And day and night "Roberts the Silent" was plotting
and planning, and some day he would be the master of the Steel
Trust, and his rival would be nowhere.
"They are lively chaps, the Steel crowd," said the Major, chuckling.
"You will have to keep your eyes open when you do business with
them."
"What would you advise me to do?" asked the other, smiling. "Set
detectives after them?"
"Why not?" asked the Major, seriously. "Why not find out who sent
that Colonel Cole to see you? And find out how badly he needs your
little railroad, and make him pay for it accordingly."
"That is not QUITE in my line," said Montague.
"It's time you were learning," said the Major. "I can start you. I
know a detective whom you can trust.--At any rate," he added
cautiously, "I don't know that he's ever played me false."
Montague sat for a while in thought. "You said something about their
getting after one's telephone," he observed. "Did you really mean
that?"
"Of course," said the other.
"Do you mean to tell me that they could find out what goes over my
'phone?"
"I mean to tell you," was the reply, "that for two hundred and fifty
dollars, I can get you a stenographic report of every word that you
say over your 'phone for twenty-four hours, and of every word that
anybody says to you.
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