Horton shook his head decisively.
“Not me! Once I get on my way in the morning I’m going to keep right on going,” he declared. “I don’t feel right in my mind yet about this little stop-over, but it sure has been worth it! The next time I come to town——”
The advancing figure passed under the rays of the lamp and was revealed as a blue-coated policeman swinging along idly but with a certain brisk watchfulness. Storm blew out his match and fell in step once more beside his companion.
“The next time you come, drop me a line ahead and we’ll fix up a little dinner with Holworthy and any of the rest I can find lying around the club,” he said suavely. “It is a good thing to get in touch with the old crowd now and then; livens a chap up and keeps him in the running.”
The policeman passed with only a casual glance at the two obviously respectable citizens, and his footsteps died away behind them. Only four blocks more!
“You bet it does!” Horton assented heartily. “Why, just running into you to-night like this and having a chat over old times has given me a new lease of life! I’ll like first rate to see old Holworthy and the rest again, but most of all I want you to meet my girl. She’s aces high, Norman, and you’ll agree with me when you know her. We’ll get her to shake the old lady for an evening and come to dinner—” he paused suddenly and added: “Say, we’ve come further than I thought. Hadn’t we better be getting back? I don’t want to cut short your stroll, but that bag back there is on my mind.”
“All right. Just let us go to the top of the hill here around the turn.” Storm threw his cigarette away and strove to speak casually, but his throat had become all at once parched and strained, and a tremor of excitement threatened his tones. “There’s a down-stream boat almost due, and I want you to see it come round the bend. I watch for it here nearly every night, and it’s a sight worth seeing. I suppose you’ll be taking a trip somewhere on your honeymoon?”
“Haven’t got as far as that yet!” Horton protested laughingly. “Oh, the little girl knows what is in the wind, all right—trust a woman for that!—but I haven’t put it up to her in so many words. I want to lay my pipes with the Mid-Eastern first and see where I’m likely to stand before I tackle her old man. He likes me fast enough, but when it comes to me horning in on the family he’ll expect me to spread my cards on the table, and I have not got much to show for the last twenty years except the trust of the people I’ve worked for.”
“That is a pretty big asset,” muttered Storm, his eyes on the brow of the hill just ahead. If he could keep Horton going, keep him talking until they reached that dark stretch and then, unsuspected, fall a step or two behind——! “It is a long step of the way toward success to gain the trust of your associates.”
“Sure!” the other responded with pardonable pride. “But it is not so much of an asset as an income producer to an old guy who has struggled all his life and then struck it rich all of a sudden; so rich and so easy that he figures any fellow who hasn’t done the same is a dub. But I’m not worrying; I’ve got it pretty good out there, and two or three more trips with the payroll will about be my finish. There’s going to be a big reorganization soon, and I mean to edge in then on the inside.”