“It’s contained in this letter to the creditors of our firm. I’m busted, Mel. However, I shall rise, like the phenix, from my ashes, thanks to Sooey Wan. I’ll reorganize the firm, eliminating Casson, who is in no position to dictate terms or claim an interest for alleged good-will. I hope he has means to enable him to take care of Mrs. Casson and Maisie, and if he hasn’t I dare say Maisie can do something to support herself.”
“I’ll write you a nice, kindly story regarding the embarrassment of your firm. I’ve been writing such stories for two weeks. I dislike to air your difficulty, Dan, but if I do not the other papers will, so I might as well scoop them in the Sunday edition. Poor Tamea! I shall probably not see her again, but I am glad to have her friendship at least. Her friendship is worth something.”
He accepted one of Dan’s cigars and commenced to talk of other things; at parting he remarked, casually, that he would be up to the house for dinner the following Thursday night—now that Tamea was no longer there to be oppressed by his presence.
CHAPTER XXVI
The wisdom of Dan’s course in announcing the insolvency of Casson and Pritchard before the announcement should be forced from him by the firm’s creditors was fully manifested at the meeting of the creditors. Each creditor had received a copy of the firm’s trial balance and the schedule of assets and liabilities; also a copy of Dan’s proposed plan of settlement and reorganization. The settlement contemplated a payment of twenty-five per cent on all liabilities at once, with a three-year extension on the balance due, at five per cent, and a payment of the interest and twenty-five per cent of the principal annually. All of the creditors had had three days in which to read this plan, study it and discuss it with their principals, and the result was that Dan’s plan was enthusiastically and gratefully accepted, with the proviso that John Casson retire from the partnership. The method of his retirement the creditors left to Pritchard.
The task of severing Casson from the firm was not a difficult one. His share of the debts practically equaled his equity in the assets and he accepted eagerly Dan’s offer to take over his assets and liabilities in return for a release from the creditors for Casson’s share of the firm’s indebtedness to them. He had about a quarter of a million dollars in cash and real estate in his private fortune and this Dan forced him to turn over to his wife, as the only guarantee that he could think of against a disastrous reëntry into business and, consequently, a penniless and sorrowful old age for all concerned.
At the last moment a hitch occurred. Two banks, carrying nearly half a million dollars’ worth of Casson and Pritchard paper, bearing Dan Pritchard’s endorsement, suddenly decided, after the fashion of banks, to play safe. “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost” is ever the fashion of the banker who finds himself the possessor of a slight advantage over other creditors. Overnight they entered suit against Dan, as endorser and guarantor of Casson and Pritchard’s notes, and levied attachments against every asset of his they could locate. In the face of this unexpected treachery Dan had but one alternative, and he chose it unhesitatingly. He filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy, for himself and for the firm, thus vitiating the banks’ attachments and placing all of his and Casson and Pritchard’s creditors upon an equal footing. Thereupon the bank withdrew its suit against Dan and petitioned the court for a receiver for Casson and Pritchard—a petition in which the other creditors were now forced to join. A receiver was immediately appointed and took charge of the business of Casson and Pritchard.
It was then that Dan Pritchard’s spirit broke. The day the receiver took charge he cleaned out his desk and departed from that office. The following day he had leased his home furnished, dismissed Graves and Julia, stored his cars and purchased a passage to Tahiti. With Tamea’s money he promptly purchased Liberty Bonds, which in the panic had dropped twenty points, and established a trust fund for her with a local trust company. Then, accompanied by Sooey Wan, he went aboard the Union Line steamer Aorangi and departed for Tahiti, hoping to find Tamea, marry her there and then consider what he should do with his life thereafter. He was crushed at the unexpected turn his business affairs had taken. He had turned over to the receiver every dollar, every asset he possessed, and he no longer had the slightest interest in the affairs of Casson and Pritchard.
The creditors might do what they pleased with the business. They could either operate it under a receivership until it paid out, or they could liquidate it. It was their business now and Dan had done all that any honorable man could do to meet his obligations. Old Casson had his release from all of the creditors, including the banks, for these latter had fairly accurate information as to the latter’s finances, and, with Pritchard’s endorsement to protect them, they had concluded to dispense with picking old Casson’s financial bones.
The knowledge that Maisie would not be thrown under the feet of the world comforted Dan greatly. He was too depressed to call upon her and say good-by before sailing, so he wrote her a brief note of farewell instead; desirous of losing touch with his world, he did not tell her where he was bound. To Mellenger only did he confide, and that silent and thoughtful man had merely nodded and declined comment.