Читать книгу Harvey Garrard's Crime - E. Phillips Oppenheim - Страница 10

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At five o'clock that afternoon a conference was held in Harvey Garrard's private office. There were present, Mr. Edgar Newton, representative of the firm in the Midlands, Mr. Marshall, who looked after Scotland and the north of England, Mr. Tewson and Mr. Brocklebank, the London travellers, and Mr. Grant, who had arrived late in the afternoon from Norwich. There were also the heads of the sole and upper leather departments and Mr. Greatorex. Harvey shook hands with those whom he had not already met, and gave evidence from the first of his latent gifts of administration by not once forgetting a name.

"Gentlemen," he began, leaning back in his chair and addressing them collectively, "I have a few words to say to you. Owing to the unfortunate death of Mr. Armitage, I remain the sole surviving partner in this firm. For reasons which I intend to understand better presently the business of late has not been prosperous. We are going to alter that. I want to start the right way about it. I can only do that with your help."

There was a little sympathetic murmur. Harvey nodded his acknowledgment and continued.

"Our average monthly sales for the last year have amounted only to about thirty thousand pounds on a decreasing basis. Five years ago the average was nearer a hundred thousand. Our bad debts have been heavier and our rate of profits less. I want to understand this. Let me take your district, Mr. Newton. Your sales are down fifty per cent the last twelve months. Tell me why."

"I am only too glad of the opportunity of telling you, sir," was the prompt reply. "At the prices on my list, I can no longer compete with any of the Liverpool importing houses or even the London ones. Our quotations are at least seven or eight per cent. higher than any other firm for exactly the same goods."

"Give me an example," Harvey invited.

"American sides for sole leather, sir. We have forty thousand in stock for which my price is tenpence. Precisely the same sides are being sold at nine and a half or nine and three-eighths by our competitors."

Harvey turned to the manager of the sole leather department.

"What have you to say about that?" he enquired.

"I should say that there is no doubt but that is a fact, sir," was the regretful acknowledgment. "Mr. Armitage bought very heavily some six months ago and since then the market has dropped."

"And our prices have remained the same?"

"It has been one of the principles of the House," Mr. Greatorex intervened, "never to invite offers or to alter prices."

"That principle will be changed and very quickly," Harvey declared. "Now, Mr. Grant, what about your district? Your sales I believe consist more of glacé upper leathers."

"Precisely what Mr. Newton here has said about sole leather applies to my department in upper leather," Grant explained. "The best houses are always glad to see a representative from Garrard & Garrard, and I could keep up my turnover and increase it largely if I could sell at the same price as other houses."

"Have you anything to say to this?" Harvey asked the manager of the upper leather department.

"The explanation is very simple, sir," was the almost eager response. "Mr. Armitage went to the States, bought at the very top of the market and, if I may say so, without sufficient advice as to selections, and, although the market has dropped, our prices have remained the same."

Harvey swung round in his chair towards Greatorex.

"Mr. Greatorex," he asked, "do you agree that this is the secret of our declining returns?"

"Without a doubt, sir," was the prompt assent. "It is also the cause of our bad debts. We have been inclined to take a little more than the ordinary risks so as to make sales."

Harvey paused for a moment and glanced through the pages of one of the trade journals for which he had sent.

"I should like your opinion, gentlemen," he said, "as to the prospects of trade throughout the country during the next few months."

"Trade in my district is good and improving," Mr. Newton declared. "That is what makes the inability to do business all the more disheartening."

Mr. Grant and Mr. Tewson agreed. There was a little murmur of universal assent. The manager of the sole leather department was eloquent as to the chances of higher prices in the autumn. Harvey asked a few more questions and listened attentively to everything that was said. When each had spoken his mind he leaned back in his chair.

"Let me tell you all," he said, "the conclusions to which I have come and the course I mean to adopt. Each of you gentlemen will hand in his stock list for revision at once. If it costs us on paper a hundred thousand pounds we will reduce our prices to meet the present market. At the same time I have been studying these journals and I have listened to what you gentlemen have to say, and whilst you start a selling campaign all over the country we, at this end, are going to start a buying campaign. I want you all to confer with the stock managers and let me know within the next twenty-four hours the particular goods you find easiest of disposal and the quantities you think you can sell. To-morrow we shall begin cabling offers. My idea is, by buying largely at a shade under to-day's prices, to minimise our loss."

