ndications of concern.
He was a man past middle age, tall and strikingly handsome in
appearance. His eyes were dark and penetrating and his forehead, high
and wide, was crowned by an abundance of snow-white hair. His voice,
while pleasing to the ear, was vibrant with life and energy, and he
spoke with the incisive directness of one accustomed to command.

For Orlando Fragoni, as nearly as any one man might be, was the ruler of
the world.

It was in the early part of the twentieth century that wealth had
commenced to concentrate into a relatively few hands. This was followed
by a period in which vast mergers and consolidations had been effected
as a result of the financial power and genius for organization which a
few men possessed. A confederation of the countries of the world was
brought about by industrial kings who had learned, in one devastating
war, that militarism, while it might bring riches to a few, was, in the
final analysis, destructive and wasteful.

Mankind the world over, relieved of the menace of war, made more
progress in a decade than they had made in any previous century, but all
the time the invisible concentration of power and money continued.

And, in 1975, the affairs of the world were controlled by five men, of
whom Orlando Fragoni was the most powerful and most important.

* * * * *

His grandfather had been a small banker, and out of his obscure
transactions the great House of Fragoni had arisen. The money power of
the world was now controlled by Orlando Fragoni. Dirk Vanderpool, partly
as a result of a vast inheritance and partly through his own ability and
untiring industry, dominated the transportation facilities of the world.
Planes and Zeppelins, railroad equipment and ships, were built in his
plants and operated by the many organizations which he controlled.

Stanton had inherited the agricultural activities of the world and, in
addition to this, he was the sovereign of distribution. He owned immense
acreages in all of the continents; he not only cultivated every known
variety of produce, but also handled the sale of his products through
his own great chains of stores. His father had been one of the great
geniuses of the preceding generation, but Stanton, while inheriting the
commercial empire which he had ruled, had not inherited much of the
ability which had gone into the establishment of it.

There were two other members of that invisible council o