Part 26 (1/2)

”The fact is,” I went on, ”that things in Lattimore are not in condition to bear a shock--general money conditions, I mean, you know.”

”I know,” she said, nodding a.s.sent; ”I can see that.”

”Your father did a very large business for a time,” I continued; ”and when he sold lands he took some cash in payment, and for the balance notes of the various purchasers, secured by mortgages on the properties.

Many of these persons are mere adventurers, who bought on speculation, and when their first notes came due failed to pay. Now if you had these notes, you could hold them, or foreclose the mortgages, and, beyond being disappointed in getting the money, no harm would be done.”

”I understand,” said Josie. ”I knew something of this before.”

”But if we haven't the notes,” inquired her mother, ”where are they?”

”Well,” I went on, ”you know how we have all handled these matters here.

Mr. Trescott did as we all did: he negotiated them. The Grain Belt Trust Company placed them for him, and his are the only securities it has handled except those of our syndicate. He took them to the Trust Company and signed them on the back, and thus promised to pay them if the first signer failed. Then the trust company attached its guaranty to them, and they were resold all over the East, wherever people had money to put out at interest.”

”I see,” said Josie; ”we have already had the money on these notes.”

”Yes,” said I, ”and now we find that a great many of these notes, which are being sent on for payment, will not be paid. Your father's estate is not able to pay them, and our trust company must either take them up or fail. If it fails, everyone will think that values in Lattimore are unstable and fict.i.tious, and so many people will try to sell out that we shall have a smas.h.i.+ng of values, and possibly a panic. Prices will drop, so that none of our mortgages will be good for their face.

Thousands of people will be broken, the city will be ruined, and there will be hard and distressful times, both here and where our paper is held. But if we can keep things as they are until we can do some large things we have in view, we are not afraid of anything serious happening.

So we form this new corporation, and have it advance the funds on the notes, so as not to weaken the trust company--and because we can't afford to do it otherwise--and we know you would not permit it anyhow; and we ask you to give to the new corporation all the property which the creditors could reach, which will be held, and sold as opportunity offers, so as to make the loss as small as possible. But we must keep off this panic to save ourselves.”

”I must think about this,” said Josie. ”I don't see any way out of it; but to have one's affairs so wrapped up in such a great tangle that one loses control of them seems wrong, somehow. And so far as I am concerned, I think I should prefer to turn everything over to the creditors--house and all--than to have even so good friends as yourself take on such a load for us. It seems as if we were saying to you, 'Pay our debts or we'll ruin you!' I must think about it.”

”You understand it now?” said Jim.

”Yes, in a way.”

”Let me come over this evening,” said he, ”and I think I can remove this feeling from your mind. And by the way, the new corporation is not going to have the ranch out on the Cheyenne Range. The syndicate says it isn't worth anything. And I'm going to take it. I still believe in the headwaters of Bitter Creek as an art country.”

”Thank you,” said she vaguely.

Somehow, the explanation of the estate affairs seemed to hurt her. Her color was still high, but her eyes were suffused, her voice grew choked at times, and she showed the distress of her recent trials, in something like a loss of self-control. Her pretty head and slender figure, the flexile white hands clasped together in nervous strain to discuss these so vital matters, and, more than all, the departure from her habitual cool and self-possessed manner, was touching, and appealed powerfully to Jim. He walked up to her, as she stood ready to leave, and laid his hand lightly on her arm.

”The way Barslow puts these property matters,” said he, ”you are called upon to think that all arrangements have been made upon a cold cash basis; and, actually, that's the fact. But you mustn't either of you think that in dealing with you we have forgotten that you are dear to us--friends. We should have had to act in the same way if you had been enemies, perhaps, but if there had been any way in which our--regard could have shown itself, that way would have been followed.”

”Yes,” said Mrs. Trescott, ”we understand that. Mr. Lattimore said almost the same thing, and we know that in what he did Mr. Cornish--”

”We must go now, mamma,” said Josie. ”Thank you both very much. It won't do any harm for me to take a day or so for considering this in all its phases; but I know now what I shall do. The thought of the distress that might come to people here and elsewhere as a result of these mistakes here is a new one, and a little big for me, at first.”

Jim sat by the desk, after they went away, folding insurance blotters and savagely tearing them in pieces.

”I wish to G.o.d,” said he, ”that I could throw my hand into the deck and quit!”

”What's the matter?” said I.

”Oh--nothing,” he returned. ”Only, look at the situation. She comes in, filled with the idea that it was Cornish who proposed this plan, and that he did it for her sake. I couldn't very well say, like a boy, ''Twasn't Cornish; 'twas me!', could I? And in showing her the purely mercenary character of the deal, I'm put in the position of backcapping Cornish, and she goes away with that impression! Oh, Al, what's the good of being able to convince and control every one else, if you are always further off than Kamschatka with the only one for whose feelings you really care?”

”I don't think it struck her in that way at all,” said I. ”She could see how it was, and did, whatever her mother may think. But what possessed Lattimore to tell Mrs. Trescott that Cornish story?”

”Oh, Lattimore never said anything like that!” he returned disgustedly.

”He told her that it was proposed by a friend, or one of the syndicate, or something like that; and they are so saturated with the Cornish idea up there lately, that they filled up the blank out of their own minds.