I am tired of my own shortcomings, and I have no doubt the reader is
also, if she has read this far. I shall therefore make no attempt to
excuse my language toward Gertrude Hemster. The heated conversation
in which we indulged had, however, one effect upon my future course.
I resolved not to say a word to her father against his treatment of
her. Whatever the old gentleman had said to her, it could not have
been cruder or ruder than the language which I had myself employed.
Therefore I felt it would be ludicrous for me to act the part of censor
or adviser. I had shown my own unfitness for either of those rôles.
Besides this, I had been convinced that Hilda Stretton was entirely
mistaken in thinking that the young woman would commit suicide or do
any injury to herself. My summing up of her character led me to the
belief that although she would be quite willing to inflict pain upon
others, she would take good care not to act to her own discomfort.
Seizing the first opportunity that presented itself, I told Miss
Stretton my determination, and, while she did not agree with me, she
made no effort to induce me to forego my resolution.
The bustle pertaining to our safe arrival at Nagasaki drove all other
subjects from my mind, and I was inclined to think that my recent
troubles and quarrels arose through the well-known activity of
Satan to provide employment for idle hands. We were now busy enough.
There had accumulated at Nagasaki a mass of letters and a bundle of
cablegrams for Mr. Hemster which required his immediate attention,
and in his disposal of these messages I caught a glimpse of the great
business man he really was. However lax he might have proved in his
conduct toward his only daughter, he showed himself a very Napoleon
in the way he faced the problems presented to him, settling momentous
affairs thousands of miles away by the dispatch of a code word or two.
In all this, so far as my abilities permitted, I was his humble
assistant, and I found myself filled with admiration and astonishment
at his powers of concentration and the brilliancy of his methods. The
little naphtha launch was kept running backward and forward between the
yacht and the telegraph office, and during the long day that followed
our arrival at Nagasaki that roll-top desk was a centre of commercial
activity vastly different in its efficiency from the lazy routine to
which I had been accustomed in the diplomatic service. My own nervous
tension kept me going until the long day had passed, and the time
seemed as but a few minutes. At the end I was as tired as if I had
spent twelve hours continuously on the football field, and for the
first time in my life I realized how men are burnt up in their pursuit
of the mighty dollar. My natural inclination was to doubt whether
the game was worth the candle, but during the progress of the game
there was no question, for it held on the alert every faculty a man
possessed, and I could well believe that it might exert a fascination
that indulgence in mere gambling could never equal.
Silas K. Hemster himself was like a man transformed; the eyes which I
had hitherto considered dull and uninteresting became aglow with the
excitement of battle. His face was keen, stern, and relentless; I saw
he was an enemy who gave no quarter and expected none. His orders to
me were sharp and decisive, and I no more thought of questioning them
than of offering unsought advice regarding them. He was like an exiled
monarch come again to his throne; for the first time in our brief
acquaintance I had seen the real Hemster, and the sight had given me a
feeling of my own inane inadequacy in the scheme of things here below.
When at last the day was done, his face relaxed, and he leaned back in
his swivel chair, regarding me with eyes that had taken on their old
kindliness. He seemed enlivened rather than exhausted by the contest,
as if he had taken a sip of the elixir of youth.
“Well, my boy,” he said, “you’re tired out. You look as if you had been
running a race.”
“That is exactly what I’ve been doing, sir.”
The old gentleman laughed.
“Let’s see,” he mused ruminatingly, “did we have lunch or not?”
“You consumed a sandwich which I placed on your desk, Mr. Hemster, and
I bolted another during one of my rushes for the dispatch-boat.”
Again he laughed.
“I had forgotten,” he said, “but we will enjoy our dinner all the more
when we sit down to it. Confess that you’re used up.”
“Well, sir, I don’t feel just as active as I did in the morning.”
The old gentleman shook his head with a slow motion that had something
of pity in it.
“You English have no aptitude for business. It shows the decadent state
of Europe that Britain has held supremacy on that continent for so
long.”
“I should be sorry, sir, if you took me for a typical example of the
English business man. I doubt if in any respect I am a credit to my
country, still I am not such an idiot as to suppose I shine as a man
of affairs. My training has been against me, even if I had any natural
aptitude for commerce, which I doubt. Still, we are supposed to possess
some creditable captains of industry on our little island.”
