Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

168 shouted Mr. Berford, as he lost himself for a second or two. “Well, by the mighty! I guess you needn’t go any farther!” Moreland cried, and his voice cracked with the pure joy of . the thing. ‘“ You’ve said enough! You— you’re a wonder! You’re—”’ They were at it again, all of them chat- tering at once like so many monkeys, first at one another and then, all of them, at Mr. Craven. And I’m bound to say that Craven was funny to watch. He seemed to be shrinking down; his eyes were wide open again and he was waving his hands, palms upward, and saying something or other that nobody bothered to hear. Mr. Berford held up one hand and they grew silent suddenly. ‘“ Does that explanation suffice?” he de- manded. “ Vou bet it suffices!” Mr. Jones cackled, and the rest nodded energetically. “And has the book of my life been opened to your satisfaction, Mr. Craven?” Four old gentlemen leaned toward Cra- ven at once. For a moment I thought there was going to be a sort of elderly battle royal, to get at him; but old Isaac pulled himself out of his chair and came toward Berford. “T ask your pardon, Thomas,” he said, nicely enough. “TI spoke hastily and with- out due thought. I offer you my most hum- ble apology.” He held out his hand and, of course, Mr. Berford shook it, although I didn’t notice that Craven had to wince any at the grip he got. As he turned around and went back to his chair, I caught his expression and it struck me harder than ever how much more like a catty old lady he is than like a man. Woman convinced against her will, you know—all that sort of thing, Anyhow, peace was restored and every- thing was lovely, and nothing short of a national calamity could have taken the smiles off the faces of those old gentlemen for a while: They talked and they guarded their words so as not to offend Mr. Ber- ford; but a blind and deaf man in that room could have sensed that nobody contem- plated suicide because the president was going to marry the Storm Manufacturing Company. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. So far as that goes, it did mean a lot to all present. It meant getting decent prices henceforth and less worry and hundreds on hundreds of thousands of dollars saved on advertising campaigns; by the time the consolidation really had been effected, it would mean running two huge firms for about the price of one, with the profits nearly doubled for everybody. These old codgers owned about all the Berford stock that had ever been sold; no wonder they were pleased! But the president’s ruffled fur wasn’t smoothing down so easily. Mr. Berford is an extrerhely proud person, and it had hurt him like sixty to stand up there and explain | his private affairs to old Craven. He fussed for a minute or two, glaring at them; then he turned and glared at me, as if he were going to knock me senseless just to relieve his feelings. Then he got up with a savage little jerk and they all stopped talking and stared at him. ‘“T am merely going over there for a drink of water!” he explained tartly. And he marched away from the table and his heels must have ground straight through the four thousand dollars’ worth of lovely Oriental rug we have in that directors’ room! They put up our building in the funny old era when no office was properly fur- nished unless it had a marble basin stuck in the corner. The marble basin was in here, with a mirror hung up above it and an ancient screen in front of it; and they had put the showy white water-cooler be- hind the screen, too, in the interest of ar- tistic harmony, I suppose, the rest of the place being rather chastely elaborate. ' That was where Mr. Berford headed and, once behind the screen, he took his own time about reappearing. I don’t know just what was going on back there, but I can imagine most of it; and very likely if the directorate could have heard exactly what their president was muttering, they’d have made a break for the door. He drank one glass of water and then another glass; I heard the tumbler clink back into its place on the stand and there was a little wait. Another thirty seconds and Mr. Berford probably felt that he could face them again (CONMUCGLe OOKSEGOMT