"And you?" Ernest said suddenly to Mr. Asmunsen. "You are disgusted
because the railroad has absorbed your profits?"

Mr. Asmunsen nodded.

"What you want is to make profits yourself?"

Again Mr. Asmunsen nodded.

"Out of others?"

There was no answer.

"Out of others?" Ernest insisted.

"That is the way profits are made," Mr. Asmunsen replied curtly.

"Then the business game is to make profits out of others, and to prevent
others from making profits out of you. That's it, isn't it?"

Ernest had to repeat his question before Mr. Asmunsen gave an answer,
and then he said:

"Yes, that's it, except that we do not object to the others making
profits so long as they are not extortionate."

"By extortionate you mean large; yet you do not object to making large
profits yourself? . . . Surely not?"

And Mr. Asmunsen amiably confessed to the weakness. There was one other