Children of the Whirlwind Read online

  CHAPTER XIV

  A block away from the hotel Barney parted from Old Jimmie. For a spaceBarney thought of his partner. Barney had quick eyes which were quitecapable of taking in two things at once; and while he had seen theexcited glow his final speech had brought back into Maggie's face, hehad also caught that swift look of uncertainty in the lean, cunning faceof Old Jimmie: a look of one who is eager to go on, yet sees himselffrustrated by his own eagerness. To Barney it was a puzzling, suspiciouslook.

  As Barney made his way toward a harbor of refreshment he wondered aboutOld Jimmie--not in the manner Larry had wondered about a father bringinghis daughter up into crooked ways--but he wondered what kind of a manbeneath his shrewd, yielding, placating manner Old Jimmie really was,how far he was to be trusted, whether he was in this game on the levelor whether he was playing some very secret hand of his own. Though hehad known and worked with Old Jimmie for years, Barney had never beenadmitted to the inner chambers of the older man's character. He sensedthat there were hidden rooms and twisting passages; and of this much hewas certain, that Old Jimmie was sly and saturnine.

  Well, he would be on guard that Old Jimmie didn't put anything over onyour obliging servant, Barney Palmer!

  This was the era of legal prohibition, but thus far Barney had not beenseverely discommoded by the action of the representatives of America'sfree institutions in Washington, for Barney knew his New York. In anex-saloon on Sixth Avenue, which nominally sold only the soft drinkspermitted by the wise men of the Capital, Barney leaned at his ease uponthe bar and remarked: "Give me some of the real stuff, Tim, and forgetthat eye-dropper the boss bought you last week." Barney had a drink ofthe real stuff, and then another drink, in the measuring of neither ofwhich had an eye-dropper been involved.

  After that, much heartened, he put two dollars upon the bar and wenthis way. His course took the dapper Barney into three of the gayestrestaurants in the Times Square section; and in these Barney paused longenough to speak to a few after-theater supper-parties. For this was thehour when Barney paid his social calls; he was very strict with himselfupon this point. Barney was really by way of being a rising figure inthis particular circle of New York society composed of people who hador believed they had an interest in the theater, of expensively gownedwomen the foreground of whose lives was most attractive, but whosebackground was perhaps wisely kept out of the picture, and of moneyedyoung men who gloried in the idea that they were living the life. Thesesocial calls from gay table to gay table, at all of which Barney waswelcome--for here Barney showed only his most attractive surfaces, hismost brilliant facets--were in truth a very important part of Barney'sbusiness.

  A little later, alone at a corner table in a quieter restaurant, Barneywas eating his supper and making an inventory of his prospects. He wasin a very exultant mood. The whiskey he had drunk had given broadwings to his self-satisfaction; and what he was now sipping from histea-cup--it was not tea, for Barney was on the proper terms with hiswaiter here--this draught from his tea-cup tipped these broad wings at ayet more soaring angle.

  Yes, he had certainly put it over so far. And Maggie would certainlyprove a winner. Those fair women he had chatted with as he had movedfrom table to table, why, they'd be less than dirt compared to Maggiewhen Maggie was rigged out and readied up and the stage was set. And ithad been he, Barney Palmer, who had been the first to discover Maggie'slatent possibilities!

  He had an eye beyond mere surfaces, had Barney. He had used women in thepast in putting over many of his more private transactions (and had doneso partly for the reason that using women so was eminently "safe"--thisdespite his violent outburst of sneering disdain at Larry when thelatter had spoken of safety): some of them professional sharpers, someunscrupulous actresses of the lower flight--such women as he had justchatted with in the restaurants where he had made his brief visits. Butsuch, he now recognized, were rather BLASEES, rather too obvious. Theywere the blown rose. But Maggie was fresh, and once she was properlybroken in, she would be his perfect instrument. Yes, perfect!

  Barney's plans soared on. Some day, when it fitted in just right withhis plans, he was going to marry Maggie, It was only recently that hehad seen her full charms, and still more recently that he had determinedupon marriage. That decision had materially altered certain details ofthe career Barney had blue-printed for himself. Barney had long regardedmarriage as an asset for himself; a valuable resource which he must holdin reserve and not liquidate, or capitalize, until his own market was atits peak. He knew that he was good-looking, an excellent dancer, that hehad the metropolitan finish. He had calculated that sometime some richgirl, perhaps from the West, who did not know the world too well, wouldfall under the spell of his charms; and he would marry her promptlywhile she was still infatuated, before she could learn too much abouthim. Such had been Barney's idea of marriage for himself; which is verysimilar to ideas held by thousands of gentlemen, young and otherwise,in this broad land of ours, who consider themselves neither law-breakersnor adventurers.

  But that was all changed now. Now it was Maggie, though Maggie inpursuit of their joint advantage might possibly first have to go throughthe marriage ceremony with some other man. Of course, a very, very richman! Barney already had this man marked. He hoped, though, they wouldnot have to go so far as marriage. However, he was willing to wait hisproper turn. As he had told Maggie, you could not put over a big thingin a hurry.

  As for Larry, he'd certainly handled that business in swell fashion!He'd certainly put a crimp in what had been developing between Larry andMaggie. And he'd get Larry in time, too. The drag-net was too large andclose of mesh for Larry to hope to escape it. The word he'd slipped thatboob Gavegan had sure done the business! And the indirect way he hadtipped off the police about Red Hannigan and Jack Rosenfeldt and hadthen made his pals think Larry had squealed--that was sure playing thegame, too! Jack and Red would get off easy--there was nothing on them;but little old Barney Palmer had certainly used his bean in the wayhe had set the machinery of the police and the under-world in motionagainst Larry!

  While other occupants of the cafe, particularly the women, stole looksat the handsome, flawlessly dressed, interesting-looking Barney, Barneyhad yet another of those concoctions which the discreet waiter served ina tea-cup. He'd done a great little job, you bet! Not another man in NewYork could have done better. He was sure going to put Maggie across! Andin doing so, he was going to do what was right by yours truly.

  All seemed perfect in Barney's world....

  And while Barney sat exulting over triumphs already achieved and thoseinevitably to be achieved, Maggie lay in her new bed dreaming exultantdreams of her own: heedless of the regular snoring which resounded inthe adjoining room--for the excellent Miss Grierson, while able tokeep her every act in perfect form while in the conscious state,unfortunately when unconscious had no more control of the goings-on ofher mortal functions than the lowliest washwoman. Maggie's flightsof fancy circled round and round Larry. She stifled any excuses orinsurgent yearnings for him. He'd deserved what he had got. Already,contrary to his predictions, she had made a tremendous advance into herbrilliant future. She would show him! Yes, she would show him! Oh, butshe was going to do things!

  But while she dreamed thus, shaping a magnificent destiny--anindependent, self-engineered young woman, so very, very confident of thegreat future she was going to achieve through the supremacy of her ownwill and her own abilities--no slightest surmise came into her mind thatBarney Palmer was making plans by which her will was to count as naughtand by which he was to be the master of her fate, and that the furtive,yielding Old Jimmie was also dreaming a patient dream in which she wasto be a mere chess-piece which was to capture a long-cherished game.

  And yet, after all, Maggie's dreams, aside from the peculiar twist lifehad given them, were fundamentally just the ordinary dreams of youth: ofwillful confident youth, to whom but a small part of the world has yetbeen opened, who in fact does not yet half know its own nature.