It was plain enough that I was offering him a good-sized bribe for his services in turning over to us the assets of the London and Chicago concern rather than to our rivals, and for bonds in the prospective company instead of cash. That did not trouble him: he was aware that he had not been asked to meet me to talk of the health of the bankrupt company of which he had been the treasurer. Lokes thought awhile, asked some more questions about our company, and finally hinted at his preference for cash for his services.
"Either forty cash with no bonus for your services, or fifty in bonds with the preferred stock for you," I answered shortly.
Pretty soon he took his hat and said he was going to see his associates on the committee, and would be back in the course of the afternoon.
"He's gone over to Carmichael," I remarked to Slocum, when he had closed the office door behind Mr. Lokes. "But John won't touch him—he won't believe his story. He doesn't think I've got the cash or the nerve to play this game. We'll see him back in an hour or two."
"Do you know, Van, what you are doing?" Slocum asked sombrely, instead of replying to my remark. "You have bribed that man to betray his trust."
"I guess that was what he came here for, Sloco. But we are offering them a good price for their goods. This man Lokes happens to be a rascal. If he had been straight, we could have saved that preferred stock. That's all there is to it."
But Slocum still shook his head.
"It's a bad business."
"Well, it costs money. But I mean to put this thing through, and you know at the best I may lose every cent I have made in twelve years. It's no time to be squeamish, Slocum."
"I wish—" he began, and paused.