DRAKE ADMITS HIS DANGER
Drake was before the fireplace, moving or rather switching back and
forth, and this unwonted nervousness seemed an evil augury to Bojo.
However, at the slight rustle of the portieres, Drake came forward with
energetic strides, his hand flung out--
"Well, stranger, almost thought you'd fled the country. How are you?
Glad, mighty glad, to see you." He stood with a smile, patting the
shoulder of Patsie, who leaned against his side. "Let's see your hands,
Tom. They tell me you've become quite a horny-handed son of toil."
"I'm mighty glad to see _you_," said Bojo, studying him anxiously. At
first he felt reassured, the old self-possession and careless confidence
were there in tone and gesture. It was only when he examined him more
closely that his forebodings returned. About the eyes, not perceptible
at first, but lurking in the depths was a hunted, restless look, which
struck the young man at once.
"I wanted Bojo so to come," said Patsie breathlessly. "I thought--in
some way--somehow he might be of help."
"I only wish I could," said Bojo instantly. "You know you can trust me."
"Yes, I know that," said Drake briefly with a sudden clouding over of
his face. He added stubbornly, pulling his daughter's ear with a kindly
look, "This young lady is all in a panic over nothing. Comes from
talking business before them."
"Oh, Daddy, why not be truthful? Whatever comes we can face it. Only let
us know," said Patsie with her large eyes fixed sadly on his face in
unbelief.
"I'm in a fight--a big fight, Tom, that's all, a little tougher than
other fights," he said loudly as though talking to himself. "If you want
to see some ructions and learn a few things that may help you in dealing
with certain brands of coyotes later, why come in--just possible you
might fit in handy."
"Thank you, sir," said Bojo gratefully, exalted to the seventh Heaven by
this permission, which seemed to bring him back the old intimacy. Patsie
was looking at him with shining eyes.
"Yes, but how about your work--the factory?" said Drake.
"The factory be damned," said Bojo fervidly, with the American instinct
for the fitness of the direct word. All broke out laughing at his
impetuosity.
"Well, Tom, I always did want you in the family," said Drake, clapping
him on the shoulder with a sly look at Patsie. "Have it as you wish.
I'll be mighty glad to have you, though you did give me a pretty stiff
lesson!"
At this moment when Patsie and Bojo did not dare to look at each other,
the situation was luckily saved by the announcement of dinner.
In the dining-room they waited several moments for Mrs. Drake to appear
until finally a footman brought the news that the mistress of the house
was indisposed and begged them to sit down without her. Drake looked
rather startled at this and went off into a moody abstraction for quite
a while, during which Patsie exchanged solicitous glances with Bojo.
"It is more serious than he will admit," he thought. "I must get a
chance to speak to him alone. He will never tell the truth before
Drina."
Dinner over, a rather anxious meal partaken of in long silences with
occasional bursts of forced conversation, Bojo found opportunity to
whisper to Patsie as they returned towards the library.
"Make some excuse and leave us as soon as you can. I'll see you before I
go."
She gave him a slight movement of her eyes to show she comprehended and
went dancing in ahead.
"Now before you begin on business, let me make you both comfortable,"
she cried. She indicated chairs and pushed them into their seats,
laughing. She brought the cigars and insisted on serving them with
lights, while each watched her, charmed and soothed by the grace and
youth of her spirits, though each knew the reason of her assuming. She
camped finally on the arm of her father's chair, with a final enveloping
hug, which under the appearance of exuberance, conveyed a deep
solicitude.
"Shall I stay or do you want to talk alone?"
