CHAPTER XII
The Fat Years
| “The lean years have passed, and I approve of these fat ones.” “Be careful, old man. That way lies bad work.” —The Light That Failed. |
John Jacobs little realized how true was his estimate of the firm of “Champers & Co.” Nor did he suspect that at this very minute the firm was in council in the small room beyond the partition wall—the “blind tiger” of the Wyker eating-house.
“I tell you it’s our chance,” Darley Champers was declaring emphatically. “You mustn’t hold back your capital now. This firm isn’t organized to promote health nor Sunday Schools nor some other fellow’s fortune. We are together for yours truly, every one of us. If you two have some other games back of your own pocketbooks, they don’t cut any against this common purpose. I’m for business for Darley Champers. That’s why I’m here. I’ve got no love for Doc Carey, ruling men’s minds like they was all putty, and him a putty knife to shape ’em finer yet. And another fellow I’d like to put down so hard he’ll never get over it is that straight-up-and-down farmer, Asher Aydelot of the Sunflower Ranch, who walks like a military captain, and works like a hired man, and is so danged independent he don’t give a damn for no man’s opinion of him. If it hadn’t been for him we’d a had the whole Grass River Valley now to speculate on. I’m something of a danged fool, but I knowed this boom was comin’. I felt it in my craw.” 188
“So you always said, Champers,” Thomas Smith broke in, “but it’s been a century coming. And look at the capital I’ve sunk. If you’d worked that deal through, time of the drouth in seventy-four, we’d be in clover and no Careyville and no Aydelots in the way. I could have saved Asher’s little bank stock then, too.”
“You could?” Darley Champers stared at the speaker.
“Yes, if he’d given up right that first trip of yours down there. When he refused I knew his breed too well. He’s as set and slow and stubborn as his old dad ever was. That’s what ailed those two, they were too near alike; and you’ll never catch Asher Aydelot bending to our plans now. I warn you.”
“Well, but about this bank account?” Champers queried.
“Oh, the fates played the devil with everything in two weeks. Doc Carey got in with Miss Jane Aydelot down at Philadelphia, and she came straight to Cloverdale, and, womanlike, made things so hot there I had to let loose of everything at once or lose everything I had saved for myself. Serves her right, for Asher’s pile went into the dump, although there’s naturally no love lost between the two. But this Miss Jane is Aydelot clear through. She’s so honest and darned set you can’t budge her. But she’s a timid woman and so she’s safe if you keep out of her range. She won’t chase you far, but she’s got fourteen rattles and a button.”