Page:Edgar Jepson--the four philanthropists.djvu/23

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THE FOUR PHILANTHROPISTS
17

"Now you're off on another tack. Are you going to waste the whole afternoon gassing? Are we never going to get to the club?" said Bottiger plaintively.

"Now the financiers and Grocer Princes and and other enemies of Humanity whom Chelubai proposes to remove are all monied people. To be a really effective enemy of Humanity you have to have money, and a good deal of it."

"I begin to see," said Chelubai, brightening.

Bottiger yawned with a good deal of needless ostentation.

"They have also heirs," I went on. "Remove the captain of industry, and his heirs get his money. They must pay for the accommodation."

"And they wouldn't kick at paying either," said Chelubai.

"It increases the risk, because the heirs will have to be taken into our confidence somewhat But it increases the reign of terror. We could easily give the inheriting nephew a hint that he'd better employ his money better than his dead uncle, or he would not live long to employ it at all. His hints—and he'd have to hint; he couldn't help it—would spread the reign of terror."

"We could get over the risk pretty easily, because there are three of us," said Chelubai. "The man who would settle with the heir the terms of