"You"re a cool one! I must hand it to you!" snapped the promoter.
"You"d better leave the name of Miss Marston out of this business with me, sir."
"How in blazes can I leave it out, seeing what she has done?"
And Mayo, not knowing what new outbreak had marked the activities of the incomprehensible young lady, resumed his grim silence, his own interests suggesting that watchful waiting would be his best policy.
"Well, what are you going to say about the papers?" demanded Fogg. "We may as well get down to cases!"
"I"m not going to say anything."
"You"ve got to say something, Mayo. This is too big a matter to fool with. If you are reasonable, you can help me fix it up--and that will help the girl. She"s Mar-ston"s daughter, all right, and her father understands how erratic she is and makes allowances for her freaks. But he can"t stand for some things."
At that moment curiosity was more ardent in Mayo than resentment, though Fogg"s tone in regard to Alma Marston did provoke the latter emotion. It was evident that she had undertaken something in his behalf--had in some manner sacrificed her father"s interests and her own peace of mind in order to a.s.sist the outcast. He wondered why he did not feel more joy when he heard that news. He remembered her promise to him when they parted, but he had erected no hopes on that promise. It had not consoled him while he had been struggling with his problems. He was conscious that his sentiments in regard to the whole affair were rather complex, and he did not bother to a.n.a.lyze them; he sat tight and stared at Mr.
Fogg with non-committal blankness of expression.
"Have you the papers with you?"
"No!" He added, "Of course not!"
"That"s all right. It may be better, providing they are in a safe place.
Now see here, Mayo! I"m not going to work any bluffs with you. I can"t, under the circ.u.mstances. I don"t know where Burkett went and--"
"Burkett is with me on the _Conomo_. I"m not going to work any bluffs with you, either, Fogg!"
"I don"t care where he is nor what he has told you. Any allegations from regular liars and men who have been fired can be taken care of in court, under the blackmail law. But in the case of those papers it"s different.
I"m open and frank with you, Mayo. We have been betrayed from inside the fort. Through some leak in the office that girl got hold of those papers. I don"t know what your sense of honor is in such matters. I"m not here to appeal to it. Too much dirt has been done you to have that argument have any special effect. I"m open and frank, I say!" He spread his hands. "Probably she didn"t half realize what she was doing! But now that you have the papers, you realize!"
Not by a flicker of an eyelid did Mayo betray his total ignorance of what Fogg referred to.
"I want to ask you, man to man," proceeded the emissary, "whether you propose to use those papers simply for yourself--to get back--well--you know!" He waved his hand. "Or are you going to slash right and left with "em, for general revenge?"
"I haven"t decided."
"It"s a fair question I have asked. So far as you are concerned in anything which may be in those papers--and that"s mostly my own reports--you will be squared and more, captain. You can have the _Triton_ with a ten-years" contract as master, contract to be protected by a bond, your pay two hundred and fifty dollars a month. Of course that trade includes your reinstatement as a licensed master and the dropping of all charges in the _Montana_ matter. There is no indictment, and the witnesses will be taken care of, so that the matter will not come up, providing you have enemies. This is man"s talk, Mayo! You"ll have to admit it!"
"There"s another thing which must be admitted, Fogg! I have been disgraced, hounded, and persecuted. The men along this coast, the most of them, will always believe I made a mistake. You know what that means to a shipmaster!"
Mr. Fogg wiped the moisture off his cheeks with a purple handkerchief.
"You were put in devilish wrong. I admit it. I went too far. That"s why Marston is making me the goat now. I shall be dumped if this matter isn"t straightened out between us!"
"I was in this very room one day, Mr. Fogg, and saw how you dumped one Burkett. You seemed to enjoy doing it. Why shouldn"t I have a little enjoyment of my own?"
"I had to dump him. He was a fool. He had bragged. I had to protect interests as well as myself. But you haven"t anything to consider, right now, but your own profit."
"Is that so?" inquired Mayo, sardonically. "You seem to have me sized up as one of these mild and forgiving angels."
"Now, look here, Mayo, don"t let any fool notions stand in the way of your making good. It isn"t sense; it isn"t business! You have something we want and we"re willing to come across for it."
"What other strings are hitched on?" asked the young man, feigning intractability as his best resource in this puzzling affair.
"Well, of course you give up that fool job you"re working on. Quit being a junkman!"
"I"m not a junkman. We"re going to float the Conomo."
"Mayo, talk sense! That job can"t be done!"
"So you"ve been telling every outfitter and banking-man in this city, Fogg! But now you are talking to a man who knows better. And let me say something else to you. I"ll do no business with the kind of a man you have shown yourself to be."
"Don"t be a boy, Mayo. I"m here with full powers. We"ll take that wreck off your hands."
"Want to kill her as she stands, do you?"
"It"s our business what we do with her after we pay our money," declared Fogg, bridling.
"There"s something more than business--business with you--in this matter."
"Yes, I see there is! It"s your childish revenge you"re looking after.
I"ll give you ten thousand dollars to divide among that bunch of paupers. Send them along about their fishing, and be sensible."
"It"s no use for us to talk, Fogg. I see that you don"t understand me at all. You ought to know better than to ask me to sell out myself and my partners." He rose and started for the door.
"Partners--those paupers?"
"They have frozen and sweat, worked and starved, with me out on Razee Reef, Fogg. They are partners."
"What"s your lay? What are the writings?" insisted the promoter, following Mayo.
"Not the scratch of a pen. Only man"s decency and honor. You and your boss haven"t got money enough to buy--There isn"t anything to sell!"
"But there are some things we can buy, if it has come to a matter of blackmail," raged Fogg. "Are you cheap enough to trade on a foolish girl"s cursed b.u.t.ting into matters she didn"t understand? You have been pawing those papers over. You know what they mean!"
Mayo turned and looked at the excited man.
"They have nothing to do with you or your affairs, the most of those papers," sputtered Fogg. "Mayo, be reasonable. We can"t afford to have our holding companies shown up. The syndicate can get by that infernal Federal law if we work carefully."
"Otherwise Marston and you and a few others might go to Atlanta, eh?"
"It isn"t too late to send you there."
"You are worrying about those papers, are you?"
"Of course I"m worrying about them! What do you suppose I"m down here for?"
"You keep on worrying, Mr. Fogg! Come on into the little corner of h.e.l.l where I have been for the last few months; the fire is fine!"
He yanked open the door and slammed it behind him, shutting off the promoter"s frenzied appeals.