[CHAPTER IX]
BUD MAKES A STRANGE CONTRACT.
President Elder told all this to the assembled directors. A storm broke at once. Naturally, Attorney Stockwell approved what the president had done. He did it for two reasons: he was anxious to get Bud a profitable job, and he saw at once that Judge Pennington was opposed to the action taken by Mr. Elder. In the lively discussion, the other director, Mr. Waldron, sided with Mr. Elder because Attorney Stockwell had once opposed him in a lawsuit.
Judge Pennington argued that Mr. T. Glenn Dare would undoubtedly sue the association.
“Let him,” exclaimed President Elder. “We can beat him. He didn’t report, and I’m convinced he was on a spree somewhere. Look at the advantage. If we pay him what he demands, it will be six days at fifty dollars a day. That’s three hundred dollars. We can save that.”
“This young Wilson won’t work for nothing, will he?” asked Mr. Waldron.
President Elder felt compelled at this point to relate his experience with Bud. He told of offering to pay their amateur operator; how the boy had refused the money, and how Attorney Stockwell had finally accepted the sum to hold in trust.
Judge Pennington laughed outright.
“An’ that’s what we’re up against, is it?” he asked, with a chuckling sneer. “Wouldn’t take ten dollars an’ wants fifty dollars? And yet you’re takin’ the risk o’ a lawsuit just to give him a job.”
“But,” insisted the president, “you forget. He’ll do in a pinch what he won’t do for wages. He won’t work for ten dollars a day, but he’ll work for nothing.”