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chagrined to find that one and all uniformly refused.

" I'll tell you how it is, Judah, " one bank president confided to

him, in great secrecy. " We owe Timothy Arneel at least three

hundred thousand dollars that we only have to pay three per cent.

for. It's a call-loan. Besides, the Lake National is our main

standby when it comes to quick trades, and he's in on that. I

understand from one or two friends that he's at outs with Cowperwood,

and we can't afford to offend him. I'd like to, but no more for

me--not at present, anyhow. "

" Why, Simmons, " replied Addison, " these fellows are simply cutting

off their noses to spite their faces. These stock and bond issues

are perfectly good investments, and no one knows it better than

you do. All this hue and cry in the newspapers against Cowperwood

doesn't amount to anything. He's perfectly solvent. Chicago is

growing. His lines are becoming more valuable every year. "

" I know that, " replied Simmons. " But what about this talk of a

rival elevated system? Won't that injure his lines for the time

being, anyhow, if it comes into the field? "

" If I know anything about Cowperwood, " replied Addison, simply,

" there isn't going to be any rival elevated road. It's true they

got the city council to give them a franchise for one line on the

South Side; but that's out of his territory, anyhow, and that other

one to the Chicago General Company doesn't amount to anything.

It will be years and years before it can be made to pay a dollar,

and when the time comes he will probably take it over if he wants

it. Another election will be held in two years, and then the city

administration may not be so unfavorable. As it is, they haven't

been able to hurt him through the council as much as they thought

they would. "

" Yes; but he lost the election. "

" True; but it doesn't follow he's going to lose the next one, or

every one. "

" Just the same, " replied Simmons, very secretively, " I understand

there's a concerted effort on to drive him out. Schryhart, Hand,

Merrill, Arneel--they're the most powerful men we have. I understand

Hand says that he'll never get his franchises renewed except on

terms that'll make his lines unprofitable. There's going to be

an awful smash here one of these days if that's true. " Mr. Simmons

looked very wise and solemn.

" Never believe it, " replied Addison, contemptuously. " Hand isn't

Chicago, neither is Schryhart, nor Arneel. Cowperwood is a brainy

man. He isn't going to be put under so easily. Did you ever hear

what was the real bottom cause of all this disturbance? "

" Yes, I've heard, " replied Simmons.

" Do you believe it? "

" Oh, I don't know. Yes, I suppose I do. Still, I don't know that

that need have anything to do with it. Money envy is enough to

make any man fight. This man Hand is very powerful. "

Not long after this Cowperwood, strolling into the president's

office of the Chicago Trust Company, inquired: " Well, Judah, how

about those Northwestern 'L' bonds? "

" It's just as I thought, Frank, " replied Addison, softly. " We'll

have to go outside of Chicago for that money. Hand, Arneel, and

the rest of that crowd have decided to combine against us. That's

plain. Something has started them off in full cry. I suppose my

resignation may have had something to do with it. Anyhow, every

one of the banks in which they have any hand has uniformly refused

to come in. To make sure that I was right I even called up the

little old Third National of Lake View and the Drovers and Traders

on Forty-seventh Street. That's Charlie Wallin's bank. When I

was over in the Lake National he used to hang around the back door

asking for anything I could give him that was sound. Now he says

his orders are from his directors not to share in anything we have

to offer. It's the same story everywhere--they daren't. I asked

Wallin if he knew why the directors were down on the Chicago Trust

or on you, and at first he said he didn't. Then he said he'd stop

in and lunch with me some day. They're the silliest lot of old

ostriches I ever heard of. As if refusing to let us have money on

any loan here was going to prevent us from getting it! They can

take their little old one-horse banks and play blockhouses with

them if they want to. I can go to New York and in thirty-six hours

raise twenty million dollars if we need it. "

Addison was a little warm. It was a new experience for him.

Cowperwood merely curled his mustaches and smiled sardonically.

" Well, never mind, " he said. " Will you go down to New York, or

shall I? "

It was decided, after some talk, that Addison should go. When he

reached New York he found, to his surprise, that the local opposition

to Cowperwood had, for some mysterious reason, begun to take root

in the East.

