and anxious expression on the directors' faces and the eagerness
of the employés as they plied each other with questions.

"Suppose the injunction is sustained?" asked a clerk in a whisper.
"Is not the road rich enough to bear the loss?"

The man he addressed turned impatiently to the questioner:

"That's all you know about railroading. Don't you understand that
this suit we have lost will be the entering wedge for hundreds of
others. The very existence of the road may be at stake. And
between you and me," he added in a lower key, "with Judge Rossmore
on the bench we never stood much show. It's Judge Rossmore that
scares 'em, not the injunction. They've found it easy to corrupt
most of the Supreme Court judges, but Judge Rossmore is one too
many for them. You could no more bribe him than you could have
bribed Abraham Lincoln."

"But the newspapers say that he, too, has been caught accepting
$50,000 worth of stock for that decision he rendered in the Great
Northwestern case."

"Lies! All those stories are lies," replied the other
emphatically. Then looking cautiously around to make sure no one
overheard he added contemptuously, "The big interests fear him,
and they're inventing these lies to try and injure him. They might
as well try to blow up Gibraltar. The fact is the public is
seriously aroused this time and the railroads are in a panic."

It was true. The railroad, which heretofore had considered itself