The Lion and the Mouse | Page 5

attained. There was no difficulty as far as John Ryder was concerned.
He favoured the match and had often spoken of it. Indeed, Ryder
desired it, for such an alliance would naturally further his business
interests in every way. Roberts knew that his daughter Kate had more
than a liking for Ryder's handsome young son. Moreover, Kate was
practical, like her father, and had sense enough to realize what it would
mean to be the mistress of the Ryder fortune. No, Kate was all right,
but there was young Ryder to reckon with. It would take two in this
case to make a bargain.
Jefferson Ryder was, in truth, an entirely different man from his father.
It was difficult to realize that both had sprung from the same stock. A
college-bred boy with all the advantages his father's wealth could give
him, he had inherited from the parent only those characteristics which
would have made him successful even if born poor--activity, pluck,
application, dogged obstinacy, alert mentality. To these qualities he
added what his father sorely lacked--a high notion of honour, a keen
sense of right and wrong. He had the honest man's contempt for
meanness of any description, and he had little patience with the lax
so-called business morals of the day. For him a dishonourable or
dishonest action could have no apologist, and he could see no
difference between the crime of the hungry wretch who stole a loaf of
bread and the coal baron who systematically robbed both his employes
and the public. In fact, had he been on the bench he would probably
have acquitted the human derelict who, in despair, had appropriated the
prime necessary of life, and sent the over-fed, conscienceless coal
baron to jail.
"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." This simple
and fundamental axiom Jefferson Ryder had adopted early in life, and it

had become his religion--the only one, in fact, that he had. He was
never pious like his father, a fact much regretted by his mother, who
could see nothing but eternal damnation in store for her son because he
never went to church and professed no orthodox creed. She knew him
to be a good lad, but to her simple mind a conduct of life based merely
on a system of moral philosophy was the worst kind of paganism.
There could, she argued, be no religion, and assuredly no salvation,
outside the dogmatic teachings of the Church. But otherwise Jefferson
was a model son and, with the exception of this bad habit of thinking
for himself on religious matters, really gave her no anxiety. When
Jefferson left college, his father took him into the Empire Trading
Company with the idea of his eventually succeeding him as head of the
concern, but the different views held by father and son on almost every
subject soon led to stormy scenes that made the continuation of the
arrangement impossible. Senator Roberts was well aware of these
unfortunate independent tendencies in John Ryder's son, and while he
devoutly desired the consummation of Jefferson's union with his
daughter, he quite realized that the young man was a nut which was
going to be exceedingly hard to crack.
"Hello, senator, you're always on time!"
Disturbed in his reflections, Senator Roberts looked up and saw the
extended hand of a red-faced, corpulent man, one of the directors. He
was no favourite with the senator, but the latter was too keen a man of
the world to make enemies uselessly, so he condescended to place two
fingers in the outstretched fat palm.
"How are you, Mr. Grimsby? Well, what are we going to do about this
injunction? The case has gone against us. I knew Judge Rossmore's
decision would be for the other side. Public opinion is aroused. The
press--"
Mr. Grimsby's red face grew more apoplectic as he blurted out:
"Public opinion and the press be d---d. Who cares for public opinion?
What is public opinion, anyhow? This road can manage its own affairs
or it can't. If it can't I for one quit railroading. The press! Pshaw! It's all

graft, I tell you. It's nothing but a strike! I never knew one of these
virtuous outbursts that wasn't. First the newspapers bark ferociously to
advertise themselves; then they crawl round and whine like a cur. And
it usually costs something to fix matters."
The senator smiled grimly.
"No, no, Grimsby--not this time. It's more serious than that. Hitherto
the road has been unusually lucky in its bench decisions- -"
The senator gave a covert glance round to see if any long ears were
listening. Then he added:
"We can't expect always to get a favourable decision like that in the
Cartwright case, when franchise rights valued at nearly five millions
were at