WEBVTT NOTE XV. The Heights 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.500 Chapter 15. The Heights. 2 00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:12.120 1. Then, with one swift intention, the sun broke through, and there were the heights, 3 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:17.320 directly in front of him. The rest of the way was enchanted. All its difficulties were 4 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:23.280 illusions. They vanished as he approached. His Wall Street enemies were scattered in 5 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:28.840 the night. It was as he had said. They had been unable to destroy him, and they did not 6 00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:01.400 and started early the next day. 7 00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:08.120 Those who had deserted him returned with gestures of humility, begging to be chastised and forgiven. 8 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:13.960 The vanquished sat patiently in his outer office, bearing tokens of amity and proposals 9 00:01:13.960 --> 00:01:15.560 of alliance. 10 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:21.160 For he was Galt, the one, unique and indestructible. 11 00:01:21.160 --> 00:01:26.200 He treated the spectacle as it deserved, cynically, with a saving salt of humor. 12 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:29.200 They make their beds fast, he said. 13 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:40.200 Among the first to come was one of Bullgard's partners, a peasant-minded, ingratiating person whose use to Bullgard was his ability to face the devil smirk for smirk. 14 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:50.200 His errand was to say that Bullgard and company would entertain any reasonable offer for the purchase of their minority interest in Orient and Pacific shares, 15 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:59.200 and, if they could be of service to Mr. Galt at any time, why, etc., he had only to oblige them by letting them know how. 16 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:09.200 Galt was cool as to the services, etc., but he made an offer for the minority Orient and Pacific shares, which was accepted a few hours later. 17 00:02:09.200 --> 00:02:15.200 That was Bullgard's way of declaring war at an end. It was the grand salute. 18 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:19.200 Horace Potter was the only man who never came back. 19 00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:26.200 He could not sneak back, and there was no other way. They had mortally wounded each other's pride. 20 00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:43.200 2. Meanwhile, Congress, like the old woman of the storybook, heavy-footed, slow to be amazed, always late, but never, never, heard of Galt, became much alarmed, and solemnly resolved to investigate him. 21 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:49.760 He was summoned to appear before a committee of the House with all his papers and books. 22 00:02:49.760 --> 00:02:53.840 The committee felt incompetent to conduct the examination. 23 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:56.920 Finance is a language politicians must not know. 24 00:02:56.920 --> 00:02:59.120 It is not the language of the people. 25 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:05.080 So it engaged counsel, a notorious lawyer named Samuel Goldfuss. 26 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:10.820 He was a man who knew all the dim and secret pathways of the law and charged Wall Street 27 00:03:10.820 --> 00:03:16.540 Clients enormous fees for leading them past the spirit to the letter. 28 00:03:16.540 --> 00:03:21.620 He charged them more when he caught them alone in the dark or lost in the hands of a bungling 29 00:03:21.620 --> 00:03:26.980 guide, for then he could threaten to expose them to the light if they declined to accept 30 00:03:26.980 --> 00:03:30.700 his saving services at his own price. 31 00:03:30.700 --> 00:03:35.900 Having got very rich by this profession, he put his money beyond reach of the predacious 32 00:03:35.900 --> 00:03:42.260 and became public-spirited, or pretended to have done so, and proceeded to sell out Satan 33 00:03:42.260 --> 00:03:44.100 to the righteous. 34 00:03:44.100 --> 00:03:49.660 It became his evocation to plead the cause of people against mammon, and where or when 35 00:03:49.660 --> 00:03:55.500 so ever a malefactor of great wealth was hailed to court or brought to appear before a committee 36 00:03:55.500 --> 00:04:02.260 of Congress, Goldfuss thrust himself in to act as prosecuting attorney, with or without 37 00:04:02.260 --> 00:04:08.780 fees, and his name was dread to any such, for he knew their devious ways and all the 38 00:04:08.780 --> 00:04:14.160 wickedness that had ever been practiced in or about the stock exchange. 39 00:04:14.160 --> 00:04:17.220 His motives were never quite understood. 40 00:04:17.220 --> 00:04:22.520 Some said he attended to Satan's business still, never sold him out completely, but put 41 00:04:22.520 --> 00:04:27.540 the hounds on the wrong scent by some subtle turn at the end. 42 00:04:27.540 --> 00:04:32.120 Others said his motive was to terrorize the great malefactors so that when they were in 43 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:45.280 And this sinister embodiment of public opinion was the man whom Galt was to face, who had 44 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:49.640 never before faced public opinion in any manner at all. 45 00:04:49.640 --> 00:04:52.460 It was likely to be a stiff ordeal. 46 00:04:52.460 --> 00:04:53.960 Council warned him accordingly. 47 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:56.840 I've got a straight story to tell, he said. 48 00:04:56.840 --> 00:04:58.640 I don't need any help. 49 00:04:58.640 --> 00:05:01.640 However, they insisted on standing by. 50 00:05:01.640 --> 00:05:08.640 We arrived in Washington one hot August morning, left all our eminent council in their favorite hotel, 51 00:05:08.640 --> 00:05:13.640 and went empty-handed to the capital, where neither of us had been before. 52 00:05:13.640 --> 00:05:18.640 We wandered about for half an hour trying to find the place where the committee sat. 53 00:05:18.640 --> 00:05:22.640 It was a special committee, with no room of its own. 54 00:05:22.640 --> 00:05:26.640 We were directed at last to the Rivers and Harbors Committee Room. 55 00:05:26.640 --> 00:05:31.640 It was full of smoke, electric fans and men in attitudes of waiting. 56 00:05:31.640 --> 00:05:37.640 Six, looking very significant, sat around a long table covered with green cloth. 57 00:05:37.640 --> 00:05:42.640 Others, to the number of 30 or 40, sat on chairs against the walls. 