The Deluge

  V. DANGER SIGNALS

  At that time I did not myself go over the bills before the legislaturesof those states in which I had interests. I trusted that work to mylawyers--and, like every man who ever absolutely trusted an importantdivision of his affairs to another, I was severely punished. One morningmy eye happened to light upon a minor paragraph in a newspaper--a listof the "small bills yesterday approved by the governor." In the list wasone "defining the power of sundry commissions." Those words seemed tome somehow to spell "joker." But why did I call up my lawyers to askthem about it? It's a mystery to me. All I know is that, busy as I was,something inside me compelled me to drop everything else and hunt that"joker" down.

  I got Saxe--then senior partner in Browne, Saxe and Einstein--on the'phone, and said: "Just see and tell me, will you, what is the 'billdefining the power of sundry commissions'--the bill the governor signedyesterday?"

  "Certainly, Mr. Blacklock," came the answer. My nerves are, and always havebeen, on the watchout for the looks and the tones and the gestures that arejust a shade off the natural; and I feel that I do Saxe no injustice when Isay his tone was, not a shade, but a full color, off the natural. So I wasprepared for what he said when he returned to the telephone. "I'm sorry,Mr. Blacklock, but we seem unable to lay our hands on that bill at thismoment."

  "Why not?" said I, in the tone that makes an employee jump as if awhip-lash had cut him on the calves.

  He had jumped all right, as his voice showed. "It's not in our file," saidhe. "It's House Bill No. 427, and it's apparently not here."

  "The hell you say!" I exclaimed. "Why?"

  "I really can't explain," he pleaded, and the frightened whine confirmed mysuspicion.

  "I guess not," said I, making the words significant and suggestive. "Andyou're in my pay to look after such matters! But you'll have to explain, ifthis turns out to be serious."

  "Apparently our file of bills is complete except that one," he went on. "Isuppose it was lost in the mail, and I very stupidly didn't notice the gapin the numbers."

  "Stupid isn't the word I'd use," said I, with a laugh that wasn't of thekind that cheers. And I rang off and asked for the state capitol on the"long distance."

  Before I got my connection Saxe, whose office was only two blocks away,came flustering in. "The boy has been discharged, Mr. Blacklock," he began.

  "What boy?" said I.

  "The boy in charge of the bill file--the boy whose business it was to keepthe file complete."

  "Send him to me, you damned scoundrel," said I. "I'll give him a job. Whatdo you take me for, anyway? And what kind of a cowardly hound are you todisgrace an innocent boy as a cover for your own crooked work?"

  "Really, Mr. Blacklock, this is most extraordinary," he expostulated.

  "Extraordinary? I call it criminal," I retorted. "Listen to me. You lookafter the legislation calendars for me, and for Langdon, and for Roebuck,and for Melville, and for half a dozen others of the biggest financiers inthe country. It's the most important work you do for us. Yet you, as shrewdand careful a lawyer as there is at the bar, want me to believe you trustedthat work to a boy! If you did, you're a damn fool. If you didn't, you'rea damn scoundrel. There's no more doubt in my mind than in yours which ofthose horns has you sticking on it."

  "You are letting your quick temper get away with you, Mr. Blacklock," hedeprecated.

  "Stop lying!" I shouted, "I knew you had been doing some skulduggery whenI first heard your voice on the telephone. And if I needed any proof, themeek way you've taken my abuse would furnish it, and to spare."

  Just then the telephone bell rang and I got the right department and askedthe clerk to read House Bill 427. It contained five short paragraphs. The"joker" was in the third, which gave the State Canal Commission the right"to institute condemnation proceedings, and to condemn, and to abolish, anycanal not exceeding thirty miles in length and not a part of the connectedcanal system of the state."

  When I hung up the receiver I was so absorbed that I had forgotten Saxe waswaiting. He made some slight sound. I wheeled on him. I needed a vent. Ifhe hadn't been there I should have smashed a chair. But there was he--and Ikicked him out of my private office and would have kicked him out throughthe anteroom into the outer hall, had he not gathered himself together andrun like a jack-rabbit.

  Since that day I have done my own calendar watching.

