"I thought you did nothing but play golf," he said. "Tell me; how did you happen to go into a deal of this magnitude?"
I gave him the details of the conspiracy as I had discovered them. It is not safe at this time to disclose them even in this diary. Mr. Harding listened with growing wonder on his face.
"My boy," he said, when I had ended, "if there is anyone in the country who should have discovered and taken advantage of the facts you have just told me, it is myself, but I never dreamed of them until you had purchased more than 30,000 shares of that stock. These dogs think I'm in Europe! They were told so. They think they have sold me out, and perhaps they have. I did not watch it as I should have done."
For a minute the train roared on past suburban stations, under viaducts, through echoing rows of freight cars, and over clattering switches. We were nearing the metropolis.
"Do you mind telling me if you are alone in this transaction?" he suddenly asked.
"I am."
"Do you wish to go in with me in this deal?"
"I do!" I replied without hesitation.
"Good!" he said, offering his hand. "We'll talk no more of this here.
It's not safe. Come with me to my office."
We reached his private office half an hour before the opening of the Stock Exchange. In five minutes the machinery of his wonderful system was in operation. Notes were dictated, messengers hurried away with them, men called, who listened to curt orders and vanished.