TWO DOGS AND A BONE
When the market closed that afternoon there was a scene in Simmons's
office and an exchange of lurid language and mutual recrimination
between Weston and himself unfit for publication.
Weston cursed Simmons for an arrant coward and a doddering old idiot,
and Simmons abused Weston for a stupid fool who believed his dupe,
Hardy, was blindly quarrying granite and selling stock to other dupes,
when, instead, he had kept posted, come to the city in the nick of time,
and tipped over their stock dish.
"The next time you pose for a great financier," said Simmons, with
biting sarcasm, "and try to engineer a corner, you had better place half
your stock in the hands of your office boy and tell him to attend the
ball games each afternoon. Then advertise what your intentions are in
the papers. It would be on a par with what you have done. You may be
able to pray with a stupid old woman and hoodwink her, but as for doing
business with men, you have mistaken your calling. You can't even
deceive boys!"
And J. Malcolm Weston, realizing how he had failed on Winn, who he now
knew was in the city, and had been in the exchange that day, hung his
head in shame.
He even forgot to stroke his "stun'sls," as Jess called his side
whiskers.
But there was one solace left him, and he proceeded to carry it out. In
fact, he had made preparation to do so already.
"We will close up our business now, Mr. Simmons," he said in a dejected
tone, when the tirade of abuse had ceased, "and in future I will employ
another broker."
"Yes, and you are d----d welcome to do it," asserted Simmons, whose
wrath had not cooled. "You made a holy show of me to-day and let that
upstart, Page, turn the tables on me, and I've had enough of you. You
had better go and hold a prayer service with Mrs. Converse. With
Rockhavens at nothing bid, she will be in a suitable mood for prayers.
You might ring the changes on 'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away'
with her, but you won't bear any resemblance to the Lord in her
estimation. Take your business and your schemes and hide yourself
somewhere. I would suggest you go to Rockhaven and ask your 'old fossil
fiddler' to play the 'Rogues' March' for you."
And, having thus relieved his mind, Simmons, turned to his desk, and
after a half-hour of careful computation handed Weston a statement and
check for one hundred and ten thousand dollars, which represented the
net results of the securities Weston had turned over to him, after
deducting the actual loss they had made on Rockhaven. For the money
received from the sale of some thirty thousand shares at one dollar
each, had more than been consumed in buying back stock at various prices
to affect the market, in the quarrying operations, in _Market News_
items, and various other outgoes.
What Weston did receive after over a year of scheming was less than the
original capital Hill had put into the firm. Weston had previously
checked out and pocketed the firm's own bank balance, and now he went
the way he had for months planned to go, and that night left the city.
And his wife, who had shrewdly insisted that their residence be deeded
to her, in case of business reverses, shed no tears.
It was a fitting climax to the life of a J. Malcolm Weston.
But there was another episode of equal interest, and that the outcome of
Weston's robbery of Hill. And when that has been told, no more shall
either of these despicable men taint this narrative.
All that day while Rockhaven was first shooting skyward and then
downward, Hill sat in his office watching the ticker. He couldn't go on
to the floor of the exchange; he knew Weston was with Simmons; and so,
like a human hyena, he lurked in his own den, waiting for his share of
the plunder. And when the tape recorded forty for Rockhaven and then
down to nothing in less time than it can be told, Hill was the happiest
of men. He knew the plan was for Simmons to sell at forty, and supposed
that he had done so. And in his greedy joy he began figuring how much
his share of the street's robbery would be.
No thought of the poor widow, whose child was even then at her work in
his outer office, came to him. He knew this confiding woman had, at his
suggestion, invested her all in Rockhaven, and that now it had been
swept away. It mattered not. Neither did he think of Mrs. Converse, more
especially Weston's dupe, and whose stock, now worthless, was locked in
their safe. No thought of young Winn Hardy, their faithful helper, and
his loss came. No thought of anybody who had lost by them and must
suffer entered his narrow and backward-sloping cranium. He only thought
of himself. And his deep-set eyes gleamed with the miser's joy, and his
shallow conceit swelled with pride.
Now he was a great financier!
Now he was a power "on 'change"!
When the market closed and the now beggared stenographer and other
office help had gone home, he still waited. Weston would surely come
soon and acquaint him with the results of their great achievement.
But Weston came not.
And Hill still waited.
And as one hour and then another was ticked off by the office clock, he
ceased computing his share of the coming gains, and an intuitive sense
that all was not right came to him. He was naturally suspicious, and
being a thief at heart himself, quick to suspect others.
And now he suspected Weston!
Little by little his distrust increased as Hill watched the office door
and listened to the clock tick. Trifling remarks that Weston had made,
half-concealed sneers he had let escape, returned to Hill as he watched
and waited.
