mr. augustus tibbetts, called "bones," made money by sheer luck--he made more by sheer artistic judgment. that is a fact which an old friend sensed a very short time after he had renewed his acquaintance with his sometime subordinate.
yet bones had the curious habit of making money in quite a different way from that which he planned--as, for example, in the matter of the great oil amalgamation. in these days of aeroplane travel, when it is next to impossible to watch the comings and goings of important individuals, or even to get wind of directors' meetings, the city is apt to be a little jumpy, and to respond to wild rumours in a fashion extremely trying to the nerves of conservative brokers.
there were rumours of a fusion of interests between the franco-persian oil company and the petroleum consolidated--rumours which set the shares of both concerns jumping up and down like two badly trained jazzers. the directorate of both companies expressed their surprise that a credulous public could accept such stories, and both m. jorris, the emperor of the franco-persian block, and george y. walters, the prince regent of the "petco," denied indignantly that any amalgamation was even dreamt of.
before these denials came along bones had plunged into the oil market, making one of the few flutters which stand as interrogation marks against his wisdom and foresight.
he did not lose; rather, he was the winner by his adventure. the extent of his immediate gains he inscribed in his private ledger; his ultimate and bigger balance he entered under a head which had nothing to do with the oil gamble--which was just like bones, as hamilton subsequently remarked.
hamilton was staying with sanders--late commissioner of a certain group of territories--and bones was the subject of conversation one morning at breakfast.
the third at the table was an exceedingly pretty girl, whom the maid called "madame," and who opened several letters addressed to "mrs. sanders," but who in days not long past had been known as patricia hamilton.
"bones is wonderful," said sanders, "truly wonderful! a man i know in the city tells me that most of the things he touches turn up trumps. and it isn't luck or chance. bones is developing a queer business sense."
hamilton nodded.
"it is his romantic soul which gets him there," he said. "bones will not look at a proposition which hasn't something fantastical behind it. he doesn't know much about business, but he's a regular whale on adventure. i've been studying him for the past month, and i'm beginning to sense his method. if he sees a logical and happy end to the romantic side of any new business, he takes it on. he simply carries the business through on the back of a dream."
the girl looked up from the coffee-pot she was handling.
"have you made up your mind, dear?"
"about going in with bones?" hamilton smiled. "no, not yet. bones is frantically insistent, has had a beautiful new sheraton desk placed in his office, and says that i'm the influence he wants, but----"
he shook his head.
"i think i understand," said sanders. "you feel that he is doing it all out of sheer generosity and kindness. that would be like bones. but isn't there a chance that what he says is true--that he does want a corrective influence?"
"maybe that is so," said captain hamilton doubtfully. "and then there's the money. i don't mind investing my little lot, but it would worry me to see bones pretending that all the losses of the firm came out of his share, and a big slice of the profits going into mine."
"i shouldn't let that worry you," said his sister quietly. "bones is too nice-minded to do anything so crude. of course, your money is nothing compared with bones's fortune, but why don't you join him on the understanding that the capital of the company should be---- how much would you put in?
"four thousand."
"well, make the capital eight thousand. bones could always lend the company money. debentures--isn't that the word?"
sanders smiled in her face.
"you're a remarkable lady," he said. "from where on earth did you get your ideas on finance?"
she went red.
"i lunched with bones yesterday," she said. "and here is the post."
"silence, babbler," said hamilton. "before we go any farther, what about this matter of partnership you were discussing with patricia?"
the maid distributed the letters. one was addressed:
"captin captian hamilton, d.s.o."
"from bones," said hamilton unnecessarily, and bones's letter claimed first attention. it was a frantic and an ecstatic epistle, heavily underlined and exclaimed.
"dear old old ham," it ran, "you simply must join me in _magnifficant_ new sceme sheme plan! wonderfull prophits profets! the most extraordiny _chance_ for a fortune..."
"for heaven's sake, what's this?" asked hamilton, handing the letter across to his sister and indicating an illegible line. "it looks like 'a bad girl's leg' to me."
"my dear!" said the shocked mrs. sanders, and studied the vile caligraphy. "it certainly does look like that," she admitted, "and---- i see! 'legacy' is the word."
