite chummy with the officers at the Navy Yard. Retired millionaires don't often fall in their way. "'I should imagine not,' said Montague smiling. But I was surprised to meet him here. "'You'd meet him in heaven,' said the other with a laugh, if he made up his mind that he wanted to go there. He is a good-natured personage, but I can tell you that anyone who thinks that Gamble doesn't know what he's about will make a sad mistake.' Montague thought of this remark at lunch, where he sat at table on the opposite side to Gamble. Next to him sat Vivie Patton, who made the little man the victim of her railery. It was not particularly delicate wit, but Gamble was tough and took it all with a cheerful grin. He was a mystery which Montague could not solve. To be sure he was rich and spent his money like water, but then there was no scarcity of money in this crowd. Montague found himself wondering whether he was there because Mrs. DeGraphenried and her friends liked to have somebody they could snub and wipe their feet upon. His eye ran down the row of people sitting at the table, and the contrast between them and Gamble was an amusing one. Mrs. DeGraphenried was fond of the society of young people and most of her guests were of the second or even third generation. The man from Pittsburgh seemed to be the only one there who had made his own money, and who bore the impress of the money struggle upon him. Montague smiled at the thought. He seemed the very incarnation of the spirit of oil. He was gross and unpleasant, while in the others the oil had been refined to a delicate perfume. Yet somehow he seemed the most human person there. No doubt he was crudely egotistical, and yet if he was interested in himself he was also interested in other people. While among Mrs. DeGraphenried's intimates it was a sign of vulgarity to be interested in anything. He seemed to have taken quite a fancy to Montague for reasons best known to himself. He came up to him again after the luncheon. "'This is the first time you've been here, Oliver, tells me,' said he. Montague assented, and the other added, "'You'd better come and let me show you the town. I have my car here.' Montague had no engagement and no excuse handy. "'It's very good of you,' he began. "'All right,' said Gamble. And he took him out and seated him in his huge red-touring car, which had a seat expressly built for its owner, not too deep and very low, so that his fat little legs would reach the floor. Gamble settled back in the cushions with a sigh. "'Rum sort of a place this, ain't it?' said he. "'It's interesting for a short visit,' said Montague. "'You can count me out of it,' said the other. "'I like to spend my summers in a place where I can take my coat off, and I prefer beer to champagne and hot weather anyhow.' Montague did not reply. "'Such an ungodly lot of snobs, a fellow does meet,' remarked his host cheerily. "'They have a fine time making fun of me. It amuses them and I don't mind. Sometimes it does make you mad, though. You feel like you'd like to make them swallow you anyhow. But then you think, what's the use of going after something you don't want, just because other people say you can't have it?' It was on Montague's lips to ask, then why do you come here? But he forbore. The car sped on down the stately driveway, and his companion proceeded to point out the mansions and the people, and to discuss them in his own peculiar style. "'See that yellow brick house in there,' said he. "'That belongs to Alice, the railroad man. He used to live in Pittsburgh, and I remember him thirty years ago, when he had one carriage for his three babies, and pushed them himself by thunder. He was glad to borrow money from me then, but now he looks the other way when I go by.' "'Alice used to be in the steel business six or eight years ago,' gambled continued reminiscently. Then he sold out. It was the real beginning of the forming of the steel-trust. Did you ever hear that story?' "'Not that I know of,' said Montague.' "'Well,' said the other. "'If you're going to match yourself against the steel-crowd, it's a good idea to know about them. Did you ever meet Jim Stagg?' The Wall Street plunger asked Montague. He's a mere name to me.' His last exploit was to pull off a prize-fight in one of the swell hotels in New York, and one nigger punched the other through a plate-glass mirror. Stagg comes from the Wild West, you know, and he's wild as they make him. My God, I could tell you some stories about him that make your hair stand up.' "'Perhaps you remember some time ago he raided Tennessee's southern in the market and captured it. An old waterman testified that he took it away from him because he didn't consider he was a fit man to own it. As a matter of fact, that was just pure bluff. For waterman uses him in little jobs like that all the time.' "'Well, six or eight years ago Stagg owned a big steel-plant out west, and there was a mill in Indiana belonging to Alice that interfered with their business. One time Stagg and some of his crowd had been on a spree for several days, and late one night they got to talking about Alice. "'Let's buy the blank out,' said Stagg. So they ordered a special and a load of champagne, and away they went to the city in Indiana. They got to Alice's house about four o'clock in the morning, and they