58 00:05:42.640 --> 00:05:47.640 At a smaller table were the reporters, with reams of paper in front of them. 59 00:05:47.640 --> 00:05:53.640 Is this the committee that wants to see Henry M. Galt? he asked, standing on the threshold. 60 00:05:53.640 --> 00:06:00.080 It is, said the man at the head of the table. He was the chairman. He sat with one leg over 61 00:06:00.080 --> 00:06:06.120 the arm of his chair, his back to the door, and did not turn or so much as move a hair. 62 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:11.640 He spoke in that loud, disembodied voice which makes the people's business seem so impressive 63 00:06:11.640 --> 00:06:15.520 to the multitude, and glared at us through the back of his head. 64 00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:21.960 I am that person, said Galt. You have delayed us a quarter of an hour, said the chairman, 65 00:06:21.960 --> 00:06:32.880 A chair was placed for him at the opposite end of the table. 66 00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:36.000 There was no place for me, so I stood a little aside. 67 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:42.140 Goldfuss, whom I had never seen and had not yet identified, sat beside the chairman. 68 00:06:42.140 --> 00:06:45.040 They had their heads together, whispering. 69 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:46.880 The chairman spoke. 70 00:06:46.880 --> 00:06:51.940 The question is raised as to whether witness may be permitted to appear with counsel. 71 00:06:51.940 --> 00:06:53.940 It is decided in the negative. 72 00:06:53.940 --> 00:06:55.940 Council will be excused. 73 00:06:57.420 --> 00:06:59.420 Nothing happened. 74 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:02.660 Council will be excused, said the chairman again. 75 00:07:02.660 --> 00:07:04.660 Still, nothing happened. 76 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:08.700 If you are talking at me, said Galt, I have no council. 77 00:07:08.700 --> 00:07:10.080 I didn't bring any. 78 00:07:10.080 --> 00:07:12.980 That is, I left them at the hotel. 79 00:07:12.980 --> 00:07:15.820 Who is the gentleman with you, the chairman asked. 80 00:07:15.820 --> 00:07:18.460 Oh, said Galt, looking at me. 81 00:07:18.460 --> 00:07:19.460 That's all right. 82 00:07:19.460 --> 00:07:20.500 He's my secretary. 83 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:23.620 He doesn't know any more law than I do. 84 00:07:23.620 --> 00:07:25.440 There was a formal pause. 85 00:07:25.440 --> 00:07:31.860 The official stenographer leaned toward Galt speaking quietly and took his name, age, address 86 00:07:31.860 --> 00:07:33.580 and occupation. 87 00:07:33.580 --> 00:07:36.940 The chairman said, Proceed. 88 00:07:36.940 --> 00:07:40.060 Goldfuss poised himself for theatrical effect. 89 00:07:40.060 --> 00:07:46.900 He was a small, body-conscious man with a coarse, loose skin, very close-shaven, powdered, 90 00:07:46.900 --> 00:08:04.740 So this is the great Galt, he said sardonically, slowly bobbing his head. 91 00:08:04.740 --> 00:08:09.980 And you, said Galt, are the Samuel Goldfuss who once tried to blackmail me for a million 92 00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:10.980 dollars. 93 00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:13.980 Oh, famous beginning! 94 00:08:13.980 --> 00:08:17.340 The crowd was tense with delight. 95 00:08:17.340 --> 00:08:22.180 Goldfuss, looking aggrieved and disgusted, turned to the chairman, saying, 96 00:08:22.180 --> 00:08:25.140 Will the committee admonish the witness? 97 00:08:25.140 --> 00:08:30.480 The chairman took his leg down, carefully relighted a people's cigar, and said, 98 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:32.060 Strike that off the record. 99 00:08:32.060 --> 00:08:37.260 I will inform the witness that this is a committee of congress, with power to punish contumacious 100 00:08:37.260 --> 00:08:39.780 and disrespectful conduct. 101 00:08:39.780 --> 00:08:44.780 The witness is warned to answer questions without any irrelevant remarks of his own. 102 00:08:44.780 --> 00:08:49.780 I beg your pardon, said Galt. What was the question? 103 00:08:49.780 --> 00:08:54.780 The official stenographer read from his notes. So this is the great Galt. 104 00:08:54.780 --> 00:08:57.780 That ain't a question, said Galt. 105 00:08:57.780 --> 00:09:00.780 The round was his. The audience tittered. 106 00:09:00.780 --> 00:09:05.780 The chairman put his leg back and glared wearily into space. 107 00:09:05.780 --> 00:09:08.620 I withdraw it, said Goldfuss. 108 00:09:08.620 --> 00:09:11.020 Start the record new from here. 109 00:09:11.020 --> 00:09:16.100 Mr. Galt, you were directed to produce before this committee all your books and papers. 110 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:17.100 Have you brought them? 111 00:09:17.100 --> 00:09:18.100 No. 112 00:09:18.100 --> 00:09:19.100 No? 113 00:09:19.100 --> 00:09:20.340 Why not, please? 114 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:23.500 They would fill this whole room, said Galt. 115 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:25.980 Mr. Goldfuss started again. 116 00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:27.860 Your occupation, Mr. Galt? 117 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:29.580 You said it was what? 118 00:09:29.580 --> 00:09:31.340 Farmer, said Galt. 119 00:09:31.340 --> 00:09:32.340 Yes? 120 00:09:32.340 --> 00:09:33.660 What do you farm? 121 00:09:33.660 --> 00:09:35.980 of the country, said Galt. 122 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:38.860 Do you consider that a nice expression? 123 00:09:38.860 --> 00:09:42.700 Nicest I know, depending on how you take it, said Galt. 124 00:09:42.700 --> 00:09:48.660 Well now, tell this committee, please, how you farm the country, using your own expression. 125 00:09:48.660 --> 00:09:50.660 I fertilize it, said Galt. 126 00:09:50.660 --> 00:09:56.900 I sow and reap, improve the soil, and keep adding new machinery and buildings. 127 00:09:56.900 --> 00:09:59.860 What do you fertilize it with, Mr. Galt? 128 00:09:59.860 --> 00:10:01.080 Money. 129 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:03.640 What do you sow, Mr. Galt? 130 00:10:03.640 --> 00:10:11.800 for Money, and what do you reap, profit, a great deal of that, plenty, said Galt, and 131 00:10:11.800 --> 00:10:18.840 what do you do with the profit, Mr. Galt, so it again, a lovely parable, Mr. Galt, is 132 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:24.800 it not true, however, that you are also a speculator, yes, that's true, said Galt, to 133 00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:29.600 put it plainly, is it not true that you are a gambler, that's part of my trade, said 134 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:36.480 said Galt, Every farmer is a gambler. He gambles in weather, worms, bugs, acts of congress, 135 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:43.440 and the price of his produce. You gamble in securities, Mr. Galt? Yes. In the securities 136 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:49.700 of the railroad properties you control? Heavily, said Galt. If, for example, you are going 137 00:10:49.700 --> 00:10:55.240 to increase the dividend on great Midwestern stock, you first go into the market and buy 138 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:57.000 Buy it for a rise. 139 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:02.040 Buy it before either the public or the other stockholders know that you are going to increase 140 00:11:02.040 --> 00:11:03.040 the dividend. 