Achmed Abdullah

“ Then, on a Saturday afternoon, he decided to see what had been the result of his psychological experiment. First, he telephoned to the telegraph company and learned that a cablegram for him had come from Spokane and was received by the Hōtel de Loire, which kept it, not knowing his address. Then he went to the hotel, sauntering leisurely into the lobby.
He saw at once that his experiment was a complete success, for Monsieur Marandat rushed up with outstretched arms.
“Ah, monsieur, what happiness it is to see you! I hope you will reoccupy your suite?” ”

“ And, when she shook her head: “Don’t you care for me, Laurette?”
“Suppose I did? Even then I wouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“You’re too flighty.”
“Me—flighty? Where do you get that stuff?”
“The way you live here in Paris.”
“So do you!”
“Sure. But I’m working darned hard, let me tell you, while you—”
“I got enough. Why should I work when I don’t have to?”
“Because it’s decent—and—oh, American.”
“Gosh! You talk like those revivalist guys I heard in Spokane!” Then, when he saw her lips tightening, he added hurriedly: “All right. I’ll buckle down to work when I get home.” ”

“ SHE wondered, speculated; wondered and speculated even more than Old Man M’Gregor did as he receipted for three thousand dollars which Canfield had wired, and read the latter’s cablegram. It told him to use the money as he saw fit, for himself or for mine litigation costs. He would send more from time to time; but he wanted M’Gregor to cable to him in Paris, in care of the Hōtel de Loire, notifying him that the Dixie Glory was once more in the unchallenged possession of the three partners. ”

“ The men whom Canfield knew were the odds and ends, the, strays who herded together not in friendship but in a queer, slightly pathetic sort of garrulous and rather vicious loneliness. But they amused him mildly, and he hated to be alone. So he went about with them, footing most of the bills. Occasionally he joined them at poker. But he did not play with his old western zest. As he put it, he felt sorry for “those poor suckers—don’t want their cash—too easy. Why even Rock of Ages could skin them out of their eyeteeth if he tried hard!” ”

“ Men out there spoke of “passing the Dixie Glory” as men in other places speak of “passing the buck.” But though Canfield had several chances of palming it off on newcomers fresh from the East, he always stoutly refused to sell.
“It isn’t that I mind sticking them,” he said, “but I’m going to develop this property, see? Why? Call it a hunch!”
He had formed a partnership with “Old Man” M’Gregor by the terms of which the latter contributed labor and tools, while Smith gave an occasional sum of money whenever he won at poker or saved it out of his munificent wage of sixty dollars a month. ”

“ The nice men there have their homes, their clubs, their offices, their funny little favorite restaurants where the waiters frown on transients, their own tight, clannish circles, chillily inhospitable to newcomers from younger and more enthusiastic lands. ”

“ And the very next deal the man who had bluffed him successfully would rise to the naked hook with the alacrity of folly and greed, and he would be therewith the goods, playing for blood, merciless, iron-visaged. ”

“ You ain’t the other kind—the sort that’s been born in a hotel lobby and whose wet-nurse was a Rolls-Royce. And the bunch you herd with is on to the difference and resents it. They laugh at you behind your back—all those Monsoors and Honorable Marmadukes with the processional noses and the recessional chins!”
Canfield laughed.
“Ain’t no laughing matter,” she continued sternly. “Why don’t you make something of yourself? Why don’t you use your bean for something else besides a barber’s playground? Why don’t you work? ”

“ They had left the Hoodoos empty of life except for a few aged Chinese from California who were satisfied with washing their daily five dollars dole in a forgotten claim; some optimistic Boise City amateur prospectors who, temporarily cured of the gold complex, now dreamt glittering mirages of mica; and Robert M’Gregor, known as “Old Man” M’Gregor throughout the Inland Empire, who was less a human individuality than a harmonious and integral part of the mountains. ”

“ Gosh, and you guys accuse us Americans of being crazy after the dollars! Well, at least it’s dollars with us, not measly five-centime bits! When it comes to being on the square, you’re the snail’s toenails—not there—not there at all, get me? I guess you can’t help it, though. Must have been the way your parents brought you up. But if I’d been your dad I’d have paddled you till you learnt what it means to be decent and—”
“How dare you?” Monsieur Marandat trembled with rage. He stuck out his beard like a battering ram, his face close against Canfield’s. ”

“ I’m Canfield Smith.”
They shook hands.
THE majority of Smith’s acquaintances in Paris were Frenchmen with a miscellany of other Continentals and a few Englishmen whom he had met at random in cafés, at the races, and in hotel and theater lobbies. They were not exactly nice men, to use a trite word. One does not meet nice men in Europe, that is, not at random. ”

“ For the series of events which began with the cablegram reached still further to four Spokane business men, former owners of the Dixie Glory, sticking their heads together, consulting files and lawyers, spending money and forensic wisdom, pyramiding it all into a decision of the Supreme Court of the State of Washington which enjoined the further working of the mine by the three partners until the litigation over its title brought by the four complainants had been settled. ”

“ He held out to him a typewritten assay report which Canfield read.
“All this is Siwash to me. What does she mean?” Canfield exclaimed with a laugh.
“It means that you are rich beyond the dreams of avarice. It means that the Dixie Glory, if the vein runs true—”
“Mac says it does!”
“He ought to know. He is an expert at blocking out ore in his own crude way—” Findlater stopped; then made up his mind. “You will need capital to develop the mine. Have you any money of your own?”
“Eleven bucks cash and a bunch of poker I.O.U.’s.”
“And M’Gregor?” ”