The Long Chance
CHAPTER XI
It must have been a sublime faith in that homely adage that there aremore ways of killing a cat than by choking him with butter which movedBob McGraw to cudgel his nimble brain until he had discovered exactlyhow it would be possible for him to accomplish legally what everyfreebooter with an appraising eye on the public domain is troubled toaccomplish illegally. The sole difference between Bob's projected courseand that of his competitors' would be a slightly lessened profit; butafter inventorying a free and easy conscience and posting it to thecredit side of his profit and loss account, Bob knew that this apparentdifference would dwindle until it would be scarcely perceptible.
Immediately after breakfast on the morning of the day following hisinterview with Homer Dunstan, Bob set to work to draw up the circularletter and contract form, to be submitted later to his prospectiveclients. In about fifteen minutes he had outlined the following:
THE PROPOSITION IS THIS
I have information of some state lieu lands which I believe can be takenup under the State laws at $1.25 per acre. The right to buy them willvery probably have to be established and enforced by legal proceedings.
Now, this right to purchase state lieu lands is a limited personalright. (See Political Code, Section 3495, et seq.) I am willing to tryto make YOUR right good to a tract of this land, under the conditionsof the contract herewith. I am willing to stand the expenses of suit toenforce your right, and to advance for you the legal fees and the firstpreliminary payment to the state, on the chance of being able to secureyou something sufficiently valuable to justify you in paying me the feeprovided for in the contract. Read the contract carefully and note thatyou retain the right to cancel it and relieve yourself of all obligationin the matter _by abandoning your claim to the land._
READ THE CONTRACT CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU SIGN IT. BE SURE YOU UNDERSTANDJUST WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
ROBERT MCGRAW.
"That looks like fair warning" mused Mr. McGraw, as he reread thisdocument. "I defy any man to look between the lines and scent myhocus-pocus game."
Bob next proceeded to draw up the contract. It was a simple contract,framed in language that could not fail of comprehension by the dullestmind. For and in consideration of the sum of one dollar, the receiptwhereof was duly acknowledged, Bob McGraw agreed to furnish, hisapplicants for land with certain valuable information, whereby theapplicant would be enabled to file, or tender his application for,certain state lieu lands, "bounded and particularly described asfollows:" (Here he left a space sufficient for the insertion, at a laterdate, of the exact description of the lands he desired; the descriptionshe would glean from maps of the valley on sale in the United States LandOffice in San Francisco.)
He agreed to tender the application of his client to the State LandOffice and to conduct, at his own expense, any litigation that mightarise or become necessary to establish the right of his client topurchase the land from the state; stipulating, however, that he (McGraw)should be the sole judge of the necessity for such litigation. He agreedto pay the filing fees and the first payment on the land, requiredat the time of filing the application, and to represent the applicantbefore the state land office; also to notify his client, by registeredletter, at the address given him, whenever the application should beapproved; and it was distinctly stipulated that the applicant shouldnot be required to elect whether or not he would abandon the applicationuntil served with this written notice!
In consideration, also, of the services, fees and costs provided for inthe contract, _Mr. McGraw would make a charge of Three Dollars per acrefor all, or any part, of the land which the applicant might be awardedthe opportunity to purchase;_ this fee to be payable to him, his heirsor assigns, _if and whenever the application of his client_ should beduly approved by the Registrar of the State Land Office.
In consideration of these covenants, the applicant was to bind himselfto pay Mr. Robert McGraw the stipulated fee of Three Dollars per acre,in addition to the One Dollar and Twenty-five Cents per acre demanded bythe state, _reserving, however, the right to abandon his filing at anytime prior to its approval by the Registrar of the State Land Office,but pledging himself not to abandon without first furnishing hisattorney (Robert McGraw) with a proper instrument of abandonment, inorder that some other person might be located on the land._ In additionthe applicant was required to state that he was duly qualified,under the law, to make the application _and that he had read both theapplication form and the contract and was familiar with the section ofthe code under which he made it._
A critical perusal of the terms of this shrewd contract will readilyconvince even a layman that it was perfectly legal. Bob hurled mentaldefiance at every legal light in the country to prove collusion andconspiracy to defraud under that contract. It proved merely that BobMcGraw was acting in his capacity as a duly authorized attorney-at-law,seeking to turn an honest penny.
