"I never dine."

"What!"

"Not really dine, I mean. I only get vegetables and nuts and things."

"Dieting?"

"Mother is."

"I don"t absolutely catch the drift, old bean," said Archie. The boy sniffed with half-closed eyes as a wave of perfume from the poulet en ca.s.serole floated past him. He seemed to be anxious to intercept as much of it as possible before it got through the door.

"Mother"s a food-reformer," he vouchsafed. "She lectures on it. She makes Pop and me live on vegetables and nuts and things."

Archie was shocked. It was like listening to a tale from the abyss.

"My dear old chap, you must suffer agonies--absolute shooting pains!" He had no hesitation now. Common humanity pointed out his course. "Would you care to join me in a bite now?"

"Would I!" The boy smiled a wan smile. "Would I! Just stop me on the street and ask me!"

"Come on in, then," said Archie, rightly taking this peculiar phrase for a formal acceptance. "And close the door. The fatted calf is getting cold."

Archie was not a man with a wide visiting-list among people with families, and it was so long since he had seen a growing boy in action at the table that he had forgotten what sixteen is capable of doing with a knife and fork, when it really squares its elbows, takes a deep breath, and gets going. The spectacle which he witnessed was consequently at first a little unnerving. The long boy"s idea of trifling with a meal appeared to be to swallow it whole and reach out for more. He ate like a starving Eskimo. Archie, in the time he had spent in the trenches making the world safe for the working-man to strike in, had occasionally been quite peckish, but he sat dazed before this majestic hunger. This was real eating.

There was little conversation. The growing boy evidently did not believe in table-talk when he could use his mouth for more practical purposes. It was not until the final roll had been devoured to its last crumb that the guest found leisure to address his host. Then he leaned back with a contented sigh.

"Mother," said the human python, "says you ought to chew every mouthful thirty-three times...."

"Yes, sir! Thirty-three times!" He sighed again, "I haven"t ever had meal like that."

"All right, was it, what?"

"Was it! Was it! Call me up on the "phone and ask me!-Yes, sir!- Mother"s tipped off these darned waiters not to serve-me anything but vegetables and nuts and things, darn it!"

"The mater seems to have drastic ideas about the good old feed-bag, what!"

"I"ll say she has! Pop hates it as much as me, but he"s scared to kick. Mother says vegetables contain all the proteids you want. Mother says, if you eat meat, your blood-pressure goes all blooey. Do you think it does?"

"Mine seems pretty well in the pink."

"She"s great on talking," conceded the boy. "She"s out to-night somewhere, giving a lecture on Rational Eating to some ginks. I"ll have to be slipping up to our suite before she gets back." He rose, sluggishly. "That isn"t a bit of roll under that napkin, is it?" he asked, anxiously.

Archie raised the napkin.

"No. Nothing of that species."

"Oh, well!" said the boy, resignedly. "Then I believe I"ll be going. Thanks very much for the dinner."

"Not a bit, old top. Come again if you"re ever trickling round in this direction."

The long boy removed himself slowly, loath to leave. At the door he cast an affectionate glance back at the table.

"Some meal!" he said, devoutly. "Considerable meal!"

Archie lit a cigarette. He felt like a Boy Scout who has done his day"s Act of Kindness.

On the following morning it chanced that Archie needed a fresh supply of tobacco. It was his custom, when this happened, to repair to a small shop on Sixth Avenue which he had discovered accidentally in the course of his rambles about the great city. His relations with Jno. Blake, the proprietor, were friendly and intimate. The discovery that Mr. Blake was English and had, indeed, until a few years back maintained an establishment only a dozen doors or so from Archie"s London club, had served as a bond.

To-day he found Mr. Blake in a depressed mood. The tobacconist was a hearty, red-faced man, who looked like an English sporting publican- -the kind of man who wears a fawn-coloured top-coat and drives to the Derby in a dog-cart; and usually there seemed to be nothing on his mind except the vagaries of the weather, concerning which he was a great conversationalist. But now moodiness had claimed him for its own. After a short and melancholy "Good morning," he turned to the task of measuring out the tobacco in silence.

Archie"s sympathetic nature was perturbed.--"What"s the matter, laddie?" he enquired. "You would seem to be feeling a bit of an onion this bright morning, what, yes, no? I can see it with the naked eye."