" I'll tell you how it is, " observed Joseph Haeckelheimer, to whom

Addison applied--a short, smug, pussy person who was the head of

Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb & Co., international bankers. " We hear odd

things concerning Mr. Cowperwood out in Chicago. Some people say

he is sound--some not. He has some very good franchises covering

a large portion of the city, but they are only twenty-year franchises,

and they will all run out by 1903 at the latest. As I understand

it, he has managed to stir up all the local elements--some very

powerful ones, too--and he is certain to have a hard time to get

his franchises renewed. I don't live in Chicago, of course. I

don't know much about it, but our Western correspondent tells me

this is so. Mr. Cowperwood is a very able man, as I understand

it, but if all these influential men are opposed to him they can

make him a great deal of trouble. The public is very easily

aroused. "

" You do a very able man a great injustice, Mr. Haeckelheimer, "

Addison retorted. " Almost any one who starts out to do things

successfully and intelligently is sure to stir up a great deal of

feeling. The particular men you mention seem to feel that they

have a sort of proprietor's interest in Chicago. They really think

they own it. As a matter of fact, the city made them; they didn't

make the city. "

Mr. Haeckelheimer lifted his eyebrows. He laid two fine white

hands, plump and stubby, over the lower buttons of his protuberant

waistcoat. " Public favor is a great factor in all these enterprises, "

he almost sighed. " As you know, part of a man's resources lies

in his ability to avoid stirring up opposition. It may be that

Mr. Cowperwood is strong enough to overcome all that. I don't

know. I've never met him. I'm just telling you what I hear. "

This offish attitude on the part of Mr. Haeckelheimer was indicative

of a new trend. The man was enormously wealthy. The firm of

Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb & Co. represented a controlling interest

in some of the principal railways and banks in America. Their

favor was not to be held in light esteem.

It was plain that these rumors against Cowperwood in New York,

unless offset promptly by favorable events in Chicago, might mean

--in the large banking quarters, anyhow--the refusal of all

subsequent Cowperwood issues. It might even close the doors of

minor banks and make private investors nervous.

Addison's report of all this annoyed Cowperwood no little. It

made him angry. He saw in it the work of Schryhart, Hand, and

others who were trying their best to discredit him. " Let them

talk, " he declared, crossly. " I have the street-railways. They're

not going to rout me out of here. I can sell stocks and bonds to

the public direct if need be! There are plenty of private people

who are glad to invest in these properties. "

At this psychological moment enter, as by the hand of Fate, the

planet Mars and the University. This latter, from having been for

years a humble Baptist college of the cheapest character, had

suddenly, through the beneficence of a great Standard Oil

multimillionaire, flared upward into a great university, and was

causing a stir throughout the length and breadth of the educational

world.

It was already a most noteworthy spectacle, one of the sights of

the city. Millions were being poured into it; new and beautiful

buildings were almost monthly erected. A brilliant, dynamic man

had been called from the East as president. There were still many

things needed--dormitories, laboratories of one kind and another,

a great library; and, last but not least, a giant telescope--one

that would sweep the heavens with a hitherto unparalleled receptive

eye, and wring from it secrets not previously decipherable by the

eye and the mind of man.

Cowperwood had always been interested in the heavens and in the

giant mathematical and physical methods of interpreting them. It

so happened that the war-like planet, with its sinister aspect,

was just at this time to be seen hanging in the west, a fiery red;

and the easily aroused public mind was being stirred to its shallow

depth by reflections and speculations regarding the famous canals

of the luminary. The mere thought of the possibility of a larger

telescope than any now in existence, which might throw additional

light on this evasive mystery, was exciting not only Chicago, but

the whole world. Late one afternoon Cowperwood, looking over some

open fields which faced his new power-house in West Madison Street,

observed the planet hanging low and lucent in the evening sky, a

warm, radiant bit of orange in a sea of silver. He paused and

surveyed it. Was it true that there were canals on it, and people?

Life was surely strange.

One day not long after this Alexander Rambaud called him up on the

'phone and remarked, jocosely:

" I say, Cowperwood, I've played a rather shabby trick on you just

now. Doctor Hooper, of the University, was in here a few minutes

ago asking me to be one of ten to guarantee the cost of a telescope

lens that he thinks he needs to run that one-horse school of his

out there. I told him I thought you might possibly be interested.

His idea is to find some one who will guarantee forty thousand

dollars, or eight or ten men who will guarantee four or five

thousand each. I thought of you, because I've heard you discuss

astronomy from time to time. "

" Let him come, " replied Cowperwood, who was never willing to be

behind others in generosity, particularly where his efforts were

likely to be appreciated in significant quarters.

