OCR Text |
Show BEAR RIVER VALLEY LEADER, THURSDAY APRIL 7, 1932 te began hi atory story pthe Inadvertent! sale to Jake Gorman of a . life Insurance hundred-thousand-doll- contract "It wasn't what yon meant to do when you went after him 7 Bert ! cA Novel by IWSD Service.) Webster Henry KitcKell ' ife habbs-Mrri- ll Cbpyrighi by Company on the Edward had a window-sea-t He shady side of the THE STORY had opened his paper and was skimming the headlines; not reading them CHAPTER 1. Acting la perfeetl exactly, but giving them a fair chance cod faith in an effort to aid a anchIf they could. or, Ruth Ingraham, In a business to attract his attention war, Edward Patterson, cashier of the Glancing up, he saw Bert Willard Chicago agency of a lifa inauranca seat. No one company, ia wro.igrl aiiapected by hit in the act of passing his wife, Julia, of Infidelity. Mar practical had taken the other half of It yet ; the accusation, in a letter from ft summer car wasn't full enough for that He resort, unftts him for business, and ha got a sharp Impression the sharper takes a abort vacation. Patterson' weakness la a ahlrklng of responslbil-Itfor being unanalyzable that Bert had Intensified by hit moderately sucseen him and meant to pretend he cessful business life in a aubordlnate petition. Onia bis return from hia vahadn't. Equally surprising was his hla cation he wounded by deeply own Impulse, In the same moment, to eaghter, Edith, hesitatingly telling kin that hla personal belongings were let him go by unrecognized. Neverthela the "spare room," having been re- - less, he called his friend's name, and loved from the room which had been la and ala wife'a bedroom. Bert, with a start not quite convincingly genuine, came back and eat beCHAPTER II. Patterson accepts the side him. He opened his paper. iltuatlon aj proof of his wife'a belief a his guilt. Edith, if years old, is "Nice to have spring show signs of worried over the estrangement of her around again. Isn't It?" he said. parents, having little more than a dim coming Edward agreed that It was. "Got comprehension of the affair. Her mother only partly sueceeda In her efforts your golf started yet?" he asked, "I to oemfort her, though a lengthy talk with her father, in which he hints of should think a nice day like this would a mere or lesa secret longing for "adhave tempted you." venture" In moat- ' people, somewhat oases her mind.'- The son, Edward, "Oh, I get tempted sometimes when Junior, is at college. I don't fall," Bert answered absently. CHAPTER III. A business matter His eye was on the smudgy numerals . an "Inventor," James Mariner, In the Extra column the first three strings L Jnto Patterson's life. Mariner needs of the afternoon's ball game. VM,000, with which to push his invet.- - innings V4n, an automobile choke, and Patter-- v "The Cubs are showing signs of life oon is Interested. After a brief in this year," he remarked. "Wouldn't vestigatlon he decides to go in with surprise me if they turned out to be Mariner, supplying the money and taka part in the business manage ing pretty good." ment. He develops a liking for the Edward had nothing to say to that. work, a sense of freedom from the cut- d duties of his position with even make conversation the Insurance company helping him, He couldn't about baseball. He returned Into his Without Informing his famllv. ha re from his position vith the inown newspaper. signs surance company, devoting hi. whole This was worse than he'd expected time to the pushing of the Invention. An old friend, Albert Willard, is It to be. He had known, of course, of of the valua the frankly skeptical cnoke. ratterson tells bis wife of the that there was a loose end to be tied change he has made. Though surprised, off with Bert. He'd been meaning for and In a way blaming herself for his days to seek him out; tell him of the act, which she considers rash, she accepts the situation. revolutionary turn that had taken In his affairs; and. Incidentally, place CHAPTER IV. Edith la made aware acknowledge that Bert had been right, f the change In the family fortunes the eheko as yet being far from a more than right ; that he'd played the nanciai success oy iter mother ten to part wHk part of a true friend In circumstances her eke leg tfce cook, she and Rdlth to ee ho that had made It about" the "hardest housework. Edith senses In her fathing he could do. Of course he ther's act a longing for "adventure," of which he had spoken At Christshouldn't have put It i off. , It was inas Edith's school, a' private one, puta heavens, It wa more than two weeks a a play. In which the girl has a part The night of the May her brother Edsince t hat.