"We had a plan to extend it," said Montague.
"It would take but one or two millions to carry it to the main works of the Mississippi Steel Company."
The Major gave a start. "The Mississippi Steel Company!" he exclaimed.
"Yes," said Montague.
"Oh, my G.o.d!" cried the other.
"What is the matter?"
"Why in the world did you take a matter like that to Jim Hegan?"
demanded Major Venable.
"I took it to him because I knew him," said Montague.
"But one doesn"t take things to people because one knows them," said the Major. "One takes them to the right people. If Jim Hegan could have his way, he would wipe the Mississippi Steel Company off the map of the United States."
"What do you mean?"
"Don"t you know," said the Major, "that Mississippi Steel is the chief compet.i.tor of the Trust? And old Dan Waterman organised the Steel Trust, and watches it all the time."
"But what"s that got to do with Hegan?"
"Simply that Jim Hegan works with Waterman in everything."
Montague stared in dismay. "I see," he said.
"Of course!" said the Major. "My dear fellow, why don"t you come to me before you do things like that? You should have gone to the Mississippi Steel people; and you should have gone quietly, and to the men at the top. For all you can tell, you may have a really big proposition that"s been overlooked in the shuffle. What was that you said about the survey?"
And Montague told in detail the story of the aborted plan for an extension, and of his hunting trip, and what he had learned on it.
"Of course," said the Major, "you are in the heart of the thing right now. The Steel people balked your plan."
"How do you mean?" asked the other.
"They bought up the survey. And they"ve probably controlled your railroad ever since, and kept it down."
"But that"s impossible! They"ve had nothing to do with it."
"Bah!" said the Major. "How could you know?"
"I know the president," said Montague. "He"s an old friend of the family"s."
"Yes," was the reply. "But suppose they have a mortgage on his business?"
"But why not buy the road and be done with it?" added Montague, in perplexity.
The other laughed. "I am reminded of a famous saying of Wyman"s,--"Why should I buy stock when I can buy directors?""
"It"s those same people who are watching you now," he continued, after a pause. "Probably they think it is some move of the other side, and they are trying to run the thing down."
"Who owns the Mississippi Steel Company?" asked Montague.
"I don"t know," said the Major. "I fancy that Wyman must have come into it somehow. Didn"t you notice in the papers the other day that the contracts for furnishing rails for all his three transcontinental railroads had gone to the Mississippi Steel Company?"
"Sure enough!" exclaimed Montague.
"You see!" said the Major, with a chuckle. "You have jumped right into the middle of the frog pond, and the Lord only knows what a ruction you have stirred up! Just think of the situation for a moment. The Steel Trust is over-capitalised two hundred per cent.
Because of the tariff it is able to sell its product at home for fifty per cent more than it charges abroad; and even so, it has to keep cutting its dividends! Its common stock is down to ten. It is cutting expenses on every hand, and of course it"s turning out a rotten product. And now along comes Wyman, the one man in Wall Street who dares to shake his fist at old Dan Waterman; and he gives the newspapers all the facts about the bad steel rails that are causing smash-ups on his roads; and he turns all his contracts over to the Mississippi Steel Company, which is under-selling the Trust.
The company is swamped with orders, and its plants are running day and night. And then along comes a guileless young fool with a little d.i.n.ky railroad which he wants to run into the Company"s back door-yard; and he takes the proposition to Jim Hegan!"
The Major arrived at his climax in a state of suppressed emotion, which culminated in a chuckle, which shook his rubicund visage and brought a series of twitches to his aching toe. As for Montague, he was duly humbled.
"What would you do now?" he asked, after a pause.
"I don"t see that there"s anything to do," said the Major, "except to hold on tight to your stock. Perhaps if you go on talking out loud about your extension, some of the Steel people will buy you out at your own price."
"I gave them a scare, anyhow," said Montague, laughing.
"I can wager one thing," said the other. "There has been a fine shaking up in somebody"s office down town! There"s a man who comes here every night, who"s probably heard of it. That"s Will Roberts."
And the Major looked about the dining-room. "Here he comes now," he said.
At the farther end of the room there had entered a tall, dark-haired man, with a keen expression and a brisk step. "Roberts the Silent,"
said the Major. "Let"s have a try at him." And as the man pa.s.sed near, he hailed him. "h.e.l.lo! Roberts, where are you going? Let me introduce my friend, Mr. Allan Montague."
The man looked at Montague. "Good evening, sir," he said. "How are you, Venable?"
"Couldn"t be worse, thank you," said the Major. "How are things with you on the Street?"
"Dull, very dull," said Roberts, as he pa.s.sed on. "Matters look bad, I"m afraid. Too many people making money rapidly."
The Major chuckled. "A fine sentiment," he said, when Roberts had pa.s.sed out of hearing--"from a man who has made sixty millions in the last ten years!"
"It did not appear that he had ever heard of me," said Montague.
"Oh, trust him for that!" said the Major. "He might have been planning to have your throat cut to-night, but you wouldn"t have seen him turn an eyelid. He is that sort; he"s made of steel himself, I believe."
He paused, and then went on, in a reminiscent mood, "You"ve read of the great strike, I suppose? It was Roberts put that job through. He made himself the worst-hated man in the country--Gad! how the newspapers and the politicians used to rage at him! But he stood his ground--he would win that strike or die in the attempt. And he very nearly did both, you know. An Anarchist came to his office and shot him twice; but he got the fellow down and nearly choked the life out of him, and he ran the strike on his sick-bed, and two weeks later he was back in his office again."
And now the Major"s store-rooms of gossip were unlocked. He told Montague about the kings of Steel, and about the men they had hated and the women they had loved, and about the inmost affairs and secrets of their lives. William H. Roberts had begun his career in the service of the great iron-master, whose deadly rival he had afterwards become; and now he lived but to dispute that rival"s claims to glory. Let the rival build a library, Roberts would build two. Let the rival put up a great office building, Roberts would buy all the land about it, and put up half a dozen, and completely shut out its light. And day and night "Roberts the Silent" was plotting and planning, and some day he would be the master of the Steel Trust, and his rival would be nowhere.
"They are lively chaps, the Steel crowd," said the Major, chuckling.
"You will have to keep your eyes open when you do business with them."
"What would you advise me to do?" asked the other, smiling. "Set detectives after them?"