CHAPTER IX.
THE GREAT RAILWAY TO VERA CRUZ.
"You have been a guest in his house. Then, I guess, the thing's aboutas good as done." These words were spoken with a fine, sharp, nasaltwang by a brilliantly-dressed American gentleman in one of thesmartest private rooms of the great railway hotel at Liverpool, andthey were addressed to a young Englishman who was sitting oppositeto him. Between them there was a table covered with maps, schedules,and printed programmes. The American was smoking a very large cigar,which he kept constantly turning in his mouth, and half of whichwas inside his teeth. The Englishman had a short pipe. Mr. HamiltonK. Fisker, of the firm of Fisker, Montague, and Montague, was theAmerican, and the Englishman was our friend Paul, the junior memberof that firm.
"But I didn't even speak to him," said Paul.
"In commercial affairs that matters nothing. It quite justifies youin introducing me. We are not going to ask your friend to do us afavour. We don't want to borrow money."
"I thought you did."
"If he'll go in for the thing he'd be one of us, and there wouldbe no borrowing then. He'll join us if he's as clever as they say,because he'll see his way to making a couple of million of dollarsout of it. If he'd take the trouble to run over and show himself inSan Francisco, he'd make double that. The moneyed men would go inwith him at once, because they know that he understands the game andhas got the pluck. A man who has done what he has by financing inEurope,--by George! there's no limit to what he might do with us.We're a bigger people than any of you and have more room. We go afterbigger things, and don't stand shilly-shally on the brink as you do.But Melmotte pretty nigh beats the best among us. Anyway he shouldcome and try his luck, and he couldn't have a bigger thing or a saferthing than this. He'd see it immediately if I could talk to him forhalf an hour."
"Mr. Fisker," said Paul mysteriously, "as we are partners, I thinkI ought to let you know that many people speak very badly of Mr.Melmotte's honesty."
Mr. Fisker smiled gently, turned his cigar twice round in his mouth,and then closed one eye. "There is always a want of charity," hesaid, "when a man is successful."
The scheme in question was the grand proposal for a South CentralPacific and Mexican railway, which was to run from the Salt LakeCity, thus branching off from the San Francisco and Chicagoline,--and pass down through the fertile lands of New Mexico andArizona, into the territory of the Mexican Republic, run by the cityof Mexico, and come out on the gulf at the port of Vera Cruz. Mr.Fisker admitted at once that it was a great undertaking, acknowledgedthat the distance might be perhaps something over 2,000 miles,acknowledged that no computation had or perhaps could be made as tothe probable cost of the railway; but seemed to think that questionssuch as these were beside the mark and childish. Melmotte, if hewould go into the matter at all, would ask no such questions.
But we must go back a little. Paul Montague had received a telegramfrom his partner, Hamilton K. Fisker, sent on shore at Queenstownfrom one of the New York liners, requesting him to meet Fisker atLiverpool immediately. With this request he had felt himself bound tocomply. Personally he had disliked Fisker,--and perhaps not the lessso because when in California he had never found himself able toresist the man's good humour, audacity, and cleverness combined. Hehad found himself talked into agreeing with any project which Mr.Fisker might have in hand. It was altogether against the grain withhim, and yet by his own consent, that the flour-mill had been openedat Fiskerville. He trembled for his money and never wished to seeFisker again; but still, when Fisker came to England, he was proudto remember that Fisker was his partner, and he obeyed the order andwent down to Liverpool.
If the flour-mill had frightened him, what must the present projecthave done! Fisker explained that he had come with two objects,--firstto ask the consent of the English partner to the proposed change intheir business, and secondly to obtain the co-operation of Englishcapitalists. The proposed change in the business meant simply theentire sale of the establishment at Fiskerville, and the absorptionof the whole capital in the work of getting up the railway. "If youcould realise all the money it wouldn't make a mile of the railway,"said Paul. Mr. Fisker laughed at him. The object of Fisker, Montague,and Montague was not to make a railway to Vera Cruz, but to floata company. Paul thought that Mr. Fisker seemed to be indifferentwhether the railway should ever be constructed or not. It was clearlyhis idea that fortunes were to be made out of the concern before aspadeful of earth had been moved. If brilliantly printed programmesmight avail anything, with gorgeous maps, and beautiful littlepictures of trains running into tunnels beneath snowy mountains andcoming out of them on the margin of sunlit lakes, Mr. Fisker hadcertainly done much. But Paul, when he saw all these pretty things,could not keep his mind from thinking whence had come the money topay for them. Mr. Fisker had declared that he had come over to obtainhis partner's consent, but it seemed to that partner that a greatdeal had been done without any consent. And Paul's fears on this handwere not allayed by finding that on all these beautiful papers hehimself was described as one of the agents and general managers ofthe company. Each document was signed Fisker, Montague, and Montague.References on all matters were to be made to Fisker, Montague, andMontague,--and in one of the documents it was stated that a memberof the firm had proceeded to London with the view of attending toBritish interests in the matter. Fisker had seemed to think that hisyoung partner would express unbounded satisfaction at the greatnesswhich was thus falling upon him. A certain feeling of importance,not altogether unpleasant, was produced, but at the same time therewas another conviction forced upon Montague's mind, not altogetherpleasant, that his money was being made to disappear without anyconsent given by him, and that it behoved him to be cautious lestsuch consent should be extracted from him unawares.
