“At all events, Garrettson got back. We suspect he scolded his partners, and we know he gave out a statement to the reporters that was, to say the least, disingenuous. We know that, had it been any one but Garrettson, Wall Street would have seen stock-market strategy in his highly inconvenient disappearance.”
“Yes, yes; but—”
“Friend Kidder, let us evolve an explanation that explains. Let us form a syndicate of intelligent men!” He made a motion with his hand as if waving away the necessity of further elucidation.
“Friend Robison,” said Kidder, jocularly mimicking the older man's manner, “you are one of those unusual men whose speeches are better than his silences. Continuez, s'il vous plaît.”
“Intelligent men, deprecating alike violence and the immoderate accumulation of wealth by others. To reduce such wealth would be their object.”
“A band of robbers?”
“No; an aggregation of philosophers.”
“None the less crooks.”
“No; since they would take from crooks, annexing only that class of wealth which is called tainted! They would take plunder from the plunderers, themselves pardonable plunderers. That would give to the syndicate a confidence in itself and a faith in its righteousness that would make success easy. How would they go about making Wall Street contribute to the fund? Now they must have seen that Garrettson's life was a bull factor, and his death a bear card. But they had old-fashioned, unphilosophical scruples against murder. Moreover, the sensational disappearance of Garrettson would serve even better than his death. Problem: How to kidnap Garrettson? Or, better still: How to make Garrettson kidnap himself? Simplicity itself!”
“It I am Dr. Watson to your Sherlock Holmes, consider me gazing on you with admiration. And so—”