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Show AY t FEBRUARY 23, 1632 BEAR RIVER VALLEyXEADER,-THXJRS- IBE INNE : &f wa-- zto cni WIS cA Xoe by WNU Service.) Henry Kitchell Webster Company Gopy right THE STORY bjihe Bobbs-Merri- CHAPTER CHAPTER L Acting: ia perfectly rood faith in an effort to aid a neigh' ibor, Ruth Ingraham, In a business way, Edward Patterson, cashier of the Chicago agency of a life insurance company, ia wro.igly suspected by hi wife, Julia, of infidelity. Her practical accusation, in a letter from a summer resort, unfits him for business, and he takes a aiiort vacation. Patterson's weakness is a shirking: of responsibilhis moderately sucity, intensified bylife In a subordinate cessful business On return his from his vaposition. cation he is deeply wounded by his daughter, Edith, hesitatingly telling hint that his personal belongings were ia the "spare room," having been removed from the room which had been his and his wife's bedroem. CHAPTER II. Patterson accepts the of his wife's belief tltuation as proof Edith, IT years old, in worried over the estrangement of her a dim parents, having little more than omprehenslcti of the affair. Her mother only partly succeeds In her efforts to comfort her, though a lengthy talk with her father, in which he hints of a more or less secret longing for "adventure" in most people, somewhat cases her mind. The con, Edward, Junior, is at college. CHAPTER III. A business matter James Mariner, brings an "inventor," Into Patterson's life. Mariner needs f(,000, with which to push his invention, an automobile choke, and PatterAfter a brief in son is Interested. to go in with vestigation he decides the money and takMariner, supplying a business in the part ing majapr.e ment. He develops a liking for the work, a sense of freedom from the duties of his position with "V!Insurance company helping him. informing his family, he reywthoutfrom his position vi'h the insigns surance company, devoting his whole time to the pushing of the invention. An old friend, Albert Willard, is frankly skeptical of the value of the choke. Patterson tells his wife of the change he has made. Though surprised, and in a way blaming herself for his act, which she considers rash, she accepts the situation. ed . CHAPTER IV. Edith Is made aware of the change In the family fortunet the choke as yet being far from a financial success by her mother tell Ing her she has decided to part with the cook, she and Edith to de the housework. Edith senses in her father's act a longing for "adventure," cf which he had spoken At Christmas Edith's school, a private one, puts on a play. In Which the girl has a part. The night of the May her brother Edward comes from eoftege for the, holidays. With JiHa la Rog Morgan-- whom hlld. The girl's 141th had known ae "hit," espeacting In the play makes cially with Morgan, wMch plas. her hut she feels a Aack of the old time few days later her Christmas spirit. mother asks Edith If she would much mind leaving her present school and studies at the public high Inlshlng herwill mean a saving of sevschool. It eral hundred dollars, Aand Edith agrees, talk with Roger though regretful'y. Morgan heartens tier. Edward tells her he Is going to pay his own way university, jmd she' decides through the to leave school and take a course In a business college, fitting herself to become her father's stenographer. At first he Is shocked, but her determination Is evident. CHAPTER V. Edith finishes her ourse and takes the position In her office. She cheers Patterson her presence. At her urging he goes out as a salesman to sell the choke. He Is not unsuccessful, ltogether it was a trying exthough he admits shows an Inclination Mar'ner perience. te keep away from the factory. He is XX. Final-- ' .working on another Is"In.etition." with ly he declares he anddissatisfied wants to take their selling policy a business trtp through the country to ; California. Mariner's wife is there, and Patterson knows he wants to join her. Mariner finally admits It. Patterson gives him 1500 "for the trip," though both know it means Mariner's connec- -' tlon with the business is practically ended. 1 ! j ' ' I CHAPTER VI. Patterson really has a measure of success In personally choke, and comes to believe selling the he will make a salesman. He becomes acquainted with a man of means. "Jake" Gorman, whi seems to take an Interest In the choke and talks vaguemoney Into It. In Patly of putting terson's absence Gorman comes to the faotory. Edith handles him with much business tact, and he Is Impressed, the drives with him. In his car, to her father's elub and leaves the two men note from Roger, talking business. A on her action of congratulating her cheers her Immensely. Independence, Gorman continues to show Interest In the business but displays no desire to Invest money. Mariner writes from California that he has come to the conclusion the choke is "no good," and Patterson, though almost having the same conviction becomes