CHAPTER IX
IN WHICH JOHNNY MEETS A DEFENDER OF THE OLD ARISTOCRACY
Johnny, whose sources of information were many and varied, called on acertain Miss Purry the very next morning, taking along Val Russel tointroduce him.
"Any friend of Mr. Russel's is welcome, I am sure," declared MissPurry, passing a clammy wedge of a hand to Johnny, who felt the chillin his palm creeping down his spine. "Of the Maryland Gambles?"
"No, White Roads," replied Johnny cheerfully. Miss Purry's chiseledsmile remained, but it was not the same. "I came to see you about thatvacant building site, just beyond the adjoining property."
Miss Purry shook her head,
"I'm afraid I could not even consider selling it without a veryspecific knowledge of its future." And her pale green eyes took on aslightly deeper hue.
Val Russel stifled a sly grin.
"This was once a very aristocratic neighborhood," he informed Johnnywith well-assumed sorrow. "Miss Purry is the last of the fine oldfamilies to keep alive the traditions of the district. Except for herinfluence, the new-rich have vulgarized the entire locality."
"Thank you," cooed Miss Purry. "I could not have said that myself, butI can't hinder Mr. Russel from saying it. Nearly all of my neighborstried to buy the riverview plot, about which you have come to see me;but I did not care to sell--to them."
Her emphasis on the last two words was almost imperceptible, but it wasthere; and her reminiscent satisfaction was so complete that Johnny,who had known few women, was perplexed.
"If all the old families had been as careful the Bend would not havedeteriorated," Val stated maliciously, knowing just how to encourageher. "However, the new-comers are benefited by Miss Purry'sresolve--particularly Mrs. Slosher. The Sloshers are just on the otherside of the drive from the vacant property, and they have almost asgood a river view as if they had been able to purchase it and buildupon it in the first place."
The green of Miss Purry's eyes deepened another tone.
"Mr. Slosher, who is now in Europe, was almost brutal in hisdetermination to purchase the property," she stated with painfulrepression. "The present Mrs. Slosher is a pretty doll, and he ischildishly infatuated with her; but his millions can not buy everythingshe demands."
Ignorant of social interplay as Johnny Gamble was, he somehow divinedthat William G. Slosher's doll was the neighborhood reason foreverything.
"If you were only certain of what you intend to build there--" shesuggested, to break the helpless silence.
"I have an apartment-house in mind," he told her.
"That would be very large and very high, no doubt," she guessed,looking pleased.
"It's the only kind that would pay," Johnny Gamble hastily assured her."It would be expensive--no suite less than three thousand a year andnobody allowed to do anything."
"I'll consider the matter," she said musingly.
"What about the price?" asked Johnny, whose mind had been fixed uponthat important detail.
"Oh, yes--the price," agreed Miss Purry indifferently; "I've beenholding it at two hundred thousand. I shall continue to hold it at thatfigure."
"Then that's the price," decided Johnny. "Can't we come to an agreementnow?"
"To-morrow afternoon at three," she dryly insisted.
He saw that she meant to-morrow afternoon at three.
"Can't I arrange with you for a twenty-four-hour option?" he begged,becoming anxious.
"I shall not bind myself in any way," she declared. "To-morrowafternoon at three."
"That's a beautiful piece of property," commented Johnny as they droveby. "By George, the apartment-house will shut those people off from theriver!"
"That's the only reason she'd be willing to sell," replied Val. "Whatset you hunting up this property?"
"The De Luxe Apartments Company intends confining its operations tothis quarter. They'll go scouting among the listed propertiesfirst--and they may not find this one until I am asking them twohundred and fifty for it."
That afternoon, Johnny, always prompt, was ahead of time at the finalcommittee meeting of the Babies' Fund Fair, but Constance Joy did notseem in the least surprised at his punctuality.
"I was in hopes you'd come early," she greeted him. "I want to show youthe score board of your game."
"Honest, did you make one?" he asked, half-incredulous of his goodfortune, as she led the way into the library; and his eyes furtherbetrayed his delight when she showed him the score board itself.
"See," she pointed out, "you were to make five thousand dollars an hourfor two hundred working hours, beginning on April twenty-second andending May thirty-first."
Johnny examined the board with eager interest. It was ruled into tinysquares, forty blocks long and seven deep.
"I want to frame that when we're through," he said, admiring theperfect drawing.
