It was incredible!
That men whose names were the synonyms4 of honesty and fair dealing5, men entrusted6 with the management of companies whose assets represented the savings7 of millions of poor men, the sole defense8 of millions of helpless women and children—that these trusted leaders of the world were habitually9 prostituting their trusts for personal gain, staggered belief.
He delayed action and began a careful, patient, thorough investigation10. As it proceeded, his amazement11 increased. He found that Bivens had only scratched the surface of the truth. He found that the system of fraud and chicanery12 had spread from the heads of the big companies until the whole business world was honeycombed with its corruption.
New York, the financial centre of the Nation, had gone mad with the insane passion for money at all hazards—by all means, fair or foul14. The Nation was on the tidal wave of the most wonderful industrial boom in its history. The price of stocks had reached fabulous15 figures and still soared to greater heights. Millionaires were springing up, like mushrooms, in a night. Waiters at fashionable hotels, who hung on the chairs of rich guests with more than usual fawning16, were boasting of fortunes made in a day. Broadway and Central Park and every avenue leading to the long stretches of good country roads flashed with hundreds of new automobiles17, crowded with strange smiling faces.
Two months had passed since Bivens placed in the District Attorney's hands the document which was destined18 to make sad history in the annals of the metropolis19. Stuart felt that the time had come to act. It was his solemn duty to the people.
He sat in his private office in one of the great skyscrapers20 down town holding in his hand a list of the men he was about to ask the Grand Jury to indict21 for crimes which would send them to prison, exile and dishonoured22 death. It was a glorious morning in May. The window was open and a soft wind was blowing from the south. The view of the blue expanse of the great harbour and towering hills of Staten Island in the distance was entrancing. The south wind filled his heart with memories of high ideals, and noble aspirations23 born in his own land of poverty and want.
His people in the South had known the real horrors of want, had fought the grim battle, won an honest living and kept their lives clean and strong. And just because they had, his heart was filled with a great pity as he read over and over again the illustrious names he was about to blacken with the stain of crime. He thought of women in sheltered homes up town whose necks would bend to the storm; of the anguish24 of old-fashioned fathers and mothers who could think no evil of their own, whose spirits would droop25 and die at the first breath of shame. He rose at last with calm decision.
"I've got to do it—that's all. But before I do, I'm going to know one or two things beyond the shadow of a doubt."
He seized his telephone and made an appointment to call at once on Bivens.
The financier extended his delicate hand and with a cordial smile led Stuart to a seat beside his desk. The only sign he betrayed of deep emotion was the ice-like coldness of his slender fingers.
"Well, Jim, you've completed your very thorough investigation?"
"How did you know I was making a thorough investigation?"
Stuart looked at Bivens with a quick movement of surprise. The little man was gazing intently at the ceiling.
"I make it my business to know things which vitally interest me. You found my facts accurate?"
"Remarkably26 so."
"And you are ready to strike?"
The black eyes flashed.
"When I have confirmed some statements you have made in your story concerning the private life of these men. How do you know the accuracy of the facts you state in a single line, for instance, about the private life and habits of the president of a certain trust company?"
A cold smile played about Bivens's mouth for a moment.
"You don't suppose I would make a statement like that unless I know it to be true?"
"I found all your other facts correct. This I haven't been able to verify. You make it incidentally, as though it were a matter of slight importance. To my mind it's the key to the man's character and to every act of his life. How did you discover it?"
"Very simply."
Bivens walked to his door, opened it, looked outside, stepped to one of the great steel safes and drew its massive doors apart. He pulled a slip from a cabinet fitted with a card-case index, noted27 the number, replaced the card, opened another door and drew out a manuscript notebook of some three hundred pages of type-written matter. Each page was written without spacing and contained as many words as the average page of a printed novel. On the back of the morocco cover was printed in plain gold lettering:
"THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NO. 560."
He handed the volume to Stuart, closed the safe, and resumed his seat.
"You may take that book with you, Jim," he said quietly. "I trust to your honour not to reveal its contents except in the discharge of your sworn duty as an officer of the law. You will find in it the record of the distinguished28 president's private life for the past ten years without the omission29 of a single event of any importance."
Stuart glanced through the book with amazement.
"How did you come into possession of such facts?"
"No trouble at all," was the easy answer. "It only requires a little money and a little patience and a little care in selecting the right men for the right job. Any man in the business world who thinks he can do as he pleases in this town will wake some morning with a decided30 jolt31. The war for financial supremacy32 has developed a secret service which approaches perfection. The secret service of armies is child's play compared to it.
