Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 13, 1920 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

390 follow that suggestion. He could get down- town to the office and back within the hour, if he hurri@d.. He had not much hope, though, of being able to persuade Westphal to let him have the money. Even if he could get the grouchy cashier to believe his story, the chances were a million to one that the latter would refuse to draw seventy-five thousand dollars and hand it to him with- out an O. K. from Mr. Binger. That was hardly Squeeze-a-Penny Westphal’s way of doing business. Binger might return, however, in time to save the situation. Parker brightened at that thought as he rushed toward the sub- way station. But he was doomed to dis- appointment. When he arrived at the office his employer was still absent. And Westphal would not even listen to him. CHAPTER IV, A THOUSAND-DOLLAR BILL. ALPH HENRY hung around the of- \ fice until a quarter to four, impa- tiently waiting for Binger to put in an appearance. Then, realizing that if he waited a minute longer it would be too late, he dashed out of the building and up Broadway to the Marine Savings Bank. He had an account at that bank. Although, as we have said, most of his income went toward the maintenance of his wardrobe, and he was obliged to stint hint self in various other ways in order to live up to his standard in clothes, he had man- aged to save a dollar out of his salary and deposit it in the savings-bank every week of the two years he had been working in the office of Binger & Co. By his thrift he had accumulated one hundred and four dollars. But his balance was bigger than that. A year after his ar- rival in New York he had inherited a small legacy from a relative, and had deposited the greater part of it; so that there now stood to his credit on the savings-bank’s books the sum of five hundred and fifty dol- lars. He had vowed to himself that, no mat- ter what happened, he would never touch a cent of that money-—not until it had grown ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. to a thousand dollars. ‘The first thousand was the hardest to save, he had read, and when one had got that far one was on the high road to success. He decided now, however, to break that vow. When he arrived at the bank he drew out his entire balance. It was his only chance of making good on the mission which was to put him permanently in the good graces of the president and majority stockholder of Horatio Binger & Co.—and not much of a chance, at that, as he de- spondently realized. In his desperation it had occurred to him that if he drew out this money and hur- ried up-town with it, there was a slight possibility that the auction-room people might be induced to accept it as a deposit on the bed. It was hardly to be hoped, of course, that they would be satisfied with such a small sum. They were expecting him to return with the entire purchase price of seventy-five thousand dollars, and would naturally protest against the proffer of a deposit that was only half the amount orig- inally offered by him. But he might be able to talk them into accepting it. The auction-room cashier had been obviously impressed by his threat te take legal action if the bed were re- sold. Some further talk along those lines might be effective. It was worth trying, anyway. Unfortunately, there were several people ahead of him at the paying-teller’s window. It was three minutes to four when he final- ly thrust the five hundred and fifty-four dollars in his pocket and hurried out of the bank. Still he had not abandoned all hope. The subway would get him up-town within fifteen minutes, barring accidents, and although they had set 4 p.m. as the time limit, the auction people might wait*a little longer before putting the. bed up for sale again. That wasn’t too much to ex- pect of Dame Fortune, even though she seemed to be inclined to treat him like a stepchild. As he sped northward on a Broadway ex- press, Ralph Henry’s optimism began to assert itself. Somehow that five hundred and fifty dollars in his pocket gave him con- fidence. He had a hunch that everything GEomichbooks O) (E@)