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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19272-8.txt b/19272-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f253ea0 --- /dev/null +++ b/19272-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5700 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Early Bird, by George Randolph Chester + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Early Bird + A Business Man's Love Story + +Author: George Randolph Chester + +Illustrator: Arthur William Brown + +Posting Date: September 14, 2006 [EBook #19272] +Release Date: December 20, 2008 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: They stopped and had a drink of the cool water] + + + + + + +THE EARLY BIRD + +_A Business Man's Love Story_ + + +BY + +GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER + + + +Author of + +THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN + + + +INDIANAPOLIS + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1910 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN + II MR. TURNER PLUNGES + III A MATTER OF DELICACY + IV GREEK MEETS GREEK + V MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER + VI MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES + VII A DANCE NUMBER + VIII NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME + IX A VIOLENT FLIRT + X A PIANOLA TRAINING + XI THE WESTLAKES INVEST + XII ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT + XIII A RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS + XIV MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY + XV THE HERO OF THE HOUR + XVI AN INTERRUPTED PROPOSAL + XVII SHE CALLS HIM SAM! + XVIII A BUSINESS PARTNER + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +They stopped and had a drink of the cool water . . . _Frontispiece_ + +They waylaid him on the porch + +Hepseba studied him from head to foot + +Sam played again the plaintive little air + +"I don't like to worry you, Sam" + +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens + + + + +THE EARLY BIRD + + +CHAPTER I + +WHEREIN A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN STARTS ON AN ABSOLUTE REST + +The youngish-looking man who so vigorously swung off the train at +Restview, wore a pair of intensely dark blue eyes which immediately +photographed everything within their range of vision--flat green +country, shaded farm-houses, encircling wooded hills and all--weighed +it and sorted it and filed it away for future reference; and his +clothes clung on him with almost that enviable fit found only in +advertisements. Immediately he threw his luggage into the tonneau of +the dingy automobile drawn up at the side of the lonely platform, and +promptly climbed in after it. Spurred into purely mechanical action by +this silent decisiveness, the driver, a grizzled graduate from a hay +wagon, and a born grump, as promptly and as silently started his +machine. The crisp and perfect start, however, was given check by a +peremptory voice from the platform. + +"Hey, you!" rasped the voice. "Come back here!" + +As there were positively no other "Hey yous" in the landscape, the +driver and the alert young man each acknowledged to the name, and +turned to see an elderly gentleman, with a most aggressive beard and +solid corpulency, gesticulating at them with much vigor and +earnestness. Standing beside him was a slender sort of girl in a green +outfit, with very large brown eyes and a smile of amusement which was +just a shade mischievous. The driver turned upon his passenger a long +and solemn accusation. + +"Hollis Creek Inn?" he asked sternly. + +"Meadow Brook," returned the passenger, not at all abashed, and he +smiled with all the cheeriness imaginable. + +"Oh," said the driver, and there was a world of disapprobation in his +tone, as well as a subtle intonation of contempt. "You are not Mr. +Stevens of Boston." + +"No," confessed the passenger; "Mr. Turner of New York. I judge that +to be Mr. Stevens on the platform," and he grinned. + +The driver, still declining to see any humor whatsoever in the +situation, sourly ran back to the platform. Jumping from his seat he +opened the door of the tonneau, and waited with entirely artificial +deference for Mr. Turner of New York to alight. Mr. Turner, however, +did nothing of the sort. He merely stood up in the tonneau and bowed +gravely. + +"I seem to be a usurper," he said pleasantly to Mr. Stevens of Boston. +"I was expected at Meadow Brook, and they were to send a conveyance for +me. As this was the only conveyance in sight I naturally supposed it +to be mine. I very much regret having discommoded you." + +He was looking straight at Mr. Stevens of Boston as he spoke, but, +nevertheless, he was perfectly aware of the presence of the girl; also +of her eyes and of her smile of amusement with its trace of +mischievousness. Becoming conscious of his consciousness of her, he +cast her deliberately out of his mind and concentrated upon Mr. +Stevens. The two men gazed quite steadily at each other, not to the +point of impertinence at all, but nevertheless rather absorbedly. +Really it was only for a fleeting moment, but in that moment they had +each penetrated the husk of the other, had cleaved straight down to the +soul, had estimated and judged for ever and ever, after the ways of men. + +"I passed your carryall on the road. It was broke down. It'll be here +in about a half hour, I suppose," insisted the driver, opening the door +of the tonneau still wider, and waving the descending pathway with his +right hand. + +Both Mr. Stevens of Boston and Mr. Turner of New York were very glad of +this interruption, for it gave the older gentleman an object upon which +to vent his annoyance. + +"Is Meadow Brook on the way to Hollis Creek?" he demanded in a tone +full of reproof for the driver's presumption. + +The driver reluctantly admitted that it was. + +"I couldn't think of leaving you in this dismal spot to wait for a +dubious carryall," offered Mr. Stevens, but with frigid politeness. +"You are quite welcome to ride with us, if you will." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Turner, now climbing out of the machine with +alacrity and making way for the others. "I had intended," he laughed, +as he took his place beside the driver, "to secure just such an +invitation, by hook or by crook." + +For this assurance he received a glance from the big eyes; not at all a +flirtatious glance, but one of amusement, with a trace of mischief. +The remark, however, had well-nigh stopped all conversation on the part +of Mr. Stevens, who suddenly remembered that he had a daughter to +protect, and must discourage forwardness. His musings along these +lines were interrupted by an enthusiastic outburst from Mr. Turner. + +"By George!" exclaimed the latter gentleman, "what a fine clump of +walnut trees; an even half-dozen, and every solitary one of them would +trim sixteen inches." + +"Yes," agreed the older man with keenly awakened interest, "they are +fine specimens. They would scale six hundred feet apiece, if they'd +scale an inch." + +"You're in the lumber business, I take it," guessed the young man +immediately, already reaching for his card-case. "My name is Turner, +known a little better as Sam Turner, of Turner and Turner." + +"Sam Turner," repeated the older man thoughtfully. "The name seems +distinctly familiar to me, but I do not seem, either, to remember of +any such firm in the trade." + +"Oh, we're not in the lumber line," replied Mr. Turner. "Not at all. +We're in most anything that offers a profit. We--that is my kid +brother and myself--have engineered a deal or two in lumber lands, +however. It was only last month that I turned a good trade--a very +good trade--on a tract of the finest trees in Wisconsin." + +"The dickens!" exclaimed the older gentleman explosively. "So you're +the Turner who sold us our own lumber! Now I know you. I'm Stevens, +of the Maine and Wisconsin Lumber Company." + +Sam Turner laughed aloud, in both surprise and glee. Mr. Stevens had +now reached for his own card-case. The two gentlemen exchanged cards, +which, with barely more than a glance, they poked in the other flaps of +their cases; then they took a new and more interested inspection of +each other. Both were now entirely oblivious to the girl, who, +however, was by no means oblivious to them. She found them, in this +new meeting, a most interesting study. + +"You gouged us on that land, young man," resumed Mr. Stevens with a wry +little smile. + +"Worth every cent you paid us for it, wasn't it?" demanded the other. + +"Y-e-s; but if you hadn't stepped into the deal at the last minute, we +could have secured it for five or six thousand dollars less money." + +"You used to go after these things yourself," explained Mr. Turner with +an easy laugh. "Now you send out people empowered only to look and not +to purchase." + +"But what I don't yet understand," protested Mr. Stevens, "is how you +came to be in the deal at all. When we sent out our men to inspect the +trees they belonged to a chap in Detroit. When we came to buy them +they belonged to you." + +"Certainly," agreed the younger man. "I was up that way on other +business, when I heard about your man looking over this valuable +acreage; so I just slipped down to Detroit and hunted up the owner and +bought it. Then I sold it to you. That's all." + +He smiled frankly and cheerfully upon Mr. Stevens, and the frown of +discomfiture which had slightly clouded the latter gentleman's brow, +faded away under the guilelessness of it all; so much so that he +thought to introduce his daughter. + +Miss Josephine having been brought into the conversation, Mr. Turner, +for the first time, bent his gaze fully upon her, giving her the same +swift scrutiny and appraisement that he had the father. He was +evidently highly satisfied with what he saw, for he kept looking at it +as much as he dared. He became aware after a moment or so that Mr. +Stevens was saying something to him. He never did get all of it, but +he got this much: + +"--so you'd be rather a good man to watch, wherever you go." + +"I hope so," agreed the other briskly. "If I want anything, I go +prepared to grab it the minute I find that it suits me." + +"Do you always get everything you want?" asked the young lady. + +"Always," he answered her very earnestly, and looked her in the eyes so +speculatively, albeit unconsciously so, that she found herself battling +with a tendency to grow pink. + +Her father nodded in approval. + +"That's the way to get things," he said. "What are you after now? +More lumber?" + +"Rest," declared Mr. Turner with vigorous emphasis. "I've worked like +a nailer ever since I turned out of high school. I had to make the +living for the family, and I sent my kid brother through college. He's +just been out a year and it's a wonder the way he takes hold. But do +you know that in all those times since I left school I never took a +lay-off until just this minute? It feels glorious already. It's fine +to look around this good stretch of green country and breathe this +fresh air and look at those hills over yonder, and to realize that I +don't have to think of business for two solid weeks. Just absolute +rest, for me! I don't intend to talk one syllable of shop while I'm +here. Hello! there's another clump of walnut trees. It's a pity +they're scattered so that it isn't worth while to buy them up." + +The girl laughed, a little silvery laugh which made any memory of grand +opera seem harsh and jangling. Both men turned to her in surprise. +Neither of them could see any cause for mirth in all the fields or sky. + +"I beg your pardon for being so silly," she said; "but I just thought +of something funny." + +"Tell it to us," urged Mr. Turner. "I've never taken the time I ought +to enjoy funny things, and I might as well begin right now." + +But she shook her head, and in some way he acquired an impression that +she was amused at him. His brows gathered a trifle. If the young lady +intended to make sport of him he would take her down a peg or two. He +would find her point of susceptibility to ridicule, and hammer upon it +until she cried enough. That was his way to make men respectful, and +it ought to work with women. + +When they let him out at Meadow Brook, Mr. Stevens was kind enough to +ask him to drop over to Hollis Creek. Mr. Turner, with impulsive +alacrity, promised that he would. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WHEREIN MR. TURNER PLUNGES INTO THE BUSINESS OF RESTING + +At Meadow Brook Sam Turner found W. W. Westlake, of the Westlake +Electric Company, a big, placid man with a mild gray eye and an +appearance of well-fed and kindly laziness; a man also who had the +record of having ruthlessly smashed more business competitors than any +two other pirates in his line. Westlake, unclasping his fat hands from +his comfortable rotundity, was glad to see young Turner, also glad to +introduce the new eligible to his daughter, a girl of twenty-two, +working might and main to reduce a threatened inheritance of +embonpoint. Mr. Turner was charmed to meet Miss Westlake, and even +more pleased to meet the gentleman who was with her, young Princeman, a +brisk paper manufacturer variously quoted at from one to two million. +He knew all about young Princeman; in fact, had him upon his mental +list as a man presently to meet and cultivate for a specific purpose, +and already Mr. Turner's busy mind offset the expenses of this trip +with an equal credit, much in the form of "By introduction to H. L. +Princeman, Jr. (Princeman and Son Paper Mills, AA 1), whatever it +costs." He liked young Princeman at sight, too, and, proceeding +directly to the matter uppermost in his thoughts, immediately asked him +how the new tariff had affected his business. + +"It's inconvenient," said Princeman with a shake of his head. "Of +course, in the end the consumers must pay, but they protest so much +about it that they disarrange the steady course of our operations." + +"It's queer that the ultimate consumer never will be quite reconciled +to his fate," laughed Mr. Turner; "but in this particular case, I think +I hold the solution. You'll be interested, I know. You see--" + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Turner," interrupted Miss Westlake gaily; "I +know you'll want to meet all the young folks, and you'll particularly +want to meet my very dearest friend. Miss Hastings, Mr. Turner." + +Mr. Turner had turned to find an extraordinarily thin young woman, with +extraordinarily piercing black eyes, at Miss Westlake's side. + +"Indeed, I do want to meet all the young people," he cordially +asserted, taking Miss Hastings' claw-like hand in his own and wondering +what to do with it. He could not clasp it and he could not shake it. +She relieved him of his dilemma, after a moment, by twining that arm +about the plump waist of her dearest friend. + +"Is this your first stay at Meadow Brook?" she asked by way of starting +conversation. She was very carefully vivacious, was Miss Hastings, and +had a bird-like habit, meant to be very fetching, of cocking her head +to one side as she spoke, and peering up to men--oh, away up--with the +beady expression of a pet canary. + +"My very first visit," confessed Mr. Turner, not yet realizing the +disgrace it was to be "new people" at Meadow Brook, where there was +always an aristocracy of the grandchildren of original Meadow Brookers. +"However, I hope it won't be the last time," he continued. + +"We shall all hope that, I am certain," Miss Westlake assured him, +smiling engagingly into the depths of his eyes. "It will be our fault +if you don't like it here;" and he might take such tentative promise as +he would from that and her smile. + +"Thank you," he said promptly enough. "I can see right now that I'm +going to make Meadow Brook my future summer home. It's such a restful +place, for one thing. I'm beginning to rest right now, and to put +business so far into the background that--" he suddenly stopped and +listened to a phrase which his trained ear had caught. + +"And that is the trouble with the whole paper business," Mr. Princeman +was saying to Mr. Westlake. "It is not the tariff, but the future +scarcity of wood-pulp material." + +"That's just what I was starting to explain to you," said Mr. Turner, +wheeling eagerly to Mr. Princeman, entirely unaware, in his intensity +of interest, of his utter rudeness to both groups. "My kid brother and +myself are working on a scheme which, if we are on the right track, +ought to bring about a revolution in the paper business. I can not +give you the exact details of it now, because we're waiting for letters +patent on it, but the fundamental point is this: that the wood-pulp +manufacturers within a few years will have to grow their raw material, +since wood is becoming so scarce and so high priced. Well, there is +any quantity of swamp land available, and we have experimented like mad +with reeds and rushes. We've found one particular variety which grows +very rapidly, has a strong, woody fiber, and makes the finest pulp in +the world. I turned the kid loose with the company's bank roll this +spring, and he secured options on two thousand acres of swamp land, +near to transportation and particularly adapted to this culture, and +dirt cheap because it is useless for any other purpose. As soon as the +patents are granted on our process we're going to organize a million +dollar stock company to take up more land and handle the business." + +"Come over here and sit down," invited Princeman, somewhat more than +courteously. + +"Wait a minute until I send for McComas. Here, boy, hunt Mr. McComas +and ask him to come out on the porch." + +The new guest was reaching for pencil and paper as they gathered their +chairs together. The two girls had already started hesitantly to +efface themselves. Half-way across the lawn they looked sadly toward +the porch again. That handsome young Mr. Turner, his back toward them, +was deep in formulated but thrilling facts, while three other heads, +one gray and one black and one auburn, were bent interestedly over the +envelope upon which he was figuring. + +Later on, as he was dressing for dinner, Mr. Turner decided that he +liked Meadow Brook very much. It was set upon the edge of a pleasant, +rolling valley, faced and backed by some rather high hills, upon the +sloping side of one of which the hotel was built, with broad verandas +looking out upon exquisitely kept flowers and shrubbery and upon the +shallow little brook which gave the place its name. A little more +water would have suited Sam better, but the management had made the +most of its opportunities, especially in the matter of arranging dozens +of pretty little lovers' lanes leading in all directions among the +trees and along the sides of the shimmering stream, and the whole +prospect was very good to look at, indeed. Taken in conjunction with +the fact that one had no business whatever on hand, it gave one a sense +of delightful freedom to look out on the green lawn and the gay +gardens, on the brook and the tennis and croquet courts, and on the +purple-hazed, wooded hills beyond; it was good to fill one's lungs with +country air and to realize for a little while what a delightful world +this is; to see young people wandering about out there by twos and by +threes, and to meet with so many other people of affairs enjoying +leisure similar to one's own. + +Of course, this wasn't a really fashionable place, being supported +entirely by men who had made their own money; but there was Princeman, +for instance, a fine chap and very keen; a well-set-up fellow, +black-haired and black-eyed, and of a quick, nervous disposition; one +of precisely the kind of energy which Turner liked to see. McComas, +too, with his deep red hair and his tendency to freckles, and his frank +smile with all the white teeth behind it, was a corking good fellow; +and alive. McComas was in the furniture line, a maker of cheap stuff +which was shipped in solid trains of carload lots from a factory that +covered several acres. The other men he noticed around the place +seemed to be of about the same stamp. He had never been anywhere that +the men averaged so well. + +As he went down-stairs, McComas introduced his wife, already gowned for +the evening. She was a handsome woman, of the sort who would wear a +different stunning gown every night for two weeks and then go on to the +next place. Well, she had a right to this extravagance. Besides it is +good for a man's business to have his wife dressed prosperously. A man +who is getting on in the world ought to have a handsome wife. If she +is the right kind, of Miss Stevens' type, say, she is a distinct asset. + +After dinner, Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings waylaid him on the porch. + +[Illustration: They waylaid him on the porch] + +"I suppose, of course, you are going to take part in the bowling +tournament to-night," suggested Miss Westlake with the engaging +directness allowable to family friendship. + +"I suppose so, although I didn't know there was one. Where is it to be +held?" + +"Oh, just down the other side of the brook, beyond the croquet grounds. +We have a tournament every week, and a prize cup for the best score in +the season. It's lots of fun. Do you bowl?" + +"Not very much," Mr. Turner confessed; "but if you'll just keep me +posted on all these various forms of recreation, you may count on my +taking a prominent share in them." + +"All right," agreed Miss Hastings, very vivaciously taking the +conversation away from Miss Westlake. "We'll constitute ourselves a +committee of two to lay out a program for you." + +"Fine," he responded, bending on the fragile Miss Hastings a smile so +pleasant that it made her instantly determine to find out something +about his family and commercial standing. "What time do we start on +our mad bowling career?" + +"They'll be drifting over in about a half-hour," Miss Westlake told +him, with a speculative sidelong glance at her dearest girl friend. +"Everybody starts out for a stroll in some other direction, as if +bowling was the least of their thoughts, but they all wind up at the +alleys. I'll show you." A slight young man of the white-trousered +faction, as distinguished from the dinner-coat crowd, passed them just +then. "Oh, Billy," called Miss Westlake, and introduced the slight +young man, who proved to be her brother, to Mr. Turner, at the same +time wreathing her arm about the waist of her dear companion. "Come +on, Vivian; let's go get our wraps," and the girls, leaving "Billy" and +Mr. Turner together, scurried away. + +The two young men looked at each other dubiously, though each had an +earnest desire to please. They groped for human understanding, and +suddenly that clammy, discouraged feeling spread its muffling wall +between them. Billy was the first to recover in part. + +"Charming weather, isn't it?" he observed with a polite smile. + +Mr. Turner opined that it was, the while delving into Mr. Westlake's +mental workshop and finding it completely devoid of tools, patterns or +lumber. + +"The girls are just going to take me over to bowl," Mr. Turner ventured +desperately after a while. "Do you bowl very much?" + +"Oh, I usually fill in," stated Mr. Westlake; "but really, I'm a very +poor hand at it. I seem to be a poor hand at most everything," and he +laughed with engaging candor, as if somehow this were creditable. + +The conversation thereupon lagged for a moment or two, while Mr. Turner +blankly asked himself: "What in thunder _does_ a man talk about when he +has nothing to say and nobody to say it to?" Presently he solved the +problem. + +"It must be beautiful out here in the autumn," he observed. + +"Yes, it is indeed," returned Mr. Westlake with alacrity. "The leaves +turn all sorts of colors." + +Once more conversation lagged, while Billy feebly wondered how any +person could possibly be so dull as this chap. He made another attempt. + +"Beastly place, though, when it rains," he observed. + +"Yes, I should imagine so," agreed Mr. Turner. Great Scott! The voice +of McComas saved him from utter imbecility. + +"You'll excuse Mr. Turner a moment, won't you, Billy?" begged McComas +pleasantly. "I want to introduce him to a couple of friends of mine." + +Billy Westlake bowed his forgiveness of Mr. McComas with fully as much +relief as Sam Turner had felt. Over in the same corner of the porch +where he had sat in the afternoon with McComas and Princeman and the +elder Westlake, Sam found awaiting them Mr. Cuthbert, of the American +Papier-Mâché Company, an almost viciously ugly man with a twisted nose +and a crooked mouth, who controlled practically all the worth-while +papier-mâché business of the United States, and Mr. Blackrock, an +elderly man with a young toupee and particularly gaunt cheek-bones, who +was a corporation lawyer of considerable note. Both gentlemen greeted +Mr. Turner as one toward whom they were already highly predisposed, and +Mr. Princeman and Mr. Westlake also shook hands most cordially, as if +Sam had been gone for a day or two. Mr. McComas placed a chair for him. + +"We just happened to mention your marsh pulp idea, and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Blackrock were at once very highly interested," observed McComas as +they sat dawn. "Mr. Blackrock suggests that he don't see why you need +wait for the issuance of the letters patent, at least to discuss the +preliminary steps in the forming of your company." + +"Why, no, Mr. Turner," said Mr. Blackrock, suavely and smoothly; "it is +not a company anyhow, as I take it, which will depend so much upon +letters patent as upon extensive exploitation." + +"Yes, that's true enough," agreed Sam with a smile. "The letters +patent, however, should give my kid brother and myself, without much +capital, controlling interest in the stock." + +Upon this frank but natural statement the others laughed quite +pleasantly. + +"That seems a plausible enough reason," admitted Mr. Westlake, folding +his fat hands across his equator and leaning back in his chair with a +placidity which seemed far removed from any thought of gain. "How did +you propose to organize your company?" + +"Well," said Sam, crossing one leg comfortably over the other, "I +expect to issue a half million participating preferred stock, at five +per cent., and a half-million common, one share of common as bonus with +each two shares of preferred; the voting power, of course, vested in +the common." + +A silence followed that, and then Mr. Cuthbert, with a diagonal yawing +of his mouth which seemed to give his words a special dryness, observed: + +"And I presume you intend to take up the balance of the common stock?" + +"Just about," returned Mr. Turner cheerfully, addressing Cuthbert +directly. The papier-mâché king was another man whom he had inscribed, +some time since, upon his mental list. "My kid brother and myself will +take two hundred and fifty thousand of the common stock for our patents +and processes, and for our services as promoters and organizers, and +will purchase enough of the preferred to give us voting power; say five +thousand dollars worth." + +Mr. Cuthbert shook his head. + +"Very stringent terms," he observed. "I doubt if you will interest +your capital on that basis." + +"All right," said Sam, clasping his knee in his hands and rocking +gently. "If we can't organize on that basis we won't organize at all. +We're in no hurry. My kid brother's handling it just now, anyhow. I'm +on a vacation, the first I ever had, and not keen upon business, by any +means. In the meantime, let me show you some figures." + +Five minutes later, Billy Westlake and his sister and Miss Hastings +drew up to the edge of the group. Young Westlake stood diffidently for +two or three minutes beside Mr. Turner's chair, and then he put his +hand on that summer idler's shoulder. + +"Oh, good evening, Mr.--Mr.--Mr.--" Sam stammered while he tried to +find the name. + +"Westlake," interposed Billy's father; and then, a trifle impatiently, +"What do you want, Billy?" + +"Mr. Turner was to go over with us to the bowling shed, dad." + +"That's so," admitted Mr. Turner, glancing over to the porch rail where +the girls stood expectantly in their fluffy white dresses, and nodding +pleasantly at them, but not yet rising. He was in the midst of an +important statement. + +"Just you run on with the girls, Billy," ordered Mr. Westlake. "Mr. +Turner will be over in a few minutes." + +The others of the circle bent their eyes gravely upon Billy and the +girls as they turned away, and waited for Mr. Turner to resume. + +At a quarter past ten, as Mr. Turner and Mr. Princeman walked slowly +along the porch to turn into the parlors for a few minutes of music, of +which Sam was very fond, a crowd of young people came trooping up the +steps. Among them were Billy Westlake and his sister, another young +gentleman and Miss Hastings. + +"By George, that bowling tournament!" exclaimed Mr. Turner. "I forgot +all about it." + +He was about to make his apologies, but Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings +passed right on, with stern, set countenances and their heads in air. +Apparently they did not see Mr. Turner at all. He gazed after them in +consternation; suddenly there popped into his mind the vision of a +slender girl in green, with mischievous brown eyes--and he felt +strangely comforted. Before retiring he wired his brother to send some +samples of the marsh pulp, and the paper made from it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MR. TURNER APPLIES BUSINESS PROMPTNESS TO A MATTER OF DELICACY + +Morning at Meadow Brook was even more delightful than evening. The +time Mr. Turner had chosen for his outing was early September, and +already there was a crispness in the air which was quite invigorating. +Clad in flannels and with a brand new tennis racket under his arm, he +went into the reading-room immediately after breakfast, bought a paper +of the night before and glanced hastily over the news of the day, +paying more particular attention to the market page. Prices of things +had a peculiar fascination for him. He noticed that cereals had gone +down, that there was another flurry in copper stock, and that hardwood +had gone up, and ranging down the list his eye caught a quotation for +walnut. It had made a sharp advance of ten dollars a thousand feet. + +Out of the window, as he looked up, he saw Miss Westlake and Miss +Hastings crossing the lawn, and he suddenly realized that he was here +to wear himself out with rest, so he hurried in the direction the girls +had taken; but when he arrived at the tennis court he found a set +already in progress. Both Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings barely +nodded at Mr. Turner, and went right on displaying grace and dexterity +to a quite unusual degree. Decidedly Mr. Turner was being "cut," and +he wondered why. Presently he strode down to the road and looked up +over the hill in the direction he knew Hollis Creek Inn to be. He was +still pondering the probable distance when Mr. Westlake and Billy and +young Princeman came up the brook path. + +"Just the chap I wanted to see, Sam," said Mr. Westlake heartily. "I'm +trying to get up a pin-hook fishing contest, for three-inch sunfish." + +"Happy thought," returned Sam, laughing. "Count me in." + +"It's the governor's own idea, too," said Billy with vast enthusiasm. +"Bully sport, it ought to be. Only trouble is, Princeman has some +mysterious errand or other, and can't join us." + +"No; the fact is, the Stevenses were due at Hollis Creek yesterday," +confessed Mr. Princeman in cold return to the prying Billy, "and I +think I'll stroll over and see if they've arrived." + +Sam Turner surveyed Princeman with a new interest. Danger lurked in +Princeman's black eyes, fascination dwelt in his black hair, +attractiveness was in every line of his athletic figure. It was upon +the tip of Sam's tongue to say that he would join Princeman in his +walk, but he repressed that instinct immediately. + +"Quite a long ways over there by the road, isn't it?" he questioned. + +"Yes," admitted Princeman unsuspectingly, "it winds a good bit; but +there is a path across the hills which is not only shorter but far more +pleasant." + +Sam turned to Mr. Westlake. + +"It would be a shame not to let Princeman in on that pin-hook match," +he suggested. "Why not put it off until to-morrow morning. I have an +idea that I can beat Princeman at the game." + +There was more or less of sudden challenge in his tone, and Princeman, +keen as Sam himself, took it in that way. + +"Fine!" he invited. "Any time you want to enter into a contest with me +you just mention it." + +"I'll let you know in some way or other, even if I don't make any +direct announcement," laughed Sam, and Princeman walked away with Mr. +Westlake, very much to Billy's consternation. He was alone with this +dull Turner person once more. What should they talk about? Sam solved +that problem for him at once. "What's the swiftest conveyance these +people keep?" he asked briskly. + +"Oh, you can get most anything you like," said Billy. "Saddle-horses +and carriages of all sorts; and last year they put in a couple of +automobiles, though scarcely any one uses them." There was a certain +amount of careless contempt in Billy's tone as he mentioned the hired +autos. Evidently they were not considered to be as good form as other +modes of conveyance. + +"Where's the garage?" asked Sam. + +"Right around back of the hotel. Just follow that drive." + +"Thanks," said the other crisply. "I'll see you this evening," and he +stalked away leaving Billy gasping for breath at the suddenness of Sam. +After all, though, he was glad to be rid of Mr. Turner. He knew the +Stevenses himself, and it had slowly dawned on him that by having his +own horse saddled he could beat Princeman over there. + +It took Sam just about one minute to negotiate for an automobile, a +neat little affair, shiny and new, and before they were half-way to +Hollis Creek, his innate democracy led him into conversation with the +driver, an alert young man of the near-by clay. + +"Not very good soil in this neighborhood," Sam observed. "I notice +there is a heavy outcropping of stone. What are the principal crops?" + +"Summer resorters," replied the driver briefly. + +"And do you mean to tell me that all these farm-houses call themselves +summer resorts?" inquired Sam. + +"No, only those that have running water. The others just keep +boarders." + +"I see," said Sam, laughing. + +A moment later they passed over a beautifully clear stream which ran +down a narrow pocket valley between two high hills, swept under a +rickety wooden culvert, and raced on across a marshy meadow, sparkling +invitingly here and there in the sunlight. + +"Here's running water without a summer resort," observed the passenger, +still smiling. + +"It's too much shut in," replied the chauffeur as one who had voiced a +final and insurmountable objection. All the "summer resorts" in this +neighborhood were of one pattern, and no one would so much as dream of +varying from the first successful model. + +Sam scarcely heard. He was looking back toward the trough of those two +picturesquely wooded hills, and for the rest of the drive he asked but +few questions. + +At Hollis Creek, where he found a much more imposing hotel than the one +at Meadow Brook, he discovered Miss Stevens, clad in simple white from +canvas shoes to knotted cravat, in a summer-house on the lawn, chatting +gaily with a young man who was almost fat. Sam had seen other girls +since he had entered the grounds, but he could not make out their +features; this one he had recognized from afar, and as they approached +the summer-house he opened the door of the machine and jumped out +before it had come properly to a stop. + +"Good morning, Miss Stevens," he said with a cheerful self-confidence +which was beautiful to behold. "I have come over to take you a little +spin, if you'll go." + +Miss Stevens gazed at the caller quizzically, and laughed outright. + +"This is so sudden," she murmured. + +The caller himself grinned. + +"Does seem so, if you stop to think of it," he admitted. "Rather like +dropping out of the clouds. But the auto is here, and I can testify +that it's a smooth-running machine. Will you go?" + +She turned that same quizzical smile upon the young man who was almost +fat, and introduced him, curly hair and all, to Mr. Turner as Mr. +Hollis, who, it afterward transpired, was the heir to Hollis Creek Inn. + +"I had just promised to play tennis with Mr. Hollis," Miss Stevens +stated after the introduction had been properly acknowledged, "but I +know he won't mind putting it off this time," and she handed him her +tennis bat. + +"Certainly not," said young Hollis with forcedly smiling politeness. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hollis," said Sam promptly. "Just jump right in, Miss +Stevens." + +"How long shall we be gone?" she asked as she settled herself in the +tonneau. + +"Oh, whatever you say. A couple of hours, I presume." + +"All right, then," she said to young Hollis; "we'll have our game in +the afternoon." + +"With pleasure," replied the other graciously, but he did not look it. + +"Where shall we go?" asked Sam as the driver looked back inquiringly. +"You know the country about here, I suppose." + +"I ought to," she laughed. "Father's been ending the summer here ever +since I was a little girl. You might take us around Bald Hill," she +suggested to the chauffeur. "It is a very pretty drive," she +explained, turning to Sam as the machine wheeled, and at the same time +waving her hand gaily to the disconsolate Hollis, who was "hard hit" +with a different girl every season. "It's just about a two-hour trip. +What a fine morning to be out!" and she settled back comfortably as the +machine gathered speed. "I do love a machine, but father is rather +backward about them. He will consent to ride in them under necessity, +but he won't buy one. Every time he sees a handsome pair of horses, +however, he has to have them." + +"I admire a good horse myself," returned Sam. + +"Do you ride?" she asked him. + +"Oh, I have suffered a few times on horseback," he confessed; "but you +ought to see my kid brother ride. He looks as if he were part of the +horse. He's a handsome brat." + +"Except for calling him names, which is a purely masculine way of +showing affection, you speak of him almost as if you were his mother," +she observed. + +"Well, I am, almost," replied Sam, studying the matter gravely. "I +have been his mother, and his father, and his brother, too, for a great +many years; and I will say that he's a credit to his family." + +"Meaning just you?" she ventured. + +"Yes, we're all we have; just yet, at least." This quite soberly. + +"He must talk of getting married," she guessed, with a quick intuition +that when this happened it would be a blow to Sam. + +"Oh, no," he immediately corrected her. "He isn't quite old enough to +think of it seriously as yet. I expect to be married long before he +is." + +Miss Stevens felt a rigid aloofness creeping over her, and, having a +very wholesome sense of humor, smiled as she recognized the feeling in +herself. + +"I should think you'd spend your vacation where the girl is," she +observed. "Men usually do, don't they?" + +He laughed gaily. + +"I surely would if I knew the girl," he asserted. + +"That's a refreshing suggestion," she said, echoing his laugh, though +from a different impulse. "I presume, then, that you entertain +thoughts of matrimony merely because you think you are quite old +enough." + +"No, it isn't just that," he returned, still thoughtfully. "Somehow or +other I feel that way about it; that's all. I have never had time to +think of it before, but this past year I have had a sort of sense of +lonesomeness; and I guess that must be it." + +In spite of herself Miss Josephine giggled and repressed it, and +giggled again and repressed it, and giggled again, and then she let +herself go and laughed as heartily as she pleased. She had heard men +say before, but always with more or less of a languishing air, +inevitably ridiculous in a man, that they thought it about time they +were getting married; but she could not remember anything to compare +with Sam Turner's naïveté in the statement. + +He paid no attention to the laughter, for he had suddenly leaned +forward to the chauffeur. + +"There is another clump of walnut trees," he said, eagerly pointing +them out. "Are there many of them in this locality?" + +"A good many scattered here and there," replied the boy; "but old man +Gifford has a twenty-acre grove down in the bottoms that's mostly all +walnut trees, and I heard him say just the other day that walnut +lumber's got so high he had a notion to clear his land." + +"Where do you suppose we could find old man Gifford?" inquired Mr. +Turner. + +"Oh, about six miles off to the right, at the next turning." + +"Suppose we whizz right down there," said Sam promptly, and he turned +to Miss Stevens with enthusiasm shining in his eyes. "It does seem as +if everything happens lucky for me," he observed. "I haven't any +particular liking for the lumber business, but fate keeps handing +lumber to me all the time; just fairly forcing it on me." + +"Do you think fate is as much responsible for that as yourself?" she +questioned, smiling as they passed at a good clip the turn which was to +have taken them over the pretty Bald Hill drive. Sam had not even +thought to apologize for the abrupt change in their program, because +she could certainly see the opportunity which had offered itself, and +how imperative it was to embrace it. The thing needed no explanation. + +"I don't know," he replied to her query, after pausing to consider it a +moment. "I certainly don't go out of my road to hunt up these things." + +"No-o-o-o," she admitted. "But fate hasn't thrust this particular +opportunity upon me, although I'm right with you at the time. It never +would have occurred to me to ask about those walnut trees." + +"It would have occurred to your father," he retorted quickly. + +"Yes, it might have occurred to father, but I think that under the +circumstances he would have waited until to-morrow to see about it." + +"I suppose I might be that way when I arrive at his age," Sam commented +philosophically, "but just now I can't afford it. His 'seeing about it +to-morrow' cost him between five and six thousand dollars the last time +I had anything to do with him." + +She laughed. She was enjoying Sam's company very much. Even if a bit +startling, he was at least refreshing after the type of young men she +was in the habit of meeting. + +"He was talking about that last night," she said. "I think father +rather stands in both admiration and awe of you." + +"I'm glad to hear that," he returned quite seriously. "It's a good +attitude in which to have the man with whom you expect to do business." + +"I think I shall have to tell him that," she observed, highly amused. +"He will enjoy it, and it may put him on his guard." + +"I don't mind," he concluded after due reflection. "It won't hurt a +particle. If anything, if he likes me so far, that will only increase +it. I like your father. In fact I like his whole family." + +"Thank you," she said demurely, wondering if there was no end to his +bluntness, and wondering, too, whether it were not about time that she +should find it wearisome. On closer analysis, however, she decided +that the time was not yet come. "But you have not met all of them," +she reminded him. "There are mother and a younger sister and an older +brother." + +"Don't matter if there were six more, I like all of them," Sam promptly +informed her. Then, "Stop a minute," he suddenly directed the +chauffeur. + +That functionary abruptly brought his machine to a halt just a little +way past a tree glowing with bright green leaves and red berries. + +"I don't know what sort of a tree that is," said Sam with boyish +enthusiasm; "but see how pretty it is. Except for the shape of the +leaves the effect is as beautiful as holly. Wouldn't you like a branch +or two, Miss Stevens?" + +"I certainly should," she heartily agreed. "I don't know how you +discovered that I have a mad passion for decorative weeds and things." + +"Have you?" he inquired eagerly. "So have I. If I had time I'd be +rather ashamed of it." + +He had scrambled out of the car and now ran back to the tree, where, +perching himself upon the second top rail of the fence he drew down a +limb, and with his knife began to snip off branches here and there. +The girl noticed that he selected the branches with discrimination, +turning each one over so that he could look at the broad side of it +before clipping, rejecting many and studying each one after he had +taken it in his hand. He was some time in finding the last one, a long +straggling branch which had most of its leaves and berries at the tip, +and she noticed that as he came back to the auto he was arranging them +deftly and with a critical eye. When he handed them in to her they +formed a carefully arranged and graceful composition. It was a new and +an unexpected side of him, and it softened considerably the amused +regard in which she had been holding him. + +"They are beautifully arranged," she commented, as he stopped for a +moment to brush the dust from his shoes in the tall grass by the +roadside. + +"Do you think so?" he delightedly inquired. "You ought to see my kid +brother make up bouquets of goldenrod and such things. He seems to +have a natural artistic gift." + +She bent on his averted head a wondering glance, and she reflected that +often this "hustler" must be misunderstood. + +"You have aroused in me quite a curiosity to meet this paragon of a +brother," she remarked. "He must be well-nigh perfection." + +"He is," replied Sam instantly, turning to her very earnest eyes. "He +hasn't a flaw in him any place." + +She smiled musingly as she surveyed the group of branches she held in +her hand. + +"It is a pity these leaves will wither in so short a time," she said. + +"Yes," he admitted; "but even if we have to throw them away before we +get back to the hotel, their beauty will give us pleasure for an hour; +and the tree won't miss them. See, it seems as perfect as ever." + +"It wouldn't if everybody took the same liberties with it that you +did," she remarked, glancing back at the tree. + +Sam had climbed in the car and had slammed the door shut, but any reply +he might have made was prevented by a hail from the woods above them at +the other side of the road, and a man came scrambling down from the +hillside path. + +"Why, it's Mr. Princeman!" exclaimed the girl in pleased surprise. +"Think of finding you wandering about, all alone in the woods here." + +"I wasn't wandering about," he protested as he came up to the machine +and shook hands with Miss Josephine. "I was headed directly for Hollis +Creek Inn. Your brother wrote me that you were expected to arrive +there yesterday evening, and I was dropping over to call on you right +away this morning. I see, however, that I was not quite prompt enough. +You're selfish, Mr. Turner. You knew I was going over to Hollis Creek, +and you might have invited me to ride in your machine." + +"You might have invited me to walk with you," retorted Sam. + +"But you knew that I was coming and I didn't know that you even knew--" +he paused abruptly and fixed a contemplative eye upon young Mr. Turner, +who was now surveying the scenery and Mr. Princeman in calm enjoyment. + +The arrival at this moment of a cloud of dust out of which evolved a +lone horseman, and that horseman Billy Westlake, added a new angle to +the situation, and for one fleeting moment the three men eyed one +another in mutual sheepish guilt. + +"Rather good sport, I call it, Miss Stevens," declared Billy, aware of +a sudden increase in his estimation of Mr. Turner, and letting the cat +completely out of the bag. "Each of us was trying to steal a march on +the rest, but Mr. Turner used the most businesslike method, and of +course he won the race." + +"I'm flattered, I'm sure," said Miss Josephine demurely. "I really +feel that I ought to go right back to the house and be the belle of the +ball; but it's impossible for an hour or so in this case," and she +turned to her escort with the smile of mischief which she had worn the +first time he saw her. "You see, we are out on a little business trip, +Mr. Turner and myself. We're going to buy a walnut grove." + +Mr. Turner turned upon her a glance which was half a frown. + +"I promised to get you back in two hours, and I'll do it," he stated, +"but we mustn't linger much by the wayside." + +"With which hint we shall wend our Hollis Creek-ward way," laughed +Princeman, exchanging a glance of amusement with Miss Stevens. "I +think we shall visit with your father until you come back." + +"Please do," she urged. "He will be as glad to see you both as I am," +with which information she settled herself back in her seat with a +little air of the interview being over, and the chauffeur, with proper +intuition, started the machine, while Mr. Princeman and Billy looked +after them glumly. + +"Queer chap, isn't he?" commented Billy. + +"Queer? Well, hardly that," returned Princeman thoughtfully. "There's +one thing certain; he's enterprising and vigorous enough to command +respect, in business or--anything else." + +At about that very moment Mr. Turner was impressing upon his companion +a very important bit of ethics. + +"You shouldn't have violated my confidence," he told her severely. + +"How was that?" she asked in surprise, and with a trifle of indignation +as well. + +"You told them that we were going to buy a walnut grove. You ought +never to let slip anything you happen to know of any man's business +plans." + +"Oh!" she said blankly. + +Having voiced his straightforward objection, and delivered his simple +but direct lesson, Mr. Turner turned as decisively to other matters. + +"Son," he asked, leaning over toward the chauffeur, "are there any +speed limit laws on these roads?" + +"None that I know of," replied the boy. + +"Then cut her loose. Do you object to fast driving, Miss Stevens?" + +"Not at all," she told him, either much chastened by the late rebuke or +much amused by it. She could scarcely tell which, as yet. "I don't +particularly long for a broken neck, but I never can feel that my time +has come." + +"It hasn't," returned Sam. "Let's see your palm," and taking her hand +he held it up before him. It was a small hand that he saw, and most +gracefully formed, but a strong one, too, and Sam Turner had an +extremely quick and critical eye for both strength and beauty. "You +are going to live to be a gray-haired grandmother," he announced after +an inspection of her pink palm, "and live happily all your life." + +It was noteworthy that no matter what his impulse may have been he did +not hold her hand overly long, nor subject it to undue warmth of +pressure, but restored it gently to her lap. She was remarking upon +this herself as she took that same hand and passed its tapering fingers +deftly among the twigs of the tree-bouquet, arranging a leaf here and a +berry there. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A LITTLE VACATION PASTIME IN WHICH GREEK MEETS GREEK + +Old man Gifford was not at home in his squat, low-roofed farm-house, +but a woman shaped like a pyramid of diminishing pumpkins directed them +down through the grove to the corn patch. It was necessary to lift +strenuously upon the sagging end of a squeaky old gate, and scrape it +across gulleys, to get the automobile into the narrow, deeply-rutted +road, and with a mind fearful of tires the chauffeur wheeled down +through the grove quite slowly, a slowness for which Sam was duly +grateful, since it allowed him to take a careful appraisement of the +walnut trees, interspersed with occasional oaks, which bordered both +sides of their path. They were tall, thick, straight-trunked trees, +from amongst which the underbrush had been carefully cut away. It was +a joy to his now vandal soul, this grove, and already he could see +those majestic trunks, after having been sawed with as little wasteful +chopping as possible, toppling in endless billowy furrows. + +Old man Gifford came inquiringly up between the long rows of corn to +the far edge of the grove. He was bent and weazened, and more gnarled +than any of his trees, and even his fingers seemed to have the knotty, +angular effect of twigs. A fringe of gray beard surrounded his +clean-shaven face, which was criss-crossed with innumerable little +furrows that the wind and rain had worn in it; but a pair of shrewd old +eyes twinkled from under his bushy eyebrows. + +"Morning, 'Ennery," he said, addressing the chauffeur with a squeaky +little voice in which, though after forty years of residence in +America, there was still a strong trace of British accent; and then his +calculating gaze rested calmly in turns upon the other occupants of the +machine. + +"Good morning, Mr. Gifford," returned the chauffeur. "Fine day, isn't +it?" + +"Good corn-ripenin' weather," agreed the old man, squinting at the sky +from force of habit, and then, being satisfied that there was no +threatening cloud in all the visible blue expanse, he returned to a +calm consideration of the strangers, waiting patiently for Mr. Turner +to introduce himself. + +"I understand, Mr. Gifford, that you are open to an offer for your +walnut trees," began Mr. Turner, looking at his watch. + +"Well, I might be," admitted the old man cautiously. + +"I see," returned Sam; "that is, you might be interested if the price +were right. Let's get right down to brass tacks. How much do you +want?" + +"Standin' or cut?" + +"Well, say standing?" + +"How much do you offer?" + +Miss Stevens' gaze roved from the one to the other and found enjoyment +in the fact that here Greek had met Greek. + +Sam's reply was prompt and to the point. He named a price. + +"No," said the old man instantly. "I been a-holdin' out for five +dollars a thousand more than that." + +Things were progressing. A basis for haggling had been established. +Sam Turner, however, had the advantage. He knew the sharp advance in +walnut announced that morning. Old man Gifford would not be aware of +it until the rural free delivery brought his evening paper, of the +night before, some time that afternoon. In view of the recent advance, +even at Mr. Gifford's price there was a handsome profit in the +transaction. + +"The reason you've had to hold out for your rate until right now was +that nobody would pay it," said Sam confidently. "Now I'm here to talk +spot cash. I'll give you, say, a thousand dollars down, and the +balance immediately upon measurement as the logs are loaded upon the +cars." + +The old man nodded in approval. + +"The terms is all right," he said. + +"How much will you take F. O. B. Restview?" + +"Well, cuttin' and trimmin' and haulin' ain't much in my line," +returned the old man, again cautious; "but after all, I reckon that +there'd be less damage to my property if I looked after it myself. Of +course, I'd have to have a profit for handlin' it. I'd feel like +holdin' out for--for--" and after some hesitation he again named a +figure. + +"You've made that same proposition to others," charged Sam shrewdly, +"and you couldn't get the price." Upon the heels of this he made his +own offer. + +The old man shook his head and turned as if to start back to the corn +field. + +"No, I can get better than that," he declared, shaking his head. + +"Come back here and let's talk turkey," protested Sam compellingly. +"You name the very lowest price you'll take, delivered on board the +cars at Restview." + +The old man reached down, pulled up a blade of grass, chewed it +carefully, spit it out, and named his very, very lowest price; then he +added: "What's the most you'll give?" + +Miss Stevens leaned forward intently. + +Sam very promptly named a figure five dollars lower. + +"I'll split the difference with you," offered the old man. + +"It's a bargain!" said Sam, and reaching into the inside pocket of his +tennis coat, he brought out some queer furniture for that sort of +garment--a small fountain pen and an extremely small card-case, from +the latter of which he drew four folded blank checks. + +He reached over and borrowed the chauffeur's enameled cap, dusted it +carefully with his handkerchief, laid a check upon it and held his +fountain pen poised. "What are your initials, please, Mr. Gifford?" + +"Wait a minute," said the old man hastily. "Don't make out that check +just yet. I don't do any business or sign any contracts till I talk +with Hepseba." + +"All right. Climb right in with Henry there," directed Sam, seizing +upon the chauffeur's name. "We'll drive straight up to see her." + +"I'll walk," firmly declared Mr. Gifford. "I never have rode in one of +them things, and I'm too old to begin." + +"Very well," said Sam cheerfully, jumping out of the machine with great +promptness. "I'll walk with you. Back to the house, Henry," and he +started anxiously to trudge up the road with Mr. Gifford, leaving Henry +to manoeuver painfully in the narrow space. After a few steps, +however, a sudden thought made him turn back. "Maybe you'd rather walk +up, too," he suggested to Miss Stevens. + +"No, I think I'll ride," she said coldly. + +He opened the door in extreme haste. + +"Do come on and walk," he pleaded. "Don't hold it against me because I +just don't seem to be able to think of more than one thing at a time; +but I was so wrapped up in this deal that-- Really," and he sank his +voice confidentially, "I have a tremendous bargain here, and I'll be +nervous about it until I have it clenched. I'll tell you why as we go +home." + +He held out his hand as a matter of course to help her down. The white +of his eyes was remarkably clear, the irises were remarkably blue, the +pupils remarkably deep. Suddenly her face cleared and she laughed. + +"It was silly of me to be snippy, wasn't it?" she confessed, as she +took his hand and stepped lightly to the ground. It had just recurred +to her that when he knew Princeman was walking over to see her he had +said nothing, but had engaged an automobile. + +Old man Gifford had nothing much to say when they caught up with him. +Mr. Turner tried him with remarks about the weather, and received full +information, but when he attempted to discuss the details of the walnut +purchase, he received but mere grunts in reply, except finally this: + +"There's no use, young man. I won't talk about them trees till I get +Hepseba's opinion." + +At the house Hepseba waddled out on the little stoop in response to old +man Gifford's call, and stood regarding the strangers stonily through +her narrow little slits of eyes. + +"This gentleman, Hepseba," said old man Gifford, "wants to buy my +walnut trees. What do you think of him?" + +In response to that leading question, Hepseba studied Sam Turner from +head to foot with the sort of scrutiny under which one slightly reddens. + +[Illustration: Hepseba studied him from head to foot] + +"I like him," finally announced Hepseba, in a surprisingly liquid and +feminine voice. "I like both of them," an unexpected turn which +brought a flush to the face of Miss Stevens. + +"All right, young man," said old man Gifford briskly. "Now, then, you +come in the front room and write your contract, and I'll take your +check." + +All alacrity and open cordiality now, he led the way into the queer-old +front room, musty with the solemnity of many dim Sundays. + +"Just set down here in this easy chair, Mrs.-- What did you say your +name is?" Mr. Gifford inquired, turning to Sam. + +"Turner; Sam J. Turner," returned that gentleman, grinning. "But this +is Miss Stevens." + +"No offense meant or taken, I hope," hastily said the old man by way of +apology; "but I do say that Mr. Turner would be lucky if he had such a +pretty wife." + +"You have both good taste and good judgment, Mr. Gifford," commented +Sam as airily as he could; then he looked across at Miss Stevens and +laughed aloud, so openly and so ingenuously that, so far from the +laughter giving offense, it seemed, strangely enough, to put Miss +Josephine at her ease, though she still blushed furiously. There was +nothing in that laugh nor in his look but frank, boyish enjoyment of +the joke. + +There ensued a crisp and decisive conversation between Mr. Gifford and +Mr. Turner about the details of their contract, and 'Ennery was +presently called in to append to it his painfully precise signature in +vertical writing, Miss Stevens adding hers in a pretty round hand. +Then Hepseba, to bind the bargain, brought in hot apple pie fresh from +the oven, and they became quite a little family party indeed, and very +friendly, 'Ennery sitting in the parlor with them and eating his pie +with a fork. + +"I know what Hepseba thinks," said old man Gifford, as he held the door +of the car open for them. "She thinks you're a mighty keen young man +that has to be watched in the beginning of a bargain, because you'll +give as little as you can; but that after the bargain's made you don't +need any more watching. But Lord love you, I have to be watched in a +bargain myself. I take everything I can." + +As he finished saying this he was closing the door of the car, but +Hepseba called to them to wait, and came puffing out of the house with +a little bundle wrapped in a newspaper. + +"I brought this out for your wife," she said to Mr. Turner, and handed +it to Miss Josephine. "It's some geranium slips. Everybody says I got +the very finest geraniums in the bottoms here." + +"Goodness, Hepseba," exclaimed old man Gifford, highly delighted; "that +ain't his wife. That's Miss Stevens. I made the same mistake," and he +hawhawed in keen enjoyment. + +Hepseba was so evidently overcome with mortification, however, and her +huge round face turned so painfully red, that Miss Stevens lost +entirely any embarrassment she might otherwise have felt. + +"It doesn't matter at all, I assure you, Mrs. Gifford," she said with +charming eagerness to set Hepseba at ease. "I am very fond of +geraniums, and I shall plant these slips and take good care of them. I +thank you very, very much for them." + +As the machine rolled away Hepseba turned to old man Gifford: + +"I like both of them!" she stated most decisively. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER AGREES THAT SAM TURNER IS ALL BUSINESS + +"And now," announced Sam in calm triumph as they neared Hollis Creek +Inn, "I'll finish up this deal right away. There is no use in my +holding for a further rise at this time, and I'll just sell these trees +to your father." + +"To father!" she gasped, and then, as it dawned upon her that she had +been out all morning to help Sam Turner buy up trees to sell to her own +father at a profit, she burst forth into shrieks of laughter. + +"What's the joke?" Sam asked, regarding her in amazement, and then, +more or less dimly, he perceived. "Still," he said, relapsing into +serious consideration of the affair, "your father will be in luck to +buy those trees at all, even at the ten dollars a thousand profit he'll +have to pay me. There is not less than a hundred thousand feet of +walnut in that grove. + +"Mercy!" she said. "Why, that will make you a thousand dollars for +this morning's drive; and the opportunity was entirely accidental, one +which would not have occurred if you hadn't come over to see me in this +machine. I think I ought to have a commission." + +"You ought to be fined," Sam retorted. "You had me scared stiff at one +time." + +"How was that?" she demanded. + +"Why, of course you didn't think, but when you told the boys that I was +going out to buy a walnut grove, they were right on their way to see +your father. It would have been very natural for one of them to +mention our errand. Your father might have immediately inquired where +there was walnut to be found, and have telephoned to old man Gifford +before I could reach him." + +"You needn't have worried!" stated Miss Josephine in a tone so +indignant that Sam turned to her in astonishment. "My father would not +have done anything so despicable as that, I am quite sure!" + +"He wouldn't!" exclaimed Sam. "I'll bet he would. Why, how do you +suppose your father became rich in the lumber trade if it wasn't +through snapping up bargains every time he found one?" + +"I have no doubt that my father has been and is a very alert business +man," retorted Miss Josephine most icily; "but after he knew that you +had started out actually to purchase a tract of lumber, he would +certainly consider that you had established a prior claim upon the +property." + +"Your father's name is Theophilus Stevens, isn't it?" + +"Yes." + +"Humph!" said Sam, but he did not explain that exclamation, nor was he +asked to explain. Miss Stevens had been deeply wounded by the assault +upon her father's business morality, and she desired to hear no further +elaboration of the insult. + +She was glad that they were drawing up now to the porch, glad this +ride, with its many disagreeable features, was over, although she +carefully gathered up her bright-berried branches, which were not half +so much withered as she had expected them to be, and held her geranium +slips cautiously as she alighted. + +Her father came out to the edge of the porch to meet them. He paid no +attention to his daughter. + +"Well, Sam Turner," said Mr. Stevens, stroking his aggressive beard, "I +hear you got it, confound you! What do you want for your lumber +contract?" + +"Just the advance of this morning's quotations," replied Sam. +"Princeman tell you I was after it?" + +"No, not at first," said Stevens. "I received a telegram about that +grove just an hour ago, from my partner. Princeman was with me when +the telegram came, and he told me then that you had just gone out on +the trail. I did my best to get Gifford by 'phone before you could +reach him." + +"Father!" exclaimed Miss Josephine. + +"What's the matter, Jo?" + +"You say you actually tried to--to get in ahead of Mr. Turner in buying +this lumber, knowing that he was going down there purposely for it?" + +"Why, certainly," admitted her father. + +"But did you know that I was with Mr. Turner?" + +"_Why, certainly_!" + +"Father!" was all she could gasp, and without deigning to say good-by +to Mr. Turner, or to thank him for the ride or the bouquet of branches +or even the geranium slips which she had received under false +pretenses, she hurried away to her room, oppressed with Heaven only +knows what mortification, and also with what wonder at the ways of men! + +However, Princeman and Billy Westlake and young Hollis with the curly +hair were impatiently waiting for Miss Josephine at the tennis court, +as they informed her in a jointly signed note sent up to her by a boy, +and hastily removing the dust of the road she ran down to join them. +As she went across the lawn, tennis bat in hand, Sam Turner, discussing +lumber with Mr. Stevens, saw her and stopped talking abruptly to admire +the trim, graceful figure. + +"Does your daughter play tennis much?" he inquired. + +"A great deal," returned Mr. Stevens, expanding with pride. "Jo's a +very expert player. She's better at it than any of these girls, and +she really doesn't care to play except with experts. Princeman, Hollis +and Billy Westlake are easily the champions here." + +"I see," said Sam thoughtfully. + +"I suppose you're a crack player yourself," his host resumed, glancing +at Sam's bat. + +"Me? No, worse than a dub. I never had time; that is, until now. +I'll tell you, though, this being away from the business grind is a +great thing. You don't know how I enjoy the fresh air and the being +out in the country this way, and the absolute freedom from business +cares and worries." + +"But where are you going?" asked Stevens, for Sam was getting up. +"You'll stay to lunch with us, won't you?" + +"No, thanks," replied Sam, looking at his watch. "I expect some word +from my kid brother. I have wired him to send some samples of marsh +pulp, and the paper we've had made from it." + +"Marsh pulp," repeated Mr. Stevens. "That's a new one on me. What's +it like?" + +"Greatest stunt on earth," replied Sam confidently. "It is our scheme +to meet the deforestation danger on the way--coming." + +Already he was reaching in his pocket for paper and pencil, and sat +down again at the side of Mr. Stevens, who immediately began stroking +his aggressive beard. Fifteen minutes later Sam briskly got up again +and Mr. Stevens shook hands with him. + +"That's a great scheme," he said, and he gazed after Sam's broad +shoulders admiringly as that young man strode down the steps. + +On his way Sam passed the tennis court where the one girl and three +young men were engaged in a most dextrous game, a game which all the +other amateurs of Hollis Creek Inn had stopped their own sets to watch. +In the pause of changing sides Miss Josephine saw him and waved her +hand and wafted a gay word to him. A second later she was in the air, +a lithe, graceful figure, meeting a high "serve," and Sam walked on +quite thoughtfully. + +When he arrived at Meadow Brook his first care was for his telegram. +It was there, and bore the assurance that the samples would arrive on +the following morning. His next step was to hunt Miss Westlake. That +plump young person forgot her pique of the morning in an instant when +he came up to her with that smiling "been-looking-for-you-everywhere, +mighty-glad-to-see-you" cordiality. + +"I want you to teach me tennis," he said immediately. + +"I'm afraid I can't teach you much," she replied with becoming +diffidence, "because I'm not a good enough player myself; but I'll do +my best. We'll have a set right after luncheon; shall we?" + +"Fine!" said he. + +After luncheon Mr. Westlake and Mr. Cuthbert waylaid him, but he merely +thrust his telegram into Mr. Westlake's hands, and hurried off to the +tennis grounds with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and lanky Bob +Tilloughby, who stuttered horribly and blushed when he spoke, and was +in deadly seriousness about everything. Never did a man work so hard +at anything as Sam Turner worked at tennis. He had a keen eye and a +dextrous wrist, and he kept the game up to top-notch speed. Of course +he made blunders and became confused in his count and overlooked +opportunities, but he covered acres of ground, as Vivian Hastings +expressed it, and when, at the end of an hour, they sat down, panting, +to rest, young Tilloughby, with painful earnestness, assured him that +he had "the mum-mum-makings of a fine tennis player." + +Sam considered that compliment very thoughtfully, but he was a trifle +dubious. Already he perceived that tennis playing was not only an +occupation but a calling. + +"Thanks," said he. "It's mighty nice of you to say so, Tilloughby. +What's the next game?" + +"The nun-nun-next game is a stroll," Tilloughby soberly advised him. +"It always stus-stus-starts out as a foursome, and ends up in +tut-tut-two doubles." + +So they strolled. They wound along the brookside among some of the +pretty paths, and in the rugged places Miss Westlake threw her weight +upon Sam's helping arm as much as possible; in the concealed places she +languished, which she did very prettily, she thought, considering her +one hundred and sixty-three pounds. They took him through a detour of +shady paths which occupied a full hour to traverse, but this particular +game did not wind up in "two doubles." In spite of all the excellent +tête-à-tête opportunities which should have risen for both couples, +Miss Westlake was annoyed to find Miss Hastings right close behind, and +holding even the conversation to a foursome. + +In the meantime, Sam Turner took careful lessons in the art of talking +twaddle, and they never knew that he was bored. Having entered into +the game he played it with spirit, and before they had returned to the +house Mr. Tilloughby was calling him Sus-Sus-Sam. + +The girls disappeared for their beauty sleep, and Sam found McComas and +Billy Westlake hunting for him. + +"Do you play base-ball?" inquired McComas. + +"A little. I used to catch, to help out my kid brother, who is an +expert pitcher." + +"Good!" said McComas, writing down Sam's name. "Princeman will pitch, +but we needed a catcher. The rivalry between Meadow Brook and Hollis +Creek is intense this year. They've captured nearly all the early +trophies, but we're going over there next week for a match game and +we're about crazy to win." + +"I'll do the best I can," promised Sam. "Got a base-ball? We'll go +out and practise." + +They slammed hot ones into each other for a half hour, and when they +had enough of it, McComas, wiping his brow, exclaimed approvingly: + +"You'll do great with a little more warming up. We have a couple of +corking players, but we need them. Hollis always pitches for Hollis +Creek, and he usually wins his game. On baseball day he's the idol of +all the girls." + +Sam Turner placed his hand meditatively upon the back of his neck as he +walked in to dress for dinner. Making a good impression upon the girls +was a separate business, it seemed, and one which required much +preparation. Well, he was in for the entire circus, but he realized +that he was a little late in starting. In consequence he could not +afford to overlook any of the points; so, before dressing for dinner, +he paid a quiet visit to the greenhouses. + +That evening, while he was bowling with all the earnestness that in him +lay, Josephine Stevens, resisting the importunities of young Hollis for +some music, sat by her father. + +"Father," she asked after long and sober thought, "was it right for +you, knowing Mr. Turner to be after that walnut lumber, to try to get +it away from him by telephoning?" + +"It certainly was!" he replied emphatically. "Turner went down there +with a deliberate intention of buying that lumber before I could get +it, so that he could sell it to me at as big a gain as possible. I +paid him one thousand dollars profit for his contract. I had struggled +my best to beat him to it; only I was too late. Both of us were +playing the game according to the rules, but he is a younger player." + +"I see." Another long pause. "Here's another thing. Mr. Turner +happened to know of this increase in the price of lumber, and he +hurried down there to a man who didn't know about that, and bought it. +If Mr. Gifford had known of the new rates, Mr. Turner could not have +bought those trees at the price he did, could he?" + +"Certainly not," agreed her father. "He would have had to pay nearly a +thousand dollars more for them." + +"Then that wasn't right of Mr. Turner," she asserted. + +"My child," said Mr. Stevens wearily, "all business is conducted for a +profit, and the only way to get it is by keeping alive and knowing +things that other people will find out to-morrow. Sam Turner is the +shrewdest and the livest young man I've met in many a day, and he's +square as a die. I'd take his word on any proposition; wouldn't you?" + +"Yes, I think I'd take his word," she admitted, and very positively, +after mature deliberation. "But truly, father, don't you think he's +too much concentrated on business? He hasn't a thought in his mind for +anything else. For instance, this morning he came over to take me an +automobile ride around Bald Hill, and when he found out about this +walnut grove, without either apology or explanation to me he ordered +the chauffeur to drive right down there." + +"Fine," laughed her father. "I'd like to hire him for my manager, if I +could only offer him enough money. But I don't see your point of +criticism. It seems to me that he's a mighty presentable and likable +young fellow, good looking, and a gentleman in the sense in which I +like to use that word." + +"Yes, he is all of those things," she admitted again; "but it is a flaw +in a young man, isn't it," she persisted, betraying an unusually +anxious interest, "for him never to think of a solitary thing but just +business?" + +They were sitting in one of the alcoves of the assembly room, and at +that moment a bell-boy, wandering around the place with apparent +aimlessness, spied them and brought to Miss Josephine a big box. She +opened it and an exclamation of pleasure escaped her. In the box was a +huge bouquet of exquisite roses, soft and glowing, delicious in their +fragrance. + +Impulsively she buried her face in them. + +"Oh, how delightful!" she cried, and she drew out the white card which +peeped forth from amidst the stems. "They are from Mr. Turner!" she +gasped. + +"You're quite right about him," commented her father dryly. "He's all +business." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN WHICH THE SUMMER LOAFER ORDERS SOME MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES + +Before Sam had his breakfast the next morning, he sat in his room with +some figures with which Blackrock and Cuthbert had provided him the +evening before. He cast them up and down and crosswise and diagonally, +balanced them and juggled them and sorted them and shifted them, until +at last he found the rat hole, and smiling grimly, placed those pages +of neat figures in a small letter file which he took from his trunk. +One thing was certain: the Meadow Brook capitalists were highly +interested in his plan, or they would never go to the trouble to +devise, so early in the game, a scheme for gaining control of the marsh +pulp corporation. Well, they were the exact people he wanted. + +Immediately after breakfast Miss Stevens telephoned over to thank him +for his beautiful roses, and he had the pleasure of letting her know, +quite incidentally, that he had gone down to the rose-beds and picked +out each individual blossom himself, which, of course, accounted for +their excellence. Also he suggested coming over that morning for a +brief walk. + +No, she was very sorry, but she was just making ready to go out +horseback riding with Mr. Hollis, who, by the way, was an excellent +rider; but they would be back from their canter about ten-thirty, and +if Mr. Turner cared to come over for a game of tennis before luncheon, +why-- + +"Sorry I can't do it," returned Mr. Turner with the deepest of genuine +regret in his tone. "My kid brother is sending me some samples of pulp +and paper which will arrive at about eleven o'clock, and I have called +a meeting of some interested parties here to examine them at about +eleven." + +"Business again," she protested. "I thought you were on a vacation." + +"I am," he assured her in surprise. "I never lazied around so or +frittered up so much time in my life; and I'm enjoying every second of +my freedom, too. I tell you, it's fine. But say, this meeting won't +take over an hour. Why can't I come over right after lunch?" + +She was very sorry, this time a little less regretfully, that after +luncheon she had an engagement with Mr. Princeman to play a match game +of croquet. But, and here she relented a trifle, they were getting up +a hasty, informal dance over at Hollis Creek for that evening. Would +he come over? + +He certainly would, and he already spoke for as many dances as she +would give him. + +"I'll give you what I can," she told him; "but I've already promised +three of them to Billy Westlake, who is a divine dancer." + +Sam Turner was deeply thoughtful as he turned away from the telephone. +Hollis was a superb horseback rider. Billy Westlake was a divine +dancer. Princeman, he had learned from Miss Stevens, who had spoken +with vast enthusiasm, was a base-ball hero. Hollis and Princeman and +Westlake were crack bowlers, also crack tennis players, and no doubt +all three were even expert croquet players. It was easy to see the +sort of men she admired. Sam Turner only knew one recipe to get +things, and he had made up his mind to have Miss Stevens. He promptly +sought Miss Westlake. + +"Do you ride?" he wanted to know. + +"Not as often as I'd like," she said. + +Really, she had half promised to go driving with Tilloughby, but it was +not an actual promise, and if it were she was quite willing to get out +of it, if Mr. Turner wanted her to go along, although she did not say +so. Young Tilloughby was notoriously an impossible match. But +possibly Mr. Tilloughby and Miss Hastings might care to join the party. +She suggested it. + +"Why, certainly," said Sam heartily. "The more the merrier," which was +not the thing she wanted him to say. + +Tilloughby, a trifle disappointed yet very gracious, consented to ride +in place of drive, and Miss Hastings was only too delighted; entirely +too much so, Miss Westlake thought. Accordingly they rode, and Sam +insisted on lagging behind with Miss Westlake, which she took to be of +considerable significance, and exhibited a very obvious fluttering +about it. Sam's motive, however, was to watch Tilloughby in the +saddle, for in their conversation it had developed that Tilloughby was +a very fair rider; and everything that he saw Tilloughby do, Sam did. +En route they met Hollis and Miss Stevens, cantering just where the +Bald Hill road branched off, and the cavalcade was increased to six. +Once, in taking a narrow cross-cut down through the woods, Sam had the +felicity of riding beside Miss Stevens for a moment, and she put her +hand on his horse and patted its glossy neck and admired it, while Sam +admired the hand. He felt, in some way or other, that riding for that +ten yards by her side was a sort of triumph over Hollis, until he saw +her dash up presently by the side of Hollis again and chat brightly +with that young gentleman. + +Thereafter Sam quit watching Tilloughby and watched Hollis. Curly-head +was an accomplished rider, and Sam felt that he himself cut but an +awkward figure. In reality he was too conscious of his defects. By +strict attention he was proving himself a fair ordinary rider, but when +Hollis, out of sheer showiness, turned aside from the path to jump his +horse over a fallen tree, and Miss Stevens out of bravado followed him, +Sam Turner well-nigh ground his teeth, and, acting upon the impulse, he +too attempted the jump. The horse got over safely, but Sam went a +cropper over his head, and not being a particle hurt had to endure the +good-natured laughter of the balance of them. Miss Stevens seemed as +much amused as any one! He had not caught her look of fright as he +fell nor of concern as he rose, nor could he estimate that her laugh +was a mild form of hysteria, encouraged because it would deceive. What +an ass he was, he savagely thought, to exhibit himself before her in an +attempt like that, without sufficient preparation! He must ride every +morning, by himself. + +Miss Josephine and Mr. Hollis were bound for the Bald Hill circle, and +they insisted, the insistence being largely on the part of Miss +Stevens, on the others accompanying them; but Mr. Turner's engagement +at eleven o'clock would not admit of this, and reluctantly he took Miss +Hastings back with him, leaving Miss Westlake and young Tilloughby to +go on. The arrangement suited him very well, for at least Hollis' ride +with Miss Stevens would not be a tête-à-tête. Miss Westlake strove to +let him understand as plainly as she could that she was only going with +Mr. Tilloughby because of her previous semi-engagement with him--and +there seemed a coolness between Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings as they +separated. Miss Hastings did her best on the way back to console Mr. +Turner for the absence of Miss Westlake. Vivacious as she always was, +she never was more so than now, and before Sam knew it he had engaged +himself with her to gather ferns in the afternoon. + +Upon his arrival at Meadow Brook, he found his express package and also +a couple of important letters awaiting him, and immediately held on the +porch a full meeting of the tentative Marsh Pulp Company. In that +meeting he decided on four things: first, that these hard-headed men of +business were highly favorable to his scheme; second, that Princeman +and Cuthbert, who knew most about paper and pulp, were so profoundly +impressed with his samples that they tried to conceal it from him; +third, that Princeman, at first his warmest adherent, was now most +stubbornly opposed to him, not that he wished to prevent forming the +company, but that he wished to prevent Sam's having his own way; +fourth, that the crowd had talked it over and had firmly determined +that Sam should not control their money. Princeman was especially +severe. + +"There is no question but that these samples are convincing of their +own excellence," he admitted; "but properly to estimate the value of +both pulp and paper, it would be necessary to know, by rigid +experiment, the precise difficulties of manufacture, to say nothing of +the manner in which these particular specimens were produced." + +Mr. Princeman's words had undoubted weight, casting, as they did, a +clammy suspicion upon Sam's samples. + +"I had thought of that," confessed Mr. Turner, "and had I not been +prepared to meet such a natural doubt, to say nothing of such a natural +insinuation, I should never have submitted these samples. Mr. +Princeman, do you know G. W. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" + +Mr. Princeman, with a wince, did, for G. W. Creamer and the Eureka +Paper Mills were his most successful competitors in the manufacture of +special-priced high-grade papers. Mr. Cuthbert also knew Mr. Creamer +intimately. + +"Good," said Sam; "then Mr. Creamer's letter will have some weight," +and he turned it over to Mr. Blackrock. That gentleman, setting his +spectacles astride his nose and assuming his most profoundly +professional air, read aloud the letter in which Mr. Creamer thanked +Turner and Turner for reposing confidence enough in him to reveal their +process and permit him to make experiments, and stated, with many +convincing facts and figures, that he had made several separate samples +of the pulp in his experimental shop, and from the pulp had made paper, +samples of which he enclosed under separate cover, stating further that +the pulp could be manufactured far cheaper than wood pulp, and that the +quality of the paper, in his estimation, was even superior; and when +the company was formed, he wished to be set down for a good, fat block +of stock. + +Having submitted exhibit A in the form of his brother's samples of pulp +and paper, exhibit B in the form of Mr. Creamer's letter, and exhibit C +in the form of Mr. Creamer's own samples of pulp and paper, Mr. Turner +rested quite comfortably in his chair, thank you. + +"This seems to make the thing positive," admitted Mr. Princeman. "Mr. +Turner, would you mind sending some samples of your material to my +factory with the necessary instructions?" + +"Not at all," replied Sam suavely. "We would be pleased indeed to do +so, just as soon as our patents are allowed." + +"Pending that," suggested Mr. Westlake placidly, looking out over the +brook, "why couldn't we organize a sort of tentative company? Why +couldn't we at least canvass ourselves and see how much of Mr. Turner's +stock we would take up among us?" + +"That is," put in Mr. Cuthbert, screwing the remark out of himself +sidewise, "provided the terms of incorporation and promotion were +satisfactory to us." + +"I have already drawn up a sort of preliminary proposition, after +consultation with our friends here," Mr. Blackrock now stated, "and +purely as a tentative matter it might be read." + +"Go right ahead," directed Sam. "I'm a good listener." + +Mr. Blackrock slowly and ponderously read the proposed plan of +incorporation. Sam rose and looked at his watch. + +"It won't do," he announced sharply. "That whole thing, in accordance +with the figures you submitted me last night, is framed up for the sole +purpose of preventing my ever securing control, and if I do not have a +chance, at least, at control, I won't play." + +"You seem to be very sure of that," said Mr. Princeman, surveying him +coldly; "but there is another thing equally sure, and that is that you +can not engage capital in as big an enterprise as this on any basis +which will separate the control and the money." + +"I'm going to try it, though," retorted Sam. "If I can't separate the +control and the money I suppose I'll have to put up with the best terms +I can get. If you will let me have that prospectus of yours, Mr. +Blackrock, I'll take it up to my room and study it, and draw up a +counter prospectus of my own." + +"With pleasure," said Mr. Blackrock, handing it over courteously, and +Mr. Turner rose. + +"I'll say this much, Sam," stated Mr. Westlake, who seemed to have +grown more friendly as Mr. Princeman grew cooler; "if you can get a +proposition upon which we are all agreed, I'll take fifty thousand of +that stock myself, at fifty." + +"As a matter of fact, Mr. Turner," added Mr. Cuthbert, "including your +friend Creamer, who insists upon being in, I imagine that we can +finance your entire company right in this crowd--if the terms are +right." + +"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, I'm sure," said Mr. Turner, +and bowed himself away. + +In place of going to his room, however, he went to the telegraph +office, and wired his brother in New York: + +"How are you coming on with pulp company stock subscription?" + + +The telegraph office was in one corner of the post-office, which was +also a souvenir room, with candy and cigar counters, and as he turned +away from the telegraph desk he saw Princeman at the candy counter. + +"No, I don't care for any of these," Princeman was saying. "If you +haven't maraschino chocolates I don't want any." + +Sam immediately stepped back to the telegraph desk and sent another +wire to his brother: + +"Express fresh box maraschino chocolates to Miss Josephine Stevens +Hollis Creek Inn enclose my card personal cards in upper right-hand +pigeonhole my desk." + + +Then he went up-stairs to get ready for lunch. Immediately after +luncheon he received the following wire from his brother: + +"Stock subscription rotten everybody likes scheme but object to our +control but no hurry why don't you rest maraschinos shipped +congratulate you." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WHICH EXHIBITS THE IMPORTANCE OF REMEMBERING A DANCE NUMBER + +And so the kid was finding the same trouble which he had met. They had +been too frank in stating that they intended to obtain control of the +company without any larger investments than their patents and their +scheme. Sam wandered through the hall, revolving this matter in his +mind, and out at the rear door, which framed an inviting vista of +green. He strolled back past the barn toward the upper reaches of the +brook path, and sitting amid the comfortably gnarled roots of a big +tree he lit a cigar and began with violence to snap little pebbles into +the brook. If he were promoting a crooked scheme, he reflected +savagely, he would have no difficulty whatever in floating it upon +almost any terms he wanted. Well, there was one thing certain; at the +finish, control would be in his own hands! But how to secure it and +still float the company promptly and advantageously? There was the +problem. He liked this crowd. They were good, keen, vigorous, +enterprising men, fine men with whom to do business, men who would +snatch control away from him if they could, and throw him out in the +cold in a minute if they deemed it necessary or expedient. Of course +that was to be expected. It was a part of the game. He would rather +deal with these progressive people, knowing their tendencies, than with +a lot of sapheads. + +How to get control? He lingered long and thoughtfully over that +question, perhaps an hour, until presently he became aware that a +slight young girl, with a fetching sun-hat and a basket, was walking +pensively along the path on the opposite side of the brook, for the +third time. Her passing and repassing before his abstracted and +unseeing vision had become slightly monotonous, and for the first time +he focused his eyes back from their distant view of pulp marshes and +stock certificates and inspected the girl directly. Why, he knew that +girl! It was Miss Hastings. + +As if in obedience to his steady gaze she looked across at him and +waved her basket. + +"Where are you going?" he asked with the heartiness of enforced +courtesy. + +"After ferns," she responded, and laughed. + +"By George, that's so!" he said, and ran up the stream to a narrow +place where he made a magnificent jump and only got one shoe wet. + +He was profuse, not in his apologies, but in his intention to make them. + +"Jinks!" he said. "I'm ashamed to say I forgot all about that. I +found myself suddenly confronted with a business proposition that had +to be worked out, and I thought of nothing else." + +"I hope you succeeded," she said pleasantly. + +There wasn't a particle of vengefulness about Miss Hastings. She was +not one to hold this against him; he could see that at once! She +understood men. She knew that grave problems frequently confronted +them, and that such minor things as fern gathering expeditions would +necessarily have to step aside and be forgotten. She was one of the +bright, cheerful, always smiling kind; one who would make a sunshiny +helpmate for any man, and never object to anything he did--before +marriage. + +All this she conveyed in lively but appealing chatter; all, that is, +except the last part of it, a deduction which Sam supplied for himself. +For the first time in his life he had paused to judge a girl as he +would "size up" a man, and he was a little bit sorry that he had done +so, for while Miss Hastings was very agreeable, there was a certain +acidulous sharpness about her nose and uncompromising thinness about +her lips which no amount of laughing vivacity could quite conceal. + +Dutifully, however, he gathered ferns for the rockery of her aunt in +Albany, and Miss Hastings, in return, did her best to amuse and +delight, and delicately to convey the thought of what an agreeable +thing it would be for a man always to have this cheerful companionship. +She even, on the way back, went so far as inadvertently to call him +Sam, and apologized immediately in the most charming confusion. + +"Really," she added in explanation, "I have heard Mr. Westlake and the +others call you Sam so often that the name just seems to slip out." + +"That's right," he said cordially. "Sam's my name. When people call +me Mr. Turner I know they are strangers." + +"Then I think I shall call you Sam," she said, laughing most +engagingly. "It's so much easier," and sure enough she did as soon as +they were well within the hearing of Miss Westlake, at the hotel. + +"Oh, Sam," she called, turning in the doorway, "you have my gloves in +your pocket." + +Miss Westlake stiffened like an icicle, and a stern resolve came upon +her. Whatever happened, she saw her duty plainly before her. She had +introduced Mr. Turner to Miss Hastings, and she was responsible. It +was her moral obligation to rescue him from the clutches of that +designing young person, and she immediately reminded him that she had +an engagement to give him a tennis lesson every day. There was still +time for a set before dinner. Also, far be it from her to be so +forward as to call him Sam, or to annoy him with silly chattering. She +was serious-minded, was Miss Westlake, and sweet and helpful; any man +could see that; and she fairly adored business. It was so interesting. + +When they came back from their tennis game, hurrying because it was +high time to dress for dinner and the dance, she met Miss Hastings in +the hall, but the two bosom friends barely nodded. There had sprung up +an unaccountable coolness between them, a coolness which Sam by no +means noticed, however, for at the far end of the porch sat Princeman, +already back from Hollis Creek to dress, and with him were Westlake and +McComas and Blackrock and Cuthbert, and they were in very close +conference. When Sam approached them they stopped talking abruptly for +just one little moment, then resumed the conversation quite naturally, +even more than quite naturally in fact, and the experienced Sam smiled +grimly as he excused himself to dress. + +Billy Westlake met him as he was going up-stairs. To Billy had been +entrusted the office of rounding up all the young people who were going +over to Hollis Creek, and by previous instruction, though wondering at +his sister's choice, he assigned Sam to that young lady, a fate which +Sam accepted with becoming gratitude. + +He had plenty of food for thought as he donned his costume of dead +black and staring white, and somehow or other he was distrait that +evening all the way over to Hollis Creek. Only when he met Miss +Stevens did he brighten, as he might well do, for Miss Stevens, +charming in every guise, was a revelation in evening costume; a +ravishing revelation; one to make a man pause and wonder and stand in +awe, and regard himself as a clumsy creature not worthy to touch the +hem of the garment which embellished such a divine being. Nevertheless +he conquered that wave of diffidence in a jiffy, or something like half +that space of time, and shook hands with her most eagerly, and looked +into her eyes and was grateful; for he found them smiling up at him in +most friendly fashion, and with rather an electric thrill in them, too, +though whether the thrill emanated from the eyes or was merely within +himself he was not sure. + +"How many dances do I get?" he abruptly demanded. + +"Just two," she told him, and showed him her card and gave him one on +which a list of names had already been marked by the young ladies of +Hollis Creek. + +He saw on the card two dances with Miss Stevens, one each with Miss +Westlake and Miss Hastings, and one each with a number of other young +ladies whom he had met but vaguely, and one each with some whom he had +not met at all. He dutifully went through the first dance with a young +lady of excellent connections who would make a prime companion for any +advancing young man with social aspirations; he went dutifully through +the next dance with a young lady who was keen on intellectual pursuits, +and who would make an excellent helpmate for any young man who wished +to advance in culture as he progressed in business, and danced the next +one with a young lady who believed that home-making should be the +highest aim of womankind; and then came his first dance with Miss +Stevens! They did not talk very much, but it was very, very comforting +to be with her, just to know that she was there, and to know that +somehow she understood. He was sorry, though, that he stepped upon her +gown. + +The promenade, which had seemed quite long enough with the other young +ladies, seemed all too short for Sam up to the point when Billy +Westlake came to take Miss Josephine away. He was feeling rather +lonely when Tilloughby came up to him, with a charming young lady who +was in quite a flutter. It seemed that there had been a dreadful +mistake in the making out of the dance cards, which the young ladies of +Hollis Creek had endeavored to do with strict equity, though hastily, +and all was now inextricable confusion. The charming young lady was on +the cards for this dance with both Mr. Tilloughby and Mr. Turner, and +Mr. Tilloughby had claimed her first. Would Mr. Turner kindly excuse +her? Just behind her came another young lady whom Mr. Tilloughby +introduced. This young lady was on Sam's card for the next dance +following this one, but it should be for the eighth dance, and would +Mr. Turner please change his card accordingly, which Mr. Turner +obligingly did, wondering what he should do when it came to the eighth +dance and he should find himself obligated to two young ladies. Oh, +well, he reflected, no doubt the other young lady was down for the +eighth dance with some one else, if they had things so mixed. Of one +thing he was sure. He had that tenth dance with Miss Stevens. He had +inspected both cards to make certain of that, and had seen with +carefully concealed joy that she had compared them as minutely as he +had. He saw confusion going on all about him, laughing young people +attempting to straighten out the tangle, and the dance was slow in +starting. + +Almost the first two on the floor were Miss Stevens and Billy Westlake, +and as he saw them, from his vantage point outside one of the broad +windows, gliding gracefully up the far side of the room, he realized +with a twinge of impatience what a remarkably unskilled dancer he +himself was. Billy and Miss Stevens were talking, too, with the +greatest animation, and she was looking up at Billy as brightly, even +more brightly he thought, than she had at himself. There was a +delicate flush on her cheeks. Her lips, full and red and deliciously +curved, were parted in a smile. Confound it anyhow! What could she +find to talk about with Billy Westlake? + +He was turning away in more or less impatience, when Mr. Stevens, +looking, in some way, with his aggressive, white, outstanding beard, as +if he ought to have a red ribbon diagonally across his white shirt +front, ranged beside him. + +"Fine sight, isn't it?" observed Mr. Stevens. + +"Yes," admitted Mr. Turner, almost shortly, and forced himself to turn +away from the following of that dazzling vision, which was almost +painful under the circumstances. + +By mutual impulse they walked down the length of the side porch and +across the front porch. Sam drew himself away from dancing and certain +correlated ideas with a jerk. + +"I've been wanting to talk with you, Mr. Stevens," he observed. "I +think I'll drop over to-morrow for a little while." + +"Glad to have you any time, Sam," responded Mr. Stevens heartily, "but +there is no time like the present, you know. What's on your mind?" + +"This Marsh Pulp Company," said Sam; "do you know anything about pulp +and paper?" + +"A little bit. You know I have some stock in Princeman's company." + +"Oh," returned Sam thoughtfully. + +"Not enough to hurt, however," Stevens went on. "Twenty shares, I +believe. When I went in I had several times as much, but not enough to +make me a dominant factor by any means, and Princeman, as he made more +money, wanted some of it, so I let him buy up quite a number of shares. +At one time I was very much interested, however, and visited the mills +quite frequently." + +"You're rather close to Princeman in a business way, aren't you?" Sam +asked after duly cautious reflection. + +"Not at all, although we get along very nicely indeed. I made money on +my paper stock, both in dividends and in a very comfortable advance +when I sold it. Our relations have always been friendly, but very +little more. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing. Only Princeman is much interested in my Pulp Company, +and all the people who are going in are his friends. The crowd over at +Meadow Brook talks of taking up approximately the entire stock of my +company. I thought possibly you might be interested." + +"I am right now, from what I have already heard of it," returned +Stevens, who had almost at first sight succumbed to that indefinable +personal appeal which caused Sam Turner to be trusted of all men. "I +shall be very glad to hear more about it. It struck me when you spoke +of it yesterday as a very good proposition." + +They had reached the dark corner at the far end of the porch, illumined +only by the subdued light which came from a half-hidden window, and now +they sat down. Sam fished in the little armpit pocket of his dress +coat and dragged forth two tiny samples of pulp and two tiny samples of +paper. + +"These two," he stated, "were samples sent me to-day by my kid brother." + +Mr. Stevens took the samples and examined them with interest. He felt +their texture. He twisted them and crumpled them and bent them +backward and forward and tore them. Then, the light at this window +being too weak, he went to one of the broad windows where a stronger +stream of light came out, and examined them anew. Sam, still sitting +in his chair, nodded in satisfied approval. He liked that kind of +inspection. Mr. Stevens brought the samples back. + +"They are excellent, so far as I am able to judge," he announced. +"These are samples made by yourselves from marsh products?" + +"Yes," Sam assured him. "Made from marsh-grown material by our new +process, which is much cheaper than the wood-pulp process. Do you know +Mr. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" + +"Not very well. I've met him once or twice at dinners, but I'm not +intimately acquainted with him. I hear, however, that he is an +authority." + +"Here's a letter from him, and some samples made by him under our +process," said Sam with secret satisfaction. "I just received them +this morning." From the same pocket he took the letter without its +envelope, and with it handed over the two other small samples. + +"That's a fine showing," Stevens commented when he had examined +document and samples and brought them back, and he sat down, edging +about so that he and Sam sat side by side but facing each other, as in +a tête-à-tête chair. "Now tell me all about it." + +On and on went the music in the ball-room, on went the shuffling of +feet, the swish of garments, the gay talk and laughter of the young +people; and on and on talked Mr. Stevens and Mr. Turner, until one +familiar strain of music penetrated into Sam's inner consciousness; the +_Home Sweet Home_ waltz! + +"By George!" he exclaimed, jumping up. "That can't be the last." + +"Sounds like it," commented Mr. Stevens, also rising. "It is the last +if they make up programs as they did in my young days. I don't +remember of many dances where the _Home Sweet Home_ waltz didn't end it +up. It's late enough anyhow. It's eleven-thirty." + +"Then I have done it again!" said Sam ruefully. "I had the number ten +dance with your daughter." + +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes to laugh. + +"You certainly have put your foot in it," he admitted. "Oh, well, Jo's +sensible," he added with a father's fond ignorance. "She'll +understand." + +"That's what I'm afraid of," replied Mr. Turner ruefully. "You'll have +to intercede for me. Explain to her about it and soften the case as +much as you can. Frankly, Mr. Stevens, I'd be tremendously cut up to +be on the outs with Miss Josephine." + +"There are shoals of young men who feel that way about it, Sam," said +Mr. Stevens with large and commendable pride. "However, I am glad that +you have added yourself to the list," and he gazed after Sam with +considerable approbation, as that young man hurried away to display his +abjectness to the young lady in question. + +Three times, on the arm of Princeman, she whirled past the open doorway +where Sam stood, but somehow or other he found it impossible to catch +her eye. The dance ended when she was on the other side of the room, +and immediately, with the last strains, the floor was in confusion. +Sam tried desperately to hurry across to where she was, but he lost her +in the crowd. He did not see her again until all of the Meadow Brook +folk, including himself, were seated in the carryalls, at which time +the Hollis Creek folk were at the edge of the porte-cochère and both +parties were exchanging a gabbling pandemonium of good-bys. He saw her +then, standing back among the crowd, and shouting her adieus as +vociferously as any of them. He caught her eye and she nodded to him +as pleasantly as to anybody, which was really worse than if she had +refused to acknowledge him at all! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME + +No, Miss Stevens was sorry that she could not go walking with him that +morning, which was the morning after the dance. She was very polite +about it, too; almost too polite. Her voice over the telephone was as +suave and as limpid as could possibly be, but there was a sort of +metallic glitter behind it, as it were. + +No, she could not see him that afternoon either. She had made a series +of engagements, in fact, covering the entire day. Also, she regretted +to say, upon further solicitation, that she had made engagements +covering the entire following day. + +No, she was not piqued about his last night's forgetfulness; by no +means; certainly not; how absurd! + +She quite understood. He had been talking business with her father, +and naturally such a trifling detail as a dance with frivolous young +people would not occur to him. + +Frivolous young people! This was the exact point of the conversation +at which Sam, with his ear glued to the receiver of the telephone and +no necessity for concealing the concerned expression on his +countenance, thought, in more or less of a panic, that he must really +be getting old, which was a good joke, inasmuch as nobody ever took him +to be over twenty-five. Heretofore his boyish appearance had worried +him because it rather stood in the way of business, but now he began to +fear that he was losing it; for he was nearing thirty! + +Well, pleading was of no avail. He had to give it up. Reluctantly he +went out and took a solitary walk, then came in and religiously played +his two hours of tennis with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and +Tilloughby. Was he not on vacation, and must he not enjoy himself? +Just before he went in to luncheon, however, there was a telephone call +for him. + +Miss Stevens was perplexed to know what divine intuition had told him +her obsession for maraschino chocolates. She had one in her fingers at +the very moment she was telephoning, and she was going to pop it into +her mouth while he talked. Being a mere man he could not realize how +delightfully refreshing was a maraschino chocolate. + +Sam had a lively picture of that dainty confection between the tips of +her dainty fingers; he could see the white hand and the graceful wrist, +and then he could see those exquisitely curved red lips parting with a +flash of white teeth to receive the delicacy; and he had an impulse to +climb through the telephone. + +A little bird had told him about her preference, he stated. He had +that little bird regularly in his employ to find out other preferences. + +"I had those sent just to show you that I am not altogether absorbed in +business," he went on; "that I can think of other things. Have another +chocolate." + +"I am," she laughingly said; "but I'm not going to eat them all. I'm +going to save one or two for you." + +"Good," returned Sam in huge delight and relief. "I'll come over to +get them any time you say." + +"All right," she gaily agreed. "As I told you this morning, I have an +engagement for this afternoon, but if you'll come over after luncheon +I'll try to find a half-hour or so for you anyhow." + +Great blotches of perspiration sprang out on his forehead. + +"Jinks!" he ejaculated. "You know, right after you telephoned me this +morning I made an engagement with Mr. Blackrock and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Westlake, to go over some proposed incorporation papers." + +"Oh, by all means, then, keep your engagement," she told him, and he +could feel the instant frigidity which returned to her tone. A +zero-like wave seemed to come right through the transmitter of the +telephone and chill the perspiration of his brow into a cold trickle. + +"No, I'll see if I can not set that engagement off for a couple of +hours," he hastily informed her. + +"By no means," she protested, more frigidly than before. "Come to +think of it, I don't believe I'd have time anyhow. In fact, I'm sure +that I would not. Mr. Hollis is calling me now. Good-by." + +"Wait a minute," he called desperately into the telephone, but it was +dead, and there is nothing in this world so dead as the telephone from +which connection has been suddenly shut off. + +Sam strode into the dining-room and went straight over to Blackrock's +table. + +"I find I have some pressing business right after luncheon," he said, +bending over that gentleman's chair. "I can't possibly meet you at two +o'clock. Will four do you?" + +"Why, certainly," Mr. Blackrock was kind enough to say, and he +furthermore agreed, with equal graciousness, to inform the others. + +Sam ate his luncheon in worried silence, replying only in monosyllables +to the remarks of McComas, who sat at his table, and of Mrs. McComas, +who had taken quite a young-motherly fancy to him; and the amount that +he ate was so much at variance with his usual hearty appetite that even +the maid who waited on his table, a tall, gangling girl with a vinegar +face and a kind heart, worried for fear he might be sick, and added +unordered delicacies to his American plan meal. He went over to Hollis +Creek in the swiftest conveyance he could obtain, which was naturally +an auto, but he did not have 'Ennery for his chauffeur, of which he was +heartily glad, for 'Ennery might have wanted to talk. + +On the porch of Hollis Creek Inn he found Princeman and Mr. Stevens in +earnest conversation. He knew what that meant. Princeman was already +discussing with Mr. Stevens the matter of control of the Marsh Pulp +Company. Princeman rose when Sam stepped up on the porch, and strolled +away from Mr. Stevens. He nodded pleasantly to Turner, and the latter, +returning the nod fully as pleasantly, was about to hurry on in search +of Miss Josephine, when Mr. Stevens checked him. + +"Hello, Sam," he called. "I've just been waiting to see you." + +"All right," said Sam. "I'll be around presently." + +"No, but come here," insisted Mr. Stevens. + +Sam cast a nervous glance about the grounds and along the side porch; +Miss Josephine most certainly was not among those present. He still +hesitated, impatient to get away. + +"Just a minute, Sam," insisted Stevens. "I want to talk to you right +now." + +With unwilling feet Sam went over. + +"Sit down," directed Stevens, pushing forward a chair. + +"What is it?" asked Sam, still standing. + +"I have been talking with Princeman and Westlake about your Marsh Pulp +Company." + +"Yes," inquired Sam nervously. + +"And everybody seems to be most enthusiastic about it. Fact of the +matter is, my boy, I consider it a tremendous investment opportunity. +The only drawback there seems to be is in the matter of stock +distribution and voting power. I want you to explain this very fully +to me." + +"I thought you were quite satisfied with our talk last night," returned +Sam, glancing hastily over his shoulder. + +"I am, in so far as the investment goes, Sam. I've promised you that +I'd take a good block of stock, and you've promised to make room for me +in the company. I expect to go through with that, but I want to know +about this other phase of the matter before I get into any +entanglements with opposing factions. Now you sit right down there and +tell me about it." + +Despairingly Sam sat down and proceeded briefly and concisely to +explain to him the various plans of incorporation which had been +proposed. Ten minutes later he almost groaned, as a trap, drawn by a +pair of handsome buckskin horses, driven by Princeman and containing +Miss Josephine, crunched upon the gravel driveway in front of the +porch. Miss Stevens greeted Mr. Turner very heartily indeed, Princeman +stopping for that purpose. Sam ran down and shook hands with her. Oh, +she was most cordial; just as cordial and polite as anybody he knew! + +"I did not expect you at all," she said, "but I knew you were here, for +I saw you from the window as you came up the drive. Pleasant weather, +isn't it? Oh, papa!" + +"Yes," answered Mr. Stevens ponderously from his place on the porch. + +"Up on my dresser you will find a box of candy which Mr. Turner was +kind enough to have sent me, and he confesses that he has never tasted +maraschino chocolates. Won't you please run up and get them and let +Mr. Turner sample them?" + +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens. "If Sam Turner insists upon running me up +two flights of stairs on an errand of that sort, I suppose I'll have to +go. But he won't." + +"You're lazy," she said to her father in affectionate banter, then, +with a wave of her hand and a bright nod to Mr. Turner, she was gone! + +Sam trudged slowly up on the porch with the heart gone entirely out of +him for business; and yet, as he approached Mr. Stevens he pulled +himself together with a jerk. After all, she was gone, and he could +not bring her back, and in his talk with Stevens he had just approached +a grave and serious situation. + +"The fact of the matter is, Mr. Stevens," said he as he sat down again, +"these people are the very people I want to get into my concern, but +they are old hands at the stock incorporation game, and even before +I've organized the company they are planning to get it out of my hands. +Now it is my scheme, mine and the kid brother's, and I don't propose to +allow that." + +"Well, Sam," said Mr. Stevens slowly, "you know capital of late has had +a lot of experience with corporate business, and it isn't the +fashionable thing this year for the control and the capital to be in +separate hands--right at the very beginning." + +This was the signal for the struggle, and Sam plunged earnestly into +the conflict. At three-fifteen he suddenly rose and made his adieus. +He would have liked to stay until Miss Josephine came back, so that he +could make one more desperate attempt to set himself right with her, +but there was that deferred engagement with Blackrock, and reluctantly +he whirled back to Meadow Brook. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHEREIN SAM TURNER PROVES HIMSELF TO BE A VIOLENT FLIRT + +The rest of that week was a worried and an anxious one for Sam. He +sent daily advices to his brother, and he received daily advices in +return. The people upon whom he had originally counted to form the +Marsh Pulp Company had set themselves coldly against the matter of +control, and on comparing the apparent situation in New York with the +situation at Meadow Brook, he made sure that he could secure more +advantageous terms with the Princeman crowd. He spent his time in +wrestling with his prospective investors both singly and in groups, but +they were obdurate. They liked his company, they saw in it tremendous +possibilities, but they did not intend to invest their money where they +could not vote it. That was flat! + +This was on the business side. About the really important matter of +Miss Stevens, since his most recent bad performance, the time when he +had made the special trip to see her and had spent his time in talking +business with her father, he had not been able to come near her. She +was always engaged. He saw her riding with Hollis; he saw her driving +with Princeman; he saw her playing tennis with Billy Westlake, but the +greatest boon he ever received was a nod and a pleasant word. He +industriously sent her flowers. She as industriously sent him nice, +polite little notes of thanks. + +In the meantime, alternating with his marsh pulp wrangles, he worked +like a Trojan at the athletic graces he should have cultivated in his +younger days. He rode every morning; he practised every day at tennis +and croquet; every evening he bowled; and every time some one sat at +the piano and played dance music and the young people fell into +impromptu waltzes and two-steps on the porch, he joined them and danced +religiously with whomsoever he found to hand; usually Miss Hastings or +Miss Westlake. + +The latter ingenious young lady, during this while, continued to adore +business, and with increasing fervor every day, and regretted, quite +aloud, that she had never paid sufficient attention to this absorbing +amusement, out of which all the men, that is, those who were really +strong and purposeful, seem to derive so much satisfaction! On the +following Monday at Bald Hill, when Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook +fraternized together, in the annual union picnic, she found occasion +for the most direct tête-à-tête of all anent commercial matters. + +Under Bald Hill were any number of charming natural retreats, jumbles +of Titanically toy-strewn, clean, bare rocks, screened here and there +by tangles of young scrub oak and pine which grew apparently on bare +stone surfaces and out of infinitesimal chinks and crannies, in utter +defiance of all natural law. Go where you would on that day, there +were couples in each of the rock shelters; young couples, engaged in +that fascinating pastime of finding out all they could about each +other, and wondering about each other, and revealing themselves to each +other as much as they cared to do, and flirting; oh, in a perfectly +respectable sort of a way, you know; legitimate and commendable +flirting; the sort of flirting which is only experimental and +necessary, and which may cease at any moment to become mere airy +trifling, and turn into something intensely and desperately serious, +having a vital bearing upon the entire future lives of people; and +there were deeply solemn moments, in spite of all the surface hilarity +and gaiety, in many of these little out of way nooks kindly provided by +beneficent nature for this identical purpose. + +In one of these nooks, a curious sort of doll's amphitheatre, partly +screened by dwarf cedars, were Miss Westlake and Mr. Turner, and Sam +could not tell you to this day how she had roped him out of the herd, +and isolated him, and brought him there. + +"Business is just perfectly fascinating," she was saying. "I've been +talking a lot to papa about it here lately. He thinks a great deal of +you, by the way." + +"He does," Sam grunted in non-committal acknowledgment, with the sharp +reflection that he had better look out for himself if that were the +case, since the most of Westlake's old friends were bankrupt, he being +the best business man of them all. + +"Yes; he says you have an excellent business proposition, too, in your +new Marsh Pulp Company." She said marsh pulp without an instant's +hesitation. + +"I think it's good myself," agreed Sam; "that is, if I can keep hold of +it." Inwardly he added, "And if I can keep old Westlake's clutches +off." + +She laughed lightly. + +"Papa mentioned that very thing," she informed him. "I don't think I +quite understand what control of stock means, although I've had papa +explain it to me. I gather this much, however, that it is something +you want very much, but can scarcely get without some large stockholder +voting his stock with you." + +Sam inspected her narrowly. + +"You seem to have a pretty good idea of the thing after all," he +admitted, wondering how much she really knew and understood. "But +maybe your father wouldn't like your repeating to me what you +accidentally learned from him in conversation. Business men are +usually pretty particular about that." + +"Oh, he wouldn't mind at all," she said airily. "I'm having him +explain a lot of things to me, because he's making separate investments +for Billy and me. All his new enterprises are for us, and in the last +two or three years he's turned over lots of stock to us in our own +names. But I've never done any actual voting on it. I've only given +proxies. I sign a little blank, you know, that papa fills out for me +and shows me where to put my name and mails to somebody or other, or +else takes it and votes it himself; but I'd rather vote it my own self. +I should think it would be ever so much fun. I'm trying to find out +about how they do such things, and I'd be very glad to have you tell me +all you can about it. It's just perfectly fascinating." + +"Yes, it is," Sam admitted. "So you think you may eventually own some +stock in the Marsh Pulp Company?" and he became quite interested. + +"If papa takes any I'm quite sure I shall," she returned; "and I think +he will, from what he said. He seems to be so enthusiastic about it +that I'm going to ask him for this stock, and let Billy have the next +that he buys. I hope he does take a good lot of it. Isn't this the +dearest place imaginable?" and with charming naïveté she looked about +the tiny amphitheatre-like circle, admiring the projecting stones which +formed natural seats, and the broad shelving of slippery rock which led +up to it. + +"Yes, it is," said Sam with considerable thoughtfulness, and once more +inspected Miss Westlake critically. + +There was no question that she would be as stout as her mother and her +father when she reached their age. However, personal attractiveness is +an essence and can not be weighed by the pound. Sam was bound to +admit, after thoughtful judgment, that Miss Westlake might be +personally attractive to a great many people, but really there hadn't +seemed to be anything flowing from him to her or from her to him, even +when he had held tightly to her hand to help her up the steep slope of +the rock floor. + +"Yes, it is a charming place," he once more admitted. "Looks almost as +if this little semi-circle had been built out of these loose rocks by +design. Of course, your father wouldn't take the original stock in +your name." + +"Oh, no, I don't suppose so," she said. "He never does. He takes out +the stock himself, and then transfers it to us." + +"Of course," Sam agreed; "and naturally he'd hold it long enough to +vote at the original stock-holders' meeting." + +"I couldn't say about that," she laughed. "That's going beyond my +business depth just yet, but I'm going to learn all about such things," +and she looked across at him with apparent shy confidence that he would +take pleasure in teaching her. + +"Hoo-hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!" came a sudden call from down in the road, and, +turning, they saw Miss Hastings and Billy Westlake, who both waved +their hands at the amphitheatre couple and came scrambling up the rocks. + +"Mr. Princeman and Mr. Tilloughby are looking for you everywhere, +Hallie," said Miss Hastings to Miss Westlake. "You know you promised +to make that famous salad dressing of yours. Luncheon is nearly ready, +all but that, and they're waiting for you over at the glade. My, what +a dear little place this is! How did you ever find it?" Miss Hastings +was now quite conspicuously panting and fanning herself. "I'm so tired +climbing those rocks," she went on. "I shall simply have to sit down +and rest a bit. Billy will take you over, Hallie, and Mr. Turner will +bring me by and by, I am sure." + +Mr. Turner stated that he would do so with pleasure. Miss Westlake +surveyed her dearest friend more in anger than in sorrow. It was such +a brazen trick, and she gazed from her brother to Mr. Turner in sheer +wonder that they were not startled into betrayal of how shocked they +were. Whatever strong emotions they might have had upon that subject +were utterly without reflection upon the outside, however, for Billy +Westlake and Sam Turner were eying each other solely with a vacuous +mutual wish of saying something decently polite and human. Mr. Turner +made a desperate stab. + +"I hope you're in good form for the bowling tournament to-night," he +observed with self-urged anxiety. "Hollis Creek mustn't win, you know." + +"I'm as near fit as usual," said Billy; "but Princeman is the chap +who's going to carry off the honors for Meadow Brook. Bowled an +average last night of two forty-five. I'm sorry you couldn't make the +team." + +"I should have started fifteen years ago to do that," said Sam with a +wry smile. "I think I would get along all right, though, if they +didn't have those grooves at the side of the alleys." + +Billy Westlake looked at him gravely. Since Sam did not smile, this +could not be a joke. + +"But they are absolutely necessary, you know," he protested, as he took +his sister's arm and helped her down the slope. + +Miss Westlake went away entirely out of patience with the two men, and +very much to Billy's surprise gave him her revised estimate of that +Hastings girl. Miss Hastings, however, was in a far different frame of +mind. She was an exclamation point of admiration about an endless +variety of things; about the dear little amphitheatre, about how well +her friend Miss Westlake was looking and how successful Hallie had been +this summer in reducing, and how much Mr. Turner was improving in his +tennis and croquet and riding and bowling and everything. "And, Mr. +Turner, what is pulp? And do they actually make paper out of it?" she +wound up. + +Very gravely Mr. Turner informed her on the process of paper making, +and she was a chorus of little vivacious ohs and ahs all the way +through. She sat on the side of the stone circle from which she could +look down the road, and she chattered on and on and on, and still on, +until something she saw below warned her that she was staying an +unconscionable length of time, so she rose and told Mr. Turner they +must really go, and held out her hand to be helped down the slope. +That was really a very slippery rock, and it was probably no fault of +Miss Hastings that her feet slipped and that she had to throw herself +squarely into Mr. Turner's embrace, and even throw her arm up over his +shoulder to save herself. It was a staggery place, even for a sturdily +muscled young man like Mr. Turner to keep his footing, and with that +fair burden upon him he had to stand some little time poised there to +retain his balance. Then, very gently and carefully, he turned +straight about, lifting Miss Hastings entirely from her feet and +setting her gravely down on the safe ledge below the sloping rock; but +before he had even had time to let go of her he glanced down into the +road, toward which the turn had faced him, and saw there, looking up +aghast at the tableau, Mr. Princeman and Miss Stevens! + +The sharp and instantly suppressed laugh of Princeman came floating up +to them, but Miss Stevens turned squarely about in the direction of the +glade, and being instantly joined by Princeman, they walked quietly +away. + +Mr. Turner suddenly found himself perspiring profusely, and was +compelled to mop his brow, but Miss Hastings disdained to give any sign +that anything unusual whatsoever had happened, except by walking with a +limp, albeit a very slight one, as she returned to the glade. That +limp comforted Mr. Turner somewhat, and, spying Miss Stevens in a +little group near the tables, he was very careful to parade Miss +Hastings straight over there and place her limp on display. Miss +Stevens, however, walked away; no mere limp could deceive her! + +Well, if she wanted to be miffed at a little accident like that, and +read things falsely, and think the worst of people, she might; that was +all Sam had to say about it! but what he had to say about it did not +comfort him. He rather savagely "shook" Miss Hastings at his first +opportunity, and Vivian's dearest friend, who had been hovering in the +offing, saw him do it, which was a great satisfaction to her. Later +she seized upon him, although he had savagely sworn to stick to the +men, and by some incomprehensible process Sam found himself once more +tête-à-tête with Miss Westlake, just over at the edge of the glade +where the sumac grew. She made him gather a lot of the leaves for her, +and showed him how they used to weave clover wreaths when she was a +little girl, and wove one for him of sumac, and gaily crowned him with +it; and just as she was putting the fool thing on his head he glanced +up, and there Princeman, laughing, was just passing them a little ways +off, in company with Miss Josephine Stevens! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE VALUE OF A PIANOLA TRAINING + +On that very same evening Hollis Creek came over to the bowling +tournament, and Miss Stevens, arriving with young Hollis, promptly lost +that perfervid young man, who had become somewhat of a nuisance in his +sentimental insistence. Mr. Turner, watching her from afar, saw her +desert the calfly smitten one, and immediately dashed for the breach. +He had watched from too great a distance, however, for Billy Westlake +gobbled up Miss Josephine before Sam could get there, and started with +her for that inevitable stroll among the brookside paths which always +preceded a bowling tournament. While he stood nonplussed, looking +after them, Miss Hastings glided to his side in a matter of course way. + +"Isn't it a perfectly charming evening?" she wanted to know. + +"It is a regular dear of an evening," admitted Sam savagely. + +In his single thoughtedness he was scrambling wildly about within the +interior of his skull for a pretext to get rid of Miss Hastings, but it +suddenly occurred to him that now he had a legitimate excuse for +following the receding couple, and promptly upon the birth of this +idea, he pulled in that direction and Miss Hastings came right along, +though a trifle silently. With all her vivacious chattering, she was +not without shrewdness, and with no trouble whatever she divined +precisely why Sam chose the path he did, and why he seemed in such +almost blundering haste. They _were_ a little late, it was true, for +just as they started, Billy and Miss Stevens turned aside and out of +sight into the shadiest and narrowest and most involved of the +shrubbery-lined paths, the one which circled about the little concealed +summer-house with a dove-cote on top, which was commonly dubbed "the +cooing place." Following down this path the rear couple suddenly came +upon a tableau which made them pause abruptly. Billy Westlake, upon +the steps of the summer-house, was upon his knees, there in the swiftly +blackening dusk, before the appalled Miss Stevens; actually upon his +knees! Silently the two watchers stole away, but when they were out of +earshot Miss Hastings tittered. Sam, though the moment was a serious +one for him, was also compelled to grin. + +"I didn't know they did it that way any more," he confessed. + +"They don't," Miss Hastings informed him; "that is, unless they are +very, very young, or very, very old." + +"Apparently you've had experience," observed Sam. + +"Yes," she admitted a little bitterly. "I think I've had rather more +than my share; but all with ineligibles." + +Sam felt a trace of pity for Miss Hastings, who was of polite family, +but poor, and a guest of the Westlakes, but he scarcely knew how to +express it, and felt that it was not quite safe anyhow, so he remained +discreetly silent. + +By mutual, though unspoken impulse, they stopped under the shade of a +big tree up on the lawn, and waited for the couple who had been found +in the delicate situation either to reappear on the way back to the +house, or to emerge at the other end of the path on the way to the +bowling shed. It was scarcely three minutes when they reappeared on +the way back to the house, and both watchers felt an instant thrill of +relief, for the two were by no means lover-like in their attitudes. +Billy had hold of Miss Josephine's arm and was helping her up the +slope, but their shoulders were not touching in the process, nor were +arms clasped closely against sides. They passed by the big tree +unseeing, then, as they neared the house, without a word, they parted. +Miss Stevens proceeded toward the porch, and stopped to take a +handkerchief from her sleeve and pass it carefully and lightly over her +face. Billy Westlake strode off a little way toward the bowling shed, +stopped and lit a cigarette, took two or three puffs, started on, +stopped again, then threw the cigarette to the ground with quite +unnecessary vigor, and stamped on it. Miss Hastings, without adieus of +any sort, glided swiftly away in the direction of Billy, and then a dim +glimmer of understanding came to Sam Turner that only Miss Stevens had +stood in the way of Miss Hastings' capture of Billy Westlake. He +wasted no time over this thought, however, but strode very swiftly and +determinedly up to Miss Josephine. + +"I'm glad to find you alone," he said; "I want to make an explanation." + +"Don't bother about it," she told him frigidly. "You owe me no +explanations whatsoever, Mr. Turner." + +"I'm going to make them anyhow," he declared. "You saw me twice this +afternoon in utterly asinine situations." + +"I remember of no such situations," she stated still frigidly, and +started to move on toward the house. + +"But wait a minute," said Sam, catching her by the arm and detaining +her. "You did see me in silly situations, and I want you to know the +facts about them." + +"I'm not at all interested," she informed him, now with absolute north +pole iciness, and started to move away again. + +He held her more tightly. + +"The first time," he went on, "was when Miss Hastings slipped on the +rocks and I had to catch her to keep her from falling." + +"Will you kindly let me go, Mr. Turner?" demanded Miss Josephine. + +"No, I will not!" he replied, and pulled her about a trifle so that she +was compelled to face him. "I don't choose to have anybody, least of +all you, think wrongly of me." + +"Mr. Turner, I do not choose to be detained against my will," declared +Miss Josephine. + +"Mr. Turner," boomed a deep-timbered voice right behind them, "the lady +has requested you to let her go. I should advise you to do so." + +Mr. Turner was attempting to frame up a reasonable answer to this +demand when Miss Josephine prevented him from doing so. + +"Mr. Princeman," said she to the interrupting gallant, "I thank you for +your interference on my behalf, but I am quite capable of protecting +myself," and leaving the two stunned gentlemen together, she once more +took her handkerchief from her sleeve and walked swiftly up to the +porch, brushing the handkerchief lightly over her face again. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" said Princeman, looking after her in more or +less bewilderment. + +"So will I," said Sam. "Have you a cigarette about you?" + +Princeman gave him one and they took a light from the same match, then, +neither one of them caring to discuss any subject whatever at that +particular moment, they separated, and Sam hunted a lonely corner. He +wanted to be alone and gloom. Confound bowling, anyhow! It was a dull +and uninteresting game. He cared less for it as time went on, he +found; less to-night than ever. He crept away into the dim and +deserted parlor and sat down at the piano, the only friend in which he +cared to confide just then. He played, with a queer lingering touch +which had something of hesitation in it, and which reduced all music to +a succession of soft chords, _The Maid of Dundee_ and _Annie Laurie_, +_The Banks of Banna_ and _The Last Rose of Summer_, then one of the +simpler nocturnes of Chopin, and, following these, a quaint, slow +melody which was like all of the others and yet like none. + +"Bravo!" exclaimed a gentle voice in the doorway, and he turned, +startled, to see Miss Stevens standing there. She did not explain why +she had relented, but came directly into the room and stood at the end +of the piano. He reached up and shook hands with her quite naturally, +and just as naturally and simply she let her hand lie in his for an +instant. How soft and warm her palm was, and how grateful the touch of +it! + +"What a pleasant surprise!" she said. "I didn't know you played." + +"I don't," he confessed, smiling. "If you had stopped to listen you +would have known. You ought to hear my kid brother play though. He's +a corker." + +"But I did listen," she insisted, ignoring the reference to his "kid +brother." "I stood there a long time and I thought it beautiful. What +was that last selection?" + +He flushed guiltily. + +"It was--oh, just a little thing I sort of put together myself," he +told her. + +"How delightful! And so you compose, too?" + +"Not at all," he hastily assured her. "This is the only thing, and it +seemed to come just sort of naturally to me from time to time. I don't +suppose it's finished yet, because I never play it exactly as I did +before. I always seem to add a little bit to it. I do wish that I had +had time to know more of music. What little I play I learned from a +pianola." + +"A what?" she gasped. + +He laughed in a half-embarrassed way. + +"A pianola," he repeated. "You see I've always been hungry for music, +and while my kid brother was still in college I began to be able to +afford things, and one of the first luxuries was a pianola. You know +the machine has a little lever which throws the keys in or out of +engagement, so that you can play it as a regular piano if you wish, and +if you leave the keys engaged while you are playing the rolls, they +work up and down; so by watching these I gradually learned to pick out +my favorite tunes by hand. I couldn't play them so well by myself as +the rolls played them, but somehow or other they gave me more +satisfaction." + +Miss Stevens did not laugh. In some indefinable way all this made a +difference in Sam Turner--a considerable difference--and she felt quite +justified in having deliberately come to the conclusion that she had +been "mean" to him; in having deliberately slipped away from the others +as they were all going over to the bowling alleys; in having come back +deliberately to find him. + +"Your favorite tunes," she repeated musingly. "What was the first one, +I wonder? One of those that you have just been playing?" + +"The first one?" he returned with a smile. "No, it was a sort of +rag-time jingle. I thought it very pretty then, but I played it over +the other day, the first time in years, and I didn't seem to like it at +all. In fact, I wonder how I ever did like it." + +Rag-time! And now, left entirely to his own devices and for his own +pleasure, he was playing Chopin! Yes, it made quite a difference in +Sam Turner. She was glad that she had decided to wear his roses, glad +even that he recognized them. At her solicitation Sam played again the +plaintive little air of his own composition--and played it much better +than ever he had played it before. Then they walked out on the porch +and strolled down toward the bowling shed. Half way there was a little +side path, leading off through an arbor into a shady way which crossed +the brook on a little rustic bridge, which wound about between +flowerbeds and shrubbery and back by another little bridge, and which +lengthened the way to the bowling shed by about four times the normal +distance--and they took that path; and when they reached the bowling +alley they were not quite ready to go in. + +[Illustration: Sam played again the plaintive little air] + +There seemed no reasonable excuse for staying out longer, however, for +the bowling had already started, and, moreover, young Tilloughby +happened to come to the door and spied them. Princeman was just +getting up to bowl for the honor and glory of Meadow Brook, and within +one minute later Miss Stevens was watching the handsome young paper +manufacturer with absorbed interest. He was a fine picture of athletic +manhood as he stood up, weighing the ball, and a splendid picture of +masculine action as he rushed forward to deliver it. Sam had to +acknowledge that himself, and out of fairness he even had to join in +the mad applause when Princeman made strike after strike. They had +Princeman up again in the last frame, and it was a ticklish moment. +The Hollis Creek team was fifty points ahead. Dramatic unities, under +the circumstances, demanded that Princeman, by a tremendous exercise of +coolness and skill, overcome that lead by his own personal efforts, and +he did, winning the tournament for Meadow Brook with a breathless few +points to spare. + +But did Sam Turner care that Princeman was the hero of the hour? More +power to Princeman, for from the bevy of flushed and eager girls who +flocked about the Adonis-like victor, Miss Josephine Stevens was +absent. She was there, with him, in Paradise! Incidentally Sam made +an engagement to drive with her in the morning, and when, at the close +of that delightful evening, the carryall carried her away, she beamed +upon him; gave him two or three beams in fact, and said good-by +personally and waved her hand to him personally; nobody else was there +in all that crowd but just they two! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE WESTLAKES DECIDE TO INVEST + +Miss Hastings did not exactly snub Sam in the morning, but she was +surprisingly indifferent to him after all her previous cordiality, and +even went so far as to forget the early morning constitutional she was +to have taken with him; instead she passed him coolly by on the porch +right after an extremely early breakfast, and sauntered away down +lovers' lane, arm in arm with Billy Westlake, who was already looking +very much comforted. Sam, who had been dreading that walk, released it +with a sigh of intense satisfaction, planning that in the interim until +time for his drive, he would improve his tennis a bit with Miss +Westlake. He was just hunting her up when he met Bob Tilloughby, who +invited him to join a riding party from both houses for a trip over to +Sunset Rock. + +"Sorry," said Sam with secret satisfaction, "but I've an engagement +over at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock," and Tilloughby carried that +information back to Miss Westlake, who had sent him. + +An engagement at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock, eh? Well, Miss Westlake +knew who that meant; none other than her dear friend, Josephine +Stevens! Being a young lady of considerable directness, she went +immediately to her father. + +"Have you definitely made up your mind, pop, to take stock in Mr. +Turner's company?" she asked, sitting down by that placid gentleman. + +Without removing his interlocked hands from their comfortable +resting-place in plain sight, he slowly twirled his thumbs some three +times, and then stopped. + +"Yes, I think I shall," he said. + +"About how much?" Miss Westlake wanted to know. + +"Oh, about twenty-five thousand." + +"Who's to get it?" + +"Why, I thought I'd divide it between Billy and you." + +Miss Westlake put her hand on her father's arm. + +"Say, pop, give it to me, please," she pleaded. "Billy can take the +next stock you buy, or I'll let him have some of my other in exchange." + +Mr. Westlake surveyed his daughter out of a pair of fish-gray eyes +without turning his head. + +"You seem to be especially interested in this stock. You asked about +it yesterday and Sunday and one day last week." + +"Yes, I am," she admitted. "It's a really first-class business +investment, isn't it?" + +"Yes, I think it is," replied Westlake; "as good as any stock in an +untried company can be, anyhow. At least it's an excellent investment +chance." + +"That's what I thought," she said. "I'm judging, of course, only by +what you say, and by my impression of Mr. Turner. It seems to me that +almost anything he goes into should be highly successful." + +Mr. Westlake slowly whirled his thumbs in the other direction, three +separate twirls, and stopped them. + +"Yes," he agreed. "I'm investing the money in just Sam myself, +although the scheme itself looks like a splendid one." + +Miss Westlake was silent a moment while she twisted at the button on +her father's coat sleeve. + +"I don't quite understand this matter of stock control," she went on +presently. "You've explained it to me, but I don't seem quite to get +the meaning of it." + +"Well, it's like this," explained Mr. Westlake. "Sam Turner, with only +a paltry investment, say about five thousand dollars, wants to be able +to dictate the entire policy of a million-dollar concern. In other +words, he wants a majority of stock, which will let him come into the +stock-holders' meetings, and vote into office his own board of +directors, who will do just what he says; and if he wanted to he might +have them vote the entire profits of the concern for his salary." + +"But, father, he wouldn't do anything like that," she protested, +shocked. + +"No, he probably wouldn't," admitted Mr. Westlake, "but I wouldn't be +wise to let him have the chance, just the same." + +"But, father," objected Miss Hallie, after further thought, "it's his +invention, you know, and his process, and if he doesn't have control +couldn't all you other stock-holders get together and appropriate the +profits yourselves?" + +Mr. Westlake gave his thumbs one quick turn. + +"Yes," he grudgingly confessed. "In fact, it's been done," and there +was a certain grim satisfaction at the corners of his mouth which his +daughter could not interpret, as he thought back over the long list of +absorptions which had made old Bill Westlake the power that he was. + +"But--but, father," and she hesitated a long time. + +"Yes," he encouraged her. + +"Even if you won't let him have enough stock to obtain control, if some +one other person should own enough of the stock, couldn't they put +their stock with his and let him do just about as he liked?" + +"Oh, yes," agreed Mr. Westlake without any twirling of his thumbs at +all; "that's been done, too." + +"Would this twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of stock that you're +buying, pop, if it were added to what you men are willing to let Mr. +Turner have, give him control?" + +Again Mr. Westlake turned his speculative gray eyes upon his daughter +and gave her a long, careful scrutiny, which she received with downcast +lashes. + +"No," he replied. + +"How much would?" + +"Well, fifty thousand would do it." + +"Say, pop--" + +"Yes." + +Another long interval. + +"I wish you'd buy fifty thousand for me in place of twenty-five." + +"Humph," grunted Mr. Westlake, and after one sharp glance at her he +looked down at his big fat thumbs and twirled them for a long, long +time. "Well," said he, "Sam Turner is a fine young man. I've known +him in a business way for five or six years, and I never saw a flaw in +him of any sort. All right. You give Billy your sugar stock and I'll +buy you this fifty thousand." + +Miss Westlake reached over and kissed her father impulsively. + +"Thanks, pop," she said. "Now there's another thing I want you to do." + +"What, more?" he demanded. + +"Yes, more," and this time the color deepened in her cheeks. "I want +you to hunt up Mr. Turner and tell him that you're going to take that +much." + +Mr. Westlake with a smile reached up and pinched his daughter's cheek. + +"Very well, Hallie, I'll do it," said he. + +She patted him affectionately on the bald spot. + +"Good for you," she said. "Be sure you see him this morning, though, +and before half-past nine." + +"You're particular about that, eh?" + +"Yes, it's rather important," she admitted, and blushed furiously. + +Westlake patted his daughter on the shoulder. + +"Hallie," said He, "if Billy only had your common-sense business +instinct, I wouldn't ask for anything else in this world; but Billy is +a saphead." + +Mr. Westlake, thinking that he understood the matter very thoroughly, +though in reality overunderstanding it--nice word, that--took it upon +himself with considerable seriousness to hunt up Sam Turner; but it was +fully nine-thirty before he found that energetic young man. Sam was +just going down the driveway in a neat little trap behind a team of +spirited grays. + +"Wait a minute, Sam, wait a minute," hailed Westlake, puffing +laboriously across the closely cropped lawn. + +Sam held up his horses abruptly, and they stood swinging their heads +and champing at their bits, while Sam, with a trace of a frown, looked +at his watch. + +"What's your rush?" asked Westlake. "I've been hunting for you +everywhere. I want to talk about some important features of that Marsh +Pulp Company of yours." + +"All right," said Sam. "I'm open for conversation. I'll see you right +after lunch." + +"No. I must see you now," insisted Westlake. "I've--I've got to +decide on some things right this morning. I--I've got to know how to +portion out my investments." + +Sam looked at his watch and was genuinely distressed. + +"I'm sorry," said he, "but I have an engagement over at Hollis Creek at +exactly ten o'clock, and I've scant time to make it." + +"Business?" demanded Westlake. + +"No," confessed Sam slowly. + +"Oh, social then. Well, social engagements in America always play +second fiddle to business ones, and don't you forget it. I'll talk +about this matter this morning or I won't talk about it at all." + +Sam stopped nonplussed. Westlake was an important factor in the +prospective Marsh Pulp Company. + +"Tell you what you do," said he, after some quick thought. "Why can't +you get in the trap and drive over to Hollis Creek with me? We can +talk on the way and you can visit with your friends over there until +time for luncheon; then I'll bring you back and we can talk on the way +home, too." + +Miss Hallie and Princeman and young Tilloughby came cantering down the +drive and waved hands at the two men. + +"All right," said Westlake decisively, looking after his daughter and +answering her glance with a nod. "Wait until I get my hat," and he +wheeled abruptly away. + +Sam fumed and fretted and jerked his watch back and forth from his +pocket, while Westlake wasted fifteen precious minutes in waddling up +to the house and hunting for his hat and returning with it, and two +minutes more in bungling his awkward way into the buggy; then Sam +started the grays at such a terrific pace that, until they came to the +steep hill midway of the course, there was no chance for conversation. +While the horses pulled up this steep hill, however, Westlake had his +opportunity. + +"I suppose you know," he said, "that you're not going to be allowed +over two thousand shares of common stock for your patents." + +"I'm beginning to give up the hope of having more," admitted Sam. +"However, I'm going to stick it out to the last ditch." + +"It won't be permitted, so you might as well give up that idea. How +much stock do you think of buying?" + +"About five thousand dollars' worth of the preferred," said Sam. + +"Which will give you fifty bonus shares of the common. I suppose of +course you figure on eventually securing control in some way or other." + +"Not being an infant, I do," returned Sam, flicking his whip at a weed +and gathering his lines up quickly as the mettled horses jumped. + +"I don't know of any one person who's going to buy enough stock to help +you out in that plan; unless I should do it myself," suggested +Westlake, and waited. + +Sam surveyed the other man long and silently. Westlake, as the largest +minority shareholder, had done some very strange things to corporations +in his time. + +"Neither do I," said Sam non-committally. + +There was another long silence. + +"If you carry through this Marsh Pulp Company to a successful +termination, you will be fairly well fixed for a young man, won't you?" +the older man ventured by and by. + +"Well," hesitated Sam, "I'll have a start anyhow." + +"I should say you would," Westlake assured him, placing his hands in +his favorite position for contemplative discussion. "You'll have a +good enough start to enable you to settle down." + +"Yes," admitted Sam. + +"What you need, my boy, is a wife," went on Mr. Westlake. "No man's +business career is properly assured until he has a wife to steady him +down." + +"I believe that," agreed Sam. "I've come to the same conclusion +myself, and to tell you the truth of the matter I've been contemplating +marriage very seriously since I've been down here." + +"Good!" approved Westlake. "You're a fine boy, Sam. I may tell you +right now that I approve of both you and your decision very heartily. +I rather thought there was something in the wind that way." + +"Yes," confessed Sam hesitantly. "I don't mind admitting that I have +even gone so far as to pick out the girl, if she'll have me." + +Mr. Westlake smiled. + +"I don't think there will be any trouble on that score," said he. "Of +course, Sam, I'm not going to force your confidence, or anything of +that sort, but--but I want to tell you that I think you're all right," +and he very solemnly shook hands with Mr. Turner. + +They had just reached the top of the hill when Westlake again returned +to business. + +"I'm glad to know you're going to settle down, Sam," he said. "It +inspires me with more confidence in your affairs, and I may say that I +stand ready to subscribe, in my daughter's name, for fifty thousand +dollars' worth of the stock of your company." + +"Well," said Sam, giving the matter careful weight. "It will be a good +investment for her." + +Before Mr. Westlake had any time to reply to this, the grays, having +just passed the summit of the hill, leaped forward in obedience to +another swish of Sam's whip. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT + +The trio from Meadow Brook, on their way to Sunset Rock galloped up to +the Hollis Creek porch, and, finding Miss Stevens there, gaily demanded +that she accompany them. + +"I'm sorry," said Miss Stevens, who was already in driving costume, +"but I have an engagement at ten o'clock," and she looked back through +the window into the office, where the clock then stood at two minutes +of the appointed time; then she looked rather impatiently down the +driveway, as she had been doing for the past five minutes. + +"Well, at least you'll come back to the bar with us and have an +ice-cream cocktail," insisted Princeman, reining up close to the porch +and putting his hand upon the rail in front of her. + +"I don't see how I can refuse that," said Miss Stevens with a smile and +another glance down at the driveway, "although it's really a little +early in the day to begin drinking," and she waited for them to +dismount, going back with them into the little ice-cream parlor and +"soft drink" and confectionery dispensary which had been facetiously +dubbed "the bar." Here she was careful to secure a seat where she +could look out of the window down toward the road, and also see the +clock. + +After a weary while, during which Miss Josephine had undergone a +variety of emotions which she was very careful not to mention, the +party rose from the discussion of their ice-cream soda and the bowling +tournament and all the various other social interests of the two +resorts, and made ready to depart, Miss Westlake twining her arm about +the waist of her friend Miss Stevens as they emerged on the porch. + +"Well, anyway, we've made you forget your engagement," Miss Westlake +gaily boasted, "for you said it was to be at ten, and now it's +ten-thirty." + +"Yes, I noticed the time," admitted Miss Stevens, rather grudgingly. + +"I'm sorry we dragged you away," commiserated Miss Westlake with a +swift change of tone. "Probably the party of the second part didn't +know where to find you." + +"No, it couldn't be anything like that," decided Miss Josephine after a +thoughtful pause. "Did you see anything of Mr. Turner this morning?" +she asked with sudden resolve. + +"Mr. Turner," repeated Miss Westlake in well-feigned surprise. "Why, +yes, I know papa said early this morning that he was going to have a +business talk with Mr. Turner, and as we left Meadow Brook papa was +just going after his hat to take a drive with him." + +"I wonder if it would be an imposition to ask you to wait about five +minutes longer," inquired Miss Stevens with a languidness which did +_not_ deceive. "I think I can change to my riding-habit almost within +that time." + +"We'll be delighted to wait," asserted Miss Westlake eagerly, herself +looking apprehensively down the driveway; "won't we, boys?" + +"Sure; what is it?" returned Princeman. + +"Josephine says that if we'll wait five minutes longer she'll go with +us." + +"We'll wait an hour if need be," declared Princeman gallantly. + +"It won't need be," said Miss Stevens lightly, and hurrying into the +office she ordered the clerk to send for her saddle-horse. + +For ten interminable minutes Miss Westlake never took her eyes from the +road, at the end of which time Miss Stevens returned, hatted and +habited and booted and whipped. + +The Hollis Creek young lady was rather grim as she rode down the +graveled approach beside Miss Westlake, and both the girls cast furtive +glances behind them as they turned away from the Meadow Brook road. +When they were safely out of sight around the next bend, Miss Westlake +laughed. + +"Mr. Turner is such a funny person," said she. "He's liable at any +moment to forget all about everything and everybody if somebody +mentions business to him. If he ever takes time to get married he'll +make it a luncheon hour appointment." + +Even Miss Josephine laughed. + +"And even then," she added, by way of elaboration, "the bride is likely +to be left waiting at the church." There was a certain snap and +crackle to whatever Miss Stevens said just now, however, which +indicated a perturbed and even an angry state of mind. + +Ten minutes later, Sam Turner, hatless, and carrying a buggy whip and +wearing a torn coat, trudged up the Hollis Creek Inn drive, afoot, and +walked rapidly into the office. + +"Is Miss Stevens about?" he wanted to know. + +"Not at present," the clerk informed him. "She ordered out her horse a +few minutes ago, and started over to Sunset Rock with a party of young +people from Meadow Brook." + +"Which way is Sunset Rock?" + +The clerk handed him a folder which contained a map of the roadways +thereabouts, and pointed out the way. + +"Could you get me a saddle-horse right away?" + +The clerk pounded a bell and ordered up a saddle-horse for Mr. Turner, +who immediately thereupon turned to the telephone, and, calling up +Meadow Brook, instructed the clerk at that resort to send a carriage +for Mr. Westlake, who was sitting in the trap, entirely unharmed but +disinclined to walk, at the foot of Laurel Hill; then he explained that +the grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar had +slipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had run +back up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked the +doubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they had +turned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the time +he had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it all +through the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse was +ready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he started +off at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to have +himself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket. + +He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to Sunset +Rock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with the +inspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were ready +to depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket being +greatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens, +who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been due +to an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation at +once. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, and +believed, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, and +she had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to be +with Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by the +side of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearance +of the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party" +has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though at +first lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted the +party so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlake +was riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone in +the center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a sudden +inclination to go very slowly. + +"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, by +and by. + +"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam. + +"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I think +I did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to say +he'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells me +I've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?" + +"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince. +Control and Westlake were two words which did not make, for him, a +cheerful juxtaposition. + +"So now you'll have to be very nice indeed to me," went on Miss +Westlake banteringly, "or I'm likely to vote with the other crowd." + +"I'll be just as nice to you as I know how," offered Sam. "Just state +what you want me to do and I'll do it." + +Miss Westlake did not state what she wanted him to do. In place of +that she whipped up her horse rather smartly, after a thoughtful +silence, and joined Tilloughby, the three of them riding abreast. The +next shifting, around a deep mud hole which only left room for an +Indian file procession, brought Sam alongside Miss Josephine, and here +he stuck for the balance of the ride, leaving Princeman to ride part of +the time alone between the two couples, and part of the time to be the +third rider with each couple in alternation. Miss Josephine was very +much concerned about Mr. Turner's accident, very happy to know how +lucky he had been to come off without a scratch, except for the tear in +his coat, and very solicitous indeed about any further handling of the +obstreperous gray team; and, forgiving him readily under the +circumstances, she renewed her engagement to drive with him the next +morning! + +Sam rode on home at the side of Miss Westlake, after leaving Miss +Stevens at Hollis Creek, in a strange and nebulous state of elation, +which continued until bedtime. As he was about to retire he was handed +a wire from his brother: + +"Just received patent papers meet me at Restview morning train." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A PLEASURE RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS + +The morning train was due at ten o'clock. At ten o'clock also Sam was +due at Hollis Creek to take his long deferred drive with Miss Stevens. +It was a slight conflict, her engagement, but the solution to that was +very easy. As early in the morning as he dared, Sam called up Miss +Josephine. + +"I've some glorious news," he said hopefully. "My kid brother will +arrive at Restview on the ten o'clock train." + +"You are to be congratulated," Miss Stevens told him, with an echo of +his own delight. + +"But you know we've an engagement to go driving at ten o'clock," he +reminded her, still hopefully, but trembling in spirit. + +There was an instant of hesitation, which ended in a laugh. + +"Don't let that interfere," she said. "We can defer our drive until +some other time, when fate is not so determined against it." + +"But that doesn't suit me at all," he assured her. "Why can't you be +ready at nine in place of ten, let me call for you at that time and +drive over to Restview with me to meet Jack?" + +"Is that his name?" she asked in blissfully reassuring tones. "You've +never spoken of him as anybody but your 'kid brother.' Why of course +I'll drive over to Restview with you. I shall be delighted to meet +him." + +Privately she had her own fears of what Jack Turner might turn out to +be like. Sam was always so good in speaking of him, always held him in +such tender regard, such profound admiration, that she feared he might +prove to be perfect only in Sam's eyes. + +"Good," said Sam. "Just for that I'm going to bring you over some +choice blooms that I have been having the gardener save back for me," +and he turned away from the telephone quite happy in the thought that +for once he had been able to kill two birds with one stone without +ruffling the feathers of either. + +Armed with a huge consignment of brilliant blossoms, enough to +transform her room into a fairy bower, he sped quite happily to Hollis +Creek. + +"Oh, gladiolas!" cried Miss Josephine, as he drove up. "How did you +ever guess it! That little bird must have been busy again." + +"Honestly, it was the little bird this time. I just had an intuition +that you must like them because I do so well," upon which naïve +statement Miss Josephine merely smiled, and calling her father with +pretty peremptoriness, she loaded that heavy gentleman down with the +flowers and with instructions concerning them, and then stepped +brightly into the tonneau with Sam. + +It was a pleasant ride they had to Restview, and it was a pleasant +surprise which greeted Miss Josephine when the train arrived, for out +of it stepped a youth who was unmistakably a Turner. He was as tall as +Sam, but slighter, and as clean a looking boy as one would find in a +day's journey. There was that, too, in the hand-clasp between the +brothers which proclaimed at once their flawless relationship. + +Miss Stevens was so relieved to find the younger Turner so presentable +that she took him into her friendship at once. He was that kind of +chap anyhow, and in the very first greeting she almost found herself +calling him Jack. Just behind him, however, was a little, dried-up man +with a complexion the color of old parchment, with sandy, stubby hair +shot with gray, and a stubby gray beard shot with red. His lips were a +wide straight line, as grim as judgment day. He walked with a slight +stoop, but with a quick staccato step which betokened great nervous +energy, a quality which the alert expression of his beady eyes +confirmed with distinct emphasis. + +"Hello, Creamer!" hailed Sam to this gentleman. "I didn't expect to +see you here quite so soon." + +"You had every right to expect me," snapped the little man querulously. +"After all the experimenting I have done for you boys, you had every +reason to keep me posted on all your movements; and yet I reckon if I +hadn't been in your office yesterday evening when Jack said he was +coming down here, you would not have notified me until you had your +company all formed. Then I suppose you'd have written to tell me how +much stock you had assigned to me. I'm going to be in on the formation +of this company, and I'm going to have my say about it!" + +"Will you never get over that dyspepsia?" chided Sam easily. "There +was no intention of leaving you out." + +"Just what I told him," declared Jack, turning from Miss Stevens to +them. "I have been swearing to him that as soon as we had found out +to-day what we were to do I would have wired him at once." + +"You were quite right, Jack," approved Sam, opening the door of the car +for them, "and as a proof of it, Creamer, when you return to your +office you will find there a letter postmarked yesterday, telling you +our exact progress here, and warning you to be in readiness to come on +telegram." + +"All right, then," said Mr. Creamer, somewhat mollified, "but since +that letter's there and I'm here, you might as well tell me what you've +done." + +Sam stopped the proceedings long enough to introduce Creamer to Miss +Stevens after he had closed the door upon them and had taken his own +seat by the chauffeur. + +"All right," he then said to Mr. Creamer, "I'll begin at the beginning." + +He began at the beginning. He told Mr. Creamer all the steps in the +development of the company. He detailed to him the names of the +gentlemen concerned, and their complete commercial histories, pausing +to answer many pertinent side questions and observations from his +younger brother, who proved to be as keen a student of business puzzles +as Sam himself. + +"That's all very well," said Mr. Creamer, "and now I'm here. I want to +get away to-night: Can't we form that company to-day? At what figure +do you propose offering the original stock?" + +"The preferred at fifty, with a par value of a hundred," returned Sam +promptly. + +"Common?" asked Mr. Creamer crisply. + +"One share of common with each two shares of preferred." + +"Eh! Well, I've twenty-five thousand dollars to put into this marsh +pulp business, if I can have any figure in the management. I want on +the board." + +"It's quite likely you'll be on the board," returned Sam. "We shall +have a very small list of subscribers, and the board will not be +unwieldy if every investor is a director." + +"Voting power in the common stock?" + +"In the common stock," repeated Sam. + +"Do you intend to buy any preferred?" asked Creamer. + +"A hundred shares." + +"How much common do you expect to take out for your patents?" + +"Two hundred and fifty thousand," Sam answered without an instant's +hesitation. + +"Never!" exclaimed Mr. Creamer. "The time for that's gone by, young +man, no matter how good your proposition is. It's too old a game. You +won't handle my money with control in your hands. I have no objection +to letting you have two hundred thousand dollars worth of common stock +out of the half million, because that will give you an incentive to +make the common worth par; but you shan't at any time have or be able +to acquire a share over two hundred and forty-nine thousand; not if I +know anything about it! Can you call a meeting as soon as we get +there?" + +"I think so," replied Sam, with a more or less worried air. "I'll try +it. Tell you what I'll do. I'll run right on over to get Mr. Stevens, +who wants to join the company, and in the meantime Mr. Westlake or +Princeman can round up the others." + +For the first time in that drive Miss Stevens had something to say, but +she said it with a briefness that was like a dash of cold water to the +preoccupied Sam. + +"Father is over there now, I think," she said. + +"Good," approved Mr. Creamer. "We can have a little direct business +talk and wind up the whole affair before lunch. What time do we arrive +at Meadow Brook?" + +"Before eleven o'clock." + +"That will give us two hours. Two hours is enough to form any company, +when everybody knows exactly what he wants to do. Got a lawyer over +there?" + +"One of the best in the country." + +Miss Stevens sat in the center seat of the tonneau. Sam, in addressing +his remarks to the others and in listening to their replies, was +compelled to sweep his glance squarely across her, and occasionally in +these sweeps he paused to let his gaze rest upon her. She was a relief +to his eyes, a blessing to them! Miss Stevens, however, seldom met any +of these glances. Very much preoccupied she was, looking at the +passing scenery and not seeing it. + +There had begun boiling and seething in Miss Stevens a feeling that she +was decidedly _de trop_, that these men could talk their absorbing +business more freely if she were not there; not because she embarrassed +them, but because she used up space! Nobody seemed to give her a +thought. Nobody seemed to be aware that she was present. They were +almost gaspingly engrossed in something far more important to them than +she was. It was uncomplimentary, to say the least. She was not used +to playing "second fiddle" in any company. She was in the habit of +absorbing the most of the attention in her immediate vicinity. Mr. +Princeman or Mr. Hollis would neither one ignore her in that way, to +say nothing of Billy Westlake. + +She was glad when they reached Meadow Brook. Their whole talk had been +of marsh pulp, and company organization, and preferred and common +stock, and who was to get it, and how much they were to pay for it, and +how they were going to cut the throats of the wood pulp manufacturers, +and how much profit they were going to make from the consumers and with +all that, not a word for her. Not a single word! Not even an apology! +Oh, it was atrocious! As soon as they drew up to the porch she rose, +and before Sam could jump down to open the door of the tonneau she had +opened it for herself and sprung out. + +"I'll hunt up father right away for you," she stated courteously. +"Glad to have met you, Mr. Creamer. I presume I shall meet you again, +Mr. Turner," she said to Jack. "Thank you so much for the ride," she +said to Sam, and then she was gone. + +Sam looked after her blankly. It couldn't be possible that she was +"huffy" about this business talk. Why, couldn't the girl see that this +had to do with the birth of a great big company, a million dollar +corporation, and that it was of vital importance to him? It meant the +apex of a lifetime of endeavor. It meant the upbuilding of a fortune. +Couldn't she see that he and his brother were two lone youngsters +against all these shrewd business men, whose only terms of aiding them +and floating this big company was to take their mastery of it away from +them? Couldn't she understand what control of a million dollar +organization meant? He was not angry with Miss Stevens for her +apparent attitude in this matter, but he was hurt. He was not +impatient with her, but he was impatient of the fact that she could not +appreciate. Now the fat was in the fire again. He felt that. Under +other circumstances he would have said that it was much more trouble +than it was worth to keep in the good graces of a girl, but under the +present circumstances--well, his heart had sunk down about a foot out +of place, and he had a sort of faint feeling in the region of his +stomach. He was just about sick. He followed her in, just in time to +see the flutter of her skirts at the top of the stairway, but he could +not call without making himself and her ridiculous. Confound things in +general! + +Mr. Stevens joined him while he was still looking into that blank hole +in the world. + +"Glad I happened to be here, Sam," said Stevens. "Jo tells me that +your brother and Mr. Creamer have arrived and that you want to form +that company right away." + +"Yes," admitted Sam. "Was she sarcastic about it?" + +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes and laughed. + +"Not exactly sarcastic," he stated; "but she did allude to your +proposed corporation as 'that old company!'" + +"I was afraid so," said Sam ruefully. + +Stevens surveyed him in amusement for a moment, and then in pity. + +"Never mind, my boy," he said kindly. "You'll get used to these things +by and by. It took me the first five years of my married life to +convince Mrs. Stevens that business was not a rival to her affections, +when, if I'd only have known the recipe, I could have convinced her at +the start." + +"How did you finally do it?" asked Sam, vitally interested. + +"Made her my confidante and adviser," stated Stevens, smiling +reminiscently. + +Sam shook his head. + +"Was that safe?" he asked. "Didn't she sometimes let out your secrets?" + +"Bosh!" exclaimed Stevens. "I'd rather trust a woman than a man, any +day, with a secret, business or personal. That goes for any woman; +mother, sister, sweetheart, wife, daughter, or stenographer. Just give +them a chance to get interested in your game, and they're with you +against the world." + +"Thanks," said Sam, putting that bit of information aside for future +pondering. "By the way, Mr. Stevens, before we join the others I'd +like to ask you how much stock you're going to carry in the Marsh Pulp +Company." + +"Well," returned Mr. Stevens slowly, "I did think that if the thing +looked good on final analysis, I might invest twenty-five thousand +dollars." + +"Can't you stretch that to fifty?" + +"Can't see it. But why? Don't you think you're going to fill your +list?" + +"We'll fill our list all right," returned Sam. "As a matter of fact, +that's what I'm afraid of. These fellows are going to pool their +stock, and hold control in their own hands. Now if I could get you to +invest fifty thousand and vote with me under proper emergency, I could +control the thing; and I ought to. It is my own company. Seems to me +these fellows are selfish about it. You think I'm a good business man, +don't you?" + +"I certainly do," agreed Mr. Stevens emphatically. + +"Well, it stands to reason that if I have two hundred and sixty +thousand dollars of common stock that isn't worth a picayune unless I +make it worth par, I'll hustle; and if I make my common stock worth +par, I'm making a fine, fat profit for these other fellows, to say +nothing of the raising of their preferred stock from the value of fifty +to a hundred dollars a share, and their common from nothing to a +hundred." + +"That's all right, Sam," returned Mr. Stevens; "but you'll work just as +hard to make your common worth par if you only have two hundred +thousand; and there's a growing tendency on the part of capital to be +able to keep a string on its own money. Strange, but true." + +"All right," said Sam wearily. "We won't argue that point any more +just now; but will you invest fifty thousand?" + +"I can't promise," said Stevens, and he walked out on the porch. Much +worried, Sam followed him, and with many misgivings he introduced Mr. +Stevens to his brother Jack and to Mr. Creamer. The prospective +organizers of the Marsh Pulp Company were already in solemn conclave on +the porch, with the single exception of Princeman, who was on the lawn +talking most perfunctorily with Miss Josephine. That young lady, with +wickedness of the deepest sort in her soul, was doing her best to +entice Mr. Princeman into forgetting the important meeting, but as soon +as Princeman saw the gathering hosts he gently but firmly tore himself +away, very much to her surprise and indignation. Why, he had been as +rude to her as Sam Turner himself, in placing the charms of business +above her own! Immediately afterward she snubbed Billy Westlake +unmercifully. Had he the qualities which would go to make a successful +man in any walk of life? No! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A DUAL QUESTION OF MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY AND STOCK SUBSCRIPTION + +Mr. Westlake dropped back with his old friend Stevens as they trailed +into the parlor which Blackstone had secured. + +"Are you going to subscribe rather heavily in the company, Stevens?" +inquired Westlake, with the curiosity of a man who likes to have his +own opinion corroborated by another man of good judgment. + +"Well," replied the father of Miss Josephine, "I think of taking a +rather solid little block of stock. I believe I can spare twenty-five +thousand dollars to invest in almost any company Sam Turner wants to +start." + +"He's a fine boy," agreed Westlake. "A square, straight young fellow, +a good business man, and a hustler. I see him playing tennis with my +girl every day, and she seems to think a lot of him." + +"He's bound to make his mark," Mr. Stevens acquiesced, sharply +suppressing a fool impulse to speak of his own daughter. "Do you +fellows intend to let him secure control of this company?" + +"I should say not!" replied Westlake, with such unnecessary emphasis +that Stevens looked at him with sudden suspicion. He knew enough about +old Westlake to "copper" his especially emphatic statements. + +"Are you agreeable to Princeman's plan to pool all stock but Turner's?" + +"Well--we can talk about that later." + +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens, and together the two heavy-weights, Stevens +with his aggressive beard suddenly pointed a trifle more straight out, +and Mr. Westlake with his placidity even more marked than usual, +stalked on into the parlor, where Mr. Blackstone, taking the chair _pro +tem_., read them the preliminary agreement he had drawn up; upon which +Sam Turner immediately started to wrangle, a proceeding which proved +altogether in vain. + +The best he could get for patents and promotion was two thousand out of +the five thousand shares of common stock, and finally he gave in, +knowing that he could not secure the right kind of men on better terms. +Mr. Blackstone thereupon offered a subscription list, to which every +man present solemnly appended his name opposite the number of shares he +would take. Sam, at the last moment, put down his own name for a block +of stock which meant a cash investment of considerably more than he had +originally figured upon. He cast up the list hurriedly. Five hundred +shares of preferred, carrying half that much common, were still to be +subscribed. With whom could he combine to obtain control? The only +men who had subscribed enough for that purpose were Princeman, who was +out of the question, and, in fact, would be the leader of the +opposition, and Westlake. The highest of the others were Creamer, +Cuthbert and Stevens. Sam would have to subscribe for the entire five +hundred in order to make these men available to him. + +McComas and Blackstone had only subscribed for the same amount as Sam. +They could do him no good, and he knew it was hopeless to attempt to +get two men to join with him. He looked over at Westlake. That +gentleman was smiling like a placid cherub, all innocence without, and +kindliness and good deeds; but there was nevertheless something fishy +about Westlake's eyes, and Sam, in memory, cast over a list of maimed +and wounded and crushed who had come in Westlake's business way. The +logical candidate was Stevens. Stevens simply had to take enough stock +to overbalance this thing, then he simply must vote his stock with +Sam's! That was all there was to it! Sam did not pause to worry about +how he was to gain over Stevens' consent, but he had an intuitive +feeling that this was his only chance. + +"Stevens," said he briskly, "there are five hundred shares left. I'll +take half of it if you'll take the other half." + +His brother Jack looked at him startled. Their total holdings, in that +case, would mean an investment of more money than they could spare from +their other operations. It would cramp them tremendously, but Jack +ventured no objections. He had seen Sam at the helm in decisive places +too often to interfere with him, either by word or look. As a matter +of fact such a proceeding was not safe anyhow. + +"I don't mind--" began Westlake, slowly fixing a beaming eye upon Sam, +and crossing his hands ponderously upon his periphery; but before he +could announce his benevolent intention, Mr. Stevens, with what might +almost have been considered a malevolent glance toward Mr. Westlake, +spoke up. + +"I'll accept your proposition," he said with a jerk of his beard as his +jaws snapped. So Miss Westlake thought a great deal of Sam, eh? And +old Westlake knew it, eh? And he had already subscribed enough stock +to throw Sam control, eh? + +"Thanks," said Sam, and shot Mr. Stevens a look of gratitude as he +altered the subscription figures. + +"Stop just a moment, Sam," put in Mr. Westlake. "How many shares of +common stock does that give you in combination with your bonus?" + +"Two thousand two hundred and sixty," said Sam. + +"Oh!" said Mr. Westlake musingly; "not enough for control by two +hundred and forty one shares; so you won't mind, since you haven't +enough for control anyhow, if I take up that additional two hundred and +fifty shares of preferred, with its one hundred and twenty-five of +common, myself." + +Sam once more paused and glanced over the subscription list. As it +stood now, aside from Princeman, there were two members, Westlake and +Stevens, with whom, if he could get either one of them to do so, he +could pool his common stock. If he allowed Westlake to take up this +additional two hundred and fifty shares, Westlake was the only string +to his bow. + +"No, thanks," said Sam. "I prefer to keep them myself. It seems to me +to be a very fair and equitable division just as it is." + +In the end it stood just that way. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE HERO OF THE HOUR + +On that very same afternoon, the youth and beauty, also the age and +wisdom, of both Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook, gathered around the ball +field of the former resort, to watch the Titanic struggle for victory +between the two picked nines. As Sam took his place behind the bat for +the first man up, who was Hollis, he felt his first touch of +self-confidence anent the strictly amusement features of summer +resorting. In all the other athletic pursuits he had been backward, +but here, as he smacked his fist in his glove, he felt at home. + +The only thing he did not like about it, as Princeman wound himself up +to deliver the first ball, was that Princeman had the position of +glory. On that gentleman the spotlight burned brightly all the time, +and if they won, he would be the hero of the hour; the modest, reliable +catcher would scarcely be thought of except by the men who knew the +finer points of the game, and it was not the men whom he had in mind. +Honestly and sincerely, he desired to shine before Miss Josephine +Stevens. She was over there at the edge of the field under an oak tree. + +Before her, cavorting for her amusement, were not only Princeman and +himself, but Billy Westlake and Hollis, each of them alert for action +at this moment; for now Princeman, with a mighty twirl upon his great +toe, released the ball. It never reached Sam Turner's hands; instead +it bounced off the bat with a "crack!" and sailed right down through +Billy Westlake, who, at second, made a frantic grab for it, and then it +spun out between center and right field, losing itself in the bushes, +while Hollis, amid the frantic cheers of the audience, which consisted +of Miss Josephine Stevens and several unconsidered other spectators, +tore around the circuit. His colleagues strove wildly to hold Hollis +at third, for the ball was found and was sailing over to that base. It +arrived there just as he did, but far over the head of the third +baseman, and fat, curly-haired Hollis, who looked like an ice wagon but +ran like a motorcycle, secured the first run for Hollis Creek. + +The next batter was up. Princeman, his confidence loftily unshaken, +gave a correct imitation of a pretzel and delivered the ball. The +batsman swung viciously at it. + +Spat! It landed in Sam's glove. + +"Strike one!" called the strident voice of Blackrock, who, jerking +himself back several years into youth again, was umpiring the game with +great joy. Nonchalantly Sam snapped the ball back over-hand. +Princeman smiled with calm superiority. He wound himself up. + +Spat! The ball had cut the plate and was in Sam's hands, while the +batsman stood looking earnestly at the path over which it had come. + +"Strike two!" called Blackstone. + +Sam jerked the ball back with an underwrist toss of great perfection. +Princeman drew himself up with smiling ease and posed a moment for the +edification of the on-lookers. Sam Turner was the very first to detect +the unbearable arrogance of that pose. Princeman eyed the batsman +critically, mercilessly even, and delivered the third fatal +plate-splitter. + +Z-z-z-ing! The sphere slammed right out through Billy Westlake, who +made a frantic grab for it. It bounded down between center and right +field, and the players bumped shoulders in trying to stop it. It +nestled among the bushes. The batsman tore around the bases. His +colleagues tried to hold him at third, for the ball was streaking in +that direction, but the batsman pawed straight on. The ball crossed +the base before he did, but it bounded between the third sacker's feet, +and score two was marked up for Hollis Creek, with nobody out! + +With undiminished confidence, though somewhat annoyed, Princeman made a +cute little knot of himself for the next batsman. + +Spat! The ball landed in Sam's glove, two feet wide of the plate. + +"Ball one!" called Blackstone. + +Spat! In Sam's glove again, with the batsman jumping back to save his +ribs. + +"Ball two!" cried Blackstone. + +Spat! + +"Ball three." + +"Put 'em over, Princeman!" yelled Billy Westlake from second. + +"Don't be afraid of him! He couldn't hit it with a pillow!" jeered the +third baseman. + +In a calm, superior sort of way, Mr. Princeman smiled and shot over the +ball. + +"Four balls. Take your base!" said Mr. Blackstone, quite gently. + +Reassuringly Mr. Princeman smiled upon his supporters, consisting of +Miss Josephine Stevens and some other summer resorters, and proceeded +to take out his revenge upon the next batter. The first two lofts were +declared to be balls, and then Sam, catching his man playing too far +off, snapped the pill down to the nearest suburb and nailed the first +out. Encouraged by this, Princeman put over three successive strikes, +and there were two gone. The next batter up, however, laced out, for +two easy way-points, the first ball presented him. The next athlete +brought him in with a single, and the next one put down a three-bagger +which bored straight through Princeman and short stop and center field. +That inglorious inning ended with a brilliant throw of Sam's to Billy +Westlake at second, nipping a would-be thief who had hoped to purloin +the seventh tally for Hollis Creek. + +Billy Westlake, then taking the bat, increased the Meadow Brook +depression by slapping the soft summer air three vicious spanks and +retiring to think it over, and young Tilloughby bounced a feeble little +bunt square at the feet of Hollis and was tossed out at first by +something like six furlongs. The third batsman popped up a slow, lazy +foul which gave the catcher almost plenty of time to roll a cigarette +before it came down, and the Meadow Brook side was ignominiously +retired. Score, six to nothing at the end of the first. + +Princeman hit the first man up in the next inning and sent him down to +the initial bag, which was a flat stone, happily limping. He issued +free transportation to the next man and let the cripple hobble on to +second, chortling with glee. The third man went to the first station +on a measly little bunt with which Sam and Princeman and third base did +some neat and shifty foot work, and the next man up soaked out a Wright +Brothers beauty among the trees over beyond left field, and cleared the +bases amid the perfectly frantic rejoicing of the fickle Miss Josephine +Stevens and all the negligible balance of Hollis Creek. Oh, it was +disgraceful! Sam Turner ground his teeth in impotent rage. He walked +up to Princeman. + +"Say, old man," he pleaded. "We've just _got_ to settle down! We +_must_ pull this game out of the fire! We _can't_ let Hollis Creek +walk away with it!" + +Princeman was pale, but clutched at his fast-slipping-away nonchalance +with the grip of desperation. + +"We'll hold them," he declared, and with careful deliberation he put +over a ball which the next batter sent sailing right down inside the +right foul line, pulling the first baseman away back almost to right +field. Princeman stood gaping at that bingle in paralyzed dismay; but +the batsman, who was a slow runner and slow thinker, stood a fatal +second to see whether the ball was fair or foul. Almost at the crack +of the bat Sam Turner started, raced down to first, caught the right +fielder's throw and stepped on the stone, one handsome stride ahead of +the runner! Then, as Blackrock, speechless with admiration, waved the +runner out, the first mighty howl went up from Meadow Brook, and one +partisan of the Hollis Creek nine, turning her back for the moment +squarely upon her own colors, led the cheering. Sam heard her voice. +It was a solo, while all the rest of the cheering was a faint +accompaniment, and with such elation as comes only to the heroes in +victorious battle, he trotted back to his place and caught three balls +and three strikes on the next batter. Also, the next one went out on a +pop fly which Sam was able to catch. + +In their half Princeman redeemed himself in part by a three bagger +which brought in two scores, and the second inning ended at ten to +three in favor of Hollis Creek. + +Confident and smiling, reinforced by the memory of his three bagger, +Princeman took the mount for the beginning of the third, and with his +compliments he suavely and politely presented a base to the first man +up. A groan arose from all Meadow Brook. The second batsman shot a +stinger to Princeman, who dropped it, and that batsman immediately +thereafter roosted on first, crowing triumphantly; but the hot liner +allowed Princeman a graceful opportunity. He complained of a badly +hurt finger on his pitching hand. He called time while he held that +injured member, and expressed in violent gestures the intolerable agony +of it. Bravely, however, he insisted upon "sticking it out," and +passed two wild ones up to the next willow wielder; then, having proved +his gameness, he nobly sacrificed himself for the good of Meadow Brook, +called time and asked for a substitute pitcher. He would go anywhere. +He would take the field or he would retire. What he wanted was Meadow +Brook to win. This was precisely what Sam Turner also wanted, and he +lost no time in calling, with ill-concealed satisfaction, upon his +brother Jack. Then Jack Turner, nothing loath, deserted his +comfortable seat by the side of Miss Josephine Stevens, and strode +forth to the mound, leaving the unfortunate Princeman to take his place +by the side of Miss Stevens and give her an opportunity to sympathize +with his poor maimed pitching hand, which, after a perfunctory moment +of interest, she was too busy to do; for Jack Turner and Sam Turner, +smiling across at each other in mutual confidence and esteem, proceeded +to strike out the next three batters in succession, leaving men +cemented to first and second bases, where they had been wildly +imploring for opportunities to tear themselves loose. + +What need to tell of the balance of that game; of the calm, easy, +one-two-three work of the invincible Turner battery; of the brilliant +base throwing and fielding of Turner and Turner, and their mighty swats +when they came to bat? You know how the game turned out. Anybody +would know. It ended in a triumph for Meadow Brook at the end of the +seventh inning, which is all any summer resort game ever goes, and two +innings more than most, by a total and glorious score of twenty-one to +seventeen. And who were the heroes of the hour, as smilingly but +modestly they strode from the diamond? Who, indeed, but Jack Turner +and Sam Turner; and by token of their victory, after receiving the +frenzied plaudits of all Meadow Brook and the generous plaudits of all +Hollis Creek, they marched in triumph from the field, one on either +side of Miss Josephine Stevens! Where now were Hollis and Princeman +and Billy Westlake? Nowhere! They were forgotten of men, ignored of +women, and the laurels of sweet victory rested upon the brow of busy +Sam Turner! