before--when I said 'no.' I still think you ought to have some better
woman for your wife, some woman more nearly your equal, some woman who
could help you to win a great place for yourself in the world and could
herself fill the place of a great man's wife with dignity. You ought to
marry a woman who knows, oh, ever so much that I shall never know--a
woman that you need never be ashamed to introduce as your wife. No,
don't interrupt!" she exclaimed, seeing that he was on the point of
doing so. "I know what you would say, and that is the only thing that
makes me doubt my own conviction about these matters. It seems to me a
wonderful thing that such a man as you should care for such a woman as I
am, but the fact that you do care for me almost makes me think sometimes
that maybe after all I misjudge myself, and that you are right. It
seems so hard to believe you wrong. Now, I must be perfectly frank,
because I know no other way of saying what I must. I have confessed that
I love you. You compelled me to do that. If I were sure of my capacity
to make you happy, not just for a little while, but throughout all your
life, I would say 'yes' to the questions you have asked. But I mustn't
make any mistake that might spoil your life, and so I must not say 'yes'
just now, at least, and you will not let me say 'no.' I am still very
young, as you know. You, too, are young enough to wait. So I think we'll
leave both the 'yes' and the 'no' unsaid for a long time to come--for a
year, perhaps--long enough, at any rate, for both of us to find out
which of us is right. During that time we must be the very best of
friends. You must tell me everything that concerns you, so that I may
practice helping you, and find out whether I can really do it or not. If
you find that I can't you shall be perfectly free to go away from me. If
I find that I can't, then I'll say 'no' and stick to it."
Duncan was disposed to plead for better terms, but the little lady had
fully made up her mind and would accept no modification of the treaty.
Duncan had no choice but to accept an arrangement which, after all, had
much of joy and still more of promise in it.
As they were on the point of parting, Barbara--with something like a
struggle--made an addition to the compact.
"If that slander sticks to you, Guilford, I'll marry you at once and
give it the lie."
What could the warm-blooded young man do but kiss her with fervor?
"Surely you will forgive me," he began in fear, lest he had offended.
"I don't mind--for once. But you mustn't do that again till--well, while
we continue to be just friends."
XXVII
MRS. HALLAM HEARS NEWS
As Guilford Duncan sat late that night, recalling the events of the
evening, he felt himself more and more nearly satisfied with the outcome
of his wooing. It was true, of course, that Barbara had not promised to
become his wife, as he had hoped that she might do, but at any rate she
had confessed her love for him in a way that left nothing to conjecture.
With such a woman, he reflected, love is never lightly given, and once
given it can never be withdrawn.
Moreover, as he reflected upon the compact, he saw how certainly the
close and intimate friendship for which it provided must daily and
hourly draw the two lovers closer and closer together, making each of
them more and more necessary to the other. In brief, there was so much
that was satisfactory in the compact that he put aside all the rest as
"not worth worrying over."
As he realized the extent of his success in his wooing he planned to
perfect it in a hundred ways. He resolved to make every possible
opportunity for Barbara to help him, in order that she might learn how
helpful she could be. He determined to acquaint her with all his
affairs, in the utmost detail, in order that she might make herself more
and more a part of his life. His first thought was that he would
withhold from her knowledge everything that annoyed or distressed him,
thus sparing her all that he could of pain, while telling her freely of
every joyous thing. But he quickly saw how unfair that would be, and how
unlike what such a woman would desire. He had begun to catch something
of Barbara's own spirit, and to know that any reserves with her now
would be a cruel wrong to her loving desire for a helpful share in his
life.
"I will be as frank with her," he resolved, "as if she were already my
wife. She shall share my sorrows as well as my joys. And what a comfort
her sympathy will be!"
He slept little that night, yet on the morrow he went to his work with a
buoyancy of spirit such as he had not known since that evening when he
had first declared his love.
