I can assure you that no prison in America could ever hold me
and my friends, and that our risk is not in any way so serious as you
imagine. But, leaving out the question of our personal safety or
convenience, I want to put this to you. If you publish the contents of
that document in the evening papers to-morrow, you will produce in
America the greatest and most ruinous financial crisis that the country
has ever known."
For the first time Vine's cold, immobile face showed some signs of
interest. He abandoned his somewhat negligent attitude, and sat up with
an attentive expression.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Weiss struck the table in front of him with his open hand.
"Don't you know," he said, "that Bardsley, Littleson, Higgins, Phineas
Duge, and myself, are the blood and the muscle of this country, so far
as regards finance? Every one of the great railroad stocks is controlled
by us. Prices are more or less what we make them. Three of the greatest
industrial undertakings which the world has ever known, in which are
invested hundreds of millions of honest American capital, are still
controlled by us. If you publish that document, whatever the ultimate
results may be, there will be the worst scare in the American
money-market which the world has ever known.
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