Dragon Harvest

by Upton Sinclair

  But when Lanny came along, that was different. Lanny was an Anglo-Saxon, tall and handsome, but he was not like the others. He had been willing for his half-sister to marry a Jewish violinist, and had risked his life in his effort to save Freddi from Dachau. Lanny would come, laughing and full of fun; he would kiss Mama on both cheeks and tell her she was looking younger every day; he would play the piano for them—and none of that horrid jazz; he would tell them about the places he had visited and the people he had met—but never a word about the anti-Semitism which was being spread like a plague in New York and Detroit and the other great cities of this new world.

  In the household lived Rahel, Freddi’s widow, and their little son Johannes, who was about the same age as Lanny’s daughter in England; also Rahel’s second husband and their two babies. The adults of this family had learned humility in a school of suffering, and Lanny preferred them to the people who had learned arrogance in a school of success. Freddi’s son was just at the age that Freddi had been when he had written his first scrawly letter to the fashionable grandson of Budd Gunmakers, whom his father had met by accident en a railway train in Italy. He had enclosed a little snapshot, and Lanny still had that at Bienvenu, and it was astonishing how close was the resemblance of father and child. Lanny would tell about the father, and do what he could to see that Freddi’s spirit of gentleness combined with courage might live on in a world which so greatly needed both.

  II

  A telephone call had come for Robbie Budd in Newcastle; the yacht Oriole had arrived at Key West, and was bound north; would it be agreeable if Mr. Holdenhurst were to call at Newcastle and make the acquaintance of Mr. Budd? Mr. Budd replied that it would be most agreeable, and added that Lanny was in the neighborhood and was looking forward with pleasure to the promised visit. So Lanny had to bid farewell to the Hansibesses, and drive eastward along the shore of Long Island Sound to meet that fate which had been revealed to him in the crystal ball.

  Budd-Erling had its own wharf in the Newcastle River, made by dredging the mud of the river and depositing it behind a double row of pilings. There was depth enough for ocean-going steamers; and when the trim white yacht was carefully warped alongside, Lanny was standing there exchanging greetings with the family and guests lined up along the rail. It was a bright sunshiny day and Lanny was dressed in a gay sport suit which his tactful stepmother had laid out on his bed. Even when he is almost forty, a man needs to have things like that done for him.

  Be sure that the conscientious but worldly wise Esther Remson Budd hadn’t failed to find out about the persons who might be coming on that yacht. How old were they, and would it be bridge or dancing? And this Lizbeth Holdenhurst—what did she look like and how did she behave and what did she talk about? All perfectly natural and proper questions, of course, for Esther had to entertain her and must know whom she would like to meet. Esther wouldn’t say: “Are you seriously interested in her?” Never in the world! She would ask, quite innocently: “What did Beauty think of her?” and: “What did you do to entertain her?”

  It was a safe guess that one of the ladies on board had advised Lizbeth what to wear. When you are really a yachtswoman, there is nothing more honorific than a yachting costume, white with blue stripes on the collar and cuffs; it can be charming, if made of the best French flannel and cut exactly right, and if you have a skilled laundryman on board, who can turn it out as it ought to be, white as new-fallen snow, delicate and soft, yet without a crease or wrinkle. If you are going to have a yacht, that, too, must be right—freshly painted and varnished every year, and everything scrubbed and polished every day; those on board must likewise be scrubbed and polished, so that the turnout will be all of a piece.

  Lizbeth had the right sort of things to put inside that costume: youth, health, and good nature, lovely regular features, a bright smile, cheeks that required no cosmetics, and crowning it all, soft brown hair lightly disturbed by spring breezes over the bay. Lanny had a pair of glasses through which he watched this vision slowly approaching, and he could see that traveling from one tropical port to another, going ashore and buying souvenirs, and in between times playing bridge under a deck awning had agreed with her perfectly. The same held good for her father and the half-dozen guests who were now lined up at the rail.

  When the yacht had been warped close enough so that conversation could be carried on without raising voices beyond the limits of propriety, this news was verified; and when the gangplank was let down everybody made everybody else feel welcome, and it was treated as a most distinguishing thing to have been transported all the way around the world in a hundred and eighty days with hardly any incident worth mentioning. There were three cars waiting, with Lanny driving one. The visitors were whisked down the plant’s main drive, and along a highway lined with filling stations and hotdog stands, and thence to the fashionable residential section of Newcastle on the heights.

  There was a tree-shaded entrance, and a mansion with a wide porte-cochère, and everything as clean and shiny as a yacht. Experienced people like the Holdenhursts and their guests would need only a few glances to be sure that everything inside and out of this home was right; the servants well trained, the ladies of the household gracious and refined; Esther, gray-haired and dignified, her two daughters-in-law, leaders of the young matrons’ set of Newcastle, exactly correct from the topmost wave of their hair to the tips of their open-toed show. Once more it was pleasant to have money, and to have had it for so long that the proper handling of it had become second nature.

