The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

616 THE Arlene looked at him a bit queerly, he thought. ‘“‘Are you sure you can afford to hire a car?” she asked. ‘‘Why not use my little Rollerton?” ‘Awful thing to admit, Arlene, that I gave you something I don’t care to drive myself. But you wanted it, you know. And I guess I can afford to suit myself in a car for this blow-out. ‘There was:a big Rivalle down at the garage last week. [ll see if I can’t get it.” “Goodness! You must have been making money on the deal!” the girl exclaimed. But she eyed him so peculiarly that he ees his own gaze. “It was the first money I have ade this summer.” He spoke with an effort to shift the doubts in her eyes. “Hereafter, when I start a business I’m going to sell it out the day before I start. But— “How shall we begin the celebration? You’ve got to practice a little in helping to spend my money—it’s to be your steady job, you know.” “Oh, I can spend money without any practice,” she rejoined. But the smile was only on her lips. She studied him quizzically for an embarrassing sixty seconds before she spoke again. Then her expression had taken on something of what a man might expect to see in the face of a doctor who has made up his mind to operate on a very dear friend. “Tf you’re really anxious to blow your- self, there’s a nice little motor-boat for charter down at the drawbridge. Every time I’ve seen it go I’ve been crazy for it. Of course we'll have to take Aunt Jane along—she arrived yesterday afternoon. But she’s a good sport and perfectly dippy about motors, so she’ll probably spend all her time talking to the captain. It’s a regu- lar day cruiser and we'll have all our meals aboard. And I’ve planned out enough trips to take one a day for a week.. Now—are you ready for that?” “Lead me to it,” he answered gamely. But his throat choked on the words. He made a strong play at clearing it to hide the gulps he could not help. Arlene had her little car brought around. Half an hour later Orton walked back from the float where he had been interviewing the captain and owner of the Sea Panther. “We can get it only for four days,” he announced in a tone of disappointment. “Tt’s engaged for next week.” ARGOSY., He had just succeeded in persuading Cap- tain Pinney to split the difference between two hundred a week and forty dollars a day. He had not needed to persuade him- self that he would be called back to Newark and the new job he hadn’t found yet at the end of the four days. He had suddenly resolved to get into to- morrow’s mail a number of applications for positions. The signs indicated that he would need a position very speedily on his return. All the way for ten blocks he thanked his lucky stars that a jewelers’ convention was filling the rooms of the Ritz-Boulevarde, so that “he had been compelled to go back to the De Barnegat. Before he changed his clothes he changed his room from the three-dollar-a-day one he had taken to the two-dollar one, which was the cheapest in the house. He could hardly remember when he had been so nearly out of money, without some prospect of more in plenty of time. The thought that he was about to give up a check which would reduce him to ten dol- lars in the bank over and above the forty- odd he still carried in cash was a reflection to send chills of terror through him. Ten dollars would be the least he could get away with at the hotel. Even the days spent on the yacht could not be-entirely without incidental expenses. When he got -back to Newark there would be twelve dol- lars to pay on Arlene’s ring. CHAPTER XVI. THE JOB HE GOT. "PHE long, lean cruiser proved everything Arlene had said about her. She was swift enough to give the zest of speed, com- fortable to the point of luxury, of such shal- low draft as to go into the out-of-the-way places that always seem the most beautiful. Aunt Jane was a “brick of the first water,” Arlene compelled him to acknowledge. Beside the captain there was another man who looked like a chef. Thirty-five dollars a day was cheap for such accommodations. Out of it all Orton got just one bit of satisfaction. They. did not return to Atlan- tic City in time to go to any of the other places ashore where he might have spent more money. : His conversations had been dull. Arlene’s cheerfulness failed to infect him. Her talk ECOPMICLOOOKS (E@)