not necessary," he clicked back. "Do you give me your word that
you can?"

"Absolutely."

"I am satisfied. Go on."

"That leaves only three possibilities," I continued. "You buy us; we buy
you; or, we consolidate. I will take the third first. Under any
circumstances or conditions will you join forces and do business with
us?"

"Under no circumstances nor conditions will I do any business with
Addicks. He has played me false, broken his word, and lied to me when
there was no necessity for doing so, and no man who has done this once
can ever do business with me a second time."

I once stood by a mechanism through which passed a strip of metal.
Click! 'Twas cut. Whir! 'Twas a cylinder. Click! Whir! Click! A corner,
an edge, an end, and b-r-r-rr! It was dropped, a metallic cartridge, to
do its part in peace or war. Even more fascinating was it to see this
human machine eject the product of its whirring brain.

"Then we have but two possibilities. Will you buy us out at the price we
must have?"

"What is the price?"

"Sufficient to make good the promises that I have made to Addicks, my
friends, and the public since I have been in command," I replied.

"Pass that by as an impossibility."

"Then, Mr. Rogers, we are down to this: You must sell and we must buy
you out."

"Right. Now, how do you propose to buy?"

For months the ablest financiers and business men of Wall Street and
Boston had striven to start up negotiations with Mr. Rogers with a view
to settlement, and all had dropped them without even getting in an
opening wedge, and here was I at the end of fifteen minutes of my first
meeting, with my task half accomplished. I went on:

"There is something more you must do, Mr. Rogers. You must assist us in
buying, which means you must sell at the terms you and I agree are the
only ones we can meet. Therefore I will run over our situation. You have
certain property, consisting of the Brookline Company and miscellaneous
investments in connection with it. What cost does it stand you?"

Frankly, he went over what his Boston gas-war equipment consisted of and
what it had cost, which, boiled down, amounted to $3,500,000. He then
said:

"Let us figure what it will be worth to you when, it being known you
have won out, you will have additional prestige and no competition."

We agreed upon $2,000,000 as representing the probable appreciation in
what we were to acquire from him over and above any increase to our o