ITHE MAS TEB. ILOGUE DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS -ps CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE PS 3531.H65M4"'"'""'' "-'""^ ^''^lllwiiiiiMiimiiffiiiii!?* concessions of a C 3 1924 021 658 970 THE MASTER ROGUE OTHER BOOKS BY DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS The Great God Success, Her Serene Highn A Woman Ventures Golden Fleece DATE DUE .. v->,^ MAYJ^-^ '^' 1 « ^ CAYLOAD \ y&*iis 'J'hc razor cut mc and dropj^jcd to the floor. Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021658970 THE MASTER-ROGUE The Confessions of a Croesus By David Graham Phillips Illustrated by Gordon H. Grant McClure, Phillips ^ Co. New York 190? i;;!('''iv't '*, ll -x COPTKKIHT, 1903, BT McCLDRE, PHILLIPS A CO Published. September, 1903 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS " The Razor cut me, and dropped to the floor " Frontispiece PACING PAQB " ' Don't get apoplectic,' he said, calmly ; ' you know you stole your start '" . . .39 You liar ! you forger ! . . . . .73 " ' Not to have told you would have been a lie'" 119 " ' You will marry on the sixteenth of April, at noon. Get yourself ready ' " . . .129 " I came upon Helen, sitting in the alcove, sob- bing" 218 THE MASTER ROGUE I cannot remember the time when I was not absolutely certain that I would be a million- aire. And I had not been a week in the big wholesale dry-goods house in Worth Street in which I made my New York start, before I looked round and said to myself: "I shall be sole proprietor here some day." Probably clerks dream the same thing every day in every establishment on earth — but I didn't dream; I knew. From earliest boy- hood I had seen that the millionaire was the only citizen universally envied, honoured, and looked up to. I wanted to be in the first class, and I knew I had only to stick to my ambition and to think of nothing else and to let nothing stand in the way of it. There are so few men capable of forming a definite, serious pur- [3] THE MASTER ROGUE pose, and of persisting in it, that those who are find the road ahnost empty before they have gone far. By the time I was thirty-three years old I had arrived at the place where the crowd is pretty well thinned out. I was what is called a successful man. I was general manager of the dry-goods house at ten thousand a year — a huge salary for those days. I had nearly sixty thousand dollars put by in gilt-edged securities. I had built a valuable reputation for knowing my business and keeping my word. I owned a twenty-five-foot brown- stone house in a side street not far from Mad- ison Avenue, and in it I had a comfortable, happy, old-fashioned home. At thirty-two I had gone back to my native town to marry a girl there, one of those women who have am- bition beyond gadding all the time and spend- ing every cent their husbands earn, and who [4] THE MASTER ROGUE know how to make home attractive to husband and children. I couldn't exaggerate the value of my fam- ily, especially my wife, to me in those early days. True, I should have gone just as far without them, but they made my life cheerful and comfortable; and, now that sentiment of that narrow kind is all in the past, it's most agreeable occasionally to look back on those days and sentimentalise a little. That I worked intelligently, as well as hard, is shown by the fact that I was made junior partner at thirty-eight. My partner — there were only two of us — was then an elderly man and the head of the old and prominent New York family of Judson — ^that is not the real name, of course. Ours was the typical old- fashioned firm, doing business on principles of politeness rather than of strict business. One of its iron-clad customs was that the senior [5] THE MASTER ROGUE partner should retire at sixty. Mr. Judson's intention was to retire in about five years, I to become the head of the firm, though with the smaller interest, and one of his grand- sons to become the larger partner, though with the lesser control — at least, for a term of years. It was called evidence of great friendship and confidence that Mr. Judson thus "fa- voured" me. Probably this notion would have been stronger had it been known on what moderate terms and at what an easy price he let me have the fourth interest. No doubt Mr. Judson himself thought he was most generous. But I knew better. There was no sentimen- tality about my ideas of business, and my ex- perience has been that there isn't about any one's when you cut through surface courtesy and cant and get down to the real facts. I knew I had earned every step of my promo- [6] THE MASTER ROGUE tion from a clerk; and, while Mr. Judson might have selected some one else as a partner, he