It was in this mood of elation and hopefulness that he went to the
Hallams' an hour before the supper time. He did not yet know what Hallam
and Temple had been trying to do, and of course he knew nothing of the
success they had achieved. But in his present mood he was optimistic
enough to hope for some good result. He thought he might meet Temple at
supper if his work, whatever it was, had been finished, and when he
found that his friend was neither present nor expected, he satisfied
himself with the reflection that the task Temple had undertaken was very
probably one requiring a good deal more time than had elapsed since he
began it. A little later he got more definite information.
"Temple isn't to be with us," he half said, half asked, after the
greetings were over.
"No," answered Captain Will. "He has gone back to the mines. He is
rather done up with the work and anxiety and loss of sleep. I tried to
make him take possession of your rooms this afternoon, for a
straight-away sleep, but he thought he'd rather go back to his wife till
the tenth. He'll be here, however, in time to assist at the _grand
finale_, as the show people call it."
"I'm afraid I don't understand," said Duncan with a look of inquiry.
"Why, there's to be a meeting of the stockholders of the X National on
the tenth, you know."
"I didn't know. But what of it?"
"Why, only that your friend Temple wants to be there, when he and I
march into the meeting controlling a majority interest and elect a board
of directors for old Napper Tandy, leaving him completely out of it. Not
a word about that, however, to anybody, till the time comes. We want to
add to the dramatic effect by making the thing a complete surprise."
If Captain Will Hallam had been a robust boy of ten, chewing upon a
particularly toothsome morsel, he could not have shown a greater relish
for what was in his mouth than he did for these sentences as he uttered
them. His manner had all of active satisfaction in it that an eager card
player manifests when he saves a doubtful game by throwing down a final
and unsuspected trump at the end of a hand that has seemed to be lost.
But Duncan was still mystified, and in answer to his questions Captain
Hallam explained.
"When you got yourself into trouble by monkeying with the accentuations
of a buzz saw," he said, "I could see only one way out, and that was to
put you into a position where even the disembodied spirit of Calumny
itself could not pretend to believe old Napper Tandy's yarn. You know
Tandy is fond of playing tricks, especially upon me, and as the
president and controlling spirit of a rather strong bank, he has been
able to give me a good deal of trouble now and then. A year ago Stafford
and I decided that it might some day be handy for us to control a
majority of the stock in Tandy's bank. There was a good deal of it lying
about loose--that is to say, a number of people held little blocks of
it, ranging from one share to five. All of these people were more or
less under Tandy's influence, and all of them were in the habit of
giving him proxies to vote their stock or else themselves going into the
stockholders' meeting and voting as he desired. Stafford and I quietly
set about buying up this loose stock--through other people, of course,
so that we shouldn't appear in the matter. We had got forty-eight per
cent. of it, when you got yourself into trouble with Tandy. It occurred
to me that if we could get three or four more shares and emphasize our
confidence in you by making you president of Tandy's own bank, and
turning him out to grass, he might see the point and stop his lies. I
flatter myself that Stafford and I are pretty well known all over the
West and among bankers in the East. We are not at all generally regarded
as a pair of sublimated idiots--which same we should certainly be if we
deliberately made a bank president out of a young man whose integrity
was open to any possibility of suspicion. Now, don't be in a
hurry!"--seeing that Duncan was eager to ask questions, or to express
his appreciation of Captain Hallam's interest in himself--"don't be in a
hurry and don't interrupt. Let me tell you the whole story. At first I
didn't see any possible way in which to secure the three shares, without
which I could do nothing. I took pains to have the stock register of the
bank examined. I found that Tandy himself and the members of his
immediate family owned forty-eight shares, and that four more belonged
to Kennedy, the tug captain whom you discharged after calling him by a
picturesque variety of pet names. Of course it was of no use to approach
Kennedy, even through an outsider, as he is in Tandy's employ now, and
very deeply in Tandy's debt. I must explain that, as Stafford and I had
bought stock through agents of our own, we had kept our hands concealed
by leaving the several shares nominally in the hands of the men we had
employed to buy them and instructing those men to go on voting the stock
in whatever way Tandy wished. This made Tandy feel perfectly secure of
his control of the bank. Even if he had sold out half his own interest
he would have felt secure, seeing that all the floating stock was within
his voting control. You see I'm a rather good-natured man, on the whole,
and I never like to make a man feel uncomfortable unless I must. When
your trouble arose I thought I saw that there was nothing for it but to
make a strike for some of Tandy's own stock. I didn't much believe the
thing could be done, but I've seen so many miracles worked in my time
that I believe in them. You sent for Temple--and by the way, he's a
fellow that's built from the ground up--and I set him at work. I told
him what we wanted done and why, but I couldn't tell him how to do it,
because I didn't know. I gave him a free hand, and left him to use his
own wits. As they happened to be particularly good wits, he did the
trick within less than two days. He managed to buy Kennedy's four
shares, not from Kennedy, but from Tandy himself, so that now when the
stockholders' meeting comes, I'll march in, representing the two shares
that I'm known to own, and Temple will be with me, holding proxies for
all the rest of mine and Stafford's stock. We'll vote fifty-two against
forty-eight. We'll name all the directors, and they will make you
president at once. I'll put some shares in your hands to qualify you,
but you ought actually to own at least ten shares in your own right.