"a bad girl's legacy is the titel of the play story picture" (bones never crossed anything out). "there's a studyo at tunbridge and two cameras and a fellow awfully nice fellow who understands it. a pot of money the story can be improve improved imensely. come in it dear old man--_magnifficant_ chance. see me at office eariliest earilest ealiest possible time.
"thine in art for art sake, "bones."
"from which i gather that bones is taking a header into the cinema business," said sanders. "what do you say, hamilton?"
hamilton thought a while.
"i'll see bones," he said.
he arrived in town soon after ten, but bones had been at his office two hours earlier, for the fever of the new enterprise was upon him, and his desk was piled high with notes, memoranda, price lists and trade publications. (bones, in his fine rage of construction, flew to the technical journals as young authors fly to the thesaurus.)
as hamilton entered the office, bones glared up.
"a chair," said the young man peremptorily. "no time to be lost, dear old artist. time is on the wing, the light is fadin', an' if we want to put this jolly old country--god bless it!--in the forefront----"
bones put down his pen and leant back in his chair.
"ham," he said, "i had a bit of a pow-pow with your sacred and sainted sister, bless her jolly old heart. that's where the idea arose. are you on?"
"i'm on," said hamilton, and there was a moving scene. bones shook his hands and spoke broken english.
"there's your perfectly twee little desk, dear old officer," he said, pointing to a massive piece of furniture facing his own. "and there's only one matter to be settled."
he was obviously uncomfortable, and hamilton would have reached for his cheque-book, only he knew his bones much better than to suppose that such a sordid matter as finance could cause his agitation.
"ham," said bones, clearing his throat and speaking with an effort, "old comrade of a hundred gallant encounters, and dear old friend----"
"what's the game?" asked hamilton suspiciously.
"there's no game," said the depressed bones. "this is a very serious piece of business, my jolly old comrade. as my highly respected partner, you're entitled to use the office as you like--come in when you like, go home when you like. if you have a pain in the tum-tum, dear old friend, just go to bed and trust old bones to carry on. use any paper that's going, help yourself to nibs--you'll find there's some beautiful nibs in that cupboard--in fact, do as you jolly well like; but----"
"but?" repeated hamilton.
"on one point alone, dear old thing," said bones miserably, yet heroically, "we do not share."
"what's that?" asked hamilton, not without curiosity.
"my typewriter is my typewriter," said bones firmly, and hamilton laughed.
"you silly ass!" he said. "i'm not going to play with your typewriter."
"that's just what i mean," said bones. "you couldn't have put it better, dear old friend. thank you."
he strode across the room, gripped hamilton's hand and wrung it.
"dear old thing, she's too young," he said brokenly. "hard life ... terrible experience... play with her young affections, dear old thing? no..."
"who the dickens are you talking about? you said typewriter."
"i said typewriter," agreed bones gravely. "i am speaking about my----"
a light dawned upon hamilton.
"you mean your secretary?"
"i mean my secretary," said bones.
"good heavens, bones!" scoffed hamilton. "of course i shan't bother her. she's your private secretary, and naturally i wouldn't think of giving her work."
"or orders," said bones gently. "that's a point, dear old thing. i simply couldn't sit here and listen to you giving her orders. i should scream. i'm perfectly certain i can trust you, ham. i know what you are with the girls, but there are times----"
"you know what i am with the girls?" said the wrathful hamilton. "what the dickens do you know about me, you libellous young devil?"
bones raised his hand.
"we will not refer to the past," he said meaningly and was so impressive that hamilton began to search his mind for some forgotten peccadillo.
"all that being arranged to our mutual satisfaction, dear old partner," said bones brightly, "permit me to introduce you."
he walked to the glass-panelled door leading to the outer office, and knocked discreetly, hamilton watching him in wonder. he saw him disappear, closing the door after him. presently he came out again, following the girl.
"dear young miss," said bones in his squeakiest voice, a sure sign of his perturbation, "permit me to introduce partner, ancient commander, gallant and painstaking, jolly old captain hamilton, d.s.o.--which stands, young typewriter, for deuced satisfactory officer."
the girl, smiling, shook hands, and hamilton for the first time looked her in the face. he had been amazed before by her classic beauty, but now he saw a greater intelligence than he had expected to find in so pretty a face, and, most pleasing of all, a sense of humour.
