ower rates for this one, a
fat job for that one, not forgetting themselves. Senator Roberts
was already a very rich man, and although the world often wondered
where he got it, no one had the courage to ask him.

But the Republican leader was stirred with an ambition greater
than that of controlling a majority in the Senate. He had a
daughter, a marriageable young woman who, at least in her father's
opinion, would make a desirable wife for any man. His friend Ryder
had a son, and this son was the only heir to the greatest fortune
ever amassed by one man, a fortune which, at its present rate of
increase, by the time the father died and the young couple were
ready to inherit, would probably amount to over _six billions of
dollars_. Could the human mind grasp the possibilities of such a
colossal fortune? It staggered the imagination. Its owner, or the
man who controlled it, would be master of the world! Was not this
a prize any man might well set himself out to win? The senator was
thinking of it now as he stood exchanging banal remarks with the
men who accosted him. If he could only bring off that marriage he
would be content. The ambition of his life would be attained.
There was no difficulty as far as John Ryder was concerned. He
favoured the match and had often spoken of it. Indeed, Ryder
desired it, for such an alliance would naturally further his
business interests in every way. Roberts knew that his daughter
Kate had more than a liking for Ryder's handsome young son.
Moreover, Kate was practical, like her father, and had sense
enough to realize what it would mean to be the mistress of the
Ryder fortune. No, Kate was all right, but there was young Ryder
to reckon with. It would take two in this case to make a bargain.

Jefferson Ryder was, in truth, an entirely different man from his
father. It was difficult to realize that both had sprung from the
same stock. A college-bred boy with all the advantages his
father's wealth could give him, he had inherited from the parent
only those characteristics which would have made him successful
even if born poor--activity, pluck, application, dogged obstinacy,
alert mentality. To these qualities he added what his father
sorely lacked--a high notion of honour, a keen sense of right and
wrong. He had the honest man's contempt for meanness of any
description, and he had little patience with the lax so-called
business morals of the day. For him a dishonourable or dishonest
action