en," I went on, "to give you some forfeit
bond so large that, even if we misuse your property while it is in our
hands, you will be repaid for the damage done, and it must be at the
same time something of such value to us that even Addicks will be
compelled to play fair."

"Well, what can you put up?" Mr. Rogers asked.

"Addicks has a right, through the Bay State Company of Delaware, to
issue, through the Bay State Company of New Jersey, a million and a half
new bonds for the purpose of acquiring new property. He and I have
discussed the scheme as a last resort should any settlement seem
possible."

"Do you mean to tell me there is anything Addicks can get his hands on
which he has not yet used for his companies nor stolen for himself?"
replied Mr. Rogers incredulously.

"Yes, he has time and again assured me of this, and he would not dare to
lie to me under existing conditions."

He arose from his chair and stood directly in front of me and
straightened up for what I could see was to be an unusual effort. Then
with the force and the fire which in all his supreme moments make Henry
H. Rogers wellnigh irresistible he said:

"Lawson, I have listened to you. Now listen to me. I have taken you at
your word, and have talked frankly and shown you my hand as I have
seldom shown it to a stranger. To do the business I want to do, I see I
must talk even more frankly than I already have, and I want you to weigh
carefully what I shall say to you, for it may have a great bearing on
your after-life. How old are you?"

"Thirty-seven," I replied.

"I thought you were about thirty-seven," he said. "Well, I am fifty-six
and in experience am old enough to be your grandfather, so you can
afford to give weight to what I am about to say, especially as I give
you my word that I speak for your benefit first and my own afterward. I
watched you before you hitched up with Addicks, and always thought that
if the opportunity arose, we might do business together. We, or as you
and others like to call us, 'Standard Oil,' have money enough to carry
through whatever business we embark on and we know where there is all
the business to be had that we care to engage in. We have everything, in
fact, but men. We are always short of men to carry out our
projects--young men, who are honest, therefore loyal; men to whom work
is a pleasure; above all, men who have no price but our price. To such
men we can afford to give the only things they have not