Since I am not writing a technical treatise, I need not go into the details of the Ribblevale suit. Since it to say that the affair, after a while, came apparently to a deadlock, owing to the impossibility of getting certain definite information from the Ribblevale books, which had been taken out of the state. The treasurer, for reasons of his own, remained out of the state also; the ordinary course of summoning him before a magistrate in another state had naturally been resorted to, but the desired evidence was not forthcoming.
"The trouble is," Mr. Wading explained to Mr. Scherer, "that there is no law in the various states with a sufficient penalty attached that will compel the witness to divulge facts he wishes to conceal."
It was the middle of a February afternoon, and they were seated in deep, leather chairs in one corner of the reading room of the Boyne Club. They had the place to themselves. Fowndes was there also, one leg twisted around the other in familiar fashion, a bored look on his long and sallow face. Mr. Wading had telephoned to the office for me to bring them some papers bearing on the case.
"Sit down, Hugh," he said kindly.
"Now we have present a genuine legal mind," said Mr. Scherer, in the playful manner he had adopted of late, while I grinned appreciatively and took a chair. Mr. Watling presently suggested kidnapping the Ribblevale treasurer until he should promise to produce the books as the only way out of what seemed an impa.s.se. But Mr. Scherer brought down a huge fist on his knee.
"I tell you it is no joke, Watling, we"ve got to win that suit," he a.s.serted.
"That"s all very well," replied Mr. Watling. "But we"re a respectable firm, you know. We haven"t had to resort to safe-blowing, as yet."
Mr. Scherer shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say it were a matter of indifference to him what methods were resorted to. Mr. Watling"s eyes met mine; his glance was amused, yet I thought I read in it a query as to the advisability, in my presence, of going too deeply into the question of ways and means. I may have been wrong. At any rate, its sudden effect was to embolden me to give voice to an idea that had begun to simmer in my mind, that excited me, and yet I had feared to utter it.
This look of my chief"s, and the lighter tone the conversation had taken decided me.
"Why wouldn"t it be possible to draw up a bill to fit the situation?" I inquired.
Mr. Wading started.
"What do you mean?" he asked quickly.
All three looked at me. I felt the blood come into my face, but it was too late to draw back.
"Well--the legislature is in session. And since, as Mr. Watling says, there is no sufficient penalty in other states to compel the witness to produce the information desired, why not draw up a bill and--and have it pa.s.sed--" I paused for breath--"imposing a sufficient penalty on home corporations in the event of such evasions. The Ribblevale Steel Company is a home corporation."
I had shot my bolt.... There followed what was for me an anxious silence, while the three of them continued to stare at me. Mr. Watling put the tips of his fingers together, and I became aware that he was not offended, that he was thinking rapidly.
"By George, why not, Fowndes?" he demanded.
"Well," said Fowndes, "there"s an element of risk in such a proceeding I need not dwell upon."
"Risk!" cried the senior partner vigorously. "There"s risk in everything. They"ll howl, of course. But they howl anyway, and n.o.body ever listens to them. They"ll say it"s special legislation, and the Pilot will print sensational editorials for a few days. But what of it? All of that has happened before. I tell you, if we can"t see those books, we"ll lose the suit. That"s in black and white. And, as a matter of justice, we"re ent.i.tled to know what we want to know."
"There might be two opinions as to that," observed Fowndes, with his sardonic smile.
Mr. Watling paid no attention to this remark. He was already deep in thought. It was characteristic of his mind to leap forward, seize a suggestion that often appeared chimerical to a man like Fowndes and turn it into an accomplished Fact. "I believe you"ve hit it, Hugh," he said.
"We needn"t bother about the powers of the courts in other states. We"ll put into this bill an appeal to our court for an order on the clerk to compel the witness to come before the court and testify, and we"ll provide for a special commissioner to take depositions in the state where the witness is. If the officers of a home corporation who are outside of the state refuse to testify, the penalty will be that the ration goes into the hands of a receiver."
