might commit himself beyond recall against the scheme. "Pardon me for
interrupting, but you must see that the Redwood mines, in which, I
understand, you own fifteen per cent.----"
"I own twenty-five per cent., for I have put my savings into that
enterprise," answered Duncan.
"Well, so much the better. You must see that the Redwood mines, in which
you own twenty-five per cent., will benefit as much as the Quentin mines
do, by this extension of the railroad. It will give us two markets for
our coal instead of one. We can play one market against the other, you
see, and----"
"That isn't the question that I am employed and paid to answer,"
interrupted Duncan. "You have other and vastly greater interests than
those of the mines, that would be served by the extension of the
railroad. But the financiers who are asked to put their money into this
project will be in nowise benefited, either by the increased earnings of
your coal mine and ours, or by the development of your other and far
greater interests that are dependent upon this extension. So when they
employ me to report upon the project, I am not free to consider any of
these things. I must consider only their interests. I must ask myself
whether or not it will 'pay' them to undertake this extension. I _know_
that it will not. I _know_ that the extended line cannot, within a
generation to come, pay even operating expenses, to say nothing of
interest on the cost of construction. I am bound to set forth those
facts in my report. They pay me to tell them what the facts are. Of
course, I shall tell them truly. Otherwise I should not be an honest
man. I should be a swindler, taking their money as pay for deceiving
them and inducing them to undertake a losing enterprise."
"Now wait a while, Duncan. Listen to me. Your worst fault, and, in
business, your worst handicap, is a tendency to go off at half-cock.
You've learned a lot about business since you came to the West, but you
still have your old Southern notions, and they embarrass you. Let me
explain. I'm a business man, pure and simple. I haven't any ideas, or
prejudices, or foolishnesses of any kind. Neither have those fellows in
New York who have employed you to report on this scheme. They are
playing the game, to win or lose as the case may be. Generally, they
win, but now and then, in a little matter like this, they lose. Of
course, they don't mind. They take their losses and their winnings
together, and if the total result is on the right side they don't bother
about the times they have put their money on the wrong card. It's all a
gamble with them, you know."
"Is it? Then why do they pay me a large fee to find out the facts and
report?"
"Oh, well----"
"Hear me out," interrupted Duncan. "These gentlemen have asked me for an
opinion, and they are paying me for it. Of course I must, as an honest
man, give them an honest judgment."
"Oh, that's all right. But you might be mistaken, you know. You've
formed a judgment after a brief trip through the country. That country
seems poverty stricken just now, but that's because it hasn't enjoyed
the stimulating influence of a railroad. It is a better country than you
think, as I can convince you, if you'll let me take you through it in a
carriage. We can start at once--to-morrow morning--run out to the mines
by rail, and there take a carriage and drive through the country. I've
ordered the carriage, with abundant supplies, from Chicago. I want to
show you the resources of the country. I'll convince you, before we get
back, that the country will build up as soon as the railroad penetrates
it, and that there will be an abundant traffic for the road."
"Pardon me," answered Duncan. "I've already been through that region.
I've questioned every farmer as to his crops. I've questioned every
merchant in every village as to his possible shipments by the railroad,
and as to the amount of goods he hopes to sell if the railroad is built.
Their replies are hopelessly discouraging. Taking their outside
estimates as certain, there cannot be enough traffic over such a line
for twenty years to come, to pay operating expenses. In the meantime the
men whom you are asking to build the road must lose not only the
interest on their investment, but the investment itself. I know all the
facts that bear upon the case."
"All but one," answered Tandy.
"What is that one?"
"That a favorable report from you means a check, right now and here,
to-night, payable to 'Bearer,' for ten thousand dollars. My check is
supposed to be good for all it calls for. You can have it now and it
will be cashed to-morrow morning. Here it is. Payable to bearer as it
is, you needn't endorse it, and you need not be known in the matter in
any way. I'm talking 'business' now."
Duncan scanned the face of his interlocutor for an instant. Then he rose
from his seat, and with utterance choked by emotion managed to say:
"I quite understand. You would bribe me with that check. You would hire
me to betray the confidence of the men who are paying me a very much
smaller sum than ten thousand dollars. You propose to buy my integrity,
my honor, my soul. Very well. My integrity, my honor, and my soul are
not for sale at any price. I shall make an honest report in this matter.
