CHAPTER XIV

SUBBING FOR THE BOSS

How's that? Has something happened to me? Course there has. Something

generally does, and if I ever get to the point where it don't I hope I

shall have pep enough left to use the self-starter. Uh-huh. That's the

way I give the hail to a new day--grinnin' and curious.

Now some folks I know of works it just opposite, and they may be right,

too. Mr. Piddie, our office manager, for instance. He's always afraid

something will happen to him. I've heard him talk about it enough. Not

just accidents that might leave him an ambulance case, or worse, but

anything that don't come in his reg'lar routine; little things, like

forgettin' his commutation ticket, or gettin' lost in Brooklyn, or

havin' his new straw lid blow under a truck and walkin' bareheaded a few

blocks. Say, I'll bet he won't like it in Heaven if he can't punch a

time card every mornin', or if they shift him around much to different

harp sections.

While me, I ain't worryin' what tomorrow will be like if it's only some

different from yesterday. And generally it is. Take this last little

whirl of mine. I'll admit it leaves me a bit dizzy in the head, like

I'd been side-swiped by a passing event. Also my pride had had a bump

when I didn't know I had such a thing. Maybe that's why I look so dazed.

What led up to it all was a little squint into the past that me and Old

Hickory indulged in here a week or so back. I'd been openin' the mornin'

mail, speedy and casual as a first-class private sec. ought to do, and

sortin' it into the baskets, when I runs across this note which should

have been marked "Personal." I'd only glanced at the "Dear old pal"

start and the "Yours to a finish, Bonnie," endin' when I lugs it into

the private office.

"I expect this must have been meant for Mr. Robert; eh, Mr. Ellins?"

says I, handin' it over.

It's written sort of scrawly and foreign on swell stationery and Old

Hickory don't get many of that kind, as you can guess. He reads it clear

through, though, without even a grunt. Then he waves me into a chair.

"As it happens, Torchy," says he, "this was meant for no one but me."

"My error," says I. "I didn't read it, though."

He don't seem to take much notice of that statement, just sits there

gazin' vacant at the wall and fingerin' his cigar. After a minute or so

of this he remarks, sort of to himself: "Bonnie, eh? Well, well!"

I might have smiled. Probably I did, for the last person in the world

you'd look for anything like mushy sentiments from would be Old Hickory

Ellins. Couldn't have been much more than a flicker of a smile at that.

But them keen old eyes of his don't miss much that's going on, even when

he seems to be in a trance. He turns quick and gives me one of them

quizzin' stares.

"Funny, isn't it, son," says he, "that I should still be called Dear Old

Pal by the most fascinating woman in the world?"

"Oh, I don't know," says I, tryin' to pull the diplomatic stuff.

"You young rascal!" says he. "Think I'm no judge, eh? Here! Wait a

moment. Now let's see. Um-m-m-m!"

He's pullin' out first one desk drawer and then another. Finally he digs

out a faded leather photograph case and opens it.

"There!" he goes on. "That's Bonnie Sutton. What about her?"

Course, her hair is done kind of odd and old-fashioned, piled up on top

of her head that way, with a curl or two behind one ear; and I expect if

much of her costume had showed it would have looked old-fashioned, too.

But there wasn't much to show, for it's only a bust view and cut off

about where the dress begins. Besides, she's leanin' forward on her

elbows. A fairly plump party, I should judge, with substantial,

well-rounded shoulders and kind of a big face. Something of a cut-up,

too, I should say, for she holds her head a little on one side, her chin

propped in the palm of the left hand, while between the fingers of the

right she's holdin' a cigarette. What struck me most, though, was the

folksy look in them wide-open eyes of hers. If it hadn't been for that I

might have sized her up for a lady vamp.

"Good deal of a stunner, I should say, Mr. Ellins," says I; "and no half

portion, at that."

"Of queenly stature, as the society reporters used to put it," says Old

Hickory. "She had her court, too, even if some of the sessions were

rather lively ones."