  A luncheon party had been prepared and distinguished guests invited. Robbie came, and his other two sons, so that a prospective investor could see in what sort of hands the future of Budd-Erling Corporation was to be entrusted. Vigorous and robust young businessmen, these two half-brothers of Lanny had been watched over since boyhood, and taught exactly what they needed to do; now in their early thirties each had a proper wife and several children, according to the Budd tradition; each was a department manager, and reported at the office at eight-thirty and stayed until five, except on special occasions like this. Both were proud of their wonderful new plant, and neither had any ideas or interests outside its proper conduct, and the payment of dividends to stockholders many of whom were fellow-townsmen and country-club members.

  III

  From that time on there was one continuous round of entertainments for the Oriole party. They were taken to drive and see the town, the river, and the harbor; then back to the yacht to dress, and there was a dinner at the country club, with dancing to the music of a boogie-woogie band. Next day they all went to see the wonders of airplane fabricating according to the latest methods, some of them of Budd-Erling creation. Then to lunch at the home of Esther’s brother, who had succeeded his father as president of the First National Bank of Newcastle. They played contract, and in the evening went to dinner at the home of one of Robbie’s uncles, where they met all the elder and duller Budds and were properly and respectably bored by looking at a model of an old-time China Clipper under glass, and trophies of the Far East which they had just visited and been bored by. On the following day selected Newcastlers came to the yacht and had a buffet luncheon, and afterwards played more contract. Later on the visitors were taken for a drive to see the Berkshires—which were no great shakes after you had seen the mountains of Hawaii and New Guinea and Japan and Sicily and North Africa.

  During all these affairs it became Lanny’s duty to entertain Lizbeth Holdenhurst; his social duty because he had introduced them, and his business duty because here was an important client, or whatever you chose to call him, and Lanny’s father could use the money. Whenever there was a drive, everybody took it for granted that Lizbeth should ride in the seat at Lanny’s side; at bridge she became his partner, and when there was dancing, he could not entirely neglect her, no matter how many eager swains might be on hand. They made a perfect couple, everybody agreed, and smart society in Newcastle and its environs became a conspiracy to put them togethe
r and keep them so.

  The eldest son of Budd-Erling was friendly and interested, because that was his nature. He asked Lizbeth about the journey from Cannes to Newcastle by way of Dakar and Rio, the ports they had made and the sights they had seen. He told her the news from Bienvenu, which wasn’t much. He told her about people he had met in Paris and London and Berlin; he discovered that she was interested in everything about the great world, but the names meant little to her without explanation; she knew titles but she didn’t know personalities, and political movements and ideas went entirely over her head. She would have been greatly interested in the story of his meetings with her cousin Laurel, but caution forbade him to mention her; not even the visits to the museums, not even the short stories he had read! The less the smart world had to chatter about on that subject, the safer it would be for a presidential agent!

  He was the most rigidly proper of eligible bachelors, more like an elder brother than a suitor. He told his guest about Newcastle and the people she was meeting; about Budd Gunmakers and how the family had lost it in the panic; about Budd-Erling and how his father had started it. Zaharoff and his million-dollar stock subscription made a good story, as did Zaharoff’s treasure hunt, and his various spirit communications. Lizbeth had heard ghost stories as a child, but had been taught that only Negro servants believed such things; she had never heard of psychic research, and showed much more interest in this question than in the possible imminence of another European war.

  Lahny Budd was a man of the world, and through all this he knew what he was doing and what was being done to him; he didn’t miss the smiles and significant looks of his family and friends. All mankind loves a lover, and all womankind enjoys helping to make a match. Nor did Lanny fail to note that this girl liked to be with him and was willing to listen to him talk as long as he would condescend; she was a ripe peach hanging on the bough, and he could guess that at the lightest touch she would drop into his hand. He looked at her and appreciated her loveliness, and was not unaware of the warm currents which ran over him at the thought of her. But he had made up his mind that his job came first and the rest nowhere, and when they had finished a dance he turned her over to the next applicant instead of proposing a stroll onto the veranda.

  IV

  Robbie Budd took Mr. Holdenhurst into his study for a conference on business affairs; he invited his three sons, being always careful not to show favoritism among them. He gave the guest an outline of the financial set-up of Budd-Erling, and the names of his principal stockholders, including the de Bruyne family, the Countess Wickthorpe née Irma Barnes, and the estate of Sir Basil Zaharoff. He told what business the company had done and what its backlog amounted to, and exactly what use it could make of new funds. The owner of the Oriole asked questions, and if anyone had taken him for an idler and dilettante, that person would have changed his mind, for his questions went to the heart of the matter and showed that he understood how business was conducted and profits earned. Robbie called upon his oldest son to discuss the subject of Europe and what was likely to happen there, and Lanny could say with entire sincerity that there appeared to be every likelihood of an increasing demand for military planes.

  Next morning Robbie took his guest to the plant office, and established him at the long table of the conference room, instructing his secretary that Mr. Holdenhurst was to have put before him all the company’s financial statements, production records, stockholders’ lists, and everything else he might call for. No secrets were to be kept from him, and he was to stay as long as he pleased. By the day’s end the prospective investor was satisfied, and in the evening in Robbie’s study he announced his decision. Lanny was present, and learned something new about how men of wealth take care of their possessions in a treacherous and uncertain world.

