The imponderable element of injustice in the situation consisted in the suppression of a fact which the directors concealed but concerning which, however, they made no representation, false or otherwise.  They were going to risk half a million dollars of their own money and they wanted the whole gamble for themselves.  They sincerely felt that nobody else was entitled to take that risk with them.  Once they had floated Horse’s Neck they had come to look upon it as their own private affair.  The minority had no rights which they, the majority, were bound to respect.  The minority were nothing but a lot of piking gamblers, anyway, who bought or sold for a rise or fall of a few cents.  They knew nothing of the property and cared less for its real value.  They were merely traders and if they lost they forgot it or tried to.  On the other hand Scherer, Hunn, Greenbaum & Beck were promoters, who contributed something to the economic advancement of the nation.

* * * * *

“Regarding my hat, which you suggested this morning should be pressed at a cost of fifty cents,” remarked Mr. Tutt to Miss Wiggin when he returned to the office upon the adjournment of court in the afternoon and replaced that ancient object in its accustomed resting-place —­“regarding that precious hat of mine”—­he eyed it affectionately —­“I can only say that I would as soon send myself to a dry-cleaning establishment as to permit its profanation by the iron of a haberdasher.”

Miss Wiggin laughed lightly.

“That doesn’t explain your cryptic statement that it would probably cost you a hundred thousand dollars,” she replied.  “Still—­”

Mr. Tutt turned suddenly upon his heel and held her with an upraised hand, the bony wrist of which was encircled, after an intervening space of some five inches, by a frayed cuff confined with a black onyx button the size of a quarter.

“Behold,” he cried in the deep resonant voice that he used in addressing juries at the climax of a peroration, “the integuments of my personality—­the ancient habiliments of an honorable profession—­the panoply of the legal warrior.  Here, my corslet”—­he touched his dingy waistcoat with his left hand; “my greaves”—­he brushed the baggy legs of his pantaloons; “my halberd”—­he raised his old mahogany cane with its knot of yellow ivory; “my casque”—­he indicated his ruffled stove-pipe “Arrayed in these I am Mr. Ephraim Tutt, attorney and counselor at law—­the senior partner in Tutt & Tutt—­a respected member of the bar duly accredited and authorized to practise before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the Court of Appeals, the District Court of the United States, the Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of the United States, the Court of Claims—­”

“—­the Police Court and the Coroner’s Court,” concluded Miss Wiggin, making him a mock curtsy.