"They bought up the survey. And they've probably controlled your
railroad ever since, and kept it down."

"But that's impossible! They've had nothing to do with it."

"Bah!" said the Major. "How could you know?"

"I know the president," said Montague. "He's an old friend of the
family's."

"Yes," was the reply. "But suppose they have a mortgage on his
business?"

"But why not buy the road and be done with it?" added Montague, in
perplexity.

The other laughed. "I am reminded of a famous saying of
Wyman's,--'Why should I buy stock when I can buy directors?'"

"It's those same people who are watching you now," he continued,
after a pause. "Probably they think it is some move of the other
side, and they are trying to run the thing down."

"Who owns the Mississippi Steel Company?" asked Montague.

"I don't know," said the Major. "I fancy that Wyman must have come
into it somehow. Didn't you notice in the papers the other day that
the contracts for furnishing rails for all his three transcontinental
railroads had gone to the Mississippi Steel
Company?"