"Not only do I systematically33 watch my employees until I know every crook34 and turn of their lives, but I watch with even greater care the heads of every rival firm in every department of the industrial world where my interests touch theirs.
"I not only watch the heads of firms, I watch their trusted assistants and confidential35 men. In that big safe a thousand secrets lie locked whose revelation would furnish matter enough to run the yellow journals for the next five years.
"Every man who holds a position of trust and puts his hands on money has his shadow. It's a question of business. The wholesaler36 must know the character of the retailer37 to whom he extends credit. A trust must know what its remaining independent rivals are doing, what business they are developing, what big orders they seek. I must know, and I must know accurately38 and fully39 what every enemy is doing, what he is thinking, with whom he drinks, where he spends his time and how he lives.
"Modern business is war, the fiercest and most cruel the world has ever known. It is of greater importance to a modern captain of industry to know the plans of his enemy than it ever was to the commanding general of an opposing army."
"I see," Stuart responded, thoughtfully.
"There are men down there in the street now," Bivens went on dreamily, "who are wearing silk hats to-day for whom the prison tailor is cutting a suit. I have their records in that silent little steel-clad room. It's a pitiful thing, but it's life. And, believe me, the realities of our every-day life here are more wonderful than the wildest romance the novelist can spin.
"Last year I had a man of genius at the head of one of my corporations. Not the slightest suspicion had ever been directed against him. But my men reported to me that he was supporting two establishments, besides the one he kept for his family, and that in those two secret orchards40 which he tended he was making presents of fine jewelry41. An examination of his office by experts revealed the fact that he was wrong. He was bounced. He would have gone no matter what his accounts showed. It is only a question of time and a very short time when such a man goes wrong.
"The scarcest thing in New York to-day, Jim, is the man who can't be bought and sold. The thing that's beyond price in the business world is character—combined with brains. That's why I made you the offer I did once upon a time to come in with me. There are positions to-day in New York with a salary of half a million a year waiting for men who can fill them. If I could find one man of the highest order of creative and executive ability who would stand by me in my enterprises I could be the richest man in the world in ten years."
Stuart lifted his eyes from the record he was casually42 scanning and smiled into Bivens's dark, serious face.
The look silenced the speaker. The little man knew instinctively43 that Stuart was at that moment weighing his own life and character by the merciless standard he had set up for others. Judged by conventional laws he had nothing to fear. He was a faithful member of his church. He gave liberally to its work and gave generously to a hundred worthy44 charities. He loved his wife with old-fashioned loyalty45 and tenderness and grieved that she was childless. He stood by his friends and fought his enemies, asking no quarter and giving none.
Yet in his heart of hearts he knew that, judged in the great white light of the Eternal when all things hidden shall be revealed, he could not stand blameless. He knew that while he had kept within the letter of the law, his genius consisted in the skill with which he had learned to divert other men's earnings46 into his own coffers.
And deep down in the depths of his memory there lay one particular deed which lent colour to all that followed. He knew that however loftily he might discourse47 at present about "character," "honour," "integrity," and "fair dealing," he had stolen the formula from his big-hearted employer with which he had laid the foundation of his fortune. It was the first half-million that came hard. It was this first half-million that bore the stain of shame. He had justified48 it with fine sophistry49 until he counted himself a benefactor50 to Woodman, but the grim fact stood out in his memory with growing clearness as his millions piled up with each succeeding year.
His other questionable51 acts on which the fate of millions had often hung he had no difficulty in justifying52. Business was war. In war it was fair to deceive, to march in the night, to attack when least suspected, to strike to kill, to destroy and lay waste the fairest countries and starve your enemy into submission53.
All this had flashed through Bivens's imagination when Stuart smiled, and in spite of his conscious dignity and power, he had fallen silent. The smile had made him nervous. He wondered vaguely54 what was in the mind of the tall quiet man that provoked a smile at such a serious moment.
He wondered particularly whether the lawyer could have suspected his hobby, for he had one of the most curious—a collection of historic material on the origin of American fortunes. The origin of his own had early made Bivens suspect that all great fortunes which had mounted into millions, like his own, may have been built in their first foundations on fraud. He wondered if Stuart had by any accident stumbled on this information. Even if he had he could not understand his real motive55 in such an investigation, and yet the lazy smile with which he looked up from that record was disconcerting.
Bivens waited for him to speak. The moment was one big with fate. Stuart was about to reach a decision that would make history. No one knew so well its importance as the keen intellect that gleamed behind the little black eyes watching with tireless patience.
