"Exactly!"
Mr. Fogg pulled his chair closer, dabbed his purple handkerchief on each side of his nose, and inquired, kindly and confidentially: "My son, what"s your name?"
"David Boyne."
"Law student here--secretary, eh?"
"Yes, sir."
"Exactly--and a long, hard pull ahead of you. It"s too bad you"re not in New York, where a young man doesn"t have to travel the whole way around, but can cut a corner or two. I could give you a lot of examples of bright young chaps who have grabbed in when the grabbing was good.
"But I haven"t the time. You take my word for it. I"m a plain, outspoken business man, and I"m in with the biggest financial interests in New York. And I"m going to offer you the grandest opportunity of your life right now, David."
He picked up his certificates and arranged them in one hand, as a player arranges his cards.
"I have here ten shares, say, and each share is owned by a different individual--all good men. You don"t know them, but I do. They are connected with our big interests. And I"m right here as a stockholder.
Do you realize, David, that instructing you to hold this meeting without a single stockholder present is really asking you to do something that"s not strictly legal?"
"We usually do it this way," faltered Boyne.
"Exactly! Men like those who are running the Vose line are always asking an innocent man to do something illegal. I"m going to come right to the point with you, David. Those old moss-backs who have sent those instructions are trying to wreck the Vose line. I want you to disregard those instructions. I am anxious to be president and general manager of the line. I want you to elect as directors these stockholders." He tapped his finger on the certificates.
The young man was both frightened and bewildered. He turned pale. "I can"t do that," he gasped.
"Yes, you can. There are the proxies. It"s up to you to vote "em as you want to. They allow full power of subst.i.tution, usual fashion!"
"But I can"t disobey my instructions."
"I say you can, if you"ve got grit enough to make a good thing for yourself."
"Such a thing was never done here."
"Probably not. It"s a new idea. But new things are being done right along in high finance. You ought to be up where big things are happening every day. You stand in with me, and I"ll put you there. You see, I"m getting right down to cases on this matter with you, David. Vote those proxies as I direct and I"ll hand you five thousand dollars inside of two hours, and will plant you in a corking job with my people as soon as this thing calms down. I could have palavered a long time before coming to business in this way, but I see you"re a bright young fellow and don"t need a lot of hair-oil talk. I don"t ask you to hurt anybody in especial. You can elect the old treasurer--we don"t want to handle the money--this is no cheap brace game. But I want a board of directors who will put me in as general manager until certain reforms can be inst.i.tuted so as to bring the line up to date. Five thousand dollars, mind you, and then you"ll be taken care of."
"But I"ll be put into state prison."
"Nonsense, my boy! Why would you vote those proxies according to your instructions? Why, because it would be for your interest to do so if I hadn"t come in here with a better proposition. Now it"s for your interest to vote "em as I tell you. The most they can make out of it is a breach of trust, and that amounts to nothing. With five thousand dollars in your mitt, you wouldn"t need to hang around here to take a lot of slurs. I"ll slip you another thousand for your expenses on a little trip till the air is all clear."
Boyne stared at this blunt and forceful tempter; his hand which clutched the chair-arms trembled; "I"m going to be still more frank with you, my boy. And, by the way, you must know that I"m no mere four-flusher.
You"ve heard of Fletcher Fogg, eh? You knew who I was when you got that wire from me yesterday?"
"Why, yes, I know of you through our corporation work, sir."
"Exactly!" Mr. Fogg a.s.sumed even more unctuously the manner of an old friend. "Now, as I say, I"m going to be frank--take you in on the ground floor. Of course, they can have another--a special meeting of the Vose line after a thirty days" notice to the stockholders. They will probably call that meeting, and I don"t care if they do. But I have an ambition to be general manager of the line for those thirty days to make--well, I want to make a little investigation of general conditions," declared Mr.
Fogg, resorting to his purple handkerchief. "That"s all I care to say.
At the end of thirty days we may--I"m speaking of the big interests I represent--we may decide to buy the line and make it really worth something to the stockholders. You understand, I hope. It"s strictly business--it"s all right--it"s good financiering. After it"s all over and those old, hardsh.e.l.l directors wake up, I"ll venture to say they"ll be pleased all around that this little turn has been made. In the mean time, having been taken care of, you needn"t mind whether they"re pleased or not."
Boyne looked at the sheaf of certificates in Fogg"s hand; he bent frightened gaze on the doc.u.ments stacked on the desk. They lay there representing his responsibility, but they also represented opportunity.
The sight of them was a rebuke to the agitated thoughts of treason which a.s.sailed him. But the mere papers had no voice to make that rebuke pointed.
Mr. Fogg did have a voice. "Five thousand dollars in your fist, my boy, as soon as I can work the wire to New York--and there"s no piker about the man who can have five thousand flashed in here when he asks for it.
You can see what kind of men are behind me. What do you care about old man Vose and his crowd?"
"There"s Mr. Franklin! I"ll be doing a mighty mean trick, Mr. Fogg. No, I"ll not do it."
Mr. Fogg did not bl.u.s.ter. He was silent for some time. He pursed his lips and stared at Boyne, and then he shifted his gaze to the ceiling.
"It"s too bad--too bad for a young fellow to turn down such an opportunity," he sighed. "It can be done without you, Boyne, in another way. The same result will happen. But you might as well be in on it.
Now let me tell you a few instances of how some of the big men in this country got their start."
Mr. Fogg was an excellent raconteur with a vivid imagination, and it did not trouble his conscience because the narratives he imparted to this wide-eyed youth were largely apocryphal.
"You see," he put in at the end of the first tale, "what a flying start will do for a man. Suppose that chap I"ve just told you about sat back and refused to jump when the road was all open to him! You don"t hear anybody knocking that man nowadays, do you? And yet that"s the trick he pulled to get his start."
With a similar snapper did Mr. Fogg touch up each one of his stories of success.
"I--I didn"t have any idea--I thought they managed it some other way,"
murmured David Boyne.
"Your horizon has been limited; you haven"t been out in the world enough to know, my son."
"I have heard of all those men, of course. They"re big men to-day."
"You didn"t think they got to be millionaires by saving the money out of clerks" salaries, did you? Of course, Boyne, I admit that in this affair you"ll be up to a little sharp practice. But you"re not stealing anything. n.o.body can lug off steamships in a vest pocket. It"s only a deal--and deals are being made every day."
Fogg was a keen judge of his fellow-men. He knew weakness when he saw it. He could determine from a man"s lower lip and the set of his nose whether that person were covetous. And he knew now what signified the flush on Boyne"s cheeks and the light in his eyes. However, there was something else to reckon with.
"I will not betray Mr. Franklin"s confidence in me. Positively, I will not," said the young man. "He"s sick, and that would make it worse."
"How sick is he?"
"He is very, very ill. It was an operation, and he has had a relapse.
But we hope he"s coming out all right."
"What hospital is he in?"
Boyne gave the name.
"I think I"ll call up and ask when it is expected that he can see visitors," announced Fogg, with business briskness. "I wish Franklin had been here on deck--Franklin, himself."
"I don"t believe Mr. Franklin would turn a trick of this sort," a.s.serted the clerk. "I"d hate to face him, after doing it myself."
"Franklin would be able to see further into a financial deal than a young chap," said Mr. Fogg, severely, and then he found his number and made his call. "Good heavens!" he blurted, after a question. "I am in his office. Yes, I"ll tell Boyne."
With a fine affectation of grief and surprise, he snapped the transmitter upon the hook and whirled on Boyne. His back had been toward the young man--he had spoken with hand across the receiver.
"He has just died--he"s dead! Franklin has pa.s.sed away."