Five Thousand an Hour

by George Randolph Chester

  Five Thousand an Hour: How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress

  George Randolph Chester

  This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online.

  http://www.blackmask.com

  CHAPTER I. WHICH INTRODUCES JOHNNY GAMBLE AND HIS LAST HUNDRED DOLLARS

  CHAPTER II. IN WHICH STRANGERS BECOME OLD FRIENDS

  CHAPTER III. IN WHICH JOHNNY MIXES BUSINESS AND PLEASURE

  CHAPTER IV. IN WHICH GRESHAM FINDS JOHNNY'S OLD PARTNER ACCOMMODATING

  CHAPTER V. IN WHICH JOHNNY DISPLAYS TALENT AS A TRUE PROMOTER

  CHAPTER VI. IN WHICH CONSTANCE DECIDES ON A FAIR GAME

  CHAPTER VII. IN WHICH JOHNNY DREAMS OF A MAGNIFICENT TWENTY-STORY HOTEL

  CHAPTER VIII. IN WHICH CONSTANCE SHOWS FURTHER INTEREST IN JOHNNY'S AFFAIRS

  CHAPTER IX. IN WHICH JOHNNY MEETS A DEFENDER OF THE OLD ARISTOCRACY

  CHAPTER X. IN WHICH JOHNNY IS SINGULARLY THRILLED BY A LITTLE CONVERSATION OVER THE TELEPHONE

  CHAPTER XI. IN WHICH JOHNNY EXECUTES SOME EXCEEDINGLY RAPID BUSINESS DEALS

  CHAPTER XII. IN WHICH JOHNNY EVEN DOES BUSINESS AT THE BABIES' FUND FAIR

  CHAPTER XIII. IN WHICH JOHNNY BUYS A PRESENT AND HATCHES A SCHEME

  CHAPTER XIV. IN WHICH JOHNNY TRIES TO MIX BUSINESS WITH SKAT

  CHAPTER XV. IN WHICH WINNIE CHAPERONS THE ENTIRE PARTY TO CONEY ISLAND

  CHAPTER XVI. IN WHICH JOHNNY PLANS A REHEARSAL BETWEEN OLD FRIENDS

  CHAPTER XVII. IN WHICH THE STRAW SAILOR HAT OF JOHNNY PLAYS AN EMBARRASSING ROLE

  CHAPTER XVIII. IN WHICH THE ENTIRE WOBBLES FAMILY FOR ONCE GET TOGETHER

  CHAPTER XIX. IN WHICH THE COLONEL, MESSRS. COURTNEY, WASHER AND OTHERS SIT IN A LITTLE GAME

  CHAPTER XX. IN WHICH JOHNNY ASKS HIMSELF WHAT IS A MILLION DOLLARS, ANYWAY

  CHAPTER XXI. IN WHICH CONSTANCE AVAILS HERSELF OF WOMAN'S PRIVILEGE TO CHANGE HER MIND

  CHAPTER XXII. IN WHICH PAUL GRESHAM PROPOSES A VERY PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENT

  CHAPTER XXIII. IN WHICH THE BRIGHT EYES OF CONSTANCE "RAIN INFLUENCE"

  CHAPTER XXV. IN WHICH JOHNNY KEEPS ON DOING BUSINESS TILL THE CLOCK STRIKES FOUR

  Etext by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

  CHAPTER I. WHICH INTRODUCES JOHNNY GAMBLE AND HIS LAST HUNDRED DOLLARS

  About the time the winner of the Baltimore Handicap flashed under the wire, Johnny Gamble started to tear up a bundle of nice pink tickets on Lady S. Just then Ashley Loring came by swiftly in the direction of the betting shed. Loring stopped and wheeled when he caught sight of him as did most men who knew him.

  "Hello, Johnny! I didn't know you had run over. How are you picking them to-day?" he asked.

  "With a dream book," answered Gamble, smiling; "but I ate lobster last night."

  "I didn't know that you cared for the ponies."

  "I don't; and it's mutual. Thought I'd take one more whirl, though, before the Maryland governor also closes the tracks for ever. How are you doing?"

  "I'm working on a new system," stated the tall young man with elation. "With this scheme, all you have to do is to bet on the right horse. What did you have in the handicap?"

  "The off bay over there," replied Gamble, indicating a team attached to a sprinkling wagon, away on the farther side of the course. "Have one of her calling cards, Loring," and he proffered one of the ex- tickets.

  "Lady S?" translated Loring. "I cut her acquaintance three bets ago." And, turning just then toward the grandstand, he smiled up into one of the boxes and lifted his hat.

