and myself wrestled with the situation until both were fairly
exhausted. Finally we went uptown together; he home, to return later to
the bank, I to the Waldorf to meet the newspaper men who were there
awaiting the news of the subscription. I left him at Thirty-third
Street, the question between us still unsolved. In the years that have
passed since that ill-starred night, over and over again I have sifted
and pounded the talk that then passed between us, and never have I been
able to decide how much of what Mr. Rogers said to me was true and how
much cunning argument to make me accede to his wishes. I hope none of my
readers will ever find themselves so caught between the high cliffs and
the deep water as I was that night. I recalled the old story of the
sea-captain whose ship was captured by pirates and who was offered the
alternative of hoisting the black flag and joining the band with his
crew, or walking the plank. If he became a pirate, at least he saved the
lives of his men, for their fate hung on his decision. If he
refused--well, he retained his own virtue and kept intact that of his
crew. The captain in my story had preferred propriety to piracy, and
fifteen men lost their lives to no purpose, whereas the part of wisdom
would have been to submit, with reservations, on the chance of throwing
the pirates to the sharks at the first opportunity. If I should throw
the bomb that I had threatened Rogers with, I felt sure it would put an
end to all his evil machinations, but I could not limit the area of
destruction to the guilty. I let my mind dwell on Mr. Rogers' words:
"Lawson, no harm can come to your people, for the fifteen millions will
be used in the market to protect the stock, just as I promised you." If
this promise were kept, what was there to fear? But would it be kept? In
the face of the evidence of broken pledges already crowded on me, and
the bitter knowledge I had acquired of the wolfish greed of this man and
his associates, it would be paltering with facts to say that even then I
felt certain the money would be so used. Yet "Standard Oil" avoids such
direct illegality as might bring it within the law's clutches, and I
knew that already a fraud had been committed. I might hold that over
them and compel them to go straight. Then I recalled the passion that
possessed them to grab at real money when it came within their clutches,
and the "Governor Flower to handle the market in such a way that no harm
can