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Line 41: + + + + + + + + + + − John Galt continued his recruitment. He persuaded [[Professor]] Akston to join him, and labored for a year to persuade William Hastings, his former immediate superior at the [[Twentieth Century Motor Company]] to join the strike. Next he recruited a [[composer]] named [[Richard Halley]].+ − − Then he met a banker named Michael "Midas" Mulligan. His defection changed the John Galt strike plan radically. [[Midas Mulligan]] became embroiled in a lawsuit after he refused a business loan to one Lee Hunsacker, who had bought the old Twentieth Century Motor Company in a fire sale after the Starnes heirs finally ran that company completely into the ground. Hunsacker sued Mulligan. The original trial judge ([[Judge Narragansett]]) found for Mulligan, but that judgment was reversed on appeal. Naturally, John Galt approached Midas ''and'' Judge Narragansett and encouraged them to go on strike. Line 57:
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→Galt's Gulch
Ragnar Danneskjold followed his own chain of logic, but also was driven by towering wrath and indignation. Like Francisco d'Anconia, he did not believe that merely quitting the world was sufficient. He proposed to go to active war with it. The world system robbed men of the mind; he, therefore, would take back from that world and give back to them whom the world had robbed. Thus he became a [[privateer]], and for the next twelve years he built a reputation as the scourge of the high seas. John Galt did not ask him to do this. In fact, Galt worried himself sick over Danneskjold every year. But John Galt did not actively oppose him, either—for if anything, Ragnar Danneskjold was an even more competent philosopher than Galt was.
Ragnar Danneskjold followed his own chain of logic, but also was driven by towering wrath and indignation. Like Francisco d'Anconia, he did not believe that merely quitting the world was sufficient. He proposed to go to active war with it. The world system robbed men of the mind; he, therefore, would take back from that world and give back to them whom the world had robbed. Thus he became a [[privateer]], and for the next twelve years he built a reputation as the scourge of the high seas. John Galt did not ask him to do this. In fact, Galt worried himself sick over Danneskjold every year. But John Galt did not actively oppose him, either—for if anything, Ragnar Danneskjold was an even more competent philosopher than Galt was.
== Life in New York ==
When Galt first quit the Twentieth Century, he moved to [[New York City]], rented a garret room in a run-down brownstone, and signed on as a track walker for the [[Taggart Transcontinental Railroad]]. His assignment: the underground tunnels of the Taggart Terminal.
He took all his meals in the underground cafeteria in the Taggart Building. Not long after that, he noticed a junior executive taking his meals in the same place. He didn't take long to cultivate that executive as a friend. His name, of course, was [[Eddie Willers]].
Then, two years into his strike, he saw [[Dagny Taggart]], who by then had become the Operating Vice-President. He fell hard in love with her, and from that day forward would pump Eddie Willers for information whenever he saw him. He would maintain that contact until June of the last year of the strike—the last "vacation month."
Every year in June, Galt would meet somewhere with Francisco, Ragnar, and all their recruits. He persuaded [[Professor]] Akston to join him, and labored for a year to persuade William Hastings, his former immediate superior at the [[Twentieth Century Motor Company]] to join the strike. Next he recruited a [[composer]] named [[Richard Halley]].
Then he recruited a man who changed everything, and radically.
== Galt's Gulch ==
== Galt's Gulch ==
[[Midas Mulligan]], a banker by trade, became embroiled in a lawsuit after he refused a business loan to one Lee Hunsacker, who had bought the old Twentieth Century Motor Company in a fire sale after the Starnes heirs finally ran that company completely into the ground. Hunsacker sued Mulligan. The original trial judge ([[Judge Narragansett]]) found for Mulligan, but that judgment was reversed on appeal. Naturally, John Galt approached Midas ''and'' Judge Narragansett and encouraged them to go on strike.
Mulligan's answer was to liquidate his bank totally, though he made sure that no depositor lost any money in the liquidation. He then took the proceeds and bought a secluded valley in the [[Rocky Mountains]]. There he built a home and stocked it with supplies sufficient to let him retire there for life. First Judge Narragansett, and then Richard Halley, asked Midas whether he would be willing to rent some land to him, and Midas agreed.
Mulligan's answer was to liquidate his bank totally, though he made sure that no depositor lost any money in the liquidation. He then took the proceeds and bought a secluded valley in the [[Rocky Mountains]]. There he built a home and stocked it with supplies sufficient to let him retire there for life. First Judge Narragansett, and then Richard Halley, asked Midas whether he would be willing to rent some land to him, and Midas agreed.
So now, joining John Galt's strike meant leaving a punitive political and economic system, and joining a true [[republic]] in which [[capitalism]] and property rights were paramount.
So now, joining John Galt's strike meant leaving a punitive political and economic system, and joining a true [[republic]] in which [[capitalism]] and property rights were paramount.
Yet John Galt did not spend all or even most of his time in the valley (though he did built a cabin there). He spend eleven months out of the year as a track walker in the [[New York City]] terminal of the [[Taggart Transcontinental Railroad]]. His purpose was twofold. On one hand, he functioned, quite simply, as a spy, and cultivated a relationship with a junior executive ([[Eddie Willers]]) who would talk freely. On the other hand, he was spying on a particular executive with whom he had fallen in love: [[Dagny Taggart]], the President's sister, who served as Vice President in Charge of Operations.
Yet John Galt did not spend all or even most of his time in the valley. He did built a cabin there, and declared that every recruit who did ''not'' have a permanent situation in the valley should nevertheless convene there for the month of June every year. He spent the other eleven months of the year in New York, pumping Eddie Willers for information (while never letting Willers suspect him of doing anything but letting Willers talk), and watching Dagny.
== The last three years ==
== The last three years ==