Show MONEY TO BURN BY PETER B KYNE by peter B ama THE STORY hiram butterworth miser decides to leave his to elmer clarke poor young nephew lie tells absolom hla lawyer of a deal forty years ago in which he swindled a man out of 0 and arranges or payment with interest butter dies suddenly through a gossiping telegraph operator the town of hears of elmers fortune before he does nellie cathcart elmers sweetheart tells him his inheritance Is more than a million colorado charley and his partner mac decide to pluck elmer nellie insists that elmer see more of the world before their marriage unknown to elmer nellie Is heiress of the man Duller worth swindled and she figures there Is about 1 OCO coming to her elmer becomes a candidate for school trustee posing as a newspaper reporter under the name of doris gatewood colorado charleys confederate calls on elmer CHAPTER VII continued you re very kind by the way sir clarke it you 11 forgive me for mentioning it your piano has a wonderful tone but it needs tuning I 1 gasn wasn t aware of eliat nobody has opened the old ruin since my mother pissed away over five years ago and you live quite alone he nodded the while he appraised her with the impersonal air of good breeding which was his natural heritage he decided she was the most dashing young woman he had ever seen in fact she was more beautiful than nellie cathcart and elmer had thought that an impossibility for any woman perhaps he told himself that was due to the undeniable aar of her more than to superiority of sheer physical beauty nellie too had an air but it was natural while miss doris gatewood appeared to have acquired hers she was dressed in a manner which elmer could not have described like all of his sex all he knew about clothes was that they looked stunning or indifferent miss gatewood s wardrobe then and there in evidence was neither stun nang nor indifferent and elmer found in his rag bag of a mind a phrase that appeared to describe her and her clothes she was well groomed her chic little tan hat it was a paris model gave her a saucy air and fitted her face her hair was bobbed and as black and glistening as a ravens wing her skin was the kind one loves to touch but whether her glorious coloring was natural or artificial was beyond elmers ability to decide she wore a smart tailored suit of brownish tweed and somewhat mannish cut brown silk stockings and cunning little brown brogues with tas geleda tongues her shirtwaist with a tailored collar was immaculately white and very plain she wore colorado charleys handsome brown silk tie her gloves were brown and her eyes were brown radiant challenging alight with interest ashes a darb I 1 thought elmer butterworth ter worth clarke brains to spare must have to be a special correspondent of the american weekly ive heard writers like her make a hundred or two a week sometimes more why she can afford such nice clothes but she isn t overdressed over dressed cither what nellie would call good taste Is the keynote of her get up miss doris gatewood on her part was without appearing to do so making a swift appraisal of elmer clarke he nice looking she asked heiselt and he has nice manners too for a hick he must have had a nice mother hes small town but not a reuben and he a shy and sensitive hello he wears a silver service button in his lapel he s been to the war and been wounded right leg doubtless I 1 notice be favors it just a little he buys his suits ready made much too much of the collegiate atmosphere to the one hes wearing alg tie Is a trifle flamboyant but what wearing lately he seems reserved and dignified bet he 3 an old fashioned boy takes oft his hat in elevators and gives up his seat in street cars to old ladles good western type and not fresh hes taking me in from heels to hair but bis ej es are as innocent and tree from desire as a babas llmer youre a nice boy and I 1 like you now to make you like me 1 she fished a notebook and a short pencil from her pocket and smiled across at him apologetically af course mr clarke I 1 know I 1 m boring you to the point of warm tears she pegan but really you look so kind I 1 cant feel as contrite about it as I 1 ought besides I 1 make my living by boring people making them talk whan they do not want to and putting words into their mouths when they refuse to talk what do you want to know h challenged oh all about the fortune been left sou by the uncle auve never im ordered to interview you wd get a story on bow it feels to be a poor man today and a mil llon alre tomorrow id like to have some expression from you as to your ideas on the obligations of wealth does money make tor great happiness or vice versa what do you expect to do with your money and when are you going to marry the one girl who has been waiting tor you or Is there one girl but he reminded her its nobody s business whether theres one girl or two or a dozen and if there were I 1 should not discuss them tipped a foul that time miss gatewood went on flushing prettily still one never can tell whether the patient will talk on that subject or not so usually we ask to find out pardon try to stick to my knitting hereafter biow then mr cearle what Is your man friday