CHAPTER XVI.CORMORIN AND I.CORMORIN was not a man for whom I had ever entertained any great respect, and I wondered how he contrived to retain his position in the bank, for he was rather dissolute and dissipated in his habits. We went to a private room in the hotel, and he sent for champagne. He talked about indifferent matters for a time, but I was soon satisfied that he had something more than these to bring forward. I was not mistaken.We finished the first bottle of champagne before the plan of my companion began to be developed. He ordered another; but I ought to add, in justice to myself, that he drank three glasses to my one. His frequent potations, however, seemed to have but little effect upon him, for he was accustomed to drink stronger fluids than champagne.“Glasswood, what salary do you get now?” asked Cormorin, after we had begun upon the second bottle.“Two thousand,” I replied.“The same as mine. But can you live upon it?”“I think I can, though I have not had much experience since I was married.”“I can’t live on mine.”“You drink expensive wines.”“’Pon my soul, I don’t!” he protested. “I haven’t tasted champagne, except at your house-warming, for a year, until this afternoon. I can’t afford to drink champagne more than once a year; and I have to stimulate on cheap whiskey. Well, even on this camphene, I can’t make the ends meet. I’m as economical as a London Jew. I don’t spend a cent on luxuries. I don’t go to the opera above a dozen times a year. I don’t own a horse. I don’t average hiring one more than once a week. I have been in the same fix these two years.”“What do you mean—that you run in debt?” I inquired, willing to help him reach the point at which he was evidently aiming.“Just that; and nothing less, nothing more. I’ve tried every way in the world to eke out my income; and, just now, I’m in a fair way to put about ten thousand dollars into my pocket.”“I congratulate you.”“If I had sold my stock to-day, I should have put five thousand into my exchequer.”“Why didn’t you do it, then?”“Because I would rather have ten thousand dollars than five,” he replied, gulping down a full glass of the generous fluid before us.“When a man can make a good thing by selling, I believe in realizing.”“Isn’t it better to wait when a man is sure of making twice as much a week hence?”“Are you sure?”“I wish I was as sure of living a week as I am of making this money, if I can hold on for a week.”“If I were reasonably certain, I should hold on; by all means.”“O, I’m dead sure! I wouldn’t give the president of our bank sixpence to insure me.”“Of course you will hold on, then,” I added.“That’s the trouble,” said he, slapping his fist upon the table, and then swallowing another potion.“What’s the trouble?” I inquired, kindly asking the questions he suggested.“Why, the holding on.”“But if you are sure of the result, you cannot be in doubt in regard to your course.”“Well, I’m in no doubt about that.”“What are you in doubt about?”He looked at me steadily, and appeared to be uncertain whether to say anything more or not. He was struggling to reach some point, though I could not imagine what it was. I began to suspect that he wanted to borrow some money of me. If he did, he had come to the wrong man. He labored heavily, like a ship in a storm, and I was beginning to be rather impatient at the slowness with which he proceeded.Cormorin and I.“Glasswood, give me your hand,” said he, after a long pause, as he extended his own to me across the table.I took his hand, for I could not refuse to doas much as that for a man who was paying for the champagne.“We are friends—are we not?” he continued.“Certainly we are.”“Do you mean so?”“Of course I do. I don’t say one thing and mean another. If you want to say any thing, Cormorin, say it.”“As a friend, I will,” said he, with compressed lips, as though he had made up his mind to do a desperate deed. “This is between us, you know?”“Certainly,” I replied.The champagne I had drank had somewhat muddled my brain; and I was in that reckless frame of mind which is so often induced by stimulating draughts. If I had drank nothing, I should have been cautious how I permitted myself to be dragged into the counsels of such a man as Cormorin. As it was, I was becoming rapidly prepared for any desperate step. I was very curious to know what my companion was driving at.“I’m in a tight place, then!” said he, filling the glass again.“A tight place! Why, I thought you were on the high road to wealth!” I replied, rather to help him forward in his statement, than because Iexperienced any astonishment at his apparent contradictions.“Exactly so! Both propositions are equally true, and equally susceptible of demonstration. You are dull, Glasswood. You don’t drink enough to sharpen your wits. Don’t you see that while I am waiting for a further rise in my stocks I am kept out of my capital?”“Precisely so; that is not a difficult problem to comprehend,” I replied.“Well, you don’t seem to get along as fast as I do.”“I understand you now. Go on.”“That’s all.”“Let’s go home, then,” I added, rising from the table.“Not yet. Hold on! Don’t you understand my position?”“Very clearly; you are short. So am I. If I could help you, I would do so with the greatest pleasure.”“You can help me. We are both honest fellows, and don’t mean to wrong or injure any one.”