Part 22 (1/2)
”He didn't know I was in the insurance business until he came up here to be examined.”
”Then why did you fail to recognize each other until you got out in the hall where you thought you were un.o.bserved?”
Mays did not even hesitate. Evidently he had prepared himself for this.
”Another man had got his application,” he said, ”and I was afraid it would look as if I were trying to interfere in some way. I did nod to him, but very likely it wasn't noticed.”
”What are your relations with Schlimmer?” persisted Murray.
”Oh, I got into a little business deal with him, for which I am sincerely sorry. I'm trying to get out now.”
”Insurance?” asked Murray.
”No, sir; it had nothing whatever to do with insurance.”
Murray was thoughtful and silent for several minutes.
”Mays,” he said at last, speaking slowly, ”I don't know whether you're worth saving or not. You've got in with a bad crowd and you're mixed up in a bad deal. But you impressed me favorably when you came here, and I think you are capable of being legitimately successful. Of course, you lied to me about your mother-”
”I was very anxious for the job, sir.”
”I quite appreciate that, although your motive for wanting the job will hardly bear close scrutiny. Still, you are young and I am anxious to give you another chance. Now, tell me the whole story.”
”There is nothing to tell, sir,” Mays replied with an ingenuous air.
”Your words and insinuations are a deep mystery to me.”
”Think again,” advised Murray. ”I know the story pretty well myself.”
”I shall be glad to have you tell it, sir,” said Mays. ”Your earnestness leads me to think it must be interesting.”
”If I tell it,” said Murray, ”it removes your last chance of escaping any of the consequences.”
”Go ahead,” said Mays.
At least, he had magnificent nerve.
”Schlimmer,” said Murray, fixing his eyes sharply on Mays, ”was once mixed up in a little trouble over rebates, which are unlawful. He tried to get me to give him a rebate on a policy, but I refused, and he seems to have got the idea that I was directly responsible for the failure of his scheme elsewhere. He learned, however, that the informer gets half of the fine a.s.sessed against the company in each case, but that only another policy-holder is empowered to make the necessary complaint. It occurred to Schlimmer that, if he could find enough rebate cases, there would be a good bit of money in it on the division of the fines. Being a man of low cunning, it occurred to Schlimmer that these cases might be manufactured, if he could get hold of a complaisant insurance solicitor, for the company is held responsible for the act of the agent, and the easiest way to get hold of a complaisant solicitor was to make one. So he went to a young man who was absorbed in the study of tricky finance and who couldn't see why he couldn't do that sort of thing himself, and the young man got a job in this office. The young man, Max Mays by name, immediately began preparing rebate cases for future use. He worked among a cla.s.s of people who knew little of insurance or insurance laws and who are in the habit of figuring very closely, and this rebate proposition looked pretty good to them.
”Next, Schlimmer and Mays got a lawyer into the scheme, because they would need him when it came to the later proceedings, and they further prepared for their _coup_ by having a confederate, named Tainter, take out a policy in the company, so that he would be in a position to make the necessary complaint. In order to avert suspicion, when the time for action came, Tainter applied for his policy through another solicitor. I think that is about all, Mays, except that you were ready to spring your surprise as soon as the policies had been issued on two or three applications now under consideration. I was in the next room to you when you held your meeting yesterday, Mays.”
Mays had grown very white during this recital, but he still kept his nerve, although he now showed it in a different way.
”Yes,” he said, ”that is about all. There are some details lacking, but the story is practically correct. What do you intend to do with me?”
Then Mays was suddenly conscious of the fact that a man, a stranger, was standing beside him. The man had emerged quietly from the room in which he had been concealed.
”There are the warrants for the whole crowd, including this man,” said Murray, handing the stranger a number of doc.u.ments. ”The charge is conspiracy, and, if they could have secured half the fine in each of the cases they prepared so carefully, they would have made a pretty good thing. Now, I've got the job of straightening this matter out so that both the policies and the company will be una.s.sailable under the rebate law. But, at any rate, Schlimmer has got his second lesson, and it's a good one. Look out for him especially, officer. If you keep this man away from the telephone, you'll have no difficulty in getting Schlimmer and all the others.”
AN INCIDENTAL COURTs.h.i.+P