"You must," said Dumont. "And you will. You can get a move on
yourself when you try--I found that out when I was organizing my
original combine. One thing more--very important. Learn for me all
you can--without being suspected--about the Fanning-Smiths and Great
Lakes."
He made Langdon go over the matters he was to attend to, point by
point, before he would let him leave. He was asleep when the nurse,
sent in by Langdon on his way out, reached his bed--the sound and
peaceful sleep of a veteran campaigner whose nerves are trained to take
advantage of every lull.
At ten the next morning he sent the nurse out of his room. "And close
the doors," he said, "and don't come until I ring." He began to use
the branch telephone at his bedside, calling up Langdon, and then
Tavistock, to assure himself that all was going well. Next he called
up in succession five of the great individual money-lenders of Wall
Street, pledged them to secrecy and made arrangements for them to call
upon him at his house at different hours that day and Sunday. Another
might have intrusted the making of these arrangements to Culver or
Langdon, but Dumont never let any one man know enough of his plan of
battle to get an idea of the whole.
"Now for the ammunition," he muttered, when the last appointment was
made. And he rang for Culver.
Culver brought him writing materials. "Take this order," he said, as
he wrote, "to the Central Park Safety Deposit vaults and bring me from
my compartment the big tin box with my initials in white--remember, IN
WHITE--on the end of it."
Three-quarters of an hour later Culver returned, half-carrying,
half-dragging the box. Dumont's eyes lighted up at sight of it. "Ah!"
he said, in a sigh of satisfaction and relief. "Put it under the head
of the bed here. Thanks. That's all."
The nurse came as Culver left, but he sent her away. He supported
himself to the door, locked it. He took his keys from the night-stand,
drew out the box and opened it. On the mass of stocks and bonds lay an
envelope containing two lists--one, of the securities in the box that
were the property of Gladys Dumont; the other, of the securities there
that were the property of Laura Dumont, their mother.
His hands shook as he unfolded these lists, and a creaking in the walls
or flooring made him start and glance round with the look of a
surprised thief. But this weakness was momentary. He was soon
absorbed in mentally arranging the securities to the best advantage for
distribution among the money-lenders as collateral for the cash he
purposed to stake in his game.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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