“Who’d furnish the wherewithal?” asked Harris bluntly.
“Oh, that could be arranged.”
“Will your sheep stand for further shearing?” queried the grinning Harris.
“Fellows,” said Ketchim, brightening and drawing his chair closer, “you’ve got something––I know it! You’ve got something to suggest that will save the Molino stockholders!”
“But not yourself, eh?” taunted Harris.
“I shall sacrifice myself,” answered Ketchim deprecatingly. His manner had now become animated, and he leaned expectantly toward them.
Reed and Harris again looked questioningly at each other. “I guess we might as well,” said Reed in a low voice. “It is bound to come out, anyway.”
“Sure,” returned Harris; “drive ahead.”
“Mr. Ketchim,” began Reed, turning to the eager, fidgeting man, “when I came to New York a year ago, looking for a business opening, my friend and former classmate in the University, Mr. Cass, put me in touch with you. At that time you were booming the Molino company hard, and, I have no doubt, thought you really had something down in Colombia. But when you offered to lease me a portion of your properties there, I laughed at you. And, in the course of time, I succeeded in convincing you that you knew nothing whatsoever about the properties on which you were selling so much stock. Then, after months of parley, from an offer to permit me to go down to Colombia at my own expense to examine Molino’s mines, to ascertain whether or not I wished to operate a part of them on a royalty basis, you adopted my own view, namely, that the time had come for you to know whether the company possessed anything of value or not. And so you sent my associate, Mr. Harris, and myself down there to examine and report on Molino’s so-called mines. And you gave us each a block of stock as part compensation. We found the mines barren. And now you have got to face a body of stockholders from whom you have lured thousands of dollars by your misrepresentations. From talks with your salesmen, I am convinced that this body of stockholders is made up chiefly of widows and indigent clergymen.”
“Which of my salesmen told you that?” interrupted Ketchim heatedly.