THE GROWTH OF A BUBBLE
"Young Hardy's making his mark down on the island," observed J. Malcolm
Weston to his partner that morning when they had received notice of the
stock purchase made by Jess, "and if the fellow keeps on as he has
started the quarry won't stand us out a penny."
"I doubt if he does," responded Mr. Hill, who, be it said, fulfilled the
part of a balance wheel to Weston. "From what you have told me there
aren't many on the island who have any spare money."
"Oh, you can't always tell by the clothes such jays wear how much they
have hid away in old stockings," responded Weston. "Those mossbacks
never spend a cent and once they grasp a dollar it passes out of
circulation."
"I am surprised Hardy landed this man Hutton for five hundred," said
Hill, "and so early in the game."
"I am also," replied Weston, "and if I felt sure that Hardy could be
trusted with our plans, I would tell him what our next move is, but I am
not. The trouble with him is, he is too honest, and when we begin to
throw out bait in the way of advance dividends, he will suspect our game
and I am not sure how he will take it."
"Do not think of that yet," replied Hill, "so long as we keep all the
cards in our own hands, we know where the joker is, but never
afterward."
"I am a good mind to take a ran down to Rockhaven," continued Weston
meditatively, "and get better acquainted with this old duffer Hutton and
the rest. Also make some of them a present of a little stock, just to
interest them. It's the way to catch mackerel and those few shares will
return us good results when we declare a dividend."
"Better not," replied the more cautious of the two, "those old fishermen
are not fools, and will conclude that if you are willing to give stock
away, it's of no value. When we do pay a dividend this Hutton will not
keep it a secret and Hardy can then reap the harvest. Besides, he and
his honesty must be considered. It won't do to alarm him. He believes
the scheme is legitimate, and as he has a finger in the pie, will work
for his own end and sell all the stock he can. What I should advise is
that we notify him the price is now two dollars per share and let that
leaven work as it will. How much stock have we sold already?"
"About six thousand shares," replied Weston, "counting that bought by
Hardy."
"And two per cent on the par value of that," continued Hill, figuring on
a slip of paper, "would be twelve hundred dollars. I think one per cent
enough as a starter and that we should pay it now."
"No," replied the more liberal Weston, "it's not best to pinch in the
matter of chum, as the fishermen say, and do things by halves. If we
must bait them now let us bait them well."
And bait them well they did, for the next day's issue of the _Market
News_ contained the following:--
"It is with pleasure we announce that the Rockhaven Granite Company has
declared a dividend of two per cent on the par value of the stock,
payable at the office of Weston & Hill. As we stated a short time ago in
these columns, this well-known and reliable firm, whose enterprise is
now so agreeably proven, do nothing by halves and are only too glad to
distribute all profits as soon as accrued. The stock has already doubled
in price and we predict will reach par in the near future."
And when Jess Hutton received by mail a check for one hundred dollars
as his share of the dividend upon the par value of five hundred shares
and the parson one for ten, Rockhaven began to get excited, and all who
had a dollar to invest made haste to call upon Winn. Captain Doty bought
one hundred shares, Captain Moore, uncle to David the irrepressible, the
same, a few others lesser amounts, and to cap the climax, poor
hard-working Mrs. Moore, Winn's landlady, came to him.
"I've got a little money laid away in the savin's bank ashore," she
said, "an' it's only drawin' four cents a dollar, which ain't much. If
you thinks it's safe mebbe I'd best take some out an' buy some o' this
stock. They all tell me it's payin' and like to go up."
And that night, in the seclusion of his own room, as Winn Hardy thought
matters over, and realized how this speculative excitement was starting
on Rockhaven, just a faint suspicion that the golden apple might be
rotten at the core came to him. As was his way when he wanted to think
and think hard, he at once betook himself out of sight and sound of even
that quiet village, and hied away to the top of Norse Hill. Here he lit
a cigar and planted himself beside the strange structure there, the
history of which no one knew.
And how solemn and silent the still summer evening seemed, and how like
eternity the boundless ocean faintly visible in the starlight. Only its
low murmur at the foot of the cliff and just a faint breeze redolent of
its salty zest reached him. And of Weston & Hill and this new outcome?
He had worked and talked to this end; he had hoped for it, striving to
bring it about, and now that the quarry was each day a busy hive of
workers, the third vessel load of quarried stone nearly all on board and
ready to ship, the entire island agog over this new industry, and not
only willing but anxious to invest their hard-earned savings in
Rockhaven stock, and a prosperous outcome to his ambition in sight, Winn
hesitated.
And the more he ground the grist of Weston & Hill's scheme in his mind
there beside the old stone tower, the less he liked it and the deeper
the germ of suspicion took root. And the cause of it all was the two per
cent dividend!
Winn Hardy, though a country-born boy and lacking in worldly experience,
as well as education, was no fool. He knew that two shiploads of
granite, though sold at a fabulous price, would not pay a profit equal
to half the cost the quarry had so far been, to say nothing of a
dividend, and the only conclusion was not flattering to his firm's
honesty. Then one by one, every little detail of the entire affair;
every instruction they had given; the stock they had presented to him;
the letters they had written; the donation to the parson; Jack
Nickerson's innuendoes; and now this unreasonable payment of dividends
which he knew were not earned,--all passed in review. Honest himself, he
was slow to suspect dishonesty in others, but the longer and more
carefully he weighed these facts in his mind the plainer he saw the word
"fraud" written on each one of them.
And he had put every dollar of the few he had saved into this stock and
borrowed some besides! And worse than that; this honest old fellow Jess,
out of good will to him had put five hundred in and persuaded others to
invest also!
Suspicion is like sailing in a fog; we cannot tell where clear air ends
and fog begins, only the first we know the air seems damp and chill, the
sun obscured and danger near. And so with Winn, there on Rockhaven, with
his vocation and paths in life all mapped out, these people looking
toward him as a benefactor and ready to trust him with their money and
the sun of success shining! And all at once the air seemed chill with
the fog of deceit and fraud, and he knew not where he was. To refuse
those who would buy more stock, he dare not, since it would awaken
suspicion; to accept it was as bad, for it compromised him the deeper.
For a long hour he tried to think a way for himself out of this fog, and
the more he thought the more positive his suspicion grew, and then he
returned to his abode. And there in Rock Lane and as if to increase his
burden of responsibility, was Mona sitting in the porch of her humble
home alone.
"Why, little girl," he said softly, pausing at the gate, "are you not
abed and asleep?"
And Mona, unconscious of how or in what way it would strike him, and in
the utter innocence of her heart, came quickly out to where he was
standing.
"I was lonesome," she said simply, "and waiting for you to come back. I
saw you go up the hill and wondered what for." And Winn, despondent and
worried as he was, and looking down into the sweet face and earnest eyes
upraised to him, felt their tender sympathy wondrously sweet.
"I went up there to think," he said, "and to be alone. It is a way I
have when business troubles me." And bidding her "good night" he left
her.