“Good God! how much is this going to cost me?” asked Gillett, rapping the paper.
“Not a cent,” said Joe, grinning. “That’s the beauty of it. The magic name of Gillett is always news, see? It’s been accustomed to the front page for four generations. And what’s more, trust-busting is now the latest popular sport, and we got in just right. Mattison is the trust, and we’re the noble champions of the down-trodden common people! We’ve got him in a position where he can’t fight back. This story will send his stock off four or five points. That’ll give you a chance to cover, if you’re scared. As for me, I mean to hold on for a week longer, if I can string the banks along.
“Mattison’s not at the end of his rope yet. By straining his credit, he’ll be able to maintain his stock at a decent level for another week. I’ve got another story for next Sunday, and then he’ll be done. The bottom will fall out of the Trust. We’ll make a killing! When that happens, you must not be contented with covering, but buy! buy! buy! Spread your orders through a dozen houses.
“Mattison will have to come to us, then. We will ask for a million of their stock to cease hostilities. Technically, of course, he will be buying out our company. A million for our four junk factories which have never manufactured anything, and the good will of our business—it is to laugh! This, together with what you’ve bought on the market, will give you a controlling interest in the trust, and you will then be elected director and vice-president and the stock will jump twenty-five . . . forty points! Gee! what a killing!”
Gillett turned to Dodge. “Look here,” he said, “you wanted instructions for Monday. Dump a block of five thousand shares on the market at the opening; and go on selling as long as you can find takers. I don’t set any limit.”
Broad smiles surrounded the table. Only Joe looked indifferent.
An uncomfortable thought occurred to Gillett. “I say,” he objected, rubbing his lip; “when it comes out that I have sold out to the Trust, and been elected a vice-president, it’ll put me in a rotten light with the public.”
“Oh, it’ll all be forgotten in a week,” said Joe smoothly. “—By everybody except Mattison. We’ll give the public something else to think about if you like. . . . Look here, if you want to stand well with the public, I’ve got another scheme. . . .”
His three hearers leaned toward him.
“There’s been too many Trust Companies formed under the new banking law. Some of them are damned hard up for business. We’ll pick on one of them, and let it be quietly circulated around that it’s in a bad way, see? A bank is very sensitive to that sort of thing. We can pick up whatever stock comes into the market at a discount; and when our bank gets good and groggy—if there’s a run on it, so much the better; you can step forward and deposit a million in cash. Think of the publicity! They’d elect you president or anything else you were willing to take; and the stock would jump twenty-five points. You’d be hailed in the newspapers as the savior of the institution, and incidentally make a handsome profit, see? . . . It’s just as easy to work it one way as the other. . . .”