Having made his arrangements with Mr. Wade, he hung up the telephone, and pushed an electric button. A young man from an outer office responded.
"Tell Mr. Moore," said Pendleton to him, "that he will have to see the gentlemen who will call at twelve--on that lake terminal matter--he will understand. And see that I am not disturbed until after lunch.... And, say, Frank! See if Mr. Adams can come in here--at once, please."
Mr. Adams, who turned out to be some sort of a freight expert, came in, and the rest of the interview was a bombardment of questions, in which we all took turns as targets. When we went to lunch we felt that Mr. Pendleton had possessed himself of all we knew about our enterprise, and filed the information away in some vast pigeon-hole case with his own great stock of knowledge.
We met Mr. Wade over an elaborate lunch. He said, as he shook hands with Cornish, that he believed they had met somewhere, to which Cornish bowed a frigid assent. Mr. Wade was the head of The Allen G. Wade Trust Company, and seemed in a semi-comatose condition, save when cakes, wine, or securities were under discussion. He addressed me as "Mr. Corning," and called Cornish "Atkins," and once in a while opened his mouth to address Jim by name, but halted, with a distressful look, at the realization of the fact that he could not remember names enough to go around. He made an appointment with me for the party for the next morning.
"If you will come to my office before you call on Mr. Wade," said Mr. Pendleton, "I will have a memorandum prepared of what we will do with you in the way of a traffic agreement: it may be of some use in determining the desirability of your bonds. I'm very glad to have met you, gentlemen. When Lattimore gets into my world--by which I mean our system and connections--I hope to visit the little city which has so strong a business community as to be able to send out such a committee as yourselves; good-afternoon!"
"Well," said I, as we went toward our hotel, "this looks like progress, doesn't it?"
"I sha'n't feel dead sure," said Jim, "until the money is in bank, subject to the check of the construction company. But doesn't it look juicy, right now! Why, boys, with that traffic agreement we can get the money anywhere--on the prairie, out at sea--anywhere under the shining sun! They can't beat us. What do you say, Cornish? Will, your friend Wade jar loose, or shall we have to seek further?"