wouldn't have done so, because he needed me. I had seen to that in my sixteen years of service there. Judson wasn't a self-made man, as I was. He had inherited his share in the business, and a considerable fortune, besides. The reason he was so anxious to have me as a partner was that for six years I had carried all his business cares, even his private affairs. Yes, he needed me — though, no doubt, in a sense, he was my friend. Who wouldn't have been my friend under the circumstances? But, having looked out for his own interest and comfort in select- ing me, why should he have expected that I wouldn't look out for mine? The only kind of loyalty a man who wishes to do something in the world should give or expect is the mu- tual loyalty of common interest. [7] THE MASTER ROGUE I confess I never liked Judson. To be quite frank, from the first day I came into that house, I envied him. I used to think it was contempt ; but, since my own position has changed, I know it was envy. I remember that the first time I saw him I noted his hand- some, carefully dressed figure, so out of place among the sweat and shirt-sleeves and the lit- ter of goods and packing cases, and I asked one of my fellow-clerks: "Who's that fop?" When he told me it was the son of the pro- prietor, and my prospective chief boss, I said to myself: "It won't be hard to get you out of the way," for I had brought from the coim- try the prejudice that fine clothes and fine manners proclaim the noddle-pate. I envied my friend — for, in a master-and- servant way, that was highly, though, of course, secretly distasteful to me, we became friends. I envied him his education, his in- [8] THE MASTER ROGUE herited wealth, his manners, his aristocratic appearance, and, finally, his social position. It seemed to me that none of these things that he had and I hadn't belonged of right to him, because he hadn't earned them. It seemed to me that his having them was an outrageous injustice to me. I think I must have hated him. Yes, I did hate him. How is it possible for a man who feels that he is born to rule not to hate those whom blind fate has put as obstacles in his way? To get what you want in this world you must be a good hater. The best haters make the best grabbers, and this is a world of grab, not of "By your leave," or "If you'll permit me, sir." You can't get what you want away from the man who's got it unless you hate him. Gentle feelings paralyse the conquering arm. So, at thirty-eight, it seemed to be settled [91 THE MASTER ROGUE that I was to be a respectable Worth Street merchant, in active life until I should be sixty, always under the shadow of the great Judson family, and thereafter a respectable retired merchant and substantial citizen with five hun- dred thousand dollars or thereabouts. But it never entered my head to submit to that sort of decree of destiny, dooming me to re- spectable obscurity. Nature intended me for larger things. The key to my true destiny, as I had seen for several years, was the possession of a large svun of money — a million dollars. Without it, I must work on at my past intolerably slow pace. With it, I could leap at once into my kingdom. But, how get it? In the regular course of any business conducted on proper hues, such a sum, even to-day, rewards the successful man starting from nothing only when the vigovu- of youth is gone and the hab- [10] THE MASTER ROGUE its of conservatism and routine are fixed. I knew I must get my million not in driblets, not after years of toil, but at once, in a limip sum. I must get it even at some temporary sacrifice of principle, if necessary. If I had not seen the opportunity to get it through Judson and Company, I should have retired from that house years before I got the partnership. But I did see it there, saw it coming even before I was general manager, saw it the first time I got a peep into the pri- vate aifairs of Mr. Judson. Judson and Company, like all old-estab- lished houses, was honeycombed with careless- ness and wastefulness. To begin with, it treated its employees on a basis of mixed business and benevolence, and that is always bad unless the benevolence is merely an in- genious pretext for getting out of your peo- ple work that you don't pay for. But Mr. [11] THE MASTER ROGUE Judson, having a good deal of the highf aliit- ing grand seigneur about him, made the be- nevolence genuine. Then, the theory was that the Judsons were born merchants, and knew all there was to be known, and did not need to attend to business. Mr. Judson, being firmly convinced of his greatness, and being much engaged socially and in posing as a great merchant at luncheons and receptions to dis- tinguished strangers and