The young man laughed. "There's one point of dissimilarity that I see already," he replied. "The time of the brightest brokers in Boston is valuable; mine is not. Really, you're not very encouraging, but I didn't expect you to be. I know my step-uncle, and I'm prepared for a stiff and extensive campaign. All I'm asking for is a detonator--something to start the action, you know, or something novel in the way of an explosive. Perhaps an adaptation of one of those grenades that the Chinese pirates throw when they want to drive their victims suffocating into the sea. I realize that there isn't much use engaging Uncle John with ordinary Christian weapons; he's practically bomb-proof." "I am afraid," said Mr. Osgood, slowly, "that I am not very expert in the manufacture of noxious piratical chemicals. You will have to seek your inspiration elsewhere." Smith turned to Wilkinson. Heretofore the representative of the Guardian had taken no part in the conversation. "Would you mind stating, without quite so many figures of speech, just what you want?" he asked quietly. "Certainly. What I want is something, some handle which will get me John M. Hurd's attention just long enough to make him listen to me. If I can get him to listen, I stand a chance." "You say he carries no fire insurance on any of the trolley properties?" the New Yorker inquired thoughtfully. "No," replied Mr. Osgood. "He has a small insurance fund--perhaps thirty or forty thousand dollars. He pays into this each year a part of what his insurance would cost him, and out of this fund is paid what losses the company sustains. And we must confess that so far the scheme has worked well. His losses have been much less than he would have paid in premiums to the companies." "A fund--yes. That is all well and good, unless there is a great congestion of value at some single point, or at a very few points. Tell me, how much value is there in that main car barn on Pemberton Street--the new one next to the power plant?" "Probably over a half a million dollars--at night, when the cars are all there," said Cole. "And with the power house almost a million, then?" "Almost," Cole agreed. Smith rose and walked over to the window; the others watched him in silence. "What kind of people hold the stock of the traction company?" he asked suddenly. "I fancy Mr. Hurd himself swings a very big block," Cole answered. "And his directors have a good deal. It's easily carried--the banks up here will loan on it almost up to the market value." Smith still looked thoughtfully out the window. "And I presume the directors and other stockholders take advantage of that fact?" he inquired. "Oh, yes," Mr. Osgood replied. "We have a lot of it as collateral for loans in the Charlestown Trust Company, of which I am a director." "And is it actively traded in on the Exchange?" the New Yorker continued.