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to withdraw. As I said before, " he concluded, " I am not a beggar.

I am not coming here to conceal any facts or to hide anything which

might deceive you as to the worth of all this to us. I want you

to know the facts. I want you to give me your aid on such terms

as you think are fair and equitable. Really the only trouble with

me in this situation is that I am not a silk stocking. If I were

this gas war would have been adjusted long ago. These gentlemen

who are so willing to reorganize through Mr. Schryhart are largely

opposed to me because I am--comparatively--a stranger in Chicago

and not in their set. If I were" --he moved his hand slightly--" I

don't suppose I would be here this evening asking for your favor,

although that does not say that I am not glad to be here, or that

I would not be glad to work with you in any way that I might.

Circumstances simply have not thrown me across your path before. "

As he talked his eye fixed McKenty steadily, almost innocently;

and the latter, following him clearly, felt all the while that he

was listening to a strange, able, dark, and very forceful man.

There was no beating about the bush here, no squeamishness of

spirit, and yet there was subtlety--the kind McKenty liked. While

he was amused by Cowperwood's casual reference to the silk stockings

who were keeping him out, it appealed to him. He caught the point

of view as well as the intention of it. Cowperwood represented a

new and rather pleasing type of financier to him. Evidently, he

was traveling in able company if one could believe the men who had

introduced him so warmly. McKenty, as Cowperwood was well aware,

had personally no interest in the old companies and also--though

this he did not say--no particular sympathy with them. They were

just remote financial corporations to him, paying political tribute

on demand, expecting political favors in return. Every few weeks

now they were in council, asking for one gas-main franchise after

another (special privileges in certain streets), asking for better

(more profitable) light-contracts, asking for dock privileges in

the river, a lower tax rate, and so forth and so on. McKenty did

not pay much attention to these things personally. He had a

subordinate in council, a very powerful henchman by the name of

Patrick Dowling, a meaty, vigorous Irishman and a true watch-dog

of graft for the machine, who worked with the mayor, the city

treasurer, the city tax receiver--in fact, all the officers of the

current administration--and saw that such minor matters were properly

equalized. Mr. McKenty had only met two or three of the officers

of the South Side Gas Company, and that quite casually. He did

not like them very well. The truth was that the old companies were

officered by men who considered politicians of the McKenty and

Dowling stripe as very evil men; if they paid them and did other

such wicked things it was because they were forced to do so.

" Well, " McKenty replied, lingering his thin gold watch-chain in a

thoughtful manner, " that's an interesting scheme you have. Of

course the old companies wouldn't like your asking for a rival

franchise, but once you had it they couldn't object very well,

could they? " He smiled. Mr. McKenty spoke with no suggestion of

a brogue. " From one point of view it might be looked upon as bad

business, but not entirely. They would be sure to make a great

cry, though they haven't been any too kind to the public themselves.

But if you offered to combine with them I see no objection. It's

certain to be as good for them in the long run as it is for you.

This merely permits you to make a better bargain. "

" Exactly, " said Cowperwood.

" And you have the means, you tell me, to lay mains in every part

of the city, and fight with them for business if they won't give

in? "

" I have the means, " said Cowperwood, " or if I haven't I can get

them. "

Mr. McKenty looked at Mr. Cowperwood very solemnly. There was a

kind of mutual sympathy, understanding, and admiration between the

two men, but it was still heavily veiled by self-interest. To Mr.

McKenty Cowperwood was interesting because he was one of the few

business men he had met who were not ponderous, pharasaical, even

hypocritical when they were dealing with him.

" Well, I'll tell you what I'll do, Mr. Cowperwood, " he said,

finally. " I'll take it all under consideration. Let me think it

over until Monday, anyhow. There is more of an excuse now for the

introduction of a general gas ordinance than there would be a

little later--I can see that. Why don't you draw up your proposed

franchise and let me see it? Then we might find out what some of

the other gentlemen of the city council think. "

Cowperwood almost smiled at the word " gentlemen. "

" I have already done that, " he said. " Here it is. "

McKenty took it, surprised and yet pleased at this evidence of

business proficiency. He liked a strong manipulator of this kind

--the more since he was not one himself, and most of those that

he did know were thin-blooded and squeamish.

