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The Profiteers, a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
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Chapter 14 |
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_ CHAPTER XIV Phipps received his visitor with a genial smile and outstretched hand. "Delighted to see you, Mr. Wingate," he said heartily. "Take a chair, please. I do not know whether you smoke in the mornings, but these Cabanas," he added, opening the box, "are extraordinarily mild and I think quite pleasant." Wingate refused both the chair and the cigars and appeared not to notice the outstretched hand. "You will forgive my reminding you, Mr. Phipps," he remarked drily, "that my visit this morning is not one of good-will. I should not be here at all except for Lord Dredlinton's assurance that the business on which you desired to see me has nothing whatever to do with the British and Imperial Granaries." "Nothing in the world, Mr. Wingate," was the prompt declaration. "We would very much rather receive you here as a friend, but we will, if you choose, respect your prejudices and come to the point at once." "In one moment." "You have something to say first?" "I have," Wingate replied gravely. "I should not willingly have sought you out. I do not, as a matter of fact, consider that any director of the British and Imperial Granaries deserves even a word of warning. But since I am here, I am going to offer it." "Of warning?" Dredlinton muttered, glancing up nervously. "Precisely," Wingate assented. "You, Mr. Phipps, and Lord Dredlinton, and your fellow directors, have inaugurated and are carrying on a business, or enterprise, whichever you choose to call it, founded upon an utterly immoral and brutal basis. Your operations in the course of a few months have raised to a ridiculous price the staple food of the poorer classes, at a time when distress and suffering are already amongst them. I have spent a considerable portion of my time since I arrived in England studying this matter, and this is the conclusion at which I have arrived." "My dear Mr. Wingate, one moment," Phipps intervened. "The magnitude of our operations in wheat has been immensely exaggerated. We are not abnormally large holders. There are a dozen firms in the market, buying." "Those dozen firms," was the swift reply, "are agents of yours." "That is a statement which you cannot possibly substantiate," Phipps declared irritably. "It is simply Stock Exchange gossip." "For once, then," Wingate went on, "Stock Exchange gossip is the truth." "My dear Mr. Wingate," Phipps expostulated, "if you will discuss this matter, I beg that you will do so as a business man and not as a sentimentalist. Yon know perfectly well that as long as the principles of barter exist, there must be a loser and a gainer." "The ordinary principles of barter," Wingate contended, "do not apply to material from which the people's food is made. I speak to you as man to man. You have started an enterprise of which I and others declare ourselves the avowed enemies. I am here to warn you, both of you," he added, including Lord Dredlinton with a sweep of his hand, "directors of the British and Imperial Granaries, that unless you release and compel your agents to release such stocks of wheat as will bring bread down to a reasonable price, you stand in personal danger. Is that clear enough?" "Clear enough," Dredlinton muttered, "but what the mischief does it all mean?" "You threaten us?" Phipps asked calmly. "I do indeed," Wingate assented. "I threaten you. I threaten you. Peter Phipps, you, Lord Dredlinton, and I threaten your absent directors. I came over here prepared for something in the nature of a financial duel. I came prepared to match my millions and my brain against yours. I find no inducement to do so. The struggle is uninspiring. My efforts would only prolong it. Quicker means must be found to deal with you." "You are misled as to your facts, Mr. Wingate," Phipps expostulated. "I can assure you that we are conducting a perfectly legitimate undertaking. We have kept all the time well within the law." "You may be within the law of the moment," was the stern reply, "but morally you are worse than the most outrageous bucket-shop keepers of Wall Street. Legislation may be slow and Parliament hampered by precedent, but the people have never wanted champions when they have a righteous cause. I tell you that you cannot carry this thing through. Better disgorge your profits and sell while you have a chance." Dredlinton tapped a cigarette against his desk and lit it. "My dear fellow," he said, "you really ought to go into Parliament. Such eloquence is rather wasted in a City office." "I rather imagined that it would be," Wingate assented. "At the same time, I warned you that if I came I should speak my mind." Phipps did his best for peace. This