munitions makers could not pause for a single
day in their mad rush to fill their contracts. The only ray of hope that
Blount could see was that the price had broken to sixty dollars a unit.
Wiley's contract called for eighty-four, throughout the full year--but
suppose he should lose his mine. And suppose Blount should win it. He
could offer better terms, provided always that the buyer would
accommodate him now. Suppose, for instance, that the fat daily checks
should cease coming during the life of the lease. That could easily be
explained--it might be an error in book-keeping--but it would make quite
a difference to Wiley. And in return for some such favor Blount could
afford to sell the tungsten for, say, fifty-five dollars a unit.

Blount was a careful man. He did not trust his message to the wires, nor
did he put it on paper to convict him; he simply disappeared--but when
he came back Wiley's lawyer was waiting with a check. It was for twenty
thousand dollars, and in return for this payment the lawyer demanded all
of Blount's stock. Four hundred thousand shares, worth five dollars
apiece if the bond and lease should lapse, and called for under the
option at five cents! In those few short days, while Blount had been
speeding East, Wiley had piled up this profit and more--and now he was
demanding his stock!

"No!" said Blount, "that option is invalid because it was obtained by
deception and fraud, and therefore I refuse to recognize it."

"Very well," replied the lawyer, who made his living out of
controversies, and, summoning witnesses to his offer, he placed the
money in the hands of the court and plunged into furious litigation. It
was furious, in a way, and yet not so furious as the next day and the
next passed by; for the lawyer was a business man and dependent upon the
good will of Blount. It was a civil suit and, since Wiley could not
appear to state his case in Court, it was postponed by mutual consent.

It had come over Wiley that, as long as he stood guard, no accident
would happen at the mine; but he was equally convinced that, the moment
he left it, the unexpected would happen. So, since Blount had elected to
fight his suit, he let the fate of his option wait while he piled up
money for his _coup_. As an individual, Blount might resist the
sale of his stock; but as President of the Company he and his Board of
Directors had given Wiley a valid bond and lease and, acting under its
terms, Wiley still had