A natural again!” exulted1 Jonathan Reuben Wix, as the dice2 bounded from his plump hand and came to rest upon the billiard-table in Leiniger’s select Café, with a five and a deuce showing. “Somebody ring the bell for me, because I’m a-going to get off.”
He was a large young man in every dimension, broad of chest and big and pink of face and jovial3 of eye, and he chuckled4 as he passed the dice to his left-hand neighbor. There was a hundred dollars on the table and he gathered it up in a wad.
“Good-by, boys, and many merry thanks for these kind contributions,” he bantered5 as he stuffed the money into his pocket. “It’s me for Bunkville-amidst-the-ferry-boats, on the next Limited.”
[Pg 2]
He was back in less than three days, having spent just twenty-four hours in New York. The impulsively6 decided7 journey was nothing unusual for him, but it had an intimate bearing upon his future in that it forced upon him the confidence of secretive Clifford Gilman, who lived next door.
“Home so soon?” inquired Gilman in surprise. “They must have robbed you!”
“Robbed!” laughed Wix. “I should say not. I didn’t waste a cent. Railroad ticket, sleepers8, meals and extra fare on the Limited cost twenty-five each way. That left fifty. My room at the hotel cost five dollars. Breakfast was two dollars; morning drive through Central Park, four; lunch, three-fifty; matinée ticket, with cab each way, five; dinner, eight, with the ordinary champagne9 of commerce; theater and cab hire, five-fifty; supper, twelve, including a bottle of real champagne at eight dollars, and the balance in tips.”
Clifford gasped10 as he hungrily reviewed these luscious11 items.
Young Gilman was not one of those who had been in the game by which Wix had won a hundred. He never played dice, did young Gilman, nor poker12, nor bet on a horse race, nor drank, nor even smoked; [Pg 3]but wore curly, silken sideburns, and walked up the same side of Main Street every morning to the bank, with his lunch in a little imitation-leather box. He walked back down the same side of Main Street every evening. If he had happened to take the other side on any morning, before noon there would have been half a dozen conservative depositors to ask old Smalley, who owned the bank, why Clifford had crossed over.
Young Gilman was popularly regarded as a “sissy,” but that he had organs, dimensions and senses, and would bleed if pricked13, was presently evidenced to Mr. Wix in a startling proposition.
“Look here, Wix,” said Gilman, lowering his voice to a mystery-fraught undertone, “I’m going to take a little trip and I want you to come along.”
“Behave!” admonished14 Wix. “It would be awful reckless in me to go with a regular little devil like you; and besides, sarsaparilla and peanuts tear up my system so.”
“I’ve got three hundred dollars,” stated Gilman calmly. “Does that sound like sarsaparilla and peanuts?”
“I’m listening,” said Wix with sudden interest. “Where did you get it, mister?”
[Pg 4]
Gilman looked around them nervously15, then spoke16 in an eager whisper, clutching Wix by the arm.
“Saved it up, but like you do. I saw the wisdom of your way long ago. Old Smalley makes me put half my salary in the bank, but I pinch out a little more than that, and every time I get twenty dollars on the side, I invest it in margin17 wheat, by mail. Most often I lose, but when I do win I keep on until it amounts to something. Of course, I’m laying myself open to you in this. If old Smalley found it out he’d discharge me on the spot.”
Wix chuckled.
“I know,” he agreed. “My mother once wanted me to apply for that job. I went to see old Smalley, and the first thing he did was to examine my fingers for cigarette stains. ‘You won’t find any,’ I told him, ‘for I use a holder18,’ and I showed him the holder. Of course, that settled my case with Smalley; but do you know that he smokes after-dinner cigarettes away from home, and has beer and whisky and three kinds of wine in his cellar? I’ve got his number, all right, but I didn’t have little Clifford’s. Where do you hide it?”