Mr. Blake grunted sorrowfully.

"I"ve had a knock, Mr. Moffam."

"Tell me all, friend of my youth."

Mr. Blake, with a jerk of his thumb, indicated a poster which hung on the wall behind the counter. Archie had noticed it as he came in, for it was designed to attract the eye. It was printed in black letters on a yellow ground, and ran as follows: CLOVER-LEAF SOCIAL AND OUTING CLUB GRAND CONTEST PIE-EATING CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WEST SIDE SPIKE O"DOWD (Champion) v.

BLAKE"S UNKNOWN FOR A PURSE OF $50 AND SIDE-BET Archie examined this doc.u.ment gravely. It conveyed nothing to him except--what he had long suspected--that his sporting-looking friend had sporting blood as well as that kind of exterior. He expressed a kindly hope that the other"s Unknown would bring home the bacon.

Mr. Blake laughed one of those hollow, mirthless laughs.

"There ain"t any blooming Unknown," he said, bitterly. This man had plainly suffered. "Yesterday, yes, but not now."

Archie sighed.

"In the midst of life--Dead?" he enquired, delicately.

"As good as," replied the stricken tobacconist. He cast aside his artificial restraint and became voluble. Archie was one of those sympathetic souls in whom even strangers readily confided their most intimate troubles. He was to those in travail of spirit very much what catnip is to a cat. "It"s "ard, sir, it"s blooming "ard! I"d got the event all sewed up in a parcel, and now this young feller- me-lad "as to give me the knock. This lad of mine--sort of cousin "e is; comes from London, like you and me--"as always "ad, ever since he landed in this country, a most amazing knack of stowing away grub. "E"d been a bit underfed these last two or three years over in the old country, what with food restrictions and all, and "e took to the food over "ere amazing. I"d "ave backed "im against a ruddy orstridge! Orstridge! I"d "ave backed "im against "arff a dozen orstridges--take "em on one after the other in the same ring on the same evening--and given "em a handicap, too! "E was a jewel, that boy. I"ve seen him polish off four pounds of steak and mealy potatoes and then look round kind of wolfish, as much as to ask when dinner was going to begin! That"s the kind of a lad "e was till this very morning. "E would have out-swallowed this "ere O"Dowd without turning a hair, as a relish before "is tea! I"d got a couple of "undred dollars on "im, and thought myself lucky to get the odds. And now--"

Mr. Blake relapsed into a tortured silence.

"But what"s the matter with the blighter? Why can"t he go over the top? Has he got indigestion?"

"Indigestion?" Mr. Blaife laughed another of his hollow laughs. "You couldn"t give that boy indigestion if you fed "im in on safety-razor blades. Religion"s more like what "e"s got."

"Religion?"

"Well, you can call it that. Seems last night, instead of goin" and resting "is mind at a picture-palace like I told him to, "e sneaked off to some sort of a lecture down on Eighth Avenue. "E said "e"d seen a piece about it in the papers, and it was about Rational Eating, and that kind of attracted "im. "E sort of thought "e might pick up a few hints, like. "E didn"t know what rational eating was, but it sounded to "im as if it must be something to do with food, and "e didn"t want to miss it. "E came in here just now," said Mr. Blake, dully, "and "e was a changed lad! Scared to death "e was! Said the way "e"d been goin" on in the past, it was a wonder "e"d got any stummick left! It was a lady that give the lecture, and this boy said it was amazing what she told "em about blood-pressure and things "e didn"t even know "e "ad. She showed "em pictures, coloured pictures, of what "appens inside the injudicious eater"s stummick who doesn"t chew his food, and it was like a battlefield! "E said "e would no more think of eatin" a lot of pie than "e would of shootin" "imself, and anyhow eating pie would be a quicker death. I reasoned with "im, Mr. Moffam, with tears in my eyes. I asked "im was he goin" to chuck away fame and wealth just because a woman who didn"t know what she was talking about had shown him a lot of faked pictures. But there wasn"t any doin" anything with him. "E give me the knock and "opped it down the street to buy nuts." Mr. Blake moaned. "Two "undred dollars and more gone pop, not to talk of the fifty dollars "e would have won and me to get twenty-five of!"

