_The Ultimatum_
Upon the following morning Gramont called both Jachin Fell and Lucie
Ledanois over the telephone. He acquainted them briefly with the result
of his oil investigation, and arranged a meeting for ten o'clock, at
Fell's office.
It was slightly before ten when Gramont called with the car for Lucie.
Under the spell of her smiling eagerness, the harshness vanished from
his face; it returned again a moment later, for he saw that she, too,
was changed. There was above them both a cloud. That of Gramont was
secret and brooding. As for Lucie, she was in mourning. The murder of
Joseph Maillard, the arrest and undoubted guilt of Bob Maillard, dwarfed
all else in her mind. Even the news of the oil seepage, and the fact
that she was probably now on the road to wealth, appeared to make little
impression upon her.
"Thank heaven," she said, earnestly, as they drove toward Canal Street,
"that so far as you are concerned, Henry, the Midnight Masquer affair
was all cleared up before this tragedy took place! It was fearfully
imprudent of you----"
"Yes," answered Gramont, soberly, reading her thought. "I can realize my
own folly now. If this affair were to be laid at my door, some kind of a
case might be made up against me, and it would seem plausible. But,
fortunately, I was out of it in time. Were we merely characters in a
standardized detective story, I suppose I'd be arrested and deluged with
suspense and clues and so forth."
"Your escape was too narrow to joke over, Henry," she reproved him,
gravely.
"I'm not joking, my dear Lucie. I learned nothing about the tragedy
until late last night. From what I can find in the papers, it seems
agreed that Bob was not the real Masquer, but had assumed that guise for
a joke. A tragic joke! Since he was undoubtedly drunk at the time, his
story can't be relied upon as very convincing. And yet, it's frightfully
hard to believe that, even by accident, a son should have shot down his
own father----"
"Don't!" Lucie winced a little. "In spite of all the evidence against
him, in spite of the way he was found with that aviation uniform, it's
still awful to believe. I can't realize that it has actually happened."
"According to the papers, poor Mrs. Maillard has gone to pieces. No
wonder."
"Yes. I was there with her all day yesterday, and shall go again to-day.
They say Bob is terribly broken up. He sent for his mother, and she
refused to see him. I don't know how it is all going to end! Do you
think his story might be true--that somebody else might have acted as
the Masquer that night?"
Gramont shook his head.
"It's possible," he said, reluctantly, "yet it hardly seems very
probable. And now, Lucie, I'm very sorry indeed to say it--but you must
prepare yourself against another shock in the near future."
"What do you mean? About the oil----"
"No. It's too long a story to tell you now; here we are at the Maison
Blanche. Just remember my words, please. It's something that I can't go
into now."
"Very well. Henry! Do you think that it's possible your chauffeur,
Hammond, could have learned about the drinking party, and could
have----"
Gramont started. "Hammond? No. I'll answer for him beyond any question,
Lucie. By the way, does Fell know anything about Hammond having been the
first Masquer?"
"Not from me," said the girl, watching him.
"Very well. Hammond got into a bit of trouble at Houma, and I had to
leave him there. It was none of his fault, and he'll get out of it all
right. Well, come along up to our oil meeting! Forget your troubles, and
don't let my croakings about a new shock cause you any worry just yet."
He was thinking of Jachin Fell, and the girl's closeness to Fell. Had he
not known that Fell was responsible for Hammond's being in jail, he
might have felt differently. As it was, he was now fore-warned and
fore-armed, although he could not see what animus Fell could possibly
have against Hammond.
It was lucky, he reflected grimly, that he had never breathed to a soul
except Lucie the fact that Hammond had been the first Masquer! Had Fell
known this fact, his desire to lay Hammond by the heels might have been
easily fulfilled--and Hammond would probably have found himself charged
with Maillard's murder.
They found Jachin Fell dictating to a stenographer. He greeted them
warmly, ushering them at once into his private office.