-- ; ghastly &otnlng when ward comes from college for the nn- - they'd brought Edith "home from Asbe-vill. Edith had known as a htld. The girl's be," the; very next mornacting In the play makes a "hit," espehadn't Why cially with Morgan, wJe please her but she feels a ack Of the old time ing, at least written a note, apologisChristmas spirit. A few days later her ing and saying that be meant to follow mother asks Edith If she would much his advice?' Of course, not having n lad leaving her present school and at the public high done that, it had been progressively tnlahlng her studies school. It wilt mean a, saving of several hundred dollars, and Edith agrees, easier to put it off. And then, when though regretfully. A talk with Roger he had seen things moving to a point Morgan heartens her. Edward tells her where it was going to be possible to no is going to pay hla own way tnrourn me university, ana she decides show that he really didn't need any leave school and take a 'course In business college, fitting herself to outside help, there had been a reason become her father's stenographer. At for waiting for that point to arrive. first he is shocked, but her determinaIt had only arrived, as a matter of tion Is evident , fact, today. The train was slowing down. The CHAPTER V. Edfth finishes her course and takes the position in her brakeman put his head in the door father's office. She cheera Patterson by her presence.' At her urging he goes and called, "High Forest !" out as a salesman to sell the choke. The two newspapers were dropped Ho Is not eltogsther unsuccessful, simultaneously, and the two friends though he admits It was a trying experience. Mar'ner shows an Inclination at each other. They'd ridden to keep away from the factory. He Is stared five- - miles beyond their own station. working on another "In.etitlon." 'Finally he declarea he Is dissatisfied with ,"ti ill Hert said, 'mere was a their selling 4poHey'"and 'wants to take a business trip through' the country- - te twinkle in his eye, though, and the Ice California. Mariner's wife le there, and Patterson knows he wants to join her. Mariner finally admits It Patterson gives him 1600 "for the trip." though both know It means Mariner's connection 'with the business la practically ended.' n. I y, J ' and-drle- d '. e! CHAPTER VI. Patterson really has a measure of success in personally selling the choke, and comes to believe he will make a salesman. He becomes acquainted with a man f'l means. "Jake" Oorman, whi seems to take an choke and talks interest la the money Into It In Patterson's absence Oorman comes to the factory. Edith handles him with much tutlness' tact, and he Is Impressed, the drives with him. In his oar, to her father's elub and leaves the two men note from Roper, talking business. A en her her action of ibnffftulating cheers her Immensely. Independence, Oorman continues to show Interest In the business but displays no desire to Invest money. Mariner writes from California that ha has come to the conclusion the choke le "no good," and Patterson, though almost having the came eonvletlon bacomea discouraged. Oefman has not finally made up his mind anoui investing, out nas not refused. He le about to be married. Patterson tells hla wlft end Edith that willard ha refussd to lend him money ho aeeda advising him to give the business ap. He can raise money bv yvttlng a mortgage on their home. His wife'a ungrudging and Immediate con- to Infuriate him. Edith Jest seems then together. ' CHAPTER VII. Patterson's Indlgna. ties at hla wife'a unfair attitude for ao long a time, flar.is. and after a try- acene, which he loses his during lag tenner, though there Is a partial rec he leaves the house. Oor. caclllatlon, as aa seemingly la hla last hope.' He ' geee te him, f nding htm (It Is hi In a highly nervous wedding day) etate; Ta H eourse of- conversation that Oorman carries Patterson no life Insurance and at once Interests btsa In a policy for a considerable sum. They visit the Insurance office and the pelSey Is made' out Patterson's com mission on (he transaction I ' more than h eeald have made out of Mariner' invention" In years. Arriving horns', he finds hi wife almost hysterica) with fear over what might have been 'the result of their quarrel, and her attitude, with his reaction, convince them both that there has always been mutual love, thongh mfsunder. standing' Their reconciliation Is complete. Patterson sslls the Is"choke and that, for him. ended, but ho feels he haa "found himself and he real his baalness, knew, is the veiling ef life Insurance. Edith returns to her schooling, her "business career" over, but It Is an older Edith and a happier home, through Patterson's beginning of advtntara," - ' con-cera- ," Dn Yeu ' You, Ned," He Went On, "Were Going te Milwaukee Before You Said Anything r broke, with crash. "Dn you, Ned J" ha went on, "were you going to Milwaukee before you said anything? How are things going