A Rich Man's Relatives Volume II Part 14

"M'sieur ees so _riche_ and _distingue!_ He vill not see a poor man lose ze sparings of his life," and he bowed cringingly to the chair.

Farmer Belmore vied with him in a gaze of pathetic sweetness and tremulous hungry adoration before the great man who had brought his savings into jeopardy and who yet, if any one could, could bring them safely out. The disclosure made by Podevin had been as unexpected by him as it was sudden. He had fancied himself growing rich, and now to be told that he was stripped of his savings! He would have been furious had he dared--talked of fraud, trickery, and the law; but when he saw Podevin prostrate himself in spirit before the chair, and cry for succour from the hand which had inaugurated the ill, he controlled himself and lay back in his chair, constraining his lips into sugar-coated smiles which the doubtful and hungry gleaning of his eyes deprived of any seductiveness they might otherwise have carried.

"This is simply, gentlemen," said the president, coughing and raising his voice, "one of those circ.u.mstances to which every enterprise--especially every enterprise dealing with minerals--is liable. As business men you calculated the risks and counted the cost before you embarked your money. The likelihood of profit appeared sufficient to us all to warrant our running the risk."

"M'sieur did not mention risks ven he so kindly undertook to improve my fortunes. I confide my case to ze generous _souvenirs_ of m'sieur.

He vill not permit to suffer ze man who place _confiance_ and dollars in his _recommande_."

Ralph snorted. "Let us talk business, gentlemen," he cried. "We are not here to scold like old women, or to lament like children. You are men of understanding, who would not have dropped your money but where you saw good promise of a large return. Whether you gain or lose, therefore, you have only yourselves to thank. You know as well as I do that where money is to be made it is also to be lost. If it were not so, all the world would crowd in to make its fortune every time, and there would be nothing for anybody. Therefore, I object to expressions such as have fallen from my friend, Podevin. He regrets them already himself, I am sure, now I mention it, and he brings his clear good sense to bear on the point. Gentlemen! we went in to win. Of course we did! It goes without saying. But, if we have to lose, let us behave like men of business and common sense; let us not cry over spilt milk, but let us make the best of it. And first, let us look the matter in the face. What is it that has happened to us?----"

"Ze _cuivre_ is not zere!" cried Podevin, eager to rally his self-respect and preen the rumpled plumage on which Ralph had sat down so unceremoniously. If his plea for help and relief must be set aside, at least a partial satisfaction might be taken out in scolding, and there seemed an opening here.

"To put it shortly, gentlemen," said Ralph with a shrug, "that would appear to be about the state of the case just at this moment; but I would recommend you not to say it that way out of doors, unless you want to write off every cent you have invested in the undertaking as dead loss. That would not be all either, gentlemen. You, the directors, conjointly and severally, would be liable to suit by each individual stockholder for misrepresenting the value of the property.

Is that not so, Jordan?"

"Clearly, they might claim to have their subscribed stock made good.

Whether they would secure a verdict, would depend a good deal, of course, on the management of the case on both sides. But that is not all. It is possible that a criminal information might be laid for obtaining money under false pretences, and when commercial miscarriages are fresh in the public mind, there is a p.r.o.neness in juries to find against the defendants. It is really a serious consideration--a penetentiary offence."

"_Mon Dieu!_" gasped Podevin with folded hands, gazing at the ceiling with eyes whose watery sorrow threatened momentarily to overflow.

Belmore pulled the posy from his b.u.t.ton-hole and flung it on the ground, its festive hue and fragrance irritated his senses in the gloom which had fallen on him. If he could but have cast his speculation from him as easily, or hurled the man before him, who had led him into it, to the ground in like fas.h.i.+on, how good it would have been!

"But, gentlemen," cried Ralph, pleased at the impression which his words had made, "things have not come to that pa.s.s yet, nor will they, if I can help it. There is always life for a living man; that is, if he is willing and able to use it sensibly for his own preservation.

What is this which has fallen on us after all? It may prove to be nothing but a fault in the lode. Such things occur frequently, and the recovered vein, when it is found again deeper down, is generally richer than it was before. It is true that what we have been working on may prove to be mere pockets of the metal, unconnected with other deposits, but we cannot say for certain until we have carefully examined, and that will require time. Meanwhile, idle tales may get abroad, which would shake public confidence, injure and discredit the property, and destroy the value of the stock. We must forestall mischievous rumours, gentlemen, and I now propose--Stinson! enter on the minutes, 'proposed and carried _nem. con_. that this board now declare a dividend of one dollar per share.'"

"That will be five per cent on the paid-up capital?" said Joe Webb.

"All the earnings, so far, have gone in working expenses. It seems a big dividend to declare out of nothing."

"--s.h.!.+" muttered Belmore, pulling his sleeve. "--sh, man! It will be so much saved out of all that has gone to the dogs."

"But, Mr. President," Webb continued, "where is the money to come from to pay the dividend?"

"Never fear for that, squire. Declare your dividend, and up go your shares. We have still stock which has not been issued yet. We can sell it then at the advanced price, and shall be in plenty of funds to pay anything."

"But is that right? Mr. Herkimer. Is it honest?"

