Nothing was to be gained by pressing inquiries upon a gentleman who
ordered his affairs by the zodiac. At Buffalo the Governor made earnest
efforts to rent a yacht, without confiding to Archie just what use he
expected to make of it. No yachts being in the market, the Governor set
about hiring a tug, and did in fact lease one for a month from a
dredging company, paying cash and the wages of the crew in advance, and
reserving an option to buy. The _Arthur B. Grover_ was to be sent to
Cleveland and held there for orders. He might want to negotiate the
lakes as far as Duluth, he told the president of the company, who was
surprised and chagrined when the singular Mr. Saulsbury readily accepted
a figure that was intended to be prohibitive. The Governor was proud of
the tug and expatiated upon its good points, which included sleeping
quarters for the men and a nook where the captain could tuck himself
away. He deplored his previous inattention to tugs; he believed more fun
could be got from a tug like the _Arthur B. Grover_ than from the best
steam yacht afloat.
"We must be ready for anything," he remarked to Archie. "The signs point
to a disturbance of great waters, and there's nothing like being
prepared."
At Cleveland Archie's last doubt as to his mentor's connection with the
underworld of which he talked so entertainingly was removed. Reaching
the city at midnight the car was left at a garage downtown, their trunks
expressed to Chicago, and they arrived by a devious course at an
ill-smelling boarding house. Here, the Governor informed him, only the
aristocracy of the preying professions were received.
The arrival of another guest, a tall man of thirty, who had been taking
a porch-climbing jaunt through mid-western cities, added to Archie's
pleasure. In his clubs he had lent eager ear to the tales of such of his
acquaintances as had slaughtered lions in Africa, or performed fancy
stunts of mountaineering, and more lately he had listened with awe to
the narratives of scarred veterans of the Foreign Legion; but this
fellow "Gyppy," as the Governor called him, who had mastered the art of
scaling colonial pillars and raiding the second story chambers of the
homes of honest citizens, seemed to Archie hardly less heroic. "Gyppy"
recounted his adventures with a kind of sullen humor that Archie found
highly diverting. He sheepishly confessed that the net reward of a
fortnight of diligent labor in his specialty was only three hundred
dollars. The Governor was very stern with "Gyppy," advising him to
abandon porch-climbing as a hazardous and unprofitable vocation. Archie
was dragged from the hardest bed he had ever slept in early the next
morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account