Books › Blue Book v073 n06 [1941-10], 1941 › scan 6
Scan 6
Blue Book v073 n06 [1941-10], 1941
38 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1with a Mr. Foster Beldridge. He has no credit rating but he has referred us to you as a reference."
3"Oah, yes, yes!" came the immediate response. "He is ver' honest and fine man, sir. An old client of ours, yes! We guarantee him."
5That settled it. Hardesty was nobody's fool. Beldridge, no doubt with some Oriental background, was simply an undercover man for the Tanahi concern and perhaps for others as well; in these days of threatening war and preferred shipments, an American buyer was a huge asset to foreign concerns.
7"Which is enlightening, but of no assistance," thought Hardesty. "I can't very well blackmail him for three hundred thousand! Though I'd like to, well enough!"
9He reached for the telephone again, called the hotel and asked for Miss Negli. He was down to earth now, his bewilderment gone. When he heard her voice, he spoke coolly.
11"This is James Hardesty, Miss Negli. I'd like very much to see you, if I may. I'm getting a focus on things, and need some information.
13"Very well," she rejoined. "In the lobby by the mail desk, in twenty minutes."
15"Thanks a lot."
17She was ahead of him. As he walked across the huge lobby, he saw her on the corner divan next the mail desk, a telegram in her lap. She smiled and gave him her hand; his heart turned over. There was something in her radiant energy, her dark and flashing beauty, that flung him off balance.
19"I'm so dreadfully sorry!" she exclaimed. "After you phoned, this telegram came; it's tremendously important and I'll have to rush away. Sit down for just five minutes, do! Ask your questions and I'll tell you whatever I can."
21"Right." And laying aside his hat, Hardesty made himself comfortable. "First, why did you pitch me into this job, Miss Negli? There must have been a reason."
23"Why did you ask Mr. Scrimson who I was?" she countered, her eyes twinkling.
25"Eh?" Hardesty flushed. "Oh, that's different! You're no ordinary person; you're a being made of lovely old silk and moongleams on distant water; you yourself are the only excuse I needed. But you must have had some reason."
27"I did," she said softly. "I had a brother killed in China. Something in your air, in your manner, as you stood talking to Mr. Scrimson, reminded me vividly of him. That was my reason."
29"Thank you. Now, I've seen Beldridge; he'll take a lot of doing. But am I wrong in thinking that you're connected with this thing, more than Cavendeen would admit?"
31"You are right," she said quietly. "Beldridge tells me that Chosan is defunct, bombed out of existence."
33"Yes." Her voice told how the words hurt. "It was a huge organization. My father was at its head. He and my brother were both killed; I'm alone. The corporation has been torn apart and entirely dismembered by treachery and enmity; it has ceased to exist. I'm here, trying to save what I can out of the wreckage. It's very dangerous; I'm unable to do much."
35"Hello! That puts a different light on everything!" Hardesty exclaimed. "Confound that clam of a Cavendeen! Well, I must talk fast. You and he have mentioned danger; not in any literal sense, I take it?"
37She leaned forward. "Yes, yes, terribly so!" Her voice, her eyes, were earnest. "There are people, like nations, who feed on the misfortunes of others, who seize whatever can be seized, who deny all the virtues that made up the world and would erect upon its ruins a new order dedicated to materialism and greed. These people, like these nations, cannot endure, but they must be fought lest they drag us and the earth down to their own brute level. Yes, it is frightfully dan-
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