Archie took his tobacco and walked pensively back to the hotel. He was fond of Jno. Blake, and grieved for the trouble that had come upon him. It was odd, he felt, how things seemed to link themselves up together. The woman who had delivered the fateful lecture to injudicious eaters could not be other than the mother of his young guest of last night. An uncomfortable woman! Not content with starving her own family--Archie stopped in his tracks. A pedestrian, walking behind him, charged into his back, but Archie paid no attention. He had had one of those sudden, luminous ideas, which help a man who does not do much thinking as a rule to restore his average. He stood there for a moment, almost dizzy at the brilliance of his thoughts; then hurried on. Napoleon, he mused as he walked, must have felt rather like this after thinking up a hot one to spring on the enemy.

As if Destiny were suiting her plans to his, one of the first persons he saw as he entered the lobby of the Cosmopolis was the long boy. He was standing at the bookstall, reading as much of a morning paper as could be read free under the vigilant eyes of the presiding girl. Both he and she were observing the unwritten rules which govern these affairs--to wit, that you may read without interference as much as can be read without touching the paper. If you touch the paper, you lose, and have to buy.

"Well, well, well!" said Archie. "Here we are again, what!" He prodded the boy amiably in the lower ribs. "You"re just the chap I was looking for. Got anything on for the time being?"

The boy said he had no engagements.

"Then I want you to stagger round with me to a chappie I know on Sixth Avenue. It"s only a couple of blocks away. I think I can do you a bit of good. Put you on to something tolerably ripe, if you know what I mean. Trickle along, laddie. You don"t need a hat."

They found Mr. Blake brooding over his troubles in an empty shop.

"Cheer up, old thing!" said Archie. "The relief expedition has arrived." He directed his companion"s gaze to the poster. "Cast your eye over that. How does that strike you?"

The long boy scanned the poster. A gleam appeared in his rather dull eye.

"Well?"

"Some people have all the luck!" said the long boy, feelingly.

"Would you like to compete, what?"

The boy smiled a sad smile.

"Would I! Would I! Say!..."

"I know," interrupted Archie. "Wake you up in the night and ask you! I knew I could rely on you, old thing." He turned to Mr. Blake. "Here"s the fellow you"ve been wanting to meet. The finest left-and- right-hand eater east of the Rockies! He"ll fight the good fight for you."

Mr. Blake"s English training had not been wholly overcome by residence in New York. He still retained a nice eye for the distinctions of cla.s.s.

"But this is young gentleman"s a young gentleman," he urged, doubtfully, yet with hope shining in his eye. "He wouldn"t do it."

"Of course, he would. Don"t be ridic, old thing."

"Wouldn"t do what?" asked the boy.

"Why save the old homestead by taking on the champion. Dashed sad case, between ourselves! This poor egg"s nominee has given him the rasberry at the eleventh hour, and only you can save him. And you owe it to him to do something you know, because it was your jolly old mater"s lecture last night that made the nominee quit. You must charge in and take his place. Sort of poetic justice, don"t you know, and what not!" He turned to Mr. Blake. "When is the conflict supposed to start? Two-thirty? You haven"t any important engagement for two-thirty, have you?"

"No. Mother"s lunching at some ladies" club, and giving a lecture afterwards. I can slip away."

Archie patted his head.

"Then leg it where glory waits you, old bean!"

The long boy was gazing earnestly at the poster. It seemed to fascinate him.

"Pie!" he said in a hushed voice.

The word was like a battle-cry.

CHAPTER XXII.

WASHY STEPS INTO THE HALL OF FAME.

At about nine o"clock next morning, in a suite at the Hotel Cosmopolis, Mrs. Cora Bates McCall, the eminent lecturer on Rational Eating, was seated at breakfast with her family. Before her sat Mr. McCall, a little hunted-looking man, the natural peculiarities of whose face were accentuated by a pair of gla.s.ses of semicircular shape, like half-moons with the horns turned up. Behind these, Mr. McCall"s eyes played a perpetual game of peekaboo, now peering over them, anon ducking down and hiding behind them. He was sipping a cup of anti-caffeine. On his right, toying listlessly with a plateful of cereal, sat his son, Washington. Mrs. McCall herself was eating a slice of Health Bread and nut b.u.t.ter. For she practised as well as preached the doctrines which she had striven for so many years to inculcate in an unthinking populace. Her day always began with a light but nutritious breakfast, at which a peculiarly uninviting cereal, which looked and tasted like an old straw hat that had been run through a meat chopper, competed for first place in the dislike of her husband and son with a more than usually offensive brand of imitation coffee. Mr. McCall was inclined to think that he loathed the imitation coffee rather more than the cereal, but Washington held strong views on the latter"s superior ghastliness. Both Washington and his father, however, would have been fair-minded enough to admit that it was a close thing.