“Supposed! That’s just it, and the supposition holds good until they
are up against something better. Now, if you were in Chicago, and you
wished me to join you in a deal while I was cruising on the coast of
Japan, what would you do?”
“I should write you a letter explaining the project I had to put before
you.”
“Quite so. You wouldn’t go to the expense of cabling the whole thing,
would you?”
“If the scheme was important enough I might go to that cost.”
The old gentleman held in his hand two or three cable messages which I
had not seen, also a letter or two.
“Now, here is a man,” he said, “who has hit upon a plan I have often
thought of myself. He has, he tells me, made a combination which
possesses considerable strength, but in order to be impregnable he
needs my co-operation. He cables the points very concisely, and puts
his case with a good deal of power; but that cablegram is merely an
advance agent for himself, expensive as it is. His object is to hold me
at Yokohama until he can arrive. He actually crosses the continent to
San Francisco, and takes the first steamer for Japan. I received his
cablegram at Yokohama, but did not wait for him. I sent off a word or
two myself to Chicago, asking confidential information which I have now
received. Just before we left for Corea I got a telegram from this man
in Yokohama, asking me to wait for him at Nagasaki, which I did not do,
because I wished to impress on the energetic individual that I was not
anxious to fall in with his plan, and I knew that, having come so far,
he would not return without seeing me. Meanwhile I determined to find
out whether his combination is as strong as he said it was, and this
information is now in my possession. Also, I wished on my own account
to make a combine so formidable that whether I gave my adherence to
the one or the other my weight would tip the beam in favour of the one
I joined. This combination also has been completed, and I hold the
balance, of course. Our friend who has come over from Japan probably
does not know that there is any opposition to his scheme, and no one in
the world except yourself and myself and a man in Chicago knows I have
anything to do with the other combine. You see I am just yachting for
pleasure and for health, and am reluctant to touch business at all.
At least, that is the information which I intend to be imparted to
our friend, who is now impatiently awaiting me at the Nagasaki Hotel.
You might think that I should invite him to come aboard my yacht and
talk the matter over, or that I should go ashore and visit him, which
he asks me to do; but I shall do neither. You see I want Mr. John
C. Cammerford to realize that he is not nearly so important in the
commercial affairs of America as he supposes himself to be.”
“John C. Cammerford!” I cried in amazement. “I think I have met him in
New York, though it may not be the same man.”
“Well, the name is not a common one, and if you know him, all the
better. I now instruct you to call on him first thing to-morrow
morning. You will notice that I have trusted you fully in this matter
by giving you information which must not leak through to Cammerford.
You will tell him, however, that his combination is not the only one in
the United States, and if I’m to join his he must prove to me that it
is stronger than the opposition. He must give you a list of the firms
he has combined, and he will have to show you the original documents
pertaining to the options he has received. I want to know how long his
options last. They will probably have at least six months’ life, or he
could never have taken this journey to see me. If he satisfies you that
his combination is genuine, and that his options have still several
months to run, then I shall consent to meet him. If he cannot do
this, or if he refuses to do it, I shall send a few cables which will
certainly upset his apple-cart before he reaches San Francisco. You
will not promise anything on my behalf, and I should have no objection
if he imagines that my lack of eagerness in meeting him is caused by
the fact that the other combination appears to me the stronger.”
“Would you mind my sending to him your card instead of my own? He might
possibly refuse to meet me if I sent in the name of Tremorne.”
“That’s all right. Use my card if you wish. The main point is that you
get as much information as possible, and give as little in return as
may be. There’s the dinner gong, and I’m quite ready to meet whatever’s
on the table. Come along.”
