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Show cmisite wnrknr? INSTALLMENT SEVEN The depression hai hit the Maeulra family though Mike Magutre, editor and mayor of Covington, Is serene, His daughter Kathleen is Irritated, however, over several things. Mrs. Newsum would Ilka her son, Jalrd to marry Connie Mays, the banker's happy-go-luck- dy." Alec went very red. "One In the family't enough," he muttered. "Why don't you cut it out then?" "Gene Mays never did a girl's rep any good." "Maybe you think I like having people refer to my brother as the Boone divorcee's latest gigolo." The moment she spat out the word Kathleen was sorry. Alec went so white she was frightened. , "All right" he said In a thickened voice, "you win. I'm putrid. I'm not fit to open my trap no matter what you do. I admit it And that's that Now will you beat it? I've got to telephone and I didn't invite an audience." Kathleen'! lips quivered. "I didn't mean it Alec. But. gee, Buddy, It breaks my heart when you're like this." Alec looked away. His handsome boyish face was haggard, his black "I'm not eyes a little desperate. drunk now If that's what you mean," he said gruffly. "I know. But don't go back In there. Alec. Cut that bunch and surprise Mother by turning up at a decent hour for once." "Yeah, and lie awake till daylight, rolling and tossing because blue to sleep," I'm too gosh-awfhe said bitterly. "What time is it?" "Nine-fifteeby my watch and chain though I don't guarantee it" said Kathleen with a rueful grin at the wrist watch which she had won with a prize essay on the beauty f being altruistic in a grossly man terial world. Alec groaned. "Blow," he said sharply. d Kathleen regarded him with tell well as "You may eyes. me what it's all about," she said firmly, "because I'm .ticking till you do." Alec again colored violently. "You won't like it. But if you must have it. you must. We were all pretty well liquored up this afternoon and Myra wanted to do something differ-en- t. for a thrill. So she dared me to call up somebody and make a date for tonight." "Who?" nar-rowe- "Jivi Knight" a Ritchie Graham, older than he. stranger, helps Kathleen fix a flat and kisses her. He, too, is a newspaper man and without a Job. So she goes to a dance with Gene Mays though she does not like him. Kathleen thinks she dislikes Ritchie. "Lou Knight!" gasped Kathleen, Alec nodded. "I ought to be horse- Near the railroad shops there was street of sorts. It consisted mainly of cheap eating places, furniture stores, squalid second-han- d pawnshops, small grimy groceries and beer Joints. Upstairs were fiats. Dingy dilapidated places with shaky floors and flimsy walls and no modern conveniences. Fire traps Mike was always calling them and attempting to arouse an Inert public to demand their destruction. Mike's son, tramping up the steep rickety staircase which mounted from outside, cursed under his breath. How had he ever landed himself in such a mess? Even drunk he should have had more sense, to say nothing of decency. CHAPTER IX p. Far daughter, though he Is engaged to Shirsister. Tom, Kathleen's brother, la bard hit by the slump In real estate, and his wife, Mary Etta, A younger secretary, talks of Reno. brother. Alec, unable to get a job. Is taking up with a Sashy blonde, much ley, Kathleen's y Alec Maguire needed another drink. He needed It badly. Liquor But ungave him a quick pick-ufortunately liquor had a mean trick of dying on him too soon. And the letdown was terrific. "Isn't the music gorgeous?" burbled Myra. Alec regarded her sourly. He didn't want to, but quite suddenly he law every line about her loose rouged mouth. Her hair was metallically yellow, but next to the root It was drab. Her under chin sagged unless she held It well "up. But tomorrow would be another day, reflected Alec bitterly. With absolutely nothing to do. While hit nerves crawled with boredom. At least Myra provided action. She had to be doing something every minute. That wat why the liked her playmates young. Matur-e-r men occasionally had Jobs to go to. Myra herself had no serious occupation except her own amusement And she was perfectly willing to pay the piper for the privilege of calling the tune. "I've got to have another shot before I do a rhumba," muttered Alec when the music ended. He left Myra to rejoin their party as best she could and made his way a little blindly toward the exit Marigold Gardens had no license to sell intoxicating beverages. ,So everybody brought his own. It was quite like good old before-repedays. Myra always parked a quart or two