Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York | Page 9

in the Court of Chancery, and that
I'll do at once upon looking up the facts. Of course--er--there'll be a
little fee."
"A little what?" said Mr. Tobey.
"A little which?" said Mrs. Tobey.
[Illustration: "A LITTLE FEE," SAID MR. JAYRES, SMILING
SWEETLY.]
"A little fee," said Mr. Jayres, smiling sweetly. "A mere trifle, I assure
you; just enough to defray expenses--say--er--a hundred dollars."
"Oh, dear me!" cried Mrs. Tobey. "This is vexing. To think of coming
down town, Tobey, dear, with the expectations of going back rich, and
then going back a hundred dollars poorer than we were. I really don't
think we'd better do it, Tobey?"
"Ah," said Mr. Jayres, "but think also of the fortune. Two millions and
a half! Isn't that worth spending a few hundred dollars for? Just put
your mind on it, ma'am."

"I've had my mind on it ever since I seen your piece in the paper,"
replied Mrs. Tobey, "and a hundred dollars does seem, as you say, little
enough to pay for two millions and a half, which would be all I'd ask or
wish for, and would put us where we belong, Tobey, which is not in the
laundry line competing with an unscrupulous party across the street,
though I don't mention names, which perhaps I ought, for the public
ought to be warned. It's a party that hasn't any honor at all--"
"I'm sure not," said Mr. Jayres sympathetically. "He is, without doubt, a
dirty dog."
"Oh, it isn't a he," Mrs. Tobey replied, "the party is a her."
[Illustration: "THE PARTY IS A HER," SAID MRS. TOBEY.]
"Of course, of course," said Mr. Jayres. "And to think that you have to
put up with the tricks of a female party directly across the street. Why,
it's shameful, ma'am! But if you had that two millions, as you just
observed, all that would be over."
"Two million and a half I thought you said it was," said Mrs. Tobey
rather sharply.
"Oh, yes, and a half--and a half," the lawyer admitted in a tone of
indifference, as much as to say that there should be no haggling about
the odd $500,000. "What a pretty pile it is, Mrs. Tobey?"
"I don't know, Tobey, but what we'd better do it," Mrs. Tobey said after
a pause. "It aint so very much when you think of what we're to get for
it."
"That's the right way to look at it, ma'am. I'll just draw up the receipt,
and to-morrow I'll call at the Gallinipper Laundry to get some further
particulars necessary to help me make out the papers."
Mr. Tobey seemed to be somewhat at a loss to know precisely what
was the net result of the proceedings in which he had thus far taken so
small a part, but upon being directed by Mrs. Tobey to produce the

hundred dollars, he ventured a feeble remonstrance. This was
immediately checked by Mrs. Tobey, who assured him that he knew
nothing whatever about such matters and never could come to the point,
which he ought to be able to do by this time, for nobody could say but
that she had done her part. At last two fifty-dollar bills were deposited
in Mr. Jayres's soft palm and a bit of writing was handed over to Mrs.
Tobey in exchange for them; and followed by Mr. Jayres's warm
insistence that they had never done a better thing in their lives, the
Tobeys withdrew.
It was nearly six o'clock when the door of Mr. Jayres's office opened
again and the shocky head of Bootsey appeared. Mr. Jayres was waiting
for him.
"Here you are at last, you wretched little scamp!" he cried. "Didn't I tell
you I'd whale you if you weren't back by five o'clock?"
"I come jest as soon 's I could," said Bootsey. "He was a werry fly ole
gen'l'man."
"What did he say?"
"He said he didn't hev no doubts but wot you was a reg'lar villyum an'
swin'ler, an' cheat an' blackmailer, an' ef he had de user his eyes an' legs
he'd come down yere an' han' you over ter de coppers; dat you aint
smart enuff ter get no money outer him, fer he's bin bled by sich coveys
like you all he's a-going ter bleed, an' dat he don't b'lieve dere is any
sech ting as de Bugwug estate nohow, an' ef yer wants ter keep outen
jail yer'd better let him an' his folks alone."
Mr. Jayres scowled until it seemed as if his black eyebrows would meet
his bristly upper lip, and then he said: "Bootsey, before you come to the
office to-morrow morning you'd better go to the Gallinipper Laundry in
Washington Place, and tell a man named Tobey who keeps it,
that--er--that I've gone