iving hypocrite like Roebuck, or a frank believer in the right of
might, like Updegraff, I might possibly, in the circumstances, have tried
to release him from my net. But he had never for an instant deceived
himself as to the real nature of the enterprises he plotted, promoted and
profited by; he thought it "smart" to be bad, and he delighted in making
the most cynical epigrams on the black deeds of himself and his associates.

"Better sell out to Roebuck," I suggested. "I control all the Coal stock I
need."

"I don't care to have anything further to do with Roebuck," Langdon
answered. "I've broken with him."

"When a man lies to me," said I, "he gives me the chance to see just how
much of a fool he thinks I am, and also the chance to see just how much of
a fool he is. I hesitate to think so poorly of you as your attempt to fool
me seems to compel."

But he was unconvinced. "I've found he intends to abandon the ship and
leave me to go down with it," he persisted. "He believes he can escape and
denounce me as the arch rascal who planned the combine, and can convince
people that I foozled him into it."

Ingenious; but I happened to know that it was false. "Pardon me, Mr.
Langdon," said I with stiff courtesy. "I repeat, I can do nothing for you.
Good morning." And I went at my work as if he were already gone.

Had I been vindictive, I would have led him on to humiliate himself more
deeply, if greater depths of humiliation there are than those to which
he voluntarily descended. But I wished to spare him; I let him see the
uselessness of his mission. He looked at me in silence--the look of hate
that can come only from a creature weak as well as wicked. I think it
was all his keen sense of humor could do to save him from a melodramatic
outbreak. He slipped into his habitual pose, rose and withdrew without
another word. All this fright and groveling and treachery for plunder, the
loss of which would not impair his fortune--plunder he had stolen with many
a jest and gibe at his helpless victims. Like most of our debonair dollar
chasers, he was a good sportsman only when the game was with him.

That afternoon he threw his Coal holdings on the market in great blocks.
His treachery took Roebuck completely by surprise--for Roebuck believed in
this fair-weather "gentleman," foul-weather coward, and neglected to allow
for that quicksand that is always under the foundation of the man who has
inherited, not earned, his wealth. B