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Show The IHlonoirabBe Uncle Lancy By ETHEL HUESTON O Bobfe.-M.nlll Co. WNUSMc. CHAPTER XIV Continued 1& When the door had closed on Hilda, Hil-da, Olympia turned off the lights and for ten full minutes a deep and serene silence held the room. But Aunt Olympia was uneasy. The Senator, Sen-ator, poor dumb cluck, could lie there catching anything and never even recognize his symptoms. Unable Un-able to endure her uneasiness, she turned on the lights and gave him a straight look. He was lying bland, near-sighted eyes wide open with a broad smile on his pink, seraphic face. "Can I get you something?" he said, politely. "No," said Olympia. "What are you smiling about? Do you feel hysterical?" hys-terical?" "Oh, no," said the Senator gently. And then added, with modest diffidence, diffi-dence, "Ollie, did you notice the terrific wallop I gave Jim Allen? He went down like a ton of brick. I never realized my own strength." "Yes, I noticed it," said Olympia, sadly, turning off the light "You know, Ollie," he went on, with shy boastfulness, "all my life I've dreamed of some Lochinvar who would knock out a state chairman. chair-man. But naturaUy I never expected ex-pected to do It myself. You know, Ollie, I know history pretty well, and as far as I know I'm absolutely unique. I never heard of a United States Senator retiring over the prostrate form of his state chairman." chair-man." "It's too bad it couldn't have been the Opposition chairman," said Olympia, dully, for she was bruised In spirit. "That wouldn't be the same, Ollie," Ol-lie," he said contentedly. "Not at all the same." CHAPTER XV Hilda went to the girls' room. They had the lights turned on again and were sitting up in bed, talking nervously. In broken sentences, sen-tences, interrupting each other. Limpy, being sad and lonely, had got in Helen's bed for company. Hilda Hil-da hadn't the faintest idea what had transpired and was too proud to ask, but she was apt at picking up shreds and piecing them together. And any dunce could see that some- tViint ViaH anno urrnnu She glowered at the girls. "I should report this to your aunt," she said, carefully closing the door behind her to keep Aunt Olympia from hearing. "Oh, don't, Hilda," said Helen. "She's had a ghastly time! She will go all to pieces if she doesn't get a little rest." "If you got fever, I got to report it," she said firmly, staring suspiciously suspi-ciously at the three faces, now flushed scarlet. "We haven't any fever. We're Just warmed up from the lemonade and the hot-water bottles," Helen assured her. "We got warm too suddenly after being cold and wet all evening," Adele explained. "I should have been took along," said Hilda. "I knew she couldn't be trusted to keep anybody dry." "Oh, she couldn't help it! She had so much on her mind, you know! She had our clothes all packed up ready for us but she forgot to put them in the sound truck. That's all." Hilda pondered this frowningly. There came the unmistakable crunch of motors pulling up to the garage. It was Dave Cooper, Cecil Dodd, the stenographers and the dejected de-jected Ben Baldy, arriving with the sound truck and the trailer. Almost immediately came a peal at the bell. "I got to go get out my rat poison," poi-son," said Hilda. "Lay down, now, and let me turn off these lights. Mis' Slopshire was firm about them lights." She turned off the lights and before be-fore she was halfway downstairs Adele had turned them on again and the girls were sitting erect, talking talk-ing in whispers. Hilda pieced a good deal together when she admitted Dave, Cecil and the two stenographers. Before Dave could demand audience with the Senator, Cecil Dodd ordered her to show him Limpy. Hilda gave him an icy glare. "It's not the habit of this house to admit ad-mit publicity to their young ladies," she said. "Are they all right? Is she all right? Did she catch cold? Is she still crying?" "They were half or maybe not quite half asleep when I saw 'em, which was just now," said Hilda. "We've got to see the Senator," said Dave briskly. "Will he come down or shall we go up there?" "It'll be neither," said Hilda, squaring her angular shoulders. "I got my orders and I'm keeping them. Nobody. Nothing. Not anything. any-thing. Nothing for six months but coffee." Dave and Cecil went into an argument argu-ment and their anger, their uneasiness, uneasi-ness, their explosive bursts