Next morning after breakfast I went ashore, and, arriving at the
Nagasaki Hotel, sent up Mr. Hemster’s card to Mr. John C. Cammerford,
and was promptly admitted to his presence. He occupied what I took to
be the finest suite of rooms in the hotel, and had a large table placed
near the principal window of his sitting-room, so that his back was to
the light, which shone full on the face of any visitor who called upon
him. It was quite evident to me that Mr. Cammerford hoped to impress
Silas K. Hemster with the fact that he was carrying on great affairs
right here in Japan similar to those that occupied his attention in
Chicago. The table was littered with papers, and Cammerford sat busily
writing as if every moment was of importance. All his plans for the
impression of a visitor fell to pieces like a house of cards when the
astonished man saw who was approaching him. He sprang to his feet with
a cry of dismay and backed toward the window. From his position I could
not very well read the expression on his face, but it seemed to be one
of fear.
“I’m expecting another man,” he cried, “you have no right here. Get
out.”
“I beg your pardon, Mr. Cammerford, I have a right here, and I have
come to talk business.”
“What are you following me for? Why are you here?” he cried.
“I am here as the representative of Silas K. Hemster, of Chicago, and
with his permission I sent up his card to you.”
Gradually his self-possession returned to him, but he took care to keep
the table between himself and me. He indulged in a little cynical laugh.
“You took me by surprise, Mr. Tremorne. I--I thought perhaps you
intended trying to collect--a--a little account of your own.”
“No, I came entirely on Mr. Hemster’s behalf. Have I your permission to
be seated?”
“Certainly. Sit down, sit down,” and, saying this with an effort at
bluff geniality, he placed himself in the chair he had so abruptly
vacated.
“I thought, as I said before,” he added, with another uneasy laugh,
“that you had some notion of collecting a little money from me. The
last time we met you held a very mistaken view of the business matter
in which we had been associated. I assure you now--you wouldn’t listen
then--that everything done was strictly legal, and no one was more
sorry than I that the deal did not prove as successful as we had both
hoped.”
“You cover me with confusion, Mr. Cammerford. I have no remembrance
that I ever disputed the legality of the transaction, and I deeply
regret that I seem to have permitted myself at the time to use harsh
language which you are quite justified in deploring. If it is any
comfort to you, I beg to assure you that I look upon the half-million
dollars as irretrievably lost, and at this hour yesterday had no more
idea you were in Japan than you had that I was, if you did me the
honour to think of me.”
Cammerford gazed doubtfully across the table at me, as if he feared
there was something sinister behind all this show of submission.
“It was you, then, who sent up Mr. Hemster’s card?”
“Yes. He asked me to see you.”
“Why couldn’t he come himself? Is he ill?”
“No, he never was in better health,” I answered; “but he is exceedingly
busy. I am by way of being his confidential man, and if you can prove
to me that the claims you have made are real, I shall have much
pleasure in arranging an interview between you.”
“Oh, that’s how the land lies, is it? What do you know of my proposals
to Mr. Hemster?”
“I have read all your letters and telegrams relating to the matter this
morning; in fact, I have them in my pocket now.”
“Mr. Hemster seems to repose great trust in you. That is rather
unusual with him. I suppose you have some document to prove that you
are empowered to deal?”
“As a matter of fact I am not empowered to deal. I am merely the _avant
coureur_ of Mr. Hemster. I sent you up his card, and here are your own
letters, telegrams, and cablegrams. I was told to inform you that since
you have left America another combination which Mr. Hemster considers
nearly if not quite as strong as your own has been put through, and
Mr. Hemster has been invited to join. He is well acquainted with the
person who has effected the second combination, but, as you have just
intimated, Mr. Hemster is not a man to allow personal considerations
to deflect him from the strict business path. If you can show that
your combination is the stronger, I can guarantee that you will have
opportunity of speaking with Mr. Hemster. If not, he sails away
to-morrow in his yacht, and deprives himself of the pleasure of meeting
you, as you happen to be an entire stranger to him.”
“How am I to show him all this if he refuses to see me?”
“You are to convince me of two things by exhibiting the original
documents: first, that these firms mentioned in your letters have given
you options; and second, the length of the options,--the date on which
they expire, in fact.”
“And if I refuse?” said Cammerford, seemingly puzzled and displeased at
the trend of our conversation.
I rose to my feet and bowed to him.
“If you refuse,” I said, “that ends my mission. Good-morning to you.”
“Wait a bit, wait a bit,” cried Cammerford, “sit down, Mr. Tremorne.
