SOLD OUT
What a fool he was and how much the tiger lady hated him Rimrock was
already in a position to judge, but the inner meaning of "Kiss your money
good-bye!" was still to be disclosed. As he dashed down the hall and out
into the street and into the first taxi that passed it seemed but a
cynical way of saying that his sole sweetheart was gold; but when he
reached his room and glanced at the tape its meaning was written plain.
Navajoa was quoted at six. He brushed aside his excited clerk and called
up Buckbee on the 'phone.
"What?" yelled Buckbee as he recognized his voice, "have you been here
all the time? My God, man, I've got the whole police department after
you! You've ruined me! I've gone to the wall! Yes, bankrupt, I tell
you, unless you go to the bank and put up collateral for my loans. Why
didn't you tell me you only had credit of a million dollars in all? You
said: 'Buy all you can get!' and by the gods they threw it in my face
with both hands! Hundreds of shares, thousands of shares! And then when
I called you up your clerk said you had gone. Well, I had my orders and
you can't say I weakened--I bought thirty-two thousand shares!"
"'Thirty-two thousand!' Well, what are you kicking about? That gives me
control of the mine. But say, what the devil does this ticker mean,
quoting Navajoa at six dollars a share?"
"It means!" shouted Buckbee, "that you bid up the market until I paid
forty-three for the last and then Whitney K. Stoddard dumped every share
he had and cut the ground out under your feet! You're obligated to make
up a total deficiency of nearly a million at the bank; your loans have
been called, and mine have been called, and the stock is forfeit for the
debt. You've lost your stock that you bought on a margin and unless you
can take up these loans, every blessed share of Navajoa will go to
Stoddard and his bank."
"To Stoddard! Well, what does that bank outfit mean by grabbing all my
shares? Ain't my name good for about fifty million? Did I ever default
on a debt? I'm going right down there and tell that president to give me
back every share, and if he don't----"
"Oh, now don't talk that stuff! Just go down and put up some collateral.
That's all that will save you--they've got the law behind them and
they're strictly within their rights. No, now listen! You borrowed a
half a million dollars at the bank this morning and put up your Navajoa
for collateral. It was worth twenty-four then, but now, by my ticker,
it's only five and a half. Can't you see where you are? Stoddard caught
you napping and he'll never let up till you're broke. You valued it at
thirty, but he'll keep the market down to nothing until you settle up and
liquidate those claims. Then the prices will soar, but you won't be in
on it. He's got you trimmed, and no mistake."
"But I don't see it!" came back Rimrock insistently. "I want every one
of those shares. And I've got the money--it ought to be here now--to pay
every cent I owe. Say, come on up, Buckbee, and help me straighten this
thing out--I was unexpectedly called away."
He hung up the 'phone and turned to the letters and telegrams that were
strewn about the desk. There were notices from the bank and frantic
demands that he put up more margin on his stock and a peremptory
announcement that his loans had been called and must be taken up by the
next day at noon--and a letter from Mary Fortune. He thrust it aside and
searched again for some letter or telegram from L. W., and then he
snatched up hers. There was something wrong and her letter might explain
it--it might even contain his check.
He tore it open and read the first line and then the world turned black.
The dividend had been passed! He hurled the letter down and struck it
with his fist. Passed! He turned on his clerk and motioned him from the
room with the set, glassy stare of a madman. Passed! And just at the
time when he needed the money most! He picked up the letter and read a
little further and then his hand went slack. She had voted against
him--it was her vote and Stoddard's that had carried the day against L.
W.! He dropped the letter into a gaping wastebasket and sat back
grinding his teeth.
"Damn these women!" he moaned and when Buckbee found him he was still
calling down curses on the sex. In vain Buckbee begged him to pull
himself together and get down to figures and facts, he brushed all the
papers in a pile before him and told him to do it himself. Buckbee made
memoranda and called up the bank, and then called up Stoddard himself;
and still Rimrock sat cursing his luck. Even when Buckbee began to read
the final statement his mind was far away--all he heard was the lump sum
he owed, a matter of nearly a million.
"Well, I'll tell you," he said, when Buckbee came to an end, "I'll fix it
so you don't lose a cent. But that bank is different. They sold me out
to Stoddard and peddled me my own stock twice. Now don't say a word,
because I know better--it was like Davey Crockett's coonskin, that he
kept stealing from behind the bar. They take my stock for security and
then hand it to Stoddard and he sells it over to you, and by the time we
get through Stoddard has still got the stock and I owe the bank a
million. Those may not be big words but that's what's happened, like
Crockett buying the drinks with his coonskin; but if they collect from me
they'll have to sue. Now how can I fix it for you?"
"Well, just raise the money to meet my shortage--it's a matter of nearly
six hundred thousand."