with her car. She thought Alec might have asked her to go along if he wanted a snort. He was a queer youngster. Brilliant but moody, and his temper was as erratic as a trick cigarette lighter. Myra had never quite figured him out Perhaps that was why he Intrigued her. Alec had not asked Myra to share her own liquor because he wanted to be rid of her. He had to do something which he dreaded. Myra would think it was a scream if she knew. She would tell the world so. Alec's face looked a little haunted. It was a ridiculous jam for him to have got Into. It was all Myra's fault anyway. If she hadn't dared him and if he hadn't been three sheets in the wind, it could never have happened. He might be pretty thoroughly no good, but he wasn't at heart that rotten. At least he hoped not "Hell!" muttered Alec Maguire to himself and Jerked open the door of the telephone booth. He continued to frown at the blank wall before him as he dialed a number. Kathleen cleared her throat At least she and Alec always fought fair. He whirled, recognized her, smothered an oath and hung up the receiver before his connection could be completed. "If it isn't little sister," he sneered. "Out slumming with Hot Shot Mays and the like of that I thought you had more sense. I had to look twice when you came in. Just couldn't believe the old eyesight" "That was alcohol, not shock, Bud- The Story So whipped," he confessed miserably. "Myra and the gang bet me that she would turn me down like nobody's business." "And did she?" Alec hung his head. "No." "Oh, Alec! And now you're phoning her again. For what?" "To tell her I'm sorry but I can't take her to the airdrome after all because I've broken my neck or something. Gee, Kathleen, I'd nev-e- r hear the last of it if I stepped out with that little suggin." "Sure she's a suggin," cried Kathleen passionately. "Her dad's been the town sot for years and she used to play hooky from school because she hadn't decent shoes to wear. And they live up over a beer flat down by the railroad shops and she's never had anything but cuffs and abuse. And she's thin and homely and all eyes and scared to death of people like any other animal that's been mistreated. But ahe't also proud as the. devil and sensitive and pitiful And she's probably been thrilled to death for hours because you asked her out. But what's that to you? You're going to call her up and break her heart and make mincemeat of her pride." "Good Lord, you don't think I What would Laura ought to got say?" Kathleen's nostrils dilated with scorn. "She'll probably think she "She'll probably think she raised her son to be an idiot." raised her son to be an idiot but I believe she'd prefer that to a cad." Alec drew a long breath. "I'll never live it down," he muttered. "But here goes." He dialed his number and this time he waited for his connection. "This is Alec Maguire," he said doggedly into the receiver. "Will you please send somebody upstairs with a message to Lou Knight? Tell her I've been unavoidably detained and am going to be a little late, but I'll be there." He turned away from the telephone. "I hope you're satisfied," he growled. He did not return to the ballroom. Kathleen watched him going sulkily out the entrance, and didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. He was lucky enough to catch a ride with Len Woods and Sylvia Mason who had decided to move on elsewhere. They set him down on Main Street and, still scowling, Alec crossed the railroad tracks and made for that unlovely part of town against which Mike was always crusading in the Clarion's editorial page, where one row of ugly shotgun houses, all precisely alike, butted against another and the streets were unpaved and dusty, the yards small and cluttered and bare. Myra would be furious. Alec knew that. But the stimulation of the alcohol which he had consumed earlier in the night had yielded to black depression, and in his present humor he did not much care what Myra elected to do about his cavalier Nevertheless he was desertion. aware that he would feel differently the next day when the hours stretched Interminably before him and he had nothing to do but think. The sort of thoughts that had been driving him crazy since he took his degree at midyear and found him-sel- f adrift in a world that yawned when he begged for his chance. Just a chance, that was all he asked. A chance to do things. Big constructive things such as he had dreamed of. Covington was small enough for everybody to know practically everyone else by sight and gossip. Alec had vaguely known old Peta