Robert Barr

“ Steele held this on his open palm, gazing at it like one hypnotised.
“My God!” he groaned at last, “soap—Amalgamated Soap! Peter Berrington and Nicholson! Trapped, as I am a fool and a sinner! These muleteers are the real chiefs of this expedition. They saw Alice Fuller weakening; but she weakened too late, and now they have sent her away. What’s the object of all this? It is too fantastic to imagine that Nicholson supposes he can exact all I possess as ransom. Even the Black Hills are not the mountains of Greece. What is it, then? Murder? That’s equally incredible, and yet possible. ”

“ Manson was a born master, who had risen step by step into the position of division superintendent. Added to this, he was quiet, taciturn and unemotional. John Steele, on the other hand, was the embodiment of good-fellowship; talkative, humourous, genial; who believed every one around him as honest and whole-hearted as himself. But there were those beneath him who had regarded themselves quite properly in the line of promotion, and whose ambitions had been stirred when it became known that Philip Manson was about to retire. ”

“ I’d no idea you wished to get back into the railway business. I should think a man who can make millions outside wouldn’t be content to sit here at a salary of ten or fifteen thousand a year.”
“I am tired of making millions,” said Steele.
“You don’t mean to say,” protested Manson with something like dismay in his words, “you don’t mean to say you won’t go in with us? I took your telegram as consent, and because I could thus guarantee the bringing in of a big capitalist, I have induced others to join and secured an extra slice for myself.” ”

“ CHAPTER IV—A CONSPIRACY THE greatest blessing that Providence can bestow upon a young man is self-knowledge. Success comes to those who know their own powers while it is yet day. To learn for the first time at eighty that you have immense capabilities in any given direction is futile. To possess that knowledge at twenty is better than to own a gold mine. It is the old adage exemplified: “If age but could; if youth but knew.”
Steele’s two years’ management of the Burdock route should have given him confidence, but his bargain with Rockervelt showed it had not done so. ”

“ Steele,” said the general manager, rising with a deep sigh of satisfaction, as if everything had gone exactly as he planned it, “anything I can do to help on the good work will not be stinted. Call upon me when in any difficulty, Mr. Steele, and be assured of my most whole-hearted support,” and with that the great man held out his hand, which Steele, springing to his feet, clasped cordially. Without a glance at the crest-fallen Johnson, T. Acton Blair strode majestically from the room.
John Steele turned to his desk. ”

“ Slowly he turned towards Metcalfe on his right hand, whose eyes shifted uneasily from one to another without ever resting on John Steele.
“I understood, sir,” said Nicholson very slowly, as if weighing his words, “that all the money was in the bank?”
“I told you, sir,” replied the hesitating Metcalfe, “that there was in the bank all the capital we thought necessary.”
“Necessary?” echoed Nicholson, in cold, even tones. “We make a demand upon the public. We state that the value of our property is so much. The public responds by offering us a million less. ”

“ The train despatcher had forgotten Number Sixteen! Instantly the road spread itself out before the mind’s eye of the superintendent. He knew every inch of it. The situation revealed itself to his mathematical brain as a well-known arrangement of men and pawns would display to an expert what could or could not be done on the chess-board. He knew where Number Three would lose further time on the up-grades, but now, alas! it was speeding along a flat country, where every minute meant a mile. ”

“ Why, Constance Berrington, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Your face makes every other in the world insipid. I’m not going to try and persuade you that I love you, because you know it. You knew it last night. You saw it in my eyes, and I saw the knowledge in yours. Curse the money! I’ll make all the money I need if I have you by my side. What is money, anyhow? I’ve made it and lost it, and I can make it again and lose it again. Constance, let us take that yacht, go to Duluth, and be married before a magistrate for ten dollars, like a lumberman and his girl. ”

“ Steele, I think two things may be taken for granted—first: no names need be mentioned; second: you are opposed to a power infinitely greater than that of Mr. Rockervelt or any other financial force which the world contains.”
“You are right in both surmises, Mr. Nicholson, and I experience that keen joy which warriors feel with foemen worthy of their steel—if you will excuse the apparent pun on my own name. I am really quoting from Scott, not the railway man of that name, but the poet. And now for your message, Mr. Nicholson.” ”

“ I am quite willing to applaud the excellent Bradley, who made millions of beets grow where none had grown before. I admire such a man exceedingly, even though unprepared to follow in his steps. You see, Mr. Metcalfe, I am not a useful citizen like yourself and Mr. Bradley. I simply make a raid at some project, filch what I can, and get back into my den. As I told you, I am not building factories, not even those that squeeze the succulent beet. I squeeze my opponents on the Stock Exchange. ”

“ Very well, go to the Black Hills; there you will find the air pure and bracing; there are wild mountains and sparkling streams, and everything that a tired city man could desire. I want you to camp near our mine and investigate it thoroughly. If you are so satisfied with it as to justify the risk, I ask you to be prepared to buy a half share for three hundred thousand dollars.”
John Steele drew a long breath.
“My purpose in going to the mountains is to get away from business, and not to take upon myself a new anxiety; to fish and shoot, not to pore over gold-bearing ore.” ”

“ The property which a few months before had seemed wealth, now appeared what Blair had actually suggested it to be, merely the nucleus around which an energetic man might accumulate a fortune. He was in the social class of the millionaires, but not in their financial class. No matter what dividends were paid on two or three hundred thousand dollars’ worth of railway stock, that income, added to his salary of five thousand a year, would never support a palace such as Blair lived in, or even a mansion similar to the one inhabited by Colonel Beck. ”

