The Heart Line: A Drama of San FranciscoBurgess, Gelett
General
The Heart Line: A Drama of San Francisco
Burgess, Gelett
Bohemianism -- Fiction; Fortune-tellers -- Fiction; San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction
"Why didn’t you let us know where you were, then?" he complained. "I
was up to the place the other day looking for you, and no one seemed to
know where you were."
Fancy, still watching for Cayley, did not answer.
"Have you got any money, Fancy?"
"Sure!" she answered eagerly. "I have two dollars here—do you want it?"
"Oh, no!" he laughed. "I was going to offer you some. If you’re out of
a job you must need it. I can let you have twenty or so easy." He put
his hand into his pocket.
She hesitated for a moment, then she said:
"I don’t know but I could use it, Dougal, if you can spare it as well as
not."
"I’m flush this week." He handed her a gold double eagle.
"Granthope will lend me all I want, or I could get it from Blanchard,
but somehow I hate to take it from them. Of course, it’s all right, and
they have plenty, but I’d feel better borrowing of you, you know."
"That’s the best thing you’ve said yet," he said, beaming on her.
"Oh, Dougal, tell her about the séance," said Elsie, as Fancy put the
money in her purse.
"Oh, yes! I wanted to see you about a materializing séance, Fancy. Do
you know of a good one? We want to go some night and see the spooks.
The bunch is going to have some fun with them."
"You want to look out for yourself, then. They always have two or three
bouncers, and they’ll throw you out if there’s any row, you know."
Dougal grinned happily. "That’s just what we want. I haven’t had a
good scrap for months. Maxim can handle three or four of them alone,
while Benton, Starr and I raise a rough house. We’re going to go early
and get front seats."
It was Fancy’s turn to laugh. "You can’t do it, Dougal. You don’t know
the first rules of the game. They always have their own crowd on the
first two rows, and they won’t let you get near the spirits. They only
want believers, anyway. If you aren’t careful, they won’t let you in at
all; they’ll say all the seats are taken. You’d better go separately
and sit in different parts of the room, and spot the bouncers if you
can."
"Oh, we’ll handle them all right. Where’s a good one?"
Fancy reflected a minute. "I think, perhaps, Flora Flint is the best.
She’s a clever actress, and she always has a crowd. It’s fifty cents.
Her place is on Van Ness Avenue—I think her séances are on Wednesday
evenings—you’ll find the notice in the papers. But they’re pretty
smooth; they’ve had people try to break up the show before. If you try
to turn on the light or grab any ghost, look out you don’t get beaten
up."
"Oh, you can trust us; we’ve got a new game," he answered.
Then, as the Sausalito boat was about to leave, they bade Fancy a
hurried farewell and ran for the entrance to the slip. A few minutes
after this Blanchard Cayley appeared, put his arm through hers, and they
went on board the ferry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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