His visitor smiled affably.
"There is a popular impression to that effect," he admitted.
"Silas Osgood and Company and—" he paused a moment—"Bennington Cole
are in the fire insurance business. The Massachusetts Light, Heat, and
Traction Company carries no fire insurance on any of its properties.
Well," he said sharply, "do you begin to see how you come into this?"
"See what?" asked Wilkinson, blankly.
"The insurable value of the various properties of the company must amount to six or eight million dollars. The average rate on those properties would probably be about seventy-five cents per hundred dollars a year for insurance. That would make a premium of say fifty thousand dollars per annum. The commission to the insurance broker who handled that line—who could secure it and control it—would be ten per cent of fifty thousand, or five thousand dollars. Half that amount—I am doing these sums for you so that you can catch the idea—would be twenty-five hundred—without any risk to yourself and every year of your life. Do you think the game worth a try?"
Wilkinson sat up with eager interest.
"Why half? Why not both halves?" he inquired.
The other man spread his hands before him in a gesture as well recognized among elder peoples as it is to-day.
"Naturally I would expect half for originating the scheme, drawing up the schedule in its proper form, securing the lowest rate, and placing the line with the various companies. You couldn't do those things, you know; it takes knowledge of the business."
His visitor once more sat back in his chair.