trouble and expense
in putting it through."

"Does Mr. Gorham know all this ?"

Harris laughed. "Well--hardly. I haven't met Gorham, but from what Brady
tells me this isn't in his line."

"Then why do you give me the information? Frankly, I don't think it will
help you with Mr. Gorham."

"He isn't going to know anything about it."

Covington smiled at the assurance Harris displayed. "I have not
committed myself to protect you," he said.

"Quite right, quite right," assented Harris; "but I'll take my chances.
Now I'm going to tell you the rest of it. As I said, Collins got the
franchise from the Board of Aldermen. Brady is a director in the New
York Street Railways Company, so he keeps Tammany all straight for us.
Our company, being the largest, was to be used as the basis of the
consolidation, and the original small roads were to turn themselves
over to us for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, we to assume their
bonded indebtedness, and, besides this, agreeing to pay from eight to
eighteen per cent. dividends on their stock issues. After these payments
our company was to keep the surplus earnings."

"And these surplus earnings would be enough to make it worth while?"

Harris laughed. "Sure," he replied; "the bond total of the smaller
companies is about one hundred million dollars and the stock total only
four million dollars. What's eight or even eighteen per cent. on four
million dollars! In fact, the weak point is that even with the watering
we intended to give the stock after we got it, the profits would still
be so big that the public would notice."

"There should be no difficulty in fixing that," remarked Covington,
sagely, amused by the frank confidence extended to him in spite of his
warning.

"The only difficulty is in selecting the means," Harris continued. "Now,
Brady and two other directors and I have secured options on three short
lines which are essential integral parts of the system, and it was
understood, before the Consolidated Companies came into the field, that
the new company would purchase these from us at a handsome profit. In
fact, we four are a majority in the Board of Directors. When Gorham
first talked about it Brady laughed at him, for the thing seemed to be
as good as pulled off; but the more Brady thought it over, the better he
liked the idea. Our plan was to unload the stock on the dear public,
letting the new company last as long as it would, and be satisfied with
our profits