“Go ahead!” he said indifferently.
“All right,” said Locke. “Give me a list of your directors.”
“What do you want that for?”
“I want to find out, if I can, how many or which of them will benefit by this increased rate on lumber.”
“Confound it, Locke,” snapped Beemer, “that’s another insinuation. It amounts to a charge of manipulation of rates.”
“Which is, of course, absurd,” said Locke ironically. “Will you give me the names, or must I get them another way?”
That night he and Crooks went carefully over the list of directors. They found several names whose owners were more or less connected with lumber interests, though just how they benefited by the new rate was not apparent, unless they received rebates in some form, as doubtless they did.
“As to Carney it’s plain enough,” said Crooks. “His business is over on the O. & N. The rise won’t touch him and will cut us out of his markets.”
“That’s so,” responded Locke. “Now, take Ackerman. I know he’s mixed up in about everything, but I never heard that he had lumber interests.”
“He tried to get young Kent to turn his business into a stock company, and failing that to sell it,” said Crooks.