Knight't little girl all her life although he didn't remember ever having spoken to her before today. They had gone to the same public school because until recently the town had only the one. But they had never been in the same class or even in the same room. Alec thought Lou was about seventeen, three years younger than himself. Pete Knight was Covington's bad example. He came originally from good stock, or so it was generally believed. At least when he first blew into town some "fourteen years before, he gave evidence of having been at one time a gentleman. Even yet traces of a former gentility showed through his maudlin speech. But somewhere the man had lost hold of himself. Mike had a theory that Pete Knight had taken a knockout blow in some fairer existence which left him punch-drunso that he couldn't pick himself up again. But if so, he never referred to it And he resented any attempt at prying into his past if he had one. Certainly he had no present or future. He must have been about thirty when he dropped off a freight train in Covington and he had been steadily drinking himself to death ever since. Several months after his She was arrival Lou appeared. barely toddling. A queer forlorn little tyke even then, who had made the trip in the care of successive railroad conductors. He worked, when he wasn't on a spree, at anything he could find to do from washing dishes in a greasy spoon restaurant to hauling garbage for the city. But most of his earnings went for whiskey with which further to befuddle his already foggy brain. And for several years he had been a physical as well as a moral wreck. But when he was in his cups he presented a tragically ludicrous figure. The sort small boys loved to follow and torment with rocks or snowballs just to hear him roar like a baited and bewildered trapped bear. "Come," said a small husicy voice when Alec rapped at one of the battered doors which lined the long dingy upstairs corridor. The girl, standing a little beyond the scarred kitchen table, reminded him uncomfortably of a small hunted anlmaL The flat had only two rooms and was depressingly scant of furniture. But at least an effort had been made to retrieve the ugliness of dark cracked walls and narrow broken-panewindows. A straggling geranium grew in a tin coffee can and the rusty cook stove bad been polished. "Hello," said Lou Knight She was very thin and her blue eyes were enormous in her small wan face. She had thick pale brown hair, a shy nervous mouth and little roughened hands that kept twisting at her side. Her glance begged Alec not to laugh. At the room, or at her, or at her sleazy blue silk dress which pulled in places, revealing raw seams, and which bagged in others. But Alec had never felt less like laughing. She was such a pathetic littla scrap. So dreadfully shy. So afraid of sneers and blows because life had handed her little else. "Ready?" he demanded awkwardAnd he went on. ly. She nodded. trying desperately to sound natural. "Sorry I was late. But if we hurry. I think we can just make the last show." She said nothing. But he saw the cords working in her thin little neck. She was scared to death. Alec's throat hurt at the look in her eyes. She stumbled on the stair from sheet nervousness and he put out his hand to steady her. But she caught her breath sharply and flinched away. Had she thought he Alec flushed. was going to hit her? He hated himself for being so painfully aware of her shabby little slippers which had scuffed, spike heels. He supposed he was a snob, but the hardest thing he had ever done in his life was to walk through the outside the Covcrowd of hangers-oington Airdrome and purchase a couple of tickets for himself and Lou Even after he was safely Knight. inside where there were no lights his handsome young face burned. (TO UE COSTISLKD THIS IS n A SUPERIOR Sewing Circle NeeoW, U7 Minna St 8m For the greater part of 10 years the left - hander thin played one of the main roles in the big Yankee act For of just one matter detail, he contributed six world series 20. -- as lun buffet sets. Enclose tern No 15 cents la fe Iawc Name Address victories without taking a rap. But wnen spr.us Florida and Yankee camp began warming up, there was more than passing doubt that Lefty would, be hanging around much longer. In the losing camleftpaign of 1940 the depressed hander bad turned in only three winning games against three defeats. Most of his mates, including Joe McCarthy, felt bad about this situation since Gomez is not only extremely popular all around, but also one of the gayer notes in a serious Yankee community. The one fellow who refused to back away from a rough fate, who refused also to surrender his mirth, was Lefty himself. Grant.andRice to came JLA55f As Men Are Bora Some men were born fe PATTERN 6983 things, some were born for But some it is not record these pineapple design doilies! they were born at all.