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN INTERRUPTED BUT PROPERLY FINISHED PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE + +Jack's first opportunity for a quiet talk with his brother did not +occur for an hour after the game. + +"I don't like to worry you while you're resting, Sam," he began, "but +I'll have to tell you that the Flatbush deal seems likely to drop +through. It reaches a head to-morrow, you know." + +[Illustration: "I don't like to worry you, Sam"] + +Sam Turner grabbed for his watch. + +"It can't drop through!" he vigorously declared. "I'll go right up +there to-night and look after it." + +"But you're on your vacation," protested Jack. "That's no way to rest." + +"On my vacation!" snorted Sam. "Of course I am. I'm not losing a +minute of my vacation. The proper way to have a vacation is to do the +thing you enjoy most. Don't you suppose I'll enjoy closing that +Flatbush deal?" + +"Certainly," admitted his brother, "and I'll enjoy seeing you do it. I +know you can." + +"Of course I can. But you're to stay here." + +"It's not my turn for an outing," protested Jack. "I haven't earned +one yet." + +"You're to work," explained Sam. "You see, Jack, in one week I can't +become a bowling or golf expert enough to beat Princeman, nor a tennis +or dancing expert enough to outshine Billy Westlake, nor a horseback or +croquet expert enough to make a deuce out of Hollis. You can do all +these things, and I want you to give this crowd of distinguished +amateurs a showing up. Jack, if you ever worked for athletic honors in +your life now is the time to do it; and in between time stick to Miss +Stevens like glue. Monopolize her. Don't give these three or any +other contenders any of her time. Keep her busy. Let me know every +day what progress you're making; don't stop to write; wire! For +remember, Jack, I'm going to marry her. I've got to." + +"Well, then you'll marry her," Jack sagely concluded. "Does she know +it yet?" + +"I don't think she's quite sure of it," returned Sam with careful +analysis. "Of course she's thought about it. Sometimes she thinks she +won't, and sometimes she thinks she will, and sometimes she isn't quite +sure whether she will or not. Don't you worry about that part, though, +and don't bother to boost me. Just quietly you take the shine out of +these summer champions and leave the rest to your brother Sam." + +"Fine," agreed Jack. "Run right along and sell your papers, Sammy, and +I'll wire you every time I put over a point." + +Sam hunted and found Miss Josephine. + +"I'm sorry I have to take a run back to New York for two or three +days," he said. + +She bent upon him a glance of amusement; the old glance of mingled +amusement and mischief. + +"I thought you were on your vacation," she observed. + +"And I am," he insisted. "I've been having a bully time, and I'll come +back here to finish up the couple of days I have left." + +"Then the drive which didn't count this morning, and which was +postponed again until to-morrow morning, will have to be put off once +more," she reminded him with a gay laugh. + +"By George, that's so!" he exclaimed. "In all the excitement it had +quite slipped my mind." + +"I presume you're going up on business," she slyly observed. + +"Yes, I am," he admitted. + +She laughed and gave him her hand. + +"Well, I wish you good luck," she said. "I hope you make all the money +in the world. But you won't forget us who are down here in the country +dawdling away our time in useless amusements." + +"Forget you!" he returned impetuously. "Never for a minute!" and he +was in such deadly earnest about it that she hastily checked further +speech, although she did not know why. + +"Good!" she hurriedly exclaimed. "I'm glad you will bear us in mind +while you're gone. Are you going to take your brother along?" + +"No," he said with a smile. "I'm putting him in as my vacation +substitute, and I'll give him special instructions to call you up every +morning for orders. You'll find him in perfect discipline. He'll do +whatever you tell him." + +"I shall give him a thorough trial," she laughed. "I never yet had +anybody to come and go abjectly at the word of command, and I think it +will be a delightful novelty." + +Jack approaching just then, she took his arm quite comfortably. + +"Your brother tells me that during his absence you are to be my chief +aide and attaché," she advised that young man gaily; "that you'll fetch +and carry and do what I tell you; and the first thing you must do is to +call for me when you take Mr. Turner to the train." + +It is glorious to part so pleasantly as that from people you have +persistently in mind, and Sam, with such cheerful recollections, +enjoyed his vacation to the full as he did new and brilliant and +unexpected things in closing up the Flatbush deal, keeping, in the +meantime, in constant touch with his office and with such telegrams as +these: + +"Established new tennis record this morning Westlake nowhere and has +been snubbed do not know why." + + +"Bowled two eighty five last night against Princeman two twenty am +teaching her." + + +"Danced six dances out of twelve with her says I'm better dancer than +Billy Westlake." + + +"Jumped Hollis Creek after her hat on horseback this afternoon Hollis +dared not follow am to give her riding lessons." + + +Then came this one: + +"Her father just told me she refused Princeman last night she will not +talk to Hollis and scarcely to me is dull and does not eat I beat all +entries in ten mile Marathon today and she hardly applauded wire +instructions." + + +Sam Turner took the next train. One look at Miss Stevens, after he had +traveled two years to reach Restview, made him suddenly intoxicated, +for in her eyes there was ravenous hunger for him and he read it, and +feeling rather sure of his ground he determined that now was the time +to strike. With that decisive end in view he dropped Jack at Meadow +Brook and went right on over to Hollis Creek with Miss Josephine. Of +course there was no chance to talk quite intimately, with Henry up +there ahead listening with all his ears, but there was every chance in +the world to look into her eyes and grow delirious; to touch elbows; to +look again and gaze deep into her eyes and see her turn away startled +and half frightened; to say perfunctory things which meant nothing and +everything, and receive perfunctory answers which meant as little and +as much; but before they had arrived at Hollis Creek Sam was frankly +and boldly holding her hand and she was letting him do it, and they +were both of them profoundly happy and profoundly silly, and would just +as leave have ridden on that way for ever. + +Words seemed superfluous, but yet they were more or less necessary, so +Sam got out at Hollis Creek Inn with her, and led the way determinedly +and directly into the stuffy little parlor just off the main assembly +room. He saw Mr. Stevens in the door of the post-office, but only +nodded to him, and then he drew Miss Josephine into the corner freest +from observation. + +"You know why I came back," he informed her, fixing her with a masterly +eye; "I had to see you again. My whole life is changed since I met +you. I need you. I can not do without you. I--" + +"Beg your pardon, Sam," said Mr. Stevens, appearing suddenly in the +doorway, and then he paused, much more confused even than the young +people, for Sam was holding both Miss Josephine's hands and gazing down +at her with an earnestness which, if harnessed, would have driven a +four-ton dynamo; and she was gazing up at him just as earnestly, with +an entirely breathless, but by no means displeased expression. + +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens. + +[Illustration: "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.] + +It was Miss Josephine who first found her aplomb. She smiled her rare +smile of mingled amusement and mischief at Sam, and then at her father. + +"You're quite excusable, I guess, father," she said sweetly. "What is +it?" + +"Why, your brother Jack just called you up from Meadow Brook, Sam, and +wants to tell you something immediately," stammered Mr. Stevens, +plucking at a beard which in that moment seemed to have lost all its +aggressiveness. "He called twice before you arrived, and is on the +'phone now." + +Sam, as he walked to the telephone, had time to find that his heart was +beating a tattoo against his ribs, that his breath was short and +fluttery, and that stage fright had suddenly crept over him and claimed +him for its own; so it was with no great patience or understanding that +he heard Jack tell him in great glee about some tests which Princeman +had had made in his own paper mills with the marsh pulp, and how +Princeman was sorry he had not taken more stock, and could not the +treasury stock be opened for further subscription? "Tell him no," said +Sam shortly, and hung up the receiver; then he repented of his +bluntness and spent five precious minutes in recalling his brother and +apologizing for his bruskness, explaining that Princeman was probably +trying to plan another attempt to pool the stock. + +In the meantime Theophilus Stevens had stood surveying his daughter in +contrition. + +"I'm afraid I came in at a most inopportune moment," he said by way of +apology. + +"Yes, I'm afraid you did," she admitted with a smile. "However, I +don't think Sam will forget what he wanted to say," and suddenly she +reached up and put her arms around her father's neck and drew his face +down and kissed him rapturously. + +"I'm glad to see you feel the way you do about it," said Mr. Stevens +delightedly, petting her gently upon the shoulder with one hand and +with the other smoothing back the hair from her forehead. She was the +dearest to him of all his children, although he never confessed it, +even to himself, and just now they were very, very close together +indeed. "I'm glad to hear you call him Sam, too. He's a fine young +man and he is bound to be a howling success in everything he +undertakes." He smiled reminiscently. "I rather thought there was +something between you two," he went on, still patting her shoulder, +"and when Dan Westlake told me that his girl thought a great deal of +Sam and that he was going to buy enough stock in Sam's company to give +Sam control, I turned right around and bought just as much stock as +Westlake had, although just before the meeting I had refused to invest +as much money as Sam wanted me to. Moreover, Westlake and myself, +between us, stopped the move to pool the outside stock, just yet. He's +a smart young man, that boy," he continued admiringly. "I didn't see, +until I went into that meeting, why he was so crazy to have me buy +enough stock to gain control-- What's the matter?" + +He stopped in perplexity, for his daughter, looking aghast at him, had +pushed back from his embrace and was regarding him with perfectly round +eyes, while over her face, at first pale, there gradually crept a +crimson flush. + +"Well, of all things!" she gasped. "Of all the cold-blooded, cruel, +barter-and-sale proceedings! Why, father, how--how could you! How +could he! I never in all my life--" + +"Why, Jo, what do you mean? What's the trouble?" + +"If you don't understand I can't make you," she said helplessly. + +"Well, I'll be--busted!" observed Mr. Stevens under his breath. + +To his infinite relief Sam came in just then, and Mr. Stevens, +wondering what he had done now, slipped hastily out of the room. Mr. +Turner, coming from the bright office into the dim room and innocent of +any change in the atmosphere, approached confidently and eagerly to +Miss Josephine with both hands extended, but she stepped back most +indignantly. + +"You need not finish what you were going to say!" she warned him. "My +father has just given me some information which changes the entire +aspect of affairs. I am not a part of a business bargain! I refuse to +be regarded as a commercial proposition! I heard something from Mr. +Princeman of what desperate efforts you were making to secure the +command, whatever that may be, of the--of the stock--board--of shares +in your new company, but I did not think you would go to such lengths +as this!" + +"Why, my dear girl," began Sam, shocked. + +"I am not your dear girl and I never shall be," she told him, and +angrily dabbed at some sudden tears. "I never was. I was only a +business possibility." + +"That's unjust," he charged her. "I don't see how you could accuse me +of regarding you in any other way than as the dearest and the sweetest +and the most beautiful girl in all the world, the wisest and the most +sensible, the most faithful, the most charming, the most delightful, +the most everything that is desirable." + +"Wait just a moment," she told him, very coldly indeed; with almost +extravagant coldness, in fact, as she beat out of her consciousness the +enticing epithets he had bestowed upon her. "Do you mean to say that +never in your calculations did you consider that if you married me my +father would vote his stock with yours--I believe that's the way he +puts it--and give you command or whatever it is of your company?" + +"Well," considered Sam, brought to a standstill and put straight upon +his honor, "I can't deny that it did seem to me a very satisfactory +thing that my father-in-law should own enough stock in the company--" + +"That will do," she interrupted him icily. "That is precisely what I +have charged. We will consider this subject as ended, Mr. Turner; as +one never to be referred to again." + +"We'll do nothing of the sort," returned Sam flat-footedly. "I've been +composing this speech for the last two weeks and I'm going to deliver +it. I'm not going to have it wasted. I've unconsciously been +rehearsing it every place I went. Even up in Flatbush, showing a man +the superior advantages of that yellow-mud district, I found myself +repeating sentence number twelve. It's been the first thing I thought +of in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night. It's been +with me all day, riding and walking and talking and eating and drinking +and just breathing. Now I'm going to go through with it. + +"I--I--confound it all! I've forgotten how I was going to say it now! +After all, though, it only amounted to this: I love you! I want you to +know it and understand it. I love you and love you and love you! I +never loved any woman before in my life. I never had time. I didn't +know what it was like. If I had I'd have fought it off until I met +you, because I could not afford it for anybody short of you. It takes +my whole attention. It distracts my mind entirely from other things. +I can't think of anything else consecutively and connectedly. I--I'm +sorry you take the attitude you do about this thing, but--I'm not going +to accept your viewpoint. You've got to look at this thing differently +to understand it. + +"I know you've been glad I loved you. You were glad the first day we +met, and you always will be glad! Whatever you have to say about it +just now don't count. I'm going to let you alone a while to think it +over, and then I'm coming back to tell you more about it," and with +that Sam stalked from the room, leaving Miss Josephine Stevens gasping, +dazed, quite sure that he was unforgivable, indignant with everything, +still rankling, in spite of all Sam had said, with the thought that she +had been made a mere part of a commercial transaction. Why, it was +like those barbarous countries she had read about, where wives are +bought and sold! Preposterous and unbearable! + +While she was in this storm of mixed emotions her father came in upon +her, this time seriously perplexed. + +"What has happened to Sam Turner?" he demanded. "He slammed out of the +house, passed me on the porch with only a grunt, and jumped into his +automobile. You must have done something to anger him." + +"I hope that I did!" she retorted with spirit. "I refused to marry +him." + +"You did!" he returned in surprise. "Why, I thought it was all cut and +dried between you." + +"It was until you blundered into us and spoiled everything," she +charged. "But I'm glad you did. You let me know that Sam Turner +wanted to marry me because you had bought shares enough in his company +to give him the advantage. I'm ashamed of you and ashamed of Sam--of +Mr. Turner--and ashamed of myself. Why, you make a bargain-counter +remnant of me! I never, _never_ was so humiliated!" + +"Poor child!" her father blandly sympathized. "Also, poor Sam. By the +way, though, he doesn't need you to secure control of his company. Dan +Westlake, as I told you, has bought enough stock to do the work, and +Miss Westlake would marry him in a minute. If Sam wants control of his +company, he only has to go to her and say the word." + +"Father!" exclaimed his daughter with stern indignation. "I don't see +how you can even suggest that!" + +"Suggest what? Now, what have I said?" + +"That Sam--that Mr. Turner would even dream of marrying that Westlake +girl, just in order to get the better of a business transaction," and +very much to Theophilus Stevens' surprise and consternation and dismay, +she suddenly crumpled up in a heap in her chair and burst out crying. + +"Well, I'll be busted!" her father muttered into his beard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SHE CALLS HIM SAM! + +Miss Josephine, finding all ordinary occupations stale, unprofitable +and wearisome on the following morning, and finding herself, moreover, +possessed of a restless spirit which urged her to do something or other +and yet recoiled at each suggestion she made it, started out quite +aimlessly to walk by herself. She walked in the direction of Meadow +Brook. The paths in that direction were so much prettier. + +Sam Turner, finding all other occupations stale, unprofitable and +wearisome, at the same moment started out to walk by himself, going in +the direction of Hollis Creek because that was the exact direction in +which he wanted to go. As he walked much more rapidly than Miss +Stevens, he arrived midway of the distance before she did, but at the +valley where the unnamed stream came rippling down he paused. + +He had looked often at this little hollow as he had passed it, and +every time he had looked upon it he seemed to have an idea of some sort +in the back of his head regarding it; a dim, unformed, fugitive sort of +idea which had never asserted itself very prominently because he had +been too busy to listen to its rather timid voice. + +Just now, however, the idea suddenly struggled to make itself loudly +known, whereupon Sam bade it come forth. Given hearing it proved to be +a very pleasant idea, and a forceful one as well; so much so that it +even checked the speed with which Sam had set out for Hollis Creek. He +looked calculatingly across the road to where the little stream went +flashing from under its wooden bridge across the field and hid around a +curve behind some bushes, then reappeared, dancing in the sunlight, +until finally it plunged among some far trees and was lost to him. He +gazed up the stream. He had not very far to look, for there it ran +down between two quite steep hills, through a sort of pocket valley, +closed or almost closed, at the upper end, by another hill equally +steep, its waters being augmented by a leaping little stream from a +strong spring hidden away somewhere in the hill to the left. + +As his eyes calculatingly swept stream and hills, they suddenly caught +a flutter of white through the trees, and it was coming down the +winding path which led across the hills to Hollis Creek. As it emerged +more from the concealment of the leaves his blood gave a leap, for the +flutter of white was a gown inclosing the unmistakable figure of Miss +Josephine Stevens. The whole valley suddenly seemed radiant. + +"Hello!" he called to her as she approached. "I didn't expect to find +you here." + +"I did not expect to be here," she laughed. "I just started out for a +stroll and happened to land in this beautiful spot." + +"Beautiful is no name for it," he replied with sudden vast enthusiasm, +and ran up the path to help her down over a steep place. + +For a moment, in the wonderful mystery of the touch of her hand and the +joy of her presence, he forgot everything else. What was this strange +phenomenon, by which the mere presence of one particular person filled +all the air with a tingling glow? Marvelous, that's what it was! If +Miss Josephine had any of the same wonder she was extremely careful not +to express it, nor let it show, especially after yesterday's +conversation, so she immediately talked of other things; and the first +thing which came handy was another reference to the beautiful valley. + +"You know, it is a wonder to me," she said, "that no one has built a +summer resort here. I think it ever so much more charming than either +Hollis Creek or Meadow Brook." + +"Do you believe in telepathy?" asked Sam, almost startled. "I do. It +hasn't been but a few minutes since that identical idea popped into my +head, and I had just now decided that if I could secure options on this +property I would have a real summer resort here--one that would make +Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook mere farm boarding-houses. Do you see +how close together these hills draw at their feet? The hollow is at +least a thousand feet across at the widest part, but down there at the +road, where the stream emerges to the fields, they close in with +natural buttresses, as it were, to not over a hundred feet in width. +Well, right across there we'll build a dam, and there is enough water +here to make a beautiful lake up as high as that yellow rock." + +Miss Josephine looked up at the yellow rock and clasped her hands with +an exclamation of delight. + +"Glorious!" she said. "I never would have thought of that; and how +beautiful it will be! Why, if the lake comes up that high it will go +clear back around that turn in the valley, won't it?" + +"Easily," he replied; "although that might make us trouble, for I don't +know where that turn in the valley leads. I have never explored that +region. Suppose we go up and look it over." + +"Won't that be fun?" she agreed, and they started to follow the stream. + +As they reached the rear of the "pocket," where they could see around +the curve, they turned and looked back over the route they had just +traversed. + +"My idea," Sam explained, having waited until they reached this +viewpoint to do so, "is to build the dam down there at the roadside, +and build the hotel right over it so that arriving guests will, after +an elevator has brought them up to the height of the main floor, find +the blue of the lake suddenly bursting upon them from the main piazza, +which will face the valley. All of the inside rooms will, of course, +have hanging balconies looking out over the water." + +"Perfectly ideal!" she agreed, her enthusiasm growing. + +"I think I'd better investigate the curve of the valley," he decided, +studying the path carefully. "It seems rather rough for you, and I'll +go alone. All I want to see is how far the water height will carry +around there, and if it will become necessary to build a dam at the +other end." + +"Oh, it isn't too rough for me," she declared immediately. "I am an +excellent climber," and together they started to explore the now +narrowing valley, following the stream over steep rocks and fallen +trees, and pushing through tangled undergrowth and among briers and +bushes and around slippery banks until they came to another tortuous +turn, where a second spring, welling up from under a flat, overhanging +rock, tumbled down to augment the supply for the future lake; and here +they stopped and had a drink of the cool, delicious water, Sam making +the girl a cup from a huge leaf which she said made the water taste +fuzzy, and then showing her how to get down on her hands and +knees--spreading his coat on the ground to protect her gown--and drink +_au naturel_, a trick at which she was most charming, and probably knew +it. + +The valley here had grown most narrow, but they followed the now very +small stream around one sharp curve after another until they found its +source, which was still another spring, and here there was no more +valley; but a cleft in the hill to the right, which they suddenly came +upon, gave them an exquisite view out over the beautiful low-lying +country, miles in extent, which lay between this and the next range of +hills; a delightful vista dotted with green farms and white farm-houses +and smiling streams and waving trees and grazing cattle. They stopped +in awe at the beauty of it and looked out over the valley in silence; +and unconsciously the girl slipped her hand within the arm of the man! + +"Just imagine a sunset out over there," he said. "You see those fleecy +clouds that are out there now. If clouds like those are still there +when the sun goes down, they will be a fleet of pearl-gray vessels, +with carmine keels, upon a sea of gold." + +She glanced at him quickly, but she did not express her marvel that +this man had so many sides. Before she could comment, and while she +was still framing some way to express her appreciation of his gentler +gifts, he returned briskly to practical things. + +"Our lake will scarcely come up to this point," he judged. "I don't +think that at any point it will be high enough to cover the springs. +We don't want it to if we can help it, for that would destroy some of +the beauty of it. Have you noticed that our lake will be much like a +kite in shape, with this winding ravine the tail of it. We'll have to +take in a lot of acreage to cover this property, but it will be worth +it. I'm going to look after options right away. I'm glad now I had +already decided to stay another two weeks." + +Of course she was still angry with Sam, she reminded herself, but she +was inexpressibly glad, somehow or other, to find that he was intending +to stay two weeks longer, and was startled as she recognized that fact. + +"It will take a lot of money, won't it, to build a hotel here?" she +asked, getting away from certain troublesome thoughts as quickly as she +could. + +"Yes, it will take a great deal," he admitted, as they turned to +scramble down the ravine again. "I should judge, however, that about +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would finance it." + +"But I thought, from something father once said, that you did not have +so much money as that?" + +"Bless you, no!" replied Sam, smiling. "No indeed! I've enough to +cover an option on this property and that's about all, now, since I'm +tangled up so deeply with my Pulp Company, but I figure that I can make +a quick turn on this property to help me out on the other thing. What +I'll do," he explained, "is to get this option first of all, and then +have some plans drawn, including a nice perspective view of the +hotel--a water-color sketch, you know, showing the building fronting +the lake--and upon that build a prospectus to get up the stock company. +I'll take stock for my control of the land and for my services in +promotion. Then I'll sell my stock and get out. I ought to make the +turn in two or three months and come out fifteen, or possibly twenty or +twenty-five thousand dollars to the good. It is a nice, big scheme." + +"Oh," she said blankly, "then you wouldn't actually build a hotel +yourself?" + +"Hardly," he returned. "I'll be content to make the profit out of +promoting it that I'd make in the first four or five years of running +the place." + +"I see," she said musingly; "and you'd get this up just like you formed +your Marsh Pulp Company, I think father called it, and of course you'd +try to get--what is it?--oh, yes; control." + +He smiled at her. + +"I'd scarcely look for that in this deal," he explained. "If I can +just get a nice slice of promotion stock and sell it I shall be quite +well satisfied." + +She bent puzzled brows over this new problem. + +"I don't quite understand how you can do it," she confessed, "but of +course you know how. You're used to these things. Father says you're +very good at promoting." + +"That's the way I've made all my money, or rather what little I have," +he told her, modestly enough. "I expect this Pulp Company, however, to +lift me out of that, for a few years at least; then when I come back +into the promoting field I can go after things on a big scale. The +Pulp Company ought to make me a lot of money if I can just keep it in +my own hands," and involuntarily he sighed. + +She looked at him musingly for a moment, and was about to say +something, but thought better of it and said something else. + +"The tail of your kite will be almost a perfect letter 'S'," she +observed. "How beautiful it will be; the big, broad lake out there in +the main valley, and then the nice, little, secluded, twisty waterway +back in through here; a regular lover's lane of a waterway, as it were. +I don't suppose these springs have any names. They must be named, +and--why, we haven't even named the lake!" + +"Yes, we have," he quickly returned. "I'm going to call it Lake +Josephine." + +"You haven't asked my permission for that," she objected with mock +severity. + +"There are plenty of Josephines in the world," he calmly observed. +"Nobody has a copyright on the name, you know." + +She smiled, as one sure of her ground. + +"Yes, but you wouldn't call it that, if I were to object seriously." + +"No, I guess I wouldn't," he gave up; "but you're not going to object +seriously, are you?" + +"I'll think it over," she said. + +They were now making their way along a bank that was too difficult of +travel to allow much conversation, though it did allow some delicious +helping, but when they came out into the main valley where they could +again look down on the road, they paused to survey the course over +which they had just come, and to appreciate to the full the beauty of +Sam's plan. + +"I don't believe I quite like your idea of the hotel built down there +at the roadside," she objected as they sat on a huge boulder to rest. +"It cuts off the view of the lake from passers-by, and I should think +it would be the best advertisement you could have for everybody who +drove past there to say: 'Oh, what a pretty place!' Now I should think +that right about here where we are sitting would be the proper location +for your hotel. Just think how the lake and the building would look +from the road. Right here would be a broad porch jutting out over the +water, giving a view down that first bend of the kite tail, and back of +the hotel would be this big hill and all the trees, and hills and trees +would spread out each side of it, sort of open armed, as it were, +welcoming people in." + +"It couldn't be seen, though," objected Sam. "The dam down there would +necessarily be about thirty feet high at the center, and people driving +along the roadway would not be able to see the water at all. They +would only see the blank wall of the dam. Of course we could soften +that by building the dam back a few feet from the roadway, making an +embankment and covering that with turf, or possibly shrubbery or +flowers, but still the water would not be visible, nor the hotel!" + +"I see," she said slowly. + +They both studied that objection in silence for quite a little while. +Then she suddenly and excitedly ejaculated: + +"_Sam_!" + +He jumped, and he thrilled all through. She had called him Sam +entirely unconsciously, which showed that she had been thinking of him +by that familiar name. With the exclamation had come sparkling eyes +and heightened color, not due to having used the word, but due to a +bright thought, and he almost lost his sense of logic in considering +the delightful combination. It occurred to him, however, that it would +be very unwise for him to call attention to her slip of the tongue, or +even to give her time to think and recognize it herself. + +"Another idea?" he asked. + +"Indeed yes," she asserted, "and this time I know it's feasible. I +don't know much about measurements in feet and inches, but there are +three feet in a yard." + +"Yes." + +"Well, doesn't the road down there, from hill to hill, dip about ten +yards?" + +"Yes." + +"Well then, that's thirty feet, just as high as you say the dam will +have to be. Why not raise the road itself thirty feet, letting it be +level and just as high as your dam?" + +Sam rose and solemnly shook hands with her. + +"You must come into the firm," he declared. "That solves the entire +problem. We'll run a culvert underneath there to the fields. The road +will reinforce the dam and the edge of the dam will be entirely +concealed. It will be merely a retaining wall with a nice stone +coping, which will be repeated on the field side. There will be no +objection from the county commissioners, because we shall improve the +road by taking two steep hills out of it. Your plan is much better +than mine. I can see myself, for instance, driving along that road on +my way to Hollis Creek from Restview, looking over that beautiful +little lake to the hotel beyond, and saying to myself: 'Well, next +summer I won't stop at Hollis Creek. I'll stop at Lake Jo.'" + +"I thought it was to be Lake Josephine," she interposed. + +"I thought so too," he agreed, "but Lake Jo just slipped out. It seems +so much better. Lake Jo! That would look fine on a prospectus." + +"You'd print the cover of it in blue and gold, I suppose, wouldn't you?" + +"There would need to be a splash of brown-red in it," he reminded her, +considering color schemes for a moment. "The roof of the hotel would, +of course, be red tile. We'd build it fireproof. There is plenty of +gray stone around here, and we'd build it of native rock." + +"And then," she went on, in the full swing of their idea, "think of the +beautiful walks and climbs you could have among these hills; and the +driveway! Your approach to the hotel would come around the dam and up +that hill, would wind up through those trees and rocks, and right here +at the bend of the ravine it would cross the thick part of the kite +tail to the hotel on a quaint rustic bridge; and as people arrived and +departed you'd hear the clatter of the horses' hoofs." + +"Great!" he exclaimed, catching her enthusiasm and with it augmenting +his own, "and guests leaving would first wave good-by at the +porte-cochère just about where we are sitting. They'd clatter across +the bridge, with their friends on the porch still fluttering +handkerchiefs after them; they'd disappear into the trees over yonder +and around through that cleft in the rocks. And see; on the other side +of the cleft there is a little tableland which juts out, and the road +would wind over that, where carriages would once more be seen from the +hotel porch. Then they'd twist in through the trees again down the +winding driveway, and once more, for the very last glimpse, come into +view as they went across our new road in front of the lake; and there +the last flutter of handkerchiefs would be seen. You know it's silly +to stand and wave your friends out of sight for a long distance when +they're always in view, but if the view is interrupted two or three +times it relieves the monotony." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SAM TURNER ACQUIRES A BUSINESS PARTNER + +They followed the stream down to the road, at every step gaging with +the eye the height of the lake and judging the altered scenic view from +the level of the water. There would be room for dozens and dozens of +boats upon that surface without interference. Sam calculated that from +the upper spring there would be headway enough to run a small fountain +in the center, surrounded by a pond-lily bed which would be kept in +place by a stone curbing. In the hill to the right there was a deep +indenture. Back in there would go the bathing pavilions. They even +went up to look at it, and were delighted to find a natural, shallow +bowl. By cementing the floor of that bowl they could have a splendid +swimming-pool for timid bathers, where they could not go beyond their +depth; and it was entirely surrounded by a thick screen of shrubbery. +Oh, it was delightful; it was perfect! At the road they looked back up +over the valley again. It was no longer a valley. It was a lake. +They could see the water there. Sam drew from his pocket a pencil and +an envelope. + +"The hotel will have to be long and tall," he observed, "for there will +not be much room on that ledge, from front to back. The building will +stretch out quite a ways. Three or four hundred feet long it will be, +and about five stories in height," and taking a letter from the +envelope, he sat down upon a fallen log and began rapidly to sketch. + +He drew the hotel with wide-spreading Spanish roofs and balconies, and +a wide porch with rippling water in front of it, and rowboats and +people in them; and behind the hotel rose the broken sky-line of the +hills and the trees, with an indication of fleecy clouds above. It was +just a light sketch, a sort of shorthand picture, as it were, and yet +it seemed full of sunlight and of atmosphere. + +"I hadn't any idea you could draw like that," she exclaimed in +admiration. + +"I do a little of everything, I think, but nothing perfectly," he +admitted with some regret. + +"It seems to me you do everything excellently," she objected quite +seriously; and she was, in fact, deeply impressed. + +He walked over to the stream, a trifle confused, but not displeased, by +any means, by the earnestness of her compliment. + +"I must have the water analyzed to see if it has any medicinal virtue," +he said. "The spring out of which we drank has a sweetish-like taste, +but the water here--" and he caught up some of it in his hand and +tasted it, "seems to be slightly salt." + +He had left her sitting on the log with the sketch in her lap. Now the +sketch fluttered to the ground and the letter turned over, right side +up. It was a letter which Sam had written to his brother Jack and had +not mailed because he had suddenly decided to come down to the scene of +action. As she stooped over to pick it up her eyes caught the +sentence: "I love her, Jack, more than I can tell you, more than I can +tell anybody, more than I can tell myself. It's the most important, +the most stupendous thing--" She hastily turned that letter over and +was very careful to have it lying upon her lap, back upward, exactly as +he had left it there, and when he came back she was very, very careful +indeed to hand it nonchalantly over to him, with the sketch uppermost. + +"Of course," he said, looking around him comprehensively, "this is only +a day-dream, so far. It may be impossible to realize it." + +"Why?" she asked, instantly concerned. "This project _must_ be carried +through! It is already as good as completed. It just must be done. I +never before had a hand, even in a remote way, in planning a big thing, +and I couldn't bear not to see this done. What is to prevent it?" + +"I may not be able to get the land," returned Sam soberly. "It is +probably owned by half a dozen people, and one or more of them is +certain to want exorbitant prices for it." + +"It certainly can't be very valuable," she protested. "It isn't fit +for anything, is it?" + +"For nothing but the building of Lake Jo," he agreed. "Right now it is +worthless, but the minute anybody found out I wanted it it would become +extremely valuable. The only way to do would be to see everybody at +once and close the options before they could get to talking it over +among themselves." + +"What time is it?" she demanded. + +He looked at his watch. + +"Ten-thirty," he said. + +"Then let's go and see all these people right away," she urged, jumping +to her feet. + +He smiled at her enthusiasm, but he was none loath to accept her +suggestion. + +"All right," he agreed. "I wish they had telephones here in the woods. +We'll simply have to walk over to Meadow Brook and get an auto." + +"Come on," she said energetically, and they started out on the road. +They had not gone far, however, when young Tilloughby, with Miss +Westlake, overtook them in a trap. He reined up, and Miss Westlake +greeted the pedestrians with frigid courtesy. Jack Turner had +accidentally dropped her a hint. Now that she had begun to appreciate +Mr. Tilloughby--Bob--at his true value, she wondered what she had ever +seen in Sam Turner--and she never had liked Josephine Stevens! + +"Gug-gug-gug-glorious day, isn't it?" observed Tilloughby, his face +glowing with joy. + +"Fine," agreed Sam with enthusiasm. "There never was a more glorious +day in all the world. You've just come along in time to save our +lives, Tilloughby. Which way are you bound?" + +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-we had intended to go around Bald Hill." + +"Well, postpone that for a few minutes, won't you, Tilloughby, like a +good fellow? Trot back to Meadow Brook and send an auto out here for +us. Get Henry, by all means, to drive it." + +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-with pleasure," replied Tilloughby, wondering at this +strange whim, but restraining his curiosity like a thoroughbred. +"Huh-huh-huh-Henry shall be back here for you in a jiffy," and he drove +off in a cloud of dust. + +Miss Stevens surveyed the retiring trap in satisfaction. + +"Good," she exclaimed. "I already feel as though we were doing +something to save Lake Jo." + +They walked back quite contentedly to the valley and surveyed it anew, +there resting now on both of them a sense of almost prideful +possession. They discovered a high point on which a rustic observatory +could be built; they planned paths and trails; they found where the +water-line came just under an overhanging rock which would make a cave +large enough for three or four boats to scurry under out of the rain. +They found delightful surprises all along the bank of the future lake, +and Miss Stevens declared that when the dam was built and the lake +began to fill, she never intended to leave it except for meals, until +it was up to the level at which they would permit the overflow to be +opened. + +Henry, returning with the automobile, found them far up in the valley +discussing a floating band pavilion, but they came down quickly enough +when they saw him, and scrambled into the tonneau with the haste of +small children. Henry watched them take their places with smiling +affection. He had not only had good tips but pleasant words from Sam, +and Miss Stevens was her own incentive to good wishes and good will. + +"Henry," said Sam, "we want to drive around to see the people who own +this land." + +"Oh, shucks," said Henry, disappointed. "I can't drive you there. The +man that owns all this land lives in New York." + +"In New York!" repeated Sam in dismay. "What would anybody in New York +want with this?" + +"The fellow that bought it got it about ten years ago," Henry informed +them. "He was going to build a big country house, back up there in the +hills, I understand, and raise deer to shoot at, and things like that; +got an architect to make him plans for house and stables and all +costing hundreds of thousands of dollars; but before he could break +ground on it him and his wife had a spat and got a divorce. He tried +to sell the land back again to the people he bought it from, but they +wouldn't take it at any price. They were glad to be shut of it and +none of his rich friends wanted to buy it after that, because, they +said, there were so many of those cheap summer resorts around here." + +"I see," said Sam musingly. "You don't happen to know the man's name, +do you?" + +"Dickson, I think it was. Henry Dickson. I remember his first name +because it was the same as mine." + +"Great!" exclaimed Sam, overjoyed. "Why, I know Henry Dickson like a +book. I've engineered several deals for him. He's a mighty good +friend of mine too. That simplifies matters. Drive us right over to +Hollis Creek." + +"To Hollis Creek!" she objected. "I should think you'd drive to Meadow +Brook instead and dress for the trip. Aren't you going to catch that +afternoon train and go right up there?" + +"By no means. This is Saturday, and by the time I'd get to New York he +couldn't be found anywhere; and anyhow, I wouldn't have time to deliver +you at Hollis Creek and make this next train." + +"Don't mind about me," she urged. "I could go to the train with you +and Henry could take me back to Hollis Creek." + +"That's fine of you," returned Sam gratefully; "but it isn't the +program at all. I happen to know that Dickson stays in his office +until one o'clock on Saturdays. I'll get him by long distance." + +They were quite silent in calculation on the way to Hollis Creek, and +Miss Josephine found herself pushing forward to help make the machine +go faster. Breathlessly she followed Sam into the house, and he +obligingly left the door of the telephone booth ajar, so that she could +hear his conversation with Dickson. + +"Hello, Dickson," said Sam, when he got his connection. "This is Sam +Turner. . . . Oh yes, fine. Never better in my life. . . . Up here +in Hamster County, taking a little vacation. Say, Dickson, I +understand you own a thousand acres down here. Do you want to sell it? +. . . How much?" As he received the answer to that question he turned +to Miss Josephine and winked, while an expression of profound joy, +albeit materialized into a grin, overspread his features. "I won't +dicker with you on that price," he said into the telephone. "But will +you take my note for it at six per cent.?" + +He laughed aloud at the next reply. + +"No, I don't want it to run that long. The interest in a hundred years +would amount to too much; but I'll make it five years. . . . All +right, Dickson, instruct your lawyer chap to make out the papers and +I'll be up Monday to close with you." + +He hung up the receiver and turned to meet her glistening eyes fixed +upon him in ecstasy. "It's better than all right," he assured her. He +was more enthusiastic about this than he had ever been about any +business deal in his life, that is, more openly enthusiastic, for Miss +Josephine's enthusiasm was contagion itself. He took her arm with a +swing, and they hurried into the writing-room, which was deserted for +the time being on account of the mail having just come in. Sam placed +a chair for her and they sat down at the table. + +"I want to figure a minute," said he. "Now that I have actual +possession of the property, in place of a mere option, I can go at the +thing differently. First of all, when I go up Monday I'll see my +engineer, and on Tuesday morning I'll bring him down here with me. +Then I shall secure permission from the county to alter that road and +we'll build the dam. That will cost very little in comparison to the +whole improvement. Then, and not till then, I'll get out my stock +prospectus, and I'll drive prospective investors down here to look at +Lake Jo. I'll be almost in position to dictate terms." + +"Isn't that fine!" she exclaimed. "And then I suppose you can +secure--control," she ventured anxiously. + +"Yes, I think I can if I want it," he assured her. + +"I'm so glad," she said gravely. "I'm so very glad." + +"Really, though, I have a big notion to see if I can't finance the +entire project myself. I'm quite sure I can get Dickson to give me a +clear deed to that land merely on my unsupported note. If I can do +that I can erect all the buildings on progressive mortgages. Roadways +and engineering work of course I'll have to pay for, and then I can +finance a subsidiary operating company to rent the plant from the +original company, and can retain stock in both of them. I'll figure +that out both ways." + +It was all Greek to her, this talk, but she knitted her brows in an +earnest effort to understand, and crowded close to him to look over the +figures he was putting down. The touch of her arm against his own +threw out his calculations entirely. He could not add a row of figures +to save his life. + +"I'll go over the financial end of this later on," he said, but he did +not put away the paper. He kept it there for them both to look at, +touching arms. + +"All right," she agreed, "but you must let me see you do it. Of course +I can't understand, but I do want to feel as if I were helping when it +is done." + +"I won't take a step in it without consulting you or having you along," +he promised. + +At that moment the bugle sounded the first call for luncheon. + +"You'll stay for luncheon," she invited. + +"Certainly," he assured her. "You couldn't drive me away." + +"Very well, right after luncheon let's go out and look at the place +again. It will look different now that it is--" She caught herself. +She had almost said "now that it is ours." "Now that it is secured," +she finished. + +After luncheon they drove back to the site of Lake Jo, and spent a +delirious while planning the things which were to be done to make that +spot an earthly Paradise. Never was a couple so prolific of ideas as +they were that afternoon. With 'Ennery waiting down in the road they +tramped all over the hills again, standing first on one spot and then +another to survey the alluring prospect, and to plan wonderful new and +attractive features of which no previous summer resort builder had ever +even dared to dream. + +During the afternoon not one word passed between them which might be +construed to be of an intimately personal nature, but as they drove to +Hollis Creek, tired but happy, Sam somehow or other felt that he had +made quite a bit of progress, and was correspondingly elated. Leaving +Miss Stevens on the porch he hurried home to dress for dinner, for it +was growing late, but immediately after dinner he drove over again. +When he arrived Miss Josephine was in the seldom used parlor with her +father. + +"I haven't seen you since breakfast," Mr. Stevens had said, pinching +her cheek, "Hollis and Billy Westlake have been looking for you +everywhere." + +"Oh, they," she returned with kindly contempt. "I'm glad I didn't see +them. They're nice boys enough, but father, I don't believe that +either one of them will ever become clever business men!" + +"No?" he replied, highly amused. "Well, I don't think they will +either. Business is a shade too big a game for them. But where have +you been?" + +"Out on business with S-s-s--with Mr. Turner," she replied demurely. +"I came in late for lunch, and you had already finished and gone. Then +we went right back out again. Father, we have found the dearest, the +most delightful, the most charming business opportunity you ever saw. +You must go out with us to-morrow and look at it. Sam's going to build +a lake and call it Lake Jo. You know where that little stream is +between here and Meadow Brook? Well, that's the place. We found out +this morning what a delightful spot it would make for a lake and a big +summer resort hotel, and at noon Sam bought the property, and we have +been planning it all afternoon. He's bought it outright and he's going +to capitalize it for a quarter of a million dollars. How much stock +are you going to take in it?" + +"How much what?" + +"How many shares of stock are you going to take in it? You must speak +up quickly, because it's going to be a favor to you for us to let you +in." + +"Well, I don't know," said Mr. Stevens, resisting a sudden desire to +guffaw. "I'd have to look it over first before I decide to invest. +Sounds like a sort of wild-eyed scheme to me. Besides that, I already +have a good big block of stock in one of Sam Turner's enterprises." + +"Oh, yes," she said, puckering her brows. "Are you going to vote your +pulp stock with his?" + +Mr. Stevens' eyes twinkled, but his tone was conservative gravity +itself. + +"Well, since it's a purely business deal it would not be a very wise +thing to do; and though Sam Turner is a mighty fine boy, I don't think +I shall." + +"But you will!" she vigorously protested. "Why, father, you wouldn't +for a minute vote against your own son-in-law!" + +"No, I wouldn't!" declared Mr. Stevens emphatically, and suddenly drew +her to him and kissed her; and she clung about his neck half laughing +and half crying. + +Do you suppose there is anything in telepathy? It would seem so, for +it was at this moment that Sam stepped up on the porch. They in the +parlor heard his voice, and Mr. Stevens immediately slipped out the +back way in order not to be _de trop_ a second time. Now Sam could not +possibly have known what had been said in the parlor, and yet when he +found his way in there, he and Miss Josephine, without any palaver +about it, without exchanging a solitary word, or scarcely even a look, +just naturally fell into each other's arms. Neither one of them made +the first move. It just somehow happened, and they stood there and +held and held and held that embrace; and whatever foolishness they said +and did in the next hour is none of your business nor of mine; but +later in the evening, when they were sitting quietly in the darkest +corner of the porch, and Sam had his hand on the arm of her chair with +her elbows resting upon his fingers--it didn't matter, you know, where +he touched her, just so he did--she turned to him with thoughtful +earnestness in her voice. + +"Sam," she said, and this time she used his first name quite +consciously and was glad it was dark so that he could not see her trace +of shyness, "I wish you would explain to me just what you mean by +control in a stock company." + +Sam Turner moved his fingers from under her elbow and caught her hand, +which he firmly clasped before he began. + +"Well, Jo, it's just this way," he said, and then, quite comfortably, +he explained to her all about it. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Early Bird, by George Randolph Chester + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 19272-8.txt or 19272-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/2/7/19272/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Early Bird + A Business Man's Love Story + +Author: George Randolph Chester + +Illustrator: Arthur William Brown + +Posting Date: September 14, 2006 [EBook #19272] +Release Date: December 20, 2008 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="They stopped and had a drink of the cool water" BORDER="2" WIDTH="405" HEIGHT="604"> +<H3> +[Frontispiece: They stopped and had a drink of the cool water] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE EARLY BIRD +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +<I>A Business Man's Love Story</I> +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Author of +<BR> +THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +<BR> +ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +INDIANAPOLIS +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +<BR> +PUBLISHERS +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT 1910 +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">MR. TURNER PLUNGES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">A MATTER OF DELICACY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">GREEK MEETS GREEK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">A DANCE NUMBER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">A VIOLENT FLIRT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">A PIANOLA TRAINING</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">THE WESTLAKES INVEST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">THE HERO OF THE HOUR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">AN INTERRUPTED PROPOSAL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">SHE CALLS HIM SAM!</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">A BUSINESS PARTNER</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +They stopped and had a drink of the cool water . . . <I>Frontispiece</I> +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-020"> +They waylaid him on the porch +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-066"> +Hepseba studied him from head to foot +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-156"> +Sam played again the plaintive little air +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-224"> +"I don't like to worry you, Sam" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-230"> +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE EARLY BIRD +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN <BR> +STARTS ON AN ABSOLUTE REST +</H3> + +<P> +The youngish-looking man who so vigorously swung off the train at +Restview, wore a pair of intensely dark blue eyes which immediately +photographed everything within their range of vision—flat green +country, shaded farm-houses, encircling wooded hills and all—weighed +it and sorted it and filed it away for future reference; and his +clothes clung on him with almost that enviable fit found only in +advertisements. Immediately he threw his luggage into the tonneau of +the dingy automobile drawn up at the side of the lonely platform, and +promptly climbed in after it. Spurred into purely mechanical action by +this silent decisiveness, the driver, a grizzled graduate from a hay +wagon, and a born grump, as promptly and as silently started his +machine. The crisp and perfect start, however, was given check by a +peremptory voice from the platform. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, you!" rasped the voice. "Come back here!" +</P> + +<P> +As there were positively no other "Hey yous" in the landscape, the +driver and the alert young man each acknowledged to the name, and +turned to see an elderly gentleman, with a most aggressive beard and +solid corpulency, gesticulating at them with much vigor and +earnestness. Standing beside him was a slender sort of girl in a green +outfit, with very large brown eyes and a smile of amusement which was +just a shade mischievous. The driver turned upon his passenger a long +and solemn accusation. +</P> + +<P> +"Hollis Creek Inn?" he asked sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"Meadow Brook," returned the passenger, not at all abashed, and he +smiled with all the cheeriness imaginable. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said the driver, and there was a world of disapprobation in his +tone, as well as a subtle intonation of contempt. "You are not Mr. +Stevens of Boston." +</P> + +<P> +"No," confessed the passenger; "Mr. Turner of New York. I judge that +to be Mr. Stevens on the platform," and he grinned. +</P> + +<P> +The driver, still declining to see any humor whatsoever in the +situation, sourly ran back to the platform. Jumping from his seat he +opened the door of the tonneau, and waited with entirely artificial +deference for Mr. Turner of New York to alight. Mr. Turner, however, +did nothing of the sort. He merely stood up in the tonneau and bowed +gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"I seem to be a usurper," he said pleasantly to Mr. Stevens of Boston. +"I was expected at Meadow Brook, and they were to send a conveyance for +me. As this was the only conveyance in sight I naturally supposed it +to be mine. I very much regret having discommoded you." +</P> + +<P> +He was looking straight at Mr. Stevens of Boston as he spoke, but, +nevertheless, he was perfectly aware of the presence of the girl; also +of her eyes and of her smile of amusement with its trace of +mischievousness. Becoming conscious of his consciousness of her, he +cast her deliberately out of his mind and concentrated upon Mr. +Stevens. The two men gazed quite steadily at each other, not to the +point of impertinence at all, but nevertheless rather absorbedly. +Really it was only for a fleeting moment, but in that moment they had +each penetrated the husk of the other, had cleaved straight down to the +soul, had estimated and judged for ever and ever, after the ways of men. +</P> + +<P> +"I passed your carryall on the road. It was broke down. It'll be here +in about a half hour, I suppose," insisted the driver, opening the door +of the tonneau still wider, and waving the descending pathway with his +right hand. +</P> + +<P> +Both Mr. Stevens of Boston and Mr. Turner of New York were very glad of +this interruption, for it gave the older gentleman an object upon which +to vent his annoyance. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Meadow Brook on the way to Hollis Creek?" he demanded in a tone +full of reproof for the driver's presumption. +</P> + +<P> +The driver reluctantly admitted that it was. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't think of leaving you in this dismal spot to wait for a +dubious carryall," offered Mr. Stevens, but with frigid politeness. +"You are quite welcome to ride with us, if you will." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," said Mr. Turner, now climbing out of the machine with +alacrity and making way for the others. "I had intended," he laughed, +as he took his place beside the driver, "to secure just such an +invitation, by hook or by crook." +</P> + +<P> +For this assurance he received a glance from the big eyes; not at all a +flirtatious glance, but one of amusement, with a trace of mischief. +The remark, however, had well-nigh stopped all conversation on the part +of Mr. Stevens, who suddenly remembered that he had a daughter to +protect, and must discourage forwardness. His musings along these +lines were interrupted by an enthusiastic outburst from Mr. Turner. +</P> + +<P> +"By George!" exclaimed the latter gentleman, "what a fine clump of +walnut trees; an even half-dozen, and every solitary one of them would +trim sixteen inches." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," agreed the older man with keenly awakened interest, "they are +fine specimens. They would scale six hundred feet apiece, if they'd +scale an inch." +</P> + +<P> +"You're in the lumber business, I take it," guessed the young man +immediately, already reaching for his card-case. "My name is Turner, +known a little better as Sam Turner, of Turner and Turner." +</P> + +<P> +"Sam Turner," repeated the older man thoughtfully. "The name seems +distinctly familiar to me, but I do not seem, either, to remember of +any such firm in the trade." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we're not in the lumber line," replied Mr. Turner. "Not at all. +We're in most anything that offers a profit. We—that is my kid +brother and myself—have engineered a deal or two in lumber lands, +however. It was only last month that I turned a good trade—a very +good trade—on a tract of the finest trees in Wisconsin." +</P> + +<P> +"The dickens!" exclaimed the older gentleman explosively. "So you're +the Turner who sold us our own lumber! Now I know you. I'm Stevens, +of the Maine and Wisconsin Lumber Company." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner laughed aloud, in both surprise and glee. Mr. Stevens had +now reached for his own card-case. The two gentlemen exchanged cards, +which, with barely more than a glance, they poked in the other flaps of +their cases; then they took a new and more interested inspection of +each other. Both were now entirely oblivious to the girl, who, +however, was by no means oblivious to them. She found them, in this +new meeting, a most interesting study. +</P> + +<P> +"You gouged us on that land, young man," resumed Mr. Stevens with a wry +little smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Worth every cent you paid us for it, wasn't it?" demanded the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Y-e-s; but if you hadn't stepped into the deal at the last minute, we +could have secured it for five or six thousand dollars less money." +</P> + +<P> +"You used to go after these things yourself," explained Mr. Turner with +an easy laugh. "Now you send out people empowered only to look and not +to purchase." +</P> + +<P> +"But what I don't yet understand," protested Mr. Stevens, "is how you +came to be in the deal at all. When we sent out our men to inspect the +trees they belonged to a chap in Detroit. When we came to buy them +they belonged to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," agreed the younger man. "I was up that way on other +business, when I heard about your man looking over this valuable +acreage; so I just slipped down to Detroit and hunted up the owner and +bought it. Then I sold it to you. That's all." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled frankly and cheerfully upon Mr. Stevens, and the frown of +discomfiture which had slightly clouded the latter gentleman's brow, +faded away under the guilelessness of it all; so much so that he +thought to introduce his daughter. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Josephine having been brought into the conversation, Mr. Turner, +for the first time, bent his gaze fully upon her, giving her the same +swift scrutiny and appraisement that he had the father. He was +evidently highly satisfied with what he saw, for he kept looking at it +as much as he dared. He became aware after a moment or so that Mr. +Stevens was saying something to him. He never did get all of it, but +he got this much: +</P> + +<P> +"—so you'd be rather a good man to watch, wherever you go." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so," agreed the other briskly. "If I want anything, I go +prepared to grab it the minute I find that it suits me." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you always get everything you want?" asked the young lady. +</P> + +<P> +"Always," he answered her very earnestly, and looked her in the eyes so +speculatively, albeit unconsciously so, that she found herself battling +with a tendency to grow pink. +</P> + +<P> +Her father nodded in approval. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the way to get things," he said. "What are you after now? +More lumber?" +</P> + +<P> +"Rest," declared Mr. Turner with vigorous emphasis. "I've worked like +a nailer ever since I turned out of high school. I had to make the +living for the family, and I sent my kid brother through college. He's +just been out a year and it's a wonder the way he takes hold. But do +you know that in all those times since I left school I never took a +lay-off until just this minute? It feels glorious already. It's fine +to look around this good stretch of green country and breathe this +fresh air and look at those hills over yonder, and to realize that I +don't have to think of business for two solid weeks. Just absolute +rest, for me! I don't intend to talk one syllable of shop while I'm +here. Hello! there's another clump of walnut trees. It's a pity +they're scattered so that it isn't worth while to buy them up." +</P> + +<P> +The girl laughed, a little silvery laugh which made any memory of grand +opera seem harsh and jangling. Both men turned to her in surprise. +Neither of them could see any cause for mirth in all the fields or sky. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon for being so silly," she said; "but I just thought +of something funny." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell it to us," urged Mr. Turner. "I've never taken the time I ought +to enjoy funny things, and I might as well begin right now." +</P> + +<P> +But she shook her head, and in some way he acquired an impression that +she was amused at him. His brows gathered a trifle. If the young lady +intended to make sport of him he would take her down a peg or two. He +would find her point of susceptibility to ridicule, and hammer upon it +until she cried enough. That was his way to make men respectful, and +it ought to work with women. +</P> + +<P> +When they let him out at Meadow Brook, Mr. Stevens was kind enough to +ask him to drop over to Hollis Creek. Mr. Turner, with impulsive +alacrity, promised that he would. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN MR. TURNER PLUNGES INTO <BR> +THE BUSINESS OF RESTING +</H3> + + +<P> +At Meadow Brook Sam Turner found W. W. Westlake, of the Westlake +Electric Company, a big, placid man with a mild gray eye and an +appearance of well-fed and kindly laziness; a man also who had the +record of having ruthlessly smashed more business competitors than any +two other pirates in his line. Westlake, unclasping his fat hands from +his comfortable rotundity, was glad to see young Turner, also glad to +introduce the new eligible to his daughter, a girl of twenty-two, +working might and main to reduce a threatened inheritance of +embonpoint. Mr. Turner was charmed to meet Miss Westlake, and even +more pleased to meet the gentleman who was with her, young Princeman, a +brisk paper manufacturer variously quoted at from one to two million. +He knew all about young Princeman; in fact, had him upon his mental +list as a man presently to meet and cultivate for a specific purpose, +and already Mr. Turner's busy mind offset the expenses of this trip +with an equal credit, much in the form of "By introduction to H. L. +Princeman, Jr. (Princeman and Son Paper Mills, AA 1), whatever it +costs." He liked young Princeman at sight, too, and, proceeding +directly to the matter uppermost in his thoughts, immediately asked him +how the new tariff had affected his business. +</P> + +<P> +"It's inconvenient," said Princeman with a shake of his head. "Of +course, in the end the consumers must pay, but they protest so much +about it that they disarrange the steady course of our operations." +</P> + +<P> +"It's queer that the ultimate consumer never will be quite reconciled +to his fate," laughed Mr. Turner; "but in this particular case, I think +I hold the solution. You'll be interested, I know. You see—" +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Turner," interrupted Miss Westlake gaily; "I +know you'll want to meet all the young folks, and you'll particularly +want to meet my very dearest friend. Miss Hastings, Mr. Turner." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner had turned to find an extraordinarily thin young woman, with +extraordinarily piercing black eyes, at Miss Westlake's side. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed, I do want to meet all the young people," he cordially +asserted, taking Miss Hastings' claw-like hand in his own and wondering +what to do with it. He could not clasp it and he could not shake it. +She relieved him of his dilemma, after a moment, by twining that arm +about the plump waist of her dearest friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Is this your first stay at Meadow Brook?" she asked by way of starting +conversation. She was very carefully vivacious, was Miss Hastings, and +had a bird-like habit, meant to be very fetching, of cocking her head +to one side as she spoke, and peering up to men—oh, away up—with the +beady expression of a pet canary. +</P> + +<P> +"My very first visit," confessed Mr. Turner, not yet realizing the +disgrace it was to be "new people" at Meadow Brook, where there was +always an aristocracy of the grandchildren of original Meadow Brookers. +"However, I hope it won't be the last time," he continued. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall all hope that, I am certain," Miss Westlake assured him, +smiling engagingly into the depths of his eyes. "It will be our fault +if you don't like it here;" and he might take such tentative promise as +he would from that and her smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," he said promptly enough. "I can see right now that I'm +going to make Meadow Brook my future summer home. It's such a restful +place, for one thing. I'm beginning to rest right now, and to put +business so far into the background that—" he suddenly stopped and +listened to a phrase which his trained ear had caught. +</P> + +<P> +"And that is the trouble with the whole paper business," Mr. Princeman +was saying to Mr. Westlake. "It is not the tariff, but the future +scarcity of wood-pulp material." +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what I was starting to explain to you," said Mr. Turner, +wheeling eagerly to Mr. Princeman, entirely unaware, in his intensity +of interest, of his utter rudeness to both groups. "My kid brother and +myself are working on a scheme which, if we are on the right track, +ought to bring about a revolution in the paper business. I can not +give you the exact details of it now, because we're waiting for letters +patent on it, but the fundamental point is this: that the wood-pulp +manufacturers within a few years will have to grow their raw material, +since wood is becoming so scarce and so high priced. Well, there is +any quantity of swamp land available, and we have experimented like mad +with reeds and rushes. We've found one particular variety which grows +very rapidly, has a strong, woody fiber, and makes the finest pulp in +the world. I turned the kid loose with the company's bank roll this +spring, and he secured options on two thousand acres of swamp land, +near to transportation and particularly adapted to this culture, and +dirt cheap because it is useless for any other purpose. As soon as the +patents are granted on our process we're going to organize a million +dollar stock company to take up more land and handle the business." +</P> + +<P> +"Come over here and sit down," invited Princeman, somewhat more than +courteously. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute until I send for McComas. Here, boy, hunt Mr. McComas +and ask him to come out on the porch." +</P> + +<P> +The new guest was reaching for pencil and paper as they gathered their +chairs together. The two girls had already started hesitantly to +efface themselves. Half-way across the lawn they looked sadly toward +the porch again. That handsome young Mr. Turner, his back toward them, +was deep in formulated but thrilling facts, while three other heads, +one gray and one black and one auburn, were bent interestedly over the +envelope upon which he was figuring. +</P> + +<P> +Later on, as he was dressing for dinner, Mr. Turner decided that he +liked Meadow Brook very much. It was set upon the edge of a pleasant, +rolling valley, faced and backed by some rather high hills, upon the +sloping side of one of which the hotel was built, with broad verandas +looking out upon exquisitely kept flowers and shrubbery and upon the +shallow little brook which gave the place its name. A little more +water would have suited Sam better, but the management had made the +most of its opportunities, especially in the matter of arranging dozens +of pretty little lovers' lanes leading in all directions among the +trees and along the sides of the shimmering stream, and the whole +prospect was very good to look at, indeed. Taken in conjunction with +the fact that one had no business whatever on hand, it gave one a sense +of delightful freedom to look out on the green lawn and the gay +gardens, on the brook and the tennis and croquet courts, and on the +purple-hazed, wooded hills beyond; it was good to fill one's lungs with +country air and to realize for a little while what a delightful world +this is; to see young people wandering about out there by twos and by +threes, and to meet with so many other people of affairs enjoying +leisure similar to one's own. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, this wasn't a really fashionable place, being supported +entirely by men who had made their own money; but there was Princeman, +for instance, a fine chap and very keen; a well-set-up fellow, +black-haired and black-eyed, and of a quick, nervous disposition; one +of precisely the kind of energy which Turner liked to see. McComas, +too, with his deep red hair and his tendency to freckles, and his frank +smile with all the white teeth behind it, was a corking good fellow; +and alive. McComas was in the furniture line, a maker of cheap stuff +which was shipped in solid trains of carload lots from a factory that +covered several acres. The other men he noticed around the place +seemed to be of about the same stamp. He had never been anywhere that +the men averaged so well. +</P> + +<P> +As he went down-stairs, McComas introduced his wife, already gowned for +the evening. She was a handsome woman, of the sort who would wear a +different stunning gown every night for two weeks and then go on to the +next place. Well, she had a right to this extravagance. Besides it is +good for a man's business to have his wife dressed prosperously. A man +who is getting on in the world ought to have a handsome wife. If she +is the right kind, of Miss Stevens' type, say, she is a distinct asset. +</P> + +<P> +After dinner, Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings waylaid him on the porch. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-020"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-020.jpg" ALT="They waylaid him on the porch" BORDER="2" WIDTH="402" HEIGHT="514"> +<H3> +[Illustration: They waylaid him on the porch] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"I suppose, of course, you are going to take part in the bowling +tournament to-night," suggested Miss Westlake with the engaging +directness allowable to family friendship. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose so, although I didn't know there was one. Where is it to be +held?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, just down the other side of the brook, beyond the croquet grounds. +We have a tournament every week, and a prize cup for the best score in +the season. It's lots of fun. Do you bowl?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not very much," Mr. Turner confessed; "but if you'll just keep me +posted on all these various forms of recreation, you may count on my +taking a prominent share in them." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," agreed Miss Hastings, very vivaciously taking the +conversation away from Miss Westlake. "We'll constitute ourselves a +committee of two to lay out a program for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Fine," he responded, bending on the fragile Miss Hastings a smile so +pleasant that it made her instantly determine to find out something +about his family and commercial standing. "What time do we start on +our mad bowling career?" +</P> + +<P> +"They'll be drifting over in about a half-hour," Miss Westlake told +him, with a speculative sidelong glance at her dearest girl friend. +"Everybody starts out for a stroll in some other direction, as if +bowling was the least of their thoughts, but they all wind up at the +alleys. I'll show you." A slight young man of the white-trousered +faction, as distinguished from the dinner-coat crowd, passed them just +then. "Oh, Billy," called Miss Westlake, and introduced the slight +young man, who proved to be her brother, to Mr. Turner, at the same +time wreathing her arm about the waist of her dear companion. "Come +on, Vivian; let's go get our wraps," and the girls, leaving "Billy" and +Mr. Turner together, scurried away. +</P> + +<P> +The two young men looked at each other dubiously, though each had an +earnest desire to please. They groped for human understanding, and +suddenly that clammy, discouraged feeling spread its muffling wall +between them. Billy was the first to recover in part. +</P> + +<P> +"Charming weather, isn't it?" he observed with a polite smile. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner opined that it was, the while delving into Mr. Westlake's +mental workshop and finding it completely devoid of tools, patterns or +lumber. +</P> + +<P> +"The girls are just going to take me over to bowl," Mr. Turner ventured +desperately after a while. "Do you bowl very much?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I usually fill in," stated Mr. Westlake; "but really, I'm a very +poor hand at it. I seem to be a poor hand at most everything," and he +laughed with engaging candor, as if somehow this were creditable. +</P> + +<P> +The conversation thereupon lagged for a moment or two, while Mr. Turner +blankly asked himself: "What in thunder <I>does</I> a man talk about when he +has nothing to say and nobody to say it to?" Presently he solved the +problem. +</P> + +<P> +"It must be beautiful out here in the autumn," he observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is indeed," returned Mr. Westlake with alacrity. "The leaves +turn all sorts of colors." +</P> + +<P> +Once more conversation lagged, while Billy feebly wondered how any +person could possibly be so dull as this chap. He made another attempt. +</P> + +<P> +"Beastly place, though, when it rains," he observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I should imagine so," agreed Mr. Turner. Great Scott! The voice +of McComas saved him from utter imbecility. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll excuse Mr. Turner a moment, won't you, Billy?" begged McComas +pleasantly. "I want to introduce him to a couple of friends of mine." +</P> + +<P> +Billy Westlake bowed his forgiveness of Mr. McComas with fully as much +relief as Sam Turner had felt. Over in the same corner of the porch +where he had sat in the afternoon with McComas and Princeman and the +elder Westlake, Sam found awaiting them Mr. Cuthbert, of the American +Papier-Mâché Company, an almost viciously ugly man with a twisted nose +and a crooked mouth, who controlled practically all the worth-while +papier-mâché business of the United States, and Mr. Blackrock, an +elderly man with a young toupee and particularly gaunt cheek-bones, who +was a corporation lawyer of considerable note. Both gentlemen greeted +Mr. Turner as one toward whom they were already highly predisposed, and +Mr. Princeman and Mr. Westlake also shook hands most cordially, as if +Sam had been gone for a day or two. Mr. McComas placed a chair for him. +</P> + +<P> +"We just happened to mention your marsh pulp idea, and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Blackrock were at once very highly interested," observed McComas as +they sat dawn. "Mr. Blackrock suggests that he don't see why you need +wait for the issuance of the letters patent, at least to discuss the +preliminary steps in the forming of your company." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, no, Mr. Turner," said Mr. Blackrock, suavely and smoothly; "it is +not a company anyhow, as I take it, which will depend so much upon +letters patent as upon extensive exploitation." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's true enough," agreed Sam with a smile. "The letters +patent, however, should give my kid brother and myself, without much +capital, controlling interest in the stock." +</P> + +<P> +Upon this frank but natural statement the others laughed quite +pleasantly. +</P> + +<P> +"That seems a plausible enough reason," admitted Mr. Westlake, folding +his fat hands across his equator and leaning back in his chair with a +placidity which seemed far removed from any thought of gain. "How did +you propose to organize your company?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Sam, crossing one leg comfortably over the other, "I +expect to issue a half million participating preferred stock, at five +per cent., and a half-million common, one share of common as bonus with +each two shares of preferred; the voting power, of course, vested in +the common." +</P> + +<P> +A silence followed that, and then Mr. Cuthbert, with a diagonal yawing +of his mouth which seemed to give his words a special dryness, observed: +</P> + +<P> +"And I presume you intend to take up the balance of the common stock?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just about," returned Mr. Turner cheerfully, addressing Cuthbert +directly. The papier-mâché king was another man whom he had inscribed, +some time since, upon his mental list. "My kid brother and myself will +take two hundred and fifty thousand of the common stock for our patents +and processes, and for our services as promoters and organizers, and +will purchase enough of the preferred to give us voting power; say five +thousand dollars worth." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Cuthbert shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Very stringent terms," he observed. "I doubt if you will interest +your capital on that basis." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Sam, clasping his knee in his hands and rocking +gently. "If we can't organize on that basis we won't organize at all. +We're in no hurry. My kid brother's handling it just now, anyhow. I'm +on a vacation, the first I ever had, and not keen upon business, by any +means. In the meantime, let me show you some figures." +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later, Billy Westlake and his sister and Miss Hastings +drew up to the edge of the group. Young Westlake stood diffidently for +two or three minutes beside Mr. Turner's chair, and then he put his +hand on that summer idler's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, good evening, Mr.—Mr.—Mr.—" Sam stammered while he tried to +find the name. +</P> + +<P> +"Westlake," interposed Billy's father; and then, a trifle impatiently, +"What do you want, Billy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner was to go over with us to the bowling shed, dad." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so," admitted Mr. Turner, glancing over to the porch rail where +the girls stood expectantly in their fluffy white dresses, and nodding +pleasantly at them, but not yet rising. He was in the midst of an +important statement. +</P> + +<P> +"Just you run on with the girls, Billy," ordered Mr. Westlake. "Mr. +Turner will be over in a few minutes." +</P> + +<P> +The others of the circle bent their eyes gravely upon Billy and the +girls as they turned away, and waited for Mr. Turner to resume. +</P> + +<P> +At a quarter past ten, as Mr. Turner and Mr. Princeman walked slowly +along the porch to turn into the parlors for a few minutes of music, of +which Sam was very fond, a crowd of young people came trooping up the +steps. Among them were Billy Westlake and his sister, another young +gentleman and Miss Hastings. +</P> + +<P> +"By George, that bowling tournament!" exclaimed Mr. Turner. "I forgot +all about it." +</P> + +<P> +He was about to make his apologies, but Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings +passed right on, with stern, set countenances and their heads in air. +Apparently they did not see Mr. Turner at all. He gazed after them in +consternation; suddenly there popped into his mind the vision of a +slender girl in green, with mischievous brown eyes—and he felt +strangely comforted. Before retiring he wired his brother to send some +samples of the marsh pulp, and the paper made from it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MR. TURNER APPLIES BUSINESS PROMPTNESS <BR> +TO A MATTER OF DELICACY +</H3> + + +<P> +Morning at Meadow Brook was even more delightful than evening. The +time Mr. Turner had chosen for his outing was early September, and +already there was a crispness in the air which was quite invigorating. +Clad in flannels and with a brand new tennis racket under his arm, he +went into the reading-room immediately after breakfast, bought a paper +of the night before and glanced hastily over the news of the day, +paying more particular attention to the market page. Prices of things +had a peculiar fascination for him. He noticed that cereals had gone +down, that there was another flurry in copper stock, and that hardwood +had gone up, and ranging down the list his eye caught a quotation for +walnut. It had made a sharp advance of ten dollars a thousand feet. +</P> + +<P> +Out of the window, as he looked up, he saw Miss Westlake and Miss +Hastings crossing the lawn, and he suddenly realized that he was here +to wear himself out with rest, so he hurried in the direction the girls +had taken; but when he arrived at the tennis court he found a set +already in progress. Both Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings barely +nodded at Mr. Turner, and went right on displaying grace and dexterity +to a quite unusual degree. Decidedly Mr. Turner was being "cut," and +he wondered why. Presently he strode down to the road and looked up +over the hill in the direction he knew Hollis Creek Inn to be. He was +still pondering the probable distance when Mr. Westlake and Billy and +young Princeman came up the brook path. +</P> + +<P> +"Just the chap I wanted to see, Sam," said Mr. Westlake heartily. "I'm +trying to get up a pin-hook fishing contest, for three-inch sunfish." +</P> + +<P> +"Happy thought," returned Sam, laughing. "Count me in." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the governor's own idea, too," said Billy with vast enthusiasm. +"Bully sport, it ought to be. Only trouble is, Princeman has some +mysterious errand or other, and can't join us." +</P> + +<P> +"No; the fact is, the Stevenses were due at Hollis Creek yesterday," +confessed Mr. Princeman in cold return to the prying Billy, "and I +think I'll stroll over and see if they've arrived." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner surveyed Princeman with a new interest. Danger lurked in +Princeman's black eyes, fascination dwelt in his black hair, +attractiveness was in every line of his athletic figure. It was upon +the tip of Sam's tongue to say that he would join Princeman in his +walk, but he repressed that instinct immediately. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite a long ways over there by the road, isn't it?" he questioned. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," admitted Princeman unsuspectingly, "it winds a good bit; but +there is a path across the hills which is not only shorter but far more +pleasant." +</P> + +<P> +Sam turned to Mr. Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +"It would be a shame not to let Princeman in on that pin-hook match," +he suggested. "Why not put it off until to-morrow morning. I have an +idea that I can beat Princeman at the game." +</P> + +<P> +There was more or less of sudden challenge in his tone, and Princeman, +keen as Sam himself, took it in that way. +</P> + +<P> +"Fine!" he invited. "Any time you want to enter into a contest with me +you just mention it." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll let you know in some way or other, even if I don't make any +direct announcement," laughed Sam, and Princeman walked away with Mr. +Westlake, very much to Billy's consternation. He was alone with this +dull Turner person once more. What should they talk about? Sam solved +that problem for him at once. "What's the swiftest conveyance these +people keep?" he asked briskly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you can get most anything you like," said Billy. "Saddle-horses +and carriages of all sorts; and last year they put in a couple of +automobiles, though scarcely any one uses them." There was a certain +amount of careless contempt in Billy's tone as he mentioned the hired +autos. Evidently they were not considered to be as good form as other +modes of conveyance. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's the garage?" asked Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Right around back of the hotel. Just follow that drive." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said the other crisply. "I'll see you this evening," and he +stalked away leaving Billy gasping for breath at the suddenness of Sam. +After all, though, he was glad to be rid of Mr. Turner. He knew the +Stevenses himself, and it had slowly dawned on him that by having his +own horse saddled he could beat Princeman over there. +</P> + +<P> +It took Sam just about one minute to negotiate for an automobile, a +neat little affair, shiny and new, and before they were half-way to +Hollis Creek, his innate democracy led him into conversation with the +driver, an alert young man of the near-by clay. +</P> + +<P> +"Not very good soil in this neighborhood," Sam observed. "I notice +there is a heavy outcropping of stone. What are the principal crops?" +</P> + +<P> +"Summer resorters," replied the driver briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"And do you mean to tell me that all these farm-houses call themselves +summer resorts?" inquired Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"No, only those that have running water. The others just keep +boarders." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Sam, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later they passed over a beautifully clear stream which ran +down a narrow pocket valley between two high hills, swept under a +rickety wooden culvert, and raced on across a marshy meadow, sparkling +invitingly here and there in the sunlight. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's running water without a summer resort," observed the passenger, +still smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"It's too much shut in," replied the chauffeur as one who had voiced a +final and insurmountable objection. All the "summer resorts" in this +neighborhood were of one pattern, and no one would so much as dream of +varying from the first successful model. +</P> + +<P> +Sam scarcely heard. He was looking back toward the trough of those two +picturesquely wooded hills, and for the rest of the drive he asked but +few questions. +</P> + +<P> +At Hollis Creek, where he found a much more imposing hotel than the one +at Meadow Brook, he discovered Miss Stevens, clad in simple white from +canvas shoes to knotted cravat, in a summer-house on the lawn, chatting +gaily with a young man who was almost fat. Sam had seen other girls +since he had entered the grounds, but he could not make out their +features; this one he had recognized from afar, and as they approached +the summer-house he opened the door of the machine and jumped out +before it had come properly to a stop. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, Miss Stevens," he said with a cheerful self-confidence +which was beautiful to behold. "I have come over to take you a little +spin, if you'll go." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens gazed at the caller quizzically, and laughed outright. +</P> + +<P> +"This is so sudden," she murmured. +</P> + +<P> +The caller himself grinned. +</P> + +<P> +"Does seem so, if you stop to think of it," he admitted. "Rather like +dropping out of the clouds. But the auto is here, and I can testify +that it's a smooth-running machine. Will you go?" +</P> + +<P> +She turned that same quizzical smile upon the young man who was almost +fat, and introduced him, curly hair and all, to Mr. Turner as Mr. +Hollis, who, it afterward transpired, was the heir to Hollis Creek Inn. +</P> + +<P> +"I had just promised to play tennis with Mr. Hollis," Miss Stevens +stated after the introduction had been properly acknowledged, "but I +know he won't mind putting it off this time," and she handed him her +tennis bat. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not," said young Hollis with forcedly smiling politeness. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Mr. Hollis," said Sam promptly. "Just jump right in, Miss +Stevens." +</P> + +<P> +"How long shall we be gone?" she asked as she settled herself in the +tonneau. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, whatever you say. A couple of hours, I presume." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, then," she said to young Hollis; "we'll have our game in +the afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"With pleasure," replied the other graciously, but he did not look it. +</P> + +<P> +"Where shall we go?" asked Sam as the driver looked back inquiringly. +"You know the country about here, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"I ought to," she laughed. "Father's been ending the summer here ever +since I was a little girl. You might take us around Bald Hill," she +suggested to the chauffeur. "It is a very pretty drive," she +explained, turning to Sam as the machine wheeled, and at the same time +waving her hand gaily to the disconsolate Hollis, who was "hard hit" +with a different girl every season. "It's just about a two-hour trip. +What a fine morning to be out!" and she settled back comfortably as the +machine gathered speed. "I do love a machine, but father is rather +backward about them. He will consent to ride in them under necessity, +but he won't buy one. Every time he sees a handsome pair of horses, +however, he has to have them." +</P> + +<P> +"I admire a good horse myself," returned Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ride?" she asked him. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I have suffered a few times on horseback," he confessed; "but you +ought to see my kid brother ride. He looks as if he were part of the +horse. He's a handsome brat." +</P> + +<P> +"Except for calling him names, which is a purely masculine way of +showing affection, you speak of him almost as if you were his mother," +she observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I am, almost," replied Sam, studying the matter gravely. "I +have been his mother, and his father, and his brother, too, for a great +many years; and I will say that he's a credit to his family." +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning just you?" she ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we're all we have; just yet, at least." This quite soberly. +</P> + +<P> +"He must talk of getting married," she guessed, with a quick intuition +that when this happened it would be a blow to Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," he immediately corrected her. "He isn't quite old enough to +think of it seriously as yet. I expect to be married long before he +is." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens felt a rigid aloofness creeping over her, and, having a +very wholesome sense of humor, smiled as she recognized the feeling in +herself. +</P> + +<P> +"I should think you'd spend your vacation where the girl is," she +observed. "Men usually do, don't they?" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed gaily. +</P> + +<P> +"I surely would if I knew the girl," he asserted. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a refreshing suggestion," she said, echoing his laugh, though +from a different impulse. "I presume, then, that you entertain +thoughts of matrimony merely because you think you are quite old +enough." +</P> + +<P> +"No, it isn't just that," he returned, still thoughtfully. "Somehow or +other I feel that way about it; that's all. I have never had time to +think of it before, but this past year I have had a sort of sense of +lonesomeness; and I guess that must be it." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of herself Miss Josephine giggled and repressed it, and +giggled again and repressed it, and giggled again, and then she let +herself go and laughed as heartily as she pleased. She had heard men +say before, but always with more or less of a languishing air, +inevitably ridiculous in a man, that they thought it about time they +were getting married; but she could not remember anything to compare +with Sam Turner's naïveté in the statement. +</P> + +<P> +He paid no attention to the laughter, for he had suddenly leaned +forward to the chauffeur. +</P> + +<P> +"There is another clump of walnut trees," he said, eagerly pointing +them out. "Are there many of them in this locality?" +</P> + +<P> +"A good many scattered here and there," replied the boy; "but old man +Gifford has a twenty-acre grove down in the bottoms that's mostly all +walnut trees, and I heard him say just the other day that walnut +lumber's got so high he had a notion to clear his land." +</P> + +<P> +"Where do you suppose we could find old man Gifford?" inquired Mr. +Turner. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, about six miles off to the right, at the next turning." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose we whizz right down there," said Sam promptly, and he turned +to Miss Stevens with enthusiasm shining in his eyes. "It does seem as +if everything happens lucky for me," he observed. "I haven't any +particular liking for the lumber business, but fate keeps handing +lumber to me all the time; just fairly forcing it on me." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think fate is as much responsible for that as yourself?" she +questioned, smiling as they passed at a good clip the turn which was to +have taken them over the pretty Bald Hill drive. Sam had not even +thought to apologize for the abrupt change in their program, because +she could certainly see the opportunity which had offered itself, and +how imperative it was to embrace it. The thing needed no explanation. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," he replied to her query, after pausing to consider it a +moment. "I certainly don't go out of my road to hunt up these things." +</P> + +<P> +"No-o-o-o," she admitted. "But fate hasn't thrust this particular +opportunity upon me, although I'm right with you at the time. It never +would have occurred to me to ask about those walnut trees." +</P> + +<P> +"It would have occurred to your father," he retorted quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it might have occurred to father, but I think that under the +circumstances he would have waited until to-morrow to see about it." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I might be that way when I arrive at his age," Sam commented +philosophically, "but just now I can't afford it. His 'seeing about it +to-morrow' cost him between five and six thousand dollars the last time +I had anything to do with him." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed. She was enjoying Sam's company very much. Even if a bit +startling, he was at least refreshing after the type of young men she +was in the habit of meeting. +</P> + +<P> +"He was talking about that last night," she said. "I think father +rather stands in both admiration and awe of you." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to hear that," he returned quite seriously. "It's a good +attitude in which to have the man with whom you expect to do business." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I shall have to tell him that," she observed, highly amused. +"He will enjoy it, and it may put him on his guard." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mind," he concluded after due reflection. "It won't hurt a +particle. If anything, if he likes me so far, that will only increase +it. I like your father. In fact I like his whole family." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," she said demurely, wondering if there was no end to his +bluntness, and wondering, too, whether it were not about time that she +should find it wearisome. On closer analysis, however, she decided +that the time was not yet come. "But you have not met all of them," +she reminded him. "There are mother and a younger sister and an older +brother." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't matter if there were six more, I like all of them," Sam promptly +informed her. Then, "Stop a minute," he suddenly directed the +chauffeur. +</P> + +<P> +That functionary abruptly brought his machine to a halt just a little +way past a tree glowing with bright green leaves and red berries. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what sort of a tree that is," said Sam with boyish +enthusiasm; "but see how pretty it is. Except for the shape of the +leaves the effect is as beautiful as holly. Wouldn't you like a branch +or two, Miss Stevens?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly should," she heartily agreed. "I don't know how you +discovered that I have a mad passion for decorative weeds and things." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you?" he inquired eagerly. "So have I. If I had time I'd be +rather ashamed of it." +</P> + +<P> +He had scrambled out of the car and now ran back to the tree, where, +perching himself upon the second top rail of the fence he drew down a +limb, and with his knife began to snip off branches here and there. +The girl noticed that he selected the branches with discrimination, +turning each one over so that he could look at the broad side of it +before clipping, rejecting many and studying each one after he had +taken it in his hand. He was some time in finding the last one, a long +straggling branch which had most of its leaves and berries at the tip, +and she noticed that as he came back to the auto he was arranging them +deftly and with a critical eye. When he handed them in to her they +formed a carefully arranged and graceful composition. It was a new and +an unexpected side of him, and it softened considerably the amused +regard in which she had been holding him. +</P> + +<P> +"They are beautifully arranged," she commented, as he stopped for a +moment to brush the dust from his shoes in the tall grass by the +roadside. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think so?" he delightedly inquired. "You ought to see my kid +brother make up bouquets of goldenrod and such things. He seems to +have a natural artistic gift." +</P> + +<P> +She bent on his averted head a wondering glance, and she reflected that +often this "hustler" must be misunderstood. +</P> + +<P> +"You have aroused in me quite a curiosity to meet this paragon of a +brother," she remarked. "He must be well-nigh perfection." +</P> + +<P> +"He is," replied Sam instantly, turning to her very earnest eyes. "He +hasn't a flaw in him any place." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled musingly as she surveyed the group of branches she held in +her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a pity these leaves will wither in so short a time," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he admitted; "but even if we have to throw them away before we +get back to the hotel, their beauty will give us pleasure for an hour; +and the tree won't miss them. See, it seems as perfect as ever." +</P> + +<P> +"It wouldn't if everybody took the same liberties with it that you +did," she remarked, glancing back at the tree. +</P> + +<P> +Sam had climbed in the car and had slammed the door shut, but any reply +he might have made was prevented by a hail from the woods above them at +the other side of the road, and a man came scrambling down from the +hillside path. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's Mr. Princeman!" exclaimed the girl in pleased surprise. +"Think of finding you wandering about, all alone in the woods here." +</P> + +<P> +"I wasn't wandering about," he protested as he came up to the machine +and shook hands with Miss Josephine. "I was headed directly for Hollis +Creek Inn. Your brother wrote me that you were expected to arrive +there yesterday evening, and I was dropping over to call on you right +away this morning. I see, however, that I was not quite prompt enough. +You're selfish, Mr. Turner. You knew I was going over to Hollis Creek, +and you might have invited me to ride in your machine." +</P> + +<P> +"You might have invited me to walk with you," retorted Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"But you knew that I was coming and I didn't know that you even knew—" +he paused abruptly and fixed a contemplative eye upon young Mr. Turner, +who was now surveying the scenery and Mr. Princeman in calm enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +The arrival at this moment of a cloud of dust out of which evolved a +lone horseman, and that horseman Billy Westlake, added a new angle to +the situation, and for one fleeting moment the three men eyed one +another in mutual sheepish guilt. +</P> + +<P> +"Rather good sport, I call it, Miss Stevens," declared Billy, aware of +a sudden increase in his estimation of Mr. Turner, and letting the cat +completely out of the bag. "Each of us was trying to steal a march on +the rest, but Mr. Turner used the most businesslike method, and of +course he won the race." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm flattered, I'm sure," said Miss Josephine demurely. "I really +feel that I ought to go right back to the house and be the belle of the +ball; but it's impossible for an hour or so in this case," and she +turned to her escort with the smile of mischief which she had worn the +first time he saw her. "You see, we are out on a little business trip, +Mr. Turner and myself. We're going to buy a walnut grove." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner turned upon her a glance which was half a frown. +</P> + +<P> +"I promised to get you back in two hours, and I'll do it," he stated, +"but we mustn't linger much by the wayside." +</P> + +<P> +"With which hint we shall wend our Hollis Creek-ward way," laughed +Princeman, exchanging a glance of amusement with Miss Stevens. "I +think we shall visit with your father until you come back." +</P> + +<P> +"Please do," she urged. "He will be as glad to see you both as I am," +with which information she settled herself back in her seat with a +little air of the interview being over, and the chauffeur, with proper +intuition, started the machine, while Mr. Princeman and Billy looked +after them glumly. +</P> + +<P> +"Queer chap, isn't he?" commented Billy. +</P> + +<P> +"Queer? Well, hardly that," returned Princeman thoughtfully. "There's +one thing certain; he's enterprising and vigorous enough to command +respect, in business or—anything else." +</P> + +<P> +At about that very moment Mr. Turner was impressing upon his companion +a very important bit of ethics. +</P> + +<P> +"You shouldn't have violated my confidence," he told her severely. +</P> + +<P> +"How was that?" she asked in surprise, and with a trifle of indignation +as well. +</P> + +<P> +"You told them that we were going to buy a walnut grove. You ought +never to let slip anything you happen to know of any man's business +plans." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she said blankly. +</P> + +<P> +Having voiced his straightforward objection, and delivered his simple +but direct lesson, Mr. Turner turned as decisively to other matters. +</P> + +<P> +"Son," he asked, leaning over toward the chauffeur, "are there any +speed limit laws on these roads?" +</P> + +<P> +"None that I know of," replied the boy. +</P> + +<P> +"Then cut her loose. Do you object to fast driving, Miss Stevens?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," she told him, either much chastened by the late rebuke or +much amused by it. She could scarcely tell which, as yet. "I don't +particularly long for a broken neck, but I never can feel that my time +has come." +</P> + +<P> +"It hasn't," returned Sam. "Let's see your palm," and taking her hand +he held it up before him. It was a small hand that he saw, and most +gracefully formed, but a strong one, too, and Sam Turner had an +extremely quick and critical eye for both strength and beauty. "You +are going to live to be a gray-haired grandmother," he announced after +an inspection of her pink palm, "and live happily all your life." +</P> + +<P> +It was noteworthy that no matter what his impulse may have been he did +not hold her hand overly long, nor subject it to undue warmth of +pressure, but restored it gently to her lap. She was remarking upon +this herself as she took that same hand and passed its tapering fingers +deftly among the twigs of the tree-bouquet, arranging a leaf here and a +berry there. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A LITTLE VACATION PASTIME <BR> +IN WHICH GREEK MEETS GREEK +</H3> + + +<P> +Old man Gifford was not at home in his squat, low-roofed farm-house, +but a woman shaped like a pyramid of diminishing pumpkins directed them +down through the grove to the corn patch. It was necessary to lift +strenuously upon the sagging end of a squeaky old gate, and scrape it +across gulleys, to get the automobile into the narrow, deeply-rutted +road, and with a mind fearful of tires the chauffeur wheeled down +through the grove quite slowly, a slowness for which Sam was duly +grateful, since it allowed him to take a careful appraisement of the +walnut trees, interspersed with occasional oaks, which bordered both +sides of their path. They were tall, thick, straight-trunked trees, +from amongst which the underbrush had been carefully cut away. It was +a joy to his now vandal soul, this grove, and already he could see +those majestic trunks, after having been sawed with as little wasteful +chopping as possible, toppling in endless billowy furrows. +</P> + +<P> +Old man Gifford came inquiringly up between the long rows of corn to +the far edge of the grove. He was bent and weazened, and more gnarled +than any of his trees, and even his fingers seemed to have the knotty, +angular effect of twigs. A fringe of gray beard surrounded his +clean-shaven face, which was criss-crossed with innumerable little +furrows that the wind and rain had worn in it; but a pair of shrewd old +eyes twinkled from under his bushy eyebrows. +</P> + +<P> +"Morning, 'Ennery," he said, addressing the chauffeur with a squeaky +little voice in which, though after forty years of residence in +America, there was still a strong trace of British accent; and then his +calculating gaze rested calmly in turns upon the other occupants of the +machine. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, Mr. Gifford," returned the chauffeur. "Fine day, isn't +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good corn-ripenin' weather," agreed the old man, squinting at the sky +from force of habit, and then, being satisfied that there was no +threatening cloud in all the visible blue expanse, he returned to a +calm consideration of the strangers, waiting patiently for Mr. Turner +to introduce himself. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand, Mr. Gifford, that you are open to an offer for your +walnut trees," began Mr. Turner, looking at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I might be," admitted the old man cautiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I see," returned Sam; "that is, you might be interested if the price +were right. Let's get right down to brass tacks. How much do you +want?" +</P> + +<P> +"Standin' or cut?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, say standing?" +</P> + +<P> +"How much do you offer?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens' gaze roved from the one to the other and found enjoyment +in the fact that here Greek had met Greek. +</P> + +<P> +Sam's reply was prompt and to the point. He named a price. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said the old man instantly. "I been a-holdin' out for five +dollars a thousand more than that." +</P> + +<P> +Things were progressing. A basis for haggling had been established. +Sam Turner, however, had the advantage. He knew the sharp advance in +walnut announced that morning. Old man Gifford would not be aware of +it until the rural free delivery brought his evening paper, of the +night before, some time that afternoon. In view of the recent advance, +even at Mr. Gifford's price there was a handsome profit in the +transaction. +</P> + +<P> +"The reason you've had to hold out for your rate until right now was +that nobody would pay it," said Sam confidently. "Now I'm here to talk +spot cash. I'll give you, say, a thousand dollars down, and the +balance immediately upon measurement as the logs are loaded upon the +cars." +</P> + +<P> +The old man nodded in approval. +</P> + +<P> +"The terms is all right," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"How much will you take F. O. B. Restview?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, cuttin' and trimmin' and haulin' ain't much in my line," +returned the old man, again cautious; "but after all, I reckon that +there'd be less damage to my property if I looked after it myself. Of +course, I'd have to have a profit for handlin' it. I'd feel like +holdin' out for—for—" and after some hesitation he again named a +figure. +</P> + +<P> +"You've made that same proposition to others," charged Sam shrewdly, +"and you couldn't get the price." Upon the heels of this he made his +own offer. +</P> + +<P> +The old man shook his head and turned as if to start back to the corn +field. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I can get better than that," he declared, shaking his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Come back here and let's talk turkey," protested Sam compellingly. +"You name the very lowest price you'll take, delivered on board the +cars at Restview." +</P> + +<P> +The old man reached down, pulled up a blade of grass, chewed it +carefully, spit it out, and named his very, very lowest price; then he +added: "What's the most you'll give?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens leaned forward intently. +</P> + +<P> +Sam very promptly named a figure five dollars lower. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll split the difference with you," offered the old man. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a bargain!" said Sam, and reaching into the inside pocket of his +tennis coat, he brought out some queer furniture for that sort of +garment—a small fountain pen and an extremely small card-case, from +the latter of which he drew four folded blank checks. +</P> + +<P> +He reached over and borrowed the chauffeur's enameled cap, dusted it +carefully with his handkerchief, laid a check upon it and held his +fountain pen poised. "What are your initials, please, Mr. Gifford?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute," said the old man hastily. "Don't make out that check +just yet. I don't do any business or sign any contracts till I talk +with Hepseba." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Climb right in with Henry there," directed Sam, seizing +upon the chauffeur's name. "We'll drive straight up to see her." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll walk," firmly declared Mr. Gifford. "I never have rode in one of +them things, and I'm too old to begin." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said Sam cheerfully, jumping out of the machine with great +promptness. "I'll walk with you. Back to the house, Henry," and he +started anxiously to trudge up the road with Mr. Gifford, leaving Henry +to manoeuver painfully in the narrow space. After a few steps, +however, a sudden thought made him turn back. "Maybe you'd rather walk +up, too," he suggested to Miss Stevens. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I think I'll ride," she said coldly. +</P> + +<P> +He opened the door in extreme haste. +</P> + +<P> +"Do come on and walk," he pleaded. "Don't hold it against me because I +just don't seem to be able to think of more than one thing at a time; +but I was so wrapped up in this deal that— Really," and he sank his +voice confidentially, "I have a tremendous bargain here, and I'll be +nervous about it until I have it clenched. I'll tell you why as we go +home." +</P> + +<P> +He held out his hand as a matter of course to help her down. The white +of his eyes was remarkably clear, the irises were remarkably blue, the +pupils remarkably deep. Suddenly her face cleared and she laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"It was silly of me to be snippy, wasn't it?" she confessed, as she +took his hand and stepped lightly to the ground. It had just recurred +to her that when he knew Princeman was walking over to see her he had +said nothing, but had engaged an automobile. +</P> + +<P> +Old man Gifford had nothing much to say when they caught up with him. +Mr. Turner tried him with remarks about the weather, and received full +information, but when he attempted to discuss the details of the walnut +purchase, he received but mere grunts in reply, except finally this: +</P> + +<P> +"There's no use, young man. I won't talk about them trees till I get +Hepseba's opinion." +</P> + +<P> +At the house Hepseba waddled out on the little stoop in response to old +man Gifford's call, and stood regarding the strangers stonily through +her narrow little slits of eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"This gentleman, Hepseba," said old man Gifford, "wants to buy my +walnut trees. What do you think of him?" +</P> + +<P> +In response to that leading question, Hepseba studied Sam Turner from +head to foot with the sort of scrutiny under which one slightly reddens. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-066"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-066.jpg" ALT="Hepseba studied him from head to foot" BORDER="2" WIDTH="638" HEIGHT="423"> +<H3> +[Illustration: Hepseba studied him from head to foot] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"I like him," finally announced Hepseba, in a surprisingly liquid and +feminine voice. "I like both of them," an unexpected turn which +brought a flush to the face of Miss Stevens. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, young man," said old man Gifford briskly. "Now, then, you +come in the front room and write your contract, and I'll take your +check." +</P> + +<P> +All alacrity and open cordiality now, he led the way into the queer-old +front room, musty with the solemnity of many dim Sundays. +</P> + +<P> +"Just set down here in this easy chair, Mrs.— What did you say your +name is?" Mr. Gifford inquired, turning to Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Turner; Sam J. Turner," returned that gentleman, grinning. "But this +is Miss Stevens." +</P> + +<P> +"No offense meant or taken, I hope," hastily said the old man by way of +apology; "but I do say that Mr. Turner would be lucky if he had such a +pretty wife." +</P> + +<P> +"You have both good taste and good judgment, Mr. Gifford," commented +Sam as airily as he could; then he looked across at Miss Stevens and +laughed aloud, so openly and so ingenuously that, so far from the +laughter giving offense, it seemed, strangely enough, to put Miss +Josephine at her ease, though she still blushed furiously. There was +nothing in that laugh nor in his look but frank, boyish enjoyment of +the joke. +</P> + +<P> +There ensued a crisp and decisive conversation between Mr. Gifford and +Mr. Turner about the details of their contract, and 'Ennery was +presently called in to append to it his painfully precise signature in +vertical writing, Miss Stevens adding hers in a pretty round hand. +Then Hepseba, to bind the bargain, brought in hot apple pie fresh from +the oven, and they became quite a little family party indeed, and very +friendly, 'Ennery sitting in the parlor with them and eating his pie +with a fork. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what Hepseba thinks," said old man Gifford, as he held the door +of the car open for them. "She thinks you're a mighty keen young man +that has to be watched in the beginning of a bargain, because you'll +give as little as you can; but that after the bargain's made you don't +need any more watching. But Lord love you, I have to be watched in a +bargain myself. I take everything I can." +</P> + +<P> +As he finished saying this he was closing the door of the car, but +Hepseba called to them to wait, and came puffing out of the house with +a little bundle wrapped in a newspaper. +</P> + +<P> +"I brought this out for your wife," she said to Mr. Turner, and handed +it to Miss Josephine. "It's some geranium slips. Everybody says I got +the very finest geraniums in the bottoms here." +</P> + +<P> +"Goodness, Hepseba," exclaimed old man Gifford, highly delighted; "that +ain't his wife. That's Miss Stevens. I made the same mistake," and he +hawhawed in keen enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +Hepseba was so evidently overcome with mortification, however, and her +huge round face turned so painfully red, that Miss Stevens lost +entirely any embarrassment she might otherwise have felt. +</P> + +<P> +"It doesn't matter at all, I assure you, Mrs. Gifford," she said with +charming eagerness to set Hepseba at ease. "I am very fond of +geraniums, and I shall plant these slips and take good care of them. I +thank you very, very much for them." +</P> + +<P> +As the machine rolled away Hepseba turned to old man Gifford: +</P> + +<P> +"I like both of them!" she stated most decisively. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER AGREES THAT <BR> +SAM TURNER IS ALL BUSINESS +</H3> + + +<P> +"And now," announced Sam in calm triumph as they neared Hollis Creek +Inn, "I'll finish up this deal right away. There is no use in my +holding for a further rise at this time, and I'll just sell these trees +to your father." +</P> + +<P> +"To father!" she gasped, and then, as it dawned upon her that she had +been out all morning to help Sam Turner buy up trees to sell to her own +father at a profit, she burst forth into shrieks of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the joke?" Sam asked, regarding her in amazement, and then, +more or less dimly, he perceived. "Still," he said, relapsing into +serious consideration of the affair, "your father will be in luck to +buy those trees at all, even at the ten dollars a thousand profit he'll +have to pay me. There is not less than a hundred thousand feet of +walnut in that grove. +</P> + +<P> +"Mercy!" she said. "Why, that will make you a thousand dollars for +this morning's drive; and the opportunity was entirely accidental, one +which would not have occurred if you hadn't come over to see me in this +machine. I think I ought to have a commission." +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to be fined," Sam retorted. "You had me scared stiff at one +time." +</P> + +<P> +"How was that?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course you didn't think, but when you told the boys that I was +going out to buy a walnut grove, they were right on their way to see +your father. It would have been very natural for one of them to +mention our errand. Your father might have immediately inquired where +there was walnut to be found, and have telephoned to old man Gifford +before I could reach him." +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't have worried!" stated Miss Josephine in a tone so +indignant that Sam turned to her in astonishment. "My father would not +have done anything so despicable as that, I am quite sure!" +</P> + +<P> +"He wouldn't!" exclaimed Sam. "I'll bet he would. Why, how do you +suppose your father became rich in the lumber trade if it wasn't +through snapping up bargains every time he found one?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have no doubt that my father has been and is a very alert business +man," retorted Miss Josephine most icily; "but after he knew that you +had started out actually to purchase a tract of lumber, he would +certainly consider that you had established a prior claim upon the +property." +</P> + +<P> +"Your father's name is Theophilus Stevens, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" said Sam, but he did not explain that exclamation, nor was he +asked to explain. Miss Stevens had been deeply wounded by the assault +upon her father's business morality, and she desired to hear no further +elaboration of the insult. +</P> + +<P> +She was glad that they were drawing up now to the porch, glad this +ride, with its many disagreeable features, was over, although she +carefully gathered up her bright-berried branches, which were not half +so much withered as she had expected them to be, and held her geranium +slips cautiously as she alighted. +</P> + +<P> +Her father came out to the edge of the porch to meet them. He paid no +attention to his daughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Sam Turner," said Mr. Stevens, stroking his aggressive beard, "I +hear you got it, confound you! What do you want for your lumber +contract?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just the advance of this morning's quotations," replied Sam. +"Princeman tell you I was after it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not at first," said Stevens. "I received a telegram about that +grove just an hour ago, from my partner. Princeman was with me when +the telegram came, and he told me then that you had just gone out on +the trail. I did my best to get Gifford by 'phone before you could +reach him." +</P> + +<P> +"Father!" exclaimed Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter, Jo?" +</P> + +<P> +"You say you actually tried to—to get in ahead of Mr. Turner in buying +this lumber, knowing that he was going down there purposely for it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly," admitted her father. +</P> + +<P> +"But did you know that I was with Mr. Turner?" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Why, certainly</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +"Father!" was all she could gasp, and without deigning to say good-by +to Mr. Turner, or to thank him for the ride or the bouquet of branches +or even the geranium slips which she had received under false +pretenses, she hurried away to her room, oppressed with Heaven only +knows what mortification, and also with what wonder at the ways of men! +</P> + +<P> +However, Princeman and Billy Westlake and young Hollis with the curly +hair were impatiently waiting for Miss Josephine at the tennis court, +as they informed her in a jointly signed note sent up to her by a boy, +and hastily removing the dust of the road she ran down to join them. +As she went across the lawn, tennis bat in hand, Sam Turner, discussing +lumber with Mr. Stevens, saw her and stopped talking abruptly to admire +the trim, graceful figure. +</P> + +<P> +"Does your daughter play tennis much?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"A great deal," returned Mr. Stevens, expanding with pride. "Jo's a +very expert player. She's better at it than any of these girls, and +she really doesn't care to play except with experts. Princeman, Hollis +and Billy Westlake are easily the champions here." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Sam thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you're a crack player yourself," his host resumed, glancing +at Sam's bat. +</P> + +<P> +"Me? No, worse than a dub. I never had time; that is, until now. +I'll tell you, though, this being away from the business grind is a +great thing. You don't know how I enjoy the fresh air and the being +out in the country this way, and the absolute freedom from business +cares and worries." +</P> + +<P> +"But where are you going?" asked Stevens, for Sam was getting up. +"You'll stay to lunch with us, won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, thanks," replied Sam, looking at his watch. "I expect some word +from my kid brother. I have wired him to send some samples of marsh +pulp, and the paper we've had made from it." +</P> + +<P> +"Marsh pulp," repeated Mr. Stevens. "That's a new one on me. What's +it like?" +</P> + +<P> +"Greatest stunt on earth," replied Sam confidently. "It is our scheme +to meet the deforestation danger on the way—coming." +</P> + +<P> +Already he was reaching in his pocket for paper and pencil, and sat +down again at the side of Mr. Stevens, who immediately began stroking +his aggressive beard. Fifteen minutes later Sam briskly got up again +and Mr. Stevens shook hands with him. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a great scheme," he said, and he gazed after Sam's broad +shoulders admiringly as that young man strode down the steps. +</P> + +<P> +On his way Sam passed the tennis court where the one girl and three +young men were engaged in a most dextrous game, a game which all the +other amateurs of Hollis Creek Inn had stopped their own sets to watch. +In the pause of changing sides Miss Josephine saw him and waved her +hand and wafted a gay word to him. A second later she was in the air, +a lithe, graceful figure, meeting a high "serve," and Sam walked on +quite thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +When he arrived at Meadow Brook his first care was for his telegram. +It was there, and bore the assurance that the samples would arrive on +the following morning. His next step was to hunt Miss Westlake. That +plump young person forgot her pique of the morning in an instant when +he came up to her with that smiling "been-looking-for-you-everywhere, +mighty-glad-to-see-you" cordiality. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to teach me tennis," he said immediately. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I can't teach you much," she replied with becoming +diffidence, "because I'm not a good enough player myself; but I'll do +my best. We'll have a set right after luncheon; shall we?" +</P> + +<P> +"Fine!" said he. +</P> + +<P> +After luncheon Mr. Westlake and Mr. Cuthbert waylaid him, but he merely +thrust his telegram into Mr. Westlake's hands, and hurried off to the +tennis grounds with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and lanky Bob +Tilloughby, who stuttered horribly and blushed when he spoke, and was +in deadly seriousness about everything. Never did a man work so hard +at anything as Sam Turner worked at tennis. He had a keen eye and a +dextrous wrist, and he kept the game up to top-notch speed. Of course +he made blunders and became confused in his count and overlooked +opportunities, but he covered acres of ground, as Vivian Hastings +expressed it, and when, at the end of an hour, they sat down, panting, +to rest, young Tilloughby, with painful earnestness, assured him that +he had "the mum-mum-makings of a fine tennis player." +</P> + +<P> +Sam considered that compliment very thoughtfully, but he was a trifle +dubious. Already he perceived that tennis playing was not only an +occupation but a calling. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said he. "It's mighty nice of you to say so, Tilloughby. +What's the next game?" +</P> + +<P> +"The nun-nun-next game is a stroll," Tilloughby soberly advised him. +"It always stus-stus-starts out as a foursome, and ends up in +tut-tut-two doubles." +</P> + +<P> +So they strolled. They wound along the brookside among some of the +pretty paths, and in the rugged places Miss Westlake threw her weight +upon Sam's helping arm as much as possible; in the concealed places she +languished, which she did very prettily, she thought, considering her +one hundred and sixty-three pounds. They took him through a detour of +shady paths which occupied a full hour to traverse, but this particular +game did not wind up in "two doubles." In spite of all the excellent +tête-à-tête opportunities which should have risen for both couples, +Miss Westlake was annoyed to find Miss Hastings right close behind, and +holding even the conversation to a foursome. +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime, Sam Turner took careful lessons in the art of talking +twaddle, and they never knew that he was bored. Having entered into +the game he played it with spirit, and before they had returned to the +house Mr. Tilloughby was calling him Sus-Sus-Sam. +</P> + +<P> +The girls disappeared for their beauty sleep, and Sam found McComas and +Billy Westlake hunting for him. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you play base-ball?" inquired McComas. +</P> + +<P> +"A little. I used to catch, to help out my kid brother, who is an +expert pitcher." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" said McComas, writing down Sam's name. "Princeman will pitch, +but we needed a catcher. The rivalry between Meadow Brook and Hollis +Creek is intense this year. They've captured nearly all the early +trophies, but we're going over there next week for a match game and +we're about crazy to win." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll do the best I can," promised Sam. "Got a base-ball? We'll go +out and practise." +</P> + +<P> +They slammed hot ones into each other for a half hour, and when they +had enough of it, McComas, wiping his brow, exclaimed approvingly: +</P> + +<P> +"You'll do great with a little more warming up. We have a couple of +corking players, but we need them. Hollis always pitches for Hollis +Creek, and he usually wins his game. On baseball day he's the idol of +all the girls." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner placed his hand meditatively upon the back of his neck as he +walked in to dress for dinner. Making a good impression upon the girls +was a separate business, it seemed, and one which required much +preparation. Well, he was in for the entire circus, but he realized +that he was a little late in starting. In consequence he could not +afford to overlook any of the points; so, before dressing for dinner, +he paid a quiet visit to the greenhouses. +</P> + +<P> +That evening, while he was bowling with all the earnestness that in him +lay, Josephine Stevens, resisting the importunities of young Hollis for +some music, sat by her father. +</P> + +<P> +"Father," she asked after long and sober thought, "was it right for +you, knowing Mr. Turner to be after that walnut lumber, to try to get +it away from him by telephoning?" +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly was!" he replied emphatically. "Turner went down there +with a deliberate intention of buying that lumber before I could get +it, so that he could sell it to me at as big a gain as possible. I +paid him one thousand dollars profit for his contract. I had struggled +my best to beat him to it; only I was too late. Both of us were +playing the game according to the rules, but he is a younger player." +</P> + +<P> +"I see." Another long pause. "Here's another thing. Mr. Turner +happened to know of this increase in the price of lumber, and he +hurried down there to a man who didn't know about that, and bought it. +If Mr. Gifford had known of the new rates, Mr. Turner could not have +bought those trees at the price he did, could he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not," agreed her father. "He would have had to pay nearly a +thousand dollars more for them." +</P> + +<P> +"Then that wasn't right of Mr. Turner," she asserted. +</P> + +<P> +"My child," said Mr. Stevens wearily, "all business is conducted for a +profit, and the only way to get it is by keeping alive and knowing +things that other people will find out to-morrow. Sam Turner is the +shrewdest and the livest young man I've met in many a day, and he's +square as a die. I'd take his word on any proposition; wouldn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think I'd take his word," she admitted, and very positively, +after mature deliberation. "But truly, father, don't you think he's +too much concentrated on business? He hasn't a thought in his mind for +anything else. For instance, this morning he came over to take me an +automobile ride around Bald Hill, and when he found out about this +walnut grove, without either apology or explanation to me he ordered +the chauffeur to drive right down there." +</P> + +<P> +"Fine," laughed her father. "I'd like to hire him for my manager, if I +could only offer him enough money. But I don't see your point of +criticism. It seems to me that he's a mighty presentable and likable +young fellow, good looking, and a gentleman in the sense in which I +like to use that word." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he is all of those things," she admitted again; "but it is a flaw +in a young man, isn't it," she persisted, betraying an unusually +anxious interest, "for him never to think of a solitary thing but just +business?" +</P> + +<P> +They were sitting in one of the alcoves of the assembly room, and at +that moment a bell-boy, wandering around the place with apparent +aimlessness, spied them and brought to Miss Josephine a big box. She +opened it and an exclamation of pleasure escaped her. In the box was a +huge bouquet of exquisite roses, soft and glowing, delicious in their +fragrance. +</P> + +<P> +Impulsively she buried her face in them. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how delightful!" she cried, and she drew out the white card which +peeped forth from amidst the stems. "They are from Mr. Turner!" she +gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"You're quite right about him," commented her father dryly. "He's all +business." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN WHICH THE SUMMER LOAFER ORDERS <BR> +SOME MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES +</H3> + + +<P> +Before Sam had his breakfast the next morning, he sat in his room with +some figures with which Blackrock and Cuthbert had provided him the +evening before. He cast them up and down and crosswise and diagonally, +balanced them and juggled them and sorted them and shifted them, until +at last he found the rat hole, and smiling grimly, placed those pages +of neat figures in a small letter file which he took from his trunk. +One thing was certain: the Meadow Brook capitalists were highly +interested in his plan, or they would never go to the trouble to +devise, so early in the game, a scheme for gaining control of the marsh +pulp corporation. Well, they were the exact people he wanted. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately after breakfast Miss Stevens telephoned over to thank him +for his beautiful roses, and he had the pleasure of letting her know, +quite incidentally, that he had gone down to the rose-beds and picked +out each individual blossom himself, which, of course, accounted for +their excellence. Also he suggested coming over that morning for a +brief walk. +</P> + +<P> +No, she was very sorry, but she was just making ready to go out +horseback riding with Mr. Hollis, who, by the way, was an excellent +rider; but they would be back from their canter about ten-thirty, and +if Mr. Turner cared to come over for a game of tennis before luncheon, +why— +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry I can't do it," returned Mr. Turner with the deepest of genuine +regret in his tone. "My kid brother is sending me some samples of pulp +and paper which will arrive at about eleven o'clock, and I have called +a meeting of some interested parties here to examine them at about +eleven." +</P> + +<P> +"Business again," she protested. "I thought you were on a vacation." +</P> + +<P> +"I am," he assured her in surprise. "I never lazied around so or +frittered up so much time in my life; and I'm enjoying every second of +my freedom, too. I tell you, it's fine. But say, this meeting won't +take over an hour. Why can't I come over right after lunch?" +</P> + +<P> +She was very sorry, this time a little less regretfully, that after +luncheon she had an engagement with Mr. Princeman to play a match game +of croquet. But, and here she relented a trifle, they were getting up +a hasty, informal dance over at Hollis Creek for that evening. Would +he come over? +</P> + +<P> +He certainly would, and he already spoke for as many dances as she +would give him. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give you what I can," she told him; "but I've already promised +three of them to Billy Westlake, who is a divine dancer." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner was deeply thoughtful as he turned away from the telephone. +Hollis was a superb horseback rider. Billy Westlake was a divine +dancer. Princeman, he had learned from Miss Stevens, who had spoken +with vast enthusiasm, was a base-ball hero. Hollis and Princeman and +Westlake were crack bowlers, also crack tennis players, and no doubt +all three were even expert croquet players. It was easy to see the +sort of men she admired. Sam Turner only knew one recipe to get +things, and he had made up his mind to have Miss Stevens. He promptly +sought Miss Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ride?" he wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Not as often as I'd like," she said. +</P> + +<P> +Really, she had half promised to go driving with Tilloughby, but it was +not an actual promise, and if it were she was quite willing to get out +of it, if Mr. Turner wanted her to go along, although she did not say +so. Young Tilloughby was notoriously an impossible match. But +possibly Mr. Tilloughby and Miss Hastings might care to join the party. +She suggested it. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly," said Sam heartily. "The more the merrier," which was +not the thing she wanted him to say. +</P> + +<P> +Tilloughby, a trifle disappointed yet very gracious, consented to ride +in place of drive, and Miss Hastings was only too delighted; entirely +too much so, Miss Westlake thought. Accordingly they rode, and Sam +insisted on lagging behind with Miss Westlake, which she took to be of +considerable significance, and exhibited a very obvious fluttering +about it. Sam's motive, however, was to watch Tilloughby in the +saddle, for in their conversation it had developed that Tilloughby was +a very fair rider; and everything that he saw Tilloughby do, Sam did. +En route they met Hollis and Miss Stevens, cantering just where the +Bald Hill road branched off, and the cavalcade was increased to six. +Once, in taking a narrow cross-cut down through the woods, Sam had the +felicity of riding beside Miss Stevens for a moment, and she put her +hand on his horse and patted its glossy neck and admired it, while Sam +admired the hand. He felt, in some way or other, that riding for that +ten yards by her side was a sort of triumph over Hollis, until he saw +her dash up presently by the side of Hollis again and chat brightly +with that young gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +Thereafter Sam quit watching Tilloughby and watched Hollis. Curly-head +was an accomplished rider, and Sam felt that he himself cut but an +awkward figure. In reality he was too conscious of his defects. By +strict attention he was proving himself a fair ordinary rider, but when +Hollis, out of sheer showiness, turned aside from the path to jump his +horse over a fallen tree, and Miss Stevens out of bravado followed him, +Sam Turner well-nigh ground his teeth, and, acting upon the impulse, he +too attempted the jump. The horse got over safely, but Sam went a +cropper over his head, and not being a particle hurt had to endure the +good-natured laughter of the balance of them. Miss Stevens seemed as +much amused as any one! He had not caught her look of fright as he +fell nor of concern as he rose, nor could he estimate that her laugh +was a mild form of hysteria, encouraged because it would deceive. What +an ass he was, he savagely thought, to exhibit himself before her in an +attempt like that, without sufficient preparation! He must ride every +morning, by himself. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Josephine and Mr. Hollis were bound for the Bald Hill circle, and +they insisted, the insistence being largely on the part of Miss +Stevens, on the others accompanying them; but Mr. Turner's engagement +at eleven o'clock would not admit of this, and reluctantly he took Miss +Hastings back with him, leaving Miss Westlake and young Tilloughby to +go on. The arrangement suited him very well, for at least Hollis' ride +with Miss Stevens would not be a tête-à-tête. Miss Westlake strove to +let him understand as plainly as she could that she was only going with +Mr. Tilloughby because of her previous semi-engagement with him—and +there seemed a coolness between Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings as they +separated. Miss Hastings did her best on the way back to console Mr. +Turner for the absence of Miss Westlake. Vivacious as she always was, +she never was more so than now, and before Sam knew it he had engaged +himself with her to gather ferns in the afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Upon his arrival at Meadow Brook, he found his express package and also +a couple of important letters awaiting him, and immediately held on the +porch a full meeting of the tentative Marsh Pulp Company. In that +meeting he decided on four things: first, that these hard-headed men of +business were highly favorable to his scheme; second, that Princeman +and Cuthbert, who knew most about paper and pulp, were so profoundly +impressed with his samples that they tried to conceal it from him; +third, that Princeman, at first his warmest adherent, was now most +stubbornly opposed to him, not that he wished to prevent forming the +company, but that he wished to prevent Sam's having his own way; +fourth, that the crowd had talked it over and had firmly determined +that Sam should not control their money. Princeman was especially +severe. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no question but that these samples are convincing of their +own excellence," he admitted; "but properly to estimate the value of +both pulp and paper, it would be necessary to know, by rigid +experiment, the precise difficulties of manufacture, to say nothing of +the manner in which these particular specimens were produced." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Princeman's words had undoubted weight, casting, as they did, a +clammy suspicion upon Sam's samples. +</P> + +<P> +"I had thought of that," confessed Mr. Turner, "and had I not been +prepared to meet such a natural doubt, to say nothing of such a natural +insinuation, I should never have submitted these samples. Mr. +Princeman, do you know G. W. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Princeman, with a wince, did, for G. W. Creamer and the Eureka +Paper Mills were his most successful competitors in the manufacture of +special-priced high-grade papers. Mr. Cuthbert also knew Mr. Creamer +intimately. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said Sam; "then Mr. Creamer's letter will have some weight," +and he turned it over to Mr. Blackrock. That gentleman, setting his +spectacles astride his nose and assuming his most profoundly +professional air, read aloud the letter in which Mr. Creamer thanked +Turner and Turner for reposing confidence enough in him to reveal their +process and permit him to make experiments, and stated, with many +convincing facts and figures, that he had made several separate samples +of the pulp in his experimental shop, and from the pulp had made paper, +samples of which he enclosed under separate cover, stating further that +the pulp could be manufactured far cheaper than wood pulp, and that the +quality of the paper, in his estimation, was even superior; and when +the company was formed, he wished to be set down for a good, fat block +of stock. +</P> + +<P> +Having submitted exhibit A in the form of his brother's samples of pulp +and paper, exhibit B in the form of Mr. Creamer's letter, and exhibit C +in the form of Mr. Creamer's own samples of pulp and paper, Mr. Turner +rested quite comfortably in his chair, thank you. +</P> + +<P> +"This seems to make the thing positive," admitted Mr. Princeman. "Mr. +Turner, would you mind sending some samples of your material to my +factory with the necessary instructions?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," replied Sam suavely. "We would be pleased indeed to do +so, just as soon as our patents are allowed." +</P> + +<P> +"Pending that," suggested Mr. Westlake placidly, looking out over the +brook, "why couldn't we organize a sort of tentative company? Why +couldn't we at least canvass ourselves and see how much of Mr. Turner's +stock we would take up among us?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is," put in Mr. Cuthbert, screwing the remark out of himself +sidewise, "provided the terms of incorporation and promotion were +satisfactory to us." +</P> + +<P> +"I have already drawn up a sort of preliminary proposition, after +consultation with our friends here," Mr. Blackrock now stated, "and +purely as a tentative matter it might be read." +</P> + +<P> +"Go right ahead," directed Sam. "I'm a good listener." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Blackrock slowly and ponderously read the proposed plan of +incorporation. Sam rose and looked at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"It won't do," he announced sharply. "That whole thing, in accordance +with the figures you submitted me last night, is framed up for the sole +purpose of preventing my ever securing control, and if I do not have a +chance, at least, at control, I won't play." +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to be very sure of that," said Mr. Princeman, surveying him +coldly; "but there is another thing equally sure, and that is that you +can not engage capital in as big an enterprise as this on any basis +which will separate the control and the money." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to try it, though," retorted Sam. "If I can't separate the +control and the money I suppose I'll have to put up with the best terms +I can get. If you will let me have that prospectus of yours, Mr. +Blackrock, I'll take it up to my room and study it, and draw up a +counter prospectus of my own." +</P> + +<P> +"With pleasure," said Mr. Blackrock, handing it over courteously, and +Mr. Turner rose. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say this much, Sam," stated Mr. Westlake, who seemed to have +grown more friendly as Mr. Princeman grew cooler; "if you can get a +proposition upon which we are all agreed, I'll take fifty thousand of +that stock myself, at fifty." +</P> + +<P> +"As a matter of fact, Mr. Turner," added Mr. Cuthbert, "including your +friend Creamer, who insists upon being in, I imagine that we can +finance your entire company right in this crowd—if the terms are +right." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, I'm sure," said Mr. Turner, +and bowed himself away. +</P> + +<P> +In place of going to his room, however, he went to the telegraph +office, and wired his brother in New York: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"How are you coming on with pulp company stock subscription?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The telegraph office was in one corner of the post-office, which was +also a souvenir room, with candy and cigar counters, and as he turned +away from the telegraph desk he saw Princeman at the candy counter. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't care for any of these," Princeman was saying. "If you +haven't maraschino chocolates I don't want any." +</P> + +<P> +Sam immediately stepped back to the telegraph desk and sent another +wire to his brother: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Express fresh box maraschino chocolates to Miss Josephine Stevens +Hollis Creek Inn enclose my card personal cards in upper right-hand +pigeonhole my desk." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Then he went up-stairs to get ready for lunch. Immediately after +luncheon he received the following wire from his brother: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Stock subscription rotten everybody likes scheme but object to our +control but no hurry why don't you rest maraschinos shipped +congratulate you." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHICH EXHIBITS THE IMPORTANCE <BR> +OF REMEMBERING A DANCE NUMBER +</H3> + + +<P> +And so the kid was finding the same trouble which he had met. They had +been too frank in stating that they intended to obtain control of the +company without any larger investments than their patents and their +scheme. Sam wandered through the hall, revolving this matter in his +mind, and out at the rear door, which framed an inviting vista of +green. He strolled back past the barn toward the upper reaches of the +brook path, and sitting amid the comfortably gnarled roots of a big +tree he lit a cigar and began with violence to snap little pebbles into +the brook. If he were promoting a crooked scheme, he reflected +savagely, he would have no difficulty whatever in floating it upon +almost any terms he wanted. Well, there was one thing certain; at the +finish, control would be in his own hands! But how to secure it and +still float the company promptly and advantageously? There was the +problem. He liked this crowd. They were good, keen, vigorous, +enterprising men, fine men with whom to do business, men who would +snatch control away from him if they could, and throw him out in the +cold in a minute if they deemed it necessary or expedient. Of course +that was to be expected. It was a part of the game. He would rather +deal with these progressive people, knowing their tendencies, than with +a lot of sapheads. +</P> + +<P> +How to get control? He lingered long and thoughtfully over that +question, perhaps an hour, until presently he became aware that a +slight young girl, with a fetching sun-hat and a basket, was walking +pensively along the path on the opposite side of the brook, for the +third time. Her passing and repassing before his abstracted and +unseeing vision had become slightly monotonous, and for the first time +he focused his eyes back from their distant view of pulp marshes and +stock certificates and inspected the girl directly. Why, he knew that +girl! It was Miss Hastings. +</P> + +<P> +As if in obedience to his steady gaze she looked across at him and +waved her basket. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are you going?" he asked with the heartiness of enforced +courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +"After ferns," she responded, and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"By George, that's so!" he said, and ran up the stream to a narrow +place where he made a magnificent jump and only got one shoe wet. +</P> + +<P> +He was profuse, not in his apologies, but in his intention to make them. +</P> + +<P> +"Jinks!" he said. "I'm ashamed to say I forgot all about that. I +found myself suddenly confronted with a business proposition that had +to be worked out, and I thought of nothing else." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you succeeded," she said pleasantly. +</P> + +<P> +There wasn't a particle of vengefulness about Miss Hastings. She was +not one to hold this against him; he could see that at once! She +understood men. She knew that grave problems frequently confronted +them, and that such minor things as fern gathering expeditions would +necessarily have to step aside and be forgotten. She was one of the +bright, cheerful, always smiling kind; one who would make a sunshiny +helpmate for any man, and never object to anything he did—before +marriage. +</P> + +<P> +All this she conveyed in lively but appealing chatter; all, that is, +except the last part of it, a deduction which Sam supplied for himself. +For the first time in his life he had paused to judge a girl as he +would "size up" a man, and he was a little bit sorry that he had done +so, for while Miss Hastings was very agreeable, there was a certain +acidulous sharpness about her nose and uncompromising thinness about +her lips which no amount of laughing vivacity could quite conceal. +</P> + +<P> +Dutifully, however, he gathered ferns for the rockery of her aunt in +Albany, and Miss Hastings, in return, did her best to amuse and +delight, and delicately to convey the thought of what an agreeable +thing it would be for a man always to have this cheerful companionship. +She even, on the way back, went so far as inadvertently to call him +Sam, and apologized immediately in the most charming confusion. +</P> + +<P> +"Really," she added in explanation, "I have heard Mr. Westlake and the +others call you Sam so often that the name just seems to slip out." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right," he said cordially. "Sam's my name. When people call +me Mr. Turner I know they are strangers." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I think I shall call you Sam," she said, laughing most +engagingly. "It's so much easier," and sure enough she did as soon as +they were well within the hearing of Miss Westlake, at the hotel. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Sam," she called, turning in the doorway, "you have my gloves in +your pocket." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake stiffened like an icicle, and a stern resolve came upon +her. Whatever happened, she saw her duty plainly before her. She had +introduced Mr. Turner to Miss Hastings, and she was responsible. It +was her moral obligation to rescue him from the clutches of that +designing young person, and she immediately reminded him that she had +an engagement to give him a tennis lesson every day. There was still +time for a set before dinner. Also, far be it from her to be so +forward as to call him Sam, or to annoy him with silly chattering. She +was serious-minded, was Miss Westlake, and sweet and helpful; any man +could see that; and she fairly adored business. It was so interesting. +</P> + +<P> +When they came back from their tennis game, hurrying because it was +high time to dress for dinner and the dance, she met Miss Hastings in +the hall, but the two bosom friends barely nodded. There had sprung up +an unaccountable coolness between them, a coolness which Sam by no +means noticed, however, for at the far end of the porch sat Princeman, +already back from Hollis Creek to dress, and with him were Westlake and +McComas and Blackrock and Cuthbert, and they were in very close +conference. When Sam approached them they stopped talking abruptly for +just one little moment, then resumed the conversation quite naturally, +even more than quite naturally in fact, and the experienced Sam smiled +grimly as he excused himself to dress. +</P> + +<P> +Billy Westlake met him as he was going up-stairs. To Billy had been +entrusted the office of rounding up all the young people who were going +over to Hollis Creek, and by previous instruction, though wondering at +his sister's choice, he assigned Sam to that young lady, a fate which +Sam accepted with becoming gratitude. +</P> + +<P> +He had plenty of food for thought as he donned his costume of dead +black and staring white, and somehow or other he was distrait that +evening all the way over to Hollis Creek. Only when he met Miss +Stevens did he brighten, as he might well do, for Miss Stevens, +charming in every guise, was a revelation in evening costume; a +ravishing revelation; one to make a man pause and wonder and stand in +awe, and regard himself as a clumsy creature not worthy to touch the +hem of the garment which embellished such a divine being. Nevertheless +he conquered that wave of diffidence in a jiffy, or something like half +that space of time, and shook hands with her most eagerly, and looked +into her eyes and was grateful; for he found them smiling up at him in +most friendly fashion, and with rather an electric thrill in them, too, +though whether the thrill emanated from the eyes or was merely within +himself he was not sure. +</P> + +<P> +"How many dances do I get?" he abruptly demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Just two," she told him, and showed him her card and gave him one on +which a list of names had already been marked by the young ladies of +Hollis Creek. +</P> + +<P> +He saw on the card two dances with Miss Stevens, one each with Miss +Westlake and Miss Hastings, and one each with a number of other young +ladies whom he had met but vaguely, and one each with some whom he had +not met at all. He dutifully went through the first dance with a young +lady of excellent connections who would make a prime companion for any +advancing young man with social aspirations; he went dutifully through +the next dance with a young lady who was keen on intellectual pursuits, +and who would make an excellent helpmate for any young man who wished +to advance in culture as he progressed in business, and danced the next +one with a young lady who believed that home-making should be the +highest aim of womankind; and then came his first dance with Miss +Stevens! They did not talk very much, but it was very, very comforting +to be with her, just to know that she was there, and to know that +somehow she understood. He was sorry, though, that he stepped upon her +gown. +</P> + +<P> +The promenade, which had seemed quite long enough with the other young +ladies, seemed all too short for Sam up to the point when Billy +Westlake came to take Miss Josephine away. He was feeling rather +lonely when Tilloughby came up to him, with a charming young lady who +was in quite a flutter. It seemed that there had been a dreadful +mistake in the making out of the dance cards, which the young ladies of +Hollis Creek had endeavored to do with strict equity, though hastily, +and all was now inextricable confusion. The charming young lady was on +the cards for this dance with both Mr. Tilloughby and Mr. Turner, and +Mr. Tilloughby had claimed her first. Would Mr. Turner kindly excuse +her? Just behind her came another young lady whom Mr. Tilloughby +introduced. This young lady was on Sam's card for the next dance +following this one, but it should be for the eighth dance, and would +Mr. Turner please change his card accordingly, which Mr. Turner +obligingly did, wondering what he should do when it came to the eighth +dance and he should find himself obligated to two young ladies. Oh, +well, he reflected, no doubt the other young lady was down for the +eighth dance with some one else, if they had things so mixed. Of one +thing he was sure. He had that tenth dance with Miss Stevens. He had +inspected both cards to make certain of that, and had seen with +carefully concealed joy that she had compared them as minutely as he +had. He saw confusion going on all about him, laughing young people +attempting to straighten out the tangle, and the dance was slow in +starting. +</P> + +<P> +Almost the first two on the floor were Miss Stevens and Billy Westlake, +and as he saw them, from his vantage point outside one of the broad +windows, gliding gracefully up the far side of the room, he realized +with a twinge of impatience what a remarkably unskilled dancer he +himself was. Billy and Miss Stevens were talking, too, with the +greatest animation, and she was looking up at Billy as brightly, even +more brightly he thought, than she had at himself. There was a +delicate flush on her cheeks. Her lips, full and red and deliciously +curved, were parted in a smile. Confound it anyhow! What could she +find to talk about with Billy Westlake? +</P> + +<P> +He was turning away in more or less impatience, when Mr. Stevens, +looking, in some way, with his aggressive, white, outstanding beard, as +if he ought to have a red ribbon diagonally across his white shirt +front, ranged beside him. +</P> + +<P> +"Fine sight, isn't it?" observed Mr. Stevens. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," admitted Mr. Turner, almost shortly, and forced himself to turn +away from the following of that dazzling vision, which was almost +painful under the circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +By mutual impulse they walked down the length of the side porch and +across the front porch. Sam drew himself away from dancing and certain +correlated ideas with a jerk. +</P> + +<P> +"I've been wanting to talk with you, Mr. Stevens," he observed. "I +think I'll drop over to-morrow for a little while." +</P> + +<P> +"Glad to have you any time, Sam," responded Mr. Stevens heartily, "but +there is no time like the present, you know. What's on your mind?" +</P> + +<P> +"This Marsh Pulp Company," said Sam; "do you know anything about pulp +and paper?" +</P> + +<P> +"A little bit. You know I have some stock in Princeman's company." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," returned Sam thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Not enough to hurt, however," Stevens went on. "Twenty shares, I +believe. When I went in I had several times as much, but not enough to +make me a dominant factor by any means, and Princeman, as he made more +money, wanted some of it, so I let him buy up quite a number of shares. +At one time I was very much interested, however, and visited the mills +quite frequently." +</P> + +<P> +"You're rather close to Princeman in a business way, aren't you?" Sam +asked after duly cautious reflection. +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all, although we get along very nicely indeed. I made money on +my paper stock, both in dividends and in a very comfortable advance +when I sold it. Our relations have always been friendly, but very +little more. Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing. Only Princeman is much interested in my Pulp Company, +and all the people who are going in are his friends. The crowd over at +Meadow Brook talks of taking up approximately the entire stock of my +company. I thought possibly you might be interested." +</P> + +<P> +"I am right now, from what I have already heard of it," returned +Stevens, who had almost at first sight succumbed to that indefinable +personal appeal which caused Sam Turner to be trusted of all men. "I +shall be very glad to hear more about it. It struck me when you spoke +of it yesterday as a very good proposition." +</P> + +<P> +They had reached the dark corner at the far end of the porch, illumined +only by the subdued light which came from a half-hidden window, and now +they sat down. Sam fished in the little armpit pocket of his dress +coat and dragged forth two tiny samples of pulp and two tiny samples of +paper. +</P> + +<P> +"These two," he stated, "were samples sent me to-day by my kid brother." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens took the samples and examined them with interest. He felt +their texture. He twisted them and crumpled them and bent them +backward and forward and tore them. Then, the light at this window +being too weak, he went to one of the broad windows where a stronger +stream of light came out, and examined them anew. Sam, still sitting +in his chair, nodded in satisfied approval. He liked that kind of +inspection. Mr. Stevens brought the samples back. +</P> + +<P> +"They are excellent, so far as I am able to judge," he announced. +"These are samples made by yourselves from marsh products?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," Sam assured him. "Made from marsh-grown material by our new +process, which is much cheaper than the wood-pulp process. Do you know +Mr. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not very well. I've met him once or twice at dinners, but I'm not +intimately acquainted with him. I hear, however, that he is an +authority." +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a letter from him, and some samples made by him under our +process," said Sam with secret satisfaction. "I just received them +this morning." From the same pocket he took the letter without its +envelope, and with it handed over the two other small samples. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a fine showing," Stevens commented when he had examined +document and samples and brought them back, and he sat down, edging +about so that he and Sam sat side by side but facing each other, as in +a tête-à-tête chair. "Now tell me all about it." +</P> + +<P> +On and on went the music in the ball-room, on went the shuffling of +feet, the swish of garments, the gay talk and laughter of the young +people; and on and on talked Mr. Stevens and Mr. Turner, until one +familiar strain of music penetrated into Sam's inner consciousness; the +<I>Home Sweet Home</I> waltz! +</P> + +<P> +"By George!" he exclaimed, jumping up. "That can't be the last." +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds like it," commented Mr. Stevens, also rising. "It is the last +if they make up programs as they did in my young days. I don't +remember of many dances where the <I>Home Sweet Home</I> waltz didn't end it +up. It's late enough anyhow. It's eleven-thirty." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I have done it again!" said Sam ruefully. "I had the number ten +dance with your daughter." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes to laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly have put your foot in it," he admitted. "Oh, well, Jo's +sensible," he added with a father's fond ignorance. "She'll +understand." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I'm afraid of," replied Mr. Turner ruefully. "You'll have +to intercede for me. Explain to her about it and soften the case as +much as you can. Frankly, Mr. Stevens, I'd be tremendously cut up to +be on the outs with Miss Josephine." +</P> + +<P> +"There are shoals of young men who feel that way about it, Sam," said +Mr. Stevens with large and commendable pride. "However, I am glad that +you have added yourself to the list," and he gazed after Sam with +considerable approbation, as that young man hurried away to display his +abjectness to the young lady in question. +</P> + +<P> +Three times, on the arm of Princeman, she whirled past the open doorway +where Sam stood, but somehow or other he found it impossible to catch +her eye. The dance ended when she was on the other side of the room, +and immediately, with the last strains, the floor was in confusion. +Sam tried desperately to hurry across to where she was, but he lost her +in the crowd. He did not see her again until all of the Meadow Brook +folk, including himself, were seated in the carryalls, at which time +the Hollis Creek folk were at the edge of the porte-cochère and both +parties were exchanging a gabbling pandemonium of good-bys. He saw her +then, standing back among the crowd, and shouting her adieus as +vociferously as any of them. He caught her eye and she nodded to him +as pleasantly as to anybody, which was really worse than if she had +refused to acknowledge him at all! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME +</H3> + + +<P> +No, Miss Stevens was sorry that she could not go walking with him that +morning, which was the morning after the dance. She was very polite +about it, too; almost too polite. Her voice over the telephone was as +suave and as limpid as could possibly be, but there was a sort of +metallic glitter behind it, as it were. +</P> + +<P> +No, she could not see him that afternoon either. She had made a series +of engagements, in fact, covering the entire day. Also, she regretted +to say, upon further solicitation, that she had made engagements +covering the entire following day. +</P> + +<P> +No, she was not piqued about his last night's forgetfulness; by no +means; certainly not; how absurd! +</P> + +<P> +She quite understood. He had been talking business with her father, +and naturally such a trifling detail as a dance with frivolous young +people would not occur to him. +</P> + +<P> +Frivolous young people! This was the exact point of the conversation +at which Sam, with his ear glued to the receiver of the telephone and +no necessity for concealing the concerned expression on his +countenance, thought, in more or less of a panic, that he must really +be getting old, which was a good joke, inasmuch as nobody ever took him +to be over twenty-five. Heretofore his boyish appearance had worried +him because it rather stood in the way of business, but now he began to +fear that he was losing it; for he was nearing thirty! +</P> + +<P> +Well, pleading was of no avail. He had to give it up. Reluctantly he +went out and took a solitary walk, then came in and religiously played +his two hours of tennis with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and +Tilloughby. Was he not on vacation, and must he not enjoy himself? +Just before he went in to luncheon, however, there was a telephone call +for him. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens was perplexed to know what divine intuition had told him +her obsession for maraschino chocolates. She had one in her fingers at +the very moment she was telephoning, and she was going to pop it into +her mouth while he talked. Being a mere man he could not realize how +delightfully refreshing was a maraschino chocolate. +</P> + +<P> +Sam had a lively picture of that dainty confection between the tips of +her dainty fingers; he could see the white hand and the graceful wrist, +and then he could see those exquisitely curved red lips parting with a +flash of white teeth to receive the delicacy; and he had an impulse to +climb through the telephone. +</P> + +<P> +A little bird had told him about her preference, he stated. He had +that little bird regularly in his employ to find out other preferences. +</P> + +<P> +"I had those sent just to show you that I am not altogether absorbed in +business," he went on; "that I can think of other things. Have another +chocolate." +</P> + +<P> +"I am," she laughingly said; "but I'm not going to eat them all. I'm +going to save one or two for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Good," returned Sam in huge delight and relief. "I'll come over to +get them any time you say." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," she gaily agreed. "As I told you this morning, I have an +engagement for this afternoon, but if you'll come over after luncheon +I'll try to find a half-hour or so for you anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +Great blotches of perspiration sprang out on his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"Jinks!" he ejaculated. "You know, right after you telephoned me this +morning I made an engagement with Mr. Blackrock and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Westlake, to go over some proposed incorporation papers." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, by all means, then, keep your engagement," she told him, and he +could feel the instant frigidity which returned to her tone. A +zero-like wave seemed to come right through the transmitter of the +telephone and chill the perspiration of his brow into a cold trickle. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'll see if I can not set that engagement off for a couple of +hours," he hastily informed her. +</P> + +<P> +"By no means," she protested, more frigidly than before. "Come to +think of it, I don't believe I'd have time anyhow. In fact, I'm sure +that I would not. Mr. Hollis is calling me now. Good-by." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute," he called desperately into the telephone, but it was +dead, and there is nothing in this world so dead as the telephone from +which connection has been suddenly shut off. +</P> + +<P> +Sam strode into the dining-room and went straight over to Blackrock's +table. +</P> + +<P> +"I find I have some pressing business right after luncheon," he said, +bending over that gentleman's chair. "I can't possibly meet you at two +o'clock. Will four do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly," Mr. Blackrock was kind enough to say, and he +furthermore agreed, with equal graciousness, to inform the others. +</P> + +<P> +Sam ate his luncheon in worried silence, replying only in monosyllables +to the remarks of McComas, who sat at his table, and of Mrs. McComas, +who had taken quite a young-motherly fancy to him; and the amount that +he ate was so much at variance with his usual hearty appetite that even +the maid who waited on his table, a tall, gangling girl with a vinegar +face and a kind heart, worried for fear he might be sick, and added +unordered delicacies to his American plan meal. He went over to Hollis +Creek in the swiftest conveyance he could obtain, which was naturally +an auto, but he did not have 'Ennery for his chauffeur, of which he was +heartily glad, for 'Ennery might have wanted to talk. +</P> + +<P> +On the porch of Hollis Creek Inn he found Princeman and Mr. Stevens in +earnest conversation. He knew what that meant. Princeman was already +discussing with Mr. Stevens the matter of control of the Marsh Pulp +Company. Princeman rose when Sam stepped up on the porch, and strolled +away from Mr. Stevens. He nodded pleasantly to Turner, and the latter, +returning the nod fully as pleasantly, was about to hurry on in search +of Miss Josephine, when Mr. Stevens checked him. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Sam," he called. "I've just been waiting to see you." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Sam. "I'll be around presently." +</P> + +<P> +"No, but come here," insisted Mr. Stevens. +</P> + +<P> +Sam cast a nervous glance about the grounds and along the side porch; +Miss Josephine most certainly was not among those present. He still +hesitated, impatient to get away. +</P> + +<P> +"Just a minute, Sam," insisted Stevens. "I want to talk to you right +now." +</P> + +<P> +With unwilling feet Sam went over. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down," directed Stevens, pushing forward a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" asked Sam, still standing. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been talking with Princeman and Westlake about your Marsh Pulp +Company." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," inquired Sam nervously. +</P> + +<P> +"And everybody seems to be most enthusiastic about it. Fact of the +matter is, my boy, I consider it a tremendous investment opportunity. +The only drawback there seems to be is in the matter of stock +distribution and voting power. I want you to explain this very fully +to me." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you were quite satisfied with our talk last night," returned +Sam, glancing hastily over his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"I am, in so far as the investment goes, Sam. I've promised you that +I'd take a good block of stock, and you've promised to make room for me +in the company. I expect to go through with that, but I want to know +about this other phase of the matter before I get into any +entanglements with opposing factions. Now you sit right down there and +tell me about it." +</P> + +<P> +Despairingly Sam sat down and proceeded briefly and concisely to +explain to him the various plans of incorporation which had been +proposed. Ten minutes later he almost groaned, as a trap, drawn by a +pair of handsome buckskin horses, driven by Princeman and containing +Miss Josephine, crunched upon the gravel driveway in front of the +porch. Miss Stevens greeted Mr. Turner very heartily indeed, Princeman +stopping for that purpose. Sam ran down and shook hands with her. Oh, +she was most cordial; just as cordial and polite as anybody he knew! +</P> + +<P> +"I did not expect you at all," she said, "but I knew you were here, for +I saw you from the window as you came up the drive. Pleasant weather, +isn't it? Oh, papa!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Mr. Stevens ponderously from his place on the porch. +</P> + +<P> +"Up on my dresser you will find a box of candy which Mr. Turner was +kind enough to have sent me, and he confesses that he has never tasted +maraschino chocolates. Won't you please run up and get them and let +Mr. Turner sample them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens. "If Sam Turner insists upon running me up +two flights of stairs on an errand of that sort, I suppose I'll have to +go. But he won't." +</P> + +<P> +"You're lazy," she said to her father in affectionate banter, then, +with a wave of her hand and a bright nod to Mr. Turner, she was gone! +</P> + +<P> +Sam trudged slowly up on the porch with the heart gone entirely out of +him for business; and yet, as he approached Mr. Stevens he pulled +himself together with a jerk. After all, she was gone, and he could +not bring her back, and in his talk with Stevens he had just approached +a grave and serious situation. +</P> + +<P> +"The fact of the matter is, Mr. Stevens," said he as he sat down again, +"these people are the very people I want to get into my concern, but +they are old hands at the stock incorporation game, and even before +I've organized the company they are planning to get it out of my hands. +Now it is my scheme, mine and the kid brother's, and I don't propose to +allow that." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Sam," said Mr. Stevens slowly, "you know capital of late has had +a lot of experience with corporate business, and it isn't the +fashionable thing this year for the control and the capital to be in +separate hands—right at the very beginning." +</P> + +<P> +This was the signal for the struggle, and Sam plunged earnestly into +the conflict. At three-fifteen he suddenly rose and made his adieus. +He would have liked to stay until Miss Josephine came back, so that he +could make one more desperate attempt to set himself right with her, +but there was that deferred engagement with Blackrock, and reluctantly +he whirled back to Meadow Brook. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN SAM TURNER PROVES HIMSELF <BR> +TO BE A VIOLENT FLIRT +</H3> + + +<P> +The rest of that week was a worried and an anxious one for Sam. He +sent daily advices to his brother, and he received daily advices in +return. The people upon whom he had originally counted to form the +Marsh Pulp Company had set themselves coldly against the matter of +control, and on comparing the apparent situation in New York with the +situation at Meadow Brook, he made sure that he could secure more +advantageous terms with the Princeman crowd. He spent his time in +wrestling with his prospective investors both singly and in groups, but +they were obdurate. They liked his company, they saw in it tremendous +possibilities, but they did not intend to invest their money where they +could not vote it. That was flat! +</P> + +<P> +This was on the business side. About the really important matter of +Miss Stevens, since his most recent bad performance, the time when he +had made the special trip to see her and had spent his time in talking +business with her father, he had not been able to come near her. She +was always engaged. He saw her riding with Hollis; he saw her driving +with Princeman; he saw her playing tennis with Billy Westlake, but the +greatest boon he ever received was a nod and a pleasant word. He +industriously sent her flowers. She as industriously sent him nice, +polite little notes of thanks. +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime, alternating with his marsh pulp wrangles, he worked +like a Trojan at the athletic graces he should have cultivated in his +younger days. He rode every morning; he practised every day at tennis +and croquet; every evening he bowled; and every time some one sat at +the piano and played dance music and the young people fell into +impromptu waltzes and two-steps on the porch, he joined them and danced +religiously with whomsoever he found to hand; usually Miss Hastings or +Miss Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +The latter ingenious young lady, during this while, continued to adore +business, and with increasing fervor every day, and regretted, quite +aloud, that she had never paid sufficient attention to this absorbing +amusement, out of which all the men, that is, those who were really +strong and purposeful, seem to derive so much satisfaction! On the +following Monday at Bald Hill, when Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook +fraternized together, in the annual union picnic, she found occasion +for the most direct tête-à-tête of all anent commercial matters. +</P> + +<P> +Under Bald Hill were any number of charming natural retreats, jumbles +of Titanically toy-strewn, clean, bare rocks, screened here and there +by tangles of young scrub oak and pine which grew apparently on bare +stone surfaces and out of infinitesimal chinks and crannies, in utter +defiance of all natural law. Go where you would on that day, there +were couples in each of the rock shelters; young couples, engaged in +that fascinating pastime of finding out all they could about each +other, and wondering about each other, and revealing themselves to each +other as much as they cared to do, and flirting; oh, in a perfectly +respectable sort of a way, you know; legitimate and commendable +flirting; the sort of flirting which is only experimental and +necessary, and which may cease at any moment to become mere airy +trifling, and turn into something intensely and desperately serious, +having a vital bearing upon the entire future lives of people; and +there were deeply solemn moments, in spite of all the surface hilarity +and gaiety, in many of these little out of way nooks kindly provided by +beneficent nature for this identical purpose. +</P> + +<P> +In one of these nooks, a curious sort of doll's amphitheatre, partly +screened by dwarf cedars, were Miss Westlake and Mr. Turner, and Sam +could not tell you to this day how she had roped him out of the herd, +and isolated him, and brought him there. +</P> + +<P> +"Business is just perfectly fascinating," she was saying. "I've been +talking a lot to papa about it here lately. He thinks a great deal of +you, by the way." +</P> + +<P> +"He does," Sam grunted in non-committal acknowledgment, with the sharp +reflection that he had better look out for himself if that were the +case, since the most of Westlake's old friends were bankrupt, he being +the best business man of them all. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; he says you have an excellent business proposition, too, in your +new Marsh Pulp Company." She said marsh pulp without an instant's +hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it's good myself," agreed Sam; "that is, if I can keep hold of +it." Inwardly he added, "And if I can keep old Westlake's clutches +off." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed lightly. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa mentioned that very thing," she informed him. "I don't think I +quite understand what control of stock means, although I've had papa +explain it to me. I gather this much, however, that it is something +you want very much, but can scarcely get without some large stockholder +voting his stock with you." +</P> + +<P> +Sam inspected her narrowly. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to have a pretty good idea of the thing after all," he +admitted, wondering how much she really knew and understood. "But +maybe your father wouldn't like your repeating to me what you +accidentally learned from him in conversation. Business men are +usually pretty particular about that." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he wouldn't mind at all," she said airily. "I'm having him +explain a lot of things to me, because he's making separate investments +for Billy and me. All his new enterprises are for us, and in the last +two or three years he's turned over lots of stock to us in our own +names. But I've never done any actual voting on it. I've only given +proxies. I sign a little blank, you know, that papa fills out for me +and shows me where to put my name and mails to somebody or other, or +else takes it and votes it himself; but I'd rather vote it my own self. +I should think it would be ever so much fun. I'm trying to find out +about how they do such things, and I'd be very glad to have you tell me +all you can about it. It's just perfectly fascinating." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is," Sam admitted. "So you think you may eventually own some +stock in the Marsh Pulp Company?" and he became quite interested. +</P> + +<P> +"If papa takes any I'm quite sure I shall," she returned; "and I think +he will, from what he said. He seems to be so enthusiastic about it +that I'm going to ask him for this stock, and let Billy have the next +that he buys. I hope he does take a good lot of it. Isn't this the +dearest place imaginable?" and with charming naïveté she looked about +the tiny amphitheatre-like circle, admiring the projecting stones which +formed natural seats, and the broad shelving of slippery rock which led +up to it. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is," said Sam with considerable thoughtfulness, and once more +inspected Miss Westlake critically. +</P> + +<P> +There was no question that she would be as stout as her mother and her +father when she reached their age. However, personal attractiveness is +an essence and can not be weighed by the pound. Sam was bound to +admit, after thoughtful judgment, that Miss Westlake might be +personally attractive to a great many people, but really there hadn't +seemed to be anything flowing from him to her or from her to him, even +when he had held tightly to her hand to help her up the steep slope of +the rock floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is a charming place," he once more admitted. "Looks almost as +if this little semi-circle had been built out of these loose rocks by +design. Of course, your father wouldn't take the original stock in +your name." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, I don't suppose so," she said. "He never does. He takes out +the stock himself, and then transfers it to us." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," Sam agreed; "and naturally he'd hold it long enough to +vote at the original stock-holders' meeting." +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't say about that," she laughed. "That's going beyond my +business depth just yet, but I'm going to learn all about such things," +and she looked across at him with apparent shy confidence that he would +take pleasure in teaching her. +</P> + +<P> +"Hoo-hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!" came a sudden call from down in the road, and, +turning, they saw Miss Hastings and Billy Westlake, who both waved +their hands at the amphitheatre couple and came scrambling up the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Princeman and Mr. Tilloughby are looking for you everywhere, +Hallie," said Miss Hastings to Miss Westlake. "You know you promised +to make that famous salad dressing of yours. Luncheon is nearly ready, +all but that, and they're waiting for you over at the glade. My, what +a dear little place this is! How did you ever find it?" Miss Hastings +was now quite conspicuously panting and fanning herself. "I'm so tired +climbing those rocks," she went on. "I shall simply have to sit down +and rest a bit. Billy will take you over, Hallie, and Mr. Turner will +bring me by and by, I am sure." