Evening star., 1922-08-27

"MALCOI
result can't be worth the price. Al.
ways the inevitable nemesis-fhe
knowledge that sooner or later the
crash must come. Sol was going
away"
She leaned forward quickly and
touched his arm.
Malcolm, have you done anything
criminal?"
NO. thank God-no"'
She searched his face again with
her deep-seeing eyes.
Then haven't you the right to &C
away" she asked.
replied.
| Morally no?
THE stockholders"
What of them?"
'If you knew them as I do, you'd
understand. There's, Charley Pritch-
ard; he put in two thousand dollars
Of his fathers insurance, borrowed II
from his mother, and he's got tina,
| mother, a wife and three babies de-
pendent on him. There's old Amos
| Pulver, the bookkeeper: he put In
eighteen hundred. And there's Peter
| Whipple, cashier in a bank; he in
vested a whole lifetime Of savings
money he ana his wife had laid dollar
by dollar from each weeks salary
check, thinking this was q good busi-
ness and ultimately he would have
the opportunity to come into the office
| here and perhaps even head q busi-
ness Of his own. And there are the
Wriston sisters. with their -uncle's
legacy invested in my stock. And the
banks-they loaned me money largely
sneered self-contemptuously
How much does it all total-this
moral indebtedness?' the girl asked
quietly.
"over thirty thousand dollars"
And If tho plant closes down how
much would the assets payT
Twenty cents on the dollar"
"And there's absolutely no way
out?'
l. . +'=+ +4x*
HE was long time in answering.
She had to repeat her question
twice And finally, not facing her, he
told her..
There's a frail hope. terribly frail
hope-so frail it's nonsense to talk
about it at all. In desperation, went
to New York last week L laid a
proposition before q man named
LonEshore. He heads a chain of
fu,a an I6yo caof stora. ell tbron-h
the middle west. Sometimes he
finances small companies like mine
and takes their entire output. Of
fered him my factory and business
This is a fifty thousand dollar cor
poration. own twenty-eight thou
sand dollars worth Of the stock. The
real money, however; Is represented
by the minority stockholders-Pulver
Pritchard, Whipple aud the rest.
offered to, turn all my stock over to
Longshore II he'd finance me to the
extent Of twenty thousand. take all
my. product and pay the minority
stockholders z per cent regularly
every year." ./-.-
And what about your
"I'd stay and work on salary Of
i've thousand q year" He did not see
the faint snilo that came into her
eyes.
What did hs sayr'' she asked.
'Hs said he'd take thunder advise
ment' q. His board of directors were
going to meet today-tn New York
this morning. 5. Hss would lay the
whole thing before -then. - II. they
acted favorably,.I would get letter
not later than Wednesday. the 9Th
of January. III had not 50 heard
from. him by that date. I would know
he. wasn't .intersste4" -.
Then why lose hope! There's still
a chance."s:.-.5.l -
TITS too slender-that chance. And
there's no avoiding Preston's-* ugly
ultimatum." .5ts, 49,
Preston. who's he' What sulti-
matumT >sf,:.
Hes 4 local lawyer, who's been In
strueted to file . petition for bank
ruptcy against me II haven't paid
a certain = bill by 4 o'clock to-
morrow evening, He'll do, it Thurs
day morning. as soon as he can In
,terview Judge .Harmsworth."
He waited, in the silence that fol-
lowed. Would she appeal to him to
wait and take the chance or TO stand
by to the snd9 But she did neither,
Instead she pulled on beth gloves
slowly, unbuttoned the heavy coat and
laid It aside Then, still without
spea king, she walked to the ONCE
window and stoed siodkiiS ont in the