Nothing In Her Way Read Online Free PDF Page A

myself. Nothing.
    “Well, I’m here, Charlie,” I said. “I take it I’d only be wasting time trying to get you to raise your offer of fifteen per cent.”
    “A very sound hypothesis, Mike,” he agreed, “if a little weak in the statistical department. The figure was ten per cent.”
    I shrugged resignedly. I’d known it was ten, of course, but to make it look good I had to haggle a little.
    “All right,” I said. “Just when and how do we sandbag Miss Holman’s uncle?”
    He winced. “Mike!”
    “O.K. But how? Remember, I know nothing at all about it. What do I do?
    He removed the cigar and looked at it thoughtfully. “Ah, I intended to ask you last night, Mike. Did you ever study chemistry?”
    “In high school,” I said, puzzled. “By the time I got to college I knew better. Why?”
    “It isn’t important. You’re a chemical engineer in this little venture we have in mind, and a slight knowledge of chemistry would, of course, be no great liability.”
    “I’m glad you told me,” I said. “I used to know that salt was sodium something. Remind me to look it up sometime.”
    He smiled soothingly. “As I say, it doesn’t matter. The secret of a thing of this kind, Mike, is never to talk shop with people who do know. And, since you are to conceal the fact that you’re a chemical engineer, you should encounter no difficulty.”
    “Then there’s nothing to it,” I said. “It’s easy. I’m not a chemical engineer, but I’m pretending to be one, so I can pretend I’m not one. Is the rest of the scheme that simple?”
    Bolton was boredly reading a copy of Fortune . Cathy was listening and watching us, but without much interest. They both knew the whole thing by heart, of course.
    Charlie delicately tapped the long ash from his cigar. “A quite—ah—understandable bewilderment, Mike. At first glance it might seem a little involved, but there is a very good reason behind it. Now, to begin with, you go to Wyecross alone. The entire first act—aside from what has already been done—is yours, and I need not add, of course, that the success of the whole venture depends upon you. Miss Holman is driving to San Antonio tomorrow to visit friends, and no doubt she would be glad to have your company for that part of the journey. Beyond San Antonio, I suggest you travel by bus. Mr. Bolton and I shall be in Houston until later developments necessitate our appearing on the scene. You will, of course, have our address.
    “Now, to get to the core of the matter. Mr. Goodwin, who is a man of about forty, is cashier of the Stockmen’s Bank, the only bank in Wyecross. From his father he inherited a large block of the bank’s stock, in addition to some fifteen thousand acres of land lying just east of Wyecross. Practically all this land is utterly unfit for anything, being nothing but a sort of Sahara in miniature, an endless waste of sand dunes. I have observed it from the club car of the train, Mike, and a more utterly desolate landscape I never hope to see. My only hope is that, since you will be there some time, you don’t go stark mad.”
    “Never mind the description,” I broke in. “What’s all this got to do with it?”
    He raised his eyebrows. “Everything, my boy. Now, upon your arrival in Wyecross, you will go to Frankie and Johnnie’s Kottage Kamp.” He closed his eyes and shuddered slightly, and then went on. “You will go to this revolting caravansary and engage a room, or a court, as I believe it is called.”
    He went on talking, and he told it well. After a while I began to see the basic pattern of it, and had an idea of what he was aiming for, and it was a sweet piece of work. There was one hitch to it, however, and that was I couldn’t make out where the money came in. The way it was set up, it didn’t make sense. I broke in and asked him, and when he told me, I saw the poisonous beauty of it all at once like a light coming on. It was really rigged.
    It wasn’t just a simple