"
"And he'll be going after you, too. You want to mind your eye."
"It's a little different tackling the G. and B., don't you think? And I
doubt if he figures we're really backing you."
"What he figures and what you think he figures are mighty wide apart
sometimes. It cost me money to find that out."
The telephone interrupted. Castle answered: "Yes, Hammond, I can see you
now. What is it?... All right. Come right up." Hammond was the
railroad's general counsel.
He appeared presently.
"I thought we had the legislature up yonder tamed," he said, angrily, as
he entered the office.
"We have."
"Huh!... Take a look at this." He handed to the president Scattergood's
novel taxation, measure. "What you make of that? Who's behind it? What's
the game?"
Castle read it carefully; then he turned to Crane. "You win," he said,
succinctly. "Your friend Scattergood has brought the fight right on to
our front porch.... What about it, Hammond? Will such a tom-fool law
stand water?"
"Can't tell. My judgment is that it wouldn't, but it's such a fool law
that nobody can tell. And if it stuck--" He sucked in his breath. "It
would give every jay legisature a show to rough the railroads
beautifully.
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