Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-05-03


 for some good result. He thought he might meet Temple at supper if his work, whatever it was, had been finish ed, and when he found that his friend was neither present nor expected he satisfied himself with the reflection that the task Temple had undertaken was very probably one requiring . good deal more time than had elapsed since he began it. A little later he got l more definite information.
 Temple isn't to be with us," he half said, half asked, after the greetings were over.
 "No," answered Captain Will. "He has gone back to the mines. He is rath- CT done up with the work and anxiety and loss of sleep. tried to make him take possession of your rooms this aft ernoon for straightaway sleep, but he thought he'd rather go back to his wife till the 10th. He'll be here, how ever, in time to assist at the grand finale, as the show people call it."
 I'm afraid don't understand" said Duncan, with look of inquiry.
 "Why, there's to be meeting of the stockholders of the X National on the 10th, you know"
 q didn't know. But what of it?"
 "Why, only that your friend Temple wants to be there, when he and I march into the meeting controlling majority interest and elect board of directors for old Napper Tandy, leav- ing him completely out of it. Not word about that, however, to anybody till the time comes. We want to add to the dramatic effect by making the thing complete surprise"
 If Captain Will Hallam had been a robust boy of ten chewing upon a par ticularly toothsome morsel be could not have shown a greater relish for what was in his mouth than he did for these sentences as he uttered them.
 Dut Duncan was still mystified, and in answer to his questions Captain Hallam explained.
 When you got yourself into trouble by monkeying with the accentuations of buzz saw," he said, T could see only one way out, and that was to put you into position where even the dis embodied spirit of Calumny itself could not pretend to believe old Napper Tan dy's yarn. You know, Tandy is fond of playing tricks, especially upon me, and as the president and controlling spisit of rather strong bank he has been able to give me good deal of trouble now And then. A year ago Stafford and I decided that 1t might some day be handy for us to control majority of the stock in Tandy's bank. There was good deal of it lying about loose-that is to say, number of people held little blocks of it, ranging from one share to five. All of these people were more or less un- der Tandy's influence, and all of them were in the habit of giving him proxies to vote their stock or else themselves going into the stockholders meeting and voting as he desired.
 Stafford and quietly set about buy ing up this loose stock, through other people. of course. so thatNwe shouldn't appear in the ,matter. We had got AS per cent of 1t when you got yourself Into trouble with Handy. It occurred to me that if we cculd get three or four more shares and emphasize our confidence in you by making you pres ident of Tandy's own bank and turn ing him out to grass he might see the point and stop his lies. I flatter my self that Stafford and are pretty we'll known all ovr the west and among bankers in the east. We are not at all generally regarded as a pair of subli- mated idiots, which same we should certainly be If we deliberately made a bank president out of a young man whose integrity was open to any pos sibllity of suspicion. Now, don't be in a hurry seeing that Duncan was ca; ger to ask questions or to express his appreciation of Captain Hallam's in- terest in himself-''don't be in hurry and don't interrupt. Let me tell you the whole story. At first l didn't see any possible way in which to secure the three shares, without which could do nothing. l took pains to have the stock register of the bank examined. | found that Handy himself and the members of his immediate family own ed forty eight shares. and that four more belonged to Kennedy. the tug captain whom you discharged aster calling him by a picturesque variety of pet names. of course 1t was of no use to approach Kennedy even through an outsider. as he is in Tandy's employ nox and very deeply in Tandy's debt. I must explain that as Stafford and l had bought stock through agents of our own we had kept our hands concealed by leaving the several shares nominal Iy in the hands of the men we had em- pioyed to buy them and instructing those men to so on voting the stock in whatever way Handy wished This made Tandy feel perfectly secure of his control of the bank Even If he had sold out half hIs own interest he would have felt secure. seeing that all the floating stock was within his vot- ing control You see. I'm q rather good natured man. on the whole. and never Ike 10 make . man feel uncou- fortsble unless I must
 ~when your trvuble aru~e I thought av that thsre vas nothing for t but to make q strfke for some of Is1dys orn stock I dsdnt nseh beiseve the thing could be dose. but I've seen % many ufrscSs worked h Ey tine