Before I could get my breath, Mr. Rogers, as if he divined my thought, quietly said:
"One of the inducements I offer will be to allow them to reinvest the money we pay them in the new consolidated company's stock, at a good big advance over what it will cost us."
This was too much. I roared and roared, and even he had to laugh as he quietly remarked: "I said you would find we had done better for you than you could do for yourself, Lawson, for you must remember you are in on this at actual cost."
I stopped laughing. "How is that? I thought you intended the new copper company to have the fifty-one per cent. of the selling company?"
He looked at me with something akin to disgust. Then his voice changed, and he let me have it straight from the shoulder:
"Lawson, do you really intend that this whole copper business shall be a charitable affair? If you do, just count us out right here. We are willing to accede to a lot of your ideas, but there is a line we must refuse to cross even to please you. This