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Show C KATHLEEN NORRIS-WNU SERVICI ' " the girl fell Into a tired dream, star-ing star-ing at the fire. Presently he began again: "So you thought my mother was dead, hay? No, sir, my little mother moth-er is very much alive. She's got chickens, she's got a garden, she drives an old Ford." "How long since you've seen her?" the girl asked politely. "How long since I've seen my mother? Four years." "Oh" Sheila said, widening her eyes into their surprised babyish look. "That's too long." "Without seeing your mother, hay? Well, that." Ken said, with . THE STORY THUS FAR r.rscadden, blue-eyed, reddish-haired and 21. loses her job in New " Siring useful but unwelcome suggestions to her boss. Typicallv toosfs that time to show her W pur.e-whlch height 1h S-nd store, to her cousin. Cecilia Moore. The purse revives mem h "ad met the previous summer-a boy whose first nam. Ju LSLd was Peter. At home that evening, waiting for her ire her Sf?hea she enters the magnificent home, for the occupants Drov J do'thp.80 i,,s like 8 plfly- A"d do they got us back today?" 'I don't know." On the back of the stove there a great black pot In which a broth; Sheila drew it forward, sal-vaged sal-vaged what potatoes she could from a dish Into which spoons and apple-Peelings apple-Peelings had been thrust, cut onions into the mess and set it to decent pot roast simmering. mm f not-so-nappy evening Angela nnds fifty dollars in a secret 'iSla'i purse. re bolh ""PP? 'he discovery onlv to "IwhVn Mrs. Carscadden tell. Sheila the money must turned son whose Initial, and street number are on the purse. Sheila l. Return the money dressed In an ancient outfit. Then, she feel,, the reward her liberally. She looks upon the escapade as a lark She 5S.nl when she enters the magnificent home, for the occupants Drove Tm Cann family, old friends, now wealthy, of Sheila's Father And lZ. Peter, her acquaintance of the previous summerl Sheila finds liJudge McCann'a son. Both Peter, and hi. brother Frank, are '1 married. Frank offers to take her home, and Peter, secretly" ,'ilip of paper in her hand The paper Is a message, asking her to Vr at the library the next day Against her will, Sheila goes to the 2,4 she fleets Peter They talk, and she finds that, after all she 'tare for Peter. Preparing to leave, they find the library door locked I J,., is closed, and no one can hear their shouts. Escape seems 2" but Pet" Jumps from a window and Sheila follows him. They are ( of an adjacent building. Climbing down a fire escape, they enter "room. There two men confront them with guns and make them 4 One of them, named Ken. tells her she will be home soon, hut asks Jes so he might wire their families that they are safe. Thev are I ,fc:o a car, transferred to a truck, and head for the gangsters' hideout. his patronizing, complacent air, "that's what it is." "Maybe mothers are different," Sheila suggested. "But my mother is crazy about us. She was left a widow, you know; she had to take state help, tor a while. But she never would give one of us up, she just raised the roof when they wanted want-ed to take Angela and keep her 4n a hospital. No matter what you do, my mother'U make excuses for you. Once I was terribly saucy to Sister Regilus " She fell silent. For a few minutes min-utes Ken was silent, too. Then he said, in a nettled tone: "And what makes you think my CHAPTER VIII A hideous face looked into the kitchen; it would have appalled her yesterday. But she was warm and ltd, now. and busy and needed, and this filled the need of her woman's heart. "Dinner?" this apparition said hoarsely. "Yep, In about half an hour," Sheila responded briskly. "You tell them to wash their hands!" She saw the villainous face stare attar oddly. The man vanished. "You've got a nerve!" Peter said, fearfully. "They might kill us for less than thatl" "Oh. shucks!" Sheila said boldly. "Give me those plates." Impressed, Peter obeyed her meekly. A minute later the man called Ken came into the kitchen. He had evidently evi-dently Just arrived, for his face was red with cold, and his gloves and coat wet He looked curiously at "' JtER VII Continued j,n and on; the men spoke tonally in low tones; the r'stopped. Every bone In jdy was Jarred and aching, was dizzy, her thoughts jVaguely. Sometimes she moment's doze, only to ' iwake again as the truck some rut or turned some ! God, my head!" Peter ,-hispered. I i;et!" Sheila murmured. ; e. Then he breathed ii more alert tone: (We we?" i'mow. They're taking us in a truck." ;ers," Peter whispered. I do, drink something :ed?" know. But your breath e chloroform or some-lence. some-lence. state's prison for the j ol 'em," Peter said vi- , i ied his flushed, haggard, sleeping face for a few seconds. Then she went cautiously and peeped through the cracked old window glass and the slits in the shutters. Outside was unbroken snow. There was not a track upon it; not another an-other house In view. A prolonged hummock might have been the fence that outlined a road; she could not tell. Near the house she saw a barn, a well-sweep, outhouses, all muffled muf-fled and disguised by the white powdering pow-dering of the storm. Great bare trees stretched their branches overhead. over-head. The snow had stopped for the time being, but the restless airs were clicking the tree-branches and blowing the drifts about, and the low, leaden sky threatened to fall again. The room in which she found herself her-self was on the ground floor, the railless porch was Just outside. The fields and what might have been the road sloped