of profanity, pro-fanity, soothed Hilda to her normal nor-mal state of irritation. "If you're going to sleep here," she said, "I'll show you to your rooms and lock you in. That's my orders. I don't think they meant the rat poison for you but I'm taking qo chances." "How did they take it, Hilda?" asked Dave. "They took It hard," said Hilda. "I never saw 'em take things harder." hard-er." "Is Limpy still crying?" asked Cecil Dodd. "If she is, It's In her sleep and continues in the same place," said Hilda. "Will you take a message up to the Senator?" "I'll take nothing up but coffee and that not till I'm rung for. I'll show you your rooms " "And lock the door. Yeah, I know. Well, we're not going to bed. Make us some coffee, will you? . . . It's probably better just to let them sleep it out, Cece, and we'll get busy. We'll use this room, Hilda; no, the library's better; we'll need the 'phone. Get out your typewriters, typewrit-ers, boys. I'll do my 'phoning first. Bring us some coffee, Hilda, and fix up some sandwiches, will you?" "And a shot of whisky," added Cecil Dodd. Hilda assented to all that but before be-fore she left the room she gave one last warning. "If I catch anybody sneaking up toward my young ladies, la-dies, I got my orders and I brain 'cm," she said. She went upstairs at once and as she had expected found the girls up in bed again. "The publicity's come and are going go-ing to work all night with coffee and whisky. Would you feel more sleepy if you saw them?" "Oh, no, Hilda!" "Oh. please Hilda! Don't let us coo thoml" "Can't they go someplace else and work?" moaned Adele. "Do they have to work here?" "It's usual," said Hilda. "Until they get fired. Have they been fired?" she asked hopefully. "No, worse luck, they haven't." "Oh, let them work if they want to," said Helen reasonably. "They won't bother us. Just keep them away from us, Hilda!" Limpy was in abysmal depths of contrition for her childish outburst "I can't imagine what made me do it!" she moaned again and again. "I never dreamed of doing such a thing! Why, oh, why didn't you stop me? If only Aunt Olympia had been mere 10 give me ner snui-uppmg look! It's because I was out of sight, that's what drove me to it! If I could have caught somebody's eye, I'd never have said a word. If he's defeated it will be all my fault, and I'd do anything in the world for Uncle Lancy for he's a swell guy, just as I said." "I thought you did fine, Limpy," said Adele consolingly. "I was proud of you. I couldn't think of a thing to say myself. I could only shout 'Me, too.' " Hilda entered with the tray. "Since everybody's eating, I brought some along up with me." "Oh, we can't eat, Hilda!" said Helen. "Food would choke us," said Adele. "We're heartbroken, Hilda," said Limpy, more confidentially. "I don't suppose we'll ever eat again as long as we live." "And the sooner we die the better," bet-ter," added Adele. "I put salted nuts on, too," said Hilda. "There's a fresh box." "Well, I might just nibble a pecan or two," said Limpy, weakening and reaching for the box. "They're good sandwiches, if I do say it with lettuce and ham and cheese all together the way you like it; and butter on both sides. I only gave them ham and butter one side downstairs," said Hilda. "You sleep easier on a full stomach. "We haven't had anything to eat since that fried chicken you sent up, Hilda," said Adele, suddenly remembering. re-membering. "It seems weeks, doesn't it?" "Poor Uncle Lancy," murmured Limpy, fishing for pecans. "He was so fond of the Senate." "It's a good thing, in my opinion," said Hilda darkly, having gathered that the Senator was doomed. "Now he can settle down private where he belongs and get rid of his digestion." diges-tion." The girls were young. When Hilda had gone they nibbled the sandwiches, sand-wiches, tentatively, out of politeness polite-ness at first, and then with relish. By two o'clock they had become philosophical about the whole thing. "It was their idea, making us campaign," said Adele. "If we boomeranged on them, they can't blame us." "And it was certainly they who wished that snake-in-the-grass, Len Hardesty, on us," added Limpy. "We'd never have dreamed of meeting meet-ing such a worm in Iowa." "Maybe this will be a good lesson for Brick," Helen decided. "If he ever finds out about it," she added hopefully. And then, "Of course I shall tell him the whole thing myself my-self as soon as I see him I wish