For a moment the mill owner remained lost in thought. Then he asked:
“How did Jordan get the control of John Carden’s secret process?”
“I never knew the particulars,” replied Doctor Meigs; “but Mr. Jordan has told me that he loaned Mr. Carden money to carry on his experiments.”
“Bosh! Jordan never had a dollar in his life until after I made the deal with him and started these mills. He was nothing but an humble clerk in the bank here.”
“I remember,” said the doctor, regarding the other man with a blank expression.
“But at the time I made my arrangements with Jordan he showed me a paper signed by John Carden which transferred all his interest in the secret process, together with the formula itself, to Ezra Jordan, in consideration of the sum of ten thousand dollars.”
“Ten thousand dollars!” ejaculated the doctor.
“Which Jordan never owned,” said Williams, slapping his knee emphatically. “When I enquired at the bank, the cashier told me that Jordan had never had any money except his salary, and it is certain he had not embezzled a dollar while in the employ of the bank. But it was none of my business, after all. Only, Jordan drove such a hard bargain with me for the use of his process that I’m paying him a fortune every year, in royalties, and he runs the works himself, so as to be sure I don’t rob him. The paper executed by John Carden seems genuine, and the only thing that puzzles me is why he transferred such a valuable secret, just as it was proven a success, to a man he could not possibly have borrowed money from, because the man never had it to lend.”
“You astonish me,” said Doctor Meigs, with evident sincerity. “I’ve never been able to understand Mr. Jordan, myself. He is a very reserved individual, and I knew that he was quite intimate with John Carden, before the latter left Bingham on his fatal journey. But that there was anything wrong or at all suspicious in Jordan’s dealings with his old friend, I have never even dreamed.”
“There may be nothing wrong at all,” returned Mr. Williams. “But in that case the inventor of the best steel process in the world was a fool.”