  Reverdy Johnson Holdenhurst was prepared to sign up to purchase two million dollars’ worth of Budd-Erling preferred stock, with which would go a bonus of an equal amount of common. He would pay for it over a period of four years in semi-annual installments. The purchase would be made in the name of forty-two different persons, including his wife, his two sons and one daughter, and an assortment of nieces, nephews, cousins and pensioners of himself and wife. The agreement would have to be signed by all these persons, and separate blocks of stock of varying sizes would be made out in their names and so registered.

  That was as far as the purchaser needed to go into the matter; but he had been impressed by Robbie’s frankness and explained the basis of this strange procedure, which was his objection to the income tax, and especially to the system of surtaxes in the higher brackets. This objection was a matter of principle, since the purpose of these taxes was to destroy the private fortunes upon which the progress and prosperity of America had been based. The president of Budd-Erling had exactly the same idea, so they talked out their hearts on the subject. Reverdy explained that the stock dividends would be paid to the various family members, each of whom would keep the money in a separate bank account; each was under an agreement of honor with the head of the family that he or she did not touch this money except to invest it when and as directed. If Reverdy had received all this income himself, he would have had to pay a surtax as high as eighty-two per cent, which was practically confiscation; but by this method of distribution in advance of death the surtaxes were in some cases avoided entirely and in all cases were kept to the lower brackets; moreover, in the event of Holdenhurst’s dying, there would be no inheritance taxes to pay, and not even executor’s fees.

  Lanny wanted to say: “You are offering a high premium for somebody to poison you”; but he was afraid this effort at humor might not be appreciated. He listened while the head of the Holdenhurst family declared that so far not a single person had broken the agreement. The set-up had been arranged by a family lawyer, who handled all the details; whenever Reverdy made an investment, the whole family moved as one phalanx to the same goal. All that each had to do was to sign a check and mail it back to the lawyer. They owned stocks and bonds but did not have the physical possession of them; they had money in the bank but never touched it.

  Robbie thought this a most ingenious scheme and wished he might do something like it; but all his money was “active” in his business. The other replied that some of his money was active, also—especially the yacht, which went around the world once every year. Reverdy smiled as he said this, and explained that several years ago he had had as guest a well-known authority on the valuation of jewels. Reverdy had become interested and had taken the opportunity to make a study of the subject. In the Sulu seas they had bought pearls, and from Capetown they had gone up to the diamond fields. Thus quite by accident there had been suggested to Reverdy not only a form of recreation, but a method of operating a private yacht in spite of income taxes-something which few of his acquaintances could any longer afford.

  The skipper grinned as he reported that he had changed the registration of the Oriole; it had ceased to be a pleasure yacht and become a trading vessel. He, his wife, his two sons and one daughter owned it in partnership, and each year the father played at getting the better of diamond and pearl dealers who thought they knew it all. They were frequently in need of cash, whereas Reverdy needed nothing; so he came back from the voyage with an assortment of valuable stones locked in the safe in his cabin. There was a lot there now, and dealers would come to Baltimore and buy them, and Reverdy would make a profit. Of course it wasn’t enough to cover the cost of the yachting trip—that wasn’t the idea. The extremely bright idea was that the costs of maintaining and operating the yacht became a business loss each year, and thus served to reduce the incomes of father and mother, daughter and sons, and put them into lower surtax brackets!

  V

  “Absolutely stunning!” was Robbie Budd’s comment, and he asked for the name of the lawyer who had designed the set-up. Robbie was so grateful for these confidences that he took his new friend in on a secret of his own, revealing that a couple of his bright young men had just des
igned a new supercharger for fighter planes, a single-gear device that operated upon an entirely new principle, and was about twenty per cent lighter than any gadget of the sort that Robbie had previously seen. He went into detail on the subject—there were gear superchargers, which were run by the power of the engine, and there were turbo-superchargers run by the power of the exhaust gases; the former were simple and light, but the trouble was, each model worked well at a certain altitude but was not so good at other altitudes. It was obvious that a fighter plane might plunge from six miles high to four miles, and still need supercharging—that is, the compressing of the rarefied air fed to its engines.

  Robbie had found the solution to this problem, he declared. He was organizing what he called the “Ascott Corporation” and expected to be in production in a few months. It would be a sure thing, because the entire product would be taken by Budd-Erling, at least for the present; it would be a closed corporation into which Robbie was inviting a few members of his family and his closest friends. He would let Mr. Holdenhurst have a moderate amount of the stock, say fifty thousand dollars—of course after he had investigated the matter thoroughly. Reverdy replied that he knew Mr. Budd pretty well by now, and understood this method of getting a good thing and keeping hold of it. Robbie could put him down for five hundred shares at a hundred dollars par value and there wouldn’t be any need to bother with the family phalanx—Reverdy would take this stock for himself, and if it earned too much money he might find a way to increase the business losses of the Oriole.