Adventure stories; Brazil -- Fiction; Fantasy literature; Jungles -- Fiction
McKay watched him keenly. So did Knowlton. The half-expected jubilance
did not come.
"So Paul's gone," was Rand's reply. "Hard luck. Suppose I hadn't been
found--then what?"
"In due time the money would go to a school. Boys' school."
"Orphans? Blind? Cripples?"
"Hardly." McKay's mouth curved sardonically. He named a preparatory
school of the "exclusive" type. Rand's mouth also twisted.
"That hotbed of snobbery? That twin sister to a society girls' finishing
school? Might have known it, though. Uncle Phil was fond of the sort of
education that doesn't educate. I'm glad you fellows found me. I'll go
home and collect every red cent, just to keep it out of the hands of the
supercilious bunch of bishops that run that sissy-spawner."
Knowlton chuckled appreciatively.
"It's not the sort of school that breeds he-men, for a fact," he agreed.
"But you don't seem much enthused over having a couple of millions
dropped into your lap."
Rand sat still. His face remained cheerless, impassive.
"What is money?" he said, presently. "I've always had plenty of it.
What's it done for me? When you have it you can't tell whether people
are friends to you or only friends to your money. It makes you cynical,
suspicious. What's worse, you depend too much on it. You think it will
do everything. Then if you land in a place where it's no good and you
haven't got it, anyway, you're up against it a good deal harder than the
fellow who never had it but knows how to handle himself without it."
"True for ye," Tim concurred, heartily. "All the same, I bet ye'll
change yer tune after ye git home."
"Will I?" The green eyes impaled him. "Maybe. But I don't think so. I've
had my run at blowing in money on myself alone. Now I'm going to blow
some on other folks. I missed out on the war, but--There must be quite a
few of our fellows lamed and crippled by that war. And I'll gamble that
the government isn't treating them all like princes. I know something
about governments."
"Princes? Say, feller, there's many a dog that's took better care of
than some of our boys back home!"
"So I thought. The income from a couple of millions, along with some of
the principal, will do a lot of good if used right. And--" His eyes
turned to the three bushmen.
"Do not look at us in that way," said Lourenço, reading his thought. "We
can make all the money we need, and we came with the capitao and his
comrades only because we wanted excitement. Use your money for the
crippled men who need it."
"And José Martinez also is well able to provide for his wants," coolly
added the other naked man. "I am here only to settle old scores, and now
they are settled. Each man is goaded by his own spur--money, wine,
women, excitement, revenge. Money is not mine."
He yawned, arose, stretched like a cat, and stepped toward his hammock.
The two Brasilians also moved toward the _tambo_. The others stood a
moment longer beside the fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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