Part 47 (2/2)
”We do--if you want to; but, Jacob, you'd better take my humble advice, and go to Europe as quick as you could skin a cat. You know the whole thing will come out anyway when that bank affair is known, which I am a.s.sured will be exploded soon, and then the whole shooting match will be busted.”
”You had better call on heaven to help you, Peter, when I return--if I go,” said Jacob, rising, and leering down upon the king, who sat looking at the floor now, in quiet thought.
”I am not afraid of you, or any one else, Jacob,” responded Peter, looking up. ”I am a domesticated man now, Jacob, and intend to enjoy the rest of my days right here, in this house, with my wife and ten children.”
”You scamp!” hissed Jacob, snarling down upon him, like one dog snarls at another dog with the prize bone.
”Take my advice, Jacob, and go home,” said Peter, looking sidewise at Jacob. ”You'd better be there packing your grip than standing here calling me hard names. Europe is the safest place for you for the next ten years; so go. I can take care of myself.”
”Things have come to a nice pa.s.s,” said Jacob, ”when a man can't enjoy the comforts of a home in this age without every upstart wanting to interfere in his business!”
”It's a nasty business that of yours,” said Peter, remorselessly. ”I've been tired of it for a long time, and wanted my chance to get out. The chance has come, and I am getting.”
”You are an ingrate,” replied Jacob, wrathfully. ”Being entrenched yourself with safety lines thrown out, so that no one can invade your private affairs, you care nothing for your friends who have divided with you for years. An ingrate! An ingrate, I repeat, Peter! I shall go, and may those vapid detectives who have been here for months trying to make a break in our lines, find you out, and help to punish you.”
”Oh, that's all right, Jacob,” said the suave Peter. ”I know all about their work in this city; but I am beyond their reach. So go, if you don't want to be pinched within a week. Go, I say, to Europe, and maybe you can enjoy life there; and while you are doing it, think of me sometimes, just for old friends.h.i.+p's sake, and take an extra drink on the side for me--that's all. I shall never forget you till my last breath is gone; and I shall never forget the words you have just now said to me, and what impression they have left upon me. Go! Jacob; go!
that I may be done with you; that's all.” Peter concluded this speech, without either smoking, rubbing or squinting.
”Good night,” said Jacob, leaving the king's throne; and the two old cronies in legalized crime (for that is what graft is, nothing more), parted forever.
”Good bye,” were the last words that Peter said to him; but Jacob did not hear them, so blind was he in his rage when he stepped out into the cool night air to take up his return to his home again to seek solace in the bosom of his family.
Arriving home, Jacob put his family into a wild uproar when he told them of the result of his visit to Peter Dieman.
”Well, we were going to Europe anyway,” said Mrs. Cobb, as a consoling climax to her bewailment. ”It is good that I informed our friends of this trip, so they will now be none the wiser. The wedding of the two young ladies can come off in September, as planned. I can return for that, and you can remain in Europe--ill, perhaps. And Jasper need not postpone his expedition into the mountains, you see.”
”No, Jasper; you must not fail in that,” said Cobb, still unable to give up any of his schemes, so fascinating were they all to him yet, ”as I will be compelled to remain for some length of time. If you fail, our fortunes may be somewhat impaired as a result of all this trouble. So don't fail, my boy.”
”Oh, I'll win; don't despair, father, for me; I'll win,” said Jasper, hopefully, with more interest than ever now in getting a wife with money.
So to Europe Jacob Cobb and his family betook themselves, leaving young Jasper at home, as agreed, to sport awhile with the vixenish little Cupid. Punctilious, as on every other such occasion of the going of such people, the Sunday newspapers, in their society columns, gave a glowing account of the departure of Mr. and Mrs. Cobb and their two daughters for Europe to spend the season (or several seasons it might have been) in Paris; and probably, if not otherwise detained, to Baden-Baden, or to some other noted place, purportedly for the benefit of Mr. Cobb, who (poor man) had been in poor health for months past.
Mercy on us!
CHAPTER XXVII.
ELI JEREY AT THE DIEMAN HOME.
Dressed as on the great occasion when he visited Miss Jarney, Eli Jerey called at the home of Peter Dieman but a short ten minutes after Jacob Cobb had left in such a bad temper. Peter was in his jolliest frame of mind, and was still having jerks of felicitation over his fine stroke in besting Jacob Cobb, as he looked at it, when Eli floated into his presence like a fluted lamppost with its light extinguished. Eli sat down with his high hat on the top of his untutored head, as his only hat rack, when Peter took up the thread of the subject about where he and Jacob broke it in their slight misunderstanding.
”When I told him to skip out, Eli, he flew the handle to beat all,” said Peter. ”He threatened, if he ever returned, to cook a dish for me that I would not relish.”
”Did he, though?” said Eli, raising his eyes to the level of Peter's.
”Now what kind of a dish could he cook for you, do you suppose?”
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