Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/337

 to gather—and added to them in his mind the one thousand and odd hundreds which the faithful Chilton, Williams, and Mock had been able to rally in proxies and otherwise.

"Looks tough!" admitted Chilton with a solemn shake of his head.

"It looks worse than tough," mumbled George. "Our only hope is that we're going to have some friends in that meeting that we don't know about."

An hour passed. George did some frenzied telephoning. He sent Chilton, Williams, and Mock out to make short personal appeals where it was thought that personal appeals for stock or proxies might yet be effective, but each came back empty-handed.

"Let them show us what they've got," George Judson proclaimed stoutly, "and then we'll show 'em what we've got."

This was a bold speech, but empty. His associates knew it was empty, but they admired him for making it—and they did not know that his knees trembled as he arose at last and led the way into the directors' room.

The long, polished mahogany table would seat ten persons. Chairs around the room and massed beyond it would seat twenty-five more. Not all the chairs were taken. Stockholders' meetings are not usually largely attended. There was a woman or two. The men ranged from the