It was in a spirit of considerable loneliness that Wallingford came back from seeing Blackie Daw to the midnight train, for he had grown to like Blackie very well indeed. Moreover, his friend from Georgia was gone, and quite disconsolate, for him, he stood in front of the hotel wondering about his next move. Fate sent him a cab, from which popped a miniature edition of the man from Georgia. The new-comer, who had not waited for the cab door to be opened for him, immediately offered to bet his driver the price of the fare that the horse would eat bananas. He was a small, clean, elderly gentleman, of silvery-white hair and mustache, who must have been near sixty, but who possessed, temporarily at least, the youth and spirits of thirty; and he was one of that sort of looking men to whom one instinctively gives a title.

“Can’t take a chance, Governor,” said the driver, [Pg 102]grinning. “I might as well go jump off the dock as go back to the stand without them four dollars. I’m in bad, anyhow.”

“I’ll bet you the tip, then,” offered the very-much-alive elderly gentleman, flourishing a five-dollar bill.

“All right,” agreed the driver, eying the money. “Nothing or two dollars.”

“No, you don’t! Not with Silas Fox, you don’t!” promptly disputed that gentleman. “First comes out of the dollar change two bits for bananas, and then the bet is nothing or a dollar and a half that your horse’ll eat ’em. Why, any horse’ll eat bananas,” he added, turning suddenly to Wallingford. With the habit of shrewdness he paused for a thorough inspection of J. Rufus, whose bigness and good grooming and jovial pinkness of countenance were so satisfactory that Mr. Fox promptly made up his mind the young man could safely be counted as one of the pleasures of existence.

“I’ll bet you this horse’ll eat bananas,” he offered.

“I’m not acquainted with the horse,” objected Wallingford, with no more than reasonable caution. “I don’t even know its name. What do you want to bet?”

“Anything from a drink to a hundred dollars.”

[Pg 103]

J. Rufus threw back his head and chuckled in a most infectious manner, his broad shoulders shaking and his big chest heaving.

“I’ll take you for the drink,” he agreed.

Two strapping big fellows in regulation khaki came striding past the hotel, and Mr. Fox immediately hailed them.

“Here, you boys,” he commanded, with a friendly assurance born of the feeling that to-night all men were brothers; “you fellows walk across the street there and get me a quarter’s worth of real ripe bananas.”

The soldiers stopped, perplexed, but only for an instant. The driver of the cab was grinning, the door-man of the hotel was grinning, the prosperous young man by the curb was grinning, and the well-dined and wined elderly gentleman quite evidently expected nothing in this world but friendly complaisance.

“All right, Senator,” acquiesced the boys in khaki, themselves catching the grinning contagion; and quite cheerfully they accepted a quarter, wheeled abreast, marched over to the fruit stand, bought the ripest bananas on sale, wheeled, and marched back.

[Pg 104]

Selecting the choicest one with great gravity and care, Mr. Silas Fox peeled it and prepared for the great test. The driver leaned forward interestedly; the two in khaki gathered close behind; the large young man chuckled as he watched; the horse poked forward his nose gingerly, then sniffed—then turned slowly away!

Mr. Fox was shocked. He caught that horse gently by the opposite jaw, and drew the head toward him. This time the horse did not even sniff. It shook its head, and, being further urged, jerked away so decidedly that it drew its tormentor off the curb, and he would have fallen had not Wallingford caught him by the arm.

“I win,” declared the driver with relief, gathering up his lines.

“Not yet,” denied Mr. Fox, and stepping forward he put his arm around the horse’s neck and tried to force the banana into its mouth.

This time the horse was so vigorous in its objection that the man came near being trampled underfoot, and it was only on the unanimous vote of the big man and the two in khaki that he profanely gave up the attempt.

“Not that I mind losing the bet,” announced Mr. [Pg 105]Fox in apology, “but I’m disappointed in the be damned horse. That horse loves bananas and I know it, but he’s just stubborn. Here’s your money,” and he gave the driver his five-fifty; “and here’s the rest of the bananas. When you get back to the barn you try that horse and see if he won’t eat ’em, after he’s cooled down and in his stall.”

“All right,” laughed the driver, and started away.

As he turned the corner he was peeling one of the bananas. The loser looked after the horse reluctantly, and sighed in finality.

“Come on, young man, let’s go get that drink,” he said.

Delighted to have found company of happy spirit, Wallingford promptly turned with the colonel into the hotel bar.

“Can you beat it?” asked one big soldier of the other as both looked after the departing couple in pleased wonder.

At about the same second the new combination was falling eagerly and vigorously into conversation upon twelve topics at once.

“You can’t do anything without you have a pull,” was Silas Fox’s fallacious theory of life, as summed up in the intimate friendship of the second bottle. [Pg 106]“............