The Banker and the Bear

by Henry Kitchell Webste

  Sponley might take as much time as he pleased now without fear of interruption. Two disconnected electric bells lying in a box in the hardware shop are not more incapable of sound than were at that moment the two old trustees.

  “ I need hardly tell you,” said Sponley, “ that I had no such intention. I put my stock in Myers’s hands with no other instructions than that he sell at once. I did not inquire who had bought the stock, and it was only by chance that I learned to-day that I had been so unfortunate as to sell it to you. I think I owe it to you to be quite frank with you as to my reason for selling out. I did it because I no longer re- gard Bagsbury and Company’s Bank as a good investment.”

  He gave the words time to sink in deep before he went on. “ I don’t mean to say that it’s extremely dangerous, but it is not wholly safe.

  How the Bear spent Sunday 207

  If anybody is going to speculate with my money, I want it to be myself, not the president of a bank that I hold stock in.

  “ Bagsbury’s bank is running a great big speculation; they may win or they may lose; that has nothing to do with it. I get out of a bank just as soon as it goes out of the banking business, and I’m glad I’m well outof Bags- bury’s. But I regret that my profit should have been at your expense.”

  Mr. Cartwright was trying to say something, and Sponley added quickly :

  “ If I were in a position to take the stock back but there’s no use in discussing that. I’ve already put the money I got for it where I can’t get it back.”

  Gradually the two scared old gentlemen recovered their power of speech, and Sponley answered their questions, alternately quieting their fears by the assurance that they would find no difficulty in selling their stock, and waking their alarm again by impressing upon them the urgent need of being all sold out by to-morrow night.

  As he rose to take his leave, he said, “ I have talked with you very frankly, because, as I said,i have felt that I owed you no less than that,and I am sure you realize the immense impor- tance of guarding these facts most carefully. Of course, if anything should escape concern- ing the condition of the bank, the consequences would be serious. I know that you will agree with me on that point. I wish you the greatest success in disposing of the stock.”

  Sponley had one more matter to attend to that day, and then he would be prepared for anything. It was likely, he thought, that John might become suspicious of Curtin, the man Sponley had put in the bank, and it was impera- tive that Curtin be provided with some plausible story which should prevent John’s taking sum- mary action and turning him out of the bank.

  They discussed the matter for nearly an hour before Sponley was satisfied. “ I guess that’ll do,” he said at last. “It doesn’t fit together too well, and it doesn’t explain everything; those are its best points. If you take it to him before he comes to you and asks you for it, he’ll believe you. You’d better tell him the first thing in the morning. And the other thing you’ve to do is to watch for a crowd. If you see anything that looks like a run on the bank let me know instantly. I’ll be right in my office; Stewart and Ray will do all my trad- ing on the floor, and you can get me in a second.”

  “ I’ll want to be pretty careful not to let any- body know that I’m in communication with you. After what I shall tell Bagsbury to-morrow morning, it’d look pretty black if I were caught telephoning “

  “ Don’t delay for anything, not if John Bags- bury’s standing within arm’s length of the ‘phone. I’ve got to know of the run on the bank within two minutes of the time it starts.”

  “ All right,” said Curtin ; “ Bagsbury’s pretty strong in his hands, but I guess I could take my chances with him.”

  Sponley nodded. “That’s the idea. Well, I’m going home to take things easy. I’ve done a good day’s work and there’s a big rush com- ing. Next Sunday I mean to start off on a long vacation.”

  The Bear drove home in a most cheerful frame of mind. Never before had he entered on a campaign that promised so well. It would be short, furious, and, he felt sure, brilliantly successful.

  As soon as Bagsbury’s bank should open to- morrow, he would draw all of his money out of it. Then he would begin hammering away at Pickering, selling him both cash and September lard in enormous quantities. Just as the great bull trader was weakening, there would come the rumor and in a moment the news of the run on the bank. When that happened, it would all be over but the shouting and the paying up. Pickering would pay. He would arrange with his creditors, and go back to the soap business, and after a few years, if he lived so long, he would try this same fool trick again.

