"Perfect," says Vee.
"Moon shinin" and everything?" says I.
"Yes," says she.
"Then here"s hoping," says I.
"There, there!" says Vee. "I"m afraid you"re a little feverish."
Maybe I was, but I didn"t hear another thing until more "n ten hours later when I woke up to find the sun winkin" in at me through the shutters.
"Did you have a good night"s rest?" asks Vee.
"As good as they come," says I. "How about you!"
"Oh, I slept fairly well," says she. "I was awake once or twice. I suppose I was worrying a little about you. And then I thought I hear strange noises."
"What sort of noises?" I asks.
"Oh, like a lot of men walking by," says she. "That must have been nearly midnight. They were talking low as they pa.s.sed, and it almost sounded as if they were carrying tools of some sort. Then along towards morning I thought I heard them pa.s.s again. I"m sure some of them were swearing."
"Huh!" says I. "I wonder what they could have been peeved about on such a fine night?"
"Or I might have been simply dreaming," she adds.
"Yes, and then again," says I, smotherin" a chuckle.
I could hardly wait to dress and shave before rushin" out to inspect the spot where I"d almost ruined myself only the mornin" before. And it was something worth inspectin". I"ll say. Must be nearly half an acre in that strip and I expect that sod has been growin" for years untouched by the hand of man. At 6 P. M. last night it was just a ma.s.s of thick gra.s.s and dandelions, but now--say, a tractor plough and a gang of prairie tamers couldn"t have done a more thorough job. If there was a square foot that hadn"t been torn up I couldn"t see it with the naked eye.
Course, it aint all smooth and even. There was holes here and there, some of "em three feet deep, but about all the land needed now was a little rakin" and fillin" in, such as Dominick could do in his spare time. The cheerin" fact remains that the hard part of the work has been done, silent and miraculous, and without price.
I shouts for Vee to come out and see. It ain"t often, either, that I can spring anything on her that leaves her stunned and bug-eyed.
"Why, Torchy!" says she, gaspy. "How in the world did you ever manage it? I--I don"t understand."
"Oh, very simple!" says I. "It"s all in havin" the right kind of neighbors."
"But you don"t mean," says she, "that you persuaded some of our--oh, I"m sure you never could. Besides, you"re grinning. Torchy, I want you to tell me all about it. Come, now! Exactly what happened last night?"
"Well," says I, "not being present myself I could hardly tell that. But I"ve got a good hunch."
"What is it!" she insists.
"From your report of what you heard," says I, "and from the looks of the ground "n everything, I should judge that the Harbor Hills Exploring and Excavating Co. had been making a night raid on our property."
"Pooh!" says Vee. "I never heard of such a company. But if there is one, why should they come here?"
"Oh, just prospectin", I expect," says I.
"For what?" demands Vee.
"For stuff that the 18th amendment says they can"t have," says I.
"Gettin" down to bra.s.s tacks, for a case of dry gin."
Even that don"t satisfy Vee. She demands why they should dig for any such thing on our land.
"They might have heard some rumor," says I, "that MacGregor Shinn went off and left it buried there. As though a Scotchman could ever get as careless as that. I don"t believe he did. Anyway, some of them smart Alec commuters who were kiddin" me so free yesterday must have worked up blisters of their own. My guess is that they lost some sleep, too."
You don"t have to furnish Vee with a diagram of a joke, you know, before she sees it. At that she squints her eyes and lets out a snicker.
"I wonder, Torchy," says she, "who could have started such a rumor?"
"Yes, that"s the main mystery, ain"t it?" says I. "But your flower bed is about ready, ain"t it?"
CHAPTER XX
GIVING "CHITA A LOOK
I got to admit that there"s some drawbacks to being a 100 per cent perfect private see. Not that I mind making myself useful around the general offices. I"m always willin" to roll up my sleeves any time and save the grand old Corrugated Trust from going on the rocks. I"ll take a stab at anything, from meetin" a strike committee of the Amalgamated Window Washers" Union to subbin" in as president for Old Hickory at the annual meetin". And between times I don"t object to makin" myself as handy as a socket wrench. That is, so long as it"s something that has to do with finance, high or low.
But say, when they get to usin" me in strictly fam"ly affairs, I almost work up a grouch. Notice the almost. Course, with this fair-and-warmer disposition of mine I can"t quite register. Not with Mr. Robert, anyway.
He has such a matey, I-say-old-chap way with him. Like here the other day when he comes strollin" out from the private office rubbin" his chin puzzled, stares around for a minute, and then makes straight for my desk.
"Well," says he, "I presume you noted the arrival of the prodigal son; eh, Torchy?"
"Meaning Ambrose the Ambler?" says I.
"The same," says he.
"They will come back even from South America," says I. "And you was figurin", I expect, how that would be a long, wet walk. But then, nothing was ever too wet for Amby, and the only fear he had of water was that he might get careless some time and swallow a little."
"Quite so," says Mr. Robert, grinnin".
You see, this Ambrose Wood party is only an in-law once removed. Maybe you remember Ferdy, who had the nerve to marry Marjorie Ellins, the heavyweight sister of Mr. Robert"s, here a few years back? Well, that was when the Ellinses acquired a brunette member of the flock. Ambrose is a full brother of Ferdy"s. In every sense. That is, he was in the good old days when Mr. Volstead was only a name towards the end of roll call.
I ought to know more or less about Amby for we had him here in the general offices for quite some time, tryin" to discover if there wasn"t some sphere of usefulness that would excuse us handin" him a pay envelope once a week. There wasn"t. Course, we didn"t try him as a paper weight or a door stop. But he had a whirl at almost everything else. And the result was a total loss.
For one thing, time clocks meant no more to Amby than an excursion ad.
would to a Sing Sing lifer. Amby wasn"t interested in "em. He"d drift in among the file room or bond clerks, or whatever bunch he happened to be inflicted on that particular month, at any old hour, from 10 A. M. up to 2:30 P. M. Always chirky and chipper about it, too. And his little tales about the parties he"d been to on the night before was usually interestin". Which was bad for the general morale, as you can guess.
Also his light and frivolous way of chuckin" zippy lady stenogs under the chin and callin" "em "Dearie" didn"t help his standin" any. Yeauh!
He was some boy, Amby, while he lasted. Three different times Brother Ferdie was called from his happy home at night to rush down with enough cash bail to rescue Ambrose from a cold-hearted desk sergeant, and once he figured quite prominent on the front page of the morning papers when he insisted on confidin" to the judge that him and the young lady in the taxi was really the king and queen of Staten Island come over to visit upper Broadway. I don"t doubt that Amby thought he was something of the kind at the time, too, but you know how the reporters are apt to play up an item of that kind. And of course they had to lug in the fact that Ambrose was a near-son-in-law of the president of the Corrugated Trust.
That was where Old Hickory pushed the b.u.t.ton for me. "Young man," says he, chewin" his cigar savage, "what should you say was the longest steamer trip that one could buy a ticket for direct from New York?"
"Why," says I, "my guess would be Buenos Ayres."