da da da.”
“Good. It is better to learn one note thoroughly than just a little bit of all of them. She is not ready for the other notes yet. But I can tell you this: she is the most intelligent little girl I have ever seen in my life and I believe she has a positive genius for the piano. I truly believe she will blossom all at once and one of these days she will be playing complete symphonies.”
“You really think so?”
“I do indeed.”
“Well then I will pay you for six more weeks, but I do wish she could play more than da da da.”
*
There was another knock at the door.
“Honey Bun, there was something wrong. I give you ten dollars to bet on Summertime in the first race at Marine Park; you say it’s a sure thing and fifty to one. But now I find there isn’t any such track as Marine Park and nobody ever heard of the horse. Huh, Honey Bun? What you do to your best boy friend?”
“O, we use code names. What if all these hot tips ever got out? Summertime of course was Long Day and Marine Park was Jamaica. And he only lost by about six noses. Wasn’t that good for a fifty to one? And now I have an even better tip. It’s so hot I can’t even tell you the name of the horse, but I feel sure that twenty would get you a thousand.”
“All the time I give you money but never I win yet, Honey Bun. Now you give a little kiss and we talk about another bet.”
“I had surely thought our attachment was on a higher plane.”
“Words, Honey Bun, always words. But you give, um, um, um, that’s good. Now I bet again, but I bet I better win someday.”
*
There was another knock on the door.
“How come you let my brother-in-law in on a good thing and never tell me? For a hundred he’ll have two hundred and fifty in a week, and you never tell me, and I’m your friend and never persecute you when you don’t pay your bill.”
So she had to give her caller the same deal she had given his brother-in-law.
*
After that she went out to take the game out of her traps. She had set and baited them some days before. She had gone to see five hundred people, which took quite a while even for one with her excess of energy. And to each she said this:
“I have just discovered that I have an infallible gift of picking winners. Now I want you to give it a test. Here is a sure winner I have picked. I ask you bet it, not with me, not with one of my uncles, but with a bookie of your own choice. I prefer not to know with whom you bet.”
Of the five hundred there were a hundred and forty-four winners, very good. So the next day she went to the hundred and forty-four with even more assurance and offered them the same proposition again. And of the hundred and forty-four there were fifty-six winners. Very good, for she really could pick them.
To these fifty-six she went the third day and offered them the third sure bet free. And incredibly of the fifty-six there were nineteen winners.
This was repeated the next day, and of the nineteen there were seven winners.
Now she went to talk money. The seven lucky clients could not deny that she indeed had the gift of picking winners. She had given them all four straight in four days and her secret should surely be worth money. Besides, they had all let their bets ride and they had won a lot, an average of more than six hundred dollars.
But she would give no more free tips. She would only sell her complete and exclusive secret for a thousand dollars. And she collected from six of them. The seventh was Mazuma O’Shaunessey.
“I have given you four straight winners, but I cannot give you any more free tips. We will now talk cold turkey.”
“O, put it in a basket, Katie.”
“Why, what do you mean, sir?”
“I learned it in my cradle. The Inverted Pyramid. You tapped five hundred, and you got besides me how many? Five?”
“Six besides you, seven in all.”
“Very good. You pick them nice for a little girl. But isn’t that a lot of work for no more than a hatful of money?”
“Six thousand dollars is a large hatful. And there is always one smart alec like you who knows it all.”
“Now Kate dear, let’s look at it this way. I can really pick all the winners, not seven straights in five hundred, but all five hundred if I wished.”
“O hah, you can’t fool this little-goose.”
“O, I could prove it easily enough, but that’s showy and I hate to be a show-off. So I suggest that you take my word for it and share my secret with me and give up this penny ante stuff.”
“And all you want for your sure thing secret is five thousand dollars or so?”
“Why Kate, I don’t want your money. I have so much that it’s a burden to me. I only want to marry you.”
*
She looked at him and she was not sure. O, not about marrying him, he was nice enough. She was not sure, she had never been sure, that he was a Wreck.
“Are you?”
“Why Kate, does one Wreck have to ask another that question?”
“I guess not. I’ll go ask my uncles what they think. This is something of a decision.”
She went to see all her bachelor uncles and asked them what they knew about Mazuma O’Shaunessey.
He was known to all of them.
“He is a competent boy, Kate,” said Demetrio Petapolis. “If I do not miscount I once came out a little short on a deal with him. He knows the Virginia City Version, he knows the old Seven-Three-Three, he can do the Professor and His Dog, and the Little Audrey. And he seems to be quite rich. But is he?”
He meant, not is he rich, but—is he a Wreck?
“Does one Wreck have to ask another that question?” said Kate.
“No, I guess not.”
*
Hodl Oskanian knew him too.
“That boy is real cute. It seems in the last deal I had with him he came out a little ahead. It seems that in every deal I have with him he comes out a little ahead. He knows the Denver Deal and the Chicago Cut. He does the Little Old Lady and the Blue Hat. He knows the Silver Lining and the Doghouse and the Double Doghouse. And he seems quite likeable. But is he?”
He meant, not was he likeable, but—was he a Wreck?
“Cannot one Wreck always
