Part 19 (1/2)
”But suppose I pay this bill----”
”Pay it? You really mean that?”
”Certainly I mean it.” Duncan produced the wad of bills which Kellogg had furnished him the night before his departure from New York. Thus far he had broken only one of the five-hundred-dollar gold certificates, and of that one he had the greater part left; living is anything but expensive in Radville.
”I'm beginning to understand that I was cut out for an actor,” he told himself as he thumbed the roll with a serious air and an a.s.sumed indifference which permitted Sperry to estimate its size pretty accurately.
”That's quite a stack of chips you're carrying,” Sperry observed.
Duncan's hand airily wafted the remark into the limbo of the negligible. ”A trifle, a mere trifle,” he said casually. ”I don't generally carry much cash about me. Haven't for five years,” he added irrepressibly. He extracted a fifty-dollar certificate from the sheaf, and handed it over.
”I'll take a receipt, but you needn't mention this to Mr. Graham just now.”
”No, certainly not.” Sperry scrawled his signature to the bill.
”And about that line of credit?----”
”Well, with this paid, I guess you could have what you needed, in moderation. Of course----”
”My name is Duncan--Nathaniel Duncan.” Sperry made a memorandum of it on the back of an envelope. ”Any former business connections?”
”None that I care to speak about,” Duncan confessed glumly.
Sperry's face lengthened. ”No references?”
It took thought, and after thought courage; but Duncan hit upon the solution at length. ”Do you know L. J. Bartlett & Company, the brokers?”
”Do I know J. Pierpont Morgan?”
”Then that's all right. Tell your people to inquire of Harry Kellogg, the junior partner. He knows all about me.”
Noting the name, Sperry put away the envelope. ”That's enough. If he says you're all right, you can have anything you want.” He consulted his watch. ”Hmm. Train to catch.... But let's see: what do you need here?”
Duncan reviewed the empty shelves, his face glowing. ”Pills,” he said with a laugh: ”all kinds of pills and... everything for a regular, sure-enough drug-store, Mr. Sperry: everything Sothern and Lee carries and a lot of attractive things they don't.... Small lots, you know, until I see what we can sell.”
”I see. You leave it to me; I probably know what you need better than you do. I'll make out a list this afternoon and mail it to-night with instructions to s.h.i.+p it at the earliest possible moment.”
”Splendid!” Duncan told him. ”You do that, and don't worry about our making good. I'm going to put all my time and energy into this proposition and----”
”Then you'll make good all right,” Sperry a.s.sured him. ”All anybody's got to do is look at you to see you're a good business man.” He returned Duncan's pressure and picked up his sample-case. ”S'long,”
said he, and left briskly, leaving Duncan speechless.
As if to a.s.sure himself of his sanity he put a hand to his brow and stroked it cautiously. ”Heavens!” he said, and sought the support of the counter. ”That's twice to-day I've been told that in the same place!”...
”It's funny,” he said, half dazed, ”I never could have pulled that off for myself!”
IX
SMALL BEGINNINGS