There was a murmur of approbation, almost of excitement. Mr. Newton, who was the oldest representative of the firm, leaned forward in his chair.

"If you will excuse my saying so, Mr. Garrard," he declared, "this is an exact repetition of what your father did many years ago and started the great boom. To-day the conditions are even more favourable because the trade was never in so sound a condition. If this sort of spirit is coming into the business, sir, the firm is going to hold its own against anyone in the world."

"I hope it will," Harvey pronounced firmly. "I have taken no interest in business hitherto, but from now on it is my intention to devote the whole of my time to it. I shall be here whenever I am needed and I shall be as ready to receive advice as to give it. I want our turnover not only doubled but quadrupled, and by that means the loss we are preparing to face to-day will be easily wiped out. . . . Now, gentlemen, I suggest that you go away and get to the business of revising your stock lists. Remember that it has never been the policy of the firm to cut prices, but at the same time it is not necessary for you to allow anyone in the world to undersell you. The rest remains with you."

There was scarcely one of them as they left the office who did not cast a curious backward glance towards this newcomer who had so unexpectedly assumed the seat of authority. Neither his clothes—he had always been termed the Beau Brummel of the Riviera—his voice, which still retained faint traces of the Oxford intonation, nor his face itself—the clean-shaven, well- featured, sunburnt face of a man addicted to a healthy out-of-door life, suggested in any way the man of commerce. Yet there had been a little ring in his tone, a tightening of the lips, an occasional light in the clear grey eyes, which had been not only impressive but reminiscent of both his father and his grandfather. The new spirit in the House of Garrard was born during those few minutes. . . .

Greatorex lingered behind in obedience to a gesture from Harvey. He closed the door carefully.

"Well, Greatorex, do you approve?" his employer asked him.

"I do indeed, sir," was the heartfelt reply. "At the same time I must point out to you that so far as regards this campaign of buying our capital will feel the strain terribly."

"Naturally," Harvey assented, "but don't you see it's our only chance to make a big splash—to go for a rising market. Three-quarters of our purchases seem to have been made in the United States. What terms do we buy on?"

"We used to buy on sight drafts, sir, but unfortunately, since the exchange reacted so, nearly everything has been on ninety days."

"That's even better than I thought," Harvey remarked with satisfaction. "And so far as regards our sales—I presume we can draw bills of exchange upon our customers from the first of the month?"

"In the majority of cases, sir."

"Then we've got our chance. I have deposited securities with the Bank this morning which will enable them to meet our bills and which for the moment practically wipe out our overdraft. I have re-established confidence, and that's the great thing."

"It's an amazing thing, sir," was the enthusiastic reply. "I hoped you might have managed something, but I never imagined you'd have been able—I never dreamed of anything as good as that."

"I have strained a point, Greatorex," Harvey admitted. "What I want to say to you now is that I know as well as you do that we are taking a certain amount of risk. Tell me, how long have you been in the firm?"

"Forty-one years, sir."

Harvey's face softened.

"Wonderful!" he murmured. "Well, I want you to understand this clearly; we are going in for a great speculation, but, believe me, and I have thought it out carefully, it's our only chance of salvation. If things go against us—well, we shall go down gloriously and people will simply say that a young ignoramus came into a great business and wrecked it. Very well, let them. Remember this, Greatorex. If we don't play for big things we are just going to peter out. We can't face the loss on our stock unless at the same time we do something to recoup ourselves. It is better to make the effort than to drift into the stagnant waters of bankruptcy."

Greatorex took off his spectacles and wiped them.

"I believe that your father would have talked like this, sir, if he'd been alive and faced with the same difficulty," he declared.

"I believe he would," Harvey assented. "And remember this, Greatorex: so far as you are concerned, your pension is assured, even if we go to the most everlasting crash that was ever known. Your present salary, whatever it is, shall go on till the day of your death."

"It's very thoughtful of you to say that, sir," Greatorex acknowledged gratefully. "For myself I'd go down with the ship willingly, but I have a wife and an invalid daughter, and I couldn't bear the anxiety on their account. Your promise will be a comfort to me, sir."

Harvey rose to his feet with a little laugh, lit a cigarette and stretched himself. The fire of battle was in his eyes.

"I have played for high stakes in my time," he remarked, "and I have been called a good gambler. We shall see."