Show "V THE SILVER By BERNARD 1 her?” She pointed to the street and there in the very middle of it sat a black Italian toy terrier complat ntly winking at its mistress from its highest pinnacle of danger So small it was that its size in an analysis of its general properties and characters would be a totally negligible quantity With the vehicles that were clattering or humming on either side of it at the Imminent risk of snuffing it out of existence it formed the antithesis of the helplessly little in the center of (Copyright by Joseph B Bowles) the pitilessly great It’ was over already He was hardly the work of a minute and was funny if it T was all bo new beautiful that he found had been dreaming that he was one for Bill to cut through the stream of and horses to make a himself talking with un- of the heroes in the battle of Bunker automobiles and Imper- Hill fighting with a black giraffe who handful of Antoinette and to return constrained sonal interest to the was reciting Lincoln’s speech about the toy to the hand of tho lady for of and by the people “Thank you” she said with a smile head nurse and to two or government to the audience at the high school of relief “It was very good of you! three of the cadet nurses in the hosin the old Poor little thing!” exercises they were commencement pital about’ the operation home smoke house him at She gave him her hand and looked very that upon to perform going By no means had it been a Fourth into his eyes day of July celebration — at least of the What a nice little maid The nurses in their neat little unithought forms of blue and white stripes the sane kind — and he was glad it was Bill now that he had a chance to over And yet he Imagined he would study her In what was undoubtedly head nurse in her spotless do it again so jolly and kind were all her normal state of mind In spite shining the resident doctor in his of which the good people at the hospital in the of the hat the volume white trousers and jacket’ the women who visited tho hosdays that followed while he was rap- seemed to have been determined in inthe operation verse ratio to that of the terrier she pital and to whom in spite of their idly recovering from one of the neatest was unquestionably everybody and from the shock simple attire and manners To Bill went home and in due course little maids he had ever seen seemed to pay such respect and atand the superintendent of of time they supplied him with a sib Bill’s philosophical eyes she looked tention who had come ver Jaw which took the place of the like a girl who was young enough to the hospital himself had taken out — a be in the last year of the high school up to see Bill three or four times the one that Crlnger silver jaw so neatly and artfully made and old enough to be out of it She day before while Bill was “resting were all so and fitted that Bill himself — to say was Just the kind of a girl he would up" for the operation almost would never have fancied for a companion he of mother— had he his nice and kind to him that nothing would have have known tte difference ever given any particular thought to forgot it and probably were it’ not Now I will not be sure that It was the subject in a serious way There it altogether forgotten of this perfect silver was nothing extravagant about her — for the fact that he missed his regu- the possession lar breakfast jaw that caused Bill to feel that he it you allowed for the size of the hat Conof in was other the hat itAnd even in the matter a little better than the Over at the old homestead self it occurred to Bill for the first necticut Bill had always Imagined that young fellows In the neighborhood nor isit possible in the present un- time that perhaps these large hats a hospital In tte big city was a dark to that to him had looked like inverted nnd dismal den in which a man was certain state of human knowledge and had filled him with disthing in a wet blanket on the floor assert with positiveness that the mere he possession of a silver jaw however gust’ for the supine insanity of men there 'until and let stay True Bill was perfect is an extraordinary warrant in general and of women in particudid from hunger ourselves the favor- lar had been originally designed for ouly nineteen and still had the world for prefiguring — like chance girls of a certain natural before him and the experience you ites of capricious And then But apart from the merits of such a this one for example are likely to get in nineteen years of life on a Connec- question it will be desirable to note there was another phase of her that joung and ticut homestead farm is scarcely tue that Bill was soon busy preparing looked good to Bill — and it was a kind of thing that makes you im- himself for the practise of law with phase that had been markedly absent the ultimate object of becoming pres- from most of the girls that had bothto the strong impressions pervious that stream in upon you when you