"And, oh, say," bubbled Fred, struck by a sudden memory, "who do you
think is in on this property with me? You’d never guess in the world,
so might as well tell you! It’s our old college chum, Visconti—the
guinea—and a great little sport that guinea is, let your uncle Fred tell
you. He’s got the spondulix, boy, and he’ll have more, he will. He’ll
strike it rich on this deal, you bet your hat, and he’ll be richer than
ever. And say!" one idea seemed to follow another in Fred’s brain like
salmon running over rapids. "Hasn’t he got a peacherine of a daughter,
the old boy? Know her? Great girl, Gina—wonderfully good sport! She
and I—say, we’re great pals, that girl and I—cabarets, dancing"—and he
shook and quivered in a sudden fragmentary movement of the latest
dance—"great sport!" he concluded, panting ponderously.
"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" I heard myself murmuring.
"Here! What you praying about?" demanded Fred, humorously suspicious.
"It was an invocation, Fred," I explained, "it’s the most wonderful
thing I ever heard. Why, you and Gina are meant for each other. She’s
a fine American girl"—I almost said "fina Americana girl," "and
you—you’re a—you were simply created for each other!"
"Say," grinned Fred exultantly, "honest, Randolph, do you think so?"
"I do, most certainly."
"Well, well—wait and see. Stop, look, listen—watchful waiting is the
word," he muttered mysteriously. "Ta-ta, old man, I’ve got to shoot away
from here. Now remember what I said: Don’t buy until you hear from me,
nor don’t sell until you hear from me!"
"Stay to lunch," I begged. "After all, it’s Sunday."
"Sorry, can’t," he returned importantly. "Big things brewing. See you
again. Ta-ta!" And he was gone.
Such was the recrudescence of Fred Salmon and the certificates are still
in my safe in witness of it, and greatly to my surprise they have a
market value now, even though I cannot sell them. Judging by the curb
quotations the golden-hued leaflets are worth ten thousand dollars
to-day. But I know too well that something will happen before the year
is up and they will be worthless again. How should it be otherwise,
since they are mine?
Fred Salmon was never meant to be a whisperer or a negotiator of secret
treaties. The children in the house that Sunday morning could not fail
to overhear him and ever since he has been known to them and referred to
as "Brewster’s Millions."
There is no contour to life. Life is chaotic. Whenever I thought of
Fred as marrying at all, I had mentally mated him with Gertrude. That,
in my opinion, would have been an ideally eugenic combination. But
instead, Fred is obviously attaching himself to Gina and Gertrude has
been eighteen months married to Minot Blackden, the rediscoverer of
glass-staining. They live happily in apartments, about a mile apart,
and I am told breakfast together occasionally.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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