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner stated that he would do so with pleasure. Miss Westlake +surveyed her dearest friend more in anger than in sorrow. It was such +a brazen trick, and she gazed from her brother to Mr. Turner in sheer +wonder that they were not startled into betrayal of how shocked they +were. Whatever strong emotions they might have had upon that subject +were utterly without reflection upon the outside, however, for Billy +Westlake and Sam Turner were eying each other solely with a vacuous +mutual wish of saying something decently polite and human. Mr. Turner +made a desperate stab. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you're in good form for the bowling tournament to-night," he +observed with self-urged anxiety. "Hollis Creek mustn't win, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm as near fit as usual," said Billy; "but Princeman is the chap +who's going to carry off the honors for Meadow Brook. Bowled an +average last night of two forty-five. I'm sorry you couldn't make the +team." +</P> + +<P> +"I should have started fifteen years ago to do that," said Sam with a +wry smile. "I think I would get along all right, though, if they +didn't have those grooves at the side of the alleys." +</P> + +<P> +Billy Westlake looked at him gravely. Since Sam did not smile, this +could not be a joke. +</P> + +<P> +"But they are absolutely necessary, you know," he protested, as he took +his sister's arm and helped her down the slope. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake went away entirely out of patience with the two men, and +very much to Billy's surprise gave him her revised estimate of that +Hastings girl. Miss Hastings, however, was in a far different frame of +mind. She was an exclamation point of admiration about an endless +variety of things; about the dear little amphitheatre, about how well +her friend Miss Westlake was looking and how successful Hallie had been +this summer in reducing, and how much Mr. Turner was improving in his +tennis and croquet and riding and bowling and everything. "And, Mr. +Turner, what is pulp? And do they actually make paper out of it?" she +wound up. +</P> + +<P> +Very gravely Mr. Turner informed her on the process of paper making, +and she was a chorus of little vivacious ohs and ahs all the way +through. She sat on the side of the stone circle from which she could +look down the road, and she chattered on and on and on, and still on, +until something she saw below warned her that she was staying an +unconscionable length of time, so she rose and told Mr. Turner they +must really go, and held out her hand to be helped down the slope. +That was really a very slippery rock, and it was probably no fault of +Miss Hastings that her feet slipped and that she had to throw herself +squarely into Mr. Turner's embrace, and even throw her arm up over his +shoulder to save herself. It was a staggery place, even for a sturdily +muscled young man like Mr. Turner to keep his footing, and with that +fair burden upon him he had to stand some little time poised there to +retain his balance. Then, very gently and carefully, he turned +straight about, lifting Miss Hastings entirely from her feet and +setting her gravely down on the safe ledge below the sloping rock; but +before he had even had time to let go of her he glanced down into the +road, toward which the turn had faced him, and saw there, looking up +aghast at the tableau, Mr. Princeman and Miss Stevens! +</P> + +<P> +The sharp and instantly suppressed laugh of Princeman came floating up +to them, but Miss Stevens turned squarely about in the direction of the +glade, and being instantly joined by Princeman, they walked quietly +away. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner suddenly found himself perspiring profusely, and was +compelled to mop his brow, but Miss Hastings disdained to give any sign +that anything unusual whatsoever had happened, except by walking with a +limp, albeit a very slight one, as she returned to the glade. That +limp comforted Mr. Turner somewhat, and, spying Miss Stevens in a +little group near the tables, he was very careful to parade Miss +Hastings straight over there and place her limp on display. Miss +Stevens, however, walked away; no mere limp could deceive her! +</P> + +<P> +Well, if she wanted to be miffed at a little accident like that, and +read things falsely, and think the worst of people, she might; that was +all Sam had to say about it! but what he had to say about it did not +comfort him. He rather savagely "shook" Miss Hastings at his first +opportunity, and Vivian's dearest friend, who had been hovering in the +offing, saw him do it, which was a great satisfaction to her. Later +she seized upon him, although he had savagely sworn to stick to the +men, and by some incomprehensible process Sam found himself once more +tête-à-tête with Miss Westlake, just over at the edge of the glade +where the sumac grew. She made him gather a lot of the leaves for her, +and showed him how they used to weave clover wreaths when she was a +little girl, and wove one for him of sumac, and gaily crowned him with +it; and just as she was putting the fool thing on his head he glanced +up, and there Princeman, laughing, was just passing them a little ways +off, in company with Miss Josephine Stevens! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE VALUE OF A PIANOLA TRAINING +</H3> + + +<P> +On that very same evening Hollis Creek came over to the bowling +tournament, and Miss Stevens, arriving with young Hollis, promptly lost +that perfervid young man, who had become somewhat of a nuisance in his +sentimental insistence. Mr. Turner, watching her from afar, saw her +desert the calfly smitten one, and immediately dashed for the breach. +He had watched from too great a distance, however, for Billy Westlake +gobbled up Miss Josephine before Sam could get there, and started with +her for that inevitable stroll among the brookside paths which always +preceded a bowling tournament. While he stood nonplussed, looking +after them, Miss Hastings glided to his side in a matter of course way. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it a perfectly charming evening?" she wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a regular dear of an evening," admitted Sam savagely. +</P> + +<P> +In his single thoughtedness he was scrambling wildly about within the +interior of his skull for a pretext to get rid of Miss Hastings, but it +suddenly occurred to him that now he had a legitimate excuse for +following the receding couple, and promptly upon the birth of this +idea, he pulled in that direction and Miss Hastings came right along, +though a trifle silently. With all her vivacious chattering, she was +not without shrewdness, and with no trouble whatever she divined +precisely why Sam chose the path he did, and why he seemed in such +almost blundering haste. They <I>were</I> a little late, it was true, for +just as they started, Billy and Miss Stevens turned aside and out of +sight into the shadiest and narrowest and most involved of the +shrubbery-lined paths, the one which circled about the little concealed +summer-house with a dove-cote on top, which was commonly dubbed "the +cooing place." Following down this path the rear couple suddenly came +upon a tableau which made them pause abruptly. Billy Westlake, upon +the steps of the summer-house, was upon his knees, there in the swiftly +blackening dusk, before the appalled Miss Stevens; actually upon his +knees! Silently the two watchers stole away, but when they were out of +earshot Miss Hastings tittered. Sam, though the moment was a serious +one for him, was also compelled to grin. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know they did it that way any more," he confessed. +</P> + +<P> +"They don't," Miss Hastings informed him; "that is, unless they are +very, very young, or very, very old." +</P> + +<P> +"Apparently you've had experience," observed Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she admitted a little bitterly. "I think I've had rather more +than my share; but all with ineligibles." +</P> + +<P> +Sam felt a trace of pity for Miss Hastings, who was of polite family, +but poor, and a guest of the Westlakes, but he scarcely knew how to +express it, and felt that it was not quite safe anyhow, so he remained +discreetly silent. +</P> + +<P> +By mutual, though unspoken impulse, they stopped under the shade of a +big tree up on the lawn, and waited for the couple who had been found +in the delicate situation either to reappear on the way back to the +house, or to emerge at the other end of the path on the way to the +bowling shed. It was scarcely three minutes when they reappeared on +the way back to the house, and both watchers felt an instant thrill of +relief, for the two were by no means lover-like in their attitudes. +Billy had hold of Miss Josephine's arm and was helping her up the +slope, but their shoulders were not touching in the process, nor were +arms clasped closely against sides. They passed by the big tree +unseeing, then, as they neared the house, without a word, they parted. +Miss Stevens proceeded toward the porch, and stopped to take a +handkerchief from her sleeve and pass it carefully and lightly over her +face. Billy Westlake strode off a little way toward the bowling shed, +stopped and lit a cigarette, took two or three puffs, started on, +stopped again, then threw the cigarette to the ground with quite +unnecessary vigor, and stamped on it. Miss Hastings, without adieus of +any sort, glided swiftly away in the direction of Billy, and then a dim +glimmer of understanding came to Sam Turner that only Miss Stevens had +stood in the way of Miss Hastings' capture of Billy Westlake. He +wasted no time over this thought, however, but strode very swiftly and +determinedly up to Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to find you alone," he said; "I want to make an explanation." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't bother about it," she told him frigidly. "You owe me no +explanations whatsoever, Mr. Turner." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to make them anyhow," he declared. "You saw me twice this +afternoon in utterly asinine situations." +</P> + +<P> +"I remember of no such situations," she stated still frigidly, and +started to move on toward the house. +</P> + +<P> +"But wait a minute," said Sam, catching her by the arm and detaining +her. "You did see me in silly situations, and I want you to know the +facts about them." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not at all interested," she informed him, now with absolute north +pole iciness, and started to move away again. +</P> + +<P> +He held her more tightly. +</P> + +<P> +"The first time," he went on, "was when Miss Hastings slipped on the +rocks and I had to catch her to keep her from falling." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you kindly let me go, Mr. Turner?" demanded Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I will not!" he replied, and pulled her about a trifle so that she +was compelled to face him. "I don't choose to have anybody, least of +all you, think wrongly of me." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner, I do not choose to be detained against my will," declared +Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner," boomed a deep-timbered voice right behind them, "the lady +has requested you to let her go. I should advise you to do so." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner was attempting to frame up a reasonable answer to this +demand when Miss Josephine prevented him from doing so. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Princeman," said she to the interrupting gallant, "I thank you for +your interference on my behalf, but I am quite capable of protecting +myself," and leaving the two stunned gentlemen together, she once more +took her handkerchief from her sleeve and walked swiftly up to the +porch, brushing the handkerchief lightly over her face again. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll be damned!" said Princeman, looking after her in more or +less bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +"So will I," said Sam. "Have you a cigarette about you?" +</P> + +<P> +Princeman gave him one and they took a light from the same match, then, +neither one of them caring to discuss any subject whatever at that +particular moment, they separated, and Sam hunted a lonely corner. He +wanted to be alone and gloom. Confound bowling, anyhow! It was a dull +and uninteresting game. He cared less for it as time went on, he +found; less to-night than ever. He crept away into the dim and +deserted parlor and sat down at the piano, the only friend in which he +cared to confide just then. He played, with a queer lingering touch +which had something of hesitation in it, and which reduced all music to +a succession of soft chords, <I>The Maid of Dundee</I> and <I>Annie Laurie</I>, +<I>The Banks of Banna</I> and <I>The Last Rose of Summer</I>, then one of the +simpler nocturnes of Chopin, and, following these, a quaint, slow +melody which was like all of the others and yet like none. +</P> + +<P> +"Bravo!" exclaimed a gentle voice in the doorway, and he turned, +startled, to see Miss Stevens standing there. She did not explain why +she had relented, but came directly into the room and stood at the end +of the piano. He reached up and shook hands with her quite naturally, +and just as naturally and simply she let her hand lie in his for an +instant. How soft and warm her palm was, and how grateful the touch of +it! +</P> + +<P> +"What a pleasant surprise!" she said. "I didn't know you played." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," he confessed, smiling. "If you had stopped to listen you +would have known. You ought to hear my kid brother play though. He's +a corker." +</P> + +<P> +"But I did listen," she insisted, ignoring the reference to his "kid +brother." "I stood there a long time and I thought it beautiful. What +was that last selection?" +</P> + +<P> +He flushed guiltily. +</P> + +<P> +"It was—oh, just a little thing I sort of put together myself," he +told her. +</P> + +<P> +"How delightful! And so you compose, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," he hastily assured her. "This is the only thing, and it +seemed to come just sort of naturally to me from time to time. I don't +suppose it's finished yet, because I never play it exactly as I did +before. I always seem to add a little bit to it. I do wish that I had +had time to know more of music. What little I play I learned from a +pianola." +</P> + +<P> +"A what?" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +He laughed in a half-embarrassed way. +</P> + +<P> +"A pianola," he repeated. "You see I've always been hungry for music, +and while my kid brother was still in college I began to be able to +afford things, and one of the first luxuries was a pianola. You know +the machine has a little lever which throws the keys in or out of +engagement, so that you can play it as a regular piano if you wish, and +if you leave the keys engaged while you are playing the rolls, they +work up and down; so by watching these I gradually learned to pick out +my favorite tunes by hand. I couldn't play them so well by myself as +the rolls played them, but somehow or other they gave me more +satisfaction." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens did not laugh. In some indefinable way all this made a +difference in Sam Turner—a considerable difference—and she felt quite +justified in having deliberately come to the conclusion that she had +been "mean" to him; in having deliberately slipped away from the others +as they were all going over to the bowling alleys; in having come back +deliberately to find him. +</P> + +<P> +"Your favorite tunes," she repeated musingly. "What was the first one, +I wonder? One of those that you have just been playing?" +</P> + +<P> +"The first one?" he returned with a smile. "No, it was a sort of +rag-time jingle. I thought it very pretty then, but I played it over +the other day, the first time in years, and I didn't seem to like it at +all. In fact, I wonder how I ever did like it." +</P> + +<P> +Rag-time! And now, left entirely to his own devices and for his own +pleasure, he was playing Chopin! Yes, it made quite a difference in +Sam Turner. She was glad that she had decided to wear his roses, glad +even that he recognized them. At her solicitation Sam played again the +plaintive little air of his own composition—and played it much better +than ever he had played it before. Then they walked out on the porch +and strolled down toward the bowling shed. Half way there was a little +side path, leading off through an arbor into a shady way which crossed +the brook on a little rustic bridge, which wound about between +flowerbeds and shrubbery and back by another little bridge, and which +lengthened the way to the bowling shed by about four times the normal +distance—and they took that path; and when they reached the bowling +alley they were not quite ready to go in. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-156"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-156.jpg" ALT="Sam played again the plaintive little air" BORDER="2" WIDTH="402" HEIGHT="549"> +<H3> +[Illustration: Sam played again the plaintive little air] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +There seemed no reasonable excuse for staying out longer, however, for +the bowling had already started, and, moreover, young Tilloughby +happened to come to the door and spied them. Princeman was just +getting up to bowl for the honor and glory of Meadow Brook, and within +one minute later Miss Stevens was watching the handsome young paper +manufacturer with absorbed interest. He was a fine picture of athletic +manhood as he stood up, weighing the ball, and a splendid picture of +masculine action as he rushed forward to deliver it. Sam had to +acknowledge that himself, and out of fairness he even had to join in +the mad applause when Princeman made strike after strike. They had +Princeman up again in the last frame, and it was a ticklish moment. +The Hollis Creek team was fifty points ahead. Dramatic unities, under +the circumstances, demanded that Princeman, by a tremendous exercise of +coolness and skill, overcome that lead by his own personal efforts, and +he did, winning the tournament for Meadow Brook with a breathless few +points to spare. +</P> + +<P> +But did Sam Turner care that Princeman was the hero of the hour? More +power to Princeman, for from the bevy of flushed and eager girls who +flocked about the Adonis-like victor, Miss Josephine Stevens was +absent. She was there, with him, in Paradise! Incidentally Sam made +an engagement to drive with her in the morning, and when, at the close +of that delightful evening, the carryall carried her away, she beamed +upon him; gave him two or three beams in fact, and said good-by +personally and waved her hand to him personally; nobody else was there +in all that crowd but just they two! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE WESTLAKES DECIDE TO INVEST +</H3> + + +<P> +Miss Hastings did not exactly snub Sam in the morning, but she was +surprisingly indifferent to him after all her previous cordiality, and +even went so far as to forget the early morning constitutional she was +to have taken with him; instead she passed him coolly by on the porch +right after an extremely early breakfast, and sauntered away down +lovers' lane, arm in arm with Billy Westlake, who was already looking +very much comforted. Sam, who had been dreading that walk, released it +with a sigh of intense satisfaction, planning that in the interim until +time for his drive, he would improve his tennis a bit with Miss +Westlake. He was just hunting her up when he met Bob Tilloughby, who +invited him to join a riding party from both houses for a trip over to +Sunset Rock. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry," said Sam with secret satisfaction, "but I've an engagement +over at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock," and Tilloughby carried that +information back to Miss Westlake, who had sent him. +</P> + +<P> +An engagement at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock, eh? Well, Miss Westlake +knew who that meant; none other than her dear friend, Josephine +Stevens! Being a young lady of considerable directness, she went +immediately to her father. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you definitely made up your mind, pop, to take stock in Mr. +Turner's company?" she asked, sitting down by that placid gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +Without removing his interlocked hands from their comfortable +resting-place in plain sight, he slowly twirled his thumbs some three +times, and then stopped. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think I shall," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"About how much?" Miss Westlake wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, about twenty-five thousand." +</P> + +<P> +"Who's to get it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I thought I'd divide it between Billy and you." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake put her hand on her father's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, pop, give it to me, please," she pleaded. "Billy can take the +next stock you buy, or I'll let him have some of my other in exchange." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake surveyed his daughter out of a pair of fish-gray eyes +without turning his head. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to be especially interested in this stock. You asked about +it yesterday and Sunday and one day last week." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am," she admitted. "It's a really first-class business +investment, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think it is," replied Westlake; "as good as any stock in an +untried company can be, anyhow. At least it's an excellent investment +chance." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I thought," she said. "I'm judging, of course, only by +what you say, and by my impression of Mr. Turner. It seems to me that +almost anything he goes into should be highly successful." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake slowly whirled his thumbs in the other direction, three +separate twirls, and stopped them. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he agreed. "I'm investing the money in just Sam myself, +although the scheme itself looks like a splendid one." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake was silent a moment while she twisted at the button on +her father's coat sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't quite understand this matter of stock control," she went on +presently. "You've explained it to me, but I don't seem quite to get +the meaning of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's like this," explained Mr. Westlake. "Sam Turner, with only +a paltry investment, say about five thousand dollars, wants to be able +to dictate the entire policy of a million-dollar concern. In other +words, he wants a majority of stock, which will let him come into the +stock-holders' meetings, and vote into office his own board of +directors, who will do just what he says; and if he wanted to he might +have them vote the entire profits of the concern for his salary." +</P> + +<P> +"But, father, he wouldn't do anything like that," she protested, +shocked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, he probably wouldn't," admitted Mr. Westlake, "but I wouldn't be +wise to let him have the chance, just the same." +</P> + +<P> +"But, father," objected Miss Hallie, after further thought, "it's his +invention, you know, and his process, and if he doesn't have control +couldn't all you other stock-holders get together and appropriate the +profits yourselves?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake gave his thumbs one quick turn. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he grudgingly confessed. "In fact, it's been done," and there +was a certain grim satisfaction at the corners of his mouth which his +daughter could not interpret, as he thought back over the long list of +absorptions which had made old Bill Westlake the power that he was. +</P> + +<P> +"But—but, father," and she hesitated a long time. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he encouraged her. +</P> + +<P> +"Even if you won't let him have enough stock to obtain control, if some +one other person should own enough of the stock, couldn't they put +their stock with his and let him do just about as he liked?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," agreed Mr. Westlake without any twirling of his thumbs at +all; "that's been done, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Would this twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of stock that you're +buying, pop, if it were added to what you men are willing to let Mr. +Turner have, give him control?" +</P> + +<P> +Again Mr. Westlake turned his speculative gray eyes upon his daughter +and gave her a long, careful scrutiny, which she received with downcast +lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he replied. +</P> + +<P> +"How much would?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, fifty thousand would do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, pop—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +Another long interval. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you'd buy fifty thousand for me in place of twenty-five." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph," grunted Mr. Westlake, and after one sharp glance at her he +looked down at his big fat thumbs and twirled them for a long, long +time. "Well," said he, "Sam Turner is a fine young man. I've known +him in a business way for five or six years, and I never saw a flaw in +him of any sort. All right. You give Billy your sugar stock and I'll +buy you this fifty thousand." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake reached over and kissed her father impulsively. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, pop," she said. "Now there's another thing I want you to do." +</P> + +<P> +"What, more?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, more," and this time the color deepened in her cheeks. "I want +you to hunt up Mr. Turner and tell him that you're going to take that +much." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake with a smile reached up and pinched his daughter's cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, Hallie, I'll do it," said he. +</P> + +<P> +She patted him affectionately on the bald spot. +</P> + +<P> +"Good for you," she said. "Be sure you see him this morning, though, +and before half-past nine." +</P> + +<P> +"You're particular about that, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it's rather important," she admitted, and blushed furiously. +</P> + +<P> +Westlake patted his daughter on the shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Hallie," said He, "if Billy only had your common-sense business +instinct, I wouldn't ask for anything else in this world; but Billy is +a saphead." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake, thinking that he understood the matter very thoroughly, +though in reality overunderstanding it—nice word, that—took it upon +himself with considerable seriousness to hunt up Sam Turner; but it was +fully nine-thirty before he found that energetic young man. Sam was +just going down the driveway in a neat little trap behind a team of +spirited grays. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute, Sam, wait a minute," hailed Westlake, puffing +laboriously across the closely cropped lawn. +</P> + +<P> +Sam held up his horses abruptly, and they stood swinging their heads +and champing at their bits, while Sam, with a trace of a frown, looked +at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"What's your rush?" asked Westlake. "I've been hunting for you +everywhere. I want to talk about some important features of that Marsh +Pulp Company of yours." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Sam. "I'm open for conversation. I'll see you right +after lunch." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I must see you now," insisted Westlake. "I've—I've got to +decide on some things right this morning. I—I've got to know how to +portion out my investments." +</P> + +<P> +Sam looked at his watch and was genuinely distressed. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry," said he, "but I have an engagement over at Hollis Creek at +exactly ten o'clock, and I've scant time to make it." +</P> + +<P> +"Business?" demanded Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +"No," confessed Sam slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, social then. Well, social engagements in America always play +second fiddle to business ones, and don't you forget it. I'll talk +about this matter this morning or I won't talk about it at all." +</P> + +<P> +Sam stopped nonplussed. Westlake was an important factor in the +prospective Marsh Pulp Company. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell you what you do," said he, after some quick thought. "Why can't +you get in the trap and drive over to Hollis Creek with me? We can +talk on the way and you can visit with your friends over there until +time for luncheon; then I'll bring you back and we can talk on the way +home, too." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Hallie and Princeman and young Tilloughby came cantering down the +drive and waved hands at the two men. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Westlake decisively, looking after his daughter and +answering her glance with a nod. "Wait until I get my hat," and he +wheeled abruptly away. +</P> + +<P> +Sam fumed and fretted and jerked his watch back and forth from his +pocket, while Westlake wasted fifteen precious minutes in waddling up +to the house and hunting for his hat and returning with it, and two +minutes more in bungling his awkward way into the buggy; then Sam +started the grays at such a terrific pace that, until they came to the +steep hill midway of the course, there was no chance for conversation. +While the horses pulled up this steep hill, however, Westlake had his +opportunity. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you know," he said, "that you're not going to be allowed +over two thousand shares of common stock for your patents." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm beginning to give up the hope of having more," admitted Sam. +"However, I'm going to stick it out to the last ditch." +</P> + +<P> +"It won't be permitted, so you might as well give up that idea. How +much stock do you think of buying?" +</P> + +<P> +"About five thousand dollars' worth of the preferred," said Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Which will give you fifty bonus shares of the common. I suppose of +course you figure on eventually securing control in some way or other." +</P> + +<P> +"Not being an infant, I do," returned Sam, flicking his whip at a weed +and gathering his lines up quickly as the mettled horses jumped. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know of any one person who's going to buy enough stock to help +you out in that plan; unless I should do it myself," suggested +Westlake, and waited. +</P> + +<P> +Sam surveyed the other man long and silently. Westlake, as the largest +minority shareholder, had done some very strange things to corporations +in his time. +</P> + +<P> +"Neither do I," said Sam non-committally. +</P> + +<P> +There was another long silence. +</P> + +<P> +"If you carry through this Marsh Pulp Company to a successful +termination, you will be fairly well fixed for a young man, won't you?" +the older man ventured by and by. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," hesitated Sam, "I'll have a start anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +"I should say you would," Westlake assured him, placing his hands in +his favorite position for contemplative discussion. "You'll have a +good enough start to enable you to settle down." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," admitted Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"What you need, my boy, is a wife," went on Mr. Westlake. "No man's +business career is properly assured until he has a wife to steady him +down." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe that," agreed Sam. "I've come to the same conclusion +myself, and to tell you the truth of the matter I've been contemplating +marriage very seriously since I've been down here." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" approved Westlake. "You're a fine boy, Sam. I may tell you +right now that I approve of both you and your decision very heartily. +I rather thought there was something in the wind that way." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," confessed Sam hesitantly. "I don't mind admitting that I have +even gone so far as to pick out the girl, if she'll have me." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think there will be any trouble on that score," said he. "Of +course, Sam, I'm not going to force your confidence, or anything of +that sort, but—but I want to tell you that I think you're all right," +and he very solemnly shook hands with Mr. Turner. +</P> + +<P> +They had just reached the top of the hill when Westlake again returned +to business. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to know you're going to settle down, Sam," he said. "It +inspires me with more confidence in your affairs, and I may say that I +stand ready to subscribe, in my daughter's name, for fifty thousand +dollars' worth of the stock of your company." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Sam, giving the matter careful weight. "It will be a good +investment for her." +</P> + +<P> +Before Mr. Westlake had any time to reply to this, the grays, having +just passed the summit of the hill, leaped forward in obedience to +another swish of Sam's whip. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT +</H3> + + +<P> +The trio from Meadow Brook, on their way to Sunset Rock galloped up to +the Hollis Creek porch, and, finding Miss Stevens there, gaily demanded +that she accompany them. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry," said Miss Stevens, who was already in driving costume, +"but I have an engagement at ten o'clock," and she looked back through +the window into the office, where the clock then stood at two minutes +of the appointed time; then she looked rather impatiently down the +driveway, as she had been doing for the past five minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, at least you'll come back to the bar with us and have an +ice-cream cocktail," insisted Princeman, reining up close to the porch +and putting his hand upon the rail in front of her. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see how I can refuse that," said Miss Stevens with a smile and +another glance down at the driveway, "although it's really a little +early in the day to begin drinking," and she waited for them to +dismount, going back with them into the little ice-cream parlor and +"soft drink" and confectionery dispensary which had been facetiously +dubbed "the bar." Here she was careful to secure a seat where she +could look out of the window down toward the road, and also see the +clock. +</P> + +<P> +After a weary while, during which Miss Josephine had undergone a +variety of emotions which she was very careful not to mention, the +party rose from the discussion of their ice-cream soda and the bowling +tournament and all the various other social interests of the two +resorts, and made ready to depart, Miss Westlake twining her arm about +the waist of her friend Miss Stevens as they emerged on the porch. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, anyway, we've made you forget your engagement," Miss Westlake +gaily boasted, "for you said it was to be at ten, and now it's +ten-thirty." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I noticed the time," admitted Miss Stevens, rather grudgingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry we dragged you away," commiserated Miss Westlake with a +swift change of tone. "Probably the party of the second part didn't +know where to find you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, it couldn't be anything like that," decided Miss Josephine after a +thoughtful pause. "Did you see anything of Mr. Turner this morning?" +she asked with sudden resolve. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner," repeated Miss Westlake in well-feigned surprise. "Why, +yes, I know papa said early this morning that he was going to have a +business talk with Mr. Turner, and as we left Meadow Brook papa was +just going after his hat to take a drive with him." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if it would be an imposition to ask you to wait about five +minutes longer," inquired Miss Stevens with a languidness which did +<I>not</I> deceive. "I think I can change to my riding-habit almost within +that time." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll be delighted to wait," asserted Miss Westlake eagerly, herself +looking apprehensively down the driveway; "won't we, boys?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure; what is it?" returned Princeman. +</P> + +<P> +"Josephine says that if we'll wait five minutes longer she'll go with +us." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll wait an hour if need be," declared Princeman gallantly. +</P> + +<P> +"It won't need be," said Miss Stevens lightly, and hurrying into the +office she ordered the clerk to send for her saddle-horse. +</P> + +<P> +For ten interminable minutes Miss Westlake never took her eyes from the +road, at the end of which time Miss Stevens returned, hatted and +habited and booted and whipped. +</P> + +<P> +The Hollis Creek young lady was rather grim as she rode down the +graveled approach beside Miss Westlake, and both the girls cast furtive +glances behind them as they turned away from the Meadow Brook road. +When they were safely out of sight around the next bend, Miss Westlake +laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner is such a funny person," said she. "He's liable at any +moment to forget all about everything and everybody if somebody +mentions business to him. If he ever takes time to get married he'll +make it a luncheon hour appointment." +</P> + +<P> +Even Miss Josephine laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"And even then," she added, by way of elaboration, "the bride is likely +to be left waiting at the church." There was a certain snap and +crackle to whatever Miss Stevens said just now, however, which +indicated a perturbed and even an angry state of mind. +</P> + +<P> +Ten minutes later, Sam Turner, hatless, and carrying a buggy whip and +wearing a torn coat, trudged up the Hollis Creek Inn drive, afoot, and +walked rapidly into the office. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Miss Stevens about?" he wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Not at present," the clerk informed him. "She ordered out her horse a +few minutes ago, and started over to Sunset Rock with a party of young +people from Meadow Brook." +</P> + +<P> +"Which way is Sunset Rock?" +</P> + +<P> +The clerk handed him a folder which contained a map of the roadways +thereabouts, and pointed out the way. +</P> + +<P> +"Could you get me a saddle-horse right away?" +</P> + +<P> +The clerk pounded a bell and ordered up a saddle-horse for Mr. Turner, +who immediately thereupon turned to the telephone, and, calling up +Meadow Brook, instructed the clerk at that resort to send a carriage +for Mr. Westlake, who was sitting in the trap, entirely unharmed but +disinclined to walk, at the foot of Laurel Hill; then he explained that +the grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar had +slipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had run +back up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked the +doubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they had +turned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the time +he had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it all +through the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse was +ready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he started +off at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to have +himself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket. +</P> + +<P> +He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to Sunset +Rock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with the +inspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were ready +to depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket being +greatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens, +who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been due +to an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation at +once. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, and +believed, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, and +she had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to be +with Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by the +side of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearance +of the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party" +has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though at +first lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted the +party so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlake +was riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone in +the center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a sudden +inclination to go very slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, by +and by. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I think +I did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to say +he'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells me +I've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince. +Control and Westlake were two words which did not make, for him, a +cheerful juxtaposition. +</P> + +<P> +"So now you'll have to be very nice indeed to me," went on Miss +Westlake banteringly, "or I'm likely to vote with the other crowd." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be just as nice to you as I know how," offered Sam. "Just state +what you want me to do and I'll do it." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake did not state what she wanted him to do. In place of +that she whipped up her horse rather smartly, after a thoughtful +silence, and joined Tilloughby, the three of them riding abreast. The +next shifting, around a deep mud hole which only left room for an +Indian file procession, brought Sam alongside Miss Josephine, and here +he stuck for the balance of the ride, leaving Princeman to ride part of +the time alone between the two couples, and part of the time to be the +third rider with each couple in alternation. Miss Josephine was very +much concerned about Mr. Turner's accident, very happy to know how +lucky he had been to come off without a scratch, except for the tear in +his coat, and very solicitous indeed about any further handling of the +obstreperous gray team; and, forgiving him readily under the +circumstances, she renewed her engagement to drive with him the next +morning! +</P> + +<P> +Sam rode on home at the side of Miss Westlake, after leaving Miss +Stevens at Hollis Creek, in a strange and nebulous state of elation, +which continued until bedtime. As he was about to retire he was handed +a wire from his brother: +</P> + +<P> +"Just received patent papers meet me at Restview morning train." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A PLEASURE RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS +</H3> + + +<P> +The morning train was due at ten o'clock. At ten o'clock also Sam was +due at Hollis Creek to take his long deferred drive with Miss Stevens. +It was a slight conflict, her engagement, but the solution to that was +very easy. As early in the morning as he dared, Sam called up Miss +Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"I've some glorious news," he said hopefully. "My kid brother will +arrive at Restview on the ten o'clock train." +</P> + +<P> +"You are to be congratulated," Miss Stevens told him, with an echo of +his own delight. +</P> + +<P> +"But you know we've an engagement to go driving at ten o'clock," he +reminded her, still hopefully, but trembling in spirit. +</P> + +<P> +There was an instant of hesitation, which ended in a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let that interfere," she said. "We can defer our drive until +some other time, when fate is not so determined against it." +</P> + +<P> +"But that doesn't suit me at all," he assured her. "Why can't you be +ready at nine in place of ten, let me call for you at that time and +drive over to Restview with me to meet Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is that his name?" she asked in blissfully reassuring tones. "You've +never spoken of him as anybody but your 'kid brother.' Why of course +I'll drive over to Restview with you. I shall be delighted to meet +him." +</P> + +<P> +Privately she had her own fears of what Jack Turner might turn out to +be like. Sam was always so good in speaking of him, always held him in +such tender regard, such profound admiration, that she feared he might +prove to be perfect only in Sam's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said Sam. "Just for that I'm going to bring you over some +choice blooms that I have been having the gardener save back for me," +and he turned away from the telephone quite happy in the thought that +for once he had been able to kill two birds with one stone without +ruffling the feathers of either. +</P> + +<P> +Armed with a huge consignment of brilliant blossoms, enough to +transform her room into a fairy bower, he sped quite happily to Hollis +Creek. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, gladiolas!" cried Miss Josephine, as he drove up. "How did you +ever guess it! That little bird must have been busy again." +</P> + +<P> +"Honestly, it was the little bird this time. I just had an intuition +that you must like them because I do so well," upon which naïve +statement Miss Josephine merely smiled, and calling her father with +pretty peremptoriness, she loaded that heavy gentleman down with the +flowers and with instructions concerning them, and then stepped +brightly into the tonneau with Sam. +</P> + +<P> +It was a pleasant ride they had to Restview, and it was a pleasant +surprise which greeted Miss Josephine when the train arrived, for out +of it stepped a youth who was unmistakably a Turner. He was as tall as +Sam, but slighter, and as clean a looking boy as one would find in a +day's journey. There was that, too, in the hand-clasp between the +brothers which proclaimed at once their flawless relationship. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens was so relieved to find the younger Turner so presentable +that she took him into her friendship at once. He was that kind of +chap anyhow, and in the very first greeting she almost found herself +calling him Jack. Just behind him, however, was a little, dried-up man +with a complexion the color of old parchment, with sandy, stubby hair +shot with gray, and a stubby gray beard shot with red. His lips were a +wide straight line, as grim as judgment day. He walked with a slight +stoop, but with a quick staccato step which betokened great nervous +energy, a quality which the alert expression of his beady eyes +confirmed with distinct emphasis. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Creamer!" hailed Sam to this gentleman. "I didn't expect to +see you here quite so soon." +</P> + +<P> +"You had every right to expect me," snapped the little man querulously. +"After all the experimenting I have done for you boys, you had every +reason to keep me posted on all your movements; and yet I reckon if I +hadn't been in your office yesterday evening when Jack said he was +coming down here, you would not have notified me until you had your +company all formed. Then I suppose you'd have written to tell me how +much stock you had assigned to me. I'm going to be in on the formation +of this company, and I'm going to have my say about it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Will you never get over that dyspepsia?" chided Sam easily. "There +was no intention of leaving you out." +</P> + +<P> +"Just what I told him," declared Jack, turning from Miss Stevens to +them. "I have been swearing to him that as soon as we had found out +to-day what we were to do I would have wired him at once." +</P> + +<P> +"You were quite right, Jack," approved Sam, opening the door of the car +for them, "and as a proof of it, Creamer, when you return to your +office you will find there a letter postmarked yesterday, telling you +our exact progress here, and warning you to be in readiness to come on +telegram." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, then," said Mr. Creamer, somewhat mollified, "but since +that letter's there and I'm here, you might as well tell me what you've +done." +</P> + +<P> +Sam stopped the proceedings long enough to introduce Creamer to Miss +Stevens after he had closed the door upon them and had taken his own +seat by the chauffeur. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he then said to Mr. Creamer, "I'll begin at the beginning." +</P> + +<P> +He began at the beginning. He told Mr. Creamer all the steps in the +development of the company. He detailed to him the names of the +gentlemen concerned, and their complete commercial histories, pausing +to answer many pertinent side questions and observations from his +younger brother, who proved to be as keen a student of business puzzles +as Sam himself. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all very well," said Mr. Creamer, "and now I'm here. I want to +get away to-night: Can't we form that company to-day? At what figure +do you propose offering the original stock?" +</P> + +<P> +"The preferred at fifty, with a par value of a hundred," returned Sam +promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Common?" asked Mr. Creamer crisply. +</P> + +<P> +"One share of common with each two shares of preferred." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh! Well, I've twenty-five thousand dollars to put into this marsh +pulp business, if I can have any figure in the management. I want on +the board." +</P> + +<P> +"It's quite likely you'll be on the board," returned Sam. "We shall +have a very small list of subscribers, and the board will not be +unwieldy if every investor is a director." +</P> + +<P> +"Voting power in the common stock?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the common stock," repeated Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you intend to buy any preferred?" asked Creamer. +</P> + +<P> +"A hundred shares." +</P> + +<P> +"How much common do you expect to take out for your patents?" +</P> + +<P> +"Two hundred and fifty thousand," Sam answered without an instant's +hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" exclaimed Mr. Creamer. "The time for that's gone by, young +man, no matter how good your proposition is. It's too old a game. You +won't handle my money with control in your hands. I have no objection +to letting you have two hundred thousand dollars worth of common stock +out of the half million, because that will give you an incentive to +make the common worth par; but you shan't at any time have or be able +to acquire a share over two hundred and forty-nine thousand; not if I +know anything about it! Can you call a meeting as soon as we get +there?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think so," replied Sam, with a more or less worried air. "I'll try +it. Tell you what I'll do. I'll run right on over to get Mr. Stevens, +who wants to join the company, and in the meantime Mr. Westlake or +Princeman can round up the others." +</P> + +<P> +For the first time in that drive Miss Stevens had something to say, but +she said it with a briefness that was like a dash of cold water to the +preoccupied Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Father is over there now, I think," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," approved Mr. Creamer. "We can have a little direct business +talk and wind up the whole affair before lunch. What time do we arrive +at Meadow Brook?" +</P> + +<P> +"Before eleven o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +"That will give us two hours. Two hours is enough to form any company, +when everybody knows exactly what he wants to do. Got a lawyer over +there?" +</P> + +<P> +"One of the best in the country." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens sat in the center seat of the tonneau. Sam, in addressing +his remarks to the others and in listening to their replies, was +compelled to sweep his glance squarely across her, and occasionally in +these sweeps he paused to let his gaze rest upon her. She was a relief +to his eyes, a blessing to them! Miss Stevens, however, seldom met any +of these glances. Very much preoccupied she was, looking at the +passing scenery and not seeing it. +</P> + +<P> +There had begun boiling and seething in Miss Stevens a feeling that she +was decidedly <I>de trop</I>, that these men could talk their absorbing +business more freely if she were not there; not because she embarrassed +them, but because she used up space! Nobody seemed to give her a +thought. Nobody seemed to be aware that she was present. They were +almost gaspingly engrossed in something far more important to them than +she was. It was uncomplimentary, to say the least. She was not used +to playing "second fiddle" in any company. She was in the habit of +absorbing the most of the attention in her immediate vicinity. Mr. +Princeman or Mr. Hollis would neither one ignore her in that way, to +say nothing of Billy Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +She was glad when they reached Meadow Brook. Their whole talk had been +of marsh pulp, and company organization, and preferred and common +stock, and who was to get it, and how much they were to pay for it, and +how they were going to cut the throats of the wood pulp manufacturers, +and how much profit they were going to make from the consumers and with +all that, not a word for her. Not a single word! Not even an apology! +Oh, it was atrocious! As soon as they drew up to the porch she rose, +and before Sam could jump down to open the door of the tonneau she had +opened it for herself and sprung out. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll hunt up father right away for you," she stated courteously. +"Glad to have met you, Mr. Creamer. I presume I shall meet you again, +Mr. Turner," she said to Jack. "Thank you so much for the ride," she +said to Sam, and then she was gone. +</P> + +<P> +Sam looked after her blankly. It couldn't be possible that she was +"huffy" about this business talk. Why, couldn't the girl see that this +had to do with the birth of a great big company, a million dollar +corporation, and that it was of vital importance to him? It meant the +apex of a lifetime of endeavor. It meant the upbuilding of a fortune. +Couldn't she see that he and his brother were two lone youngsters +against all these shrewd business men, whose only terms of aiding them +and floating this big company was to take their mastery of it away from +them? Couldn't she understand what control of a million dollar +organization meant? He was not angry with Miss Stevens for her +apparent attitude in this matter, but he was hurt. He was not +impatient with her, but he was impatient of the fact that she could not +appreciate. Now the fat was in the fire again. He felt that. Under +other circumstances he would have said that it was much more trouble +than it was worth to keep in the good graces of a girl, but under the +present circumstances—well, his heart had sunk down about a foot out +of place, and he had a sort of faint feeling in the region of his +stomach. He was just about sick. He followed her in, just in time to +see the flutter of her skirts at the top of the stairway, but he could +not call without making himself and her ridiculous. Confound things in +general! +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens joined him while he was still looking into that blank hole +in the world. +</P> + +<P> +"Glad I happened to be here, Sam," said Stevens. "Jo tells me that +your brother and Mr. Creamer have arrived and that you want to form +that company right away." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," admitted Sam. "Was she sarcastic about it?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Not exactly sarcastic," he stated; "but she did allude to your +proposed corporation as 'that old company!'" +</P> + +<P> +"I was afraid so," said Sam ruefully. +</P> + +<P> +Stevens surveyed him in amusement for a moment, and then in pity. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind, my boy," he said kindly. "You'll get used to these things +by and by. It took me the first five years of my married life to +convince Mrs. Stevens that business was not a rival to her affections, +when, if I'd only have known the recipe, I could have convinced her at +the start." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you finally do it?" asked Sam, vitally interested. +</P> + +<P> +"Made her my confidante and adviser," stated Stevens, smiling +reminiscently. +</P> + +<P> +Sam shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Was that safe?" he asked. "Didn't she sometimes let out your secrets?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bosh!" exclaimed Stevens. "I'd rather trust a woman than a man, any +day, with a secret, business or personal. That goes for any woman; +mother, sister, sweetheart, wife, daughter, or stenographer. Just give +them a chance to get interested in your game, and they're with you +against the world." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said Sam, putting that bit of information aside for future +pondering. "By the way, Mr. Stevens, before we join the others I'd +like to ask you how much stock you're going to carry in the Marsh Pulp +Company." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," returned Mr. Stevens slowly, "I did think that if the thing +looked good on final analysis, I might invest twenty-five thousand +dollars." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you stretch that to fifty?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't see it. But why? Don't you think you're going to fill your +list?" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll fill our list all right," returned Sam. "As a matter of fact, +that's what I'm afraid of. These fellows are going to pool their +stock, and hold control in their own hands. Now if I could get you to +invest fifty thousand and vote with me under proper emergency, I could +control the thing; and I ought to. It is my own company. Seems to me +these fellows are selfish about it. You think I'm a good business man, +don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do," agreed Mr. Stevens emphatically. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it stands to reason that if I have two hundred and sixty +thousand dollars of common stock that isn't worth a picayune unless I +make it worth par, I'll hustle; and if I make my common stock worth +par, I'm making a fine, fat profit for these other fellows, to say +nothing of the raising of their preferred stock from the value of fifty +to a hundred dollars a share, and their common from nothing to a +hundred." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right, Sam," returned Mr. Stevens; "but you'll work just as +hard to make your common worth par if you only have two hundred +thousand; and there's a growing tendency on the part of capital to be +able to keep a string on its own money. Strange, but true." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Sam wearily. "We won't argue that point any more +just now; but will you invest fifty thousand?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't promise," said Stevens, and he walked out on the porch. Much +worried, Sam followed him, and with many misgivings he introduced Mr. +Stevens to his brother Jack and to Mr. Creamer. The prospective +organizers of the Marsh Pulp Company were already in solemn conclave on +the porch, with the single exception of Princeman, who was on the lawn +talking most perfunctorily with Miss Josephine. That young lady, with +wickedness of the deepest sort in her soul, was doing her best to +entice Mr. Princeman into forgetting the important meeting, but as soon +as Princeman saw the gathering hosts he gently but firmly tore himself +away, very much to her surprise and indignation. Why, he had been as +rude to her as Sam Turner himself, in placing the charms of business +above her own! Immediately afterward she snubbed Billy Westlake +unmercifully. Had he the qualities which would go to make a successful +man in any walk of life? No! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A DUAL QUESTION OF MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY <BR> +AND STOCK SUBSCRIPTION +</H3> + + +<P> +Mr. Westlake dropped back with his old friend Stevens as they trailed +into the parlor which Blackstone had secured. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going to subscribe rather heavily in the company, Stevens?" +inquired Westlake, with the curiosity of a man who likes to have his +own opinion corroborated by another man of good judgment. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," replied the father of Miss Josephine, "I think of taking a +rather solid little block of stock. I believe I can spare twenty-five +thousand dollars to invest in almost any company Sam Turner wants to +start." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a fine boy," agreed Westlake. "A square, straight young fellow, +a good business man, and a hustler. I see him playing tennis with my +girl every day, and she seems to think a lot of him." +</P> + +<P> +"He's bound to make his mark," Mr. Stevens acquiesced, sharply +suppressing a fool impulse to speak of his own daughter. "Do you +fellows intend to let him secure control of this company?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should say not!" replied Westlake, with such unnecessary emphasis +that Stevens looked at him with sudden suspicion. He knew enough about +old Westlake to "copper" his especially emphatic statements. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you agreeable to Princeman's plan to pool all stock but Turner's?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—we can talk about that later." +</P> + +<P> +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens, and together the two heavy-weights, Stevens +with his aggressive beard suddenly pointed a trifle more straight out, +and Mr. Westlake with his placidity even more marked than usual, +stalked on into the parlor, where Mr. Blackstone, taking the chair <I>pro +tem</I>., read them the preliminary agreement he had drawn up; upon which +Sam Turner immediately started to wrangle, a proceeding which proved +altogether in vain. +</P> + +<P> +The best he could get for patents and promotion was two thousand out of +the five thousand shares of common stock, and finally he gave in, +knowing that he could not secure the right kind of men on better terms. +Mr. Blackstone thereupon offered a subscription list, to which every +man present solemnly appended his name opposite the number of shares he +would take. Sam, at the last moment, put down his own name for a block +of stock which meant a cash investment of considerably more than he had +originally figured upon. He cast up the list hurriedly. Five hundred +shares of preferred, carrying half that much common, were still to be +subscribed. With whom could he combine to obtain control? The only +men who had subscribed enough for that purpose were Princeman, who was +out of the question, and, in fact, would be the leader of the +opposition, and Westlake. The highest of the others were Creamer, +Cuthbert and Stevens. Sam would have to subscribe for the entire five +hundred in order to make these men available to him. +</P> + +<P> +McComas and Blackstone had only subscribed for the same amount as Sam. +They could do him no good, and he knew it was hopeless to attempt to +get two men to join with him. He looked over at Westlake. That +gentleman was smiling like a placid cherub, all innocence without, and +kindliness and good deeds; but there was nevertheless something fishy +about Westlake's eyes, and Sam, in memory, cast over a list of maimed +and wounded and crushed who had come in Westlake's business way. The +logical candidate was Stevens. Stevens simply had to take enough stock +to overbalance this thing, then he simply must vote his stock with +Sam's! That was all there was to it! Sam did not pause to worry about +how he was to gain over Stevens' consent, but he had an intuitive +feeling that this was his only chance. +</P> + +<P> +"Stevens," said he briskly, "there are five hundred shares left. I'll +take half of it if you'll take the other half." +</P> + +<P> +His brother Jack looked at him startled. Their total holdings, in that +case, would mean an investment of more money than they could spare from +their other operations. It would cramp them tremendously, but Jack +ventured no objections. He had seen Sam at the helm in decisive places +too often to interfere with him, either by word or look. As a matter +of fact such a proceeding was not safe anyhow. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mind—" began Westlake, slowly fixing a beaming eye upon Sam, +and crossing his hands ponderously upon his periphery; but before he +could announce his benevolent intention, Mr. Stevens, with what might +almost have been considered a malevolent glance toward Mr. Westlake, +spoke up. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll accept your proposition," he said with a jerk of his beard as his +jaws snapped. So Miss Westlake thought a great deal of Sam, eh? And +old Westlake knew it, eh? And he had already subscribed enough stock +to throw Sam control, eh? +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said Sam, and shot Mr. Stevens a look of gratitude as he +altered the subscription figures. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop just a moment, Sam," put in Mr. Westlake. "How many shares of +common stock does that give you in combination with your bonus?" +</P> + +<P> +"Two thousand two hundred and sixty," said Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Mr. Westlake musingly; "not enough for control by two +hundred and forty one shares; so you won't mind, since you haven't +enough for control anyhow, if I take up that additional two hundred and +fifty shares of preferred, with its one hundred and twenty-five of +common, myself." +</P> + +<P> +Sam once more paused and glanced over the subscription list. As it +stood now, aside from Princeman, there were two members, Westlake and +Stevens, with whom, if he could get either one of them to do so, he +could pool his common stock. If he allowed Westlake to take up this +additional two hundred and fifty shares, Westlake was the only string +to his bow. +</P> + +<P> +"No, thanks," said Sam. "I prefer to keep them myself. It seems to me +to be a very fair and equitable division just as it is." +</P> + +<P> +In the end it stood just that way. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HERO OF THE HOUR +</H3> + + +<P> +On that very same afternoon, the youth and beauty, also the age and +wisdom, of both Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook, gathered around the ball +field of the former resort, to watch the Titanic struggle for victory +between the two picked nines. As Sam took his place behind the bat for +the first man up, who was Hollis, he felt his first touch of +self-confidence anent the strictly amusement features of summer +resorting. In all the other athletic pursuits he had been backward, +but here, as he smacked his fist in his glove, he felt at home. +</P> + +<P> +The only thing he did not like about it, as Princeman wound himself up +to deliver the first ball, was that Princeman had the position of +glory. On that gentleman the spotlight burned brightly all the time, +and if they won, he would be the hero of the hour; the modest, reliable +catcher would scarcely be thought of except by the men who knew the +finer points of the game, and it was not the men whom he had in mind. +Honestly and sincerely, he desired to shine before Miss Josephine +Stevens. She was over there at the edge of the field under an oak tree. +</P> + +<P> +Before her, cavorting for her amusement, were not only Princeman and +himself, but Billy Westlake and Hollis, each of them alert for action +at this moment; for now Princeman, with a mighty twirl upon his great +toe, released the ball. It never reached Sam Turner's hands; instead +it bounced off the bat with a "crack!" and sailed right down through +Billy Westlake, who, at second, made a frantic grab for it, and then it +spun out between center and right field, losing itself in the bushes, +while Hollis, amid the frantic cheers of the audience, which consisted +of Miss Josephine Stevens and several unconsidered other spectators, +tore around the circuit. His colleagues strove wildly to hold Hollis +at third, for the ball was found and was sailing over to that base. It +arrived there just as he did, but far over the head of the third +baseman, and fat, curly-haired Hollis, who looked like an ice wagon but +ran like a motorcycle, secured the first run for Hollis Creek. +</P> + +<P> +The next batter was up. Princeman, his confidence loftily unshaken, +gave a correct imitation of a pretzel and delivered the ball. The +batsman swung viciously at it. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! It landed in Sam's glove. +</P> + +<P> +"Strike one!" called the strident voice of Blackrock, who, jerking +himself back several years into youth again, was umpiring the game with +great joy. Nonchalantly Sam snapped the ball back over-hand. +Princeman smiled with calm superiority. He wound himself up. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! The ball had cut the plate and was in Sam's hands, while the +batsman stood looking earnestly at the path over which it had come. +</P> + +<P> +"Strike two!" called Blackstone. +</P> + +<P> +Sam jerked the ball back with an underwrist toss of great perfection. +Princeman drew himself up with smiling ease and posed a moment for the +edification of the on-lookers. Sam Turner was the very first to detect +the unbearable arrogance of that pose. Princeman eyed the batsman +critically, mercilessly even, and delivered the third fatal +plate-splitter. +</P> + +<P> +Z-z-z-ing! The sphere slammed right out through Billy Westlake, who +made a frantic grab for it. It bounded down between center and right +field, and the players bumped shoulders in trying to stop it. It +nestled among the bushes. The batsman tore around the bases. His +colleagues tried to hold him at third, for the ball was streaking in +that direction, but the batsman pawed straight on. The ball crossed +the base before he did, but it bounded between the third sacker's feet, +and score two was marked up for Hollis Creek, with nobody out! +</P> + +<P> +With undiminished confidence, though somewhat annoyed, Princeman made a +cute little knot of himself for the next batsman. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! The ball landed in Sam's glove, two feet wide of the plate. +</P> + +<P> +"Ball one!" called Blackstone. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! In Sam's glove again, with the batsman jumping back to save his +ribs. +</P> + +<P> +"Ball two!" cried Blackstone. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! +</P> + +<P> +"Ball three." +</P> + +<P> +"Put 'em over, Princeman!" yelled Billy Westlake from second. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be afraid of him! He couldn't hit it with a pillow!" jeered the +third baseman. +</P> + +<P> +In a calm, superior sort of way, Mr. Princeman smiled and shot over the +ball. +</P> + +<P> +"Four balls. Take your base!" said Mr. Blackstone, quite gently. +</P> + +<P> +Reassuringly Mr. Princeman smiled upon his supporters, consisting of +Miss Josephine Stevens and some other summer resorters, and proceeded +to take out his revenge upon the next batter. The first two lofts were +declared to be balls, and then Sam, catching his man playing too far +off, snapped the pill down to the nearest suburb and nailed the first +out. Encouraged by this, Princeman put over three successive strikes, +and there were two gone. The next batter up, however, laced out, for +two easy way-points, the first ball presented him. The next athlete +brought him in with a single, and the next one put down a three-bagger +which bored straight through Princeman and short stop and center field. +That inglorious inning ended with a brilliant throw of Sam's to Billy +Westlake at second, nipping a would-be thief who had hoped to purloin +the seventh tally for Hollis Creek. +</P> + +<P> +Billy Westlake, then taking the bat, increased the Meadow Brook +depression by slapping the soft summer air three vicious spanks and +retiring to think it over, and young Tilloughby bounced a feeble little +bunt square at the feet of Hollis and was tossed out at first by +something like six furlongs. The third batsman popped up a slow, lazy +foul which gave the catcher almost plenty of time to roll a cigarette +before it came down, and the Meadow Brook side was ignominiously +retired. Score, six to nothing at the end of the first. +</P> + +<P> +Princeman hit the first man up in the next inning and sent him down to +the initial bag, which was a flat stone, happily limping. He issued +free transportation to the next man and let the cripple hobble on to +second, chortling with glee. The third man went to the first station +on a measly little bunt with which Sam and Princeman and third base did +some neat and shifty foot work, and the next man up soaked out a Wright +Brothers beauty among the trees over beyond left field, and cleared the +bases amid the perfectly frantic rejoicing of the fickle Miss Josephine +Stevens and all the negligible balance of Hollis Creek. Oh, it was +disgraceful! Sam Turner ground his teeth in impotent rage. He walked +up to Princeman. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, old man," he pleaded. "We've just <I>got</I> to settle down! We +<I>must</I> pull this game out of the fire! We <I>can't</I> let Hollis Creek +walk away with it!" +</P> + +<P> +Princeman was pale, but clutched at his fast-slipping-away nonchalance +with the grip of desperation. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll hold them," he declared, and with careful deliberation he put +over a ball which the next batter sent sailing right down inside the +right foul line, pulling the first baseman away back almost to right +field. Princeman stood gaping at that bingle in paralyzed dismay; but +the batsman, who was a slow runner and slow thinker, stood a fatal +second to see whether the ball was fair or foul. Almost at the crack +of the bat Sam Turner started, raced down to first, caught the right +fielder's throw and stepped on the stone, one handsome stride ahead of +the runner! Then, as Blackrock, speechless with admiration, waved the +runner out, the first mighty howl went up from Meadow Brook, and one +partisan of the Hollis Creek nine, turning her back for the moment +squarely upon her own colors, led the cheering. Sam heard her voice. +It was a solo, while all the rest of the cheering was a faint +accompaniment, and with such elation as comes only to the heroes in +victorious battle, he trotted back to his place and caught three balls +and three strikes on the next batter. Also, the next one went out on a +pop fly which Sam was able to catch. +</P> + +<P> +In their half Princeman redeemed himself in part by a three bagger +which brought in two scores, and the second inning ended at ten to +three in favor of Hollis Creek. +</P> + +<P> +Confident and smiling, reinforced by the memory of his three bagger, +Princeman took the mount for the beginning of the third, and with his +compliments he suavely and politely presented a base to the first man +up. A groan arose from all Meadow Brook. The second batsman shot a +stinger to Princeman, who dropped it, and that batsman immediately +thereafter roosted on first, crowing triumphantly; but the hot liner +allowed Princeman a graceful opportunity. He complained of a badly +hurt finger on his pitching hand. He called time while he held that +injured member, and expressed in violent gestures the intolerable agony +of it. Bravely, however, he insisted upon "sticking it out," and +passed two wild ones up to the next willow wielder; then, having proved +his gameness, he nobly sacrificed himself for the good of Meadow Brook, +called time and asked for a substitute pitcher. He would go anywhere. +He would take the field or he would retire. What he wanted was Meadow +Brook to win. This was precisely what Sam Turner also wanted, and he +lost no time in calling, with ill-concealed satisfaction, upon his +brother Jack. Then Jack Turner, nothing loath, deserted his +comfortable seat by the side of Miss Josephine Stevens, and strode +forth to the mound, leaving the unfortunate Princeman to take his place +by the side of Miss Stevens and give her an opportunity to sympathize +with his poor maimed pitching hand, which, after a perfunctory moment +of interest, she was too busy to do; for Jack Turner and Sam Turner, +smiling across at each other in mutual confidence and esteem, proceeded +to strike out the next three batters in succession, leaving men +cemented to first and second bases, where they had been wildly +imploring for opportunities to tear themselves loose. +</P> + +<P> +What need to tell of the balance of that game; of the calm, easy, +one-two-three work of the invincible Turner battery; of the brilliant +base throwing and fielding of Turner and Turner, and their mighty swats +when they came to bat? You know how the game turned out. Anybody +would know. It ended in a triumph for Meadow Brook at the end of the +seventh inning, which is all any summer resort game ever goes, and two +innings more than most, by a total and glorious score of twenty-one to +seventeen. And who were the heroes of the hour, as smilingly but +modestly they strode from the diamond? Who, indeed, but Jack Turner +and Sam Turner; and by token of their victory, after receiving the +frenzied plaudits of all Meadow Brook and the generous plaudits of all +Hollis Creek, they marched in triumph from the field, one on either +side of Miss Josephine Stevens! Where now were Hollis and Princeman +and Billy Westlake? Nowhere! They were forgotten of men, ignored of +women, and the laurels of sweet victory rested upon the brow of busy +Sam Turner! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AN INTERRUPTED BUT PROPERLY FINISHED <BR> +PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE +</H3> + + +<P> +Jack's first opportunity for a quiet talk with his brother did not +occur for an hour after the game. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't like to worry you while you're resting, Sam," he began, "but +I'll have to tell you that the Flatbush deal seems likely to drop +through. It reaches a head to-morrow, you know." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-224"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-224.jpg" ALT=""I don't like to worry you, Sam"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="404" HEIGHT="604"> +<H3> +[Illustration: "I don't like to worry you, Sam"] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Sam Turner grabbed for his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"It can't drop through!" he vigorously declared. "I'll go right up +there to-night and look after it." +</P> + +<P> +"But you're on your vacation," protested Jack. "That's no way to rest." +</P> + +<P> +"On my vacation!" snorted Sam. "Of course I am. I'm not losing a +minute of my vacation. The proper way to have a vacation is to do the +thing you enjoy most. Don't you suppose I'll enjoy closing that +Flatbush deal?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," admitted his brother, "and I'll enjoy seeing you do it. I +know you can." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I can. But you're to stay here." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not my turn for an outing," protested Jack. "I haven't earned +one yet." +</P> + +<P> +"You're to work," explained Sam. "You see, Jack, in one week I can't +become a bowling or golf expert enough to beat Princeman, nor a tennis +or dancing expert enough to outshine Billy Westlake, nor a horseback or +croquet expert enough to make a deuce out of Hollis. You can do all +these things, and I want you to give this crowd of distinguished +amateurs a showing up. Jack, if you ever worked for athletic honors in +your life now is the time to do it; and in between time stick to Miss +Stevens like glue. Monopolize her. Don't give these three or any +other contenders any of her time. Keep her busy. Let me know every +day what progress you're making; don't stop to write; wire! For +remember, Jack, I'm going to marry her. I've got to." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then you'll marry her," Jack sagely concluded. "Does she know +it yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think she's quite sure of it," returned Sam with careful +analysis. "Of course she's thought about it. Sometimes she thinks she +won't, and sometimes she thinks she will, and sometimes she isn't quite +sure whether she will or not. Don't you worry about that part, though, +and don't bother to boost me. Just quietly you take the shine out of +these summer champions and leave the rest to your brother Sam." +</P> + +<P> +"Fine," agreed Jack. "Run right along and sell your papers, Sammy, and +I'll wire you every time I put over a point." +</P> + +<P> +Sam hunted and found Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry I have to take a run back to New York for two or three +days," he said. +</P> + +<P> +She bent upon him a glance of amusement; the old glance of mingled +amusement and mischief. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you were on your vacation," she observed. +</P> + +<P> +"And I am," he insisted. "I've been having a bully time, and I'll come +back here to finish up the couple of days I have left." +</P> + +<P> +"Then the drive which didn't count this morning, and which was +postponed again until to-morrow morning, will have to be put off once +more," she reminded him with a gay laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"By George, that's so!" he exclaimed. "In all the excitement it had +quite slipped my mind." +</P> + +<P> +"I presume you're going up on business," she slyly observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am," he admitted. +</P> + +<P> +She laughed and gave him her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I wish you good luck," she said. "I hope you make all the money +in the world. But you won't forget us who are down here in the country +dawdling away our time in useless amusements." +</P> + +<P> +"Forget you!" he returned impetuously. "Never for a minute!" and he +was in such deadly earnest about it that she hastily checked further +speech, although she did not know why. +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" she hurriedly exclaimed. "I'm glad you will bear us in mind +while you're gone. Are you going to take your brother along?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said with a smile. "I'm putting him in as my vacation +substitute, and I'll give him special instructions to call you up every +morning for orders. You'll find him in perfect discipline. He'll do +whatever you tell him." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall give him a thorough trial," she laughed. "I never yet had +anybody to come and go abjectly at the word of command, and I think it +will be a delightful novelty." +</P> + +<P> +Jack approaching just then, she took his arm quite comfortably. +</P> + +<P> +"Your brother tells me that during his absence you are to be my chief +aide and attaché," she advised that young man gaily; "that you'll fetch +and carry and do what I tell you; and the first thing you must do is to +call for me when you take Mr. Turner to the train." +</P> + +<P> +It is glorious to part so pleasantly as that from people you have +persistently in mind, and Sam, with such cheerful recollections, +enjoyed his vacation to the full as he did new and brilliant and +unexpected things in closing up the Flatbush deal, keeping, in the +meantime, in constant touch with his office and with such telegrams as +these: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Established new tennis record this morning Westlake nowhere and has +been snubbed do not know why." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Bowled two eighty five last night against Princeman two twenty am +teaching her." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Danced six dances out of twelve with her says I'm better dancer than +Billy Westlake." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Jumped Hollis Creek after her hat on horseback this afternoon Hollis +dared not follow am to give her riding lessons." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Then came this one: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Her father just told me she refused Princeman last night she will not +talk to Hollis and scarcely to me is dull and does not eat I beat all +entries in ten mile Marathon today and she hardly applauded wire +instructions." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Sam Turner took the next train. One look at Miss Stevens, after he had +traveled two years to reach Restview, made him suddenly intoxicated, +for in her eyes there was ravenous hunger for him and he read it, and +feeling rather sure of his ground he determined that now was the time +to strike. With that decisive end in view he dropped Jack at Meadow +Brook and went right on over to Hollis Creek with Miss Josephine. Of +course there was no chance to talk quite intimately, with Henry up +there ahead listening with all his ears, but there was every chance in +the world to look into her eyes and grow delirious; to touch elbows; to +look again and gaze deep into her eyes and see her turn away startled +and half frightened; to say perfunctory things which meant nothing and +everything, and receive perfunctory answers which meant as little and +as much; but before they had arrived at Hollis Creek Sam was frankly +and boldly holding her hand and she was letting him do it, and they +were both of them profoundly happy and profoundly silly, and would just +as leave have ridden on that way for ever. +</P> + +<P> +Words seemed superfluous, but yet they were more or less necessary, so +Sam got out at Hollis Creek Inn with her, and led the way determinedly +and directly into the stuffy little parlor just off the main assembly +room. He saw Mr. Stevens in the door of the post-office, but only +nodded to him, and then he drew Miss Josephine into the corner freest +from observation. +</P> + +<P> +"You know why I came back," he informed her, fixing her with a masterly +eye; "I had to see you again. My whole life is changed since I met +you. I need you. I can not do without you. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Beg your pardon, Sam," said Mr. Stevens, appearing suddenly in the +doorway, and then he paused, much more confused even than the young +people, for Sam was holding both Miss Josephine's hands and gazing down +at her with an earnestness which, if harnessed, would have driven a +four-ton dynamo; and she was gazing up at him just as earnestly, with +an entirely breathless, but by no means displeased expression. +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-230"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-230.jpg" ALT=""Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens." BORDER="2" WIDTH="604" HEIGHT="399"> +<H3> +[Illustration: "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +It was Miss Josephine who first found her aplomb. She smiled her rare +smile of mingled amusement and mischief at Sam, and then at her father. +</P> + +<P> +"You're quite excusable, I guess, father," she said sweetly. "What is +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, your brother Jack just called you up from Meadow Brook, Sam, and +wants to tell you something immediately," stammered Mr. Stevens, +plucking at a beard which in that moment seemed to have lost all its +aggressiveness. "He called twice before you arrived, and is on the +'phone now." +</P> + +<P> +Sam, as he walked to the telephone, had time to find that his heart was +beating a tattoo against his ribs, that his breath was short and +fluttery, and that stage fright had suddenly crept over him and claimed +him for its own; so it was with no great patience or understanding that +he heard Jack tell him in great glee about some tests which Princeman +had had made in his own paper mills with the marsh pulp, and how +Princeman was sorry he had not taken more stock, and could not the +treasury stock be opened for further subscription? "Tell him no," said +Sam shortly, and hung up the receiver; then he repented of his +bluntness and spent five precious minutes in recalling his brother and +apologizing for his bruskness, explaining that Princeman was probably +trying to plan another attempt to pool the stock. +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime Theophilus Stevens had stood surveying his daughter in +contrition. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I came in at a most inopportune moment," he said by way of +apology. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I'm afraid you did," she admitted with a smile. "However, I +don't think Sam will forget what he wanted to say," and suddenly she +reached up and put her arms around her father's neck and drew his face +down and kissed him rapturously. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to see you feel the way you do about it," said Mr. Stevens +delightedly, petting her gently upon the shoulder with one hand and +with the other smoothing back the hair from her forehead. She was the +dearest to him of all his children, although he never confessed it, +even to himself, and just now they were very, very close together +indeed. "I'm glad to hear you call him Sam, too. He's a fine young +man and he is bound to be a howling success in everything he +undertakes." He smiled reminiscently. "I rather thought there was +something between you two," he went on, still patting her shoulder, +"and when Dan Westlake told me that his girl thought a great deal of +Sam and that he was going to buy enough stock in Sam's company to give +Sam control, I turned right around and bought just as much stock as +Westlake had, although just before the meeting I had refused to invest +as much money as Sam wanted me to. Moreover, Westlake and myself, +between us, stopped the move to pool the outside stock, just yet. He's +a smart young man, that boy," he continued admiringly. "I didn't see, +until I went into that meeting, why he was so crazy to have me buy +enough stock to gain control— What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +He stopped in perplexity, for his daughter, looking aghast at him, had +pushed back from his embrace and was regarding him with perfectly round +eyes, while over her face, at first pale, there gradually crept a +crimson flush. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, of all things!" she gasped. "Of all the cold-blooded, cruel, +barter-and-sale proceedings! Why, father, how—how could you! How +could he! I never in all my life—" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Jo, what do you mean? What's the trouble?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't understand I can't make you," she said helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll be—busted!" observed Mr. Stevens under his breath. +</P> + +<P> +To his infinite relief Sam came in just then, and Mr. Stevens, +wondering what he had done now, slipped hastily out of the room. Mr. +Turner, coming from the bright office into the dim room and innocent of +any change in the atmosphere, approached confidently and eagerly to +Miss Josephine with both hands extended, but she stepped back most +indignantly. +</P> + +<P> +"You need not finish what you were going to say!" she warned him. "My +father has just given me some information which changes the entire +aspect of affairs. I am not a part of a business bargain! I refuse to +be regarded as a commercial proposition! I heard something from Mr. +Princeman of what desperate efforts you were making to secure the +command, whatever that may be, of the—of the stock—board—of shares +in your new company, but I did not think you would go to such lengths +as this!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, my dear girl," began Sam, shocked. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not your dear girl and I never shall be," she told him, and +angrily dabbed at some sudden tears. "I never was. I was only a +business possibility." +</P> + +<P> +"That's unjust," he charged her. "I don't see how you could accuse me +of regarding you in any other way than as the dearest and the sweetest +and the most beautiful girl in all the world, the wisest and the most +sensible, the most faithful, the most charming, the most delightful, +the most everything that is desirable." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait just a moment," she told him, very coldly indeed; with almost +extravagant coldness, in fact, as she beat out of her consciousness the +enticing epithets he had bestowed upon her. "Do you mean to say that +never in your calculations did you consider that if you married me my +father would vote his stock with yours—I believe that's the way he +puts it—and give you command or whatever it is of your company?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," considered Sam, brought to a standstill and put straight upon +his honor, "I can't deny that it did seem to me a very satisfactory +thing that my father-in-law should own enough stock in the company—" +</P> + +<P> +"That will do," she interrupted him icily. "That is precisely what I +have charged. We will consider this subject as ended, Mr. Turner; as +one never to be referred to again." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll do nothing of the sort," returned Sam flat-footedly. "I've been +composing this speech for the last two weeks and I'm going to deliver +it. I'm not going to have it wasted. I've unconsciously been +rehearsing it every place I went. Even up in Flatbush, showing a man +the superior advantages of that yellow-mud district, I found myself +repeating sentence number twelve. It's been the first thing I thought +of in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night. It's been +with me all day, riding and walking and talking and eating and drinking +and just breathing. Now I'm going to go through with it. +</P> + +<P> +"I—I—confound it all! I've forgotten how I was going to say it now! +After all, though, it only amounted to this: I love you! I want you to +know it and understand it. I love you and love you and love you! I +never loved any woman before in my life. I never had time. I didn't +know what it was like. If I had I'd have fought it off until I met +you, because I could not afford it for anybody short of you. It takes +my whole attention. It distracts my mind entirely from other things. +I can't think of anything else consecutively and connectedly. I—I'm +sorry you take the attitude you do about this thing, but—I'm not going +to accept your viewpoint. You've got to look at this thing differently +to understand it. +</P> + +<P> +"I know you've been glad I loved you. You were glad the first day we +met, and you always will be glad! Whatever you have to say about it +just now don't count. I'm going to let you alone a while to think it +over, and then I'm coming back to tell you more about it," and with +that Sam stalked from the room, leaving Miss Josephine Stevens gasping, +dazed, quite sure that he was unforgivable, indignant with everything, +still rankling, in spite of all Sam had said, with the thought that she +had been made a mere part of a commercial transaction. Why, it was +like those barbarous countries she had read about, where wives are +bought and sold! Preposterous and unbearable! +</P> + +<P> +While she was in this storm of mixed emotions her father came in upon +her, this time seriously perplexed. +</P> + +<P> +"What has happened to Sam Turner?" he demanded. "He slammed out of the +house, passed me on the porch with only a grunt, and jumped into his +automobile. You must have done something to anger him." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope that I did!" she retorted with spirit. "I refused to marry +him." +</P> + +<P> +"You did!" he returned in surprise. "Why, I thought it was all cut and +dried between you." +</P> + +<P> +"It was until you blundered into us and spoiled everything," she +charged. "But I'm glad you did. You let me know that Sam Turner +wanted to marry me because you had bought shares enough in his company +to give him the advantage. I'm ashamed of you and ashamed of Sam—of +Mr. Turner—and ashamed of myself. Why, you make a bargain-counter +remnant of me! I never, <I>never</I> was so humiliated!" +</P> + +<P> +"Poor child!" her father blandly sympathized. "Also, poor Sam. By the +way, though, he doesn't need you to secure control of his company. Dan +Westlake, as I told you, has bought enough stock to do the work, and +Miss Westlake would marry him in a minute. If Sam wants control of his +company, he only has to go to her and say the word." +</P> + +<P> +"Father!" exclaimed his daughter with stern indignation. "I don't see +how you can even suggest that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Suggest what? Now, what have I said?" +</P> + +<P> +"That Sam—that Mr. Turner would even dream of marrying that Westlake +girl, just in order to get the better of a business transaction," and +very much to Theophilus Stevens' surprise and consternation and dismay, +she suddenly crumpled up in a heap in her chair and burst out crying. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll be busted!" her father muttered into his beard. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SHE CALLS HIM SAM! +</H3> + + +<P> +Miss Josephine, finding all ordinary occupations stale, unprofitable +and wearisome on the following morning, and finding herself, moreover, +possessed of a restless spirit which urged her to do something or other +and yet recoiled at each suggestion she made it, started out quite +aimlessly to walk by herself. She walked in the direction of Meadow +Brook. The paths in that direction were so much prettier. +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner, finding all other occupations stale, unprofitable and +wearisome, at the same moment started out to walk by himself, going in +the direction of Hollis Creek because that was the exact direction in +which he wanted to go. As he walked much more rapidly than Miss +Stevens, he arrived midway of the distance before she did, but at the +valley where the unnamed stream came rippling down he paused. +</P> + +<P> +He had looked often at this little hollow as he had passed it, and +every time he had looked upon it he seemed to have an idea of some sort +in the back of his head regarding it; a dim, unformed, fugitive sort of +idea which had never asserted itself very prominently because he had +been too busy to listen to its rather timid voice. +</P> + +<P> +Just now, however, the idea suddenly struggled to make itself loudly +known, whereupon Sam bade it come forth. Given hearing it proved to be +a very pleasant idea, and a forceful one as well; so much so that it +even checked the speed with which Sam had set out for Hollis Creek. He +looked calculatingly across the road to where the little stream went +flashing from under its wooden bridge across the field and hid around a +curve behind some bushes, then reappeared, dancing in the sunlight, +until finally it plunged among some far trees and was lost to him. He +gazed up the stream. He had not very far to look, for there it ran +down between two quite steep hills, through a sort of pocket valley, +closed or almost closed, at the upper end, by another hill equally +steep, its waters being augmented by a leaping little stream from a +strong spring hidden away somewhere in the hill to the left. +</P> + +<P> +As his eyes calculatingly swept stream and hills, they suddenly caught +a flutter of white through the trees, and it was coming down the +winding path which led across the hills to Hollis Creek. As it emerged +more from the concealment of the leaves his blood gave a leap, for the +flutter of white was a gown inclosing the unmistakable figure of Miss +Josephine Stevens. The whole valley suddenly seemed radiant. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello!" he called to her as she approached. "I didn't expect to find +you here." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not expect to be here," she laughed. "I just started out for a +stroll and happened to land in this beautiful spot." +</P> + +<P> +"Beautiful is no name for it," he replied with sudden vast enthusiasm, +and ran up the path to help her down over a steep place. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment, in the wonderful mystery of the touch of her hand and the +joy of her presence, he forgot everything else. What was this strange +phenomenon, by which the mere presence of one particular person filled +all the air with a tingling glow? Marvelous, that's what it was! If +Miss Josephine had any of the same wonder she was extremely careful not +to express it, nor let it show, especially after yesterday's +conversation, so she immediately talked of other things; and the first +thing which came handy was another reference to the beautiful valley. +</P> + +<P> +"You know, it is a wonder to me," she said, "that no one has built a +summer resort here. I think it ever so much more charming than either +Hollis Creek or Meadow Brook." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you believe in telepathy?" asked Sam, almost startled. "I do. It +hasn't been but a few minutes since that identical idea popped into my +head, and I had just now decided that if I could secure options on this +property I would have a real summer resort here—one that would make +Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook mere farm boarding-houses. Do you see +how close together these hills draw at their feet? The hollow is at +least a thousand feet across at the widest part, but down there at the +road, where the stream emerges to the fields, they close in with +natural buttresses, as it were, to not over a hundred feet in width. +Well, right across there we'll build a dam, and there is enough water +here to make a beautiful lake up as high as that yellow rock." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Josephine looked up at the yellow rock and clasped her hands with +an exclamation of delight. +</P> + +<P> +"Glorious!" she said. "I never would have thought of that; and how +beautiful it will be! Why, if the lake comes up that high it will go +clear back around that turn in the valley, won't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Easily," he replied; "although that might make us trouble, for I don't +know where that turn in the valley leads. I have never explored that +region. Suppose we go up and look it over." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't that be fun?" she agreed, and they started to follow the stream. +</P> + +<P> +As they reached the rear of the "pocket," where they could see around +the curve, they turned and looked back over the route they had just +traversed. +</P> + +<P> +"My idea," Sam explained, having waited until they reached this +viewpoint to do so, "is to build the dam down there at the roadside, +and build the hotel right over it so that arriving guests will, after +an elevator has brought them up to the height of the main floor, find +the blue of the lake suddenly bursting upon them from the main piazza, +which will face the valley. All of the inside rooms will, of course, +have hanging balconies looking out over the water." +</P> + +<P> +"Perfectly ideal!" she agreed, her enthusiasm growing. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'd better investigate the curve of the valley," he decided, +studying the path carefully. "It seems rather rough for you, and I'll +go alone. All I want to see is how far the water height will carry +around there, and if it will become necessary to build a dam at the +other end." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it isn't too rough for me," she declared immediately. "I am an +excellent climber," and together they started to explore the now +narrowing valley, following the stream over steep rocks and fallen +trees, and pushing through tangled undergrowth and among briers and +bushes and around slippery banks until they came to another tortuous +turn, where a second spring, welling up from under a flat, overhanging +rock, tumbled down to augment the supply for the future lake; and here +they stopped and had a drink of the cool, delicious water, Sam making +the girl a cup from a huge leaf which she said made the water taste +fuzzy, and then showing her how to get down on her hands and +knees—spreading his coat on the ground to protect her gown—and drink +<I>au naturel</I>, a trick at which she was most charming, and probably knew +it. +</P> + +<P> +The valley here had grown most narrow, but they followed the now very +small stream around one sharp curve after another until they found its +source, which was still another spring, and here there was no more +valley; but a cleft in the hill to the right, which they suddenly came +upon, gave them an exquisite view out over the beautiful low-lying +country, miles in extent, which lay between this and the next range of +hills; a delightful vista dotted with green farms and white farm-houses +and smiling streams and waving trees and grazing cattle. They stopped +in awe at the beauty of it and looked out over the valley in silence; +and unconsciously the girl slipped her hand within the arm of the man! +</P> + +<P> +"Just imagine a sunset out over there," he said. "You see those fleecy +clouds that are out there now. If clouds like those are still there +when the sun goes down, they will be a fleet of pearl-gray vessels, +with carmine keels, upon a sea of gold." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced at him quickly, but she did not express her marvel that +this man had so many sides. Before she could comment, and while she +was still framing some way to express her appreciation of his gentler +gifts, he returned briskly to practical things. +</P> + +<P> +"Our lake will scarcely come up to this point," he judged. "I don't +think that at any point it will be high enough to cover the springs. +We don't want it to if we can help it, for that would destroy some of +the beauty of it. Have you noticed that our lake will be much like a +kite in shape, with this winding ravine the tail of it. We'll have to +take in a lot of acreage to cover this property, but it will be worth +it. I'm going to look after options right away. I'm glad now I had +already decided to stay another two weeks." +</P> + +<P> +Of course she was still angry with Sam, she reminded herself, but she +was inexpressibly glad, somehow or other, to find that he was intending +to stay two weeks longer, and was startled as she recognized that fact. +</P> + +<P> +"It will take a lot of money, won't it, to build a hotel here?" she +asked, getting away from certain troublesome thoughts as quickly as she +could. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it will take a great deal," he admitted, as they turned to +scramble down the ravine again. "I should judge, however, that about +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would finance it." +</P> + +<P> +"But I thought, from something father once said, that you did not have +so much money as that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless you, no!" replied Sam, smiling. "No indeed! I've enough to +cover an option on this property and that's about all, now, since I'm +tangled up so deeply with my Pulp Company, but I figure that I can make +a quick turn on this property to help me out on the other thing. What +I'll do," he explained, "is to get this option first of all, and then +have some plans drawn, including a nice perspective view of the +hotel—a water-color sketch, you know, showing the building fronting +the lake—and upon that build a prospectus to get up the stock company. +I'll take stock for my control of the land and for my services in +promotion. Then I'll sell my stock and get out. I ought to make the +turn in two or three months and come out fifteen, or possibly twenty or +twenty-five thousand dollars to the good. It is a nice, big scheme." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she said blankly, "then you wouldn't actually build a hotel +yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hardly," he returned. "I'll be content to make the profit out of +promoting it that I'd make in the first four or five years of running +the place." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," she said musingly; "and you'd get this up just like you formed +your Marsh Pulp Company, I think father called it, and of course you'd +try to get—what is it?—oh, yes; control." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled at her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd scarcely look for that in this deal," he explained. "If I can +just get a nice slice of promotion stock and sell it I shall be quite +well satisfied." +</P> + +<P> +She bent puzzled brows over this new problem. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't quite understand how you can do it," she confessed, "but of +course you know how. You're used to these things. Father says you're +very good at promoting." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the way I've made all my money, or rather what little I have," +he told her, modestly enough. "I expect this Pulp Company, however, to +lift me out of that, for a few years at least; then when I come back +into the promoting field I can go after things on a big scale. The +Pulp Company ought to make me a lot of money if I can just keep it in +my own hands," and involuntarily he sighed. +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him musingly for a moment, and was about to say +something, but thought better of it and said something else. +</P> + +<P> +"The tail of your kite will be almost a perfect letter 'S'," she +observed. "How beautiful it will be; the big, broad lake out there in +the main valley, and then the nice, little, secluded, twisty waterway +back in through here; a regular lover's lane of a waterway, as it were. +I don't suppose these springs have any names. They must be named, +and—why, we haven't even named the lake!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we have," he quickly returned. "I'm going to call it Lake +Josephine." +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't asked my permission for that," she objected with mock +severity. +</P> + +<P> +"There are plenty of Josephines in the world," he calmly observed. +"Nobody has a copyright on the name, you know." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled, as one sure of her ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but you wouldn't call it that, if I were to object seriously." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I guess I wouldn't," he gave up; "but you're not going to object +seriously, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll think it over," she said. +</P> + +<P> +They were now making their way along a bank that was too difficult of +travel to allow much conversation, though it did allow some delicious +helping, but when they came out into the main valley where they could +again look down on the road, they paused to survey the course over +which they had just come, and to appreciate to the full the beauty of +Sam's plan. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe I quite like your idea of the hotel built down there +at the roadside," she objected as they sat on a huge boulder to rest. +"It cuts off the view of the lake from passers-by, and I should think +it would be the best advertisement you could have for everybody who +drove past there to say: 'Oh, what a pretty place!' Now I should think +that right about here where we are sitting would be the proper location +for your hotel. Just think how the lake and the building would look +from the road. Right here would be a broad porch jutting out over the +water, giving a view down that first bend of the kite tail, and back of +the hotel would be this big hill and all the trees, and hills and trees +would spread out each side of it, sort of open armed, as it were, +welcoming people in." +</P> + +<P> +"It couldn't be seen, though," objected Sam. "The dam down there would +necessarily be about thirty feet high at the center, and people driving +along the roadway would not be able to see the water at all. They +would only see the blank wall of the dam. Of course we could soften +that by building the dam back a few feet from the roadway, making an +embankment and covering that with turf, or possibly shrubbery or +flowers, but still the water would not be visible, nor the hotel!" +</P> + +<P> +"I see," she said slowly. +</P> + +<P> +They both studied that objection in silence for quite a little while. +Then she suddenly and excitedly ejaculated: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Sam</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +He jumped, and he thrilled all through. She had called him Sam +entirely unconsciously, which showed that she had been thinking of him +by that familiar name. With the exclamation had come sparkling eyes +and heightened color, not due to having used the word, but due to a +bright thought, and he almost lost his sense of logic in considering +the delightful combination. It occurred to him, however, that it would +be very unwise for him to call attention to her slip of the tongue, or +even to give her time to think and recognize it herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Another idea?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed yes," she asserted, "and this time I know it's feasible. I +don't know much about measurements in feet and inches, but there are +three feet in a yard." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, doesn't the road down there, from hill to hill, dip about ten +yards?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well then, that's thirty feet, just as high as you say the dam will +have to be. Why not raise the road itself thirty feet, letting it be +level and just as high as your dam?" +</P> + +<P> +Sam rose and solemnly shook hands with her. +</P> + +<P> +"You must come into the firm," he declared. "That solves the entire +problem. We'll run a culvert underneath there to the fields. The road +will reinforce the dam and the edge of the dam will be entirely +concealed. It will be merely a retaining wall with a nice stone +coping, which will be repeated on the field side. There will be no +objection from the county commissioners, because we shall improve the +road by taking two steep hills out of it. Your plan is much better +than mine. I can see myself, for instance, driving along that road on +my way to Hollis Creek from Restview, looking over that beautiful +little lake to the hotel beyond, and saying to myself: 'Well, next +summer I won't stop at Hollis Creek. I'll stop at Lake Jo.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought it was to be Lake Josephine," she interposed. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so too," he agreed, "but Lake Jo just slipped out. It seems +so much better. Lake Jo! That would look fine on a prospectus." +</P> + +<P> +"You'd print the cover of it in blue and gold, I suppose, wouldn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"There would need to be a splash of brown-red in it," he reminded her, +considering color schemes for a moment. "The roof of the hotel would, +of course, be red tile. We'd build it fireproof. There is plenty of +gray stone around here, and we'd build it of native rock." +</P> + +<P> +"And then," she went on, in the full swing of their idea, "think of the +beautiful walks and climbs you could have among these hills; and the +driveway! Your approach to the hotel would come around the dam and up +that hill, would wind up through those trees and rocks, and right here +at the bend of the ravine it would cross the thick part of the kite +tail to the hotel on a quaint rustic bridge; and as people arrived and +departed you'd hear the clatter of the horses' hoofs." +</P> + +<P> +"Great!" he exclaimed, catching her enthusiasm and with it augmenting +his own, "and guests leaving would first wave good-by at the +porte-cochère just about where we are sitting. They'd clatter across +the bridge, with their friends on the porch still fluttering +handkerchiefs after them; they'd disappear into the trees over yonder +and around through that cleft in the rocks. And see; on the other side +of the cleft there is a little tableland which juts out, and the road +would wind over that, where carriages would once more be seen from the +hotel porch. Then they'd twist in through the trees again down the +winding driveway, and once more, for the very last glimpse, come into +view as they went across our new road in front of the lake; and there +the last flutter of handkerchiefs would be seen. You know it's silly +to stand and wave your friends out of sight for a long distance when +they're always in view, but if the view is interrupted two or three +times it relieves the monotony." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SAM TURNER ACQUIRES A BUSINESS PARTNER +</H3> + + +<P> +They followed the stream down to the road, at every step gaging with +the eye the height of the lake and judging the altered scenic view from +the level of the water. There would be room for dozens and dozens of +boats upon that surface without interference. Sam calculated that from +the upper spring there would be headway enough to run a small fountain +in the center, surrounded by a pond-lily bed which would be kept in +place by a stone curbing. In the hill to the right there was a deep +indenture. Back in there would go the bathing pavilions. They even +went up to look at it, and were delighted to find a natural, shallow +bowl. By cementing the floor of that bowl they could have a splendid +swimming-pool for timid bathers, where they could not go beyond their +depth; and it was entirely surrounded by a thick screen of shrubbery. +Oh, it was delightful; it was perfect! At the road they looked back up +over the valley again. It was no longer a valley. It was a lake. +They could see the water there. Sam drew from his pocket a pencil and +an envelope. +</P> + +<P> +"The hotel will have to be long and tall," he observed, "for there will +not be much room on that ledge, from front to back. The building will +stretch out quite a ways. Three or four hundred feet long it will be, +and about five stories in height," and taking a letter from the +envelope, he sat down upon a fallen log and began rapidly to sketch. +</P> + +<P> +He drew the hotel with wide-spreading Spanish roofs and balconies, and +a wide porch with rippling water in front of it, and rowboats and +people in them; and behind the hotel rose the broken sky-line of the +hills and the trees, with an indication of fleecy clouds above. It was +just a light sketch, a sort of shorthand picture, as it were, and yet +it seemed full of sunlight and of atmosphere. +</P> + +<P> +"I hadn't any idea you could draw like that," she exclaimed in +admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"I do a little of everything, I think, but nothing perfectly," he +admitted with some regret. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me you do everything excellently," she objected quite +seriously; and she was, in fact, deeply impressed. +</P> + +<P> +He walked over to the stream, a trifle confused, but not displeased, by +any means, by the earnestness of her compliment. +</P> + +<P> +"I must have the water analyzed to see if it has any medicinal virtue," +he said. "The spring out of which we drank has a sweetish-like taste, +but the water here—" and he caught up some of it in his hand and +tasted it, "seems to be slightly salt." +</P> + +<P> +He had left her sitting on the log with the sketch in her lap. Now the +sketch fluttered to the ground and the letter turned over, right side +up. It was a letter which Sam had written to his brother Jack and had +not mailed because he had suddenly decided to come down to the scene of +action. As she stooped over to pick it up her eyes caught the +sentence: "I love her, Jack, more than I can tell you, more than I can +tell anybody, more than I can tell myself. It's the most important, +the most stupendous thing—" She hastily turned that letter over and +was very careful to have it lying upon her lap, back upward, exactly as +he had left it there, and when he came back she was very, very careful +indeed to hand it nonchalantly over to him, with the sketch uppermost. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," he said, looking around him comprehensively, "this is only +a day-dream, so far. It may be impossible to realize it." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" she asked, instantly concerned. "This project <I>must</I> be carried +through! It is already as good as completed. It just must be done. I +never before had a hand, even in a remote way, in planning a big thing, +and I couldn't bear not to see this done. What is to prevent it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I may not be able to get the land," returned Sam soberly. "It is +probably owned by half a dozen people, and one or more of them is +certain to want exorbitant prices for it." +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly can't be very valuable," she protested. "It isn't fit +for anything, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"For nothing but the building of Lake Jo," he agreed. "Right now it is +worthless, but the minute anybody found out I wanted it it would become +extremely valuable. The only way to do would be to see everybody at +once and close the options before they could get to talking it over +among themselves." +</P> + +<P> +"What time is it?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Ten-thirty," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Then let's go and see all these people right away," she urged, jumping +to her feet. +</P> + +<P> +He smiled at her enthusiasm, but he was none loath to accept her +suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he agreed. "I wish they had telephones here in the woods. +We'll simply have to walk over to Meadow Brook and get an auto." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on," she said energetically, and they started out on the road. +They had not gone far, however, when young Tilloughby, with Miss +Westlake, overtook them in a trap. He reined up, and Miss Westlake +greeted the pedestrians with frigid courtesy. Jack Turner had +accidentally dropped her a hint. Now that she had begun to appreciate +Mr. Tilloughby—Bob—at his true value, she wondered what she had ever +seen in Sam Turner—and she never had liked Josephine Stevens! +</P> + +<P> +"Gug-gug-gug-glorious day, isn't it?" observed Tilloughby, his face +glowing with joy. +</P> + +<P> +"Fine," agreed Sam with enthusiasm. "There never was a more glorious +day in all the world. You've just come along in time to save our +lives, Tilloughby. Which way are you bound?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-we had intended to go around Bald Hill." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, postpone that for a few minutes, won't you, Tilloughby, like a +good fellow? Trot back to Meadow Brook and send an auto out here for +us. Get Henry, by all means, to drive it." +</P> + +<P> +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-with pleasure," replied Tilloughby, wondering at this +strange whim, but restraining his curiosity like a thoroughbred. +"Huh-huh-huh-Henry shall be back here for you in a jiffy," and he drove +off in a cloud of dust. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens surveyed the retiring trap in satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," she exclaimed. "I already feel as though we were doing +something to save Lake Jo." +</P> + +<P> +They walked back quite contentedly to the valley and surveyed it anew, +there resting now on both of them a sense of almost prideful +possession. They discovered a high point on which a rustic observatory +could be built; they planned paths and trails; they found where the +water-line came just under an overhanging rock which would make a cave +large enough for three or four boats to scurry under out of the rain. +They found delightful surprises all along the bank of the future lake, +and Miss Stevens declared that when the dam was built and the lake +began to fill, she never intended to leave it except for meals, until +it was up to the level at which they would permit the overflow to be +opened. +</P> + +<P> +Henry, returning with the automobile, found them far up in the valley +discussing a floating band pavilion, but they came down quickly enough +when they saw him, and scrambled into the tonneau with the haste of +small children. Henry watched them take their places with smiling +affection. He had not only had good tips but pleasant words from Sam, +and Miss Stevens was her own incentive to good wishes and good will. +</P> + +<P> +"Henry," said Sam, "we want to drive around to see the people who own +this land." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, shucks," said Henry, disappointed. "I can't drive you there. The +man that owns all this land lives in New York." +</P> + +<P> +"In New York!" repeated Sam in dismay. "What would anybody in New York +want with this?" +</P> + +<P> +"The fellow that bought it got it about ten years ago," Henry informed +them. "He was going to build a big country house, back up there in the +hills, I understand, and raise deer to shoot at, and things like that; +got an architect to make him plans for house and stables and all +costing hundreds of thousands of dollars; but before he could break +ground on it him and his wife had a spat and got a divorce. He tried +to sell the land back again to the people he bought it from, but they +wouldn't take it at any price. They were glad to be shut of it and +none of his rich friends wanted to buy it after that, because, they +said, there were so many of those cheap summer resorts around here." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Sam musingly. "You don't happen to know the man's name, +do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dickson, I think it was. Henry Dickson. I remember his first name +because it was the same as mine." +</P> + +<P> +"Great!" exclaimed Sam, overjoyed. "Why, I know Henry Dickson like a +book. I've engineered several deals for him. He's a mighty good +friend of mine too. That simplifies matters. Drive us right over to +Hollis Creek." +</P> + +<P> +"To Hollis Creek!" she objected. "I should think you'd drive to Meadow +Brook instead and dress for the trip. Aren't you going to catch that +afternoon train and go right up there?" +</P> + +<P> +"By no means. This is Saturday, and by the time I'd get to New York he +couldn't be found anywhere; and anyhow, I wouldn't have time to deliver +you at Hollis Creek and make this next train." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't mind about me," she urged. "I could go to the train with you +and Henry could take me back to Hollis Creek." +</P> + +<P> +"That's fine of you," returned Sam gratefully; "but it isn't the +program at all. I happen to know that Dickson stays in his office +until one o'clock on Saturdays. I'll get him by long distance." +</P> + +<P> +They were quite silent in calculation on the way to Hollis Creek, and +Miss Josephine found herself pushing forward to help make the machine +go faster. Breathlessly she followed Sam into the house, and he +obligingly left the door of the telephone booth ajar, so that she could +hear his conversation with Dickson. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Dickson," said Sam, when he got his connection. "This is Sam +Turner.… Oh yes, fine. Never better in my life.… Up here +in Hamster County, taking a little vacation. Say, Dickson, I +understand you own a thousand acres down here. Do you want to sell it?… +How much?" As he received the answer to that question he turned +to Miss Josephine and winked, while an expression of profound joy, +albeit materialized into a grin, overspread his features. "I won't +dicker with you on that price," he said into the telephone. "But will +you take my note for it at six per cent.?" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed aloud at the next reply. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't want it to run that long. The interest in a hundred years +would amount to too much; but I'll make it five years.… All +right, Dickson, instruct your lawyer chap to make out the papers and +I'll be up Monday to close with you." +</P> + +<P> +He hung up the receiver and turned to meet her glistening eyes fixed +upon him in ecstasy. "It's better than all right," he assured her. He +was more enthusiastic about this than he had ever been about any +business deal in his life, that is, more openly enthusiastic, for Miss +Josephine's enthusiasm was contagion itself. He took her arm with a +swing, and they hurried into the writing-room, which was deserted for +the time being on account of the mail having just come in. Sam placed +a chair for her and they sat down at the table. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to figure a minute," said he. "Now that I have actual +possession of the property, in place of a mere option, I can go at the +thing differently. First of all, when I go up Monday I'll see my +engineer, and on Tuesday morning I'll bring him down here with me. +Then I shall secure permission from the county to alter that road and +we'll build the dam. That will cost very little in comparison to the +whole improvement. Then, and not till then, I'll get out my stock +prospectus, and I'll drive prospective investors down here to look at +Lake Jo. I'll be almost in position to dictate terms." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't that fine!" she exclaimed. "And then I suppose you can +secure—control," she ventured anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think I can if I want it," he assured her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm so glad," she said gravely. "I'm so very glad." +</P> + +<P> +"Really, though, I have a big notion to see if I can't finance the +entire project myself. I'm quite sure I can get Dickson to give me a +clear deed to that land merely on my unsupported note. If I can do +that I can erect all the buildings on progressive mortgages. Roadways +and engineering work of course I'll have to pay for, and then I can +finance a subsidiary operating company to rent the plant from the +original company, and can retain stock in both of them. I'll figure +that out both ways." +</P> + +<P> +It was all Greek to her, this talk, but she knitted her brows in an +earnest effort to understand, and crowded close to him to look over the +figures he was putting down. The touch of her arm against his own +threw out his calculations entirely. He could not add a row of figures +to save his life. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go over the financial end of this later on," he said, but he did +not put away the paper. He kept it there for them both to look at, +touching arms. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," she agreed, "but you must let me see you do it. Of course +I can't understand, but I do want to feel as if I were helping when it +is done." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't take a step in it without consulting you or having you along," +he promised. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment the bugle sounded the first call for luncheon. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll stay for luncheon," she invited. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," he assured her. "You couldn't drive me away." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, right after luncheon let's go out and look at the place +again. It will look different now that it is—" She caught herself. +She had almost said "now that it is ours." "Now that it is secured," +she finished. +</P> + +<P> +After luncheon they drove back to the site of Lake Jo, and spent a +delirious while planning the things which were to be done to make that +spot an earthly Paradise. Never was a couple so prolific of ideas as +they were that afternoon. With 'Ennery waiting down in the road they +tramped all over the hills again, standing first on one spot and then +another to survey the alluring prospect, and to plan wonderful new and +attractive features of which no previous summer resort builder had ever +even dared to dream. +</P> + +<P> +During the afternoon not one word passed between them which might be +construed to be of an intimately personal nature, but as they drove to +Hollis Creek, tired but happy, Sam somehow or other felt that he had +made quite a bit of progress, and was correspondingly elated. Leaving +Miss Stevens on the porch he hurried home to dress for dinner, for it +was growing late, but immediately after dinner he drove over again. +When he arrived Miss Josephine was in the seldom used parlor with her +father. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't seen you since breakfast," Mr. Stevens had said, pinching +her cheek, "Hollis and Billy Westlake have been looking for you +everywhere." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, they," she returned with kindly contempt. "I'm glad I didn't see +them. They're nice boys enough, but father, I don't believe that +either one of them will ever become clever business men!" +</P> + +<P> +"No?" he replied, highly amused. "Well, I don't think they will +either. Business is a shade too big a game for them. But where have +you been?" +</P> + +<P> +"Out on business with S-s-s—with Mr. Turner," she replied demurely. +"I came in late for lunch, and you had already finished and gone. Then +we went right back out again. Father, we have found the dearest, the +most delightful, the most charming business opportunity you ever saw. +You must go out with us to-morrow and look at it. Sam's going to build +a lake and call it Lake Jo. You know where that little stream is +between here and Meadow Brook? Well, that's the place. We found out +this morning what a delightful spot it would make for a lake and a big +summer resort hotel, and at noon Sam bought the property, and we have +been planning it all afternoon. He's bought it outright and he's going +to capitalize it for a quarter of a million dollars. How much stock +are you going to take in it?" +</P> + +<P> +"How much what?" +</P> + +<P> +"How many shares of stock are you going to take in it? You must speak +up quickly, because it's going to be a favor to you for us to let you +in." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't know," said Mr. Stevens, resisting a sudden desire to +guffaw. "I'd have to look it over first before I decide to invest. +Sounds like a sort of wild-eyed scheme to me. Besides that, I already +have a good big block of stock in one of Sam Turner's enterprises." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," she said, puckering her brows. "Are you going to vote your +pulp stock with his?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens' eyes twinkled, but his tone was conservative gravity +itself. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, since it's a purely business deal it would not be a very wise +thing to do; and though Sam Turner is a mighty fine boy, I don't think +I shall." +</P> + +<P> +"But you will!" she vigorously protested. "Why, father, you wouldn't +for a minute vote against your own son-in-law!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I wouldn't!" declared Mr. Stevens emphatically, and suddenly drew +her to him and kissed her; and she clung about his neck half laughing +and half crying. +</P> + +<P> +Do you suppose there is anything in telepathy? It would seem so, for +it was at this moment that Sam stepped up on the porch. They in the +parlor heard his voice, and Mr. Stevens immediately slipped out the +back way in order not to be <I>de trop</I> a second time. Now Sam could not +possibly have known what had been said in the parlor, and yet when he +found his way in there, he and Miss Josephine, without any palaver +about it, without exchanging a solitary word, or scarcely even a look, +just naturally fell into each other's arms. Neither one of them made +the first move. It just somehow happened, and they stood there and +held and held and held that embrace; and whatever foolishness they said +and did in the next hour is none of your business nor of mine; but +later in the evening, when they were sitting quietly in the darkest +corner of the porch, and Sam had his hand on the arm of her chair with +her elbows resting upon his fingers—it didn't matter, you know, where +he touched her, just so he did—she turned to him with thoughtful +earnestness in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Sam," she said, and this time she used his first name quite +consciously and was glad it was dark so that he could not see her trace +of shyness, "I wish you would explain to me just what you mean by +control in a stock company." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner moved his fingers from under her elbow and caught her hand, +which he firmly clasped before he began. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jo, it's just this way," he said, and then, quite comfortably, +he explained to her all about it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE END +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Early Bird, by George Randolph Chester + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 19272-h.htm or 19272-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/2/7/19272/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Early Bird + A Business Man's Love Story + +Author: George Randolph Chester + +Illustrator: Arthur William Brown + +Posting Date: September 14, 2006 [EBook #19272] +Release Date: December 20, 2008 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: They stopped and had a drink of the cool water] + + + + + + +THE EARLY BIRD + +_A Business Man's Love Story_ + + +BY + +GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER + + + +Author of + +THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN + + + +INDIANAPOLIS + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1910 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN + II MR. TURNER PLUNGES + III A MATTER OF DELICACY + IV GREEK MEETS GREEK + V MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER + VI MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES + VII A DANCE NUMBER + VIII NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME + IX A VIOLENT FLIRT + X A PIANOLA TRAINING + XI THE WESTLAKES INVEST + XII ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT + XIII A RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS + XIV MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY + XV THE HERO OF THE HOUR + XVI AN INTERRUPTED PROPOSAL + XVII SHE CALLS HIM SAM! + XVIII A BUSINESS PARTNER + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +They stopped and had a drink of the cool water . . . _Frontispiece_ + +They waylaid him on the porch + +Hepseba studied him from head to foot + +Sam played again the plaintive little air + +"I don't like to worry you, Sam" + +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens + + + + +THE EARLY BIRD + + +CHAPTER I + +WHEREIN A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN STARTS ON AN ABSOLUTE REST + +The youngish-looking man who so vigorously swung off the train at +Restview, wore a pair of intensely dark blue eyes which immediately +photographed everything within their range of vision--flat green +country, shaded farm-houses, encircling wooded hills and all--weighed +it and sorted it and filed it away for future reference; and his +clothes clung on him with almost that enviable fit found only in +advertisements. Immediately he threw his luggage into the tonneau of +the dingy automobile drawn up at the side of the lonely platform, and +promptly climbed in after it. Spurred into purely mechanical action by +this silent decisiveness, the driver, a grizzled graduate from a hay +wagon, and a born grump, as promptly and as silently started his +machine. The crisp and perfect start, however, was given check by a +peremptory voice from the platform. + +"Hey, you!" rasped the voice. "Come back here!" + +As there were positively no other "Hey yous" in the landscape, the +driver and the alert young man each acknowledged to the name, and +turned to see an elderly gentleman, with a most aggressive beard and +solid corpulency, gesticulating at them with much vigor and +earnestness. Standing beside him was a slender sort of girl in a green +outfit, with very large brown eyes and a smile of amusement which was +just a shade mischievous. The driver turned upon his passenger a long +and solemn accusation. + +"Hollis Creek Inn?" he asked sternly. + +"Meadow Brook," returned the passenger, not at all abashed, and he +smiled with all the cheeriness imaginable. + +"Oh," said the driver, and there was a world of disapprobation in his +tone, as well as a subtle intonation of contempt. "You are not Mr. +Stevens of Boston." + +"No," confessed the passenger; "Mr. Turner of New York. I judge that +to be Mr. Stevens on the platform," and he grinned. + +The driver, still declining to see any humor whatsoever in the +situation, sourly ran back to the platform. Jumping from his seat he +opened the door of the tonneau, and waited with entirely artificial +deference for Mr. Turner of New York to alight. Mr. Turner, however, +did nothing of the sort. He merely stood up in the tonneau and bowed +gravely. + +"I seem to be a usurper," he said pleasantly to Mr. Stevens of Boston. +"I was expected at Meadow Brook, and they were to send a conveyance for +me. As this was the only conveyance in sight I naturally supposed it +to be mine. I very much regret having discommoded you." + +He was looking straight at Mr. Stevens of Boston as he spoke, but, +nevertheless, he was perfectly aware of the presence of the girl; also +of her eyes and of her smile of amusement with its trace of +mischievousness. Becoming conscious of his consciousness of her, he +cast her deliberately out of his mind and concentrated upon Mr. +Stevens. The two men gazed quite steadily at each other, not to the +point of impertinence at all, but nevertheless rather absorbedly. +Really it was only for a fleeting moment, but in that moment they had +each penetrated the husk of the other, had cleaved straight down to the +soul, had estimated and judged for ever and ever, after the ways of men. + +"I passed your carryall on the road. It was broke down. It'll be here +in about a half hour, I suppose," insisted the driver, opening the door +of the tonneau still wider, and waving the descending pathway with his +right hand. + +Both Mr. Stevens of Boston and Mr. Turner of New York were very glad of +this interruption, for it gave the older gentleman an object upon which +to vent his annoyance. + +"Is Meadow Brook on the way to Hollis Creek?" he demanded in a tone +full of reproof for the driver's presumption. + +The driver reluctantly admitted that it was. + +"I couldn't think of leaving you in this dismal spot to wait for a +dubious carryall," offered Mr. Stevens, but with frigid politeness. +"You are quite welcome to ride with us, if you will." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Turner, now climbing out of the machine with +alacrity and making way for the others. "I had intended," he laughed, +as he took his place beside the driver, "to secure just such an +invitation, by hook or by crook." + +For this assurance he received a glance from the big eyes; not at all a +flirtatious glance, but one of amusement, with a trace of mischief. +The remark, however, had well-nigh stopped all conversation on the part +of Mr. Stevens, who suddenly remembered that he had a daughter to +protect, and must discourage forwardness. His musings along these +lines were interrupted by an enthusiastic outburst from Mr. Turner. + +"By George!" exclaimed the latter gentleman, "what a fine clump of +walnut trees; an even half-dozen, and every solitary one of them would +trim sixteen inches." + +"Yes," agreed the older man with keenly awakened interest, "they are +fine specimens. They would scale six hundred feet apiece, if they'd +scale an inch." + +"You're in the lumber business, I take it," guessed the young man +immediately, already reaching for his card-case. "My name is Turner, +known a little better as Sam Turner, of Turner and Turner." + +"Sam Turner," repeated the older man thoughtfully. "The name seems +distinctly familiar to me, but I do not seem, either, to remember of +any such firm in the trade." + +"Oh, we're not in the lumber line," replied Mr. Turner. "Not at all. +We're in most anything that offers a profit. We--that is my kid +brother and myself--have engineered a deal or two in lumber lands, +however. It was only last month that I turned a good trade--a very +good trade--on a tract of the finest trees in Wisconsin." + +"The dickens!" exclaimed the older gentleman explosively. "So you're +the Turner who sold us our own lumber! Now I know you. I'm Stevens, +of the Maine and Wisconsin Lumber Company." + +Sam Turner laughed aloud, in both surprise and glee. Mr. Stevens had +now reached for his own card-case. The two gentlemen exchanged cards, +which, with barely more than a glance, they poked in the other flaps of +their cases; then they took a new and more interested inspection of +each other. Both were now entirely oblivious to the girl, who, +however, was by no means oblivious to them. She found them, in this +new meeting, a most interesting study. + +"You gouged us on that land, young man," resumed Mr. Stevens with a wry +little smile. + +"Worth every cent you paid us for it, wasn't it?" demanded the other. + +"Y-e-s; but if you hadn't stepped into the deal at the last minute, we +could have secured it for five or six thousand dollars less money." + +"You used to go after these things yourself," explained Mr. Turner with +an easy laugh. "Now you send out people empowered only to look and not +to purchase." + +"But what I don't yet understand," protested Mr. Stevens, "is how you +came to be in the deal at all. When we sent out our men to inspect the +trees they belonged to a chap in Detroit. When we came to buy them +they belonged to you." + +"Certainly," agreed the younger man. "I was up that way on other +business, when I heard about your man looking over this valuable +acreage; so I just slipped down to Detroit and hunted up the owner and +bought it. Then I sold it to you. That's all." + +He smiled frankly and cheerfully upon Mr. Stevens, and the frown of +discomfiture which had slightly clouded the latter gentleman's brow, +faded away under the guilelessness of it all; so much so that he +thought to introduce his daughter. + +Miss Josephine having been brought into the conversation, Mr. Turner, +for the first time, bent his gaze fully upon her, giving her the same +swift scrutiny and appraisement that he had the father. He was +evidently highly satisfied with what he saw, for he kept looking at it +as much as he dared. He became aware after a moment or so that Mr. +Stevens was saying something to him. He never did get all of it, but +he got this much: + +"--so you'd be rather a good man to watch, wherever you go." + +"I hope so," agreed the other briskly. "If I want anything, I go +prepared to grab it the minute I find that it suits me." + +"Do you always get everything you want?" asked the young lady. + +"Always," he answered her very earnestly, and looked her in the eyes so +speculatively, albeit unconsciously so, that she found herself battling +with a tendency to grow pink. + +Her father nodded in approval. + +"That's the way to get things," he said. "What are you after now? +More lumber?" + +"Rest," declared Mr. Turner with vigorous emphasis. "I've worked like +a nailer ever since I turned out of high school. I had to make the +living for the family, and I sent my kid brother through college. He's +just been out a year and it's a wonder the way he takes hold. But do +you know that in all those times since I left school I never took a +lay-off until just this minute? It feels glorious already. It's fine +to look around this good stretch of green country and breathe this +fresh air and look at those hills over yonder, and to realize that I +don't have to think of business for two solid weeks. Just absolute +rest, for me! I don't intend to talk one syllable of shop while I'm +here. Hello! there's another clump of walnut trees. It's a pity +they're scattered so that it isn't worth while to buy them up." + +The girl laughed, a little silvery laugh which made any memory of grand +opera seem harsh and jangling. Both men turned to her in surprise. +Neither of them could see any cause for mirth in all the fields or sky. + +"I beg your pardon for being so silly," she said; "but I just thought +of something funny." + +"Tell it to us," urged Mr. Turner. "I've never taken the time I ought +to enjoy funny things, and I might as well begin right now." + +But she shook her head, and in some way he acquired an impression that +she was amused at him. His brows gathered a trifle. If the young lady +intended to make sport of him he would take her down a peg or two. He +would find her point of susceptibility to ridicule, and hammer upon it +until she cried enough. That was his way to make men respectful, and +it ought to work with women. + +When they let him out at Meadow Brook, Mr. Stevens was kind enough to +ask him to drop over to Hollis Creek. Mr. Turner, with impulsive +alacrity, promised that he would. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WHEREIN MR. TURNER PLUNGES INTO THE BUSINESS OF RESTING + +At Meadow Brook Sam Turner found W. W. Westlake, of the Westlake +Electric Company, a big, placid man with a mild gray eye and an +appearance of well-fed and kindly laziness; a man also who had the +record of having ruthlessly smashed more business competitors than any +two other pirates in his line. Westlake, unclasping his fat hands from +his comfortable rotundity, was glad to see young Turner, also glad to +introduce the new eligible to his daughter, a girl of twenty-two, +working might and main to reduce a threatened inheritance of +embonpoint. Mr. Turner was charmed to meet Miss Westlake, and even +more pleased to meet the gentleman who was with her, young Princeman, a +brisk paper manufacturer variously quoted at from one to two million. +He knew all about young Princeman; in fact, had him upon his mental +list as a man presently to meet and cultivate for a specific purpose, +and already Mr. Turner's busy mind offset the expenses of this trip +with an equal credit, much in the form of "By introduction to H. L. +Princeman, Jr. (Princeman and Son Paper Mills, AA 1), whatever it +costs." He liked young Princeman at sight, too, and, proceeding +directly to the matter uppermost in his thoughts, immediately asked him +how the new tariff had affected his business. + +"It's inconvenient," said Princeman with a shake of his head. "Of +course, in the end the consumers must pay, but they protest so much +about it that they disarrange the steady course of our operations." + +"It's queer that the ultimate consumer never will be quite reconciled +to his fate," laughed Mr. Turner; "but in this particular case, I think +I hold the solution. You'll be interested, I know. You see--" + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Turner," interrupted Miss Westlake gaily; "I +know you'll want to meet all the young folks, and you'll particularly +want to meet my very dearest friend. Miss Hastings, Mr. Turner." + +Mr. Turner had turned to find an extraordinarily thin young woman, with +extraordinarily piercing black eyes, at Miss Westlake's side. + +"Indeed, I do want to meet all the young people," he cordially +asserted, taking Miss Hastings' claw-like hand in his own and wondering +what to do with it. He could not clasp it and he could not shake it. +She relieved him of his dilemma, after a moment, by twining that arm +about the plump waist of her dearest friend. + +"Is this your first stay at Meadow Brook?" she asked by way of starting +conversation. She was very carefully vivacious, was Miss Hastings, and +had a bird-like habit, meant to be very fetching, of cocking her head +to one side as she spoke, and peering up to men--oh, away up--with the +beady expression of a pet canary. + +"My very first visit," confessed Mr. Turner, not yet realizing the +disgrace it was to be "new people" at Meadow Brook, where there was +always an aristocracy of the grandchildren of original Meadow Brookers. +"However, I hope it won't be the last time," he continued. + +"We shall all hope that, I am certain," Miss Westlake assured him, +smiling engagingly into the depths of his eyes. "It will be our fault +if you don't like it here;" and he might take such tentative promise as +he would from that and her smile. + +"Thank you," he said promptly enough. "I can see right now that I'm +going to make Meadow Brook my future summer home. It's such a restful +place, for one thing. I'm beginning to rest right now, and to put +business so far into the background that--" he suddenly stopped and +listened to a phrase which his trained ear had caught. + +"And that is the trouble with the whole paper business," Mr. Princeman +was saying to Mr. Westlake. "It is not the tariff, but the future +scarcity of wood-pulp material." + +"That's just what I was starting to explain to you," said Mr. Turner, +wheeling eagerly to Mr. Princeman, entirely unaware, in his intensity +of interest, of his utter rudeness to both groups. "My kid brother and +myself are working on a scheme which, if we are on the right track, +ought to bring about a revolution in the paper business. I can not +give you the exact details of it now, because we're waiting for letters +patent on it, but the fundamental point is this: that the wood-pulp +manufacturers within a few years will have to grow their raw material, +since wood is becoming so scarce and so high priced. Well, there is +any quantity of swamp land available, and we have experimented like mad +with reeds and rushes. We've found one particular variety which grows +very rapidly, has a strong, woody fiber, and makes the finest pulp in +the world. I turned the kid loose with the company's bank roll this +spring, and he secured options on two thousand acres of swamp land, +near to transportation and particularly adapted to this culture, and +dirt cheap because it is useless for any other purpose. As soon as the +patents are granted on our process we're going to organize a million +dollar stock company to take up more land and handle the business." + +"Come over here and sit down," invited Princeman, somewhat more than +courteously. + +"Wait a minute until I send for McComas. Here, boy, hunt Mr. McComas +and ask him to come out on the porch." + +The new guest was reaching for pencil and paper as they gathered their +chairs together. The two girls had already started hesitantly to +efface themselves. Half-way across the lawn they looked sadly toward +the porch again. That handsome young Mr. Turner, his back toward them, +was deep in formulated but thrilling facts, while three other heads, +one gray and one black and one auburn, were bent interestedly over the +envelope upon which he was figuring. + +Later on, as he was dressing for dinner, Mr. Turner decided that he +liked Meadow Brook very much. It was set upon the edge of a pleasant, +rolling valley, faced and backed by some rather high hills, upon the +sloping side of one of which the hotel was built, with broad verandas +looking out upon exquisitely kept flowers and shrubbery and upon the +shallow little brook which gave the place its name. A little more +water would have suited Sam better, but the management had made the +most of its opportunities, especially in the matter of arranging dozens +of pretty little lovers' lanes leading in all directions among the +trees and along the sides of the shimmering stream, and the whole +prospect was very good to look at, indeed. Taken in conjunction with +the fact that one had no business whatever on hand, it gave one a sense +of delightful freedom to look out on the green lawn and the gay +gardens, on the brook and the tennis and croquet courts, and on the +purple-hazed, wooded hills beyond; it was good to fill one's lungs with +country air and to realize for a little while what a delightful world +this is; to see young people wandering about out there by twos and by +threes, and to meet with so many other people of affairs enjoying +leisure similar to one's own. + +Of course, this wasn't a really fashionable place, being supported +entirely by men who had made their own money; but there was Princeman, +for instance, a fine chap and very keen; a well-set-up fellow, +black-haired and black-eyed, and of a quick, nervous disposition; one +of precisely the kind of energy which Turner liked to see. McComas, +too, with his deep red hair and his tendency to freckles, and his frank +smile with all the white teeth behind it, was a corking good fellow; +and alive. McComas was in the furniture line, a maker of cheap stuff +which was shipped in solid trains of carload lots from a factory that +covered several acres. The other men he noticed around the place +seemed to be of about the same stamp. He had never been anywhere that +the men averaged so well. + +As he went down-stairs, McComas introduced his wife, already gowned for +the evening. She was a handsome woman, of the sort who would wear a +different stunning gown every night for two weeks and then go on to the +next place. Well, she had a right to this extravagance. Besides it is +good for a man's business to have his wife dressed prosperously. A man +who is getting on in the world ought to have a handsome wife. If she +is the right kind, of Miss Stevens' type, say, she is a distinct asset. + +After dinner, Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings waylaid him on the porch. + +[Illustration: They waylaid him on the porch] + +"I suppose, of course, you are going to take part in the bowling +tournament to-night," suggested Miss Westlake with the engaging +directness allowable to family friendship. + +"I suppose so, although I didn't know there was one. Where is it to be +held?" + +"Oh, just down the other side of the brook, beyond the croquet grounds. +We have a tournament every week, and a prize cup for the best score in +the season. It's lots of fun. Do you bowl?" + +"Not very much," Mr. Turner confessed; "but if you'll just keep me +posted on all these various forms of recreation, you may count on my +taking a prominent share in them." + +"All right," agreed Miss Hastings, very vivaciously taking the +conversation away from Miss Westlake. "We'll constitute ourselves a +committee of two to lay out a program for you." + +"Fine," he responded, bending on the fragile Miss Hastings a smile so +pleasant that it made her instantly determine to find out something +about his family and commercial standing. "What time do we start on +our mad bowling career?" + +"They'll be drifting over in about a half-hour," Miss Westlake told +him, with a speculative sidelong glance at her dearest girl friend. +"Everybody starts out for a stroll in some other direction, as if +bowling was the least of their thoughts, but they all wind up at the +alleys. I'll show you." A slight young man of the white-trousered +faction, as distinguished from the dinner-coat crowd, passed them just +then. "Oh, Billy," called Miss Westlake, and introduced the slight +young man, who proved to be her brother, to Mr. Turner, at the same +time wreathing her arm about the waist of her dear companion. "Come +on, Vivian; let's go get our wraps," and the girls, leaving "Billy" and +Mr. Turner together, scurried away. + +The two young men looked at each other dubiously, though each had an +earnest desire to please. They groped for human understanding, and +suddenly that clammy, discouraged feeling spread its muffling wall +between them. Billy was the first to recover in part. + +"Charming weather, isn't it?" he observed with a polite smile. + +Mr. Turner opined that it was, the while delving into Mr. Westlake's +mental workshop and finding it completely devoid of tools, patterns or +lumber. + +"The girls are just going to take me over to bowl," Mr. Turner ventured +desperately after a while. "Do you bowl very much?" + +"Oh, I usually fill in," stated Mr. Westlake; "but really, I'm a very +poor hand at it. I seem to be a poor hand at most everything," and he +laughed with engaging candor, as if somehow this were creditable. + +The conversation thereupon lagged for a moment or two, while Mr. Turner +blankly asked himself: "What in thunder _does_ a man talk about when he +has nothing to say and nobody to say it to?" Presently he solved the +problem. + +"It must be beautiful out here in the autumn," he observed. + +"Yes, it is indeed," returned Mr. Westlake with alacrity. "The leaves +turn all sorts of colors." + +Once more conversation lagged, while Billy feebly wondered how any +person could possibly be so dull as this chap. He made another attempt. + +"Beastly place, though, when it rains," he observed. + +"Yes, I should imagine so," agreed Mr. Turner. Great Scott! The voice +of McComas saved him from utter imbecility. + +"You'll excuse Mr. Turner a moment, won't you, Billy?" begged McComas +pleasantly. "I want to introduce him to a couple of friends of mine." + +Billy Westlake bowed his forgiveness of Mr. McComas with fully as much +relief as Sam Turner had felt. Over in the same corner of the porch +where he had sat in the afternoon with McComas and Princeman and the +elder Westlake, Sam found awaiting them Mr. Cuthbert, of the American +Papier-Mache Company, an almost viciously ugly man with a twisted nose +and a crooked mouth, who controlled practically all the worth-while +papier-mache business of the United States, and Mr. Blackrock, an +elderly man with a young toupee and particularly gaunt cheek-bones, who +was a corporation lawyer of considerable note. Both gentlemen greeted +Mr. Turner as one toward whom they were already highly predisposed, and +Mr. Princeman and Mr. Westlake also shook hands most cordially, as if +Sam had been gone for a day or two. Mr. McComas placed a chair for him. + +"We just happened to mention your marsh pulp idea, and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Blackrock were at once very highly interested," observed McComas as +they sat dawn. "Mr. Blackrock suggests that he don't see why you need +wait for the issuance of the letters patent, at least to discuss the +preliminary steps in the forming of your company." + +"Why, no, Mr. Turner," said Mr. Blackrock, suavely and smoothly; "it is +not a company anyhow, as I take it, which will depend so much upon +letters patent as upon extensive exploitation." + +"Yes, that's true enough," agreed Sam with a smile. "The letters +patent, however, should give my kid brother and myself, without much +capital, controlling interest in the stock." + +Upon this frank but natural statement the others laughed quite +pleasantly. + +"That seems a plausible enough reason," admitted Mr. Westlake, folding +his fat hands across his equator and leaning back in his chair with a +placidity which seemed far removed from any thought of gain. "How did +you propose to organize your company?" + +"Well," said Sam, crossing one leg comfortably over the other, "I +expect to issue a half million participating preferred stock, at five +per cent., and a half-million common, one share of common as bonus with +each two shares of preferred; the voting power, of course, vested in +the common." + +A silence followed that, and then Mr. Cuthbert, with a diagonal yawing +of his mouth which seemed to give his words a special dryness, observed: + +"And I presume you intend to take up the balance of the common stock?" + +"Just about," returned Mr. Turner cheerfully, addressing Cuthbert +directly. The papier-mache king was another man whom he had inscribed, +some time since, upon his mental list. "My kid brother and myself will +take two hundred and fifty thousand of the common stock for our patents +and processes, and for our services as promoters and organizers, and +will purchase enough of the preferred to give us voting power; say five +thousand dollars worth." + +Mr. Cuthbert shook his head. + +"Very stringent terms," he observed. "I doubt if you will interest +your capital on that basis." + +"All right," said Sam, clasping his knee in his hands and rocking +gently. "If we can't organize on that basis we won't organize at all. +We're in no hurry. My kid brother's handling it just now, anyhow. I'm +on a vacation, the first I ever had, and not keen upon business, by any +means. In the meantime, let me show you some figures." + +Five minutes later, Billy Westlake and his sister and Miss Hastings +drew up to the edge of the group. Young Westlake stood diffidently for +two or three minutes beside Mr. Turner's chair, and then he put his +hand on that summer idler's shoulder. + +"Oh, good evening, Mr.--Mr.--Mr.--" Sam stammered while he tried to +find the name. + +"Westlake," interposed Billy's father; and then, a trifle impatiently, +"What do you want, Billy?" + +"Mr. Turner was to go over with us to the bowling shed, dad." + +"That's so," admitted Mr. Turner, glancing over to the porch rail where +the girls stood expectantly in their fluffy white dresses, and nodding +pleasantly at them, but not yet rising. He was in the midst of an +important statement. + +"Just you run on with the girls, Billy," ordered Mr. Westlake. "Mr. +Turner will be over in a few minutes." + +The others of the circle bent their eyes gravely upon Billy and the +girls as they turned away, and waited for Mr. Turner to resume. + +At a quarter past ten, as Mr. Turner and Mr. Princeman walked slowly +along the porch to turn into the parlors for a few minutes of music, of +which Sam was very fond, a crowd of young people came trooping up the +steps. Among them were Billy Westlake and his sister, another young +gentleman and Miss Hastings. + +"By George, that bowling tournament!" exclaimed Mr. Turner. "I forgot +all about it." + +He was about to make his apologies, but Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings +passed right on, with stern, set countenances and their heads in air. +Apparently they did not see Mr. Turner at all. He gazed after them in +consternation; suddenly there popped into his mind the vision of a +slender girl in green, with mischievous brown eyes--and he felt +strangely comforted. Before retiring he wired his brother to send some +samples of the marsh pulp, and the paper made from it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MR. TURNER APPLIES BUSINESS PROMPTNESS TO A MATTER OF DELICACY + +Morning at Meadow Brook was even more delightful than evening. The +time Mr. Turner had chosen for his outing was early September, and +already there was a crispness in the air which was quite invigorating. +Clad in flannels and with a brand new tennis racket under his arm, he +went into the reading-room immediately after breakfast, bought a paper +of the night before and glanced hastily over the news of the day, +paying more particular attention to the market page. Prices of things +had a peculiar fascination for him. He noticed that cereals had gone +down, that there was another flurry in copper stock, and that hardwood +had gone up, and ranging down the list his eye caught a quotation for +walnut. It had made a sharp advance of ten dollars a thousand feet. + +Out of the window, as he looked up, he saw Miss Westlake and Miss +Hastings crossing the lawn, and he suddenly realized that he was here +to wear himself out with rest, so he hurried in the direction the girls +had taken; but when he arrived at the tennis court he found a set +already in progress. Both Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings barely +nodded at Mr. Turner, and went right on displaying grace and dexterity +to a quite unusual degree. Decidedly Mr. Turner was being "cut," and +he wondered why. Presently he strode down to the road and looked up +over the hill in the direction he knew Hollis Creek Inn to be. He was +still pondering the probable distance when Mr. Westlake and Billy and +young Princeman came up the brook path. + +"Just the chap I wanted to see, Sam," said Mr. Westlake heartily. "I'm +trying to get up a pin-hook fishing contest, for three-inch sunfish." + +"Happy thought," returned Sam, laughing. "Count me in." + +"It's the governor's own idea, too," said Billy with vast enthusiasm. +"Bully sport, it ought to be. Only trouble is, Princeman has some +mysterious errand or other, and can't join us." + +"No; the fact is, the Stevenses were due at Hollis Creek yesterday," +confessed Mr. Princeman in cold return to the prying Billy, "and I +think I'll stroll over and see if they've arrived." + +Sam Turner surveyed Princeman with a new interest. Danger lurked in +Princeman's black eyes, fascination dwelt in his black hair, +attractiveness was in every line of his athletic figure. It was upon +the tip of Sam's tongue to say that he would join Princeman in his +walk, but he repressed that instinct immediately. + +"Quite a long ways over there by the road, isn't it?" he questioned. + +"Yes," admitted Princeman unsuspectingly, "it winds a good bit; but +there is a path across the hills which is not only shorter but far more +pleasant." + +Sam turned to Mr. Westlake. + +"It would be a shame not to let Princeman in on that pin-hook match," +he suggested. "Why not put it off until to-morrow morning. I have an +idea that I can beat Princeman at the game." + +There was more or less of sudden challenge in his tone, and Princeman, +keen as Sam himself, took it in that way. + +"Fine!" he invited. "Any time you want to enter into a contest with me +you just mention it." + +"I'll let you know in some way or other, even if I don't make any +direct announcement," laughed Sam, and Princeman walked away with Mr. +Westlake, very much to Billy's consternation. He was alone with this +dull Turner person once more. What should they talk about? Sam solved +that problem for him at once. "What's the swiftest conveyance these +people keep?" he asked briskly. + +"Oh, you can get most anything you like," said Billy. "Saddle-horses +and carriages of all sorts; and last year they put in a couple of +automobiles, though scarcely any one uses them." There was a certain +amount of careless contempt in Billy's tone as he mentioned the hired +autos. Evidently they were not considered to be as good form as other +modes of conveyance. + +"Where's the garage?" asked Sam. + +"Right around back of the hotel. Just follow that drive." + +"Thanks," said the other crisply. "I'll see you this evening," and he +stalked away leaving Billy gasping for breath at the suddenness of Sam. +After all, though, he was glad to be rid of Mr. Turner. He knew the +Stevenses himself, and it had slowly dawned on him that by having his +own horse saddled he could beat Princeman over there. + +It took Sam just about one minute to negotiate for an automobile, a +neat little affair, shiny and new, and before they were half-way to +Hollis Creek, his innate democracy led him into conversation with the +driver, an alert young man of the near-by clay. + +"Not very good soil in this neighborhood," Sam observed. "I notice +there is a heavy outcropping of stone. What are the principal crops?" + +"Summer resorters," replied the driver briefly. + +"And do you mean to tell me that all these farm-houses call themselves +summer resorts?" inquired Sam. + +"No, only those that have running water. The others just keep +boarders." + +"I see," said Sam, laughing. + +A moment later they passed over a beautifully clear stream which ran +down a narrow pocket valley between two high hills, swept under a +rickety wooden culvert, and raced on across a marshy meadow, sparkling +invitingly here and there in the sunlight. + +"Here's running water without a summer resort," observed the passenger, +still smiling. + +"It's too much shut in," replied the chauffeur as one who had voiced a +final and insurmountable objection. All the "summer resorts" in this +neighborhood were of one pattern, and no one would so much as dream of +varying from the first successful model. + +Sam scarcely heard. He was looking back toward the trough of those two +picturesquely wooded hills, and for the rest of the drive he asked but +few questions. + +At Hollis Creek, where he found a much more imposing hotel than the one +at Meadow Brook, he discovered Miss Stevens, clad in simple white from +canvas shoes to knotted cravat, in a summer-house on the lawn, chatting +gaily with a young man who was almost fat. Sam had seen other girls +since he had entered the grounds, but he could not make out their +features; this one he had recognized from afar, and as they approached +the summer-house he opened the door of the machine and jumped out +before it had come properly to a stop. + +"Good morning, Miss Stevens," he said with a cheerful self-confidence +which was beautiful to behold. "I have come over to take you a little +spin, if you'll go." + +Miss Stevens gazed at the caller quizzically, and laughed outright. + +"This is so sudden," she murmured. + +The caller himself grinned. + +"Does seem so, if you stop to think of it," he admitted. "Rather like +dropping out of the clouds. But the auto is here, and I can testify +that it's a smooth-running machine. Will you go?" + +She turned that same quizzical smile upon the young man who was almost +fat, and introduced him, curly hair and all, to Mr. Turner as Mr. +Hollis, who, it afterward transpired, was the heir to Hollis Creek Inn. + +"I had just promised to play tennis with Mr. Hollis," Miss Stevens +stated after the introduction had been properly acknowledged, "but I +know he won't mind putting it off this time," and she handed him her +tennis bat. + +"Certainly not," said young Hollis with forcedly smiling politeness. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hollis," said Sam promptly. "Just jump right in, Miss +Stevens." + +"How long shall we be gone?" she asked as she settled herself in the +tonneau. + +"Oh, whatever you say. A couple of hours, I presume." + +"All right, then," she said to young Hollis; "we'll have our game in +the afternoon." + +"With pleasure," replied the other graciously, but he did not look it. + +"Where shall we go?" asked Sam as the driver looked back inquiringly. +"You know the country about here, I suppose." + +"I ought to," she laughed. "Father's been ending the summer here ever +since I was a little girl. You might take us around Bald Hill," she +suggested to the chauffeur. "It is a very pretty drive," she +explained, turning to Sam as the machine wheeled, and at the same time +waving her hand gaily to the disconsolate Hollis, who was "hard hit" +with a different girl every season. "It's just about a two-hour trip. +What a fine morning to be out!" and she settled back comfortably as the +machine gathered speed. "I do love a machine, but father is rather +backward about them. He will consent to ride in them under necessity, +but he won't buy one. Every time he sees a handsome pair of horses, +however, he has to have them." + +"I admire a good horse myself," returned Sam. + +"Do you ride?" she asked him. + +"Oh, I have suffered a few times on horseback," he confessed; "but you +ought to see my kid brother ride. He looks as if he were part of the +horse. He's a handsome brat." + +"Except for calling him names, which is a purely masculine way of +showing affection, you speak of him almost as if you were his mother," +she observed. + +"Well, I am, almost," replied Sam, studying the matter gravely. "I +have been his mother, and his father, and his brother, too, for a great +many years; and I will say that he's a credit to his family." + +"Meaning just you?" she ventured. + +"Yes, we're all we have; just yet, at least." This quite soberly. + +"He must talk of getting married," she guessed, with a quick intuition +that when this happened it would be a blow to Sam. + +"Oh, no," he immediately corrected her. "He isn't quite old enough to +think of it seriously as yet. I expect to be married long before he +is." + +Miss Stevens felt a rigid aloofness creeping over her, and, having a +very wholesome sense of humor, smiled as she recognized the feeling in +herself. + +"I should think you'd spend your vacation where the girl is," she +observed. "Men usually do, don't they?" + +He laughed gaily. + +"I surely would if I knew the girl," he asserted. + +"That's a refreshing suggestion," she said, echoing his laugh, though +from a different impulse. "I presume, then, that you entertain +thoughts of matrimony merely because you think you are quite old +enough." + +"No, it isn't just that," he returned, still thoughtfully. "Somehow or +other I feel that way about it; that's all. I have never had time to +think of it before, but this past year I have had a sort of sense of +lonesomeness; and I guess that must be it." + +In spite of herself Miss Josephine giggled and repressed it, and +giggled again and repressed it, and giggled again, and then she let +herself go and laughed as heartily as she pleased. She had heard men +say before, but always with more or less of a languishing air, +inevitably ridiculous in a man, that they thought it about time they +were getting married; but she could not remember anything to compare +with Sam Turner's naivete in the statement. + +He paid no attention to the laughter, for he had suddenly leaned +forward to the chauffeur. + +"There is another clump of walnut trees," he said, eagerly pointing +them out. "Are there many of them in this locality?" + +"A good many scattered here and there," replied the boy; "but old man +Gifford has a twenty-acre grove down in the bottoms that's mostly all +walnut trees, and I heard him say just the other day that walnut +lumber's got so high he had a notion to clear his land." + +"Where do you suppose we could find old man Gifford?" inquired Mr. +Turner. + +"Oh, about six miles off to the right, at the next turning." + +"Suppose we whizz right down there," said Sam promptly, and he turned +to Miss Stevens with enthusiasm shining in his eyes. "It does seem as +if everything happens lucky for me," he observed. "I haven't any +particular liking for the lumber business, but fate keeps handing +lumber to me all the time; just fairly forcing it on me." + +"Do you think fate is as much responsible for that as yourself?" she +questioned, smiling as they passed at a good clip the turn which was to +have taken them over the pretty Bald Hill drive. Sam had not even +thought to apologize for the abrupt change in their program, because +she could certainly see the opportunity which had offered itself, and +how imperative it was to embrace it. The thing needed no explanation. + +"I don't know," he replied to her query, after pausing to consider it a +moment. "I certainly don't go out of my road to hunt up these things." + +"No-o-o-o," she admitted. "But fate hasn't thrust this particular +opportunity upon me, although I'm right with you at the time. It never +would have occurred to me to ask about those walnut trees." + +"It would have occurred to your father," he retorted quickly. + +"Yes, it might have occurred to father, but I think that under the +circumstances he would have waited until to-morrow to see about it." + +"I suppose I might be that way when I arrive at his age," Sam commented +philosophically, "but just now I can't afford it. His 'seeing about it +to-morrow' cost him between five and six thousand dollars the last time +I had anything to do with him." + +She laughed. She was enjoying Sam's company very much. Even if a bit +startling, he was at least refreshing after the type of young men she +was in the habit of meeting. + +"He was talking about that last night," she said. "I think father +rather stands in both admiration and awe of you." + +"I'm glad to hear that," he returned quite seriously. "It's a good +attitude in which to have the man with whom you expect to do business." + +"I think I shall have to tell him that," she observed, highly amused. +"He will enjoy it, and it may put him on his guard." + +"I don't mind," he concluded after due reflection. "It won't hurt a +particle. If anything, if he likes me so far, that will only increase +it. I like your father. In fact I like his whole family." + +"Thank you," she said demurely, wondering if there was no end to his +bluntness, and wondering, too, whether it were not about time that she +should find it wearisome. On closer analysis, however, she decided +that the time was not yet come. "But you have not met all of them," +she reminded him. "There are mother and a younger sister and an older +brother." + +"Don't matter if there were six more, I like all of them," Sam promptly +informed her. Then, "Stop a minute," he suddenly directed the +chauffeur. + +That functionary abruptly brought his machine to a halt just a little +way past a tree glowing with bright green leaves and red berries. + +"I don't know what sort of a tree that is," said Sam with boyish +enthusiasm; "but see how pretty it is. Except for the shape of the +leaves the effect is as beautiful as holly. Wouldn't you like a branch +or two, Miss Stevens?" + +"I certainly should," she heartily agreed. "I don't know how you +discovered that I have a mad passion for decorative weeds and things." + +"Have you?" he inquired eagerly. "So have I. If I had time I'd be +rather ashamed of it." + +He had scrambled out of the car and now ran back to the tree, where, +perching himself upon the second top rail of the fence he drew down a +limb, and with his knife began to snip off branches here and there. +The girl noticed that he selected the branches with discrimination, +turning each one over so that he could look at the broad side of it +before clipping, rejecting many and studying each one after he had +taken it in his hand. He was some time in finding the last one, a long +straggling branch which had most of its leaves and berries at the tip, +and she noticed that as he came back to the auto he was arranging them +deftly and with a critical eye. When he handed them in to her they +formed a carefully arranged and graceful composition. It was a new and +an unexpected side of him, and it softened considerably the amused +regard in which she had been holding him. + +"They are beautifully arranged," she commented, as he stopped for a +moment to brush the dust from his shoes in the tall grass by the +roadside. + +"Do you think so?" he delightedly inquired. "You ought to see my kid +brother make up bouquets of goldenrod and such things. He seems to +have a natural artistic gift." + +She bent on his averted head a wondering glance, and she reflected that +often this "hustler" must be misunderstood. + +"You have aroused in me quite a curiosity to meet this paragon of a +brother," she remarked. "He must be well-nigh perfection." + +"He is," replied Sam instantly, turning to her very earnest eyes. "He +hasn't a flaw in him any place." + +She smiled musingly as she surveyed the group of branches she held in +her hand. + +"It is a pity these leaves will wither in so short a time," she said. + +"Yes," he admitted; "but even if we have to throw them away before we +get back to the hotel, their beauty will give us pleasure for an hour; +and the tree won't miss them. See, it seems as perfect as ever." + +"It wouldn't if everybody took the same liberties with it that you +did," she remarked, glancing back at the tree. + +Sam had climbed in the car and had slammed the door shut, but any reply +he might have made was prevented by a hail from the woods above them at +the other side of the road, and a man came scrambling down from the +hillside path. + +"Why, it's Mr. Princeman!" exclaimed the girl in pleased surprise. +"Think of finding you wandering about, all alone in the woods here." + +"I wasn't wandering about," he protested as he came up to the machine +and shook hands with Miss Josephine. "I was headed directly for Hollis +Creek Inn. Your brother wrote me that you were expected to arrive +there yesterday evening, and I was dropping over to call on you right +away this morning. I see, however, that I was not quite prompt enough. +You're selfish, Mr. Turner. You knew I was going over to Hollis Creek, +and you might have invited me to ride in your machine." + +"You might have invited me to walk with you," retorted Sam. + +"But you knew that I was coming and I didn't know that you even knew--" +he paused abruptly and fixed a contemplative eye upon young Mr. Turner, +who was now surveying the scenery and Mr. Princeman in calm enjoyment. + +The arrival at this moment of a cloud of dust out of which evolved a +lone horseman, and that horseman Billy Westlake, added a new angle to +the situation, and for one fleeting moment the three men eyed one +another in mutual sheepish guilt. + +"Rather good sport, I call it, Miss Stevens," declared Billy, aware of +a sudden increase in his estimation of Mr. Turner, and letting the cat +completely out of the bag. "Each of us was trying to steal a march on +the rest, but Mr. Turner used the most businesslike method, and of +course he won the race." + +"I'm flattered, I'm sure," said Miss Josephine demurely. "I really +feel that I ought to go right back to the house and be the belle of the +ball; but it's impossible for an hour or so in this case," and she +turned to her escort with the smile of mischief which she had worn the +first time he saw her. "You see, we are out on a little business trip, +Mr. Turner and myself. We're going to buy a walnut grove." + +Mr. Turner turned upon her a glance which was half a frown. + +"I promised to get you back in two hours, and I'll do it," he stated, +"but we mustn't linger much by the wayside." + +"With which hint we shall wend our Hollis Creek-ward way," laughed +Princeman, exchanging a glance of amusement with Miss Stevens. "I +think we shall visit with your father until you come back." + +"Please do," she urged. "He will be as glad to see you both as I am," +with which information she settled herself back in her seat with a +little air of the interview being over, and the chauffeur, with proper +intuition, started the machine, while Mr. Princeman and Billy looked +after them glumly. + +"Queer chap, isn't he?" commented Billy. + +"Queer? Well, hardly that," returned Princeman thoughtfully. "There's +one thing certain; he's enterprising and vigorous enough to command +respect, in business or--anything else." + +At about that very moment Mr. Turner was impressing upon his companion +a very important bit of ethics. + +"You shouldn't have violated my confidence," he told her severely. + +"How was that?" she asked in surprise, and with a trifle of indignation +as well. + +"You told them that we were going to buy a walnut grove. You ought +never to let slip anything you happen to know of any man's business +plans." + +"Oh!" she said blankly. + +Having voiced his straightforward objection, and delivered his simple +but direct lesson, Mr. Turner turned as decisively to other matters. + +"Son," he asked, leaning over toward the chauffeur, "are there any +speed limit laws on these roads?" + +"None that I know of," replied the boy. + +"Then cut her loose. Do you object to fast driving, Miss Stevens?" + +"Not at all," she told him, either much chastened by the late rebuke or +much amused by it. She could scarcely tell which, as yet. "I don't +particularly long for a broken neck, but I never can feel that my time +has come." + +"It hasn't," returned Sam. "Let's see your palm," and taking her hand +he held it up before him. It was a small hand that he saw, and most +gracefully formed, but a strong one, too, and Sam Turner had an +extremely quick and critical eye for both strength and beauty. "You +are going to live to be a gray-haired grandmother," he announced after +an inspection of her pink palm, "and live happily all your life." + +It was noteworthy that no matter what his impulse may have been he did +not hold her hand overly long, nor subject it to undue warmth of +pressure, but restored it gently to her lap. She was remarking upon +this herself as she took that same hand and passed its tapering fingers +deftly among the twigs of the tree-bouquet, arranging a leaf here and a +berry there. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A LITTLE VACATION PASTIME IN WHICH GREEK MEETS GREEK + +Old man Gifford was not at home in his squat, low-roofed farm-house, +but a woman shaped like a pyramid of diminishing pumpkins directed them +down through the grove to the corn patch. It was necessary to lift +strenuously upon the sagging end of a squeaky old gate, and scrape it +across gulleys, to get the automobile into the narrow, deeply-rutted +road, and with a mind fearful of tires the chauffeur wheeled down +through the grove quite slowly, a slowness for which Sam was duly +grateful, since it allowed him to take a careful appraisement of the +walnut trees, interspersed with occasional oaks, which bordered both +sides of their path. They were tall, thick, straight-trunked trees, +from amongst which the underbrush had been carefully cut away. It was +a joy to his now vandal soul, this grove, and already he could see +those majestic trunks, after having been sawed with as little wasteful +chopping as possible, toppling in endless billowy furrows. + +Old man Gifford came inquiringly up between the long rows of corn to +the far edge of the grove. He was bent and weazened, and more gnarled +than any of his trees, and even his fingers seemed to have the knotty, +angular effect of twigs. A fringe of gray beard surrounded his +clean-shaven face, which was criss-crossed with innumerable little +furrows that the wind and rain had worn in it; but a pair of shrewd old +eyes twinkled from under his bushy eyebrows. + +"Morning, 'Ennery," he said, addressing the chauffeur with a squeaky +little voice in which, though after forty years of residence in +America, there was still a strong trace of British accent; and then his +calculating gaze rested calmly in turns upon the other occupants of the +machine. + +"Good morning, Mr. Gifford," returned the chauffeur. "Fine day, isn't +it?" + +"Good corn-ripenin' weather," agreed the old man, squinting at the sky +from force of habit, and then, being satisfied that there was no +threatening cloud in all the visible blue expanse, he returned to a +calm consideration of the strangers, waiting patiently for Mr. Turner +to introduce himself. + +"I understand, Mr. Gifford, that you are open to an offer for your +walnut trees," began Mr. Turner, looking at his watch. + +"Well, I might be," admitted the old man cautiously. + +"I see," returned Sam; "that is, you might be interested if the price +were right. Let's get right down to brass tacks. How much do you +want?" + +"Standin' or cut?" + +"Well, say standing?" + +"How much do you offer?" + +Miss Stevens' gaze roved from the one to the other and found enjoyment +in the fact that here Greek had met Greek. + +Sam's reply was prompt and to the point. He named a price. + +"No," said the old man instantly. "I been a-holdin' out for five +dollars a thousand more than that." + +Things were progressing. A basis for haggling had been established. +Sam Turner, however, had the advantage. He knew the sharp advance in +walnut announced that morning. Old man Gifford would not be aware of +it until the rural free delivery brought his evening paper, of the +night before, some time that afternoon. In view of the recent advance, +even at Mr. Gifford's price there was a handsome profit in the +transaction. + +"The reason you've had to hold out for your rate until right now was +that nobody would pay it," said Sam confidently. "Now I'm here to talk +spot cash. I'll give you, say, a thousand dollars down, and the +balance immediately upon measurement as the logs are loaded upon the +cars." + +The old man nodded in approval. + +"The terms is all right," he said. + +"How much will you take F. O. B. Restview?" + +"Well, cuttin' and trimmin' and haulin' ain't much in my line," +returned the old man, again cautious; "but after all, I reckon that +there'd be less damage to my property if I looked after it myself. Of +course, I'd have to have a profit for handlin' it. I'd feel like +holdin' out for--for--" and after some hesitation he again named a +figure. + +"You've made that same proposition to others," charged Sam shrewdly, +"and you couldn't get the price." Upon the heels of this he made his +own offer. + +The old man shook his head and turned as if to start back to the corn +field. + +"No, I can get better than that," he declared, shaking his head. + +"Come back here and let's talk turkey," protested Sam compellingly. +"You name the very lowest price you'll take, delivered on board the +cars at Restview." + +The old man reached down, pulled up a blade of grass, chewed it +carefully, spit it out, and named his very, very lowest price; then he +added: "What's the most you'll give?" + +Miss Stevens leaned forward intently. + +Sam very promptly named a figure five dollars lower. + +"I'll split the difference with you," offered the old man. + +"It's a bargain!" said Sam, and reaching into the inside pocket of his +tennis coat, he brought out some queer furniture for that sort of +garment--a small fountain pen and an extremely small card-case, from +the latter of which he drew four folded blank checks. + +He reached over and borrowed the chauffeur's enameled cap, dusted it +carefully with his handkerchief, laid a check upon it and held his +fountain pen poised. "What are your initials, please, Mr. Gifford?" + +"Wait a minute," said the old man hastily. "Don't make out that check +just yet. I don't do any business or sign any contracts till I talk +with Hepseba." + +"All right. Climb right in with Henry there," directed Sam, seizing +upon the chauffeur's name. "We'll drive straight up to see her." + +"I'll walk," firmly declared Mr. Gifford. "I never have rode in one of +them things, and I'm too old to begin." + +"Very well," said Sam cheerfully, jumping out of the machine with great +promptness. "I'll walk with you. Back to the house, Henry," and he +started anxiously to trudge up the road with Mr. Gifford, leaving Henry +to manoeuver painfully in the narrow space. After a few steps, +however, a sudden thought made him turn back. "Maybe you'd rather walk +up, too," he suggested to Miss Stevens. + +"No, I think I'll ride," she said coldly. + +He opened the door in extreme haste. + +"Do come on and walk," he pleaded. "Don't hold it against me because I +just don't seem to be able to think of more than one thing at a time; +but I was so wrapped up in this deal that-- Really," and he sank his +voice confidentially, "I have a tremendous bargain here, and I'll be +nervous about it until I have it clenched. I'll tell you why as we go +home." + +He held out his hand as a matter of course to help her down. The white +of his eyes was remarkably clear, the irises were remarkably blue, the +pupils remarkably deep. Suddenly her face cleared and she laughed. + +"It was silly of me to be snippy, wasn't it?" she confessed, as she +took his hand and stepped lightly to the ground. It had just recurred +to her that when he knew Princeman was walking over to see her he had +said nothing, but had engaged an automobile. + +Old man Gifford had nothing much to say when they caught up with him. +Mr. Turner tried him with remarks about the weather, and received full +information, but when he attempted to discuss the details of the walnut +purchase, he received but mere grunts in reply, except finally this: + +"There's no use, young man. I won't talk about them trees till I get +Hepseba's opinion." + +At the house Hepseba waddled out on the little stoop in response to old +man Gifford's call, and stood regarding the strangers stonily through +her narrow little slits of eyes. + +"This gentleman, Hepseba," said old man Gifford, "wants to buy my +walnut trees. What do you think of him?" + +In response to that leading question, Hepseba studied Sam Turner from +head to foot with the sort of scrutiny under which one slightly reddens. + +[Illustration: Hepseba studied him from head to foot] + +"I like him," finally announced Hepseba, in a surprisingly liquid and +feminine voice. "I like both of them," an unexpected turn which +brought a flush to the face of Miss Stevens. + +"All right, young man," said old man Gifford briskly. "Now, then, you +come in the front room and write your contract, and I'll take your +check." + +All alacrity and open cordiality now, he led the way into the queer-old +front room, musty with the solemnity of many dim Sundays. + +"Just set down here in this easy chair, Mrs.