halted. As naturally as though there had been no calculation in the tone of resigned despair which tinged my voice, I said:
"Mr. Rogers, don't let us prolong this talk. You well know what this decision of yours means to me, so let me go where I can think it to a finish."
In an instant Henry H. Rogers was again his virile and commanding self. He jumped to his feet. His words came round and tense, passionately convincing and persuasive.
"Lawson, are you crazy? Would you go back to Boston and smash this business that we have spent years on? Would you sacrifice the millions that are in your grasp? Would you? Would you, I say? You know I would not threaten you, but I ask, would you do this, and at a time when you are all tied and tangled up with us in such a way that you would be bankrupt, literally be a pauper, and all because I insist upon things that conditions over which I have no control compel me to demand?"