"Oh!" Fenton picked up a ruler and played with it until Porter had finished counting and smoothing the stock certificates. "There you are," said the banker, passing the papers over to Fenton. "See if they're all right." Fenton compared the names on the face of the certificates with the assignments on the back, while Porter watched him and played with a rubber band. "The assignments are all straight," said Fenton, finally. He sat waiting and his silence irritated Porter, who reached across and took up the certificates again. "I want to talk to you a little about Traction." "All right, sir," said Fenton, respectfully. "I've gone in for that pretty deep this fall." Fenton nodded gravely. He felt trouble in the air. "I started in on this down East last summer. Those bonds all went East, but a lot of the stock was kicked around out here. If I get enough and reorganize the company I can handle the new securities down East all right. That's business. Now, I've been gathering in the stock around here on the quiet. Peckham's been buying some for me, and he's assigned it in blank. There's no use in getting new shares issued until we're ready to act, for Barnes and those fellows are not above doing something nasty if they think they're going to lose their jobs." "The original stock issue was five thousand shares," said Fenton. "How much have you?" "Well, sir," said Porter, "I've got about half and I'm looking for a few shares more right now." Fenton picked up his ruler again and beat his knuckles with it. Porter had expected Fenton to lecture him sharply, but the lawyer was ominously quiet. "I'm free to confess," said Fenton, "that I'm sorry you've gone into this. This isn't the kind of thing that you're in the habit of going into. I am not much taken with the idea of mixing up in a corporation that has as disreputable a record as the Traction Company. It's been mismanaged and robbed until there's not much left for an honest man to take hold of; they issue no statements; no one of any responsibility has been connected with it for a long time. The outside stockholders are scattered all over the country, and most of them have quit trying to enforce their rights, if they may be said to have any rights. You remember that the last time they went into court they were knocked out and I'm free to say that I don't want to have to go into any litigation against the company." "Yes, but the franchise is all straight, ain't it?" "Probably it is all right," admitted the lawyer reluctantly, "but that isn't the whole story by any manner of means. If it's known that you're picking up the stock, every fellow that has any will soak you good and hard before he parts with it. Now, there are the bondholders--" "Well, what can the bondholders do?" demanded Porter. "Oh, get a receiver and have a lot of fun. You may expect that at any time, too. Those Eastern fellows are slow sometimes, but they generally know what they're about."