  And John, there was no doubt that Bagsbury and Company’s Bank would have to suspend pay- ment. When they begin to run a savings bank, it is very unlikely that they will stop ; and unless they stop, the closing of the doors is simply a matter of time.

  We speak of a bank’s credit as being solid, but that is only a comparative term. There is nothing else which so light a touch will set flut- tering. A whispered question will do it ; an assertion is unnecessary. Just, “ Do you know if it’s true that they are in trouble ?” A con- founding of two similar names in some stupid mind will do it. An office boy’s mistake in leaving the “ Bank Closed “ sign hanging a half an hour too long in the door will do it. Some one takes alarm, then there are three then twenty enough to form a line, to attract attention from the street, and, except for quick- ness, and nerve, and resource, and luck, on the part of those in command, there is no stopping until the money is gone.

  Sponley had told Cartwright and Meredith enough to start a run on any bank ; indeed, as he thought it over, he felt somewhat uneasy lest he had done more than was necessary. It would be rough on John. Sponley wondered if it would break his nerve.

  CHAPTER XIV

  GOOD INTENTIONS

  As Jack Dorlin drew near Bagsbury’s house that same Sunday afternoon, he felt a growing misgiving as to the wisdom of going in. He had not seen Dick since Wednesday night, when John Bagsbury and Mrs. Sponley and Dick herself had combined to bring about his utter defeat. Since then he had set out a dozen times with the determination to see her at once and come to some sort of understanding with her, and he had as often turned back, con- vinced that some other time would suit his pur- pose better. But Sunday afternoon itself came not more regularly to the Bagsburys than did Jack Dorlin, and having told himself that what- ever else Dick thought of him she must not have a chance to think that he was sulky, he was now turning the Bagsburys’ corner just at his accustomed time. He could see clearly that he should have come when he would have had more chance of seeing Dick alone, people were sure to be dropping in to-day, and when he came opposite the steps he felt a boyish impulse to walk straight by. He hesitated a moment, in a pitiable state of indecision, then walked resolutely up the steps.

  Simultaneously with his ringing the bell, Dick opened the door.

  “ I saw you coming,” she explained, and there was something so impossibly innocent in her smile that Jack wondered if she had not also seen him trying to make up his mind whether he would come or not.

  “ Come into the library,” she went on. “ I’m all alone just now. The others will be back soon, though, I think.”

  The library was cool and dim, a grateful re- lief after the burning glare of the street, and Dick dropped lazily on the big sofa where they had sat last Wednesday evening; there was also the same expectation of an interruption from John Bagsbury. Altogether no circum- stances could have been more favorable to the immediate carrying out of Jack’s intention than these.

  “ I’ve come round, Dick, to say what I tried to say the other night. I fancy you have already answered me ; but I want to tell you all there is to tell, and I want to be sure that we both understand. I think we owe each other that.”

  Jack had composed that introduction on the way over, and had decided that it would do. It was clear and dignified, and there was an under- current of pathos which modified its admirable reserve. But now that the t
ime had come, he did not say it. Sitting close beside Dick on the sofa, he wondered how he could have thought seriously of speaking such idiocy as that. What he really said was :

  “ How do you keep this room so cool ? It’s been witheringly hot outside for the last three days.”

  Then he asked himself why he would be such an ass; Dick could see right through him, he knew, and she was laughing at him. He looked at her. Except for the tell-tale corner of her mouth, her face was intensely solemn ; but that lurking dimple completely disconcerted Jack. He might be a great fool, but she ought not to make fun of him like this.

  “ How has it been going down at the bank ? “ she asked.

  “ Badly. They’ve been losing money.” This was going from bad to worse. Nothing was further from his intention than to say something facetious, but he went on : “ They think that I’m worth fifteen dollars a week, and as I figure it, they’ve lost about six dollars and a quarter since Thursday morning by that arrangement.”