  Glancing in that direction, Gamble was shocked to find himself looking squarely into the dark eyes of a strikingly beautiful young woman who stood with her hands resting upon the rail.

  "What do you know about Collaton?" he asked; and, in spite of himself, he looked again. The young lady this time was laughing with a group of likable young idlers, all of whom Gamble knew; and, since the startling stranger was occupied, he could indulge in a slightly more open inspection.

  "I saw Collaton on the track to-day and he was making some big bets," replied Loring with a frown. "He's not broke, Johnny. He's merely been letting you hold the bag."

  "Well, help me let go. Loring, I must dissolve that partnership."

  The young lawyer shook his head.

  "No way to do it so long as the books remain lost. Unless one of you buys outright the practically defunct Gamble-Collaton Irrigation Company and assumes all its liabilities, you will remain responsible, since Collaton possesses no visible property. I'm sure that he stung you, Johnny."

  "Stung me! I'm swelled up yet."

  "It's your own fault. You trusted him too much."

  "He trusted me. I sold land."

  "Of course he trusted you. Everybody does. Meantime he was out West incurring obligations. You should have gone into bankruptcy and settled at twenty cents on the dollar when you had a chance, as I advised you."

  "Couldn't. I look in the glass when I shave. Anyhow, it's all paid now."

  "How do you know, with the books lost? You started in with an equal amount of money. When that was gone Collaton announced himself broke—and let you foot the bills. If he only raked off half of what he spent he got back his own and a tidy fortune besides. Your only chance is to have that enormous land deal turn out a winner."

  "It's worse than Lady S. Tore up my ticket long ago."

  "Quite a plunge on a long shot, with a welsher like Collator! making the book," commented Loring. "He stripped you clean."

  "I have my appetite," insisted Gamble with a grin. His cheeks were ruddy and his skin as flawless as a babe's, and his eyes— exceptionally large—were as clear as they were direct.

  "An appetite like yours only makes it worse to be broke," laughed Loring.

  "There's a plenty of money in New York if I want any," responded Gamble. "I don't need money, anyhow, Ashley. I have my mother fixed- -and there's nobody else. Besides, I'm not broke. I have a hundred. Do you know a good horse?"

  "Nautchautauk," advised Loring, and they both turned in the direction of the betting shed. "The price will probably be short; but I look on it as an investment."

  "You can't invest a hundred dollars," argued Gamble.

  "You don't mean to say that a hundred's all you have in the world!" returned Loring. "I thought you'd saved a good deal more than that out of the wreck."

  "I did; but my brother was broke," replied Gamble carelessly, and stopped in front of a blackboard. The price on Nautchautauk was one and a half to two. "I don't want a bet," he remarked, shaking his head at the board; "I need an accident. I wonder if that goat Angora has horns and a beard?"

  "People try fifty-to-one shots just before they cut their throats," warned Loring.

  "Hide my safety-razor then. Angora carries my hundred. I'll feed a sawbuck apiece to ten books."

  Loring lost sight of him for a few moments, but found him outside, by and by, in conversation with "Colonel" Bouncer, a heavily-jowled man with grizzled hair and very friendly eyes which, however, could look quite cold enough on occasion. The colonel was staring up at the box occupied by the young lady to whom Loring had bowed.

  "Bless my soul, I'm getting near-sighted!" he was saying as Loring joined them. "Isn't that Paul Gresham up there with Miss Joy?"

  "Is that her name?" asked Gamble eagerly. "Well, I believe it."

  The colonel turned from him impatiently.

  "You know Gresham, don't you, Loring? Is that he up there in that box?"

  "That is Saint Paul all right," answered Loring with a smile, as he glanced up at the prim and precise Gresham, who had now succeeded in fencing Miss Joy in a corner, away from the other young men.

  "Thanks," said the colonel, and walked away abstra
ctedly, his eyes still turning in the direction of the box, although he did not even start to go up into the grandstand.

  "The colonel is still bargain-hunting," observed Loring with a laugh. "His shoe-manufacturing business has increased to the point that he must have more space—and he must have it at once. The only available ground is Gresham's adjoining property, which Gresham long ago gave up trying to sell him. The colonel is crazy to buy it now, but he's afraid to let Gresham know he must have it, for fear Saint Paul will run up the price on him. In consequence, he trails the man round like a love-sick boy after an actress. When he finds Gresham he only looks at him—and goes away. That's only half of the laugh, however. Gresham wants to sell as badly as the colonel wants to buy, but he doesn't know where to find a fancy market. Queer case, isn't it?"

  "Yes," replied Gamble. "Who's Miss Joy?"

  "For heaven's sake, Johnny, don't say you're hit too—even at long distance!"

