istory. The elder Viking was a furrier. The fur trade was enormously
profitable. Why? Because the whole scheme was built on the simple
process by which an Indian was made drunk and in one brief hour cheated
out of the results of a year's work. His agents never paid money for
skins. They first used whiskey to blind their victims and then traded
worthless beads and trinkets for priceless treasures of fur. And on
such a foundation was the great house founded."

"It's incredible."

"The facts have been published. If they were not true the publisher
could be driven out of business. The Vikings maintain a dignified
silence. They have to do it, but softly, here is the head of the house
of Black Friday. Everybody knows about his father's sins. Yet he was
the friend and comrade of the great who were canonized while he was
cannonaded. Good fellow, too, all the same breed when you come right
down to it, only some of them have the genius for getting away with the
goods and saving their reputations at the same time."

"For instance?" Stuart asked.

Bivens craned his neck toward the stairs.

"There's one of them, now, one of the great railroad kings, not one of
your Western bounders, but the real Eastern, New York patriotic brand,
one of the brave, daring pioneers who risked all to push great
transcontinental railroads through the trackless deserts of the
West--with millions furnished by the government--which they dumped into
their own pockets while the world was shouting their praises for
developing the Nation's resources."

"My friend, Mr. James Stuart, Mr. Van Dam."

It was with difficulty that the young lawyer kept his face straight
during those introductions.

Van Dam bowed with grave courtesy, and when he was beyond the reach of
Bivens's voice the little dark biographer went on:

"Old Van Dam, the founder of the house, whose palaces now crowd Fifth
Avenue, was a plain-spoken, hard-swearing, God-fearing, man-hating old
scoundrel who put on no airs, but simply went for what he wanted and
got it. He was the first big transportation king we developed. His
fortune was founded on the twin arts of bribery and blackmail. The
lobby he maintained in secret collusion with his alleged rivals in
Washington while he was working his subsidy bills through Congress was
a wonder, even in its day. He and his rival with two gangs of thieves
publicly lobbying against each other met in secret and divided the
spoils when the campaign was o