Now, in the first place, the abandonment clause in the contract, whilenot holding his client to the contract, nevertheless held the land toBob McGraw! He anticipated that, in the event of his success in forcingthe registrar of the state land office to accept and approve theapplications, the land ring would immediately seek out each applicant,charge the applicant with being a party to a gigantic land fraudconspiracy and threaten him with a Federal Grand Jury investigation incase he did not at once abandon his filing! The poor and the ignorantare easily intimidated, and Bob McGraw had figured on this. In the eventof "cold feet" on the part of his applicant, the applicant would cometo _him,_ to abandon, as per the terms of the contract, but by that timeBob would have a man with nerve to take his place, and his scheme wouldstill be impervious to "leaks!" While the land was "tied up" by a McGrawapplicant, Bob knew the enemy could not get it.
When Bob's clients signed that contract, it meant nothing! But themoment the applications were approved for patent, and the State LandOffice had so notified him, and he, in turn, had so notified hisclients, his clients were no longer his clients. They were his victims!His contract then constituted a promissory note, and Mr. McGraw knewenough law to realize that failure to pay a promissory note or perform acontract is actionable. Should his client repudiate the contract _prior_to the approval of the application, he was safe; but to repudiate it_after_ approval and after Bob McGraw had advanced him the money to payfor the land--ah, that was a different matter. Bob McGraw knew he couldsecure a judgment against his unfortunate client in any court of law inthe country--and the land was good for the judgment! Having advanced thecash to purchase the land for his clients, Bob McGraw would hold thatdeadly contract over their heads as security for the advance!
Under the terms of the contract, when fulfilled, each client would oweBob his three dollars per acre on six hundred and forty acres, ora total of one thousand nine hundred and forty dollars as a legalattorney's fee, and to the clients that Bob McGraw intended to select,a debt of such magnitude would loom up in all the pristine horror of theend of the world at hand and salvation not yet in sight. With, maliceaforethought the promoter of Donnaville was trading on the credulity ofthe very people he planned to benefit! He knew with what ease the poorrush into debt where the creditor requires nothing down; he knew alsothe avidity with which they grasp the first means of escape from theburden, once it becomes onerous; and at the thought the villain McGrawchuckled pleasurably.
"Once under the McGraw thumb, and I have them! I'll demand cash on thenail for my services. They will be unable to pay me. I'll harass themand threaten to sue them, and then, when I have them thoroughly cowed,I'll send a secret agent around to buy their land from them at tendollars an acre. After using their constitutional right to purchase lieulands, they are entitled to a profit on the investment, and besides, Imust show a 'valuable consideration' or have a secret service operativetrailing me.
"However, I will not have sufficient funds on hand to pay them tendollars per acre spot cash, so I shall turn over to them theirsigned contracts and thus relieve them of that bugbear, and for thesethree-dollar contr
acts they shall credit me with a payment of fourdollars and twenty-five cents per acre on the land! I will secure themfor the balance by a first mortgage on the property! And with thataccomplished, I court an official investigation. Come on, you secretservice operatives, and prove Bob McGraw a crook. I am a crook, and Iknow it, but nobody else shall know it and I have never been accused oftalking in my sleep. I'm a crook, but I'm an honest crook, and the endsjustify the means. Besides, I'm going to present every one of my clientswith a cheek for three thousand six hundred and seventy dollars forthe mere scratch of a pen and the use of their constitutional right topurchase lieu land. Why, I'm a philanthropist! I'm going to make fiftymen happy by giving them a lot of money for something they never knewthey had. Three thousand six hundred and seventy dollars for the use ofone constitutional right, when the market price is a hundred! McGraw,my boy, this must never leak out. If it does, your sanity will bequestioned, in addition to your morality."
Thus figured Bob McGraw, the sage of Donnaville. Let him but get hisapplications past the land ring's tool in the state land office, and areceipt issued for his first payment, and Donnaville would be no longera dream. Should the applications be rejected later on some flimsypretext, he would commence a mandamus suit to enforce the selectionof his lands, and force action of the pending applications of the landring, whereby they so artfully "tied up the basis" of exchange. If heshould find himself opposed by a corrupt judge who should rule againsthim, he would not be daunted. If beaten in the Superior Court he wouldappeal the case to the United States Circuit Court, for Bob McGraw hada sublime faith in the ability of Truth, crushed to earth, to rise againand kick the underpinning from crookedness and graft, provided one neveracknowledged defeat. And he could go into court with clean hands, forhe broke no law himself and he would induce no one else to break it, inthought, spirit or action!