Shortly afterward appeared the doctor himself--short, rotund,

rubicund, displaying behind a pair of clear, thick, gold-rimmed

glasses, round, dancing, incisive eyes. Imaginative grip, buoyant,

self-delusive self-respect were written all over him. The two men

eyed each other--one with that broad-gage examination which sees

even universities as futile in the endless shift of things; the

other with that faith in the balance for right which makes even

great personal forces, such as financial magnates, serve an

idealistic end.

" It's not a very long story I have to tell you, Mr. Cowperwood, "

said the doctor. " Our astronomical work is handicapped just now

by the simple fact that we have no lens at all, no telescope worthy

of the name. I should like to see the University do original work

in this field, and do it in a great way. The only way to do it,

in my judgment, is to do it better than any one else can. Don't

you agree with me? " He showed a row of shining white teeth.

Cowperwood smiled urbanely.

" Will a forty-thousand-dollar lens be a better lens than any other

lens? " he inquired.

" Made by Appleman Brothers, of Dorchester, it will, " replied the

college president. " The whole story is here, Mr. Cowperwood.

These men are practical lens-makers. A great lens, in the first

place, is a matter of finding a suitable crystal. Large and

flawless crystals are not common, as you may possibly know. Such

a crystal has recently been found, and is now owned by Mr. Appleman.

It takes about four or five years to grind and polish it. Most

of the polishing, as you may or may not know, is done by the

hand--smoothing it with the thumb and forefinger. The time,

judgment, and skill of an optical expert is required. To-day,

unfortunately, that is not cheap. The laborer is worthy of his

hire, however, I suppose" --he waved a soft, full, white hand--" and

forty thousand is little enough. It would be a great honor if the

University could have the largest, most serviceable, and most

perfect lens in the world. It would reflect great credit, I take

it, on the men who would make this possible. "

Cowperwood liked the man's artistically educational air; obviously

here was a personage of ability, brains, emotion, and scientific

enthusiasm. It was splendid to him to see any strong man in

earnest, for himself or others.

" And forty thousand will do this? " he asked.

" Yes, sir. Forty thousand will guarantee us the lens, anyhow. "

" And how about land, buildings, a telescope frame? Have you all

those things prepared for it? "

" Not as yet, but, since it takes four years at least to grind the

lens, there will be time enough, when the lens is nearing completion,

to look after the accessories. We have picked our site, however

--Lake Geneva--and we would not refuse either land or accessories

if we knew where to get them. "

Again the even, shining teeth, the keen eyes boring through the

glasses.

Cowperwood saw a great opportunity. He asked what would be the

cost of the entire project. Dr. Hooper presumed that three hundred

thousand would do it all handsomely--lens, telescope, land,

machinery, building--a great monument.

" And how much have you guaranteed on the cost of your lens? "

" Sixteen thousand dollars, so far. "

" To be paid when? "

" In instalments--ten thousand a year for four years. Just enough

to keep the lens-maker busy for the present. "

Cowperwood reflected. Ten thousand a year for four years would

be a mere salary item, and at the end of that time he felt sure

that he could supply the remainder of the money quite easily. He

would be so much richer; his plans would be so much more mature.

On such a repute (the ability to give a three-hundred-thousand-dollar

telescope out of hand to be known as the Cowperwood telescope) he

could undoubtedly raise money in London, New York, and elsewhere

for his Chicago enterprise. The whole world would know him in a

day. He paused, his enigmatic eyes revealing nothing of the

splendid vision that danced before them. At last! At last!

" How would it do, Mr. Hooper, " he said, sweetly, " if, instead of

ten men giving you four thousand each, as you plan, one man were

to give you forty thousand in annual instalments of ten thousand

each? Could that be arranged as well? "

" My dear Mr. Cowperwood, " exclaimed the doctor, glowing, his eyes

alight, " do I understand that you personally might wish to give

the money for this lens? "

" I might, yes. But I should have to exact one pledge, Mr. Hooper,

if I did any such thing. "

" And what would that be? "

" The privilege of giving the land and the building--the whole

telescope, in fact. I presume no word of this will be given out

unless the matter is favorably acted upon? " he added, cautiously

and diplomatically.

