Show the T he iw arm A novel navel fy by henry Ki kitchell webster copyright by the th merrill co service SYNOPSIS acting in good frood faith in an effort to ma aid a neighbor nuth ingraham Ins raham in a businga nega way edward patterson Patt erBOn cashier of 0 the chicago agency of a ufa life insurance company to Is wrongly suspected V e acted by hla his wife julia ot of infidelity her accusation in a letter from rom a bummer resort unfits him for business and h he takes a short vacation on his return he ha Is deeply wounded by his big daughter edith telling him his per serial onal belongings were in the spare room having been removed brorn rom the room which had been his and his w cifes fes bedroom patterson accepts the situation accepts es as proof of h his s w cifes fes belief in his guilt edith seventeen years old Is worried over the tha estrangement of her parents her mother only p partly succeeds e 5 tn her ier a efforts or a to comfort her the 6 son edward junior Is at college A business us te matter atter brings an inventor t james ja es mariner ariner into pattersons Patter sons I 1 life mariner far 1 ner needs with which to utush push ills his in invention an automobile ch choke e and patterson atterson Is in interested t er ested CHAPTER ill continued edward so very late getting gettin home that night even edith yet gone to bed though julia had been trying tryl ng apparently to send her lie ile sold bald hello to both of them and realized after held hed spoken that they found something novel in his greeting indeed to his own ear his voice had sounded bounded a little different As a matter of fact hed held come walking in without having stopped to brace hamsel for the ordeal to prepare an attitude ite ile was pleasurably aware that julia was wondering about him even after shed pretended to go back to her book it would be a queer turn of events if after all julla julia should find herself the wife of a rich man she might be willing to forgot forget her grievance on those terms I 1 it mariner proved to be right in ills his conservative calculations success was a sober probability but suppose the other thing what if after edward r had put in his six thousand dollars the calculations turned out to be wrong what if the device work vork that six thousand was tile the fruit of uncounted small sacrifices legitimate pleasures foregone imagine it swept away for nothing but an idiotic gamble on the word of a fanatic well there was a certain angry satisfaction in that too 06 it would serve julia right shed driven him to it anyhow he be slept soundly that night untroubled by dreams di earns ile he walked into the office the next nest morning with an agreen agreeable ble sense of detachment which took the sting from the thought of their nickname for him at eleven he be told old miss whiting at the counter that he was going out ile he be bade back he thought till after lunch it pleased him to note that he puzzled her just as last night he had puzzled julia it had been his m meek habit to explain ills goings out ut this time he offer offered edno no explanation whatever I 1 A sense of adventure went with him jle he felt like a pioneer the address mariner had given had bad been meaningless to him lie ile had had no idea in what part of town the streets were on whose corner the little factory stood it was a strange city he found himself riding through what a deeply rutted life hed lived to be sure surel 1 but he was out of the fhe ruts now beating a new path ills 1119 fell fellow ow pa passengers ss engers in the street car seemed different to him from the sort of people held hed moved among more interesting more moie human somehow lie ile wondered where they were going what sort of errands they were bound upon the street where mariner had told him to get oft off was one predominantly of little houses rather dingy clingy most of them fallen somewhat even from their former modest estate the factory was at the west end of the street where it was cut off by a railroad embankment ban kment it was a modest little etwo story red brick building old and if he remembered rightly most of the time vacant evidently it had been built out here heie ahead of its time lie he found himself seeing it as it would look when it should be freshly painted the windows washed new lights of glass in the occasional broken panes down at the side there was a loading platform wagon high and through the big door that gave upon at it he could see the well of the freight elevator raw haw material went in that door and a finished product came out the whole process of the materialization of mariners marinero Ma dream took place within those four walls walla it was tangible and personal self contained right here bore i lie ile wonder that mariner loved it lie he was falling in love with it himself it was a new idea to him elmost a new emotion ile iio wondered 1 if bert willard felt that way about his plant probably not it was too big ne ile would probably scoff at this place edward was sorry hed thought of gjert bert ile he roused himself crossed the street again and went in through the door that had office painted on it telling himself as he did so BO that lie he was dismissing romance and coming aown own into the world of cold facts and 1 figures mariner was in high spirits