human
I've been putting it off to see which way the cat was going to jump, he admitted.
gpt
If young Massingale is out of danger, it is time to get action. What was the quarrel about, between him and Van Bruce?
human
Why do you ask me?
gpt
Because you are pretty thick with the Massingales, and you probably know,
human
It occurs to me that your son would be a better source of information,
gpt
Van Bruce has told me all he remembers--which isn't much, owing to his own beastly condition at the time. He says young Massingale was threatening something--something in connection with the Coronida Grant--and that he got the insane idea into his head that the only way to stop the threat was by killing Massingale.
human
Why should Massingale threaten your son, Mr. Cortwright?
gpt
I don't know,
human
Then I can tell you, was the equally steady rejoinder.
gpt
Some time ago you lent David Massingale, through the bank, a pretty large sum of money for development expenses on the 'Little Susan,' taking a mortgage on everything in sight to cover the loan.
human
I did.
gpt
Massingale's obligation was in short-time, bankable paper, which he expected to take up when the railroad should come in and give him a market for the ore which he has already taken out of the mine.
human
Yes.
gpt
But when the railroad was an assured fact he learned that the Red Butte smelters wouldn't take his ore, giving some technical reason which he knew to be a mere excuse.
human
So far you might be reading it out of a book.
gpt
In consequence of these successive happenings, David Massingale finds himself in a fair way to become a broken man by the simplest of commercial processes. The bank holds his notes, which will presently have to be paid. If he can't pay, the bank comes back on you as his indorser, and you fall back on your mortgage and take the mine. Isn't that about the size of it?
human
It is exactly the size of it.
gpt
And yet you said a moment ago that you didn't know why young Massingale should threaten your son.
human
And I don't know yet, blustered the magnate.
gpt
Is it my fault that Massingale can't pay his debts?
human
It is.
gpt
What sort of a bug have you got in your cosmos this morning, Brouillard? Why, man, you're crazy!
human
If that is your last word, Mr. Cortwright, I may as well go back to my office. You don't need me.
gpt
Oh, hold on; don't go off in a huff. You're too thin-skinned for any common kind of use. I was only trying you to see how far you'd carry it. Let it stand. Assume, for the sake of argument, that I _do_ want the 'Little Susan' and that I've got a good friend or two in the Red Butte smelters who will help me get it. Now, then, does that stand the band-wagon upon its wheels again?
human
Thank you; now we shall go on better. You want the 'Little Susan,' and Massingale naturally thinks you're taking an unfair advantage of him to get it. Quite as naturally he is going to make reprisals if he can. That brings us down to the mention of the Coronida Grant and Stephen Massingale's threat--which your son can't remember.
gpt
Right-o, said Mr. Cortwright, still with predetermined geniality.
human
What was the threat?
gpt
I don't know, but the guessing list is open to everybody. There was once a grant of many square miles of mountain and desert somewhere in this region made to one Don Estacio de Montarriba Coronida. Like those of most of the great Spanish land grants, the boundaries of this one were loosely described and----
human
I know what you're going to say. But we went into all that at Washington before we ever invested a single dollar in this valley. As you may or may not know, the Reclamation Service bureau tried to choke us off. But when it came down to brass tacks, they lacked a witness. We may be in the bed of your proposed lake, but we're safely on Coronida land.
gpt
So you say, said Brouillard quietly,
human
Oh, no, protested the millionaire.
gpt
We have merely referred purchasers to the record. There is a clause in every deed.
human
But you have caused it to be believed that your title was good, that the government's claim to the land will not hold.
gpt
It won't hold if we're on Coronida land.
human
Ah! Just there is where Massingale comes in, I imagine. He has spent twenty years or more in this region, and he knows every landmark in it. What if he should be able to put a lighted match to your pile of kindling, Mr. Cortwright?
gpt
Brouillard, do you know what you are talking about?
human
No; it is only a guess. But as matters stand--with your son indictable for an attempted murder ... if I were you, Mr. Cortwright, I believe I'd give David Massingale a chance to pay those notes at the bank.
gpt
And let him blackmail me? Not in a month of Sundays, Brouillard! Let him sell his ore and pay the notes if he can. If he can't, I'll take the mine.
human
All right, said the visitor placably.
gpt
You asked, and I've answered. Now let's come to something more vital to both of us. There is a pretty persistent rumor on the street that you and your associates succeeded in getting a resolution through both houses of Congress at the last session, appointing a committee to investigate this Coronida claim right here on the ground. Nobody seems to have any definite details, and it possibly hasn't occurred to any one that Congress hasn't been in session since Mirapolis was born. But that doesn't matter. The committee is coming: you have engaged rooms for it here in Bongras's. You are expecting the private-car special next week.
human
Well? said the magnate.
gpt
You're a pretty good kindergartner. But what of it?
human
Oh, nothing. Only I think you might have taken me in on the little side play. What if I had gone about town contradicting the rumor?
gpt
Why should you? It's true. The Congressional party will be here next week, and nobody has made any secret of it.
human
Still, I might have been taken in, persisted Brouillard suavely.
gpt
You'll surely want to give me my instructions a little beforehand, won't you? Just think how easily things might get tangled. Suppose I should say to somebody--to Garner, for example--that the town was hugely mistaken; that no Congressional committee had ever been appointed; that these gentlemen who are about to visit us are mere complaisant friends of yours, coming as your guests, on a junketing trip at your expense. Wouldn't that be rather awkward?