o have been indiscreet, but at that time I
thought it my best plan, and the result proved that I was right. He made
no reply to my inquiry, but I was satisfied my suspicion was correct and
resolved on the spot, to flank his movement if possible.

As he had entered the office first, it was in order for me to outstay
him, which I did. On his leaving, I asked for a price for all the small
arms the Company could manufacture.

The Superintendent said he could not answer me, but would refer me to
the Chairman of the Company,--President, we should call him--and would
accompany me to his office. There I repeated my inquiry for a price for
all the arms the Company could make for a year, with the privilege of
renewing the order. The President was not prepared to give me a price,
but would do so the next day. On calling at his office the following
day, he told me that the Company was under contract for all the arms it
could turn out, and considering all the circumstances, the Directors
felt they ought to give their present customer the preference over all
others.

Confirmed in my belief that my competitor was no other than the man whom
I had encountered the day before, I was now more determined than ever to
secure the London Armory as a Confederate States arms factory. The
Atlantic cable was not then laid, and correspondence by mail required
nearly a month--an unreasonable time for a commercial company to hold in
abeyance a desirable opportunity for profit. Within a few days I
succeeded in closing a contract under which I was to have all the arms
the Company could manufacture, after filling a comparatively small order
for the United States agent. This Company, during the remainder of the
war, turned all its output of arms over to me for the Confederate army.

Baring Brothers were, at that time, the London financial agents for the
United States Government, and they would unquestionably have been
supported and gratefully thanked, had they assumed the responsibility of
contracting for all the arms in sight in England. Any army officer, fit
for such a mission as that of buying arms for a great Government at the
outbreak of a war, would have acted, if necessary, without instructions,
and secured everything that he could find in the line of essentials,
especially arms, of which there were very few in the market. There were
_muskets_ enough to be had for almost any reasonable offer, but of
modern Enfield or Springfield rifles--which w