The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-11-15
In answer to his questions Captain
Hallam explained.

In answer to his questions Captain
Italian explained.
when you got yourself into trouble
by monkeying with the accentuations.
OF buzz saw" he said, II 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 Napier Tan
dy's yarn. You know, Tandy is fond
OF playing tricks, especially upon me,
ana as the president and controlling
spirit OF a rather strong bank he has
| been able to give me a good deal of
trouble now and then. A year ago.
Stafford and I decided that it might
some day be handy for us to control
majority of the stock in Tandy's
Dank. 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 Tandys 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 that we shouldn't
appear in the matter. We had got 4S
per cent Of it when you got yourself
into trouble with Tandy. 1t occurred
to me that if we could 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 over 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
sibility Of suspicion. Now, don't be in
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 a hurry
and don't interrupt. Let me tell you
the whole story. At first didn't see
any possible way in which to secure
the three shares, without which could
do nothing. I took pains to have the
stock register Of the bank examined.
I found that Tandy 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 after
calling him by picturesque variety of
pet names. OF course it was of no use
to approach Kennedy even through an
outsider, as he is in Tandy's employ
now and very deeply in Tandy's debt.
I must explain that as Stafford and
had bought stock through agents of our
own we had kept our hands concealed
by leaving the several shares nominal
" in the hands of the men we had en-
ployed to buy them and instructing
those men to go on voting the stock
in whatever way Tandy 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 rather
good natured man, on the whole, and l
never like to make a man feel uncom-
Portable unless I must.
"When your trouble arose I thought
I saw that there was nothing for it but
to make strike for some Of Tandy's
~
thing could be done, but I've seen so
many miracles worked in my time
that I believe in them. You sent for
Temple-and, by the way, he's a fel-
low that's built from the ground up
and set him at work. told him what
we wanted done and why, but could
not tell him how to do it, because l
didn't know. I gave him a free hand
and left him to use his own wits. AS
they happened to be particularly good
wits, he did the trick within less than
two days. He managed to buy Ken
nedy's four shares, not from Kennedy,
but from Tandy himself, so that now
I'll march in representing the two
shares that I'm known to own, and
Temple will be with me, holding
proxies for all the rest of mine and
Stafford's stock. Well vote fifty-two
against forty Eight. Well name all the
directors, and they will make you pres
ident at once. I'll put some shares in
your hands to qualify you, but you
ought actually to own at least ten
shares in your own right. Have you
got any money loose?'
Captain Hallam knew very we'll that
Duncan had sufficient deposit bal
ance in the Hallam bank to cover the
suggested purchase, but he wanted to
forestall and prevent the expression Of
Duncan's thanks
ITO BE CONTINUED