[whodathunkit]

Cuffy Meigs attempts to claim anything within a hundred miles of the Xylophone as his fiefdom, beating Dr. Stadler, who had the same idea. As economic and societal disintegration progress, what can one expect, and from which quarter?

I find it interesting that Meigs is using a paramilitary force while expecting payment in dollars. His comprehension of the situation is obviously inadequate.

Rand is indulging herself with Stadlers death. He is reduced to a 'huddle of torn flesh and screaming pain that had once been a great mind'. Considering the fact that he went to great lengths to avoid others from finding him, his passing will go unnoticed in the 'culture of death'. A fitting end to a goal that he had chosen many years ago.

[Publius]

If you examine Meigs' behavior as the Unificator at Taggart Transcontinental, you can see how he fails to understand any situation except divining how he can scam it for his own personal gain. Cuffy is a product of the barroom, not the Ivy League, and his comprehension is limited.

His end is fitting, also.

[Tired of Taxes]

'of torn flesh and screaming pain that had once been a great mind'

Oddly, the above was my favorite line in the book. I think it stood out because Rand tended to go on and on with details everywhere else. But, she summed up Stadler's death poetically in that one perfect line which tells us: He used his intellect to serve the wrong people for the wrong reasons, and now he dies violently by the very thing he created.