" Let me take this, " he said. " I'll see you next Monday again if

you wish. Come Monday. "

Cowperwood got up. " I thought I'd come and talk to you direct,

Mr. McKenty, " he said, " and now I'm glad that I did. You will

find, if you will take the trouble to look into this matter, that

it is just as I represent it. There is a very great deal of money

here in one way and another, though it will take some little time

to work it out. "

Mr. McKenty saw the point. " Yes, " he said, sweetly, " to be sure. "

They looked into each other's eyes as they shook hands.

" I'm not sure but you haven't hit upon a very good idea here, "

concluded McKenty, sympathetically. " A very good idea, indeed.

Come and see me again next Monday, or about that time, and I'll

let you know what I think. Come any time you have anything else

you want of me. I'll always be glad to see you. It's a fine

night, isn't it? " he added, looking out as they neared the door.

" A nice moon that! " he added. A sickle moon was in the sky. " Good

night. "

Chapter XIII

The Die is Cast

The significance of this visit was not long in manifesting itself.

At the top, in large affairs, life goes off into almost inexplicable

tangles of personalities. Mr. McKenty, now that the matter had

been called to his attention, was interested to learn about this

gas situation from all sides--whether it might not be more profitable

to deal with the Schryhart end of the argument, and so on. But

his eventual conclusion was that Cowperwood's plan, as he had

outlined it, was the most feasible for political purposes, largely

because the Schryhart faction, not being in a position where they

needed to ask the city council for anything at present, were so

obtuse as to forget to make overtures of any kind to the bucaneering

forces at the City Hall.

When Cowperwood next came to McKenty's house the latter was in a

receptive frame of mind. " Well, " he said, after a few genial

preliminary remarks, " I've been learning what's going on. Your

proposition is fair enough. Organize your company, and arrange

your plan conditionally. Then introduce your ordinance, and we'll

see what can be done. " They went into a long, intimate discussion

as to how the forthcoming stock should be divided, how it was to

be held in escrow by a favorite bank of Mr. McKenty's until the

terms of the agreement under the eventual affiliation with the old

companies or the new union company should be fulfilled, and details

of that sort. It was rather a complicated arrangement, not as

satisfactory to Cowperwood as it might have been, but satisfactory

in that it permitted him to win. It required the undivided services

of General Van Sickle, Henry De Soto Sippens, Kent Barrows McKibben,

and Alderman Dowling for some little time. But finally all was in

readiness for the coup.

On a certain Monday night, therefore, following the Thursday on

which, according to the rules of the city council, an ordinance

of this character would have to be introduced, the plan, after

being publicly broached but this very little while, was quickly

considered by the city council and passed. There had been really

no time for public discussion. This was just the thing, of course,

that Cowperwood and McKenty were trying to avoid. On the day

following the particular Thursday on which the ordinance had been

broached in council as certain to be brought up for passage,

Schryhart, through his lawyers and the officers of the old individual

gas companies, had run to the newspapers and denounced the whole

thing as plain robbery; but what were they to do? There was so

little time for agitation. True the newspapers, obedient to this

larger financial influence, began to talk of " fair play to the old

companies, " and the uselessness of two large rival companies in

the field when one would serve as well. Still the public, instructed

or urged by the McKenty agents to the contrary, were not prepared

to believe it. They had not been so well treated by the old

companies as to make any outcry on their behalf.

Standing outside the city council door, on the Monday evening when

the bill was finally passed, Mr. Samuel Blackman, president of the

South Side Gas Company, a little, wispy man with shoe-brush whiskers,

declared emphatically:

" This is a scoundrelly piece of business. If the mayor signs that

he should be impeached. There is not a vote in there to-night

that has not been purchased--not one. This is a fine element of

brigandage to introduce into Chicago; why, people who have worked

years and years to build up a business are not safe! "

" It's true, every word of it, " complained Mr. Jordan Jules, president

of the North Side company, a short, stout man with a head like an

egg lying lengthwise, a mere fringe of hair, and hard, blue eyes.

He was with Mr. Hudson Baker, tall and ambling, who was president

of the West Chicago company. All of these had come to protest.

