Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/137

 George leaned forward across the table. His throat was choking with sensations of relief, until his mind began to stagger at the cool cruelty of what seemed an impossible condition. "Acquire stock control," he murmured, dazed, and not thinking very rapidly. "How would I acquire stock control?"

Mr. Blodgett was prepared to be explicit. "Have Mr. Morris and the other stockholders sign an agreement to turn over to you stock enough to make your holdings fifty-one per cent. of the total; in other words, 255,000 shares instead of the 100,000 you now hold."

"But I—I couldn't ask it," protested George. "That would seem disloyal to Mr. Morris, the best friend I have ever had. Besides, how would I ever pay for it? All the money I have been making has been going back into the company, and to buy 155,000 shares at their real value would take three-quarters of a million dollars—more than that!"

"So far as that goes," responded Chairman Blodgett with his merciless willingness to be explicit, "if you do not get your loan, you crash, and the shares are then valueless or practically so."

George felt the futility of further argument on this point. "But where on earth am I going to get the money to pay for that stock?" he urged, bringing up the next question.