The Moneychangers | Page 7

would, of course, be a mere
bagatelle to a man like Hegan, but who could tell what new plans he
might be able to fit it into? Montague knew by the rumours in the street
that the great financier had sold out all his holdings in two or three of
his most important ventures.
He went at once to Hegan's office, in the building of one of the great

insurance companies downtown. He made his way through corridors of
marble to a gate of massively ornamented bronze, behind which stood a
huge guardian in uniform, also massively ornamented. Montague
generally passed for a big man, but this personage made him feel like
an office-boy.
"Is Mr. Hegan in?" he asked.
"Do you call by appointment?" was the response.
"Not precisely," said Montague, producing a card. "Will you kindly
send this to Mr. Hegan?"
"Do you know Mr. Hegan personally?" the man demanded.
"I do," Montague answered.
The other had made no sign, as far as Montague could make out, but at
this moment a dapper young secretary made his appearance from the
doors behind the gate. "Would you kindly state the business upon
which you wish to see Mr. Hegan?" he said.
"I wish to see Mr. Hegan personally," Montague answered, with just a
trifle of asperity, "If you will kindly take in this card, it will be
sufficient."
He submitted with what grace he could to a swift inspection at the
secretary's hands, wondering, in the meantime, if his new spring
overcoat was sufficiently up-to-date to entitle him, in the secretary's
judgment, to be a friend of the great man within. Finally the man
disappeared with the card, and half a minute later came back, smiling
effusively. He ushered Montague into a huge office with
leather-cushioned chairs large enough to hold several people each, and
too large for any one person to be comfortable in. There was a map of
the continent upon the wall, across which Jim Hegan's railroads
stretched like scarlet ribbons. There were also heads of bison and
reindeer, which Hegan had shot himself.
Montague had to wait only a minute or two, and then he was escorted
through a chain of rooms, and came at last to the magnate's inner
sanctum. This was plain, with an elaborate and studied plainness, and
Jim Hegan sat in front of a flat mahogany desk which had not a scrap of
paper anywhere upon it.
He rose as the other came in, stretching out his huge form. "How do
you do, Mr. Montague?" he said, and shook hands. Then he sat down in
his chair, and settled back until his head rested on the back, and bent

his great beetling brows, and gazed at his visitor.
The last time that Montague had met Hegan they had talked about
horses, and about old days in Texas; but Montague was wise enough to
realise that this had been in the evening. "I have come on a matter of
business, Mr. Hegan," he said. "So I will be as brief as possible."
"A course of action which I do my best to pardon," was the smiling
reply.
"I want to propose to you to interest yourself in the affairs of the
Northern Mississippi Railroad," said the other.
"The Northern Mississippi?" said Hegan, knitting his brows. "I have
never heard of it."
"I don't imagine that many people have," the other answered, and went
on to tell the story of the line.
"I have five hundred shares of the stock myself," he said, "but it has
been in my family for a long time, and I am perfectly satisfied to let it
stay there. I am not making this proposition on my own account, but for
a client who has a block of five thousand shares. I have here the annual
reports of the road for several years, and some other information about
its condition. My idea was that you might care to take the road, and
make the proposed extension to the works of the Mississippi Steel
Company."
"Mississippi Steel!" exclaimed Hegan. He had evidently heard of that.
"How long ago did you say it was that this plan was looked into?" he
asked. And Montague told him the story of the survey, and what he
himself had heard about it.
"That sounds curious," said Hegan, and bent his brows, evidently in
deep thought. "I will look into the matter," he said, finally. "I have no
plans of my own that would take me into that neighbourhood, but it
may be possible that I can think of someone who would be interested.
Have you any idea what your client wants for the thousand shares?"
"My client has put the matter into my hands," he answered. "The matter
was only broached to me this morning,