-- w They're simple to crochet and ex- - ton. be an LET yourandhandiwork it will If you choose to Turning Back "l came here In shape," Lefty said the first day he landed in camp. "I'm going to get In still better shape and I'm going to stick. After all I'm only 30 years old. I won't be 31 until November. If Lefty Grove can keep on winning at 41, why should I be all through when I'm 10 years younger than he is?" All present cheered Lefty on and backed up his sentiments. "I had a bad arm and a bad side last season, but I'm O. K. now. I'd like to lay one bet anyway. I'll bet nobody on this club works harder." At this spot the Great Goof is still more than holding his own. Now and then he hears the "call of the wild," but not too often. He still has his share of stuff packed away in his portside portfolio and hopes to win his seventh world series start this coming fall. Lefty the Sane The Gomez sense of humor rarely departs, even under dark clouds. I asked him what happened when he seemed to be holding up a game In a debate with the umpire. "It was this way," Gomez said. "The bases were full and there was J. m 1 1 nmiwwwimmm t O M tk tauiifi ethub ytut. High vitunin raluM. VitaminVHmUn Vltomta Wilt D V j V 3 1 consci smniH I 1 - 't lMf3i VStitjfiS '' it began is so obscure ton-Ho- it stumps ? even the experts. SMOKING MILD, FRAGRANT Kng Edwards ii another good AAeriean cuitom you're bound to enjoy. Choice Mended make King EJw-rd the world's UrgestselUr. 1 ii l( ... ings he is himself most of; but they will be their a door neighbors. JMo man t such a jealous lookout as an Hare. a gtti Ametican custom Most origin is tost in baseball's II A, K STRETCH If V, m UnM tMHiMSMr.) Rival Failings t)o you wish to find out a person's weak points? Note the failings he has the quickest eye for in others. They may not be the fail lII . Umi tnlolaka ho I I Uit ,n f j Uil tw (.let itllf v - ISO . 400 i y ' ii ra ft FLEISCHMANN'S DC tt t y JJ ' : "Js I vOf KvJl3 I C V Pi Cf L rrflfiM rrlmt&n LEFTY GOMEZ T d run-dow- n "God!" said Alec Maguire to of the leaaing ie Yankee comeback, for those or spritely who know his sprightly of one return journey nature, is the sometimes Vernon Lefty Gomez, known as the Great Goof. Yankees Vernon Lefty came to the 11 years ago from San Francisco at tne tender osc ONE a business CHAPTER X three sizes mak 6 nobody out. Also, there was a tough So I just held the hitter at bat ball." " 'Go ahead and pitch,' the umpire said. " 'That would be a foolish thing to do,' I answered. " 'As long as I hold this ball they can't hurt me. But who knows what will happen if I let It go.' " "What happened when you final-lthrew the ball," I asked. "I was right In the first place ' Lefty said. Gomez should stick around more years, since he knows how to pitch. Form lasts a long time. Here's an example. Back around 1898 Fmdlay Douglas won the amateur Roif championship of the United StVcs Forty-thre- e years later this Iri y ill mi With Inconveniences w:ll eniov tho !. must put up with the ' ' smoke t you if i iK if " 1 I I i - . i IJ j j ?l::tli ,T IllillH OVUI' , :ii vuc win. iuw IH .Mlf tlJ fliattos' a Kttpr i. - Itt flay. se-er- -al winter-- he ! "sLL-4- - 1- - H Salt Wt$ helped Byron Nelson pet a draw in one of the n.ain Florida shows. The veteran Mr. n,uBlM m shows w.lh much pride, a letter from Nelson to thi, effertl 00d swil,B "ever Rlve out. Th, years can't touth It." Al1 West fv-'r -- 'Win I I Room of Heart Plenty The willowy Goof, who is far from being goofy, always had hi. share of heart. You need the , ' Tick when you tfc.rt nut to world series games without win v a d When the Yankees were old peak a few years barkat vT''r they were mopping up bv ,2 ' games each season-Buc- kv It' of the Senators paid ute: "I'd rate the I 't)llc Yanks greatest bail club of au dally when Gome, j, tlr - Plcilm 'l"'" " !he til II IN The merchant who advertises must tr better than the merchant who do you r59 not. He must treat you as though to were the most influential in person ARE AN As a matter of cold fact you hold thf rt.0: r t,:. t,o;npss in J0 F Land3, 1 Ie knows L pr;- UE -R NTIAL SOM ar-Y- t He shows ifc And n'fitbygoodservice.bycourteoustrtat' and by lower prc incnt, by good value |