The jeweller nodded approval of this sentiment.
“They never come back,” he said, sententiously.
The fighting blood of the Moffams was now thoroughly stirred. Archie eyed his friend sternly. Reggie was a good chap–in many respects an extremely sound egg–but he must not be allowed to talk rot of this description about the greatest left-handed pitcher of the age.
“It seems to me, old companion,” he said, “that a small bet is indicated at this juncture. How about it?”
“Don’t want to take your money.”
“You won’t have to! In the cool twilight of the merry old summer evening I, friend of my youth and companion of my riper years, shall be trousering yours.”
Reggie yawned. The day was very hot, and this argument was making him feel sleepy again.
“Well, just as you like, of course. Double or quits on yesterday’s bet, if that suits you.”
For a moment Archie hesitated. Firm as his faith was in Mr. Biddle’s stout left arm, he had not intended to do the thing on quite this scale. That thousand dollars of his was earmarked for Lucille’s birthday present, and he doubted whether he ought to risk it. Then the thought that the honour of New York was in his hands decided him. Besides, the risk was negligible. Betting on Looney Biddle was like betting on the probable rise of the sun in the east. The thing began to seem to Archie a rather unusually sound and conservative investment. He remembered that the jeweller, until he drew him firmly but kindly to earth and urged him to curb his exuberance and talk business on a reasonable plane, had started brandishing bracelets that cost about two thousand. There would be time to pop in at the shop this evening after the game and change the one he had selected for one of those. Nothing was too good for Lucille on her birthday.
“Right-o!” he said. “Make it so, old friend!”
Archie walked back to the Cosmopolis. No misgivings came to mar his perfect contentment. He felt no qualms about separating Reggie from another thousand dollars. Except for a little small change in the possession of the Messrs. Rockefeller and Vincent Astor, Reggie had all the money in the world and could afford to lose. He hummed a gay air as he entered the lobby and crossed to the cigar-stand to buy a few cigarettes to see him through the afternoon.
The girl behind the cigar counter welcomed him with a bright smile. Archie was popular with all the employes of the Cosmopolis.
“‘S a great day, Mr. Moffam!”
“One of the brightest and best,” Agreed Archie. “Could you dig me out two, or possibly three, cigarettes of the usual description? I shall want something to smoke at the ball-game.”
“You going to the ball-game?”
“Rather! Wouldn’t miss it for a fortune.”
“No?”
“Absolutely no! Not with jolly old Biddle pitching.”
The cigar-stand girl laughed amusedly.
“Is he pitching this afternoon? Say, that feller’s a nut? D’you know him?”
“Know him? Well, I’ve seen him pitch and so forth.”
“I’ve got a girl friend who’s engaged to him!”
Archie looked at her with positive respect. It would have been more dramatic, of course, if she had been engaged to the great man herself, but still the mere fact that she had a girl friend in that astounding position gave her a sort of halo.
“No, really!” he said. “I say, by Jove, really! Fancy that!”
“Yes, she’s engaged to him all right. Been engaged close on a coupla months now.”
“I say! That’s frightfully interesting! Fearfully interesting, really!”
“It’s funny about that guy,” said the cigar-stand girl. “He’s a nut! The fellow who said there’s plenty of room at the top must have been thinking of Gus Biddle’s head! He’s crazy about m’ girl friend, y’ know, and, whenever they have a fuss, it seems like he sort of flies right off the handle.”
“Goes in off the deep end, eh?”
“Yes, SIR! Loses what little sense he’s got. Why, the last time him and m’ girl friend got to scrapping was when he was going on to Pittsburg to play, about a month ago. He’d been out with her the day he left for there, and he had a grouch or something, and he started making low, sneaky cracks about her Uncle Sigsbee. Well, m’ girl friend’s got a nice disposition, but she c’n get mad, and she just left him flat and told him all was over. And he went off to Pittsburg, and, when he started in to pitch the opening game, he just couldn’t keep his mind on his job, and look what them assassins done to him! Five runs in the first innings! Yessir, he’s a nut all right!”