Again Jack laughed. “Sure—you pre’ li’l’ fool!”
“You can laugh, but I want to be certain,” she protested. “I don’t want to get in trouble by having people come after me for having passed checks that had no money behind them.”
Again Jack laughed. “’S all ri’, Nina. Listen.” He leaned toward her confidentially. “Other day, you know, I’m twenty-five; came into nice li’l’ ole pile money. Soak it away in bank. Since then I buy tha’ nice li’l’ ole car—the car I drive you up here in, Nina—some li’l’ ole car when I turn her loose—nothin’ ever passes her—an’ I draw out li’l’ spendin’ money. Tha’s all.” He snickered once more. “Five hundred—is my check good for tha’—oh, say! Listen, Nina. It’s all down on stubs of my check-book—wha’ I deposit—wha’ I draw out. Look for yourself—tha’ll show you!”
He handed her the check-book. She examined the stubs, then gazed at him in stupefaction.
“Why!” she said breathlessly,—“why—over one hundred and eighty-nine thousand dollars!”
“Sure!” He grinned delightedly. “Am I good for five hundred—eh, Nina?”
“I beg your pardon, Jack. Why—I never dreamed— Then, of course, it will be all right if I make them as much as five hundred each.”
Her face broke into a sudden, naïve smile. “And I tell you what, Jack,—I’ll make them payable to ‘Cash,’ then I won’t have to endorse them nor will anybody else—and if anybody wants to start a scandal, why, nobody that sees them will ever suspect, and certainly not be able to prove, that I got money from you. It’ll protect both of us.”
Nina seemed to have another inspiration—a very business-like one. “And what’s more, I’ll just fill these in now and have it all done with. Peter, let me have your fountain pen. Thanks. And, Jack, while I’m writing, you might pour me a fresh glass, and yourself one, and one for the others—that’s a dear boy. Remember you’re the host.”
While Jack was unsteadily doing a host’s duty, decanting almost as much of the amber fluid upon the cloth as into the glasses, Nina filled out the checks; and as she wrote she three times repeated aloud: “Payable to—Cash—Five—Hundred—Dollars.”