Chapter 6 Tom Swift and His Great Oil Gusher by Victor Appleton
SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES
“Gemmun to see you, sah.”
With his very best bow, Rad ushered the three men into the office of the Swift works that evening, where Tom, his father, and Ned were waiting to receive them.
“You see, Koku,” Rad had said patronizingly, when he had been directed by Tom to be at the office in case he were needed for any errands, “Marse Tom knows who to count on when he wants anything what takes ’telligence. Yo’s all right when it comes to muscle, but when brains is needed yo’s certainly not dar.”
“Could break your back like that,” glowered Koku, snapping his fingers.
“Sho, sho,” agreed Rad hurriedly, retreating a little. “So cud a g’rilla. But what brains has a g’rilla got? Huh. Nuffin at all. Et’s brains, Koku, brains whut counts, I’m tellin’ you.”
Tom, who had overheard the controversy, mollified the giant by directing him to watch over the visitors’ car and see that no one got away with it, and peace was reëstablished for the time.
The visitors offered to shake hands. Tom thus greeted Thompson and Bragden, but when Hankinshaw also held out his hand Tom was very busy with some papers and did not seem to see it.
“Well,” said Thompson, when cigars had been lighted, though Hankinshaw clung to his malodorous pipe, “how about those figures? Let’s know the worst. You’ll remember what I said about cutting them to the bone.”
“There wouldn’t be much nourishment for us if we didn’t leave some meat on them,” remarked Tom, with a smile; “but we’ve cut as close as we can and yet leave ourselves a reasonable profit. Mr. Newton has the figures. Go ahead, Ned.”
Ned handed to each of the three men a duplicate sheet of the proposed contract.
“Those are our figures,” he said. “As you see, we make the total sum twenty-six thousand dollars.”
“Twenty-six thousand dollars!” exclaimed Thompson, with a well simulated start of surprise, while Bragden held up his hands as though calling on heaven to witness the outrageous price.
“That’s the figure,” said Ned firmly, “and if you’ve done any calculating at all you must know, that they are reasonable.”
“Looks as though you were trying to bleed us white,” growled Hankinshaw.
“We don’t bleed anybody,” put in Tom coldly. “Our reputation in the trade is too valuable for us to indulge in any such tactics.”
“I should think that twenty thousand dollars would have been the extreme outside price,” objected Thompson.
“We can’t go below our figures,” said Ned. “Our first price is our best and our only price. That’s the fixed policy of the Company.”
“What do you say to splitting the difference and making it twenty-three thousand?” suggested Bragden.
Ned shook his head.
“Twenty-six thousand stands,” he said. “Of course, you’re under no obligation to accept these terms if you think they’re too high. But that’s the best we can do.”
“You gentlemen may wish to talk the matter over among yourselves,” suggested Tom. “If so, you can step into the adjoining office where you’ll have privacy.”
The visitors filed off into the other room where an animated conversation ensued. Thompson and Bragden kept their voices lowered, but every now and then Hankinshaw could be heard growling and objurgating, while his partners tried to quiet him.
In a little while they returned and resumed their seats.
“We still think the figures are too high,” Thompson announced; “but in view of your unyielding attitude and the fact that we are in a hurry to get to work, we have decided reluctantly to accept them. As to the time limit, six weeks perhaps will be all right, provided we can depend on the material being ready at that time.”
“It’ll be ready on the dot,” Tom assured him.
“Of course, your figures include delivery at the station in Texas that we shall designate,” Thompson went on.
“Not at all,” replied Ned. “If you will look at your contract again, you will see that it is clearly stated that those prices are f. o. b. Shopton.”
“Scalping us like regular Indians,” snarled Hankinshaw.
Thompson silenced him with a look. A long debate ensued, which ended with Ned’s carrying his point.
“Now there’s one other point,” said Thompson. “How about this proviso that five thousand of the amount shall be paid down on the signing of the contract? It doesn’t seem to me that that is necessary or usual.”
“It’s usual enough in an affair of this size,” replied Ned. “It’s only a matter of prudence or self-protection. You must realize, Mr. Thompson, that our acquaintance has been of very short duration and that we have never done business with you before. We have no doubt, of course, that everything is all right. There is nothing personal in this. It is just a matter of ordinary business precaution and procedure. This is a new line of work for us, and we shall have to incur a large initial expense for new tools that we have not hitherto required. Under the circumstances, therefore, we shall have to require that five thousand be paid down on the signing of the contract, five thousand more two weeks from now, five thousand four weeks from now and the balance on completion of the work. If you were building a house you would have to make some arrangement of the kind. We are asking nothing more of you than we do of others who are doing business with us for the first time.”
“I should think that Mr. Damon’s recommendation would have been sufficient,” grumbled Hankinshaw.
“Mr. Damon’s acquaintance was limited to Mr. Thompson, and I gathered was not very intimate,” replied Ned. “I guess we’ll have to leave him out of this.”
Hankinshaw was for continuing the argument, but the more astute Thompson, who saw that extended controversy on this point was liable to convey the impression that their financial responsibility was not what it should be, yielded the point.
“You certainly are a hard-boiled lot,” he said, with an attempt at jocularity. “But I guess you have us where you want us and that we’ll have to sign on the dotted line. That is,” he added, looking at his companions, “if my partners agree.”
