lions or thereabouts, Mr. Flannigan? Why, my valet, an excellent man named Ponderby. You rather knocked him out that afternoon."
"Any advance on five hundred thousand dollars? Third and last time?"
"Six hundred thousand," said Stranleigh in a quiet voice which was nevertheless heard in the furthermost corner of the room, so great was the stillness and the tension. "Look here, Mr. Flannigan, just one word; I am going to own this property, and every dollar you bid against me I shall make you pay back when you are compelled to use this invention on your line."
"You think you can do that?"
"Certainly; we had a test of the invention this morning. Pullman car train; lots of millionaires present, and newspaper men too. The newspaper men did not flinch; I'll say that for them, but I nearly scared the mortal lives out of some of your best financial citizens."
"Six hundred thousand! Third and last time! Mr. Flannigan, it's against you, sir."
"Wait a moment," said Flannigan, as if he commanded the universe; then to Lord Stranleigh, "Go on, sir."
"I had the engineer and fireman jump off and send us along the line at sixty miles an hour against some forty trucks of railroad iron standing on the single track. If that invention hadn't worked, Mr. Flannigan, you wouldn't have had me
