""Allis, we want to buy your steel plant," said Stagg.
""Buy my steel plant!" gasped Allis.
""Sure, buy it outright! Spot cash! We"ll pay you five hundred thousand for it."
""But it cost me over twelve hundred thousand," said Allis.
""Well, then, we"ll pay you twelve hundred thousand," said Stagg--"G.o.d d.a.m.n you, we"ll pay you fifteen hundred thousand!"
""My plant isn"t for sale," said Allis.
""We"ll pay you two million!" shouted Stagg.
""It isn"t for sale, I tell you."
""We"ll pay you two million and a half! Come on down here!"
""Do you mean that?" gasped Allis. He could hardly credit his ears.
""Come downstairs and I"ll write you a check!" said Stagg. And so they hauled him down, and they bought his mill. Then they opened some more champagne, and Allis began to get good-natured, too.
""There"s only one thing the matter with my mill," said he, "and that"s Jones"s mill over in Harristown. The railroads give him rebates, and he undersells me."
""Well, d.a.m.n his soul," said Stagg, "we"ll have his mill, too."
"And so they bundled into their special again, and about six o"clock in the morning they got to Harristown, and they bought another mill.
And that started them, you know. They"d never had such fun in their lives before. It seems that Stagg had just cleaned up ten or twelve millions on a big Wall Street plunge, and they blew in every dollar, buying steel mills--and paying two or three prices for every one, of course."
Gamble paused and chuckled to himself. "What I"m telling you is the story that Stagg told me," said he. "And of course you"ve got to make allowances. He said he had no idea of what Dan Waterman had been planning, but I fancy that was a lie. Harrison of Pittsburg had been threatening to build a railroad of his own, and take away his business from Waterman"s roads, and so there was nothing for Waterman to do but buy him out at three times what his mills were worth. He took the mills that Stagg had bought at the same time.
Stagg had paid two or three prices, and Waterman paid him a couple of prices more, and then he pa.s.sed them on to the American people for a couple of prices more than that."
Gamble paused. "That"s where they get these fortunes," he added, waving his fat little hand. "Sometimes it makes a fellow laugh to think of it. Every concern they bought was overcapitalised to begin with; I doubt if two hundred million dollars" worth of honest dollars was ever put into the Steel Trust properties, and they capitalised it at a billion, and now they"ve raised it to a billion and a half! The men who pulled it off made hundreds of millions, and the poor public that bought the common stock saw it go down to six!
They gave old Harrison a four-hundred-million-dollar mortgage on the property, and he sits back and grins, and wonders why a man can"t die poor!"
Gamble"s car was opposite one of the clubs. Suddenly he signalled his chauffeur to stop.
"h.e.l.lo, Billy!" he called; and a young naval officer who was walking down the steps turned and came toward him.
"What have you been doing with yourself?" said Gamble. "Mr.
Montague, my friend Lieutenant Long, of the Engineers. Where are you going, Billy?"
"Nowhere in particular," said the officer.
"Get in," said Gamble, pointing to the vacant seat between them. "I am showing Mr. Montague the town."
The other climbed in, and they went on. "The Lieutenant has just come up from Brooklyn," he continued. "Lively times we had in Brooklyn, didn"t we, Billy? Tell me what you have been doing lately."
"I"m working hard," said the Lieutenant--"studying."
"Studying here in Newport?" laughed Gamble.
"That"s easy enough when you belong to the Engineers," said the other. "We are working-men, and they don"t want us at their b.a.l.l.s."
"By the way, Gamble," he added, after a moment, "I was looking for you. I want you to help me."
"Me?" said Gamble.
"Yes," said the other. "I have just had notice from the Department that I am one of a board of five that has been appointed to draw up specifications for machine oil for the Navy."
"What can I do about it?" asked Gamble.
"I want you to help me draw them up."
"But I don"t know anything about machine oil."
"You cannot possibly know less than I do," said the Lieutenant.
"Surely, if you have been in the oil business, you can give me some sort of an idea about machine oil."
Gamble thought for a minute. "I might try," he said. "But would it be the proper thing for me to do? Of course, I"m out of the business myself; but I have friends who might bid for the contract."
"Well, your friends can take their chances with the rest," said the Lieutenant. "I am a friend, too, hang it. And how in the world am I to find out anything about oil?"
Gamble was silent again. "Well, I"ll do what I can for you," he said, finally. "I"ll write out what I know about the qualities of good oil, and you can use it as you think best."
"All right," said the Lieutenant, with relief.
"But you"ll have to agree to say nothing about it," said Gamble.
"It"s a delicate matter, you understand."
"You may trust me for that," said the other, laughing. So the subject was dropped, and they went on with their ride.
Half an hour later Gamble set Montague down, at General Prentice"s door, and he bade them farewell and went in.
The General was coming down the stairs. "h.e.l.lo, Allan," he said.
"Where have you been?"
"Seeing the place a little," said Montague.
"Come into the drawing-room," said the General. "There"s a man in there you ought to know.
"One of the brainiest newspaper men in Wall Street," he added, as he went across the hall,--"the financial man of the Express."
Montague entered the room and was introduced to a powerfully built and rather handsome young fellow, who had not so long ago been centre-rush upon a famous football team. "Well, Bates," said the General, "what are you after now?"
"I"m trying to get the inside story of the failure of Grant and Ward," said Bates. "I supposed you"d know about it, if anyone did."
"I know about it," said the General, "but the circ.u.mstances are such that I"m not free to tell--at least, not for publication. I"ll tell you privately, if you want to know."