"A total of thirty-five thousand outstanding," said Armstrong, who knew the figures by heart. "At this minute we own or control twenty thousand."
There was a moment of silence. Then Mansfield, who was present, intervened to cut short the jubilant expressions of victory.
"Including those in the voting trust?"
"Yes. Three thousand there."
"Suppose we defer celebrations," said Judge Holcomb shrewdly. "Everything's going to change before the meeting; it's bound to. If I were you, I'd look for a last minute blow from those rascals. Therefore, go slow—and don't let up!"
This was good advice. Armstrong realized that, notwithstanding the apparent victory, both his personal credit and that of the Armstrong Company had suffered an extraordinary amount of damage, not to mention the harm that this fight was causing Consolidated as a business concern. The damage would be assessed at law, but it was done.
That Macgowan had met with some success in his campaign for proxies, was evident. His methods had been to utilize falsehood, brazen filing of suits which would never be tried, desperate attempts to publicize Armstrong as a trickster and cheat. Yet with all this, the control of Consolidated was bound to pass to Armstrong at the annual meeting. His three thousand shares tied up in the voting trust would, when released, confirm the victory.
But Judge Holcomb, keen old veteran that he was, had prophesied truly.
Six days before the annual meeting, the blow fell. Macgowan came into the open as plaintiff, filing suit upon absolutely baseless charges which, however, served as grounds for making an attachment. Upon the voting trustees—Macgowan, Findlater and Jimmy Wren, whom Armstrong had continued in the voting trust—were served the attachment papers. By those papers, the Sheriff of New York commanded that Armstrong's stock should not be released from the voting trust until the attachment should be satisfied.
Mansfield came to the office, read the papers, listened in silence to Armstrong's furious outburst of denunciation. Then he spoke, calmly.