The new president of the university arose and eyed him with a

peculiarly approbative and grateful gaze. He was a busy, overworked

man. His task was large. Any burden taken from his shoulders in

this fashion was a great relief.

" My answer to that, Mr. Cowperwood, if I had the authority, would

be to agree now in the name of the University, and thank you. For

form's sake, I must submit the matter to the trustees of the

University, but I have no doubt as to the outcome. I anticipate

nothing but grateful approbation. Let me thank you again. "

They shook hands warmly, and the solid collegian bustled forth.

Cowperwood sank quietly in his chair. He pressed his fingers

together, and for a moment or two permitted himself to dream.

Then he called a stenographer and began a bit of dictation. He

did not care to think even to himself how universally advantageous

all this might yet prove to be.

The result was that in the course of a few weeks the proffer was

formally accepted by the trustees of the University, and a report

of the matter, with Cowperwood's formal consent, was given out for

publication. The fortuitous combination of circumstances already

described gave the matter a unique news value. Giant reflectors

and refractors had been given and were in use in other parts of

the world, but none so large or so important as this. The gift

was sufficient to set Cowperwood forth in the light of a public

benefactor and patron of science. Not only in Chicago, but in

London, Paris, and New York, wherever, indeed, in the great capitals

scientific and intellectual men were gathered, this significant

gift of an apparently fabulously rich American became the subject

of excited discussion. Banking men, among others, took sharp note

of the donor, and when Cowperwood's emissaries came around later

with a suggestion that the fifty-year franchises about to be voted

him for elevated roads should be made a basis of bond and mortgage

loans, they were courteously received. A man who could give

three-hundred-thousand-dollar telescopes in the hour of his greatest

difficulties must be in a rather satisfactory financial condition.

He must have great wealth in reserve. After some preliminaries,

during which Cowperwood paid a flying visit to Threadneedle Street

in London, and to Wall Street in New York, an arrangement was made

with an English-American banking company by which the majority of

the bonds for his proposed roads were taken over by them for sale

in Europe and elsewhere, and he was given ample means wherewith

to proceed. Instantly the stocks of his surface lines bounded in

price, and those who had been scheming to bring about Cowperwood's

downfall gnashed impotent teeth. Even Haeckelheimer & Co. were

interested.

Anson Merrill, who had only a few weeks before given a large field

for athletic purposes to the University, pulled a wry face over

this sudden eclipse of his glory. Hosmer Hand, who had given a

chemical laboratory, and Schryhart, who had presented a dormitory,

were depressed to think that a benefaction less costly than theirs

should create, because of the distinction of the idea, so much

more notable comment. It was merely another example of the brilliant

fortune which seemed to pursue the man, the star that set all their

plans at defiance.

Chapter XLIV

A Franchise Obtained

The money requisite for the construction of elevated roads having

been thus pyrotechnically obtained, the acquisition of franchises

remained no easy matter. It involved, among other problems, the

taming of Chaffee Thayer Sluss, who, quite unconscious of the

evidence stored up against him, had begun to fulminate the moment

it was suggested in various secret political quarters that a new

ordinance was about to be introduced, and that Cowperwood was to

be the beneficiary. " Don't you let them do that, Mr. Sluss, "

observed Mr. Hand, who for purposes of conference had courteously

but firmly bidden his hireling, the mayor, to lunch. " Don't you

let them pass that if you can help it. " (As chairman or president

of the city council Mr. Sluss held considerable manipulative power

over the machinery of procedure. ) " Raise such a row that they won't

try to pass it over your head. Your political future really depends

on it--your standing with the people of Chicago. The newspapers

and the respectable financial and social elements will fully support

you in this. Otherwise they will wholly desert you. Things have

come to a handsome pass when men sworn and elected to perform given

services turn on their backers and betray them in this way! "

Mr. Hand was very wroth.

Mr. Sluss, immaculate in black broadcloth and white linen, was

very sure that he would fulfil to the letter all of Mr. Hand's

suggestions. The proposed ordinance should be denounced by him;

its legislative progress heartily opposed in council.

" They shall get no quarter from me! " he declared, emphatically.

" I know what the scheme is. They know that I know it. "

He looked at Mr. Hand quite as one advocate of righteousness should

look at another, and the rich promoter went away satisfied that

the reins of government were in safe hands. Immediately afterward

Mr. Sluss gave out an interview in which he served warning on all

aldermen and councilmen that no such ordinance as the one in

question would ever be signed by him as mayor.

