With the completion of the deal Sam stood to win five million dollars,
more money than Colonel Tom or any of the Raineys had ever controlled, and
had placed himself in the eyes of the business men of Chicago and New York
where before he had placed himself in the eyes of Caxton and South Water
Street. Instead of another Windy McPherson failing to blow his bugle
before the waiting crowd, he was still the man who made good, the man who
achieved, the kind of man of whom America boasts before the world.
He did not see Sue again. When the news of his betrayal reached her she
went off east taking Colonel Tom with her, and Sam closed the house, even
sending a man there for his clothes. To her eastern address, got from her
attorney, he wrote a brief note offering to make over to her or to Colonel
Tom his entire winnings from the deal and closed it with the brutal
declaration, "At the end I could not be an ass, even for you."
To this note Sam got a cold, brief reply telling him to dispose of her
stock in the company and of that belonging to Colonel Tom, and naming an
eastern trust company to receive the money. With Colonel Tom's help she
had made a careful estimate of the values of their holdings at the time of
consolidation and refused flatly to accept a penny beyond that amount.
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