was his enemy with whom he was now face to face, but the final issue was not yet. He spoke suavely and persuasively. "Come, come," he said, "Wingate, you have changed since you and I fought our battles in New York and Chicago. To-day you seem to be representing a very worthy but misguided class of the community--the sentimentalists. They are invariably trying to alter by legislation conditions which are automatic. It is true that our operations over here may temporarily make bread dearer, but on the other hand we may be facing the other way within a month. We may be sellers of wheat, and the loaf then will be cheaper than it ever has been. I am an Englishman, and it is not my desire to add to the sufferings of my fellow countrymen." "You don't care a damn about any one's sufferings," Wingate retorted, "so long as you can make money out of them." Phipps for once looked a little taken aback. "My dear sir," he protested, "your trans-Atlantic bluntness is somewhat disconcerting. However, you must admit that we have heard you patiently. Let us now, if you are willing, discuss for a minute or two the real object of your visit." "I have delivered my warning," Wingate remarked. "I am only sorry that you will not take me more seriously. I am now at your service." "In plain words, then, I want to purchase your holding in the Universal Steamship Company, a holding amounting, I believe, to one million, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." Wingate effectually concealed a genuine surprise. "You seem remarkably well informed as to my investments," he observed. "Not as to your investments generally," Phipps replied, "but as to your holding of Universal stock. In this stock it is my desire to secure a controlling interest." "Why?" Phipps hesitated for a moment. Then he replied with much apparent frankness. "I could invent a dozen reasons. I prefer to tell you the truth and to base my offer upon existing conditions." "The truth will be very interesting," Wingate murmured, with a note of faint sarcasm in his tone. "Here are my cards, then, laid upon the table," Phipps continued, rapping the place in front of him with the back of his hand. "An Asiatic Power has offered me an immense commission if I can arrange the sale to them of the Atlantic fleet of the Universal Line." "For what purpose?" "Trading purposes between Japan and China," Phipps explained. "The quickest way of bringing about the sale and earning my commission is for me to acquire a controlling interest in the company. I have already a certain number of shares. The possession of yours will give me control. The shares to-day stand at a dollar and an eighth. That would make your holding, Mr. Wingate, worth, say, one million, four hundred thousand dollars. I am going to offer you a premium on the top of that, say one million, six hundred thousand dollars at today's rate of exchange." "For trading purposes between Japan and China," Wingate reflected. "That is the scheme," Phipps assented. Wingate indulged in a few moments' reflection. He had no particular interest in the Universal Steamship Company--a company trading between San Francisco and Japan--and from all that he could remember of their position and prospects, the price was a generous one. Nevertheless, he was conscious of a curious disinclination to part with his shares. The very fact that he knew he was being watched with a certain amount of anxiety stiffened his impulse to retain them. "A very fair offer, Mr. Phipps, I have no doubt," he said at last. "On the other hand, I am not a seller." "Not a seller? Not at a quarter premium?" "Nor a half," Wingate replied, "nor, as a matter of fact, a hundred per cent. premium. You see, I don't trust you, Phipps. You may have told me the truth. You may not. I shall hold my shares for the present." "Mr. Wingate," Phipps exclaimed incredulously, "you astonish me!" "Very likely," was the unconcerned reply. "I won't say that I may not change my mind a little later on, if you are still a buyer. Before I did anything, however, I should have a few enquiries to make. If this concludes our business, Mr. Phipps--" Dredlinton waved a nervous hand towards him. "One moment, please," he begged, "I have just a few words to say to Mr. Wingate." The latter glanced at the clock. "I hope you will say them as quickly as possible," he enjoined. "I have a busy morning." Dredlinton leaned over Phipps' chair. There was a sinister meaning in his hoarse whisper. "Leave me alone with him for a moment," he suggested. "Perhaps I may be able to earn that two thousand pounds." Phipps rose at once from his chair and made his way towards the door. "Lord Dredlinton wishes to have a word with you, Mr. Wingate," he said. "I shall be on the premises, in case by any fortunate chance you should decide to change your mind." _ |
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