  “ I’m glad you came,” said Dick. “I wanted to talk with you about the bank. Poor John’s having a hard time. Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Meredith have just bought a lot of stock, and they were scared by the story in the paper this morning. John’s afraid they’ll make a great disturbance, and try to sell their stock. That would give people a rather unfavorable im- pression of the condition the bank was in, you see.”

  So it seemed that, though the bodily presence of John Bagsbury could not interrupt him, the alert spirit of John Bagsbury was able to inter- fere quite as successfully. Dick went on to tell him what she knew, and all she had guessed, of John’s difficulties. At first Jack listened patiently, and waited for her to finish so that he could take the conversation back to where he wanted it ; but never for long could he resist.

  the spell of her enthusiasm, he would take to mathematics to-morrow, if she should develop a sudden liking for cubic curves, and soon he was asking eager questions, and hazarding wild speculations upon the probable course of events for the next two or three days.

  While they were talking, there came to Jack an idea that almost amounted to inspiration. It struck him so suddenly as to suspend his speech right in the middle of a sentence, and he gloated over it in silence, wondering why he had not thought sooner of a thing so obvious, so easy, and so entirely satisfactory. He would carry it out before trying again to tell Dick the rest of his interrupted love story.

  In the old days, when he had fancied that he loved her, the telling had been comparatively easy ; but now that she had become a part of every breath he drew, he found the thought of telling her most formidable. He had hoped in these past few months that she was beginning to care in a way very different from her old friendly affection for him ; but her behavior since Wednesday night had well-nigh swept that hope away. He must tell her, even though he was inviting certain defeat, and hazarding her friend- ship into the bargain. Yet, with the idea which had come to him a moment ago, there had arisen the hope that it might be, if he were to do some- thing to prove himself of material assistance to John Bagsbury in his fight, that this might make a difference with Dick. It was worth a trial, anyway.

  His sudden preoccupation caused Dick to glance at him curiously once or twice ; but for a little while she did not break in upon it. Then she asked :

  “Are your plans taking shape at all? I mean, have you any idea what you’ll go into after you leave the bank?”

  He roused himself sharply and said, with a laugh : “ No, I think I’ll stay at the bank a while longer and collect material for a book. I mean to write a biography of Hillsmead, call it ‘Wit and Wisdom,’ or ‘The Hillsmead Joke Book.’ “

  “How immensely funny that will be,” she said.

  Her tone was not encouraging to any further jocularity; but Jack had determined upon his course, and he held to it manfully ; and, as best she could, Dick concealed her irritation. It was a relief to both of them when the Bags- burys came home.

  John Bagsbury was excited, but he had done all that he could do, and he was going forward into the critical week with the same elation that some soldiers feel on the eve of battle. He insisted that Jack stay to tea, and afterward he talked for two solid hours, so that Alice fairly forgot to be sleepy, and Dick and Jack Dorlin laughed and then wondered, feeling that never before had they seen John Bagsbury fully awake.

  “ Can you allow me a holiday to-morrow ? asked Jack, as he rose to go. “ I have some personal business that I feel I must attend to.”

  Dick followed him into the hall, and, stand- ing before the door, barred the way out. “ What is it you’re going to do to-morrow ? “ she demanded.

  “ Just a little matter of business “

  “ It isn’t curiosity. I really want to know.”

  “Why, it’s nothing “ stammered Jack “ that is well I can’t tell you.”

  She turned abruptly away from him and then he heard a low chuckle. “ I know, I know,” she said triumphantly. “ If it had been anything else, you would have told me, and then how cheap you’d have made me feel ! But I knew it was that. I want to be in it, too. Come around here to-morrow morning before you do anything.”

  After he had gone, as she turned from the door, she met John Bagsbury coming into the hall.

  “ I’m going up to bed,” he said. “ I’ve got some big days coming, and to-morrow’ll be one of them. Wish me luck, Dick.”