ident of the United States or in any ered him — up to the present She was the most sensible question come to the city and plunge into the event a United States senator — the without intricate mazes of an particular state he purposed to repre- girl he had ever met She could look sent not being specified in the con- at you and talk to you just as if she civilization ' wore a mam nothing of the giggling But the most wonderful thing about tract To be perfectly fair to Bill and to or squeaking order about this one all this business wa the ourselves I must admit that he was none of that fool grinning you see in personality of Crlnger a trifle crude crude I mean in his the case of the regular girls you pick Crlnger was a Burgeon for whom notions about the ultimate constitution up here and there in the stray mo-all sorts of hideous long words coninscrutable of human society which means in the ments of a busy and thoughtful life in the perfectly cealing of He fancied that he would wait for depths of their Greek derivations the concrete the peculiar opinion were their own importance entertained as awhile before returning to his father’s most awful things imaginable roof and he grinned like an inane a general rule by the rich Likewise the food of his body and the breath he was preternaturally slow — so slow lout of his soul “That’s a nice little dog isn’t it?” To know Crlnger Intimately and as to be virtually motionless — in his indi"Yes it is a very nice little dog surface to convinced that your by be well was to distinguish ability beDo you live In New York?” life was Incomplete and a failure had cations the essential difference With Skinnim “Yes In the law tween the very best people — the blue you not been internally mutilated— Yale nineteen and preferably )y the hand of Crlnger points and cherry stones of the human Skinner & Skinnem Phi Beta Kappa” And when Bill came to see race — and the oysters that come to six hiragelf Beta is And “What Phi bulk trouble if barrel us Kappa?” the in you by him that time about that little know so "Don’t you what Phi Beta in bis left upper Jaw Crlnger had supply this broad conception of Bill tendency to speak out Kappa is? It’s the scholarship frat thoroughly hypnotized him that Bill with a rank Like this one” went to the hospital in the same state his mind — but you will see how he They give you keys I presume “The key of knowledge of mind with which he was wont to carried it with Angelique Van Loo Now although Bill had managed to How pretty!" look forward to a Fourth of July cele“ ’Tisn’t so awfully pretty but it’s bration push himself through Yale and to himself through the law pretty hard to get Have you ever ’’It’s a pity too!" the head nurse squeeze and to edge himself into the been to a college?” said to Crlnger “He’s such a hand- school No she had never been to college some dear boy and so simple and privilege of practising law at the bar his Not a doubt about it she was a for of New York he was poorer at the And he’s so big trusting She had never end of it than he had been at the be- simple little maid age!” He about She was pinning a towel ginning His silver jaw did not com- even heard of Phi Beta Kappa had a fancy he would like to tell her Cripgcr’s head as a precaution against pensate him for the want of a golden and the rest Phi while was Beta about his of infection Kappa he the mouth and jourbeginning patient possible him of at the ney to the White House in the capacit would be over Crlnger “Wouldn’t in the hanger-oyou like to hear about ity of a operation “What do you mean?’’ grunted the office of a lawyer who needed for his the fraternities they have in the uniown use the clients that sifted down versity?” surgeon severely “Have world or him time to tell me about from that him to you the wretchedly upper “Why it'll disfigure floated won’t it?” up to him from the under them?” I’d Just as soon “Time? Why yes “Disfigure him? I should say not!” Bill was about to make up his mind a one day that he woqld return to his tell you about them as not You real“But you can hardly remove when ly ought to know about the college father’s house in Connecticut person’s upper jaw without disfiguring a person can you?" the mystic and magic spell that lay in fraternities People will believe that drawled Crlnger as if he the silver jaw flung him up at the feet you never had any education at all if Van Loo as she stood you happen not to know about that” “I of Angelique had been suddenly enlightened “If they do” said the girl “they You have on the edge of the sidewalk her bands see how it is with you! her face will happen to be perfectly right” never heard of such a thing as a sil- clasped upon her breast Don’t transfigured with terror and her eyes ver Jaw! — Never mind now! They were walking up the avenue docfixed on some indeterminate point in and it seemed to Bill that she was you try to let on anything to the A silver jaw is one of the little