He did not hesitate to make such alliances with corporate interests seeking influence at Washington as would enable him to accomplish this purpose, and in this way he had met and formed a strong friendship with John Burkett Ryder.  Each being a master in his own field was useful to the other.  Neither was troubled with qualms of conscience, so they never quarrelled.  If the Ryder interests needed anything in the Senate, Roberts and his followers were there to attend to it.  Just now the cohort was marshalled in defence of the railroads against the attacks of the new Rebate bill.  In fact, Ryder managed to keep the Senate busy all the time.  When, on the other hand, the senators wanted anything—­and they often did—­Ryder saw that they got it, lower rates for this one, a fat job for that one, not forgetting themselves.  Senator Roberts was already a very rich man, and although the world often wondered where he got it, no one had the courage to ask him.

But the Republican leader was stirred with an ambition greater than that of controlling a majority in the Senate.  He had a daughter, a marriageable young woman who, at least in her father’s opinion, would make a desirable wife for any man.  His friend Ryder had a son, and this son was the only heir to the greatest fortune ever amassed by one man, a fortune which, at its present rate of increase, by the time the father died and the young couple were ready to inherit, would probably amount to over six billions of dollars.  Could the human mind grasp the possibilities of such a colossal fortune?  It staggered the imagination.  Its owner, or the man who controlled it, would be master of the world!  Was not this a prize any man might well set himself out to win?  The senator was thinking of it now as he stood exchanging banal remarks with the men who accosted him.  If he could only bring off that marriage he would be content.  The ambition of his life would be attained.  There was no difficulty as far as John Ryder was concerned.  He favoured the match and had often spoken of it.  Indeed, Ryder desired it, for such an alliance would naturally further his business interests in every way.  Roberts knew that his daughter Kate had more than a liking for Ryder’s handsome young son.  Moreover, Kate was practical, like her father, and had sense enough to realize what it would mean to be the mistress of the Ryder fortune.  No, Kate was all right, but there was young Ryder to reckon with.  It would take two in this case to make a bargain.

Jefferson Ryder was, in truth, an entirely different man from his father.  It was difficult to realize that both had sprung from the same stock.  A college-bred boy with all the advantages his father’s wealth could give him, he had inherited from the parent only those characteristics which would have made him successful even if born poor—­activity, pluck, application, dogged obstinacy, alert mentality.  To these qualities he added what his father sorely lacked—­a