Part 61 (1/2)
The old man smiled grimly. ”I have not been swindled.”
”Then Clyde sold out!” exploded Boyd.
”Yes. I paid him back the ten thousand dollars he put in, and I took over the twenty-five thousand shares you got Mildred to take.”
”Mildred!” Emerson started as if he had been struck. ”Are you insane?
Mildred doesn't own--Why, Alton never told me who put up that money!”
”Don't tell me you didn't know!” cried Wayne Wayland. ”You knew all the time. You worked your friends out, and then sent that whipper-snapper to my daughter when you saw you were about to fail. You managed well; you knew she couldn't refuse.”
”How did you find out that she held the stock?”
”She told me, of course.”
”Don't ask me to believe that. If she hadn't told you before, she wouldn't tell you now. All I can say is that she acted of her own free will. I never dreamed she put up that twenty-five thousand dollars. What do you intend to do, now that you have taken over these holdings?”
”What do you think? I would spend ten times the money to save my daughter.” The old man was quivering.
”You are only a minority stockholder; the control of this enterprise still rests with me and my friends.”
”Your friends!” cried Mr. Wayland. ”That's what brings me here--you and your friends! I'll break you and your friends, if it takes my fortune.”
”I can understand your dislike of me, but my a.s.sociates have never harmed you.”
”Your a.s.sociates! And who are they? A lawless ruffian, who openly threatened Willis Marsh's murder, and a loose woman from the dance-halls.”
”Take care!” cried Emerson, in a sharp voice.
The old man waved his hands as if at a loss for words. ”Look here! You can't be an utter idiot. You must know who she is.”
”Do you? Then tell me.”
Wayne Wayland turned his back in disgust. ”Do you really wish to know?”
Marsh's smooth voice questioned.
”I do.”
”She is a very common sort,” said Willis Marsh. ”I am surprised that you never heard of her while you were in the 'upper country.' She followed the mining camps and lived as such women do. She is an expert with cards--she even dealt faro in some of the camps.”
”How do you know?”
”I looked up her history in Seattle. She is very--well, notorious.”
”People talk like that about nearly every woman in Alaska.”
”I didn't come here to argue about that woman's character,” broke in Mr.
Wayland.
”You have said enough now, so that you will either prove your words or apologize.”