the like, put me in full control as soon as he made me general manager. He interfered in the business only occasionally, and then merely to show how large and generous he was — to raise salaries, to extend unwise credits, to bolster up decay- ing mills that had long sold goods to the house, to indorse for his friends. Friends! Who that can and will lend and indorse has not hosts of friends? What I have waited to see before selecting my friends is the friendship [12] THE MASTER ROGUE that survives the death of its hopes of favours — and I'm still waiting. As soon as I became partner I confirmed in detail the suspicion, or, rather, the instinc- tive knowledge, which had kept me from look- ing elsewhere for my opportunity. I recall distinctly the day my crisis came. It had two principal events. The first was my discovery that Mr. Judson had got the firm and himself so entangled that he was in my power. I confess my impulse was to take a course which a weaker or less courageous man would have taken — away from the course of the strong man with the higher ambition and the broader view of life and morals. And it was while I seemed to be wavering — I say "seemed to be" because I do not think a strong, far-sighted man of reso- lute purpose is ever "squeamish," as they call it — :while, I say, I was in the mood of uncer- [13] THE MASTER ROGUE tainty which often precedes energetic action, we, my wife and I, went to dinner at the Judsons. That dinner was the second event of my crucial day. Judson's family and mine did not move in the same social circle. When people asked my wife if she knew Mrs. Jud- son — which they often maliciously did — she always answered: "Oh, no — my husband keeps our home life and his business distinct; and, you know, New York is very large. The Jud- sons and we haven't the same friends." That was her way of hiding our rankling wound — for it rankled with me as much as with her; in those days we had everything in common, like the himible people that we were. I can see now her expression of elation as she displayed the note of invitation from Mrs. Judson: "It would give us great pleasure if you and your husband would dine with, us [14] THE MASTER ROGUE quite informally," etc. Her face clouded as she repeated, "quite informally." "They wouldn't for worlds have any of their fash- ionable friends there to meet us." Even then she was far away from the time when, to my saying, "You shall have yom- victoria and drive in the park and get your name in the papers like Mrs. Judson," she laughed and answered- — ^honestly, I know — "We mustn't get to be like these New Yorkers. Our happi- ness hes right here with ourselves and om* chil- dren. I'll be satisfied if we bring them up to be honest, useful men and women." That's the way a woman should talk and feel. When they get the ideas that are fit only for men everything goes to pot. But to return to the Judson dinner — ^my wife and I had never before been in so grand a house. It was, indeed, a grand house for those days, though it wouldn't compare with [15] THE MASTER ROGUE my palace overlooking the park, and would hardly rank to-day as a second-rate New York house. We tried to seem at our ease, and I think my wife succeeded; but it seemed to me that Judson and his wife were seeing into my embarrassment and were enjoying it as evi- dence of their superiority. I may have wronged him. Possibly I was seeking more reasons to hate him in order the better to jus- tify myself for what I was about to do. But that isn't important. My wife and I were as if in a dream or a daze. A whole, new world was opening to both of us — the world of fashion, luxury, and display. True, we had seen it from the out- side before; and had had it constantly before our eyes ; but now we were touching it, tasting it, smelling it — ^were almost grasping it. We were unhappy as we drove home in our ill- smelling public cab, and when we re- [16] THE MASTER ROGUE entered our little world it seemed humble and narrow and mean — a ridiculous fool's para- dise. We did not have our customary before- going-to-sleep talk that night, about my busi- ness, about our investments, about the house- hold, about the children — we had two, the boys, then. We lay side by side, silent and depressed. I heard her sigh several times, but I did not ask her why — I understood. Finally I said to her: "Minnie, how'd you like to live like the Judsons? You know we can afford to spread out a good deal. Things have been coming our way for twelve years, and soon " She sighed again. "I don't know whether I'm fitted for it," she said; "I think all those grand things would frighten me. I'd make a fool of myself." It amuses me to recall how simple