141 00:11:03.040 --> 00:11:06.040 That's the case, said Galt. 142 00:11:06.040 --> 00:11:11.280 As a matter of fact, you did some time ago increase the dividend on Great Midwestern 143 00:11:11.280 --> 00:11:17.000 from 4 to 8 percent, and the stock had a big rise for that reason. 144 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:21.840 Tell this committee, please, when and how and at what prices you bought the stock in 145 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:25.120 anticipation of that event. 146 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:31.040 In anticipation of that 8 percent dividend, said Galt reminiscently, I began to buy great 147 00:11:31.040 --> 00:11:37.220 Midwestern stock, let me see, nine years ago, at $10 a share. 148 00:11:37.220 --> 00:11:42.800 It went down, and I bought it at $5 a share, at $2, at $1.50. 149 00:11:42.800 --> 00:11:46.480 The road went into the hands of a receiver, and I stuck to it. 150 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:54.440 I bought it all the way up again, at $15 a share, at $50, at $150, and I'm buying still. 151 00:11:54.440 --> 00:12:02.440 Goldfuss was bored. He seemed to be saying to the audience, well, so much for fun, now we get down to the hard stuff. 152 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:08.440 He took time to think, stirred about in his papers and produced a certain document. 153 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:14.440 Mr. Galt, I show you a certified list of the investments of the Security Life Insurance Company. 154 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:18.440 You are a director of that institution, are you not? Yes. 155 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:24.040 Yes. You used some of your farming profits to buy a large interest in the security life 156 00:12:24.040 --> 00:12:31.720 insurance company? Yes. You are chairman of its finance committee? Yes. In fact, Mr. Galt, 157 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:37.680 you control the investments of the security life. You recommend what securities the policy 158 00:12:37.680 --> 00:12:44.120 holder's money shall be invested in, and your suggestions are acted upon. Is that true? 159 00:12:44.120 --> 00:13:12.120 Now, Mr. Galt, look at this certified statement, please. The investments amount to more than 400 millions. I call your attention to the fact that nearly one quarter of that enormous total consists of what are known as Galt Securities, that is, the stocks and bonds of the railroad companies controlled by Henry M. Galt. Is that correct? Substantially, said Galt. 160 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:19.120 Did you, as chairman of the Finance Committee of the Security Life, recommend the purchase of those securities? 161 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:20.120 Yes. 162 00:13:20.120 --> 00:13:28.120 And at the same time, as head of the Great Midwestern Railway System, you were interested in selling those securities, were you not? 163 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:37.120 We need a great deal of capital, said Galt. We are selling new securities all the time. We sell all we can and wish we could sell more. 164 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:41.120 There is always more work to do than we can find the money for. 165 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:44.340 So, Mr. Galt, it comes to this. 166 00:13:44.340 --> 00:13:50.180 As head of a great railroad system, you create securities which you are anxious to sell. 167 00:13:50.180 --> 00:13:52.500 In that role, you are a seller. 168 00:13:52.500 --> 00:13:57.680 Then, as chairman of the finance committee for the security life insurance company, acting 169 00:13:57.680 --> 00:14:03.020 as trustee for the policyholders, you are a buyer of securities. 170 00:14:03.020 --> 00:14:09.420 In that position of trust, with power to say how the policyholders' money shall be invested, 171 00:14:09.420 --> 00:14:14.300 You recommend the purchase of securities in which you are interested as a seller. 172 00:14:14.300 --> 00:14:15.300 Is that true? 173 00:14:15.300 --> 00:14:20.060 I don't like the way you put it, but let it stand, said Galt. 174 00:14:20.060 --> 00:14:22.620 How can you justify that, Mr. Galt? 175 00:14:22.620 --> 00:14:27.420 Is it right, do you think, that a trustee should buy with one hand what he sells with 176 00:14:27.420 --> 00:14:29.500 the other? 177 00:14:29.500 --> 00:14:33.180 Galt leaned over, beating the table slowly with his fist. 178 00:14:33.180 --> 00:14:36.340 I justify it this way, he said. 179 00:14:36.340 --> 00:14:39.980 I know all about the securities of the Great Midwestern. 180 00:14:39.980 --> 00:14:44.820 I don't know of anything better for the security life to put its money into. 181 00:14:44.820 --> 00:14:49.620 If you can tell me of anything better, I will advise the Finance Committee at its next meeting 182 00:14:49.620 --> 00:14:54.580 to sell all of its Great Midwestern stuff and buy that, whatever it is. 183 00:14:54.580 --> 00:14:56.100 I'll do more. 184 00:14:56.100 --> 00:15:01.300 If you can tell me of anything better, I will sell all of my own Great Midwestern stocks 185 00:15:01.300 --> 00:15:04.180 and bonds and buy that instead. 186 00:15:04.180 --> 00:15:09.820 I have my own money in Great Midwestern. There's another galt you left out. As head 187 00:15:09.820 --> 00:15:15.220 of a great railway system, I am a seller of securities to investors all over the world. 188 00:15:15.220 --> 00:15:20.540 That is how we find the capital to build our things. But as an individual, I am a buyer 189 00:15:20.540 --> 00:15:26.720 of those same securities. I sell to everybody with one hand and buy for myself all that 190 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:32.440 I can with the other hand. Do you see the point? I buy them because I know what they 191 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:48.760 Goldfuss had meant to go from the security life to each of the other financial institutions 192 00:15:48.760 --> 00:15:54.560 controlled by Galt, meaning to show how he had been unloading Galt's securities upon 193 00:15:54.560 --> 00:15:55.560 them. 194 00:15:55.560 --> 00:15:57.040 But what was the use? 195 00:15:57.040 --> 00:16:00.040 What could he do with an answer like that? 196 00:16:00.040 --> 00:16:04.120 He passed instead to the Orient and Pacific Matter. 