‘Dad, say something—for the Lord’s sake say something—tell me you’re all right.’
She found herself kneeling beside him, and vainly trying to staunch the blood that welled from three blackened holes in the wounded man’s shirt-front.
The Irishman, whom Nelson had temporarily knocked out, was being hauled by police into a patrol wagon.
People were carrying the wounded man in through the hall to the privacy of the box-office.
Avril heard Vitelma screaming in a fit of hysteria, and remembered afterwards pulling her together by telling the girl sharply that she was ruining her face.
She saw Barton Druce laid out on the floor, and heard people shouting for a doctor.
Finding a chair in a quiet corner, she sat down—she was feeling sick and giddy—then she fainted.
When she came round, she saw that Hinckman was in the room, a tall and dominating personality—there was a doctor, too, kneeling beside Barton Druce.
As in a dream she heard the doctor say, ‘It ain’t no good to move him to a clinic. He’s just about all in.’
It was then that the full horror of the thing came upon her. That kindly old man with the neatly brushed hair and pleasant smile would never walk round his orchid houses any more, he would never again see the sunlight upon the gay flowers in his garden.… He was dead. Murdered. Shot in cold blood by callous, brutal, hired gunmen. Assassinated, she did not doubt, because he had been brave enough to declare against the Combine.
She found herself holding Nelson Druce’s hand, it was hot and feverish. He stood there with his face suddenly grown old, glaring at Hinckman across his father’s body.
She heard Hinckman mouthing hypocritical condolences…. ‘Just terrible these gangsters—to think it happened outside my theatre—close it for a week—mark of respect—sincerest sympathy—behalf of the Trans-Continental Electric Corporation.’
She saw Nelson’s face, he was staring at Hinckman with hard, bright eyes.
Hinckman was talking again. ‘Hear you were figuring to make a trip to Europe—when formalities are over—terrible shock you certainly must have sustained—help to restore you—this appalling tragedy.’
Then she felt Nelson clutch her hand with sudden violence as he spoke, his words coming sharp and rapid like bullets from a gun.
‘Am I leaving for Europe, so you can fix a deal on the Pacific Corporation? Am I going to let you pull off your damned Combine? Am I going to let you get away with murder? Am I, hell!’
7
The Rival Factions
On the afternoon following the murder of Barton Druce, Lord Gavin Fortescue held a council of war. His body seemed more puny than ever, and his dark heavy clothes looked curiously out of place on this day of radiant sunshine when everyone else was wearing the lightest garments that were possible. Hinckman towered above him, his long legs spread wide apart, his hands clasped behind his back, the eternal cigar protruding from the corner of his strong mouth. Ronnie lazed in one chair by the window, his smart shoes upon the arm of another; he looked more than ever the perfect film hero in his wide-cut flannels and open shirt. Outside the fierce sun beat down in dazzling brilliance, but in Lord Gavin’s private sitting-room it was cool and shady.
‘I figure we got ’em on the run,’ Hinckman declared.
‘I had two little men around this morning both wanting to sell out—but I wouldn’t talk. I guess they’re going through the hoop an’ they know it.’
Lord Gavin smiled. ‘The effects of Druce’s death are bound to be widespread. Did you see the German?’
‘What—Schultzer? Yes, I reckon we got him fixed. Now Eberhard Lusatch has come over to us, Hugo’s in a flat spin, an’ Wendy Claus signed right on the dotted line last night. She sure knows her stuff—that woman.’
‘Do you think Schultzer will play now?’ asked Ronnie.
‘Sure—he’s got to. How else’ll he continue to produce? He was figuring on old man Druce to carry him over—this time tomorrow he’ll be crying Kamarad—believe you me.’
‘T.C.E., Klein Brothers, Stillman, Honeydew, Ubiquitous,’ Lord Gavin ticked them off upon small pudgy fingers, ‘that is five. What of McTavish?’
‘Alpha’ll be O.K. I’ve put Amos wise to the figure we’re prepared to go to. Issey’ll cash in his holding for a cert.’
‘Six then—we progress. However, we must bear in mind our liabilities. Schultzer will prove an unwilling partner, and we have saddled ourselves with the necessity of producing these three super films for Honeydew. I shudder to think what they may be like.’
