question, I should think! And if the answer is ‘no,’ I shall ask to see records!”
Arnold grimaced. “Please, gentlemen! Please, Mr. Hubble! I can hardly hear myself think. Mr. Hubble, since you have objections to the proposal, we’ll withdraw it. I presume I have the consent of all present for this agenda change. To pass on——”
Hubble clamored, “You do not have my consent to this agenda change, Mr. Arnold. I am still requesting information on the proposal.”
Somebody slid into a seat beside Mundin. A big, handsome, well-preserved old man. “I’m Harry Coett,” he muttered. “What’s all this about? I see you talking to Bliss and then all hell breaks loose. Say, weren’t you with Green, Charles-worth? No? Thought I knew you. Well, what’s up? Arnold’s scared. You’ve got something. What is is?”
Mundin smugly asked, “What’s in it for me?”
The man stared. “Hell, boy! I’m Harry Coett. Where are you from, anyway?”
And a third party joined them as the debate between Hubble and the chairman raged and spread. “You seem to have put Hubble onto something, young man,” the newcomer whispered. “I like that. Spirit. Somebody-told me you were an attorney, and it happens there’s a vacancy on our law staff. Quite a nice vacancy. I’m Roadways, you know. Nelson’s the name——”
Coett snapped: “I was here first, George!”
By then the floor debate had escaped from Hubble’s hands. Scenting blood or gold, half the stockholders present were fighting for the chance to question Arnold, who was sweating and grimly managing not to say a thfeig—at great length. The other half of the stockholders seemed to be clawing their way into the group around Mundin, the odd young man who seemed to know things. Mundin, smiling politely and meeting no one’s eye, heard the whispers and conjectures: “—an attorney, from the S.E.C., I guess, going to throw the book at old Arnold for——” “—into camp, but how do you know it isn’t Green, Charlesworth or——” “No, you ass! Proxies! They’ve been quietly——”
He judged the time was ripe. He said politely, “Excuse me, gentlemen,” and stood up.
“Mr. Chairman,” he called. Arnold pointedly avoided his eye and recognized somebody else—who was at once the goal of a ten-yard dash by Harry Coett. Coett whispered urgently in the man’s ear and he said: “I yield to Mr. Mundin.”
“Thank you,” said Mundin. “Perhaps I can clarify this confused situation. However, Mr. Arnold, first I should like to talk to one of my principals, the young lady.”
“Principals?” Arnold asked distractedly. A secretary murmured something to him. “Oh. Miss Lav—oh, certainly. She’ll —uh—be free to talk to you immediately after the meeting concludes. Is that satisfactory, Mr. Urmurm?”
“Quite satisfactory.”
And that was that, and more, far more, than he had dared hope for. Not only had he thrown an egg into the corporate fan, so that half the stockholders in G.M.L. were swarming around Mm, but Arnold was returning Norma as his price for not “clarifying the situation.” Arnold’s raid had blown up in bis face; far less than getting the Lavin stock to vote, he would be iueky to hold his domination of the board.
Mundin sat down comfortably—and silently, acknowledging leading questions and offers from the Titans with polite nothings.
The stockholders’ rebellion began visibly to peter out. With Mundin quieted, angry and uncertain men perceived that some sort of deal had been made under their noses. They didn’t like it; they had done it themselves too often to enjoy feeling the spur on their own flesh. One of them called for unseating Arnold, but cooler heads prevailed. Wait until this thing is a little more settled. Wait until this Mundin tell what he knows.
The rest of the meeting went at breakneck speed.
Hubble spent much of it railing, “Damn it, Mundin, you made me the first offer! The hell with these vultures. They’ll use you and throw you away. I’m the only heavy stockholder in the company with an open mind and——”
“Nonsense!” Harry Coett said decisively. “I don’t know what you’re up to, Mundin, but whatever it is it’ll need- financing. And I’m Harry Coett. Let me handle——”
George Nelson said, “Tell him what you did to old Crow-ther, why don’t you? He needed financing too.”