A Cool Million by Nathanael West Page B

are both citizens of this country
and you have no right to treat us in this manner,” went on Lem fearlessly.
    The patrolman was just about to
bring his truncheon down on the lad’s skull, when Betty interfered and dragged
him away.
    The two youngsters walked along
without talking. They felt a little better together because misery loves
company. Soon they found themselves in Central Park, where they sat down on a
bench.
    Lem sighed.
    “What’s the matter?” asked Betty
sympathetically.
    “I’m a failure,” answered Lem with still another sigh.
    “Why, Lemuel Pitkin, how you talk!” exclaimed Betty indignantly. “You’re only seventeen
going on eighteen and…”
    “Well,” interrupted Lem , a little ashamed of having admitted that he was
discouraged. “I left Ottsville to make my fortune and so far I’ve been to jail
twice and lost all my teeth and one eye.”
    “To make an omelette you have to break eggs,” said Betty. “When you’ve lost both your eyes, you can
talk. I read only the other day about a man who lost both of his eyes yet
accumulated a fortune. I forget how, but he did. Then, too, think of Henry
Ford. He was dead broke at forty and borrowed a thousand dollars from James Couzens ; when he paid him back it had become thirty-eight
million dollars. You’re only seventeen and say you’re a failure. Lem Pitkin, I’m surprised at you.”
    Betty continued to comfort and encourage Lem until it grew dark.
With the departure of the sun, it also grew extremely cold.
    From behind some shrubs that did not
quite conceal him, a policeman began to eye the two young people suspiciously.
    “I have nowhere to sleep,” said
Betty, shivering with cold.
    “Nor have I,” said Lem with a profound sigh.
    “Let’s go to the Grand Central
Station,” suggested Betty. “It’s warm there, and I like to watch the people
hurrying through. If we make believe we are waiting for a train, they won’t
chase us.”

 
22
     
    “It all seems like a dream to me,
Mr. Whipple. This morning when I was set free from jail I thought I would
probably starve, and here I am on my way to California to dig gold.”
    Yes, it was Lem ,
our hero, talking. He was sitting in the dining room of the “Fifth Avenue
Special” en route to Chicago, where he and the party he was traveling with were
to change to “The Chief,” crack train of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, and
continue on to the high Sierras.
    With him in the dining room were
Betty, Mr. Whipple and Jake Raven, and the four friends were in a cheerful mood
as they ate the excellent food provided by the Pullman Company.
    The explanation of how this had come
about is quite simple. While Lem and Betty were
warming themselves in the waiting room of the Grand Central Station, they had
spied Mr. Whipple on line at one of the ticket booths. Lem had approached the ex-banker and had been greeted effusively by him, for he was
indeed glad to see the boy. He was also glad to see Betty, whose father he had
known before Mr. Prail’s death in the fire.
    After listening to Lem’s account of the difficulties the two of them` were in,
he invited them to accompany him on his trip to California. It seemed that Mr.
Whipple was going there with Jake Raven to dig gold from a mine that the
redskin owned. With this money, he intended to finance the further activities
of the National Revolutionary Party.
    Lem was to
help Mr. Whipple in the digging operations, while Betty was to keep house for
the miners. The two young people jumped at this opportunity, as we can well
imagine, and overwhelmed Mr. Whipple with their gratitude.
    “In Chicago,” said Shagpoke , when the dining car waiter had brought coffee, “we
will have three hours and a half before The Chief’ leaves for the Golden West.
During that time, Lem , of course, will have to get
himself a new set of store teeth and an eye, but I believe that the rest of us
will still have time to pay a short visit to the World’s Fair.”
    Mr.