This requires a little thought. Please don’t go; just sit down for a
moment. I don’t see how Mr. Hemster can expect me to show my whole hand
to one who, begging your pardon, is a comparative stranger, and one who
will have nothing to do with our transaction. Secrecy is the very soul
of such a deal as I am trying to put through. What guarantee have I
that you will not cable to New York or Chicago full particulars of what
I am asked to tell you.”
“None whatever, Mr. Cammerford.”
“Well, that’s not business.”
“Quite so. Then I shall report your opinion to Mr. Hemster.”
“What’s his object? Why doesn’t he come and see me himself?”
“I think I may go so far as to say that he wishes to know whether or
not it is worth his while to meet you. You see, Mr. Cammerford, you
are a stranger to him. He was good enough to hint that if I reported
favourably on your scheme, he would wait over a day or two and go into
the matter with you. As I have said, he is exceedingly busy. I left him
immersed in letters and cablegrams, and all day yesterday we were over
head and ears in matters of rather large importance. If you had been
his Chicago acquaintance who formed the other combine, I imagine he
would have seen you; as it is, he has sent me.”
“Well, now, look here, Tremorne,” cried Cammerford, with a fine
assumption of honest bluffness, “let us talk as man to man. We’re not
school-boys or sentimental girls. You know as well as I do that there
is not one chance in ten million for my seeing old Hemster if the
choice in the matter lies with you. You are exceedingly polite, and
speak as sweetly as molasses, but I wasn’t born yesterday, and am not
such a darned fool as to suppose you are going to put in a good word
for me.”
“You are quite right, Mr. Cammerford; I shall put in no good word for
you that I can possibly keep out. Nevertheless I shall report fairly to
Mr. Hemster exactly what you place before me.”
“Oh, that’s all guff. You’ll knife me because you’ve got the chance to
do it. I quite admit it will be done with smooth talk, but it will be
effective nevertheless.”
“If you believe that, Mr. Cammerford, I shall make no endeavour to
convince you of the contrary. You will act, of course, as best serves
your own interest. Personally I do not care a halfpenny whether the
great beef combine is formed in the interest of the dear public, or
goes to smash through the non-agreement of its promoters. I fancy you
cannot float such a trust and leave Mr. Hemster out, but you know more
about that than I. Now it’s your next move. What are you going to do?”
Cammerford leaned across the table, showing me his crafty eyes
narrowing as he seemed trying to find out what my game really was.
I knew exactly where his error lay in dealing with me. He could not
believe that I was honestly trying to serve my employer, and so he
was bound to go wrong in any assumption formed by taking such false
premises for granted.
“See here, Tremorne, I’m going to talk straight business to you.
Whatever may be our pretences, we are none of us engaged in this for
our health; we want to make money. I want to make money; Hemster wants
to make money; don’t _you_ want to make money?”
“Certainly,” I replied, “that’s what I’m here for.”
“Now you’re shouting,” exclaimed Cammerford, an expression of great
relief coming into his face. He thought that at last he had reached
firm ground. “I confess, then,” he went on, “that it is supremely
important I should meet Hemster, and he should be favourably disposed
toward me. It is not likely I should have taken a journey clear from
New York to Nagasaki if there wasn’t a good deal at stake. You see,
I’m perfectly frank with you. You’ve got the drop on me. Just now my
hands are right up toward the ceiling, and I’m willing to do the square
thing. Did you know whom you were going to meet when you left the
yacht?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Mr. Hemster mentioned my name to you?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Did you tell him anything of our former dealings?”
“No, I did not.”
“He does know you lost half a million in the States a while since?”
“Oh, yes, he knows that, but he doesn’t know you’re the man who got it.”
“Hang it all, Tremorne; don’t put it that way. I’m not the man who got
it; I lost money as well as you did.”
“Oh, I beg your pardon; I thought we were talking frankly and honestly
to each other. Well, be that as it may, Mr. Hemster knows I lost the
money, but he doesn’t know you’re the man who was so unfortunate as to
be in the business with me.”
“Well now, Tremorne, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You say nothing of
this former company of ours, and if you will report favourably on what
I have to tell you so that old Hemster will come and see me, or allow
me to go to him, I’ll give you two hundred thousand dollars cash as
soon as our deal is completed.”
