OF A 
 
 MILLION 
 DOLLARS 
 
 GEORGE 
 KIBBE- 
 TURNER

 
 THE BIOGRAPHY 
 OF A MILLION DOLLARS 
 
 . OF CALIF. LIBRARY. LOS ANGELES'
 
 WHAT DO I LOOK LIKE TO YOU A MAN THAT WILL DOUBLE- 
 CROSS HIS BEST FRIEND ? ' ' 
 
 FRONTISPIECE. See Page 162.
 
 THE BIOGRAPHY 
 OF A MILLION DOLLARS 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE KIBBE TURNER 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 F. R. GRUGER 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 1918
 
 Copyright, 1918, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published, February, 1918
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I THE MAN WITH THE CARBURETOR . . i 
 
 II PARTNERS 13 
 
 III THE MORTGAGE 26 
 
 IV THE HOODLUM 32 
 
 V ZETTA'S RING 46 
 
 VI THE BOWL 59 
 
 VII TOM'S BOY 79 
 
 VIII A MIRACLE BY THE TAIL ..... 90 
 
 IX THE LITTLE PALE BOOKKEEPER . . . 100 
 
 X BACK OF THE BANK in 
 
 XI AN OPTION 124 
 
 XII A MISTAKE 135 
 
 XIII A SHARP CORNER 149 
 
 XIV REORGANIZED 165 
 
 XV AN ANNIVERSARY 176 
 
 XVI AN EARLY CREDITOR 192 
 
 XVII A LITTLE SOMETHING ON THE SIDE . . 206 
 
 XVIII MUTUAL PROTECTION 220 
 
 XIX A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION . . . .231 
 
 XX WORD FROM NEW YORK 254 
 
 XXI THE MISSING RUNABOUT 266 
 
 XXII A HOUSEWARMING 279 
 
 XXIII A MILLION DOLLARS HUH! . . . 296 
 
 XXIV MY LAWYER 311 
 
 XXV A TRAVELER RETURNS 318 
 
 XXVI MEMORIES 327 
 
 XXVII SUNDAY AFTERNOON 337 
 
 XXVIII Two PIECES OF PAPER 345 
 
 2133213
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "What do I look like to you a man that 
 
 will double-cross his best friend ? " . Frontispiece 
 
 " You know what she's done to us ? She's 
 
 busted us ! Wide open ! " . . . . PAGE 107 
 
 She kissed me somewhere on the northeast 
 
 corner of my ear 185 
 
 "That's why I thought you were always 
 
 wrong because you hated him !" . . " 291
 
 THE BIOGRAPHY OF A 
 MILLION DOLLARS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE MAN WITH THE CARBURETOR 
 
 Since Pasc Thomas died last month my mind keeps 
 going back to the time we started in together that 
 dirty, foggy, February evening he first came into my 
 old bicycle shop on Elm Street in his old butternut 
 colored overcoat. 
 
 " Is the boss in? " said he. 
 
 " Right here," said I. 
 
 " Shut the door, why don't you?" said that Wil- 
 kins I had with me then. He was always dodging 
 drafts for fear of catching cold and he always 
 had one. 
 
 So this stranger stepped on in, and shut the fog 
 out after him. 
 
 " Well, what can I do for you? " said I, looking 
 him over. 
 
 He was a lean, hungry looking man, with eyes like 
 a ghost's. In that old flowing overcoat he looked 
 seven feet tall. 
 
 " I got something here I want to show you," he 
 said, and pulled out this small carburetor from his 
 pocket.
 
 2 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 You could see from his fingers he was a machinist. 
 
 " For motor cycles," he said. 
 
 ' You get it up yourself? " I asked him. 
 
 I'd seen that kind before. We were used to them. 
 They were dropping into the shop all the time : those 
 lean, leather-faced Yankee inventors with absent- 
 minded eyes coming in showing what they'd got- 
 ten up, all kinds of things, the way they do in all 
 machine shops. 
 
 " Yes," he said to me. 
 
 " Sit down," said I. 
 
 " We'll be closing up in half an hour," said Wil- 
 kins. 
 
 "I won't take up much of your time," said the 
 man, in a quick, sharp voice, fastening those hungry, 
 pale-blue eyes of his on me. 
 
 " Sit down," I said to him again; " let's hear what 
 you got." 
 
 Anybody's a damned fool, I always claimed, who 
 won't find out what a man like that's got, when all it 
 costs you is to sit still and listen. How can you tell 
 what new idea might drift in? 
 
 " What's your name? " I asked him. He looked 
 pretty seedy to me ; about all in. 
 
 ' Thomas Pascal Thomas," he said. 
 
 " Mine's Bill Morgan," said I. " Go ahead." 
 
 So he showed me the thing, and I took it up in my 
 hand that little brass arrangement, no bigger than 
 a teacup not so big! I often think of it. 
 
 'You familiar with them?" he asked, watching 
 me. 
 
 11 Some. I've been looking into this motor-cycle
 
 The Man with the Carburetor 3 
 
 business some lately," said I, " thinking there might 
 be a dollar in it." 
 
 And I looked the thing over. 
 
 " Uh-huh," I said, opening it up. " Well, how 
 does it work in actual practice? " 
 
 " First class," he said. 
 
 "You tried it out?" I asked him. 
 
 " All I need to," said he, and went on explaining 
 its points to me. " I've got several new wrinkles 
 here, you'll see," said he, touching them with his 
 long fingers. Two of them off, I saw, on the left 
 hand. 
 
 11 Well now," I said finally, " to sum it all up 
 just what have you got here that the other fellow 
 hasn't?" 
 
 " Speed," said he, lifting up those queer pale- 
 blue eyes from the thing a second. ' That's what 
 I've got. Speed." 
 
 " That's a darned good thing to have these days," 
 said I. And I sat there, looking at the carburetor, 
 in the palm of my hand the different parts of it. 
 It looked pretty good to me. And yet it was noth- 
 ing I could do anything with, by itself. But it 
 started me thinking. 
 
 ; ' What's the best time they've made with them, 
 up-to-date, on these racing tracks?" I asked him, 
 laying it down. " I forget." 
 
 " Motor cycles?" 
 
 "Yeah." 
 
 " A mile a minute, about just a few seconds 
 under." 
 
 " And what do you claim you could do with this? "
 
 4 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Two miles." 
 
 '* Two miles a minute ! " 
 
 "Almighty near." 
 
 " Yes, you can! " said I. 
 
 " Look," he said, sitting up and talking straight 
 into my face. " I'll tell you. I won't lie to you. 
 You've brought up a little different thing. 
 
 " To begin with," he said, going on, " we'll 
 understand we ain't talking about my carburetor 
 now; we're talking about motor cycles how 
 you're going to get two miles a minute out of 
 them." 
 
 " Yes," said I, watching him. 
 
 " Now, then," he said, " I'll tell you," and put 
 his hand to his forehead for just a second. Then 
 he reached in and took out something from his vest 
 pocket, and began to chew it. I thought at first it 
 was tobacco, and then I saw it wasn't. It was more 
 white. 
 
 " Now," he said, " I'll tell you. In the first place, 
 you understand, I don't claim that it's just my car- 
 buretor that'll do all this." 
 
 I didn't say anything. I let him talk. 
 
 " It's a combination of things," he went on, " that 
 are coming along at this time that's going to 
 change the whole thing over make an entirely 
 new motor cycle. 
 
 " First of all, there's this carburetor of mine, 
 we'll say. Or some form of multiple jet carbu- 
 retor." 
 
 " To shoot more gas into her," said I. 
 
 " At these high speeds in the engines now."
 
 The Man with the Carburetor 5 
 
 " Two thousand revolutions a minute, ain't it? " 
 said I. 
 
 " Yes, and two thousand five hundred." 
 
 " I God," I said. " That seems a lot, don't it, 
 when you think of it? " 
 
 " They'll go higher," said he. " And then," he 
 went along, " the second thing; there's the mag- 
 neto, instead of the battery, the way they're doing 
 it abroad in Europe." 
 
 ' Yes," said I, listening. That man knew his 
 business you could tell that, just hearing him. 
 
 " And then, third," he said. " There's that me- 
 chanical intake valve they're bringing in to take the 
 place of that mean contrary old automatic valve 
 they've had. 
 
 ' Those three are the principal things," he said 
 and stopped. 
 
 ' You mean to say," I said, this idea flashing 
 through my head, " they could take these three im- 
 provements, and put them on a motor cycle that 
 would make two miles a minute." 
 
 " I mean to say," he answered me, " the time's 
 come when you can put all the power on two wheels 
 that they can carry, and not jump clear of the 
 ground altogether." 
 
 " If they can," said I, " the man that does it 
 first's got a barrel of money! " 
 
 " Going to stay here all night? " asked this Wil- 
 kins over my shoulder, breaking in on us. 
 
 " If I want to," said I. 
 
 I'd seen him getting up and putting on his over- 
 coat and his gum shoes and muffler.
 
 6 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Well, lock up after you," he said, " I'm going 
 home." 
 
 " Go ahead," said I. 
 
 But he didn't go ; he stood there, mousing around, 
 listening back of my shoulder. 
 
 " I'll tell you why," I said, going along, to Pasc. 
 " What they want in this country now is speed. 
 That's the United States of it. We've all of us got 
 to get there first." 
 
 " Correct," said Pasc. 
 
 " You know that, as well as I do," said I. 
 " That's what they've got to have. Feet were out 
 of date long ago," said I. " For the last fifteen 
 years we're all going rolling around on wheels." 
 
 " Good and sure," said he, watching me, and 
 chewing slowly on whatever it was he had in his 
 mouth. 
 
 " I've watched it myself," I said, " ever since I 
 was a boy in the old bicycle days. Long before I 
 got into this business here, like a darned fool 
 too late." 
 
 " Like the most of us," said Pasc, stopping chew- 
 ing. 
 
 ; ' They were the first speed merchants, as the 
 saying goes," said I, " those bicycle manufacturers. 
 The big ones," I said, " before they all split up into 
 little assembling shops like this. They're the fel- 
 lows that first got us up on to wheels. All the rest 
 of it all this putting on an engine in those auto- 
 mobiles and motor cycles is just an extension on 
 that original idea, when you come to trace it 
 down."
 
 The Man with the Carburetor 7 
 
 " That's right," said he. 
 
 " Gripes, the money those fellows those bi- 
 cycle manufacturers around here made in those 
 days. Hundreds of thousands yes, millions 
 every year. Millions," I said, " in ten years. All 
 starting, you might say, from nothing." 
 
 " And back again to nothing," said Pasc, with 
 those eyes of his watching me, " when the auto came 
 along and drove them out." 
 
 " All speed," I said, " that's all it was. Faster 
 and faster. And the big money in this country in 
 the next ten years is coming just where it did in the 
 last ten, selling speed to them. There's where the 
 money is now. Gold mines are a back number. 
 They've got to have speed, and they've got to have 
 it right away, when they want it." 
 
 " We put in an engine fifty per cent, bigger, any- 
 how," said Pasc, nodding his head, " than they use 
 in Europe, and gear them up accordingly." 
 
 " We've got to go faster, and faster every year," 
 said I. 
 
 " That's what they want," said he, " and they'll 
 have it." 
 
 " I God, yes," said I. " If you could make some 
 machine that would shoot 'em out of a gun, they'd 
 eat it up, and the next best thing to that is a motor 
 cycle." 
 
 I could see Wilkins, still standing mousing 
 around back of my shoulder. 
 
 " And so I say," I went along, " the man who 
 could start first making them go two miles a minute 
 might have a fortune."
 
 8 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 "Who'd want 'em?" said Wilkins, breaking in 
 finally. 
 
 " Every eighteen dollar a week kid," said I, " that 
 wants to get out Sundays, and take breakfast in 
 Chicago, and dinner at the South Pole. And come 
 back and put her up in the front hall before tea. 
 Every kid that's got any zip to him. Oh, I know," 
 I said, " I've been there myself." 
 
 And I saw Pasc Thomas grin one of those old, 
 sudden grins, that these sober-faced men like him 
 break out into. 
 
 " Haven't you? " I asked him. 
 
 " I have," he said, the wrinkles closing in around 
 his mouth again. 
 
 " I don't believe there's any money in it," said 
 Wilkins. 
 
 " And I know there is," said I flaring up, and 
 saying so anyhow. He always made me sick, pour- 
 ing cold water on everything. " If you can find the 
 man who could do what this man says they can." 
 
 !< It can't be done," said Wilkins. 
 
 ' You can do it," said Pasc Thomas. 
 
 ;< Who can?" I said, studying him. "Do you 
 know anybody? " 
 
 " I can," said Pasc Thomas. 
 
 " You sure of that? " said I. 
 
 " I ought to be," he said. " That's my trade." 
 
 " Where you been working? " 
 
 " I've been with the Rajah motor cycle people for 
 three years now." 
 
 "Are they making any money?" I asked him 
 right away.
 
 The Man with the Carburetor 9 
 
 " That I don't know," said he flat. " That ain't 
 in my line." You couldn't help liking the man. 
 Nine out of ten in his place would have said they 
 were getting rich there. 
 
 " I don't know anything about the financial end," 
 he said, " but I do know that machine, inside out 
 every nut, and screw and cotter pin in her. 
 
 " I got something here," he said, " maybe'll in- 
 terest you." And he dragged this odd envelope out 
 of his inside pocket. " Here's their machine," he 
 said, pointing with an old stub of a lead pencil to 
 a drawing on the back; " and here's how the one 
 would look I'd make with the new improvements 
 on it." 
 
 And then he handed it over to me. I couldn't 
 make much out of it then. I didn't take time to. 
 
 " Look here," said I, catching fire all at once. 
 " Do you want to take a chance ? " 
 
 " I don't know," he said. " What? " 
 
 " I tell you what I'll do with you," I said to him. 
 " If you'll come here and make up a half a dozen 
 of those machines you've been talking about, we'll 
 put up our machinery and the material against your 
 time, and split the profits. 
 
 " What do you say," said I, when he didn't an- 
 swer right off. "Will you do it? Will you take 
 a chance on your own stuff? " 
 
 " Well, yes," he said. And I could see his 
 thin lips tighten up. " I guess maybe I can do 
 it." 
 
 "All right then," said I. "That's settled." 
 And I started to get up.
 
 10 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Who says so? " said this Wilkins from back of 
 me, all at once. 
 
 " I say so," said I, turning around and facing 
 him. 
 
 " Well, I guess I'll have something to say about 
 that before you do it," said he, putting his hand up 
 to his lips the way he did when he was going to get 
 contrary. " According to our agreement." 
 
 " Oh, forget it," I told him. " Go home and 
 sleep it off." 
 
 " I mean what I say," he said, standing, looking 
 down at me through his glasses. 
 
 " So do I," said I. 
 
 " It's all right for you," he kept along. ' To 
 take a chance with the first wild thing that comes 
 along." 
 
 " You know we've got to do something," I said, 
 coming back at him; " you know that." 
 
 " It's all right for you," he said, " but it's my 
 money in here." 
 
 " Aw, drop it," I said, " wait till we get alone." 
 
 " What do you know about this man, anyhow? " 
 asked Wilkins, making one of those Susified motions 
 of his. 
 
 " Don't mind him," I said, turning around to 
 Pasc. " I've got the say-so here." 
 
 " Have you ? " said Wilkins, his voice getting 
 thinner and higher, and more old womanish every 
 minute; "we'll see whether you have or not." 
 
 " Oh, stand still," I said, " and hold your feet 
 down." Two years of him had been about all 
 I could stomach.
 
 The Man with the Carburetor 11 
 
 " You can't do it," he kept saying, " that's all. 
 You can't do it without my consent." 
 
 u We'll see about that," said I, stepping toward 
 him, " tomorrow. Now, you shut up." 
 
 " You can't scare me," he said, backing away. 
 
 " Scare you," said I. 
 
 ' You can't scare me," he said again, with a kind 
 of break in his voice. 
 
 " Don't burst into tears," I said. " Don't get 
 your clothes wet." 
 
 " You can't scare me," he said, for the third 
 time his voice way up. ' You can't bulldoze 
 me, you big bulldozer, you you big bully! " 
 
 And started blabbing out before that stranger all 
 the things he'd been laying up against me; and all 
 our private affairs the money he'd put in on my 
 notes. 
 
 " Quit it," I told him. " Go on, now; quit." 
 
 But he kept right along, like a child that has got 
 started crying and can't stop, turning from Pasc to 
 me and back again. 
 
 " I want you to understand," he said to him, " he 
 can't do it. He hasn't got the right. You can't 
 do it," he said to me, " not with my money in 
 here! 
 
 " I'll take out my money first, I'll get out. I'm 
 going to have some say in this business, or I'll get 
 out." 
 
 " Get out then," said I. " You poor old female 
 mule!" 
 
 He stood there, looking at me through his spec- 
 tacles; with his hair all brushed just so, and his
 
 12 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 clean collar and his clean white bookkeeper's hands 
 down by his sides. 
 
 " Get out," I said. " Take your three thousand 
 dollars; and your gum shoes, and your mufflers, and 
 your sniffles, and your darned Susie ways and 
 get!" 
 
 " I will," said he. 
 
 " Go to the devil," I said. 
 
 " You'll see," said Wilkins. 
 
 And the office door shut after him. 
 
 " I'll be here tomorrow for my money," he said, 
 coming back and opening it part way again, and 
 then stopped and thought a minute. " And Fll give 
 you just two months to bust in," he said. 
 
 And then he got out entirely, and left us two 
 standing there.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 PARTNERS 
 
 We stood there I and this fellow I'd never 
 seen in my life until a half an hour before facing 
 each other; he looking at me and I looking at him. 
 
 I've seen hundreds like him; the machine shops 
 of New England are full of them still, lean-faced 
 men that don't talk till they're talked to ; these long- 
 faced, lantern-jawed fellows, with blue eyes peering 
 out over their shiny cheek bones, that have gone still, 
 working and puzzling around machinery. 
 
 He stood there like a stone fence ; he had stopped 
 that slow grinding, even, on whatever it was he had 
 in his mouth. His face was still as a board, as we 
 both waited there, listening to Wilkins' footsteps 
 go off along the sidewalk. 
 
 " I guess you won't thank me much for coming in 
 here," said he to me finally. 
 
 "Why not? "said I. 
 
 " Losing your partner." 
 
 " Don't let that worry you," I told him. " I was 
 just going to get rid of him anyhow." I wasn't, 
 of course, but I had to say so. " And you kept me 
 from having to do so." 
 
 " Well, I didn't know," said Pasc, and his jaws 
 started working again.
 
 14 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Sure," I said. " I've had my bellyful of him 
 two years." 
 
 " Well, then," he said, and set those hungry eyes 
 of his on me again, " is it going to be all right to 
 go ahead with that thing we were talking about 
 those motor cycles?" 
 
 " Sure thing," said I. " Unless you want to 
 quit." 
 
 "Quit?" he answered, talking slow. "Me?" 
 And stopped a minute. I noticed then his lips were 
 kind of apart. 
 
 " But I don't want to lie to you," he went on 
 again talking slower yet, as if it was hard work 
 getting the words out. " I don't want to do any- 
 thing under false pretenses. I haven't got a dollar 
 that I could put into it myself I want you to know 
 that on the start." 
 
 " You're squarer'n a die," I said to myself, watch- 
 ing him. ' They don't make many like you." 
 
 I noticed that he was kind of leaning up against 
 the desk. 
 
 " Oh, that will be all right," I said out loud. 
 
 " All I've got," said he, holding out that car- 
 buretor, " is this right here and my shop experi- 
 ence." 
 
 " That'll do," said I. " If you make good. If 
 you make good if this thing works out we can 
 fix up some sort of partnership in it." 
 
 "That'll do, will it?" said he, over again, as if 
 he was kind of tired. "That'll be all right? 
 For a kind of partnership?" and made a kind 
 of a grab at his throat.
 
 Partners 15 
 
 And, bang! He keeled over on the office floor. 
 And his carburetor rattled out of his hand under 
 the desk. 
 
 " Here, what's this? " said I, dropping down on 
 my knees beside him. 
 
 It makes me laugh when I think of it this long, 
 lean fellow in the brown overcoat, looking tougher 
 than an old-fashioned dried codfish, lying there on 
 the floor keeled over in a dead faint and me 
 on my knees trying to bring him out of it. 
 
 But he came to right away and opened his eyes. 
 
 " Here," said I, " what's the matter with you? " 
 
 " Oh, nothing," he said, and started trying to 
 get up. 
 
 " Lie still," I told him, and slipped the leather 
 seat from the desk chair under his head. And I 
 sat in the chair myself and watched him. 
 
 " Gripes, what next? " said I to myself. " This 
 man must be a hoodoo. First he comes in and 
 drives Wilkins out of the door, and then he flops 
 over on the floor dead on my hands." 
 
 " I want to get up," he said, struggling. 
 
 " No, you don't," I told him. " Lie still." 
 
 So he did, for a while longer. 
 
 "Let me have that, will you?" he said, and I 
 handed him back his carburetor from under the 
 desk. 
 
 u What struck you?" I asked him finally. 
 
 " Oh, nothing," he said, " I don't know. All 
 of a sudden I felt kind of faint." 
 
 ' What do you want now? " I asked him. I saw 
 he was trying to get something in an inside pocket.
 
 16 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 So I opened up his coat for him, and he reached 
 in his hand and brought out what he was after, and 
 broke off a sliver, and started chewing it. 
 
 " Have some? " he said, holding it out toward me. 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " Slippery elm," said he. " Go ahead. Have 
 some. I chew it all the time. It's fine for the 
 stomach." 
 
 I have to laugh now when I think about it. I 
 suppose he was kind of light-headed and wanted to 
 say something to pass it off. 
 
 " No, I guess not," I said. 
 
 I sat there watching him, and all of sudden it 
 struck me what it was that ailed him. 
 
 " Look here," I said, " I want you to tell me 
 something." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " How long since you had your last square 
 meal?" 
 
 " Well," he said, " I had a little " 
 
 " No," said I. " I want to know ! " 
 
 " Well," he told me, " I stopped and took a little 
 something at a lunch cart." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " Last night." 
 
 " Ah-hah," said I. " What was it? What was 
 it?" I said again before he'd answer me. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I guess I had a cup of coffee, 
 and a piece of squash pie." 
 
 " Ah-hah," I came back. " Well, I guess I know 
 something that's better for the stomach than chew- 
 ing slippery elm,"
 
 Partners 17 
 
 And I went out and got a cup of coffee and some 
 sandwiches at the quick-lunch room around the cor- 
 ner. He was sitting up in a chair when I got back. 
 
 " That coffee did me good," he said, wiping his 
 mouth off when he was done ; and looked over at me. 
 
 " I won't lie to you," he said, " I was just about 
 down and out. That's the facts in the case. I was 
 almighty near starving. I never did anything like 
 that in my life before," he said, " fainting," and 
 stopped a minute. 
 
 " At the same time," he said, " I don't want you 
 to get the idea I'm a hobo or anything like that." 
 
 " I don't," said I. " Not for a minute." 
 
 " No," he said, " I'm a good workman. I'm a 
 first-class machinist, if I do say so." 
 
 " You don't have to tell me that," I told him. 
 
 " And up to six months ago I made my $28.00 a 
 week regular. Then I got this bug in my head. 
 I got up this carburetor." 
 
 So finally he told me about himself, dragging it 
 out pretty hard, like those close-mouthed ones do. 
 
 It seemed he'd married this lively good-looking 
 girl younger than he was apparently; pretty 
 young and full of life, and anxious to have a good 
 many things. And he thought maybe he could do 
 better than wages, and then he worked out this car- 
 buretor. So he sent his wife home to her folks and 
 started out with a couple of hundred dollars trying 
 to get somebody interested in it. 
 
 " I wouldn't give it up," he said to me. " I 
 wasn't going to give it up and go back to my wife's 
 mother not till I had to,"
 
 18 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Naturally not," said I. 
 
 " But I almighty near had to," he told me. " I 
 got down to this," he said, and fished out three 
 cents and a green street-car transfer from his over- 
 coat pocket. " This was the last throw," he said, 
 " when I happened by your bicycle shop on this side 
 street. This was the last when I found some- 
 body who'd listen to me, finally. 
 
 " You wouldn't believe me," he said, flaring up 
 a little, " you wouldn't believe me if I told you what 
 a lot of fools I saw in this business, tramping 
 around! Tramping around," he said, " six months, 
 all over, stopping into offices, trying to get some 
 of these apes in white collars that run these big 
 shops to stop just long enough to look at it once. 
 By Almighty! " he said, and stopped, staring. 
 
 " By Almighty, you're the first human being I've 
 talked to with sense in the whole bunch and I'd 
 be grateful to you if for nothing else for just 
 listening to me. I don't know but I appreciate it 
 more," he said, pointing to the empty coffee cup, 
 " than that. 
 
 " You don't know what it is. You don't know 
 what it is," he went along, " to go day after day, 
 tramping around, without getting anybody that'll 
 take the time to listen to you, give you a fair hear- 
 ing. It certainly is almighty humiliating. And es- 
 pecially when all the time, you know you've got 
 something. You know you've got something," he 
 said, reaching his hand in his pocket on to that car- 
 buretor, " that might make them rich and you 
 too."
 
 Partners 19 
 
 And then he stopped short. 
 
 " I guess I got a little excited," he said, apolo- 
 gizing, and got up on his feet. " I guess it's time 
 I was going." 
 
 " Where'll you go to?" I asked him. 
 
 " I don't know exactly." 
 
 " I guess you don't," said I, and passed him a 
 couple of dollars. 
 
 " How do you know you'll ever see that again? " 
 he said, staring at it. 
 
 " I'm not worrying," said I. 
 
 " Well," he said and stopped there, stock- 
 still. 
 
 " Come around tomorrow morning," said I, 
 " and start in." 
 
 But he didn't move. He stood there with the 
 money in his hands. 
 
 " Look here," he said, " what are you getting 
 out of this? What can you be sure of? " 
 
 " I'll be getting a share in a damned good car- 
 buretor, as I understand it," said I. " And a first- 
 class machinist who knows motor cycles, to get a 
 brand new thing out on brand new lines. If it 
 goes through," I said, " I win big. If it don't, 
 all I lose is some material and time, and a few 
 weeks' machinist's wages, while you're working on 
 it. 
 
 " If that suits you," I said, waiting. But his 
 Adam's apple only went up and down. He didn't 
 say anything. 
 
 But finally he put the money in his pocket. 
 
 " At seven tomorrow morning," I said.
 
 20 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Well, all right," he answered, and kind of hesi- 
 tated, as if there was something else he was going 
 to say. 
 
 " All right," he said a second time, and went out 
 without saying anything more. 
 
 " Gripes," I said to myself, sitting there when 
 he was gone. " This will be about enough for me 
 for one evening." 
 
 For I saw right off what this thing was going to 
 mean to me. That Wilkins and I were through. 
 That poor mule would have his money out now, 
 anyhow. And if he didn't, I'd make him. We 
 hadn't made a dollar the last two years. And we 
 hated each other like the two men who were hand- 
 cuffed together on the desert island with nothing to 
 eat. 
 
 I saw then I'd have to have some money quick. 
 But the question was, where was the money coming 
 from? I couldn't get it at the bank, that was sure 
 not then; not in the bicycle business. I sat and 
 wrestled with it; and the more I looked, the clearer 
 I saw. There was only one way. I'd got to get 
 Polly to let me put a mortgage on the house. I 
 hated to do it too. I hated to drag her into it 
 to put up the only thing she had. 
 
 " But I don't see," I said, " looking at it the worst 
 way you can, that we'd be any worse off than we 
 are now. The bicycle business would go on just as 
 it was now; and this man's salary won't come to so 
 much as Wilkins' did. And what his material would 
 be wouldn't be much. 
 
 " On the other hand," I said, " this may be the
 
 Partners 21 
 
 chance of a lifetime if he could do what he says 
 he can." 
 
 And I went over in my mind the figures I'd made 
 before on the motor-cycle business. " There's a 
 barrel of money in it, I believe," I said to myself 
 " a good big thing for the man who can jump in 
 right now, and jam it. If you could only sell quar- 
 ter the number of them that we put out of wheels 
 today. Christmas ! 
 
 " And I believe we can do it," I said to myself. 
 " Start easy, and work it up. I believe it can be 
 done. 
 
 "We'll do it, too," I said. "We've got to." 
 And I got up. I heard somebody out in the shop. 
 And I looked up at the clock. 
 
 " Good Lord," I said. 
 
 It was seven o'clock, and old Tom Powers was 
 coming around, giving the place its first look-over 
 for the night. He'd been night watchman in the 
 building for several years now. A good capable 
 mechanic once, but his right hand was taken off in 
 a belt, so he wasn't any good on a machine any 
 longer. And they gave him this job as night watch- 
 man. 
 
 " Hello, Tom," said I. 
 
 "Hello yourself," said Tom. "What time's 
 this to be getting home? You'll get a good warm- 
 ing when your wife sees you." 
 
 " That's right, too," said I. 
 
 I always liked the old man. He was a queer 
 old devil. Some of them would tell you he wasn't 
 quite right in his head. He had this invention of
 
 22 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 his, the Miracle we used to call it from some- 
 thing he said once jollying him; this perpetual 
 motion machine he worked on there nights: A 
 kind of a small model that he had, a queer looking 
 thing, like a little windmill, with arms that folded up 
 and flapped out again when you set it whirling. 
 
 I never made out myself whether at the bottom 
 of his heart he took it seriously, or whether it was 
 just something to keep his mind from going loose 
 while he was alone in there nights, with those long 
 still rows of machinery. It must have got pretty 
 lonesome in those empty shops nights, thinking, 
 knowing you had your right hand gone. And I 
 always thought probably he was like a lot of those 
 other fellows that get crippled up in machine shops. 
 They naturally want to make themselves feel they're 
 some use yet, if they are gone physically; and that 
 starts them trying to think out something some 
 invention. Anyhow, in most ways old Tom was 
 sharp as a briar; and as well posted as anybody. 
 He had so much time to read the papers. 
 
 I often asked him what he thought of things, and 
 I thought I'd start him up that night. 
 
 " You've got competition, Tom," said I. 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " Another fellow's been in today with another 
 Miracle." 
 
 "Another one? That all?" 
 
 " Yes," I told him. 
 
 "What's this one got? What's he been trying 
 to do?" 
 
 And I told him.
 
 Partners 23 
 
 " Do you know what I think I'm going to do, 
 Tom? " I said. " I'm going to start him off. I'm 
 going to see if I can't have a crack at the motor- 
 cycle business. There might be big money in it 
 what do you think? " 
 
 ' What have you got that's new? " he said, look- 
 ing at me. He was a queer looking old fellow. 
 He had a face thin as an old skeleton, and a kind 
 of big bulging forehead; and cheeks sunk in over 
 his jaw. When he grinned you saw half of his 
 teeth were gone. 
 
 " We can make one, so he claims, that'll stand 
 up one hundred per cent, better than they do now." 
 
 " Can you ! " said Tom. 
 
 u And go fifty per cent, faster anyhow." 
 
 " That'll do it," said Tom, looking up. " That's 
 what they're after sixty eighty a hundred 
 miles an hour! " 
 
 " Could we sell them if we could do it? " 
 
 " Sell 'em, yes. Every kid'll want one right 
 away. Why wouldn't they? Hop on your own 
 kerosene can and over to Chiny and back in one day; 
 scampering around the world like the devil on a 
 stick. Sure they'll want one ! " 
 
 " We'd have thought it was a miracle at that," 
 said I, " when we were kids." 
 
 " So it is," said he. " So's most everything now- 
 adays. That's the business we're all in miracles. 
 The only trouble with 'em is they don't last. This 
 one'll be a back number ten years from now, just 
 like the bicycle is today. There's something new 
 coming along all the time."
 
 24 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " You're right," said I. " You got to keep 
 humping to keep up with the procession nowadays." 
 
 " I was reading in the paper just this morning," 
 said Tom, " about those Wright boys, down in 
 Dayton, Ohio, starting over to France to show 
 them how to fly in the air." 
 
 " Yes, I saw that," said I. 
 
 " They was in the bicycle business, you notice, 
 like the rest of us." 
 
 " Yes, but that won't go very far," said I. 
 " There's a catch in that thing." 
 
 " It'll be the coming thing ten years from now 
 when your machine will be a back number and 
 mine," he said and grinned his old grin like an 
 old skeleton, with half the lower teeth gone. He 
 always joked about his contrivance. 
 
 " But there's one thing you got to remember," 
 he said. " By that time we'll both have made our 
 million, and be retired." 
 
 " That's right, Tom," said I. " Why wouldn't 
 we make a dollar some day like the rest of 
 them?" 
 
 " That's right, why wouldn't we," said he, with 
 that death's head grin. 
 
 " But there's one thing," I said, " you want to re- 
 member ! I've got an option on some of that stock, 
 when you get the old Miracle on the market." 
 
 " You'll have it," said he. 
 
 " She's going fine, ain't she," said I. " She's 
 working out all right? " 
 
 " She's going good," he said. " I can't com- 
 plain," with that kind of dry old crafty grin upon his
 
 Partners 25 
 
 face he had sometimes. I never could make out 
 whether he was laughing or not. 
 
 " She'll start some of these days," he said. 
 " And I'll come around and surprise you." 
 
 " You won't surprise me any, Tom," said I, spat- 
 ting him on the back. The poor old devil ! 
 
 " Go on now," said Tom. " The wife'll be wait- 
 ing. Go along. I'll lock up after you." 
 
 So I went, and he locked up; and went back again, 
 I suppose, when I was gone, and started pecking 
 away with his old left hand at his little old perpetual 
 motion machine, back alone in the shop. And I 
 went along home, thinking how I'd put the thing 
 about the mortgage to Polly.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE MORTGAGE 
 
 " The This is a nice time to be getting home," 
 said Polly, coming to the door with two red spots in 
 her cheeks, and that little hitch in her voice she had 
 when she was mad or excited. 
 
 " I know it," said I. " But had a fellow come in 
 just as we were closing up that I had to wait for." 
 
 " I guess if you'd tried hard, you could have got 
 rid of him," said Polly, kissing me finally. 
 
 " You've got to stop this, Bill," she said. " It 
 turns everything upside down in the house, and you 
 know it." 
 
 " I apologize," said I. 
 
 " That won't do my dishes for me," said Polly, 
 going out in the kitchen for my supper. 
 
 So we didn't talk much while I was eating. Both 
 the kids were in bed; and we sat there alone. 
 
 '' Who was it," she asked me finally, when she 
 thought I'd had punishment enough. ' This man 
 who came in to see you ? " 
 
 " Oh, a fellow came in," I said, " who had a new 
 idea for a motor cycle." 
 
 " Another one of those cranks with frayed cuffs, I 
 suppose," she said, " that come in every week with a 
 fortune." 
 
 " Maybe," said I.
 
 TJie Mortgage 27 
 
 And I helped her clear off the table, and went back 
 and sat down and smoked and thought it over while 
 she did the dishes. 
 
 " Tell me about it," said Polly, coming back, and 
 sitting on a stool beside me come around again, 
 good-natured as usual. 
 
 So I kissed her, and told her what happened. 
 
 " Poor fellow! " she said, staring, and getting red 
 when I told her about his flopping over on the floor. 
 " Why why didn't you bring him home? " 
 
 " Oh, I fixed him out just as well, I guess," I 
 said. 
 
 "Did he have anything you could use?" she 
 wanted to know. And I told her about his improve- 
 ments he had on the motor cycle; and what old Tom 
 had to say about it. 
 
 " Well, I always thought myself they were a kind 
 of a miracle," said Polly, " tearing around the way 
 they do. I wish father was here, sometimes, just to 
 hear what he'd say when he saw one. But they are, 
 anyway, that's what I always think, when I see one 
 just a miracle." 
 
 " Well, I hope this one will blossom out," said I, 
 " into a full-fledged one." 
 
 "Why? "said Polly. 
 
 " Because it'll be our miracle, if it does," I said. 
 " It'll be our own meat." 
 
 " What do you mean? " she asked me, sitting up 
 and looking at me over the arm of the chair. 
 
 " I've arranged with this fellow that's got the 
 thing to make up one or two for us on trial. And 
 if they turn out right," I said, " we're in on the
 
 28 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 ground floor, without any expense to us. It might 
 make a barrel of money for us; it might make us 
 rich." 
 
 " I don't see why it shouldn't," said Polly. 
 " Other people have luck. 
 
 " I hope so," she went on, patting my hand on the 
 chair arm. " I hope you make all the money there 
 is, Bill. It's about your turn. You've had your 
 share of the other thing these last few years in that 
 old bicycle business." 
 
 '' There's no money in it any longer," I said for 
 the millionth time. " We got into it too late." 
 
 " I know it," said Polly. 
 
 " It's about as profitable now as a deserted gold 
 mine," I told her. 
 
 " And about as cheerful, you poor old Bill," said 
 Polly, patting my hand again, and laying her face 
 against it. " Especially for a man who's so up and 
 coming, naturally, and anxious to get on as you 
 are. 
 
 " I wonder what it would seem like," she said 
 finally, kind of dreaming, " to have all the money 
 you want. I wonder sometimes. I wonder if we'd 
 be any happier with a hundred thousand dollars and 
 a big house than we are right here in this little house 
 on Collins Street." 
 
 " I wouldn't mind trying it once," I told hej>. 
 
 " I don't know how / could be much ! " she 
 said sighing. 
 
 And then we went upstairs. 
 
 I didn't say anything more till we were fixed in 
 bed.
 
 The Mortgage 29 
 
 " Now, here, Mother," I said then, " I've got 
 something else to tell you. I didn't tell you every- 
 thing." 
 
 " Wh-what is it now? " she came back, her voice 
 sharpening up. "What is it?" 
 
 " Wilkins is going to get through." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 u And take his money out." 
 
 "What," she said. "What for? What's he 
 going to do that for?" 
 
 So I told her. 
 
 " That old pig," she said. " That old disgust- 
 ing thing. I always did hate him." 
 
 " You don't any worse than I do," I said, " nor 
 so much. But that don't get us anywhere." 
 
 " I suppose it don't," she said. 
 
 " We've got to raise the money for those notes 
 of his." 
 
 " How are we going to do it? " she asked, her 
 voice still clearer and higher. 
 
 " You tell me," said I. 
 
 " Can't you get it at the bank? " she asked me. 
 
 " No," I said. " Not any more than that first 
 loan that thousand dollars I had at the start. 
 If I could, I'd never had Wilkins in the first place. 
 No, there's nothing from the banks not in the 
 bicycle business, since the slump ! " 
 
 "What will you do then?" 
 
 " I don't know," I said. " Unless you want to 
 let me put a mortgage on the house ! " 
 
 She was sitting up in bed before I was through 
 saying it.
 
 30 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Never, never, never," she said. " A mortgage 
 on this house ! Never." 
 
 And I didn't say anything. 
 
 " How could you think of such a thing? " she 
 said. " Father's old place! " 
 
 I didn't answer her. 
 
 " The only thing we've got sure for the chil- 
 dren," she said, taking hold of my arm. " And 
 when you know how I feel about a mortgage. Any- 
 thing but that, Bill. Anything but a mortgage! 
 No, sir!" 
 
 I kept still. 
 
 "I won't do it, Bill! I can't!" she went on. 
 " You know it. It would half kill me. Oh, why 
 don't you say something! " she called out to me, 
 shaking my arm. 
 
 "What is there to say?" said I. "If you 
 can't stand for a mortgage, that's all there is to 
 it." 
 
 And she kept still now. 
 
 " I can go back, I suppose, and lie down in front 
 of Wilkins, if he'll let me ! " I said. " I guess he'll 
 have to, for that matter. And we can keep on the 
 way we are now sliding down hill year after 
 year year after year. 
 
 " On the other hand," I said, " if I took the bi- 
 cycle business back myself, I know it pretty well; 
 and if worst came to worst, I believe I could clear 
 myself, and get out whole. And in the meanwhile 
 there's a chance in the other thing maybe the 
 chance of a lifetime. It isn't impossible," I said. 
 " It isn't as if fortunes hadn't been made time and
 
 The Mortgage 31 
 
 time again out of machine shops in things with no 
 more promise in than this." 
 
 She sat perfectly rigid. I could just see her, 
 against the wall, sitting up white beside me. 
 
 " But that's up to you," I said. " I believe it 
 would be all right. I believe if you wanted to stand 
 for it in two or three years if you wanted to 
 come in and stick " 
 
 "If if I'll stick, Bill. If I'll stick!" said 
 Polly, sitting there like a ramrod. " You say that 
 again, and I'll scratch your eyes out! " 
 
 So the next day I handed Wilkins his money.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE HOODLUM 
 
 We made up the first one with our own hands, 
 you might say. All the stationary parts of the 
 engine were cast special. We even bent the tubing 
 on the frame ourselves to be sure and have it right 
 and plenty strong. Then we took her out on 
 Breakneck Hill, and tried her. 
 
 " She's good, Pasc," said I, when we came back 
 with her. " She's good." 
 
 She took it like a bird. 
 
 " I'm glad you like her," said Pasc. 
 
 "I certainly do!" said I. "We've got some- 
 thing there, and don't you forget it." 
 
 " She does pretty well," he said. 
 
 " She's got the power right in her. She's got 
 power enough to tear open any ordinary machine 
 like that Rajah, like you would an envelope." 
 
 " That's why I built her so strong," said Pasc. 
 
 " She's got the power," I said; " she's got the 
 strength; she's got the reliability. She's a wonder 
 she's there ! " 
 
 " I'm glad you think so," said Pasc, chewing 
 faster than usual on his slippery elm. 
 
 " That settles it," said I. " We're going to get 
 in back of this thing, and we're going to drive it." 
 
 I'd been thinking and figuring day and night on 
 the thing.
 
 The Hoodlum 33 
 
 u I tell you what I'm going to do," I said. " I'm 
 going to run out the bicycles just as fast as I can; 
 get rid of them, and the bicycle business, and get 
 right after this." 
 
 "Ain't you hurrying things a little mite?" said 
 Pasc. 
 
 " No," I said. " I know where I can place these 
 bicycles, all right now; and get a little something 
 for the business, and it may be some time before I 
 get another such a chance. There's no risk in that. 
 I'm glad to get out so well. There never will be 
 any money in it. That day's gone by. 
 
 " But in this thing," I said, " there's a good big 
 chance. Take it at the worst. If we only sold 
 three hundred of them a year, we'd make a good 
 nice thing out of it. 
 
 " No," I said. " I'm doing the right thing, and 
 I'll tell you why another reason. The man that 
 grabs this thing these new improvements we've 
 got has got to go after it hard. It won't be 
 lying around long. There's no real binding patent 
 on it except maybe on your carburetor." 
 
 " I guess maybe you're right," said Pasc. 
 
 " I know I am," said I. 
 
 So we did; we went right after it, day and night. 
 We hardly took our clothes off to go to bed. We 
 decided to make up six machines to start with. 
 And while I was making up the last of the bicycles, 
 Pasc Thomas was getting the first of the motor 
 cycles for market. We decided finally we'd call 
 her the Hoodlum just the opposite, you might 
 say, of the Rajah. We thought the name would
 
 34 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 strike the young fellows just as well as that did 
 better. It was Pasc's wife's idea mostly. 
 
 We sold this six first three, and then two and 
 then one more, to young bloods around the town 
 who wanted something special extra good. And 
 they were good; everybody that saw them said so. 
 
 " But all in town," said Pasc. " We don't get 
 any orders from outside." 
 
 "That don't worry me," I said. "That will 
 come later. Give them a little time, and they'll 
 advertise themselves. They'll get started. We 
 haven't really tried to push them outside yet. I'm 
 not worrying." 
 
 So we went ahead, and made up six more; and 
 after that I had something to worry about! 
 
 ' This won't do," I said, when we footed up the 
 cost of the things. We weren't making a dollar; 
 we were both working our heads off and not making 
 day wages turning them out separate, by hand 
 that way. 
 
 " I tell you what I can do," said Pasc. " If you 
 let me go ahead and make up forty at a time, I 
 could save you thirty dollars on a machine right 
 there." 
 
 " Go ahead and do it," said I. 
 
 " Can we? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, I think so," I said. " With what came in 
 from the bicycle business and what credit we can 
 get on material." 
 
 Forty was going to be quite a strain for us, I 
 knew that. It meant we had eight thousand dol- 
 lars pretty near tied up in the things before we got
 
 The Hoodlum 35 
 
 through. It meant a second mortgage on the house, 
 finally. 
 
 " Go ahead," Polly said to me. " I throw up 
 my hands. Go ahead. We might as well be hung 
 for a sheep as a lamb." 
 
 "You're a good sport, Pol! " I said, when she 
 fixed it up for me. 
 
 " I have to be," she said, " living with you." 
 
 Way down in the bottom of her heart she was as 
 strong for the thing as I was talking about it all 
 the time. That was about all we did talk about 
 those days the Hoodlum. We had it for break- 
 fast, dinner and supper. 
 
 " The only thing is," she said, " can you sell it? " 
 
 "Sell it," I said. "I certainly can. Why 
 wouldn't I? It can spin circles around anything 
 that's made." 
 
 ' Those other people with the Rajah have got 
 such a start, that's all," she said. 
 
 ' You watch me sell it," I said. 
 
 But just the same, I didn't. I had no luck with 
 the dealers out of town. 
 
 ;< We don't know it," they said to me. " It may 
 be the best in the world. But it's new, that's all." 
 
 Finally the best thing I could do was to put it in 
 with a dozen or more dealers I knew were reliable 
 on consignment. And then they didn't seem to sell 
 only a few right there at home. 
 
 Finally it got along toward August, and it was 
 plain we'd have to do something before long. 
 Our accounts were coming due; and our balances 
 were way down at the bank.
 
 36 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 We did our banking, like a good many of the 
 people in the bicycle trade had, with Proctor Bill- 
 ings' bank the Second National coming in 
 when his father, old man Billings, was alive. 
 
 On the first of August that little bookkeeper, that 
 girl I'd got out of business college, after Wilkins 
 left, came back in the afternoon from the bank, and 
 said: 
 
 " The teller said to tell you that Mr. Billings sent 
 word to you he wished you'd fatten up your balance 
 a little bit; it's been pretty low lately." 
 
 That didn't sound good to me the way things 
 were moving. We only had a loan of a thousand 
 dollars there; but we certainly needed that. And 
 I had been figuring and figuring on how I could get 
 it up in the fall. And now I was afraid he might 
 close down on us entirely. 
 
 " Couldn't you go to Proctor Billings," said Pasc, 
 " and show him how you're fixed. Tell him what 
 the prospects are, when we once get started." 
 
 " Show him," I said. " That's the last thing I'd 
 do ! Proctor Billings ! That tailormade dude. 
 He'd close on you, as quick as he'd close his hand. 
 Go to him! That's what the old bicycle manufac- 
 turers did to his father. And you know what hap- 
 pened to them." 
 
 " I've heard more or less," said Pasc. 
 
 " He cleaned them out, that's all," said I. " He 
 ruined them. They always claimed they'd have 
 pulled through, if he hadn't started the thing. And 
 he'd done their banking for years, for ten years 
 and made himself rich out of it. But he jumped on
 
 The Hoodlum 37 
 
 them first when the time came. He got his money; 
 and he was about the only one who did. 
 
 "That's the danger in this thing, Pasc," I said; 
 " what we're up against all the time. I wish a thou- 
 sand times it wasn't; I wish there was some way 
 you could just go ahead and make a good thing 
 and sell it and not spend three quarters of your 
 time figuring, figuring how you're going to get 
 money to do it with. Money that's always the 
 trouble. And especially when you're doing business 
 with people like that Billings crowd. 
 
 " Oh, I know them," I said, " father and son 
 I've watched them for years. And they're as like 
 as the Indians on two copper cents. Only this one 
 now wears more expensive clothes, and has more 
 college educated manners. But underneath, neither 
 one of them ever had any more bowels than a file. 
 
 " But don't fret, Pasc," said I. " Everything's 
 been running against us so far; but there's got to 
 come a change pretty quick. Sooner or later some- 
 thing's got to break in our favor. It can't run 
 against you all the time." 
 
 I counted, of course, on some sales coming in 
 from somewhere. But they didn't. Instead of 
 that, right away that next week, the machines be- 
 gan coming back from the dealers entirely first 
 one and then another. 
 
 ' Three came in today," Pasc told me one night. 
 ' Three ! " said I, and jumped on a train to New 
 York to find out what was the trouble. 
 
 " We can't sell them, that's all," said this dealer. 
 He was a good friend of mine.
 
 38 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 "Why not?" I asked him. 
 
 " Well, they're new for one thing." 
 
 " So's everything once," said I. "That's no 
 reason." 
 
 ' Well, if you want the truth way down un- 
 derneath," he said, " I can give it to you." 
 
 " Go ahead," said I. 
 
 " But if it got back to me, you understand that 
 you got it here it would kill me, as far as the 
 motor-cycle business is concerned." 
 
 " I understand," I told him. " What is it? " 
 
 " It's the Rajah people," he said. " They're 
 knocking you to beat the band that's the trouble. 
 They're got everybody scared. They say your 
 things look good, but they won't stand up." 
 
 " Oh, they do, do they? " said I. 
 
 ' Yes, all those changes in the machine, and es- 
 pecially those new mechanical valves." 
 
 " So they're looking for a fight, are they? " said 
 I, getting hot. " Well, they've come to the right 
 place for it if that's what they want or any- 
 body else. We can accommodate them." 
 
 " Don't start eating me," he said. " That won't 
 get you anywhere." 
 
 " No," said I. " It's somebody else I'm going 
 to eat not you. And I'm much obliged to you." 
 
 And I started back home again figuring it out 
 on the train. 
 
 " There's just one thing to it," said I to Pasc. 
 " We've got to fight." 
 
 "How?" said he. 
 
 " We're going down there to Newark on Labor
 
 The Hoodlum 39 
 
 Day," I said, " and show that Rajah crowd up, and 
 that piece of junk they've got! " 
 
 " You mean to say," he said, " you're going into 
 racing? " 
 
 " That's what I mean." 
 
 " Look here," he said. " How are you going to 
 do that?" 
 
 " I can do it," said I. 
 
 ' That costs money, going into that racing 
 game," said Pasc. 
 
 " I understand that," I told him. 
 
 " Where'll you get it? Who's going to back 
 you?" 
 
 " We won't have to be backed," I said " not to 
 any great extent, and I'll show you why. We've 
 got the machine. We know that, don't we?" 
 
 " Yeh," said Pasc, with those queer blue eyes of 
 his on me. 
 
 " We can cut figure eights around that piece of 
 junk of theirs." 
 
 " Good and sure," said Pasc. 
 
 " All we need is somebody that's got nerve 
 that can hang on to her and let her go." 
 
 " When you've said that," said Pasc, watching 
 me, " you've said a good deal." 
 
 " I know that," I answered him, " I know we've 
 got to take a man who's had some experience." 
 
 " You bet you have." 
 
 "But if he had that and the Hoodlum under 
 him, and plenty of nerve " 
 
 "Who is it you've got in mind?" he asked 
 me.
 
 40 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " You know that little red-headed boy of Tom's," 
 I asked him. " That little Chuck Powers? " 
 
 " Uh-huh." 
 
 " That's the one. He's ridden quite a lot in 
 quite a number of these races around the country, 
 and he's got nerve to burn." 
 
 11 Will he do it? " said Pasc. " Will he take the 
 chance? " 
 
 " He'll do it," I said, " I know the boy. He'll 
 jump at it." 
 
 ' Well, do we want him to, ourselves," said Pasc, 
 stopping his everlasting chewing of his slippery elm. 
 " Do we want to take the chance of having 
 him?" 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 ;< Well, we wouldn't want to be responsible for 
 killing him." 
 
 "Killing him!" said I. 
 
 ' You never saw those devils those real pro- 
 fessionals," said Pasc, " riding a real race, for blood, 
 in one of those new motordromes those Bowls." 
 
 "They do have some bad accidents on them; I 
 know that," said I. 
 
 " When something goes or they shoot off the 
 edge of the Bowl it's liable to be sure death. 
 They kill a plenty of them in a season going at 
 those speeds." 
 
 " Well," said I finally. " We've all got to take 
 our chances in life, that's certain. If I get him, 
 will you do it, will you get out with him, and help 
 him, and train him up on the fine points of the ma- 
 chine?"
 
 The Hoodlum 41 
 
 " I'll try it," said he. " But it will be a kind of 
 an experiment, from his standpoint or ours 
 whether we'll get anywheres with it." 
 
 " We've got to, that's all. It's that or nothing 
 now with us. If we don't, we bust by the 
 first of October, anyhow, when those accounts come 
 due and that note at Billings' bank." 
 
 " But look here," said Pasc. " How are you go- 
 ing to do it anyway? " 
 
 " He won't cost anything, nor the machines, nor 
 you nothing but expenses." 
 
 "What are you going to do about the boy?" 
 Pasc wanted to know. 
 
 " I'm going to him and tell him we'll put our ma- 
 chine and expenses against his time; and if he makes 
 good, we'll make it up to him, and more later. 
 He'll jump at it ! I know it ! " 
 
 " Maybe," said Pasc. " But even so," he said, 
 bringing out his old envelope and pencil stub, the 
 way he did when he was figuring or working on his 
 mechanical ideas. " Even at that, where'll we get 
 the money? " 
 
 " We'll get it," I said. 
 
 "Do you realize where we stand?" he said to 
 me. "What our bank balance is? I don't think 
 you do." 
 
 "Why not?" said I. 
 
 " While you were gone," he said, " this thing 
 came up. Myrtle came in when she found out and 
 told me about it." 
 
 " What's she done now? " said I. He was talk- 
 ing about that little bookkeeper we got from busi-
 
 42 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 ness school. She was always in trouble with some- 
 thing. 
 
 " She sent out for me in the shop," said Pasc, 
 kind of slow, " when she found out." 
 
 "What is it?" said I. 
 
 " It seems she made a little mistake in her addi- 
 tion. We haven't got so much in the bank as we 
 thought for." 
 
 " How much have we got? " said I. 
 
 And he told me. 
 
 I jumped up on my feet, and cut loose. 
 
 " Seven thousand devils," I said. " How'd she 
 make that mistake?" 
 
 " I don't know," said Pasc. " Kind of worn 
 down and tired, I guess." 
 
 " Did you fire her? " I said. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Well, I will tomorrow," I said. 
 
 " No, you won't," he said, " when you think it 
 over. She's nothing but a kid and she's tired 
 out, that's all." 
 
 " That won't help us any," I said, " when she 
 makes some great big blunder." 
 
 " We're all tired some," he said, " around here, 
 nowadays." 
 
 " She never will catch up," said I. " She's al- 
 ways behindhand. She isn't fit for it anyhow. She 
 hasn't got blood enough in her body to keep a 
 mouse alive." 
 
 "Besides," said Pasc, "what do you expect? 
 What else can you get anywhere for eight dollars 
 a week? "
 
 The Hoodlum 43 
 
 "Ah-hah," I said. "Well, we'll see." He 
 didn't convince me then ; I meant to let her go any- 
 how. I only wish I had. 
 
 " But the question is," said Pasc, " how are we 
 going to do it, anyhow? How are we going to get 
 the money for racing or even for our rent and 
 our payroll? " 
 
 " We might sell a machine or two more than we 
 expected." 
 
 " I've counted on more now than we'll sell," said 
 Pasc, looking at his old envelope. 
 
 " We can do it, somehow," said I. 
 ' You'll have to have several hundred dollars any- 
 how." 
 
 " We can do it." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " I don't know how, but we'll do it," I said. " I 
 know that. Because we've got to. We're like that 
 bulldog that climbed the tree. And we'll sit right 
 down here now, and figure it out." 
 
 ' Jerusalem," said Pasc, looking up at the clock. 
 " See what time it is." 
 
 It was a quarter past seven. 
 
 " Zetta'll snatch me baldheaded," he said, jump- 
 ing up. 
 
 I knew there was no use of talking now; that was 
 one thing you never could move him on anything 
 where his wife was concerned. Besides, I could see 
 myself there was no use of going ahead then before 
 supper. 
 
 " I tell you what you do," said I. ' You come 
 right over to the house after you've eaten."
 
 44 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 "Shall I bring Zetta with me?" asked Pasc. 
 " She gets almighty lonesome sitting there alone in 
 that flat." 
 
 " Sure," I told him. " Bring her along. The 
 women can amuse themselves while we talk busi- 
 ness." 
 
 And then he rushed out. 
 
 Old Tom Powers got in before I got out myself, 
 and I asked him about his boy. 
 
 " He won't get much out of it first," I said. 
 " But if he wins out, he won't lose anything by it in 
 the long run. You know me well enough to know 
 that anyway, Tom," said I. 
 
 " He'll do it, I guess," said old Tom, talking a 
 little slow. " He's crazy about the riding, and he 
 knows every nut and bolt in that machine of yours. 
 He'd ought to," he said. " He was brought up 
 inside a machine shop. His mother weaned him on 
 machine oil." 
 
 And he showed his gums in that old lean grave- 
 yard grin of his. 
 
 "You haven't got any objections, have you?" I 
 asked the old man in spite of myself, seeing that 
 old right-hand stump of his. The boy was the only 
 child they had. 
 