Certainly he should come and divide, as any honorable thief ought to.
But he did not!
Never before had Weston failed to return at the close of the exchange,
where he was usually closeted with Simmons. Why not now?
And so the demon of suspicion grew.
When another hour had passed and the daily workers in stores were
hurrying homeward, Hill could stand the suspense no longer, and taking
his hat almost ran to Simmons's office.
As might be expected, it was closed.
Then in a frenzy he hurried back to his own office and rang up Weston's
home on the telephone.
Weston was not there.
Then he tried Simmons's home, with the same result.
Then he went home.
From gloating over the prospective fortune he expected to share, he had
in a few hours become almost insane with a dread suspicion. His supper
was but half eaten; he wouldn't answer his patient wife's question; he
couldn't read, or think of but one thing, and that the horrible doubt
and suspicion consuming him.
That night his sleep was filled with fiendish dreams, and he saw Weston
running away and leering back at him over his shoulder.
When morning came, he hurried to his office an hour earlier than usual.
Only the office boy was there, sweeping out. Hill went to his desk,
where the morning mail was left. But one letter was there, and that from
Winn Hardy, dated in the city the night before and enclosing a check for
two hundred and thirty dollars, with the information that it belonged to
the firm and that he had severed his connection with them.
True to his nature, even in despair, Hill put it in his pocket,
resolving to say nothing to Weston about it. Then, to kill time till
Weston came, he opened the morning paper. On the front page was the
staring headlines:--
THE ROCKHAVEN GRANITE COMPANY
GONE TO SMASH
THE PRESIDENT, WESTON, SAID TO HAVE
SKIPPED
And then cold beads of sweat gathered on the face of Carlos B. Hill! All
the horrible suspicion of the day before was now proven true! He waited
to read no more, but with a groan of despair rushed, hatless, out of
the office and ran to that of Simmons. That icicle of a man was there,
calmly reading his mail.
"Where is Weston," almost screamed the half-insane Hill, "and what does
all this mean?"
"I haven't the least idea where Mr. Weston is," replied Simmons, calmly.
"Neither do I care. I balanced our account with him yesterday at the
close of business, at his request, and beyond that have no interest."
"But where is he? Tell me quick, for God's sake!" shouted Hill, now
trembling with excitement and fear. "I must know! Oh, what does this
mean!"
"You had better go back to your own office and read the papers,"
answered the imperturbable Simmons, in a tone of disgust. "And when you
go out again, put your hat on. As for Weston, I've done with him, and
good riddance. He made a mess of his scheme, an ass of me 'on 'change'
yesterday, and I hope I'll never see him again." And the always cool
Simmons turned to his mail. Nothing short of a panic on the street or an
earthquake ever disturbed him.
"But where is all the money we made yesterday?" came from Hill, in
strident voice. "I want it, and I want it now!"
And he did want it more than he wanted good name, fame, wife, home,
life, health, or God even!
"We made no money out of Rockhaven," answered Simmons, too disgusted
even to be polite; "and I told you once, I have squared my account with
Weston and paid him all I owe him. If that is not enough, I'll sing it
to you."
And Hill, too agonized to feel an insult even, turned away. Back to the
office he ran and read the long account of how Rockhaven had gone up
like a rocket and down like a stick. He also read how Simmons had, at
the critical moment, been worsted by Page, and even a description of
Jess Hutton, who was present to see the fiasco. For Page, not satisfied
with his triumph, had called up a reporter, and it is small wonder that
Simmons was thoroughly incensed. There was sarcastic reference to him in
the article: Weston was ridiculed, and even Hill did not escape, for
this sacrilegious scribe had suggested that he could cool his rage at
being baffled by fanning himself with his own ears. It was a malicious
thrust, for the one feature about himself that Hill was ashamed of was
his enormous ears.
In the midst of this added agony, in walked a clerk from their bank to
inform him the account of Weston & Hill was overdrawn ten thousand
dollars, and to make it good inside an hour or legal proceedings would
follow.
Then Hill, with a groan, staggered to their safe and opened the till
where securities were kept.
It was empty!
Then ruined, robbed, insulted, and in utter despair, he who in all his
long life of grasping greed never had had one kindly thought for others,
or of their needs, locked himself in his private office.
And when, an hour later, an officer knocked upon the door, demanding
admittance in the name of the law, a pistol's report was the only
answer.
And Carlos B. Hill, a cowardly sneak in life, died a coward's death.
But the minister of his church uttered an eulogy over him, for so much
had he bought and amply paid for, and a small cortege followed him to
his last resting place.
And among those few there was not a single sincere mourner.
Not even his wife!