197 00:16:04.120 --> 00:16:08.440 Galt admitted that he had used the power of majority stockholder to make the property 198 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:14.520 subservient to the Great Midwestern, because that was the efficient thing to do. 199 00:16:14.520 --> 00:16:18.540 And that, you think, is a fair way to treat minority stockholders? 200 00:16:18.540 --> 00:16:19.540 Goldfuss asked. 201 00:16:19.540 --> 00:16:24.200 We were willing at any time to buy them out at the market price, said Galt. 202 00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:26.800 However, that's now an academic matter. 203 00:16:26.800 --> 00:16:33.120 The Great Midwestern has acquired all that minority interest in Orient and Pacific. 204 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:34.680 This was news. 205 00:16:34.680 --> 00:16:37.400 There was a stir at the reporter's table. 206 00:16:37.400 --> 00:16:42.020 Several rose and went out to telegraph Galt's statement to Wall Street, where nobody yet 207 00:16:42.020 --> 00:16:46.260 knew how Bullgard and company had made peace with him. 208 00:16:46.260 --> 00:16:49.060 So they went from one thing to another. 209 00:16:49.060 --> 00:16:55.020 They came to that notorious land transaction, on account of which he had been sued. 210 00:16:55.020 --> 00:17:00.020 We needed that land for an important piece of railroad development, said Galt. 211 00:17:00.020 --> 00:17:05.940 Some land traders got wind of our plans, formed a syndicate, bought up all the ground around, 212 00:17:05.940 --> 00:17:09.040 and then tried to make us buy it through the nose. 213 00:17:09.040 --> 00:17:12.380 We simply sat tight until they went broke. 214 00:17:12.380 --> 00:17:14.600 Then we took it off their hands. 215 00:17:14.600 --> 00:17:18.260 There was more than the Great Midwestern needed because they were hogs. 216 00:17:18.260 --> 00:17:21.880 The Great Midwestern took what it wanted, and I took the rest. 217 00:17:21.880 --> 00:17:24.400 The directors knew all about it. 218 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:28.120 And it was very profitable to you personally, this outcome. 219 00:17:28.120 --> 00:17:30.880 Incidentally, it was, said Galt. 220 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:31.960 Somebody would get it. 221 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:33.480 It fell into my hands. 222 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:35.440 What would you have done? 223 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:37.120 Strike that off the record. 224 00:17:37.120 --> 00:17:39.920 What would you have done? said Goldfuss. 225 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:43.020 Council is not being examined. 226 00:17:43.020 --> 00:17:45.680 After lunch, he took a new line. 227 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:48.360 Mr. Galt, he asked, what are you worth? 228 00:17:48.360 --> 00:17:50.320 I don't know, said Galt. 229 00:17:50.320 --> 00:17:52.800 You don't know how rich you are? 230 00:17:52.800 --> 00:17:53.800 No. 231 00:17:53.800 --> 00:17:57.800 Goldfuss lay back in his chair with an exaggerated air of astonishment. 232 00:17:57.800 --> 00:18:02.800 But you will admit you are very rich, he said, having recovered slowly. 233 00:18:02.800 --> 00:18:05.800 Yes, said Galt, I suppose I am. 234 00:18:05.800 --> 00:18:10.800 Well, as briefly as possible, will you tell this committee how you made it? 235 00:18:10.800 --> 00:18:14.800 Now you've asked me something, said Galt, leaning forward again. 236 00:18:14.800 --> 00:18:18.800 I'll tell you, I made it buying things nobody else wanted. 237 00:18:18.800 --> 00:18:24.760 I bought Great Midwestern when it was bankrupt and people thought no railroad was worth its 238 00:18:24.760 --> 00:18:26.760 weight as junk. 239 00:18:26.760 --> 00:18:31.320 When I took charge of the property I bought equipment when it was cheap because nobody 240 00:18:31.320 --> 00:18:37.140 else wanted it and the equipment makers were hungry and rails and ties and materials and 241 00:18:37.140 --> 00:18:41.960 labor to improve the road with until everybody thought I was crazy. 242 00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:45.160 When the business came we had a railroad to handle it. 243 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:48.840 I've done that same thing with every property I have taken up. 244 00:18:48.840 --> 00:18:52.720 No railroad I've ever touched has depreciated in value. 245 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:54.640 I'm doing it still. 246 00:18:54.640 --> 00:19:00.100 You may know there has been an upset in Wall Street recently, a panic, in fact. 247 00:19:00.100 --> 00:19:04.560 Everybody is uneasy and business is worried because a financial disturbance has always 248 00:19:04.560 --> 00:19:07.520 been followed by a commercial depression. 249 00:19:07.520 --> 00:19:11.020 There are signs of that already, but we'll stop it. 250 00:19:11.020 --> 00:19:17.340 In the next 12 months, the great Midwestern properties will spend $500 million for double 251 00:19:17.340 --> 00:19:23.140 tracking, grade reductions, new equipment, and larger terminals. 252 00:19:23.140 --> 00:19:24.540 This was news. 253 00:19:24.540 --> 00:19:29.640 Again, there was a stir at the reporter's table, as several rose to go out and flash 254 00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:32.140 Galt's statement to Wall Street. 255 00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:38.660 Mr. Galt, said Goldfuss, do you realize what it means for one man to say he will spend 256 00:19:38.660 --> 00:19:44.380 and 500 millions in a year? That is half the national debt. 257 00:19:44.380 --> 00:19:50.060 I know exactly what it means, said Galt. It means for once a Wall Street panic won't 258 00:19:50.060 --> 00:19:55.980 be followed by unemployment and industrial depression. Our orders for materials and labor 259 00:19:55.980 --> 00:20:02.300 now going out will start everything up again at full speed. Others will act on our example. 260 00:20:02.300 --> 00:20:04.180 You'll see. 261 00:20:04.180 --> 00:20:09.260 You will draw upon the financial institutions you control, the security life and others, 262 00:20:09.260 --> 00:20:12.720 for a good deal of that money, the 500 millions? 263 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:17.940 You get the idea, said Galt, that's what financial institutions are for, there's no better use 264 00:20:17.940 --> 00:20:19.880 for their money. 