Galusha the Magnificent

e foot of the stairs that breakfast was ready. During breakfast he was more absent-minded than usual, which is saying a good deal, and Martha herself was far

ng with excitement. "She wants to see you in the settin' ro

calling them was a rather slow and patience-taxing process. In this case, however, they were already in th

t between the earlaps of his cap.

e. She's in there a-waitin'. I bet you she'

?... Abo

Pulcifer and all the rest of it.... Oh, my Lord of Isrul! Don

as beginning

ervously. "Do you think that-Did sh

er, Mr. Bangs. You tell her I don't want no wages. Tell her I

n the sitting room when her lodger

said. "And I won't keep you very long. But I did want to talk with you for ju

han the idea of consulting Galusha Bangs concerning a matter of business. But b

g about being highly honored and only too gla

won't keep you very long. Sit down, Mr. Bangs. Oh, not i

looked at him sitting there, his collar turned up, his cap brim and earlaps covering two thirds of his face and his spectacles at least half of the r

here. Primmie forgot and left the dampers open and the stove was pretty nearly red-hot when

ly divested himself of his wrappings, dropping them upon the floor as the most convenient re

ow why I am so thoughtless. I-I should be-ah-hanged or s

, Mr. Bangs, I'm going to try to get at that matter I wanted to ask your op

ooked rather

not a thing,

look greatly

uch about such things. And from what I've seen of you, goodness knows, you don't ACT like o

ll right, Miss Phipps. I know I

t say you were, of course. But-oh, well, never mind that. So y

that sort of thing is so very distasteful to me. It bore

had worn more than once when he puzzled her-"and yet I-I just can't make you out, Mr. Bangs. You say you don't know anything about money and managin' money, and y

I almost never-I think I may safely say never come in from one of those trips without hav

She looked more p

ra, don't they?" she asked. "Who

d, rather hastily, as if afraid she might ask more questions along thi

e only one in East Wellmouth that calls me anything

iss Martha, since you permit me

' to say that the 'Miss' wasn't n

you intended telling me. I am very anxious to help-ah-even if I can't, y

ged her s

ome one. Mr. Bangs, I am so worried I don't know what to do. It is a money matter, of course, that's worryin' me, an investment father made a littl

her lodger's face, she was

e heard of it, have

en I was-ah-behind the tomb and heard Captain Hallett and Mr. Pulcifer speaking

were both mixed up in it along with father. Yes, and Doctor Powers and a lot more, though not so much. Raish, of course, was

ern then running and operating one large cold storage plant in that village, were looking about for a favorable spot upon which to

e is just lovely. You can see miles and miles out to sea and all up and down the shore-and back over the village, for that m

where my-ah-late lamente

tly makin' arrangements to pick up the different parcels of land from the owners here and there, when Raish Pulcifer got wind of it. There's precious little goin' on down this part of the Cape that Raish doesn't get wind of,

ifficulty was that just then his own limited capital was tied up in various ways and he lacked ready money. So, being obliged to borrow, he sought out Cap

for somethin' down to bind what Raish and Jethro called 'options.' Anyhow, when the Eagle people finally started in to put their grand plan into workin', they bumped bows on into a shoal, at least that's the

cation was concerned, and announced their intention of going elsewhere. But there was no sufficiently attractive "elsewhere" to go. There followed

, which were pretty big sometimes. And they couldn't get into the reg'lar Eagle Fish Freezing Company, the old one. So they and the Eagle folks together undertook to form this new thing, the Development Company, the name meanin' nothin' or a whole lot, 'cordin' to

an "awful lot of money." All sums were awful to him; he would have agreed if the Wellmouth D

n' to Jethro and Raish talk about dividends and profit sharin' and such till, as he said, the tar on his top riggin' began to melt, he drew out money from the savin's bank and sold some other bonds and stocks he had and went in for tw

instant, then sigh

n your head, Mr. Bangs," she said

on, started, colored, and guiltily admi

me, no. In fact I-ah-doubt if I

side would let the other have more'n half, or even quite half, because then whichever had it could control things. So the remainin' one hundred and fifty shares was sold around Wellmouth and Tr

heir business, anyhow,' he said, and laughed that big laugh of his. Seems as if I could hear him laugh now. Ah, hum!... But there, let's get under way again or you'll go to sleep before the ship makes port. I declare, that was father's word, too,

comes in handy for him, in politics and other ways, to have 'em that way. He lends money and holds mortgages and all that, and that's where the obligations come in.... Well, anyhow, that's what he said and, although father didn't look any too happy at the time and wouldn't talk about it afterward, it seemed to settle the objection about the hundred and fifty shares. So the new company g

ok over his papers and affairs they found that, instead of bein' rich, he hadn't a cent in the world. He had lost all his own money gamblin' in stocks, and, not only that, but he'd lost all that other folks had given him to take care of. He was treasurer of the Eagle Fish Freezin' Company and he'd stolen there until that company had to fail. And, bein' secretary and treasure

still alive-at least it's supposed to be, but nobody but a doctor could tell it wasn't dead. The Denboro Trust Company has the Eagle Company's twelve hundred shares-I don't know how it got 'em; a long snarled-up tangle of loans, and security for loans, and I don't know what-and the rest of us have got ours. All that's back of those

rrative, passed a hand in bewildered fashion across his forehead. He murmured that t

it to amuse him. But, you see, Mr. Bangs, I didn't tell it to amuse you. I told it because-because-well, because, I-I wondered if in any way you knew, or could find out, how I could sell my

ation moved him extraordinarily. He wanted to say many things, reassuring things, but he could not at the mo

in' costs have been goin' up and up and up. Now my income is the same as it was, but what it will buy is less than half. It doesn't cost much to live down here, but I'm afraid it costs more than I can afford. If I begin to take away from my principal I'll have to keep on doin' it and pretty soon that will be all gone. After that-well, I don't want to l

He had been waiting for an excus

e that. I do indeed. You see, I have-ah-more money t

him and her tone

the idea that I'm hintin' for you to LEND me money-you or anybody

ot hinting, Miss Martha. I-I didn't dream of such a thing. It was merely a thought

on

d be doing me such a GREAT

at, in spite of her own stress of

ur money?" she asked. "You havin' such a

, that's it

an that ever stepped, I do believe, but truly I doubt if you know whether you're worth ten dollars or ten hundred. And it doesn't make the least difference, so far as I a

realized that it was

utory cause to your-ah-difficulties. Dear me, yes! I have realized

if you could think of any way for me to turn those Development Company shares of mine into money. Not what father paid for them, of course, or even half of it. But SOME money at least. If I thought they weren't worth anything I s

velations from the beyond, blandly told her to wait as he was waiting. It had been communicated to him that he was to sell his own shares at a profit; if she waited she might do likewise. The president of the Denboro Trust Company had been very kind, but his counsel was not to

way. Said the bank was goin' to hold on to what it had, but it certainly didn't want any more. So there I am.... And yet, and yet if I COULD sell-if I COULD get two thousand dollars, yes, or even fifteen hundred just now

ity to the wall had prevented a complete overturn, but there sat Galusha, the back of the chair against the wall and his knees elevated at a very acu

ps, seizing him by the arm and pulling h

beaming. His eyes s

at moment," he cried.

ked about the room. "What str

beaming smi

odd that it didn't do so before. Yes, he is exactly th

she never in her life felt

he demanded. "What wa

Galusha, happily. "Don't you s