“We f-figgered on one thing,” says Mark, sort of slow. “We figgered that as big a man as you be wouldn’t stoop to cheat and scheme and bulldoze jest to s-s-save a few dollars. We f-figgered that real business men did business honest and aboveboard. We figgered that somewheres in your big company was men that wouldn’t stand by to git rich by gougin’ other folks out of money they’d worked hard and honest to earn. That’s how we l-looked at it. But I guess we was wrong.”
“Don’t talk to me like that, boy,” says Wiggamore.
“I jest got a couple m-more words to say, and I’m goin’ to say ’em. I know all big b-business men hain’t like you. I know most of ’em is honest and fair. Jest because we run acrost a man like you don’t make us think they’re all like you. What it makes us think is that if them other m-men knew how you acted to us they’d be ashamed of you. They wouldn’t want to have anythin’ to do with you. They wouldn’t do business with you.... The more I think about it the more it gits into my head that you hain’t a real business man at all. You’re jest a feller that’s got up in the world because he was willin’ to do dirty things that other men wouldn’t touch.... Sich men don’t last. Maybe you kin git ahead for a while, but it’s only for a while. I jest wanted to let you know what we think of you, and to tell you this: We was willin’ to be reasonable. We was w-willin’ to come to t-terms. Now you can’t make no t-terms with us. It’s f-fight. We’ll git all we kin. We’ll make you pay the l-last cent we kin git out of you—and you’ll pay it, too. That’s all, Mr. Wiggamore, and good m-mornin’.”
He turned his back and walked off fast. I looked back, and Wiggamore was looking after him with a queer kind of a look that was more than half mad, but mixed with something else that I couldn’t quite make out. Anyhow, says I to myself, whatever happens, we got the satisfaction of knowing that man hain’t mistaken about what we think of him.
“Now what?” says I to Mark.
“Fight,” says he. “I hain’t n-never been in no fight before. This hain’t no reg’lar fight, it’s between Wiggamore and us. What I’m goin’ to f-find out is this—if business will stand for sich men as Wiggamore. That’s what I’m goin’ to f-find out.”
“How?” says I.
“When there’s a war,” says Mark, “the thing to do is to capture the enemy’s strongest p-place—the place that’s d-defendin’ all his country. Do that and you win. I’m g-goin’ to try to capture Wiggamore’s stronghold.”
“Don’t sound jest clear to me,” says I.
“It will,” says he, “b-because you’re goin’ to help me, and so are Tallow and B-Binney.”