"bones and i are very old friends," he explained.
"hem!" said bones severely.
"bones?" said the girl, puzzled.
"naturally!" murmured bones. "dear old ham, be decent. you can't expect an innocent young typewriter to think of her employer as 'bones.'"
"i'm awfully sorry," hamilton hastened to apologise, "but you see, bones and i----"
"dicky orum," murmured bones. "remember yourself, ham, old indiscreet one--mr. tibbetts. and here's the naughty old picture-taker," he said in another tone, and rushed to offer an effusive welcome to a smart young man with long, black, wavy hair and a face reminiscent, to all students who have studied his many pictures, of louis xv. strangely enough, his name was louis. he was even called lew.
"sit down, my dear mr. becksteine," said bones. "let me introduce you to my partner. captain hamilton, d.s.o.--a jolly old comrade-in-arms and all that sort of thing. my lady typewriter you know, and anyway, there's no necessity for your knowing her---- i mean," he said hastily, "she doesn't want to know you, dear old thing. now, don't be peevish. ham, you sit there. becksteine will sit there. you, young miss, will sit near me, ready to take down my notes as they fall from my ingenious old brain."
in the bustle and confusion the embarrassing moment of hamilton's introduction was forgotten. bones had a manuscript locked away in the bottom drawer of his desk, and when he had found the key for this, and had placed the document upon the table, and when he had found certain other papers, and when the girl was seated in a much more comfortable chair--bones fussed about like an old hen--the proceedings began.
bones explained.
he had seen the derelict cinema company advertised in a technical journal, had been impressed with the amount of the impedimenta which accompanied the proprietorship of the syndicate, had been seized with a brilliant idea, bought the property, lock, stock, and barrel, for two thousand pounds, for which sum, as an act of grace, the late proprietors allowed him to take over the contract of mr. lew becksteine, that amiable and gifted producer.
it may be remarked, in passing, that this arrangement was immensely satisfactory to the syndicate, which was so tied and bound to mr. becksteine for the next twelve months that to have cancelled his contract would have cost them the greater part of the purchase price which bones paid.
"this is the story," said bones impressively. "and, partner ham, believe me, i've read many, many stories in my life, but never, never has one touched me as this has. it's a jolly old tear-bringer, ham. even a hardened, wicked old dev--old bird like you would positively dissolve. you would really, dear old ham, so don't deny it. you know you've got one of the tenderest hearts in the world, you rascal!"
he got up and shook hands with hamilton, though there was no necessity for him to move.
"now, clever old becksteine thinks that this is going to be a scorcher."
"a winner, a winner," murmured mr. becksteine, closing his eyes and shaking his head. he spoke on this occasion very softly, but he could raise his voice to thrilling heights. "a sure winner, my dear sir. i have been in the profession for twenty-seven years, and never in my life have i read a drama which contains so much heart appeal----"
"you hear?" said bones in a hoarse whisper.
"--so much genuine comedy----"
bones nodded.
"--so much that i might say goes straight to the passionate heart of the great public, as this remarkable, brilliantly planned, admirably planted, exquisitely balanced little cameo of real life."
"it's to be a two-roller," said bones.
"reeler," murmured mr. becksteine.
"reeler or roller, dear old thing; don't let's quarrel over how a thing's spelt," said bones.
"who wrote it?" asked hamilton.
mr. becksteine coughed modestly.
"jolly old becksteine wrote it," said bones. "that man, ham, is one of the most brilliant geniuses in this or any other world. aren't you? speak up, old playwright. don't be shy, old thing."
mr. becksteine coughed again.
"i do not know anything about other worlds," he admitted.
"now, this is my idea," said bones, interrupting what promised to be a free and frank admission of mr. becksteine's genius. "i've worked the thing out, and i see just how we can save money. in producing two-roller cinematographs--that's the technical term," explained bones, "the heavy expense is with the artistes. the salaries that these people are paid! my dear old ham, you'd never believe."
"i don't see how you can avoid paying salaries," said hamilton patiently. "i suppose even actors have to live."
