"The Deferred Shares are not to get a cent of dividend until a fifteen
per cent. dividend is paid on the Ordinary Shares. That's the squarest
deal for the public that ever was," retorted Larssen.

"But _you_ hold _control_."

Both men knew the tremendous import of that word. The fortunes of the
world's financial giants have all been built up on "control." Dwarfing
"capital" and "credit" it stands--that word "control." If the wild
gamble of the Hudson Bay scheme were to rush through to commercial
success--if the limitless wheat-lands of Canada were to pour their
mighty torrent of life into Europe through the channel of Hudson Bay--it
would be Lars Larssen who would hold the key of the sluice-gate.
Directly, he would be master of the wheat of Canada. Indirectly, he
could turn his master-position to financial gain in scores of ways. The
£200,000 to be allotted him as vendor was a bagatelle; but to hold four
million votes out of nine million was to control an empire.

He replied evenly: "I keep control on any proposition I touch. That's
creed with me. _Creed._"

"We split on that," answered Matheson.

"You want control for yourself?"

"No."

"Then what is it you do want?"