The Intrusion of Jimmy | Page 5

borrowing an occasional dollar, mind you, but living on
him--sleeping on his sofa, and staying to breakfast. It made me mad. I
used to ask him why he stood for it. He said there was nowhere else for
them to go, and he thought he could see them through all right--which
he did, though I don't see how he managed it on thirty a week."
"If a man's fool enough to be an easy mark--" began Willett.
"Oh, cut it out!" said Raikes. "We don't want anybody knocking Jimmy
here."
"All the same," said Sutton, "it seems to me that it was mighty lucky
that he came into that money. You can't keep open house for ever on
thirty a week. By the way, Arthur, how was that? I heard it was his
uncle."
"It wasn't his uncle," said Mifflin. "It was by way of being a romance of
sorts, I believe. Fellow who had been in love with Jimmy's mother
years ago went West, made a pile, and left it to Mrs. Pitt or her children.
She had been dead some time when that happened. Jimmy, of course,
hadn't a notion of what was coming to him, when suddenly he got a
solicitor's letter asking him to call. He rolled round, and found that
there was about five hundred thousand dollars just waiting for him to
spend it."

Jimmy Pitt had now definitely ousted "Love, the Cracksman" as a topic
of conversation. Everybody present knew him. Most of them had
known him in his newspaper days; and, though every man there would
have perished rather than admit it, they were grateful to Jimmy for
being exactly the same to them now that he could sign a check for half
a million as he had been on the old thirty-a-week basis. Inherited
wealth, of course, does not make a young man nobler or more
admirable; but the young man does not always know this.
"Jimmy's had a queer life," said Mifflin. "He's been pretty much
everything in his time. Did you know he was on the stage before he
took up newspaper-work? Only on the road, I believe. He got tired of it,
and cut it out. That's always been his trouble. He wouldn't settle down
to anything. He studied law at Yale, but he never kept it up. After he
left the stage, he moved all over the States, without a cent, picking up
any odd job he could get. He was a waiter once for a couple of days,
but they fired him for breaking plates. Then, he got a job in a jeweler's
shop. I believe he's a bit of an expert on jewels. And, another time, he
made a hundred dollars by staying three rounds against Kid Brady
when the Kid was touring the country after he got the championship
away from Jimmy Garwin. The Kid was offering a hundred to anyone
who could last three rounds with him. Jimmy did it on his head. He was
the best amateur of his weight I ever saw. The Kid wanted him to take
up scrapping seriously. But Jimmy wouldn't have stuck to anything
long enough in those days. He's one of the gypsies of the world. He was
never really happy unless he was on the move, and he doesn't seem to
have altered since he came into his money."
"Well, he can afford to keep on the move now," said Raikes. "I wish
I--"
"Did you ever hear about Jimmy and--" Mifflin was beginning, when
the Odyssey of Jimmy Pitt was interrupted by the opening of the door
and the entrance of Ulysses in person.
Jimmy Pitt was a young man of medium height, whose great breadth
and depth of chest made him look shorter than he really was. His jaw
was square, and protruded slightly; and this, combined with a certain

athletic jauntiness of carriage and a pair of piercing brown eyes very
much like those of a bull-terrier, gave him an air of aggressiveness,
which belied his character. He was not aggressive. He had the
good-nature as well as the eyes of a bull-terrier. Also, he possessed,
when stirred, all the bull-terrier's dogged determination.
There were shouts of welcome.
"Hullo, Jimmy!"
"When did you get back?"
"Come and sit down. Plenty of room over here."
"Where is my wandering boy tonight?"
"Waiter! What's yours, Jimmy?"
Jimmy dropped into a seat, and yawned.
"Well," he said, "how goes it? Hullo, Raikes! Weren't you at 'Love, the
Cracksman'? I thought I saw you. Hullo, Arthur! Congratulate you.
You spoke your piece nicely."
"Thanks," said Mifflin. "We were just talking about you, Jimmy. You
came on the Lusitania, I suppose?"
"She didn't break the record this time," said Sutton.
A somewhat pensive look came into Jimmy's eyes.
"She came