together."

About the table in the consultation room of Davenant's offices were
seated Ryder and Price, and Montague and Curtiss, and, finally,
William E. Davenant. Davenant was one of the half-dozen
highest-paid corporation lawyers in the Metropolis. He was a tall,
lean man, whose clothing hung upon him like rags upon a scare-crow.
One of his shoulders was a trifle higher than the other, and his
long neck invariably hung forward, so that his thin, nervous face
seemed always to be peering about. One had a sense of a pair of keen
eyes, behind which a restless brain was constantly plotting. Some
people rated Davenant as earning a quarter of a million a year, and
it was his boast that no one who made money according to plans which
he approved had ever been made to give any of it up.

In curious contrast was the figure of Price, who looked like a
well-dressed pugilist. He was verging on stoutness, and his face was
round, but underneath the superfluous flesh one could see the jaw of
a man of iron will. It was easy to believe that Price had fought his
way through life. He spoke sharply and to the point, and he laid
bare the subject with a few quick strokes, as of a surgeon's knife.

The first question was as to Montague's errand in the South. There
was no need of buying more stock of the road, for if they got the
new stock they would have control, and that was all they needed.
Montague was to see those holders of the stock whom he knew
personally, and to represent to them that he had succeeded in
interesting some Northern capitalists in the road, and that they
would undertake the improvements on condition that their board of
directors should be elected. Price produced a list of the new