new that for all the flattering confidence to which he
was admitted, many broadly conceived pictures moved across the screen of
his employer's mind of which he was vouchsafed no intimation.

"I'll elucidate, Carl, though it's scarcely a matter for advertisement,"
went on the other. "Hasn't it occurred to you that Malone and I started
life in very similar fashion? Each of us came raw and uninitiated from
the country. Each of us brought rugged physiques and fairly alert minds
to our tasks. Each of us has, I think, been fairly successful." Hamilton
Burton paused to laugh frankly at his own modesty of expression.

"Each of us has been a little swifter than the generality in reading
signs; a little bolder in conception and execution. If you read the
papers you will gather that each of us is, in private life, impeccable,
and each of us is, in business, as merciless as an epidemic."

"That is the voice of envy," protested the younger man with heat.

"Thank you. I am grateful for the acquittal. There is room for only one
absolute master. Only one side of a coin can lie face up at the same
time. Heads or tails must be turned down."

To the front of Malone's mind a train of dispassionate logic had forced
a similar conviction. As between himself and this rising sun of finance
it was a matter of heads or tails. In consequence, on a certain June
afternoon his yacht, _Albatross_, cleared from its slip in the Hudson
and stood out toward midstream with her prow pointed toward the bay and
the narrows.

It was a sparkling day, warm enough to make the breeze agreeable as it
fanned the faces of the loungers on the white deck. J.J. Malone himself
was seemingly nothing more formidable than the unexcelled host. As he
leaned, bareheaded, on the rail of the forward deck the river breath
stirred his iron-gray hair and his changeful eyes were kindly and
atwinkle. Yet the party had not been wholly devised for purposes of
pleasuring. There were no ladies on board and only four men exclusive of
the crew. These four could swing directorates controlling the major
interests of Consolidated. For this twenty-four hours of cruising, one
had come down from Newport, one had delayed his sailing date to Europe
and the third, H.A. Harrison, had left the entertainment of his guests
at Haverly Lodge in the hands of others.

Dinner passed with no reference to business. Anecdote and repartee held
the right of way, but later when the myriad lights of lower Ma