CHAPTER XXIV
IN WHICH JOHNNY DEMANDS SPOT CASH AT ONCE
Seven-thirty the next morning found Johnny Gamble listening, in awedcuriosity, to an insistent telephone bell. Gradually it dawned on himthat he must have left a call, and plodding into the bath-room hemechanically turned on the cold water, reflecting dully that this wasa cruel world. Suddenly it came to him with a rush that thisthirty-first of May was to be the busiest of his life! He had to havea million dollars before four o'clock!
At seven-forty-five he was out of his bath-tub. At eight he was gulpinghot coffee. At eight-fifteen he was stepping out of the elevator withan apple core in his hand.
At the curb in front of his door he found a long gray torpedo touringcar throbbing with impatience, and at the wheel sat a plump young ladyin a vivid green bonnet and driving coat. In the tonneau sat a moreslender young lady all in gray, except for the brown of her eyes andthe pink of her cheeks and the red of her lips.
Johnny's Baltimore straw hat came off with a jerk.
"Out after the breakfast rolls?" he demanded as he shook hands withthem quite gladly.
"No, indeed; hunting a job," responded Polly. "This machine and theservices of its chauffeur and messenger girl are for rent to you only,for the day, at the price of a nice party when you get that million. Wehave to be in on the excitement."
"Hotel Midas," Johnny crisply directed, and jumped into the tonneau,whereupon the chauffeur touched one finger to her bonnet, and themachine leaped forward.
"You're lazy," chided Constance. "We've been waiting twenty minutes. Wewere afraid you might be gone, but they told us that you had not yetcome down."
"If I'd known you were coming I'd have been at the curb beforedaybreak," grinned Johnny. "You're in some rush this morning."
"There must be some rushing if you have that million dollars by fouro'clock," laughed Constance. "Polly and I want you to have it."
"You're right that I'll have to go some," he admitted.
"Excuse the chauffeur for interrupting your conversation," protestedPolly, turning round and deftly missing a venturesome banana cart; "butyou grabbed off half a million of it on a holiday."
"It was twelve-thirty this morning when we took Gresham," claimedJohnny. "This is a working-day."
"Hotel Midas," announced the chauffeur, pulling up to that flamboyantnew hostelry with a flourish.
Johnny hurried in to the desk, where Mr. Boise had already left wordthat Mr. Gamble should be shown right up. He found that fatigue-proofold Westerner shining from his morning ablutions, as neat as a pin fromhead to foot, and smoking his after-breakfast cigar in a parlor whichhad not so much as a tidy displaced. His eyes twinkled the moment hesaw Johnny.
"I suppose you still have a disinterested anxiety to have me adopt theSage City and Salt Pool route?" he laughed.
"I'm still anxious about it," amended Johnny, refusing to smile at hisown evasion of the disinterestedness. "I brought you a wad of reportsand things to show you how good that territory is. You don't know whata rich pay-streak you'd open up in that part of the Sancho Hills Basin."
Mr. Boise laughed with keen enjoyment.
"I don't think I need to wade through that stuff, Johnny," he admitted,having picked up from Courtney the habit of calling young Gamble by hisfirst name. "To tell you the truth, I sent a wireless telegram to mychief engineer yesterday afternoon, off Courtney's yacht when weconnected with the Taft, and this morning I have a five-hundred-wordnight lettergram from him, telling me that after a thoroughinvestigation of the situation he finds that the Sage City and theLariat Center routes are so evenly balanced in advantage that a choiceof them is really only a matter of sentiment."
Johnny paused awkwardly, stumped for the first time in his life.
"I don't know how to make that kind of an argument," he confessed, tothe great enjoyment of Boise.
"It is rather difficult," admitted that solidly constructed railroadpresident; "particularly since I personally favor the Lariat Centerroute."
Johnny again felt very awkward.
"Can't we put this on some sort of a business basis?" he implored.
"I don't think so," returned Mr. Boise with a cheerful smile. "Youprobably couldn't influence me in the least; but that charming younglady who was with you yesterday afternoon--your sister or something, Ibelieve, wasn't it--she might."
