A STRANGE CONNECTION DEVELOPS BETWEEN ELECTRICITY AND POLITICS
Chalmers, during Bobby's absence, secured all the secret information
that he could concerning the Brightlight Electric, but nothing to its
detriment transpired in that investigation, and when he returned,
Bobby, very sensibly as he thought, completed his investment. He paid
his two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into the coffers of the
company, and, at the first stock-holders' meeting, voting this stock
and the ten shares he had bought from Sharpe at a hundred and
seventy-two, he elected his own board of directors, consisting of
Chalmers, Johnson, Applerod, Biff Bates and himself, giving one share
of stock to each of the other four gentlemen so that they would be
eligible. The remaining two members whom he allowed to be elected were
Sharpe and J. W. Williams, and the board of directors promptly elected
Bobby president and treasurer, Johnson secretary and Chalmers
vice-president--a result which gave Bobby great satisfaction. Once he
had been frozen out of a stock company; this time he had absolute
control, and he found great pleasure in exercising it, though against
Chalmers' protest. With swelling triumph he voted to himself, through
his "dummy" directors, the salary of the former president--twelve
thousand dollars a year--though he wondered a trifle that President
Eastman submitted to his retirement with such equanimity, and after he
walked away from that meeting he considered his business career as
accomplished. He was settled for life if he wished to remain in the
business, the salary added to the dividends on two hundred and sixty
thousand dollars worth of stock bringing his own individual income up
to a quite respectable figure. If there were no further revenue to be
derived from the estate of John Burnit, he felt that he had a very
fair prospect in life, indeed, and could, no doubt, make his way very
nicely.
He had been unfortunate enough to find Agnes Elliston "not at home"
upon the two occasions when he had called since their disagreement
upon the subject of the Sharpes, but now he called her up by telephone
precisely as if nothing had happened, and explained to her how good
his prospects were; good enough, in fact, he added, that he could look
matrimony very squarely in the eye.
"Allow me to congratulate you," said Agnes sweetly. "I presume I'll
read presently about the divorce that precedes your marriage," and she
hung up the receiver; all of which, had Bobby but paused to reflect
upon it, was a very fair indication that all he had to do was to jump
in his automobile and call on Aunt Constance Elliston, force his way
upon the attention of Agnes and browbeat that young lady into an
immediate marriage. He chose, on the contrary, to take the matter more
gloomily, and Johnson, after worrying about him for three dismal days,
consulted Biff Bates. But Biff, when the problem was propounded to
him, only laughed.
"His steady has lemoned him," declared Biff. "Any time a guy's making
plenty of money and got good health and ain't married, and goes around
with an all-day grouch, you can play it for a one to a hundred
favorite that his entry's been scratched in the solitaire diamond
stakes."
"Uh-huh," responded the taciturn Johnson, and stalked back with grim
purpose to the Electric Company's office, of which Bobby and Johnson
and Applerod had taken immediate possession.
The next morning Johnson handed to Bobby one of the familiar gray
envelopes, inscribed:
_To My Son Upon the Occasion of His Having a Misunderstanding
with Agnes Elliston_
He submitted the envelope with many qualms and misgivings, though
without apology, but one glance at Bobby's face as that young
gentleman read the inscription relieved him of all responsibility in
the matter, for if ever a face showed guilt, that face was the face of
Bobby Burnit. In the privacy of the president's office Bobby read the
briefest note of the many that his forethoughted father had left
behind him in Johnson's charge:
"You're a blithering idiot!"
That was all. Somehow, that brief note seemed to lighten the gloom, to
lift the weight, to remove some sort of a barrier, and he actually
laughed. Immediately he called up the Ellistons. He received the
information from the housekeeper that Agnes and Aunt Constance had
gone to New York on an extended shopping trip, and thereby he lost his
greatest and only opportunity to prove that he had at last been
successful in business. That day, all the stock which Frank L. Sharpe
had held began to come in for transfer, in small lots of from ten to
twenty shares, and inside a week not a certificate stood in Sharpe's
name. All the stock held by Williams also came in for transfer. Bobby
went immediately to see Sharpe, and, very much concerned, inquired
into the meaning of this. Mr. Sharpe was as pleasant as Christmas
morning.
"To tell you the truth, Mr. Burnit," said he, "there were several very
good reasons. In the first place, I needed the money; in the second
place, you were insistent upon control and abused it; in the third
place, since the increased capitalization and change of management the
quotations on Brightlight Electric dropped from one-seventy-two to
one-sixty-five, and I got out before it could drop any lower. You will
give me credit for selling the stock privately and in small lots where
it could not break the price. However, Mr. Burnit, I don't see where
the sale of my stock affects you in any way. You have the Brightlight
Electric now in good condition, and all it needs to remain a good
investment is proper management."
