fox, and
saying: 'Come to me. Let me handle city loan. Loan me the city's money
at two per cent. or less.' Can't you hear him suggesting this? Can't you
see him?

"George W. Stener was a poor man, comparatively a very poor man, when
he first became city treasurer. All he had was a small real-estate
and insurance business which brought him in, say, twenty-five hundred
dollars a year. He had a wife and four children to support, and he had
never had the slightest taste of what for him might be called luxury or
comfort. Then comes Mr. Cowperwood--at his request, to be sure, but on
an errand which held no theory of evil gains in Mr. Stener's mind at the
time--and proposes his grand scheme of manipulating all the city loan
to their mutual advantage. Do you yourselves think, gentlemen, from what
you have seen of George W. Stener here on the witness-stand, that it was
he who proposed this plan of ill-gotten wealth to that gentleman over
there?"

He pointed to Cowperwood.

"Does he look to you like a man who would be able to tell that gentleman
anything about finance or this wonderful manipulation that followed?
I ask you, does he look clever enough to suggest all the subtleties by
which these two subsequently made so much money? Why, the statement of
this man Cowperwood made to his creditors at the time of his failure
here a few weeks ago showed that he considered himself to be worth over
one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and he is only a
little over thirty-four years old to-day. How much was he worth at the
time he first entered business relations with the ex-city treasurer?
Have you any idea? I can tell. I had the matter looked up almost a month
ago on my accession to office. Just a little over two hundred thousand
dollars, gentlemen--just a little over two hundred thousand dollars.
Here is an abstract from the files of Dun & Company for that year. Now
you can see how rapidly our Caesar has grown in wealth since then.
You can see how profitable these few short years have been to him. Was
George W. Stener worth any such sum up to the time he was removed from
his office and indicted for embezzlement? Was he? I have here a schedule
of his liabilities and assets made out at the time. You can see it for
yourselves, gentlemen. Just two hundred and twenty thousand dollars
measured the sum of all his property three weeks ago; and it is an
accurate estimate, as I have reason to know. Why was it, do you suppose,
t