265 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:22.180 You have great power, Mr. Galt. 266 00:20:22.180 --> 00:20:24.100 Some, he said. 267 00:20:24.100 --> 00:20:28.820 If it goes on increasing at this rate, you will soon be the economic dictator of the 268 00:20:28.820 --> 00:20:29.980 country. 269 00:20:29.980 --> 00:20:30.980 No answer. 270 00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:34.980 I say you will be the economic dictator of the whole country. 271 00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:38.980 I heard you say it, said Galt. It ain't a question. 272 00:20:38.980 --> 00:20:42.980 But do you think it desirable that one man should have so much power, 273 00:20:42.980 --> 00:20:45.980 that one man should run the country? 274 00:20:45.980 --> 00:20:50.980 Somebody ought to run it, said Galt. Is it your ambition to run it? 275 00:20:50.980 --> 00:20:54.980 It is my idea, said Galt, that the financial institutions of the country, 276 00:20:54.980 --> 00:20:57.980 I mean the insurance companies and the banks, 277 00:20:57.980 --> 00:20:58.980 and Economics. 278 00:20:58.980 --> 00:21:03.820 Instead of lending themselves out of funds in times of high prosperity, ought then to 279 00:21:03.820 --> 00:21:09.280 build up great reserves of capital to be loaned out in hard times. 280 00:21:09.280 --> 00:21:14.480 That would keep people from going crazy with prosperity at one time and committing suicide 281 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:16.080 at another time. 282 00:21:16.080 --> 00:21:18.720 But they won't do it by themselves. 283 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:20.780 Somebody has to see to it. 284 00:21:20.780 --> 00:21:26.660 Somebody who knows not only how not to spend money when everybody is wild to buy, but how 285 00:21:26.660 --> 00:21:32.620 How to spend it courageously when there is a surplus of things that nobody else wants. 286 00:21:32.620 --> 00:21:38.340 Every financial institution that I have anything to do with will be governed by that idea, 287 00:21:38.340 --> 00:21:43.580 and the great Midwestern properties, while I run them, will decrease their capital expenditures 288 00:21:43.580 --> 00:21:48.440 as prices rise and increase them as prices fall. 289 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:53.380 When we show them the whole trick and how it pays, everybody will do it. 290 00:21:53.380 --> 00:21:56.740 We won't have any more depressions and coxies armies. 291 00:21:56.740 --> 00:21:59.140 We won't have any more unemployment. 292 00:21:59.140 --> 00:22:04.100 In a country like this, unemployment is economic lunacy. 293 00:22:04.100 --> 00:22:06.820 The hearing continued for three days. 294 00:22:06.820 --> 00:22:11.380 The newspapers printed almost nothing else on their first three pages. 295 00:22:11.380 --> 00:22:15.820 Galt's testimony produced everywhere a monumental effect. 296 00:22:15.820 --> 00:22:18.800 Public opinion went over by a somersault. 297 00:22:18.800 --> 00:22:20.060 He denied nothing. 298 00:22:20.060 --> 00:22:21.600 He admitted everything. 299 00:22:21.600 --> 00:22:31.680 Mr. Galt said Goldfuss, rising, That will be all. You are the most remarkable witness 300 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:36.840 I have ever examined. They shook hands all around. 301 00:22:36.840 --> 00:22:38.960 3. 302 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:44.500 As we were going down the capital steps, Galt stumbled and clutched my arm. The sustaining 303 00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:50.600 excitement was at an end, and the reaction was sudden. Solitude made him peevish. He 304 00:22:50.600 --> 00:22:56.000 He insisted irritably as we went on walking, though it was above his strength. 305 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:01.400 When we were halfway back to the hotel, a mile yet to go, he stopped and said, 306 00:23:01.400 --> 00:23:06.200 You're right, Coxie. Ain't it hot? Let's call a cab. 307 00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:13.280 He wouldn't rest. A strange uneasiness was upon him. We took the next train for New York. 308 00:23:13.280 --> 00:23:19.080 I want to go to Moonstuhl, he said. The idea seized him after we were aboard the train. 309 00:23:19.080 --> 00:23:25.480 Fine. Let's take a holiday tomorrow and go all over it, I said. Now. I want to go there now, he said. 310 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:32.760 Directly there and not go home? That's home, ain't it, he said, becoming irritable. Let's go straight there. 311 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:35.560 He had a fixation upon it. 312 00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:42.440 From Baltimore, I got off an urgent telegram to Mrs. Galt, telling her Galt was very tired 313 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:48.280 and insisted on going directly to the country place. Could she meet us at Newark with a motorcar? 314 00:23:48.280 --> 00:23:54.280 that would be the easiest way. Automobiles were just then coming into general use. 315 00:23:55.080 --> 00:24:01.240 Galt, with his ardent interest in all means of mechanical locomotion, was enthusiastic about them. 316 00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:06.040 The family had four, besides Natalie's, which was her own. She drove it herself. 317 00:24:07.400 --> 00:24:13.320 Mrs. Galt met us at Newark. Galt greeted her with no sign of surprise. He could not have been 318 00:24:43.320 --> 00:24:49.320 The night when we arrived at Moonstuhl and stopped in front of the iron gates, they were closed and locked. 319 00:24:49.320 --> 00:24:53.320 And there was Natalie, who had been sent ahead to announce our coming. 320 00:24:53.320 --> 00:25:00.320 She drove out alone, got lost on the way, and had not yet succeeded in raising anybody when we came up. 321 00:25:00.320 --> 00:25:06.320 The place was dark, except for red lanterns here and there on piles of construction material. 322 00:25:06.320 --> 00:25:14.320 The outside watchmen were shirking duty, and those inside, if not doing likewise, were beyond hearing. 323 00:25:14.320 --> 00:25:21.320 Nearby was the railroad station of Galt, a black little pile with not a light anywhere. 324 00:25:21.320 --> 00:25:23.320 It had not yet been opened for use. 325 00:25:23.320 --> 00:25:28.320 We could hear the water spilling over the private Galt dam in the river. 326 00:25:28.320 --> 00:25:32.320 There was enough electricity in the Galt powerhouse to illuminate a town. 327 00:25:32.320 --> 00:25:40.320 On the mountaintop, half a mile distant, the Galt Castle stood in massive silhouette against the starry sky. 328 00:25:40.320 --> 00:25:46.320 And here was Galt, in the dark, an unwelcome nighttime stranger, forbidden at the gate. 329 00:25:46.320 --> 00:25:50.320 He was still asleep. We were careful not to wake him. 330 00:25:50.320 --> 00:25:56.320 A watchman with a bullseye lantern and a billy-stick exuded from the darkness. 