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Show M For the Love of Pete By LE ROY W. GORE (McClure Syndicate WNU Service.) THE slim, blonde girl stood in front of Frederickson's market writing diligently on a pad of paper. The broad-shouldered young man in the doorway of Lippincott's grocery across the street took careful aim with a large potato. The potato sent the pad and pencil spinning from the girl's hand. She gasped in astonishment, as-tonishment, picked up the potato and scurried behind a post Papa Lippincott. waddling down the street from th corner cafe where Mr. Daniels of 'the Mammoth Mam-moth Retailers' Alliance had indulged in-dulged in his mid-afternoon cup of coffee, laughed boisterously. "Serves her right!" he told Daniels. Dan-iels. "That Paula Frederickson is a snooper like her old man. Always copying our prices off the windows so they can cut us a few cents." Young Pete Lippincott started up the ladder in front of the store. "Very neat marksmanship, young man," the dapper Mr. Daniels approved. ap-proved. "What are you building here?" The pillar of canned corn beside the entrance was already 10 feet high. "We have a canned goods special each Saturday, sir," Pete explained. "Dad borrowed this pillar pil-lar idea from one of the city stores. It attracts a lot of attention." Across the street Paula Frederick-son Frederick-son was pulling apart the two halves of a potato, rejoined neatly with a match. On one of the halves was written: "Meet me at the Inn tonight, to-night, seven o'clock." For twenty years Lippincott of Lippincott's grocery and Frederick-son Frederick-son of Frederickson's market had faced each other across Main street without a good word. Both would probably have suffered a stroke of apoplexy if they had guessed the romantic inclinations of their children. chil-dren. But Papa Lippincott was happy enough as he fixed his signature to a check for $5,000 and handed it to Mr. Daniels. The check paid for fifty shares of stock in the Mammoth Mam-moth Retailers' Alliance and, according ac-cording to the contract which Mr. Daniels had just handed him, entitled en-titled Papa to "an additional ten per cent discount on all goods purchased from said firm." "Let old man Frederickson snoop around after my prices now," Papa Lippincott exulted. Mr. Daniels consulted his wrist watch. "I must be on my way. I'm " due in Chicago tomorrow morning." In the meantime Paula Frederick-son Frederick-son had halved a potato from the Frederickson stock, and written her reply to Pete's message: "I'll be there, sweetheart." Across the street Pete had clamped a heavy basket to the ladder, and was transferring cans to the top. of the pillar. It was Paula's intention to hurl the potato into the basket, but her aim was woefully amiss. The potato struck Pete squarely between the shoulders. shoul-ders. He jumped, uttered a cry of pained surprise and the ladder scraped dangerously along the wall toward the carefully constructed pillar. pil-lar. Mr. Daniels, choosing this unfortunate unfor-tunate moment to make his exit, was buried beneath an avalanche of tin cans. When they removed him he was considerably bruised and quite, quite unconscious. "I ain't blaming you for throwing throw-ing that potato," Papa Frederickson was telling Paula next evening. "I wouldn't blame you if you throwed a brick at Lippincott's dumb-headed bo. but why did you do It?" rauia signed wearily. "Just a silly ' notion. What were the damages to ; Mr. Daniels?" "Three busted ribs and a frac- tured leg. He won't be out cf the ' hospital for quite a spell." ( Paula wondered what damages Mr. ' Daniels would claim. ! i Eut the most crushing blow of all , was the way Pete had run out on ! her. She'd seen him hurry down the ' street even before the crowd gath-! gath-! ered. Likely he was still in hiding, ! fearful that Paula might confess she hadn't thrown the potato at him maliciously, as everyone supposed. He needn't be afraid she would drag , him into the case. She wasn't anxious anx-ious to confess her love for a sneaking sneak-ing coward. But Paula couldn't swallow the lump in her throat. And suddenly Pete was in the library. Pete! hatless, his hair I mussed, but grinning widely. Papa was on his feet, angry. "See j here, young man. Ain't you Lip-pincotts Lip-pincotts caused us enough trouble?" But Pete's eyes were on Paula. "Darling!" he cried. "You're a heroine! " Paula stared at him, completely bewildered. A flood of words tumbled from I Pete. "I got suspicious of this man Daniels the minute I heard he'd ! nicked dad for five thousand. I hopped a plane to Chicago and talked to the president of the Mammoth Mam-moth Retailers' Alliance. Daniels is wanted by the police in dozens of places. He collected a half million j this week with his stockselling racket. rack-et. And the reward for his capture is $5,000 ... Oh, Paula, if you hadn't thrown that potato " "Tell me, Paula," Papa interrupted, interrupt-ed, "why did you throw that potato?" po-tato?" Paula was giggling hysterically. "For the love of Pete!" M |