  "Hit!" repeated Gamble—"I'm flattened out. I'm no lady-fusser, Ashley, but I'm going to buy a new necktie."

  "You don't even know she's rich, do you?" asked Loring, looking at him with a curious smile.

  "Of course I do!" asserted Johnny. "I saw her eyes. Who is she?"

  "That's Miss Constance Joy—an orphan worth an exact million dollars; although I believe there is some sort of a string to it," Loring told him. "She lives with her aunt, who is Mrs. Pattie Boyden, and she's so pretty that even women forgive her. Anything else you want to know?"

  "Yes. Why do I want to bite Paul Gresham?"

  "Hush!" admonished Loring. "He is the remnant of one of our very best imported families, and he needs the money. He sells a piece of father's property every year, and he haunts Miss Joy like a pestilence. I think he's mixed up in her million some way or other. Aunt Pattie approves of him very much; she is strong for family."

  "I'll bite him yet," decided Gamble. "Say, Loring, how am I going to make a stringless million?"

  "If I knew that, I wouldn't be your lawyer," declared Loring. "Excuse me, Johnny; there's a client of mine."

  CHAPTER II. IN WHICH STRANGERS BECOME OLD FRIENDS

  Into the box where Miss Constance Joy—slender and dark and tall— entertained her bevy of admirers, there swished a violently-gowned young woman of buxom build and hearty manner, attended by a young man who wore a hundred-dollar suit and smiled feebly whenever he caught an eye. In his right hand he carried Miss Polly Parsons' gloves and parasol; in his left, her race-card and hand-bag. Round his shoulders swung her field-glasses; from his right pocket protruded her fan and from his left her auto veil. She carried her own vanity box.

  "If you aren't the darlingest thing in the world!" she greeted Miss Joy, whose face had lighted with a smile of both amusement and pleasure. "You certainly are some Con! Every time I see you in a new gown I change my dressmaker. Hello, boys!" She shook hands cordially with all of them as soon as she had paid her brief respects to Mrs. Pattie Boyden, who was pleasant and indulgent enough in her greeting, though not needlessly so.

  "You're looking as happy as ever, Polly," observed Constance.

  "I'm as happy as a mosquito in a baby's crib," avowed Polly. "I've added three thousand to-day to the subscription list for our Ocean View Baby Hotel. Where's that list, Sammy?"

  Sammy Chirp passed a few things from his right to his left hand and searched a few pockets; passed a few things from his left to his right hand, dropped the lady's handkerchief and picked it up, smiled feebly upon everybody, and then at last produced the subscription list, which Miss Joy read most interestedly.

  "That's splendid, Polly!" she approved. "Another day's work as good as this, and we'll be able to buy our hotel."

  Paul Gresham, standing stiffly between her and Polly, looked down at her and smiled correctly.

  "I guess we'd better go, don't you think?" he remarked to the other young men.

  "You're safe enough," retorted Polly. "You're safe any place with your check-book. Besides, we don't want to double names on this list. We'll spring another one when we're ready to equip and run the place. Oh, there's Johnny Gamble! Hello, Johnny!" And she leaned far over the rail to call to him.

  It was strange how quickly Johnny Gamble was able to distinguish a sound coming from that direction, and he looked up immediately. "Come right up here, Johnny," she commanded him. "I have a great surprise in store for you."

  "Go any place you say if it's not too hot there," he cheerfully assured her, and started off towards the staircase.

  "When I get Johnny Gamble's name this list is closed," said Polly confidently.

  "I'll bet with you on that," offered Bruce Townley. "Johnny probably hasn't enough money to buy a tin rattle for your babies' hotel."

  "No!" she protested, shocked. "I'm so used to seeing him with money that I don't think I'd know him if he had it shaved off."

  "He was too honest, as usual," supplemented Val Russel, lounging carelessly against the rail. "Here comes Ashley Loring. He can tell you all about it. Johnny Gamble hasn't a cent left, has he, Loring?"

  "It would be most unprofessional to discuss Mr. Gamble's private affairs," said Loring reprovingly as he came into the box. "Aside from a mere detail like that, I don't mind saying that Johnny Gamble has just bet the last hundred dollars he has in the world on an absolutely criminal long shot."

  "I hope he wins!" stated Polly heartily. "I think he's the only real gentleman I ever knew."

  "Well, I like that!" protested Val Russel, laughing.

  "I don't mean a slam at you boys," she hastily corrected. "You're a nice clean bunch; but I know so much about Johnny. He helps people, then hides so he can't be thanked. He's the one man out of a thousand that both women and men can absolutely trust."