"I'm afraid it needs more than that," retorted Bobby. "I'm afraid it
needs to be in a position to make more money for other people than for
myself;" through which remark it may be seen that, though perhaps a
trifle slow, Bobby was learning.
Another lesson awaited him. On the following morning every paper in
the city blazed with the disquieting information that the Consumers'
Electric Light and Power Company and the United Illuminating and Fuel
Company were to be consolidated! Out of the two old concerns a
fifty-million-dollar corporation was to be formed, and a certain
portion of the stock was to be sold in small lots, as low, even, as
one share each, so that the public should be given a chance to
participate in this unparalleled investment. Oh, it was to be a
tremendous boon to the city!
Bobby, much worried, went straight to Chalmers.
"So far as I can see you have all the best of the bargain," Chalmers
reassured him. "The Consumers', already four times watered and quoted
at about seventy, is to be increased from two to five million before
the consolidation, so that it can be taken in at ten million. The
Union, already watered from one to nine million in its few brief
years, takes on another hydraulic spurt and will be bought for twenty
million. Of the thirty million dollars which is to be paid for the old
corporation, nineteen million represents new water, the most of which
will be distributed among Stone and his henchmen. The other twenty
million will go to the dear public, who will probably be given one
share of common as a bonus with each share of preferred, and pay ten
million sweaty dollars for it. Do you think this new company expects
to pay dividends? On their plants, worth at a high valuation, five
million dollars, and their new capital of ten million, a profit must
be earned for fifty million dollars' worth of stock, and it can not be
done. Within a year I expect to see Consolidated Illuminating and
Power Company stock quoted at around thirty. By that time, however,
Stone and his crowd will have sold theirs, and will have cleaned up
millions. Brightlight Electric was probably too small a factor to be
considered in the consolidation. Did you pay off that mortgage? Then
Stone has his hundred thousand dollars; the back salary list of
Stone's henchmen has been paid up with your money; Sharpe and Williams
have converted their stock and Stone's into cash at a fancy figure;
Eastman is to be taken care of in the new company and they are
satisfied. In my estimation you are well rid of the entire crowd,
unless they have some neat little plan for squeezing you. But I'll
tell you what I would do. I would go direct to Stone, and see what he
has to say."
Bobby smiled ironically at himself as he climbed the dingy stairs up
which it was said that every man of affairs in the city must sooner or
later toil to bend the knee, but he was astonished when he walked into
the office of Stone to find it a narrow, bare little room, with the
door wide open to the hall. There was an old, empty desk in it--for
Stone never kept nor wrote letters--and four common kitchen chairs for
waiting callers. At the desk near the one window sat Stone, and over
him bent a shabby-looking man, whispering. Stone, grunting
occasionally, looked out of the window while he listened, and when the
man was through gave him a ten-dollar bill.
"It's all right," Stone said gruffly. "I'll be in court myself at ten
o'clock to-morrow morning, and you may tell Billy that I'll get him
out of it."
Another man, a flashily-dressed fellow, was ahead of Bobby, and he,
too, now leaned over Stone and whispered.
"Nothing doing," rumbled Stone.
The man, from his gestures, protested earnestly.
"Nix!" declared Stone loudly. "You threw me two years ago this fall,
and you can't come back till you're on your uppers good and proper. I
don't want to see you nor hear of you for another year, and you
needn't send any one to me to fix it, because it can't be fixed. Now
beat it. I'm busy!"
The man, much crestfallen, "beat it." Bobby was thankful that there
was no one else waiting when it was his turn to approach the Mogul.
Stone shook hands cordially enough.
"Mr. Stone," inquired Bobby, "how does it come that the Brightlight
Electric Company was not offered a chance to come into this new
consolidation?"
"How should I know?" asked Stone in reply.
"It is popularly supposed," suggested Bobby, smiling, "that you know a
great deal about it."
Mr. Stone ignored that supposition completely.
"Mr. Burnit, how much political influence do you think you could
swing?"
"Frankly, I never thought of it," said Bobby surprised.
"You belong to the Idlers' Club, you belong to the Traders' Club, to
the Fish and Game, the Brassie, the Gourmet, and the Thespian Clubs.
You are a member of the board of governors in three of these clubs,
and are very popular in all of them. A man like you, if he would get
wise, could swing a strong following."
"Possibly," admitted Bobby dryly; "although I wouldn't enjoy it."
