The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

110 really be worth eight hundred dollars a year to me.” Frank threw back his head at the taunt, and an angry light glittered in his eye. - Yet he could not deny the justice of it. He knew himself—none better — that he had devoted a good deal more thought to hts athletics and clothes and pastimes than he had to business. These and “Nellie” had been his chief concern in life; the of- fice a secondary consideration. Still, no young man of spirit likes to be told that he is an incompetent, a mere drag on the machine;. and all Frank’s seul rose in hot rebellion. “Tl show you!” he burst out stormily. ‘ You'll find out whether I’m such a dub or not, and I won’t ask any favors of you while I’m proving it. Get one of those half-price men to fill my place, because I’m quitting you right now—free board and all—and I won’t show up again until I’ve made good.” And with this as a valedictory, he snatched up his hat, and, in high dudgeon at the treatment which had been accorded him, soon left the parental roof behind him. He had no idea what he was going to do, or where he was going to go, and as his first indignation cooled down he halted under a lamp-post to consider these rather important points. Then, as he rammed his hand care- lessly into his pocket, he suddenly awoke to the fact that he had only a trifle over three dollars to his name. Always used to having all his needs supplied, he had never given a thought to finances when he so heedlessly cut loose from his moorings; and, now that he realized how nearly he faced actual destitution, he was for the mo- ment appalled. Only for the moment, however. Al- most immediately the easy optimism of youth asserted itself. ‘““What’s the odds?” he muttered. “Three dollars will buy me my night’s: lodging and breakfast, and I’ll get hold of a job of some kind in the morning.” THE ARGOSY. On second thought, though, he de- cided that possibly three dollars for bed and breakfast was a bit extrava- gant for a man in his circumstances, and that it might be prudent to con- serve his capital by patronizing one of the cheaper hostelries. But, as a gilded youth about town, his acquaintance with such places was limited; and, as he was trying to recall a suitable one, his meditations were in- terrupted by a small voice arising from somewhere about his knee. “T’m losted!” it piped up plain- tively. ‘“Won’t you please take me home?” Frank looked down to see a sturdy little chap, who, despite a face tear- stained and begrimed, showed by his clothes and general air of breeding that he most emphatically did not be- long in the rather slumlike neighbor- hood whither Swanson in his absorp- tion had wandered. “Losted?” Swanson caught the kiddy up in his arms. “ Well, I should say you must be, down here at this end of town at half past one o’clock in the morning. What’s your name, cap- tain?” “Robert Anderson McNutt, Jr.,” promptly replied the boy. “And where do you live?” But on this point the child was vague. All he could furnish was a rather hazy description of a house with stone lions on either side of the door- step. Swanson, after probing him at some length, and eliciting nothing more sat- isfactory, was confirmed in his first opinion that all he could do in the case was to turn the child over to the police; but when he mentioned this solution the boy cried and clung to him so pite- ously that he could not find it in his heart to do it. Then, by a flash of intuition almost worthy of his father, he found.an an- wer to the problem. Some months before he remembered a lawyer by the name of McNutt had ordered a heating-plant from Swan- CoOMmicbook CO