CHAPTER II
IN WHICH STRANGERS BECOME OLD FRIENDS
Into the box where Miss Constance Joy--slender and dark andtall--entertained her bevy of admirers, there swished aviolently-gowned young woman of buxom build and hearty manner, attendedby a young man who wore a hundred-dollar suit and smiled feeblywhenever he caught an eye. In his right hand he carried Miss PollyParsons' gloves and parasol; in his left, her race-card and hand-bag.Round his shoulders swung her field-glasses; from his right pocketprotruded her fan and from his left her auto veil. She carried her ownvanity box.
"If you aren't the darlingest thing in the world!" she greeted MissJoy, whose face had lighted with a smile of both amusement andpleasure. "You certainly are some Con! Every time I see you in a newgown I change my dressmaker. Hello, boys!" She shook hands cordiallywith all of them as soon as she had paid her brief respects to Mrs.Pattie Boyden, who was pleasant and indulgent enough in her greeting,though not needlessly so.
"You're looking as happy as ever, Polly," observed Constance.
"I'm as happy as a mosquito in a baby's crib," avowed Polly. "I'veadded three thousand to-day to the subscription list for our Ocean ViewBaby Hotel. Where's that list, Sammy?"
Sammy Chirp passed a few things from his right to his left hand andsearched a few pockets; passed a few things from his left to his righthand, dropped the lady's handkerchief and picked it up, smiled feeblyupon everybody, and then at last produced the subscription list, whichMiss Joy read most interestedly.
"That's splendid, Polly!" she approved. "Another day's work as good asthis, and we'll be able to buy our hotel."
Paul Gresham, standing stiffly between her and Polly, looked down ather and smiled correctly.
"I guess we'd better go, don't you think?" he remarked to the otheryoung men.
"You're safe enough," retorted Polly. "You're safe any place with yourcheck-book. Besides, we don't want to double names on this list. We'llspring another one when we're ready to equip and run the place. Oh,there's Johnny Gamble! Hello, Johnny!" And she leaned far over the railto call to him.
It was strange how quickly Johnny Gamble was able to distinguish asound coming from that direction, and he looked up immediately. "Comeright up here, Johnny," she commanded him. "I have a great surprise instore for you."
"Go any place you say if it's not too hot there," he cheerfully assuredher, and started off towards the staircase.
"When I get Johnny Gamble's name this list is closed," said Pollyconfidently.
"I'll bet with you on that," offered Bruce Townley. "Johnny probablyhasn't enough money to buy a tin rattle for your babies' hotel."
"No!" she protested, shocked. "I'm so used to seeing him with moneythat I don't think I'd know him if he had it shaved off."
"He was too honest, as usual," supplemented Val Russel, loungingcarelessly against the rail. "Here comes Ashley Loring. He can tell youall about it. Johnny Gamble hasn't a cent left, has he, Loring?"
"It would be most unprofessional to discuss Mr. Gamble's privateaffairs," said Loring reprovingly as he came into the box. "Aside froma mere detail like that, I don't mind saying that Johnny Gamble hasjust bet the last hundred dollars he has in the world on an absolutelycriminal long shot."
"I hope he wins!" stated Polly heartily. "I think he's the only realgentleman I ever knew."
"Well, I like that!" protested Val Russel, laughing.
"I don't mean a slam at you boys," she hastily corrected. "You're anice clean bunch; but I know so much about Johnny. He helps people,then hides so he can't be thanked. He's the one man out of a thousandthat both women and men can absolutely trust."
"That's rather a broad statement," objected Paul Gresham, who had eyedPolly with fastidious distaste every time she spoke. He was a rathersilent young man with a thin high-arched nose and eyebrows that met,and was so flawlessly dressed that he sat stiffly.
"I'll make it two in a thousand, Mr. Gresham," said Polly pleasantly."I hadn't noticed you; and whatever I am I try to be polite."
The four other young men, who were used to Polly's sweepinggeneralities, laughed; for Polly had their hearty approval.
Johnny Gamble arrived.
"Where's the surprise?" he demanded with a furtive glance in thedirection of Miss Joy, a glance which Gresham jealously resented.
