rities, and, loath to lose it, made up his mind to come to terms with the bondholders.
One day, early in 1879, he appeared in Mr. Villard's office and told him that he was tired of fighting, and that he was ready to accept the committee's conditions. This time he was true to his word, and the result was, as he had anticipated, an extraordinarily rapid rise in Kansas Pacific securities. Under the terms of the settlement, two of the three first-mortgages were recognized in full, and of the third only the interest was reduced from seven to six per cent. When the receivers were appointed, the bonds under the former were selling at 50, and those under the latter below 30. They bounded up in jumps to above par; the last-mentioned bonds, with nearly six years unpaid back interest, rose even to 140. Gould having purposely let his intention to consolidate the Kansas Pacific with the Union Pacific be known, the stock of the former, which had sold as low as 3 less than four years before, was quickly quoted as high as the latter and followed it far above par. Gould, not long after the consolidation, sold all his stock. He was understood to have cleared more than ten millions of dollars by the operation, which was one of the principal episodes in that speculative time. The triumphant issue of Mr. Villard's contest with that most unscrupulous and most dreaded machinator, and his fidelity to his employers, raised him to a position of influence in American financial circles, while it added greatly to his reputation abroad.
