h the rest. All
this being true, I could do little by denunciation or exposure, for
these men, caring nothing for the sufferings of others, would not fear
the consequences of their own acts; my only hope was to meet them on
their own ground and outplay them at their own game. Then and there I
determined on my course--to compel them to undo the wrongs they had
committed and, if so great an achievement were possible, put the people
in position to do to them what they had done to the people. An almost
hopeless resolution at that juncture, it would seem, but, as results
have shown, by no means out of the power of man's accomplishment.

This is what I reasoned out before I retired to bed: If the actual
subscription were 125 to 150 millions, then six to eight millions of
real cash had been paid into the National City Bank. On an allotment of
one share in five, these six to eight millions represented a margin of
about twenty-five per cent.--big enough to cover any ordinary drop in
the price of the stock, and big enough also to lead those to whom shares
had been assigned to make good the balance. But to meet this allotment,
a very large bogus subscription had been necessary, and therein I saw
the weakness of Rogers and Rockefeller and the weapon that Providence
had intrusted to my hands.

Mr. Rogers' uncertainty as to the totals of the subscription made it
evident that the bogus subscription was not in the bank even yet, and as
it must be for a definite amount and backed up by a five-per-cent.
check, it could not be put in until James Stillman's clerks had computed
to the last cent the public's applications, and that enormous piece of
work would not be completed on the next day nor even the day following.
This bogus subscription was already outlawed--its insertion even at the
present moment would have been criminal; how much worse the criminality
if days were allowed to elapse between the legally fixed last moment for
bids and the actual time at which this outlawed subscription was
admitted. And as the transaction involved the making of a large check
and other formalities, it was obvious it was not one that could be
easily concealed. It must be a part of the bank's records. If I but
played aright the cards Dame Fate had put into my hands, I might yet
redeem myself and save the public I had led into the trap. But as clear
as the new moon against a November sky stood forth the warning that if I
attempted to cut into a "Standard