And the only thing that really burned me up was Jimmy's grin at Guy and
the sly dig in the ribs he gave me, the little imp!
Well, from then on Jimmy had lots of luck and all of it bad. The fellow
who invented money was a clever young man, but he really should have
stayed around the laboratory for another couple of hours and invented an
antidote for the trouble it brings. The well-to-do ex-bellhop used his
jack as a wedge to get into one jam after another, till finally came the
worst blow of all, and Miss Hazel Killian delivered it.
It seems that Hazel got fatigued waiting for Jimmy to unbelt the roll
and star her in a musical comedy or a super-production, so she requested
a showdown. Jimmy checked up and discovered he had blown all but about
five thousand of his ill-gotten gains, and as trustworthy reports had
reached him that it would take about ten times that much to group a show
around the beauteous Hazel, he calmly told her all bets were off. Hazel
promptly fainted, but Jimmy's idea of first aid being an alarmed glance
and a dash for the door, she quickly snapped out of it and demanded ten
thousand dollars for the time she put in entertaining him.
"Aha--a gold digger, hey?" says Jimmy indignantly. "So you wish ten
grand for entertainin' me? Where d'ye get that stuff? They ain't no ten
thousand dollars' worth of laughs in you for _me_, I'll tell the world!
Take the air!"
Infuriated beyond speech, Hazel brought suit for $100,000 against James
the following day, charging that promising young man had promised to wed
her. Further, deponent sayeth not!
That was the end of the high life for Jimmy Burns. Honestly, he was
scared stiff and he got little comfort from _me_, for I was absolutely
disgusted with the way he had carried on from the time Guy gave him that
money. Opportunity had knocked on this little fool's door and he had
pretended he wasn't at home. Not only that, but I felt he had got me in
wrong with Guy Tower, whose $25,000 investment for a plot now seemed a
total loss. I told Guy tearfully how sorry I was that my scheme had
failed to pan out, but he cut me off in the middle of my plea for
forgiveness, his face a mass of smiles.
"My dear girl, you owe me no apology," says Guy, patting my shoulder.
"It is I who owe you a debt of gratitude. I've written a farce-comedy
around Jimmy's adventures with the twenty-five thousand, and Rosenblum
predicts it will be the hit of the season! I've never seen him so
enthusiastic. Your idea was more than successful, and Jimmy is welcome
to whatever he has left of the money when the time limit expires!"
Wasn't that lovely?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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