“Well, nothing is sure but death and taxes, you must remember. Even the Mammoth Trust might go under, so don’t regard your fifty thousand as velvet and take some wild flyer with it, without consulting Foulkes or me.” George checked himself with a sheepish grin. “There I go preaching again! I vow I won’t any more—Say! That waiter has been hovering about for the last twenty minutes. What are we going to have?”
Dinner ordered, the conversation turned upon their forthcoming expedition, and as the meal progressed all of Storm’s wonted self-confidence returned to him in full measure. These vague fears about old George and his suspicions were nothing but the chimera of exhausted nerves, and he was a fool to permit them to give him a moment’s disquietude. Millard and his damned wager had worked upon him, but Millard was an ass! The very way that he had fallen for Du Chainat proved—— Storm caught himself up in his chain of reasoning with a grimace of ironic disgust. He, too, had fallen for Du Chainat, and harder even than had Millard. Gad, was he getting so that he believed his own lies?
At any rate, the result of the wager was a foregone conclusion. He could not fail to carry on successfully to the end now; his plans had been laid too well! Not one single setback had occurred and no one, nothing could touch him. He could endure old George’s unadulterated company for a week or so, and the sojourn in the woods would steady his nerves and give him time to plan cool-headedly for the future.
By the time they returned, the Horton investigation would have slumped to a mere nominal affair, and soon thereafter he might announce his adherence to his original plan, to which George could then have no opposition to offer since his own suggestion would have failed of its object. Everything would work out smoothly, perfectly; the greatest stunt of the age would go through without a hitch; and it was all due to his foresight, his genius for detail! There was nothing he could not accomplish in the future, no one living who was his master; and the best of it all was that no one suspected his greatness! Not a living soul with whom he came in contact realized that he was other than a pleasant enough fellow, a gentleman born and bred but without much business head or executive ability; a tame, futile sort of person, who would never set the Thames on fire. God, it was the biggest joke perpetrated on the community since time began! It was almost too good to keep!
But as they left the grill and made their way to his rooms, in the midst of his exultation there came to him another dampening thought. Had George noticed the coincidence of his having been near the Grand Central Station at the very hour of Horton’s supposed arrival, as revealed by Colonel Walker’s unlucky chance remark? Storm dared not draw his attention to the coincidence itself if it had escaped him, yet a perverse instinct drove him on to ascertain if he had noted the significance of the date mentioned.
“Old Walker is putting on flesh again since demobilization took place,” he began tentatively. “I hear he has been hitting it up quite a little lately.”
“He is a pretty good fellow,” George replied tolerantly. “Likes to swagger and make out that he’s a regular devil, but there is no real harm in him.—Say, we’d better get some new G. lines, and if I were you I’d look over that four-and-a-half-ounce rod of yours.”
“That’s all right.” Storm returned insistently to his point. “I wonder who was giving the stag house-party up in Westchester for which the Colonel was bound when he hailed me? Odd that I should not have heard him, for he bellows like a bull.”
“Oh, well, in a crowd——” George’s tone was absent and he broke off to announce with vigor. “I’ll tell you one thing; if you expect any luck you had better get a Montreal or two. The pet Parmachini Belle of yours would make any bass in the lake give you a laugh!”
Another dangerous chance eliminated!——Danger? Storm chuckled with amusement at the thought. To test old George further was like taking milk from a blind kitten! Only a miracle could harm him now and the age of miracles was past. He was invincible, indeed!