The Best Policy Part 8

It was bitter, it was harsh, it was unjustifiable, but Murray had forgiven her before she had ceased speaking. The depth of her feeling and the excitement under which she was laboring were sufficient to excuse her. But he felt as if he really were condemning his friend to death. Yet what could he do? He would cheerfully give a thousand dollars out of his own pocket to make things easier for the two suffering ones, but it was not a matter of ready cash. Wentworth had enough of that.

In the deepest distress Murray was pacing back and forth when the door opened and Wentworth himself staggered in. Murray was at his side in a moment and guided him to a chair.

"What's the matter, old man?"

"Lost everything," Wentworth gasped. "Tried to protect-margined to limit-all gone!"

"But your interest in the business?"

"Sold it-to protect deal." He seemed almost at the point of collapse, but he rallied for a moment. "Insurance!" he cried. "I must have it!

d.a.m.n the company! You must put it through for me! You hear, Murray!" The man was almost crazy, and he spoke fiercely. "You've got to do it-for humanity's sake! Can't leave them penniless!"

"We'll talk about it to-morrow," said Murray soothingly.

"You lie, Murray!" the excited man cried. "You won't do it at all; you'll see them starve first, you-you dog! I'll kill you, if you don't-"

Wentworth had risen in frenzied fury, as he pictured the future of his loved ones; he swayed for an instant, and Murray caught him as he fell.

He was dead before Murray could get him back into the chair.

Murray did all that anyone could do for the bereaved woman, and more than any one else would have done, for the next day he sent her this letter:

Dear Mrs. Wentworth: After a conference with our physician we decided that a small risk on Mr. Wentworth would be justified, and the matter was closed up yesterday afternoon just previous to his death. As a result of my close personal relations with him, I know that he left his affairs in rather a complicated condition, so, as it will take a little time to file the necessary proofs and get the money from the company, I am taking the liberty of sending you my personal check for the amount of the policy, one thousand dollars, and I hope that you will not hesitate to call on me for any service that is in my power to render. With the deepest sympathy, I am,

Very sincerely yours, David Murray.

"A lie," he muttered, referring to the insurance item; "a cold, deliberate lie, but I feel better for telling it."

AN INCIDENTAL SPECULATION

Just when the Interurban Traction Company thought the successful culmination of its plans in sight it woke up to the fact that there had been a miscalculation or an oversight somewhere. It had the absolute or prospective control of all the princ.i.p.al lines embraced in its elaborate scheme of connecting various towns and cities by trolley, which means that it had bought a good deal of the necessary stock and had options on most of the rest; but there was one insignificant little road that it had left to the last. This road had been a losing venture from its inception, and its stock was quoted far below par, with no buyers. As a matter of business policy, the more successful roads should be secured first, for the moment the secret was out their stocks would soar. They represented the larger investments, and their stock-holders could hold on, if they saw the advisability of it, without making any financial sacrifice; they were in a position to "hold up" the new company in the most approved modern style. But the Bington road was weak and unprofitable, valuable only as a connecting link in the chain.

"Of course," said Colonel Babington, who was at the head of the new venture, "we're sure to be held up somewhere on the line, and these people can hold us up for less than any of the others. They haven't much as a basis for a hold-up, and they can't afford to go on losing money.

We can buy their road cheap the first thing, but the discovery of the purchase will give our plans away and add a million dollars to the cost of carrying them out. Any fool would know that we were not buying that road for itself alone. Why, the mere rumor that negotiations were opened would add fifty or a hundred per cent. to the value of the other stocks we want. We can't afford even to wink at that road until we get control of the others."

So they went about their work very secretly, hoping so to conceal their design that they would be able to get the last link at the bed-rock price; but, when the time came, entirely unexpected difficulties were encountered. The stock-holders might have been tractable enough, but the stock-holders themselves had been fooled.

"Why, there was a young fellow here last week," they explained, "and he got a sixty-day option on enough stock to control the road."

"Who was he?" asked the startled Colonel Babington.

"His name is Horace Lake," they told him.

"I'll have to look Horace up," remarked the colonel thoughtfully.

Meanwhile, Horace was congratulating himself on having done a good stroke of business, and further amusing himself by figuring his possible profit.

"I've been looking for just such a chance as this," he told Dave Murray, the insurance man.

"Have you got the money to carry it through?" asked the practical Murray.

"I had enough to put up a small forfeit to bind the option and convince them that I mean business, and I don't need any more," returned Lake.