Have you got any money loose?"
Captain Hallam knew very well that Duncan had a sufficient deposit
balance in the Hallam bank to cover the suggested purchase, but he
wanted to forestall and prevent the expression of Duncan's thanks. Hence
his question, and hence, also, the look he cast in Mrs. Hallam's
direction, in obedience to which that gracious and sagacious gentlewoman
broke at once and insistently into the conversation.
"Now, if you two men have quite finished with business," she said, "I
want a small share of attention on my own part."
"Will you excuse me for a little while, Duncan," interrupted Captain
Will, "while I give some orders at the stables and in the garden? I very
nearly forgot them. Mrs. Hallam will entertain you in my absence, I'm
sure."
As soon as the head of the house had made his escape through the door,
Mrs. Hallam--whose friendship for Duncan had won all that is possible of
privilege for itself--turned to him and asked:
"Why haven't you been taking Barbara to places? Why didn't you tell me
to invite her here for supper to-night? You know I have had her here a
dozen times, and you know how welcome she always is."
"Your last question is easily answered," he replied. "I did not think of
asking you to invite her to supper this evening for the reason that
Captain Will sent me word that he had business affairs to talk over with
me."
Mrs. Hallam's face was wreathed in smiles.
"I wonder," she said, "if there ever was a young man clever enough to
hold his own with a woman at word fence. And I wonder if there was ever
one who didn't think he could."
"I confess," he said quickly, "that I'm not clever enough to know what
you mean by those two wonderings of yours."
"Oh, yes you do. You deliberately tried to shy off my first
question"--at this point she touched a bell--"by answering the second
first, and then omitting to answer the first at all."
At this moment a servant appeared in answer to her ring.
"Send word to John," she commanded, "to bring the carriage at once--the
open one with the bays. Now, Guilford Duncan, I have no time to talk
with you except the ten minutes before the carriage comes. For I'm going
to put on a hat and go after Barbara. Perhaps, between us, she and I can
prevent you two men from talking business at supper. Tell me----"
"But can Barbara come on so short a notice?"
"What sort of blunderer do you take me to be? I sent her a note two
hours ago saying I should go after her, and she sent me for reply, a
note saying she would be more than glad to come. But you mustn't grow
conceited over that. I didn't tell her you were to be here, or that I
meant to put you into the carriage to escort her home. It is quite
possible that if I had told her that she would have declined the
invitation. Now, answer my first question. Why haven't you been taking
Barbara to places--to church and all the rest of it?"
"Must I tell you the truth?"
"Yes, certainly. What would be the use of telling me anything else? I
should know if your fibbed."
"I really believe you would."
"Why, of course I should. What are a woman's wits for, anyhow?"
"The carriage is at the door," said a servant, entering.
"Very well. Let it wait. Now, Guilford Duncan, go on and tell me."
"Well, the fact is, that I have not been in a position to ask Barbara to
accept my escort to public places."
