"You're on! Say, that blacksmith yarn was a corker. He was a game old codger. That was scrapping; no hall full of tobacco-smoke, no palm-fans, lemonade, peanuts and pop-corn; just right out on the turf, and may the best man win. I know. I went through that. No frame-ups, all square and on the level. A fellow had to fight those days, no sparring, no pretty footwork. Sometimes I've a hankering to get back and exchange a wallop or two. Nothing to it, though. My wife won't let me, as the song goes."
Courtlandt chuckled. "I suppose it's the monotony. A man who has been active hates to sit down and twiddle his thumbs. You exercise?"
"It's great sport. I'll break you in some day, if you say. You'll like it. The mountains around here are not dangerous. We can go up and down in a day."
"I'll go you. But, say, last night Nora chucked a bunch of daisies out of the window, and as I was nosing around in the vineyard, I came across it. You know how a chap will absently pick a bunch of flowers apart. What do you think I found?"
"This." Harrigan exhibited the emerald. "Who sent it? Where the dickens did it come from?"
Courtlandt took the stone and examined it carefully. "That's not a bad stone. Uncut but polished; oriental."
"Oriental, eh? What would you say it was worth?"
"Oh, somewhere between six and seven hundred."
"Suffering shamrocks! A little green pebble like this?"
"Cut and flawless, at that size, it would be worth pounds instead of dollars."
"Well, what do you think of that? Nora told me to keep it, so I guess I will."
"Why, yes. If a man sends a thing like this anonymously, he can't possibly complain. Have it made into a stick pin." Courtlandt returned the stone which Harrigan pocketed.
"Sometimes I wish Nora'd marry and settle down."
"She is young. You wouldn't have quit the game at her age!"
"I should say not! But that's different. A man's business is to fight for his grub, whether in an office or in the ring. That's a part of the game. But a woman ought to have a home, live in it three-fourths of the year, and bring up good citizens. That's what we are all here for. Molly used to stay at home, but now it's the social bug, gadding from morning until night. Ah, here's Carlos with the tea."