The Crimson Tide. Robert W. Chambers
eyes, who came breezily in and said: “Hello, Palla! How’s the girl?” And took off his faded mackinaw uninvited.
Mr. Skidder’s business had once been the exploitation of farmers and acreage; his specialty the persuasion of Slovak emigrants into the acquisition of doubtful land. But since the war, emigrants were few; and, as honest men must live, Mr. Skidder had branched out into improved real estate and city lots. But the pickings, even here, were scanty, and loans hard to obtain.
“I’ve changed my mind,” said Palla. “I’m not going to sell this house, Blinky.”
“Well, for heaven’s sake––ain’t you going to New York?” he insisted, taken aback.
“Yes, I am. But I’ve decided to keep my house.”
“That,” said Mr. Skidder, snapping his eyes, “is 50 silly sentiment, not business. But please yourself Palla. I ain’t saying a word. I ain’t trying to tell you I can get a lot more for you than your house is worth––what with values falling and houses empty and the mills letting men go because there ain’t going to be any more war orders!––but please yourself, Palla. I ain’t saying a word to urge you.”
“You’ve said several,” she remarked, smilingly. “But I think I’ll keep the house for the present, and I’m sorry that I wasted your time.”
“Please yourself, Palla,” he repeated. “I guess you can afford to from all I hear. I guess you can do as you’ve a mind to, now. … So you’re fixing to locate in New York, eh?”
“I think so.”
“Live in a flat?”
“I don’t know.”
“What are you going to do in New York?” he asked curiously.
“I’m sure I don’t know. There’ll be plenty to do, I suppose.”
“You bet,” he said, blinking rapidly, “there’s always something doing in that little old town.” He slapped his knee: “Palla,” he said, “I’m thinking of going into the movie business.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I’m considering it. Slovaks and bum farms are played out. There’s no money in Shadow Hill––or if there is, it’s locked up––or the income tax has paralysed it. No, I’m through. There’s nothing doing in land; no commissions. And I’m considering a quick getaway.”
“Where do you expect to go?”
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“Say, Palla, when you kiss your old home good-bye, there’s only one place to go. Get me?”
“New York?” she inquired, amused.
“That’s me! There’s a guy down there I used to correspond with––a feller named Puma––Angelo Puma––not a regular wop, as you might say, but there’s some wop in him, judging by his map––or Mex––or kike, maybe––or something. Anyway, he’s in the moving picture business––The Ultra-Fillum Company. I guess there’s a mint o’ money in fillums.”
She nodded, a trifle bored.
“I got a chance to go in with Angelo Puma,” he said, snapping his eyes.
“Really?”
“You know, Palla, I’ve made a little money, too, since you been over there living with the Queen of Russia.”
“I’m very glad, Blinky.”
“Oh, it ain’t much. And,” he added shrewdly, “it ain’t so paltry, neither. Thank the Lord, I made hay while the Slovaks lasted. … So,” he added, getting up from his chair, “maybe I’ll see you down there in New York, some day–––”
He hesitated, his blinking eyes redly intent on her as she rose to her slim height.
“Say, Palla.”
She looked at him inquiringly.
“Ever thought of the movies?”
“As an investment?”
“Well––that, too. There’s big money in it. But I meant––I mean––it strikes me you’d make a bird of a movie queen.”
The suggestion mildly amused her.
“I mean it,” he insisted. “Grab it from me, Palla, 52 you’ve got the shape, and you got the looks and you got the walk and the ways and the education. You got something peculiar––like you had been born a rich swell––I mean you kinda naturally act that way––kinda cocksure of yourself. Maybe you got it living with that Queen–––”
Palla laughed outright.
“So you think because I’ve seen a queen I ought to know how to act like a movie queen?”
“Well,” he said, picking up his hat, “maybe if I go in with Angelo Puma some day I’ll see you again and we’ll talk it over.”
She shook hands with him.
“Be good,” he called back as she closed the front door behind him.
The early winter night had fallen over Shadow Hill. Palla turned on the electric light, stood for a while looking sombrely at the framed photographs of her father and mother, then, feeling lonely, went into the kitchen where Martha was busy with preparations for dinner.
“Martha,” she said, “I’m going to New York.”
“Well, for the land’s sake–––”
“Yes, and I’m going day after to-morrow.”
“What on earth makes you act like a gypsy, Palla?” she demanded querulously, seasoning the soup and tasting it. “Your pa and ma wasn’t like that. They was satisfied to set and rest a mite after being away. But you’ve been gone four years ’n more, and now you’re up and off again, hippity-skip! clippity-clip!–––”
“I’m just going to run down to New York and look about. I want to look around and see what–––”
“That’s you, Palla! That’s what you allus was 53 doing as a child––allus looking about you with your wide brown eyes, to see what you could see in the world! … You know what curiosity did to the cat?”
“What?”
“Pinched her paw in the mouse-trap.”
“I’ll be careful,” said the girl, laughing.
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CHAPTER V
In touch with his unexciting business again, after many months of glorious absence, and seated once more at his abhorred yellow-oak desk, young Shotwell discovered it was anything except agreeable for him to gather up the ravelled thrums of civilian life after the thrilling taste of service over seas.
For him, so long accustomed to excitement, the zest of living seemed to die with the signing of the armistice.
In fact, since the Argonne drive, all luck seemed to have deserted him; for in the very middle of operations he had been sent back to the United States as instructor; and there the armistice had now caught him. Furthermore, then, before he realised what dreadful thing was happening to him, he had been politely assigned to that vague limbo supposedly inhabited by a mythical organisation known as The Officers’ Reserve Corps, and had been given indefinite leave of absence preliminary to being mustered out of the service of the United States.
To part from his uniform was agonising, and he berated the fate that pried him loose