s further
speech.

"Well, Mr. Derrick," continued S. Behrman, wiping the back of his neck
with his handkerchief, "I saw in the city papers yesterday that our case
had gone against you."

"I guess it wasn't any great news to YOU," commented Harran, his face
scarlet. "I guess you knew which way Ulsteen was going to jump after
your very first interview with him. You don't like to be surprised in
this sort of thing, S. Behrman."

"Now, you know better than that, Harran," remonstrated S. Behrman
blandly. "I know what you mean to imply, but I ain't going to let it
make me get mad. I wanted to say to your Governor--I wanted to say to
you, Mr. Derrick--as one man to another--letting alone for the minute
that we were on opposite sides of the case--that I'm sorry you didn't
win. Your side made a good fight, but it was in a mistaken cause. That's
the whole trouble. Why, you could have figured out before you ever went
into the case that such rates are confiscation of property. You must
allow us--must allow the railroad--a fair interest on the investment.
You don't want us to go into the receiver's hands, do you now, Mr.
Derrick?"

"The Board of Railroad Commissioners was bought," remarked Magnus
sharply, a keen, brisk flash glinting in his eye.

"It was part of the game," put in Harran, "for the Railroad Commission
to cut rates to a ridiculous figure, far below a REASONABLE figure, just
so that it WOULD be confiscation. Whether Ulsteen is a tool of yours or
not, he had to put the rates back to what they were originally."

"If you enforced those rates, Mr. Harran," returned S. Behrman calmly,
"we wouldn't be able to earn sufficient money to meet operating
expenses or fixed charges, to say nothing of a surplus left over to pay
dividends----"

"Tell me when the P. and S. W. ever paid dividends."

"The lowest rates," continued S. Behrman, "that the legislature
can establish must be such as will secure us a fair interest on our
investment."

"Well, what's your standard? Come, let's hear it. Who is to say what's a
fair rate? The railroad has its own notions of fairness sometimes."

"The laws of the State," returned S. Behrman, "fix the rate of interest
at seven per cent. That's a good enough standard for us. There is no
reason, Mr. Harran, why a dollar invested in a railroad should not earn
as much as a dollar represented by a promissory note--seven per cent.
By applying your schedule of rates we would not earn a cent; we wo