“Lately it has taken everything I can raise to meet my liabilities. I knew a crisis was at hand. One man remained to be bought. His name is Dickerson. He owns the controlling share. Nominally it is worth five hundred dollars. My agent has him cornered in St. Louis, and was instructed to offer him five thousand for his share. I have hoped he would not know that he held the balance of power. But the other parties are after him, and the keystone, without which my arch is useless, is placed far beyond my reach. Read that telegram—read it aloud, John.”
The young man takes the message:
“Dickerson offered forty thousand cash by the syndicate. Has under oath promised to deliver me his share, provided fifty thousand is telegraphed him by noon to-morrow, the fourteenth. Otherwise it is lost. Answer.
“Max.”
“And at this time I could raise fifty million as easily as that many thousand. I’m tied hand and foot. If it could be done the control of a very rich property would be in my hands, but without it the syndicate will dictate terms, and I am ruined beyond all hope.”
“But cheer up, father. Surely you do not need despair. You have weathered storms before,” says John cheerily.
“Oh, yes! many of them; but I always had an anchor to windward, and knew the nature of the holding ground. Now I am at sea, with the storm dashing over my doomed bark. All is lost but my honor—that, thank God, no man can rob me of!” And the crushed speculator raises his head a little after his proud manner of yore, but it is only a momentary movement, for he quickly falls back into the same despondent attitude as before.
“Do you mean to tell me you have no friends who would loan you that amount?” asks John.
“That only shows how little you Denver people appreciate the stringency of the money market. In all my years of business I never saw anything to compare with it. My friends couldn’t assist me if they would—they are all about as badly off as I am, and staggering under a heavy load. There is no help under heaven for me—I must go down.”
To a proud man of great business tact, who has carried the standard of his house successfully for nearly twenty years, this is indeed the most bitter hour of life. No wonder some men have been so crushed that they never arose again.