"One-third of the members of the Traders' Club do not vote, more than
half of the members of the Fish and Game and the Brassie do not vote,
none of the members of the other clubs vote at all," went on Mr.
Stone. "They ain't good citizens. If you're the man that can stir them
up the right way you'd find it worth while."
"But just now," evaded Bobby, "whom did you say I should see about
this consolidation?"
"Sharpe," snapped Stone. "Good day, Mr. Burnit." And Bobby walked away
rather belittled in his own estimation.
He had been offered an excellent chance to become one of Stone's
political lieutenants, had been given an opportunity to step up to the
pie counter, to enjoy the very material benefits of the Stone style of
municipal government; and in exchange for this he had only to sell his
fellows. He knew now that his visit to Sharpe would be fruitless, that
before he could arrive at Sharpe's office that puppet would have had a
telephone message from Stone; yet, his curiosity aroused, he saw the
thing through. Mr. Sharpe, upon his visit, met Bobby as coldly as the
January morning when the Christmas bills come in.
"We don't really care for the Brightlight Electric in the combination
at all," said Mr. Sharpe, "but if you wish to come in at a valuation
of five hundred thousand I guess we can find a place for you."
"Let me understand," said Bobby. "By a valuation of five hundred
thousand dollars you mean that the Brightlight stock-holders can
exchange each share of their stock for one share in the Consolidated?"
"That's it, precisely," said Mr. Sharpe without a smile.
"You're joking," objected Bobby. "My stock in the Brightlight is worth
to-day one hundred and fifty dollars a share. My two hundred and sixty
thousand dollars' worth of stock in the Consolidated would not be
worth par, even, to-day. Why do you make this discrimination when you
are giving the stock-holders of the Consumers' an exchange of five
shares for one, and the stock-holders of the United an exchange of
twenty shares for nine?"
"We need both those companies," calmly explained Sharpe, "and we don't
need the Brightlight."
"Is that figure the best you will do?"
"Under the circumstances, yes."
"Very well then," said Bobby; "good day."
"By the way, Mr. Burnit," Sharpe said to him with a return of the
charming smile which had been conspicuously absent on this occasion,
"we needn't consider the talk entirely closed as yet. It might be
possible that we would be able, between now and the first of the next
month, when the consolidation is to be completed, to make you a much
more liberal offer to come in with us; to be one of us, in fact."
Bobby sat down again.
"How soon may I see you about it?" he asked.
"I'll let you know when things are shaped up right. By the way, Mr.
Burnit, you are a very young man yet, and just starting upon your
career. Really you ought to look about you a bit and study what
advantages you have in the way of personal influence and following."
"I have never counted that I had a 'following.'"
"I understand that you have a very strong one," insisted Sharpe. "What
you ought to do is to see Mr. Stone."
"I have been to see him," replied Bobby with a smile.
"So I understand," said Sharpe dryly. "By the way, next Tuesday I am
to be voted upon in the Idlers'. You are on the board of governors up
there, I believe?"
"Yes," said Bobby steadily.
Sharpe studied him for a moment.
"Well, come around and see me about this consolidation on Wednesday,"
he suggested, "and in the meantime have another talk with Stone. By
all means, go and see Stone."
* * * * *
"Johnson," asked Bobby, later, "what would you do if a man should ask
you to sell him your personal influence, your self-respect and your
immortal soul?"
"I'd ask his price," interposed Applerod with a grin.
"You'd never get an offer," snapped Johnson to Applerod, "for you
haven't any to sell. Why do you ask, Mr. Burnit?"
Bobby regarded Johnson thoughtfully for a moment.
"I know how to make the Brightlight Electric Company yield me two
hundred per cent. dividends within a year or less," he stated.
"Through Stone?" inquired Johnson.
"Through Stone," admitted Bobby, smiling at Johnson's penetration.
"I thought so. I guess your father has summed up, better than I could
put it, all there is to be said upon that subject." And from his
index-file he produced one of the familiar gray envelopes, inscribed:
_To My Son Robert Upon the Subject of Bribery_
"When a man sells his independence and the faith of his
friends he is bankrupt. Both the taker and the giver of a
bribe, even when it is called 'preferment,' are like dogs with
fleas; they yelp in their sleep; only the man gets callous
after a while and the dog doesn't. Whoever the fellow is
that's trying to buy your self-respect, go soak him in the
eye, and pay your fine."
"For once I agree most heartily with the governor," said Bobby, and as
a result he did not go to see Stone. Moreover, Frank L. Sharpe was
blackballed at the Idlers' Club with cheerful unanimity, and Bobby
figuratively squared his shoulders to receive the blow that he was
convinced must certainly fall.