"I see. What happened last night?"
"The usual; two tables full of it. There was a wheel, too... . I had no intention--but you know yourself how it parches your throat--the jollying and laughing and excitement... . I forgot all about what you--what we talked over... . I"m ashamed and sorry; but I can stay here and attend to things, of course--"
"I don"t want Neergard to see you," repeated Selwyn.
"W-why," stammered the boy, "do I look as rocky as that?"
"Yes. See here, you are not afraid of me, are you?"
"No--"
"You don"t think I"m one of those long-faced, blue-nosed b.u.t.ters-in, do you? You have confidence in me, haven"t you? You know I"m an average and normally sinful man who has made plenty of mistakes and who understands how others make them--you know that, don"t you, old chap?"
"Y-es."
"Then you _will_ listen, won"t you, Gerald?"
The boy laid his arms on the desk and hid his face in them. Then he nodded.
For ten minutes Selwyn talked to him with all the terse and colloquial confidence of a comradeship founded upon respect for mutual fallibility.
No instruction, no admonition, no blame, no reproach--only an affectionately logical review of matters as they stood--and as they threatened to stand.
The boy, fortunately, was still pliable and susceptible, still unalarmed and frank. It seemed that he had lost money again--this time to Jack Ruthven; and Selwyn"s teeth remained sternly interlocked as, bit by bit, the story came out. But in the telling the boy was not quite as frank as he might have been; and Selwyn supposed he was able to stand his loss without seeking aid.
"Anyway," said Gerald in a m.u.f.fled voice, "I"ve learned one lesson--that a business man can"t acquire the habits and keep the infernal hours that suit people who can take all day to sleep it off."
"Right," said Selwyn.
"Besides, my income can"t stand it," added Gerald navely.
"Neither could mine, old fellow. And, Gerald, cut out this card business; it"s the final refuge of the feebleminded... . You like it?
Oh, well, if you"ve got to play--if you"ve no better resource for leisure, and if non-partic.i.p.ation isolates you too completely from other idiots--play the imbecile gentleman"s game; which means a game where n.o.body need worry over the stakes."
"But--they"d laugh at me!"
"I know; but Boots Lansing wouldn"t--and you have considerable respect for him."
Gerald nodded; he had immediately succ.u.mbed to Lansing like everybody else.
"And one thing more," said Selwyn; "don"t play for stakes--no matter how insignificant--where women sit in the game. Fashionable or not, it is rotten sport--whatever the ethics may be. And, Gerald, tainted sport and a clean record can"t take the same fence together."
The boy looked up, flushed and perplexed. "Why, every woman in town--"
"Oh, no. How about your sister and mine?"
"Of course not; they are different. Only--well, you approve of Rosamund Fane and--Gladys Orchil--don"t you?"
"Gerald, men don"t ask each other such questions--except as you ask, without expecting or desiring an answer from me, and merely to be saying something nice about two pretty women."
The reproof went home, deeply, but without a pang; and the boy sat silent, studying the blotter between his elbows.
A little later he started for home at Selwyn"s advice. But the memory of his card losses frightened him, and he stopped on the way to see what money Austin would advance him.
Julius Neergard came up from Long Island, arriving at the office about noon. The weather was evidently cold on Long Island; he had the complexion of a raw ham, but the thick, fat hand, with its bitten nails, which he offered Selwyn as he entered his office, was unpleasantly hot, and, on the thin nose which split the broad expanse of face, a bead or two of sweat usually glistened, winter and summer.
"Where"s Gerald?" he asked as an office-boy relieved him of his heavy box coat and brought his mail to him.
"I advised Gerald to go home," observed Selwyn carelessly; "he is not perfectly well."
Neergard"s tiny mouse-like eyes, set close together, stole brightly in Selwyn"s direction; but they usually looked just a little past a man, seldom at him.
"Grippe?" he asked.
"I don"t think so," said Selwyn.
"Lots of grippe "round town," observed Neergard, as though satisfied that Gerald had it. Then he sat down and rubbed his large, membranous ears.
"Captain Selwyn," he began, "I"m satisfied that it"s a devilish good thing."
"Are you?"
"Emphatically. I"ve mastered the details--virtually all of "em. Here"s the situation in a grain of wheat!--the Siowitha Club owns a thousand or so acres of oak scrub, pine scrub, sand and weeds, and controls four thousand more; that is to say--the club pays the farmers" rents and fixes their fences and awards them odd jobs and prizes for the farm sustaining the biggest number of bevies. Also the club pays them to maintain the millet and buckwheat patches and to act as wardens. In return the farmers post their four thousand acres for the exclusive benefit of the club. Is that plain?"
"Perfectly."
"Very well, then. Now the Siowitha is largely composed of very rich men--among them Bradley Harmon, Jack Ruthven, George Fane, Sanxon Orchil, the Hon. Delmour-Carnes--_that_ crowd--rich and stingy. That"s why they are contented with a yearly agreement with the farmers instead of buying the four thousand acres. Why put a lot of good money out of commission when they can draw interest on it and toss an insignificant fraction of that interest as a sop to the farmers? Do you see? That"s your millionaire method--and it"s what makes "em in the first place."
He drew a large fancy handkerchief from his pistol-pocket and wiped the beads from the bridge of his limber nose. But they reappeared again.
"Now," he said, "I am satisfied that, working very carefully, we can secure options on every acre of the four thousand. There is money in it either way and any way we work it; we get it coming and going. First of all, if the Siowitha people find that they really cannot get on without controlling these acres--why"--and he snickered so that his nose curved into a thin, ruddy beak--"why, Captain, I suppose we _could_ let them have the land. Eh? Oh, yes--if they _must_ have it!"
Selwyn frowned slightly.
"But the point is," continued Neergard, "that it borders the railroad on the north; and where the land is not wavy it"s flat as a pancake, and"--he sank his husky voice--"it"s fairly riddled with water. I paid a thousand dollars for six tests."
"Water!" repeated Selwyn wonderingly; "why, it"s dry as a desert!"
"_Underground water_!--only about forty feet on the average. Why, man, I can hit a well flowing three thousand gallons almost anywhere. It"s a gold mine. I don"t care what you do with the acreage--split it up into lots and advertise, or club the Siowitha people into submission--it"s all the same; it"s a gold mine--to be swiped and developed. Now there remains the t.i.tle searching and the d.a.m.nable job of financing it--because we"ve got to move cautiously, and knock softly at the doors of the money vaults, or we"ll be waking up some Wall Street relatives or secret business a.s.sociates of the yellow crowd; and if anybody bawls for help we"ll be up in the air next New Year"s, and still hiking skyward."
He stood up, gathering together the mail matter which his secretary had already opened for his attention. "There"s plenty of time yet; their leases were renewed the first of this year, and they"ll run the year out. But it"s something to think about. Will you talk to Gerald, or shall I?"
"You," said Selwyn. "I"ll think the matter over and give you my opinion.
May I speak to my brother-in-law about it?"
Neergard turned in his tracks and looked almost at him.
"Do you think there"s any chance of his financing the thing?"