Fowndes whistled.
"That"s going some!" he said.
"Well, we"ve got to go some. How about it, Scherer?"
Even Mr. Scherer"s brown eyes were snapping.
"We have got to win that suit, Watling."
We were all excited, even Fowndes, I think, though he remained expressionless. Ours was the tense excitement of primitive man in chase: the quarry which had threatened to elude us was again in view, and not unlikely to fall into our hands. Add to this feeling, on my part, the thrill that it was I who had put them on the scent. I had all the sensations of an aspiring young brave who for the first time is admitted to the councils of the tribe!
"It ought to be a popular bill, too," Mr. Schemer was saying, with a smile of ironic appreciation at the thought of demagogues advocating it.
"We should have one of Lawler"s friends introduce it."
"Oh, we shall have it properly introduced," replied Mr. Wading.
"It may come back at us," suggested Fowndes pessimistically. "The Boyne Iron Works is a home corporation too, if I am not mistaken."
"The Boyne Iron Works has the firm of Wading, Fowndes and Ripon behind it," a.s.serted Mr. Scherer, with what struck me as a magnificent faith.
"You mustn"t forget Paret," Mr. Watling reminded him, with a wink at me.
We had risen. Mr. Scherer laid a hand on my arm.
"No, no, I do not forget him. He will not permit me to forget him."
A remark, I thought, that betrayed some insight into my character... Mr.
Watling called for pen and paper and made then and there a draft of the proposed bill, for no time was to be lost. It was dark when we left the Club, and I recall the elation I felt and strove to conceal as I accompanied my chief back to the office. The stenographers and clerks were gone; alone in the library we got down the statutes and set to work to perfect the bill from the rough draft, on which Mr. Fowndes had written his suggestions. I felt that a complete yet subtle change had come over my relationship with Mr. Watling.
In the midst of our labours he asked me to call up the attorney for the Railroad. Mr. Gorse was still at his office.
"h.e.l.lo! Is that you, Miller?" Mr. Watling said. "This is Wading. When can I see you for a few minutes this evening? Yes, I am leaving for Washington at nine thirty. Eight o"clock. All right, I"ll be there."
It was almost eight before he got the draft finished to his satisfaction, and I had picked it out on the typewriter. As I handed it to him, my chief held it a moment, gazing at me with an odd smile.
"You seem to have acquired a good deal of useful knowledge, here and there, Hugh," he observed.
"I"ve tried to keep my eyes open, Mr. Watling," I said.
"Well," he said, "there are a great many things a young man practising law in these days has to learn for himself. And if I hadn"t given you credit for some cleverness, I shouldn"t have wanted you here. There"s only one way to look at--at these matters we have been discussing, my boy, that"s the common-sense way, and if a man doesn"t get that point of view by himself, n.o.body can teach it to him. I needn"t enlarge upon it."
"No, sir," I said.
He smiled again, but immediately became serious.
"If Mr. Gorse should approve of this bill, I"m going to send you down to the capital--to-night. Can you go?"
I nodded.
"I want you to look out for the bill in the legislature. Of course there won"t be much to do, except to stand by, but you will get a better idea of what goes on down there."
I thanked him, and told him I would do my best.
"I"m sure of that," he replied. "Now it"s time to go to see Gorse."
The legal department of the Railroad occupied an entire floor of the Corn Bank building. I had often been there on various errands, having on occasions delivered sealed envelopes to Mr. Gorse himself, approaching him in the ordinary way through a series of offices. But now, following Mr. Watling through the dimly lighted corridor, we came to a door on which no name was painted, and which was presently opened by a stenographer. There was in the proceeding a touch of mystery that revived keenly my boyish love for romance; brought back the days when I had been, in turn, Captain Kidd and Ali Baba.
I have never realized more strongly than in that moment the psychological force of prestige. Little by little, for five years, an estimate of the extent of Miller Gorse"s power had been coming home to me, and his features stood in my mind for his particular kind of power.