The Argosy for May — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

218 up the mail-clerk and destroyed the scurrilous anonymous letter which Corn- ing had posted the night before. ‘The truth was bad enough, without having a lot of lies tacked to it. And that truth—bad enough as it was —he had to tell to Daniel G. Ramsey! How the cloud of that coming confession hung over him! It seemed to change the morning, which was clear and beautiful outside, into a murky, lowering day with overcast skies and damp, chilling winds. The hour of his ordeal was postponed, however, for the president happened to be late, and, with the opening of the bank to the public, Rock had to enter his cage, to stay there until relieved. Somewhat fretful of the delay, Harry regarded it as almost a personal affront on the part of Fate that the. first cus- tomer to appear should be the pool-room man whose place he had visited the day before. G As though to mock him; too, the fellow pulled out a roll of bills large enough to choke a horse, and- began peeling off five hundreds and thousands as though he never would stop. Finally he wadded the money up into a bunch and pushed it through the win- dow. ‘““There you are,” he said. Harry supposed he had simply made a mistake, and nodded his head in the di- rection of the receiving-teller. “Wrong window,” he admonished shortly. | ‘““No, no,” persisted the man. ‘‘ That’s yours.” “Mine?” staring blankly. “ Certainly. What you won on Gold Heels yesterday. Five thousand dollars at official odds of six to one, or thirty thousand as your profit. Count it, and see if there isn’t thirty-five thousand in the bundle? ” Harry wondered if he was dreaming, or the man insane. ‘“ But Gold Heels didn’t win,” he faltered. “He led all the way to the finish, but was beaten out by a little sorrel who came from behind.” “Oh, that was Gold Hills,’ said the man impatiently. Then he stopped abruptly, and now it was his turn to stare. “Do you mean to tell me that you THE ARGOSY. intended to bet on Gold Hills,” he asked in awestruck tones, “and got your money down on Gold Heels instead? Man, man,’ dazedly shaking his head, “‘ you ought to quit this job and go into a museum as the greatest specimen of luck unhung. “Still, I oughtn’t to kick,’’ he added cheerfully, “for I followed your lead, and drew in a nice little wad myself. I’m just on my way to the next window now to give it to you chaps to take care of. Well, so long. Come over and see me \soon again.” Harry threw up his hands. ~ “ Not on your life!” he rejoined gaily. ‘Lightning never strikes but once in the same place, and I’ve been hit.” Then, without delay, he wired six thou- ‘ sand dollars to Chicago to meet the bogus draft when it should arrive, and deposit- ed the balance to the credit of his almost ~moribund bank account. Strange how all the world now took on a different aspect! ‘Fhe sky was blue and the sun shining, and even the grumpy old bookkeeper, whom he disliked, appeared to him as a long-lost brother. Yet, one thing remained unaltered. He felt that he must still tell Daniel G.— not only because the bank had a right to know of the transaction concerning the draft, but also for his own sake, in order that the memory of the dressing-down he was going to receive might serve as a deterrent to any such escapades in the future. | | And tell he did, falteringly, shame- facedly, but holding nothing back and concealing not one thing. Daniel G. listened to the end in si- lence. ‘Then he observed dryly: ‘““ And so you borrowed six thousand dollars of the bank’s money, and by your good judgment made thirty thousand dol- lars in one afternoon. That looks like good business to me. “Let’s go into it to- gether.” ‘Not for me,” and Harry spoke em-~ phatically. “I wouldn’t go through what I have suffered in the past twenty- four hours again for thirty thousand times thirty thousand. dollars. And as for good judgment, I have already told you that my winning was a sheer fluke, the bull-headedest sort of bull-headed luck, No, sir.‘ I have made up my COMMICMOOCKSsECO©