Edith and John Part 12

"Eh?"

"What's the prospects? is my question," said Mike, surlily, put out by the evasiveness of Peter.

"Hey?"

"You have my question."

"I have."

"Then answer me."

"How much more is it worth?"

"You and your gang are getting enough already," retorted Mike.

"Don't get gay, young man; don't get gay," said Peter, raising his furzy eyebrows with surprise. "You people are in business--I'm in business--we're all in business--for money."

"Yes, Peter, yes; all in business--all in business--a nasty thing it is, sir, this grafting business," returned Mike. "But my employers are getting tired of having their legs pulled so often. All the profits already go to your bunch--how can they pay any more?"

"Eh, young man, you are talking a little too gay--a little too gay, for one of your experience; hey?"

"Well, it's the truth," answered Mike.

"What have I to do with that? Yes, I, sir; I? Answer me that question?"

asked Peter, with a little more animation than he had previously shown in the conversation.

"A whole d---- lot!" exclaimed Mike.

"Don't! don't! don't! boy! Don't cause me to throw you out!" roared Peter, now looking out his peephole.

"I am not a bit afraid of you--no more than I am of that door k.n.o.b,"

answered Mike, haughtily.

"Maybe not, Mike; but you fellows must be reasonable," said Peter, less uproariously than before.

"So must you fellows," remarked Mike, placidly, as he indolently s.h.i.+fted one leg over the other and bent forward.

Peter pursued his quest no further for a few moments, being interested in Eli in the outer room. He drummed with his fingers on one arm of the chair, then rubbed his fat hands together. Peter then turned to Mike, as Mike said:

"I want to know, Mr. Dieman, what your gang intends doing?"

"One thousand more per month," was Peter's reply.

"That means two thousand for our house, does it?"

"If I figure right, it does."

"Then, you can go--to--h----!" returned Mike, rising to depart.

"Five hundred will do this time," said Peter, now feeling inclined to be decent in such a deal.

"Go to----" responded Mike, looking back at Peter over his shoulder, as he turned to go out the door.

"Set down, boy, and be respectable," said Peter in a mollifying tone.

"Anything new, Mike?"

"Nothing unusual, only I hear that my sister left home today for a finer home in the East End."

"Did sh-e-e?" asked Peter, with a comical leer out of his right eye, which he turned upon Mike, as if the information was of vast importance to him.

"She did," answered Mike.

"Good for her!" said Peter, musingly. "When did you learn this?"

"This afternoon, when I was home for the first time since I got my new job, over three months now," replied Mike, looking down at the floor. "I meant to take her out of that place myself to a finer one, where life is worth while; but she eluded me--if that is the right word, eh."

"Did you intend taking her to the place where you work?" asked Peter.

"I did."

"I have always had such a notion of you in my head," said Peter, squinting at Mike.

"You had? How did you know?" shouted Mike.

"Guessed as much," said Peter, rubbing and looking Mike squarely in the face.

"You old reprobate!" exclaimed Mike, hotly.

"Be careful, boy; be careful. I am no fool," admonished Peter, unruffled as yet, in outward signs. "What other news?"

"I understand my sister's at Hiram Jarney's home," said Mike.

"Yes," responded Peter.

"A strange coincidence," mused Mike. "I met a young man named Winthrope this morning, who works in Jarney's office."

"Good or bad subject?" asked Peter.

"Bad--I judge from his answers."

"That's good," said Peter, rubbing his hands vigorously.

"I don't understand," said Mike.

"You don't?" quizzed Peter, drawling out the words sluringly.

"No, d---- if I do!"

"Well, then go about your miserable business and quit bothering me,"