"You've said that before. But"--his good humor still tickled by his
loss, which he refused to take seriously in spite of the drawn face
staring into his--"I haven't even the money to wire the old gent!"
"Oh, I'll pay for it."
"I didn't want to do it so soon," Conniston hesitated. "But it begins
to look as though--"
"There's nothing to it. You've got to do it! Why, man, do you realize
what a confounded mess you've got us into?"
Conniston went back into the bath-room rather seriously. But a moment
later Hapgood heard him chuckling again.
The Japanese boy came to summon them, and they followed him, once more
clean and feeling respectable, into a cozy little breakfast-room where
their hostess was waiting for them. And over their cold meat, tinned
fruits and vegetables, and fresh milk Conniston told her of their
misfortune. She laughed with him at his account of the winning of the
two horses and seemed disposed to indorse his careless view of the
whole episode rather than Hapgood's pessimistic outlook.
"It's all right, I suppose, since Conniston has a rich father," Roger
admitted, with a sigh.
She regarded him curiously for a moment.
"Some men," she said, quietly, "have been known to go to work and make
money for themselves when they needed it."
Conniston told her of his little friend William, of Indian Creek,
adding, carelessly, "I'm glad I don't have to feel like that."
"You mean that you had rather have money given to you than to feel
that you had earned it yourself?"
"Quite naturally, Miss Crawford. My father is William Conniston,
Senior. Maybe you have heard of him?"
He was proud to be his father's son, to have his own name so
intimately connected with that of a man who was not only a millionaire
many times over, but who was a power in Wall Street and known as such
to the four ends of the earth.
"Yes. I have heard of him. He made his own money, didn't he? In the
West, too."
"Yes. A mining expert in the beginning, I believe, and a mine-owner in
the end. Oh, the governor knows how to make the dollars grow, all
right!"
Again she made no answer. But after a little she said: "If you wish to
wire to your father for money"--and there was just the faintest note
of scorn in her voice--"you needn't wait until you get to
Crawfordsville. We have a telephone, and you can telephone your
message from here."
"Good!" cried Hapgood, eagerly. "Better do that--and right away,
Greek. There's no use losing time."
Conniston thanked her, and a moment later, they rose from the table
and stepped to the telephone, which she showed to him in a little
library. When he got Central in Crawfordsville Miss Crawford told the
girl for him to charge all costs to her father and that Mr. Conniston
would pay here for the service. So she took his message and telephoned
it to the Western Union office.
"You will rush it, will you, please?" asked Conniston.
"Certainly. And the answer? Shall we telephone it out to you?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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