Johnny stiffened.
"Then we don't want it," he quietly decided, and took his hat.
"That's the stuff!" yelled Boise in delight. "You belong out West!Well, Johnny, I'm afraid you'll have to have it as a matter ofsentiment, and partly on the charming young lady's account, whether youlike it or not. Now what have you to say about it, you young bantam?"
"Much obliged," laughed Johnny, recovering from his huff in a hurry. "Ithank you for both of us."
"Don't mention it," replied Boise easily, and chuckling in a way thatdid him good. "Give my very warmest regards to the young lady inquestion."
"Would you care to come down-stairs and give them to her yourself?"invited Johnny, a trifle ashamed that he had resented the quiteevidently sincere admiration of Boise for both Constance and himself.
"So early in the morning?" laughed Boise, putting on his sombrero withalacrity. "It must be serious," and, clapping Johnny heartily on theshoulder with a hand which in its lightest touch came down with theforce of a mallet, he led the way to the elevator.
At the curb Mr. Boise, who was also confronting a busy day, delightedboth the girls and Johnny by the sort of well-wishes that a real mancan make people believe, and when they drove away Constance wasblushing and Polly was actually threatening to adopt him.
The next stop was at Collaton's, where Johnny bought from thatnonchalantly pleased young man his interest in the Gamble-CollatonIrrigation Company for five thousand dollars, A check for which amounthe borrowed from Polly while Collaton was signing the transfer.
Next he went to the offices of the Western Developing Company, and thepresident of that extensive concern waved him away with both hands.
"If you've come about that Sancho Hills Basin land of yours, talk to meabout it in a theater lobby sometime," Washburn warned Johnny inadvance. "We discuss nothing but real business up here."
"I'll bet you five thousand acres of the land that this is realbusiness," Johnny offered. "The S. W. & P. has just secured control ofthe B. F. & N. W., and intends to run the main line to Puget Soundright square through the middle of my land. Now are you busy?"
"Sit down and have a cigar," invited Washburn, and slammed a call-bell."Billy," he told a boy, "if Mr. Rothberg comes in on that appointmenttell him I'll see him in a few minutes. Now, Johnny, how do I know thatthe S. W. & P. will actually build that connecting link through yourland?"
"Ask Boise," directed Johnny confidently. "He's at the Hotel Midas, andhe has appointments in his room for the most of the morning."
"Has that grasping old monopolist gumshoed into town again?" inquiredWashburn, and promptly ordered his secretary to get Boise on thetelephone. "How much do you want for that land?" he asked while hewaited.
"Half a million dollars," stated Johnny. "No, I mean five hundred andten thousand," he hastily corrected, remembering hisfive-thousand-dollar debt to Polly, and planning a five-thousand-dollarbetrothal blow-out that should be a function worth while.
"Half a million's a lot of money," Washburn soberly objected.
"I said half a million and ten thousand, spot cash and to-day," Johnnycarefully corrected.
"You're joking."
"Am I smiling?" demanded Johnny. "Washburn, if I can't get that odd tenthousand I'm in no hurry to sell."
Washburn's bell rang, but he went into the next room to talk to Boise.He came back resigned.
"We'll need a few days for the formalities," he suggested.
"You don't need a minute," denied Johnny. "You looked up the titleweeks ago, and you know it's all right. The formalities can beconcluded in thirty minutes if you'll send your attorney down with m
e."
"But what's the rush?" demanded Washburn, averse to paying out cashwith this speed.
"I want the money," explained Johnny.
"All right," gave in Washburn. "You may see Jackson at two o'clock andwind up the business. He'll hand you a check."
"For five hundred and ten thousand?" inquired Johnny with propercaution.
"For five hundred and ten thousand," repeated Washburn. "It's afool-sounding amount, but Boise said that if I wouldn't pay it hewould."
"May I speak to Boise a minute?" asked Johnny.
"This deal's closed," hastily cautioned Washburn with his hand on thetelephone.
"Of course it's closed," acknowledged Johnny. "I want to invite Boiseto a party."
Five Thousand an Hour: How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress Page 24
