CHAPTER IV
A DISSATISFIED SHAREHOLDER
Cartwright had read the morning's letters and the _Journal of Commerce_,and finding nothing important, turned his revolving chair to the fire.He had been forced to wait for a train at a draughty station, and hisfeet were cold. His office occupied an upper floor of an old-fashionedbuilding near the docks. Fog from the river rolled up the street and thewindows were grimed by soot, but Cartwright had not turned on theelectric light. The fire snapped cheerfully, and he lighted his pipe andlooked about.
The furniture was shabby, the carpet was getting threadbare, and some ofthe glass in the partition that cut off the clerks' office was cracked.Cartwright had thought about modernizing and decorating the rooms, butto do the thing properly would cost five hundred pounds, and money wasscarce. Besides, a number of the merchants who shipped goods by hisboats were conservative and rather approved his keeping the parsimoniousrules of the old school.
The house was old and had been at one time rich and powerful.Cartwright's father, however, had used sailing ships too long, andCartwright's speculations and extravagance when he took control had notmended its fortunes. Then had come a number of lean years when fewshipping companies earned a dividend and the line's capital steadilymelted. Now the shareholders were not numerous and the ships were small.
Cartwright glanced at the pictures in tarnished gold frames. _Oreana_,drawn plunging across an Atlantic comber, was the best of the fleet, buther engineer had for some time demanded new boilers. Since the reservefund was low and other boats needed expensive repairs, Cartwrightresolved to wait. He had bought _Melphomene_, above the fireplace, verycheap; but her engines were clumsy compounds and she cost much to coal.Still she was fast, and now and then got a paying load by reaching aport where freights were high before the _Conference_ found out thatCartwright meant to cut the rates.
_Titania_, with the white deckhouse and shade-deck, carried a good loadon a light draught, and sometimes picked up a profitable cargo inshallow African lagoons. When he glanced at her picture Cartwright'slook got thoughtful. She was one of two sister ships, launched at afamous yard, and Cartwright had wanted both, but the builders demandedterms of payment he could not meet, and another company had bought thevessel. She was wrecked soon afterwards, and now lay buried in the sandby an African river bar. The salvage company had given up their effortsto float her, but Cartwright imagined she could be floated if one werewilling to run a risk. But no one, it seemed was willing. On the failureof the salvage company the underwriters had put the steamer into thehands of Messrs. Bull and Morse, a firm of Ship Brokers and MarineAuctioneers, but at the public auction no bids whatever had been made.Subsequently advertisements appeared in the shipping papers invitingoffers for the ship as she lay and for the salvage of the cargo. Thesehad run for several weeks, but without result. Cartwright had cut themout. Now and then he looked at them and speculated about theundertaking.
By and by the bookkeeper came in and filed some letters. Gavin's hairwas going white, and he had been with Cartwright's since he was a boy.He was fat, red-faced, and humorous, although his humor was not refined.Gavin liked to be thought something of a sport, but Cartwright knew hewas staunch.
"You imagine Mrs. Seaton will look me up this morning?" Cartwright saidpresently.
"Yes, sir. She called and demanded to see you. In fact, I think shedoubted when I told her you hadn't come back from the North. She saidthe shareholders' meeting would be soon and she expected you to give abigger dividend; the Blue Funnel people had paid five per cent. If youdidn't return before long, she might run up to Carrock. So I sent thetelegram."
Cartwright nodded. He trusted his bookkeeper, who had grounds forimagining it was not altogether desirable Mrs. Seaton should arrive atCarrock.
"Have you heard anything from Manners while I was away?"
"Nothing direct, sir. His nephew, Hatton, came round with a tender forthe bunker coal, and implied that he ought to get the job. Then I had anotion Mrs. Seaton, so to speak, was _primed_. Looked as if somebody hadgot at her; her arguments about the dividend were rather good."
"It's possible," said Cartwright dryly. "If she comes, you can show herin. But what about the wine?"
