Tom cut in quickly before Vincent could make a reply.
"If you"re sparring to gain time, it"s no use, Mr. Farley. I mean what I say, and I"m dead in earnest." Then he tried another long shot: "I tell you right now we"ve had this thing c.o.c.ked and primed ever since we found out what you and Vincent meant to do. You must turn over the control of Chiawa.s.see Consolidated, legally and formally, to my father before you go aboard the _Baltic_, or--_you don"t go aboard_!"
"Let me understand," said the treasurer, cutting in. "Are you accusing us of crime?"
"You will find out what the accusation is, later on," said Tom, taking yet another cartridge from the long-range box. "What I want now is a plain, straightforward yes or no, if either of you is capable of saying it."
The president took his son aside.
"Do you suppose Dyckman has been talking too much?" he asked hurriedly.
Vincent shook his head.
"You can"t tell ... it looks a little rocky. Of course, we had a right to do as we pleased with our own, but we don"t want to have an unfriendly construction put on things."
"But they can"t do anything!" protested the president. "Why, I"d be perfectly willing to turn over my private papers, if they were asked for!"
"Yes, of course. But there would be misconstruction. There is that contract with the combination, for example; we had a right to manipulate things so we"d have to close down, and it might not transpire that we made money by doing it. But, on the other hand, it might leak out, and there"d be no end of a row. Then there is another thing: there is somebody behind this who is bigger than the old soldier or this young foot-ball tough. It"s too nicely timed."
"But, heavens and earth! you wouldn"t turn the property over to Gordon, would you?"
The younger man"s smile was a mere contortion of the lips. "It"s a sucked orange," he said. "Let the old man have it. He may work a miracle of some sort and pull out alive. I should call it a snap, and take him up too quick. If he wins out, so much the better for all concerned. If he doesn"t, why, we left the property entirely in his hands, and he smashed it. Don"t you see the beauty of it?"
The president wheeled short on Tom.
"What you may think you are extorting, my dear boy, you are going to get through sheer good-will and a desire to give your father every chance in the world," he said blandly. "We discussed the plan of electing him vice-president, with power to act, before we left home, but there seemed to be some objections. We are willing to give him full control--and this altogether apart from any foolish threats you have seen fit to make.
Bring your legal counsel to Room 327 after breakfast and we will go through the formalities. Are you satisfied?"
"I shall be a lot better satisfied after the fact," said Tom bluntly; and he turned away to avoid meeting Major Dabney and the ladies, who were coming from the elevator to join the two early risers. He had seen next to nothing of Ardea during the three Boston years, and would willingly have seen more. But the new manhood was warning him that time was short, and that he must not mix business with sentiment. So Ardea saw nothing but his back, which, curiously enough, she failed to recognize.
Picking up his cab at the curb, Tom had himself driven quickly to the office of the corporation lawyer whose name he had obtained from Mr.
Clarkson the day before, and with whom he had made a wire appointment before leaving Boston. The attorney was waiting for him, and Tom stated the case succinctly, adding a brief of the interview which had just taken place at the hotel.
"You say they agreed to your proposal?" observed the lawyer. "Did Mr.
Farley indicate the method?"
"No."
"Have you a copy of the by-laws of your company?"
Tom produced the packet of papers received that morning from his father, and handed the required pamphlet to Mr. Croswell.
"H"m--ha! the usual form. A stock-holders" meeting, with a resolution, would be the simplest way out of it; but that can"t be held without the published call. You say your father is a stock-holder?"
"He has four hundred and three of the original one thousand shares. I hold his proxy."
The attorney smiled shrewdly.
"You are a very remarkable young man. You seem to have come prepared at all points. I a.s.sume that you are acting under your father"s instructions?"
"Why, with his approval, of course," Tom amended. "But it is my own initiative, under the advice of a good friend of mine in Boston, thus far. Oh, I know what I"m about," he added, in answer to the latent question in the lawyer"s eyes.
"You seem to," was the laconic reply. "Now let us see exactly what it is that you want Mr. Farley to concede."
"I want him to turn over the entire control of the company"s business, operative and financial, to my father."
The lawyer smiled again.
"That is a pretty big asking. Have you any reason to suppose that Mr.
Farley will accede to any such demand?"
"Yes; I have very good reasons, but I reckon we needn"t go into them here and now. The time is too short; their liner sails at ten."
The attorney tilted his chair and became reflective.
"The simple way out of it is to have Mr. Farley const.i.tute your father, or yourself, his proxy to vote his stock at a certain specified meeting of the stock-holders, which can be called later. Of course, with a majority vote of the stock, you can rearrange matters to suit yourselves, subject only to Mr. Farley"s disarrangement when he resumes control of his holdings. How would that serve?"
"You"re the doctor," said Tom bruskly. "Any way to get him out and get my father in."
"It"s the simplest way, as I say. But if the property is worth anything at all, I should think Mr. Farley would fight you to a finish before he would consent."
"You fix up the papers, Mr. Croswell, and I"ll see to it that he consents. Make the proxy run in my father"s name."
The attorney went into another room and dictated to his stenographer.
While he was absent, Tom sat, watch in hand, counting the minutes. It was his first pitched battle with the Farleys, and victory promised. But with industrial panic in the air the victory threatened to be of the Cadmean sort, and a scowl of anxiety gathered between his eyes.
"Never mind," he gritted, with an out-thrust of the square jaw; "it"s the Gordon fighting chance; and pappy says that"s all we"ve ever asked--it"s all I"m going to ask, anyway. But I wish Ardea wasn"t going over with that crowd!"
The conference in Room 327, Fifth Avenue Hotel, held while the carriages were waiting to take the steamer party to the pier, was brief and businesslike. Something to Tom"s surprise, Major Dabney was present; and a little later he learned, with a shock of resentment, that the Major was also a minority stock-holder in the moribund Chiawa.s.see Consolidated. The master of Deer Trace was as gracious to Caleb Gordon"s son as only a Dabney knew how to be.
"Nothing could give me greateh pleasure, my deah boy, than this plan of having youh fatheh in command at Gordonia," he beamed, shaking Tom"s hand effusively. "I hope you"ll have us all made millionaihs when we get back home again; I do, for a fact, suh."
Tom smiled and shook his head.
"It looks pretty black, just now, Major. I"m afraid we"re in for rough weather."
"Oh, no; not that, son; a meah pa.s.sing cloud." And then, with the big Dabney laugh: "You youngstehs oughtn"t to leave it for us old fellows to keep up the stock of optimism, suh. A word in youh ear, young man: if these heah d.a.m.ned Yankee rascals would quit thei-uh monkeying right heah in Wall Street, the country would take on a new lease of life, suh; it would for a fact," and he said it loudly enough to be heard in the corridor.
During this bit of side play the attorney was laboring with the two Farleys, and Tom, watching narrowly, saw that there was a hitch of some kind.
"What is it?" he demanded, turning shortly on the trio at the table.
The lawyer explained. Mr. Farley thought the plan proposed was entirely too far-reaching in its effects, or possible effects. He was willing to delegate his authority as president of the company to Caleb Gordon in writing. Would not that answer all the requirements?
Tom asked his attorney with his eyes if it would answer, and read the negative reply very clearly. So he shook his head.
"No," he said, turning his back on the Major and lowering his voice. "We must have your proxy, Mr. Farley."
"And if I don"t choose to accede to your demands?"