“That’s myself for one,” I replied, warmly.He seemed to be using the very argumentswhich. I had applied to my own case while borrowing the funds of the bank that employed me. What did he mean by it? Could it be possible that he even suspected me of taking the money of the bank? Had he by any means obtained a hint of my financial operations? He was in another establishment. He could not suspect what none in our bank suspected. I was excited with champagne, and I dismissed the fear as preposterous.“That’s myself for another!” exclaimed he, with more emphasis than the subject matter seemed to require. “My coppers have doubled on my hands.”“What are your coppers?” I inquired.“The Ballyhack,” he answered promptly. “Do you think I haven’t any?”He pulled from his breast-pocket a bundle of papers, and exhibited certificates of shares for a very large amount of stock. Just at this time there was a fever of speculation in these copper stocks. While some were substantial companies, many were mere fancies, run up to high figures by unscrupulous and dishonest men. In the particular one he mentioned, the upward progress of the stock had been tremendous. Men had madefive or ten thousand dollars in them as easily as they could turn their hands. It was patent to me that the Ballyhack had doubled in a week, and was gaining rapidly every day.Cormorin had “gone in for a big thing,” for he exhibited two hundred shares, for which he had paid twenty-five, and which was now quoted at fifty. Shrewd men were buying it at this rate, confident that the stock would touch a hundred in a week or two. Cormorin’s statements, therefore, were reasonable, and I began to be deeply interested in the operation. If this reckless and semi-dissipated fellow could make five or ten thousand dollars in a fortnight, why might not I do the same. It flashed upon my mind that I could redeem myself from my own financial difficulties by this exciting process—if I only had the capital to make the investment. My companion had gone deeply into the business, and could advise me in regard to some safe and profitable speculation in coppers. It would be even less troublesome than borrowing money of Aunt Rachel.“You see it now,” continued Cormorin, folding up his papers, and restoring them to his pocket.“I do; that’s a good operation.”“That’s so! What’s the use for a man to becontented with a paltry salary of two thousand a year, when he can make five times that sum in a week or two? That’s the question,” said he, vehemently.“It is all very well for a fellow that has the capital to go into these operations,” I added.“The capital! Yes; that’s so! There’s the rub. But you see I didn’t have any capital.”He paused to fill the glasses again, though mine was not empty. He was laboring with the next step in his revelation, and, reckless as he was, he appeared to halt on the verge of further developments. I could not see how he purchased his stock, if he had no capital; and I was rather anxious to have the problem solved.“Nary red,” he added, as I did not ask the question which would suggest the revelation he evidently wished to make. “Not a cent—up to my eyes in debt beside—one, two or three thousand dollars. O, well! When a man understands himself, these things are easy enough. By the way, Glasswood, don’t you want to try your hand in this business? I know of a new company, which is going to be the cock of the walk on State Street. You can buy it for twenty to-day. It will be twenty-five to-morrow, for it is goinglike hot cakes. Everybody is after it. I have been tempted to sell my Ballyhack and invest in it.”“What’s the company?”“The Bustumup—Indian name, you know. It’s going up like a rocket, now.”“Perhaps it will come down like one.”“No fear of that. If I had ten thousand dollars to-day, I would put every cent of it into Bustumups. If you want two, three or five hundred shares of it, I will get them for you at the lowest figure. Your name, you know, would help the thing along.”My name! Of course I was flattered. If I could have raised four or five thousand dollars, I should have been glad to give the company the benefit of my name!“I should like to go in, but I have no capital,” I replied, with the modesty of a man without means.“Do as I did!” exclaimed Cormorin, in whom the champagne had now banished every thing like caution.“How did you do?”“I used the bank funds!” he replied, hitting the table a tremendous rap. “But I don’t meanthat the bank shall ever lose a single cent by me. I mean to be honest. I mean to pay every cent I borrow. I don’t see why money should lie idle in my drawer in the bank, when I can make something out of it, without wronging, cheating or defrauding man, woman or child. Glasswood, give me your hand. I have spoken frankly to you. If you betray me, of course I shall have to take the next steamer for foreign parts, and I’m afraid the bank would then be the loser by the operation.”“I will never betray you,” I replied, clasping his offered hand.“Thank you, Glasswood! You are a noble fellow. To-morrow those infernal directors will examine into the condition of our bank. My cash is five thousand short—just the sum I paid for the Ballyhacks. You understand me?”I had drank so much champagne that I not only understood, but sympathized with him. He had done just what I had, though I was not stupid enough to betray myself to him.“I understand you, Cormorin,” I replied. “Go on and tell me what you are driving at just as though I were your own brother.”