can do. Your
chemist or the expert you hire will begin experimenting without Seaton's
lucky start, which I have already mentioned, but about which I haven't
gone into any detail. He will have no information whatever, and the
first attempt to do anything with the stuff will blow him and all the
country around him for miles into an impalpable powder. You will lose
your chemist, your solution, and all hope of getting the process. There
are only two men in the United States, or in the world, for that matter,
with brains enough and information enough to work it out. One is
Richard B. Seaton, the other is Marc C. DuQuesne. Seaton certainly won't
handle it for you. Money can't buy him and Crane, and you know it. You
must come to me. If you don't believe that now, you will very shortly,
after you try it alone."

Brookings, caught in his duplicity and half-convinced of the truth of
DuQuesne's statements, still temporized.

"You're modest, aren't you, Doctor?" he asked, smiling.

"Modest? No," said the other calmly. "Modesty never got anybody anything
but praise, and I prefer something more substantial. However, I never
exaggerate or make over-statements, as you should know. What I have said
is merely a statement of fact. Also, let me remind you that I am in a
hurry. The difficulty of getting hold of that solution is growing
greater every minute, and my price is getting higher every second."

"What is your price at the present second?"

"Ten thousand dollars per month during the experimental work; five
million dollars in cash upon the successful operation of the first power
unit, which shall be of not less than ten thousand horsepower; and ten
percent of the profits."

"Oh, come, Doctor, let's be reasonable. You can't mean any such figures
as those."

"I never say anything I don't mean. I have done a lot of dirty work with
you people before, and never got much of anything out of it. You were
always too strong for me; that is, I couldn't force you without exposing
my own crookedness, but now I've got you right where I want you. That's
my price; take it or leave it. If you don't take it now, the first two
of those figures will be doubled when you do come to me. I won't go to
anybody else, though others would be glad to get it on my terms, because
I have a reputation to maintain and you are the only ones who know that
I am crooked. I know that my reputation is safe as long as I work with
you, because I know enough about you