-- What did you say your +name is?" Mr. Gifford inquired, turning to Sam. + +"Turner; Sam J. Turner," returned that gentleman, grinning. "But this +is Miss Stevens." + +"No offense meant or taken, I hope," hastily said the old man by way of +apology; "but I do say that Mr. Turner would be lucky if he had such a +pretty wife." + +"You have both good taste and good judgment, Mr. Gifford," commented +Sam as airily as he could; then he looked across at Miss Stevens and +laughed aloud, so openly and so ingenuously that, so far from the +laughter giving offense, it seemed, strangely enough, to put Miss +Josephine at her ease, though she still blushed furiously. There was +nothing in that laugh nor in his look but frank, boyish enjoyment of +the joke. + +There ensued a crisp and decisive conversation between Mr. Gifford and +Mr. Turner about the details of their contract, and 'Ennery was +presently called in to append to it his painfully precise signature in +vertical writing, Miss Stevens adding hers in a pretty round hand. +Then Hepseba, to bind the bargain, brought in hot apple pie fresh from +the oven, and they became quite a little family party indeed, and very +friendly, 'Ennery sitting in the parlor with them and eating his pie +with a fork. + +"I know what Hepseba thinks," said old man Gifford, as he held the door +of the car open for them. "She thinks you're a mighty keen young man +that has to be watched in the beginning of a bargain, because you'll +give as little as you can; but that after the bargain's made you don't +need any more watching. But Lord love you, I have to be watched in a +bargain myself. I take everything I can." + +As he finished saying this he was closing the door of the car, but +Hepseba called to them to wait, and came puffing out of the house with +a little bundle wrapped in a newspaper. + +"I brought this out for your wife," she said to Mr. Turner, and handed +it to Miss Josephine. "It's some geranium slips. Everybody says I got +the very finest geraniums in the bottoms here." + +"Goodness, Hepseba," exclaimed old man Gifford, highly delighted; "that +ain't his wife. That's Miss Stevens. I made the same mistake," and he +hawhawed in keen enjoyment. + +Hepseba was so evidently overcome with mortification, however, and her +huge round face turned so painfully red, that Miss Stevens lost +entirely any embarrassment she might otherwise have felt. + +"It doesn't matter at all, I assure you, Mrs. Gifford," she said with +charming eagerness to set Hepseba at ease. "I am very fond of +geraniums, and I shall plant these slips and take good care of them. I +thank you very, very much for them." + +As the machine rolled away Hepseba turned to old man Gifford: + +"I like both of them!" she stated most decisively. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER AGREES THAT SAM TURNER IS ALL BUSINESS + +"And now," announced Sam in calm triumph as they neared Hollis Creek +Inn, "I'll finish up this deal right away. There is no use in my +holding for a further rise at this time, and I'll just sell these trees +to your father." + +"To father!" she gasped, and then, as it dawned upon her that she had +been out all morning to help Sam Turner buy up trees to sell to her own +father at a profit, she burst forth into shrieks of laughter. + +"What's the joke?" Sam asked, regarding her in amazement, and then, +more or less dimly, he perceived. "Still," he said, relapsing into +serious consideration of the affair, "your father will be in luck to +buy those trees at all, even at the ten dollars a thousand profit he'll +have to pay me. There is not less than a hundred thousand feet of +walnut in that grove. + +"Mercy!" she said. "Why, that will make you a thousand dollars for +this morning's drive; and the opportunity was entirely accidental, one +which would not have occurred if you hadn't come over to see me in this +machine. I think I ought to have a commission." + +"You ought to be fined," Sam retorted. "You had me scared stiff at one +time." + +"How was that?" she demanded. + +"Why, of course you didn't think, but when you told the boys that I was +going out to buy a walnut grove, they were right on their way to see +your father. It would have been very natural for one of them to +mention our errand. Your father might have immediately inquired where +there was walnut to be found, and have telephoned to old man Gifford +before I could reach him." + +"You needn't have worried!" stated Miss Josephine in a tone so +indignant that Sam turned to her in astonishment. "My father would not +have done anything so despicable as that, I am quite sure!" + +"He wouldn't!" exclaimed Sam. "I'll bet he would. Why, how do you +suppose your father became rich in the lumber trade if it wasn't +through snapping up bargains every time he found one?" + +"I have no doubt that my father has been and is a very alert business +man," retorted Miss Josephine most icily; "but after he knew that you +had started out actually to purchase a tract of lumber, he would +certainly consider that you had established a prior claim upon the +property." + +"Your father's name is Theophilus Stevens, isn't it?" + +"Yes." + +"Humph!" said Sam, but he did not explain that exclamation, nor was he +asked to explain. Miss Stevens had been deeply wounded by the assault +upon her father's business morality, and she desired to hear no further +elaboration of the insult. + +She was glad that they were drawing up now to the porch, glad this +ride, with its many disagreeable features, was over, although she +carefully gathered up her bright-berried branches, which were not half +so much withered as she had expected them to be, and held her geranium +slips cautiously as she alighted. + +Her father came out to the edge of the porch to meet them. He paid no +attention to his daughter. + +"Well, Sam Turner," said Mr. Stevens, stroking his aggressive beard, "I +hear you got it, confound you! What do you want for your lumber +contract?" + +"Just the advance of this morning's quotations," replied Sam. +"Princeman tell you I was after it?" + +"No, not at first," said Stevens. "I received a telegram about that +grove just an hour ago, from my partner. Princeman was with me when +the telegram came, and he told me then that you had just gone out on +the trail. I did my best to get Gifford by 'phone before you could +reach him." + +"Father!" exclaimed Miss Josephine. + +"What's the matter, Jo?" + +"You say you actually tried to--to get in ahead of Mr. Turner in buying +this lumber, knowing that he was going down there purposely for it?" + +"Why, certainly," admitted her father. + +"But did you know that I was with Mr. Turner?" + +"_Why, certainly_!" + +"Father!" was all she could gasp, and without deigning to say good-by +to Mr. Turner, or to thank him for the ride or the bouquet of branches +or even the geranium slips which she had received under false +pretenses, she hurried away to her room, oppressed with Heaven only +knows what mortification, and also with what wonder at the ways of men! + +However, Princeman and Billy Westlake and young Hollis with the curly +hair were impatiently waiting for Miss Josephine at the tennis court, +as they informed her in a jointly signed note sent up to her by a boy, +and hastily removing the dust of the road she ran down to join them. +As she went across the lawn, tennis bat in hand, Sam Turner, discussing +lumber with Mr. Stevens, saw her and stopped talking abruptly to admire +the trim, graceful figure. + +"Does your daughter play tennis much?" he inquired. + +"A great deal," returned Mr. Stevens, expanding with pride. "Jo's a +very expert player. She's better at it than any of these girls, and +she really doesn't care to play except with experts. Princeman, Hollis +and Billy Westlake are easily the champions here." + +"I see," said Sam thoughtfully. + +"I suppose you're a crack player yourself," his host resumed, glancing +at Sam's bat. + +"Me? No, worse than a dub. I never had time; that is, until now. +I'll tell you, though, this being away from the business grind is a +great thing. You don't know how I enjoy the fresh air and the being +out in the country this way, and the absolute freedom from business +cares and worries." + +"But where are you going?" asked Stevens, for Sam was getting up. +"You'll stay to lunch with us, won't you?" + +"No, thanks," replied Sam, looking at his watch. "I expect some word +from my kid brother. I have wired him to send some samples of marsh +pulp, and the paper we've had made from it." + +"Marsh pulp," repeated Mr. Stevens. "That's a new one on me. What's +it like?" + +"Greatest stunt on earth," replied Sam confidently. "It is our scheme +to meet the deforestation danger on the way--coming." + +Already he was reaching in his pocket for paper and pencil, and sat +down again at the side of Mr. Stevens, who immediately began stroking +his aggressive beard. Fifteen minutes later Sam briskly got up again +and Mr. Stevens shook hands with him. + +"That's a great scheme," he said, and he gazed after Sam's broad +shoulders admiringly as that young man strode down the steps. + +On his way Sam passed the tennis court where the one girl and three +young men were engaged in a most dextrous game, a game which all the +other amateurs of Hollis Creek Inn had stopped their own sets to watch. +In the pause of changing sides Miss Josephine saw him and waved her +hand and wafted a gay word to him. A second later she was in the air, +a lithe, graceful figure, meeting a high "serve," and Sam walked on +quite thoughtfully. + +When he arrived at Meadow Brook his first care was for his telegram. +It was there, and bore the assurance that the samples would arrive on +the following morning. His next step was to hunt Miss Westlake. That +plump young person forgot her pique of the morning in an instant when +he came up to her with that smiling "been-looking-for-you-everywhere, +mighty-glad-to-see-you" cordiality. + +"I want you to teach me tennis," he said immediately. + +"I'm afraid I can't teach you much," she replied with becoming +diffidence, "because I'm not a good enough player myself; but I'll do +my best. We'll have a set right after luncheon; shall we?" + +"Fine!" said he. + +After luncheon Mr. Westlake and Mr. Cuthbert waylaid him, but he merely +thrust his telegram into Mr. Westlake's hands, and hurried off to the +tennis grounds with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and lanky Bob +Tilloughby, who stuttered horribly and blushed when he spoke, and was +in deadly seriousness about everything. Never did a man work so hard +at anything as Sam Turner worked at tennis. He had a keen eye and a +dextrous wrist, and he kept the game up to top-notch speed. Of course +he made blunders and became confused in his count and overlooked +opportunities, but he covered acres of ground, as Vivian Hastings +expressed it, and when, at the end of an hour, they sat down, panting, +to rest, young Tilloughby, with painful earnestness, assured him that +he had "the mum-mum-makings of a fine tennis player." + +Sam considered that compliment very thoughtfully, but he was a trifle +dubious. Already he perceived that tennis playing was not only an +occupation but a calling. + +"Thanks," said he. "It's mighty nice of you to say so, Tilloughby. +What's the next game?" + +"The nun-nun-next game is a stroll," Tilloughby soberly advised him. +"It always stus-stus-starts out as a foursome, and ends up in +tut-tut-two doubles." + +So they strolled. They wound along the brookside among some of the +pretty paths, and in the rugged places Miss Westlake threw her weight +upon Sam's helping arm as much as possible; in the concealed places she +languished, which she did very prettily, she thought, considering her +one hundred and sixty-three pounds. They took him through a detour of +shady paths which occupied a full hour to traverse, but this particular +game did not wind up in "two doubles." In spite of all the excellent +tete-a-tete opportunities which should have risen for both couples, +Miss Westlake was annoyed to find Miss Hastings right close behind, and +holding even the conversation to a foursome. + +In the meantime, Sam Turner took careful lessons in the art of talking +twaddle, and they never knew that he was bored. Having entered into +the game he played it with spirit, and before they had returned to the +house Mr. Tilloughby was calling him Sus-Sus-Sam. + +The girls disappeared for their beauty sleep, and Sam found McComas and +Billy Westlake hunting for him. + +"Do you play base-ball?" inquired McComas. + +"A little. I used to catch, to help out my kid brother, who is an +expert pitcher." + +"Good!" said McComas, writing down Sam's name. "Princeman will pitch, +but we needed a catcher. The rivalry between Meadow Brook and Hollis +Creek is intense this year. They've captured nearly all the early +trophies, but we're going over there next week for a match game and +we're about crazy to win." + +"I'll do the best I can," promised Sam. "Got a base-ball? We'll go +out and practise." + +They slammed hot ones into each other for a half hour, and when they +had enough of it, McComas, wiping his brow, exclaimed approvingly: + +"You'll do great with a little more warming up. We have a couple of +corking players, but we need them. Hollis always pitches for Hollis +Creek, and he usually wins his game. On baseball day he's the idol of +all the girls." + +Sam Turner placed his hand meditatively upon the back of his neck as he +walked in to dress for dinner. Making a good impression upon the girls +was a separate business, it seemed, and one which required much +preparation. Well, he was in for the entire circus, but he realized +that he was a little late in starting. In consequence he could not +afford to overlook any of the points; so, before dressing for dinner, +he paid a quiet visit to the greenhouses. + +That evening, while he was bowling with all the earnestness that in him +lay, Josephine Stevens, resisting the importunities of young Hollis for +some music, sat by her father. + +"Father," she asked after long and sober thought, "was it right for +you, knowing Mr. Turner to be after that walnut lumber, to try to get +it away from him by telephoning?" + +"It certainly was!" he replied emphatically. "Turner went down there +with a deliberate intention of buying that lumber before I could get +it, so that he could sell it to me at as big a gain as possible. I +paid him one thousand dollars profit for his contract. I had struggled +my best to beat him to it; only I was too late. Both of us were +playing the game according to the rules, but he is a younger player." + +"I see." Another long pause. "Here's another thing. Mr. Turner +happened to know of this increase in the price of lumber, and he +hurried down there to a man who didn't know about that, and bought it. +If Mr. Gifford had known of the new rates, Mr. Turner could not have +bought those trees at the price he did, could he?" + +"Certainly not," agreed her father. "He would have had to pay nearly a +thousand dollars more for them." + +"Then that wasn't right of Mr. Turner," she asserted. + +"My child," said Mr. Stevens wearily, "all business is conducted for a +profit, and the only way to get it is by keeping alive and knowing +things that other people will find out to-morrow. Sam Turner is the +shrewdest and the livest young man I've met in many a day, and he's +square as a die. I'd take his word on any proposition; wouldn't you?" + +"Yes, I think I'd take his word," she admitted, and very positively, +after mature deliberation. "But truly, father, don't you think he's +too much concentrated on business? He hasn't a thought in his mind for +anything else. For instance, this morning he came over to take me an +automobile ride around Bald Hill, and when he found out about this +walnut grove, without either apology or explanation to me he ordered +the chauffeur to drive right down there." + +"Fine," laughed her father. "I'd like to hire him for my manager, if I +could only offer him enough money. But I don't see your point of +criticism. It seems to me that he's a mighty presentable and likable +young fellow, good looking, and a gentleman in the sense in which I +like to use that word." + +"Yes, he is all of those things," she admitted again; "but it is a flaw +in a young man, isn't it," she persisted, betraying an unusually +anxious interest, "for him never to think of a solitary thing but just +business?" + +They were sitting in one of the alcoves of the assembly room, and at +that moment a bell-boy, wandering around the place with apparent +aimlessness, spied them and brought to Miss Josephine a big box. She +opened it and an exclamation of pleasure escaped her. In the box was a +huge bouquet of exquisite roses, soft and glowing, delicious in their +fragrance. + +Impulsively she buried her face in them. + +"Oh, how delightful!" she cried, and she drew out the white card which +peeped forth from amidst the stems. "They are from Mr. Turner!" she +gasped. + +"You're quite right about him," commented her father dryly. "He's all +business." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN WHICH THE SUMMER LOAFER ORDERS SOME MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES + +Before Sam had his breakfast the next morning, he sat in his room with +some figures with which Blackrock and Cuthbert had provided him the +evening before. He cast them up and down and crosswise and diagonally, +balanced them and juggled them and sorted them and shifted them, until +at last he found the rat hole, and smiling grimly, placed those pages +of neat figures in a small letter file which he took from his trunk. +One thing was certain: the Meadow Brook capitalists were highly +interested in his plan, or they would never go to the trouble to +devise, so early in the game, a scheme for gaining control of the marsh +pulp corporation. Well, they were the exact people he wanted. + +Immediately after breakfast Miss Stevens telephoned over to thank him +for his beautiful roses, and he had the pleasure of letting her know, +quite incidentally, that he had gone down to the rose-beds and picked +out each individual blossom himself, which, of course, accounted for +their excellence. Also he suggested coming over that morning for a +brief walk. + +No, she was very sorry, but she was just making ready to go out +horseback riding with Mr. Hollis, who, by the way, was an excellent +rider; but they would be back from their canter about ten-thirty, and +if Mr. Turner cared to come over for a game of tennis before luncheon, +why-- + +"Sorry I can't do it," returned Mr. Turner with the deepest of genuine +regret in his tone. "My kid brother is sending me some samples of pulp +and paper which will arrive at about eleven o'clock, and I have called +a meeting of some interested parties here to examine them at about +eleven." + +"Business again," she protested. "I thought you were on a vacation." + +"I am," he assured her in surprise. "I never lazied around so or +frittered up so much time in my life; and I'm enjoying every second of +my freedom, too. I tell you, it's fine. But say, this meeting won't +take over an hour. Why can't I come over right after lunch?" + +She was very sorry, this time a little less regretfully, that after +luncheon she had an engagement with Mr. Princeman to play a match game +of croquet. But, and here she relented a trifle, they were getting up +a hasty, informal dance over at Hollis Creek for that evening. Would +he come over? + +He certainly would, and he already spoke for as many dances as she +would give him. + +"I'll give you what I can," she told him; "but I've already promised +three of them to Billy Westlake, who is a divine dancer." + +Sam Turner was deeply thoughtful as he turned away from the telephone. +Hollis was a superb horseback rider. Billy Westlake was a divine +dancer. Princeman, he had learned from Miss Stevens, who had spoken +with vast enthusiasm, was a base-ball hero. Hollis and Princeman and +Westlake were crack bowlers, also crack tennis players, and no doubt +all three were even expert croquet players. It was easy to see the +sort of men she admired. Sam Turner only knew one recipe to get +things, and he had made up his mind to have Miss Stevens. He promptly +sought Miss Westlake. + +"Do you ride?" he wanted to know. + +"Not as often as I'd like," she said. + +Really, she had half promised to go driving with Tilloughby, but it was +not an actual promise, and if it were she was quite willing to get out +of it, if Mr. Turner wanted her to go along, although she did not say +so. Young Tilloughby was notoriously an impossible match. But +possibly Mr. Tilloughby and Miss Hastings might care to join the party. +She suggested it. + +"Why, certainly," said Sam heartily. "The more the merrier," which was +not the thing she wanted him to say. + +Tilloughby, a trifle disappointed yet very gracious, consented to ride +in place of drive, and Miss Hastings was only too delighted; entirely +too much so, Miss Westlake thought. Accordingly they rode, and Sam +insisted on lagging behind with Miss Westlake, which she took to be of +considerable significance, and exhibited a very obvious fluttering +about it. Sam's motive, however, was to watch Tilloughby in the +saddle, for in their conversation it had developed that Tilloughby was +a very fair rider; and everything that he saw Tilloughby do, Sam did. +En route they met Hollis and Miss Stevens, cantering just where the +Bald Hill road branched off, and the cavalcade was increased to six. +Once, in taking a narrow cross-cut down through the woods, Sam had the +felicity of riding beside Miss Stevens for a moment, and she put her +hand on his horse and patted its glossy neck and admired it, while Sam +admired the hand. He felt, in some way or other, that riding for that +ten yards by her side was a sort of triumph over Hollis, until he saw +her dash up presently by the side of Hollis again and chat brightly +with that young gentleman. + +Thereafter Sam quit watching Tilloughby and watched Hollis. Curly-head +was an accomplished rider, and Sam felt that he himself cut but an +awkward figure. In reality he was too conscious of his defects. By +strict attention he was proving himself a fair ordinary rider, but when +Hollis, out of sheer showiness, turned aside from the path to jump his +horse over a fallen tree, and Miss Stevens out of bravado followed him, +Sam Turner well-nigh ground his teeth, and, acting upon the impulse, he +too attempted the jump. The horse got over safely, but Sam went a +cropper over his head, and not being a particle hurt had to endure the +good-natured laughter of the balance of them. Miss Stevens seemed as +much amused as any one! He had not caught her look of fright as he +fell nor of concern as he rose, nor could he estimate that her laugh +was a mild form of hysteria, encouraged because it would deceive. What +an ass he was, he savagely thought, to exhibit himself before her in an +attempt like that, without sufficient preparation! He must ride every +morning, by himself. + +Miss Josephine and Mr. Hollis were bound for the Bald Hill circle, and +they insisted, the insistence being largely on the part of Miss +Stevens, on the others accompanying them; but Mr. Turner's engagement +at eleven o'clock would not admit of this, and reluctantly he took Miss +Hastings back with him, leaving Miss Westlake and young Tilloughby to +go on. The arrangement suited him very well, for at least Hollis' ride +with Miss Stevens would not be a tete-a-tete. Miss Westlake strove to +let him understand as plainly as she could that she was only going with +Mr. Tilloughby because of her previous semi-engagement with him--and +there seemed a coolness between Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings as they +separated. Miss Hastings did her best on the way back to console Mr. +Turner for the absence of Miss Westlake. Vivacious as she always was, +she never was more so than now, and before Sam knew it he had engaged +himself with her to gather ferns in the afternoon. + +Upon his arrival at Meadow Brook, he found his express package and also +a couple of important letters awaiting him, and immediately held on the +porch a full meeting of the tentative Marsh Pulp Company. In that +meeting he decided on four things: first, that these hard-headed men of +business were highly favorable to his scheme; second, that Princeman +and Cuthbert, who knew most about paper and pulp, were so profoundly +impressed with his samples that they tried to conceal it from him; +third, that Princeman, at first his warmest adherent, was now most +stubbornly opposed to him, not that he wished to prevent forming the +company, but that he wished to prevent Sam's having his own way; +fourth, that the crowd had talked it over and had firmly determined +that Sam should not control their money. Princeman was especially +severe. + +"There is no question but that these samples are convincing of their +own excellence," he admitted; "but properly to estimate the value of +both pulp and paper, it would be necessary to know, by rigid +experiment, the precise difficulties of manufacture, to say nothing of +the manner in which these particular specimens were produced." + +Mr. Princeman's words had undoubted weight, casting, as they did, a +clammy suspicion upon Sam's samples. + +"I had thought of that," confessed Mr. Turner, "and had I not been +prepared to meet such a natural doubt, to say nothing of such a natural +insinuation, I should never have submitted these samples. Mr. +Princeman, do you know G. W. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" + +Mr. Princeman, with a wince, did, for G. W. Creamer and the Eureka +Paper Mills were his most successful competitors in the manufacture of +special-priced high-grade papers. Mr. Cuthbert also knew Mr. Creamer +intimately. + +"Good," said Sam; "then Mr. Creamer's letter will have some weight," +and he turned it over to Mr. Blackrock. That gentleman, setting his +spectacles astride his nose and assuming his most profoundly +professional air, read aloud the letter in which Mr. Creamer thanked +Turner and Turner for reposing confidence enough in him to reveal their +process and permit him to make experiments, and stated, with many +convincing facts and figures, that he had made several separate samples +of the pulp in his experimental shop, and from the pulp had made paper, +samples of which he enclosed under separate cover, stating further that +the pulp could be manufactured far cheaper than wood pulp, and that the +quality of the paper, in his estimation, was even superior; and when +the company was formed, he wished to be set down for a good, fat block +of stock. + +Having submitted exhibit A in the form of his brother's samples of pulp +and paper, exhibit B in the form of Mr. Creamer's letter, and exhibit C +in the form of Mr. Creamer's own samples of pulp and paper, Mr. Turner +rested quite comfortably in his chair, thank you. + +"This seems to make the thing positive," admitted Mr. Princeman. "Mr. +Turner, would you mind sending some samples of your material to my +factory with the necessary instructions?" + +"Not at all," replied Sam suavely. "We would be pleased indeed to do +so, just as soon as our patents are allowed." + +"Pending that," suggested Mr. Westlake placidly, looking out over the +brook, "why couldn't we organize a sort of tentative company? Why +couldn't we at least canvass ourselves and see how much of Mr. Turner's +stock we would take up among us?" + +"That is," put in Mr. Cuthbert, screwing the remark out of himself +sidewise, "provided the terms of incorporation and promotion were +satisfactory to us." + +"I have already drawn up a sort of preliminary proposition, after +consultation with our friends here," Mr. Blackrock now stated, "and +purely as a tentative matter it might be read." + +"Go right ahead," directed Sam. "I'm a good listener." + +Mr. Blackrock slowly and ponderously read the proposed plan of +incorporation. Sam rose and looked at his watch. + +"It won't do," he announced sharply. "That whole thing, in accordance +with the figures you submitted me last night, is framed up for the sole +purpose of preventing my ever securing control, and if I do not have a +chance, at least, at control, I won't play." + +"You seem to be very sure of that," said Mr. Princeman, surveying him +coldly; "but there is another thing equally sure, and that is that you +can not engage capital in as big an enterprise as this on any basis +which will separate the control and the money." + +"I'm going to try it, though," retorted Sam. "If I can't separate the +control and the money I suppose I'll have to put up with the best terms +I can get. If you will let me have that prospectus of yours, Mr. +Blackrock, I'll take it up to my room and study it, and draw up a +counter prospectus of my own." + +"With pleasure," said Mr. Blackrock, handing it over courteously, and +Mr. Turner rose. + +"I'll say this much, Sam," stated Mr. Westlake, who seemed to have +grown more friendly as Mr. Princeman grew cooler; "if you can get a +proposition upon which we are all agreed, I'll take fifty thousand of +that stock myself, at fifty." + +"As a matter of fact, Mr. Turner," added Mr. Cuthbert, "including your +friend Creamer, who insists upon being in, I imagine that we can +finance your entire company right in this crowd--if the terms are +right." + +"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, I'm sure," said Mr. Turner, +and bowed himself away. + +In place of going to his room, however, he went to the telegraph +office, and wired his brother in New York: + +"How are you coming on with pulp company stock subscription?" + + +The telegraph office was in one corner of the post-office, which was +also a souvenir room, with candy and cigar counters, and as he turned +away from the telegraph desk he saw Princeman at the candy counter. + +"No, I don't care for any of these," Princeman was saying. "If you +haven't maraschino chocolates I don't want any." + +Sam immediately stepped back to the telegraph desk and sent another +wire to his brother: + +"Express fresh box maraschino chocolates to Miss Josephine Stevens +Hollis Creek Inn enclose my card personal cards in upper right-hand +pigeonhole my desk." + + +Then he went up-stairs to get ready for lunch. Immediately after +luncheon he received the following wire from his brother: + +"Stock subscription rotten everybody likes scheme but object to our +control but no hurry why don't you rest maraschinos shipped +congratulate you." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WHICH EXHIBITS THE IMPORTANCE OF REMEMBERING A DANCE NUMBER + +And so the kid was finding the same trouble which he had met. They had +been too frank in stating that they intended to obtain control of the +company without any larger investments than their patents and their +scheme. Sam wandered through the hall, revolving this matter in his +mind, and out at the rear door, which framed an inviting vista of +green. He strolled back past the barn toward the upper reaches of the +brook path, and sitting amid the comfortably gnarled roots of a big +tree he lit a cigar and began with violence to snap little pebbles into +the brook. If he were promoting a crooked scheme, he reflected +savagely, he would have no difficulty whatever in floating it upon +almost any terms he wanted. Well, there was one thing certain; at the +finish, control would be in his own hands! But how to secure it and +still float the company promptly and advantageously? There was the +problem. He liked this crowd. They were good, keen, vigorous, +enterprising men, fine men with whom to do business, men who would +snatch control away from him if they could, and throw him out in the +cold in a minute if they deemed it necessary or expedient. Of course +that was to be expected. It was a part of the game. He would rather +deal with these progressive people, knowing their tendencies, than with +a lot of sapheads. + +How to get control? He lingered long and thoughtfully over that +question, perhaps an hour, until presently he became aware that a +slight young girl, with a fetching sun-hat and a basket, was walking +pensively along the path on the opposite side of the brook, for the +third time. Her passing and repassing before his abstracted and +unseeing vision had become slightly monotonous, and for the first time +he focused his eyes back from their distant view of pulp marshes and +stock certificates and inspected the girl directly. Why, he knew that +girl! It was Miss Hastings. + +As if in obedience to his steady gaze she looked across at him and +waved her basket. + +"Where are you going?" he asked with the heartiness of enforced +courtesy. + +"After ferns," she responded, and laughed. + +"By George, that's so!" he said, and ran up the stream to a narrow +place where he made a magnificent jump and only got one shoe wet. + +He was profuse, not in his apologies, but in his intention to make them. + +"Jinks!" he said. "I'm ashamed to say I forgot all about that. I +found myself suddenly confronted with a business proposition that had +to be worked out, and I thought of nothing else." + +"I hope you succeeded," she said pleasantly. + +There wasn't a particle of vengefulness about Miss Hastings. She was +not one to hold this against him; he could see that at once! She +understood men. She knew that grave problems frequently confronted +them, and that such minor things as fern gathering expeditions would +necessarily have to step aside and be forgotten. She was one of the +bright, cheerful, always smiling kind; one who would make a sunshiny +helpmate for any man, and never object to anything he did--before +marriage. + +All this she conveyed in lively but appealing chatter; all, that is, +except the last part of it, a deduction which Sam supplied for himself. +For the first time in his life he had paused to judge a girl as he +would "size up" a man, and he was a little bit sorry that he had done +so, for while Miss Hastings was very agreeable, there was a certain +acidulous sharpness about her nose and uncompromising thinness about +her lips which no amount of laughing vivacity could quite conceal. + +Dutifully, however, he gathered ferns for the rockery of her aunt in +Albany, and Miss Hastings, in return, did her best to amuse and +delight, and delicately to convey the thought of what an agreeable +thing it would be for a man always to have this cheerful companionship. +She even, on the way back, went so far as inadvertently to call him +Sam, and apologized immediately in the most charming confusion. + +"Really," she added in explanation, "I have heard Mr. Westlake and the +others call you Sam so often that the name just seems to slip out." + +"That's right," he said cordially. "Sam's my name. When people call +me Mr. Turner I know they are strangers." + +"Then I think I shall call you Sam," she said, laughing most +engagingly. "It's so much easier," and sure enough she did as soon as +they were well within the hearing of Miss Westlake, at the hotel. + +"Oh, Sam," she called, turning in the doorway, "you have my gloves in +your pocket." + +Miss Westlake stiffened like an icicle, and a stern resolve came upon +her. Whatever happened, she saw her duty plainly before her. She had +introduced Mr. Turner to Miss Hastings, and she was responsible. It +was her moral obligation to rescue him from the clutches of that +designing young person, and she immediately reminded him that she had +an engagement to give him a tennis lesson every day. There was still +time for a set before dinner. Also, far be it from her to be so +forward as to call him Sam, or to annoy him with silly chattering. She +was serious-minded, was Miss Westlake, and sweet and helpful; any man +could see that; and she fairly adored business. It was so interesting. + +When they came back from their tennis game, hurrying because it was +high time to dress for dinner and the dance, she met Miss Hastings in +the hall, but the two bosom friends barely nodded. There had sprung up +an unaccountable coolness between them, a coolness which Sam by no +means noticed, however, for at the far end of the porch sat Princeman, +already back from Hollis Creek to dress, and with him were Westlake and +McComas and Blackrock and Cuthbert, and they were in very close +conference. When Sam approached them they stopped talking abruptly for +just one little moment, then resumed the conversation quite naturally, +even more than quite naturally in fact, and the experienced Sam smiled +grimly as he excused himself to dress. + +Billy Westlake met him as he was going up-stairs. To Billy had been +entrusted the office of rounding up all the young people who were going +over to Hollis Creek, and by previous instruction, though wondering at +his sister's choice, he assigned Sam to that young lady, a fate which +Sam accepted with becoming gratitude. + +He had plenty of food for thought as he donned his costume of dead +black and staring white, and somehow or other he was distrait that +evening all the way over to Hollis Creek. Only when he met Miss +Stevens did he brighten, as he might well do, for Miss Stevens, +charming in every guise, was a revelation in evening costume; a +ravishing revelation; one to make a man pause and wonder and stand in +awe, and regard himself as a clumsy creature not worthy to touch the +hem of the garment which embellished such a divine being. Nevertheless +he conquered that wave of diffidence in a jiffy, or something like half +that space of time, and shook hands with her most eagerly, and looked +into her eyes and was grateful; for he found them smiling up at him in +most friendly fashion, and with rather an electric thrill in them, too, +though whether the thrill emanated from the eyes or was merely within +himself he was not sure. + +"How many dances do I get?" he abruptly demanded. + +"Just two," she told him, and showed him her card and gave him one on +which a list of names had already been marked by the young ladies of +Hollis Creek. + +He saw on the card two dances with Miss Stevens, one each with Miss +Westlake and Miss Hastings, and one each with a number of other young +ladies whom he had met but vaguely, and one each with some whom he had +not met at all. He dutifully went through the first dance with a young +lady of excellent connections who would make a prime companion for any +advancing young man with social aspirations; he went dutifully through +the next dance with a young lady who was keen on intellectual pursuits, +and who would make an excellent helpmate for any young man who wished +to advance in culture as he progressed in business, and danced the next +one with a young lady who believed that home-making should be the +highest aim of womankind; and then came his first dance with Miss +Stevens! They did not talk very much, but it was very, very comforting +to be with her, just to know that she was there, and to know that +somehow she understood. He was sorry, though, that he stepped upon her +gown. + +The promenade, which had seemed quite long enough with the other young +ladies, seemed all too short for Sam up to the point when Billy +Westlake came to take Miss Josephine away. He was feeling rather +lonely when Tilloughby came up to him, with a charming young lady who +was in quite a flutter. It seemed that there had been a dreadful +mistake in the making out of the dance cards, which the young ladies of +Hollis Creek had endeavored to do with strict equity, though hastily, +and all was now inextricable confusion. The charming young lady was on +the cards for this dance with both Mr. Tilloughby and Mr. Turner, and +Mr. Tilloughby had claimed her first. Would Mr. Turner kindly excuse +her? Just behind her came another young lady whom Mr. Tilloughby +introduced. This young lady was on Sam's card for the next dance +following this one, but it should be for the eighth dance, and would +Mr. Turner please change his card accordingly, which Mr. Turner +obligingly did, wondering what he should do when it came to the eighth +dance and he should find himself obligated to two young ladies. Oh, +well, he reflected, no doubt the other young lady was down for the +eighth dance with some one else, if they had things so mixed. Of one +thing he was sure. He had that tenth dance with Miss Stevens. He had +inspected both cards to make certain of that, and had seen with +carefully concealed joy that she had compared them as minutely as he +had. He saw confusion going on all about him, laughing young people +attempting to straighten out the tangle, and the dance was slow in +starting. + +Almost the first two on the floor were Miss Stevens and Billy Westlake, +and as he saw them, from his vantage point outside one of the broad +windows, gliding gracefully up the far side of the room, he realized +with a twinge of impatience what a remarkably unskilled dancer he +himself was. Billy and Miss Stevens were talking, too, with the +greatest animation, and she was looking up at Billy as brightly, even +more brightly he thought, than she had at himself. There was a +delicate flush on her cheeks. Her lips, full and red and deliciously +curved, were parted in a smile. Confound it anyhow! What could she +find to talk about with Billy Westlake? + +He was turning away in more or less impatience, when Mr. Stevens, +looking, in some way, with his aggressive, white, outstanding beard, as +if he ought to have a red ribbon diagonally across his white shirt +front, ranged beside him. + +"Fine sight, isn't it?" observed Mr. Stevens. + +"Yes," admitted Mr. Turner, almost shortly, and forced himself to turn +away from the following of that dazzling vision, which was almost +painful under the circumstances. + +By mutual impulse they walked down the length of the side porch and +across the front porch. Sam drew himself away from dancing and certain +correlated ideas with a jerk. + +"I've been wanting to talk with you, Mr. Stevens," he observed. "I +think I'll drop over to-morrow for a little while." + +"Glad to have you any time, Sam," responded Mr. Stevens heartily, "but +there is no time like the present, you know. What's on your mind?" + +"This Marsh Pulp Company," said Sam; "do you know anything about pulp +and paper?" + +"A little bit. You know I have some stock in Princeman's company." + +"Oh," returned Sam thoughtfully. + +"Not enough to hurt, however," Stevens went on. "Twenty shares, I +believe. When I went in I had several times as much, but not enough to +make me a dominant factor by any means, and Princeman, as he made more +money, wanted some of it, so I let him buy up quite a number of shares. +At one time I was very much interested, however, and visited the mills +quite frequently." + +"You're rather close to Princeman in a business way, aren't you?" Sam +asked after duly cautious reflection. + +"Not at all, although we get along very nicely indeed. I made money on +my paper stock, both in dividends and in a very comfortable advance +when I sold it. Our relations have always been friendly, but very +little more. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing. Only Princeman is much interested in my Pulp Company, +and all the people who are going in are his friends. The crowd over at +Meadow Brook talks of taking up approximately the entire stock of my +company. I thought possibly you might be interested." + +"I am right now, from what I have already heard of it," returned +Stevens, who had almost at first sight succumbed to that indefinable +personal appeal which caused Sam Turner to be trusted of all men. "I +shall be very glad to hear more about it. It struck me when you spoke +of it yesterday as a very good proposition." + +They had reached the dark corner at the far end of the porch, illumined +only by the subdued light which came from a half-hidden window, and now +they sat down. Sam fished in the little armpit pocket of his dress +coat and dragged forth two tiny samples of pulp and two tiny samples of +paper. + +"These two," he stated, "were samples sent me to-day by my kid brother." + +Mr. Stevens took the samples and examined them with interest. He felt +their texture. He twisted them and crumpled them and bent them +backward and forward and tore them. Then, the light at this window +being too weak, he went to one of the broad windows where a stronger +stream of light came out, and examined them anew. Sam, still sitting +in his chair, nodded in satisfied approval. He liked that kind of +inspection. Mr. Stevens brought the samples back. + +"They are excellent, so far as I am able to judge," he announced. +"These are samples made by yourselves from marsh products?" + +"Yes," Sam assured him. "Made from marsh-grown material by our new +process, which is much cheaper than the wood-pulp process. Do you know +Mr. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" + +"Not very well. I've met him once or twice at dinners, but I'm not +intimately acquainted with him. I hear, however, that he is an +authority." + +"Here's a letter from him, and some samples made by him under our +process," said Sam with secret satisfaction. "I just received them +this morning." From the same pocket he took the letter without its +envelope, and with it handed over the two other small samples. + +"That's a fine showing," Stevens commented when he had examined +document and samples and brought them back, and he sat down, edging +about so that he and Sam sat side by side but facing each other, as in +a tete-a-tete chair. "Now tell me all about it." + +On and on went the music in the ball-room, on went the shuffling of +feet, the swish of garments, the gay talk and laughter of the young +people; and on and on talked Mr. Stevens and Mr. Turner, until one +familiar strain of music penetrated into Sam's inner consciousness; the +_Home Sweet Home_ waltz! + +"By George!" he exclaimed, jumping up. "That can't be the last." + +"Sounds like it," commented Mr. Stevens, also rising. "It is the last +if they make up programs as they did in my young days. I don't +remember of many dances where the _Home Sweet Home_ waltz didn't end it +up. It's late enough anyhow. It's eleven-thirty." + +"Then I have done it again!" said Sam ruefully. "I had the number ten +dance with your daughter." + +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes to laugh. + +"You certainly have put your foot in it," he admitted. "Oh, well, Jo's +sensible," he added with a father's fond ignorance. "She'll +understand." + +"That's what I'm afraid of," replied Mr. Turner ruefully. "You'll have +to intercede for me. Explain to her about it and soften the case as +much as you can. Frankly, Mr. Stevens, I'd be tremendously cut up to +be on the outs with Miss Josephine." + +"There are shoals of young men who feel that way about it, Sam," said +Mr. Stevens with large and commendable pride. "However, I am glad that +you have added yourself to the list," and he gazed after Sam with +considerable approbation, as that young man hurried away to display his +abjectness to the young lady in question. + +Three times, on the arm of Princeman, she whirled past the open doorway +where Sam stood, but somehow or other he found it impossible to catch +her eye. The dance ended when she was on the other side of the room, +and immediately, with the last strains, the floor was in confusion. +Sam tried desperately to hurry across to where she was, but he lost her +in the crowd. He did not see her again until all of the Meadow Brook +folk, including himself, were seated in the carryalls, at which time +the Hollis Creek folk were at the edge of the porte-cochere and both +parties were exchanging a gabbling pandemonium of good-bys. He saw her +then, standing back among the crowd, and shouting her adieus as +vociferously as any of them. He caught her eye and she nodded to him +as pleasantly as to anybody, which was really worse than if she had +refused to acknowledge him at all! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME + +No, Miss Stevens was sorry that she could not go walking with him that +morning, which was the morning after the dance. She was very polite +about it, too; almost too polite. Her voice over the telephone was as +suave and as limpid as could possibly be, but there was a sort of +metallic glitter behind it, as it were. + +No, she could not see him that afternoon either. She had made a series +of engagements, in fact, covering the entire day. Also, she regretted +to say, upon further solicitation, that she had made engagements +covering the entire following day. + +No, she was not piqued about his last night's forgetfulness; by no +means; certainly not; how absurd! + +She quite understood. He had been talking business with her father, +and naturally such a trifling detail as a dance with frivolous young +people would not occur to him. + +Frivolous young people! This was the exact point of the conversation +at which Sam, with his ear glued to the receiver of the telephone and +no necessity for concealing the concerned expression on his +countenance, thought, in more or less of a panic, that he must really +be getting old, which was a good joke, inasmuch as nobody ever took him +to be over twenty-five. Heretofore his boyish appearance had worried +him because it rather stood in the way of business, but now he began to +fear that he was losing it; for he was nearing thirty! + +Well, pleading was of no avail. He had to give it up. Reluctantly he +went out and took a solitary walk, then came in and religiously played +his two hours of tennis with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and +Tilloughby. Was he not on vacation, and must he not enjoy himself? +Just before he went in to luncheon, however, there was a telephone call +for him. + +Miss Stevens was perplexed to know what divine intuition had told him +her obsession for maraschino chocolates. She had one in her fingers at +the very moment she was telephoning, and she was going to pop it into +her mouth while he talked. Being a mere man he could not realize how +delightfully refreshing was a maraschino chocolate. + +Sam had a lively picture of that dainty confection between the tips of +her dainty fingers; he could see the white hand and the graceful wrist, +and then he could see those exquisitely curved red lips parting with a +flash of white teeth to receive the delicacy; and he had an impulse to +climb through the telephone. + +A little bird had told him about her preference, he stated. He had +that little bird regularly in his employ to find out other preferences. + +"I had those sent just to show you that I am not altogether absorbed in +business," he went on; "that I can think of other things. Have another +chocolate." + +"I am," she laughingly said; "but I'm not going to eat them all. I'm +going to save one or two for you." + +"Good," returned Sam in huge delight and relief. "I'll come over to +get them any time you say." + +"All right," she gaily agreed. "As I told you this morning, I have an +engagement for this afternoon, but if you'll come over after luncheon +I'll try to find a half-hour or so for you anyhow." + +Great blotches of perspiration sprang out on his forehead. + +"Jinks!" he ejaculated. "You know, right after you telephoned me this +morning I made an engagement with Mr. Blackrock and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Westlake, to go over some proposed incorporation papers." + +"Oh, by all means, then, keep your engagement," she told him, and he +could feel the instant frigidity which returned to her tone. A +zero-like wave seemed to come right through the transmitter of the +telephone and chill the perspiration of his brow into a cold trickle. + +"No, I'll see if I can not set that engagement off for a couple of +hours," he hastily informed her. + +"By no means," she protested, more frigidly than before. "Come to +think of it, I don't believe I'd have time anyhow. In fact, I'm sure +that I would not. Mr. Hollis is calling me now. Good-by." + +"Wait a minute," he called desperately into the telephone, but it was +dead, and there is nothing in this world so dead as the telephone from +which connection has been suddenly shut off. + +Sam strode into the dining-room and went straight over to Blackrock's +table. + +"I find I have some pressing business right after luncheon," he said, +bending over that gentleman's chair. "I can't possibly meet you at two +o'clock. Will four do you?" + +"Why, certainly," Mr. Blackrock was kind enough to say, and he +furthermore agreed, with equal graciousness, to inform the others. + +Sam ate his luncheon in worried silence, replying only in monosyllables +to the remarks of McComas, who sat at his table, and of Mrs. McComas, +who had taken quite a young-motherly fancy to him; and the amount that +he ate was so much at variance with his usual hearty appetite that even +the maid who waited on his table, a tall, gangling girl with a vinegar +face and a kind heart, worried for fear he might be sick, and added +unordered delicacies to his American plan meal. He went over to Hollis +Creek in the swiftest conveyance he could obtain, which was naturally +an auto, but he did not have 'Ennery for his chauffeur, of which he was +heartily glad, for 'Ennery might have wanted to talk. + +On the porch of Hollis Creek Inn he found Princeman and Mr. Stevens in +earnest conversation. He knew what that meant. Princeman was already +discussing with Mr. Stevens the matter of control of the Marsh Pulp +Company. Princeman rose when Sam stepped up on the porch, and strolled +away from Mr. Stevens. He nodded pleasantly to Turner, and the latter, +returning the nod fully as pleasantly, was about to hurry on in search +of Miss Josephine, when Mr. Stevens checked him. + +"Hello, Sam," he called. "I've just been waiting to see you." + +"All right," said Sam. "I'll be around presently." + +"No, but come here," insisted Mr. Stevens. + +Sam cast a nervous glance about the grounds and along the side porch; +Miss Josephine most certainly was not among those present. He still +hesitated, impatient to get away. + +"Just a minute, Sam," insisted Stevens. "I want to talk to you right +now." + +With unwilling feet Sam went over. + +"Sit down," directed Stevens, pushing forward a chair. + +"What is it?" asked Sam, still standing. + +"I have been talking with Princeman and Westlake about your Marsh Pulp +Company." + +"Yes," inquired Sam nervously. + +"And everybody seems to be most enthusiastic about it. Fact of the +matter is, my boy, I consider it a tremendous investment opportunity. +The only drawback there seems to be is in the matter of stock +distribution and voting power. I want you to explain this very fully +to me." + +"I thought you were quite satisfied with our talk last night," returned +Sam, glancing hastily over his shoulder. + +"I am, in so far as the investment goes, Sam. I've promised you that +I'd take a good block of stock, and you've promised to make room for me +in the company. I expect to go through with that, but I want to know +about this other phase of the matter before I get into any +entanglements with opposing factions. Now you sit right down there and +tell me about it." + +Despairingly Sam sat down and proceeded briefly and concisely to +explain to him the various plans of incorporation which had been +proposed. Ten minutes later he almost groaned, as a trap, drawn by a +pair of handsome buckskin horses, driven by Princeman and containing +Miss Josephine, crunched upon the gravel driveway in front of the +porch. Miss Stevens greeted Mr. Turner very heartily indeed, Princeman +stopping for that purpose. Sam ran down and shook hands with her. Oh, +she was most cordial; just as cordial and polite as anybody he knew! + +"I did not expect you at all," she said, "but I knew you were here, for +I saw you from the window as you came up the drive. Pleasant weather, +isn't it? Oh, papa!" + +"Yes," answered Mr. Stevens ponderously from his place on the porch. + +"Up on my dresser you will find a box of candy which Mr. Turner was +kind enough to have sent me, and he confesses that he has never tasted +maraschino chocolates. Won't you please run up and get them and let +Mr. Turner sample them?" + +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens. "If Sam Turner insists upon running me up +two flights of stairs on an errand of that sort, I suppose I'll have to +go. But he won't." + +"You're lazy," she said to her father in affectionate banter, then, +with a wave of her hand and a bright nod to Mr. Turner, she was gone! + +Sam trudged slowly up on the porch with the heart gone entirely out of +him for business; and yet, as he approached Mr. Stevens he pulled +himself together with a jerk. After all, she was gone, and he could +not bring her back, and in his talk with Stevens he had just approached +a grave and serious situation. + +"The fact of the matter is, Mr. Stevens," said he as he sat down again, +"these people are the very people I want to get into my concern, but +they are old hands at the stock incorporation game, and even before +I've organized the company they are planning to get it out of my hands. +Now it is my scheme, mine and the kid brother's, and I don't propose to +allow that." + +"Well, Sam," said Mr. Stevens slowly, "you know capital of late has had +a lot of experience with corporate business, and it isn't the +fashionable thing this year for the control and the capital to be in +separate hands--right at the very beginning." + +This was the signal for the struggle, and Sam plunged earnestly into +the conflict. At three-fifteen he suddenly rose and made his adieus. +He would have liked to stay until Miss Josephine came back, so that he +could make one more desperate attempt to set himself right with her, +but there was that deferred engagement with Blackrock, and reluctantly +he whirled back to Meadow Brook. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHEREIN SAM TURNER PROVES HIMSELF TO BE A VIOLENT FLIRT + +The rest of that week was a worried and an anxious one for Sam. He +sent daily advices to his brother, and he received daily advices in +return. The people upon whom he had originally counted to form the +Marsh Pulp Company had set themselves coldly against the matter of +control, and on comparing the apparent situation in New York with the +situation at Meadow Brook, he made sure that he could secure more +advantageous terms with the Princeman crowd. He spent his time in +wrestling with his prospective investors both singly and in groups, but +they were obdurate. They liked his company, they saw in it tremendous +possibilities, but they did not intend to invest their money where they +could not vote it. That was flat! + +This was on the business side. About the really important matter of +Miss Stevens, since his most recent bad performance, the time when he +had made the special trip to see her and had spent his time in talking +business with her father, he had not been able to come near her. She +was always engaged. He saw her riding with Hollis; he saw her driving +with Princeman; he saw her playing tennis with Billy Westlake, but the +greatest boon he ever received was a nod and a pleasant word. He +industriously sent her flowers. She as industriously sent him nice, +polite little notes of thanks. + +In the meantime, alternating with his marsh pulp wrangles, he worked +like a Trojan at the athletic graces he should have cultivated in his +younger days. He rode every morning; he practised every day at tennis +and croquet; every evening he bowled; and every time some one sat at +the piano and played dance music and the young people fell into +impromptu waltzes and two-steps on the porch, he joined them and danced +religiously with whomsoever he found to hand; usually Miss Hastings or +Miss Westlake. + +The latter ingenious young lady, during this while, continued to adore +business, and with increasing fervor every day, and regretted, quite +aloud, that she had never paid sufficient attention to this absorbing +amusement, out of which all the men, that is, those who were really +strong and purposeful, seem to derive so much satisfaction! On the +following Monday at Bald Hill, when Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook +fraternized together, in the annual union picnic, she found occasion +for the most direct tete-a-tete of all anent commercial matters. + +Under Bald Hill were any number of charming natural retreats, jumbles +of Titanically toy-strewn, clean, bare rocks, screened here and there +by tangles of young scrub oak and pine which grew apparently on bare +stone surfaces and out of infinitesimal chinks and crannies, in utter +defiance of all natural law. Go where you would on that day, there +were couples in each of the rock shelters; young couples, engaged in +that fascinating pastime of finding out all they could about each +other, and wondering about each other, and revealing themselves to each +other as much as they cared to do, and flirting; oh, in a perfectly +respectable sort of a way, you know; legitimate and commendable +flirting; the sort of flirting which is only experimental and +necessary, and which may cease at any moment to become mere airy +trifling, and turn into something intensely and desperately serious, +having a vital bearing upon the entire future lives of people; and +there were deeply solemn moments, in spite of all the surface hilarity +and gaiety, in many of these little out of way nooks kindly provided by +beneficent nature for this identical purpose. + +In one of these nooks, a curious sort of doll's amphitheatre, partly +screened by dwarf cedars, were Miss Westlake and Mr. Turner, and Sam +could not tell you to this day how she had roped him out of the herd, +and isolated him, and brought him there. + +"Business is just perfectly fascinating," she was saying. "I've been +talking a lot to papa about it here lately. He thinks a great deal of +you, by the way." + +"He does," Sam grunted in non-committal acknowledgment, with the sharp +reflection that he had better look out for himself if that were the +case, since the most of Westlake's old friends were bankrupt, he being +the best business man of them all. + +"Yes; he says you have an excellent business proposition, too, in your +new Marsh Pulp Company." She said marsh pulp without an instant's +hesitation. + +"I think it's good myself," agreed Sam; "that is, if I can keep hold of +it." Inwardly he added, "And if I can keep old Westlake's clutches +off." + +She laughed lightly. + +"Papa mentioned that very thing," she informed him. "I don't think I +quite understand what control of stock means, although I've had papa +explain it to me. I gather this much, however, that it is something +you want very much, but can scarcely get without some large stockholder +voting his stock with you." + +Sam inspected her narrowly. + +"You seem to have a pretty good idea of the thing after all," he +admitted, wondering how much she really knew and understood. "But +maybe your father wouldn't like your repeating to me what you +accidentally learned from him in conversation. Business men are +usually pretty particular about that." + +"Oh, he wouldn't mind at all," she said airily. "I'm having him +explain a lot of things to me, because he's making separate investments +for Billy and me. All his new enterprises are for us, and in the last +two or three years he's turned over lots of stock to us in our own +names. But I've never done any actual voting on it. I've only given +proxies. I sign a little blank, you know, that papa fills out for me +and shows me where to put my name and mails to somebody or other, or +else takes it and votes it himself; but I'd rather vote it my own self. +I should think it would be ever so much fun. I'm trying to find out +about how they do such things, and I'd be very glad to have you tell me +all you can about it. It's just perfectly fascinating." + +"Yes, it is," Sam admitted. "So you think you may eventually own some +stock in the Marsh Pulp Company?" and he became quite interested. + +"If papa takes any I'm quite sure I shall," she returned; "and I think +he will, from what he said. He seems to be so enthusiastic about it +that I'm going to ask him for this stock, and let Billy have the next +that he buys. I hope he does take a good lot of it. Isn't this the +dearest place imaginable?" and with charming naivete she looked about +the tiny amphitheatre-like circle, admiring the projecting stones which +formed natural seats, and the broad shelving of slippery rock which led +up to it. + +"Yes, it is," said Sam with considerable thoughtfulness, and once more +inspected Miss Westlake critically. + +There was no question that she would be as stout as her mother and her +father when she reached their age. However, personal attractiveness is +an essence and can not be weighed by the pound. Sam was bound to +admit, after thoughtful judgment, that Miss Westlake might be +personally attractive to a great many people, but really there hadn't +seemed to be anything flowing from him to her or from her to him, even +when he had held tightly to her hand to help her up the steep slope of +the rock floor. + +"Yes, it is a charming place," he once more admitted. "Looks almost as +if this little semi-circle had been built out of these loose rocks by +design. Of course, your father wouldn't take the original stock in +your name." + +"Oh, no, I don't suppose so," she said. "He never does. He takes out +the stock himself, and then transfers it to us." + +"Of course," Sam agreed; "and naturally he'd hold it long enough to +vote at the original stock-holders' meeting." + +"I couldn't say about that," she laughed. "That's going beyond my +business depth just yet, but I'm going to learn all about such things," +and she looked across at him with apparent shy confidence that he would +take pleasure in teaching her. + +"Hoo-hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!" came a sudden call from down in the road, and, +turning, they saw Miss Hastings and Billy Westlake, who both waved +their hands at the amphitheatre couple and came scrambling up the rocks. + +"Mr. Princeman and Mr. Tilloughby are looking for you everywhere, +Hallie," said Miss Hastings to Miss Westlake. "You know you promised +to make that famous salad dressing of yours. Luncheon is nearly ready, +all but that, and they're waiting for you over at the glade. My, what +a dear little place this is! How did you ever find it?" Miss Hastings +was now quite conspicuously panting and fanning herself. "I'm so tired +climbing those rocks," she went on. "I shall simply have to sit down +and rest a bit. Billy will take you over, Hallie, and Mr. Turner will +bring me by and by, I am sure." + +Mr. Turner stated that he would do so with pleasure. Miss Westlake +surveyed her dearest friend more in anger than in sorrow. It was such +a brazen trick, and she gazed from her brother to Mr. Turner in sheer +wonder that they were not startled into betrayal of how shocked they +were. Whatever strong emotions they might have had upon that subject +were utterly without reflection upon the outside, however, for Billy +Westlake and Sam Turner were eying each other solely with a vacuous +mutual wish of saying something decently polite and human. Mr. Turner +made a desperate stab. + +"I hope you're in good form for the bowling tournament to-night," he +observed with self-urged anxiety. "Hollis Creek mustn't win, you know." + +"I'm as near fit as usual," said Billy; "but Princeman is the chap +who's going to carry off the honors for Meadow Brook. Bowled an +average last night of two forty-five. I'm sorry you couldn't make the +team." + +"I should have started fifteen years ago to do that," said Sam with a +wry smile. "I think I would get along all right, though, if they +didn't have those grooves at the side of the alleys." + +Billy Westlake looked at him gravely. Since Sam did not smile, this +could not be a joke. + +"But they are absolutely necessary, you know," he protested, as he took +his sister's arm and helped her down the slope. + +Miss Westlake went away entirely out of patience with the two men, and +very much to Billy's surprise gave him her revised estimate of that +Hastings girl. Miss Hastings, however, was in a far different frame of +mind. She was an exclamation point of admiration about an endless +variety of things; about the dear little amphitheatre, about how well +her friend Miss Westlake was looking and how successful Hallie had been +this summer in reducing, and how much Mr. Turner was improving in his +tennis and croquet and riding and bowling and everything. "And, Mr. +Turner, what is pulp? And do they actually make paper out of it?" she +wound up. + +Very gravely Mr. Turner informed her on the process of paper making, +and she was a chorus of little vivacious ohs and ahs all the way +through. She sat on the side of the stone circle from which she could +look down the road, and she chattered on and on and on, and still on, +until something she saw below warned her that she was staying an +unconscionable length of time, so she rose and told Mr. Turner they +must really go, and held out her hand to be helped down the slope. +That was really a very slippery rock, and it was probably no fault of +Miss Hastings that her feet slipped and that she had to throw herself +squarely into Mr. Turner's embrace, and even throw her arm up over his +shoulder to save herself. It was a staggery place, even for a sturdily +muscled young man like Mr. Turner to keep his footing, and with that +fair burden upon him he had to stand some little time poised there to +retain his balance. Then, very gently and carefully, he turned +straight about, lifting Miss Hastings entirely from her feet and +setting her gravely down on the safe ledge below the sloping rock; but +before he had even had time to let go of her he glanced down into the +road, toward which the turn had faced him, and saw there, looking up +aghast at the tableau, Mr. Princeman and Miss Stevens! + +The sharp and instantly suppressed laugh of Princeman came floating up +to them, but Miss Stevens turned squarely about in the direction of the +glade, and being instantly joined by Princeman, they walked quietly +away. + +Mr. Turner suddenly found himself perspiring profusely, and was +compelled to mop his brow, but Miss Hastings disdained to give any sign +that anything unusual whatsoever had happened, except by walking with a +limp, albeit a very slight one, as she returned to the glade. That +limp comforted Mr. Turner somewhat, and, spying Miss Stevens in a +little group near the tables, he was very careful to parade Miss +Hastings straight over there and place her limp on display. Miss +Stevens, however, walked away; no mere limp could deceive her! + +Well, if she wanted to be miffed at a little accident like that, and +read things falsely, and think the worst of people, she might; that was +all Sam had to say about it! but what he had to say about it did not +comfort him. He rather savagely "shook" Miss Hastings at his first +opportunity, and Vivian's dearest friend, who had been hovering in the +offing, saw him do it, which was a great satisfaction to her. Later +she seized upon him, although he had savagely sworn to stick to the +men, and by some incomprehensible process Sam found himself once more +tete-a-tete with Miss Westlake, just over at the edge of the glade +where the sumac grew. She made him gather a lot of the leaves for her, +and showed him how they used to weave clover wreaths when she was a +little girl, and wove one for him of sumac, and gaily crowned him with +it; and just as she was putting the fool thing on his head he glanced +up, and there Princeman, laughing, was just passing them a little ways +off, in company with Miss Josephine Stevens! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE VALUE OF A PIANOLA TRAINING + +On that very same evening Hollis Creek came over to the bowling +tournament, and Miss Stevens, arriving with young Hollis, promptly lost +that perfervid young man, who had become somewhat of a nuisance in his +sentimental insistence. Mr. Turner, watching her from afar, saw her +desert the calfly smitten one, and immediately dashed for the breach. +He had watched from too great a distance, however, for Billy Westlake +gobbled up Miss Josephine before Sam could get there, and started with +her for that inevitable stroll among the brookside paths which always +preceded a bowling tournament. While he stood nonplussed, looking +after them, Miss Hastings glided to his side in a matter of course way. + +"Isn't it a perfectly charming evening?" she wanted to know. + +"It is a regular dear of an evening," admitted Sam savagely. + +In his single thoughtedness he was scrambling wildly about within the +interior of his skull for a pretext to get rid of Miss Hastings, but it +suddenly occurred to him that now he had a legitimate excuse for +following the receding couple, and promptly upon the birth of this +idea, he pulled in that direction and Miss Hastings came right along, +though a trifle silently. With all her vivacious chattering, she was +not without shrewdness, and with no trouble whatever she divined +precisely why Sam chose the path he did, and why he seemed in such +almost blundering haste. They _were_ a little late, it was true, for +just as they started, Billy and Miss Stevens turned aside and out of +sight into the shadiest and narrowest and most involved of the +shrubbery-lined paths, the one which circled about the little concealed +summer-house with a dove-cote on top, which was commonly dubbed "the +cooing place." Following down this path the rear couple suddenly came +upon a tableau which made them pause abruptly. Billy Westlake, upon +the steps of the summer-house, was upon his knees, there in the swiftly +blackening dusk, before the appalled Miss Stevens; actually upon his +knees! Silently the two watchers stole away, but when they were out of +earshot Miss Hastings tittered. Sam, though the moment was a serious +one for him, was also compelled to grin. + +"I didn't know they did it that way any more," he confessed. + +"They don't," Miss Hastings informed him; "that is, unless they are +very, very young, or very, very old." + +"Apparently you've had experience," observed Sam. + +"Yes," she admitted a little bitterly. "I think I've had rather more +than my share; but all with ineligibles." + +Sam felt a trace of pity for Miss Hastings, who was of polite family, +but poor, and a guest of the Westlakes, but he scarcely knew how to +express it, and felt that it was not quite safe anyhow, so he remained +discreetly silent. + +By mutual, though unspoken impulse, they stopped under the shade of a +big tree up on the lawn, and waited for the couple who had been found +in the delicate situation either to reappear on the way back to the +house, or to emerge at the other end of the path on the way to the +bowling shed. It was scarcely three minutes when they reappeared on +the way back to the house, and both watchers felt an instant thrill of +relief, for the two were by no means lover-like in their attitudes. +Billy had hold of Miss Josephine's arm and was helping her up the +slope, but their shoulders were not touching in the process, nor were +arms clasped closely against sides. They passed by the big tree +unseeing, then, as they neared the house, without a word, they parted. +Miss Stevens proceeded toward the porch, and stopped to take a +handkerchief from her sleeve and pass it carefully and lightly over her +face. Billy Westlake strode off a little way toward the bowling shed, +stopped and lit a cigarette, took two or three puffs, started on, +stopped again, then threw the cigarette to the ground with quite +unnecessary vigor, and stamped on it. Miss Hastings, without adieus of +any sort, glided swiftly away in the direction of Billy, and then a dim +glimmer of understanding came to Sam Turner that only Miss Stevens had +stood in the way of Miss Hastings' capture of Billy Westlake. He +wasted no time over this thought, however, but strode very swiftly and +determinedly up to Miss Josephine. + +"I'm glad to find you alone," he said; "I want to make an explanation." + +"Don't bother about it," she told him frigidly. "You owe me no +explanations whatsoever, Mr. Turner." + +"I'm going to make them anyhow," he declared. "You saw me twice this +afternoon in utterly asinine situations." + +"I remember of no such situations," she stated still frigidly, and +started to move on toward the house. + +"But wait a minute," said Sam, catching her by the arm and detaining +her. "You did see me in silly situations, and I want you to know the +facts about them." + +"I'm not at all interested," she informed him, now with absolute north +pole iciness, and started to move away again. + +He held her more tightly. + +"The first time," he went on, "was when Miss Hastings slipped on the +rocks and I had to catch her to keep her from falling." + +"Will you kindly let me go, Mr. Turner?" demanded Miss Josephine. + +"No, I will not!" he replied, and pulled her about a trifle so that she +was compelled to face him. "I don't choose to have anybody, least of +all you, think wrongly of me." + +"Mr. Turner, I do not choose to be detained against my will," declared +Miss Josephine. + +"Mr. Turner," boomed a deep-timbered voice right behind them, "the lady +has requested you to let her go. I should advise you to do so." + +Mr. Turner was attempting to frame up a reasonable answer to this +demand when Miss Josephine prevented him from doing so. + +"Mr. Princeman," said she to the interrupting gallant, "I thank you for +your interference on my behalf, but I am quite capable of protecting +myself," and leaving the two stunned gentlemen together, she once more +took her handkerchief from her sleeve and walked swiftly up to the +porch, brushing the handkerchief lightly over her face again. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" said Princeman, looking after her in more or +less bewilderment. + +"So will I," said Sam. "Have you a cigarette about you?" + +Princeman gave him one and they took a light from the same match, then, +neither one of them caring to discuss any subject whatever at that +particular moment, they separated, and Sam hunted a lonely corner. He +wanted to be alone and gloom. Confound bowling, anyhow! It was a dull +and uninteresting game. He cared less for it as time went on, he +found; less to-night than ever. He crept away into the dim and +deserted parlor and sat down at the piano, the only friend in which he +cared to confide just then. He played, with a queer lingering touch +which had something of hesitation in it, and which reduced all music to +a succession of soft chords, _The Maid of Dundee_ and _Annie Laurie_, +_The Banks of Banna_ and _The Last Rose of Summer_, then one of the +simpler nocturnes of Chopin, and, following these, a quaint, slow +melody which was like all of the others and yet like none. + +"Bravo!" exclaimed a gentle voice in the doorway, and he turned, +startled, to see Miss Stevens standing there. She did not explain why +she had relented, but came directly into the room and stood at the end +of the piano. He reached up and shook hands with her quite naturally, +and just as naturally and simply she let her hand lie in his for an +instant. How soft and warm her palm was, and how grateful the touch of +it! + +"What a pleasant surprise!" she said. "I didn't know you played." + +"I don't," he confessed, smiling. "If you had stopped to listen you +would have known. You ought to hear my kid brother play though. He's +a corker." + +"But I did listen," she insisted, ignoring the reference to his "kid +brother." "I stood there a long time and I thought it beautiful. What +was that last selection?" + +He flushed guiltily. + +"It was--oh, just a little thing I sort of put together myself," he +told her. + +"How delightful! And so you compose, too?" + +"Not at all," he hastily assured her. "This is the only thing, and it +seemed to come just sort of naturally to me from time to time. I don't +suppose it's finished yet, because I never play it exactly as I did +before. I always seem to add a little bit to it. I do wish that I had +had time to know more of music. What little I play I learned from a +pianola." + +"A what?" she gasped. + +He laughed in a half-embarrassed way. + +"A pianola," he repeated. "You see I've always been hungry for music, +and while my kid brother was still in college I began to be able to +afford things, and one of the first luxuries was a pianola. You know +the machine has a little lever which throws the keys in or out of +engagement, so that you can play it as a regular piano if you wish, and +if you leave the keys engaged while you are playing the rolls, they +work up and down; so by watching these I gradually learned to pick out +my favorite tunes by hand. I couldn't play them so well by myself as +the rolls played them, but somehow or other they gave me more +satisfaction." + +Miss Stevens did not laugh. In some indefinable way all this made a +difference in Sam Turner--a considerable difference--and she felt quite +justified in having deliberately come to the conclusion that she had +been "mean" to him; in having deliberately slipped away from the others +as they were all going over to the bowling alleys; in having come back +deliberately to find him. + +"Your favorite tunes," she repeated musingly. "What was the first one, +I wonder? One of those that you have just been playing?" + +"The first one?" he returned with a smile. "No, it was a sort of +rag-time jingle. I thought it very pretty then, but I played it over +the other day, the first time in years, and I didn't seem to like it at +all. In fact, I wonder how I ever did like it." + +Rag-time! And now, left entirely to his own devices and for his own +pleasure, he was playing Chopin! Yes, it made quite a difference in +Sam Turner. She was glad that she had decided to wear his roses, glad +even that he recognized them. At her solicitation Sam played again the +plaintive little air of his own composition--and played it much better +than ever he had played it before. Then they walked out on the porch +and strolled down toward the bowling shed. Half way there was a little +side path, leading off through an arbor into a shady way which crossed +the brook on a little rustic bridge, which wound about between +flowerbeds and shrubbery and back by another little bridge, and which +lengthened the way to the bowling shed by about four times the normal +distance--and they took that path; and when they reached the bowling +alley they were not quite ready to go in. + +[Illustration: Sam played again the plaintive little air] + +There seemed no reasonable excuse for staying out longer, however, for +the bowling had already started, and, moreover, young Tilloughby +happened to come to the door and spied them. Princeman was just +getting up to bowl for the honor and glory of Meadow Brook, and within +one minute later Miss Stevens was watching the handsome young paper +manufacturer with absorbed interest. He was a fine picture of athletic +manhood as he stood up, weighing the ball, and a splendid picture of +masculine action as he rushed forward to deliver it. Sam had to +acknowledge that himself, and out of fairness he even had to join in +the mad applause when Princeman made strike after strike. They had +Princeman up again in the last frame, and it was a ticklish moment. +The Hollis Creek team was fifty points ahead. Dramatic unities, under +the circumstances, demanded that Princeman, by a tremendous exercise of +coolness and skill, overcome that lead by his own personal efforts, and +he did, winning the tournament for Meadow Brook with a breathless few +points to spare. + +But did Sam Turner care that Princeman was the hero of the hour? More +power to Princeman, for from the bevy of flushed and eager girls who +flocked about the Adonis-like victor, Miss Josephine Stevens was +absent. She was there, with him, in Paradise! Incidentally Sam made +an engagement to drive with her in the morning, and when, at the close +of that delightful evening, the carryall carried her away, she beamed +upon him; gave him two or three beams in fact, and said good-by +personally and waved her hand to him personally; nobody else was there +in all that crowd but just they two! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE WESTLAKES DECIDE TO INVEST + +Miss Hastings did not exactly snub Sam in the morning, but she was +surprisingly indifferent to him after all her previous cordiality, and +even went so far as to forget the early morning constitutional she was +to have taken with him; instead she passed him coolly by on the porch +right after an extremely early breakfast, and sauntered away down +lovers' lane, arm in arm with Billy Westlake, who was already looking +very much comforted. Sam, who had been dreading that walk, released it +with a sigh of intense satisfaction, planning that in the interim until +time for his drive, he would improve his tennis a bit with Miss +Westlake. He was just hunting her up when he met Bob Tilloughby, who +invited him to join a riding party from both houses for a trip over to +Sunset Rock. + +"Sorry," said Sam with secret satisfaction, "but I've an engagement +over at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock," and Tilloughby carried that +information back to Miss Westlake, who had sent him. + +An engagement at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock, eh? Well, Miss Westlake +knew who that meant; none other than her dear friend, Josephine +Stevens! Being a young lady of considerable directness, she went +immediately to her father. + +"Have you definitely made up your mind, pop, to take stock in Mr. +Turner's company?" she asked, sitting down by that placid gentleman. + +Without removing his interlocked hands from their comfortable +resting-place in plain sight, he slowly twirled his thumbs some three +times, and then stopped. + +"Yes, I think I shall," he said. + +"About how much?" Miss Westlake wanted to know. + +"Oh, about twenty-five thousand." + +"Who's to get it?" + +"Why, I thought I'd divide it between Billy and you." + +Miss Westlake put her hand on her father's arm. + +"Say, pop, give it to me, please," she pleaded. "Billy can take the +next stock you buy, or I'll let him have some of my other in exchange." + +Mr. Westlake surveyed his daughter out of a pair of fish-gray eyes +without turning his head. + +"You seem to be especially interested in this stock. You asked about +it yesterday and Sunday and one day last week." + +"Yes, I am," she admitted. "It's a really first-class business +investment, isn't it?" + +"Yes, I think it is," replied Westlake; "as good as any stock in an +untried company can be, anyhow. At least it's an excellent investment +chance." + +"That's what I thought," she said. "I'm judging, of course, only by +what you say, and by my impression of Mr. Turner. It seems to me that +almost anything he goes into should be highly successful." + +Mr. Westlake slowly whirled his thumbs in the other direction, three +separate twirls, and stopped them. + +"Yes," he agreed. "I'm investing the money in just Sam myself, +although the scheme itself looks like a splendid one." + +Miss Westlake was silent a moment while she twisted at the button on +her father's coat sleeve. + +"I don't quite understand this matter of stock control," she went on +presently. "You've explained it to me, but I don't seem quite to get +the meaning of it." + +"Well, it's like this," explained Mr. Westlake. "Sam Turner, with only +a paltry investment, say about five thousand dollars, wants to be able +to dictate the entire policy of a million-dollar concern. In other +words, he wants a majority of stock, which will let him come into the +stock-holders' meetings, and vote into office his own board of +directors, who will do just what he says; and if he wanted to he might +have them vote the entire profits of the concern for his salary." + +"But, father, he wouldn't do anything like that," she protested, +shocked. + +"No, he probably wouldn't," admitted Mr. Westlake, "but I wouldn't be +wise to let him have the chance, just the same." + +"But, father," objected Miss Hallie, after further thought, "it's his +invention, you know, and his process, and if he doesn't have control +couldn't all you other stock-holders get together and appropriate the +profits yourselves?" + +Mr. Westlake gave his thumbs one quick turn. + +"Yes," he grudgingly confessed. "In fact, it's been done," and there +was a certain grim satisfaction at the corners of his mouth which his +daughter could not interpret, as he thought back over the long list of +absorptions which had made old Bill Westlake the power that he was. + +"But--but, father," and she hesitated a long time. + +"Yes," he encouraged her. + +"Even if you won't let him have enough stock to obtain control, if some +one other person should own enough of the stock, couldn't they put +their stock with his and let him do just about as he liked?" + +"Oh, yes," agreed Mr. Westlake without any twirling of his thumbs at +all; "that's been done, too." + +"Would this twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of stock that you're +buying, pop, if it were added to what you men are willing to let Mr. +Turner have, give him control?" + +Again Mr. Westlake turned his speculative gray eyes upon his daughter +and gave her a long, careful scrutiny, which she received with downcast +lashes. + +"No," he replied. + +"How much would?" + +"Well, fifty thousand would do it." + +"Say, pop--" + +"Yes." + +Another long interval. + +"I wish you'd buy fifty thousand for me in place of twenty-five." + +"Humph," grunted Mr. Westlake, and after one sharp glance at her he +looked down at his big fat thumbs and twirled them for a long, long +time. "Well," said he, "Sam Turner is a fine young man. I've known +him in a business way for five or six years, and I never saw a flaw in +him of any sort. All right. You give Billy your sugar stock and I'll +buy you this fifty thousand." + +Miss Westlake reached over and kissed her father impulsively. + +"Thanks, pop," she said. "Now there's another thing I want you to do." + +"What, more?" he demanded. + +"Yes, more," and this time the color deepened in her cheeks. "I want +you to hunt up Mr. Turner and tell him that you're going to take that +much." + +Mr. Westlake with a smile reached up and pinched his daughter's cheek. + +"Very well, Hallie, I'll do it," said he. + +She patted him affectionately on the bald spot. + +"Good for you," she said. "Be sure you see him this morning, though, +and before half-past nine." + +"You're particular about that, eh?" + +"Yes, it's rather important," she admitted, and blushed furiously. + +Westlake patted his daughter on the shoulder. + +"Hallie," said He, "if Billy only had your common-sense business +instinct, I wouldn't ask for anything else in this world; but Billy is +a saphead." + +Mr. Westlake, thinking that he understood the matter very thoroughly, +though in reality overunderstanding it--nice word, that--took it upon +himself with considerable seriousness to hunt up Sam Turner; but it was +fully nine-thirty before he found that energetic young man. Sam was +just going down the driveway in a neat little trap behind a team of +spirited grays. + +"Wait a minute, Sam, wait a minute," hailed Westlake, puffing +laboriously across the closely cropped lawn. + +Sam held up his horses abruptly, and they stood swinging their heads +and champing at their bits, while Sam, with a trace of a frown, looked +at his watch. + +"What's your rush?" asked Westlake. "I've been hunting for you +everywhere. I want to talk about some important features of that Marsh +Pulp Company of yours." + +"All right," said Sam. "I'm open for conversation. I'll see you right +after lunch." + +"No. I must see you now," insisted Westlake. "I've--I've got to +decide on some things right this morning. I--I've got to know how to +portion out my investments." + +Sam looked at his watch and was genuinely distressed. + +"I'm sorry," said he, "but I have an engagement over at Hollis Creek at +exactly ten o'clock, and I've scant time to make it." + +"Business?" demanded Westlake. + +"No," confessed Sam slowly. + +"Oh, social then. Well, social engagements in America always play +second fiddle to business ones, and don't you forget it. I'll talk +about this matter this morning or I won't talk about it at all." + +Sam stopped nonplussed. Westlake was an important factor in the +prospective Marsh Pulp Company. + +"Tell you what you do," said he, after some quick thought. "Why can't +you get in the trap and drive over to Hollis Creek with me? We can +talk on the way and you can visit with your friends over there until +time for luncheon; then I'll bring you back and we can talk on the way +home, too." + +Miss Hallie and Princeman and young Tilloughby came cantering down the +drive and waved hands at the two men. + +"All right," said Westlake decisively, looking after his daughter and +answering her glance with a nod. "Wait until I get my hat," and he +wheeled abruptly away. + +Sam fumed and fretted and jerked his watch back and forth from his +pocket, while Westlake wasted fifteen precious minutes in waddling up +to the house and hunting for his hat and returning with it, and two +minutes more in bungling his awkward way into the buggy; then Sam +started the grays at such a terrific pace that, until they came to the +steep hill midway of the course, there was no chance for conversation. +While the horses pulled up this steep hill, however, Westlake had his +opportunity. + +"I suppose you know," he said, "that you're not going to be allowed +over two thousand shares of common stock for your patents." + +"I'm beginning to give up the hope of having more," admitted Sam. +"However, I'm going to stick it out to the last ditch." + +"It won't be permitted, so you might as well give up that idea. How +much stock do you think of buying?" + +"About five thousand dollars' worth of the preferred," said Sam. + +"Which will give you fifty bonus shares of the common. I suppose of +course you figure on eventually securing control in some way or other." + +"Not being an infant, I do," returned Sam, flicking his whip at a weed +and gathering his lines up quickly as the mettled horses jumped. + +"I don't know of any one person who's going to buy enough stock to help +you out in that plan; unless I should do it myself," suggested +Westlake, and waited. + +Sam surveyed the other man long and silently. Westlake, as the largest +minority shareholder, had done some very strange things to corporations +in his time. + +"Neither do I," said Sam non-committally. + +There was another long silence. + +"If you carry through this Marsh Pulp Company to a successful +termination, you will be fairly well fixed for a young man, won't you?" +the older man ventured by and by. + +"Well," hesitated Sam, "I'll have a start anyhow." + +"I should say you would," Westlake assured him, placing his hands in +his favorite position for contemplative discussion. "You'll have a +good enough start to enable you to settle down." + +"Yes," admitted Sam. + +"What you need, my boy, is a wife," went on Mr. Westlake. "No man's +business career is properly assured until he has a wife to steady him +down." + +"I believe that," agreed Sam. "I've come to the same conclusion +myself, and to tell you the truth of the matter I've been contemplating +marriage very seriously since I've been down here." + +"Good!" approved Westlake. "You're a fine boy, Sam. I may tell you +right now that I approve of both you and your decision very heartily. +I rather thought there was something in the wind that way." + +"Yes," confessed Sam hesitantly. "I don't mind admitting that I have +even gone so far as to pick out the girl, if she'll have me." + +Mr. Westlake smiled. + +"I don't think there will be any trouble on that score," said he. "Of +course, Sam, I'm not going to force your confidence, or anything of +that sort, but--but I want to tell you that I think you're all right," +and he very solemnly shook hands with Mr. Turner. + +They had just reached the top of the hill when Westlake again returned +to business. + +"I'm glad to know you're going to settle down, Sam," he said. "It +inspires me with more confidence in your affairs, and I may say that I +stand ready to subscribe, in my daughter's name, for fifty thousand +dollars' worth of the stock of your company." + +"Well," said Sam, giving the matter careful weight. "It will be a good +investment for her." + +Before Mr. Westlake had any time to reply to this, the grays, having +just passed the summit of the hill, leaped forward in obedience to +another swish of Sam's whip. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT + +The trio from Meadow Brook, on their way to Sunset Rock galloped up to +the Hollis Creek porch, and, finding Miss Stevens there, gaily demanded +that she accompany them. + +"I'm sorry," said Miss Stevens, who was already in driving costume, +"but I have an engagement at ten o'clock," and she looked back through +the window into the office, where the clock then stood at two minutes +of the appointed time; then she looked rather impatiently down the +driveway, as she had been doing for the past five minutes. + +"Well, at least you'll come back to the bar with us and have an +ice-cream cocktail," insisted Princeman, reining up close to the porch +and putting his hand upon the rail in front of her. + +"I don't see how I can refuse that," said Miss Stevens with a smile and +another glance down at the driveway, "although it's really a little +early in the day to begin drinking," and she waited for them to +dismount, going back with them into the little ice-cream parlor and +"soft drink" and confectionery dispensary which had been facetiously +dubbed "the bar." Here she was careful to secure a seat where she +could look out of the window down toward the road, and also see the +clock. + +After a weary while, during which Miss Josephine had undergone a +variety of emotions which she was very careful not to mention, the +party rose from the discussion of their ice-cream soda and the bowling +tournament and all the various other social interests of the two +resorts, and made ready to depart, Miss Westlake twining her arm about +the waist of her friend Miss Stevens as they emerged on the porch. + +"Well, anyway, we've made you forget your engagement," Miss Westlake +gaily boasted, "for you said it was to be at ten, and now it's +ten-thirty." + +"Yes, I noticed the time," admitted Miss Stevens, rather grudgingly. + +"I'm sorry we dragged you away," commiserated Miss Westlake with a +swift change of tone. "Probably the party of the second part didn't +know where to find you." + +"No, it couldn't be anything like that," decided Miss Josephine after a +thoughtful pause. "Did you see anything of Mr. Turner this morning?" +she asked with sudden resolve. + +"Mr. Turner," repeated Miss Westlake in well-feigned surprise. "Why, +yes, I know papa said early this morning that he was going to have a +business talk with Mr. Turner, and as we left Meadow Brook papa was +just going after his hat to take a drive with him." + +"I wonder if it would be an imposition to ask you to wait about five +minutes longer," inquired Miss Stevens with a languidness which did +_not_ deceive. "I think I can change to my riding-habit almost within +that time." + +"We'll be delighted to wait," asserted Miss Westlake eagerly, herself +looking apprehensively down the driveway; "won't we, boys?" + +"Sure; what is it?" returned Princeman. + +"Josephine says that if we'll wait five minutes longer she'll go with +us." + +"We'll wait an hour if need be," declared Princeman gallantly. + +"It won't need be," said Miss Stevens lightly, and hurrying into the +office she ordered the clerk to send for her saddle-horse. + +For ten interminable minutes Miss Westlake never took her eyes from the +road, at the end of which time Miss Stevens returned, hatted and +habited and booted and whipped. + +The Hollis Creek young lady was rather grim as she rode down the +graveled approach beside Miss Westlake, and both the girls cast furtive +glances behind them as they turned away from the Meadow Brook road. +When they were safely out of sight around the next bend, Miss Westlake +laughed. + +"Mr. Turner is such a funny person," said she. "He's liable at any +moment to forget all about everything and everybody if somebody +mentions business to him. If he ever takes time to get married he'll +make it a luncheon hour appointment." + +Even Miss Josephine laughed. + +"And even then," she added, by way of elaboration, "the bride is likely +to be left waiting at the church." There was a certain snap and +crackle to whatever Miss Stevens said just now, however, which +indicated a perturbed and even an angry state of mind. + +Ten minutes later, Sam Turner, hatless, and carrying a buggy whip and +wearing a torn coat, trudged up the Hollis Creek Inn drive, afoot, and +walked rapidly into the office. + +"Is Miss Stevens about?" he wanted to know. + +"Not at present," the clerk informed him. "She ordered out her horse a +few minutes ago, and started over to Sunset Rock with a party of young +people from Meadow Brook." + +"Which way is Sunset Rock?" + +The clerk handed him a folder which contained a map of the roadways +thereabouts, and pointed out the way. + +"Could you get me a saddle-horse right away?" + +The clerk pounded a bell and ordered up a saddle-horse for Mr. Turner, +who immediately thereupon turned to the telephone, and, calling up +Meadow Brook, instructed the clerk at that resort to send a carriage +for Mr. Westlake, who was sitting in the trap, entirely unharmed but +disinclined to walk, at the foot of Laurel Hill; then he explained that +the grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar had +slipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had run +back up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked the +doubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they had +turned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the time +he had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it all +through the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse was +ready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he started +off at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to have +himself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket. + +He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to Sunset +Rock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with the +inspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were ready +to depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket being +greatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens, +who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been due +to an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation at +once. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, and +believed, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, and +she had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to be +with Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by the +side of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearance +of the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party" +has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though at +first lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted the +party so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlake +was riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone in +the center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a sudden +inclination to go very slowly. + +"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, by +and by. + +"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam. + +"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I think +I did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to say +he'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells me +I've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?" + +"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince. +Control and Westlake were two words which did not make, for him, a +cheerful juxtaposition. + +"So now you'll have to be very nice indeed to me," went on Miss +Westlake banteringly, "or I'm likely to vote with the other crowd." + +"I'll be just as nice to you as I know how," offered Sam. "Just state +what you want me to do and I'll do it." + +Miss Westlake did not state what she wanted him to do. In place of +that she whipped up her horse rather smartly, after a thoughtful +silence, and joined Tilloughby, the three of them riding abreast. The +next shifting, around a deep mud hole which only left room for an +Indian file procession, brought Sam alongside Miss Josephine, and here +he stuck for the balance of the ride, leaving Princeman to ride part of +the time alone between the two couples, and part of the time to be the +third rider with each couple in alternation. Miss Josephine was very +much concerned about Mr. Turner's accident, very happy to know how +lucky he had been to come off without a scratch, except for the tear in +his coat, and very solicitous indeed about any further handling of the +obstreperous gray team; and, forgiving him readily under the +circumstances, she renewed her engagement to drive with him the next +morning! + +Sam rode on home at the side of Miss Westlake, after leaving Miss +Stevens at Hollis Creek, in a strange and nebulous state of elation, +which continued until bedtime. As he was about to retire he was handed +a wire from his brother: + +"Just received patent papers meet me at Restview morning train." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A PLEASURE RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS + +The morning train was due at ten o'clock. At ten o'clock also Sam was +due at Hollis Creek to take his long deferred drive with Miss Stevens. +It was a slight conflict, her engagement, but the solution to that was +very easy. As early in the morning as he dared, Sam called up Miss +Josephine. + +"I've some glorious news," he said hopefully. "My kid brother will +arrive at Restview on the ten o'clock train." + +"You are to be congratulated," Miss Stevens told him, with an echo of +his own delight. + +"But you know we've an engagement to go driving at ten o'clock," he +reminded her, still hopefully, but trembling in spirit. + +There was an instant of hesitation, which ended in a laugh. + +"Don't let that interfere," she said. "We can defer our drive until +some other time, when fate is not so determined against it." + +"But that doesn't suit me at all," he assured her. "Why can't you be +ready at nine in place of ten, let me call for you at that time and +drive over to Restview with me to meet Jack?" + +"Is that his name?" she asked in blissfully reassuring tones. "You've +never spoken of him as anybody but your 'kid brother.' Why of course +I'll drive over to Restview with you. I shall be delighted to meet +him." + +Privately she had her own fears of what Jack Turner might turn out to +be like. Sam was always so good in speaking of him, always held him in +such tender regard, such profound admiration, that she feared he might +prove to be perfect only in Sam's eyes. + +"Good," said Sam. "Just for that I'm going to bring you over some +choice blooms that I have been having the gardener save back for me," +and he turned away from the telephone quite happy in the thought that +for once he had been able to kill two birds with one stone without +ruffling the feathers of either. + +Armed with a huge consignment of brilliant blossoms, enough to +transform her room into a fairy bower, he sped quite happily to Hollis +Creek. + +"Oh, gladiolas!" cried Miss Josephine, as he drove up. "How did you +ever guess it! That little bird must have been busy again." + +"Honestly, it was the little bird this time. I just had an intuition +that you must like them because I do so well," upon which naive +statement Miss Josephine merely smiled, and calling her father with +pretty peremptoriness, she loaded that heavy gentleman down with the +flowers and with instructions concerning them, and then stepped +brightly into the tonneau with Sam. + +It was a pleasant ride they had to Restview, and it was a pleasant +surprise which greeted Miss Josephine when the train arrived, for out +of it stepped a youth who was unmistakably a Turner. He was as tall as +Sam, but slighter, and as clean a looking boy as one would find in a +day's journey. There was that, too, in the hand-clasp between the +brothers which proclaimed at once their flawless relationship. + +Miss Stevens was so relieved to find the younger Turner so presentable +that she took him into her friendship at once. He was that kind of +chap anyhow, and in the very first greeting she almost found herself +calling him Jack. Just behind him, however, was a little, dried-up man +with a complexion the color of old parchment, with sandy, stubby hair +shot with gray, and a stubby gray beard shot with red. His lips were a +wide straight line, as grim as judgment day. He walked with a slight +stoop, but with a quick staccato step which betokened great nervous +energy, a quality which the alert expression of his beady eyes +confirmed with distinct emphasis. + +"Hello, Creamer!" hailed Sam to this gentleman. "I didn't expect to +see you here quite so soon." + +"You had every right to expect me," snapped the little man querulously. +"After all the experimenting I have done for you boys, you had every +reason to keep me posted on all your movements; and yet I reckon if I +hadn't been in your office yesterday evening when Jack said he was +coming down here, you would not have notified me until you had your +company all formed. Then I suppose you'd have written to tell me how +much stock you had assigned to me. I'm going to be in on the formation +of this company, and I'm going to have my say about it!" + +"Will you never get over that dyspepsia?" chided Sam easily. "There +was no intention of leaving you out." + +"Just what I told him," declared Jack, turning from Miss Stevens to +them. "I have been swearing to him that as soon as we had found out +to-day what we were to do I would have wired him at once." + +"You were quite right, Jack," approved Sam, opening the door of the car +for them, "and as a proof of it, Creamer, when you return to your +office you will find there a letter postmarked yesterday, telling you +our exact progress here, and warning you to be in readiness to come on +telegram." + +"All right, then," said Mr. Creamer, somewhat mollified, "but since +that letter's there and I'm here, you might as well tell me what you've +done." + +Sam stopped the proceedings long enough to introduce Creamer to Miss +Stevens after he had closed the door upon them and had taken his own +seat by the chauffeur. + +"All right," he then said to Mr. Creamer, "I'll begin at the beginning." + +He began at the beginning. He told Mr. Creamer all the steps in the +development of the company. He detailed to him the names of the +gentlemen concerned, and their complete commercial histories, pausing +to answer many pertinent side questions and observations from his +younger brother, who proved to be as keen a student of business puzzles +as Sam himself. + +"That's all very well," said Mr. Creamer, "and now I'm here. I want to +get away to-night: Can't we form that company to-day? At what figure +do you propose offering the original stock?" + +"The preferred at fifty, with a par value of a hundred," returned Sam +promptly. + +"Common?" asked Mr. Creamer crisply. + +"One share of common with each two shares of preferred." + +"Eh! Well, I've twenty-five thousand dollars to put into this marsh +pulp business, if I can have any figure in the management. I want on +the board." + +"It's quite likely you'll be on the board," returned Sam. "We shall +have a very small list of subscribers, and the board will not be +unwieldy if every investor is a director." + +"Voting power in the common stock?" + +"In the common stock," repeated Sam. + +"Do you intend to buy any preferred?" asked Creamer. + +"A hundred shares." + +"How much common do you expect to take out for your patents?" + +"Two hundred and fifty thousand," Sam answered without an instant's +hesitation. + +"Never!" exclaimed Mr. Creamer. "The time for that's gone by, young +man, no matter how good your proposition is. It's too old a game. You +won't handle my money with control in your hands. I have no objection +to letting you have two hundred thousand dollars worth of common stock +out of the half million, because that will give you an incentive to +make the common worth par; but you shan't at any time have or be able +to acquire a share over two hundred and forty-nine thousand; not if I +know anything about it! Can you call a meeting as soon as we get +there?" + +"I think so," replied Sam, with a more or less worried air. "I'll try +it. Tell you what I'll do. I'll run right on over to get Mr. Stevens, +who wants to join the company, and in the meantime Mr. Westlake or +Princeman can round up the others." + +For the first time in that drive Miss Stevens had something to say, but +she said it with a briefness that was like a dash of cold water to the +preoccupied Sam. + +"Father is over there now, I think," she said. + +"Good," approved Mr. Creamer. "We can have a little direct business +talk and wind up the whole affair before lunch. What time do we arrive +at Meadow Brook?" + +"Before eleven o'clock." + +"That will give us two hours. Two hours is enough to form any company, +when everybody knows exactly what he wants to do. Got a lawyer over +there?" + +"One of the best in the country." + +Miss Stevens sat in the center seat of the tonneau. Sam, in addressing +his remarks to the others and in listening to their replies, was +compelled to sweep his glance squarely across her, and occasionally in +these sweeps he paused to let his gaze rest upon her. She was a relief +to his eyes, a blessing to them! Miss Stevens, however, seldom met any +of these glances. Very much preoccupied she was, looking at the +passing scenery and not seeing it. + +There had begun boiling and seething in Miss Stevens a feeling that she +was decidedly _de trop_, that these men could talk their absorbing +business more freely if she were not there; not because she embarrassed +them, but because she used up space! Nobody seemed to give her a +thought. Nobody seemed to be aware that she was present. They were +almost gaspingly engrossed in something far more important to them than +she was. It was uncomplimentary, to say the least. She was not used +to playing "second fiddle" in any company. She was in the habit of +absorbing the most of the attention in her immediate vicinity. Mr. +Princeman or Mr. Hollis would neither one ignore her in that way, to +say nothing of Billy Westlake. + +She was glad when they reached Meadow Brook. Their whole talk had been +of marsh pulp, and company organization, and preferred and common +stock, and who was to get it, and how much they were to pay for it, and +how they were going to cut the throats of the wood pulp manufacturers, +and how much profit they were going to make from the consumers and with +all that, not a word for her. Not a single word! Not even an apology! +Oh, it was atrocious! As soon as they drew up to the porch she rose, +and before Sam could jump down to open the door of the tonneau she had +opened it for herself and sprung out. + +"I'll hunt up father right away for you," she stated courteously. +"Glad to have met you, Mr. Creamer. I presume I shall meet you again, +Mr. Turner," she said to Jack. "Thank you so much for the ride," she +said to Sam, and then she was gone. + +Sam looked after her blankly. It couldn't be possible that she was +"huffy" about this business talk. Why, couldn't the girl see that this +had to do with the birth of a great big company, a million dollar +corporation, and that it was of vital importance to him? It meant the +apex of a lifetime of endeavor. It meant the upbuilding of a fortune. +Couldn't she see that he and his brother were two lone youngsters +against all these shrewd business men, whose only terms of aiding them +and floating this big company was to take their mastery of it away from +them? Couldn't she understand what control of a million dollar +organization meant? He was not angry with Miss Stevens for her +apparent attitude in this matter, but he was hurt. He was not +impatient with her, but he was impatient of the fact that she could not +appreciate. Now the fat was in the fire again. He felt that. Under +other circumstances he would have said that it was much more trouble +than it was worth to keep in the good graces of a girl, but under the +present circumstances--well, his heart had sunk down about a foot out +of place, and he had a sort of faint feeling in the region of his +stomach. He was just about sick. He followed her in, just in time to +see the flutter of her skirts at the top of the stairway, but he could +not call without making himself and her ridiculous. Confound things in +general! + +Mr. Stevens joined him while he was still looking into that blank hole +in the world. + +"Glad I happened to be here, Sam," said Stevens. "Jo tells me that +your brother and Mr. Creamer have arrived and that you want to form +that company right away." + +"Yes," admitted Sam. "Was she sarcastic about it?" + +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes and laughed. + +"Not exactly sarcastic," he stated; "but she did allude to your +proposed corporation as 'that old company!'" + +"I was afraid so," said Sam ruefully. + +Stevens surveyed him in amusement for a moment, and then in pity. + +"Never mind, my boy," he said kindly. "You'll get used to these things +by and by. It took me the first five years of my married life to +convince Mrs. Stevens that business was not a rival to her affections, +when, if I'd only have known the recipe, I could have convinced her at +the start." + +"How did you finally do it?" asked Sam, vitally interested. + +"Made her my confidante and adviser," stated Stevens, smiling +reminiscently. + +Sam shook his head. + +"Was that safe?" he asked. "Didn't she sometimes let out your secrets?" + +"Bosh!" exclaimed Stevens. "I'd rather trust a woman than a man, any +day, with a secret, business or personal. That goes for any woman; +mother, sister, sweetheart, wife, daughter, or stenographer. Just give +them a chance to get interested in your game, and they're with you +against the world." + +"Thanks," said Sam, putting that bit of information aside for future +pondering. "By the way, Mr. Stevens, before we join the others I'd +like to ask you how much stock you're going to carry in the Marsh Pulp +Company." + +"Well," returned Mr. Stevens slowly, "I did think that if the thing +looked good on final analysis, I might invest twenty-five thousand +dollars." + +"Can't you stretch that to fifty?" + +"Can't see it. But why? Don't you think you're going to fill your +list?" + +"We'll fill our list all right," returned Sam. "As a matter of fact, +that's what I'm afraid of. These fellows are going to pool their +stock, and hold control in their own hands. Now if I could get you to +invest fifty thousand and vote with me under proper emergency, I could +control the thing; and I ought to. It is my own company. Seems to me +these fellows are selfish about it. You think I'm a good business man, +don't you?" + +"I certainly do," agreed Mr. Stevens emphatically. + +"Well, it stands to reason that if I have two hundred and sixty +thousand dollars of common stock that isn't worth a picayune unless I +make it worth par, I'll hustle; and if I make my common stock worth +par, I'm making a fine, fat profit for these other fellows, to say +nothing of the raising of their preferred stock from the value of fifty +to a hundred dollars a share, and their common from nothing to a +hundred." + +"That's all right, Sam," returned Mr. Stevens; "but you'll work just as +hard to make your common worth par if you only have two hundred +thousand; and there's a growing tendency on the part of capital to be +able to keep a string on its own money. Strange, but true." + +"All right," said Sam wearily. "We won't argue that point any more +just now; but will you invest fifty thousand?" + +"I can't promise," said Stevens, and he walked out on the porch. Much +worried, Sam followed him, and with many misgivings he introduced Mr. +Stevens to his brother Jack and to Mr. Creamer. The prospective +organizers of the Marsh Pulp Company were already in solemn conclave on +the porch, with the single exception of Princeman, who was on the lawn +talking most perfunctorily with Miss Josephine. That young lady, with +wickedness of the deepest sort in her soul, was doing her best to +entice Mr. Princeman into forgetting the important meeting, but as soon +as Princeman saw the gathering hosts he gently but firmly tore himself +away, very much to her surprise and indignation. Why, he had been as +rude to her as Sam Turner himself, in placing the charms of business +above her own! Immediately afterward she snubbed Billy Westlake +unmercifully. Had he the qualities which would go to make a successful +man in any walk of life? No! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A DUAL QUESTION OF MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY AND STOCK SUBSCRIPTION + +Mr. Westlake dropped back with his old friend Stevens as they trailed +into the parlor which Blackstone had secured. + +"Are you going to subscribe rather heavily in the company, Stevens?" +inquired Westlake, with the curiosity of a man who likes to have his +own opinion corroborated by another man of good judgment. + +"Well," replied the father of Miss Josephine, "I think of taking a +rather solid little block of stock. I believe I can spare twenty-five +thousand dollars to invest in almost any company Sam Turner wants to +start." + +"He's a fine boy," agreed Westlake. "A square, straight young fellow, +a good business man, and a hustler. I see him playing tennis with my +girl every day, and she seems to think a lot of him." + +"He's bound to make his mark," Mr. Stevens acquiesced, sharply +suppressing a fool impulse to speak of his own daughter. "Do you +fellows intend to let him secure control of this company?" + +"I should say not!" replied Westlake, with such unnecessary emphasis +that Stevens looked at him with sudden suspicion. He knew enough about +old Westlake to "copper" his especially emphatic statements. + +"Are you agreeable to Princeman's plan to pool all stock but Turner's?" + +"Well--we can talk about that later." + +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens, and together the two heavy-weights, Stevens +with his aggressive beard suddenly pointed a trifle more straight out, +and Mr. Westlake with his placidity even more marked than usual, +stalked on into the parlor, where Mr. Blackstone, taking the chair _pro +tem_., read them the preliminary agreement he had drawn up; upon which +Sam Turner immediately started to wrangle, a proceeding which proved +altogether in vain. + +The best he could get for patents and promotion was two thousand out of +the five thousand shares of common stock, and finally he gave in, +knowing that he could not secure the right kind of men on better terms. +Mr. Blackstone thereupon offered a subscription list, to which every +man present solemnly appended his name opposite the number of shares he +would take. Sam, at the last moment, put down his own name for a block +of stock which meant a cash investment of considerably more than he had +originally figured upon. He cast up the list hurriedly. Five hundred +shares of preferred, carrying half that much common, were still to be +subscribed. With whom could he combine to obtain control? The only +men who had subscribed enough for that purpose were Princeman, who was +out of the question, and, in fact, would be the leader of the +opposition, and Westlake. The highest of the others were Creamer, +Cuthbert and Stevens. Sam would have to subscribe for the entire five +hundred in order to make these men available to him. + +McComas and Blackstone had only subscribed for the same amount as Sam. +They could do him no good, and he knew it was hopeless to attempt to +get two men to join with him. He looked over at Westlake. That +gentleman was smiling like a placid cherub, all innocence without, and +kindliness and good deeds; but there was nevertheless something fishy +about Westlake's eyes, and Sam, in memory, cast over a list of maimed +and wounded and crushed who had come in Westlake's business way. The +logical candidate was Stevens. Stevens simply had to take enough stock +to overbalance this thing, then he simply must vote his stock with +Sam's! That was all there was to it! Sam did not pause to worry about +how he was to gain over Stevens' consent, but he had an intuitive +feeling that this was his only chance. + +"Stevens," said he briskly, "there are five hundred shares left. I'll +take half of it if you'll take the other half." + +His brother Jack looked at him startled. Their total holdings, in that +case, would mean an investment of more money than they could spare from +their other operations. It would cramp them tremendously, but Jack +ventured no objections. He had seen Sam at the helm in decisive places +too often to interfere with him, either by word or look. As a matter +of fact such a proceeding was not safe anyhow. + +"I don't mind--" began Westlake, slowly fixing a beaming eye upon Sam, +and crossing his hands ponderously upon his periphery; but before he +could announce his benevolent intention, Mr. Stevens, with what might +almost have been considered a malevolent glance toward Mr. Westlake, +spoke up. + +"I'll accept your proposition," he said with a jerk of his beard as his +jaws snapped. So Miss Westlake thought a great deal of Sam, eh? And +old Westlake knew it, eh? And he had already subscribed enough stock +to throw Sam control, eh? + +"Thanks," said Sam, and shot Mr. Stevens a look of gratitude as he +altered the subscription figures. + +"Stop just a moment, Sam," put in Mr. Westlake. "How many shares of +common stock does that give you in combination with your bonus?" + +"Two thousand two hundred and sixty," said Sam. + +"Oh!" said Mr. Westlake musingly; "not enough for control by two +hundred and forty one shares; so you won't mind, since you haven't +enough for control anyhow, if I take up that additional two hundred and +fifty shares of preferred, with its one hundred and twenty-five of +common, myself." + +Sam once more paused and glanced over the subscription list. As it +stood now, aside from Princeman, there were two members, Westlake and +Stevens, with whom, if he could get either one of them to do so, he +could pool his common stock. If he allowed Westlake to take up this +additional two hundred and fifty shares, Westlake was the only string +to his bow. + +"No, thanks," said Sam. "I prefer to keep them myself. It seems to me +to be a very fair and equitable division just as it is." + +In the end it stood just that way. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE HERO OF THE HOUR + +On that very same afternoon, the youth and beauty, also the age and +wisdom, of both Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook, gathered around the ball +field of the former resort, to watch the Titanic struggle for victory +between the two picked nines. As Sam took his place behind the bat for +the first man up, who was Hollis, he felt his first touch of +self-confidence anent the strictly amusement features of summer +resorting. In all the other athletic pursuits he had been backward, +but here, as he smacked his fist in his glove, he felt at home. + +The only thing he did not like about it, as Princeman wound himself up +to deliver the first ball, was that Princeman had the position of +glory. On that gentleman the spotlight burned brightly all the time, +and if they won, he would be the hero of the hour; the modest, reliable +catcher would scarcely be thought of except by the men who knew the +finer points of the game, and it was not the men whom he had in mind. +Honestly and sincerely, he desired to shine before Miss Josephine +Stevens. She was over there at the edge of the field under an oak tree. + +Before her, cavorting for her amusement, were not only Princeman and +himself, but Billy Westlake and Hollis, each of them alert for action +at this moment; for now Princeman, with a mighty twirl upon his great +toe, released the ball. It never reached Sam Turner's hands; instead +it bounced off the bat with a "crack!" and sailed right down through +Billy Westlake, who, at second, made a frantic grab for it, and then it +spun out between center and right field, losing itself in the bushes, +while Hollis, amid the frantic cheers of the audience, which consisted +of Miss Josephine Stevens and several unconsidered other spectators, +tore around the circuit. His colleagues strove wildly to hold Hollis +at third, for the ball was found and was sailing over to that base. It +arrived there just as he did, but far over the head of the third +baseman, and fat, curly-haired Hollis, who looked like an ice wagon but +ran like a motorcycle, secured the first run for Hollis Creek. + +The next batter was up. Princeman, his confidence loftily unshaken, +gave a correct imitation of a pretzel and delivered the ball. The +batsman swung viciously at it. + +Spat! It landed in Sam's glove. + +"Strike one!" called the strident voice of Blackrock, who, jerking +himself back several years into youth again, was umpiring the game with +great joy. Nonchalantly Sam snapped the ball back over-hand. +Princeman smiled with calm superiority. He wound himself up. + +Spat! The ball had cut the plate and was in Sam's hands, while the +batsman stood looking earnestly at the path over which it had come. + +"Strike two!" called Blackstone. + +Sam jerked the ball back with an underwrist toss of great perfection. +Princeman drew himself up with smiling ease and posed a moment for the +edification of the on-lookers. Sam Turner was the very first to detect +the unbearable arrogance of that pose. Princeman eyed the batsman +critically, mercilessly even, and delivered the third fatal +plate-splitter. + +Z-z-z-ing! The sphere slammed right out through Billy Westlake, who +made a frantic grab for it. It bounded down between center and right +field, and the players bumped shoulders in trying to stop it. It +nestled among the bushes. The batsman tore around the bases. His +colleagues tried to hold him at third, for the ball was streaking in +that direction, but the batsman pawed straight on. The ball crossed +the base before he did, but it bounded between the third sacker's feet, +and score two was marked up for Hollis Creek, with nobody out! + +With undiminished confidence, though somewhat annoyed, Princeman made a +cute little knot of himself for the next batsman. + +Spat! The ball landed in Sam's glove, two feet wide of the plate. + +"Ball one!" called Blackstone. + +Spat! In Sam's glove again, with the batsman jumping back to save his +ribs. + +"Ball two!" cried Blackstone. + +Spat! + +"Ball three." + +"Put 'em over, Princeman!" yelled Billy Westlake from second. + +"Don't be afraid of him! He couldn't hit it with a pillow!" jeered the +third baseman. + +In a calm, superior sort of way, Mr. Princeman smiled and shot over the +ball. + +"Four balls. Take your base!" said Mr. Blackstone, quite gently. + +Reassuringly Mr. Princeman smiled upon his supporters, consisting of +Miss Josephine Stevens and some other summer resorters, and proceeded +to take out his revenge upon the next batter. The first two lofts were +declared to be balls, and then Sam, catching his man playing too far +off, snapped the pill down to the nearest suburb and nailed the first +out. Encouraged by this, Princeman put over three successive strikes, +and there were two gone. The next batter up, however, laced out, for +two easy way-points, the first ball presented him. The next athlete +brought him in with a single, and the next one put down a three-bagger +which bored straight through Princeman and short stop and center field. +That inglorious inning ended with a brilliant throw of Sam's to Billy +Westlake at second, nipping a would-be thief who had hoped to purloin +the seventh tally for Hollis Creek. + +Billy Westlake, then taking the bat, increased the Meadow Brook +depression by slapping the soft summer air three vicious spanks and +retiring to think it over, and young Tilloughby bounced a feeble little +bunt square at the feet of Hollis and was tossed out at first by +something like six furlongs. The third batsman popped up a slow, lazy +foul which gave the catcher almost plenty of time to roll a cigarette +before it came down, and the Meadow Brook side was ignominiously +retired. Score, six to nothing at the end of the first. + +Princeman hit the first man up in the next inning and sent him down to +the initial bag, which was a flat stone, happily limping. He issued +free transportation to the next man and let the cripple hobble on to +second, chortling with glee. The third man went to the first station +on a measly little bunt with which Sam and Princeman and third base did +some neat and shifty foot work, and the next man up soaked out a Wright +Brothers beauty among the trees over beyond left field, and cleared the +bases amid the perfectly frantic rejoicing of the fickle Miss Josephine +Stevens and all the negligible balance of Hollis Creek. Oh, it was +disgraceful! Sam Turner ground his teeth in impotent rage. He walked +up to Princeman. + +"Say, old man," he pleaded. "We've just _got_ to settle down! We +_must_ pull this game out of the fire! We _can't_ let Hollis Creek +walk away with it!" + +Princeman was pale, but clutched at his fast-slipping-away nonchalance +with the grip of desperation. + +"We'll hold them," he declared, and with careful deliberation he put +over a ball which the next batter sent sailing right down inside the +right foul line, pulling the first baseman away back almost to right +field. Princeman stood gaping at that bingle in paralyzed dismay; but +the batsman, who was a slow runner and slow thinker, stood a fatal +second to see whether the ball was fair or foul. Almost at the crack +of the bat Sam Turner started, raced down to first, caught the right +fielder's throw and stepped on the stone, one handsome stride ahead of +the runner! Then, as Blackrock, speechless with admiration, waved the +runner out, the first mighty howl went up from Meadow Brook, and one +partisan of the Hollis Creek nine, turning her back for the moment +squarely upon her own colors, led the cheering. Sam heard her voice. +It was a solo, while all the rest of the cheering was a faint +accompaniment, and with such elation as comes only to the heroes in +victorious battle, he trotted back to his place and caught three balls +and three strikes on the next batter. Also, the next one went out on a +pop fly which Sam was able to catch. + +In their half Princeman redeemed himself in part by a three bagger +which brought in two scores, and the second inning ended at ten to +three in favor of Hollis Creek. + +Confident and smiling, reinforced by the memory of his three bagger, +Princeman took the mount for the beginning of the third, and with his +compliments he suavely and politely presented a base to the first man +up. A groan arose from all Meadow Brook. The second batsman shot a +stinger to Princeman, who dropped it, and that batsman immediately +thereafter roosted on first, crowing triumphantly; but the hot liner +allowed Princeman a graceful opportunity. He complained of a badly +hurt finger on his pitching hand. He called time while he held that +injured member, and expressed in violent gestures the intolerable agony +of it. Bravely, however, he insisted upon "sticking it out," and +passed two wild ones up to the next willow wielder; then, having proved +his gameness, he nobly sacrificed himself for the good of Meadow Brook, +called time and asked for a substitute pitcher. He would go anywhere. +He would take the field or he would retire. What he wanted was Meadow +Brook to win. This was precisely what Sam Turner also wanted, and he +lost no time in calling, with ill-concealed satisfaction, upon his +brother Jack. Then Jack Turner, nothing loath, deserted his +comfortable seat by the side of Miss Josephine Stevens, and strode +forth to the mound, leaving the unfortunate Princeman to take his place +by the side of Miss Stevens and give her an opportunity to sympathize +with his poor maimed pitching hand, which, after a perfunctory moment +of interest, she was too busy to do; for Jack Turner and Sam Turner, +smiling across at each other in mutual confidence and esteem, proceeded +to strike out the next three batters in succession, leaving men +cemented to first and second bases, where they had been wildly +imploring for opportunities to tear themselves loose. + +What need to tell of the balance of that game; of the calm, easy, +one-two-three work of the invincible Turner battery; of the brilliant +base throwing and fielding of Turner and Turner, and their mighty swats +when they came to bat? You know how the game turned out. Anybody +would know. It ended in a triumph for Meadow Brook at the end of the +seventh inning, which is all any summer resort game ever goes, and two +innings more than most, by a total and glorious score of twenty-one to +seventeen. And who were the heroes of the hour, as smilingly but +modestly they strode from the diamond? Who, indeed, but Jack Turner +and Sam Turner; and by token of their victory, after receiving the +frenzied plaudits of all Meadow Brook and the generous plaudits of all +Hollis Creek, they marched in triumph from the field, one on either +side of Miss Josephine Stevens! Where now were Hollis and Princeman +and Billy Westlake? Nowhere! They were forgotten of men, ignored of +women, and the laurels of sweet victory rested upon the brow of busy +Sam Turner! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN INTERRUPTED BUT PROPERLY FINISHED PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE + +Jack's first opportunity for a quiet talk with his brother did not +occur for an hour after the game. + +"I don't like to worry you while you're resting, Sam," he began, "but +I'll have to tell you that the Flatbush deal seems likely to drop +through. It reaches a head to-morrow, you know." + +[Illustration: "I don't like to worry you, Sam"] + +Sam Turner grabbed for his watch. + +"It can't drop through!" he vigorously declared. "I'll go right up +there to-night and look after it." + +"But you're on your vacation," protested Jack. "That's no way to rest." + +"On my vacation!" snorted Sam. "Of course I am. I'm not losing a +minute of my vacation. The proper way to have a vacation is to do the +thing you enjoy most. Don't you suppose I'll enjoy closing that +Flatbush deal?" + +"Certainly," admitted his brother, "and I'll enjoy seeing you do it. I +know you can." + +"Of course I can. But you're to stay here." + +"It's not my turn for an outing," protested Jack. "I haven't earned +one yet." + +"You're to work," explained Sam. "You see, Jack, in one week I can't +become a bowling or golf expert enough to beat Princeman, nor a tennis +or dancing expert enough to outshine Billy Westlake, nor a horseback or +croquet expert enough to make a deuce out of Hollis. You can do all +these things, and I want you to give this crowd of distinguished +amateurs a showing up. Jack, if you ever worked for athletic honors in +your life now is the time to do it; and in between time stick to Miss +Stevens like glue. Monopolize her. Don't give these three or any +other contenders any of her time. Keep her busy. Let me know every +day what progress you're making; don't stop to write; wire! For +remember, Jack, I'm going to marry her. I've got to." + +"Well, then you'll marry her," Jack sagely concluded. "Does she know +it yet?" + +"I don't think she's quite sure of it," returned Sam with careful +analysis. "Of course she's thought about it. Sometimes she thinks she +won't, and sometimes she thinks she will, and sometimes she isn't quite +sure whether she will or not. Don't you worry about that part, though, +and don't bother to boost me. Just quietly you take the shine out of +these summer champions and leave the rest to your brother Sam." + +"Fine," agreed Jack. "Run right along and sell your papers, Sammy, and +I'll wire you every time I put over a point." + +Sam hunted and found Miss Josephine. + +"I'm sorry I have to take a run back to New York for two or three +days," he said. + +She bent upon him a glance of amusement; the old glance of mingled +amusement and mischief. + +"I thought you were on your vacation," she observed. + +"And I am," he insisted. "I've been having a bully time, and I'll come +back here to finish up the couple of days I have left." + +"Then the drive which didn't count this morning, and which was +postponed again until to-morrow morning, will have to be put off once +more," she reminded him with a gay laugh. + +"By George, that's so!" he exclaimed. "In all the excitement it had +quite slipped my mind." + +"I presume you're going up on business," she slyly observed. + +"Yes, I am," he admitted. + +She laughed and gave him her hand. + +"Well, I wish you good luck," she said. "I hope you make all the money +in the world. But you won't forget us who are down here in the country +dawdling away our time in useless amusements." + +"Forget you!" he returned impetuously. "Never for a minute!" and he +was in such deadly earnest about it that she hastily checked further +speech, although she did not know why. + +"Good!" she hurriedly exclaimed. "I'm glad you will bear us in mind +while you're gone. Are you going to take your brother along?" + +"No," he said with a smile. "I'm putting him in as my vacation +substitute, and I'll give him special instructions to call you up every +morning for orders. You'll find him in perfect discipline. He'll do +whatever you tell him." + +"I shall give him a thorough trial," she laughed. "I never yet had +anybody to come and go abjectly at the word of command, and I think it +will be a delightful novelty." + +Jack approaching just then, she took his arm quite comfortably. + +"Your brother tells me that during his absence you are to be my chief +aide and attache," she advised that young man gaily; "that you'll fetch +and carry and do what I tell you; and the first thing you must do is to +call for me when you take Mr. Turner to the train." + +It is glorious to part so pleasantly as that from people you have +persistently in mind, and Sam, with such cheerful recollections, +enjoyed his vacation to the full as he did new and brilliant and +unexpected things in closing up the Flatbush deal, keeping, in the +meantime, in constant touch with his office and with such telegrams as +these: + +"Established new tennis record this morning Westlake nowhere and has +been snubbed do not know why." + + +"Bowled two eighty five last night against Princeman two twenty am +teaching her." + + +"Danced six dances out of twelve with her says I'm better dancer than +Billy Westlake." + + +"Jumped Hollis Creek after her hat on horseback this afternoon Hollis +dared not follow am to give her riding lessons." + + +Then came this one: + +"Her father just told me she refused Princeman last night she will not +talk to Hollis and scarcely to me is dull and does not eat I beat all +entries in ten mile Marathon today and she hardly applauded wire +instructions." + + +Sam Turner took the next train. One look at Miss Stevens, after he had +traveled two years to reach Restview, made him suddenly intoxicated, +for in her eyes there was ravenous hunger for him and he read it, and +feeling rather sure of his ground he determined that now was the time +to strike. With that decisive end in view he dropped Jack at Meadow +Brook and went right on over to Hollis Creek with Miss Josephine. Of +course there was no chance to talk quite intimately, with Henry up +there ahead listening with all his ears, but there was every chance in +the world to look into her eyes and grow delirious; to touch elbows; to +look again and gaze deep into her eyes and see her turn away startled +and half frightened; to say perfunctory things which meant nothing and +everything, and receive perfunctory answers which meant as little and +as much; but before they had arrived at Hollis Creek Sam was frankly +and boldly holding her hand and she was letting him do it, and they +were both of them profoundly happy and profoundly silly, and would just +as leave have ridden on that way for ever. + +Words seemed superfluous, but yet they were more or less necessary, so +Sam got out at Hollis Creek Inn with her, and led the way determinedly +and directly into the stuffy little parlor just off the main assembly +room. He saw Mr. Stevens in the door of the post-office, but only +nodded to him, and then he drew Miss Josephine into the corner freest +from observation. + +"You know why I came back," he informed her, fixing her with a masterly +eye; "I had to see you again. My whole life is changed since I met +you. I need you. I can not do without you. I--" + +"Beg your pardon, Sam," said Mr. Stevens, appearing suddenly in the +doorway, and then he paused, much more confused even than the young +people, for Sam was holding both Miss Josephine's hands and gazing down +at her with an earnestness which, if harnessed, would have driven a +four-ton dynamo; and she was gazing up at him just as earnestly, with +an entirely breathless, but by no means displeased expression. + +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens. + +[Illustration: "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.] + +It was Miss Josephine who first found her aplomb. She smiled her rare +smile of mingled amusement and mischief at Sam, and then at her father. + +"You're quite excusable, I guess, father," she said sweetly. "What is +it?" + +"Why, your brother Jack just called you up from Meadow Brook, Sam, and +wants to tell you something immediately," stammered Mr. Stevens, +plucking at a beard which in that moment seemed to have lost all its +aggressiveness. "He called twice before you arrived, and is on the +'phone now." + +Sam, as he walked to the telephone, had time to find that his heart was +beating a tattoo against his ribs, that his breath was short and +fluttery, and that stage fright had suddenly crept over him and claimed +him for its own; so it was with no great patience or understanding that +he heard Jack tell him in great glee about some tests which Princeman +had had made in his own paper mills with the marsh pulp, and how +Princeman was sorry he had not taken more stock, and could not the +treasury stock be opened for further subscription? "Tell him no," said +Sam shortly, and hung up the receiver; then he repented of his +bluntness and spent five precious minutes in recalling his brother and +apologizing for his bruskness, explaining that Princeman was probably +trying to plan another attempt to pool the stock. + +In the meantime Theophilus Stevens had stood surveying his daughter in +contrition. + +"I'm afraid I came in at a most inopportune moment," he said by way of +apology. + +"Yes, I'm afraid you did," she admitted with a smile. "However, I +don't think Sam will forget what he wanted to say," and suddenly she +reached up and put her arms around her father's neck and drew his face +down and kissed him rapturously. + +"I'm glad to see you feel the way you do about it," said Mr. Stevens +delightedly, petting her gently upon the shoulder with one hand and +with the other smoothing back the hair from her forehead. She was the +dearest to him of all his children, although he never confessed it, +even to himself, and just now they were very, very close together +indeed. "I'm glad to hear you call him Sam, too. He's a fine young +man and he is bound to be a howling success in everything he +undertakes." He smiled reminiscently. "I rather thought there was +something between you two," he went on, still patting her shoulder, +"and when Dan Westlake told me that his girl thought a great deal of +Sam and that he was going to buy enough stock in Sam's company to give +Sam control, I turned right around and bought just as much stock as +Westlake had, although just before the meeting I had refused to invest +as much money as Sam wanted me to. Moreover, Westlake and myself, +between us, stopped the move to pool the outside stock, just yet. He's +a smart young man, that boy," he continued admiringly. "I didn't see, +until I went into that meeting, why he was so crazy to have me buy +enough stock to gain control-- What's the matter?" + +He stopped in perplexity, for his daughter, looking aghast at him, had +pushed back from his embrace and was regarding him with perfectly round +eyes, while over her face, at first pale, there gradually crept a +crimson flush. + +"Well, of all things!" she gasped. "Of all the cold-blooded, cruel, +barter-and-sale proceedings! Why, father, how--how could you! How +could he! I never in all my life--" + +"Why, Jo, what do you mean? What's the trouble?" + +"If you don't understand I can't make you," she said helplessly. + +"Well, I'll be--busted!" observed Mr. Stevens under his breath. + +To his infinite relief Sam came in just then, and Mr. Stevens, +wondering what he had done now, slipped hastily out of the room. Mr. +Turner, coming from the bright office into the dim room and innocent of +any change in the atmosphere, approached confidently and eagerly to +Miss Josephine with both hands extended, but she stepped back most +indignantly. + +"You need not finish what you were going to say!" she warned him. "My +father has just given me some information which changes the entire +aspect of affairs. I am not a part of a business bargain! I refuse to +be regarded as a commercial proposition! I heard something from Mr. +Princeman of what desperate efforts you were making to secure the +command, whatever that may be, of the--of the stock--board--of shares +in your new company, but I did not think you would go to such lengths +as this!" + +"Why, my dear girl," began Sam, shocked. + +"I am not your dear girl and I never shall be," she told him, and +angrily dabbed at some sudden tears. "I never was. I was only a +business possibility." + +"That's unjust," he charged her. "I don't see how you could accuse me +of regarding you in any other way than as the dearest and the sweetest +and the most beautiful girl in all the world, the wisest and the most +sensible, the most faithful, the most charming, the most delightful, +the most everything that is desirable." + +"Wait just a moment," she told him, very coldly indeed; with almost +extravagant coldness, in fact, as she beat out of her consciousness the +enticing epithets he had bestowed upon her. "Do you mean to say that +never in your calculations did you consider that if you married me my +father would vote his stock with yours--I believe that's the way he +puts it--and give you command or whatever it is of your company?" + +"Well," considered Sam, brought to a standstill and put straight upon +his honor, "I can't deny that it did seem to me a very satisfactory +thing that my father-in-law should own enough stock in the company--" + +"That will do," she interrupted him icily. "That is precisely what I +have charged. We will consider this subject as ended, Mr. Turner; as +one never to be referred to again." + +"We'll do nothing of the sort," returned Sam flat-footedly. "I've been +composing this speech for the last two weeks and I'm going to deliver +it. I'm not going to have it wasted. I've unconsciously been +rehearsing it every place I went. Even up in Flatbush, showing a man +the superior advantages of that yellow-mud district, I found myself +repeating sentence number twelve. It's been the first thing I thought +of in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night. It's been +with me all day, riding and walking and talking and eating and drinking +and just breathing. Now I'm going to go through with it. + +"I--I--confound it all! I've forgotten how I was going to say it now! +After all, though, it only amounted to this: I love you! I want you to +know it and understand it. I love you and love you and love you! I +never loved any woman before in my life. I never had time. I didn't +know what it was like. If I had I'd have fought it off until I met +you, because I could not afford it for anybody short of you. It takes +my whole attention. It distracts my mind entirely from other things. +I can't think of anything else consecutively and connectedly. I--I'm +sorry you take the attitude you do about this thing, but--I'm not going +to accept your viewpoint. You've got to look at this thing differently +to understand it. + +"I know you've been glad I loved you. You were glad the first day we +met, and you always will be glad! Whatever you have to say about it +just now don't count. I'm going to let you alone a while to think it +over, and then I'm coming back to tell you more about it," and with +that Sam stalked from the room, leaving Miss Josephine Stevens gasping, +dazed, quite sure that he was unforgivable, indignant with everything, +still rankling, in spite of all Sam had said, with the thought that she +had been made a mere part of a commercial transaction. Why, it was +like those barbarous countries she had read about, where wives are +bought and sold! Preposterous and unbearable! + +While she was in this storm of mixed emotions her father came in upon +her, this time seriously perplexed. + +"What has happened to Sam Turner?" he demanded. "He slammed out of the +house, passed me on the porch with only a grunt, and jumped into his +automobile. You must have done something to anger him." + +"I hope that I did!" she retorted with spirit. "I refused to marry +him." + +"You did!" he returned in surprise. "Why, I thought it was all cut and +dried between you." + +"It was until you blundered into us and spoiled everything," she +charged. "But I'm glad you did. You let me know that Sam Turner +wanted to marry me because you had bought shares enough in his company +to give him the advantage. I'm ashamed of you and ashamed of Sam--of +Mr. Turner--and ashamed of myself. Why, you make a bargain-counter +remnant of me! I never, _never_ was so humiliated!" + +"Poor child!" her father blandly sympathized. "Also, poor Sam. By the +way, though, he doesn't need you to secure control of his company. Dan +Westlake, as I told you, has bought enough stock to do the work, and +Miss Westlake would marry him in a minute. If Sam wants control of his +company, he only has to go to her and say the word." + +"Father!" exclaimed his daughter with stern indignation. "I don't see +how you can even suggest that!" + +"Suggest what? Now, what have I said?" + +"That Sam--that Mr. Turner would even dream of marrying that Westlake +girl, just in order to get the better of a business transaction," and +very much to Theophilus Stevens' surprise and consternation and dismay, +she suddenly crumpled up in a heap in her chair and burst out crying. + +"Well, I'll be busted!" her father muttered into his beard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SHE CALLS HIM SAM! + +Miss Josephine, finding all ordinary occupations stale, unprofitable +and wearisome on the following morning, and finding herself, moreover, +possessed of a restless spirit which urged her to do something or other +and yet recoiled at each suggestion she made it, started out quite +aimlessly to walk by herself. She walked in the direction of Meadow +Brook. The paths in that direction were so much prettier. + +Sam Turner, finding all other occupations stale, unprofitable and +wearisome, at the same moment started out to walk by himself, going in +the direction of Hollis Creek because that was the exact direction in +which he wanted to go. As he walked much more rapidly than Miss +Stevens, he arrived midway of the distance before she did, but at the +valley where the unnamed stream came rippling down he paused. + +He had looked often at this little hollow as he had passed it, and +every time he had looked upon it he seemed to have an idea of some sort +in the back of his head regarding it; a dim, unformed, fugitive sort of +idea which had never asserted itself very prominently because he had +been too busy to listen to its rather timid voice. + +Just now, however, the idea suddenly struggled to make itself loudly +known, whereupon Sam bade it come forth. Given hearing it proved to be +a very pleasant idea, and a forceful one as well; so much so that it +even checked the speed with which Sam had set out for Hollis Creek. He +looked calculatingly across the road to where the little stream went +flashing from under its wooden bridge across the field and hid around a +curve behind some bushes, then reappeared, dancing in the sunlight, +until finally it plunged among some far trees and was lost to him. He +gazed up the stream. He had not very far to look, for there it ran +down between two quite steep hills, through a sort of pocket valley, +closed or almost closed, at the upper end, by another hill equally +steep, its waters being augmented by a leaping little stream from a +strong spring hidden away somewhere in the hill to the left. + +As his eyes calculatingly swept stream and hills, they suddenly caught +a flutter of white through the trees, and it was coming down the +winding path which led across the hills to Hollis Creek. As it emerged +more from the concealment of the leaves his blood gave a leap, for the +flutter of white was a gown inclosing the unmistakable figure of Miss +Josephine Stevens. The whole valley suddenly seemed radiant. + +"Hello!" he called to her as she approached. "I didn't expect to find +you here." + +"I did not expect to be here," she laughed. "I just started out for a +stroll and happened to land in this beautiful spot." + +"Beautiful is no name for it," he replied with sudden vast enthusiasm, +and ran up the path to help her down over a steep place. + +For a moment, in the wonderful mystery of the touch of her hand and the +joy of her presence, he forgot everything else. What was this strange +phenomenon, by which the mere presence of one particular person filled +all the air with a tingling glow? Marvelous, that's what it was! If +Miss Josephine had any of the same wonder she was extremely careful not +to express it, nor let it show, especially after yesterday's +conversation, so she immediately talked of other things; and the first +thing which came handy was another reference to the beautiful valley. + +"You know, it is a wonder to me," she said, "that no one has built a +summer resort here. I think it ever so much more charming than either +Hollis Creek or Meadow Brook." + +"Do you believe in telepathy?" asked Sam, almost startled. "I do. It +hasn't been but a few minutes since that identical idea popped into my +head, and I had just now decided that if I could secure options on this +property I would have a real summer resort here--one that would make +Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook mere farm boarding-houses. Do you see +how close together these hills draw at their feet? The hollow is at +least a thousand feet across at the widest part, but down there at the +road, where the stream emerges to the fields, they close in with +natural buttresses, as it were, to not over a hundred feet in width. +Well, right across there we'll build a dam, and there is enough water +here to make a beautiful lake up as high as that yellow rock." + +Miss Josephine looked up at the yellow rock and clasped her hands with +an exclamation of delight. + +"Glorious!" she said. "I never would have thought of that; and how +beautiful it will be! Why, if the lake comes up that high it will go +clear back around that turn in the valley, won't it?" + +"Easily," he replied; "although that might make us trouble, for I don't +know where that turn in the valley leads. I have never explored that +region. Suppose we go up and look it over." + +"Won't that be fun?" she agreed, and they started to follow the stream. + +As they reached the rear of the "pocket," where they could see around +the curve, they turned and looked back over the route they had just +traversed. + +"My idea," Sam explained, having waited until they reached this +viewpoint to do so, "is to build the dam down there at the roadside, +and build the hotel right over it so that arriving guests will, after +an elevator has brought them up to the height of the main floor, find +the blue of the lake suddenly bursting upon them from the main piazza, +which will face the valley. All of the inside rooms will, of course, +have hanging balconies looking out over the water." + +"Perfectly ideal!" she agreed, her enthusiasm growing. + +"I think I'd better investigate the curve of the valley," he decided, +studying the path carefully. "It seems rather rough for you, and I'll +go alone. All I want to see is how far the water height will carry +around there, and if it will become necessary to build a dam at the +other end." + +"Oh, it isn't too rough for me," she declared immediately. "I am an +excellent climber," and together they started to explore the now +narrowing valley, following the stream over steep rocks and fallen +trees, and pushing through tangled undergrowth and among briers and +bushes and around slippery banks until they came to another tortuous +turn, where a second spring, welling up from under a flat, overhanging +rock, tumbled down to augment the supply for the future lake; and here +they stopped and had a drink of the cool, delicious water, Sam making +the girl a cup from a huge leaf which she said made the water taste +fuzzy, and then showing her how to get down on her hands and +knees--spreading his coat on the ground to protect her gown--and drink +_au naturel_, a trick at which she was most charming, and probably knew +it. + +The valley here had grown most narrow, but they followed the now very +small stream around one sharp curve after another until they found its +source, which was still another spring, and here there was no more +valley; but a cleft in the hill to the right, which they suddenly came +upon, gave them an exquisite view out over the beautiful low-lying +country, miles in extent, which lay between this and the next range of +hills; a delightful vista dotted with green farms and white farm-houses +and smiling streams and waving trees and grazing cattle. They stopped +in awe at the beauty of it and looked out over the valley in silence; +and unconsciously the girl slipped her hand within the arm of the man! + +"Just imagine a sunset out over there," he said. "You see those fleecy +clouds that are out there now. If clouds like those are still there +when the sun goes down, they will be a fleet of pearl-gray vessels, +with carmine keels, upon a sea of gold." + +She glanced at him quickly, but she did not express her marvel that +this man had so many sides. Before she could comment, and while she +was still framing some way to express her appreciation of his gentler +gifts, he returned briskly to practical things. + +"Our lake will scarcely come up to this point," he judged. "I don't +think that at any point it will be high enough to cover the springs. +We don't want it to if we can help it, for that would destroy some of +the beauty of it. Have you noticed that our lake will be much like a +kite in shape, with this winding ravine the tail of it. We'll have to +take in a lot of acreage to cover this property, but it will be worth +it. I'm going to look after options right away. I'm glad now I had +already decided to stay another two weeks." + +Of course she was still angry with Sam, she reminded herself, but she +was inexpressibly glad, somehow or other, to find that he was intending +to stay two weeks longer, and was startled as she recognized that fact. + +"It will take a lot of money, won't it, to build a hotel here?" she +asked, getting away from certain troublesome thoughts as quickly as she +could. + +"Yes, it will take a great deal," he admitted, as they turned to +scramble down the ravine again. "I should judge, however, that about +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would finance it." + +"But I thought, from something father once said, that you did not have +so much money as that?" + +"Bless you, no!" replied Sam, smiling. "No indeed! I've enough to +cover an option on this property and that's about all, now, since I'm +tangled up so deeply with my Pulp Company, but I figure that I can make +a quick turn on this property to help me out on the other thing. What +I'll do," he explained, "is to get this option first of all, and then +have some plans drawn, including a nice perspective view of the +hotel--a water-color sketch, you know, showing the building fronting +the lake--and upon that build a prospectus to get up the stock company. +I'll take stock for my control of the land and for my services in +promotion. Then I'll sell my stock and get out. I ought to make the +turn in two or three months and come out fifteen, or possibly twenty or +twenty-five thousand dollars to the good. It is a nice, big scheme." + +"Oh," she said blankly, "then you wouldn't actually build a hotel +yourself?" + +"Hardly," he returned. "I'll be content to make the profit out of +promoting it that I'd make in the first four or five years of running +the place." + +"I see," she said musingly; "and you'd get this up just like you formed +your Marsh Pulp Company, I think father called it, and of course you'd +try to get--what is it?--oh, yes; control." + +He smiled at her. + +"I'd scarcely look for that in this deal," he explained. "If I can +just get a nice slice of promotion stock and sell it I shall be quite +well satisfied." + +She bent puzzled brows over this new problem. + +"I don't quite understand how you can do it," she confessed, "but of +course you know how. You're used to these things. Father says you're +very good at promoting." + +"That's the way I've made all my money, or rather what little I have," +he told her, modestly enough. "I expect this Pulp Company, however, to +lift me out of that, for a few years at least; then when I come back +into the promoting field I can go after things on a big scale. The +Pulp Company ought to make me a lot of money if I can just keep it in +my own hands," and involuntarily he sighed. + +She looked at him musingly for a moment, and was about to say +something, but thought better of it and said something else. + +"The tail of your kite will be almost a perfect letter 'S'," she +observed. "How beautiful it will be; the big, broad lake out there in +the main valley, and then the nice, little, secluded, twisty waterway +back in through here; a regular lover's lane of a waterway, as it were. +I don't suppose these springs have any names. They must be named, +and--why, we haven't even named the lake!" + +"Yes, we have," he quickly returned. "I'm going to call it Lake +Josephine." + +"You haven't asked my permission for that," she objected with mock +severity. + +"There are plenty of Josephines in the world," he calmly observed. +"Nobody has a copyright on the name, you know." + +She smiled, as one sure of her ground. + +"Yes, but you wouldn't call it that, if I were to object seriously." + +"No, I guess I wouldn't," he gave up; "but you're not going to object +seriously, are you?" + +"I'll think it over," she said. + +They were now making their way along a bank that was too difficult of +travel to allow much conversation, though it did allow some delicious +helping, but when they came out into the main valley where they could +again look down on the road, they paused to survey the course over +which they had just come, and to appreciate to the full the beauty of +Sam's plan. + +"I don't believe I quite like your idea of the hotel built down there +at the roadside," she objected as they sat on a huge boulder to rest. +"It cuts off the view of the lake from passers-by, and I should think +it would be the best advertisement you could have for everybody who +drove past there to say: 'Oh, what a pretty place!' Now I should think +that right about here where we are sitting would be the proper location +for your hotel. Just think how the lake and the building would look +from the road. Right here would be a broad porch jutting out over the +water, giving a view down that first bend of the kite tail, and back of +the hotel would be this big hill and all the trees, and hills and trees +would spread out each side of it, sort of open armed, as it were, +welcoming people in." + +"It couldn't be seen, though," objected Sam. "The dam down there would +necessarily be about thirty feet high at the center, and people driving +along the roadway would not be able to see the water at all. They +would only see the blank wall of the dam. Of course we could soften +that by building the dam back a few feet from the roadway, making an +embankment and covering that with turf, or possibly shrubbery or +flowers, but still the water would not be visible, nor the hotel!" + +"I see," she said slowly. + +They both studied that objection in silence for quite a little while. +Then she suddenly and excitedly ejaculated: + +"_Sam_!" + +He jumped, and he thrilled all through. She had called him Sam +entirely unconsciously, which showed that she had been thinking of him +by that familiar name. With the exclamation had come sparkling eyes +and heightened color, not due to having used the word, but due to a +bright thought, and he almost lost his sense of logic in considering +the delightful combination. It occurred to him, however, that it would +be very unwise for him to call attention to her slip of the tongue, or +even to give her time to think and recognize it herself. + +"Another idea?" he asked. + +"Indeed yes," she asserted, "and this time I know it's feasible. I +don't know much about measurements in feet and inches, but there are +three feet in a yard." + +"Yes." + +"Well, doesn't the road down there, from hill to hill, dip about ten +yards?" + +"Yes." + +"Well then, that's thirty feet, just as high as you say the dam will +have to be. Why not raise the road itself thirty feet, letting it be +level and just as high as your dam?" + +Sam rose and solemnly shook hands with her. + +"You must come into the firm," he declared. "That solves the entire +problem. We'll run a culvert underneath there to the fields. The road +will reinforce the dam and the edge of the dam will be entirely +concealed. It will be merely a retaining wall with a nice stone +coping, which will be repeated on the field side. There will be no +objection from the county commissioners, because we shall improve the +road by taking two steep hills out of it. Your plan is much better +than mine. I can see myself, for instance, driving along that road on +my way to Hollis Creek from Restview, looking over that beautiful +little lake to the hotel beyond, and saying to myself: 'Well, next +summer I won't stop at Hollis Creek. I'll stop at Lake Jo.'" + +"I thought it was to be Lake Josephine," she interposed. + +"I thought so too," he agreed, "but Lake Jo just slipped out. It seems +so much better. Lake Jo! That would look fine on a prospectus." + +"You'd print the cover of it in blue and gold, I suppose, wouldn't you?" + +"There would need to be a splash of brown-red in it," he reminded her, +considering color schemes for a moment. "The roof of the hotel would, +of course, be red tile. We'd build it fireproof. There is plenty of +gray stone around here, and we'd build it of native rock." + +"And then," she went on, in the full swing of their idea, "think of the +beautiful walks and climbs you could have among these hills; and the +driveway! Your approach to the hotel would come around the dam and up +that hill, would wind up through those trees and rocks, and right here +at the bend of the ravine it would cross the thick part of the kite +tail to the hotel on a quaint rustic bridge; and as people arrived and +departed you'd hear the clatter of the horses' hoofs." + +"Great!" he exclaimed, catching her enthusiasm and with it augmenting +his own, "and guests leaving would first wave good-by at the +porte-cochere just about where we are sitting. They'd clatter across +the bridge, with their friends on the porch still fluttering +handkerchiefs after them; they'd disappear into the trees over yonder +and around through that cleft in the rocks. And see; on the other side +of the cleft there is a little tableland which juts out, and the road +would wind over that, where carriages would once more be seen from the +hotel porch. Then they'd twist in through the trees again down the +winding driveway, and once more, for the very last glimpse, come into +view as they went across our new road in front of the lake; and there +the last flutter of handkerchiefs would be seen. You know it's silly +to stand and wave your friends out of sight for a long distance when +they're always in view, but if the view is interrupted two or three +times it relieves the monotony." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SAM TURNER ACQUIRES A BUSINESS PARTNER + +They followed the stream down to the road, at every step gaging with +the eye the height of the lake and judging the altered scenic view from +the level of the water. There would be room for dozens and dozens of +boats upon that surface without interference. Sam calculated that from +the upper spring there would be headway enough to run a small fountain +in the center, surrounded by a pond-lily bed which would be kept in +place by a stone curbing. In the hill to the right there was a deep +indenture. Back in there would go the bathing pavilions. They even +went up to look at it, and were delighted to find a natural, shallow +bowl. By cementing the floor of that bowl they could have a splendid +swimming-pool for timid bathers, where they could not go beyond their +depth; and it was entirely surrounded by a thick screen of shrubbery. +Oh, it was delightful; it was perfect! At the road they looked back up +over the valley again. It was no longer a valley. It was a lake. +They could see the water there. Sam drew from his pocket a pencil and +an envelope. + +"The hotel will have to be long and tall," he observed, "for there will +not be much room on that ledge, from front to back. The building will +stretch out quite a ways. Three or four hundred feet long it will be, +and about five stories in height," and taking a letter from the +envelope, he sat down upon a fallen log and began rapidly to sketch. + +He drew the hotel with wide-spreading Spanish roofs and balconies, and +a wide porch with rippling water in front of it, and rowboats and +people in them; and behind the hotel rose the broken sky-line of the +hills and the trees, with an indication of fleecy clouds above. It was +just a light sketch, a sort of shorthand picture, as it were, and yet +it seemed full of sunlight and of atmosphere. + +"I hadn't any idea you could draw like that," she exclaimed in +admiration. + +"I do a little of everything, I think, but nothing perfectly," he +admitted with some regret. + +"It seems to me you do everything excellently," she objected quite +seriously; and she was, in fact, deeply impressed. + +He walked over to the stream, a trifle confused, but not displeased, by +any means, by the earnestness of her compliment. + +"I must have the water analyzed to see if it has any medicinal virtue," +he said. "The spring out of which we drank has a sweetish-like taste, +but the water here--" and he caught up some of it in his hand and +tasted it, "seems to be slightly salt." + +He had left her sitting on the log with the sketch in her lap. Now the +sketch fluttered to the ground and the letter turned over, right side +up. It was a letter which Sam had written to his brother Jack and had +not mailed because he had suddenly decided to come down to the scene of +action. As she stooped over to pick it up her eyes caught the +sentence: "I love her, Jack, more than I can tell you, more than I can +tell anybody, more than I can tell myself. It's the most important, +the most stupendous thing--" She hastily turned that letter over and +was very careful to have it lying upon her lap, back upward, exactly as +he had left it there, and when he came back she was very, very careful +indeed to hand it nonchalantly over to him, with the sketch uppermost. + +"Of course," he said, looking around him comprehensively, "this is only +a day-dream, so far. It may be impossible to realize it." + +"Why?" she asked, instantly concerned. "This project _must_ be carried +through! It is already as good as completed. It just must be done. I +never before had a hand, even in a remote way, in planning a big thing, +and I couldn't bear not to see this done. What is to prevent it?" + +"I may not be able to get the land," returned Sam soberly. "It is +probably owned by half a dozen people, and one or more of them is +certain to want exorbitant prices for it." + +"It certainly can't be very valuable," she protested. "It isn't fit +for anything, is it?" + +"For nothing but the building of Lake Jo," he agreed. "Right now it is +worthless, but the minute anybody found out I wanted it it would become +extremely valuable. The only way to do would be to see everybody at +once and close the options before they could get to talking it over +among themselves." + +"What time is it?" she demanded. + +He looked at his watch. + +"Ten-thirty," he said. + +"Then let's go and see all these people right away," she urged, jumping +to her feet. + +He smiled at her enthusiasm, but he was none loath to accept her +suggestion. + +"All right," he agreed. "I wish they had telephones here in the woods. +We'll simply have to walk over to Meadow Brook and get an auto." + +"Come on," she said energetically, and they started out on the road. +They had not gone far, however, when young Tilloughby, with Miss +Westlake, overtook them in a trap. He reined up, and Miss Westlake +greeted the pedestrians with frigid courtesy. Jack Turner had +accidentally dropped her a hint. Now that she had begun to appreciate +Mr. Tilloughby--Bob--at his true value, she wondered what she had ever +seen in Sam Turner--and she never had liked Josephine Stevens! + +"Gug-gug-gug-glorious day, isn't it?" observed Tilloughby, his face +glowing with joy. + +"Fine," agreed Sam with enthusiasm. "There never was a more glorious +day in all the world. You've just come along in time to save our +lives, Tilloughby. Which way are you bound?" + +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-we had intended to go around Bald Hill." + +"Well, postpone that for a few minutes, won't you, Tilloughby, like a +good fellow? Trot back to Meadow Brook and send an auto out here for +us. Get Henry, by all means, to drive it." + +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-with pleasure," replied Tilloughby, wondering at this +strange whim, but restraining his curiosity like a thoroughbred. +"Huh-huh-huh-Henry shall be back here for you in a jiffy," and he drove +off in a cloud of dust. + +Miss Stevens surveyed the retiring trap in satisfaction. + +"Good," she exclaimed. "I already feel as though we were doing +something to save Lake Jo." + +They walked back quite contentedly to the valley and surveyed it anew, +there resting now on both of them a sense of almost prideful +possession. They discovered a high point on which a rustic observatory +could be built; they planned paths and trails; they found where the +water-line came just under an overhanging rock which would make a cave +large enough for three or four boats to scurry under out of the rain. +They found delightful surprises all along the bank of the future lake, +and Miss Stevens declared that when the dam was built and the lake +began to fill, she never intended to leave it except for meals, until +it was up to the level at which they would permit the overflow to be +opened. + +Henry, returning with the automobile, found them far up in the valley +discussing a floating band pavilion, but they came down quickly enough +when they saw him, and scrambled into the tonneau with the haste of +small children. Henry watched them take their places with smiling +affection. He had not only had good tips but pleasant words from Sam, +and Miss Stevens was her own incentive to good wishes and good will. + +"Henry," said Sam, "we want to drive around to see the people who own +this land." + +"Oh, shucks," said Henry, disappointed. "I can't drive you there. The +man that owns all this land lives in New York." + +"In New York!" repeated Sam in dismay. "What would anybody in New York +want with this?" + +"The fellow that bought it got it about ten years ago," Henry informed +them. "He was going to build a big country house, back up there in the +hills, I understand, and raise deer to shoot at, and things like that; +got an architect to make him plans for house and stables and all +costing hundreds of thousands of dollars; but before he could break +ground on it him and his wife had a spat and got a divorce. He tried +to sell the land back again to the people he bought it from, but they +wouldn't take it at any price. They were glad to be shut of it and +none of his rich friends wanted to buy it after that, because, they +said, there were so many of those cheap summer resorts around here." + +"I see," said Sam musingly. "You don't happen to know the man's name, +do you?" + +"Dickson, I think it was. Henry Dickson. I remember his first name +because it was the same as mine." + +"Great!" exclaimed Sam, overjoyed. "Why, I know Henry Dickson like a +book. I've engineered several deals for him. He's a mighty good +friend of mine too. That simplifies matters. Drive us right over to +Hollis Creek." + +"To Hollis Creek!" she objected. "I should think you'd drive to Meadow +Brook instead and dress for the trip. Aren't you going to catch that +afternoon train and go right up there?" + +"By no means. This is Saturday, and by the time I'd get to New York he +couldn't be found anywhere; and anyhow, I wouldn't have time to deliver +you at Hollis Creek and make this next train." + +"Don't mind about me," she urged. "I could go to the train with you +and Henry could take me back to Hollis Creek." + +"That's fine of you," returned Sam gratefully; "but it isn't the +program at all. I happen to know that Dickson stays in his office +until one o'clock on Saturdays. I'll get him by long distance." + +They were quite silent in calculation on the way to Hollis Creek, and +Miss Josephine found herself pushing forward to help make the machine +go faster. Breathlessly she followed Sam into the house, and he +obligingly left the door of the telephone booth ajar, so that she could +hear his conversation with Dickson. + +"Hello, Dickson," said Sam, when he got his connection. "This is Sam +Turner. . . . Oh yes, fine. Never better in my life. . . . Up here +in Hamster County, taking a little vacation. Say, Dickson, I +understand you own a thousand acres down here. Do you want to sell it? +. . . How much?" As he received the answer to that question he turned +to Miss Josephine and winked, while an expression of profound joy, +albeit materialized into a grin, overspread his features. "I won't +dicker with you on that price," he said into the telephone. "But will +you take my note for it at six per cent.?" + +He laughed aloud at the next reply. + +"No, I don't want it to run that long. The interest in a hundred years +would amount to too much; but I'll make it five years. . . . All +right, Dickson, instruct your lawyer chap to make out the papers and +I'll be up Monday to close with you." + +He hung up the receiver and turned to meet her glistening eyes fixed +upon him in ecstasy. "It's better than all right," he assured her. He +was more enthusiastic about this than he had ever been about any +business deal in his life, that is, more openly enthusiastic, for Miss +Josephine's enthusiasm was contagion itself. He took her arm with a +swing, and they hurried into the writing-room, which was deserted for +the time being on account of the mail having just come in. Sam placed +a chair for her and they sat down at the table. + +"I want to figure a minute," said he. "Now that I have actual +possession of the property, in place of a mere option, I can go at the +thing differently. First of all, when I go up Monday I'll see my +engineer, and on Tuesday morning I'll bring him down here with me. +Then I shall secure permission from the county to alter that road and +we'll build the dam. That will cost very little in comparison to the +whole improvement. Then, and not till then, I'll get out my stock +prospectus, and I'll drive prospective investors down here to look at +Lake Jo. I'll be almost in position to dictate terms." + +"Isn't that fine!" she exclaimed. "And then I suppose you can +secure--control," she ventured anxiously. + +"Yes, I think I can if I want it," he assured her. + +"I'm so glad," she said gravely. "I'm so very glad." + +"Really, though, I have a big notion to see if I can't finance the +entire project myself. I'm quite sure I can get Dickson to give me a +clear deed to that land merely on my unsupported note. If I can do +that I can erect all the buildings on progressive mortgages. Roadways +and engineering work of course I'll have to pay for, and then I can +finance a subsidiary operating company to rent the plant from the +original company, and can retain stock in both of them. I'll figure +that out both ways." + +It was all Greek to her, this talk, but she knitted her brows in an +earnest effort to understand, and crowded close to him to look over the +figures he was putting down. The touch of her arm against his own +threw out his calculations entirely. He could not add a row of figures +to save his life. + +"I'll go over the financial end of this later on," he said, but he did +not put away the paper. He kept it there for them both to look at, +touching arms. + +"All right," she agreed, "but you must let me see you do it. Of course +I can't understand, but I do want to feel as if I were helping when it +is done." + +"I won't take a step in it without consulting you or having you along," +he promised. + +At that moment the bugle sounded the first call for luncheon. + +"You'll stay for luncheon," she invited. + +"Certainly," he assured her. "You couldn't drive me away." + +"Very well, right after luncheon let's go out and look at the place +again. It will look different now that it is--" She caught herself. +She had almost said "now that it is ours." "Now that it is secured," +she finished. + +After luncheon they drove back to the site of Lake Jo, and spent a +delirious while planning the things which were to be done to make that +spot an earthly Paradise. Never was a couple so prolific of ideas as +they were that afternoon. With 'Ennery waiting down in the road they +tramped all over the hills again, standing first on one spot and then +another to survey the alluring prospect, and to plan wonderful new and +attractive features of which no previous summer resort builder had ever +even dared to dream. + +During the afternoon not one word passed between them which might be +construed to be of an intimately personal nature, but as they drove to +Hollis Creek, tired but happy, Sam somehow or other felt that he had +made quite a bit of progress, and was correspondingly elated. Leaving +Miss Stevens on the porch he hurried home to dress for dinner, for it +was growing late, but immediately after dinner he drove over again. +When he arrived Miss Josephine was in the seldom used parlor with her +father. + +"I haven't seen you since breakfast," Mr. Stevens had said, pinching +her cheek, "Hollis and Billy Westlake have been looking for you +everywhere." + +"Oh, they," she returned with kindly contempt. "I'm glad I didn't see +them. They're nice boys enough, but father, I don't believe that +either one of them will ever become clever business men!" + +"No?" he replied, highly amused. "Well, I don't think they will +either. Business is a shade too big a game for them. But where have +you been?" + +"Out on business with S-s-s--with Mr. Turner," she replied demurely. +"I came in late for lunch, and you had already finished and gone. Then +we went right back out again. Father, we have found the dearest, the +most delightful, the most charming business opportunity you ever saw. +You must go out with us to-morrow and look at it. Sam's going to build +a lake and call it Lake Jo. You know where that little stream is +between here and Meadow Brook? Well, that's the place. We found out +this morning what a delightful spot it would make for a lake and a big +summer resort hotel, and at noon Sam bought the property, and we have +been planning it all afternoon. He's bought it outright and he's going +to capitalize it for a quarter of a million dollars. How much stock +are you going to take in it?" + +"How much what?" + +"How many shares of stock are you going to take in it? You must speak +up quickly, because it's going to be a favor to you for us to let you +in." + +"Well, I don't know," said Mr. Stevens, resisting a sudden desire to +guffaw. "I'd have to look it over first before I decide to invest. +Sounds like a sort of wild-eyed scheme to me. Besides that, I already +have a good big block of stock in one of Sam Turner's enterprises." + +"Oh, yes," she said, puckering her brows. "Are you going to vote your +pulp stock with his?" + +Mr. Stevens' eyes twinkled, but his tone was conservative gravity +itself. + +"Well, since it's a purely business deal it would not be a very wise +thing to do; and though Sam Turner is a mighty fine boy, I don't think +I shall." + +"But you will!" she vigorously protested. "Why, father, you wouldn't +for a minute vote against your own son-in-law!" + +"No, I wouldn't!" declared Mr. Stevens emphatically, and suddenly drew +her to him and kissed her; and she clung about his neck half laughing +and half crying. + +Do you suppose there is anything in telepathy? It would seem so, for +it was at this moment that Sam stepped up on the porch. They in the +parlor heard his voice, and Mr. Stevens immediately slipped out the +back way in order not to be _de trop_ a second time. Now Sam could not +possibly have known what had been said in the parlor, and yet when he +found his way in there, he and Miss Josephine, without any palaver +about it, without exchanging a solitary word, or scarcely even a look, +just naturally fell into each other's arms. Neither one of them made +the first move. It just somehow happened, and they stood there and +held and held and held that embrace; and whatever foolishness they said +and did in the next hour is none of your business nor of mine; but +later in the evening, when they were sitting quietly in the darkest +corner of the porch, and Sam had his hand on the arm of her chair with +her elbows resting upon his fingers--it didn't matter, you know, where +he touched her, just so he did--she turned to him with thoughtful +earnestness in her voice. + +"Sam," she said, and this time she used his first name quite +consciously and was glad it was dark so that he could not see her trace +of shyness, "I wish you would explain to me just what you mean by +control in a stock company." + +Sam Turner moved his fingers from under her elbow and caught her hand, +which he firmly clasped before he began. + +"Well, Jo, it's just this way," he said, and then, quite comfortably, +he explained to her all about it. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Early Bird, by George Randolph Chester + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 19272.txt or 19272.