Part 17 (1/2)
”You've all had easy lives, so you don't know yet, really, what's worth while and what isn't.”
”Now, that girl back there,” he resumed his talk after a few moments of silence, ”she has no conception what-so-ever of worth. What's her name, anyway?” he asked.
”Linda Riggs,” Nan answered.
”Not the daughter of the railroad king?”
”That's right.” Nan nodded her head.
”Knew him, when he was a young fellow,” Adair paused, remembering his own youth. ”He was a nice chap then. Can't understand how he could have reared such a poor excuse for a daughter. We belonged to the same college fraternity. He was president of it at one time I think. Always helping people out. Everybody liked him. That's how he happened to get on in the world the way he did. Met up with someone who had lots of dough and no son to carry on the family name. Riggs seemed to fill the bill, so the wealthy old codger took him into his business and taught him the ropes.
”Riggs wore well, and when the old man died he inherited the fortune.
Sounds like a fairy story, but those things happen. Jamieson here must know the tale.”
Walker nodded in agreement. ”Do. Interviewed the old bird one time under particularly difficult circ.u.mstances. There was a big railroad merger story about to break, and n.o.body wanted to talk. I got wind of it through a hot tip from a stooge in New York. Tried everything in order to get the story, and finally in desperation went to Riggs himself. It was rumored that he had the controlling interest in the stock. I had to go through a dozen secretaries before I finally got to him.
”Then he didn't want to talk either. However, some little thing I said in pa.s.sing, captured his fancy, and before I knew it, I was laying all my cards on the table and he was putting them together so that they made sense. When we were finished, I realized that I had one of the biggest stories of the year and was about to grab my hat and run out to put it on the wires, when he put out a restraining hand. 'Sorry,' he said, 'but I must ask you to keep this quiet for twenty-four hours longer. If you promise, I a.s.sure you that no one else will get the release until your paper has the scoop all sewed up.'
”In a way I was up a tree, because I knew that if the story had leaked out to me, someone else was very likely to get wind of it too. I hesitated. He stuck out his hand as though to shake mine and he did it in such a frank friendly fas.h.i.+on, that I agreed to what he asked, even though I knew it was a dumb thing to do under the circ.u.mstances.
”But there was something about the man that inspired confidence and regard.”
”Lived up to the agreement, didn't he?” Adair said positively.
”Sure did,” Walker a.s.sented, ”and under difficulty too. Just as I suspected, some other paper did get wind of the story and sent one of their ace men out to get the details. Riggs let him in, quizzed him to find out what he knew, excused himself, and then called me to tell me that the time was up, that I'd better shoot the yarn right through if I wanted to scoop the rest of the dailies.
”Well, after he did that, he went back into his office and told the other reporter the whole story he had told me. It took him three hours to tell it, and when my compet.i.tor came out of the office our extras were already on the street.”
”That was the Midwestern merger, wasn't it?” Adair questioned.
”Right!” Jamieson agreed. ”Remember it, don't you? But you chits,” he turned his attention to the girls who had been listening with their customary attention to his tale, ”you wouldn't remember. You were hardly out of your cradles then. Nan here was probably still creeping around in rompers. Bess, well, Bess probably didn't creep, that was too dirty for her, but she was probably beginning to put her hands up to her father and saying, 'gimme'.”
This brought a laugh from everyone, including Adair MacKenzie.
”Can't understand,” he returned to the question of Linda, ”how a girl with a father like Riggs could be such an obnoxious person.”
”Oh, there are lots of explanations,” Walker answered. ”I happen to know that his wife died when the girl was just a baby. He was all broken up and turned to the child for comfort. Guess he lavished all his attention on her and spoiled her.”
”Sounds plausible,” Adair agreed, and then looked at Alice. ”See how I ruined my daughter with kindness,” he twitted. ”Let her get out of hand completely. Now I can't do anything with her.”
”Want to get rid of her?” Walker winked at Alice, as he asked the question.
”What's that?” Adair was startled.
”Oh, nothing, dad,” Alice frowned at Walker. ”Where are we going now.”
”Don't know.” Adair took out his watch as he shook his head. He frowned. ”Guess we can make it though,” he continued, laughing with the others at his own inconsistency.
CHAPTER XIX