discouraged. Gorman ha not finally- mad up his mind about Investing, but ha not refused. He Is about to be married. Patterson tell hi wlf and Edith that Willard ha refused to lend him money he need, advising him to give the business up. He can raise money by a mortgage on their home. His jutting Mate's ungrudging and Immediate con- tent seem to Infuriate htm. Edith leave them together. CHAPTER VII. Patterson's Indignation at his wife's unfair attitude for se long a time, flat.ies, and after a tryhe loses his ing scene, during which there Is a partial rectemper, though leave the he house. Gor. onciliation, man seemingly le his last hope. He him (It Is his goes to him, finding wedding day) In a highly nervous state. In the course of conversation Patterson learns that Gorman carries no life Insurance and at once Interests htm In a policy for a considerable sum. the Insursnce ofhVe end the They visit Patterson' compolicy Is enrr.iidtl out. transaction Is more mission than he could have Inmade out of Maryears. Arriving iner's "Invention" wife almost hysterihome, he finds his over what fear with might have cal and been the result of their quarrel, conresctlon. her attitude,bothwith histhere has that alwsys vince them been mutual love, though misunderstanding. Their reconciliation Is comsell the "choke conplete. Patterson for him, I ended, but cern," and that, and be feel he ha "found himself real business, he knows, I the hi Edith returns of Insurance. life selling career' to her sohooling. her "business ever, but It Is an older Edith aad a Patterson's through happier home, "beginning of advenUre," Emery County listed for oiling project covins: f 18,400. Castle Dale, Em cry County Frogress. Vt The Coward They compromised with Edith. It was agreed, after an evening's argument and a morning's investigation by Julia, that the child might go to her nice little business college for a trial month. By the end of that time, If she still wanted to, she could go to work for her father at the office. It was he who Insisted upon the delay. His wife, to his astonishment, after she had heard what Edith had to say about It, was In favor of letting her take the plunge at once. She was frankly enthusiastic over the plan. He had never been able to make out whether Julia believed In the auto choke or not. She had never said she thought their own car ran better with It, than before. She blew cold when he blew hot. She never took so dark a view of the future as when he came home buoyant over a good order or a Yet when the gorgeous prospect. prospect faded or the man who had sent In the big order turned out not to have the money to pay for It, when he found himself drifting on the rocks of despair, she just took hold of him and pulled him through. Often he recalled Bert Wlllard's saying that she was a good sport. It had surprised him at the time and It surprised him still. It was true true up to the hilt, in a way. It was true If you considered what she did. But If a good sport was an adventurer, who took hazards and defeats as a part even an enhancement of a game, then Julia was as little a sport as anyone he knew. Less than he himself. But whatever the source of her courage might be, the steadfastness of It sometimes made him gasp. And It was not, he believed, all a bluff, either. From some source or other she was She hadn't been finding happiness. so cheerful In months. He wondered rather bleakly whether this might be due to the cessation of their marital relations. Was that part of their life something she had always hated, and was It now her sustaining belief that she had escaped from It permanently? She confessed herself puzzled about the change In Edith. She'd known more of the girl's real feelings, of course, than he had. Anyhow, she was delighted with the change of heart. "It's really on her account more than yours," Julia amazingly told him, "that I want her trained to earn her living. I don't want her ever to have to wake up to the fact that she's helpless, at the mercy of some one else any one pise, not even the best husband In the world." She said It with such Intensity that he asked, before he stopped to think, "Did you ever feel like that?" "I don't, now," she said, and he was glad she went on tulking about Edith without giving him a chance to ask any more questions. "You must make It a real Job for her, Ned," she told him earnestly. "Pay her real wages, whatever she's worth, and always pay them, Just as you pay the others. And if she turns out not to be good enough, discharge her. Don't try to make her feel that she's just one of the family, 'helping out.' Don't try to pretend, to anybody, that she's doing It for fun." He said, "Of course not," in a rather aggrieved tone, hut he admitted to himself that this was exactly what he had been meaning to try to pretend. She bad made him wince by putting her finger on a sore spot. He had never realized before that he was a snob, but now the fact confronted hira. He had been trvlng to find a