Mason slipped the card into his pocket and said, “I haven’t had time to familiarize myself with the issues involved in that fraud action.”
“No hurry, no hurry,” Moffgat said. “I think as soon as you hear the evidence, Mr. Mason, you’ll decide not to contest the action. In the meantime, Mr. Clarke, we have some good news for you.”
“What is it?” Clarke asked, his voice and manner coldly impersonal.
“It has occurred to us,” Moffgat said, “that because of various litigation and other things, the corporation has really done you an injustice. You aren’t physically able to go out on the properties and take an active part in their operation, but you do have certain highly specialized knowledge; and the company feels that it owes you a debt of gratitude for the work you have done in developing the mining property. In short, Mr. Clarke, we have elected you to a place on the board of directors, and have employed you as supervising manager at a salary of twenty-five thousand dollars a year and all incidental expenses.”
Clarke looked surprise.
Mason said, “I am sorry, Moffgat, but it’s no go.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. It’s a cleverly baited trap, but it won’t work.”
Moffgat said angrily, “I don’t know what right you have to make any such statement. We are trying to bury the hatchet, that’s all.”
Mason smiled at him. “I will tell you something else, Counselor. The election of Clarke to the board of directors is invalid.”
“What do you mean?”
“Directors have to be stockholders in the corporation.”
“Banning Clarke is a very large stockholder, Mr. Mason.”
“He was” Mason said. “It happens that he’s sold his stock.”
“The books of the corporation don’t show it.”
“They will when — the stock is presented for transfer.”
“But on the books of the corporation he’s still a stockholder. He—”
Mason pulled Banning Clarke’s stock certificate from his pocket, spread it out on the table.
“The question,” he said, “is whether Banning Clarke actually is a stockholder, and I think this answers the question. Gentlemen, I have bought Clarke’s stock.”
Moffgat became angry. “That stock purchase,” he said, “is just a subterfuge.”
Mason grinned. “Would you like to go to court and ask to have the transfer set aside on the grounds that you engineered a trap for Clarke, hoping that he would walk into it, and that he avoided it by selling his stock?”
“It wasn’t a trap, I tell you. We were trying to extend an olive branch.”
Nell Sims said in the peculiarly chirping tone of voice which she reserved for interpolations, “Fear the Greeks when they bear olive branches.”
Mason said suavely, “Well, perhaps I have been a little hasty.”
“I think you have.”
“Would you,” Mason asked, “make that contract of employment on an annual basis — provide that the contract couldn’t be terminated by the corporation except on twelve months’ notice?”
Moffgat flushed. “Certainly not.”
“Why?”
“Well, there are... there are reasons.”
Mason nodded to Banning Clarke. “There you are,” he said.
Clarke said, “I am satisfied to leave the entire matter in your hands, Mason.”
Mason folded the stock certificate and put it in his pocket.
“May I ask what you paid for that?” Moffgat asked.
“Certainly,” Mason observed.
Moffgat waited for a further reply.
“You are at liberty to ask” Mason said, smiling.
James Bradisson injected himself into the conversation. “Come, come. Let’s not have any hard feelings about it. As far as I am concerned I don’t want Banning Clarke to feel there’s any personal animosity. Frankly, Moffgat said that if we could elect him to a position on the board of directors and give him this contract, we could jockey him into a situation where either he would have to disclose everything he knew about the company property, or — if he ever exploited or developed it in his own name and for his own benefit — we could go to court and establish that he was acting as an involuntary trustee for the company. Come on, Moffgat, you have had your fling and you came out second best. Mason anticipated what you were up to and beat you to it. And I, for one, am just as well pleased. I am tired of lawsuits. Now let us forget our business differences and be friends. - Banning, I don’t suppose there is any chance of reaching an agreement and getting you to give us certain information that you have, is there?”
“What information?”
“You know what I mean.”
Banning gained time by extending his teacup for Mrs. Sims to fill. “So it was a trap?” he asked.
“Sure it was,” Bradisson said, as Moffgat, taking a quick breath, apparently started to deny it. “Now then, let’s talk of something else.”
Mrs. Sims, carrying the teapot around the table to refill the teacups of Della Street and Perry Mason, asked, “What about my case?”
Moffgat, in a cold rage, said, “I am glad you mentioned it. It’s one of the things I wanted to discuss. But it probably would be better to discuss it in the absence of your client, Mr. Mason.”
“Why in my absence?” Mrs. Sims asked.
Moffgat said, shortly, “You might get angry.”
“Not me,” Mrs. Sims said. “I didn’t have a thing to do with it. All I want to know is where I stand.”
Mason said, “I left instructions to have a demurrer filed this afternoon in that case.”
Mrs. Bradisson, who had kept in the background, said, “James, I suppose we have discharged our obligations as directors and can go now.”
Bradisson seemed somewhat reluctant to leave.
Dorina Crofton walked around the table, stood by the corner, then impulsively crossed over to the place near the stove where her mother was standing, and kissed her.
“What’s that for?” Mrs. Sims asked.
“For luck,” Dorina said, laughing.
There was a moment of general confusion with people moving around the big kitchen, Bradisson holding the door open for his mother, Mason on his feet bowing and expressing his pleasure at having met the others.
As the swinging door to the kitchen closed on the parting directors, Moffgat said, “I have a stipulation I’d like you to sign, Mason. I’ve left my brief case in the other room. If you’ll pardon me a moment...”
“Watch him,” Clarke said tersely when Moffgat had left the room. “He’s full of tricks. He’s putting something up to Jim right now. That business of leaving his brief case was just a stall.”
Mason said in a low, hurried voice, “That stipulation probably means he wants to take the deposition of Pete Sims. He may want to take yours.”
“Why?”
Mason smiled. “A general fishing expedition. Once he gets you before a notary public, he will start asking questions designed to trap you in connection with this other matter. Sorry I had to do what I did with reference to that stock, but we were working against minutes.”
“Quite all right,” Clarke said, laughing.
“You see,” Mason said, “I didn’t have time to explain it to you, but the law in regard to corporation directors is rather obscure. It isn’t like being elected to some office where you have to qualify by taking an oath of office. Under the pooling agreement your shares were voted by Salty. Naturally, Salty thought they were doing you a favor putting you on the board of directors.”
Salty Bowers said sheepishly, “They were so doggone nice about it, I thought they were really and truly trying to patch up all the differences. I feel like kicking myself.”