ote.
And Montague noticed that the people had come to him as a last resort,
having apparently heard of him as a man of altruistic temper.

There was one case which interested him particularly, because it seemed
to fit in so ominously with the grim prognosis of his brother. He
received a call from an elderly gentleman, of very evident refinement
and dignity of manner, who proceeded to unfold to him a most amazing
story. Five or six years ago he had invented a storage-battery, which
was the most efficient known. He had organised a company with three
million dollars' capital to manufacture it, himself taking a third
interest for his patents, and becoming president of the company. Not
long afterward had come a proposal from a group of men who wished to
organize a company to manufacture automobiles; they proposed to form an
alliance which would give them the exclusive use of the battery. But
these men were not people with whom the inventor cared to deal--they
were traction and gas magnates widely known for their unscrupulous
methods. And so he had declined their offer, and set to work instead to
organize an automobile company himself. He had just got under way when
he discovered that his rivals had set to work to take his invention
away from him. A friend who owned another third share in his company
had hypothecated his stock to help form the new company; and now came a
call from the bank for more collateral, and he was obliged to sell out.
And at the next stockholders' meeting it developed that their rivals
had bought it, and likewise more stock in the open market; and they
proceeded to take possession of the company, ousting the former
president--and then making a contract with their automobile company to
furnish the storage-battery at a price which left no profit for the
manufacturers! And so for two years the inventor had not received a
dollar of dividends upon his million dollars' worth of paper; and to
cap the climax, the company had refused to sell the battery to his
automobile company, and so that had gone into bankruptcy, and his
friend was ruined also!

Montague went into the case very carefully, and found that the story
was true. What interested him particularly in it was the fact that he
had met a couple of these financial highwaymen in social life; he had
come to know the son and heir of one of them quite well, at Siegfried
Harvey's. This gilded youth was engaged to be married in a very few
days, and the paper