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Show JS" r i MY By JOSEPH NfcCORD VNll'sr. THE STORY SO FAR: Larry Cutter startled pretty Jacqueline (Jack) Anthony, An-thony, public stenographer at the Hotel Raynear, by telling Der she could realize her globe-trotting ambitions by marrying marry-ing him. They were married after sign- INSTALLMENT ELEVEN ing a contract providing that she may continue to live as she is living for six months, after which she could tear up the contract. He gave her $J0,000 as surety. Jacqueline warned Larry when she learned that Detective Staples was watching him. She cashed one of the bonds Larry had given her when her father, fa-ther, Vlnce Anthony, needed in operation. opera-tion. After the operation, LarTy drove Jacqueline to see his former name. Now continue with the story. -l -1 r.- v.- iT- v was sure of was that she never had looked quite so adorable. Her answer an-swer was not what he expected. "You have made me respect you, Larry. But tonight . . ." "What about tonight?" "You've done your best to tear things down. And I can't seem to do anything about it." Her hand was working at the door fastening. But her gaze did not falter. "Look here, Jack!" Larry exclaimed, ex-claimed, almost roughly. "You're looking at all this the wrong way. God knows I want to do everything in the world for you! And all I can do is run around the picture, nibbling nib-bling at the edges. I can't come into it ... so don't grudge me that little. There are so many things I'd like to do. Really important things. One above all, this minute min-ute ..." "What?" "Kiss you between the eyes . . . just where that little pucker is." But Jacqueline had fled. Once in the sanctuary' of her apartment, Jacqueline dropped wearily wea-rily into a chair and thrust her hat from her head. She never had felt so helpless, so baffled. Checkmated at every turn . if ".- ." 7 Jacqueline's disappointment increased in-creased when Larry showed no disposition dis-position to converse about his former home. He talked of inconsequential matters until they were back in the city, when he asked suddenly: "Did you finish scolding me? We haven't much time left now." "I think so," was the short answer. an-swer. Larry was rather exasperating exasperat-ing at times. "Just wanted to be sure. I'm a I little afraid J may be letting myself in for another one now." "What do you mean?" "I've been thinking a little about Mr. Anthony. He'll be coming out of the hospital soon. What are you planning?" "I don't know," Jacqueline answered an-swered helplessly. The mention of the problem drove everything else from her mind. "You know ..." Larry paused uncertainly. "I haven't a dad of my own. I could use one just now. How are the chances of borrowing Vince?" "Borrow Vince?" Jacqueline's voice betrayed her complete amazement. amaze-ment. "That's right," was Larry's quiet reply. "But . . what do you mean?" "Simple enough. When he gets out of that bed, he isn't going to be able to do much for himself, in spite of what he thinks now. He's going to need a good deal of care, rest, and proper food. All that sort of thing. How is it going to fit into your picture?" "I know that Vince will need looking look-ing after. I'll attend to that." "Surely. You can do it better than anyone else in the world. But you'll find it's going to break into your day somewhat." "I'll manage." "Figure on giving up your job?" "Oh, I can't do that now! But I might take a vacation until Vince is able to look after himself." "If you keep him with you, that means a move, doesn't it?" "Yes." Jacqueline did not succeed suc-ceed in keeping the regret out of her voice. Each time she thought of leaving that little apartment on Courtland street, a lump came into her throat. It seemed the only real home she ever had known. "I think that would be letting yourself in for a lot of unnecessary bother," Larry said. "I've a much better plan than that." "What is it?" Jacqueline resolved to be on her guard. "There's a place up in the country coun-try I know of . . . it's a farm, in fact. Swell place for Vince. Lots of fresh air, eggs, milk and that sort of thing. Just what he needs while he's recuperating. He could take all his traps along and amuse himself any way he wanted." "It might be too expensive ..." Jacqueline hated to say that. Everything Ev-erything that happened now seemed to have its financial aspect. And ' her own finances were so intolerably enmeshed in Larry's. "Dirt cheap," Larry insisted