At half past ten on the same morning on which the interview appeared

--the hour at which Mr. Sluss usually reached his office--his

private telephone bell rang, and an assistant inquired if he would

be willing to speak with Mr. Frank A. Cowperwood. Mr. Sluss,

somehow anticipating fresh laurels of victory, gratified by the

front-page display given his announcement in the morning papers,

and swelling internally with civic pride, announced, solemnly:

" Yes; connect me. "

" Mr. Sluss, " began Cowperwood, at the other end, " this is Frank

A. Cowperwood. "

" Yes. What can I do for you, Mr. Cowperwood? "

" I see by the morning papers that you state that you will have

nothing to do with any proposed ordinance which looks to giving

me a franchise for any elevated road on the North or West Side? "

" That is quite true, " replied Mr. Sluss, loftily. " I will not. "

" Don't you think it is rather premature, Mr. Sluss, to denounce

something which has only a rumored existence? " (Cowperwood, smiling

sweetly to himself, was quite like a cat playing with an unsuspicious

mouse. ) " I should like very much to talk this whole matter over

with you personally before you take an irrevocable attitude. It

is just possible that after you have heard my side you may not be

so completely opposed to me. From time to time I have sent to you

several of my personal friends, but apparently you do not care to

receive them. "

" Quite true, " replied Mr. Sluss, loftily; " but you must remember

that I am a very busy man, Mr. Cowperwood, and, besides, I do not

see how I can serve any of your purposes. You are working for a

set of conditions to which I am morally and temperamentally opposed.

I am working for another. I do not see that we have any common

ground on which to meet. In fact, I do not see how I can be of

any service to you whatsoever. "

" Just a moment, please, Mr. Mayor, " replied Cowperwood, still very

sweetly, and fearing that Sluss might choose to hang up the receiver,

so superior was his tone. " There may be some common ground of

which you do not know. Wouldn't you like to come to lunch at my

residence or receive me at yours? Or let me come to your office

and talk this matter over. I believe you will find it the part

of wisdom as well as of courtesy to do this. "

" I cannot possibly lunch with you to-day, " replied Sluss, " and I

cannot see you, either. There are a number of things pressing for

my attention. I must say also that I cannot hold any back-room

conferences with you or your emissaries. If you come you must

submit to the presence of others. "

" Very well, Mr. Sluss, " replied Cowperwood, cheerfully. " I will

not come to your office. But unless you come to mine before five

o'clock this afternoon you will face by noon to-morrow a suit for

breach of promise, and your letters to Mrs. Brandon will be given

to the public. I wish to remind you that an election is coming

on, and that Chicago favors a mayor who is privately moral as well

as publicly so. Good morning. "

Mr. Cowperwood hung up his telephone receiver with a click, and

Mr. Sluss sensibly and visibly stiffened and paled. Mrs. Brandon!

The charming, lovable, discreet Mrs. Brandon who had so ungenerously

left him! Why should she be thinking of suing him for breach of

promise, and how did his letter to her come to be in Cowperwood's

hands? Good heavens--those mushy letters! His wife! His children!

His church and the owlish pastor thereof! Chicago! And its

conventional, moral, religious atmosphere! Come to think of it,

Mrs. Brandon had scarcely if ever written him a note of any kind.

He did not even know her history.

At the thought of Mrs. Sluss--her hard, cold, blue eyes--Mr. Sluss

arose, tall and distrait, and ran his hand through his hair. He

walked to the window, snapping his thumb and middle finger and

looking eagerly at the floor. He thought of the telephone switchboard

just outside his private office, and wondered whether his secretary,

a handsome young Presbyterian girl, had been listening, as usual.

Oh, this sad, sad world! If the North Side ever learned of this

--Hand, the newspapers, young MacDonald--would they protect him?

They would not. Would they run him for mayor again? Never! Could

the public be induced to vote for him with all the churches

fulminating against private immorality, hypocrites, and whited

sepulchers? Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord! And he was so very, very much

respected and looked up to--that was the worst of it all. This

terrible demon Cowperwood had descended on him, and he had thought

himself so secure. He had not even been civil to Cowperwood.

What if the latter chose to avenge the discourtesy?

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