" It's that scoundrel from Philadelphia. He's the cause of all our

troubles. It's high time the respectable business element of

Chicago realized just what sort of a man they have to deal with

in him. He ought to be driven out of here. Look at his Philadelphia

record. They sent him to the penitentiary down there, and they

ought to do it here. "

Mr. Baker, very recently the guest of Schryhart, and his henchman,

too, was also properly chagrined. " The man is a charlatan, " he

protested to Blackman. " He doesn't play fair. It is plain that

he doesn't belong in respectable society. "

Nevertheless, and in spite of this, the ordinance was passed. It

was a bitter lesson for Mr. Norman Schryhart, Mr. Norrie Simms,

and all those who had unfortunately become involved. A committee

composed of all three of the old companies visited the mayor; but

the latter, a tool of McKenty, giving his future into the hands

of the enemy, signed it just the same. Cowperwood had his franchise,

and, groan as they might, it was now necessary, in the language

of a later day, " to step up and see the captain. " Only Schryhart

felt personally that his score with Cowperwood was not settled.

He would meet him on some other ground later. The next time he

would try to fight fire with fire. But for the present, shrewd

man that he was, he was prepared to compromise.

Thereafter, dissembling his chagrin as best he could, he kept on

the lookout for Cowperwood at both of the clubs of which he was a

member; but Cowperwood had avoided them during this period of

excitement, and Mahomet wouid have to go to the mountain. So one

drowsy June afternoon Mr. Schryhart called at Cowperwood's office.

He had on a bright, new, steel-gray suit and a straw hat. From

his pocket, according to the fashion of the time, protruded a neat,

blue-bordered silk handkerchief, and his feet were immaculate in

new, shining Oxford ties.

" I'm sailing for Europe in a few days, Mr. Cowperwood, " he remarked,

genially, " and I thought I'd drop round to see if you and I could

reach some agreement in regard to this gas situation. The officers

of the old companies naturally feel that they do not care to have

a rival in the field, and I'm sure that you are not interested in

carrying on a useless rate war that won't leave anybody any profit.

I recall that you were willing to compromise on a half-and-half

basis with me before, and I was wondering whether you were still

of that mind. "

" Sit down, sit down, Mr. Schryhart, " remarked Cowperwood, cheerfully,

waving the new-comer to a chair. " I'm pleased to see you again.

No, I'm no more anxious for a rate war than you are. As a matter

of fact, I hope to avoid it; but, as you see, things have changed

somewhat since I saw you. The gentlemen who have organized and

invested their money in this new city gas company are perfectly

willing--rather anxious, in fact--to go on and establish a legitimate

business. They feel all the confidence in the world that they can

do this, and I agree with them. A compromise might be effected

between the old and the new companies, but not on the basis on

which I was willing to settle some time ago. A new company has

been organized since then, stock issued, and a great deal of money

expended. " (This was not true. ) " That stock will have to figure

in any new agreement. I think a general union of all the companies

is desirable, but it will have to be on a basis of one, two, three,

or four shares--whatever is decided--at par for all stock involved. "

Mr. Schryhart pulled a long face. " Don't you think that's rather

steep? " he said, solemnly.

" Not at all, not at all! " replied Cowperwood. " You know these new

expenditures were not undertaken voluntarily. " (The irony of this

did not escape Mr. Schryhart, but he said nothing. )

" I admit all that, but don't you think, since your shares are worth

practically nothing at present, that you ought to be satisfied if

they were accepted at par? "

" I can't see why, " replied Cowperwood. " Our future prospects are

splendid. There must be an even adjustment here or nothing. What

I want to know is how much treasury stock you would expect to have

in the safe for the promotion of this new organization after all

the old stockholders have been satisfied? "

" Well, as I thought before, from thirty to forty per cent. of the

total issue, " replied Schryhart, still hopeful of a profitable

adjustment. " I should think it could be worked on that basis. "

" And who gets that? "

" Why, the organizer, " said Schryhart, evasively. " Yourself, perhaps,

and myself. "

" And how would you divide it? Half and half, as before? "

" I should think that would be fair. "

" It isn't enough, " returned Cowperwood, incisively. " Since I

talked to you last I have been compelled to shoulder obligations

and make agreements which I did not anticipate then. The best I

can do now is to accept three-fourths. "

Schryhart straightened up determinedly and offensively. This was

outrageous, he thought, impossible! The effrontery of it!

" It can never be done, Mr. Cowperwood, " he replied, forcefully.

" You are trying to unload too much worthless stock on the company

as it is. The old companies' stock is selling right now, as you

know, for from one-fifty to two-ten. Your stock is worth nothing.