“ Steele laughed heartily.
“Oh, yes, I know. Why don’t you advise me to go to some sanitarium and consult a physician on mental aberration? I want to fish, but it is to fish out the secrets of John Steele. By this time to-morrow I shall be kissing the tips of my fingers to the statue of Liberty.”
“John,” said Manson, solemnly, “you are taking a false step. If you go to Europe in this frame of mind you are making a grave mistake which may not be easily remedied. Opportunities come once, twice, thrice, but they don’t come always, and if they find a man persistently not at home, they pass on. ”

“ He supplemented every one, instead of making every one supplement him. It never occurred to him that the chaos against which he contended was deliberate, for a railway business differs from any other on earth, in that carelessness or neglect is juggling with men’s lives. A mistake comparatively innocent in any other branch of commercial activity may mean the massacre of a score of men and women on a railway. Many a night he sat disconsolate in his office when every one else had gone, and yearned for half an hour’s talk with Philip Manson. ”

“ He was commonly rated as being worth anywhere from six to ten millions, and the world looked upon him as the most fortunate of men. It did him no harm to be thought to enjoy the backing of the powerful Peter Berrington, and probably not more than half-a-dozen men knew that such was far from being the case. He did not bask in Peter’s smile, but, on the contrary, shivered in his shadow.
The one man who had no delusions on the subject was John Steele himself. For the second time he had been entirely victorious over Nicholson and the gigantic coterie behind him ”

“ Never before had he been so successful in his business; never so popular with superiors and subordinates alike. Difficulties appeared only to vanish before the magic wave of his hand. His suggestions were adopted, his plans prospered, and perhaps most inspiring of all, his sagacity and his energy met unasked appreciation. His salary was raised to a hundred dollars a week, and Blair, when he announced the fact, referred almost apologetically to the ever-increasing prosperity of the road, due largely, he was good enough to say, to the efficiency of the division superintendent. ”

“ Steele, I have no doubt you heard the news before I did. As I told you in this very room, large dividends had been earned, and of course I came to the conclusion that they would be declared. Then you say, quite justly, if a dividend was earned, why was it not declared? The reason is a most convincing one, and I am expecting every moment Mr. Rockervelt to give it to the public. When he does so, people will learn how senseless is the panic which has ensued over what is, after all, an exceedingly simple matter; one of those exigencies of business which are constantly occurring. ”

“ Therefore I determined to combine all the big sugar factories at present existing in the United States. Rapidly as I myself have acquired wealth, the sugar business has been growing too quickly for me, and at the beginning of this year I saw I had to put my project into action, or else interest a body of financiers, which I did not wish to do, for my ambition is to control the sugar-beet industry of the United States, and ultimately of the world.”
“Ah, you hope to become a sort of sweetened Peter Berrington,” said Steele, with a smile, and he thought of this remark somewhat grimly later on. ”

“ Her father’s future and her own depended on the good-will of the young man stretched at her feet. She was anxious not to offend him, and yet her reluctance to remain alone with him, her absent-minded look, and the slight frown that now and then marred her brow, were hints that his attentions proved unwelcome. Steele surmised that any undue compliments or any too palpable indulgence in sentiment at this particular moment might prove disastrous to ultimate success. ”

“ In an amazingly short space of time Holmes reappeared with a newspaper a week old, and laid it on Mr. Steele’s desk, and Bronson brought in an array of figures.
“Here we are!” cried Steele, jerking open the crackling sheet. “‘Wonderful harvests ahead! Tremendous wheat crops!’ Of course, it must be remembered that prophesying prosperity is always popular, and newspapers like that sort of news. Now, I shall select twenty-five places named in this paper. The useful Bronson will find out for me a reliable man in each place, and I will telegraph him. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII—AN IMPENDING CHANGE TO borrow money at any time is difficult; to borrow during a panic is impossible. John Steele spent the first half of the second day of the crisis in attempting the impossible. Every man to whom he applied seemed to be in the same position as himself. All stocks had come down in sympathy with the Rockervelt slump, and it seemed as if every person supposed to be rich was then engaged in a frantic endeavour to prevent ruin by putting up all the ready money in hand, or else trying, like John himself, to borrow. ”

“ When Steele reached Pickaxe Gulch, he thought he never should be so glad to see a pair of rails again. He felt like throwing his arms round the neck of the station-master, but instead asked that rough diamond if there were any news.
“No, not much,” replied the station-master, “except that Peter Berrington, the billionaire, is dead.”
“Thank God!” fervently ejaculated Steele, to the astonishment of the station-master.
“Yes,” said the official, “he’s gone where his money won’t do him no good. Found dead in his chair in his office in New York, two days ago. ”

“ Every man who drifts in on me appears to think I am indebted to him for my place. I beg to inform you that it is no part of a Consul’s duty to bestow addresses upon any stranger who happens to ask for them.”
“That’s all right, Mr. Stokes,” replied the Colonel genially, drawing up a chair and seating himself uninvited at their table. “It isn’t the habit of your uncle Ben to get left, and I knew I would find Steele ultimately if he was in town. Say, John, you ought to be in New York nowadays. Things are booming there.” ”

“ It is my opinion that a man cannot be an efficient servant of a great railway and a speculator at the same time.”
“I quite agree with you, Mr. Blair, and we are two shining examples of the truth of your aphorism. You are the most inefficient railway servant I ever met, and at the same time the most successful gambler. I am an excellent railway man and the most idiotic speculator there is in the country at the present moment. What’s the use of wasting that sanctimonious ‘holier-than-thou’ look of yours? You know, and I know, that you don’t care a hang about my being away a day. ”