At that he trails off into what passes with him as a chuckle and I waits

patient while he does a mental review of old stuff. I could guess near

enough how some of them scenes would show up: the bunch gatherin' in one

of the little banquet rooms upstairs at Del's., and Bonnie surrounded

three deep by admirin' males, perhaps kiddin' Ward McAllister over one

shoulder and Freddie Gebhard whisperin' over the other; or after

attendin' one of Patti's farewell concerts there would be a beefsteak

and champagne supper somewhere uptown--above Twenty-third Street--and

some wild sport would pull that act of drinking Bonnie's health out of

her slipper. You know? And I expect they printed her picture on the

front page of the "Clipper" when she broke into private theatricals.

"And she's still on deck?" I suggests.

Old Hickory nods. He goes on to say how the last he heard of her she'd

married some rich South American that she'd met in Washington and gone

off to live in Brazil, or the Argentine. That had been quite a spell

back, I take it. He didn't say just how long ago. Anyway, she'd dropped

out for good, he'd supposed.

"And now," says he, "she has returned, a widow, to settle on the old

farm, up somewhere near Cooperstown. It appears, however, that she finds

it rather dull. I can't fancy Bonnie on a farm somehow. Anyway, she has

half a mind, she says, to try New York once more before she finally

decides. Wants to see some of the old places again. And by the great

cats, she shall! No matter what my fool doctors say, Torchy, I mean to

take a night or two off when she comes. If Bonnie can stand it I guess I

can, too."

"Yes, sir," says I, grinnin' sympathetic.

Well, that was 1:15 a.m. And at exactly 2:30 he limps out with his hand

to his right side and his face the color of cigar ashes. He's in for

another spell. I gets his heart specialist on the 'phone and loads Mr.

Ellins into a taxi. Just before closin' time he calls up from the house

to say that he's off to the sanitarium for another treatment and may be

gone a couple of weeks. I must tell Mr. Robert about those options,

have him sub. in at the next directors' meetin', and do a lot of odd

jobs that he'd left unfinished.

"And by the way, Torchy," he winds up, "about Bonnie."

"Oh, yes," says I. "The lady fascinator."

"If she should show up while I am away," says Old Hickory, "don't--don't

bother to tell her I'm a sick old man. Just say I--I've been called out

of town, or something."

"I get you," says I. "Business trip."

"She'll be disappointed, I suppose," goes on Mr. Ellins. "No one to take

her around town. That is, unless--By George, Torchy!--You must take my

place."

"Eh?" says I, gaspy.

"Yes," says he. "You lucky young rascal! You shall be the one to welcome

Bonnie back to New York. And do it right, son. Draw on Mr. Piddie for

any amount you may need. Nothing but the best for Bonnie. You

understand. That is, if she comes before I get back."

Say, I've had some odd assignments from Old Hickory, but never one just

like this before. Some contract that, to take an ex-home wrecker in tow

and give her the kind of a good time that was popular in the days of

Berry Wall. If I could only dig up some old sport with a good memory he

might coach me so that I might make a stab at it, but I didn't know

where to find one. And for three days there I made nervous motions

every time Vincent came in off the gate with a card.

But a week went by and no Bonnie blew in from up state. Maybe she'd

renigged on the proposition, or had hunted up some other friend of the

old days. Anyway, I'd got my nerves soothed down considerable and was

almost countin' the incident as closed, when here the other day as I

drifts back from lunch Vincent holds me up.

"Lady to see Mr. Ellins," says he. "She's in the private office."

"Sad words, Vincent," says I. "Don't tell me it's Bonnie."

"Nothing like that," says he. "Here's her name," and he hands me a

black-bordered card.

"Huh!" says I, taking a glance. "Señora Concita Maria y Polanio. All of

that, eh? Must be some whale of a female?"

"Whale is near it," says Vincent. "You ought to see her."

"The worst of it is," says I, "I gotta see her."