"Why not? Is it because of this Tandy affair?"
"No."
"Then what? Go on, and don't make me pump the information out of you, as
if you were a well or a leaky barge."
"The fact is," Duncan spoke very seriously now, "that a little while ago
I was betrayed by own emotions into declaring my love for Barbara, much
sooner than I had intended--before she was prepared to hear it."
"Oh, nonsense! As if a girl ever needed preparation for a declaration of
that sort from--- well, from the right sort of man. But go on, you know
the carriage is waiting. Tell me. Has she accepted you?"
"No."
"Has she rejected you?"
"No."
Here Mrs. Duncan again rang the bell, and a servant appeared so promptly
as to suggest that she had been listening just outside the door.
"Tell my maid to get into the carriage and go and fetch Miss Barbara
Verne. Tell her to say that I am detained here, and am forced to send my
maid in my stead."
The servant said, "Yes'm," and withdrew. Then Mrs. Duncan resumed her
questioning with manifest eagerness, but with as much of seriousness as
Duncan himself had shown. There was no touch of flippancy, or even of
lightness in either her words or her tone. For Mrs. Will Hallam was a
woman of deep and tender feeling, a woman to whom all holy things were
sacred.
"Tell me about it all, Guilford. I do not understand, and I must know. I
need not tell you that my interest is not prompted by curiosity. I hold
you as my brother, and I love Barbara. Tell me."
And Duncan did. As he outlined the compact that Barbara had insisted
upon, the smiles replaced solemn apprehension on Mrs. Hallam's face, as
though she foresaw all she desired as the outcome of such an
arrangement.
But all that she said was:
"I am greatly relieved."
XXVIII
THE BIRTH OF A GREAT RAILROAD
Upon becoming president of a strong bank, and the close associate of
Hallam and Stafford in all their undertakings, Guilford Duncan became at
once a factor to be recognized and reckoned with in all enterprises with
which he had to do. He had brains, character, and indomitable energy,
and these had already won for him the respect of the men of affairs. Now
that he had control of money also, his power and influence were
multiplied many fold.
The time was one of expansion. The flood of irredeemable and heavily
depreciated paper currency which had been issued under stress of war
necessities, was producing the usual effect of inflation. It gave a
false seeming of value to every purchasable thing. It caused rapid and
great fluctuations in all markets. It lured men everywhere into
speculation. It dangerously expanded credits and prompted men to
undertake enterprises far beyond their means.
Very early in his career as a banker, Guilford Duncan discovered that
half the merchants in Cairo were young men of little capital and small
capacity, who ought to have remained salaried clerks. These had grown
ambitious, set up for themselves, and were carrying large stocks of
goods almost wholly upon credit. They were staggering under loads of
debt on which they were paying ruinous rates of interest.
It was easy enough for him to protect his bank by gradually reducing its
loans to such men as these, but the prudence thus exercised added to the
number of his enemies. He cared little for that, so long as he knew his
course to be right.
Looking further afield he saw that a like condition of things existed
all over the West, and was the inspiration of much greater undertakings
than those of the merchants and shopkeepers.
He used often to talk of these things with Hallam.
"You're quite right," said that sagacious financier. "The country has
gone on a big financial drunk, and of course the headache will come when
the spree is over. But it won't be over for a considerable time to come,
and in the meanwhile the country is getting a good deal of benefit from
it.
"Fortunately, it is taking a better course than such sprees usually do.
Ordinarily the existence of an inflated, superabundant, and depreciated
currency results in a wild orgy of stock gambling, grain gambling,
cotton gambling, and all the rest of it. There is no more of good in
that--in fact, there is far more of harm in it to the country--than
there would be if everybody went to betting at roulette or faro. It
makes the lucky gamblers rich and the unlucky ones poor, but it produces
nothing, even incidentally. This time the gambling is taking a more
productive form. Instead of betting on market fluctuations, men are
putting money into factories, mines, mills, and railroads--especially
railroads. They are enormously overdoing the thing, but whenever they
build a railroad, even unwisely, the railroad will remain as something
to show for the money when the spree is over."
