got, or, if they
have already got them, to give them in greater quantities--I mean power
and money. You made a great mistake when you joined forces with Addicks,
because no man can afford to be associated with the kind of a rascal
Addicks is, the lowest I have yet come across. He is the type of man who
cuts his best friend's throat with as much ease and satisfaction as he
does his worst enemy's, if not with more. I fully expected that by this
time he would have sold you out. If he had, where would you have been?
Now, here you are from sheer desperation driven to me to avoid utter
failure. Suppose you can do all you hope to--get the bonds, put them up
and secure my property--do you not suppose that by that time Addicks
will have some mine dug under you which will blow you to destruction?
But grant even that he plays fair, and you bring the Boston situation
up to a paying place, what good will it do you? You surely have more
sense than to believe a man of Addicks' make-up can be permanently
successful?"

Mr. Rogers halted. I had risen, and we stood facing each other. I felt
that I was right here playing for that greatest of all stakes, my
self-respect, the loss of which to any man, I had long before
discovered, means ebon failure.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Say you'll come with us, and we'll fix up the Boston situation in some
way that will forever eliminate Addicks from our affairs--your and my
affairs. I would not insult you by asking you to sell Addicks out. It is
unnecessary. He has no real rights in Boston. You and I can figure out a
scheme that will take care of every other interest, and we'll give
Addicks a lot more money than he can secure in any other way and show
him the door. As for you and me, we'll make a lot of money and make it
fairly and above board. But I am not thinking so much of the immediate
situation as I am of the possibility of you joining us and working on
some of the deals we have on hand. I shall put you in a position to make
more money and secure more real power than you could possibly obtain in
a like time under any other conditions. You know corporations and the
stock-market, and you can readily see what the combination of our money
and prestige and your knowledge of the market and investors will mean."

Heaven knows I could see what it all meant. I had even at that time in a
chrysalis state those plans for destroying the "System" which now in a
rounded out and matured form