nhauer or others. In short he was not as eager to serve Butler, or
any one else, as he was to serve himself if he could.

In this connection, the scheme which George W. Stener had brought
forward, representing actually in the background Strobik, Wycroft, and
Harmon, was an opening wedge for himself. Stener's plan was to loan him
money out of the city treasury at two per cent., or, if he would waive
all commissions, for nothing (an agent for self-protective purposes
was absolutely necessary), and with it take over the North Pennsylvania
Company's line on Front Street, which, because of the shortness of its
length, one mile and a half, and the brevity of the duration of its
franchise, was neither doing very well nor being rated very high.
Cowperwood in return for his manipulative skill was to have a fair
proportion of the stock--twenty per cent. Strobik and Wycroft knew the
parties from whom the bulk of the stock could be secured if engineered
properly. Their plan was then, with this borrowed treasury money, to
extend its franchise and then the line itself, and then later again, by
issuing a great block of stock and hypothecating it with a favored bank,
be able to return the principal to the city treasury and pocket their
profits from the line as earned. There was no trouble in this, in so far
as Cowperwood was concerned, except that it divided the stock very badly
among these various individuals, and left him but a comparatively small
share--for his thought and pains.

But Cowperwood was an opportunist. And by this time his financial
morality had become special and local in its character. He did not think
it was wise for any one to steal anything from anybody where the act of
taking or profiting was directly and plainly considered stealing.
That was unwise--dangerous--hence wrong. There were so many situations
wherein what one might do in the way of taking or profiting was open
to discussion and doubt. Morality varied, in his mind at least, with
conditions, if not climates. Here, in Philadelphia, the tradition
(politically, mind you--not generally) was that the city treasurer might
use the money of the city without interest so long as he returned the
principal intact. The city treasury and the city treasurer were like
a honey-laden hive and a queen bee around which the drones--the
politicians--swarmed in the hope of profit. The one disagreeable thing
in connection with this transaction with Stener was that neither Butler