Page:The Incredulity of Father Brown.pdf/276

The Incredulity of Father Brown bullying the third millionaire, Gideon Wise-a hard, dried, angular old bird of the type that his countrymen compare to hickory, with a stiff grey chin-beard and the manners and clothes of any old farmer from the central plains. There was an old argument between Wise and Gallup about combination and competition. For old Wise still retained, with the manners of the old backwoodsman, something of his opinions of the old individualist; he belonged, as we should say in England, to the Manchester School; and Gallup was always trying to persuade him to cut out competition and pool the resources of the world.

"You'll have to come in, old fellow, sooner or later," Gallup was saying genially as Byrne entered. "It's the way the world is going, and we can't go back to the one-man-business now. We've all got to stand together."

"If I might say a word," said Stein, in his tranquil way, "I would say there is something a little more urgent even than standing together commercially. Anyhow, we must stand together politically; and that's why I've asked Mr. Byrne to meet us here today. On the political issue we must combine; for the simple reason that all our most dangerous enemies are already combined."

"Oh, I quite agree about political combination," grumbled Gideon Wise.

"See here," said Stein to the journalist; "I