CHAPTER X
IN WHICH JOHNNY IS SINGULARLY THRILLED BY A LITTLE CONVERSATION OVERTHE TELEPHONE
Mr. Gamble, on his arrival the following afternoon, found Miss Purryvery coldly regretful that she had already disposed of her property fora working-girls' home, at a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars,having made a twenty-five-thousand-dollar reduction by way of adonation to the cause. Johnny drove back into the city rapidly--for hewas now only sixteen hours ahead of his schedule. He was particularlyout of sorts because Miss Purry had mentioned that the De LuxeApartments Company had been after the plot. It is small satisfaction toa loser to have his judgment corroborated.
There was a Bronx project, involving the promotion of a huge exclusivesubdivision, which he had hoped to launch; but during his call on MissPurry that scheme went adrift through the sudden disagreement of theuncertain Wobbles brothers who owned the land. It was a day offailures; and at four o'clock he returned to the office and inscribed,upon the credit side of his unique little day-book, the laconic entry:
"April 28. Two flivvers. $0."
Loring, pausing behind him and looking over his shoulder, smiled--andadded a climax. "Jacobs attached your account at the Garfield Bankto-day on that fifty-thousand-dollar note."
"That's my first good laugh to-day," returned Johnny. "I have no fundsthere."
"Gresham thought you had," said Loring quietly. "A trap was laid tomake him think so, and he walked right into it."
"As soon as I have any place to keep a goat I'll get Gresham's,"declared Johnny. "So he's really in on it."
"He's scared," stated Loring.
"I hope he's right," returned Johnny. "I do wish they'd let me alone,though, till Thursday, June first."
On Saturday, the twenty-ninth, and on Monday, the first of May, JohnnyGamble was compelled reluctantly to enter "flivvers" against his days'labors; and on Tuesday at two o'clock Constance called him up.
"Guilty!" he acknowledged as soon as he heard her voice. "I'm caught upwith my schedule. At four o'clock I'll be ten thousand dollars behind.Everything I touch crawls right back in its shell."
"They'll come out again," she encouraged him. "I didn't call you up, asyour score keeper, to tell you that from this hour you will be runningin debt to yourself, but that one of your projects has come to lifeagain."
"Which one is that?" he eagerly inquired.
"The property owned by that lady on Riverside Drive. I see by thismorning's paper that the working-girls' home is not to be built. Isuppose you already know it, however."
"I overlooked that scandal," he confessed. "Wasn't the building to beugly enough?"
"This was a little obscure paragraph," she told him. "It was rather ajoking item, based upon the fact that there is a great deal of illfeeling among the neighbors, who clubbed together and bought the optionto prevent a building of this character from being erected. I'm so gladyou didn't know about it!"
Her enthusiasm was contagious. Johnny himself was glad. It seemed likea terrific waste of time to have to wait a month before he could tellher what he thought of her; but he had to have that million!
"You're a careful score keeper," he complimented her. "I'll go rightafter that property. Does the item say who controls it now?"
"I have the paper before me. I'll read you the names," she returnedwith businesslike preparedness: "Mr. James Jameson-Guff, Mr. G. W.Mason, Mr. Martin Sheats, Mr. Edward Kettle."
"All the neighbors," he commented. "They don't like honestworking-girls, I guess. That's a fine crowd of information you'vehanded me. I ought to give you a partnership in that million."
"You just run along or you'll be too late!" she urged him. "I'll takemy commission in the five-thousand-dollar hours you donate to theBabies' Fund Fair. By the way, from whom do you suppose that option waspurchased?"
"Gresham?" inquired Johnny promptly and with such a thrill of startledintensity in his tone that Constance could not repress a giggle.
"No, James Collaton," she informed him. "That's all the news. Hurry,now! Report to me, won't you, as soon as you find out whether you cansecure the property? I haven't made an entry on my score board sincelast Wednesday night. Good-by."
"Good-by," said Johnny reluctantly; but he held the telephone open,trying to think of something else to say until he heard the click whichtold him that she had hung up.
Last Wednesday night! Why, that was the night he had given the dinnerin celebration of his passing the quarter-of-a-million mark; and afterhe had taken her home from the dinner she had sat up to rule and markthat elaborate score board! Somehow his lungs felt very light andbuoyant.
Collaton, though? How did he get into the deal? Suddenly Johnnyremembered Val Russel's joking at the committee meeting. Gresham again!
"Loring, I don't think I can wait till June first to get after thescalps of Gresham and Collaton," he declared as he prepared to go out."I want to soak them now."
James Jameson-Guff, so christened by his wife, but more familiarlyknown among his associates as Jim Guff, received Johnny with a frownwhen he understood his errand.
