matter is a very important one to me, as you can readily understand,
and so I will ask you to give me until to-morrow to make up my
mind."

"Very well," said Ryder.

Montague's first thought was of General Prentice. "Come to me any
time you need advice," the General had said; so Montague went down
to his office. "Do you know anything about John S. Price?" he asked.

"I don't know him very well personally," was the reply. "I know him
by reputation. He is a daring Wall Street operator, and he's been
very successful, I am told."

"Price began life as a cowboy, I understand," continued the General,
after a pause. "Then he went in for mines. Ten or fifteen years ago
we used to know him as a silver man. Several years ago there was a
report that he had been raiding Mississippi Steel, and had got
control. That was rather startling news, for everybody knew that the
Trust was after it. He seems to have fought them to a standstill."

"That sounds interesting," said Montague.

"Price was brought up in a rough school," said the General, with a
smile. "He has a tongue like a whip-lash. I remember once I attended
a creditors' meeting of the American Stove Company, which had got
into trouble, and Price started off from the word go. 'Mr.
Chairman,' he said, 'when I come into the office of an industrial
corporation, and see a stock ticker behind the president's chair
with the carpet worn threadbare in front of it, I know what's the