The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

80 teller’s cage. Nothing that had happened yet had so dazed him as this. He gave the bit of paper a second furtive glance. He had not been mistaken. The check was for twelve hundred dollars. Actually its bigness sickened him. Beads of perspiratien stood upon his fore- head. He wanted to get away from the thing. He could hardly keep from hurrying back to Wheelock and telling him that he couldn’t possibly accept such a re- sponsibility. Twelve hundred dollars! Why, it was more than his whole year’s salary. Sup- pose he should lose it. Suppose the gam- ble Wheelock ordered went wrong. And what in the world did it mean? Twelve hundred dollars! Why did Wheelock want to do him a favor of such magnitude? Twelve hundred dollars! Why, he could buy the little place Ellen wanted for less than that. For that he could get a substantial equity in a place incomparably better than the one Ellen wanted. With that he could afford Mercer’s club. With it he could buy a very excellent auto- mobile. But it wasn’t really his. After all Wheelock was but- lending it to him. Wheelock was quite. sure of its return. - What had been given was the profit he could make on it. Perhaps Wheelock was afraid to be personally connected with any bigger investment than he already had. Was it possible that Jessie Wheelock had had something to do with this? He dared not think it. And yet— Oh, well, it wasn’t as if the money were given him. He would realize a hundred or two, of course. Having thought .of what the money would do, the recollec- tion that he could do nothing with it, could have only its profits on a deal, caused a shrinkage in his wonder over the thing. He was glad, though, that he had cov- ered up the check with a couple of others on the file when Meyer came in. Some- how he felt furtive about the transaction. THE ARGOSY. He could not quite persuade himself that there was nothing worse about it than the violation of one of the rules. ; ‘“ Mr. Wheelock,” he said to the cashier the moment Wheelock had called him in for the purpose of “ sending him on an errand,” “I can’t take such a lot of money as this. Why, if I were to lose it—” “IT wouldn’t risk the expense of suing you for it, Evans,” the cashier responded with a chuckle. ‘‘ So you can let me do the worrying about that. You hustle down to Kent’s as fast as you can. Every minute is worth a doll¥r or two to you.” And Bruce went. At the address on Thirty-Third Street he found an excited gathering of men, a vast wall-full of unin- telligible numbers with meaningless letters at the top of them. He recognized the stout young man Mercer had pointed out at the club. Chase was sitting at a desk at one side of the front of the room. “Qh, youre Mr. Wheelock’s friend,” the manager greeted him after hearing his name and giving a glance of surprise at his shabby appearance. ‘“ He told me about you. What can we do for you?” Chase’s manner was reassuringly friend- ly. It did not quite cure Evans of the fear in his heart. That fear had been emphasized as he walked through the streets with the unaccustomed money in his pocket. Kent’s manager would have been still more reassuring if he had not spoken in a tone evidently softened to prevent his words being overheard. “ It—it’s Tubular Brass,” Bruce stam- mered the name of the stock. “Well, Tubular Brass is the busy little baby to-day. How much will you have? Want to buy it outright or have it on margins?”’ “ T’ve twelve hundred here. a hundred shares at that?” “ Yes. I could let you have a hundred and ten right now. Want them?” , Bruce nodded. Speech was hard for him. He had never been so nervously up- set in his life. . Can I get =GOmMmiGdooks, (E@)