space tor! looking straight ahead to a degree As Bill approached her she turned that was altogether unnecessary Nor tricks of the trade that you happened to miss in the course of your wonder- and seized him by the lapels of bis did she seem at all aware that Bill was emowith He a know coat Don’t felt that ful experience strange you making himself dizzy with the sight we Just fit them out with a silver tion the force of her neatly gloved of her Suddenly she stopped and jaw in the place of the old one and little hands drawing him toward her faced him “Are you on your way to your ofthat they’re just as good as ever? and he was astounded by the look of I believe that distress and horror in her eyes and fice?” she asked him under the eaves Yes better than ever I’d sooner have a good silver jaw by her frantic appeal of the hat And as for this than the one I’ve g “The office? Why no The ofilce “Oh save her! Save her won’t you? resection that I’m going to do— why Please save her! I know I shall die is away down town” I’ve done if you don’t!” with It’s nothing nothing at all She looked at him evident No more to it than it ten times He gazed around in the general di- hesitation with a deep questioning there is to drinking a cup of coffee rection of the upper stories of the in her eyes and then glanced up at brown stone house bebefore you get up out of bed in the houses and then looked down into the Then the face of his mysterious beseecber fore them Are they ready? morning “This is my home” she said "Won’t bring him up” "You fool!” she cried “Why do you As they brought Bill up be could look around you like that? Will you you come in?” bear Crlnger laughing with one of his save her thU minute or will you not? And that was the way he met her assistants — laughing and chatting as Do you wish me to go mad?” It was certainly strange thought if hospitals and other gloomy things Bill that a big lubber like himself Again did Bill take in the of the kind had no existence whatever could win without trying a trump of avenue and again look down influBut Cringer’s Van Loo a Btrong hypnotic girl such as Angelique upon his petitioner He was a shrewd ence was not quite sufficient to preyoung man with a smattering of the Win her without even making a fight vent Bill from feeling a little nerveus law and he therefore refused to be for it There was nothing fidgety or as they gave him an eighth of a grain drawn into a careless expression of a foolish about her not a single thing of morphine and placed a pneumatic or wish that madness should seize up in And there was nothing fidgety about either of her aunts pillow under his head to let him rest anyone But while he was craftily foolish And a little before the anesthesia thinking of all these things she re- either Solid sensible women all of Bill was never so surprised in the laxed her them ’They seemed to be boarding grip upon his coat entire nineteen years of his life as "Won’t you please save her?" she in that big house on the avenue alhe was when Crjnger lifted him up to begged half coaxlngly though they had never told him so in half sad a sitting posture and asked him how so many words “Save WHO?" asked Bill the enThey had spoken he felt tire structure of his four years of about him with great freedom but Was it over already? He knew they English collapsing at a stroke they seldom talked of themselves or She was looking at him by this time their own affairs They cerwere tad been doing something villainous to his face and he was woefully drunk with an impatient yet forbearing con- tainly good plain sensible women from the mixture of ether and chloro- descension which seemed to say that Just the kind of women that would form they had used in putting hfrn to one must put up with the lack of in- make a good wife for a man who had But be certainly thought it telligence and want of tact one finds to make his way In the world by bis sleep JAW ' in persons of a certain kind Her brows were lifted with the barest perceptible touch of scorn at the in Bill’s grammar but these were things that were wholly unobserved by ttie lawyer “Who? Antoinette Don’t you see MEER i own brains and energy But he wondered why it was that they never seemed to have any company but himself and why it was that her aunts careful of seemed to he so Infernally her There was something mysterious about the whole outfit — when a felover of an low took time to think it And thinking evening with his pipe it over with and without tho pipe for a had been Bill’s sole occupation matter of three months during which the more he thought of it the stranger it seemed to grow Bill and the aunts had talked about every phase of the case — so far as Bill himself was concerned Questioned by the aunts— nicely gently in the most simple and way In the worlds but and practical when he came to think of it Bill had been turned inside out and studied in all his tissues with At one or another the