ell
out. Green and Coates, now, looks like a good proposition to me. If I
had three or four hundred thousand dollars that I thought I could put
into that by degrees I would follow it up. It only takes about thirty
per cent. of the stock of any railroad to control it. Most of the shares
are scattered around so far and wide that they never vote, and I think
two or three hundred thousand dollars would control that road." He
mentioned one other line that might be secured in the same way in the
course of time.

Stener meditated. "That's a good deal of money," he said, thoughtfully.
"I'll talk to you about that some more later." And he was off to see
Strobik none the less.

Cowperwood knew that Stener did not have any two or three hundred
thousand dollars to invest in anything. There was only one way that he
could get it--and that was to borrow it out of the city treasury and
forego the interest. But he would not do that on his own initiative.
Some one else must be behind him and who else other than Mollenhauer,
or Simpson, or possibly even Butler, though he doubted that, unless the
triumvirate were secretly working together. But what of it? The larger
politicians were always using the treasury, and he was thinking now,
only, of his own attitude in regard to the use of this money. No harm
could come to him, if Stener's ventures were successful; and there was
no reason why they should not be. Even if they were not he would be
merely acting as an agent. In addition, he saw how in the manipulation
of this money for Stener he could probably eventually control certain
lines for himself.

There was one line being laid out to within a few blocks of his new
home--the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Street line it was called--which
interested him greatly. He rode on it occasionally when he was delayed
or did not wish to trouble about a vehicle. It ran through two thriving
streets of red-brick houses, and was destined to have a great future
once the city grew large enough. As yet it was really not long enough.
If he could get that, for instance, and combine it with Butler's lines,
once they were secured--or Mollenhauer's, or Simpson's, the legislature
could be induced to give them additional franchises. He even dreamed of
a combination between Butler, Mollenhauer, Simpson, and himself.
Between them, politically, they could get anything. But Butler was not a
philanthropist. He would have to be approached with a very sizable bird
in hand.