Summer Moonshine Read Free

would have one more pop.'
    'Atta-boy!'
    'Oh, we Abbotts are like that. British.'
    'And then what?'
    'The next man he sent the manuscript to – a blighter named Busby – offered to publish it if Buck would put up the cash. And he couldn't resist the craving to see himself in print. He raised two hundred pounds – where he got it from is more than I can imagine – and that was that. The book duly appeared, all red and gold, with a frontispiece of Buck with a rifle in his hand standing with one foot on a lion.'
    'That sounds to me like the happy ending. Came the dawn, is the way I should describe it.'
    'It was not an end, but a beginning. Mark the sequel. This morning a totally unexpected extra bill comes in from this hound Busby for ninety-six pounds, three and eleven, for what he calls "incidental expenses connected with the office".'
    'Not so hot.'
    'It stunned poor old Buck like a blackjack. He came tottering to me with the document. He said he didn't know what the expression "incidental expenses connected with the office" meant, and I explained that it meant ninety-six pounds, three and eleven. He asked me if I could let him have the money as a
loan out of my savings from my dress allowance, and I said, "What savings?" And then he said, well, what was he to do, and I said I was going up to London this morning, so give me the bill, I said, and I will go and see this Busby.'
    'What can you do?'
    'The idea is to try to get him to trim the thing a little.'
    'How do you expect to swing that?'
    'Oh, I shall plead and weep and clasp my hands. It might work. It does in the movies.'
    Tubby was concerned. He had a brotherly, protective affection for this girl.
    'But, gosh, Jane, the guy's most likely a fat, double-chinned, pot-bellied son of Belial with pig's eyes and a licentious look. He'll probably try to kiss you.'
    'Well, that ought to be good for the three and eleven.'
    They started to stroll toward the archway. Tubby stopped short, in the manner of one who slaps his brow.
    'Busby? Are you sure it's Busby?'
    'Am I sure! The name is graven on my heart. J. Mortimer Busby, with a "Cr" after it. Why?'
    'Well, it's rather an odd coincidence. I remember now who was talking to me about publishers. It was my brother Joe. I saw him about a year ago, and he said he was going to work for somebody in the publishing racket. And I'm pretty sure the name was Busby. Unless,' said Tubby, who liked to leave a margin for error, 'it was something else.'
    'You seem a bit vague.'
    'Well, you know how it is. You meet a guy and he tells you something, and you say, "Oh yes?" and then you go away and forget about it. Besides, I had had a late night. I was half asleep when I met my brother Joe.'
    'I didn't know you had a brother Joe.'
    'Oh, sure,' said Tubby, with a touch of the smugness of a man of property 'I've got a brother Joe all right.'
    'Why haven't I heard of him till now?'
    'I guess he just hasn't happened to crop up.'
    'Big brother or little brother?'
    'Big.'
    'Odd I've never heard your stepmother speak of him.'
    'Not so odd,' said Tubby. 'She hates his gizzard. He cleared out and left home when he was twenty-one. I've always had the idea that she slung him out. I don't know. I was away when they had the big fight. When I came back, he'd gone.'
    'Didn't you make inquiries?'
    'Sure, I made inquiries. Until she told me that if I didn't keep my trap shut and mind my own business, I could leave, too, and start in as an office boy in the fish-glue business.'
    'That sealed your lips?'
    'You bet it sealed my lips. Sealed them good.'
    'Well, I hope your brother Joe isn't working for Busby, because Busby would contaminate him.'
    'Oh, I don't know,' said Tubby optimistically. 'Probably Joe would contaminate Busby. He's a great guy. As tough as they make 'em.'
    They passed through the archway on to the terrace, and found it graced by the presence of Miss Prudence Whittaker. The secretary had come out of the house again to get a breath of air.