“How about a little treasury stock for me, too?”
“What for?” asked Joe with a cold stare.
“You really need me in this,” said Harry. “You’ve got ideas, I grant, but I’ve got the experience. You and I ought to be working together shoulder to shoulder in the background.”
“I certainly am grateful for any help you can give me,” said Joe, “but I hadn’t counted on regularly taking anybody in with me. There isn’t enough in it for two.”
“Oh hell!” said Harry, “what’s a few shares of treasury stock more or less. Issue me a thousand shares, and I’ll guarantee to get Amasa Gore into it. You know what influence I have there.”
“Is that a threat?” asked Joe calmly.
Harry appeared to be wounded to the quick. “What do you think I am!” he cried. He looked around him as much as to say: In my own club, too!
“Because, if it is,” said Joe, coolly, “there’s nothing to it. Whether you get any treasury stock or not, you have a chance to make thousands buying and selling the stock on the curb. You’re not going to queer that!”
“If you think that way about me, I can’t talk to you,” said Harry, with dignity.
Joe looked at him quizzically. “Aah! climb down!” he said.