“I am willing to recapture our workings in the Copper King. I’ll lead the attack in person, sir. But as to a retaliatory attack—the facts will not justify a capture of his property because he has seized ours.”
“Wrong, sir. This is no time for half-way measures. I have resolved to crush this freebooter; since he has purchased your venal courts, then by the only means left us—force.”
Hobart rose from his seat, very pale and erect. His eyes met those of the great man unflinchingly. “You realize that this may mean murder, Mr. Harley? That a clash cannot possibly be avoided if you pursue this course?”
“I realize that it is self-preservation,” came the cold retort. “There is no law here, none, at least, that gives us justice. We are back to savagery, dragged back by the madness of this ruffian. It is his choice, not mine. Let him abide by it.”
“Your intention to follow this course is irrevocable?”
“Absolutely.”
“In that case, I must regretfully offer my resignation as manager of the Consolidated.”
“It is accepted, Mr. Hobart. I can’t have men working under me that are not loyal, body and soul, to the hand that feeds them. No man can serve two masters, Mr. Hobart.”
“That is why I resign, Mr. Harley. You give me the devil’s work to do. I have done enough of it. By Heaven, I will be a free man hereafter.” The disgust and dissatisfaction that had been pent within him for many a month broke forth hot from the lips of this self-repressed man. “It is all wrong on both sides. Two wrongs do not make a right. The system of espionage we employ over everybody both on his side and ours, the tyrannical use we make of our power, the corruption we foster in politics, our secret bargains with railroads, our evasions of law as to taxes, and in every other way that suits us: it is all wrong—all wrong. I’ll be a party to it no longer. You see to what it leads—murder and anarchy. I’ll be a poor man if I must, but I’ll be a free and honest one at least.”
“You are talking wickedly and wildly, Mr. Hobart. You are criticizing God when you criticize the business conditions he has put into the world. I did not know that you were a socialist, but what you have just said explains your course,” the old man reproved sadly and sanctimonious.