"Every line along this coast is essential in making that merger stock an
air-tight proposition."
"It's a new line and is not paying dividends."
"Well, for that matter, it's got nothing in that respect on some of the
other lines we're salting down in the merger," suggested a member of the
party, speaking for the first time.
"I'm afraid you said it then, Thompson! American bottoms seem to be
turned into barnacle-gardens," declared the man who had questioned the
matter of Tucker's value.
"Gentlemen, just a moment!" Julius Marston leaned forward in his
chair. His voice was low. His eyes narrowed. He dominated them by his
earnestness. "You have followed me in a number of enterprises, and we
have had good luck. But let me tell you that we have ahead of us the
biggest thing yet, and we cannot afford to leave one loose end! Not
one, gentlemen! That's why a fool like Tucker doesn't deserve any
consideration when he gets in our way. Listen to me! The biggest thing
that has ever happened in this world is going to happen. How do I know?
I am not sure that I do know. But as I have just told you, the man who
guesses right is the winner." His thin nose was wrinkled, and the strip
of beard on his chin bristled. Sometimes men called Marston "the fox of
Wall Street." He suggested the reason for his nickname as he sat there
and squinted at his associates. "And there's an instinct that helps some
men to guess right. Something is going to happen in this world before
long that will make millionaires over and over out of men who have
invested a few thousands in American bottoms."
"What will happen?" bluntly inquired one of the men, after a silence.
"I am neither clairvoyant nor crystal-gazer," said Marston, grimly. "But
I have led you into some good things when my instinct has whispered. I
say it's going to happen--and I say no more."
"To make American bottoms worth while the whole of Europe will have to
be busy doing something else with their ships."
"All right! Then they'll be doing it," returned Marston.
"It would have to be a war--a big war."
"Very well! Maybe that's the answer."
"But there never can be another big war. As a financier you know it."
"I have made some money by adhering to the hard and fast rules of
finance. But I have made the most of my money by turning my back on
those rules and listening to my instinct," was Marston's rejoinder. "I
don't want to over-influence you, gentlemen. I don't care to discuss any
further what you may consider to be dreams. I am not predicting a great
war in Europe. Common sense argues the other way. But I am going into
this ship-merger proposition with every ounce of brains and energy and
capital I possess. The man who gets in my way is trying to keep these
two hands of mine off millions!" He shook his clutched fists above
his head. "And I'll walk over him, by the gods! whether it's Tucker
or anybody else. We have had some good talks on the subject, first
and last. I'm starting now to fight and smash opposition. What do you
propose to do in the matter, gentlemen?"