Part 28 (2/2)

”Banking is hardly a sociable business,” said Wheaton.

”No; a good banker's got to have cold feet, as the fellow said.”

”But you railroad people are not considered so very warm,” said Wheaton.

”The fellows who want favors seem to think so. By the way, I'm much obliged to some one for an annual that turned up in my mail the other day. I don't know who sent it to me,--if it's you--”

”Um?” Margrave affected to have been wandering in his thoughts, but this was what he was waiting for. ”Oh, I guess that was Wilson. I never fool with the pa.s.s business myself; I've got troubles of my own.”

”I guess I'll not use it very often,” said Wheaton, as if he owed an apology to the road for accepting it.

”Better come out with me in the car sometime and see the road,”

Margrave suggested, throwing his newspaper on the table.

”I'd like that very much,” said Wheaton.

”Where's Thompson now? Old man's pretty well done up, ain't he?”

”He went back to Arizona. He was here at work all summer. He's afraid of our winters.”

”Well, that gives you your chance,” said Margrave, affably. ”There ain't any young man in town that's got a better chance than you have, Jim.”

”I know that,” said Wheaton, humbly.

”You don't go in much on the outside, do you? I suppose you don't have much time.”

”No; I'm held down pretty close; and in a bank you can't go into everything.”

”Well, there's nothing like keeping an eye out. Good things are not so terribly common these days.” Margrave got up and walked the floor once or twice, apparently in a musing humor, but he really wished to look into the adjoining room to make sure they were alone.

”I believe,” he said, with emphasis on the p.r.o.noun, ”there's going to be a good thing for some one in Traction stock. Porter ought to let you in on that.” Margrave didn't know that Porter was in, but he expected to find out.

”Mr. Porter has a way of keeping things to himself,” said Wheaton, cautiously; yet he was flattered by Margrave's friendliness, and anxious to make a favorable impression. Vanity is not, as is usually a.s.sumed, a mere incident of character; it is a disease.

”I suppose,” said Margrave, ”that a man could buy a barrel of that stuff just now at a low figure.”

Wheaton could not resist this opportunity.

”What I have, I got at thirty-one,” he answered, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to have Traction stock. This was not a bank confidence; there was no reason why he should not talk of his own investments if he wished to do so.

Margrave had reseated himself, and lounged on the settee with a confidential air that he had found very effective in the committee rooms at the state capital when it was necessary to deal with a difficult legislator.

”I suppose Porter must have got in lower than that,” he said, carelessly. ”Billy usually gets in on the ground floor.” He chuckled to himself in admiration of the banker's shrewdness. ”But a fellow can do what he pleases when he's got money. Most of us see good things and can't go into the market after 'em.”

”What's your guess as to the turn this Traction business will take?”

asked Wheaton. He had not expected an opportunity to talk to any one of Margrave's standing on this subject, and he thought he would get some information while the opportunity offered.

”Don't ask me! If I knew I'd like to get into the game. But, look here”--he moved his fat body a little nearer to Wheaton--”the way to go into that thing is to go into it big! I've had my eye on it for a good while, but I ain't going to touch it unless I can swing it all. Now, you know Porter, and I know him, and you can bet your last dollar he'll never be able to handle it. He ain't built for it!” His voice sank to a whisper. ”But if I decide to go in, I've got to get rid of Porter. Me and Porter can't travel in the same harness. You know that,” he added, pleadingly, as if there were the bitterness of years of controversy in his relations with Porter.

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