The Best Policy

“A lawyer!” mused Murray. “Now, what the devil do they need of a lawyer? I can’t see where he comes in.”

“Tainter was with them once,” replied the “shadow.”

“I certainly never had anything puzzle me like this,” remarked Murray. “The separate incidents are so trifling that it seems absurd to attach any importance to them, and yet, taking them all together, I am convinced there is something wrong. I’d like to hear what they have to say to each other.”

“That,” said the shadow, “can be easily arranged, for they are to meet next Sunday afternoon, and I can get the janitor easily to let us into the adjoining office.”

“I’ll be there,” said Murray.

Now, Murray, in spite of his good nature, was a dignified man, but he knew when to sacrifice his dignity. He was an “office man,” but he rather enjoyed an excuse for getting outside and occupying himself in some unusual way. In fact, Murray had the making of a “strenuous” man in him, if fate had not decreed that he should devote his energies to the less exciting task of directing the destinies of a life insurance agency. So he rather enjoyed the mild excitement of getting into the adjoining office unobserved and lying prone on his stomach to get his ear close to the crack under the door. But the reward was not great. The lawyer – a big blustering fellow – was there, and so were Schlimmer, Tainter and Mays, but the meeting seemed to be one for jubilation rather than for planning.

“I got the papers all ready,” said the lawyer. “Sign ’em, Tainter, and then we’re ready to go ahead the moment Mays gives the word. We want to land all we can.”

And that was the only business transacted. The rest of the time was given to gloating over some scheme that was not put in words.

“You bet you, I make that Murray sit up and take notice, yes?” remarked Schlimmer. “I gif him his chance once and I get the vorst of it, but I even up now.”

“It’s great,” commented the lawyer. “You’ve got a great head on you, Schlimmer. Not one man in a thousand would have thought of it. We’ll all even up, but they would have been mighty suspicious if I had let Tainter’s application go in through Mays. That’s where you get the advantage of having a lawyer in the deal.”

And more to the same effect, but no definite explanation of the scheme.

Murray was at his office unusually early Monday morning, and the first thing he did was to have a clerk look up the Schlimmer case. Some company, he knew, had got into trouble over a Schlimmer policy, and he wanted to know all about it. He learned that Schlimmer had taken out a policy on his wife’s life, had demanded and secured a rebate from the solicitor, and that another policy-holder had taken action that resulted in nullifying the policy and imposing a fine on the company.

“I think I understand it now,” mused Murray, “but it looks to me as if pretty prompt action might be necessary.”

All doubt, all hesitation had disappeared. Murray was wide awake and active. He called in his private messenger.

“When Mr. Mays reports,” he said, “he is to wait until I have had a talk with him before going out. I shall send for him when I am ready.” Then, giving the boy a slip of paper with a name and an address on it, “I want to see that man here at once. Take a cab and bring him. Tell him the validity of his life insurance depends upon it.”

While the boy was gone, Murray slipped out himself, and, when he returned, a stranger accompanied him. The stranger was secreted in a room adjoining, and then Murray took up the routine of his regular work. The only interruption came when a clerk informed him that Mays was waiting.

“Let him wait,” said Murray. “I’m not quite ready for him yet. If he tries to leave, jump on his back and hold him.”

After a time the messenger returned with the man for whom he had been sent, and Murray immediately took him into his private office and shut the door.

“Mr. Leckster,” he said abruptly, “how much of a rebate did Mays give you on the policy you took out with us?”

Leckster was plainly mystified and frightened.

“Out with it!” commanded Murray. “Your policy isn’t worth the paper it’s written on unless the matter is straightened out mighty quick. How much was the rebate?”

“I don’t understand,” said Leckster, already nearly terror-stricken.

“How much of his commission did he give to you to get you to take out a policy?”

“Oh, he give me a half.”

“Leckster,” said Murray, “that was against the law. If any other policy-holder hears of it and wants to go into court, he can nullify your policy and get half of the fine that will be assessed against us for the act of our agent. If you want to make your policy unassailable, you must refund that rebate. Now, go home and think it over.”

Then he sent word to Mays that he was ready to see him.

“Mays,” he said abruptly, “what was your scheme?”

“Sir!” exclaimed Mays.

“What was your scheme?”

“Surely you must be joking, sir,” protested Mays. “I have no scheme.”

“Why did Tainter,” replied Murray in deliberate tones, “a friend of yours, put in his application through another solicitor?”

“He didn’t know I was in the insurance business until he came up here to be examined.”

“Then why did you fail to recognize each other until you got out in the hall where you thought you were unobserved?”

Mays did not even hesitate. Evidently he had prepared himself for this.

“Another man had got his application,” he said, “and I was afraid it would look as if I were trying to interfere in some way. I did nod to him, but very likely it wasn’t noticed.”

“What are your relations with Schlimmer?” persisted Murray.

“Oh, I got into a little business deal with him, for which I am sincerely sorry. I’m trying to get out now.”

“Insurance?” asked Murray.

“No, sir; it had nothing whatever to do with insurance.”

Murray was thoughtful and silent for several minutes.

“Mays,” he said at last, speaking slowly, “I don’t know whether you’re worth saving or not. You’ve got in with a bad crowd and you’re mixed up in a bad deal. But you impressed me favorably when you came here, and I think you are capable of being legitimately successful. Of course, you lied to me about your mother – ”

“I was very anxious for the job, sir.”

“I quite appreciate that, although your motive for wanting the job will hardly bear close scrutiny. Still, you are young and I am anxious to give you another chance. Now, tell me the whole story.”

“There is nothing to tell, sir,” Mays replied with an ingenuous air. “Your words and insinuations are a deep mystery to me.”

“Think again,” advised Murray. “I know the story pretty well myself.”

“I shall be glad to have you tell it, sir,” said Mays. “Your earnestness leads me to think it must be interesting.”

“If I tell it,” said Murray, “it removes your last chance of escaping any of the consequences.”

“Go ahead,” said Mays.

At least, he had magnificent nerve.

“Schlimmer,” said Murray, fixing his eyes sharply on Mays, “was once mixed up in a little trouble over rebates, which are unlawful. He tried to get me to give him a rebate on a policy, but I refused, and he seems to have got the idea that I was directly responsible for the failure of his scheme elsewhere. He learned, however, that the informer gets half of the fine assessed against the company in each case, but that only another policy-holder is empowered to make the necessary complaint. It occurred to Schlimmer that, if he could find enough rebate cases, there would be a good bit of money in it on the division of the fines. Being a man of low cunning, it occurred to Schlimmer that these cases might be manufactured, if he could get hold of a complaisant insurance solicitor, for the company is held responsible for the act of the agent, and the easiest way to get hold of a complaisant solicitor was to make one. So he went to a young man who was absorbed in the study of tricky finance and who couldn’t see why he couldn’t do that sort of thing himself, and the young man got a job in this office. The young man, Max Mays by name, immediately began preparing rebate cases for future use. He worked among a class of people who knew little of insurance or insurance laws and who are in the habit of figuring very closely, and this rebate proposition looked pretty good to them.