Gramont found it difficult to convince himself that his experiences of
the previous afternoon had been real. It was almost impossible to
believe that this shy, apologetic little man in gray was in reality the
"man higher up!" Yet he knew it to be the case--knew it beyond any
escape.
"By the way," and Fell turned to Gramont, "if you'll dictate a brief
statement concerning that oil seepage, I'd be obliged! Merely give the
facts. I may have need of such a statement from you."
Gramont nodded and joined the stenographer in the outer office where he
dictated a brief statement. It did not occur to him that there might be
danger in this; at the moment, he was rather off his guard. He was
thinking so much about his future assault on Fell that he quite ignored
the possibility of being placed on the defensive.
Within five minutes he had returned to Lucie and Jachin Fell, who were
discussing the condition of Mrs. Maillard. Gramont signed the statement
and handed it to Fell, who laid it with other papers at his elbow.
"I suppose we may proceed to business?" began Fell. "I have drawn up
articles of partnership; we can apply for incorporation later if we so
desire. Lucie, both Henry Gramont and I are putting twenty-five thousand
dollars into this company, while you are putting in your land, which I
am valuing at an equal amount. The stock, therefore, will be divided
equally among us. That is understood?"
"Yes. It's very good of you, Uncle Jachin," said the girl, quietly.
"I'll leave everything to your judgment."
The little gray man smiled.
"Judgment is a poor horse to ride, as Eliza said when she crossed the
ice. Here's everything in black and white. I suggest that you both
glance over the articles, sign up, and we will then hold our first
meeting."
Gramont and Lucie read over the partnership agreement, and found it
perfectly correct.
"Very well, then, the meeting is called to order!" Jachin Fell smiled as
he rapped on the desk before him. "Election of officers--no, wait! The
first thing on hand is to give our company a name. Suggestions?"
"I was thinking of that last night," said Lucie, smiling a little. "Why
not call it the 'American Prince Oil Company'?" And her eyes darted to
Gramont merrily.
"Excellent!" exclaimed Jachin Fell. "My vote falls with yours, my
dear--I'll fill in the blanks with that name. Now to the election of
officers."
"I nominate Jachin Fell for president," said Gramont, quickly.
"Seconded!" exclaimed the girl, gaily, a little colour in her pale
cheeks.
"Any other nominations? If not, so approved and ordered," rattled Fell,
laughingly. "For the office of treasurer----"
"Miss Lucie Ledanois!" said Gramont. "Move nominations be closed."
"Seconded and carried by a two-thirds vote of stockholders," chirped
Fell in his toneless voice. "So approved and ordered. For secretary----"
"Our third stockholder," put in Lucie. "He'll have to be an officer, of
course!"
"Seconded and carried. So approved and ordered." Mr. Fell rapped on the
table. "We will now have the report of our expert geologist in further
detail than yet given."
Gramont told of finding the oil; he was not carried away by the gay
mock-solemnity of Jachin Fell, and he remained grave. He went on to
relate how he had secured the lease option upon the adjoining land, and
suggested that other such options be secured at once upon other property
in the neighbourhood. He handed the option to Fell, who laid it with the
other documents.
"And now I have a proposal of my own to make," said Jachin Fell. He
appeared sobered, as though influenced by Gramont's manner. "Although
we've actually found oil on the place, there is no means of telling how
much we'll find when we drill, or what quality it will be. Is that not
correct, Mr. Gramont?"
"Entirely so," assented Gramont. "The chances are, of course, that we'll
find oil in both quality and quantity. On the other hand, the seepage
may be all there is. Oil is a gamble from start to finish. Personally,
however, I would gamble heavily on this prospect."
"Naturally," said Mr. Fell. "However, I have been talking over the oil
business with a number of men actively engaged in it in the Houma field.
