"
"Are you quite sure?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die." With an unclean thumb Mr. Conway
drew a large X on the geometrical center of his ample circumference.
"When you've been in the contracting business as long as I have, Miss
Parker," he continued sagely, "you'll learn never to leave important
details to a straw boss. Attend to 'em yourself--and get your regular
ration of sleep. That's my motto."
She beamed gratefully upon him. "Need any money, Bill, old timer?" she
flashed at him suddenly, with delightful camaraderie.
"There should be no secrets between partners. I do."
"_Quanto_?"
"_Cinquenta mille pesos oro, senorita_."
"Help!"
"Fifty thousand bucks, iron men, simoleons, smackers, dollars--"
She reached down and removed a fountain pen from his upper vest pocket.
Then she drew a check book and, crooking her knee over Panchito's neck
and using that knee for a desk, she wrote him a check on a New York
bank for fifty thousand dollars.
"See here," Bill Conway demanded, as she handed him the check, "how
much of a roll you got, young woman?"
"About two hundred thousand in cash and half a million in Liberty
bonds. When I was about five years old my uncle died and left me his
estate, worth about a hundred thousand. It has grown under my father's
management. He invested heavily in Steel Common, at the outbreak of
the war, and sold at the top of the market just before the armistice
was signed.
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