I could tell him now. Maybe he would withdraw before it is too late." When Hilda came to take the tray they were showing signs of drowsy resignation. "We're going to sleep now. Will you raise the window and put out the lights, Hilda?" Hilda raised the window a scant half-inch, turned out the lights and left the room. Limpy, who had been most passionate, pas-sionate, was asleep almost immediately. imme-diately. Adele closed her eyes but being saddest did not sleep at alL At three-thirty Helen got up softly, slipped down the hall to the Senator's Sena-tor's study, closed the door behind her and spent half an hour at the telephone. Coming out she tip-toed halfway downstairs and listened. From the closed door of the library she could hear the faint click of typewriters, still at work. Hilda was sound asleep, sitting bolt upright in a kitchen chair. Helen went back to the room and switched on the lights. She closed the windows, lowered the blinds. "Girls!" she said in a soft, brisk voice. "Wake up! I want you! Adele, wake up! Limpy!" Adele sat up at once, looking more wan-eyed, more forlorn than ever. Limpy, mumbling protest finally turned over and opened one eye. Helen's first words brought her upright, up-right, wide awake. "Girls! Get up! Help me! I'm going go-ing home!" "Going home!" "This is our home!" "We have no home!" "There's nobody to go home to!" "This is not my home. Iowa's my home and that's where I'm going." go-ing." Helen was quite calm, very businesslike. She no longer looked tired. "I am not going to stay here and face those horrible reporters tomorrow. I just can't do it. They've been making speeches all summer if ' m "Are they all right?" about exercising the sacred franchise. fran-chise. Weil, I'm going to exercise mine. I may get there in time to save Brick before it's too late." Limpy bounded out of bed. "When do we start?" she asked. Helen laughed. "You're not starting start-ing at alL You're staying here, both of you." "Aw, Helen!" "Now don't try to pull that on me, you little fox. I'm not as weak-minded weak-minded as Uncle Lancy ... I know what I'm doing. My mind is made up. Adele has to stay here until she patches things up with Len. And you have to stay, Limpy, to comfort Uncle Lancy and Aunt Olympia. After all, Limpy, they like you even better than the U. S. Senate. I'm going alone and I'm going to fly. There's a plane taking tak-ing off at six o'clock and I'm going to catch it I've already 'phoned for a cab to stand outside the hedge and wait for me. It will cost about fifty dollars. Have you any money?" mon-ey?" The girls ran for their purses and dumped the contents on Helen's Hel-en's bed. "It isn't enough; but the company will take a check for my fare. Do you mind if I draw on the insurance money?" "Helen, don't be silly!" "Whose money is it anyhow?" "I'll keep account of all I spend. Tomorrow but not early, girls; let them rest as long as they can tomorrow, you just breeze in and tell them the speeches made such an impression on me that I flew out to vote. You'd better do the talking, Limpy, they like you best And Adele can back you up. I'll take only a traveling bag " "You will not! You'll take all your pretty clothes and look like a million dollars!" "Iowa's going to expect to see something, after your year in Washington!" Wash-ington!" "Take your wind-up costume to vote in! That'll be something to take a picture of!" The girls, too excited yet to feel the sadness of it, fell to packing Helen's suitcases and helping her dress. And at five o'clock when Limpy on the lookout reported that a cab had stopped near the gate behind the high ledge, Helen kissed them fondly, took a suitcase in each hand and slipped quietly down the stairs. The girls cried a little, for this was their first separation. "The beginning of our united end," Limpy said, tearfully. Adele and Limpy hung out the window in the foggy dawn of the grav morning and watched Helen walking down the flagstone path, carrying her bags. At the gate, she turned and waved to them, and threw a kiss.' Then she went resolutely reso-lutely on and disappeared from their view. The girls waited in the window, win-dow, waving their hands, until they heard the motor hum away. Then they went to bed together, then-arms then-arms around each other, crying-laughing crying-laughing a little, too and finally fell asleep. CHAPTER XVI Wakening about seven-thirty they rang at once and Hilda appeared with