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 Curtiss and Ryder and
himself; a cousin of the latter's, and two other men, who, as he
phrased it, were "accustomed to help me in that way." That 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 rata to
the present stock-holders at fifty cents on the dollar. Montague
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 stock-holders'
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 are down there, Mr. Montague,
you will see the job through with the Legislature."

Montague 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 antedates 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 for Mississippi upon the following day.

When the conference was over, Montague rode up town with Harry
Curtiss.

"What was that Davenant said about the Governor?" he asked, when
they were seated in the train.

"Governor Hannis, 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 Waterman and the Steel crowd put in Governor
Hannis 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
Hannis 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 Curtiss, easily. "They put up
these fine, respectable old gentlemen. Of course, he's simply a
figure-head--he probably has no idea of what he's really doing. You
understand, of course, that Senator Harmon is the real boss of your
State."

"I have heard it said," said Montague. "But I never took much stock
in such statements--"

"Humph!" said Curtiss. "You'd take it if you'd been in my boots. I
used to do business for old Waterman's Southern railroads, and I've
had occasion to take messages to Harmon 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 Curtiss. "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 all 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 damage 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.

Curtiss shrugged his shoulders. "How could you prove it?" he asked.

"But if a certain judge always decided in favour of the railroad--"
began Montague.

"Oh, pshaw!" said Curtiss. "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 favour! 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 Hannis! It takes my breath away!"

"Get Davenant to tell you about it," said Curtiss, 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.' And 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 sceptical about governors."

"I suppose," said Montague, "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," Montague 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," Curtiss 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
Montague.

"I don't know," said Curtiss. "I've had a fancy that some day the
business men 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 Curtiss. "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 Montague, "but I am 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 will give way."

Curtiss 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?" asked 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, Montague returned to his old home, and put
through the programme 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 Harmon's
would be able to put it through without attracting any attention.
All that Montague 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 Ryder 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
family's. 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, Montague subscribed for the whole issue in the
name of Ryder and Price, and presented a certified check for the
necessary deposit.

The news of these events, of course, created great excitement in the
neighbourhood; 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.

Montague received this information in a letter from Harry Curtiss.
"You must be prepared to withstand the flatteries of the Steel
crowd," he wrote. "They will be after you before long."

Montague 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.

"Allan," 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--"

Montague 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 his
helplessness. But there was nothing that could be done about it; he
set his lips together.

"I am very sorry, Mr. Garter," 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," Montague 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 Montague 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. Montague had been to Riverton several
times in his youth, and he remembered the huge mills, which were one
of the sights of the State. 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 arose 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 Montague. And so he was provided with a pass and an
attendant, and made a tour of the yards.

It was interesting to Montague 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 Montague 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, Montague 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 the 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 Montague
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 travelling
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.

Montague'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 Montague 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, something
happened which turned the sound into a scream of horror. Montague
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. Montague's
guide leaped forward, dodging a white-hot plate upon its journey to
the roller, and rushed down the room to where the engineer was
standing by his machinery. For a period which could not have been
less than a minute, Montague stood staring at the horrible sight;
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 raise the ladder again to the
shaft and climb up. When the revolving had stopped entirely, they
proceeded to cut the body loose; but Montague 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
Montague noticed that the men who passed it gave it 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 wielding a palmleaf fan.

"How do you do, Mr. Montague?" he said. "Did you ever know such
heat? Sit down--you look done up."

"I have just seen an accident in the mills," said Montague.

"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 are mostly foreigners, though--'hunkies,'
they call them."

Then Andrews pressed a button, summoning his secretary.

"Will you please bring those plans?" he said; and to Montague'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?" Montague 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 surveyors 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 Montague 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 from Mrs. Prentice to him 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.

Montague's initiation into Society had taken place in the
winter-time, and he had yet to witness its vacation activities. When
Society's belles 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 jewelled splendour
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 under
foot, and scores of liveried lackeys in attendance, 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 upon 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 splendour were produced! And with every glance that he
cast at the magnificence about him, he thought of the men who were
toiling in the blinding heat of the blast-furnaces.

Here was the palace of the Wymans, upon the laying out of the
grounds of which a half 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 Wymans 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 mantel in its entrance hall, made from
Pompeiian 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 other mills,
to the men and women and little children shut up to 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 labour. 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 Johnson's
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 eked 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 Mayers,
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 steam-ships. 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 Mayer
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 roll of the owners--kings of oil and steel and railroads
and mines! Here everything was beauty and splendour. Here were
velvet lawns and gardens of rare flowers, and 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 them 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 cotillion-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
Prentices' 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 adepts 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
splendour: 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 Duval, who had
created a sensation by the rumour of her intention to introduce the
simple life at Newport; and Mrs. Vivie 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 centrepiece, and an
elaborate colour effect in flowers. During the dance, screens were
put up concealing this end of the ballroom, and when they were
removed sometime 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 labours of the
winter season!

