FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   >>  
not turn until Bannon slapped him jovially on the shoulders and told him to cheer up. "Those railroad chaps are laying for us, sure enough," he said. "I've been talking to MacBride himself--over at the telephone exchange; he ain't in town--and he said that Porter--he's the vice-president of the C. & S. C.--Porter told him, when he was in Chicago, that they wouldn't object at all to our building the gallery over their tracks. But that's all we've got to go by. Not a word on paper. Oh, they mean to give us a picnic, and no mistake!" With that, Bannon called up the general offices of the C. & S. C. and asked for Mr. Porter. There was some little delay in getting the connection, and then three or four minutes of fencing while a young man at the other end of the line tried to satisfy himself that Bannon had the right to ask for Mr. Porter, let alone to talk with him, and Bannon, steadily ignoring his questions, continued blandly requesting him to call Mr. Porter to the telephone. Hilda was listening with interest, for Bannon's manner was different from anything she had ever seen in him before. It lacked nothing of his customary assurance, but its breeziness gave place to the most studied restraint; he might have been a railroad president himself. He hung up the receiver, however, without accomplishing anything, for the young man finally told him that Mr. Porter had gone out for the afternoon. So next morning Bannon tried again. He learned that Porter was in, and all seemed to be going well until he mentioned MacBride & Company, after which Mr. Porter became very elusive. Three or four attempts to pin him down, or at least to learn his whereabouts, proved unsuccessful, and at last Bannon, with wrath in his heart, started down town. It was nearly night before he came back, and as before, he found Pete sitting gloomily in the office waiting his return. "Well," exclaimed the night boss, looking at him eagerly; "I thought you was never coming back. We've most had a fit here, wondering how you'd come out. I don't have to ask you, though. I can see by your looks that we're all right." Bannon laughed, and glanced over at Hilda, who was watching him closely. "Is that your guess, too, Miss Vogel?" "I don't think so," she said. "I think you've had a pretty hard time." "They're both good guesses," he said, pulling a paper out of his pocket, and handing it to Hilda. "Read that." It was a formal permit for building the gall
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   >>  



Top keywords:
Bannon
 

Porter

 

building

 

MacBride

 

telephone

 
railroad
 
president
 

started

 
morning
 

learned


unsuccessful

 

Company

 
attempts
 

elusive

 
mentioned
 

proved

 
whereabouts
 
pretty
 

watching

 

closely


formal

 

permit

 

handing

 

pocket

 

guesses

 

pulling

 

glanced

 

laughed

 

eagerly

 

thought


exclaimed

 
gloomily
 

office

 

waiting

 

return

 
coming
 

afternoon

 
wondering
 

sitting

 
picnic

tracks
 

mistake

 
offices
 
called
 

general

 

gallery

 
laying
 

shoulders

 
slapped
 

jovially