"Right? Honest? Sir! What do you mean? Your words require explanation," and Ralph pushed out his chest, making the diamond studs flash scornful fire on the farmer's inexpensive raiment, while his brow gloomed and his cheeks grew purple like an angry gobbler.

"Mr. Webb is more familiar with the procedure at quarter sessions, and the operations of agriculture, I suspect, than with the practice of the financial world," observed Jordan soothingly. He loved to lift his placid head, like Neptune, above the troubled waves, and still a rising storm. He used his smoothest, oil-pouring tones, enjoying them himself, and calming those who heard him. "I feel confident he had no intention of reflecting on our worthy president, who, on my thus explaining--with Mr. Webb's manifest concurrence--will refrain from viewing as unfriendly any unadvised expression he may have used. And, my dear Mr. Webb, you will permit me to say that the impulse which unadvisedly prompted still does you infinite honour. It would be well for our commercial community if the n.o.ble sentiments which flourish in the rural districts were to obtain in the busy marts of trade. In the present instance, however, my young friend will perhaps permit me to say that his scruples appear to be--well, to be just, a little over-strained. As Mr. Webb states the case, it may indeed be said that there is a seeming impropriety in the time chosen for declaring this dividend."

"It is not the time, it is the dividend I object to. It has not been earned, and it is to be paid out of the subscriptions of the new shareholders."

"My good man," cried Ralph, "can you make a better of it? You would not throw up the sponge--stop the workings--before it has been proved whether it is not merely a temporary check we are suffering. You do not want to lose all the money you have put in, and perhaps be sued by disappointed shareholders besides, till you are stripped bare of every cent you have in the world?"

"I do not want to take the money of misled subscribers, and divide it among ourselves on pretence of a dividend which we have not earned."

"That is a question of book-keeping, sir, allow me to tell you.

Certain debit entries are merely deferred, to be charged later on, leaving a present surplus. It is easily done. Besides, you must admit that we--that the present shareholders--actually _have_ earned the premiums at which the stock stands, or may stand hereafter. That is a profit which the company and the older proprietors have fairly earned by holding the stock in time past, before it grew popular, and the price rose. Trust the management, Mr. Webb. The rest of us are more deeply interested even than you are in things going right."

"I don't like it. It does not seem to be the honest thing to do."

"Mr. Webb, Mr. Webb, you are letting yourself grow warm again, are you not?" said Jordan. "What other method would you propose? This one will give time for examining the property and striking the vein again, and, if we cannot do that, we shall have time to sell out and wash our hands of the whole operation without loss, or even at a small profit."

"But how, as honest men, could we sell property, knowing it to be worthless, at the same price as if it were of real value?"

"_Caveat emptor_, my dear sir, to quote a legal maxim. The buyers are business men, well able to take care of themselves, and they will do it, you may rest a.s.sured. They will satisfy themselves that they are not paying too dear. Your scruples are honourable, no doubt, but do you not think they must be over-strained, seeing they run counter to the general practice? I can a.s.sure you it is nothing unusual which has been proposed--nothing but what has frequently taken place in most respectably managed concerns. There was the Porpoise and Dolphin Oil Company, Limited, for instance--since gone into liquidation, but that is neither here nor there--its management was in the hands of a body of directors, than whom no gentlemen in the community stand higher, among others the Rev. Mr. Demas, of Little Bethel, in the Rue des Borgnes--you will have heard him preach, no doubt--a most evangelical man, and surely you will not take upon you to find fault with proceedings such as _he_ has sanctioned by partic.i.p.ating in."

"I really could not bring myself to declare a dividend, that is, as I understand it, to profess that we have earned money when I know for a fact that we have not earned it at all."

"Tush, man!" whispered Belmore; "sit down. Let's get through, sign the minutes, and draw our pay. I have coal oil to buy, and nails, and I shall miss my train if you do not sit down and let us finish up."

"Proposed," cried Ralph, "that the board declare a dividend of one dollar per share, payable on the first of next month. Gentlemen in favour of the motion will hold up their hands. Carried! _nem. con_."

"Gentlemen!" began Webb, in a faltering voice, which was overborne and drowned in the rush and stream of the president's words, which grew loud and rapid at this point, and who went on as though unconscious of interruption. "Any other business to bring forward, Stinson? No? Then this meeting stands adjourned to the second Monday of next month. Sign the minutes, gentlemen, and draw your honorarium."

Webb requested Stinson to record his dissent from the vote in the minutes, but was informed that the meeting was closed, and nothing could be added to its proceedings. He then demurred to signing, but Belmore, heated up to the point of speaking out in meeting for once, declared that he must, or he should not have his dollars--that himself and Podevin earned them by signing their names, and Webb must do likewise.

"The dollars may slide!" cried Joe, growing indignant, and tossing on his hat.

"But, Mr. Webb," said Stinson, speaking most respectfully, "will you sign the minutes to show that I have done my duty, and they are correct. You have been present, and the law says so;" and poor Joe Webb, unable to bear up against a city man's polite address, though he would have maintained his point against all the bl.u.s.tering farmers in his towns.h.i.+p, yielded, and placed himself under the same moral condemnation with the rest, as sanctioning for stock-jobbing purposes a fraudulent dividend to be paid out of capital.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 1: A one-seated sleigh, intended to carry two persons.]

END OF VOL. II.