she was. [17] THE MASTER ROGUE Who would ever suspect her of having been so, as she presides over our great estabhsh- ments in town and in the country as if she were born to it? "Nonsense!" I answered. "You'd soon get used to it. You're young yet, and a thousand times better looking than fat old Mrs. Judson. You'U learn in no time. You'll go up with me." "I don't think they're as happy as we are," she said. "I ought to be ashamed of myself to be so envious and ungrateful." But she sighed again. I think she soon went to sleep. I lay awake hour after hour, a confusion of thoughts in my mind — ^we worry a great deal over nice points in morals when we are young. Then, suddenly, as it seemed to me, the command of destiny came — "You can be sole master, in name as well as in fact. You are that business. He has no right there. Put him out! He is [18] THE MASTER ROGUE only a drag, and will soon ruin everything. It is best for him — and you must!" I tossed and turned. I said to myself, "No! No!" But I knew what I would do. I was not the man to toil for years for an object and then let weakness cheat me out of it. I knew I would make short shrift of a flabby and dangerous and short-sighted generosity when the time came. One morning, about six months later, Mr. Judson came to me as I was busy at my desk and laid down a note for five hundred thou- sand dollars, signed by himself. "It'll be all right for me to indorse the firm's name upon that, won't it?" he said, in a careless tone, holding to a corner of the note, as if he were assimiing that I would say "Yes," and he could then take it away. A thrill of delight ran through me at this stretch of the hand of my opportunity for [19] THE MASTER ROGUE which I had been planning for years, and for which I had been waiting in readiness for nearly three months. I looked steadily at the note. "I don't know," I said, slowly, raising my eyes to his. His eyes shifted and a hui't expression came into them, as if he, not I, were refusing. "I'm busy just now. Leave it, won't you? I'll look at it presently." "Oh, certainly," he said, in a surprised, shy voice. I did not look up at him again, but I saw that his hand — a narrow, smooth hand, not at all like mine — was trembling as he drew it away. We did not speak again imtil late in the afternoon. Then I had to go to him about some other matter, and, as I was turning away, he said, timidly: "Oh, about that note " "It can't be indorsed by the firm," I said, abruptly. [20] THE MASTER ROGUE There was a long silence between us. I felt that he was inwardly resenting what he must be calhng the insolence of the "upstart" he had "created." I was hating him for the con- temptuous thoughts that seemed to me to be burning through the silence from his brain to mine, was hating him for putting me in a false position even before myself with his plausible appearance of being a generous gentleman — I abhor the idea of "gentleman" in business; it upsets everything, at once. When he did speak, he only said: "Why not?" I went to my desk and brought a sheet of paper filled with figures. "I have made this up since you spoke to me this morning," I said, laying it before him. That was fa;lse — a trifling falsehood to pre- vent him from misunderstanding my conduct in making a long and quiet investigation. [21] THE MASTER ROGUE The truth is that that crucial paper was the work of a great many days, and not a few nights, of thought and lahour — it was my cast for my miUion. The paper seemed to show at a glance that the firm was practically ruined, and that INIr. Judson himself was insolvent. It was to a certain extent an over-statement, or, rather, a sort of anticipation of conditions that would come to pass within a year or two if JMr. Jud- son were permitted to hold to his course. While in a sense I took advantage of his ig- norance of owe business and his own, and also of his lack of familiarity with all commercial matters, yet, on the other hand, it was not sensible that I should tide him over and carry him, and it was vitally necessary that I should get my miUion. Had he been shrewder, I should have got it anyhow, only I should have been compelled to use [22] THE MASTER ROGUE methods that, perhaps, would have seemed less merciful. I sat beside him as he read; and, while I pitied him, for I am human, after all, I felt more strongly a sense of triumph, that I, the poor, the obscure, by sheer force of intellect, had raised myself up to where I had my foot upon the neck of this proud man, ranking so high among New York's distinguished merchants and citizens. I have had many a triumph since, and over men far superior to Judson; but I do not think that I have ever so keenly enjoyed any