And Mr. Robert can"t tell him it"s anything else. Hasn"t he got his pockets full of newspaper clippings to prove it? Don"t people turn and stare after him in the street and nudge each other in the subway cars?
Aren"t his artist friends giving him a banquet at the Purple Pup? So why should he work for wages any more, or save up any of the easy money that"s coming his way? And he sails out indignant, with his cape overcoat swayin" grand from his narrow shoulders.
"I give him up, Torchy," says Mr. Robert. "That is, unless you can suggest some way of making him see what an a.s.s he is. Come, now!"
"All right," says I, gettin a sudden hunch. "I don"t know as it will work in his case, for he"s got it bad, but suppose we tow him out for a look at Private Ben Riggs?"
"By George!" says Mr. Robert, slappin" his knee. "The very thing.
Sunday, eh?"
It was easy enough stagin" the affair. All he had to do was to ask the Beans out for the week-end, and then after Sunday dinner load "em into the tourin" car, collect me, and drive off about 20 miles or so to the south sh.o.r.e of Long Island.
Maybe, though, you don"t remember about Private Ben Riggs? Oh, of course the name still sticks. It"s that kind of a name. But just what was it he did? Uh-huh! Scratchin" your head, ain"t you? And yet it was less than two years ago that he was figurin" more prominent in the headlines than anybody else you could name, not barrin" Wilson or Von Hindenburg.
One of our first war heroes, Ben Riggs was, and for nearly two weeks there he had the great American people shoutin" themselves hoa.r.s.e in his honor, as you might say. There was editorials, comparin" his stunt to what Dewey did at Manila Bay, or Hobson at Santiago, and showin" how Private Ben had a shade the best of it, after all. The Sunday ill.u.s.trated sections had enlarged snapshots of him, of his boyhood home in Whositville; of his dear old mother who made that cla.s.sic remark, "Now, wasn"t that just like Ben"; and of his girlish sweetheart, who was cashier at the Acme Lunch and who admitted that "she always had known Ben was going to be a great man some day."
Then when the governor of Ben"s state worked his pull and got Ben sent home right in the midst of it all there was another grand hooray--parades, banquets and so on. And they raised that testimonial fund for him to buy a home with, and presented him with a gold medal.
Next, some rapid firin" publishin" firm rushed out a book: "Private Ben Rigg"s Own Story," which he was supposed to have written. And then, too, he went on in a vaudeville sketch and found time to sign a movie contract with a firm that was preparin" to screen his big act, "True To Life."
It was along about that stage that Private Ben, with more money in the bank than he"d ever dreamed came from all the mints, got this great scheme in his nut that a n.o.ble plute like him ought to have a big estate somewhere and build a castle on it. So he comes out here on the south sh.o.r.e, lets a real estate shark get hold of him, and the next thing he knows he owns about a hundred acres of maybe the most worthless land on the whole island. His next move is to call in an architect, and inside of a month a young army of laborers was layin" the foundations for what looked like a city hall, but was really meant to be Riggsmere Manor, with 78 rooms, 23 baths, four towers, and a dinin" room 65 feet long and a ceiling 16 feet in the clear.
Then the slump came. I forget whether it was a new hero, or another submarine raid. Anyway, the doings of Private Ben Riggs ceased to be reported in the daily press. He dropped out of sight, like a nickel that rolls down a sewer openin". They didn"t want him any more in vaudeville.
The movie producer welched on his proposition. The book sales fell off sudden. The people that wanted to name cigars or safety razors after him, or write songs about him, seemed to forget.
For a few days Private Ben couldn"t seem to understand what had happened. He went around in a kind of a daze. But he had sense enough left to stop work on the Manor, countermand orders for materials, and pull out with what he could. It wasn"t such a great pile. There was a construction shed on the property, fairly well built, and by running up a chimney and having a well sunk, he had what pa.s.sed for a home. There in the builder"s shack Private Ben has been living ever since. He has stuck up a real estate sign and spends most of his time layin" out his acres of sand and marsh into impossible buildin" lots. As he"s way off on a back road, few people ever come by, but he never misses a chance of tacklin" those that do and tryin" to wish a buildin" plot on "em. That"s how we happen to know him so well, and to have kept up with his career.
On the way out we sort of revived F. Hallam Bean"s memories of Private Ben Riggs. First off he thought Ben had something to do with the Barbara Freitchie stunt, or was he the one who jumped off Brooklyn Bridge? But at last he got it straight. Yes, he remembered having had a picture of Private Ben tacked up in his studio, only last year. Then we tried him on Jack Binns, and Sergeant York and Lieutenant Blue and Dr. Cook. He knew they"d all done something or other to make the first page, but his guesses were kind of wide.
