“No, not for money, Waldron.  We’re both staggering under money, as it is.  But power!  Ah, that’s different!”

“I know,” admitted Waldron.  “But ought we—­you—­to attempt this, even for the sake of universal power?  Your plan contemplates a monopoly such that everybody who refused or was unable to buy your product would, at best, have to get along with vitiated air, and at worst would have to stifle.  Do you really think we ought to undertake this?”

Keenly he eyed Flint, as he thus sounded the elder man’s inhuman determination.  Flint, fathoming nothing of his purpose, retorted with some heat: 

“Ha!  Getting punctilious, all at once, are you?  Talk ethics, eh?  Where were your scruples, a year ago, when people were paying 25 cents a loaf for bread, because of that big wheat pool you put through?  How about the oil you’ve just lately helped me boost by a 20 per cent. increase?  And when the papers—­though mostly those infernal Socialist or Anarchist papers, or whatever they were—­shouted that old men and women were freezing in attics, last winter, what then?  Did you vote to arbitrate the D.K. coal strike?  Not by a jugful!  You stood shoulder to shoulder with me, then, Wally, while now—!”

“It’s a bit different, now,” interposed “Tiger,” with an evil smile, still leading his partner along.  “Since then I’ve had the—­ah—­the extreme happiness to become engaged to your daughter, Catherine.  New thoughts have entered my mind.  I’ve experienced a—­a—­”

“You quitter!” burst out Flint.  “No, by God! you aren’t going to put this thing over on me.  I’ll have no quitter for my son-in-law!  Wally, I’m astonished at you.  Astonished and disappointed.  You’re not yourself, this morning.  That eighty-six thousand you dropped last night, has shaken your heart.  Come, come, pull together!  Where’s your nerve, man?  Where’s your nerve?”

Waldron answered nothing.  In silence the partners watched the press of traffic, each busy with his own thoughts, Waldron waiting for Flint to reopen fire on him, and the Billionaire decided to say no more till his associate should make some move.  Thus the limousine reached the Staten Island ferry, that glorious monument of municipal ownership wrecked by Tammany grafting.  In silence they smoked while the car rolled down the incline and out onto the huge ferry boat.  Then, as the crowded craft got under way, a minute later, both men left the car and strolled to the rail to watch the glittering sparkle of the sunlight on the harbor; the teeming commerce of the port; the creeping liners and busy tugs; the towering figure of Liberty, her flameless torch held far aloft in mockery.

Suddenly Waldron spoke.