was to control the market and get more money?”
“Yes, well, we actually did six dollars per head, but we paid our broker two dollars per head, and our board voted to keep two dollars per head back for capital improvement.”
“The board voted? When did the board vote? I don’t remember any board meeting.”
“As I represent eighty-seven percent of the vote, we didn’t really need a board meeting,” Quentin explained. “I also bought Herefords.”
“How many head of Herefords did you buy?”
“I bought a thousand head at twenty-five dollars per head. In addition, I updated the feeder pens and the barn, and I put in a series of sluices and canals to give us a more dependable water supply,” Quentin said.
“What do you mean, give us a more dependable water supply? Hell, the creek coming through my ranch has all dried up.”
“It isn’t your ranch anymore, remember? You used your ranch to buy into the corporation.”
“Yeah? Well, I want my ranch back. I want out of this corporation.”
“All right. As soon as you pay your share of the debt we have accrued, I’ll sign your ranch back over to you.”
“My share of the debt?” Peters asked, his voice strained. “What is my share of the debt?”
“Mr. Gilmore?” Quentin said. “Would you like to answer Mr. Peters’ question?”
Gilmore consulted his ledger for a moment, did some figuring, then cleared his throat.
“The gross income from the sale of thirty-five hundred longhorns came to twenty thousand, nine hundred and sixteen dollars.”
“All right,” Peters said with a broad smile.
“The cost of shipping came to three thousand, four hundred and eighty-six dollars. The holding pen cost was one thousand, forty dollars and eighty cents. The broker fee was six thousand, nine hundred and seventy-two dollars. Likewise, capital improvement for Tumbling Q Ranch incorporated was also six thousand, nine hundred and seventy-two dollars. That leaves a net profit of one thousand, five hundred twenty-nine dollars and twenty cents. At six percent, your share of that comes to ninety-one dollars and seventy-five cents.”
The smile left Peters’s face and he staggered back a few feet, then sat down, hard, in a chair.
“You mean, all I made from this deal we did was ninety-one dollars?”
“Actually, you have a net loss. Your share of the money we borrowed to buy the Herefords comes to fifteen hundred dollars. Minus the ninety-one dollars and seventy-five cents, that leaves you with an obligation of one thousand, four hundred and eight dollars and twenty-five cents.”
“What?”
“I’m glad you came over, Mr. Peters,” Quentin said. “How soon can I expect that money?”
“I—I don’t have fourteen hundred dollars,” Peters said.
Quentin stared at him for a long, hard moment.
“Well, now,” he said. “That does present you with a problem, doesn’t it? I mean, we all agreed, when we entered into this arrangement, to share in the profit, and to be responsible for the debt, in accordance with our ownership percentage.”
“But there is no profit.”
“Not yet. We are in the process of building now,” Quentin said.
“All right, it looks as if I have no choice but to remain in the corporation,” Peters said.
“Good, good, I was hoping you would decide that. How soon can I expect the money?”
“How soon? How soon does the loan have to be paid back?”
“It was a short-term loan,” Quentin said. “It’s due by the end of the week.”
“By the end of the week?” Peters gasped. “That’s impossible.”
“It was the only way we could get that much money that quickly,” Quentin said.
Peters shook his head. “I would have never agreed to anything like that.”
“Like I said, Mr. Peters, as eighty-seven-percent owner, I didn’t need your agreement. Now, when can I expect the money?”
“I don’t have that much money. Can’t you, personally, carry me for a little while?”
Quentin shook his head. “You do understand, don’t you, that I am obligated for eighty-seven percent of the debt? How much is that, Mr. Gilmore?”
“That is twenty-one thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars,” Gilmore said.
“I’m sure that you realize that twenty-one thousand dollars is an enormous amount of money. And I have to come up with it by tomorrow. I can’t carry you beyond tomorrow.”
“But what am I going to do?”
“You could sign over your interest in the ranch to me.”
“You mean, just give it to you?”