"Me!" Polly gaily told him, thrusting her subscription list into thepocket of Sammy Chirp. "You haven't seen me since I got back."
"You're no surprise--you're a gasp!" he informed her, heartily glad tosee her. "That sunset bonnet is a maraschino."
"Pinkest one they had," she complacently assured him. "I want you tomeet some friends of mine, Johnny." And, with vast pride in heracquaintanceship with all parties concerned, she introduced him toConstance and Aunt Pattie.
Johnny Gamble and Constance Joy, for just a moment, looked upon eachother with the frank liking which sometimes makes strangers oldfriends. Gresham saw that instant liking and stiffened. Johnny Gamble,born in a two-room cottage and with sordid experiences behind him ofwhich he did not like to think in this company, dropped his eyes;whereupon Miss Constance Joy, who had been cradled under silkencoverlets, studied him serenely. She had little enough opportunity toinspect odd types at close range--and this was a very interestingspecimen. His eyes were the most remarkable blue she had ever seen.
"Cousin Polly has been telling us most pleasant things about you," sheobserved.
"Your cousin Polly?" he inquired, perplexed.
"Yes; we're cousins now," announced Polly happily. "It's the first timeI ever had any relations, and I'm tickled stiff!"
"So am I!" agreed Johnny heartily, figuring vaguely that somebody orother must have married.
"You are just in the nick of time, Gamble," Gresham quietly stated witha deliberate intention of humiliating this child of no one. "Miss Pollyhas a subscription list which she wants you to complete."
"He's too late," replied Polly with a flash of her eyes in Gresham'sdirection. "Mr. Loring just closed up that list," and she winkedvigorously at Loring.
"Loring's my friend," Gamble said with a cheerful laugh. "I havecheck-writer's cramp. Who's to get the loving cup?"
"The loving cup's a bottle," Polly returned. "This is a baby's benefit.It's Constance's pet scheme and I'm crazy about it. We've found a big,hundred-room summer hotel, with two hundred acres of ground, on a highbluff overlooking the ocean; and we're going to turn it into a freehotel for sickly babies and their mothers. Isn't that some scheme?"
"I'm so strong for it I ache!" announced Mr. Gamble with fervor. "Putme down for--" He checked himself ruefully. "I forgot I was broke!"Gresham shrugged his shoulders in satisfaction.
"You'll take something for that," Polly confidently comforted herfriend Gamble. "There's G. W. Mason & Company, Johnny. Take me over tohim and watch me fool him when he says he has no check-book with him. Ihave check blanks on every bank in town. Bring along my hand-bag and mysubscription list, Sammy."
When they had gone, with the feebly pleased Sammy dutifully bringing upthe rear, Gresham looked after them with relief.
"Handicap day brings out some queer people," he observed.
"If you mean Mr. Gamble I think him delightful," Constance quicklyadvised him. "I'm inclined to agree with Polly that he is very much agentleman."
"He would be quite likely to appeal to Polly," remarked Aunt Pattie asshe arose for a visit to a near-by box.
"You mean Cousin Polly," corrected Constance sweetly.
Gresham was very thoughtful. He was more logically calculating thanmost people thought him.
It was Polly's cousinship which puzzled Johnny Gamble. "When you pickeda cousin you made some choice," he complimented her. "How did you doit?"
"They made me," she explained. "You know that Billy Parsons was theonly man I ever wanted to marry--or ever will, I guess. His folks metme once and wouldn't stand for me at all; then Billy took sick and wentout of his head. He cried for me so that the doctor said he had to haveme; so I canceled
the best engagement I ever had. I wasn't a star, butI was featured and was making an awful hit. I went right to the house,though, and stayed two months--till Billy died. Then I went back towork; but I hated it. Well, along toward the last they'd got sofriendly that I was awful lonesome. It wasn't long till they gotlonesome too. They're old, you know; and Billy was all they had. Sothey came after me and I went with them; and they adopted me and we alllove each other to death. Constance's my cousin now--and she stands itwithout batting an eyelash. She's about the cream of the earth, Johnny!"
He drew in his breath sharply.
"You're a lucky kid!" he told her.