I think that I may safely say that I can dispose of the mineral rights
to our company's land, together with this lease option secured yesterday
on the adjoining land, for a sum approximating one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars; reserving to our company a sixteenth interest in any
oil located on the property. Personally, I believe this can be done, and
I am willing to undertake the negotiations if so empowered by a note of
our stockholders. Lucie, you do not mind if we smoke, I know? Let me
offer you a cigar, Mr. Gramont."
Gramont took one of the El Reys offered him, and lighted it amid a
startled silence. Fell's proposal came to him as a distinct shock, and
already he was viewing it in the light of prompt suspicion.
"Why," exclaimed Lucie, wide-eyed, "that would be fifty thousand dollars
to each of us, and not a cent expended!"
"In case it went through on that basis," added Jachin Fell, his eyes on
Gramont, "I would vote that the entire sum go to Miss Ledanois. Her land
alone is involved. If she then wishes to invest with us in a new company
to exploit other fields, well and good. One moment, my dear! Do not
protest this suggestion. The sixteenth interest reserved to our company
would provide both Mr. Gramont and me with a substantial reward for our
slight activity in the matter. Don't forget that interest, for it might
amount to a large figure."
"Right," assented Gramont. "I would second your vote, Mr. Fell; I think
the idea very just and proper that Miss Ledanois should receive the
entire amount."
Lucie seemed a trifle bewildered.
"But--but, Henry!" she exclaimed. "What do you think of selling the
lease to these other men?"
Gramont eyed the smoke from his cigar reflectively, quite conscious that
Mr. Fell was regarding him very steadily.
"I can't answer for you, Lucie," he said at last. "I would not presume
to advise."
Mr. Fell looked slightly relieved. Lucie, however, persisted.
"What would you do, then, if you were in my place?"
Gramont shrugged his shoulders.
"In that case," he said, slowly, "I would gamble. We know oil is in that
ground; we know that it has been found in large quantities at Houma or
near there. To my mind there is no doubt whatever that under your land
lies a part of the same oil field--and a rich one. To sell
fifteen-sixteenths of that oil for a hundred and fifty thousand is to
give it away. I would sooner take my chances on striking a
twenty-thousand barrel gusher and having the whole of it to myself.
However, by all means disregard my words; this is not my affair."
Lucie glanced at Jachin Fell.
"You think it is the best thing to do; Henry does not," mused the girl.
"I know that you're both thinking of me--of getting that money for me.
Just the same, Uncle Jachin, I--I won't be prudent! I'll gamble!
Besides," she added with smiling naïveté, "I'm not a bit willing to give
up having a real oil company the very minute it is formed! So we'll
outvote you, Uncle Jachin."
Despite their tension, the two men smiled at her final words.
"That motion of mine has not yet been made," said Fell. Her rejection of
his proposal had no effect upon his shyly smooth manner. "Will you
excuse us one moment, Lucie? If I may speak with you in the outer
office, Mr. Gramont, I would like to show you some confidential matters
which might influence your decision in this regard."
Lucie nodded and leaned back in her chair.
Gramont accompanied Fell to the outer office, where Fell sent the
stenographer to keep Lucie company. When the door had closed and they
were alone, Fell took a chair and motioned Gramont to another. A cold
brusquerie was evident in his manner.
"Gramont," he said, briskly, "I am going to make that motion, and I want
you to vote with me against Lucie. Unfortunately, I have only a third of
the voting power. I might argue Lucie into agreement, but she is a
difficult person to argue with. So I mean that you shall vote with
me--and I'm going to put my cards on the table before you."
"Ah!" Gramont regarded him coolly. "Your cards will have to be powerful
persuaders!"
"They are," returned Jachin Fell. "I have been carefully leading up to
this point--the point of selling. I have practically arranged the whole
affair. I propose to sell the mineral rights in that land, largely on
the strength of the signed statement you gave me a few moments ago. That
statement is going to be given wide publicity, and it will be
substantiated by other reports on the oil seepage."
