Five Thousand an Hour: How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress
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CHAPTER VII
IN WHICH JOHNNY DREAMS OF A MAGNIFICENT TWENTY-STORY HOTEL
The other terminal hotel projects had been kept very quiet, indeed,lest the jealous promoters of similar enterprises might be whetted intogreediness; but no such modesty seemed to attend the plans of theTerminal Hotel Company; in fact, it seemed to court publicity--and,since Johnny Gamble was known and liked by a host of newspaper men, itreceived plenty of attention. After the ball game Johnny rode down toMr. Courtney's club with him to dinner; and when he was through talkingto Courtney he immediately called on his newspaper friends.
When Loring arrived at the office in the morning he found Johnnyimmersed in a pile of papers--and gloating.
"Say, Johnny, I want you to give me power of attorney to wind up theGamble-Collaton Irrigation Company," was Loring's morning greeting.
"Go as far as you like," Johnny told him without looking up from aglowing account of the magnificent new hostelry.
"Good for you!" approved Loring. "I'd expected to have half an hour'swrestle with you--and I couldn't afford it, for this is my busy day. Iwant you to understand this, Johnny: If I take that old partnership offyour hands you're to ask no questions."
"Go twice as far as you like," offered Johnny indifferently. "I'veforgotten there ever was a Gamble-Collaton Irrigation Company. Listento this, Loring: 'Surmounting the twentieth story of the magnificentnew structure there will be a combined roof garden, cafe and theater,running continuous vaudeville--'"
"This agreement, entered into this twenty-fifth day of April," beganthe discordantly hurried voice of Loring. He was dictating to hisstenographer a much more comprehensive agreement than a mere power ofattorney; and as soon, as it was ready Johnny signed it without aquestion.
"Get this, Ashley?" he remarked, handing back Loring's pen and readinggleefully from another paper: "'A subway entrance into the new terminalstation is being negotiated--'"
"All right," said Loring, putting on his hat. "Good-by!"--and he wasgone.
If Loring professed but slight interest in the flamboyant plans for thenew hotel, there were others who were painfully absorbed in the news ofthe project. Gresham, for one, read the account with contracted browsat his late breakfast; and at noon, inspired by a virtuous sense ofduty, he sauntered over to Courtney's club.
"I see you're involved in another hotel proposition," he ventured.
"I hope involved is not the word," returned Courtney with rather a wrysmile.
"Is your company fully organized?" asked Gresham with a trace of morethan polite interest.
"I think not," answered Courtney. "I'm not in a position to state,however, as the matter is out of my hands. I am taking some stock init, of course; but I have nothing to do with the organization of thecompany, since I have sold the ground to Mr. Gamble."
"Gamble?" repeated Gresham. "Oh, is that so?"
His tone was so deprecative that Courtney was sharply awakened by it.
"Do you know anything against Gamble?" he quite naturally inquired.
"Not a thing," Gresham hastily assured him. "Anyhow, you have sold himthe property and are fully secured?"
"I've sold it to him under contract," replied Courtney, ready, in viewof his recent experiences, to become panic-stricken at a moment'snotice.
"Of course, if anything happens you can reclaim the property," Greshamconsidered. "It forms its own security; but still, any one holding aprivate claim against Gamble might try to attach it and give you anasty entanglement."
"There doesn't seem to be any danger of that," argued Courtney, lookingworried, nevertheless. "He was able to show me an extremely clean billof health. The only drawback I could find in his record was the paymentof some debts which were not rightly his and which he might haveevaded."
"Did he refer you to the Fourth National Bank?" inquired Greshamquietly.
"No. Say, Gresham, what have you up your sleeve? Gamble paid me fifteenthousand dollars this morning, as per agreement. I would scarcely thinkhe would risk that much money on a bluff."
"He paid you the fifteen thousand, then?" said Gresham with a smile."Mr. Courtney, one does not like to mix in these affairs; but you andmy father were friends and, though I regret to do so, I feel it my dutyto advise you to call up the Fourth National Bank."
