Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/319

 had it bound into a book and put it in a safe, as he told a friend at the time, "for his wife and family as an investment." In 1878 Gould conceived the idea of a grand coup, and this was carried out so successfully that in sixty days he had made terms which netted him about $21,000,000 in profits.

He first ran over to Amsterdam from London, arriving there late in the morning. At 10 that day he notified the Dutch bondholders of the Denver Pacific that he would be pleased to meet them at 11 o'clock. Promptly at that hour he met them, and at 12 he left Amsterdam with his gripsack full of the securities of the Dutch bondholders. By this means he captured control of the Denver Pacific. Inside of ten hours he bought out Commodore Garrison's interest in the Missouri Pacific. He bought out ex-Governor Ames' interest in the Central Branch of the Union Pacific, and he had previously formed a pool by which he acquired control of the Kansas Pacific.

One day the Union Pacific directors awoke to the alarming discovery that Mr. Gould had dropped out of their organization and was surveying a line from Denver to Salt Lake City. The Kansas Pacific was utterly worthless, the Central Branch had not earned any money for years, the Denver Pacific had been in very bad shape; but when the Union Pacific directors discovered the extent of Mr. Gould's combinations they lost no time in boarding a special car in Boston and rushing over to New York to see him about it. They went up to Mr. Gould's house and