“No such thing!” growled O’Brien. “I know you! Take me or leave me!”
“It’s the latter then, O’Brien. I won’t be bullied by you or any other man,” said Mr. Ridgeway with a wink.
“Then that settles it,” said O’Brien. “Belave me when I say I am glad to be through with the likes of you, and if you will pay me what you owe I will get me a job where I am appreciated.”
He pointed toward the door with his stubby thumb, and Mr. Ridgeway, taking the hint, said, “Wait here and I will get your money,” and left the room.
As soon as the door closed O’Brien proceeded to abuse Mr. Ridgeway with all the fluency and fervor of his Irish tongue. Clearly and distinctly he addressed the air with a shower of choice phrases. He abused, he threatened, he raved, never once forgetting to hold his voice clear and steady as though addressing a stupid central on a buzzing line. According to his remarks, Mr. Ridgeway had insulted him. And he would get even. Over and over, he promised himself that he would get even. And then in the very middle of O’Brien’s finest flight of fancy, the door opened. Like turning off a top, O’Brien shut up, took what Mr. Ridgeway offered him and with a growl went out, slamming the door.
“Good riddance!” growled Mr. Ridgeway in his turn, then shaking his fist at the table, he too went out, springing the lock.
The rest of the afternoon he spent at the Chevy Chase golf course but it is likely that a worse game was never played over that course. The Honorable Theodore Miller, who had asked him to play, went through one fit of amazement and remorse into another. Amazement that such tops and foozles could come from a sane man, and remorse that he was obliged to waste the afternoon with such a being. Mr. Ridgeway did not notice that he was playing badly, but thumped and whacked away at the ball with a frowning look that Senator Miller took for an earnest desire to mend his stroke, but which in fact indicated utter absent-mindedness. Mr. Ridgeway knew that if he was being watched, he must put up an appearance of unconcern, and so the Golf Club.
But that night soon after dinner he spoke a few words over a private wire that led to the private room of a Certain Great Person, and soon Mr. Ridgeway was with him in close consultation. He came away looking more anxious than ever. He had learned that an answer had been drawn up for the young republic which needed help, and that another country close on its borders was ready to declare war if there seemed to be anything in the way of affiliation with the United States. Besides this, there reposed in the strongest of the strong boxes at the Treasury the crown jewels of a monarch who had sent them across for safe keeping six years ago, and who now wanted them returned at once to figure at the introduction of the Crown Prince on his twenty-first birthday.
The jewels and the state papers all must be delivered safely within two months. Otherwise.... Mr. Ridgeway did not like to think of the otherwise.
The jewels had no business in the country at all. They had been allowed to come over piecemeal, by the ill-advised judgment of one who should have known enough to keep clear of everything to do with little principalities with their many entanglements and jealousies. However, the deed was done.