me," I assented, as if quite content. "I only wanted to put
the matter before you." And I rose to go.

"Have you heard the news of Textile Common?" he asked.

"Yes," said I carelessly. Then, all in an instant, a plan took shape in my
mind. "I own a good deal of the stock, and I must say, I don't like this
raise."

"Why?" he inquired.

"Because I'm sure it's a stock-jobbing scheme," replied I boldly. "I know
the dividend wasn't earned. I don't like that sort of thing, Mr. Roebuck.
Not because it's unlawful--the laws are so clumsy that a practical man
often must disregard them. But because it is tampering with the reputation
and the stability of a great enterprise for the sake of a few millions of
dishonest profit. I'm surprised at Langdon."

"I hope you're wrong, Matthew," was Roebuck's only comment. He questioned
me no further, and I went away, confident that, when the crash came in the
morning, if come it must, there would be no more astonished man in Wall
Street than Henry J. Roebuck. How he must have laughed; or, rather, would
have laughed, if his sort of human hyena expressed its emotions in the
human way.

From him, straight to my lawyers, Whitehouse and Fisher, in the Mills
Building.

"I want you to send for the newspaper reporters at once," said I to Fisher,
"and tell them that in my behalf you are going to apply for an injunction
against the Textile Trust, forbidding them to take any further steps toward
that increase of dividend. Tell them I, as a large stock-holder, and
representing a group of large stock-holders, purpose to stop the paying of
unearned dividends."

Fisher knew how closely connected my house and the Textile Trust had been;
but he showed, and probably felt no astonishment. He was too experienced in
the ways of finance and financiers. It was a matter of indifference to him
whether I was trying to assassinate my friend and ally, or was feinting at
Langdon, to lure the public within reach so that we might, together, fall
upon it and make a battue. Your lawyer is your true mercenary. Under his
code honor consists in making the best possible fight in exchange for the
biggest possible fee. He is frankly for sale to the highest bidder. At
least so it is with those that lead the profession nowadays, give it what
is called "character" and "tone."

Not without some regret did I thus arrange to attack my friend in his
absence. "Still," I reasoned, "his blunder in trusting some leaky person
with