IN WHICH JOHNNY DEMANDS SPOT CASH AT ONCE
Seven-thirty the next morning found Johnny Gamble listening, in awed
curiosity, to an insistent telephone bell. Gradually it dawned on him
that he must have left a call, and plodding into the bath-room he
mechanically turned on the cold water, reflecting dully that this was
a cruel world. Suddenly it came to him with a rush that this
thirty-first of May was to be the busiest of his life! He had to have
a million dollars before four o'clock!
At seven-forty-five he was out of his bath-tub. At eight he was gulping
hot coffee. At eight-fifteen he was stepping out of the elevator with
an apple core in his hand.
At the curb in front of his door he found a long gray torpedo touring
car throbbing with impatience, and at the wheel sat a plump young lady
in a vivid green bonnet and driving coat. In the tonneau sat a more
slender young lady all in gray, except for the brown of her eyes and
the pink of her cheeks and the red of her lips.
Johnny's Baltimore straw hat came off with a jerk.
"Out after the breakfast rolls?" he demanded as he shook hands with
them quite gladly.
"No, indeed; hunting a job," responded Polly. "This machine and the
services of its chauffeur and messenger girl are for rent to you only,
for the day, at the price of a nice party when you get that million. We
have to be in on the excitement."
"Hotel Midas," Johnny crisply directed, and jumped into the tonneau,
whereupon the chauffeur touched one finger to her bonnet, and the
machine leaped forward.
"You're lazy," chided Constance. "We've been waiting twenty minutes. We
were afraid you might be gone, but they told us that you had not yet
come down."
"If I'd known you were coming I'd have been at the curb before
daybreak," grinned Johnny. "You're in some rush this morning."
"There must be some rushing if you have that million dollars by four
o'clock," laughed Constance. "Polly and I want you to have it."
"You're right that I'll have to go some," he admitted.
"Excuse the chauffeur for interrupting your conversation," protested
Polly, turning round and deftly missing a venturesome banana cart; "but
you grabbed off half a million of it on a holiday."
"It was twelve-thirty this morning when we took Gresham," claimed
Johnny. "This is a working-day."
"Hotel Midas," announced the chauffeur, pulling up to that flamboyant
new hostelry with a flourish.
Johnny hurried in to the desk, where Mr. Boise had already left word
that Mr. Gamble should be shown right up. He found that fatigue-proof
old Westerner shining from his morning ablutions, as neat as a pin from
head to foot, and smoking his after-breakfast cigar in a parlor which
had not so much as a tidy displaced. His eyes twinkled the moment he
saw Johnny.
"I suppose you still have a disinterested anxiety to have me adopt the
Sage City and Salt Pool route?" he laughed.
"I'm still anxious about it," amended Johnny, refusing to smile at his
own evasion of the disinterestedness. "I brought you a wad of reports
and things to show you how good that territory is. You don't know what
a rich pay-streak you'd open up in that part of the Sancho Hills Basin."
Mr. Boise laughed with keen enjoyment.
"I don't think I need to wade through that stuff, Johnny," he admitted,
having picked up from Courtney the habit of calling young Gamble by his
first name. "To tell you the truth, I sent a wireless telegram to my
chief engineer yesterday afternoon, off Courtney's yacht when we
connected with the Taft, and this morning I have a five-hundred-word
night lettergram from him, telling me that after a thorough
investigation of the situation he finds that the Sage City and the
Lariat Center routes are so evenly balanced in advantage that a choice
of them is really only a matter of sentiment."
Johnny paused awkwardly, stumped for the first time in his life.
"I don't know how to make that kind of an argument," he confessed, to
the great enjoyment of Boise.
"It is rather difficult," admitted that solidly constructed railroad
president; "particularly since I personally favor the Lariat Center
route."
Johnny again felt very awkward.
"Can't we put this on some sort of a business basis?" he implored.
"I don't think so," returned Mr. Boise with a cheerful smile. "You
probably couldn't influence me in the least; but that charming young
lady who was with you yesterday afternoon--your sister or something, I
believe, wasn't it--she might."
