Chapter XXX: Defeat
There had been trouble at the Board Meeting, and, now that it was
almost over, the directors of the Grenfell Consolidated sat in
dejected silence, listening to the animadversions of one of their
comrades. They did not agree with everything he said, but it scarcely
seemed worth while to raise minor objections, for they were willing to
admit that the situation was desperate.
"We should never have proceeded to allotment," he said. "I warned you
that the applications for our stock were quite insufficient to warrant
the flotation of the concern at the time, but you apparently lost your
heads over those specimens, and you overruled me. Now it's
unpleasantly evident that we cannot expect to go on much longer, and I
venture to predict a voluntary liquidation during the next few
months."
"It certainly looks like that," said one of the others, gloomily. "Still, you might give us your reasons for counting on the thing, if you have any."
The man laughed—a little harsh laugh that had in it a hint of
contempt for the intelligence of his colleagues.
"Will you let me have those estimates again, Mr. Weston?" he asked.
Weston, who sat with a set face gazing at the papers in front of him, handed several of them across the table. It was now some time since he had left the mine, and in the meanwhile trouble after trouble had crowded thick upon him. He realized also that he was rapidly losing the confidence of his companions. They were not men of any great account in that city, and it was significant that the Board Meeting was held in Wannop's little back office, where there was scarcely room for all of them.
"You have discussed those estimates at length already," he said. "I
should, however, like to point out that I consider them absurdly high. In fact, I'd undertake to do the work at not more than two-thirds of the cost."
"This company," said the first speaker, severely, "has no intention of
taking up road-making and the building of flumes and dams. It has, as
I think you will admit, gentlemen, quite enough already on its hands."
There was some show of agreement from all but Wannop, and Weston set
his lips. There had been a time when they had listened to his
suggestions, but now it was becoming evident that they regarded him
with suspicion.
"This," said his colleague, "is a little list of our requirements and
expenditures before we can expect to get to work. Tools, drilling-machines and labor on the heading." He read out the cost of each item. "Then we have to provide a stamp-mill, turbines, flumes and dam; and, though Mr. Weston suggests a wood-burning engine to supply the crushing power, the saving effected would be no great matter. The point is that we now discover that the cost of these things will in one way or another be nearly double what we stated in our prospectus."
"That," said Wannop, dryly, "isn't altogether unusual."
"What is more to the purpose is that it will approximately absorb our
whole available capital," said the first speaker, who took up another
paper. "Then we have as an alternative scheme several leagues of road
and trail cutting, including wooden bridges and a strip that must be
dug out of an impassable mountainside. You have to add to it the cost
and maintenance of pack-horses and the rates you'd have to pay the
owners of the nearest crushing-plant to do your reducing. Gentlemen, I
can only move that these estimates stand over, and that in the
meanwhile we merely proceed with the heading."
They agreed to this. Then another of them spoke.
"It seems to me that there's a way in which we could save something as
well as our credit," he said. "I've had a hint that another big
concern might be willing to take us over."
They looked at one another in a manner which suggested that this was
not altogether a new idea. Weston straightened himself suddenly.
"It will never be done with my consent," he said.
"Then," remarked the first speaker, "it is quite likely that you will
find yourself in a minority of one."
"Mr. Weston can count on at least one supporter," said Wannop, shortly.
Then there was an awkward silence, until one of the others thrust back
his chair.
"It's becoming quite clear that we can't go on," he said. "This
concern was started wrong. We should have spent more money, taken
first-class offices, and turned out floods of illustrated pamphlets."