cooking for din ner it smells like corned beef and cabbage to me this Is thursday it miss gatewood nodded brightly and potatoes boiled with their jackets on she queried with eager curl ant he alco looking she asked herself osley he nodded then youre as as I 1 am she challenged 1 I adore plain food and I 1 m famished to himself elmer said 1 I suppose be a dog it I 1 dont invite her to eat some of it confound it I 1 think she expects to be invited or wants to be just like these bobe newspaper women lie turned to his visitor 1 I should like very much to invite you to dinner miss gatewood but 1 I d adore to come she interrupted before he could cloak his invitation with more buts during dinner we can have a nice long comfortable interview well miss gatewood if you can manage without a chaperon I 1 can 1 I m sure youre not at all a dangerous person mr charke I 1 am sure you are I 1 elmer came back at her just like that she blushed at the compliment and proved herself equally fast by retorting 1 I see you are not a stranger to risks mr clarke I 1 had two brothers in the service one was killed at soissons Sols sons and alie other was gassed he been very well since he lives with me in los angeles indeed I 1 well I 1 had my taste ot phosgene gas too my lungs are still a little ticklish but im slowly out growing the effect pardon me please while I 1 tell jasper to set a place tor you and add a few fancy touches in your honor that was a very delightful it unconventional vent ional dinner miss gatewood Gate nood was charming it was her business to be charming and she knew her business her charm received a considerable am petus however from the charm which ehe extracted from elmer under the ameliorating influence of her dellget ful personality elmer was in perfect form he was interviewed without being aware of it nor did doris gatewood have to interview him everything ehe wanted to know came out naturally in their conversation in fact the lady almost forgot she was playing a part she was returning to log angeles on the train which came through allar altos at ten thirty that night after dinner she suggested that unless elmer had something better to do they might kill time by going to a movie since nellie was dining out that night and elmer had nothing better to do than escort his new found acquaintance to the movie he declared be could think of nothing more delightful so aliey went to see a thriller and once during an exciting moment of the photoplay miss gatewood seized elmers band impulsively and clung to it apparently quite oblivious of what she was doing after dinner elmer walked with her to the train and got her little traveling case out of the checking station in the depot before she boarded the train she had exacted a promise from him to call upon her and her brother at their los angeles home and have dinner with them elmer said he expected to be in los angeles in a few das to buy an auto mobile and would take that opportunity to renew an acquaintance so happily begun upon arrival in los angeles mae alias doris gatewood reported to colorado charley that the fish was on the line that nothing now remained to do save get out the net and land him CHAPTER VIII when elmer clarke returned to his humble home after seeing doris gatewood off at the railroad station he was sensible of having passed one of the most delightful evenings in years of course he had spent many delightful hours in nellie Cath carts company nellie was always delightful but about this other girl there had been a charm so utterly different from nellies that elmer after the fashion of his sex yielded to the delight of it without bothering to analyze it she dazzled him she had in effect oared him to like her and he had he wished he might see her again elmer lunched with nellie the fol lowing day and discussed with her his coming campaign for election to the board of trustees of the union high school a subject in which nellie als played the most avid interest for n reason so vague he did not pause to define it he refrained from telling nellie 0 the estt of the young lady reporter the evening previous nellie wondered why he did not she had seen him walking down to the station with this stranger and had marked her thoroughly from the toes of her smart boots to the tip of her saucy hat in particular nellie had been struck by a note of spurious merri ment in her gurgling laugh as the pair passed too interested in themselves to see her that laugh had been just a trifle too loud on tuesday elmer received a long letter from absolom McP cake con very definite information regarding the estate it consisted largely of very valuable business real estate in the city of muscatine Muscat lne a plethora of frame shanties in the poorer section of the city from which uncle niram had drawn rentals entirely disproportionate to the value of the property stocks bonds farm mortgages and a little private banking business a usurers rs shop in reality mr felt confident that the little banking business could be disposed of to form n branch bank of a large local institution of coin P in view of uncle II trama death this bank so dependent upon his presence would not now be sold at much of a