"Very well," says he, "engage a one way pa.s.sage on the next boat and see that Mr. Ambrose Wood stays aboard until the steamer sails."
Which I did. Ambrose didn"t show any hard feelin"s over it. In fact, as I remember, he was quite cheerful. "Tell the old hard boiled egg not to worry about me," says he. "He may be able to lose me this way for a while, but I"m not clear off the map yet. I"ll be back some day."
Must have been more "n three years ago, and as I hadn"t heard Amby"s name mentioned in all that time I joined in the general surprise when I saw him trailin" in dressed so neat and lookin" so fit.
"On his way to hand Ferdy the glad jolt, eh?" I asks.
"No," says Mr. Robert. "Ambrose seems quite willing to postpone meeting his brother for a day or so. He has just landed, you see, and doesn"t care to dash madly out into the suburbs. What he wishes most, as I understand, is to take a long, long look at New York."
"Well, after three years" exile," says I, "you can hardly blame him for that."
Mr. Robert hunches his shoulders. "I suppose one can"t," says he. "Only it leaves him on my hands, as it were. Someone must do the family honors--dinner, theatre, all that sort of thing. And if I were not tied up by an important committee meeting out at the country club I should be very glad to--er--"
"Ye-e-es?" says I, glancin" at him suspicious.
"You"ve guessed it, Torchy," says he. "I must leave them to you."
"Whaddye mean, them?" says I. "I thought we was talking about Ambrose."
"Oh, certainly," says Mr. Robert. "But Mrs. Wood is with him, he says.
In fact they came up together. Same boat. They would, you know. Charming young woman. At least, so I inferred from what Ambrose said. One of those dark Spanish beauties such as--"
"Check!" says I. "That lets me out. All the Spanish I know is "Multum in parvo" and I forget just what that means now. I couldn"t talk to the lady a-tall."
But Mr. Robert insists I don"t have to be conversational with her, or with Ambrose, either. All he wants me to do is steer "em to some nice, refined place regardless of expense, give "em a welcome-home feed that will make "em forget that the Ellins family is only represented by proxy, tow "em to some high-cla.s.s entertainment, like "The Boudoir Girls," and sort of see that Ambrose lands back at his hotel without having got mixed up with any of his old set.
"Oh!" says I. "Kind of a he-chaperone act, eh?"
That seems to be the general idea, and as he promises to stop in at the house and fix things up for me at home, and pushes a roll of twenties at me to spray around with as I see fit, of course, I has to take the job.
I trails in with Mr. Robert while he apologizes elaborate to Ambrose and explains how he"s had to ask me to fill in.
"Perfectly all right, old man," says Ambrose. "In fact--well, you get the idea, eh? The little wife hasn"t quite got her bearings yet. Might feel better about meeting her new relatives after she"s been around a bit. And Torchy will do fine."
He tips me the wink as Mr. Robert hurries off.
"Same old cut-up, eh, Amby?" says I.
"Who me?" says he. "No, no! Nothing like that. Old married man, steady as a church. Uh-huh! Two years and a half in the harness. You ought to see the happy hacienda we call home down there. Say, it"s forty-eight long miles out of Buenos Ayres. Can you picture that! El Placida"s the name of the cute little burg. It looks it. They don"t make "em any more placid anywhere."
"I wonder you picked it then," says I.
"I didn"t exactly," says Ambrose. "El Placida rather picked me. Funny how things work out sometimes. Got chummy with an old boy going down on the boat, Senor Alvarado. Showed him how to play Canfield and Russian bank and gave him the prescription for mixing a Hartford stinger. Before we crossed the line he thought I was an ace. Wanted to know what I was going to do down in his great country. "Oh, anything that will keep me in cigarettes," says I. "You come with me and learn the wool business,"
says he. "It"s a bet," says I. So instead of being stranded in a strange land and nibbling the shrubbery for lunch, as my dear brother and the Ellinses had doped out, I lands easy on my feet with a salary that starts when I walks down the gank plank. Only I have to be in El Placida to draw my pay."
"But you made good, did you?" I asks.
"I did as long as Senor Alvarado was around to back me up," says Amby, "but when he slides down to the city for a week"s business trip and turns me over to that Scotch superintendent of his the going got kind of rough. Mr. Mc.n.u.tt sends me out with a flivver to buy wool around the country. Looked easy. Buying things used to be my long suit. I bought a lot of wool. But I expect some of them low-browed rancheros must have gypped me good and plenty. Anyway, Mc.n.u.tt threw a fit when he looked over my bargains. He didn"t do a thing but fire me, right off the reel.
Honest, I"d never been fired so impetuous or so enthusiastic. He invites me to get off the place, which means hiking back to Buenos Ayres.
"Well, what can you do with a Scotchman who"s mad clear to the marrow?
