I'm not interested for myself, but for a client. Now, I don't know what you have in mind, but I don't want you to tell me anything you wouldn't want repeated to my client. In other words, you and I are dealing at arm's length. If you tell me anything, I'm not going to keep the conversation confidential. If I can capitalize on what you tell me, I'm going to do it. A lawyer can't serve two masters.
'Now then, with that understanding, if you want to talk about those IOU's, go ahead. I'd advise you not to.'
Duncan 's gold teeth flashed into prominence. 'Well,' he said, waving his cigar in a little gesture, 'I can't say you didn't warn me.'
Mason sat silent.
'Listen,' Duncan went on, 'I've been a gambler all my life. I'm going to take a chance on you. I have a proposition I think will look good to you.'
Mason said slowly, 'I'm going to tell you once more, Duncan. I'm not in this business for my health. Whenever I do something it's because some client is paying me money to do it. That means I've already been employed by some client whose interests are adverse to yours. If you don't tell me anything, you won't have anything to regret later on.'
'Spoken like a gentleman,' Duncan said.
'No,' Mason corrected, 'spoken like a lawyer.'
'Okay,' Duncan said, 'you've told me-not only once, but twice. If I put my head in a noose it's my own funeral. Is that it?'
'That's it,' Mason said.
'All right, now suppose you listen to me for a while. I need a smart lawyer. I need you. You've been employed to get those IOU's. That's the limit of your interest in my affairs, at present. All right, I'll see that you get the IOU's. I'll give them to you. In return, I want you to do something for me.
'I want to get rid of Sam. He's hard to get along with. He thinks he's the whole show. I don't like it. Now then, is it true that when a partnership is organized for an unspecified term, either partner can dissolve the partnership at any time he wants to?'
Mason said, 'Supposing that's the law, then what?'
'I want to dissolve that partnership.'
'You don't need a smart lawyer to do that,' Mason pointed out.
'I need a smart lawyer to do it the way I want to do it.'
'Aren't you two doing a pretty good business out there?'
'A land-office business.'
'The minute you dissolve the partnership,' Mason said, 'you'll knock that business into a cocked hat.'
'No, we won't,' Duncan said. 'Let me tell you something, I'm pretty smart, myself. Grieb had some money and a fine opinion of himself. He wanted to open a gambling ship, but good hulls that can be made into gambling ships aren't so easy to find. I happened to know a man who had one. The man didn't know Grieb. He knew me. He gave us a lease, and in that lease there's a clause that any time the partnership of Grieb and Duncan is dissolved, the lease is automatically terminated.'
'So what?' Mason asked, his eyes staring steadily in level-lidded scrutiny.
'So,' Duncan said, 'I'm going to terminate the partnership. That'll terminate the lease. We'll wind up the partnership business. It isn't worth a damn without a place to carry on. The furniture and fixtures won't bring ten cents on the dollar at a forced sale. I'll see there's a forced sale, and I'll bid the stuff in through a dummy. Ten minutes after I have title to it, the owner of the ship will execute a new lease with me. That'll show Mr. Sam Grieb just how smart he is.
'He struts around that place ten inches taller than God, telling me what I can do and what I can't do, trying to give me orders, bossing me around, countermanding my instructions, bullying the employees, and being a general pain in the neck.
'Now then, you can go ahead and represent me in this thing. Part of the partnership assets are those IOU's. I'll get all the partnership assets. I'll turn the IOU's over to you as your fee. I don't care what you do with them afterwards. You can collect as big a bonus as you want. I didn't know the grandmother was interested in 'em, but if she is, you've got her on the one hand and Frank Oxman on the other. You can run the price up and sell out to the best bidder.'
'That's not my way of doing business,' Mason said.
'Well, you know your way of doing business,' Duncan told him, 'and I know mine. You know what I want. You know what you'll get. Now then, do we shoot or not?'
'We don't,' Mason said unhesitatingly.
'Why not?'
'Because I don't like the way you're going about it, Duncan. I don't want to represent you. I'm representing interests adverse to you. I'm fighting you.'
Duncan said affably, 'Better think it over, Mason. I'm giving you an out. It's the only out you have. You've tipped your hand on those IOU's. If you don't play ball with me I'll play it both ends against the middle, the grandmother on one side and Frank Oxman on the other, and Sylvia in between. The one who pays the most money gets the IOU's. Oxman'll want 'em for evidence, and the grandmother will want to keep 'em from coming into court. We don't care which side comes out on top. What we're after is money.'
Mason shook his head.
Duncan got to his feet. 'And to think I thought you were smart!' he said. 'That shows what a sucker I was… How do I get out of here?'
'Through that door into the corridor.'
Duncan strode across the office, jerked the door open and slammed it shut behind him.
Mason picked up the receiver on his desk telephone and said, 'Ring the law library. Tell Della to bring Mrs. Benson back in here, and get Paul Drake on the line for me right away.' He dropped the receiver back into place and stared moodily at the blotter on his desk. Just as the door from the law library opened, the telephone rang and Mason, again picking up the receiver, heard Paul Drake's voice say, 'Okay, Perry. What is it?'
' Duncan was just in my office,' Mason told him.
'You aren't telling me anything, Perry. I've had two men on him ever since he came ashore from the gambling ship.'
'I want to know just where he goes and just what he does,' Mason said. 'No matter what happens, don't lose sight of him. If necessary, put more men on the job.'
'Okay, Perry,' Drake replied. 'Don't worry. He'll never lose the two shadows who are tailing him now.'
'Just wanted to make sure,' Mason said, 'because he's going to be important. I'll tell you about it later.' He dropped the receiver into position, smiled up at Matilda Benson and said, 'Well, we're getting the breaks.'
'What are they?' she asked.
' Duncan,' Mason said, 'has been playing Sam Grieb for a sucker. Now he's ready to spring the trap. He's got Grieb's money in the business and is now going to throw the whole thing into a receivership so he can take advantage of a joker in the lease.'
Matilda Benson relaxed comfortably in the big overstuffed leather chair and said, 'I thought Duncan was just a yes-man.'
'Well, you're going to have one more think coming. He's smart.'
'Can he make it stick?' she asked.
'Yes,' Mason said slowly, 'I think he can. I think he's got Grieb. Grieb was trying to put Duncan on the spot in some way, but Duncan beat him to it by putting a joker in the lease, and now Duncan is ready to clamp down on Grieb. It's a case of two crooks, each trying to outsmart the other, with Duncan holding more trumps.'
'Why did Duncan tell you all this?'
'He wanted me to act as his lawyer.'
'Why you? What I mean is, he must know you're hostile to him and…'
'That was the bait he held out,' Mason said. 'He told me he'd let me have those IOU's as my fee.'
'Could he do that?'
'Probably.'
'Why didn't you do it?'
