The Lion and the Mouse | Page 9

of which has gone against us, and it has cost a heap of money. It
reduced the last quarterly dividend very considerably, and the new
complication--this Auburndale suit, which also has gone against us--is
going to make a still bigger hole in our exchequer. Gentlemen, I don't
want to be a prophet of misfortune, but I'll tell you this--unless
something is done to stop this hostility in the courts you and I stand to
lose every cent we have invested in the road. This suit which we have
just lost means a number of others. What I would ask our chairman is
what has become of his former good relations with the Supreme Court,
what has become of his influence, which never failed us. What are
these rumours regarding Judge Rossmore? He is charged in the
newspapers with having accepted a present from a road in whose
favour he handed down a very valuable decision. How is it that our
road cannot reach Judge Rossmore and make him presents?"
The speaker sat down, flushed and breathless. The expression on every
face showed that the anxiety was general. The directors glanced at
Ryder, but his face was expressionless as marble. Apparently he took
not the slightest interest in this matter which so agitated his colleagues.
Another director rose. He was a better speaker than Mr. Grimsby, but
his voice had a hard, rasping quality that smote the ears unpleasantly.
He said:
"Mr. Chairman, none of us can deny what Mr. Grimsby has just put
before us so vividly. We are threatened not with one, but with a
hundred such suits, unless something is done either to placate the
public or to render its attacks harmless. Rightly or wrongly, the railroad

is hated by the people, yet we are only what railroad conditions compel
us to be. With the present fierce competition, no fine question of ethics
can enter into our dealings as a business organization. With an irritated
public and press on one side, and a hostile judiciary on the other, the
outlook certainly is far from bright. But is the judiciary hostile? Is it not
true that we have been singularly free from litigation until recently, and
that most of the decisions were favourable to the road? Judge Rossmore
is the real danger. While he is on the bench the road is not safe. Yet all
efforts to reach him have failed and will fail. I do not take any stock in
the newspaper stories regarding Judge Rossmore. They are
preposterous. Judge Rossmore is too strong a man to be got rid of so
easily."
The speaker sat down and another rose, his arguments being merely a
reiteration of those already heard. Ryder did not listen to what was
being said. Why should he? Was he not familiar with every possible
phase of the game? Better than these men who merely talked, he was
planning how the railroad and all his other interests could get rid of this
troublesome judge.
It was true. He who controlled legislatures and dictated to Supreme
Court judges had found himself powerless when each turn of the legal
machinery had brought him face to face with Judge Rossmore. Suit
after suit had been decided against him and the interests he represented,
and each time it was Judge Rossmore who had handed down the
decision. So for years these two men had fought a silent but bitter duel
in which principle on the one side and attempted corruption on the
other were the gauge of battle. Judge Rossmore fought with the
weapons which his oath and the law directed him to use, Ryder with the
only weapons he understood-- bribery and trickery. And each time it
had been Rossmore who had emerged triumphant. Despite every
manoeuvre Ryder's experience could suggest, notwithstanding every
card that could be played to undermine his credit and reputation, Judge
Rossmore stood higher in the country's confidence than when he was
first appointed.
So when Ryder found he could not corrupt this honest judge with gold,

he decided to destroy him with calumny. He realized that the sordid
methods which had succeeded with other judges would never prevail
with Rossmore, so he plotted to take away from this man the one thing
he cherished most--his honour. He would ruin him by defaming his
character, and so skilfully would he accomplish his work that the judge
himself would realize the hopelessness of resistance. No scruples
embarrassed Ryder in arriving at this determination. From his point of
view he was fully justified. "Business is business. He hurts my interests;
therefore I remove him." So he argued, and he considered it no more
wrong to wreck the happiness of this honourable man than he would to
have shot a burglar in self-defence. So having thus tranquillized his