"You interest me strangely." Gramont leaned back in his chair. The eyes
of the two men met and held in cold challenge, cold hostility. "What's
your motive, Fell?"
"I'll tell you: it's the interest of Lucie Ledanois." In the gaze of
Fell was a strange earnestness. In those pale gray eyes was now a light
of fierce sincerity which startled and warned Gramont. Fell continued
with a trace of excitement in his tone.
"I've known that girl all her life, Gramont, and I love her as a father.
I loved her mother before her--in a different way. I can tell you that
at this moment Lucie is poor. Her house is mortgaged; she does not know,
in fact, just how poor she really is. Of course, she will accept no
money from me in gift. But for her to get a hundred and fifty thousand
in a business deal will solve all her problems, set her on her feet for
life!"
"I see," said Gramont with harsh impulse. "What do you get out of it?"
He regretted the words instantly. Fell half rose from his chair as
though to answer them with a blow. Gramont, aware of his mistake,
hastened to retract it.
"Forgive me, Fell," he said, quickly. "That was an unjust insinuation,
and I know it. Yet, I can't find myself in agreement with you. I'm
firmly set in the belief that a fortune in oil will be made off that
land of Lucie's. I simply can't agree to sell out for a comparative
pittance, and I'll fight to persuade her against doing it! As I look at
it, the thing would not be just to her. I'm thinking, as you are, only
of her interest."
A light of sardonic mockery glittered in the pale eyes of Jachin Fell.
"You are basing your firm conviction," he queried, "very largely upon
your discovery of the free oil?"
"To a large extent, yes."
"I thought you would," and Fell laughed harshly.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," said the other, fiercely earnest, "that for a month I've
worked to sell that land! I had young Maillard hooked and landed--it
would have been poetic justice to make him hand over a small fortune to
Lucie! But that deal is off, since he's in jail. And do you know why
young Maillard wanted to buy the land? For the same reason you don't
want to sell. I sent him out there and he saw that oil seepage, as I
meant that he should! He thought he would skin Lucie out of her land,
not dreaming that I had prepared a nice little trap to swallow him. And
now you come along----"
"Man, what are you driving at?" exclaimed Gramont. He was startled by
what he read in the other man's face.
"Merely that I planted that oil seepage myself--or had it done by men I
could trust," said Jachin Fell, calmly. He sat back in his chair and
took up his cigar with an air of finality. "The confession is shameless.
I love Lucie more than my own ethical purity. Besides, I intend to wrong
no one in the matter."
Gramont sat stunned beyond words. The oil seepage--a plant!
The thing could have been very easily done, of course. As he sat silent
there unfolded before him the motives that underlay Fell's entire
action. The amazing disclosure of Jachin Fell's intrigue to enrich the
girl left him bewildered. This, coupled with what he had learned on the
preceding day about Jachin Fell, put his own course of action into grave
perplexity.
There was no reason to doubt what Fell said. Gramont believed the little
man sincere in his love for Lucie.
"No matter what the outcome, your reputation will not be affected," said
Fell, quietly. "The company which will buy this land of Lucie's is
controlled by me. You understand? Even if no oil is ever found there, I
shall see to it that you will not be injured because of that signed
statement."
Gramont nodded dull comprehension. He realized that Fell had devised
this whole business scheme with infernal ingenuity; had devised it in
order to take a hundred and fifty thousand dollars out of his own pocket
and put it into that of Lucie. It was a present which the girl would
never accept as a gift, but which, if it came in the way of business,
would make her financially independent. Nobody would be defrauded. There
was no chicanery about it. The thing was straight enough.
"That's not quite all of my plan," pursued Fell, as though reading
Gramont's unuttered thoughts. "The minute this news becomes public, the
minute your statement is published, there will be a tremendous boom in
that whole section. I shall take charge of Lucie's money, and within
three weeks I should double it, treble it, for her. Before the boom
bursts she will be out of it all, and wealthy. Now, my dear Gramont, I
do not presume that you will still refuse to vote with me? I have been
quite frank, you see."