with you?" "All right," Edward told him. suppose I've stuck because the first thing' I bad (0 My was that I'd Ween a fool, and I don't really believe It yet At least,' If I was, I'm glad of it. I've got rid of the choke, though, I'll tell yoo all about H." get off here first," Bert tug ."Better " jested. "We don't want to rid another five miles on this train. We ran drive over to the golf club and have dinner. Tell our wives that's what we meant to do all along. No ue looking sillier than necessary." It wasn't until they'd washed up and sat down to dinner that Edward dn dn asked. "No," Edward told him. "I'm sure It wusu't, and yet I don't think I meant to ask him to put his money into the choke. I don't think I could have asked him. You'd convinced me, as far as my mind went that I'd be a crook If I persuaded anybody to invest In that I'd already gone out to ask Julia to let me put a mortgage on jllie house to keep the thing afloat and when It came to the point I wouldn't let her do it "Down Inside, there must have been somebody else in charge all the time. Not somebody else, really; myself, only I didn't know It It'g queer the way a man can live to be forty-si- x years old without ever making his own acquaintance; trying to live up to an idea of what he Is. what he can do and what he can't, fooling himself and making himself miserable at the same time." Bert wasn't In the mood for generalities. "All right." he said, "only go ahead. TeH me the rest of It." "There isn't a great deal to tell I went back and saw Vane the next morning. Told him I wanted a desk and a chance at a few big fish that had proved hard to land. I've been having the time of my life the last two weeks. I've got two or three of them already. Can you understand how I could see that game going on under my nose for twenty years and never want to play It?" "I always thought yon knew too much about It," Bert said. "Perhaps I thought I did" Edward conceded dubiously. Then he laughed. "It was selling a thing I didn't know anything about that waked me up, anyhow," he went on. He told Bert about Steinfeldt and the sale of the first carton of two dozen chokes. "Good lord, old man !" Bert said, "I If you'd told me didn't know that story the morning I came home from Asheville . . ." "Well then, it's lucky I didn't," Edward remarked. "If you hadn't jolted me out of It. I might have been down there yet, digging myself deeper and deeper In the mud." "You haven't told me yet how yon got out of it," Bert reminded him. "I thought you were coming back to me, If you decided to do that", "I would have," Edward said, and I'd had to, added, with a grin, but I found a certain satisfaction In getting by without doing it? I've: a feeling that I'm a bit of ft crook, but well, there's ft tori'M gatlsfactlon In that, too. ' This Is what happened: I got ft couple of week, perhaps," before the smaah-- lt was while you were .dowa t , Ashevllle-from ft firm of patent lawyer In town. A client of theirs was Interested In the Mariner patent, they '"aid,' and would consider baying It.-"After the smash; wheri I was figuring up my debts and what I could pay them with. It struck me that I might as well get what I could on the patent. So I told the people that If they wanted to make a serious proposition, I'd consider It. , "Just about then I got a letter from Mariner. The choke wasn't any good, he pointed out, and If I got a chance to sell It,' he thought I'd better take It Well, I put two and two together. I could just see him out there In Los Angeles, talking to another boob ex actly as he'd talked to me somebody who hadn't liked his vaporizer very well and was taken with his choke, I knew how he'd tell his story; the thing was going In a small way, but had fallen Into the hands of a piker who had neither put any real money into It nor allowed him. to make the Improvements In design that he wanted to make. But if he could persuade me to sell it out cheap, there was a fortune In It. "I never had any doubt from the moment I thought of it that that was the explanation. I figured up It would need a little over three thousand to let me out I didn't Include my own Investment In that, of course and named that as my figure for the patent lawyers. "They tried to bluff me out of It, but I stuck. Incidentally. I confirmed my guess as to who their client really was, and that made me hold on all the tighter. We closed the deal today. I've got the certified check for thirty-fiv- e hundred In my pocket. "Oh, I've come home In a barrel all right, as far at anything goes that you can show In the ledger. I've sunk about twelve thousand dollars In it and was lucky to get out at that The thing was a predestined failure just as you saw the day I fold you I'd gone Into It "And yet, Bert, I was right. 