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has a majority for himself stowed away somewhere in every instance. Stener is just a pawn. He
moves him around where he pleases."
Owen's eyes gleamed avariciously, opposingly. Cowperwood ought to be punished, sold out,
driven out of the street-railway business in which Owen was anxious to rise.
"Now you know," observed Butler, thickly and solemnly, "I always thought that young felly was
clever, but I hardly thought he was as clever as all that. So that's his game. You're pretty shrewd
yourself, aren't you? Well, we can fix that, if we think well of it. But there's more than that to all
this. You don't want to forget the Republican party. Our success goes with the success of that,
you know"--and he paused and looked at his son. "If Cowperwood should fail and that money
couldn't be put back--" He broke off abstractedly. "The thing that's troublin' me is this matter of
Stener and the city treasury. If somethin' ain't done about that, it may go hard with the party this
fall, and with some of our contracts. You don't want to forget that an election is comin' along in
November. I'm wonderin' if I ought to call in that one hundred thousand dollars. It's goin' to take
considerable money to meet my loans in the mornin'."
It is a curious matter of psychology, but it was only now that the real difficulties of the situation
were beginning to dawn on Butler. In the presence of Cowperwood he was so influenced by that
young man's personality and his magnetic presentation of his need and his own liking for him
that he had not stopped to consider all the phases of his own relationship to the situation. Out
here in the cool night air, talking to Owen, who was ambitious on his own account and anything
but sentimentally considerate of Cowperwood, he was beginning to sober down and see things
in their true light. He had to admit that Cowperwood had seriously compromised the city
treasury and the Republican party, and incidentally Butler's own private interests. Nevertheless,
he liked Cowperwood. He was in no way prepared to desert him. He was now going to see
Mollenhauer and Simpson as much to save Cowperwood really as the party and his own affairs.
And yet a scandal. He did not like that--resented it. This young scalawag! To think he should be
so sly. None the less he still liked him, even here and now, and was feeling that he ought to do
something to help the young man, if anything could help him. He might even leave his hundred-
thousand-dollar loan with him until the last hour, as Cowperwood had requested, if the others
were friendly.
"Well, father," said Owen, after a time, "I don't see why you need to worry any more than
Mollenhauer or Simpson. If you three want to help him out, you can; but for the life of me I don't
see why you should. I know this thing will have a bad effect on the election, if it comes out
before then; but it could be hushed up until then, couldn't it? Anyhow, your street-railway
holdings are more important than this election, and if you can see your way clear to getting the
street-railway lines in your hands you won't need to worry about any elections. My advice to you
is to call that one-hundred-thousand-dollar loan of yours in the morning, and meet the drop in
your stocks that way. It may make Cowperwood fail, but that won't hurt you any. You can go into
the market and buy his stocks. I wouldn't be surprised if he would run to you and ask you to take
them. You ought to get Mollenhauer and Simpson to scare Stener so that he won't loan
Cowperwood any more money. If you don't, Cowperwood will run there and get more. Stener's
in too far now. If Cowperwood won't sell out, well and good; the chances are he will bust,
anyhow, and then you can pick up as much on the market as any one else. I think he'll sell. You
can't afford to worry about Stener's five hundred thousand dollars. No one told him to loan it. Let
him look out for himself. It may hurt the party, but you can look after that later. You and
Mollenhauer can fix the newspapers so they won't talk about it till after election."
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