Good-night, sir! Perhaps you will make my excuses to the ladies for not
joining them at supper as I promised to do. As for the rest, you may
explain to them that I am not such a scoundrel as you hoped I might be."
And with that Guilford Duncan stalked out of the house, helping himself
to his hat as he passed the rack in the entry way.
XXII
UNDER THE HONEYSUCKLES
If Guilford Duncan had been a little more worldly wise than he was, he
would have gone at once to Captain Will Hallam. He would have told that
shrewdest of shrewd men of the world all that had passed between himself
and Tandy, and he would have asked Will Hallam's advice as to what
course to pursue.
Instead of that Guilford Duncan went at once to Barbara. He felt a need
of sympathy rather than a need of advice, and he had learned to look to
Barbara, above all other people in the world, for sympathy.
He was still a good deal disturbed in his emotions when Barbara greeted
him in the little porch, and it was a rather confused account that he
gave her of what had happened.
"I don't quite understand," said Barbara at last. "Perhaps if you have a
cup of tea you can make the matter clearer," and without waiting for
assent or dissent, she glided out to the kitchen, whence she presently
returned bearing a fragrant cup of Oolong.
"Now," she said, after he had sipped the tea, "tell me again just what
has happened. You were too much excited, when you told me before, to
tell me clearly."
"Well, it amounts to this," answered Duncan. "That scoundrel Tandy----"
"Stop!" said Barbara, in an authoritative tone. "Never mind Tandy's
character. If you go off on that you'll never make me understand."
In spite of his agitation, Duncan laughed. "How you do order me about!"
"Oh, pardon me!" exclaimed the girl in manifest alarm. "I didn't mean to
do that. I would never think of doing such a thing. I only meant----"
"My dear Miss Barbara, I fully understand. I need ordering about
to-night, and I heartily wish you would take me in hand."
"Oh, but I could never presume to do that!"
"I don't see why," answered Duncan. "You are my good angel, and it is
the business of my good angel to regulate me and make me behave as I
should."
"But, Mr. Duncan----"
"But, Barbara"--it was the first time he had ever addressed her by her
given name and without the "Miss"--"you know I love you--or you ought to
know it. You know I want you to be my wife. Say that you will, and then
I shall be free to tell you all my troubles and to take your advice in
all of them. Say that you love me, Barbara! Say that you will marry
me!"
All this was in contravention of Guilford Duncan's carefully laid plans,
as a declaration of love is apt to be, so long as women are fascinating
and men are human. He had intended to put the thought of his love for
Barbara into her unsuspecting mind by ingenious "trick and device." It
had been his plan presently to escort her to church, to the concerts
that now and then held forth at the Athenæum, to Mrs. Hallam's for a
game of croquet, to Mrs. Galagher's for the little dances that that
gracious gentlewoman gave now and then, even in the heat of a southern
Illinois summer. He had even chartered a steamboat, and planned to give
a picnic in the Kentucky woodlands below Cairo, to which he should
escort Barbara. He had thought in these ways to set the tongues of all
the gossips wagging, and thus to force upon Barbara the thought of his
love for her.
All was now spoiled, as he thought, when he so precipitately declared
his love there in the vine-clad porch.
Barbara was obviously surprised. Duncan could not quite make out whether
she was shocked or not, whether his declaration of love pleased or
distressed her.
For she made no answer whatever. Instead she nervously plucked
honeysuckles and still more nervously let them fall from her hands.
Duncan was standing now, and in torture lest he had spoiled all by his
precipitancy. He waited, as patiently as he could, for the girl's
answer, but it came not. Her silence seemed ominous to him. It seemed to
mean that she was shocked and offended by a declaration of love, for
which he had not in any wise prepared her.
But Duncan was a man of action. It was not his habit to accept defeat
without challenging it and demanding its reasons. So presently he
advanced, passed his arm around Barbara's waist, and gently caressed her
forehead, as a father or an older brother might have done.
She accepted the caress in that spirit, seemingly, and then she turned
toward the hall door, saying:
"Good-night!"
