Show THE MIND READER sa by PHYLLIS GALLAGHER mcclure syndicate service N E rested t her auburn curls curl 5 a against g a dinst the chair back JEANNE JEAN and closed her lovely jade tinged eyes in a moment jim chamberlain would return to the observation platform with the cigarettes and she would tell him something that would startle with her eyes closed like that the memory of the last six days the happiest of all her eighteen years swept through her mind with the clarity of the swiftly passing scenery to an open gaze great bronzed jim chamberlain playing a magnificent center for navy an exchange of glances in the crystal reflected whiteness that is the edgewater hotels dining room the rich quality of jims voice when he had dared to speak without an introduction that suited the black eyes and the dark hair with its not too damaging wave the last night of jims special leave when he had said 1 I dread tomorrow leaving you it its a strange how a fellow can care so much in ao so short a time then she had laughed but jim im leaving chicago tomorrow too on your train you se see e I 1 live in washington jim had snapped his slender fingers and his eyes had sparkled can you beat thail but how was vas I 1 to know youve told me so ii little atle about yourself imagine having y you ou close enough tor for weekend week end hops until I 1 get my commission june dear this junel june A midshipman cant marr marry y but an ensign can it if his girl will have himl was it her heart beating at that memory or the trains wheels clicking off miles to the east that sent the blood pulsing jerkily in her temples you go to sleep would you jeanne jim slouched to the chair at her side and proffered a cigarette case now this so important thing you were going to tell me jeanne pulled the raccoon coat close about her throat and looked into jims bright gaze im a mind reader jim she said seriously wha at the cigarette case almost dropped from his fingers dont tell me you wear a turkish towel around your head and sit in a tent with a fish bowl upside down to gaze antl he believe her his first shock had melted into a grin so jeanne said with all the dignity she could muster but I 1 am jim I 1 can prove it by telling you that youre an only son that youre twenty one that you almost missed getting into the naval academy on account of your front tooth which you cracked sledding that 1 the grin faded but not entirely aw w cut it youve been reading football stuff dont you suppose woman that I 1 could spot a mind reader if I 1 met one they look gre greasy asyl 1 he glanced swiftly at the slim legs and the SIT silk skirt that flowed as close as water over graceful knees they wear gobs of petticoats tool too but bayl if you are a mind reader tell me w what hat im thinking this minute no blushing allowed he thrust his handsome amused face under her grave one jim im not foo tooling lingl 1 I knowl know he drew back you cant read my mind unless you go into a trance and foam at the mouth all ali right then tell me something out of m my y past not the stereotyped newspaper drivel of how the navy would sink without mel me jeanne bit her lower lip you like blackberry pies best of everything to eat she said her pale cheek halt half averted you loved a girl named janice klingle I 1 think when you were in grammar school and you shot her in the face ace with a water pistol when you dropped a box of candy in her lap for her birthday on account of your bashfulness then you had a toy boat you used to sail in the bathtub at pudge wilsons Wil sons house and when you pulled a string the boat would blow up in a hundred pieces and when pudge wilsons Wil sons little sister would cry because you let her put it back together again you would say beat it beat beat III it I 1 jims eyes magnified with surprise yi are you a mind reader really ie the jade eyes met his stare unflinchingly yes jim really jim moved away as if suddenly afraid of her its swell to be a fortune teller he said takes talent and goehl think of all the tips on the races and things but having a wife who could read your mind why chyl I 1 why it would make a fellow feel like he was walking through the streets in his shorts I 1 geannes Je annes eyes were screwed into a tangle of long lashes were you thinking of marrying a mind read er jim youre asking MEW his lower lip protruded in disgust Tha That tisa lisa laughl why dont you tell me youre the fortune tel lerl all right I 1 sh she said with a decidedly professional air you are thinking of marrying one but right now youre wondering how it will work out when she can see into your thinking process esl but you love her jim and you youre re going to ask her to marry you june week im not saying that shell accepts ashes the type of girl who expects to be loved even if she has smallpox or can read jims brows darted bogett together ier and he reached for or her slim 9 loved gloved hand youre right jeanne I 1 do love you I 1 do want you to marry me june jime week youve got to accept darling A third voice came from the pullman door and midshipman pudge wilson spoke above the grinding of the wheels nice work chimber chamber gaint techniques and all that sort sort of thing you need nothing but that gable ogle and a dash of ben blue in the hand movement and then to jeanne whose face was deepening to the color of her rouged gouged lips say sis jim would make a heck of a hus husband bandl he bites the buttons off his shirts to keep his teeth sharp then he was gone jim rose to his impressive six feet his lips drawn in a fine line YOU pudge wilsons Wil sons si sterl he said cooly and pudge spouting ever since plebe year what a conceited stuff stuffed ed duck ego blimp of a bust you thought I 1 wasl was you just made a play for me at ed edgewater hotel when I 1 recognize you all slick as a peeled egg out of finishing school you care for me at all everything you said that night and since were jut lies like this mind reading b ank ma just to make a sap of met jeanne was on her feet her nervous little fingers tugging at the bru hant brass of his buttons 1 I did it on purpose she confessed lifting appealing eyes to his angry ones 1 I made pudge stay in the background too when you visited me at aunt matildaa Mat ildas he would pop out now and spoil the fun of telling you myself pudge the bum I 1 jim turned a disinterested profile but jeanne went on 1 I do this to make a sap of you jim but to get even with you for all the years you called me brat for all the years you looked right smack at me and through me when I 1 was languishing gui shing at your feet and sleeping with your picture under my pillow no wonder you recognize budges freckled redheaded red headed brat of a kid sister you t seen me before why jim chamberlain I 1 I 1 was raised on loving you I 1 jeannel jeanne you you brat he said tenderly and his arms caught her to him until the brass buttons hurt against her breast there were ways and ways she thought vaguely beneath his kiss of being called brat |