Carmella Commands
sell lots on a restricted basis. Or else he’s got to change his location completely.”
Carmella turned to her father, her mind racing madly through this new idea. She did not understand all the implications of a “restricted basis,” but she realized that for some reason her father’s lots were in a key position.
“Listen, dad!” she exclaimed. “Don’t sell. You deal with Mr. Barrington, the big real estate man. It is he who really wants your lots.”
“How do you know?” asked Tommaso.
“I heard them talking. He is the big man in land downtown. This he owns around here, too. And I know his wife.”
Tommaso hesitated. So often Carmella actually did know more than he. And he had never caught her in a flagrant lie. But this! This was a bigger matter. Evidente, in such an affair as this, he must decide.
“I brought you here to interpret,” he said. “That is all. When it is to decide, I will do it. What do they say?”
The two men walked back to Carmella.
“Tell your father,” said Mr. Hastings, “that we know he is holding us up. But tell him we will stand for it. We will pay the four thousand.”
Carmella turned to her father, half-choking with quick determination. If her father would not win a sure-thing gamble, then she, Kid Kate, would win it for him.
[46]