But Duncan was not to be so baffled. He had blundered upon a declaration
of love--as most men do who really love--and he did not intend to go
away without his answer.
"Don't say 'good-night' yet," he pleaded, again passing his arm around
her waist. "Tell me first, is it yes or no? Will you be my wife?"
The girl turned and faced him. There was that in her eyes which he had
never seen there before, and which he could not interpret. At last her
lips parted, and she said:
"I cannot tell, yet. You must wait."
And with that she slipped through the door, leaving him no recourse but
to take his leave without other formality than the closing of the front
gate.
XXIII
CAPTAIN WILL HALLAM IN THE GAME
The next morning, very early, Guilford Duncan's negro servant--for he
kept one now--brought him a note from Barbara. It read in this wise:
I wish you would take your meals at the hotel for a few days, or a
week or two--till you hear from me again.
There was no address written at top of the sheet, and no signature at
the bottom. There was nothing that could afford even a ground for
conjectural explanation. There was nothing that could call for a
reply--perhaps there was nothing that could warrant a reply or excuse
its impertinence. Nevertheless Guilford Duncan sent, by the hands of his
negro servitor, an answer to the strange note. In it he wrote:
I have told you of my love. I tell you that again, with all of
emphasis that I can give to the telling. I have asked you to be my
wife. I ask it again with all of earnestness and sincerity, with
all of supplication, that I can put into the asking. Oh, Barbara,
you can never know or dream or remotely imagine how much these
things mean to me and to my life.
I shall take my meals at the hotel--or not at all--until you bid me
come to you for my answer.
Then, with resolute and self-controlled mind, Guilford Duncan set
himself to work. He prepared his report upon the proposed railroad
extension, condemning it and giving adequate reasons for his
condemnation.
He was still indignant that Napper Tandy should have offered him a
bribe, and in the first draft of his report he had made a statement of
that fact as an additional reason for his adverse judgment. But upon
reflection he rewrote the report, omitting all mention of the bribe
offer. Then he wrote to Tandy--a grievous mistake--telling him that he
had sent in an adverse report, and that he had omitted to mention
Tandy's offer in it.
This gave Tandy the opportunity he wanted and Guilford Duncan was not
long in discovering the fact. A week later Captain Will Hallam said to
him:
"So you've been quarreling with Napper Tandy?"
"Yes," answered Duncan. "He offered to bribe me to make a false report
in the railroad extension matter."
"Why didn't you tell me about it?"
"Oh, I didn't want to bother you with a whining. I rejected the bribe,
of course, and told him what I thought of him, and that seemed to me
enough."
"Well, it wasn't. You ought to have told me. Then we could have made him
put his offer into writing, or make it in my presence. As it is, he's
got you where the hair is uncommonly short."
"How do you mean?"
"Why, he has written to the financiers, telling them that as soon as
they employed you, you went to him and demanded a payment of ten
thousand dollars as an inducement to you to make a favorable report;
that he refused, and that consequently your report was adverse. They
will refuse to build the railroad, but they have written to ask me as to
your integrity."
"The infernal scoundrel! How----"
"It doesn't pay to call him names. We must think out a way to meet this
thing."
"I'll horsewhip him on the street!" exclaimed Duncan.
"No, don't! That would only advertise the matter and do no good. A man
of your physique has no occasion for fear in horsewhipping a man like
Napper Tandy, and can show no courage by doing it. The only result would
be that people would say there must be something in his accusation, else
you wouldn't be so mad about it. You have made a good many enemies, you
know, and they will take pleasure in repeating Tandy's accusations.
Really, Duncan, you ought to have been more discreet. You ought to have
taken a witness with you, when you went to his house for consultation.
As it is, the financiers have so far believed in you as to reject his
scheme on your report, and in face of his accusation, but he'll do you a
mighty lot of damage in Cairo and elsewhere. I don't know what to do."
"I do," answered Guilford Duncan resolutely. "A year ago you and Ober
wanted to make me mayor of this town. I explained to you that I was
ineligible then, not having been long enough a resident of the State. I
am eligible now, and I shall announce myself to-day as a candidate."
"What good will that do?"