If you are to be given two or three for one for that, and

three-fourths of the remainder in the treasury, I for one want

nothing to do with the deal. You would be in control of the

company, and it will be water-logged, at that. Talk about getting

something for nothing! The best I would suggest to the stockholders

of the old companies would be half and half. And I may say to you

frankly, although you may not believe it, that the old companies

will not join in with you in any scheme that gives you control.

They are too much incensed. Feeling is running too high. It will

mean a long, expensive fight, and they will never compromise.

Now, if you have anything really reasonable to offer I would be

glad to hear it. Otherwise I am afraid these negotiations are not

going to come to anything. "

" Share and share alike, and three-fourths of the remainder, "

repeated Cowperwood, grimly. " I do not want to control. If they

want to raise the money and buy me out on that basis I am willing

to sell. I want a decent return for investments I have made, and

I am going to have it. I cannot speak for the others behind me,

but as long as they deal through me that is what they will expect. "

Mr. Schryhart went angrily away. He was exceedingly wroth. This

proposition as Cowperwood now outlined it was bucaneering at its

best. He proposed for himself to withdraw from the old companies

if necessary, to close out his holdings and let the old companies

deal with Cowperwood as best they could. So long as he had anything

to do with it, Cowperwood should never gain control of the gas

situation. Better to take him at his suggestion, raise the money

and buy him out, even at an exorbitant figure. Then the old gas

companies could go along and do business in their old-fashioned

way without being disturbed. This bucaneer! This upstart! What a

shrewd, quick, forceful move he had made! It irritated Mr. Schryhart

greatly.

The end of all this was a compromise in which Cowperwood accepted

one-half of the surplus stock of the new general issue, and two

for one of every share of stock for which his new companies had

been organized, at the same time selling out to the old companies

--clearing out completely. It was a most profitable deal, and he

was enabled to provide handsomely not only for Mr. McKenty and

Addison, but for all the others connected with him. It was a

splendid coup, as McKenty and Addison assured him. Having now

done so much, he began to turn his eyes elsewhere for other fields

to conquer.

But this victory in one direction brought with it corresponding

reverses in another: the social future of Cowperwood and Aileen

was now in great jeopardy. Schryhart, who was a force socially,

having met with defeat at the hands of Cowperwood, was now bitterly

opposed to him. Norrie Simms naturally sided with his old associates.

But the worst blow came through Mrs. Anson Merrill. Shortly after

the housewarming, and when the gas argument and the conspiracy

charges were rising to their heights, she had been to New York and

had there chanced to encounter an old acquaintance of hers, Mrs.

Martyn Walker, of Philadelphia, one of the circle which Cowperwood

once upon a time had been vainly ambitious to enter. Mrs. Merrill,

aware of the interest the Cowperwoods had aroused in Mrs. Simms

and others, welcomed the opportunity to find out something definite.

" By the way, did you ever chance to hear of a Frank Algernon

Cowperwood or his wife in Philadelphia? " she inquired of Mrs.

Walker.

" Why, my dear Nellie, " replied her friend, nonplussed that a woman

so smart as Mrs. Merrill should even refer to them, " have those

people established themselves in Chicago? His career in Philadelphia

was, to say the least, spectacular. He was connected with a city

treasurer there who stole five hundred thousand dollars, and they

both went to the penitentiary. That wasn't the worst of it! He

became intimate with some young girl--a Miss Butler, the sister

of Owen Butler, by the way, who is now such a power down there,

and--" She merely lifted her eyes. " While he was in the penitentiary

her father died and the family broke up. I even heard it rumored

that the old gentleman killed himself. " (She was referring to

Aileen's father, Edward Malia Butler. ) " When he came out of the

penitentiary Cowperwood disappeared, and I did hear some one say

that he had gone West, and divorced his wife and married again.

His first wife is still living in Philadelphia somewhere with his

two children. "

Mrs. Merrill was properly astonished, but she did not show it.

" Quite an interesting story, isn't it? " she commented, distantly,

thinking how easy it would be to adjust the Cowperwood situation,

and how pleased she was that she had never shown any interest in

them. " Did you ever see her--his new wife? "

" I think so, but I forget where. I believe she used to ride and

drive a great deal in Philadelphia. "

" Did she have red hair? "

" Oh yes. She was a very striking blonde. "

" I fancy it must be the same person. They have been in the papers

recently in Chicago. I wanted to be sure. "

Mrs. Merrill was meditating some fine comments to be made in the

future.

