Show zon L D LN U rawn SYNOPSIS theodore gatlin decides to adopt a baby in a final effort to solve his matri mondal troubles but bis his wife has never wanted her and their affairs end in the divorce court ten year old penelope la in given into the keeping of mr mrs gatlin at a baseball game a ball hit into the bleachers strikes penelope on the th nose mrs gatlin spirits the child to europe gatlin retires from roni busin business as w wills 1 lils penelope all his money and nd I 1 Is ab about 0 u to begin a search for bis his daughter when a motor accident ends his life some ten years later in san francisco stephen burt Is 14 a rising young psychiatrist CHAPTER II 11 continued 3 for the next four our years lanny did not see her boy but he wrote her and remembered her at christmas and on her birthdays he ile was an honor grad aate from the leland stanford junior medical school and was immediately given an at the university hospital in san francisco inasmuch as lanny frequently had patients at that hospital they met several times a year lanny kept her ear to the ground harkening bark ening to reports of his progress from worthwhile sources and learned hat that he was regarded as a young doctor of distinct promise one day after he had been two years an they met in the cor ive been wanting to see you stevie lanny began without any pre fencing its it a time for your postgraduate course in europe impossible lanny my father ha haq had a frightful reversal of fortune he a done a fathers full duty by me and rm not going to graft off him and perhaps sacrifice him in his old age I 1 im in self supporting now and e even en sav ing a little from my salary in a few years I 1 shall be able to afford a modest office and go in for general practice youve you ve followed my program thus far and you 11 continue until its it s fin shed lanny announced loan you the money the five thousand dol lars your father gave me has grown to seventy five hundred dollars and I 1 ve saved two thousand more so I 1 in going to bank you and you shall pay me six per cent on the money you borrow and secure me by life insurance she was thoughtful for a few moments well perhaps three years abroad will benefit you more than four years would an or binary man so well we 11 cut the program to three years after all you must bave have some comforts you ve got to live like a gentleman you will resign here today and ill have the money for you tomorrow oh lanny you dear old sport I 1 cant do that thereupon lanny struck him in a vital spot her stern and lonely soul was touched not often did she in bulge herself in the weakness of tears but they flooded her ayes nyes yes now and her breast heaved he ile was always touched at the sight of suffering the vast underlying sym pathy in his nature would never have it otherwise abruptly she left himl him I 1 she knew he would seek her out later to protest at greater length to avow himself her eternal debtor for the offer and again decline it he called upon her at her lodgings that night and lanny won it was a hard battle but when lanny so to speak lowered her head and went in to win usually she succeeded well she had her way and when he returned from europe she had an office ready for him she would be forty years old on her next birthday and after eighteen years of the drudgery of private nursing she looked forward to her position rn in stephen burts office with pleasurable anticipation she met him at the ferry depot and he took her to his heart and kissed her five times twice on each cheek and once on the lips well old pal he said almost immediately im I 1 m a specialist neurologist and agrist and you re to be my first pa tient I 1 must go over you thoroughly and see what makes you act the way you do success was stephens modest at first of course but of rapid growth and lanny knew why his patients fell in love with him and advertised him to their friends in two years stephen burt had repaid lanny with interest the third year he moved into new sunny roomy and beautifully furnished offices with a waiting room as large as all of his previous offices had been he joined the best club in town he joined a country club and resolutely lanny drove him out of the office on wednes day and saturday afternoons to play golf she denied him the privilege of naming his own tees fees because she knew they would be too modest she kept his tree free list to a minimum knowing all his friends she supervised bis his social duties she kept his books and was a very devil of a collector she wrote all his ills business letters and signed them for him she invested his money for him and since she was no mean apsy she could read a woman pa tient as she would a book she was his admirable crichton and he rewarded her with his confidence his affectionate friendship and a perfectly dazzling salary raise each christmas he always kissed her at six clock on the twenty fourth day of decem ber in each year tor for the five years preceding the late winter afternoon ichen mr air daniel mcnamara called in behalf of the strangest patient I 1 anny s boy had ever been asked to accept it bad been a long hard day doctor burt was tired and a mrs regi bald merton who was rich and idle not very intelligent and hence neura by PETER B KYNE copyright by bell ben syndicate Byna icat service had been fatiguing him with a recital of her imaginary aches pains and megrims he pressed a button under the desk tapping out a code message to lanny an and d waited patiently he knew she would appear momen tartly and say im fin sorry doctor burt but professor finnegan has just telephoned that you are fifteen minutes late to your engagement to meet the great german savant herr doktor he Hewal waited ted three minutes and sent dentan an other code message to lanny adding the word help I 1 still lanny did not appear so he said with his disarming smile mrs merton the five 0 clock whistle has blown and I 1 cant can t listen to another word I 1 ve just kemem bared a most pressing engagement so now it if you do not go at once I 1 shall have to throw you out he had her tier by the arm and out the door before she could think of another symptom then he locked the door put both legs up on the desk and loaded and lighted his pipe lust just as the door to his nurse s office opened and lanny said 1 I in so sorry but professor finne flume gan she ashes s gone where did you go 90 leaving me here to suffer I 1 was in the waiting room placating an insistent visitor I 1 told him you had gone for the day but he flashed some sort of police badge at me said he wasn gasn I 1 nutty and that his business was private whenever you admit a person whose business Is private and personal I 1 am called upon tor for mental and physical effort sans a fee lanny I 1 in tired what you need dearie dearle said lan ny I 1 Is a nice long cool highball and while you re on he the job get me one too I 1 a deep voice spoke from the door behind her it its s that police person lanny cried