‘We shan’t start production till the Combine’s formed—an’ I figure I know enough about the moving picture business to cut out the super—when I want to. What’s his redress with the whole board against him? ’Sides, we’ve got Von Sternheim—he’s the cleverest guy in the business, if only you can keep his exes down. Reno Films ’ud have been way under years ago if it hadn’t been for him. His box-office draw is darn near as big as a real top-notcher in the star line. I’ll say that even Piplin’s name on a film don’t beat Von Sternheim’s that way.’
‘That is true—and we have already acquired Eberhard Lusatch from Schultzer—then there is your own man Ring; we shall be exceptionally strong on the production side. The question is, who do we concentrate against next?’
‘Waal, there’s Vandelstein and Uncle Andy still out against us, both of ’em undamaged so far, and there’s the Pacific people, who’ve lost their big chief.’
‘Does Vandelstein show any signs of changing front?’
‘No—sir! Issey “don’t vant no combines”. I sure pressed him all I knew yesterday—but it weren’t no good.’
‘Why not go for Pacific,’ Ronnie put in lazily. ‘They’re bound to be in a mess now their big noise is out of the game.’
Lord Gavin nodded his silver head. ‘Out of the mouths…’ he murmured. ‘After all none of the other people upon the Pacific board appear to me to have more than a very moderate amount of personality or intelligence. It should not be difficult to bring them round to our point of view.’
‘There’s the young ’un.’
‘Nelson Druce. Yes, but even if his father’s share-holding comes to him, a considerable time must elapse before he could get control of his company—and he is only a boy; surely you cannot seriously fear his opposition.’
‘Sez you!’ Hinckman looked thoughtful. ‘I guess you should have heard him hand out the rough stuff to me last night. I’ll say that kid’s got guts, an’ he’s gone clean crazy ’bout his dad.’
‘Yes, yes, an admirable young man, I do not doubt, but hardly a figure whom these older men could be expected to rally round—men like Vandelstein and Uncle Andy would not be prepared to accept the leadership of a boy even if he were sufficiently strong to overawe his own board.’
‘That’s so! All the same, I’d give a whole heap to know just what that young man’s up to at this moment.’ Hinckman nodded slowly. ‘He’s not sitting writin’ any billy-doo to yours truly. No sir—believe you me!’
Mr. Hinckman’s surmise was perfectly correct. Nelson Druce was not employed in writing love letters to him or anyone else; nevertheless he had Hinckman very much in mind.
He was pacing rapidly up and down his father’s study. On the open desk many papers lay scattered. They were the confidential reports that each big corporation compiles for its own information, with regard to the doings and position of its rivals. Now and then Nelson stopped to verify a figure in his mind from one of them, then he resumed his restless pacing.
Lord Gavin Fortescue might have been surprised out of his habitual calm had he been present at the board meeting which Nelson Druce had attended that morning.
It would have displeased him intensely to learn of the very considerable respect in which Nelson Druce was held by the older members of the Pacific Players board. It would have displeased him still more to know that, not alone because of his father’s enormous stock holding, but largely on account of his ow
n strong personality. Nelson Druce had been elected President of the corporation in his father’s place, and that the board had supported a resolution for a firm continuation of its late President’s policy, and an open declaration of war upon the promoters of the Combine.
Nelson had expected no less from his colleagues after the murderous attack that had been made upon their President. In America youth is not necessarily regarded as a bar to high positions in big business. Nelson was only thirty, but he had had ten years’ experience in the film world, and although he had not done anything spectacular, he had a very good supply of sound common sense, and felt himself quite competent to take his father’s place. He was filled with a quiet, cold rage and an unshakable determination to leave nothing undone that might wreck the Combine. With that end in view he had lost no time, but arranged a meeting for this afternoon with Uncle Andy, Issey Vandelstein, Amos McTavish, and Hugo Schultzer. It was to take place at the Druce home to ensure privacy and he was now awaiting the arrival of the other magnates.
Uncle Andy was the first to put in an appearance. He had already telephoned his sympathy in the early morning, but he wrung Nelson’s hand again and again. The Great Old Man was so affected by his friend’s death that he could hardly speak coherently.
‘My boy, my boy,’ he kept on saying, ‘if this don’t beat all. It sure makes me ashamed to be a citizen of the United States—just to think that such terrible things can happen in this great country of ours. I’m an old man, but I never reckoned I’d live to hear of the shooting of my friend Barton Druce in the dead centre of Hollywood Boulevard. It’s a darned disgrace to civilisation.’