a promptness almost miraculous. miracu-lous. Adele and Limpy were still together in one bed, propped up on pillows, looking no longer wan, but cheerful and bright-eyed, even excited. ex-cited. Hilda, who had brought coffee cof-fee for three, made no comment on Helen's absence. She seemed almost al-most cheerful that morning, a dour cheerfulness under close control. "She thought Helen was in the bath," Adele said when she had gone. "That's a good thing. We don't want her spilling the beans till the time comes." Regularly at thirty-minute inter-. vals after that, Hilda appeared to ask if they wanted anything or felt a chill. Usually she brought something some-thing for them on a small tray, fruit not biscuits, or cold milk. Occasionally Oc-casionally she brought a message. "Mr. Hardesty says tell you he feels the same and more so," she told Adele. Tears came to Adele's eyes and she tried in vain to harden her heart "Mr. Dodd is awake from a sleep on the davenport and they're at work again and two boys answering answer-ing the telephone and he says if you feel nervous he'll chaUenge somebody." some-body." "I don't feel at all nervous," said Limpy. "But if I see anybody I'm going to be very nervous, so keep everybody off." Another time: "There's a lot of more cameramen would like your pictures." "You tell them to mosey right along and mind their own business," said Limpy. "You tell them the campaign's over and we're never going to have any more pictures taken as long as we live, so help us," said Adele. "They got reporters down there I ain't never even seen before," continued con-tinued Hilda. "They say will you please answer a few questions?" "Tell them no, we will not an swer anyDoay anytnmgi "We don't have to see any more reporters," said Adele. "Aunt Olympia Olym-pia said so! You tell them we're in bed and we're going to stay in bed and we've got campaign cramps." "You just let us know when Uncle Lancy and Aunt Olympia have had their coffee and got calmed down and leave it to us! This is the holy Sabbath and we're spending it in bed." Aunt Olympia too had slept but brokenly. Whenever she wakened she repressed the wish to look in on the girls repressed it for the Senator's sake, for Lord knew he needed rest. After all, the girls were young; their very youth would bring them back on the rebound from this frightful catastrophe. But it was a bitter pill for the Senator and would require not only plenty of aspirin, whisky and quinine, but rest as well. So Aunt Olympia lay rigidly rigid-ly in her bed and waited for him to awaken. Olympia was sick at heart The Senator would be a good sport about the mess, she knew that But it would cut! It would cut like the very Old Nick! A man like Senator Slopshire eating humble pie at the hand of a louse like Brother Wilkie. "You'd think we'd done enough for him," she mused wretchedly, "listening to all those poor sermons so many years and making a governor gov-ernor out of him! And contributing, too! Always contributing! First to the collection plate and then to the campaign fund! There's no justice! If only I hadn't ordered that Victory Vic-tory Cake!" She started to vent her feelings in an impatient flounce but, remembering remem-bering how lightly the Senator slept, restrained herself. The girls would leave after this, of course. She couldn't blame them. They wouldn't hold her and the Senator Sen-ator responsible for the outrage, but still, they couldn't help feeling they had had enough. Aunt Olympia had had enough, too. She told herself that she would be tickled pink to have it over and done with except that it griped her to see Del play second fiddle to a louse. When she felt that she would blow up in spontaneous combustion if she lay still another minute, she turned over on her side, very carefully, making no sound, and took a look at the Senator. To her unbounded indignation he was lying awake, his eyes wide open, looking at her. "Well, for pity's sake, if you're awake why don't you say so?" she demanded, flouncing vigorously a half-dozen times or more. "I was keeping quiet not to waken you," he said gently. "You must be tired out Can't you turn over and catch forty more winks or so?" "Aunt Olympia popped out of bed and started for her bathroom. The Senator went to his. And the splash of running water, the vigorous sloshing slosh-ing of toothbrushes, testified that their night's rest, such as it was, was over. (TO BE CONT1NV ED.' |