"Because it is he that has stuck the knife into me."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I suspect the Manasquale properties, which I brought into
the combine, have some value, which no one but Roebuck, and perhaps
Langdon, knows about--and that I in some way was dangerous to them through
that fact. They haven't given me time to look into it."
A grim smile flitted over his face. "You've been too busy getting married,
eh?"
"Exactly," said I. "It's another case of unbuckling for the wedding-feast
and getting assassinated as a penalty. Do you wish me to explain anything
on that list--do you want any details of the combine--of the Coal stocks
there?"
"Not necessary," he replied. As I had thought, with that enormous machine
of his for drawing in information, and with that enormous memory of his for
details, he probably knew more about the combine and its properties than I
did.
"You have heard of the lockout?" I inquired--for I wished him to know I
had no intention of deceiving him as to the present market value of those
stocks.
"Roebuck has been commanded by his God," he said, "to eject the free
American labor from the coal regions and to substitute importations of
coolie Huns and Bohemians.
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