Part 32 (2/2)
”I see,” commented Rutley, pouring some liquor into the gla.s.s and setting the bottle on the table. ”A sudden and unexpected attack, eh!
May the fickle jade smile on us tonight,” and so saying, he drank the liquor with evident relish, and handed the gla.s.s to Jack.
Jack, misunderstanding his quotation of the ”fickle jade,”
interpreting it as meant for Virginia, at once replied:
”The jade may smile and smile, and be a villain, but she must 'pungle'
up the 'dough.'” And pouring some liquor in the gla.s.s he drained it.
Jack's misapplication of the popular quotation caused Phil to smile, then to chuckle. ”Ha, ha, ha, ha, the jade!”
Then he produced a couple of cigars from his vest pocket, and offering one to Jack, continued: ”She deserves no mercy.”
”None whatever,” replied Jack, as he took the cigar.
”If she had not weakened, we should never have selected her to pay the ransom,” resumed Rutley.
”Ha, ha, ha, ha,” laughed Jack, as he put a match to the cigar. ”Her penitent mood makes her an easy mark. The price of her atonement'll be twenty thousand dollars.”
Again Rutley chuckled, chuckled convivially, for evidently the softening influence of the liquor relaxed his tensely attuned nerves.
”Ha, my boy, she shall not enjoy the bliss of restoring the child to her mother. I shall be the hero in this case,” and he lowered his voice. ”After Virginia has paid the ransom, I shall take the child to her father.” Then he looked at Jack significantly and laughed--laughed in a singularly sinister, yet highly pitched suppressed key.
Jack penetrated Rutley's purpose at once and the prodigious nerve of the fellow caused him likewise to laugh. But Jack's laugh was different from Rutley's, in so much that it conveyed, though suppressed and soft, an air of rollicking abandon.
”And get the reward of ten thousand dollars offered for the child's recovery.”
”Precisely,” laughed Rutley.
His laugh seemed infectious, for Jack joined him with a ”Ha, ha, ha, ha. And borrow ten thousand more from old Harris for being a Good Samaritan to his nephew, Sam, eh! Have another, Phil,” and again he laughed as he offered the gla.s.s.
Rutley took the gla.s.s and filled it. ”A forty thousand cleanup, Jack, just for a bit of judicious nerve! He, he, he, he,” and then his laughter ceased, for the simple reason that his lips could not perform the act of drinking and laughing at the same time.
”Ha, ha, ha, ha,” laughed Jack, in response. ”A d.a.m.ned good thing, eh, Phil?” and he took the gla.s.s, filled it, and drank. ”Has anybody heard from Corway?”
”Shanghaied,” laconically replied Rutley.
”He's off on the British bark Lochlobin. No fear of any trouble from him for several months.”
”How, in the name of G.o.d, did you do it?” asked Jack, fairly enthralled with Rutley's nerve.
”Oh, it was easy. Fixed it up with some sailor boarding-house toughs, but I only got $50 out of it all told, including his watch. But, my dear boy, that is not all I have planned in this plunge. You know I am desperately in love with the orphan?”
”Hazel!” exclaimed Jack. ”Ho, that was plain long ago,” and he laughed again.
”She's the sweetest little girl in the world, Jack, and the best part of it is, she has a cool hundred thousand in her own right.”
”Marry her,” promptly advised Jack.
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