profit but it could be disposed ff without loss and advised this course after reading that letter elmer felt more than ever inclined to follow the dictates of his humble ambition and purchase a fine car he carried the letter over to the commercial trust savings bank and showed it to the charming trust officer of that institution nellie was much interested and proffered some advice when elmer declared he was going down to los angeles the following day to place an order for the new car he promised nellie the first ride in it before he could drive away from th agency with hla new possession the next day a smart uniformed chauffeur appeared and reminded him that a gentleman able to afford a first class car could not possibly descend to driving it himself elmer was struck by the force of this argument and engaged the man at a salary of fifty dollars a week while waiting for the license plates to arrive he telephoned doris gatewood and was rewarded with shrill feminine cries of delight from the lady in question could he not come out to the house for luncheon she had just finished her story and was about to mall it east perhaps he would care to read it first elmer would lie said he would be delighted to and at one 0 clock he slid noiselessly up to colorado Co lorido charleys dainty bungalow and discovered the girl and her alleged brother waiting for him on th lawn the famed prodigal returning from alg unwholesome adventure with the husks and the swine could not have been received with more enthusiasm the luncheon was exquisite and served by doris gatewood herself she flushed prettily when colorado charley reminded elmer that she had cooked it herself charley ate little however and appeared languid and disinterested as became a semi invalid having been informed that ha wis a veteran of the world war elmer at once had for colorado charley a distinct feeling of fraternity and the conversation was almost entirely of soldering in preparation for this the bunco man had boned up on the A E F from an invalid ex soldier at arrow head hospital and another at the vet erans home at sawtelle when it seemed that he might be getting into deep water doris saved him by sug gesting that it was time for him to take his after luncheon nap poor charley gets so excited and nervous when he talks of those terrible scenes she explained to elmer it wears him out even to think about them elmer suggested that doris and he go for a ride doris replied that she would adore it so they went in calm defiance of elmers voluntary promise to nellie cathcart that she should bo the very first person to ride in his new car in justice to elmer it must be added however that he bad corn plemely forgotten that promise having been lightly made it had been as lightly forgotten while in france flmer in common with thousands of other young americans had visited paris after the armistice and had there listened to the old saw that it one should sit long enough on the sidewalk in front of the cafe de la everybody he had ever known would eventually pass by elmer had eat there halt a day and been accosted by nobody more important than a military policeman who had made him exhibit in writing his right to sit there it occurred to elmer upon hla return to three days later that this Is indeed a very small world an exile from had seen him driving along sinta monica boulevard with doris gatewood and a former belle who hod emigrated to los angeles and was eking out a precarious existence ag an extra in the movies wrote home to alice good fellow that she had seen elmer clarke fox trotting in a hollywood cafe with a girl who had everything on her except the kitchen stove this gossip so interested alice that she felt it her christian autv to men alon it to nellie cathcart who said nothing but wondered a little elmer arrived home in a happy frame of mind he had had a perfectly delightful time in los angeles at parting doris had in her brothers presence and with that candor and charm which so fascinated elmer insisted upon kissing him goodby then she had walked out to the car with him and shaken his hand in farewell she said she sleep a wink until she knew he had arrived home safely and he telegraph her the instant that happy end had been accomplished flmer would he promised her solemnly to that effect and he kept his promise he should have known tetter old lady bray handled that telegram made a note of the ladya name and address and promptly circulated a report that nellie cathcart had better look out that a girl in ios angeles was after flmer clarke and was in a fair way of landing him the theft of the queen bee from a hive could not possibly have upset a community of bees one half so much as the three on elmers los angeles activities upset the town buzzed with gossip and idla speculation if it had been pro elmer and antl nimer prior to that fatal trip to los angeles it was now pro nellie to the last man and woman elmer had been regarded the moment anwa oi his in herl tance had known as first art e won by miss heille cathcart now to have a stranger beat nellie ou by a whisker in the last jump as it were to employ racing parlance set the town agog with excitement TO BH CONTINUED |