"Suppose you lose?" she suggested, smiling to herself at hisunconscious use of the word "we".
"No chance," he stoutly returned. "I have to paste afive-thousand-dollar bill in each one of those blocks."
"You've kept your paste brush busy," she congratulated him, marvelinganew at how he had done it, as she glanced at the record which she hadherself set down. "I have the little squares crossed off up to twohundred and sixty-five thousand dollars."
"The money's in Loring's bank," he cheerfully assured her. "That paysme up to next Tuesday, May second, at two o'clock. This is two o'clock,Thursday. I have twenty-four working hours to loaf."
"Lazy!" she bantered him. "That isn't loafing time; it's only a safetymargin."
Her eagerness about it pleased Johnny very much. When he had hismillion he intended to ask her to marry him; and it was pleasant tohave her, all unaware of his purpose, of course, taking such an acuteinterest in this big game.
"If a man plays too safe he goes broke," objected Johnny seriously,still intent on the diagram, however. "I notice that none of theseSundays or Saturday afternoons have money in them. According to my planI also allowed for two possible holidays; but why are those two specialdays left white?"
"Well," hesitated Constance, flushing slightly, "May thirtieth isDecoration Day; and then I allowed for a possible birthday."
"Birthday?" he repeated, perplexed. "Whose?"
"Oh, anybody's," she hastily assured him. "You can move the date tosuit. You know you said you weren't going to work on Sundays, evenings,holidays or birthdays."
"I have but one birthday this year, and it comes in the fall," heanswered, laughing; then suddenly a dazzling light blinded him. "It'sthe score keeper's!" he guessed.
In spite of all her efforts to prevent it Constance blushed furiously."I had intended to give a little party on the nineteenth," sheconfessed.
"I'm coming!" he emphatically announced.
Aunt Pattie Boyden swept into the room, and Johnny immediately feltthat he had on tight shoes. He had once made a fatal error before AuntPattie; he had confessed to having been a voter before he owned a dresssuit.
Paul Gresham arrived, and Aunt Pattie was as the essence of violets.Paul, though American-born, was a second cousin of Lord Yawpingham.Johnny and Paul sat and inwardly barked at each other. Johnny almostbarked outwardly.
Val Russel and Bruce Townley came, and everybody breathed a sigh ofrelief.
"Well, Johnny," said Val, "I just now saw your newest speculationdriving down the Avenue in a pea-green gown and a purple hat."
"I never had a speculation like that," denied Johnny.
"Sounds like a scandal," decided Bruce Townley.
"You might as well tell it, Val," laughed Constance with a mischievousglance at Johnny.
"It hasn't gone very far as yet," replied Val, enjoying Johnny'sdiscomfort, "but it promises well. Johnny and I called upon a wealthyspinster, away upon Riverside Drive, this morning, ostensibly to buyreal estate."
Val, leaning his cheek upon his knuckles with his middle finger uponhis temple, imitated Miss Purry's languishing air so perfectly thatAunt Pattie and Gresham, b
oth of whom knew the lady, could see her inthe flesh--or at least in the bone.
"'Ostensible' is a good word in that neighborhood," opined Greshamlightly. "Were you trying to buy Miss Purry's vacant riverfrontproperty?"
Notwithstanding his seeming nonchalance, Gresham betrayed an earnestinterest which Constance noted, and she turned to Johnny with a quicklittle shake of her head, but he was already answering, and she frownedslightly.
Mrs. Follison arrived, and after her the rest of the committee cametrooping by twos and threes,--a bright, busy, chattering mob whichstopped all personal conversation.
Last of all came Polly Parsons, accompanied by Ashley Loring and SammyChirp, and by the fluffy little orphan whom she had been keeping inschool for the last three years.
"I know I'm late," declared Polly defiantly; "but I don't adopt asister every day. I stopped at Loring's office to do it, and I'm soproud I'm cross-eyed. Sister Winnie, shake hands with everybody andthen run out in the gardens with Sammy."
Dutifully, Winnie, in her new role of sister, shook hands witheverybody and clenched their friendship with her wide blue eyes and heringenuous smile; and, dutifully, Sammy Chirp, laden with her sun-hatand parasol and fan, her vanity box and lace hand-bag, took her outinto the gardens, and the proceedings began as they usually did whenPolly Parsons arrived. Subcommittees took cheerful and happy possessionof the most comfortable locations they could find, and Constance Joywalked Ashley Loring out through the side porch.
