True Grit - Charles Portis [9]
“We will see if a widow and her three small children can get fair treatment in the courts of this city.”
“You have no case.”
“Lawyer J. Noble Daggett of Dardanelle, Arkansas, may think otherwise. Also a jury.”
“Where is your mother?”
“She is at home in Yell County looking after my sister Victoria and my brother Little Frank.”
“You must fetch her then. I do not like to deal with children.”
“You will not like it any better when Lawyer Daggett gets hold of you. He is a grown man.”
“You are impudent.”
“I do not wish to be, sir, but I will not be pushed about when I am in the right.”
“I will take it up with my attorney.”
“And I will take it up with mine. I will send him a message by telegraph and he will be here on the evening train. He will make money and I will make money and your lawyer will make money and you, Mr. Licensed Auctioneer, will foot the bill.”
“I cannot make an agreement with a child. You are not accountable. You cannot be bound to a contract.”
“Lawyer Daggett will back up any decision I make. You may rest easy on that score. You can confirm any agreement by telegraph.”
“This is a damned nuisance!” he exclaimed. “How am I to get my work done? I have a sale tomorrow.”
“There can be no settlement after I leave this office,” said I. “It will go to law.”
He worried with his eyeglasses for a minute and then said, “I will pay two hundred dollars to your father’s estate when I have in my hand a letter from your lawyer absolving me of all liability from the beginning of the world to date. It must be signed by your lawyer and your mother and it must be notarized. The offer is more than liberal and I only make it to avoid the possibility of troublesome litigation. I should never have come here. They told me this town was to be the Pittsburgh of the Southwest.”
I said, “I will take two hundred dollars for Judy, plus one hundred dollars for the ponies and twenty-five dollars for the gray horse that Tom Chaney left. He is easily worth forty dollars. That is three hundred and twenty-five dollars total.”
“The ponies have no part in this,” said he. “I will not buy them.”
“Then I will keep the ponies and the price for Judy will be three hundred and twenty-five dollars.”
Stonehill snorted. “I would not pay three hundred and twenty-five dollars for winged Pegasus, and that splayfooted gray does not even belong to you.”
I said, “Yes, he does. Papa only let Tom Chaney have the use of him.”
“My patience is wearing thin. You are an unnatural child. I will pay two hundred and twenty-five dollars and keep the gray horse. I don’t want the ponies.”
“I cannot settle for that.”
“This is my last offer. Two hundred and fifty dollars. For that I get a release and I keep your father’s saddle. I am also writing off a feed and stabling charge. The gray horse is not yours to sell.”
“The saddle is not for sale. I will keep it. Lawyer Daggett can prove the ownership of the gray horse. He will come after you with a writ of replevin.”
“All right, now listen very carefully as I will not bargain further. I will take the ponies back and keep the gray horse and settle for three hundred dollars. Now you must take that or leave it and I do not much care which it is.”
I said, “I am sure Lawyer Daggett would not wish me to consider anything under three hundred and twenty-five dollars. What you get for that is everything except the saddle and you get out of a costly lawsuit as well. It will go harder if Lawyer Daggett makes the terms as he will include a generous fee for himself.”
“Lawyer Daggett! Lawyer Daggett! Who is this famous pleader of whose name I was happily ignorant ten minutes ago?”
I said, “Have you ever heard of the Great Arkansas River, Vicksburg & Gulf Steamship Company?”
“I have done business with the G.A.V.&G.,” said he.
“Lawyer Daggett is the man who forced them into receivership,” said I. “They tried to ‘mess’ with him. It was a feather in his cap. He is on familiar terms with important men in Little Rock. The talk is he will be governor one day.”
“Then he is a man of little ambition,” said Stonehill,