microscope time he had told them— when he came to think of It— everything of imporsince the tance that had happened They would disday of his birth cuss him— those aunts of hers — before his very face as if he were not there at all with nods of approval to each other whenever they were specially pleased with any of Bill’s various acor virtues They complishments seemed to be particularly gratified when he gave them an account of his with extra vigor family tree nodding as much as to say that there was no need of going into that subject any farther Yes yes Good old Connecticut family — farmers you know but and not with excellent connections When undistinguished in history they discussed him in that strange way Bill seemed to feel rather queer and yet he could not bring himself to challenge it They did it in such a nice little way that Bill even at times imagined for a minute that he was not the party under fire at all that ho himself was one of the aunts and that the man they were talking about was Borne fellow in New Jersey But there was yet a thing that Bill had not given up to them a thing that one way or another he could not bring himself to disclose it was altogether such a delicate and personal matter with himself No doubt he would have told them long ago about the silver jaw had he not feared that the disclosure would And yet prove a shock to Angelique would not let him rest his conscience while the Jaw remained a secret a silwith for man a It Was right ver Jaw to marry the finest girl in the world without telling her that that left upper maxillary of his was made of silver instead of bone? If Bhe took him with the understanding that his jaw was of the usual manufacture would tnot the contract be void to the law of contract as he found it expounded in the books? It was Indeed a knotty problem altogether too knotty for Bill’s as yet undeveloped legal penetration and he decided in the depths of his woe to seek out Doctor Crlnger and get his Doctors are advice on the question always good counsel thought Bill especially when they have cut three or four pieces out of a man’s anatomy and have set him up again as good as new When Bill had told him the story being careful to omit the lady’s name Crlnger became thoughtful a mo- ment “Has she got any money?” “No” said Bill “She lives in a big boarding house on the avenue” with “Then” announced Crlnger prompt decision “your course is clear I assume that you are looking for a In wife and not for a which case up and tell her that you If she cares a have a silver jaw straw for you she won’t let a little detail like that interfere for a minShe will go ute with the husiness to you like a horse to his oats If she balks you can be certain that she doesn’t care as much for you as she cares for a baby cat And in that case my boy you’ll be better off without her Take my own case for inWhen I was courting— but stance come back Bill and let me know how she takes it will you?” Bill went away no better than he To him Cringer’s advice had come had small comfort in it If she did not care enough of him to take him with the silver jaw as boots in the bargain he had no desire to be of the fact He was anything but hankering for proof positive that she was not the square little nice little girl he thought her And besides all that the business had run along so smoothly and so fast that it would be a shame to spoil it now Hang the silver Jaw anyway! But as Cringer’s advice worked itself slowly into the texture of his mind he began to take 'another view of the question It was possible after all that Crlnger was right It was just possible that she had been fooling with I’m all this long time putting on those nice little ways of hers looking sideways with her eyes and all that sort of business and pretending to sigh like that as they were hands when the aunts' let holding them alone for a minute When he came to think of it he never did have much faith in women anyway They were all a bad lot not worth a man’s while bothering with after all! If he thought she was fooling him — Yes He would follow Cringer’s advice and put it up to her But' it was not such an easy thing to do when Bill tried it that very afternoon She looked a little frightened when he began to stutter hnd splutter about “a secret in his life that he felt he ought to confess" and when he said that he had been the subject of she a surgical operation distinctly drew away from him and stared at him with positive alarm But when he plumped it out’ and told her that the result of the qperatlon was the silver jaw he at that moment was using Angelique Van Loo rose from where she sat and looked at him with Immeasurable contempt “You!" Bhe exclaimed me that! “You! He took another turn around again came up to Bill and again with him surveyed This 'time he said it long speculation drawn out and laden with subsiding How surprise: “Great Scott!” There was evidently little help to be To Bill’s mind