They nodded, Bragden reluctantly and Hankinshaw scowlingly.
Tom and his father affixed their signatures, which were followed by those of the three visitors.
“Well, now that that’s settled,” remarked Thompson, as he rose from his chair, “I guess we’ll have to be getting along. Mr. Bragden and I have to get the night train. Mr. Hankinshaw will stay here for a while to take care of our interests and keep an eye on the work.”
“Just a moment,” put in Ned. “That matter of the initial check for five thousand.”
“Oh, yes,” said Thompson. “How careless of me to overlook that. If you’ll hand me that pen, I’ll fix it up.”
He took out a checkbook and wrote a check for five thousand dollars.
“There you are,” he said, handing it to Ned with a flourish.
Ned scanned it closely.
“The amount is all right,” he said, after an instant, “but the date is wrong. You’ve got it the 27th of May, while this is only the 21st.”
“Sure enough,” replied Thompson, with an air of vexation, as he looked at it. “I made it the 21st, but there must have been a hair on the pen and that made it a seven. Tear that one up and I’ll make you out another. And this time I’ll see that the pen is clean.”
He rubbed the pen carefully and made out another check that was correct. Ned examined it, folded it and put it in his pocket.
“The receipt of this is already acknowledged in the contract,” he reminded Thompson, and the latter nodded.
The visitors said good-night and took their leave, Rad opening the door for them with a profound bow that put such a crick in his back that he had hard work straightening up again.
“Well, Ned,” said Tom, “I have to hand it to you for the way you carried your points. You’re all wool and a yard wide as a business man.”
“You surely are, Ned,” agreed Tom’s father warmly. “You and Tom make a good team, he for the inventive and you for the financial end of the business. But now, as I’m pretty tired, I guess I’ll go over to the house and take Rad along.”
“All right, Dad,” said Tom. “I’ll be over before long. Hope you’ll get a good night’s sleep.”
“I shall if that tooth will let me,” and Mr. Swift smiled faintly. He had been having a great deal of trouble with his teeth.
“Better see a dentist in the morning and have it out if it doesn’t behave.”
“I guess that is what I’ll have to do, Tom.”
“Tom, the next thing for you to invent will be a painless tooth-pulling machine,” remarked Ned.
“Sounds fine,” returned Mr. Swift, with a smile, and then passed out.
Left alone, the young men looked at each other.
“On the level now, Ned, what do you think of those birds?” asked Tom.
“I should call them eels instead of birds,” replied Ned. “They strike me as being just about as slippery as they come. It was all right, of course, trying to get better terms. That was just what any business men would do. But that matter of the check looked fishy to me. In the first place, he didn’t forget about it as he pretended to do. Men don’t forget a thing like that.”
“What do you suppose his idea was?” asked Tom.
“Just to get out of reach before we thought, of it. Then perhaps he thought that we’d go on with the work anyway so as to lose no time, since we’ve got to get it through in six weeks. We’d have to correspond with him about it, and he could palter and delay until we’d got so far along with the work that we’d go on with it anyway. And then when I nailed him down to it, did you see how he post-dated the check? Hair on the pen! Tell that to the marines. The idea was to make the check no good until nearly a week had passed. That would keep their money in the bank a week longer, or if they haven’t got the money now to meet it, they’d have a week to get the funds together to meet it when presented. They may be operating on a shoestring, anyway.
“Then, too, the check is on a San Francisco bank. That may be all right, but in the natural course of exchange it will take nearly a week to collect it. There again we’d be supposed to be well on our way with the work, so far in fact that we couldn’t back out. But they’ll get slipped up if they’re trying any funny business there, for I’ll telegraph the first thing to-morrow morning to find out whether the check is good, and you’d better not do a stroke of work on the contract until we’re sure it is.”
“I’m almost sorry we’ve undertaken the work,” said Tom.
“I’m not,” replied Ned. “Of course, it’s much more comfortable to feel that we’re dealing with perfectly responsible people, but we’ve got the thing sewed up so that we can’t lose, anyway. They might like to cheat us, but they can’t. In the first place, we won’t spend a penny until we’re absolutely sure of five thousand dollars. That will cover everything until the next payment comes due two weeks from now. If they renege then, we’ll stop and be money in pocket. If they pay, we’ll have received ten thousand dollars. The payments after that they’ll have to make, anyway, for they will already have paid more than they can afford to lose. We’ve got them every way.
“Then, too, we’ve got a nice little profit in this proposition. It may also open up a new line that will be big in possibilities. You know already what I think of oil. The demand already for oil-well machinery is greater than the supply, and I know of some factories that are running three shifts and working the whole twenty-four hours to keep up with their orders. With the new oil fields that are being opened up, that demand is bound to increase, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t get our share of the business. This first order will perhaps set us on the road to doing this. Then, too, I’m banking on your inventing something new that will be so good that every oil field will have to have it. You’ve never tackled anything yet that you haven’t improved upon.”
“Thanks for the bouquet,” said Tom, grinning.
“No bouquet at all,” answered Ned. “It’s the simple truth, and you know it.”
“Well,” said Tom, “I’ll do my best. I feel the old urge coming on, and I’m hankering to get at it. There’s just one thing that’s bothering me now.”
“What’s that?” asked Ned.
“Hankinshaw,” replied Tom.