Especially a rough actor like Mc.n.u.tt. I"d already done a mile from the village when along comes "Chita in her roadster. You know, old man Alvarado"s only daughter. Some senorita, "Chita is. You should have seen those black eyes of her"s flash when she heard how abrupt I"d been turned loose. "We shall go straight to papa," says she. "He will tell Senor Mc.n.u.tt where he gets off." She meant well, "Chita. But I had my doubts. I knew that Alvarado was pretty strong for Mc.n.u.tt. I"d heard him say there wasn"t another man in the Argentine who knew more about wool than Mc.n.u.tt, and if it came to a showdown as to which of us stayed on I wouldn"t have played myself for a look in.
"So while "Chita is stepping on the gas b.u.t.ton and handing out a swell line of sympathy I begins to hint that there"s one particular reason why I hated to leave El Placida. Oh, we"d played around some before that.
Strictly off stage stuff, though; a little mandolin practice in the moonlight, a few fox trot lessons, and so on. But before the old man I"d let on to be skirt shy. It went big with him, I noticed. But there in the car I decides that the only way to keep in touch with the family check book is to make a quick bid for "Chita. So I cut loose with the best Romeo lines I had in stock. Twice "Chita nearly ditched us, but finally she pulls up alongside the road and gives her whole attention to what I had to say. Oh, they know how to take it, those sonoritas.
She"d had a whole string of young rancheros and caballeros dangling around her for the past two years. But somehow I must have had a lucky break, for the next thing I knew we"d gone to a fond clinch and it was all over except the visit to the church."
"And you married the job, eh?" says I. "Fast work, I"ll say. But how did papa take it?"
"Well, for the first ten minutes," says Ambrose, "I thought I"d been caught out in a thunderstorm while an earthquake and a sham battle were being staged. But pretty soon he got himself soothed down, patted me on the shoulder and remarked that maybe I"d do as well as some others that he hadn"t much use for. And while he didn"t make Mc.n.u.tt eat his words or anything like that, he gave him to understand that a perfectly good son-in-law wasn"t expected to be such a shark at shopping for wool.
Anyway, we"ve been getting along fairly well ever since. You have to, in a place like El Placida."
"And this is a little postponed honeymoon tour, eh?" I suggests.
"Hardly," says Ambrose. "I hope it"s a clean break away from the continent of South America in general and El Placida in particular."
"Oh!" says I. "Will Senor Alvarado stake you to that?"
"He isn"t staking anybody now," says Ambrose. "Uh-huh! Checked out last winter. Good old scout. Left everything to "Chita, the whole works. And I"ve been ever since then trying to convince her that the one spot worth living in anywhere on the map is this little old burg with Broadway running through the middle."
"That ought to be easy," says I.
"Not with a girl who"s been brought up to think that Buenos Ayres is the last word in cities," says Ambrose. "Why, she"s already begun to feel sorry for the bellhops and taxi drivers and salesladies because she"s discovered that not one of "em knows a word of Spanish. Asks me how all these people manage to amuse themselves evenings with no opera to go to, no band playing on the plaza, and so on. See what I"m up against, Torchy?"
"I get a glimmer," says I.
"That"s why I"m glad you are going to tow us around," he goes on, "instead of Bob Ellins. He"s a back number, Bob. Me, too, from having been out of it all so long. Why, I"ve only been scouting about a little, but I can"t find any of the old joints."
"Yes, a lot of "em have been put out of business," says I.
"Must be new ones just as good though," he insists. "The live wires have to rally around somewhere."
"I don"t know about that," says I. "This prohibition has put a crimp in--"
"Oh, you can"t tell me!" breaks in Ambrose. "Maybe it"s dimmed the lights some in Worcester and Toledo and Waukegan, but not in good old Manhattan. Not much! I know the town too well. Our folks just wouldn"t stand for any of that Sahara bunk. Not for a minute. Might have covered up a bit--high sign necessary, side entrances only, and all that. But you can"t run New York without joy water. It"s here. And so are the gay lads and la.s.sies who uncork it. We want to mingle with "em, "Chita and yours truly. I want her to see the lights where they"re brightest, the girls where they"re gayest. Want to show her how the wheels go "round.
You get me; eh, Torchy?"
"Sure!" says I.
What was the use wastin" any more breath? Besides, I"d been hearin" a lot of these young hicks talk big about spots where the lid could be pried off. Maybe it was so. Ambrose and "Chita should have a look, anyway. And I spent the rest of the afternoon interviewin" sporty acquaintances over the "phone, gettin" dope on where to hunt for active capers and poppin" corks. I must say, too, that most of the steers were a little vague. But, then, you can"t tell who"s who these days, with so many ministers givin" slummin" parties and Federal agents so thick.
When I sails around to the Plutoria to collect Amby and wife about 6:30 I finds "Chita all gussied up like she was expectin" big doings. Quite a stunner she is, with them high voltage black eyes, and the gold ear hoops, and in that vivid colored evening gown. And by the sparkle in her eyes I can guess she"s all primed for a reg"lar party.
"How about the old Bonaparte for the eats?" I says to Ambrose.
"Swell!" says he. "I remember giving a little dinner for four there once when we opened--"
"Yes, I know," says I. "Here"s the taxi."