Westervelt smiled in such a way that his white hair and beard and patriarchal features combined in an aspect of beautiful benevolence. "I fear he won't get them, Josiah," said he, chuckling softly.
"Then you'd better telephone her," said Fosdick.
"I have, Josiah," said his old pal, with a glance at the telephone on Fosdick's desk.
The veterans looked each at the other, Josiah reproachfully. "Billy, you don't trust even me," he said sadly.
"I trust no one but the Lord, Josiah," replied Westervelt.
XVI
HUGO SHOWS HIS METTLE
Fosdick did not go up to parley with the insurgent until after lunch, until he had thought out his game. He went prepared for peace, for a truce, or for war. "Horace," he began, "there are many phases to an enterprise as vast as this. You can't run it as you would a crossroads grocery. You have got to use all sorts of men and measures, to adapt yourself to them, to be broad and tolerant—and diplomatic. Above all, diplomatic." And he went on for some time in this strain of commercial commonplaces, feeling his way carefully. "Now, it may be true—I don't know, but it may be true," he ended, "that Westervelt, in conducting his part of the affairs, has taken wider latitude than perhaps might be tolerated in a man of less strength and standing. We must consider only results. On the other hand, it is just as well that we should know precisely what his methods have been."
At this Armstrong's impassive face showed a gleam of interest. "That's what I thought," said he.
"But it wouldn't do—it wouldn't do at all, Horace, for us to let an outsider like Brownell, at one jump, into the secrets of the company. Why, there's no telling what he would do. He might blackmail us, or sell us out to one of our rivals."