away in a series of rounded hills below the farmhouse, and beyond everything vanished gently into a general dimness of snow and cloud. mother's any different from yours?" Sheila considered this. "Well, I hope she is!" she said finally, with a little laugh. "Why do you hope she is?" "Because if she isn't she's worried." wor-ried." "To show you how crazy she Is my mother, I mean," Ken said. "I had an old hound listen, he didn't amount to a hill of beans. He was Just naturally an old ringer. You wouldn't have fed him." He stopped to laugh and to remember, re-member, and seemed to forget her for a minute. "This old wreck," he began again with relish, "would sorter hang around, and finally I got to calling him 'Cap,' and he stayed with us; he was my dog. Well, after I left home, darned if my mother didn't keep that old dog and take care of him, and every time she wrote to me it'd be how old Cap was coming on, and how he missed me, and everything. ev-erything. It was a riotl" "Well, I can tell you something about your mother, then," Sheila ler get out!" it out all right," he said, ed to doze again, and avily. "It's state's pris-ihat pris-ihat it is," he said, mistaking mis-taking in an angry, dron- ven's sake, don't talk so me a little light-hearted . It was agony to rouse m the stupor that was usness to the full reali-ain reali-ain and danger again, r get over this; it's mur- Sheila jumped, but it was only Peter at her elbow. "Where are we?" "I don't know." "Seen anyone this morning?" "I Just woke up." "This is a hot one!" said Peter. "Well, I know I'm freezing," Sheila Shei-la said. She took a pocket comb from her handbag and ran it through her thick red hair. She rubbed her face with both palms, ordered her dress slightly and went to the door at the back of the room. "Look out what you're doing!" Peter whispered sharply. But Sheila Shei-la had already opened the door a saia, orisKiy, alter a pause. i don't care whether it means anything any-thing to you or not, but I know how it is, because I know how we are, with Ma. "My mother goes Into Joe Cars-cadden's Cars-cadden's room every night, and kisses him, after he's gone to bed, and tucks things in around his neck. And she'll say, 'Did you say your prayers, Joe?' and 'Do you love Ma, Joe?' as if he was two years old." "Sure" Ken began. He cleared his throat again. "Sure, they're all like that!" he said with bravado. "Your mother," Sheila continued inexorably, "never goes into church but what she prays for you, that you'll be good and that you'll come home some day. You can bet on that! Every time she meets the neighbors she tells them how well you're doing. Every time she cooks something you used to like, she thinks, 'This is the way I did it for him!' "I know, I tell you," Sheila said, warming, "because I know how Ma is! She wants us with her; she doesn't care about anything else as long as we're all home." "It would be a swell thing," Ken said. In a guarded, careful tone, eavy against his shoul-no shoul-no answer. U be good to get rested lawful to start in" she y finally did stop she e completely awakened, lalf-dragged. half-guided vy pathy, up steps across f. low, unrailed, country into a house not many farmer than the outer crack and was peering through. The room into which Sheila looked was unspeakably desolate and dirty, the floor littered with old newspapers, newspa-pers, the windows sealed. The floor shook under her feet as she timidly ventured in. It had once been a dining-room. It was quite unfurnished unfur-nished now. At one end an open door led into the front room that flanked the bedroom bed-room and here Sheila heard voices, mumbling, voices of men, and from this direction came also the smell of pipes and wood smoke. She turned to the back of the house, and with sure instinct opened still another an-other door and went into the kitchen. Outside was unbroken snow. Sheila and nodded to her without a smile. For a full two minutes he stood warming himself by the stove, watching her. "You seem to have fitted in all right," Ken said. He ground his cold hands together. "Something smells good," he added. And then, with the nearest approach to a smile she had ever seen in him, "I hear we have to wash our hands?" To this Sheila made no response. She was embarrassed. She stirred the thickpr.iru' stew carefully. She gathe'ed that they liked the , . i tu- ..i ; A I la saw a clock that said I'Ur looming at her, re-ffienly re-ffienly growing enormous I eyelids hurt, she turned faway from a smoking f eone was helping her off fpt, snowy coat; she cried pain as her arms were r hat was off; the heavi- head was so bad that Mod blindly about, putting trying to rub the wet ') hair away. fa' a bleak-looking, flat f mattress showing shab-fcolored shab-fcolored under a heap of fforters. But it was stand-1 stand-1 'east, with a floor under s steady about it, and the not utterly cold. Sheila f her shoes, sank down, Jr;ngs about her. Some-away Some-away the lamp. fa' misery. Sheila had potroast and the spaghetti. Anyway, Any-way, they ate quantities of it, mountains moun-tains of It, with all the gravy and vegetables that she could scrape up from the big baking pan in which she had served the tremendous meal. They had put wine on the table; Peter drank some of it, but Sheila would not touch it. The atmosphere seemed lighter, somehow, as they ate together. She had begun to feel lame and tired and drowsy, but there was no more fear. It was only with a real effort ef-fort that she roused herself, afterward, after-ward, and began the business of clearing up. To her surprise