“I refuse it.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“No, I do not, but I refuse it nevertheless. I should refuse it if you
offered me the money here and now.”
Cammerford leaned back in his chair.
“You want to go the whole hog?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said I.
“You want the whole five hundred thousand or nothing. Well, I tell you
at once I can’t afford to give that much. I’ll raise fifty thousand
dollars, and make the total amount two hundred and fifty; but I can’t
go a cent more, and there is no use trying to bluff me.”
“I am not trying to bluff you, Mr. Cammerford. I should refuse the
bribe if you made it five hundred thousand.”
“Oh, it’s not a bribe at all, it’s--well, whatever you like to call it.
Restitution if you prefer to put it that way.”
“It doesn’t matter what it is called, I have come for the purpose of
hearing what you have to say regarding the great beef combine. If you
have nothing to say I shall leave, because, as I told you, Mr. Hemster
has a good deal of work on his hands, and I’m trying to help him.”
“Well,” said Cammerford, in a hopeless tone of voice, “you are the
darndest fool I ever met in my life.”
“You are not the first person who has said as much, Mr. Cammerford,
although not in precisely the same language. Now, for the last time,
give me a list of the names of those who are behind you.”
“I’ll do that if you will promise me not to say anything to old Hemster
about our former relations.”
“I regret that I cannot make you any such promise, Mr. Cammerford.
It is my duty to lay before Mr. Hemster everything you place before
me, and it is also my duty to warn him that I consider you as big a
scoundrel as you consider me a fool.”
“That’s plain talk,” said Cammerford, scowling.
“I intend it to be. Now, without further loss of time, let me see your
documents.”
For some minutes Cammerford maintained silence, a heavy frown on his
brow, and his eyes fixed on the carpet beneath the table. At last he
muttered, “Well, I’m damned!”--and, taking a bundle of papers from
before him, he slipped off the elastic band, picked out one after
another which he perused with care, then handed them across the table
to me, watching me very narrowly as he did so. I took the papers one by
one and read them over, making a note with my pencil now and then in my
pocket-book. They proved to be exactly what he had said they were in
his letter to Mr. Hemster. I pushed them back toward him again, saying:
“I see by some of these documents that the option is for six months,
but others make no mention of the time. Why is that?”
“Because we have bought the businesses and the options are ours for
ever.”
“Have you anything to prove that?”
Without further reply he selected several other papers and presented
them to me. These also were satisfactory.
“I shall report to Mr. Hemster that your position appears to be quite
as strong as you stated it to be, and so I wish you good-morning, Mr.
Cammerford.”
“Hold your horses a minute,” he cried, seeing me about to arise. “As
you have asked me a whole lot of questions, I’d like you to answer a
few of mine. Who’s in this other combine?”
“I know nothing of it, except that it is in existence.”
“Do you imagine it’s a bluff?”
“I tell you I don’t know. I should think Mr. Hemster is not a man to
engage in bluff.”
“Oh, isn’t he? That shows how little you know of him. Have you been
with him ever since he left Chicago?”
“No.”
“How long have you been in his employ?”
“That is a private matter, Mr. Cammerford, which concerns no one but
myself and Mr. Hemster. Besides, to tell you the truth, I came here to
receive information, not to impart it; so it is useless to question me
further.”
“Oh, one more won’t do any harm,” said Cammerford, rising when I had
risen; “do you think old Hemster will consent to see me?”
“I am almost certain that he will.”
“Through your recommendation, eh?”
“No, I shall strongly advise him not to see you.”
“Well, I’m damned if I understand your game. It’s either too deep or
too mighty shallow for me.”
“It doesn’t occur to you, Mr. Cammerford, that there’s no game at all,
and therefore there can be neither depth nor shallowness. You are
troubling your mind about what does not exist.”
“Then I am forced to take refuge in my former assumption, not at all a
flattering one, which is that you’re a fool.”
“I think that’s the safest position to assume, Mr. Cammerford; so,
finally, good-bye.”
I left the man standing at the head of the stairs, his hands on the
banister, gazing after me with an expression of great discontent.