"Once in a great while," said Murray, "a man makes a good lot of money on a bluff, but even then he usually has some backing. It takes money to make money, as a general rule. You will find that most successful men, even those who are noted for their nervy financiering, got the basis of their fortunes by hard work and rigid economy. Wind may be helpful, but it makes a poor foundation."

"This is one of the times when it is about all that is necessary,"

laughed Lake. "I got a little inside information about the Interurban Traction Company's plans in time to secure an option on one link in its chain of roads, and it has simply got to do business with me before it can make its line complete. For twenty thousand dollars, paid any time within sixty days, I can control the blooming little line, and the option to buy at that price is going to cost the traction company just twenty-five thousand dollars, which will be clear profit for me."

"It sounds nice," admitted Murray, "but, if I were in your place, I'd feel a good deal better if I had the money to make good. If they don't buy, you lose your forfeit, which represents every cent you could sc.r.a.pe up."

"They will buy," a.s.serted Lake confidently.

"They may think it cheaper to parallel your line," suggested Murray.

"I'm not worrying," returned Lake confidently. "I'm just waiting for them to come and see me, and they'll come."

Lake's prophecy proved correct. They came-at least Colonel Babington came, he being the active manager of the company's affairs. But Colonel Babington first took the precaution to learn all he could of Horace Lake's financial standing and resources. This convinced him that it was what he termed a "hold-up," but, even so, it was better to pay a reasonable bonus than to have a fight.

"We will give you," said Colonel Babington, "a thousand dollars for your option on the majority stock of the Bington road."

"The price," replied Lake, "is twenty-five thousand dollars."

"My dear young man," exclaimed the colonel, when he had recovered his breath, "you ought to see a specialist in mental disorders. You are clearly not right in your mind."

"The price," repeated Lake, "is twenty-five thousand dollars now, and, if I am put to any trouble or annoyance in the matter, the price will go up."

"A bluff," said the colonel, "is of use only when the opposing party does not know it is a bluff. We happen to know it. You haven't the money to buy that road, and you can't get it."

"You speak with extraordinary certainty," returned Lake with dignified sarcasm.

"The road," a.s.serted the colonel, "is valuable only to us, and we can parallel it, if necessary. No conservative capitalist is going to advance you the money to buy it in the face of such a risk as that, so we have only to wait until your option expires to get it from the men who now own it, and I may add that we have taken a second option at a slightly higher price. Therefore, your only chance to get out of the deal with a profit is to let us acquire the road under the first option at something less than the second option price. To avoid any unnecessary delay, we might be willing to pay you a bonus of two thousand dollars."

"The price," said Lake, "is now twenty-six thousand."

"Sixty days-less than fifty now, as a matter of fact-is not such a long time," remarked the colonel. "We will wait."

Lake told Murray later that he "had them in a corner," but Murray was inclined to be doubtful; fighting real money with wind, he said, was always a risky undertaking, and the Interurban Traction Company had plenty of real money. Lake, however, being in the "bluffing" line himself, was inclined to think all others were doing business on the same basis, and he confidently expected the colonel to return in a few days. But the colonel came not.

Then Lake made another trip to Bington, to look the ground over, and he was disturbed to find that the colonel had been sounding the people on a proposition to put a line through the town on another street. This was only a tentative plan, to be adopted in case of failure to get the existing line, but it showed that the company was not disposed to be held up without a fight. Fortunately, the people did not take kindly to the idea. The princ.i.p.al shops were on the line of the trolley now, and the proprietors did not wish to have travel diverted to another street.

Lake devoted several days to missionary work in Bington, pointing out the great depreciation of property that would follow such a move, and he finally left with a feeling that the company would have an extremely difficult time getting the necessary legislation from the town officials. Still, he was not entirely at ease, for officials are sometimes "induced" to act contrary to the wishes of the people they are supposed to represent. But he believed he had made the situation such that Babington would come back to him. Surely, it would be cheaper to deal with him than to buy an entire town board.

Thirty of the sixty days slipped away, and Lake grew really anxious. The Interurban Traction Company could not be a success without a connecting link between the two main stretches of its line, and Lake had not believed that it would dare to proceed with its plans until this was a.s.sured. Consequently, he had expected all work to stop, pending negotiations with him. But work did not stop. There were two or three trifling gaps at other places, and the company was laying the rails to bridge them, in addition to improving the road-beds of the lines it had bought. It even began to build a half-mile of track to reach one terminus of his little road. Clearly, there was no antic.i.p.ation of trouble in ultimately beating him.