there were no pleas or
petitions. I denounced, demanded, threatened. He had straight and strong
my version of the vampire history of "Standard Oil," and also in rough,
crude terms my opinion of his trickery and double-dealing. My voice was
raised. I had lost all thought of what his people in the outer office
would think. As I went on he wilted and tried to stop me, for I had
shown him, until he knew it was so, that nothing but my death before I
left the building would prevent me from taking the whole miserable
affair, first to the newspapers, and then to the courts. I proved to him
that I would have injunctions against Stillman, the National City Bank,
and every one in interest, before the allotment could be made. Gradually
his rage subsided and he broke down--not as other men break down, but as
much as it is possible for his stern nature to give way. We remained
there until seven o'clock. The building was as still as a set
mouse-trap, and he strove with me. Such action, he demonstrated, would
precipitate a panic. His argument was perfect in its logic.

"Not one man in a million, Lawson, will agree with you that you are
justified in bringing about all this disaster simply because you think
that we are taking too much of the cash that has been voluntarily paid
in by people well able to attend to their own affairs. You must remember
once this scandal and trouble are public they never can be smothered.
There can be no more consolidation, no more copper boom in your lifetime
and mine, and when the collapse comes every one will look for the
victim, and that victim will be you. Even your best friend will say if
you were going to turn informer you should have been smart enough to
have discovered your mare's nest before you let it grow so big. Look at
it, Lawson, look at it, and in the name of everything that is reasonable
get back your senses."

My readers must remember that the Henry H. Rogers I am portraying here
is no ordinary man, but the strongest, most acute, and most persuasive
human being that in the thirty-five active years of my life I have
encountered. And on me all the magic of his wonderful individuality, all
the resources of his fertile mind, all the histrionic power of his
dramatic personality were concentrated. His logic was resistless. As he
spun the web of his argument my position seemed hopeless; even more
forcible than his reasoning was the graphic recital of how both
increases had been made. His eyes wate