As I had vowed to say nothing about how Jimmy got his bankroll, I
couldn't very well give the ambitious Hazel the lowdown on matters, but
I _did_ try most earnestly to lay her off him. I got nowhere! Refusing
to be warned, Hazel point-blankly accused me of having a yen for Jimmy
myself, and then she set sail for this gilded youth in dead earnest.
Well, knowing nothing of Hazel's plans with regard to himself, the
doomed Jimmy kept on entertaining like his first name was Astor, his
middle name Vanderbilt and his last name Morgan. He took me, Hazel and
Guy to the races at Belmont Park and stabled us all in a box. As James
had loudly declared that he knew more about horses than Vincent Ibanez,
we all played his-feed-box tips for five races and we learned about
losers from him. When the sixth and last scramble arrived, Guy had
donated $1,500, I had sent in $50, and Hazel had parted with $80 to the
oral books and was fit to be tied I What Jimmy lost, nobody knows.
Anyhow, he gazed over the program for the sixth race, a mile handicap,
and suddenly let out a yell.
"Hot dog!" he says, much excited. "Here's where we all get independent
for life. They's a beagle in this dash by the name of Bellhop and if
that ain't a hunch then Pike's Peak's a pimple. Get down on this baby
with the family jools and walk outa here rancid with money!"
We split a contemptuous grin between us and presented it to Jimmy before
getting down on the favorite in a last attempt to break even on the day.
Jimmy milled his way back to our box, flushed and panting, and gayly
announced that he had shot the works on Bellhop's nose. He said we were
all paranoiacs for not doing the same. Well, it was all over in a
twinkling! The favorite found the handicap of our bets a bit too much
and finished an even last. Bellhop tripped the mile in something like
0.96 and won from here to the Ruhr, clicking off $15,000 for Mr. James
Joseph Aloysius Burns. James then announced his intention of buying the
horse and presenting it to Hazel for Arbor Day, and it was only with the
greatest of difficulty that me and Guy talked him out of it. Hazel gave
us a murderous glare and for the rest of the day you couldn't have got a
nail file between her and Jimmy, honestly!
Whirling back to New York in Jimmy's car, now steered by a uniformed
chauffeur, I began to reprove James for this gambling and stepping out
when he should be using his money and time to secure his future. What
about all his promises to me? How about all the big things he was going
to do? When was he going to enter business, or whatever he thought he
could do best?
"Don't make me laugh!" says Jimmy, tapping an imported cigarette on a
solid gold case. "I'm sittin' pretty. What a sucker _I'd_ be to pester
myself about work when I got all this sugar!"
"Of course," says Hazel, nestling closer to him. "Imagine a millionaire
_working!_"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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