The Best Policy Part 10

But the stock-holders were conservative and cautious men, and the very fact that Lake could not command the money that he needed made them suspicious. As matters stood, they were sure of getting out of a losing venture with a small profit-at least, so it seemed to them-and they preferred that to the risk of losing everything in an effort to secure a larger profit. Furthermore, they were now on the side of the colonel, for his option was at a larger price. And the colonel was very confident-so confident that work was being rushed on details that would prove valueless without the Bington road. This was what made Lake desperately angry; it was humiliating to be treated as a helpless weakling.

As valuable time pa.s.sed, his mind reverted again to the insurance field.

His opportunity-the opportunity of a lifetime-was almost lost. The colonel, wishing to lose no time, had arranged for a meeting with certain of the majority stock-holders the day the first option expired.

The option expired at noon, and the colonel would be ready to take over what stock he needed at one minute after the noon hour. This would not be very much, in view of the minority stock he already held, but the sanguine stock-holders did not know this: they expected him to take all of it.

"Some of them are going to find they're tricked, just as I am," Lake grumbled. "If I could only convince Belden of the ultimate absolute security of a loan! He wants to help me; he's ready to be convinced; but-"

People pa.s.sing saw this moody, depressed young man stop short in the street and his eye light with sudden hope.

"By thunder!" he exclaimed. "Of course, I can protect him against unforeseen disaster, if he has confidence in my integrity!"

He was almost jubilant when he entered Belden's office.

"Got the money?" asked Belden.

"No; but I know how to get it," replied Lake. "You believe in my honesty, don't you?"

"Implicitly."

"You merely doubt my ability?"

"Your financial ability," explained Belden. "You will do what you agree to do-if you can. I have no earthly doubt of your willingness, even anxiety, to repay every obligation you may incur, but, added to other risks, there is the possibility of accident."

"If I eliminate that?"

"You may have the money."

"On long time?"

"The time and the terms are immaterial."

"I'll come for it later," announced Lake, and he departed, leaving Belden puzzled and curious.

Once outside, Lake stopped to do a little mental figuring before taking up the other details of his plan.

"I advanced five hundred to bind the option," he reflected. "That leaves nineteen thousand five hundred necessary to put the deal through. Twenty thousand from Belden will give me just the margin I need."

Murray was as much puzzled and surprised by the change in the man as Belden had been, and Murray, like Belden, was anxious to help him in any reasonably safe way.

"Am I good for five hundred for thirty days, if I give you my positive a.s.surance that I know exactly how I am going to pay it in that time?"

asked Lake.

"Why, yes," replied Murray. "On short-time figuring you're a pretty safe man."

"Draw me a check for it, and I'll give you my thirty-day note," said Lake, "and my verbal a.s.surance that it's a cinch."

Murray noted the confidence of Lake's tone and manner, and drew the check.

"What are you going to do with it?" he asked.

"Pay a life insurance premium," laughed Lake. "Give me an application blank and round up a medical examiner. I want a twenty-year endowment policy for twenty thousand dollars, and I want it put through like a limited express that's trying to make up time."

"I suppose you know what you're doing," said Murray doubtfully.

"You bet I do!" Lake spoke confidently.

"Oh, very well," remarked Murray. "I don't see how I can refuse business for the company, even if I stand to lose."

"You won't lose," declared Lake with joyous enthusiasm. "I'm going to show you a new trick in the line of insurance financiering."

After that, Lake haunted Murray's office, and grew daily more anxious.

He was a good risk, but certain formalities were necessary, and these took time, although Murray did his utmost to shorten the routine. Lake's nervousness increased; he had Murray telegraph the home office; he grew haggard, for he had not counted on this delay; but finally, in the moment of almost utter despair, the policy was delivered to him. An hour later he was in Belden's office.

"I want twenty thousand at four per cent., payable at the rate of one thousand a year, with interest!" he cried. "I'll pay it, to a certainty, within sixty days, but I'm trying to make it look more reasonable, to satisfy you. You believe I can pay one thousand a year, don't you?"

"If you live."

"If I don't," exclaimed Lake, "there is insurance for twenty thousand in my wife's favor, and duly a.s.signed to you," and he banged the policy down on the desk in front of the astonished Belden. "You can trust me to take care of the premiums, can't you?"

"Your integrity I never doubted," replied Belden, "and that obligation should be within your means."

"My rule of life shall be: the premiums first, the payments on the note next," declared Lake. "If I fall behind in the latter, the security will still be good. I only ask that anything in excess of what may be due you, in case of my death, shall go to my wife, and she, of course, becomes the sole beneficiary the moment you are paid. But, for the love of heaven, hurry!"

Instead of hurrying, Belden leaned back in his chair and looked at the young man with bewildered admiration.

"Such ingenuity," he said at last, "ought not to go unrewarded. As a strict business proposition, your plan would hardly find favor with a conservative banker, but, as a matter of friendship and confidence-" He reached for his check-book. "Such a head as yours is worth a risk," he added a moment later.

Lake reached the office of the Bington road at 11:30 on the day his option expired. The colonel was already there, waiting. So were some of the majority stock-holders. The colonel was confident and unusually loquacious.

"Now that the matter is practically settled," he remarked with the cheerful frankness of a man who has won, "I may admit that the young man had us up a tree. He succeeded in putting the other route through Bington practically beyond our reach, and forced us to take the risk of doing business with the minority stock-holders at a possible dead loss.

But we knew he didn't have the money, so we went ahead with our plans and our work without delay. A little ready cash-"

It was then that Lake entered and deposited a small satchel on the long table.

"I will take the stock under my option," he announced briefly to such of the majority stock-holders as were present. "I think I have got all I need, with the exception of what is represented by you gentlemen. It has been a pretty busy morning for me." He emptied the stock certificates already acquired and some bundles of bank-notes on the table. "Colonel,"

he said with a joyous and triumphant laugh, "you'd better sit up and begin to take notice."

The colonel's att.i.tude and air of easy confidence already had changed, and his look of amazement and dismay was almost laughable.

"Quick, gentlemen," cautioned Lake, with a glance at the clock. "I've tendered the money in time, but I'll feel a little more comfortable when I have the rest of the needed stock."

Like one in a dream the colonel leaned over the table and watched the transaction.

"Do-do you want to sell some of that stock?" he asked at last.

"No," replied Lake; "I don't want to sell some of it; I want to sell all of it."

"We don't need all of it," said the colonel.