to cause thousands of dollars' worth of damages.
Moyer & Perkins heard the news and decided to pay another five thousand.

The Defense Committee of the Chamber of Commerce was called to an extra
meeting at the El Dorado Hotel. The owner of the hotel was one of the
Committee, a man who, so far, had taken a very inactive part in its
transactions. He did not waste time in giving the reason for the special
meeting.

"I was called on the telephone this morning," he explained. "The person
at the other end wanted to protect my hotel from rats for the small
compensation of twenty-five thousand dollars a week. He referred
casually to the three warehouses and one laundry that had been wrecked
last week. Right at the present time I have, on an average, twelve
hundred guests a night. They are here to be entertained, not to be
frightened by rats. But here is the point. If I yield, every other hotel
in the city will be placed in a similar position. Three hundred thousand
strangers are in the city every day. Suppose that ten hotels were
overrun with rats in one week and the fact was circulated in the press?
What would that cost the city?"

"Better pay it," growled one of the men. He happened to own a hotel. He
knew how temperamental was the pleasure-seeking stranger. Singularly,
that advice was the only brand given by the rest of the Committee. They
seemed strangely unable to offer any remedy except to keep on paying and
in every way possible bar unpleasant news from the newspapers.

Inside of next month, fifty-five hotels were paying a weekly tax to the
rat racketeers. One small hotel refused, and was at once deluged with an
army of rats which drove out guests and employees, killed one old scrub
woman and severely injured twenty of the cooks, waiters and porters who
received the brunt of the rodent onslaught.

Moyer & Perkins were still paying the five thousand a week when, to
their surprise, a visitor dropped into their office and casually
suggested that they sell him their business.

"It used to be a good business," explained Moyer.

"It still is," interrupted Perkins. "What my partner means is this. We
have our share of trade, but the overhead has become so heavy that we
have not been able to make any money lately."

"That is what I understand," commented the stranger. "In fact, I was
sent here by the Chamber of Commerce. They told me you had been paying
money for rat protection. That is about the only reason I want to buy