Schultzer, too, when he arrived, was almost in tears. In his heavy, sentimental way, the lumbering German had had a very great respect and affection for Barton Druce. Issey Vandelstein, who ever played a lone hand and had had a few dealings with the dead man, confined himself to formal condolences, but as a mark of respect to the host he wore a black tie with his bright green shirt.
McTavish, who completed the party, exhorted Nelson to turn to the Lord in his hour of tribulation, and would have continued in that strain for a considerable time if Nelson had not cut him short by thanking him briefly and suggesting that they get down to business.
When they were all seated Nelson addressed the party. ‘It’s this way,’ he said. ‘You’re all acquained with the terrible thing that happened last night, and I’m very grateful for your sympathy, but I’m going to ask you for something more than that. You know just how my old man met his death, and I guess most of you have got your own ideas as to why. It was a frame-up—pure and simple. I gave Mick Downey his myself, an’ when the police picked him up he still had the gun in his hand, but only one bullet had been fired from it. Now we all know that Mick Downey’s one of Hinckman’s bunch, an’ he’s for the chair all right—I’ll see to that; but there were others in the killing too. I spotted that guy Angelo Donelli in the crush an’ I reckon he was one of them—anyhow they made their getaway. My point’s this, these birds who did the job are only paid gunmen—the man who’s behind this whole racket is Hinckman. He knew he couldn’t get the old man at his office or in the house here, so he put him on the spot by getting him to the Ocean Theatre. To bring this thing home to Hinckman can’t be done. I’m wise to that. He was up in the foyer taking the sugar off the crowd—but do we stand for this sort of thing or don’t we, that’s what I want to know?’
‘I’ll be damned if we do!’ Uncle Andy hit the desk a resounding blow with his clenched fist.
‘Vat yer goin’ ter do, Mister Druce?’ Issey Vandelstein wanted to know.
‘Combine against the Combine,’ Nelson announced promptly. ‘It’ll interest you to know that this morning my board elected me as President of the Pacific Players Corporation. They’ve given me a free hand to take any steps which I figure to be right an’ proper to resist encroachment and organise an active opposition. I want you boys to toe the line and we’ll sure smash this swab Hinckman before we’re through.’
‘Well, I certainly am delighted to hear they put you up, Nelson, an’ you can count on World Wide Pictures bein’ right alongside you all the time. I guess we’re free citizens of the United States of America, an’ we don’t stand for murder. No, sir—that’s flat.’
Nelson Druce took the hand which Uncle Andy extended and shook it warmly. ‘Thanks, Uncle Andy,’ he said. ‘It’s great to know I’ll have you with me. Now, Vandelstein, what about you?’
‘Ai don’t vant no combines,’ the little Jew shook his head.
‘Come on, now,’ said Druce persuasively. ‘Think again, Issey. What’s goin’ to happen if Hinckman gets on your tail like he has with Schultzer?’
‘Mozarts is Mozarts, aint it?’
‘Well, what about it? You’re sure as liable to be shot at as the rest of us.’
‘Maybe. But Ai jus’ don’t vant no combines, Mr. Druce.’
‘Is that so? Well, I’ll say you get me beat—but I guess we’ll have to leave it at that for the moment. Let’s hear how Mr. Mc-Tavish sees this thing?’
‘You certainly shall, young man.’ The dour, hard-faced Scotsman turned on Nelson suddenly. ‘It’s my opeenion that ye’ll burn your fingers if ye’re not careful. The Combine’ll be a fine thing for us all—an’ a great power for good in this world of darkness. By the opposeetion ye propose ye are thwarting the will of the Lord, an’ retribution will be upon ye. Fer me-self I’m proud to say that I have entered into certain arrangements this morning which will enable me to take my rightful place in the forefront of this great movement.’
Uncle Andy looked quickly at Issey Vandelstein. ‘Have you bin an’ let up on your holding, Issey?’
‘Sure.’ The gold teeth flashed.
‘Now what in heck possessed you to do that?’
‘Vhy vouldn’t Ai? Amos gave me der price Ai vant.’
‘You poor boob—ain’t you just said you don’t want the Combine?’
‘Sure—but Alpha is Alpha an’ Mozarts is Mozarts, ain’t it? Der von’s my corporation, der other ain’t. Ai don’t vant no ill vill from de Alpha people—an’ der feller vat takes a profit don’t never go broke.’
