Armstrong surveyed him with cheerful good humor, refusing to take this outburst seriously. "Regular line of Old Testament bunk, Mac! And you don't mean a word of it. As you know very well, we're in business with a New Testament; a covenant of success to all, not merely to those who have the quickest gun." Macgowan uttered a savage oath. "You fool, I mean it, every word of it! Throw Findlater out or you'll be thrown out!" "Nothing doing." Armstrong shrugged, but eyed his friend curiously. "You handle him with the voting trust, and avoid trouble. Be a diplomat." "Diplomat, hell!" Macgowan leaped up, faced Armstrong with a bitter snarl. "Wake up! Are you a dursed weak-kneed idealist, blind to everything but your ideals? Can't you see that at times you have to be something else? Are you one of these temperamental cusses, strong one minute and up in the clouds the next? Cut out this drivel! I tell you, Findlater is a danger spot! Want to wake up and find you and your sentiment landed in the gutter, do you?" Armstrong was stung. He leaned forward, suddenly tense, concentrated. "Mac, are you trying to tempt me--trying to see if you can shake me? Don't try it. You know I brought a new creed into this investment game, and I'm here to play the game square and fair. Once I falter in that creed, once I begin to cheat at the game--good night! Now, quit calling me a fool. Look at it through the eyes of our investors. If they see me kick out Findlater, they'll think that it looks queer; you can't blame them! I'd think so too. It isn't time yet for fireworks. Wait until the annual meeting next April. Then we'll start the slate with a new crowd and go in for big things--honest things with honest men." Macgowan drew a quick breath. "Reese, you have a brain somewhere on the premises. I concede it. You're right, as usual. Say, do you sit up nights thinking of those investors?" "Nope; daytimes only." Armstrong was too deeply stirred up to call a halt now. He went on with a growing earnestness and conviction. "It's those investors who have put Consolidated on its feet. Not a bunch of spoilers sitting around a directors' table, but those little investors. Their confidence in me is a terrible thing, Mac; it frightens me sometimes, it humbles me--why, Mac, it's their very faith which puts me over, makes me make good! This mass psychology is nothing new, even in business. We started out to get that very thing behind us. Now that we've got it, sometimes it frightens me by its very force. They talk about prayer and its effect--here's the same thing, man! When every investor in our lists is behind me, when I'm the apex of a triangle with every atom of force at my back, shoving me forward--do you think I can fail? Do you think anybody can rise up and whip me? Not much!"