"That is true enough," said Duncan, "and of course all this railroad and
other building is, incidentally, giving work and wages to great
multitudes of men. But are we not paying too high a price for the good
we get? We are building debts about forty per cent. faster than we are
building railroads. Every mile of track is constructed with borrowed
money, worth only about sixty cents on the dollar. Yet every dollar of
these borrowings must some day be paid off in gold. And in the meantime
the roads must pay a high interest rate on a dollar for every sixty
cents' worth of money borrowed. I do not see how the country can stand
it."
"It can't, permanently, and you haven't mentioned the worst feature of
the matter."
"What is that?"
"Why, in the craze for building railroads, men are projecting and
building many lines that are not needed at all. In some cases two, or
even three, parallel roads are being built through regions that can
never support more than one. It is sheer waste, and of course it means
collapse sooner or later. But there is another side to the matter. The
country is growing enormously in wealth, and still more enormously in
productive capacity. Nothing helps such growth like the multiplication
and extension of railroads. They bring men near to their markets. They
make farming profitable where before it would have been a waste of
labor. They multiply farms and towns, swell the population, and in that
way make a market for manufactures. If we could cut out the parallel
lines and other foolishly projected roads, I firmly believe the growth
of the country in consequence of railroad building would more than
compensate for the extra cost entailed upon us by borrowing at a time of
depreciation in the currency. But we can't prevent fool projectors from
building foolishly, and some day the country's sound business must
shoulder all that load of bad investments. When a boy eats green apples
he is in for a colic, but he generally gets over the colic. It will be
so with the country."
Then the talk turned into a more practical channel.
"You feel sure, then," asked Duncan, "that we are making no mistake and
doing no harm in carrying out our project of a railroad that shall
bring Cairo closer to New York in the matter of railroad mileage?"
"Perfectly sure. That railroad is imperatively needed. It will develop a
very rich agricultural region which has been practically shut off from
the world. There is traffic enough for the road already within sight to
make it pay. When it is built, it will compel a cheapening of freight
rates to the advantage of the whole country."
"You are right, of course," answered Duncan reflectively. "I have gone
over that subject very conscientiously. I am convinced that the road can
carry the debt that must be incurred in building it, and that it will
pay its way. If I had any serious doubt of that, I should have nothing
to do with the thing."
"As it is," responded Hallam, "you've got the heavy end of the log to
carry, so far as work is concerned. When are you going to begin your
campaign?"
"Almost immediately. I've got everything in the bank into satisfactory
shape now, and three days hence I shall begin a speaking tour in the
interior counties. I'll make it even more a talking tour than a speaking
one. For while a public speech, if it is persuasive enough, may
influence many, it is the quieter talking to individuals and small
groups that does most to win votes. I've already secured the
co-operation of all the country editors, but they need stirring up, and
worse still they need somebody to tell them what to say and how to say
it in their newspapers. Of course you and Stafford and Tandy will take
care of Cairo and Alexander county."
This proposed railroad was one clearly destined to be of the utmost
consequence to Cairo and to the region through which the line must run.
The method by which it was planned to secure its construction, was the
one then in general use throughout the West. It may be simply explained.
Everybody concerned was asked to subscribe to what might properly have
been called an inducement fund. The subscriptions were meant to be gifts
made to secure the benefit of the railroad's construction. More
important than these personal subscriptions, and vastly greater in
amount, were the subscriptions of counties, cities, and towns. Under the
law as it then existed each county, city, or town, if its people so
voted, could "lend its credit" to an enterprise of this kind by issuing
its own bonds. When a sufficient sum was raised in this way, an effort
was made, usually in New York, to secure the forming of a construction
company. The whole volume of the subscriptions was offered as an
inducement to such a construction company to undertake the building of
the road. Usually the construction company was to have in addition a
considerable share of the stock of the road when completed. The city,
county, and town subscriptions, of course, depended upon the results of
special elections held for that sole purpose.