At first the Eagle Company declined to have anything to do with the new
owners. They declared the whole affair off, so far as the Skoonic
Creek location was concerned, and announced their intention of going
elsewhere. But there was no sufficiently attractive “elsewhere” to go.
There followed much proposing and counter-proposing and, at last, an
entirely new deal. A new corporation was formed, its name The Wellmouth
Development Company.
“I don't know a great deal about it,” confessed Martha, “that is, not
about the reasons for it and all, but, as near as I can make out, Raish
and Jethro wouldn't sell outright to the Eagle Company, but wanted to
come in on the profits from the cold storage business, which were
pretty big sometimes. And they couldn't get into the reg'lar Eagle Fish
Freezing Company, the old one. So they and the Eagle folks together
undertook to form this new thing, the Development Company, the name
meanin' nothin' or a whole lot, 'cordin' to how the development
developed, I presume likely. The capital stock--I know all this because
Cap'n Jethro and father used to talk it over so much between 'em and
Cap'n Jeth and I have talked so much since--was fifty thousand. An awful
lot of money, isn't it, Mr. Bangs?”
Her tone was awe-stricken as she mentioned the amount. Galusha gravely
admitted that it was an “awful lot of money.” All sums were awful to
him; he would have agreed if the Wellmouth Development Company had been
capitalized from one thousand to a million. Miss Phipps went on.
“They put out the stock somethin' like this: The Eagle folks took pretty
near half, somewhere around twelve hundred shares, I think they had.
And Raish he took five hundred shares, and Cap'n Jeth four hundred, and
father--after listenin' to Jethro and Raish talk about dividends and
profit sharin' and such till, as he said, the tar on his top riggin'
began to melt, he drew out money from the savin's bank and sold some
other bonds and stocks he had and went in for two hundred and fifty
shares. Twenty dollars a share it was; did I tell you that? Yes, five
thousand dollars father put into that Development Company. It seemed
like a lot even then; but, my soul and body, WHAT a lot it seems to me
now!”
She paused for an instant, then sighed, and continued.
“If you've figured this all out in your head, Mr. Bangs,” she said,
“which I suppose you haven't--?”
Galusha, surprised by the direct question, started, colored, and
guiltily admitted the correctness of her supposition.
“I--I haven't,” he faltered. “Dear me, no. In fact I--ah--doubt if I am
capable of doing such a thing.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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