Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/619

Rh outlined Beekie's master-stroke. He was enthusiastic when he finished.

Colonel Channing forgot himself. He looked serious.

"Well—" he began, dubiously.

"He's got 110,000 shares," said Theophilus, decisively. "It must be done."

The Colonel smiled genially. "No sooner said than performed. Why, of course. Bless me! you are a chip of the old block. Ha! ha! Beekie, I never would have thought it of you if I hadn't known all the time you had it in you. I always said you were deep—abysmal! Of course it will help the Midland enormously. The Lakeside can earn ten per cent. year in and year out. We can issue three-and-a-half per cent. bonds because the Midland's credit is so good, and give $20,000 in bonds for every $10,000 of stock. The bonds ought to sell readily at 95 or 96."

"That will mean 192 for Lakeside stock," observed Beekman III., nodding his head approvingly, because he had figured on the higher price. Then he permitted himself to smile. So did Theophilus. Both smiles were Stuyvesant smiles—facial chuckles marvellously like the old Pirate's, Channing thought.

And so it was done. The Great Midland management, by authority obtained from a complaisant board, began to purchase Lakeside stock, which thereupon rose by leaps and bounds. The shorts became panic-stricken. To save their scalps they parted with a few handfuls of hair. The Street talked of a corner—as though the bears hadn't been already licked to a standstill. Great Midland stock also rose violently. The Street took a long breath and waited, till one morning the newspapers announced in huge headlines that the Lakeside had been absorbed by the Great Midland, which latter company now owned the overwhelming majority of the other's stock, and would pay for it in three-and-a-half per cent. bonds on the basis of two for one. Garrettson and Co. had underwritten the bond issue. It was, of course, an "epoch-making" deal. It is a habit of all such deals. The Lakeside—a most valuable property—was now a possession of the Great Midland, forever safe from the clutches of stock-market marauders. Credit for the gigantic plan was given to Beekman Stuyvesant, who thus was introduced to the American public as a great railroad general and a great financier.

The triumphant march upward to 200 was an epic of the ticker. Not only Wall Street but Europe took a hand in the game. The Golden Wonder worked. Garrettson and Co., official financiers of the Stuyvesant family, published an advertisement which became a classic, and sold millions of the bonds. Railroad men talked of the great coup and began to dream of profitable plagiarism. A few demagogues delivered themselves of candent words against the octopus, and accepted annual passes. A professional litigant or two talked of obtaining perpetual injunctions, but their price was so absurdly cheap that Colonel Channing didn't haggle, but paid spot cash. The bond operation was perfectly legal. Why mar the era of good feeling ?

There was no doubt that the Great Midland had done a good stroke. But many far-seeing holders of Lakeside stock had faith in the road, and thought that some day the stock would pay them more than seven per cent. The newspapers took sides on the matter. To convert or not to convert became a burning question. Sorely perplexed spirits over the breadth and length of the land waited for a light from heaven—that is, disinterested advice, undazzled by the Golden Wonder. Among these was Mrs. Buxton. So many of her friends knew about her Lakeside stock that to show they also were conversant with the high finance they bombarded her with newspaper clippings. She worried a great deal, but talked infinitely more, and thus preserved her health. John D. Mitchell himself wrote to her, asking what she wished to do. She answered immediately that what she wished was to know what he thought she ought to do. She appealed to him to tell her exactly, that she might be guided by his advice. She was prepared for the worst, said her postscript. He thereupon explained at great length that if she exchanged she would have a safe investment in good bonds, from which she would have an assured income of $2100 a year as long as she lived. But if the Lakeside ever earned more than it paid at present and the Great Midland permitted the surplus to be distributed,