331 00:25:56.320 --> 00:26:02.320 What do you want? We wanted to go in. You can't go in, he said. Can't you see it's private? 332 00:26:02.320 --> 00:26:08.560 Nobody lives there. It is very difficult to account for the improbable on the plane of a 333 00:26:08.560 --> 00:26:15.440 night watchman's intelligence. First, he stolidly disbelieved us. Then he took refuge in limited 334 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:21.360 responsibility. My orders is to let nobody in, he said. Do you know anybody around here? 335 00:26:21.360 --> 00:26:28.000 It seemed quite possible that no human being around here would know us. 336 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:32.560 By an inspiration, Natalie remembered the superintendent of construction. 337 00:26:32.560 --> 00:26:34.280 He lived not far away. 338 00:26:34.280 --> 00:26:36.080 She knew where. 339 00:26:36.080 --> 00:26:40.960 Once when she was spending a day on the job, he had taken her home with him to lunch. 340 00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:44.520 It was not more than ten minutes' drive, she said. 341 00:26:44.520 --> 00:26:46.360 It was further than she thought. 342 00:26:46.360 --> 00:26:50.920 We were more than three-quarters of an hour returning with the superintendent. 343 00:26:50.920 --> 00:26:55.260 It took twenty minutes more to wake the crew at the powerhouse and get the electricity 344 00:26:55.260 --> 00:26:56.900 turned on. 345 00:26:56.900 --> 00:27:02.640 Then we drove slowly up the main concrete road, now lighted on each side by clusters 346 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:08.400 of three ground-glass globes in fluted columns fifty feet apart. 347 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:13.880 Although it was finished, the road was still cluttered with heaps of sand and debris. 348 00:27:13.880 --> 00:27:20.780 Galt, all this time, was fast asleep, his head resting on Mrs. Galt's shoulder. 349 00:27:20.780 --> 00:27:23.500 We could scarcely wake him when we tried. 350 00:27:23.500 --> 00:27:26.060 He seemed drunk with weariness. 351 00:27:26.060 --> 00:27:31.500 As we helped him out, he opened his eyes once and startled us by saying to the superintendent, 352 00:27:31.500 --> 00:27:37.980 Fire that watchman down below, as if he had been conscious of everything that happened. 353 00:27:37.980 --> 00:27:41.840 His eyes closed again, he tottered, and we caught him. 354 00:27:41.840 --> 00:27:47.420 The superintendent supported him on one side, I on the other, and so he entered, dragging 355 00:27:47.420 --> 00:27:49.660 his feet. 356 00:27:49.660 --> 00:27:52.780 Natalie knew more about the house than anyone else. 357 00:27:52.780 --> 00:27:57.180 She led the way to the apartment that was Galt's and then left us to place the servants 358 00:27:57.180 --> 00:27:59.460 and show them their way around. 359 00:27:59.460 --> 00:28:03.020 I helped Mrs. Galt undress him and get him to bed. 360 00:28:03.020 --> 00:28:07.260 I was amazed to see how thin and shrunken his body was. 361 00:28:07.260 --> 00:28:10.460 He was inert, like a child asleep. 362 00:28:10.460 --> 00:28:14.100 Mrs. Galt, very pale, was strong and deft. 363 00:28:14.100 --> 00:28:23.100 We must have a doctor at once, she said. I thought of bringing one and then didn't because he mined so awfully to have a doctor in. 364 00:28:23.100 --> 00:28:26.100 Still, we were not really alarmed. 365 00:28:26.100 --> 00:28:33.100 The telephone system had been installed. Natalie knew that. She knew also where the big switchboard was. 366 00:28:33.100 --> 00:28:43.100 I telephoned the family physician to meet us at the Hoboken Ferry and then Natalie and I set out to fetch him, a drive of nearly 70 miles there and back. 367 00:28:43.100 --> 00:28:53.100 We ought to do it in two hours, she said, as we coasted freely, very freely, down the lighted cement road and plunged through the gates into darkness. 368 00:28:53.100 --> 00:29:07.100 The doctor must be in his right mind when we deliver him. I meant it lightly. Her reckless driving was a household topic, and she was incorrigible. But she answered me thoughtfully. We'll make the time going. 369 00:29:07.100 --> 00:29:12.940 She pulled her gloves tighter, took the time, inspected the instruments, switched off the 370 00:29:12.940 --> 00:29:19.100 dash light, cut out the muffler, settled herself in the seat, and opened the throttle wide. 371 00:29:19.100 --> 00:29:22.040 It was a four-cylinder, high-power engine. 372 00:29:22.040 --> 00:29:26.420 The sound we made was that of an endless rip through a linen sheet. 373 00:29:26.420 --> 00:29:31.140 Roadside trees turned white, uneasy faces to our headlights. 374 00:29:31.140 --> 00:29:36.080 The highway seemed to lay itself down in front of us as we needed it, and there was a feeling 375 00:29:36.080 --> 00:29:40.920 Something that it vanished or fell away into black space behind us. 376 00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:45.900 Giddy things such as fences, buildings and stone walls were tossed right and left in 377 00:29:45.900 --> 00:29:48.020 streaming glimpses. 378 00:29:48.020 --> 00:29:50.520 Good motor-roads were yet unbuilt. 379 00:29:50.520 --> 00:29:55.260 There were short, sharp grades like humps on the roller-coaster at the fair. 380 00:29:55.260 --> 00:30:00.600 Taking them at fifty miles an hour, at night, when you cannot see the top as you start up, 381 00:30:00.600 --> 00:30:06.800 Nor all the way down as you begin the plunge is a wild liberating sensation. 382 00:30:06.800 --> 00:30:09.040 Sense of level is lost. 383 00:30:09.040 --> 00:30:12.760 One center of gravity rises and falls momentously. 384 00:30:12.760 --> 00:30:16.320 The heart sloshes around, and you don't care what happens. 385 00:30:16.320 --> 00:30:18.520 Not even if you should run off the world. 386 00:30:18.520 --> 00:30:20.640 It doesn't matter. 387 00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:23.120 Natalie was in a trance-like rapture. 388 00:30:23.120 --> 00:30:24.400 She never spoke. 389 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:26.360 Her eyes were fixed ahead. 390 00:30:26.360 --> 00:30:28.360 Her body was static. 391 00:30:28.360 --> 00:30:34.880 her head and arms moved, sometimes her feet to slip the clutch or apply the brake. 392 00:30:34.880 --> 00:30:41.800 All that pertains to the pattern of consciousness, seeing, hearing, attention, will and willing, 393 00:30:41.800 --> 00:30:48.520 were strained outward beyond the windshield, as if externalized, acting outside of her. 394 00:30:48.520 --> 00:30:54.360 What remained on the seat, besides the thrill at the core of her, was her automatic self-controlling 395 00:30:54.360 --> 00:31:22.120 There was no traffic at that hour of night until we fell in with the milk and truck wagons 396 00:31:22.120 --> 00:31:26.660 The 397 00:31:26.660 --> 00:31:31.160 Natalee cut in and out of that rumbling procession with skill and ease. 398 00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:35.200 Her calculations were tight and daring, but never foolhardy. 