"ah!" said mr. becksteine, shaking his head.
"of course, dear old thing. but why pay outside actors?" said bones triumphantly.
he glared from one face to the other with a ferocity of expression which did no more than indicate the strength of his conviction.
"why not keep the money in the family, dear old ham? that's what i ask you. answer me that." he leaned back in his chair, thrust his hands in his trousers pockets, and blandly surveyed his discomfited audience.
"but you've got to have actors, my dear chap," said hamilton.
"naturally and necessarily," replied bones, nodding with very large nods. "and we have them. who is jasper brown, the villain who tries to rob the poor girl of her legacy and casts the vilest aspersions upon her jolly old name?"
"who is?" asked the innocent hamilton.
"you are," said bones.
hamilton gasped.
"who is frank fearnot, the young and handsome soldier--well, not necessarily handsome, but pretty good-looking--who rescues the girl from her sad predicament?"
"well, that can't be me, anyway," said hamilton.
"it is not," said bones. "it is me! who is the gorgeous but sad old innocent one who's chased by you, ham, till the poor little soul doesn't know which way to turn, until this jolly young officer steps brightly on the scene, whistling a merry tune, and, throwing his arms about her, saves her, dear old thing, from her fate--or, really, from a perfectly awful rotten time."
"who is she?" asked hamilton softly.
bones blinked and turned to the girl slowly.
"my dear old miss," he said, "what do you think?"
"what do i think?" asked the startled girl. "what do i think about what?"
"there's a part," said bones--"there's one of the grandest parts that was ever written since shakespeare shut his little copybook."
"you're not suggesting that i should play it?" she asked, open-mouthed.
"made for you, dear old typewriter, positively made for you, that part," murmured bones.
"of course i shall do nothing so silly," said the girl, with a laugh. "oh, mr. tibbetts, you really didn't think that i'd do such a----"
she didn't finish the sentence, but hamilton could have supplied the three missing words without any difficulty.
thereafter followed a discussion, which in the main consisted of joint and several rejection of parts. marguerite whitland most resolutely refused to play the part of the bad girl, even though bones promised to change the title to "the good girl," even though he wheedled his best, even though he struck attitudes indicative of despair and utter ruin, even though the gentle persuasiveness of mr. lew becksteine was added to his entreaties. and hamilton as resolutely declined to have anything to do with the bad man. mr. becksteine solved the difficulty by undertaking to produce the necessary actors and actresses at the minimum of cost.
"of course you won't play, bones?" said hamilton.
"i don't know," said bones. "i'm not so sure, dear old thing. i've got a lot of acting talent in me, and i feel the part--that's a technical term you won't understand."
"but surely, mr. tibbetts," said the girl reproachfully, "you won't allow yourself to be photographed embracing a perfectly strange lady?"
bones shrugged his shoulders.
"art, my dear old typewriter," he said. "she'll be no more to me than a bit of wood, dear old miss. i shall embrace her and forget all about it the second after. you need have no cause for apprehension, really and truly."
"i am not at all apprehensive," said the girl coldly, and bones followed her to her office, showering explanations of his meaning over her shoulder.
on the third day hamilton went back to twickenham a very weary man.
"bones is really indefatigable," he said irritably, but yet admiringly. "he has had those unfortunate actors rehearsing in the open fields, on the highways and byways. really, old bones has no sense of decency. he's got one big scene which he insists upon taking in a private park. i shudder to think what will happen if the owner comes along and catches bones and his wretched company."
sanders laughed quietly.
"what do you think he'll do with the film?" he asked.
"oh, he'll sell it," said hamilton. "i tell you, bones is amazing. he has found a city man who is interested in the film industry, a stockbroker or something, who has promised to see every bit of film as it is produced and give him advice on the subject; and, incredible as it may sound, the first half-dozen scenes that bones has taken have passed muster."
"who turns the handle of the camera?" asked the girl.