way to save his face. He flinched from the thought of Edith's going in on the train with him every morning under the eyes of his more prosperous acquaintances whose daughters didn't have to go to work. He had had In the back of his mind, even while Julia talked, the whimsical explanation he would make to Mariner when be told him who the new stenographer was going to be. He'd always said that snobbery was a specialized form of cowardice. He wasn't a coward was he? Mariner looked a bit blank when Edward told him of Edith's plan and his own tentative agreement to it, but he offered no overt objections. She'd find It a pretty dull way of spending her days, he thought, but of course she wouldn't have to stay If she found It so. "I don't believe she'll find It dull," Edward said. "It will take ber a week or so to get the hang of It, and It may prove too much for her, but If it does I'll let ber go and get some one else. It's to be a plain businesslike arrangement We'll pay ber a fair salary and see that aha earns It It's ber own Idea, from the tost, bnt It will be a material help to one If It works." Mariner said, "Oh, that's all right, f coarse," and apparently forgot all about It Be wan la a queer sort of It was mood, these days, anyhow. bard to be sure jou bad bis attention, for anything. Upon Edward, Edith's presence was profoundly disturbing. It gave the day a different color and texture from any that had gone before. It made the office a different place. That sort of electrical tingle which her presence put In the air couldn't be a permanent thing, could it? How long would It last? Why. It would Inst, Edward found himself deciding, long as he could play up to It. On the day she saw him slack, despondent, frightened, ready to quit, the spell would be broken. There had been nothing aggressively virtuous about her manner. She'd Just been natural Once, indeed, she'd mildly shocked him by uttering a perfectly audible d n" over some mistake in her typing, and once when she'd bent over his desk to see some correction he was pointing out to her, she'd forgotten she wasn't at home and rumpled his hair. No, she was all right She'd keep it np as long as be did ; as long as he remained the person she wanted him to be. She wouldn't be critical ; she'd take him for granted as long as she could. What she couldn't do was be sorry for him, encourage him, pull him up when she saw he was down. She could pull him up wonderfully as long as she didn't know It was necessary. That was what it came to, then. He must never give himself away. They got into the doldrums. The learned. And then, ef course. I have to be here, really; especially now that Mr. Mariner has practically abandoned us." He essayed a smile. -There has to be somebody on the exactly ns Impetus that their business had got from the automobile show in January had spent itself. Nobody now took any Interest in his car. The accessory game was hibernating. There'd be nothing much doing until spring, or at least until a few fine days gave a hint that It was coming. A real advertising campaign was the only thing that could possibly wake them up, right now. This was the burden of the salesmen's complaints. Edward did his best and it was a better best than he would have been capable of a month ago to inspirit them and keep them up to their work. He admitted It was a handicap that they weren't better supported by advertising, but a real campaign was out The financial reof the question. sources of the business didn't run to it. customer Edward had an on his hands one day and took him to lunch. When he got back to the office, about three o'clock, he found the city salesman dictating a letter to Edith. The glimpse he got of the man through the glass door, before be opened It, offended him. The fellow n ( j 1 ! bridge, yoU know." "Well. I'd be here," she reminded him. " mean. I usually know what to tell people now when they telephone. A inl I've sold three chokes this week to people !l0 were driving by and sNtjipeil to ,ee what It was like. Oh. of coijr.-c.- '' she after a - kiuiw concluded, . pau-eyou really are too was only wishing. I know busy. that anlo.',v who was any good could sell iho.se things." The afternoon mail came in Just then, like a godsend, and gave them something to do. But that talk of theirs wasn't forgotten. He didn't be lieve, at least, that she had forgotten it. As for himself, it kept gnawing away in his mind like a persistent mouse, audible whenever the silence gave him a chance to hear It. He couldn't be expected, could he, to rush out whenever he found a free moment and peddle their article about the neighborhood? "Can't I Interest you In the Mariner Auto Choke?" Of course it was preposterous. All the same, he grew acutely about the periods of unwelcome leisure which kept cropping up during his business days, and he resorted, sometimes, to rather farfetched occupations to fill them tip. Did Edith suspect the hollowness of his pretenses? If she were to see through him, what