399 00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:40.760 Very accomplished driving, I said, as she pulled up at the ferry with the engine idling 400 00:31:40.760 --> 00:31:41.760 softly. 401 00:31:41.760 --> 00:31:46.220 Fifty minutes, she said, a little down, on looking at her watch. 402 00:31:46.220 --> 00:31:49.240 I thought we should have done it in forty-five. 403 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:51.960 Don't you love it at night? 404 00:31:51.960 --> 00:31:52.960 Horror 405 00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.280 Dawn was breaking when we returned. 406 00:31:56.280 --> 00:32:01.680 It gave us a start of apprehension to see the lights still burning in Galt's apartment. 407 00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:04.840 We found Mrs. Galt sitting at the side of his bed. 408 00:32:04.840 --> 00:32:08.640 Her face was distorted with horror and anxiety. 409 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:11.160 Galt lay just as I had seen him last. 410 00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:14.080 He hasn't moved, said Mrs. Galt. 411 00:32:14.080 --> 00:32:15.440 I can't arouse him. 412 00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:18.000 I'm not sure he is breathing. 413 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:19.680 Neither was the doctor. 414 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:21.800 The pulse was imperceptible. 415 00:32:21.800 --> 00:32:26.080 A glass held at his nostrils showed no trace of moisture. 416 00:32:26.080 --> 00:32:29.560 All the bodily functions were in a state of suspense. 417 00:32:29.560 --> 00:32:35.580 The only presumption of life lay in the general arbitrary fact that he was not dead. 418 00:32:35.580 --> 00:32:38.720 The doctor had never seen anything like this before. 419 00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:41.960 He was afraid to act without a consultation. 420 00:32:41.960 --> 00:32:47.600 Motors were sent off for four other doctors, two in New Jersey and two in New York. 421 00:32:47.600 --> 00:32:50.360 They would bring nurses with them. 422 00:32:50.360 --> 00:32:53.720 Mrs. Galt could not be moved from the bedside. 423 00:32:53.720 --> 00:32:56.080 Natalie telephoned Vera to come. 424 00:32:56.080 --> 00:32:58.560 I telephoned Mordecai. 425 00:32:58.560 --> 00:33:03.300 Then we walked up and down the eastern terrace and watched the sun come up. 426 00:33:03.300 --> 00:33:07.240 She stopped and leaned over the parapet, looking down. 427 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:08.760 Her eyes were dry. 428 00:33:08.760 --> 00:33:11.720 Her body shook with convulsive movements. 429 00:33:11.720 --> 00:33:13.240 My heart went forth. 430 00:33:13.240 --> 00:33:15.540 I put my arm around her. 431 00:33:15.540 --> 00:33:20.880 She stood up, gazed at me with a stricken expression, then dropped her head on my shoulder 432 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:22.900 and wept, whispering, 433 00:33:22.900 --> 00:33:26.040 Coxie, Coxie, oh, what shall we do? 434 00:33:26.040 --> 00:33:28.580 What shall we do? 435 00:33:28.580 --> 00:33:30.760 Gangs of workmen were appearing below. 436 00:33:30.760 --> 00:33:33.260 The day of labor was about to begin. 437 00:33:33.260 --> 00:33:39.540 I left her to get the superintendent on the telephone and tell him to suspend work. 438 00:33:39.540 --> 00:33:41.460 5 439 00:33:41.460 --> 00:33:44.780 The consultation began at 9 o'clock. 440 00:33:44.780 --> 00:33:48.220 Mordecai arrived while it was taking place. 441 00:33:48.220 --> 00:33:50.940 Somehow on the way, he had picked up Vera. 442 00:33:50.940 --> 00:33:52.600 They came together. 443 00:33:52.600 --> 00:33:56.100 We waited in the library room of Galt's apartment. 444 00:33:56.100 --> 00:34:00.840 At the end of an hour, the five doctors came to us, looking very grave. 445 00:34:00.840 --> 00:34:03.900 The Galt's family doctor announced the consensus. 446 00:34:03.900 --> 00:34:08.020 It was a stroke, with some very unusual aspects. 447 00:34:08.020 --> 00:34:09.220 Life persisted. 448 00:34:09.220 --> 00:34:13.180 The threat of it was extremely fine, almost invisible. 449 00:34:13.180 --> 00:34:29.180 Mordecai rose from his chair with a colossal awful gesture. His eyes were staring. His face was like a mask. His head turned slowly right and left, through half a circle with a weird mechanical movement. 450 00:34:29.180 --> 00:34:47.180 Mordecai rose from his chair with a colossal awful gesture. His eyes were staring. His face was like a mask. His head turned slowly right and left through half a circle with a weird mechanical movement as a thing turning on a pivot in a fixed plane. 451 00:34:47.180 --> 00:34:50.500 They have killed him, he whispered. 452 00:34:50.500 --> 00:34:54.380 All of you, I gall upon to witness, they have killed him. 453 00:34:54.380 --> 00:34:59.500 They could not ruin him, that they tried to do, but they have killed him. 454 00:34:59.500 --> 00:35:03.140 They are once more in the dark ages. 455 00:35:03.140 --> 00:35:06.380 The physicians were astonished and ill at ease. 456 00:35:06.380 --> 00:35:08.740 They did not know what he was talking about. 457 00:35:08.740 --> 00:35:10.740 They did not know who he was. 458 00:35:10.740 --> 00:35:16.500 I was the only one who could know what he meant, and for a minute I was bewildered. 459 00:35:16.500 --> 00:35:19.140 And It Broke Upon Me. 460 00:35:19.140 --> 00:35:22.860 The combat reconstructed itself in my mind. 461 00:35:22.860 --> 00:35:28.260 I recalled those days of strain and anguish when all the forces of Wall Street were acting 462 00:35:28.260 --> 00:35:31.220 to destroy him and he fought alone. 463 00:35:31.220 --> 00:35:32.820 He withstood them. 464 00:35:32.820 --> 00:35:38.080 In the might of his own strength, in that moment which it had been torture almost unendurable 465 00:35:38.080 --> 00:35:43.600 to bide the coming of, he smote his enemies with the fist of wickedness and scattered 466 00:35:43.600 --> 00:35:44.860 them away. 467 00:35:44.860 --> 00:35:50.780 Yes, all that, he had won the fight, yet there he lay. 468 00:35:50.780 --> 00:35:55.920 His death would leave them in possession of the field, with a victory unawares. 469 00:35:55.920 --> 00:36:02.000 They meant only to break his power, to unloose his hands, to overthrow him as an upstart 470 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:03.220 dynast. 471 00:36:03.220 --> 00:36:07.880 But the blood weapon which we think is put away, which they never meant and would not 472 00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:12.800 have dared to use, it had done its work in spite of them. 473 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:14.720 They could not break him. 474 00:36:14.720 --> 00:36:25.080 6 Well, we had to wait. 475 00:36:25.080 --> 00:36:28.540 Life must wait upon death, because it can. 476 00:36:28.540 --> 00:36:30.720 There was much to think about. 