"Stay." Drake caught the hand which had stolen about his neck and patted
it with rough tenderness. "Besides I want you to get certain false ideas
out of your head. Well, Tom, I'll tell you the situation." He stopped a
moment as though considering, before beginning again with an appearance
of frankness which almost convinced the young man, though it failed
before the alarmed instinct of his daughter. "Miss Patsie here is taking
entirely too seriously something her mother repeated to her. I won't
attempt to deny that the times are shaky. They are. They may become
suddenly worse. That depends entirely on a certain group of men. But the
strong point as well as the weak point in the present situation is that
it can depend on a certain group. There will be no panic for the simple
reason that in a panic this group will lose in the tens of millions
where others lose thousands. Now this group in the past through their
control direct or inter-related has been able to dominate the centers of
credit, the money loaning institutions, such as the great banks and
insurance companies. By this means they have been in a measure able to
keep to themselves the great industrial exploitations dependent on the
ability to finance in the hundreds of millions. More, they have been
able to limit to narrow fields such men as myself and other newcomers,
who wish to rise to the same financial advantage. Lately this supremacy
has been threatened by the rise of a new financial idea, the Trust
company. This new form of banking, due to the scope permitted under the
present law, has been able to deal in business and to make loans on
collateral which, while valid, is forbidden a bank under the statutes.
The Trust companies, able to deal in more profitable business and to pay
good interest consequently on deposits, have developed so enormously as
to threaten to overshadow the banks. Back of all this the Trust
companies have been developed and purchased by the younger generation of
financiers in order to acquire the means of providing themselves with
the credit necessary to develop their large schemes of industrial
expansion, without being at the mercy of influences which can be
controlled by others. From the moment the dominant group perceived this
phase of the development of the Trust company, war was certain. That's
where I come in. Pretty dry stuff. Can you get it?"
Patsie nodded, more interested perhaps in her father's manner than in
what he said. Bojo listened with painful concentration.
"After my deal in Indiana Smelters and the turn in Pittsburgh & New
Orleans I knew that the knives were out against me. I tried to make
peace with Gunther but I might just as well have tried to sleep with the
tiger. I saw that. There were several things I wanted to do--big things.
I had to have credit. Where could I get it--dare to get it? So I went
into the Trust companies. They want to get me and they want to get
them." He stopped, rubbed his chin and said with a grin, "Perhaps they
may sting me--good and hard--but at the worst we could worry along on
eight or nine millions, couldn't we, living economically, Patsie?"
"Is that the worst it could mean?" she said, drawing off to look in his
eyes.
He nodded, adding:
"Oh, it isn't pleasant to have fifteen to twenty millions clipped from
your fleece, but still we can live--live comfortably."
She pretended to believe him, throwing herself in his arms.
"Oh! I'm so relieved."
His hand ran over her golden head in a gentle caress and his face, as
Bojo saw it, was strained and grim, though his words were light:
"But I'm not going to lose those twenty millions, not if I can help it!"
Patsie sprang up laughing, caught Bojo's signal and ran out crying:
"Back in a moment. Must see how mother is."
When the curtains, billowing out at her tumultuous exit, had fluttered
back to rest, Bojo said quietly:
"Mr. Drake, is that what you wish me to believe?"
"Eh, what's that?" said Drake, looking up.
"Am I to believe what you've just told?"
There was a long moment between them, while each studied the other.
"How far can I trust you?" said Drake slowly.
"What do you mean?"
"Can I have your word that you will not tell Patsie--or any one?"
Bojo reflected a moment, frowning.
"Is that absolutely necessary?"
"That's the condition."
"Very well, I shall tell her nothing more than she knows. Will that
satisfy you?"
Drake nodded slowly, his eyes still on the young man as though finally
considering the advisability of a confidence.
"That was partly true," he said slowly; "only partly. There's more to
it. It's not a question _yet_ of being wiped out, but it may be a
question. Tom, I'm not sure but what they've got me. It all depends on
the Atlantic Trust. If they dare let it go to the wall--" He grinned,
took a long whistle and threw up his arms.
"But surely not all--you don't mean wiped out?" said Bojo, aghast. "You
must be worth twenty, twenty-two million."
"I am worth that and more," said Drake quietly. "On paper and not only
on paper, under any other system of banking in the world, I would be
worth twenty-seven millions of dollars. Every cent of it. Remember that
afterward, Tom. You'll never see anything funnier. Twenty-seven millions
and to-day I can't borrow five hundred thousand dollars on collateral
worth forty times that. You don't understand it. I'll tell you."