Had he been a honored toad or a had from Cringer Gila monster she could not have re- Cringer was laboring under an attack which from garded him with a superior horror of mental aberration and then recovering herself she left there could issue no word of comfort He took his hat and went him alone the victim of her Incom- or hope away leaving Crlnger in a state of prehensible scorn his He resumed Now this was a posture of things stupid inaction that Bill had not been prepared for wandering life for a period of two Had a volume of the revised statutes days eating nothing and sleeping afternoon suddenly exploded while he was read- hardly at all On the third ing at it he could not have been his hunger tempted him to a meal his courage He had fgured on a and the meal restored more surprised but he had and the courage eventuated in a plan thousand possibilities never even thought of this and be He would return to the home of was sitting there with open mouth Angelique Van Loo and would tell He staring at the doorway through which her what he thought of her! she had disappeared a man that was would tell her he was glad she had He would tell her he She had certainly rejected him wholly undone made a good Job of it while she was despised her millions and her aunts He would tell her— but he would wait about it He turned with positive relief as until he would see her face to face her aunts came into the room appar- for the formulation of the entire mesHe could see her so clearly in sage excitement at in great ently They that he closely least were solid and sensible women his Imagination and would listen to his story with rear watched the door of the restaurant os But Bill seemed the chance she would enter there sonable politeness to be unfortunate in this expectation It was odd too that he never once also The ladies seemed to have be- thought of James and when James come as frigid as they were hospitopened the door for him and came able before Frig'd and decidedly out a little way into the nuter hall A silver jaw Oh dear and stood before BjM with a sneer on fidgety no It was Impossible even to think his fat red face the angry passions of of marriage when one has a silver jaw! Bill began to rise But his voice was his good sense would tell gentle and calm as he spoke They hoped him that any expectations in that di"Don’t look at me that way Shorty rection would be the height of the ri- I don’t like it!” diculous' Would he mind if the acThe open hand of Bill came down at were considered on the varlet’s shoulder with rare and directly quaintance an end? Of course his own appreciation wonderful power so that one fat of propriety would directly Inform body shook with the Bhock of It him that it would be unkind of him “Not that way Shorty (slap) I don’t to address himself further to Miss like it (slap) I don’t like (slap) to Van Loo should he chance to meet be looked at (slap) that way Shorty her away from her home In fine (slap) Do you” hear what I say they would Bend James to usher him (slap) Shorty? Now go and tell them out Shorty that I’m here” James was a short species of varlet The was standing up to the accent whom Bill punishment with an English of his shoulder like a and with the wooden horse in a gymnasium particularly despised natural instinct of his breed he meta- and he did not observe that kicked the young limb of the two guardians phorically of Angelique the law out of the door and into the Van Loo were behind him in the hall street to Bill is They now came forward And then there followed with Bill warm and smiling welcome a period of depression such as is “Oh William it’s you isn’t it? Sk common with heroic youths when the fortunate you called this afternoon!” fluent current of their loves is stopped The dear fussy ladles one to the or other prosaic and fore and the other to the aft of him by a material obstacle that refuses to be dragged him and pushed him luto the For four big front room and piled him into a budged by vain Incantation weeks he wandered about in the rain chair and shine by day and night through One of them was telling him that the busy thoroughfares among men she had told Angelique that she would who were happy in their ignorance of never believe he could be such a Van Loo and other disAngeliques heartless fellow as that! Surely He even if it were a fact it would be an in business turbing factors strayed among the ships in the East unheard of and monstrous thing for river and at times thought of ap- a man to be guilty of such a cruel prenticing himself to a Malay pirate and unkind trick especially when it And was known to everybody find one could be conveniently and the then he thought of Cringer Crlnger poor dear girl was almost insane from had requested him to return and ad- grief and shame vise with him on the result of the ex The other one was telling him that periment but Bill had forgotten all of course they had practised a little about it Now