"bones," said hamilton, trying not to laugh. "he practised the revolutions on a knife-cleaning machine!"
the fourth day it rained, but the fifth day bones took his company in a hired motor into the country, and, blissfully ignoring such admonitions as "trespassers will be shot," he led the way over a wall to the sacred soil of an englishman's stately home. bones wanted the wood, because one of his scenes was laid on the edge of a wood. it was the scene where the bad girl, despairing of convincing anybody as to her inherent goodness, was taking a final farewell of the world before "leaving a life which had held nothing but sadness and misunderstanding," to quote the title which was to introduce this touching episode.
bones found the right location, fitted up his camera, placed the yellow-faced girl--the cinema artiste has a somewhat bilious appearance when facing the lens--and began his instructions.
"now, you walk on here, dear old miss what's-your-name. you come from that tree with halting footsteps--like this, dear old thing. watch and learn."
bones staggered across the greensward, clasping his brow, sank on his knees, folded his arms across his chest, and looked sorrowfully at the heavens, shaking his head.
hamilton screamed with laughter.
"behave yourself, naughty old sceptic," said bones severely.
after half an hour's preliminary rehearsal, the picture was taken, and bones now prepared to depart; but mr. lew becksteine, from whose hands bones had taken, not only the direction of the play, but the very excuse for existence, let fall a few uncomfortable words.
"excuse me, mr. tibbetts," he said, in the sad, bored voice of an artiste who is forced to witness the inferior work of another, "it is in this scene that the two lawyers must be taken, walking through the wood, quite unconscious of the unhappy fate which has overtaken the heiress for whom they are searching."
"true," said bones, and scratched his nose.
he looked round for likely lawyers. hamilton stole gently away.
"now, why the dickens didn't you remind me, you careless old producer, to bring two lawyers with me?" asked bones. "dash it all, there's nothing here that looks like a lawyer. couldn't it be taken somewhere else?"
mr. becksteine had reached the stage where he was not prepared to make things easy for his employer.
"utterly impossible," he said; "you must have exactly the same scenery. the camera cannot lie."
bones surveyed his little company, but without receiving any encouragement.
"perhaps i might find a couple of fellows on the road," he suggested.
"it is hardly likely," said mr. lew becksteine, "that you will discover in this remote country village two gentlemen arrayed in faultlessly fitting morning-coats and top-hats!"
"i don't know so much about that," said the optimistic bones, and took a short cut through the wood, knowing that the grounds made an abrupt turn where they skirted the main road.
he was half-way through the copse when he stopped. now, bones was a great believer in miracles, but they had to be very spectacular miracles. the fact that standing in the middle of the woodland path were two middle-aged gentlemen in top-hats and morning-coats, seemed to bones to be a mere slice of luck. it was, in fact, a miracle of the first class. he crept silently back, raced down the steps to where the little party stood.
"camera!" he hissed. "bring it along, dear old thing. don't make a noise! ham, old boy, will you help? you other persons, stay where you are."
hamilton shouldered the camera, and on the way up the slope bones revealed his fell intention.
"there is no need to tell these silly old jossers what we're doing," he said. "you see what i mean, ham, old boy? we'll just take a picture of them as they come along. nobody will be any the wiser, and all we'll have to do will be to put a little note in." all the time he was fixing the camera on the tripod, focussing the lens on a tree by the path. (it was amazing how quickly bones mastered the technique of any new hobby he took up.)
from where hamilton crouched in the bushes he could see the two men plainly. his heart quaked, realising that one at least was possibly the owner of the property on which he was trespassing; and he had all an englishman's horror of trespass. they were talking together, these respectable gentlemen, when bones began to turn the handle. they had to pass through a patch of sunlight, and it was upon this that bones concentrated. once one of them looked around as the sound of clicking came to him, but at that moment bones decided he had taken enough and stopped.
"this," said he, as they gained the by-road where they had made their unauthorised entry into the park, "is a good day's work."
their car was on the main road, and to hamilton's surprise he found the two staid gentlemen regarding it when the party came up. they were regarding it from a high bank behind the wall--a bank which commanded a view of the road. one of them observed the camera and said something in a low tone to the other; then the speaker walked down the bank, opened a little wicker door in the wall, and came out.
he was a most polite man, and tactful.
"have you been taking pictures?" he asked.
"dear old fellow," said bones. "i will not deceive you--we have."
there was a silence.
