e.

There was an interval of silence. Finally I said to him--and there were
neither red lights nor warning intuitions to signal my peril: "Just what
do you expect me to do, Mr. Addicks?"

"Whatever you think best," he replied in a mild tone. Then, rousing
himself a bit, he went on: "They say in the market that you like a fight
and the harder it is the better. Well, I certainly have an uphill fight.
Do as you would have the other fellow do to you."

After that I had no further doubts of Addicks' slickness. I said to him:
"You are certainly the shrewd man they describe you as. Now continue to
be frank long enough to answer this one question: Did you figure this
out as the last card to throw at me, knowing that the very desperation
of the case might warm me up and tempt me to tackle it for the sake of
the fight there's in it?"

Instantly Addicks knew his game was won. He straightened up and was the
able, shrewd, and cunning financier who had tricked conservative Boston.
His facts chased his figures in marvellously rapid succession, and he
showed a knowledge of conditions, relations, and corporation tricks that
dazzled me. For an hour he rushed on, and when at last he came to a stop
I said to him:

"It's unnecessary to say any more. I see the situation as you would have
me see it, and it comes to this: If I refuse to link up with you it
means another 'Standard Oil' victory and another wreck for Boston.
Rogers' success means that New England speculators and investors will
again, for the three hundred and thirty-third time, be robbed of their
savings. If I get in, we may either avert all this or I may be ground up
at the same time you are. However, it's too good a fight to miss, and so
here goes. I'll link up."

At some particularly hazardous halting-place in after-years Addicks and
myself have often laughed as we have talked over that August evening on
the _Now-Then_. I was easy, he asserts, and I must admit that he is
right--I was easy. Yet no one knew Addicks better than I did then.
Looking back along his extraordinary career, one is obliged to allow a
certain magic as a factor in his men-and-dollar tussles. We had
absolutely nothing in common, Addicks and I. We thought and felt
differently about every relationship of life. A dozen other ventures,
sure, easy, and promising infinitely greater profits, were ready at my
hand--but he appealed to my sense of adventure, he promised me abundant
and glorious fighting, and I