other victory as this, my first and most important. Still, I pitied him as he read, with face growing older and older, and, with his pride shot through the vitals, quivering in its death agony. I said, gently, when he had finished and had buried his face in his hands: "Now, do you understand, Mr. Judson, why I won't [23 ] THE MASTER ROGUE sign away my commercial honoui" and my children's bread?" He shrank and shivered, as if, instead of having spoken kindly to him, I had struck him. "Spare me!" he said, brokenly. "For God's sake, spare me!" and, after a moment, he groaned and exclaimed: "and I — / — ^have ruined this house, established by my grand- father and held in honour for half a centm-y!" A longer pause, then he lifted his haggard face — he looked seventy rather than fifty-five; his eyeballs were simk in deep, blue-black sockets; his whole expression was an awful warning of the consequences of recklessness in business. I have never forgotten it. "I trust you," he said; "what shall I do?" He placed himself entirely in my hands ; or, rather, he left his affairs where they had been, except when he was muddling them, for more than six years. I dealt generously by him, [24] THE MASTER ROGUE for I bought him out by the use of my excel- lent personal credit, and left him a small fortune in such shape that he could easily manage it. He was free of all business cares ; I had taken upon my shoulders not only the responsibilities of that great business, but also a load of debt which would have staggered and frightened a man of less courageous judgment. I did not see him when the last papers were signed — he was ill and they were sent to his house. Two or three weeks later I heard that he was convalescent and went to see him. Now that he was no longer in my way, and that the debt of gratitude was transferred from me to him, I had only the kindliest, friendliest feelings for him. Those few weeks had made a great change in me. I had grown, I had come into my own, I realised how high I was above the mass of my fellow-men, and [25] THE MASTER ROGUE I was insisting upon and was receiving the respect that was my due. My sensations, as I entered the Judson house, were vastly dif- ferent from what they were when the pom- pous butler admitted me on the occasion of the one previous visit, and I could see that he felt strongly the alteration in my station. I felt generous pity as I went into the library and looked down at the broken old failure huddled in a big chair. What an vmlovely thing is failure, especially grey-haired fail- ure! I said to myself: "How fortunate for him that this helpless creature fell into my hands instead of into the hands of some rascal or some cruel and vindictive man!" I was about to speak, but something in his steady gaze restrained me. "I have admitted you," he said, in a sur- prisingly steady voice, when he had looked me through and through, "because I wish you [26] THE MASTER ROGUE to hear from me that I know the truth. My son-in-law returned from Europe last week, and, learning what changes had been made, went over all the papers." He looked as if he expected me to flinch. But I did not. Was not my conscience clear? "I know how basely you have betrayed me," he went on. "I thank you for not tak- ing everything. I confess your generosity puzzles me. However, you have done noth- ing for which the law can touch you. What you have stolen is securely yours. I wish you joy of it." My temper is not of the sweetest — dealing with the trickeries and stupidities of little men soon exhausts the patience of a man who has much to do in the world, and knows how it should be done. But never before or since have I been so insanely angry. I burst into a torrent of abuse. He rang the bell; and, [27] THE MASTER ROGUE when the servant came, cahn and clear above my raging rose his voice, saying, "Robert, show this person to the door." For the mo- ment my mind seemed paralysed. I left, probably looking as base and guilty as he with his wounded vanity and his sufferings from the loss of aU he had thrown away imagined me to be. I confess that that was a very bad quarter of an hovir. But, to make a large success in this world, and in the brief span of a hfetime, one must submit to discomforts of that kind occasionally. There are compensating hours. I had one last week when I attended the dedi- cation of the splendid two-million-dollar reci- tation hall I have given to Uimersity. Not until I was several blocks from Jud- son's did the sense of my wrongs sting me into rage again. I remember that I said: "Infamous iagratitude! I save this fine gen- [28] THE MASTER ROGUE tleman from bankruptcy, and my reward is that he calls me a thief — me, a