of the stock of any railroad to control it.

Most of the shares are scattered around so far and wide that they never vote, and I think two or three hundred thousand dollars would control that road." He mentioned one other line that might be secured in the same way in the course of time.
Stener meditated.

"That's a good deal of money," he said, thoughtfully.
"I'll talk to you about that some more later." And he was off to see Strobik none the less.
Cowperwood knew that Stener did not have any two or three hundred thousand dollars to invest in anything.

There was only one way that he could get it--and that was to borrow it out of the city treasury and forego the interest.

But he would not do that on his own initiative.
Some one else must be behind him and who else other than Mollenhauer, or Simpson, or possibly even Butler, though he doubted that, unless the triumvirate were secretly working together.