"Mr. Lokes, you know there isn't much in this deal for that crowd. But I don't mind telling you frankly that it is of prime importance to the interests we represent." Slocum looked up at me, mystified, but I went on:-- "We propose to form a large packing company, into which we shall take a number of concerns on which we have options. We want this property first. When our company is formed we might make it very well worth your while having been friendly to us in this transaction." Lokes didn't move a muscle: this was the talk he had been waiting for, but he wanted to hear the figures. I told him enough of our plans to let him see that we had good backing and to whet his appetite. "Now we have offered your committee forty cents on the dollar for your bonds, which is fifteen more than the other crowd will give you. If you will induce your associates to take bonds in our corporation, we will give you fifty, instead of forty--and," I concluded slowly, "there will be fifty thousand dollars of preferred stock for your services." At the word "services" Slocum jumped up from the table where he had been seated and walked over to the window, then came back to the table, and tried to attract my attention. But I kept my eyes on Lokes. "What will you do for the others?" Lokes asked significantly, meaning his two associates on the committee. "Nothing!" I said shortly. "You will look after them. They will do what you say. That is what we pay for." It was plain enough that I was offering him a good-sized bribe for his services in turning over to us the assets of the London and Chicago concern rather than to our rivals, and for bonds in the prospective company instead of cash. That did not trouble him: he was aware that he had not been asked to meet me to talk of the health of the bankrupt company of which he had been the treasurer. Lokes thought awhile, asked some more questions about our company, and finally hinted at his preference for cash for his services. "Either forty cash with no bonus for your services, or fifty in bonds with the preferred stock for you," I answered shortly. Pretty soon he took his hat and said he was going to see his associates on the committee, and would be back in the course of the afternoon. "He's gone over to Carmichael," I remarked to Slocum, when he had closed the office door behind Mr. Lokes. "But John won't touch him--he won't believe his story. He doesn't think I've got the cash or the nerve to play this game. We'll see him back in an hour or two." "Do you know, Van, what you are doing?" Slocum asked sombrely, instead of replying to my remark. "You have bribed that man to betray his trust." "I guess that was what he came here for, Sloco. But we are offering them a good price for their goods. This man Lokes happens to be a rascal. If he had been straight, we could have saved that preferred stock. That's all there is to it." But Slocum still shook his head. "It's a bad business."