Yes, but we didnt go into it at his figures.
No, said Barker, with an eager smile, but you SOLD at his figures, for I knew that when I found that YOU, my old partner, was in it; dont you see, I preferred to buy it through your bank, and did at 110. Of course, you wouldnt have sold it at that figure if it wasnt worth it then, and neither I nor you are to blame if it dropped the next week to 60, dont you see?
Stacys eyes hardened for a moment as he looked keenly into his former partners bright gray ones, but there was no trace of irony in Barkers. On the contrary, a slight shade of sadness came over them. No, he said reflectively, I dont think Ive ever been foolish or followed out my OWN ideas, except once, and that was extravagant, I admit. That was my idea of building a kind of refuge, you know, on the site of our old cabin, where poor miners and played-out prospectors waiting for a strike could stay without paying anything. Well, I sunk twenty thousand dollars in that, and might have lost more, only CarterKittys fatherpersuaded mehes an awful clever old fellowinto turning it into a kind of branch hotel of Boomville, while using it as a hotel to take poor chaps who couldnt pay, at half prices, or quarter prices, PRIVATELY, dont you see, so as to spare their pride,awfully pretty, wasnt it?and make the hotel profit by it.
Well? said Stacy as Barker paused.
They didnt come, said Barker.
But, he added eagerly, it shows that things were better than I had imagined. Only the others did not come, either.
And you lost your twenty thousand dollars, said Stacy curtly.
FIFTY thousand, said Barker, for of course it had to be a larger hotel than the other. And I think that Carter wouldnt have gone into it except to save me from losing money.
And yet made you lose fifty thousand instead of twenty. For I dont suppose HE advanced anything.
He gave his time and experience, said Barker simply.
I dont think it worth thirty thousand dollars, said Stacy dryly. But all this doesnt tell me what your business is with me to-day.
No, said Barker, brightening up, but it is business, you know. Something in the old styleas between partner and partnerand thats why I came to YOU, and not to the banker. And it all comes out of something that Demorest once told us; so you see its all us three again! Well, you know, of course, that the Excelsior Ditch Company have abandoned the Bar and Heavy Tree Hill. It didnt pay.
Yes; nor does the company pay any dividends now. You ought to know, with fifty thousand of their stock on your hands.
Barker laughed. But listen. I found that I could buy up their whole plant and all the ditching along the Black Spur Range for ten thousand dollars.
And Great Scott! you dont think of taking up their business? said Stacy, aghast.
Barker laughed more heartily. No. Not their business. But I remember that once Demorest told us, in the dear old days, that it cost nearly as much to make a water ditch as a railroad, in the way of surveying and engineering and levels, you know. And heres the plant for a railroad. Dont you see?
But a railroad from Black Spur to Heavy Tree Hillwhats the good of that?
Why, Black Spur will be in the line of the new Divide Railroad theyre trying to get a bill for in the legislature.
An infamous piece of wildcat jobbing that will never pass, said Stacy decisively.
They said BECAUSE it was that, it would pass, said Barker simply. They say that Watsons Bank is in it, and is bound to get it through. And as that is a rival bank of yours, dont you see, I thought that if WE could get something real good or valuable out of it,something that would do the Black Spur good,it would be all right.
And was your business to consult me about it? said Stacy bluntly.
No, said Barker, its too late to consult you now, though I wish I had. Ive given my word to take it, and I cant back out. But I havent the ten thousand dollars, and I came to you.
Stacy slowly settled himself back in his chair, and put both hands in his pockets. Not a cent, Barker, not a cent.
Im not asking it of the BANK, said Barker, with a smile, for I could have gone to the bank for it. But as this was something between us, I am asking you, Stacy, as my old partner.
And I am answering you, Barker, as your old partner, but also as the partner of a hundred other men, who have even a greater right to ask me. And my answer is, not a cent!
Barker looked at him with a pale, astonished face and slightly parted lips. Stacy rose, thrust his hands deeper in his pockets, and standing before him went on:
Now look here! Its time you should understand me and yourself. Three years ago, when our partnership was dissolved by accident, or mutual consent, we will say, we started afresh, each on our own hook. Through foolishness and bad advice you have in those three years hopelessly involved yourself as you never would have done had we been partners, and yet in your difficulty you ask me and my new partners to help you out of a difficulty in which they have no concern.
Your NEW partners? stammered Barker.