“In the bank and here at home,” returned Gilman with a snarl19; “and I’ve been at it so long I’m beginning [Pg 5]to curdle20. You’ve worked in every mercantile establishment, factory and professional office in town, and never cared to hold a job. Yet everybody likes you. You drink, smoke, gamble and raise the dickens generally. You don’t save a cent and yet you always manage to have money. You dress swell21 and don’t amount to a tinker’s cuss, yet you’re happy all day long. Come along to the Putnam County Fair and show me how.”
“The Putnam County Fair!” repeated Wix. “Two hundred miles to get a drink?”
“I can’t take one any closer, can I?” demanded Gilman savagely22. “But the real reason is that Uncle Thomas lives there. I can go to visit Uncle Thomas when I wouldn’t be allowed to ‘go on the cars alone’ anywhere else. But uncle is a good fellow and his wife don’t write to my mother. He tells me to go ahead; and I don’t need go near him unless I’m in trouble.”
“Some time I’ll borrow your Uncle Tom,” laughed Wix. “He sounds good to me.”
Mrs. Gilman came to the door. She was a thin, nervous, little woman, with a long chin and a narrow forehead.
“Come in, Cliffy,” she urged in a shrill23, wheedling24 [Pg 6]voice. “You must have a good, long night’s rest for your trip in the morning.” In reality she was worried to have her Clifford talking with the graceless Wix—though secretly she admired Jonathan Reuben.
“I must go in now,” said Gilman hastily. “Go down to the train in the morning and get in on the other side, so mother won’t see you. And don’t tell your mother where you’ve gone.”
“She won’t ask,” responded Wix, laughing. “Nothing ever worries mother except our name. I don’t like it myself, but I don’t worry over it. It isn’t my fault, and it was hers.”
If Wix felt any trace of bitterness over his mother’s indifference25 he never confessed it, even to himself. Mrs. Wix, left a sufficient income by the late unloved, lived entirely26 by routine, with a separate, complacent27 function for every afternoon of the week. She was very comfortable, and plump, and placid28, was Mrs. Wix, and Jonathan Reuben was merely an excrescence upon her scheme of life. Jonathan Reuben, however, had no lack of feminine sympathy. Quite a little clique30 of dashing young matrons, with old or dryly preoccupied31 husbands, vied with the girls to make him happy.
[Pg 7]
In the present instance, young Wix was quite right about his mother’s indifference. He called to her as he went down to early breakfast that he might not be back for a few days, and she sleepily answered. “All right.” So Clifford and his instructor32 went to the fair, and the more experienced spendthrift showed the amateur how to get rid of his money, to their mutual33 gratification.
Back of the Streets of Cairo, on the closing day, Wix and Gilman, hunting a drink, found a neat young man with piercing black eyes and black hair, who upon the previous days had been making a surreptitious hand-book on the races. Just now he was advising an interested group of men that money would not grow in their pockets.
“If your eye is quicker than my hand you get my dollars,” he singsonged as he deftly34 shifted three English walnut35 shells about on a flimsy folding stand. “If my hand is quicker than your eye, I get your dollars. Here they go, three in a row. They’re all set, and here’s a double sawbuck for some gentleman with a like amount of wealth and a keen eye and a little courage. Where, oh, where, is the little pea?”
The location of the little pea was so obvious that [Pg 8]it seemed a shame to take the black-eyed young man’s money, for just as he had stopped moving the shells, Wix and Gilman, pressing up, saw that the edge of the left-hand shell had rested upon the rubber “pea” and had immediately closed over it. Notwithstanding this slip on the part of the operator, there seemed some reluctance36 on the part of the audience to invest; instead, with what might have seemed almost suspicious eagerness, they turned toward the new-comers. Gilman, flushed of face and muddy of eye, and hiccoughing slightly—though Wix, who had drunk with him drink for drink, was clean and normal and his usual jovial, clear-eyed self—hastily pressed in before any one else should take advantage of the golden chance.