1 was right all the way through. I was aa fool, but It waa time for me to be fool, and down Inside, I oknewe It." o : ,c .o ,,-- r. When dad first auggested that aha go back to school Edith thought she didn't want to do C She felt a long " way out of It alL It arrnck her as her beneath dignity to be a rather, ' . ' schoolgirl again. "I'd feel awfully fonny learning lea-soand mfndlng roles, having to get permission befora I could , go and speak to anybody. Don't I seem more grown up to you than that, dad?" I don't want you to seem so," he told her. "After all, you are only You ought to feel like a seventeen. schoolgirl for a long while yet." Ho pretended to go back to his paper, but aha could see he wasn't reading, really. It was Sunday morn Ing, and mother had gone to church. . ... "If T i e PAGE THRES gmeaot to l bnt abe hat! bees ' It wosnt an attitude she consistenlazy about getting tip ' an ' was- - sttfl tly maintained. She liked to glggleT luxuriating In a negligee. She studied his face intently for a ( herself sometimes. She hung hack a while; then she went over to him. took ' little one day, coming out of French his newspaper and sat down on his lap. class, to give Isabel Norria and Jane "Yt u waiit me to go, don't you dad?" Cole, who were coming along behind her arm in arm, a chance to overtake hesi!d. "Why M you?" "(M n:y wn account, you mean?" he her. It would be fun to tell them what had happened to Myrtle Dowllng In nst.ciL I Kuppose I do. It will leave me a liule better satisfied with geometry the period before, Isabel and Jane appreciated Myrtle myself if I don't have to feel that I and would, Edith thought, enjoy hearhad my iUiir pr.rlly at your expense. That isn't the view of it I'd want you ing about the Incident. But they were to tal;e. though. I'd want you to do absorbed in a matter of their own. it Ur yourself, not for me. I thiuk Instinctively, Edith quickened her I can see how you feel about pace. She didn't know whether they your school friends. But if you flinch a were looking at her or not but she little at the thought of going back to wouldn't for anything in the world" them. Isn't now the best time to get have let them see that she'd meant to over it? You don't want to be cut wait for them. The crowd, her old off from them permanently. After all, crowd Martha, Carolyn, all of them they're your neighbors and for the had got up a beach party, and she most part they'll probably continue to hadn't been asked. Evidently she be. And then, to look at It practicalwasn't going to be. They'd deliberately. If you want to be a business womly kept her out of It They must have an and bare a job you ought to go to been planulng It for days, but, till now. she hadn't heard a word of It. college. There's one In Boston that makes a specialty of training girls to They could have asked her safely be secretaries. The first step toward enough ; she wouldn't have gone. It that would be to graduate from Miss would have been decent of them, Arthur's. You're pretty young to bethough, to give her a chance to say so. Evidently they'd meant to drop gin answering advertisements looking for a Job." her from the first Well, they wouldn't find any trouble doing it She gave her father a hug. "All She felt like turning around and right, dad," she said. "I'll go back. Only, do I have to do it all for my saying Just that to Isabel and Jane, self? Do you mind if I do just a but of course that would be beneath little for you?" her dignity. The thing to do was not "I don't mind," he told her with a to give them the satisfaction of know laugh. "I'm not as sensitive about ing she'd noticed. Carolyn was the one to keep away from. They walked sacrifices as I used to be." homo together sometimes on Friday She kissed him. "You're a peach, dad," she said. "I didn't use to know right after civics. that you were like this." She took a front seat and bolted "I didn't, either," he told her. "Do the minute class was out, snatched her you remember the day we rode out hat and coat, and fled. She hoped from town In the taxlcab after the she'd hear Carolyn call after her to u matinee? Your birthday, It was. You wait, but she didn't me told She found the house locked up. She there must be things besides mistakes that a person could make If remembered now that it was the day he got the chance, like the man In the mother was out to lunch. She was to have got her lunch at school. It didn't play who never knew he was clever and adventurous till after he had that matter She wasn't hungry anyway. dream. Well, my dream had many of She might as well study. She hadn't the qualities of a first-clas- s That nightanything else to do. Virgil mare, but I'm glad I had It, Just the was the thing she hated most. You the same." couldn't look words up In the lexicon, Going back to school was more of though, when