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The Notch Hotel was altogether too rich for Gus Briskow's blood, so he sought a more congenial environment. He found it in the village, in a livery stable; there, amid familiar odors and surroundings both agreeable and economical, he spent most of his time, leaving Ma to amuse herself and Allie to pursue the routine of studies laid down by her tutoress.
His hand was outstretched toward the knob of Briskow's door, when the one adjoining opened and, from the office he himself had so long occupied, Calvin Gray spoke to him. "Please step in here, Colonel." Nelson recoiled. "No, thank you!" he said, curtly. "Briskow and I are amateur bankers; there is a matter upon which we need your advice." "Indeed?
I s'pose you got those rings in that valise?" She indicated Gray's stout leather sample case. "Precisely," said he. "If you have time I'd like to show them to you." Mrs. Briskow's bent figure stirred, she uttered a throaty chuckle, and her weary face, lined with the marks of toil and hardship, flushed faintly. Her misshapen hands tightly clasped themselves and her faded eyes began to sparkle.
On their way uptown, the returning hero gave it to him, together with Gus Briskow's check. At the size of the latter Coverly gasped. "Didn't I say you were a good salesman? And Mallow! You got him, didn't you? I told you he was a crook. Just the same, old man, you ran a terrible risk and I feel mighty guilty. Why, those fellows would have killed you." "Probably."
"You are a person of taste, if you will pardon a perfectly obvious compliment from a total stranger, and they need such a woman's guidance. But they need, even more, a little bit of feminine tact and sympathy. Look!" He showed Gus Briskow's blank check. "The whole store is theirs, if they wish it.
"All I done was set around while him an' them bank people talked it over," he said, finally. "Then they got their lawyer in an' he examined the title papers. Seemed like he'd never git through, but he did, an' they signed some things an' we come out, an' Mister Gray told me I'd made forty-eight thousand dollars." "Goodness me!" Ma Briskow's eyes widened.
Hearing an exclamation behind him, Gray turned to behold Allie Briskow's dim figure in the door. "Hello!" he cried, excitedly. "Did you see that? Yonder are two wells afire." "I know. I haven't closed my eyes. You can see another one from my window." Allia snapped the light from a pocket flash upon Gray, and, noting that he was only partly clad, she urged him to come into the house.
Ten thousand barrels! Ho! I'll write this day in brass. Why, that lease will sell for a million. It it may mean the end." Gray brought himself to with an effort, hastily he kissed Ma Briskow's faded cheek and wrung her husband's hand. A moment later he was gone.
Buddy was still breathless, but he plunged out the door and back into that sea of sound. With a tragic intensity akin to wildness, Gray stared up into Allie Briskow's face. "Worthless, eh? And they told me ten thousand barrels." He carried a shaking hand to his bandaged head and tried vainly to collect his wits. "What's matter?" he queried, thickly. "Everything whirling sick "
Finding it isn't as easy to run a bank as a drilling rig? He said you were out, otherwise " "Will you come in?" Stiffly, reluctantly, as if impelled by some force outside of himself, Nelson stepped within, but he ignored the chair that was proffered him. Gray closed the door before saying: "The deception was mine, not Briskow's. You prefer to stand? Um-m I appreciate your feeling of formality.
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