Part 2 (1/2)

”It makes an expensive smoke,” smiled Jack, settling back to the enjoyment of the cigarette, ”but after all, as long as I have the money, why not enjoy myself? Will you join me?”

He took up his pen as though to make another.

”No, no, no!” cried the ogre, walking agitatedly up and down the floor.

”I--er--I'm afraid it's too soon after breakfast for me. Do you mean to tell me that such an inexhaustible treasure as this really exists?”

”There it is, right before your eyes,” said Jack. ”Suppose we test it.

Think of a large sum of money, tell me what it is, and see if I can't go you a dollar better.”

”Four hundred millions!” cried the ogre, impulsively.

”Piker!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jack, with a smile, as he drew his check for $400,000,001.

”A billion and a half!” cried the ogre.

”Now you're beginning to get your pace,” laughed Jack. ”There's my check, sir, for $1,500,000,001, according to specifications.”

”That reduces your balance some, though,” said the ogre.

”Yes,” said Jack. ”It reduces it by $1,900,000,002, leaving me with only $3,573,574,999,998 on hand, but if I affix six ciphers to that, as I will now proceed to do, I have, as the figures conclusively show, $3,575,574,999,998,000,000, or about a squillion more than I had before I began to draw.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE OGRE COLLAPSED IN HIS CHAIR]

The ogre collapsed in his chair. The magnitude of these figures appalled him.

”Great glory!” he cried. ”I didn't know there was that much money in the world. Can--can anybody work that book?”

”Anybody who comes by it honestly and without trickery,” said Jack. ”Of course, if a man gets hold of it in an unscrupulous way, or goes back on his bargain, it's as valueless to him as so much waste paper.”

The ogre strode up and down the room, filled with agitation. He had thought to trick the boy out of his wonderful possession--in fact, to swallow him whole and then appropriate his treasure, but Jack's explanation put an entirely new phase on the matter.

”I suppose you wouldn't part with that book?” he finally asked.

”Yes,” said Jack. ”I'll let you have it if you will transfer all your property irrevocably to your stepdaughter, Beanhilda, and give me her hand in marriage.”

”It's a bargain!” gulped the ogre, whereupon he summoned his lawyers and his secretaries, and by noon all his possessions had pa.s.sed beyond recall into the hands of Beanhilda. A special messenger was sent down the bean-stalk to fetch Jack's mother, and that afternoon the happy lad and the fair Princess of Ogreville were married with much pomp and ceremony.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”BLESS YOU, MY CHILDREN!”]

”Bless you, my children!” murmured the ogre, as the irrevocable words were spoken by the priest, and Jack pa.s.sed the magic check-book over to its new owner. ”May you live long and happily. As for me, I'm off for a week's vacation in little old New York.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”A WEEK'S VACATION IN LITTLE OLD NEW YORK”]

”How did you manage it, sweetheart?” whispered Beanhilda in her husband's ear a few weeks later. ”Step-papa had such a penchant for hard-boiled boys that I feared you were lost the moment he appeared.”

Jack explained the whole history of the magic check-book to her, but when he had done, his bride grew white.