After the supper Montague was taken in charge by Mrs. Caroline
Smythe, the lady who had once introduced him to her cats and dogs.
Mrs. Smythe had become greatly interested in Mrs. Winnie's
anti-vivisection crusade, and told him 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. Smythe. "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 sight-seers' bus that used to
drive up that road every day, and the driver would rein 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. Giddap!'"






CHAPTER XIII





Alice was up early the next morning to go to church with Harry
Curtiss, but Montague, who had really come to rest, was later in
arising. Afterwards he took a stroll through the streets, watching
the people. He was met by Mrs. De Graffenried, 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!
Smoother even than the men in the Trust, I fancy." 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're the independents. I ought 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, Mr. Montague?" said the Captain.

"Oliver Montague's brother," added Gamble, by way of further
introduction. And then, espying 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 gaieties
of the Newport season. He was an excellent dancer, and a favourite
with the ladies, and an old crony of Mrs. De Graffenried's. "Have
you known Mr. Gamble long?" he asked, by way of making conversation.

"I met him once before," said Montague. "My brother knows him."

"Ollie seems to be a great favourite of his," said the Captain.
"Queer chap."

Montague assented 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 Fatten, who made
the little man the victim of her raillery. 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. De Graffenried 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. De Graffenried was fond of
the society of young people, and most of her guests were of the
second or even the third generation. The man from Pittsburg 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. De Graffenried'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. "Come on."

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 in 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 you'd like to make them swallow you, anyway. 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
Allis, the railroad man. He used to live in Pittsburg, 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.

"Allis used to be in the steel business six or eight years ago,"
Gamble 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 are 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 'em--my God, I could tell you some stories
about him that'd make your hair stand up! Perhaps you remember some
time ago he raided Tennessee Southern in the market and captured it;
and 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
Allis, 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 Allis. 'Let's buy the----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 Allis'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 Allis 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--'Allis,
Allis, come down here!'

"Allis came to the head of the stairs in his nightshirt, half
frightened to death.

"'Allis, we want to buy your steel plant,' said Stagg.

"'Buy my steel plant!' gasped Allis.

"'Sure, buy it outright! Spot cash! We'll pay you five hundred
thousand for it.'

"'But it cost me over twelve hundred thousand,' said Allis.

"'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 Allis.

"'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 Allis. He could hardly credit his ears.

"'Come downstairs 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 Allis began to get good-natured, too.

"'There's only one thing the matter with my mill,' said he, 'and
that's Jones's mill over in Harristown. 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 Harristown, 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 Pittsburg 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 overcapitalised to begin
with; I doubt if two hundred million dollars' worth of honest
dollars was ever put into the Steel Trust properties, and they
capitalised 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 saw it go down to six!
They gave old 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 signalled
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 have 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 us at 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 have just had notice from the Department
that I am one of a board of five that has been appointed to draw up
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 an 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 am 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."

"You may trust me for that," said the other, laughing. So the
subject was dropped, and they went on with their ride.

Half an hour later Gamble set Montague down, at General Prentice's
door, and he bade them farewell and went in.

The General was coming down the stairs. "Hello, Allan," he said.
"Where have you been?"

"Seeing the place a little," said Montague.

"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."

Montague entered the room and was introduced to a powerfully built
and rather handsome young fellow, who had not so long ago been
centre-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 anyone 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
somehow."

"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 Prentice. "It's a good time to reef
sail."

Then Bates turned to Montague. "I think I passed you a while ago in
the street," he said pleasantly. "You were with James Gamble,
weren't you?"

"Yes," said Montague. "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 Pittsburg. What in the world do you suppose
he is doing in Newport?"

"Just seeing the world, so he told me," said Montague. "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 Montague.

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 the government that
would put them on Easy Street for the next five years!"

Montague said no more. But he did some thinking. Experience had
sharpened his wits, and by this time he knew a clew 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 Montague, "and I guessed the rest."

Oliver was watching him anxiously. "See here, Allan," 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, Allan!"
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--and 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 Montague.

"Gamble's company is in a bad way," Oliver continued. "The Trust
just about had it in a corner. But Gamble 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, Gamble'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."