od rule. My boys don't touch anything, and I'm glad of it. As I
say, I'm interested in pickin' up a few stocks on 'change; but, to tell
you the truth, I'm more interested in findin' some clever young felly
like yourself through whom I can work. One thing leads to another, you
know, in this world." And he looked at his visitor non-committally, and
yet with a genial show of interest.

"Quite so," replied Cowperwood, with a friendly gleam in return.

"Well," Butler meditated, half to himself, half to Cowperwood, "there
are a number of things that a bright young man could do for me in the
street if he were so minded. I have two bright boys of my own, but I
don't want them to become stock-gamblers, and I don't know that
they would or could if I wanted them to. But this isn't a matter of
stock-gambling. I'm pretty busy as it is, and, as I said awhile ago, I'm
getting along. I'm not as light on my toes as I once was. But if I had
the right sort of a young man--I've been looking into your record,
by the way, never fear--he might handle a number of little
things--investments and loans--which might bring us each a little
somethin'. Sometimes the young men around town ask advice of me in one
way and another--they have a little somethin' to invest, and so--"

He paused and looked tantalizingly out of the window, knowing full
well Cowperwood was greatly interested, and that this talk of political
influence and connections could only whet his appetite. Butler wanted
him to see clearly that fidelity was the point in this case--fidelity,
tact, subtlety, and concealment.

"Well, if you have been looking into my record," observed Cowperwood,
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