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/2/7/19272/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Early Bird + A Business Man's Love Story + +Author: George Randolph Chester + +Illustrator: Arthur William Brown + +Release Date: September 14, 2006 [EBook #19272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="They stopped and had a drink of the cool water" BORDER="2" WIDTH="405" HEIGHT="604"> +<H3> +[Frontispiece: They stopped and had a drink of the cool water] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE EARLY BIRD +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +<I>A Business Man's Love Story</I> +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Author of +<BR> +THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +<BR> +ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +INDIANAPOLIS +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +<BR> +PUBLISHERS +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT 1910 +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">MR. TURNER PLUNGES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">A MATTER OF DELICACY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">GREEK MEETS GREEK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">A DANCE NUMBER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">A VIOLENT FLIRT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">A PIANOLA TRAINING</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">THE WESTLAKES INVEST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">THE HERO OF THE HOUR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">AN INTERRUPTED PROPOSAL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">SHE CALLS HIM SAM!</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">A BUSINESS PARTNER</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +They stopped and had a drink of the cool water . . . <I>Frontispiece</I> +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-020"> +They waylaid him on the porch +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-066"> +Hepseba studied him from head to foot +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-156"> +Sam played again the plaintive little air +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-224"> +"I don't like to worry you, Sam" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-230"> +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE EARLY BIRD +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN <BR> +STARTS ON AN ABSOLUTE REST +</H3> + +<P> +The youngish-looking man who so vigorously swung off the train at +Restview, wore a pair of intensely dark blue eyes which immediately +photographed everything within their range of vision—flat green +country, shaded farm-houses, encircling wooded hills and all—weighed +it and sorted it and filed it away for future reference; and his +clothes clung on him with almost that enviable fit found only in +advertisements. Immediately he threw his luggage into the tonneau of +the dingy automobile drawn up at the side of the lonely platform, and +promptly climbed in after it. Spurred into purely mechanical action by +this silent decisiveness, the driver, a grizzled graduate from a hay +wagon, and a born grump, as promptly and as silently started his +machine. The crisp and perfect start, however, was given check by a +peremptory voice from the platform. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, you!" rasped the voice. "Come back here!" +</P> + +<P> +As there were positively no other "Hey yous" in the landscape, the +driver and the alert young man each acknowledged to the name, and +turned to see an elderly gentleman, with a most aggressive beard and +solid corpulency, gesticulating at them with much vigor and +earnestness. Standing beside him was a slender sort of girl in a green +outfit, with very large brown eyes and a smile of amusement which was +just a shade mischievous. The driver turned upon his passenger a long +and solemn accusation. +</P> + +<P> +"Hollis Creek Inn?" he asked sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"Meadow Brook," returned the passenger, not at all abashed, and he +smiled with all the cheeriness imaginable. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said the driver, and there was a world of disapprobation in his +tone, as well as a subtle intonation of contempt. "You are not Mr. +Stevens of Boston." +</P> + +<P> +"No," confessed the passenger; "Mr. Turner of New York. I judge that +to be Mr. Stevens on the platform," and he grinned. +</P> + +<P> +The driver, still declining to see any humor whatsoever in the +situation, sourly ran back to the platform. Jumping from his seat he +opened the door of the tonneau, and waited with entirely artificial +deference for Mr. Turner of New York to alight. Mr. Turner, however, +did nothing of the sort. He merely stood up in the tonneau and bowed +gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"I seem to be a usurper," he said pleasantly to Mr. Stevens of Boston. +"I was expected at Meadow Brook, and they were to send a conveyance for +me. As this was the only conveyance in sight I naturally supposed it +to be mine. I very much regret having discommoded you." +</P> + +<P> +He was looking straight at Mr. Stevens of Boston as he spoke, but, +nevertheless, he was perfectly aware of the presence of the girl; also +of her eyes and of her smile of amusement with its trace of +mischievousness. Becoming conscious of his consciousness of her, he +cast her deliberately out of his mind and concentrated upon Mr. +Stevens. The two men gazed quite steadily at each other, not to the +point of impertinence at all, but nevertheless rather absorbedly. +Really it was only for a fleeting moment, but in that moment they had +each penetrated the husk of the other, had cleaved straight down to the +soul, had estimated and judged for ever and ever, after the ways of men. +</P> + +<P> +"I passed your carryall on the road. It was broke down. It'll be here +in about a half hour, I suppose," insisted the driver, opening the door +of the tonneau still wider, and waving the descending pathway with his +right hand. +</P> + +<P> +Both Mr. Stevens of Boston and Mr. Turner of New York were very glad of +this interruption, for it gave the older gentleman an object upon which +to vent his annoyance. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Meadow Brook on the way to Hollis Creek?" he demanded in a tone +full of reproof for the driver's presumption. +</P> + +<P> +The driver reluctantly admitted that it was. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't think of leaving you in this dismal spot to wait for a +dubious carryall," offered Mr. Stevens, but with frigid politeness. +"You are quite welcome to ride with us, if you will." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," said Mr. Turner, now climbing out of the machine with +alacrity and making way for the others. "I had intended," he laughed, +as he took his place beside the driver, "to secure just such an +invitation, by hook or by crook." +</P> + +<P> +For this assurance he received a glance from the big eyes; not at all a +flirtatious glance, but one of amusement, with a trace of mischief. +The remark, however, had well-nigh stopped all conversation on the part +of Mr. Stevens, who suddenly remembered that he had a daughter to +protect, and must discourage forwardness. His musings along these +lines were interrupted by an enthusiastic outburst from Mr. Turner. +</P> + +<P> +"By George!" exclaimed the latter gentleman, "what a fine clump of +walnut trees; an even half-dozen, and every solitary one of them would +trim sixteen inches." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," agreed the older man with keenly awakened interest, "they are +fine specimens. They would scale six hundred feet apiece, if they'd +scale an inch." +</P> + +<P> +"You're in the lumber business, I take it," guessed the young man +immediately, already reaching for his card-case. "My name is Turner, +known a little better as Sam Turner, of Turner and Turner." +</P> + +<P> +"Sam Turner," repeated the older man thoughtfully. "The name seems +distinctly familiar to me, but I do not seem, either, to remember of +any such firm in the trade." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we're not in the lumber line," replied Mr. Turner. "Not at all. +We're in most anything that offers a profit. We—that is my kid +brother and myself—have engineered a deal or two in lumber lands, +however. It was only last month that I turned a good trade—a very +good trade—on a tract of the finest trees in Wisconsin." +</P> + +<P> +"The dickens!" exclaimed the older gentleman explosively. "So you're +the Turner who sold us our own lumber! Now I know you. I'm Stevens, +of the Maine and Wisconsin Lumber Company." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner laughed aloud, in both surprise and glee. Mr. Stevens had +now reached for his own card-case. The two gentlemen exchanged cards, +which, with barely more than a glance, they poked in the other flaps of +their cases; then they took a new and more interested inspection of +each other. Both were now entirely oblivious to the girl, who, +however, was by no means oblivious to them. She found them, in this +new meeting, a most interesting study. +</P> + +<P> +"You gouged us on that land, young man," resumed Mr. Stevens with a wry +little smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Worth every cent you paid us for it, wasn't it?" demanded the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Y-e-s; but if you hadn't stepped into the deal at the last minute, we +could have secured it for five or six thousand dollars less money." +</P> + +<P> +"You used to go after these things yourself," explained Mr. Turner with +an easy laugh. "Now you send out people empowered only to look and not +to purchase." +</P> + +<P> +"But what I don't yet understand," protested Mr. Stevens, "is how you +came to be in the deal at all. When we sent out our men to inspect the +trees they belonged to a chap in Detroit. When we came to buy them +they belonged to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," agreed the younger man. "I was up that way on other +business, when I heard about your man looking over this valuable +acreage; so I just slipped down to Detroit and hunted up the owner and +bought it. Then I sold it to you. That's all." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled frankly and cheerfully upon Mr. Stevens, and the frown of +discomfiture which had slightly clouded the latter gentleman's brow, +faded away under the guilelessness of it all; so much so that he +thought to introduce his daughter. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Josephine having been brought into the conversation, Mr. Turner, +for the first time, bent his gaze fully upon her, giving her the same +swift scrutiny and appraisement that he had the father. He was +evidently highly satisfied with what he saw, for he kept looking at it +as much as he dared. He became aware after a moment or so that Mr. +Stevens was saying something to him. He never did get all of it, but +he got this much: +</P> + +<P> +"—so you'd be rather a good man to watch, wherever you go." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so," agreed the other briskly. "If I want anything, I go +prepared to grab it the minute I find that it suits me." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you always get everything you want?" asked the young lady. +</P> + +<P> +"Always," he answered her very earnestly, and looked her in the eyes so +speculatively, albeit unconsciously so, that she found herself battling +with a tendency to grow pink. +</P> + +<P> +Her father nodded in approval. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the way to get things," he said. "What are you after now? +More lumber?" +</P> + +<P> +"Rest," declared Mr. Turner with vigorous emphasis. "I've worked like +a nailer ever since I turned out of high school. I had to make the +living for the family, and I sent my kid brother through college. He's +just been out a year and it's a wonder the way he takes hold. But do +you know that in all those times since I left school I never took a +lay-off until just this minute? It feels glorious already. It's fine +to look around this good stretch of green country and breathe this +fresh air and look at those hills over yonder, and to realize that I +don't have to think of business for two solid weeks. Just absolute +rest, for me! I don't intend to talk one syllable of shop while I'm +here. Hello! there's another clump of walnut trees. It's a pity +they're scattered so that it isn't worth while to buy them up." +</P> + +<P> +The girl laughed, a little silvery laugh which made any memory of grand +opera seem harsh and jangling. Both men turned to her in surprise. +Neither of them could see any cause for mirth in all the fields or sky. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon for being so silly," she said; "but I just thought +of something funny." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell it to us," urged Mr. Turner. "I've never taken the time I ought +to enjoy funny things, and I might as well begin right now." +</P> + +<P> +But she shook her head, and in some way he acquired an impression that +she was amused at him. His brows gathered a trifle. If the young lady +intended to make sport of him he would take her down a peg or two. He +would find her point of susceptibility to ridicule, and hammer upon it +until she cried enough. That was his way to make men respectful, and +it ought to work with women. +</P> + +<P> +When they let him out at Meadow Brook, Mr. Stevens was kind enough to +ask him to drop over to Hollis Creek. Mr. Turner, with impulsive +alacrity, promised that he would. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN MR. TURNER PLUNGES INTO <BR> +THE BUSINESS OF RESTING +</H3> + + +<P> +At Meadow Brook Sam Turner found W. W. Westlake, of the Westlake +Electric Company, a big, placid man with a mild gray eye and an +appearance of well-fed and kindly laziness; a man also who had the +record of having ruthlessly smashed more business competitors than any +two other pirates in his line. Westlake, unclasping his fat hands from +his comfortable rotundity, was glad to see young Turner, also glad to +introduce the new eligible to his daughter, a girl of twenty-two, +working might and main to reduce a threatened inheritance of +embonpoint. Mr. Turner was charmed to meet Miss Westlake, and even +more pleased to meet the gentleman who was with her, young Princeman, a +brisk paper manufacturer variously quoted at from one to two million. +He knew all about young Princeman; in fact, had him upon his mental +list as a man presently to meet and cultivate for a specific purpose, +and already Mr. Turner's busy mind offset the expenses of this trip +with an equal credit, much in the form of "By introduction to H. L. +Princeman, Jr. (Princeman and Son Paper Mills, AA 1), whatever it +costs." He liked young Princeman at sight, too, and, proceeding +directly to the matter uppermost in his thoughts, immediately asked him +how the new tariff had affected his business. +</P> + +<P> +"It's inconvenient," said Princeman with a shake of his head. "Of +course, in the end the consumers must pay, but they protest so much +about it that they disarrange the steady course of our operations." +</P> + +<P> +"It's queer that the ultimate consumer never will be quite reconciled +to his fate," laughed Mr. Turner; "but in this particular case, I think +I hold the solution. You'll be interested, I know. You see—" +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Turner," interrupted Miss Westlake gaily; "I +know you'll want to meet all the young folks, and you'll particularly +want to meet my very dearest friend. Miss Hastings, Mr. Turner." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner had turned to find an extraordinarily thin young woman, with +extraordinarily piercing black eyes, at Miss Westlake's side. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed, I do want to meet all the young people," he cordially +asserted, taking Miss Hastings' claw-like hand in his own and wondering +what to do with it. He could not clasp it and he could not shake it. +She relieved him of his dilemma, after a moment, by twining that arm +about the plump waist of her dearest friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Is this your first stay at Meadow Brook?" she asked by way of starting +conversation. She was very carefully vivacious, was Miss Hastings, and +had a bird-like habit, meant to be very fetching, of cocking her head +to one side as she spoke, and peering up to men—oh, away up—with the +beady expression of a pet canary. +</P> + +<P> +"My very first visit," confessed Mr. Turner, not yet realizing the +disgrace it was to be "new people" at Meadow Brook, where there was +always an aristocracy of the grandchildren of original Meadow Brookers. +"However, I hope it won't be the last time," he continued. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall all hope that, I am certain," Miss Westlake assured him, +smiling engagingly into the depths of his eyes. "It will be our fault +if you don't like it here;" and he might take such tentative promise as +he would from that and her smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," he said promptly enough. "I can see right now that I'm +going to make Meadow Brook my future summer home. It's such a restful +place, for one thing. I'm beginning to rest right now, and to put +business so far into the background that—" he suddenly stopped and +listened to a phrase which his trained ear had caught. +</P> + +<P> +"And that is the trouble with the whole paper business," Mr. Princeman +was saying to Mr. Westlake. "It is not the tariff, but the future +scarcity of wood-pulp material." +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what I was starting to explain to you," said Mr. Turner, +wheeling eagerly to Mr. Princeman, entirely unaware, in his intensity +of interest, of his utter rudeness to both groups. "My kid brother and +myself are working on a scheme which, if we are on the right track, +ought to bring about a revolution in the paper business. I can not +give you the exact details of it now, because we're waiting for letters +patent on it, but the fundamental point is this: that the wood-pulp +manufacturers within a few years will have to grow their raw material, +since wood is becoming so scarce and so high priced. Well, there is +any quantity of swamp land available, and we have experimented like mad +with reeds and rushes. We've found one particular variety which grows +very rapidly, has a strong, woody fiber, and makes the finest pulp in +the world. I turned the kid loose with the company's bank roll this +spring, and he secured options on two thousand acres of swamp land, +near to transportation and particularly adapted to this culture, and +dirt cheap because it is useless for any other purpose. As soon as the +patents are granted on our process we're going to organize a million +dollar stock company to take up more land and handle the business." +</P> + +<P> +"Come over here and sit down," invited Princeman, somewhat more than +courteously. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute until I send for McComas. Here, boy, hunt Mr. McComas +and ask him to come out on the porch." +</P> + +<P> +The new guest was reaching for pencil and paper as they gathered their +chairs together. The two girls had already started hesitantly to +efface themselves. Half-way across the lawn they looked sadly toward +the porch again. That handsome young Mr. Turner, his back toward them, +was deep in formulated but thrilling facts, while three other heads, +one gray and one black and one auburn, were bent interestedly over the +envelope upon which he was figuring. +</P> + +<P> +Later on, as he was dressing for dinner, Mr. Turner decided that he +liked Meadow Brook very much. It was set upon the edge of a pleasant, +rolling valley, faced and backed by some rather high hills, upon the +sloping side of one of which the hotel was built, with broad verandas +looking out upon exquisitely kept flowers and shrubbery and upon the +shallow little brook which gave the place its name. A little more +water would have suited Sam better, but the management had made the +most of its opportunities, especially in the matter of arranging dozens +of pretty little lovers' lanes leading in all directions among the +trees and along the sides of the shimmering stream, and the whole +prospect was very good to look at, indeed. Taken in conjunction with +the fact that one had no business whatever on hand, it gave one a sense +of delightful freedom to look out on the green lawn and the gay +gardens, on the brook and the tennis and croquet courts, and on the +purple-hazed, wooded hills beyond; it was good to fill one's lungs with +country air and to realize for a little while what a delightful world +this is; to see young people wandering about out there by twos and by +threes, and to meet with so many other people of affairs enjoying +leisure similar to one's own. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, this wasn't a really fashionable place, being supported +entirely by men who had made their own money; but there was Princeman, +for instance, a fine chap and very keen; a well-set-up fellow, +black-haired and black-eyed, and of a quick, nervous disposition; one +of precisely the kind of energy which Turner liked to see. McComas, +too, with his deep red hair and his tendency to freckles, and his frank +smile with all the white teeth behind it, was a corking good fellow; +and alive. McComas was in the furniture line, a maker of cheap stuff +which was shipped in solid trains of carload lots from a factory that +covered several acres. The other men he noticed around the place +seemed to be of about the same stamp. He had never been anywhere that +the men averaged so well. +</P> + +<P> +As he went down-stairs, McComas introduced his wife, already gowned for +the evening. She was a handsome woman, of the sort who would wear a +different stunning gown every night for two weeks and then go on to the +next place. Well, she had a right to this extravagance. Besides it is +good for a man's business to have his wife dressed prosperously. A man +who is getting on in the world ought to have a handsome wife. If she +is the right kind, of Miss Stevens' type, say, she is a distinct asset. +</P> + +<P> +After dinner, Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings waylaid him on the porch. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-020"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-020.jpg" ALT="They waylaid him on the porch" BORDER="2" WIDTH="402" HEIGHT="514"> +<H3> +[Illustration: They waylaid him on the porch] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"I suppose, of course, you are going to take part in the bowling +tournament to-night," suggested Miss Westlake with the engaging +directness allowable to family friendship. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose so, although I didn't know there was one. Where is it to be +held?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, just down the other side of the brook, beyond the croquet grounds. +We have a tournament every week, and a prize cup for the best score in +the season. It's lots of fun. Do you bowl?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not very much," Mr. Turner confessed; "but if you'll just keep me +posted on all these various forms of recreation, you may count on my +taking a prominent share in them." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," agreed Miss Hastings, very vivaciously taking the +conversation away from Miss Westlake. "We'll constitute ourselves a +committee of two to lay out a program for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Fine," he responded, bending on the fragile Miss Hastings a smile so +pleasant that it made her instantly determine to find out something +about his family and commercial standing. "What time do we start on +our mad bowling career?" +</P> + +<P> +"They'll be drifting over in about a half-hour," Miss Westlake told +him, with a speculative sidelong glance at her dearest girl friend. +"Everybody starts out for a stroll in some other direction, as if +bowling was the least of their thoughts, but they all wind up at the +alleys. I'll show you." A slight young man of the white-trousered +faction, as distinguished from the dinner-coat crowd, passed them just +then. "Oh, Billy," called Miss Westlake, and introduced the slight +young man, who proved to be her brother, to Mr. Turner, at the same +time wreathing her arm about the waist of her dear companion. "Come +on, Vivian; let's go get our wraps," and the girls, leaving "Billy" and +Mr. Turner together, scurried away. +</P> + +<P> +The two young men looked at each other dubiously, though each had an +earnest desire to please. They groped for human understanding, and +suddenly that clammy, discouraged feeling spread its muffling wall +between them. Billy was the first to recover in part. +</P> + +<P> +"Charming weather, isn't it?" he observed with a polite smile. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner opined that it was, the while delving into Mr. Westlake's +mental workshop and finding it completely devoid of tools, patterns or +lumber. +</P> + +<P> +"The girls are just going to take me over to bowl," Mr. Turner ventured +desperately after a while. "Do you bowl very much?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I usually fill in," stated Mr. Westlake; "but really, I'm a very +poor hand at it. I seem to be a poor hand at most everything," and he +laughed with engaging candor, as if somehow this were creditable. +</P> + +<P> +The conversation thereupon lagged for a moment or two, while Mr. Turner +blankly asked himself: "What is thunder does a man talk about when he +has nothing to say and nobody to say it to?" Presently he solved the +problem. +</P> + +<P> +"It must be beautiful out here in the autumn," he observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is indeed," returned Mr. Westlake with alacrity. "The leaves +turn all sorts of colors." +</P> + +<P> +Once more conversation lagged, while Billy feebly wondered how any +person could possibly be so dull as this chap. He made another attempt. +</P> + +<P> +"Beastly place, though, when it rains," he observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I should imagine so," agreed Mr. Turner. Great Scott! The voice +of McComas saved him from utter imbecility. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll excuse Mr. Turner a moment, won't you, Billy?" begged McComas +pleasantly. "I want to introduce him to a couple of friends of mine." +</P> + +<P> +Billy Westlake bowed his forgiveness of Mr. McComas with fully as much +relief as Sam Turner had felt. Over in the same corner of the porch +where he had sat in the afternoon with McComas and Princeman and the +elder Westlake, Sam found awaiting them Mr. Cuthbert, of the American +Papier-Mâché Company, an almost viciously ugly man with a twisted nose +and a crooked mouth, who controlled practically all the worth-while +papier-mâché business of the United States, and Mr. Blackrock, an +elderly man with a young toupee and particularly gaunt cheek-bones, who +was a corporation lawyer of considerable note. Both gentlemen greeted +Mr. Turner as one toward whom they were already highly predisposed, and +Mr. Princeman and Mr. Westlake also shook hands most cordially, as if +Sam had been gone for a day or two. Mr. McComas placed a chair for him. +</P> + +<P> +"We just happened to mention your marsh pulp idea, and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Blackrock were at once very highly interested," observed McComas as +they sat dawn. "Mr. Blackrock suggests that he don't see why you need +wait for the issuance of the letters patent, at least to discuss the +preliminary steps in the forming of your company." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, no, Mr. Turner," said Mr. Blackrock, suavely and smoothly; "it is +not a company anyhow, as I take it, which will depend so much upon +letters patent as upon extensive exploitation." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's true enough," agreed Sam with a smile. "The letters +patent, however, should give my kid brother and myself, without much +capital, controlling interest in the stock." +</P> + +<P> +Upon this frank but natural statement the others laughed quite +pleasantly. +</P> + +<P> +"That seems a plausible enough reason," admitted Mr. Westlake, folding +his fat hands across his equator and leaning back in his chair with a +placidity which seemed far removed from any thought of gain. "How did +you propose to organize your company?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Sam, crossing one leg comfortably over the other, "I +expect to issue a half million participating preferred stock, at five +per cent., and a half-million common, one share of common as bonus with +each two shares of preferred; the voting power, of course, vested in +the common." +</P> + +<P> +A silence followed that, and then Mr. Cuthbert, with a diagonal yawing +of his mouth which seemed to give his words a special dryness, observed: +</P> + +<P> +"And I presume you intend to take up the balance of the common stock?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just about," returned Mr. Turner cheerfully, addressing Cuthbert +directly. The papier-mâché king was another man whom he had inscribed, +some time since, upon his mental list. "My kid brother and myself will +take two hundred and fifty thousand of the common stock for our patents +and processes, and for our services as promoters and organizers, and +will purchase enough of the preferred to give us voting power; say five +thousand dollars worth." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Cuthbert shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Very stringent terms," he observed. "I doubt if you will interest +your capital on that basis." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Sam, clasping his knee in his hands and rocking +gently. "If we can't organize on that basis we won't organize at all. +We're in no hurry. My kid brother's handling it just now, anyhow. I'm +on a vacation, the first I ever had, and not keen upon business, by any +means. In the meantime, let me show you some figures." +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later, Billy Westlake and his sister and Miss Hastings +drew up to the edge of the group. Young Westlake stood diffidently for +two or three minutes beside Mr. Turner's chair, and then he put his +hand on that summer idler's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, good evening, Mr.—Mr.—Mr.—" Sam stammered while he tried to +find the name. +</P> + +<P> +"Westlake," interposed Billy's father; and then, a trifle impatiently, +"What do you want, Billy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner was to go over with us to the bowling shed, dad." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so," admitted Mr. Turner, glancing over to the porch rail where +the girls stood expectantly in their fluffy white dresses, and nodding +pleasantly at them, but not yet rising. He was in the midst of an +important statement. +</P> + +<P> +"Just you run on with the girls, Billy," ordered Mr. Westlake. "Mr. +Turner will be over in a few minutes." +</P> + +<P> +The others of the circle bent their eyes gravely upon Billy and the +girls as they turned away, and waited for Mr. Turner to resume. +</P> + +<P> +At a quarter past ten, as Mr. Turner and Mr. Princeman walked slowly +along the porch to turn into the parlors for a few minutes of music, of +which Sam was very fond, a crowd of young people came trooping up the +steps. Among them were Billy Westlake and his sister, another young +gentleman and Miss Hastings. +</P> + +<P> +"By George, that bowling tournament!" exclaimed Mr. Turner. "I forgot +all about it." +</P> + +<P> +He was about to make his apologies, but Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings +passed right on, with stern, set countenances and their heads in air. +Apparently they did not see Mr. Turner at all. He gazed after them in +consternation; suddenly there popped into his mind the vision of a +slender girl in green, with mischievous brown eyes—and he felt +strangely comforted. Before retiring he wired his brother to send some +samples of the marsh pulp, and the paper made from it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MR. TURNER APPLIES BUSINESS PROMPTNESS <BR> +TO A MATTER OF DELICACY +</H3> + + +<P> +Morning at Meadow Brook was even more delightful than evening. The +time Mr. Turner had chosen for his outing was early September, and +already there was a crispness in the air which was quite invigorating. +Clad in flannels and with a brand new tennis racket under his arm, he +went into the reading-room immediately after breakfast, bought a paper +of the night before and glanced hastily over the news of the day, +paying more particular attention to the market page. Prices of things +had a peculiar fascination for him. He noticed that cereals had gone +down, that there was another flurry in copper stock, and that hardwood +had gone up, and ranging down the list his eye caught a quotation for +walnut. It had made a sharp advance of ten dollars a thousand feet. +</P> + +<P> +Out of the window, as he looked up, he saw Miss Westlake and Miss +Hastings crossing the lawn, and he suddenly realized that he was here +to wear himself out with rest, so he hurried in the direction the girls +had taken; but when he arrived at the tennis court he found a set +already in progress. Both Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings barely +nodded at Mr. Turner, and went right on displaying grace and dexterity +to a quite unusual degree. Decidedly Mr. Turner was being "cut," and +he wondered why. Presently he strode down to the road and looked up +over the hill in the direction he knew Hollis Creek Inn to be. He was +still pondering the probable distance when Mr. Westlake and Billy and +young Princeman came up the brook path. +</P> + +<P> +"Just the chap I wanted to see, Sam," said Mr. Westlake heartily. "I'm +trying to get up a pin-hook fishing contest, for three-inch sunfish." +</P> + +<P> +"Happy thought," returned Sam, laughing. "Count me in." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the governor's own idea, too," said Billy with vast enthusiasm. +"Bully sport, it ought to be. Only trouble is, Princeman has some +mysterious errand or other, and can't join us." +</P> + +<P> +"No; the fact is, the Stevenses were due at Hollis Creek yesterday," +confessed Mr. Princeman in cold return to the prying Billy, "and I +think I'll stroll over and see if they've arrived." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner surveyed Princeman with a new interest. Danger lurked in +Princeman's black eyes, fascination dwelt in his black hair, +attractiveness was in every line of his athletic figure. It was upon +the tip of Sam's tongue to say that he would join Princeman in his +walk, but he repressed that instinct immediately. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite a long ways over there by the road, isn't it?" he questioned. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," admitted Princeman unsuspectingly, "it winds a good bit; but +there is a path across the hills which is not only shorter but far more +pleasant." +</P> + +<P> +Sam turned to Mr. Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +"It would be a shame not to let Princeman in on that pin-hook match," +he suggested. "Why not put it off until to-morrow morning. I have an +idea that I can beat Princeman at the game." +</P> + +<P> +There was more or less of sudden challenge in his tone, and Princeman, +keen as Sam himself, took it in that way. +</P> + +<P> +"Fine!" he invited. "Any time you want to enter into a contest with me +you just mention it." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll let you know in some way or other, even if I don't make any +direct announcement," laughed Sam, and Princeman walked away with Mr. +Westlake, very much to Billy's consternation. He was alone with this +dull Turner person once more. What should they talk about? Sam solved +that problem for him at once. "What's the swiftest conveyance these +people keep?" he asked briskly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you can get most anything you like," said Billy. "Saddle-horses +and carriages of all sorts; and last year they put in a couple of +automobiles, though scarcely any one uses them." There was a certain +amount of careless contempt in Billy's tone as he mentioned the hired +autos. Evidently they were not considered to be as good form as other +modes of conveyance. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's the garage?" asked Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Right around back of the hotel. Just follow that drive." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said the other crisply. "I'll see you this evening," and he +stalked away leaving Billy gasping for breath at the suddenness of Sam. +After all, though, he was glad to be rid of Mr. Turner. He knew the +Stevenses himself, and it had slowly dawned on him that by having his +own horse saddled he could beat Princeman over there. +</P> + +<P> +It took Sam just about one minute to negotiate for an automobile, a +neat little affair, shiny and new, and before they were half-way to +Hollis Creek, his innate democracy led him into conversation with the +driver, an alert young man of the near-by clay. +</P> + +<P> +"Not very good soil in this neighborhood," Sam observed. "I notice +there is a heavy outcropping of stone. What are the principal crops?" +</P> + +<P> +"Summer resorters," replied the driver briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"And do you mean to tell me that all these farm-houses call themselves +summer resorts?" inquired Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"No, only those that have running water. The others just keep +boarders." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Sam, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later they passed over a beautifully clear stream which ran +down a narrow pocket valley between two high hills, swept under a +rickety wooden culvert, and raced on across a marshy meadow, sparkling +invitingly here and there in the sunlight. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's running water without a summer resort," observed the passenger, +still smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"It's too much shut in," replied the chauffeur as one who had voiced a +final and insurmountable objection. All the "summer resorts" in this +neighborhood were of one pattern, and no one would so much as dream of +varying from the first successful model. +</P> + +<P> +Sam scarcely heard. He was looking back toward the trough of those two +picturesquely wooded hills, and for the rest of the drive he asked but +few questions. +</P> + +<P> +At Hollis Creek, where he found a much more imposing hotel than the one +at Meadow Brook, he discovered Miss Stevens, clad in simple white from +canvas shoes to knotted cravat, in a summer-house on the lawn, chatting +gaily with a young man who was almost fat. Sam had seen other girls +since he had entered the grounds, but he could not make out their +features; this one he had recognized from afar, and as they approached +the summer-house he opened the door of the machine and jumped out +before it had come properly to a stop. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, Miss Stevens," he said with a cheerful self-confidence +which was beautiful to behold. "I have come over to take you a little +spin, if you'll go." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens gazed at the caller quizzically, and laughed outright. +</P> + +<P> +"This is so sudden," she murmured. +</P> + +<P> +The caller himself grinned. +</P> + +<P> +"Does seem so, if you stop to think of it," he admitted. "Rather like +dropping out of the clouds. But the auto is here, and I can testify +that it's a smooth-running machine. Will you go?" +</P> + +<P> +She turned that same quizzical smile upon the young man who was almost +fat, and introduced him, curly hair and all, to Mr. Turner as Mr. +Hollis, who, it afterward transpired, was the heir to Hollis Creek Inn. +</P> + +<P> +"I had just promised to play tennis with Mr. Hollis," Miss Stevens +stated after the introduction had been properly acknowledged, "but I +know he won't mind putting it off this time," and she handed him her +tennis bat. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not," said young Hollis with forcedly smiling politeness. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Mr. Hollis," said Sam promptly. "Just jump right in, Miss +Stevens." +</P> + +<P> +"How long shall we be gone?" she asked as she settled herself in the +tonneau. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, whatever you say. A couple of hours, I presume." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, then," she said to young Hollis; "we'll have our game in +the afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"With pleasure," replied the other graciously, but he did not look it. +</P> + +<P> +"Where shall we go?" asked Sam as the driver looked back inquiringly. +"You know the country about here, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"I ought to," she laughed. "Father's been ending the summer here ever +since I was a little girl. You might take us around Bald Hill," she +suggested to the chauffeur. "It is a very pretty drive," she +explained, turning to Sam as the machine wheeled, and at the same time +waving her hand gaily to the disconsolate Hollis, who was "hard hit" +with a different girl every season. "It's just about a two-hour trip. +What a fine morning to be out!" and she settled back comfortably as the +machine gathered speed. "I do love a machine, but father is rather +backward about them. He will consent to ride in them under necessity, +but he won't buy one. Every time he sees a handsome pair of horses, +however, he has to have them." +</P> + +<P> +"I admire a good horse myself," returned Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ride?" she asked him. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I have suffered a few times on horseback," he confessed; "but you +ought to see my kid brother ride. He looks as if he were part of the +horse. He's a handsome brat." +</P> + +<P> +"Except for calling him names, which is a purely masculine way of +showing affection, you speak of him almost as if you were his mother," +she observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I am, almost," replied Sam, studying the matter gravely. "I +have been his mother, and his father, and his brother, too, for a great +many years; and I will say that he's a credit to his family." +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning just you?" she ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we're all we have; just yet, at least." This quite soberly. +</P> + +<P> +"He must talk of getting married," she guessed, with a quick intuition +that when this happened it would be a blow to Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," he immediately corrected her. "He isn't quite old enough to +think of it seriously as yet. I expect to be married long before he +is." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens felt a rigid aloofness creeping over her, and, having a +very wholesome sense of humor, smiled as she recognized the feeling in +herself. +</P> + +<P> +"I should think you'd spend your vacation where the girl is," she +observed. "Men usually do, don't they?" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed gaily. +</P> + +<P> +"I surely would if I knew the girl," he asserted. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a refreshing suggestion," she said, echoing his laugh, though +from a different impulse. "I presume, then, that you entertain +thoughts of matrimony merely because you think you are quite old +enough." +</P> + +<P> +"No, it isn't just that," he returned, still thoughtfully. "Somehow or +other I feel that way about it; that's all. I have never had time to +think of it before, but this past year I have had a sort of sense of +lonesomeness; and I guess that must be it." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of herself Miss Josephine giggled and repressed it, and +giggled again and repressed it, and giggled again, and then she let +herself go and laughed as heartily as she pleased. She had heard men +say before, but always with more or less of a languishing air, +inevitably ridiculous in a man, that they thought it about time they +were getting married; but she could not remember anything to compare +with Sam Turner's naïveté in the statement. +</P> + +<P> +He paid no attention to the laughter, for he had suddenly leaned +forward to the chauffeur. +</P> + +<P> +"There is another clump of walnut trees," he said, eagerly pointing +them out. "Are there many of them in this locality?" +</P> + +<P> +"A good many scattered here and there," replied the boy; "but old man +Gifford has a twenty-acre grove down in the bottoms that's mostly all +walnut trees, and I heard him say just the other day that walnut +lumber's got so high he had a notion to clear his land." +</P> + +<P> +"Where do you suppose we could find old man Gifford?" inquired Mr. +Turner. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, about six miles off to the right, at the next turning." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose we whizz right down there," said Sam promptly, and he turned +to Miss Stevens with enthusiasm shining in his eyes. "It does seem as +if everything happens lucky for me," he observed. "I haven't any +particular liking for the lumber business, but fate keeps handing +lumber to me all the time; just fairly forcing it on me." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think fate is as much responsible for that as yourself?" she +questioned, smiling as they passed at a good clip the turn which was to +have taken them over the pretty Bald Hill drive. Sam had not even +thought to apologize for the abrupt change in their program, because +she could certainly see the opportunity which had offered itself, and +how imperative it was to embrace it. The thing needed no explanation. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," he replied to her query, after pausing to consider it a +moment. "I certainly don't go out of my road to hunt up these things." +</P> + +<P> +"No-o-o-o," she admitted. "But fate hasn't thrust this particular +opportunity upon me, although I'm right with you at the time. It never +would have occurred to me to ask about those walnut trees." +</P> + +<P> +"It would have occurred to your father," he retorted quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it might have occurred to father, but I think that under the +circumstances he would have waited until to-morrow to see about it." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I might be that way when I arrive at his age," Sam commented +philosophically, "but just now I can't afford it. His 'seeing about it +to-morrow' cost him between five and six thousand dollars the last time +I had anything to do with him." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed. She was enjoying Sam's company very much. Even if a bit +startling, he was at least refreshing after the type of young men she +was in the habit of meeting. +</P> + +<P> +"He was talking about that last night," she said. "I think father +rather stands in both admiration and awe of you." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to hear that," he returned quite seriously. "It's a good +attitude in which to have the man with whom you expect to do business." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I shall have to tell him that," she observed, highly amused. +"He will enjoy it, and it may put him on his guard." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mind," he concluded after due reflection. "It won't hurt a +particle. If anything, if he likes me so far, that will only increase +it. I like your father. In fact I like his whole family." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," she said demurely, wondering if there was no end to his +bluntness, and wondering, too, whether it were not about time that she +should find it wearisome. On closer analysis, however, she decided +that the time was not yet come. "But you have not met all of them," +she reminded him. "There are mother and a younger sister and an older +brother." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't matter if there were six more, I like all of them," Sam promptly +informed her. Then, "Stop a minute," he suddenly directed the +chauffeur. +</P> + +<P> +That functionary abruptly brought his machine to a halt just a little +way past a tree glowing with bright green leaves and red berries. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what sort of a tree that is," said Sam with boyish +enthusiasm; "but see how pretty it is. Except for the shape of the +leaves the effect is as beautiful as holly. Wouldn't you like a branch +or two, Miss Stevens?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly should," she heartily agreed. "I don't know how you +discovered that I have a mad passion for decorative weeds and things." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you?" he inquired eagerly. "So have I. If I had time I'd be +rather ashamed of it." +</P> + +<P> +He had scrambled out of the car and now ran back to the tree, where, +perching himself upon the second top rail of the fence he drew down a +limb, and with his knife began to snip off branches here and there. +The girl noticed that he selected the branches with discrimination, +turning each one over so that he could look at the broad side of it +before clipping, rejecting many and studying each one after he had +taken it in his hand. He was some time in finding the last one, a long +straggling branch which had most of its leaves and berries at the tip, +and she noticed that as he came back to the auto he was arranging them +deftly and with a critical eye. When he handed them in to her they +formed a carefully arranged and graceful composition. It was a new and +an unexpected side of him, and it softened considerably the amused +regard in which she had been holding him. +</P> + +<P> +"They are beautifully arranged," she commented, as he stopped for a +moment to brush the dust from his shoes in the tall grass by the +roadside. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think so?" he delightedly inquired. "You ought to see my kid +brother make up bouquets of goldenrod and such things. He seems to +have a natural artistic gift." +</P> + +<P> +She bent on his averted head a wondering glance, and she reflected that +often this "hustler" must be misunderstood. +</P> + +<P> +"You have aroused in me quite a curiosity to meet this paragon of a +brother," she remarked. "He must be well-nigh perfection." +</P> + +<P> +"He is," replied Sam instantly, turning to her very earnest eyes. "He +hasn't a flaw in him any place." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled musingly as she surveyed the group of branches she held in +her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a pity these leaves will wither in so short a time," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he admitted; "but even if we have to throw them away before we +get back to the hotel, their beauty will give us pleasure for an hour; +and the tree won't miss them. See, it seems as perfect as ever." +</P> + +<P> +"It wouldn't if everybody took the same liberties with it that you +did," she remarked, glancing back at the tree. +</P> + +<P> +Sam had climbed in the car and had slammed the door shut, but any reply +he might have made was prevented by a hail from the woods above them at +the other side of the road, and a man came scrambling down from the +hillside path. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's Mr. Princeman!" exclaimed the girl in pleased surprise. +"Think of finding you wandering about, all alone in the woods here." +</P> + +<P> +"I wasn't wandering about," he protested as he came up to the machine +and shook hands with Miss Josephine. "I was headed directly for Hollis +Creek Inn. Your brother wrote me that you were expected to arrive +there yesterday evening, and I was dropping over to call on you right +away this morning. I see, however, that I was not quite prompt enough. +You're selfish, Mr. Turner. You knew I was going over to Hollis Creek, +and you might have invited me to ride in your machine." +</P> + +<P> +"You might have invited me to walk with you," retorted Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"But you knew that I was coming and I didn't know that you even knew—" +he paused abruptly and fixed a contemplative eye upon young Mr. Turner, +who was now surveying the scenery and Mr. Princeman in calm enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +The arrival at this moment of a cloud of dust out of which evolved a +lone horseman, and that horseman Billy Westlake, added a new angle to +the situation, and for one fleeting moment the three men eyed one +another in mutual sheepish guilt. +</P> + +<P> +"Rather good sport, I call it, Miss Stevens," declared Billy, aware of +a sudden increase in his estimation of Mr. Turner, and letting the cat +completely out of the bag. "Each of us was trying to steal a march on +the rest, but Mr. Turner used the most businesslike method, and of +course he won the race." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm flattered, I'm sure," said Miss Josephine demurely. "I really +feel that I ought to go right back to the house and be the belle of the +ball; but it's impossible for an hour or so in this case," and she +turned to her escort with the smile of mischief which she had worn the +first time he saw her. "You see, we are out on a little business trip, +Mr. Turner and myself. We're going to buy a walnut grove." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner turned upon her a glance which was half a frown. +</P> + +<P> +"I promised to get you back in two hours, and I'll do it," he stated, +"but we mustn't linger much by the wayside." +</P> + +<P> +"With which hint we shall wend our Hollis Creek-ward way," laughed +Princeman, exchanging a glance of amusement with Miss Stevens. "I +think we shall visit with your father until you come back." +</P> + +<P> +"Please do," she urged. "He will be as glad to see you both as I am," +with which information she settled herself back in her seat with a +little air of the interview being over, and the chauffeur, with proper +intuition, started the machine, while Mr. Princeman and Billy looked +after them glumly. +</P> + +<P> +"Queer chap, isn't he?" commented Billy. +</P> + +<P> +"Queer? Well, hardly that," returned Princeman thoughtfully. "There's +one thing certain; he's enterprising and vigorous enough to command +respect, in business or—anything else." +</P> + +<P> +At about that very moment Mr. Turner was impressing upon his companion +a very important bit of ethics. +</P> + +<P> +"You shouldn't have violated my confidence," he told her severely. +</P> + +<P> +"How was that?" she asked in surprise, and with a trifle of indignation +as well. +</P> + +<P> +"You told them that we were going to buy a walnut grove. You ought +never to let slip anything you happen to know of any man's business +plans." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she said blankly. +</P> + +<P> +Having voiced his straightforward objection, and delivered his simple +but direct lesson, Mr. Turner turned as decisively to other matters. +</P> + +<P> +"Son," he asked, leaning over toward the chauffeur, "are there any +speed limit laws on these roads?" +</P> + +<P> +"None that I know of," replied the boy. +</P> + +<P> +"Then cut her loose. Do you object to fast driving, Miss Stevens?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," she told him, either much chastened by the late rebuke or +much amused by it. She could scarcely tell which, as yet. "I don't +particularly long for a broken neck, but I never can feel that my time +has come." +</P> + +<P> +"It hasn't," returned Sam. "Let's see your palm," and taking her hand +he held it up before him. It was a small hand that he saw, and most +gracefully formed, but a strong one, too, and Sam Turner had an +extremely quick and critical eye for both strength and beauty. "You +are going to live to be a gray-haired grandmother," he announced after +an inspection of her pink palm, "and live happily all your life." +</P> + +<P> +It was noteworthy that no matter what his impulse may have been he did +not hold her hand overly long, nor subject it to undue warmth of +pressure, but restored it gently to her lap. She was remarking upon +this herself as she took that same hand and passed its tapering fingers +deftly among the twigs of the tree-bouquet, arranging a leaf here and a +berry there. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A LITTLE VACATION PASTIME <BR> +IN WHICH GREEK MEETS GREEK +</H3> + + +<P> +Old man Gifford was not at home in his squat, low-roofed farm-house, +but a woman shaped like a pyramid of diminishing pumpkins directed them +down through the grove to the corn patch. It was necessary to lift +strenuously upon the sagging end of a squeaky old gate, and scrape it +across gulleys, to get the automobile into the narrow, deeply-rutted +road, and with a mind fearful of tires the chauffeur wheeled down +through the grove quite slowly, a slowness for which Sam was duly +grateful, since it allowed him to take a careful appraisement of the +walnut trees, interspersed with occasional oaks, which bordered both +sides of their path. They were tall, thick, straight-trunked trees, +from amongst which the underbrush had been carefully cut away. It was +a joy to his now vandal soul, this grove, and already he could see +those majestic trunks, after having been sawed with as little wasteful +chopping as possible, toppling in endless billowy furrows. +</P> + +<P> +Old man Gifford came inquiringly up between the long rows of corn to +the far edge of the grove. He was bent and weazened, and more gnarled +than any of his trees, and even his fingers seemed to have the knotty, +angular effect of twigs. A fringe of gray beard surrounded his +clean-shaven face, which was criss-crossed with innumerable little +furrows that the wind and rain had worn in it; but a pair of shrewd old +eyes twinkled from under his bushy eyebrows. +</P> + +<P> +"Morning, 'Ennery," he said, addressing the chauffeur with a squeaky +little voice in which, though after forty years of residence in +America, there was still a strong trace of British accent; and then his +calculating gaze rested calmly in turns upon the other occupants of the +machine. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, Mr. Gifford," returned the chauffeur. "Fine day, isn't +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good corn-ripenin' weather," agreed the old man, squinting at the sky +from force of habit, and then, being satisfied that there was no +threatening cloud in all the visible blue expanse, he returned to a +calm consideration of the strangers, waiting patiently for Mr. Turner +to introduce himself. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand, Mr. Gifford, that you are open to an offer for your +walnut trees," began Mr. Turner, looking at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I might be," admitted the old man cautiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I see," returned Sam; "that is, you might be interested if the price +were right. Let's get right down to brass tacks. How much do you +want?" +</P> + +<P> +"Standin' or cut?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, say standing?" +</P> + +<P> +"How much do you offer?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens' gaze roved from the one to the other and found enjoyment +in the fact that here Greek had met Greek. +</P> + +<P> +Sam's reply was prompt and to the point. He named a price. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said the old man instantly. "I been a-holdin' out for five +dollars a thousand more than that." +</P> + +<P> +Things were progressing. A basis for haggling had been established. +Sam Turner, however, had the advantage. He knew the sharp advance in +walnut announced that morning. Old man Gifford would not be aware of +it until the rural free delivery brought his evening paper, of the +night before, some time that afternoon. In view of the recent advance, +even at Mr. Gifford's price there was a handsome profit in the +transaction. +</P> + +<P> +"The reason you've had to hold out for your rate until right now was +that nobody would pay it," said Sam confidently. "Now I'm here to talk +spot cash. I'll give you, say, a thousand dollars down, and the +balance immediately upon measurement as the logs are loaded upon the +cars." +</P> + +<P> +The old man nodded in approval. +</P> + +<P> +"The terms is all right," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"How much will you take F. O. B. Restview?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, cuttin' and trimmin' and haulin' ain't much in my line," +returned the old man, again cautious; "but after all, I reckon that +there'd be less damage to my property if I looked after it myself. Of +course, I'd have to have a profit for handlin' it. I'd feel like +holdin' out for—for—" and after some hesitation he again named a +figure. +</P> + +<P> +"You've made that same proposition to others," charged Sam shrewdly, +"and you couldn't get the price." Upon the heels of this he made his +own offer. +</P> + +<P> +The old man shook his head and turned as if to start back to the corn +field. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I can get better than that," he declared, shaking his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Come back here and let's talk turkey," protested Sam compellingly. +"You name the very lowest price you'll take, delivered on board the +cars at Restview." +</P> + +<P> +The old man reached down, pulled up a blade of grass, chewed it +carefully, spit it out, and named his very, very lowest price; then he +added: "What's the most you'll give?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens leaned forward intently. +</P> + +<P> +Sam very promptly named a figure five dollars lower. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll split the difference with you," offered the old man. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a bargain!" said Sam, and reaching into the inside pocket of his +tennis coat, he brought out some queer furniture for that sort of +garment—a small fountain pen and an extremely small card-case, from +the latter of which he drew four folded blank checks. +</P> + +<P> +He reached over and borrowed the chauffeur's enameled cap, dusted it +carefully with his handkerchief, laid a check upon it and held his +fountain pen poised. "What are your initials, please, Mr. Gifford?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute," said the old man hastily. "Don't make out that check +just yet. I don't do any business or sign any contracts till I talk +with Hepseba." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Climb right in with Henry there," directed Sam, seizing +upon the chauffeur's name. "We'll drive straight up to see her." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll walk," firmly declared Mr. Gifford. "I never have rode in one of +them things, and I'm too old to begin." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said Sam cheerfully, jumping out of the machine with great +promptness. "I'll walk with you. Back to the house, Henry," and he +started anxiously to trudge up the road with Mr. Gifford, leaving Henry +to manoeuver painfully in the narrow space. After a few steps, +however, a sudden thought made him turn back. "Maybe you'd rather walk +up, too," he suggested to Miss Stevens. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I think I'll ride," she said coldly. +</P> + +<P> +He opened the door in extreme haste. +</P> + +<P> +"Do come on and walk," he pleaded. "Don't hold it against me because I +just don't seem to be able to think of more than one thing at a time; +but I was so wrapped up in this deal that— Really," and he sank his +voice confidentially, "I have a tremendous bargain here, and I'll be +nervous about it until I have it clenched. I'll tell you why as we go +home." +</P> + +<P> +He held out his hand as a matter of course to help her down. The white +of his eyes was remarkably clear, the irises were remarkably blue, the +pupils remarkably deep. Suddenly her face cleared and she laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"It was silly of me to be snippy, wasn't it?" she confessed, as she +took his hand and stepped lightly to the ground. It had just recurred +to her that when he knew Princeman was walking over to see her he had +said nothing, but had engaged an automobile. +</P> + +<P> +Old man Gifford had nothing much to say when they caught up with him. +Mr. Turner tried him with remarks about the weather, and received full +information, but when he attempted to discuss the details of the walnut +purchase, he received but mere grunts in reply, except finally this: +</P> + +<P> +"There's no use, young man. I won't talk about them trees till I get +Hepseba's opinion." +</P> + +<P> +At the house Hepseba waddled out on the little stoop in response to old +man Gifford's call, and stood regarding the strangers stonily through +her narrow little slits of eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"This gentleman, Hepseba," said old man Gifford, "wants to buy my +walnut trees. What do you think of him?" +</P> + +<P> +In response to that leading question, Hepseba studied Sam Turner from +head to foot with the sort of scrutiny under which one slightly reddens. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-066"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-066.jpg" ALT="Hepseba studied him from head to foot" BORDER="2" WIDTH="638" HEIGHT="423"> +<H3> +[Illustration: Hepseba studied him from head to foot] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"I like him," finally announced Hepseba, in a surprisingly liquid and +feminine voice. "I like both of them," an unexpected turn which +brought a flush to the face of Miss Stevens. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, young man," said old man Gifford briskly. "Now, then, you +come in the front room and write your contract, and I'll take your +check." +</P> + +<P> +All alacrity and open cordiality now, he led the way into the queer-old +front room, musty with the solemnity of many dim Sundays. +</P> + +<P> +"Just set down here in this easy chair, Mrs.— What did you say your +name is?" Mr. Gifford inquired, turning to Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Turner; Sam J. Turner," returned that gentleman, grinning. "But this +is Miss Stevens." +</P> + +<P> +"No offense meant or taken, I hope," hastily said the old man by way of +apology; "but I do say that Mr. Turner would be lucky if he had such a +pretty wife." +</P> + +<P> +"You have both good taste and good judgment, Mr. Gifford," commented +Sam as airily as he could; then he looked across at Miss Stevens and +laughed aloud, so openly and so ingenuously that, so far from the +laughter giving offense, it seemed, strangely enough, to put Miss +Josephine at her ease, though she still blushed furiously. There was +nothing in that laugh nor in his look but frank, boyish enjoyment of +the joke. +</P> + +<P> +There ensued a crisp and decisive conversation between Mr. Gifford and +Mr. Turner about the details of their contract, and 'Ennery was +presently called in to append to it his painfully precise signature in +vertical writing, Miss Stevens adding hers in a pretty round hand. +Then Hepseba, to bind the bargain, brought in hot apple pie fresh from +the oven, and they became quite a little family party indeed, and very +friendly, 'Ennery sitting in the parlor with them and eating his pie +with a fork. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what Hepseba thinks," said old man Gifford, as he held the door +of the car open for them. "She thinks you're a mighty keen young man +that has to be watched in the beginning of a bargain, because you'll +give as little as you can; but that after the bargain's made you don't +need any more watching. But Lord love you, I have to be watched in a +bargain myself. I take everything I can." +</P> + +<P> +As he finished saying this he was closing the door of the car, but +Hepseba called to them to wait, and came puffing out of the house with +a little bundle wrapped in a newspaper. +</P> + +<P> +"I brought this out for your wife," she said to Mr. Turner, and handed +it to Miss Josephine. "It's some geranium slips. Everybody says I got +the very finest geraniums in the bottoms here." +</P> + +<P> +"Goodness, Hepseba," exclaimed old man Gifford, highly delighted; "that +ain't his wife. That's Miss Stevens. I made the same mistake," and he +hawhawed in keen enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +Hepseba was so evidently overcome with mortification, however, and her +huge round face turned so painfully red, that Miss Stevens lost +entirely any embarrassment she might otherwise have felt. +</P> + +<P> +"It doesn't matter at all, I assure you, Mrs. Gifford," she said with +charming eagerness to set Hepseba at ease. "I am very fond of +geraniums, and I shall plant these slips and take good care of them. I +thank you very, very much for them." +</P> + +<P> +As the machine rolled away Hepseba turned to old man Gifford: +</P> + +<P> +"I like both of them!" she stated most decisively. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER AGREES THAT <BR> +SAM TURNER IS ALL BUSINESS +</H3> + + +<P> +"And now," announced Sam in calm triumph as they neared Hollis Creek +Inn, "I'll finish up this deal right away. There is no use in my +holding for a further rise at this time, and I'll just sell these trees +to your father." +</P> + +<P> +"To father!" she gasped, and then, as it dawned upon her that she had +been out all morning to help Sam Turner buy up trees to sell to her own +father at a profit, she burst forth into shrieks of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the joke?" Sam asked, regarding her in amazement, and then, +more or less dimly, he perceived. "Still," he said, relapsing into +serious consideration of the affair, "your father will be in luck to +buy those trees at all, even at the ten dollars a thousand profit he'll +have to pay me. There is not less than a hundred thousand feet of +walnut in that grove. +</P> + +<P> +"Mercy!" she said. "Why, that will make you a thousand dollars for +this morning's drive; and the opportunity was entirely accidental, one +which would not have occurred if you hadn't come over to see me in this +machine. I think I ought to have a commission." +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to be fined," Sam retorted. "You had me scared stiff at one +time." +</P> + +<P> +"How was that?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course you didn't think, but when you told the boys that I was +going out to buy a walnut grove, they were right on their way to see +your father. It would have been very natural for one of them to +mention our errand. Your father might have immediately inquired where +there was walnut to be found, and have telephoned to old man Gifford +before I could reach him." +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't have worried!" stated Miss Josephine in a tone so +indignant that Sam turned to her in astonishment. "My father would not +have done anything so despicable as that, I am quite sure!" +</P> + +<P> +"He wouldn't!" exclaimed Sam. "I'll bet he would. Why, how do you +suppose your father became rich in the lumber trade if it wasn't +through snapping up bargains every time he found one?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have no doubt that my father has been and is a very alert business +man," retorted Miss Josephine most icily; "but after he knew that you +had started out actually to purchase a tract of lumber, he would +certainly consider that you had established a prior claim upon the +property." +</P> + +<P> +"Your father's name is Theophilus Stevens, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" said Sam, but he did not explain that exclamation, nor was he +asked to explain. Miss Stevens had been deeply wounded by the assault +upon her father's business morality, and she desired to hear no further +elaboration of the insult. +</P> + +<P> +She was glad that they were drawing up now to the porch, glad this +ride, with its many disagreeable features, was over, although she +carefully gathered up her bright-berried branches, which were not half +so much withered as she had expected them to be, and held her geranium +slips cautiously as she alighted. +</P> + +<P> +Her father came out to the edge of the porch to meet them. He paid no +attention to his daughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Sam Turner," said Mr. Stevens, stroking his aggressive beard, "I +hear you got it, confound you! What do you want for your lumber +contract?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just the advance of this morning's quotations," replied Sam. +"Princeman tell you I was after it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not at first," said Stevens. "I received a telegram about that +grove just an hour ago, from my partner. Princeman was with me when +the telegram came, and he told me then that you had just gone out on +the trail. I did my best to get Gifford by 'phone before you could +reach him." +</P> + +<P> +"Father!" exclaimed Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter, Jo?" +</P> + +<P> +"You say you actually tried to—to get in ahead of Mr. Turner in buying +this lumber, knowing that he was going down there purposely for it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly," admitted her father. +</P> + +<P> +"But did you know that I was with Mr. Turner?" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Why, certainly</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +"Father!" was all she could gasp, and without deigning to say good-by +to Mr. Turner, or to thank him for the ride or the bouquet of branches +or even the geranium slips which she had received under false +pretenses, she hurried away to her room, oppressed with Heaven only +knows what mortification, and also with what wonder at the ways of men! +</P> + +<P> +However, Princeman and Billy Westlake and young Hollis with the curly +hair were impatiently waiting for Miss Josephine at the tennis court, +as they informed her in a jointly signed note sent up to her by a boy, +and hastily removing the dust of the road she ran down to join them. +As she went across the lawn, tennis bat in hand, Sam Turner, discussing +lumber with Mr. Stevens, saw her and stopped talking abruptly to admire +the trim, graceful figure. +</P> + +<P> +"Does your daughter play tennis much?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"A great deal," returned Mr. Stevens, expanding with pride. "Jo's a +very expert player. She's better at it than any of these girls, and +she really doesn't care to play except with experts. Princeman, Hollis +and Billy Westlake are easily the champions here." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Sam thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you're a crack player yourself," his host resumed, glancing +at Sam's bat. +</P> + +<P> +"Me? No, worse than a dub. I never had time; that is, until now. +I'll tell you, though, this being away from the business grind is a +great thing. You don't know how I enjoy the fresh air and the being +out in the country this way, and the absolute freedom from business +cares and worries." +</P> + +<P> +"But where are you going?" asked Stevens, for Sam was getting up. +"You'll stay to lunch with us, won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, thanks," replied Sam, looking at his watch. "I expect some word +from my kid brother. I have wired him to send some samples of marsh +pulp, and the paper we've had made from it." +</P> + +<P> +"Marsh pulp," repeated Mr. Stevens. "That's a new one on me. What's +it like?" +</P> + +<P> +"Greatest stunt on earth," replied Sam confidently. "It is our scheme +to meet the deforestation danger on the way—coming." +</P> + +<P> +Already he was reaching in his pocket for paper and pencil, and sat +down again at the side of Mr. Stevens, who immediately began stroking +his aggressive beard. Fifteen minutes later Sam briskly got up again +and Mr. Stevens shook hands with him. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a great scheme," he said, and he gazed after Sam's broad +shoulders admiringly as that young man strode down the steps. +</P> + +<P> +On his way Sam passed the tennis court where the one girl and three +young men were engaged in a most dextrous game, a game which all the +other amateurs of Hollis Creek Inn had stopped their own sets to watch. +In the pause of changing sides Miss Josephine saw him and waved her +hand and wafted a gay word to him. A second later she was in the air, +a lithe, graceful figure, meeting a high "serve," and Sam walked on +quite thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +When he arrived at Meadow Brook his first care was for his telegram. +It was there, and bore the assurance that the samples would arrive on +the following morning. His next step was to hunt Miss Westlake. That +plump young person forgot her pique of the morning in an instant when +he came up to her with that smiling "been-looking-for-you-everywhere, +mighty-glad-to-see-you" cordiality. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to teach me tennis," he said immediately. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I can't teach you much," she replied with becoming +diffidence, "because I'm not a good enough player myself; but I'll do +my best. We'll have a set right after luncheon; shall we?" +</P> + +<P> +"Fine!" said he. +</P> + +<P> +After luncheon Mr. Westlake and Mr. Cuthbert waylaid him, but he merely +thrust his telegram into Mr. Westlake's hands, and hurried off to the +tennis grounds with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and lanky Bob +Tilloughby, who stuttered horribly and blushed when he spoke, and was +in deadly seriousness about everything. Never did a man work so hard +at anything as Sam Turner worked at tennis. He had a keen eye and a +dextrous wrist, and he kept the game up to top-notch speed. Of course +he made blunders and became confused in his count and overlooked +opportunities, but he covered acres of ground, as Vivian Hastings +expressed it, and when, at the end of an hour, they sat down, panting, +to rest, young Tilloughby, with painful earnestness, assured him that +he had "the mum-mum-makings of a fine tennis player." +</P> + +<P> +Sam considered that compliment very thoughtfully, but he was a trifle +dubious. Already he perceived that tennis playing was not only an +occupation but a calling. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said he. "It's mighty nice of you to say so, Tilloughby. +What's the next game?" +</P> + +<P> +"The nun-nun-next game is a stroll," Tilloughby soberly advised him. +"It always stus-stus-starts out as a foursome, and ends up in +tut-tut-two doubles." +</P> + +<P> +So they strolled. They wound along the brookside among some of the +pretty paths, and in the rugged places Miss Westlake threw her weight +upon Sam's helping arm as much as possible; in the concealed places she +languished, which she did very prettily, she thought, considering her +one hundred and sixty-three pounds. They took him through a detour of +shady paths which occupied a full hour to traverse, but this particular +game did not wind up in "two doubles." In spite of all the excellent +tête-à-tête opportunities which should have risen for both couples, +Miss Westlake was annoyed to find Miss Hastings right close behind, and +holding even the conversation to a foursome. +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime, Sam Turner took careful lessons in the art of talking +twaddle, and they never knew that he was bored. Having entered into +the game he played it with spirit, and before they had returned to the +house Mr. Tilloughby was calling him Sus-Sus-Sam. +</P> + +<P> +The girls disappeared for their beauty sleep, and Sam found McComas and +Billy Westlake hunting for him. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you play base-ball?" inquired McComas. +</P> + +<P> +"A little. I used to catch, to help out my kid brother, who is an +expert pitcher." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" said McComas, writing down Sam's name. "Princeman will pitch, +but we needed a catcher. The rivalry between Meadow Brook and Hollis +Creek is intense this year. They've captured nearly all the early +trophies, but we're going over there next week for a match game and +we're about crazy to win." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll do the best I can," promised Sam. "Got a base-ball? We'll go +out and practise." +</P> + +<P> +They slammed hot ones into each other for a half hour, and when they +had enough of it, McComas, wiping his brow, exclaimed approvingly: +</P> + +<P> +"You'll do great with a little more warming up. We have a couple of +corking players, but we need them. Hollis always pitches for Hollis +Creek, and he usually wins his game. On baseball day he's the idol of +all the girls." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner placed his hand meditatively upon the back of his neck as he +walked in to dress for dinner. Making a good impression upon the girls +was a separate business, it seemed, and one which required much +preparation. Well, he was in for the entire circus, but he realized +that he was a little late in starting. In consequence he could not +afford to overlook any of the points; so, before dressing for dinner, +he paid a quiet visit to the greenhouses. +</P> + +<P> +That evening, while he was bowling with all the earnestness that in him +lay, Josephine Stevens, resisting the importunities of young Hollis for +some music, sat by her father. +</P> + +<P> +"Father," she asked after long and sober thought, "was it right for +you, knowing Mr. Turner to be after that walnut lumber, to try to get +it away from him by telephoning?" +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly was!" he replied emphatically. "Turner went down there +with a deliberate intention of buying that lumber before I could get +it, so that he could sell it to me at as big a gain as possible. I +paid him one thousand dollars profit for his contract. I had struggled +my best to beat him to it; only I was too late. Both of us were +playing the game according to the rules, but he is a younger player." +</P> + +<P> +"I see." Another long pause. "Here's another thing. Mr. Turner +happened to know of this increase in the price of lumber, and he +hurried down there to a man who didn't know about that, and bought it. +If Mr. Gifford had known of the new rates, Mr. Turner could not have +bought those trees at the price he did, could he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not," agreed her father. "He would have had to pay nearly a +thousand dollars more for them." +</P> + +<P> +"Then that wasn't right of Mr. Turner," she asserted. +</P> + +<P> +"My child," said Mr. Stevens wearily, "all business is conducted for a +profit, and the only way to get it is by keeping alive and knowing +things that other people will find out to-morrow. Sam Turner is the +shrewdest and the livest young man I've met in many a day, and he's +square as a die. I'd take his word on any proposition; wouldn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think I'd take his word," she admitted, and very positively, +after mature deliberation. "But truly, father, don't you think he's +too much concentrated on business? He hasn't a thought in his mind for +anything else. For instance, this morning he came over to take me an +automobile ride around Bald Hill, and when he found out about this +walnut grove, without either apology or explanation to me he ordered +the chauffeur to drive right down there." +</P> + +<P> +"Fine," laughed her father. "I'd like to hire him for my manager, if I +could only offer him enough money. But I don't see your point of +criticism. It seems to me that he's a mighty presentable and likable +young fellow, good looking, and a gentleman in the sense in which I +like to use that word." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he is all of those things," she admitted again; "but it is a flaw +in a young man, isn't it," she persisted, betraying an unusually +anxious interest, "for him never to think of a solitary thing but just +business?" +</P> + +<P> +They were sitting in one of the alcoves of the assembly room, and at +that moment a bell-boy, wandering around the place with apparent +aimlessness, spied them and brought to Miss Josephine a big box. She +opened it and an exclamation of pleasure escaped her. In the box was a +huge bouquet of exquisite roses, soft and glowing, delicious in their +fragrance. +</P> + +<P> +Impulsively she buried her face in them. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how delightful!" she cried, and she drew out the white card which +peeped forth from amidst the stems. "They are from Mr. Turner!" she +gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"You're quite right about him," commented her father dryly. "He's all +business." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN WHICH THE SUMMER LOAFER ORDERS <BR> +SOME MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES +</H3> + + +<P> +Before Sam had his breakfast the next morning, he sat in his room with +some figures with which Blackrock and Cuthbert had provided him the +evening before. He cast them up and down and crosswise and diagonally, +balanced them and juggled them and sorted them and shifted them, until +at last he found the rat hole, and smiling grimly, placed those pages +of neat figures in a small letter file which he took from his trunk. +One thing was certain: the Meadow Brook capitalists were highly +interested in his plan, or they would never go to the trouble to +devise, so early in the game, a scheme for gaining control of the marsh +pulp corporation. Well, they were the exact people he wanted. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately after breakfast Miss Stevens telephoned over to thank him +for his beautiful roses, and he had the pleasure of letting her know, +quite incidentally, that he had gone down to the rose-beds and picked +out each individual blossom himself, which, of course, accounted for +their excellence. Also he suggested coming over that morning for a +brief walk. +</P> + +<P> +No, she was very sorry, but she was just making ready to go out +horseback riding with Mr. Hollis, who, by the way, was an excellent +rider; but they would be back from their canter about ten-thirty, and +if Mr. Turner cared to come over for a game of tennis before luncheon, +why— +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry I can't do it," returned Mr. Turner with the deepest of genuine +regret in his tone. "My kid brother is sending me some samples of pulp +and paper which will arrive at about eleven o'clock, and I have called +a meeting of some interested parties here to examine them at about +eleven." +</P> + +<P> +"Business again," she protested. "I thought you were on a vacation." +</P> + +<P> +"I am," he assured her in surprise. "I never lazied around so or +frittered up so much time in my life; and I'm enjoying every second of +my freedom, too. I tell you, it's fine. But say, this meeting won't +take over an hour. Why can't I come over right after lunch?" +</P> + +<P> +She was very sorry, this time a little less regretfully, that after +luncheon she had an engagement with Mr. Princeman to play a match game +of croquet. But, and here she relented a trifle, they were getting up +a hasty, informal dance over at Hollis Creek for that evening. Would +he come over? +</P> + +<P> +He certainly would, and he already spoke for as many dances as she +would give him. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give you what I can," she told him; "but I've already promised +three of them to Billy Westlake, who is a divine dancer." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner was deeply thoughtful as he turned away from the telephone. +Hollis was a superb horseback rider. Billy Westlake was a divine +dancer. Princeman, he had learned from Miss Stevens, who had spoken +with vast enthusiasm, was a base-ball hero. Hollis and Princeman and +Westlake were crack bowlers, also crack tennis players, and no doubt +all three were even expert croquet players. It was easy to see the +sort of men she admired. Sam Turner only knew one recipe to get +things, and he had made up his mind to have Miss Stevens. He promptly +sought Miss Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ride?" he wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Not as often as I'd like," she said. +</P> + +<P> +Really, she had half promised to go driving with Tilloughby, but it was +not an actual promise, and if it were she was quite willing to get out +of it, if Mr. Turner wanted her to go along, although she did not say +so. Young Tilloughby was notoriously an impossible match. But +possibly Mr. Tilloughby and Miss Hastings might care to join the party. +She suggested it. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly," said Sam heartily. "The more the merrier," which was +not the thing she wanted him to say. +</P> + +<P> +Tilloughby, a trifle disappointed yet very gracious, consented to ride +in place of drive, and Miss Hastings was only too delighted; entirely +too much so, Miss Westlake thought. Accordingly they rode, and Sam +insisted on lagging behind with Miss Westlake, which she took to be of +considerable significance, and exhibited a very obvious fluttering +about it. Sam's motive, however, was to watch Tilloughby in the +saddle, for in their conversation it had developed that Tilloughby was +a very fair rider; and everything that he saw Tilloughby do, Sam did. +En route they met Hollis and Miss Stevens, cantering just where the +Bald Hill road branched off, and the cavalcade was increased to six. +Once, in taking a narrow cross-cut down through the woods, Sam had the +felicity of riding beside Miss Stevens for a moment, and she put her +hand on his horse and patted its glossy neck and admired it, while Sam +admired the hand. He felt, in some way or other, that riding for that +ten yards by her side was a sort of triumph over Hollis, until he saw +her dash up presently by the side of Hollis again and chat brightly +with that young gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +Thereafter Sam quit watching Tilloughby and watched Hollis. Curly-head +was an accomplished rider, and Sam felt that he himself cut but an +awkward figure. In reality he was too conscious of his defects. By +strict attention he was proving himself a fair ordinary rider, but when +Hollis, out of sheer showiness, turned aside from the path to jump his +horse over a fallen tree, and Miss Stevens out of bravado followed him, +Sam Turner well-nigh ground his teeth, and, acting upon the impulse, he +too attempted the jump. The horse got over safely, but Sam went a +cropper over his head, and not being a particle hurt had to endure the +good-natured laughter of the balance of them. Miss Stevens seemed as +much amused as any one! He had not caught her look of fright as he +fell nor of concern as he rose, nor could he estimate that her laugh +was a mild form of hysteria, encouraged because it would deceive. What +an ass he was, he savagely thought, to exhibit himself before her in an +attempt like that, without sufficient preparation! He must ride every +morning, by himself. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Josephine and Mr. Hollis were bound for the Bald Hill circle, and +they insisted, the insistence being largely on the part of Miss +Stevens, on the others accompanying them; but Mr. Turner's engagement +at eleven o'clock would not admit of this, and reluctantly he took Miss +Hastings back with him, leaving Miss Westlake and young Tilloughby to +go on. The arrangement suited him very well, for at least Hollis' ride +with Miss Stevens would not be a tête-à-tête. Miss Westlake strove to +let him understand as plainly as she could that she was only going with +Mr. Tilloughby because of her previous semi-engagement with him—and +there seemed a coolness between Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings as they +separated. Miss Hastings did her best on the way back to console Mr. +Turner for the absence of Miss Westlake. Vivacious as she always was, +she never was more so than now, and before Sam knew it he had engaged +himself with her to gather ferns in the afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Upon his arrival at Meadow Brook, he found his express package and also +a couple of important letters awaiting him, and immediately held on the +porch a full meeting of the tentative Marsh Pulp Company. In that +meeting he decided on four things: first, that these hard-headed men of +business were highly favorable to his scheme; second, that Princeman +and Cuthbert, who knew most about paper and pulp, were so profoundly +impressed with his samples that they tried to conceal it from him; +third, that Princeman, at first his warmest adherent, was now most +stubbornly opposed to him, not that he wished to prevent forming the +company, but that he wished to prevent Sam's having his own way; +fourth, that the crowd had talked it over and had firmly determined +that Sam should not control their money. Princeman was especially +severe. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no question but that these samples are convincing of their +own excellence," he admitted; "but properly to estimate the value of +both pulp and paper, it would be necessary to know, by rigid +experiment, the precise difficulties of manufacture, to say nothing of +the manner in which these particular specimens were produced." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Princeman's words had undoubted weight, casting, as they did, a +clammy suspicion upon Sam's samples. +</P> + +<P> +"I had thought of that," confessed Mr. Turner, "and had I not been +prepared to meet such a natural doubt, to say nothing of such a natural +insinuation, I should never have submitted these samples. Mr. +Princeman, do you know G. W. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Princeman, with a wince, did, for G. W. Creamer and the Eureka +Paper Mills were his most successful competitors in the manufacture of +special-priced high-grade papers. Mr. Cuthbert also knew Mr. Creamer +intimately. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said Sam; "then Mr. Creamer's letter will have some weight," +and he turned it over to Mr. Blackrock. That gentleman, setting his +spectacles astride his nose and assuming his most profoundly +professional air, read aloud the letter in which Mr. Creamer thanked +Turner and Turner for reposing confidence enough in him to reveal their +process and permit him to make experiments, and stated, with many +convincing facts and figures, that he had made several separate samples +of the pulp in his experimental shop, and from the pulp had made paper, +samples of which he enclosed under separate cover, stating further that +the pulp could be manufactured far cheaper than wood pulp, and that the +quality of the paper, in his estimation, was even superior; and when +the company was formed, he wished to be set down for a good, fat block +of stock. +</P> + +<P> +Having submitted exhibit A in the form of his brother's samples of pulp +and paper, exhibit B in the form of Mr. Creamer's letter, and exhibit C +in the form of Mr. Creamer's own samples of pulp and paper, Mr. Turner +rested quite comfortably in his chair, thank you. +</P> + +<P> +"This seems to make the thing positive," admitted Mr. Princeman. "Mr. +Turner, would you mind sending some samples of your material to my +factory with the necessary instructions?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," replied Sam suavely. "We would be pleased indeed to do +so, just as soon as our patents are allowed." +</P> + +<P> +"Pending that," suggested Mr. Westlake placidly, looking out over the +brook, "why couldn't we organize a sort of tentative company? Why +couldn't we at least canvass ourselves and see how much of Mr. Turner's +stock we would take up among us?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is," put in Mr. Cuthbert, screwing the remark out of himself +sidewise, "provided the terms of incorporation and promotion were +satisfactory to us." +</P> + +<P> +"I have already drawn up a sort of preliminary proposition, after +consultation with our friends here," Mr. Blackrock now stated, "and +purely as a tentative matter it might be read." +</P> + +<P> +"Go right ahead," directed Sam. "I'm a good listener." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Blackrock slowly and ponderously read the proposed plan of +incorporation. Sam rose and looked at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"It won't do," he announced sharply. "That whole thing, in accordance +with the figures you submitted me last night, is framed up for the sole +purpose of preventing my ever securing control, and if I do not have a +chance, at least, at control, I won't play." +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to be very sure of that," said Mr. Princeman, surveying him +coldly; "but there is another thing equally sure, and that is that you +can not engage capital in as big an enterprise as this on any basis +which will separate the control and the money." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to try it, though," retorted Sam. "If I can't separate the +control and the money I suppose I'll have to put up with the best terms +I can get. If you will let me have that prospectus of yours, Mr. +Blackrock, I'll take it up to my room and study it, and draw up a +counter prospectus of my own." +</P> + +<P> +"With pleasure," said Mr. Blackrock, handing it over courteously, and +Mr. Turner rose. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say this much, Sam," stated Mr. Westlake, who seemed to have +grown more friendly as Mr. Princeman grew cooler; "if you can get a +proposition upon which we are all agreed, I'll take fifty thousand of +that stock myself, at fifty." +</P> + +<P> +"As a matter of fact, Mr. Turner," added Mr. Cuthbert, "including your +friend Creamer, who insists upon being in, I imagine that we can +finance your entire company right in this crowd—if the terms are +right." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, I'm sure," said Mr. Turner, +and bowed himself away. +</P> + +<P> +In place of going to his room, however, he went to the telegraph +office, and wired his brother in New York: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"How are you coming on with pulp company stock subscription?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The telegraph office was in one corner of the post-office, which was +also a souvenir room, with candy and cigar counters, and as he turned +away from the telegraph desk he saw Princeman at the candy counter. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't care for any of these," Princeman was saying. "If you +haven't maraschino chocolates I don't want any." +</P> + +<P> +Sam immediately stepped back to the telegraph desk and sent another +wire to his brother: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Express fresh box maraschino chocolates to Miss Josephine Stevens +Hollis Creek Inn enclose my card personal cards in upper right-hand +pigeonhole my desk." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Then he went up-stairs to get ready for lunch. Immediately after +luncheon he received the following wire from his brother: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Stock subscription rotten everybody likes scheme but object to our +control but no hurry why don't you rest maraschinos shipped +congratulate you." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHICH EXHIBITS THE IMPORTANCE <BR> +OF REMEMBERING A DANCE NUMBER +</H3> + + +<P> +And so the kid was finding the same trouble which he had met. They had +been too frank in stating that they intended to obtain control of the +company without any larger investments than their patents and their +scheme. Sam wandered through the hall, revolving this matter in his +mind, and out at the rear door, which framed an inviting vista of +green. He strolled back past the barn toward the upper reaches of the +brook path, and sitting amid the comfortably gnarled roots of a big +tree he lit a cigar and began with violence to snap little pebbles into +the brook. If he were promoting a crooked scheme, he reflected +savagely, he would have no difficulty whatever in floating it upon +almost any terms he wanted. Well, there was one thing certain; at the +finish, control would be in his own hands! But how to secure it and +still float the company promptly and advantageously? There was the +problem. He liked this crowd. They were good, keen, vigorous, +enterprising men, fine men with whom to do business, men who would +snatch control away from him if they could, and throw him out in the +cold in a minute if they deemed it necessary or expedient. Of course +that was to be expected. It was a part of the game. He would rather +deal with these progressive people, knowing their tendencies, than with +a lot of sapheads. +</P> + +<P> +How to get control? He lingered long and thoughtfully over that +question, perhaps an hour, until presently he became aware that a +slight young girl, with a fetching sun-hat and a basket, was walking +pensively along the path on the opposite side of the brook, for the +third time. Her passing and repassing before his abstracted and +unseeing vision had become slightly monotonous, and for the first time +he focused his eyes back from their distant view of pulp marshes and +stock certificates and inspected the girl directly. Why, he knew that +girl! It was Miss Hastings. +</P> + +<P> +As if in obedience to his steady gaze she looked across at him and +waved her basket. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are you going?" he asked with the heartiness of enforced +courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +"After ferns," she responded, and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"By George, that's so!" he said, and ran up the stream to a narrow +place where he made a magnificent jump and only got one shoe wet. +</P> + +<P> +He was profuse, not in his apologies, but in his intention to make them. +</P> + +<P> +"Jinks!" he said. "I'm ashamed to say I forgot all about that. I +found myself suddenly confronted with a business proposition that had +to be worked out, and I thought of nothing else." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you succeeded," she said pleasantly. +</P> + +<P> +There wasn't a particle of vengefulness about Miss Hastings. She was +not one to hold this against him; he could see that at once! She +understood men. She knew that grave problems frequently confronted +them, and that such minor things as fern gathering expeditions would +necessarily have to step aside and be forgotten. She was one of the +bright, cheerful, always smiling kind; one who would make a sunshiny +helpmate for any man, and never object to anything he did—before +marriage. +</P> + +<P> +All this she conveyed in lively but appealing chatter; all, that is, +except the last part of it, a deduction which Sam supplied for himself. +For the first time in his life he had paused to judge a girl as he +would "size up" a man, and he was a little bit sorry that he had done +so, for while Miss Hastings was very agreeable, there was a certain +acidulous sharpness about her nose and uncompromising thinness about +her lips which no amount of laughing vivacity could quite conceal. +</P> + +<P> +Dutifully, however, he gathered ferns for the rockery of her aunt in +Albany, and Miss Hastings, in return, did her best to amuse and +delight, and delicately to convey the thought of what an agreeable +thing it would be for a man always to have this cheerful companionship. +She even, on the way back, went so far as inadvertently to call him +Sam, and apologized immediately in the most charming confusion. +</P> + +<P> +"Really," she added in explanation, "I have heard Mr. Westlake and the +others call you Sam so often that the name just seems to slip out." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right," he said cordially. "Sam's my name. When people call +me Mr. Turner I know they are strangers." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I think I shall call you Sam," she said, laughing most +engagingly. "It's so much easier," and sure enough she did as soon as +they were well within the hearing of Miss Westlake, at the hotel. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Sam," she called, turning in the doorway, "you have my gloves in +your pocket." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake stiffened like an icicle, and a stern resolve came upon +her. Whatever happened, she saw her duty plainly before her. She had +introduced Mr. Turner to Miss Hastings, and she was responsible. It +was her moral obligation to rescue him from the clutches of that +designing young person, and she immediately reminded him that she had +an engagement to give him a tennis lesson every day. There was still +time for a set before dinner. Also, far be it from her to be so +forward as to call him Sam, or to annoy him with silly chattering. She +was serious-minded, was Miss Westlake, and sweet and helpful; any man +could see that; and she fairly adored business. It was so interesting. +</P> + +<P> +When they came back from their tennis game, hurrying because it was +high time to dress for dinner and the dance, she met Miss Hastings in +the hall, but the two bosom friends barely nodded. There had sprung up +an unaccountable coolness between them, a coolness which Sam by no +means noticed, however, for at the far end of the porch sat Princeman, +already back from Hollis Creek to dress, and with him were Westlake and +McComas and Blackrock and Cuthbert, and they were in very close +conference. When Sam approached them they stopped talking abruptly for +just one little moment, then resumed the conversation quite naturally, +even more than quite naturally in fact, and the experienced Sam smiled +grimly as he excused himself to dress. +</P> + +<P> +Billy Westlake met him as he was going up-stairs. To Billy had been +entrusted the office of rounding up all the young people who were going +over to Hollis Creek, and by previous instruction, though wondering at +his sister's choice, he assigned Sam to that young lady, a fate which +Sam accepted with becoming gratitude. +</P> + +<P> +He had plenty of food for thought as he donned his costume of dead +black and staring white, and somehow or other he was distrait that +evening all the way over to Hollis Creek. Only when he met Miss +Stevens did he brighten, as he might well do, for Miss Stevens, +charming in every guise, was a revelation in evening costume; a +ravishing revelation; one to make a man pause and wonder and stand in +awe, and regard himself as a clumsy creature not worthy to touch the +hem of the garment which embellished such a divine being. Nevertheless +he conquered that wave of diffidence in a jiffy, or something like half +that space of time, and shook hands with her most eagerly, and looked +into her eyes and was grateful; for he found them smiling up at him in +most friendly fashion, and with rather an electric thrill in them, too, +though whether the thrill emanated from the eyes or was merely within +himself he was not sure. +</P> + +<P> +"How many dances do I get?" he abruptly demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Just two," she told him, and showed him her card and gave him one on +which a list of names had already been marked by the young ladies of +Hollis Creek. +</P> + +<P> +He saw on the card two dances with Miss Stevens, one each with Miss +Westlake and Miss Hastings, and one each with a number of other young +ladies whom he had met but vaguely, and one each with some whom he had +not met at all. He dutifully went through the first dance with a young +lady of excellent connections who would make a prime companion for any +advancing young man with social aspirations; he went dutifully through +the next dance with a young lady who was keen on intellectual pursuits, +and who would make an excellent helpmate for any young man who wished +to advance in culture as he progressed in business, and danced the next +one with a young lady who believed that home-making should be the +highest aim of womankind; and then came his first dance with Miss +Stevens! They did not talk very much, but it was very, very comforting +to be with her, just to know that she was there, and to know that +somehow she understood. He was sorry, though, that he stepped upon her +gown. +</P> + +<P> +The promenade, which had seemed quite long enough with the other young +ladies, seemed all too short for Sam up to the point when Billy +Westlake came to take Miss Josephine away. He was feeling rather +lonely when Tilloughby came up to him, with a charming young lady who +was in quite a flutter. It seemed that there had been a dreadful +mistake in the making out of the dance cards, which the young ladies of +Hollis Creek had endeavored to do with strict equity, though hastily, +and all was now inextricable confusion. The charming young lady was on +the cards for this dance with both Mr. Tilloughby and Mr. Turner, and +Mr. Tilloughby had claimed her first. Would Mr. Turner kindly excuse +her? Just behind her came another young lady whom Mr. Tilloughby +introduced. This young lady was on Sam's card for the next dance +following this one, but it should be for the eighth dance, and would +Mr. Turner please change his card accordingly, which Mr. Turner +obligingly did, wondering what he should do when it came to the eighth +dance and he should find himself obligated to two young ladies. Oh, +well, he reflected, no doubt the other young lady was down for the +eighth dance with some one else, if they had things so mixed. Of one +thing he was sure. He had that tenth dance with Miss Stevens. He had +inspected both cards to make certain of that, and had seen with +carefully concealed joy that she had compared them as minutely as he +had. He saw confusion going on all about him, laughing young people +attempting to straighten out the tangle, and the dance was slow in +starting. +</P> + +<P> +Almost the first two on the floor were Miss Stevens and Billy Westlake, +and as he saw them, from his vantage point outside one of the broad +windows, gliding gracefully up the far side of the room, he realized +with a twinge of impatience what a remarkably unskilled dancer he +himself was. Billy and Miss Stevens were talking, too, with the +greatest animation, and she was looking up at Billy as brightly, even +more brightly he thought, than she had at himself. There was a +delicate flush on her cheeks. Her lips, full and red and deliciously +curved, were parted in a smile. Confound it anyhow! What could she +find to talk about with Billy Westlake? +</P> + +<P> +He was turning away in more or less impatience, when Mr. Stevens, +looking, in some way, with his aggressive, white, outstanding beard, as +if he ought to have a red ribbon diagonally across his white shirt +front, ranged beside him. +</P> + +<P> +"Fine sight, isn't it?" observed Mr. Stevens. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," admitted Mr. Turner, almost shortly, and forced himself to turn +away from the following of that dazzling vision, which was almost +painful under the circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +By mutual impulse they walked down the length of the side porch and +across the front porch. Sam drew himself away from dancing and certain +correlated ideas with a jerk. +</P> + +<P> +"I've been wanting to talk with you, Mr. Stevens," he observed. "I +think I'll drop over to-morrow for a little while." +</P> + +<P> +"Glad to have you any time, Sam," responded Mr. Stevens heartily, "but +there is no time like the present, you know. What's on your mind?" +</P> + +<P> +"This Marsh Pulp Company," said Sam; "do you know anything about pulp +and paper?" +</P> + +<P> +"A little bit. You know I have some stock in Princeman's company." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," returned Sam thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Not enough to hurt, however," Stevens went on. "Twenty shares, I +believe. When I went in I had several times as much, but not enough to +make me a dominant factor by any means, and Princeman, as he made more +money, wanted some of it, so I let him buy up quite a number of shares. +At one time I was very much interested, however, and visited the mills +quite frequently." +</P> + +<P> +"You're rather close to Princeman in a business way, aren't you?" Sam +asked after duly cautious reflection. +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all, although we get along very nicely indeed. I made money on +my paper stock, both in dividends and in a very comfortable advance +when I sold it. Our relations have always been friendly, but very +little more. Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing. Only Princeman is much interested in my Pulp Company, +and all the people who are going in are his friends. The crowd over at +Meadow Brook talks of taking up approximately the entire stock of my +company. I thought possibly you might be interested." +</P> + +<P> +"I am right now, from what I have already heard of it," returned +Stevens, who had almost at first sight succumbed to that indefinable +personal appeal which caused Sam Turner to be trusted of all men. "I +shall be very glad to hear more about it. It struck me when you spoke +of it yesterday as a very good proposition." +</P> + +<P> +They had reached the dark corner at the far end of the porch, illumined +only by the subdued light which came from a half-hidden window, and now +they sat down. Sam fished in the little armpit pocket of his dress +coat and dragged forth two tiny samples of pulp and two tiny samples of +paper. +</P> + +<P> +"These two," he stated, "were samples sent me to-day by my kid brother." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens took the samples and examined them with interest. He felt +their texture. He twisted them and crumpled them and bent them +backward and forward and tore them. Then, the light at this window +being too weak, he went to one of the broad windows where a stronger +stream of light came out, and examined them anew. Sam, still sitting +in his chair, nodded in satisfied approval. He liked that kind of +inspection. Mr. Stevens brought the samples back. +</P> + +<P> +"They are excellent, so far as I am able to judge," he announced. +"These are samples made by yourselves from marsh products?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," Sam assured him. "Made from marsh-grown material by our new +process, which is much cheaper than the wood-pulp process. Do you know +Mr. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not very well. I've met him once or twice at dinners, but I'm not +intimately acquainted with him. I hear, however, that he is an +authority." +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a letter from him, and some samples made by him under our +process," said Sam with secret satisfaction. "I just received them +this morning." From the same pocket he took the letter without its +envelope, and with it handed over the two other small samples. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a fine showing," Stevens commented when he had examined +document and samples and brought them back, and he sat down, edging +about so that he and Sam sat side by side but facing each other, as in +a tête-à-tête chair. "Now tell me all about it." +</P> + +<P> +On and on went the music in the ball-room, on went the shuffling of +feet, the swish of garments, the gay talk and laughter of the young +people; and on and on talked Mr. Stevens and Mr. Turner, until one +familiar strain of music penetrated into Sam's inner consciousness; the +<I>Home Sweet Home</I> waltz! +</P> + +<P> +"By George!" he exclaimed, jumping up. "That can't be the last." +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds like it," commented Mr. Stevens, also rising. "It is the last +if they make up programs as they did in my young days. I don't +remember of many dances where the <I>Home Sweet Home</I> waltz didn't end it +up. It's late enough anyhow. It's eleven-thirty." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I have done it again!" said Sam ruefully. "I had the number ten +dance with your daughter." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes to laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly have put your foot in it," he admitted. "Oh, well, Jo's +sensible," he added with a father's fond ignorance. "She'll +understand." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I'm afraid of," replied Mr. Turner ruefully. "You'll have +to intercede for me. Explain to her about it and soften the case as +much as you can. Frankly, Mr. Stevens, I'd be tremendously cut up to +be on the outs with Miss Josephine." +</P> + +<P> +"There are shoals of young men who feel that way about it, Sam," said +Mr. Stevens with large and commendable pride. "However, I am glad that +you have added yourself to the list," and he gazed after Sam with +considerable approbation, as that young man hurried away to display his +abjectness to the young lady in question. +</P> + +<P> +Three times, on the arm of Princeman, she whirled past the open doorway +where Sam stood, but somehow or other he found it impossible to catch +her eye. The dance ended when she was on the other side of the room, +and immediately, with the last strains, the floor was in confusion. +Sam tried desperately to hurry across to where she was, but he lost her +in the crowd. He did not see her again until all of the Meadow Brook +folk, including himself, were seated in the carryalls, at which time +the Hollis Creek folk were at the edge of the porte-cochère and both +parties were exchanging a gabbling pandemonium of good-bys. He saw her +then, standing back among the crowd, and shouting her adieus as +vociferously as any of them. He caught her eye and she nodded to him +as pleasantly as to anybody, which was really worse than if she had +refused to acknowledge him at all! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME +</H3> + + +<P> +No, Miss Stevens was sorry that she could not go walking with him that +morning, which was the morning after the dance. She was very polite +about it, too; almost too polite. Her voice over the telephone was as +suave and as limpid as could possibly be, but there was a sort of +metallic glitter behind it, as it were. +</P> + +<P> +No, she could not see him that afternoon either. She had made a series +of engagements, in fact, covering the entire day. Also, she regretted +to say, upon further solicitation, that she had made engagements +covering the entire following day. +</P> + +<P> +No, she was not piqued about his last night's forgetfulness; by no +means; certainly not; how absurd! +</P> + +<P> +She quite understood. He had been talking business with her father, +and naturally such a trifling detail as a dance with frivolous young +people would not occur to him. +</P> + +<P> +Frivolous young people! This was the exact point of the conversation +at which Sam, with his ear glued to the receiver of the telephone and +no necessity for concealing the concerned expression on his +countenance, thought, in more or less of a panic, that he must really +be getting old, which was a good joke, inasmuch as nobody ever took him +to be over twenty-five. Heretofore his boyish appearance had worried +him because it rather stood in the way of business, but now he began to +fear that he was losing it; for he was nearing thirty! +</P> + +<P> +Well, pleading was of no avail. He had to give it up. Reluctantly he +went out and took a solitary walk, then came in and religiously played +his two hours of tennis with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and +Tilloughby. Was he not on vacation, and must he not enjoy himself? +Just before he went in to luncheon, however, there was a telephone call +for him. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens was perplexed to know what divine intuition had told him +her obsession for maraschino chocolates. She had one in her fingers at +the very moment she was telephoning, and she was going to pop it into +her mouth while he talked. Being a mere man he could not realize how +delightfully refreshing was a maraschino chocolate. +</P> + +<P> +Sam had a lively picture of that dainty confection between the tips of +her dainty fingers; he could see the white hand and the graceful wrist, +and then he could see those exquisitely curved red lips parting with a +flash of white teeth to receive the delicacy; and he had an impulse to +climb through the telephone. +</P> + +<P> +A little bird had told him about her preference, he stated. He had +that little bird regularly in his employ to find out other preferences. +</P> + +<P> +"I had those sent just to show you that I am not altogether absorbed in +business," he went on; "that I can think of other things. Have another +chocolate." +</P> + +<P> +"I am," she laughingly said; "but I'm not going to eat them all. I'm +going to save one or two for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Good," returned Sam in huge delight and relief. "I'll come over to +get them any time you say." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," she gaily agreed. "As I told you this morning, I have an +engagement for this afternoon, but if you'll come over after luncheon +I'll try to find a half-hour or so for you anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +Great blotches of perspiration sprang out on his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"Jinks!" he ejaculated. "You know, right after you telephoned me this +morning I made an engagement with Mr. Blackrock and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Westlake, to go over some proposed incorporation papers." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, by all means, then, keep your engagement," she told him, and he +could feel the instant frigidity which returned to her tone. A +zero-like wave seemed to come right through the transmitter of the +telephone and chill the perspiration of his brow into a cold trickle. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'll see if I can not set that engagement off for a couple of +hours," he hastily informed her. +</P> + +<P> +"By no means," she protested, more frigidly than before. "Come to +think of it, I don't believe I'd have time anyhow. In fact, I'm sure +that I would not. Mr. Hollis is calling me now. Good-by." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute," he called desperately into the telephone, but it was +dead, and there is nothing in this world so dead as the telephone from +which connection has been suddenly shut off. +</P> + +<P> +Sam strode into the dining-room and went straight over to Blackrock's +table. +</P> + +<P> +"I find I have some pressing business right after luncheon," he said, +bending over that gentleman's chair. "I can't possibly meet you at two +o'clock. Will four do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly," Mr. Blackrock was kind enough to say, and he +furthermore agreed, with equal graciousness, to inform the others. +</P> + +<P> +Sam ate his luncheon in worried silence, replying only in monosyllables +to the remarks of McComas, who sat at his table, and of Mrs. McComas, +who had taken quite a young-motherly fancy to him; and the amount that +he ate was so much at variance with his usual hearty appetite that even +the maid who waited on his table, a tall, gangling girl with a vinegar +face and a kind heart, worried for fear he might be sick, and added +unordered delicacies to his American plan meal. He went over to Hollis +Creek in the swiftest conveyance he could obtain, which was naturally +an auto, but he did not have 'Ennery for his chauffeur, of which he was +heartily glad, for 'Ennery might have wanted to talk. +</P> + +<P> +On the porch of Hollis Creek Inn he found Princeman and Mr. Stevens in +earnest conversation. He knew what that meant. Princeman was already +discussing with Mr. Stevens the matter of control of the Marsh Pulp +Company. Princeman rose when Sam stepped up on the porch, and strolled +away from Mr. Stevens. He nodded pleasantly to Turner, and the latter, +returning the nod fully as pleasantly, was about to hurry on in search +of Miss Josephine, when Mr. Stevens checked him. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Sam," he called. "I've just been waiting to see you." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Sam. "I'll be around presently." +</P> + +<P> +"No, but come here," insisted Mr. Stevens. +</P> + +<P> +Sam cast a nervous glance about the grounds and along the side porch; +Miss Josephine most certainly was not among those present. He still +hesitated, impatient to get away. +</P> + +<P> +"Just a minute, Sam," insisted Stevens. "I want to talk to you right +now." +</P> + +<P> +With unwilling feet Sam went over. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down," directed Stevens, pushing forward a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" asked Sam, still standing. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been talking with Princeman and Westlake about your Marsh Pulp +Company." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," inquired Sam nervously. +</P> + +<P> +"And everybody seems to be most enthusiastic about it. Fact of the +matter is, my boy, I consider it a tremendous investment opportunity. +The only drawback there seems to be is in the matter of stock +distribution and voting power. I want you to explain this very fully +to me." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you were quite satisfied with our talk last night," returned +Sam, glancing hastily over his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"I am, in so far as the investment goes, Sam. I've promised you that +I'd take a good block of stock, and you've promised to make room for me +in the company. I expect to go through with that, but I want to know +about this other phase of the matter before I get into any +entanglements with opposing factions. Now you sit right down there and +tell me about it." +</P> + +<P> +Despairingly Sam sat down and proceeded briefly and concisely to +explain to him the various plans of incorporation which had been +proposed. Ten minutes later he almost groaned, as a trap, drawn by a +pair of handsome buckskin horses, driven by Princeman and containing +Miss Josephine, crunched upon the gravel driveway in front of the +porch. Miss Stevens greeted Mr. Turner very heartily indeed, Princeman +stopping for that purpose. Sam ran down and shook hands with her. Oh, +she was most cordial; just as cordial and polite as anybody he knew! +</P> + +<P> +"I did not expect you at all," she said, "but I knew you were here, for +I saw you from the window as you came up the drive. Pleasant weather, +isn't it? Oh, papa!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Mr. Stevens ponderously from his place on the porch. +</P> + +<P> +"Up on my dresser you will find a box of candy which Mr. Turner was +kind enough to have sent me, and he confesses that he has never tasted +maraschino chocolates. Won't you please run up and get them and let +Mr. Turner sample them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens. "If Sam Turner insists upon running me up +two flights of stairs on an errand of that sort, I suppose I'll have to +go. But he won't." +</P> + +<P> +"You're lazy," she said to her father in affectionate banter, then, +with a wave of her hand and a bright nod to Mr. Turner, she was gone! +</P> + +<P> +Sam trudged slowly up on the porch with the heart gone entirely out of +him for business; and yet, as he approached Mr. Stevens he pulled +himself together with a jerk. After all, she was gone, and he could +not bring her back, and in his talk with Stevens he had just approached +a grave and serious situation. +</P> + +<P> +"The fact of the matter is, Mr. Stevens," said he as he sat down again, +"these people are the very people I want to get into my concern, but +they are old hands at the stock incorporation game, and even before +I've organized the company they are planning to get it out of my hands. +Now it is my scheme, mine and the kid brother's, and I don't propose to +allow that." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Sam," said Mr. Stevens slowly, "you know capital of late has had +a lot of experience with corporate business, and it isn't the +fashionable thing this year for the control and the capital to be in +separate hands—right at the very beginning." +</P> + +<P> +This was the signal for the struggle, and Sam plunged earnestly into +the conflict. At three-fifteen he suddenly rose and made his adieus. +He would have liked to stay until Miss Josephine came back, so that he +could make one more desperate attempt to set himself right with her, +but there was that deferred engagement with Blackrock, and reluctantly +he whirled back to Meadow Brook. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN SAM TURNER PROVES HIMSELF <BR> +TO BE A VIOLENT FLIRT +</H3> + + +<P> +The rest of that week was a worried and an anxious one for Sam. He +sent daily advices to his brother, and he received daily advices in +return. The people upon whom he had originally counted to form the +Marsh Pulp Company had set themselves coldly against the matter of +control, and on comparing the apparent situation in New York with the +situation at Meadow Brook, he made sure that he could secure more +advantageous terms with the Princeman crowd. He spent his time in +wrestling with his prospective investors both singly and in groups, but +they were obdurate. They liked his company, they saw in it tremendous +possibilities, but they did not intend to invest their money where they +could not vote it. That was flat! +</P> + +<P> +This was on the business side. About the really important matter of +Miss Stevens, since his most recent bad performance, the time when he +had made the special trip to see her and had spent his time in talking +business with her father, he had not been able to come near her. She +was always engaged. He saw her riding with Hollis; he saw her driving +with Princeman; he saw her playing tennis with Billy Westlake, but the +greatest boon he ever received was a nod and a pleasant word. He +industriously sent her flowers. She as industriously sent him nice, +polite little notes of thanks. +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime, alternating with his marsh pulp wrangles, he worked +like a Trojan at the athletic graces he should have cultivated in his +younger days. He rode every morning; he practised every day at tennis +and croquet; every evening he bowled; and every time some one sat at +the piano and played dance music and the young people fell into +impromptu waltzes and two-steps on the porch, he joined them and danced +religiously with whomsoever he found to hand; usually Miss Hastings or +Miss Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +The latter ingenious young lady, during this while, continued to adore +business, and with increasing fervor every day, and regretted, quite +aloud, that she had never paid sufficient attention to this absorbing +amusement, out of which all the men, that is, those who were really +strong and purposeful, seem to derive so much satisfaction! On the +following Monday at Bald Hill, when Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook +fraternized together, in the annual union picnic, she found occasion +for the most direct tête-à-tête of all anent commercial matters. +</P> + +<P> +Under Bald Hill were any number of charming natural retreats, jumbles +of Titanically toy-strewn, clean, bare rocks, screened here and there +by tangles of young scrub oak and pine which grew apparently on bare +stone surfaces and out of infinitesimal chinks and crannies, in utter +defiance of all natural law. Go where you would on that day, there +were couples in each of the rock shelters; young couples, engaged in +that fascinating pastime of finding out all they could about each +other, and wondering about each other, and revealing themselves to each +other as much as they cared to do, and flirting; oh, in a perfectly +respectable sort of a way, you know; legitimate and commendable +flirting; the sort of flirting which is only experimental and +necessary, and which may cease at any moment to become mere airy +trifling, and turn into something intensely and desperately serious, +having a vital bearing upon the entire future lives of people; and +there were deeply solemn moments, in spite of all the surface hilarity +and gaiety, in many of these little out of way nooks kindly provided by +beneficent nature for this identical purpose. +</P> + +<P> +In one of these nooks, a curious sort of doll's amphitheatre, partly +screened by dwarf cedars, were Miss Westlake and Mr. Turner, and Sam +could not tell you to this day how she had roped him out of the herd, +and isolated him, and brought him there. +</P> + +<P> +"Business is just perfectly fascinating," she was saying. "I've been +talking a lot to papa about it here lately. He thinks a great deal of +you, by the way." +</P> + +<P> +"He does," Sam grunted in non-committal acknowledgment, with the sharp +reflection that he had better look out for himself if that were the +case, since the most of Westlake's old friends were bankrupt, he being +the best business man of them all. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; he says you have an excellent business proposition, too, in your +new Marsh Pulp Company." She said marsh pulp without an instant's +hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it's good myself," agreed Sam; "that is, if I can keep hold of +it." Inwardly he added, "And if I can keep old Westlake's clutches +off." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed lightly. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa mentioned that very thing," she informed him. "I don't think I +quite understand what control of stock means, although I've had papa +explain it to me. I gather this much, however, that it is something +you want very much, but can scarcely get without some large stockholder +voting his stock with you." +</P> + +<P> +Sam inspected her narrowly. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to have a pretty good idea of the thing after all," he +admitted, wondering how much she really knew and understood. "But +maybe your father wouldn't like your repeating to me what you +accidentally learned from him in conversation. Business men are +usually pretty particular about that." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he wouldn't mind at all," she said airily. "I'm having him +explain a lot of things to me, because he's making separate investments +for Billy and me. All his new enterprises are for us, and in the last +two or three years he's turned over lots of stock to us in our own +names. But I've never done any actual voting on it. I've only given +proxies. I sign a little blank, you know, that papa fills out for me +and shows me where to put my name and mails to somebody or other, or +else takes it and votes it himself; but I'd rather vote it my own self. +I should think it would be ever so much fun. I'm trying to find out +about how they do such things, and I'd be very glad to have you tell me +all you can about it. It's just perfectly fascinating." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is," Sam admitted. "So you think you may eventually own some +stock in the Marsh Pulp Company?" and he became quite interested. +</P> + +<P> +"If papa takes any I'm quite sure I shall," she returned; "and I think +he will, from what he said. He seems to be so enthusiastic about it +that I'm going to ask him for this stock, and let Billy have the next +that he buys. I hope he does take a good lot of it. Isn't this the +dearest place imaginable?" and with charming naïveté she looked about +the tiny amphitheatre-like circle, admiring the projecting stones which +formed natural seats, and the broad shelving of slippery rock which led +up to it. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is," said Sam with considerable thoughtfulness, and once more +inspected Miss Westlake critically. +</P> + +<P> +There was no question that she would be as stout as her mother and her +father when she reached their age. However, personal attractiveness is +an essence and can not be weighed by the pound. Sam was bound to +admit, after thoughtful judgment, that Miss Westlake might be +personally attractive to a great many people, but really there hadn't +seemed to be anything flowing from him to her or from her to him, even +when he had held tightly to her hand to help her up the steep slope of +the rock floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is a charming place," he once more admitted. "Looks almost as +if this little semi-circle had been built out of these loose rocks by +design. Of course, your father wouldn't take the original stock in +your name." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, I don't suppose so," she said. "He never does. He takes out +the stock himself, and then transfers it to us." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," Sam agreed; "and naturally he'd hold it long enough to +vote at the original stock-holders' meeting." +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't say about that," she laughed. "That's going beyond my +business depth just yet, but I'm going to learn all about such things," +and she looked across at him with apparent shy confidence that he would +take pleasure in teaching her. +</P> + +<P> +"Hoo-hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!" came a sudden call from down in the road, and, +turning, they saw Miss Hastings and Billy Westlake, who both waved +their hands at the amphitheatre couple and came scrambling up the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Princeman and Mr. Tilloughby are looking for you everywhere, +Hallie," said Miss Hastings to Miss Westlake. "You know you promised +to make that famous salad dressing of yours. Luncheon is nearly ready, +all but that, and they're waiting for you over at the glade. My, what +a dear little place this is! How did you ever find it?" Miss Hastings +was now quite conspicuously panting and fanning herself. "I'm so tired +climbing those rocks," she went on. "I shall simply have to sit down +and rest a bit. Billy will take you over, Hallie, and Mr. Turner will +bring me by and by, I am sure." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner stated that he would do so with pleasure. Miss Westlake +surveyed her dearest friend more in anger than in sorrow. It was such +a brazen trick, and she gazed from her brother to Mr. Turner in sheer +wonder that they were not startled into betrayal of how shocked they +were. Whatever strong emotions they might have had upon that subject +were utterly without reflection upon the outside, however, for Billy +Westlake and Sam Turner were eying each other solely with a vacuous +mutual wish of saying something decently polite and human. Mr. Turner +made a desperate stab. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you're in good form for the bowling tournament to-night," he +observed with self-urged anxiety. "Hollis Creek mustn't win, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm as near fit as usual," said Billy; "but Princeman is the chap +who's going to carry off the honors for Meadow Brook. Bowled an +average last night of two forty-five. I'm sorry you couldn't make the +team." +</P> + +<P> +"I should have started fifteen years ago to do that," said Sam with a +wry smile. "I think I would get along all right, though, if they +didn't have those grooves at the side of the alleys." +</P> + +<P> +Billy Westlake looked at him gravely. Since Sam did not smile, this +could not be a joke. +</P> + +<P> +"But they are absolutely necessary, you know," he protested, as he took +his sister's arm and helped her down the slope. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake went away entirely out of patience with the two men, and +very much to Billy's surprise gave him her revised estimate of that +Hastings girl. Miss Hastings, however, was in a far different frame of +mind. She was an exclamation point of admiration about an endless +variety of things; about the dear little amphitheatre, about how well +her friend Miss Westlake was looking and how successful Hallie had been +this summer in reducing, and how much Mr. Turner was improving in his +tennis and croquet and riding and bowling and everything. "And, Mr. +Turner, what is pulp? And do they actually make paper out of it?" she +wound up. +</P> + +<P> +Very gravely Mr. Turner informed her on the process of paper making, +and she was a chorus of little vivacious ohs and ahs all the way +through. She sat on the side of the stone circle from which she could +look down the road, and she chattered on and on and on, and still on, +until something she saw below warned her that she was staying an +unconscionable length of time, so she rose and told Mr. Turner they +must really go, and held out her hand to be helped down the slope. +That was really a very slippery rock, and it was probably no fault of +Miss Hastings that her feet slipped and that she had to throw herself +squarely into Mr. Turner's embrace, and even throw her arm up over his +shoulder to save herself. It was a staggery place, even for a sturdily +muscled young man like Mr. Turner to keep his footing, and with that +fair burden upon him he had to stand some little time poised there to +retain his balance. Then, very gently and carefully, he turned +straight about, lifting Miss Hastings entirely from her feet and +setting her gravely down on the safe ledge below the sloping rock; but +before he had even had time to let go of her he glanced down into the +road, toward which the turn had faced him, and saw there, looking up +aghast at the tableau, Mr. Princeman and Miss Stevens! +</P> + +<P> +The sharp and instantly suppressed laugh of Princeman came floating up +to them, but Miss Stevens turned squarely about in the direction of the +glade, and being instantly joined by Princeman, they walked quietly +away. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner suddenly found himself perspiring profusely, and was +compelled to mop his brow, but Miss Hastings disdained to give any sign +that anything unusual whatsoever had happened, except by walking with a +limp, albeit a very slight one, as she returned to the glade. That +limp comforted Mr. Turner somewhat, and, spying Miss Stevens in a +little group near the tables, he was very careful to parade Miss +Hastings straight over there and place her limp on display. Miss +Stevens, however, walked away; no mere limp could deceive her! +</P> + +<P> +Well, if she wanted to be miffed at a little accident like that, and +read things falsely, and think the worst of people, she might; that was +all Sam had to say about it! but what he had to say about it did not +comfort him. He rather savagely "shook" Miss Hastings at his first +opportunity, and Vivian's dearest friend, who had been hovering in the +offing, saw him do it, which was a great satisfaction to her. Later +she seized upon him, although he had savagely sworn to stick to the +men, and by some incomprehensible process Sam found himself once more +tête-à-tête with Miss Westlake, just over at the edge of the glade +where the sumac grew. She made him gather a lot of the leaves for her, +and showed him how they used to weave clover wreaths when she was a +little girl, and wove one for him of sumac, and gaily crowned him with +it; and just as she was putting the fool thing on his head he glanced +up, and there Princeman, laughing, was just passing them a little ways +off, in company with Miss Josephine Stevens! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE VALUE OF A PIANOLA TRAINING +</H3> + + +<P> +On that very same evening Hollis Creek came over to the bowling +tournament, and Miss Stevens, arriving with young Hollis, promptly lost +that perfervid young man, who had become somewhat of a nuisance in his +sentimental insistence. Mr. Turner, watching her from afar, saw her +desert the calfly smitten one, and immediately dashed for the breach. +He had watched from too great a distance, however, for Billy Westlake +gobbled up Miss Josephine before Sam could get there, and started with +her for that inevitable stroll among the brookside paths which always +preceded a bowling tournament. While he stood nonplussed, looking +after them, Miss Hastings glided to his side in a matter of course way. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it a perfectly charming evening?" she wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a regular dear of an evening," admitted Sam savagely. +</P> + +<P> +In his single thoughtedness he was scrambling wildly about within the +interior of his skull for a pretext to get rid of Miss Hastings, but it +suddenly occurred to him that now he had a legitimate excuse for +following the receding couple, and promptly upon the birth of this +idea, he pulled in that direction and Miss Hastings came right along, +though a trifle silently. With all her vivacious chattering, she was +not without shrewdness, and with no trouble whatever she divined +precisely why Sam chose the path he did, and why he seemed in such +almost blundering haste. They <I>were</I> a little late, it was true, for +just as they started, Billy and Miss Stevens turned aside and out of +sight into the shadiest and narrowest and most involved of the +shrubbery-lined paths, the one which circled about the little concealed +summer-house with a dove-cote on top, which was commonly dubbed "the +cooing place." Following down this path the rear couple suddenly came +upon a tableau which made them pause abruptly. Billy Westlake, upon +the steps of the summer-house, was upon his knees, there in the swiftly +blackening dusk, before the appalled Miss Stevens; actually upon his +knees! Silently the two watchers stole away, but when they were out of +earshot Miss Hastings tittered. Sam, though the moment was a serious +one for him, was also compelled to grin. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know they did it that way any more," he confessed. +</P> + +<P> +"They don't," Miss Hastings informed him; "that is, unless they are +very, very young, or very, very old." +</P> + +<P> +"Apparently you've had experience," observed Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she admitted a little bitterly. "I think I've had rather more +than my share; but all with ineligibles." +</P> + +<P> +Sam felt a trace of pity for Miss Hastings, who was of polite family, +but poor, and a guest of the Westlakes, but he scarcely knew how to +express it, and felt that it was not quite safe anyhow, so he remained +discreetly silent. +</P> + +<P> +By mutual, though unspoken impulse, they stopped under the shade of a +big tree up on the lawn, and waited for the couple who had been found +in the delicate situation either to reappear on the way back to the +house, or to emerge at the other end of the path on the way to the +bowling shed. It was scarcely three minutes when they reappeared on +the way back to the house, and both watchers felt an instant thrill of +relief, for the two were by no means lover-like in their attitudes. +Billy had hold of Miss Josephine's arm and was helping her up the +slope, but their shoulders were not touching in the process, nor were +arms clasped closely against sides. They passed by the big tree +unseeing, then, as they neared the house, without a word, they parted. +Miss Stevens proceeded toward the porch, and stopped to take a +handkerchief from her sleeve and pass it carefully and lightly over her +face. Billy Westlake strode off a little way toward the bowling shed, +stopped and lit a cigarette, took two or three puffs, started on, +stopped again, then threw the cigarette to the ground with quite +unnecessary vigor, and stamped on it. Miss Hastings, without adieus of +any sort, glided swiftly away in the direction of Billy, and then a dim +glimmer of understanding came to Sam Turner that only Miss Stevens had +stood in the way of Miss Hastings' capture of Billy Westlake. He +wasted no time over this thought, however, but strode very swiftly and +determinedly up to Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to find you alone," he said; "I want to make an explanation." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't bother about it," she told him frigidly. "You owe me no +explanations whatsoever, Mr. Turner." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to make them anyhow," he declared. "You saw me twice this +afternoon in utterly asinine situations." +</P> + +<P> +"I remember of no such situations," she stated still frigidly, and +started to move on toward the house. +</P> + +<P> +"But wait a minute," said Sam, catching her by the arm and detaining +her. "You did see me in silly situations, and I want you to know the +facts about them." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not at all interested," she informed him, now with absolute north +pole iciness, and started to move away again. +</P> + +<P> +He held her more tightly. +</P> + +<P> +"The first time," he went on, "was when Miss Hastings slipped on the +rocks and I had to catch her to keep her from falling." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you kindly let me go, Mr. Turner?" demanded Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I will not!" he replied, and pulled her about a trifle so that she +was compelled to face him. "I don't choose to have anybody, least of +all you, think wrongly of me." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner, I do not choose to be detained against my will," declared +Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner," boomed a deep-timbered voice right behind them, "the lady +has requested you to let her go. I should advise you to do so." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Turner was attempting to frame up a reasonable answer to this +demand when Miss Josephine prevented him from doing so. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Princeman," said she to the interrupting gallant, "I thank you for +your interference on my behalf, but I am quite capable of protecting +myself," and leaving the two stunned gentlemen together, she once more +took her handkerchief from her sleeve and walked swiftly up to the +porch, brushing the handkerchief lightly over her face again. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll be damned!" said Princeman, looking after her in more or +less bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +"So will I," said Sam. "Have you a cigarette about you?" +</P> + +<P> +Princeman gave him one and they took a light from the same match, then, +neither one of them caring to discuss any subject whatever at that +particular moment, they separated, and Sam hunted a lonely corner. He +wanted to be alone and gloom. Confound bowling, anyhow! It was a dull +and uninteresting game. He cared less for it as time went on, he +found; less to-night than ever. He crept away into the dim and +deserted parlor and sat down at the piano, the only friend in which he +cared to confide just then. He played, with a queer lingering touch +which had something of hesitation in it, and which reduced all music to +a succession of soft chords, <I>The Maid of Dundee</I> and <I>Annie Laurie</I>, +<I>The Banks of Banna</I> and <I>The Last Rose of Summer</I>, then one of the +simpler nocturnes of Chopin, and, following these, a quaint, slow +melody which was like all of the others and yet like none. +</P> + +<P> +"Bravo!" exclaimed a gentle voice in the doorway, and he turned, +startled, to see Miss Stevens standing there. She did not explain why +she had relented, but came directly into the room and stood at the end +of the piano. He reached up and shook hands with her quite naturally, +and just as naturally and simply she let her hand lie in his for an +instant. How soft and warm her palm was, and how grateful the touch of +it! +</P> + +<P> +"What a pleasant surprise!" she said. "I didn't know you played." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," he confessed, smiling. "If you had stopped to listen you +would have known. You ought to hear my kid brother play though. He's +a corker." +</P> + +<P> +"But I did listen," she insisted, ignoring the reference to his "kid +brother." "I stood there a long time and I thought it beautiful. What +was that last selection?" +</P> + +<P> +He flushed guiltily. +</P> + +<P> +"It was—oh, just a little thing I sort of put together myself," he +told her. +</P> + +<P> +"How delightful! And so you compose, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," he hastily assured her. "This is the only thing, and it +seemed to come just sort of naturally to me from time to time. I don't +suppose it's finished yet, because I never play it exactly as I did +before. I always seem to add a little bit to it. I do wish that I had +had time to know more of music. What little I play I learned from a +pianola." +</P> + +<P> +"A what?" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +He laughed in a half-embarrassed way. +</P> + +<P> +"A pianola," he repeated. "You see I've always been hungry for music, +and while my kid brother was still in college I began to be able to +afford things, and one of the first luxuries was a pianola. You know +the machine has a little lever which throws the keys in or out of +engagement, so that you can play it as a regular piano if you wish, and +if you leave the keys engaged while you are playing the rolls, they +work up and down; so by watching these I gradually learned to pick out +my favorite tunes by hand. I couldn't play them so well by myself as +the rolls played them, but somehow or other they gave me more +satisfaction." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens did not laugh. In some indefinable way all this made a +difference in Sam Turner—a considerable difference—and she felt quite +justified in having deliberately come to the conclusion that she had +been "mean" to him; in having deliberately slipped away from the others +as they were all going over to the bowling alleys; in having come back +deliberately to find him. +</P> + +<P> +"Your favorite tunes," she repeated musingly. "What was the first one, +I wonder? One of those that you have just been playing?" +</P> + +<P> +"The first one?" he returned with a smile. "No, it was a sort of +rag-time jingle. I thought it very pretty then, but I played it over +the other day, the first time in years, and I didn't seem to like it at +all. In fact, I wonder how I ever did like it." +</P> + +<P> +Rag-time! And now, left entirely to his own devices and for his own +pleasure, he was playing Chopin! Yes, it made quite a difference in +Sam Turner. She was glad that she had decided to wear his roses, glad +even that he recognized them. At her solicitation Sam played again the +plaintive little air of his own composition—and played it much better +than ever he had played it before. Then they walked out on the porch +and strolled down toward the bowling shed. Half way there was a little +side path, leading off through an arbor into a shady way which crossed +the brook on a little rustic bridge, which wound about between +flowerbeds and shrubbery and back by another little bridge, and which +lengthened the way to the bowling shed by about four times the normal +distance—and they took that path; and when they reached the bowling +alley they were not quite ready to go in. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-156"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-156.jpg" ALT="Sam played again the plaintive little air" BORDER="2" WIDTH="402" HEIGHT="549"> +<H3> +[Illustration: Sam played again the plaintive little air] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +There seemed no reasonable excuse for staying out longer, however, for +the bowling had already started, and, moreover, young Tilloughby +happened to come to the door and spied them. Princeman was just +getting up to bowl for the honor and glory of Meadow Brook, and within +one minute later Miss Stevens was watching the handsome young paper +manufacturer with absorbed interest. He was a fine picture of athletic +manhood as he stood up, weighing the ball, and a splendid picture of +masculine action as he rushed forward to deliver it. Sam had to +acknowledge that himself, and out of fairness he even had to join in +the mad applause when Princeman made strike after strike. They had +Princeman up again in the last frame, and it was a ticklish moment. +The Hollis Creek team was fifty points ahead. Dramatic unities, under +the circumstances, demanded that Princeman, by a tremendous exercise of +coolness and skill, overcome that lead by his own personal efforts, and +he did, winning the tournament for Meadow Brook with a breathless few +points to spare. +</P> + +<P> +But did Sam Turner care that Princeman was the hero of the hour? More +power to Princeman, for from the bevy of flushed and eager girls who +flocked about the Adonis-like victor, Miss Josephine Stevens was +absent. She was there, with him, in Paradise! Incidentally Sam made +an engagement to drive with her in the morning, and when, at the close +of that delightful evening, the carryall carried her away, she beamed +upon him; gave him two or three beams in fact, and said good-by +personally and waved her hand to him personally; nobody else was there +in all that crowd but just they two! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE WESTLAKES DECIDE TO INVEST +</H3> + + +<P> +Miss Hastings did not exactly snub Sam in the morning, but she was +surprisingly indifferent to him after all her previous cordiality, and +even went so far as to forget the early morning constitutional she was +to have taken with him; instead she passed him coolly by on the porch +right after an extremely early breakfast, and sauntered away down +lovers' lane, arm in arm with Billy Westlake, who was already looking +very much comforted. Sam, who had been dreading that walk, released it +with a sigh of intense satisfaction, planning that in the interim until +time for his drive, he would improve his tennis a bit with Miss +Westlake. He was just hunting her up when he met Bob Tilloughby, who +invited him to join a riding party from both houses for a trip over to +Sunset Rock. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry," said Sam with secret satisfaction, "but I've an engagement +over at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock," and Tilloughby carried that +information back to Miss Westlake, who had sent him. +</P> + +<P> +An engagement at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock, eh? Well, Miss Westlake +knew who that meant; none other than her dear friend, Josephine +Stevens! Being a young lady of considerable directness, she went +immediately to her father. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you definitely made up your mind, pop, to take stock in Mr. +Turner's company?" she asked, sitting down by that placid gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +Without removing his interlocked hands from their comfortable +resting-place in plain sight, he slowly twirled his thumbs some three +times, and then stopped. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think I shall," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"About how much?" Miss Westlake wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, about twenty-five thousand." +</P> + +<P> +"Who's to get it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I thought I'd divide it between Billy and you." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake put her hand on her father's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, pop, give it to me, please," she pleaded. "Billy can take the +next stock you buy, or I'll let him have some of my other in exchange." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake surveyed his daughter out of a pair of fish-gray eyes +without turning his head. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to be especially interested in this stock. You asked about +it yesterday and Sunday and one day last week." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am," she admitted. "It's a really first-class business +investment, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think it is," replied Westlake; "as good as any stock in an +untried company can be, anyhow. At least it's an excellent investment +chance." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I thought," she said. "I'm judging, of course, only by +what you say, and by my impression of Mr. Turner. It seems to me that +almost anything he goes into should be highly successful." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake slowly whirled his thumbs in the other direction, three +separate twirls, and stopped them. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he agreed. "I'm investing the money in just Sam myself, +although the scheme itself looks like a splendid one." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake was silent a moment while she twisted at the button on +her father's coat sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't quite understand this matter of stock control," she went on +presently. "You've explained it to me, but I don't seem quite to get +the meaning of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's like this," explained Mr. Westlake. "Sam Turner, with only +a paltry investment, say about five thousand dollars, wants to be able +to dictate the entire policy of a million-dollar concern. In other +words, he wants a majority of stock, which will let him come into the +stock-holders' meetings, and vote into office his own board of +directors, who will do just what he says; and if he wanted to he might +have them vote the entire profits of the concern for his salary." +</P> + +<P> +"But, father, he wouldn't do anything like that," she protested, +shocked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, he probably wouldn't," admitted Mr. Westlake, "but I wouldn't be +wise to let him have the chance, just the same." +</P> + +<P> +"But, father," objected Miss Hallie, after further thought, "it's his +invention, you know, and his process, and if he doesn't have control +couldn't all you other stock-holders get together and appropriate the +profits yourselves?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake gave his thumbs one quick turn. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he grudgingly confessed. "In fact, it's been done," and there +was a certain grim satisfaction at the corners of his mouth which his +daughter could not interpret, as he thought back over the long list of +absorptions which had made old Bill Westlake the power that he was. +</P> + +<P> +"But—but, father," and she hesitated a long time. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he encouraged her. +</P> + +<P> +"Even if you won't let him have enough stock to obtain control, if some +one other person should own enough of the stock, couldn't they put +their stock with his and let him do just about as he liked?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," agreed Mr. Westlake without any twirling of his thumbs at +all; "that's been done, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Would this twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of stock that you're +buying, pop, if it were added to what you men are willing to let Mr. +Turner have, give him control?" +</P> + +<P> +Again Mr. Westlake turned his speculative gray eyes upon his daughter +and gave her a long, careful scrutiny, which she received with downcast +lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he replied. +</P> + +<P> +"How much would?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, fifty thousand would do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, pop—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +Another long interval. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you'd buy fifty thousand for me in place of twenty-five." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph," grunted Mr. Westlake, and after one sharp glance at her he +looked down at his big fat thumbs and twirled them for a long, long +time. "Well," said he, "Sam Turner is a fine young man. I've known +him in a business way for five or six years, and I never saw a flaw in +him of any sort. All right. You give Billy your sugar stock and I'll +buy you this fifty thousand." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake reached over and kissed her father impulsively. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, pop," she said. "Now there's another thing I want you to do." +</P> + +<P> +"What, more?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, more," and this time the color deepened in her cheeks. "I want +you to hunt up Mr. Turner and tell him that you're going to take that +much." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake with a smile reached up and pinched his daughter's cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, Hallie, I'll do it," said he. +</P> + +<P> +She patted him affectionately on the bald spot. +</P> + +<P> +"Good for you," she said. "Be sure you see him this morning, though, +and before half-past nine." +</P> + +<P> +"You're particular about that, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it's rather important," she admitted, and blushed furiously. +</P> + +<P> +Westlake patted his daughter on the shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Hallie," said He, "if Billy only had your common-sense business +instinct, I wouldn't ask for anything else in this world; but Billy is +a saphead." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake, thinking that he understood the matter very thoroughly, +though in reality overunderstanding it—nice word, that—took it upon +himself with considerable seriousness to hunt up Sam Turner; but it was +fully nine-thirty before he found that energetic young man. Sam was +just going down the driveway in a neat little trap behind a team of +spirited grays. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute, Sam, wait a minute," hailed Westlake, puffing +laboriously across the closely cropped lawn. +</P> + +<P> +Sam held up his horses abruptly, and they stood swinging their heads +and champing at their bits, while Sam, with a trace of a frown, looked +at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"What's your rush?" asked Westlake. "I've been hunting for you +everywhere. I want to talk about some important features of that Marsh +Pulp Company of yours." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Sam. "I'm open for conversation. I'll see you right +after lunch." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I must see you now," insisted Westlake. "I've—I've got to +decide on some things right this morning. I—I've got to know how to +portion out my investments." +</P> + +<P> +Sam looked at his watch and was genuinely distressed. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry," said he, "but I have an engagement over at Hollis Creek at +exactly ten o'clock, and I've scant time to make it." +</P> + +<P> +"Business?" demanded Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +"No," confessed Sam slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, social then. Well, social engagements in America always play +second fiddle to business ones, and don't you forget it. I'll talk +about this matter this morning or I won't talk about it at all." +</P> + +<P> +Sam stopped nonplussed. Westlake was an important factor in the +prospective Marsh Pulp Company. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell you what you do," said he, after some quick thought. "Why can't +you get in the trap and drive over to Hollis Creek with me? We can +talk on the way and you can visit with your friends over there until +time for luncheon; then I'll bring you back and we can talk on the way +home, too." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Hallie and Princeman and young Tilloughby came cantering down the +drive and waved hands at the two men. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Westlake decisively, looking after his daughter and +answering her glance with a nod. "Wait until I get my hat," and he +wheeled abruptly away. +</P> + +<P> +Sam fumed and fretted and jerked his watch back and forth from his +pocket, while Westlake wasted fifteen precious minutes in waddling up +to the house and hunting for his hat and returning with it, and two +minutes more in bungling his awkward way into the buggy; then Sam +started the grays at such a terrific pace that, until they came to the +steep hill midway of the course, there was no chance for conversation. +While the horses pulled up this steep hill, however, Westlake had his +opportunity. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you know," he said, "that you're not going to be allowed +over two thousand shares of common stock for your patents." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm beginning to give up the hope of having more," admitted Sam. +"However, I'm going to stick it out to the last ditch." +</P> + +<P> +"It won't be permitted, so you might as well give up that idea. How +much stock do you think of buying?" +</P> + +<P> +"About five thousand dollars' worth of the preferred," said Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Which will give you fifty bonus shares of the common. I suppose of +course you figure on eventually securing control in some way or other." +</P> + +<P> +"Not being an infant, I do," returned Sam, flicking his whip at a weed +and gathering his lines up quickly as the mettled horses jumped. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know of any one person who's going to buy enough stock to help +you out in that plan; unless I should do it myself," suggested +Westlake, and waited. +</P> + +<P> +Sam surveyed the other man long and silently. Westlake, as the largest +minority shareholder, had done some very strange things to corporations +in his time. +</P> + +<P> +"Neither do I," said Sam non-committally. +</P> + +<P> +There was another long silence. +</P> + +<P> +"If you carry through this Marsh Pulp Company to a successful +termination, you will be fairly well fixed for a young man, won't you?" +the older man ventured by and by. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," hesitated Sam, "I'll have a start anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +"I should say you would," Westlake assured him, placing his hands in +his favorite position for contemplative discussion. "You'll have a +good enough start to enable you to settle down." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," admitted Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"What you need, my boy, is a wife," went on Mr. Westlake. "No man's +business career is properly assured until he has a wife to steady him +down." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe that," agreed Sam. "I've come to the same conclusion +myself, and to tell you the truth of the matter I've been contemplating +marriage very seriously since I've been down here." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" approved Westlake. "You're a fine boy, Sam. I may tell you +right now that I approve of both you and your decision very heartily. +I rather thought there was something in the wind that way." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," confessed Sam hesitantly. "I don't mind admitting that I have +even gone so far as to pick out the girl, if she'll have me." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Westlake smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think there will be any trouble on that score," said he. "Of +course, Sam, I'm not going to force your confidence, or anything of +that sort, but—but I want to tell you that I think you're all right," +and he very solemnly shook hands with Mr. Turner. +</P> + +<P> +They had just reached the top of the hill when Westlake again returned +to business. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to know you're going to settle down, Sam," he said. "It +inspires me with more confidence in your affairs, and I may say that I +stand ready to subscribe, in my daughter's name, for fifty thousand +dollars' worth of the stock of your company." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Sam, giving the matter careful weight. "It will be a good +investment for her." +</P> + +<P> +Before Mr. Westlake had any time to reply to this, the grays, having +just passed the summit of the hill, leaped forward in obedience to +another swish of Sam's whip. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT +</H3> + + +<P> +The trio from Meadow Brook, on their way to Sunset Rock galloped up to +the Hollis Creek porch, and, finding Miss Stevens there, gaily demanded +that she accompany them. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry," said Miss Stevens, who was already in driving costume, +"but I have an engagement at ten o'clock," and she looked back through +the window into the office, where the clock then stood at two minutes +of the appointed time; then she looked rather impatiently down the +driveway, as she had been doing for the past five minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, at least you'll come back to the bar with us and have an +ice-cream cocktail," insisted Princeman, reining up close to the porch +and putting his hand upon the rail in front of her. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see how I can refuse that," said Miss Stevens with a smile and +another glance down at the driveway, "although it's really a little +early in the day to begin drinking," and she waited for them to +dismount, going back with them into the little ice-cream parlor and +"soft drink" and confectionery dispensary which had been facetiously +dubbed "the bar." Here she was careful to secure a seat where she +could look out of the window down toward the road, and also see the +clock. +</P> + +<P> +After a weary while, during which Miss Josephine had undergone a +variety of emotions which she was very careful not to mention, the +party rose from the discussion of their ice-cream soda and the bowling +tournament and all the various other social interests of the two +resorts, and made ready to depart, Miss Westlake twining her arm about +the waist of her friend Miss Stevens as they emerged on the porch. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, anyway, we've made you forget your engagement," Miss Westlake +gaily boasted, "for you said it was to be at ten, and now it's +ten-thirty." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I noticed the time," admitted Miss Stevens, rather grudgingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry we dragged you away," commiserated Miss Westlake with a +swift change of tone. "Probably the party of the second part didn't +know where to find you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, it couldn't be anything like that," decided Miss Josephine after a +thoughtful pause. "Did you see anything of Mr. Turner this morning?" +she asked with sudden resolve. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner," repeated Miss Westlake in well-feigned surprise. "Why, +yes, I know papa said early this morning that he was going to have a +business talk with Mr. Turner, and as we left Meadow Brook papa was +just going after his hat to take a drive with him." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if it would be an imposition to ask you to wait about five +minutes longer," inquired Miss Stevens with a languidness which did +<I>not</I> deceive. "I think I can change to my riding-habit almost within +that time." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll be delighted to wait," asserted Miss Westlake eagerly, herself +looking apprehensively down the driveway; "won't we, boys?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure; what is it?" returned Princeman. +</P> + +<P> +"Josephine says that if we'll wait five minutes longer she'll go with +us." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll wait an hour if need be," declared Princeman gallantly. +</P> + +<P> +"It won't need be," said Miss Stevens lightly, and hurrying into the +office she ordered the clerk to send for her saddle-horse. +</P> + +<P> +For ten interminable minutes Miss Westlake never took her eyes from the +road, at the end of which time Miss Stevens returned, hatted and +habited and booted and whipped. +</P> + +<P> +The Hollis Creek young lady was rather grim as she rode down the +graveled approach beside Miss Westlake, and both the girls cast furtive +glances behind them as they turned away from the Meadow Brook road. +When they were safely out of sight around the next bend, Miss Westlake +laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Turner is such a funny person," said she. "He's liable at any +moment to forget all about everything and everybody if somebody +mentions business to him. If he ever takes time to get married he'll +make it a luncheon hour appointment." +</P> + +<P> +Even Miss Josephine laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"And even then," she added, by way of elaboration, "the bride is likely +to be left waiting at the church." There was a certain snap and +crackle to whatever Miss Stevens said just now, however, which +indicated a perturbed and even an angry state of mind. +</P> + +<P> +Ten minutes later, Sam Turner, hatless, and carrying a buggy whip and +wearing a torn coat, trudged up the Hollis Creek Inn drive, afoot, and +walked rapidly into the office. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Miss Stevens about?" he wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Not at present," the clerk informed him. "She ordered out her horse a +few minutes ago, and started over to Sunset Rock with a party of young +people from Meadow Brook." +</P> + +<P> +"Which way is Sunset Rock?" +</P> + +<P> +The clerk handed him a folder which contained a map of the roadways +thereabouts, and pointed out the way. +</P> + +<P> +"Could you get me a saddle-horse right away?" +</P> + +<P> +The clerk pounded a bell and ordered up a saddle-horse for Mr. Turner, +who immediately thereupon turned to the telephone, and, calling up +Meadow Brook, instructed the clerk at that resort to send a carriage +for Mr. Westlake, who was sitting in the trap, entirely unharmed but +disinclined to walk, at the foot of Laurel Hill; then he explained that +the grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar had +slipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had run +back up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked the +doubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they had +turned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the time +he had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it all +through the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse was +ready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he started +off at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to have +himself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket. +</P> + +<P> +He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to Sunset +Rock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with the +inspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were ready +to depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket being +greatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens, +who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been due +to an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation at +once. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, and +believed, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, and +she had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to be +with Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by the +side of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearance +of the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party" +has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though at +first lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted the +party so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlake +was riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone in +the center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a sudden +inclination to go very slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, by +and by. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I think +I did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to say +he'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells me +I've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince. +Control and Westlake were two words which did not make, for him, a +cheerful juxtaposition. +</P> + +<P> +"So now you'll have to be very nice indeed to me," went on Miss +Westlake banteringly, "or I'm likely to vote with the other crowd." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be just as nice to you as I know how," offered Sam. "Just state +what you want me to do and I'll do it." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Westlake did not state what she wanted him to do. In place of +that she whipped up her horse rather smartly, after a thoughtful +silence, and joined Tilloughby, the three of them riding abreast. The +next shifting, around a deep mud hole which only left room for an +Indian file procession, brought Sam alongside Miss Josephine, and here +he stuck for the balance of the ride, leaving Princeman to ride part of +the time alone between the two couples, and part of the time to be the +third rider with each couple in alternation. Miss Josephine was very +much concerned about Mr. Turner's accident, very happy to know how +lucky he had been to come off without a scratch, except for the tear in +his coat, and very solicitous indeed about any further handling of the +obstreperous gray team; and, forgiving him readily under the +circumstances, she renewed her engagement to drive with him the next +morning! +</P> + +<P> +Sam rode on home at the side of Miss Westlake, after leaving Miss +Stevens at Hollis Creek, in a strange and nebulous state of elation, +which continued until bedtime. As he was about to retire he was handed +a wire from his brother: +</P> + +<P> +"Just received patent papers meet me at Restview morning train." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A PLEASURE RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS +</H3> + + +<P> +The morning train was due at ten o'clock. At ten o'clock also Sam was +due at Hollis Creek to take his long deferred drive with Miss Stevens. +It was a slight conflict, her engagement, but the solution to that was +very easy. As early in the morning as he dared, Sam called up Miss +Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"I've some glorious news," he said hopefully. "My kid brother will +arrive at Restview on the ten o'clock train." +</P> + +<P> +"You are to be congratulated," Miss Stevens told him, with an echo of +his own delight. +</P> + +<P> +"But you know we've an engagement to go driving at ten o'clock," he +reminded her, still hopefully, but trembling in spirit. +</P> + +<P> +There was an instant of hesitation, which ended in a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let that interfere," she said. "We can defer our drive until +some other time, when fate is not so determined against it." +</P> + +<P> +"But that doesn't suit me at all," he assured her. "Why can't you be +ready at nine in place of ten, let me call for you at that time and +drive over to Restview with me to meet Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is that his name?" she asked in blissfully reassuring tones. "You've +never spoken of him as anybody but your 'kid brother.' Why of course +I'll drive over to Restview with you. I shall be delighted to meet +him." +</P> + +<P> +Privately she had her own fears of what Jack Turner might turn out to +be like. Sam was always so good in speaking of him, always held him in +such tender regard, such profound admiration, that she feared he might +prove to be perfect only in Sam's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said Sam. "Just for that I'm going to bring you over some +choice blooms that I have been having the gardener save back for me," +and he turned away from the telephone quite happy in the thought that +for once he had been able to kill two birds with one stone without +ruffling the feathers of either. +</P> + +<P> +Armed with a huge consignment of brilliant blossoms, enough to +transform her room into a fairy bower, he sped quite happily to Hollis +Creek. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, gladiolas!" cried Miss Josephine, as he drove up. "How did you +ever guess it! That little bird must have been busy again." +</P> + +<P> +"Honestly, it was the little bird this time. I just had an intuition +that you must like them because I do so well," upon which naïve +statement Miss Josephine merely smiled, and calling her father with +pretty peremptoriness, she loaded that heavy gentleman down with the +flowers and with instructions concerning them, and then stepped +brightly into the tonneau with Sam. +</P> + +<P> +It was a pleasant ride they had to Restview, and it was a pleasant +surprise which greeted Miss Josephine when the train arrived, for out +of it stepped a youth who was unmistakably a Turner. He was as tall as +Sam, but slighter, and as clean a looking boy as one would find in a +day's journey. There was that, too, in the hand-clasp between the +brothers which proclaimed at once their flawless relationship. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens was so relieved to find the younger Turner so presentable +that she took him into her friendship at once. He was that kind of +chap anyhow, and in the very first greeting she almost found herself +calling him Jack. Just behind him, however, was a little, dried-up man +with a complexion the color of old parchment, with sandy, stubby hair +shot with gray, and a stubby gray beard shot with red. His lips were a +wide straight line, as grim as judgment day. He walked with a slight +stoop, but with a quick staccato step which betokened great nervous +energy, a quality which the alert expression of his beady eyes +confirmed with distinct emphasis. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Creamer!" hailed Sam to this gentleman. "I didn't expect to +see you here quite so soon." +</P> + +<P> +"You had every right to expect me," snapped the little man querulously. +"After all the experimenting I have done for you boys, you had every +reason to keep me posted on all your movements; and yet I reckon if I +hadn't been in your office yesterday evening when Jack said he was +coming down here, you would not have notified me until you had your +company all formed. Then I suppose you'd have written to tell me how +much stock you had assigned to me. I'm going to be in on the formation +of this company, and I'm going to have my say about it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Will you never get over that dyspepsia?" chided Sam easily. "There +was no intention of leaving you out." +</P> + +<P> +"Just what I told him," declared Jack, turning from Miss Stevens to +them. "I have been swearing to him that as soon as we had found out +to-day what we were to do I would have wired him at once." +</P> + +<P> +"You were quite right, Jack," approved Sam, opening the door of the car +for them, "and as a proof of it, Creamer, when you return to your +office you will find there a letter postmarked yesterday, telling you +our exact progress here, and warning you to be in readiness to come on +telegram." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, then," said Mr. Creamer, somewhat mollified, "but since +that letter's there and I'm here, you might as well tell me what you've +done." +</P> + +<P> +Sam stopped the proceedings long enough to introduce Creamer to Miss +Stevens after he had closed the door upon them and had taken his own +seat by the chauffeur. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he then said to Mr. Creamer, "I'll begin at the beginning." +</P> + +<P> +He began at the beginning. He told Mr. Creamer all the steps in the +development of the company. He detailed to him the names of the +gentlemen concerned, and their complete commercial histories, pausing +to answer many pertinent side questions and observations from his +younger brother, who proved to be as keen a student of business puzzles +as Sam himself. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all very well," said Mr. Creamer, "and now I'm here. I want to +get away to-night: Can't we form that company to-day? At what figure +do you propose offering the original stock?" +</P> + +<P> +"The preferred at fifty, with a par value of a hundred," returned Sam +promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Common?" asked Mr. Creamer crisply. +</P> + +<P> +"One share of common with each two shares of preferred." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh! Well, I've twenty-five thousand dollars to put into this marsh +pulp business, if I can have any figure in the management. I want on +the board." +</P> + +<P> +"It's quite likely you'll be on the board," returned Sam. "We shall +have a very small list of subscribers, and the board will not be +unwieldy if every investor is a director." +</P> + +<P> +"Voting power in the common stock?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the common stock," repeated Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you intend to buy any preferred?" asked Creamer. +</P> + +<P> +"A hundred shares." +</P> + +<P> +"How much common do you expect to take out for your patents?" +</P> + +<P> +"Two hundred and fifty thousand," Sam answered without an instant's +hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" exclaimed Mr. Creamer. "The time for that's gone by, young +man, no matter how good your proposition is. It's too old a game. You +won't handle my money with control in your hands. I have no objection +to letting you have two hundred thousand dollars worth of common stock +out of the half million, because that will give you an incentive to +make the common worth par; but you shan't at any time have or be able +to acquire a share over two hundred and forty-nine thousand; not if I +know anything about it! Can you call a meeting as soon as we get +there?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think so," replied Sam, with a more or less worried air. "I'll try +it. Tell you what I'll do. I'll run right on over to get Mr. Stevens, +who wants to join the company, and in the meantime Mr. Westlake or +Princeman can round up the others." +</P> + +<P> +For the first time in that drive Miss Stevens had something to say, but +she said it with a briefness that was like a dash of cold water to the +preoccupied Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Father is over there now, I think," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," approved Mr. Creamer. "We can have a little direct business +talk and wind up the whole affair before lunch. What time do we arrive +at Meadow Brook?" +</P> + +<P> +"Before eleven o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +"That will give us two hours. Two hours is enough to form any company, +when everybody knows exactly what he wants to do. Got a lawyer over +there?" +</P> + +<P> +"One of the best in the country." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens sat in the center seat of the tonneau. Sam, in addressing +his remarks to the others and in listening to their replies, was +compelled to sweep his glance squarely across her, and occasionally in +these sweeps he paused to let his gaze rest upon her. She was a relief +to his eyes, a blessing to them! Miss Stevens, however, seldom met any +of these glances. Very much preoccupied she was, looking at the +passing scenery and not seeing it. +</P> + +<P> +There had begun boiling and seething in Miss Stevens a feeling that she +was decidedly <I>de trop</I>, that these men could talk their absorbing +business more freely if she were not there; not because she embarrassed +them, but because she used up space! Nobody seemed to give her a +thought. Nobody seemed to be aware that she was present. They were +almost gaspingly engrossed in something far more important to them than +she was. It was uncomplimentary, to say the least. She was not used +to playing "second fiddle" in any company. She was in the habit of +absorbing the most of the attention in her immediate vicinity. Mr. +Princeman or Mr. Hollis would neither one ignore her in that way, to +say nothing of Billy Westlake. +</P> + +<P> +She was glad when they reached Meadow Brook. Their whole talk had been +of marsh pulp, and company organization, and preferred and common +stock, and who was to get it, and how much they were to pay for it, and +how they were going to cut the throats of the wood pulp manufacturers, +and how much profit they were going to make from the consumers and with +all that, not a word for her. Not a single word! Not even an apology! +Oh, it was atrocious! As soon as they drew up to the porch she rose, +and before Sam could jump down to open the door of the tonneau she had +opened it for herself and sprung out. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll hunt up father right away for you," she stated courteously. +"Glad to have met you, Mr. Creamer. I presume I shall meet you again, +Mr. Turner," she said to Jack. "Thank you so much for the ride," she +said to Sam, and then she was gone. +</P> + +<P> +Sam looked after her blankly. It couldn't be possible that she was +"huffy" about this business talk. Why, couldn't the girl see that this +had to do with the birth of a great big company, a million dollar +corporation, and that it was of vital importance to him? It meant the +apex of a lifetime of endeavor. It meant the upbuilding of a fortune. +Couldn't she see that he and his brother were two lone youngsters +against all these shrewd business men, whose only terms of aiding them +and floating this big company was to take their mastery of it away from +them? Couldn't she understand what control of a million dollar +organization meant? He was not angry with Miss Stevens for her +apparent attitude in this matter, but he was hurt. He was not +impatient with her, but he was impatient of the fact that she could not +appreciate. Now the fat was in the fire again. He felt that. Under +other circumstances he would have said that it was much more trouble +than it was worth to keep in the good graces of a girl, but under the +present circumstances—well, his heart had sunk down about a foot out +of place, and he had a sort of faint feeling in the region of his +stomach. He was just about sick. He followed her in, just in time to +see the flutter of her skirts at the top of the stairway, but he could +not call without making himself and her ridiculous. Confound things in +general! +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens joined him while he was still looking into that blank hole +in the world. +</P> + +<P> +"Glad I happened to be here, Sam," said Stevens. "Jo tells me that +your brother and Mr. Creamer have arrived and that you want to form +that company right away." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," admitted Sam. "Was she sarcastic about it?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Not exactly sarcastic," he stated; "but she did allude to your +proposed corporation as 'that old company!'" +</P> + +<P> +"I was afraid so," said Sam ruefully. +</P> + +<P> +Stevens surveyed him in amusement for a moment, and then in pity. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind, my boy," he said kindly. "You'll get used to these things +by and by. It took me the first five years of my married life to +convince Mrs. Stevens that business was not a rival to her affections, +when, if I'd only have known the recipe, I could have convinced her at +the start." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you finally do it?" asked Sam, vitally interested. +</P> + +<P> +"Made her my confidante and adviser," stated Stevens, smiling +reminiscently. +</P> + +<P> +Sam shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Was that safe?" he asked. "Didn't she sometimes let out your secrets?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bosh!" exclaimed Stevens. "I'd rather trust a woman than a man, any +day, with a secret, business or personal. That goes for any woman; +mother, sister, sweetheart, wife, daughter, or stenographer. Just give +them a chance to get interested in your game, and they're with you +against the world." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said Sam, putting that bit of information aside for future +pondering. "By the way, Mr. Stevens, before we join the others I'd +like to ask you how much stock you're going to carry in the Marsh Pulp +Company." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," returned Mr. Stevens slowly, "I did think that if the thing +looked good on final analysis, I might invest twenty-five thousand +dollars." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you stretch that to fifty?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't see it. But why? Don't you think you're going to fill your +list?" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll fill our list all right," returned Sam. "As a matter of fact, +that's what I'm afraid of. These fellows are going to pool their +stock, and hold control in their own hands. Now if I could get you to +invest fifty thousand and vote with me under proper emergency, I could +control the thing; and I ought to. It is my own company. Seems to me +these fellows are selfish about it. You think I'm a good business man, +don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do," agreed Mr. Stevens emphatically. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it stands to reason that if I have two hundred and sixty +thousand dollars of common stock that isn't worth a picayune unless I +make it worth par, I'll hustle; and if I make my common stock worth +par, I'm making a fine, fat profit for these other fellows, to say +nothing of the raising of their preferred stock from the value of fifty +to a hundred dollars a share, and their common from nothing to a +hundred." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right, Sam," returned Mr. Stevens; "but you'll work just as +hard to make your common worth par if you only have two hundred +thousand; and there's a growing tendency on the part of capital to be +able to keep a string on its own money. Strange, but true." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Sam wearily. "We won't argue that point any more +just now; but will you invest fifty thousand?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't promise," said Stevens, and he walked out on the porch. Much +worried, Sam followed him, and with many misgivings he introduced Mr. +Stevens to his brother Jack and to Mr. Creamer. The prospective +organizers of the Marsh Pulp Company were already in solemn conclave on +the porch, with the single exception of Princeman, who was on the lawn +talking most perfunctorily with Miss Josephine. That young lady, with +wickedness of the deepest sort in her soul, was doing her best to +entice Mr. Princeman into forgetting the important meeting, but as soon +as Princeman saw the gathering hosts he gently but firmly tore himself +away, very much to her surprise and indignation. Why, he had been as +rude to her as Sam Turner himself, in placing the charms of business +above her own! Immediately afterward she snubbed Billy Westlake +unmercifully. Had he the qualities which would go to make a successful +man in any walk of life? No! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A DUAL QUESTION OF MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY <BR> +AND STOCK SUBSCRIPTION +</H3> + + +<P> +Mr. Westlake dropped back with his old friend Stevens as they trailed +into the parlor which Blackstone had secured. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going to subscribe rather heavily in the company, Stevens?" +inquired Westlake, with the curiosity of a man who likes to have his +own opinion corroborated by another man of good judgment. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," replied the father of Miss Josephine, "I think of taking a +rather solid little block of stock. I believe I can spare twenty-five +thousand dollars to invest in almost any company Sam Turner wants to +start." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a fine boy," agreed Westlake. "A square, straight young fellow, +a good business man, and a hustler. I see him playing tennis with my +girl every day, and she seems to think a lot of him." +</P> + +<P> +"He's bound to make his mark," Mr. Stevens acquiesced, sharply +suppressing a fool impulse to speak of his own daughter. "Do you +fellows intend to let him secure control of this company?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should say not!" replied Westlake, with such unnecessary emphasis +that Stevens looked at him with sudden suspicion. He knew enough about +old Westlake to "copper" his especially emphatic statements. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you agreeable to Princeman's plan to pool all stock but Turner's?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—we can talk about that later." +</P> + +<P> +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens, and together the two heavy-weights, Stevens +with his aggressive beard suddenly pointed a trifle more straight out, +and Mr. Westlake with his placidity even more marked than usual, +stalked on into the parlor, where Mr. Blackstone, taking the chair <I>pro +tem</I>., read them the preliminary agreement he had drawn up; upon which +Sam Turner immediately started to wrangle, a proceeding which proved +altogether in vain. +</P> + +<P> +The best he could get for patents and promotion was two thousand out of +the five thousand shares of common stock, and finally he gave in, +knowing that he could not secure the right kind of men on better terms. +Mr. Blackstone thereupon offered a subscription list, to which every +man present solemnly appended his name opposite the number of shares he +would take. Sam, at the last moment, put down his own name for a block +of stock which meant a cash investment of considerably more than he had +originally figured upon. He cast up the list hurriedly. Five hundred +shares of preferred, carrying half that much common, were still to be +subscribed. With whom could he combine to obtain control? The only +men who had subscribed enough for that purpose were Princeman, who was +out of the question, and, in fact, would be the leader of the +opposition, and Westlake. The highest of the others were Creamer, +Cuthbert and Stevens. Sam would have to subscribe for the entire five +hundred in order to make these men available to him. +</P> + +<P> +McComas and Blackstone had only subscribed for the same amount as Sam. +They could do him no good, and he knew it was hopeless to attempt to +get two men to join with him. He looked over at Westlake. That +gentleman was smiling like a placid cherub, all innocence without, and +kindliness and good deeds; but there was nevertheless something fishy +about Westlake's eyes, and Sam, in memory, cast over a list of maimed +and wounded and crushed who had come in Westlake's business way. The +logical candidate was Stevens. Stevens simply had to take enough stock +to overbalance this thing, then he simply must vote his stock with +Sam's! That was all there was to it! Sam did not pause to worry about +how he was to gain over Stevens' consent, but he had an intuitive +feeling that this was his only chance. +</P> + +<P> +"Stevens," said he briskly, "there are five hundred shares left. I'll +take half of it if you'll take the other half." +</P> + +<P> +His brother Jack looked at him startled. Their total holdings, in that +case, would mean an investment of more money than they could spare from +their other operations. It would cramp them tremendously, but Jack +ventured no objections. He had seen Sam at the helm in decisive places +too often to interfere with him, either by word or look. As a matter +of fact such a proceeding was not safe anyhow. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mind—" began Westlake, slowly fixing a beaming eye upon Sam, +and crossing his hands ponderously upon his periphery; but before he +could announce his benevolent intention, Mr. Stevens, with what might +almost have been considered a malevolent glance toward Mr. Westlake, +spoke up. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll accept your proposition," he said with a jerk of his beard as his +jaws snapped. So Miss Westlake thought a great deal of Sam, eh? And +old Westlake knew it, eh? And he had already subscribed enough stock +to throw Sam control, eh? +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said Sam, and shot Mr. Stevens a look of gratitude as he +altered the subscription figures. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop just a moment, Sam," put in Mr. Westlake. "How many shares of +common stock does that give you in combination with your bonus?" +</P> + +<P> +"Two thousand two hundred and sixty," said Sam. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Mr. Westlake musingly; "not enough for control by two +hundred and forty one shares; so you won't mind, since you haven't +enough for control anyhow, if I take up that additional two hundred and +fifty shares of preferred, with its one hundred and twenty-five of +common, myself." +</P> + +<P> +Sam once more paused and glanced over the subscription list. As it +stood now, aside from Princeman, there were two members, Westlake and +Stevens, with whom, if he could get either one of them to do so, he +could pool his common stock. If he allowed Westlake to take up this +additional two hundred and fifty shares, Westlake was the only string +to his bow. +</P> + +<P> +"No, thanks," said Sam. "I prefer to keep them myself. It seems to me +to be a very fair and equitable division just as it is." +</P> + +<P> +In the end it stood just that way. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HERO OF THE HOUR +</H3> + + +<P> +On that very same afternoon, the youth and beauty, also the age and +wisdom, of both Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook, gathered around the ball +field of the former resort, to watch the Titanic struggle for victory +between the two picked nines. As Sam took his place behind the bat for +the first man up, who was Hollis, he felt his first touch of +self-confidence anent the strictly amusement features of summer +resorting. In all the other athletic pursuits he had been backward, +but here, as he smacked his fist in his glove, he felt at home. +</P> + +<P> +The only thing he did not like about it, as Princeman wound himself up +to deliver the first ball, was that Princeman had the position of +glory. On that gentleman the spotlight burned brightly all the time, +and if they won, he would be the hero of the hour; the modest, reliable +catcher would scarcely be thought of except by the men who knew the +finer points of the game, and it was not the men whom he had in mind. +Honestly and sincerely, he desired to shine before Miss Josephine +Stevens. She was over there at the edge of the field under an oak tree. +</P> + +<P> +Before her, cavorting for her amusement, were not only Princeman and +himself, but Billy Westlake and Hollis, each of them alert for action +at this moment; for now Princeman, with a mighty twirl upon his great +toe, released the ball. It never reached Sam Turner's hands; instead +it bounced off the bat with a "crack!" and sailed right down through +Billy Westlake, who, at second, made a frantic grab for it, and then it +spun out between center and right field, losing itself in the bushes, +while Hollis, amid the frantic cheers of the audience, which consisted +of Miss Josephine Stevens and several unconsidered other spectators, +tore around the circuit. His colleagues strove wildly to hold Hollis +at third, for the ball was found and was sailing over to that base. It +arrived there just as he did, but far over the head of the third +baseman, and fat, curly-haired Hollis, who looked like an ice wagon but +ran like a motorcycle, secured the first run for Hollis Creek. +</P> + +<P> +The next batter was up. Princeman, his confidence loftily unshaken, +gave a correct imitation of a pretzel and delivered the ball. The +batsman swung viciously at it. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! It landed in Sam's glove. +</P> + +<P> +"Strike one!" called the strident voice of Blackrock, who, jerking +himself back several years into youth again, was umpiring the game with +great joy. Nonchalantly Sam snapped the ball back over-hand. +Princeman smiled with calm superiority. He wound himself up. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! The ball had cut the plate and was in Sam's hands, while the +batsman stood looking earnestly at the path over which it had come. +</P> + +<P> +"Strike two!" called Blackstone. +</P> + +<P> +Sam jerked the ball back with an underwrist toss of great perfection. +Princeman drew himself up with smiling ease and posed a moment for the +edification of the on-lookers. Sam Turner was the very first to detect +the unbearable arrogance of that pose. Princeman eyed the batsman +critically, mercilessly even, and delivered the third fatal +plate-splitter. +</P> + +<P> +Z-z-z-ing! The sphere slammed right out through Billy Westlake, who +made a frantic grab for it. It bounded down between center and right +field, and the players bumped shoulders in trying to stop it. It +nestled among the bushes. The batsman tore around the bases. His +colleagues tried to hold him at third, for the ball was streaking in +that direction, but the batsman pawed straight on. The ball crossed +the base before he did, but it bounded between the third sacker's feet, +and score two was marked up for Hollis Creek, with nobody out! +</P> + +<P> +With undiminished confidence, though somewhat annoyed, Princeman made a +cute little knot of himself for the next batsman. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! The ball landed in Sam's glove, two feet wide of the plate. +</P> + +<P> +"Ball one!" called Blackstone. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! In Sam's glove again, with the batsman jumping back to save his +ribs. +</P> + +<P> +"Ball two!" cried Blackstone. +</P> + +<P> +Spat! +</P> + +<P> +"Ball three." +</P> + +<P> +"Put 'em over, Princeman!" yelled Billy Westlake from second. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be afraid of him! He couldn't hit it with a pillow!" jeered the +third baseman. +</P> + +<P> +In a calm, superior sort of way, Mr. Princeman smiled and shot over the +ball. +</P> + +<P> +"Four balls. Take your base!" said Mr. Blackstone, quite gently. +</P> + +<P> +Reassuringly Mr. Princeman smiled upon his supporters, consisting of +Miss Josephine Stevens and some other summer resorters, and proceeded +to take out his revenge upon the next batter. The first two lofts were +declared to be balls, and then Sam, catching his man playing too far +off, snapped the pill down to the nearest suburb and nailed the first +out. Encouraged by this, Princeman put over three successive strikes, +and there were two gone. The next batter up, however, laced out, for +two easy way-points, the first ball presented him. The next athlete +brought him in with a single, and the next one put down a three-bagger +which bored straight through Princeman and short stop and center field. +That inglorious inning ended with a brilliant throw of Sam's to Billy +Westlake at second, nipping a would-be thief who had hoped to purloin +the seventh tally for Hollis Creek. +</P> + +<P> +Billy Westlake, then taking the bat, increased the Meadow Brook +depression by slapping the soft summer air three vicious spanks and +retiring to think it over, and young Tilloughby bounced a feeble little +bunt square at the feet of Hollis and was tossed out at first by +something like six furlongs. The third batsman popped up a slow, lazy +foul which gave the catcher almost plenty of time to roll a cigarette +before it came down, and the Meadow Brook side was ignominiously +retired. Score, six to nothing at the end of the first. +</P> + +<P> +Princeman hit the first man up in the next inning and sent him down to +the initial bag, which was a flat stone, happily limping. He issued +free transportation to the next man and let the cripple hobble on to +second, chortling with glee. The third man went to the first station +on a measly little bunt with which Sam and Princeman and third base did +some neat and shifty foot work, and the next man up soaked out a Wright +Brothers beauty among the trees over beyond left field, and cleared the +bases amid the perfectly frantic rejoicing of the fickle Miss Josephine +Stevens and all the negligible balance of Hollis Creek. Oh, it was +disgraceful! Sam Turner ground his teeth in impotent rage. He walked +up to Princeman. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, old man," he pleaded. "We've just <I>got</I> to settle down! We +<I>must</I> pull this game out of the fire! We <I>can't</I> let Hollis Creek +walk away with it!" +</P> + +<P> +Princeman was pale, but clutched at his fast-slipping-away nonchalance +with the grip of desperation. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll hold them," he declared, and with careful deliberation he put +over a ball which the next batter sent sailing right down inside the +right foul line, pulling the first baseman away back almost to right +field. Princeman stood gaping at that bingle in paralyzed dismay; but +the batsman, who was a slow runner and slow thinker, stood a fatal +second to see whether the ball was fair or foul. Almost at the crack +of the bat Sam Turner started, raced down to first, caught the right +fielder's throw and stepped on the stone, one handsome stride ahead of +the runner! Then, as Blackrock, speechless with admiration, waved the +runner out, the first mighty howl went up from Meadow Brook, and one +partisan of the Hollis Creek nine, turning her back for the moment +squarely upon her own colors, led the cheering. Sam heard her voice. +It was a solo, while all the rest of the cheering was a faint +accompaniment, and with such elation as comes only to the heroes in +victorious battle, he trotted back to his place and caught three balls +and three strikes on the next batter. Also, the next one went out on a +pop fly which Sam was able to catch. +</P> + +<P> +In their half Princeman redeemed himself in part by a three bagger +which brought in two scores, and the second inning ended at ten to +three in favor of Hollis Creek. +</P> + +<P> +Confident and smiling, reinforced by the memory of his three bagger, +Princeman took the mount for the beginning of the third, and with his +compliments he suavely and politely presented a base to the first man +up. A groan arose from all Meadow Brook. The second batsman shot a +stinger to Princeman, who dropped it, and that batsman immediately +thereafter roosted on first, crowing triumphantly; but the hot liner +allowed Princeman a graceful opportunity. He complained of a badly +hurt finger on his pitching hand. He called time while he held that +injured member, and expressed in violent gestures the intolerable agony +of it. Bravely, however, he insisted upon "sticking it out," and +passed two wild ones up to the next willow wielder; then, having proved +his gameness, he nobly sacrificed himself for the good of Meadow Brook, +called time and asked for a substitute pitcher. He would go anywhere. +He would take the field or he would retire. What he wanted was Meadow +Brook to win. This was precisely what Sam Turner also wanted, and he +lost no time in calling, with ill-concealed satisfaction, upon his +brother Jack. Then Jack Turner, nothing loath, deserted his +comfortable seat by the side of Miss Josephine Stevens, and strode +forth to the mound, leaving the unfortunate Princeman to take his place +by the side of Miss Stevens and give her an opportunity to sympathize +with his poor maimed pitching hand, which, after a perfunctory moment +of interest, she was too busy to do; for Jack Turner and Sam Turner, +smiling across at each other in mutual confidence and esteem, proceeded +to strike out the next three batters in succession, leaving men +cemented to first and second bases, where they had been wildly +imploring for opportunities to tear themselves loose. +</P> + +<P> +What need to tell of the balance of that game; of the calm, easy, +one-two-three work of the invincible Turner battery; of the brilliant +base throwing and fielding of Turner and Turner, and their mighty swats +when they came to bat? You know how the game turned out. Anybody +would know. It ended in a triumph for Meadow Brook at the end of the +seventh inning, which is all any summer resort game ever goes, and two +innings more than most, by a total and glorious score of twenty-one to +seventeen. And who were the heroes of the hour, as smilingly but +modestly they strode from the diamond? Who, indeed, but Jack Turner +and Sam Turner; and by token of their victory, after receiving the +frenzied plaudits of all Meadow Brook and the generous plaudits of all +Hollis Creek, they marched in triumph from the field, one on either +side of Miss Josephine Stevens! Where now were Hollis and Princeman +and Billy Westlake? Nowhere! They were forgotten of men, ignored of +women, and the laurels of sweet victory rested upon the brow of busy +Sam Turner! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AN INTERRUPTED BUT PROPERLY FINISHED <BR> +PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE +</H3> + + +<P> +Jack's first opportunity for a quiet talk with his brother did not +occur for an hour after the game. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't like to worry you while you're resting, Sam," he began, "but +I'll have to tell you that the Flatbush deal seems likely to drop +through. It reaches a head to-morrow, you know." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-224"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-224.jpg" ALT=""I don't like to worry you, Sam"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="404" HEIGHT="604"> +<H3> +[Illustration: "I don't like to worry you, Sam"] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Sam Turner grabbed for his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"It can't drop through!" he vigorously declared. "I'll go right up +there to-night and look after it." +</P> + +<P> +"But you're on your vacation," protested Jack. "That's no way to rest." +</P> + +<P> +"On my vacation!" snorted Sam. "Of course I am. I'm not losing a +minute of my vacation. The proper way to have a vacation is to do the +thing you enjoy most. Don't you suppose I'll enjoy closing that +Flatbush deal?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," admitted his brother, "and I'll enjoy seeing you do it. I +know you can." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I can. But you're to stay here." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not my turn for an outing," protested Jack. "I haven't earned +one yet." +</P> + +<P> +"You're to work," explained Sam. "You see, Jack, in one week I can't +become a bowling or golf expert enough to beat Princeman, nor a tennis +or dancing expert enough to outshine Billy Westlake, nor a horseback or +croquet expert enough to make a deuce out of Hollis. You can do all +these things, and I want you to give this crowd of distinguished +amateurs a showing up. Jack, if you ever worked for athletic honors in +your life now is the time to do it; and in between time stick to Miss +Stevens like glue. Monopolize her. Don't give these three or any +other contenders any of her time. Keep her busy. Let me know every +day what progress you're making; don't stop to write; wire! For +remember, Jack, I'm going to marry her. I've got to." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then you'll marry her," Jack sagely concluded. "Does she know +it yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think she's quite sure of it," returned Sam with careful +analysis. "Of course she's thought about it. Sometimes she thinks she +won't, and sometimes she thinks she will, and sometimes she isn't quite +sure whether she will or not. Don't you worry about that part, though, +and don't bother to boost me. Just quietly you take the shine out of +these summer champions and leave the rest to your brother Sam." +</P> + +<P> +"Fine," agreed Jack. "Run right along and sell your papers, Sammy, and +I'll wire you every time I put over a point." +</P> + +<P> +Sam hunted and found Miss Josephine. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry I have to take a run back to New York for two or three +days," he said. +</P> + +<P> +She bent upon him a glance of amusement; the old glance of mingled +amusement and mischief. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you were on your vacation," she observed. +</P> + +<P> +"And I am," he insisted. "I've been having a bully time, and I'll come +back here to finish up the couple of days I have left." +</P> + +<P> +"Then the drive which didn't count this morning, and which was +postponed again until to-morrow morning, will have to be put off once +more," she reminded him with a gay laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"By George, that's so!" he exclaimed. "In all the excitement it had +quite slipped my mind." +</P> + +<P> +"I presume you're going up on business," she slyly observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am," he admitted. +</P> + +<P> +She laughed and gave him her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I wish you good luck," she said. "I hope you make all the money +in the world. But you won't forget us who are down here in the country +dawdling away our time in useless amusements." +</P> + +<P> +"Forget you!" he returned impetuously. "Never for a minute!" and he +was in such deadly earnest about it that she hastily checked further +speech, although she did not know why. +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" she hurriedly exclaimed. "I'm glad you will bear us in mind +while you're gone. Are you going to take your brother along?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said with a smile. "I'm putting him in as my vacation +substitute, and I'll give him special instructions to call you up every +morning for orders. You'll find him in perfect discipline. He'll do +whatever you tell him." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall give him a thorough trial," she laughed. "I never yet had +anybody to come and go abjectly at the word of command, and I think it +will be a delightful novelty." +</P> + +<P> +Jack approaching just then, she took his arm quite comfortably. +</P> + +<P> +"Your brother tells me that during his absence you are to be my chief +aide and attaché," she advised that young man gaily; "that you'll fetch +and carry and do what I tell you; and the first thing you must do is to +call for me when you take Mr. Turner to the train." +</P> + +<P> +It is glorious to part so pleasantly as that from people you have +persistently in mind, and Sam, with such cheerful recollections, +enjoyed his vacation to the full as he did new and brilliant and +unexpected things in closing up the Flatbush deal, keeping, in the +meantime, in constant touch with his office and with such telegrams as +these: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Established new tennis record this morning Westlake nowhere and has +been snubbed do not know why." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Bowled two eighty five last night against Princeman two twenty am +teaching her." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Danced six dances out of twelve with her says I'm better dancer than +Billy Westlake." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Jumped Hollis Creek after her hat on horseback this afternoon Hollis +dared not follow am to give her riding lessons." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Then came this one: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Her father just told me she refused Princeman last night she will not +talk to Hollis and scarcely to me is dull and does not eat I beat all +entries in ten mile Marathon today and she hardly applauded wire +instructions." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Sam Turner took the next train. One look at Miss Stevens, after he had +traveled two years to reach Restview, made him suddenly intoxicated, +for in her eyes there was ravenous hunger for him and he read it, and +feeling rather sure of his ground he determined that now was the time +to strike. With that decisive end in view he dropped Jack at Meadow +Brook and went right on over to Hollis Creek with Miss Josephine. Of +course there was no chance to talk quite intimately, with Henry up +there ahead listening with all his ears, but there was every chance in +the world to look into her eyes and grow delirious; to touch elbows; to +look again and gaze deep into her eyes and see her turn away startled +and half frightened; to say perfunctory things which meant nothing and +everything, and receive perfunctory answers which meant as little and +as much; but before they had arrived at Hollis Creek Sam was frankly +and boldly holding her hand and she was letting him do it, and they +were both of them profoundly happy and profoundly silly, and would just +as leave have ridden on that way for ever. +</P> + +<P> +Words seemed superfluous, but yet they were more or less necessary, so +Sam got out at Hollis Creek Inn with her, and led the way determinedly +and directly into the stuffy little parlor just off the main assembly +room. He saw Mr. Stevens in the door of the post-office, but only +nodded to him, and then he drew Miss Josephine into the corner freest +from observation. +</P> + +<P> +"You know why I came back," he informed her, fixing her with a masterly +eye; "I had to see you again. My whole life is changed since I met +you. I need you. I can not do without you. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Beg your pardon, Sam," said Mr. Stevens, appearing suddenly in the +doorway, and then he paused, much more confused even than the young +people, for Sam was holding both Miss Josephine's hands and gazing down +at her with an earnestness which, if harnessed, would have driven a +four-ton dynamo; and she was gazing up at him just as earnestly, with +an entirely breathless, but by no means displeased expression. +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-230"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-230.jpg" ALT=""Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens." BORDER="2" WIDTH="604" HEIGHT="399"> +<H3> +[Illustration: "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +It was Miss Josephine who first found her aplomb. She smiled her rare +smile of mingled amusement and mischief at Sam, and then at her father. +</P> + +<P> +"You're quite excusable, I guess, father," she said sweetly. "What is +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, your brother Jack just called you up from Meadow Brook, Sam, and +wants to tell you something immediately," stammered Mr. Stevens, +plucking at a beard which in that moment seemed to have lost all its +aggressiveness. "He called twice before you arrived, and is on the +'phone now." +</P> + +<P> +Sam, as he walked to the telephone, had time to find that his heart was +beating a tattoo against his ribs, that his breath was short and +fluttery, and that stage fright had suddenly crept over him and claimed +him for its own; so it was with no great patience or understanding that +he heard Jack tell him in great glee about some tests which Princeman +had had made in his own paper mills with the marsh pulp, and how +Princeman was sorry he had not taken more stock, and could not the +treasury stock be opened for further subscription? "Tell him no," said +Sam shortly, and hung up the receiver; then he repented of his +bluntness and spent five precious minutes in recalling his brother and +apologizing for his bruskness, explaining that Princeman was probably +trying to plan another attempt to pool the stock. +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime Theophilus Stevens had stood surveying his daughter in +contrition. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I came in at a most inopportune moment," he said by way of +apology. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I'm afraid you did," she admitted with a smile. "However, I +don't think Sam will forget what he wanted to say," and suddenly she +reached up and put her arms around her father's neck and drew his face +down and kissed him rapturously. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to see you feel the way you do about it," said Mr. Stevens +delightedly, petting her gently upon the shoulder with one hand and +with the other smoothing back the hair from her forehead. She was the +dearest to him of all his children, although he never confessed it, +even to himself, and just now they were very, very close together +indeed. "I'm glad to hear you call him Sam, too. He's a fine young +man and he is bound to be a howling success in everything he +undertakes." He smiled reminiscently. "I rather thought there was +something between you two," he went on, still patting her shoulder, +"and when Dan Westlake told me that his girl thought a great deal of +Sam and that he was going to buy enough stock in Sam's company to give +Sam control, I turned right around and bought just as much stock as +Westlake had, although just before the meeting I had refused to invest +as much money as Sam wanted me to. Moreover, Westlake and myself, +between us, stopped the move to pool the outside stock, just yet. He's +a smart young man, that boy," he continued admiringly. "I didn't see, +until I went into that meeting, why he was so crazy to have me buy +enough stock to gain control— What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +He stopped in perplexity, for his daughter, looking aghast at him, had +pushed back from his embrace and was regarding him with perfectly round +eyes, while over her face, at first pale, there gradually crept a +crimson flush. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, of all things!" she gasped. "Of all the cold-blooded, cruel, +barter-and-sale proceedings! Why, father, how—how could you! How +could he! I never in all my life—" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Jo, what do you mean? What's the trouble?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't understand I can't make you," she said helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll be—busted!" observed Mr. Stevens under his breath. +</P> + +<P> +To his infinite relief Sam came in just then, and Mr. Stevens, +wondering what he had done now, slipped hastily out of the room. Mr. +Turner, coming from the bright office into the dim room and innocent of +any change in the atmosphere, approached confidently and eagerly to +Miss Josephine with both hands extended, but she stepped back most +indignantly. +</P> + +<P> +"You need not finish what you were going to say!" she warned him. "My +father has just given me some information which changes the entire +aspect of affairs. I am not a part of a business bargain! I refuse to +be regarded as a commercial proposition! I heard something from Mr. +Princeman of what desperate efforts you were making to secure the +command, whatever that may be, of the—of the stock—board—of shares +in your new company, but I did not think you would go to such lengths +as this!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, my dear girl," began Sam, shocked. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not your dear girl and I never shall be," she told him, and +angrily dabbed at some sudden tears. "I never was. I was only a +business possibility." +</P> + +<P> +"That's unjust," he charged her. "I don't see how you could accuse me +of regarding you in any other way than as the dearest and the sweetest +and the most beautiful girl in all the world, the wisest and the most +sensible, the most faithful, the most charming, the most delightful, +the most everything that is desirable." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait just a moment," she told him, very coldly indeed; with almost +extravagant coldness, in fact, as she beat out of her consciousness the +enticing epithets he had bestowed upon her. "Do you mean to say that +never in your calculations did you consider that if you married me my +father would vote his stock with yours—I believe that's the way he +puts it—and give you command or whatever it is of your company?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," considered Sam, brought to a standstill and put straight upon +his honor, "I can't deny that it did seem to me a very satisfactory +thing that my father-in-law should own enough stock in the company—" +</P> + +<P> +"That will do," she interrupted him icily. "That is precisely what I +have charged. We will consider this subject as ended, Mr. Turner; as +one never to be referred to again." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll do nothing of the sort," returned Sam flat-footedly. "I've been +composing this speech for the last two weeks and I'm going to deliver +it. I'm not going to have it wasted. I've unconsciously been +rehearsing it every place I went. Even up in Flatbush, showing a man +the superior advantages of that yellow-mud district, I found myself +repeating sentence number twelve. It's been the first thing I thought +of in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night. It's been +with me all day, riding and walking and talking and eating and drinking +and just breathing. Now I'm going to go through with it. +</P> + +<P> +"I—I—confound it all! I've forgotten how I was going to say it now! +After all, though, it only amounted to this: I love you! I want you to +know it and understand it. I love you and love you and love you! I +never loved any woman before in my life. I never had time. I didn't +know what it was like. If I had I'd have fought it off until I met +you, because I could not afford it for anybody short of you. It takes +my whole attention. It distracts my mind entirely from other things. +I can't think of anything else consecutively and connectedly. I—I'm +sorry you take the attitude you do about this thing, but—I'm not going +to accept your viewpoint. You've got to look at this thing differently +to understand it. +</P> + +<P> +"I know you've been glad I loved you. You were glad the first day we +met, and you always will be glad! Whatever you have to say about it +just now don't count. I'm going to let you alone a while to think it +over, and then I'm coming back to tell you more about it," and with +that Sam stalked from the room, leaving Miss Josephine Stevens gasping, +dazed, quite sure that he was unforgivable, indignant with everything, +still rankling, in spite of all Sam had said, with the thought that she +had been made a mere part of a commercial transaction. Why, it was +like those barbarous countries she had read about, where wives are +bought and sold! Preposterous and unbearable! +</P> + +<P> +While she was in this storm of mixed emotions her father came in upon +her, this time seriously perplexed. +</P> + +<P> +"What has happened to Sam Turner?" he demanded. "He slammed out of the +house, passed me on the porch with only a grunt, and jumped into his +automobile. You must have done something to anger him." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope that I did!" she retorted with spirit. "I refused to marry +him." +</P> + +<P> +"You did!" he returned in surprise. "Why, I thought it was all cut and +dried between you." +</P> + +<P> +"It was until you blundered into us and spoiled everything," she +charged. "But I'm glad you did. You let me know that Sam Turner +wanted to marry me because you had bought shares enough in his company +to give him the advantage. I'm ashamed of you and ashamed of Sam—of +Mr. Turner—and ashamed of myself. Why, you make a bargain-counter +remnant of me! I never, <I>never</I> was so humiliated!" +</P> + +<P> +"Poor child!" her father blandly sympathized. "Also, poor Sam. By the +way, though, he doesn't need you to secure control of his company. Dan +Westlake, as I told you, has bought enough stock to do the work, and +Miss Westlake would marry him in a minute. If Sam wants control of his +company, he only has to go to her and say the word." +</P> + +<P> +"Father!" exclaimed his daughter with stern indignation. "I don't see +how you can even suggest that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Suggest what? Now, what have I said?" +</P> + +<P> +"That Sam—that Mr. Turner would even dream of marrying that Westlake +girl, just in order to get the better of a business transaction," and +very much to Theophilus Stevens' surprise and consternation and dismay, +she suddenly crumpled up in a heap in her chair and burst out crying. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll be busted!" her father muttered into his beard. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SHE CALLS HIM SAM! +</H3> + + +<P> +Miss Josephine, finding all ordinary occupations stale, unprofitable +and wearisome on the following morning, and finding herself, moreover, +possessed of a restless spirit which urged her to do something or other +and yet recoiled at each suggestion she made it, started out quite +aimlessly to walk by herself. She walked in the direction of Meadow +Brook. The paths in that direction were so much prettier. +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner, finding all other occupations stale, unprofitable and +wearisome, at the same moment started out to walk by himself, going in +the direction of Hollis Creek because that was the exact direction in +which he wanted to go. As he walked much more rapidly than Miss +Stevens, he arrived midway of the distance before she did, but at the +valley where the unnamed stream came rippling down he paused. +</P> + +<P> +He had looked often at this little hollow as he had passed it, and +every time he had looked upon it he seemed to have an idea of some sort +in the back of his head regarding it; a dim, unformed, fugitive sort of +idea which had never asserted itself very prominently because he had +been too busy to listen to its rather timid voice. +</P> + +<P> +Just now, however, the idea suddenly struggled to make itself loudly +known, whereupon Sam bade it come forth. Given hearing it proved to be +a very pleasant idea, and a forceful one as well; so much so that it +even checked the speed with which Sam had set out for Hollis Creek. He +looked calculatingly across the road to where the little stream went +flashing from under its wooden bridge across the field and hid around a +curve behind some bushes, then reappeared, dancing in the sunlight, +until finally it plunged among some far trees and was lost to him. He +gazed up the stream. He had not very far to look, for there it ran +down between two quite steep hills, through a sort of pocket valley, +closed or almost closed, at the upper end, by another hill equally +steep, its waters being augmented by a leaping little stream from a +strong spring hidden away somewhere in the hill to the left. +</P> + +<P> +As his eyes calculatingly swept stream and hills, they suddenly caught +a flutter of white through the trees, and it was coming down the +winding path which led across the hills to Hollis Creek. As it emerged +more from the concealment of the leaves his blood gave a leap, for the +flutter of white was a gown inclosing the unmistakable figure of Miss +Josephine Stevens. The whole valley suddenly seemed radiant. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello!" he called to her as she approached. "I didn't expect to find +you here." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not expect to be here," she laughed. "I just started out for a +stroll and happened to land in this beautiful spot." +</P> + +<P> +"Beautiful is no name for it," he replied with sudden vast enthusiasm, +and ran up the path to help her down over a steep place. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment, in the wonderful mystery of the touch of her hand and the +joy of her presence, he forgot everything else. What was this strange +phenomenon, by which the mere presence of one particular person filled +all the air with a tingling glow? Marvelous, that's what it was! If +Miss Josephine had any of the same wonder she was extremely careful not +to express it, nor let it show, especially after yesterday's +conversation, so she immediately talked of other things; and the first +thing which came handy was another reference to the beautiful valley. +</P> + +<P> +"You know, it is a wonder to me," she said, "that no one has built a +summer resort here. I think it ever so much more charming than either +Hollis Creek or Meadow Brook." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you believe in telepathy?" asked Sam, almost startled. "I do. It +hasn't been but a few minutes since that identical idea popped into my +head, and I had just now decided that if I could secure options on this +property I would have a real summer resort here—one that would make +Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook mere farm boarding-houses. Do you see +how close together these hills draw at their feet? The hollow is at +least a thousand feet across at the widest part, but down there at the +road, where the stream emerges to the fields, they close in with +natural buttresses, as it were, to not over a hundred feet in width. +Well, right across there we'll build a dam, and there is enough water +here to make a beautiful lake up as high as that yellow rock." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Josephine looked up at the yellow rock and clasped her hands with +an exclamation of delight. +</P> + +<P> +"Glorious!" she said. "I never would have thought of that; and how +beautiful it will be! Why, if the lake comes up that high it will go +clear back around that turn in the valley, won't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Easily," he replied; "although that might make us trouble, for I don't +know where that turn in the valley leads. I have never explored that +region. Suppose we go up and look it over." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't that be fun?" she agreed, and they started to follow the stream. +</P> + +<P> +As they reached the rear of the "pocket," where they could see around +the curve, they turned and looked back over the route they had just +traversed. +</P> + +<P> +"My idea," Sam explained, having waited until they reached this +viewpoint to do so, "is to build the dam down there at the roadside, +and build the hotel right over it so that arriving guests will, after +an elevator has brought them up to the height of the main floor, find +the blue of the lake suddenly bursting upon them from the main piazza, +which will face the valley. All of the inside rooms will, of course, +have hanging balconies looking out over the water." +</P> + +<P> +"Perfectly ideal!" she agreed, her enthusiasm growing. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'd better investigate the curve of the valley," he decided, +studying the path carefully. "It seems rather rough for you, and I'll +go alone. All I want to see is how far the water height will carry +around there, and if it will become necessary to build a dam at the +other end." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it isn't too rough for me," she declared immediately. "I am an +excellent climber," and together they started to explore the now +narrowing valley, following the stream over steep rocks and fallen +trees, and pushing through tangled undergrowth and among briers and +bushes and around slippery banks until they came to another tortuous +turn, where a second spring, welling up from under a flat, overhanging +rock, tumbled down to augment the supply for the future lake; and here +they stopped and had a drink of the cool, delicious water, Sam making +the girl a cup from a huge leaf which she said made the water taste +fuzzy, and then showing her how to get down on her hands and +knees—spreading his coat on the ground to protect her gown—and drink +<I>au naturel</I>, a trick at which she was most charming, and probably knew +it. +</P> + +<P> +The valley here had grown most narrow, but they followed the now very +small stream around one sharp curve after another until they found its +source, which was still another spring, and here there was no more +valley; but a cleft in the hill to the right, which they suddenly came +upon, gave them an exquisite view out over the beautiful low-lying +country, miles in extent, which lay between this and the next range of +hills; a delightful vista dotted with green farms and white farm-houses +and smiling streams and waving trees and grazing cattle. They stopped +in awe at the beauty of it and looked out over the valley in silence; +and unconsciously the girl slipped her hand within the arm of the man! +</P> + +<P> +"Just imagine a sunset out over there," he said. "You see those fleecy +clouds that are out there now. If clouds like those are still there +when the sun goes down, they will be a fleet of pearl-gray vessels, +with carmine keels, upon a sea of gold." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced at him quickly, but she did not express her marvel that +this man had so many sides. Before she could comment, and while she +was still framing some way to express her appreciation of his gentler +gifts, he returned briskly to practical things. +</P> + +<P> +"Our lake will scarcely come up to this point," he judged. "I don't +think that at any point it will be high enough to cover the springs. +We don't want it to if we can help it, for that would destroy some of +the beauty of it. Have you noticed that our lake will be much like a +kite in shape, with this winding ravine the tail of it. We'll have to +take in a lot of acreage to cover this property, but it will be worth +it. I'm going to look after options right away. I'm glad now I had +already decided to stay another two weeks." +</P> + +<P> +Of course she was still angry with Sam, she reminded herself, but she +was inexpressibly glad, somehow or other, to find that he was intending +to stay two weeks longer, and was startled as she recognized that fact. +</P> + +<P> +"It will take a lot of money, won't it, to build a hotel here?" she +asked, getting away from certain troublesome thoughts as quickly as she +could. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it will take a great deal," he admitted, as they turned to +scramble down the ravine again. "I should judge, however, that about +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would finance it." +</P> + +<P> +"But I thought, from something father once said, that you did not have +so much money as that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless you, no!" replied Sam, smiling. "No indeed! I've enough to +cover an option on this property and that's about all, now, since I'm +tangled up so deeply with my Pulp Company, but I figure that I can make +a quick turn on this property to help me out on the other thing. What +I'll do," he explained, "is to get this option first of all, and then +have some plans drawn, including a nice perspective view of the +hotel—a water-color sketch, you know, showing the building fronting +the lake—and upon that build a prospectus to get up the stock company. +I'll take stock for my control of the land and for my services in +promotion. Then I'll sell my stock and get out. I ought to make the +turn in two or three months and come out fifteen, or possibly twenty or +twenty-five thousand dollars to the good. It is a nice, big scheme." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she said blankly, "then you wouldn't actually build a hotel +yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hardly," he returned. "I'll be content to make the profit out of +promoting it that I'd make in the first four or five years of running +the place." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," she said musingly; "and you'd get this up just like you formed +your Marsh Pulp Company, I think father called it, and of course you'd +try to get—what is it?—oh, yes; control." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled at her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd scarcely look for that in this deal," he explained. "If I can +just get a nice slice of promotion stock and sell it I shall be quite +well satisfied." +</P> + +<P> +She bent puzzled brows over this new problem. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't quite understand how you can do it," she confessed, "but of +course you know how. You're used to these things. Father says you're +very good at promoting." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the way I've made all my money, or rather what little I have," +he told her, modestly enough. "I expect this Pulp Company, however, to +lift me out of that, for a few years at least; then when I come back +into the promoting field I can go after things on a big scale. The +Pulp Company ought to make me a lot of money if I can just keep it in +my own hands," and involuntarily he sighed. +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him musingly for a moment, and was about to say +something, but thought better of it and said something else. +</P> + +<P> +"The tail of your kite will be almost a perfect letter 'S'," she +observed. "How beautiful it will be; the big, broad lake out there in +the main valley, and then the nice, little, secluded, twisty waterway +back in through here; a regular lover's lane of a waterway, as it were. +I don't suppose these springs have any names. They must be named, +and—why, we haven't even named the lake!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we have," he quickly returned. "I'm going to call it Lake +Josephine." +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't asked my permission for that," she objected with mock +severity. +</P> + +<P> +"There are plenty of Josephines in the world," he calmly observed. +"Nobody has a copyright on the name, you know." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled, as one sure of her ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but you wouldn't call it that, if I were to object seriously." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I guess I wouldn't," he gave up; "but you're not going to object +seriously, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll think it over," she said. +</P> + +<P> +They were now making their way along a bank that was too difficult of +travel to allow much conversation, though it did allow some delicious +helping, but when they came out into the main valley where they could +again look down on the road, they paused to survey the course over +which they had just come, and to appreciate to the full the beauty of +Sam's plan. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe I quite like your idea of the hotel built down there +at the roadside," she objected as they sat on a huge boulder to rest. +"It cuts off the view of the lake from passers-by, and I should think +it would be the best advertisement you could have for everybody who +drove past there to say: 'Oh, what a pretty place!' Now I should think +that right about here where we are sitting would be the proper location +for your hotel. Just think how the lake and the building would look +from the road. Right here would be a broad porch jutting out over the +water, giving a view down that first bend of the kite tail, and back of +the hotel would be this big hill and all the trees, and hills and trees +would spread out each side of it, sort of open armed, as it were, +welcoming people in." +</P> + +<P> +"It couldn't be seen, though," objected Sam. "The dam down there would +necessarily be about thirty feet high at the center, and people driving +along the roadway would not be able to see the water at all. They +would only see the blank wall of the dam. Of course we could soften +that by building the dam back a few feet from the roadway, making an +embankment and covering that with turf, or possibly shrubbery or +flowers, but still the water would not be visible, nor the hotel!" +</P> + +<P> +"I see," she said slowly. +</P> + +<P> +They both studied that objection in silence for quite a little while. +Then she suddenly and excitedly ejaculated: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Sam</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +He jumped, and he thrilled all through. She had called him Sam +entirely unconsciously, which showed that she had been thinking of him +by that familiar name. With the exclamation had come sparkling eyes +and heightened color, not due to having used the word, but due to a +bright thought, and he almost lost his sense of logic in considering +the delightful combination. It occurred to him, however, that it would +be very unwise for him to call attention to her slip of the tongue, or +even to give her time to think and recognize it herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Another idea?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed yes," she asserted, "and this time I know it's feasible. I +don't know much about measurements in feet and inches, but there are +three feet in a yard." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, doesn't the road down there, from hill to hill, dip about ten +yards?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well then, that's thirty feet, just as high as you say the dam will +have to be. Why not raise the road itself thirty feet, letting it be +level and just as high as your dam?" +</P> + +<P> +Sam rose and solemnly shook hands with her. +</P> + +<P> +"You must come into the firm," he declared. "That solves the entire +problem. We'll run a culvert underneath there to the fields. The road +will reinforce the dam and the edge of the dam will be entirely +concealed. It will be merely a retaining wall with a nice stone +coping, which will be repeated on the field side. There will be no +objection from the county commissioners, because we shall improve the +road by taking two steep hills out of it. Your plan is much better +than mine. I can see myself, for instance, driving along that road on +my way to Hollis Creek from Restview, looking over that beautiful +little lake to the hotel beyond, and saying to myself: 'Well, next +summer I won't stop at Hollis Creek. I'll stop at Lake Jo.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought it was to be Lake Josephine," she interposed. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so too," he agreed, "but Lake Jo just slipped out. It seems +so much better. Lake Jo! That would look fine on a prospectus." +</P> + +<P> +"You'd print the cover of it in blue and gold, I suppose, wouldn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"There would need to be a splash of brown-red in it," he reminded her, +considering color schemes for a moment. "The roof of the hotel would, +of course, be red tile. We'd build it fireproof. There is plenty of +gray stone around here, and we'd build it of native rock." +</P> + +<P> +"And then," she went on, in the full swing of their idea, "think of the +beautiful walks and climbs you could have among these hills; and the +driveway! Your approach to the hotel would come around the dam and up +that hill, would wind up through those trees and rocks, and right here +at the bend of the ravine it would cross the thick part of the kite +tail to the hotel on a quaint rustic bridge; and as people arrived and +departed you'd hear the clatter of the horses' hoofs." +</P> + +<P> +"Great!" he exclaimed, catching her enthusiasm and with it augmenting +his own, "and guests leaving would first wave good-by at the +porte-cochère just about where we are sitting. They'd clatter across +the bridge, with their friends on the porch still fluttering +handkerchiefs after them; they'd disappear into the trees over yonder +and around through that cleft in the rocks. And see; on the other side +of the cleft there is a little tableland which juts out, and the road +would wind over that, where carriages would once more be seen from the +hotel porch. Then they'd twist in through the trees again down the +winding driveway, and once more, for the very last glimpse, come into +view as they went across our new road in front of the lake; and there +the last flutter of handkerchiefs would be seen. You know it's silly +to stand and wave your friends out of sight for a long distance when +they're always in view, but if the view is interrupted two or three +times it relieves the monotony." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SAM TURNER ACQUIRES A BUSINESS PARTNER +</H3> + + +<P> +They followed the stream down to the road, at every step gaging with +the eye the height of the lake and judging the altered scenic view from +the level of the water. There would be room for dozens and dozens of +boats upon that surface without interference. Sam calculated that from +the upper spring there would be headway enough to run a small fountain +in the center, surrounded by a pond-lily bed which would be kept in +place by a stone curbing. In the hill to the right there was a deep +indenture. Back in there would go the bathing pavilions. They even +went up to look at it, and were delighted to find a natural, shallow +bowl. By cementing the floor of that bowl they could have a splendid +swimming-pool for timid bathers, where they could not go beyond their +depth; and it was entirely surrounded by a thick screen of shrubbery. +Oh, it was delightful; it was perfect! At the road they looked back up +over the valley again. It was no longer a valley. It was a lake. +They could see the water there. Sam drew from his pocket a pencil and +an envelope. +</P> + +<P> +"The hotel will have to be long and tall," he observed, "for there will +not be much room on that ledge, from front to back. The building will +stretch out quite a ways. Three or four hundred feet long it will be, +and about five stories in height," and taking a letter from the +envelope, he sat down upon a fallen log and began rapidly to sketch. +</P> + +<P> +He drew the hotel with wide-spreading Spanish roofs and balconies, and +a wide porch with rippling water in front of it, and rowboats and +people in them; and behind the hotel rose the broken sky-line of the +hills and the trees, with an indication of fleecy clouds above. It was +just a light sketch, a sort of shorthand picture, as it were, and yet +it seemed full of sunlight and of atmosphere. +</P> + +<P> +"I hadn't any idea you could draw like that," she exclaimed in +admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"I do a little of everything, I think, but nothing perfectly," he +admitted with some regret. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me you do everything excellently," she objected quite +seriously; and she was, in fact, deeply impressed. +</P> + +<P> +He walked over to the stream, a trifle confused, but not displeased, by +any means, by the earnestness of her compliment. +</P> + +<P> +"I must have the water analyzed to see if it has any medicinal virtue," +he said. "The spring out of which we drank has a sweetish-like taste, +but the water here—" and he caught up some of it in his hand and +tasted it, "seems to be slightly salt." +</P> + +<P> +He had left her sitting on the log with the sketch in her lap. Now the +sketch fluttered to the ground and the letter turned over, right side +up. It was a letter which Sam had written to his brother Jack and had +not mailed because he had suddenly decided to come down to the scene of +action. As she stooped over to pick it up her eyes caught the +sentence: "I love her, Jack, more than I can tell you, more than I can +tell anybody, more than I can tell myself. It's the most important, +the most stupendous thing—" She hastily turned that letter over and +was very careful to have it lying upon her lap, back upward, exactly as +he had left it there, and when he came back she was very, very careful +indeed to hand it nonchalantly over to him, with the sketch uppermost. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," he said, looking around him comprehensively, "this is only +a day-dream, so far. It may be impossible to realize it." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" she asked, instantly concerned. "This project <I>must</I> be carried +through! It is already as good as completed. It just must be done. I +never before had a hand, even in a remote way, in planning a big thing, +and I couldn't bear not to see this done. What is to prevent it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I may not be able to get the land," returned Sam soberly. "It is +probably owned by half a dozen people, and one or more of them is +certain to want exorbitant prices for it." +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly can't be very valuable," she protested. "It isn't fit +for anything, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"For nothing but the building of Lake Jo," he agreed. "Right now it is +worthless, but the minute anybody found out I wanted it it would become +extremely valuable. The only way to do would be to see everybody at +once and close the options before they could get to talking it over +among themselves." +</P> + +<P> +"What time is it?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Ten-thirty," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Then let's go and see all these people right away," she urged, jumping +to her feet. +</P> + +<P> +He smiled at her enthusiasm, but he was none loath to accept her +suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he agreed. "I wish they had telephones here in the woods. +We'll simply have to walk over to Meadow Brook and get an auto." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on," she said energetically, and they started out on the road. +They had not gone far, however, when young Tilloughby, with Miss +Westlake, overtook them in a trap. He reined up, and Miss Westlake +greeted the pedestrians with frigid courtesy. Jack Turner had +accidentally dropped her a hint. Now that she had begun to appreciate +Mr. Tilloughby—Bob—at his true value, she wondered what she had ever +seen in Sam Turner—and she never had liked Josephine Stevens! +</P> + +<P> +"Gug-gug-gug-glorious day, isn't it?" observed Tilloughby, his face +glowing with joy. +</P> + +<P> +"Fine," agreed Sam with enthusiasm. "There never was a more glorious +day in all the world. You've just come along in time to save our +lives, Tilloughby. Which way are you bound?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-we had intended to go around Bald Hill." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, postpone that for a few minutes, won't you, Tilloughby, like a +good fellow? Trot back to Meadow Brook and send an auto out here for +us. Get Henry, by all means, to drive it." +</P> + +<P> +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-with pleasure," replied Tilloughby, wondering at this +strange whim, but restraining his curiosity like a thoroughbred. +"Huh-huh-huh-Henry shall be back here for you in a jiffy," and he drove +off in a cloud of dust. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Stevens surveyed the retiring trap in satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," she exclaimed. "I already feel as though we were doing +something to save Lake Jo." +</P> + +<P> +They walked back quite contentedly to the valley and surveyed it anew, +there resting now on both of them a sense of almost prideful +possession. They discovered a high point on which a rustic observatory +could be built; they planned paths and trails; they found where the +water-line came just under an overhanging rock which would make a cave +large enough for three or four boats to scurry under out of the rain. +They found delightful surprises all along the bank of the future lake, +and Miss Stevens declared that when the dam was built and the lake +began to fill, she never intended to leave it except for meals, until +it was up to the level at which they would permit the overflow to be +opened. +</P> + +<P> +Henry, returning with the automobile, found them far up in the valley +discussing a floating band pavilion, but they came down quickly enough +when they saw him, and scrambled into the tonneau with the haste of +small children. Henry watched them take their places with smiling +affection. He had not only had good tips but pleasant words from Sam, +and Miss Stevens was her own incentive to good wishes and good will. +</P> + +<P> +"Henry," said Sam, "we want to drive around to see the people who own +this land." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, shucks," said Henry, disappointed. "I can't drive you there. The +man that owns all this land lives in New York." +</P> + +<P> +"In New York!" repeated Sam in dismay. "What would anybody in New York +want with this?" +</P> + +<P> +"The fellow that bought it got it about ten years ago," Henry informed +them. "He was going to build a big country house, back up there in the +hills, I understand, and raise deer to shoot at, and things like that; +got an architect to make him plans for house and stables and all +costing hundreds of thousands of dollars; but before he could break +ground on it him and his wife had a spat and got a divorce. He tried +to sell the land back again to the people he bought it from, but they +wouldn't take it at any price. They were glad to be shut of it and +none of his rich friends wanted to buy it after that, because, they +said, there were so many of those cheap summer resorts around here." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Sam musingly. "You don't happen to know the man's name, +do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dickson, I think it was. Henry Dickson. I remember his first name +because it was the same as mine." +</P> + +<P> +"Great!" exclaimed Sam, overjoyed. "Why, I know Henry Dickson like a +book. I've engineered several deals for him. He's a mighty good +friend of mine too. That simplifies matters. Drive us right over to +Hollis Creek." +</P> + +<P> +"To Hollis Creek!" she objected. "I should think you'd drive to Meadow +Brook instead and dress for the trip. Aren't you going to catch that +afternoon train and go right up there?" +</P> + +<P> +"By no means. This is Saturday, and by the time I'd get to New York he +couldn't be found anywhere; and anyhow, I wouldn't have time to deliver +you at Hollis Creek and make this next train." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't mind about me," she urged. "I could go to the train with you +and Henry could take me back to Hollis Creek." +</P> + +<P> +"That's fine of you," returned Sam gratefully; "but it isn't the +program at all. I happen to know that Dickson stays in his office +until one o'clock on Saturdays. I'll get him by long distance." +</P> + +<P> +They were quite silent in calculation on the way to Hollis Creek, and +Miss Josephine found herself pushing forward to help make the machine +go faster. Breathlessly she followed Sam into the house, and he +obligingly left the door of the telephone booth ajar, so that she could +hear his conversation with Dickson. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Dickson," said Sam, when he got his connection. "This is Sam +Turner.… Oh yes, fine. Never better in my life.… Up here +in Hamster County, taking a little vacation. Say, Dickson, I +understand you own a thousand acres down here. Do you want to sell it?… +How much?" As he received the answer to that question he turned +to Miss Josephine and winked, while an expression of profound joy, +albeit materialized into a grin, overspread his features. "I won't +dicker with you on that price," he said into the telephone. "But will +you take my note for it at six per cent.?" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed aloud at the next reply. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't want it to run that long. The interest in a hundred years +would amount to too much; but I'll make it five years.… All +right, Dickson, instruct your lawyer chap to make out the papers and +I'll be up Monday to close with you." +</P> + +<P> +He hung up the receiver and turned to meet her glistening eyes fixed +upon him in ecstasy. "It's better than all right," he assured her. He +was more enthusiastic about this than he had ever been about any +business deal in his life, that is, more openly enthusiastic, for Miss +Josephine's enthusiasm was contagion itself. He took her arm with a +swing, and they hurried into the writing-room, which was deserted for +the time being on account of the mail having just come in. Sam placed +a chair for her and they sat down at the table. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to figure a minute," said he. "Now that I have actual +possession of the property, in place of a mere option, I can go at the +thing differently. First of all, when I go up Monday I'll see my +engineer, and on Tuesday morning I'll bring him down here with me. +Then I shall secure permission from the county to alter that road and +we'll build the dam. That will cost very little in comparison to the +whole improvement. Then, and not till then, I'll get out my stock +prospectus, and I'll drive prospective investors down here to look at +Lake Jo. I'll be almost in position to dictate terms." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't that fine!" she exclaimed. "And then I suppose you can +secure—control," she ventured anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think I can if I want it," he assured her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm so glad," she said gravely. "I'm so very glad." +</P> + +<P> +"Really, though, I have a big notion to see if I can't finance the +entire project myself. I'm quite sure I can get Dickson to give me a +clear deed to that land merely on my unsupported note. If I can do +that I can erect all the buildings on progressive mortgages. Roadways +and engineering work of course I'll have to pay for, and then I can +finance a subsidiary operating company to rent the plant from the +original company, and can retain stock in both of them. I'll figure +that out both ways." +</P> + +<P> +It was all Greek to her, this talk, but she knitted her brows in an +earnest effort to understand, and crowded close to him to look over the +figures he was putting down. The touch of her arm against his own +threw out his calculations entirely. He could not add a row of figures +to save his life. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go over the financial end of this later on," he said, but he did +not put away the paper. He kept it there for them both to look at, +touching arms. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," she agreed, "but you must let me see you do it. Of course +I can't understand, but I do want to feel as if I were helping when it +is done." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't take a step in it without consulting you or having you along," +he promised. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment the bugle sounded the first call for luncheon. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll stay for luncheon," she invited. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," he assured her. "You couldn't drive me away." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, right after luncheon let's go out and look at the place +again. It will look different now that it is—" She caught herself. +She had almost said "now that it is ours." "Now that it is secured," +she finished. +</P> + +<P> +After luncheon they drove back to the site of Lake Jo, and spent a +delirious while planning the things which were to be done to make that +spot an earthly Paradise. Never was a couple so prolific of ideas as +they were that afternoon. With 'Ennery waiting down in the road they +tramped all over the hills again, standing first on one spot and then +another to survey the alluring prospect, and to plan wonderful new and +attractive features of which no previous summer resort builder had ever +even dared to dream. +</P> + +<P> +During the afternoon not one word passed between them which might be +construed to be of an intimately personal nature, but as they drove to +Hollis Creek, tired but happy, Sam somehow or other felt that he had +made quite a bit of progress, and was correspondingly elated. Leaving +Miss Stevens on the porch he hurried home to dress for dinner, for it +was growing late, but immediately after dinner he drove over again. +When he arrived Miss Josephine was in the seldom used parlor with her +father. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't seen you since breakfast," Mr. Stevens had said, pinching +her cheek, "Hollis and Billy Westlake have been looking for you +everywhere." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, they," she returned with kindly contempt. "I'm glad I didn't see +them. They're nice boys enough, but father, I don't believe that +either one of them will ever become clever business men!" +</P> + +<P> +"No?" he replied, highly amused. "Well, I don't think they will +either. Business is a shade too big a game for them. But where have +you been?" +</P> + +<P> +"Out on business with S-s-s—with Mr. Turner," she replied demurely. +"I came in late for lunch, and you had already finished and gone. Then +we went right back out again. Father, we have found the dearest, the +most delightful, the most charming business opportunity you ever saw. +You must go out with us to-morrow and look at it. Sam's going to build +a lake and call it Lake Jo. You know where that little stream is +between here and Meadow Brook? Well, that's the place. We found out +this morning what a delightful spot it would make for a lake and a big +summer resort hotel, and at noon Sam bought the property, and we have +been planning it all afternoon. He's bought it outright and he's going +to capitalize it for a quarter of a million dollars. How much stock +are you going to take in it?" +</P> + +<P> +"How much what?" +</P> + +<P> +"How many shares of stock are you going to take in it? You must speak +up quickly, because it's going to be a favor to you for us to let you +in." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't know," said Mr. Stevens, resisting a sudden desire to +guffaw. "I'd have to look it over first before I decide to invest. +Sounds like a sort of wild-eyed scheme to me. Besides that, I already +have a good big block of stock in one of Sam Turner's enterprises." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," she said, puckering her brows. "Are you going to vote your +pulp stock with his?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Stevens' eyes twinkled, but his tone was conservative gravity +itself. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, since it's a purely business deal it would not be a very wise +thing to do; and though Sam Turner is a mighty fine boy, I don't think +I shall." +</P> + +<P> +"But you will!" she vigorously protested. "Why, father, you wouldn't +for a minute vote against your own son-in-law!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I wouldn't!" declared Mr. Stevens emphatically, and suddenly drew +her to him and kissed her; and she clung about his neck half laughing +and half crying. +</P> + +<P> +Do you suppose there is anything in telepathy? It would seem so, for +it was at this moment that Sam stepped up on the porch. They in the +parlor heard his voice, and Mr. Stevens immediately slipped out the +back way in order not to be <I>de trop</I> a second time. Now Sam could not +possibly have known what had been said in the parlor, and yet when he +found his way in there, he and Miss Josephine, without any palaver +about it, without exchanging a solitary word, or scarcely even a look, +just naturally fell into each other's arms. Neither one of them made +the first move. It just somehow happened, and they stood there and +held and held and held that embrace; and whatever foolishness they said +and did in the next hour is none of your business nor of mine; but +later in the evening, when they were sitting quietly in the darkest +corner of the porch, and Sam had his hand on the arm of her chair with +her elbows resting upon his fingers—it didn't matter, you know, where +he touched her, just so he did—she turned to him with thoughtful +earnestness in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Sam," she said, and this time she used his first name quite +consciously and was glad it was dark so that he could not see her trace +of shyness, "I wish you would explain to me just what you mean by +control in a stock company." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Turner moved his fingers from under her elbow and caught her hand, +which he firmly clasped before he began. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jo, it's just this way," he said, and then, quite comfortably, +he explained to her all about it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE END +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Early Bird, by George Randolph Chester + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 19272-h.htm or 19272-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/2/7/19272/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Early Bird + A Business Man's Love Story + +Author: George Randolph Chester + +Illustrator: Arthur William Brown + +Release Date: September 14, 2006 [EBook #19272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: They stopped and had a drink of the cool water] + + + + + + +THE EARLY BIRD + +_A Business Man's Love Story_ + + +BY + +GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER + + + +Author of + +THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN + + + +INDIANAPOLIS + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1910 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN + II MR. TURNER PLUNGES + III A MATTER OF DELICACY + IV GREEK MEETS GREEK + V MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER + VI MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES + VII A DANCE NUMBER + VIII NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME + IX A VIOLENT FLIRT + X A PIANOLA TRAINING + XI THE WESTLAKES INVEST + XII ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT + XIII A RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS + XIV MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY + XV THE HERO OF THE HOUR + XVI AN INTERRUPTED PROPOSAL + XVII SHE CALLS HIM SAM! + XVIII A BUSINESS PARTNER + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +They stopped and had a drink of the cool water . . . _Frontispiece_ + +They waylaid him on the porch + +Hepseba studied him from head to foot + +Sam played again the plaintive little air + +"I don't like to worry you, Sam" + +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens + + + + +THE EARLY BIRD + + +CHAPTER I + +WHEREIN A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN STARTS ON AN ABSOLUTE REST + +The youngish-looking man who so vigorously swung off the train at +Restview, wore a pair of intensely dark blue eyes which immediately +photographed everything within their range of vision--flat green +country, shaded farm-houses, encircling wooded hills and all--weighed +it and sorted it and filed it away for future reference; and his +clothes clung on him with almost that enviable fit found only in +advertisements. Immediately he threw his luggage into the tonneau of +the dingy automobile drawn up at the side of the lonely platform, and +promptly climbed in after it. Spurred into purely mechanical action by +this silent decisiveness, the driver, a grizzled graduate from a hay +wagon, and a born grump, as promptly and as silently started his +machine. The crisp and perfect start, however, was given check by a +peremptory voice from the platform. + +"Hey, you!" rasped the voice. "Come back here!" + +As there were positively no other "Hey yous" in the landscape, the +driver and the alert young man each acknowledged to the name, and +turned to see an elderly gentleman, with a most aggressive beard and +solid corpulency, gesticulating at them with much vigor and +earnestness. Standing beside him was a slender sort of girl in a green +outfit, with very large brown eyes and a smile of amusement which was +just a shade mischievous. The driver turned upon his passenger a long +and solemn accusation. + +"Hollis Creek Inn?" he asked sternly. + +"Meadow Brook," returned the passenger, not at all abashed, and he +smiled with all the cheeriness imaginable. + +"Oh," said the driver, and there was a world of disapprobation in his +tone, as well as a subtle intonation of contempt. "You are not Mr. +Stevens of Boston." + +"No," confessed the passenger; "Mr. Turner of New York. I judge that +to be Mr. Stevens on the platform," and he grinned. + +The driver, still declining to see any humor whatsoever in the +situation, sourly ran back to the platform. Jumping from his seat he +opened the door of the tonneau, and waited with entirely artificial +deference for Mr. Turner of New York to alight. Mr. Turner, however, +did nothing of the sort. He merely stood up in the tonneau and bowed +gravely. + +"I seem to be a usurper," he said pleasantly to Mr. Stevens of Boston. +"I was expected at Meadow Brook, and they were to send a conveyance for +me. As this was the only conveyance in sight I naturally supposed it +to be mine. I very much regret having discommoded you." + +He was looking straight at Mr. Stevens of Boston as he spoke, but, +nevertheless, he was perfectly aware of the presence of the girl; also +of her eyes and of her smile of amusement with its trace of +mischievousness. Becoming conscious of his consciousness of her, he +cast her deliberately out of his mind and concentrated upon Mr. +Stevens. The two men gazed quite steadily at each other, not to the +point of impertinence at all, but nevertheless rather absorbedly. +Really it was only for a fleeting moment, but in that moment they had +each penetrated the husk of the other, had cleaved straight down to the +soul, had estimated and judged for ever and ever, after the ways of men. + +"I passed your carryall on the road. It was broke down. It'll be here +in about a half hour, I suppose," insisted the driver, opening the door +of the tonneau still wider, and waving the descending pathway with his +right hand. + +Both Mr. Stevens of Boston and Mr. Turner of New York were very glad of +this interruption, for it gave the older gentleman an object upon which +to vent his annoyance. + +"Is Meadow Brook on the way to Hollis Creek?" he demanded in a tone +full of reproof for the driver's presumption. + +The driver reluctantly admitted that it was. + +"I couldn't think of leaving you in this dismal spot to wait for a +dubious carryall," offered Mr. Stevens, but with frigid politeness. +"You are quite welcome to ride with us, if you will." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Turner, now climbing out of the machine with +alacrity and making way for the others. "I had intended," he laughed, +as he took his place beside the driver, "to secure just such an +invitation, by hook or by crook." + +For this assurance he received a glance from the big eyes; not at all a +flirtatious glance, but one of amusement, with a trace of mischief. +The remark, however, had well-nigh stopped all conversation on the part +of Mr. Stevens, who suddenly remembered that he had a daughter to +protect, and must discourage forwardness. His musings along these +lines were interrupted by an enthusiastic outburst from Mr. Turner. + +"By George!" exclaimed the latter gentleman, "what a fine clump of +walnut trees; an even half-dozen, and every solitary one of them would +trim sixteen inches." + +"Yes," agreed the older man with keenly awakened interest, "they are +fine specimens. They would scale six hundred feet apiece, if they'd +scale an inch." + +"You're in the lumber business, I take it," guessed the young man +immediately, already reaching for his card-case. "My name is Turner, +known a little better as Sam Turner, of Turner and Turner." + +"Sam Turner," repeated the older man thoughtfully. "The name seems +distinctly familiar to me, but I do not seem, either, to remember of +any such firm in the trade." + +"Oh, we're not in the lumber line," replied Mr. Turner. "Not at all. +We're in most anything that offers a profit. We--that is my kid +brother and myself--have engineered a deal or two in lumber lands, +however. It was only last month that I turned a good trade--a very +good trade--on a tract of the finest trees in Wisconsin." + +"The dickens!" exclaimed the older gentleman explosively. "So you're +the Turner who sold us our own lumber! Now I know you. I'm Stevens, +of the Maine and Wisconsin Lumber Company." + +Sam Turner laughed aloud, in both surprise and glee. Mr. Stevens had +now reached for his own card-case. The two gentlemen exchanged cards, +which, with barely more than a glance, they poked in the other flaps of +their cases; then they took a new and more interested inspection of +each other. Both were now entirely oblivious to the girl, who, +however, was by no means oblivious to them. She found them, in this +new meeting, a most interesting study. + +"You gouged us on that land, young man," resumed Mr. Stevens with a wry +little smile. + +"Worth every cent you paid us for it, wasn't it?" demanded the other. + +"Y-e-s; but if you hadn't stepped into the deal at the last minute, we +could have secured it for five or six thousand dollars less money." + +"You used to go after these things yourself," explained Mr. Turner with +an easy laugh. "Now you send out people empowered only to look and not +to purchase." + +"But what I don't yet understand," protested Mr. Stevens, "is how you +came to be in the deal at all. When we sent out our men to inspect the +trees they belonged to a chap in Detroit. When we came to buy them +they belonged to you." + +"Certainly," agreed the younger man. "I was up that way on other +business, when I heard about your man looking over this valuable +acreage; so I just slipped down to Detroit and hunted up the owner and +bought it. Then I sold it to you. That's all." + +He smiled frankly and cheerfully upon Mr. Stevens, and the frown of +discomfiture which had slightly clouded the latter gentleman's brow, +faded away under the guilelessness of it all; so much so that he +thought to introduce his daughter. + +Miss Josephine having been brought into the conversation, Mr. Turner, +for the first time, bent his gaze fully upon her, giving her the same +swift scrutiny and appraisement that he had the father. He was +evidently highly satisfied with what he saw, for he kept looking at it +as much as he dared. He became aware after a moment or so that Mr. +Stevens was saying something to him. He never did get all of it, but +he got this much: + +"--so you'd be rather a good man to watch, wherever you go." + +"I hope so," agreed the other briskly. "If I want anything, I go +prepared to grab it the minute I find that it suits me." + +"Do you always get everything you want?" asked the young lady. + +"Always," he answered her very earnestly, and looked her in the eyes so +speculatively, albeit unconsciously so, that she found herself battling +with a tendency to grow pink. + +Her father nodded in approval. + +"That's the way to get things," he said. "What are you after now? +More lumber?" + +"Rest," declared Mr. Turner with vigorous emphasis. "I've worked like +a nailer ever since I turned out of high school. I had to make the +living for the family, and I sent my kid brother through college. He's +just been out a year and it's a wonder the way he takes hold. But do +you know that in all those times since I left school I never took a +lay-off until just this minute? It feels glorious already. It's fine +to look around this good stretch of green country and breathe this +fresh air and look at those hills over yonder, and to realize that I +don't have to think of business for two solid weeks. Just absolute +rest, for me! I don't intend to talk one syllable of shop while I'm +here. Hello! there's another clump of walnut trees. It's a pity +they're scattered so that it isn't worth while to buy them up." + +The girl laughed, a little silvery laugh which made any memory of grand +opera seem harsh and jangling. Both men turned to her in surprise. +Neither of them could see any cause for mirth in all the fields or sky. + +"I beg your pardon for being so silly," she said; "but I just thought +of something funny." + +"Tell it to us," urged Mr. Turner. "I've never taken the time I ought +to enjoy funny things, and I might as well begin right now." + +But she shook her head, and in some way he acquired an impression that +she was amused at him. His brows gathered a trifle. If the young lady +intended to make sport of him he would take her down a peg or two. He +would find her point of susceptibility to ridicule, and hammer upon it +until she cried enough. That was his way to make men respectful, and +it ought to work with women. + +When they let him out at Meadow Brook, Mr. Stevens was kind enough to +ask him to drop over to Hollis Creek. Mr. Turner, with impulsive +alacrity, promised that he would. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WHEREIN MR. TURNER PLUNGES INTO THE BUSINESS OF RESTING + +At Meadow Brook Sam Turner found W. W. Westlake, of the Westlake +Electric Company, a big, placid man with a mild gray eye and an +appearance of well-fed and kindly laziness; a man also who had the +record of having ruthlessly smashed more business competitors than any +two other pirates in his line. Westlake, unclasping his fat hands from +his comfortable rotundity, was glad to see young Turner, also glad to +introduce the new eligible to his daughter, a girl of twenty-two, +working might and main to reduce a threatened inheritance of +embonpoint. Mr. Turner was charmed to meet Miss Westlake, and even +more pleased to meet the gentleman who was with her, young Princeman, a +brisk paper manufacturer variously quoted at from one to two million. +He knew all about young Princeman; in fact, had him upon his mental +list as a man presently to meet and cultivate for a specific purpose, +and already Mr. Turner's busy mind offset the expenses of this trip +with an equal credit, much in the form of "By introduction to H. L. +Princeman, Jr. (Princeman and Son Paper Mills, AA 1), whatever it +costs." He liked young Princeman at sight, too, and, proceeding +directly to the matter uppermost in his thoughts, immediately asked him +how the new tariff had affected his business. + +"It's inconvenient," said Princeman with a shake of his head. "Of +course, in the end the consumers must pay, but they protest so much +about it that they disarrange the steady course of our operations." + +"It's queer that the ultimate consumer never will be quite reconciled +to his fate," laughed Mr. Turner; "but in this particular case, I think +I hold the solution. You'll be interested, I know. You see--" + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Turner," interrupted Miss Westlake gaily; "I +know you'll want to meet all the young folks, and you'll particularly +want to meet my very dearest friend. Miss Hastings, Mr. Turner." + +Mr. Turner had turned to find an extraordinarily thin young woman, with +extraordinarily piercing black eyes, at Miss Westlake's side. + +"Indeed, I do want to meet all the young people," he cordially +asserted, taking Miss Hastings' claw-like hand in his own and wondering +what to do with it. He could not clasp it and he could not shake it. +She relieved him of his dilemma, after a moment, by twining that arm +about the plump waist of her dearest friend. + +"Is this your first stay at Meadow Brook?" she asked by way of starting +conversation. She was very carefully vivacious, was Miss Hastings, and +had a bird-like habit, meant to be very fetching, of cocking her head +to one side as she spoke, and peering up to men--oh, away up--with the +beady expression of a pet canary. + +"My very first visit," confessed Mr. Turner, not yet realizing the +disgrace it was to be "new people" at Meadow Brook, where there was +always an aristocracy of the grandchildren of original Meadow Brookers. +"However, I hope it won't be the last time," he continued. + +"We shall all hope that, I am certain," Miss Westlake assured him, +smiling engagingly into the depths of his eyes. "It will be our fault +if you don't like it here;" and he might take such tentative promise as +he would from that and her smile. + +"Thank you," he said promptly enough. "I can see right now that I'm +going to make Meadow Brook my future summer home. It's such a restful +place, for one thing. I'm beginning to rest right now, and to put +business so far into the background that--" he suddenly stopped and +listened to a phrase which his trained ear had caught. + +"And that is the trouble with the whole paper business," Mr. Princeman +was saying to Mr. Westlake. "It is not the tariff, but the future +scarcity of wood-pulp material." + +"That's just what I was starting to explain to you," said Mr. Turner, +wheeling eagerly to Mr. Princeman, entirely unaware, in his intensity +of interest, of his utter rudeness to both groups. "My kid brother and +myself are working on a scheme which, if we are on the right track, +ought to bring about a revolution in the paper business. I can not +give you the exact details of it now, because we're waiting for letters +patent on it, but the fundamental point is this: that the wood-pulp +manufacturers within a few years will have to grow their raw material, +since wood is becoming so scarce and so high priced. Well, there is +any quantity of swamp land available, and we have experimented like mad +with reeds and rushes. We've found one particular variety which grows +very rapidly, has a strong, woody fiber, and makes the finest pulp in +the world. I turned the kid loose with the company's bank roll this +spring, and he secured options on two thousand acres of swamp land, +near to transportation and particularly adapted to this culture, and +dirt cheap because it is useless for any other purpose. As soon as the +patents are granted on our process we're going to organize a million +dollar stock company to take up more land and handle the business." + +"Come over here and sit down," invited Princeman, somewhat more than +courteously. + +"Wait a minute until I send for McComas. Here, boy, hunt Mr. McComas +and ask him to come out on the porch." + +The new guest was reaching for pencil and paper as they gathered their +chairs together. The two girls had already started hesitantly to +efface themselves. Half-way across the lawn they looked sadly toward +the porch again. That handsome young Mr. Turner, his back toward them, +was deep in formulated but thrilling facts, while three other heads, +one gray and one black and one auburn, were bent interestedly over the +envelope upon which he was figuring. + +Later on, as he was dressing for dinner, Mr. Turner decided that he +liked Meadow Brook very much. It was set upon the edge of a pleasant, +rolling valley, faced and backed by some rather high hills, upon the +sloping side of one of which the hotel was built, with broad verandas +looking out upon exquisitely kept flowers and shrubbery and upon the +shallow little brook which gave the place its name. A little more +water would have suited Sam better, but the management had made the +most of its opportunities, especially in the matter of arranging dozens +of pretty little lovers' lanes leading in all directions among the +trees and along the sides of the shimmering stream, and the whole +prospect was very good to look at, indeed. Taken in conjunction with +the fact that one had no business whatever on hand, it gave one a sense +of delightful freedom to look out on the green lawn and the gay +gardens, on the brook and the tennis and croquet courts, and on the +purple-hazed, wooded hills beyond; it was good to fill one's lungs with +country air and to realize for a little while what a delightful world +this is; to see young people wandering about out there by twos and by +threes, and to meet with so many other people of affairs enjoying +leisure similar to one's own. + +Of course, this wasn't a really fashionable place, being supported +entirely by men who had made their own money; but there was Princeman, +for instance, a fine chap and very keen; a well-set-up fellow, +black-haired and black-eyed, and of a quick, nervous disposition; one +of precisely the kind of energy which Turner liked to see. McComas, +too, with his deep red hair and his tendency to freckles, and his frank +smile with all the white teeth behind it, was a corking good fellow; +and alive. McComas was in the furniture line, a maker of cheap stuff +which was shipped in solid trains of carload lots from a factory that +covered several acres. The other men he noticed around the place +seemed to be of about the same stamp. He had never been anywhere that +the men averaged so well. + +As he went down-stairs, McComas introduced his wife, already gowned for +the evening. She was a handsome woman, of the sort who would wear a +different stunning gown every night for two weeks and then go on to the +next place. Well, she had a right to this extravagance. Besides it is +good for a man's business to have his wife dressed prosperously. A man +who is getting on in the world ought to have a handsome wife. If she +is the right kind, of Miss Stevens' type, say, she is a distinct asset. + +After dinner, Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings waylaid him on the porch. + +[Illustration: They waylaid him on the porch] + +"I suppose, of course, you are going to take part in the bowling +tournament to-night," suggested Miss Westlake with the engaging +directness allowable to family friendship. + +"I suppose so, although I didn't know there was one. Where is it to be +held?" + +"Oh, just down the other side of the brook, beyond the croquet grounds. +We have a tournament every week, and a prize cup for the best score in +the season. It's lots of fun. Do you bowl?" + +"Not very much," Mr. Turner confessed; "but if you'll just keep me +posted on all these various forms of recreation, you may count on my +taking a prominent share in them." + +"All right," agreed Miss Hastings, very vivaciously taking the +conversation away from Miss Westlake. "We'll constitute ourselves a +committee of two to lay out a program for you." + +"Fine," he responded, bending on the fragile Miss Hastings a smile so +pleasant that it made her instantly determine to find out something +about his family and commercial standing. "What time do we start on +our mad bowling career?" + +"They'll be drifting over in about a half-hour," Miss Westlake told +him, with a speculative sidelong glance at her dearest girl friend. +"Everybody starts out for a stroll in some other direction, as if +bowling was the least of their thoughts, but they all wind up at the +alleys. I'll show you." A slight young man of the white-trousered +faction, as distinguished from the dinner-coat crowd, passed them just +then. "Oh, Billy," called Miss Westlake, and introduced the slight +young man, who proved to be her brother, to Mr. Turner, at the same +time wreathing her arm about the waist of her dear companion. "Come +on, Vivian; let's go get our wraps," and the girls, leaving "Billy" and +Mr. Turner together, scurried away. + +The two young men looked at each other dubiously, though each had an +earnest desire to please. They groped for human understanding, and +suddenly that clammy, discouraged feeling spread its muffling wall +between them. Billy was the first to recover in part. + +"Charming weather, isn't it?" he observed with a polite smile. + +Mr. Turner opined that it was, the while delving into Mr. Westlake's +mental workshop and finding it completely devoid of tools, patterns or +lumber. + +"The girls are just going to take me over to bowl," Mr. Turner ventured +desperately after a while. "Do you bowl very much?" + +"Oh, I usually fill in," stated Mr. Westlake; "but really, I'm a very +poor hand at it. I seem to be a poor hand at most everything," and he +laughed with engaging candor, as if somehow this were creditable. + +The conversation thereupon lagged for a moment or two, while Mr. Turner +blankly asked himself: "What is thunder does a man talk about when he +has nothing to say and nobody to say it to?" Presently he solved the +problem. + +"It must be beautiful out here in the autumn," he observed. + +"Yes, it is indeed," returned Mr. Westlake with alacrity. "The leaves +turn all sorts of colors." + +Once more conversation lagged, while Billy feebly wondered how any +person could possibly be so dull as this chap. He made another attempt. + +"Beastly place, though, when it rains," he observed. + +"Yes, I should imagine so," agreed Mr. Turner. Great Scott! The voice +of McComas saved him from utter imbecility. + +"You'll excuse Mr. Turner a moment, won't you, Billy?" begged McComas +pleasantly. "I want to introduce him to a couple of friends of mine." + +Billy Westlake bowed his forgiveness of Mr. McComas with fully as much +relief as Sam Turner had felt. Over in the same corner of the porch +where he had sat in the afternoon with McComas and Princeman and the +elder Westlake, Sam found awaiting them Mr. Cuthbert, of the American +Papier-Mâché Company, an almost viciously ugly man with a twisted nose +and a crooked mouth, who controlled practically all the worth-while +papier-mâché business of the United States, and Mr. Blackrock, an +elderly man with a young toupee and particularly gaunt cheek-bones, who +was a corporation lawyer of considerable note. Both gentlemen greeted +Mr. Turner as one toward whom they were already highly predisposed, and +Mr. Princeman and Mr. Westlake also shook hands most cordially, as if +Sam had been gone for a day or two. Mr. McComas placed a chair for him. + +"We just happened to mention your marsh pulp idea, and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Blackrock were at once very highly interested," observed McComas as +they sat dawn. "Mr. Blackrock suggests that he don't see why you need +wait for the issuance of the letters patent, at least to discuss the +preliminary steps in the forming of your company." + +"Why, no, Mr. Turner," said Mr. Blackrock, suavely and smoothly; "it is +not a company anyhow, as I take it, which will depend so much upon +letters patent as upon extensive exploitation." + +"Yes, that's true enough," agreed Sam with a smile. "The letters +patent, however, should give my kid brother and myself, without much +capital, controlling interest in the stock." + +Upon this frank but natural statement the others laughed quite +pleasantly. + +"That seems a plausible enough reason," admitted Mr. Westlake, folding +his fat hands across his equator and leaning back in his chair with a +placidity which seemed far removed from any thought of gain. "How did +you propose to organize your company?" + +"Well," said Sam, crossing one leg comfortably over the other, "I +expect to issue a half million participating preferred stock, at five +per cent., and a half-million common, one share of common as bonus with +each two shares of preferred; the voting power, of course, vested in +the common." + +A silence followed that, and then Mr. Cuthbert, with a diagonal yawing +of his mouth which seemed to give his words a special dryness, observed: + +"And I presume you intend to take up the balance of the common stock?" + +"Just about," returned Mr. Turner cheerfully, addressing Cuthbert +directly. The papier-mâché king was another man whom he had inscribed, +some time since, upon his mental list. "My kid brother and myself will +take two hundred and fifty thousand of the common stock for our patents +and processes, and for our services as promoters and organizers, and +will purchase enough of the preferred to give us voting power; say five +thousand dollars worth." + +Mr. Cuthbert shook his head. + +"Very stringent terms," he observed. "I doubt if you will interest +your capital on that basis." + +"All right," said Sam, clasping his knee in his hands and rocking +gently. "If we can't organize on that basis we won't organize at all. +We're in no hurry. My kid brother's handling it just now, anyhow. I'm +on a vacation, the first I ever had, and not keen upon business, by any +means. In the meantime, let me show you some figures." + +Five minutes later, Billy Westlake and his sister and Miss Hastings +drew up to the edge of the group. Young Westlake stood diffidently for +two or three minutes beside Mr. Turner's chair, and then he put his +hand on that summer idler's shoulder. + +"Oh, good evening, Mr.--Mr.--Mr.--" Sam stammered while he tried to +find the name. + +"Westlake," interposed Billy's father; and then, a trifle impatiently, +"What do you want, Billy?" + +"Mr. Turner was to go over with us to the bowling shed, dad." + +"That's so," admitted Mr. Turner, glancing over to the porch rail where +the girls stood expectantly in their fluffy white dresses, and nodding +pleasantly at them, but not yet rising. He was in the midst of an +important statement. + +"Just you run on with the girls, Billy," ordered Mr. Westlake. "Mr. +Turner will be over in a few minutes." + +The others of the circle bent their eyes gravely upon Billy and the +girls as they turned away, and waited for Mr. Turner to resume. + +At a quarter past ten, as Mr. Turner and Mr. Princeman walked slowly +along the porch to turn into the parlors for a few minutes of music, of +which Sam was very fond, a crowd of young people came trooping up the +steps. Among them were Billy Westlake and his sister, another young +gentleman and Miss Hastings. + +"By George, that bowling tournament!" exclaimed Mr. Turner. "I forgot +all about it." + +He was about to make his apologies, but Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings +passed right on, with stern, set countenances and their heads in air. +Apparently they did not see Mr. Turner at all. He gazed after them in +consternation; suddenly there popped into his mind the vision of a +slender girl in green, with mischievous brown eyes--and he felt +strangely comforted. Before retiring he wired his brother to send some +samples of the marsh pulp, and the paper made from it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MR. TURNER APPLIES BUSINESS PROMPTNESS TO A MATTER OF DELICACY + +Morning at Meadow Brook was even more delightful than evening. The +time Mr. Turner had chosen for his outing was early September, and +already there was a crispness in the air which was quite invigorating. +Clad in flannels and with a brand new tennis racket under his arm, he +went into the reading-room immediately after breakfast, bought a paper +of the night before and glanced hastily over the news of the day, +paying more particular attention to the market page. Prices of things +had a peculiar fascination for him. He noticed that cereals had gone +down, that there was another flurry in copper stock, and that hardwood +had gone up, and ranging down the list his eye caught a quotation for +walnut. It had made a sharp advance of ten dollars a thousand feet. + +Out of the window, as he looked up, he saw Miss Westlake and Miss +Hastings crossing the lawn, and he suddenly realized that he was here +to wear himself out with rest, so he hurried in the direction the girls +had taken; but when he arrived at the tennis court he found a set +already in progress. Both Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings barely +nodded at Mr. Turner, and went right on displaying grace and dexterity +to a quite unusual degree. Decidedly Mr. Turner was being "cut," and +he wondered why. Presently he strode down to the road and looked up +over the hill in the direction he knew Hollis Creek Inn to be. He was +still pondering the probable distance when Mr. Westlake and Billy and +young Princeman came up the brook path. + +"Just the chap I wanted to see, Sam," said Mr. Westlake heartily. "I'm +trying to get up a pin-hook fishing contest, for three-inch sunfish." + +"Happy thought," returned Sam, laughing. "Count me in." + +"It's the governor's own idea, too," said Billy with vast enthusiasm. +"Bully sport, it ought to be. Only trouble is, Princeman has some +mysterious errand or other, and can't join us." + +"No; the fact is, the Stevenses were due at Hollis Creek yesterday," +confessed Mr. Princeman in cold return to the prying Billy, "and I +think I'll stroll over and see if they've arrived." + +Sam Turner surveyed Princeman with a new interest. Danger lurked in +Princeman's black eyes, fascination dwelt in his black hair, +attractiveness was in every line of his athletic figure. It was upon +the tip of Sam's tongue to say that he would join Princeman in his +walk, but he repressed that instinct immediately. + +"Quite a long ways over there by the road, isn't it?" he questioned. + +"Yes," admitted Princeman unsuspectingly, "it winds a good bit; but +there is a path across the hills which is not only shorter but far more +pleasant." + +Sam turned to Mr. Westlake. + +"It would be a shame not to let Princeman in on that pin-hook match," +he suggested. "Why not put it off until to-morrow morning. I have an +idea that I can beat Princeman at the game." + +There was more or less of sudden challenge in his tone, and Princeman, +keen as Sam himself, took it in that way. + +"Fine!" he invited. "Any time you want to enter into a contest with me +you just mention it." + +"I'll let you know in some way or other, even if I don't make any +direct announcement," laughed Sam, and Princeman walked away with Mr. +Westlake, very much to Billy's consternation. He was alone with this +dull Turner person once more. What should they talk about? Sam solved +that problem for him at once. "What's the swiftest conveyance these +people keep?" he asked briskly. + +"Oh, you can get most anything you like," said Billy. "Saddle-horses +and carriages of all sorts; and last year they put in a couple of +automobiles, though scarcely any one uses them." There was a certain +amount of careless contempt in Billy's tone as he mentioned the hired +autos. Evidently they were not considered to be as good form as other +modes of conveyance. + +"Where's the garage?" asked Sam. + +"Right around back of the hotel. Just follow that drive." + +"Thanks," said the other crisply. "I'll see you this evening," and he +stalked away leaving Billy gasping for breath at the suddenness of Sam. +After all, though, he was glad to be rid of Mr. Turner. He knew the +Stevenses himself, and it had slowly dawned on him that by having his +own horse saddled he could beat Princeman over there. + +It took Sam just about one minute to negotiate for an automobile, a +neat little affair, shiny and new, and before they were half-way to +Hollis Creek, his innate democracy led him into conversation with the +driver, an alert young man of the near-by clay. + +"Not very good soil in this neighborhood," Sam observed. "I notice +there is a heavy outcropping of stone. What are the principal crops?" + +"Summer resorters," replied the driver briefly. + +"And do you mean to tell me that all these farm-houses call themselves +summer resorts?" inquired Sam. + +"No, only those that have running water. The others just keep +boarders." + +"I see," said Sam, laughing. + +A moment later they passed over a beautifully clear stream which ran +down a narrow pocket valley between two high hills, swept under a +rickety wooden culvert, and raced on across a marshy meadow, sparkling +invitingly here and there in the sunlight. + +"Here's running water without a summer resort," observed the passenger, +still smiling. + +"It's too much shut in," replied the chauffeur as one who had voiced a +final and insurmountable objection. All the "summer resorts" in this +neighborhood were of one pattern, and no one would so much as dream of +varying from the first successful model. + +Sam scarcely heard. He was looking back toward the trough of those two +picturesquely wooded hills, and for the rest of the drive he asked but +few questions. + +At Hollis Creek, where he found a much more imposing hotel than the one +at Meadow Brook, he discovered Miss Stevens, clad in simple white from +canvas shoes to knotted cravat, in a summer-house on the lawn, chatting +gaily with a young man who was almost fat. Sam had seen other girls +since he had entered the grounds, but he could not make out their +features; this one he had recognized from afar, and as they approached +the summer-house he opened the door of the machine and jumped out +before it had come properly to a stop. + +"Good morning, Miss Stevens," he said with a cheerful self-confidence +which was beautiful to behold. "I have come over to take you a little +spin, if you'll go." + +Miss Stevens gazed at the caller quizzically, and laughed outright. + +"This is so sudden," she murmured. + +The caller himself grinned. + +"Does seem so, if you stop to think of it," he admitted. "Rather like +dropping out of the clouds. But the auto is here, and I can testify +that it's a smooth-running machine. Will you go?" + +She turned that same quizzical smile upon the young man who was almost +fat, and introduced him, curly hair and all, to Mr. Turner as Mr. +Hollis, who, it afterward transpired, was the heir to Hollis Creek Inn. + +"I had just promised to play tennis with Mr. Hollis," Miss Stevens +stated after the introduction had been properly acknowledged, "but I +know he won't mind putting it off this time," and she handed him her +tennis bat. + +"Certainly not," said young Hollis with forcedly smiling politeness. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hollis," said Sam promptly. "Just jump right in, Miss +Stevens." + +"How long shall we be gone?" she asked as she settled herself in the +tonneau. + +"Oh, whatever you say. A couple of hours, I presume." + +"All right, then," she said to young Hollis; "we'll have our game in +the afternoon." + +"With pleasure," replied the other graciously, but he did not look it. + +"Where shall we go?" asked Sam as the driver looked back inquiringly. +"You know the country about here, I suppose." + +"I ought to," she laughed. "Father's been ending the summer here ever +since I was a little girl. You might take us around Bald Hill," she +suggested to the chauffeur. "It is a very pretty drive," she +explained, turning to Sam as the machine wheeled, and at the same time +waving her hand gaily to the disconsolate Hollis, who was "hard hit" +with a different girl every season. "It's just about a two-hour trip. +What a fine morning to be out!" and she settled back comfortably as the +machine gathered speed. "I do love a machine, but father is rather +backward about them. He will consent to ride in them under necessity, +but he won't buy one. Every time he sees a handsome pair of horses, +however, he has to have them." + +"I admire a good horse myself," returned Sam. + +"Do you ride?" she asked him. + +"Oh, I have suffered a few times on horseback," he confessed; "but you +ought to see my kid brother ride. He looks as if he were part of the +horse. He's a handsome brat." + +"Except for calling him names, which is a purely masculine way of +showing affection, you speak of him almost as if you were his mother," +she observed. + +"Well, I am, almost," replied Sam, studying the matter gravely. "I +have been his mother, and his father, and his brother, too, for a great +many years; and I will say that he's a credit to his family." + +"Meaning just you?" she ventured. + +"Yes, we're all we have; just yet, at least." This quite soberly. + +"He must talk of getting married," she guessed, with a quick intuition +that when this happened it would be a blow to Sam. + +"Oh, no," he immediately corrected her. "He isn't quite old enough to +think of it seriously as yet. I expect to be married long before he +is." + +Miss Stevens felt a rigid aloofness creeping over her, and, having a +very wholesome sense of humor, smiled as she recognized the feeling in +herself. + +"I should think you'd spend your vacation where the girl is," she +observed. "Men usually do, don't they?" + +He laughed gaily. + +"I surely would if I knew the girl," he asserted. + +"That's a refreshing suggestion," she said, echoing his laugh, though +from a different impulse. "I presume, then, that you entertain +thoughts of matrimony merely because you think you are quite old +enough." + +"No, it isn't just that," he returned, still thoughtfully. "Somehow or +other I feel that way about it; that's all. I have never had time to +think of it before, but this past year I have had a sort of sense of +lonesomeness; and I guess that must be it." + +In spite of herself Miss Josephine giggled and repressed it, and +giggled again and repressed it, and giggled again, and then she let +herself go and laughed as heartily as she pleased. She had heard men +say before, but always with more or less of a languishing air, +inevitably ridiculous in a man, that they thought it about time they +were getting married; but she could not remember anything to compare +with Sam Turner's naïveté in the statement. + +He paid no attention to the laughter, for he had suddenly leaned +forward to the chauffeur. + +"There is another clump of walnut trees," he said, eagerly pointing +them out. "Are there many of them in this locality?" + +"A good many scattered here and there," replied the boy; "but old man +Gifford has a twenty-acre grove down in the bottoms that's mostly all +walnut trees, and I heard him say just the other day that walnut +lumber's got so high he had a notion to clear his land." + +"Where do you suppose we could find old man Gifford?" inquired Mr. +Turner. + +"Oh, about six miles off to the right, at the next turning." + +"Suppose we whizz right down there," said Sam promptly, and he turned +to Miss Stevens with enthusiasm shining in his eyes. "It does seem as +if everything happens lucky for me," he observed. "I haven't any +particular liking for the lumber business, but fate keeps handing +lumber to me all the time; just fairly forcing it on me." + +"Do you think fate is as much responsible for that as yourself?" she +questioned, smiling as they passed at a good clip the turn which was to +have taken them over the pretty Bald Hill drive. Sam had not even +thought to apologize for the abrupt change in their program, because +she could certainly see the opportunity which had offered itself, and +how imperative it was to embrace it. The thing needed no explanation. + +"I don't know," he replied to her query, after pausing to consider it a +moment. "I certainly don't go out of my road to hunt up these things." + +"No-o-o-o," she admitted. "But fate hasn't thrust this particular +opportunity upon me, although I'm right with you at the time. It never +would have occurred to me to ask about those walnut trees." + +"It would have occurred to your father," he retorted quickly. + +"Yes, it might have occurred to father, but I think that under the +circumstances he would have waited until to-morrow to see about it." + +"I suppose I might be that way when I arrive at his age," Sam commented +philosophically, "but just now I can't afford it. His 'seeing about it +to-morrow' cost him between five and six thousand dollars the last time +I had anything to do with him." + +She laughed. She was enjoying Sam's company very much. Even if a bit +startling, he was at least refreshing after the type of young men she +was in the habit of meeting. + +"He was talking about that last night," she said. "I think father +rather stands in both admiration and awe of you." + +"I'm glad to hear that," he returned quite seriously. "It's a good +attitude in which to have the man with whom you expect to do business." + +"I think I shall have to tell him that," she observed, highly amused. +"He will enjoy it, and it may put him on his guard." + +"I don't mind," he concluded after due reflection. "It won't hurt a +particle. If anything, if he likes me so far, that will only increase +it. I like your father. In fact I like his whole family." + +"Thank you," she said demurely, wondering if there was no end to his +bluntness, and wondering, too, whether it were not about time that she +should find it wearisome. On closer analysis, however, she decided +that the time was not yet come. "But you have not met all of them," +she reminded him. "There are mother and a younger sister and an older +brother." + +"Don't matter if there were six more, I like all of them," Sam promptly +informed her. Then, "Stop a minute," he suddenly directed the +chauffeur. + +That functionary abruptly brought his machine to a halt just a little +way past a tree glowing with bright green leaves and red berries. + +"I don't know what sort of a tree that is," said Sam with boyish +enthusiasm; "but see how pretty it is. Except for the shape of the +leaves the effect is as beautiful as holly. Wouldn't you like a branch +or two, Miss Stevens?" + +"I certainly should," she heartily agreed. "I don't know how you +discovered that I have a mad passion for decorative weeds and things." + +"Have you?" he inquired eagerly. "So have I. If I had time I'd be +rather ashamed of it." + +He had scrambled out of the car and now ran back to the tree, where, +perching himself upon the second top rail of the fence he drew down a +limb, and with his knife began to snip off branches here and there. +The girl noticed that he selected the branches with discrimination, +turning each one over so that he could look at the broad side of it +before clipping, rejecting many and studying each one after he had +taken it in his hand. He was some time in finding the last one, a long +straggling branch which had most of its leaves and berries at the tip, +and she noticed that as he came back to the auto he was arranging them +deftly and with a critical eye. When he handed them in to her they +formed a carefully arranged and graceful composition. It was a new and +an unexpected side of him, and it softened considerably the amused +regard in which she had been holding him. + +"They are beautifully arranged," she commented, as he stopped for a +moment to brush the dust from his shoes in the tall grass by the +roadside. + +"Do you think so?" he delightedly inquired. "You ought to see my kid +brother make up bouquets of goldenrod and such things. He seems to +have a natural artistic gift." + +She bent on his averted head a wondering glance, and she reflected that +often this "hustler" must be misunderstood. + +"You have aroused in me quite a curiosity to meet this paragon of a +brother," she remarked. "He must be well-nigh perfection." + +"He is," replied Sam instantly, turning to her very earnest eyes. "He +hasn't a flaw in him any place." + +She smiled musingly as she surveyed the group of branches she held in +her hand. + +"It is a pity these leaves will wither in so short a time," she said. + +"Yes," he admitted; "but even if we have to throw them away before we +get back to the hotel, their beauty will give us pleasure for an hour; +and the tree won't miss them. See, it seems as perfect as ever." + +"It wouldn't if everybody took the same liberties with it that you +did," she remarked, glancing back at the tree. + +Sam had climbed in the car and had slammed the door shut, but any reply +he might have made was prevented by a hail from the woods above them at +the other side of the road, and a man came scrambling down from the +hillside path. + +"Why, it's Mr. Princeman!" exclaimed the girl in pleased surprise. +"Think of finding you wandering about, all alone in the woods here." + +"I wasn't wandering about," he protested as he came up to the machine +and shook hands with Miss Josephine. "I was headed directly for Hollis +Creek Inn. Your brother wrote me that you were expected to arrive +there yesterday evening, and I was dropping over to call on you right +away this morning. I see, however, that I was not quite prompt enough. +You're selfish, Mr. Turner. You knew I was going over to Hollis Creek, +and you might have invited me to ride in your machine." + +"You might have invited me to walk with you," retorted Sam. + +"But you knew that I was coming and I didn't know that you even knew--" +he paused abruptly and fixed a contemplative eye upon young Mr. Turner, +who was now surveying the scenery and Mr. Princeman in calm enjoyment. + +The arrival at this moment of a cloud of dust out of which evolved a +lone horseman, and that horseman Billy Westlake, added a new angle to +the situation, and for one fleeting moment the three men eyed one +another in mutual sheepish guilt. + +"Rather good sport, I call it, Miss Stevens," declared Billy, aware of +a sudden increase in his estimation of Mr. Turner, and letting the cat +completely out of the bag. "Each of us was trying to steal a march on +the rest, but Mr. Turner used the most businesslike method, and of +course he won the race." + +"I'm flattered, I'm sure," said Miss Josephine demurely. "I really +feel that I ought to go right back to the house and be the belle of the +ball; but it's impossible for an hour or so in this case," and she +turned to her escort with the smile of mischief which she had worn the +first time he saw her. "You see, we are out on a little business trip, +Mr. Turner and myself. We're going to buy a walnut grove." + +Mr. Turner turned upon her a glance which was half a frown. + +"I promised to get you back in two hours, and I'll do it," he stated, +"but we mustn't linger much by the wayside." + +"With which hint we shall wend our Hollis Creek-ward way," laughed +Princeman, exchanging a glance of amusement with Miss Stevens. "I +think we shall visit with your father until you come back." + +"Please do," she urged. "He will be as glad to see you both as I am," +with which information she settled herself back in her seat with a +little air of the interview being over, and the chauffeur, with proper +intuition, started the machine, while Mr. Princeman and Billy looked +after them glumly. + +"Queer chap, isn't he?" commented Billy. + +"Queer? Well, hardly that," returned Princeman thoughtfully. "There's +one thing certain; he's enterprising and vigorous enough to command +respect, in business or--anything else." + +At about that very moment Mr. Turner was impressing upon his companion +a very important bit of ethics. + +"You shouldn't have violated my confidence," he told her severely. + +"How was that?" she asked in surprise, and with a trifle of indignation +as well. + +"You told them that we were going to buy a walnut grove. You ought +never to let slip anything you happen to know of any man's business +plans." + +"Oh!" she said blankly. + +Having voiced his straightforward objection, and delivered his simple +but direct lesson, Mr. Turner turned as decisively to other matters. + +"Son," he asked, leaning over toward the chauffeur, "are there any +speed limit laws on these roads?" + +"None that I know of," replied the boy. + +"Then cut her loose. Do you object to fast driving, Miss Stevens?" + +"Not at all," she told him, either much chastened by the late rebuke or +much amused by it. She could scarcely tell which, as yet. "I don't +particularly long for a broken neck, but I never can feel that my time +has come." + +"It hasn't," returned Sam. "Let's see your palm," and taking her hand +he held it up before him. It was a small hand that he saw, and most +gracefully formed, but a strong one, too, and Sam Turner had an +extremely quick and critical eye for both strength and beauty. "You +are going to live to be a gray-haired grandmother," he announced after +an inspection of her pink palm, "and live happily all your life." + +It was noteworthy that no matter what his impulse may have been he did +not hold her hand overly long, nor subject it to undue warmth of +pressure, but restored it gently to her lap. She was remarking upon +this herself as she took that same hand and passed its tapering fingers +deftly among the twigs of the tree-bouquet, arranging a leaf here and a +berry there. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A LITTLE VACATION PASTIME IN WHICH GREEK MEETS GREEK + +Old man Gifford was not at home in his squat, low-roofed farm-house, +but a woman shaped like a pyramid of diminishing pumpkins directed them +down through the grove to the corn patch. It was necessary to lift +strenuously upon the sagging end of a squeaky old gate, and scrape it +across gulleys, to get the automobile into the narrow, deeply-rutted +road, and with a mind fearful of tires the chauffeur wheeled down +through the grove quite slowly, a slowness for which Sam was duly +grateful, since it allowed him to take a careful appraisement of the +walnut trees, interspersed with occasional oaks, which bordered both +sides of their path. They were tall, thick, straight-trunked trees, +from amongst which the underbrush had been carefully cut away. It was +a joy to his now vandal soul, this grove, and already he could see +those majestic trunks, after having been sawed with as little wasteful +chopping as possible, toppling in endless billowy furrows. + +Old man Gifford came inquiringly up between the long rows of corn to +the far edge of the grove. He was bent and weazened, and more gnarled +than any of his trees, and even his fingers seemed to have the knotty, +angular effect of twigs. A fringe of gray beard surrounded his +clean-shaven face, which was criss-crossed with innumerable little +furrows that the wind and rain had worn in it; but a pair of shrewd old +eyes twinkled from under his bushy eyebrows. + +"Morning, 'Ennery," he said, addressing the chauffeur with a squeaky +little voice in which, though after forty years of residence in +America, there was still a strong trace of British accent; and then his +calculating gaze rested calmly in turns upon the other occupants of the +machine. + +"Good morning, Mr. Gifford," returned the chauffeur. "Fine day, isn't +it?" + +"Good corn-ripenin' weather," agreed the old man, squinting at the sky +from force of habit, and then, being satisfied that there was no +threatening cloud in all the visible blue expanse, he returned to a +calm consideration of the strangers, waiting patiently for Mr. Turner +to introduce himself. + +"I understand, Mr. Gifford, that you are open to an offer for your +walnut trees," began Mr. Turner, looking at his watch. + +"Well, I might be," admitted the old man cautiously. + +"I see," returned Sam; "that is, you might be interested if the price +were right. Let's get right down to brass tacks. How much do you +want?" + +"Standin' or cut?" + +"Well, say standing?" + +"How much do you offer?" + +Miss Stevens' gaze roved from the one to the other and found enjoyment +in the fact that here Greek had met Greek. + +Sam's reply was prompt and to the point. He named a price. + +"No," said the old man instantly. "I been a-holdin' out for five +dollars a thousand more than that." + +Things were progressing. A basis for haggling had been established. +Sam Turner, however, had the advantage. He knew the sharp advance in +walnut announced that morning. Old man Gifford would not be aware of +it until the rural free delivery brought his evening paper, of the +night before, some time that afternoon. In view of the recent advance, +even at Mr. Gifford's price there was a handsome profit in the +transaction. + +"The reason you've had to hold out for your rate until right now was +that nobody would pay it," said Sam confidently. "Now I'm here to talk +spot cash. I'll give you, say, a thousand dollars down, and the +balance immediately upon measurement as the logs are loaded upon the +cars." + +The old man nodded in approval. + +"The terms is all right," he said. + +"How much will you take F. O. B. Restview?" + +"Well, cuttin' and trimmin' and haulin' ain't much in my line," +returned the old man, again cautious; "but after all, I reckon that +there'd be less damage to my property if I looked after it myself. Of +course, I'd have to have a profit for handlin' it. I'd feel like +holdin' out for--for--" and after some hesitation he again named a +figure. + +"You've made that same proposition to others," charged Sam shrewdly, +"and you couldn't get the price." Upon the heels of this he made his +own offer. + +The old man shook his head and turned as if to start back to the corn +field. + +"No, I can get better than that," he declared, shaking his head. + +"Come back here and let's talk turkey," protested Sam compellingly. +"You name the very lowest price you'll take, delivered on board the +cars at Restview." + +The old man reached down, pulled up a blade of grass, chewed it +carefully, spit it out, and named his very, very lowest price; then he +added: "What's the most you'll give?" + +Miss Stevens leaned forward intently. + +Sam very promptly named a figure five dollars lower. + +"I'll split the difference with you," offered the old man. + +"It's a bargain!" said Sam, and reaching into the inside pocket of his +tennis coat, he brought out some queer furniture for that sort of +garment--a small fountain pen and an extremely small card-case, from +the latter of which he drew four folded blank checks. + +He reached over and borrowed the chauffeur's enameled cap, dusted it +carefully with his handkerchief, laid a check upon it and held his +fountain pen poised. "What are your initials, please, Mr. Gifford?" + +"Wait a minute," said the old man hastily. "Don't make out that check +just yet. I don't do any business or sign any contracts till I talk +with Hepseba." + +"All right. Climb right in with Henry there," directed Sam, seizing +upon the chauffeur's name. "We'll drive straight up to see her." + +"I'll walk," firmly declared Mr. Gifford. "I never have rode in one of +them things, and I'm too old to begin." + +"Very well," said Sam cheerfully, jumping out of the machine with great +promptness. "I'll walk with you. Back to the house, Henry," and he +started anxiously to trudge up the road with Mr. Gifford, leaving Henry +to manoeuver painfully in the narrow space. After a few steps, +however, a sudden thought made him turn back. "Maybe you'd rather walk +up, too," he suggested to Miss Stevens. + +"No, I think I'll ride," she said coldly. + +He opened the door in extreme haste. + +"Do come on and walk," he pleaded. "Don't hold it against me because I +just don't seem to be able to think of more than one thing at a time; +but I was so wrapped up in this deal that-- Really," and he sank his +voice confidentially, "I have a tremendous bargain here, and I'll be +nervous about it until I have it clenched. I'll tell you why as we go +home." + +He held out his hand as a matter of course to help her down. The white +of his eyes was remarkably clear, the irises were remarkably blue, the +pupils remarkably deep. Suddenly her face cleared and she laughed. + +"It was silly of me to be snippy, wasn't it?" she confessed, as she +took his hand and stepped lightly to the ground. It had just recurred +to her that when he knew Princeman was walking over to see her he had +said nothing, but had engaged an automobile. + +Old man Gifford had nothing much to say when they caught up with him. +Mr. Turner tried him with remarks about the weather, and received full +information, but when he attempted to discuss the details of the walnut +purchase, he received but mere grunts in reply, except finally this: + +"There's no use, young man. I won't talk about them trees till I get +Hepseba's opinion." + +At the house Hepseba waddled out on the little stoop in response to old +man Gifford's call, and stood regarding the strangers stonily through +her narrow little slits of eyes. + +"This gentleman, Hepseba," said old man Gifford, "wants to buy my +walnut trees. What do you think of him?" + +In response to that leading question, Hepseba studied Sam Turner from +head to foot with the sort of scrutiny under which one slightly reddens. + +[Illustration: Hepseba studied him from head to foot] + +"I like him," finally announced Hepseba, in a surprisingly liquid and +feminine voice. "I like both of them," an unexpected turn which +brought a flush to the face of Miss Stevens. + +"All right, young man," said old man Gifford briskly. "Now, then, you +come in the front room and write your contract, and I'll take your +check." + +All alacrity and open cordiality now, he led the way into the queer-old +front room, musty with the solemnity of many dim Sundays. + +"Just set down here in this easy chair, Mrs.-- What did you say your +name is?" Mr. Gifford inquired, turning to Sam. + +"Turner; Sam J. Turner," returned that gentleman, grinning. "But this +is Miss Stevens." + +"No offense meant or taken, I hope," hastily said the old man by way of +apology; "but I do say that Mr. Turner would be lucky if he had such a +pretty wife." + +"You have both good taste and good judgment, Mr. Gifford," commented +Sam as airily as he could; then he looked across at Miss Stevens and +laughed aloud, so openly and so ingenuously that, so far from the +laughter giving offense, it seemed, strangely enough, to put Miss +Josephine at her ease, though she still blushed furiously. There was +nothing in that laugh nor in his look but frank, boyish enjoyment of +the joke. + +There ensued a crisp and decisive conversation between Mr. Gifford and +Mr. Turner about the details of their contract, and 'Ennery was +presently called in to append to it his painfully precise signature in +vertical writing, Miss Stevens adding hers in a pretty round hand. +Then Hepseba, to bind the bargain, brought in hot apple pie fresh from +the oven, and they became quite a little family party indeed, and very +friendly, 'Ennery sitting in the parlor with them and eating his pie +with a fork. + +"I know what Hepseba thinks," said old man Gifford, as he held the door +of the car open for them. "She thinks you're a mighty keen young man +that has to be watched in the beginning of a bargain, because you'll +give as little as you can; but that after the bargain's made you don't +need any more watching. But Lord love you, I have to be watched in a +bargain myself. I take everything I can." + +As he finished saying this he was closing the door of the car, but +Hepseba called to them to wait, and came puffing out of the house with +a little bundle wrapped in a newspaper. + +"I brought this out for your wife," she said to Mr. Turner, and handed +it to Miss Josephine. "It's some geranium slips. Everybody says I got +the very finest geraniums in the bottoms here." + +"Goodness, Hepseba," exclaimed old man Gifford, highly delighted; "that +ain't his wife. That's Miss Stevens. I made the same mistake," and he +hawhawed in keen enjoyment. + +Hepseba was so evidently overcome with mortification, however, and her +huge round face turned so painfully red, that Miss Stevens lost +entirely any embarrassment she might otherwise have felt. + +"It doesn't matter at all, I assure you, Mrs. Gifford," she said with +charming eagerness to set Hepseba at ease. "I am very fond of +geraniums, and I shall plant these slips and take good care of them. I +thank you very, very much for them." + +As the machine rolled away Hepseba turned to old man Gifford: + +"I like both of them!" she stated most decisively. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER AGREES THAT SAM TURNER IS ALL BUSINESS + +"And now," announced Sam in calm triumph as they neared Hollis Creek +Inn, "I'll finish up this deal right away. There is no use in my +holding for a further rise at this time, and I'll just sell these trees +to your father." + +"To father!" she gasped, and then, as it dawned upon her that she had +been out all morning to help Sam Turner buy up trees to sell to her own +father at a profit, she burst forth into shrieks of laughter. + +"What's the joke?" Sam asked, regarding her in amazement, and then, +more or less dimly, he perceived. "Still," he said, relapsing into +serious consideration of the affair, "your father will be in luck to +buy those trees at all, even at the ten dollars a thousand profit he'll +have to pay me. There is not less than a hundred thousand feet of +walnut in that grove. + +"Mercy!" she said. "Why, that will make you a thousand dollars for +this morning's drive; and the opportunity was entirely accidental, one +which would not have occurred if you hadn't come over to see me in this +machine. I think I ought to have a commission." + +"You ought to be fined," Sam retorted. "You had me scared stiff at one +time." + +"How was that?" she demanded. + +"Why, of course you didn't think, but when you told the boys that I was +going out to buy a walnut grove, they were right on their way to see +your father. It would have been very natural for one of them to +mention our errand. Your father might have immediately inquired where +there was walnut to be found, and have telephoned to old man Gifford +before I could reach him." + +"You needn't have worried!" stated Miss Josephine in a tone so +indignant that Sam turned to her in astonishment. "My father would not +have done anything so despicable as that, I am quite sure!" + +"He wouldn't!" exclaimed Sam. "I'll bet he would. Why, how do you +suppose your father became rich in the lumber trade if it wasn't +through snapping up bargains every time he found one?" + +"I have no doubt that my father has been and is a very alert business +man," retorted Miss Josephine most icily; "but after he knew that you +had started out actually to purchase a tract of lumber, he would +certainly consider that you had established a prior claim upon the +property." + +"Your father's name is Theophilus Stevens, isn't it?" + +"Yes." + +"Humph!" said Sam, but he did not explain that exclamation, nor was he +asked to explain. Miss Stevens had been deeply wounded by the assault +upon her father's business morality, and she desired to hear no further +elaboration of the insult. + +She was glad that they were drawing up now to the porch, glad this +ride, with its many disagreeable features, was over, although she +carefully gathered up her bright-berried branches, which were not half +so much withered as she had expected them to be, and held her geranium +slips cautiously as she alighted. + +Her father came out to the edge of the porch to meet them. He paid no +attention to his daughter. + +"Well, Sam Turner," said Mr. Stevens, stroking his aggressive beard, "I +hear you got it, confound you! What do you want for your lumber +contract?" + +"Just the advance of this morning's quotations," replied Sam. +"Princeman tell you I was after it?" + +"No, not at first," said Stevens. "I received a telegram about that +grove just an hour ago, from my partner. Princeman was with me when +the telegram came, and he told me then that you had just gone out on +the trail. I did my best to get Gifford by 'phone before you could +reach him." + +"Father!" exclaimed Miss Josephine. + +"What's the matter, Jo?" + +"You say you actually tried to--to get in ahead of Mr. Turner in buying +this lumber, knowing that he was going down there purposely for it?" + +"Why, certainly," admitted her father. + +"But did you know that I was with Mr. Turner?" + +"_Why, certainly_!" + +"Father!" was all she could gasp, and without deigning to say good-by +to Mr. Turner, or to thank him for the ride or the bouquet of branches +or even the geranium slips which she had received under false +pretenses, she hurried away to her room, oppressed with Heaven only +knows what mortification, and also with what wonder at the ways of men! + +However, Princeman and Billy Westlake and young Hollis with the curly +hair were impatiently waiting for Miss Josephine at the tennis court, +as they informed her in a jointly signed note sent up to her by a boy, +and hastily removing the dust of the road she ran down to join them. +As she went across the lawn, tennis bat in hand, Sam Turner, discussing +lumber with Mr. Stevens, saw her and stopped talking abruptly to admire +the trim, graceful figure. + +"Does your daughter play tennis much?" he inquired. + +"A great deal," returned Mr. Stevens, expanding with pride. "Jo's a +very expert player. She's better at it than any of these girls, and +she really doesn't care to play except with experts. Princeman, Hollis +and Billy Westlake are easily the champions here." + +"I see," said Sam thoughtfully. + +"I suppose you're a crack player yourself," his host resumed, glancing +at Sam's bat. + +"Me? No, worse than a dub. I never had time; that is, until now. +I'll tell you, though, this being away from the business grind is a +great thing. You don't know how I enjoy the fresh air and the being +out in the country this way, and the absolute freedom from business +cares and worries." + +"But where are you going?" asked Stevens, for Sam was getting up. +"You'll stay to lunch with us, won't you?" + +"No, thanks," replied Sam, looking at his watch. "I expect some word +from my kid brother. I have wired him to send some samples of marsh +pulp, and the paper we've had made from it." + +"Marsh pulp," repeated Mr. Stevens. "That's a new one on me. What's +it like?" + +"Greatest stunt on earth," replied Sam confidently. "It is our scheme +to meet the deforestation danger on the way--coming." + +Already he was reaching in his pocket for paper and pencil, and sat +down again at the side of Mr. Stevens, who immediately began stroking +his aggressive beard. Fifteen minutes later Sam briskly got up again +and Mr. Stevens shook hands with him. + +"That's a great scheme," he said, and he gazed after Sam's broad +shoulders admiringly as that young man strode down the steps. + +On his way Sam passed the tennis court where the one girl and three +young men were engaged in a most dextrous game, a game which all the +other amateurs of Hollis Creek Inn had stopped their own sets to watch. +In the pause of changing sides Miss Josephine saw him and waved her +hand and wafted a gay word to him. A second later she was in the air, +a lithe, graceful figure, meeting a high "serve," and Sam walked on +quite thoughtfully. + +When he arrived at Meadow Brook his first care was for his telegram. +It was there, and bore the assurance that the samples would arrive on +the following morning. His next step was to hunt Miss Westlake. That +plump young person forgot her pique of the morning in an instant when +he came up to her with that smiling "been-looking-for-you-everywhere, +mighty-glad-to-see-you" cordiality. + +"I want you to teach me tennis," he said immediately. + +"I'm afraid I can't teach you much," she replied with becoming +diffidence, "because I'm not a good enough player myself; but I'll do +my best. We'll have a set right after luncheon; shall we?" + +"Fine!" said he. + +After luncheon Mr. Westlake and Mr. Cuthbert waylaid him, but he merely +thrust his telegram into Mr. Westlake's hands, and hurried off to the +tennis grounds with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and lanky Bob +Tilloughby, who stuttered horribly and blushed when he spoke, and was +in deadly seriousness about everything. Never did a man work so hard +at anything as Sam Turner worked at tennis. He had a keen eye and a +dextrous wrist, and he kept the game up to top-notch speed. Of course +he made blunders and became confused in his count and overlooked +opportunities, but he covered acres of ground, as Vivian Hastings +expressed it, and when, at the end of an hour, they sat down, panting, +to rest, young Tilloughby, with painful earnestness, assured him that +he had "the mum-mum-makings of a fine tennis player." + +Sam considered that compliment very thoughtfully, but he was a trifle +dubious. Already he perceived that tennis playing was not only an +occupation but a calling. + +"Thanks," said he. "It's mighty nice of you to say so, Tilloughby. +What's the next game?" + +"The nun-nun-next game is a stroll," Tilloughby soberly advised him. +"It always stus-stus-starts out as a foursome, and ends up in +tut-tut-two doubles." + +So they strolled. They wound along the brookside among some of the +pretty paths, and in the rugged places Miss Westlake threw her weight +upon Sam's helping arm as much as possible; in the concealed places she +languished, which she did very prettily, she thought, considering her +one hundred and sixty-three pounds. They took him through a detour of +shady paths which occupied a full hour to traverse, but this particular +game did not wind up in "two doubles." In spite of all the excellent +tête-à-tête opportunities which should have risen for both couples, +Miss Westlake was annoyed to find Miss Hastings right close behind, and +holding even the conversation to a foursome. + +In the meantime, Sam Turner took careful lessons in the art of talking +twaddle, and they never knew that he was bored. Having entered into +the game he played it with spirit, and before they had returned to the +house Mr. Tilloughby was calling him Sus-Sus-Sam. + +The girls disappeared for their beauty sleep, and Sam found McComas and +Billy Westlake hunting for him. + +"Do you play base-ball?" inquired McComas. + +"A little. I used to catch, to help out my kid brother, who is an +expert pitcher." + +"Good!" said McComas, writing down Sam's name. "Princeman will pitch, +but we needed a catcher. The rivalry between Meadow Brook and Hollis +Creek is intense this year. They've captured nearly all the early +trophies, but we're going over there next week for a match game and +we're about crazy to win." + +"I'll do the best I can," promised Sam. "Got a base-ball? We'll go +out and practise." + +They slammed hot ones into each other for a half hour, and when they +had enough of it, McComas, wiping his brow, exclaimed approvingly: + +"You'll do great with a little more warming up. We have a couple of +corking players, but we need them. Hollis always pitches for Hollis +Creek, and he usually wins his game. On baseball day he's the idol of +all the girls." + +Sam Turner placed his hand meditatively upon the back of his neck as he +walked in to dress for dinner. Making a good impression upon the girls +was a separate business, it seemed, and one which required much +preparation. Well, he was in for the entire circus, but he realized +that he was a little late in starting. In consequence he could not +afford to overlook any of the points; so, before dressing for dinner, +he paid a quiet visit to the greenhouses. + +That evening, while he was bowling with all the earnestness that in him +lay, Josephine Stevens, resisting the importunities of young Hollis for +some music, sat by her father. + +"Father," she asked after long and sober thought, "was it right for +you, knowing Mr. Turner to be after that walnut lumber, to try to get +it away from him by telephoning?" + +"It certainly was!" he replied emphatically. "Turner went down there +with a deliberate intention of buying that lumber before I could get +it, so that he could sell it to me at as big a gain as possible. I +paid him one thousand dollars profit for his contract. I had struggled +my best to beat him to it; only I was too late. Both of us were +playing the game according to the rules, but he is a younger player." + +"I see." Another long pause. "Here's another thing. Mr. Turner +happened to know of this increase in the price of lumber, and he +hurried down there to a man who didn't know about that, and bought it. +If Mr. Gifford had known of the new rates, Mr. Turner could not have +bought those trees at the price he did, could he?" + +"Certainly not," agreed her father. "He would have had to pay nearly a +thousand dollars more for them." + +"Then that wasn't right of Mr. Turner," she asserted. + +"My child," said Mr. Stevens wearily, "all business is conducted for a +profit, and the only way to get it is by keeping alive and knowing +things that other people will find out to-morrow. Sam Turner is the +shrewdest and the livest young man I've met in many a day, and he's +square as a die. I'd take his word on any proposition; wouldn't you?" + +"Yes, I think I'd take his word," she admitted, and very positively, +after mature deliberation. "But truly, father, don't you think he's +too much concentrated on business? He hasn't a thought in his mind for +anything else. For instance, this morning he came over to take me an +automobile ride around Bald Hill, and when he found out about this +walnut grove, without either apology or explanation to me he ordered +the chauffeur to drive right down there." + +"Fine," laughed her father. "I'd like to hire him for my manager, if I +could only offer him enough money. But I don't see your point of +criticism. It seems to me that he's a mighty presentable and likable +young fellow, good looking, and a gentleman in the sense in which I +like to use that word." + +"Yes, he is all of those things," she admitted again; "but it is a flaw +in a young man, isn't it," she persisted, betraying an unusually +anxious interest, "for him never to think of a solitary thing but just +business?" + +They were sitting in one of the alcoves of the assembly room, and at +that moment a bell-boy, wandering around the place with apparent +aimlessness, spied them and brought to Miss Josephine a big box. She +opened it and an exclamation of pleasure escaped her. In the box was a +huge bouquet of exquisite roses, soft and glowing, delicious in their +fragrance. + +Impulsively she buried her face in them. + +"Oh, how delightful!" she cried, and she drew out the white card which +peeped forth from amidst the stems. "They are from Mr. Turner!" she +gasped. + +"You're quite right about him," commented her father dryly. "He's all +business." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN WHICH THE SUMMER LOAFER ORDERS SOME MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES + +Before Sam had his breakfast the next morning, he sat in his room with +some figures with which Blackrock and Cuthbert had provided him the +evening before. He cast them up and down and crosswise and diagonally, +balanced them and juggled them and sorted them and shifted them, until +at last he found the rat hole, and smiling grimly, placed those pages +of neat figures in a small letter file which he took from his trunk. +One thing was certain: the Meadow Brook capitalists were highly +interested in his plan, or they would never go to the trouble to +devise, so early in the game, a scheme for gaining control of the marsh +pulp corporation. Well, they were the exact people he wanted. + +Immediately after breakfast Miss Stevens telephoned over to thank him +for his beautiful roses, and he had the pleasure of letting her know, +quite incidentally, that he had gone down to the rose-beds and picked +out each individual blossom himself, which, of course, accounted for +their excellence. Also he suggested coming over that morning for a +brief walk. + +No, she was very sorry, but she was just making ready to go out +horseback riding with Mr. Hollis, who, by the way, was an excellent +rider; but they would be back from their canter about ten-thirty, and +if Mr. Turner cared to come over for a game of tennis before luncheon, +why-- + +"Sorry I can't do it," returned Mr. Turner with the deepest of genuine +regret in his tone. "My kid brother is sending me some samples of pulp +and paper which will arrive at about eleven o'clock, and I have called +a meeting of some interested parties here to examine them at about +eleven." + +"Business again," she protested. "I thought you were on a vacation." + +"I am," he assured her in surprise. "I never lazied around so or +frittered up so much time in my life; and I'm enjoying every second of +my freedom, too. I tell you, it's fine. But say, this meeting won't +take over an hour. Why can't I come over right after lunch?" + +She was very sorry, this time a little less regretfully, that after +luncheon she had an engagement with Mr. Princeman to play a match game +of croquet. But, and here she relented a trifle, they were getting up +a hasty, informal dance over at Hollis Creek for that evening. Would +he come over? + +He certainly would, and he already spoke for as many dances as she +would give him. + +"I'll give you what I can," she told him; "but I've already promised +three of them to Billy Westlake, who is a divine dancer." + +Sam Turner was deeply thoughtful as he turned away from the telephone. +Hollis was a superb horseback rider. Billy Westlake was a divine +dancer. Princeman, he had learned from Miss Stevens, who had spoken +with vast enthusiasm, was a base-ball hero. Hollis and Princeman and +Westlake were crack bowlers, also crack tennis players, and no doubt +all three were even expert croquet players. It was easy to see the +sort of men she admired. Sam Turner only knew one recipe to get +things, and he had made up his mind to have Miss Stevens. He promptly +sought Miss Westlake. + +"Do you ride?" he wanted to know. + +"Not as often as I'd like," she said. + +Really, she had half promised to go driving with Tilloughby, but it was +not an actual promise, and if it were she was quite willing to get out +of it, if Mr. Turner wanted her to go along, although she did not say +so. Young Tilloughby was notoriously an impossible match. But +possibly Mr. Tilloughby and Miss Hastings might care to join the party. +She suggested it. + +"Why, certainly," said Sam heartily. "The more the merrier," which was +not the thing she wanted him to say. + +Tilloughby, a trifle disappointed yet very gracious, consented to ride +in place of drive, and Miss Hastings was only too delighted; entirely +too much so, Miss Westlake thought. Accordingly they rode, and Sam +insisted on lagging behind with Miss Westlake, which she took to be of +considerable significance, and exhibited a very obvious fluttering +about it. Sam's motive, however, was to watch Tilloughby in the +saddle, for in their conversation it had developed that Tilloughby was +a very fair rider; and everything that he saw Tilloughby do, Sam did. +En route they met Hollis and Miss Stevens, cantering just where the +Bald Hill road branched off, and the cavalcade was increased to six. +Once, in taking a narrow cross-cut down through the woods, Sam had the +felicity of riding beside Miss Stevens for a moment, and she put her +hand on his horse and patted its glossy neck and admired it, while Sam +admired the hand. He felt, in some way or other, that riding for that +ten yards by her side was a sort of triumph over Hollis, until he saw +her dash up presently by the side of Hollis again and chat brightly +with that young gentleman. + +Thereafter Sam quit watching Tilloughby and watched Hollis. Curly-head +was an accomplished rider, and Sam felt that he himself cut but an +awkward figure. In reality he was too conscious of his defects. By +strict attention he was proving himself a fair ordinary rider, but when +Hollis, out of sheer showiness, turned aside from the path to jump his +horse over a fallen tree, and Miss Stevens out of bravado followed him, +Sam Turner well-nigh ground his teeth, and, acting upon the impulse, he +too attempted the jump. The horse got over safely, but Sam went a +cropper over his head, and not being a particle hurt had to endure the +good-natured laughter of the balance of them. Miss Stevens seemed as +much amused as any one! He had not caught her look of fright as he +fell nor of concern as he rose, nor could he estimate that her laugh +was a mild form of hysteria, encouraged because it would deceive. What +an ass he was, he savagely thought, to exhibit himself before her in an +attempt like that, without sufficient preparation! He must ride every +morning, by himself. + +Miss Josephine and Mr. Hollis were bound for the Bald Hill circle, and +they insisted, the insistence being largely on the part of Miss +Stevens, on the others accompanying them; but Mr. Turner's engagement +at eleven o'clock would not admit of this, and reluctantly he took Miss +Hastings back with him, leaving Miss Westlake and young Tilloughby to +go on. The arrangement suited him very well, for at least Hollis' ride +with Miss Stevens would not be a tête-à-tête. Miss Westlake strove to +let him understand as plainly as she could that she was only going with +Mr. Tilloughby because of her previous semi-engagement with him--and +there seemed a coolness between Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings as they +separated. Miss Hastings did her best on the way back to console Mr. +Turner for the absence of Miss Westlake. Vivacious as she always was, +she never was more so than now, and before Sam knew it he had engaged +himself with her to gather ferns in the afternoon. + +Upon his arrival at Meadow Brook, he found his express package and also +a couple of important letters awaiting him, and immediately held on the +porch a full meeting of the tentative Marsh Pulp Company. In that +meeting he decided on four things: first, that these hard-headed men of +business were highly favorable to his scheme; second, that Princeman +and Cuthbert, who knew most about paper and pulp, were so profoundly +impressed with his samples that they tried to conceal it from him; +third, that Princeman, at first his warmest adherent, was now most +stubbornly opposed to him, not that he wished to prevent forming the +company, but that he wished to prevent Sam's having his own way; +fourth, that the crowd had talked it over and had firmly determined +that Sam should not control their money. Princeman was especially +severe. + +"There is no question but that these samples are convincing of their +own excellence," he admitted; "but properly to estimate the value of +both pulp and paper, it would be necessary to know, by rigid +experiment, the precise difficulties of manufacture, to say nothing of +the manner in which these particular specimens were produced." + +Mr. Princeman's words had undoubted weight, casting, as they did, a +clammy suspicion upon Sam's samples. + +"I had thought of that," confessed Mr. Turner, "and had I not been +prepared to meet such a natural doubt, to say nothing of such a natural +insinuation, I should never have submitted these samples. Mr. +Princeman, do you know G. W. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" + +Mr. Princeman, with a wince, did, for G. W. Creamer and the Eureka +Paper Mills were his most successful competitors in the manufacture of +special-priced high-grade papers. Mr. Cuthbert also knew Mr. Creamer +intimately. + +"Good," said Sam; "then Mr. Creamer's letter will have some weight," +and he turned it over to Mr. Blackrock. That gentleman, setting his +spectacles astride his nose and assuming his most profoundly +professional air, read aloud the letter in which Mr. Creamer thanked +Turner and Turner for reposing confidence enough in him to reveal their +process and permit him to make experiments, and stated, with many +convincing facts and figures, that he had made several separate samples +of the pulp in his experimental shop, and from the pulp had made paper, +samples of which he enclosed under separate cover, stating further that +the pulp could be manufactured far cheaper than wood pulp, and that the +quality of the paper, in his estimation, was even superior; and when +the company was formed, he wished to be set down for a good, fat block +of stock. + +Having submitted exhibit A in the form of his brother's samples of pulp +and paper, exhibit B in the form of Mr. Creamer's letter, and exhibit C +in the form of Mr. Creamer's own samples of pulp and paper, Mr. Turner +rested quite comfortably in his chair, thank you. + +"This seems to make the thing positive," admitted Mr. Princeman. "Mr. +Turner, would you mind sending some samples of your material to my +factory with the necessary instructions?" + +"Not at all," replied Sam suavely. "We would be pleased indeed to do +so, just as soon as our patents are allowed." + +"Pending that," suggested Mr. Westlake placidly, looking out over the +brook, "why couldn't we organize a sort of tentative company? Why +couldn't we at least canvass ourselves and see how much of Mr. Turner's +stock we would take up among us?" + +"That is," put in Mr. Cuthbert, screwing the remark out of himself +sidewise, "provided the terms of incorporation and promotion were +satisfactory to us." + +"I have already drawn up a sort of preliminary proposition, after +consultation with our friends here," Mr. Blackrock now stated, "and +purely as a tentative matter it might be read." + +"Go right ahead," directed Sam. "I'm a good listener." + +Mr. Blackrock slowly and ponderously read the proposed plan of +incorporation. Sam rose and looked at his watch. + +"It won't do," he announced sharply. "That whole thing, in accordance +with the figures you submitted me last night, is framed up for the sole +purpose of preventing my ever securing control, and if I do not have a +chance, at least, at control, I won't play." + +"You seem to be very sure of that," said Mr. Princeman, surveying him +coldly; "but there is another thing equally sure, and that is that you +can not engage capital in as big an enterprise as this on any basis +which will separate the control and the money." + +"I'm going to try it, though," retorted Sam. "If I can't separate the +control and the money I suppose I'll have to put up with the best terms +I can get. If you will let me have that prospectus of yours, Mr. +Blackrock, I'll take it up to my room and study it, and draw up a +counter prospectus of my own." + +"With pleasure," said Mr. Blackrock, handing it over courteously, and +Mr. Turner rose. + +"I'll say this much, Sam," stated Mr. Westlake, who seemed to have +grown more friendly as Mr. Princeman grew cooler; "if you can get a +proposition upon which we are all agreed, I'll take fifty thousand of +that stock myself, at fifty." + +"As a matter of fact, Mr. Turner," added Mr. Cuthbert, "including your +friend Creamer, who insists upon being in, I imagine that we can +finance your entire company right in this crowd--if the terms are +right." + +"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, I'm sure," said Mr. Turner, +and bowed himself away. + +In place of going to his room, however, he went to the telegraph +office, and wired his brother in New York: + +"How are you coming on with pulp company stock subscription?" + + +The telegraph office was in one corner of the post-office, which was +also a souvenir room, with candy and cigar counters, and as he turned +away from the telegraph desk he saw Princeman at the candy counter. + +"No, I don't care for any of these," Princeman was saying. "If you +haven't maraschino chocolates I don't want any." + +Sam immediately stepped back to the telegraph desk and sent another +wire to his brother: + +"Express fresh box maraschino chocolates to Miss Josephine Stevens +Hollis Creek Inn enclose my card personal cards in upper right-hand +pigeonhole my desk." + + +Then he went up-stairs to get ready for lunch. Immediately after +luncheon he received the following wire from his brother: + +"Stock subscription rotten everybody likes scheme but object to our +control but no hurry why don't you rest maraschinos shipped +congratulate you." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WHICH EXHIBITS THE IMPORTANCE OF REMEMBERING A DANCE NUMBER + +And so the kid was finding the same trouble which he had met. They had +been too frank in stating that they intended to obtain control of the +company without any larger investments than their patents and their +scheme. Sam wandered through the hall, revolving this matter in his +mind, and out at the rear door, which framed an inviting vista of +green. He strolled back past the barn toward the upper reaches of the +brook path, and sitting amid the comfortably gnarled roots of a big +tree he lit a cigar and began with violence to snap little pebbles into +the brook. If he were promoting a crooked scheme, he reflected +savagely, he would have no difficulty whatever in floating it upon +almost any terms he wanted. Well, there was one thing certain; at the +finish, control would be in his own hands! But how to secure it and +still float the company promptly and advantageously? There was the +problem. He liked this crowd. They were good, keen, vigorous, +enterprising men, fine men with whom to do business, men who would +snatch control away from him if they could, and throw him out in the +cold in a minute if they deemed it necessary or expedient. Of course +that was to be expected. It was a part of the game. He would rather +deal with these progressive people, knowing their tendencies, than with +a lot of sapheads. + +How to get control? He lingered long and thoughtfully over that +question, perhaps an hour, until presently he became aware that a +slight young girl, with a fetching sun-hat and a basket, was walking +pensively along the path on the opposite side of the brook, for the +third time. Her passing and repassing before his abstracted and +unseeing vision had become slightly monotonous, and for the first time +he focused his eyes back from their distant view of pulp marshes and +stock certificates and inspected the girl directly. Why, he knew that +girl! It was Miss Hastings. + +As if in obedience to his steady gaze she looked across at him and +waved her basket. + +"Where are you going?" he asked with the heartiness of enforced +courtesy. + +"After ferns," she responded, and laughed. + +"By George, that's so!" he said, and ran up the stream to a narrow +place where he made a magnificent jump and only got one shoe wet. + +He was profuse, not in his apologies, but in his intention to make them. + +"Jinks!" he said. "I'm ashamed to say I forgot all about that. I +found myself suddenly confronted with a business proposition that had +to be worked out, and I thought of nothing else." + +"I hope you succeeded," she said pleasantly. + +There wasn't a particle of vengefulness about Miss Hastings. She was +not one to hold this against him; he could see that at once! She +understood men. She knew that grave problems frequently confronted +them, and that such minor things as fern gathering expeditions would +necessarily have to step aside and be forgotten. She was one of the +bright, cheerful, always smiling kind; one who would make a sunshiny +helpmate for any man, and never object to anything he did--before +marriage. + +All this she conveyed in lively but appealing chatter; all, that is, +except the last part of it, a deduction which Sam supplied for himself. +For the first time in his life he had paused to judge a girl as he +would "size up" a man, and he was a little bit sorry that he had done +so, for while Miss Hastings was very agreeable, there was a certain +acidulous sharpness about her nose and uncompromising thinness about +her lips which no amount of laughing vivacity could quite conceal. + +Dutifully, however, he gathered ferns for the rockery of her aunt in +Albany, and Miss Hastings, in return, did her best to amuse and +delight, and delicately to convey the thought of what an agreeable +thing it would be for a man always to have this cheerful companionship. +She even, on the way back, went so far as inadvertently to call him +Sam, and apologized immediately in the most charming confusion. + +"Really," she added in explanation, "I have heard Mr. Westlake and the +others call you Sam so often that the name just seems to slip out." + +"That's right," he said cordially. "Sam's my name. When people call +me Mr. Turner I know they are strangers." + +"Then I think I shall call you Sam," she said, laughing most +engagingly. "It's so much easier," and sure enough she did as soon as +they were well within the hearing of Miss Westlake, at the hotel. + +"Oh, Sam," she called, turning in the doorway, "you have my gloves in +your pocket." + +Miss Westlake stiffened like an icicle, and a stern resolve came upon +her. Whatever happened, she saw her duty plainly before her. She had +introduced Mr. Turner to Miss Hastings, and she was responsible. It +was her moral obligation to rescue him from the clutches of that +designing young person, and she immediately reminded him that she had +an engagement to give him a tennis lesson every day. There was still +time for a set before dinner. Also, far be it from her to be so +forward as to call him Sam, or to annoy him with silly chattering. She +was serious-minded, was Miss Westlake, and sweet and helpful; any man +could see that; and she fairly adored business. It was so interesting. + +When they came back from their tennis game, hurrying because it was +high time to dress for dinner and the dance, she met Miss Hastings in +the hall, but the two bosom friends barely nodded. There had sprung up +an unaccountable coolness between them, a coolness which Sam by no +means noticed, however, for at the far end of the porch sat Princeman, +already back from Hollis Creek to dress, and with him were Westlake and +McComas and Blackrock and Cuthbert, and they were in very close +conference. When Sam approached them they stopped talking abruptly for +just one little moment, then resumed the conversation quite naturally, +even more than quite naturally in fact, and the experienced Sam smiled +grimly as he excused himself to dress. + +Billy Westlake met him as he was going up-stairs. To Billy had been +entrusted the office of rounding up all the young people who were going +over to Hollis Creek, and by previous instruction, though wondering at +his sister's choice, he assigned Sam to that young lady, a fate which +Sam accepted with becoming gratitude. + +He had plenty of food for thought as he donned his costume of dead +black and staring white, and somehow or other he was distrait that +evening all the way over to Hollis Creek. Only when he met Miss +Stevens did he brighten, as he might well do, for Miss Stevens, +charming in every guise, was a revelation in evening costume; a +ravishing revelation; one to make a man pause and wonder and stand in +awe, and regard himself as a clumsy creature not worthy to touch the +hem of the garment which embellished such a divine being. Nevertheless +he conquered that wave of diffidence in a jiffy, or something like half +that space of time, and shook hands with her most eagerly, and looked +into her eyes and was grateful; for he found them smiling up at him in +most friendly fashion, and with rather an electric thrill in them, too, +though whether the thrill emanated from the eyes or was merely within +himself he was not sure. + +"How many dances do I get?" he abruptly demanded. + +"Just two," she told him, and showed him her card and gave him one on +which a list of names had already been marked by the young ladies of +Hollis Creek. + +He saw on the card two dances with Miss Stevens, one each with Miss +Westlake and Miss Hastings, and one each with a number of other young +ladies whom he had met but vaguely, and one each with some whom he had +not met at all. He dutifully went through the first dance with a young +lady of excellent connections who would make a prime companion for any +advancing young man with social aspirations; he went dutifully through +the next dance with a young lady who was keen on intellectual pursuits, +and who would make an excellent helpmate for any young man who wished +to advance in culture as he progressed in business, and danced the next +one with a young lady who believed that home-making should be the +highest aim of womankind; and then came his first dance with Miss +Stevens! They did not talk very much, but it was very, very comforting +to be with her, just to know that she was there, and to know that +somehow she understood. He was sorry, though, that he stepped upon her +gown. + +The promenade, which had seemed quite long enough with the other young +ladies, seemed all too short for Sam up to the point when Billy +Westlake came to take Miss Josephine away. He was feeling rather +lonely when Tilloughby came up to him, with a charming young lady who +was in quite a flutter. It seemed that there had been a dreadful +mistake in the making out of the dance cards, which the young ladies of +Hollis Creek had endeavored to do with strict equity, though hastily, +and all was now inextricable confusion. The charming young lady was on +the cards for this dance with both Mr. Tilloughby and Mr. Turner, and +Mr. Tilloughby had claimed her first. Would Mr. Turner kindly excuse +her? Just behind her came another young lady whom Mr. Tilloughby +introduced. This young lady was on Sam's card for the next dance +following this one, but it should be for the eighth dance, and would +Mr. Turner please change his card accordingly, which Mr. Turner +obligingly did, wondering what he should do when it came to the eighth +dance and he should find himself obligated to two young ladies. Oh, +well, he reflected, no doubt the other young lady was down for the +eighth dance with some one else, if they had things so mixed. Of one +thing he was sure. He had that tenth dance with Miss Stevens. He had +inspected both cards to make certain of that, and had seen with +carefully concealed joy that she had compared them as minutely as he +had. He saw confusion going on all about him, laughing young people +attempting to straighten out the tangle, and the dance was slow in +starting. + +Almost the first two on the floor were Miss Stevens and Billy Westlake, +and as he saw them, from his vantage point outside one of the broad +windows, gliding gracefully up the far side of the room, he realized +with a twinge of impatience what a remarkably unskilled dancer he +himself was. Billy and Miss Stevens were talking, too, with the +greatest animation, and she was looking up at Billy as brightly, even +more brightly he thought, than she had at himself. There was a +delicate flush on her cheeks. Her lips, full and red and deliciously +curved, were parted in a smile. Confound it anyhow! What could she +find to talk about with Billy Westlake? + +He was turning away in more or less impatience, when Mr. Stevens, +looking, in some way, with his aggressive, white, outstanding beard, as +if he ought to have a red ribbon diagonally across his white shirt +front, ranged beside him. + +"Fine sight, isn't it?" observed Mr. Stevens. + +"Yes," admitted Mr. Turner, almost shortly, and forced himself to turn +away from the following of that dazzling vision, which was almost +painful under the circumstances. + +By mutual impulse they walked down the length of the side porch and +across the front porch. Sam drew himself away from dancing and certain +correlated ideas with a jerk. + +"I've been wanting to talk with you, Mr. Stevens," he observed. "I +think I'll drop over to-morrow for a little while." + +"Glad to have you any time, Sam," responded Mr. Stevens heartily, "but +there is no time like the present, you know. What's on your mind?" + +"This Marsh Pulp Company," said Sam; "do you know anything about pulp +and paper?" + +"A little bit. You know I have some stock in Princeman's company." + +"Oh," returned Sam thoughtfully. + +"Not enough to hurt, however," Stevens went on. "Twenty shares, I +believe. When I went in I had several times as much, but not enough to +make me a dominant factor by any means, and Princeman, as he made more +money, wanted some of it, so I let him buy up quite a number of shares. +At one time I was very much interested, however, and visited the mills +quite frequently." + +"You're rather close to Princeman in a business way, aren't you?" Sam +asked after duly cautious reflection. + +"Not at all, although we get along very nicely indeed. I made money on +my paper stock, both in dividends and in a very comfortable advance +when I sold it. Our relations have always been friendly, but very +little more. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing. Only Princeman is much interested in my Pulp Company, +and all the people who are going in are his friends. The crowd over at +Meadow Brook talks of taking up approximately the entire stock of my +company. I thought possibly you might be interested." + +"I am right now, from what I have already heard of it," returned +Stevens, who had almost at first sight succumbed to that indefinable +personal appeal which caused Sam Turner to be trusted of all men. "I +shall be very glad to hear more about it. It struck me when you spoke +of it yesterday as a very good proposition." + +They had reached the dark corner at the far end of the porch, illumined +only by the subdued light which came from a half-hidden window, and now +they sat down. Sam fished in the little armpit pocket of his dress +coat and dragged forth two tiny samples of pulp and two tiny samples of +paper. + +"These two," he stated, "were samples sent me to-day by my kid brother." + +Mr. Stevens took the samples and examined them with interest. He felt +their texture. He twisted them and crumpled them and bent them +backward and forward and tore them. Then, the light at this window +being too weak, he went to one of the broad windows where a stronger +stream of light came out, and examined them anew. Sam, still sitting +in his chair, nodded in satisfied approval. He liked that kind of +inspection. Mr. Stevens brought the samples back. + +"They are excellent, so far as I am able to judge," he announced. +"These are samples made by yourselves from marsh products?" + +"Yes," Sam assured him. "Made from marsh-grown material by our new +process, which is much cheaper than the wood-pulp process. Do you know +Mr. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" + +"Not very well. I've met him once or twice at dinners, but I'm not +intimately acquainted with him. I hear, however, that he is an +authority." + +"Here's a letter from him, and some samples made by him under our +process," said Sam with secret satisfaction. "I just received them +this morning." From the same pocket he took the letter without its +envelope, and with it handed over the two other small samples. + +"That's a fine showing," Stevens commented when he had examined +document and samples and brought them back, and he sat down, edging +about so that he and Sam sat side by side but facing each other, as in +a tête-à-tête chair. "Now tell me all about it." + +On and on went the music in the ball-room, on went the shuffling of +feet, the swish of garments, the gay talk and laughter of the young +people; and on and on talked Mr. Stevens and Mr. Turner, until one +familiar strain of music penetrated into Sam's inner consciousness; the +_Home Sweet Home_ waltz! + +"By George!" he exclaimed, jumping up. "That can't be the last." + +"Sounds like it," commented Mr. Stevens, also rising. "It is the last +if they make up programs as they did in my young days. I don't +remember of many dances where the _Home Sweet Home_ waltz didn't end it +up. It's late enough anyhow. It's eleven-thirty." + +"Then I have done it again!" said Sam ruefully. "I had the number ten +dance with your daughter." + +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes to laugh. + +"You certainly have put your foot in it," he admitted. "Oh, well, Jo's +sensible," he added with a father's fond ignorance. "She'll +understand." + +"That's what I'm afraid of," replied Mr. Turner ruefully. "You'll have +to intercede for me. Explain to her about it and soften the case as +much as you can. Frankly, Mr. Stevens, I'd be tremendously cut up to +be on the outs with Miss Josephine." + +"There are shoals of young men who feel that way about it, Sam," said +Mr. Stevens with large and commendable pride. "However, I am glad that +you have added yourself to the list," and he gazed after Sam with +considerable approbation, as that young man hurried away to display his +abjectness to the young lady in question. + +Three times, on the arm of Princeman, she whirled past the open doorway +where Sam stood, but somehow or other he found it impossible to catch +her eye. The dance ended when she was on the other side of the room, +and immediately, with the last strains, the floor was in confusion. +Sam tried desperately to hurry across to where she was, but he lost her +in the crowd. He did not see her again until all of the Meadow Brook +folk, including himself, were seated in the carryalls, at which time +the Hollis Creek folk were at the edge of the porte-cochère and both +parties were exchanging a gabbling pandemonium of good-bys. He saw her +then, standing back among the crowd, and shouting her adieus as +vociferously as any of them. He caught her eye and she nodded to him +as pleasantly as to anybody, which was really worse than if she had +refused to acknowledge him at all! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME + +No, Miss Stevens was sorry that she could not go walking with him that +morning, which was the morning after the dance. She was very polite +about it, too; almost too polite. Her voice over the telephone was as +suave and as limpid as could possibly be, but there was a sort of +metallic glitter behind it, as it were. + +No, she could not see him that afternoon either. She had made a series +of engagements, in fact, covering the entire day. Also, she regretted +to say, upon further solicitation, that she had made engagements +covering the entire following day. + +No, she was not piqued about his last night's forgetfulness; by no +means; certainly not; how absurd! + +She quite understood. He had been talking business with her father, +and naturally such a trifling detail as a dance with frivolous young +people would not occur to him. + +Frivolous young people! This was the exact point of the conversation +at which Sam, with his ear glued to the receiver of the telephone and +no necessity for concealing the concerned expression on his +countenance, thought, in more or less of a panic, that he must really +be getting old, which was a good joke, inasmuch as nobody ever took him +to be over twenty-five. Heretofore his boyish appearance had worried +him because it rather stood in the way of business, but now he began to +fear that he was losing it; for he was nearing thirty! + +Well, pleading was of no avail. He had to give it up. Reluctantly he +went out and took a solitary walk, then came in and religiously played +his two hours of tennis with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and +Tilloughby. Was he not on vacation, and must he not enjoy himself? +Just before he went in to luncheon, however, there was a telephone call +for him. + +Miss Stevens was perplexed to know what divine intuition had told him +her obsession for maraschino chocolates. She had one in her fingers at +the very moment she was telephoning, and she was going to pop it into +her mouth while he talked. Being a mere man he could not realize how +delightfully refreshing was a maraschino chocolate. + +Sam had a lively picture of that dainty confection between the tips of +her dainty fingers; he could see the white hand and the graceful wrist, +and then he could see those exquisitely curved red lips parting with a +flash of white teeth to receive the delicacy; and he had an impulse to +climb through the telephone. + +A little bird had told him about her preference, he stated. He had +that little bird regularly in his employ to find out other preferences. + +"I had those sent just to show you that I am not altogether absorbed in +business," he went on; "that I can think of other things. Have another +chocolate." + +"I am," she laughingly said; "but I'm not going to eat them all. I'm +going to save one or two for you." + +"Good," returned Sam in huge delight and relief. "I'll come over to +get them any time you say." + +"All right," she gaily agreed. "As I told you this morning, I have an +engagement for this afternoon, but if you'll come over after luncheon +I'll try to find a half-hour or so for you anyhow." + +Great blotches of perspiration sprang out on his forehead. + +"Jinks!" he ejaculated. "You know, right after you telephoned me this +morning I made an engagement with Mr. Blackrock and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Westlake, to go over some proposed incorporation papers." + +"Oh, by all means, then, keep your engagement," she told him, and he +could feel the instant frigidity which returned to her tone. A +zero-like wave seemed to come right through the transmitter of the +telephone and chill the perspiration of his brow into a cold trickle. + +"No, I'll see if I can not set that engagement off for a couple of +hours," he hastily informed her. + +"By no means," she protested, more frigidly than before. "Come to +think of it, I don't believe I'd have time anyhow. In fact, I'm sure +that I would not. Mr. Hollis is calling me now. Good-by." + +"Wait a minute," he called desperately into the telephone, but it was +dead, and there is nothing in this world so dead as the telephone from +which connection has been suddenly shut off. + +Sam strode into the dining-room and went straight over to Blackrock's +table. + +"I find I have some pressing business right after luncheon," he said, +bending over that gentleman's chair. "I can't possibly meet you at two +o'clock. Will four do you?" + +"Why, certainly," Mr. Blackrock was kind enough to say, and he +furthermore agreed, with equal graciousness, to inform the others. + +Sam ate his luncheon in worried silence, replying only in monosyllables +to the remarks of McComas, who sat at his table, and of Mrs. McComas, +who had taken quite a young-motherly fancy to him; and the amount that +he ate was so much at variance with his usual hearty appetite that even +the maid who waited on his table, a tall, gangling girl with a vinegar +face and a kind heart, worried for fear he might be sick, and added +unordered delicacies to his American plan meal. He went over to Hollis +Creek in the swiftest conveyance he could obtain, which was naturally +an auto, but he did not have 'Ennery for his chauffeur, of which he was +heartily glad, for 'Ennery might have wanted to talk. + +On the porch of Hollis Creek Inn he found Princeman and Mr. Stevens in +earnest conversation. He knew what that meant. Princeman was already +discussing with Mr. Stevens the matter of control of the Marsh Pulp +Company. Princeman rose when Sam stepped up on the porch, and strolled +away from Mr. Stevens. He nodded pleasantly to Turner, and the latter, +returning the nod fully as pleasantly, was about to hurry on in search +of Miss Josephine, when Mr. Stevens checked him. + +"Hello, Sam," he called. "I've just been waiting to see you." + +"All right," said Sam. "I'll be around presently." + +"No, but come here," insisted Mr. Stevens. + +Sam cast a nervous glance about the grounds and along the side porch; +Miss Josephine most certainly was not among those present. He still +hesitated, impatient to get away. + +"Just a minute, Sam," insisted Stevens. "I want to talk to you right +now." + +With unwilling feet Sam went over. + +"Sit down," directed Stevens, pushing forward a chair. + +"What is it?" asked Sam, still standing. + +"I have been talking with Princeman and Westlake about your Marsh Pulp +Company." + +"Yes," inquired Sam nervously. + +"And everybody seems to be most enthusiastic about it. Fact of the +matter is, my boy, I consider it a tremendous investment opportunity. +The only drawback there seems to be is in the matter of stock +distribution and voting power. I want you to explain this very fully +to me." + +"I thought you were quite satisfied with our talk last night," returned +Sam, glancing hastily over his shoulder. + +"I am, in so far as the investment goes, Sam. I've promised you that +I'd take a good block of stock, and you've promised to make room for me +in the company. I expect to go through with that, but I want to know +about this other phase of the matter before I get into any +entanglements with opposing factions. Now you sit right down there and +tell me about it." + +Despairingly Sam sat down and proceeded briefly and concisely to +explain to him the various plans of incorporation which had been +proposed. Ten minutes later he almost groaned, as a trap, drawn by a +pair of handsome buckskin horses, driven by Princeman and containing +Miss Josephine, crunched upon the gravel driveway in front of the +porch. Miss Stevens greeted Mr. Turner very heartily indeed, Princeman +stopping for that purpose. Sam ran down and shook hands with her. Oh, +she was most cordial; just as cordial and polite as anybody he knew! + +"I did not expect you at all," she said, "but I knew you were here, for +I saw you from the window as you came up the drive. Pleasant weather, +isn't it? Oh, papa!" + +"Yes," answered Mr. Stevens ponderously from his place on the porch. + +"Up on my dresser you will find a box of candy which Mr. Turner was +kind enough to have sent me, and he confesses that he has never tasted +maraschino chocolates. Won't you please run up and get them and let +Mr. Turner sample them?" + +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens. "If Sam Turner insists upon running me up +two flights of stairs on an errand of that sort, I suppose I'll have to +go. But he won't." + +"You're lazy," she said to her father in affectionate banter, then, +with a wave of her hand and a bright nod to Mr. Turner, she was gone! + +Sam trudged slowly up on the porch with the heart gone entirely out of +him for business; and yet, as he approached Mr. Stevens he pulled +himself together with a jerk. After all, she was gone, and he could +not bring her back, and in his talk with Stevens he had just approached +a grave and serious situation. + +"The fact of the matter is, Mr. Stevens," said he as he sat down again, +"these people are the very people I want to get into my concern, but +they are old hands at the stock incorporation game, and even before +I've organized the company they are planning to get it out of my hands. +Now it is my scheme, mine and the kid brother's, and I don't propose to +allow that." + +"Well, Sam," said Mr. Stevens slowly, "you know capital of late has had +a lot of experience with corporate business, and it isn't the +fashionable thing this year for the control and the capital to be in +separate hands--right at the very beginning." + +This was the signal for the struggle, and Sam plunged earnestly into +the conflict. At three-fifteen he suddenly rose and made his adieus. +He would have liked to stay until Miss Josephine came back, so that he +could make one more desperate attempt to set himself right with her, +but there was that deferred engagement with Blackrock, and reluctantly +he whirled back to Meadow Brook. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHEREIN SAM TURNER PROVES HIMSELF TO BE A VIOLENT FLIRT + +The rest of that week was a worried and an anxious one for Sam. He +sent daily advices to his brother, and he received daily advices in +return. The people upon whom he had originally counted to form the +Marsh Pulp Company had set themselves coldly against the matter of +control, and on comparing the apparent situation in New York with the +situation at Meadow Brook, he made sure that he could secure more +advantageous terms with the Princeman crowd. He spent his time in +wrestling with his prospective investors both singly and in groups, but +they were obdurate. They liked his company, they saw in it tremendous +possibilities, but they did not intend to invest their money where they +could not vote it. That was flat! + +This was on the business side. About the really important matter of +Miss Stevens, since his most recent bad performance, the time when he +had made the special trip to see her and had spent his time in talking +business with her father, he had not been able to come near her. She +was always engaged. He saw her riding with Hollis; he saw her driving +with Princeman; he saw her playing tennis with Billy Westlake, but the +greatest boon he ever received was a nod and a pleasant word. He +industriously sent her flowers. She as industriously sent him nice, +polite little notes of thanks. + +In the meantime, alternating with his marsh pulp wrangles, he worked +like a Trojan at the athletic graces he should have cultivated in his +younger days. He rode every morning; he practised every day at tennis +and croquet; every evening he bowled; and every time some one sat at +the piano and played dance music and the young people fell into +impromptu waltzes and two-steps on the porch, he joined them and danced +religiously with whomsoever he found to hand; usually Miss Hastings or +Miss Westlake. + +The latter ingenious young lady, during this while, continued to adore +business, and with increasing fervor every day, and regretted, quite +aloud, that she had never paid sufficient attention to this absorbing +amusement, out of which all the men, that is, those who were really +strong and purposeful, seem to derive so much satisfaction! On the +following Monday at Bald Hill, when Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook +fraternized together, in the annual union picnic, she found occasion +for the most direct tête-à-tête of all anent commercial matters. + +Under Bald Hill were any number of charming natural retreats, jumbles +of Titanically toy-strewn, clean, bare rocks, screened here and there +by tangles of young scrub oak and pine which grew apparently on bare +stone surfaces and out of infinitesimal chinks and crannies, in utter +defiance of all natural law. Go where you would on that day, there +were couples in each of the rock shelters; young couples, engaged in +that fascinating pastime of finding out all they could about each +other, and wondering about each other, and revealing themselves to each +other as much as they cared to do, and flirting; oh, in a perfectly +respectable sort of a way, you know; legitimate and commendable +flirting; the sort of flirting which is only experimental and +necessary, and which may cease at any moment to become mere airy +trifling, and turn into something intensely and desperately serious, +having a vital bearing upon the entire future lives of people; and +there were deeply solemn moments, in spite of all the surface hilarity +and gaiety, in many of these little out of way nooks kindly provided by +beneficent nature for this identical purpose. + +In one of these nooks, a curious sort of doll's amphitheatre, partly +screened by dwarf cedars, were Miss Westlake and Mr. Turner, and Sam +could not tell you to this day how she had roped him out of the herd, +and isolated him, and brought him there. + +"Business is just perfectly fascinating," she was saying. "I've been +talking a lot to papa about it here lately. He thinks a great deal of +you, by the way." + +"He does," Sam grunted in non-committal acknowledgment, with the sharp +reflection that he had better look out for himself if that were the +case, since the most of Westlake's old friends were bankrupt, he being +the best business man of them all. + +"Yes; he says you have an excellent business proposition, too, in your +new Marsh Pulp Company." She said marsh pulp without an instant's +hesitation. + +"I think it's good myself," agreed Sam; "that is, if I can keep hold of +it." Inwardly he added, "And if I can keep old Westlake's clutches +off." + +She laughed lightly. + +"Papa mentioned that very thing," she informed him. "I don't think I +quite understand what control of stock means, although I've had papa +explain it to me. I gather this much, however, that it is something +you want very much, but can scarcely get without some large stockholder +voting his stock with you." + +Sam inspected her narrowly. + +"You seem to have a pretty good idea of the thing after all," he +admitted, wondering how much she really knew and understood. "But +maybe your father wouldn't like your repeating to me what you +accidentally learned from him in conversation. Business men are +usually pretty particular about that." + +"Oh, he wouldn't mind at all," she said airily. "I'm having him +explain a lot of things to me, because he's making separate investments +for Billy and me. All his new enterprises are for us, and in the last +two or three years he's turned over lots of stock to us in our own +names. But I've never done any actual voting on it. I've only given +proxies. I sign a little blank, you know, that papa fills out for me +and shows me where to put my name and mails to somebody or other, or +else takes it and votes it himself; but I'd rather vote it my own self. +I should think it would be ever so much fun. I'm trying to find out +about how they do such things, and I'd be very glad to have you tell me +all you can about it. It's just perfectly fascinating." + +"Yes, it is," Sam admitted. "So you think you may eventually own some +stock in the Marsh Pulp Company?" and he became quite interested. + +"If papa takes any I'm quite sure I shall," she returned; "and I think +he will, from what he said. He seems to be so enthusiastic about it +that I'm going to ask him for this stock, and let Billy have the next +that he buys. I hope he does take a good lot of it. Isn't this the +dearest place imaginable?" and with charming naïveté she looked about +the tiny amphitheatre-like circle, admiring the projecting stones which +formed natural seats, and the broad shelving of slippery rock which led +up to it. + +"Yes, it is," said Sam with considerable thoughtfulness, and once more +inspected Miss Westlake critically. + +There was no question that she would be as stout as her mother and her +father when she reached their age. However, personal attractiveness is +an essence and can not be weighed by the pound. Sam was bound to +admit, after thoughtful judgment, that Miss Westlake might be +personally attractive to a great many people, but really there hadn't +seemed to be anything flowing from him to her or from her to him, even +when he had held tightly to her hand to help her up the steep slope of +the rock floor. + +"Yes, it is a charming place," he once more admitted. "Looks almost as +if this little semi-circle had been built out of these loose rocks by +design. Of course, your father wouldn't take the original stock in +your name." + +"Oh, no, I don't suppose so," she said. "He never does. He takes out +the stock himself, and then transfers it to us." + +"Of course," Sam agreed; "and naturally he'd hold it long enough to +vote at the original stock-holders' meeting." + +"I couldn't say about that," she laughed. "That's going beyond my +business depth just yet, but I'm going to learn all about such things," +and she looked across at him with apparent shy confidence that he would +take pleasure in teaching her. + +"Hoo-hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!" came a sudden call from down in the road, and, +turning, they saw Miss Hastings and Billy Westlake, who both waved +their hands at the amphitheatre couple and came scrambling up the rocks. + +"Mr. Princeman and Mr. Tilloughby are looking for you everywhere, +Hallie," said Miss Hastings to Miss Westlake. "You know you promised +to make that famous salad dressing of yours. Luncheon is nearly ready, +all but that, and they're waiting for you over at the glade. My, what +a dear little place this is! How did you ever find it?" Miss Hastings +was now quite conspicuously panting and fanning herself. "I'm so tired +climbing those rocks," she went on. "I shall simply have to sit down +and rest a bit. Billy will take you over, Hallie, and Mr. Turner will +bring me by and by, I am sure." + +Mr. Turner stated that he would do so with pleasure. Miss Westlake +surveyed her dearest friend more in anger than in sorrow. It was such +a brazen trick, and she gazed from her brother to Mr. Turner in sheer +wonder that they were not startled into betrayal of how shocked they +were. Whatever strong emotions they might have had upon that subject +were utterly without reflection upon the outside, however, for Billy +Westlake and Sam Turner were eying each other solely with a vacuous +mutual wish of saying something decently polite and human. Mr. Turner +made a desperate stab. + +"I hope you're in good form for the bowling tournament to-night," he +observed with self-urged anxiety. "Hollis Creek mustn't win, you know." + +"I'm as near fit as usual," said Billy; "but Princeman is the chap +who's going to carry off the honors for Meadow Brook. Bowled an +average last night of two forty-five. I'm sorry you couldn't make the +team." + +"I should have started fifteen years ago to do that," said Sam with a +wry smile. "I think I would get along all right, though, if they +didn't have those grooves at the side of the alleys." + +Billy Westlake looked at him gravely. Since Sam did not smile, this +could not be a joke. + +"But they are absolutely necessary, you know," he protested, as he took +his sister's arm and helped her down the slope. + +Miss Westlake went away entirely out of patience with the two men, and +very much to Billy's surprise gave him her revised estimate of that +Hastings girl. Miss Hastings, however, was in a far different frame of +mind. She was an exclamation point of admiration about an endless +variety of things; about the dear little amphitheatre, about how well +her friend Miss Westlake was looking and how successful Hallie had been +this summer in reducing, and how much Mr. Turner was improving in his +tennis and croquet and riding and bowling and everything. "And, Mr. +Turner, what is pulp? And do they actually make paper out of it?" she +wound up. + +Very gravely Mr. Turner informed her on the process of paper making, +and she was a chorus of little vivacious ohs and ahs all the way +through. She sat on the side of the stone circle from which she could +look down the road, and she chattered on and on and on, and still on, +until something she saw below warned her that she was staying an +unconscionable length of time, so she rose and told Mr. Turner they +must really go, and held out her hand to be helped down the slope. +That was really a very slippery rock, and it was probably no fault of +Miss Hastings that her feet slipped and that she had to throw herself +squarely into Mr. Turner's embrace, and even throw her arm up over his +shoulder to save herself. It was a staggery place, even for a sturdily +muscled young man like Mr. Turner to keep his footing, and with that +fair burden upon him he had to stand some little time poised there to +retain his balance. Then, very gently and carefully, he turned +straight about, lifting Miss Hastings entirely from her feet and +setting her gravely down on the safe ledge below the sloping rock; but +before he had even had time to let go of her he glanced down into the +road, toward which the turn had faced him, and saw there, looking up +aghast at the tableau, Mr. Princeman and Miss Stevens! + +The sharp and instantly suppressed laugh of Princeman came floating up +to them, but Miss Stevens turned squarely about in the direction of the +glade, and being instantly joined by Princeman, they walked quietly +away. + +Mr. Turner suddenly found himself perspiring profusely, and was +compelled to mop his brow, but Miss Hastings disdained to give any sign +that anything unusual whatsoever had happened, except by walking with a +limp, albeit a very slight one, as she returned to the glade. That +limp comforted Mr. Turner somewhat, and, spying Miss Stevens in a +little group near the tables, he was very careful to parade Miss +Hastings straight over there and place her limp on display. Miss +Stevens, however, walked away; no mere limp could deceive her! + +Well, if she wanted to be miffed at a little accident like that, and +read things falsely, and think the worst of people, she might; that was +all Sam had to say about it! but what he had to say about it did not +comfort him. He rather savagely "shook" Miss Hastings at his first +opportunity, and Vivian's dearest friend, who had been hovering in the +offing, saw him do it, which was a great satisfaction to her. Later +she seized upon him, although he had savagely sworn to stick to the +men, and by some incomprehensible process Sam found himself once more +tête-à-tête with Miss Westlake, just over at the edge of the glade +where the sumac grew. She made him gather a lot of the leaves for her, +and showed him how they used to weave clover wreaths when she was a +little girl, and wove one for him of sumac, and gaily crowned him with +it; and just as she was putting the fool thing on his head he glanced +up, and there Princeman, laughing, was just passing them a little ways +off, in company with Miss Josephine Stevens! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE VALUE OF A PIANOLA TRAINING + +On that very same evening Hollis Creek came over to the bowling +tournament, and Miss Stevens, arriving with young Hollis, promptly lost +that perfervid young man, who had become somewhat of a nuisance in his +sentimental insistence. Mr. Turner, watching her from afar, saw her +desert the calfly smitten one, and immediately dashed for the breach. +He had watched from too great a distance, however, for Billy Westlake +gobbled up Miss Josephine before Sam could get there, and started with +her for that inevitable stroll among the brookside paths which always +preceded a bowling tournament. While he stood nonplussed, looking +after them, Miss Hastings glided to his side in a matter of course way. + +"Isn't it a perfectly charming evening?" she wanted to know. + +"It is a regular dear of an evening," admitted Sam savagely. + +In his single thoughtedness he was scrambling wildly about within the +interior of his skull for a pretext to get rid of Miss Hastings, but it +suddenly occurred to him that now he had a legitimate excuse for +following the receding couple, and promptly upon the birth of this +idea, he pulled in that direction and Miss Hastings came right along, +though a trifle silently. With all her vivacious chattering, she was +not without shrewdness, and with no trouble whatever she divined +precisely why Sam chose the path he did, and why he seemed in such +almost blundering haste. They _were_ a little late, it was true, for +just as they started, Billy and Miss Stevens turned aside and out of +sight into the shadiest and narrowest and most involved of the +shrubbery-lined paths, the one which circled about the little concealed +summer-house with a dove-cote on top, which was commonly dubbed "the +cooing place." Following down this path the rear couple suddenly came +upon a tableau which made them pause abruptly. Billy Westlake, upon +the steps of the summer-house, was upon his knees, there in the swiftly +blackening dusk, before the appalled Miss Stevens; actually upon his +knees! Silently the two watchers stole away, but when they were out of +earshot Miss Hastings tittered. Sam, though the moment was a serious +one for him, was also compelled to grin. + +"I didn't know they did it that way any more," he confessed. + +"They don't," Miss Hastings informed him; "that is, unless they are +very, very young, or very, very old." + +"Apparently you've had experience," observed Sam. + +"Yes," she admitted a little bitterly. "I think I've had rather more +than my share; but all with ineligibles." + +Sam felt a trace of pity for Miss Hastings, who was of polite family, +but poor, and a guest of the Westlakes, but he scarcely knew how to +express it, and felt that it was not quite safe anyhow, so he remained +discreetly silent. + +By mutual, though unspoken impulse, they stopped under the shade of a +big tree up on the lawn, and waited for the couple who had been found +in the delicate situation either to reappear on the way back to the +house, or to emerge at the other end of the path on the way to the +bowling shed. It was scarcely three minutes when they reappeared on +the way back to the house, and both watchers felt an instant thrill of +relief, for the two were by no means lover-like in their attitudes. +Billy had hold of Miss Josephine's arm and was helping her up the +slope, but their shoulders were not touching in the process, nor were +arms clasped closely against sides. They passed by the big tree +unseeing, then, as they neared the house, without a word, they parted. +Miss Stevens proceeded toward the porch, and stopped to take a +handkerchief from her sleeve and pass it carefully and lightly over her +face. Billy Westlake strode off a little way toward the bowling shed, +stopped and lit a cigarette, took two or three puffs, started on, +stopped again, then threw the cigarette to the ground with quite +unnecessary vigor, and stamped on it. Miss Hastings, without adieus of +any sort, glided swiftly away in the direction of Billy, and then a dim +glimmer of understanding came to Sam Turner that only Miss Stevens had +stood in the way of Miss Hastings' capture of Billy Westlake. He +wasted no time over this thought, however, but strode very swiftly and +determinedly up to Miss Josephine. + +"I'm glad to find you alone," he said; "I want to make an explanation." + +"Don't bother about it," she told him frigidly. "You owe me no +explanations whatsoever, Mr. Turner." + +"I'm going to make them anyhow," he declared. "You saw me twice this +afternoon in utterly asinine situations." + +"I remember of no such situations," she stated still frigidly, and +started to move on toward the house. + +"But wait a minute," said Sam, catching her by the arm and detaining +her. "You did see me in silly situations, and I want you to know the +facts about them." + +"I'm not at all interested," she informed him, now with absolute north +pole iciness, and started to move away again. + +He held her more tightly. + +"The first time," he went on, "was when Miss Hastings slipped on the +rocks and I had to catch her to keep her from falling." + +"Will you kindly let me go, Mr. Turner?" demanded Miss Josephine. + +"No, I will not!" he replied, and pulled her about a trifle so that she +was compelled to face him. "I don't choose to have anybody, least of +all you, think wrongly of me." + +"Mr. Turner, I do not choose to be detained against my will," declared +Miss Josephine. + +"Mr. Turner," boomed a deep-timbered voice right behind them, "the lady +has requested you to let her go. I should advise you to do so." + +Mr. Turner was attempting to frame up a reasonable answer to this +demand when Miss Josephine prevented him from doing so. + +"Mr. Princeman," said she to the interrupting gallant, "I thank you for +your interference on my behalf, but I am quite capable of protecting +myself," and leaving the two stunned gentlemen together, she once more +took her handkerchief from her sleeve and walked swiftly up to the +porch, brushing the handkerchief lightly over her face again. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" said Princeman, looking after her in more or +less bewilderment. + +"So will I," said Sam. "Have you a cigarette about you?" + +Princeman gave him one and they took a light from the same match, then, +neither one of them caring to discuss any subject whatever at that +particular moment, they separated, and Sam hunted a lonely corner. He +wanted to be alone and gloom. Confound bowling, anyhow! It was a dull +and uninteresting game. He cared less for it as time went on, he +found; less to-night than ever. He crept away into the dim and +deserted parlor and sat down at the piano, the only friend in which he +cared to confide just then. He played, with a queer lingering touch +which had something of hesitation in it, and which reduced all music to +a succession of soft chords, _The Maid of Dundee_ and _Annie Laurie_, +_The Banks of Banna_ and _The Last Rose of Summer_, then one of the +simpler nocturnes of Chopin, and, following these, a quaint, slow +melody which was like all of the others and yet like none. + +"Bravo!" exclaimed a gentle voice in the doorway, and he turned, +startled, to see Miss Stevens standing there. She did not explain why +she had relented, but came directly into the room and stood at the end +of the piano. He reached up and shook hands with her quite naturally, +and just as naturally and simply she let her hand lie in his for an +instant. How soft and warm her palm was, and how grateful the touch of +it! + +"What a pleasant surprise!" she said. "I didn't know you played." + +"I don't," he confessed, smiling. "If you had stopped to listen you +would have known. You ought to hear my kid brother play though. He's +a corker." + +"But I did listen," she insisted, ignoring the reference to his "kid +brother." "I stood there a long time and I thought it beautiful. What +was that last selection?" + +He flushed guiltily. + +"It was--oh, just a little thing I sort of put together myself," he +told her. + +"How delightful! And so you compose, too?" + +"Not at all," he hastily assured her. "This is the only thing, and it +seemed to come just sort of naturally to me from time to time. I don't +suppose it's finished yet, because I never play it exactly as I did +before. I always seem to add a little bit to it. I do wish that I had +had time to know more of music. What little I play I learned from a +pianola." + +"A what?" she gasped. + +He laughed in a half-embarrassed way. + +"A pianola," he repeated. "You see I've always been hungry for music, +and while my kid brother was still in college I began to be able to +afford things, and one of the first luxuries was a pianola. You know +the machine has a little lever which throws the keys in or out of +engagement, so that you can play it as a regular piano if you wish, and +if you leave the keys engaged while you are playing the rolls, they +work up and down; so by watching these I gradually learned to pick out +my favorite tunes by hand. I couldn't play them so well by myself as +the rolls played them, but somehow or other they gave me more +satisfaction." + +Miss Stevens did not laugh. In some indefinable way all this made a +difference in Sam Turner--a considerable difference--and she felt quite +justified in having deliberately come to the conclusion that she had +been "mean" to him; in having deliberately slipped away from the others +as they were all going over to the bowling alleys; in having come back +deliberately to find him. + +"Your favorite tunes," she repeated musingly. "What was the first one, +I wonder? One of those that you have just been playing?" + +"The first one?" he returned with a smile. "No, it was a sort of +rag-time jingle. I thought it very pretty then, but I played it over +the other day, the first time in years, and I didn't seem to like it at +all. In fact, I wonder how I ever did like it." + +Rag-time! And now, left entirely to his own devices and for his own +pleasure, he was playing Chopin! Yes, it made quite a difference in +Sam Turner. She was glad that she had decided to wear his roses, glad +even that he recognized them. At her solicitation Sam played again the +plaintive little air of his own composition--and played it much better +than ever he had played it before. Then they walked out on the porch +and strolled down toward the bowling shed. Half way there was a little +side path, leading off through an arbor into a shady way which crossed +the brook on a little rustic bridge, which wound about between +flowerbeds and shrubbery and back by another little bridge, and which +lengthened the way to the bowling shed by about four times the normal +distance--and they took that path; and when they reached the bowling +alley they were not quite ready to go in. + +[Illustration: Sam played again the plaintive little air] + +There seemed no reasonable excuse for staying out longer, however, for +the bowling had already started, and, moreover, young Tilloughby +happened to come to the door and spied them. Princeman was just +getting up to bowl for the honor and glory of Meadow Brook, and within +one minute later Miss Stevens was watching the handsome young paper +manufacturer with absorbed interest. He was a fine picture of athletic +manhood as he stood up, weighing the ball, and a splendid picture of +masculine action as he rushed forward to deliver it. Sam had to +acknowledge that himself, and out of fairness he even had to join in +the mad applause when Princeman made strike after strike. They had +Princeman up again in the last frame, and it was a ticklish moment. +The Hollis Creek team was fifty points ahead. Dramatic unities, under +the circumstances, demanded that Princeman, by a tremendous exercise of +coolness and skill, overcome that lead by his own personal efforts, and +he did, winning the tournament for Meadow Brook with a breathless few +points to spare. + +But did Sam Turner care that Princeman was the hero of the hour? More +power to Princeman, for from the bevy of flushed and eager girls who +flocked about the Adonis-like victor, Miss Josephine Stevens was +absent. She was there, with him, in Paradise! Incidentally Sam made +an engagement to drive with her in the morning, and when, at the close +of that delightful evening, the carryall carried her away, she beamed +upon him; gave him two or three beams in fact, and said good-by +personally and waved her hand to him personally; nobody else was there +in all that crowd but just they two! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE WESTLAKES DECIDE TO INVEST + +Miss Hastings did not exactly snub Sam in the morning, but she was +surprisingly indifferent to him after all her previous cordiality, and +even went so far as to forget the early morning constitutional she was +to have taken with him; instead she passed him coolly by on the porch +right after an extremely early breakfast, and sauntered away down +lovers' lane, arm in arm with Billy Westlake, who was already looking +very much comforted. Sam, who had been dreading that walk, released it +with a sigh of intense satisfaction, planning that in the interim until +time for his drive, he would improve his tennis a bit with Miss +Westlake. He was just hunting her up when he met Bob Tilloughby, who +invited him to join a riding party from both houses for a trip over to +Sunset Rock. + +"Sorry," said Sam with secret satisfaction, "but I've an engagement +over at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock," and Tilloughby carried that +information back to Miss Westlake, who had sent him. + +An engagement at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock, eh? Well, Miss Westlake +knew who that meant; none other than her dear friend, Josephine +Stevens! Being a young lady of considerable directness, she went +immediately to her father. + +"Have you definitely made up your mind, pop, to take stock in Mr. +Turner's company?" she asked, sitting down by that placid gentleman. + +Without removing his interlocked hands from their comfortable +resting-place in plain sight, he slowly twirled his thumbs some three +times, and then stopped. + +"Yes, I think I shall," he said. + +"About how much?" Miss Westlake wanted to know. + +"Oh, about twenty-five thousand." + +"Who's to get it?" + +"Why, I thought I'd divide it between Billy and you." + +Miss Westlake put her hand on her father's arm. + +"Say, pop, give it to me, please," she pleaded. "Billy can take the +next stock you buy, or I'll let him have some of my other in exchange." + +Mr. Westlake surveyed his daughter out of a pair of fish-gray eyes +without turning his head. + +"You seem to be especially interested in this stock. You asked about +it yesterday and Sunday and one day last week." + +"Yes, I am," she admitted. "It's a really first-class business +investment, isn't it?" + +"Yes, I think it is," replied Westlake; "as good as any stock in an +untried company can be, anyhow. At least it's an excellent investment +chance." + +"That's what I thought," she said. "I'm judging, of course, only by +what you say, and by my impression of Mr. Turner. It seems to me that +almost anything he goes into should be highly successful." + +Mr. Westlake slowly whirled his thumbs in the other direction, three +separate twirls, and stopped them. + +"Yes," he agreed. "I'm investing the money in just Sam myself, +although the scheme itself looks like a splendid one." + +Miss Westlake was silent a moment while she twisted at the button on +her father's coat sleeve. + +"I don't quite understand this matter of stock control," she went on +presently. "You've explained it to me, but I don't seem quite to get +the meaning of it." + +"Well, it's like this," explained Mr. Westlake. "Sam Turner, with only +a paltry investment, say about five thousand dollars, wants to be able +to dictate the entire policy of a million-dollar concern. In other +words, he wants a majority of stock, which will let him come into the +stock-holders' meetings, and vote into office his own board of +directors, who will do just what he says; and if he wanted to he might +have them vote the entire profits of the concern for his salary." + +"But, father, he wouldn't do anything like that," she protested, +shocked. + +"No, he probably wouldn't," admitted Mr. Westlake, "but I wouldn't be +wise to let him have the chance, just the same." + +"But, father," objected Miss Hallie, after further thought, "it's his +invention, you know, and his process, and if he doesn't have control +couldn't all you other stock-holders get together and appropriate the +profits yourselves?" + +Mr. Westlake gave his thumbs one quick turn. + +"Yes," he grudgingly confessed. "In fact, it's been done," and there +was a certain grim satisfaction at the corners of his mouth which his +daughter could not interpret, as he thought back over the long list of +absorptions which had made old Bill Westlake the power that he was. + +"But--but, father," and she hesitated a long time. + +"Yes," he encouraged her. + +"Even if you won't let him have enough stock to obtain control, if some +one other person should own enough of the stock, couldn't they put +their stock with his and let him do just about as he liked?" + +"Oh, yes," agreed Mr. Westlake without any twirling of his thumbs at +all; "that's been done, too." + +"Would this twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of stock that you're +buying, pop, if it were added to what you men are willing to let Mr. +Turner have, give him control?" + +Again Mr. Westlake turned his speculative gray eyes upon his daughter +and gave her a long, careful scrutiny, which she received with downcast +lashes. + +"No," he replied. + +"How much would?" + +"Well, fifty thousand would do it." + +"Say, pop--" + +"Yes." + +Another long interval. + +"I wish you'd buy fifty thousand for me in place of twenty-five." + +"Humph," grunted Mr. Westlake, and after one sharp glance at her he +looked down at his big fat thumbs and twirled them for a long, long +time. "Well," said he, "Sam Turner is a fine young man. I've known +him in a business way for five or six years, and I never saw a flaw in +him of any sort. All right. You give Billy your sugar stock and I'll +buy you this fifty thousand." + +Miss Westlake reached over and kissed her father impulsively. + +"Thanks, pop," she said. "Now there's another thing I want you to do." + +"What, more?" he demanded. + +"Yes, more," and this time the color deepened in her cheeks. "I want +you to hunt up Mr. Turner and tell him that you're going to take that +much." + +Mr. Westlake with a smile reached up and pinched his daughter's cheek. + +"Very well, Hallie, I'll do it," said he. + +She patted him affectionately on the bald spot. + +"Good for you," she said. "Be sure you see him this morning, though, +and before half-past nine." + +"You're particular about that, eh?" + +"Yes, it's rather important," she admitted, and blushed furiously. + +Westlake patted his daughter on the shoulder. + +"Hallie," said He, "if Billy only had your common-sense business +instinct, I wouldn't ask for anything else in this world; but Billy is +a saphead." + +Mr. Westlake, thinking that he understood the matter very thoroughly, +though in reality overunderstanding it--nice word, that--took it upon +himself with considerable seriousness to hunt up Sam Turner; but it was +fully nine-thirty before he found that energetic young man. Sam was +just going down the driveway in a neat little trap behind a team of +spirited grays. + +"Wait a minute, Sam, wait a minute," hailed Westlake, puffing +laboriously across the closely cropped lawn. + +Sam held up his horses abruptly, and they stood swinging their heads +and champing at their bits, while Sam, with a trace of a frown, looked +at his watch. + +"What's your rush?" asked Westlake. "I've been hunting for you +everywhere. I want to talk about some important features of that Marsh +Pulp Company of yours." + +"All right," said Sam. "I'm open for conversation. I'll see you right +after lunch." + +"No. I must see you now," insisted Westlake. "I've--I've got to +decide on some things right this morning. I--I've got to know how to +portion out my investments." + +Sam looked at his watch and was genuinely distressed. + +"I'm sorry," said he, "but I have an engagement over at Hollis Creek at +exactly ten o'clock, and I've scant time to make it." + +"Business?" demanded Westlake. + +"No," confessed Sam slowly. + +"Oh, social then. Well, social engagements in America always play +second fiddle to business ones, and don't you forget it. I'll talk +about this matter this morning or I won't talk about it at all." + +Sam stopped nonplussed. Westlake was an important factor in the +prospective Marsh Pulp Company. + +"Tell you what you do," said he, after some quick thought. "Why can't +you get in the trap and drive over to Hollis Creek with me? We can +talk on the way and you can visit with your friends over there until +time for luncheon; then I'll bring you back and we can talk on the way +home, too." + +Miss Hallie and Princeman and young Tilloughby came cantering down the +drive and waved hands at the two men. + +"All right," said Westlake decisively, looking after his daughter and +answering her glance with a nod. "Wait until I get my hat," and he +wheeled abruptly away. + +Sam fumed and fretted and jerked his watch back and forth from his +pocket, while Westlake wasted fifteen precious minutes in waddling up +to the house and hunting for his hat and returning with it, and two +minutes more in bungling his awkward way into the buggy; then Sam +started the grays at such a terrific pace that, until they came to the +steep hill midway of the course, there was no chance for conversation. +While the horses pulled up this steep hill, however, Westlake had his +opportunity. + +"I suppose you know," he said, "that you're not going to be allowed +over two thousand shares of common stock for your patents." + +"I'm beginning to give up the hope of having more," admitted Sam. +"However, I'm going to stick it out to the last ditch." + +"It won't be permitted, so you might as well give up that idea. How +much stock do you think of buying?" + +"About five thousand dollars' worth of the preferred," said Sam. + +"Which will give you fifty bonus shares of the common. I suppose of +course you figure on eventually securing control in some way or other." + +"Not being an infant, I do," returned Sam, flicking his whip at a weed +and gathering his lines up quickly as the mettled horses jumped. + +"I don't know of any one person who's going to buy enough stock to help +you out in that plan; unless I should do it myself," suggested +Westlake, and waited. + +Sam surveyed the other man long and silently. Westlake, as the largest +minority shareholder, had done some very strange things to corporations +in his time. + +"Neither do I," said Sam non-committally. + +There was another long silence. + +"If you carry through this Marsh Pulp Company to a successful +termination, you will be fairly well fixed for a young man, won't you?" +the older man ventured by and by. + +"Well," hesitated Sam, "I'll have a start anyhow." + +"I should say you would," Westlake assured him, placing his hands in +his favorite position for contemplative discussion. "You'll have a +good enough start to enable you to settle down." + +"Yes," admitted Sam. + +"What you need, my boy, is a wife," went on Mr. Westlake. "No man's +business career is properly assured until he has a wife to steady him +down." + +"I believe that," agreed Sam. "I've come to the same conclusion +myself, and to tell you the truth of the matter I've been contemplating +marriage very seriously since I've been down here." + +"Good!" approved Westlake. "You're a fine boy, Sam. I may tell you +right now that I approve of both you and your decision very heartily. +I rather thought there was something in the wind that way." + +"Yes," confessed Sam hesitantly. "I don't mind admitting that I have +even gone so far as to pick out the girl, if she'll have me." + +Mr. Westlake smiled. + +"I don't think there will be any trouble on that score," said he. "Of +course, Sam, I'm not going to force your confidence, or anything of +that sort, but--but I want to tell you that I think you're all right," +and he very solemnly shook hands with Mr. Turner. + +They had just reached the top of the hill when Westlake again returned +to business. + +"I'm glad to know you're going to settle down, Sam," he said. "It +inspires me with more confidence in your affairs, and I may say that I +stand ready to subscribe, in my daughter's name, for fifty thousand +dollars' worth of the stock of your company." + +"Well," said Sam, giving the matter careful weight. "It will be a good +investment for her." + +Before Mr. Westlake had any time to reply to this, the grays, having +just passed the summit of the hill, leaped forward in obedience to +another swish of Sam's whip. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT + +The trio from Meadow Brook, on their way to Sunset Rock galloped up to +the Hollis Creek porch, and, finding Miss Stevens there, gaily demanded +that she accompany them. + +"I'm sorry," said Miss Stevens, who was already in driving costume, +"but I have an engagement at ten o'clock," and she looked back through +the window into the office, where the clock then stood at two minutes +of the appointed time; then she looked rather impatiently down the +driveway, as she had been doing for the past five minutes. + +"Well, at least you'll come back to the bar with us and have an +ice-cream cocktail," insisted Princeman, reining up close to the porch +and putting his hand upon the rail in front of her. + +"I don't see how I can refuse that," said Miss Stevens with a smile and +another glance down at the driveway, "although it's really a little +early in the day to begin drinking," and she waited for them to +dismount, going back with them into the little ice-cream parlor and +"soft drink" and confectionery dispensary which had been facetiously +dubbed "the bar." Here she was careful to secure a seat where she +could look out of the window down toward the road, and also see the +clock. + +After a weary while, during which Miss Josephine had undergone a +variety of emotions which she was very careful not to mention, the +party rose from the discussion of their ice-cream soda and the bowling +tournament and all the various other social interests of the two +resorts, and made ready to depart, Miss Westlake twining her arm about +the waist of her friend Miss Stevens as they emerged on the porch. + +"Well, anyway, we've made you forget your engagement," Miss Westlake +gaily boasted, "for you said it was to be at ten, and now it's +ten-thirty." + +"Yes, I noticed the time," admitted Miss Stevens, rather grudgingly. + +"I'm sorry we dragged you away," commiserated Miss Westlake with a +swift change of tone. "Probably the party of the second part didn't +know where to find you." + +"No, it couldn't be anything like that," decided Miss Josephine after a +thoughtful pause. "Did you see anything of Mr. Turner this morning?" +she asked with sudden resolve. + +"Mr. Turner," repeated Miss Westlake in well-feigned surprise. "Why, +yes, I know papa said early this morning that he was going to have a +business talk with Mr. Turner, and as we left Meadow Brook papa was +just going after his hat to take a drive with him." + +"I wonder if it would be an imposition to ask you to wait about five +minutes longer," inquired Miss Stevens with a languidness which did +_not_ deceive. "I think I can change to my riding-habit almost within +that time." + +"We'll be delighted to wait," asserted Miss Westlake eagerly, herself +looking apprehensively down the driveway; "won't we, boys?" + +"Sure; what is it?" returned Princeman. + +"Josephine says that if we'll wait five minutes longer she'll go with +us." + +"We'll wait an hour if need be," declared Princeman gallantly. + +"It won't need be," said Miss Stevens lightly, and hurrying into the +office she ordered the clerk to send for her saddle-horse. + +For ten interminable minutes Miss Westlake never took her eyes from the +road, at the end of which time Miss Stevens returned, hatted and +habited and booted and whipped. + +The Hollis Creek young lady was rather grim as she rode down the +graveled approach beside Miss Westlake, and both the girls cast furtive +glances behind them as they turned away from the Meadow Brook road. +When they were safely out of sight around the next bend, Miss Westlake +laughed. + +"Mr. Turner is such a funny person," said she. "He's liable at any +moment to forget all about everything and everybody if somebody +mentions business to him. If he ever takes time to get married he'll +make it a luncheon hour appointment." + +Even Miss Josephine laughed. + +"And even then," she added, by way of elaboration, "the bride is likely +to be left waiting at the church." There was a certain snap and +crackle to whatever Miss Stevens said just now, however, which +indicated a perturbed and even an angry state of mind. + +Ten minutes later, Sam Turner, hatless, and carrying a buggy whip and +wearing a torn coat, trudged up the Hollis Creek Inn drive, afoot, and +walked rapidly into the office. + +"Is Miss Stevens about?" he wanted to know. + +"Not at present," the clerk informed him. "She ordered out her horse a +few minutes ago, and started over to Sunset Rock with a party of young +people from Meadow Brook." + +"Which way is Sunset Rock?" + +The clerk handed him a folder which contained a map of the roadways +thereabouts, and pointed out the way. + +"Could you get me a saddle-horse right away?" + +The clerk pounded a bell and ordered up a saddle-horse for Mr. Turner, +who immediately thereupon turned to the telephone, and, calling up +Meadow Brook, instructed the clerk at that resort to send a carriage +for Mr. Westlake, who was sitting in the trap, entirely unharmed but +disinclined to walk, at the foot of Laurel Hill; then he explained that +the grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar had +slipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had run +back up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked the +doubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they had +turned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the time +he had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it all +through the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse was +ready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he started +off at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to have +himself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket. + +He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to Sunset +Rock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with the +inspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were ready +to depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket being +greatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens, +who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been due +to an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation at +once. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, and +believed, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, and +she had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to be +with Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by the +side of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearance +of the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party" +has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though at +first lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted the +party so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlake +was riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone in +the center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a sudden +inclination to go very slowly. + +"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, by +and by. + +"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam. + +"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I think +I did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to say +he'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells me +I've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?" + +"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince. +Control and Westlake were two words which did not make, for him, a +cheerful juxtaposition. + +"So now you'll have to be very nice indeed to me," went on Miss +Westlake banteringly, "or I'm likely to vote with the other crowd." + +"I'll be just as nice to you as I know how," offered Sam. "Just state +what you want me to do and I'll do it." + +Miss Westlake did not state what she wanted him to do. In place of +that she whipped up her horse rather smartly, after a thoughtful +silence, and joined Tilloughby, the three of them riding abreast. The +next shifting, around a deep mud hole which only left room for an +Indian file procession, brought Sam alongside Miss Josephine, and here +he stuck for the balance of the ride, leaving Princeman to ride part of +the time alone between the two couples, and part of the time to be the +third rider with each couple in alternation. Miss Josephine was very +much concerned about Mr. Turner's accident, very happy to know how +lucky he had been to come off without a scratch, except for the tear in +his coat, and very solicitous indeed about any further handling of the +obstreperous gray team; and, forgiving him readily under the +circumstances, she renewed her engagement to drive with him the next +morning! + +Sam rode on home at the side of Miss Westlake, after leaving Miss +Stevens at Hollis Creek, in a strange and nebulous state of elation, +which continued until bedtime. As he was about to retire he was handed +a wire from his brother: + +"Just received patent papers meet me at Restview morning train." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A PLEASURE RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS + +The morning train was due at ten o'clock. At ten o'clock also Sam was +due at Hollis Creek to take his long deferred drive with Miss Stevens. +It was a slight conflict, her engagement, but the solution to that was +very easy. As early in the morning as he dared, Sam called up Miss +Josephine. + +"I've some glorious news," he said hopefully. "My kid brother will +arrive at Restview on the ten o'clock train." + +"You are to be congratulated," Miss Stevens told him, with an echo of +his own delight. + +"But you know we've an engagement to go driving at ten o'clock," he +reminded her, still hopefully, but trembling in spirit. + +There was an instant of hesitation, which ended in a laugh. + +"Don't let that interfere," she said. "We can defer our drive until +some other time, when fate is not so determined against it." + +"But that doesn't suit me at all," he assured her. "Why can't you be +ready at nine in place of ten, let me call for you at that time and +drive over to Restview with me to meet Jack?" + +"Is that his name?" she asked in blissfully reassuring tones. "You've +never spoken of him as anybody but your 'kid brother.' Why of course +I'll drive over to Restview with you. I shall be delighted to meet +him." + +Privately she had her own fears of what Jack Turner might turn out to +be like. Sam was always so good in speaking of him, always held him in +such tender regard, such profound admiration, that she feared he might +prove to be perfect only in Sam's eyes. + +"Good," said Sam. "Just for that I'm going to bring you over some +choice blooms that I have been having the gardener save back for me," +and he turned away from the telephone quite happy in the thought that +for once he had been able to kill two birds with one stone without +ruffling the feathers of either. + +Armed with a huge consignment of brilliant blossoms, enough to +transform her room into a fairy bower, he sped quite happily to Hollis +Creek. + +"Oh, gladiolas!" cried Miss Josephine, as he drove up. "How did you +ever guess it! That little bird must have been busy again." + +"Honestly, it was the little bird this time. I just had an intuition +that you must like them because I do so well," upon which naïve +statement Miss Josephine merely smiled, and calling her father with +pretty peremptoriness, she loaded that heavy gentleman down with the +flowers and with instructions concerning them, and then stepped +brightly into the tonneau with Sam. + +It was a pleasant ride they had to Restview, and it was a pleasant +surprise which greeted Miss Josephine when the train arrived, for out +of it stepped a youth who was unmistakably a Turner. He was as tall as +Sam, but slighter, and as clean a looking boy as one would find in a +day's journey. There was that, too, in the hand-clasp between the +brothers which proclaimed at once their flawless relationship. + +Miss Stevens was so relieved to find the younger Turner so presentable +that she took him into her friendship at once. He was that kind of +chap anyhow, and in the very first greeting she almost found herself +calling him Jack. Just behind him, however, was a little, dried-up man +with a complexion the color of old parchment, with sandy, stubby hair +shot with gray, and a stubby gray beard shot with red. His lips were a +wide straight line, as grim as judgment day. He walked with a slight +stoop, but with a quick staccato step which betokened great nervous +energy, a quality which the alert expression of his beady eyes +confirmed with distinct emphasis. + +"Hello, Creamer!" hailed Sam to this gentleman. "I didn't expect to +see you here quite so soon." + +"You had every right to expect me," snapped the little man querulously. +"After all the experimenting I have done for you boys, you had every +reason to keep me posted on all your movements; and yet I reckon if I +hadn't been in your office yesterday evening when Jack said he was +coming down here, you would not have notified me until you had your +company all formed. Then I suppose you'd have written to tell me how +much stock you had assigned to me. I'm going to be in on the formation +of this company, and I'm going to have my say about it!" + +"Will you never get over that dyspepsia?" chided Sam easily. "There +was no intention of leaving you out." + +"Just what I told him," declared Jack, turning from Miss Stevens to +them. "I have been swearing to him that as soon as we had found out +to-day what we were to do I would have wired him at once." + +"You were quite right, Jack," approved Sam, opening the door of the car +for them, "and as a proof of it, Creamer, when you return to your +office you will find there a letter postmarked yesterday, telling you +our exact progress here, and warning you to be in readiness to come on +telegram." + +"All right, then," said Mr. Creamer, somewhat mollified, "but since +that letter's there and I'm here, you might as well tell me what you've +done." + +Sam stopped the proceedings long enough to introduce Creamer to Miss +Stevens after he had closed the door upon them and had taken his own +seat by the chauffeur. + +"All right," he then said to Mr. Creamer, "I'll begin at the beginning." + +He began at the beginning. He told Mr. Creamer all the steps in the +development of the company. He detailed to him the names of the +gentlemen concerned, and their complete commercial histories, pausing +to answer many pertinent side questions and observations from his +younger brother, who proved to be as keen a student of business puzzles +as Sam himself. + +"That's all very well," said Mr. Creamer, "and now I'm here. I want to +get away to-night: Can't we form that company to-day? At what figure +do you propose offering the original stock?" + +"The preferred at fifty, with a par value of a hundred," returned Sam +promptly. + +"Common?" asked Mr. Creamer crisply. + +"One share of common with each two shares of preferred." + +"Eh! Well, I've twenty-five thousand dollars to put into this marsh +pulp business, if I can have any figure in the management. I want on +the board." + +"It's quite likely you'll be on the board," returned Sam. "We shall +have a very small list of subscribers, and the board will not be +unwieldy if every investor is a director." + +"Voting power in the common stock?" + +"In the common stock," repeated Sam. + +"Do you intend to buy any preferred?" asked Creamer. + +"A hundred shares." + +"How much common do you expect to take out for your patents?" + +"Two hundred and fifty thousand," Sam answered without an instant's +hesitation. + +"Never!" exclaimed Mr. Creamer. "The time for that's gone by, young +man, no matter how good your proposition is. It's too old a game. You +won't handle my money with control in your hands. I have no objection +to letting you have two hundred thousand dollars worth of common stock +out of the half million, because that will give you an incentive to +make the common worth par; but you shan't at any time have or be able +to acquire a share over two hundred and forty-nine thousand; not if I +know anything about it! Can you call a meeting as soon as we get +there?" + +"I think so," replied Sam, with a more or less worried air. "I'll try +it. Tell you what I'll do. I'll run right on over to get Mr. Stevens, +who wants to join the company, and in the meantime Mr. Westlake or +Princeman can round up the others." + +For the first time in that drive Miss Stevens had something to say, but +she said it with a briefness that was like a dash of cold water to the +preoccupied Sam. + +"Father is over there now, I think," she said. + +"Good," approved Mr. Creamer. "We can have a little direct business +talk and wind up the whole affair before lunch. What time do we arrive +at Meadow Brook?" + +"Before eleven o'clock." + +"That will give us two hours. Two hours is enough to form any company, +when everybody knows exactly what he wants to do. Got a lawyer over +there?" + +"One of the best in the country." + +Miss Stevens sat in the center seat of the tonneau. Sam, in addressing +his remarks to the others and in listening to their replies, was +compelled to sweep his glance squarely across her, and occasionally in +these sweeps he paused to let his gaze rest upon her. She was a relief +to his eyes, a blessing to them! Miss Stevens, however, seldom met any +of these glances. Very much preoccupied she was, looking at the +passing scenery and not seeing it. + +There had begun boiling and seething in Miss Stevens a feeling that she +was decidedly _de trop_, that these men could talk their absorbing +business more freely if she were not there; not because she embarrassed +them, but because she used up space! Nobody seemed to give her a +thought. Nobody seemed to be aware that she was present. They were +almost gaspingly engrossed in something far more important to them than +she was. It was uncomplimentary, to say the least. She was not used +to playing "second fiddle" in any company. She was in the habit of +absorbing the most of the attention in her immediate vicinity. Mr. +Princeman or Mr. Hollis would neither one ignore her in that way, to +say nothing of Billy Westlake. + +She was glad when they reached Meadow Brook. Their whole talk had been +of marsh pulp, and company organization, and preferred and common +stock, and who was to get it, and how much they were to pay for it, and +how they were going to cut the throats of the wood pulp manufacturers, +and how much profit they were going to make from the consumers and with +all that, not a word for her. Not a single word! Not even an apology! +Oh, it was atrocious! As soon as they drew up to the porch she rose, +and before Sam could jump down to open the door of the tonneau she had +opened it for herself and sprung out. + +"I'll hunt up father right away for you," she stated courteously. +"Glad to have met you, Mr. Creamer. I presume I shall meet you again, +Mr. Turner," she said to Jack. "Thank you so much for the ride," she +said to Sam, and then she was gone. + +Sam looked after her blankly. It couldn't be possible that she was +"huffy" about this business talk. Why, couldn't the girl see that this +had to do with the birth of a great big company, a million dollar +corporation, and that it was of vital importance to him? It meant the +apex of a lifetime of endeavor. It meant the upbuilding of a fortune. +Couldn't she see that he and his brother were two lone youngsters +against all these shrewd business men, whose only terms of aiding them +and floating this big company was to take their mastery of it away from +them? Couldn't she understand what control of a million dollar +organization meant? He was not angry with Miss Stevens for her +apparent attitude in this matter, but he was hurt. He was not +impatient with her, but he was impatient of the fact that she could not +appreciate. Now the fat was in the fire again. He felt that. Under +other circumstances he would have said that it was much more trouble +than it was worth to keep in the good graces of a girl, but under the +present circumstances--well, his heart had sunk down about a foot out +of place, and he had a sort of faint feeling in the region of his +stomach. He was just about sick. He followed her in, just in time to +see the flutter of her skirts at the top of the stairway, but he could +not call without making himself and her ridiculous. Confound things in +general! + +Mr. Stevens joined him while he was still looking into that blank hole +in the world. + +"Glad I happened to be here, Sam," said Stevens. "Jo tells me that +your brother and Mr. Creamer have arrived and that you want to form +that company right away." + +"Yes," admitted Sam. "Was she sarcastic about it?" + +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes and laughed. + +"Not exactly sarcastic," he stated; "but she did allude to your +proposed corporation as 'that old company!'" + +"I was afraid so," said Sam ruefully. + +Stevens surveyed him in amusement for a moment, and then in pity. + +"Never mind, my boy," he said kindly. "You'll get used to these things +by and by. It took me the first five years of my married life to +convince Mrs. Stevens that business was not a rival to her affections, +when, if I'd only have known the recipe, I could have convinced her at +the start." + +"How did you finally do it?" asked Sam, vitally interested. + +"Made her my confidante and adviser," stated Stevens, smiling +reminiscently. + +Sam shook his head. + +"Was that safe?" he asked. "Didn't she sometimes let out your secrets?" + +"Bosh!" exclaimed Stevens. "I'd rather trust a woman than a man, any +day, with a secret, business or personal. That goes for any woman; +mother, sister, sweetheart, wife, daughter, or stenographer. Just give +them a chance to get interested in your game, and they're with you +against the world." + +"Thanks," said Sam, putting that bit of information aside for future +pondering. "By the way, Mr. Stevens, before we join the others I'd +like to ask you how much stock you're going to carry in the Marsh Pulp +Company." + +"Well," returned Mr. Stevens slowly, "I did think that if the thing +looked good on final analysis, I might invest twenty-five thousand +dollars." + +"Can't you stretch that to fifty?" + +"Can't see it. But why? Don't you think you're going to fill your +list?" + +"We'll fill our list all right," returned Sam. "As a matter of fact, +that's what I'm afraid of. These fellows are going to pool their +stock, and hold control in their own hands. Now if I could get you to +invest fifty thousand and vote with me under proper emergency, I could +control the thing; and I ought to. It is my own company. Seems to me +these fellows are selfish about it. You think I'm a good business man, +don't you?" + +"I certainly do," agreed Mr. Stevens emphatically. + +"Well, it stands to reason that if I have two hundred and sixty +thousand dollars of common stock that isn't worth a picayune unless I +make it worth par, I'll hustle; and if I make my common stock worth +par, I'm making a fine, fat profit for these other fellows, to say +nothing of the raising of their preferred stock from the value of fifty +to a hundred dollars a share, and their common from nothing to a +hundred." + +"That's all right, Sam," returned Mr. Stevens; "but you'll work just as +hard to make your common worth par if you only have two hundred +thousand; and there's a growing tendency on the part of capital to be +able to keep a string on its own money. Strange, but true." + +"All right," said Sam wearily. "We won't argue that point any more +just now; but will you invest fifty thousand?" + +"I can't promise," said Stevens, and he walked out on the porch. Much +worried, Sam followed him, and with many misgivings he introduced Mr. +Stevens to his brother Jack and to Mr. Creamer. The prospective +organizers of the Marsh Pulp Company were already in solemn conclave on +the porch, with the single exception of Princeman, who was on the lawn +talking most perfunctorily with Miss Josephine. That young lady, with +wickedness of the deepest sort in her soul, was doing her best to +entice Mr. Princeman into forgetting the important meeting, but as soon +as Princeman saw the gathering hosts he gently but firmly tore himself +away, very much to her surprise and indignation. Why, he had been as +rude to her as Sam Turner himself, in placing the charms of business +above her own! Immediately afterward she snubbed Billy Westlake +unmercifully. Had he the qualities which would go to make a successful +man in any walk of life? No! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A DUAL QUESTION OF MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY AND STOCK SUBSCRIPTION + +Mr. Westlake dropped back with his old friend Stevens as they trailed +into the parlor which Blackstone had secured. + +"Are you going to subscribe rather heavily in the company, Stevens?" +inquired Westlake, with the curiosity of a man who likes to have his +own opinion corroborated by another man of good judgment. + +"Well," replied the father of Miss Josephine, "I think of taking a +rather solid little block of stock. I believe I can spare twenty-five +thousand dollars to invest in almost any company Sam Turner wants to +start." + +"He's a fine boy," agreed Westlake. "A square, straight young fellow, +a good business man, and a hustler. I see him playing tennis with my +girl every day, and she seems to think a lot of him." + +"He's bound to make his mark," Mr. Stevens acquiesced, sharply +suppressing a fool impulse to speak of his own daughter. "Do you +fellows intend to let him secure control of this company?" + +"I should say not!" replied Westlake, with such unnecessary emphasis +that Stevens looked at him with sudden suspicion. He knew enough about +old Westlake to "copper" his especially emphatic statements. + +"Are you agreeable to Princeman's plan to pool all stock but Turner's?" + +"Well--we can talk about that later." + +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens, and together the two heavy-weights, Stevens +with his aggressive beard suddenly pointed a trifle more straight out, +and Mr. Westlake with his placidity even more marked than usual, +stalked on into the parlor, where Mr. Blackstone, taking the chair _pro +tem_., read them the preliminary agreement he had drawn up; upon which +Sam Turner immediately started to wrangle, a proceeding which proved +altogether in vain. + +The best he could get for patents and promotion was two thousand out of +the five thousand shares of common stock, and finally he gave in, +knowing that he could not secure the right kind of men on better terms. +Mr. Blackstone thereupon offered a subscription list, to which every +man present solemnly appended his name opposite the number of shares he +would take. Sam, at the last moment, put down his own name for a block +of stock which meant a cash investment of considerably more than he had +originally figured upon. He cast up the list hurriedly. Five hundred +shares of preferred, carrying half that much common, were still to be +subscribed. With whom could he combine to obtain control? The only +men who had subscribed enough for that purpose were Princeman, who was +out of the question, and, in fact, would be the leader of the +opposition, and Westlake. The highest of the others were Creamer, +Cuthbert and Stevens. Sam would have to subscribe for the entire five +hundred in order to make these men available to him. + +McComas and Blackstone had only subscribed for the same amount as Sam. +They could do him no good, and he knew it was hopeless to attempt to +get two men to join with him. He looked over at Westlake. That +gentleman was smiling like a placid cherub, all innocence without, and +kindliness and good deeds; but there was nevertheless something fishy +about Westlake's eyes, and Sam, in memory, cast over a list of maimed +and wounded and crushed who had come in Westlake's business way. The +logical candidate was Stevens. Stevens simply had to take enough stock +to overbalance this thing, then he simply must vote his stock with +Sam's! That was all there was to it! Sam did not pause to worry about +how he was to gain over Stevens' consent, but he had an intuitive +feeling that this was his only chance. + +"Stevens," said he briskly, "there are five hundred shares left. I'll +take half of it if you'll take the other half." + +His brother Jack looked at him startled. Their total holdings, in that +case, would mean an investment of more money than they could spare from +their other operations. It would cramp them tremendously, but Jack +ventured no objections. He had seen Sam at the helm in decisive places +too often to interfere with him, either by word or look. As a matter +of fact such a proceeding was not safe anyhow. + +"I don't mind--" began Westlake, slowly fixing a beaming eye upon Sam, +and crossing his hands ponderously upon his periphery; but before he +could announce his benevolent intention, Mr. Stevens, with what might +almost have been considered a malevolent glance toward Mr. Westlake, +spoke up. + +"I'll accept your proposition," he said with a jerk of his beard as his +jaws snapped. So Miss Westlake thought a great deal of Sam, eh? And +old Westlake knew it, eh? And he had already subscribed enough stock +to throw Sam control, eh? + +"Thanks," said Sam, and shot Mr. Stevens a look of gratitude as he +altered the subscription figures. + +"Stop just a moment, Sam," put in Mr. Westlake. "How many shares of +common stock does that give you in combination with your bonus?" + +"Two thousand two hundred and sixty," said Sam. + +"Oh!" said Mr. Westlake musingly; "not enough for control by two +hundred and forty one shares; so you won't mind, since you haven't +enough for control anyhow, if I take up that additional two hundred and +fifty shares of preferred, with its one hundred and twenty-five of +common, myself." + +Sam once more paused and glanced over the subscription list. As it +stood now, aside from Princeman, there were two members, Westlake and +Stevens, with whom, if he could get either one of them to do so, he +could pool his common stock. If he allowed Westlake to take up this +additional two hundred and fifty shares, Westlake was the only string +to his bow. + +"No, thanks," said Sam. "I prefer to keep them myself. It seems to me +to be a very fair and equitable division just as it is." + +In the end it stood just that way. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE HERO OF THE HOUR + +On that very same afternoon, the youth and beauty, also the age and +wisdom, of both Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook, gathered around the ball +field of the former resort, to watch the Titanic struggle for victory +between the two picked nines. As Sam took his place behind the bat for +the first man up, who was Hollis, he felt his first touch of +self-confidence anent the strictly amusement features of summer +resorting. In all the other athletic pursuits he had been backward, +but here, as he smacked his fist in his glove, he felt at home. + +The only thing he did not like about it, as Princeman wound himself up +to deliver the first ball, was that Princeman had the position of +glory. On that gentleman the spotlight burned brightly all the time, +and if they won, he would be the hero of the hour; the modest, reliable +catcher would scarcely be thought of except by the men who knew the +finer points of the game, and it was not the men whom he had in mind. +Honestly and sincerely, he desired to shine before Miss Josephine +Stevens. She was over there at the edge of the field under an oak tree. + +Before her, cavorting for her amusement, were not only Princeman and +himself, but Billy Westlake and Hollis, each of them alert for action +at this moment; for now Princeman, with a mighty twirl upon his great +toe, released the ball. It never reached Sam Turner's hands; instead +it bounced off the bat with a "crack!" and sailed right down through +Billy Westlake, who, at second, made a frantic grab for it, and then it +spun out between center and right field, losing itself in the bushes, +while Hollis, amid the frantic cheers of the audience, which consisted +of Miss Josephine Stevens and several unconsidered other spectators, +tore around the circuit. His colleagues strove wildly to hold Hollis +at third, for the ball was found and was sailing over to that base. It +arrived there just as he did, but far over the head of the third +baseman, and fat, curly-haired Hollis, who looked like an ice wagon but +ran like a motorcycle, secured the first run for Hollis Creek. + +The next batter was up. Princeman, his confidence loftily unshaken, +gave a correct imitation of a pretzel and delivered the ball. The +batsman swung viciously at it. + +Spat! It landed in Sam's glove. + +"Strike one!" called the strident voice of Blackrock, who, jerking +himself back several years into youth again, was umpiring the game with +great joy. Nonchalantly Sam snapped the ball back over-hand. +Princeman smiled with calm superiority. He wound himself up. + +Spat! The ball had cut the plate and was in Sam's hands, while the +batsman stood looking earnestly at the path over which it had come. + +"Strike two!" called Blackstone. + +Sam jerked the ball back with an underwrist toss of great perfection. +Princeman drew himself up with smiling ease and posed a moment for the +edification of the on-lookers. Sam Turner was the very first to detect +the unbearable arrogance of that pose. Princeman eyed the batsman +critically, mercilessly even, and delivered the third fatal +plate-splitter. + +Z-z-z-ing! The sphere slammed right out through Billy Westlake, who +made a frantic grab for it. It bounded down between center and right +field, and the players bumped shoulders in trying to stop it. It +nestled among the bushes. The batsman tore around the bases. His +colleagues tried to hold him at third, for the ball was streaking in +that direction, but the batsman pawed straight on. The ball crossed +the base before he did, but it bounded between the third sacker's feet, +and score two was marked up for Hollis Creek, with nobody out! + +With undiminished confidence, though somewhat annoyed, Princeman made a +cute little knot of himself for the next batsman. + +Spat! The ball landed in Sam's glove, two feet wide of the plate. + +"Ball one!" called Blackstone. + +Spat! In Sam's glove again, with the batsman jumping back to save his +ribs. + +"Ball two!" cried Blackstone. + +Spat! + +"Ball three." + +"Put 'em over, Princeman!" yelled Billy Westlake from second. + +"Don't be afraid of him! He couldn't hit it with a pillow!" jeered the +third baseman. + +In a calm, superior sort of way, Mr. Princeman smiled and shot over the +ball. + +"Four balls. Take your base!" said Mr. Blackstone, quite gently. + +Reassuringly Mr. Princeman smiled upon his supporters, consisting of +Miss Josephine Stevens and some other summer resorters, and proceeded +to take out his revenge upon the next batter. The first two lofts were +declared to be balls, and then Sam, catching his man playing too far +off, snapped the pill down to the nearest suburb and nailed the first +out. Encouraged by this, Princeman put over three successive strikes, +and there were two gone. The next batter up, however, laced out, for +two easy way-points, the first ball presented him. The next athlete +brought him in with a single, and the next one put down a three-bagger +which bored straight through Princeman and short stop and center field. +That inglorious inning ended with a brilliant throw of Sam's to Billy +Westlake at second, nipping a would-be thief who had hoped to purloin +the seventh tally for Hollis Creek. + +Billy Westlake, then taking the bat, increased the Meadow Brook +depression by slapping the soft summer air three vicious spanks and +retiring to think it over, and young Tilloughby bounced a feeble little +bunt square at the feet of Hollis and was tossed out at first by +something like six furlongs. The third batsman popped up a slow, lazy +foul which gave the catcher almost plenty of time to roll a cigarette +before it came down, and the Meadow Brook side was ignominiously +retired. Score, six to nothing at the end of the first. + +Princeman hit the first man up in the next inning and sent him down to +the initial bag, which was a flat stone, happily limping. He issued +free transportation to the next man and let the cripple hobble on to +second, chortling with glee. The third man went to the first station +on a measly little bunt with which Sam and Princeman and third base did +some neat and shifty foot work, and the next man up soaked out a Wright +Brothers beauty among the trees over beyond left field, and cleared the +bases amid the perfectly frantic rejoicing of the fickle Miss Josephine +Stevens and all the negligible balance of Hollis Creek. Oh, it was +disgraceful! Sam Turner ground his teeth in impotent rage. He walked +up to Princeman. + +"Say, old man," he pleaded. "We've just _got_ to settle down! We +_must_ pull this game out of the fire! We _can't_ let Hollis Creek +walk away with it!" + +Princeman was pale, but clutched at his fast-slipping-away nonchalance +with the grip of desperation. + +"We'll hold them," he declared, and with careful deliberation he put +over a ball which the next batter sent sailing right down inside the +right foul line, pulling the first baseman away back almost to right +field. Princeman stood gaping at that bingle in paralyzed dismay; but +the batsman, who was a slow runner and slow thinker, stood a fatal +second to see whether the ball was fair or foul. Almost at the crack +of the bat Sam Turner started, raced down to first, caught the right +fielder's throw and stepped on the stone, one handsome stride ahead of +the runner! Then, as Blackrock, speechless with admiration, waved the +runner out, the first mighty howl went up from Meadow Brook, and one +partisan of the Hollis Creek nine, turning her back for the moment +squarely upon her own colors, led the cheering. Sam heard her voice. +It was a solo, while all the rest of the cheering was a faint +accompaniment, and with such elation as comes only to the heroes in +victorious battle, he trotted back to his place and caught three balls +and three strikes on the next batter. Also, the next one went out on a +pop fly which Sam was able to catch. + +In their half Princeman redeemed himself in part by a three bagger +which brought in two scores, and the second inning ended at ten to +three in favor of Hollis Creek. + +Confident and smiling, reinforced by the memory of his three bagger, +Princeman took the mount for the beginning of the third, and with his +compliments he suavely and politely presented a base to the first man +up. A groan arose from all Meadow Brook. The second batsman shot a +stinger to Princeman, who dropped it, and that batsman immediately +thereafter roosted on first, crowing triumphantly; but the hot liner +allowed Princeman a graceful opportunity. He complained of a badly +hurt finger on his pitching hand. He called time while he held that +injured member, and expressed in violent gestures the intolerable agony +of it. Bravely, however, he insisted upon "sticking it out," and +passed two wild ones up to the next willow wielder; then, having proved +his gameness, he nobly sacrificed himself for the good of Meadow Brook, +called time and asked for a substitute pitcher. He would go anywhere. +He would take the field or he would retire. What he wanted was Meadow +Brook to win. This was precisely what Sam Turner also wanted, and he +lost no time in calling, with ill-concealed satisfaction, upon his +brother Jack. Then Jack Turner, nothing loath, deserted his +comfortable seat by the side of Miss Josephine Stevens, and strode +forth to the mound, leaving the unfortunate Princeman to take his place +by the side of Miss Stevens and give her an opportunity to sympathize +with his poor maimed pitching hand, which, after a perfunctory moment +of interest, she was too busy to do; for Jack Turner and Sam Turner, +smiling across at each other in mutual confidence and esteem, proceeded +to strike out the next three batters in succession, leaving men +cemented to first and second bases, where they had been wildly +imploring for opportunities to tear themselves loose. + +What need to tell of the balance of that game; of the calm, easy, +one-two-three work of the invincible Turner battery; of the brilliant +base throwing and fielding of Turner and Turner, and their mighty swats +when they came to bat? You know how the game turned out. Anybody +would know. It ended in a triumph for Meadow Brook at the end of the +seventh inning, which is all any summer resort game ever goes, and two +innings more than most, by a total and glorious score of twenty-one to +seventeen. And who were the heroes of the hour, as smilingly but +modestly they strode from the diamond? Who, indeed, but Jack Turner +and Sam Turner; and by token of their victory, after receiving the +frenzied plaudits of all Meadow Brook and the generous plaudits of all +Hollis Creek, they marched in triumph from the field, one on either +side of Miss Josephine Stevens! Where now were Hollis and Princeman +and Billy Westlake? Nowhere! They were forgotten of men, ignored of +women, and the laurels of sweet victory rested upon the brow of busy +Sam Turner! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN INTERRUPTED BUT PROPERLY FINISHED PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE + +Jack's first opportunity for a quiet talk with his brother did not +occur for an hour after the game. + +"I don't like to worry you while you're resting, Sam," he began, "but +I'll have to tell you that the Flatbush deal seems likely to drop +through. It reaches a head to-morrow, you know." + +[Illustration: "I don't like to worry you, Sam"] + +Sam Turner grabbed for his watch. + +"It can't drop through!" he vigorously declared. "I'll go right up +there to-night and look after it." + +"But you're on your vacation," protested Jack. "That's no way to rest." + +"On my vacation!" snorted Sam. "Of course I am. I'm not losing a +minute of my vacation. The proper way to have a vacation is to do the +thing you enjoy most. Don't you suppose I'll enjoy closing that +Flatbush deal?" + +"Certainly," admitted his brother, "and I'll enjoy seeing you do it. I +know you can." + +"Of course I can. But you're to stay here." + +"It's not my turn for an outing," protested Jack. "I haven't earned +one yet." + +"You're to work," explained Sam. "You see, Jack, in one week I can't +become a bowling or golf expert enough to beat Princeman, nor a tennis +or dancing expert enough to outshine Billy Westlake, nor a horseback or +croquet expert enough to make a deuce out of Hollis. You can do all +these things, and I want you to give this crowd of distinguished +amateurs a showing up. Jack, if you ever worked for athletic honors in +your life now is the time to do it; and in between time stick to Miss +Stevens like glue. Monopolize her. Don't give these three or any +other contenders any of her time. Keep her busy. Let me know every +day what progress you're making; don't stop to write; wire! For +remember, Jack, I'm going to marry her. I've got to." + +"Well, then you'll marry her," Jack sagely concluded. "Does she know +it yet?" + +"I don't think she's quite sure of it," returned Sam with careful +analysis. "Of course she's thought about it. Sometimes she thinks she +won't, and sometimes she thinks she will, and sometimes she isn't quite +sure whether she will or not. Don't you worry about that part, though, +and don't bother to boost me. Just quietly you take the shine out of +these summer champions and leave the rest to your brother Sam." + +"Fine," agreed Jack. "Run right along and sell your papers, Sammy, and +I'll wire you every time I put over a point." + +Sam hunted and found Miss Josephine. + +"I'm sorry I have to take a run back to New York for two or three +days," he said. + +She bent upon him a glance of amusement; the old glance of mingled +amusement and mischief. + +"I thought you were on your vacation," she observed. + +"And I am," he insisted. "I've been having a bully time, and I'll come +back here to finish up the couple of days I have left." + +"Then the drive which didn't count this morning, and which was +postponed again until to-morrow morning, will have to be put off once +more," she reminded him with a gay laugh. + +"By George, that's so!" he exclaimed. "In all the excitement it had +quite slipped my mind." + +"I presume you're going up on business," she slyly observed. + +"Yes, I am," he admitted. + +She laughed and gave him her hand. + +"Well, I wish you good luck," she said. "I hope you make all the money +in the world. But you won't forget us who are down here in the country +dawdling away our time in useless amusements." + +"Forget you!" he returned impetuously. "Never for a minute!" and he +was in such deadly earnest about it that she hastily checked further +speech, although she did not know why. + +"Good!" she hurriedly exclaimed. "I'm glad you will bear us in mind +while you're gone. Are you going to take your brother along?" + +"No," he said with a smile. "I'm putting him in as my vacation +substitute, and I'll give him special instructions to call you up every +morning for orders. You'll find him in perfect discipline. He'll do +whatever you tell him." + +"I shall give him a thorough trial," she laughed. "I never yet had +anybody to come and go abjectly at the word of command, and I think it +will be a delightful novelty." + +Jack approaching just then, she took his arm quite comfortably. + +"Your brother tells me that during his absence you are to be my chief +aide and attaché," she advised that young man gaily; "that you'll fetch +and carry and do what I tell you; and the first thing you must do is to +call for me when you take Mr. Turner to the train." + +It is glorious to part so pleasantly as that from people you have +persistently in mind, and Sam, with such cheerful recollections, +enjoyed his vacation to the full as he did new and brilliant and +unexpected things in closing up the Flatbush deal, keeping, in the +meantime, in constant touch with his office and with such telegrams as +these: + +"Established new tennis record this morning Westlake nowhere and has +been snubbed do not know why." + + +"Bowled two eighty five last night against Princeman two twenty am +teaching her." + + +"Danced six dances out of twelve with her says I'm better dancer than +Billy Westlake." + + +"Jumped Hollis Creek after her hat on horseback this afternoon Hollis +dared not follow am to give her riding lessons." + + +Then came this one: + +"Her father just told me she refused Princeman last night she will not +talk to Hollis and scarcely to me is dull and does not eat I beat all +entries in ten mile Marathon today and she hardly applauded wire +instructions." + + +Sam Turner took the next train. One look at Miss Stevens, after he had +traveled two years to reach Restview, made him suddenly intoxicated, +for in her eyes there was ravenous hunger for him and he read it, and +feeling rather sure of his ground he determined that now was the time +to strike. With that decisive end in view he dropped Jack at Meadow +Brook and went right on over to Hollis Creek with Miss Josephine. Of +course there was no chance to talk quite intimately, with Henry up +there ahead listening with all his ears, but there was every chance in +the world to look into her eyes and grow delirious; to touch elbows; to +look again and gaze deep into her eyes and see her turn away startled +and half frightened; to say perfunctory things which meant nothing and +everything, and receive perfunctory answers which meant as little and +as much; but before they had arrived at Hollis Creek Sam was frankly +and boldly holding her hand and she was letting him do it, and they +were both of them profoundly happy and profoundly silly, and would just +as leave have ridden on that way for ever. + +Words seemed superfluous, but yet they were more or less necessary, so +Sam got out at Hollis Creek Inn with her, and led the way determinedly +and directly into the stuffy little parlor just off the main assembly +room. He saw Mr. Stevens in the door of the post-office, but only +nodded to him, and then he drew Miss Josephine into the corner freest +from observation. + +"You know why I came back," he informed her, fixing her with a masterly +eye; "I had to see you again. My whole life is changed since I met +you. I need you. I can not do without you. I--" + +"Beg your pardon, Sam," said Mr. Stevens, appearing suddenly in the +doorway, and then he paused, much more confused even than the young +people, for Sam was holding both Miss Josephine's hands and gazing down +at her with an earnestness which, if harnessed, would have driven a +four-ton dynamo; and she was gazing up at him just as earnestly, with +an entirely breathless, but by no means displeased expression. + +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens. + +[Illustration: "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.] + +It was Miss Josephine who first found her aplomb. She smiled her rare +smile of mingled amusement and mischief at Sam, and then at her father. + +"You're quite excusable, I guess, father," she said sweetly. "What is +it?" + +"Why, your brother Jack just called you up from Meadow Brook, Sam, and +wants to tell you something immediately," stammered Mr. Stevens, +plucking at a beard which in that moment seemed to have lost all its +aggressiveness. "He called twice before you arrived, and is on the +'phone now." + +Sam, as he walked to the telephone, had time to find that his heart was +beating a tattoo against his ribs, that his breath was short and +fluttery, and that stage fright had suddenly crept over him and claimed +him for its own; so it was with no great patience or understanding that +he heard Jack tell him in great glee about some tests which Princeman +had had made in his own paper mills with the marsh pulp, and how +Princeman was sorry he had not taken more stock, and could not the +treasury stock be opened for further subscription? "Tell him no," said +Sam shortly, and hung up the receiver; then he repented of his +bluntness and spent five precious minutes in recalling his brother and +apologizing for his bruskness, explaining that Princeman was probably +trying to plan another attempt to pool the stock. + +In the meantime Theophilus Stevens had stood surveying his daughter in +contrition. + +"I'm afraid I came in at a most inopportune moment," he said by way of +apology. + +"Yes, I'm afraid you did," she admitted with a smile. "However, I +don't think Sam will forget what he wanted to say," and suddenly she +reached up and put her arms around her father's neck and drew his face +down and kissed him rapturously. + +"I'm glad to see you feel the way you do about it," said Mr. Stevens +delightedly, petting her gently upon the shoulder with one hand and +with the other smoothing back the hair from her forehead. She was the +dearest to him of all his children, although he never confessed it, +even to himself, and just now they were very, very close together +indeed. "I'm glad to hear you call him Sam, too. He's a fine young +man and he is bound to be a howling success in everything he +undertakes." He smiled reminiscently. "I rather thought there was +something between you two," he went on, still patting her shoulder, +"and when Dan Westlake told me that his girl thought a great deal of +Sam and that he was going to buy enough stock in Sam's company to give +Sam control, I turned right around and bought just as much stock as +Westlake had, although just before the meeting I had refused to invest +as much money as Sam wanted me to. Moreover, Westlake and myself, +between us, stopped the move to pool the outside stock, just yet. He's +a smart young man, that boy," he continued admiringly. "I didn't see, +until I went into that meeting, why he was so crazy to have me buy +enough stock to gain control-- What's the matter?" + +He stopped in perplexity, for his daughter, looking aghast at him, had +pushed back from his embrace and was regarding him with perfectly round +eyes, while over her face, at first pale, there gradually crept a +crimson flush. + +"Well, of all things!" she gasped. "Of all the cold-blooded, cruel, +barter-and-sale proceedings! Why, father, how--how could you! How +could he! I never in all my life--" + +"Why, Jo, what do you mean? What's the trouble?" + +"If you don't understand I can't make you," she said helplessly. + +"Well, I'll be--busted!" observed Mr. Stevens under his breath. + +To his infinite relief Sam came in just then, and Mr. Stevens, +wondering what he had done now, slipped hastily out of the room. Mr. +Turner, coming from the bright office into the dim room and innocent of +any change in the atmosphere, approached confidently and eagerly to +Miss Josephine with both hands extended, but she stepped back most +indignantly. + +"You need not finish what you were going to say!" she warned him. "My +father has just given me some information which changes the entire +aspect of affairs. I am not a part of a business bargain! I refuse to +be regarded as a commercial proposition! I heard something from Mr. +Princeman of what desperate efforts you were making to secure the +command, whatever that may be, of the--of the stock--board--of shares +in your new company, but I did not think you would go to such lengths +as this!" + +"Why, my dear girl," began Sam, shocked. + +"I am not your dear girl and I never shall be," she told him, and +angrily dabbed at some sudden tears. "I never was. I was only a +business possibility." + +"That's unjust," he charged her. "I don't see how you could accuse me +of regarding you in any other way than as the dearest and the sweetest +and the most beautiful girl in all the world, the wisest and the most +sensible, the most faithful, the most charming, the most delightful, +the most everything that is desirable." + +"Wait just a moment," she told him, very coldly indeed; with almost +extravagant coldness, in fact, as she beat out of her consciousness the +enticing epithets he had bestowed upon her. "Do you mean to say that +never in your calculations did you consider that if you married me my +father would vote his stock with yours--I believe that's the way he +puts it--and give you command or whatever it is of your company?" + +"Well," considered Sam, brought to a standstill and put straight upon +his honor, "I can't deny that it did seem to me a very satisfactory +thing that my father-in-law should own enough stock in the company--" + +"That will do," she interrupted him icily. "That is precisely what I +have charged. We will consider this subject as ended, Mr. Turner; as +one never to be referred to again." + +"We'll do nothing of the sort," returned Sam flat-footedly. "I've been +composing this speech for the last two weeks and I'm going to deliver +it. I'm not going to have it wasted. I've unconsciously been +rehearsing it every place I went. Even up in Flatbush, showing a man +the superior advantages of that yellow-mud district, I found myself +repeating sentence number twelve. It's been the first thing I thought +of in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night. It's been +with me all day, riding and walking and talking and eating and drinking +and just breathing. Now I'm going to go through with it. + +"I--I--confound it all! I've forgotten how I was going to say it now! +After all, though, it only amounted to this: I love you! I want you to +know it and understand it. I love you and love you and love you! I +never loved any woman before in my life. I never had time. I didn't +know what it was like. If I had I'd have fought it off until I met +you, because I could not afford it for anybody short of you. It takes +my whole attention. It distracts my mind entirely from other things. +I can't think of anything else consecutively and connectedly. I--I'm +sorry you take the attitude you do about this thing, but--I'm not going +to accept your viewpoint. You've got to look at this thing differently +to understand it. + +"I know you've been glad I loved you. You were glad the first day we +met, and you always will be glad! Whatever you have to say about it +just now don't count. I'm going to let you alone a while to think it +over, and then I'm coming back to tell you more about it," and with +that Sam stalked from the room, leaving Miss Josephine Stevens gasping, +dazed, quite sure that he was unforgivable, indignant with everything, +still rankling, in spite of all Sam had said, with the thought that she +had been made a mere part of a commercial transaction. Why, it was +like those barbarous countries she had read about, where wives are +bought and sold! Preposterous and unbearable! + +While she was in this storm of mixed emotions her father came in upon +her, this time seriously perplexed. + +"What has happened to Sam Turner?" he demanded. "He slammed out of the +house, passed me on the porch with only a grunt, and jumped into his +automobile. You must have done something to anger him." + +"I hope that I did!" she retorted with spirit. "I refused to marry +him." + +"You did!" he returned in surprise. "Why, I thought it was all cut and +dried between you." + +"It was until you blundered into us and spoiled everything," she +charged. "But I'm glad you did. You let me know that Sam Turner +wanted to marry me because you had bought shares enough in his company +to give him the advantage. I'm ashamed of you and ashamed of Sam--of +Mr. Turner--and ashamed of myself. Why, you make a bargain-counter +remnant of me! I never, _never_ was so humiliated!" + +"Poor child!" her father blandly sympathized. "Also, poor Sam. By the +way, though, he doesn't need you to secure control of his company. Dan +Westlake, as I told you, has bought enough stock to do the work, and +Miss Westlake would marry him in a minute. If Sam wants control of his +company, he only has to go to her and say the word." + +"Father!" exclaimed his daughter with stern indignation. "I don't see +how you can even suggest that!" + +"Suggest what? Now, what have I said?" + +"That Sam--that Mr. Turner would even dream of marrying that Westlake +girl, just in order to get the better of a business transaction," and +very much to Theophilus Stevens' surprise and consternation and dismay, +she suddenly crumpled up in a heap in her chair and burst out crying. + +"Well, I'll be busted!" her father muttered into his beard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SHE CALLS HIM SAM! + +Miss Josephine, finding all ordinary occupations stale, unprofitable +and wearisome on the following morning, and finding herself, moreover, +possessed of a restless spirit which urged her to do something or other +and yet recoiled at each suggestion she made it, started out quite +aimlessly to walk by herself. She walked in the direction of Meadow +Brook. The paths in that direction were so much prettier. + +Sam Turner, finding all other occupations stale, unprofitable and +wearisome, at the same moment started out to walk by himself, going in +the direction of Hollis Creek because that was the exact direction in +which he wanted to go. As he walked much more rapidly than Miss +Stevens, he arrived midway of the distance before she did, but at the +valley where the unnamed stream came rippling down he paused. + +He had looked often at this little hollow as he had passed it, and +every time he had looked upon it he seemed to have an idea of some sort +in the back of his head regarding it; a dim, unformed, fugitive sort of +idea which had never asserted itself very prominently because he had +been too busy to listen to its rather timid voice. + +Just now, however, the idea suddenly struggled to make itself loudly +known, whereupon Sam bade it come forth. Given hearing it proved to be +a very pleasant idea, and a forceful one as well; so much so that it +even checked the speed with which Sam had set out for Hollis Creek. He +looked calculatingly across the road to where the little stream went +flashing from under its wooden bridge across the field and hid around a +curve behind some bushes, then reappeared, dancing in the sunlight, +until finally it plunged among some far trees and was lost to him. He +gazed up the stream. He had not very far to look, for there it ran +down between two quite steep hills, through a sort of pocket valley, +closed or almost closed, at the upper end, by another hill equally +steep, its waters being augmented by a leaping little stream from a +strong spring hidden away somewhere in the hill to the left. + +As his eyes calculatingly swept stream and hills, they suddenly caught +a flutter of white through the trees, and it was coming down the +winding path which led across the hills to Hollis Creek. As it emerged +more from the concealment of the leaves his blood gave a leap, for the +flutter of white was a gown inclosing the unmistakable figure of Miss +Josephine Stevens. The whole valley suddenly seemed radiant. + +"Hello!" he called to her as she approached. "I didn't expect to find +you here." + +"I did not expect to be here," she laughed. "I just started out for a +stroll and happened to land in this beautiful spot." + +"Beautiful is no name for it," he replied with sudden vast enthusiasm, +and ran up the path to help her down over a steep place. + +For a moment, in the wonderful mystery of the touch of her hand and the +joy of her presence, he forgot everything else. What was this strange +phenomenon, by which the mere presence of one particular person filled +all the air with a tingling glow? Marvelous, that's what it was! If +Miss Josephine had any of the same wonder she was extremely careful not +to express it, nor let it show, especially after yesterday's +conversation, so she immediately talked of other things; and the first +thing which came handy was another reference to the beautiful valley. + +"You know, it is a wonder to me," she said, "that no one has built a +summer resort here. I think it ever so much more charming than either +Hollis Creek or Meadow Brook." + +"Do you believe in telepathy?" asked Sam, almost startled. "I do. It +hasn't been but a few minutes since that identical idea popped into my +head, and I had just now decided that if I could secure options on this +property I would have a real summer resort here--one that would make +Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook mere farm boarding-houses. Do you see +how close together these hills draw at their feet? The hollow is at +least a thousand feet across at the widest part, but down there at the +road, where the stream emerges to the fields, they close in with +natural buttresses, as it were, to not over a hundred feet in width. +Well, right across there we'll build a dam, and there is enough water +here to make a beautiful lake up as high as that yellow rock." + +Miss Josephine looked up at the yellow rock and clasped her hands with +an exclamation of delight. + +"Glorious!" she said. "I never would have thought of that; and how +beautiful it will be! Why, if the lake comes up that high it will go +clear back around that turn in the valley, won't it?" + +"Easily," he replied; "although that might make us trouble, for I don't +know where that turn in the valley leads. I have never explored that +region. Suppose we go up and look it over." + +"Won't that be fun?" she agreed, and they started to follow the stream. + +As they reached the rear of the "pocket," where they could see around +the curve, they turned and looked back over the route they had just +traversed. + +"My idea," Sam explained, having waited until they reached this +viewpoint to do so, "is to build the dam down there at the roadside, +and build the hotel right over it so that arriving guests will, after +an elevator has brought them up to the height of the main floor, find +the blue of the lake suddenly bursting upon them from the main piazza, +which will face the valley. All of the inside rooms will, of course, +have hanging balconies looking out over the water." + +"Perfectly ideal!" she agreed, her enthusiasm growing. + +"I think I'd better investigate the curve of the valley," he decided, +studying the path carefully. "It seems rather rough for you, and I'll +go alone. All I want to see is how far the water height will carry +around there, and if it will become necessary to build a dam at the +other end." + +"Oh, it isn't too rough for me," she declared immediately. "I am an +excellent climber," and together they started to explore the now +narrowing valley, following the stream over steep rocks and fallen +trees, and pushing through tangled undergrowth and among briers and +bushes and around slippery banks until they came to another tortuous +turn, where a second spring, welling up from under a flat, overhanging +rock, tumbled down to augment the supply for the future lake; and here +they stopped and had a drink of the cool, delicious water, Sam making +the girl a cup from a huge leaf which she said made the water taste +fuzzy, and then showing her how to get down on her hands and +knees--spreading his coat on the ground to protect her gown--and drink +_au naturel_, a trick at which she was most charming, and probably knew +it. + +The valley here had grown most narrow, but they followed the now very +small stream around one sharp curve after another until they found its +source, which was still another spring, and here there was no more +valley; but a cleft in the hill to the right, which they suddenly came +upon, gave them an exquisite view out over the beautiful low-lying +country, miles in extent, which lay between this and the next range of +hills; a delightful vista dotted with green farms and white farm-houses +and smiling streams and waving trees and grazing cattle. They stopped +in awe at the beauty of it and looked out over the valley in silence; +and unconsciously the girl slipped her hand within the arm of the man! + +"Just imagine a sunset out over there," he said. "You see those fleecy +clouds that are out there now. If clouds like those are still there +when the sun goes down, they will be a fleet of pearl-gray vessels, +with carmine keels, upon a sea of gold." + +She glanced at him quickly, but she did not express her marvel that +this man had so many sides. Before she could comment, and while she +was still framing some way to express her appreciation of his gentler +gifts, he returned briskly to practical things. + +"Our lake will scarcely come up to this point," he judged. "I don't +think that at any point it will be high enough to cover the springs. +We don't want it to if we can help it, for that would destroy some of +the beauty of it. Have you noticed that our lake will be much like a +kite in shape, with this winding ravine the tail of it. We'll have to +take in a lot of acreage to cover this property, but it will be worth +it. I'm going to look after options right away. I'm glad now I had +already decided to stay another two weeks." + +Of course she was still angry with Sam, she reminded herself, but she +was inexpressibly glad, somehow or other, to find that he was intending +to stay two weeks longer, and was startled as she recognized that fact. + +"It will take a lot of money, won't it, to build a hotel here?" she +asked, getting away from certain troublesome thoughts as quickly as she +could. + +"Yes, it will take a great deal," he admitted, as they turned to +scramble down the ravine again. "I should judge, however, that about +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would finance it." + +"But I thought, from something father once said, that you did not have +so much money as that?" + +"Bless you, no!" replied Sam, smiling. "No indeed! I've enough to +cover an option on this property and that's about all, now, since I'm +tangled up so deeply with my Pulp Company, but I figure that I can make +a quick turn on this property to help me out on the other thing. What +I'll do," he explained, "is to get this option first of all, and then +have some plans drawn, including a nice perspective view of the +hotel--a water-color sketch, you know, showing the building fronting +the lake--and upon that build a prospectus to get up the stock company. +I'll take stock for my control of the land and for my services in +promotion. Then I'll sell my stock and get out. I ought to make the +turn in two or three months and come out fifteen, or possibly twenty or +twenty-five thousand dollars to the good. It is a nice, big scheme." + +"Oh," she said blankly, "then you wouldn't actually build a hotel +yourself?" + +"Hardly," he returned. "I'll be content to make the profit out of +promoting it that I'd make in the first four or five years of running +the place." + +"I see," she said musingly; "and you'd get this up just like you formed +your Marsh Pulp Company, I think father called it, and of course you'd +try to get--what is it?--oh, yes; control." + +He smiled at her. + +"I'd scarcely look for that in this deal," he explained. "If I can +just get a nice slice of promotion stock and sell it I shall be quite +well satisfied." + +She bent puzzled brows over this new problem. + +"I don't quite understand how you can do it," she confessed, "but of +course you know how. You're used to these things. Father says you're +very good at promoting." + +"That's the way I've made all my money, or rather what little I have," +he told her, modestly enough. "I expect this Pulp Company, however, to +lift me out of that, for a few years at least; then when I come back +into the promoting field I can go after things on a big scale. The +Pulp Company ought to make me a lot of money if I can just keep it in +my own hands," and involuntarily he sighed. + +She looked at him musingly for a moment, and was about to say +something, but thought better of it and said something else. + +"The tail of your kite will be almost a perfect letter 'S'," she +observed. "How beautiful it will be; the big, broad lake out there in +the main valley, and then the nice, little, secluded, twisty waterway +back in through here; a regular lover's lane of a waterway, as it were. +I don't suppose these springs have any names. They must be named, +and--why, we haven't even named the lake!" + +"Yes, we have," he quickly returned. "I'm going to call it Lake +Josephine." + +"You haven't asked my permission for that," she objected with mock +severity. + +"There are plenty of Josephines in the world," he calmly observed. +"Nobody has a copyright on the name, you know." + +She smiled, as one sure of her ground. + +"Yes, but you wouldn't call it that, if I were to object seriously." + +"No, I guess I wouldn't," he gave up; "but you're not going to object +seriously, are you?" + +"I'll think it over," she said. + +They were now making their way along a bank that was too difficult of +travel to allow much conversation, though it did allow some delicious +helping, but when they came out into the main valley where they could +again look down on the road, they paused to survey the course over +which they had just come, and to appreciate to the full the beauty of +Sam's plan. + +"I don't believe I quite like your idea of the hotel built down there +at the roadside," she objected as they sat on a huge boulder to rest. +"It cuts off the view of the lake from passers-by, and I should think +it would be the best advertisement you could have for everybody who +drove past there to say: 'Oh, what a pretty place!' Now I should think +that right about here where we are sitting would be the proper location +for your hotel. Just think how the lake and the building would look +from the road. Right here would be a broad porch jutting out over the +water, giving a view down that first bend of the kite tail, and back of +the hotel would be this big hill and all the trees, and hills and trees +would spread out each side of it, sort of open armed, as it were, +welcoming people in." + +"It couldn't be seen, though," objected Sam. "The dam down there would +necessarily be about thirty feet high at the center, and people driving +along the roadway would not be able to see the water at all. They +would only see the blank wall of the dam. Of course we could soften +that by building the dam back a few feet from the roadway, making an +embankment and covering that with turf, or possibly shrubbery or +flowers, but still the water would not be visible, nor the hotel!" + +"I see," she said slowly. + +They both studied that objection in silence for quite a little while. +Then she suddenly and excitedly ejaculated: + +"_Sam_!" + +He jumped, and he thrilled all through. She had called him Sam +entirely unconsciously, which showed that she had been thinking of him +by that familiar name. With the exclamation had come sparkling eyes +and heightened color, not due to having used the word, but due to a +bright thought, and he almost lost his sense of logic in considering +the delightful combination. It occurred to him, however, that it would +be very unwise for him to call attention to her slip of the tongue, or +even to give her time to think and recognize it herself. + +"Another idea?" he asked. + +"Indeed yes," she asserted, "and this time I know it's feasible. I +don't know much about measurements in feet and inches, but there are +three feet in a yard." + +"Yes." + +"Well, doesn't the road down there, from hill to hill, dip about ten +yards?" + +"Yes." + +"Well then, that's thirty feet, just as high as you say the dam will +have to be. Why not raise the road itself thirty feet, letting it be +level and just as high as your dam?" + +Sam rose and solemnly shook hands with her. + +"You must come into the firm," he declared. "That solves the entire +problem. We'll run a culvert underneath there to the fields. The road +will reinforce the dam and the edge of the dam will be entirely +concealed. It will be merely a retaining wall with a nice stone +coping, which will be repeated on the field side. There will be no +objection from the county commissioners, because we shall improve the +road by taking two steep hills out of it. Your plan is much better +than mine. I can see myself, for instance, driving along that road on +my way to Hollis Creek from Restview, looking over that beautiful +little lake to the hotel beyond, and saying to myself: 'Well, next +summer I won't stop at Hollis Creek. I'll stop at Lake Jo.'" + +"I thought it was to be Lake Josephine," she interposed. + +"I thought so too," he agreed, "but Lake Jo just slipped out. It seems +so much better. Lake Jo! That would look fine on a prospectus." + +"You'd print the cover of it in blue and gold, I suppose, wouldn't you?" + +"There would need to be a splash of brown-red in it," he reminded her, +considering color schemes for a moment. "The roof of the hotel would, +of course, be red tile. We'd build it fireproof. There is plenty of +gray stone around here, and we'd build it of native rock." + +"And then," she went on, in the full swing of their idea, "think of the +beautiful walks and climbs you could have among these hills; and the +driveway! Your approach to the hotel would come around the dam and up +that hill, would wind up through those trees and rocks, and right here +at the bend of the ravine it would cross the thick part of the kite +tail to the hotel on a quaint rustic bridge; and as people arrived and +departed you'd hear the clatter of the horses' hoofs." + +"Great!" he exclaimed, catching her enthusiasm and with it augmenting +his own, "and guests leaving would first wave good-by at the +porte-cochère just about where we are sitting. They'd clatter across +the bridge, with their friends on the porch still fluttering +handkerchiefs after them; they'd disappear into the trees over yonder +and around through that cleft in the rocks. And see; on the other side +of the cleft there is a little tableland which juts out, and the road +would wind over that, where carriages would once more be seen from the +hotel porch. Then they'd twist in through the trees again down the +winding driveway, and once more, for the very last glimpse, come into +view as they went across our new road in front of the lake; and there +the last flutter of handkerchiefs would be seen. You know it's silly +to stand and wave your friends out of sight for a long distance when +they're always in view, but if the view is interrupted two or three +times it relieves the monotony." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SAM TURNER ACQUIRES A BUSINESS PARTNER + +They followed the stream down to the road, at every step gaging with +the eye the height of the lake and judging the altered scenic view from +the level of the water. There would be room for dozens and dozens of +boats upon that surface without interference. Sam calculated that from +the upper spring there would be headway enough to run a small fountain +in the center, surrounded by a pond-lily bed which would be kept in +place by a stone curbing. In the hill to the right there was a deep +indenture. Back in there would go the bathing pavilions. They even +went up to look at it, and were delighted to find a natural, shallow +bowl. By cementing the floor of that bowl they could have a splendid +swimming-pool for timid bathers, where they could not go beyond their +depth; and it was entirely surrounded by a thick screen of shrubbery. +Oh, it was delightful; it was perfect! At the road they looked back up +over the valley again. It was no longer a valley. It was a lake. +They could see the water there. Sam drew from his pocket a pencil and +an envelope. + +"The hotel will have to be long and tall," he observed, "for there will +not be much room on that ledge, from front to back. The building will +stretch out quite a ways. Three or four hundred feet long it will be, +and about five stories in height," and taking a letter from the +envelope, he sat down upon a fallen log and began rapidly to sketch. + +He drew the hotel with wide-spreading Spanish roofs and balconies, and +a wide porch with rippling water in front of it, and rowboats and +people in them; and behind the hotel rose the broken sky-line of the +hills and the trees, with an indication of fleecy clouds above. It was +just a light sketch, a sort of shorthand picture, as it were, and yet +it seemed full of sunlight and of atmosphere. + +"I hadn't any idea you could draw like that," she exclaimed in +admiration. + +"I do a little of everything, I think, but nothing perfectly," he +admitted with some regret. + +"It seems to me you do everything excellently," she objected quite +seriously; and she was, in fact, deeply impressed. + +He walked over to the stream, a trifle confused, but not displeased, by +any means, by the earnestness of her compliment. + +"I must have the water analyzed to see if it has any medicinal virtue," +he said. "The spring out of which we drank has a sweetish-like taste, +but the water here--" and he caught up some of it in his hand and +tasted it, "seems to be slightly salt." + +He had left her sitting on the log with the sketch in her lap. Now the +sketch fluttered to the ground and the letter turned over, right side +up. It was a letter which Sam had written to his brother Jack and had +not mailed because he had suddenly decided to come down to the scene of +action. As she stooped over to pick it up her eyes caught the +sentence: "I love her, Jack, more than I can tell you, more than I can +tell anybody, more than I can tell myself. It's the most important, +the most stupendous thing--" She hastily turned that letter over and +was very careful to have it lying upon her lap, back upward, exactly as +he had left it there, and when he came back she was very, very careful +indeed to hand it nonchalantly over to him, with the sketch uppermost. + +"Of course," he said, looking around him comprehensively, "this is only +a day-dream, so far. It may be impossible to realize it." + +"Why?" she asked, instantly concerned. "This project _must_ be carried +through! It is already as good as completed. It just must be done. I +never before had a hand, even in a remote way, in planning a big thing, +and I couldn't bear not to see this done. What is to prevent it?" + +"I may not be able to get the land," returned Sam soberly. "It is +probably owned by half a dozen people, and one or more of them is +certain to want exorbitant prices for it." + +"It certainly can't be very valuable," she protested. "It isn't fit +for anything, is it?" + +"For nothing but the building of Lake Jo," he agreed. "Right now it is +worthless, but the minute anybody found out I wanted it it would become +extremely valuable. The only way to do would be to see everybody at +once and close the options before they could get to talking it over +among themselves." + +"What time is it?" she demanded. + +He looked at his watch. + +"Ten-thirty," he said. + +"Then let's go and see all these people right away," she urged, jumping +to her feet. + +He smiled at her enthusiasm, but he was none loath to accept her +suggestion. + +"All right," he agreed. "I wish they had telephones here in the woods. +We'll simply have to walk over to Meadow Brook and get an auto." + +"Come on," she said energetically, and they started out on the road. +They had not gone far, however, when young Tilloughby, with Miss +Westlake, overtook them in a trap. He reined up, and Miss Westlake +greeted the pedestrians with frigid courtesy. Jack Turner had +accidentally dropped her a hint. Now that she had begun to appreciate +Mr. Tilloughby--Bob--at his true value, she wondered what she had ever +seen in Sam Turner--and she never had liked Josephine Stevens! + +"Gug-gug-gug-glorious day, isn't it?" observed Tilloughby, his face +glowing with joy. + +"Fine," agreed Sam with enthusiasm. "There never was a more glorious +day in all the world. You've just come along in time to save our +lives, Tilloughby. Which way are you bound?" + +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-we had intended to go around Bald Hill." + +"Well, postpone that for a few minutes, won't you, Tilloughby, like a +good fellow? Trot back to Meadow Brook and send an auto out here for +us. Get Henry, by all means, to drive it." + +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-with pleasure," replied Tilloughby, wondering at this +strange whim, but restraining his curiosity like a thoroughbred. +"Huh-huh-huh-Henry shall be back here for you in a jiffy," and he drove +off in a cloud of dust. + +Miss Stevens surveyed the retiring trap in satisfaction. + +"Good," she exclaimed. "I already feel as though we were doing +something to save Lake Jo." + +They walked back quite contentedly to the valley and surveyed it anew, +there resting now on both of them a sense of almost prideful +possession. They discovered a high point on which a rustic observatory +could be built; they planned paths and trails; they found where the +water-line came just under an overhanging rock which would make a cave +large enough for three or four boats to scurry under out of the rain. +They found delightful surprises all along the bank of the future lake, +and Miss Stevens declared that when the dam was built and the lake +began to fill, she never intended to leave it except for meals, until +it was up to the level at which they would permit the overflow to be +opened. + +Henry, returning with the automobile, found them far up in the valley +discussing a floating band pavilion, but they came down quickly enough +when they saw him, and scrambled into the tonneau with the haste of +small children. Henry watched them take their places with smiling +affection. He had not only had good tips but pleasant words from Sam, +and Miss Stevens was her own incentive to good wishes and good will. + +"Henry," said Sam, "we want to drive around to see the people who own +this land." + +"Oh, shucks," said Henry, disappointed. "I can't drive you there. The +man that owns all this land lives in New York." + +"In New York!" repeated Sam in dismay. "What would anybody in New York +want with this?" + +"The fellow that bought it got it about ten years ago," Henry informed +them. "He was going to build a big country house, back up there in the +hills, I understand, and raise deer to shoot at, and things like that; +got an architect to make him plans for house and stables and all +costing hundreds of thousands of dollars; but before he could break +ground on it him and his wife had a spat and got a divorce. He tried +to sell the land back again to the people he bought it from, but they +wouldn't take it at any price. They were glad to be shut of it and +none of his rich friends wanted to buy it after that, because, they +said, there were so many of those cheap summer resorts around here." + +"I see," said Sam musingly. "You don't happen to know the man's name, +do you?" + +"Dickson, I think it was. Henry Dickson. I remember his first name +because it was the same as mine." + +"Great!" exclaimed Sam, overjoyed. "Why, I know Henry Dickson like a +book. I've engineered several deals for him. He's a mighty good +friend of mine too. That simplifies matters. Drive us right over to +Hollis Creek." + +"To Hollis Creek!" she objected. "I should think you'd drive to Meadow +Brook instead and dress for the trip. Aren't you going to catch that +afternoon train and go right up there?" + +"By no means. This is Saturday, and by the time I'd get to New York he +couldn't be found anywhere; and anyhow, I wouldn't have time to deliver +you at Hollis Creek and make this next train." + +"Don't mind about me," she urged. "I could go to the train with you +and Henry could take me back to Hollis Creek." + +"That's fine of you," returned Sam gratefully; "but it isn't the +program at all. I happen to know that Dickson stays in his office +until one o'clock on Saturdays. I'll get him by long distance." + +They were quite silent in calculation on the way to Hollis Creek, and +Miss Josephine found herself pushing forward to help make the machine +go faster. Breathlessly she followed Sam into the house, and he +obligingly left the door of the telephone booth ajar, so that she could +hear his conversation with Dickson. + +"Hello, Dickson," said Sam, when he got his connection. "This is Sam +Turner. . . . Oh yes, fine. Never better in my life. . . . Up here +in Hamster County, taking a little vacation. Say, Dickson, I +understand you own a thousand acres down here. Do you want to sell it? +. . . How much?" As he received the answer to that question he turned +to Miss Josephine and winked, while an expression of profound joy, +albeit materialized into a grin, overspread his features. "I won't +dicker with you on that price," he said into the telephone. "But will +you take my note for it at six per cent.?" + +He laughed aloud at the next reply. + +"No, I don't want it to run that long. The interest in a hundred years +would amount to too much; but I'll make it five years. . . . All +right, Dickson, instruct your lawyer chap to make out the papers and +I'll be up Monday to close with you." + +He hung up the receiver and turned to meet her glistening eyes fixed +upon him in ecstasy. "It's better than all right," he assured her. He +was more enthusiastic about this than he had ever been about any +business deal in his life, that is, more openly enthusiastic, for Miss +Josephine's enthusiasm was contagion itself. He took her arm with a +swing, and they hurried into the writing-room, which was deserted for +the time being on account of the mail having just come in. Sam placed +a chair for her and they sat down at the table. + +"I want to figure a minute," said he. "Now that I have actual +possession of the property, in place of a mere option, I can go at the +thing differently. First of all, when I go up Monday I'll see my +engineer, and on Tuesday morning I'll bring him down here with me. +Then I shall secure permission from the county to alter that road and +we'll build the dam. That will cost very little in comparison to the +whole improvement. Then, and not till then, I'll get out my stock +prospectus, and I'll drive prospective investors down here to look at +Lake Jo. I'll be almost in position to dictate terms." + +"Isn't that fine!" she exclaimed. "And then I suppose you can +secure--control," she ventured anxiously. + +"Yes, I think I can if I want it," he assured her. + +"I'm so glad," she said gravely. "I'm so very glad." + +"Really, though, I have a big notion to see if I can't finance the +entire project myself. I'm quite sure I can get Dickson to give me a +clear deed to that land merely on my unsupported note. If I can do +that I can erect all the buildings on progressive mortgages. Roadways +and engineering work of course I'll have to pay for, and then I can +finance a subsidiary operating company to rent the plant from the +original company, and can retain stock in both of them. I'll figure +that out both ways." + +It was all Greek to her, this talk, but she knitted her brows in an +earnest effort to understand, and crowded close to him to look over the +figures he was putting down. The touch of her arm against his own +threw out his calculations entirely. He could not add a row of figures +to save his life. + +"I'll go over the financial end of this later on," he said, but he did +not put away the paper. He kept it there for them both to look at, +touching arms. + +"All right," she agreed, "but you must let me see you do it. Of course +I can't understand, but I do want to feel as if I were helping when it +is done." + +"I won't take a step in it without consulting you or having you along," +he promised. + +At that moment the bugle sounded the first call for luncheon. + +"You'll stay for luncheon," she invited. + +"Certainly," he assured her. "You couldn't drive me away." + +"Very well, right after luncheon let's go out and look at the place +again. It will look different now that it is--" She caught herself. +She had almost said "now that it is ours." "Now that it is secured," +she finished. + +After luncheon they drove back to the site of Lake Jo, and spent a +delirious while planning the things which were to be done to make that +spot an earthly Paradise. Never was a couple so prolific of ideas as +they were that afternoon. With 'Ennery waiting down in the road they +tramped all over the hills again, standing first on one spot and then +another to survey the alluring prospect, and to plan wonderful new and +attractive features of which no previous summer resort builder had ever +even dared to dream. + +During the afternoon not one word passed between them which might be +construed to be of an intimately personal nature, but as they drove to +Hollis Creek, tired but happy, Sam somehow or other felt that he had +made quite a bit of progress, and was correspondingly elated. Leaving +Miss Stevens on the porch he hurried home to dress for dinner, for it +was growing late, but immediately after dinner he drove over again. +When he arrived Miss Josephine was in the seldom used parlor with her +father. + +"I haven't seen you since breakfast," Mr. Stevens had said, pinching +her cheek, "Hollis and Billy Westlake have been looking for you +everywhere." + +"Oh, they," she returned with kindly contempt. "I'm glad I didn't see +them. They're nice boys enough, but father, I don't believe that +either one of them will ever become clever business men!" + +"No?" he replied, highly amused. "Well, I don't think they will +either. Business is a shade too big a game for them. But where have +you been?" + +"Out on business with S-s-s--with Mr. Turner," she replied demurely. +"I came in late for lunch, and you had already finished and gone. Then +we went right back out again. Father, we have found the dearest, the +most delightful, the most charming business opportunity you ever saw. +You must go out with us to-morrow and look at it. Sam's going to build +a lake and call it Lake Jo. You know where that little stream is +between here and Meadow Brook? Well, that's the place. We found out +this morning what a delightful spot it would make for a lake and a big +summer resort hotel, and at noon Sam bought the property, and we have +been planning it all afternoon. He's bought it outright and he's going +to capitalize it for a quarter of a million dollars. How much stock +are you going to take in it?" + +"How much what?" + +"How many shares of stock are you going to take in it? You must speak +up quickly, because it's going to be a favor to you for us to let you +in." + +"Well, I don't know," said Mr. Stevens, resisting a sudden desire to +guffaw. "I'd have to look it over first before I decide to invest. +Sounds like a sort of wild-eyed scheme to me. Besides that, I already +have a good big block of stock in one of Sam Turner's enterprises." + +"Oh, yes," she said, puckering her brows. "Are you going to vote your +pulp stock with his?" + +Mr. Stevens' eyes twinkled, but his tone was conservative gravity +itself. + +"Well, since it's a purely business deal it would not be a very wise +thing to do; and though Sam Turner is a mighty fine boy, I don't think +I shall." + +"But you will!" she vigorously protested. "Why, father, you wouldn't +for a minute vote against your own son-in-law!" + +"No, I wouldn't!" declared Mr. Stevens emphatically, and suddenly drew +her to him and kissed her; and she clung about his neck half laughing +and half crying. + +Do you suppose there is anything in telepathy? It would seem so, for +it was at this moment that Sam stepped up on the porch. They in the +parlor heard his voice, and Mr. Stevens immediately slipped out the +back way in order not to be _de trop_ a second time. Now Sam could not +possibly have known what had been said in the parlor, and yet when he +found his way in there, he and Miss Josephine, without any palaver +about it, without exchanging a solitary word, or scarcely even a look, +just naturally fell into each other's arms. Neither one of them made +the first move. It just somehow happened, and they stood there and +held and held and held that embrace; and whatever foolishness they said +and did in the next hour is none of your business nor of mine; but +later in the evening, when they were sitting quietly in the darkest +corner of the porch, and Sam had his hand on the arm of her chair with +her elbows resting upon his fingers--it didn't matter, you know, where +he touched her, just so he did--she turned to him with thoughtful +earnestness in her voice. + +"Sam," she said, and this time she used his first name quite +consciously and was glad it was dark so that he could not see her trace +of shyness, "I wish you would explain to me just what you mean by +control in a stock company." + +Sam Turner moved his fingers from under her elbow and caught her hand, +which he firmly clasped before he began. + +"Well, Jo, it's just this way," he said, and then, quite comfortably, +he explained to her all about it. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Early Bird, by George Randolph Chester + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 19272-8.txt or 19272-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/2/7/19272/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/old/20060914.19272-8.zip b/old/20060914.19272-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e991d21 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20060914.19272-8.zip diff --git a/old/20060914.19272-h.zip b/old/20060914.19272-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..415e7ef --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20060914.19272-h.zip diff --git a/old/20060914.19272.txt b/old/20060914.19272.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b49ddb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20060914.19272.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5698 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Early Bird, by George Randolph Chester + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Early Bird + A Business Man's Love Story + +Author: George Randolph Chester + +Illustrator: Arthur William Brown + +Release Date: September 14, 2006 [EBook #19272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: They stopped and had a drink of the cool water] + + + + + + +THE EARLY BIRD + +_A Business Man's Love Story_ + + +BY + +GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER + + + +Author of + +THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN + + + +INDIANAPOLIS + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1910 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN + II MR. TURNER PLUNGES + III A MATTER OF DELICACY + IV GREEK MEETS GREEK + V MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER + VI MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES + VII A DANCE NUMBER + VIII NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME + IX A VIOLENT FLIRT + X A PIANOLA TRAINING + XI THE WESTLAKES INVEST + XII ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT + XIII A RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS + XIV MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY + XV THE HERO OF THE HOUR + XVI AN INTERRUPTED PROPOSAL + XVII SHE CALLS HIM SAM! + XVIII A BUSINESS PARTNER + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +They stopped and had a drink of the cool water . . . _Frontispiece_ + +They waylaid him on the porch + +Hepseba studied him from head to foot + +Sam played again the plaintive little air + +"I don't like to worry you, Sam" + +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens + + + + +THE EARLY BIRD + + +CHAPTER I + +WHEREIN A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN STARTS ON AN ABSOLUTE REST + +The youngish-looking man who so vigorously swung off the train at +Restview, wore a pair of intensely dark blue eyes which immediately +photographed everything within their range of vision--flat green +country, shaded farm-houses, encircling wooded hills and all--weighed +it and sorted it and filed it away for future reference; and his +clothes clung on him with almost that enviable fit found only in +advertisements. Immediately he threw his luggage into the tonneau of +the dingy automobile drawn up at the side of the lonely platform, and +promptly climbed in after it. Spurred into purely mechanical action by +this silent decisiveness, the driver, a grizzled graduate from a hay +wagon, and a born grump, as promptly and as silently started his +machine. The crisp and perfect start, however, was given check by a +peremptory voice from the platform. + +"Hey, you!" rasped the voice. "Come back here!" + +As there were positively no other "Hey yous" in the landscape, the +driver and the alert young man each acknowledged to the name, and +turned to see an elderly gentleman, with a most aggressive beard and +solid corpulency, gesticulating at them with much vigor and +earnestness. Standing beside him was a slender sort of girl in a green +outfit, with very large brown eyes and a smile of amusement which was +just a shade mischievous. The driver turned upon his passenger a long +and solemn accusation. + +"Hollis Creek Inn?" he asked sternly. + +"Meadow Brook," returned the passenger, not at all abashed, and he +smiled with all the cheeriness imaginable. + +"Oh," said the driver, and there was a world of disapprobation in his +tone, as well as a subtle intonation of contempt. "You are not Mr. +Stevens of Boston." + +"No," confessed the passenger; "Mr. Turner of New York. I judge that +to be Mr. Stevens on the platform," and he grinned. + +The driver, still declining to see any humor whatsoever in the +situation, sourly ran back to the platform. Jumping from his seat he +opened the door of the tonneau, and waited with entirely artificial +deference for Mr. Turner of New York to alight. Mr. Turner, however, +did nothing of the sort. He merely stood up in the tonneau and bowed +gravely. + +"I seem to be a usurper," he said pleasantly to Mr. Stevens of Boston. +"I was expected at Meadow Brook, and they were to send a conveyance for +me. As this was the only conveyance in sight I naturally supposed it +to be mine. I very much regret having discommoded you." + +He was looking straight at Mr. Stevens of Boston as he spoke, but, +nevertheless, he was perfectly aware of the presence of the girl; also +of her eyes and of her smile of amusement with its trace of +mischievousness. Becoming conscious of his consciousness of her, he +cast her deliberately out of his mind and concentrated upon Mr. +Stevens. The two men gazed quite steadily at each other, not to the +point of impertinence at all, but nevertheless rather absorbedly. +Really it was only for a fleeting moment, but in that moment they had +each penetrated the husk of the other, had cleaved straight down to the +soul, had estimated and judged for ever and ever, after the ways of men. + +"I passed your carryall on the road. It was broke down. It'll be here +in about a half hour, I suppose," insisted the driver, opening the door +of the tonneau still wider, and waving the descending pathway with his +right hand. + +Both Mr. Stevens of Boston and Mr. Turner of New York were very glad of +this interruption, for it gave the older gentleman an object upon which +to vent his annoyance. + +"Is Meadow Brook on the way to Hollis Creek?" he demanded in a tone +full of reproof for the driver's presumption. + +The driver reluctantly admitted that it was. + +"I couldn't think of leaving you in this dismal spot to wait for a +dubious carryall," offered Mr. Stevens, but with frigid politeness. +"You are quite welcome to ride with us, if you will." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Turner, now climbing out of the machine with +alacrity and making way for the others. "I had intended," he laughed, +as he took his place beside the driver, "to secure just such an +invitation, by hook or by crook." + +For this assurance he received a glance from the big eyes; not at all a +flirtatious glance, but one of amusement, with a trace of mischief. +The remark, however, had well-nigh stopped all conversation on the part +of Mr. Stevens, who suddenly remembered that he had a daughter to +protect, and must discourage forwardness. His musings along these +lines were interrupted by an enthusiastic outburst from Mr. Turner. + +"By George!" exclaimed the latter gentleman, "what a fine clump of +walnut trees; an even half-dozen, and every solitary one of them would +trim sixteen inches." + +"Yes," agreed the older man with keenly awakened interest, "they are +fine specimens. They would scale six hundred feet apiece, if they'd +scale an inch." + +"You're in the lumber business, I take it," guessed the young man +immediately, already reaching for his card-case. "My name is Turner, +known a little better as Sam Turner, of Turner and Turner." + +"Sam Turner," repeated the older man thoughtfully. "The name seems +distinctly familiar to me, but I do not seem, either, to remember of +any such firm in the trade." + +"Oh, we're not in the lumber line," replied Mr. Turner. "Not at all. +We're in most anything that offers a profit. We--that is my kid +brother and myself--have engineered a deal or two in lumber lands, +however. It was only last month that I turned a good trade--a very +good trade--on a tract of the finest trees in Wisconsin." + +"The dickens!" exclaimed the older gentleman explosively. "So you're +the Turner who sold us our own lumber! Now I know you. I'm Stevens, +of the Maine and Wisconsin Lumber Company." + +Sam Turner laughed aloud, in both surprise and glee. Mr. Stevens had +now reached for his own card-case. The two gentlemen exchanged cards, +which, with barely more than a glance, they poked in the other flaps of +their cases; then they took a new and more interested inspection of +each other. Both were now entirely oblivious to the girl, who, +however, was by no means oblivious to them. She found them, in this +new meeting, a most interesting study. + +"You gouged us on that land, young man," resumed Mr. Stevens with a wry +little smile. + +"Worth every cent you paid us for it, wasn't it?" demanded the other. + +"Y-e-s; but if you hadn't stepped into the deal at the last minute, we +could have secured it for five or six thousand dollars less money." + +"You used to go after these things yourself," explained Mr. Turner with +an easy laugh. "Now you send out people empowered only to look and not +to purchase." + +"But what I don't yet understand," protested Mr. Stevens, "is how you +came to be in the deal at all. When we sent out our men to inspect the +trees they belonged to a chap in Detroit. When we came to buy them +they belonged to you." + +"Certainly," agreed the younger man. "I was up that way on other +business, when I heard about your man looking over this valuable +acreage; so I just slipped down to Detroit and hunted up the owner and +bought it. Then I sold it to you. That's all." + +He smiled frankly and cheerfully upon Mr. Stevens, and the frown of +discomfiture which had slightly clouded the latter gentleman's brow, +faded away under the guilelessness of it all; so much so that he +thought to introduce his daughter. + +Miss Josephine having been brought into the conversation, Mr. Turner, +for the first time, bent his gaze fully upon her, giving her the same +swift scrutiny and appraisement that he had the father. He was +evidently highly satisfied with what he saw, for he kept looking at it +as much as he dared. He became aware after a moment or so that Mr. +Stevens was saying something to him. He never did get all of it, but +he got this much: + +"--so you'd be rather a good man to watch, wherever you go." + +"I hope so," agreed the other briskly. "If I want anything, I go +prepared to grab it the minute I find that it suits me." + +"Do you always get everything you want?" asked the young lady. + +"Always," he answered her very earnestly, and looked her in the eyes so +speculatively, albeit unconsciously so, that she found herself battling +with a tendency to grow pink. + +Her father nodded in approval. + +"That's the way to get things," he said. "What are you after now? +More lumber?" + +"Rest," declared Mr. Turner with vigorous emphasis. "I've worked like +a nailer ever since I turned out of high school. I had to make the +living for the family, and I sent my kid brother through college. He's +just been out a year and it's a wonder the way he takes hold. But do +you know that in all those times since I left school I never took a +lay-off until just this minute? It feels glorious already. It's fine +to look around this good stretch of green country and breathe this +fresh air and look at those hills over yonder, and to realize that I +don't have to think of business for two solid weeks. Just absolute +rest, for me! I don't intend to talk one syllable of shop while I'm +here. Hello! there's another clump of walnut trees. It's a pity +they're scattered so that it isn't worth while to buy them up." + +The girl laughed, a little silvery laugh which made any memory of grand +opera seem harsh and jangling. Both men turned to her in surprise. +Neither of them could see any cause for mirth in all the fields or sky. + +"I beg your pardon for being so silly," she said; "but I just thought +of something funny." + +"Tell it to us," urged Mr. Turner. "I've never taken the time I ought +to enjoy funny things, and I might as well begin right now." + +But she shook her head, and in some way he acquired an impression that +she was amused at him. His brows gathered a trifle. If the young lady +intended to make sport of him he would take her down a peg or two. He +would find her point of susceptibility to ridicule, and hammer upon it +until she cried enough. That was his way to make men respectful, and +it ought to work with women. + +When they let him out at Meadow Brook, Mr. Stevens was kind enough to +ask him to drop over to Hollis Creek. Mr. Turner, with impulsive +alacrity, promised that he would. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WHEREIN MR. TURNER PLUNGES INTO THE BUSINESS OF RESTING + +At Meadow Brook Sam Turner found W. W. Westlake, of the Westlake +Electric Company, a big, placid man with a mild gray eye and an +appearance of well-fed and kindly laziness; a man also who had the +record of having ruthlessly smashed more business competitors than any +two other pirates in his line. Westlake, unclasping his fat hands from +his comfortable rotundity, was glad to see young Turner, also glad to +introduce the new eligible to his daughter, a girl of twenty-two, +working might and main to reduce a threatened inheritance of +embonpoint. Mr. Turner was charmed to meet Miss Westlake, and even +more pleased to meet the gentleman who was with her, young Princeman, a +brisk paper manufacturer variously quoted at from one to two million. +He knew all about young Princeman; in fact, had him upon his mental +list as a man presently to meet and cultivate for a specific purpose, +and already Mr. Turner's busy mind offset the expenses of this trip +with an equal credit, much in the form of "By introduction to H. L. +Princeman, Jr. (Princeman and Son Paper Mills, AA 1), whatever it +costs." He liked young Princeman at sight, too, and, proceeding +directly to the matter uppermost in his thoughts, immediately asked him +how the new tariff had affected his business. + +"It's inconvenient," said Princeman with a shake of his head. "Of +course, in the end the consumers must pay, but they protest so much +about it that they disarrange the steady course of our operations." + +"It's queer that the ultimate consumer never will be quite reconciled +to his fate," laughed Mr. Turner; "but in this particular case, I think +I hold the solution. You'll be interested, I know. You see--" + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Turner," interrupted Miss Westlake gaily; "I +know you'll want to meet all the young folks, and you'll particularly +want to meet my very dearest friend. Miss Hastings, Mr. Turner." + +Mr. Turner had turned to find an extraordinarily thin young woman, with +extraordinarily piercing black eyes, at Miss Westlake's side. + +"Indeed, I do want to meet all the young people," he cordially +asserted, taking Miss Hastings' claw-like hand in his own and wondering +what to do with it. He could not clasp it and he could not shake it. +She relieved him of his dilemma, after a moment, by twining that arm +about the plump waist of her dearest friend. + +"Is this your first stay at Meadow Brook?" she asked by way of starting +conversation. She was very carefully vivacious, was Miss Hastings, and +had a bird-like habit, meant to be very fetching, of cocking her head +to one side as she spoke, and peering up to men--oh, away up--with the +beady expression of a pet canary. + +"My very first visit," confessed Mr. Turner, not yet realizing the +disgrace it was to be "new people" at Meadow Brook, where there was +always an aristocracy of the grandchildren of original Meadow Brookers. +"However, I hope it won't be the last time," he continued. + +"We shall all hope that, I am certain," Miss Westlake assured him, +smiling engagingly into the depths of his eyes. "It will be our fault +if you don't like it here;" and he might take such tentative promise as +he would from that and her smile. + +"Thank you," he said promptly enough. "I can see right now that I'm +going to make Meadow Brook my future summer home. It's such a restful +place, for one thing. I'm beginning to rest right now, and to put +business so far into the background that--" he suddenly stopped and +listened to a phrase which his trained ear had caught. + +"And that is the trouble with the whole paper business," Mr. Princeman +was saying to Mr. Westlake. "It is not the tariff, but the future +scarcity of wood-pulp material." + +"That's just what I was starting to explain to you," said Mr. Turner, +wheeling eagerly to Mr. Princeman, entirely unaware, in his intensity +of interest, of his utter rudeness to both groups. "My kid brother and +myself are working on a scheme which, if we are on the right track, +ought to bring about a revolution in the paper business. I can not +give you the exact details of it now, because we're waiting for letters +patent on it, but the fundamental point is this: that the wood-pulp +manufacturers within a few years will have to grow their raw material, +since wood is becoming so scarce and so high priced. Well, there is +any quantity of swamp land available, and we have experimented like mad +with reeds and rushes. We've found one particular variety which grows +very rapidly, has a strong, woody fiber, and makes the finest pulp in +the world. I turned the kid loose with the company's bank roll this +spring, and he secured options on two thousand acres of swamp land, +near to transportation and particularly adapted to this culture, and +dirt cheap because it is useless for any other purpose. As soon as the +patents are granted on our process we're going to organize a million +dollar stock company to take up more land and handle the business." + +"Come over here and sit down," invited Princeman, somewhat more than +courteously. + +"Wait a minute until I send for McComas. Here, boy, hunt Mr. McComas +and ask him to come out on the porch." + +The new guest was reaching for pencil and paper as they gathered their +chairs together. The two girls had already started hesitantly to +efface themselves. Half-way across the lawn they looked sadly toward +the porch again. That handsome young Mr. Turner, his back toward them, +was deep in formulated but thrilling facts, while three other heads, +one gray and one black and one auburn, were bent interestedly over the +envelope upon which he was figuring. + +Later on, as he was dressing for dinner, Mr. Turner decided that he +liked Meadow Brook very much. It was set upon the edge of a pleasant, +rolling valley, faced and backed by some rather high hills, upon the +sloping side of one of which the hotel was built, with broad verandas +looking out upon exquisitely kept flowers and shrubbery and upon the +shallow little brook which gave the place its name. A little more +water would have suited Sam better, but the management had made the +most of its opportunities, especially in the matter of arranging dozens +of pretty little lovers' lanes leading in all directions among the +trees and along the sides of the shimmering stream, and the whole +prospect was very good to look at, indeed. Taken in conjunction with +the fact that one had no business whatever on hand, it gave one a sense +of delightful freedom to look out on the green lawn and the gay +gardens, on the brook and the tennis and croquet courts, and on the +purple-hazed, wooded hills beyond; it was good to fill one's lungs with +country air and to realize for a little while what a delightful world +this is; to see young people wandering about out there by twos and by +threes, and to meet with so many other people of affairs enjoying +leisure similar to one's own. + +Of course, this wasn't a really fashionable place, being supported +entirely by men who had made their own money; but there was Princeman, +for instance, a fine chap and very keen; a well-set-up fellow, +black-haired and black-eyed, and of a quick, nervous disposition; one +of precisely the kind of energy which Turner liked to see. McComas, +too, with his deep red hair and his tendency to freckles, and his frank +smile with all the white teeth behind it, was a corking good fellow; +and alive. McComas was in the furniture line, a maker of cheap stuff +which was shipped in solid trains of carload lots from a factory that +covered several acres. The other men he noticed around the place +seemed to be of about the same stamp. He had never been anywhere that +the men averaged so well. + +As he went down-stairs, McComas introduced his wife, already gowned for +the evening. She was a handsome woman, of the sort who would wear a +different stunning gown every night for two weeks and then go on to the +next place. Well, she had a right to this extravagance. Besides it is +good for a man's business to have his wife dressed prosperously. A man +who is getting on in the world ought to have a handsome wife. If she +is the right kind, of Miss Stevens' type, say, she is a distinct asset. + +After dinner, Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings waylaid him on the porch. + +[Illustration: They waylaid him on the porch] + +"I suppose, of course, you are going to take part in the bowling +tournament to-night," suggested Miss Westlake with the engaging +directness allowable to family friendship. + +"I suppose so, although I didn't know there was one. Where is it to be +held?" + +"Oh, just down the other side of the brook, beyond the croquet grounds. +We have a tournament every week, and a prize cup for the best score in +the season. It's lots of fun. Do you bowl?" + +"Not very much," Mr. Turner confessed; "but if you'll just keep me +posted on all these various forms of recreation, you may count on my +taking a prominent share in them." + +"All right," agreed Miss Hastings, very vivaciously taking the +conversation away from Miss Westlake. "We'll constitute ourselves a +committee of two to lay out a program for you." + +"Fine," he responded, bending on the fragile Miss Hastings a smile so +pleasant that it made her instantly determine to find out something +about his family and commercial standing. "What time do we start on +our mad bowling career?" + +"They'll be drifting over in about a half-hour," Miss Westlake told +him, with a speculative sidelong glance at her dearest girl friend. +"Everybody starts out for a stroll in some other direction, as if +bowling was the least of their thoughts, but they all wind up at the +alleys. I'll show you." A slight young man of the white-trousered +faction, as distinguished from the dinner-coat crowd, passed them just +then. "Oh, Billy," called Miss Westlake, and introduced the slight +young man, who proved to be her brother, to Mr. Turner, at the same +time wreathing her arm about the waist of her dear companion. "Come +on, Vivian; let's go get our wraps," and the girls, leaving "Billy" and +Mr. Turner together, scurried away. + +The two young men looked at each other dubiously, though each had an +earnest desire to please. They groped for human understanding, and +suddenly that clammy, discouraged feeling spread its muffling wall +between them. Billy was the first to recover in part. + +"Charming weather, isn't it?" he observed with a polite smile. + +Mr. Turner opined that it was, the while delving into Mr. Westlake's +mental workshop and finding it completely devoid of tools, patterns or +lumber. + +"The girls are just going to take me over to bowl," Mr. Turner ventured +desperately after a while. "Do you bowl very much?" + +"Oh, I usually fill in," stated Mr. Westlake; "but really, I'm a very +poor hand at it. I seem to be a poor hand at most everything," and he +laughed with engaging candor, as if somehow this were creditable. + +The conversation thereupon lagged for a moment or two, while Mr. Turner +blankly asked himself: "What is thunder does a man talk about when he +has nothing to say and nobody to say it to?" Presently he solved the +problem. + +"It must be beautiful out here in the autumn," he observed. + +"Yes, it is indeed," returned Mr. Westlake with alacrity. "The leaves +turn all sorts of colors." + +Once more conversation lagged, while Billy feebly wondered how any +person could possibly be so dull as this chap. He made another attempt. + +"Beastly place, though, when it rains," he observed. + +"Yes, I should imagine so," agreed Mr. Turner. Great Scott! The voice +of McComas saved him from utter imbecility. + +"You'll excuse Mr. Turner a moment, won't you, Billy?" begged McComas +pleasantly. "I want to introduce him to a couple of friends of mine." + +Billy Westlake bowed his forgiveness of Mr. McComas with fully as much +relief as Sam Turner had felt. Over in the same corner of the porch +where he had sat in the afternoon with McComas and Princeman and the +elder Westlake, Sam found awaiting them Mr. Cuthbert, of the American +Papier-Mache Company, an almost viciously ugly man with a twisted nose +and a crooked mouth, who controlled practically all the worth-while +papier-mache business of the United States, and Mr. Blackrock, an +elderly man with a young toupee and particularly gaunt cheek-bones, who +was a corporation lawyer of considerable note. Both gentlemen greeted +Mr. Turner as one toward whom they were already highly predisposed, and +Mr. Princeman and Mr. Westlake also shook hands most cordially, as if +Sam had been gone for a day or two. Mr. McComas placed a chair for him. + +"We just happened to mention your marsh pulp idea, and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Blackrock were at once very highly interested," observed McComas as +they sat dawn. "Mr. Blackrock suggests that he don't see why you need +wait for the issuance of the letters patent, at least to discuss the +preliminary steps in the forming of your company." + +"Why, no, Mr. Turner," said Mr. Blackrock, suavely and smoothly; "it is +not a company anyhow, as I take it, which will depend so much upon +letters patent as upon extensive exploitation." + +"Yes, that's true enough," agreed Sam with a smile. "The letters +patent, however, should give my kid brother and myself, without much +capital, controlling interest in the stock." + +Upon this frank but natural statement the others laughed quite +pleasantly. + +"That seems a plausible enough reason," admitted Mr. Westlake, folding +his fat hands across his equator and leaning back in his chair with a +placidity which seemed far removed from any thought of gain. "How did +you propose to organize your company?" + +"Well," said Sam, crossing one leg comfortably over the other, "I +expect to issue a half million participating preferred stock, at five +per cent., and a half-million common, one share of common as bonus with +each two shares of preferred; the voting power, of course, vested in +the common." + +A silence followed that, and then Mr. Cuthbert, with a diagonal yawing +of his mouth which seemed to give his words a special dryness, observed: + +"And I presume you intend to take up the balance of the common stock?" + +"Just about," returned Mr. Turner cheerfully, addressing Cuthbert +directly. The papier-mache king was another man whom he had inscribed, +some time since, upon his mental list. "My kid brother and myself will +take two hundred and fifty thousand of the common stock for our patents +and processes, and for our services as promoters and organizers, and +will purchase enough of the preferred to give us voting power; say five +thousand dollars worth." + +Mr. Cuthbert shook his head. + +"Very stringent terms," he observed. "I doubt if you will interest +your capital on that basis." + +"All right," said Sam, clasping his knee in his hands and rocking +gently. "If we can't organize on that basis we won't organize at all. +We're in no hurry. My kid brother's handling it just now, anyhow. I'm +on a vacation, the first I ever had, and not keen upon business, by any +means. In the meantime, let me show you some figures." + +Five minutes later, Billy Westlake and his sister and Miss Hastings +drew up to the edge of the group. Young Westlake stood diffidently for +two or three minutes beside Mr. Turner's chair, and then he put his +hand on that summer idler's shoulder. + +"Oh, good evening, Mr.--Mr.--Mr.--" Sam stammered while he tried to +find the name. + +"Westlake," interposed Billy's father; and then, a trifle impatiently, +"What do you want, Billy?" + +"Mr. Turner was to go over with us to the bowling shed, dad." + +"That's so," admitted Mr. Turner, glancing over to the porch rail where +the girls stood expectantly in their fluffy white dresses, and nodding +pleasantly at them, but not yet rising. He was in the midst of an +important statement. + +"Just you run on with the girls, Billy," ordered Mr. Westlake. "Mr. +Turner will be over in a few minutes." + +The others of the circle bent their eyes gravely upon Billy and the +girls as they turned away, and waited for Mr. Turner to resume. + +At a quarter past ten, as Mr. Turner and Mr. Princeman walked slowly +along the porch to turn into the parlors for a few minutes of music, of +which Sam was very fond, a crowd of young people came trooping up the +steps. Among them were Billy Westlake and his sister, another young +gentleman and Miss Hastings. + +"By George, that bowling tournament!" exclaimed Mr. Turner. "I forgot +all about it." + +He was about to make his apologies, but Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings +passed right on, with stern, set countenances and their heads in air. +Apparently they did not see Mr. Turner at all. He gazed after them in +consternation; suddenly there popped into his mind the vision of a +slender girl in green, with mischievous brown eyes--and he felt +strangely comforted. Before retiring he wired his brother to send some +samples of the marsh pulp, and the paper made from it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MR. TURNER APPLIES BUSINESS PROMPTNESS TO A MATTER OF DELICACY + +Morning at Meadow Brook was even more delightful than evening. The +time Mr. Turner had chosen for his outing was early September, and +already there was a crispness in the air which was quite invigorating. +Clad in flannels and with a brand new tennis racket under his arm, he +went into the reading-room immediately after breakfast, bought a paper +of the night before and glanced hastily over the news of the day, +paying more particular attention to the market page. Prices of things +had a peculiar fascination for him. He noticed that cereals had gone +down, that there was another flurry in copper stock, and that hardwood +had gone up, and ranging down the list his eye caught a quotation for +walnut. It had made a sharp advance of ten dollars a thousand feet. + +Out of the window, as he looked up, he saw Miss Westlake and Miss +Hastings crossing the lawn, and he suddenly realized that he was here +to wear himself out with rest, so he hurried in the direction the girls +had taken; but when he arrived at the tennis court he found a set +already in progress. Both Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings barely +nodded at Mr. Turner, and went right on displaying grace and dexterity +to a quite unusual degree. Decidedly Mr. Turner was being "cut," and +he wondered why. Presently he strode down to the road and looked up +over the hill in the direction he knew Hollis Creek Inn to be. He was +still pondering the probable distance when Mr. Westlake and Billy and +young Princeman came up the brook path. + +"Just the chap I wanted to see, Sam," said Mr. Westlake heartily. "I'm +trying to get up a pin-hook fishing contest, for three-inch sunfish." + +"Happy thought," returned Sam, laughing. "Count me in." + +"It's the governor's own idea, too," said Billy with vast enthusiasm. +"Bully sport, it ought to be. Only trouble is, Princeman has some +mysterious errand or other, and can't join us." + +"No; the fact is, the Stevenses were due at Hollis Creek yesterday," +confessed Mr. Princeman in cold return to the prying Billy, "and I +think I'll stroll over and see if they've arrived." + +Sam Turner surveyed Princeman with a new interest. Danger lurked in +Princeman's black eyes, fascination dwelt in his black hair, +attractiveness was in every line of his athletic figure. It was upon +the tip of Sam's tongue to say that he would join Princeman in his +walk, but he repressed that instinct immediately. + +"Quite a long ways over there by the road, isn't it?" he questioned. + +"Yes," admitted Princeman unsuspectingly, "it winds a good bit; but +there is a path across the hills which is not only shorter but far more +pleasant." + +Sam turned to Mr. Westlake. + +"It would be a shame not to let Princeman in on that pin-hook match," +he suggested. "Why not put it off until to-morrow morning. I have an +idea that I can beat Princeman at the game." + +There was more or less of sudden challenge in his tone, and Princeman, +keen as Sam himself, took it in that way. + +"Fine!" he invited. "Any time you want to enter into a contest with me +you just mention it." + +"I'll let you know in some way or other, even if I don't make any +direct announcement," laughed Sam, and Princeman walked away with Mr. +Westlake, very much to Billy's consternation. He was alone with this +dull Turner person once more. What should they talk about? Sam solved +that problem for him at once. "What's the swiftest conveyance these +people keep?" he asked briskly. + +"Oh, you can get most anything you like," said Billy. "Saddle-horses +and carriages of all sorts; and last year they put in a couple of +automobiles, though scarcely any one uses them." There was a certain +amount of careless contempt in Billy's tone as he mentioned the hired +autos. Evidently they were not considered to be as good form as other +modes of conveyance. + +"Where's the garage?" asked Sam. + +"Right around back of the hotel. Just follow that drive." + +"Thanks," said the other crisply. "I'll see you this evening," and he +stalked away leaving Billy gasping for breath at the suddenness of Sam. +After all, though, he was glad to be rid of Mr. Turner. He knew the +Stevenses himself, and it had slowly dawned on him that by having his +own horse saddled he could beat Princeman over there. + +It took Sam just about one minute to negotiate for an automobile, a +neat little affair, shiny and new, and before they were half-way to +Hollis Creek, his innate democracy led him into conversation with the +driver, an alert young man of the near-by clay. + +"Not very good soil in this neighborhood," Sam observed. "I notice +there is a heavy outcropping of stone. What are the principal crops?" + +"Summer resorters," replied the driver briefly. + +"And do you mean to tell me that all these farm-houses call themselves +summer resorts?" inquired Sam. + +"No, only those that have running water. The others just keep +boarders." + +"I see," said Sam, laughing. + +A moment later they passed over a beautifully clear stream which ran +down a narrow pocket valley between two high hills, swept under a +rickety wooden culvert, and raced on across a marshy meadow, sparkling +invitingly here and there in the sunlight. + +"Here's running water without a summer resort," observed the passenger, +still smiling. + +"It's too much shut in," replied the chauffeur as one who had voiced a +final and insurmountable objection. All the "summer resorts" in this +neighborhood were of one pattern, and no one would so much as dream of +varying from the first successful model. + +Sam scarcely heard. He was looking back toward the trough of those two +picturesquely wooded hills, and for the rest of the drive he asked but +few questions. + +At Hollis Creek, where he found a much more imposing hotel than the one +at Meadow Brook, he discovered Miss Stevens, clad in simple white from +canvas shoes to knotted cravat, in a summer-house on the lawn, chatting +gaily with a young man who was almost fat. Sam had seen other girls +since he had entered the grounds, but he could not make out their +features; this one he had recognized from afar, and as they approached +the summer-house he opened the door of the machine and jumped out +before it had come properly to a stop. + +"Good morning, Miss Stevens," he said with a cheerful self-confidence +which was beautiful to behold. "I have come over to take you a little +spin, if you'll go." + +Miss Stevens gazed at the caller quizzically, and laughed outright. + +"This is so sudden," she murmured. + +The caller himself grinned. + +"Does seem so, if you stop to think of it," he admitted. "Rather like +dropping out of the clouds. But the auto is here, and I can testify +that it's a smooth-running machine. Will you go?" + +She turned that same quizzical smile upon the young man who was almost +fat, and introduced him, curly hair and all, to Mr. Turner as Mr. +Hollis, who, it afterward transpired, was the heir to Hollis Creek Inn. + +"I had just promised to play tennis with Mr. Hollis," Miss Stevens +stated after the introduction had been properly acknowledged, "but I +know he won't mind putting it off this time," and she handed him her +tennis bat. + +"Certainly not," said young Hollis with forcedly smiling politeness. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hollis," said Sam promptly. "Just jump right in, Miss +Stevens." + +"How long shall we be gone?" she asked as she settled herself in the +tonneau. + +"Oh, whatever you say. A couple of hours, I presume." + +"All right, then," she said to young Hollis; "we'll have our game in +the afternoon." + +"With pleasure," replied the other graciously, but he did not look it. + +"Where shall we go?" asked Sam as the driver looked back inquiringly. +"You know the country about here, I suppose." + +"I ought to," she laughed. "Father's been ending the summer here ever +since I was a little girl. You might take us around Bald Hill," she +suggested to the chauffeur. "It is a very pretty drive," she +explained, turning to Sam as the machine wheeled, and at the same time +waving her hand gaily to the disconsolate Hollis, who was "hard hit" +with a different girl every season. "It's just about a two-hour trip. +What a fine morning to be out!" and she settled back comfortably as the +machine gathered speed. "I do love a machine, but father is rather +backward about them. He will consent to ride in them under necessity, +but he won't buy one. Every time he sees a handsome pair of horses, +however, he has to have them." + +"I admire a good horse myself," returned Sam. + +"Do you ride?" she asked him. + +"Oh, I have suffered a few times on horseback," he confessed; "but you +ought to see my kid brother ride. He looks as if he were part of the +horse. He's a handsome brat." + +"Except for calling him names, which is a purely masculine way of +showing affection, you speak of him almost as if you were his mother," +she observed. + +"Well, I am, almost," replied Sam, studying the matter gravely. "I +have been his mother, and his father, and his brother, too, for a great +many years; and I will say that he's a credit to his family." + +"Meaning just you?" she ventured. + +"Yes, we're all we have; just yet, at least." This quite soberly. + +"He must talk of getting married," she guessed, with a quick intuition +that when this happened it would be a blow to Sam. + +"Oh, no," he immediately corrected her. "He isn't quite old enough to +think of it seriously as yet. I expect to be married long before he +is." + +Miss Stevens felt a rigid aloofness creeping over her, and, having a +very wholesome sense of humor, smiled as she recognized the feeling in +herself. + +"I should think you'd spend your vacation where the girl is," she +observed. "Men usually do, don't they?" + +He laughed gaily. + +"I surely would if I knew the girl," he asserted. + +"That's a refreshing suggestion," she said, echoing his laugh, though +from a different impulse. "I presume, then, that you entertain +thoughts of matrimony merely because you think you are quite old +enough." + +"No, it isn't just that," he returned, still thoughtfully. "Somehow or +other I feel that way about it; that's all. I have never had time to +think of it before, but this past year I have had a sort of sense of +lonesomeness; and I guess that must be it." + +In spite of herself Miss Josephine giggled and repressed it, and +giggled again and repressed it, and giggled again, and then she let +herself go and laughed as heartily as she pleased. She had heard men +say before, but always with more or less of a languishing air, +inevitably ridiculous in a man, that they thought it about time they +were getting married; but she could not remember anything to compare +with Sam Turner's naivete in the statement. + +He paid no attention to the laughter, for he had suddenly leaned +forward to the chauffeur. + +"There is another clump of walnut trees," he said, eagerly pointing +them out. "Are there many of them in this locality?" + +"A good many scattered here and there," replied the boy; "but old man +Gifford has a twenty-acre grove down in the bottoms that's mostly all +walnut trees, and I heard him say just the other day that walnut +lumber's got so high he had a notion to clear his land." + +"Where do you suppose we could find old man Gifford?" inquired Mr. +Turner. + +"Oh, about six miles off to the right, at the next turning." + +"Suppose we whizz right down there," said Sam promptly, and he turned +to Miss Stevens with enthusiasm shining in his eyes. "It does seem as +if everything happens lucky for me," he observed. "I haven't any +particular liking for the lumber business, but fate keeps handing +lumber to me all the time; just fairly forcing it on me." + +"Do you think fate is as much responsible for that as yourself?" she +questioned, smiling as they passed at a good clip the turn which was to +have taken them over the pretty Bald Hill drive. Sam had not even +thought to apologize for the abrupt change in their program, because +she could certainly see the opportunity which had offered itself, and +how imperative it was to embrace it. The thing needed no explanation. + +"I don't know," he replied to her query, after pausing to consider it a +moment. "I certainly don't go out of my road to hunt up these things." + +"No-o-o-o," she admitted. "But fate hasn't thrust this particular +opportunity upon me, although I'm right with you at the time. It never +would have occurred to me to ask about those walnut trees." + +"It would have occurred to your father," he retorted quickly. + +"Yes, it might have occurred to father, but I think that under the +circumstances he would have waited until to-morrow to see about it." + +"I suppose I might be that way when I arrive at his age," Sam commented +philosophically, "but just now I can't afford it. His 'seeing about it +to-morrow' cost him between five and six thousand dollars the last time +I had anything to do with him." + +She laughed. She was enjoying Sam's company very much. Even if a bit +startling, he was at least refreshing after the type of young men she +was in the habit of meeting. + +"He was talking about that last night," she said. "I think father +rather stands in both admiration and awe of you." + +"I'm glad to hear that," he returned quite seriously. "It's a good +attitude in which to have the man with whom you expect to do business." + +"I think I shall have to tell him that," she observed, highly amused. +"He will enjoy it, and it may put him on his guard." + +"I don't mind," he concluded after due reflection. "It won't hurt a +particle. If anything, if he likes me so far, that will only increase +it. I like your father. In fact I like his whole family." + +"Thank you," she said demurely, wondering if there was no end to his +bluntness, and wondering, too, whether it were not about time that she +should find it wearisome. On closer analysis, however, she decided +that the time was not yet come. "But you have not met all of them," +she reminded him. "There are mother and a younger sister and an older +brother." + +"Don't matter if there were six more, I like all of them," Sam promptly +informed her. Then, "Stop a minute," he suddenly directed the +chauffeur. + +That functionary abruptly brought his machine to a halt just a little +way past a tree glowing with bright green leaves and red berries. + +"I don't know what sort of a tree that is," said Sam with boyish +enthusiasm; "but see how pretty it is. Except for the shape of the +leaves the effect is as beautiful as holly. Wouldn't you like a branch +or two, Miss Stevens?" + +"I certainly should," she heartily agreed. "I don't know how you +discovered that I have a mad passion for decorative weeds and things." + +"Have you?" he inquired eagerly. "So have I. If I had time I'd be +rather ashamed of it." + +He had scrambled out of the car and now ran back to the tree, where, +perching himself upon the second top rail of the fence he drew down a +limb, and with his knife began to snip off branches here and there. +The girl noticed that he selected the branches with discrimination, +turning each one over so that he could look at the broad side of it +before clipping, rejecting many and studying each one after he had +taken it in his hand. He was some time in finding the last one, a long +straggling branch which had most of its leaves and berries at the tip, +and she noticed that as he came back to the auto he was arranging them +deftly and with a critical eye. When he handed them in to her they +formed a carefully arranged and graceful composition. It was a new and +an unexpected side of him, and it softened considerably the amused +regard in which she had been holding him. + +"They are beautifully arranged," she commented, as he stopped for a +moment to brush the dust from his shoes in the tall grass by the +roadside. + +"Do you think so?" he delightedly inquired. "You ought to see my kid +brother make up bouquets of goldenrod and such things. He seems to +have a natural artistic gift." + +She bent on his averted head a wondering glance, and she reflected that +often this "hustler" must be misunderstood. + +"You have aroused in me quite a curiosity to meet this paragon of a +brother," she remarked. "He must be well-nigh perfection." + +"He is," replied Sam instantly, turning to her very earnest eyes. "He +hasn't a flaw in him any place." + +She smiled musingly as she surveyed the group of branches she held in +her hand. + +"It is a pity these leaves will wither in so short a time," she said. + +"Yes," he admitted; "but even if we have to throw them away before we +get back to the hotel, their beauty will give us pleasure for an hour; +and the tree won't miss them. See, it seems as perfect as ever." + +"It wouldn't if everybody took the same liberties with it that you +did," she remarked, glancing back at the tree. + +Sam had climbed in the car and had slammed the door shut, but any reply +he might have made was prevented by a hail from the woods above them at +the other side of the road, and a man came scrambling down from the +hillside path. + +"Why, it's Mr. Princeman!" exclaimed the girl in pleased surprise. +"Think of finding you wandering about, all alone in the woods here." + +"I wasn't wandering about," he protested as he came up to the machine +and shook hands with Miss Josephine. "I was headed directly for Hollis +Creek Inn. Your brother wrote me that you were expected to arrive +there yesterday evening, and I was dropping over to call on you right +away this morning. I see, however, that I was not quite prompt enough. +You're selfish, Mr. Turner. You knew I was going over to Hollis Creek, +and you might have invited me to ride in your machine." + +"You might have invited me to walk with you," retorted Sam. + +"But you knew that I was coming and I didn't know that you even knew--" +he paused abruptly and fixed a contemplative eye upon young Mr. Turner, +who was now surveying the scenery and Mr. Princeman in calm enjoyment. + +The arrival at this moment of a cloud of dust out of which evolved a +lone horseman, and that horseman Billy Westlake, added a new angle to +the situation, and for one fleeting moment the three men eyed one +another in mutual sheepish guilt. + +"Rather good sport, I call it, Miss Stevens," declared Billy, aware of +a sudden increase in his estimation of Mr. Turner, and letting the cat +completely out of the bag. "Each of us was trying to steal a march on +the rest, but Mr. Turner used the most businesslike method, and of +course he won the race." + +"I'm flattered, I'm sure," said Miss Josephine demurely. "I really +feel that I ought to go right back to the house and be the belle of the +ball; but it's impossible for an hour or so in this case," and she +turned to her escort with the smile of mischief which she had worn the +first time he saw her. "You see, we are out on a little business trip, +Mr. Turner and myself. We're going to buy a walnut grove." + +Mr. Turner turned upon her a glance which was half a frown. + +"I promised to get you back in two hours, and I'll do it," he stated, +"but we mustn't linger much by the wayside." + +"With which hint we shall wend our Hollis Creek-ward way," laughed +Princeman, exchanging a glance of amusement with Miss Stevens. "I +think we shall visit with your father until you come back." + +"Please do," she urged. "He will be as glad to see you both as I am," +with which information she settled herself back in her seat with a +little air of the interview being over, and the chauffeur, with proper +intuition, started the machine, while Mr. Princeman and Billy looked +after them glumly. + +"Queer chap, isn't he?" commented Billy. + +"Queer? Well, hardly that," returned Princeman thoughtfully. "There's +one thing certain; he's enterprising and vigorous enough to command +respect, in business or--anything else." + +At about that very moment Mr. Turner was impressing upon his companion +a very important bit of ethics. + +"You shouldn't have violated my confidence," he told her severely. + +"How was that?" she asked in surprise, and with a trifle of indignation +as well. + +"You told them that we were going to buy a walnut grove. You ought +never to let slip anything you happen to know of any man's business +plans." + +"Oh!" she said blankly. + +Having voiced his straightforward objection, and delivered his simple +but direct lesson, Mr. Turner turned as decisively to other matters. + +"Son," he asked, leaning over toward the chauffeur, "are there any +speed limit laws on these roads?" + +"None that I know of," replied the boy. + +"Then cut her loose. Do you object to fast driving, Miss Stevens?" + +"Not at all," she told him, either much chastened by the late rebuke or +much amused by it. She could scarcely tell which, as yet. "I don't +particularly long for a broken neck, but I never can feel that my time +has come." + +"It hasn't," returned Sam. "Let's see your palm," and taking her hand +he held it up before him. It was a small hand that he saw, and most +gracefully formed, but a strong one, too, and Sam Turner had an +extremely quick and critical eye for both strength and beauty. "You +are going to live to be a gray-haired grandmother," he announced after +an inspection of her pink palm, "and live happily all your life." + +It was noteworthy that no matter what his impulse may have been he did +not hold her hand overly long, nor subject it to undue warmth of +pressure, but restored it gently to her lap. She was remarking upon +this herself as she took that same hand and passed its tapering fingers +deftly among the twigs of the tree-bouquet, arranging a leaf here and a +berry there. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A LITTLE VACATION PASTIME IN WHICH GREEK MEETS GREEK + +Old man Gifford was not at home in his squat, low-roofed farm-house, +but a woman shaped like a pyramid of diminishing pumpkins directed them +down through the grove to the corn patch. It was necessary to lift +strenuously upon the sagging end of a squeaky old gate, and scrape it +across gulleys, to get the automobile into the narrow, deeply-rutted +road, and with a mind fearful of tires the chauffeur wheeled down +through the grove quite slowly, a slowness for which Sam was duly +grateful, since it allowed him to take a careful appraisement of the +walnut trees, interspersed with occasional oaks, which bordered both +sides of their path. They were tall, thick, straight-trunked trees, +from amongst which the underbrush had been carefully cut away. It was +a joy to his now vandal soul, this grove, and already he could see +those majestic trunks, after having been sawed with as little wasteful +chopping as possible, toppling in endless billowy furrows. + +Old man Gifford came inquiringly up between the long rows of corn to +the far edge of the grove. He was bent and weazened, and more gnarled +than any of his trees, and even his fingers seemed to have the knotty, +angular effect of twigs. A fringe of gray beard surrounded his +clean-shaven face, which was criss-crossed with innumerable little +furrows that the wind and rain had worn in it; but a pair of shrewd old +eyes twinkled from under his bushy eyebrows. + +"Morning, 'Ennery," he said, addressing the chauffeur with a squeaky +little voice in which, though after forty years of residence in +America, there was still a strong trace of British accent; and then his +calculating gaze rested calmly in turns upon the other occupants of the +machine. + +"Good morning, Mr. Gifford," returned the chauffeur. "Fine day, isn't +it?" + +"Good corn-ripenin' weather," agreed the old man, squinting at the sky +from force of habit, and then, being satisfied that there was no +threatening cloud in all the visible blue expanse, he returned to a +calm consideration of the strangers, waiting patiently for Mr. Turner +to introduce himself. + +"I understand, Mr. Gifford, that you are open to an offer for your +walnut trees," began Mr. Turner, looking at his watch. + +"Well, I might be," admitted the old man cautiously. + +"I see," returned Sam; "that is, you might be interested if the price +were right. Let's get right down to brass tacks. How much do you +want?" + +"Standin' or cut?" + +"Well, say standing?" + +"How much do you offer?" + +Miss Stevens' gaze roved from the one to the other and found enjoyment +in the fact that here Greek had met Greek. + +Sam's reply was prompt and to the point. He named a price. + +"No," said the old man instantly. "I been a-holdin' out for five +dollars a thousand more than that." + +Things were progressing. A basis for haggling had been established. +Sam Turner, however, had the advantage. He knew the sharp advance in +walnut announced that morning. Old man Gifford would not be aware of +it until the rural free delivery brought his evening paper, of the +night before, some time that afternoon. In view of the recent advance, +even at Mr. Gifford's price there was a handsome profit in the +transaction. + +"The reason you've had to hold out for your rate until right now was +that nobody would pay it," said Sam confidently. "Now I'm here to talk +spot cash. I'll give you, say, a thousand dollars down, and the +balance immediately upon measurement as the logs are loaded upon the +cars." + +The old man nodded in approval. + +"The terms is all right," he said. + +"How much will you take F. O. B. Restview?" + +"Well, cuttin' and trimmin' and haulin' ain't much in my line," +returned the old man, again cautious; "but after all, I reckon that +there'd be less damage to my property if I looked after it myself. Of +course, I'd have to have a profit for handlin' it. I'd feel like +holdin' out for--for--" and after some hesitation he again named a +figure. + +"You've made that same proposition to others," charged Sam shrewdly, +"and you couldn't get the price." Upon the heels of this he made his +own offer. + +The old man shook his head and turned as if to start back to the corn +field. + +"No, I can get better than that," he declared, shaking his head. + +"Come back here and let's talk turkey," protested Sam compellingly. +"You name the very lowest price you'll take, delivered on board the +cars at Restview." + +The old man reached down, pulled up a blade of grass, chewed it +carefully, spit it out, and named his very, very lowest price; then he +added: "What's the most you'll give?" + +Miss Stevens leaned forward intently. + +Sam very promptly named a figure five dollars lower. + +"I'll split the difference with you," offered the old man. + +"It's a bargain!" said Sam, and reaching into the inside pocket of his +tennis coat, he brought out some queer furniture for that sort of +garment--a small fountain pen and an extremely small card-case, from +the latter of which he drew four folded blank checks. + +He reached over and borrowed the chauffeur's enameled cap, dusted it +carefully with his handkerchief, laid a check upon it and held his +fountain pen poised. "What are your initials, please, Mr. Gifford?" + +"Wait a minute," said the old man hastily. "Don't make out that check +just yet. I don't do any business or sign any contracts till I talk +with Hepseba." + +"All right. Climb right in with Henry there," directed Sam, seizing +upon the chauffeur's name. "We'll drive straight up to see her." + +"I'll walk," firmly declared Mr. Gifford. "I never have rode in one of +them things, and I'm too old to begin." + +"Very well," said Sam cheerfully, jumping out of the machine with great +promptness. "I'll walk with you. Back to the house, Henry," and he +started anxiously to trudge up the road with Mr. Gifford, leaving Henry +to manoeuver painfully in the narrow space. After a few steps, +however, a sudden thought made him turn back. "Maybe you'd rather walk +up, too," he suggested to Miss Stevens. + +"No, I think I'll ride," she said coldly. + +He opened the door in extreme haste. + +"Do come on and walk," he pleaded. "Don't hold it against me because I +just don't seem to be able to think of more than one thing at a time; +but I was so wrapped up in this deal that-- Really," and he sank his +voice confidentially, "I have a tremendous bargain here, and I'll be +nervous about it until I have it clenched. I'll tell you why as we go +home." + +He held out his hand as a matter of course to help her down. The white +of his eyes was remarkably clear, the irises were remarkably blue, the +pupils remarkably deep. Suddenly her face cleared and she laughed. + +"It was silly of me to be snippy, wasn't it?" she confessed, as she +took his hand and stepped lightly to the ground. It had just recurred +to her that when he knew Princeman was walking over to see her he had +said nothing, but had engaged an automobile. + +Old man Gifford had nothing much to say when they caught up with him. +Mr. Turner tried him with remarks about the weather, and received full +information, but when he attempted to discuss the details of the walnut +purchase, he received but mere grunts in reply, except finally this: + +"There's no use, young man. I won't talk about them trees till I get +Hepseba's opinion." + +At the house Hepseba waddled out on the little stoop in response to old +man Gifford's call, and stood regarding the strangers stonily through +her narrow little slits of eyes. + +"This gentleman, Hepseba," said old man Gifford, "wants to buy my +walnut trees. What do you think of him?" + +In response to that leading question, Hepseba studied Sam Turner from +head to foot with the sort of scrutiny under which one slightly reddens. + +[Illustration: Hepseba studied him from head to foot] + +"I like him," finally announced Hepseba, in a surprisingly liquid and +feminine voice. "I like both of them," an unexpected turn which +brought a flush to the face of Miss Stevens. + +"All right, young man," said old man Gifford briskly. "Now, then, you +come in the front room and write your contract, and I'll take your +check." + +All alacrity and open cordiality now, he led the way into the queer-old +front room, musty with the solemnity of many dim Sundays. + +"Just set down here in this easy chair, Mrs.