 " His mother won't like it very much, I suppose," 
 he said. " He ain't only eighteen, and he's the only 
 boy she's got. She thinks it's worse than it is, too." 
 
 " Yes, I know." 
 
 " But he's got to take his chance," he said, 
 " along with the rest of us. Women always think 
 the worst of everything.
 
 The Hoodlum 45 
 
 " Go on now," he said, stopping talking about it, 
 kind of suddenly. " Go on. I'll lock up after you. 
 Don't you ever go home to your wife in season? " 
 
 So I left him as usual, poking around in the dark, 
 closing up the place after me.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 ZETTA'S RING 
 
 She was a kind of a dark-looking woman Pasc's 
 wife a fine, full figure of a young woman, with 
 black hair and red lips. I had only seen her once 
 or twice, when she'd come into the office. She 
 hadn't come to town until just lately; and when she 
 did, they didn't live near us; they'd gone way over 
 to the other end of town, where they were putting 
 up those new eighteen dollar a month flats. 
 
 " Hello," she said, coming into the door. 
 " Hello, Mr. Morgan. Howdy do, again. And 
 this is Mrs. Morgan, isn't it? Howdy." 
 
 " I'm ashamed of myself," said Polly, taking off 
 her wrap for her, " for not coming over and seeing 
 you." 
 
 " Oh, don't mention it," she said. " With your 
 kids and doing your own work at the same time, I 
 know just how it must be. If I was you I'd be 
 dead." 
 
 And she went over and took a chair and started 
 talking along to Polly. 
 
 " We'll let the men alone," she said, " to take 
 care of their own troubles." 
 
 She was smart as a steel trap, you could see that; 
 just brimful of life. 
 
 " Our sitting room's pretty small," said Polly.
 
 Zetta's Ring 47 
 
 " I'd take you upstairs, only the children are asleep 
 there." 
 
 " Oh, this is all right," said Pasc's wife. " We 
 can sit over here and talk, and not disturb them a 
 particle. 
 
 " You go ahead now, boys," she said to us. 
 " You talk your business, and we'll sit over here and 
 get acquainted." 
 
 You couldn't help liking her; she was so kind of 
 free and easy, and friendly. She started right 
 along talking to my wife. 
 
 " It is kind of lonely," she said, " at first not 
 knowing anybody in town. And more so with us. I 
 always did like to go, I'm that kind; and Pasc there 
 is just the opposite. That's the trouble with us." 
 
 " I guess you don't fight much," said Polly. 
 
 " No, we don't fight," she answered her, looking 
 at Pasc, and smiling. They were a queer couple 
 entirely different from one another. But you could 
 see they thought the world of each other, especially 
 Pasc. Every time she looked at him, his lean old 
 leathery face lighted up like a jack lantern. 
 
 I was out getting a cigar for Pasc, from the side- 
 board in the dining room. 
 
 " I always want to go too much," I heard her 
 going on to my wife. " I was brought up that way. 
 An only kid, kind of spoiled. But he wants to come 
 home and sit there nights, thinking out something 
 in his head. For the last two years it's been this 
 carburetor. He's got carburetor on the brain. It 
 was pretty fierce sometimes, especially for a bride. 
 I used to get mad and call him my human carbu-
 
 48 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 retor, sometimes, didn't I, Pasc? " she called over to 
 him. 
 
 And he grinned that sudden dry grin of his, like 
 those still fellows do their teeth opening up sud- 
 denly out of their stiff faces. 
 
 " Just to show him I'm living," she said, " I have 
 to get up, and kick over the traces now and then. 
 But I know; I'm not a fool about it. I know I can't 
 quarrel with my bread and butter. And especially 
 now when we're all going to make so much money 
 on the Hoodlum. 
 
 " Now, you go ahead, boys," she called over to 
 us, across the room. " Stop your listening and get 
 down to business." 
 
 " All right, Sister," said I, and we went ahead. 
 I felt as if I'd always known her, all my life. 
 
 " Now here," I said to Pasc. " Let's get right 
 down, and find out just what we can do. Let's fig- 
 ure out just what we can hope to lay our hands on." 
 
 And Pasc brought out his old pencil stub, and an- 
 other old envelope half covered up with draw- 
 ings and figures. 
 
 " Now in the first place," I said, " here's one 
 place we can cut down some. We can get rid of 
 this one man." 
 
 " I hate to do that,' said Pasc. " He's been a 
 pretty good man for us." 
 
 " I know that," I said. " But we've got to do it. 
 We can make it up to him sometime later." 
 
 " But you can't cut out much, that's certain." 
 
 " Not and run," said I. " Unless you and I stay 
 there twenty-four hours a day."
 
 Zetta's Ring 49 
 
 " You'd better take your beds down and sleep 
 there," Polly called across the room. 
 
 You could see they were both listening to us while 
 they talked. They had to more or less; the room 
 was so small. 
 
 " Never mind," I called back to her, " you keep 
 out of this, now! " 
 
 We couldn't cut out much that we hadn't already 
 try all we could. I could hear the women going 
 on with their talking, as we sat thinking about it. 
 
 They were talking about housekeeping, and the 
 trouble of getting along on what they had. And 
 what they'd do if they had money. 
 
 " What I object to is the smallness of it," I heard 
 Zetta Pasc's wife say, " being cooped up so 
 when you're poor." 
 
 " Now, here," I said to Pasc, " let's get back to 
 the main thing. Let's see what we can hope to lay 
 our hands on. There's one or two other men," I 
 said, " I believe I might sell to, if I shaved the price 
 a little." 
 
 " Yes, I know," said Pasc, wetting his little pen- 
 cil with his tongue. " But even so, you've got to 
 have several hundred dollars yet to pull out any- 
 way. Isn't that so? " 
 
 " Yes, that's right," I had to admit. 
 
 " I'm afraid we're kind of up against it," he said. 
 
 " Not on your life," I said, and I sat there at one 
 side of the center table, figuring on it. 
 
 I could hear the women. They were talking 
 about money still, what they'd do if they had it 
 like a couple of kids. I had to grin.
 
 50 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " If you had a lot of money what would you do 
 with it?" Zetta was asking. 
 
 " I don't know," said Polly. 
 
 " I do. I'd live," said the other one. " And 
 we'll have it too out of this last thing I know 
 it. And when it comes I'm going to have one 
 grand large time." 
 
 I had to grin to myself. We were sitting, figur- 
 ing our heads off to see where we were coming 
 out, and she was spending our money for us already. 
 
 The worst of it was we didn't get anywhere; 
 there wasn't any loophole apparently. 
 
 " We were funny folks that way at my home," 
 I heard Pasc's wife going on, " about money. 
 Sometimes we had a lot; and sometimes we didn't. 
 My father was in the livery stable business ; and he 
 used to go around to these big races, and bet quite a 
 little, and he was pretty smart at it, too; but some- 
 times he'd get caught! 
 
 " But when we had it, we had it. We didn't 
 keep it long. I was the only child; and he used to 
 give me everything there was, when he had the 
 money. I used to go everywhere; and do every- 
 thing, about, that he did. We used to have the fin- 
 est horses in town; and he let me drive them all the 
 time when I wasn't more than ten years old. 
 And I could drive some. I'd like to see a horse 
 that would go too fast for me or anything else ! " 
 she said. ' That's why I've been so much excited 
 over this Hoodlum. I'd like nothing better," she 
 said, " than to dress up like a man, and take one of 
 those things and ride and ride and ride ! "
 
 Zettcis Ring 51 
 
 She'd got kind of excited talking about it; and the 
 color had come up under her dark cheeks shining 
 through the skin. She certainly was a stunning 
 looking woman those days. 
 
 " I'm like my father, i guess, more ways than 
 one," she said. ' We both had to be going fast, 
 all the time. He gave me this," she said, breaking 
 off, and taking a big diamond ring off her finger. 
 I hadn't seen it before. " On my eighteenth birth- 
 day. Before he died. Don't you love them? 
 I do. I think they're wonderful. I'm going to 
 have a bushel of them, when this Hoodlum makes 
 good when we get all this money we're going 
 to." 
 
 " I do," said Polly. " I like them pretty well. 
 Only I never had one yet not a real one." 
 
 " I always thought the world of this one. Isn't 
 it a dandy? " she said, turning it so the light struck 
 it. 
 
 " Isn't it a lovely one? " said Polly. 
 
 I looked over and saw it. It was a great big 
 fine stone. It made me kind of sore. She sitting 
 there showing the light on that diamond, and we 
 sitting over across the room figuring, figuring. 
 Figuring and not getting anywhere; with all our as- 
 sets tied up in those thirty or thirty-five motor cy- 
 cles. 
 
 " I give it up," said Pasc finally, looking up from 
 his old envelope. 
 
 " Well, I don't," said I, and kept along. 
 
 I saw Polly flush when he said it, and knew she 
 was listening in all the time.
 
 52 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I never was much good at figures," said Pasc, 
 stopping and waiting for me. 
 
 But I didn't get anywhere either. 
 
 " You're up against it, too, ain't you," he said to 
 me finally. 
 
 " Well, I don't see just now where the money's 
 coming from." 
 
 " Well, then," said Pasc. " Will you want to go 
 ahead with it? " 
 
 " I sure will," said I. 
 
 " You don't want to start and spend our money 
 for something you can't finish, do you? " 
 
 " No. But you don't want to bust either, do 
 you? " I said to him. 
 
 I thought I was talking pretty low still, but I 
 guess I wasn't. 
 
 " No," he said. 
 
 " Well, we will! " I said. " Unless we find the 
 money to put this thing through." 
 
 He didn't say anything. 
 
 "We'll bust, that's the English of it," I went 
 along. 
 
 " Excuse me," I heard Pasc's wife saying to mine. 
 I had noticed their talk had slackened up the past 
 minute or two. " Excuse me, Mrs. Morgan," she 
 said, " but I've got to get into this thing the men 
 are talking about." 
 
 When I looked at her, I saw her face was red as 
 fire. 
 
 " What do you mean? " she said to me. " Did 
 you say you'd bust, if you didn't have more money 
 to run off that race with? "
 
 Zetta's Ring 53 
 
 " Well, that's about the size of it." 
 
 " Do you mean to say," she said, turning to Pasc, 
 " things have got as bad as that, and you never told 
 me?" 
 
 And those black eyes looked clear through him. 
 " Why didn't you? " she wanted to know. " Why 
 not?" 
 
 " I didn't want to bother you," Pasc told 
 her. 
 
 " Bother me," she said, in a sharp voice, " I wish 
 you'd bother me more sometimes! " 
 
 And we all sat there for a few minutes feeling 
 awkward. 
 
 " You must have thought I was a nice one," she 
 said to me; " fooling around, and talking about 
 money, and showing off my diamond." 
 
 " I didn't think anything about it." 
 
 " Look here," she said to me, " would three hun- 
 dred dollars be any use? " 
 
 " It might be," I said. " A good deal." 
 
 " Here," she said, " take it." 
 
 And in a quarter of a second, she had that ring 
 off her finger. 
 
 "Take it," I said, flabbergasted. "What?" 
 
 " This ring," she told me. "It's worth three 
 hundred dollars." 
 
 " Not on your life," said I. 
 
 "Your father's ring! " said Polly. 
 
 " Yes, you will! " said Pasc's wife. 
 
 " Not and take any chance like this with it," I 
 told her. 
 
 " Didn't you tell me," she asked, " that three
 
 54 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 hundred dollars might pull you through? Save 
 you?" 
 
 " It might. Yes." 
 
 " And haven't you put in everything you own 
 a mortgage on your house, and everything? " 
 
 " Yes," said I. 
 
 'Then what do you take me for? No, sir," 
 she said to Polly, who started to reason with her 
 about this ring from her dead father. " No," she 
 said, standing very straight and still. " We're 
 partners in this thing, aren't we? Then you've got 
 to take it. 
 
 "What do you think I am you putting up 
 your house and all that, and I sitting here with this 
 thing? You take it now, before I get mad. If 
 you don't, Pasc will. Isn't that right, Pasc?" 
 
 " Darned sure," said Pasc. 
 
 " No, sir," said I again. " I refuse to take it." 
 
 " All right," she said, quicker than a flash and 
 she handed the ring over to Pasc. " I tell you 
 what I'm going to do then." 
 
 " What? " said Pasc, grinning at her the way you 
 do at a nice lively child. 
 
 " Will three hundred dollars pay for the expenses 
 of this race everything? " 
 
 " It ought to," said Pasc. 
 
 " Then it'll be my race," she said. " I'll pay 
 for it. You go ahead, boys, you run your race; 
 and I'll pay for it. And you'll see it's done," she 
 said to Pasc. 
 
 " You can count on that," said Pasc. 
 
 " But you don't take any risks of losing it," said
 
 Zettas Ring 55 
 
 I. ' You could pawn it, if you like, but you've got 
 to fix it so we're both responsible for getting it back 
 to you." 
 
 ' You've got to have it, anyhow," she said, 
 " whether you lose it or not." 
 
 So we compromised, finally. Pasc took it and 
 put it in his pocket before she would be satisfied. 
 
 ' You needn't think," she said to me, " that you 
 men are the only ones that ever take a chance in 
 your life." 
 
 She looked great flushed up that way, but her 
 upper lip sat down on the lower one, straight as a 
 die. 
 
 " There's a woman," I said to myself then, 
 " that'll go a long ways for what she's after." 
 
 She started smiling then, showing her big white 
 teeth when she had her own way. 
 
 " You'll pay me for this," she said, " don't you 
 worry when we win out; when the Hoodlum gets 
 going right. Because we're going to win don't 
 you forget that: this race, and everything we're 
 after." 
 
 " That's the way to talk," I told her. " I al- 
 ways did like a woman with some spunk and go to 
 her." 
 
 " Well, we've both got 'em, I guess," said Pasc, 
 looking at our wives. 
 
 " I God, yes," I said. " That's one satisfaction. 
 You bet we're going to win," I said to her. 
 
 41 And right after that I'm going to collect on 
 you both,' she said, and started to laugh again. 
 
 " You can go the limit with me," I told her.
 
 56 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I wish half the time," she said, " I was a man, 
 anyhow." 
 
 " Pasc don't," said I, " and I don't blame him." 
 
 " I do, just the same," she said. " You can go 
 somewhere and do something. You aren't cooped 
 up all your life, like a woman never able to get 
 out, and get what you want most." 
 
 " What's that," I said, jollying her. 
 
 " Just what you do." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Money," she said. " Without it, where are 
 you? With it you can cut loose and be free. 
 Heavens," she said, and threw up her arms above 
 her head. " You can live. 
 
 ' You watch me," she went on, " when we get 
 the money. I'll have diamonds galore, and au- 
 tomobiles, and some real clothes, once. I'll go to 
 New York, and get some clothes that'll make these 
 country frumps around here sit up and take notice." 
 
 " You bet you will, and I'll see you get them, if 
 he won't give them to you," I said to her, jollying 
 her again. She was considerably younger than any 
 of the rest of us. 
 
 " And now we're going," she said, getting up. 
 
 And then they went on home. I noticed Polly 
 didn't have much to say, when they'd gone. 
 
 " She's a stunner, isn't she," said I. " I don't 
 know when I've seen a handsomer woman." 
 
 " Yes," said Polly, without any spirit in it. 
 
 " Like one of these red birds you see sometimes 
 on the top of a tree, in the country. You can't 
 keep your eyes off her. Don't you think so? "
 
 Zetta's Ring 57 
 
 " She is striking looking," said Polly. " But 
 she uses kind of funny grammar; and she dresses 
 pretty kind of conspicuous." 
 
 " She can stand it," I said. 
 
 " Yes, she can in a way." 
 
 "What's the matter with her?" I said. Polly 
 was always pretty nice about other women. 
 "Don't you like her?" 
 
 ' Yes," said Polly, " she's a kind of a lawless 
 thing. But I like her very much." 
 
 "Then what is it?" I said, "that you've got 
 against her? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " What is it," I said, keeping after her. " Are 
 you jealous of her? It's something; I know 
 that!" 
 
 " Nothing in the world," she said, " not against 
 her." 
 
 "Against who, then?" said I, still trying to 
 worm it out of her. 
 
 " Against myself," she said finally. 
 
 "Against yourself?" 
 
 "Oh, why didn't / think of that!" said Polly, 
 letting it loose; flushing up to the roots of her hair. 
 
 " Think of what," I said, wondering. 
 
 " What she did that diamond ring." 
 
 " Diamond ring," I said. " You haven't got 
 any diamond ring." 
 
 " But I've got other things," she said. " All 
 that old jewelry of mother's. That is quite valu- 
 able." 
 
 " What do you want to do," I said, " give us
 
 58 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 that! " I had to laugh to her, standing there all 
 flushed up. 
 
 " I guess you've done about enough, girl," I said, 
 kissing her. " You've put up about all you own. 
 I guess we've all got about enough up to put on one 
 bicycle race. You can keep your mother's jew- 
 elry. 
 
 " But let me tell you something," I said, think- 
 ing; " if this thing works out you'll see some race. 
 If that boy of Tom's can stick on the old Hoodlum, 
 we'll show up that Rajah thing. We'll show them 
 what a real motor cycle is." 
 
 " I I bet we will," said Polly.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE BOWL 
 
 " Now here," said I to Pasc down at the shop 
 the next day, standing there beside one of those old 
 original first model Hoodlums, " what could she do, 
 if she had to? " 
 
 " On the straightaway? " 
 
 " Yeah." 
 
 ' Two miles a minute." 
 
 " You say so," said I. " But you and I'll never 
 live to see any two miles a minute on wheels." 
 
 " She could," said Pasc again, " if there was 
 anybody living dared put her to it." 
 
 "And what about that other thing the 
 Rajah?" 
 
 " A mile in fifty seconds. Not more. Not for 
 any length of time. It would bang her up too 
 much. This old girl," said he, " of ours has got 
 easy fifteen seconds over that Rajah machine in the 
 mile." 
 
 " Do you believe it? " said I. 
 
 " I know it," said Pasc. " Just the same as I 
 know she won't make anywhere near her time at 
 Newark. In one of those condemned Bowls 
 against that Shang, the Murderer that Murphy 
 and that other Rajah bunch." 
 
 " I suppose they are the devil," said I.
 
 60 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " You'd think so," said Pasc. 
 
 " Well, it's up to you. That's your job," said I. 
 " When are you going to take young Chuck Powers, 
 and start him getting used to it down there? " 
 
 " I think I'll start tomorrow," said Pasc. " I've 
 arranged for getting the money on Zetta's ring." 
 
 I had letters from him, then, telling me how they 
 were getting on; and what their plans were. 
 
 " We've got it all figured out," Pasc wrote me. 
 " We're going to run a new style race. We're out 
 to show that Rajah machine up. And so as to do 
 that good, we're going to start dragging them out 
 from the first; till we pull the insides right out of 
 her. You'll see some records going; and now and 
 then a chunk of hot metal out of that Rajah engine, 
 following us around unless they manage to foul 
 us out of it." 
 
 I heard from them, rather encouraged, several 
 times. But I didn't go down there myself till the 
 day before the race the day before Labor Day. 
 I couldn't afford it and I was too busy. 
 
 "Well, how's it coming?" I said to Chuck 
 meeting him first, and shaking hands outside the 
 dressing room. 
 
 " Oh, all right, I guess," he said, looking up a 
 second, and down again the way that kind does; 
 not very talkative. He had a kind of bold, obsti- 
 nate pair of eyes, when he did look at you blue, 
 with the whites showing underneath. 
 
 ;< Won your heat, I hear," said I. 
 
 " Uh-huh." 
 
 " That's good."
 
 The Bowl 61 
 
 " You'll find Mr. Thomas inside," he said, going 
 along. 
 
 " What's he done, anyhow, in practice? " I asked 
 Pasc, when he told me about the preliminaries. 
 
 " Forty-three seconds for the mile." 
 
 "Yes, he has!" said I. 
 
 " He can do better," said Pasc, " if he's left 
 alone. The trouble is the Rajah people know it 
 just as well as we do now. They know they've got 
 to do something extra. That Shang Murphy's 
 after him, already. He started out to pick a fight 
 with him yesterday, when he was just standing 
 there." 
 
 "He did, huh?" said I. 
 
 " That's their old game. Scare the hearts out 
 of the new ones before they even get in." 
 
 " Did it work," I asked him, " with our kid? " 
 
 "Work! " said Pasc, smiling that dry old leath- 
 ery smile. " You watch them." 
 
 And then we walked around and he showed me 
 this Bowl, where they rode. It was a queer look- 
 ing thing, 'round and 'round six laps to the mile, 
 as I remember it. A board track, banked straight 
 up, until it looked just like the inside of a bowl. 
 The riders started and ran 'round and 'round in- 
 side them, as the fellow said, like a scared mouse in 
 a soup tureen hanging up on the sides against 
 the force of gravity. 
 
 " The only trouble is," said Pasc, " they ain't 
 banked enough." 
 
 "Not banked enough! " I said. 
 
 " Not yet. You've got to have them so they
 
 62 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 hang right out in the air, when they're riding; as it 
 is now they keep sliding off over the edge, and kill- 
 ing themselves. 
 
 " Especially passing somebody else," said Pasc, 
 " at these speeds now. Just a twitch of the wrist, 
 and off you go. The condemned things are only 
 thirty-five or forty feet wide. And you can imagine 
 how long it takes to shoot that." 
 
 " They have killed quite a few lately, haven't 
 they? " said I. 
 
 ; ' They're nothing more'n death traps," said Pasc, 
 " the whole of them. Some day they'll have to do 
 away with them entirely." And they did, of course, 
 after that. " It takes a man with a case-hardened 
 nerve," he said, " to get into it now." 
 
 " Well," I said to him, " how is it? How'll this 
 kid of ours stand it? " 
 
 " All right," said Pasc. 
 
 " He must be pretty small, next to the rest of 
 them." 
 
 "That's all right," he came back. "It ain't 
 size that counts in this, and I don't except that 
 great foul-mouthed murdering freak that Shang 
 Murphy. 
 
 ' We're going right after them," said Pasc, 
 " we're going to draw them out from the start, 
 just the same as I wrote you." 
 
 " Go ahead," said I. " I'm ready for you. 
 The minute we win, the advertising's all ready to 
 smear up on the walls where the crowd goes out. 
 And if we don't win," said I, trying to be funnier 
 than I felt, " I guess I've got the car-fare home.
 
 The Bowl 63 
 
 But it'll have to come out of the creditors, at that." 
 I sat there waiting in the grand stand that next 
 afternoon, and watched the crowd, and the riders 
 starting to come over into that Bowl underneath. 
 I was away over at one end of the grand stand, the 
 only seat I could get in the front row. Pasc was 
 down with Chuck Powers in that center of the track 
 
 the pit, they called it; so I sat there alone, and 
 shoved my jack-knife blade into the seat as far as I 
 could shove, and drew it out, and shoved it in again 
 
 wondering just what was going to happen to us 
 that next hour and a half in that loo-mile race. If 
 we didn't get it, of course we were through. 
 
 There was a man next to me a small, black- 
 looking young fellow with a big checked cap, and 
 bright yellow shoes, and a bright blue necktie. He 
 looked like he might be one of these young Italians, 
 or a French Canadian. His big cap was down over 
 his eyes, and he sat there chewing gum. 
 
 "Queer looking things, ain't they?" I said to 
 him, thinking it would help pass the time to talk to 
 somebody. " These Bowls." 
 
 " Sure," he said, looking straight out ahead. 
 
 " Treacherous damned things, too ain't 
 they? " I went along. u I see where they killed an- 
 other man over in Revere last week that Joe 
 Lavoisier." 
 
 I noticed him then give this little kind of a twitch. 
 
 u You see about that? " I asked him. 
 
 " Yeah, I saw it," he said, and pulled his cap 
 down more over his eyes. 
 
 14 Dangerous business," said I,
 
 64 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " They call it racing," he answered after a min- 
 ute. "Its right name is murder the way they 
 run it now." 
 
 " Shooting off over the edge? " 
 
 " Or being pushed." 
 
 "Crowded off?" said I. 
 
 " You've said it," said this fellow next to me. 
 
 " That would be murder! " 
 
 " What was I telling you? " he said to me, and 
 shut up. And we both sat there, staring at the 
 track. Some more of the riders were coming on. 
 He stopped chewing his gum, and sat there staring 
 down. He seemed as if he was looking for some- 
 body. 
 
 I heard him cursing then, after a minute or two, 
 under his breath. I turned around, and looked at 
 him, and he saw me doing it. 
 
 ' You were speaking about that Joe Lavoisier," 
 he said, " getting his last week." 
 
 " Uh-huh." 
 
 " Well, that's the fellow that gave it to him," he 
 said, nodding his big cap. 
 
 " Who? " said I, " that big black-looking one? " 
 
 I had been watching him before, suspecting al- 
 ready who it was. 
 
 He nodded his head again. 
 
 "Who is it?" I asked him. 
 ' That's Shang Murphy." 
 
 " So that's the man." 
 
 ' That's the guy. That's the main murderer," 
 he said. "That's the fellow that gave it to 
 Joe."
 
 The Bowl 65 
 
 " Gripes," I said, " he don't hardly look human, 
 does he?" 
 
 He didn't in that leather suit; gawking 
 around. He looked about eight feet tall, and about 
 as big around as a napkin ring. 
 
 " He ain't," said the fellow next to me. " He's 
 a damned murdering rattlesnake." 
 
 I sat there watching him, thinking about all I 
 had heard about him. I noticed, after a while, how 
 this man beside me kept cursing him out. I didn't 
 pay so much attention at first. I was watching 
 Chuck Powers down there, getting ready with his 
 machine, looking like a two-year-old kid next to 
 that big freak. 
 
 But then I heard this fellow next to me curs- 
 ing and swearing as if he was talking to somebody 
 in a kind of a hoarse low voice. And I followed 
 his eyes, and he was talking to that great freak, 
 that Murphy, as if he was alone in a room with 
 him. 
 
 " You think you're the only one," he was saying 
 under his breath, " that can pull that murder stuff. 
 But some one's coming along, some day, and hand 
 you yours. And when they do, all I ask is I'll be 
 
 there to see it you " And he cursed him, in 
 
 that hoarse low voice of his till your hair rose up on 
 the nape of your neck like a dog's, listening to him. 
 
 Finally I caught his eye; he saw I was listening. 
 
 " Say, what have you got against him, so much? " 
 I said to him. 
 
 " Oh, nothing much," he said, giving me a stare. 
 " Only I'm Joe Lavoisier's brother." And he
 
 66 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 pulled down his cap again. " I was there when this 
 thing killed him." 
 
 " O, that's it! " said I, catching it finally. 
 
 And then we both shut up and looked down at 
 them, getting ready to start the riders on the 
 wheels, each one of us thinking his own thoughts. 
 
 " But one thing, by Gripes," I said, looking down 
 at that long leather thing underneath us, and start- 
 ing talking to him under my breath myself. " If 
 you start any of your murdering stunts this time 
 on that boy of ours it'll be your last one. 
 There'll be three hospitals full of you just as soon 
 as I get near enough to you to get one hand around 
 that turkey neck of yours." 
 
 And the two of us sat there glaring at him. 
 ' There they get up," said Joe Lavoisier's 
 brother. 
 
 And they started the machines off around the 
 track, four of them circling for the flying start, 
 each one at a different quarter of the Bowl. 
 
 " Here's where you see it," said he, " the only 
 place on the stand. Out here away from the 
 judges, where you can watch them having it out 
 alone, among themselves." 
 
 " Uh-huh," said I, watching them. They didn't 
 look like anything human, for a fact, any of them 
 in those round helmets, and leather clothes they 
 put on them to protect them from the fire of the 
 exhausts, and the splinters from the board tracks, 
 if they got spilled. A flock of earless, hairless, 
 goggle-eyed leather devils, tearing off on wheels. 
 
 " Bang," went the pistol.
 
 The Bowl 67 
 
 " There they go off," said the fellow side of me. 
 And they flung themselves up on the side of the 
 Bowl, whirling faster and faster. 
 
 " Some pace," said Joe Lavoisier's brother, tak- 
 ing out a stop watch. ' This one is for blood." 
 
 " Fifty-five seconds to the mile already," he said 
 after a little while, studying his watch. 
 
 Every three or four seconds one went snorting 
 by. I could hear the old Hoodlum come a-roaring 
 all the way around the track. She had an entirely 
 different sound to her. She was walking right up 
 on the man ahead of her one of those two 
 Rajah riders. 
 
 " Look at her go up," I said, half out loud. 
 
 " That's that new machine, with the young kid 
 on it," said this Joe Lavoisier's brother. 
 
 " Uh-huh." 
 
 " You'd know that. You'd know it was some 
 fool kid," he said. 
 
 "Why would you?" 
 
 " Hitting it up like that. She can't stand it. 
 Nothing can. Nor he either." 
 
 " You watch him," said I. 
 
 " Yeah? Well, you watch what old Pegleg Han- 
 sen does to him, the one ahead on that Rajah 
 there, when he gets up to him. He's got a nerve, 
 anyhow a fool kid like that butting in on a race 
 like this, against old birds like these two. They 
 oughtn't to let them. There ought to be a law 
 against it." 
 
 But Chuck kept right after his man, while he was 
 talking.
 
 68 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 Across the track the same thing, almost, was go- 
 ing on. This Shang Murphy was running up 
 up up on the man ahead of him. 
 
 "Shang Shang Shang," the grand stand 
 was yelling; that Rajah crowd everybody riding 
 one those days. 
 
 '" Listen to this," said this Lavoisier's brother, 
 poking his elbow into me. This Shang was lying 
 up behind the other man, cursing him, telling him to 
 let him go by. Black, putrid oaths something 
 frightful for talk; you could smell it, almost, over 
 the gasoline. 
 
 " He's after him," said Lavoisier. 
 
 " What good does that do him? " said I. " He 
 can get by. What's "he trying to do to him, any- 
 
 way 
 
 
 This young fellow sat there, chewing his gum, 
 watching them out under his long cap visor. 
 
 " Pulling his lung," said he. 
 
 " Pulling his lung? " 
 
 n ' Getting his heart." 
 
 " Scaring him out, you mean," said I. 
 
 " It ain't any different from prize fighting," he 
 told me. " The first thing is to find the yellow 
 streak. Get the heart out of them. Then you got 
 them. 
 
 'There's where Joe won out," he went along. 
 " He was nothing to look at. "No bigger'n this 
 young kid. But nobody ever scared him yet. He 
 had a heart like a lion. You got to have one, in 
 this game. 
 
 " Look at this one here," he said, watching.
 
 The Bowl 69 
 
 " He's done before he's started. Shang's got him, 
 already. He's a good rider too. But he can't 
 stand thinking what this murderer might do to him. 
 He's all in. See that!" 
 
 And blur-r-r, Shang Murphy went by him finally. 
 They'd gone now, maybe twenty laps. 
 
 " Fifty seconds," said Lavoisier, looking at his 
 watch again. " They won't beat that much. 
 
 " Here," he said. " Pegleg's after the other 
 fellow that young kid." 
 
 " Go it, Chuck," I yelled. " Don't let him bluff 
 you." 
 
 He was trying that cursing act on the boy 
 blocking him, and cursing him, pretending the boy 
 was crowding him. 
 
 " Pretty raw that," said Lavoisier. " Look at 
 that. See that wabble? He won't let him get 
 by." 
 
 I could look down the straight and see the wheel 
 of that Rajah rider that Hansen flinch, as 
 Chuck tried to pass him. 
 
 " That's the worst I ever saw," said this man be- 
 side me. " They'll take a lot from a Rajah rider 
 the judges. But they can't stand for that, for- 
 ever. Look at him hold. Look at him block 
 him." 
 
 That Shang Murphy was sailing around after 
 them as if they were tied. 
 
 'That's how they go down," said Lavoisier 
 " just one touch of the front wheel on the back one 
 ahead of you. That's how they killed all those 
 bicycle riders in those old paced races. That's
 
 70 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 how Jimmy Michael got what he died from finally, 
 if you only knew it. Going at speeds like that 
 once is enough! " 
 
 " E-e-e-eh," yelled the grand stand beyond us. 
 Chuck Powers had jumped his man at the turn; 
 sailed up and over and down again, like a swallow 
 over a barn. 
 
 But almost within a fraction of an inch, it 
 looked like, from the edge of the track. 
 
 " You see that," said Lavoisier, turning around. 
 He was warming up, and getting more talkative as 
 the race went on. " You see that? Some chances. 
 That kid's either got his nerve or he's crazy. Did 
 you see that Hansen; he ran him right up the track. 
 If the kid wasn't so quick one eyelash, and it was 
 all over ! 
 
 ' The same game. The same game," he said, 
 and spit between the benches. " The same way 
 that bunch of murderers got old Joe. If these 
 judges stand for that, they'll stand for murder 
 with a gun. Take them out! Take them out and 
 shoot them; and get it over with! " he started 
 yelling. 
 
 "Look! "said I. 
 
 " Ah-hah, I thought so," said he, sitting down. 
 
 They were waving Hansen off the track. 
 
 " He was looking for it, I guess," said Lavoisier. 
 * They put him in probably to pocket this new 
 man. It looks to me as if they were afraid of him. 
 Who is this kid, anyhow? He's quite a good little 
 rider, at that. He won't scare, that's one thing. 
 And he's got some machine there, too. Listen to
 
 The Bowl 71 
 
 that exhaust, will you? Like a three hundred dol- 
 lar watch. And look look at her pick up ! " 
 
 That boy of ours loose again was just eat- 
 ing up that third man the one that Murphy had 
 scared out. 
 
 " Look at this," said I to Lavoisier. " Here's 
 another one. Look at him all over the track. 
 Look at him wabble ! " 
 
 " That ain't it," he said. " That ain't on pur- 
 pose. That's where Shang cut the heart out of 
 him. He thinks he's coming into a pinch again. 
 He's getting nervous again when he thinks of them 
 passing him. He ought to be taken off; he's 
 scared till he's dangerous." 
 
 But then all at once the man straightened out, 
 as Chuck came up to him; and the boy went by fly- 
 ing- 
 
 " That's how they get," said Lavoisier, " when 
 they get thinking once of what would happen if 
 they went down at those speeds. He's done. 
 There's only two left on the track now." 
 
 "Hey, look at that kid go!" I said, watching 
 Chuck. 
 
 This other man sat still, taking it on the stop 
 watch. 
 
 " Forty-five seconds," he said, as if he didn't 
 believe it. u A mile in forty-five." 
 
 The old Hoodlum was running right over them. 
 The whole crowd got it, yowling as Chuck came 
 right up on Murphy. The feeling was turning a 
 little, too, on the riders. Chuck was getting them 
 on account of his size.
 
 72 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 I could see old Pasc in the pit, down there under 
 the track, holding his stop watch following her 
 and listening to her go. 
 
 She was going like a bird. It looked good for 
 us. 
 
 This Lavoisier's brother was listening, too. 
 
 " Some machine that. She's got fifteen seconds 
 on that Rajah, I believe, to the mile. She's play- 
 ing circles round her. 
 
 " Here's where the race begins," he said, " be- 
 tween these two." And I sat forward, watching; 
 knowing he was right. The whole thing came now 
 for us. 
 
 ' This fellow's got the machine," he was going 
 on, " all right; and he's got plenty of sand. But 
 can he stand it, when that murderer once starts after 
 him?" 
 
 And right after that it started. 
 
 " Hear that. Listen to that," said Lavoisier, 
 when they went roaring by. " He's getting after 
 him, pulling his lung! " 
 
 I've heard some foul talk in my day, but nothing 
 like that this thing was putting out under his breath 
 at Tom's boy, as they shot by us. 
 
 ' Try it - Try it you " he said. " Take 
 a chance. Go on." 
 
 Bang just before he got to us up and 
 around Chuck went by him not waiting a sec- 
 ond." 
 
 " Good boy," said Lavoisier's brother. " Good 
 boy. You got something! You got something 
 this time ! You big bum," he yelled at Murphy.
 
 The Bowl 73 
 
 And sat down again quick, watching. 
 
 " Look, look," he said. " He almost ran away 
 from him entirely. He almost lost him. Too 
 bad! Too bad!" 
 
 " He can lie in behind, I suppose," said I. 
 
 " Forever ! Like a paced race, exactly. You 
 can't shake him, with the front machine taking off 
 all the wind pressure. 
 
 " That's a mistake," he said, talking all the time 
 now. " That kid must have lost his mind." 
 
 I saw what was going on. The Hoodlum was 
 ahead now, and the boy was doing what Pasc said 
 they would pulling the insides out of that old 
 piece of junk of that Rajah crowd. 
 
 " It takes twice the power driving that first one," 
 said Lavoisier. 
 
 " You watch her," said I. 
 
 He didn't answer me; he was timing her again. 
 
 " Do you know what I made that?" he said to 
 me. " Forty-three seconds ! " And he started 
 timing it over again. 
 
 The grand stand was catching it now yelling, 
 all the time, at those two brown streaks. The third 
 man was off the track now entirely. 
 
 ' They can't do it," said Lavoisier to me. 
 :< They can't build them to take punishment like 
 that mile after mile." 
 
 "He don't think that way," said I, when Shang 
 Murphy went by, still cursing in that low voice' at 
 Chuck ahead of him trying to " pull his lung " 
 still; pretending he wanted to go by. 
 
 " Look out ! Look out ! The next time ! The
 
 74 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 next time! " He kept saying trying to get him 
 jumpy. 
 
 The kid said nothing; went riding right along, 
 according to orders. 
 
 " That'll do for you," this great freak was say- 
 ing to him, going by pretending Chuck was 
 blocking him on the turns. " I won't do anything 
 to you now but crack you open and spill you on 
 the track." 
 
 Tom's boy never turned a hair; just kept going, 
 and the more he went along, the madder that great 
 ugly freak behind him got. 
 
 " You'll get yours before this 'afternoon's over," 
 he called out to him, in that hoarse stage whisper. 
 " You heard about the other ones that got fresh. 
 You know all about that Joe Lavoisier," he said to 
 him. I heard him say it myself. " Well, you 
 look out, that's all." 
 
 I looked sideways, and saw that Joe Lavoisier's 
 brother's face. He sat back, stopping talking, 
 looking out under the long visor, with steel-blue 
 murder in his eyes. 
 
 It must have been about half over now. Round 
 and round they kept spinning at that devilish pace. 
 The little one ahead and the big one chasing. He 
 didn't curse so much now. 
 
 " He's tired, I believe," I said to Lavoisier's 
 brother. 
 
 1 You don't know what it's like," said he, 
 11 pounding those turns at those speeds. Your 
 wrists and neck. It almost kills you. Bang 
 like falling from a second story on your head!
 
 The Bowl 75 
 
 That's wheie the small fellow has the advantage. 
 The big one's showing it naturally." 
 
 " I notice he isn't curing so much," I said. 
 
 " Maybe he's thinking up something," said La- 
 voisier's brother. " Something wicked." 
 
 " How can he when the other fellow's always out 
 ahead of him? He needs his breath, that's his 
 trouble!" 
 
 " It isn't over yet," he said. " One of the ma- 
 chines may break, any time." 
 
 That was just what I was wailing for to hear 
 that Rajah crack, the ignition or one of those auto- 
 matic valves on her. But there was nothing of the 
 kind. That Shang Murphy was a wonder in hand- 
 ling a machine keeping her going. They're 
 born that way; they can feel a machine, a good 
 rider, at those speeds, and what's the matter with 
 her, just as if it was a part of their own flesh. The 
 two kept going that way, ding-dong, mile after mile. 
 
 " He's not saying a word now, is he ! " said I, 
 watching him. " He's all in." 
 
 " He's worse that way. He's framing up some- 
 thing in his mind," said Lavoisier. " That's when 
 you want to look out." 
 
 And all at once wow ! the grand stand went 
 up in the air, beyond us, in the middle. 
 
 " He's jumped him! " said Lavoisier, looking. 
 
 "Who has!" 
 
 " That kid," he said. " That kid's jumped him. 
 He caught him asleep! 
 
 " Gee, some kid," he said. " Some get-away. 
 Some speed. He's got clean away from him ! "
 
 76 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " What do you think of that, you big stiff? " he 
 said, getting up suddenly, and shaking his fist; and 
 sat down again, studying his watch. 
 
 " Forty-one !" he said, finally. "A mile in 
 forty-one." It had never been done before, or any- 
 thing like it. The Hoodlum was running away; 
 around the track again after the other one, like a 
 cyclone after a farmer's wagon. 
 
 The grand stand started yelling jeering Mur- 
 phy. 
 
 ' That's what gets him. Look out for murder 
 now. If he tries to pass him," said Lavoisier's 
 brother. 
 
 " That's just what he'll do," said I, and he did 
 shot up right beside him. 
 
 The big one started for a second to run him 
 up to track, and stopped when the grand stand 
 started groaning. 
 
 Chuck ran right up beside him. You could have 
 thrown a blanket over the two of them as they 
 went by us. 
 
 "Come on, you poor old stiff! Come on!" 
 said Chuck, as they went by and pulled her out 
 some more. 
 
 " Bang! " something went on the Rajah. He'd 
 done the trick for us what we were after. 
 
 "She's blown! Blown!" I yelled. "The 
 piece of junk! " 
 
 ' Valve stuck," said Lavoisier. 
 
 The old Hoodlum, with Tom's boy on her, sailed 
 on away, the grand stand laughing, howling. 
 
 " That finishes it," said I.
 
 The Bowl 77 
 
 " No," said Lavoisier. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Not if he can murder him. Look at him," 
 he said. "He's laying back for him deliber- 
 ately." 
 
 He'd got his machine working again the valve 
 working. 
 
 " What's he going to do? " said I. 
 
 " I don't know. He don't himself. He ain't 
 human any more since they ragged him in the 
 grand stand. He's just murder and sudden death, 
 going eighty miles an hour. There ain't any more 
 brains in that head now than a rattlesnake's. Just 
 nothing but the idea of hitting out and killing some- 
 thing. 
 
 " He don't want to pass him," said Lavoisier's 
 brother ! " That fool kid don't want to go by him 
 again." 
 
 But he did he tore right up to him again 
 one brown streak up to another. Before he got 
 there, at all, the other one was cursing him. 
 
 " Keep off, you," he said. " You've crowded 
 me once too often, once too often." 
 
 Tom's boy was running beside him, their elbows 
 touching. He didn't budge an inch. All at once 
 it came right opposite us, where the officers 
 couldn't see it. 
 
 "Look out!" yelled Lavoisier's brother, stand- 
 ing up in his seat. 
 
 I saw Tom's boy staggering. 
 
 " He gave him the knee," said Joe Lavoisier's 
 brother from where he stood. " The damned dou-
 
 78 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 ble murderer. I saw him. He gave him the 
 knee." 
 
 And the grand stand didn't even groan all 
 watching. 
 
 It was all over in a minute. Both of them stag- 
 gered from the thing, going at that speed. 
 
 But he must have missed him so he didn't 
 get the full blow anyway. 
 
 " He's caught himself," I heard this Lavoisier 
 say. And I saw myself that Tom's boy was safe 
 straightened out again, when bang! the big 
 freak wabbled and went down himself tired out, 
 crazy mad, teetering at that awful speed, I sup- 
 pose, like a man all gone, running, stumbling, and 
 going down. That last push had been too much 
 for him. 
 
 Off he went, flying clear of the machine; rolled, 
 slid up, and slid down the slope, like an old bag, 
 with the machine behind him, sliding down into the 
 pit. 
 
 " A-ah," said the grand stand crowd, drawing in 
 its breath. 
 
 'There's yours! There's yours!" yelled Joe 
 Lavoisier's brother, up beside me. " There's yours 
 at last, you damned murderer ! " 
 
 And the grand stand went silent waiting. 
 
 All you could hear was the popping of that ma- 
 chine, on its side; and the sound of the old Hood- 
 lum slowing up on the Bowl above it. 
 
 I turned around to keep this Joe Lavoisier's 
 brother quiet.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 TOM'S BOY 
 
 " Shut up, you fool," said I. " That's no way 
 to act. The man's killed." 
 
 " Aw, to hell with him," said Joe Lavoisier's 
 brother, watching under that long cap visor. " He 
 ain't killed. Nothing struck him." 
 
 I could see, myself, one of those long, leather 
 legs moving, when that little bunch opened up a 
 little around him in that pit. 
 
 " Only scratched up some, that's all," said my 
 man, watching still. 
 
 ' That young guy," he said after a while, " he's 
 the boy. He's there! He's just like Joe was. 
 You can't scare him. He's got a heart like a lion. 
 He reminds me of him. He looks like him on the 
 track. A little fellow," he said, turning around to 
 me. " A little fellow. But a heart like a lion ! 
 Like Joe. Like old Joe was ! " and pulled that 
 loud checked cap down over his eyes again. 
 
 They were standing Murphy up on his feet again, 
 down under us, and everybody was getting up and 
 starting out from the grand stand. 
 
 " Well, good day," said this Joe Lavoisier's 
 brother, in that hoarse voice of his, nodding; and 
 went on by me. 
 
 " Good day," said I, and stood there still, look-
 
 80 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 ing down on to the pit, watching them all get ready 
 to come up over the track. 
 
 " Hello," said somebody right back of me a 
 woman. 
 
 I turned around, and there stood Zetta Thomas, 
 with a couple of rows of seats between us. 
 
 "Why, hello! 1 " said I. " Where'd you come 
 from?" 
 
 " That's a long story," said Zetta, laughing, 
 showing those white teeth of hers. " But wasn't it 
 great? Wasn't it glorious huh? Did you ever 
 see anything like it?" she said, as I was stepping 
 over the benches to get to her. " The way the 
 good old Hoodlum went ! And that boy that 
 Chuck Powers ! 
 
 "My! Think what we owe him. Imagine," 
 she said, watching down where they were climbing 
 up out of the Bowl; pulling at the tips of her gloves, 
 impatient and restless as usual. " Imagine, if he 
 had fallen down on us! But now, think what he's 
 done for us." 
 
 ' You've done something, yourself, if my mem- 
 ory's good! " said I, thinking where we'd have been 
 if she hadn't put up that ring for us. 
 
 " It's nothing to what he's done," she said, her 
 cheeks red, and her eyes snapping, looking down. 
 She certainly was a handsome woman as she stood 
 there that afternoon, dressed up in some kind of a 
 black and yellow dress. 
 
 " For this makes it all right for us," she said. 
 "Now don't it?" 
 
 " I hope so," said I. " It'll certainly help ! "
 
 Tom's Boy 81 
 
 " When are we going down there to see them? " 
 she asked me, impatient as a two-year-old. 
 
 " Let's let the crowd out a little first," I told 
 her; " and then we can get around there, and see 
 them down by the dressing rooms. 
 
 " But where'd you come from?" I asked her. 
 
 " I couldn't stay away, that's all. I tried it, but 
 I couldn't. I couldn't sit there, any longer wait- 
 ing. Without jumping out of my skin ! " 
 
 " I don't blame you," I said. ' Your own race, 
 you paid for. But when'd you start? How'd you 
 get here? " 
 
 " How'd I get the money, you mean? " she said, 
 laughing. 
 
 And I grinned. 
 
 " Well, I'll tell you how," she said. " I got it 
 from the grocer. I told him I had to have it. 
 Something had come up that was life and death to 
 me. And Pasc was away out of town, and every- 
 body else I could go to. So he let me have it." 
 
 " How much did he give you? " I asked her. 
 
 " Ten dollars." 
 
 " But that would only get you here. It wouldn't 
 take you back." 
 
 " I know that. But I knew I'd find you here, 
 didn't I? " she said, looking at me. 
 
 I had to laugh; in spite of myself. 
 
 " Zet," I said, " you're a corker." 
 
 And she laughed back, flashing those teeth at me. 
 
 " Pasc don't know it, at all, eh? " I asked her. 
 
 " Know it. No. Wait till you see his face ! 
 But it was worth it. It was great, wasn't it?
 
 82 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 We've won out," she said. ;< We've made our bets, 
 and we've won. And now come on. I guess we 
 can go over now, and see the boys Pasc and that 
 rider who won out for us." 
 
 So we went around that way finally, talking about 
 the race and Chuck Powers. 
 
 " Hel-lo ! " said Pasc, seeing her the way he 
 always did, like an older person talking to a nice 
 child; and grinned that old sudden, jack lantern 
 grin of his. " So you thought you'd come ! " 
 
 " I had to, Pasc," she said, and kissed him. 
 " Wasn't it great? Where is he? " she asked. " I 
 want to see him." 
 
 "Who?" said Pasc. 
 ' That Chuck that boy who rode for us." 
 
 " Oh, he'll be out pretty soon," he told her, " if 
 you wait here." 
 
 And we stood there, talking about what it was 
 going to mean to us. 
 
 "What did I tell you all the time?" Zetta 
 wanted to know. 
 
 ' We've done it this time, I guess," I said. 
 ' There won't be any doubt now when they come 
 to picking between our machine and the Rajah. 
 Not to anybody who ever hears about this race." 
 
 'You know what?" said Pasc. "I've got or- 
 ders now for ten separate machines, and two agen- 
 cies in New York, without stepping out of my 
 tracks just around the dressing room." 
 
 " Didn't I tell you so," said Zetta, " always? I 
 knew it all the time. Boys," she said, and 
 grabbed my coat sleeve, " we're all going to be rich !
 
 Tom's Boy 83 
 
 And when we do get this money, boys listen 
 we're going to have some excitement out of it. 
 We're going to live. 
 
 " You remember what I said to you ? When I 
 turned in my ring for this?" she asked me. 
 " About what I'd do, when you came to settle with 
 me; when our money came in?" 
 
 She had stars down in her eyes pure deviltry; 
 like you see sometimes in a young devil of a horse. 
 
 "What do you take me for," I said; " I don't 
 forget my debts that way." 
 
 " I mean it," she said, staring right at me with 
 those steady black eyes of hers. 
 
 " So do I," I said, laughing at her. 
 
 " And I'll tell you another thing," she said, still 
 looking at me, " if you want to know it! " 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " And that is you can never pay this boy this 
 rider for what he's done for us today." 
 
 And we looked over, and just that minute old 
 Tom's boy was coming toward us, out of the dress- 
 ing room. 
 
 " I can try," I said to her. " I generally do." 
 
 " Isn't he a handsome boy," said Zetta, seeing 
 him. 
 
 " I don't know," I said, " I never thought of it 
 one way, or the other." 
 
 He was though, in a way. He had this devil- 
 may-care style to him even then and that 
 bold, kind of insolent way of looking at you, when 
 he wanted to, that kind of took the women as it 
 came out afterwards.
 
 84 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Goodness," said Zetta. " I didn't realize he 
 was so old as that. He looked so little next to that 
 big ogre of a thing he rode against." 
 
 " I wouldn't tell him that." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " They don't like to be told about it when they're 
 little." 
 
 " He's not so small," she said, " when you see 
 him this way. 
 
 " If he had been younger," she said, and laughed 
 back over her shoulder at me, going out to meet 
 him, " if he was what I thought he was, I was just 
 going to take him around the neck, and give him a 
 big hug and a kiss." 
 
 And she went up, holding out both her hands to 
 him. 
 
 " It was great," she said to him. " Great. 
 Just splendid. You beat him all to pieces that 
 great big beast of a thing. Didn't you? I almost 
 died, watching you, from excitement." 
 
 ' You know what she said to me, Chuck? " said 
 " She said if you were only a little younger, 
 she certainly would have kissed you." 
 
 " Go as far as you like," said Chuck, but his face 
 got fire-colored; he dropped her hands, right away, 
 and stood there. 
 
 " I would," said Zetta, standing looking at him 
 in that straight-out way of hers. " I meant it. If 
 you'd been three years younger, I certainly would 
 have done it, too. 
 
 " For you saved our lives," she said. " You 
 don't know how much we owe you."
 
 Tom's Boy 85 
 
 " Not so bad as that, I guess," said Tom's boy, 
 shifting on to his other foot. 
 
 " You did," said Zetta. " Maybe you've made 
 us rich by this. And if it does," she said, 
 " you want to make them pay you for it, too." 
 
 " We will," said I. " Don't you fret. I gen- 
 erally manage to pay my debts to most people, what- 
 ever I owe them, whether it's a good turn or a bad 
 one. I always have. 
 
 " And you did us one this time, Chuck, all right 
 
 a good one. We've got to hand it to you," said 
 I. " You did the job today." 
 
 " Aw, I don't know," he said, looking up and 
 down again. " You'd ought to killed me, if I 
 hadn't. I had twenty seconds on him to the mile. 
 I had the only machine on the track." 
 
 " And you rode it, in the second place," said I. 
 " You can't tell me. I saw you. That big mur- 
 derer didn't scare you much, did he, boy? " I said, 
 slapping him on the shoulder. " He didn't turn a 
 hair on you." 
 
 "Who?" said Tom's boy, stiffening up and 
 looking in my eyes again. " That big stiff. Not 
 in a thousand years! " 
 
 " How much was he hurt, anyhow? " I asked 
 him. 
 
 " Oh, not much." 
 
 "How much?" 
 
 " Splinters, that's all from that board track 
 
 right through the leather; stuck all over him, like 
 a dressmaker's pincushion." 
 
 "Nothing broke?"
 
 86 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Not so far as they can see." 
 
 " Well, you gave him what was coming to him 
 this time, anyway." 
 
 " He did it himself," said Chuck. " He wouldn't 
 have done it, if he hadn't been mad with the heat, 
 after the grand stand jollied him." 
 
 " It's too bad you didn't kill him," said I. " He 
 needed it. The damned murderer. And you want 
 to look out for him after this. He'll be laying for 
 you. He'll get you if he can." 
 
 "He can try! " said Tom's boy, glancing up at 
 me a second again, with those eyes of his. 
 
 " Well, there's one thing," I said to him. " You 
 won't lose anything by this day's work, not if I can 
 help it." 
 
 " Look," said Zet, breaking in, " I tell you what 
 we're all going to do now. We're all going over to 
 New York to some big restaurant, and celebrate ! " 
 
 I saw Pasc grin, and I did, after him. 
 ' You've got the money for it, I suppose," I said 
 to her. 
 
 "No, but you have somebody!" she came 
 back at me. 
 
 ' We won't have not when we get these bills 
 here paid," said I. 
 
 " What'll we do then? " she said. " We've got 
 to celebrate somehow." 
 
 ' We haven't made our million yet, remem- 
 ber," I said to her. 
 
 Here," said Tom's boy, " I can let you have it 
 if I can collect on this prize." 
 
 1 That won't be necessary, I guess," said Pasc,
 
 Tom's Boy 87 
 
 and grinned again. " I've got it; I've got enough 
 for that from what I got in part payments on 
 those machines." 
 
 " All right then," said Zetta, " come on." 
 
 " Go it while you're young, eh? " said I, feeling 
 pretty good myself. 
 
 " We won't be, any too long," she said. " I 
 don't propose to miss any of it from now on." 
 
 And we laughed. 
 
 " Well," said Tom's boy, backing away. " I 
 guess I'll be going." 
 
 "Going? Going where? " said Zetta. "You're 
 coming with us. Why, certainly you are. This is 
 your party, mostly. Unless you've got some other 
 place you'd rather go," she said, fastening her eyes 
 on him. " Have you? " 
 
 " No," he said, looking up, and grinning at her, 
 " I guess not." 
 
 " Well, then, come along then," said Zetta. 
 
 " Do you all want me? " he said, looking at me. 
 
 "Sure, we all want you. Why wouldn't we?" 
 I told him. 
 
 " They'd have nothing to say about it anyhow," 
 said Zetta. " This was our race. I paid for it, 
 and you rode it." 
 
 " I'll just run across here," he said, when we 
 stopped laughing at her. " I've got to polish my- 
 self up for a minute." 
 
 " Hurry up then," she said. " We'll be waiting 
 for you. We'll walk slow, and you'll catch up with 
 us." 
 
 " He's not much more than a kid, after all," she
 
 88 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 said to us, watching after him running back. '' The 
 kid freckles aren't all off his face yet." 
 
 " He's half a boy, I guess, and half a man," I 
 said. 
 
 And then she turned around quick, and shoved 
 her arms through Pasc's and mine, and started 
 along between us. 
 
 " This is our night, boys," she said, looking up, 
 " isn't it? We've just got to celebrate some way. 
 
 " The only thing," she said, " to make it com- 
 plete would be if Polly was here, wouldn't it? 
 Have you telegraphed her yet? " she said to me. 
 " Well, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. 
 You'll do it, just as soon as we can find an office. 
 She mustn't wait a minute, sitting worrying about 
 it." 
 
 " That's right," said I. 
 
 " I can see her eyes snap, when she gets it," said 
 Zetta. " I can almost hear her stammer, getting 
 excited. She'd ought to be here, Bill. She put as 
 much into it as any of us more." 
 
 " I guess that's right, too," said I. 
 
 " She'd take her heart out and give it to you, 
 Bill," she said, looking at me " if you wanted it." 
 
 " And then get mad, if I didn't take it ! " I said 
 and laughed. 
 
 ' You don't deserve her, Bill," she said, laughing 
 back. " She's too good for you, and that's the 
 truth." 
 
 " I guess it is, at that," I told her. 
 
 " Or for any of us. She's an angel. A kind of 
 a little spunky angel. I always think of her that 
 way."
 
 Tom's Boy 89 
 
 " A fighting angel, eh," said I. 
 