477 00:36:30.720 --> 00:36:36.340 Mordecai spent two hours with me making precise arrangements against any contingency. 478 00:36:36.340 --> 00:36:41.080 It was very important that Wall Street should know nothing about Galt's condition. 479 00:36:41.080 --> 00:36:43.280 The news might cause a panic. 480 00:36:43.280 --> 00:36:48.380 I was to call him up at regular intervals by a direct telephone wire on which no one 481 00:36:48.380 --> 00:36:49.960 could listen in. 482 00:36:49.960 --> 00:36:54.040 If any rumor got out, it should be met with blank silence. 483 00:36:54.040 --> 00:36:59.080 Sevil winded soon out, no matter, he said. 484 00:36:59.080 --> 00:37:04.360 What he needed was a little time to prepare the financial structure for the imminent shock. 485 00:37:04.360 --> 00:37:09.400 He would inform his associates and such others as were entitled to know, and together they 486 00:37:09.400 --> 00:37:12.560 would agree upon protective measures. 487 00:37:12.560 --> 00:37:16.280 Galt's death was bound to produce a terrific convulsion. 488 00:37:16.280 --> 00:37:22.240 There is no line of succession in Wall Street, no hereditary prince to receive the crown. 489 00:37:22.240 --> 00:37:28.820 When the monarch falls, the whale is, the king is dead, there is no king. 490 00:37:28.820 --> 00:37:33.280 About ten o'clock in the morning of the second day, Galt opened his eyes. 491 00:37:33.280 --> 00:37:37.800 He could neither move nor speak, but he was vividly conscious. 492 00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:43.160 Mrs. Galt came to the room where I had established a workstation to tell me this. 493 00:37:43.160 --> 00:37:45.080 He wants something, she said. 494 00:37:45.080 --> 00:37:46.780 He says so with his eyes. 495 00:37:46.780 --> 00:37:49.780 I think it is you he wants. 496 00:37:49.780 --> 00:37:52.460 His eyes expressed pleasure at seeing me. 497 00:37:52.460 --> 00:37:54.000 Not a muscle moved. 498 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:57.760 He could see and hear and think, and that was all. 499 00:37:57.760 --> 00:37:59.500 He did want something. 500 00:37:59.500 --> 00:38:03.080 I guessed a number of things, and he looked them all away. 501 00:38:03.080 --> 00:38:04.380 It wasn't Mordecai. 502 00:38:04.380 --> 00:38:07.580 It wasn't anything in relation to business. 503 00:38:07.580 --> 00:38:11.440 In this dilemma, I remembered a game we played in childhood. 504 00:38:11.440 --> 00:38:16.660 It was for one of the players to hold in his mind any object on earth and for the other 505 00:38:16.660 --> 00:38:23.900 to identify it by asking questions up to 20 that had to be answered yes or no. 506 00:38:23.900 --> 00:38:27.740 Galt's eyes could say yes and no, and he could hear. 507 00:38:27.740 --> 00:38:32.060 Therefore, anything he was thinking of could be found out. 508 00:38:32.060 --> 00:38:33.920 I explained the game to him. 509 00:38:33.920 --> 00:38:37.200 He instantly understood, and we began. 510 00:38:37.200 --> 00:38:43.000 Was the thing a mineral substance? He did not answer. Was it vegetable? He did not answer. 511 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:47.880 Was it animal, then? Still no answer, but a bothered look in his eyes. 512 00:38:47.880 --> 00:38:53.680 I stopped to wonder why he hadn't answered yes or no to one of the three. Was it perhaps 513 00:38:53.680 --> 00:39:00.600 something mineral, vegetable and animal combined? His eyes lighted, saying yes. 514 00:39:00.600 --> 00:39:02.040 Was it in this room? 515 00:39:02.040 --> 00:39:03.040 No. 516 00:39:03.040 --> 00:39:04.440 Was it far away? 517 00:39:04.440 --> 00:39:05.440 No. 518 00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:07.240 Was it just outside? 519 00:39:07.240 --> 00:39:08.600 Yes. 520 00:39:08.600 --> 00:39:11.080 I went to the window and looked out. 521 00:39:11.080 --> 00:39:15.800 In every direction below the level of the finished terrace was the site of construction 522 00:39:15.800 --> 00:39:22.600 work in a state of suspense, heaps of materials, tools where they had fallen, power machinery 523 00:39:22.600 --> 00:39:23.600 idle. 524 00:39:23.600 --> 00:39:25.640 A thought occurred to me. 525 00:39:25.640 --> 00:39:27.960 I went back and looked in his eyes. 526 00:39:27.960 --> 00:39:33.820 We've had all the work stopped because of the noise. Do you wish it to go on? Is that what you want? 527 00:39:34.580 --> 00:39:37.200 Yes, he answered, with a flash of his eyes. 528 00:39:38.400 --> 00:39:46.320 Two hours later, the air was vibrant with the clank-clank of many steam drills, the screech of taut hoisting cables, 529 00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:51.600 the throb of donkey engines, the roar of rock blasting, and he was happy. 530 00:39:53.100 --> 00:39:57.640 Incidentally, the resumption of work served Mordecai's purpose in an unexpected way. 531 00:39:57.960 --> 00:40:10.960 Rumor of Galt's illness did get out. The newspapers began to telephone. Unable to get information in that way, they thought it must be serious and sent reporters out in haste. 532 00:40:10.960 --> 00:40:19.960 They returned to their offices saying they couldn't get a word out of us, but Galt couldn't be very ill so long as all that uproar was permitted to go on. 533 00:40:19.960 --> 00:40:46.960 A week passed in this way. One evening on my return from an urgent trip to New York, Natalie came racing down the Great Hall to meet me with a flying slide at the end, as in the old days she was wont to meet Gault, and whether she meant it quite or miscalculated the distance I do not know, but anyhow I had either to let her go by off her balance or catch her, and she landed in my arms. 534 00:40:46.960 --> 00:40:53.160 O Coxie, he's asking for you, she said, getting her feet and dragging me along at a run. 535 00:40:53.160 --> 00:40:54.320 He's better all at once. 536 00:40:54.320 --> 00:40:56.520 He can talk. 537 00:40:56.520 --> 00:40:59.840 The faculty of speech was gradually restored. 538 00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:05.080 When he could talk freely, he told us that he had been conscious all the while, day and 539 00:41:05.080 --> 00:41:06.080 night. 540 00:41:06.080 --> 00:41:09.000 He heard every word that was spoken at the consultation. 541 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:13.820 Therefore, he had more expert opinion on his condition than we had. 542 00:41:13.820 --> 00:41:15.840 He had kept count of time. 543 00:41:15.840 --> 00:41:20.960 He knew what day it was when he first opened his eyes, and since then in his sleep he had 544 00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:23.240 been continuously conscious. 545 00:41:23.240 --> 00:41:24.400 He felt no pain.