" I suppose now they're trying to get into Chicago society? " Mrs.

Walker smiled condescendingly and contemptuously--as much at Chicago

society as at the Cowperwoods.

" It's possible that they might attempt something like that in the

East and succeed--I'm sure I don't know, " replied Mrs. Merrill,

caustically, resenting the slur, " but attempting and achieving are

quite different things in Chicago. "

The answer was sufficient. It ended the discussion. When next

Mrs. Simms was rash enough to mention the Cowperwoods, or, rather,

the peculiar publicity in connection with him, her future viewpoint

was definitely fixed for her.

" If you take my advice, " commented Mrs. Merrill, finally, " the

less you have to do with these friends of yours the better. I

know all about them. You might have seen that from the first.

They can never be accepted. "

Mrs. Merrill did not trouble to explain why, but Mrs. Simms through

her husband soon learned the whole truth, and she was righteously

indignant and even terrified. Who was to blame for this sort of

thing, anyhow? she thought. Who had introduced them? The Addisons,

of course. But the Addisons were socially unassailable, if not

all-powerful, and so the best had to be made of that. But the

Cowperwoods could be dropped from the lists of herself and her

friends instantly, and that was now done. A sudden slump in their

social significance began to manifest itself, though not so swiftly

but what for the time being it was slightly deceptive.

The first evidence of change which Aileen observed was when the

customary cards and invitations for receptions and the like, which

had come to them quite freely of late, began to decline sharply

in number, and when the guests to her own Wednesday afternoons,

which rather prematurely she had ventured to establish, became a

mere negligible handful. At first she could not understand this,

not being willing to believe that, following so soon upon her

apparent triumph as a hostess in her own home, there could be so

marked a decline in her local importance. Of a possible seventy-five

or fifty who might have called or left cards, within three weeks

after the housewarming only twenty responded. A week later it had

declined to ten, and within five weeks, all told, there was scarcely

a caller. It is true that a very few of the unimportant--those who

had looked to her for influence and the self-protecting Taylor Lord

and Kent McKibben, who were commercially obligated to Cowperwood

--were still faithful, but they were really worse than nothing.

Aileen was beside herself with disappointment, opposition, chagrin,

shame. There are many natures, rhinoceros-bided and iron-souled,

who can endure almost any rebuff in the hope of eventual victory,

who are almost too thick-skinned to suffer, but hers was not one

of these. Already, in spite of her original daring in regard to

the opinion of society and the rights of the former Mrs. Cowperwood,

she was sensitive on the score of her future and what her past

might mean to her. Really her original actions could be attributed

to her youthful passion and the powerful sex magnetism of Cowperwood.

Under more fortunate circumstances she would have married safely

enough and without the scandal which followed. As it was now, her

social future here needed to end satisfactorily in order to justify

herself to herself, and, she thought, to him.

" You may put the sandwiches in the ice-box, " she said to Louis,

the butler, after one of the earliest of the " at home" failures,

referring to the undue supply of pink-and-blue-ribboned titbits

which, uneaten, honored some fine Sevres with their presence.

" Send the flowers to the hospital. The servants may drink the

claret cup and lemonade. Keep some of the cakes fresh for dinner. "

The butler nodded his head. " Yes, Madame, " he said. Then, by way

of pouring oil on what appeared to him to be a troubled situation,

he added: " Eet's a rough day. I suppose zat has somepsing to do

weeth it. "

Aileen was aflame in a moment. She was about to exclaim: " Mind

your business! " but changed her mind. " Yes, I presume so, " was

her answer, as she ascended to her room. If a single poor " at

home" was to be commented on by servants, things were coming to a

pretty pass. She waited until the next week to see whether this

was the weather or a real change in public sentiment. It was worse

than the one before. The singers she had engaged had to be dismissed

without performing the service for which they had come. Kent

McKibben and Taylor Lord, very well aware of the rumors now flying

about, called, but in a remote and troubled spirit. Aileen saw

that, too. An affair of this kind, with only these two and Mrs.

Webster Israels and Mrs. Henry Huddlestone calling, was a sad

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