waited we talked,
and, as was inevitable after so strenuous a session, we found ourselves
back on the sincere and frankly friendly footing of our earlier
intercourse. A knock-down and attempted drag-out which at the end is
declared a draw invariably promotes cordiality between the principals,
and ours was no exception to the rule. Evidently Mr. Rogers had been
doing considerable thinking since our last conversation and had
accumulated troublesome ideas which had to be worked off. My mood at the
moment seemed made to order for the purpose, and he ran over our
affairs, one after another, until he thought it safe to explode his
bomb. He rang for a clerk, and instructed that Mr. Stillman be called up
and asked to send over "that paper if it was ready." Soon afterward the
messenger returned with a big, square package. Mr. Rogers opened it.

"Lawson," he said, "here's the whole story. Stillman has been steadily
at work and has just finished two copies of the entire subscription. I
think you ought to look it over."

"Look it over," I repeated. "Why, it is of the utmost importance to the
whole enterprise that I study every name. I alone can tell just what
that list means. After I've been over it I'll know pretty thoroughly who
will hold, who will want to sell, who must sell, and who will need
encouragement."

"That's just what I thought," he answered, with an air of high approval.
Then, dropping to his most friendly and confidential key, the tone of
voice that never fails to persuade an associate that he is in on the
bottom floor and that all others are outsiders, he went on: "And more
than that, Lawson, why cannot you get in touch with all those
subscribers who are disappointed at the amounts they received and sell
them what they want?"

Mr. Rogers leaned back to appraise the effect of this startling
proposition on me. At any other moment I should inevitably have broken
loose again, but the fascination of his personality was upon me and I
let him spin his webs. Any man, and there are scores adrift, who falls
under the spell of Henry H. Rogers, invariably, as did the suitors of
Circe, pays the penalty of his indiscretion. Some he uses and
contemptuously casts aside useless; others he works, plays, and
pensions; still others serve as jackals or servitors and proudly flaunt
his livery; a few, the strong, independent souls, tempted with great
rewards and beguiled by the man's baleful, intellectual charm into his
clutches, pre