"Thanks!" I said glumly.
"Now, why can't we avoid a fight and settle this matter between ourselves? There might be something good in it for you."
"I know the way you settle such matters."
"According to your own talk, there isn't much left for you folks."
"Only this," I said slowly, and I walked back to his desk and leaned over it: "I don't sell out to you. We default. The bonds will be foreclosed, and maybe your crowd will hold the majority of 'em. But when we get into the courts, Mr. Strauss, on a receivership, I go before the judge and tell the story. I have the papers, too. And part of that story will have to do with certain agreements which our company has made with you and the other packers. And more than that, behind these arrangements there are a lot more of the same kind in our safe that we got from Dround and others. Now, if you want the whole story of the packing business aired in court and in the papers throughout the country, you'll have your wish."
"Pshaw!" he said coolly, "you don't suppose that bluff counts! They can't do a thing to us."
"Maybe not," I replied. "Nothing more than a congressional investigation, perhaps. And that might block your little game."
"Go on, young feller!" he exclaimed contemptuously.
"That's all. I want you to know that I am in this fight to the end, and if it ruins me and my friends, I will see that it hurts you. Now, if you want to fight, let the bank call this money."
We had some more talk on the same subject, and, though the great packer maintained an air of indifference, I thought I had made some impression on him. Then we parted, and the old fellow paid me the compliment of seeing me as far as the door of his office.