Edward Butler as
an agent, and with this same plan in mind, and although he had never met
either Mollenhauer or Simpson, he nevertheless felt that in so far as
the manipulation of the city loan was concerned he was acting for them.
On the other hand, in this matter of the private street-railway purchase
which Stener now brought to him, he realized from the very beginning, by
Stener's attitude, that there was something untoward in it, that Stener
felt he was doing something which he ought not to do.

"Cowperwood," he said to him the first morning he ever broached this
matter--it was in Stener's office, at the old city hall at Sixth and
Chestnut, and Stener, in view of his oncoming prosperity, was feeling
very good indeed--"isn't there some street-railway property around town
here that a man could buy in on and get control of if he had sufficient
money?"

Cowperwood knew that there were such properties. His very alert mind
had long since sensed the general opportunities here. The omnibuses
were slowly disappearing. The best routes were already preempted.
Still, there were other streets, and the city was growing. The incoming
population would make great business in the future. One could afford to
pay almost any price for the short lines already built if one could wait
and extend the lines into larger and better areas later. And already
he had conceived in his own mind the theory of the "endless chain,"
or "argeeable formula," as it was later termed, of buying a certain
property on a long-time payment and issuing stocks or bonds sufficient
not only to pay your seller, but to reimburse you for your trouble,
to say nothing of giving you a margin wherewith to invest in other
things--allied properties, for instance, against which more bonds could
be issued, and so on, ad infinitum. It became an old story later, but it
was new at that time, and he kept the thought closely to himself. None
the less he was glad to have Stener speak of this, since street-railways
were his hobby, and he was convinced that he would be a great master of
them if he ever had an opportunity to control them.

"Why, yes, George," he said, noncommittally, "there are two or three that
offer a good chance if a man had money enough. I notice blocks of stock
being offered on 'change now and then by one person and another. It
would be good policy to pick these things up as they're offered, and
then to see later if some of the other stockholders won't want to s