The Devil To Pay Read Online Free Page B

preferred stock since you began creating holding companies around Ohippi?”
    “A few dollars, Walter,” said Solly soothingly. “But so could Jardin, only he says he hung on to his stock.”
    “You got that rat Ruhig to advise him to hold on!”
    “Who says so? Who says so?” spluttered Solly. “Prove that. Let him prove—”
    “You weren’t satisfied with swindling the investing public, you had to doublecross your partner, too!”
    “If Jardin says I doublecrossed him, he’s a liar!”
    Val gritted her teeth. You oily rascal! she thought. If only you weren’t Walter’s father…
    “Jardin’s broke, and you know it!” shouted Walter.
    A strange smile fattened Solly’s features. “Is that so? Really? Did Jardin tell you that?”
    Valerie felt her heart skip a beat. And there was almost a dazed look on Walter’s face. What did the man mean? Was it possible that—
    “The fact remains,” muttered Walter, “you’ve made millions while your stockholders have been wiped out.”
    Spaeth shrugged. “They could have sold at peak, too.”
    “And now you’re abandoning the plants!”
    “They’re useless.”
    “You could put them back on their feet!”
    “Rubbish,” said Solly shortly. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “You could put those millions back where they belong—in the plants. You could get Ohippi operating again at a profit when the floods recede!”
    Spaeth pounded the desk, swallowing. “Since the Securities Act of 1934 the government is liquidating holding-company structures—”
    “And a damned good thing, too!”
    “The turn would have come soon, anyway, even without the floods. There’s just no point in reinvesting; there’s not enough money to be made. You don’t know what’s happening in this country!”
    “You made those filthy millions out of Jardin and the public,” growled Walter, “and it’s your moral responsibility to save their investments.”
    “You’re a fool,” said Solly curtly. “Come back and talk when you’ve got some sense in your head.” And he put on his glasses and picked up a paper.
    Valerie, watching Walter’s face, peering around the terrace wall, felt panic. If only she dared go inside—take Walter away before he—
    Walter leaned across his father’s desk and gently took the paper away and tossed it into the fireplace. Solly sat very still. “You listen to me,” said Walter. “I’ll overlook your crookedness, the way you took Jardin, your lie to me about how hard you were hit. But you’re going to do one thing.”
    Solly whispered: “Walter, don’t get me excited.”
    “You’re going to save those plants.”
    “No!”
    “It’s my hard luck to own your name,” said Walter thickly, “so I’ve got to take the stink out of it. You’ve ruined the father of the woman I’m going to marry, and you’re going to make it up to both of them, do you hear?”
    “What’s that?” screamed Solly, bouncing out of his chair. “Marry? The Jardin girl?”
    “You heard me!”
    Val went over to the top step of the terrace and sat down limply in the rain. She felt like crying and laughing at the same time. The darling, darling idiot—proposing like that…
    “Oh, no, you’re not,” panted Solly, shaking his finger in Walter’s face. “Oh, no, you’re not!”
    Tell him, Walter, thought Val, hugging her knees ecstatically. Tell the old boa-constrictor!
    “You’re damned right I’m not!” shouted Walter. “Not after what you’ve done to her! What do you think I am?”
    Val sat open-mouthed. Surprise! Oh, God, you second-hand Don Quixote. She might have known. He’d never do anything the sane and normal way. Val felt like crawling off the terrace into the rock garden and taking refuge under a stone.
    In the study there was a curious silence as Solomon Spaeth scurried around his desk again and opened a drawer. He flung a handful of newspaper clippings on the desk. “Ever since the stocks began to fall,” yelled