 " Yep," said Zetta, " they have them that way. 
 I read it when I was in school in Milton's ' Para- 
 dise Lost' 
 
 " Look! Come on! " she said, looking back of 
 her shoulder. " Here he comes." 
 
 As we went out into the street, there was that 
 poster that fellow of ours had pasted out on the 
 walls and fences. 
 
 HOOT TOOT! 
 
 GET OUT OF OUR ROUTE! 
 
 HOODLUM !
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A MIRACLE BY THE TAIL 
 
 It certainly did look rosy, on the face of it, right 
 after that. Every mail was full of orders and ap- 
 plications for agencies for days and weeks. 
 The women especially got all excited over it. 
 
 " See here," said Polly, pulling out this paper, 
 when I came home. It was the second week after 
 that race. " See here, didn't you tell me we were 
 going to sell two hundred machines a year?" 
 
 " We ought to do that, anyhow," said I. 
 
 " And didn't you tell me you'd make fifty dollars 
 on every car? " 
 
 " Nearer sixty," said I, " when we're going 
 right." 
 
 " But that would be twelve thousand dollars a 
 year!" 
 
 ' Yep," said I. 
 
 " Oh," she said, and kept still. I don't sup- 
 pose we'd ever had fifteen hundred dollars a year 
 before to spend on ourselves. 
 
 But I didn't speak about the rest of it to her 
 naturally. I just kept up a terrible thinking to my- 
 self. I had for several days and nights then. 
 
 "What's the matter with you?" said Polly. 
 " You don't sleep at all."
 
 A Miracle by the Tail 91 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," said I. " Something I ate, 
 I guess." 
 
 u Well, I guess not," she said, miffed; " not when 
 I'm cooking for you." 
 
 " Maybe I ought to cut out coffee," I said. 
 " I've been drinking quite a lot lately." 
 
 " What you'll have to cut out," she said, " is 
 working all day; and thinking about it all night. 
 Go to sleep." 
 
 " Don't worry about me," I said, " when I get 
 tired doing a good business making money I'll 
 let you know." 
 
 And I lay still, and figured on it the way I was 
 doing all the time now, to see if I couldn't find some 
 loophole. It was no use to bother Pasc about it. 
 It wouldn't be any good; and that was my end of 
 the business anyhow. But finally he got it himself. 
 
 " Here's a funny thing," said Pasc, coming in and 
 sitting down in the office after six o'clock. " I wish 
 you'd explain it to me." 
 
 "What?" I asked him. 
 
 " We claim we can turn out three hundred ma- 
 chines a year here." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And we're going to." 
 
 " I see orders for three hundred right now," 
 said I. 
 
 " How are we going to? " 
 
 "You don't mean machinery? We can make 
 them up, or get them made now; you know that." 
 
 " No, I mean money," said Pasc. " How are 
 you going to get the money?"
 
 92 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I wish I knew," said I. And I shut up and let 
 him talk. 
 
 " As I understand it," said Pasc, getting out his 
 old envelope and stub again, " you get twenty-five 
 percent, down from the dealer, with the order; and 
 twenty-five more when you deliver; making fifty per- 
 cent, when your delivery is made. And the rest on 
 sixty days." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " So if you sell a machine for two hundred dollars 
 to a dealer, you get one hundred dollars from him 
 and it costs you one hundred and fifty dollars." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " So while you seem to be making fifty dollars 
 on a machine, you're really out fifty dollars in actual 
 money for every machine that goes out from the 
 shop." 
 
 ' To say nothing of the time before that," I said, 
 " while we've got the machine being made in the 
 factory." 
 
 ' Yes," said Pasc, with his old blue eyes on me, 
 wetting his old pencil and going on with his figuring. 
 
 " Now then," he said slowly, " if it stopped some 
 time this thing we'd catch up, and get our 
 money in. But now, growing the way we are, we 
 never can catch up; it gets worse every day." 
 
 " Is that right? " he asked me, looking up. " I 
 want to get that right." 
 
 " That's right." 
 
 'Then that's a peculiar thing, ain't it?" he 
 said. ' The more money we seem to be making, 
 the less we've got, You wouldn't believe it ! "
 
 A Miracle by the Tail 93 
 
 "Peculiar, yes," I said. "Damned peculiar! 
 And damned dangerous ! " 
 
 " Dangerous! " said he. 
 
 " It's going to bust us, if we don't look out." 
 
 " Bust us ! " said Pasc, stopping and getting it 
 into his head. " Hm! Making money so fast it'll 
 bankrupt us. That's a new one ! " 
 
 ' What are we going to do about it? " he asked 
 me, after a while. 
 
 "You tell me!" 
 
 ' You can't cut down expenses much more." 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Nor take any more of the work ourselves." 
 
 " Not and live ! " 
 
 " Well," said he, " there's only one thing then, I 
 suppose." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 ' You've got to stop your deliveries till you get 
 some of your money in." 
 
 " You can't." 
 
 "Can't?" 
 
 "No. How can you?" I asked him. "You 
 know those dealers as well as I do. They're in 
 business to sell a machine when an order comes for 
 one, ain't they? If they don't get deliveries from 
 us, they'll sell somebody else's, won't they? " 
 
 " Good and sure," said Pasc. 
 
 " But it don't stop there. If we lost that order, 
 it wouldn't be so much. One order's not so much. 
 But what we lose is the dealer. If we can't deliver 
 goods, he starts for the fellow who can and 
 hitches up with him."
 
 94 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Naturally." 
 
 " But that ain't all," I said. " The minute he 
 does that, he not only don't push our machine any 
 longer; he knocks it, by comparison anyhow. And 
 no matter what a reputation you've got, or what 
 your goods are, you can't stand continual knocking 
 like that especially with a thing like ours a 
 motor cycle where the ordinary man don't have 
 any real knowledge enough but what a dealer can 
 tie him all up in ten minutes' talking." 
 
 "So we've got to keep growing!" said Pasc, 
 after a while. "Anyhow! " 
 
 " Unless we want to die." 
 
 ' That's a funny thing," he said, thinking awhile. 
 " If you grow you bust, and if you don't grow you 
 bust just the same. You're damned if you do, and 
 you're damned if you don't. And as it is, we're in 
 danger of being killed by over-prosperity too 
 much business." 
 
 " That's about it," said I. 
 
 ;< What are we going to do about it? " he asked 
 me after a while. 
 
 ; ' There's just one thing," I said, " that's all. 
 I've been thinking over it day and night; we've got 
 to get more money, somehow." 
 
 "Credit?" 
 
 " I guess that's all you can get," said I. " I've 
 got Briscoe and Company to help us out, some, by 
 showing them what we were doing. That's our 
 biggest account, of course, and I'm working on some 
 of the others." 
 
 "What about the bank?" he wanted to know.
 
 A Miracle by the Tail 95 
 
 " I've been trying to get Proctor Billings over 
 here for a week to look us over," I said, " to see if 
 he won't give us a little more than that one thou- 
 sand dollars we've got now. He says now he'll be 
 over tomorrow. 
 
 " I God," I said, thinking. " What a power 
 these fellows have got that control the money! 
 You don't realize it until you go in business for 
 yourself; and get up against a thing like this. 
 
 " You sweat and drag and work eighty-one hours 
 a day. And when you're through the day, and cov- 
 ered with dust and oil, and blisters, one of these 
 damned still-faced dudes from a bank drives over in 
 his limousine, with a flower beside him in a little 
 glass vase, and decides whether you're going to live 
 or die. That thing drives me crazy. It always 
 has, ever since I was in business to have to get 
 down and crawl around to men like Proctor Billings, 
 and ask them for permission to go on living." 
 
 "What will he do for us in the bank?" asked 
 Pasc. I can see him still, sitting there in his 
 overalls, with his envelope and pencil stub; and his 
 old faded eyes staring out at me over a smear of 
 machine oil on one of his old prominent cheek bones. 
 
 " Not much." 
 
 " What'll you do, then, if he won't help us? " 
 
 " I'll have to try and tease the creditors along 
 the best way I can." 
 
 "It ain't normal, is it?" said he. "This way 
 we're doing? " 
 
 " No. But what can you do? " 
 
 " Get some money in from somewhere."
 
 96 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Yes," I said, " if we could. I thought maybe 
 I might get some idea out of Proctor Billings along 
 that line if he comes." 
 
 He came that next day, as a matter of fact, locked 
 up in his limousine, wearing his chamois gloves, and 
 went through the shop with me, as if it was a special 
 favor to me; and Pasc came along for a minute and 
 spoke to him, and looked at him, all smeared up 
 with machine oil so he couldn't shake hands. And 
 then Billings flicked off his new gray suit with a fine 
 handkerchief, and sat down in the office for a min- 
 ute or two, and listened to me talk without any more 
 expression on his face than the bottom of a china 
 plate. 
 
 " I don't see how," he said finally, getting up, " I 
 can be of any use to you. We can't take on any 
 more of a loan for you in the bank. You're over- 
 extended too much. You aren't in any condition 
 for a bank to take up from what you say your- 
 self." 
 
 'What can we do?" said I, getting desperate, 
 and mad. He always got me on the raw, just look- 
 ing at him riding around the town. 
 
 ' You'll have to get in more money," he said in 
 that particular, college educated talk of his. 
 
 ' That's what I'm trying to get now," I told him, 
 getting madder. 
 
 " In the form of capital," he came back at me. 
 
 "How'll I get it?" 
 
 ' That I don't know," he said. " All I can say 
 is, we'll continue our loan at the bank, but we can't 
 possibly go any farther."
 
 A Miracle by the Tail 97 
 
 And then he went out and got in his limousine, 
 and left me there jumping mad, cursing him under 
 my breath as he drove away. 
 
 " We'll pull it out in spite of him," I said to 
 Pasc. " And we're well off, if we never get any 
 of that kind in with us. He and the old man to- 
 gether," I said, " didn't have blood enough in them 
 for an eel. 
 
 " We'll pull her through," I said, talking along 
 to encourage myself. ' We've got a big thing, and 
 I know it, and by working it along right, we'll come 
 out all right. We've got a big thing; and you take 
 a man like old man Briscoe he's big enough to 
 see it. 
 
 " I've got to keep on the right side of him," I 
 said. " He's a quick-tempered old man, but 
 straight as a die. Always willing to help you out 
 if he thinks you're doing your part. A fine old 
 man if he is a millionaire! A regular oldtime 
 New England mechanic that's earned his living with 
 his own hands. 
 
 "Not one of these bankers with soft hands 
 and hard faces ! Not one of these fellows with the 
 money, that earn their living by their faces never 
 right out like a man; always bluffing you, keeping 
 you from knowing what they really think, or plan, 
 or mean to do to you. I hate the whole tribe of 
 them." 
 
 " How'd you happen to know old man Briscoe, 
 anyway?" said Pasc. 
 
 " I worked for him one year down in his shop in 
 Bridgeport. The only year I ever was out of this
 
 98 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 town since I was born. He's the man we've got to 
 watch," I said, "after this like a hawk. Do 
 what we tell him we'll do, to the dot; or there'll 
 be trouble." 
 
 " You'll do it, all right," said Pasc, getting up 
 and taking off his overalls. 
 
 I stayed around there a little longer till old 
 Tom Powers came in for the night. 
 
 " Hello, Tom," said I, putting on my coat. 
 " Well, how's the old Miracle coming on for you 
 these days? How's she coming?" 
 
 " Good," said Tom. " How's yours? " 
 
 " Too darned good," said I. 
 
 " How's this? " he wanted to know. 
 
 " We're selling them so fast it's busting us," I 
 said, and I stopped and told him a little something 
 about the trouble we had to get money to fill our 
 orders, coming in so fast. 
 
 " What do you think of that, Tom? " I asked, to 
 see what the old man would say. 
 
 ' They're strange acting things," he said, " these 
 Miracles." 
 
 ' They are, by Gripes," I said. " If we don't 
 look out, this one of ours is liable to be too much 
 for us." 
 
 "That's the trouble with them," said Tom. 
 ' You can't tell where they'll land you. You can't 
 tell half the time whether you've got them, or 
 they've got you after you get hold of one. Half 
 the time all you got is one hand on your Miracle's 
 tail, wondering where she'll go next." 
 
 " And you with her, eh, Tom? " said I.
 
 A Miracle by the Tail 99 
 
 " The trouble with them is," said he, looking up 
 without cracking a smile on that old skeleton's face 
 of his. " They're so much bigger than a man is. 
 That's the trouble with them." 
 
 And I laughed and went out. You never could 
 quite make the old man out. He was a queer one. 
 There was always apt to be a lot of sense in that 
 stuff he was getting off.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE LITTLE PALE BOOKKEEPER 
 
 It was a hard, ugly fight. There were three or 
 four times in those next few months when we 
 strained our credit to the limit. And the bank was 
 after us on our balance all the time. We wouldn't 
 have got through, if Briscoe and Company and some 
 of the other supply people hadn'it helped us out on 
 the showing in our statements watching us, of 
 course, like hawks, every minute. 
 
 But this particular time things were a little bit 
 easier. I'd got a little money in cash down from 
 one or two of the dealers; and I was feeling pretty 
 good. 
 
 " I tell you what I think, Pasc," said I. He had 
 come in for a minute, between jobs, and we sat there 
 in the office. " I believe we're beginning to see 
 daylight. I believe, if we turn a few more corners 
 and take care, and do everything just so, we'll pull 
 out; these people will see us through on the basis of 
 our profits." 
 
 ' That's good," said Pasc. 
 
 " And they've got a right to. If nothing scares 
 them," I said. " Do you know what I think? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " I've been figuring up lately what we are making 
 here. What do you think we are likely to pull out
 
 The Little Pale Bookkeeper 101 
 of this thing, If it comes out right? This year, I 
 
 mean." 
 
 " I haven't the slightest idea," said Pasc, lying 
 back in his chair, watching me, with his long bony 
 legs in his overalls stretched out ahead of him. 
 
 ' Twenty-five thousand a year ! Laugh, if you 
 want to," I told him, " but it's so if it keeps go- 
 ing the way it is now; if we pull it through all right. 
 
 " I hope we can," I said. " I'd like to do it. I 
 never knew how we could get outside capital in, if 
 we wanted it. But I never wanted to get it, if I 
 could help it. 
 
 "I tell you, Pas-,," I said. "I always felt this 
 way. I always thought, when people got up a busi- 
 ness and pushed it through, they were the ones who 
 ought to have the benefit of it, and not outsiders. 
 Not outsiders these men with the money, like 
 Proctor Billings, for example. I don't know as I 
 ever told you, but I've always had a suspicion, since 
 that time he looked us over, and I showed him our 
 statements for his bank, that he's had his eye on 
 us, more or less. I think he thinks there's some- 
 thing here he'd like to get in on. There have been 
 several signs of it, for one thing; and then I've been 
 told so, straight. I hope he never does get us where 
 we would have to let him in. There's one kind of 
 man I can't stand." 
 
 " Seems to me I heard you say that before," said 
 Pasc, grinning. 
 
 " Yes, and you'll hear me saying it again, prob- 
 ably," said I. " We're a different breed of pups. 
 We don't take to each other naturally.
 
 102 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " What I want to see out of this business," I said, 
 " is our people, you and I, and the folks that have 
 worked with us to build this up get what there is 
 in it." 
 
 And just then I saw that Myrtle that little 
 bookkeeper we got from business college to take 
 Wilkins' place look up at the clock all at once, and 
 put on her coat in a hurry and go out. 
 
 " I wonder what's she's forgot now? " I said to 
 myself. 
 
 And I looked up at the clock myself, and saw she 
 was going over to the bank late as usual. 
 
 " Late again," I said to Pasc. " She couldn't be 
 on time if her life depended on it. She's got to 
 hustle now, if she gets in at all." 
 
 " She ain't very strong," said Pasc, looking after 
 her. 
 
 " She don't look well to me," said I, " and she 
 never has. She looks worse and worse. She hasn't 
 got blood enough in her body to keep a robin alive. 
 I don't think we ought to keep her. Sooner or later 
 she'll have to go anyway." 
 
 ' No, no," said Pasc, making excuses, as usual. 
 " I don't think so. She'll get on to it, before long." 
 
 " I don't believe it," said I. " It isn't in her. 
 She won't do." 
 
 " She's conscientious," he came back. " You 
 couldn't find a harder worker, or anybody that was 
 more loyal everywhere." 
 
 ' That's it," I told him. " If it hadn't been for 
 that, and your begging, she'd been fired long 
 ago."
 
 The Little Pale Bookkeeper 103 
 
 " Oh, no, she wouldn't, Bill," said Pasc. " You 
 say so, but I know you better than that." 
 
 " She's got so now," I said, " she seems to have 
 got kind of panic-stricken, following around, trying 
 to catch up." 
 
 " You've got to remember," said Pasc, still find- 
 ing excuses, " you don't ever see the best side of 
 her. She's scared of you, always." 
 
 " Why should she be? " I came back at him. " I 
 always treated her right." 
 
 " I know you have, always. More than right. 
 But you don't realize, sometimes, I believe," he 
 said, " how you impress people who don't really 
 know you, Bill. You're so darned positive about 
 everything you do. You go after everything so 
 strong." 
 
 " Maybe I do," I said. " But that don't make 
 any difference in what we're talking about. I've 
 told her she could have help if she wanted it." 
 
 " I know you have, Bill," said Pasc. " That's 
 perfectly true. But she wants to do it all herself; 
 she's told me about it. You could see how you'd 
 feel. She thinks it's her one great chance just 
 like the rest of us. She's ambitious to do it all her- 
 self to show she can; so if she does make good, 
 it will be better pay for her afterwards. She's am- 
 bitious in her way. And she's got this mother and 
 sister at home, kind of partly dependent upon her." 
 
 " I know all that," said I. 
 
 " She's ambitious, naturally," Pasc went along. 
 " She wants to do it all. And she's over-conscien- 
 tious. That's the trouble. I honestly think half
 
 104 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 her trouble is because she's always working in our 
 interest. I think she's trying to save us money, try- 
 ing to do so much herself." 
 
 " I do myself," I told him. " That's the devil 
 of it." 
 
 " And she thinks sometimes she'll handle it." 
 
 " That's just it," I said. " Look at it now. Out 
 twenty minutes, just going around to the bank. 
 She can't do it. The job's too big for her. She 
 can't follow it around. I'm sorry for the kid, just 
 as you are, but the thing's too big for her; that's all 
 there is to it." 
 
 " It's been pretty big for most of us," said Pasc 
 " when you come right down to it." 
 
 " It isn't killing either of us yet," I said, seeing 
 again how pale her face was, when she went out 
 with that kind of bluish look to it, like skimmed 
 milk; as if the blood was all out of her body. And 
 great dark-blue rings around her eyes. 
 
 "Where is she now, anyhow?" I said, wonder- 
 ing what kept her at the bank; and remembering her 
 face, again, I suppose, as she went out. 
 
 " She'll be back in a minute," said Pasc. 
 
 " I don't want to work her to death, anyhow," I 
 said. " I don't want her to die on our hands." 
 
 I was worried about her, too. I used to find her 
 there evenings, when we were ready to close 
 struggling to catch up, fighting the figures on those 
 books of hers; trying to get them right. I had to 
 send her home. 
 
 " I'm sorry for her," I said, looking up at the 
 clock again, wondering why she stayed ; " we both
 
 The Little Pale Bookkeeper 105 
 
 are. But we might be a darn sight sorrier for our- 
 selves for something she might do to us. She might 
 be a dangerous thing to us. She's got so now you 
 can't rely on her. And she'll make some bad mis- 
 take we can't afford." 
 
 And I turned and looked at the clock again to see 
 when she was coming. 
 
 " Well," said Pasc, " I guess we can try her a 
 little longer." 
 
 And just then I saw her, finally, outside, coming 
 on the street. She was a homely kid, thin and 
 small; and always dressed in a blue serge suit that 
 seemed as if it was falling off of her, and a little 
 round cheap hat. 
 
 She came in the door holding her bank book 
 and this slip in her hand. And I got up. I could 
 see from the color of her face that something had 
 happened. 
 
 She didn't say a word. She came right in, and 
 walked right by us, and sat down at her desk and 
 threw her arms down and her face on them, and 
 started crying; not loud, but as if she was going 
 to tear herself all to pieces. 
 
 "What is it?" said I. "What's the matter 
 now?" 
 
 And Pasc went over beside her, trying to stop her. 
 
 But we couldn't get a word out of her; either of 
 us. She just lay with her face hidden, and when 
 we tried to make her talk, she'd just sob a little 
 worse, and bury her face in deeper. 
 
 "What is it?" we kept asking her. "What is 
 it?"
 
 106 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 But she just hunched her shoulders, crying. 
 
 She had on this little cheap round straw hat of 
 hers, and it fell over crooked on one side. In one 
 of her hands, that stuck out, she had her bank book 
 and a slip of paper. 
 
 "What have you done?" said I, stiffening up. 
 For I'd got a suspicion of it now. " What is it? " 
 I said. " Come. Come on. Talk. We ain't go- 
 ing to bite you." 
 
 And then I reached out, and took that bank book 
 and slip of paper wet and sticky where she'd cried 
 on it. 
 
 I took them away from her. 
 
 " By God! " I said, when I looked. 
 
 " Don't," said Pasc to me. " Don't." 
 
 He was on the other side of the girl, patting her 
 on the arm. 
 
 ' You know what she's done ? " I said to him, 
 bringing my voice down the best I could. " She 
 hasn't made her deposit today, or yesterday, either." 
 
 "Yes?" said Pasc. 
 
 " She forgot it entirely yesterday; and she was 
 late today. And in the meanwhile that check to 
 Briscoe and Company has come back, and been pro- 
 tested! 
 
 " Is that right? " I yelled at her. 
 
 "Don't!" said Pasc. "That don't do any 
 good." 
 
 " Look," said I. " That is how it was. The 
 check came in yesterday; and yesterday she didn't go 
 near the bank at all. And she came in late this after- 
 noon, and got the teller to write me this about it."
 
 YOU KNOW WHAT SHE'S DONE TO US? SHE*S BUSTED US ! 
 
 WIDE OPEN! Page 107.
 
 The Little Pale Bookkeeper 107 
 
 " Isn't that right? " I said to her again, and took 
 hold of her. "Tell me!" 
 
 And she bobbed her head up and down, like a 
 crying child on a desk in school. 
 
 " Didn't I tell you? " I yelled. " Didn't I warn 
 you that that one thing must be attended to! " 
 
 I felt Pasc taking hold of my arm, but I shook 
 him off. I was crazy just about. 
 
 "And not today, either," I said. "Yesterday! 
 And you said you'd do it right off." 
 
 " You've got to stop this," said Pasc, pulling. 
 " You're scaring her to death." 
 
 " Scaring her! " I said turning on him. " Scar- 
 ing her to death ! You know what she's done to 
 us? She's busted us! Wide open! 
 
 " You know what they wrote us," I said to him, 
 "what old man Briscoe told us we'd have to do; 
 about that exact agreement we must carry out. 
 Now, not only haven't we done it, but our checks 
 have gone back protested! 
 
 " We're through," I said. " He's certain to shut 
 down on us now, I know him exactly. And the min- 
 ute he does, all the rest of them will be on top of 
 us at once." 
 
 Then I stopped talking, and went over and sat 
 in the chair, holding that bank book and that note 
 from the teller trying to think. 
 
 I didn't say anything for a while; and Pasc didn't. 
 There was no noise in the room, but that girl cry- 
 ing, and the machinery outside going grinding 
 along, out in the shop. 
 
 " I told you what would happen," I said to him,
 
 108 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " if you kept her. And I hadn't more than said it 
 when it came ! " 
 
 " It was our fault, too," said Pasc. " Not seeing 
 it was done." 
 
 " Seeing it was done! " I said. " I gave her spe- 
 cial instructions yesterday afternoon, just before I 
 left her. And she said she would start right out 
 and do it. Special instructions," I said, " that no- 
 body could miss but an idiot." 
 
 ' You've got to stop that," said Pasc, setting his 
 fingers in my arm. " That's no use. It only makes 
 it worse. She's nothing but a kid." 
 
 And when she saw him taking her part, the girl 
 started crying louder, letting herself loose, in kind 
 of half hysterics. 
 
 " Oh, Lord," I said, walking up' and down. 
 " She's got to quit that." 
 
 ; ' What are you going to do? " Pasc asked me. 
 
 " I'm trying to think," said I. 
 
 " It was kind of strange, wasn't it," said Pasc 
 " their coming down on us like that at the bank. 
 They usually call us up and give us a chance, don't 
 they, in a case like that? " 
 
 " Yes, they do," I said. " They have." 
 
 " Do you suppose that Proctor Billings would be 
 trying to play some trick on you?" 
 
 " I don't know," I said, thinking. " He might. 
 And yet," I said, " they warned me once or twice 
 before, when checks came back on them. But they 
 might be. There might be a hold-up. 
 
 " Oh, quit, quit! " I said. That girl kept going 
 on, worse and worse. You couldn't hear yourself
 
 The Little Pale Bookkeeper 109 
 
 think. " Keep her still," I said. " I've got to 
 think. I've got to work this thing out." 
 
 And I went over then and dug out that new state- 
 ment of the business I'd had made out for us. 
 
 Pasc was over trying to stop the girl, patting her 
 on the back of her shoulders, like a little kid. 
 
 " It may be a hold-up," I said " by Billings. I 
 hope it is." 
 
 " Hope it is," said Pasc. " How's that? " 
 
 " Because if it was just the ordinary thing; if he 
 didn't have any personal interest, he'd just let it 
 slide along. Our account's been no good to them, 
 there's been no money in it for the bank. He'd just 
 let us slide as you'd expect he would, if there 
 wasn't something in it for himself. You could talk 
 to him all night. He's got no more insides to him 
 than an ice-box. 
 
 " On the other hand," I said. " If he planned 
 for it; or thought he saw something in it for him- 
 self, I could go right to him and show him he'd got 
 to pull us out, if he ever wanted to get anything. 
 For once this thing goes smash, it's all over. 
 Humpty Dumpty wouldn't be in it for a minute if 
 this thing went bankrupt! 
 
 " Oh, quit, quit," I said to the girl, and went up, 
 and took hold of her arm myself. " Nobody's go- 
 ing to hurt you. Listen," I said, " if you don't 
 stop, you'll have to get out, that's all." 
 
 She kind of shivered then and stopped. 
 
 Then I got up myself, taking that statement. 
 
 "Where you going to?" asked Pasc. 
 
 " The only place I can go," said I, starting to go
 
 110 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 after my hat. " I'm going to see Proctor Billings. 
 
 " She'd better go now," I said to Pasc, nodding 
 over to where that little bookkeeper was still sitting. 
 " She'd better go, anyway, where she can have some 
 other woman with her. Her mother." 
 
 She kind of dragged herself to her feet then, and 
 Pasc went over by her. 
 
 When I went out, she was getting together her 
 gloves, and veil and stuff clearing away her own 
 personal stuff from the drawers in the desk. Get- 
 ting ready to leave her job. And Pasc helping her. 
 
 And I went along, cursing her out to myself; 
 wondering if I was going to save anything out of 
 what she'd done.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 BACK OF THE BANK 
 
 The shades were all down at the bank when I got 
 there drawn for the day. But the door was un- 
 locked. I opened it and stepped in. 
 
 " Gripes," I thought to myself. " What a dark 
 still hole it is in here, after hours." 
 
 Back of the glass you could see the clerks with 
 their heads down by their green electric light shades 
 
 writing. But no one was moving around or talk- 
 ing; and there was nobody at all in the main cor- 
 ridor. So I went along back, my heels clacking 
 on the marble. 
 
 'What can I do for you?" said this still-faced 
 fellow, coming out from a door, bowing. 
 " I want to see Mr. Billings." 
 " I'm Mr. Billings' secretary," he said, and smiled 
 
 with the lower half of his face only. 
 
 " I've got to see him personally," I told him. 
 
 " I'll see what I can do," he said, and bowed 
 and disappeared again, and left me standing there. 
 It was so still you could hear the pens scratch 
 those white-fingered clerks working on their books. 
 I stood and watched them. It always looked to me 
 like a curious way of earning vour living sitting 
 there juggling figures in that still hole; more so, I 
 suppose, to a man used to banging around a machine 
 shop all his days.
 
 112 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Won't you come this way? " &aid Billings' secre- 
 tary, coming back, bowing again; and showed me 
 ahead of him into a little private reception room in 
 back, with one electric light going. 
 
 " Won't you sit down," he said, and smiled that 
 smile with the lower half of his face again. " He'll 
 see you when he's disengaged." 
 
 " All right," said I. " Whenever he's ready." 
 
 Then he turned on more light, and bowed and 
 went out again; and left me there. 
 
 ' You get on my nerves," I said to myself, watch- 
 ing him. " You bow too much to suit me." 
 
 I was getting; nervous, probably, over this game 
 I was going up against waiting in this place I 
 wasn't accustomed to. 
 
 It was stiller yet in there; a small room, without 
 any outside windows fixed up regardless, with 
 red leather furniture and highly polished woodwork, 
 and little oil paintings of sheep around the walls. 
 Stiller than underground. 
 
 I sat down, and ran over that statement of the 
 business I brought with me; looked at it all again 
 to be sure, and sat waiting all the time with my 
 eye on that door in the shiny woodwork where Bill- 
 ings' secretary had gone out. 
 
 I sat there. Not a sound, from anybody for 
 ten minutes ! 
 
 " Gripes," I thought. " He takes his time about 
 it!" 
 
 And I got up and walked around and looked at 
 the pictures of the sheep. And watched that shiny 
 door sideways!
 
 Back of the Bank 113 
 
 It opened once, and my man the secretary 
 came back again. And I got up expecting to be 
 ushered in. 
 
 " Not yet," he said. " He's still engaged." 
 And he went on out, stepping softly on that oriental 
 rug every hair in his head and thread in his 
 clothes and muscle in his face just where it ought 
 to be. 
 
 And I went back and sat down again picking 
 at my hat band in my lap, waiting. It struck me 
 sitting there: " How many other fellows must have 
 sat here, in this still hole, just as I am now, waiting 
 
 and got turned down ! 
 
 " I God," I said to myself, " what a power these 
 still-faced fellows have got over you. In these 
 banks ! Just sit and smile, and make you wait. 
 Forever, if they want to. Just say they can't see 
 you. 
 
 " Refuse to see you at all," I said, half out loud 
 
 and pulled out on my collar. And got up on my 
 feet, thinking of it! The sweat came right out on 
 me. 
 
 And I sat right down again and stayed there 
 watching that door as if I expected the devil to pop 
 out of it. Fighting something you know is one 
 thing; fighting something back of a door, that don't 
 make a noise, is another. 
 
 " Won't you come in, now? " said Billings' secre- 
 tary, opening it without a sound. 
 
 And Jie bowed and showed me out ahead of him, 
 still and polite as an undertaker at a country funeral. 
 And I pulled my coat collar down, seeing his smooth
 
 114 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 one, and followed down after him into Proctor Bill- 
 ings' private office. 
 
 " Come in, won't you? " said Proctor Billings at 
 the door, and held out that long cold hand of his. 
 " Sit down." And smiled with the lower part of 
 his face like that secretary, without the eyes lighting 
 up at all. 
 
 Right over him, where he sat down at his desk, 
 hung the face of old man Billings, his father, an oil 
 painting taken just before he died; as like the other 
 man as the two Indians on two copper cents as 
 I always said and just as hard. Only the son 
 was polished by his education. 
 
 'Will you smoke a cigarette?" he said to me, 
 and handed out his gold case. And I took one, with 
 his gilt monogram on it. 
 
 "Now what can I do for you, Mr. Morgan?" 
 he said, making that faint smile on his lips again 
 with just as much expression in those gray eyes of 
 his as two steel balls would have. And his face fell 
 still again. 
 
 " I came to see you about that check of mine," 
 I told him. 
 
 " What check? " he asked me. 
 
 1 That one you sent to protest . The one to 
 
 Briscoe for insufficient funds," I went on explain- 
 ing. 
 
 Not a flicker in that face, anywhere! 
 
 "I'm sorry," he said finally, "but I'm afraid 
 you'll have to tell me all about it." 
 
 So I did; what else was there to do? And he 
 sat there watching me, listening to me explaining
 
 Back of the Bank 115 
 
 still. I was doing all the talking, I saw that. I was 
 almost begging him now. It made me hot. But 
 the madder I got, the more I had to go along he 
 doing nothing at all but listening. 
 
 " If it had been my fault," I said, " I wouldn't 
 feel so strong about it. I wouldn't feel I had just 
 the same right to be here now, asking you to help 
 us out." 
 
 And he nodded, listening, without the slightest 
 expression in his face one way or the other. 
 
 " I don't see now," I said, flaring up a second, in 
 spite of myself, " why it was you didn't notify us, 
 when it happened. Give us a chance, anyway." 
 
 " Let's find out," said Proctor Billings, and stuck 
 one of those long white fingers on a push button. 
 
 " Was Mr. Morgan's check protested yesterday? " 
 he asked the man who came in one of the tellers. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Without notice to him? " 
 
 11 Yes." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " They'd had their two warnings for overdraw- 
 ing this month," the teller said, and stood up, stiffer 
 than a soldier, watching him and avoiding my 
 eyes. 
 
 " Is that right? " said Billings to me. 
 
 " Probably it is," said I. " I told you how it hap- 
 pened." 
 
 ;< We've had a lot of trouble with that account, 
 Mr. Billings," said the teller, still watching him. 
 " You know that." 
 
 " That's all," said Proctor Billings, without an-
 
 116 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 swering him. " When you go out, will you send me 
 in the card on that account, please." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the teller, and bowed to him, 
 and went out. And I sat there, waiting. 
 
 "You see?" said Billings, asking another ques- 
 tion. 
 
 " Yes," said L 
 
 " That's our rule." 
 
 " I see," said I, holding back a second or two to 
 try if he would go on talking. " I see," I said, 
 when he said nothing. " But that doesn't help me 
 any. What I've got to see is how I'm going to get 
 out of this. These Briscoe people are our biggest 
 creditors, giving us special accommodations, under 
 a special agreement. God knows what they'll do to 
 us, when our check goes back to them." 
 
 He sat there, waiting, smoking, hearing me ex- 
 plain, with the picture of his father over him, and 
 a vase of cut flowers on his desk, all his ways and 
 face and manners still and quiet and exactly right 
 and showing exactly nothing of what he thought! 
 
 " I've come here," I said, " because you're the 
 only man in the world now that can pull us out." 
 
 " Well," he said. " What is it we can do for 
 you?" 
 
 " Can't you stop that check before it gets back to 
 them?" 
 
 " Let's see," he said, and pushed a button on his 
 desk once more. 
 
 " Just where is that check? " he asked the teller, 
 when he came in again. " Could we stop it now 
 before it gets back to Briscoe and Company? "
 
 Back of the Bank 117 
 
 " I don't know. I don't think so. But I'm not 
 quite sure." 
 
 ' You see, please." 
 
 " All right," the teller said. " And here's that 
 card of the account you were asking for, Mr. Bill- 
 ings." 
 
 And he bowed again, and went out. And we two 
 sat there Proctor Billings looking over my ac- 
 count, while I gaped around at the flowers on his 
 desk and the walls and the picture of old man 
 Billings over him with his cold face, and his 
 straight lips, and his old long nose, thin as an icicle. 
 ' They certainly do look alike," I said to myself. 
 ' The same eyes and mouth the same long, thin, 
 frozen noses " ; and I thought again of what they 
 used to say about the old man that when he had 
 the nose-bleed it was ice water that came out and 
 froze on his chin. 
 
 This young man was just like him, you could see, 
 the same thing exactly, with a college education, 
 trained in this game of keeping his face still, han- 
 dling money, from the time they gave him his first 
 quarter. 
 
 He sat there now, motionless, reading my bank 
 statement. 
 
 " I hope you find you can catch the thing, some- 
 where," I broke in finally. 
 
 " Come in," said Proctor Billings, turning to/the 
 door. Then the teller walked in again. 
 
 " It's too late," he said. " They say that it's 
 gone through. The notification will get to Briscoe 
 and Company tomorrow morning in the mail."
 
 118 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " That's all," said Proctor Billings, dismissing 
 him. 
 
 " It can't," I said. I was almost crazy. 
 " You've got to stop it for me somewhere," and I 
 got up on my feet. I felt like a fish with a net 
 around it, drawing in. " We've got to do some- 
 thing! " I said. 
 
 " Well," he said, and took another cigarette. 
 "What would you suggest? We'll do all we can for 
 you," he said, and smiled that lip smile of his again 
 " reasonably." 
 
 "Can't you call them up on long distance?" I 
 asked him. " You know them personally, don't 
 you?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " The old man Briscoe? " 
 
 " Very well, indeed." 
 
 " Can't you call them up and tell them then? " 
 
 "Tell them what?" 
 
 " What I told you. About how it happened. 
 About that girl's mistake." 
 
 ' That wouldn't do you any good now," he said 
 to me, holding his cigarette off and watching it. 
 
 "Why not wouldn't it?" 
 
 ; ' That isn't what they'd ask me now, if I called 
 them, now their check's gone back; they wouldn't 
 stop there. They'd be sure to ask me now how you 
 stand anyway. How solvent I considered you, my- 
 self. That would be it, wouldn't it? " he asked me. 
 
 " Probably it might," said I. 
 
 "What could I tell them?" he wanted to know 
 while I sat still. " What could I say to them from
 
 Back of the Bank 119 
 
 this?" he said, and flipped that statement of my 
 bank account across the desk to me. 
 
 I looked at it and laid it down ! 
 
 "You owe them money, don't you?" he asked 
 me. " And a lot of it? " he asked me. 
 
 I nodded to him. 
 
 " What they'll want to know of me I should im- 
 agine especially if I call them up is whether, in 
 my opinion, they'll get it back; what the best thing 
 is for them to do." 
 
 " I suppose so," I answered him finally. 
 
 "What could I answer them? What could I 
 advise them," he said, " from what I know? " 
 
 He had me cold, on the face of the thing all 
 wrong; explaining, explaining, explaining from the 
 beginning and still wrong at the end. And he sit- 
 ting there, watching, asking questions. 
 
 He had me there with my back against the wall, 
 fighting for my life; and everything polite and still 
 and smiling, without turning over one of those white 
 hands of his. 
 
 It made me hot to see him manceuvering, play- 
 ing me off my feet in that game of his I didn't know. 
 It made me mad, but at the same time I saw, quick 
 as a flash, it gave me the opening I was after. 
 
 II I'll tell you what you can advise them," I said, 
 staring into those metal eyes of his, " if you want to 
 know. And you yourself, too. Just this one thing. 
 If they shut down on us now, we're busted ! " 
 
 He sat looking at me. 
 
 " Naturally," I said, going ahead, " you're inter- 
 ested, too. Or your bank is to the tune of a
 
 120 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 thousand dollars, anyhow. But it's in your hands," 
 I said. " You can let us go on, or you can bust us 
 for the mistake of a fool-girl bookkeeper, if you 
 want to! " 
 
 He sat still, looking at me, behind that mask of 
 his. 
 
 " But I want you to understand this," I said, 
 " before you do it. I want you to understand if you 
 do, or they do, you'll both be doing the one thing 
 that'll hurt yourselves most." 
 
 "Why?" he asked, speaking again finally, and 
 sat still again, with those polished steel eyes on me. 
 
 " I'll show you why," said I. And I pulled out 
 this statement of the business from my pocket. 
 
 ' You remember the bicycle business," I said. 
 " How much there was left of it when it tumbled? " 
 
 He smiled, looking at me the smile thinner 
 than the edge of a knife. 
 
 " Quite well," he said, in that college educated 
 talk of his. 
 
 " One pile of junk," said I. " Wheels and screws 
 and tubing! " 
 
 " And crazy credits," said he. 
 ' Well, here it is," said I, and tapped my paper, 
 " right over again ! With this one difference ! " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Stopped, it's the same a heap of junk. But 
 going, it's a fortune ! " 
 
 He said nothing at all. 
 
 " A fortune," I said, and slapped down the paper 
 on his desk. " Fifty thousand dollars a year, next 
 year, if it keeps going! "
 
 Back of the Bank 121 
 
 He reached cut his hand for it. But I didn't let 
 it go yet. 
 
 " And another thing," I said, looking him in those 
 eyes, " it's just as well to understand. This busi- 
 ness is our business ! And anybody that thinks he 
 can grab it away from us and run it himself, will 
 find when he comes to look at it, he's got just the neck 
 and tail feathers, that's all ! 
 
 44 This is a two-man business," I told him. " We 
 started it and made it and know it. And we're the 
 only ones that do. That business is all carried 
 around under two hats. And nobody wants to make 
 the mistake of thinking they can get it, and set it 
 on its feet, and start it going again, without us. 
 For they can't. That's one sure thing." 
 
 44 Fifty thousand dollars a year! " he said, pay- 
 ing no more attention to that last talk of mine than 
 as if I hadn't been giving it at all. 
 
 " Yes," said I. " Take a look at it I " 
 
 And I handed him the statement. 
 
 " This will show you the whole thing," I said. 
 " What we've done, and what we've got, and what 
 we're going to do." 
 
 He ran his eye down it. 
 
 "Who made this out for you?" he asked me. 
 "Is it reliable?" 
 
 " It ought to be. I got the best people in town 
 to do it " ; and I told him who it was. 
 
 He glanced his eye up and down and turned the 
 pages. 
 
 14 Would you care to let me take this? " he asked 
 me.
 
 122 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Glad to," said I. 
 
 "Overnight?" 
 
 " Yes, certainly. But in the meantime, what 
 about getting Briscoe and Company on the long dis- 
 tance?" 
 
 " It's too late today," he said. " They'll be gone 
 for the night. Besides," he said, and turned that 
 mask of his on me again, talking that polite, cold 
 talk, " what is there I could say to them yet? " 
 
 And he got up from his chair, and stood there, in 
 front of his flowers, under the painting of the old 
 man. And I got up after him. That was all there 
 was for me to do. 
 
 11 1 want to say this thing, though, before I go," 
 said I, looking into those blank eyes of his, " if you 
 do this, naturally we ain't asking you to do it for 
 nothing." 
 
 " I see," he said, freezing up stiffer still. " Well, 
 this is scarcely the time to discuss that." 
 
 I could see then I hadn't suited him, the way I 
 got at it. 
 
 " I'll let you hear from me in the morning," he 
 said, and held out that long hand and smiled that 
 thin-lip smile. 
 
 And I went out, through that empty private recep- 
 tion room with the pictures of the sheep on the wall. 
 Stiller than ever; all the electric lights out but one! 
 
 " Gripes," I said to myself, " what a power these 
 still-faced dudes with the money have over you ! " 
 
 Not a word, not a flicker of an eyelash or a 
 change of a muscle in his face to show where I stood. 
 It was a part of the game they were trained to
 
 Back of the Bank 123 
 
 these men that run the banks; these bowing men with 
 white fingers and fine clothes and masked faces 
 these fellows that deal in money. 
 
 " He's got me," I said to myself, out in the twi- 
 light in the street. " He's got me right in the palm 
 of his hand. He can ruin me as easy as he can 
 shut up his fingers, if he thinks that'll figure out 
 best. All he needs to do is to sit and watch and wait. 
 All he's got to do is to do nothing! " 
 
 ; ' What a grip they've got on us," I said, turning 
 to go home. " What a great big powerful thing 
 these fellows have got control of 1 "
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 AN OPTION 
 
 We sat there, Pasc and I, that next morning in 
 our old office, he on his side and I on mine, not say- 
 ing a word, waiting. I felt rotten. I'd hardly slept 
 all night. 
 
 " What do you suppose he'll do to us, now he's 
 got us? " I asked Pasc, finally, sitting there with my 
 head in my hands. I had a headache over my eyes 
 that jumped like a young rabbit. 
 
 " I don't know," said Pasc, looking up. 
 
 He was over there at that old table he had on the 
 other side of the room from me, with his old stub 
 and envelope out, working like a beaver. He'd got 
 an idea during the night on an auxiliary exhaust, or 
 something, and he was afraid it would get away from 
 him. 
 
 " Lord," I said, sitting up. " If the flood came, 
 it would still find you plugging on some improve- 
 ment on a motor." 
 
 ' That's all I'm good for," said Pasc, wetting his 
 pencil point with his lips, and looking sideways at 
 the envelope. " But I do expect I can make that 
 exhaust a hundred per cent, better than it is now." 
 
 " Sure," I said. "Always!" 
 
 And he went on working. 
 
 " Gripes," I said, rolling my head in my hands.
 
 An Option 125 
 
 " I'd give my left eye to know what's going to 
 hapoen to us in the next twenty-four hours." 
 
 " I wish I could help you out," said Pasc, looking 
 up. " I wish I was some good to you in that line. 
 But there's no use of pretending. I ain't." 
 
 And T got up on my feet, starting walking. 
 
 " They're a natural mystery to me," said he 
 " banks and money. They always were." 
 
 " They are to most of us," I said, " except those 
 damned pale-faced pirates that run them." 
 
 " I always think, somehow," he went along, " of 
 a lot of little fine wheels, meshed in together, run- 
 ning in oil. Stiller'n the wheels in a watch. But 
 they're beyond me! " he said, and went back at his 
 envelope again, for fear he was forgetting some- 
 thing. 
 
 " I guess you're right," I said. " They've got a 
 regular system a regular machine for extract- 
 ing money from everybody and everything they come 
 in contact with; every business in the country." 
 
 And right after that the telephone started ringing. 
 
 " Yes? Hello! " said I, grabbing it. 
 
 " Mr. Morgan? " said the voice that pale pri- 
 vate secretary of Billings. 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 " Mr. Billings wishes me to say he will see you 
 at 10 :3<D if you are at liberty." 
 
 " I'll be there !" said I. 
 
 ' Thank you. Then he'll look for you," he said, 
 politer than ever, and hung up. 
 
 "At liberty!" I said, starting marching around 
 again. "At 10:30! Gripes! He's in no hurry
 
 126 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 about this thing! Old man Briscoe will have us 
 dead and buried by the time he gets around to us." 
 And I grabbed up my hat then, and went out, and 
 walked the streets, until it was time for him to see 
 me. 
 
 " Good morning," said Proctor Billings, when I 
 finally went in, getting up cold and polite and de- 
 liberate as ever, with a fresh flower in his buttonhole, 
 and a new bouquet in the vase behind him. " Take 
 a seat." 
 
 I said how-d'do, and sat down, and held on to 
 myself, waiting for him to start in. 
 
 "Will you smoke a cigarette?" he said to me, 
 holding out the gold case again. 
 
 It was a regular part of the ceremony, apparently. 
 He always opened with it like an old-fashioned 
 meal with prayer. 
 
 " Not now," said I. " Maybe later." 
 
 And he laid the case on the desk where I could 
 reach it. 
 
 " Well," said I, starting off to talk again, in spite 
 of myself; " have you looked it over? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "What'd you think of it?" 
 
 " It's a very interesting statement," said Proctor 
 Billings. 
 
 * That's what I thought you'd say," I said, en- 
 couraged. " So now," I said, " the bank can go 
 ahead, can't it, and straighten us out in this Briscoe 
 thing?" 
 
 " No," said Proctor Billings. 
 
 "No!" I said. "What do you mean?" I
 
 An Option 127 
 
 thought you just said we had a wonderful state- 
 ment! " 
 
 " ' Interesting ' was what I said," he came back, 
 looking at me. 
 
 " Well, interesting then. Isn't it good enough 
 for you to get us out of this? " 
 
 " The bank, you mean as a bank? " 
 
 " Why, yes," said I. 
 
 "No!" 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " It wouldn't be justified from a legitimate bank- 
 ing standpoint," he said, sending out his cigarette 
 smoke. " We're speaking now about anything we 
 might say about you to Briscoe and Company? " he 
 asked me, raising his eyebrows. 
 
 " Yes," said I. 
 
 He shook his head. "We couldn't do it," he 
 said, knocking off his cigarette ashes, " under the 
 circumstances." 
 
 I sat there for a minute, letting it soak in. And 
 just then this knock came at the door, that secre- 
 tary ! 
 
 " Long distance wants you." 
 
 "The same call?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Give them the same answer. Tell them I'll 
 call when I come in." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 There was this little fine rosebud in his buttonhole. 
 The color of flesh. I kept rny eye on that, waiting, 
 while they were talking. 
 
 " Briscoe and Company," Billings said to me,
 
 128 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 when the man went out. " They've been calling all 
 the morning." 
 
 " Now here," I said, stiffening up, when I heard 
 it. I knew it was a matter of minutes now ! ' You 
 say you can't do anything! " 
 
 " As a bank," he said again. 
 
 " Not even tell them about that protested check 
 how it happened." 
 
 " We might do that," he said. " Yes. But what 
 good would that be, when old man Briscoe calls me 
 up as he evidently is doing and asks me per- 
 sonally what I think about it; your whole situation, 
 and what he'd better do about it? " 
 
 " Well," I said, watching him. " What will you 
 say to him now you've seen that statement? " 
 
 " I wouldn't advise him one way or the other." 
 
 "That's all you'd do, huh? " said I, getting hot 
 again. 
 
 "What else could I do, under the circumstances? 
 What would you do? " he asked, looking over at me, 
 cooler than ever " if you were in my place in this 
 bank?" 
 
 I didn't say anything. 
 
 ' You wouldn't be here now," he said, " if your 
 condition wasn't critical? " 
 
 And my eyes fell down to his rosebud again. 
 ' Well," I said finally, " what's the answer? " 
 ' You've got to have capital ! " 
 
 " All right," I said, looking him in the eye; " then 
 why don't you loan it to us? " 
 
 " As a bank? " 
 
 " Yes."
 
 An Option 129 
 
 " Because it's not a bank's business to, not a con- 
 servative legitimate bank's." 
 
 " I thought a bank's business was loaning 
 money? " 
 
 " Not to a concern without capital," he came back. 
 " It's the business of somebody else to furnish the 
 first money the capital that takes the first risk of 
 the enterprise, and gets the profits. That's not a 
 bank's business." 
 
 And the talk came to a stop again. 
 
 " I don't say," he went along, " you couldn't find 
 some banks that might do it for you who weren't 
 so old-fashioned and conservative as we are. You 
 might try it," he said, knocking his cigarette ashes 
 off again, " and see." 
 
 " Try it, hell ! " I said to myself, getting red in 
 the face. With old man Briscoe waiting now on the 
 other end of that wire ! 
 
 " Let me ask you something, for a minute," said 
 I. " You say I can't get capital out of your bank, 
 or any other bank, legitimately. Well, where am 
 I going to get it? " 
 
 " The natural way," he said, looking over at 
 me, " would be to get some individual to put it 
 in." 
 
 "I see," said I, watching him. "Well, who? 
 Do you know anybody? " 
 
 " I can't say that I do." 
 
 " Would you? " said I, keeping my eyes right on 
 him. " Would you consider it yourself? " And I 
 froze up, waiting for him to answer. 
 
 He took his time about it.
 
 130 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I might, possibly," he said then, looking over. 
 " If it wasn't for one thing." 
 
 " What's that? " I came back like lightning. 
 
 *' I have no intention of forcing myself into the 
 situation." 
 
 " Forcing nothing ! " I said. " Would you con- 
 sider it?" 
 " Under certain circumstances, I might." 
 
 "What are they?" 
 
 " How much money do you think you ought to 
 have, right now? " he asked me then. 
 
 " Twenty thousand dollars." 
 
 " Twenty-five might be better, I should imagine," 
 he said. ' You should have enough; it's safer." 
 
 " All right," I said, jumping right after him. 
 "Now what would you want? How would you 
 fix it?" 
 
 " I should have to ask you ten per cent, interest 
 in the first place," he said. 
 
 " All right," I said, and groped my hand out 
 for a cigarette, keeping my eyes on him to see 
 what was coming next. 
 
 " Under the circumstances," he said, his face as 
 still as always. 
 
 "That's all right," I said again. "And then 
 what?" 
 
 " Control," he said, not moving a muscle. 
 
 " Control ! " I said, sitting up straighter. I saw 
 it coming now. I saw him reaching out his hand 
 for it that whole thing that Pasc Thomas and I 
 had bet our lives on and taking it away from us. 
 
 "Control?" said I, standing up. "Control
 
 An Option 131 
 
 what? Do you mean to say you want us to hand 
 over the stock majority of our company for twenty- 
 five thousand dollars? " 
 
 " Not at all," he said. " I wouldn't consider 
 doing that under present circumstances for a minute. 
 Sit down. Please I " 
 
 And I sat. 
 
 " Understand, please," he said, still more polite 
 with those gray eyes of his on me, " I'm merely stat- 
 ing the only conditions I would take up this matter 
 on. At your request." 
 
 ' Yes," I managed to choke out of myself. 
 
 " I wouldn't think of investing money in your con- 
 cern now, under any condition," he told me. " But 
 I do see, I think, a plan by which I can loan you 
 money, with reasonable safety for this kind of 
 private venture; and hope to get it back. But to 
 do that the one condition is that I have absolute con- 
 trol of the stock, until my debt is paid, you under- 
 stand?" 
 
 11 Yes," said I. 
 
 " Is it agreeable to you? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Because if it isn't, we'll drop it now." 
 
 "It is," I told him. 
 
 " When I'm paid, of course." he said, " the con- 
 trol goes back." 
 
 " All right," I said, watching. " And what 
 else?" 
 
 " I want to be perfectly clear about this," he an- 
 swered me, looking down, and talking very carefully, 
 " before we go any further. This bank has con-
 
 132 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 ducted a legitimate banking business in this city 
 for a great many years. It was established by my 
 father, and run along strictly legitimate banking 
 lines by him. And up to date neither it nor any of 
 its officers have ever taken any of its customers by 
 the throat, and taken their business or their stock 
 away from them. And this arrangement of ours 
 will be made on the same lines if at all. I'm tell- 
 ing you now the conditions I will come in on. If 
 they are not agreeable to you, you need not consider 
 them at all." 
 
 " I understand," I said; " and it's all right. Now 
 go ahead. What other condition is there? " 
 
 " I believe," he said, " if your company pulls out 
 by the aid of my money I should have an op- 
 tion to buy a certain amount of stock. I should con- 
 sider myself entitled to it. To buy it at a price." 
 
 "What price?" 
 
 11 Par, I should say." 
 
 " All right," said I ; " let's say par for the minute. 
 But how much? " 
 
 " A third." 
 
 " A third of the stock at par," said I, thinking. 
 
 " Giving me the same amount as the other two 
 stockholders," he said. " That's the only basis I'll 
 consider it on." 
 
 Well all right," I said to him. " How long 
 would you expect the arrangement to run? " 
 
 4 We could try it for a year, first," he told me; 
 " and see how we stand then." 
 
 And I said all right. 
 
 " Just one thing more," he said. " We should
 
 An Option 133 
 
 understand now; if I do this it may mean a general 
 shake-up; a reorganization from the bottom up if 
 I think your business needs it." 
 
 " How about the running of the shop? " I asked 
 him. 
 
 "That's your work the detail. Though, of 
 course, I should always have the final authority 
 the right to act, until my debt is paid." 
 
 "All right," I said. "Go ahead. Cut down, 
 reorganize. I guess we need it, anyhow. Es- 
 pecially financially. We never did claim to know 
 that end of the business." 
 
 ' Yes, I think I can be of use to you there," said 
 Billings. 
 
 " I know you can," said I. 
 
 " And now," he said, " I'll have this memorandum 
 drawn up between us, to send to you; and I'll call up 
 Briscoe." 
 
 I got up. I saw it was my cue to. And he got up 
 with me, very polite and agreeable. 
 
 " I believe," he said, " I can be of use to you in 
 this business on the financial end anyway. My 
 father used to say," he went on, glancing up again at 
 old man Billings over his head, " 'a new business is 
 like a new baby. It's apt to be all right if you can 
 get it through its second summer.' And the finances 
 are where it's most apt to break down. There's 
 where I can be of some use to you, I think. I ought 
 to be. I ought to know something about it," he said, 
 looking up again at the painting of the old man; " I 
 had one of the best teachers in the world." 
 
 And he held out his long hand to me.
 
 134 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I believe you will," said I, looking up with him 
 at that old lean face upon the wall. ' You cer- 
 tainly ought to ! " I thought to myself. 
 
 " I believe we ought to make a strong team," I 
 said, shaking hands. " And there's plenty in it for 
 all of us you'll find." 
 
 " I hope so," said he. 
 
 I left him standing there, under his picture of his 
 old man, with the bouquet of flowers back of him. 
 And walked out through the still reception room, 
 with the sheep pictures on the wall - feeling better ! 
 
 There were three or four there, waiting. I no- 
 ticed one man that I knew. 
 
 That pale-faced secretary came out of the side 
 door after I did. 
 
 " Just a few minutes, now," he said to this man, 
 who got up, grabbing hard on the rim of his hat, 
 " and Mr. Billings will be able to see you." And 
 he smiled that lower half of a smile again, moving 
 on. 
 
 " They all have to come to them," I said to my- 
 self. ' They have got to come where the money is 
 sooner or later." 
 
 There was something in my hand, I noticed, when 
 I got out on the street. It was that gold mono- 
 gramed cigarette I'd taken to smoke, all ground up 
 to nothing where I'd been squeezing it.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 A MISTAKE 
 
 " He held us up, Pasc," I said, talking it over 
 with him that night; " and declared himself in on 
 us. That's the English of it." 
 