millionaire!" Millionaire! In that word there was a magic balm for all the wounds to my pride and my then supersensitive conscience — a jus- tification of the past, a guarantee of the future. With my million safely achieved, I looked about me as a conqueror looks upon the con- quered. A thousand dollars saved is the first step toward a competence; a million dollars achieved is the first step toward a Croesus; and, in matters of money, as in everything else, "it is the first step that counts," as the French say. I was filled with the passion for more, more, more. I felt myself, in imagina- tion, growing mightier and mightier, lifting myself higher and more dazzlingly above the dull mass of work-a-day people with their routines of petty concerns. [29] THE MASTER ROGUE In the days of our modesty my wife used to plan that we would retire when we had twenty thousand a year — enough, she then thought, to provide for every want, reason- able or unreasonable, that we and the children could have. Now, she would have scorned the idea of retiring as contemptuously as I would. She was eager to do her part in the process of expansion and aggrandisement, was eager to see us socially established, to put our children in the position to make advan- tageous marriages. We would be outshone in New York by none! To win a million is to taste blood. The milhon-mania — for, in a sense, I'll admit it is a mania — is roused and put upon the scent, and it never sleeps again, nor is its appetite ever satisfied or even made less ravenous. A few years, and I left dry goods for finance, where the pursuit of my passion was [30] THE MASTER ROGUE more direct and more rapidly successful. Every day I fixed my thoughts upon another million; and, as all who know anything about the million-mania will tell you, the act of fix- ing the thought upon a miUion, when one has earned the right to acquire millions, makes that million yours, makes all who stand be- tween you and it aggressors to be clawed down and torn to pieces. As I grew my rights were respected more and more deferentially. Men now bow before me. They understand that I can administer great wealth to the best ad- vantage, that I belong to one of that small class of beings created to possess the earth and to command the improvident and idealess inhabitants thereof how and where and when to work. My family? I confess they have not risen to my level or to the opportunities I have made for them. [31] THE MASTER ROGUE Natm-ally, with great wealth, the old simple family relationship was broken up. That was to be expected — the duties of people in our position do not permit indulgence in the sim- ple emotions and pastimes of the family life of the masses. But neither, on the other hand, was it necessary that my wife should become a cold and calculating social figure, full of vanity and superciliousness, instead of main- taining the proud dignity of her position as my wife. Nor was it necessary that my chil- dren should become selfish, heartless, pleasure- seekers, caring nothing for me except as a source of money. I suppose I am in part responsible — my great enterprises have left me little time for the small details of life, such as the training of children. They were admirably educated, too. I provided the best governesses and mas- ters, and saw to it that they learned all that a [82] THE MASTER ROGUE lady or a gentleman should know; and in respect of dress and manners I admit that they do very well, indeed. Possibly, the com- plete breaking up of the family, except as it is held together by my money, is due to the fact that we see so little of one another, each hav- ing his or her separate establishment. Pos- sibly I am a little old-fashioned, a little too exacting, in my idea of wife and children. Certainly they are aristocratic enough. My son James is the thorn in my side. And, whenever I have a moment's rest from my affairs, I find myself thinking of him, worrying over him. The latest development in his character is certainly disquieting. He was twenty-five years old yesterday. He was educated at our most aristocratic uni- versity here, and at one in Europe of the same kind. It was his mother's dream that he should be "brought up as a gentleman"; and [33] THE MASTER ROGUE that fell in with my ideas, for I did not wish him to be a money-maker, but the head of the family I purposed to foimd upon my millions, which are already numerous enough to secure it for many generations. "There is no call for him to struggle and toil as I have," I said to myself. "The sort of financial ability I pos- sess is born in a man and can't be taught or transmitted by birth. He would make a small showing, at best, as a business man. As a