Yes, my new partners; for every man who has a share, or a deposit, or an interest, or a dollar in this bank is my PARTNEReven you, with your securities at the Branch, are one; and you may say that in THIS I am protecting you against yourself.
But you have moneyyou have private means.
None to speculate with as you wish me toon account of my position; none to give away foolishly as you expect me toon account of precedent and example. I am a soulless machine taking care of capital intrusted to me and my brains, but decidedly NOT to my heart nor my sentiment. So my answer is, not a cent!
Barkers face had changed; his color had come back, but with an older expression. Presently, however, his beaming smile returned, with the additional suggestion of an affectionate toleration which puzzled Stacy.
I believe youre right, old chap, he said, extending his hand to the banker, and I wish I had talked to you before. But its too late now, and Ive given my word.
Your WORD! said Stacy. Have you no written agreement?
No. My word was accepted. He blushed slightly as if conscious of a great weakness.
But that isnt legal nor business. And you couldnt even hold the Ditch Company to it if THEY chose to back out.
But I dont think they will, said Barker simply. And you see my word wasnt given entirely to THEM. I bought the thing through my wifes cousin, Henry Spring, a broker, and he makes something by it, from the company, on commission. And I cant go back on HIM. What did you say?
Stacy had only groaned through his set teeth. Nothing, he said briefly, except that Im coming, as I said before, to dine with you to-night; but no more BUSINESS. Ive enough of that with others, and there are some waiting for me in the outer office now.
Barker rose at once, but with the same affectionate smile and tender gravity of countenance, and laid his hand caressingly on Stacys shoulder. Its like you to give up so much of your time to me and my foolishness and be so frank with me. And I know its mighty rough on you to have to be a mere machine instead of Jim Stacy. Dont you bother about me. Ill sell some of my Wide West Extension and pull the thing through myself. Its all right, but Im sorry for you, old chap. He glanced around the room at the walls and rich paneling, and added, I suppose thats what you have to pay for all this sort of thing?
Before Stacy could reply, a waiting visitor was announced for the second time, and Barker, with another hand-shake and a reassuring smile to his old partner, passed into the hall, as if the onus of any infelicity in the interview was upon himself alone. But Stacy did not seem to be in a particularly accessible mood to the new caller, who in his turn appeared to be slightly irritated by having been kept waiting over some irksome business. You dont seem to follow me, he said to Stacy after reciting his business perplexity. Cant you suggest something?
Well, why dont you get hold of one of your board of directors? said Stacy abstractedly. Theres Captain Drummond; you and he are old friends. You were comrades in the Mexican War, werent you?
That be dd! said his visitor bitterly. All his interests are the other way, and in a trade of this kind, you know, Stacy, that a man would sacrifice his own brother. Do you suppose that hed let up on a sure thing that hes got just because he and I fought side by side at Cerro Gordo? Come! what are you giving us? Youre the last man I ever expected to hear that kind of flapdoodle from. If its because your bank has got some other interest and you cant advise me, why dont you say so? Nevertheless, in spite of Stacys abrupt disclaimer, he left a few minutes later, half convinced that Stacys lukewarmness was due to some adverse influence. Other callers were almost as quickly disposed of, and at the end of an hour Stacy found himself again alone.
But not apparently in a very satisfied mood. After a few moments of purely mechanical memoranda-making, he rose abruptly and opened a small drawer in a cabinet, from which he took a letter still in its envelope. It bore a foreign postmark. Glancing over it hastily, his eyes at last became fixed on a concluding paragraph. I hope, wrote his correspondent, that even in the rush of your big business you will sometimes look after Barker. Not that I think the dear old chap will ever go wrongindeed, I often wish I was as certain of myself as of him and his insight; but I am afraid we were more inclined to be merely amused and tolerant of his wonderful trust and simplicity than to really understand it for his own good and ours. I know you did not like his marriage, and were inclined to believe he was the victim of a rather unscrupulous father and a foolish, unequal girl; but are you satisfied that he would have been the happier without it, or lived his perfect life under other and what you may think wiser conditions? If he WROTE the poetry that he LIVES everybody would think him wonderful; for being what he is we never give him sufficient credit. Stacy smiled grimly, and penciled on his memorandum, He wants it to the amount of ten thousand dollars. Anyhow, continued the writer, look after him, Jim, for his sake, your sake, and the sake ofPHIL DEMOREST.