"Thanks!" gratefully acknowledged Courtney, and hurried down to thetelephone booth. He came back in a few moments, and his manner wasdistinctly cool. "I 'phoned to Mr. Close," he stated. "He tells me thatan attachment was laid against Mr. Gamble's account at his bankyesterday for fifteen thousand dollars, and was returned to the servermarked 'no funds'; but that this morning the executor of Mr. Gamble'sinterests in the Gamble-Collaton Irrigation Company deposited fifteenthousand dollars for the specific purpose of meeting this attachment.Mr. Close informs me that, though he could not, of course, guaranteeMr. Gamble's solvency, he would take Mr. Gamble's unsupported word onany proposition. I have known Joe Close for years, and I never knew himto be so enthusiastic about any man who possessed no negotiablesecurities. I thank you for your well-intentioned interference in mybehalf, Mr. Gresham, but I think I shall cling to Mr. Gamblenevertheless."
"I certainly should if I were in your place," Gresham hastily assuredhim with such heartiness as he could assume. "I am delighted to learnthat the rumor I heard of Mr. Gamble's insolvency is unfounded."
"By the way, where did you hear the rumor?" inquired Courtney with afrown.
"Really, I've forgotten," Gresham confessed.
"One should not forget such things if one repeats such rumors,"Courtney reproved him.
Gresham went away both puzzled and annoyed. It was three o'clock beforehe found Collaton; and that featureless young man, whose lack ofvisible eyebrows and lashes was a constant annoyance to the fastidiousGresham, was in a high state of elation.
"Well, we get back your fifteen thousand," he exulted after they weresafely in Gresham's apartments. "Of course Jacobs gets five thousandfor engineering the deal, but that gives us five thousand apiece.Jacobs was told--about eleven o'clock--that the money was there."
"Keep my share; but why didn't you send me word?" snarled Gresham. "Inearly put my foot in it by having a man with whom Gamble is doingbusiness inquire about him at the Fourth National. In place of injuringhis credit, we've strengthened it."
"Good work!" approved Collaton. "I hope he makes all kinds of money."
"I don't!" snapped Gresham. "Did you read the papers this morning?"
"I read the racing and base-ball returns."
"There was more to interest you in the news. Gamble has a big hotelproposition on--and I want it stopped. Can you get another attachmentagainst him for about fifty thousand dollars?"
"It's risky!" And Collaton looked about him furtively. "It's easyenough to fake an old note for money--"
"You must not say 'fake' to me. I will not countenance any crookedbusiness."
"To dig up an old note for money I am supposed to have borrowed andspent--"
"Not supposed."
"For money I borrowed and spent on the work out there--and have a quietsuit entered by one of my pet assassins in Fliegel's court, have thesummons served and confess judgment. Johnny is sucker enough to confessjudgment, too, rather than repudiate a debt which he can not prove hedoes not owe; but I've already milked that scheme so dry that I'mafraid of it."
"You're afraid of everything," Gresham charged him with the scorn onecoward feels for another. "Your operations out there were spread overten thousand acres of ground; and it would take a dozen experts sixmonths, without any books or papers to guide them, to make even anapproximate estimate of your legitimate expenditures."
"I don't know," hesitated Collaton with a shake of his head--"I onlytouched the high places in the actual work out there. I believe I was asucker at that, Gresham. If I had buckled down to it, like Gamble does,we could have made a fortune out of that scheme. He's a wonder!"
"He has wonderful luck," corrected Gresham. "I tried my best to scareCourtney a
way from him with that attachment, but he insisted onclinging to his Johnny Gamble; so we'll hand him enough of Johnny bylaying a fifty-thousand-dollar attachment against his property."
"You're a funny cuss," said Collaton, puzzled. "If you wanted to soakhim for this fifty thousand why did you try to scare Courtney off?"
"Can't you understand that I'm not after the money?" demanded Gresham."I've explained that to you before. I want Gamble broke, discredited,and so involved that he can never transact any business in New York."
"What's he done to you?" inquired Collaton. "He must be winning astand-in with your girl."
"My private affairs are none of your concern!" Gresham indignantlyflared.
"All right, governor," assented Collaton a trifle sullenly. "I'll fakethat note for you to-night; and--"
"I told you I would not have anything to do with any crooked work,"Gresham sharply reprimanded him.
"Oh, shut up!" growled Collaton. "You give me the cramps. You're aworse crook than I am!"