And then came the day of the stockholders’ meeting.  He attended it, presenting proxies for the stock of Ryder and Price, and nominated his ticket, greatly to the consternation of Mr. Carter, the president of the road, who had been a lifelong friend of his family’s.  The new board of directors was elected by the votes of nearly three-fourths of the stock, and the new stock issue was voted by the same majority.  As none of the former stockholders cared to take the new stock, Montague subscribed for the whole issue in the name of Ryder and Price, and presented a certified check for the necessary deposit.

The news of these events, of course, created great excitement in the neighbourhood; also it did not pass unobserved in New York.  Northern Mississippi was quoted for the first time on the “curb,” and there was quite a little trading; the stock went up nearly ten points in one day.

Montague received this information in a letter from Harry Curtiss.  “You must be prepared to withstand the flatteries of the Steel crowd,” he wrote.  “They will be after you before long.”

Montague judged that he would not mind facing the “Steel crowd”; but he was much troubled by an interview which he had to go through with on the day after the meeting.  Old Mr. Carter came to see him, and gave him a feeble hand to shake, and sat and gazed at him with a pitiful look of unhappiness.

“Allan,” he said, “I have been president of the Northern Mississippi for fifteen years, and I have served the road faithfully and devotedly.  And now—­I want you to tell me—­what does this mean?  Am I—­”

Montague could not remember a time when Mr. Carter had not been a visitor at his father’s home, and it was painful to see him in his helplessness.  But there was nothing that could be done about it; he set his lips together.

“I am very sorry, Mr. Garter,” he said; “but I am not at liberty to say a word to you about the plans of my clients.”

“Am I to understand, then, that I am to be turned out of my position?  I am to have no consideration for all that I have done?  Surely—­”

“I am very sorry,” Montague said again, firmly,—­“but the circumstances at the present time are such that I must ask you to excuse me from discussing the matter in any way.”

A day or two later Montague received a telegram from Price, instructing him to go to Riverton, where the works of the Mississippi Steel Company were located, and to meet Mr. Andrews, the president of the Company.  Montague had been to Riverton several times in his youth, and he remembered the huge mills, which were one of the sights of the State.  But he was not prepared for the enormous development which had since taken place.  The Mississippi Steel Company had now two huge Bessemer converters, in which a volcano of molten flame roared all day and night.  It had bought up the whole western side of the town, and cleared away half a hundred ramshackle dwellings; and here were long rows of coke-ovens, and two huge rail-mills, and a plate-mill from which arose sounds like the crashing of the day of doom.  Everywhere loomed rows of towering chimneys, and pillars of rolling black smoke.  Little miniature railroad tracks ran crisscross about the yards, and engines came puffing and clanking, carrying blazing white ingots which the eye could not bear to face.