“Don’t, Gilman,” cautioned Wix, and grabbed him by the arm, but Clifford, still eager, jerked his arm away; and it was strange how all those who had been packed around the board made room for him.
“Here’s the boy with the nerve and the money,” commented the black-eyed one as he took Mr. Gilman’s twenty and flaunted37 it in the air with his own. “Now lift up the little shell. If the little pea is under it you get the twin twenties. Lovely twins!” He laughed and kissed them lightly. “It’s only a question,” [Pg 9]he shouted loudly, as Gilman prepared to make his choice, “of whether your eye is quicker than my hand.”
Confidently Mr. Gilman picked up the left-hand shell, and a ludicrously bewildered look came over his face as he saw that the pellet was not under it. There was a laugh from the crowd. They had been waiting for another victim. Gilman looked hastily down at the trampled38 mass of straw and grass and muddy, black earth.
“The elusive39 little pea is not on the ground,” explained the brisk young man. “The elusive little pea is right here on the board in plain sight.”
To prove it he lifted up the center shell and displayed the pellet! There was another laugh. Not one person in that crowd had seen the dexterous40 movement of his little finger, so quick and certain that it was scarcely more than a quiver; but, to make sure that his “quickness of hand” had not been detected, he scanned every face about him swiftly and piercingly. In this inspection41 his eye happened to light on that of Jonathan Reuben Wix, and met a wink42 so knowing, and withal so bubbling with gleeful appreciation43, that he was himself forced to grin.
[Pg 10]
“How you’ve wasted your young life,” commented Wix as he led away his still dazed companion. “I thought everybody knew that trick by this time, but I guess postmasters and bank clerks are always exempt44.”
“But how did he do it?” protested Gilman. “I saw that little ball under the left-hand shell as plain as day.”
“That’s what he meant you to see,” returned Wix with a grin. “He let that one stop under the edge as if he were awkward, then he flipped45 it into the crook46 of his little finger. When he lifted the middle shell he shoved the ball under it. At the time you picked yours up there wasn’t a ball under any of the three shells. There never is.”
“I guess it’s too late for me to get an education,” sighed the other plaintively47. “Smalley won’t give me a chance. I don’t even dare buy a new suit of clothes too often. I’d never see a bit of life if it wasn’t for this wheat speculation48.”
Wix turned to him slowly.
“You want to let that game alone,” he cautioned.
“Oh, I’m cautious enough,” returned Gilman.
“You’re almost in full charge at the bank now, [Pg 11]aren’t you?” observed Wix carelessly. “Smalley’s over at his new bank in Milton a good deal.”
“About half the time,” admitted Gilman uneasily.
“He keeps a big cash reserve, doesn’t he? Done up in bales, I suppose, and never looks at it except to count the mere29 bundles.”
“Of course.” Gilman was extremely nonchalant about it.
The other let him change the subject, but he found himself studying Clifford speculatively49 every now and then. This day was another deciding step in the future of Wix.
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收听单词发音
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1
exulted
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| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
dice
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| n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险 | |
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jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
bantered
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| v.开玩笑，说笑，逗乐( banter的过去式和过去分词 )；（善意地）取笑，逗弄 | |
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impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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7
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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8
sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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9
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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11
luscious
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| adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的 | |
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12
poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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13
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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14
admonished
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| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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15
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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18
holder
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| n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物 | |
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19
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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20
curdle
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| v.使凝结，变稠 | |
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21
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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22
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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23
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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24
wheedling
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| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的现在分词 ) | |
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25
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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26
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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27
complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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28
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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29
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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30
clique
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| n.朋党派系，小集团 | |
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31
preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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32
instructor
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| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
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33
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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35
walnut
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| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
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36
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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37
flaunted
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| v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的过去式和过去分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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38
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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39
elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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40
dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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41
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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42
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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43
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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44
exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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45
flipped
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| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
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46
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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47
plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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48
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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49
speculatively
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| adv.思考地，思索地；投机地 | |
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