“Exactly so; just as though you were my ownbrother. I borrowed five thousand dollars from the bank. It will be missed to-morrow. Lend me five one thousand dollar bills, or the same amount in some other form, for two hours to-morrow, and I shall be all right. You shall hold my stock as collateral. It is worth double the amount; and I will do the same thing for you when your cash is counted, if you want to make something on your own account.”“I’ll do it,” I replied, without a moment of reflection.“You are a good fellow, Glasswood. Your fortune is made, and so is mine.”I should not have been so prompt in acceding to his request without the aid of the champagne. Though I knew what I was about well enough, I was reckless. I was fascinated with the idea of making five or ten thousand dollars in “coppers,” and thus discharging my obligation to the bank.“We don’t always know when our directors intend to make an examination,” I suggested.“I can always tell by the looks of them. No matter; there is time enough after they begin. Our banks are near enough to each other to enable us to make a connection,” laughed Cormorin.We discussed the matter still further, but we were perfectly agreed. We separated with an arrangement to meet in the forenoon of the next day, to carry out the plan we had devised. I did not deem it prudent to go directly home, and I spent an hour on the Common, waiting for the fumes of the wine I had drank to work off. When I went to Needham Street, I found that Lilian was still out, probably purchasing her new black silk dress. She came at last, and we ate a dried-up dinner at five o’clock. She had purchased her dress, and was in the best of spirits.The next day, when I went to the bank, I quietly transferred six thousand dollars from my drawer to my pocket, with hardly a tithe of the compunction with which I had appropriated my first loan. O, I intended to be honest! The bank was not to lose a penny by me. For five thousand of the money, Cormorin was to give me collateral worth ten thousand in the market. With the other thousand I intended to pay my uncle, and silence his carping for all time.Cormorin was punctual in his call for his share of the funds. He handed me the certificates and I gave him the money. In the course of the forenoon Captain Halliard, faithful to his threat, paidme a visit. I was not ready for him then, but I showed him one-half of Cormorin’s certificates. They did not abate his persistency for payment of the note, and I promised to pay him at three o’clock in the afternoon, without fail. As I had the money in my pocket, I could safely make the promise.At the appointed time he presented himself before me.
CHAPTER XVI.CORMORIN AND I.CORMORIN was not a man for whom I had ever entertained any great respect, and I wondered how he contrived to retain his position in the bank, for he was rather dissolute and dissipated in his habits. We went to a private room in the hotel, and he sent for champagne. He talked about indifferent matters for a time, but I was soon satisfied that he had something more than these to bring forward. I was not mistaken.We finished the first bottle of champagne before the plan of my companion began to be developed. He ordered another; but I ought to add, in justice to myself, that he drank three glasses to my one. His frequent potations, however, seemed to have but little effect upon him, for he was accustomed to drink stronger fluids than champagne.“Glasswood, what salary do you get now?” asked Cormorin, after we had begun upon the second bottle.“Two thousand,” I replied.“The same as mine. But can you live upon it?”“I think I can, though I have not had much experience since I was married.”“I can’t live on mine.”“You drink expensive wines.”“’Pon my soul, I don’t!” he protested. “I haven’t tasted champagne, except at your house-warming, for a year, until this afternoon. I can’t afford to drink champagne more than once a year; and I have to stimulate on cheap whiskey. Well, even on this camphene, I can’t make the ends meet. I’m as economical as a London Jew. I don’t spend a cent on luxuries. I don’t go to the opera above a dozen times a year. I don’t own a horse. I don’t average hiring one more than once a week. I have been in the same fix these two years.”“What do you mean—that you run in debt?” I inquired, willing to help him reach the point at which he was evidently aiming.“Just that; and nothing less, nothing more. I’ve tried every way in the world to eke out my income; and, just now, I’m in a fair way to put about ten thousand dollars into my pocket.”“I congratulate you.”“If I had sold my stock to-day, I should have put five thousand into my exchequer.”“Why didn’t you do it, then?”“Because I would rather have ten thousand dollars than five,” he replied, gulping down a full glass of the generous fluid before us.“When a man can make a good thing by selling, I believe in realizing.”“Isn’t it better to wait when a man is sure of making twice as much a week hence?”“Are you sure?”“I wish I was as sure of living a week as I am of making this money, if I can hold on for a week.”“If I were reasonably certain, I should hold on; by all means.”“O, I’m dead sure! I wouldn’t give the president of our bank sixpence to insure me.”“Of course you will hold on, then,” I added.“That’s the trouble,” said he, slapping his fist upon the table, and then swallowing another potion.