"I would like to see Private Ben, though," says F. Hallam. "Must be an interesting chap."
"He is," says Mr. Robert. "His sc.r.a.p books are interesting, too. He has ten of them."
"By Jove!" says Hallam. "Good idea. I must tell Myrtle about that."
But after we"d been hailed by this lonesome lookin" party in baggy pants and the faded blue yachtin" cap, and we"d let him lead us past the stone foundations where a fine crop of weeds was coming up, and he"d herded us into his shack and was tryin" to spring a blueprint prospectus on us, F. Hallam sort of put his foot in his mouth by remarkin":
"So you are Private Ben Riggs, are you?"
"I was--once," says he. "Now I"m just Sand-Lot Riggs. Who are you?"
"Oh, pardon me," puts in Mr. Robert. "I thought you would know. This is Mr. Hallam Bean, the celebrated founder of the Revertist school of art."
"Oh, yes!" said Riggs. "The one who painted the corset picture ad."
"Soap picture," I corrects hasty, "featurin" the Countess Zecchi."
"That"s so, it was soap," admits Riggs. "And I was noticin" in the mornin" paper how the Countess had decided to drop them suits."
"What?" says Hallam, starin" at him. "Where was that? On the front page?"
"No," says Riggs. "It was a little item on the inside mixed up with the obituary notes. That"s always the way. They start you on the front page, and then----" Private Ben shrugs his shoulders. But he proceeds to add hasty, with a shrewd squint at Hallam: "Course, it"s different with you.
Say, how about buyin" the estate here? I"d be willin" to let it go cheap."
"No, thank you," says F. Hallam, crisp.
"Part of it then," insists Riggs. "I"d been meanin" to write you about it. I generally do write "em while--while they"re on the front."
"No," says Hallam, and edges toward the door.
He seemed to get the idea. Before he starts back for town that night he asks Mr. Robert if he could say a word for him at the advertisin"
agency, as he thought it might be just as well if he hung onto the job.
It wasn"t such a poor thought, for Hallam fades out of public view a good deal quicker than he came in.
"Maybe it wasn"t Fame that rung him up, after all," I suggests to Mr.
Robert.
He nods. "It might have been her step-sister, Notoriety," says he.
"Just what"s the difference?" says I.
Mr. Robert rubs his chin. "Some old boy whose name I"ve forgotten, put it very well once," says he. "Let"s see, he said that Fame was the perfume distilled from the perfect flowering of a wise and good life; while Notoriety was--er----"
"Check!" says I. "It"s what you get when you fry onions, eh?"
Mr. Robert grins. "Some day, Torchy," says he, "I think I shall ask you to translate Emerson"s Essays for me."
It"s all josh, all right. But that"s what you get when you"re a private sec. de luxe.
CHAPTER III
THE GUMMIDGES GET A BREAK
This news about how the Gummidges had come back is "phoned in by Vee here the other afternoon. She"s some excited over it, as she always is when she sees another chance of extendin" the helpin" hand. I"ll admit I wasn"t quite so thrilled. You see, I"d been through all that with the Gummidges two or three times before and the novelty had sort of worn off. Besides, that last rescue act we"d pulled had been no common charity hand-out. It had been big stuff, nothing less than pa.s.sing the hat among our friends and raising enough to send the whole lot of "em so far West that the prospects of their ever gettin" back to New York was mighty slim. Maybe that was one reason I"d been so enthusiastic over puttin" the job through. Not more"n eighteen months ago that had been, and here they all were back in our midst once more.
"At the same old address," adds Vee, "so you can guess what that means, Torchy."
"Uh-huh!" says I. "The Patricia apartments has a perfectly punk janitor again and we"re due to listen to another long tale of woe."
"Oh, well," says Vee, "it will be interesting to see if Mrs. Gummidge is still bearing up cheerful and singing that "When the Clouds Are Darkest" song of hers. Of course, I am coming right in as soon as I can pack a basket. They"re sure to be hungry, so I"m going to put in a whole roasted chicken, and some jars of that strawberry jam Rowena likes so much, and heaps of bread and b.u.t.ter sandwiches. Probably they"ll need a few warm clothes, too, so I hope you don"t mind, Torchy, if I tuck in a couple of those khaki shirts of yours, and a few pairs of socks, and----"
"Say," I breaks in, "don"t get too reckless with my wardrobe. I ain"t got enough to fit out the whole Gummidge family, you know. Save me a dress tie and a change of pajamas if you can."
"Silly!" says she. "And listen: I will call for you about 5 o"clock and we"ll go up to see them together."
"Very well," says I. "I"ll try to hold myself back until then."