gentleman he will shine. He only needs just enough business training to enable him to supervise those who will take care of his fortune and that of the rich woman he Avill marry." I was determined that he should marry in his own class — and, indeed, he is not a sentimentalist, and, therefore, is not likely to disregard mj' wishes in that matter. When he was eighteen I caught him in a fashionable gambhng-house one night when I [34] THE MASTER ROGUE thought he was at his college. I could not but admire the coolness with which he made the best of it: stood beside me as I sat playing faro, then went over to a roulette table and lost several hundred dollars on a few spins of the ball. But the next day I took him sharply to task — it was one thing for me to play, at my age and with my fortune, I explained, but not the same for him, at his age, and with nothing but an allowance. He shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "Really, governor," he said, "a man must do as the other fellows in his set do. Didn't you see whom I was with? If you wish me to travel with those people I must go their gait." That was not unreasonable, so I dismissed him with a cautioning. At twenty he went abroad, and, a year after he had returned, his bills and drafts were still coming. I sent for him. "Why don't you pay your debts, sir?" [35] THE MASTER ROGUE I demanded, angrily, for such conduct was directly contrary to my teaching and example. He gave me his grandest look — ^he is a handsome, aristocratic-looking fellow, away ahead of what Judson must have been at his age, "But, my dear governor," he said, "a gentleman pays his debts when he feels Uke it. "No, he don't," I answered, furiously, for my instinct of commercial promptness was roused. "A scoundrel pays his debts when he feels like it. A gentleman pays 'em when they're due." His reply was a smile of approval, and "Excellent! The best epigram I've heard since I left Paris. You're as great a genius at making phrases as you are at making money." I caught him speculating in Wall Street^ — "One must amuse one's self," he said, cheer- [86] THE MASTER ROGUE fully. But I was not to be put off this time. 1 had had some reports on his hfe — ^many- wild escapades, many fantastic extravagances. The terrible downfall of two yoimg men of his set made me feel that the time for dis- ciphne was at hand. But, as I was very busy, I had only time to read him a brief lecture on speculation and to exact from him a prom- ise that he would keep out of Wall Street. He gave the promise so reluctantly that I felt confident he meant to keep it. A week ago yesterday morning he came into my bedroom, before I was up, and said to my valet, Pigott: "Just take yourself off. Pig- gy!" And, when we were alone, he began: "Mother said I was to come straight to you." "What is it?" I demanded, my anger ris- ing — experience has taught me that the more offhand his manner, the more serious the of- fence I should have to repair. [37] THE MASTER ROGUE "I broke my promise to you about specu- lating, sir," he replied, much as if he were apologising for having jostled me in a crowd. I sat up in bed, feeling as if I were afire. "And does a gentleman keep his promises only when he feels like it?" I asked. "But that isn't all," he went on. "My pool's gone smash — you were on the other side and I never suspected it. And I've got a million to pay, besides " He took out his cigarette case, and hghted a cigarette with great deliberation. "Besides — ^what?" I said, wishing to know all before I began upon him. "I wrote your name across the back of a bit of paper," he answered, hiding his face in a big cloud of smoke. I fell back in the bed, feeling as if I had been struck on the head with a heavy weight. "You scoundrel!" I gasped. [38] -J3 THE MASTER ROGUE "Sour grapes," he muttered, his cheeks aflame and his eyes blazing at me. "What do you mean?" I said, my mind in confusion. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes," he quoted, "and the children's teeth are set on edge." I half sprang from the bed at this insolence. "Don't get apoplectic," he said, calmly; "you know you stole your start." At this infamous calumny I leaped upon him and flung him bodily out of the room. It was several hours before I was calm enough to dismiss the incident sufficiently to take up my aff'airs. This has come at a particularly unfortunate time for me, as I am in the midst of several delicate, vast, and intricate negotiations, in- volving many millions and demanding all my thought. He has gone down on Long Island [39] THE MASTER ROGUE in care of his mother. It will be at least ten days before I can take up his case and dis- pose of it. I am midecided whether