"I don't know if it will see you out. There's not a great deal left, andlast time--"
Cartwright's eyes twinkled. "Exactly! Send for another bottle and seeyou get the proper stuff. Some of the biscuits, too; you know the kind.Rather a bother, but perhaps the best plan!"
"Safer than going out to lunch," Gavin remarked. "Then, in the office,you're on your own ground. That counts."
"Gives you moral support and handicaps an antagonist who's not abusiness man?" Cartwright suggested. "Well, perhaps it does so, but Isee some drawbacks. Anyhow, get the wine."
Gavin went off and Cartwright mused by the fire. The morning was raw andfoggy, and if he went out, the damp might get at his throat; moreover,Gavin would reply to his letters. Cartwright had begun to feel it wastime to let others work while he looked on. His control counted for lessthan he had thought; things went without much guidance and it was enoughto give them a push in the proper direction now and then. To rousehimself for an effort was getting harder and he would have beensatisfied to rest, had not his pride, and, to some extent, hisstep-children's antagonism, prevented his doing so. He needed money andwould not use his wife's.
One must pay for old extravagances, and the bills were coming in; Mrs.Seaton's expected call was an example. Ellen was a widow, but before shemarried Seaton, Cartwright knew she counted him her lover. They werealike in temperament; rash, strong-willed, and greedy for all that gavelife a thrill. In fact, Ellen was a stimulating comrade, but not thekind of girl one married. Cartwright married Clara and knew Mrs. Seatonbore him a lasting grudge.
Since Seaton was a merchant whose investments in Liverpool werenumerous, it was perhaps not strange he left his widow shares that gaveher some control of the Cartwright line. Although she was not poor, shewas greedy and extravagant. In fact, Cartwright imagined greed was nowher ruling passion.
By and by he heard steps in the passage behind the partition and thoughthe knew the tap of high-heeled shoes. Then he heard a laugh and Gavin'svoice. Ellen was using her charm on his bookkeeper and the old sportwould play up. The door opened, the room smelt of violets, and Mrs.Seaton came in. She was tall and her furs gave her large figure a touchof dignity. Her color was sharply white and red, and in the rather dimlight her skin was like a girl's. Cartwright knew Ellen was younger thanhe, but not very much.
"You look hipped and rather slack, Tom," she said when he got up andGavin fetched a chair.
"I feel the cold and damp," Cartwright replied. "Then managing atramp-steamship line when freights are low is a wearing job."
Mrs. Seaton took off her coat. "Your office is shabby and climbing allthose stairs is a pull. Why don't you launch out, get a lift, andmodernize things?"
"My trouble is to keep the boats supplied with coal and stores. Besides,you see, I don't often use my office for a drawing-room."
"You're very cautious," Mrs. Seaton remarked with a laugh. "You start toget on guard before I begin my attack."
"Oh, well," said Cartwright, smiling, "I know your power. But would youlike a cigarette?"
She took the curiously-decorated box he gave her and broke the seal."Since you don't smoke these things, Tom, you were rather nice toremember."
"You had better take the box," said Cartwright. "I sent for a few when_Titania_ went to the Levant. One understands they're hard to get inEngland. But I have something else you like. If you will wait amoment--"
He rang a bell and Gavin entered, carrying two small glasses, a bottle,and some biscuits. When he went out, Cartwright turned the bottle soMrs. Seaton could see the label.
"Climbing our stairs is a fag," he said, and filled the glasses.
Mrs. Seaton smiled and took hers. Cartwright saw her rings sparkle andthe gleam of her regular, white teeth. The reflection from the gratetouched
her hair and it shone a smooth golden-brown. He admitted withamusement that Ellen was nearly as attractive as he had thought herthirty years since.
"This is like old times, Tom," she said. "I remember evenings when youbrought me sandwiches and iced cup at a dance--but I don't think youwere ever remarkably romantic."
Cartwright remembered an evening when they sat under a shaded lamp in aquiet corner of a supper room, listening to music that somehow firedone's blood. But perhaps it was the iced cup he had generously drunk.All the same he had not been a fool, though he was tempted. He knewsomething about Ellen then, but he knew her better now. Perhaps it wastypical that she had promptly put the box of Eastern cigarettes in hermuff.
