The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

724 button, edged over cautiously in the bed until his ear was directly against the par- tition, and then lying very still, eaves- dropped for all he was worth. “T tell you, it is Captain Bradley,” one of the voices was raised a bit angrily, as if in argument. ‘I don’t care what the pur- ser said to you; he’d lie of course under the circumstances. It’s Harry Bradley, all right, and he’s tipsy as a lord.” ‘Well, supposing it’s true, what’s the an- swer?” growled the other. “Simply this: that he’s playing the same game we are, and sneaking out of New York by the back door to keep any of the rest of the crowd from knowing where he is bound. You mark my words, though, as soon as he strikes Norfolk, he'll be head- ing for the Southwest, Ce as we are plan- ning to do.” “But what makes you ‘think that?” ob- jected the other voice. ‘“Mightn’t he be only—” ; “What makes me think so? Because I know it, because I feel it in my bones. Now, here’s the case in a nutshell: The British Purchasing Department has got to have those horses in St. Louis by July 2oth. It’s a special order for extra high-class stock, and the way the field’s been scratched over, it’s going to be hard to fill at any chance of profit. You and I know what’s to be had as well as any two in the business, and we’d about agreed to pass this order up, hadn’t we? “Then by a streak of luck,” went on the speaker, ‘‘we get wise to this bunch of horses down in New Mexico that have been overlooked, but which fit into this British order just as if they were made for it. And, best of all, we hear that the innocent old guy that’s got ’em will let ’em go at a knock-down price of $75 a head, which means clear velvet for us of anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000 on the lot of four hun- dred. “Fine, ain’t it, Bill?” His voice took on a satiric tone. ‘That is, provided it’s all true, and that—”’ “Now, there you go!” railed the other sharply. “Always throwing cold water. Could anybody ask for straighter informa- tion than we’ve got? Ain’t Engelhard al- ways been on the square with us? But you; you just can’t help knocking. If you want an argument, though, Ill bet you that the layout is just as he represents it, and >) THE ARGOSY. we'll put up any amount you say. Money talks.” ‘All right, all right,” his companion in- terposed hurriedly. ‘I’m not questioning either Engelhard or you in the matter. What I was going to say was this: Granted that it’s all as he says, how long do you think a thing of that kind has a chance to be kept quiet? But I’ve been afraid that somebody would get in ahead of us.”’ “But Engelhard says—” “Oh, I know what Engelhard says. But snaps like this have a way of getting out. It almost seems like the information was floating in the air sometimes. Engelhard got next to it, didn’t he? Well, then, how can we tell but that somebody else’s scout might not have turned up the same.thing?”’ “What makes you think that, though, that Harry Bradley is on?” “Well, look at the facts for yourself. We know he’s been hard hit on a lot of these war contracts he’s been trying to swing, and also that he’s been hustling for all he was worth to land ‘this British horse order. Then, if he learned where he could fill it, and at the same time pull down a profit that would help materially to make up his back losses, he’d be very apt not to trust to any agents or middlemen, don’t you think, but to go after the deal in person? “There’s the reason, to my mind, for this sudden trip of his. He certainly has some pretty strong object in view; for I happen to know that he has business of the greatest importance which requires his presence in New York to-morrow. “Yes, sir, Bill,” and the man spoke with . gloomy conviction, ‘you take it from me, Captain Harry’s got that tip all right, and he’s breaking his neck to go after it. Then with two of us bidding against each other for those horses where’s any profit going to show up? Why, his very jag proves what Bradley’s up to.” “His jag?” “Certainly. When a man like Bradley, that’s usually a pretty temperate sort, goes on a bender, it shows one of two things, either that he’s trying to drown his sorrows or else that he’s celebrating. And from the way he was acting when he came aboard, this was one of the celebration kind. A man couldn’t have acted more pleased if he’d heard that his mother-in-law was dead. It was the news about this bunch of horses, I tell you; and it sounded so good to him that he simply had to get lit up.” VOOKS eomnie (©)