"All right," said Rimrock, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I just got some
bad news from the mine. That big dividend that I absolutely counted on
to meet all those obligations was held up--it wasn't passed. But here's
the point: the money is still there, right in old L. W.'s bank; the only
question is how to get it out. You show me how I can borrow on that
tied-up dividend and I'll pay you back every dollar."
"The easiest thing in the world!" exclaimed Buckbee. "All you have to do
is to put up your Tecolote stock."
"Nothing doing," said Rimrock, "show me some other way. You fellows know
all the tricks."
"No, there's no other way," responded Buckbee earnestly. "That's the
only way you can touch it, until the dividend is declared. The surplus
in the bank is regarded in law simply as increasing the value of the
shares; and so all you have to do is to prove its existence and put up
your stock as security."
"And then, if I don't pay it back, the bank will keep my stock!" Rimrock
stated it guardedly, but his eyes were snapping and his mouth had become
suddenly hard. "Don't you ever think it!" he burst out. "I don't put up
that stock! No, by grab, not a single share of it, if I lose every cent
I've got and leave my best friend in the hole! Do you know what I
think?" he demanded portentously as he shook his finger under Buckbee's
nose. "I believe every doggoned woman and broker in the whole crooked
city of New York is working for--Whitney--H.--Stoddard!"
He paused and at a sudden guilty glance he dropped his hand and started
back.
"My God!" he cried, "not you, too, Buckbee? Don't tell me you're in on
it, too! Well, I might as well quit, then! What's the use of trying
when every friend you've got turns out a crook!" He slumped down in his
chair and, rumpling up his hair, gazed at Buckbee with somber eyes. "So!
Old friend Buckbee, too? Well, Buckbee, what's the deal? Just tell me
where I'm at and I'll leave this cursed town forever."
"Too bad, Old Scout," answered Buckbee kindly, "but you know I warned
you, from the first. I'm a Stoddard man, and I told you to lay off--but
here's where he's got you now. You owe money to his bank, and you owe it
to me, and he's guaranteed us both against loss. Now he might step in
and get a judgment against you and tie up every share you've got; but all
he wants--and he told me so himself--is four thousand shares of Tecolote.
That gives him control and, I'll tell you frankly, he's going to get
those shares."
"Oh, he is, is he?" said Rimrock and then sat silent while Buckbee bit
the tip from a cigar.
"Yes, he's going to get them," went on Buckbee quietly, "but here's how
it looks to me. The loss you will suffer from those four thousand shares
will be more than made up by the increase in the dividends on the rest.
You are not a good business man and, more than that, you have gone off
and neglected your mine. But give Stoddard the control and, the way
he'll manage it, your stock will bring you in more. You've learned your
lesson--just hold on to the rest and you'll always have money to burn.
But, if you try to buck him, as sure as God made little fishes, he'll
have your hide on the fence."
"D'ye think so?" enquired Rimrock and again he sat silent while Buckbee
puffed away at his cigar.
"Yes, he's a hard man to whip," went on Buckbee thoughtfully, "they call
him the Iron Man. Any place you hit him you only break your hand; but
when he comes back--zowie!"
"Well, I guess you're right," answered Rimrock slowly, "New York is no
place for me. It's back to the cactus where they fight it out with
sixshooters and the man that wins grabs the loot. But here you can get
some kind of a judgment and let the sheriff do the job."
Buckbee laughed lightheartedly and slapped him on the back, but Rimrock
did not even smile.
"By George," exclaimed Buckbee, "I'll be sorry to lose you. You do have
a way of putting things. But say, Old Sport, let's get this painful
business over. When can you arrange to turn in that stock?"
"I don't know," grumbled Rimrock, "I'll have to think this over--maybe
call in a lawyer or two. I'm not so sure about those hands-up judgments."
"Why, my dear boy," exclaimed Buckbee, "you don't doubt for a moment that
a bank can attach your stock? You must bear in mind that they loaned you
half a million on your mere name stuck to a note. Not a cent of
collateral--and on the other half million you were distinctly notified it
could be called. Why, the banks have a department where they grind out
these actions just exactly as a mill grinds out corn. It's the simplest
thing in the world."
"Well, I'll think it over," answered Rimrock noncommittally, "unless
you've got one of those attachments on you?"
"Oh, no!" laughed Buckbee, "I'm no summons-server. It isn't quite so
simple as that. You see the bank begins the action, the court issues a
summons, and if you don't appear the judgment is declared by default.
But it won't come to that, I'm sure. Just think it over and I'll call
you up later. So long; don't take it too hard."
He flashed back a smile, but as the door closed behind him Rimrock
answered by showing his teeth. He went to a safe that stood in the room
and took out a single envelope. Then he strapped on his shabby old
six-shooter, stepped quietly out and was gone.