The road to Donnaville stretched ahead of him now, smooth and white andfree from ruts, and with but one bridge to cross. For the successfulcrossing of that bridge Bob McGraw had not evolved a plan, for he wasmerely a human being, and human cunning has its limitations. It was abridge which he must cross when he came to it. He only knew that he mustmake the effort on a certain day--the day that Owens river valley shouldbe thrown open to entry. He must be first at the window of the landoffice, and once before that window, the future of Donnaville, thefuture of Bob McGraw and his sweetheart in San Pasqual, lay in the lapsof the gods. He must manage somehow to get his applications filed thatday, without designating the basis of the exchange of school landsfor the lieu lands which he sought; for that was information which BobMcGraw did not possess, and should it come into his possession the dayafter the valley was opened for entry, it would be worthless; for theland ring, in the parlance of the present day, would have "beaten him toit."
To get those precious filings accepted! That was all that worried himnow. Prior to his visit to Homer Dunstan, this task had seemed to Bobthe least of his worries compared with the titanic task of accumulatingthe money necessary to pay for the land when the filings should beapproved. Yesterday everything had revolved around the necessity forthirty-nine thousand dollars, until the contemplation of this monetaryaxis had threatened to set his reason tottering on its throne. But thatworry no longer existed. Homer Dunstan had indicated very clearly toBob that he considered him insane, but Homer Dunstan had pledged himthe thirty-nine thousand dollars when he could come to him with thenotification from the Registrar of the State Land Office that the landshad been passed to patent, and Bob knew that Dunstan would keep hisword, provided his death did not occur prior to the granting of thepatents.
The rough draft of the contract having been drawn up to hissatisfaction, Bob sallied forth in search of a public stenographer. Heknew that he had evolved rather a clever scheme, and he was averse topermitting the details of his plan to fall under the comprehending eyeof some boss printer, whose enterprise might perchance soar beyondthe boundaries of his vocation. So Bob sought, instead, a publicstenographer and had his copy multigraphed by a young lady whoseinterest could never, by any possibility, center in anything more thanher fee.
The job was delivered two days later, and with the knowledge that he hadthirty days in which to make the acquaintance of his fifty prospectiveclients, Bob resolved to devote one more week to the problem of stillfurther recruiting his shattered vitality before getting down to activework.
He spent that week wandering through Golden Gate Park, alongthe romantic and picturesque San Francisco water-front, and inmoving-picture shows. Each morning, before starting for the day'swanderings, he wrote a long letter to Donna and then waited for thefirst mail delivery for her letter to him. Those letters came withunfailing regularity, and in that city where Bob McGraw prowled throughthe day, unknown and unnoticed, there was no man so free from thecurse of loneliness as he. The very opening line in Donna's matutinalgreeting--"My Dear Sweetheart"--routed the blue devils that campednightly on his worried and harassed soul, as he lay abed and wrestledwith the mighty problems that confronted him. To Bob McGraw those threewords held the open-sesame of life; they gave him strength to cling tohis high, resolve; they whispered to him of the prize of the conflictwhich awaited him at the end of his long road to Donnaville, and senthim forth to face the world with a smile on his dauntless face and alilt in his great kind heart.
Time glided by on weary wings, but eventually the day arrived for Bob toopen his campaign. He must clear for action. It was imperative that hemust have his fifty applications filled out and the signatures of hisclients attested before a notary public on the very date upon which thedesert of Owens river valley would be opened for entry, for to have themdated the day before would nullify them--to arrive with them at theland office the day after would be too late. Bob was obsessed with asuspicion that amounted almost to a conviction that the land ring wouldendeavor to acquire the desert valley by practically the same methodwhich he was pursuing, _only for every section of lieu land upon whichthey filed, they would be enabled to show a corresponding loss of schoollands._ His line of reasoning had convinced him that they had causeddummy entrymen to file on worthless lands in some other part of thestate, in order that these bases might appear of record in the landoffice as already used, in case of an investigation; he was equallyconvinced that these dummy applications had never been acted upon in theland office, but were being held up there until the land ring was readyto act, when their dummy entrymen would abandon their filings on theworthless land, thus throwing the original basis open for use once moreand permitting the land ring to step in with other dummy entrymen anduse the basis for the acquisition of _valuable_ lands. It was absurdlysimple when one understood it and took the time to reason it out.