 " And yet," said Pasc, " if he gets any stock, he's 
 going to pay real money for it when he might 
 have just made us hand it over." 
 
 " I can see why, in a way, too," I came back at 
 him. " He's safer putting in his money this way on 
 a loan, where he can get it out again; and then buy 
 his stock after he sees how good it is. For nothing 
 practically. What's par the way we've got it cap- 
 italized now? " I said. 
 
 " And if he wants to be crooked, and take it away 
 from us," I said, " all he needs to do is to wait 
 until he gets on to the ropes of the business, and then 
 to work some shenanegan while he has control of the 
 thing smash it and take it over." 
 
 " Why should he do that," Pasc wanted to know, 
 " when he had us in the first place? " 
 
 " Clear enough," I told him. " He'd know the 
 business then. And at the same time he'd have the 
 record there of our agreement, to show how fair and 
 aboveboard and proper he was with us." 
 
 "Do you know anything to prove that?" Pasc 
 asked me.
 
 136 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " No. I just think so on general principles." 
 
 " You're too suspicious, Bill," said Pasc. 
 
 " I am with that kind of cattle," said I. " That's 
 the way they get their living. They're trained to, 
 all the time." 
 
 " That ain't the way they'll act, in my opinion," 
 said he. " That ain't what I think he's likely to do 
 here." 
 
 " What do you think? " I asked. 
 
 " I don't think so bad of him as you do," said 
 Pasc "from what I hear. I think he's sharp. 
 But I don't think he'd cheat you outright. I think 
 he'll do what he thinks has the look of being fair and 
 square in business." 
 
 " I God, .yes, in business I " I said. " Business 
 the way his old man did it." 
 
 " He seems to think a good deal of his old man, 
 according to you," said Pasc, " and his reputation." 
 
 14 Well, he's the only one that does," I said 
 " that I ever heard of. That's just what he'll do. 
 He'll do business like his old man. He'll get you 
 where he wants you first. And then he'll be as kind 
 and soft-hearted as an adding machine an adding 
 machine," I said, choking up, " crossed with a rat- 
 tlesnake." 
 
 " A little more adding machine wouldn't hurt 
 us in that business very much," said Pasc, " in my 
 opinion. If he starts to reorganize it the way he 
 said he might, it won't be the worst thing that could 
 happen to us." 
 
 ; ' There's something in that, Pasc," I had to ad- 
 mit. " I expect we could save a dollar that way now
 
 A Mistake 137 
 
 and then if we had system. And that wouldn't 
 make me mad, anyway! And anyhow, about all we 
 can do now is to make the best of things. He's got 
 us any way we turn." 
 
 " It'll work out all right, I think," said Pasc. 
 
 But when Billings started to work it out in detail 
 that reoganizing business, it wasn't so agree- 
 able to either Pasc or me especially when it came to 
 cutting out our people we had had with us right 
 along. 
 
 That little bookkeeper that Myrtle had to 
 go, of course. She was done for, anyway, by that 
 mistake. She never came back to the office after 
 that thing, except to finish cleaning up her desk. In 
 her place Billings put an experienced bookkeeper, a 
 lean, lantern-jawed Scotchman standing all day, 
 deaf and dumb, hanging over his books, working and 
 getting out statements for Billings himself to work 
 on. 
 
 Pretty soon Billings was having me over to the 
 bank to talk about them and cutting out a man 
 here and there. I put up a fight once or twice, for 
 one or two of them, but he wouldn't have it. 
 
 'That's what ruins most businesses making it 
 a personal matter. My father always told me," he 
 said, looking up again at his picture: 'business 
 isn't friendship; it's arithmetic. The multiplication 
 table plays no favorites,' he used to say. ' And in 
 the long run a business doesn't, either; for if it does, 
 there won't be any business.' ' 
 
 So finally I went off and did what he told me. 
 
 One of the first things he run across, of course,
 
 138 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 was Chuck that boy of Tom's. We had had him 
 on the payroll, most of the year, riding for us and 
 training, ever since he won that first race. 
 
 "Who is this man?" Proctor Billings asked me. 
 " Just what does he do? " 
 
 So I told him. " He isn't riding all the time," I 
 said. " But he isn't very high-priced, compara- 
 tively; and we've always figured it paid us well in 
 advertising." 
 
 " I see," said Billings. " Well, I'd like to look 
 into it to see just what he does produce for us. 
 
 " I've looked it up," he said, a day or two later, 
 " and I'm pretty clear that it doesn't pay. Racing 
 has had its day as advertising. He isn't bringing 
 his money back. We'll have to let him go." 
 
 " But we can't let him go ! " said I. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 11 Why, he made us, in a way," I said. And then 
 I told him just what he'd done for us. 
 
 " I see," said Billings, thinking it over. " Well, 
 I tell you what you can do. You can let another 
 man go, and give him a place inside the shop if 
 you want to. I should think it might be better for 
 him, than this irregular traveling around the coun- 
 try, racing." 
 
 And he put it up to me to do. 
 
 I never felt rottener about anything in my life. 
 It didn't mean anything to Billings, of course. We 
 weren't human beings to him, any of us; nothing 
 more than cogs in the machinery figures in a col- 
 umn. But I knew myself just how the kid would 
 take it.
 
 A Mistake 139 
 
 He didn't say a word, when I was telling him 
 about it just sat there, chewing gum now and then, 
 and looking up with his head down a little, with the 
 whites showing under those hard blue eyes of his. 
 
 I told him I was sorry, but we'd made up our 
 minds we'd have to give up racing. " But I can give 
 you just about as much money there, inside," I said. 
 " Or it will be as soon as you get started." 
 
 He didn't say anything for a minute. Just sat 
 there with those sulky eyes on me. 
 
 " I know how you feel about it, probably," I told 
 him. " But I'd advise you to take it. You can't 
 tell when this racing might blow up. And this here 
 would be a steady thing for you a life job, if you 
 wanted it. And I'll be here always to look 
 out for you." 
 
 "Ah-ha?" he said, looking at me with a little 
 crooked smile on his lips. " Well, I guess I won't 
 take it. Just as much obliged." 
 
 " Why not? " I came back at him. That look on 
 his face made me a little sore. 
 
 " How about you? " he said. ; ' Would you want 
 to go back in the shop? " 
 
 " That ain't the question," I said, getting hotter. 
 He had a different way with him than he used to 
 older and sulkier and more devil-may-care. " The 
 question is do you want this job I'm offering you? 
 It's a good job ! " said I, watching him. 
 
 " Maybe," he said. " But it's not my job. That 
 ain't what I'm cut out for; I'm a rider, not a me- 
 chanic." 
 
 " All right," I said, " that's your lookout." He
 
 140 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 had me mad now the way he said it, as much as 
 what he said. That smart Aleck, indifferent way 
 kids talk nowadays, when they're trying to show how 
 independent they are. ' The time may come," I 
 said, " you won't turn up your nose at a good job as 
 a machinist." 
 
 It was true enough, too, what I told him. But I 
 felt meaner than a dog, saying it and mad at the 
 same time ! 
 
 " Anyway," I said. " There it is. I've offered 
 it to you " 
 
 " Don t worry about me," he said, starting chew- 
 ing gum; working his jaws and looking up at me. 
 " I can place myself all right. The Rajah people 
 have been after me for six months for more 
 money than you gave me. But I turned them down 
 right along. 
 
 " I turned them down," he said, getting up. " I 
 thought I'd take my chances and stay on with you 
 here. I thought maybe you wanted me to. But 
 this is different! " 
 
 He turned around, and went out. He had 
 changed a lot in a few months grown quite a little, 
 and got a lot cockier, and surer of himself, knocking 
 around the country, winning races that way. He 
 was a pretty wise boy by this time; and his success 
 at riding had given him a swelled head. I didn't 
 care for him a whole lot. But that didn't let me out 
 from what I owed him. 
 
 " It couldn't be helped, I suppose," I said to Pasc; 
 1 but I never felt meaner over a little thing in my 
 life than letting him go."
 
 A Mistake 141 
 
 " And of course you couldn't tell the boy how 
 it was how it was forced on us," said Pasc. " It 
 certainly was a mean job for you," he told me. 
 
 But the women took it the hardest of anybody. 
 The whole thing had been a kind of family affair 
 with us before that; we talked about the people at 
 the office and the shop, when we got home, always. 
 The place those days was always what Billings 
 claimed a business shouldn't ever be run on a kind 
 of personal basis. 
 
 " Did-didn't he make you? " said Polly, flaring up 
 when she heard about it. Did-didn't he give you 
 your first big start what he did in that race? " 
 
 " I never denied it," said I. 
 
 " I thought I thought that was one thing you 
 always claimed," she kept after me. "I I 
 thought you always made your boasts that what- 
 ever anybody did for you, you always paid them 
 back; especially if they stood by you and did you a 
 favor." 
 
 " We offered him a job," said I. 
 
 'Yes yes. What kind of a job!" said she. 
 "He's right. He's a rider; not a mechanic." 
 
 " He could have changed." 
 
 "Changed," she said. "So could you! What 
 harm would it have done to keep him? Tell me. 
 He'd have made something for you as advertising, 
 wouldn't he?" 
 
 " Probably he would." 
 
 " How how much would you have lost all to- 
 gether? " 
 
 11 1 don't know."
 
 142 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I don't either," said Polly. " What you did, 
 in my opinion ; you lost money by by letting him go 
 besides doing a mean thing, throwing him out." 
 
 " Well, it's done anyhow," I said. " We won't 
 talk about it any more." 
 
 You can't explain a thing like that to a woman, 
 anyhow. And I wasn't going to bring in Billings 
 too strong, and throw it all off on him even in my 
 own family. I don't believe in that kind of business ; 
 especially when he was probably right about the 
 thing anyway. 
 
 But Zetta, Pasc's wife, was the worst when she 
 heard about it. She wouldn't speak to me for a 
 week or two, until Pasc convinced her I wasn't to 
 blame for it personally. And then she had the boy 
 around to her house for dinner, just to show him 
 what she thought about it. She was an Indian that 
 way. She did exactly what she thought she was en- 
 titled to, and the devil himself couldn't stop her, 
 when she once got started. 
 
 ic Why wouldn't I ? " she said to me, when I 
 brought it up. " He's just as good as we are, as far 
 as I know. Or Proctor Billings, for that matter! " 
 she said, getting red. " And a little better in this 
 thing, I should say, if anybody asked me. The only 
 thing to be said for us, we're in line for a little more 
 money some day. That's the only difference. 
 Why shouldn't I have him up to dinner, if I want 
 to?" 
 
 ' You should probably," I said, dropping it 
 feeling raw and uncomfortable about the whole thing 
 still.
 
 A Mistake 143 
 
 " I stand by my friends," she said. 
 
 " I do myself, sometimes ! " I answered, getting 
 sore. 
 
 " But that's the way business goes, I expect," I 
 said to Pasc, when we were alone, " if you're going 
 to run it and make money. You can't run it on 
 personal lines, the way the women would like to. 
 You've got to operate your business according to the 
 laws of arithmetic as old Billings said, or you 
 won't have any to run." 
 
 " Up to a certain point! " said Pasc. 
 
 " And if a man don't earn his money, all there is, 
 he's got to go." 
 
 " Yes. That's the idea," said Pasc, in a kind of 
 a dry way. ' That's the rule that'll work out with 
 all of us before we're done with it, probably." 
 * " Let it," I said. " I'm not afraid of it. And 
 anyhow," I said, " you've got to admit the business 
 is working out well, under Billings, so far as making 
 money goes. It's getting down into shape now; 
 even you and I can see that." 
 
 " From that standpoint it's all right, I be- 
 lieve, from the standpoint of making money," said 
 Pasc. 
 
 ' Well, that don't hurt your feelings any, does 
 it? " said I. " It don't mine. I'm beginning to be- 
 lieve that in some ways getting Billings in here was 
 the best thing that ever happened to the business. 
 You and I could never have organized it in the 
 world." 
 
 " No, we couldn't, I guess," said Pasc, running his 
 hand over his forehead. He was getting kind of
 
 144 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 anxious and bony looking lately. I'd noticed it be- 
 fore. We were speeding up pretty fast in the 
 shop. 
 
 Billings was certainly getting it organized now; 
 that was one sure thing. That deaf-and-dumb 
 Scotchman he had on the books was a wonder. " He 
 sleeps with them," I said. " And eats figures for 
 lunch, with a small glass of water on the side." 
 
 There wasn't a word out of him scarcely. He 
 was working with his eyes down, all day. And by 
 this time after three months or so Billings had 
 got in his brother a machinist to work in with 
 him on the shop management, as Pasc's assistant. 
 The two of them those brothers were always 
 around, working, saying nothing. 
 
 4 You couldn't ask for a better man," said Pasc, 
 about the one helping him. " He's always picking 
 up something I've forgotten. Or catching some mis- 
 take, or stopping some waste. He earns his money, 
 that's certain. He's great on system, just where I'm 
 weak." 
 
 I began to feel around in my mind then, wonder- 
 ing just why it was Billings thought he'd better put 
 him in there in the shop. 
 
 Pasc had the shop end, of course. And I had 
 the general management, especially of sales going 
 out and meeting the trade and selling the goods. 
 That was my line naturally. When it came to sell- 
 ing machines and handling the trade, I was there. I 
 didn't take a back seat for anybody. I liked it. I 
 could eat it up. 
 
 But I could sec, every now and then, that Pasc's
 
 A Mistake 145 
 
 end was worrying him especially with the speed 
 we were getting on now, since Billings came in. 
 
 ' We thought we were going pretty fast before," 
 he said, sitting there at night, drawing his hand over 
 his forehead. " But it was nothing like this." 
 
 He looked thinner than a rail; and those pale eyes 
 further down in back of his cheek bones than ever. 
 
 " How do you stand it? " he said to me. 
 
 " Fine," I said. " I just bite into it. I feel like 
 a fighting cock every day except now and then my 
 stomach goes back on me out on the road." 
 
 " I don't know just what's struck me," he said. 
 
 "What's that?" I asked him. 
 
 " I get these headaches all the time." 
 
 " Your digestion, probably," I said. " That's the 
 matter with me, nine times out of ten; when I've got 
 one, my stomach's out of whack." 
 
 " Well, maybe you're right," said Pasc. " But 
 half of the time I feel like Tunket. I worry about 
 my work a good deal," he said " the responsibil- 
 ity of it. I don't sleep so terribly well nights 
 especially when a new idea strikes me. The way it 
 is then, I get my work here driving me around all 
 day; and a carburetor or a cam shaft chasing me 
 all night. Between the two, they're running me 
 thin." 
 
 " Cut out the nights," said I. 
 
 " I guess I'll have to or the days, one or the 
 other," said Pasc. 
 
 But that Scotchman, that McAdam, who had 
 come in as his assistant, didn't worry much, or have 
 any reason to. Everything went like machinery
 
 146 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 with him; as if he was just one wheel in the shop. 
 I used to watch him around there, coming up always 
 in the next place he was wanted, as if a cam operated 
 him. 
 
 " Why don't you throw more of the detail off on 
 to him ? " I said to Pasc. 
 
 But he didn't want to do that. He was too con- 
 scientious. If he only had, things might have turned 
 differently, perhaps. But yet, I don't know either. 
 The pace was getting pretty fast for him. 
 
 The first I knew that anything out of the way had 
 happened was one night, when I was getting ready 
 to go ; and Pasc came in and sat down waiting, until 
 after that bookkeeping McAdam had gone out 
 finally. 
 
 He sat there, staring off across the room. He 
 hadn't washed up, even. 
 
 1 What ails you, Pasc? " I said, waking up to it 
 after awhile. " Why don't you change and wash up 
 and go home? What's the new wrinkle you've got 
 on your mind now? " 
 
 And then he gave a kind of a groan. 
 
 ;< What's the matter, anyhow?" I asked him. 
 "Another headache?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 "What is it?" I said. I saw then there was 
 something serious going on. 
 
 "By misery!" he said. "I've made an awful 
 bull." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " I spoiled about three thousand dollars' worth of 
 stuff, I should say."
 
 A Mistake 147 
 
 " Gripes, Pasc," I said, sitting up and taking no- 
 tice. " How did you come to do that? " 
 
 " Counting labor," he said. 
 
 And then he explained to me. It was that last 
 improvement in the engine, he told me. 
 
 " That last one that was going to improve the 
 intake one hundred percent?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Didn't it? " I said. " Didn't it work out when 
 you got it in the engine? Have you got to take it 
 all out again? " 
 
 " The idea was all right," he said. " I've gone 
 over it since, with the one I put up myself, but the 
 trouble is, they put it in all wrong. They spoiled it 
 making it." 
 
 " How did that happen ? " said I, staring at him. 
 
 " I don't know, exactly," said Pasc. " I suppose 
 it was because I wasn't around all the time to super- 
 intend them. But it never occurred to me," he said 
 to me, talking lower, " it never entered my head that 
 any man who pretended to be a machinist could make 
 such a condemned, ridiculous mistake as those two 
 men did." 
 
 " What did you do fire 'em, on the spot? " 
 
 " No," he said. " McAdam wanted to, but I 
 wouldn't have it. I told him it was on me. And it 
 was, too. It wouldn't have happened if I'd stayed 
 there, where I'd ought to have been, instead of 
 mooning around on something else." 
 
 " Where were you anyhow? " 
 
 " Off somewhere, I expect working out that 
 next idea that struck me at my bench."
 
 148 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 "God, Pasc," I said. "How could you do it! 
 A thing like that just now, especially ! " 
 
 " It'll be over, rather than under three thousand, 
 I expect," he said. 
 
 And he got up slowly, and began to take off his 
 overalls and get some of the smudge off of his face. 
 And finally he started on home, going out with his 
 head down. 
 
 When I was following after him, a little later, I 
 ran across McAdam, that assistant of his, going 
 later than I was even; forever there, peering around 
 the corner snooping around, saying nothing. 
 
 " I guess I'll go tomorrow and tell Billings about 
 this thing myself," I made up my mind. " I guess 
 that will be safer. He'd get it from one of those 
 two spies of his, anyhow." 
 
 He took it entirely different from what I expected 
 just raised his eyebrows, and said it was too bad. 
 And then dropped it. 
 
 " After all," I said to myself, going away, " what 
 could he say anyhow the way things are going 
 with us now? If we keep showing profits the way 
 we are? " 
 
 And yet that didn't convince me really. I never 
 could feel easy and secure with him.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A SHARP CORNER 
 
 I used to sit around thinking things over as we 
 came towards the end of the year that that first 
 agreement with Proctor Billings had to run. 
 
 " What's the matter with you? " Pasc asked me, 
 catching me sitting there, figuring in the office. 
 
 "Nothing. Why?" 
 
 ' You're sitting around, brooding like a sick man, 
 or an inventor trying to hatch out a new idea out of 
 his mind," said Pasc, smiling that little old dry smile 
 of his. 
 
 " I'm worried, if you want to know," I said. 
 " About what'll happen when that agreement runs 
 out." 
 
 " Worried ! " said Pasc. " I thought we were 
 making a lot of money." 
 
 " We are," I told him. " We're going to show 
 profits of sixty thousand dollars this year." 
 
 " Billings ought to be satisfied with that." 
 
 " That's what I'm afraid of," I said. " Too well 
 satisfied! " 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 " I don't know," I said, " exactly. But there's 
 something up. I don't know just what it is. But 
 it's something! " 
 
 " What makes you think so? " said Pasc.
 
 150 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Oh, a number of things," I said. " The way 
 Billings acts for one thing so very polite, and re- 
 served, and particular ! " 
 
 " Probably you just imagined it," said Pasc. 
 
 " No, I didn't," I told him. " And those Mc- 
 Adams those still sneaks of his, always around, 
 always busy! What are they in here for, anyway? 
 We got along without them before. You can't move 
 around in your own office, and pull out a paper from 
 the drawer, but you know one of them has his eyes 
 on you. Between Billings and them, it seems some- 
 times as if we were surrounded by these still-faced 
 things, day and night." 
 
 " They're good men, at that," said Pasc. 
 
 " I hate them," I said. " They ain't half so hu- 
 man as a spider." 
 
 ' You distrust them too much," said Pasc, " nat- 
 urally. You're too different from them. They're 
 good people for the work those Scotchmen." 
 
 ' Yes for that kind of work," I said, " I guess. 
 But I tell you what I think they're here for," I told 
 him, " if you want to know. I have for some time. 
 I think they're in here to learn the business all around 
 so if Proctor Billings wanted to, any time, he 
 get along without us ! " 
 
 " He wouldn't do that," said Pasc. 
 
 "Why wouldn't he?" I asked him. "That's 
 what I meant just now, when I said we were making 
 too much money; it's too much temptation for him ! " 
 
 " I know," said Pasc. " But if we are making 
 so much, how could he get the business away, if he 
 wanted to? "
 
 A Sharp Corner 151 
 
 " The same answer as always from the start. 
 Capital. Money. For every dollar we show in 
 profits, three and four and five have to go in there 
 in capital. We showed sixty thousand dollars' profit 
 this last year, and we're in debt one hundred and 
 seventy-five thousand dollars more than when it 
 started! " 
 
 " Seven times what you expected you'd need! " 
 
 ' Yes," I said " that Billings is responsible for. 
 The way he's fixed it! We haven't moved an inch, 
 when you come down to it. He's got us surer than 
 he ever had. We never in the world could get the 
 money this business would have to get, if he shut 
 down on us now." 
 
 " But he won't," said Pasc. " He won't do that 
 sort of thing." 
 
 11 1 don't know," I said. " I'm worried. 
 There's something coming up. He's going to spring 
 something on us, I know. Just the way he acts. 
 And if he wanted to, he could dump us out of this 
 both of us as easy as emptying a basket." 
 
 I could see just the minute I went in that still back 
 office of the bank that morning when the agreement 
 was coming up, that I was right that there was 
 something coming just from that calm deliberate 
 way Billings got up to meet me with. 
 
 He sat down by the cut flowers from his green- 
 house under the old man's picture, after we shook 
 hands. He was great on shaking hands. All those 
 bank men are. Then he sat, taking his time, look- 
 ing over the statement of our year, waiting for me 
 to start up the old game.
 
 152 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Well," I said, " coming to it finally, " it's not so 
 darned bad, is it? Sixty-one thousand dollars for 
 the year." 
 
 " No, it isn't," he said, putting up his eye- 
 brows, and turning over the pages with those white 
 fingers, pretending to be reading one part and an- 
 other. 
 
 " No," he said, laying it down. " It's pretty 
 good." 
 
 " You bet it is," I said. 
 
 " In a way " 
 
 "In a way!" said I. "It's six per cent, of a 
 million dollars." I'd been saying that to Pasc, 
 when we were first feeling good over it kind of 
 half in earnest and half a joke. 
 
 " If you want to look at it that way," he answered 
 me. And stopped. And I waited for him, this 
 time. " But I should say that was just a little pre- 
 mature ! " 
 
 11 Premature? " I said after him. 
 ' To talk of it as interest on fixed capital." 
 
 " What would you call it then? " 
 
 " A first year's earnings, wouldn't you? A good 
 year. If principal grew so easily as that, we'd all 
 be millionaires around here, out of the bicycle busi- 
 ness ! " 
 
 And he smiled that thin smile of his. 
 
 " Maybe we would," I said. 
 ' No," he went on, pulling out another cigarette 
 for himself and pounding the end of it on the desk. 
 ;l That's one trouble here." 
 
 "What?"
 
 A Sharp Corner 153 
 
 " The bicycle business. If it wasn't for that, I 
 wouldn't be so afraid of this." 
 
 " Afraid! " I said after him. 
 
 " Yes of the capital it's eating up." 
 
 His face was still as a wall. I moved my chair. 
 I saw he was getting around to it getting started 
 on this first move. 
 
 " A hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars," 
 he said, reading it off the statement. " Quite a little 
 money to be responsible for, personally if any- 
 thing should happen." 
 
 " Nothing's going to happen," I said. 
 
 "How do you know?" he asked me. "Any 
 more than in the bicycle business. Yes," he said 
 again, when I didn't say anything. " That's it, I'm 
 afraid/ " 
 
 ' That's your way of putting it," I said, coming 
 back at him. 
 
 " It's my money," he said. " Or I'm responsible 
 for it." And we stopped there waiting. 
 
 I looked up for a second, and saw the face of the 
 old man, in the oil painting over me looking down 
 on the same old still-faced game again, he'd played 
 there himself when he was alive. 
 
 " Look here," I said to Billings. " You haven't 
 got anything to scare you yet not much. With 
 our earnings for the year put it the worst way 
 you want to." 
 
 " It leaves me," he said, " with the responsibility 
 of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, in- 
 stead of twenty-five. Seven times what I was led 
 to expect."
 
 154 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 That was one for me of course. 
 
 " Seven times what we first estimated," he re- 
 peated again. He said "we"; what he meant, of 
 course, was " you." 
 
 " Some of it," I came back, " was transferred 
 from the supply people." 
 
 " Yes, but I'm responsible, just the same." 
 
 I stopped waiting for his next move. It came 
 right away. 
 
 " But that isn't the worst, of course. That isn't 
 what I'm afraid of most." 
 
 " What is?" said I, watching him with all my 
 eyes. 
 
 " The future," he said. " Do you know what 
 you'll need next year? " he asked me, putting those 
 hard eyes of his on mine for a second. 
 
 " Not exactly, no." 
 
 " At least two hundred thousand dollars 
 more I " 
 
 I didn't say anything. I knew it was probably 
 true. 
 
 I You should have a factory, for one thing. You 
 need more room. And you could save, probably, 
 ten dollars a machine, if you had a real factory 
 properly arranged." 
 
 II Easy," I told him. 
 
 'Where is it all coming from?" he asked me. 
 " If the company was old enough; if it had a record 
 of earnings to show, you could capitalize it take 
 it to New York, and dispose of some stock. That's 
 no use now. We'll have to place its paper if I 
 can manage it, as I have in the past."
 
 A Sharp Corner 155 
 
 " Look here," I said, getting restless finally. 
 "What's all this leading to?" 
 
 " I suppose," he said, " to taking up the renewal 
 of our agreement." 
 
 " All right," I said, " go ahead." 
 
 I wasn't going to let him drag the thing along this 
 way forever. 
 
 " If you want to do it," said he, looking at me, 
 extra polite. 
 
 " Certainly I want to," said I. " Don't you? " 
 
 " I don't know," he said. 
 
 " Don't know ! " said I, turning chilly. 
 
 " No," he said, and his voice kept getting harder 
 and his face more stiff. " I don't. I 'don't know 
 that I do want to, as a matter of fact except under 
 certain pretty clearly defined circumstances." 
 
 "What are they?" said I. 
 
 We both sat going carefully watching each 
 other in that still room; the old man's picture over 
 us, and the smell of the hothouse roses in the vase, 
 filling up the place like a funeral. 
 
 He took his time about telling me what he wanted. 
 
 " Go ahead," I said. " What are the condi- 
 tions? What would you want?" I was getting 
 nervous. 
 
 " In the first place," he said, " I should expect to 
 retain my option to buy in my interest in the com- 
 pany at the price we first agreed upon. 
 
 " That's all right," I said, sitting up and watching 
 every move he was making. It made you laugh, on 
 the side, to think what the cost of the stock was 
 then compared to what it was worth now. Prac-
 
 156 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 tically nothing! But that was done, anyhow. " Go 
 ahead," said I. 
 
 " And I should want a voting control of the stock, 
 as I have now, until the obligations to me were paid 
 up." 
 
 " Go ahead," said I. That was clear enough. 
 It didn't change the situation from what it had been 
 either of those things. " Go ahead." I saw 
 what he was really after was still coming. 
 
 " That we can take for granted," he said, " I sup- 
 pose." And I nodded to him. 
 
 " But the main thing for me," he said, and 
 drew out this paper from his pocket " is all here 
 in a new plan for capitalization I've drawn up to 
 show you." 
 
 "What is it?" I said, sitting up and taking no- 
 tice. This was something new to me. We were 
 capitalized, of course ; like everybody else is. But I 
 had only the haziest kind of the general idea of this 
 stock game. I sat up; I was afraid of it darned 
 shy, the minute he started opening it up. 
 
 " I'll show you the whole thing in detail," he said, 
 " if you like." 
 
 He had it all worked out, of course, as I knew he 
 had. But the first thing he said nearly knocked me 
 over. 
 
 " I should capitalize it," he said, " at a million 
 and a half dollars." 
 
 " A million and a half," I said. " What do you 
 mean? Didn't you say it was no use talking in such 
 figures as a million dollars ! " 
 
 "What difference does it make?" he said, look-
 
 A Sharp Corner 157 
 
 ing at me, "what figure you capitalize it for? If 
 it earns it all right. It's all capitalized. If it 
 doesn't earn it, who's hurt but just three stock- 
 holders?" 
 
 " Nobody, I suppose," I said. 
 
 But just the same it made an impression on me. 
 He passed it off. But it looked to me to be at least 
 a sign of what he thought there might be in it. 
 
 44 A million and a half," he went along, " for con- 
 venience. I put it there in the first place, because 
 of there being three stockholders." 
 
 " Go ahead," said I, watching this new game, 
 hard. 
 
 " But all that million and a half," he told me then, 
 44 would not be in one class of stock." 
 
 "How would it be?" I asked him, eyeing that 
 face of his. 
 
 44 Half a million preferred; and a million com- 
 mon." 
 
 44 How's that?" 
 
 44 A million common, with voting power," he said. 
 
 4 Voting power ! " I said over to myself. 44 Now 
 we're getting to it! " 
 
 44 Controlled equally between you and me." 
 
 44 And the other half million preferred? " 
 
 44 For Mr. Thomas," he said. 
 
 44 What's this? " said I, jumping at it. 
 
 4 That's one absolute condition," he said, turning 
 those still eyes of his on me, 44 of my going on." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 44 If I go on with you with more money, and a 
 new factory it will be under a change of manage-
 
 158 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 merit of the plant. Mr. Thomas will have to give 
 up his part in the concern; and his voice in the stock 
 control." 
 
 He didn't move a muscle as he said it. 
 
 "What are you talking about?" I said to him. 
 " Do you know? " 
 
 I had just as much expected a club across the face. 
 
 " 1 know very well," he said, cutting out his words 
 clear and sharp. " I'm through with any concern 
 that Mr. Thomas is in control of turning out the 
 product. He'll have to go." 
 
 " Let him go 1 " I said, getting my breath back. 
 " Put Pasc Thomas out of the Hoodlum ! What 
 are you crazy? Why, it's his thing! He made 
 it!" 
 
 ' Yes, and he'll ruin it, if he'll ever have a chance 
 of manufacturing it on a large scale, after the way 
 he's been doing. Besides," said Billings, " I 
 wouldn't go into any company, permanently, without 
 expecting to have at least half of the stock any- 
 way." 
 
 I almost choked to death while he was saying it. 
 
 " Now wait," he said, holding out his hand, when 
 he saw me opening up my mouth again. " Before 
 you make any comments on my plan, it'll be just as 
 well to let me explain it, so you'll know what it is. 
 That is," he said, staring at me again " if you 
 want me to go on with you." 
 
 I sat and listened as he told me to. I began now 
 to get an idea of the thing. 
 
 ' To start with," he went on, when I sat back and 
 waited, " I have no desire on earth to underestimate
 
 A Sharp Corner 159 
 
 Mr. Thomas, or do him the slightest injustice. He 
 is an excellent man in his place." 
 
 It made me wriggle in my chair to hear him, pass- 
 ing judgment on Pasc Thomas running a machine 
 shop ! I wanted to get up and eat him raw. But I 
 didn't. I sat and took it getting chillier every 
 minute, understanding his scheme. 
 
 " As an inventor," he said, " he is a very able 
 man. On the other hand, he's just the type of man 
 who should never have charge of a manufacturing 
 plant or a voice in its management." 
 
 " What makes you say that? " I asked him, keep- 
 ing my voice down. " That mistake he made? " 
 
 " That, and a hundred other things. He's en- 
 tirely unfitted for it. He's worse than that. He's 
 dangerous. At the same time," he went along, " he 
 invented the machine he made the company pos- 
 sible, as you say. And he should certainly have his 
 share of the profits from it. He can be of great 
 use, too, in the future." 
 
 I sat glaring at him, holding in. 
 
 " So I have worked out this plan for him to 
 protect his rights," he said. " I'm giving him the 
 first chance on earnings. My plan will give him 
 three hundred thousand dollars in seven per cent, 
 preferred stock." 
 
 " Three hundred thousand dollars," I said, " I 
 thought you said five." 
 
 " There would be two hundred thousand dollars 
 left in the treasury, and two hundred thousand dol- 
 lars common," he said, " to issue in emergency. 
 And three hundred thousand dollars would give Mr.
 
 160 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 Thomas twenty-one thousand dollars a year, before 
 we declared ourselves any dividends on our stock. 
 
 " For the present," he went on, " it would not be 
 likely that we would pay dividends even on pre- 
 ferred stock. And in that period, we could allow 
 Mr. Thomas a salary, a good living salary, say 
 seventy-five hundred dollars a year, to be given up, 
 when we decided to pay preferred dividends. And 
 in the meantime, he could come and go as he wanted 
 invent what he pleased, and let us have his in- 
 ventions. 
 
 " In this way," he said, " you and I would be 
 left in active control of the company as equal owners 
 of the stock with the voting power." 
 
 " And pay ourselves good, fat salaries, I suppose," 
 said I. 
 
 ' We'd pay ourselves properly," he told me. 
 
 "How much?" 
 
 " Oh, say fifteen thousand dollars a year." 
 
 Then he stopped a minute, and waited and let it 
 sink in. And it did, all right. I got it. I didn't 
 have to be told what he could do, if he called for his 
 money from the Company. 
 
 " I think that is about the substance of the plan," 
 he said, fingering the bottom of the vase, where his 
 hothouse flowers were, " as it came to me, trying to 
 work out a fair arrangement for every one. I knew, 
 of course, it might not appeal to you, personally," 
 he said, looking up. " But of course," he said, star- 
 ing me in the eye, "that's your option whether 
 you do it or not." 
 
 It certainly was a fine option.
 
 A Sharp Corner 161 
 
 " Who would you have managing the shop in the 
 place of Mr. Thomas? " I said, still holding in till 
 1 got it all. 
 
 "Mr. McAdam his assistant under you," 
 he answered. " You would be president and I treas- 
 urer." 
 
 " I see," said I. 
 
 " You would take the business and I the financial 
 end." 
 
 " I see," I said again. 
 
 I did as plain as if it had already happened. 
 He in the bank managing it under absolute control 
 until his debt was paid off; I working for him, under 
 guard by those slink-eyed spies of his those Mc- 
 Adams, until he'd got what he wanted out of me 
 as he had now out of Pasc. I working, day after 
 day, with that still-faced, cold-handed crowd watch- 
 ing me, till they got what they wanted out of me. 
 Then another banker's trick; another shift, and 
 they'd slip the knife into me in the dark, and I'd be 
 out in the street with Pasc. And this still-faced 
 thing, with his still agents, were to have the whole 
 concern we'd made in his own hands, perma- 
 nently. 
 
 And then I broke loose. " So that's it," I came 
 out finally, getting red in the face. 
 
 "That's what?" he asked me. 
 
 " That's what you've been sitting around cooking 
 up the last few months. It's a fine scheme you've 
 got it down fine! In the first place, you and I get 
 together and put Pasc Thomas down, and take his 
 invention and his property away from him."
 
 162 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 I saw him get a little white, when I said that, in 
 spite of himself. 
 
 " By Gripes," I said, this thing striking me all of a 
 sudden what he was trying to do! 'What do 
 you take me for? What do I look like to you a 
 man that will double-cross his best friend for the 
 sake of a few dollars? Or a million, either!" I 
 said. " For I'm inclined to think now you see some- 
 thing in this something bigger than I thought 
 even ! What do you think I am, a crook? " 
 
 " You needn't make quite so much noise unless 
 you feel you must," said Proctor Billings, giving me 
 an ugly look. It was a queer thing to see. The 
 hotter and redder I got, the colder and stiller he 
 was. 
 
 " I'll make what noise I want to," I said. " If 
 you made a little more noise, occasionally," I told 
 him, "moving around, people would trust you a 
 little more. There's worse things in a man than 
 noise, I've found." 
 
 And he sat still. 
 
 " That's the first thing," I went along. " Pasc 
 Thomas goes; and I stay. I and you and the other 
 still-faced boys you'll keep around me in the factory 
 watching. And when the time comes, and you get 
 what you want out of me out I go on the sidewalk, 
 flipped out, with another banker's trick. And there 
 we'll be. Thomas and I out in the cold. And you 
 with the property. 
 
 " I like that," I said. " That'd be a fine thing for 
 me I Oh, no. I'm not much. But I'm too wise for 
 that. I know I can't go up against the game that
 
 A Sharp Corner 163 
 
 you still-faced boys in the bank can work up; not 
 alone, anyway! " 
 
 ' Wait," said Billings, breaking in on me. I 
 could see from his voice and his face that he was 
 white mad. White and still and dangerous. " It 
 isn't necessary to bawl," he told me, " or insult me. 
 All you have to do is to withdraw from our arrange- 
 ment and finance yourself elsewhere." 
 
 " Yes," I said. " In other words, you'll shut 
 down on us, and demand your money." 
 
 " You can put it that way, if you like," he said. 
 " I should probably want my money when it came 
 due." 
 
 " And if you didn't get it, I suppose, you'd take 
 the business, eh? " 
 
 " I would try and take care of my claim," he 
 said. 
 
 He had it all worked out, all right. He had us, 
 if he went ahead and demanded his money now. I 
 saw that as well as anybody. But I wasn't in any 
 condition to admit it then. 
 
 " All right," I said. " Go ahead. Have a try 
 grab it, if you think you can ! But you'll have 
 one of the prettiest little fights you ever had, before 
 you get through. I'll promise you that. 
 
 " Now you begin to see how big it is," I said. I 
 was crazy, thinking of what he was trying to do. 
 " You're going to strangle us, till our tongues hang 
 out, huh?" I said, shaking my fist in his face. 
 " You're going to take it away from us. Go ahead. 
 Try it! Try it!" 
 
 " But there's one thing," he said to me, when I
 
 164 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 stopped, cold and quiet as if I hadn't spoken at all, 
 " you'll have to remember." 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " You haven't the entire decision in this matter 
 yourself." 
 
 " What do you mean by that? " I asked him. 
 
 " I mean you don't control the stock now, as I un- 
 derstand it." 
 
 And I stood gaping at him, wondering what he 
 had up his sleeve now. " There's another man who 
 owns half of it, isn't there? " he asked me. 
 
 " Pasc Thomas ! " I said. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Pasc Thomas!" I said again, and burst out 
 laughing. " He'll throw himself out, I suppose," I 
 said, " of the thing he cares more for than anything 
 else on earth." 
 
 But it made no impression on him. He stood 
 there, looking, his face motionless. 
 
 " If I were you," said Proctor Billings, " I would 
 wait and find out what he says, before you decide 
 definitely to commit financial suicide."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 REORGANIZED 
 
 I went back to Pasc Thomas at the factory, froth- 
 ing at the mouth. 
 
 " You know what the game is? Do you know 
 what that crook is trying to do? " I said, when I got 
 him off by himself, where those two McAdams 
 those spies of Billings couldn't overhear us. 
 
 "No. What?" said Pasc, sitting staring, with 
 his long hands hanging on his knees. 
 
 u He wanted me to go in with him, and freeze 
 you out." 
 
 ' You don't mean that! " said Pasc. 
 
 " I'll show you what he did," said I. And I told 
 him just exactly what the scheme was. The further 
 I got with it, the stiller he sat looking off. 
 
 " Do you see it now? " I said, when I got through. 
 
 " I don't know as I do," he said, coming back to 
 earth for a minute. 
 
 " Why not? It's as plain as the nose on your 
 face," I told him. " He gets his line on the busi- 
 ness and sees there's a fortune in it. Then he 
 gets these two fellows, these two sneaks, these slink- 
 eyed Scotchmen, into the factory. And the minute 
 he thinks he knows it he's got it learned enough 
 out comes that long white hand and grabs it."
 
 166 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " He didn't want you to get out," said Pasc. 
 
 " No. He needed me for the present. He 
 hasn't got the selling end learned yet," said I. " But 
 he'll get me some way, when he's ready or he 
 thinks he can, anyway by sitting back and cook- 
 ing up some other crooked trick, and springing it on 
 me when the time comes." 
 
 " I don't know about that either," said Pasc, 
 talking lower and lower, the louder I talked. 
 
 " Well, I do," I said, " it's you go now and next 
 me and then he gets it all. That's the program. 
 We all go out one by one till he gets it. 
 
 " Oh, no," I said. " No. I can see through a 
 millstone. He thinks he's got us now, where the 
 hair's short, where we don't dare to fight. But 
 there's where he fools himself. He's going to have 
 the warmest fight he ever had yet, before he gets 
 this ; he's going to hear from " . 
 
 And all at once I looked up and I realized Pasc 
 wasn't paying the slightest attention to me; just sat 
 looking off. 
 
 " What's the matter with you? " I said, stopping 
 short. " Are you sick or what? " 
 
 " No," he said, starting up and catching himself, 
 and coming back to earth again. 
 
 'What does ail you then? Aren't you inter- 
 ested? What are you thinking of staring off like 
 that?" 
 
 " I think," said Pasc finally, clearing his throat, 
 "I think he's right!" 
 
 " Right! " said I, going up into the air. " Who? 
 Proctor Billings? What do you mean? Oh, I see.
 
 Reorganized 167 
 
 You mean he's got it figured out right. That 
 we can't get away from him any way? Well, 
 if" 
 
 " No," said Pasc. " That ain't what I mean." 
 
 " What is it, then? What do you? " 
 
 " No," he said, talking slow. " I think he's right 
 about the whole thing." 
 
 "Right! "I yelled. 
 
 " I've got to get out. But you'll stay." 
 
 "Get out," I yelled again. "You? Well I 
 guess not ! And he can't force you out either I You 
 get out," I said, " of the company? Why? " 
 
 " I believe it will be the only sensible thing to do; 
 I'm not fitted for it, just as he says." 
 
 " Sensible ! " I said, watching him close to see 
 whether he was crazy or I was. " Fitted! What 
 do you mean by that? Who's to be the judge of 
 that a man like Proctor Billings, who's walked 
 through a machine shop three times with chamois 
 gloves on? " 
 
 " He's right," said Pasc again. 
 
 " He's nothing of the kind," I came back. 
 " What are you talking about? " 
 
 " But it's more than that," said Pasc, going 
 along in a kind of level voice. 
 
 11 More," said I. " What does that mean? " 
 
 " It means," he said, " it's happened just right for 
 me. Almost providential." And I sat there, 
 watching him with my eyes hanging out on my 
 cheeks. ' The fact is," said Pasc, " I've got to quit, 
 anyhow! " 
 
 "Quit!"
 
 168 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I ain't been very well all the spring," he told 
 me. 
 
 " Those headaches? " 
 
 " Yes. There hasn't been a day for the last three 
 months I haven't had one of those condemned 
 things splitting my head open. And now lately the 
 doctor's been giving me warning I've got to quit." 
 
 " Why didn't you tell me about it? " I asked him. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," said Pasc, looking off. 
 "What good would it do? We couldn't either of 
 us stop, the way we were fixed. Though occasion- 
 ally," he said, " I did have to knock off and go home, 
 when you were away; and leave McAdam in charge." 
 
 " I'll bet you " I said, stopping, thinking. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " That's how Billings heard it," I said " about 
 you being willing to get out." 
 
 " Probably so," said Pasc. 
 
 And then we sat still a minute. It was an awful 
 thump to me ! 
 
 ;< Was he pretty positive about it? " I asked him. 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 " The doctor." 
 
 4 Yes; he said I'd got to quit, or there'd be trou- 
 ble. There is some now. But not so dangerous, if 
 I quit right away." And he sat still a minute longer, 
 letting that soak in. 
 
 I wouldn't have it. I couldn't make myself be- 
 lieve it. 
 
 14 I don't believe it's anything, anyhow," I said, 
 " but just your stomach. I know from experience. 
 I can always trace it back to that."
 
 Reorganized 169 
 
 " No, that ain't it with me these headaches that 
 I have, so the doctor says," Pasc told me. 
 
 "What is?" 
 
 " It's nerves. Nerves exhausted," said Pasc. 
 " But that ain't my theory of it, either. I think I 
 can go back further than that." 
 
 "To what? "said I. 
 
 " Like half the folks, nowadays " 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 "Speed," said Pasc, smiling that old quick smile 
 again. " Speed. I ain't geared up for this kind of 
 thing this last year or two. It's got going too 
 many revolutions a minute for me about the way 
 it did with that Myrtle, and her bookkeeping." 
 
 " Don't be a damn fool, Pasc," said I, " compar- 
 ing yourself to her." 
 
 " I mean it," he said. " We've got speeded up 
 too fast lately for human beings, I believe. You 
 can stand it, maybe; I thought I could," he said, look- 
 ing at me the way envious sick folks look at well ones, 
 " But I can't. You don't mind it at all, do you? " 
 
 " No," I told him. " It's meat and drink for me. 
 I can take all they give me. And I believe myself 
 there's something else the matter with you, besides 
 work, if the truth was told. You're naturally tough. 
 I still believe there's something else behind, in spite 
 of what your doctor says." 
 
 " Maybe there is," said Pasc, opening up one of 
 those sudden grins of his again. " Maybe Zetta's 
 got it right. She always claims the trouble with me 
 is carburetor on the brain. 
 
 '' That is my trouble, too, in a way," he said, " and
 
 170 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 always has been, from a boy getting thinking, 
 some idea riding me around in my head. It sounds 
 like a dumb idiot to hear another man tell it, but I 
 get an idea on my mind, and I can't shake it off. 
 It comes in and takes possession of me. And I 
 can't do anything at all, after that, but sit thinking, 
 thinking. And it's worse, of course, when you're 
 tired out. Your brain gets loose then; you lose con- 
 trol of it, and it goes following the thing around like 
 a hound. Like a foxhound," he said, " you have to 
 go home and leave at the night fall. And you hear 
 him sometimes waking up going following, 
 tireder and tireder, all night long. Nights are the 
 worst," he said, pushing his long brown stringy 
 hair back from his old wrinkled forehead. 
 
 " I guess I'm no different," he went along, think- 
 ing, " from a lot of folks in our lines around ma- 
 chine shops, thinking out improvements. You see 
 them, all over. You can spot them as far as you 
 can see. Only, I struck this thing that went so well 
 it kept me jumping nights and days both. And 
 nights and days are too much for me." 
 
 " So you think you've got to go? " said I, after 
 quite a while, thinking it over. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 11 1 God," I said. " I can't get used to it 1 " And 
 I got up and stood at the window. 
 
 " I can't," said Pasc. 
 
 " I always sort of felt we'd keep going along to- 
 gether always," I said, after awhile. 
 
 " So did I, Bill," he answered me. 
 
 And we both stayed still for a minute or two. I
 
 Reorganized 171 
 
 stood watching out the window at a couple of dogs, 
 and a comic opera singer on a billboard across the 
 road. 
 
 ' This thing was our baby, Pasc," I said to him 
 when I thought I wanted to. " We fathered it and 
 mothered it, and sat up nights; and lugged it around, 
 and sweat blood and cussed over it." 
 
 " I know it," said he. 
 
 And we shut up again. I looked around for a sec- 
 ond. He sat there hunched up, with his long hands 
 and wrists hanging down, and those pale-blue eyes, 
 staring off, forty miles in back of nowhere. 
 
 " But I guess there's no getting around it now," 
 he said finally. " I guess it's got to be. 
 
 " I've got to go off and get built up again. Get 
 rid of this thing gnawing in my head or get it 
 worked out. Somebody's got to work it out! " he 
 said, sitting up a little, and clamping those far-off, 
 absent-minded eyes back on mine again. " Before 
 long, somebody's got to work out a carburetor on 
 an entirely different principle from now, with the 
 grade of gasoline going down the way it is if 
 we're going to keep going on." 
 
 I had to smile to hear him after he'd just been 
 saying he'd have to give it all up. 
 
 " Keep going on," I said. " What do you care? 
 You got yours. You ain't responsible for keeping 
 the world going on, are you? " 
 
 " No," he said, staring back, " I don't suppose 
 I am, more than anybody else. But I have to just 
 the same keep going on with it, like the rest oJ 
 the folks, whether I want to or not. And with this
 
 172 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 thing, now, this carburetor thing I've got on my 
 mind I guess I'm about like the fellow when that 
 old Thirteen-Fourteen Puzzle was going; the one 
 they said locked himself up in a room, fighting it; and 
 told them, if he didn't come out alive with the an- 
 swer, they could bury them both together. 
 
 " But I'm on the right track now, I believe," he 
 said, brightening up a little. " I'm on an idea now 
 that's a hundred per cent, better than anything 
 they've got yet." 
 
 I had all I could do to keep from laughing. 
 
 " No," he went along, not noticing me, " I've got 
 a queer job for the rest of my life, apparently. I've 
 got to go off and get my health back; and fight this 
 thing on my brain. I'll have all the money I'll need, 
 apparently and more, too, if what you say is 
 true." 
 
 ' You're a funny duck, that way, ain't you ? " I said 
 to him. ' You* never did care a whole lot for 
 money." 
 
 " No, I never was very ambitious that way, I 
 guess," he told me. 
 
 * You're just the opposite from me," said I. 
 
 " I don't know but what I am." 
 
 " Just the opposite," I told him. " I'm out for 
 the coin, with the rest of them. I'm out for the al- 
 mighty dollar. They can talk about the evils of it, 
 and all that, and how they'd go without it; but I 
 notice there's none of them ever refuse it when it 
 comes their way. It may be an evil, but no man 
 ever got heart disease yet trying to run away from 
 it.
 
 Reorganized 173 
 
 " And if you're out, Pasc," said I; "if you think 
 you've got to be it puts a little different look on 
 this business for me. In the past, working it to- 
 gether, it's been a kind of pet and hobby with me. A 
 kind of part of us. Our own business! But now 
 with you out, and me going on with Proctor Billings, 
 it's all changed to me. It's dog eat dog. From this 
 time on I'm out for the spondulax for all there is 
 in it. I'm out for big money! To hell with the 
 business except for what you can turn it into. I'll 
 work this thing like Billings and the rest of them 
 on the basis of the multiplication table, no favors 
 asked or given. 
 
 11 If that's the game," I said " and I guess it is 
 I can play it with the next one. Let him try on 
 some of his tricks. Let him try to flip me out ! " 
 
 " I don't think he will," said Pasc. " I don't 
 think he has any idea of it." 
 
 " Well, if he has," I said, " let him. I'm no- 
 body's fool. I can watch and keep my mouth shut, 
 myself, if I have to. Watch his tricks, and get on to 
 him. And on the other hand, if 1 do keep in with 
 him, as you claim, I'll have the best schoolmaster in 
 this money business in this part of'the country." 
 
 " If you don't start fighting him," said Pasc, grin- 
 ning. 
 
 " Don't you fret about me," said I. " I can stop 
 fighting, when I have to. When I think there's 
 something in it. And I think there will be this 
 time. 
 
 " I'm going to sit around and watch his tricks," I 
 said, making up my mind right there, " and learn
 
 174 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 that game of his. Stay right with him everywhere 
 
 in this business, and outside if 1 can work it. 
 Watch Billings running that money machine of his. 
 It'll come in handy to me, not only squeezing the 
 most 1 can out of this thing of ours; but there ought 
 to be something else, every now and then, on the side, 
 if you only have sense enough to see it and pick it up, 
 that would help fat up your bank account if a 
 man keeps his eyes open." 
 
 " You'll get to be a terribly tricky man, Bill, I 
 don't doubt," said Pasc, looking at me with that 
 faint old leathery smile he had sometimes, around his 
 mouth. 
 
 " That's all right," I told him. " But I know, 
 and you know there is just such a thing; that those 
 fellows with the money, like Proctor Billings, have 
 got a system for grabbing everything and turning it 
 into money; a regular machine for turning money 
 out just as sure as we've got a machine shop here, 
 you might say, for turning out speed. And they've 
 got their methods, just like any other trade. And 
 it won't do me any harm to sit down and watch them 
 do it. See how a man like Proctor Billings manipu- 
 lates it, to turn out a million or so every year or two 
 
 out of nothing! " 
 
 ' You mean to say," said Pasc, thinking of some- 
 thing else all the time, " that he thought that share 
 of mine in the business might be worth three hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, when everything gets started, 
 at seven per cent, interest? " 
 
 11 1 can't tell you what he thinks," said I. " But I 
 do. I'm sure of it now. You'll be sure of that
 
 Reorganized 175 
 
 much in a year or two if he'll put himself and his 
 money right behind it now." 
 
 " It don't seem true, exactly," said Pasc, looking 
 off. " It don't seem possible. But I'll be glad for 
 one thing, anyhow; it'll give Zetta a chance to amuse 
 herself finally. It will pay her back a little for hav- 
 ing a half invalid on her hands. 
 
 " Get her out of housework, and the movies, for 
 amusements," he said, going on " give her some 
 money to spend dressing herself; and let her move 
 around, and have some lively times, the way lively 
 good-looking women of her age want to. And do, 
 when they ain't hitched up to an old cripple like me, 
 with a case of carburetor on the brain." 
 
 " Oh, shut up. Don't be a fool ! " I told him.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 AN ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Well, I was president of that new corporation, the 
 Hoodlum Motor Cycle Company, and Proctor Bill- 
 ings was treasurer, just as he planned it. I was pro- 
 tected in my rights by an agreement; but he was 
 to have a kind of general veto control as long as 
 his money was financing it. But not a minute 
 longer ! 
 
 " There are two main things," he said to me after 
 we had it fixed, " as I analyze it. The first is to 
 speed everything up. Speed up and rush out the 
 goods for the demand while it's on. That's your 
 end." 
 
 ' You watch me jam it," I told him. 
 
 " And the second thing is to get the money to 
 carry it, and to get that new factory up. And 
 that's my province." 
 
 " It works out well, don't it," said I, " when 
 you come to divide it up. We two ought to knock 
 the tar out of that proposition." 
 
 " I hope so," he said 
 
 " I know so," I told him. I was feeling good, 
 to see it going the way it was; and I was getting on 
 a little better now, more friendly. I'd have been 
 friendly with the devil himself, making so much 
 money as we two were together.
 
 An Anniversary 177 
 
 " And so far as keeping down costs go, and all 
 that detail work," said Billings, " I don't think we 
 can do better than those two Scotchmen those 
 two McAdams that is, if you have no objections." 
 
 "Objections, no!" I told him. "They don't 
 trouble me any. Let them burrow. I don't be- 
 lieve you could beat them for that business." 
 
 I didn't care much about seeing them around 
 those two silent hangdog things, slipping to and 
 fro about the place. But I knew enough to know 
 they knew their business under Proctor Billings' 
 direction. Queer things tougher than bull beef; 
 work all day and all night, and keep their mouth 
 shut like Indians on a long run. They liked 
 the game for the game's sake, I could see, watching 
 them besides the money. They worked together 
 one holding down a cent, while the other one 
 skinned it. 
 
 So we started out on that new arrangement 
 Pasc out of the management practically, except for 
 a consultation now and then, and what improve- 
 ments he worked out; keeping his own hours, drop- 
 ping in when he felt like it, and the doctor said 
 he might. And Billings and I went out after the 
 business I after the trade, and he after the 
 finances. 
 
 He knew his line, I had to hand it to him jolly- 
 ing him, when I got to know him better, at the 
 twists and turns he took in the money end of the 
 thing as we got along. 
 
 1 You're a past master at it," I told him. " I can 
 sc that. Your old man put you onto the ropes b-
 
 178 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 fore you were out of skirts. You were wise on this 
 money business long before he put you into this 
 banking machine of his." 
 
 I used to get right after him after a while. 
 
 " Oh I'm on to you," I used to say. " Your old 
 man turned out the money here in this bank in a 
 regular machine just the same as we turn out 
 motor cycles or old Allen turns out bicycle spokes. 
 And handed over his trade to you. But I serve 
 you notice right now," I told him. " I'm watching 
 you all the time to learn your tricks to see what 
 your plant is and how you run it just the same 
 as you watched us. I'm going to learn before I 
 get through, how one of these money machines is 
 put together and operated. How you smooth- 
 handed boys go to work to get the dollars, with- 
 out ever having to soil your fingers." 
 
 It made him squirm some I could see that, 
 when I got after him that way. But what did I 
 care? I was just as good as he was. And I 
 knew, anyhow, he'd take most anything from a man 
 who he was making so much money with as we were 
 together. 
 
 I don't know as there's much to say about that 
 next year, except that everything went our way, and 
 we doubled up the business again. I don't know as 
 I could remember anything particular, if it had 
 happened. We were too busy to remember any- 
 thing but that one main idea the business always 
 jumping up faster and faster; and we people in the 
 plant rushing around like crazy men, getting up at 
 six o'clock and getting to bed at midnight, tearing
 
 An Anniversary 179 
 
 the days and nights to pieces, trying to keep up 
 with our new business. 
 
 " You'll kill yourself," said Polly. She was all 
 the time kicking about it. 
 
