ed. "Now we will begin to get real information," he
remarked. "Tell Miss Fagin you will give her fifty dollars a week from
now on; but she is to deliver to you a carbon copy of every letter she
writes for Stolz. And I want those copies on my desk every morning
when I come down. Hood," he continued, abruptly turning the
conversation, "what have you dug up about Ketchim's new company?"

"Very little, sir," replied Hood with a trace of embarrassment. "His
lawyer is a fledgeling named Cass, young, but wise enough not to talk.
I called on him yesterday afternoon to have a little chat about the
old Molino company, representing that I was speaking for certain
stockholders. But he told me to bring the stockholders in and he would
talk with them personally."

Ames laughed, while the lawyer grinned sheepishly. "Is that the sort
of service you are rendering for a hundred-thousand-dollar salary?" he
bantered. "Hood, I'm ashamed of you!"

"I can't blame you; I am ashamed of myself," replied the lawyer.

"Well," continued Ames good-naturedly, "leave Ketchim to me. I've got
three men now buying small amounts of stock in his various companies.
I'll call for receiverships pretty soon, and we will see this time
that he doesn't refund the money. Now about other matters: the Albany
post trolley deal is to go through. Also the potato scheme. Work up
the details and let me have them at once. Have you got the senate bill
drawn for Gossitch?"

"It will be ready this afternoon. As it stands now, the repealing
section gives any city the right to grant saloon licenses of
indefinite length, instead of for one year."

"That's the idea. We want the bill so drawn that it will become
practically impossible to revoke a license."

"As it now reads," said Hood, "it makes a saloon license assignable.
That creates a property right that can hardly be revoked."

"Just so," returned Ames. "As I figure, it will create a value of some
twenty millions for those who own saloons in New York. A tidy sum!"

"That means for the brewers."

"And distillers, yes. And if the United States ever reaches the point
where it will have to buy the saloons in order to wipe them out, it
will face a very handsome little expenditure."

"But, Mr. Ames, a very large part of the stock of American brewing
companies is owned in Europe. How are you--"

"Nominally, it is. But for two years, and more, I have been quietly
gathering in brewing stock from abroad, and to-day I ha