rang the bell and banged on the door, and after a while the butler came half-awake. "'Is Alice in?' asked Stagg, and before the fellow could answer, the whole crowd pushed into the hall and Stagg stood at the foot of the stairs and roared. He's got a voice like a bull, you know. "'Alice! Alice! Come down here!' Alice came to the head of the stairs in his night-shirt, half frightened to death. "'Alice! We want to buy your steel-plant,' said Stagg. "'Buy my steel-plant,' gasped Alice. "'Sure, buy it outright. Spot cash. We'll pay you five hundred thousand for it. But it cost me over twelve hundred thousand,' said Alice. "'Well, then we'll pay you twelve hundred thousand,' said Stagg. "'God damn you! We'll pay you fifteen hundred thousand.' "'My plant isn't for sale,' said Alice. "'We'll pay you two million,' shouted Stagg. "'It isn't for sale, I tell you. We'll pay you two million and a half. Come on down here!' "'Do you mean that?' gasped Alice. He could hardly credit his ears. "'Come down stairs, and I'll write you a check,' said Stagg. And so they hauled him down, and they bought his mill. Then they opened some more champagne, and Alice began to get good-natured, too. "'There's only one thing that matter with my mill,' said he, and that's Jones's mill over in Haristown. The railroads give him rebates, and he undersells me. "'Well, damn his soul,' said Stagg. "'We'll have his mill, too.' And so they bundled into their special again, and about six o'clock in the morning they got to Haristown, and they bought another mill. And that started them, you know. They'd never had such fun in their lives before. It seems that Stagg had just cleaned up ten or twelve millions on a big Wall Street plunge, and they blew in every dollar buying steel mills, and paying two or three prices for every one, of course.' Gamble paused and chuckled to himself. "'What I'm telling you is the story that Stagg told me,' said he. "'And, of course, you've got to make allowances.' He said he had no idea of what Dan Waterman had been planning. But I fancy that was a lie.' Harrison of Pittsburgh had been threatening to build a railroad of his own, and take away his business from Waterman's roads, and so there was nothing for Waterman to do but buy him out at three times what his mills were worth. He took the mills that Stagg had bought at the same time. Stagg had paid two or three prices, and Waterman paid him a couple of prices more, and then he passed them on to the American people for a couple of prices more than that.' Gamble paused. "'That's where they get these fortunes,' he added, waving his fat little hand. Sometimes it makes a fellow laugh to think of it. Every concern they bought was overcapitalized to begin with. I doubt if two hundred million dollars' worth of honest dollars was ever put into the steel trust properties, and they capitalized it at a billion, and now they've raised it to a billion and a half. The men who pulled it off made hundreds of millions, and the poor public that bought the common stock sought go down to six. They gave Harrison a four hundred million dollar mortgage on the property, and he sits back and grins, and wonders why a man can't die poor.' Gamble's car was opposite one of the clubs. Suddenly he signaled his chauffeur to stop. "'Hello, Billy,' he called, and a young naval officer who was walking down the steps turned and came toward him. "'What have you been doing with yourself?' said Gamble. "'Mr. Montague, my friend, Lieutenant Long of the Engineers. Where are you going, Billy?' "'Nowhere in particular,' said the officer. "'Get in,' said Gamble, pointing to the vacant seat between them. "'I am showing Mr. Montague the town.' The other climbed in, and they went on. "'The Lieutenant has just come up from Brooklyn,' he continued. "'Lively times we had in Brooklyn, didn't we, Billy? Tell me what you've been doing lately.' "'I'm working hard,' said the Lieutenant, studying. "'Studying here in Newport?' laughed Gamble. "'That's easy enough when you belong to the Engineers,' said the other. "'We are working men, and they don't want to set their balls.' "'By the way, Gamble,' he added after a moment. "'I was looking for you. I want you to help me.' "'Me?' said Gamble. "'Yes,' said the other. "'I've just had notice from the Department that I am on a board of five that has been appointed to drop specifications for machine oil for the Navy.' "'What can I do about it?' asked Gamble. "'I want you to help me draw them up. But I don't know anything about machine oil. "'You cannot possibly know less than I do,' said the Lieutenant. "'Surely, if you have been in the oil business, you can give me some sort of idea about machine oil.' Gamble thought for a minute. "'I might try,' he said. "'But would it be the proper thing for me to do?' "'Of course, I'm out of the business myself, but I have friends who might bid for the contract.' "'Well, your friends can take their chances with the rest,' said the Lieutenant. "'I'm a friend too, hang it, and how in the world am I to find out anything about oil?' Gamble was silent again. "'Well, I'll do what I can for you,' he said, finally. "'I'll write out what I know about the qualities of good oil, and you can use it as you think best.' "'All right,' said the Lieutenant, with relief. "'But you'll have to agree to say nothing about