New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Swindlers and swindling -- Fiction
"Eight," Billy calmly corrected him. "Those shares are worth a hundred
dollars apiece any place now. Mine's worth more than two hundred to
me."
"Nonsense," protested the other. "Tell you what I'll do, though. I'll
pay you two hundred dollars for your share and a hundred dollars
apiece for the others."
"Two," insisted Billy. "We've talked it all over in the office, and
we've agreed to pool our stock and stand out for two hundred apiece,
if anybody wants it. As a matter of fact, I have all four shares in my
possession at this moment," and he displayed the certificates, holding
up his lantern so that Turner could see them.
The sight of the actual stock, the three other shares which the astute
Billy had secured on the promise of a hundred and fifty dollars per
share immediately after Wallingford's pointer, clenched the business.
It was scarcely as much a shock to Wallingford as the Turner crowd had
expected it to be when those gentlemen, having purchased four hundred
and ninety-nine shares of Wallingford's stock at his own price, sat
in the new stock-holders' meeting, at the reorganization upon which
they had insisted, with five hundred and three shares, and J. Rufus
made but feeble protest when the five of them, voting themselves into
the directorate, decided to put the founder of the company on an
extremely meager salary as assistant manager, and Mr. Turner on a
slightly larger salary as chief manager.
"There's no use of saying anything," he concluded philosophically.
"You gentlemen have played a very clever game and I lose; that's all
there is to it."
He thereupon took up the burden of the work and pushed through the
matter of new memberships and of collections with a vigor and ability
that could not but commend itself to his employers. The second week's
collections were now coming in, and it was during the following week
that a large hollow wheel with a handle and crank, mounted on an axle
like a patent churn, was brought into the now vacated room of the
defunct People's Coöperative Bond and Loan Company.
"What's this thing for?" asked Wallingford, inspecting it curiously.
"The drawing," whispered Doc Turner.
"What drawing?"
"The loans."
"You don't mean to say that you're going to conduct this as a
lottery?" protested Wallingford, shocked and even distressed.
"Sh! Don't use that word," cautioned Turner. "Not even among
ourselves. You might use it in the wrong place some time."
"Why not use the word?" Wallingford indignantly wanted to know.
"That's what you're preparing to do! I told you in the first place
that this was not by any means to be considered as a lottery; that it
was not to have any of the features of a lottery. Moreover, I shall
not permit it to be conducted as a lottery!"
Doc Turner leaned against the side of the big wooden wheel and stared
at Wallingford in consternation.
"What's the matter with you?" he demanded. "Have you gone crazy, or
what?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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