gard to this?"

"Of course I am at your service, Mr. Santoine." Avery's voice was
harsh and dry.

The blind man was silent for an instant. He could feel the uneasiness
and anxiety of the man across from him mounting swiftly, and he gave it
every opportunity to increase. He had told Eaton once that he did not
use "cat and mouse" methods; he was using them now because that was the
only way his purpose could be achieved.

"We must go back, then, Avery, to the quite serious emergency to which
I am indebted for your faithful service. It is fairly difficult now
for one contemplating the reverence and regard in which 'big' men are
held by the public in these days of business reconstruction to recall
the attitude of only a few years ago. However, it is certainly true
that five years ago the American people appeared perfectly convinced
that the only way to win true happiness and perpetuate prosperity was
to accuse, condemn and jail for life--if execution were not legal--the
heads of the important groups of industrial properties. Just at that
time, one of these men--one of the most efficient but also, perhaps,
the one personally most obnoxious or unpopular--committed one of his
gravest indiscretions. It concerned the private use of deposits in
national banks; it was a federal offense of the most patent and
provable kind. He was indicted. Considering the temper of any
possible jury at that time, there was absolutely no alternative but to
believe that the man under indictment must spend many succeeding years,
if not the rest of his life, in the Federal penitentiary at Atlanta or
Leavenworth.

"Now, not only the man himself but his closest associates contemplated
this certainty with dismay. The man was in complete control of a group
of the most valuable and prosperous properties in America. Before his
gaining control, the properties had been almost ruined by differences
between the minor men who tried to run them; only the calling of
Matthew Latron into control saved those men from themselves; they
required him to govern them; his taking away would bring chaos and ruin
among them again. They knew that. There were a number of important
people, therefore, who held hope against hope that Latron would not be
confined in a prison cell. Just before he must go to trial, Latron
himself became convinced that he faced confinement for the rest of his
life; then fate effectively intervened to end all his troubles. His
body,