Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

AMERICANS Hemmett faced him steadily. ‘“Maybe it was the realest thing that has happened to us in Guanama!”’ he replied. “What’s that?” ‘““There’s something big behind i1t— just as there was something big behind that offer of Ricoro’s, Steve! No one man, no one concern, is strewing money around in millions ltke that! I’m not exaggerating our own importance, but we're a certain power in this country— and I’ve been thinking harder in the last two minutes than I’ve thought in four years! The object of this evening’s little lunatic game is to get us out of Gua- nama!”’ “Do you believe it?” Mr. Girton asked, sitting down quite suddenly. ‘“‘[ believe more than that! Why should those two propositions have been hurled at us that way, if they wanted anything else? Any two ordinary men would have fallen for both of ’em, Steve! If we closed with Ricoro and closed with Jones, and the money was real, we’d have nothing to do but retire to New York, buy up Central Park, and build a home in the middle—and there’s some- thing big behind it!”’ ‘You said that before!” “And I'll keep on saying it until I find the answer,” Hemmett assured him. ‘“‘ And here’s another point that has been coming up in my mind. The factories— the National Engine Works—all the money that has come into Guanama in the last two years. Do you realize that almost every penny of it has come from one European nation?” His eyes snapped. Beneath the tropical tan long since acquired, blood was surging up—nor did Girton remain un- affected. The recent dizziness returned to Mr. Girton, and he stammered: ‘““‘You—you’ve got the darnedest imagination—”’ “Possibly. But the thing that appeals to me is that, in all common sense, a nation, and only a nation, can spend money like that; and the nation that has AFTER ALL. 363 been spending millions on millions in Guanama—.”’ ‘Wants us to get out?” And here, since the matter had ascended—or descended—to the purely ridiculous, Girton threw back his head and laughed suddenly. He caught Hem- mett’s frown, and laughed the harder. He even slapped his knee and rocked for a little, and he ended with a wheeze. “Well, it’s a funny notion, anyway!” he remarked. “You think there’s nothing in it?” asked the unsmiling Hemmett. ‘““T have a glorious opinion of you, and another of myself, but I refuse to believe that a great European nation wants us to move to New York, Ned—yes.” Mr. Hemmett rose with a dry smile. ‘Just the same, we’ll step across the street and have a guarded little talk with father-in-law,” said he. ‘‘ About all of this?” ‘“Not necessarily. Fernandez is a Guanaman, with all the national charac- teristics. I’ve no idea of telling just what has happened and having him form his own theories and chatter about them to every other capitalist he meets for the next month—but it does happen once in a while that, by careful sounding, Papa Fernandez can be made to drop a helpful little hint or two, Steve. I’ve had more than one clue to a peculiar situation from his lips and—come along.” Silently he led the way across to the magnificent Fernandez home—and Ste- phen’s merriment died out within him. For one thing, he could find no tenable answer to the double riddle; for another, Ned Hemmett had a disconcerting way of being absolutely right just when one fancied that imagination had carried him away—and at the doorway Hemmett was turning to his friend and saying gravely: ‘““Let me do the talking, Steve. If he knows what’s afoot, he’ll drop a clue!” They found Fernandez in his library, a room magnificent as all the others, but DOOK nn C©