s. This man held me with his eye and
forced me to listen. He came with no apology and no misgiving. He knew
himself for a child of Destiny, and within ten minutes I knew it, too.
What is the biggest accomplishment, gentlemen, that stands to the credit
of Consolidated in the past ten years?"

"The merging of Inter-ocean Coal and Ore." Meegan gave the response
without hesitation, and no one contradicted him.

"That," asserted Malone, "was the wild scheme which Hamilton Burton
brought to me as his letter of introduction. I found no flaw in his
plan--aside from its stupendous audacity. You ask me why I put him in a
position of power. He rode in on his own usefulness--led by his
intrinsic self-faith."

"So far as you have gone," suggested Harrison drily, "you have
summarized several fairly solid reasons for keeping him with us."

"Quite true. I concede him a Napoleonic caliber and I recognize his
Napoleonic effrontery. His conscienceless lust for power has unbalanced
him. He seeks to sack the world. He must be stopped."

"So you suggest--?" Browne left his question unfinished save for the
interrogation of his lifted brows.

"He sits in seven of our directorates. You know how Consolidated has
sought to avoid the appearance of too narrow a domination. You know,
too, that we have avoided directors who were obviously pure dummies. For
several weeks I have been tracing out the holdings in Coal and Ore
stock. Hamilton Burton with his following looms too large. Left to his
own devices, he may outgrow control."

Meegan studied his cigar with attentively knit brows before he inquired:
"Does Burton assume such proportions in Coal and Ore as to suggest
turning the balance of control? Is that what you mean?"

"Not yet." Malone drew from his pocket a small note-book and consulted
its pages. "We hold a safe balance in our own hands, barring treachery,
but we have let him gain a stronger nucleus than now seems advisable.
You gentlemen know that we have always held out the impression that only
a small amount of Consolidated stock is offered the general public."

"As we also know," amended Harrison bluntly, "that in fact a large
proportion of it is in the hands of the casual investor. Still another
fact is sure. Burton's sobriquet of the Great Bear was not gratuitously
bestowed. If we read him out of meeting he will bring a panic about our
cars."

Malone puffed for a space at his cigar in silence. The quiet drone of
the engines c