"Yes, I think so."
"Then we will call it off for good. I've hung so long by the heels on this whole matter that anything is better than a further wait. I'm for Boston on the next train, and by to-morrow I'll have figured out where we stand."
I started for the door.
"Just a minute." His voice was as indifferent as though no tremendous issue were at stake, for Henry H. Rogers is of the iron-willed breed whom peril never betrays into trepidation. He would throw dice for his life as casually as one of your Wall Street tipsters would for a cigar, and here reputation and millions were in the balance. I knew as well as though I had seen the message telegraphed across his mind that he had said to himself, "It didn't work, I must round to," but I knew my man well enough to realize that a false move now would tip victory back into defeat. I halted. As naturally as though there had been no calculation in the tone of resigned despair which tinged my voice, I said:
"Mr. Rogers, don't let us prolong this talk. You well know what this decision of yours means to me, so let me go where I can think it to a finish."
In an instant Henry H. Rogers was again his virile and commanding self. He jumped to his feet. His words came round and tense, passionately convincing and persuasive.
"Lawson, are you crazy? Would you go back to Boston and smash this business that we have spent years on? Would you sacrifice the millions that are in your grasp? Would you? Would you, I say? You know I would not threaten you, but I ask, would you do this, and at a time when you are all tied and tangled up with us in such a way that you would be bankrupt, literally be a pauper, and all because I insist upon things that conditions over which I have no control compel me to demand?"
Whether he intended to halt or not I never knew, for I let him have my pent-up feelings in eleven words that gave me as much relief as any thousand I could have selected had I a day to do it in:
"As true as there is a God above us, I would!"