CHAPTER XV
IN WHICH WINNIE CHAPERONS THE ENTIRE PARTY TO CONEY ISLAND
At the last minute, Aunt Pattie Boyden fortunately contracted atoothache--and the Coney Island party was compelled to go unchaperoned.They tried to be regretful and sympathetic as the six of them climbedinto the big touring car, but Ashley Loring found them a solace.
"Never you mind," he soothed them--"Polly will chaperon us."
"You've lost your address book," declared that young lady indignantly."Polly Parsons is not the person you have in mind. I'll be old soonenough without that! The chaperon of this party is my adopted sister,Winnie."
"Oh, fun!" accepted the nominee with delight. "We had a course in thatat school." And Winnie, in all the glory of her fluffy youthfulness,toyed carefully with the points of her Moorish collar. "I was electedchaperon of the Midnight Fudge Club, and the girls all said that Ifooled Old Meow oftener than anybody!"
Thereafter there was no lull in the conversation; for Winnie, oncestarted on school reminiscences, filled all gaps to overflowing; andSammy Chirp, he of the feeble smile, whose diffidence had denied himthe gift of language, gazed on her in rapt and happy stupefaction.
Meanwhile, Johnny Gamble found himself gazing as raptly at Constanceuntil the chaperon, in a brief interlude between reminiscences, caughthim at it. She reached over and touched him on the back of the handwith the tip of one soft pink finger. Immediately she held that fingerto her right eye and closed her left one, and Johnny felt himselfblushing like a school-boy.
There was a trace of resentment in his embarrassment, he found. Thestrain of being compelled to make a million dollars, before he couldtell this only desirable young woman in the world that he loved her,was beginning to oppress him. He wanted to tell her now; but it was atask beyond him to ask her to forfeit her own fortune until he couldreplace it by another. Times were hard, he reflected.
He was now twelve hours behind his schedule and possessed of sixtythousand dollars less than he should have. At nine o'clock to-morrowmorning that deficit would begin to pile up again at the rate of fivethousand dollars an hour. By comparison their auto seemed slow, and hespoke to the driver about it. How well Constance Joy was in sympathywith him and followed his thought, was shown by the fact that sheheartily agreed with him, though they were already exceeding theBrooklyn speed limit.
"I not only want to be the chaperon but the dictator of this tour,"declared Winnie when they alighted at the big playground. "I've neverbeen here before, and I don't want anybody to tell me anything I'mgoing to see."
"It's your party," announced Johnny promptly. "Let's be plumb vulgarabout it." And he thrust a big roll of bills into her hands.
"You're a darling!" she exclaimed, her eyes glistening with delight."May I kiss him, girls?"
"Ask Johnny," laughed Polly, but Johnny had disappeared behind theothers of the party.
It took Winnie five minutes to chase him down, and she caught him, withthe assistance of Constance, in the thickest crowd and in thebest-lighted space on Surf Avenue, where Constance held him while hereceived his reward.
"It's a new game," Johnny confessed, though blushing furiously. "I'llbe 'it' any time you say."
"Once is enough," asserted Winnie, entirely unruffled. "Your face isscratchy. Come on, you folks; I'm going to buy you a dinner." And,leading the way into the first likely-looking place, she ordered acomprehensive meal which started with pickles and finished with pie.
Her party was a huge success, for it laughed its way from one end ofConey to the other. It rode on wooden horses; on wobbling camels; inwhirling tubs; on iron-billowed oceans; down trestled mountains;through painted caves--on everything which had rollers, or runners, orsupporting arms. It withstood shocks and bumps and dislocations anddizziness--and it ran squarely into Heinrich Schnitt!
Three tables, placed end to end at the rail of a Shoot-the-Chutes lake,were required to accommodate Heinrich Schnitt's party. First, there wasHeinrich himself, white as wax and stoop-shouldered and extremelyclean. At the other end of the table sat Mama Schnitt, who bulged, andalways had butter on her thumb. To the right of Heinrich satGrossmutter Schnitt, in a black sateen dress, with her back bowed likea new moon and her little old face withered like a dried white rose.
Next sat young Heinrich Schnitt and his wife, Milly, who was veryfashionable and wore a lace shirt-waist--though she was not sofashionable that she was ashamed of any of the rest of the party.
Between young Heinrich and Milly sat their little Henry and little Rosaand little Milly and the baby, all stiffly starched and round-faced andred-cheeked. Besides these were Carrie, whose husband was dead; andCarrie's Louis; and Willie Schnitt with Flora Kraus, whom he was tomarry two years from last Easter; and Lulu, who was pretty, and wentwith American boys in the face of broken-hearted opposition.
