The Deluge | Page 3

a vast industrial enterprise and in inducing the public to buy by the million its bonds and stocks.
I invited the angry frown of the Roebuck God by saying: "And I bought in the Manasquale mines on my own account."
"On your own account!" said Roebuck. Then he hastily effaced his involuntary air of the engineer startled by sight of an unexpected red light.
"Yes," replied I, as calm as if I were not realizing the tremendous significance of what I had announced. "I look to you to let me participate on equal terms."
That is, I had decided that the time had come for me to take my place among the kings of finance. I had decided to promote myself from agent to principal, from prime minister to king--I must, myself, promote myself, for in this world all promotion that is solid comes from within. And in furtherance of my object I had bought this group of mines, control of which was vital to the Roebuck-Langdon-Melville combine for a monopoly of the coal of the country.
"Did not Mr. Langdon commission you to buy them for him and his friends?" inquired Roebuck, in that slow, placid tone which yet, for the attentive ear, had a note in it like the scream of a jaguar that comes home and finds its cub gone.
"But I couldn't get them for him," I explained. "The owners wouldn't sell until I engaged that the National Coal and Railway Company was not to have them."
"Oh, I see," said Roebuck, sinking back relieved. "We must get Browne to draw up some sort of perpetual, irrevocable power of attorney to us for you to sign."
"But I won't sign it," said I.
Roebuck took up a sheet of paper and began to fold it upon itself with great care to get the edges straight. He had grasped my meaning; he was deliberating.
"For four years now," I went on, "you people have been promising to take me in as a principal in some one of your deals--to give me recognition by making me president, or chairman of an executive or finance committee. I am an impatient man, Mr. Roebuck. Life is short, and I have much to do. So I have bought the Manasquale mines--and I shall hold them."
Roebuck continued to fold the paper upon itself until he had reduced it to a short, thick strip. This he slowly twisted between his cruel fingers until it was in two pieces. He dropped them, one at a time, into the waste-basket, then smiled benevolently at me. "You are right," he said. "You shall have what you want. You have seemed such a mere boy to me that, in spite of your giving again and again proof of what you are, I have been putting you off. Then, too--" He halted, and his look was that of one surveying delicate ground.
"The bucket-shop?" suggested I.
"Exactly," said he gratefully. "Your brokerage business has been invaluable to us. But--well, I needn't tell you how people--the men of standing--look on that sort of thing."
"I never have paid any attention to pompous pretenses," said I, "and I never shall. My brokerage business must go on, and my daily letters to investors. By advertising I rose; by advertising I am a power that even you recognize; by advertising alone can I keep that power."
"You forget that in the new circumstances, you won't need that sort of power. Adapt yourself to your new surroundings. Overalls for the trench; a business suit for the office."
"I shall keep to my overalls for the present," said I. "They're more comfortable, and"--here I smiled significantly at him--"if I shed them, I might have to go naked. The first principle of business is never to give up what you have until your grip is tight on something better."
"No doubt you're right," agreed the white-haired old scoundrel, giving no sign that I had fathomed his motive for trying to "hint" me out of my stronghold. "I will talk the matter over with Langdon and Melville. Rest assured, my boy, that you will be satisfied." He got up, put his arm affectionately round my shoulders. "We all like you. I have a feeling toward you as if you were my own son. I am getting old, and I like to see young men about me, growing up to assume the responsibilities of the Lord's work whenever He shall call me to my reward."
It will seem incredible that a man of my shrewdness and experience could be taken in by such slimy stuff as that--I who knew Roebuck as only a few insiders knew him, I who had seen him at work, as devoid of heart as an empty spider in an empty web. Yet I was taken in to the extent that I thought he really purposed to recognize my services,