‘In that case I figure we needn’t detain Mr. McTavish any longer,’ said Nelson coldly, ‘an’ I’ll say it’d be better for the world in general an’ his own salvation in particular, if he cut out moralising an’ went in with a crowd of decent men instead of a bunch of murderers.’
‘Hold on, Nelson.’ Uncle Andy laid a restraining hand on his arm. ‘That stuff don’t cut no ice. Amos’ll have to answer for what he’s doing one day—an’ it may be business but it sure ain’t cricket.’
‘Young man, I forgive ye them words, because it’s the command of the Lord that I should do so, but ye’re attitude’ll bring ruin upon yerself an’ yer friends—an’ that I warn you.’ With which covert thrust Mr. McTavish, the latest recruit to the Combine, left them.
‘Now, Hugo,’ Nelson said when they had settled down again. ‘It’s up to you. After me, I reckon you’ve been the biggest sufferer so far. I take it you’ll come in.’
‘I wish that I gould say yes to that, Mr. Truce,’ Schultzer replied slowly. ‘I haf great respect vor your goot father, also I haf gonfidence in your ability—but I haf many gomplications in my pusiness.’
‘Well, as I see it that’s all the more reason that you should come in with us. I’m ready to sign up in the Bamborough contract right now if you’ll say the word.’
‘Ach! it is not alone der gomplication of broduction, it is also I haf gomplication with my go-directors.’
‘I certainly had the idea, Hugo, that you were speaking on behalf of Ubiquitous, when we said our piece at Hinckman’s meeting,’ Uncle Andy put in.
‘Jawohl—at that time it was so—put now many members of my poard change dare mind, dis morning I haf meeting with my go-directors. I tink Hinckman has abbroach some of dem, they say let us join der gombine pefore it is too late.’
‘That
certainly is a difficult situation,’ Nelson admitted.
The poor old German was nearly in tears. ‘Mr. Truce, I lof your father—he was a goot man. I haf respect for you. Myself, I will retire pefore I do dis ting, but if my go-directors unite against me, Ubiquitous must also of der gombine pecome.’
‘Well, it that’s how things are, Hugo, I guess we’ll have to do without you.’ Nelson Druce shook his head. ‘I’m sorry though, and I certainly sympathise with the rotten position you find yourself in.’ He turned to Uncle Andy with a smile. ‘Seems to me—it’s you an’ I against all-comers.’
‘Vi d’yer say dat, Mr. Druce?’ Issey Vandelstein grinned suddenly. ‘Ai don’t vish you no ill vill.’
‘Maybe, but you won’t come in with us so what’s the odds. Now see here—three of us stand a better chance of smashing this ramp than two—why don’t you come in?’
‘Ai don’t vant no combines.’
‘Oh, Lordy. What the hell do you want?’
‘Ai don’t vant nothing and Ai vish you all der luck in der vorld.’
‘Well, that’s nice of you, Issey.’
‘ ’Tain’t nice, it’s business, ain’t Ai jus’ said Ai don’t vant no combines. Vell! Ai’m villing to finance you, Mr. Druce, if you’re vanting any help that vay.’
‘Is that so? Well, I figure we’ll need all the money we can get, if we’re going out against Hinckman. Let’s hear your proposition.’
The little Jew leaned forward. ‘Hinckman’s spendin’ money like vater, ain’t it? Vat did Reno Films cost ’im? Vat did ’e pay out fer Lusatch an’ dat voman Claus?—where did der money come from vat ’e paid fer der Alpha Corporation? ’E can’t go on that way. No, sir! An’ it’s jus’ like any other vor—der feller vot’s got der shekels vins in der long run.’
Uncle Andy nodded. ‘There certainly is a whole heap in what you say, Issey. I figure Hinckman must have sure pawned his weskit by this time.’
‘Okay! Now Amos bought my Alphas, ain’t it? Ten million dollars vas der price Ai ask. Ten million dollars vas der price Ai get. Vere did der money come from?—not Amos, ’e ain’t got a vad like dat, not so he could put ’is ’and on it, anyvay. Der money come from Hinckman. All right, now Ai don’t vant der money—so vy vouldn’t Ai lend it to Mr. Druce—see?’
Such Power is Dangerous Page 8