his hands on money
has his shadow. It's a question of business. The wholesaler must know
the character of the retailer to whom he extends credit. A trust must
know what its remaining independent rivals are doing, what business
they are developing, what big orders they seek. I must know, and I must
know accurately and fully what every enemy is doing, what he is
thinking, with whom he drinks, where he spends his time and how he
lives.

"Modern business is war, the fiercest and most cruel the world has ever
known. It is of greater importance to a modern captain of industry to
know the plans of his enemy than it ever was to the commanding general
of an opposing army."

"I see," Stuart responded, thoughtfully.

"There are men down there in the street now," Bivens went on dreamily,
"who are wearing silk hats to-day for whom the prison tailor is cutting
a suit. I have their records in that silent little steel-clad room.
It's a pitiful thing, but it's life. And, believe me, the realities of
our every-day life here are more wonderful than the wildest romance the
novelist can spin.

"Last year I had a man of genius at the head of one of my corporations.
Not the slightest suspicion had ever been directed against him. But my
men reported to me that he was supporting two establishments, besides
the one he kept for his family, and that in those two secret orchards
which he tended he was making presents of fine jewelry. An examination
of his office by experts revealed the fact that he was wrong. He was
bounced. He would have gone no matter what his accounts showed. It is
only a question of time and a very short time when such a man goes
wrong.

"The scarcest thing in New York to-day, Jim, is the man who can't be
bought and sold. The thing that's beyond price in the business world is
character--combined with brains. That's why I made you the offer I did
once upon a time to come in with me. There are positions to-day in New
York with a salary of half a million a year waiting for men who can
fill them. If I could find one man of the highest order of creative and
executive ability who would stand by me in my enterprises I could be
the richest man in the world in ten years."

Stuart lifted his eyes from the record he was casually scanning and
smiled into Bivens's dark, serious face.

The look silenced the speaker. The little man knew instinctively that
Stuart was at that moment weighing his own life and character by the
merciles