eas-! eas-! ily. "They don't know about city prices up there. I think it's the thing to do." "I'm not going to be separated again from Vince. He needs me." "Then come with us." "Us! " she echoed. "Yes. I'm thinking of going into retirement for a while. That's what I meant about borrowing Vince,' you see. I'd like him for company and . . . well, I figure there are some things we can do together." "What sort of things?" Jacqueline asked quietly. "I'm going in for some research," was Larry's sober reply. "I can use the services of an inventor, when your dad gets up and about. Incidentally, Inci-dentally, I'm rather interested in that project he's working on. I think it has possibilities." "Larry, you can't blame me if I form some opinions of my own. I suppose it sounds very silly to you, but I feel responsible for Vince." "You think there is some danger of his becoming involved." "Perhaps. I don't want to hurt your feelings . . . after all you've done. But you must understand how I feel. If this is just another way of being nice to me . . . it's rather Intolerable." Larry dropped his bantering tone. "I still think it's a much better plan," he continued imperturbably, "than for you to leave your apartment apart-ment and make Vince shift for himself him-self while you're at work. The only better plan I could suggest would be for you to come along. Vince's being with us would make it perfectly proper." "You speak as if it were already settled," was her sarcastic retort. "Oh, it really is. I put it up to Vince this afternoon. He's quite keen about it." Jacqueline was making ready to leave the car without another word when Larry spoke softly. "Jack?" 'Well?" "Not mad with me, are you?" The rays from a nearby street lamp fell full on her face. Larry could see her dark eyes, wide with I anger or hurt . . . Which? All he r. r-." rV "But I don't He seems like a nice man . . ." "Don't you fret about that," Vince interrupted. "Cutter's all right, if I'm any judge. If he goes to any expense on my account, I can always al-ways pay him back. After I get this new idea of mine squared away, 'obligation' will just be another word in the dictionary. We'll be on our way around the world, Skipper. You'll see. It won't be long now!" "No," Jacqueline said, more to herself than Vince, "I don't think it will be long now." CHAPTER IX That night ride in the country, coupled with Vince's pleased determination deter-mination to cast his lot with Larry Cutter, brought Jacqueline to a carefully care-fully thought out conclusion. Vince was old enough to know what he was about, and so was she. Jacqueline had no one but herself to blame for signing that contract. She had signed it, and her spirit of fair play would not allow her to break it before the end of the designated desig-nated six months. The paper stipulated stipu-lated that, as an evidence of good faith, Larry was to give her that money. But the contract didn't say that she had to accept it! If only she never had. That was at the bottom of all the humiliation she had suffered. Of course, if those bonds hadn't been available, she wouldn't have known what to do for Vince; but so much had happened since then. At first, there had been no suspicion in her mind. Now, try as she might, she could not help but wonder if they were honestly come by. Or, if they were, how about the money that had purchased them? What should she do? It all was such a muddle. One thing was perfectly clear to Jacqueline now. As long as she had Larry's money in her possession, it was going to play havoc with her self-respect. If she returned it to him, her conscience would be much more clear. Parting with her name did not seeni so serious . . . when one divorced the cash feature. The whole thing must be figured out rather carefully. Those nine bonds could be returned re-turned untouched. And most of the cash received for the other, since Larry had paid for the surgeon and the hospital bill. She would draw out what was left and turn it back to Larry, then explain that she would reimburse him for what he had spent. Arranging all these details revived her spirits immeasurably. In a very little while now, she would be free. She expected to have a chance to deliver her invitation in person, but Larry did not call at the office. Neither Nei-ther did she find him waiting outside out-side the hospital any evening. He did manage to call on Vince several afternoons, however. These visits were reported gleefully glee-fully by the patient when his