In front of each member of the party--except the baby--was a glass ofbeer and a "hot dog", and down the center of the long table were threepasteboard shoe boxes, full of fine lunch, flanking Flora Kraus' fancybasket of potato salad and fried chicken, as well prepared as any thoseSchnitts could put up.
It was Constance who, walking quietly with Johnny, discovered HeinrichSchnitt in the midst of his throng and casually remarked it.
"There's the nice old German who cuts my coats," she observed.
"Schnitt!" exclaimed Johnny, so loudly that she was afraid Schnittmight hear him. "Let me hear you talk to him."
She looked at him in perplexity for a moment.
"Oh, yes; the lease," she remembered. "I'll introduce you and you canask him about it."
"Don't mention it!" hastily objected Johnny. "You may introduce me, butyou do the talking."
"All right, boss," she laughingly agreed, and turned straight over tothe head of the Schnitts' table, where she introduced her companion indue form.
"I want my walking suit," she demanded.
Heinrich's face had lighted with pleasure at the sight of Constance,but there was a trace of sadness in his voice.
"You must tell Louis Ersten," he politely advised her.
"I did," protested Constance. "He's holding it back on account of thecoat, and that's your affair."
"It is Louis Ersten's," insisted Heinrich with dignity. "I have retiredfrom business."
"You don't mean to say you've left Ersten?" returned Constance insurprise.
"I have retired from business," reiterated Heinrich.
"Ersten wouldn't give papa enough room," broke in Mama Schnittindignantly, "so he quits, and he don't go back till he does."
"So I don't ever go back," concluded Heinrich.
"Well, we got enough that papa don't have to work any more," assertedMama Schnitt with proper pride and a glance at Flora Kraus; "but hegets lonesome. That's why we make him come down to Coney to-day andenjoy himself. He was with Louis Ersten thirty-seven years."
A wave of homesickness swept over Heinrich.
"I take it easy in my old days," he stoutly maintained, but with suchinward distress that, without a protest, he allowed the waiter toremove his half-emptied glass of beer.
"I'm glad you can take it easy," declared Constance, "but Ersten'scustomers will miss you very much--and I am sure Ersten will, too."
"We worked together thirty-seven years," said Schnitt wistfully.
"I'm sure it's only obstinacy," commented Constance when she and Johnnyhad rejoined their party. "Why, Mr. Schnitt and Mr. Ersten have grownup together in the business, and they seemed more like brothers thananything else. I'd give anything to bring them together again!"
"I'll ask you for it some time," asserted Johnny confidently.
He caught a flash of challenge in her eyes and realized that he wasmoving faster than his schedule would permit.
"I'm going to bring them together, you know," he assured her inconfusion.
"I do hope so," she demurely replied.
"We're wasting an awful lot of time!" called Winnie. "The Canals ofVenice! We haven't been in this." And she promptly bou
ght six tickets.
In the bustle of taking boats an officious guard succeeded, for thethousandth time that day, in the joyful duty of separating a party; andConstance and Johnny were left behind to enjoy the next boat all tothemselves.
It was dim and cool in there--all narrow gravity canals, and quaintcanvas buildings, and queer arches, and mellow lights, with little darkcurves and long winding reaches, and a restfulness almost likesolemnity.
It was the first time Johnny had been in such close companionship withConstance as this strange isolation gave them, and he did not know whatto say. After all, what was the use of saying? They were there, side byside, upon the gently flowing water, far, far away from all the world;and it would seem almost rude to break that bliss with language, whichso often fails to interpret thought.
Constance's hand was drooping idly across her knee and, by anuncontrollable impulse, Johnny's hand, all by itself, slid over andgently clasped the whiter and slenderer one. It did not draw away; and,huddled up on their low narrow seat, bumping against the wooden banksand floating on and on, they cared not whither, they stared intooblivion in that semi-trancelike condition that sometimes accompaniesthe peculiar state in which they found themselves.
"Oh-ho-o-o-o!" rang the clear voice of Winnie from a parallel canaljust behind them.
Constance, flushing violently, attempted to jerk her hand away; butJohnny, animated by a sudden aggressiveness, clasped it tightly andheld it--captive--up to view.
At that interesting moment another sharp turn in the canal brought themface to face with an approaching boat in which were Paul Gresham andJim Collaton!
"I said it was a girl," charged Collaton, studying the green pallor ofGresham's face with wondering interest as they stepped out into theglare of the million electric bulbs.
"That is not a topic for you to discuss," returned Gresham, looking upthe brilliantly lighted board walk around the bend of which JohnnyGamble, with Constance on one arm and Winnie on the other, was gailyfollowing Polly, that young lady being escorted by the attentive Loringand the submissive Sammy.