"It will give the people of the city a chance to pass upon my
integrity--to say by their ballots what they think of me; and,
incidentally, it may give me an opportunity to say what I think and know
of Napper Tandy."
"I don't know so well about that. You see, people don't always express
their opinions by their votes. They let their politics and their
prejudices have a say, and you know you have made a good many enemies.
Then again, what good will it do you to tell the public what you think
of Tandy? That won't convince a living soul who isn't convinced already.
The rest will say that you are naturally very angry with the man who
found you out--the man from whom you unsuccessfully tried to extort a
bribe. You see there were no witnesses present when your interview with
Tandy occurred. That was a capital mistake on your part. Then, too, you
went to his house for this business, and people will say that that, too,
looks bad. You have destroyed the invitation he sent you, and so you
have nothing to show that you didn't go to his house, as he says you
did, without invitation, in order to extort a bribe. It's a bad mix-up,
but for you to go into politics would only make it worse. We must find
another way out. Keep perfectly still, and leave the matter to me. I'll
plan something." Then suddenly a thought flashed into Captain Will
Hallam's mind.
"By Jove! I've got it, I believe. Go down to our bank and ask the
cashier, Mr. Stafford, how many shares we can control in the X
National--Tandy's bank; he's president, you know."
Without at all understanding Captain Hallam's purpose, Duncan went upon
this mission, returning presently with the information that in one way
and another the Hallam bank controlled forty-eight shares of the X
National's stock--or three shares less than a majority of the whole. He
brought also the message from Stafford that as Tandy himself controlled
the remaining fifty-two shares it would probably be impossible at
present to buy any more.
"I don't know so well about that," said Hallam reflectively. "I've
managed in my time to get a good many impossible things done. I'm not a
very firm believer in the impossible." Then suddenly he turned to Duncan
and fired a question at him:
"Have you a friend anywhere whom you can trust--one not known in Cairo?"
"Yes, one."
"You are sure you can trust him?"
"Yes, absolutely."
"You wouldn't hesitate to put a pile of money into his hands without a
scrap of paper to show that the money was yours, not his?"
"I would trust him as absolutely as I would trust you, or you me."
"All right, who is he?"
"Dick Temple--the mining engineer and superintendent."
"Telegraph him at once. Ask him to come down on the evening train. Tell
him to say nothing about knowing you or me, but to come to your rooms
this evening. I'll see him there."
Duncan took up a pad of telegraph blanks and a pencil. He had scarcely
begun to write when Hallam stopped him.
"Never do that," he exclaimed. "Never write a message on a pad,
especially with a pencil."
"But why not?"
"See!" answered Hallam, tearing off the blank on which Duncan had begun
to write, and directing attention to the blank that lay beneath. "The
impression made by the pencil on the under sheet is as legible as the
writing above. It would be awkward if Tandy should pick up that pad and
find out what you had telegraphed. Always tear the top blank off the
pad and lay it on the desk before you write on it."
"Thank you! That's another of your wise precepts. I wonder I didn't
think of it before."
"Oh, hardly anybody ever does think of such things, but they make
trouble."
That night Hallam, Duncan, and Temple met in Duncan's rooms. Hallam
promptly took possession by requesting Duncan to "go away somewhere,
while I explain matters to Temple."
When Duncan had taken his leave Hallam plunged at once into the heart of
things.
"Duncan tells me you're his friend--one who will stand by him?"
"I am all that, you may be sure, Captain Hallam."
"Very good. Now is the time to show yourself such. Duncan has got
himself into something worse than a hole, and his whole career, to say
nothing of his honorable reputation, is in danger. You and I can save
him."
"Would you mind telling me the exact situation? Not that I need to know
it in order to do anything you think would be helpful, but if I fully
understand the matter, I shall know better what to do in any little
emergency that may come about."
"Of course, of course. It's simply this way. Duncan is so straight
himself that it never occurs to him that other people are different.
There are some things so utterly mean that he simply can't imagine any
man capable of doing them. So he doesn't take necessary precautions. It
was all right for him to offend Napper Tandy by doing his own best up
there at the mines. But he ought to have known enough of human nature
not to put himself in old Napper's power when he felt bound to offend
him worse than ever."