He's no exaggerator, Vincent. This female party that I finds bulgin' Old

Hickory's swing desk chair has got any Jonah fish I ever saw pictured

out lookin' like a pickerel. I don't mean she's any side-show freak. Not

as bad as that. But for her height, which is about medium, I should say,

she sure is bulky. The way she sits there with her skirts spreadin'

wide around her feet, she has all the graceful outlines of a human water

tower. Above the wide shoulders is a big, high-colored face, and

wabblin' kind of unsteady on top of her head is a black velvet hat with

jet decorations. You remember them pictures we used to see of the late

Queen Victoria? Well, the Señora is an enlarged edition.

I was wonderin' how long since she came up from Cuba, and if I'd need a

Spanish interpreter to find out why she thinks she has to call on the

president of the Corrugated Trust, when she rolls them big dark eyes of

hers my way and remarks, in perfectly good United States: "Ah! A ray of

sunshine!"

It comes out so unexpected that for a second or so I just gawps at her,

and then I asks: "Referrin' to my hair?"

"Forgive me, young man," says she. "But it is such a cheerful shade."

"Yes'm," says I. "So I've been told. Some call it fire-hydrant red, but

I claim it's only super-pink."

"Anyway, I like it very much," says she. "I hope they don't call you

Reddy, though?"

"No, ma'am," says I. "Torchy."

"Why, how clever!" says she. "May I call you that, too? And I suppose

you are one of Mr. Ellins' assistants?"

"His private secretary," says I. "So you can see what luck he's playin'

in. Did you want to talk to him 'special, or is it anything I can fix up

for you?"

"It's rather personal, I'm afraid," says she. "The boy at the door

insisted that Mr. Ellins wasn't in, but I told him I didn't mind

waiting."

"That's nice," says I. "He'll be back in a week or so."

"Oh!" says she. "Then he went away before my note came?"

Which was where I begun to work up a hunch. Course, it's only a wild

suspicion at first. She don't fit the description at all. Still, if she

should be the one--I could feel the panicky shivers chasin' up and down

my backbone just at the thought. I expect my voice wavered a little as I

put the question.

"Say," says I, "you don't happen to be Bonnie Sutton, do you?"

That got a laugh out of her. It's no throaty, old-hen cackle, either.

It's clear and trilly.

"Thank you, Torchy," says she. "You've guessed it. But please tell me

how?"

"Why," says I, draggy, "I--er--you see----" And then I'm struck with

this foolish idea. Honest, I couldn't help pullin' it. "Mr. Ellins," I

goes on, "happened to show me your picture."

"What!" says she. "My picture? I--I can hardly believe it."

"Wait," says I. "It's right here in the drawer. That is, it was. Yep!

This one. There!"

And say, as I flashed that old photo on her I didn't have the nerve to

watch her face. You get me, don't you? If you'd changed as much as she

had how would you like to be stacked up sudden against a view of what

you was once? So I looked the other way. Must have been a minute or more

before I glanced around again. She was still starin' at the picture and

brushin' something off her eyelashes.

"Torchy," says she, "I could almost hug you for that. What a really

talented young liar you are! And how thoroughly delightful of you to do

it!"

"Oh, I don't know," says I. "Anyway, it's the picture he showed me when

he was tellin' about you."

"Perhaps you wouldn't mind, Torchy," she goes on, "telling me just what

he said."

"Why, for one thing," says I, "he let out that you was the most

fascinatin' woman in the world."

Another ripply laugh from Bonnie. "The old dear!" says she. "But then,

he always was a little silly about me. Think of his never having gotten

over it in all these years, though! But he didn't stay to meet me. How

was that?"

I hope I made it convincin' about his being called before a Senate

Committee and how he was hoping to get back before she showed up. I told

it as well as I could with them wise friendly eyes watchin' me.

"Perhaps, after all," says she, "it's just as well. If I had known he

had this photo I never would have risked coming. Now that I'm here,

however, I wish there was someone who----"

"Oh, he fixed that up," says I. "I'm the substitute."

"You!" says she. Then she shakes her head. "You're a dear boy," she goes

on, "but I couldn't ask it of you. Really!"

"Sure you can," says I. "You want to see what the old town looks like,

have a little dinner in one of the old joints, and maybe make a little

round of the bright spots afterwards. Well, I got it all planned out.