 "Kill myself, nothing!" I said. "The more 
 work like this they feed me, the better I like it. I 
 can tear it up, and ask for more. All I wish is 
 that the day was one hundred and twenty-four hours 
 long instead of what it is." 
 
 " All right," said Polly. " Have it your own 
 way. Maybe you won't say that some day if you 
 keep going all night and all day, too. You're 
 human, like the rest of us, if you don't think so. 
 Your digestion's all out of kilter now, and you know 
 it. 
 
 " Wh-why wouldn't it be," she'd say, getting ex- 
 cited and stammering; " sit-sitting around the 
 restaurants with those men in all that tobacco smoke, 
 eating all that heavy greasy food." 
 
 " Oh, go hire a hall, Pol," I told her. " I know 
 what I'm about. Go to sleep. You're getting so 
 you croak like a tree toad in a summer dry spell 
 all night long." 
 
 But I was showing considerable speed, at that. 
 A man less tough than I was wouldn't have stood 
 it rushing around keeping the plant keyed up to 
 the last notch; getting that new factory started, and 
 the extra stuff bought for it. And when I wasn't 
 there, going jamming around the country, getting 
 new agencies established, sleeping on Pullmans and 
 eating most anything, most any time, taking out 
 the trade, getting them satisfied and friendly.
 
 180 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " It's lucky God gave me two men's appetite 
 in this business! " I used to tell them. " Half my 
 value to the company's my eating ability with its 
 customers." 
 
 " How about a drink, Bill now and then ? " said 
 this fellow I was talking to. 
 
 11 You never saw me yet," I said, heating up, 
 " when I turned a hair." 
 
 "No, Bill, you're a wonder! " said he. 
 
 I guess that was right. I guess if I hadn't been 
 extra husky I never could have stood it. Nor if 
 that thing hadn't been going our way so strong. 
 You can always manage to get out of bed in the 
 morning and go at it again, if you know you're mak- 
 ing money enough. And we were making enough 
 in that company now to make a dead man get up and 
 hustle. By the end of that year there was no ques- 
 tion about it we were going to be rich out of it. 
 
 Pasc Thomas didn't seem to be improved so 
 very much after he got out of the management. 
 There was nothing new; just his nerves, just his 
 sleeplessness his mind still out of his control, 
 chasing around after carburetors and valves or some 
 other hundred per cent, improvements on the motor. 
 He wasn't any better that summer, and Zetta finally 
 came to me with an idea about it. She'd got so she 
 talked pretty free to me about everything. 
 
 " I kind of believe I'd like to take him out to 
 the West," she said. " Go to Yellowstone Park 
 and the Rocky Mountains; and then go down, maybe, 
 and spend the fall and winter in Los Angeles if 
 you can fix it! Give him a change of air, and a
 
 An Anniversary 181 
 
 change of mind; give him a chance to sec the coun- 
 try, and turn his ideas in a new direction. 
 
 " And I'm speaking once for him and twice for 
 myself, I guess," said Zetta " saying it. I 
 wouldn't mind getting out and seeing the country a 
 little myself. I certainly am sick of this town. 
 It's full of dead ones. From all I can see, all the 
 women around where we live want to do is to read 
 the family history, and turn up their noses at any- 
 body that's shown any signs of life since 1642." 
 
 Her face got kind of red and flushed, talking 
 about it. 
 
 " So I believe I'd like to do it," she said, " both 
 for his sake and mine, if you can fix it for us to let 
 Pasc get away from the factory entirely." 
 
 " I can do better than that, I believe, now," I told 
 her. And I took it up with Billings. 
 
 " Yes," he said, thinking and looking down. " I 
 think we're in a position to do it, now. I think 
 there is no reason why we shouldn't cut off his 
 salary now, and start paying him his dividends on 
 that preferred stock." 
 
 " It's making it twice over." 
 
 " Yes," he said. " Five times." 
 
 And so we started in on the preferred dividends. 
 
 " You've got to score that up to Billings' credit, 
 anyhow," said Zetta, tickled to death with the 
 thought of getting loose, traveling. 
 
 * Yes," I said. But I could see, too, that there 
 was something back of it; that Billings figured it 
 was good policy to have the preferred paying divi- 
 dends.
 
 182 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 I remember that night before Pasc and his wife 
 started off for the West, and the dinner party Polly 
 and I gave them up at our house the four of us 
 together, in our new house. We'd moved then, 
 just lately, into our house on Bellevue Terrace. We 
 made it a kind of anniversary of that other time 
 that first time they came to our other house on Collins 
 Street, just before that Labor Day race that started 
 us going. 
 
 "It seems good, don't it," said Pasc "just us 
 four together again?" 
 
 " It certainly does," said Polly. 
 
 " It don't seem possible," said Zetta, looking at 
 me with that kind of fixed stare she'd got in her 
 eyes, since Pasc's poor health. " All that's hap- 
 pened! 
 
 " But it is," she said, breaking off her stare, and 
 talking louder. " That's the main thing." (And 
 she laughed that loud, nervous laugh of hers.) 
 ' That's the main thing we've got it now ! We've 
 got the wherewithal and we can live ! Eh, 
 Pasc?" 
 
 She looked handsomer than ever that night. She 
 was dressed up to kill in one of those flame- 
 colored dresses she used to wear, after that, eve- 
 nings. 
 
 'Eh, Pasc?" she said, calling across the table 
 to him. 
 
 He opened up that quick smile of his and 
 shut it up again without talking. 
 
 ' You old crank! You poor old rooster, you! " 
 she said to him. " You never could learn to en-
 
 An Anniversary 183 
 
 joy yourself, if you lived to be a thousand years oldl 
 Could you? " she said, and threw a kiss at him. 
 
 "You know what he's doing now?" she asked 
 me. " He's gone back, and started working on that 
 darned carburetor again. Started up again, just as 
 we began packing up to go away." 
 
 " I just had this idea," said Pasc, looking sheep- 
 ish, " I thought I'd get down before it slipped me." 
 
 "Out comes the .old envelope and stub, eh?" I 
 said to Zetta. 
 
 " Yep," she told me. " It's something a hun- 
 dred per cent, better this time! " 
 
 " You bet," said I. "Always!" 
 
 " But he's going to cut it out on this trip," she 
 said, her face coming down sober, " or I'll know 
 the reason why. I'm going to get it off his mind, 
 for once and my own ! " she said. Her voice 
 was getting kind of sharp and jangly. " For one 
 while! That's what we agreed before we started. 
 And I'll see he keeps his agreement." 
 
 " Good for you, Zet," I told her. " I bet on 
 you!" 
 
 " You better," she said. " Now let's talk about 
 something that's agreeable. Let's talk about the 
 money you're going to make." 
 
 ' That sounds good to me," I said, laughing. 
 
 " How much is it going to be this year, Bill? " she 
 asked me, looking at me with those devil-may-care 
 black eyes of hers. "Your share? A hundred 
 thousand dollars? " 
 
 " Not this year," I came back at her. " Next. 
 You got that one little detail wrong, that's all."
 
 184 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 "Otherwise I'm all right?" she said. 
 
 "You're all right, all the time to me!" I 
 told her. 
 
 " You remember that time," she said, " that other 
 time we're celebrating now when we all sat to- 
 gether in the old house on Collins Street trying 
 to figure out how we could possibly pull it out, and 
 get the old Hoodlum started! " 
 
 " And your ring! " Polly struck in. 
 
 " You bet I do," said I. " And that reminds me," 
 I said, looking over at Polly; and I reached in and 
 dug that diamond ring I had for her out of my vest 
 pocket the biggest stone I could find in town. 
 " That reminds me of something that's got to be 
 done right now." 
 
 And I got up from the table, and got a chair, and 
 dragged it up back of her. 
 
 " Just to show you my memory's good," I said, 
 " Shut your eyes now! " 
 
 And I reached over, while she shut them, and 
 pushed it on her finger. 
 
 " There," said I, putting it on. " Don't say I 
 never gave you anything!" 
 
 "Bill," said Polly, laughing. " That that 
 isn't the right finger. You've got it on the engage- 
 ment finger." 
 
 " That's all right," I told her. " Any old finger 
 goes with us, don't it, Zet? " 
 
 ' You bet it does, with you, Bill," she said. 
 
 " And if Pasc says anything, I'll go to the mat 
 with him," I told her " right now ! " 
 
 And Pasc grinned.
 
 
 An Anniversary 185 
 
 " Take your hand away, anyway," said Polly, 
 " so she can see it." 
 
 She sat there for a minute, when I did; that fine 
 dark red color of hers mounting up to her cheeks. 
 
 " You've knocked me speechless, Bill," she said, 
 finally, turning it around to look at it. 
 
 " It's the biggest I could find here in town, Zet," 
 I told her. " It's a quarter of a carat more than 
 my ring is." 
 
 " It's a wonder that's what it is," she said, still 
 staring at it. " Bill, you're a peach to me. You 
 always were," she said, flushing up some more. 
 
 " S-sh," I said. " It's all right, but don't let my 
 wife know about it." 
 
 And the rest of us all laughed and got red. 
 
 " She'll never know from me," said Zet, turning 
 and pretending to sit up close to me, where our 
 chairs were together and then looked down at 
 the stone some more. 
 
 " But it was great of you, Bill and her, too," 
 she said, and smiled at Polly. " But you most, of 
 course, Bill," turning back to me. 
 
 " Of course," said I. 
 
 " I certainly love 'em," she said. " I never could 
 get enough of them, especially like that ! Why, I'd 
 kiss a man for less than that, Bill ! " she said, looking 
 up at me, all at once. 
 
 " Go as far as you like," said I. And she 
 did, she kissed me somewhere on the northeast 
 corner of my ear. 
 
 "Here. That'll do!" said Pasc, grinning. 
 
 " That's for remembering," she said to me.
 
 186 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Oh, I don't forget things like that very often," 
 I said. " Not if I know myself." 
 
 "I know you don't," said Zetta. "But here! 
 I'm forgetting something myself," she said; and 
 went over and got it from Pasc. " You can't guess 
 what I've got for you, Bill," she told me. 
 
 " Is it anything like that arrangement you got 
 Polly," I asked her, " with the lace all over it? " 
 
 " No," she said, and pulled out this watch charm 
 a Hoodlum, all made up and cast in gold. 
 
 " Pasc had it made for me, exactly right," she 
 said. " And see that diamond is the head- 
 light!" 
 
 " It's a beaut," said I. " It's a dandy." And I 
 sat looking at it. 
 
 "Do you like it really?" she said, looking 
 over at my chain. " Do you think it's as good as 
 your Elk's emblem? " 
 
 " He'd be silly if he didn't," said Polly. " Those 
 old Elks!" 
 
 " I would, that's right," I said. " I don't know 
 when I've had anything that struck my fancy so." 
 
 I didn't either; it was certainly all right. 
 
 " For all kinds of things," I said. " For a keep- 
 sake, for one thing; or for just the way it's made 
 up; it's a model, ain't it a real model? It's a 
 Hoodlum, just to the T. That's what it is. It's 
 a regular razulah," I said " and don't you for- 
 get it!" 
 
 " I'm glad you think so," said Zet. 
 1 To say nothing of the girl that gave it to me," 
 I told her.
 
 An Anniversary 187 
 
 " Well, we'll have to be going before long, won't 
 we, Zet," said Pasc, finally, " if we're going to get 
 everything ready for starting in the morning." 
 
 And then we drank a toast or two to them 
 when they said they'd got to go. 
 
 " Here's to us," said I. " Here's hoping. All 
 we want and a little more of it! A long life," 
 I said 
 
 " And an amusing one," said Zetta, taking it 
 away from me. " Plenty of amusement," she said, 
 and got up on my chair. 
 
 " Here's one," she said, " for all of us! Here's 
 to the old Hoodlum long may she pop ! " And 
 waved with her handkerchief. 
 
 And after that they went along home. 
 
 ' Take care of yourself good," I heard Polly 
 telling Pasc. " Come back here all rested. Don't 
 let that giddy girl drag you around too much and 
 keep you from your rest." 
 
 " No danger. Don't worry," said Zet, laughing 
 and flashing her teeth. " It's carburetor that ails 
 him. That's what's breaking up our home." 
 
 " Isn't she the wild one, when she once gets 
 started," I said to Polly, talking them over with 
 her, the way you do with your wife, getting ready 
 for bed. 
 
 " Absolutely lawless," said Polly. 
 
 " But just as good-hearted as she can stick." 
 
 ' Yes, she is," said Polly. " But what she wants 
 most is excitement. Crazy all the time for some- 
 thing to do ! " 
 
 " It's funny, too," I said, " with Pasc just the
 
 188 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 other way so especially now he ain't well. I 
 don't know as they ought ever to have married. 
 And yet," I said, thinking, " they seem to think the 
 world of each other, too." 
 
 " They do," said Polly. " That's the worst of 
 it." 
 
 " But if he gets tired of her," I said, " there's 
 plenty that'll have her. She's certainly one good 
 looker. She can come and sit on my knee any time 
 she wants to." 
 
 " Can she ? " said Polly. " We-well, she wouldn't 
 if she had to live with you, and knew how cross 
 and ugly you were to live with these days. I'm not 
 worrying about any woman running off with you 
 especially! All I'm afraid of now is, when you get 
 up so ugly as you do when you don't sleep right 
 lately, you'll go out some morning and b-bite some 
 poor child in the street, and have to pay damages 
 for it." 
 
 " Is that so? " said I, pinching her. 
 
 " Y-yes. And now let's go to sleep, if you intend 
 to get any or let me before you've got to get 
 up and start in on that new factory tomorrow morn- 
 ing. If you don't want to kill yourself, you'll have 
 to get some sleep sometime, especially now! " 
 
 We were just getting the new factory finished 
 that time when Pasc and Zet were starting for the 
 Coast, and getting into it between times trying 
 to without stopping filling our orders. And 
 those were certainly some strenuous days. It was 
 quite a place this new one. Proctor Billings had 
 built it and leased it to us on a piece of land he
 
 An Anniversary 189 
 
 owned along the railroad; on Thomas Avenue, 
 a new street he opened up and named after 
 Pasc. 
 
 I was there all that next day, working my head 
 off, getting things started; and late again at night, 
 going home for supper. And, going out through 
 the shop to my auto, I ran into old Tom Powers, 
 coming in on his job for the night. It seemed kind 
 of funny to see him there after being in the old 
 place so long and I stopped and talked with him 
 a minute about the new plant. 
 
 " How do you like it, Tom," said I. " As far 
 as it's got?" 
 
 " It's a grand place," he said. " You ought to 
 be well satisfied with it." 
 
 " I am," I told him. " It's some different, eh, 
 from the old days when we were starting up in that 
 one floor on Elm Street? " 
 
 " Yes," said Tom. " There's some changes." 
 
 " But it was a good old shack at that, Tom," I 
 said. " You can try as you like, but you can't 
 quite forget the place you started out in." 
 ' You can't, that's right," he answered me. 
 
 And we stopped a second or two. 
 
 " I hear 'em saying," he went along, " Mr. 
 Thomas is out now entirely." 
 
 " Well, no," I said. " He's got his stock here 
 yet, Tom, but he won't be very active here again, 
 probably." 
 
 " Well, he'll have money enough, that's one 
 thing," said Tom. "Where is he now? What'll 
 he be doing? "
 
 190 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " He's gone out West, for his health, to have a 
 little rest." 
 
 " Ah-ha," said Tom, wagging his old skull. " But 
 he won't rest just the same." 
 
 " Why not?" 
 
 " That kind never does," said the old man. " I 
 know. I know myself, from experience. When your 
 mind gets started on a thing." 
 
 " You do, Tom, that's right," said I, looking at 
 him. " You do, don't you? How's your machine? 
 How's the old Miracle coming these days any- 
 how?" 
 
 " Oh, I can't complain," said Tom. " She's com- 
 ing along; I think I can see now the way to get 
 around that one hitch in her." 
 
 " Good," said I, patting him on the back. " Got 
 her moved over into the new place? " I asked him. 
 
 " I have." 
 
 " Well, I guess you're right, Tom," I told him, 
 smiling, and thinking about what Zet had said about 
 Pasc and his carburetor. " You fellows are all 
 about the same. You won't let up until they bury 
 you." 
 
 " That's right, too," said Tom. 
 
 And I told him, in a word or two, what Pasc was 
 trying to do with the carburetor, and the higher 
 speed motor. 
 
 * That's what they're after," said Tom. 
 ' They're going faster and faster," I told him, 
 especially with those aeroplane motors. They heat 
 up so, they can't do anything with them." 
 
 ' You saw in the paper how the Wright boys had
 
 An Anniversary 191 
 
 sold their flying invention to those Frenchmen," 
 said Tom. 
 
 " Yes," said I. 
 
 ' You never thought it would amount to much," 
 he said, reminding me. 
 
 " No," I answered him, " I didn't. Well," I said, 
 "your time will be coming next, Tom with the 
 old Miracle ! " And I slapped him on the back and 
 walked along. 
 
 He stood there, looking down, with his hand by 
 his side, leaner and older, and more like an old 
 skeleton than ever. 
 
 I heard him clearing his throat, and then finally 
 he called after me. 
 
 " Mr. Morgan," he said. 
 
 " Yep." 
 
 " Did you hear about my boy? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " He just had a bad accident in one of them 
 racing Bowls."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 AN EARLY CREDITOR 
 
 " Yes, I did ! " I said. " I lied. I did hear about 
 that. Certainly I did! " 
 
 I had. But I'd been so busy that time that it had 
 just passed out of my mind. I'd heard it a night or 
 two before, stopping at the garage for gas over- 
 hearing some of those bottle-shaped boys hanging 
 around there, talking about it. 
 
 " How did it happen? " I asked one of them. 
 
 " That Shang Murphy," he told me, stopping 
 chewing gum a minute. " He'd been laying for him 
 for two years, you might say." 
 
 " I thought they were both riding on the same 
 team for the Rajah people." 
 
 " They were," he said. " But not lately. That 
 Shang got a bad spill a while ago, and they never 
 took him back on again, so lately he'd been riding 
 independent, on the outside." 
 
 And stopped, the way they do, not talking to 
 you, till you make them go on. 
 
 " He was sore," he told me finally " at Chuck, 
 especially. He thought he got him off the team 
 and swiped his place as their principal rider. So he 
 had it in for him. He always did have, at that, ever 
 since that first race Chuck beat him, riding for you." 
 
 "So that's it, huh?" I said. 
 
 He would know, of course, that's all they talk
 
 An Early Creditor 193 
 
 about, those wise boys in front of the garages 
 the women going by and how fast they can run a car 
 or a motor cycle. And more so, naturally, in a town 
 where the factory is. 
 
 " Is that so? " said I. " How bad was Powers 
 hurt?" 
 
 " They say it's his right hand," he told me. " A 
 wheel got it." 
 
 " I God," I said. " That's getting to be an 
 awful game, those Bowls, with the speeds they're 
 making now. They ought to do something to stop 
 it." 
 
 It all came back to me, of course what I'd 
 heard about it when old Tom spoke to me. I 
 told him so. 
 
 " How's he coming out? " I asked him. 
 
 " Well, he won't race any more, probably," he 
 told me. " Anyhow, that's what they said at the 
 hospital." 
 
 " I understand it's his right hand," I said, " like 
 yours." 
 
 " Not so bad," he said. " But smashed up quite a 
 lot, too. I don't know just how much but so he 
 won't have the strength in it to race on one of those 
 domned things again." 
 
 " How about working at a trade, in a shop? " 
 
 " They tell me he can do it, after awhile." 
 
 " You ought to be glad, then," I said, " if it'll 
 get him into something regular, out of that devilish 
 racing." 
 
 " I am," said Old Tom. " But his mother is 
 most! "
 
 194 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " What's he going to do? " I asked him. 
 
 " That's what I was going to ask you about," said 
 Tom, standing over on his other foot. " His mother 
 wanted me to ask you if he couldn't come around and 
 see you after he gets out of the hospital." 
 
 " Sure," said I. " Send him around. If I've got 
 anything I can give him, he'll get it. I got him into 
 the thing; I ought to be willing to help to get him 
 out. 
 
 "How's he turned out?" I asked the old man. 
 " What kind of a boy's he been? " 
 
 " He'd been better off if he'd not seen this racing 
 game," he told me. " It's not been extra good for 
 him. He's seen too much of the high life. And 
 got too much for doing nothing the way I see 
 it." 
 
 !< Well, maybe he'll steady up now," said I. 
 " And it might be just the thing to start him in the 
 shop like the rest of us did. That mightn't be a bad 
 idea, might it? " 
 
 " No, sir," said Tom. " I wish you'd get him to 
 do it." 
 
 " Send him around, anyhow when he's ready," 
 said I. " I'm pretty busy myself, now, but the first 
 minute I can, I'll see him." 
 
 I was still out to do what I could for him. And I 
 felt that way when he got out of the hospital and 
 came around to see me in my new office. 
 
 ' They said you wanted to see me," he started out, 
 coming in, dressed up very slick, and sitting down, 
 looking at me. 
 
 I didn't take much of a fancy to him, or the way
 
 An Early Creditor 195 
 
 he went at it. ' Well, yes," I said, passing it over. 
 " How are you? " 
 
 11 Oh, I'm all right" 
 
 " Just where did you hurt yourself? " 
 
 " I got it where the old man did," he told me. 
 11 The right hand." 
 
 " How is it good enough to go to work yet? " 
 
 ' That depends," said he, looking up at me and 
 down again. " What work? " 
 
 I didn't care for his cut much, any more. He 
 was a good looking boy on the surface too 
 much so. And dressed up, like a clothing ad. He 
 looked too good to me. A good looking boy with a 
 bad eye. One of those wise ones you see roosting 
 around in front of the garages dressed up, paring 
 their nails, and goggling at the servant girls. Look- 
 ing down when you go by, and looking up and staring 
 at your back when you're gone. Hating everybody 
 that's got a dollar, on general principles, and trying 
 to figure out how they can get a few dollars of easy 
 money themselves without getting their fingers dirty. 
 I know the breed, better than they know themselves. 
 Seeing other people with money close to, all the 
 time, makes them all the time dissatisfied. 
 
 I didn't care much for the way he acted, but I told 
 him what I could do for him in the shop. I was 
 going to give him that as I told his father. And 
 then, if he made good, I would push him along. 
 
 But I could see right away it didn't suit him. 
 
 "You haven't got an agency, somewhere?" he 
 asked me, looking up. He kept his eyes down 
 mostly, but when he wanted to, he looked up and
 
 196 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 looked at you with this hard expression, afraid of 
 nothing on God's earth. 
 
 " No. Not this minute," I came back, getting a 
 little sore at his nerve, asking it; but still holding on 
 to myself. " But what's the matter with your start- 
 ing here in the shop the way the rest of us had to ? 
 Would your hand prevent you ? " 
 
 " I don't know whether it would or not. It 
 might. How much is there in it? " he said, looking 
 up again. 
 
 And I told him. 
 
 "Ah-hah," he said. "Well, I guess that ain't 
 my line. I could make more than that as a chauf- 
 feur, if I had to." And he got up and brushed some 
 imaginary dust off his tailormade clothes. 
 
 4 You're pretty particular, ain't you? " said I, get- 
 ting hot under the collar, finally. 
 
 " What I thought you were going to offer me," he 
 said, not turning a hair, " was an agency. That's 
 more my line." 
 
 I was, as a matter of fact, later, when I had one 
 if he worked out all right. But I wouldn't say so to 
 him. 
 
 " If I wanted to," I said, still holding myself down 
 all I was able, " I couldn't very well give you one till 
 I had one vacant! " 
 
 " I can wait," he said, staring up again. 
 
 ; ' Well, you'll wait a damned long time," I said, 
 letting loose a little, " if you turn this job down now, 
 before you'll get another job from us." 
 
 ' There are other places on earth," he said, and 
 started to move off " at that."
 
 An Early Creditor 197 
 
 " You got that right," said I. " There's no law 
 to compel you to come here or us to hire you 
 either!" 
 
 u Let me ask you something," he said to me, turn- 
 ing back a minute " for a change! " 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " Are you the man," he asked me then, staring 
 with that damned insolent, ugly look in his eyes 
 " are you the man that always talked so loud about 
 paying his debts to his friends and his enemies? " 
 
 " I generally manage to," I said, still holding back 
 all I could. "Why?" 
 
 " Oh, nothing," he said. " I just wanted to hear 
 you say it again. That's all." 
 
 " I'll say it again, all right," I said to him, " as 
 many times as you want. You may find it out yet 
 too. I pay my debts to my friends and my enemies ! 
 But paying up my friends don't include handing over 
 easy money to cheap young cigarette bearers and 
 clothing advertisements to sun their shapes around 
 on the corners, when they ought to be at work like 
 the rest of the folks." 
 
 " Yeh," he said. " You're like all the rest of 
 them. When they've got a couple of hundred thou- 
 sand, they always get the idea they were the ones that 
 taught God how to turn on the sun. 
 
 " Easy money," he said, looking at me, with a 
 nasty smile on his face. "God! I suppose you 
 think you got a patent on it." 
 
 ' That'll do for you," said I. " For some time. 
 If you hadn't been so cocky, I had it all fixed up for 
 something good for you. But no, that wouldn't do
 
 198 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 you. You couldn't soil your hands in a machine 
 shop not for a minute. You're the wise boy, out 
 for easy money. You know the patent, that's a sure 
 thing. You know just how it's done like all the 
 rest of your kind that breed around gasoline the last 
 ten years, like mosquito wrigglers in old rain water. 
 But that lets me out. You're all right; you know so 
 much about easy money, you can get all you want 
 yourself. You don't have to come around here 
 again, asking me for any of it. All you have to do 
 is to go out and pick it up for yourself." 
 
 " Don't worry," he said, throwing me another 
 ugly look. And then he went along out. 
 
 I didn't think much about him again till Pasc and 
 his wife came back in the spring from California. I 
 used to see him sometimes, hanging around the 
 garage, but we didn't look at each other. He was 
 around there looking and criticizing and keeping 
 his mouth shut, and dressed up regardless; playing 
 the hero to the rest of those bottle-shaped boys, and 
 every fool cheap girl in town who had money enough 
 to buy a pair of long white shoes. 
 
 I was out in Chicago in the spring, looking over 
 the agency, when Pasc and Zetta were coming back, 
 and got on to my sleeper in the Chicago station. 
 
 ' Why, hello," said somebody back of me. 
 " Look who's here ! " And there was Zetta in a 
 big yellow hat, and a kind of yellow and black gown 
 dressed up to kill, coming back from those south- 
 ern California hotels. 
 
 " Hello, where did you come from? " said I; and 
 grabbed both her hands, when she held them out to
 
 An Early Creditor 199 
 
 me. And nearly shook Pasc's arm off when he came 
 back in. And we three visited all the evening, until 
 the porter wanted to make up the berths. 
 
 " Well, Pasc," I said, sitting down with them. " I 
 believe you're looking better." 
 
 " He is," said Zetta. " I'm the one that's all 
 done up. I'm coming home to see if I can get over 
 this trip." 
 
 " You don't look tired to me," I said. 
 " You're looking slick." 
 
 ' Tired, no ! I'm coming home for some excite- 
 ment." 
 
 " Excitement " I said, watching her, " after 
 traveling all over the world ! " 
 
 " Excitement," she said. " Yep, and a divorce! " 
 
 "A divorce, eh?" 
 
 ' Yep, Bill," she said. " I'm a wronged and de- 
 serted wife." 
 
 And Pasc grinned one of those still old grins again. 
 
 " Pasc," I said. " I wouldn't have thought it of 
 you." 
 
 " Yes," said Zetta, rattling on. " I've got the 
 co-respondent all picked out. You've heard about 
 these stenographers," she said, " and these wicked 
 business men. Well, I've got a new one. I'm go- 
 ing to name his carburetor. 
 
 " And I'll get my divorce, all right, too. Any 
 judge will give it to me that hears my story once." 
 
 Pasc grinned again, when she was saying it, but a 
 little sheepish; and her voice sounded just a little 
 sharp and jangly. You could see there was some 
 sore spot in back of that fooling.
 
 200 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I'll tell it to you, Bill," she said, " so you can see 
 it for yourself. For six months," she went along, 
 " I've been in this humiliating thing traveling 
 along all over with him and his carburetor. It 
 started in at Yellowstone Park. 
 
 " Honest," she said. " And I leave it to him to 
 say I'm right. He stayed inside the hotel prac- 
 tically all the time we were there in the Park. He 
 couldn't tell you now whether El Capitan was a 
 name of a saloon or a hot spring." 
 
 " I just happened to have an idea come to me, as 
 I got there," said Pasc to me, looking foolish again. 
 
 ; ' What'd you do, in the meanwhile?" I asked 
 his wife, laughing. 
 
 "Do! What could I do? I let him alone, 
 finally, with his carburetor. And I found the best 
 looking guide I could, and went out riding with him, 
 all over. I had the finest horse ! " she said, looking 
 up. " That was the one thing for me, in the whole 
 trip. I haven't had so much fun since I was a kid. 
 
 " But honest," she said, " you don't know what 
 it is, Bill, traveling alone for months with a man 
 who can't see anything day and night, but a little 
 brass carburetor in back of his eyes somewhere." 
 
 "Didn't you get acquainted at the hotels?" I 
 asked her. 
 
 " A lot of stall-fed women," she said, " sitting on 
 the piazzas. And a bunch of old knee-sprung men, 
 so worn out and feeble their legs knock together 
 when they were dancing. No life left in them 
 or they wouldn't be there. Just like all these pleas- 
 ure hotels they're all alike as far as I can see
 
 An Early Creditor 201 
 
 a combination of old folks' home and nursery. 
 
 " But I did learn the new dances," she said. 
 "That's one thing!" 
 
 "Did you teach them to Pasc?" I asked her, 
 laughing. 
 
 " No," she said. " He only dances with his car- 
 buretor! " And laughed a kind of harsh, flat laugh 
 again. 
 
 " And of course," she said, " nobody danced much 
 with me either. Why would they? If a woman 
 can't get her husband to pay her any attention, it's 
 not much of an advertisement for her." 
 
 ' You had enough attention, I should say, from 
 different ones, to satisfy most any woman," said 
 Pasc. 
 
 " There's one other thing," she said, " I did get 
 out of my trip. I learned to drive a car. There 
 was a young fellow at the hotel with a runabout that 
 showed me how. And I'm going right home, and 
 I'm going to buy the fastest one they make. There's 
 nothing like it. You can take off your hat, and put 
 down the wind shield and go ! There's nothing 
 like it; you can forget everything else in the world 
 just go! " 
 
 I had to smile at her and Pasc with me 
 watching her eyes flash all of a sudden. 
 
 1 You'll have to look out for her, Pasc," I said; 
 " she's got the speed bug! " 
 
 " She has. Bad," he told me. 
 
 And after that speaking of driving we got 
 talking about that Chuck Powers. They'd heard 
 about that accident of his when they were out in Los
 
 202 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 Angeles. It was getting to be a center for motor 
 cycle racing about that time. 
 
 " Wasn't it a shame," said Zetta. " An awful 
 thing ! Just think of it. They say he was the best 
 motor cycle rider on the track in this country, if 
 not in the whole world. And that means he went 
 the fastest drove the fastest thing in the world, 
 faster than anybody has ever gone, except maybe 
 that Englishman! Think of the nerve it took, and 
 courage! Think of the excitement of doing it! 
 And now he's got to stop, entirely. Just that young 
 fellow!" 
 
 " Well," I said, " it looks to me worse than that. 
 It looks to me as if it had spoiled him entirely for 
 doing anything else." 
 
 And I told them about my experience with them. 
 
 " But why didn't you do it? " Zetta said to me 
 right away, when I told her how he'd held me up 
 and what he wanted. " Why didn't you give him an 
 agency, if he wanted it? " 
 
 " How could I," I came back at her, " when there 
 wasn't any vacancy? " 
 
 ; ' Why didn't you make a vacancy, thea? " 
 
 " And throw another man out? " 
 
 " Sure. I would," she said. 
 
 " You would, I believe," I told her. " There's a 
 woman's idea of business," I said to Pasc, a little 
 miffed. 
 
 " Sure I would. If I owed anybody what we owe 
 to him," said Zetta. 
 
 ' Well, if you want to know," I said, getting a 
 little huffy, " I'd have had something better for him
 
 An Early Creditor 203 
 
 before he got through, if he hadn't been quite so 
 cocky about it. 
 
 " But since then," I said, defending myself, " I've 
 been just as well pleased that I didn't do any differ- 
 ent than I did. I had him looked up afterwards 
 and I don't want him. I wouldn't have him at any 
 price, around handling agency funds." 
 
 " Why not? " Zetta wanted to know. 
 
 "Too much high life that racing life was too 
 much for him. I found that out later." 
 
 " But he couldn't drink," said Zetta, " a rider, at 
 those speeds." 
 
 " No, that wasn't it." 
 
 " What was it then? " she came back. 
 
 " The women, if you want to know! " I told her. 
 
 " Well," she said, thinking, " he was a handsome 
 boy." 
 
 "Too darned handsome," I said. "And too 
 much of a regular devil." 
 
 " I don't believe it, anyhow ! " she said to me all 
 at once. 
 
 " Believe it or not; that's his reputation ! And all 
 the money he's got has gone somewhere, that's sure. 
 He's standing around there now, in his nifty clothes, 
 without a cent left too swell-headed to take any 
 ordinary job, and his old mother feeding him at 
 home. Aw, they make me sick, this young crowd 
 that's coming up around our business, looking for 
 easy money." 
 
 And the porter came around about that time, and 
 routed us out, and we dropped it. Zet went in to get 
 ready for the night; and Pasc and I went out and sat
 
 204 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 up till one o'clock in the smoking room and talked 
 business. 
 
 " What is it you've been fussing over? " I asked 
 him. " Is she right? Have you got some new 
 wrinkle on the carburetor? " 
 
 " Not yet," he said. " I'm working over it. I've 
 got a good idea, but it don't seem to work out yet." 
 
 " You'll get it," I told him. " I bet on you." 
 
 " I hope so," he said. " It's wearing me thin 
 again, running me." 
 
 " Why don't you ever drop it, and go at it fresh 
 sometime," I said to him " after you've rested." 
 
 " I wish I could," he said. " But I ain't done so 
 bad this time, all together! " And then asked me 
 how Billings and I were getting on in the business. 
 
 "Oh, all right, I guess," I told him. "Yes 
 we're making a lot of money. But it ain't like the 
 old days, Pasc, when you and I were there." 
 
 " I think he generally means to do the fair busi- 
 ness thing, in his way," said Pasc. 
 
 " Well, maybe," I told him. " Maybe that's the 
 way they have to be when they're trained the way 
 he's been. But try my damndest, I can't like him. 
 Down at the bottom of my heart, I don't ever trust 
 him. I'm afraid of him. He's always sitting there 
 cooking up something. Some new sleight of hand 
 to pull your money out of his sleeve. 
 
 " It's different entirely," I told Pasc, " from the 
 old days. We're only together Billings and I 
 hunting dollars, that's all. It's dog eat dog. He 
 knows it, and I know it. And that's all there is to 
 it!"
 
 An Early Creditor 205 
 
 And then I went on and told him about that rear- 
 rangement of the stock we were working out then 
 that I was worrying and puzzling over about that 
 time.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Proctor Billings had called me around to the bank 
 about a month before that. 
 
 " I believe," he said, sitting there, " the time is 
 about right for refinancing." 
 
 He had a new style now; he smoked all his 
 cigarettes in a holder, sticking out about a foot from 
 his face. He couldn't stand it to touch a bare ciga- 
 rette with his lips any longer. And beside him on 
 his desk always, he had the fresh flowers from his 
 conservatory. All elegance and la-de-da and lovely 
 cut flowers on the outside; and inside, about a half 
 an inch, colder and harder than the ice that's been 
 piling up at the North Pole for the last five million 
 years. I had to smile to myself, watching him. 
 
 " I believe," he said, in that nice particular way he 
 had when he was pleased with the way things were 
 going, " I believe we could begin to start to move 
 towards some more permanent basis of capitalization 
 than we are on now. It would be better for both of 
 us. I could get rid of the burden of the financing; 
 and you," he said, with his carefully measured smile, 
 " could get out finally from under this control of the 
 company I've had while I'm furnishing the money." 
 
 " I could stand that too," I told him. 
 
 " I imagined so," he said. " And I could stand
 
 A Little Something on the Side 207 
 
 myself getting some of my money back, and getting 
 my own credit straightened out. Money's pretty 
 easy," said Billings, explaining. " And they've been 
 putting out quite a variety of automobile stock with 
 more or less success. A good many of them with not 
 such good prospects, or earning so much as ours! 
 There's something like a little boom in that line of 
 stock; and for my part, I'm in favor of taking ad- 
 vantage of it to start in the direction of turning this 
 thing of ours into a little money." 
 
 " Cash in, eh? " I told him. " Well, you've got 
 me with you there. Go the limit. Go after itl " 
 
 ' You mean that? " he said. 
 
 " You bet I do," I answered him. 
 
 And then he told me his idea. 
 
 " I believe," he said, " the only way to do with a 
 thing like this is go straight to New York and do it 
 right in the beginning, with the really big people. 
 
 " You can go up to Hartford, of course, or any 
 smaller place. But their market for securities is only 
 small and local; they'd have to go to New York 
 themselves anyhow. And my idea has always been 
 to go yourself to New York right down to the big 
 banks yourself. The only danger is," he said, 
 "they're so big! " 
 
 " Ah-ha," I said, and shut up. I wasn't showing 
 my hand much. That Wall Street game was some- 
 thing new and strange to me, but naturally I wasn't 
 telling him so. 
 
 ' They're big," he said, " and they're sharp. 
 And a thing like this is only a mouthful for them. 
 They might eat us right up, if you don't look out for
 
 208 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 them. But on the other hand, they've got the 
 machinery to take care of you simply and easily. 
 And you've got to go to them anyhow, probably; if 
 you don't the smaller people will, very likely. The 
 best thing, I always thought, was to go right to them 
 in the first place yourself. There's no more 
 danger." 
 
 "Go ahead," I said; "if they don't scare you, 
 they don't me." 
 
 I had been watching that banking business some 
 myself there in his bank. Billings had just made 
 me a director there. He ought to; we were the 
 second largest business in it. But while I was 
 around the place, I kept my eyeballs busy watching 
 him and those other fellows with capital he had with 
 him operate it poking around, grabbing off the 
 cream of everything around town. I had a little 
 thing myself by this time, that I had an idea I would 
 have a try at along that line. I was working on it 
 when Billings went down to see those New Yorkers. 
 I didn't know how I was going to do it, but there 
 is nothing like trying, to get your hand in. 
 
 " How'd you come out with him? " I asked Bil- 
 lings, when he came back from New York. 
 
 " I rather think they'll take it up," he told me, " on 
 some sort of an issue of preferred stock." 
 
 " Good business," I said, thinking first of getting 
 the company out once on its own feet, free of that 
 control of his over it for furnishing the money. 
 Tickled to death of being my own man finally, and 
 getting the chance at the same time to cash in on 
 my stock. I thought then, too, I might maybe get
 
 A Little Something on the Side 209 
 
 this little thing I was thinking of into the new deal 
 somehow, if I could work it. And cash in a little 
 something on the side. 
 
 " Fine business," I said to Billings, feeling pretty 
 pleased over what he was doing, but knowing I'd got 
 to watch him, just the same. ' That's the stuff," I 
 said, slapping him on the back. " Go after it, boy." 
 
 He didn't know what to do with himself when I 
 did anything like that. It made him jump all over. 
 I did it half for deviltry. What did I care? I 
 wasn't afraid of him now. I knew he'd have to put 
 up with it, anyhow, as long as we were making good 
 so. 
 
 So then I went to work on that little deal of mine, 
 right away, seeing what I could do with it. 
 
 There was this little old shop that had made 
 spokes for us way back in the old bicycle business, 
 and had kept right along with us, selling the stuff ever 
 since. I'd been watching it for some time. I 
 thought I could get a hold of it at first, and see if I 
 couldn't make a dollar out of it myself. But now I 
 thought: "Here's a chance to get it and work it 
 into this new concern of ours, if it goes through 
 as a side issue in this new stock deal." So I tackled 
 it between times at luncheon mostly. 
 
 I used to see young Allen, who had the old place 
 with his father, when he was in at Lembach's, 
 where a good many of us used to go at noon on ac- 
 count of their cooking that good old substantial 
 German cooking there, and their beer. They had 
 the best Wurtzburger in town. I met young Allen 
 there, and at the Elks' rooms, when we both hap-
 
 210 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 pened to be in there together. And I got him to 
 talking now and then. I knew his old man, who 
 really owned the place, was getting through pretty 
 quick kind of old and not very well. And I 
 knew as well as I wanted to that Charley, the son, 
 would just as soon get loose for once in his life, and 
 get out of overalls, and drive an auto around, and 
 see what the world looked like on the other side of 
 those grimy old machine-shop windows, from seven 
 A. M. to six p. M. So finally I worked an option out 
 of them. Then I went to Billings. 
 
 When I told him about it, he was a lot easier than 
 I thought he would be. I thought maybe he'd want 
 to be let in on it himself. But there was nothing like 
 that came out at all, when I brought it up. He let 
 me go on and explain it all out. 
 
 " Can it be worked? " I said. " Do you suppose 
 I can fix it to bring it in on that new deal. It would 
 be a good thing, all right, for the company." 
 
 " I wouldn't be surprised at all," he said. 
 " Especially," he went on, watching his cigarette, 
 " as I shall have something of the same kind to 
 offer." 
 
 "Which? "I said. 
 
 " Bringing in my factory some way into the thing." 
 
 " Giving up the lease, and buying it in for the com- 
 pany? " 
 
 " That's it," he said. 
 
 "Why not?" said I, thinking. "Certainly. 
 One hand washes the other. We'll bring the both 
 of them in on this preferred stock thing. And 
 both of us make a legitimate dollar on it. All
 
 A Little Something on the Side 211 
 
 right," I said. "You go ahead, will you? See 
 what you can do I " 
 
 I knew then, of course, I'd have to keep my eyes 
 peeled with him, and this New York crowd too. 
 
 And so he went down and talked it over with 
 these New Yorkers and come back and told me what 
 he thought he could do. And we worked some more 
 on it together. 
 
 They were going to put out seven hundred thou- 
 sand dollars more preferred stock, besides what Pasc 
 Thomas had, making a million in all. There was 
 two hundred thousand dollars of the old preferred 
 stock in the treasury; and they would issue five hun- 
 dred thousand new. Of course, this wouldn't have 
 any voting power in the corporation. It left that 
 just where it was in the common stock. The main 
 issue, of course, between Billings and me to settle 
 was the price of our two new things in it. 
 
 We finally agreed that he would have one hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars of the seven hundred thou- 
 sand dollars of new preferred for his factory; and 
 I'd get a hundred and twenty-five thousand for my 
 thing. That worked us out a good fair profit. 
 Then the rest of the preferred that didn't go as 
 commission to the New Yorkers would clear up 
 our debts, give us money for our finances, and set 
 us free finally out of Billings's control. 
 
 That's what made me stick up my head in the air 
 and snort the idea of being free again; more, a 
 hundred times, of course, than the little twenty-five 
 or thirty thousand dollars I was expecting to clear 
 on that other thing. I was feeling pretty good about
 
 212 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 that time sitting watching that New York crowd 
 shuffle the cards and put the deal through. Watch- 
 ing when I could that machine of theirs at work. 
 
 " We're all out after it," I was telling some of the 
 ,boys in the train I had over to Lembach's at lunch. 
 " They can tell you something else. But that's 
 what we've all got on our minds nowadays. Easy 
 money quick ! All of us, from your slick crooked 
 chauffeur, lolling, waiting for the women shopping, 
 at the edge of a sidewalk, to the head of a trust in 
 his mahogany chair. 
 
 " But we're the dubs," I was saying to them. 
 ' You and I. These bankers are the boys ! We 
 get up before the dew stops falling, and hustle and 
 sweat and get covered with oil and grease till the 
 stars come out. And they drop down at ten A. M. 
 in a limousine and sit there, and smoke their ciga- 
 rettes and watch us ; and figure how they're going to 
 take away what we've got and turn it into money 
 for themselves. Talk about your modern machin- 
 ery," I said. "They've got the machine for you! 
 A regular machine for manufacturing money. They 
 don't have to make or sell anything to get it. They 
 just make their money direct. 
 
 " I've been watching," I told them, " for the last 
 year or two in this town. And I know something 
 about them about their machine, and how they 
 work it. And it's a beaut! Take it from your 
 Uncle Bill. They've got their eyes out everywhere 
 in this town; nothing gets by them. They've got a 
 regular system of watching, through the banks and 
 each other ; they know everything that comes up and
 
 A Little Something on the Side 213 
 
 looks good in town. And when it gets ripe, they're 
 there to pick it on the dot. They step right up, 
 some way, and declare themselves in." 
 
 " I guess there's something in that," said this fel- 
 low that was with me old Piggy Briggs. 
 
 " You bet your life there is," I told him. " You 
 know it as well as I do. I used to think it was 
 something pretty soft some pretty big money ! " 
 
 " It might strike some of the rest of us that way, 
 right now," said this other man this other fellow 
 that was with us. 
 
 " Pretty fair," I said, " at that, for ordinary folks. 
 But I've got a look in, lately, on a new thing 
 something that makes these fellows here look like 
 thirty cents in the Waldorf Astoria. I've got a 
 squint on these million dollar boys from New York 
 these Wall Street bankers." 
 
 " Tell us about them, quick," said Briggsy. 
 
 " You know as much as I do, probably," I said 
 to them " up-to-date. We all know about the 
 same. Only this " I said. " I know this. I 
 know they've got a machine stretching all over this 
 country, that makes this thing here look like nothing. 
 
 " You know what you've got to run up against in 
 business, getting money," I told them " always. 
 Well, I used to think at first it was just myself, not 
 getting in right to get them to lend me money just 
 what you'd got to expect to run against naturally in 
 any town, where they have a big strong bank. But, 
 oh, no, it's nothing like that! I got a look into i: 
 lately, working up a little stock deal. This thing 
 here in town is nothing but one little cog in a wheel.
 
 214 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 They're all meshed in together, all over the country, 
 in this big machine this money machine these fel- 
 lows are running for themselves down in New York. 
 You talk about coining money ! These fellows make 
 a million dollars every time we pick up ten. You 
 ought to watch them for a while. Oh, mama ! 
 Oh, what a graft ! What a machine they have got ! 
 They've got the whole country watched that way, 
 like Billings and his gang watch this town 
 through their banks and agents and one thing and 
 another. They all have to come and bring their 
 stuff to them sooner or later, from all over; to have 
 it turned into dollars. These fellows own the only 
 machine for it. All they have to do is watch, and 
 hold us all up and collect their pay three million 
 dollars apiece every afternoon at three o'clock. 
 
 " Oh, I've watched them a little here locally, 
 boys," I said. " I'm nobody's damn fool if I do 
 look it. I've watched them in operation. And be- 
 lieve me, one of these days I'm going to get my hand 
 in on that; I'm going to have some of that easy 
 money myself." 
 
 " Easy money! " said somebody, laughing, " easy 
 money! What do you know about that? Bill 
 Morgan moaning about easy money? The only 
 case on record in the United States of a man who 
 sprained his back picking up money out of the road. 
 It's in all the medical papers." 
 
 And they all began laughing 
 
 " Laugh, if you want to," said I. " You wouldn't 
 laugh so much, if you had to get up in the morning, 
 and follow me around doing my day's work. You'd
 
 A Little Something on the Side 215 
 
 be wind-broken. Every one of you fat-handed, 
 hotel-fed loafers. But after this you hear me 
 I'm going to let up a little and make my money 
 easier. I'm going to get in on this other game now 
 and then. I've got a little deal on now," I told 
 them, " just a little starter, that looks good for just a 
 little bit of money." 
 
 " I'll bet it's a million dollars, or the old boy 
 wouldn't stoop over to pick it up," said this man who 
 was jollying me, and they all laughed again, down to 
 old Hansie, the waiter. 
 
 " Laugh, if you want to," I told them. " Go on. 
 I might have my million some day at that. But 
 whether I do or not, I'm going to take a crack at this 
 game these still-faced bank boys are doing. It's the 
 biggest thing in the country, and I'm going to learn 
 it and get in on it. 
 
 " I ain't afraid of them," I said, u nor to match 
 myself against them. None of us at this table need 
 to be, if we ever got anywhere near an even break 
 with them. Did you ever see them? " I asked this 
 man. " Did you ever know one of these still-faced 
 fellows in that sort of thing, personally? " 
 
 " I don't know as I have," he told me " very 
 well." 
 
 " A queer breed of cats," I said, seeing Proctor 
 Billings when I said it. " Still-faced dudes, la-de-da 
 boys, all of them. They'd die, every one of them, 
 on the spot, if they saw Charley Briggs here, that 
 time he was stewed in Chicago, eating his pie with his 
 knife." 
 
 ' You lie, I never did! " said Charley.
 
 216 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Not a regular man in the whole bunch of them," 
 I went along, paying no attention to him. " Not a 
 one of them that ever got out in a sand lot with the 
 other boys and played a game of ball when they were 
 kids. They catch them early," I said, " on account 
 of their fine complexions; and long white fingers." 
 
 " Like professional gamblers ! " said Charley. 
 
 " Sure," said I, " same thing! And then they put 
 them inside these banks, and train them for years to 
 keep their faces still doing a murder ! To put 
 over some new deal, without turning an eyelash. 
 Oh, you've got to watch them," I said, " every minute 
 of the day, and have a night watchman on them 
 nights." 
 
 And then I got up. 
 
 " I'm liable to have to see one this afternoon," I 
 said. And they all laughed. They knew what I 
 meant, of course. And I went out over and saw 
 Billings at his bank. 
 
 I was feeling pretty strong naturally; right up in 
 G with things moving the way they were. I had 
 been, ever since I'd seen I was going to get out from 
 that old stock-voting control of Billings', especially; 
 ever since I'd seen I was going to be my own man 
 again, when this financing was done. 
 
 " He was just telephoning to you, I think, Mr. 
 Morgan," said Billings' secretary, when I got there. 
 He was extra polite even for him, it seemed to me. 
 
 And then I went on through that private recep- 
 tion room, with the polished woodwork and the little 
 pictures of sheep on the wall. I had to smile when I 
 remembered that other time I was sitting there and
 
 A Little Something on the Side 217 
 
 rl ' "I 
 
 waiting, shivering in my boots. And I went along 
 into Billings' office and tapped once and walked in, 
 smoking my cigar. 
 
 " Well," I said, sitting down, " how's she coming? 
 What do you hear from our friends in New York? " 
 
 And he handed me out then their last plan, as 
 they'd finished it. He didn't say anything. He sat 
 still and let me read it. 
 
 " This is just the same, ain't it? " said I. " The 
 preferred stock? " 
 
 " Exactly," he said. 
 
 "But what's this?" I said, turning the page. 
 " Here, this is a new one ! " 
 
 " That's their addition," said Proctor Billings. 
 " That's a change they have insisted on." 
 
 " Insisted on," said I. " What is it? " 
 
 " At the last minute," he said, " they decided that 
 to put it through, they would have to have that two 
 hundred thousand dollars of common stock in the 
 treasury, to give out as a bonus to their customers 
 two to every seven of preferred." 
 
 " They've got some nerve ! " said I. 
 
 " Well, that's what they ask," said Billings, and 
 closed up again. 
 
 "I don't like it, much not much!" said I, 
 studying. " If you ask me. And I'll " 
 
 u I know," he said. " But, of course, you get 
 your share of it with your preferred in this new 
 deal." 
 
 ' Yes," I said, studying some more. " And so 
 do you. And look here," I said, for it struck me 
 then, naturally, right in the eyes. " Look here," I
 
 218 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 said. " What's this? You must think I'm a wise 
 boy. Oh, no!" I said. "No. No! Nothing 
 like this ! You can't slip anything like that over on 
 me! 
 
 " I God," I said, " that's certainly a raw one, even 
 for a bank man. I suppose," I said, " you thought 
 I wouldn't see the little joker in that." 
 
 " I had nothing to do with it whatever," he said, 
 getting white and still, and extra polite. " It was 
 all done in New York." 
 
 But I didn't pay any attention to him. I was 
 crazy. 
 
 " Oh, no," I said. " Nothing like that. I'll bust 
 it all up first and wipe it out all together. 
 
 " I like this," I said, getting madder and madder. 
 " Here I am, planning especially to get out from 
 under your control of the company. We agree that 
 I'm going to be my own man for once just as much 
 in the concern as you are. No more or no less. 
 And now you spring this on me the last minute. 
 When this goes through, according to the price you 
 set on your building and what I get for mine on this 
 other thing, you'll have more common stock than I 
 will. You'll have control of the company forever! " 
 
 " I told you once," he said, getting whiter, and 
 lowering his voice way down, " I had nothing to do 
 with the arrangement of the thing." 
 
 " Ah-ha," I said. " I heard you. But it hands 
 you the control just the same, don't it whoever 
 put it over. It does, don't it? " I said, facing him 
 with it. 
 
 " No," he said, cooler than ever, getting whiter
 
 A Little Something on the Side 219 
 
 and colder as usual, when he got mad and 
 politer than polite. 
 
 " No ! " he said. " And now, if you will kindly 
 stop charging around like a wild animal, I shall be 
 very glad to discuss it with you. If you act like an 
 intelligent man." 
 
 " You tell me first," said I. " Don't this give you 
 more preferred stock than I've got? Don't that 
 give you absolute control? " 
 
 " Sit down," he said, those polished steel eyes on 
 me. ' That's what I'm trying to talk to you about 
 if you'll let me!"
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 MUTUAL PROTECTION 
 
 " The first thing I'd like to ask you," he said, look- 
 ing at me, " if you don't mind, is just what your 
 attitude to this business is? " 
 
 " What do you mean by that," I came back at him. 
 
 " I mean what are you in it for, now, princi- 
 pally?" 
 
 " That's a weird question to ask a man," said I. 
 
 " I mean it," he said. " I would like to know." 
 
 " What am I in it for? " I said, staring at him. 
 " What would I be in it for? What is any man in 
 business for his health? I'm in it for what any- 
 body else is, I suppose ; for the good old stuff the 
 spondulax the iron man. I'm in it for just what 
 you are what you get out of it ! " 
 
 "Then you'd sell, if you got your price?" he 
 asked me, in that level voice, arranging a cigarette 
 in his long holder. 
 
 " Certainly I would, if I got my price, wouldn't 
 you?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," he said, lighting up his cigarette. 
 " Oh, yes, that's what I'm in here for admittedly 
 to make money pure and simple. To get in, and get 
 out, when I see a profit. But I always thought you 
 might take a different view of it." 
 
 "Different," I said. "How?"
 
 Mutual Protection 221 
 
 " I've always thought," he said, " you might have 
 some sentiment about selling out." 
 
 "Mel" I said. "Sentiment! Well, that's a 
 new one. That's the first time anybody ever called 
 me sentimental yet." 
 
 And I stopped and laughed. I had to. ' Well, 
 I guess not; not if anybody came along once with my 
 price," I said, " he'd get my share here, so quick 
 it'd scare him." 
 
 " I'm glad to hear that personally. That sim- 
 plifies matters very much," said Billings. 
 
 'Why?" said I, stopping and looking at him, 
 wondering what he was up to now. ' What is 
 this ? " said I. " What's all this got to do with what 
 we've been talking about the control of this com- 
 pany." 
 
 I thought he was playing me off. 
 
 " Everything in the world," said Billings, " as I 
 see it." 
 
 " How do you figure that out? " 
 
 " I can show you that, my friend," he said, talk- 
 ing now in that kind of precise measured way he 
 talked sometimes, when he was getting over being 
 mad " in a very few words." 
 
 And I sat and watched him close. 
 ' You say I will have control here, with that new 
 stock issue," he said. " If you think of it, you'll see 
 I'll have nothing of the kind." 
 
 " You'll have more stock than I will," I said. 
 
 " But not a majority," he told me. 
 
 ; ' What difference does that make, practically?" 
 I said.
 
 222 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " A great deal. No, we will be both in exactly 
 the same situation." 
 
 " I don't see it." 
 
 " The same situation," he repeated again, " and 
 the same danger! " 
 
 "What's that?" I asked. 
 
 " Each one will be exposed to the other one's 
 selling out any day to a third party to somebody 
 who has picked up enough more of that new stock to 
 give him a clear majority." 
 
 " Or one of us might buy enough to control, him- 
 self," said I, " for that matter." 
 
 " Exactly," said Billings. 
 
 " Well, we could fix that by agreement," said I, 
 11 1 should think." 
 
 " Yes," said Billings. " Yes. But the main dan- 
 ger from now on will be that at any time somebody 
 might come in and offer a real temptation for one or 
 the other of us to sell the other out." 
 
 "Come in," I said. "From where? Who'd 
 want to buy it? " 
 
 " Our New York friends may, for one," he told 
 me. 
 