"in the--park, by any chance?" asked the gentleman carelessly.
bones flinched. he felt rather guilty, if the truth be told.
"the fact is----" he began.
the elderly man listened to the story of "the bad girl's legacy," its genesis, its remarkable literary qualities, and its photographic value. he seemed to know a great deal about cinematographs, and asked several questions.
"so you have an expert who sees the pieces as they are produced?" he asked. "who is that?"
"mr. tim lewis," said bones. "he's one of the----"
"lewis?" said the other quickly. "is that lewis the stockbroker? and does he see every piece you take?"
bones was getting weary of answering questions.
"respected sir and park proprietor," he said, "if we have trespassed, i apologise. if we did any harm innocently, and without knowing that we transgressed the jolly old conventions--if we, as i say, took a picture of you and your fellow park proprietor without a thank-you-very-much, i am sorry."
"you took me and my friend?" asked the elderly man quickly.
"i am telling you, respected sir and cross-examiner, that i took you being in a deuce of a hole for a lawyer."
"i see," said the elderly man. "will you do me a favour? will you let me see your copy of that picture before you show it to mr. lewis? as the respected park proprietor"--he smiled--"you owe me that."
"certainly, my dear old friend and fellow-sufferer," said bones. "bless my life and heart and soul, certainly!"
he gave the address of the little wardour street studio where the film would be developed and printed, and fixed the morrow for an exhibition.
"i should very much like to see it to-night, if it is no trouble to you."
"we will certainly do our best, sir," hamilton felt it was necessary to interfere at this point.
"of course, any extra expense you are put to as the result of facilitating the printing, or whatever you do to these films," said the elderly man, "i shall be glad to pay."
he was waiting for bones and hamilton at nine o'clock that night in the dingy little private theatre which bones, with great difficulty, had secured for his use. the printing of the picture had been accelerated, and though the print was slightly speckled, it was a good one.
the elderly man sat in a chair and watched it reeled off, and when the lights in the little theatre went up, he turned to bones with a smile.
"i'm interested in cinema companies," he said, "and i rather fancy that i should like to include your property in an amalgamation i am making. i could assist you to fix a price," he said to the astonished bones, "if you would tell me frankly, as i think you will, just what this business has cost you from first to last."
"my dear old amalgamator," said bones reproachfully, "is that business? i ask you."
"it may be good business," said the other.
bones looked at hamilton. they and the elderly man, who had driven up to the door of the wardour street studio in a magnificent car, were the only three people, besides the operator, who were present.
hamilton nodded.
"well," said bones, "business, dear old thing, is my weakness. buying and selling is my passion and lobby. from first to last, after paying jolly old brickdust, this thing is going to cost me more than three thousand pounds--say, three thousand five hundred."
the elderly man nodded.
"let's make a quick deal," he said. "i'll give you six thousand pounds for the whole concern, with the pictures as you have taken them--negatives, positives, cameras, etc. is it a bargain?"
bones held out his hand.
they dined together, a jubilant bones and a more jubilant hamilton, at a little restaurant in soho.
"my dear old ham," said bones, "it only shows you how things happen. this would have been a grand week for me if those beastly oil shares of mine had gone up. i'm holding 'em for a rise." he opened a newspaper he had bought in the restaurant. "i see that jorris and walters--they're the two oil men--deny that they've ever met or that they're going to amalgamate. but can you believe these people?" he asked. "my dear old thing, the mendacity of these wretched financiers----"
"have you ever seen them?" asked hamilton, to whom the names of jorris and walters were as well known as to any other man who read his daily newspaper.
"seen them?" said bones. "my dear old fellow, i've met them time and time again. two of the jolliest old birds in the world. well, here's luck!"
at that particular moment mr. walters and mr. jorris were sitting together in the library of a house in berkeley square, the blinds being lowered and the curtains being drawn, and mr. walters was saying:
"we'll have to make this thing public on wednesday. my dear fellow, i nearly fainted when i heard that that impossible young person had photographed us together. when do you go back to paris?"
"i think i had better stay here," said mr. jorris. "did the young man bleed you?"
"only for six thousand," said the pleasant mr. walters. "i hope the young beggar's a bear in oil," he added viciously.
but bones, as we know, was a bull.
