human
I came around to see what is eating you these days, was the pudgy tyrant's greeting for the young man sitting under the shaded desk lamp.
gpt
Why don't you drop in once in a while and give me the run of things?
human
I gave your clerk the reason, said Brouillard laconically.
gpt
I'm too busy.
human
The devil you are! snapped the great man, finding the only arm chair in the room and dropping heavily into it.
gpt
Since when?
human
Since the first time you sent for me--and before.
gpt
See here, Brouillard, you know you never make any money by being short with me. Let's drop it and get down to business. What I wanted to say is that you are overdoing it; you are putting on too much steam. You've brought the boom, all right, but at the pace you're setting it won't last long enough. Are you catching on?
human
I'm listening,
gpt
Well, enough's enough, and too much of a good thing scalds the hog before you're ready to dress it and cut it up. It's all right for you to run men in here by the train load and scatter 'em out over your scaffolding--the more the merrier, and it's good for the town--but you needn't sweat the last shovelful of hurry out of them the way you're doing. It won't do to get your job finished too soon.
human
Before Congress convenes, you mean?
gpt
That's just what I mean. String it out. Make it last.
human
And if I don't choose to 'string it out'--if I even confess that I am straining every nerve to do this thing that you don't want me to do--what then, Mr. Cortwright?
gpt
I've been looking for that, he said with a nervous twinkling of the little gray eyes.
human
You've no business being out of business, Brouillard. If you'd quit puddling sand and cement and little rocks together and strike your gait right in ten years you'd be the richest man this side of the mountains. I'll be open-handed with you: this time you've got us where we can't wiggle. We've _got_ to have more time. How much is it going to cost us?
gpt
Odd as it may seem to you, I'm out of your market this time, Mr. Cortwright--quite out of it.
human
Oh, no, you're not. You've got property to sell--a good bit of it. We can turn it for you at a figure that will----
gpt
No; you are mistaken, was the quick reply.
human
I have no property in Mirapolis. I am merely a squatter on government land, like every one else in the Niquoia valley.
gpt
For Heaven's sake! the promoter burst out.
human
What's got into you? Don't you go around trying to stand that corpse on its feet; it's a dead one, I tell you! The Coronida titles are all right!
gpt
There are no Coronida titles. You have known it all along, and I know it--now. I have it straight from the bureau of land statistics, in a letter from a man who knows. The nearest boundary of the old Spanish grant is Latigo Peak, ten miles south of Chigringo. The department knows this and is prepared to prove it. And in the very beginning you and your associates were warned that you could not acquire homestead or other rights in the Niquoia.
human
Let it go! snapped the gray-eyed king of the pack.
gpt
We've got to get out alive and we're going to get out alive. What's your price?
human
I have answered that question once, but I'll make it a little plainer if you wish. It is beyond your reach; if you should turn your money-coining soul into cash you couldn't pay it this time, Mr. Cortwright.
gpt
That's guff--boy-talk--play-ranting! You want something--is it that damned Massingale business again? I don't own the railroad, but if you think I do, I'll sign anything you want to write to the traffic people. Let Massingale sell his ore and get the money for it. He'll go gamble it as he did yours.
human
You are ready to let go, are you? he said.
gpt
You are too late. Mr. Ford returned from Europe a week ago, and I have a wire saying that to-night's through freight from Brewster is chiefly made up of empty ore-cars for the 'Little Susan.'
human
What I said still holds good. Massingale or his son, or both of them, will gamble the money. And if they don't, we've got 'em tied up in a hard knot on the stock proposition.
gpt
I was coming to that, said Brouillard quietly.
human
For a long time you have been telling me what I should do and I have done it. Now I'll take my turn. You must notify your associates that the 'Little Susan' deal is off. There will be a called meeting of the directors here in this room to-morrow evening at eight o'clock, and----
gpt
Who calls it?
human
The president.
gpt
President nothing! was the snorted comment.
human
An old, drunken gambler who hasn't got sense enough to go in when it rains! Say, Brouillard, I'll cut that pie so there'll be enough to go around the table. Just leave Massingale out of it and make up your mind that you're going to sit in with us. We've bought the mine and paid for it. I've got the stock put away where it's safe. Massingale can't touch a share of it, or vote it, either.
gpt
You are stubbornly hard to convince, Mr. Cortwright, but I'll try one more time. You will come here to-morrow evening, with your confederates in the deal, prepared to take the money you have actually spent in betterments and prepared to release the stock. If you fail to do so you will get nothing. Is that explicit enough?
human
You're crazy! shouted the promoter.
gpt
You talk as if there wasn't any law in this country!
human
There isn't--for such men as you; you and your kind put yourselves above the law. But that is neither here nor there. You don't want to go into court with this conspiracy which you have cooked up to beat David Massingale out of his property. It's the last thing on earth you want to do. So you'd better do the other thing--while you can.