they all helped her; she tore the red tablecloth into f,,r nipres that each assistant might "to go home to your mother without your stake, and without a jobl You told me yesterday." he said, "that I'd never make my stake at this kind of thing. Well, maybe I never wilL I was thinking last night that even some of the old fellers, even when they keep out of trouble, haven't got anything to show for it. There's too many in the business, and there's too many down and out that come to find you and make a touch," he said. "I've not got anything. If I could put my hand on five thousand dollars, it's all I could clean up in a hurry." "Five thousand dollars!" Sheila echoed. "What the hell kind of a business could you go into with that!" he It was deserted, but the stove was hot, and there was food. Sheila pushed a coffeepot forward; hacked rather than cut stale slices off a round, hard loaf; broke eggs. If the men in the sitting-room heard, they did not molest her. Presently Pres-ently toast and coffee and scrambled scram-bled eggs were ready; she managed to extract plates, cups, from the incredible disorder of the kitchen; Peter joined her, and they cleared an end of the table and sat down together. And never in her life, Sheila thought, had she tasted such food. It was delicious beyond anything imaginable; im-aginable; she felt that she could not get enough of the sour, toasted, but- said irritably. "That seems to me a lot of money. I wish my brother Joe had it," Sheila added, as Ken did not speak. "When my brother had pneumonia pneu-monia last year," she went on, "the doctor at Lincoln told him to get into some business that he had to work hard in you know, with his hands. The doctor said that if more men had to work in" Sheila hesitated, hes-itated, "in perspiring businesses, you know?" she resumed, "there'd be much less illness. And Joe said that if he had a few hundred he'd go over to Astoria, or somewheres like that, and go into the building business." her life wakened to erment and such physi-irt physi-irt at once. Where was alls were thrse, and why leeP in her office dress? 1(1 over, and her dank, ebed covers Knve forth a 1i0ld smell. She sat up ; her feet to the floor and l;" her. Wme, anyway. For al-old-fashi,,r,ed wooden re dosed, outside the : "lany-paned windows. i ght beyond. Rotting "el hufig at these win-ar win-ar was of old, poorly ne .bards, upon which tered bread, the hot annK, me uui eggs. Color and courage returned with returning warmth and vitality An alarm clock, set down haphazard hap-hazard in the general confusion, said twelve o'clock. "Peter, can It be twelve o'clock?" He looked at his wrist. "Stopped," he said, winding his watch. "It might be." Sheila half filled her cup. luxuriating luxuri-ating in comfort. She went on eating eat-ing without further comment. The old kitchen was on a level two steps below the rest of the house. It ran straight across the back of the building and had windows win-dows on both sides. From these there was the same vista; snow have his own. They carried the remains of the stew into the ice-cold pantry, piled the plates neatly, drew back the chairs, and one brigand secured a wisp of broom somewhere and brushed the rough old floor. "They're just like Neely and Joe." she thought. She could smile as she asked for a hod of coal, a bucket of water. 'There!" Sheila said in satisfaction, satisfac-tion, when all this was done. She was exhausted now. and drawing a derp old rocker close to the stove, and catching up a coverless movie magazine that happened to be in the woodbox, she composed herself for a rest. The men were trying to persuade Peter to something; Peter was un- "A carpenter, hay.' "Well," Sheila retorted sharply, stung by his lazily scornful tone, "Our Lord was a carpenterl" "That's right, too," Ken admitted. "And you wouldn't have to stay a day-laborer. You could get to be a contractor." Sheila's thoughts reverted to a previous topic. "I can't get over your mother taking care of that old dog." she said. Again Ken made no comment. After a moment he asked, abruptly: "You're not stuck on this feller?" "On Peter? He's going to be mar ried Tuesday." "Well, I thought you weren't" (TO BE CUMIM ED) 7s and ends of carpet 91 "mid, anf,lps There bren chnirs in the '.'ngches, of drawers, s,milariy shabby iron WiSlrWM and foul L a' Sere discolored ' old wooden doors knrh M at,d carried v S'U'"a had nev t ZTg cld Chouse "e k"ew that she was J other beds Peter i:e ,h7".v asleep, al- alkpW and stud- meadows leveled under blankets oi white, trees and the dim far perspective per-spective of horizon, sky and whitened whit-ened world. "What'd they say to you?" "Who?" "Those fellers in there." "Nobody's spoken to me at all. she said. , "Whafs-have you found out- what's the big idea?" Peter looked cautiously toward tne front room as he spoke, and Sheila answered almost inaudibly: We got mixed in just at the time they were afraid of something, see. And they didn't dare leave us-let u. go. for fear we'd g.ve them away." willing. "They're Just going to bring some wood into the front room." Ken explained, ex-plained, in his characteristically careless way. "Go along and help them!" , , He and Sheila were left alone in the kitchen, with the warmth and the smells of food and fire and soapsuds, soap-suds, in the gathering dusk. It was not quite half past four o'clock, but the brief stormy day was clos-inr clos-inr in The man sat down, lighted hic pipe and stretched his legs Well, you got the boys tamed, he said then. Sheila not proving responsive, he pulled on his Dice in silence, and |