your eyes kept getting an ordeal than she had anticipated A blurry all the time. She'd strained them probably. new sport suit which she had bought out of the savings of her salary was, It struck her that she ought to she felt, all that held her together the write a letter to Ed. She hadn't In first day. It wasn't that she was not ever so long not since the last one made cordially welcome. Indeed, the she'd done on the typewriter down at effusiveness of it struck her as overdad's office. done; the glad outcries at sight of She sat at her desk a long while, her, the hugs, the helpfulness showconnecting the blots on her desk pad with lines to make them Into geometriing her where things were that were just where they'd always been, finding cal figures, before she wrote anything her place In textbooks, sharpening her on the sheet of note paper she'd laid ' ; . out. pencils. As if she'd just had a terrible. Illness, or lost her mind or someAt last, ahe wrote "Dear. Ed" at tho thing. They must have done an awful top of it, and got herself started. lot of talking about her while she was "I don't suppose you'll be surprised out to make them bo anxious to make to get a letter from me written with a ; up for 1L pen, because mother has probably told She was very serious about her you that Fm not at the office any more, studies. It would be a frightful disand there Isn't any more office. I've appointment to dad if, after he'd spent gone back to school and I simply hate all - that money to put her back in it Dad wanted me to, so 1 went. think fm going to college in order to school, ahe should fall to graduate ! But she was glad she had a lot of be better prepared to take a Job." back work to make op. , It gave her She connected up a lot more blots an excuse for going straight home, to before she added anything to that, study, as soon as formal lessons were Then, writing pretty fast, she went on, over. "If, by any' chance, you see Mr. MorThere were no plays or teams or gan, yon might ask him If he happens to remember whether that secretary committees, now, to round out her of his father's went to college or not. days. Her place in the fabric of the school had closed up behind her when and If she did, what college It was. she left and there wasn't time to get don't suppose he'd remember, only If It back. She didn't feel like fooling he did happen to, I thought I'd like around with the old gang any more. to know. Yon don't need to ask him A lot of their talk went over her head unless you happen to see him. I re and some of it, she almost suspected, member be said once that she was an behind her back. Anyhow, they had a awfully good secretary, and that's whole new set of standing Jokes which what I want to be," she wasn't going to ask to have exShe couldn't think of anything more plained. She was on perfectly friendshe particularly wanted to say to Ed, ly tenna with them all, of course, but and yet she realized she couldn't end it was with a disheartening difference. It here. He might wonder why she She had endless Imaginary conversahadn't written it to Roger In the first tions with Roger about it, on her place. He might even show It to walks to and from school and while Were there any Roger. Heavens! misspelled words In It? She'd put in some more Junk when she could think better. She was really getting a headache. She was lying down with a wet handkerchief over her eyes when Mother struck mother came home. her, somehow, as sort of heartless; didn't taken her headache on trust at all; wanted to know what she eaten for lunch, and on being told she hadn't eaten anything, sent her down to the Ice box to get a glass of milk. Perhaps she'd have paid a little more attention and learned that - hunger wasn't really at the bottom of the trouble at all, If dad hadn't unexpectedly come home Just then, himself. He was sort of excited and In a perfectly terrific man. He wanted his bag packed while he shaved and changed his clothes so that he could catch the train to New York banker he that night There was knew taking that train and he thought If he went dowo with him he could sell some Insurance. Also, he had an Idea he wanted to take up with the home office some new sort of contract h wanted them to adopt. Instinctively, faith Quickened Her It looked for a while as If he weren't Pace, the Didn't Know Whether to notice that anything was going or at Wert Htr Net, Looking They with her. He did eom In at wrong But She Wouldn't for the World last and tell her he was sorry about Have Lot Thorn Sea he'd Meant n her headache. to Walt for Thorn. 