“I took it to him because I knew him,” said Montague.

“But one doesn’t take things to people because one knows them,” said the Major.  “One takes them to the right people.  If Jim Hegan could have his way, he would wipe the Mississippi Steel Company off the map of the United States.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you know,” said the Major, “that Mississippi Steel is the chief competitor of the Trust?  And old Dan Waterman organised the Steel Trust, and watches it all the time.”

“But what’s that got to do with Hegan?”

“Simply that Jim Hegan works with Waterman in everything.”

Montague stared in dismay.  “I see,” he said.

“Of course!” said the Major.  “My dear fellow, why don’t you come to me before you do things like that?  You should have gone to the Mississippi Steel people; and you should have gone quietly, and to the men at the top.  For all you can tell, you may have a really big proposition that’s been overlooked in the shuffle.  What was that you said about the survey?”

And Montague told in detail the story of the aborted plan for an extension, and of his hunting trip, and what he had learned on it.

“Of course,” said the Major, “you are in the heart of the thing right now.  The Steel people balked your plan.”

“How do you mean?” asked the other.

“They bought up the survey.  And they’ve probably controlled your railroad ever since, and kept it down.”

“But that’s impossible!  They’ve had nothing to do with it.”

“Bah!” said the Major.  “How could you know?”

“I know the president,” said Montague.  “He’s an old friend of the family’s.”

“Yes,” was the reply.  “But suppose they have a mortgage on his business?”

“But why not buy the road and be done with it?” added Montague, in perplexity.

The other laughed.  “I am reminded of a famous saying of Wyman’s,—­’Why should I buy stock when I can buy directors?’”

“It’s those same people who are watching you now,” he continued, after a pause.  “Probably they think it is some move of the other side, and they are trying to run the thing down.”

“Who owns the Mississippi Steel Company?” asked Montague.

“I don’t know,” said the Major.  “I fancy that Wyman must have come into it somehow.  Didn’t you notice in the papers the other day that the contracts for furnishing rails for all his three transcontinental railroads had gone to the Mississippi Steel Company?”

“Sure enough!” exclaimed Montague.

“You see!” said the Major, with a chuckle.  “You have jumped right into the middle of the frog pond, and the Lord only knows what a ruction you have stirred up!  Just think of the situation for a moment.  The Steel Trust is over-capitalised two hundred per cent.  Because of the tariff it is able to sell its product at home for fifty per cent more than it charges abroad; and even so, it has