“What’s the trouble?” I inquired, kindly asking the questions he suggested.“Why, the holding on.”“But if you are sure of the result, you cannot be in doubt in regard to your course.”“Well, I’m in no doubt about that.”“What are you in doubt about?”He looked at me steadily, and appeared to be uncertain whether to say anything more or not. He was struggling to reach some point, though I could not imagine what it was. I began to suspect that he wanted to borrow some money of me. If he did, he had come to the wrong man. He labored heavily, like a ship in a storm, and I was beginning to be rather impatient at the slowness with which he proceeded.Cormorin and I.“Glasswood, give me your hand,” said he, after a long pause, as he extended his own to me across the table.I took his hand, for I could not refuse to doas much as that for a man who was paying for the champagne.“We are friends—are we not?” he continued.“Certainly we are.”“Do you mean so?”“Of course I do. I don’t say one thing and mean another. If you want to say any thing, Cormorin, say it.”“As a friend, I will,” said he, with compressed lips, as though he had made up his mind to do a desperate deed. “This is between us, you know?”“Certainly,” I replied.The champagne I had drank had somewhat muddled my brain; and I was in that reckless frame of mind which is so often induced by stimulating draughts. If I had drank nothing, I should have been cautious how I permitted myself to be dragged into the counsels of such a man as Cormorin. As it was, I was becoming rapidly prepared for any desperate step. I was very curious to know what my companion was driving at.“I’m in a tight place, then!” said he, filling the glass again.“A tight place! Why, I thought you were on the high road to wealth!” I replied, rather to help him forward in his statement, than because Iexperienced any astonishment at his apparent contradictions.“Exactly so! Both propositions are equally true, and equally susceptible of demonstration. You are dull, Glasswood. You don’t drink enough to sharpen your wits. Don’t you see that while I am waiting for a further rise in my stocks I am kept out of my capital?”“Precisely so; that is not a difficult problem to comprehend,” I replied.“Well, you don’t seem to get along as fast as I do.”“I understand you now. Go on.”“That’s all.”“Let’s go home, then,” I added, rising from the table.“Not yet. Hold on! Don’t you understand my position?”“Very clearly; you are short. So am I. If I could help you, I would do so with the greatest pleasure.”“You can help me. We are both honest fellows, and don’t mean to wrong or injure any one.”“That’s myself for one,” I replied, warmly.He seemed to be using the very argumentswhich. I had applied to my own case while borrowing the funds of the bank that employed me. What did he mean by it? Could it be possible that he even suspected me of taking the money of the bank? Had he by any means obtained a hint of my financial operations? He was in another establishment. He could not suspect what none in our bank suspected. I was excited with champagne, and I dismissed the fear as preposterous.“That’s myself for another!” exclaimed he, with more emphasis than the subject matter seemed to require. “My coppers have doubled on my hands.”“What are your coppers?” I inquired.“The Ballyhack,” he answered promptly. “Do you think I haven’t any?”He pulled from his breast-pocket a bundle of papers, and exhibited certificates of shares for a very large amount of stock. Just at this time there was a fever of speculation in these copper stocks. While some were substantial companies, many were mere fancies, run up to high figures by unscrupulous and dishonest men. In the particular one he mentioned, the upward progress of the stock had been tremendous. Men had madefive or ten thousand dollars in them as easily as they could turn their hands. It was patent to me that the Ballyhack had doubled in a week, and was gaining rapidly every day.Cormorin had “gone in for a big thing,” for he exhibited two hundred shares, for which he had paid twenty-five, and which was now quoted at fifty. Shrewd men were buying it at this rate, confident that the stock would touch a hundred in a week or two. Cormorin’s statements, therefore, were reasonable, and I began to be deeply interested in the operation. If this reckless and semi-dissipated fellow could make five or ten thousand dollars in a fortnight, why might not I do the same. It flashed upon my mind that I could redeem myself from my own financial difficulties by this exciting process—if I only had the capital to make the investment. My companion had gone deeply into the business, and could advise me in regard to some safe and profitable speculation in coppers. It would be even less troublesome than borrowing money of Aunt Rachel.“You see it now,” continued Cormorin, folding up his papers, and restoring them to his pocket.“I do; that’s a good operation.”“That’s so! What’s the use for a man to becontented with a paltry salary of two thousand a year, when he can make five times that sum in a week or two? That’s the question,” said he, vehemently.“It is all very well for a fellow that has the capital to go into these operations,” I added.