Of one thing Bob was morally certain. The representative of the landring would be on hand, bright and early, to file the dummy applications.Bob decided, therefore, that the field of his operations until thateventful day must be confined to the state capital, Sacramento, wherethe state land office was located. He must recruit his little army ofapplicants from the capital itself, attest their applications beforea notary public after midnight of the day preceding the opening of thevalley for entry, and be first at the filing window when the land officeopened.
Accordingly Bob proceeded to Sacramento. Immediately upon his arrivalhe rented a cheap back office, a desk and some chairs, and for the timebeing announced himself to the world, through the medium of a modestsign on his office door, as The Desert Development Company. Thefollowing day he set to work.
He interviewed street sweepers, hotel porters, cab drivers newspaperreporters, milk-wagon drivers, barkeepers and laborers along the riverdocks--in fact every follower of an occupation which Bob judged might besufficiently unremunerative to keep its votaries in poverty as long asthey persisted in sticking to it. By discreet questioning he learnedwhether the prospective client had money in bank, or was involved indebt. If the former, Bob terminated his interview and neglected toreturn; if the latter, Bob would present the victim with a good
cigarand proceed to unfold a tale of wealth in desert lands.
To these men Bob explained every detail of his proposition and gave thema copy of his contract form and his explanatory circular attached. Heanswered all their questions patiently--and satisfactorily, and he wasparticularly insistent upon calling to their attention the fact thatthey were not required to put up a single dollar in order to acquirethe land. Naturally, this seeming philanthropy immediately inspiredsuspicion and a request for information as to what was in the deal forMr. McGraw; whereupon Mr. McGraw would point proudly to that clause inthe contract which stipulated a three-dollar-per-acre fee and informthem that he had private and reliable information of not less than twoirrigation schemes which were being projected in the valley--schemeswhich would give their apparently worthless land a value of at leastten dollars per acre and enable both Mr. McGraw and his client to turna nice little profit together. He showed them where he was helplesswithout them and where they were profitless without him, and to make aprofit of three dollars per acre for himself he was willing to buy theland for them and take their promissory notes in payment. More: he wouldagree to carry them for the land until they had an opportunity to sellout at a profit of at least three thousand dollars! Mr. McGraw demandedto know if anything could possibly be fairer than that.
It could not, and the clients were forced to admit it. Win, lose ordraw, it cost them nothing to play the game with Bob McGraw. After allis said and done the average human being is a gambler and likeslong odds, and Bob's prospective clients were not so deficient inintelligence as in ready cash. They knew that desert land withoutirrigation is worthless; that no man would advance them money topurchase it at $1.25 per acre unless he saw a profit in the dealfor himself. Consequently, irrigation was the only solution of thatproblematic increase in value, and if Mr. McGraw could afford a flyer socould they.
Bob had foreseen this line of reasoning, for he knew that spot cash isthe bugbear of life and that a good salesman can sell anything providedhe sells it on time. Long before the expiration of the period he had sethimself to accomplish this task, he had signed up fifty eager applicantsfor desert land, procured their addresses and then retired to his littleback office to write letters to Donna and await the rising of the sun onhis day of destiny.
The day preceding the one on which the valley would be opened for entrywas a busy one for Bob McGraw. His cash reserve was beginning to run solow that he decided to save the dollar postage necessary to remind hisclients that they were to meet him in his office at midnight of thatday; consequently, and in view of the fact that his old-time strengthpractically had been restored to him, he walked several miles in orderto call upon his clients at their places of employment and secure fromtheir lips a solemn promise to be on hand at the appointed hour. Hisapparent anxiety made them all the more eager to sign up with him, andnot a single client failed him.
This matter attended to, Bob engaged a notary public, with instructionsto meet him at his office at midnight. By eleven-thirty the corridorsof the silent office building were thronged with the eager fifty; ateleven-forty-five the notary arrived and at exactly one minute pastmidnight Bob commenced to sign his clients up. The notarial blanks hadalready been filled out and, together with the notary's seal, hadbeen attached to each contract. In addition to the contract Bob tooka power-of-attorney in duplicate from each applicant; the notaryswore each of the fifty applicants in as many minutes, Bob paid himtwenty-five dollars and he departed; after which Bob made a short speechto his clients and exhorted them to stand by their guns in the eventof influence being brought to bear upon them to abandon theirfilings; whereupon the fifty gave him their promises, collectively andindividually, shook the hand of their benefactor and departed to theirhomes.
