"Naturally; well, I'll make a confession, since we're all friends together—I've had men conferring with your horny-handed citizens and suggesting that the International Power Company was 'unfair,' and a bad outfit to work for!"
"That was nice of you!" growled Ackerman, getting red in the face. "Fine business, for you to come snooping around our works."
The slender man smiled at him pleasantly. "How else could I get information?" he inquired. "You must remember that I'm no longer on the board! But you must remember, also, that of late I have picked up an occasional dollar's worth of International. I wanted to know how about certain things!"
"Well, how about them, then?" demanded Standley fiercely. "Where do we stand?"
"You want me to incriminate myself!"
"Oh, fiddlesticks about incrimination! Cut out that part of it!"
"All right, I will," said the other grimly. "Well, then, I've tried my best to bribe your people, and I've got little out of it. I've tried the foreman, the night watchman, and everybody else. I've had a dozen of your workmen slugged for scabbing, and four or five of them shot, one or two at least, for a good, permanent funeral. And I paid the funeral expenses! You didn't know that? Well, that's the truth of it!"
"Well, what do you know about that!" gasped Standley, aghast.
"I know a good deal about it, my Christian friend," said the slender man relentlessly. "I can tell you what you already know, that your motors are dismantled to-day. I can tell you also that there's a very good chance that the secret we've been after is in the hands of one man, and he's holding it up for some reason best known to himself. We've got nothing on him! I can also tell you that if he won't give up—though why he won't, I can't imagine—it's possible we can work out a receiver of our own elsewhere, without him."
VII