“The capital! Yes; that’s so! There’s the rub. But you see I didn’t have any capital.”He paused to fill the glasses again, though mine was not empty. He was laboring with the next step in his revelation, and, reckless as he was, he appeared to halt on the verge of further developments. I could not see how he purchased his stock, if he had no capital; and I was rather anxious to have the problem solved.“Nary red,” he added, as I did not ask the question which would suggest the revelation he evidently wished to make. “Not a cent—up to my eyes in debt beside—one, two or three thousand dollars. O, well! When a man understands himself, these things are easy enough. By the way, Glasswood, don’t you want to try your hand in this business? I know of a new company, which is going to be the cock of the walk on State Street. You can buy it for twenty to-day. It will be twenty-five to-morrow, for it is goinglike hot cakes. Everybody is after it. I have been tempted to sell my Ballyhack and invest in it.”“What’s the company?”“The Bustumup—Indian name, you know. It’s going up like a rocket, now.”“Perhaps it will come down like one.”“No fear of that. If I had ten thousand dollars to-day, I would put every cent of it into Bustumups. If you want two, three or five hundred shares of it, I will get them for you at the lowest figure. Your name, you know, would help the thing along.”My name! Of course I was flattered. If I could have raised four or five thousand dollars, I should have been glad to give the company the benefit of my name!“I should like to go in, but I have no capital,” I replied, with the modesty of a man without means.“Do as I did!” exclaimed Cormorin, in whom the champagne had now banished every thing like caution.“How did you do?”“I used the bank funds!” he replied, hitting the table a tremendous rap. “But I don’t meanthat the bank shall ever lose a single cent by me. I mean to be honest. I mean to pay every cent I borrow. I don’t see why money should lie idle in my drawer in the bank, when I can make something out of it, without wronging, cheating or defrauding man, woman or child. Glasswood, give me your hand. I have spoken frankly to you. If you betray me, of course I shall have to take the next steamer for foreign parts, and I’m afraid the bank would then be the loser by the operation.”“I will never betray you,” I replied, clasping his offered hand.“Thank you, Glasswood! You are a noble fellow. To-morrow those infernal directors will examine into the condition of our bank. My cash is five thousand short—just the sum I paid for the Ballyhacks. You understand me?”I had drank so much champagne that I not only understood, but sympathized with him. He had done just what I had, though I was not stupid enough to betray myself to him.“I understand you, Cormorin,” I replied. “Go on and tell me what you are driving at just as though I were your own brother.”“Exactly so; just as though you were my ownbrother. I borrowed five thousand dollars from the bank. It will be missed to-morrow. Lend me five one thousand dollar bills, or the same amount in some other form, for two hours to-morrow, and I shall be all right. You shall hold my stock as collateral. It is worth double the amount; and I will do the same thing for you when your cash is counted, if you want to make something on your own account.”“I’ll do it,” I replied, without a moment of reflection.“You are a good fellow, Glasswood. Your fortune is made, and so is mine.”I should not have been so prompt in acceding to his request without the aid of the champagne. Though I knew what I was about well enough, I was reckless. I was fascinated with the idea of making five or ten thousand dollars in “coppers,” and thus discharging my obligation to the bank.“We don’t always know when our directors intend to make an examination,” I suggested.“I can always tell by the looks of them. No matter; there is time enough after they begin. Our banks are near enough to each other to enable us to make a connection,” laughed Cormorin.We discussed the matter still further, but we were perfectly agreed. We separated with an arrangement to meet in the forenoon of the next day, to carry out the plan we had devised. I did not deem it prudent to go directly home, and I spent an hour on the Common, waiting for the fumes of the wine I had drank to work off. When I went to Needham Street, I found that Lilian was still out, probably purchasing her new black silk dress. She came at last, and we ate a dried-up dinner at five o’clock. She had purchased her dress, and was in the best of spirits.The next day, when I went to the bank, I quietly transferred six thousand dollars from my drawer to my pocket, with hardly a tithe of the compunction with which I had appropriated my first loan. O, I intended to be honest! The bank was not to lose a penny by me. For five thousand of the money, Cormorin was to give me collateral worth ten thousand in the market. With the other thousand I intended to pay my uncle, and silence his carping for all time.Cormorin was punctual in his call for his share of the funds. He handed me the certificates and I gave him the money. In the course of the forenoon Captain Halliard, faithful to his threat, paidme a visit. I was not ready for him then, but I showed him one-half of Cormorin’s certificates. They did not abate his persistency for payment of the note, and I promised to pay him at three o’clock in the afternoon, without fail. As I had the money in my pocket, I could safely make the promise.At the appointed time he presented himself before me.
