"I didn't overlook them," Gorham replied. "I can buy them cheaper now."
Brady was amused and showed his appreciation of the speaker's humor in his sidelong glance at Harris.
"You think so, do you?" he calmed himself enough to reply. "I presume you've settled on the price you're goin' to pay?"
"I have," answered Gorham; "but I'm not quite ready to quote it. The stockholders of these small companies understood that you were purchasing their stock to be merged with the New York Street Railways Company, didn't they?"
"It don't make a damned bit of difference what they thought. We paid 'em their price."
"And the stockholders of the New York Street Railways Company thought you were buying this stock to be merged with theirs, didn't they?"
"We used our own money to buy that stock. You can't find a thing about it that ain't straight."
"Very good. Now I'll name my price for the three lines. The Consolidated
Companies will pay you fifty thousand dollars for them."
"Fifty thousand!" gasped Brady. "Why, we paid two hundred thousand."
"Thank you. I had wondered what you did pay for them, and this information is no doubt authentic. The stockholders made a better thing out of it than you will."