  "That's rather a broad statement," objected Paul Gresham, who had eyed Polly with fastidious distaste every time she spoke. He was a rather silent young man with a thin high-arched nose and eyebrows that met, and was so flawlessly dressed that he sat stiffly.

  "I'll make it two in a thousand, Mr. Gresham," said Polly pleasantly. "I hadn't noticed you; and whatever I am I try to be polite."

  The four other young men, who were used to Polly's sweeping generalities, laughed; for Polly had their hearty approval.

  Johnny Gamble arrived.

  "Where's the surprise?" he demanded with a furtive glance in the direction of Miss Joy, a glance which Gresham jealously resented.

  "Me!" Polly gaily told him, thrusting her subscription list into the pocket of Sammy Chirp. "You haven't seen me since I got back."

  "You're no surprise—you're a gasp!" he informed her, heartily glad to see her. "That sunset bonnet is a maraschino."

  "Pinkest one they had," she complacently assured him. "I want you to meet some friends of mine, Johnny." And, with vast pride in her acquaintanceship with all parties concerned, she introduced him to Constance and Aunt Pattie.

  Johnny Gamble and Constance Joy, for just a moment, looked upon each other with the frank liking which sometimes makes strangers old friends. Gresham saw that instant liking and stiffened. Johnny Gamble, born in a two-room cottage and with sordid experiences behind him of which he did not like to think in this company, dropped his eyes; whereupon Miss Constance Joy, who had been cradled under silken coverlets, studied him serenely. She had little enough opportunity to inspect odd types at close range—and this was a very interesting specimen. His eyes were the most remarkable blue she had ever seen.

  "Cousin Polly has been telling us most pleasant things about you," she observed.

  "Your cousin Polly?" he inquired, perplexed.

  "Yes; we're cousins now," announced Polly happily. "It's the first time I ever had any relations, and I'm tickled stiff!"

  "So am I!" agreed Johnny heartily, figuring vaguely that somebody or other must have married.

  "You are just in the nick of time, Gamble," Gresham quietly stated with a deliberate intention of humiliating this child of no one. "Miss Polly has a subscription list which she wants you to com
plete."

  "He's too late," replied Polly with a flash of her eyes in Gresham's direction. "Mr. Loring just closed up that list," and she winked vigorously at Loring.

  "Loring's my friend," Gamble said with a cheerful laugh. "I have check-writer's cramp. Who's to get the loving cup?"

  "The loving cup's a bottle," Polly returned. "This is a baby's benefit. It's Constance's pet scheme and I'm crazy about it. We've found a big, hundred-room summer hotel, with two hundred acres of ground, on a high bluff overlooking the ocean; and we're going to turn it into a free hotel for sickly babies and their mothers. Isn't that some scheme?"

  "I'm so strong for it I ache!" announced Mr. Gamble with fervor. "Put me down for—" He checked himself ruefully. "I forgot I was broke!" Gresham shrugged his shoulders in satisfaction.

  "You'll take something for that," Polly confidently comforted her friend Gamble. "There's G. W. Mason Company, Johnny. Take me over to him and watch me fool him when he says he has no check-book with him. I have check blanks on every bank in town. Bring along my hand- bag and my subscription list, Sammy."

  When they had gone, with the feebly pleased Sammy dutifully bringing up the rear, Gresham looked after them with relief.

  "Handicap day brings out some queer people," he observed.

  "If you mean Mr. Gamble I think him delightful," Constance quickly advised him. "I'm inclined to agree with Polly that he is very much a gentleman."

  "He would be quite likely to appeal to Polly," remarked Aunt Pattie as she arose for a visit to a near-by box.

  "You mean Cousin Polly," corrected Constance sweetly.

  Gresham was very thoughtful. He was more logically calculating than most people thought him.

  It was Polly's cousinship which puzzled Johnny Gamble. "When you picked a cousin you made some choice," he complimented her. "How did you do it?"

  "They made me," she explained. "You know that Billy Parsons was the only man I ever wanted to marry—or ever will, I guess. His folks met me once and wouldn't stand for me at all; then Billy took sick and went out of his head. He cried for me so that the doctor said he had to have me; so I canceled the best engagement I ever had. I wasn't a star, but I was featured and was making an awful hit. I went right to the house, though, and stayed two months—till Billy died. Then I went back to work; but I hated it. Well, along toward the last they'd got so friendly that I was awful lonesome. It wasn't long till they got lonesome too. They're old, you know; and Billy was all they had. So they came after me and I went with them; and they adopted me and we all love each other to death. Constance's my cousin now—and she stands it without batting an eyelash. She's about the cream of the earth, Johnny!"