"That's what you said before," retorted Collaton, his eyebrows andlashes even more invisible in this illumination than in broadday-light. "It's time, though, for a showdown. You drag me into darkcorners and talk over schemes to throw the hooks into JohnnyGamble--and I tell you I'm afraid of him!"
"You're mistaken," asserted Gresham dryly. "It was I who told you thatyou were afraid of him."
"I admitted it all right," sulkily answered Collaton. "He's awake now,I tell you; and he's not a safe man to fool with. He turned our lasttrick against us, and that's enough hint for me."
"Your trick, you mean," corrected Gresham.
"Our trick, I said!" insisted Collaton, suddenly angry. "Look here,Gresham, I won't stand any monkey business from you! If there's everany trouble comes out of this you'll get your share of it, and don'tyou forget it! You've had me lay attachments against theGamble-Collaton Irrigation Company on forged notes. Since I hadnothing, Johnny paid them, because he was square. The last attachment,though--for fifty thousand--he held off until I got that SlosherApartment scheme in my own name, and turned it against me; and you hadto pay it, because you had stood good for me."
"What difference does that make to you?" demanded Gresham. "It was myown money and I got it back."
"It makes just this much difference," explained Collaton: "Gamble andLoring are busy tracing all these transactions; and when they find outanything it will be fastened on me, for you never figure in the deals.You even try to avoid acknowledging to me that you have anything to dowith them."
"You get all the money," Gresham reminded him.
"That's why I know you're framing it up to let me wear the ironbracelets if anything comes off. Now you play square with me or I'llhand you a jolt that you won't forget! There's a girl responsible foryour crazy desire to put my old partner on the toboggan--and that wasthe girl. You see I happen to know all about it."
Gresham considered the matter in silence for some time, and Collatonlet him think without interruption. They sat down now at one of thelittle tables and Collaton curtly ordered some drinks.
"It's a very simple matter," Gresham finally stated. "My father was tohave married Miss Joy's aunt but did not. When the aunt came to die sheleft Miss Joy a million dollars, but coupled with it the provision thatshe must marry me. That's all."
"It's enough," laughed Collaton. "I understand now why Johnny Gamblewants to make a million dollars. As soon as he gets it he'll propose toMiss Joy, she'll accept him and let the million slide. Who gets it?"
"Charity."
"Why, Gresham, I'm ashamed of you!" Collaton mocked. "The descendant ofa noble English house is making as sordid an affair of this as if hewere a cheese dealer! I have the gift of second sight and I can tellyou just what's going to happen. Johnny Gamble will make his milliondollars--and I'm for him. He'll marry Miss Joy--and I'm for her. Thatother million will go to charity--and I'm for it. I hope they all win!"
"You're foolish," returned Gresham, holding his temper through thesuperiority which had always nettled Collaton. "You like money and I'mshowing you a way to get it from Johnny Gamble."
The waiter brought the drinks. Collaton paid for them, tossed off hisown and rose.
"I've had all of that money I want," he declared. "Whatever schemes youhave in the future you will have to work yourself, and whatever troublecomes of it you may also enjoy alone--because I'll throw you."
"You would find difficulty in doing that," Gresham observed with asmile. "I fancy that, if I were to send the missing books of thedefunct Gamble-Collaton Irrigation Company to Mr. Gamble, you would betoo busy explaining things on your account to bother with my affairs toany extent."
"I was in jail once," Collaton told him with quiet intensity. "If Iever go again the man who puts me there will have to go along, so thatI will know where to find him when I get out. Good-by."
"Wait a minute," said Gresham. "Your digestion is bad or else you madea recent winning in your favorite bucket-shop. Now listen to me:Whatever Johnny Gamble's doing at the present time is of noconsequence. Let him go through with the deal he has on and think hehas scared you off. I'll only ask you to make one more attempt againsthim. That's all that will be necessary, for it will break him and atthe same time destroy Miss Joy's confidence in him. He has over a thirdof a million dollars. We can get it all."
"Excuse me," refused Collaton. "If I ran across Johnny Gamble'spocket-book in a dark alley I'd walk square around it without stoppingto look for the string to it."
Gresham rose.
"Then you won't take any part in the enterprise?"
"Not any," Collaton assured him with a wave of negation. "If Johnnywill let me alone I'll let him alone, and be glad of the chance."
Later, Gresham saw Johnny come back and speak to Heinrich Schnitt; buthe had no curiosity about it. Whatever affairs Johnny had in hand justnow he might carry through unmolested, for Gresham was busy with largerplans for his future undoing.