Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four MillionHenry, O.
Philosophy
Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million
Henry, O.
New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Say, Mike,” said James Turner, “what’s your line, anyway—shoe laces?
I’m not buying anything. You better put an egg in your shoe and beat it
before incidents occur to you. You can’t work off any fountain pens,
gold spectacles you found on the street, or trust company certificate
house clearings on me. Say, do I look like I’d climbed down one of them
missing fire-escapes at Helicon Hall? What’s vitiating you, anyhow?”
“Son,” said the caliph, in his most Harunish tones, “as I said, I’m
worth $40,000,000. I don’t want to have it all put in my coffin when I
die. I want to do some good with it. I seen you handling over these
here volumes of literature, and I thought I’d keep you. I’ve give the
missionary societies $2,000,000, but what did I get out of it? Nothing
but a receipt from the secretary. Now, you are just the kind of young
man I’d like to take up and see what money could make of him.”
Volumes of Clark Russell were hard to find that evening at the Old Book
Shop. And James Turner’s smarting and aching feet did not tend to
improve his temper. Humble hat cleaner though he was, he had a spirit
equal to any caliph’s.
“Say, you old faker,” he said, angrily, “be on your way. I don’t know
what your game is, unless you want change for a bogus $40,000,000 bill.
Well, I don’t carry that much around with me. But I do carry a pretty
fair left-handed punch that you’ll get if you don’t move on.”
“You are a blamed impudent little gutter pup,” said the caliph.
Then James delivered his self-praised punch; old Tom seized him by the
collar and kicked him thrice; the hat cleaner rallied and clinched; two
bookstands were overturned, and the books sent flying. A cop came up,
took an arm of each, and marched them to the nearest station house.
“Fighting and disorderly conduct,” said the cop to the sergeant.
“Three hundred dollars bail,” said the sergeant at once, asseveratingly
and inquiringly.
“Sixty-three cents,” said James Turner with a harsh laugh.
The caliph searched his pockets and collected small bills and change
amounting to four dollars.
“I am worth,” he said, “forty million dollars, but—”
“Lock ’em up,” ordered the sergeant.
In his cell, James Turner laid himself on his cot, ruminating. “Maybe
he’s got the money, and maybe he ain’t. But if he has or he ain’t, what
does he want to go ’round butting into other folks’s business for? When
a man knows what he wants, and can get it, it’s the same as $40,000,000
to him.”
Then an idea came to him that brought a pleased look to his face.
He removed his socks, drew his cot close to the door, stretched himself
out luxuriously, and placed his tortured feet against the cold bars of
the cell door. Something hard and bulky under the blankets of his cot
gave one shoulder discomfort. He reached under, and drew out a
paper-covered volume by Clark Russell called “A Sailor’s Sweetheart.”
He gave a great sigh of contentment.
Presently, to his cell came the doorman and said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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