Seed on the Wind

“Hell, no. I swear I don’t see how you lawyers get along, you’re so remarkably obtuse. Patiently I’ll explain. The technique of this transaction is the immediate and open threat. That is obviously the whole technique of life, with variations; there’s the delayed threat, the indirect threat, the removed threat, the covert threat — categories a mile long. The capitalist says to the laborer, work here and give me a big share of what you make, or you starve. Now it’s manifestly indecent for one man to force another man to starve; then why isn’t the capitalist indecent? Because he doesn’t force the laborer to starve; he merely threatens to. Pushed, would he let him starve? Wouldn’t he, though; it’s been done on occasion. Pushed, would I in this instance carry out my threat? Sure, I’d have to, to preserve my integrity. But thank heaven, I won’t have to; like the capitalist, I save myself from indecency by devising a threat that works. You’ll pay, just as the laborer does.”

“I may. And I may not.” Lewis’s eyes were still on him, speculatively. “I can see one thing, Mr. Halliday, I’ve done you an injustice. I thought you were a common blackmailer and thief. Quite the contrary, I see, you’re a dreamer, a radical, a socialist, a philosopher bent on evening things up. That you should begin with yourself is doubtless merely a matter of convenience.”

“Is that irony,” Pete demanded, “or are you really as dumb as that? The socialist part, I mean. I see; irony; forgive me. The socialist, of course, imagines he can remove the threat from life. I entertain no such illusion, I merely perceive its omnipresence, and am acute enough not to be deceived by any of its disguises, even the most subtle and elaborate. — But I repeat, you’ll pay; that is our present business.”

“I may not,” Lewis repeated. “The further I see into your intelligence, the more I’m inclined to tell you to go to the devil. You are fully aware of the danger you’re running, but let me emphasize it a little. First, every word you uttered in my office Monday, and again this morning, was taken down by a stenographer. Oh, don’t doubt it, I’ll be glad to show you a transcript. I need not point out that Miss Winter is with us this evening. I accept your terms, let us say, I hand you money; and suddenly concealed witnesses appear and the money is taken from you and identified by marks; a simple and ordinary arrangement often used on blackmailers, invariably with success. All it requires is a little courage on the part of the victim. Do you think it entirely safe, in the present instance, to assume that the courage is lacking?”

Pete was laughing. He had thrown his head back to release the explosive roar which, Lora saw, was another phenomenon on which the years had left no mark. She could have shut her eyes and, hearing that laugh, have imagined herself back in that furnished room...

“First decency, then courage!” Pete exclaimed when his roar was finished. “A regular catalogue of virtue! And having been instructed in threats you think you’ll try one of your own. Bah, get a better one.”

“I don’t bluff much myself,” Lewis said quietly.