"What happened?"
"Nothing happened; except that he froze me stiff."
"Where was this?"
"On the street. They stopped at a drug-store, and I stepped up. 'Is this Mr. Percy Harrigan?' He was looking into the store, over my head. 'I'm a reporter,' I said, 'and I'd like to ask you about the accident up at North Valley.' 'Excuse me,' he said, in a tone--gee, it makes your blood cold to think of it! 'Just a word,' I pleaded. 'I don't give interviews,' he answered; and that was all--he continued looking over my head, and everybody else staring in front of them. They had turned to ice at my first word. If ever I felt like a frozen worm!"
There was a pause.
"Ain't it wonderful," reflected Billy, "how quick you can build up an aristocracy! When you looked at that car, the crowd in it and the airs they wore, you'd think they'd been running the world since the time of William the Conqueror. And Old Peter came into this country with a pedlar's pack on his shoulders!"
"We're hustlers here," put in MacKellar.
"We'll hustle all the way to hell in a generation more," said the reporter. Then, after a minute, "Say, but there's one girl in that bunch that was the real thing! She sure did get me! You know all those fluffy things they do themselves up in--soft and fuzzy, makes you think of spring-time orchards. This one was exactly the colour of apple-blossoms."
"You're susceptible to the charms of the ladies?" inquired Hal, mildly.
"I am," said the other. "I know it's all fake, but just the same, it makes my little heart go pit-a-pat. I always want to think they're as lovely as they look."
Hal's smile became reminiscent, and he quoted:
"Oh Liza-Ann, come out with me, The moon is a-shinin' in the monkey-puzzle tree!"
Then he stopped, with a laugh. "Don't wear your heart on your sleeve, Mr. Keating. She wouldn't be above taking a peck at it as she passed."
"At me? A worm of a newspaper reporter?"
"At you, a man!" laughed Hal. "I wouldn't want to accuse the lady of posing; but a lady has her role in life, and has to keep her hand in."
There was a pause. The reporter was looking at the young miner with sudden curiosity. "See here," he remarked, "I've been wondering about you. How do you come to know so much about the psychology of the leisure class?"
"I used to have money once," said Hal. "My family's gone down as quickly as the Harrigans have come up."
SECTION 10.
Hal went on to question Keating about the apple-blossom girl. "Maybe I could guess who she is. What colour was her hair?"
"The colour of molasses taffy when you've pulled it," said Billy; "but all fluffy and wonderful, with star-dust in it. Her eyes were brown, and her cheeks pink and cream."
"She had two rows of pearly white teeth, that flashed at you when she smiled?"
"She didn't smile, unfortunately."
"Then her brown eyes gazed at you, wide open, full of wonder?"
"Yes, they did--only it was into the drug-store window."
"Did she wear a white hat of soft straw, with a green and white flower garden on it, and an olive green veil, and maybe cream white ribbons?"
"By George, I believe you've seen her!" exclaimed the reporter.
"Maybe," said Hal. "Or maybe I'm describing the girl on the cover of one of the current magazines!" He smiled; but then, seeing the other's curiosity, "Seriously, I think I do know your young lady. If you announce that Miss Jessie Arthur is a member of the Harrigan party, you won't be taking a long chance."
"I can't afford to take any chance at all," said the reporter. "You mean Robert Arthur's daughter?"
"Heiress-apparent of the banking business of Arthur and Sons," said Hal.
"It happens I know her by sight."
"How's that?"
"I worked in a grocery-store where she used to come."
"Whereabouts?"
"Peterson and Company, in Western City."
"Oho! And you used to sell her candy."
"Stuffed dates."
"And your little heart used to go pit-a-pat, so that you could hardly count the change?"
"Gave her too much, several times!"
"And you wondered if she was as good as she was beautiful! One day you were thrilled with hope, the next you were cynical and bitter--till at last you gave up in despair, and ran away to work in a coal-mine!"
They laughed, and MacKellar and Edstrom joined in. But suddenly Keating became serious again. "I ought to be away on that story!" he exclaimed.
"I've got to get something out of that crowd about the disaster. Think what copy it would make!"
"But how can you do it?"
"I don't know; I only know I ought to be trying. I'll hang round the train, and maybe I can get one of the porters to talk."
"Interview with the Coal King's porter!" chuckled Hal. "How it feels to make up a multi-millionaire's bed!"
"How it feels to sell stuffed dates to a banker's daughter!" countered the other.
But suddenly it was Hal's turn to become serious. "Listen, Mr. Keating,"
said he, "why not let _me_ interview young Harrigan?"
"_You?_"
"Yes! I'm the proper person--one of his miners! I help to make his money for him, don't I? I'm the one to tell him about North Valley."
Hal saw the reporter staring at him in sudden excitement; he continued: "I've been to the District Attorney, the Justice of the Peace, the District Judge, the Mayor and the Chief of Police. Now, why shouldn't I go to the Owner?"
"By thunder!" cried Billy. "I believe you'd have the nerve!"