Galusha the Magnificent Part 44

"Here's the certificate," she said, breathlessly. "I'm so upset and excited I don't know hardly whether I'm in the channel or hard aground, as father used to say, but I've signed my name on the back. Once when I sold two shares of railroad stock he left me I had to sign on the back there. I HOPE I've done it in the right place."

Galusha declared the signature to be quite right, yes. As a matter of fact, he could not have told for certain that there was a signature there. He crammed the certificate into his pocket.

"Oh, my sakes!" protested Martha, "you aren't goin' to just put it loose into that pocket, are you? Don't you think it ought to go in your--your wallet, or somewhere?"

"Eh? Why--why, I presume it had.... Dear me, yes.... It would be a--a joke if I lost it, wouldn't it?"

"A JOKE! Well, it wouldn't be my notion of a joke, exactly."

"Oh, dear, dear! Did I say 'joke'? I didn't mean that it would actually be--ah--humorous, of course. I meant... I meant.... Really, I don't think I know what I meant."

"I don't believe you do. Mr. Bangs, I truly think you are more excited about all this than I am, and all on my account. What can I ever say--or do--to--"

"Please, please, Miss Martha! Dear me, dear me, DON'T speak in that way. It's so--ah--nonsensical, you know. Now if--if I may have my coat and--ah--cap--"

"Cap! Goodness gracious, you weren't plannin' to wear that old cap, earlaps and all, to Boston, were you? And--mercy me! I didn't think of it until this minute--the train doesn't go for 'most two hours."

She burst out laughing and, because she was overwrought and a trifle hysterical, she laughed a good deal. Galusha laughed even longer than she did, not because he was hysterical, but because laughing was very much easier and safer than answering embarra.s.sing questions.

When it really was time to leave for the railroad station and Galusha, NOT wearing the earlapped cap, but hatted and garbed as became his rank and dignity, was standing on the stone step by the outside door, she said:

"Now do be careful, Mr. Bangs."

"Yes--yes, I will, I promise you. I shall keep one hand in my pocket, holding the pocketbook with the certificate in it, until I get to the office. I shall think of nothing else."

"Mercy me, think of SOMETHIN' else, please! Think of yourself when you're goin' across those Boston streets or you'll be run over. I declare, I don't know as I ought to let you go."

"Oh, I shall be quite safe, quite. But, really," he added, with a puzzled smile, "I can't tell you how odd this seems. When I was a boy my Aunt Clarissa, I remember, used to caution me about--about crossing the streets, and so on. It makes me feel quite young again to have you do it, Miss Martha. I a.s.sure you it does."

Martha regarded him gravely.

"Hasn't anybody since ever told you to be careful?" she asked; "anybody since your aunt died, I mean?"

"Why, no, I think not. I presume," he added, with the air of one suggesting a happy explanation, "I presume no one has--ah--been sufficiently interested. It would have been peculiar if they had been, of course."

"Hum!... Well, I hope you won't think I am impudent for remindin' you to look out."

"Oh, no, indeed. It is very nice of you to take the trouble. I like it, really I do."

The office of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot was closed when his train reached Boston, so he went to a hotel and remained there over-night.

But he was on hand at the banking office early the next morning. In the interval he had time for more reflection and, as a result, he determined not to go to Mr. Barbour with his business. The fear that knowledge of what he was about to do would reach Cousin Gussie's ears was strong upon him. Doubtless it was a fact that he had a right to do what he pleased with his own money, but it was also a fact that Cousin Gussie seemed to think he had no such right. Barbour was the Cabot secretary, or a.s.sistant secretary, so decidedly it was best not to go to Barbour.

It was Minor whom he saw as he entered the banking house and to Minor he divulged his business. Taking from his pocketbook the Tinplate check, he asked if he might have it--ah--broken up, so to speak.

"You see," he explained, "I want to get--ah--five thousand dollars."

Minor appeared rather puzzled at first, and Mr. Bangs' tangled and nervous explanations did not seem to enlighten him greatly. At last, however, he caught the idea.

"I see," he said. "You don't want to deposit and draw against it; you want two checks instead of one. One check for five thousand and the other for the balance."

"Yes, yes, yes," a.s.sented Galusha, much relieved. "That is it, exactly.

I am very much obliged to you--indeed I am--yes."

Minor took him to one of the windows and introduced him to the clerk at the desk behind it.

"Give Mr. Bangs whatever he wants," he said.

Galusha explained. The clerk asked how he would have the five-thousand-dollar check made out.

"In your own name?" he asked.

Mr. Bangs reflected. "Why--ah--" he stammered, "I should prefer it in--ah--some other name, if possible. I should prefer that my name was not connected with it, if you don't mind."

"In the name of the person you intend paying it to?" inquired the clerk.

Galusha reflected again. If Martha Phipps' name were written on that check it would be possible that, some day or other, Cousin Gussie might see it. And if he saw it, questions would be asked, embarra.s.sing questions.

"No-o," he said, hesitatingly; "no, I think I should not care to have her--that is, to have that person's name appear, either. Isn't there some way by which the sum could be paid without any one's name appearing? A check to--to--oh, dear me! why CAN'T I think of it?"

"To bearer, you mean?"

"That's it, that's it. A check to bearer would be very satisfactory, very satisfactory, indeed. Thank you very much."

The clerk, who was a painstaking young man, destined to rise in his profession, inspected the odd individual outside the railing.

"A check to bearer is almost the same as cash," he said. "If you should lose it, it would be negotiable--practically the money itself, or pretty near it."

Galusha started. He looked radiantly happy.

"That's it!" he exclaimed. "That's it, of course. Thank you for the suggestion. The money will be the very thing. It will be such a delightful surprise. And there will be no one's name upon it at all. I will take the money, of course."

It took some time to convince the astonished clerk that Mr. Bangs actually wished five thousand dollars in currency, but he finally was convinced.

"How will you have it?" he asked. "Small bills or large?"

Galusha apparently did not care. Any denominations would be quite satisfactory, he affirmed. So, when the transaction was finished, and he left the Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot office, it was with a new check for nine thousand, three hundred and ten dollars and thirty-eight cents in his pocketbook and in his trousers' pocket a roll of bills as thick as his wrist. By way of modification to this statement, it may be well to explain that Galusha Bangs' wrists, considered AS wrists, were by no means thick.

The clerk stared after him as he departed and a fellow clerk paused to ask questions.

"Who was the old guy?" he inquired.

"Name's Bangs."

"What is he?"

"A nut," was the reply, given with the a.s.surance of absolute conviction.

The "nut" traveled back to East Wellmouth upon the afternoon train and, back once more in the Phipps' sitting room, "sh.e.l.led out" upon the center table. Martha stared at the heap of bills and caught her breath with a gasp.