would she think? How would she account for his unwillingness to turn salesman, now and then, when he had a chance? Would she decide that he was lazy or afraid? Of course he believed In the auto choke. He believed it was a valuable adjunct to a car. He believed that it actually was better, more to be relied upon, cheaper In the long run than any of the other devices In the market which pretended to do more or less the same thing. He believed heartily enough in all this to hire glib young men to go about telling people it was true and trying to persuade them to buy chokes on their representation that It was. The only fault he had to find with these young men was that enough. That they didn't do pretty well disposed of his moral superiority, didn't it? Oh, he was making a mountain of a molehill ! He'd been arguing with himself about it until he was getting morbid. The thing to do would be to put one of the chokes Into his pocket some day, walk Into the nearest garage he came to and sell them a dozen. That would settle the question whether there was anything the matter with him or not ; take the sting out of Edith's "I know that anybody who was any good could sell those things." Of course, she'd been talking about the salesmen when she said that, not about him. Anyhow, he'd do it, when he had time, and restore his sense of proportion leave his mind free for dealing with matters that were really Im- sume a manner of hollow goodfellow-shi. . . "Say, friend, I've got some- thing here It made . . shirt p .' to think about It. Call it fear, if you liked. He'd do it though, some time. He was going to have to do It. He did discharge the city salesman and none of the applicants who anIn the paper was swered his want-an conceivably satisfactory. The salesman, too, was temporarily laid off. Mariner was more nearly nonexistent than ever. He and Edith had the office to themselves. There came a particularly bad day; no orders at all In the first mail; an obviously disingenuous letter from a customer who owed them quite a lot of money, offering a perfectly unnote Instead of bankable ninety-da- y the check Edward had counted upon another bad debt; a dun that he simply hadn't the heart to answer; a tax notice; and a long chatty letter from a bond house announcing an attractive se-offering of municipal stuvtt iasi thof rra o all Vnfhtnrr tn net ' the day was Ironically nne; me SKy, a piuiens com mue; iue winter's sun, In great, broad, golden splashes, making a mockery of his despair. He shut his book and put down his pen. Edith at that moment had gone Into the shop for a consultation with Charlie Franklin. He got up and put on his hat and overcoat With hands that trembled, he picked tip a sample choke and slipped It, along with a pad of order blanks, Into hla pocket. "I've got to go out for a while," he told Edith, when she came back into the office. "I may not be back before him sick d Face Wore a Fatuous Smile. was leaning essary, and face wore a around with over her closer than nechis fatuous smile, ne looked a perceptible start as his employer opened the door, straightened up, and said with a completely changed Yours very manner, "That's all. truly." He seemed suddenly, too, In a great hurry to get out on his rounds. He had a lot of people to see, be told Edward, between now and six o'clock. Almost against his will and aware that his voice didn't sound as casual as he meant It to, Edward asked, "Is that a business letter, Edith?" The girl laughed. "I should say not !" She turned around to him with nothing In her face but a grin of perfectly spontaneous amusement "It's the silliest stuff you ever saw. It's a letter to a girl. He is sort of a washout, Isn't he dad?" "I'm Inclined to Edward sighed. think be Is," he said. The sigh was half rueful, half relieved. He was glad Edith felt that way about him, but this feeling be kept to himself. "You wouldn't be broken-hearted- , then, If I let him go?" he asked. "Broken . . ." She whipped around upon him and mw by his grin that he was teasing her. "He Isn't really any "Oh, dear, good. Is he?" she asked. I wish you could get somebody that was some good. Or I wish . . ." She didn't go on to complete the alternative, and presently he asked her what It was. He didn't much want to, somehow. But the silence forced the question from him. "I wish you'd go out and sell the thing yourself," she said, "Just to show them np. He tried to laugh that off as a simple absurdity, but he found he couldn't let It go at that "I doubt If I could show them up, In the first place," he said. "You see I've never sold anything In my life. There's a special technique about it that I've never tax-exem- s, lunch." Well, he'd got out, anyway, he reflected, as he closed the door behind him. He was safe so far. Edith hadn't remarked anything queer aboul his voice. He walked away without direction, with no conscious objective. His hands were In his vercoat sockets and his fingers became conscious of the thing they were gripping