  By this incident I do not mean to suggest that there are not honorable menin the legal profession. Most of them are men of the highest honor, as aremost business men, most persons of consequence in every department of life.But you don't look for character in the proprietors, servants, customersand hangers-on of dives. No more ought you to look for honor among any ofthe people that have to do with the big gilded dive of the dollarocracy.They are there to gamble, and to prostitute themselves. The fact that theylook like gentlemen and have the manners and the language of gentlemenought to deceive nobody but the callow chaps of the sort that believes theswell gambler is "an honest fellow" and a "perfect gentleman otherwise,"because he wears a dress suit in the evening and is a judge of books andpictures. Lawyers are the doorkeepers and the messengers of the big dive;and these lawyers, though they stand the highest and get the biggest fees,are just what you would expect human beings to be who expose themselves tosuch temptations, and yield whenever they get an opportunity, as eager andas compliant as a _cocotte_.

  My lawyers had sold me out; I, fool that I was, had not guarded the onlyweak plate in my armor against my companions--the plate over my back, toshed assassin thrusts. Roebuck and Langdon between them owned the governor;he owned the Canal Commission; my canal, which gave me access to tide-waterfor the product of my Manasquale mines, was as good as closed. I no longerhad the whip-hand in National Coal. The others could sell me out and taketwo-thirds of my fortune, whenever they liked--for of what use were mymines with no outlet now to any market, except the outlets the coal crowdowned?

  As soon as I had thought the situation out in all its bearings, I realizedthat there was no escape for me now, that whatever chance to escape I mighthave had was closed by my uncovering to Saxe and kicking him. But I did notregret; it was worth the money it would cost me. Besides, I thought I sawhow I could later on turn it to good account. A sensible man never makesfatal errors. Whatever he does is at least experience, and can also be usedto advantage. If Napoleon hadn't been half dead at Waterloo, I don't doubthe would have used its disaster as a means to a greater victory.

  Was I downcast by the discovery that those bandits had me apparently attheir mercy? Not a bit. Never in my life have I been downcast over moneymatters more than a few minutes. Why should I be? Why should any man be whohas made himself all that he is? As long as his brain is sound, his capitalis unimpaired. When I walked into Mowbray Langdon's office, I was like athoroughbred exercising on a clear frosty morning; and my smile was asfresh as the flower in my buttonhole. I thrust out my hand at him. "Icongratulate you," said I.

  He took the proffered hand with a questioning look.

  "On what?" said he. It is hard to tell from his face what is going on inhis head, but I think I guessed right when I decided that Saxe hadn't yetwarned him.

  "I have just found out from Saxe," I pursued, "about the Canal Bill."

  "What Canal Bill?" he asked.

  "That puzzled look was a mistake, Langdon," said I, laughing at him. "Whenyou don't know anything about a matter, you look merely blank. You overdidit; you've given yourself away."

  He shrugged his shoulders. "As you please," said he. As you please was hisfavorite expression; a stereotyped irony, for in dealing with him, thingswere never as _you_ pleased, but always as _he_ pleased.

  "Next time you want to dig a mine under anybody," I went on, "don't hireSaxe. Really I feel sorry for you--to have such a clever scheme messed bysuch an ass."

  "If you don't mind, I'd like to know what you're talking about," said he,with his patient, bored look.

  "As you and Roebuck own the governor, I know your
little law ends my littlecanal."

  "Still I don't know what you're talking about," drawled he. "You are alwayssuspecting everybody of double-dealing. I gather that this is anotherinstance of your infirmity. Really, Blacklock, the world isn't wholly madeup of scoundrels."

  "I know that," said I. "And I will even admit that its scoundrels areseldom made up wholly of scoundrelism. Even Roebuck would rather do thedecent thing, if he can do it without endangering his personal interests.As for you--I regard you as one of the decentest men I ever knew--outsideof business. And even there, I believe you'd keep your word, as long as theother fellow kept his."

  "Thank you," said he, bowing ironically. "This flattery makes me suspectyou've come to get something."

  "On the contrary," said I. "I want to give something. I want to give you mycoal mines."