-- What did you say your +name is?" Mr. Gifford inquired, turning to Sam. + +"Turner; Sam J. Turner," returned that gentleman, grinning. "But this +is Miss Stevens." + +"No offense meant or taken, I hope," hastily said the old man by way of +apology; "but I do say that Mr. Turner would be lucky if he had such a +pretty wife." + +"You have both good taste and good judgment, Mr. Gifford," commented +Sam as airily as he could; then he looked across at Miss Stevens and +laughed aloud, so openly and so ingenuously that, so far from the +laughter giving offense, it seemed, strangely enough, to put Miss +Josephine at her ease, though she still blushed furiously. There was +nothing in that laugh nor in his look but frank, boyish enjoyment of +the joke. + +There ensued a crisp and decisive conversation between Mr. Gifford and +Mr. Turner about the details of their contract, and 'Ennery was +presently called in to append to it his painfully precise signature in +vertical writing, Miss Stevens adding hers in a pretty round hand. +Then Hepseba, to bind the bargain, brought in hot apple pie fresh from +the oven, and they became quite a little family party indeed, and very +friendly, 'Ennery sitting in the parlor with them and eating his pie +with a fork. + +"I know what Hepseba thinks," said old man Gifford, as he held the door +of the car open for them. "She thinks you're a mighty keen young man +that has to be watched in the beginning of a bargain, because you'll +give as little as you can; but that after the bargain's made you don't +need any more watching. But Lord love you, I have to be watched in a +bargain myself. I take everything I can." + +As he finished saying this he was closing the door of the car, but +Hepseba called to them to wait, and came puffing out of the house with +a little bundle wrapped in a newspaper. + +"I brought this out for your wife," she said to Mr. Turner, and handed +it to Miss Josephine. "It's some geranium slips. Everybody says I got +the very finest geraniums in the bottoms here." + +"Goodness, Hepseba," exclaimed old man Gifford, highly delighted; "that +ain't his wife. That's Miss Stevens. I made the same mistake," and he +hawhawed in keen enjoyment. + +Hepseba was so evidently overcome with mortification, however, and her +huge round face turned so painfully red, that Miss Stevens lost +entirely any embarrassment she might otherwise have felt. + +"It doesn't matter at all, I assure you, Mrs. Gifford," she said with +charming eagerness to set Hepseba at ease. "I am very fond of +geraniums, and I shall plant these slips and take good care of them. I +thank you very, very much for them." + +As the machine rolled away Hepseba turned to old man Gifford: + +"I like both of them!" she stated most decisively. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER AGREES THAT SAM TURNER IS ALL BUSINESS + +"And now," announced Sam in calm triumph as they neared Hollis Creek +Inn, "I'll finish up this deal right away. There is no use in my +holding for a further rise at this time, and I'll just sell these trees +to your father." + +"To father!" she gasped, and then, as it dawned upon her that she had +been out all morning to help Sam Turner buy up trees to sell to her own +father at a profit, she burst forth into shrieks of laughter. + +"What's the joke?" Sam asked, regarding her in amazement, and then, +more or less dimly, he perceived. "Still," he said, relapsing into +serious consideration of the affair, "your father will be in luck to +buy those trees at all, even at the ten dollars a thousand profit he'll +have to pay me. There is not less than a hundred thousand feet of +walnut in that grove. + +"Mercy!" she said. "Why, that will make you a thousand dollars for +this morning's drive; and the opportunity was entirely accidental, one +which would not have occurred if you hadn't come over to see me in this +machine. I think I ought to have a commission." + +"You ought to be fined," Sam retorted. "You had me scared stiff at one +time." + +"How was that?" she demanded. + +"Why, of course you didn't think, but when you told the boys that I was +going out to buy a walnut grove, they were right on their way to see +your father. It would have been very natural for one of them to +mention our errand. Your father might have immediately inquired where +there was walnut to be found, and have telephoned to old man Gifford +before I could reach him." + +"You needn't have worried!" stated Miss Josephine in a tone so +indignant that Sam turned to her in astonishment. "My father would not +have done anything so despicable as that, I am quite sure!" + +"He wouldn't!" exclaimed Sam. "I'll bet he would. Why, how do you +suppose your father became rich in the lumber trade if it wasn't +through snapping up bargains every time he found one?" + +"I have no doubt that my father has been and is a very alert business +man," retorted Miss Josephine most icily; "but after he knew that you +had started out actually to purchase a tract of lumber, he would +certainly consider that you had established a prior claim upon the +property." + +"Your father's name is Theophilus Stevens, isn't it?" + +"Yes." + +"Humph!" said Sam, but he did not explain that exclamation, nor was he +asked to explain. Miss Stevens had been deeply wounded by the assault +upon her father's business morality, and she desired to hear no further +elaboration of the insult. + +She was glad that they were drawing up now to the porch, glad this +ride, with its many disagreeable features, was over, although she +carefully gathered up her bright-berried branches, which were not half +so much withered as she had expected them to be, and held her geranium +slips cautiously as she alighted. + +Her father came out to the edge of the porch to meet them. He paid no +attention to his daughter. + +"Well, Sam Turner," said Mr. Stevens, stroking his aggressive beard, "I +hear you got it, confound you! What do you want for your lumber +contract?" + +"Just the advance of this morning's quotations," replied Sam. +"Princeman tell you I was after it?" + +"No, not at first," said Stevens. "I received a telegram about that +grove just an hour ago, from my partner. Princeman was with me when +the telegram came, and he told me then that you had just gone out on +the trail. I did my best to get Gifford by 'phone before you could +reach him." + +"Father!" exclaimed Miss Josephine. + +"What's the matter, Jo?" + +"You say you actually tried to--to get in ahead of Mr. Turner in buying +this lumber, knowing that he was going down there purposely for it?" + +"Why, certainly," admitted her father. + +"But did you know that I was with Mr. Turner?" + +"_Why, certainly_!" + +"Father!" was all she could gasp, and without deigning to say good-by +to Mr. Turner, or to thank him for the ride or the bouquet of branches +or even the geranium slips which she had received under false +pretenses, she hurried away to her room, oppressed with Heaven only +knows what mortification, and also with what wonder at the ways of men! + +However, Princeman and Billy Westlake and young Hollis with the curly +hair were impatiently waiting for Miss Josephine at the tennis court, +as they informed her in a jointly signed note sent up to her by a boy, +and hastily removing the dust of the road she ran down to join them. +As she went across the lawn, tennis bat in hand, Sam Turner, discussing +lumber with Mr. Stevens, saw her and stopped talking abruptly to admire +the trim, graceful figure. + +"Does your daughter play tennis much?" he inquired. + +"A great deal," returned Mr. Stevens, expanding with pride. "Jo's a +very expert player. She's better at it than any of these girls, and +she really doesn't care to play except with experts. Princeman, Hollis +and Billy Westlake are easily the champions here." + +"I see," said Sam thoughtfully. + +"I suppose you're a crack player yourself," his host resumed, glancing +at Sam's bat. + +"Me? No, worse than a dub. I never had time; that is, until now. +I'll tell you, though, this being away from the business grind is a +great thing. You don't know how I enjoy the fresh air and the being +out in the country this way, and the absolute freedom from business +cares and worries." + +"But where are you going?" asked Stevens, for Sam was getting up. +"You'll stay to lunch with us, won't you?" + +"No, thanks," replied Sam, looking at his watch. "I expect some word +from my kid brother. I have wired him to send some samples of marsh +pulp, and the paper we've had made from it." + +"Marsh pulp," repeated Mr. Stevens. "That's a new one on me. What's +it like?" + +"Greatest stunt on earth," replied Sam confidently. "It is our scheme +to meet the deforestation danger on the way--coming." + +Already he was reaching in his pocket for paper and pencil, and sat +down again at the side of Mr. Stevens, who immediately began stroking +his aggressive beard. Fifteen minutes later Sam briskly got up again +and Mr. Stevens shook hands with him. + +"That's a great scheme," he said, and he gazed after Sam's broad +shoulders admiringly as that young man strode down the steps. + +On his way Sam passed the tennis court where the one girl and three +young men were engaged in a most dextrous game, a game which all the +other amateurs of Hollis Creek Inn had stopped their own sets to watch. +In the pause of changing sides Miss Josephine saw him and waved her +hand and wafted a gay word to him. A second later she was in the air, +a lithe, graceful figure, meeting a high "serve," and Sam walked on +quite thoughtfully. + +When he arrived at Meadow Brook his first care was for his telegram. +It was there, and bore the assurance that the samples would arrive on +the following morning. His next step was to hunt Miss Westlake. That +plump young person forgot her pique of the morning in an instant when +he came up to her with that smiling "been-looking-for-you-everywhere, +mighty-glad-to-see-you" cordiality. + +"I want you to teach me tennis," he said immediately. + +"I'm afraid I can't teach you much," she replied with becoming +diffidence, "because I'm not a good enough player myself; but I'll do +my best. We'll have a set right after luncheon; shall we?" + +"Fine!" said he. + +After luncheon Mr. Westlake and Mr. Cuthbert waylaid him, but he merely +thrust his telegram into Mr. Westlake's hands, and hurried off to the +tennis grounds with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and lanky Bob +Tilloughby, who stuttered horribly and blushed when he spoke, and was +in deadly seriousness about everything. Never did a man work so hard +at anything as Sam Turner worked at tennis. He had a keen eye and a +dextrous wrist, and he kept the game up to top-notch speed. Of course +he made blunders and became confused in his count and overlooked +opportunities, but he covered acres of ground, as Vivian Hastings +expressed it, and when, at the end of an hour, they sat down, panting, +to rest, young Tilloughby, with painful earnestness, assured him that +he had "the mum-mum-makings of a fine tennis player." + +Sam considered that compliment very thoughtfully, but he was a trifle +dubious. Already he perceived that tennis playing was not only an +occupation but a calling. + +"Thanks," said he. "It's mighty nice of you to say so, Tilloughby. +What's the next game?" + +"The nun-nun-next game is a stroll," Tilloughby soberly advised him. +"It always stus-stus-starts out as a foursome, and ends up in +tut-tut-two doubles." + +So they strolled. They wound along the brookside among some of the +pretty paths, and in the rugged places Miss Westlake threw her weight +upon Sam's helping arm as much as possible; in the concealed places she +languished, which she did very prettily, she thought, considering her +one hundred and sixty-three pounds. They took him through a detour of +shady paths which occupied a full hour to traverse, but this particular +game did not wind up in "two doubles." In spite of all the excellent +tete-a-tete opportunities which should have risen for both couples, +Miss Westlake was annoyed to find Miss Hastings right close behind, and +holding even the conversation to a foursome. + +In the meantime, Sam Turner took careful lessons in the art of talking +twaddle, and they never knew that he was bored. Having entered into +the game he played it with spirit, and before they had returned to the +house Mr. Tilloughby was calling him Sus-Sus-Sam. + +The girls disappeared for their beauty sleep, and Sam found McComas and +Billy Westlake hunting for him. + +"Do you play base-ball?" inquired McComas. + +"A little. I used to catch, to help out my kid brother, who is an +expert pitcher." + +"Good!" said McComas, writing down Sam's name. "Princeman will pitch, +but we needed a catcher. The rivalry between Meadow Brook and Hollis +Creek is intense this year. They've captured nearly all the early +trophies, but we're going over there next week for a match game and +we're about crazy to win." + +"I'll do the best I can," promised Sam. "Got a base-ball? We'll go +out and practise." + +They slammed hot ones into each other for a half hour, and when they +had enough of it, McComas, wiping his brow, exclaimed approvingly: + +"You'll do great with a little more warming up. We have a couple of +corking players, but we need them. Hollis always pitches for Hollis +Creek, and he usually wins his game. On baseball day he's the idol of +all the girls." + +Sam Turner placed his hand meditatively upon the back of his neck as he +walked in to dress for dinner. Making a good impression upon the girls +was a separate business, it seemed, and one which required much +preparation. Well, he was in for the entire circus, but he realized +that he was a little late in starting. In consequence he could not +afford to overlook any of the points; so, before dressing for dinner, +he paid a quiet visit to the greenhouses. + +That evening, while he was bowling with all the earnestness that in him +lay, Josephine Stevens, resisting the importunities of young Hollis for +some music, sat by her father. + +"Father," she asked after long and sober thought, "was it right for +you, knowing Mr. Turner to be after that walnut lumber, to try to get +it away from him by telephoning?" + +"It certainly was!" he replied emphatically. "Turner went down there +with a deliberate intention of buying that lumber before I could get +it, so that he could sell it to me at as big a gain as possible. I +paid him one thousand dollars profit for his contract. I had struggled +my best to beat him to it; only I was too late. Both of us were +playing the game according to the rules, but he is a younger player." + +"I see." Another long pause. "Here's another thing. Mr. Turner +happened to know of this increase in the price of lumber, and he +hurried down there to a man who didn't know about that, and bought it. +If Mr. Gifford had known of the new rates, Mr. Turner could not have +bought those trees at the price he did, could he?" + +"Certainly not," agreed her father. "He would have had to pay nearly a +thousand dollars more for them." + +"Then that wasn't right of Mr. Turner," she asserted. + +"My child," said Mr. Stevens wearily, "all business is conducted for a +profit, and the only way to get it is by keeping alive and knowing +things that other people will find out to-morrow. Sam Turner is the +shrewdest and the livest young man I've met in many a day, and he's +square as a die. I'd take his word on any proposition; wouldn't you?" + +"Yes, I think I'd take his word," she admitted, and very positively, +after mature deliberation. "But truly, father, don't you think he's +too much concentrated on business? He hasn't a thought in his mind for +anything else. For instance, this morning he came over to take me an +automobile ride around Bald Hill, and when he found out about this +walnut grove, without either apology or explanation to me he ordered +the chauffeur to drive right down there." + +"Fine," laughed her father. "I'd like to hire him for my manager, if I +could only offer him enough money. But I don't see your point of +criticism. It seems to me that he's a mighty presentable and likable +young fellow, good looking, and a gentleman in the sense in which I +like to use that word." + +"Yes, he is all of those things," she admitted again; "but it is a flaw +in a young man, isn't it," she persisted, betraying an unusually +anxious interest, "for him never to think of a solitary thing but just +business?" + +They were sitting in one of the alcoves of the assembly room, and at +that moment a bell-boy, wandering around the place with apparent +aimlessness, spied them and brought to Miss Josephine a big box. She +opened it and an exclamation of pleasure escaped her. In the box was a +huge bouquet of exquisite roses, soft and glowing, delicious in their +fragrance. + +Impulsively she buried her face in them. + +"Oh, how delightful!" she cried, and she drew out the white card which +peeped forth from amidst the stems. "They are from Mr. Turner!" she +gasped. + +"You're quite right about him," commented her father dryly. "He's all +business." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN WHICH THE SUMMER LOAFER ORDERS SOME MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES + +Before Sam had his breakfast the next morning, he sat in his room with +some figures with which Blackrock and Cuthbert had provided him the +evening before. He cast them up and down and crosswise and diagonally, +balanced them and juggled them and sorted them and shifted them, until +at last he found the rat hole, and smiling grimly, placed those pages +of neat figures in a small letter file which he took from his trunk. +One thing was certain: the Meadow Brook capitalists were highly +interested in his plan, or they would never go to the trouble to +devise, so early in the game, a scheme for gaining control of the marsh +pulp corporation. Well, they were the exact people he wanted. + +Immediately after breakfast Miss Stevens telephoned over to thank him +for his beautiful roses, and he had the pleasure of letting her know, +quite incidentally, that he had gone down to the rose-beds and picked +out each individual blossom himself, which, of course, accounted for +their excellence. Also he suggested coming over that morning for a +brief walk. + +No, she was very sorry, but she was just making ready to go out +horseback riding with Mr. Hollis, who, by the way, was an excellent +rider; but they would be back from their canter about ten-thirty, and +if Mr. Turner cared to come over for a game of tennis before luncheon, +why-- + +"Sorry I can't do it," returned Mr. Turner with the deepest of genuine +regret in his tone. "My kid brother is sending me some samples of pulp +and paper which will arrive at about eleven o'clock, and I have called +a meeting of some interested parties here to examine them at about +eleven." + +"Business again," she protested. "I thought you were on a vacation." + +"I am," he assured her in surprise. "I never lazied around so or +frittered up so much time in my life; and I'm enjoying every second of +my freedom, too. I tell you, it's fine. But say, this meeting won't +take over an hour. Why can't I come over right after lunch?" + +She was very sorry, this time a little less regretfully, that after +luncheon she had an engagement with Mr. Princeman to play a match game +of croquet. But, and here she relented a trifle, they were getting up +a hasty, informal dance over at Hollis Creek for that evening. Would +he come over? + +He certainly would, and he already spoke for as many dances as she +would give him. + +"I'll give you what I can," she told him; "but I've already promised +three of them to Billy Westlake, who is a divine dancer." + +Sam Turner was deeply thoughtful as he turned away from the telephone. +Hollis was a superb horseback rider. Billy Westlake was a divine +dancer. Princeman, he had learned from Miss Stevens, who had spoken +with vast enthusiasm, was a base-ball hero. Hollis and Princeman and +Westlake were crack bowlers, also crack tennis players, and no doubt +all three were even expert croquet players. It was easy to see the +sort of men she admired. Sam Turner only knew one recipe to get +things, and he had made up his mind to have Miss Stevens. He promptly +sought Miss Westlake. + +"Do you ride?" he wanted to know. + +"Not as often as I'd like," she said. + +Really, she had half promised to go driving with Tilloughby, but it was +not an actual promise, and if it were she was quite willing to get out +of it, if Mr. Turner wanted her to go along, although she did not say +so. Young Tilloughby was notoriously an impossible match. But +possibly Mr. Tilloughby and Miss Hastings might care to join the party. +She suggested it. + +"Why, certainly," said Sam heartily. "The more the merrier," which was +not the thing she wanted him to say. + +Tilloughby, a trifle disappointed yet very gracious, consented to ride +in place of drive, and Miss Hastings was only too delighted; entirely +too much so, Miss Westlake thought. Accordingly they rode, and Sam +insisted on lagging behind with Miss Westlake, which she took to be of +considerable significance, and exhibited a very obvious fluttering +about it. Sam's motive, however, was to watch Tilloughby in the +saddle, for in their conversation it had developed that Tilloughby was +a very fair rider; and everything that he saw Tilloughby do, Sam did. +En route they met Hollis and Miss Stevens, cantering just where the +Bald Hill road branched off, and the cavalcade was increased to six. +Once, in taking a narrow cross-cut down through the woods, Sam had the +felicity of riding beside Miss Stevens for a moment, and she put her +hand on his horse and patted its glossy neck and admired it, while Sam +admired the hand. He felt, in some way or other, that riding for that +ten yards by her side was a sort of triumph over Hollis, until he saw +her dash up presently by the side of Hollis again and chat brightly +with that young gentleman. + +Thereafter Sam quit watching Tilloughby and watched Hollis. Curly-head +was an accomplished rider, and Sam felt that he himself cut but an +awkward figure. In reality he was too conscious of his defects. By +strict attention he was proving himself a fair ordinary rider, but when +Hollis, out of sheer showiness, turned aside from the path to jump his +horse over a fallen tree, and Miss Stevens out of bravado followed him, +Sam Turner well-nigh ground his teeth, and, acting upon the impulse, he +too attempted the jump. The horse got over safely, but Sam went a +cropper over his head, and not being a particle hurt had to endure the +good-natured laughter of the balance of them. Miss Stevens seemed as +much amused as any one! He had not caught her look of fright as he +fell nor of concern as he rose, nor could he estimate that her laugh +was a mild form of hysteria, encouraged because it would deceive. What +an ass he was, he savagely thought, to exhibit himself before her in an +attempt like that, without sufficient preparation! He must ride every +morning, by himself. + +Miss Josephine and Mr. Hollis were bound for the Bald Hill circle, and +they insisted, the insistence being largely on the part of Miss +Stevens, on the others accompanying them; but Mr. Turner's engagement +at eleven o'clock would not admit of this, and reluctantly he took Miss +Hastings back with him, leaving Miss Westlake and young Tilloughby to +go on. The arrangement suited him very well, for at least Hollis' ride +with Miss Stevens would not be a tete-a-tete. Miss Westlake strove to +let him understand as plainly as she could that she was only going with +Mr. Tilloughby because of her previous semi-engagement with him--and +there seemed a coolness between Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings as they +separated. Miss Hastings did her best on the way back to console Mr. +Turner for the absence of Miss Westlake. Vivacious as she always was, +she never was more so than now, and before Sam knew it he had engaged +himself with her to gather ferns in the afternoon. + +Upon his arrival at Meadow Brook, he found his express package and also +a couple of important letters awaiting him, and immediately held on the +porch a full meeting of the tentative Marsh Pulp Company. In that +meeting he decided on four things: first, that these hard-headed men of +business were highly favorable to his scheme; second, that Princeman +and Cuthbert, who knew most about paper and pulp, were so profoundly +impressed with his samples that they tried to conceal it from him; +third, that Princeman, at first his warmest adherent, was now most +stubbornly opposed to him, not that he wished to prevent forming the +company, but that he wished to prevent Sam's having his own way; +fourth, that the crowd had talked it over and had firmly determined +that Sam should not control their money. Princeman was especially +severe. + +"There is no question but that these samples are convincing of their +own excellence," he admitted; "but properly to estimate the value of +both pulp and paper, it would be necessary to know, by rigid +experiment, the precise difficulties of manufacture, to say nothing of +the manner in which these particular specimens were produced." + +Mr. Princeman's words had undoubted weight, casting, as they did, a +clammy suspicion upon Sam's samples. + +"I had thought of that," confessed Mr. Turner, "and had I not been +prepared to meet such a natural doubt, to say nothing of such a natural +insinuation, I should never have submitted these samples. Mr. +Princeman, do you know G. W. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" + +Mr. Princeman, with a wince, did, for G. W. Creamer and the Eureka +Paper Mills were his most successful competitors in the manufacture of +special-priced high-grade papers. Mr. Cuthbert also knew Mr. Creamer +intimately. + +"Good," said Sam; "then Mr. Creamer's letter will have some weight," +and he turned it over to Mr. Blackrock. That gentleman, setting his +spectacles astride his nose and assuming his most profoundly +professional air, read aloud the letter in which Mr. Creamer thanked +Turner and Turner for reposing confidence enough in him to reveal their +process and permit him to make experiments, and stated, with many +convincing facts and figures, that he had made several separate samples +of the pulp in his experimental shop, and from the pulp had made paper, +samples of which he enclosed under separate cover, stating further that +the pulp could be manufactured far cheaper than wood pulp, and that the +quality of the paper, in his estimation, was even superior; and when +the company was formed, he wished to be set down for a good, fat block +of stock. + +Having submitted exhibit A in the form of his brother's samples of pulp +and paper, exhibit B in the form of Mr. Creamer's letter, and exhibit C +in the form of Mr. Creamer's own samples of pulp and paper, Mr. Turner +rested quite comfortably in his chair, thank you. + +"This seems to make the thing positive," admitted Mr. Princeman. "Mr. +Turner, would you mind sending some samples of your material to my +factory with the necessary instructions?" + +"Not at all," replied Sam suavely. "We would be pleased indeed to do +so, just as soon as our patents are allowed." + +"Pending that," suggested Mr. Westlake placidly, looking out over the +brook, "why couldn't we organize a sort of tentative company? Why +couldn't we at least canvass ourselves and see how much of Mr. Turner's +stock we would take up among us?" + +"That is," put in Mr. Cuthbert, screwing the remark out of himself +sidewise, "provided the terms of incorporation and promotion were +satisfactory to us." + +"I have already drawn up a sort of preliminary proposition, after +consultation with our friends here," Mr. Blackrock now stated, "and +purely as a tentative matter it might be read." + +"Go right ahead," directed Sam. "I'm a good listener." + +Mr. Blackrock slowly and ponderously read the proposed plan of +incorporation. Sam rose and looked at his watch. + +"It won't do," he announced sharply. "That whole thing, in accordance +with the figures you submitted me last night, is framed up for the sole +purpose of preventing my ever securing control, and if I do not have a +chance, at least, at control, I won't play." + +"You seem to be very sure of that," said Mr. Princeman, surveying him +coldly; "but there is another thing equally sure, and that is that you +can not engage capital in as big an enterprise as this on any basis +which will separate the control and the money." + +"I'm going to try it, though," retorted Sam. "If I can't separate the +control and the money I suppose I'll have to put up with the best terms +I can get. If you will let me have that prospectus of yours, Mr. +Blackrock, I'll take it up to my room and study it, and draw up a +counter prospectus of my own." + +"With pleasure," said Mr. Blackrock, handing it over courteously, and +Mr. Turner rose. + +"I'll say this much, Sam," stated Mr. Westlake, who seemed to have +grown more friendly as Mr. Princeman grew cooler; "if you can get a +proposition upon which we are all agreed, I'll take fifty thousand of +that stock myself, at fifty." + +"As a matter of fact, Mr. Turner," added Mr. Cuthbert, "including your +friend Creamer, who insists upon being in, I imagine that we can +finance your entire company right in this crowd--if the terms are +right." + +"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, I'm sure," said Mr. Turner, +and bowed himself away. + +In place of going to his room, however, he went to the telegraph +office, and wired his brother in New York: + +"How are you coming on with pulp company stock subscription?" + + +The telegraph office was in one corner of the post-office, which was +also a souvenir room, with candy and cigar counters, and as he turned +away from the telegraph desk he saw Princeman at the candy counter. + +"No, I don't care for any of these," Princeman was saying. "If you +haven't maraschino chocolates I don't want any." + +Sam immediately stepped back to the telegraph desk and sent another +wire to his brother: + +"Express fresh box maraschino chocolates to Miss Josephine Stevens +Hollis Creek Inn enclose my card personal cards in upper right-hand +pigeonhole my desk." + + +Then he went up-stairs to get ready for lunch. Immediately after +luncheon he received the following wire from his brother: + +"Stock subscription rotten everybody likes scheme but object to our +control but no hurry why don't you rest maraschinos shipped +congratulate you." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WHICH EXHIBITS THE IMPORTANCE OF REMEMBERING A DANCE NUMBER + +And so the kid was finding the same trouble which he had met. They had +been too frank in stating that they intended to obtain control of the +company without any larger investments than their patents and their +scheme. Sam wandered through the hall, revolving this matter in his +mind, and out at the rear door, which framed an inviting vista of +green. He strolled back past the barn toward the upper reaches of the +brook path, and sitting amid the comfortably gnarled roots of a big +tree he lit a cigar and began with violence to snap little pebbles into +the brook. If he were promoting a crooked scheme, he reflected +savagely, he would have no difficulty whatever in floating it upon +almost any terms he wanted. Well, there was one thing certain; at the +finish, control would be in his own hands! But how to secure it and +still float the company promptly and advantageously? There was the +problem. He liked this crowd. They were good, keen, vigorous, +enterprising men, fine men with whom to do business, men who would +snatch control away from him if they could, and throw him out in the +cold in a minute if they deemed it necessary or expedient. Of course +that was to be expected. It was a part of the game. He would rather +deal with these progressive people, knowing their tendencies, than with +a lot of sapheads. + +How to get control? He lingered long and thoughtfully over that +question, perhaps an hour, until presently he became aware that a +slight young girl, with a fetching sun-hat and a basket, was walking +pensively along the path on the opposite side of the brook, for the +third time. Her passing and repassing before his abstracted and +unseeing vision had become slightly monotonous, and for the first time +he focused his eyes back from their distant view of pulp marshes and +stock certificates and inspected the girl directly. Why, he knew that +girl! It was Miss Hastings. + +As if in obedience to his steady gaze she looked across at him and +waved her basket. + +"Where are you going?" he asked with the heartiness of enforced +courtesy. + +"After ferns," she responded, and laughed. + +"By George, that's so!" he said, and ran up the stream to a narrow +place where he made a magnificent jump and only got one shoe wet. + +He was profuse, not in his apologies, but in his intention to make them. + +"Jinks!" he said. "I'm ashamed to say I forgot all about that. I +found myself suddenly confronted with a business proposition that had +to be worked out, and I thought of nothing else." + +"I hope you succeeded," she said pleasantly. + +There wasn't a particle of vengefulness about Miss Hastings. She was +not one to hold this against him; he could see that at once! She +understood men. She knew that grave problems frequently confronted +them, and that such minor things as fern gathering expeditions would +necessarily have to step aside and be forgotten. She was one of the +bright, cheerful, always smiling kind; one who would make a sunshiny +helpmate for any man, and never object to anything he did--before +marriage. + +All this she conveyed in lively but appealing chatter; all, that is, +except the last part of it, a deduction which Sam supplied for himself. +For the first time in his life he had paused to judge a girl as he +would "size up" a man, and he was a little bit sorry that he had done +so, for while Miss Hastings was very agreeable, there was a certain +acidulous sharpness about her nose and uncompromising thinness about +her lips which no amount of laughing vivacity could quite conceal. + +Dutifully, however, he gathered ferns for the rockery of her aunt in +Albany, and Miss Hastings, in return, did her best to amuse and +delight, and delicately to convey the thought of what an agreeable +thing it would be for a man always to have this cheerful companionship. +She even, on the way back, went so far as inadvertently to call him +Sam, and apologized immediately in the most charming confusion. + +"Really," she added in explanation, "I have heard Mr. Westlake and the +others call you Sam so often that the name just seems to slip out." + +"That's right," he said cordially. "Sam's my name. When people call +me Mr. Turner I know they are strangers." + +"Then I think I shall call you Sam," she said, laughing most +engagingly. "It's so much easier," and sure enough she did as soon as +they were well within the hearing of Miss Westlake, at the hotel. + +"Oh, Sam," she called, turning in the doorway, "you have my gloves in +your pocket." + +Miss Westlake stiffened like an icicle, and a stern resolve came upon +her. Whatever happened, she saw her duty plainly before her. She had +introduced Mr. Turner to Miss Hastings, and she was responsible. It +was her moral obligation to rescue him from the clutches of that +designing young person, and she immediately reminded him that she had +an engagement to give him a tennis lesson every day. There was still +time for a set before dinner. Also, far be it from her to be so +forward as to call him Sam, or to annoy him with silly chattering. She +was serious-minded, was Miss Westlake, and sweet and helpful; any man +could see that; and she fairly adored business. It was so interesting. + +When they came back from their tennis game, hurrying because it was +high time to dress for dinner and the dance, she met Miss Hastings in +the hall, but the two bosom friends barely nodded. There had sprung up +an unaccountable coolness between them, a coolness which Sam by no +means noticed, however, for at the far end of the porch sat Princeman, +already back from Hollis Creek to dress, and with him were Westlake and +McComas and Blackrock and Cuthbert, and they were in very close +conference. When Sam approached them they stopped talking abruptly for +just one little moment, then resumed the conversation quite naturally, +even more than quite naturally in fact, and the experienced Sam smiled +grimly as he excused himself to dress. + +Billy Westlake met him as he was going up-stairs. To Billy had been +entrusted the office of rounding up all the young people who were going +over to Hollis Creek, and by previous instruction, though wondering at +his sister's choice, he assigned Sam to that young lady, a fate which +Sam accepted with becoming gratitude. + +He had plenty of food for thought as he donned his costume of dead +black and staring white, and somehow or other he was distrait that +evening all the way over to Hollis Creek. Only when he met Miss +Stevens did he brighten, as he might well do, for Miss Stevens, +charming in every guise, was a revelation in evening costume; a +ravishing revelation; one to make a man pause and wonder and stand in +awe, and regard himself as a clumsy creature not worthy to touch the +hem of the garment which embellished such a divine being. Nevertheless +he conquered that wave of diffidence in a jiffy, or something like half +that space of time, and shook hands with her most eagerly, and looked +into her eyes and was grateful; for he found them smiling up at him in +most friendly fashion, and with rather an electric thrill in them, too, +though whether the thrill emanated from the eyes or was merely within +himself he was not sure. + +"How many dances do I get?" he abruptly demanded. + +"Just two," she told him, and showed him her card and gave him one on +which a list of names had already been marked by the young ladies of +Hollis Creek. + +He saw on the card two dances with Miss Stevens, one each with Miss +Westlake and Miss Hastings, and one each with a number of other young +ladies whom he had met but vaguely, and one each with some whom he had +not met at all. He dutifully went through the first dance with a young +lady of excellent connections who would make a prime companion for any +advancing young man with social aspirations; he went dutifully through +the next dance with a young lady who was keen on intellectual pursuits, +and who would make an excellent helpmate for any young man who wished +to advance in culture as he progressed in business, and danced the next +one with a young lady who believed that home-making should be the +highest aim of womankind; and then came his first dance with Miss +Stevens! They did not talk very much, but it was very, very comforting +to be with her, just to know that she was there, and to know that +somehow she understood. He was sorry, though, that he stepped upon her +gown. + +The promenade, which had seemed quite long enough with the other young +ladies, seemed all too short for Sam up to the point when Billy +Westlake came to take Miss Josephine away. He was feeling rather +lonely when Tilloughby came up to him, with a charming young lady who +was in quite a flutter. It seemed that there had been a dreadful +mistake in the making out of the dance cards, which the young ladies of +Hollis Creek had endeavored to do with strict equity, though hastily, +and all was now inextricable confusion. The charming young lady was on +the cards for this dance with both Mr. Tilloughby and Mr. Turner, and +Mr. Tilloughby had claimed her first. Would Mr. Turner kindly excuse +her? Just behind her came another young lady whom Mr. Tilloughby +introduced. This young lady was on Sam's card for the next dance +following this one, but it should be for the eighth dance, and would +Mr. Turner please change his card accordingly, which Mr. Turner +obligingly did, wondering what he should do when it came to the eighth +dance and he should find himself obligated to two young ladies. Oh, +well, he reflected, no doubt the other young lady was down for the +eighth dance with some one else, if they had things so mixed. Of one +thing he was sure. He had that tenth dance with Miss Stevens. He had +inspected both cards to make certain of that, and had seen with +carefully concealed joy that she had compared them as minutely as he +had. He saw confusion going on all about him, laughing young people +attempting to straighten out the tangle, and the dance was slow in +starting. + +Almost the first two on the floor were Miss Stevens and Billy Westlake, +and as he saw them, from his vantage point outside one of the broad +windows, gliding gracefully up the far side of the room, he realized +with a twinge of impatience what a remarkably unskilled dancer he +himself was. Billy and Miss Stevens were talking, too, with the +greatest animation, and she was looking up at Billy as brightly, even +more brightly he thought, than she had at himself. There was a +delicate flush on her cheeks. Her lips, full and red and deliciously +curved, were parted in a smile. Confound it anyhow! What could she +find to talk about with Billy Westlake? + +He was turning away in more or less impatience, when Mr. Stevens, +looking, in some way, with his aggressive, white, outstanding beard, as +if he ought to have a red ribbon diagonally across his white shirt +front, ranged beside him. + +"Fine sight, isn't it?" observed Mr. Stevens. + +"Yes," admitted Mr. Turner, almost shortly, and forced himself to turn +away from the following of that dazzling vision, which was almost +painful under the circumstances. + +By mutual impulse they walked down the length of the side porch and +across the front porch. Sam drew himself away from dancing and certain +correlated ideas with a jerk. + +"I've been wanting to talk with you, Mr. Stevens," he observed. "I +think I'll drop over to-morrow for a little while." + +"Glad to have you any time, Sam," responded Mr. Stevens heartily, "but +there is no time like the present, you know. What's on your mind?" + +"This Marsh Pulp Company," said Sam; "do you know anything about pulp +and paper?" + +"A little bit. You know I have some stock in Princeman's company." + +"Oh," returned Sam thoughtfully. + +"Not enough to hurt, however," Stevens went on. "Twenty shares, I +believe. When I went in I had several times as much, but not enough to +make me a dominant factor by any means, and Princeman, as he made more +money, wanted some of it, so I let him buy up quite a number of shares. +At one time I was very much interested, however, and visited the mills +quite frequently." + +"You're rather close to Princeman in a business way, aren't you?" Sam +asked after duly cautious reflection. + +"Not at all, although we get along very nicely indeed. I made money on +my paper stock, both in dividends and in a very comfortable advance +when I sold it. Our relations have always been friendly, but very +little more. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing. Only Princeman is much interested in my Pulp Company, +and all the people who are going in are his friends. The crowd over at +Meadow Brook talks of taking up approximately the entire stock of my +company. I thought possibly you might be interested." + +"I am right now, from what I have already heard of it," returned +Stevens, who had almost at first sight succumbed to that indefinable +personal appeal which caused Sam Turner to be trusted of all men. "I +shall be very glad to hear more about it. It struck me when you spoke +of it yesterday as a very good proposition." + +They had reached the dark corner at the far end of the porch, illumined +only by the subdued light which came from a half-hidden window, and now +they sat down. Sam fished in the little armpit pocket of his dress +coat and dragged forth two tiny samples of pulp and two tiny samples of +paper. + +"These two," he stated, "were samples sent me to-day by my kid brother." + +Mr. Stevens took the samples and examined them with interest. He felt +their texture. He twisted them and crumpled them and bent them +backward and forward and tore them. Then, the light at this window +being too weak, he went to one of the broad windows where a stronger +stream of light came out, and examined them anew. Sam, still sitting +in his chair, nodded in satisfied approval. He liked that kind of +inspection. Mr. Stevens brought the samples back. + +"They are excellent, so far as I am able to judge," he announced. +"These are samples made by yourselves from marsh products?" + +"Yes," Sam assured him. "Made from marsh-grown material by our new +process, which is much cheaper than the wood-pulp process. Do you know +Mr. Creamer of the Eureka Paper Mills?" + +"Not very well. I've met him once or twice at dinners, but I'm not +intimately acquainted with him. I hear, however, that he is an +authority." + +"Here's a letter from him, and some samples made by him under our +process," said Sam with secret satisfaction. "I just received them +this morning." From the same pocket he took the letter without its +envelope, and with it handed over the two other small samples. + +"That's a fine showing," Stevens commented when he had examined +document and samples and brought them back, and he sat down, edging +about so that he and Sam sat side by side but facing each other, as in +a tete-a-tete chair. "Now tell me all about it." + +On and on went the music in the ball-room, on went the shuffling of +feet, the swish of garments, the gay talk and laughter of the young +people; and on and on talked Mr. Stevens and Mr. Turner, until one +familiar strain of music penetrated into Sam's inner consciousness; the +_Home Sweet Home_ waltz! + +"By George!" he exclaimed, jumping up. "That can't be the last." + +"Sounds like it," commented Mr. Stevens, also rising. "It is the last +if they make up programs as they did in my young days. I don't +remember of many dances where the _Home Sweet Home_ waltz didn't end it +up. It's late enough anyhow. It's eleven-thirty." + +"Then I have done it again!" said Sam ruefully. "I had the number ten +dance with your daughter." + +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes to laugh. + +"You certainly have put your foot in it," he admitted. "Oh, well, Jo's +sensible," he added with a father's fond ignorance. "She'll +understand." + +"That's what I'm afraid of," replied Mr. Turner ruefully. "You'll have +to intercede for me. Explain to her about it and soften the case as +much as you can. Frankly, Mr. Stevens, I'd be tremendously cut up to +be on the outs with Miss Josephine." + +"There are shoals of young men who feel that way about it, Sam," said +Mr. Stevens with large and commendable pride. "However, I am glad that +you have added yourself to the list," and he gazed after Sam with +considerable approbation, as that young man hurried away to display his +abjectness to the young lady in question. + +Three times, on the arm of Princeman, she whirled past the open doorway +where Sam stood, but somehow or other he found it impossible to catch +her eye. The dance ended when she was on the other side of the room, +and immediately, with the last strains, the floor was in confusion. +Sam tried desperately to hurry across to where she was, but he lost her +in the crowd. He did not see her again until all of the Meadow Brook +folk, including himself, were seated in the carryalls, at which time +the Hollis Creek folk were at the edge of the porte-cochere and both +parties were exchanging a gabbling pandemonium of good-bys. He saw her +then, standing back among the crowd, and shouting her adieus as +vociferously as any of them. He caught her eye and she nodded to him +as pleasantly as to anybody, which was really worse than if she had +refused to acknowledge him at all! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME + +No, Miss Stevens was sorry that she could not go walking with him that +morning, which was the morning after the dance. She was very polite +about it, too; almost too polite. Her voice over the telephone was as +suave and as limpid as could possibly be, but there was a sort of +metallic glitter behind it, as it were. + +No, she could not see him that afternoon either. She had made a series +of engagements, in fact, covering the entire day. Also, she regretted +to say, upon further solicitation, that she had made engagements +covering the entire following day. + +No, she was not piqued about his last night's forgetfulness; by no +means; certainly not; how absurd! + +She quite understood. He had been talking business with her father, +and naturally such a trifling detail as a dance with frivolous young +people would not occur to him. + +Frivolous young people! This was the exact point of the conversation +at which Sam, with his ear glued to the receiver of the telephone and +no necessity for concealing the concerned expression on his +countenance, thought, in more or less of a panic, that he must really +be getting old, which was a good joke, inasmuch as nobody ever took him +to be over twenty-five. Heretofore his boyish appearance had worried +him because it rather stood in the way of business, but now he began to +fear that he was losing it; for he was nearing thirty! + +Well, pleading was of no avail. He had to give it up. Reluctantly he +went out and took a solitary walk, then came in and religiously played +his two hours of tennis with Miss Westlake and Miss Hastings and +Tilloughby. Was he not on vacation, and must he not enjoy himself? +Just before he went in to luncheon, however, there was a telephone call +for him. + +Miss Stevens was perplexed to know what divine intuition had told him +her obsession for maraschino chocolates. She had one in her fingers at +the very moment she was telephoning, and she was going to pop it into +her mouth while he talked. Being a mere man he could not realize how +delightfully refreshing was a maraschino chocolate. + +Sam had a lively picture of that dainty confection between the tips of +her dainty fingers; he could see the white hand and the graceful wrist, +and then he could see those exquisitely curved red lips parting with a +flash of white teeth to receive the delicacy; and he had an impulse to +climb through the telephone. + +A little bird had told him about her preference, he stated. He had +that little bird regularly in his employ to find out other preferences. + +"I had those sent just to show you that I am not altogether absorbed in +business," he went on; "that I can think of other things. Have another +chocolate." + +"I am," she laughingly said; "but I'm not going to eat them all. I'm +going to save one or two for you." + +"Good," returned Sam in huge delight and relief. "I'll come over to +get them any time you say." + +"All right," she gaily agreed. "As I told you this morning, I have an +engagement for this afternoon, but if you'll come over after luncheon +I'll try to find a half-hour or so for you anyhow." + +Great blotches of perspiration sprang out on his forehead. + +"Jinks!" he ejaculated. "You know, right after you telephoned me this +morning I made an engagement with Mr. Blackrock and Mr. Cuthbert and +Mr. Westlake, to go over some proposed incorporation papers." + +"Oh, by all means, then, keep your engagement," she told him, and he +could feel the instant frigidity which returned to her tone. A +zero-like wave seemed to come right through the transmitter of the +telephone and chill the perspiration of his brow into a cold trickle. + +"No, I'll see if I can not set that engagement off for a couple of +hours," he hastily informed her. + +"By no means," she protested, more frigidly than before. "Come to +think of it, I don't believe I'd have time anyhow. In fact, I'm sure +that I would not. Mr. Hollis is calling me now. Good-by." + +"Wait a minute," he called desperately into the telephone, but it was +dead, and there is nothing in this world so dead as the telephone from +which connection has been suddenly shut off. + +Sam strode into the dining-room and went straight over to Blackrock's +table. + +"I find I have some pressing business right after luncheon," he said, +bending over that gentleman's chair. "I can't possibly meet you at two +o'clock. Will four do you?" + +"Why, certainly," Mr. Blackrock was kind enough to say, and he +furthermore agreed, with equal graciousness, to inform the others. + +Sam ate his luncheon in worried silence, replying only in monosyllables +to the remarks of McComas, who sat at his table, and of Mrs. McComas, +who had taken quite a young-motherly fancy to him; and the amount that +he ate was so much at variance with his usual hearty appetite that even +the maid who waited on his table, a tall, gangling girl with a vinegar +face and a kind heart, worried for fear he might be sick, and added +unordered delicacies to his American plan meal. He went over to Hollis +Creek in the swiftest conveyance he could obtain, which was naturally +an auto, but he did not have 'Ennery for his chauffeur, of which he was +heartily glad, for 'Ennery might have wanted to talk. + +On the porch of Hollis Creek Inn he found Princeman and Mr. Stevens in +earnest conversation. He knew what that meant. Princeman was already +discussing with Mr. Stevens the matter of control of the Marsh Pulp +Company. Princeman rose when Sam stepped up on the porch, and strolled +away from Mr. Stevens. He nodded pleasantly to Turner, and the latter, +returning the nod fully as pleasantly, was about to hurry on in search +of Miss Josephine, when Mr. Stevens checked him. + +"Hello, Sam," he called. "I've just been waiting to see you." + +"All right," said Sam. "I'll be around presently." + +"No, but come here," insisted Mr. Stevens. + +Sam cast a nervous glance about the grounds and along the side porch; +Miss Josephine most certainly was not among those present. He still +hesitated, impatient to get away. + +"Just a minute, Sam," insisted Stevens. "I want to talk to you right +now." + +With unwilling feet Sam went over. + +"Sit down," directed Stevens, pushing forward a chair. + +"What is it?" asked Sam, still standing. + +"I have been talking with Princeman and Westlake about your Marsh Pulp +Company." + +"Yes," inquired Sam nervously. + +"And everybody seems to be most enthusiastic about it. Fact of the +matter is, my boy, I consider it a tremendous investment opportunity. +The only drawback there seems to be is in the matter of stock +distribution and voting power. I want you to explain this very fully +to me." + +"I thought you were quite satisfied with our talk last night," returned +Sam, glancing hastily over his shoulder. + +"I am, in so far as the investment goes, Sam. I've promised you that +I'd take a good block of stock, and you've promised to make room for me +in the company. I expect to go through with that, but I want to know +about this other phase of the matter before I get into any +entanglements with opposing factions. Now you sit right down there and +tell me about it." + +Despairingly Sam sat down and proceeded briefly and concisely to +explain to him the various plans of incorporation which had been +proposed. Ten minutes later he almost groaned, as a trap, drawn by a +pair of handsome buckskin horses, driven by Princeman and containing +Miss Josephine, crunched upon the gravel driveway in front of the +porch. Miss Stevens greeted Mr. Turner very heartily indeed, Princeman +stopping for that purpose. Sam ran down and shook hands with her. Oh, +she was most cordial; just as cordial and polite as anybody he knew! + +"I did not expect you at all," she said, "but I knew you were here, for +I saw you from the window as you came up the drive. Pleasant weather, +isn't it? Oh, papa!" + +"Yes," answered Mr. Stevens ponderously from his place on the porch. + +"Up on my dresser you will find a box of candy which Mr. Turner was +kind enough to have sent me, and he confesses that he has never tasted +maraschino chocolates. Won't you please run up and get them and let +Mr. Turner sample them?" + +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens. "If Sam Turner insists upon running me up +two flights of stairs on an errand of that sort, I suppose I'll have to +go. But he won't." + +"You're lazy," she said to her father in affectionate banter, then, +with a wave of her hand and a bright nod to Mr. Turner, she was gone! + +Sam trudged slowly up on the porch with the heart gone entirely out of +him for business; and yet, as he approached Mr. Stevens he pulled +himself together with a jerk. After all, she was gone, and he could +not bring her back, and in his talk with Stevens he had just approached +a grave and serious situation. + +"The fact of the matter is, Mr. Stevens," said he as he sat down again, +"these people are the very people I want to get into my concern, but +they are old hands at the stock incorporation game, and even before +I've organized the company they are planning to get it out of my hands. +Now it is my scheme, mine and the kid brother's, and I don't propose to +allow that." + +"Well, Sam," said Mr. Stevens slowly, "you know capital of late has had +a lot of experience with corporate business, and it isn't the +fashionable thing this year for the control and the capital to be in +separate hands--right at the very beginning." + +This was the signal for the struggle, and Sam plunged earnestly into +the conflict. At three-fifteen he suddenly rose and made his adieus. +He would have liked to stay until Miss Josephine came back, so that he +could make one more desperate attempt to set himself right with her, +but there was that deferred engagement with Blackrock, and reluctantly +he whirled back to Meadow Brook. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHEREIN SAM TURNER PROVES HIMSELF TO BE A VIOLENT FLIRT + +The rest of that week was a worried and an anxious one for Sam. He +sent daily advices to his brother, and he received daily advices in +return. The people upon whom he had originally counted to form the +Marsh Pulp Company had set themselves coldly against the matter of +control, and on comparing the apparent situation in New York with the +situation at Meadow Brook, he made sure that he could secure more +advantageous terms with the Princeman crowd. He spent his time in +wrestling with his prospective investors both singly and in groups, but +they were obdurate. They liked his company, they saw in it tremendous +possibilities, but they did not intend to invest their money where they +could not vote it. That was flat! + +This was on the business side. About the really important matter of +Miss Stevens, since his most recent bad performance, the time when he +had made the special trip to see her and had spent his time in talking +business with her father, he had not been able to come near her. She +was always engaged. He saw her riding with Hollis; he saw her driving +with Princeman; he saw her playing tennis with Billy Westlake, but the +greatest boon he ever received was a nod and a pleasant word. He +industriously sent her flowers. She as industriously sent him nice, +polite little notes of thanks. + +In the meantime, alternating with his marsh pulp wrangles, he worked +like a Trojan at the athletic graces he should have cultivated in his +younger days. He rode every morning; he practised every day at tennis +and croquet; every evening he bowled; and every time some one sat at +the piano and played dance music and the young people fell into +impromptu waltzes and two-steps on the porch, he joined them and danced +religiously with whomsoever he found to hand; usually Miss Hastings or +Miss Westlake. + +The latter ingenious young lady, during this while, continued to adore +business, and with increasing fervor every day, and regretted, quite +aloud, that she had never paid sufficient attention to this absorbing +amusement, out of which all the men, that is, those who were really +strong and purposeful, seem to derive so much satisfaction! On the +following Monday at Bald Hill, when Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook +fraternized together, in the annual union picnic, she found occasion +for the most direct tete-a-tete of all anent commercial matters. + +Under Bald Hill were any number of charming natural retreats, jumbles +of Titanically toy-strewn, clean, bare rocks, screened here and there +by tangles of young scrub oak and pine which grew apparently on bare +stone surfaces and out of infinitesimal chinks and crannies, in utter +defiance of all natural law. Go where you would on that day, there +were couples in each of the rock shelters; young couples, engaged in +that fascinating pastime of finding out all they could about each +other, and wondering about each other, and revealing themselves to each +other as much as they cared to do, and flirting; oh, in a perfectly +respectable sort of a way, you know; legitimate and commendable +flirting; the sort of flirting which is only experimental and +necessary, and which may cease at any moment to become mere airy +trifling, and turn into something intensely and desperately serious, +having a vital bearing upon the entire future lives of people; and +there were deeply solemn moments, in spite of all the surface hilarity +and gaiety, in many of these little out of way nooks kindly provided by +beneficent nature for this identical purpose. + +In one of these nooks, a curious sort of doll's amphitheatre, partly +screened by dwarf cedars, were Miss Westlake and Mr. Turner, and Sam +could not tell you to this day how she had roped him out of the herd, +and isolated him, and brought him there. + +"Business is just perfectly fascinating," she was saying. "I've been +talking a lot to papa about it here lately. He thinks a great deal of +you, by the way." + +"He does," Sam grunted in non-committal acknowledgment, with the sharp +reflection that he had better look out for himself if that were the +case, since the most of Westlake's old friends were bankrupt, he being +the best business man of them all. + +"Yes; he says you have an excellent business proposition, too, in your +new Marsh Pulp Company." She said marsh pulp without an instant's +hesitation. + +"I think it's good myself," agreed Sam; "that is, if I can keep hold of +it." Inwardly he added, "And if I can keep old Westlake's clutches +off." + +She laughed lightly. + +"Papa mentioned that very thing," she informed him. "I don't think I +quite understand what control of stock means, although I've had papa +explain it to me. I gather this much, however, that it is something +you want very much, but can scarcely get without some large stockholder +voting his stock with you." + +Sam inspected her narrowly. + +"You seem to have a pretty good idea of the thing after all," he +admitted, wondering how much she really knew and understood. "But +maybe your father wouldn't like your repeating to me what you +accidentally learned from him in conversation. Business men are +usually pretty particular about that." + +"Oh, he wouldn't mind at all," she said airily. "I'm having him +explain a lot of things to me, because he's making separate investments +for Billy and me. All his new enterprises are for us, and in the last +two or three years he's turned over lots of stock to us in our own +names. But I've never done any actual voting on it. I've only given +proxies. I sign a little blank, you know, that papa fills out for me +and shows me where to put my name and mails to somebody or other, or +else takes it and votes it himself; but I'd rather vote it my own self. +I should think it would be ever so much fun. I'm trying to find out +about how they do such things, and I'd be very glad to have you tell me +all you can about it. It's just perfectly fascinating." + +"Yes, it is," Sam admitted. "So you think you may eventually own some +stock in the Marsh Pulp Company?" and he became quite interested. + +"If papa takes any I'm quite sure I shall," she returned; "and I think +he will, from what he said. He seems to be so enthusiastic about it +that I'm going to ask him for this stock, and let Billy have the next +that he buys. I hope he does take a good lot of it. Isn't this the +dearest place imaginable?" and with charming naivete she looked about +the tiny amphitheatre-like circle, admiring the projecting stones which +formed natural seats, and the broad shelving of slippery rock which led +up to it. + +"Yes, it is," said Sam with considerable thoughtfulness, and once more +inspected Miss Westlake critically. + +There was no question that she would be as stout as her mother and her +father when she reached their age. However, personal attractiveness is +an essence and can not be weighed by the pound. Sam was bound to +admit, after thoughtful judgment, that Miss Westlake might be +personally attractive to a great many people, but really there hadn't +seemed to be anything flowing from him to her or from her to him, even +when he had held tightly to her hand to help her up the steep slope of +the rock floor. + +"Yes, it is a charming place," he once more admitted. "Looks almost as +if this little semi-circle had been built out of these loose rocks by +design. Of course, your father wouldn't take the original stock in +your name." + +"Oh, no, I don't suppose so," she said. "He never does. He takes out +the stock himself, and then transfers it to us." + +"Of course," Sam agreed; "and naturally he'd hold it long enough to +vote at the original stock-holders' meeting." + +"I couldn't say about that," she laughed. "That's going beyond my +business depth just yet, but I'm going to learn all about such things," +and she looked across at him with apparent shy confidence that he would +take pleasure in teaching her. + +"Hoo-hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!" came a sudden call from down in the road, and, +turning, they saw Miss Hastings and Billy Westlake, who both waved +their hands at the amphitheatre couple and came scrambling up the rocks. + +"Mr. Princeman and Mr. Tilloughby are looking for you everywhere, +Hallie," said Miss Hastings to Miss Westlake. "You know you promised +to make that famous salad dressing of yours. Luncheon is nearly ready, +all but that, and they're waiting for you over at the glade. My, what +a dear little place this is! How did you ever find it?" Miss Hastings +was now quite conspicuously panting and fanning herself. "I'm so tired +climbing those rocks," she went on. "I shall simply have to sit down +and rest a bit. Billy will take you over, Hallie, and Mr. Turner will +bring me by and by, I am sure." + +Mr. Turner stated that he would do so with pleasure. Miss Westlake +surveyed her dearest friend more in anger than in sorrow. It was such +a brazen trick, and she gazed from her brother to Mr. Turner in sheer +wonder that they were not startled into betrayal of how shocked they +were. Whatever strong emotions they might have had upon that subject +were utterly without reflection upon the outside, however, for Billy +Westlake and Sam Turner were eying each other solely with a vacuous +mutual wish of saying something decently polite and human. Mr. Turner +made a desperate stab. + +"I hope you're in good form for the bowling tournament to-night," he +observed with self-urged anxiety. "Hollis Creek mustn't win, you know." + +"I'm as near fit as usual," said Billy; "but Princeman is the chap +who's going to carry off the honors for Meadow Brook. Bowled an +average last night of two forty-five. I'm sorry you couldn't make the +team." + +"I should have started fifteen years ago to do that," said Sam with a +wry smile. "I think I would get along all right, though, if they +didn't have those grooves at the side of the alleys." + +Billy Westlake looked at him gravely. Since Sam did not smile, this +could not be a joke. + +"But they are absolutely necessary, you know," he protested, as he took +his sister's arm and helped her down the slope. + +Miss Westlake went away entirely out of patience with the two men, and +very much to Billy's surprise gave him her revised estimate of that +Hastings girl. Miss Hastings, however, was in a far different frame of +mind. She was an exclamation point of admiration about an endless +variety of things; about the dear little amphitheatre, about how well +her friend Miss Westlake was looking and how successful Hallie had been +this summer in reducing, and how much Mr. Turner was improving in his +tennis and croquet and riding and bowling and everything. "And, Mr. +Turner, what is pulp? And do they actually make paper out of it?" she +wound up. + +Very gravely Mr. Turner informed her on the process of paper making, +and she was a chorus of little vivacious ohs and ahs all the way +through. She sat on the side of the stone circle from which she could +look down the road, and she chattered on and on and on, and still on, +until something she saw below warned her that she was staying an +unconscionable length of time, so she rose and told Mr. Turner they +must really go, and held out her hand to be helped down the slope. +That was really a very slippery rock, and it was probably no fault of +Miss Hastings that her feet slipped and that she had to throw herself +squarely into Mr. Turner's embrace, and even throw her arm up over his +shoulder to save herself. It was a staggery place, even for a sturdily +muscled young man like Mr. Turner to keep his footing, and with that +fair burden upon him he had to stand some little time poised there to +retain his balance. Then, very gently and carefully, he turned +straight about, lifting Miss Hastings entirely from her feet and +setting her gravely down on the safe ledge below the sloping rock; but +before he had even had time to let go of her he glanced down into the +road, toward which the turn had faced him, and saw there, looking up +aghast at the tableau, Mr. Princeman and Miss Stevens! + +The sharp and instantly suppressed laugh of Princeman came floating up +to them, but Miss Stevens turned squarely about in the direction of the +glade, and being instantly joined by Princeman, they walked quietly +away. + +Mr. Turner suddenly found himself perspiring profusely, and was +compelled to mop his brow, but Miss Hastings disdained to give any sign +that anything unusual whatsoever had happened, except by walking with a +limp, albeit a very slight one, as she returned to the glade. That +limp comforted Mr. Turner somewhat, and, spying Miss Stevens in a +little group near the tables, he was very careful to parade Miss +Hastings straight over there and place her limp on display. Miss +Stevens, however, walked away; no mere limp could deceive her! + +Well, if she wanted to be miffed at a little accident like that, and +read things falsely, and think the worst of people, she might; that was +all Sam had to say about it! but what he had to say about it did not +comfort him. He rather savagely "shook" Miss Hastings at his first +opportunity, and Vivian's dearest friend, who had been hovering in the +offing, saw him do it, which was a great satisfaction to her. Later +she seized upon him, although he had savagely sworn to stick to the +men, and by some incomprehensible process Sam found himself once more +tete-a-tete with Miss Westlake, just over at the edge of the glade +where the sumac grew. She made him gather a lot of the leaves for her, +and showed him how they used to weave clover wreaths when she was a +little girl, and wove one for him of sumac, and gaily crowned him with +it; and just as she was putting the fool thing on his head he glanced +up, and there Princeman, laughing, was just passing them a little ways +off, in company with Miss Josephine Stevens! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE VALUE OF A PIANOLA TRAINING + +On that very same evening Hollis Creek came over to the bowling +tournament, and Miss Stevens, arriving with young Hollis, promptly lost +that perfervid young man, who had become somewhat of a nuisance in his +sentimental insistence. Mr. Turner, watching her from afar, saw her +desert the calfly smitten one, and immediately dashed for the breach. +He had watched from too great a distance, however, for Billy Westlake +gobbled up Miss Josephine before Sam could get there, and started with +her for that inevitable stroll among the brookside paths which always +preceded a bowling tournament. While he stood nonplussed, looking +after them, Miss Hastings glided to his side in a matter of course way. + +"Isn't it a perfectly charming evening?" she wanted to know. + +"It is a regular dear of an evening," admitted Sam savagely. + +In his single thoughtedness he was scrambling wildly about within the +interior of his skull for a pretext to get rid of Miss Hastings, but it +suddenly occurred to him that now he had a legitimate excuse for +following the receding couple, and promptly upon the birth of this +idea, he pulled in that direction and Miss Hastings came right along, +though a trifle silently. With all her vivacious chattering, she was +not without shrewdness, and with no trouble whatever she divined +precisely why Sam chose the path he did, and why he seemed in such +almost blundering haste. They _were_ a little late, it was true, for +just as they started, Billy and Miss Stevens turned aside and out of +sight into the shadiest and narrowest and most involved of the +shrubbery-lined paths, the one which circled about the little concealed +summer-house with a dove-cote on top, which was commonly dubbed "the +cooing place." Following down this path the rear couple suddenly came +upon a tableau which made them pause abruptly. Billy Westlake, upon +the steps of the summer-house, was upon his knees, there in the swiftly +blackening dusk, before the appalled Miss Stevens; actually upon his +knees! Silently the two watchers stole away, but when they were out of +earshot Miss Hastings tittered. Sam, though the moment was a serious +one for him, was also compelled to grin. + +"I didn't know they did it that way any more," he confessed. + +"They don't," Miss Hastings informed him; "that is, unless they are +very, very young, or very, very old." + +"Apparently you've had experience," observed Sam. + +"Yes," she admitted a little bitterly. "I think I've had rather more +than my share; but all with ineligibles." + +Sam felt a trace of pity for Miss Hastings, who was of polite family, +but poor, and a guest of the Westlakes, but he scarcely knew how to +express it, and felt that it was not quite safe anyhow, so he remained +discreetly silent. + +By mutual, though unspoken impulse, they stopped under the shade of a +big tree up on the lawn, and waited for the couple who had been found +in the delicate situation either to reappear on the way back to the +house, or to emerge at the other end of the path on the way to the +bowling shed. It was scarcely three minutes when they reappeared on +the way back to the house, and both watchers felt an instant thrill of +relief, for the two were by no means lover-like in their attitudes. +Billy had hold of Miss Josephine's arm and was helping her up the +slope, but their shoulders were not touching in the process, nor were +arms clasped closely against sides. They passed by the big tree +unseeing, then, as they neared the house, without a word, they parted. +Miss Stevens proceeded toward the porch, and stopped to take a +handkerchief from her sleeve and pass it carefully and lightly over her +face. Billy Westlake strode off a little way toward the bowling shed, +stopped and lit a cigarette, took two or three puffs, started on, +stopped again, then threw the cigarette to the ground with quite +unnecessary vigor, and stamped on it. Miss Hastings, without adieus of +any sort, glided swiftly away in the direction of Billy, and then a dim +glimmer of understanding came to Sam Turner that only Miss Stevens had +stood in the way of Miss Hastings' capture of Billy Westlake. He +wasted no time over this thought, however, but strode very swiftly and +determinedly up to Miss Josephine. + +"I'm glad to find you alone," he said; "I want to make an explanation." + +"Don't bother about it," she told him frigidly. "You owe me no +explanations whatsoever, Mr. Turner." + +"I'm going to make them anyhow," he declared. "You saw me twice this +afternoon in utterly asinine situations." + +"I remember of no such situations," she stated still frigidly, and +started to move on toward the house. + +"But wait a minute," said Sam, catching her by the arm and detaining +her. "You did see me in silly situations, and I want you to know the +facts about them." + +"I'm not at all interested," she informed him, now with absolute north +pole iciness, and started to move away again. + +He held her more tightly. + +"The first time," he went on, "was when Miss Hastings slipped on the +rocks and I had to catch her to keep her from falling." + +"Will you kindly let me go, Mr. Turner?" demanded Miss Josephine. + +"No, I will not!" he replied, and pulled her about a trifle so that she +was compelled to face him. "I don't choose to have anybody, least of +all you, think wrongly of me." + +"Mr. Turner, I do not choose to be detained against my will," declared +Miss Josephine. + +"Mr. Turner," boomed a deep-timbered voice right behind them, "the lady +has requested you to let her go. I should advise you to do so." + +Mr. Turner was attempting to frame up a reasonable answer to this +demand when Miss Josephine prevented him from doing so. + +"Mr. Princeman," said she to the interrupting gallant, "I thank you for +your interference on my behalf, but I am quite capable of protecting +myself," and leaving the two stunned gentlemen together, she once more +took her handkerchief from her sleeve and walked swiftly up to the +porch, brushing the handkerchief lightly over her face again. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" said Princeman, looking after her in more or +less bewilderment. + +"So will I," said Sam. "Have you a cigarette about you?" + +Princeman gave him one and they took a light from the same match, then, +neither one of them caring to discuss any subject whatever at that +particular moment, they separated, and Sam hunted a lonely corner. He +wanted to be alone and gloom. Confound bowling, anyhow! It was a dull +and uninteresting game. He cared less for it as time went on, he +found; less to-night than ever. He crept away into the dim and +deserted parlor and sat down at the piano, the only friend in which he +cared to confide just then. He played, with a queer lingering touch +which had something of hesitation in it, and which reduced all music to +a succession of soft chords, _The Maid of Dundee_ and _Annie Laurie_, +_The Banks of Banna_ and _The Last Rose of Summer_, then one of the +simpler nocturnes of Chopin, and, following these, a quaint, slow +melody which was like all of the others and yet like none. + +"Bravo!" exclaimed a gentle voice in the doorway, and he turned, +startled, to see Miss Stevens standing there. She did not explain why +she had relented, but came directly into the room and stood at the end +of the piano. He reached up and shook hands with her quite naturally, +and just as naturally and simply she let her hand lie in his for an +instant. How soft and warm her palm was, and how grateful the touch of +it! + +"What a pleasant surprise!" she said. "I didn't know you played." + +"I don't," he confessed, smiling. "If you had stopped to listen you +would have known. You ought to hear my kid brother play though. He's +a corker." + +"But I did listen," she insisted, ignoring the reference to his "kid +brother." "I stood there a long time and I thought it beautiful. What +was that last selection?" + +He flushed guiltily. + +"It was--oh, just a little thing I sort of put together myself," he +told her. + +"How delightful! And so you compose, too?" + +"Not at all," he hastily assured her. "This is the only thing, and it +seemed to come just sort of naturally to me from time to time. I don't +suppose it's finished yet, because I never play it exactly as I did +before. I always seem to add a little bit to it. I do wish that I had +had time to know more of music. What little I play I learned from a +pianola." + +"A what?" she gasped. + +He laughed in a half-embarrassed way. + +"A pianola," he repeated. "You see I've always been hungry for music, +and while my kid brother was still in college I began to be able to +afford things, and one of the first luxuries was a pianola. You know +the machine has a little lever which throws the keys in or out of +engagement, so that you can play it as a regular piano if you wish, and +if you leave the keys engaged while you are playing the rolls, they +work up and down; so by watching these I gradually learned to pick out +my favorite tunes by hand. I couldn't play them so well by myself as +the rolls played them, but somehow or other they gave me more +satisfaction." + +Miss Stevens did not laugh. In some indefinable way all this made a +difference in Sam Turner--a considerable difference--and she felt quite +justified in having deliberately come to the conclusion that she had +been "mean" to him; in having deliberately slipped away from the others +as they were all going over to the bowling alleys; in having come back +deliberately to find him. + +"Your favorite tunes," she repeated musingly. "What was the first one, +I wonder? One of those that you have just been playing?" + +"The first one?" he returned with a smile. "No, it was a sort of +rag-time jingle. I thought it very pretty then, but I played it over +the other day, the first time in years, and I didn't seem to like it at +all. In fact, I wonder how I ever did like it." + +Rag-time! And now, left entirely to his own devices and for his own +pleasure, he was playing Chopin! Yes, it made quite a difference in +Sam Turner. She was glad that she had decided to wear his roses, glad +even that he recognized them. At her solicitation Sam played again the +plaintive little air of his own composition--and played it much better +than ever he had played it before. Then they walked out on the porch +and strolled down toward the bowling shed. Half way there was a little +side path, leading off through an arbor into a shady way which crossed +the brook on a little rustic bridge, which wound about between +flowerbeds and shrubbery and back by another little bridge, and which +lengthened the way to the bowling shed by about four times the normal +distance--and they took that path; and when they reached the bowling +alley they were not quite ready to go in. + +[Illustration: Sam played again the plaintive little air] + +There seemed no reasonable excuse for staying out longer, however, for +the bowling had already started, and, moreover, young Tilloughby +happened to come to the door and spied them. Princeman was just +getting up to bowl for the honor and glory of Meadow Brook, and within +one minute later Miss Stevens was watching the handsome young paper +manufacturer with absorbed interest. He was a fine picture of athletic +manhood as he stood up, weighing the ball, and a splendid picture of +masculine action as he rushed forward to deliver it. Sam had to +acknowledge that himself, and out of fairness he even had to join in +the mad applause when Princeman made strike after strike. They had +Princeman up again in the last frame, and it was a ticklish moment. +The Hollis Creek team was fifty points ahead. Dramatic unities, under +the circumstances, demanded that Princeman, by a tremendous exercise of +coolness and skill, overcome that lead by his own personal efforts, and +he did, winning the tournament for Meadow Brook with a breathless few +points to spare. + +But did Sam Turner care that Princeman was the hero of the hour? More +power to Princeman, for from the bevy of flushed and eager girls who +flocked about the Adonis-like victor, Miss Josephine Stevens was +absent. She was there, with him, in Paradise! Incidentally Sam made +an engagement to drive with her in the morning, and when, at the close +of that delightful evening, the carryall carried her away, she beamed +upon him; gave him two or three beams in fact, and said good-by +personally and waved her hand to him personally; nobody else was there +in all that crowd but just they two! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE WESTLAKES DECIDE TO INVEST + +Miss Hastings did not exactly snub Sam in the morning, but she was +surprisingly indifferent to him after all her previous cordiality, and +even went so far as to forget the early morning constitutional she was +to have taken with him; instead she passed him coolly by on the porch +right after an extremely early breakfast, and sauntered away down +lovers' lane, arm in arm with Billy Westlake, who was already looking +very much comforted. Sam, who had been dreading that walk, released it +with a sigh of intense satisfaction, planning that in the interim until +time for his drive, he would improve his tennis a bit with Miss +Westlake. He was just hunting her up when he met Bob Tilloughby, who +invited him to join a riding party from both houses for a trip over to +Sunset Rock. + +"Sorry," said Sam with secret satisfaction, "but I've an engagement +over at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock," and Tilloughby carried that +information back to Miss Westlake, who had sent him. + +An engagement at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock, eh? Well, Miss Westlake +knew who that meant; none other than her dear friend, Josephine +Stevens! Being a young lady of considerable directness, she went +immediately to her father. + +"Have you definitely made up your mind, pop, to take stock in Mr. +Turner's company?" she asked, sitting down by that placid gentleman. + +Without removing his interlocked hands from their comfortable +resting-place in plain sight, he slowly twirled his thumbs some three +times, and then stopped. + +"Yes, I think I shall," he said. + +"About how much?" Miss Westlake wanted to know. + +"Oh, about twenty-five thousand." + +"Who's to get it?" + +"Why, I thought I'd divide it between Billy and you." + +Miss Westlake put her hand on her father's arm. + +"Say, pop, give it to me, please," she pleaded. "Billy can take the +next stock you buy, or I'll let him have some of my other in exchange." + +Mr. Westlake surveyed his daughter out of a pair of fish-gray eyes +without turning his head. + +"You seem to be especially interested in this stock. You asked about +it yesterday and Sunday and one day last week." + +"Yes, I am," she admitted. "It's a really first-class business +investment, isn't it?" + +"Yes, I think it is," replied Westlake; "as good as any stock in an +untried company can be, anyhow. At least it's an excellent investment +chance." + +"That's what I thought," she said. "I'm judging, of course, only by +what you say, and by my impression of Mr. Turner. It seems to me that +almost anything he goes into should be highly successful." + +Mr. Westlake slowly whirled his thumbs in the other direction, three +separate twirls, and stopped them. + +"Yes," he agreed. "I'm investing the money in just Sam myself, +although the scheme itself looks like a splendid one." + +Miss Westlake was silent a moment while she twisted at the button on +her father's coat sleeve. + +"I don't quite understand this matter of stock control," she went on +presently. "You've explained it to me, but I don't seem quite to get +the meaning of it." + +"Well, it's like this," explained Mr. Westlake. "Sam Turner, with only +a paltry investment, say about five thousand dollars, wants to be able +to dictate the entire policy of a million-dollar concern. In other +words, he wants a majority of stock, which will let him come into the +stock-holders' meetings, and vote into office his own board of +directors, who will do just what he says; and if he wanted to he might +have them vote the entire profits of the concern for his salary." + +"But, father, he wouldn't do anything like that," she protested, +shocked. + +"No, he probably wouldn't," admitted Mr. Westlake, "but I wouldn't be +wise to let him have the chance, just the same." + +"But, father," objected Miss Hallie, after further thought, "it's his +invention, you know, and his process, and if he doesn't have control +couldn't all you other stock-holders get together and appropriate the +profits yourselves?" + +Mr. Westlake gave his thumbs one quick turn. + +"Yes," he grudgingly confessed. "In fact, it's been done," and there +was a certain grim satisfaction at the corners of his mouth which his +daughter could not interpret, as he thought back over the long list of +absorptions which had made old Bill Westlake the power that he was. + +"But--but, father," and she hesitated a long time. + +"Yes," he encouraged her. + +"Even if you won't let him have enough stock to obtain control, if some +one other person should own enough of the stock, couldn't they put +their stock with his and let him do just about as he liked?" + +"Oh, yes," agreed Mr. Westlake without any twirling of his thumbs at +all; "that's been done, too." + +"Would this twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of stock that you're +buying, pop, if it were added to what you men are willing to let Mr. +Turner have, give him control?" + +Again Mr. Westlake turned his speculative gray eyes upon his daughter +and gave her a long, careful scrutiny, which she received with downcast +lashes. + +"No," he replied. + +"How much would?" + +"Well, fifty thousand would do it." + +"Say, pop--" + +"Yes." + +Another long interval. + +"I wish you'd buy fifty thousand for me in place of twenty-five." + +"Humph," grunted Mr. Westlake, and after one sharp glance at her he +looked down at his big fat thumbs and twirled them for a long, long +time. "Well," said he, "Sam Turner is a fine young man. I've known +him in a business way for five or six years, and I never saw a flaw in +him of any sort. All right. You give Billy your sugar stock and I'll +buy you this fifty thousand." + +Miss Westlake reached over and kissed her father impulsively. + +"Thanks, pop," she said. "Now there's another thing I want you to do." + +"What, more?" he demanded. + +"Yes, more," and this time the color deepened in her cheeks. "I want +you to hunt up Mr. Turner and tell him that you're going to take that +much." + +Mr. Westlake with a smile reached up and pinched his daughter's cheek. + +"Very well, Hallie, I'll do it," said he. + +She patted him affectionately on the bald spot. + +"Good for you," she said. "Be sure you see him this morning, though, +and before half-past nine." + +"You're particular about that, eh?" + +"Yes, it's rather important," she admitted, and blushed furiously. + +Westlake patted his daughter on the shoulder. + +"Hallie," said He, "if Billy only had your common-sense business +instinct, I wouldn't ask for anything else in this world; but Billy is +a saphead." + +Mr. Westlake, thinking that he understood the matter very thoroughly, +though in reality overunderstanding it--nice word, that--took it upon +himself with considerable seriousness to hunt up Sam Turner; but it was +fully nine-thirty before he found that energetic young man. Sam was +just going down the driveway in a neat little trap behind a team of +spirited grays. + +"Wait a minute, Sam, wait a minute," hailed Westlake, puffing +laboriously across the closely cropped lawn. + +Sam held up his horses abruptly, and they stood swinging their heads +and champing at their bits, while Sam, with a trace of a frown, looked +at his watch. + +"What's your rush?" asked Westlake. "I've been hunting for you +everywhere. I want to talk about some important features of that Marsh +Pulp Company of yours." + +"All right," said Sam. "I'm open for conversation. I'll see you right +after lunch." + +"No. I must see you now," insisted Westlake. "I've--I've got to +decide on some things right this morning. I--I've got to know how to +portion out my investments." + +Sam looked at his watch and was genuinely distressed. + +"I'm sorry," said he, "but I have an engagement over at Hollis Creek at +exactly ten o'clock, and I've scant time to make it." + +"Business?" demanded Westlake. + +"No," confessed Sam slowly. + +"Oh, social then. Well, social engagements in America always play +second fiddle to business ones, and don't you forget it. I'll talk +about this matter this morning or I won't talk about it at all." + +Sam stopped nonplussed. Westlake was an important factor in the +prospective Marsh Pulp Company. + +"Tell you what you do," said he, after some quick thought. "Why can't +you get in the trap and drive over to Hollis Creek with me? We can +talk on the way and you can visit with your friends over there until +time for luncheon; then I'll bring you back and we can talk on the way +home, too." + +Miss Hallie and Princeman and young Tilloughby came cantering down the +drive and waved hands at the two men. + +"All right," said Westlake decisively, looking after his daughter and +answering her glance with a nod. "Wait until I get my hat," and he +wheeled abruptly away. + +Sam fumed and fretted and jerked his watch back and forth from his +pocket, while Westlake wasted fifteen precious minutes in waddling up +to the house and hunting for his hat and returning with it, and two +minutes more in bungling his awkward way into the buggy; then Sam +started the grays at such a terrific pace that, until they came to the +steep hill midway of the course, there was no chance for conversation. +While the horses pulled up this steep hill, however, Westlake had his +opportunity. + +"I suppose you know," he said, "that you're not going to be allowed +over two thousand shares of common stock for your patents." + +"I'm beginning to give up the hope of having more," admitted Sam. +"However, I'm going to stick it out to the last ditch." + +"It won't be permitted, so you might as well give up that idea. How +much stock do you think of buying?" + +"About five thousand dollars' worth of the preferred," said Sam. + +"Which will give you fifty bonus shares of the common. I suppose of +course you figure on eventually securing control in some way or other." + +"Not being an infant, I do," returned Sam, flicking his whip at a weed +and gathering his lines up quickly as the mettled horses jumped. + +"I don't know of any one person who's going to buy enough stock to help +you out in that plan; unless I should do it myself," suggested +Westlake, and waited. + +Sam surveyed the other man long and silently. Westlake, as the largest +minority shareholder, had done some very strange things to corporations +in his time. + +"Neither do I," said Sam non-committally. + +There was another long silence. + +"If you carry through this Marsh Pulp Company to a successful +termination, you will be fairly well fixed for a young man, won't you?" +the older man ventured by and by. + +"Well," hesitated Sam, "I'll have a start anyhow." + +"I should say you would," Westlake assured him, placing his hands in +his favorite position for contemplative discussion. "You'll have a +good enough start to enable you to settle down." + +"Yes," admitted Sam. + +"What you need, my boy, is a wife," went on Mr. Westlake. "No man's +business career is properly assured until he has a wife to steady him +down." + +"I believe that," agreed Sam. "I've come to the same conclusion +myself, and to tell you the truth of the matter I've been contemplating +marriage very seriously since I've been down here." + +"Good!" approved Westlake. "You're a fine boy, Sam. I may tell you +right now that I approve of both you and your decision very heartily. +I rather thought there was something in the wind that way." + +"Yes," confessed Sam hesitantly. "I don't mind admitting that I have +even gone so far as to pick out the girl, if she'll have me." + +Mr. Westlake smiled. + +"I don't think there will be any trouble on that score," said he. "Of +course, Sam, I'm not going to force your confidence, or anything of +that sort, but--but I want to tell you that I think you're all right," +and he very solemnly shook hands with Mr. Turner. + +They had just reached the top of the hill when Westlake again returned +to business. + +"I'm glad to know you're going to settle down, Sam," he said. "It +inspires me with more confidence in your affairs, and I may say that I +stand ready to subscribe, in my daughter's name, for fifty thousand +dollars' worth of the stock of your company." + +"Well," said Sam, giving the matter careful weight. "It will be a good +investment for her." + +Before Mr. Westlake had any time to reply to this, the grays, having +just passed the summit of the hill, leaped forward in obedience to +another swish of Sam's whip. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT + +The trio from Meadow Brook, on their way to Sunset Rock galloped up to +the Hollis Creek porch, and, finding Miss Stevens there, gaily demanded +that she accompany them. + +"I'm sorry," said Miss Stevens, who was already in driving costume, +"but I have an engagement at ten o'clock," and she looked back through +the window into the office, where the clock then stood at two minutes +of the appointed time; then she looked rather impatiently down the +driveway, as she had been doing for the past five minutes. + +"Well, at least you'll come back to the bar with us and have an +ice-cream cocktail," insisted Princeman, reining up close to the porch +and putting his hand upon the rail in front of her. + +"I don't see how I can refuse that," said Miss Stevens with a smile and +another glance down at the driveway, "although it's really a little +early in the day to begin drinking," and she waited for them to +dismount, going back with them into the little ice-cream parlor and +"soft drink" and confectionery dispensary which had been facetiously +dubbed "the bar." Here she was careful to secure a seat where she +could look out of the window down toward the road, and also see the +clock. + +After a weary while, during which Miss Josephine had undergone a +variety of emotions which she was very careful not to mention, the +party rose from the discussion of their ice-cream soda and the bowling +tournament and all the various other social interests of the two +resorts, and made ready to depart, Miss Westlake twining her arm about +the waist of her friend Miss Stevens as they emerged on the porch. + +"Well, anyway, we've made you forget your engagement," Miss Westlake +gaily boasted, "for you said it was to be at ten, and now it's +ten-thirty." + +"Yes, I noticed the time," admitted Miss Stevens, rather grudgingly. + +"I'm sorry we dragged you away," commiserated Miss Westlake with a +swift change of tone. "Probably the party of the second part didn't +know where to find you." + +"No, it couldn't be anything like that," decided Miss Josephine after a +thoughtful pause. "Did you see anything of Mr. Turner this morning?" +she asked with sudden resolve. + +"Mr. Turner," repeated Miss Westlake in well-feigned surprise. "Why, +yes, I know papa said early this morning that he was going to have a +business talk with Mr. Turner, and as we left Meadow Brook papa was +just going after his hat to take a drive with him." + +"I wonder if it would be an imposition to ask you to wait about five +minutes longer," inquired Miss Stevens with a languidness which did +_not_ deceive. "I think I can change to my riding-habit almost within +that time." + +"We'll be delighted to wait," asserted Miss Westlake eagerly, herself +looking apprehensively down the driveway; "won't we, boys?" + +"Sure; what is it?" returned Princeman. + +"Josephine says that if we'll wait five minutes longer she'll go with +us." + +"We'll wait an hour if need be," declared Princeman gallantly. + +"It won't need be," said Miss Stevens lightly, and hurrying into the +office she ordered the clerk to send for her saddle-horse. + +For ten interminable minutes Miss Westlake never took her eyes from the +road, at the end of which time Miss Stevens returned, hatted and +habited and booted and whipped. + +The Hollis Creek young lady was rather grim as she rode down the +graveled approach beside Miss Westlake, and both the girls cast furtive +glances behind them as they turned away from the Meadow Brook road. +When they were safely out of sight around the next bend, Miss Westlake +laughed. + +"Mr. Turner is such a funny person," said she. "He's liable at any +moment to forget all about everything and everybody if somebody +mentions business to him. If he ever takes time to get married he'll +make it a luncheon hour appointment." + +Even Miss Josephine laughed. + +"And even then," she added, by way of elaboration, "the bride is likely +to be left waiting at the church." There was a certain snap and +crackle to whatever Miss Stevens said just now, however, which +indicated a perturbed and even an angry state of mind. + +Ten minutes later, Sam Turner, hatless, and carrying a buggy whip and +wearing a torn coat, trudged up the Hollis Creek Inn drive, afoot, and +walked rapidly into the office. + +"Is Miss Stevens about?" he wanted to know. + +"Not at present," the clerk informed him. "She ordered out her horse a +few minutes ago, and started over to Sunset Rock with a party of young +people from Meadow Brook." + +"Which way is Sunset Rock?" + +The clerk handed him a folder which contained a map of the roadways +thereabouts, and pointed out the way. + +"Could you get me a saddle-horse right away?" + +The clerk pounded a bell and ordered up a saddle-horse for Mr. Turner, +who immediately thereupon turned to the telephone, and, calling up +Meadow Brook, instructed the clerk at that resort to send a carriage +for Mr. Westlake, who was sitting in the trap, entirely unharmed but +disinclined to walk, at the foot of Laurel Hill; then he explained that +the grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar had +slipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had run +back up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked the +doubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they had +turned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the time +he had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it all +through the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse was +ready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he started +off at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to have +himself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket. + +He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to Sunset +Rock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with the +inspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were ready +to depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket being +greatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens, +who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been due +to an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation at +once. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, and +believed, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, and +she had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to be +with Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by the +side of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearance +of the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party" +has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though at +first lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted the +party so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlake +was riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone in +the center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a sudden +inclination to go very slowly. + +"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, by +and by. + +"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam. + +"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I think +I did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to say +he'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells me +I've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?" + +"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince. +Control and Westlake were two words which did not make, for him, a +cheerful juxtaposition. + +"So now you'll have to be very nice indeed to me," went on Miss +Westlake banteringly, "or I'm likely to vote with the other crowd." + +"I'll be just as nice to you as I know how," offered Sam. "Just state +what you want me to do and I'll do it." + +Miss Westlake did not state what she wanted him to do. In place of +that she whipped up her horse rather smartly, after a thoughtful +silence, and joined Tilloughby, the three of them riding abreast. The +next shifting, around a deep mud hole which only left room for an +Indian file procession, brought Sam alongside Miss Josephine, and here +he stuck for the balance of the ride, leaving Princeman to ride part of +the time alone between the two couples, and part of the time to be the +third rider with each couple in alternation. Miss Josephine was very +much concerned about Mr. Turner's accident, very happy to know how +lucky he had been to come off without a scratch, except for the tear in +his coat, and very solicitous indeed about any further handling of the +obstreperous gray team; and, forgiving him readily under the +circumstances, she renewed her engagement to drive with him the next +morning! + +Sam rode on home at the side of Miss Westlake, after leaving Miss +Stevens at Hollis Creek, in a strange and nebulous state of elation, +which continued until bedtime. As he was about to retire he was handed +a wire from his brother: + +"Just received patent papers meet me at Restview morning train." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A PLEASURE RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS + +The morning train was due at ten o'clock. At ten o'clock also Sam was +due at Hollis Creek to take his long deferred drive with Miss Stevens. +It was a slight conflict, her engagement, but the solution to that was +very easy. As early in the morning as he dared, Sam called up Miss +Josephine. + +"I've some glorious news," he said hopefully. "My kid brother will +arrive at Restview on the ten o'clock train." + +"You are to be congratulated," Miss Stevens told him, with an echo of +his own delight. + +"But you know we've an engagement to go driving at ten o'clock," he +reminded her, still hopefully, but trembling in spirit. + +There was an instant of hesitation, which ended in a laugh. + +"Don't let that interfere," she said. "We can defer our drive until +some other time, when fate is not so determined against it." + +"But that doesn't suit me at all," he assured her. "Why can't you be +ready at nine in place of ten, let me call for you at that time and +drive over to Restview with me to meet Jack?" + +"Is that his name?" she asked in blissfully reassuring tones. "You've +never spoken of him as anybody but your 'kid brother.' Why of course +I'll drive over to Restview with you. I shall be delighted to meet +him." + +Privately she had her own fears of what Jack Turner might turn out to +be like. Sam was always so good in speaking of him, always held him in +such tender regard, such profound admiration, that she feared he might +prove to be perfect only in Sam's eyes. + +"Good," said Sam. "Just for that I'm going to bring you over some +choice blooms that I have been having the gardener save back for me," +and he turned away from the telephone quite happy in the thought that +for once he had been able to kill two birds with one stone without +ruffling the feathers of either. + +Armed with a huge consignment of brilliant blossoms, enough to +transform her room into a fairy bower, he sped quite happily to Hollis +Creek. + +"Oh, gladiolas!" cried Miss Josephine, as he drove up. "How did you +ever guess it! That little bird must have been busy again." + +"Honestly, it was the little bird this time. I just had an intuition +that you must like them because I do so well," upon which naive +statement Miss Josephine merely smiled, and calling her father with +pretty peremptoriness, she loaded that heavy gentleman down with the +flowers and with instructions concerning them, and then stepped +brightly into the tonneau with Sam. + +It was a pleasant ride they had to Restview, and it was a pleasant +surprise which greeted Miss Josephine when the train arrived, for out +of it stepped a youth who was unmistakably a Turner. He was as tall as +Sam, but slighter, and as clean a looking boy as one would find in a +day's journey. There was that, too, in the hand-clasp between the +brothers which proclaimed at once their flawless relationship. + +Miss Stevens was so relieved to find the younger Turner so presentable +that she took him into her friendship at once. He was that kind of +chap anyhow, and in the very first greeting she almost found herself +calling him Jack. Just behind him, however, was a little, dried-up man +with a complexion the color of old parchment, with sandy, stubby hair +shot with gray, and a stubby gray beard shot with red. His lips were a +wide straight line, as grim as judgment day. He walked with a slight +stoop, but with a quick staccato step which betokened great nervous +energy, a quality which the alert expression of his beady eyes +confirmed with distinct emphasis. + +"Hello, Creamer!" hailed Sam to this gentleman. "I didn't expect to +see you here quite so soon." + +"You had every right to expect me," snapped the little man querulously. +"After all the experimenting I have done for you boys, you had every +reason to keep me posted on all your movements; and yet I reckon if I +hadn't been in your office yesterday evening when Jack said he was +coming down here, you would not have notified me until you had your +company all formed. Then I suppose you'd have written to tell me how +much stock you had assigned to me. I'm going to be in on the formation +of this company, and I'm going to have my say about it!" + +"Will you never get over that dyspepsia?" chided Sam easily. "There +was no intention of leaving you out." + +"Just what I told him," declared Jack, turning from Miss Stevens to +them. "I have been swearing to him that as soon as we had found out +to-day what we were to do I would have wired him at once." + +"You were quite right, Jack," approved Sam, opening the door of the car +for them, "and as a proof of it, Creamer, when you return to your +office you will find there a letter postmarked yesterday, telling you +our exact progress here, and warning you to be in readiness to come on +telegram." + +"All right, then," said Mr. Creamer, somewhat mollified, "but since +that letter's there and I'm here, you might as well tell me what you've +done." + +Sam stopped the proceedings long enough to introduce Creamer to Miss +Stevens after he had closed the door upon them and had taken his own +seat by the chauffeur. + +"All right," he then said to Mr. Creamer, "I'll begin at the beginning." + +He began at the beginning. He told Mr. Creamer all the steps in the +development of the company. He detailed to him the names of the +gentlemen concerned, and their complete commercial histories, pausing +to answer many pertinent side questions and observations from his +younger brother, who proved to be as keen a student of business puzzles +as Sam himself. + +"That's all very well," said Mr. Creamer, "and now I'm here. I want to +get away to-night: Can't we form that company to-day? At what figure +do you propose offering the original stock?" + +"The preferred at fifty, with a par value of a hundred," returned Sam +promptly. + +"Common?" asked Mr. Creamer crisply. + +"One share of common with each two shares of preferred." + +"Eh! Well, I've twenty-five thousand dollars to put into this marsh +pulp business, if I can have any figure in the management. I want on +the board." + +"It's quite likely you'll be on the board," returned Sam. "We shall +have a very small list of subscribers, and the board will not be +unwieldy if every investor is a director." + +"Voting power in the common stock?" + +"In the common stock," repeated Sam. + +"Do you intend to buy any preferred?" asked Creamer. + +"A hundred shares." + +"How much common do you expect to take out for your patents?" + +"Two hundred and fifty thousand," Sam answered without an instant's +hesitation. + +"Never!" exclaimed Mr. Creamer. "The time for that's gone by, young +man, no matter how good your proposition is. It's too old a game. You +won't handle my money with control in your hands. I have no objection +to letting you have two hundred thousand dollars worth of common stock +out of the half million, because that will give you an incentive to +make the common worth par; but you shan't at any time have or be able +to acquire a share over two hundred and forty-nine thousand; not if I +know anything about it! Can you call a meeting as soon as we get +there?" + +"I think so," replied Sam, with a more or less worried air. "I'll try +it. Tell you what I'll do. I'll run right on over to get Mr. Stevens, +who wants to join the company, and in the meantime Mr. Westlake or +Princeman can round up the others." + +For the first time in that drive Miss Stevens had something to say, but +she said it with a briefness that was like a dash of cold water to the +preoccupied Sam. + +"Father is over there now, I think," she said. + +"Good," approved Mr. Creamer. "We can have a little direct business +talk and wind up the whole affair before lunch. What time do we arrive +at Meadow Brook?" + +"Before eleven o'clock." + +"That will give us two hours. Two hours is enough to form any company, +when everybody knows exactly what he wants to do. Got a lawyer over +there?" + +"One of the best in the country." + +Miss Stevens sat in the center seat of the tonneau. Sam, in addressing +his remarks to the others and in listening to their replies, was +compelled to sweep his glance squarely across her, and occasionally in +these sweeps he paused to let his gaze rest upon her. She was a relief +to his eyes, a blessing to them! Miss Stevens, however, seldom met any +of these glances. Very much preoccupied she was, looking at the +passing scenery and not seeing it. + +There had begun boiling and seething in Miss Stevens a feeling that she +was decidedly _de trop_, that these men could talk their absorbing +business more freely if she were not there; not because she embarrassed +them, but because she used up space! Nobody seemed to give her a +thought. Nobody seemed to be aware that she was present. They were +almost gaspingly engrossed in something far more important to them than +she was. It was uncomplimentary, to say the least. She was not used +to playing "second fiddle" in any company. She was in the habit of +absorbing the most of the attention in her immediate vicinity. Mr. +Princeman or Mr. Hollis would neither one ignore her in that way, to +say nothing of Billy Westlake. + +She was glad when they reached Meadow Brook. Their whole talk had been +of marsh pulp, and company organization, and preferred and common +stock, and who was to get it, and how much they were to pay for it, and +how they were going to cut the throats of the wood pulp manufacturers, +and how much profit they were going to make from the consumers and with +all that, not a word for her. Not a single word! Not even an apology! +Oh, it was atrocious! As soon as they drew up to the porch she rose, +and before Sam could jump down to open the door of the tonneau she had +opened it for herself and sprung out. + +"I'll hunt up father right away for you," she stated courteously. +"Glad to have met you, Mr. Creamer. I presume I shall meet you again, +Mr. Turner," she said to Jack. "Thank you so much for the ride," she +said to Sam, and then she was gone. + +Sam looked after her blankly. It couldn't be possible that she was +"huffy" about this business talk. Why, couldn't the girl see that this +had to do with the birth of a great big company, a million dollar +corporation, and that it was of vital importance to him? It meant the +apex of a lifetime of endeavor. It meant the upbuilding of a fortune. +Couldn't she see that he and his brother were two lone youngsters +against all these shrewd business men, whose only terms of aiding them +and floating this big company was to take their mastery of it away from +them? Couldn't she understand what control of a million dollar +organization meant? He was not angry with Miss Stevens for her +apparent attitude in this matter, but he was hurt. He was not +impatient with her, but he was impatient of the fact that she could not +appreciate. Now the fat was in the fire again. He felt that. Under +other circumstances he would have said that it was much more trouble +than it was worth to keep in the good graces of a girl, but under the +present circumstances--well, his heart had sunk down about a foot out +of place, and he had a sort of faint feeling in the region of his +stomach. He was just about sick. He followed her in, just in time to +see the flutter of her skirts at the top of the stairway, but he could +not call without making himself and her ridiculous. Confound things in +general! + +Mr. Stevens joined him while he was still looking into that blank hole +in the world. + +"Glad I happened to be here, Sam," said Stevens. "Jo tells me that +your brother and Mr. Creamer have arrived and that you want to form +that company right away." + +"Yes," admitted Sam. "Was she sarcastic about it?" + +Mr. Stevens closed his eyes and laughed. + +"Not exactly sarcastic," he stated; "but she did allude to your +proposed corporation as 'that old company!'" + +"I was afraid so," said Sam ruefully. + +Stevens surveyed him in amusement for a moment, and then in pity. + +"Never mind, my boy," he said kindly. "You'll get used to these things +by and by. It took me the first five years of my married life to +convince Mrs. Stevens that business was not a rival to her affections, +when, if I'd only have known the recipe, I could have convinced her at +the start." + +"How did you finally do it?" asked Sam, vitally interested. + +"Made her my confidante and adviser," stated Stevens, smiling +reminiscently. + +Sam shook his head. + +"Was that safe?" he asked. "Didn't she sometimes let out your secrets?" + +"Bosh!" exclaimed Stevens. "I'd rather trust a woman than a man, any +day, with a secret, business or personal. That goes for any woman; +mother, sister, sweetheart, wife, daughter, or stenographer. Just give +them a chance to get interested in your game, and they're with you +against the world." + +"Thanks," said Sam, putting that bit of information aside for future +pondering. "By the way, Mr. Stevens, before we join the others I'd +like to ask you how much stock you're going to carry in the Marsh Pulp +Company." + +"Well," returned Mr. Stevens slowly, "I did think that if the thing +looked good on final analysis, I might invest twenty-five thousand +dollars." + +"Can't you stretch that to fifty?" + +"Can't see it. But why? Don't you think you're going to fill your +list?" + +"We'll fill our list all right," returned Sam. "As a matter of fact, +that's what I'm afraid of. These fellows are going to pool their +stock, and hold control in their own hands. Now if I could get you to +invest fifty thousand and vote with me under proper emergency, I could +control the thing; and I ought to. It is my own company. Seems to me +these fellows are selfish about it. You think I'm a good business man, +don't you?" + +"I certainly do," agreed Mr. Stevens emphatically. + +"Well, it stands to reason that if I have two hundred and sixty +thousand dollars of common stock that isn't worth a picayune unless I +make it worth par, I'll hustle; and if I make my common stock worth +par, I'm making a fine, fat profit for these other fellows, to say +nothing of the raising of their preferred stock from the value of fifty +to a hundred dollars a share, and their common from nothing to a +hundred." + +"That's all right, Sam," returned Mr. Stevens; "but you'll work just as +hard to make your common worth par if you only have two hundred +thousand; and there's a growing tendency on the part of capital to be +able to keep a string on its own money. Strange, but true." + +"All right," said Sam wearily. "We won't argue that point any more +just now; but will you invest fifty thousand?" + +"I can't promise," said Stevens, and he walked out on the porch. Much +worried, Sam followed him, and with many misgivings he introduced Mr. +Stevens to his brother Jack and to Mr. Creamer. The prospective +organizers of the Marsh Pulp Company were already in solemn conclave on +the porch, with the single exception of Princeman, who was on the lawn +talking most perfunctorily with Miss Josephine. That young lady, with +wickedness of the deepest sort in her soul, was doing her best to +entice Mr. Princeman into forgetting the important meeting, but as soon +as Princeman saw the gathering hosts he gently but firmly tore himself +away, very much to her surprise and indignation. Why, he had been as +rude to her as Sam Turner himself, in placing the charms of business +above her own! Immediately afterward she snubbed Billy Westlake +unmercifully. Had he the qualities which would go to make a successful +man in any walk of life? No! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A DUAL QUESTION OF MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY AND STOCK SUBSCRIPTION + +Mr. Westlake dropped back with his old friend Stevens as they trailed +into the parlor which Blackstone had secured. + +"Are you going to subscribe rather heavily in the company, Stevens?" +inquired Westlake, with the curiosity of a man who likes to have his +own opinion corroborated by another man of good judgment. + +"Well," replied the father of Miss Josephine, "I think of taking a +rather solid little block of stock. I believe I can spare twenty-five +thousand dollars to invest in almost any company Sam Turner wants to +start." + +"He's a fine boy," agreed Westlake. "A square, straight young fellow, +a good business man, and a hustler. I see him playing tennis with my +girl every day, and she seems to think a lot of him." + +"He's bound to make his mark," Mr. Stevens acquiesced, sharply +suppressing a fool impulse to speak of his own daughter. "Do you +fellows intend to let him secure control of this company?" + +"I should say not!" replied Westlake, with such unnecessary emphasis +that Stevens looked at him with sudden suspicion. He knew enough about +old Westlake to "copper" his especially emphatic statements. + +"Are you agreeable to Princeman's plan to pool all stock but Turner's?" + +"Well--we can talk about that later." + +"Huh!" grunted Mr. Stevens, and together the two heavy-weights, Stevens +with his aggressive beard suddenly pointed a trifle more straight out, +and Mr. Westlake with his placidity even more marked than usual, +stalked on into the parlor, where Mr. Blackstone, taking the chair _pro +tem_., read them the preliminary agreement he had drawn up; upon which +Sam Turner immediately started to wrangle, a proceeding which proved +altogether in vain. + +The best he could get for patents and promotion was two thousand out of +the five thousand shares of common stock, and finally he gave in, +knowing that he could not secure the right kind of men on better terms. +Mr. Blackstone thereupon offered a subscription list, to which every +man present solemnly appended his name opposite the number of shares he +would take. Sam, at the last moment, put down his own name for a block +of stock which meant a cash investment of considerably more than he had +originally figured upon. He cast up the list hurriedly. Five hundred +shares of preferred, carrying half that much common, were still to be +subscribed. With whom could he combine to obtain control? The only +men who had subscribed enough for that purpose were Princeman, who was +out of the question, and, in fact, would be the leader of the +opposition, and Westlake. The highest of the others were Creamer, +Cuthbert and Stevens. Sam would have to subscribe for the entire five +hundred in order to make these men available to him. + +McComas and Blackstone had only subscribed for the same amount as Sam. +They could do him no good, and he knew it was hopeless to attempt to +get two men to join with him. He looked over at Westlake. That +gentleman was smiling like a placid cherub, all innocence without, and +kindliness and good deeds; but there was nevertheless something fishy +about Westlake's eyes, and Sam, in memory, cast over a list of maimed +and wounded and crushed who had come in Westlake's business way. The +logical candidate was Stevens. Stevens simply had to take enough stock +to overbalance this thing, then he simply must vote his stock with +Sam's! That was all there was to it! Sam did not pause to worry about +how he was to gain over Stevens' consent, but he had an intuitive +feeling that this was his only chance. + +"Stevens," said he briskly, "there are five hundred shares left. I'll +take half of it if you'll take the other half." + +His brother Jack looked at him startled. Their total holdings, in that +case, would mean an investment of more money than they could spare from +their other operations. It would cramp them tremendously, but Jack +ventured no objections. He had seen Sam at the helm in decisive places +too often to interfere with him, either by word or look. As a matter +of fact such a proceeding was not safe anyhow. + +"I don't mind--" began Westlake, slowly fixing a beaming eye upon Sam, +and crossing his hands ponderously upon his periphery; but before he +could announce his benevolent intention, Mr. Stevens, with what might +almost have been considered a malevolent glance toward Mr. Westlake, +spoke up. + +"I'll accept your proposition," he said with a jerk of his beard as his +jaws snapped. So Miss Westlake thought a great deal of Sam, eh? And +old Westlake knew it, eh? And he had already subscribed enough stock +to throw Sam control, eh? + +"Thanks," said Sam, and shot Mr. Stevens a look of gratitude as he +altered the subscription figures. + +"Stop just a moment, Sam," put in Mr. Westlake. "How many shares of +common stock does that give you in combination with your bonus?" + +"Two thousand two hundred and sixty," said Sam. + +"Oh!" said Mr. Westlake musingly; "not enough for control by two +hundred and forty one shares; so you won't mind, since you haven't +enough for control anyhow, if I take up that additional two hundred and +fifty shares of preferred, with its one hundred and twenty-five of +common, myself." + +Sam once more paused and glanced over the subscription list. As it +stood now, aside from Princeman, there were two members, Westlake and +Stevens, with whom, if he could get either one of them to do so, he +could pool his common stock. If he allowed Westlake to take up this +additional two hundred and fifty shares, Westlake was the only string +to his bow. + +"No, thanks," said Sam. "I prefer to keep them myself. It seems to me +to be a very fair and equitable division just as it is." + +In the end it stood just that way. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE HERO OF THE HOUR + +On that very same afternoon, the youth and beauty, also the age and +wisdom, of both Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook, gathered around the ball +field of the former resort, to watch the Titanic struggle for victory +between the two picked nines. As Sam took his place behind the bat for +the first man up, who was Hollis, he felt his first touch of +self-confidence anent the strictly amusement features of summer +resorting. In all the other athletic pursuits he had been backward, +but here, as he smacked his fist in his glove, he felt at home. + +The only thing he did not like about it, as Princeman wound himself up +to deliver the first ball, was that Princeman had the position of +glory. On that gentleman the spotlight burned brightly all the time, +and if they won, he would be the hero of the hour; the modest, reliable +catcher would scarcely be thought of except by the men who knew the +finer points of the game, and it was not the men whom he had in mind. +Honestly and sincerely, he desired to shine before Miss Josephine +Stevens. She was over there at the edge of the field under an oak tree. + +Before her, cavorting for her amusement, were not only Princeman and +himself, but Billy Westlake and Hollis, each of them alert for action +at this moment; for now Princeman, with a mighty twirl upon his great +toe, released the ball. It never reached Sam Turner's hands; instead +it bounced off the bat with a "crack!" and sailed right down through +Billy Westlake, who, at second, made a frantic grab for it, and then it +spun out between center and right field, losing itself in the bushes, +while Hollis, amid the frantic cheers of the audience, which consisted +of Miss Josephine Stevens and several unconsidered other spectators, +tore around the circuit. His colleagues strove wildly to hold Hollis +at third, for the ball was found and was sailing over to that base. It +arrived there just as he did, but far over the head of the third +baseman, and fat, curly-haired Hollis, who looked like an ice wagon but +ran like a motorcycle, secured the first run for Hollis Creek. + +The next batter was up. Princeman, his confidence loftily unshaken, +gave a correct imitation of a pretzel and delivered the ball. The +batsman swung viciously at it. + +Spat! It landed in Sam's glove. + +"Strike one!" called the strident voice of Blackrock, who, jerking +himself back several years into youth again, was umpiring the game with +great joy. Nonchalantly Sam snapped the ball back over-hand. +Princeman smiled with calm superiority. He wound himself up. + +Spat! The ball had cut the plate and was in Sam's hands, while the +batsman stood looking earnestly at the path over which it had come. + +"Strike two!" called Blackstone. + +Sam jerked the ball back with an underwrist toss of great perfection. +Princeman drew himself up with smiling ease and posed a moment for the +edification of the on-lookers. Sam Turner was the very first to detect +the unbearable arrogance of that pose. Princeman eyed the batsman +critically, mercilessly even, and delivered the third fatal +plate-splitter. + +Z-z-z-ing! The sphere slammed right out through Billy Westlake, who +made a frantic grab for it. It bounded down between center and right +field, and the players bumped shoulders in trying to stop it. It +nestled among the bushes. The batsman tore around the bases. His +colleagues tried to hold him at third, for the ball was streaking in +that direction, but the batsman pawed straight on. The ball crossed +the base before he did, but it bounded between the third sacker's feet, +and score two was marked up for Hollis Creek, with nobody out! + +With undiminished confidence, though somewhat annoyed, Princeman made a +cute little knot of himself for the next batsman. + +Spat! The ball landed in Sam's glove, two feet wide of the plate. + +"Ball one!" called Blackstone. + +Spat! In Sam's glove again, with the batsman jumping back to save his +ribs. + +"Ball two!" cried Blackstone. + +Spat! + +"Ball three." + +"Put 'em over, Princeman!" yelled Billy Westlake from second. + +"Don't be afraid of him! He couldn't hit it with a pillow!" jeered the +third baseman. + +In a calm, superior sort of way, Mr. Princeman smiled and shot over the +ball. + +"Four balls. Take your base!" said Mr. Blackstone, quite gently. + +Reassuringly Mr. Princeman smiled upon his supporters, consisting of +Miss Josephine Stevens and some other summer resorters, and proceeded +to take out his revenge upon the next batter. The first two lofts were +declared to be balls, and then Sam, catching his man playing too far +off, snapped the pill down to the nearest suburb and nailed the first +out. Encouraged by this, Princeman put over three successive strikes, +and there were two gone. The next batter up, however, laced out, for +two easy way-points, the first ball presented him. The next athlete +brought him in with a single, and the next one put down a three-bagger +which bored straight through Princeman and short stop and center field. +That inglorious inning ended with a brilliant throw of Sam's to Billy +Westlake at second, nipping a would-be thief who had hoped to purloin +the seventh tally for Hollis Creek. + +Billy Westlake, then taking the bat, increased the Meadow Brook +depression by slapping the soft summer air three vicious spanks and +retiring to think it over, and young Tilloughby bounced a feeble little +bunt square at the feet of Hollis and was tossed out at first by +something like six furlongs. The third batsman popped up a slow, lazy +foul which gave the catcher almost plenty of time to roll a cigarette +before it came down, and the Meadow Brook side was ignominiously +retired. Score, six to nothing at the end of the first. + +Princeman hit the first man up in the next inning and sent him down to +the initial bag, which was a flat stone, happily limping. He issued +free transportation to the next man and let the cripple hobble on to +second, chortling with glee. The third man went to the first station +on a measly little bunt with which Sam and Princeman and third base did +some neat and shifty foot work, and the next man up soaked out a Wright +Brothers beauty among the trees over beyond left field, and cleared the +bases amid the perfectly frantic rejoicing of the fickle Miss Josephine +Stevens and all the negligible balance of Hollis Creek. Oh, it was +disgraceful! Sam Turner ground his teeth in impotent rage. He walked +up to Princeman. + +"Say, old man," he pleaded. "We've just _got_ to settle down! We +_must_ pull this game out of the fire! We _can't_ let Hollis Creek +walk away with it!" + +Princeman was pale, but clutched at his fast-slipping-away nonchalance +with the grip of desperation. + +"We'll hold them," he declared, and with careful deliberation he put +over a ball which the next batter sent sailing right down inside the +right foul line, pulling the first baseman away back almost to right +field. Princeman stood gaping at that bingle in paralyzed dismay; but +the batsman, who was a slow runner and slow thinker, stood a fatal +second to see whether the ball was fair or foul. Almost at the crack +of the bat Sam Turner started, raced down to first, caught the right +fielder's throw and stepped on the stone, one handsome stride ahead of +the runner! Then, as Blackrock, speechless with admiration, waved the +runner out, the first mighty howl went up from Meadow Brook, and one +partisan of the Hollis Creek nine, turning her back for the moment +squarely upon her own colors, led the cheering. Sam heard her voice. +It was a solo, while all the rest of the cheering was a faint +accompaniment, and with such elation as comes only to the heroes in +victorious battle, he trotted back to his place and caught three balls +and three strikes on the next batter. Also, the next one went out on a +pop fly which Sam was able to catch. + +In their half Princeman redeemed himself in part by a three bagger +which brought in two scores, and the second inning ended at ten to +three in favor of Hollis Creek. + +Confident and smiling, reinforced by the memory of his three bagger, +Princeman took the mount for the beginning of the third, and with his +compliments he suavely and politely presented a base to the first man +up. A groan arose from all Meadow Brook. The second batsman shot a +stinger to Princeman, who dropped it, and that batsman immediately +thereafter roosted on first, crowing triumphantly; but the hot liner +allowed Princeman a graceful opportunity. He complained of a badly +hurt finger on his pitching hand. He called time while he held that +injured member, and expressed in violent gestures the intolerable agony +of it. Bravely, however, he insisted upon "sticking it out," and +passed two wild ones up to the next willow wielder; then, having proved +his gameness, he nobly sacrificed himself for the good of Meadow Brook, +called time and asked for a substitute pitcher. He would go anywhere. +He would take the field or he would retire. What he wanted was Meadow +Brook to win. This was precisely what Sam Turner also wanted, and he +lost no time in calling, with ill-concealed satisfaction, upon his +brother Jack. Then Jack Turner, nothing loath, deserted his +comfortable seat by the side of Miss Josephine Stevens, and strode +forth to the mound, leaving the unfortunate Princeman to take his place +by the side of Miss Stevens and give her an opportunity to sympathize +with his poor maimed pitching hand, which, after a perfunctory moment +of interest, she was too busy to do; for Jack Turner and Sam Turner, +smiling across at each other in mutual confidence and esteem, proceeded +to strike out the next three batters in succession, leaving men +cemented to first and second bases, where they had been wildly +imploring for opportunities to tear themselves loose. + +What need to tell of the balance of that game; of the calm, easy, +one-two-three work of the invincible Turner battery; of the brilliant +base throwing and fielding of Turner and Turner, and their mighty swats +when they came to bat? You know how the game turned out. Anybody +would know. It ended in a triumph for Meadow Brook at the end of the +seventh inning, which is all any summer resort game ever goes, and two +innings more than most, by a total and glorious score of twenty-one to +seventeen. And who were the heroes of the hour, as smilingly but +modestly they strode from the diamond? Who, indeed, but Jack Turner +and Sam Turner; and by token of their victory, after receiving the +frenzied plaudits of all Meadow Brook and the generous plaudits of all +Hollis Creek, they marched in triumph from the field, one on either +side of Miss Josephine Stevens! Where now were Hollis and Princeman +and Billy Westlake? Nowhere! They were forgotten of men, ignored of +women, and the laurels of sweet victory rested upon the brow of busy +Sam Turner! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN INTERRUPTED BUT PROPERLY FINISHED PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE + +Jack's first opportunity for a quiet talk with his brother did not +occur for an hour after the game. + +"I don't like to worry you while you're resting, Sam," he began, "but +I'll have to tell you that the Flatbush deal seems likely to drop +through. It reaches a head to-morrow, you know." + +[Illustration: "I don't like to worry you, Sam"] + +Sam Turner grabbed for his watch. + +"It can't drop through!" he vigorously declared. "I'll go right up +there to-night and look after it." + +"But you're on your vacation," protested Jack. "That's no way to rest." + +"On my vacation!" snorted Sam. "Of course I am. I'm not losing a +minute of my vacation. The proper way to have a vacation is to do the +thing you enjoy most. Don't you suppose I'll enjoy closing that +Flatbush deal?" + +"Certainly," admitted his brother, "and I'll enjoy seeing you do it. I +know you can." + +"Of course I can. But you're to stay here." + +"It's not my turn for an outing," protested Jack. "I haven't earned +one yet." + +"You're to work," explained Sam. "You see, Jack, in one week I can't +become a bowling or golf expert enough to beat Princeman, nor a tennis +or dancing expert enough to outshine Billy Westlake, nor a horseback or +croquet expert enough to make a deuce out of Hollis. You can do all +these things, and I want you to give this crowd of distinguished +amateurs a showing up. Jack, if you ever worked for athletic honors in +your life now is the time to do it; and in between time stick to Miss +Stevens like glue. Monopolize her. Don't give these three or any +other contenders any of her time. Keep her busy. Let me know every +day what progress you're making; don't stop to write; wire! For +remember, Jack, I'm going to marry her. I've got to." + +"Well, then you'll marry her," Jack sagely concluded. "Does she know +it yet?" + +"I don't think she's quite sure of it," returned Sam with careful +analysis. "Of course she's thought about it. Sometimes she thinks she +won't, and sometimes she thinks she will, and sometimes she isn't quite +sure whether she will or not. Don't you worry about that part, though, +and don't bother to boost me. Just quietly you take the shine out of +these summer champions and leave the rest to your brother Sam." + +"Fine," agreed Jack. "Run right along and sell your papers, Sammy, and +I'll wire you every time I put over a point." + +Sam hunted and found Miss Josephine. + +"I'm sorry I have to take a run back to New York for two or three +days," he said. + +She bent upon him a glance of amusement; the old glance of mingled +amusement and mischief. + +"I thought you were on your vacation," she observed. + +"And I am," he insisted. "I've been having a bully time, and I'll come +back here to finish up the couple of days I have left." + +"Then the drive which didn't count this morning, and which was +postponed again until to-morrow morning, will have to be put off once +more," she reminded him with a gay laugh. + +"By George, that's so!" he exclaimed. "In all the excitement it had +quite slipped my mind." + +"I presume you're going up on business," she slyly observed. + +"Yes, I am," he admitted. + +She laughed and gave him her hand. + +"Well, I wish you good luck," she said. "I hope you make all the money +in the world. But you won't forget us who are down here in the country +dawdling away our time in useless amusements." + +"Forget you!" he returned impetuously. "Never for a minute!" and he +was in such deadly earnest about it that she hastily checked further +speech, although she did not know why. + +"Good!" she hurriedly exclaimed. "I'm glad you will bear us in mind +while you're gone. Are you going to take your brother along?" + +"No," he said with a smile. "I'm putting him in as my vacation +substitute, and I'll give him special instructions to call you up every +morning for orders. You'll find him in perfect discipline. He'll do +whatever you tell him." + +"I shall give him a thorough trial," she laughed. "I never yet had +anybody to come and go abjectly at the word of command, and I think it +will be a delightful novelty." + +Jack approaching just then, she took his arm quite comfortably. + +"Your brother tells me that during his absence you are to be my chief +aide and attache," she advised that young man gaily; "that you'll fetch +and carry and do what I tell you; and the first thing you must do is to +call for me when you take Mr. Turner to the train." + +It is glorious to part so pleasantly as that from people you have +persistently in mind, and Sam, with such cheerful recollections, +enjoyed his vacation to the full as he did new and brilliant and +unexpected things in closing up the Flatbush deal, keeping, in the +meantime, in constant touch with his office and with such telegrams as +these: + +"Established new tennis record this morning Westlake nowhere and has +been snubbed do not know why." + + +"Bowled two eighty five last night against Princeman two twenty am +teaching her." + + +"Danced six dances out of twelve with her says I'm better dancer than +Billy Westlake." + + +"Jumped Hollis Creek after her hat on horseback this afternoon Hollis +dared not follow am to give her riding lessons." + + +Then came this one: + +"Her father just told me she refused Princeman last night she will not +talk to Hollis and scarcely to me is dull and does not eat I beat all +entries in ten mile Marathon today and she hardly applauded wire +instructions." + + +Sam Turner took the next train. One look at Miss Stevens, after he had +traveled two years to reach Restview, made him suddenly intoxicated, +for in her eyes there was ravenous hunger for him and he read it, and +feeling rather sure of his ground he determined that now was the time +to strike. With that decisive end in view he dropped Jack at Meadow +Brook and went right on over to Hollis Creek with Miss Josephine. Of +course there was no chance to talk quite intimately, with Henry up +there ahead listening with all his ears, but there was every chance in +the world to look into her eyes and grow delirious; to touch elbows; to +look again and gaze deep into her eyes and see her turn away startled +and half frightened; to say perfunctory things which meant nothing and +everything, and receive perfunctory answers which meant as little and +as much; but before they had arrived at Hollis Creek Sam was frankly +and boldly holding her hand and she was letting him do it, and they +were both of them profoundly happy and profoundly silly, and would just +as leave have ridden on that way for ever. + +Words seemed superfluous, but yet they were more or less necessary, so +Sam got out at Hollis Creek Inn with her, and led the way determinedly +and directly into the stuffy little parlor just off the main assembly +room. He saw Mr. Stevens in the door of the post-office, but only +nodded to him, and then he drew Miss Josephine into the corner freest +from observation. + +"You know why I came back," he informed her, fixing her with a masterly +eye; "I had to see you again. My whole life is changed since I met +you. I need you. I can not do without you. I--" + +"Beg your pardon, Sam," said Mr. Stevens, appearing suddenly in the +doorway, and then he paused, much more confused even than the young +people, for Sam was holding both Miss Josephine's hands and gazing down +at her with an earnestness which, if harnessed, would have driven a +four-ton dynamo; and she was gazing up at him just as earnestly, with +an entirely breathless, but by no means displeased expression. + +"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens. + +[Illustration: "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.] + +It was Miss Josephine who first found her aplomb. She smiled her rare +smile of mingled amusement and mischief at Sam, and then at her father. + +"You're quite excusable, I guess, father," she said sweetly. "What is +it?" + +"Why, your brother Jack just called you up from Meadow Brook, Sam, and +wants to tell you something immediately," stammered Mr. Stevens, +plucking at a beard which in that moment seemed to have lost all its +aggressiveness. "He called twice before you arrived, and is on the +'phone now." + +Sam, as he walked to the telephone, had time to find that his heart was +beating a tattoo against his ribs, that his breath was short and +fluttery, and that stage fright had suddenly crept over him and claimed +him for its own; so it was with no great patience or understanding that +he heard Jack tell him in great glee about some tests which Princeman +had had made in his own paper mills with the marsh pulp, and how +Princeman was sorry he had not taken more stock, and could not the +treasury stock be opened for further subscription? "Tell him no," said +Sam shortly, and hung up the receiver; then he repented of his +bluntness and spent five precious minutes in recalling his brother and +apologizing for his bruskness, explaining that Princeman was probably +trying to plan another attempt to pool the stock. + +In the meantime Theophilus Stevens had stood surveying his daughter in +contrition. + +"I'm afraid I came in at a most inopportune moment," he said by way of +apology. + +"Yes, I'm afraid you did," she admitted with a smile. "However, I +don't think Sam will forget what he wanted to say," and suddenly she +reached up and put her arms around her father's neck and drew his face +down and kissed him rapturously. + +"I'm glad to see you feel the way you do about it," said Mr. Stevens +delightedly, petting her gently upon the shoulder with one hand and +with the other smoothing back the hair from her forehead. She was the +dearest to him of all his children, although he never confessed it, +even to himself, and just now they were very, very close together +indeed. "I'm glad to hear you call him Sam, too. He's a fine young +man and he is bound to be a howling success in everything he +undertakes." He smiled reminiscently. "I rather thought there was +something between you two," he went on, still patting her shoulder, +"and when Dan Westlake told me that his girl thought a great deal of +Sam and that he was going to buy enough stock in Sam's company to give +Sam control, I turned right around and bought just as much stock as +Westlake had, although just before the meeting I had refused to invest +as much money as Sam wanted me to. Moreover, Westlake and myself, +between us, stopped the move to pool the outside stock, just yet. He's +a smart young man, that boy," he continued admiringly. "I didn't see, +until I went into that meeting, why he was so crazy to have me buy +enough stock to gain control-- What's the matter?" + +He stopped in perplexity, for his daughter, looking aghast at him, had +pushed back from his embrace and was regarding him with perfectly round +eyes, while over her face, at first pale, there gradually crept a +crimson flush. + +"Well, of all things!" she gasped. "Of all the cold-blooded, cruel, +barter-and-sale proceedings! Why, father, how--how could you! How +could he! I never in all my life--" + +"Why, Jo, what do you mean? What's the trouble?" + +"If you don't understand I can't make you," she said helplessly. + +"Well, I'll be--busted!" observed Mr. Stevens under his breath. + +To his infinite relief Sam came in just then, and Mr. Stevens, +wondering what he had done now, slipped hastily out of the room. Mr. +Turner, coming from the bright office into the dim room and innocent of +any change in the atmosphere, approached confidently and eagerly to +Miss Josephine with both hands extended, but she stepped back most +indignantly. + +"You need not finish what you were going to say!" she warned him. "My +father has just given me some information which changes the entire +aspect of affairs. I am not a part of a business bargain! I refuse to +be regarded as a commercial proposition! I heard something from Mr. +Princeman of what desperate efforts you were making to secure the +command, whatever that may be, of the--of the stock--board--of shares +in your new company, but I did not think you would go to such lengths +as this!" + +"Why, my dear girl," began Sam, shocked. + +"I am not your dear girl and I never shall be," she told him, and +angrily dabbed at some sudden tears. "I never was. I was only a +business possibility." + +"That's unjust," he charged her. "I don't see how you could accuse me +of regarding you in any other way than as the dearest and the sweetest +and the most beautiful girl in all the world, the wisest and the most +sensible, the most faithful, the most charming, the most delightful, +the most everything that is desirable." + +"Wait just a moment," she told him, very coldly indeed; with almost +extravagant coldness, in fact, as she beat out of her consciousness the +enticing epithets he had bestowed upon her. "Do you mean to say that +never in your calculations did you consider that if you married me my +father would vote his stock with yours--I believe that's the way he +puts it--and give you command or whatever it is of your company?" + +"Well," considered Sam, brought to a standstill and put straight upon +his honor, "I can't deny that it did seem to me a very satisfactory +thing that my father-in-law should own enough stock in the company--" + +"That will do," she interrupted him icily. "That is precisely what I +have charged. We will consider this subject as ended, Mr. Turner; as +one never to be referred to again." + +"We'll do nothing of the sort," returned Sam flat-footedly. "I've been +composing this speech for the last two weeks and I'm going to deliver +it. I'm not going to have it wasted. I've unconsciously been +rehearsing it every place I went. Even up in Flatbush, showing a man +the superior advantages of that yellow-mud district, I found myself +repeating sentence number twelve. It's been the first thing I thought +of in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night. It's been +with me all day, riding and walking and talking and eating and drinking +and just breathing. Now I'm going to go through with it. + +"I--I--confound it all! I've forgotten how I was going to say it now! +After all, though, it only amounted to this: I love you! I want you to +know it and understand it. I love you and love you and love you! I +never loved any woman before in my life. I never had time. I didn't +know what it was like. If I had I'd have fought it off until I met +you, because I could not afford it for anybody short of you. It takes +my whole attention. It distracts my mind entirely from other things. +I can't think of anything else consecutively and connectedly. I--I'm +sorry you take the attitude you do about this thing, but--I'm not going +to accept your viewpoint. You've got to look at this thing differently +to understand it. + +"I know you've been glad I loved you. You were glad the first day we +met, and you always will be glad! Whatever you have to say about it +just now don't count. I'm going to let you alone a while to think it +over, and then I'm coming back to tell you more about it," and with +that Sam stalked from the room, leaving Miss Josephine Stevens gasping, +dazed, quite sure that he was unforgivable, indignant with everything, +still rankling, in spite of all Sam had said, with the thought that she +had been made a mere part of a commercial transaction. Why, it was +like those barbarous countries she had read about, where wives are +bought and sold! Preposterous and unbearable! + +While she was in this storm of mixed emotions her father came in upon +her, this time seriously perplexed. + +"What has happened to Sam Turner?" he demanded. "He slammed out of the +house, passed me on the porch with only a grunt, and jumped into his +automobile. You must have done something to anger him." + +"I hope that I did!" she retorted with spirit. "I refused to marry +him." + +"You did!" he returned in surprise. "Why, I thought it was all cut and +dried between you." + +"It was until you blundered into us and spoiled everything," she +charged. "But I'm glad you did. You let me know that Sam Turner +wanted to marry me because you had bought shares enough in his company +to give him the advantage. I'm ashamed of you and ashamed of Sam--of +Mr. Turner--and ashamed of myself. Why, you make a bargain-counter +remnant of me! I never, _never_ was so humiliated!" + +"Poor child!" her father blandly sympathized. "Also, poor Sam. By the +way, though, he doesn't need you to secure control of his company. Dan +Westlake, as I told you, has bought enough stock to do the work, and +Miss Westlake would marry him in a minute. If Sam wants control of his +company, he only has to go to her and say the word." + +"Father!" exclaimed his daughter with stern indignation. "I don't see +how you can even suggest that!" + +"Suggest what? Now, what have I said?" + +"That Sam--that Mr. Turner would even dream of marrying that Westlake +girl, just in order to get the better of a business transaction," and +very much to Theophilus Stevens' surprise and consternation and dismay, +she suddenly crumpled up in a heap in her chair and burst out crying. + +"Well, I'll be busted!" her father muttered into his beard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SHE CALLS HIM SAM! + +Miss Josephine, finding all ordinary occupations stale, unprofitable +and wearisome on the following morning, and finding herself, moreover, +possessed of a restless spirit which urged her to do something or other +and yet recoiled at each suggestion she made it, started out quite +aimlessly to walk by herself. She walked in the direction of Meadow +Brook. The paths in that direction were so much prettier. + +Sam Turner, finding all other occupations stale, unprofitable and +wearisome, at the same moment started out to walk by himself, going in +the direction of Hollis Creek because that was the exact direction in +which he wanted to go. As he walked much more rapidly than Miss +Stevens, he arrived midway of the distance before she did, but at the +valley where the unnamed stream came rippling down he paused. + +He had looked often at this little hollow as he had passed it, and +every time he had looked upon it he seemed to have an idea of some sort +in the back of his head regarding it; a dim, unformed, fugitive sort of +idea which had never asserted itself very prominently because he had +been too busy to listen to its rather timid voice. + +Just now, however, the idea suddenly struggled to make itself loudly +known, whereupon Sam bade it come forth. Given hearing it proved to be +a very pleasant idea, and a forceful one as well; so much so that it +even checked the speed with which Sam had set out for Hollis Creek. He +looked calculatingly across the road to where the little stream went +flashing from under its wooden bridge across the field and hid around a +curve behind some bushes, then reappeared, dancing in the sunlight, +until finally it plunged among some far trees and was lost to him. He +gazed up the stream. He had not very far to look, for there it ran +down between two quite steep hills, through a sort of pocket valley, +closed or almost closed, at the upper end, by another hill equally +steep, its waters being augmented by a leaping little stream from a +strong spring hidden away somewhere in the hill to the left. + +As his eyes calculatingly swept stream and hills, they suddenly caught +a flutter of white through the trees, and it was coming down the +winding path which led across the hills to Hollis Creek. As it emerged +more from the concealment of the leaves his blood gave a leap, for the +flutter of white was a gown inclosing the unmistakable figure of Miss +Josephine Stevens. The whole valley suddenly seemed radiant. + +"Hello!" he called to her as she approached. "I didn't expect to find +you here." + +"I did not expect to be here," she laughed. "I just started out for a +stroll and happened to land in this beautiful spot." + +"Beautiful is no name for it," he replied with sudden vast enthusiasm, +and ran up the path to help her down over a steep place. + +For a moment, in the wonderful mystery of the touch of her hand and the +joy of her presence, he forgot everything else. What was this strange +phenomenon, by which the mere presence of one particular person filled +all the air with a tingling glow? Marvelous, that's what it was! If +Miss Josephine had any of the same wonder she was extremely careful not +to express it, nor let it show, especially after yesterday's +conversation, so she immediately talked of other things; and the first +thing which came handy was another reference to the beautiful valley. + +"You know, it is a wonder to me," she said, "that no one has built a +summer resort here. I think it ever so much more charming than either +Hollis Creek or Meadow Brook." + +"Do you believe in telepathy?" asked Sam, almost startled. "I do. It +hasn't been but a few minutes since that identical idea popped into my +head, and I had just now decided that if I could secure options on this +property I would have a real summer resort here--one that would make +Hollis Creek and Meadow Brook mere farm boarding-houses. Do you see +how close together these hills draw at their feet? The hollow is at +least a thousand feet across at the widest part, but down there at the +road, where the stream emerges to the fields, they close in with +natural buttresses, as it were, to not over a hundred feet in width. +Well, right across there we'll build a dam, and there is enough water +here to make a beautiful lake up as high as that yellow rock." + +Miss Josephine looked up at the yellow rock and clasped her hands with +an exclamation of delight. + +"Glorious!" she said. "I never would have thought of that; and how +beautiful it will be! Why, if the lake comes up that high it will go +clear back around that turn in the valley, won't it?" + +"Easily," he replied; "although that might make us trouble, for I don't +know where that turn in the valley leads. I have never explored that +region. Suppose we go up and look it over." + +"Won't that be fun?" she agreed, and they started to follow the stream. + +As they reached the rear of the "pocket," where they could see around +the curve, they turned and looked back over the route they had just +traversed. + +"My idea," Sam explained, having waited until they reached this +viewpoint to do so, "is to build the dam down there at the roadside, +and build the hotel right over it so that arriving guests will, after +an elevator has brought them up to the height of the main floor, find +the blue of the lake suddenly bursting upon them from the main piazza, +which will face the valley. All of the inside rooms will, of course, +have hanging balconies looking out over the water." + +"Perfectly ideal!" she agreed, her enthusiasm growing. + +"I think I'd better investigate the curve of the valley," he decided, +studying the path carefully. "It seems rather rough for you, and I'll +go alone. All I want to see is how far the water height will carry +around there, and if it will become necessary to build a dam at the +other end." + +"Oh, it isn't too rough for me," she declared immediately. "I am an +excellent climber," and together they started to explore the now +narrowing valley, following the stream over steep rocks and fallen +trees, and pushing through tangled undergrowth and among briers and +bushes and around slippery banks until they came to another tortuous +turn, where a second spring, welling up from under a flat, overhanging +rock, tumbled down to augment the supply for the future lake; and here +they stopped and had a drink of the cool, delicious water, Sam making +the girl a cup from a huge leaf which she said made the water taste +fuzzy, and then showing her how to get down on her hands and +knees--spreading his coat on the ground to protect her gown--and drink +_au naturel_, a trick at which she was most charming, and probably knew +it. + +The valley here had grown most narrow, but they followed the now very +small stream around one sharp curve after another until they found its +source, which was still another spring, and here there was no more +valley; but a cleft in the hill to the right, which they suddenly came +upon, gave them an exquisite view out over the beautiful low-lying +country, miles in extent, which lay between this and the next range of +hills; a delightful vista dotted with green farms and white farm-houses +and smiling streams and waving trees and grazing cattle. They stopped +in awe at the beauty of it and looked out over the valley in silence; +and unconsciously the girl slipped her hand within the arm of the man! + +"Just imagine a sunset out over there," he said. "You see those fleecy +clouds that are out there now. If clouds like those are still there +when the sun goes down, they will be a fleet of pearl-gray vessels, +with carmine keels, upon a sea of gold." + +She glanced at him quickly, but she did not express her marvel that +this man had so many sides. Before she could comment, and while she +was still framing some way to express her appreciation of his gentler +gifts, he returned briskly to practical things. + +"Our lake will scarcely come up to this point," he judged. "I don't +think that at any point it will be high enough to cover the springs. +We don't want it to if we can help it, for that would destroy some of +the beauty of it. Have you noticed that our lake will be much like a +kite in shape, with this winding ravine the tail of it. We'll have to +take in a lot of acreage to cover this property, but it will be worth +it. I'm going to look after options right away. I'm glad now I had +already decided to stay another two weeks." + +Of course she was still angry with Sam, she reminded herself, but she +was inexpressibly glad, somehow or other, to find that he was intending +to stay two weeks longer, and was startled as she recognized that fact. + +"It will take a lot of money, won't it, to build a hotel here?" she +asked, getting away from certain troublesome thoughts as quickly as she +could. + +"Yes, it will take a great deal," he admitted, as they turned to +scramble down the ravine again. "I should judge, however, that about +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would finance it." + +"But I thought, from something father once said, that you did not have +so much money as that?" + +"Bless you, no!" replied Sam, smiling. "No indeed! I've enough to +cover an option on this property and that's about all, now, since I'm +tangled up so deeply with my Pulp Company, but I figure that I can make +a quick turn on this property to help me out on the other thing. What +I'll do," he explained, "is to get this option first of all, and then +have some plans drawn, including a nice perspective view of the +hotel--a water-color sketch, you know, showing the building fronting +the lake--and upon that build a prospectus to get up the stock company. +I'll take stock for my control of the land and for my services in +promotion. Then I'll sell my stock and get out. I ought to make the +turn in two or three months and come out fifteen, or possibly twenty or +twenty-five thousand dollars to the good. It is a nice, big scheme." + +"Oh," she said blankly, "then you wouldn't actually build a hotel +yourself?" + +"Hardly," he returned. "I'll be content to make the profit out of +promoting it that I'd make in the first four or five years of running +the place." + +"I see," she said musingly; "and you'd get this up just like you formed +your Marsh Pulp Company, I think father called it, and of course you'd +try to get--what is it?--oh, yes; control." + +He smiled at her. + +"I'd scarcely look for that in this deal," he explained. "If I can +just get a nice slice of promotion stock and sell it I shall be quite +well satisfied." + +She bent puzzled brows over this new problem. + +"I don't quite understand how you can do it," she confessed, "but of +course you know how. You're used to these things. Father says you're +very good at promoting." + +"That's the way I've made all my money, or rather what little I have," +he told her, modestly enough. "I expect this Pulp Company, however, to +lift me out of that, for a few years at least; then when I come back +into the promoting field I can go after things on a big scale. The +Pulp Company ought to make me a lot of money if I can just keep it in +my own hands," and involuntarily he sighed. + +She looked at him musingly for a moment, and was about to say +something, but thought better of it and said something else. + +"The tail of your kite will be almost a perfect letter 'S'," she +observed. "How beautiful it will be; the big, broad lake out there in +the main valley, and then the nice, little, secluded, twisty waterway +back in through here; a regular lover's lane of a waterway, as it were. +I don't suppose these springs have any names. They must be named, +and--why, we haven't even named the lake!" + +"Yes, we have," he quickly returned. "I'm going to call it Lake +Josephine." + +"You haven't asked my permission for that," she objected with mock +severity. + +"There are plenty of Josephines in the world," he calmly observed. +"Nobody has a copyright on the name, you know." + +She smiled, as one sure of her ground. + +"Yes, but you wouldn't call it that, if I were to object seriously." + +"No, I guess I wouldn't," he gave up; "but you're not going to object +seriously, are you?" + +"I'll think it over," she said. + +They were now making their way along a bank that was too difficult of +travel to allow much conversation, though it did allow some delicious +helping, but when they came out into the main valley where they could +again look down on the road, they paused to survey the course over +which they had just come, and to appreciate to the full the beauty of +Sam's plan. + +"I don't believe I quite like your idea of the hotel built down there +at the roadside," she objected as they sat on a huge boulder to rest. +"It cuts off the view of the lake from passers-by, and I should think +it would be the best advertisement you could have for everybody who +drove past there to say: 'Oh, what a pretty place!' Now I should think +that right about here where we are sitting would be the proper location +for your hotel. Just think how the lake and the building would look +from the road. Right here would be a broad porch jutting out over the +water, giving a view down that first bend of the kite tail, and back of +the hotel would be this big hill and all the trees, and hills and trees +would spread out each side of it, sort of open armed, as it were, +welcoming people in." + +"It couldn't be seen, though," objected Sam. "The dam down there would +necessarily be about thirty feet high at the center, and people driving +along the roadway would not be able to see the water at all. They +would only see the blank wall of the dam. Of course we could soften +that by building the dam back a few feet from the roadway, making an +embankment and covering that with turf, or possibly shrubbery or +flowers, but still the water would not be visible, nor the hotel!" + +"I see," she said slowly. + +They both studied that objection in silence for quite a little while. +Then she suddenly and excitedly ejaculated: + +"_Sam_!" + +He jumped, and he thrilled all through. She had called him Sam +entirely unconsciously, which showed that she had been thinking of him +by that familiar name. With the exclamation had come sparkling eyes +and heightened color, not due to having used the word, but due to a +bright thought, and he almost lost his sense of logic in considering +the delightful combination. It occurred to him, however, that it would +be very unwise for him to call attention to her slip of the tongue, or +even to give her time to think and recognize it herself. + +"Another idea?" he asked. + +"Indeed yes," she asserted, "and this time I know it's feasible. I +don't know much about measurements in feet and inches, but there are +three feet in a yard." + +"Yes." + +"Well, doesn't the road down there, from hill to hill, dip about ten +yards?" + +"Yes." + +"Well then, that's thirty feet, just as high as you say the dam will +have to be. Why not raise the road itself thirty feet, letting it be +level and just as high as your dam?" + +Sam rose and solemnly shook hands with her. + +"You must come into the firm," he declared. "That solves the entire +problem. We'll run a culvert underneath there to the fields. The road +will reinforce the dam and the edge of the dam will be entirely +concealed. It will be merely a retaining wall with a nice stone +coping, which will be repeated on the field side. There will be no +objection from the county commissioners, because we shall improve the +road by taking two steep hills out of it. Your plan is much better +than mine. I can see myself, for instance, driving along that road on +my way to Hollis Creek from Restview, looking over that beautiful +little lake to the hotel beyond, and saying to myself: 'Well, next +summer I won't stop at Hollis Creek. I'll stop at Lake Jo.'" + +"I thought it was to be Lake Josephine," she interposed. + +"I thought so too," he agreed, "but Lake Jo just slipped out. It seems +so much better. Lake Jo! That would look fine on a prospectus." + +"You'd print the cover of it in blue and gold, I suppose, wouldn't you?" + +"There would need to be a splash of brown-red in it," he reminded her, +considering color schemes for a moment. "The roof of the hotel would, +of course, be red tile. We'd build it fireproof. There is plenty of +gray stone around here, and we'd build it of native rock." + +"And then," she went on, in the full swing of their idea, "think of the +beautiful walks and climbs you could have among these hills; and the +driveway! Your approach to the hotel would come around the dam and up +that hill, would wind up through those trees and rocks, and right here +at the bend of the ravine it would cross the thick part of the kite +tail to the hotel on a quaint rustic bridge; and as people arrived and +departed you'd hear the clatter of the horses' hoofs." + +"Great!" he exclaimed, catching her enthusiasm and with it augmenting +his own, "and guests leaving would first wave good-by at the +porte-cochere just about where we are sitting. They'd clatter across +the bridge, with their friends on the porch still fluttering +handkerchiefs after them; they'd disappear into the trees over yonder +and around through that cleft in the rocks. And see; on the other side +of the cleft there is a little tableland which juts out, and the road +would wind over that, where carriages would once more be seen from the +hotel porch. Then they'd twist in through the trees again down the +winding driveway, and once more, for the very last glimpse, come into +view as they went across our new road in front of the lake; and there +the last flutter of handkerchiefs would be seen. You know it's silly +to stand and wave your friends out of sight for a long distance when +they're always in view, but if the view is interrupted two or three +times it relieves the monotony." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SAM TURNER ACQUIRES A BUSINESS PARTNER + +They followed the stream down to the road, at every step gaging with +the eye the height of the lake and judging the altered scenic view from +the level of the water. There would be room for dozens and dozens of +boats upon that surface without interference. Sam calculated that from +the upper spring there would be headway enough to run a small fountain +in the center, surrounded by a pond-lily bed which would be kept in +place by a stone curbing. In the hill to the right there was a deep +indenture. Back in there would go the bathing pavilions. They even +went up to look at it, and were delighted to find a natural, shallow +bowl. By cementing the floor of that bowl they could have a splendid +swimming-pool for timid bathers, where they could not go beyond their +depth; and it was entirely surrounded by a thick screen of shrubbery. +Oh, it was delightful; it was perfect! At the road they looked back up +over the valley again. It was no longer a valley. It was a lake. +They could see the water there. Sam drew from his pocket a pencil and +an envelope. + +"The hotel will have to be long and tall," he observed, "for there will +not be much room on that ledge, from front to back. The building will +stretch out quite a ways. Three or four hundred feet long it will be, +and about five stories in height," and taking a letter from the +envelope, he sat down upon a fallen log and began rapidly to sketch. + +He drew the hotel with wide-spreading Spanish roofs and balconies, and +a wide porch with rippling water in front of it, and rowboats and +people in them; and behind the hotel rose the broken sky-line of the +hills and the trees, with an indication of fleecy clouds above. It was +just a light sketch, a sort of shorthand picture, as it were, and yet +it seemed full of sunlight and of atmosphere. + +"I hadn't any idea you could draw like that," she exclaimed in +admiration. + +"I do a little of everything, I think, but nothing perfectly," he +admitted with some regret. + +"It seems to me you do everything excellently," she objected quite +seriously; and she was, in fact, deeply impressed. + +He walked over to the stream, a trifle confused, but not displeased, by +any means, by the earnestness of her compliment. + +"I must have the water analyzed to see if it has any medicinal virtue," +he said. "The spring out of which we drank has a sweetish-like taste, +but the water here--" and he caught up some of it in his hand and +tasted it, "seems to be slightly salt." + +He had left her sitting on the log with the sketch in her lap. Now the +sketch fluttered to the ground and the letter turned over, right side +up. It was a letter which Sam had written to his brother Jack and had +not mailed because he had suddenly decided to come down to the scene of +action. As she stooped over to pick it up her eyes caught the +sentence: "I love her, Jack, more than I can tell you, more than I can +tell anybody, more than I can tell myself. It's the most important, +the most stupendous thing--" She hastily turned that letter over and +was very careful to have it lying upon her lap, back upward, exactly as +he had left it there, and when he came back she was very, very careful +indeed to hand it nonchalantly over to him, with the sketch uppermost. + +"Of course," he said, looking around him comprehensively, "this is only +a day-dream, so far. It may be impossible to realize it." + +"Why?" she asked, instantly concerned. "This project _must_ be carried +through! It is already as good as completed. It just must be done. I +never before had a hand, even in a remote way, in planning a big thing, +and I couldn't bear not to see this done. What is to prevent it?" + +"I may not be able to get the land," returned Sam soberly. "It is +probably owned by half a dozen people, and one or more of them is +certain to want exorbitant prices for it." + +"It certainly can't be very valuable," she protested. "It isn't fit +for anything, is it?" + +"For nothing but the building of Lake Jo," he agreed. "Right now it is +worthless, but the minute anybody found out I wanted it it would become +extremely valuable. The only way to do would be to see everybody at +once and close the options before they could get to talking it over +among themselves." + +"What time is it?" she demanded. + +He looked at his watch. + +"Ten-thirty," he said. + +"Then let's go and see all these people right away," she urged, jumping +to her feet. + +He smiled at her enthusiasm, but he was none loath to accept her +suggestion. + +"All right," he agreed. "I wish they had telephones here in the woods. +We'll simply have to walk over to Meadow Brook and get an auto." + +"Come on," she said energetically, and they started out on the road. +They had not gone far, however, when young Tilloughby, with Miss +Westlake, overtook them in a trap. He reined up, and Miss Westlake +greeted the pedestrians with frigid courtesy. Jack Turner had +accidentally dropped her a hint. Now that she had begun to appreciate +Mr. Tilloughby--Bob--at his true value, she wondered what she had ever +seen in Sam Turner--and she never had liked Josephine Stevens! + +"Gug-gug-gug-glorious day, isn't it?" observed Tilloughby, his face +glowing with joy. + +"Fine," agreed Sam with enthusiasm. "There never was a more glorious +day in all the world. You've just come along in time to save our +lives, Tilloughby. Which way are you bound?" + +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-we had intended to go around Bald Hill." + +"Well, postpone that for a few minutes, won't you, Tilloughby, like a +good fellow? Trot back to Meadow Brook and send an auto out here for +us. Get Henry, by all means, to drive it." + +"Wuw-wuw-wuw-with pleasure," replied Tilloughby, wondering at this +strange whim, but restraining his curiosity like a thoroughbred. +"Huh-huh-huh-Henry shall be back here for you in a jiffy," and he drove +off in a cloud of dust. + +Miss Stevens surveyed the retiring trap in satisfaction. + +"Good," she exclaimed. "I already feel as though we were doing +something to save Lake Jo." + +They walked back quite contentedly to the valley and surveyed it anew, +there resting now on both of them a sense of almost prideful +possession. They discovered a high point on which a rustic observatory +could be built; they planned paths and trails; they found where the +water-line came just under an overhanging rock which would make a cave +large enough for three or four boats to scurry under out of the rain. +They found delightful surprises all along the bank of the future lake, +and Miss Stevens declared that when the dam was built and the lake +began to fill, she never intended to leave it except for meals, until +it was up to the level at which they would permit the overflow to be +opened. + +Henry, returning with the automobile, found them far up in the valley +discussing a floating band pavilion, but they came down quickly enough +when they saw him, and scrambled into the tonneau with the haste of +small children. Henry watched them take their places with smiling +affection. He had not only had good tips but pleasant words from Sam, +and Miss Stevens was her own incentive to good wishes and good will. + +"Henry," said Sam, "we want to drive around to see the people who own +this land." + +"Oh, shucks," said Henry, disappointed. "I can't drive you there. The +man that owns all this land lives in New York." + +"In New York!" repeated Sam in dismay. "What would anybody in New York +want with this?" + +"The fellow that bought it got it about ten years ago," Henry informed +them. "He was going to build a big country house, back up there in the +hills, I understand, and raise deer to shoot at, and things like that; +got an architect to make him plans for house and stables and all +costing hundreds of thousands of dollars; but before he could break +ground on it him and his wife had a spat and got a divorce. He tried +to sell the land back again to the people he bought it from, but they +wouldn't take it at any price. They were glad to be shut of it and +none of his rich friends wanted to buy it after that, because, they +said, there were so many of those cheap summer resorts around here." + +"I see," said Sam musingly. "You don't happen to know the man's name, +do you?" + +"Dickson, I think it was. Henry Dickson. I remember his first name +because it was the same as mine." + +"Great!" exclaimed Sam, overjoyed. "Why, I know Henry Dickson like a +book. I've engineered several deals for him. He's a mighty good +friend of mine too. That simplifies matters. Drive us right over to +Hollis Creek." + +"To Hollis Creek!" she objected. "I should think you'd drive to Meadow +Brook instead and dress for the trip. Aren't you going to catch that +afternoon train and go right up there?" + +"By no means. This is Saturday, and by the time I'd get to New York he +couldn't be found anywhere; and anyhow, I wouldn't have time to deliver +you at Hollis Creek and make this next train." + +"Don't mind about me," she urged. "I could go to the train with you +and Henry could take me back to Hollis Creek." + +"That's fine of you," returned Sam gratefully; "but it isn't the +program at all. I happen to know that Dickson stays in his office +until one o'clock on Saturdays. I'll get him by long distance." + +They were quite silent in calculation on the way to Hollis Creek, and +Miss Josephine found herself pushing forward to help make the machine +go faster. Breathlessly she followed Sam into the house, and he +obligingly left the door of the telephone booth ajar, so that she could +hear his conversation with Dickson. + +"Hello, Dickson," said Sam, when he got his connection. "This is Sam +Turner. . . . Oh yes, fine. Never better in my life. . . . Up here +in Hamster County, taking a little vacation. Say, Dickson, I +understand you own a thousand acres down here. Do you want to sell it? +. . . How much?" As he received the answer to that question he turned +to Miss Josephine and winked, while an expression of profound joy, +albeit materialized into a grin, overspread his features. "I won't +dicker with you on that price," he said into the telephone. "But will +you take my note for it at six per cent.?" + +He laughed aloud at the next reply. + +"No, I don't want it to run that long. The interest in a hundred years +would amount to too much; but I'll make it five years. . . . All +right, Dickson, instruct your lawyer chap to make out the papers and +I'll be up Monday to close with you." + +He hung up the receiver and turned to meet her glistening eyes fixed +upon him in ecstasy. "It's better than all right," he assured her. He +was more enthusiastic about this than he had ever been about any +business deal in his life, that is, more openly enthusiastic, for Miss +Josephine's enthusiasm was contagion itself. He took her arm with a +swing, and they hurried into the writing-room, which was deserted for +the time being on account of the mail having just come in. Sam placed +a chair for her and they sat down at the table. + +"I want to figure a minute," said he. "Now that I have actual +possession of the property, in place of a mere option, I can go at the +thing differently. First of all, when I go up Monday I'll see my +engineer, and on Tuesday morning I'll bring him down here with me. +Then I shall secure permission from the county to alter that road and +we'll build the dam. That will cost very little in comparison to the +whole improvement. Then, and not till then, I'll get out my stock +prospectus, and I'll drive prospective investors down here to look at +Lake Jo. I'll be almost in position to dictate terms." + +"Isn't that fine!" she exclaimed. "And then I suppose you can +secure--control," she ventured anxiously. + +"Yes, I think I can if I want it," he assured her. + +"I'm so glad," she said gravely. "I'm so very glad." + +"Really, though, I have a big notion to see if I can't finance the +entire project myself. I'm quite sure I can get Dickson to give me a +clear deed to that land merely on my unsupported note. If I can do +that I can erect all the buildings on progressive mortgages. Roadways +and engineering work of course I'll have to pay for, and then I can +finance a subsidiary operating company to rent the plant from the +original company, and can retain stock in both of them. I'll figure +that out both ways." + +It was all Greek to her, this talk, but she knitted her brows in an +earnest effort to understand, and crowded close to him to look over the +figures he was putting down. The touch of her arm against his own +threw out his calculations entirely. He could not add a row of figures +to save his life. + +"I'll go over the financial end of this later on," he said, but he did +not put away the paper. He kept it there for them both to look at, +touching arms. + +"All right," she agreed, "but you must let me see you do it. Of course +I can't understand, but I do want to feel as if I were helping when it +is done." + +"I won't take a step in it without consulting you or having you along," +he promised. + +At that moment the bugle sounded the first call for luncheon. + +"You'll stay for luncheon," she invited. + +"Certainly," he assured her. "You couldn't drive me away." + +"Very well, right after luncheon let's go out and look at the place +again. It will look different now that it is--" She caught herself. +She had almost said "now that it is ours." "Now that it is secured," +she finished. + +After luncheon they drove back to the site of Lake Jo, and spent a +delirious while planning the things which were to be done to make that +spot an earthly Paradise. Never was a couple so prolific of ideas as +they were that afternoon. With 'Ennery waiting down in the road they +tramped all over the hills again, standing first on one spot and then +another to survey the alluring prospect, and to plan wonderful new and +attractive features of which no previous summer resort builder had ever +even dared to dream. + +During the afternoon not one word passed between them which might be +construed to be of an intimately personal nature, but as they drove to +Hollis Creek, tired but happy, Sam somehow or other felt that he had +made quite a bit of progress, and was correspondingly elated. Leaving +Miss Stevens on the porch he hurried home to dress for dinner, for it +was growing late, but immediately after dinner he drove over again. +When he arrived Miss Josephine was in the seldom used parlor with her +father. + +"I haven't seen you since breakfast," Mr. Stevens had said, pinching +her cheek, "Hollis and Billy Westlake have been looking for you +everywhere." + +"Oh, they," she returned with kindly contempt. "I'm glad I didn't see +them. They're nice boys enough, but father, I don't believe that +either one of them will ever become clever business men!" + +"No?" he replied, highly amused. "Well, I don't think they will +either. Business is a shade too big a game for them. But where have +you been?" + +"Out on business with S-s-s--with Mr. Turner," she replied demurely. +"I came in late for lunch, and you had already finished and gone. Then +we went right back out again. Father, we have found the dearest, the +most delightful, the most charming business opportunity you ever saw. +You must go out with us to-morrow and look at it. Sam's going to build +a lake and call it Lake Jo. You know where that little stream is +between here and Meadow Brook? Well, that's the place. We found out +this morning what a delightful spot it would make for a lake and a big +summer resort hotel, and at noon Sam bought the property, and we have +been planning it all afternoon. He's bought it outright and he's going +to capitalize it for a quarter of a million dollars. How much stock +are you going to take in it?" + +"How much what?" + +"How many shares of stock are you going to take in it? You must speak +up quickly, because it's going to be a favor to you for us to let you +in." + +"Well, I don't know," said Mr. Stevens, resisting a sudden desire to +guffaw. "I'd have to look it over first before I decide to invest. +Sounds like a sort of wild-eyed scheme to me. Besides that, I already +have a good big block of stock in one of Sam Turner's enterprises." + +"Oh, yes," she said, puckering her brows. "Are you going to vote your +pulp stock with his?" + +Mr. Stevens' eyes twinkled, but his tone was conservative gravity +itself. + +"Well, since it's a purely business deal it would not be a very wise +thing to do; and though Sam Turner is a mighty fine boy, I don't think +I shall." + +"But you will!" she vigorously protested. "Why, father, you wouldn't +for a minute vote against your own son-in-law!" + +"No, I wouldn't!" declared Mr. Stevens emphatically, and suddenly drew +her to him and kissed her; and she clung about his neck half laughing +and half crying. + +Do you suppose there is anything in telepathy? It would seem so, for +it was at this moment that Sam stepped up on the porch. They in the +parlor heard his voice, and Mr. Stevens immediately slipped out the +back way in order not to be _de trop_ a second time. Now Sam could not +possibly have known what had been said in the parlor, and yet when he +found his way in there, he and Miss Josephine, without any palaver +about it, without exchanging a solitary word, or scarcely even a look, +just naturally fell into each other's arms. Neither one of them made +the first move. It just somehow happened, and they stood there and +held and held and held that embrace; and whatever foolishness they said +and did in the next hour is none of your business nor of mine; but +later in the evening, when they were sitting quietly in the darkest +corner of the porch, and Sam had his hand on the arm of her chair with +her elbows resting upon his fingers--it didn't matter, you know, where +he touched her, just so he did--she turned to him with thoughtful +earnestness in her voice. + +"Sam," she said, and this time she used his first name quite +consciously and was glad it was dark so that he could not see her trace +of shyness, "I wish you would explain to me just what you mean by +control in a stock company." + +Sam Turner moved his fingers from under her elbow and caught her hand, +which he firmly clasped before he began. + +"Well, Jo, it's just this way," he said, and then, quite comfortably, +he explained to her all about it. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Early Bird, by George Randolph Chester + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EARLY BIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 19272.txt or 19272.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/2/7/19272/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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