CORMORIN AND I.
CORMORIN was not a man for whom I had ever entertained any great respect, and I wondered how he contrived to retain his position in the bank, for he was rather dissolute and dissipated in his habits. We went to a private room in the hotel, and he sent for champagne. He talked about indifferent matters for a time, but I was soon satisfied that he had something more than these to bring forward. I was not mistaken.
We finished the first bottle of champagne before the plan of my companion began to be developed. He ordered another; but I ought to add, in justice to myself, that he drank three glasses to my one. His frequent potations, however, seemed to have but little effect upon him, for he was accustomed to drink stronger fluids than champagne.
“Glasswood, what salary do you get now?” asked Cormorin, after we had begun upon the second bottle.
“Two thousand,” I replied.
“The same as mine. But can you live upon it?”
“I think I can, though I have not had much experience since I was married.”
“I can’t live on mine.”
“You drink expensive wines.”
“’Pon my soul, I don’t!” he protested. “I haven’t tasted champagne, except at your house-warming, for a year, until this afternoon. I can’t afford to drink champagne more than once a year; and I have to stimulate on cheap whiskey. Well, even on this camphene, I can’t make the ends meet. I’m as economical as a London Jew. I don’t spend a cent on luxuries. I don’t go to the opera above a dozen times a year. I don’t own a horse. I don’t average hiring one more than once a week. I have been in the same fix these two years.”
“What do you mean—that you run in debt?” I inquired, willing to help him reach the point at which he was evidently aiming.
“Just that; and nothing less, nothing more. I’ve tried every way in the world to eke out my income; and, just now, I’m in a fair way to put about ten thousand dollars into my pocket.”
“I congratulate you.”
“If I had sold my stock to-day, I should have put five thousand into my exchequer.”
“Why didn’t you do it, then?”
“Because I would rather have ten thousand dollars than five,” he replied, gulping down a full glass of the generous fluid before us.
“When a man can make a good thing by selling, I believe in realizing.”
“Isn’t it better to wait when a man is sure of making twice as much a week hence?”
“Are you sure?”
“I wish I was as sure of living a week as I am of making this money, if I can hold on for a week.”
“If I were reasonably certain, I should hold on; by all means.”
“O, I’m dead sure! I wouldn’t give the president of our bank sixpence to insure me.”
“Of course you will hold on, then,” I added.
“That’s the trouble,” said he, slapping his fist upon the table, and then swallowing another potion.
“What’s the trouble?” I inquired, kindly asking the questions he suggested.
“Why, the holding on.”
“But if you are sure of the result, you cannot be in doubt in regard to your course.”
“Well, I’m in no doubt about that.”
“What are you in doubt about?”
He looked at me steadily, and appeared to be uncertain whether to say anything more or not. He was struggling to reach some point, though I could not imagine what it was. I began to suspect that he wanted to borrow some money of me. If he did, he had come to the wrong man. He labored heavily, like a ship in a storm, and I was beginning to be rather impatient at the slowness with which he proceeded.
Cormorin and I.
Cormorin and I.
Cormorin and I.