Course, I can't do it just the way Mr. Ellins would but----"

"Listen, Torchy," she breaks in. "I regret to admit the fact, but I am a

fat, shapeless, freaky-looking old woman. Ordinarily that doesn't worry

me in the least. After fifteen years in the tropics one doesn't worry

about how one looks. It has been a long time since I've given it a

thought. But now--Well, it's different. Seeing that picture. No, I can't

ask it of you."

"Mr. Ellins will ask me, though, when he gets back," says I. "Besides, I

don't mind. Maybe you are a little overweight, but I'm beginnin' to

suspect you're a reg'lar person, after all; and if I can qualify as a

guide----"

Say, don't let on to Vee, but that's where I got hugged. It seems Bonnie

does want to have one glimpse of New York with the lights on; wants it

the worst way. For when she'd come up from Rio her one idea was to get

back to the old farm, fix it up regardless of expense, and camp down

there quiet for the rest of her days. She'd had a bully time doin' it,

too, for three or four months. She'd enjoyed havin' people around her

who could talk English, and watchin' the white clouds sail over the

green hills, and seein' her cattle and sheep browsin' about the fields.

It had rested her eyes and her soul.

And then, all of a sudden, she had this hunch that maybe she was missin'

something. Not that she thought she could come back reg'lar, or break

into the old life where she left off. She says she wasn't so foolish in

the head as all that. Her notion was that she might be happier and more

contented if she just looked on from the side-lines.

"I wanted to hear music," says she, "and see the lights, and watch gay

and beautiful young people doing the things I used to do. It

might--Well, it might shake off some of my years. Who knows?"

"Sure! That's the dope," says I. "Course, a lot of their old-time joints

ain't runnin' now--Koster & Bial's, Harrigan's, the Café Martin but

maybe some you remember are still open."

"Silly!" says she, shakin' a pudgy forefinger at me. "That isn't what I

want at all. Not the old, but the new; the very newest and most

fashionable. I'm not trying to go back, but trying to keep up."

"Oh!" says I. "In that case it'll be easy. How about startin' in with

the tea dance at the Admiral, just opened? Begins at 4:15."

"Tell me, Torchy," says she, "did you ever see anyone as--as huge as I

am at a tea dance? No, I think we'll not start with that."

"Then suppose we hop off with dinner on the Plutoria roof?" I suggests.

"The Tortonis are doing a dancin' turn there and they have the swellest

jazz band in town."

"It sounds exciting," says Bonnie. "I will try to be ready by 7:30. And

you surely are a nice boy. Now if you will help me out to the

elevator----"

And it's while I'm tryin' to steady her on one side as she goes rollin'

waddly through the main office that I gets a little hint of what's

comin' to me. Maybe you've seen a tug-boat bobbin' alongside a big liner

in a heavy sea. I expect we must have looked something like that. Even

so, that flossy bunch of lady typists showed poor taste in cuttin' loose

with the smothered snickers as we wobbles past.

And I could get a picture of myself towin' the Señora Concita Maria

What's-Her-Name, alias Bonnie Sutton, through the Plutoria corridors.

What if her feet should skid and after ten or a dozen bell hops had

boosted her up again they should find me underneath? Still I was in for

it. No scoutin' around for back-number restaurants, as I'd planned at

first. No, Bonnie had asked to be brought up-to-date. So she should,

too. But I did wish she'd come to town in something besides that late

Queen Victoria costume.

Yet I maps out the evenin' as if I had a date with Peggy Hopkins or

Hazel Dawn. At 5:30 I'm slippin' a ten-spot into the unwillin' palm of a

Plutoria head waiter to cinch a table for two next to the dancin'

surface, and from there I drops into a cigar store where I pays two

prices for a couple of end seats at the Midnight Follies. Then I slicks

up a bit at a Turkish bath and at 7:25 I'm waitin' with the biggest taxi

I can find in front of Bonnie's hotel.

I expect I must have let out a sigh of relief when she shows up and I

notice that she's shed the unsteady velvet lid. It's some creation she's

swapped it for, a pink satin affair with a wing spread of about three

feet, but I must admit it kind of sets off that big face of hers and the

grayish hair.