Johnny stiffened.
"Then we don't want it," he quietly decided, and took his hat.
"That's the stuff!" yelled Boise in delight. "You belong out West!
Well, Johnny, I'm afraid you'll have to have it as a matter of
sentiment, and partly on the charming young lady's account, whether you
like it or not. Now what have you to say about it, you young bantam?"
"Much obliged," laughed Johnny, recovering from his huff in a hurry. "I
thank you for both of us."
"Don't mention it," replied Boise easily, and chuckling in a way that
did him good. "Give my very warmest regards to the young lady in
question."
"Would you care to come down-stairs and give them to her yourself?"
invited Johnny, a trifle ashamed that he had resented the quite
evidently sincere admiration of Boise for both Constance and himself.
"So early in the morning?" laughed Boise, putting on his sombrero with
alacrity. "It must be serious," and, clapping Johnny heartily on the
shoulder with a hand which in its lightest touch came down with the
force of a mallet, he led the way to the elevator.
At the curb Mr. Boise, who was also confronting a busy day, delighted
both the girls and Johnny by the sort of well-wishes that a real man
can make people believe, and when they drove away Constance was
blushing and Polly was actually threatening to adopt him.
The next stop was at Collaton's, where Johnny bought from that
nonchalantly pleased young man his interest in the Gamble-Collaton
Irrigation Company for five thousand dollars, A check for which amount
he borrowed from Polly while Collaton was signing the transfer.
Next he went to the offices of the Western Developing Company, and the
president of that extensive concern waved him away with both hands.
"If you've come about that Sancho Hills Basin land of yours, talk to me
about it in a theater lobby sometime," Washburn warned Johnny in
advance. "We discuss nothing but real business up here."
"I'll bet you five thousand acres of the land that this is real
business," Johnny offered. "The S. W. & P. has just secured control of
the B. F. & N. W., and intends to run the main line to Puget Sound
right square through the middle of my land. Now are you busy?"
"Sit down and have a cigar," invited Washburn, and slammed a call-bell.
"Billy," he told a boy, "if Mr. Rothberg comes in on that appointment
tell him I'll see him in a few minutes. Now, Johnny, how do I know that
the S. W. & P. will actually build that connecting link through your
land?"
"Ask Boise," directed Johnny confidently. "He's at the Hotel Midas, and
he has appointments in his room for the most of the morning."
"Has that grasping old monopolist gumshoed into town again?" inquired
Washburn, and promptly ordered his secretary to get Boise on the
telephone. "How much do you want for that land?" he asked while he
waited.
"Half a million dollars," stated Johnny. "No, I mean five hundred and
ten thousand," he hastily corrected, remembering his
five-thousand-dollar debt to Polly, and planning a five-thousand-dollar
betrothal blow-out that should be a function worth while.
"Half a million's a lot of money," Washburn soberly objected.
"I said half a million and ten thousand, spot cash and to-day," Johnny
carefully corrected.
"You're joking."
"Am I smiling?" demanded Johnny. "Washburn, if I can't get that odd ten
thousand I'm in no hurry to sell."
Washburn's bell rang, but he went into the next room to talk to Boise.
He came back resigned.
"We'll need a few days for the formalities," he suggested.
"You don't need a minute," denied Johnny. "You looked up the title
weeks ago, and you know it's all right. The formalities can be
concluded in thirty minutes if you'll send your attorney down with me."
"But what's the rush?" demanded Washburn, averse to paying out cash
with this speed.
"I want the money," explained Johnny.
"All right," gave in Washburn. "You may see Jackson at two o'clock and
wind up the business. He'll hand you a check."
"For five hundred and ten thousand?" inquired Johnny with proper
caution.
"For five hundred and ten thousand," repeated Washburn. "It's a
fool-sounding amount, but Boise said that if I wouldn't pay it he
would."
"May I speak to Boise a minute?" asked Johnny.
"This deal's closed," hastily cautioned Washburn with his hand on the
telephone.
"Of course it's closed," acknowledged Johnny. "I want to invite Boise
to a party."