Gramont stirred in his chair.
"Yes!" he said, low-voiced. "Yes, by heavens, I do refuse!"
With an effort he checked hotly impulsive words that were on his tongue.
One word now might ruin him. He dared not say that he did not want to
see Fell's money pass into the hands of Lucie--money gained by fraud and
theft and crime! He dared not give his reasons for refusing. He meant
now to crush Fell utterly--but one wrong word would give the man full
warning. He must say nothing.
"It's not straight work, Fell. Regardless of your motives, I refuse to
join you."
Jachin Fell sighed slightly, and laid down his cigar with precision.
"Gramont," his voice came with the softly purring menace of a tiger's
throat-tone, "I shall now adjourn this company meeting for two days,
until Saturday morning, in order to give you a little time to
reconsider. To-day is Thursday. By Saturday----"
"I need no time," said Gramont.
"But you will need it. I suppose you know that Bob Maillard has been
arrested for parricide? You are aware of the evidence against him--all
circumstantial?"
Gramont frowned. "What has that got to do with our present business?"
"Quite a bit, I fancy." A thin smile curved the lips of Jachin Fell.
"Maillard is not guilty of the murder--but you are."
"Liar!" Gramont started from his chair as those three words burned into
him. "Liar! Why, you know that I went home----"
"Ah, wait!" Fell lifted his hand for peace. His voice was calm. "Ansley
and I both saw you depart, certainly. We have since learned that you did
not reach home until some time after midnight. You have positively no
alibi, Gramont. You may allege, of course, that you were wandering the
streets----"
"As I was!" cried Gramont, heatedly.
"Then prove it, my dear fellow; prove it--if you can. Now, we shall keep
Lucie out of all this. What remains? I know that you were the Midnight
Masquer. My man, Ben Chacherre, can prove by another man who accompanied
him that the Masquer's loot was taken from your car. A dictograph in the
private office, yonder, has a record of the talk between us of the other
morning, in which you made patent confession to being the Masquer.
"Once let me hand this array of evidence over to the district attorney,
and you will most certainly stand trial. And, if you do stand trial, I
can promise you faithfully that you will meet conviction. I have
friends, you see, and many of them are influential in such small
matters."
It was not a nice smile that curved the lips of Fell.
Gramont choked back any response, holding himself to silence with a firm
will. He dared say nothing, lest he say too much. He saw that Fell could
indeed make trouble for him--and that he must strike his own blow at
Fell without great delay. It was a battle, now; a fight to the end.
Fell regarded Gramont cheerfully, seeming to take this crushed silence
as evidence of his own triumph.
"Further," he added, "your man Hammond is now in jail at Houma, as you
know, for the murder of the sheriff. Now, my influence is not confined
to this city, Gramont, I may be able to clear Hammond of this charge--if
you decide to vote with me. I may keep what I know about the Midnight
Masquer from the press and from the district attorney--if you decide to
vote with me. You comprehend?"
Gramont nodded. He saw now why Fell wanted to "get something" on
Hammond. Fell had rightly reasoned that Gramont would do more to save
Hammond than to save himself.
"You think I murdered Maillard, then?" he asked.
"Gramont, I don't know what to think, and that's the honest truth!"
answered Fell, with a steady regard. "But I am absolutely determined to
put this oil deal across, to make Lucie Ledanois at least independent,
if not wealthy. I can do it, I've made all my plans to do it, and--I
_will_ do it!
"We'll hold another meeting day after to-morrow--Saturday morning." Fell
rose. "That will give me time to conclude all arrangements. I trust, Mr.
Gramont, that you will vote with me for the adjournment?"
"Yes," said Gramont, dully. "I will."
"Thank you," and Jachin Fell bowed slightly, not without a trace of
mockery in his air.