 ' The ones financing this? " 
 
 4 Yes. They've been getting into motor stocks 
 pretty deep lately. Personally, I think they're going 
 deeper. I believe, sooner or later, they're going to 
 make a great consolidation of motors," he told me, 
 when I asked him what it was. "And if they do, I 
 believe they could use our product to advantage. 
 That's just a guess on my part, of course," he told 
 me. " But it's a good fair guess. And whether it
 
 Mutual Protection 223 
 
 is or not, whether we have an offer, either you or I, 
 I don't care myself for the chance of it all the 
 time. I don't know how you may feel about it," 
 he went on, " but for my part I'm perfectly free to 
 say to you, I don't care to be in a situation where you 
 or any other man can sell me out any minute. It 
 isn't good business. It's bad for the nerves." 
 
 " Amen," I said, " I'm with you." 
 
 "You are?" he came back. "Well, then, all 
 there is to do is to devise some form of agreement 
 to cover the point for both of us." 
 
 " Go ahead," I told him. 
 
 " While we are operating the company together," 
 he said then, " it will be simple enough. We can 
 vote our stock together, with certain rights agreed 
 upon between us. We haven't had much friction 
 so far!" 
 
 " No," I had to admit. 
 
 " The difficulty will come up when either of us 
 begins to think of selling. That's the thing we will 
 have to arrange between us for our mutual pro- 
 tection. 
 
 " There are several ways of doing it, of course," 
 he told me. " You could bind yourself not to sell 
 out to a third party, without first giving the other 
 party to the agreement the right to buy at the same 
 figure." 
 
 " There's some objection to that, as I understand 
 it, ain't there? " I said. 
 
 " There is, yes. It might be difficult for the other 
 man to raise the money to buy, under certain condi- 
 tions, for so large a sum at any reasonable notice."
 
 224 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " It might open a hole for funny business," I said, 
 " on the price by a fake offer from a third party, 
 for instance." 
 
 " It might," he said. And we both stopped, 
 thinking it over. 
 
 " You say," he asked me, after a minute, " that 
 you would sell, if you got your price? " 
 
 " You bet," said I. 
 
 " Have you ever thought," he said, " what your 
 price would be the limit? " 
 
 " I don't know as I have. Have you? " 
 
 " I've rather set a mark," he answered, " of what 
 I thought it might be possible to get out of it." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "A million dollars!" 
 
 "For just your own stock," said I, sitting up. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 '' Two million for both of us ! " 
 
 " I believe it might be possible." 
 
 " I don't believe you can do it in a thousand 
 years," I said. " I don't believe you can come within 
 a mile of it." 
 
 11 Would you be satisfied," he asked me, with 
 those still eyes of his, up watching me again, " with 
 that sum for your stock? " 
 
 " Would I be satisfied'' I came right back, " with 
 a million ! Two million for the two of us ! We'd 
 have a fat chance of getting it I " 
 
 " I'm not so sure." 
 
 " In cash, I mean, not just some new stock! " 
 
 " That's what I mean," he told me. " If I sold 
 at all."
 
 Mutual Protection 225 
 
 I just laughed at him. It struck me funny. 
 
 "Well," he said then. "What if we do this: 
 We will pool the vote on our stock while we're here 
 together." 
 
 " That's all right." 
 
 " And agree for the present that neither one will 
 sell his share for less than a million." 
 
 " In other words," I broke in, " we'll stick to- 
 gether. We won't sell it at all." 
 
 " You seem to think so," he said. " I'm not so 
 sure. But if we both wanted to sell at any time, 
 of course, on any other basis, we could easily agree 
 to do it," he went on. We were getting down to 
 business now. He had cut out the frills and his 
 face was as still as the old man's in the oil painting 
 over him. I was getting busy myself, following to 
 see where his mind was going. 
 
 ' That's right," I told him. I couldn't see any out 
 in that. 
 
 " Of course," he went along, and smiled a small 
 smile, " if we did sell for that two million, either 
 one or the other of us would have to do the selling." 
 
 " It won't be me," I said. " That ain't my line 
 just this minute." 
 
 " I do offer more chances along that line, I sup- 
 pose," he said. 
 
 " I'm willing to admit that," I told him, " always. 
 You'll handle it if anybody does in this combination. 
 Go on," I said, laughing again. ' Try it. I'd like 
 to see you. 
 
 " But there's one thing more," I said, stopping 
 short
 
 226 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Whoever sells it whether you do or I do, the 
 other man's got to get exactly the same price for the 
 stock as the seller does. That'll be understood." 
 
 " That's agreeable to me," said Billings. 
 
 " Directly, or indirectly or any other way. 
 There'll be no rake-off for the seller in this abso- 
 lutely. No bonuses or commissions or side deals. 
 We each get just exactly what the other does on the 
 basis of the stock we own." 
 
 ' That's agreeable to me," said Billings again, 
 not changing a muscle. 
 
 " All right." 
 
 " Then I'll tell you what we'll do," he said, sit- 
 ting up at his desk, after a minute " so it will be 
 absolutely sure. We'll sign two agreements I to 
 you, and you to me. We'll both agree, for a period 
 of three years, say, that if we hold the company, 
 we'll vote our stock together always." 
 
 11 Yes." 
 
 " But if either one can sell the other's stock for a 
 million dollars or more, he has the option to do so." 
 
 " Provided," I said, " he gets himself no more 
 than the other does." 
 
 " Exactly. I understand," said Billings. " But 
 if you can sell my stock, or I yours for a mil- 
 lion " 
 
 " You sell it," I said. " Quick as God'll let you. 
 Only remember," I said, " share and share alike, or 
 the whole thing's off; the option is no good." 
 
 " Certainly," said Proctor Billings. " That will 
 be part of the agreement. But under this arrange-
 
 Mutual Protection 227 
 
 ment," he went along, " you're willing to let these 
 people go on with their financing it now? " 
 
 " Well, yes," I said, thinking a minute. " This 
 thing is a roast they're putting over now. It's a rot- 
 ten roast and a hold-up to get that common stock out 
 of the treasury that way. But I don't know what we 
 can do better do you ? " 
 
 " No, so long as we get a good share of it our- 
 selves." 
 
 ' Well, then, let them go ahead, as far as I'm con- 
 cerned. I think it will be better business, everything 
 taken into consideration. That's what you think, 
 isn't it?" 
 
 ' Yes, I think so," he said, sitting there with his 
 still fit on, watching his eyes clear as crystal, 
 and his face as still as an old cat looking around the 
 corner at a squirrel. " I think so on the whole." 
 
 So we went into it on that basis. 
 
 " And you want to get busy," I said, when I got up 
 to go, " right away. I'll be looking for my million." 
 
 " All right," he said, smiling. " I will. I don't 
 say I will get any such price, you understand," he 
 said, " I merely thought it would do no harm to 
 try." 
 
 " Oh, I understand," I said. " I was just kidding 
 you." 
 
 " Well, I'm very glad," said Billings, getting up 
 with his polite manners on full force, to let me out, 
 " we arranged it so easily. My father used to say," 
 he said, turning back to the picture again, " it was 
 hard enough to divide losses, but it was the devil to 
 split up profits between two men."
 
 228 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 And he gave me a cold long hand again, and shook 
 hands, and I went out. 
 
 I didn't believe what he said; I didn't believe for a 
 minute that anybody was going to offer us a million 
 dollars for that property. But, yet, at the same 
 time, it didn't make me mad at all to hear him say it. 
 And we certainly weren't getting bad money now, 
 any way he put it. And all that afternoon, it kept 
 coming back to my head as if somebody was call- 
 ing it to me : " A million dollars. A million. Bill 
 Morgan, millionaire ! " 
 
 I went over to Lembach's for a little drink 
 after I left the bank; and then right over to the 
 office. 
 
 " A little more speed, Bill," I said to myself. 
 " You've been letting down a little, since this little 
 deal of yours was on. Back to the factory for 
 yours. A little more speed. You've got to gear up 
 a little bit higher, brother, if you're going into the 1 
 millionaire class! " 
 
 I sat there and jammed things around in the office ; 
 and kept the office force humming, and half of them 
 and myself after hours. They certainly heard from 
 me in the office that afternoon. With that, and 
 that luncheon and the boys, and the excitement of 
 talking with Proctor Billings over that stock thing, 
 my stomach went bad again, and I went home again 
 that night late and ugly feeling rocky. 
 
 It was that night, at the house, I first heard about 
 the Thomases and Chuck Powers. 
 
 'You know what Pasc and Zetta have done?" 
 Polly asked me when I got into the house.
 
 Mutual Protection 229 
 
 " No." 
 
 " They've got Tom's boy for chauffeur; Pasc told 
 me today." 
 
 " The fools! " I said. " What's he thinking of. 
 That speed maniac!" I said. "They must be 
 crazy. He'll kill them all before he's through." 
 
 " I'd rather ride behind him," said Polly, " than 
 with Zetta, when she's out in that big new runabout 
 of hers." 
 
 ' They're two of a kind,'' I said " she and the 
 boy." 
 
 " Maybe he'll be more careful," said Polly, " driv- 
 ing somebody else." 
 
 " He can't be," I told her. " It gets in the blood 
 after awhile. That's all he is, anyhow speed ! 
 Speed," I said, " and some cheap tailor's clothes, 
 pressed up every morning." 
 
 " You're a little bit hard on him, I always 
 thought," said Polly. 
 
 And that made me hot, I suppose. 
 
 " Yes? " I said. " Well, I happen to know him, 
 that's all. That ain't the only thing either. From 
 all I hear, I don't think he's a fit thing to be driving 
 a decent woman around, anyhow." 
 
 " Oh, Bill," said Polly. " That kid! You men 
 are disgusting." 
 
 "What do you know about it?" I said to her. 
 " He's twenty-three, yes and he's older than most 
 of us at forty if you want to know ! If you want 
 to get an idea about what's what, you want to 
 stand for a minute, and listen to those kids, as you 
 call them those bottle-shaped loafers before the
 
 230 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 garage, tell what they know about the women going 
 by." 
 
 "I I'd like to," said Polly, getting sarcastic. 
 " It would be a nice thing for me to spend my time 
 doing." 
 
 " Well, you'll see me in the morning, going over 
 and telling Pasc what I think about it ! " said I. 
 
 " I would," said Polly. " I I'd make myself 
 just as popular as I could, mixing into family affairs 
 like that?" 
 
 " You trust me! " said I. 
 
 ' Yes like a bull in a china shop," said she. 
 
 " You go to the devil ! I'll do what I want to," 
 I told her; and turned over and tried to get to sleep. 
 I was feeling rotten still. My stomach was all in. 
 She was right though I wouldn't say it to her, 
 naturally. I was uglier than hell's kitchen, those 
 last few months, but I couldn't stop it. I seemed 
 to have no control over myself at all.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 
 
 " Look here," I said to Pasc, a few days after 
 that, when I was stopping at his house. " What 
 are you trying to do kill your wife? " 
 " What do you mean? " said Pasc. 
 " Is it true, what I hear, you've engaged that 
 Chuck Powers for a chauffeur? " 
 
 ' Yes," Pasc told me, acting a little bit awkward. 
 " He's going to work for us, temporarily, till he gets 
 something else." 
 
 ' You ought to have more sense," said I. 
 " Don't you know he's the most reckless damned 
 driver in seven States. And here in town," I told 
 him, " he's got to be worse even. He's got to be 
 the town devil to hold up his reputation with those 
 half-baked young speed experts around the ga- 
 rage." 
 
 ' Well," said Pasc, acting as if he didn't want 
 to talk about it, " it was Zetta's idea. And you 
 know how she is about a car now! " 
 
 ' Yes, I know. Fifty miles an hour is loafing 
 through traffic! And that makes it all the worse." 
 ' What is this? " said Zetta, coming in on us sud- 
 denly from the back room. " What are you saying 
 about me? "
 
 232 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I was saying to him," I said, making the best 
 of it, " he ought to have more sense than to get that 
 wild Chuck Powers to drive you around." 
 
 "Look here," she said, coming right at me, the 
 way I knew she would, " what's that to you? 
 Wasn't it enough," she said, snapping those black 
 eyes of hers, " for you not to give him a job, when 
 you owed it to him, without going around and try- 
 ing to push him out of one, when he gets it." 
 
 " I offered him a job. A darned good job," I told 
 her. " He'd have had it now, if he hadn't got such 
 a swelled head." 
 
 " He couldn't take it, if he wanted to," she said. 
 " His right hand is too stiff. He couldn't stand 
 it." 
 
 " His head's too stiff," I said, " from swelling up 
 between his ears. His hands are too clean, that's 
 all that ails them. He's got too much good looks. 
 He wants to stand around with the rest of those 
 cigarette holders, who lop around in front of the 
 garage and take the servant girls out on joy rides in 
 somebody's machine they couldn't pay for, if they 
 took all the pay for honest work they were ever 
 going to get in their lives ! " 
 
 i{ The trouble with you, Bill, is," she said, looking 
 me in the eye : " you've had it in for him ever since 
 he wouldn't take that job you offered him. You're 
 sore. I don't blame him a bit for not taking that job 
 even if he could do it. That ain't his kind of 
 work, anyway." 
 
 " No, he's too good for it," said I. " He's got 
 too good a shape."
 
 A Difference of Opinion 233 
 
 " And besides," she went along, " if you want to 
 know, we've only got him temporarily till he gets 
 something else to do. We owed him that much, 
 anyhow! " 
 
 " Aiming at me, I suppose? " I said. 
 
 " If you want to take it! " she said. ' You owe 
 him as much as we do and more." 
 
 " Well, I've done what I'm going to," I told her. 
 " I certainly wouldn't do anything for him now 
 not after the way he's acted. But if you want to," I 
 said, " and want to get hung up on a telegraph pole 
 all right. Go ahead. I suppose you won't be 
 satisfied, anyhow, unless you're going five hundred 
 miles an hour in that runabout of yours. But that's 
 your lookout. 
 
 " That's your lookout," I said, getting hotter as I 
 went on. " But I wouldn't have him around on gen- 
 eral principles. He's a bad egg all the way through. 
 I wouldn't board him in my dog house," I said. 
 " And I know what I'm talking about." 
 
 " So do I," said Zetta. " Let's talk about some- 
 thing else." 
 
 I was right, just the same, and I knew I was, 
 though, naturally, I shut my mouth up then. That 
 boy had gone bad since he'd been in that riding game, 
 traveling around in the country, learning all the 
 worst of the nasty underground things that a bunch 
 of fresh young kids poking around from one city 
 to another get taught to them. He was a handsome 
 looking devil now. And he'd come back, like one of 
 those kings of the dare-devils in the movies, a real 
 hero, standing around with that bunch in front of the
 
 234 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 garage, making comments on mankind in general, 
 with just two ideas in their noodles women and 
 speed; how they're going to sneak off with some- 
 body's machine, and take some cheap girl carousing 
 around the country at sixty miles an hour, with a 
 ten-dollar bill they've managed to knock down on 
 the garage charges of their employers. I know that 
 bunch; don't fret. I've watched them; and he was 
 the wisest of the lot, the wisest, hardest boy there 
 under contract to be, you might say. 
 
 But I didn't say anything more about it then. I 
 had my own business to attend to. I never spoke of 
 it again, till that talk began to go around. 
 
 " Do you know what I heard to-day? " Polly asked 
 me, one night, after we went to bed. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " A woman told me you know who that it 
 was all around that Zetta is over in Watertown at 
 that swell roadhouse there, dancing with that Tom's 
 boy. People who've been over there have seen her 
 several times dancing with him." 
 
 " I don't believe it," I said. " I know who it was 
 told you and I don't believe it." 
 
 " It might be, at that," said Polly, " over there 
 thirty-five miles away, where she'd think nobody from 
 here would come." 
 
 1 You've got that wrong," I said. " She's got 
 more sense. She wouldn't do it." 
 
 " I don't know," said Polly. " She might. The 
 girl's half crazy. She don't know what to do with 
 herself since they got their money, especially. 
 She can't be attending Pasc all the time, and she's
 
 A Difference of Opinion 235 
 
 never found anybody here that she liked. And no- 
 body's taken her up anywhere." 
 
 " Ah-ha, maybe," I said. " But you're wrong 
 about this other thing." 
 
 She wasn't though. I heard it several places after 
 that. If the devilish boy hadn't had such a repu- 
 tation everywhere as a general all-around, still- 
 mouthed devil, it would have been different. If he 
 had been an ordinary chauffeur even, but he was 
 something else. He was better than just a chauf- 
 feur, in a way. He was a kind of a town character 
 a celebrity. Everybody knew about the thing. 
 And by and by it got too strong for me to stomach. 
 
 " Now here, Pasc," I said, going to him finally. 
 " I'm going to talk to you like a Dutch uncle." 
 
 " What about? " said Pasc, staring at me. 
 
 He was looking awful thin and old lately. Those 
 pale eyes, looking at you, from way down in their 
 sockets deeper and deeper. 
 
 '' When are you going to let that young fool that's 
 driving Zetta around for you go? " I asked him. 
 
 ''Why?" Pasc asked, looking up quickly. 
 'What do you mean? Have they had any more 
 accidents I haven't heard about? " 
 
 ' They've had enough, I guess," I said. " I've 
 known of three. He'll get her some day. Or she'll 
 get herself, driving along those country roads at 
 such a clip." 
 
 " I know it," said Pasc. " But what can I do? 
 That's what she wants. That's exactly what she's 
 after now tearing around in that car, and I can't 
 stop it."
 
 236 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Yes, you can stop it, too," I said, getting mad 
 at that soft easy-going way he always had toward 
 her. " You've got to. If you don't want to get 
 her killed!" 
 
 " He's a wonderful driver," said Pasc. " You've 
 got to say that for him ! " 
 
 " That's the kind that always get theirs," said 
 I, " sooner or later. And besides that, he ain't 
 driving all the time. She's doing some of it. 
 And there ain't any woman alive that's fit to drive 
 at those high speeds not if she once gets in a 
 pinch!" 
 
 " Zetta's got a pretty good head on her," said 
 Pasc, arguing with me. 
 
 " Maybe she has," I said, getting excited, I sup- 
 pose, arguing. " You can take a chance with her, if 
 you want to. But that ain't the only thing either. 
 He's not a fit man to be driving around your wife 
 or anybody's wife." 
 
 ; ' Who says so I " he said, starting up. 
 
 " I say so," I came back. " You know his repu- 
 tation, as well as I do. If you don't you ought to, 
 dragging these fool girls around nights, in your car, 
 when you ain't home. I don't suppose, maybe, you 
 know all that," I said, thinking "with your eyes 
 turned inside out all the time you're awake, looking 
 at some new carburetor. But you ought to. If 
 you don't, it's time you did. 
 
 " Now, look here," I said kind of sorry for 
 him, the way I always was, when I saw him hand- 
 ling practical things; "while I'm at it, I'm going 
 through with what I've got to say. You and Zetta
 
 A Difference of Opinion 237 
 
 are my friends. I haven't got any better that I 
 know of! " 
 
 " I don't think you have," said Pasc, getting em- 
 barrassed. 
 
 " And I know what I say to you is right. And 
 you'll take it the way I mean it. It ain't the right 
 thing to have that boy driving Zetta around all times 
 of the day and night, stopping at hotels and tea 
 houses for refreshments. You and I know it's all 
 right," I hurried up to say. " But it don't help her 
 any. It can't help but make people talk." 
 
 " I'd like to hear 'em," said Pasc, his old leather 
 face set. 
 
 " Well, they're doing it all right," I said. " You 
 might just as well face the thing as it is." 
 
 He put his head down for quite a while after that 
 I waiting for him. 
 
 " I'm sorry for that," he said. " I'm sorry that's 
 come " and stopped. 
 
 " But it's my fault if it has," he went on then, 
 when I'd waited. " I take all the blame for it my- 
 self." 
 
 " Oh, rats," I told him. " Blame nothing! " 
 
 " I do," he said. " I'm a fit person for anybody 
 to live with, let alone a quick, lively, full-blooded 
 young woman like Zetta to be tied to ! I'm nothing 
 but a sick brain sitting in a chair, turning itself inside 
 out, hunting a new idea for a carburetor; keeping on 
 and on because it has to. With no more control over 
 its motions than a clock has." 
 
 " I do think you could let up some," I told him, 
 " for your own sake as well as hers. But that ain't
 
 238 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 what I'm talking about now. What you want to do 
 now is to fire that boy." 
 
 "How can I?" 
 
 "Why can't you?" 
 
 " Zetta won't listen to it," he said. " Not till 
 he gets another job. She says we owe it to him 
 and a lot more than we'll ever pay." 
 
 " The hell we do," I said, getting hot again. 
 
 " That's what she says, and what she'll stick to 
 you know that. Especially when he's down and out 
 kind of this way." 
 
 I could see that, of course. 
 
 " Well, I'll tell you what I'll do," I said, thinking 
 it over. " I'll do what I said I'd never do. But 
 I'll do it for you ! I'll get a place for him an 
 agency. I'll make it for him ! " 
 
 " Much obliged to you, Bill; that's almighty nice 
 of you," said Pasc. " Not that I think a whole lot 
 about what you've just been saying about this other 
 thing. Though I've taken it as you meant it! It's 
 all right from you ! " he went on. " But I'll say 
 this. I am worried half crazy sometimes think- 
 ing about her tearing around any old road, all 
 kinds of hours and weather, with that reckless boy 
 driving her, or she driving him, which is even 
 worse." 
 
 " But there's one thing," I said, waiting for him to 
 get through, " I won't do ! I won't go to him, and 
 offer a job to him myself again. I won't do that 
 under any circumstances." 
 
 " I tell you what I wish you would do," said Pasc, 
 " I wish you'd go to Zetta and get her to take it up
 
 A Difference of Opinion 239 
 
 with him. I think there'd be more of a chance of 
 him taking it." 
 
 "Taking it! " I said. "Taking it!" 
 
 " From you," said Pasc. " You've got to re- 
 member he's terrible sore at you. I don't really 
 believe anybody but Zetta could get him to take it." 
 
 " You make me laugh," said I. " But I'll go. 
 I'll see her. But I won't see him! " 
 
 So I went to her, and told her what I'd do. 
 
 " I'll see," said Zetta. " But I tell you now, I 
 don't believe he'll do it." 
 
 " You ask him," I told her. " And then you'll 
 know better. What he wants is a piece of easy 
 money." 
 
 " It isn't so," said Zetta. 
 
 " Well, there it is," I said. " That's what he 
 asked for. Now he's got it." 
 
 " All right. I'll take it up with him," she said. 
 
 But a day or two afterwards, when I went in to 
 see about it, she said: " It's just as I thought; he 
 wouldn't take it. He said he wouldn't take a job 
 from you if it was his last meal on earth." 
 
 "He won't, eh?" I said, getting mad, and a 
 little surprised, at that. " Well, he don't have to. 
 But that shows you just what he is. He don't want 
 to work. He's got a snap, and he knows it. He's 
 bad clear through; that's what's the matter with 
 him." 
 
 " I don't think so," said Zetta, her mouth setting. 
 " I don't think that's the way he is at all." 
 
 " Now, look," I said. " I want to ask you some- 
 thing."
 
 240 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Go ahead," she said. 
 
 " Are you still going to keep him? " 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Well, I'll tell you why not, if you want to 
 know," I said. " In the first place, you've got Pasc 
 scared to death jumping four ways for Sunday, 
 for fear you'll get killed smashed up with that 
 reckless fool." 
 
 " There's nothing to it," she said. " He's one 
 of the best drivers in the country." 
 
 " Well, you ought to think of Pasc, anyway," said 
 I. " How he feels ! " 
 
 " How often does he think of me? " she said, her 
 eyes getting sharp and shiny. " Or anything besides 
 that fool carburetor! No. / can take care of 
 myself!" 
 
 1 That's a nice thing to say," I said. 
 
 "Isn't it!" she said after me, her eyes getting 
 hard. 
 
 " Yes," I came back at her. " It is. And there's 
 something else, too, as long as we're on the sub- 
 ject. There's a second thing." 
 
 " What is it?" she asked, in a kind of a sharp 
 suspicious voice. 
 
 " He's not a fit man to be driving you, or any 
 other woman around. 
 
 ' You must know that," I said, when she didn't 
 answer. " If you don't, you ought to." 
 
 " Go ahead now you've started," she said, her 
 eyes getting a still, dangerous light in them. 
 "What else?" 
 
 " Nothing else," I said. " Except that you can't
 
 A Difference of Opinion 241 
 
 do it or any other woman can't without get- 
 ting talked about." 
 
 " Do what? " she said. 
 
 " Go around driving up and down the country 
 stopping at tearooms and restaurants danc- 
 ing " I said. I looked away from her and said 
 it. I thought I would get it out once and for all. 
 
 " What is this you're giving me," she said, very 
 low and quiet. "An insult?" 
 
 ' You know it ain't," I said. 
 
 And she stopped a minute, her mouth shut down 
 tight. 
 
 " If anybody else said that to me, I'd kill them," 
 she said then and stopped, getting hold of her- 
 self again. 
 
 " I'll tell you this," she said finally, " so you'll 
 know. Pasc knows all about what I do every- 
 thing and has from the first." 
 
 " I don't doubt that," I said. 
 
 " And it's nobody else's business," she went on, 
 giving me a stare. 
 
 " Maybe it ain't," I said. " But that don't pre- 
 vent their making it their business." 
 
 " It's nobody's business," she said, " if I want to 
 go out, and amuse myself and get a little excite- 
 ment out of life. And not sit at home, and mope 
 around with a monomaniac a man with one idea 
 in his head." 
 
 "Don't!" said I. 
 
 " No. I'll take that back," she said. " He's al- 
 most sick, I know that. But he don't treat me 
 fair!"
 
 242 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " He wouldn't treat you bad for the world," I 
 told her. 
 
 " No, he don't beat me up," she said, in a kind 
 of bitter voice. " I wish to God he would some- 
 times, so I'd know he noticed me ! " 
 
 And we both sat still a minute. 
 
 " I try to do what I can," she went on. " I did 
 try to keep him interested the best I could. But 
 it wasn't any use. He won't even look up and look 
 at me, the way a man looks at a woman he cares for. 
 So I've cut it out. 
 
 " So I do what I can to keep him well," she said, 
 in this bitter voice; " and when I can't do anything 
 else, I get out. I've got a right to that much ! 
 
 " Besides," she said, letting down a bit, " I'm 
 doing nothing wrong or underhanded. I've told 
 him what I did. He understands it perfectly well." 
 
 " Yes," I said. " So do I. But the rest of them 
 don't." 
 
 " What do I care," she said, letting go of herself 
 her cheeks with deep red spots in them, " for 
 the rest of them? What they say! I don't give 
 that," she said, snapping her fingers. " Or for you 
 either ! " she said all at once to me her breathing 
 coming quicker. 
 
 ' You come in here, and insult me ! In my own 
 home," she said. "What do you think I am? I 
 won't stand it you you get " 
 
 " Hold on, Zet; wait before you go that far! " 
 said I. " I'm not doing this for my own amuse- 
 ment. I've got something else to occupy my mind 
 but going around insulting women. I'm doing this
 
 A Difference of Opinion 243 
 
 because you and Pasc are the two best friends I've 
 got or I think you are. And I'd be damned sorry 
 if you'd ever go to smash, any way. That's what 
 I'm here for now. And you know it just as well as 
 I do." 
 
 And she looked down and didn't say anything 
 back to me. 
 
 " Don't you? " I asked her. 
 
 ' Yes. I guess so! " she said finally. 
 
 " I don't go whispering, and goggling behind your 
 back. I come to you man fashion and tell you 
 what's going on, like a friend should or I think he 
 should, anyhow. 
 
 " I come to you," I said, " because I've got a 
 license to if anybody has. I'm just telling you facts 
 you ought to know. And you've got no business to 
 get mad over it not for a minute." 
 
 "I suppose you're right maybe " she said, 
 after awhile, thinking. 
 
 And I sat still, waiting to see if she'd say anything 
 more. 
 
 " I always said," she came out finally, " I wouldn't 
 explain to anybody. It was nobody s business 
 but I will to you," she said, " as long as it's come 
 up this way." 
 
 And then she went along to tell me about herself. 
 
 " For the rest of them," she said "all of them, 
 except you and Polly, I don't give one little silver 
 damn. And the women especially. Especially the 
 women! I never liked one scarcely, in my life. 
 Not scarcely one. They're mean-spirited, small- 
 souled things the whole of them. I always liked
 
 244 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 the men better. They're kinder hearted, and more 
 charitable at bottom. They'd do more for you in 
 trouble." 
 
 And she told me again about how she was raised, 
 and about her father an old-fashioned, horsey 
 kind of a man, who kept a livery stable in a small 
 town ; one of those old-time, free-and-easy horse men. 
 
 " He was as fine a man, if I do say so," she said, 
 holding her head up, " as anybody ! We had more 
 money, and spent more than almost anybody else in 
 that narrow-minded, mean-spirited, little, psalm-sing- 
 ing country village. There wasn't a man there who 
 didn't like him and say he was a good fellow. 
 But did any of those dowdy, beady-eyed, bony-souled 
 New England women have anything to do with us? 
 Not on your life. 
 
 ' The more I see of women," she broke out again, 
 " the more I despise them. They ain't half so kind 
 minded as a weasel. Except now and then, a few 
 of them " she said again, and tears came into her 
 eyes - " like my mother was. Except when they 
 come like my mother and your wife like old Polly. 
 And then they're half angels too " she said and 
 stopped. 
 
 " Little sandy-headed, spunky angels," said I, 
 smiling at her, letting her get on her feet again. 
 "Eh?" 
 
 ' Yes," she said, nodding her head, going on 
 finally. * Too good and kind to count in with the 
 rest of us ordinary folks. 
 
 '' I'm a fool! " she said, and took out her hand- 
 kerchief.
 
 A Difference of Opinion 245 
 
 " See here," I said, after awhile, " Zet. Ain't 
 this thing half your fault? Don't you stand the 
 women off, as much as they do you? " 
 
 " What chance did they ever give me home, 
 or here in this town either? Oh, I know," she 
 said. " I dress too gay. I talk too loud for them! 
 I'm looking for too much excitement. 
 
 " Oh, I know them, as if I'd made them," she 
 said. " And worked out their poor little hand-em- 
 broidered souls for them ! " 
 
 " I don't believe it," I said. " If you went out 
 to play with them, they'd come in and play with 
 you." 
 
 " Who wants to play with them those frozen- 
 faced frumps?" she said to me. "I can have 
 some amusement of my own if I have to." 
 
 " If you met them half-way like Polly does," 
 I said; " and showed them you liked them! " 
 
 "That's different," she said. "Polly's differ- 
 ent." 
 
 " Nonsense," I said. " Different nothing. You'll 
 be just the same yourself, when you get in your new 
 home up on the hill with us." 
 
 That was just after we'd bought our new house on 
 High Hill. 
 
 " You'll get in just as well as we did." 
 
 " No, I won't," said Zetta. " And I don't want 
 to. And about this other thing," she said, " we were 
 talking about; I shall go ahead, just as I always did 
 so long as Pasc knows about it. So long as he 
 says nothing, it's nobody else's business, if I want 
 to get a little excitement out of life. You've got
 
 246 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 to remember, Bill, I'm not getting any younger." 
 
 " Yes, you're terribly old," I said. 
 
 " I'm thirty pretty near," she said. " And if 
 I'm going to get anything out of being young, I've 
 got to get busy. And as far as I look at it, it don't 
 seem to me wildly wicked for me to go out and see 
 other people enjoy themselves, dancing around." 
 
 " And dance around yourself, occasionally." 
 
 " Mighty seldom," she came back quick. " Only 
 once or twice, when I just had to. Of course they'd 
 make it a hundred, if they saw it once! I had to, 
 Bill, I was feeling so'darned blue. I get that way, 
 every now and then, Bill; you know it. I get des- 
 perate. I just get where it's anything for a little 
 excitement. 
 
 " And so far as this boy goes," she said, " you're 
 wrong about him. You don't do him justice in the 
 first place. You can't after that row with him. 
 He's nothing but a boy I'm a grown woman to 
 him. 
 
 " But if he was all you said he was," she went on, 
 when I didn't say anything, " do you think for a 
 minute I'm not able to take care of myself? The 
 first minute he got gay," she said, her eyes flashing, 
 " what would happen? What do you think! " she 
 asked me. 
 
 " I suppose you'd eat him alive," I said. 
 " But that ain't it." 
 
 " It is, too," she said, " so far as I'm concerned. 
 What do I care what they say? You don't know 
 how it is, Bill," she said. " Being cooped up. Be- 
 ing a woman all the time on your good behavior I
 
 A Difference of Opinion 247 
 
 You don't know what it is not to have something to 
 do. Do you now?" she asked me. "Imagine 
 yourself! " 
 
 " No, I suppose I don't," I told her. 
 
 " Except tend a sick man who doesn't want you 
 around." 
 
 " That ain't so," I told her. " And you know it." 
 
 But she just shook her head. " I oughtn't to be 
 a woman," she said. " I wish a thousand times I 
 could have been a boy instead of a girl. But it 
 ain't really anything we can help, is it?" she said 
 and smiled at me again a little crooked. 
 
 " No," I said. " But for God's sake, Zetta, do 
 what I tell you. Cut this boy out." 
 
 " I can't do it, Bill," she said. 
 
 " Can't why not? " said I. 
 
 " I can't," she said. " I won't throw him down 
 now. When he's fixed the way he is. I owe him 
 something. And I like him in a way." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " He's such a young untamed devil, I guess," she 
 said. " He don't care what he does. I guess 
 maybe that's one main thing. And he's in hard luck. 
 You don't believe it, but he is I He's desperate. 
 
 "But you didn't ever think?" she said, all at 
 once her voice getting sharp and hard again. 
 
 4 Think nothing, Zet ! You know me better than 
 that," I said to her. " I like you. I always did 
 like you. And I'd trust you anywhere. There ain't 
 a crooked hair in your head. Only I think you're 
 a little damn fool about this thing and you've 
 got to stop it."
 
 248 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " That's my business," said Zet. 
 
 " Look," I said, when she shook her head at me. 
 " You will do this much ; you'll try again to get him 
 to take that job of mine. Insist on it." 
 
 " Yes. I'll try," she said finally. " But it won't 
 be any good any more than it was before. I can 
 tell you that in advance. 
 
 " You don't like him, Bill," she told me again. 
 She'd let down a little and was talking less excited. 
 " And when you come down to it, you didn't treat 
 him right. I know just the way it happened. 
 When he got fresh, or when you thought he did, 
 you had to get up and snatch his ears off the first 
 time he disagreed with you. And you've never for- 
 gotten it. And you never will. Oh, I know you, 
 Bill," she said, " down to the ground. And so does 
 everybody else. 
 
 " And there's another thing, while we're at it, 
 talking out this way, Bill," she said to me. " I've 
 wanted to say it for some time." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 ' That Proctor Billings is going to get you, be- 
 fore you get through trim you bad," she said, 
 looking through me with those smart black eyes of 
 hers. 
 
 " Why? What makes you think so? " 
 
 " I know it." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " I don't know how." 
 
 " I guess you don't." 
 
 " I don't know how," she said. " But I know 
 he will. You're too slam bang downright; you can
 
 A Difference of Opinion 249 
 
 jam a thing through, all right, Bill; but you can't 
 sit in with Proctor Billings on that game he's playing 
 with those still-faced boys, as you call them. 
 Sooner or later, they'll get you." 
 
 " Don't you worry," said I. 
 
 " And I ain't the only one who thinks so, either," 
 she told me. " I've heard them." 
 
 " Don't fret not too much," I told her. 
 
 " I've warned you, anyway," she said, " of what 
 I think, and what they're saying." 
 
 I didn't ask her who; I didn't attach enough im- 
 portance to it. And then I came away good 
 friends with her still. Thinking it all over, about 
 her and how she was fixed with Pasc and his inven- 
 tions; and that crazy, reckless, bad-eyed boy, racing, 
 faster and faster every hour, downhill to the 
 devil. 
 
 " How much is there in what she says? " I said to 
 Polly, after we'd gone to bed that night. " Are 
 they really trying to freeze her out the women 
 here?" 
 
 " They don't like her. They're not much struck 
 on any of us I guess," she told me, " if the truth was 
 known." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " For one thing, we've made too much money, too 
 quick," she said. " And then again, we aren't like 
 them I " 
 
 "Why not?" said I. "We're decent people. 
 Just as good stock as they are." 
 
 "We're not, that's all," she said. "We ain't 
 like them. We haven't been raised the same. It'll
 
 250 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 be different with the children. I can see that al- 
 ready." 
 
 " There's one thing," I said. " They won't be 
 darned snobs if they don't want their heads 
 knocked off!" 
 
 We were up there by that time, in that High Hill 
 neighborhood that swellest part of town; near 
 the Proctor Billings, and the Waterburys, and the 
 Fenby Lesters. Billings had helped get us in there 
 in that old Banks' house that had been for sale 
 so long. And I felt the neighborhood, I thought, 
 myself, sometimes kind of stiff in the back of my 
 neck. 
 
 " She's entirely different from them, too," said 
 Polly, thinking. " You can't get around it. She 
 hasn't got along here in town, a bit." 
 
 " She lays it all to the women," said I. 
 
 " Well, she's right," said Polly. " They don't 
 like her." 
 
 " Why? Just for what reason? " 
 
 " Her dresses," said Polly. " She dresses pretty 
 gay, for one thing, for a town outside of New York. 
 And she is pretty fond of color. She would be 
 noticeable anywhere. Then there's her high voice. 
 And they don't like her grammar, either." 
 
 " Nor her good looks, I guess," I said " prob- 
 ably!" 
 
 " Probably not," said Polly. " But she is pretty 
 reckless pretty lawless, you'll have to admit." 
 
 " She seems to always have to have excitement," 
 I answered. 
 
 " She lives on it," said Polly.
 
 A Difference of Opinion 251 
 
 " But you agree with her," I said. * You think 
 it's the women that have got it in for her? " 
 
 " Yes, I do." 
 
 " What little mean things they are," I said. 
 
 " Yes, in a way," said Polly. " I suppose so. I 
 suppose they are. I suppose they've got to be. 
 They're brought up that way. They live in a world 
 of little things terribly small. Their main pleas- 
 ure, I think sometimes, is seeing differences think- 
 ing they and their folks are better than somebody 
 else. They are just the same, I always thought, till 
 they die, as they were when they were children. 
 They never grow up, that way. They're just the 
 same exactly as those little snippy kids who used to 
 go to public school when we did, and went off by 
 themselves together, because they had kid shoes and 
 handmade underwear when the rest of us couldn't 
 afford it. 
 
 "No; you can't get around it, Bill," said Polly. 
 " Women are that awful little in such things. 
 But it ain't all bad either," she said. " It's a good 
 thing some ways, I think sometimes." 
 
 " Good. How? " said I. " I don't see it." 
 
 " It makes them want to keep themselves up, all 
 the time, and their children. Make them look good, 
 and act decent, and keep up appearances, and get in 
 with better people, always more educated. And 
 that goes a long ways sometimes. Men don't mind. 
 They're kind of careless about such things. And 
 somebody's got to do it. Somebody's got to keep 
 up. It does a lot of good, taken all together. And 
 it's a woman's job."
 
 252 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " I don't see it," I said. " That's stretching it 
 pretty far." 
 
 " It's right though," said Polly. " It's better a lot 
 of times it has more influence on other women, 
 what the women say and think, than all the police 
 force in the country, that's my opinion." 
 
 " What a queer old girl you are, Pol," I said, pat- 
 ting her. 
 
 " It's true, all the same," she told me. " And 
 that's one main trouble now with Zetta. She won't 
 pay any attention to them what they say, or what 
 they think. She goes right ahead and does what 
 she pleases." 
 
 " No," said I. " She doesn't give a hoot for 
 anybody; she never did." 
 
 "Perfectly lawless," said Polly. "You can't 
 blame them. She's got started, and she won't stop; 
 and the more they say, the more she'll defy them. 
 But you can't blame them, either, their talking about 
 her." 
 
 " I suppose not," I said. " She's changed a whole 
 lot," I went along, after awhile, " in the last few 
 months. The strain of it's telling on her." 
 
 " It is," said Polly. 
 
 " I don't think I ever saw anybody change so 
 much in such a little time. She used to be such a big 
 strapping good-humored thing. Now she acts as 
 if the devil was eating her raw. I never knew any- 
 body to change so," said I. 
 
 " I have," said Polly. 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "You I"
 
 A Difference of Opinion 253 
 
 " Don't start that again," I said. And then I 
 rolled over and went to sleep. I had something else 
 on my mind to think about but women and their 
 troubles, and what they thought. I had something 
 big coming on now.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 WORD FROM NEW YORK 
 
 Proctor Billings had called me over to the bank 
 the first of that week; and the minute I went in, I 
 knew there was something on. He was so terribly 
 polite and polished. You could quite often tell that 
 one way, that something was coming good or 
 bad. You very likely didn't know which. But that 
 was the one way he had of warning you of show- 
 ing his feelings in any way. But when he was ex- 
 tra polite look out for something I 
 
 He sat there a minute or two, putting another 
 gold engraved cigarette in his holder. Then he 
 showed me the cut flowers on his desk. 
 
 " Orchids," he said. " I'm trying them in my 
 conservatory a little. Aren't they good?" 
 
 I guessed then it was something pleasant he had 
 to tell me. And right after that it came out. 
 
 ' You know what I think? " he asked me. 
 
 "No what?" said I, waiting for him. 
 
 " I think I'm going to take up that option." 
 
 "What option?" 
 
 14 That one on your stock." 
 
 " For that million dollars," I said, stiffening up. 
 * Yes," he said, very cool and calm. " I think 
 now I can get us both our million dollars, for that 
 stock."
 
 Word from New York 255 
 
 "Goon!" I told him. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Apiece?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "How?" said I. 
 
 " That Universal Motors combination they're 
 forming just as I thought they would," he went 
 on, explaining. " They'll take in one motor cycle 
 company, if they have the chance." 
 
 " How do you know? " 
 
 " I have had it from headquarters," said he. 
 " From New York. Our same people are running 
 it Magnus and Company, the ones who financed 
 us. You know that, of course. 
 
 " And I believe," he said, " if you and I manipu- 
 late it as it should be done; if we stand out together, 
 we can get our million apiece for our stock here. 
 
 " If we want it now! " he said. 
 
 "If we want it!" I said. "Oh, no, we don't 
 want it! You don't, do you, Boy?" said I, slap- 
 ping him on the shoulder. 
 
 He took it like a little man. He even smiled a 
 little. 
 
 " Yes, I think I would take it," he said, taking 
 his cigarette holder out of his mouth slowly. 
 
 " Oh, no. We don't want it," said I. " Gripes 
 if I saw a million dollars for that stuff of mine," 
 I said, " I'd grab it and run down the road so fast 
 you couldn't see me in a month for dust." 
 
 " And I think, in addition," Billings went on, 
 making another smile again, " I could get you 
 placed at a big salary in the motor cycle end of the
 
 256 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 company. I'd drop out, of course, when they left 
 town here." 
 
 "Where'd they go?" said I. 
 
 " To Detroit, I suppose. They'd want to fit it in 
 with the rest of the plant. There's where the 
 money would be for them saving on the overhead 
 costs, and the agencies." 
 
 " Look," said I, " wouldn't they want to pay it 
 out to us in stock? " 
 
 " Not to me," said Billings. " Cash only." 
 
 " Same here," I said. " I don't know anything 
 about that other thing. You wouldn't know what 
 you got hold of any more than fishing at night." 
 
 "Shall I go ahead then?" 
 
 " You bet you shall," said I. 
 
 I was feeling my oats pretty well when I went out 
 through that waiting room that morning that 
 old private cooler where Proctor Billings had them 
 wait for him to see them. And the pictures of the 
 sheep. I had to smile, thinking of everything going 
 out 
 
 But I struck a snag right away I'd never dreamed 
 of with Polly. 
 
 "What do you think of this, Pol?" I said. 
 "Eh? A million dollars in cash if we can get 
 it! And we might, at that! What would we have 
 thought five years ago? Great business, eh?" 
 
 " Great," she said, getting excited. "I I'm 
 awful glad you're going to get it, Bill. I is it all 
 to be in money? " 
 
 " It will be, if we take it." 
 
 " That that's fine," said Polly, brightening up
 
 Word from New York 257 
 
 a lot. " That'll mean you'll have a chance to get 
 out and rest up for awhile." 
 
 " Not so you notice it," I said. " Not if what 
 we want goes through. I stay with it as man- 
 ager." 
 
 " Oh," said Polly, pulling off. " Then I don't 
 care about it. It don't interest me." 
 
 " Don't interest you ! " said I. 
 
 " No," she said. " It don't mean anything to 
 me a million dollars any more; only a lot of 
 figures. We've got all the money we want long 
 ago, and more. What I'm interested in is you. 
 What I thought was that you were going to stop 
 for awhile." 
 
 " Well, I guess not," I said. " If I can help it. 
 Why should I? I never felt better in my life. 
 I'm as fresh as a daisy." 
 
 'Why why should you?" said Polly, firing 
 up again. ' Well, if you lived with yourself, you 
 wouldn't have to ask that question. You're all to 
 pieces," she said, her voice getting sharp. " Your 
 digestion's gone. Your nerves are jangling all the 
 time. Why wouldn't they be? U-up all hours of 
 the day and night, at the factory. O-out ever) 7 
 day and half the night, eating heavy meals at that 
 Lembach's and the Elks with those men. You 
 can't stand it. Nobody can. You're different en- 
 tirely. You're like a bear with a sore head. No- 
 body can look at you, but you get up and want to 
 bite them." 
 
 " I must be a nice thing to live with, according to 
 you," I said.
 
 258 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " You are," said Pol. " And it's a shame too," 
 she said, after awhile, " when you're naturally so 
 good tempered when you aren't all to pieces! 
 That's why I wanted to jump up and laugh out 
 loud when I heard it. I thought you were going to 
 sell out for good." 
 
 " You laugh too quick," I told her. 
 
 " Bill," she said, coming over and putting her 
 arm around me. " You've been going too fast. 
 You can't do it. You don't see it, but I do. You 
 don't want to get laid out, like Pasc, do you a 
 chronic invalid? " 
 
 " I'm not Pasc," I said. 
 
 " No," she said. " But you're flesh and blood, 
 just the same if you don't think so. You can't 
 stand this always. I know; I can see." 
 
 " I wish you'd stop giving out that moan about 
 Pasc," said I, getting sore. " I'm sick and tired of 
 hearing it. I'm not like Pasc in the slightest de- 
 gree. And you know it. I'm no broken-down bag 
 of bones." 
 
 " N-no," she said, hurrying it out. " You're big 
 and fat and puffy. Just as bad the other way. 
 Just as bad exactly." 
 
 " Oh, piffle," I said, shaking her arm off. 
 
 ' There you go again! " she said. 
 
 ;< Well, this hasn't been done yet," said I. 
 ' Very likely it won't ever be. The probabilities 
 are we'll stay right here and keep on going the way 
 we are now." 
 
 " And, as for going to Detroit," said Polly. " I 
 wouldn't stand for that, anyhow."
 
 259 
 
 "You wouldn't," said I, staring at her; "well, 
 drop it. It hasn't happened yet I " And I got out, 
 and went down the street. 
 
 It made me pretty sore, what she said. But 
 there was something in it. I was ugly lately. I 
 felt worse all the time like a vicious dog. 
 
 " I don't know what's got into me lately," I said, 
 going down to the Elks. " My digestion's all out 
 of whack. I guess that's it all right. It must be. 
 I'll have to be a little more careful 1 " 
 
 Two days afterwards I heard from Proctor 
 Billings that our thing would probably go through 
 price and all. And the thirty thousand dollar a 
 year job for me if I wanted it! 
 
 I felt pretty good, naturally. I stopped into 
 Lembachs for lunch, and I ate more than I ought 
 to grilled clams, I think it was that was their 
 specialty. Or something else pretty heavy. When 
 I got through I had to go home. I had one of 
 those bilious headaches again. 
 
 " I don't see what it is, Pol," I said, when I got 
 home. " I never used to be like this. My stomach 
 seems to be all shot to pieces." 
 
 " You'll find out what it is," she said, " if you 
 keep on going like this much longer." 
 
 " You may be right," I said, rolling. " Gripes! " 
 I was in awful pain. " I'll have to cut it out some, 
 I guess. I'll have to get out and eat simpler." 
 
 "I'd like to see you!" said Polly. "While 
 you're doing what you are now. I'd like to see you 
 stop, when anybody wants you to anything! 
 
 " No, you won't stop, ever. You'll do exactly
 
 260 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 what you please, without regard for me, or any- 
 body else. I I'd like to pound you," she said, 
 getting red, clenching her fist. " I wish I was 
 strong enough. I'd beat you into a thousand pieces 
 till you had some sense ! 
 
 " Oh, Bill," she said, throwing her arms around 
 me again, and reaching up with the other hand, 
 trying to feel my forehead. " Why are you such 
 an idiot?" 
 
 And I pushed her away from me. 
 
 " Get away," I said. " Let me alone, will you? 
 If there's anything makes me tired it's a woman 
 pawing around you when you're sick! " 
 
 " Have it your own way," said Polly, shutting 
 her mouth together and leaving the room. 
 
 " You bet I will," I said. And I turned my face 
 over to the wall and took it, for the next three 
 hours. 
 
 There were several days that she and I didn't 
 talk on that main subject to both of us. We kept 
 off it. We always had, on things like that, since 
 we'd lived together. 
 
 ' That's one thing I won't do," said Polly, right 
 after we got married. " We won't have any argu- 
 ing going on in this house. We're both too quick- 
 tempered. I didn't marry to start a debating so- 
 ciety. If anything comes up we can't agree on, we'll 
 just drop it, and cool off." And that's what we 
 always did, or she did dropped the thing, and 
 cooled off, and kept her mouth shut. 
 
 But this thing couldn't be dropped. It came up 
 all at once, and it got going fast, and had to be
 
 Word from New York 261 
 
 settled. Within a week Proctor Billings sent for 
 me to sign up and confirm that option that he could 
 have my stock to hand over to those New York 
 people. 
 
 " It's all right," said Polly, when I told her what 
 I was going to do and her mouth tightened up. 
 "I could stand for it, I suppose! All but one 
 thing!" 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Going out to Detroit." 
 
 " Don't be an obstinate fool. That's one of the 
 best parts of it for me in a business way. I'll 
 just be getting good and started when I get out 
 there." 
 
 " I won't do it, that's all. I warned you before- 
 hand," she said. " And I won't." 
 
 "You won't, eh?" 
 
 " No," she said, tightening her lips again. " I 
 won't!" 
 
 And we stood and glared at each other. 
 
 " I won't," she said and her face got white, 
 starting around her mouth. " I told you I 
 wouldn't, and I won't. I won't pull everything up 
 again and move the third time in six years 
 way out there." 
 
 And I didn't say anything for fear I'd be sorry. 
 
 " Oh, Bill," she said, almost crying. " Just 
 when we got started so well here. When the chil- 
 dren have got their little friends! In three years 
 Junior will be all ready to go to Yale with all the 
 rest of the boys." 
 
 "And what else?" I stood and asked her. I
 
 262 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 could see there was something beside that; that this 
 was only excuses the way women do covering 
 up the main thing. "What else?" 
 
 " No, sir," she said, getting kind of hysterical. 
 "I I won't. I I won't go to Detroit and 
 you won't, either! If I've got to bury you if 
 you can't take the money they offer you and get out 
 and rest, I'd rather stay just where we are and keep 
 the business. I'd rather bury you here where I've 
 got friends, then out in Detroit, where we haven't 
 got any! " 
 
 " So that's it," I said. " That's what's on your 
 mind." 
 
 " Yes yes, it is," she said. " If you want the 
 truth, I'm worried to death about you. And you 
 know it." 
 
 And then she kind of broke down. 
 
 " Well, then, you've got to get over it," I said, 
 keeping away from her. I was going to break her 
 of that, if I could. " Because if I'm sick, it's mostly 
 in your head. Cheer up ! " I said. " Your im- 
 agination's got loose, and is running away with you. 
 I'm not going to die right off ! " 
 
 ' Well, you wouldn't want to be a half invalid 
 all your life, like Pasc," she said, easing up a little 
 and staring. " Just for nothing at all. Just for 
 rushing around and tearing around for more money 
 when we've got the chance now to get out, with 
 more money than we will ever know what to do 
 with." 
 
 " Well," I said. " If that's all the matter, just get 
 it out of your head ! I'm good for a long time yet."
 
 Word from New York 263 
 
 " You don't sleep decently, your digestion's all 
 gone. And you're smoking all the time," said 
 Polly. " I know. You've got to stop it. You're 
 going too fast just as poor Pasc was. Only in a 
 different way. You have been faster and faster 
 every year since this started ! " 
 
 " Fast your grandmother's foot," said I. 
 
 " All right," she said, her voice getting sharp 
 again. " But remember what I say. If you go to 
 Detroit, you'll go alone. I won't, nor the children 
 either. You can go, and kill yourself, if you want 
 to. But I'll stay right here with the children. You 
 can't budge me ! " 
 
 " We'll see about that," said I, breaking out 
 again. " Not on your life," I said. " You don't 
 dictate like that to me ! " 
 
 So that next day I signed up and confirmed my 
 option with Proctor Billings who was to deliver 
 it to the New York people. For he was putting 
 through the whole thing. With my consent. He 
 knew how. They didn't know me in the transac- 
 tion those New Yorkers practically at all; 
 though they did promise me with Billings' con- 
 sent this five years' contract as manager at De- 
 troit of the motor cycle end, that Polly was so rabid 
 over. I went right along. I went over it with 
 my lawyers, and I decided that next day to go- 
 ahead under the old agreement and take the new 
 job at the same time. 
 
 " We ought to hear from them get the money 
 in a month," Billings told me. 
 
 I went home that night. I didn't say anything
 
 264 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 to Polly, or she to me, about that. I didn't have to. 
 We knew. It certainly was a rotten mess. And it 
 went on that way for almost a week. 
 
 We didn't talk much on anything she and I 
 just went on living, saying nothing, with this thing 
 always between us. We wouldn't either of us give 
 way, I could see that. She was spunkier and more 
 set than I was, if anything. Daytimes I was away 
 from the house, most of the time. But we slept 
 together in one bed at nights, just the same as al- 
 ways without scarcely talking to each other, ex- 
 cept when we had to and nothing at all on this 
 one thing we were both thinking of. I woke up 
 one night, and I thought I heard the bed shaking. 
 I thought she was crying to herself without any 
 noise. And then I made a motion, and it stopped. 
 Two nights after I thought I noticed the same thing. 
 
 By this time, if I told the truth to her, I was kind 
 of sick of it all myself. I was feeling kind of rocky 
 anyway, and this row at home didn't help much, 
 when I got to thinking it over. I was almost tired 
 of my bargain already. It seemed to me Polly 
 might be half right about the thing. It might be 
 a kind of fool operation, after all, for us to pull up 
 and go out there to Detroit after living all our lives 
 in this one place and got used to it. And that kind 
 of got me arguing out the whole thing again with 
 myself. 
 
 "What's the advantage of it?" I said to myself 
 lying there* thinking at night, listening to see if 
 she was going to start that silent crying again. " I 
 believe we could have made more money, too, sit-
 
 Word from New York 265 
 
 ting right here, and running the business ourselves. 
 
 " Running it ourselves," I said to myself, " and 
 staying here where you're known and can be 
 somebody! Instead of going out there and be a 
 small toad in a great big puddle. A million ain't 
 so much," I said to myself, " compared to what 
 you'd make here. And what's thirty thousand dol- 
 lars a year for five years? " 
 
 But that wasn't the only thing or the main 
 thing with me. I began to see that as the days 
 went along. The fact was, when it came right 
 down to it, I hated to give up that business we'd 
 worked so hard to build up. 
 
 I felt that way at first a little. But it kept 
 growing on me. And it grew worse as I saw, right 
 side of us, what Pasc and Zetta were doing with 
 themselves, since he got out all the time getting 
 worse and worse, until finally it came to that time 
 at their new housewarming.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE MISSING RUNABOUT 
 
 They had been there several weeks then in that 
 new house of theirs they'd built next to ours. 
 
 Every morning pleasant days you'd see 
 Pasc come out and sit around the lawn. Polly used 
 to call my attention to him, before our row became 
 quite so bad. 
 
 " You think Zetta's changed," said Polly. " It's 
 been nothing to him. See him," she said. " Isn't 
 it awful. Doesn't he look and act just like an old 
 man!" 
 
 ;< There's nothing to him, any more," I said. 
 
 " Sitting, staring off," said Polly. 
 
 "Still at it! He's still got that carburetor on 
 his brain," I told her; "that change he's working 
 on for the poor gasolene and for the aeroplane. 
 He can't quite fetch it, I guess." 
 
 " Maybe maybe he never will ! " said Polly, 
 watching him, sitting there on a bench he had, under 
 an old maple tree, getting out his stub and scrap of 
 paper again. 
 
 " Not so bad as that! " I said. " I guess." 
 
 Then she didn't say anything, answering me. 
 " Poor fellow," she said to herself, under her 
 breath. " He always looks so tired."
 
 The Missing Runabout 267 
 
 " Ain't it funny," I said, watching him. " It's 
 burning him up." 
 
 " I don't see anything funny about it," said Polly, 
 speaking up. 
 
 " It's a queer thing to watch, just the same," I 
 said. 
 
 " You can see a carburetor in his eyes, if you 
 look close, so Zetta says," said Polly. 
 
