hese men in heartfelt
terms because they had returned me an additional third of my own money.
Idiot, you say. I went further; I shook Mr. Rogers by the hand, and as
the tears gathered in his eyes I said, and it was from the heart, too:

"Don't think, Mr. Rogers, that I shall ever lay up this day against you
and Mr. Rockefeller, or that I shall resent not getting all I believed I
should have had. I want you both to understand that I do know I am
entitled to more, but it ends here. I will cherish no ill-feeling, for
this balance is amply sufficient to enable me to do what I intended to
do, and--there is more on earth than millions."

We were both emotionally excited; I from relief at escaping the clutches
of that dread hell of which for certain moments I had felt the flaming
grasp; he because of a sudden degrading realization that he had
attempted to practise on a faithful comrade in arms a cowardly and
contemptible piece of treachery. My impulsive gratitude for the measure
of justice granted me made his avaricious greed seem even to him
despicable, and for an instant Henry H. Rogers was honestly ashamed.

Some years have elapsed since this episode, but a thousand times I
suppose the scene has arisen to rack Henry H. Rogers with bitter
memories of his baseness. The severest punishments are not those that we
mortals inflict on our fellows whom for violations of our little earthly
laws we clap in striped suits and shackle with steel bracelets. What are
striped suits which imprint no mark on the body of the wearer, or
handcuffs that any blacksmith can strike off at a blow, in comparison
with the ever-recurring torture of the white-hot iron with which God
sears the hearts and brains of those sinners whose wrong-doing is beyond
human retribution? What memories of prison and disgrace are comparable
with the exquisite suffering of the undetected criminal who in the dark
watches of the night pores over the bitter scroll of his delinquencies?
When Henry H. Rogers reads the record set down here of this faithless
and degrading action, he will suffer infinitely more than ever I did for
the loss of the gold he and his associates so meanly filched. Nor will
the knowledge of the seven and a half score of millions marshalled ready
at his nod, abate one jot or tittle of the measure of his humiliation
and shame.

Peace having been established, Mr. Rogers sent "upstairs" for the checks
and stocks to complete the settlement, and while we