“Take a letter, Wan,” remarked Mr. Nevens.
Gallagher took a seat in a comfortable chair while the cook sat in another seat and began taking down a letter in short-hand as the astonishing Mr. Nevens dictated. It was a very cleverly worded letter which sounded businesslike and innocent of wrong-doing but which really was full of veiled threats and intimidation. Addressed to a large contracting firm in New York it professed to offer “night watchman service for which a small fee is charged, considering the fine service given.” Actually, anyone on the inside track and knowing what the wording really meant, as Mr. Sandborn well did, the letter was an invitation to let the gangsters have ten per cent of the money received from every contract, for which ten per cent they would consent to keep the prospective buildings free from strikes and trouble while being built. Actually the letters implied that if this offer were not accepted serious consequences would result!
Mr. Sandborn knew the story of that system well. And he knew that the contractor, if of the usual type, would accept the offer because, as long as that gang existed, not only would his business be faced with ruin but his life might be taken as well! New York police could not cope with the gang for they could not locate its head, hidden as he was on one of the hundreds of islands along the coast, and surrounded by an excellent system of fake addresses, names, and a dozen forms of legal detours. The F. B. I., once on the trail, would have men planted, as was Mr. Sandborn, right in with the gang when possible, and so learn its secrets and strike at the right time to clean up the mob.
“How’s that for a letter, Gallagher?” asked Nevens, as Wan Ho Din began to type out the final copy.
“It ought to get results!” agreed Mr. Sandborn truthfully. “Do you ever have trouble lining the boys up?”
“Tell him about Teverton Products, Wan!” suggested the happy Mr. Nevens proudly.
“Teverton Products made woolen blankets, Gallagher,” Wan said, “and we offered to increase their production for them by selling their blankets at higher prices to a string of hotels Mr. Nevens controls. Teverton Products refused to do business, partly because we wanted ten per cent of their year’s business from then on, so some of the boys did a little night work down there at the plant and a lot of machinery got bunged up. The mill hasn’t been doing so well since!”
“People must be fools not to see what we have to offer,” Cowboy pointed out. “Suppose you’re in business making, let’s say, broom handles and handles for tools. Now, you ain’t doing extra well on account of your competitors is cutting prices on you. Well, you give us ten per cent of your profits and we’ll guarantee that your competitors will boost prices and that you’ll get, say, one hundred thousand dollars extra business that year!”
“That’s service!” Mr. Sandborn agreed.
“Well, we got about eighty per cent of the business in this country lined up now, Gallagher, and half of it don’t know it yet! But when the time comes, and it ain’t far distant, we’ll be cashing in on all of them. I’ve put about eight million dollars into this business and I’m getting five times that a year now, returns. I got a nice little nest egg of reserves left and I’m not sure how much, either. Bet you don’t know where the reserves is, either!”