 " I believe it," I said. I could almost see from 
 that distance his old pale-blue eyes, peering out 
 from back of those bony cheek bones, searching 
 around a thousand miles off for something they 
 could never quite find. " But he's lucky in one way, 
 at that, to have something to think about. Luckier 
 a lot than I'd be, if I ever had to knock off busi- 
 ness." 
 
 " Maybe," said Polly, " though I don't believe it. 
 But that's the way it's hard on Zetta. She don't 
 have that either something to think about. And 
 you never see them together at all. She says she 
 tries her best every day with him, and then gives 
 him up finally to his carburetor." 
 
 "And goes off riding with her chauffeur!" I 
 said. 
 
 " Yes," said Polly. " Most every afternoon." 
 
 " It's a darned outrage," I said, " for her to be- 
 have so." 
 
 " It doesn't look very nice," Polly answered me. 
 
 " Are they still talking about it? " I asked her. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Just as much as ever? " 
 
 " More."
 
 268 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " She's a fool," I said. " Just a plain damned 
 fool she's gotten to be ! " 
 
 " It's a shame too," said Polly. " There isn't a 
 thing wrong about her except this awful restless- 
 ness. Like a disease." 
 
 " I don't know which is worse," I told her, " be- 
 ing crooked or a plain damned fool. I don't know 
 what does the most damage. I'm through caring 
 about her now, anyhow. The thing I care about is 
 old Pasc, sitting there, chasing his invention around 
 inside his old skull. That's all I care now." 
 
 " I don't. I'm sorry for them both," said Polly. 
 " You can't blame it all on her," she said. " He's 
 got to take his share. He and his everlasting car- 
 buretor." 
 
 " Following around after it," I said, and grinned, 
 thinking. 
 
 " Like a man who sees a ghost," said Polly, 
 "beckoning; and has to follow it, in the old stories 
 those old people used to tell." 
 
 " And the worst of it is," she said, going back to 
 Zetta again, " you can't stop her. He won't see it 
 ever ; and the more she thinks all the folks talk 
 about her, the more she'll go right ahead, faster 
 than ever, defying them. Everybody's talking 
 naturally, everywhere." 
 
 " Do you think," I said, " they'll turn out the 
 neighbors around here, anyhow at that dinner 
 party, when they open up the house? " 
 
 " I think so," she answered me. " Probably. 
 With what little we do and with Mrs. Billings. 
 But she isn't helping us not very much."
 
 The Missing Runabout 269 
 
 " The reckless fool," I said, thinking of Zetta 
 again. 'You can't blame the women exactly! 
 You know what they're calling those two down at 
 the garage that row of eyes and clean collars and 
 dirty mouths along that wall?" 
 
 " No," said Polly. 
 
 "The soul mates! " 
 
 ' They are in a way, too," said Polly. " In one 
 way. Both of them. Both desperate kind of 
 rebels. You won't see it," she said, " not since you 
 had that row with him but that boy of Tom's 
 isn't all bad." 
 
 " He's bad enough," I told her, " so if you went 
 tearing around with him like that, I'd kill you." 
 
 " Maybe," said Polly. 
 
 " No maybe to it," said I. 
 
 We'd done all we could. I'd gone to Billings, 
 practically, after Pasc had shown me how he'd like 
 it if Zetta could get in with nice people, like Polly 
 had. I'd practically gone and asked Billings if he 
 wouldn't get his wife to help out a little, and come 
 anyhow herself. For they were neighbors prac- 
 tically, you might say and kind of leaders on 
 High Hill. And what they said went. And Bill- 
 ings said he'd see what he could do. And Polly 
 heard somewhere else that his wife was coming, and 
 even helping out a little though it came pretty 
 hard. 
 
 But Zetta, of course, wouldn't help any or 
 hardly come half-way; especially when she took a 
 dislike to anybody, the way she had to Proctor 
 Billings' wife.
 
 270 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " You talk about Billings the human icicle," 
 she said to me, " he's nothing to his wife. Male 
 and female icicles," she said, laughing that harsh 
 laugh of hers, " and (what is it now?) the female 
 is more chilly than the male or something like 
 that! " And made up a stiff face like Mrs. Bill- 
 ings. 
 
 I had to laugh, in spite of myself. m 
 
 " Let them see me," she said to Polly about the 
 same time, " driving out, if they want to. What 
 do I care? I'll go where I please, and do what I 
 please, so long as I know I'm straight. Whose 
 business is it? " 
 
 We two were pretty well worked up, especially 
 Polly, as the day of that party of theirs came on. 
 We weren't sure that we'd get the women to recog- 
 nize her and come up to the very last minute. 
 
 But the Thomases didn't care apparently. Zet 
 was as indifferent as ever, and old Pasc was around, 
 looking off, with his eyes in a vise, trying to tear 
 that last wrinkle about that carburetor from the 
 back end of his brain somewhere. 
 
 It was that way clear up to the day of the dinner 
 party itself. Zetta talked absolutely indifferent. 
 It made you mad almost, when you thought of all 
 the trouble we'd taken for her. 
 
 " I don't care. I wouldn't have cared if they'd 
 all stayed away, and hadn't accepted. I wouldn't 
 have done it at all. I wouldn't care that if it 
 wasn't for Pasc, and you, Honey! " she said. And 
 grabbed Polly in her arms and kissed her. 
 
 " But I'll be good. I'll be stiff as any old maid
 
 The Missing Runabout 271 
 
 you ever saw," she said to her, coming around 
 again in that old-time, good-hearted way of hers. 
 " Just tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do 
 it." 
 
 And she had done just what she said she would, 
 for days till that very afternoon of the dinner 
 party. 
 
 " Do you know what she's done ! " said Polly 
 when Tcame home to the house a little early, to see 
 if I could do anything. 
 
 "No. What?" 
 
 " She's gone out riding this afternoon in that 
 runabout with Tom's boy. Just now ! " 
 
 " The devilish fool," I said, getting up out of 
 my chair. " Can't she stop for a minute?" 
 
 " She told me she just had to." 
 
 " Had to ! The whole town will have to see 
 her. This afternoon ! " 
 
 " No," said Pol. " It was pretty near dusk, 
 when they started. Pretty dark." 
 
 " It's now four thirty," I said. " Nearer five. 
 Think of it. Two hours before the dinner! " 
 
 "The real fact is," said Polly, "she's nervous. 
 She hates meeting them all tonight, like poison 
 all those women. And she thinks this will set her 
 up brace her. Give her fresh air! " 
 
 " Yes," I said then. " And what if anything 
 happened. If they, had a blow-out; or got held up 
 anyway! What's she thinking of? It's dark as 
 night right now! 
 
 " What's Pasc doing? " I asked her. 
 
 " That's the worst of it," said Polly. " Do you
 
 272 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 know what he's doing really. He's working on 
 that thing of his now! Today! He's in one 
 of those fits those trances when he thinks he's 
 discovered something. He's forgotten there is such 
 a thing as a dinner party." 
 
 " Sitting there alone," I said, " like an absent- 
 minded child in the dusk." 
 
 " Yes. In his room upstairs." 
 
 " She ought to be killed," I said. 
 
 But I thought, of course, it would come out all 
 right some way. It was six o'clock, pretty 
 nearly, when Pasc called up and said Zetta and the 
 driver hadn't come yet. 
 
 "What!" said I. "Not come!" 
 
 I looked around. Polly stood right back of 
 me. 
 
 "What is it?" she asked. And I told her. 
 
 " You let me talk to him," she said, and took 
 the telephone away from me. 
 
 " I'm worried," said Pasc. 
 
 " I don't blame you," said Polly. " Now here 
 listen. I'm coming over to your house, and see 
 that things are going right. I've been there all 
 day, anyhow. And Bill will start right now to see 
 if anything's happened to them. Any tire trouble." 
 
 " Well, I wish you would," Pasc told her. " If 
 you feel you can." 
 
 ' You know we do," said Polly. " You know 
 that's exactly the way we do feel." 
 
 " For I'm getting kind of worked up," said Pasc. 
 
 "Look," said Polly. "Which way did they 
 go?"
 
 The Missing Runabout 273 
 
 And he told her where he thought. It was a 
 common road they often took, out through the 
 woods that Rocky Cove road, where she went 
 out to tear off the miles in that fast car. I knew it 
 a lonely place, but pretty good for a country 
 road. 
 
 " Hurry up, Bill ! " said Polly. " You haven't 
 got any time." And I ran out to the garage. 
 
 " I God," I said to myself, driving out the run- 
 about, "what does this mean?" I didn't know 
 what to think. I knew there was that road house 
 beyond there. I thought of that first that road 
 was the shortest way there. She might be out 
 there drinking a cocktail taking a bracer, and 
 take too much. And yet I couldn't think that 
 either. I'd never seen her drunk not more than 
 gay at the furthest. 
 
 " I don't know what to make of this," I said to 
 myself, scared. " Unless it's an accident." 
 
 I was in a nice fix. I didn't want to ask any- 
 body of course not near the town anyway, if 
 they'd seen them. And out farther it was too dark 
 anyway. I kept plunging on down the road I 
 thought they'd gone on, trusting to Providence. I 
 kept going. I went deeper and deeper in the 
 woods. And all of a sudden, I turned the corner, 
 and I saw it! 
 
 I saw this headlight on the side of the road, tilted 
 up into the trees. And this figure standing in my 
 own headlight. I hadn't more than turned the cor- 
 ner, when it jumped up and stood there this 
 woman still, in that dead white light. Held up its
 
 274 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 hands and stood there. And I saw them those 
 hands ! 
 
 I held up with a bump. Both brakes. I saw 
 those hands! 
 
 "What is it? What's happened? Are you 
 hurt?" I said, jumping out. 
 
 " No," she said, " not a particle." 
 
 "Your hands?" 
 
 " No." And stood there for a minute, still. 
 
 " Look," she said and started and kind of 
 staggered around. " Look," she said, like a child 
 
 showing you something it's found. 
 And I started after her, down the bank. 
 
 il We were going around the corner," she said. 
 " I was thrown ! " 
 
 The car was clear over wheels up. 
 
 " Look," she said, straining at the side of it. 
 "Can't we raise it?" 
 
 " Stop! " I said. " You can't do that! Not in 
 a million years ! " 
 
 " I tried to get the jack," she said, panting. 
 " But I couldn't get to it." 
 
 We talked like people breathing, rather than just 
 speaking hoarse and whispering. 
 
 "Where is he?" I asked her. It was dark 
 under there in the woods. Black as your hat 
 
 except those twisted headlights, cocked up into 
 the trees; and my lights pointing down the road. 
 
 "Where is he?" I said. 
 
 "Under there! Look," she said. "You can 
 crawl in here." The car was kind of tilted on the 
 bank,
 
 The Missing Runabout 275 
 
 u How long's it been? " I asked her. 
 
 " I don't know," she said. " I don't remember. 
 But here ! " she said, hurrying showing me this 
 place where the car lay up against the bank. " I 
 got in there I got in there ! But all I had was 
 matches. They went out under there in the 
 wind. I reached him, but I couldn't get ahold of 
 him to pull him out." 
 
 " Wait wait ! " I said. " I've got my pocket 
 flashlight in the car." And I ran over and got it. 
 
 "Hurry!" said Zetta. "Hurry! I'll back 
 around your car till you get that light, too." 
 
 And I went down under so I could poke my head 
 in. I could see the matches there, on the ground, 
 where she'd been. And I turned my eyes up. I 
 looked with my flashlight! And I backed right 
 out quick ! 
 
 " He didn't seem to breathe," said Zetta 
 " when I put my hands on him." 
 
 "No!" said I. "No! Look," I said, think- 
 ing forty times to the second. " Nobody's been 
 here, of course? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " And nobody's seen you riding that you know 
 of?" 
 
 " No," she said. 
 
 "Sure?" 
 
 " It was almost dark when we started." 
 
 " Come on ! " I told her. 
 
 " Come ! " she said to me. " Where ? " 
 
 " Home," I said. 
 
 " And leave him there I "
 
 276 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Come on," I told her. " There's no time to 
 lose." 
 
 " But suppose " she said. 
 
 " There's no supposing to it." 
 
 " Suppose," she said. " He might be still 
 alive?" 
 
 "Alive! "I said. "That! 
 
 " Come on," I said again. " The first thing 
 you've got to do is get home. He's dead," I said. 
 " You know that as well as I do ! Jump in 
 now! " I said, taking her around the waist, and 
 pushing her toward my car. 
 
 " Come on," I told her, when she stopped. 
 " Look aren't your hands cut any? " 
 
 " No," she said. 
 
 "Sure?" 
 
 " Yes," she said, and shuddered. 
 
 " Wipe them off," I said, " on the grass there 
 what you can! And come! Come on," I said, 
 starting pulling her again. " Be sensible." 
 
 " What are you going to do? " she said, holding 
 back. " Leave him ! Leave him ! " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " But suppose," she said again. 
 
 " There's no supposing about it," I said. " You 
 know it! You saw him!" 
 
 And she shivered against me. 
 
 " Somebody'll be along in a few hours," I said, 
 pulling her, " anyway. And you can thank God 
 they haven't been along before. Before I did! 
 And now, the quicker we get out of here the bet- 
 ter!"
 
 The Missing Runabout 277 
 
 "Where are you going? What are you do- 
 ing?" she said, resisting me all she could when 
 I put her in my runabout. 
 
 " You're going home," I said, " with me! He's 
 dead. But you aren't. Nor the rest of us ! 
 You're going home. You're going home and get 
 ready for that dinner party! 
 
 " You know what will happen," I said, holding 
 her, when she started struggling again, " if you 
 ain't there. If they all come there and find 
 you're out here in a car, with him smashed up 
 against a tree joy riding! You know what it 
 will mean. 
 
 ' You're no fool," I said. " You know what's 
 been brewing about this and how long. This 
 will be the end." 
 
 " What do I care? " she said to me, in a kind of 
 low voice " what they say? " 
 
 [t It isn't what you care," I said, " now. It's 
 what we care the rest of us. You've got to 
 care for us ! " 
 
 But she wouldn't give in still. 
 
 " And the newspapers," I said. "Think of it! 
 Smearing it all over the face of the earth on all 
 of us. Come, you've got to! " 
 
 " And sit up there hours at dinner, and 
 smile!" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " At that Mrs. Billings and those others 
 those awful things! " she said, drawing back. 
 
 " You've got to. You've got to go home and go 
 through with it."
 
 278 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " No, sir, I can't," she said. " I won't." 
 
 " Zet," I told her, taking her wrists. " be a sport. 
 Remember," I said, shaking her. "You ain't the 
 only one that's got a stake in this. Remember the 
 rest of us. Remember Pasc " 
 
 " But what's the use ! " she asked me. " What's 
 it for?" 
 
 " We're going to take a chance," I said, " that 
 nobody'll ever know that you were here. It's a 
 long one, but we're going to take it just the same." 
 
 She let up some on her drawing back. I felt her 
 body yield a little. 
 
 " Come," I kept urging, "Zet! You've got to. 
 Think of the rest of us if you don't of yourself. 
 If you ever want to hold your head up again in 
 this town," I said, " or Pasc! Pasc," I said. 
 
 " Come on," she called out all at once, sitting 
 back in the car without my holding her. 
 
 " That's right," I told her. " That's the girl. 
 Now," I said, closing the door, " we'll get home as 
 quick as God'll let us. We'll snatch the head of 
 it!" 
 
 " Don't talk! " said Zetta, in this strange voice. 
 "Don't talk to me!" 
 
 I turned and started with a bang jumped 
 into high and went! Around the corner, away 
 from those two bright green spots, those ugly head- 
 lights cocked up into the trees out into the dark ! 
 Down the crooked country road we went I let 
 her out for home racing as if the devil was after 
 us. Saying nothing, either one of us.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 A HOUSEWARMING 
 
 " Bill ! " said Zetta, just before we got there. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Not a word. Not a word to Pasc, until it's 
 over. Unless we have to ! " 
 
 " You're right," I said. 
 
 " I'm afraid he couldn't stand it. He couldn't 
 go through with it especially the way he's been 
 feeling lately. He'd show it someway." 
 
 "What'll we tell him?" I said thinking for 
 the first time how it was going to affect him the 
 shock of it. 
 
 " You leave that to me," said Zetta. 
 
 ' What will you tell him about your dress and 
 hands?" 
 
 " I'm going to stop at your house a second 
 and wash up. You go on ahead of me," she said, 
 " so the servants won't see me." 
 
 And I got her in we walked right in, with my 
 latchkey, nobody the wiser. 
 
 " Polly's over to your house," I said. 
 
 " Get her on the 'phone," she told me, " while 
 I'm washing." 
 
 So I did. 
 
 "What is it?" said Polly. 
 
 " It's all right," I said. " Just tire trouble.
 
 280 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " It was more than that," I said, lowering my 
 voice. " But you tell Pasc that ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Polly, whispering herself. " She's 
 all right?" 
 
 "Absolutely yes. It's him!" I whispered 
 back. " But now, listen she's going to walk 
 over now from here, to the side door. She said not 
 to let the servants see her." 
 
 "That's all right," said Polly. "That's all 
 right, anyhow. I lied. I told the servants she 
 was over at my house, resting, to get rid of the ex- 
 citement. But hurry up ! Hurry up ! Hurry up ! 
 There's only half an hour now! And you'd better 
 come over with her, I think and take care of 
 Pasc for a minute." 
 
 " Come now," said Polly, at the door when we 
 got there. "Hurry up. Have you overslept?" 
 she said louder. " You crazy thing? " 
 
 And they two went upstairs together. 
 
 "What was it, anyhow?" said Pasc. 
 
 " Tire trouble," I told him. 
 
 "Oh?" he said, back in that absent-minded way 
 again. 
 
 ;; Well, I certainly was glad you helped me out 
 got her home in time ! " he said as if it was 
 all right, and the most usual thing in the world for 
 a woman to drift in at that time for her first big 
 dinner party in her own house. 
 
 u I've got to run back and change my own 
 clothes," I said, when I'd told him that Powers 
 would be back with the car later. 
 
 ' You're good friends, good neighbors," said
 
 A Housewarming 281 
 
 Pasc, letting me out "you and Polly. I don't 
 know what we'd do without you." 
 
 I had to rush my head off at that, especially 
 without Polly there to help me dressing. I was one 
 of the last ones to get in. Zetta was down all 
 dressed up and fixed up and Polly was standing 
 with her. 
 
 " Christmas," I said to myself, when I first saw 
 them. " Women certainly are the great things 
 at a time like this ! " 
 
 I never saw Zetta look so well in my life her 
 eyes so bright or her lips so blood red. And I 
 never heard her talk more or easier. And Polly 
 just the same! And yet I could see, myself 
 looking at her that she knew ! That Zetta'd 
 told her. 
 
 It was different with me. I was all in all over 
 myself. I almost started eating my oysters with a 
 teaspoon, thinking. Thinking of that light, cocked 
 up in the trees, calling for help and wondering 
 when the telephone would ring. I didn't say any- 
 thing much. 
 
 " She's such a very lively woman, isn't she? " said 
 the woman next to me, looking up that old man 
 Rutherford's wife that made his money on mail 
 boxes; that woman who gushed so much over every- 
 body, and then went off and bit them in the back. 
 
 "Who?" said I, coming back to earth again. 
 I'd just thought I heard the telephone! "Who? 
 Mrs. Thomas? You bet. She's the liveliest thing 
 that ever happened." 
 
 " So vigorous," she said.
 
 282 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Yes," I answered, listening still. 
 
 " So vigorous so full of life. She scarcely 
 knows how to keep it in, does she? " she said, giv- 
 ing me a look to see how I would take it. 
 
 It made me shiver, listening, to think what they'd 
 do with her, the women if they once got their 
 teeth in this thing. 
 
 " Bubbling over," she said, sheering off when she 
 didn't get any rise out of me. " Especially tonight, 
 and her dress is so lovely. That wonderful color 
 
 so striking! " 
 
 " Yes, indeed," said I, talking like an idiot. 
 
 I was wondering all the time whether I ought to 
 have left that light going in that car whether 
 somebody would find it too soon. And yet it 
 wouldn't have worked right what I wanted to do 
 
 unless I'd done just what I did. 
 
 I sat listening for that telephone, all the time. 
 Polly had given them orders to call me; she'd told 
 me that just before we started in to dinner. " Look 
 out for it now," she said, " every minute ! " 
 
 I sat and listened, all the time, like a fireman 
 waiting for a third alarm taking a glance, every 
 now and then, at my watch, under the table. 
 
 " This thing," I said to myself, " ought to be 
 over by eleven o'clock. And it might be they 
 wouldn't run across him, or they wouldn't recognize 
 him till afterwards way out there ten miles 
 away. 
 
 " Lord, I hope so," I said to myself, and hung 
 on, waiting. 
 
 " She seems to be having such a lively time to-
 
 A Housewarming 283 
 
 night, doesn't she?" said this Mrs. Rutherford. 
 " I love to see her. She's so lovely to look at and 
 kind of unaffected. That's what I like about her. 
 And your wife, Mr. Morgan," she said, laying it on 
 as thick as she knew how. " I think she is so 
 lovely." 
 
 " Glad you do," said I, sitting up. For just then 
 the telephone rang. 
 
 One of the servant girls they had waiting on them 
 came around and spoke to me. 
 
 " Hello," said this big husky voice at the tele- 
 phone. " Your name Thomas'? " 
 
 " Yeah," I said, right off taking a chance at 
 what was coming. 
 
 " You missed your car? " 
 
 "No. Why?" said I. 
 
 "What's your number plate?" he wanted to 
 know. 
 
 And I gave him Pasc's. 
 
 " That's the one. It's yours all right. That's 
 the one ! " said this fellow on the 'phone, talking up 
 as if he was glad to know it. ' Your chauffeur's 
 been out this evening on a joy ride. Once too 
 often." 
 
 " Too often! " said I, after him. 
 
 " A red-headed man a young fellow? " 
 
 " That's the one," said I, getting hoarser and 
 hoarser, as I talked. 
 
 " Well, he won't bother you any more." 
 
 "Why not?" said I. 
 
 "He's got his this time! " 
 
 " Got his," I said, hoarser still. " How bad? "
 
 284 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Dead," said the voice. " All ground up under 
 the car. What'll we do about him," he said, " and 
 the car." 
 
 " Who are you? " I asked him. 
 
 " The police office," he said, " out in Rocky 
 Cove." 
 
 So I told him what to do, and where to send the 
 body, and the car. " I can't come out tonight," I 
 told him. " I'm giving a dinner party." 
 
 "Ah-ha," he said. "That's how it happened! 
 He thought he'd take the car out on you? You'd 
 think they'd learn more, after awhile, but they 
 don't!" 
 
 " I can't get out," I said. " But you take care of 
 me, will you neighbor," I said to him; " all you 
 can? I can't get out, so I'm going to ask you to 
 look out for us. Take care of me, will you? " I re- 
 peated. " We all need a friend now and then," I 
 told him. 
 
 " You bet we do," said he. 
 
 " Well, this is the time I need one. Your time 
 might come later." 
 
 " That's right too, Mr. Thomas," said he. 
 
 " Well, you'll know where to find one," I said, 
 and he didn't say anything. 
 
 "All right then; I leave it to you. You won't 
 lose anything by it," I said. And I got his name. 
 " And if you want to know anything later, and call 
 again, just call for William Morgan." 
 
 " I know," said the voice again. 
 
 " He's the man who'll take care of you." 
 
 " All right, boss."
 
 A Housewarming 285 
 
 " I won't forget this," said I. " I ain't that 
 kind." 
 
 " Don't mention it, Mr. Thomas," said the cop. 
 
 "And oh say!" I said. "Don't say any- 
 thing about it to the newspaper boys yet ! Hold it 
 up a little for us. Don't give it out to the news- 
 papers until after we're through here." 
 
 "How long?" 
 
 " Oh, say eleven thirty." 
 
 " Sure." 
 
 " And when you do send them around, or have 
 them call have them call for Morgan, too, see? " 
 
 " Sure. I'm on," said the cop at Rocky Cove. 
 
 I knew that was all right there, anyway. And 1 
 went back and sat down again. I found myself stick- 
 ing my napkin in at my neck, and Polly glaring at me, 
 before I caught myself. 
 
 " Business, I suppose," said this Mrs. Ruther- 
 ford, next to me, making eyes. " Oh, you men 
 you men ! " she said, getting giddy. " Can't you 
 let it alone for a minute?" 
 
 And we went on through it all. I'm proud of it 
 sometimes right through from oysters to cigars, 
 sitting there, we three, pushing her through like 
 little majors Zetta and Polly making a better 
 show than I ever saw them. Right up in G, laugh- 
 ing and talking. I kept watching them to see what 
 I was going to do, whenever there was any doubt. 
 
 And finally we got them all out to the front door 
 every one of them. 
 
 " Listen," I said to Billings, catching him on the 
 piazza, as he was going. " There's been an acci-
 
 286 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 dent while we were in here. That damn fool 
 chauffeur you know, that Powers has taken 
 advantage and been out on a joy ride with their 
 runabout and killed himself! " 
 
 He whistled to himself. " Dead! " he said. 
 
 " Deader than a smelt," I told him. " Under 
 the car. I got it on the 'phone." 
 
 " They don't know it," he said " the family? " 
 
 " No," I said. " I got up and answered the 
 'phone myself. You saw me." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " It wouldn't do," I said. " It wouldn't do for 
 the women to know while this was going on." 
 
 " No," he said and stopped, thinking. 
 "Dead!" he said, and whistled again, and lifted 
 up his eyebrows. " You did exactly right," he 
 told me. 
 
 " But now," I said, " of course, when you're out, 
 I wish you'd tell Mrs. Billings; and you two can 
 tell any of the others if you think it's the best 
 thing. I'll leave that to you," I said. 
 
 " It serves him right," said Billings, looking at 
 me, thinking it out, " in a way; that kind of chauf- 
 feur, taking an expensive car out like that with- 
 out your consent. It's a lesson, to the rest of them. 
 You can't be sure now whether you've got a car left 
 or not. I'll tell Mrs. Billings," he said, and went off 
 to his car. 
 
 I saw that end of it was all right, too. Mrs. 
 Billings would tell everybody first; and that would 
 be the story that she'd tell and stick to, whatever 
 happened.
 
 A Housewarming 287 
 
 And right after that the newspaper boys called, 
 and I gave them the right steer. 
 
 u I'm speaking for Mr. Thomas in this," I said, 
 coming to the door. They all knew me, of course. 
 
 " You can't see him," I said. " He's all broken 
 up by this thing. You know what that boy did for 
 us, when we first started riding a machine. He 
 thought the world of him, and it's got him pretty 
 bad. He ain't very well, just now, anyway. 
 
 " Come on over to the house, boys," I said, 
 " just across the lawn, and I'll tell you all about 
 it." 
 
 So I took them over, and handed out the cigars, 
 and sat down with them, and gave them their 
 story. 
 
 " That's what comes of being a Speed King," 
 said the tall, long-legged one, with the pale face, 
 and black stringy hair, who pocketed my cigar and 
 smoked his own cigarettes. 
 
 "You've got that right! " said I. 
 
 " They all get it, sooner or later," said another 
 one. 
 
 " Right," said I, and tapped him on the shoulder. 
 
 " There's a good story in that," said the white- 
 faced one, with the black hair the older one. 
 " The New York papers would take that. He had 
 quite a reputation as a rider." 
 
 " Yes, but keep it down, boys, all you can, will 
 you? It would be a great favor to us. I don't 
 want to dictate to you, but you can see how we all 
 feel about it. It was an awful shock happening 
 just while this party was going on, full blast, and 
 everything.
 
 288 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Do what you can, boys, anyway," I said. 
 " And any time you want anything more on it," I 
 said, " you just come to me. Do that much. Mr. 
 Thomas ain't well at all." 
 
 " Sure," they said. " We'll see to that." 
 
 " And any time I can do anything else for you, 
 boys," I told them, letting them out the door, " you 
 come right to me. Don't you hesitate a minute. 
 Ease up on this, boys," I said, " what you can. I'll 
 appreciate it, and I might be able to do something 
 for you sometime. You never can tell." 
 
 I saw then that that was all right watching 
 them. They hadn't gotten anything, and they 
 wouldn't, unless something slipped. 
 
 So I went back again to Pasc's house. 
 
 " We've got it fixed, I guess," I said to Polly, in 
 the front hall " my end. How is it here? How 
 about the servants?" 
 
 ' They don't know anything about it," said Polly. 
 " They believe me what I told them, that she 
 was over to our house." 
 
 " Then we've done it," said I. " We've kept the 
 thing quiet." And I sat down in the chair in the 
 hall and wiped my forehead. " Gripes, what a 
 wrestle ! " 
 
 It seemed as if I'd been stretched out on a rack 
 for months. 
 
 'They in there?" I whispered, after a minute, 
 nodding toward the library. 
 
 And she nodded back. 
 
 "She told him?" I whispered. "How did he 
 take it?"
 
 A Housewarming 289 
 
 " Pretty hard," said Polly. " He's terribly 
 broken up." 
 
 "About what?" I said, whispering. "About 
 the boy?" 
 
 And Polly nodded her head again. 
 
 And then I heard Zetta's voice in the other room, 
 as if she'd just heard me come in. " Bill," she 
 called, "is that you? Come in here. And you 
 too, Polly." 
 
 So we went in. Pasc sat there, hunched up in 
 the chair. She stood there before him, waiting 
 standing up with that gay expensive flame-colored 
 dress on her shoulders white, and her face, and 
 her great wonderful lot of dark hair over it. 
 
 " Now you're here, Bill," she said, standing 
 straight and still, " I want to thank you for to- 
 night. Something I guess I can never thank you for 
 really. You saved me my reputation, Bill. I 
 can see that now. I appreciate it." 
 
 And Pasc made a noise in his throat, as if he was 
 trying to say something and couldn't. 
 
 " Oh, forget it, Zet," I said. " It's been a hard 
 night for all of us. What we need now is bed." 
 
 But she stood there, not moving, looking at me, 
 standing stiff, with the white rims of her eyes show- 
 ing all around those deep black pupils. 
 
 " That isn't all, Bill," she said, holding out that 
 smooth white arm of hers for me to stay there. 
 "That isn't all. Now I've said that now it's 
 done I want to know something else. I want to 
 ask you something all of you. But you and 
 Pasc especially.
 
 290 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Did either of you ever think I was crooked 
 with that boy?" she said, looking me straight in 
 my eyes. 
 
 " Zetta ! " said Pasc, with a kind of hoarse voice, 
 coming up on to his feet. 
 
 " Zet," I said. " For God's sake ! " 
 
 " I mean it," she said. 
 
 "Zet," I said, warning her with my eyes try- 
 ing to, about Pasc. " You must be crazy. What 
 makes you ask such a question? What do you 
 think we are? " 
 
 " Because I had to," she went on, paying no at- 
 tention to me. " Because you might think some- 
 thing else. You had a right to." 
 
 "A right to!" Polly cried out loud. I caught 
 my breath, staring. 
 
 " Yes," said Zetta, watching me. " Because you 
 were right, and I was wrong." 
 
 "What about?" 
 
 I looked at Pasc. His face was terrible, waiting 
 to hear. 
 
 " About him ! " she kept on. " About that 
 you told me." 
 
 I stood stock-still; we all did waiting. Pasc 
 looked like a man you see sometimes struck in the 
 head. 
 
 " I was driving," she said in this low voice, like 
 somebody talking in their sleep. " Rather fast. 
 Coming back. He had been perfectly still all 
 the ride. 
 
 "All at once," she said and her face got red- 
 der than that flame-colored dress, " All at once.
 
 THAT S WHY I THOUGHT YOU WKBK ALWAYS WRONU HECAUSB 
 
 you HATED HIM!" Page 291.
 
 A Housewarming 291 
 
 he tried he tried He said something. He 
 
 must have been crazy I " 
 
 I watched Pasc. It was awful. His eyes, and 
 his face, like old yellow wax all the blood out of 
 it. But she went right along. " He must have 
 been crazy! " she said, stopping, and looking ahead 
 of her. 
 
 " Or drunk," I said, cursing him. 
 
 " I struck him," she said, staring at me, for 
 breaking in on her. " In the face. I forgot 
 everything. I struck him. Both hands ! Just as 
 we hit the corner. I killed him, I killed him! " she 
 said. "And I'm glad of it!" 
 
 " Forget it," I said. " The damned dog. He 
 isn't worth it." 
 
 " I do," she said, her breast rising and falling. 
 " I will. But I've got to say this now." 
 
 I looked at Pasc. The blood had started com- 
 ing back in his face now with a rush. 
 
 " Never before ! " she said, staring straight at 
 me. " In all that time. Not a word from him. 
 Not a suggestion. He was like a young boy I al- 
 ways knew, and wanted to be good to. Never be- 
 fore till tonight. Not one sign. Do you be- 
 lieve me? " 
 
 " Certainly I believe you," I said. " Why 
 wouldn't I?" 
 
 " In all that time," she went on. u That's why 
 I thought you were always wrong because you 
 hated him! But that's why now I thought, now 
 you thought, perhaps " she said, and faced 
 me.
 
 292 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Never in my life ! " I answered, looking her in 
 the eyes. 
 
 If you'd ever had an idea she was wrong, you 
 wouldn't any longer, looking into those eyes. 
 
 " And nobody else that knew you," said Polly. 
 
 " I was a fool! " she said. " I was a fool! But 
 did you ever any of you, think that about me for 
 a minute? " 
 
 " Zetta ! " said Polly. " How could you say 
 that!" 
 
 " Never," I said. " For a minute." 
 
 "I wanted to know!" she said, and her lips 
 twitched, just a little, for the first time. " It means 
 something to me with you three ! " 
 
 " Zet," I said, speaking with my lips and 
 moved my head over a little! " Pasc! " 
 
 For I'd seen him standing there then catching 
 at the table. 
 
 He began to sink back towards his chair. But 
 he'd hardly slouched back into it, before she was at 
 him, all over him. 
 
 "Pasc," she said, clutching at him, "Pascl 
 Have I hurt you? Have I hurt you, Pasc? Have 
 I hurt you ? " 
 
 And Polly ran upstairs for the spirits of am- 
 monia. 
 
 He came right around again. 
 
 " It's time we went home," I said to Polly, after 
 a few minutes. " You don't want me to help you 
 upstairs, or anything? " I asked Pasc. 
 
 " No," he said, with that quick old disappearing 
 smile of his. " It's nothing."
 
 A Housewarming 293 
 
 " I'll get him up. I'll take care of him," said 
 Zetta. She looked bigger and stronger than he did 
 at that. 
 
 So we let ourselves out of the house, and she 
 stayed there with him in the library. When we got 
 our things on, and went by their door, through the 
 hall, she was there beside him on her knees, kind of 
 straining him to her. Patting him on his cheeks 
 like a little girl pats her doll, or a young kitten, or 
 anything it thinks is weak and needs mothering. 
 
 " Whew! God! " I said to Polly, when we two 
 were outside. 
 
 " Did you notice him? " she asked me. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " He acted to me just like a man who's had a 
 little shock." 
 
 " He did to me for a second," said I " just for 
 the minute. But I don't believe he did." 
 
 " It won't help him any," said Polly. " His 
 health. That's the way you'll be some day! " she 
 said all of a sudden; her voice getting sharp. 
 " If you keep on going." 
 
 " Drop it! " I said. " Don't you start that to- 
 night! " 
 
 And we let ourselves in the house, and went up- 
 stairs, and went to bed. 
 
 I just lay there and rolled around. And sud- 
 denly I sat up! And wanted to light up. I saw 
 that thing I saw with my pocket searchlight under 
 the automobile. 
 
 "What is it?" said Polly, sitting up too. 
 " Can't you get to sleep, any way?"
 
 294 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " No more than you can," I said. 
 
 " I know," she said. 
 
 "It served him right! " I said, finally to say 
 something about him. I had to! 
 
 Polly lay still, and said nothing. 
 
 " It served them both right in a way." 
 
 But she didn't answer yet anything; lay there 
 thinking, apparently. 
 
 "What a mess it's been," I said "the whole 
 thing. If he'd been satisfied to go to work, that 
 boy, like other people. If she hadn't had to go 
 chasing around like a crazy woman, top speed, a 
 hundred miles an hour, hurrying around, looking 
 for excitement all the time out after something 
 new this thing would never have happened. 
 
 " But after all," I said, rolling back again, " why 
 should we care? He just got what was coming to 
 him the damned dog ! " 
 
 "No," said Polly, finally lying still answer- 
 ing after awhile, speaking with long breaks in her 
 talk the way she did when she was thinking. 
 " No. He wasn't to blame entirely nor she." 
 
 "He wasn't," I said "or she! Who was, 
 then?" 
 
 " Everything," she said thinking. 
 
 "Everything!" 
 
 "The life we lead the speed we've all been 
 going at." 
 
 And she stopped and lay absolutely still. 
 
 " Speed," she said then, after awhile. " All of 
 us. Faster and faster all together! Speed!" 
 she said. " Everywhere everywhere always.
 
 A Housewarming 295 
 
 Faster, faster just a little faster 1 It seems some- 
 times as if we were all going crazy." 
 
 And then she kept still. 
 
 I lay there on my back, staring till morning 
 seeing that boy of Tom's there under that car.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 A MILLION DOLLARS HUH I 
 
 I was raw, every way, those next few days all 
 over; as if I had been scrubbed bleeding with sand- 
 paper. We had it all covered up about Zetta 
 and the accident so far as the newspapers and 
 the rest were concerned. I was sure of that the 
 next day. 
 
 But I couldn't get the thing off my mind es- 
 pecially after Polly and I had been down the next 
 morning to see Tom Powers and his wife. 
 
 Pasc wasn't any better for the thing, either, 
 though he claimed he was all right enough, after 
 a day or two. But I could tell from his motions 
 around the yard, and more so after Polly called 
 my attention to it. He didn't walk right, she 
 claimed not quite straight, after that. I never 
 could tell, myself, whether it was her imagination 
 or not. 
 
 My mind kept turning day and night. I lay 
 nights thinking this thing over the business, and 
 my selling out and going to Detroit to live, and 
 my row with Polly. The more I thought of it all, 
 the sorer I got; and the more I wished I'd just 
 stayed there, in the place where I was born, and 
 run my own business that I'd built up myself. 
 
 ; ' What's a million dollars," I said, " any dif- 
 ferent than what I've got now ? I'll have to reinvest
 
 A Million Dollars Huh! 297 
 
 it somewhere and lose it maybe ! And what will I do 
 myself? I'll go out there, under these fellows, and 
 be somebody else's hired man, when I'd been used to 
 running my own business to suit myself. How sure 
 do you suppose they'll be to keep me, after my 
 contract's up ? How do I know how I'll get along, 
 working under somebody else?" 
 
 I got sorer every time I thought of it, and sicker 
 of my bargain. And I felt rotten especially 
 after that thing happened. My digestion wasn't 
 any better. I was all out of joint everywhere 
 uglier than a bear; and worst of all when I was in 
 talking the change over the arrangements for the 
 transfer of the business with Proctor Billings. 
 He was so devilish cold and fishy about the whole 
 thing and particularly some of the folks that 
 had worked with us a good while, and couldn't get 
 out to Detroit. He didn't care a hoot what did 
 become of them. 
 
 I remember asking him, as one special favor, to 
 keep old Tom Powers at something because he 
 couldn't break loose at his age, naturally and his 
 lifting up his eyebrows and saying that he'd see ! 
 
 " That's the way they get," to myself, " when 
 they've always had everything; and never knew 
 what it was to be down with the rest of the folks. 
 They ain't human." 
 
 He sat there, still and polished, beside his vase of 
 flowers on his desk. Orchids, they were now his 
 new orchids, from his own greenhouse. He got on 
 me wrong, all the time but especially that last 
 day!
 
 298 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 I went over from the bank to the office in my ma- 
 chine, and found two fellows waiting for me there, 
 two men in the automobile business I knew pretty 
 well one from New York and one from town. 
 And I took them out to lunch. 
 
 " What do you say if we go over to Lembachs'," 
 I said, " and get some of Hansie's Wurtz- 
 burger? " 
 
 And they said that suited them. 
 
 " Now what do you see, boys? " I said, when we 
 got there. " Look her over. Guilford clams, 
 deviled crabs or say a porterhouse. They're all 
 good, eh, Hansie?" said I. 
 
 " Sure ! " said the old Dutchman, nodding. 
 
 " I'll take a plain porterhouse," I said, " when 
 it comes to me. But nix on the beer, Hans. Get 
 me a good stiff drink of rye a good one. You 
 know! I guess that'll fix me. I'm uglier than the 
 devil's grandmother. I'm all out of joint, still." 
 
 " You ugly ! " they said, jollying me. " You've 
 got a fine right to be ugly. Just knocking down a 
 million, or two and a whale of a big salary! " 
 
 " Well, I've a good right to be up in the air 
 some," I said; "you'd think so, if you knew what 
 I'd been through lately." 
 
 I still felt as mean as a man could. And I sent 
 out Hans to the bar for another whiskey. 
 
 ;< This steak is bum," I said, pushing it away. 
 " Can't you cook anything here, any more? " 
 
 " I'm sorry, Mr. Morgan; can't I get you some- 
 thing else," said -old Hans, fussing around. 
 
 II No. Nothing," I said. " You can't cook here,
 
 A Million Dollars Huh! 299 
 
 that's all. You're on the skids the whole place. 
 Get me a cigar." 
 
 And I put down my other whiskey. 
 
 " Gee, you have got a grouch on today," said 
 Chunky Newman. 
 
 " Everything's going to sixes and sevens with me 
 over this thing," I said. " Laugh. Go ahead, 
 damn you. But it's so. For fifty cents," I said, 
 " I'd chuck the whole thing over. My wife is crazy 
 about going. We're in a regular cat and dog row 
 over it. And I'm sorry myself about pulling up 
 breaking up everything, and leaving. And when 
 you come down to it, I believe I've made a mis- 
 take. I believe you'd say so, if you were in my 
 place." 
 
 " Sure. Yes," said Chunky, laughing till his col- 
 lar choked him. " I wouldn't take their million 
 dollars. I'd slap them in the face with it. Take 
 it away! " he said, laughing and choking up again. 
 "Take it away!" 
 
 " That's all right," I said. " But I believe right 
 now, it was too little money. I believe I could sit 
 right here, and make more for myself finally than 
 go out and be somebody else's hired man in Detroit. 
 I mean it. 
 
 " And there's another idea," I said then, " you 
 fellows don't get. But it counts just the same. 
 You've got to remember, we made this business 
 right here. Pasc Thomas and I. It was our baby, 
 and we raised it; and, by Cripes, it don't come so 
 easy now to give it up, boys, when you come right 
 down to doing it."
 
 300 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Listen," said Chunky. ' This is a new one. 
 Bill's getting sentimental in his old age." 
 
 "Maybe I am," I said; "I don't know. But 
 that's the way I feel. 
 
 " And there's still another thing, too, that's been 
 getting me lately worse and worse; and that's 
 that Proctor Billings. He gets on my nerves. 
 He's as cold blooded as a mermaid's mother-in-law. 
 I don't like him, I never did." 
 
 And I told them a little about the way he was, 
 about the old employees in the plant. 
 
 " I never did like that kind of fellow," I said. 
 ' You can't really trust him. And I've always got 
 my suspicions of him, too. I've always got a sneak- 
 ing idea he's getting more out of this thing, right 
 now, than I am. I couldn't prove it probably, but 
 I believe he is." 
 
 " It wouldn't be him," said Doc Snyder, " if he 
 didn't." 
 
 " He ain't human, I know that," I said, thinking 
 of that morning and our talk over the busi- 
 ness. 
 
 " I suppose," I said, " there's nothing to it. I 
 suppose it will go through, and these fellows down 
 your way those great big bankers have got to get 
 it, and put k together with that other thing, that 
 big one." 
 
 ; ' They're the big fellows, all right," said Chunk. 
 ' Top notchers. What they say goes." 
 
 ' They're big people yes," said I. " But look 
 what a cinch they've got. They've got a regular 
 machine, stretched out all over the country, even
 
 A Million Dollars Huh! 301 
 
 in places like this They and the local men are 
 watching all your loans, monkeying with you. Get- 
 ting the inside dope on everything that happens in 
 the country." 
 
 ' That's right too," said Doc Snyder. 
 
 " I'd like to know about them," I said " how 
 they work. I'd like to get a look into that game. 
 I've got some idea now how fellows like Billings 
 in a town like this operate get up and declare 
 themselves in on everything that comes along. I've 
 got my finger in, once or twice myself. But these 
 Wall Street bankers these ten-million-dollar 
 boys, from that lower end of New York, get me. 
 I'd like to get a look into that big game once! " 
 
 " A great big game," said Doc Snyder. 
 
 ' You bet it is," I said. " They never seem to 
 stop. Sooner or later they seem to get their fingers 
 into every good thing in the whole country. I'd 
 like to learn it. I'd like to take a crack at it. And 
 I could learn it, I believe and you could. We're 
 not so damned much duller than these fellows at that, 
 if we got their start. I'd like to get down there, 
 and try it some time. I bet I'd put some salt on 
 their tails before they got away from me some of 
 those fly birds! " 
 
 " I don't know about that," said Doc. 
 
 " Well, I do," I said, " if you don't. I'm not 
 afraid of them. I don't care two hoots in hell for 
 the whole outfit. You and I are their equals, when 
 you come down to it." 
 
 " I bet you could at that, Bill," said Chunk, pat- 
 ting me on the back. " You could take care of
 
 302 The 'Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 them. But you'd better stick to your own trade at 
 that." 
 
 " I agree with you, there," I said. " That's what 
 I'm talking about now. That's what I wish I'd 
 done stayed home here. 
 
 "And there's still another thing," I said "I'm 
 thinking of: what do I want to go out to Detroit 
 for, where I don't know anybody and haven't got a 
 friend, even to the fellows that will work for 
 me?" 
 
 " You'll make plenty," he said. 
 
 " I don't know," I told him. " But yet, if I just 
 sold out and stayed here, what in Judas' name would 
 I do with myself? " 
 
 " Look here," said Chunk to me, " do you mean 
 to say you'd get out of it, if you could now? " 
 
 " I sure would," I said, getting sorer and sorer 
 the more we talked about it. " If I could, I'd go 
 right over there now to that icebox in the bank, and 
 see Proctor Billings, and call it off. If I ever found 
 a loophole if I ever caught him doing me the 
 slightest way; turning something extra out of this 
 for himself I could break this thing wide open 
 in a minute by agreement. And I'd do it too ! " 
 
 The more I talked, the more I felt that way. 
 ' You can't help him besting you some," said Doc 
 Snyder. 
 
 "Why not can't I?" 
 
 ' Well, he's got to make some extra through his 
 bank." 
 
 " Placing Universal Motors stock locally, you 
 mean," said I. " You can't help that."
 
 A Million Dollars Huh! 303 
 
 ' Yes. But there's something more than that in 
 it, for him," he said. " So I understand." 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " There's an extra per cent, or two in it for him, 
 the other fellows that place it don't get for his 
 bank." 
 
 "What's that for? "said I. 
 'What would it be for? Just a little grease; 
 a little salve on the side for putting your deal 
 over." 
 
 " Like hell it is," I said. 
 
 " Oh, you can't beat 'em," said Chunky, laughing. 
 
 " I got that straight," said Doc Snyder to me. 
 " From a man who ought to know." 
 
 " Is that right?" I said. 
 
 " It sure is," he told me. 
 
 " We'll see about that," I said. And I got my 
 hat, and got up right away. 
 
 "Where are you going," they both asked 
 scared. 
 
 "I am going to see Billings," I said, "now I" 
 
 " Come here," said Doc. " Sit down! " 
 
 " Let me loose," I said. " What do you think 
 I care for him? " 
 
 " It wouldn't be that, now ! " said Chunky, getting 
 my other arm. " You'd be up against something 
 different now from Billings!" 
 
 "What do I care for them?" I said. "They 
 can't scare me." 
 
 " Come here, Bill," said Doc, pulling at me. 
 " Sit down. You're crazy with the heat. You 
 can't afford to get out against those people I Or
 
 304 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 anybody else! They're the biggest thing in this 
 country." 
 
 " Why not, can't I? " said I, pulling away. 
 
 " Because they're too big. You can't afford to 
 get them out against you; and get them mad." 
 
 " You watch me," I said. 
 
 " Bill, you wild fool," said Chunky. " Don't 
 don't! You don't know what you're up against. 
 They'd crack you like a flea between two finger 
 nails." 
 
 " I'll show you whether they will or not," I said. 
 And I broke away from them. " They can't scare 
 me," I said. 
 
 " Well," they told me, " if you're going to be 
 such a lunatic, don't bring us into it." 
 
 " Don't fret," I said. " I won't. I'll take care 
 of you and them too." 
 
 And I started out. 
 
 I wasn't drunk a particle. I was as straight as 
 a string. I was just ugly from that pain from 
 my indigestion, and those two drinks of whiskey in 
 me without the slightest effect on it, except to make 
 it worse. I was just plain ugly. I walked right 
 over to Billings' bank, all primed ready to eat 
 raw rattlesnakes. 
 
 " If he's double-crossed me," I said to myself, 
 " here's where he hears something! " 
 
 And I went out back into that still room, where 
 the little pictures of sheep were, that private re- 
 ception room outside his door. 
 
 " I want to see Mr. Billings," I said to that sec- 
 retary of his. " And I want to see him right now ! "
 
 A Million Dollars Huh! 305 
 
 ' You may have to wait," he said, staring at me. 
 
 "Wait, hell! " I said. I just jerked him aside 
 and went in. 
 
 11 What is this? " asked Proctor Billings, standing 
 up and looking at me, with that mean, lean face of 
 his a little white. 
 
 " How-do-do," I said. And sat down. I wasn't 
 drunk a particle. I may have been just a little 
 touched, but nothing more than that. I know it. I 
 was just pure ugly. 
 
 " I want to ask you something," I said, sticking 
 my finger out at him. 
 
 " Well? " he said, still standing up. 
 
 " Are you putting anything over on the side on 
 me," I said, "in this deal of ours?" 
 
 : ' What do you mean?" he said, stiffening up. 
 " I refuse to answer such a question." 
 
 ' You remember that part in that agreement of 
 ours; that one, if we sold out, we sold together, split 
 equally share and share alike ! And if there was 
 anything wrong, by either of us, it bust the option, 
 and we went back to where we were." 
 
 " I do." 
 
 "That holds, don't it?" 
 
 " Yes," he said, sitting down finally, watching 
 me. 
 
 " Well, I just heard today you were getting an 
 extra rake-off through your bank." 
 
 " I don't care for your way of expressing it 
 much," said Billings. 
 
 " All right," I said. " We'll express it any way 
 you want to. But \ want to know. Do you, or
 
 306 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 don't you, get something extra for your bank out 
 of this?" 
 
 " I'm placing some of the Universal Motors' 
 securities here, as you know when they're 
 issued," he said, giving me those blank steel eyes 
 again. 
 
 " I know that," I said. " Now we're getting at 
 it. But we ain't quite there. Did you," I said, 
 " or didn't you, get an extra percentage that other 
 banks selling that stock didn't get, because you made 
 that agreement, when you sold out your part of our 
 stock to them? " 
 
 " If I did or the bank what then ? " he said, 
 not moving his steel eyeballs or his still face a 
 fraction of an inch. 
 
 " I'll tell you what then," I said. His frozen 
 face didn't make any impression on me. " If you 
 did, you've broken your agreement with me, and 
 this whole thing's off. 
 
 " I built up this thing another man and I. It's 
 my business. It's me just as if it were part of 
 me built into me. I worked and sweat and bled 
 for it, and built it up. And when I get it along 
 where you want it, you come and declare yourself 
 in, and now you'll take it and sell it and double-cross 
 me on the proceeds. You may think you will; but 
 you won't! You've got the wrong pig by the tail 
 this time. You don't know me ! " I said, and 
 pounded on the chair. 
 
 " Are you through," he said, looking at me 
 colder and whiter than ever. " If you are, I'll tell 
 you something. Whatever this bank gets or doesn't
 
 A Million Dollars Huh! 307 
 
 get, is my concern, my friend, and that of the other 
 stockholders in it not yours." 
 
 " It is, eh? " I said. " Well, I'll show you dif- 
 ferent. I'll show you I'm not the kind that'll lay 
 down and let you walk over them. I'm a different 
 kind of a boy." 
 
 " Don't start on your personal history again," he 
 said. " It doesn't interest me." 
 
 "It don't, eh?" I said. "Well, I'll tell you 
 something that will interest you. This agreement 
 of ours to sell our stock is off from now on. Be- 
 cause you've broken it. I've been kind of sick of 
 this for some time. I knew I wasn't getting what 
 I should, but I stuck because I said I would. But 
 now this rake-off of yours let's me out. It gives 
 me just the loophole I was looking for. Now you've 
 broken it, you can take the consequences. I'm 
 through. This business will stay just as it was un- 
 der our old three-year agreement." 
 
 " What about your written option through me to 
 these New York people?" he asked me, cool as 
 ever. 
 
 " It's off," I said, looking him in the eye. 
 
 " With a million dollar offer," he asked, " for your 
 stock? And your salary? " 
 
 " All off," I said, " I'm through." 
 
 "Is it?" said Billings. "Are you sure?" he 
 said, getting up on his feet. " If I were you I'd 
 give it a little more thought. I'd go off and let my 
 head clear." 
 
 " If I were you," I came back, mocking him 
 when he said that to me, " if I were you, I'd give
 
 308 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 my face a vacation. Gripes," I said, looking at 
 him, " I should think, once in a while, once a year 
 anyway you'd take a vacation off somewhere, and 
 have one good natural expression on your face. Go 
 off and enjoy yourself let loose one smile. Be a 
 devil of a fellow, and have one good honest smile. 
 And give that damned, still, polite treacherous face 
 of yours a rest ! " 
 
 " It may be," he said, going on 'as if he hadn't 
 heard me, " it maybe you're making a mistake. It 
 may be some time before you'll have a million dol- 
 lars offered to you again for that stock of yours 
 when you let this go ! " 
 
 His face was white and his eyes were harder 
 than ever. I got up myself red-hot now, uglier 
 than ever at him waiting there, beside his vase 
 of flowers hinting to me that I was drunk, and 
 that I'd better get out. 
 
 "We'll see about that," I said. "A million 
 dollars ! " I said. " That ain't the only million dol- 
 lars in the world." 
 
 " Do I understand you don't want it? " he said, 
 colder and stiller all the time." 
 
 "That's what you do!" said I. "Exactly. 
 Yes. That's what I do mean. You can take your 
 million and poke it in your eye. My property is 
 worth more than that to me right now. And 
 you've broken your option to take it." 
 
 He was getting whiter and whiter all the time, I 
 noticed, and finally he broke loose, cutting out every 
 word with his lips, like a die. 
 
 ' You've swelled up too much, my friend," he
 
 A Million Dollars Huh! 309 
 
 said to me. ' You've gone too far, too fast, the 
 last few years. You think you can do about what 
 you please, but you're mistaken. You can't play 
 fast and loose with signed agreements. You've 
 reached your limit. You've run into something you 
 don't understand. 
 
 " And now," he said, standing there, looking 
 supercilious at me, " if I were you, I'd go straight 
 home, and take a cold plunge." 
 
 " If I were you," I said, " I'd go sit down." And 
 I pushed him in his chest with my open hand, over 
 on that vase of flowers on the desk. 
 
 " You quarrelsome barnyard brute," he said, 
 straightening up, and pointing to the door. ' You'll 
 pay for this. Now get out! Go!" 
 
 And he took out his handkerchief to wipe the 
 water off him from the vase. I had to laugh. 
 " Pay for it! " said I. " Go. For you ! " 
 
 And stepped up to him again. 
 
 " I caught you in the act finally, my friend," I said. 
 " I've got you with your hands in my pockets. It's 
 no go. You can't do it. You can't sell me out, ac- 
 cording to our agreement or yourself either 
 now. 
 
 " Just for greens," I said, drawing off at him. 
 " I'd like to hand you one once. I've owed it to 
 you for some time." 
 
 And he crowded back on his desk again. 
 
 " But I won't," I said. " Don't be afraid. I 
 won't hurt you, like I would a man. I wouldn't 
 dare to, for fear you'd splash. You ain't a man," 
 I said. " You're nothing but a kind of still soft
 
 310 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 bug, that grows where they keep money a fat 
 white worm that grows on greenbacks. 
 
 " You ! " I said, keeping him backed back. " You 
 soft-handed, white-fingered, hard-faced crook," I 
 said. " You and your options, and your sleight-of- 
 hand performances, and your ten-million-dollar boys 
 from New York, and what they'll do to me ! Bring 
 them on," I said. "I'm not afraid of you the 
 whole bunch of you. Bring them on," I said. " I'll 
 fight. I'll fight the whole outfit." 
 
 And I went out and left him sitting on his desk 
 on an orchid. 
 
 " A million dollars, huh! " I said, when I got in 
 the street. " I'd rather have my little old business 
 any day! "
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 MY LAWYER 
 
 I got the best lawyer I could. I went right over 
 from the bank, and told him my case, and told him 
 I wanted to fight it. He whistled a second or two. 
 ' They're big people! " he said. 
 
 " I wouldn't be afraid of them," I told him, " if 
 they were twice as big." 
 
 " I don't doubt that," he said. 
 
 " Have I got a case? " I asked him. 
 
