every face showed that the anxiety was general. The directors
glanced at Ryder, but his face was expressionless as marble.
Apparently he took not the slightest interest in this matter which
so agitated his colleagues.

Another director rose. He was a better speaker than Mr. Grimsby,
but his voice had a hard, rasping quality that smote the ears
unpleasantly. He said:

"Mr. Chairman, none of us can deny what Mr. Grimsby has just put
before us so vividly. We are threatened not with one, but with a
hundred such suits, unless something is done either to placate the
public or to render its attacks harmless. Rightly or wrongly, the
railroad is hated by the people, yet we are only what railroad
conditions compel us to be. With the present fierce competition,
no fine question of ethics can enter into our dealings as a
business organization. With an irritated public and press on one
side, and a hostile judiciary on the other, the outlook certainly
is far from bright. But is the judiciary hostile? Is it not true
that we have been singularly free from litigation until recently,
and that most of the decisions were favourable to the road? Judge
Rossmore is the real danger. While he is on the bench the road is
not safe. Yet all efforts to reach him have failed and will fail.
I do not take any stock in the newspaper stories regarding Judge
Rossmore. They are preposterous. Judge Rossmore is too strong a
man to be got rid of so easily."

The speaker sat down and another rose, his arguments being merely
a reiteration of those already heard. Ryder did not listen to what
was being said. Why should he? Was he not familiar with every