The Best Policy Part 9

"It's my lack of money," he soliloquized. "I've got the basis of a good thing, if I only had the money to make it good, but I haven't, and they know it. Murray was right."

His thoughts being thus turned to Murray, he went to see him, in the faint hope that he might interest him in the plan. Murray had money to invest. But Murray deemed the risk too great in this instance.

"They can beat you," said Murray. "They have unlimited resources, and they'll certainly get through Bington on another street, if you persist in making your terms too stiff. Very likely, they would have given you three thousand or possibly even five thousand for your option when they first came to you, and they may do it now."

"I tell you, it's a good thing," insisted Lake.

"If it's really as good a thing as you think it is," said Murray, "you will have no difficulty in getting somebody with money to take it off your hands at a good margin of profit to you, but I can't see it."

In this emergency, Lake recalled a man of considerable wealth who had known him as a boy and had taken an interest in him. It was humiliating not to be able to put the scheme through himself, after all his planning and confident talk, but it was better to turn it over to some one else than to fail entirely. So he went to see Andrew Belden.

"There is a remote chance of success," declared Belden, "but I would not care to risk twenty thousand on it."

"The company can't get through Bington, except on that franchise,"

insisted Lake.

"That may be so," admitted Belden, "but I have learned not to be too confident in forecasting the action of public officials and corporations. The company could make a strong point by threatening to cut out Bington entirely and carry its line to one side of it."

"That would make a loop in their road that would be costly in building and in the delays it would occasion," argued Lake. "They can't make any circuits, if they are to do the business."

"Nevertheless," returned Belden, "their actions show that they are very sure of their ground."

"Simply because I haven't the ready cash," said Lake bitterly. "Will you loan it to me, Mr. Belden? If you won't go into the deal yourself, will you loan me the money to put it through? I'll give you the stock as security, and I think you know me well enough to know that I'll repay every cent of it as rapidly as possible."

"My dear Horace," exclaimed Belden with frank friendliness, "I haven't the least doubt of your integrity, but I have very serious doubts of your ability to repay any such sum, and it is more than I care to lose.

You never have had a thousand dollars at one time in your life, and I may say, without intending to be unkind, that it isn't likely you ever will. As for the security, its value depends entirely on the success of your plans: if you fail, it won't be worth ten cents. Now, if you had any real security, upon which I could realize in case anything happened to you, I would cheerfully let you have the money for as long a time as you wish. Although your plan does not appeal to me, I am sincerely anxious to be of a.s.sistance to you as far as possible, but I can't make you a gift of twenty thousand dollars. Convince me that it will be repaid ultimately-no matter in how long a time-and I will let you have it."

Lake departed, discouraged. He had no security of any sort to offer, and had only asked for the loan as a desperate last resort, without the slightest expectation that he would get it. The company, he decided, had beaten him, just because no one else was clear-headed enough to see the opportunity, and he might as well get what little profit he could while there was still time. With this object in view, he went to see the colonel.

"I have decided," he said, "to let you have the road for a bonus of five thousand dollars."

"That is very kind of you," returned the colonel, "but we can get it cheaper. You see," he explained, with the disagreeable frankness of one who thinks he holds the winning hand, "the minority stock-holders were a little disgruntled when they learned of your deal-thought they had been left out in the cold-and they were ready to make very favorable terms with us. As we have a second option on the majority stock, at a somewhat higher figure, we have only to wait until your option expires and then take the little we need to give us control."

"I'll let you have my option for the two thousand you offered a month ago," said Lake in desperation.

"It's not worth that to us now."

"One thousand dollars."

"Why, frankly, Mr. Lake," said the colonel still pleasantly, "we men of some experience and standing in the business world don't like to have half-baked financiers interfering with our plans, and we aim to discourage them as effectually as possible whenever possible." Then, with a sudden change of tone: "We won't give you a d.a.m.n cent for your option. You were too greedy."

"Of course, you men of money and high finance are not greedy at all,"

retorted Lake sarcastically.

Lake was too depressed to see it at the moment, but later it began to dawn on him that the colonel, usually astute, had made a grievous mistake. In his anxiety to impress upon the young man the futility of his avaricious schemes, in the face of such wise and resourceful opposition, he had mentioned the fact that the minority stock had been brought within their reach. Had they already bought it, or had they only secured options on it? If already purchased, the purchase price would prove a dead loss, unless they were able to get enough more to secure control. To parallel the road would be to kill a company in which they were financially interested, in addition to incurring the considerable expense necessary for a new connecting link.

Lake went to Bington that afternoon, and returned the following morning.

The game was his, if he could raise the money; they had bought most of the minority stock outright, being unable to get options on it. He was sure of victory now, if he could raise the money. He no longer wished to turn the deal over to any one else on any terms: he wished to carry it to the conclusion himself. But the money, the money!

He tried Belden again, but Belden still considered the security utterly inadequate for a loan of twenty thousand dollars. In truth, although Belden considered the outlook a little more promising now, he doubted the young man's ability to handle such a deal, and it would take very little to upset all calculations. The company's investment was not sufficient to prevent the abandonment of the road in some very possible circ.u.mstances, although it was ample evidence of a present plan to use it. Murray took the same view of the situation.