Mrs. McCall regarded her offspring with grave approval.

"I am glad to see, Lindsay," she said to her husband, whose eyes sprang dutifully over the gla.s.s fence as he heard his name, "that Washy has recovered his appet.i.te. When he refused his dinner last night, I was afraid that he might be sickening for something. Especially as he had quite a flushed look. You noticed his flushed look?"

"He did look flushed."

"Very flushed. And his breathing was almost stertorous. And, when he said that he had no appet.i.te, I am bound to say that I was anxious. But he is evidently perfectly well this morning. You do feel perfectly well this morning, Washy?"

The heir of the McCall"s looked up from his cereal. He was a long, thin boy of about sixteen, with pale red hair, sandy eyelashes, and a long neck.

"Uh-huh," he said.

Mrs. McCall nodded.

"Surely now you will agree, Lindsay, that a careful and rational diet is what a boy needs? Washy"s const.i.tution is superb. He has a remarkable stamina, and I attribute it entirely to my careful supervision of his food. I shudder when I think of the growing boys who are permitted by irresponsible people to devour meat, candy, pie--" She broke off. "What is the matter, Washy?"

It seemed that the habit of shuddering at the thought of pie ran in the McCall family, for at the mention of the word a kind of internal shimmy had convulsed Washington"s lean frame, and over his face there had come an expression that was almost one of pain. He had been reaching out his hand for a slice of Health Bread, but now he withdrew it rather hurriedly and sat back breathing hard.

"I"m all right," he said, huskily.

"Pie," proceeded Mrs. McCall, in her platform voice. She stopped again abruptly. "Whatever is the matter, Washington? You are making me feel nervous."

"I"m all right."

Mrs. McCall had lost the thread of her remarks. Moreover, having now finished her breakfast, she was inclined for a little light reading. One of the subjects allied to the matter of dietary on which she felt deeply was the question of reading at meals. She was of the opinion that the strain on the eye, coinciding with the strain on the digestion, could not fail to give the latter the short end of the contest; and it was a rule at her table that the morning paper should not even be glanced at till the conclusion of the meal. She said that it was upsetting to begin the day by reading the paper, and events were to prove that she was occasionally right.

All through breakfast the New York Chronicle had been lying neatly folded beside her plate. She now opened it, and, with a remark about looking for the report of her yesterday"s lecture at the b.u.t.terfly Club, directed her gaze at the front page, on which she hoped that an editor with the best interests of the public at heart had decided to place her.

Mr. McCall, jumping up and down behind his gla.s.ses, scrutinised her face closely as she began to read. He always did this on these occasions, for none knew better than he that his comfort for the day depended largely on some unknown reporter whom he had never met. If this unseen individual had done his work properly and as befitted the importance of his subject, Mrs. McCall"s mood for the next twelve hours would be as uniformly sunny as it was possible for it to be. But sometimes the fellows scamped their job disgracefully; and once, on a day which lived in Mr. McCall"s memory, they had failed to make a report at all.

To-day, he noted with relief, all seemed to be well. The report actually was on the front page, an honour rarely accorded to his wife"s utterances. Moreover, judging from the time it took her to read the thing, she had evidently been reported at length.

"Good, my dear?" he ventured. "Satisfactory?"

"Eh?" Mrs. McCall smiled meditatively. "Oh, yes, excellent. They have used my photograph, too. Not at all badly reproduced."

"Splendid!" said Mr. McCall.

Mrs. McCall gave a sharp shriek, and the paper fluttered from her hand.

"My dear!" said Mr. McCall, with concern.

His wife had recovered the paper, and was reading with burning eyes. A bright wave of colour had flowed over her masterful features. She was breathing as stertorously as ever her son Washington had done on the previous night.