“No!”
“All lightee. I guess me tly Mayor Blenchfield. He know me heap good. Maybe he lendem.”
And off he went.
“A fat chance he has of getting a hundred dollars from Brenchfield at this stage of the game,” exclaimed Jim.
“But what’s the crazy lunatic’s idea, anyway?” asked Phil.
“Oh, this raining pigs’ hair and blood stuff is an old gag. Something like the Spanish prisoner business. It is just a put-up job by relatives in China to get money out of their superstitious friends over here. They play on one another’s credulity for a fare-you-well.
“And he fancies he is now a Canadian. Gee!––but we’re the easy marks in this country:––Chinks, Japs, Hindoos, Doukhobors, niggers and God only knows what else. It sure is the melting pot. But some of them will have a great time melting,––believe me!”
Phil went back to his desk and opened up the day’s mail. In it there was a letter from Eileen, full of love, but overloaded with sorrow, for it contained the disquieting news that her father had been taken suddenly ill in the House and had had to be conveyed home. The doctors at Victoria had recommended a speedy return 368 to the Valley, and Eileen and her father were taking that advice and following by the next day’s train.
Phil drove down to meet them on arrival, and he was terribly shocked to see the change that had come over the recently hale, hearty, healthy, ruddy-complexioned old rancher and politician. He seemed absolutely broken down and full of anxiety to be in his own home. He talked all the way there in a most disjointed manner regarding his property and his business affairs, which to Phil was anything but reassuring, for John Royce Pederstone, although careless in regard to many things, was for the most part shrewd and at all times polished, connected and logical in his speech and argument.
Poor little Eileen was broken-hearted. Phil tried hard to make light of her father’s condition, but she remained inconsolable; he endeavoured to convince her that business affairs might really not be half so bad as they seemed, but it was against his own personal opinion, consequently it was unconvincing, and Eileen was not deceived.