There was something in the intensity of his tone which made her look upat him, startled.
"Now don't you fall in love with her, Johnny!" she begged.
"Why not?" he demanded. "I never tried it; but I bet I can do it."
"That's the trouble," she expostulated; "it's too easy. You can fall inall right, but how will you get out?"
"I don't want out," he assured her. "I play marbles for keeps."
"All right then; take to pickles and perfume. Look here, Johnny; ifnone of her own set can ring her with an orange wreath what can anoutsider do?"
"How do I know till I try?" he inquired. "I get you, Polly. You meanI'm not in her class; but, you see, I want her!"
"So do the others," she objected.
"They're not used to hard work," he earnestly informed her. "Say, Ineed a million dollars."
"Take enough while you're at it! What do you want it for?"
"Her stack's that high."
"She'd never count it."
"I know; but Aunt Pattie and I would. I have to have it, Polly."
"Then you'll get it," she resignedly admitted. "Why, Johnny, I believeyou could get Constance, too!" she added with suddenly acceleratedbelief in him. "Well, I'm certainly for you. Tell me, what can I do tohelp you?"
"Poison Gresham for me."
"Give me your fifteen cents," she directed. "He's about as popular withher as a flea with a dog; but he goes with the furniture. He was wishedon her by her Aunt Gertrude."
"Why did her aunt hate her?"
"She hated everybody; so she went in for charity. She made six wills,each time leaving all her money to a different public institution; butthey each one did something she didn't like before she could die. Thelast time she decided to give Constance a chance, made a new will andtook sick the same night. Constance has the interest on her milliontill she marries Gresham; then she gets it all. If she marries anybodyelse before Gresham dies the money goes to a home for blind cats, orsomething like that."
"Healthy soul, wasn't she?" commiserated Johnny. "But why Gresham?"
"The bug for family. Aunt Gertrude's father didn't make histobacco-trust money fast enough for her to marry Gresham's father, whowould have been a lord if everybody in England had died. Constance isto bring aristocracy into the family now."
"Tell her to tear up that million. I'll get her another one," offeredJohnny easily.
"You'll need some repairs before you start," she suggested. "They tellme you're down and out."
"Tell them to guess again!" he indignantly retorted. "I own all theto-morrows in the world. There's money in every one of them."
"I've got an awful big bank-account that needs exercise," she offered."Now, look here, Johnny, don't yell like I'd hit you with a brick. Youtold me to help myself once when I needed it, and I did. You ought tolet me get even. All right, then; be stingy! Where's Sammy?" She hadbeen feeling in both sleeves with a trace of annoyance, and now sheturned to discover Sammy a few paces back, idly watching a policemanputting an inebriated man off the track. "Sammy!" she called himsharply. He came, running and frightened. "I've lost my handkerchief,"she informed him. "Go get it." Sammy smiled gratefully and was gone.
"Where did you find it?" asked Johnny, indicating the departingmessenger. "Follow you home one cold night, or did a friend give it toyou?"
"Oh, no," she said carelessly; "it just sticks around. I can't get ridof it, so I've trained it to be handy when I need it."
She fastened upon Colonel Mason just as the horses came to the post,and she was supplying him with a check blank just as they got away fromthe barrier. Gamble turned to the track and distinguished his long shotoff in the lead. He smiled grimly at that irony, for he had seenlong-shot horses raise false hopes before. Mildly interested, hewatched Angora reach the quarter pole, still in the lead. Ratherincredulously, he saw her still in the lead at the half. He was eagerabout it when she rounded the three-quarters with nothing but daylightbefore her; and as she came down the stretch, with Nautchautaukreaching out for her flanks, he stuck the ash-end of his cigar in hismouth and did not see the finish. He knew, by the colossal groan fromthe grandstand, however, that Angora had beaten the favorite; and,though he was not in the least excited, he felt through all his pocketsfor his tickets, forgetting that he had taken them out at the beginningof the race and still held them in his hand; also, he forgot completelythat he was supposed to be escorting Polly, and immediately sauntereddown to the betting shed--to collect the largest five thousand and onehundred dollars in captivity.
Five Thousand an Hour: How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress Page 2