But for five long years I could not work on household appliances without asking them first. I would rather have cut my throat.
There were copies of assignments of all patents, duly registered, from me to Hired Girl, Inc., for Hired Girl and Window Willie and a couple of minor things. (Flexible Frank, of course, had never been patented-well, I didn’t think he had been patented; I found out the truth later.)
But I had never assigned any patents, I hadn’t even formally licensed their use to Hired Girl, Inc.; the corporation was my own creature and there hadn’t seemed to be any hurry about it.
The last three items were my stock-shares certificate (those I had not given to Belle), a certified check, and a letter explaining each item of the check-accumulated “salary” less thawing-account disbursements, three months’ extra salary in lieu of notice, option money to invoke “paragraph seven” . . . and a thousand dollar bonus to express “appreciation of services rendered.” That last was real sweet of them.
While I reread that amazing collection I had time to realize that I had probably not been too bright to sign everything that Belle put in front of me. There was no possible doubt that the signatures were mine.
I steadied down enough the next day to talk it over with a lawyer, a very smart and money-hungry lawyer, one who didn’t mind kicking and clapper-clawing and biting in the clinches. At first he was anxious to take it on a contingent-fee basis. But after he finished looking over my exhibits and listening to the details he sat back and laced his fingers over his belly and looked sour. “Dan, I’m going to give you some advice and it’s not going to cost you anything.”
“Well?”
“Do nothing. You haven’t got a prayer.”
“But you said-”
“I know what I said. They rooked you. But how can you prove it? They were too smart to steal your stock or cut you off without a penny. They gave you exactly the deal you could have reasonably expected if everything had been kosher and you had quit, or had been fired over-as they express it-a difference of policy opinion. They gave you everything you had coming to you. . . and a measly thousand to boot, just to show there are no hard feelings.”
“But I didn’t have a contract! And I never assigned those patents!”
“These papers say you did. You admit that’s your signature. Can you prove what you say by anyone else?”
I thought about it. I certainly could not. Not even Jake Schmidt knew anything that went on in the front office. The only witnesses I had were. . . Miles and Belle.
“Now about that stock assignment,” he went on, “that’s the one chance to break the log jam. If you…”
“But that is the only transaction in the whole stack that really is legitimate. I signed over that stock to her.”
“Yes, but why? You say that you gave it to her as an engagement present in expectation of marriage. Never mind how she voted it; that’s beside the point. If you can prove that it was given as a betrothal gift in full expectation of marriage, and that she knew it when she accepted it, you can force her either to marry you or to disgorge. McNulty vs. Rhodes. Then you’re in control again and kick them out. Can you prove it?”
“Damn it, I don’t want to marry her now. I wouldn’t have her.”
“That’s your problem. But one thing at a time. Have you any witnesses or any evidence, letters or anything, which would tend to show that she accepted it, understanding that you were giving it to her as your future wife?”
I thought. Sure, I had witnesses . . . the same old two. Miles and Belle.
“You see? With nothing but your word against both of theirs, plus a pile of written evidence, you not only won’t get anywhere, but you might wind up committed to a Napoleon factory with a diagnosis of paranoia. My advice to you is to get a job in some other line. . . or at the very most go ahead and buck their yellowdog contract by setting up a competitive business-I’d like to see that phraseology tested, as long as I didn’t have to fight it myself. But don’t charge them with conspiracy. They’ll win, then they’ll sue you and clean you out of what they let you keep.” He stood up.