The departmental heads took three months before they reported back to the board, and to a man they came to the same conclusion : a merger was no more than common sense, as the two banks were complementary in so many ways. With different offices all over America and branches in Europe, they. had a great deal to offer each other. Moreover, the chairman of Lester's had continued to own fif ty~one per cent of Kane and Cabot, making the merger s~mply a marriage of convenience. Some of the directors on Lester's board could not understand why William hadn't thought of the idea before. Ted Leach was of the opinion that Charles Lester must have had it in his mind when he nominated William as his successor.

The details of the merger took nearly a year to negotiate and lawyers.were kept at work into the small hours to complete the necessary paper work. In the exchange of shares, William ended up as the largest stockholder.with eight'per cent of the new company and was appointed the new bank's president and chairman. Tony Simmons remained in Boston as one vice - chairman' and Ted Leach in New York as the other. The new merchant bank was renamed Lester, Kane and Company, but was still to be referred to as Lester's.

William decided to hold a press conference in New York to announce the successful merger of the two banks and he chose Monday, 8 December 1941 to inform the financial business world at large. The press conference had to be cancelled, because the morning before the Japanese had launched an attack on Pearl Harbor.

The prepared press release hed already been mailed to the newspapers some days before, but the Tuesday morning financial pages understandably allocated the announcement of the merger only a small amount of space.

This lack of coverage was no longer foremost in William's mind.

He couldn't quite work out how or when he was going to tell Kate that he intended to enlist. When Kate heard the news she was horrified and immediately tried to talk him out of the decision.

'What do you imagine you can do that a million others can't?' she demanded.

'I'm not sure,' William replied, 'But all I can be certain of is that I must do what my father or grandfather would have done given the same circumstances!

'Mey would have undoubtedly done what was in the best interest of the bank.'

'No,' replied William quickly. 'ney would have done what was in the best interest of America.

Book Four

24

Abel studied the news item on Lester, Kane and Company in the financial section of the Chicago Tribune. With all the space devoted to the implications of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he would have missed the brief article had it not been accompanied by a small out - of - date photograph of William Kane, so out - of - date that Kane looked much as he had when Abel had visited him in Boston over ten years before. Certainly Kane appeared too young in that photograph to live up to the journal's description of him as the brilliant chairman of the newly formed Lester, Kane and Company. 'Me article went on to predict: 'The new bank, a joining of Leste?s of New York and Kane and Cabot of Boston, could well become one of the most important financial institutions in America after Mr. Kane's decision to merge the two distinguished family banks. As far as the Trib could ascertain the shares would be in the hands of about twenty people related to, or closely associated with the two families!

Abel was delighted by that particular piece of information, realising that Kane must have lost overall control - He read the news item again. William Kane had obviously risen in the world since they had crossed swords, but then so had he, and he still had an old score to settle with the newly ap - pointed chairman of Lesters.

So handsomely had the Baron Group's fortunes prospered over the decade that Abel had paid back all the loans to his backer and honoured to the letter the original agreement with his backer and had secured one hundred per cent ownership of the company within the requix - ed ten - year period.

By the last quarter of 1939, not only had Abel paid off the loan, but the profits for 1940 passed the half million mark. This milestone coincided with the opemng of two new Barons, one in Washington, the other in San Francisco.

nough Abel had become a less devoted husband dunng this period, he could not have been a more doting father. Zaphia, longing for a second child, finally goaded him into seeing his doctor. When he learned that~ because of a low sperm count, probably caused by sickness and malnutrition in his days under the Germans and Russians, Florentyna would almost certainly be his only child, he gave up all hope for a son and proceeded to lavish everything on her.

Abers fame was now spreading acrm America and even the press had taken to referrmg to him as "Me Chicago Barore. He no longer cared about the jokes behind his back. Wladek Koskiewicz had arrived and, mom importantly, he was here to stay. By 1941 the profits from his thirteen hotels were just short of one mil1ion. and, with his new surplus of capital, he decided the bme bad come for even further expansion.