'Til tell yoo what I'm going to do, she was dropping asleep at night. She Edith," he said. "If I can make the realized now how right he'd been company adopt this contract of mine I'll send you to Europe this summer about them all. They were young. u with the Willards. How about it? Ta how found real out hadn't yet They thing Ufa was. The; could go Into that a bet?" She told him It would be wonderful, new boh. spasms of excitement over but somehow she couldn't help feeling They'd giggle off and on, for days a little aggrieved to have a thing like over n break somebody made, saying that sprung upon her just then. And something that could be twisted Into of course a thing like that simply a moaning that hadn't been Intended couldn't happen really They spent hours discussing the negEven after they'd seen htm off In the ligible emotions of schoolings. It was taxi mother's distinctly bracing attisimply silly! tude toward ber headache persisted ,pjii "r. - 1 , five-thirt- - She'd feel a whole lot better, mother's tugge-rtlon- ' wat,'lf she'd dd her hair again and pot on her new sport eult SLe supposed she might as well, but she did It under protest rather. She was still upstairs when the doorbell rang and a tangle of familiar voices came up from the hall "Edith!" mother calk-d-. "Come down as soon as you're dressed. Here are some friends of yours." They'd come to take her to the beach party. It was a carefully preserved surprise or would have been If Jane and Ijsabel hadn't been such boneheads and given It away. Mothfr had known all alorg. That's why she'd sent her up to dress. She really did have a headache, though. She'd love to go to the party but she didn't believe she'd better. She was afraid she'd spoil the fun. Only Carolyn and Arthur Biidsall bad come In at first The rest of their load were waiting out in Jim Barnes car. " Now reinforcements were summoned to add their persuasions. The party had " been got up especially for Edith. ' h. "I won't go If you don't," Arthur managed to tell her In a determined whisper. "Where's Dorothy?" Edith asked him, (Dorothy was Arthur's sister.) "Isn't she going?" Carolyn laughed. "Arthur made her ride in Martha'a car with the tireless "Afraid she'C cooker," , she said. cramp bis style." It was really a very good evening for a beach parly freezing cold by the lake, especially after the sun went down.' They bad to tear around to keep warm. -- They ran races la tho sand ; tripped each other up ; wrestled. ' Wallace Carter did tumbling stunts cartwheels and things and his sister told him Edith could turn them better than that fi'Wf. !. "Show him, Edith!" the girls all f chorused, and Edith did. ' They sang songs afterward, around the fire close harmony, somebody called It, and it went as a i pretty good Joke. Well, they had to pack as tight together as they could in or' der not to freeze. "I'm sorry," Arthur said, removing a prop she'd been leaning heavily against "I guess my arm's gone to sleep. Do you mind If we sit around i the other way?" "I don't mind," Edith said content' edly. They weren't quite so wild going home sort of slack and lazy. No one laughed when at Edith's house Arthur got out, too, and told Km Barnes he thought he'd walk home to Stretch iJ';l''lJl his legs.' ';'' T," v"iJ, 'They sat down on the top step the porch. Edith hadn't anythlBej much to say. It had been a tewlbly nice evening, but It teemed to that It was ; over. Arthur" was. reellew, maneuvering around.' ""Well, good night," ht saia at last. He got up, and she' aid, todT'-nra corking party,;wasn'1tr 'he aald. "It sure was," she told him i'thi ' "Welli-goo- d n!gbt,''he said again, : shaking hands with her. She perceived his desperate resolve. .. He was going to kiss her. . , no adorable pucker Bat there was of a frown between his eyebrows. He was looking sort of silly, like a sheep. She got her hand back, though It took ; . a good sharp wrench to do. "Good night," eh called te blm as she skipped Indoors! It she'd undressed that ; liT unfinished letter to Ed she t m . light-hearted'- ?fr ti-- "Good Nltt-.i,- " Light-Heartedl- Indoors. She Called to I Him as the Skipped ;.' lying on the dtsk. Well, she bad something to add to It now. "I've Just been off on a horribly silly beach party. I didn't much want to go, but It was get top for1 me, to I had to. They're trice, bnt 4hey seew like awful kids. , rather has gone e New York on business. SomethUg about a new contract. - He says" If he put It over hell send ne te Bwepe with Agatha this summer, it weald be wonderful, of course, bnt it bmbcw me sor; of blue to think . aboeiMt When Is college out? Cfcmroewerntfent and everything, I mean. .IV simply hate to start before that because than I wouldn't aee yon at all, all summer, and If I go away to college In the fall oh, well, I probably won't go any. way. Much love. Edith. k Mr. "P. S. Don't bother Morgan about that, unless yoo happen to think of It. Only If I'm going te purpose I want te get college for the right one, and be might bars a Idea." ITHE END.) . to-as- |