Nothing now remained for Bob to do except present his fifty applicationsfor filing at the land office in the morning, and realizing the truthof that ancient saw anent the early bird and the resulting breakfast hedecided to wait in the office until it should be time for him to go tothe land office. In the meantime, he decided to while away the lonelyhours by a review of his financial status, so he locked the door anddevoted the succeeding five minutes to the comparatively trifling taskof counting his money and figuring on the outlay necessary to carry himback to San Pasqual. He was horrified to discover that after providingtwelve hundred and fifty dollars for the registrar of the state landoffice (in the event that the day of miracles was not yet past and hisfilings should be accepted), his return journey by rail would terminatesomewhere in the heart of the San Joaquin valley. Even after pawning hisgun, Mr. McGraw could still see, in his mind's eye, at least one hundredmiles of dusty county road stretching between him and San Pasqual, andhe was not so conceited as to imagine that he was strong enough to walka hundred miles with nothing more tangible than the scenery to sustainhim en route. Moreover, he had promised Donna that they shouldbe married immediately upon his return. The situation was trulyembarrassing, and Mr. McGraw cast about him for a means to extricatehimself from his terrible predicament. In his agony he saw a flash oflight--and smiled as he realized that it radiated from Mr. Harley P.Hennage's three gold teeth.
"Saved!" quavered Mr. McGraw. "Good old Harley P! I'll just touch theold boy for that fifty again, in case I need it. If they accept myapplications, I'll have to assault Harley, and if they decline theapplications I will still have my twelve hundred and fifty. But in themeantime I'll write to Hennage and tell him frankly just how I'm fixed,and if it comes to a show-down I'll drop the letter in the mail, returnto San Francisco and wait for him to send me a postal money order."
He turned to his desk, drew a blank sheet of paper toward him andindited a brief note to Mr. Hennage.
_Dear Harley P.:_
I have just made the discovery that I was too precipitate in paying youthat fifty I owed you for three years. I am a financial wreck on a leeshore, but with millions in sight, and I will be very grateful if youwill strain your good nature long enough to send me a P. O. order forthe aforesaid fifty, addressing me General Delivery, San Francisco.I will explain the transaction to you when I get back to San Pasqual,merely mentioning in passing that until you send me the fifty theprospects for my immediate return are, to say the least, somewhat vague.I never could walk very far in my Sunday shoes.
Thanking you, my dear Harley, until you are better paid, believe me tobe
Your sincere friend, ROBERT MCGRAW.
This communication Bob folded and sealed in an envelope. He was toopreoccupied in the folding to notice that he had folded two sheets ofpaper instead of one. The second sheet was a spare copy of his marvelouscontract for the acquisition of desert lands, which through someaccident had become mixed, with the printed side up, among some loosesheets of blank legal-size typewriter paper which the unconventionalRobert had purchased in the pursuit of his correspondence with Donna.His choice of letter paper was characteristic of Bob. He was a man whorequired room in which to operate.
His letter sealed and stamped, Bob slipped it into his pocket, liftedhis long legs to the top of his rented desk, tilted back his chair,lit a cigar and gave himself up to the contemplation of his future.Providentially, his future, as he viewed it there in that lonely office,waiting to see what the dawn would bring to him of wealth or woe, wassufficiently indefinite to keep his fertile brain actively employeduntil, far off in the city, he heard a clock booming the hour of six;when he yawned, closed down his desk, picked up his suit-case whichstood, packed with, his few poor possessions in one corner, anddeparted.
In an all-night restaurant he ate a hurried breakfast; then, suit-casein hand, walked over to the capitol building. The capitol grounds weredeserted as he strolled through, entered the State House and passeddown a dim deserted corridor until he came to the door of the state landoffice. He had definitely located the office, the previous day, in orderto provide against possible fatal delay in finding it this morning.Apparently he was the sole applicant for desert lands that morning, andanticipating that there would be no great rush to fi
le entries he sethis suit-case down in the corridor, sat himself on the suit-case andwaited for the office to open for business. In order to make certainthat he would not be usurped in line, however, when the office openedfor business, he had placed his suitcase directly in front of the door,against which he leaned his weary back. The door, he noticed, openedfrom within. In case it opened secretly, Mr. McGraw would thus fall intothe surveyor-general's office, and hardy, indeed, would be he who coulddispute his claim to priority in the line. In fact, so satisfied washe with this strategic position, and so tired and drowsy was he withal,that presently he relaxed his determination to remain wide awake.