it,' said Gamble. "'It's a delicate matter you understand.' Later Gamble set Monogu down at General Prentice's door, and he bade them farewell and went in. The General was coming down the stairs. "'Hello, Alan,' he said. "'Where have you been?' "'Seeing the place a little,' said Monogu. "'Come into the drawing-room,' said the General. "'There's a man in there you ought to know.' One of the brainiest newspaper men in Wall Street, he added, as he went across the hall, the financial man of the express. Monogu entered the room and was introduced to a powerfully built and rather handsome young fellow, who had not so long ago been center-rush upon a famous football team. "'Well, Bates,' said the General, "'what are you after now?' "'I'm trying to get the inside story of the failure of Grant and Ward,' said Bates. "'I supposed you'd know about it if any one did.' "'I know about it,' said the General, "'but the circumstances are such that I'm not free to tell. At least, not for publication. "'I'll tell you privately if you want to know.' "'No,' said Bates. "'I'd rather you didn't do that. I can find it out some how.' "'Did you come all the way to Newport to see me?' asked the General. "'Oh, no, not entirely,' said Bates. "'I'm to get an interview with Wyman about the new bond issue of his road.' "'What do you think of the market, General?' "'Things look bad to me,' said Prentis. "'It's a good time to reef-sale.' Then Bates turned to Monogu. "'I think I passed you a while ago in the street,' he said pleasantly. "'You were with James Gamble, weren't you?' "'Yes,' said Monogu. "'Do you know him?' "'Bates knows everybody, put in the General. That's his specialty.' "'I happen to know Gamble particularly well,' said Bates. "'I have a brother in his office in Pittsburgh. What in the world do you suppose he is doing in Newport?' "'Just seen the world, so he told me,' said Monogu. He has nothing to do since his company sold out.' "'Sold out?' echoed Bates. "'What do you mean?' "'Why, the trust has bought him out,' said Monogu. The other stared at him. "'What makes you think that?' he asked. He told me so himself was the answer. "'Oh!' laughed the other. Then it's just some dodge that he's up to. You think he hasn't sold?' "'I don't think it. I know it,' said Bates. At any rate he hadn't sold three days ago. I had a letter from my brother saying that they were expecting to land a big oil contract with a government that would put them on Easy Street for the next five years.' Monogu said no more. But he did some thinking. Experience had sharpened his wits, and by this time he knew a clue when he met it. A while later, when Bates had gone and his brother had come in with Alice, he got Oliver off in a corner and demanded, "'How much are you to get out of that oil contract?' The other stared at him in consternation. "'Good heavens,' he exclaimed. Did he tell you about it?' He told me some things,' said Monogu, and I guessed the rest. Oliver was watching him anxiously. "'See here, Alan,' he said. "'You'll keep quiet about it.' "'I imagine I will,' said the other. It's none of my business that I can see.' Then suddenly Oliver broke into a smile of amusement. "'Say, Alan,' he exclaimed. "'He's a clever dog, isn't he?' Very clever,' admitted the other. "'He's been after that thing for six months, you know, just as smooth and quiet. It's about the slickest game I ever heard of.' "'But how could he know what officers were to make out those specifications?' "'Oh, that's easy,' said the other. That was the beginning of the whole thing. They got a tip that the contract was to be let, and they had no trouble in finding out the names of the officers. That kind of thing is common, you know. The bureaus in Washington are rotten.' "'I see,' said Monique, you. "'Gambel's company is in a bad way,' Oliver continued. The trust just about had it in a corner. But Gambel saw this chance, and he staked everything on it. But what's his idea?' asked the other. "'What good will it do him to write the specifications?' "'There are five officers,' said Oliver, and he's been laying siege to every one of them. So now they are all his intimate friends, and every one of them has come to him for help. So there will go into Washington five sets of specifications, all different, but each containing one essential point. You see, Gambel's company has a peculiar kind of oil. It contains some ingredient or other. He told me the name, but I don't remember it now. It doesn't make it any better oil, and it doesn't make it any worse, but it's different from any other oil in the world. And now, don't you see, whatever other requirements are specified, this one quality will surely appear, and there will be only one company in the world that can bid. Of course they will name their own figure and get a five-year contract.' "'I see,' said Montague Dryley. It's a beautiful scheme. And how much do you get out of it?' He paid me ten thousand at the start, said Oliver, and I'm to get five percent of the first year's contract, whatever that may be. Oliver says his bid won't be less than half a million, so you see it was worthwhile. And Oliver chuckled to himself. He's going home to-morrow, he added, so my job is done. I'll probably never see him again, until his four prized daughters get ready for the market.' End of Chapter 13