hello, mr. gardiner. this is sid courtney, washington post.
i'm sorry to disturb you, mr. gardiner, i know you must be very busy.
then, i'll be brief. i covered the president's speech at the financial institute today, and since the post would like to be as exact as possible, we would appreciate your comments on the meeting that took place between mr. rand, the president and yourself.
good, sir. and so, it seems, did the president - but we would like to have some facts; such as, uh.  what exactly is the relationship between yourself and that of the first american financial corporation?
of course. but since he is ill i'm taking the liberty of asking you.
i see. then one more quick question, mr. gardiner; since we at the post would like to, uh - update our profile on you - what exactly is your business?
typical - no wonder he's so close to rand.
 gardiner is laconic, matter-of fact. the scuttlebutt is that he's a strong candidate for one of the vacant seats on the board of first american. but before we can do any sort of a piece on the man, we're going to need facts on his background.  .  kinney, what did you come up with?
 skip the levity, kinney - what have you got?
try again.
try again.
i said - try again.
 it's strictly rumor at this stage, lyman - just something in the wind.
i don't know. like i said, it's just rumor so far, but we should start nosing around, see if we can talk to some people.