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In
his
long
career
,
he
had
ignored
all
the
public
attacks
on
him
,
except
one
.
His
first
name
had
been
Michael
;
when
a
newspaper
columnist
of
the
humanitarian
clique
nicknamed
him
Midas
Mulligan
and
the
tag
stuck
to
him
as
an
insult
,
Mulligan
appeared
in
court
and
petitioned
for
a
legal
change
of
his
first
name
to
"
Midas
.
"
The
petition
was
granted
.
In
the
eyes
of
his
contemporaries
,
he
was
a
man
who
had
committed
the
one
unforgivable
sin
:
he
was
proud
of
his
wealth
.
These
were
the
things
Dagny
had
heard
about
Midas
Mulligan
;
she
had
never
met
him
.
Seven
years
ago
,
Midas
Mulligan
had
vanished
.
He
left
his
home
one
morning
and
was
never
heard
from
again
.
On
the
next
day
,
the
depositors
of
the
Mulligan
Bank
in
Chicago
received
notices
requesting
that
they
withdraw
their
funds
,
because
the
bank
was
closing
.
In
the
investigations
that
followed
,
it
was
learned
that
Mulligan
had
planned
the
closing
in
advance
and
in
minute
detail
;
his
employees
were
merely
carrying
out
his
instructions
.
It
was
the
most
orderly
run
on
a
bank
that
the
country
ever
witnessed
.
Every
depositor
received
his
money
down
to
the
last
fraction
of
interest
due
.
All
of
the
bank
’
s
assets
had
been
sold
piecemeal
to
various
financial
institutions
.
When
the
books
were
balanced
,
it
was
found
that
they
balanced
perfectly
,
to
the
penny
;
nothing
was
left
over
;
the
Mulligan
Bank
had
been
wiped
out
.
No
clue
was
ever
found
to
Mulligan
’
s
motive
,
to
his
personal
fate
or
to
the
many
millions
of
his
personal
fortune
.
The
man
and
the
fortune
vanished
as
if
they
had
never
existed
.
No
one
had
had
any
warning
about
his
decision
,
and
no
events
could
be
traced
to
explain
it
.
If
he
had
wished
to
retire
—
people
wondered
—
why
hadn
’
t
he
sold
his
establishment
at
a
huge
profit
,
as
he
could
have
done
,
instead
of
destroying
it
?
There
was
nobody
to
give
an
answer
.
He
had
no
family
,
no
friends
.
His
servants
knew
nothing
:
he
had
left
his
home
that
morning
as
usual
and
did
not
come
back
;
that
was
all
.
There
was
—
Dagny
had
thought
uneasily
for
years
—
a
quality
of
the
impossible
about
Mulligan
’
s
disappearance
;
it
was
as
if
a
New
York
skyscraper
had
vanished
one
night
,
leaving
nothing
behind
but
a
vacant
lot
on
a
street
corner
.
A
man
like
Mulligan
,
and
a
fortune
such
as
he
had
taken
along
with
him
,
could
not
stay
hidden
anywhere
;
a
skyscraper
could
not
get
lost
,
it
would
be
seen
rising
above
any
plain
or
forest
chosen
for
its
hiding
place
;
were
it
destroyed
,
even
its
pile
of
rubble
could
not
remain
unnoticed
.
But
Mulligan
had
gone
—
and
in
the
seven
years
since
,
in
the
mass
of
rumors
,
guesses
,
theories
,
Sunday
supplement
stories
,
and
eyewitnesses
who
claimed
to
have
seen
him
in
every
part
of
the
world
,
no
clue
to
a
plausible
explanation
had
ever
been
discovered
.
Among
the
stories
,
there
was
one
so
preposterously
out
of
character
that
Dagny
believed
it
to
be
true
:
nothing
in
Mulligan
’
s
nature
could
have
given
anyone
ground
to
invent
it
.
It
was
said
that
the
last
person
to
see
him
,
on
the
spring
morning
of
his
disappearance
,
was
an
old
woman
who
sold
flowers
on
a
Chicago
street
corner
by
the
Mulligan
Bank
.
She
related
that
he
stopped
and
bought
a
bunch
of
the
year
’
s
first
bluebells
.
His
face
was
the
happiest
face
she
had
ever
seen
;
he
had
the
look
of
a
youth
starting
out
into
a
great
,
unobstructed
vision
of
life
lying
open
before
him
;
the
marks
of
pain
and
tension
,
the
sediment
of
years
upon
a
human
face
,
had
been
wiped
off
,
and
what
remained
was
only
joyous
eagerness
and
peace
.
He
picked
up
the
flowers
as
if
on
a
sudden
impulse
,
and
he
winked
at
the
old
woman
,
as
if
he
had
some
shining
joke
to
share
with
her
.
He
said
,
"
Do
you
know
how
much
I
’
ve
always
loved
it
—
being
alive
?
"
She
stared
at
him
,
bewildered
,
and
he
walked
away
,
tossing
the
flowers
like
a
ball
in
his
hand
—
a
broad
,
straight
figure
in
a
sedate
,
expensive
,
businessman
’
s
overcoat
,
going
off
into
the
distance
against
the
straight
cliffs
of
office
buildings
with
the
spring
sun
sparkling
on
their
windows
.
"
Midas
Mulligan
was
a
vicious
bastard
with
a
dollar
sign
stamped
on
his
heart
,
"
said
Lee
Hunsacker
,
in
the
fumes
of
the
acrid
stew
.
"
My
whole
future
depended
upon
a
miserable
half
-
million
dollars
,
which
was
just
small
change
to
him
,
but
when
I
applied
for
a
loan
,
he
turned
me
down
flat
—
for
no
better
reason
than
that
I
had
no
collateral
to
offer
.