“Glasswood, give me your hand,” said he, after a long pause, as he extended his own to me across the table.
I took his hand, for I could not refuse to doas much as that for a man who was paying for the champagne.
“We are friends—are we not?” he continued.
“Certainly we are.”
“Do you mean so?”
“Of course I do. I don’t say one thing and mean another. If you want to say any thing, Cormorin, say it.”
“As a friend, I will,” said he, with compressed lips, as though he had made up his mind to do a desperate deed. “This is between us, you know?”
“Certainly,” I replied.
The champagne I had drank had somewhat muddled my brain; and I was in that reckless frame of mind which is so often induced by stimulating draughts. If I had drank nothing, I should have been cautious how I permitted myself to be dragged into the counsels of such a man as Cormorin. As it was, I was becoming rapidly prepared for any desperate step. I was very curious to know what my companion was driving at.
“I’m in a tight place, then!” said he, filling the glass again.
“A tight place! Why, I thought you were on the high road to wealth!” I replied, rather to help him forward in his statement, than because Iexperienced any astonishment at his apparent contradictions.
“Exactly so! Both propositions are equally true, and equally susceptible of demonstration. You are dull, Glasswood. You don’t drink enough to sharpen your wits. Don’t you see that while I am waiting for a further rise in my stocks I am kept out of my capital?”
“Precisely so; that is not a difficult problem to comprehend,” I replied.
“Well, you don’t seem to get along as fast as I do.”
“I understand you now. Go on.”
“That’s all.”
“Let’s go home, then,” I added, rising from the table.
“Not yet. Hold on! Don’t you understand my position?”
“Very clearly; you are short. So am I. If I could help you, I would do so with the greatest pleasure.”
“You can help me. We are both honest fellows, and don’t mean to wrong or injure any one.”
“That’s myself for one,” I replied, warmly.
He seemed to be using the very argumentswhich. I had applied to my own case while borrowing the funds of the bank that employed me. What did he mean by it? Could it be possible that he even suspected me of taking the money of the bank? Had he by any means obtained a hint of my financial operations? He was in another establishment. He could not suspect what none in our bank suspected. I was excited with champagne, and I dismissed the fear as preposterous.
“That’s myself for another!” exclaimed he, with more emphasis than the subject matter seemed to require. “My coppers have doubled on my hands.”
“What are your coppers?” I inquired.
“The Ballyhack,” he answered promptly. “Do you think I haven’t any?”
He pulled from his breast-pocket a bundle of papers, and exhibited certificates of shares for a very large amount of stock. Just at this time there was a fever of speculation in these copper stocks. While some were substantial companies, many were mere fancies, run up to high figures by unscrupulous and dishonest men. In the particular one he mentioned, the upward progress of the stock had been tremendous. Men had madefive or ten thousand dollars in them as easily as they could turn their hands. It was patent to me that the Ballyhack had doubled in a week, and was gaining rapidly every day.
Cormorin had “gone in for a big thing,” for he exhibited two hundred shares, for which he had paid twenty-five, and which was now quoted at fifty. Shrewd men were buying it at this rate, confident that the stock would touch a hundred in a week or two. Cormorin’s statements, therefore, were reasonable, and I began to be deeply interested in the operation. If this reckless and semi-dissipated fellow could make five or ten thousand dollars in a fortnight, why might not I do the same. It flashed upon my mind that I could redeem myself from my own financial difficulties by this exciting process—if I only had the capital to make the investment. My companion had gone deeply into the business, and could advise me in regard to some safe and profitable speculation in coppers. It would be even less troublesome than borrowing money of Aunt Rachel.
“You see it now,” continued Cormorin, folding up his papers, and restoring them to his pocket.
“I do; that’s a good operation.”
“That’s so! What’s the use for a man to becontented with a paltry salary of two thousand a year, when he can make five times that sum in a week or two? That’s the question,” said he, vehemently.
“It is all very well for a fellow that has the capital to go into these operations,” I added.
“The capital! Yes; that’s so! There’s the rub. But you see I didn’t have any capital.”
He paused to fill the glasses again, though mine was not empty. He was laboring with the next step in his revelation, and, reckless as he was, he appeared to halt on the verge of further developments. I could not see how he purchased his stock, if he had no capital; and I was rather anxious to have the problem solved.