I 1 it Is the police person agreed without malice and even tf if I 1 am a oh lanny you dear old ON sport I 1 can cant t do chati I 1 cop im too smart to be fooled by the fibs of any woman how are you doc tired he murmured worn to a 4 razor edge talking sanely to the insane and he the semi sane the sub normal and the abnormal you appear sane officer are you I 1 id d be afraid to take a bet I 1 am doc doe I 1 handle my share 0 nuts too and there a times they make me think I 1 in m bugs instead 0 them my name names s dan Mcl imara and I 1 in the chief of police pollee S t down chief drag over that armchair he smiled at lanny and held field up two fingers that smile melted her it always did for five years she had been try ing to bully him and hig his smile had al at ways defeated her for which reason she often had a brainstorm and threat ened to resign his service and she would have done it too tor for she was a forceful woman only for the fear that he might replace her with a nurse who didn dian it understand him a la in dela de la young thing half baked baled professionally who would fall in love with him and make male him marry her he was so kind and sympathetic lanny knew he would marry her lust just to keep her from feel ing bad D n u his sympathy she growled as she prepared the drinks in an inner room that s why he hes s worked to death hell die young overwork angina the young fool that big fresh heavy footed cop I 1 how dare he force his way in the he big bum I 1 and getting gerting a drink for his big dirty work 1 she sniffed and served the highballs you re mighty sweet lanny doc doe tor for burt told her now run along home lanny did not go she knew that big moocher of a chief of police pollee would praise such old liquor and his host would offer him a second helping I 1 ive ve got a girl down at central sta tion dan mcnamara was saying shoplifting detail picked her up in a department store where she d pinched a dozen and a half bilk silk stockings petit larceny and caught with the goods I 1 sent a good man around to try to square the case with the department store people but they insist on press ing charges and that s too bad because shea got a couple of priors against her out on probation suspended sentence you understand doc doe and now she shell 11 do two years in the big house louse IS S tough on the garl what s your interest in her if she s a confirmed thief well maybe she be a thief if she shed d had the breaks I 1 he defended somebody must have given her a sweet bust on the nose because her beak beaks s been broke and nothing nothings s left of it but a saddle Is she tough Is she tough doc doe so tough I 1 know it aln aint t natural A girl as tough as her must be looney but there aint nothing tough about her eyes or her mouth and that s where you can always find toughness athars been bred in the bone there s something thin about this girl that s different doc doe I 1 dont don t know what it Is but I 1 know this mur much h she wasn gasn t always tough I 1 want you to give her the once over I 1 understand there Is a psychologist and psychiatrist doctor blethen who does all of the medico legal work tor for the department chief I 1 wouldn t care to examine the girl except on his invitation yes I 1 know question of ethics and while the question Is to being debated this girl gets hauled into court and takes the rap on the old charge of grand theft I 1 know blethen I 1 ve tried him and be he says this girl ts Is a natural hoodlum and mentally and physically healthy he says ashes got more intelligence than any ten girls in vassar she must be smart too be cause she told him he was a fool and I 1 agree with her doctor burt was silent for he was intensely ethical and would not cratl dze cize a fellow doctor ive heard a lot about you the chief of police continued I 1 you re regarded as the best psychiatrist and neurologist in san francisco so don t talk to me about the capable doc doe blethen I 1 want you to look this girl over his huge face brightened as he sum boned a thought that would bolster up his plea she don dont t cuss me doc doe ive asked her all about herself and I 1 im in sure she tells me all she knows but she dont know anything she ashes s bound to like you doc doe and when she likes anybody now doc doe ive got a notion you can get her confidence to such an extent you can prong down into her soul and locate the trouble I 1 hear men like you do things like that nowadays doctor burt smiled sometimes we uncover complexes or mental reflexes frequently we do not and when we have uncovered them we cannot always c cure ure them tou you say this girl has a ruined nose does it affect her ap bearance pe arance greatly she s ugly when you look at her the first time doc doe but after you ve talked with her and looked some more the shock sort of wears off I 1 got a notion that if her nose could be straightened up shed be a good looking girl and maybe if her mind could be straight ened shed be a good girl know anything about her ante cements her background I 1 1 I don dont t know and I 1 can cant t find out she won t tell me it may be doctor burt suggested that she know has blethen finished with the case yes sir he told me not to bother him about her no more doctor burt indicated his telephone call him up chief and ask him if he has any objection to having me give her an unofficial examination Me mcnamara Namara did so following a brief conversation he turned the telephone over to stephen stephen took the telephone doctor blethen burt speaking the chief came to my office about that girl he has at the central station standing your report he has asked me as a personal favor to see the girl you understand however yes I 1 understand burt she ashes s a bad lot something the chief said has mild ly aroused my curiosity it if you would care to invite me to discuss her case understand I 1 have no desire to in trude im through with her burt help yourself old man however take a tip up from me and don t let that fellow mcnamara Mc amara sell himself to you if you do bell he 11 keep you busy I 1 doubt it if any man on earth can run a criminal down as promptly as mcnamara he has a photographic brain and never forgets a face or a fact but after he a landed a in his cooler he develops an a abnormal b yearning to find out what made him act that way mac mae s a softy exactly thank you blethen still a blind pig will sometimes find an acorn and something he be said sald good by lanny entered there a a young woman in the waiting room she an bounced she said to me where the h Is 1 s that bonehead of a chief gone lanny looked at dan mcnamara severely over the rims of her spectacles friend of yours she queried witheringly yes mcnamara admitted and docs doc s new patient bring her in and hell he 11 gl gh e her the once over but lanny shook her head this nut shop Is closed tor for the day she told him bring her around at one 0 dork clork tomorrow the doctor aas nas fifteen minutes then TO bm |