Page:Jackson Gregory--joyous trouble maker.djvu/177

Rh A lot of it. I need it right-away-quick. I've got to borrow some to get started, borrow it or beg it or steal it. Which will it be? Will you lend me fifty thousand for a starter?"

Beatrice glanced at him sharply to see if he were joking and looked away with her question unanswered. He was smiling, to be sure, his eyes were fairly dancing at her. And yet she had the suspicion that this man of monumental assurance actually meant what he said.

"Yep," he amplified. "Got to have it. Desperate for it in fact. Desperate is the word. Will pay interest on it of course, six percent and my land here as security. How about it? Yes or no?"

"No," smiled Beatrice.

"When a woman says no ..."

"If it is about a thing like this she means it."

"I'll get the money anyway. Somehow, if I have to hold up the stage. You might as well have the interest."

"No, thank you. Let me see: biscuits, bacon, beans, bread, butter and a little honey, coffee ... is that enough, do you think, Mr. Steele?"

"I think you are a God-blessed brick!" cried Steele in his heart. So to her, looking doubtful, he hesitatingly and begrudgingly admitted that it would do.

A little later he watched her put the biscuits into the oven. He was wondering what she would be like the next time their trails crossed. For the once Beatrice had the better of him; she was merely wondering, though with an interest scarcely less intense than his, what the biscuits would be like when she took them out.