"What has become of the mill?" he asked.
"We have put an agent into it."
"Is not that dangerous? What check have you on him?"
"He pays us a fixed sum, sir. But, my word! when there is such athing as this on hand a trumpery mill like that is not worth speakingof."
"You haven't sold it?"
"Well;--no. But we've arranged a price for a sale."
"You haven't taken the money for it?"
"Well;--yes; we have. We've raised money on it, you know. You see youweren't there, and so the two resident partners acted for the firm.But Mr. Montague, you'd better go with us. You had indeed."
"And about my own income?"
"That's a flea-bite. When we've got a little ahead with this it won'tmatter, sir, whether you spend twenty thousand or forty thousanddollars a year. We've got the concession from the United StatesGovernment through the territories, and we're in correspondence withthe President of the Mexican Republic. I've no doubt we've an officeopen already in Mexico and another at Vera Cruz."
"Where's the money to come from?"
"Money to come from, sir? Where do you suppose the money comes fromin all these undertakings? If we can float the shares, the money'llcome in quick enough. We hold three million dollars of the stockourselves."
"Six hundred thousand pounds!" said Montague.
"We take them at par, of course,--and as we sell we shall pay forthem. But of course we shall only sell at a premium. If we can runthem up even to 110, there would be three hundred thousand dollars.But we'll do better than that. I must try and see Melmotte at once.You had better write a letter now."
"I don't know the man."
"Never mind. Look here--I'll write it, and you can sign it."Whereupon Mr. Fisker did write the following letter:--
Langham Hotel, London. March 4, 18--.
DEAR SIR,--I have the pleasure of informing you that my partner, Mr. Fisker,--of Fisker, Montague, and Montague, of San Francisco,--is now in London with the view of allowing British capitalists to assist in carrying out perhaps the greatest work of the age,--namely, the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway, which is to give direct communication between San Francisco and the Gulf of M
exico. He is very anxious to see you upon his arrival, as he is aware that your co-operation would be desirable. We feel assured that with your matured judgment in such matters you would see at once the magnificence of the enterprise. If you will name a day and an hour, Mr. Fisker will call upon you.
I have to thank you and Madame Melmotte for a very pleasant evening spent at your house last week.
Mr. Fisker proposes returning to New York. I shall remain here, superintending the British interests which may be involved.
I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, Most faithfully yours,
---- ----.
"But I have never said that I would superintend the interests," saidMontague.
"You can say so now. It binds you to nothing. You regular John BullEnglishmen are so full of scruples that you lose as much of life asshould serve to make an additional fortune."
After some further conversation Paul Montague recopied the letterand signed it. He did it with doubt,--almost with dismay. But hetold himself that he could do no good by refusing. If this wretchedAmerican, with his hat on one side and rings on his fingers, had sofar got the upper hand of Paul's uncle as to have been allowed to dowhat he liked with the funds of the partnership, Paul could not stopit. On the following morning they went up to London together, and inthe course of the afternoon Mr. Fisker presented himself in AbchurchLane. The letter written at Liverpool, but dated from the LanghamHotel, had been posted at the Euston Square Railway Station at themoment of Fisker's arrival. Fisker sent in his card, and was asked towait. In the course of twenty minutes he was ushered into the greatman's presence by no less a person than Miles Grendall.
It has been already said that Mr. Melmotte was a big man with largewhiskers, rough hair, and with an expression of mental power ona harsh vulgar face. He was certainly a man to repel you by hispresence unless attracted to him by some internal consideration.He was magnificent in his expenditure, powerful in his doings,successful in his business, and the world around him thereforewas not repelled. Fisker, on the other hand, was a shining littleman,--perhaps about forty years of age, with a well-twistedmoustache, greasy brown hair, which was becoming bald at the top,good-looking if his features were analysed, but insignificantin appearance. He was gorgeously dressed, with a silk waistcoatand chains, and he carried a little stick. One would at first beinclined to say that Fisker was not much of a man; but after a littleconversation most men would own that there was something in Fisker.He was troubled by no shyness, by no scruples, and by no fears. Hismind was not capacious, but such as it was it was his own, and heknew how to use it.
Abchurch Lane is not a grand site for the offices of a merchantprince. Here, at a small corner house, there was a small brass plateon a swing door, bearing the words "Melmotte & Co." Of whom the Co.was composed no one knew. In one sense Mr. Melmotte might be saidto be in company with all the commercial world, for there was nobusiness to which he would refuse his co-operation on certain terms.But he had never burthened himself with a partner in the usual senseof the term. Here Fisker found three or four clerks seated at desks,and was desired to walk up-stairs. The steps were narrow and crooked,and the rooms were small and irregular. Here he stayed for a while ina small dark apartment in which "The Daily Telegraph" was left forthe amusement of its occupant till Miles Grendall announced to himthat Mr. Melmotte would see him. The millionaire looked at him for amoment or two, just condescending to touch with his fingers the handwhich Fisker had projected.