"You're too late," he told Johnny. "We've turned the option over to ourwives to do with as they pleased. We're to have a swell yacht club outthere now. I think that's a graft, too!"
"If you get stung again, Mr. Guff, let me know," offered Johnny, "andI'll have you a bona fide apartment-house proposition in short order."
"Nyagh!" observed Mr. Guff.
Johnny dutifully reported to his score keeper the result of his errandand, that evening, to explain it more fully he went out to her house;but he found Gresham there and nobody had a very good time.
On the following morning he saw in the papers that the Royal YachtClub, a new organization, the moving spirit of which was one Michael T.O'Shaunessy, was to have magnificent headquarters on RiversideDrive--and he immediately went to see Mr. Guff. Mike O'Shaunessy was anotorious proprietor of road houses and "clubs" of shady reputation,and there was no question as to what sort of place the Royal Yacht Clubwould be.
Mr. Guff was furious about it.
"I knew it," he said. "The women have just telephoned me anauthorization to send for this Jacobs blackguard and buy back theoption."
"Jacobs?" inquired Johnny, "Not Abraham Jacobs?"
"That's the one," corroborated Guff. "Why, do you know him?"
"He is a professional stinger," Johnny admitted. "He stung me, andCollaton helped."
"I've no doubt of it," responded Guff. "It was a put-up job in thefirst place. By the way, Gamble, you used to be in partnership withCollaton yourself."
"That's true enough," admitted Johnny. "Possibly I'd better give yousome references."
"Give them to the women," retorted Guff.
An hour later Johnny telephoned Guff.
"Did you repurchase the option from Jacobs?" he inquired.
"Yes!" snapped Guff, and hung up.
The facts that the De Luxe Apartments Company was hot after theproperty and that he himself was now four hours behind his schedule,with nothing in sight, drove Johnny on, in spite of his dismalforebodings.
Mrs. Guff he found to be a hugely globular lady, with a globular nose,the lines on either side of which gave her perpetually an expression ofhaving just taken quinine. In view of her recent experiences she wasinclined to call the police the moment Johnny stated his errand, but hepromptly referred her to some gentlemen of unimpeachable commercialstanding; namely, Close, Courtney, Bouncer and Morton Washer. Shecoolly telephoned them in his presence and was satisfied.
"You must understand, however," she said to him severely, "the only wayin which we will release this option is that nothing but a first-classapartment-house, of not less than ten stories in height and with nosuites of less than three thousand a year rental, shall be erected."
"I'll sign an agreement to that effect," he promptly promised.
"And how much do you offer us for the property?"
"Two hundred thousand," he returned, making a conservative guess a
t theamount they must have paid for the two options.
A deepening of the quinine expression told him that he had undershotthe mark.
"Two hundred and ten thousand," he quickly amended.
A chocolate-cream expression struggled feebly with the quinine; andJohnny, who could translate the lines of the human countenance intodollars and cents with great accuracy, knew instantly that their twooptions had cost them thirty thousand dollars, and that he was offeringthe four ladies a profit of one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars'worth of gowns or diamonds each.
"That will be the most I can give," he still further amended. "I amprepared to write you a check at any moment."
"I think I can call a meeting at once," she informed him, and did so bytelephone.
Mrs. Sheats, who came over presently, was an angular woman who kept theexpression of her mouth persistently sweet, no matter what her state ofmind might be; and she was very glad indeed that, so long as Miss Purryinsisted on permitting a building of any sort to be erected oppositethe Slosher residence, they were protecting that estimable lady in herabsence by insuring a structure of dignity and class.
Mrs. Kettle, who was a placid lady of mature flesh and many teeth, andwho carried ounces upon ounces of diamonds without visible effort,bewailed the innovation that Miss Purry was forcing on them, but felt arighteous glow that, under the circumstances, they were doing so noblyon behalf of Mrs. Slosher.
Mrs. Mason, who was a little, dry, jerky woman whose skin creaked whenshe rubbed it, whose voice scratched and whose whole personalitysuggested the rasp of saw-filing, was in her own confession actuated byless affectionate motives.
"I'm glad of it!" she snapped. "Mrs. Slosher is always talking abouttheir superb river view and the general superiority of the Slosherlocation, the Slosher residence, the Slosher everything! I'm glad ofit!"
The other ladies felt that Mrs. Mason was very catty.
At four o'clock that afternoon Johnny entered in his book:
"May third. To seven hours--nine hours behind schedule--$35,000. ToPurry speculation, $210,000."
To offset this was:
"May third. To a chance, $0."
Five Thousand an Hour: How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress Page 10