daughter daugh-ter arrived after dinner. Jacqueline owned to a feeling of genuine relief re-lief that she would not be obliged to move from Courtland street. But that was quickly overshadowed by something very much like resentment. resent-ment. To hear Vince tell it, he and Larry Lar-ry were looking forward to the stay on the farm with all the enthusiasm of two boys on a holiday. Jacqueline was made painfully aware of the fact that she was an outsider. Especially, Espe-cially, when she was forced to write Larry a note and ask him if it would be convenient to call at the apartment the following Thursday evening, at nine. He arrived on the stroke, so genuinely gen-uinely delighted at the summons that Jack found her carefully prepared pre-pared speech fading swiftly from her mind. She knew she dared not temporize with the situation and introduced in-troduced the hated topic as promptly prompt-ly as possible. "I can't help it, Larry," sh insisted in-sisted hurriedly, after she had outlined out-lined her reasons. "I suppose it all sounds very silly to you . . . but I can't help it." She fell back on that reason as the logical answer to it all. She had expected that Larry would argue the matter coolly, or try to ride over her wishes in the roughshod rough-shod manner he occasionally adopted. adopt-ed. He did neither. Instead, he sat looking at her quietly through a haze of pipe smoke. "Do you mind telling me if you have an idea that those bonds might be hot? I think I put a receipt in the envelope." That was his unruffled unruf-fled response. "Hot?" Jacqueline queried with a puzzled frown. "Stolen." "No!" she denied, her cheeks flushing. There was nothing else to say, with Larry's dark eyes looking at her that way. "Thanks. After all, I wouldn't blame you." "But you do understand, don't you?" She asked it almost in desperation. des-peration. "You don't think I'm going go-ing back on my word . . .?" "Why, no. You wouldn't do that. Where is the filthy lucre?" "Right here . . I'll get it." ; (TO BE CONTINUED) She never had felt so helpless, so baffled. of the game. Why did it have to be like this? It all might have been very beautiful . . . very beautiful, she whispered to herself. It all might have been right, too ... instead in-stead of that hated contract with its sordid provisions. She had sold herself her-self . . . she had. Just for a fancied fan-cied security when there seemed nothing secure. Security! Facing a danger of being drawn into . . . something. Anything seemed possible possi-ble now! And here was Vince being drawn into it, too. She had been foolish enough to believe Larry when he said that no one need ever know. There was a possibility that he had taken Vince into his confidence in order to tighten his hold on her. No! She wouldn't believe that. Not yet. Nevertheless, she looked forward with fresh dismay to her visit to the hospital the following evening. Vince seemed in good spirits, sitting sit-ting up in bed smoking and covering the back of an old envelope with figures and diagrams. When he showed no inclination to bring up the subject of Larry Cutter, Jacqueline boldly introduced the topic. "Vince," she began quietly, "why didn't you tell me that Mr. Cutter wanted you to go to the country with him? You remember you asked me to find an apartment so that we could live together again." Vince wriggled uncomfortably and scratched his chin with the pencil stub before he spoke. "Well ... It was like this, Skipper. Skip-per. He said he'd prefer to tell you himself. Asked me not to say anything." "But you're going with him?" "Oh, sure! I think it will be great! You see, Cutter thinks I'll be able to do a little work for him and still have time to go on with my experiments. experi-ments. When I get a little stronger, I'll be able to make my own expenses. ex-penses. Of course I jumped at it. I knew this business of mine here was costing you plenty . . . that is until I could pay you back. And I thought it would make it a lot easier for you. I don't want to be a burden bur-den . . ." "As if you could be! Wouldn't you rather be here with me, Vince?" A little note of entreaty crept into her voice. "It wouldn't be fair to you," her father said decisively. "But do you want to put yourself under obligations to a stranger?" Jacqueline hated herself for putting it that way. But she had to find out. "After all," she added, "we don't know very much about Mr. Cutter." "I figured you knew him pretty well." Vince looked at her closely. |