child’s laugh and clapping her hands said, ’Bob is so good to play with Beulah,’ and then I thought of that devil Reinhart and the other fiends of the ‘System’ being left to continue their work unhindered and I could not do it.  I must have revenge; I must smash that heart-crushing machinery.  Then I can go, and take Beulah with me.  Now, Jim, let us have it clearly understood once and for all.”

Remorse and softness were past; he was the Indian again.  “I am going to wreck that hell-annex some day, and that some day will be the next time I start in.  Don’t argue with me, don’t misunderstand me.  To-day you stopped me.  I don’t know whether you meant what you threatened; I don’t care now.  It is just as well that I stopped, for the ‘System’s’ machine will be there whenever I start in again.  It loses nothing of its fiendishness, none of its destructive powers by grinding, but, on the contrary, as you know, it increases its speed every day it runs.  Now, Jim Randolph, I want to tell you that you must get yours and the house’s affairs in such shape that you won’t be hurt when I go into that human rat-pit the next time, for when I come from it the New York Stock Exchange and the ‘System’ will have had their spines unjointed.  Yes, and I’ll have their hearts out, too.  Neither will ever again be able to take from the American people their savings and their manhood and womanhood and give them in exchange unadulterated torment.  I am going to be fair with you, Jim; this is the last time I will discuss the subject.  After this you must take your chance with the rest of those who have to do with the cursed business.  When I strike again, none will be spared.  I will wreck ‘the Street’, and the innocent will go down with the guilty, if they have any stocks on hand at that time.

“My power, Jim, is unlimited; nothing can stay it.  I am not going to explain any further.  You have seen me work.  You must know that my power is greater than the ‘System’s,’ and you and I and ‘the Street’ have always known that the ‘System’ is more powerful than the Government, more powerful than are the courts, legislatures, Congress, and the President of the United States combined, that it absolutely controls the foundation on which they rest—­the money of the nation.  But my power is greater, a thousand, yes, a million times greater than theirs.  Jim, they say that I have made more money than any man in the world.  They say that I have five hundred millions of dollars, but the fools don’t keep track of my movements.  They only know that I have pulled five hundred millions from my open whirls, the ones they have had an opportunity to keep tab on.  But I tell you that I have made even more in my secret deals than the amount they have seen me take.  I have had my agents with my capital in every deal, every steal the ‘System’ has rigged up.  The world has been throwing up its hands in horror because Carnegie, the blacksmith of Pittsburgh, pulled off three hundred millions of swag in the Steel hold-up—­yes, swag, Jim.  Don’t scowl as though you wanted to read me a lecture on the coarseness of my language.  I have learned to call this game of ours by its right name.  It is not business enterprise with earned profits as results, but pulled-off tricks with bags of loot—­black-jack swag—­for their end.