. Sinking into a great leather divan beside him,
he observed:

"Who is this man Cowperwood whose name is in the papers these days,
Addison? You know: all these people. Didn't you introduce him to me
once?"

"I surely did," replied Addison, cheerfully, who, in spite of the
attacks on Cowperwood, was rather pleased than otherwise. It was quite
plain from the concurrent excitement that attended all this struggle,
that Cowperwood must be managing things rather adroitly, and, best of
all, he was keeping his backers' names from view. "He's a Philadelphian
by birth. He came out here several years ago, and went into the grain
and commission business. He's a banker now. A rather shrewd man, I
should say. He has a lot of money."

"Is it true, as the papers say, that he failed for a million in
Philadelphia in 1871?"

"In so far as I know, it is."

"Well, was he in the penitentiary down there?"

"I think so--yes. I believe it was for nothing really criminal,
though. There appears to have been some political-financial mix-up,
from all I can learn."

"And is he only forty, as the papers say?"

"About that, I should judge. Why?"

"Oh, this scheme of his looks rather pretentious to me--holding up the
old gas companies here. Do you suppose he'll manage to do it?"

"I don't know that. All I know is what I have read in the papers,"
replied Addison, cautiously. As a matter of fact, he did not care to
talk about this business at all. Cowperwood was busy at this very
time, through an agent, attempting to effect a compromise and union of
all interests concerned. It was not going very well.

"Humph!" commented Schryhart. He was wondering why men like himself,
Merrill, Arneel, and others had not worked into this field long ago or
bought out the old companies. He went away interested, and a day or
two later--even the next morning--had formulated a scheme. Not unlike
Cowperwood, he was a shrewd, hard, cold man. He believed in Chicago
implicitly and in all that related to its future. This gas situation,
now that Cowperwood had seen the point, was very clear to him. Even
yet it might not be impossible for a third party to step in and by
intricate manipulation secure the much coveted rewards. Perhaps
Cowperwood himself could be taken over--who could tell?

Mr. Schryhart, being a very dominating type of person, did not believe
in minor partnerships or investments. If he went into a thing of this
kind it was his p