“Gee!” sighed Perry. “That must have been great!”
Mr. Addicks laughed. “Well, some of it wasn’t so bad. I liked it pretty well. I was always crazy about horses and riding. I got enough of it, though. It don’t get you anything. An uncle of mine died and a lawyer wrote me I was the old chap’s heir and had better beat it back here and claim the estate. Which I did.” He smiled wryly. “The estate was a tumble-down farm-house about three miles from here on the Springdale road with a mortgage all over it. There’s so much mortgage you have to lift up a corner of it before you can see the house. Being still a trifle worse than broke, I got a job with a moving picture company in Jersey and rode for ’em almost a year. That was harder work than being the real thing, and a sight more dangerous. I nearly killed myself one day, when a horse fell on me, and so I got my time and quit being an actor. That was about a month ago. Then I came back here and rented this place and started in business. The business hasn’t shown up yet, though. I guess being a civil engineer in Clearfield is about as busy a job as being a street-cleaner in Venice! Now you know all about me. Hope I haven’t tired you out.”
“No, indeed,” replied Perry emphatically. “I like to hear about it. Say, you’ve been around a lot, haven’t you? Were you born in Nebraska?”
“Me? Hombre, I’m a native son of this grand old state. My folks farmed it over near Petersboro before the Pilgrims bought their passage!”
“How did you happen to go to college away out there, sir?”
“Why—now, look here, I’ve talked enough. I’ll tell you some day about that, if you say so, but if I don’t quit now you’ll think I’m wound up. You tell me things.”
“What?” asked Perry, smiling.
“Well, what are you aiming to do when you get through cramming your head full of knowledge, friend?”
“I don’t know. I used to think I’d be a doctor. That’s what my father is. But lately—I don’t know. There doesn’t seem to be much money in doctoring.”
“Be a civil engineer then and get rich,” said Mr. Addicks gravely. “What’s your line going to be, Shaw?”