it if rd id got this letter yesterday morning the said handing it over for edward to 10 read instead of today id probably ably have been fool enough to go on to hold out by myself mi self a little longer no doubt its it a just as well I 1 it was from a supply dealer in savannah ga he ned d placed a trial order for two dozen of the mariner automatic choke a couple of months ago made twenty four enthusiastic thusia fl friends ds including himself now he was ordering two gross youre youie bringing luck with you mr air patterson mariner said its it s a good omen oh I 1 dont pretend im I 1 in not superstitious the tides turning I 1 tell you I 1 can see the little ripples coming in edward stiffened at that and then smiled at ills his narrow minded ness an insurance man t talk of luck bringers and omens to be sure but why an inventor be superstitious 1 I want vant more than your money in here mariner said after they d talked a while 1 I want you sou I 1 know my limitations im no good at a desk I 1 cant keep things straight I 1 can pull but I 1 cant stay behind and push the fhe business Is going to need that more every ever day it grows wed make a team I 1 think I 1 have a hunch that I 1 went to the best man in the whole city of chicago for exactly the thing we need out here come out in the plant and see what weve got edward moved moed gravely about the two floars with him lie ile t say much the workers probably regard ed him ns as a cool somewhat skeptical observer but behind the mask of sophisticated middle age the bankers banker s manner and eyeglasses was it if the truth were known and it was only dimly suspected by edward himself art aa ecstatic small boy to whom the mere champing champine cham ping sound of the machinery was delectable lie ile moved on reluctantly from one station in tho the process of manufacture to the next nest over any one of them he could have lingered indefinitely this was real something you iou could hold in your our hands and feel the weight of with alth his hand on the office door mariner paused ills grip on the knob suddenly tightened you ou might have haie thought he was holding himself up by it well he asked how about b t it have you sou come to any delisl decision i 1 I suppose Bup pose edward said out t of tight throat tin oat 1 I suppose I 1 rent really ay lia am decided from the beginning yes tes il II come with you julia as the days went on continued to wonder wonder about him sometimes she asked him casual seeming questions as to how things were going nt fit the office or commented on the late hours he so often kept sometimes Sometime she he was aware merely of a thoughtful and even puzzled look in her face while lie he talked of such things as he could talk about young eds letters from college editha activities tn in school the affairs of their neighbors municipal politics probably it did strike her as a little queer that he could talk again the long evenings of frozen silence were a thing of the past the home atmosphere was getting better julias questions however patently they groped beneath the surface rouse the old defensive resentment in him they even at random conle conie anywhere near his secret she was on another irne altogether except in his day daydreams dreams he seriously contemplate keeping julia in the dark about his great adventure until its final and complete success already though lie he hugged his secret and exulted in lt it lie he felt boyish impulses to let the cat out of the bag partly out of the bag anyhow to gle give julia a mystifying glimpse that should be gone again before she realized what it was ten days dais or so after the signing of the agreement lie he did give her such a glimpse mariner had been urging him to put one of the chokes on ills his own car to the end that he might really know for himself the wonders it performed edward wanted it too but he know how to get it done lie ile never neier drove the car into town himself and it if he were to say sometime that lie he wanted it for the day julia would think strange things ile he thought of an audacious plan for effecting his purpose and one night sprung it with his best appearance of indifference on julia re ive been hearing about a new thing for automobiles lately he told her and I 1 think id like to try it on our car the factory Is out on the north side in ravenswood Ravens wood it if you ou are free for an hour tomorrow tomo irow morning you might drive in with me as tar far as that and get it put on then I 1 can go on into town and you can drive the car back re he wondered uneasily it if lie he been a little too explanatory but it if julia saw anything an thing unnatural about his manner she forbore to comment on it they put the plan into effect the next morning orning ni charlie franklin the foreman came out when they drove up to the shipping door weve got it all ready for you sou mr patterson he said well have it on in five minutes there was nothing about that to attract julias attention but it if ho he were to introduce charlie to her as he wanted to do it would give elve every thing thine away I 1 11 lie he told her when the installation sometimes was finished that she bhe take him la is really any farther hed go on into town this Is tile on the elevated after shed driven the kid away he stole half an hour from