that d d auto choke I He'd left the office with the Idea of making a sale, and with some unrecorded vow that he wouldn't come back until he had made a sale. ne was passing a big public garage now, and he paused before the show window. They nad all sorts of acces sorles In there. Why didn't he make his beginning here? Why didn't he go Inside and And the boss? And sat ran I Interest you . . ." He turned and walked hastily, al- - most furtlTcly, away, at tt his design might have been legible through the window to the boss the design, and the terror, too, that set him on his way once more. In flight again. He'd have to do it some time, though. He couldn't go back and face Edith until, i at least, he'd tried. He would try at ( the next garage be came to. After j all, they couldn't do anything to him. They couldn't even, with rudeness and ridicule, make him feel any worse than he felt right now. All the same, be went by two more before he tried one. At last he opened a door and went Inside. He took his auto choke out of his pocket and started In on the first man be saw. "Can I Interest you . . He didn't know what be was saying, but it must have 6ounded coherent since the man listened calmly enough; but after a while he yawned and said, "You'll have to talk to the boss. I ain't got nothing to do with it." "Is the boss out?" Edward asked. He thought for an instant he was going to get a reprieve, but the man said, "No, here he comes now." So he had to begin all over again. The fog lifted momentarily while he talked and he heard himself saying things . . . A customer had come In and the boss was getting uneasy. "Oh, It's all right, I guess," he said at last, "but there are so many of those things. No, I don't believe I'm Interested. Nothing doing Just now, anyway." He was out on the street once more. He had known It would come out like that What the boss had said was perfectly true; there were uncounted things to make cara run better, or more conveniently, offered being every day. Well, he'd tried, anyhow, and the experience hadn't been so bad. By comparison with the way he'd felt when he went into that place, he was almost elated. He might as well go on and try other places. He tried another and another and another. He lost count at last; didn't know how many he had tried. The thing was so obviously useless, he was surprised to find, In the main, so much tolerance. They let hira talk. They even seemed to listen, sometimes for one minute, sometimes for as many as five. The steady repetition of failure was wearing him down. The mood of desperation that had driven him from the office was once more engulfing him, with fatigue, crude bodily fatigue, on top of it. He couldn't go back to the office now. He was marked legibly with failure, branded with it. A queer reminiscence came over him of the other office; the handsomely furnished, comfortable office In the insurance company; of himself sitting in the easy chair, dictating to a smart, neat stenographer. The queer, almost unbelievable oddity about It was that he didn't wish himself back there. Not even now. For the man who had sat In that easy chair, comfortably salaried, secure, exercising an authority that was unquestioned aa far as It went, seemed to him not to have been a man at all a symbol; a stuffed good-humore- d portant. Naturally he'd find it unpleasant, a man of his years and position, to start out peddling, to try to get the attention of a man who was busy or pretending to be about something else and didn't want to listen to him; to as- The Fallow Was Leaning Over Her Closer Than Necestary and His PACE TTOlEl i i He turned Into the office of another public garage and asked it had become a mechanical question for the boss. "He's busy now," his informant said with a jerk of the thumb. "You'll have to wait a minute." Edward drew near and waited. It was another salesman who was talking to the boss, trying to sell hira a newfangled trouble light. Edward listened absently at first, but after a minute or two he noticed something. The salesman wasn't saying a word about the merits of his device. He was talking discounts, quoting Jobbers prices. There was a clean profit of two dollars and twenty-fiv- e cents In every individual light the boss could sell. That was more than a dollar better than he could hope for under ordinary conditions. He'd better let him leave a half a dozen on consignment while he was finding out what the demand amounted to. The salesman would come back In a few days and sell him a real order. Edward didn't try to make a sale In that place. He remembered, now, that his salesmen had always grumbled about discounts. He'd followed Mariner's lead in stiffly maintaining the price, ned learned someth ng more. Why ghould any of (he8e mt,edeaIeri care how much gasoline his device would save? They sold gasoline. They'd sell anything there was a handsome profit In, unless It were so hopeless a fraud that it kept coming back on their hands. He tried the new approach and