"I don't seem to remember," he said, "the gentleman who has done methe honour of writing to me about you."
"I dare say not, Mr. Melmotte. When I'm at home in San Francisco,I make acquaintance with a great many gents whom I don't rememberafterwards. My partner I think told me that he went to your housewith his friend, Sir Felix Carbury."
"I know a young man called Sir Felix Carbury."
"That's it. I could have got any amount of introductions to you if Ihad thought this would not have sufficed." Mr. Melmotte bowed. "Ouraccount here in London is kept with the City and West End JointStock. But I have only just arrived, and as my chief object in comingto London is to see you, and as I met my partner, Mr. Montague, inLiverpool, I took a note from him and came on straight."
"And what can I do for you, Mr. Fisker?"
Then Mr. Fisker began his account of the Great South Central Pacificand Mexican Railway, and exhibited considerable skill by telling itall in comparatively few words. And yet he was gorgeous and florid.In two minutes he had displayed his programme, his maps, and hispictures before Mr. Melmotte's eyes, taking care that Mr. Melmotteshould see how often the names of Fisker, Montague, and Montague,reappeared upon them. As Mr. Melmotte read the documents, Fiskerfrom time to time put in a word. But the words had no reference atall to the future profits of the railway, or to the benefit whichsuch means of communication would confer upon the world at large;but applied solely to the appetite for such stock as theirs, whichmight certainly be produced in the speculating world by a propermanipulation of the affairs.
Then Mr. Fisker began his account.]
"You seem to think you couldn't get it taken up in your own country,"said Melmotte.
"There's not a doubt about getting it all taken up there. Our folk,sir, are quick enough at the game; but you don't want me to teachyou, Mr. Melmotte, that nothing encourages this kind of thing likecompetition. When they hear at St. Louis and Chicago that the thingis alive in London, they'll be alive there. And it's the same here,sir. When they know that the stock is running like wildfire inAmerica, they'll make it run here too."
"How far have you got?"
"What we've gone to work upon is a concession for making the linefrom the United States Congress. We're to have the land for nothing,of course, and a grant of one thousand acres round every station, thestations to be twenty-five miles apart."
"And the land is to be made over to you,--when?"
"When we have made the line up to the station." Fisker understoodperfectly that Mr. Melmotte did not ask the question in reference toany value that he might attach to the possession of such lands, butto the attractiveness of such a prospectus in the eyes of the outsideworld of speculators.
"And what do you want me to do, Mr. Fisker?"
"I want to have your name there," he said. And he placed his fingerdown on a spot on which it was indicated that there was, or was tobe, a chairman of an English Board of Directors, but with a space forthe name, hitherto blank.
"Who are to be your directors here, Mr. Fisker?"
"We should ask you to choose them, sir. Mr. Paul Montague should beone, and perhaps his friend Sir Felix Carbury might be another. Wecould get probably one of the Directors of the City and West End. Butwe would leave it all to you,--as also the amount of stock you wouldlike to take yourself. If you gave yourself to it, heart and soul,Mr. Melmotte, it would be the finest thing that there has been outfor a long time. There would be such a mass of stock!"
"You have to back that with a certain amount of paid-up capital?"
"We take care, sir, in the West not to cripple commerce too closelyby old-fashioned bandages. Look at what we've done already, sir, byhaving our limbs pretty free. Look at our line, sir, right across thecontinent, from San Francisco to New York. Look at--"
"Never mind that, Mr. Fisker. People wanted to go from New York toSan Francisco, and I don't know that they do want to go to Vera Cruz.But I will look at it, and you shall hear from me." The interviewwas over, and Mr. Fisker was contented with it. Had Mr. Melmotte notintended at least to think of it he would not have given ten minutesto the subject. After all, what was wanted from Mr. Melmotte waslittle more than his name, for the use of which Mr. Fisker proposedthat he should receive from the speculative public two or threehundred thousand pounds.
At the end of a fortnight from the date of Mr. Fisker's arrivalin London, the company was fully launched in England, with a bodyof London directors, of whom Mr. Melmotte was the chairman. Amongthe directors were Lord Alfred Gr
endall, Sir Felix Carbury, SamuelCohenlupe, Esq., Member of Parliament for Staines, a gentleman ofthe Jewish persuasion, Lord Nidderdale, who was also in Parliament,and Mr. Paul Montague. It may be thought that the directory was notstrong, and that but little help could be given to any commercialenterprise by the assistance of Lord Alfred or Sir Felix;--but it wasfelt that Mr. Melmotte was himself so great a tower of strength thatthe fortune of the company,--as a company,--was made.
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