ive of my acting for the country's good?"

Bivens's black eyes twinkled.

"Not by the wildest leap of my imagination."

The twinkle broadened into a smile as the lawyer continued:

"Your code is simple, Cal. There's no provision in it for disinterested
effort for others. Few financiers of modern times can conceive of a
sane man deliberately working for the good of the people as against his
own. In your face, there has never been any doubting, any perplexity,
since you made your first strike in New York. Behind your black eyes
there has always glowed the steady, deadly purpose of the man who knows
exactly what he wants and how he is going to get it. This time you've
got me up a tree. You have rendered the people a great service. You
have placed me under personal obligations. But how you are going to get
anything out of it is beyond me."

"Oh, I'll have my reward, my boy," Bivens answered jovially, as his
dainty fingers again stroked his beard, pressing his mustache back from
the thin lips, "and I assure you it will not be purely spiritual."

The door had scarcely closed on Stuart when Bivens pressed the button
which called his confidential secretary.

In a moment the man stood at his elbow with the tense erect bearing of
an orderly on the field of battle. The quick nervous touch of the
master's hand on that button had told to his sensitive ears the story
of a coming life-and-death struggle. His words came with sharp nervous
energy:

"Yes sir?"

The financier slowly drew the big cigar from his mouth and spoke in low
tones:

"A meeting of the Allied Bankers here in 30 minutes. No telephone
messages. A personal summons to each. They enter one at a time that no
one on the outside sees them come. You understand?"

"I understand."

Bivens raised his finger in warning. "Your life on the issue."

Trembling with excitement the secretary turned and quickly left the
room.

CHAPTER V

GATHERING CLOUDS

The sensation which the District Attorney sprang in the sudden
indictment of the president of the Iroquois Company was profound and
far-reaching. The day before the indictment was presented to the Grand
Jury stocks began to tumble without any apparent cause. The "big
interests" who had hitherto counted on exhaustless funds to sustain
them in any market they might choose to make were paralyzed by the
suddenness of the attack on stocks and the daring of its hidden leader.

When the warrant for the arrest o