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He
had
not
decided
to
resign
—
not
really
,
he
thought
;
he
had
dictated
the
letter
for
a
motive
which
he
identified
to
himself
only
as
"
just
in
case
.
"
The
letter
,
he
felt
,
was
a
form
of
protection
;
but
he
had
not
signed
it
yet
,
and
that
was
his
protection
against
the
protection
.
The
hatred
was
directed
at
whatever
had
brought
him
to
feel
that
he
would
not
be
able
to
continue
extending
this
process
much
longer
.
He
had
received
word
of
the
catastrophe
at
eight
o
’
clock
this
morning
;
by
noon
,
he
had
arrived
at
his
office
.
An
instinct
that
came
from
reasons
which
he
knew
,
but
spent
his
whole
effort
on
not
knowing
,
had
told
him
that
he
had
to
be
there
,
this
time
.
The
men
who
had
been
his
marked
cards
—
in
a
game
he
knew
how
to
play
—
were
gone
.
Clifton
Locey
was
barricaded
behind
the
statement
of
a
doctor
who
had
announced
that
Mr
.
Locey
was
suffering
from
a
heart
condition
which
made
it
impossible
to
disturb
him
at
present
.
One
of
Taggart
’
s
executive
assistants
was
said
to
have
left
for
Boston
last
night
,
and
the
other
was
said
to
have
been
called
unexpectedly
to
an
unnamed
hospital
,
to
the
bedside
of
a
father
nobody
had
ever
suspected
him
of
having
.
There
was
no
answer
at
the
home
of
the
chief
engineer
.
The
vice
-
President
in
charge
of
public
relations
could
not
be
found
.
Driving
through
the
streets
to
his
office
,
Taggart
had
seen
the
black
letters
of
the
headlines
.
Walking
down
the
corridors
of
Taggart
Transcontinental
,
he
had
heard
the
voice
of
a
speaker
pouring
from
a
radio
in
someone
’
s
office
,
the
kind
of
voice
one
expects
to
hear
on
unlighted
street
corners
:
it
was
screaming
demands
for
the
nationalization
of
the
railroads
.
He
had
walked
through
the
corridors
,
his
steps
noisy
,
in
order
to
be
seen
,
and
hasty
,
in
order
not
to
be
stopped
for
questions
.
He
had
locked
the
door
of
his
office
,
ordering
his
secretary
not
to
admit
any
person
or
phone
call
and
to
tell
all
comers
that
Mr
.
Taggart
was
busy
.
Then
he
sat
at
his
desk
,
alone
with
blank
terror
.
He
felt
as
if
he
were
trapped
in
a
subterranean
vault
and
the
lock
could
never
be
broken
again
—
and
as
if
he
were
held
on
display
in
the
sight
of
the
whole
city
below
,
hoping
that
the
lock
would
hold
out
for
eternity
.
He
had
to
be
here
,
in
this
office
,
it
was
required
of
him
,
he
had
to
sit
idly
and
wait
—
wait
for
the
unknown
to
descend
upon
him
and
to
determine
his
actions
—
and
the
terror
was
both
of
who
would
come
for
him
and
of
the
fact
that
nobody
came
,
nobody
to
tell
him
what
to
do
.
The
ringing
of
the
telephones
in
the
outer
office
sounded
like
screams
for
help
.
He
looked
at
the
door
with
a
sensation
of
malevolent
triumph
at
the
thought
of
all
those
voices
being
defeated
by
the
innocuous
figure
of
his
secretary
,
a
young
man
expert
at
nothing
but
the
art
of
evasion
,
which
he
practiced
with
the
gray
,
rubber
limpness
of
the
amoral
.
The
voices
,
thought
Taggart
,
were
coming
from
Colorado
,
from
every
center
of
the
Taggart
system
,
from
every
office
of
the
building
around
him
.
He
was
safe
so
long
as
he
did
not
have
to
hear
them
.
His
emotions
had
clogged
into
a
still
,
solid
,
opaque
ball
within
him
,
which
the
thought
of
the
men
who
operated
the
Taggart
system
could
not
pierce
;
those
men
were
merely
enemies
to
be
outwitted
.
The
sharper
bites
of
fear
came
from
the
thought
of
the
men
on
the
Board
of
Directors
;
but
his
letter
of
resignation
was
his
fire
escape
,
which
would
leave
them
stuck
with
the
fire
.
The
sharpest
fear
came
from
the
thought
of
the
men
in
Washington
.
If
they
called
,
he
would
have
to
answer
;
his
rubber
secretary
would
know
whose
voices
superseded
his
orders
.
But
Washington
did
not
call
.
