IN TROUBLE
I spent a wretched night wondering if Jim, after all, would play such a
dirty trick as to rob an old schoolmate.
Fellows telephoned me from his office and said that if I would come
there, the lawyer was there and we could all talk the matter over
together.
In ten minutes I knew the truth, I learned that the transfer was made
properly to me and that I was responsible for that $3500.00, and,
according to the deed of transfer which Jim gave me, the note for
$3500.00 was payable _on demand_.
I told Barrington, the lawyer, that I'd swear the note was payable one
year after date. He asked me, "Are you sure?"--and if he hadn't asked me
that I would have been, but as it was I was wondering which it was. He
asked me again, "Are you sure it isn't a payable-on-demand note?" I
didn't know, and I didn't know Jim's address!
Barrington then said that the best thing to do was to get an inventory
made as quickly as possible, and then try to get hold of Simpson and see
if we couldn't adjust it with him.
"But," he said--and he looked at me very sternly--"if anything is done
it will be purely because of his generosity or because of the fear we
can instill into him. You are legally responsible for the $3500.00 and
apparently it is payable on demand. How much is the farm worth on which
you gave him a mortgage?"
I told him it was worth about $8,500.00.
"Hum," he said, and pursed his lips.
"Couldn't I deed it to Mother or somebody," I said, "and save it?"
He shook his head. "No, that wouldn't be legal," he said.
"How I wish I had come to you at first!" I said.
"Yes," he replied absentmindedly, "that's the trouble with many
so-called business men. They never think of using a lawyer to keep them
out of trouble, but come to them only after they have got into it!"
A salesman from Bates & Hotchkin came in the afternoon and said his firm
had told him about my wanting an inventory taken and offered to stay
with me till it was done.
"What will it cost?" I asked. My $1500.00 began to look very small to me
then.
He smiled and shook his head, and said:
"It won't cost you anything. If we can be of service to you, we want to
be."
I had also arranged for an accountant to go over the books. He was a
Scotchman, named Jock McTavish, and he was to come the next morning.
Betty urged me to have him install a proper accounting system for me
while he was on the job. I shook my head and said:
"There may not be anything worth putting an accounting system in for.
I've ruined my life and I've spoiled my chances of your--"
She put her hand over my mouth and said:
"Don't be silly! Now is the time to see if you have any manhood in you.
Anybody can talk big when everything goes right! No one ever made a
success without having some failure. Don't you remember what Lord
Beaconsfield said, when he was asked how he attained success?"
I shook my head gloomily.
"He said, 'By using my failures as stepping stones to success!'"
"Well," said I, "I've certainly one big stepping stone here."
"Quite right," said she, "then step up it like a man!"
A girl like Betty, I thought, was worth bucking up for! I just set my
teeth and decided I would pull through the thing somehow!
I thought the worst had happened, but I found it hadn't. Herson, the
salesman from Bates & Hotchkin, completed the inventory, the next day,
with the assistance of the others in the store. I can't say I did much
to help, for I was simply consumed with anxiety. All I did was to serve
customers while it was going on, and that helped to keep me from
worrying too much.
Herson came over to me when he finished the inventory and said:
"I'm afraid you are going to be sadly disappointed at the figures. I
have put the goods in at their present valuation, as near as I can
figure it, and I find that there are $8,100.00 worth."
"Then," said I, "I have lost over a thousand dollars on that
stock--$1,360.00!"
"You surely have," said he.
"Well," I thought, "even so, there's a chance of recovering, and Betty
is looking to me to make good and I must!"
But there was worse to come! McTavish, the accountant, found that the
average sales for the last two years were only $22,000.00 in round
figures, and I had estimated at $28,000.00.
"My," I said to him, "that will bring the profits down to about $40.00 a
week!"
"No," he replied, "they'll no be mooch over half o' that."
"Why?" I asked in amazement.
"Because," said he, "you based your estimate of pr-rofits on the
percentage of expense. Therefore, Meester Black, the less your sales
are, the gr-reater becomes the percentage of expense."
I didn't quite follow this, but he continued:
"Ye should set a dead-line of expense and departmentize your costs."
I looked quite mystified by this, and he explained:
"Do ye noo compr-rehend? I mean ye should have only a certain percentage
of expense for rent, salaries, advertising and se-emilar items, and then
plan your expenses not to exceed these percentages."
"I see," said I. "Will you help me with that?"
"I surely will. I can give the matter some attention in aboot a week,"
said he.
"Then," said I, "so far as you can see, the business, instead of showing
me a profit of about $60.00 a week, will show me only a profit of about
$25.00."
"Just aboot that," he replied. "Indeed, it will approximate somewhat
less. There is one other matter, Mr. Black, I would suggest you do at
once, and that is, let me see the agreement you had wi' that mon,
Simpson."
"That's at Barrington's," I said.
"Well, can we no get hold of Barrington noo?"
"Surely. I'll introduce you to him."
"Don't fash yoursel'," said he with a smile, "that'll no be necessary,
for he was in the store while ye were at yer lunch to-day and I had a
convarsation with him."
"What's the trouble, then?" I asked.
"Merely this," said he, and he put his arm on my shoulder very kindly.
"That mon, Simpson, left $527.00 worth of accounts which he did no pay
and I believe by the agreement ye made wi' him that ye're liable for
them."
I was too thunderstruck to say anything! What a hash I had made of my
first week's business! So far as I could see, I had given up a good job
for one with very little more real money, but a lot of care and worry; I
had been robbed of about $1,300.00 in stock and $500.00 in unexpected
liabilities. My first week's business, then, showed me a loss of nearly
$2,000.00! I began to think I was not so all-fired clever as I thought I
was!
Betty was a little brick! When I told her all about it, she said:
"Well, I don't see anything so _very_ dreadful in that. If you have it
in you to make a business man, you can soon increase the sales of the
store so that you will be making all you thought you would, and perhaps
it won't hurt you to lose a little money at the beginning. Even now, you
are much better off than a great many other people are. If only Simpson
doesn't demand his $3,500.00 at once, so that you don't lose the
farm"--I shivered at the thought--"you'll pull through all right."
When I figured up the sales at the end of the week there was nothing
like the $560.00 that I was figuring on. It was only $281.15. I had more
respect then for proprietors of retail stores than I had a week before!
I hoped that next week I would have that division of expense worked out
so that I could know just what my expenses were going to be.