ne--of the
Coal stocks there?"

"Not necessary," he replied. As I had thought, with that enormous
machine of his for drawing in information, and with that enormous
memory of his for details, he probably knew more about the combine and
its properties than I did.

"You have heard of the lockout?" I inquired--for I wished him to know
that I had no intention of deceiving him as to the present market
value of those stocks.

"Roebuck has been commanded by his God," he said, "to eject the free
American labor from the coal regions and to substitute importations of
coolie Huns and Bohemians. Thus the wicked American laborers will be
chastened for trying to get higher wages and cut down a pious man's
dividends; and the downtrodden coolies will be brought where they can
enjoy the blessings of liberty and of the preaching of Roebuck's
missionaries."

I laughed, though he had not smiled, but had spoken as if stating
colorless facts. "And righteousness and Roebuck will prevail," said I.

He frowned slightly, a sardonic grin breaking the straight, thin,
cruel line of his lips. He opened his table's one shallow drawer, and
took out a pad and a pencil. He wrote a few words on the lowest part
of the top sheet, folded it, tore off the part he had scribbled on,
returned the pad and pencil to the drawer, handed the scrap of paper
to me. "I will do it," he said. "Give this to Mr. Farquhar, second
door to the left. Good-morning." And in that atmosphere of vast
affairs, speedily dispatched, his consent without argument did not
stir suspicion in me.

I bowed. Though he had not saved me as a favor to me, but because it
fitted in with his plans, whatever they were, my eyes were dimmed. "I
shan't forget this," said I, my voice not quite steady.

"I know it," said he, curtly. "I know you."

I saw that his mind had already turned me out. I said no more, and
withdrew. When I left the room it was precisely as it had been when I
entered it--except the bit of paper torn from the pad. But what a
difference to me, to the thousands, the hundreds of thousands,
directly and indirectly interested in the Coal combine and its strike
and its products, was represented by those few, almost illegible
scrawlings on that scrap of paper.

Not until I had gone over the situation with Farquhar, and we had
signed and exchanged the necessary papers, did I begin to relax from
the strain--how great that strain was I realized a few weeks later,
when the gray app