CHAPTER XONE day, a month or so later, Montague, to his great surprise, received a letter from Stanley Ryder.
“Could you make it convenient to call at my office sometime this afternoon?” it read. “I wish to talk over with you a business proposition which I believe you will find of great advantage to yourself.”
“I suppose he wants to buy my Northern Mississippi stock,” he saidto himself, as he called up Ryder on the ‘phone, and made an appointment.
It was the first time that he had ever been inside the building of the Gotham Trust Company, and he gazed about him at the overwhelming magnificence—huge gates of bronze and walls ofexquisite marble. Ryder’s own office was elaborate and splendid, and he himself a picture of aristocratic elegance.
He greeted Montague cordially, and talked for
