r every word
again and again, studying, absorbing each letter, each period, the
conformation of every word. And when he ended he had in his brain a
photograph of the letter which he would never forget.

And now, slowly, minutely, methodically, he was going over and over
Plank's words, and his manner of saying them, and their surface import,
and the hidden one, if any.

If Plank had spoken the truth--and there was no reason to doubt
it--Plank had quietly acquired a controlling interest in Amalgamated
Electric. That meant treachery in somebody. Who? Probably Siward,
perhaps Belwether. He would not look at the latter just yet; not for
a minute or two. There was time enough to see through that withered,
pink-and-white old fraud. But why had Plank done this? And why did Plank
suspect him of any desire to wreck his own property? He did suspect him,
that was certain.

After a silence, he spoke quietly and without emotion:

"Everybody concerned will be glad to see Amalgamated Electric declaring
dividends. This is a shock to us," he glanced impassively at the
shrunken major, "but a pleasant shock. I think it well to arrange a
meeting as soon as possible."

"To-morrow," said Plank, with a manner of closing discussion. And in his
brusque ending of the matter Quarrier detected the ringing undertone of
an authority he never had and never would endure; and though his pale,
composed features betrayed not the subtlest shade of emotion, he was
aware that a new element had come into his life--a new force was growing
out of nothing to confront him, an unfamiliar shape loomed vaguely
ahead, throwing its huge distorted shadow across his path. He sensed it
with the instinct of kind for kind, not because Plank's millions meant
anything to him as a force; not because this lumbering, red-faced
meddler had blundered into a family affair where confidence consisted in
joining hands lest a pocket be inadvertently picked; not because Plank
had knocked at the door, expecting treachery to open, and had found it,
but because of the awful simplicity of the man and his methods.

If Plank suspected him, he must also suspect him of complicity in the
Inter-County grab; he must suspect him of the ruthless crushing
power that corrupts or annihilates opposition, making a mockery
of legislation, a jest of the courts, and an epigram of a people's
indignation.

And yet, in the face of all this, careless, fearless, frank to the
outer verge of stupidity--w