"Managing ships is not a romantic occupation," he rejoined.
"Anyway, your welcome's kind and I feel shabby because I'm forced tobother you. But suppose some of your customers arrive?"
"We shall not be disturbed," said Cartwright, smiling. "Gavin knows hisjob."
"Very well. Do you expect to declare a better dividend at theshareholders' meeting?"
"I do not. If I'm lucky, I may keep the dividend where it is, but Idon't know yet."
"Two per cent. is really nothing," Mrs. Seaton remarked. "I've beenforced to study economy and you know how I hate to pinch. Besides, Iknow an investment that would give me eight per cent."
"Then, if you're satisfied the venture is not risky, you ought to buythe shares."
"I want to buy, but it's a small, private company and the peoplestipulate I must take a large block. I have not enough money."
Cartwright doubted, but her plan was obvious. "When trade is slack, oneought to be careful about investing in a private company that pays eightper cent," he said. "After all, it might be prudent to be satisfied witha small profit."
"But I'm not satisfied and your dividend is remarkably small! Are youreally unable to make it larger?"
"One can't pay dividends out of capital. Anyhow, one can't keep it upfor long!"
"Then, as I mean to make a plunge, I must sell some of the investmentsthat don't earn me much. My shares in the line carry a good number ofvotes and, if people grumble at the meeting, would give you somecontrol. Will you buy them, Tom?"
Cartwright knitted his brows. He thought her hint about the sharesgiving him useful power was significant. In fact, it looked as ifsomebody had put Ellen on his track. He wondered whether Manners.... Butshe must not think him disturbed.
"What is your price?" he asked.
"My price?" she said with a puzzled look he thought well done. "Ofcourse, I want the sum the shares stand for."
"I'm sorry it's impossible. Just now the shares of very few shippingcompanies are worth their face value. For example, five-pound shares ina good line were not long since offered at two pounds ten."
Mrs. Seaton looked disturbed. "That's dreadful!" she exclaimed. "But I'mnot rich enough to bear a heavy loss, and if you bought my lot, thevoting power would enable you to break the grumblers' opposition.They're worth more to you than anybody else. Can't you help me?"
Cartwright gave her a smiling glance, although he was bothered. Ellenwas not a fool and he noted her insistence on the value of the shares tohim. Where this led was obvious. He had one or two powerful antagonistsand knew of plots to force his retirement. Ellen had given him hischoice; he must promise a larger dividend or buy her shares at somethingover their market price. This, of course, was impossible, but heimagined she did not know how poor he was.
"I can't buy," he said. "I must trust my luck and fighting power.Although we have had stormy meetings and rates are bad, the line isrunning yet."
"If you haven't enough money, why don't you ask your wife? She's richand hasn't risked much of her capital in the line."
"That is so," Cartwright agreed. Ellen meant to be nasty but he must becool. "Although my wife is rich, I don't use her money."
"You're not logical, and sometimes your fastidiousness isn't verymarked. However, it looks as if you didn't marry because Clara was rich.She was romantic before she began to get fat."
Cartwright's face got red. He had had enough and saw Ellen was gettingsavage. She had not forgotten that, in a sense, he ought to have marriedher, and since he would not buy her shares, she would, no doubt, helphis antagonists. Crossing the floor, he poked the fire noisily.
"Shall I give you some more wine?" he asked, and while he was occupiedwith the glasses the telephone bell rang behind the partition. A fewmoments afterwards Gavin came in.
"Moreton has rung up, sir. If you can give him five minutes, he'll comeacross. He says it's important."
Mrs. Seaton put on her coat. "I mustn't stop when an important customeris coming." Then she laughed and gave Cartwright her hand. "You are veryobstinate, Tom, but I know your pluck."
She went off. Gavin took away the wine, and Cartwright opened thewindow. The smell of violets vanished, but when he sat down again hepondered. He knew Mrs. Seaton, and thought she meant to hint his pluckmight soon be needed. When Ellen smiled like that she was plottingsomething.