and of the still colder promise of opposition, he took his leave with a
lighter heart, refusing Mr. Colbrith's rather perfunctory invitation to
stay to luncheon.

And on the gravelled drive, where he again had to make way for the
auto-car purring in on its return, he did not so much as look up at the
pair in the driving-seat.




V

WANTED: THIRTY-FIVE MILLIONS


The offices of McVeigh and Mackie, brokers and financial agents, are in
Broad Street, and the windows of the room used for board meetings look
down upon the angle where beats the money pulse of the nation.

Ford had successfully resisted the temptation to lobby for his scheme
during the one-day interval between his conference with Mr. Colbrith and
the date of the called meeting of the directors. It was not any mistaken
sense of loyalty to the president that restrained him; on the contrary,
he decided that Mr. Colbrith's declaration of war left him free to fight
as he would. But upon due consideration he concluded to set the
advantage of an assault _en masse_ over against the dubious gain of an
advanced skirmish line, and when he turned out of Broadway into Wall
Street on the morning of destiny the men whom he was to meet and
convince were still no more to him than a list of names in the _Poor's