Bivens was the one odd man in a thousand who knew that big events were not to be found in earthquakes, tornadoes56 and battles. He had long since learned that the events which shake the world are always found in the silent hours when the soul of a single man says, "I will!"
Below he could hear the roar of the city's life. On the Curb57 brokers58 were shouting their wares59 with their accustomed gusto. On the floor of the Exchange the tide of business ebbed60 and flowed with the fierce pulse of an apparently61 exhaustless strength. Men bought and sold with no fear of to-morrow. Yet a single word from the lips of the tall, clean-shaven young officer of the law and a storm would break which might tear from the foundations institutions on whose solidity modern civilization seemed to rest.
The silence at length became suffocating62 to Bivens. He moistened his lips and drew his smooth fingers softly over his silky beard.
"Well, Jim," he said at length. "You are going to act?"
In the moment's pause the little swarthy body never moved, his breath ceased and every nerve quivered with the strain and yet he betrayed nothing to the man who sat before him, silent, thoughtful.
Stuart rose abruptly63, his reply sharp and clear.
"Yes, I'm going to act."
"At once?"
"It's my duty."
Bivens grasped his hand.
"I congratulate you, Jim. You are going to do a big thing, one of the biggest things in our history. You are going to teach the mighty64 that the law is mightier65. It ought to land you at the very top in politics or any other old place you'd like to climb."
"That's something which doesn't interest me yet, Cal. The thing that stuns66 me is that I've got to do so painful a thing. But my business is the enforcement of justice. There's one thing I still can't understand."
He paused and looked at Bivens curiously67.
"What's that?" the financier softly asked.
"Why you of all men on earth should have put this information in my hands. The honour of the achievement, if good shall come to the country, is really yours, not mine."
"And you can't conceive of my acting68 for the country's good?"
Bivens's black eyes twinkled.
"Not by the wildest leap of my imagination."
The twinkle broadened into a smile as the lawyer continued:
"Your code is simple, Cal. There's no provision in it for disinterested69 effort for others. Few financiers of modern times can conceive of a sane13 man deliberately70 working for the good of the people as against his own. In your face, there has never been any doubting, any perplexity, since you made your first strike in New York. Behind your black eyes there has always glowed the steady, deadly purpose of the man who knows exactly what he wants and how he is going to get it. This time you've got me up a tree. You have rendered the people a great service. You have placed me under personal obligations. But how you are going to get anything out of it is beyond me."
"Oh, I'll have my reward, my boy," Bivens answered jovially71, as his dainty fingers again stroked his beard, pressing his mustache back from the thin lips, "and I assure you it will not be purely72 spiritual."
The door had scarcely closed on Stuart when Bivens pressed the button which called his confidential secretary.
In a moment the man stood at his elbow with the tense erect73 bearing of an orderly on the field of battle. The quick nervous touch of the master's hand on that button had told to his sensitive ears the story of a coming life-and-death struggle. His words came with sharp nervous energy:
"Yes sir?"
The financier slowly drew the big cigar from his mouth and spoke74 in low tones:
"A meeting of the Allied75 Bankers here in 30 minutes. No telephone messages. A personal summons to each. They enter one at a time that no one on the outside sees them come. You understand?"
"I understand."
Bivens raised his finger in warning. "Your life on the issue."
Trembling with excitement the secretary turned and quickly left the room.
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1
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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synonyms
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| 同义词( synonym的名词复数 ) | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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chicanery
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| n.欺诈，欺骗 | |
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sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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15
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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fawning
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| adj.乞怜的，奉承的v.（尤指狗等）跳过来往人身上蹭以示亲热( fawn的现在分词 )；巴结；讨好 | |
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17
automobiles
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| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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skyscrapers
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| n.摩天大楼 | |
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indict
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| v.起诉，控告，指控 | |
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dishonoured
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| a.不光彩的，不名誉的 | |
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aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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omission
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| n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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jolt
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| v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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wholesaler
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| n.批发商 | |
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retailer
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| n.零售商(人) | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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sophistry
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| n.诡辩 | |
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50
benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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51
questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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justifying
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| 证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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tornadoes
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| n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 ) | |
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curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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brokers
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| n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
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wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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60
ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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mightier
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| adj. 强有力的，强大的，巨大的 adv. 很，极其 | |
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stuns
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| v.击晕( stun的第三人称单数 )；使大吃一惊；给（某人）以深刻印象；使深深感动 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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jovially
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| adv.愉快地，高兴地 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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74
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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75
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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