to give hiin another trial under severe conditions or to cast him off and make his younger brother my principal heir and successor. I confess to a weakness for him — possibly because he is so audacious and fearless. His younger brother is entirely too smooth and diplomatic with me ; if I should elevate him, he would fancy that he had deceived me with his transparent tricks. However, we shall see. [40] II About a month after I sent James to my place on Long Island to be in the custody of his mother, I was dining in my Fifth Avenue house with only Burridge, my secretary, and Jack Ridley, who calls himself my "court fool." Although my mind was crowded with large affairs involving great properties and millions of capital, hardly a day had passed without my thinking of James and of his infamous conduct toward me. But without neglecting the duties which my position as a financial leader impose upon me, it was impossible for me to take time to do my duty as a parent. The duty which particularly pressed and ab- solutely prevented me from attending to my son was that of overcoming difficulties I had [41] THE MASTER ROGUE encountered in consolidating the thi-ee rail- ways which I control in the State. To achieve my purpose it was necessary that a somewhat radical change be made in a certain law. I sent my agent to Boss to arrange the matter. I learned that he refused to order the change unless I would pay him three hundred thousand dollars in cash and woidd give him the opportunity to buy to a hke amount of the new stock at par. He pleaded that the change would cause a tremendous outcry if it were discovered, as it almost certainty would be, and that he must be in a position to provide a correspondingly large campaign fund to "carry the party" successfully through the next campaign. He said his past favours to me had brought him to the verge of pohtical ruin. In a sentence, the miserable old black- mailer Avas trying to drive as hard a bargain with me as if I had not been making stiff [42 J THE MASTER ROGUE contributions to what he calls his "campaign fund" for years with only trifling favours in return. I was willing to pay what the change was worth, but I would not be bled. I brought pressure to bear from the national organisation of his party, and he came round — apparently. Just as my bill was slipping quietly through the State Senate, having passed the Lower House unobserved, the other boss raised a ter- rific hullabaloo. Boss denied to my peo- ple that he had "tipped off" what was doing in order to revenge himself and get his blood- money in another way; but I knew at once that the sanctimonious old thief had outwitted me. It looked as if I would have to yield. Of course I should have done so in the last straits, for only a fool holds out for a principle when holding out means no gain and a senseless and [43] THE MASTER ROGUE costly loss. But the knowledge that a defeat would cost me dear in future transactions of this kind made me struggle desperately. I sent for my lawyer, Stratton — an able fellow, as lawyers go, but, like most of this stupid, lazy human race, always ready to say "impos- sible" because saying so saves labour. "Strat- ton," I said, "there must be a way roimd — there always is. Can't I get what I want by an amendment to some other law that can be slipped through by the lobby of some other corporation as if for its benefit only? Take a week. Paw over the books and rake that brain of yours! There's a hundred and fifty thousand in it for you if you find me the way round." "But the law — " he began. I lost my temper — I always do when one of my men begins his reply to an order I've given him with the word "But." "Don't 'but' [44. ] THE MASTER ROGUE me, damn you," said I. "I'm getting sick and tired of your eternal opposition. Craw- ford" — Crawford was my lawyer until I put him into the Senate — "used always to tell me how I could do what I wanted to do. You're always telling me that I can't do what I want to do." "I'm sorry to displease you, sir, but " " 'But' again!" I exclaimed, sarcastically. "Then, however," he went on, with a con- ciliatory smile, "I'm not a legislator; I'm a lawyer." "Precisely," said I. "And the only use I have for a lawyer is to show me how to do as I please, in spite of these wretched dema- gogues and blackmailers that control the statute-books. If you are as intelligent as Crawford led me to believe and as my own observation of you suggests, you'll profit by this httle talk we've had. Look round you at [45] THE MASTER ROGUE the men who are making the big successes in your profession nowadays — look at your pre- decessor, Crawford. Imitate them and stop casting about for ways of interpreting the