“Nary red,” he added, as I did not ask the question which would suggest the revelation he evidently wished to make. “Not a cent—up to my eyes in debt beside—one, two or three thousand dollars. O, well! When a man understands himself, these things are easy enough. By the way, Glasswood, don’t you want to try your hand in this business? I know of a new company, which is going to be the cock of the walk on State Street. You can buy it for twenty to-day. It will be twenty-five to-morrow, for it is goinglike hot cakes. Everybody is after it. I have been tempted to sell my Ballyhack and invest in it.”
“What’s the company?”
“The Bustumup—Indian name, you know. It’s going up like a rocket, now.”
“Perhaps it will come down like one.”
“No fear of that. If I had ten thousand dollars to-day, I would put every cent of it into Bustumups. If you want two, three or five hundred shares of it, I will get them for you at the lowest figure. Your name, you know, would help the thing along.”
My name! Of course I was flattered. If I could have raised four or five thousand dollars, I should have been glad to give the company the benefit of my name!
“I should like to go in, but I have no capital,” I replied, with the modesty of a man without means.
“Do as I did!” exclaimed Cormorin, in whom the champagne had now banished every thing like caution.
“How did you do?”
“I used the bank funds!” he replied, hitting the table a tremendous rap. “But I don’t meanthat the bank shall ever lose a single cent by me. I mean to be honest. I mean to pay every cent I borrow. I don’t see why money should lie idle in my drawer in the bank, when I can make something out of it, without wronging, cheating or defrauding man, woman or child. Glasswood, give me your hand. I have spoken frankly to you. If you betray me, of course I shall have to take the next steamer for foreign parts, and I’m afraid the bank would then be the loser by the operation.”
“I will never betray you,” I replied, clasping his offered hand.
“Thank you, Glasswood! You are a noble fellow. To-morrow those infernal directors will examine into the condition of our bank. My cash is five thousand short—just the sum I paid for the Ballyhacks. You understand me?”
I had drank so much champagne that I not only understood, but sympathized with him. He had done just what I had, though I was not stupid enough to betray myself to him.
“I understand you, Cormorin,” I replied. “Go on and tell me what you are driving at just as though I were your own brother.”
“Exactly so; just as though you were my ownbrother. I borrowed five thousand dollars from the bank. It will be missed to-morrow. Lend me five one thousand dollar bills, or the same amount in some other form, for two hours to-morrow, and I shall be all right. You shall hold my stock as collateral. It is worth double the amount; and I will do the same thing for you when your cash is counted, if you want to make something on your own account.”
“I’ll do it,” I replied, without a moment of reflection.
“You are a good fellow, Glasswood. Your fortune is made, and so is mine.”
I should not have been so prompt in acceding to his request without the aid of the champagne. Though I knew what I was about well enough, I was reckless. I was fascinated with the idea of making five or ten thousand dollars in “coppers,” and thus discharging my obligation to the bank.
“We don’t always know when our directors intend to make an examination,” I suggested.
“I can always tell by the looks of them. No matter; there is time enough after they begin. Our banks are near enough to each other to enable us to make a connection,” laughed Cormorin.
We discussed the matter still further, but we were perfectly agreed. We separated with an arrangement to meet in the forenoon of the next day, to carry out the plan we had devised. I did not deem it prudent to go directly home, and I spent an hour on the Common, waiting for the fumes of the wine I had drank to work off. When I went to Needham Street, I found that Lilian was still out, probably purchasing her new black silk dress. She came at last, and we ate a dried-up dinner at five o’clock. She had purchased her dress, and was in the best of spirits.
The next day, when I went to the bank, I quietly transferred six thousand dollars from my drawer to my pocket, with hardly a tithe of the compunction with which I had appropriated my first loan. O, I intended to be honest! The bank was not to lose a penny by me. For five thousand of the money, Cormorin was to give me collateral worth ten thousand in the market. With the other thousand I intended to pay my uncle, and silence his carping for all time.
Cormorin was punctual in his call for his share of the funds. He handed me the certificates and I gave him the money. In the course of the forenoon Captain Halliard, faithful to his threat, paidme a visit. I was not ready for him then, but I showed him one-half of Cormorin’s certificates. They did not abate his persistency for payment of the note, and I promised to pay him at three o’clock in the afternoon, without fail. As I had the money in my pocket, I could safely make the promise.
At the appointed time he presented himself before me.