  “ I do,” she said. “ I know you’ll come out all right.”

  She held out her hand and he took it with a grip that fairly hurt her.

  “ I mean to,” he answered. “ Good night.”

  “ Did John say he was going to bed ? “ asked Alice, as Dick entered the library. “ I thought from the way people have been flying around to-day that there might be something the matter with the bank ; but John seemed to feel so cheerful to-night that I guess every- thing’s all right.”

  “Yes,” said Dick. “I don’t believe you need worry.”

  As John had prophesied, they were big days that followed days that will be talked about down town for another five years. Lard had been a mystery ever since early in May ; the wise ones had guessed about it, and those who wished to appear wise had repeated their guesses to others still less expert; but no one had really known anything. But by Monday morning everybody, even to the remotest office boy, understood that this operation was practi- cally a duel between Pickering, the Bull, and Sponley, the Bear. The two men were about equally known ; they were supposed to be nearly equal in resources and also in skill, and so it befell that all about the city, and in other cities, men fingered the ribbons of paper that rattled painfully out of the tickers, and wondered what would happen.

  John Bagsbury spent the greater part of Monday in his office. On Sunday afternoon he had been to see Dawson, the former presi- dent of the Atlantic National. John trusted him thoroughly, so he had laid before him the whole situation ; had told him that he thought a large block of the Bagsbury stock would be offered for sale next day, and that he wished to be in a position to buy it ; and Dawson promptly told him that he might have all the money he needed to make the purchase. So John’s first move on Monday morning was to send a stock- broker around to Cartwright and Meredith to buy their stock before it should be offered in open market.

  “ Buy it as cheap as you can,” he said. Then, mentioning a figure, “ I think you can get it for that.”

  Half an hour later the broker telephoned that Cartwright was claiming that they had a much better offer, and asked John if he cared to go any higher. John did not for a moment believe that any one was bidding against him for the stock. He reflected that probably the old trus- tees were not so badly frightened as he had thought, and were holding out for a good price. He told the broker how much higher he might go, but cautioned him to do all he could to get the stock for less.

  Curtin came into the private office a little later and stayed about half an hour, telling some rather damaging things about Sponley, and making explanations which John half lis- tened
to and but half believed that was about the proportion which Sponley had expected him to believe and which he finally cut short. The episode irritated him more than did the visits from directors and stockholders, who kept steadily dropping in all day to offer him advice or remonstrance.

  He had expected that, however; more of it, in fact, than he was forced to take, and he ex- plained and answered questions with a patience that did him credit. To everybody he said that the bank was in excellent shape, that all the loans were amply secured, and that the success or failure of the Pickering deal would not make the slightest difference in the dividends. Upon the whole, his visitors accepted the situation with fairly good grace. There was this about John Bagsbury : when he told you anything, you knew he was telling you the truth.

  Early in the afternoon the broker telephoned to him again. “ I can’t get that stock, Mr. Bagsbury, even at your highest figure. There’s some one else after it. Do you want to offer any more ? “

  John told the broker to let it go and quit, and in his leisure moments during the rest of the afternoon he wondered a good deal over what this sharp competition could mean. He could in no way attribute it to Sponley ; but he was equally at a loss to find any other explanation.

  When the Bagsburys’ door-bell rang early that evening, John and Alice were surprised to see Dick move to answer it herself. They saw her walk through the library, and then heard her run the length of the hall.

  “They’ve made up,” said Alice.

  “ Who ? “

  “ Why Dick and Mr. Dorlin, of course.”

  “ I didn’t know they’d quarrelled,” said John. “ Dick has seemed pretty cheerful, and she hasn’t said anything “

  “ Said anything ! She didn’t need to say anything. They quarrelled Wednesday even- ing, and he didn’t come around all the rest of the week. And yesterday they were still at it. I could tell, because they were both so glad to see us when we came in.”