“There they lie,” said Keedy, “bars of yellow gold. Boxes and boxes of
shiny gold. More than three million dollars’ worth of finest gold--and
only a little water and sand over ’em. No bars to break through, no
vaults to drill. Only sand and water--and we ought to be able to match
that sand with grit, and the water with good red blood.”
There are some men who can talk about money, and it will not start a
thrill in you.
Marcena Keedy could talk about gold in a way to make your soul hungry.
He rolled the sound in his mouth--a big, round, juicy sound--as a boy
sucks a candy marble. It made the moisture ooze in my own mouth to hear
him talk.
Mr. Keedy gave over leaning back in his chair. He sat on the edge of it,
and leaned forward.
“It’s right at this point that we go into this thing clear to the necks,
my friend. I have studied men a lot in my life. I can see about what
kind of a fellow you are. If another fellow opens up to you in honest
fashion you are _with_ him--and if you can’t stay with him you are not
going off and squeal and hurt him. There’s nothing half-way between
Holstrom, here, and myself. We’re partners. We’re in together, whole
hog. I’ll spread the cards for you just as they are spread for the
captain and myself. He and I have been having a run of good luck to date
in our partnership. We’ll have some more firsthand evidence. Rask, how
was it you got the inside clinch in the _Zizania_ matter?”
“For the benefit of a man from the East, where they ain’t as shrewd as
the Yankees think they be,” stated Captain Holstrom in his husky
voice, “I will say that we’ve got a devilish good close combine on the
waterfront--we fellows have been on the job for a long time. When the
Government auctions off anything we get together and fix the top price
at which any bid shall go, and then we cut the cards to settle who shall
pick the plum at that price. It means that the lucky man will pick a
bargain, don’t forget that. Price can’t be budged above that bid--and
it’s a blamed measly price.” He smacked his lips. “So that is how I have
got hold of the old __Zizania__, Government lighthouse-tender and buoy
steamer, side-wheeler, one hundred and seventy feet long, new derricks,
boilers in fair shape, and engine fresh overhauled. I’ve cut the cards
for eleven years, and this has been my first look-in. But it’s worth
waiting for. I could junk her and make four times what I pay for her.”
“What _we_ pay for her,” corrected Mr. Keedy. “Remember that I’m your
partner. Now I’ll take the stand myself. Holstrom here sold his tugboat
the minute he struck luck on the _Zizania_. He pulled what money he had
in the bank. He lacked half the price, at that. He was going to borrow
on a bill of sale. ‘No,’ says I to him. ‘Bring along your cash to the
place where I’m dealing faro. I’ll go in partner with you and double
your pot.’ Holstrom knew that when I talked that way with him I was
square. Some men would have double-crossed him and pulled the pickings
for the bank. I ain’t that kind,” declared Mr. Keedy, pulling himself up
virtuously and giving the girl a side-glance. “I know who my friends
are, and who I’d like to help. And I can deal faro! Don’t worry about
that! Captain Holstrom walked out with his pot doubled. The money goes
down on the _Zizania_ to-morrow morning, making up the balance after the
forfeit money was paid. That’s the way Holstrom and I do business after
we have come to an agreement.” He gave the girl a look which he intended
to be melting. “I said I’d do it, and I did it.”
“I’m ashamed of my father,” she said, crisply.
“I don’t much blame you, Kama,” stammered Captain Holstrom, missing the
point of her rebuke. “For me to go and do what I done after scooping
in that money was a fool performance, and I ask the pardon of all
concerned. But I reckon my head was turned by having all that good luck
come in a bunch. I just went into the air, that’s what I done. But I’m
back on earth to stay now.”
“Let us hope so, partner,” chided Kir. Keedy. “That crazy Beason and our
new friend here made such a racket chasing you through the Coast that
I heard of it, and started out on the chase myself. It has turned out
lucky, but that’s no credit to you.”
The girl stood up. “I have listened, and now I understand. If you want
to keep my respect, father, you’ll hand back the part of that money
which is stolen, and borrow enough to make your payment.”
“Hold on, Miss Kama!” cried Keedy. “That money wasn’t stolen. A man who
tackles a faro-bank isn’t stealing if he wins.”
“I heard what you said a few minutes ago, Mr. Keedy.”
“And I said it to show I can be a friend to those I like. I’ve known you
a long time, and now when I’ve had a chance to show you that I’m a
friend you can’t afford to chuck me.”
He jumped up and went near to her.
“No more faro for me--no cards any more,” he said, dusting his hands
before her. “I know you haven’t liked to have me do it.”
“I have never made any remarks to you about your affairs, Mr. Keedy.
It’s only when my father gets mixed into them that I protest.”
“I reckon that after all the years I’ve dealt crooked for the sake of
the bank I’ve got the right to deal crooked for once in my life to help
my friends,” muttered Keedy. “But I’m all done with faro, I tell you,
Kama. We’re all going to be rich. I want you to remember that I’ve done
my full share in this thing.”
Captain Holstrom banged the sacks of coin upon the table.
“You bet you have, Marcena. And you’re my partner. I stand by you. I
never saw a girl yet who didn’t have foolish notions. But they grow out
of them.” He winked at Keedy. “This money goes down on the old _Zizania_
to-morrow morning. She’s ours from snout to tail--from keelson to
pennant block. And she’s going to make our everlasting fortunes. You
shall see, Kama, my girl!”
For a moment she stood there, her eyes narrowed, her cheeks flaming up,
as fine a picture of protesting and indignant maidenhood as I ever laid
eyes on. Then she compressed her lips and choked back an outburst.
“Yes, I _shall_ see,” she said at last. “For I shall go on board the
_Zizania_, and stay there and watch you, father, and try to keep you out
of State’s prison for the sake of my poor dead mother.”
“It has been all right for you to live with me aboard the tug,” growled
Captain Holstrom, blinking sourly at her. “But this is a different
proposition. This is going to be a man’s game.”
“With one woman along,” she insisted.
“You have got to stay here in the city,” he declared.
“If you leave me here alone, deserting me for men who are leading you
into dangers and trouble, you’ll find me dancing in one of the worst
holes on this street when you come back. I swear it!” she said.
She did not raise her voice. There was no elocution, and hysterics were
absent. But there are women who can say a thing and make you believe
it. Captain Holstrom cracked his knuckles and gasped, and said nothing.
Keedy ran his thin tongue along the line of his sooty mustache.
“As a partner, I’m in favor of keeping a good girl near her father,”
said he.
“You are not a partner in my family affairs, Mr. Keedy!” cried the girl,
hotly.
Keedy, much embarrassed, and willing to hide his feelings, turned to me.
“We seem to be drifting off the main subject, Brother Sidney.” I wanted
to yank him up for calling me by that title--resentment surged in me as
hotly as it did in the girl. There are some men who seem to make your
soul feel sticky when they try to be intimate.