That's nothing to the jolt I gets, though, after she's been loaded into

the cab and the fur-trimmed opera cape slips back a bit. Say, take it

from me, Bonnie has bloomed out. She must have speeded up some Fifth

Avenue modiste's establishment to the limit, but she's turned the trick,

I'll say. Uh-huh! Not only the latest model evening gown, but she's had

her hair done up spiffy, and she's got on a set of jewels that would

make a pawnbroker's bride turn green.

"Z-z-zing!" says I, catchin' my breath. "Excuse me, but I didn't know

you were going to dress the part."

"You didn't think I could, did you, Torchy?" says she. "Well, I haven't

quite forgotten, you see."

So all them gloomy thoughts I'd indulged in was so much useless worry,

as is usually the case. I'll admit we was some conspicuous durin' the

evenin', with folks stretchin' their necks our way, but I didn't hear

any snickers. They gazed at Bonnie sort of awed and impressed, like

tourists starin' at the Woolworth Buildin' when it's lighted up.

Some classy dinner that was we had, even if I did order it myself, with

only two waiters to coach me. I couldn't say exactly what it was we had

for nourishment, only I know it was all tasty and expensive. You

wouldn't expect me to pick out the cheap things for a lady plutess from

Brazil, would you? So we dallies with Canaps Barbizon, Portage de la

Reine, breasts of milk-fed pheasants, and such trifles as that. Bonnie

says it's all good. But she can't seem to get used to the band brayin'

out impetuous just as she's about to take another bite of something.

"Tell me," says she, "is that supposed to be music?"

"Not at all," says I. "That's jazz. We've got so we can't eat without

it, you know."

Also I suspect the Tortonis' dancin' act jarred her a bit. You've seen

'em do the shimmy-plus?

"Well!" says she, drawin' in a long breath and lookin' the other way.

"So that is an example of modern dancing, is it?"

"It's the kind of stunt the tired business man has to have before he

gets bright in the eyes again," says I. "But wait until we get to the

Follies if you want to see him really begin to live."

We had to kill a couple of hours between times so we took in the last

half of the latest bedroom farce and I think that got a rise or two out

of Bonnie. I gathered from her remarks that Lillian Russell or Edna

Wallace Hopper never went quite that far in her day.

"It's pajamas or nothing now," says I.

"And occasionally," she adds, "I suppose it is--Well, I trust not, at

least."

After the Follies she hadn't a word to say. Only, as I landed her back

at her hotel, along about 2:30 a.m., she slumps into a big chair in the

Egyptian room and lets her chin sag.

"It's no use, Torchy," says she. "I--I couldn't."

"Eh?" says I.

"End my days to jazz time," says she. "No. I shall go back to my quiet

hills and my calm-eyed Holsteins. And I shall go entirely contented. I

can't tell you either, how thankful I am that it was you who showed me

my mistake instead of my dear old friend. You've been so good about it,

too."

"Me?" says I. "Why, I've had a big night. Honest."

"Bless you!" says she, pattin' my hand. "And just one thing more,

Torchy. When you tell Mr. Ellins that I've been here, and gone, couldn't

you somehow forget to say just how I looked? You see, if he remembers me

as I was when that photo was taken--Well, where's the harm?"

"Trust me," says I. "And I won't be strainin' my conscience any at

that."

But I didn't need to juggle even a word. When Old Hickory hears how I've

subbed in for him with Bonnie he just pulls out the picture, gazes at it

fond for a minute or so, and then remarks:

"Ah, you lucky young rascal!" Then he picks up a note from his desk.

"Oh, by the way," he goes on, "here's a little remembrance she sent you

in my care."

Little! Say, what do you guess? Oh, only an order for a 1920 model

roadster with white wire wheels to be delivered to me when I calls for

it! She's merely tipped me an automobile, that's all. And after I'd read

it through for the third time, and was sure it was so, I manages to gasp

out:

"Lucky is right, Mr. Ellins; that's the only word."