Arizona -- Fiction; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Fiction; Western stories
"Only four," replied the waiter. "That red-headed guy's winning the
shirts off their backs. I've seen this kind of a game before. It's
good for another day."
"Are any of 'em drinking?" asked Jonas.
"Nothing but coffee. Lord, I'm near dead!"
"Let me take that tray in for you. I want to get word to my boss."
The waiter nodded and, sinking into Jonas' chair, closed his eyes.
Jonas carried the tray into a handsome, smoke filled room, where four
men with intent faces were gathered around a card table. Enoch, in his
shirt sleeves, was dealing as Jonas set a steaming cup at his elbow.
Perhaps the intensity of the colored man's gaze distracted Enoch's
attention for a moment from the cards. He looked up and when he met
Jonas' eyes he deliberately laid down the deck, rose, took Jonas by the
arm and led him to the door.
"Don't try this again, Jonas," he said, and he closed the door after
his steward.
Once more Jonas took up his vigil. He left his chair at nine o'clock
to telephone Charley Abbott that the Secretary had gone to New York,
then he returned to his place. Noon came, afternoon waned. As dusk
drew on again, Jonas went once more to the telephone.
"That you, Miss Allen? . . . This is Jonas. . . . Yes, ma'am, I'm
well, but the boss is in a dangerous condition. . . . Yes, ma'am, I
thought you'd feel bad because you see, it's your fault. . . . No,
ma'am, I can't explain over the telephone, but if you'll come to the
station and meet me at the news-stand on the corner, I'll tell
you. . . . Miss Allen, for God's sake, just trust me and come along.
Come now, in a cab, and I'll pay for it. . . . Thank you! Thank you,
ma'am! Thank you!"
He banged up the receiver and flew out the basement door. When he
reached the news-stand, he stood with his hands twitching, talking to
himself for a half hour before Diana appeared. She walked up to him as
directly as a man would have done.
"What's happened, Jonas?"
"You and the boss must have quarreled last night. When anything
strikes the boss deep, he wants to gamble. Of late years he's mostly
fought it off, but once in a while it gets him. He's been at it since
last night over yonder, and for the first time in years I can't do
anything with him. And if it gets out, you know, Miss Allen, he's
ruined. I don't dast to leave him long, that's why I got you to come
here."
Diana's chin lifted. "Do you mean to tell me that a man of Mr.
Huntingdon's reputation and ability, still stoops to that sort of
thing?"
"Stoop! What do you mean, stoop? O Lord, I thought, seeing he sets
the world by you, that you was different from the run of women and
would understand." Jonas twisted his brown hands together.
"Understand what?" asked Diana, her great eyes fastened on Jonas with
pity and scorn struggling in them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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