“Very well. You raise your capital for your railway. What that railway may be imagined to do is set out in full before you and I won’t go into it. But I will ask you especially to note the passage in which it is described as giving a strategical supremacy to the Empire. You know what the Empire is. You _may_ know, some o’ you, what strategy is. Looks as if there were a fleecy general or two among you! But that’s as may be--just note the phrase. It’s safety! That’s what it is! No odds. No blighter to run any risk of having to fight any one anywhere! Grand!”... “I _think_ also,” he mused, “something could be done with the tourist side ... there are falls and mountains and things ... but no matter: the point is the railway.” He drank from a glass of water on the table, turned round angrily and said: “Good lord what water! It’s bad enough to have to drink water in public for a show, but it needn’t be tepid! If the place wasn’t so public I’d spit it out again!” Then facing the audience again: “However.... About that railway. First understand clearly, ladies and gentlemen, _that railway is not going to be built_! There is no intention of building it. There is no intention of surveying it.” Two or three voices rose in protest at the back of the hall. Sir Charles leaned forward and put out his hand appealingly:-- “One moment, one moment pray! Hear me out! I don’t mean that _no_ one will build it. That’s not our funeral. I mean that _we_ won’t. The ‘Company’ may, whatever that means. But you and I--the people who have got into this hole--_we_ won’t. It won’t be _our_ money. Seize that! Get a hold of that! It’s the key to the whole business.” Little gasps and one profound sigh, but no interruptions followed this explanation, and Sir Charles with perfect coolness continued: “What we want is five shillings a share--only five shillings a share. Five shillings where most of you have already given a hundred and sixty! Five shillings a share ... four million shares ... that’s a million. And mind you, only a nominal million. We don’t want your two half-crowns; bless you no. All we want in cash is a shilling. For the rest, you’ll see in a moment. Well, there you are then, a shilling, a miserable shilling. Now just see what that shilling will do!” “In the first place it’ll give publicity and plenty of it. Breath of public life, publicity! Breath o’ finance too! We’ll have that railway marked in a dotted line on the maps: all the maps: school maps: office maps. We’ll have leaders on it and speeches on it. And good hearty attacks on it. And th-e-n....” He lowered his voice to a very confidential wheedle,--“the price’ll begin to creep up--Oh ... o ... oh! the _real_ price, my beloved fellow-shareholders, the price at which one can really _sell_, the price at which one can handle the _stuff_.”