"It begins to look like a good speculation," said Murray, "but I haven't the money to invest in it, and I never was much of a speculator, anyway.

I have discovered that, as a general thing, when the possible profit begins to climb very much over the legal rate of interest, the probability of loss increases with it. However, if you want to take the risk, that's your affair, provided you have the money."

"But I haven't," complained Lake; "that's the trouble."

"Too bad you're not carrying enough insurance to be of some use,"

remarked Murray.

"What good would that do?" asked Lake.

"Why, then you'd only have to convince your wife that you have a safe investment, and it's always easier to convince your wife than it is to convince some coldblooded capitalist. Insurance ranks high as security, but of course the beneficiary has to consent to its use."

"I never had thought of insurance as a factor in financiering," said Lake. "I had regarded it more as a family matter."

"It plays an important part in the business world," explained Murray, "and it might even play a part in speculation. There is partnership insurance, you know."

"I may have heard of it, but I never gave it any consideration."

"It's not a speculation, but a business precaution," said Murray. "The partners are insured in favor of the firm. If one of them dies, it gives the firm the ready cash to buy his interest from the widow, without infringing on the business capital. Partnership insurance may sometimes prevent a failure; it may prevent several. Many interests may depend temporarily upon the operation of one man, and his sudden death might spell ruin for a number of people, unless they were protected by insurance. The policy is playing a more important part in the business world every day. There are lots of strange things that can be done when you fully understand it."

"But that doesn't help me," a.s.serted Lake impatiently.

"No," returned Murray, "I don't see how insurance could help you just now, unless you were to die. A policy won't be accepted as security for a sum in excess of the premiums paid, for you might default."

"I'm not the kind of man who dies to win," said Lake rather sharply.

"Of course not," replied Murray. "I was merely considering the financial possibilities of policies." All insurance questions being of absorbing interest to Murray, he straightway forgot all about Lake's predicament, and busied his mind with his own speculations. "There is so much that can be done with insurance," he went on, "but I guess it's just as well the public doesn't know it all. Do you remember the case of Rankin, the banker who committed suicide?"

"Yes."

"Well, Rankin couldn't have done anything with our company, because the element of premeditation is a.s.sumed if death by suicide occurs within two years from the time the policy is issued. After that the manner of death cuts no figure, for the courts have held that an insurance company takes a risk on the mind as well as the body of a policy-holder, and, anyway, compet.i.tion has cut out the old suicide restrictions. But there are companies that issue policies incontestable after the date of issue.

Suppose Rankin, when he found his affairs in such shape that he no longer dared to face the world, had gone to one or more of these companies. A hundred thousand dollars-very likely less-would have protected his bank and provided for his family. He had already decided to kill himself, for his operations had been such that he could not hope to escape the penitentiary when discovery came, but he was ostensibly still a prosperous man. Many men of his standing insure themselves for extraordinarily large sums, to protect legitimately their business interests as well as their families.

"Not so very long ago we issued a paid-up policy for fifty thousand dollars on the life of one man, who died within three years, and we thought nothing of it. He was taking a risk on his own life then, for he thought he was going to live long enough to make a paid-up policy cheaper than the aggregate of annual payments, whereas there would have been a saving to his estate of a good many thousands of dollars if he had followed the other plan. However, that has nothing to do with this case; I mention it only to show that a man of Rankin's apparent standing could have got insurance to any amount without creating comment. And, with an incontestable-after-date-of-issue policy, he could have protected his business a.s.sociates and his family by the very culmination of his overwhelming disgrace. Why, a defaulter could use part of his stolen money in this way to provide for his family when the moment of discovery and death shall come, or a dishonest business man, facing ruin, could use his creditors' money to make such provision, for insurance money is something sacred, that can not be reached like the rest of an estate. Oh, there are great dramatic possibilities in this business, Lake-tragedies and comedies and dramas of which the public knows nothing."

"How does that help me?" demanded Lake gloomily, and the question brought Murray back to the realities of the moment.

"It doesn't help you," Murray replied, "but it's an intensely interesting subject to one who gives it a little time and thought."

Yet it did help Lake, although not at that moment. It was a new field, and Lake liked to explore new fields. A novelty that taxed his ingenuity appealed to him especially. True, he had enough to occupy his mind without entering upon idle speculation, but, when every other avenue to success seemed closed, his thoughts would revert to insurance.

"If it holds out such opportunities for others, why not for me?" he asked. "If others have entirely overlooked the possibilities, why may not I be doing the same thing?"

He met the colonel on the street occasionally, and the way the colonel smiled at him was maddening. There could be no doubt that the colonel considered the game won, but he was not a man to take chances: he had Lake watched, and the latter's every move was reported to him. Even when Lake made another trip to Bington and endeavored to arrange a shrewd deal with some of the majority stock-holders, the colonel promptly heard of it.

"Accept my notes in payment for the stock," Lake urged on that occasion, "and I'll let you in on the profits of the deal. The traction company has got to get this road, but you can't hold it up for a big price, because you were foolish enough to give it a second option. I can do it, however. Let me have the stock, and you can divide up among yourselves half of all I get in excess of the option price. My notes will be paid, and you will have a bonus of twelve or fifteen thousand dollars."