Sentence:  Just as Whymper effectively <WSD>gazumps</WSD> Mr Stone in taking credit for the Knights Companion scheme for ambitious ends, so too does this dangerous, multicultural, overcrowded version of London seem to be displacing the colonial fantasy of England by the novel's conclusion. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To trump or preempt; to reap the benefit underhandedly from a situation that someone else has worked to create.