"There's a very cozy and retired seat in the summer-house," sheinformed him. "I wish to have a tete-a-tete with you on a mostimportant business matter."
"You may have a tete-a-tete with me on any subject whatsoever," laughedLoring. "I suppose it's about those Johnny Gamble attachments, however."
"It's about that exactly," she acknowledged. "What have you learned ofthe one for fifty thousand dollars which was attempted to be laidagainst Mr. Gamble's interest in that hotel property yesterday?"
"Very little," he confessed. "It is of the same sort as the one wediscussed the other day."
Constance nodded. "Fraudulent, probably," she guessed.
"I think so myself," agreed Loring. "Trouble is, nobody can locate theGamble-Collaton books."
"Perhaps they have been destroyed," mused Constance.
"I doubt it," returned Loring. "It would seem the sensible thing to do;but, through some curious psychology which I can not fathom, crooksseldom make away with documentary evidence."
"Who is helping Mr. Collaton?" asked Constance abruptly after a littlesilence.
"I do not know," answered Loring promptly, looking her squarely in theeye.
"Some one of our mutual acquaintance," she persisted shrewdly. "Twice,now, attachments have been served on Mr. Gamble when the news of hishaving attachable property could only have come from our set."
They had turned the corner of the lilac screen and found a littlesummer-house occupied by Sammy and Winnie, and the low mellow voice ofWinnie was flowing on and on without a break.
"It's the darlingest vanity purse I ever saw," she babbled. "SisterPolly bought it for me this morning. She's the dearest dear in theworld! I don't wonder you're so crazy about her. How red your hand isnext to mine! Madge Cunningham says that I have the whitest andprettiest hands of any girl in school--and she's made a special studyof hands. Isn't that the cunningest sapphire ring? Sister Polly sent itto me on my last birthday; so now you know what month I was born in.Jeannette Crawley says it's just the color of my eyes. She writespoetry. She wrote some awfully sweet verses about my hair. 'The regalcolor of the flaming sun', she called it. She's dreadfully romantic;but the poor child's afraid she will never have a chance on account ofher snub nose. We thought her nose was cute though. Miss Grazie, ourprofessor of ancient history, said my nose was of the most perfectGreek profile she had ever seen--just like that on the features ofClytie, and with just as delicately formed nostrils. We set thefunniest trap for her once. Somebody always told the principal when wewere going to sneak our fudge nights, and we suspected it was one ofthe ugly girls--they're always either the sweetest or the meanest girlsin school, you know. We had a signal for it, of course--one finger tothe right eye and closing the left; and one day, when we were planningfor a big fudge spree that night, I saw Miss Grazie watching us passthe sign. There isn't much escapes my eyes. Sure enough, that nightMiss Porley made a raid. Well, on Thursday, Madge Cunningham andmyself, without saying a word to anybody, stayed in Miss Grazie's roomafter class and gave each--other the fudge signal; and sure enough,that night--"
Constance and Loring tiptoed away, leaving the bewildered Sammy smilingfeebly into the eyes of Winnie and floundering hopelessly in the mazeof her information.
"I have it," declared Constance. "That lovely little chatterbox hasgiven me an idea."
"Is it possible?" chuckled Loring. "Poor Sammy!"
"He was smiling," laughed Constance. "Here comes the chairman of thefloor-walkers' committee."
Gresham, always uneasy in the absence of Constance, who was toovaluable a part of his scheme of life to be left in charge of hisfriends, had come into the garden after them on the pretext ofconsulting the general committee.
"Do you know anything about the Garfield Bank?" Constance asked Greshamin the first convenient pause.
"It is very good as far as I have heard," he replied after carefulconsideration. "Are there any rumors out against it?"
"Quite the contrary," she hastily assured him. "It is so convenient,however, that I had thought of opening a small account there. Mr.Gamble transferred his funds to that bank to-day--and if he can trustthem with over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars I should think Imight give them my little checking account."
When they were alone again Loring turned to her in surprise.
"I have Johnny's money in my name. I didn't know he had opened anaccount with the Garfield Bank," he wondered.
"Neither did I," she laughed. "I told a fib! I laid a trap!"
Five Thousand an Hour: How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress Page 9