ll round the table.

Ryder bowed coldly, and Mr. Grimsby continued:

"But during the last year or two things have gone wrong. There has
been a lot of litigation, most of which has gone against us, and
it has cost a heap of money. It reduced the last quarterly
dividend very considerably, and the new complication--this
Auburndale suit, which also has gone against us--is going to make
a still bigger hole in our exchequer. Gentlemen, I don't want to
be a prophet of misfortune, but I'll tell you this--unless
something is done to stop this hostility in the courts you and I
stand to lose every cent we have invested in the road. This suit
which we have just lost means a number of others. What I would ask
our chairman is what has become of his former good relations with
the Supreme Court, what has become of his influence, which never
failed us. What are these rumours regarding Judge Rossmore? He is
charged in the newspapers with having accepted a present from a
road in whose favour he handed down a very valuable decision. How
is it that our road cannot reach Judge Rossmore and make him
presents?"

The speaker sat down, flushed and breathless. The expression on
every face showed that the anxiety was general. The directors
glanced at Ryder, but his face was expressionless as marble.
Apparently he took not the slightest interest in this matter which
so agitated his colleagues.

Another director rose. He was a better speaker than Mr. Grimsby,
but his voice had a hard, rasping quality that smote the ears
unpleasantly. He said:

"Mr. Chairman, none of us can deny what Mr. Grimsby has just put
before us so vividly. We are threatened not with one, but with a
hundred such suits, unless something is done either to placate the
public or to render its attacks harmless. Rightly or wrongly, the
railroad is hated by the people, yet we are only what railroad
conditions compel us to be. With the present fierce competition,
no fine question of ethics can enter into our dealings as a
business organization. With an irritated public and press on one
side, and a hostile judiciary on the other, the outlook certainly
is far from bright. But is the judiciary hostile? Is it not true
that we have been singularly free from litigation until recently,
and that most of the decisions were favourable to the road? Judge
Rossmore is the real danger. While he is on the bench the road is
not safe. Yet all efforts to reach him have failed and will fail.
I d