Digital heart book

"How on earth do you guess that?" I cried.
"I don't guess; I know it," answered the Commercial
Force. "My dear boy, I may be a galoot about
literature, but you'll always be an outsider in
business. How do you suppose I bought the JAMES L.
MOODY for two hundred and fifty, her boats alone worth
four times the money? Because my name stood first in
the list Well, it stands there again; I have the naming
of the figure, and I name a small one because of the
distance: but it wouldn't matter what I named; that
would be the price."
"It sounds mysterious enough," said I. "Is this public
auction conducted in a subterranean vault? Could a
plain citizen--myself, for instance--come and see?"
"O, everything's open and above-board!" he cried
indignantly. "Anybody can come, only nobody bids
against us; and if he did, he would get frozen out.
It's been tried before now, and once was enough. We
hold the plant; we've got the connection; we can afford
to go higher than any outsider; there's two million
dollars in the ring; and we stick at nothing.


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