“Go to Fardale and get hold of Randall. Talk to him slow and easy, and
get him madder and madder. He’ll be sore about not getting elected
captain, anyhow. Work on that string. Play him good and strong, and get
him to promise that he’ll give the stuff to Merriwell. Then we’ve got
him. He’s one o’ them fellers who’ll stick to a promise, no matter what
comes. But you’ll have to handle it right.”
“You can trust me for that,” said Bully, with a growl, as he took the
paper.
His eyes shone with vindictive cunning. He had tried to injure
Merriwell, but vainly. Therefore, it was quite natural that he should
bear bitter hatred toward the fellow he had tried to injure.
He saw that by working through Randall he would be freed of all
personal responsibility, and this thought cheered on his little soul.
He was willing enough to do anything for which another could be made to
suffer, and this sort of chicanery was precisely what he could do well.
None the less, he did not forget that he wanted money. He saw that his
father’s scheme depended upon him, and grinned evilly.
“Now, come across, pop!”
“Hey?” Colonel Carson glared. “What do you mean?”
“Come across, I said!” Bully lolled back negligently in his chair, and
eyed his father coolly. “I ain’t workin’ for my health.”
“Confound your insolence!” sputtered the other angrily. “You’re working
for me! I’ll give you no money to squander, you reprobate!”
“Nothin’ doing, then, old tightwad,” and Bully made as if to hand back
the folded paper. He carelessly took his cigarette from his mouth and
exhaled a cloud of vile-smelling smoke.
“Why--do you mean--do you refuse to go to Fardale?” Colonel Carson was
almost speechless with rage.
“Surest thing you know!”
Colonel Carson reached into his pocket and drew out two five-dollar
bills.
“Here’s ten dollars--take it or leave it. Go to Fardale and stay over
Saturday. Use this as expense money.”
Bully sniffed, and his father exploded:
“You’ll do what I say! Take this expense money and work this business,
and you get ten per cent of the winnings. Refuse, and you can go to the
dickens for all o’ me! I’ll not have a worthless thing like you loafin’
around here any longer, understand?”
It was the first time Bully had ever seen his father aroused against
him, and he was cowed. Reaching out, he took the money and put it in
his pocket with the paper.
“All right,” he said, “I’ll do it.” But to himself he muttered
sullenly: “And I’ll have a wad to bet on that game--somehow!”
“Ah, I thought you’d come around, son!”
And once more Colonel Carson complacently tugged at his goatee.
CHAPTER XXIX. A THOUSAND DOLLARS IN CASH.
With eight dollars in his pocket, after purchasing his railroad ticket,
Bully Carson climbed aboard the express.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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