found that half the time, perhaps, It worked. He accumulated a little list of dealers to whom ha was to send, next day, half a dozen of his chokes on consignment. He was dog tired by now, but somehow he couldn't stop. Something he didn't know what It was drove him on. At last, he visited a man who did not mean to hear a word of his story. He was a swarthy man, of sixty, perhaps, with a thick neck and a bullying voice. "Nothing doing at all," he said 'I've been listening to you fellows all day, and I'm through. Seer "I feel. I suppose, much as you do," Edward told him. "It's as tiring work trying to find the doors to Inaccessible minds as it Is to sit listening to strings Yet It's part of plausible nonsense. of your business to be curious and tolerant, and It's part of mine to be Indefatigable. I may have something yon want, and you may be a potential customer of mine. It won't take either of ns but a few minutes to find out" He wai conscious of baring created with this speech, some sort of disturb- - ance In the mental atmosphere f the man behind the counter. In particular, the word indefatigable seemed to have startled him. He'd been frightfully and embarrassed over his choice of words during the earlier encounters of the day, trying for the vocabulary, the phrases, even the inflections, of hard-boile- d salesmanship, and aware that he wasn't doing It suc- cessfully. Of late he'd been forgetting about this supposed necessity but It wasn't until now that he realized how far he had lapsed. Indefatigable wasn't the How about "inaconly one, either. cessible" and "potential" and "plausible nousense"! Surprisingly, though, they seemed not to have done his cause any harm. Possibly this ball of polysyllables had dazed his victim. The implacable hostility of his expression didn't change and he spoke as gruffly ns ever, hut what he said was, "What you got?" (To Be Continued) r 1 i I W That newspaper advertising arouses the interest of the public in the articles or service advertised. BIcrchandise or service, well advertised in the newspapers, is pretty well sold to prospective buyers. So well sold, in fact, that they will go st.aight to the advertiser when in need of articles or service advertised. It is a well known fact that newspapers use every precaution in their power to keep fraudulent advertising out of their papers. For that reasson the public has more confidence in news paper advertising than in any other form of advertising. Right now every merchant should pay particularlar attention to his advertising. Newspaper advertising catches the eyes and brings customers to a store; it causes sales. Newspaper advertising is a simple means of getting the seller and buyer together. ; Willard Johnson, chairman of the State National Bank, Shawnee, Oklahoma, says: "The hoarder of currency, the man who takes his money and hides' it away, is displaying the same degree-o- f intelligence as the ostrich, ' wIkv hides his head in the sand for safety. In the first place, he could buy stowt-time Government Securities and wmkt have as good or better securities, ami would also have a good income on his investment At the same time be would be helping himself and his fellow countrymen in relieving the depressed condition of our country. "The Federal Government, by the creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, has practically guaranteed the stability of our nation's credit structure. The Federal Reserve System is doing everything in their power to relieve business conditions by the expansion; of credit that is so sorely needed. However, the hoarder by withdrawing his money and hiding it away causes the individual banker to pursue the course of safety, and reduce the amount of loans and investments carried by his bank, thereby restricting credit and offsetting all the efforts of the Federal Reserve authorities. "Just as iii, time of war it takes the united effort of every individual member of the nation to assure victory, so in this time of economic depression the country needs the united cooperation of every individual to relieve the situation. The individual, by placing his money on deposit with the banks or by making good sound investments will be doing his part to restore this country and himself to prosperity. "We are inclined to blame our troubles to Wall Street or the government authorities, but that is just an alibi. Business in this country will be stabilized when and only when the average citizen demonstrates his confidence in the soundness of American Business." . fiTTy BARCLAYS HELPFUL HINTS vio-lentl- y. OUTDOOR COFFEE IXTHEN skating, sledding or enow-shoein- g, take along a thermos bottle of piping hot coffee. , , The crisp air will bring roees to four cheeks and the beverage will warm you up inside and IncreaM your resistance to the frosty air. Make coffee stronger than usual, and If you wish, add sugar and cream before you leave home. Be d ure the coffee la Just before it to alaeed la the thermos bottle. freshly-brewe- |