 " I'm not going to say that," he said, looking at 
 me, the way lawyers have bluffing, when they don't 
 really know. " That I'll let you know later. But I 
 expect from what you say, you might make them 
 some trouble, especially just now at this stage of the 
 game, when they want to get this into their new con- 
 cern right away." 
 
 " That ain't enough," I said. " I believe I've 
 got a case that'll beat 'em! " 
 
 " You don't want to compromise," he said, look- 
 ing at me, " for a little more money? " He kind 
 of grinned hinting that I was holding them up for 
 more. 
 
 " No," I told him. " That ain't it, now. What 
 I want is to keep where I am now. And buy out 
 Billings myself, when we get this thing broken if 
 he can be gotten to sell out to me."
 
 312 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Well, we'll see," said my lawyer. 
 
 " I want you to jam it," I said. 
 
 " I understand," he said to me. 
 
 And I went over to tell Polly about it. 
 
 "I I was afraid you'd do something like that," 
 she said, her face whiter and her voice sharper than 
 it had been before. 
 
 " You ought to be satisfied," I said to her. 
 ' You've got your own way. You don't have to go 
 to Detroit." 
 
 " I'd rather go to Detroit than this." 
 
 "Good God," I said, "why? Is there anything 
 you women can be reasonable on? First, you say 
 you won't go to Detroit, and now you say you don't 
 want to stay here. What do you want, do you 
 know?" 
 
 ' You know what I want," she said. " I want 
 you to stop. Not get into more trouble and rows 
 and hard work! I want you to stop, before you kill 
 yourself." 
 
 " Kill myself," I said, " that's likely. A man as 
 strong as I am ! " 
 
 " Or somebody else. The way you did this morn- 
 ing! That shows you," she said, "whether you're 
 all right; whether you're fit to go on with your work. 
 The way you're going now. D-do you think you'd 
 have done that five years ago . . . ? " 
 
 " Oh, shut up," I said, getting tired of hearing 
 her. ' When it comes to changes, think of your- 
 self. Your nose and your tongue get sharper every 
 day." 
 
 " Or say that to me ! " she said, staring in my eyes,
 
 My Lawyer 313 
 
 and then turning and going upstairs and locking 
 herself in her room. 
 
 " I tell you what I'll do," I said, going upstairs 
 afterwards. For I knew I'd been acting ugly as sin 
 about the thing. " I tell you what I'll do with 
 you " when she let me into her room upstairs 
 finally. " I'll go and see a doctor if that'll do 
 you any good." 
 
 " If you did," she said, coming around so that 
 she looked at me a little, " you probably wouldn't 
 believe what he told you, or do anything about it." 
 
 ' That depends what he told me," I said, jollying 
 her along, trying to make her feel better. " I 
 wouldn't have him send me abroad for a year, travel- 
 ing the way he did Pasc." 
 
 The doctor had started him off that week right 
 after the accident. Or the doctor and Zetta had 
 together. 
 
 " He says that was a good deal of a shock to him," 
 said Zetta to me " with his nerves as they were 
 anyway. And he thinks it may tend to take his 
 mind off his carburetor or whatever he's got it 
 on now. The doctor says that only for this think- 
 ing night and day, about these ideas of his, he'd be 
 all right. And maybe over there, after awhile, he 
 could drop them and rest. 
 
 " What'll happen," she said, with a kind of flash 
 of her old way, " we'll go and sit on the Alps and 
 think about it there. It's just as well, too. He's 
 never planned a carburetor on the Alps. It would 
 be a new experience to him." 
 
 And she laughed.
 
 314 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " And for me too," she said. " But I want him 
 to go," she said, looking up with those straight eyes 
 of hers. " I want to do everything I can to get him 
 on his feet. He he don't get any better," she 
 said; and got up all of a sudden and went away. 
 
 "She acted scared about him to me," I said. 
 
 " She is," said Polly. 
 
 " She's changed, herself, quite a lot, since that 
 happened," said I. 
 
 " Yes," she told me. " A good deal more sub- 
 dued." 
 
 " I like her better," I said. " And I like to see 
 her back with Pasc more again looking after 
 him." 
 
 " She's always thought her eyes of him," said 
 Polly. 
 
 " She didn't always act that way," said I. 
 
 " There's a limit," she answered me, " even for 
 a woman." 
 
 " Do I take that twice? " I asked her. 
 
 "Twice?" 
 
 " Once for him, and once for me." 
 
 " If you want to," she said. 
 
 And we went over that next week, and saw them 
 start, and shut up that brand new house of theirs. 
 
 " I God," I said, when they were gone, " I'd cer- 
 tainly like that, traveling around the face of the earth 
 to keep alive and keep from thinking of your 
 business." 
 
 ' You may know something about it sometime," 
 said Polly. And she asked me then, for the dozenth 
 time, if I'd seen that doctor yet.
 
 My Lawyer 315 
 
 I was a little surprised I must say when I 
 did see him. I knew I was feeling off color some, 
 my stomach and my sleep, but it never struck me 
 there was anything very dangerous about it. 
 
 ' The best of them come to it," he said, " sooner 
 or later, the way we Americans live. You've got to 
 quit, that's all or you'll quit some day, all of a 
 sudden ! " 
 
 "What did he say to you?" said Polly, looking 
 in my face the minute I came into the house. 
 
 " Oh, nothing much," I said, feeling kind of blue 
 over it. " Only my nerves and digestion." 
 
 " Didn't he say it was worse for a big, full-blooded 
 man like you? " she asked me. 
 
 " How did you strike on to that? " said I. 
 
 "Who wouldn't," said Polly, "that had any 
 sense? Didn't he say you'd have to quit the kind 
 of thing you're doing now? " 
 
 " Well, he told me I wanted to take care of my- 
 self," I said. I wasn't going to tell her everything 
 he said. 
 
 " And get out of too much extra work and ex- 
 citement? " 
 
 " Well, something like that," I said. 
 
 But I lied to her some. I wouldn't tell her it 
 was anything very much, naturally, especially when 
 I was tied up with that lawsuit, and had to see it 
 through. 
 
 I was having quite a little discussion with my 
 lawyer over it. " It's all right, I guess," he said. 
 " I can make a fight, of course hold it up, as I 
 told you."
 
 316 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " We certainly can keep them from getting my 
 stock, anyhow." 
 
 " Well, yes," he said. " I don't think the diffi- 
 culty will come there." 
 
 " And we can stop him from giving final title to 
 his under our agreement," I said. " I don't see 
 why not." 
 
 " I don't know! " he told me. " You've got to 
 prove a good deal." 
 
 " I don't see it," said I. 
 
 " As far as delivering your stock goes, there may 
 not be any trouble. They may not even try to 
 press you there at all." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 ' They'll have the majority of the company with- 
 out it. If their theory of the case holds." 
 
 " It won't," I said, " I don't believe it." 
 
 " Well," he told me. " You've got to face it, for 
 the court may uphold them. It's quite likely to. 
 You can never tell. They've got a good case, and 
 they seem pretty confident of it. And if they 
 win" 
 
 " I'm a minority stockholder I understand 
 that!" 
 
 " Exactly. And more than that," he said, " I've 
 got a feeling I've had it for some time 
 they might be out to punish you if they once 
 get you for what they consider a breach of 
 faith." 
 
 " What could they do to me? " 
 
 11 Nothing. Sit still. Put you under pressure,
 
 My Lawyer 317 
 
 maybe. Absent treatment!" he said and laughed. 
 " You mean you'd settle? " 
 " They're big people," he told me. 
 "Ah-hah," I said. "You fight!"
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 A TRAVELER RETURNS 
 
 We would have, too, if it hadn't been for that 
 cable from Pasc Thomas. I got it that very next 
 day from Liverpool. 
 
 " Hold up," it said, " everything on suit. Back 
 first boat. Answer." 
 
 " What's this? " I said to myself when I first got 
 it. "Pasc Thomas' coming into this thing! This 
 is something strange and new." 
 
 I couldn't make any sense out of it. He hadn't 
 been in this row at all, in any way. 
 
 But I answered him and said I'd wait. I 
 would, naturally, if Pasc asked me to. I'd have 
 stood on my head till he came. But I couldn't 
 guess what he had on his mind. 
 
 He looked pretty bad, I thought, when I met 
 them and brought them up to our house. It bumped 
 me a little seeing him. The trip had been hard 
 on him, Zetta said. He didn't take to the ocean 
 very well. He had that kind of settled, solemn 
 look, a pretty sick man gets, now, most of the time. 
 
 " I guess you'll think I'm crazy, coming back 
 here," he said, when we went off and sat down in 
 my library together. And when he said it, he peeled 
 off another piece of his old slippery elm, and 
 put the rest back in his pants pocket. And I 
 laughed.
 
 A Traveler Returns 319 
 
 44 Well, that looks natural," I said. 
 
 And then he grinned, and went on and told me 
 what brought him back; about this young fellow he 
 met on the boat, from that big New York banking 
 house of ours. 
 
 "One of the firm?" I asked him. 
 
 ' Yes, the one that had charge of this Universal 
 Motors deal. He wasn't more than forty-two or 
 three," he said. " He didn't look more than thirty- 
 five. 
 
 " He'd heard about me," said Pasc, " it seems, 
 and he wanted to talk to me about that new Uni- 
 versal Company, and about the principles of gas 
 engines in general, and what improvements to ex- 
 pect. He was a smart one smarter than a steel 
 trap." 
 
 " I suppose so," I said. " They can get them." 
 
 " And from that," said Pasc, " I got him to talk 
 about the company about you and the Hoodlum 
 Company." 
 
 "What'dhesay?" 
 
 " He said there was nothing to say, except they 
 were going to smash you." 
 
 " Smash nothing! " said I, and I laughed at him. 
 " Pasc," I said, " you're easy. You always were. 
 What do you know about business fights? " 
 
 " Not much, maybe," he said, " I know. But I 
 could see this. He showed it to me perfectly 
 plain. They've got you, Bill. This thing is going 
 against you." 
 
 "Going against me? How do you know or 
 they?"
 
 320 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " They've got their ways," he said. ' They 
 know." 
 
 " Well, I suppose they have. I'll admit that 
 much; everybody says so anyhow," said I, thinking 
 for a minute how big these fellows were, and the 
 wires they had out everywhere. " They certainly 
 can buy the very best legal advice in the coun- 
 try." 
 
 " It's more than that," said Pasc. 
 
 "More?" 
 
 " The courts will go against you," said Pasc. 
 
 " How do they know that? " 
 
 " Oh, they know! " said Pasc. 
 
 " Maybe they do, and maybe they don't," said I. 
 
 " And anyhow," he went on, " they've got to 
 the courts decide against you, as far as I can see; 
 from what he said just from the law of it. What 
 did your lawyer tell you anything different? Did 
 he want to go on ? Did he say you had a first-class 
 case?" 
 
 " Never mind what he said now," I answered him, 
 getting a little huffy. " You tell me what they're 
 going to do." 
 
 " He didn't encourage you your lawyer I 
 can see that now ! " said Pasc, looking at me for a 
 minute or so before he started on talking. " And 
 what they're going to do is just do nothing. Just 
 tie you up indefinitely legally. All they got to do is 
 tie you up, and sit still. He laughed about you, 
 Bill," he said, " to tell the truth. He said at first 
 you were just a hot-headed fool that was trying to 
 hold them up from out here in the country."
 
 A Traveler Returns 321 
 
 " Hold them upl " I said, and cursed them out. 
 
 " I told him better than that," said Pasc. " But 
 it took me some time to convince him." 
 
 " What did he claim he'd do to me did he 
 say?" 
 
 " Nothing," he said. " They were through with 
 you. He laughed about your claim you could hold 
 back Billings from selling his stock to them on ac- 
 count of what his bank did. He said they had the 
 control of the company without you that was all 
 with Billings, and the rest. The worst that could 
 happen to them, they would have a majority of the 
 stock over you." 
 
 " I could give them quite a fight," I said, " even 
 as a minority stockholder." 
 
 u You wouldn't be that, even, as he puts it." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because however it comes out finally 
 they're going to fight you everywhere, through all 
 the courts, up and down hill, for that stock of yours. 
 They're going to fight you to a finish." 
 
 " All right," said, " let them." 
 
 But it made quite a dent in me, just the same, think- 
 ing of what I might be up against. 
 
 " And in the meanwhile, they'll have that stock of 
 yours tied up solid in the court, so you can't con- 
 trol it." 
 
 " We'll see about that, too," I said. 
 
 And we stopped awhile. 
 
 "They're big people," said Pasc, finally. 
 
 " Yes, I know that," said I. " But this is a free 
 country, too."
 
 322 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " That's true enough," he told me. " But there's 
 a great difference in the power people have here 
 we all know that." 
 
 " I suppose we do," said I, and we sat thinking 
 again. 
 
 "And there's another thing," said Pasc; "in a 
 way there's more than just your stock in this thing 
 to Magnus and Company." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " I think they mean to punish you in a way 
 for not keeping your agreement. Tie you up 
 cut off your income from the stock; damage you 
 every way they can. Punish you. He didn't say 
 so exactly. He said they were going after you 
 for the principle of the thing as an object les- 
 son." 
 
 "They'll go after me all right; they'll punish 
 me if Billings can make them." 
 
 "They've got you bad," said Pasc. "They'll 
 have a kind of foul hold on you. Your salary will 
 be gone, your principal property tied up in the courts, 
 and you'll be fighting about the biggest power in 
 the country. When I saw just what was coming," 
 said Pasc, " it scared me." 
 
 And I didn't say anything. I looked down, feel- 
 ing ugly. 
 
 " So I asked him," he went on, finally, " to hold 
 off, and I'd see you. I got him to hold off and 
 give me a chance to see you, and offer you that 
 million dollars again for the last time! " 
 
 ' No job in Detroit, I suppose, now." 
 
 "No, they withdraw that."
 
 A Traveler Returns 323 
 
 ' They do, huh? " said I, and stopped. 
 
 " What difference does that make," said Pasc. 
 " You wouldn't take it anyhow." 
 
 " No, I don't suppose I would," said I, and looked 
 up at him. 
 
 ' You mean to say," I said, " you turned around 
 from where the doctor sent you, and came back 
 here, feeling as weak as you did for this? " 
 
 " I'd have got out of my grave," he said, " and 
 come. If I couldn't come any other way." 
 
 I didn't say anything back, but it made more of 
 an impression on me, just that his coming back 
 and the way he looked than anything that had 
 been said or done to me before. 
 
 " You oughtn't to have done it," I said. 
 
 " Oh, that's nothing." 
 
 " Gripes," I said to myself, watching him how 
 sick and tired he looked; " that fellow must have con- 
 vinced you, all right! " 
 
 It made me stop and hesitate in the thing for the 
 first time. 
 
 But I wouldn't say so to him. 
 
 " Well, Pasc," I told him after awhile, " I'm much 
 obliged, but I'm sorry you did it." 
 
 And he didn't say anything. 
 
 41 Why didn't you cable? " I said. 
 
 " Because that wouldn't accomplish what I was 
 after." 
 
 " It won't make any difference, I'm afraid," I 
 said, " in the outcome." 
 
 " Yes, it will, too," said Pasc. " I'm going to 
 get what I came for."
 
 324 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " You ought to know me better than that," I told 
 him. 
 
 " I know you," he said. 
 
 ' You ought to know that when I say I'll fight, 
 I'll fight." 
 
 " I do. I know you," he went on. " And I 
 know you're no fool, too. I knew that when I 
 started back. I knew you were bound to fight 
 if you once got started, till somebody showed you. 
 And I knew if any one could talk sense to you, I 
 could. So I came." 
 
 ' You took a good deal on yourself," I started 
 to say. And then I didn't. The look on his face 
 prevented me. 
 
 " Now you're going to sign with these folks," he 
 said, " while you can, and get out. Take your 
 money and stop the way you ought to." 
 
 ; ' Who says so," said I. 
 
 " I do," he said, very quiet. " I do. Because 
 I'm right, and what's more," he said, watching me, 
 " you know it, too. Don't try to say you don't. 
 Because you do. You know it's time for you to 
 quit. 
 
 " Everybody's told you. Your wife has told you. 
 Your doctor has told you. Your lawyer's told you. 
 And now I come back from across the pond," he said, 
 and gave me this long, serious look, " and I tell you 
 the same thing. It's time for you to quit aside 
 from this entirely. Before you make my mistake," 
 he said. " Before you stay too late. I've got a 
 right to warn you," he said, fixing those old ghostly 
 eyes of his on me " more ways than one! "
 
 A Traveler Returns 325 
 
 And I stopped then. I didn't answer then. I 
 saw something in those old blue eyes of his that 
 scared me, for the minute. I saw what he really 
 thought about himself ! 
 
 But he only waited for a few seconds, looking at me. 
 
 ' You ain't strong enough to fight those fellows," 
 he said. " Not now. You're a sick man, really." 
 
 " Oh, rats," I told him. 
 
 " But if you were four times as strong, it wouldn't 
 do you any good. They got you wrong, in the first 
 place, just because you were such a fighter, naturally. 
 They've got your name on a paper, and now you're 
 trying to withdraw it. But the main thing is, that 
 now they've got you! All they've got to do is sit 
 still, and tie you up, and let you bang yourself to 
 pieces. You can't hurt them. You can tear and 
 rear, but that's all you can do. You can bite and 
 snarl. But it's no use. No more use you'll make 
 no more impression on these people, Bill than "a 
 bulldog biting a mountain 1 " 
 
 I grinned a little then, finally, watching him, sit- 
 ting there, saying that with a serious face. I 
 grinned, and he saw me. 
 
 " I tell you what I want you to do, Bill," he said 
 to me then. He knew in a minute, of course, what 
 it meant to get me grinning. 
 
 "What?" I said, still smiling. I couldn't help 
 myself. 
 
 " I want you to go to your lawyer with me, to- 
 morrow morning, and see if he don't say so just 
 exactly what I tell you. Will you do it?" said 
 Pasc."
 
 326 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Well, yes," I said after awhile. " I guess maybe 
 I will." 
 
 " And will you do what he tells you to? " 
 
 " Yes," I said, thinking. " Yes, I'll do that too." 
 
 And I knew when I said it what my lawyer would 
 tell me. He'd told it to me already, as far as I 
 would listen to it. That meant practically that I 
 was through. But I wasn't going to show it to 
 Pasc then. 
 
 " But there's nobody else in the world would have 
 got that much out of me," I said, " but you ! " 
 
 " That's what I came back again for," said Pasc. 
 
 " Gripes," I said to myself, with a kind of a start, 
 watching his lean face and thin temples. " All I 
 hope is you didn't kill yourself doing it I "
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 MEMORIES 
 
 " How do you like my library now? " I said to 
 Pasc, finally, after we'd sat there thinking. I had 
 got me two or three new things since he'd been gone. 
 He sat there in front of the fireplace, and looked 
 around. 
 
 " Fine," he said. 
 
 I had it fixed up pretty near to suit me now. I'd 
 just got this big new oil painting down in New York 
 of some girls in swimming, a corker ! And that 
 big elk's head over the fireplace, with those little 
 electric lights in its eyes that novelty I put in to 
 surprise callers with, and make some amusement. 
 
 " It's good!" said Pasc. 
 
 " I think so myself," said I. 
 
 We sat around then, after that, quite a little while, 
 visiting. 
 
 " You're a funny one, Bill," said old Pasc, going 
 back to that deal again. " You have to fight just 
 so much anyhow. It's ridiculous all of us stand- 
 ing around you, your wife and your doctor and 
 your lawyer; all begging you for Misery's sake to 
 take a million dollars and enjoy it, and not kill your- 
 self. And these other fellows getting mad and try- 
 ing to ram it down your throat. It is ridiculous, 
 now, ain't it? "
 
 328 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " We'd have thought so," I said, " five years ago. 
 
 I can see you now," I said, " I God, I have to 
 laugh. I can see just the way you looked when you 
 first stepped in that old office door in that butternut- 
 colored overcoat." 
 
 And then we grinned and shut up for a minute. 
 
 " Did you keep it, Pasc? " I asked him. " That 
 coat ? Oh, you ought to have kept it and have it 
 stuffed. Put up somewhere as a monument." 
 
 " Or a warning," said Pasc. 
 
 " I wish I was back, quite often," I said, " just 
 you and I, starting there over again ! " 
 
 " So do I," said Pasc. 
 
 " I guess we're that way, some, both of us. I 
 guess most of us are who were raised in a machine 
 shop. We all like to be our own boss, puttering 
 around in our own place. We're too independent. 
 That was one trouble with me in this thing." 
 
 " I suppose so," said Pasc, and stopped thinking. 
 
 " It was our baby, Pasc," I said to him for the 
 thousandth time. " We raised it from nothing." 
 * Yes," he said, staring into the fireplace. 
 
 And after that awhile, he started and asked me 
 about everybody in the shop, including old Tom 
 Powers and his wife. 
 
 "How's the old Miracle getting on for him?" 
 Pasc asked me. 
 
 " He's still puttering around on it," I said. 
 
 II Watching nights, and pecking away with his left 
 hand on the thing discovering perpetual motion. 
 It's funny, ain't it?" 
 
 " Yes, it is," said Pasc, looking off, remembering.
 
 Memories 329 
 
 " And he won't take a dollar from anybody. I've 
 tried him several times." 
 
 " I know you have." 
 
 " He's proud; the old man's proud," I said. 
 " He'll work till his last gasp fooling with that 
 old contraption, to keep his mind busy on the side." 
 
 " He ain't suffering for anything! " said Pasc. 
 
 " No," I said, " I'd see to that, anyhow. But 
 I'm sorry for the old man, Pasc, especially since that 
 thing the boy ! I wouldn't say so," I said. 
 " But I will now. I always felt a little responsible 
 for that thing." 
 
 And when I said it, I saw I hadn't ought to. I 
 saw his hand go up to his head thinking of it 
 again. 
 
 " Responsible no," he said. " It wasn't any- 
 body's fault, I guess," he said, kind of slow. " It 
 happened, that's all; because it had to! The way 
 things do. We're all to blame some ! " 
 
 And I changed the subject, and got back, talking 
 of old times, when we started. 
 
 " The fact was, I suppose, we got in it just 
 about right, when we did," I said. " We struck it 
 rich." 
 
 " Better than gold and rubies and precious 
 stones." 
 
 44 Yes." 
 
 " Yes," said Pasc, nodding his old head, " we had 
 that right at first that's where the gold mines are 
 today. That's the thing they've got to have 
 everybody." 
 
 "What's that?" I asked him.
 
 330 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Speed. That's where the money is now. Look 
 at it in telegraphs, telephones, bicycles, railroads, 
 automobiles. In them, or the stuff to build them ! 
 Speed," he said. " There's where the money's been 
 for fifty years: saving people's time; crosscuts! 
 The American people have got to hurry." 
 
 " By and by," I said, " if they don't look out, they 
 may get going too fast, some of them ! " 
 
 And he grinned that sudden disappearing grin 
 
 and went on again. 
 
 " They're getting up into the air now," he said. 
 " The next things are flying machines. We're going 
 to see great changes in the next ten years. We're 
 going off of wheels, up in the air! " 
 
 " Hitting her up two hundred miles an hour, I 
 suppose." 
 
 " Easy," he said. " I'm working on that some, 
 now." 
 
 And he dug out his pencil and old envelope again 
 
 and started to draw me a diagram of what he was 
 doing now on a carburetor; and a counterbalancing 
 idea to keep those aeroplane engines from heating 
 up, and keep them from grinding themselves to 
 pieces. 
 
 ' There'll be a barrel of money in that some day," 
 I said, " maybe for somebody ! " 
 
 '* There will, probably," he said. 
 
 " It's a darn funny thing, ain't it," I said, " when 
 you think of it, how money's made." 
 
 " It is," said Pasc. 
 
 ' Two fellows like you and me," I said, " get a 
 hold of one of these Miracles that old Tom talks
 
 Memories 331 
 
 about and grab on to it. And it pulls them along 
 up with it." 
 
 " As long as they hang on," said Pasc. 
 
 " And the fellow that hangs on longest, and has 
 it last, gets the most," I said. " And that ain't 
 fair, either, generally. Look at you and me. You 
 got up this thing and I get my half from you. 
 And you get a third of a million and I get a mil- 
 lion!" 
 
 And then I stopped. And he grinned, and I 
 grinned, when I realized what I'd said. We both 
 knew that what I would do was settled now ! 
 
 " Whatever I do fight or sell," I said, correct- 
 ing myself. " I get more than you. And that ain't 
 exactly fair." 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," said Pasc. " Money isn't 
 given out that way, as awards of merit exactly. It 
 can't be. Who'd give it? " 
 
 " But it ain't distributed right, just the same. 
 You know that, and I know it. We earned our 
 money. You can't say anything against that. The 
 man who gets up a thing like this," I said, " and the 
 man who stands by and jams her through don't get 
 anything more than is coming to him." 
 
 " What about the fellow working on it, nine hours 
 a day in the shop. The way you and I were, you 
 might say, both of us, before this? " he asked me. 
 
 " They get all that's coming to them." 
 
 "I don't know!" 
 
 " You ain't getting to be one of these socialists? " 
 I asked him. 
 
 " No. I don't know as I am," said Pasc.
 
 332 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Well, I'm not," I told him. " And I don't take 
 any stock in them. I never knew one yet that would 
 do a full day's work in his life. They're the talkers, 
 not the workers," I said. " I can go right down to 
 any machine shop and pick out the socialists by the 
 amount of work they do or they don't do, you'd 
 better say. They're the talkers not the work- 
 ers!" 
 
 " Maybe they might do us some good," said Pasc. 
 " Talking us into doing something different." 
 
 " You don't believe in that stuff, do you? " I asked 
 him again. 
 
 " No," he answered me. " I don't know as I do. 
 I just think they might be something different 
 some way." 
 
 " Maybe," I said. " But the thing that makes 
 me mad is these damned still-faced dudes in the 
 bank we've been talking about; these fellows that 
 have got control of all the money there is, here and 
 down on Wall Street. 
 
 ' You puff and grunt, and break your back, and 
 sweat blood, and get a thing just about up and totter- 
 ing on its legs, the way we did and they come 
 along and reach out their lily hand, as the fellow 
 says, and take it away from you ! Look you in 
 the face, with that damned mean expressionless look, 
 and walk off with it, as if they were entitled to it. 
 Some time or other sooner or later, they'll grab it 
 away from you ! If it isn't here at home if it gets 
 big enough, it'll be one of those fellows that runs one 
 of these million-dollar machines on Wall Street. 
 
 " What kind of a fellow was this," I asked him,
 
 Memories 333 
 
 breaking off, " that you saw on the steamer that 
 had charge of this Universal Motors for Magnus 
 and Company. He's never come to see me only 
 his head agents, once or twice. Billings even hasn't 
 got to him a great many times." 
 
 " Oh, he's the same kind as Billings is, in a way 
 
 but smarter looking, with smarter eyes," said 
 Pasc. 
 
 "All dressed up like Sunday evening all the 
 time, I suppose. And manners like an actor walk- 
 ing out in the afternoon. And a face you could 
 crack nuts on." 
 
 " Not quite so bad," said Pasc, grinning. 
 
 " And back of him," said I, " as I understand it 
 
 are the old crooks like old Magnus was, and 
 Stoneman and old Backus, with faces stiller than a 
 mummy; and brains in back going thirty-five hundred 
 revolutions a minute, thinking what they can pick up 
 and carry off out of the country next. Those old 
 devils sitting in back there that nobody ever sees. 
 
 " I God," I said. " They're the boys we're all 
 working for, when it comes down to the facts in the 
 case. All of us, all over the country. I've watched 
 that game, what I could. I've always wondered, 
 more or less, about these ten million and hundred 
 million and five-hundred-million boys down in Wall 
 Street, waiting, waiting, for everything to drift in 
 there. I never understood it quite. All I know, 
 and everybody else does, is they've got it all fixed 
 right for themselves. 
 
 " Is it all crooked, do you think, or does it just 
 have to be ? Do any one set of men have to have so
 
 334 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 much power? What do you think? Or did you 
 ever think about it? " 
 
 " He explained it to me," said Pasc, " a little 
 on the steamer, that partner. It sounds all natural 
 as water running down hill." 
 
 "To hear him tell it," I said. 
 
 " It's just like Billings' bank in a way here in 
 town. They've got the money." 
 
 " So I might get control of all the water in the 
 county," I said. " But that wouldn't make it right." 
 
 " They've got the money; and sooner or later bus- 
 iness things drift into them. They've got to 
 from all over." 
 
 " We know that," I said. " Ourselves, from ex- 
 perience. Right here. Never once from the time 
 we started has the finger of somebody with money 
 been off us." 
 
 " And especially as things like ours get bigger," 
 said Pasc, " and grow faster they're always fewer 
 to get the money from. Especially when they get 
 up to a certain size. Then they have to all drift into 
 one place." 
 
 " New York?" 
 
 ' Yes," said Pasc, " yes. And he explained that 
 to me just the same as the other. That's the only 
 place they can go. The only place with money 
 enough. They've got to, sooner or later, come in 
 there." 
 
 " And they sit there," I said, " with their faces 
 still and their eyes still and their hands still, till it 
 gets just right. And then Zip they grab it! " 
 
 " Yes," said Pasc.
 
 Memories 335 
 
 " For they've got the only million-dollar machine 
 in the country." 
 
 " Stock machine," said Pasc. " Stock factory, I 
 should call it." 
 
 " Maybe," I said. " But it all comes to the same 
 thing. It's money they turn out of it finally for 
 themselves." 
 
 1 Yes, it all comes to that finally," said Pasc, 
 thinking. " Has to. He admitted that." 
 
 " And they keep their eyes out too, watching." I 
 said, " all the time. Don't forget that! " 
 
 '' They have fellows like Billings, of course," said 
 Pasc, "all over the country, who know them in the 
 banking business. And they have to come to them, 
 when they get anything big in their own neighbor- 
 hood." 
 
 " Sure," I came back. " Just as I always said. 
 They've got their wires out, and their spies watch- 
 ing, watching, watching, all over the country feel- 
 ing of everything that comes up." 
 
 " It is a regular machine little wheels and big 
 wheels, all meshed in together," said Pasc. 
 1 That's what I always thought about it. All run- 
 ning along in oil." 
 
 " That's just what it is," said I, "a regular ma- 
 chine a million-dollar machine, run to turn out 
 hundreds of millions, like Proctor Billings would a 
 hundred thousand. A billion machine, more likely 
 a billion machine," I said, "with its little cogs 
 and big cogs turning day and night all over the coun- 
 try, coining money on the quiet, out of what we all 
 do.
 
 336 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " We've got about as much show against it," I 
 said; " you and I in the end, as a fly holding up a 
 steam roller." 
 
 " Just about," said Pasc. 
 
 " I God," I said. " There's nothing in the world 
 I'd like so much as a peep in the inside of how they 
 work that big money machine of theirs down there in 
 Wall Street. 
 
 " To tell you the truth," I said, " what I never 
 said to any other man in my life. I'm afraid of it! 
 And I guess I'm not the only one either." 
 
 " You're not," said Pasc. " Everybody is, I 
 guess, more or less." 
 
 And after that we quit and went to bed. I could 
 see Pasc was getting tired. 
 
 "Don't he look dreadful to you?" said Polly, 
 after we got upstairs. ' Those eyes I " 
 
 " There's nothing else to him," said I. " It re- 
 minds me of what we thought when we were boys 
 in the country sometimes an old pair of eyes, with 
 nothing in back of them, wandering around a grave- 
 yard in the dark." 
 
 " That's not what he reminds me of, exactly," said 
 Polly. " He reminds me always of a man pos- 
 sessed. With a spirit in him destroying him like 
 the man in the Bible." 
 
 " Yes," I said, " that's right, too. He does me, 
 tearing him, wearing him out! "
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 SUNDAY AFTERNOON 
 
 We saw them back to the train Polly and I 
 about a week after that, when Pasc had got what 
 he came after and I'd agreed to sign up finally. 
 Polly and I sat there going home, each one in our 
 own corner of the limousine. 
 
 ' You want to remember one thing, Bill," said 
 Polly, putting her hand on my arm, kind of softly, 
 after we'd got nearly home. " You mustn't be sur- 
 prised if you hear bad news some time from Pasc." 
 
 And I looked at her. 
 
 " He's a pretty sick man, I'm afraid," she said. 
 ' We've got to get prepared for most anything." 
 
 And I didn't say anything for a minute. 
 
 " All I hope is," I said finally, " that coming over 
 here hasn't made him worse. I hope I won't be re- 
 sponsible for anything! " 
 
 " You don't want to get that idea on your mind," 
 said Polly. " That's the thing Zetta has now all the 
 time, and can't get rid of about herself." 
 
 " That's so, I suppose," I said. 
 
 " I sometimes think we ain't any of us responsible 
 for anything," said Polly. 
 
 " We ain't much, either," said I, thinking.
 
 338 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " Zetta is changed, isn't she? " I said after awhile. 
 
 " Yes," said Polly. " Scarcely a loud laugh out 
 of her while she was here." 
 
 " You can't blame her." 
 
 ' There never was a day in her life," said Polly, 
 " she didn't worship the ground he walked on." 
 
 " I suppose not," said I. 
 
 And I sat back, thinking of Pasc and the days we 
 started out and worked together. 
 
 I thought of him again that next day Sunday 
 afternoon, it was when I went into the factory 
 office to pick up and clear out my desk. We weren't 
 going to clean up the business and make the final 
 transfers till Tuesday. But it was as good as done, 
 and I thought I'd go in and get through and get out 
 again, when I had the place to myself, and there 
 wasn't anybody else there to watch me. 
 
 I went over about three o'clock after dinner. 
 And left the car in back, and went in the back way 
 through the factory. It was cold in there. They'd 
 let the fire go down over Sunday; and the place 
 seemed extra still and lonesome, coming in as a 
 factory always does Sundays, anyhow. All those 
 big heavy machines that make so much crash and 
 jangle week days standing still, and all the men gone. 
 Nothing left. Just the big vacant white-washed 
 place, all sprawled full of stuff pulleys and belts 
 and levers, dark where the soiled hands of the work- 
 men had been. All standing still and idle wait- 
 ing! 
 
 Most of the machines, of course, were new. But 
 some of them, I could see, were the original old ma-
 
 Sunday Afternoon 339 
 
 chines we started with in the old place. I stopped 
 and took hold of one and worked the lever. 
 
 Then I went along. It was in March pretty 
 cold still. It wasn't any too warm in the office. 
 
 I hustled around then, getting everything out as 
 fast as I could. I didn't want to stay around there 
 much now I was going. I wanted to get out and 
 get through. I always did kind of hate to move out 
 of anywhere for the last time. 
 
 I shoved everything into a couple of bags finally, 
 and looked around to see if there was anything else 
 I'd overlooked. I stood there and looked around 
 and it struck me : " This is the last time, I'll 
 ever be here probably ! " 
 
 It gave me a kind of a twist. I don't deny it. 
 It would, I guess, to anybody, going out that way 
 leaving a business you'd built up the way I did. The 
 way Pasc and I built up that one. 
 
 " Well, after all," I said, " you ain't like a man 
 that's going to be hung! " And I clapped on my 
 hat and started. 
 
 But I couldn't help thinking when I started out, 
 again: " It's the last time! And it's not only the 
 last time for you, but in two months more there 
 won't be any factory here at all. It will be all out 
 in Detroit all gone ! All vanished, as if it never 
 was in existence. 
 
 " Let's get out of this! " I said. And I took up 
 my two bags, and started out back again. 
 
 The sun was getting pretty well down now. It 
 looked empty as the devil out there. The still old 
 crooked shadows of the machinery lay tangled up
 
 340 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 against the whitewashed walls marked out by the 
 late pinkish March sunset shining in the windows 
 opposite. 
 
 I went along, getting out as fast as I could, when 
 who should come out from one of the tin doors in 
 the fire wall but old Tom Powers, poking around, 
 looking out for the place. 
 
 " Why, hello, Tom ! " I said, and dropped my 
 grips. It seemed good and natural to see him again. 
 
 " I didn't know but what I had a burglar here," 
 he said, and grinned that little old wrinkled 
 deaths-head smile of his. 
 
 " I will be after this week," I said. " They'll 
 arrest me if they find me in here." 
 
 " You're getting through," said Tom, " as boss. 
 So I hear. Well, I'm sorry to hear it." 
 
 " I'm sorry, too," I said. " When you've been 
 hitched up to a thing the way I have been to this, 
 Tom, it comes kind of hard giving it up." 
 
 " It does," said Tom. 
 
 " But it can't be helped," I said. " It might be a 
 lot worse." 
 
 " It might," said Tom, peering at me with his 
 little eyes. " And Mr. Thomas. Where is he 
 now? " 
 
 " Gone abroad again. He ain't very well." 
 
 " I'm sorry to hear that," said Tom. " He was 
 a good man." 
 
 " Well, we can't have everything," I said. 
 
 " No," he said. " It might be worse. You're 
 both rich men, so I hear. It's made you both rich 
 the old Hoodlum."
 
 Sunday Afternoon 341 
 
 " Yep," I said, " Tom. We two cashed in on 
 our Miracle. It's your turn next. What about 
 you? " I asked him. " Did Mr. Billings fix you up 
 get you a new job, when they moved the plant out 
 to Detroit." 
 
 * Yes, I'm going to stay here for a while anyhow, 
 watching this place for him while they empty it 
 out. And I guess right along after." 
 
 " He told me he'd look out for you," I said. 
 
 " He treated me all right," said Tom. 
 
 " Look here," I said to him. The old man 
 looked pretty wabbly to me. " Don't you think yet 
 you've got enough of being night watchman? " 
 
 " No, I don't know as I've had," he said, looking 
 up at me. "What else would I do? Besides, it 
 gives me a place to work on my invention, odd times, 
 I wouldn't get anywhere else. The boys always 
 leave me their tools or they have." 
 
 " You won't have them now." 
 
 11 No. But I'll get along." 
 
 " How is she now? " I said, smiling. " How is 
 the old Miracle?" 
 
 11 She's all right," he said, smiling back, like a 
 good-natured old mummy. 
 
 " Still the coming thing? " I asked him. 
 
 " Just as I always said," he answered me. 
 you see," he asked me, that old kind of eager, in- 
 ventor's look coming back into his eyes " did you 
 see how they're flying abroad now hundreds of 
 miles in those aryplanes the Wright boys and 
 them they sold them to. Flying in the air better 
 and better all the time thousands of them!
 
 342 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 What do you think of that? What did you think 
 of it ten years ago? 
 
 " They're flying in the air all over," he said, his 
 eyes getting brighter and brighter. " Is it any fun- 
 nier for you and me, then," he asked me, " to get 
 the power out of the air, than for them to be flying 
 around in it? " 
 
 " No, I guess not," I said. It seemed to me the 
 old man got a little looser and queerer every year 
 on that thing of his. Why wouldn't he, working 
 away at it with that old left hand of his, night after 
 night, in that old dark lonesome factory? 
 
 " Don't you ever get sick of it," I said, " walking 
 around here at night? " 
 
 " No," he said. " I got something all the time 
 to occupy my mind." 
 
 " That's more than I'll have now," I said. " But 
 I'll tell you what I'll do," I told him. " What I'm 
 looking forward to now," said I, taking up that old 
 joke of ours together. " When you get around to it, 
 I'll just about take up that option of ten thousand 
 shares of stock in the old Miracle. That's a million 
 dollar's worth. 
 
 "Or I tell you what I will do," I said, getting 
 serious. " I'll put in ten thousand dollars right 
 now, on account. I'll back you to that extent, when- 
 ever you want to get through here and take me 
 up!" 
 
 ' You're a damned good man, Bill Morgan," said 
 old Tom, staring at me. " You always was. The 
 men all liked you," he said, and stood staring at me 
 a little while.
 
 Sunday Afternoon 343 
 
 " But it ain't no use. You can't do that to me," 
 he said, with a kind of crafty smile. I think he 
 was just a little touched in the upper story now 
 beginning to be. ' You can't do that to me. You 
 can't make me take your money while I can earn my 
 own. What would I do with it if I had it? Sit 
 around the house with the old woman? " 
 
 ' You could work there," said I, " on the Mir- 
 acle." 
 
 " Not so well as I could here. And besides, what 
 would I stop for when I'm still able to support 
 myself and get along? I'll tame my own Miracle, 
 and harness her up by the grace of God," he said. 
 And laughed that cracked old laugh of his. " And 
 some day," he said, "when I get a good thing 
 when I've got her worked out, under control, I'll 
 ride her over to your place. I'll put her on wheels 
 and ride over to see you. And you can put your 
 money in her then ! " 
 
 The sun got in back of the corner of one of the 
 small shops across the road, and went out entirely, 
 then; and the crooked shadows of the machinery 
 died off the white brick wall. All at once it seemed 
 kind of blue and chilly in there. I knew I'd got to 
 go pretty quick, anyhow. 
 
 " All right. I'll be looking for you, riding up," 
 I said, getting up my grips. And I went along, and 
 left him, standing there in the aisle between the ma- 
 chines. 
 
 The dusk was coming in fast; the place was lone- 
 lier than Tophet. I looked back once before I shut 
 the door. The old man still stood there where I
 
 344 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 left him like an old ghost in the place. Some- 
 thing that belonged there, and couldn't get away. 
 He stood there, watching, till finally I shut myself 
 out of my factory that last time. 
 
 I never went back in there afterwards. I never 
 wanted to.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 TWO PIECES OF PAPER 
 
 ' This is the day," said Polly to me, both of us 
 waking up early. 
 
 " Yes," I said, and lay there till breakfast time, 
 staring at the ceiling, thinking. 
 
 I was over at Billings' bank, with my lawyer at 
 eleven o'clock, according to agreement anxious to 
 get my money, and get it over with; and see this 
 man from Magnus and Company. Just one of the 
 younger ones but a partner just the same ! 
 
 He stood back to me when I came in the door, 
 looking at one of the pictures of the sheep on the 
 walls of the private reception room. I couldn't tell 
 much about him, except he was tall, and looked 
 pretty young with just a little grey hair in his 
 head! 
 
 " Yes," said Billings, talking to him, giving me his 
 back as long as possible. " They were my father's 
 choice. He was born on a farm; he was always 
 fond of pictures of sheep. He was an austere man 
 on the outside but he had quite a vein of sentiment 
 in him, down deep. He didn't show it to many 
 people only to my mother and myself. But he 
 developed quite a taste for painting in his late life 
 especially for these things, which reminded him of 
 his early associations."
 
 S46 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 " They're very good," said the man from Mag- 
 nus and Company. 
 
 " Yes," said Billings. " They are I think. 
 The old man had no education in art, of course. Or 
 in any other way really. He was not an educated 
 man in the narrow sense of the word. What he did 
 was by sheer will power and mental ability." 
 
 " I have heard Mr. Magnus speak of him, before 
 his death," said the other man, " as a man of great 
 natural powers." 
 
 " I'm glad to know that," said Billings. " He 
 was that, exactly a diamond in the rough." 
 
 " Mr. Magnus was a New Englander, of course, 
 himself," said the New Yorker. 
 
 " I know," said Billings. 
 
 And then they heard me, or pretended to, and 
 turned around; and Billings introduced us. And we 
 went in and sat down in Billings' private office, under 
 his father's old picture. And I watched the two of 
 them close, while we went through with it. 
 
 There was nothing to do much, but sign and take 
 my money. It had all been fixed by the lawyers in 
 advance. 
 
 ' You don't want me," said my lawyer. He was 
 kind of a rough talking, hearty kind of fellow, " any 
 more than two tails. This is all right from our 
 standpoint. The other people are the ones to look 
 out. They're the buyers." 
 
 ; ' We're perfectly satisfied," said the Magnus 
 partner. " We don't think Mr. Morgan would 
 cheat us." And smiled. 
 
 He had a pleasant agreeable smile on him an
 
 Two Pieces of Paper 347 
 
 easy kind of way He was a good looking young- 
 ish fellow not a day over forty-two or three. 
 Tall and slim like Billings. A quiet dresser. There 
 wasn't a diamond on him anywhere. Not even a 
 scarfpin; but his clothes showed the money all right 
 made him look young, the way those New York 
 clothes do. He was kept up every way, you could 
 see that, like a fine race horse. 
 
 " So this is the kind that runs us," I thought to 
 myself keeping my eye on him, watching just 
 what he did. 
 
 He had this easy way with him, and all the time 
 in the world apparently. The thing he was up to 
 didn't worry him at all a million more or less. 
 He was willing to talk about anything, from business 
 to Billings's flowers. 
 
 I talked with him myself quite a little, while they 
 were getting some of the papers together outside. 
 We got to talking about our line of business. 
 
 " In some ways," he said to me, " I've always 
 thought your line was the biggest thing in the coun- 
 try; your manufacturing sections like this, and the 
 people that grow up in them and these different 
 machine shops, real expert machinists, I mean, now. 
 
 " They speak of farmers," he told me, " as the 
 foundation of everything in this country from the 
 beginning. But in a way these people these ma- 
 chinists are more American than they are. 
 More thinkers more outspoken and independent. 1 
 
 " I God, yes," I said. " That's the trouble with 
 us, I guess. Too much outspoken." 
 
 And he laughed.
 
 348 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 And Proctor Billings, who was listening, smiled a 
 kind of frosty smile all below the nose. 
 
 " But a good workman," I said, " we always say, 
 is apt to be crochety." 
 
 " I believe you," he said. " Men have got to be 
 more or less that do their own thinking have 
 to, in their own business, day after day." 
 
 " Too much thinking makes a man cross, anyway," 
 said I. 
 
 The Magnus partner laughed again. 
 
 " I believe you," he said. 
 
 " You thought I was crooked," said I, looking at 
 him. " Didn't you? You thought I was holding 
 you up." 
 
 " That's putting it a little bluntly," he answered 
 me. 
 
 " Put it any way you want to. You thought so ! 
 But I wasn't. All it was, when it came down to giv- 
 ing up my business, and not being my own man I 
 found I couldn't make up my mind to do it. I've 
 wanted to be independent always. I guess it's in our 
 blood us fellows raised in a machine shop, the 
 way I was." 
 
 " I think you may be right," he said. 
 
 " I know I am. The truth is," I told him, " I'd 
 be fighting you now in spite of my wife and my 
 doctor and my lawyer if my old partner and 
 the best friend I ever had hadn't come back from 
 Europe and shown me I was making a fool of 
 myself. 
 
 " And I don't know now but he killed himself do- 
 ing it ! " I said and stopped.
 
 Two Pieces of Paper 349 
 
 ' Mr. Thomas, you mean," said he. 
 'Yes," I said. "The best fellow that ever 
 lived." 
 
 "He seemed a very unusual man," he said. 
 ' What little I saw of him." 
 
 1 You bet he is," said I. " And the straightest 
 haired man in this world." 
 
 And then we got talking about Pasc and the Hood- 
 lum. And I told him how Pasc had drawn the whole 
 machine, you might say, out of his head; about his 
 envelope and stub, and his bench in the shop; and his 
 absent-minded eyes, and his never resting or being 
 satisfied until he had a thing perfect. 
 
 " I don't know as you have ever seen men down 
 your way just like him," I said. " Those old-time 
 workmen old-fashioned machinists ! Those bony 
 sober-faced fellows in overalls." 
 
 He nodded his head. " I've seen them," he said, 
 thinking, " those faces. When I was a boy. I 
 knew one man, in particular. . . . You see them 
 now, sometimes," he said, " staring out the door of 
 a garage with those eyes! " 
 
 " And a smudge on the end of their nose." 
 
 " Yes," he said, and laughed. 
 
 " They are the salt of the earth," I said. " They 
 keep this country going on, as you say, more than 
 anybody." 
 
 " You're right," he said. " That's just what they 
 do. I believe it," he said. " In a great many v 
 these men with the metal gauges in their hands have 
 changed the face of the world more than the man 
 with the hoe and the axe, that found and broke in
 
 350 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 our continents. And they are going to still more. 
 They'll be our chief pioneers from now on." 
 
 "How?" Billings asked him, coming into the 
 talk. 
 
 " In the air, for instance," he explained to him. 
 " Pioneers, not in continents in unknown things 
 big forces." 
 
 " I get you," I said. " Working with them, day 
 after day; fighting them, off in the air somewhere! 
 That's what happened to Pasc. He got hold of 
 something out there too big for him. It wore him 
 out." 
 
 And the talk stopped a minute. 
 
 " If the truth was told," I said, starting it up 
 again, " I did the same thing in my way. I got 
 hold of something that was too big for me. And 
 now I have got to drop it myself." 
 
 " It is pretty big, for anybody," said the Magnus 
 man " a sudden new industry, like this." 
 
 " It doesn't seem too big for you people," I said 
 to him. " You people with the money and the 
 banks. Or anything else ! You take them all as 
 they come." 
 
 " All we can do really is what you did in another 
 way," he said; "watch a thing and direct it and 
 keep it going." 
 
 " Ah-ha," I said, listening to him explain it 
 through. " But that ain't my theory of it exactly." 
 
 "What is?" said he. 
 
 " My theory is," I told him, " that you've got the 
 biggest machine of all. You've got the money ma- 
 chine the billion machine, that all this other ma-
 
 Two Pieces of Paper 351 
 
 chinery works for, finally." And I told him a little 
 about the way Pasc Thomas and I used to discuss it. 
 
 He laughed again. 
 
 " I never heard it put just that way before," he 
 said. 
 
 " It takes a machinist to catch a machinist," said 
 Proctor Billings, loosening up a little now. 
 
 ' Yes," said the other man. 
 
 " I never saw very far into it," I said. " It was 
 always a mystery to me your machine and how it 
 worked, and the control you've got over everything. 
 I'd rather know about it now than anything I can 
 think of." 
 
 " Come on down some time," said the Magnus 
 man, smiling. " And I'll try to show it to you 
 what I know about it. It's a considerable mystery 
 to me," he said, " while we're starting telling the 
 truth. I'm always working, trying to learn it, like 
 your friend with the motor." 
 
 And then they brought in the last papers finally. 
 And he cast his eyes over them for a minute or two, 
 while I watched him. 
 
 He was easy but you could sec, when his face 
 went still, he was the same thing as Proctor Billings 
 the same still-faced tribe, when you got down un- 
 derneath. All the look of knowing something you 
 didn't and holding it back on you; putting everything 
 up to you all the time; and watching you, to grab 
 you when you went wrong. I watched those two - 
 Billings and him talking to one another back of 
 those masks those bankers' faces; their own kind 
 of talk. This New Yorker was too much for him ;
 
 352 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 his mind went leading Billings' mind around all the 
 time like a dog on a rope. 
 
 " What's this? " said the Magnus partner, point- 
 ing out something in the agreement to Billings. 
 
 " Oh ! I don't see how that happened," said 
 Billings. You could see he was flustered in spite 
 of himself. " My mistake," he said, " I'll have it 
 corrected at once." 
 
 " It would be better, I think," said the man from 
 New York kind of low and polite. 
 
 That was all he said. But it did my heart good. 
 He was giving Billings a call-down a punishment. 
 Not a voice, nor an eyebrow lifted. But you could 
 hear it coming down as plain as an Italian woman 
 spanking a baby. You could see how deathly afraid 
 of him Proctor Billings was. 
 
 " Gripes, what power he must have ! " I said to 
 myself, watching him what showed through that 
 still face of his. But never able, of course, to see 
 back of that man's mask all quiet and still and 
 polite ! He was too much for me ; I had to acknowl- 
 edge it to myself sitting there waiting for my 
 check. 
 
 That was the thing really now my check; my 
 million, they were going to give me now. I'd been 
 thinking of it, naturally, all the time those days be- 
 fore that going over everything. What it would 
 have meant to me five years before; all the fight we 
 had; what had happened. Now, here I was getting 
 it! 
 
 He just reached his hand into his pocketbook, 
 when the time came, and took out this big check
 
 Two Pieces of Paper 353 
 
 .this white piece of paper and handed it to me I 
 
 had to laugh almost about like passing you a 
 cigar. 
 
 It makes no more impression on them than 
 that," I said to myself. " They have to hand out 
 these millions so often these fellows they get 
 awful tired of it! " 
 
 " Certified," he said. " From Magnus and Com- 
 pany." 
 
 I grinned; I had to. " That ought to be safe," I 
 said; " what do you think about it? " 
 
 "Hadn't it?" he said and laughed that quick 
 laugh of his, showing his teeth. 
 
 " One million and sixty-five thousand, three hun- 
 dred and seventeen dollars and thirty-seven cents," 
 I said reading. 
 
 ' With some minor adjustments! " 
 
 " I God," I said. " I think you're cheating me. 
 I made it out thirty-eight cents myself." 
 
 And we laughed again, and I got up and put it 
 in my pocket. 
 
 " I'm going to take it home," I said, " and show 
 it to the wife. And then I'm going to bring it 
 back here for Billings to take care of for me for a 
 minute or two. Then I'm coming down to buy you 
 folks out." 
 
 " Come on. Do," he said and held out his 
 long hand, smiling. " We need energetic men down 
 there." 
 
 " Well," I said, " give my regards to all the rest 
 of the boys down there. And especially young 
 Magnus ! "
 
 354 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 11 I'll do that, too," he said. 
 
 " So long," I said. " Good-by." 
 
 Whatever he was, or whatever he could do to 
 Billings, to the banks, or the railroads, or the coun- 
 try in general, I wasn't going to let him see I thought 
 he was any different from any other man. 
 
 " Good-by," he said, and leaned over forward 
 and shook hands with me, as if he was shaking 
 hands with the King of England. And stood smiling 
 at me as I went out. 
 
 When I reached the door, I caught one last 
 glimpse of him turning around. His smile 
 stopped, and his still mask fell down again like the 
 outside curtain at the ending of a play. I drove 
 straight home. When I got there, Polly was out on 
 the piazza by the porte-cochere. 
 
 " Here it is," I said, coming up taking it out, 
 and waving it at her. " One million dollars I And 
 a little over for a hat," I said, kissing her. 
 
 " That's fine," she said, taking me by the coat 
 lapels. I thought then there was something, from 
 the way she looked ! 
 
 :i That's fine. Come on into the house." 
 
 As we were going in, I noticed that other paper 
 that yellow one in her hand. 
 
 " I've got some news for you, Bill," she said, 
 standing inside the hall. " Not quite so good." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " Pasc Thomas." 
 
 " Dead ! " said I all at once turned hoarse. 
 
 And she bowed her head down. 
 
 " Oh, Bill," she said, grabbing me like a child in
 
 Two Pieces of Paper 355 
 
 the dark. " I'm I'm so thankful it wasn't you! " 
 
 And she started crying a little. 
 
 " Pasc Thomas ! " I said, looking off over her 
 head. My lips were kind of numb. 
 
 We stood there quite awhile, then I looked down 
 happened to. Those two pieces of paper the 
 white one and the yellow one had fallen from 
 our hands and lay there together on the floor. 
 
 " I tell you what I'd do," said Polly, that next 
 week after that always planning and always look- 
 ing out for me. More than ever nowl 
 
 "What? "said I. 
 
 " Look," she said. " It isn't everybody that 
 makes a million. Now why don't you, while you're 
 resting, and it's all fresh in your memory, get ahold 
 of some of these newspaper boys you know, and 
 dictate what you remember, and have them fix it 
 up into a story for you." 
 
 " That's not so bad! " said I. My digestion was 
 better; the doctor said I was doing pretty well. 
 But I did hate to sit around so. How I did miss 
 my little old business! "That's not a bad idea," 
 I told her. 
 
 " No, is it? " she said. " It would occupy your 
 mind keep you from sitting around smoking too 
 much get you interested in something before we 
 go off traveling." 
 
 " It might at that," said I, thinking. 
 
 " A good plain story, in good plain language, for 
 ordinary plain-spoken people like us to read. And 
 I've got a name for it! " she said.
 
 356 The Biography of a Million Dollars 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " You know all those biographies they get out. 
 About different men? All the things they've done, 
 and are responsible for? Well, I'd have this dif- 
 ferent from that." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " I'd call it the biography of a million dollars. 
 Not just the story of a man; but the business 
 everything. 
 
 "You you see?" she said, hurrying, explain- 
 ing. " Make it a little different from these things 
 you read in the biographies, or the newspapers when 
 a rich man dies. Show how it really happened." 
 
 " I God, yes," I said, sitting up. " You'd think 
 to read one of those things that some of those 
 old devils with square chin whiskers just reached 
 out and took up a piece of mud and made the world 
 out of it, with their own hands alone." 
 
 ' Yes yes. That's what I meant. You try 
 it," said Polly. " Write it." 
 
 " I will, I believe ! " said I, making up my mind. 
 
 So I have, in a kind of a way. 
 
 But the trouble is, I've only told about half the 
 story not half. I don't know about the other 
 end those bankers; those silent boys in the banks 
 all over the country heading up down there in 
 Wall Street. They're the fellows I want somebody 
 to tell me about those still-faced men that run 
 that billion-dollar machine down in Wall Street 
 and grab off their slice of everything that comes up 
 in the country. They're the fellows we're all work- 
 ing for if we only knew it I
 
 5WVAD Q
 
 By the author of "Limpy" 
 
 THE HOUSE OF WHISPERS 
 
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 "Darby the Yank" fightt with the Tankt 
 
 A YANKEE IN THE 
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