with his own elusive smile, leaving the thought suspended.

Butler felt the force of the temperament and the argument. He liked
the young man's poise and balance. A number of people had spoken of
Cowperwood to him. (It was now Cowperwood & Co. The company was fiction
purely.) He asked him something about the street; how the market was
running; what he knew about street-railways. Finally he outlined his
plan of buying all he could of the stock of two given lines--the Ninth
and Tenth and the Fifteenth and Sixteenth--without attracting any
attention, if possible. It was to be done slowly, part on 'change, part
from individual holders. He did not tell him that there was a certain
amount of legislative pressure he hoped to bring to bear to get him
franchises for extensions in the regions beyond where the lines now
ended, in order that when the time came for them to extend their
facilities they would have to see him or his sons, who might be large
minority stockholders in these very concerns. It was a far-sighted plan,
and meant that the lines would eventually drop into his or his sons'
basket.

"I'll be delighted to work with you, Mr. Butler, in any way that you
may suggest," observed Cowperwood. "I can't say that I have so much of a
business as yet--merely prospects. But my connections are good. I am
now a member of the New York and Philadelphia exchanges. Those who have
dealt with me seem to like the results I get."

"I know a little something about your work already," reiterated Butler,
wisely.

"Very well, then; whenever you have a commission you can call at
my office, or write, or I will call here. I will give you my secret