  "I thought you'd see that our offer was fair," said he. "And I'm glad youhave changed your mind about quarreling with your best friends. We can beuseful to you, you to us. A break would be silly."

  "That's the way it looks to me," I assented. And I decided that my sharptalk to Roebuck had set them to estimating my value to them.

  "Sam Ellersly," Langdon presently remarked, "tells me he's campaigning hardfor you at the Travelers. I hope you'll make it. We're rather a slow crowd;a few men like you might stir things up."

  I am always more than willing to give others credit for good sense and goodmotives. It was not vanity, but this disposition to credit others withsincerity and sense, that led me to believe him, both as to the Coal matterand as to the Travelers Club. "Thanks, Langdon," I said; and that he mightlook no further for my motive, I added: "I want to get into that club muchas the winner of a race wants the medal that belongs to him. I've builtmyself up into a rich man, into one of the powers in finance, and I feelI'm entitled to recognition."

  "I don't quite follow you," he said. "I can't see that you'll be eitherbetter or worse for getting into the Travelers."

  "No more I shall," replied I. "No more is the winner of the race the betteror the worse for having the medal. But he wants it."

  He had a queer expression. I suppose he regarded it as a joke, my attachingapparently so much importance to a thing he cared nothing about. "You'vealways had that sort of thing," said I, "and so you don't appreciate it.You're like a respectable woman. She can't imagine what all the fuss overwomen keeping a good reputation is about. Well, just let her lose it!"

  "Perhaps," said he.

  "And," I went on, "you can have the rule about the waiting list suspended,and can move me up and get me in at once."

  "We don't do things in quite such a hurry at the Travelers," said he,laughing. "However, we'll try to comply with your commands."

  His generous, cordial offer made me half ashamed of the plot I hadunderneath my submission about the coal mines--a plot to get into the coalcombine in order to gather the means to destroy it, and perhaps reconstructit with myself in control. I made up my mind that, if he continued to actsquarely, I would alter those plans.

  "If you don't mind," Langdon was going on, "I'll make a suggestion--merelya suggestion. It might not be a bad idea for you to arrange to--toeliminate some of the--the popular features from your--brokerage business.There are several influential members of the Travelers who have a--aprejudice--"

  "I understand," I interposed, to spare him the necessity of saying thingshe thought I might regard as impertinent. "They look on me as a keeper of ahigh-class bucket-shop." "That's about the way they'd put it."

  "But the things they object to are, unfortunately, my 'strong hold,'" Iexplained. "You other big fellows gather in the big investors by simplyannouncing your projects in a dignified way. I haven't got the ear of thatclass of people. I have to send out my letters, have to advertise in allthe cities and towns, have to catch the little fellows. You can afford tosend out engraved invitations; I have to gather in my people with brassbands and megaphones. Don't forget that my people count in the totalsbigger than yours. And what's my chief value to you? Why, when you want tounload, I furnish the crowd to unload on, the crowd that gives you and yourbig customers cash for your water and wind. I don't see my way to lettinggo of what I've got until I get hold of what I'm reaching for." All thiswith not a suspicion in my mind that he was at the same game that hadcaused Roebuck to "hint" that same proposal. What a "con man" high financegot when Mowbray Langdon became active down town!

  "That's true," he admitted, with a great air of frankness. "But the crythat you're not a financier, but a bucket-shop man, might be fatal at theTravelers. Of course, the sacrifice would be large for such a small object.Still, you might have to make it--if you really want to get in."

  "I'll think it over," said I. He thought I meant that I'd think overdropping my power--thought I was as big a snob as he and his friends of theTravelers, willing to make any sacrifice to be "in the push." But, whileMatthew Blacklock has the streak of snob in him that's natural to allhuman beings and to most animals, he is not quite insane. No, the thingI intended to think over was how to stay in the "bucket-shop" business,but wash myself of its odium. Bucket-shop! What snobbery! Yet it's humannature, too. The wholesale merchant looks down on the retailer, the bigretailer on the little; the burglar despises the pickpocket; the financier,the small promoter; the man who works with his brain, the man who workswith his hands. A silly lot we are--silly to look down, sillier to feelbadly when we're looked down upon.