Part 14 (2/2)
And, with a judgment trained in the valuing of men, he turned to Jim as our leader.
”If our enterprise doesn't commend itself to your judgment in twenty minutes,” said Jim, with a little smile, and in much the same tone that he would have used in discussing a cigar, ”there'll be no need of wasting the other ten; for it's perfectly plain. I'll expedite matters by skipping what we desire, for the most part, and telling you why we think the Pendleton system ought to desire the same thing. Our plan, in a word, is to build a hundred and fifty miles of line, and from it deliver two full train-loads of through east-bound freight per day to your road, and take from you a like amount of west-bound tonnage, not one pound of which can be routed over your lines at present.”
Mr. Pendleton smiled.
”A very interesting proposition, Mr. Elkins,” said he; ”my business is railroading, and I am always glad to perfect myself in the knowledge of it. Make it plain just how this can be done, and I shall consider my half-hour well expended.”
Then began the fateful conversation out of which grew the building of the Lattimore & Great Western Railway. Jim walked to the map which covered one wall of the room, and dropped statement after statement into the mind of Pendleton like round, compact bullets of fact. It was the best piece of expository art imaginable. Every foot of the road was described as to gradients, curves, cuts, fills, trestles, bridges, and local traffic. Then he began with Lattimore; and we who breathed in nothing but knowledge of that city and its resources were given new light as to its s.h.i.+pments and possibilities of growth. He showed how the products of our factories, the grain from our elevators, the live-stock from our yards, and the meats from our packing-houses could be sent streaming over the new road and the lines of Pendleton.
Then he turned to our Commercial Club, and showed that the merchants, both wholesale and retail, of Lattimore were welded together in its members.h.i.+p, in such wise that their merchandise might be routed from the great cities over the proposed track. He piled argument on argument. He hammered down objection after objection before they could be suggested.
He met Mr. Pendleton in the domain of railroad construction and management, and showed himself familiar with the relative values of Pendleton's own lines.
”Your Pacific Division,” said he, ”must have disappointed some of the expectations with which it was built. Its earnings cannot, in view of the distance they fall below those of your other lines, be quite satisfactory to you. Give us the traffic agreement we ask; and your next report after we have finished our line will show the Pacific Division doing more than its share in the great showing of revenue per mile which the Pendleton system always makes. I see that my twenty minutes is about up. I hope I have made good our promises as to showing cause for coming to you with our project.”
Mr. Pendleton, after a moment's thought, said: ”Have you made an engagement for lunch?”
We had not. He turned to the telephone, and called for a number.
”Is this Mr. Wade's office?... Yes, if you please.... Is this Mr.
Wade?... This is Pendleton talking to you.... Yes, Pendleton.... There are some gentlemen in my office, Mr. Wade, whom I want you to meet, and I should be glad if you could join us at lunch at the club.... Well, can't you call that off, now?... Say, at one-thirty.... Yes.... Very kind of you.... Thanks! Good-by.”
Having made his arrangements with Mr. Wade, he hung up the telephone, and pushed an electric b.u.t.ton. A young man from an outer office responded.
”Tell Mr. Moore,” said Pendleton to him, ”that he will have to see the gentlemen who will call at twelve--on that lake terminal matter--he will understand. And see that I am not disturbed until after lunch.... And, say, Frank! See if Mr. Adams can come in here--at once, please.”
Mr. Adams, who turned out to be some sort of a freight expert, came in, and the rest of the interview was a bombardment of questions, in which we all took turns as targets. When we went to lunch we felt that Mr.
Pendleton had possessed himself of all we knew about our enterprise, and filed the information away in some vast pigeon-hole case with his own great stock of knowledge.
We met Mr. Wade over an elaborate lunch. He said, as he shook hands with Cornish, that he believed they had met somewhere, to which Cornish bowed a frigid a.s.sent. Mr. Wade was the head of The Allen G. Wade Trust Company, and seemed in a semi-comatose condition, save when cakes, wine, or securities were under discussion. He addressed me as ”Mr.
Corning,” and called Cornish ”Atkins,” and once in a while opened his mouth to address Jim by name, but halted, with a distressful look, at the realization of the fact that he could not remember names enough to go around. He made an appointment with me for the party for the next morning.
”If you will come to my office before you call on Mr. Wade,” said Mr.
Pendleton, ”I will have a memorandum prepared of what we will do with you in the way of a traffic agreement: it may be of some use in determining the desirability of your bonds. I'm very glad to have met you, gentlemen. When Lattimore gets into my world--by which I mean our system and connections--I hope to visit the little city which has so strong a business community as to be able to send out such a committee as yourselves; good-afternoon!”
”Well,” said I, as we went toward our hotel, ”this looks like progress, doesn't it?”
”I sha'n't feel dead sure,” said Jim, ”until the money is in bank, subject to the check of the construction company. But doesn't it look juicy, right now! Why, boys, with that traffic agreement we can get the money anywhere--on the prairie, out at sea--anywhere under the s.h.i.+ning sun! They can't beat us. What do you say, Cornish? Will, your friend Wade jar loose, or shall we have to seek further?”
”He'll snap at your bonds now,” said Cornish, rather glumly, I thought, considering the circ.u.mstances; ”but don't call him a friend of mine!
Why, d.a.m.n him, not a week ago he turned me out of his office, saying that he didn't want to look into any more Western railway schemes! And now he says he believes we've met before!”
This seemed to strike Mr. Elkins as the best practical joke he had ever heard of; and Cornish suggested that for a man to stop in Homeric laughter on Broadway might be pleasant for him, but was embarra.s.sing to his companions. By this time Cornish himself was better-natured. Jim took charge of our movements, and commanded us to a dinner with him, in the nature of a celebration, with a theater-party afterward.
”Let us,” said he, ”hear the chimes at midnight, or even after, if we get buncoed doing it. Who cares if we wind up in the police court! We've done the deed; we've made our bluff good with Halliday and his gang of highwaymen; and I feel like taking the limit off, if it lifts the roof!
Al, hold your hand over my mouth or I shall yell!”
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