Gresham met the colonel and Courtney on Broadway in full regalia just as they were turning in at the newest big cafe to dine that night.
"I"m sorry to tell you, Mr. Courtney, that my warning of this noon was not unfounded," he remarked. "Perhaps, however, you already know it."
"No, I don"t," returned Courtney, eying the correctly dressed Gresham with some dissatisfaction. "I"m not even sure of what you mean."
"About a certain man with whom you are doing business."
"Oh--Gamble?"
"What"s the matter with Gamble?" bristled the colonel.
"Why, Gresham hinted to me this morning that Gamble had financial obligations he could not meet," explained Courtney. "It seems that he met them, however."
"Of course he did!" snorted the colonel.
"I hadn"t intended to make the matter public property," stated Gresham with an uncomfortable feeling that he was combating an una.s.sailable and unaccountable prejudice.
"Bless my soul, you"re succeeding mighty well!" blurted the colonel.
"Now, tell us all you know about my friend Gamble. Out with it!"
"I beg you to understand, Mr. Courtney, that I am inspired by a purely friendly interest," insisted Gresham with very stiff dignity. "I thought it might be of value for you to know--if you were not already informed--that an attachment for fifty thousand dollars upon Mr. Gamble was laid against your Terminal Hotel property this afternoon."
Mr. Courtney paused to consider.
"At what time was this attachment issued?"
"At three-thirty, I was informed."
Mr. Courtney"s reception of that important bit of news was rather unusual, in consideration of its gravity. He threw back his head and laughed; he turned to the colonel and, putting his hand upon his old friend"s shoulder, laughed again; he put his other hand upon Gresham"s shoulder and laughed more. The colonel was a slower thinker. He looked painfully puzzled for a moment--then suddenly it dawned upon him, and he laughed uproariously; he punched his old friend Courtney in the ribs and laughed more uproariously; he punched Gresham in the ribs and laughed most uproariously.
"Why, bless my heart, boy!" he explained for Courtney. "At two-thirty, neither Courtney nor Johnny Gamble owned a penny"s worth of interest in the Terminal Hotel site, if that"s the property you mean--and of course you do."
"No," laughed Courtney. "At that hour we sold it outright to Morton Washer for a cool half-million profit, which my friend Johnny and I divide equally. I saw him make the entry in his book. He has twenty-four hours in which to loaf on that remarkable schedule of his.
Johnny Gamble is a wonderful young man!"
"Who"s that"s such a wonderful young man?" snapped a jerky little voice. "Johnny Gamble? You bet he is! He skinned me!"
Turning, Courtney grasped the hands of lean little Morton Washer and of wiry-faced Joe Close.
"We"re all here now except the youngsters and the ladies," said Courtney. "Possibly they"re inside. Coming in, Gresham?"
"No, I think not," announced Gresham, sickly. "Who"s giving the party?"
"Johnny Gamble," snapped Washer. "It"s in honor of me!"
A limousine drove up just then. In it were sweet-faced Mrs.
Parsons--Polly"s mother by adoption--Polly, Loring and Sammy Chirp, the latter gentleman being laden with the wraps of everybody but Loring.
Just behind the limousine was a taxi. In it were Aunt Pattie Boyden, Constance Joy and Johnny Gamble. Gresham, who had held a partial engagement for the evening, went to his club instead.
CHAPTER IX
IN WHICH JOHNNY MEETS A DEFENDER OF THE OLD ARISTOCRACY
Johnny, whose sources of information were many and varied, called on a certain Miss Purry the very next morning, taking along Val Russel to introduce him.
"Any friend of Mr. Russel"s is welcome, I am sure," declared Miss Purry, pa.s.sing a clammy wedge of a hand to Johnny, who felt the chill in his palm creeping down his spine. "Of the Maryland Gambles?"
"No, White Roads," replied Johnny cheerfully. Miss Purry"s chiseled smile remained, but it was not the same. "I came to see you about that vacant building site, just beyond the adjoining property."
Miss Purry shook her head,
"I"m afraid I could not even consider selling it without a very specific knowledge of its future." And her pale green eyes took on a slightly deeper hue.
Val Russel stifled a sly grin.
"This was once a very aristocratic neighborhood," he informed Johnny with well-a.s.sumed sorrow. "Miss Purry is the last of the fine old families to keep alive the traditions of the district. Except for her influence, the new-rich have vulgarized the entire locality."
"Thank you," cooed Miss Purry. "I could not have said that myself, but I can"t hinder Mr. Russel from saying it. Nearly all of my neighbors tried 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 was there; 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 have deteriorated," Val stated maliciously, knowing just how to encourage her. "However, the new-comers are benefited by Miss Purry"s resolve--particularly Mrs. Slosher. The Sloshers are just on the other side of the drive from the vacant property, and they have almost as good a river view as if they had been able to purchase it and build upon 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 his determination to purchase the property," she stated with painful repression. "The present Mrs. Slosher is a pretty doll, and he is childishly infatuated with her; but his millions can not buy everything she demands."
Ignorant of social interplay as Johnny Gamble was, he somehow divined that William G. Slosher"s doll was the neighborhood reason for everything.
"If you were only certain of what you intend to build there--" she suggested, 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 a.s.sured her.
"It would be expensive--no suite less than three thousand a year and n.o.body allowed to do anything."
"I"ll consider the matter," she said musingly.
"What about the price?" asked Johnny, whose mind had been fixed upon that important detail.
"Oh, yes--the price," agreed Miss Purry indifferently; "I"ve been holding it at two hundred thousand. I shall continue to hold it at that figure."