that he fhcalled it he deceit upon him in allowing him to redecided that he would go back to main in ignorance of ' Angelique’s He bad to talk wealth and position Cringer and confess but they had to somebody or jump from the bridge done it with the best intentions In man and Cringer was the the world as it was perfectly obvious The surgeon listened gravely to tho that William being such a simple big whole story — this time with intensifellow had really never suspected fied interest anything of the kind and probably “What is her name?” he asked would never have suspected until when Bill had finished "Who is this long afterwards but at the same time miraculous Juliet of the Capulets?” she had said to her sister that we are “Her name is Angelique Van Loo” sure to weave a fatal web when first said Bill from the lowest depths we practise to tell fibs to people but Cringer glanced at him quickly as everything was all right now wasn’t if he were trying to make out wheth- it or at least she hoped it was er Bill were suffering from homicidal And then the pair of them joined mania or was afflicted only with a voices and said it all over again mild and harmless form of dementia thoroughly revised and with the in"You’re sure? Are you sure that troduction of considerable new matthat is her name?” ter which'Bill was at a total loss to Bill understand of course” answered Of course they had not “Why impatiently “She lives in a big house suspected that he had a silver jaw on the avenue with her two old aunts too and that was the reason why it’s her name Of course Why Angelique had thought him so very : shouldn’t it be?" for speaking of it But contemptible they had planned to tell him all about Cringer gave a long whistle "Bill" he said “you are certainly It the very day that he and Angelique the delight and the wonder of the had quarreled You know poor child world! Great she had made up her mind never to Angelique Van Loo! Scott!” and it was so fortunate that marry He took a turn around the room and Doctor Crlnger had called and excame back to his visitor plained to them the whole strange “Great Scott!” Providential wasn’t it that story! He blew his breath through his they had consulted Cringer about pursed up lips as if he were exces- Angelique within the very week of sively warm and once again exclaimed: the operation on William himself? Bill was still in the fog “Great Scott!” He looked ' And then he looked at Bill with a from one of the aunts to the other as as if Bill face of wonder had if they had been speaking a particubeen a live pongo that had been sud- larly difficult dialect of Chinese the" denly picked up in Africa and miracmeaning of which while intensely inulously thrust before him teresting to themselves no doubt was "Don’t you know who Ang3l!que of no importance whatever to the Van Ioo is Bill? Do you mean to tell world at large And when they had me that you never heard of her?” winded themsdlYes with thoroughly “No” replied Bill taking alarm at talk they had time to take nole of Cringer’s queer reception of the sim- Bill’s peculiar condition name of statement Angelique's The big stupid! Couldn’t he comple Bill Angelique Van Loo is prehend that Angelique herself had a "Why one of the most notable young women silver Jaw like his own? And that She Is the sole in- she had never dreamed that Bill was in the world AmI that she heritor of the Van Loo millions — mil- similarly equipped? lions enough to set you up in the rail- bad imagined he was basely hinting road business if you could get her at the cruel gossip that had malicioussaid But that isn’t all” Cringer ly whispered that if it were not for “There’s a great deal more to it than her millions Bhe would never find a lover who would 16ve her — and so on that You bet there is!” “What is it?” asked Bill eagerly with the rest of it Aha! ‘'There’s about mysterious something thought Bill That was the them whatever it is Never saw a secret that Crlnger had kept from Never even him was it? Why to be sure! And soul there but myself But I don’t them with had dinner finally when it was made as clear to care a cent about the millions and him as it possibly could be and when she herself didn’t seem to care about Bill in his anxiety as to whether a them either Said she was willing to silver Jaw could interfere with tho of a certain go and live on the farm with me in health and happiness Connecticut and sensitive girl Aunts said they’d come had Just doted on the gone to Crlnger for his professional along with us simple life and all that don’t you opinion Cringer had snapped his know” fingers in disdain and had given his Cringer was puzzling himself with characteristic reply "There’s a question and after a bit of reflecnothing to it I full you tion apparently decided he would keep Nothing at all Td be willing to make bis own bands out of it— Just then an exchange with her myself” V dare you tell I hate you!” 1 loathe you! f i |