the on while insurance business for a chat with profits to charlie mariner not having come llie down yet about how things were going told him ile iia was finding it almost impossible to show to let a day go by without we e squeezing in a visit real really julia was right lie had hai fallen in love romantically with the he little left little factory as a youth falls in love to ask the with a girl to finish it was a completely revolutionary pay it back experience hed been conscious of an berts emptiness somewhere long before lie nad it recognized what it was lie he was crun arlit or it might gry for in the uneventful course of no things he might never have found faund Ai familiar millar out but when sheer desperation next forced an adventure upon him it in rather Ine him tiia technique of habit doyon nude made it possible tor for him just possible except to carry on ills his duties at the once office himself just as it makes it possible for many not very a love stricken young man to go on in ile he a daze holding down its his job iut but his touch of whole being centered itself in that and dun I 1 immele little red brick factory out in Ravens ravenswood wood pass ile he long in coming to feel well strongly passionately that it needed his hell heli mariner had spoken the but truth in saying that lie he was not a desk spade work man ile he like his hi desk and he vision made excuses to stay away from it tell me letters went unanswered details but important details went long anat to 13 do and ill tell id rather one of thorn them you see for bert sa said ld that well ell I 1 about it that you ou sometimes man who fingers desk you yourself out you ou borrow mortgage gage give mo me a your our books and then I 1 but if the thing right if theres a joker in it somewhere he finish the sentence tended to the suggestion planted by mariner on the day of edwards first visit that be ought to put himself as well ell as his money into the business from being a remote and at ali roost most fantastic possibility came nearer with the irresistible rush of an express train early in in november well within a month of the time hed made his first investment in the company be sent his resignation as cashier of the chicago agency to the home office the stab of terror that accompanied his writing the letter was in itself half pleasure able lie he informed the second vice president that lie he had gone into a business of ills his own which would require all his time lie ile left the company with ith regret and without criticism let alone complaint of their treatment of him lie he spent there was as no denying it a nightmarish three or four our days waiting for the ansiger answer to his letter but when it came he felt a profound relief that same day albert willard dropped into his office ailed happened to be passing by he said with transparent insincerity and bad run up on the spur of the moment to suggest that they lunch together it was it a devil of a while since seen anything an thing of 0 each other really edward was quite aware that this was true and that it was ills his own doing hed been avoiding bert lately though bert was his oldest friend yes well ivell go to lunch together he said but sit bit down a minute first theres something I 1 want to tell you about now that lie he was irrevocably committed to the great adventure lie he want to wait even while they were walking around the corner to the club except for a profane ercla exclamation in aaion of astonishment now and then and a noncommittal non committal question or two bert listened in silence to the whole story youve been keeping it almighty dark it seems to me he commented thoughtfully when edward had finished want to be argued out of it I 1 suppose like a kid who wants to marry some girl his family dont approve of I 1 know edward laughed a little uneasily at the comparison all right go ahead its your turn youre entitled to a cliance chance to tell me ive been a dd d d tool fool theres not much point bert observed mildly in telling a man mail hes hea been a d d fool and anyhow lu IU not a bit sure it Is true A thin thins ilk alho that may be just us as good as it looks I 1 sometimes la is really this Is tile the kid on while profits to llie told him to show we e real hai little left to ask the to finish pay it back berts nad it arlit or it might no Ai familiar millar next rather Ine doyon except himself not very ile he touch of and dun I 1 pass well but spade work vision tell me to 13 do and ill tell id rather one of thorn them you see for bert sa said ld that well ell I 1 about it that you ou sometimes man who fingers desk you yourself out you ou borrow mortgage gage give mo me a your our books and then I 1 the girl tho the kid pl picks c acs ics out just the wife for him but question they always ask what are you ou going to live youre waiting for the come in coming in now edward though they begun very much in hi the bank balance dont don t pay ourselves our any salaries of course couise until the bus business I 1 found its feet ive got a over anyhow an how I 1 may have boy to use his own money out this year at college and to rim him not next full fail only comment on that was a might have hav 0 meant agreement have hate meant realized more than recognition of points about a story ill ills illi i |