Then Captain Will told in detail the story of the visit to Tandy, the
bribe offer, the adverse report, and the way in which Tandy had made the
whole affair appear to have been an effort on Duncan's part to extort a
bribe and betray those who had employed him. Temple readily grasped the
situation.
"The worst of it is," he said, "Duncan can't even sue the old scoundrel
for libel without making matters worse. Tandy would stick to his story,
and as there were no witnesses that story would seem probable to people
who don't know Duncan. What are we to do, Captain Hallam?"
"Well, it all depends upon your shrewdness and circumspection. Tandy is
president of the X National Bank, you know. That's his club to fight me
with. So, little by little, I've bought in there--through other people,
you understand--so that now Stafford and I own forty-eight of the bank's
hundred shares of stock, though on the books our names do not appear at
all. Tandy owns the other fifty-two shares, I suppose, or at least he
controls them. Indeed, whenever a stockholder's meeting occurs he votes
practically all the stock, for it has been my policy to hide my hand by
having the men who hold stock for me, give him their proxies as a blind.
"Now, what I propose is, that you shall manage somehow to get hold of a
little block of the stock--three shares will be enough to give me the
majority, but I'd rather make it four or five shares. If we can get the
stock I'll surprise Tandy out of a year's growth by going into the
stockholders' meeting, which occurs about ten days from now, and
proceeding to elect a board of directors for the bank. I'll select the
men I want for directors, and the board will at once make Guilford
Duncan president of the bank, leaving old Napper a good deal of leisure
in which to enjoy life. He'll need it all to convince anybody that
there's anything shady in Guilford Duncan's character after it is known
that Will Hallam has made him president of a bank."
Hallam chuckled audibly. He was enjoying the game, as he always did.
"Indeed, he will. But everything, as I understand it, depends upon my
ability to secure the necessary shares of stock?"
"Yes, it all hangs on that, and it will be a ticklish job. Tandy is as
wily as any old fox. You're sure he doesn't know you?"
"Neither by sight nor by name."
"You're sure nobody in his bank knows you and your relations with me?"
"Yes, I am certain. I was never in this town before, and as for my
relations with you, why they have existed for so brief a time, at such a
distance from Cairo, and are so obscure in themselves, that I think
nobody knows them. Besides, you might discharge me, you know, if that
should become necessary."
"We won't consider that as even possible. Now, as to ways and means. You
see I depend upon you alone, and of course you must have a free hand.
You mustn't consult me, or Stafford, or Duncan, or anybody else. You are
to act on your own judgment, furnish your own supply of sagacity, and
get that stock in your own way."
"I'll do it, even if I have to resign from your service and hunt another
job. But I must have some money."
"Of course. How much?"
"Well, the stock will cost a trifle over par, I suppose--somewhat more
than a thousand dollars a share. I should be prepared to buy a block of
ten shares. You see, I might find a block of that kind which the owner
would sell 'all or none.' I should have, say, eleven or twelve thousand
dollars at instant command."
"All right. I'll have Stafford open an account with you in our bank
to-morrow morning, with a credit balance of twelve thousand, and you
can check----"
"Pardon me, but if I offer checks on your bank Tandy will suspect our
alliance."
"That is true. You must have the greenbacks themselves. I'll send for
Stafford now and have him give you the money in large bills to-night."
"Pardon me," answered Temple, "but if I go to him with so great a sum in
actual----"
"Yes, I see. That would certainly arouse suspicion. What have you in
mind?"
"Why, you or your bank must have banks in correspondence with you, banks
in Chicago, or better still, New York?"
"Yes, of course."
"Can you not telegraph to one of them and arrange to have them say in
response to a dispatch of inquiry from Tandy's bank, that my credit with
them is good for twelve thousand dollars, and that if I wish to make use
of some money in Cairo, they will pay my drafts up to that amount?"
"That's it. That will be the best plan in every way. You'll need
identification, and I'll arrange that. You're stopping at the hotel, of
course?"
"Yes."
"Very well. I'll call by there on my way home, and tell the proprietor,
Jewett, to go to the bank and identify you whenever called upon."
"Will he not talk?"