“Who said you were going to lose it?” demanded the manager.
“Nobody said so, Garrish. But I can put two and two together as well as the next fellow. I don’t like the way things are running here. By the way, what have you done to Lew Billings?”
“Billings! I haven’t done anything to Billings.”
“He seems to be missing.”
“Well, that’s his fault and not mine. We had something of an argument and I told him if he was not willing to carry out my orders he had better look for a job. Since that I haven’t seen or heard of him.”
“He seems to have disappeared very mysteriously, Garrish,” went on Tom suggestively.
“See here, Rover, do you want to start something?” snarled the manager. “If you do, I’ll tell you right now it won’t get you anywhere! I’ve had nothing to do with Billings’ disappearance. He went off on his own hook. Now, I know you’re a stockholder here and you’ve got a stockholder’s rights. But you must remember that I’m the manager and that I represent the majority of the stockholders. I’m willing to do what’s fair, but I won’t be bulldozed.”
“I sha’n’t ask you to do anything but what is fair, Garrish,” answered Tom. “You certainly ought not to object to a large stockholder like myself looking over the books and taking a look around the mine.”
“That’s all right. But you’ve got to treat me as a manager ought to be treated, or you’ll keep out of the office and out of the mine too.”
“Well, perhaps after——” began Tom, and then suddenly stopped and said instead: “Well, have it your own way, Garrish. Just the same, I don’t think you’re treating me quite decently, seeing that I have seventy-five thousand dollars locked up in this mining company.”