."

"Rot," said Gorman. "Why should he? I expect he has some dodge for
squeezing us out and then getting a bigger price all for himself; but
I'm damned if I see how he means to work it. These financial men are as
cunning as Satan and they all hang together. We outsiders don't have a
chance."

"What about Ulster?" I said. "I was talking to a man last week who told
me----"

"All bluff," said Gorman. "Nothing in it. How can they do anything? What
Ascher says is that he wants the old company to take up Tim's invention
and work it. There's to be additional capital raised and we're to come
in as shareholders. Ascher, Stutz & Co. will underwrite the new issues
and take three and one-half per cent. That's what he says. But, of
course, that's not the real game. There's something behind."

"Doesn't it occur to you that there may be something behind the Ulster
movement too?"

"No. What can they do? The Bill will be law before the end of July."

"They say they'll fight."

"Oh," said Gorman, "we've heard all about that till we're sick of the
sound of it. There's nothing in it. The thing's as plain as anything can
be. We have a majority in Parliament and the bill will be passed. That's
all there is to say. I wish to goodness I saw my way as plainly in the
cash register affair."

Gorman's faith in parliamentary majorities is extremely touching. I
suppose that only politicians believe that the voting of men who are
paid to vote really affects things. I doubt whether men of any other
profession have the same whole-hearted faith in the efficacy of their
own craft. Doctors are often a little sceptical about the value of
medicines and operations. No barrister, that I ever met, thinks he
achieves justice by arguing points of law. But politicians, even quite
intelligent politicians like Gorman, seem really to hold that human life
will be altered in some way because they walk round the lobbies of a
particular building in London and have their heads counted three or four
times an hour. To me it seemed quite plain that Malcolmson would not
bate an ounce of his devotion to civil and religious liberty even if
Gorman's head were counted every five minutes for ten years and Gorman
were paid a thousand a year instead of four hundred a year for letting
out his head for the purpose. Why should Malcolmson care how often
Gorman is counted? There is in the end only the original Gorman with his
single head.

"Anyhow," said Gorman, "I'm keeping