Show the honorable uncle lancy by ETHEL HUESTON 0 lobbs bobb atrill co 1 soaks CHAPTER VIII continued 10 no wonder gabriel knew more about things than I 1 do helen said id know things too if I 1 were paid a salary for or learning them im frold afraid he the old palsy walsy I 1 1 I thought him he tell me what he was finding out even aunt olympia thought it was amusing she said she at all surprised she declared that halt half the ambassadors and all of the diplomats in washington were spies she said 1 I give you my word before I 1 go to an embassy reception I 1 take the safety pins out of the broken straps on my slip and have hilda siw sew them on im too proud to have foreign spies looking through me at those safety pins its s an ri outrage said the senator bristling all over with americanism they ought to be shot not just for looking at a safety pin del surely said aunt clym pla on the next sunday len hardesty arrived at shires too late for church abut but in ample time for dinner im supposed to be down in washington touching the committee for more funds he explained cheerfully were running short in fact were low we were reduced to hamburgers last night though I 1 see you have an abundance of tried fried chicken here parley must be doing all right by you better get along down to washington said aunt olympia or be reduced to canned dog food when dinner was over the senator begged to be excused he be had important work on hand aunt olympia got up and walked off she was going to take a nap but whose business was it helen had letters to write and limpy took the box of nuts and the funny pope paper rs and went out to the porch adele and len hardesty thus considerately left alone wondered wandered down through the garden and on out into the or chard where they selected a big apple tree far removed from the house and sheltered by a hedge and sat y I 1 down for a long time they devoted themselves to the tender personal things natural to a young couple very much in love but eve eventually ritually settled down to speak of other things of politics their daily activities their hopes their plans oh benl adele cried suddenly it exciting about gabriel dAl dAUo lotti exciting I 1 dont see anything exciting about it but that they catch him months ago quote the lousy worm end quote but that he should turn out to be a opyl spy we never dreamed of such a weve had no end of tun fun with helen about it with helen dont you remember gabriel dAl ballotti lotti was the man who spent all last spring studying the american system with helen I 1 told you about it len who had just started to light a cigarette paused suddenly his hand in midair the american systems with helen he repeated oh it was perfectly all right she said hastily there was nothing flirtatious about it helen Is dead serious about being engaged to brick you adu know sh its a surprise tor for aunt olympia gabriel said he was gathering material tor for a book on the american picture and he got helen to help him though she says he kne knew w more about it than she did they used to argue for hours about and armaments and military preparedness pa redness and all that why he even warned her against cama canada in an indirect way we call her L the first assistant spy A P len lit his cigarette slowly did P she see much of him oh he was hardly ever out of our sight he went every plans we did not with he just met us there by accident the way you do he came to the house three or tour four times a week afternoons mostly 1 I see len stood up well beautiful ive got to be a flying myself down to washington a so 0 dont sit there blinking your lashes and looking lonesome trying to get my mind off the salvation of the nation according to the papers sloppy is taking a few days off to rest his corns will you be here the rest odthe week till thursday it tor for uncle landys laneys corns its so hilda can get us mended and laundered and fed its terrible cooking in that trailer we all have to work at VO i 0 once nce y you 0 u know 0 w tor for the sake of the photos photo and theres not room tor for three our digestions pay the penalty 11 1111 1 ill be over before thursday thank ollie for the chicken I 1 I 1 Hambur hamburgers gerst and to think it if it been for the shortsightedness the hopeless inefficiency of old sloppy id be with you on tried fried chicken instead of over there with the brats on hamburger aut aunt olympia shrewd rd as she was could not inot understand cecil dodd in the be beginning gaining though she had bad certainly made it clear that as assistant director of publicity he was chiefly to take care of the woman angle he had faug bung himself into the campaign with such assi assiduity dufty that she could hardly get hold of him long enough to take the girls horse horseback back riding dave cooper assured her the kid was doing all right that there was real stuff back of his gentle smile but aunt olympia felt that her plan had been somewhat of a failure now suddenly all this was changed cecil had become ubiquitous constantly underfoot as olympia complained pla ined when dave who had come to rely on him flatly ordered him off on certain missions he went but with reluctance hes beginning to miss the sofas said the senator sympathetically the worst thing about cushions they become habitual oh I 1 knew he keep it up grumbled aunt olympia these fireworks that go off with the biggest explosion always sputter out first still dave assured her once he was dragged away from the insidious comforts of shires or the clubby attractions of the trailer entourage he worked both hard and well like a dog dave said and does what hes told on saturday when the cavalcade returned to shires for rest and renovation dave said he and cece would go to town and do some intensive groundwork at headquarters cece objected objected gently but firmly he said j he needed rest and renovation as much as anybody call up headquarters and tell lem em were coming said dave firmly aunt olympia gave him his hat on sunday except tor for the visit of 0 len hardesty which vhey they had come to expect the day was restfully calm and quiet and then on monday evening as they were having coffee in the cool of the east veranda hilda announced disapprovingly ita mr dodd on the phone and he wants miss limpy you could have knocked aunt olympia down with a feather she said so herself at least a hundred times in the days that followed she open her mouth she just sat as if she had indeed been knocked there limpy ran back from the telephone oh aunt olympia Olymp la cece says the young democrats ere cre getting up a dance rally at the fire house and if he comes and gets me and drives carefully and brings me back early may I 1 go aunt olympia Olymp la still suffering from the feather blow speak would you like to go girls asked the senator mildly did he invite all of us limpy a asked s ked adele significantly um ah well ah perhaps not specifically ill go and ask him shall I 1 he only mentioned mea me a small party I 1 believe aunt olympia came to you cant go she said in a strangled voice you cant go a step and you say aw uncle laney lancy for im running this nursery and you cant go he says all right announced limpy he care about the dance he says hell come over and make m a ke a report to the senator you cau call him right up del and teu tell him to stay where he is and not interrupt our rest with any reports you tell him to stay where he be Is and do as dave tells him here I 1 am just getting somewhere with my extemporaneous speech and now getting all upset about limpy you cau call him right up del teu tell him w when hen we want him well send tor for him aunt olympia tried to still the under chin with a lew few fierce jabs with a feather she muttered feebly on tuesday morning a surprising gnoun announcement cement temporarily distracted her from her maternal anxiety every paper to in the state announced that governor wilkle wilkie had suddenly decided the time was ripe tor for him to make the most important speech of the campaign over a nationwide nation wide hookup hook up he was quoted as saying that certain dramatic developments ments in washington had impelled him to alter lits his original schedule and since the revelations he was about to make concerned not only their sovereign state but the entire nation he be had arranged for the national audience the family at shires discussed it at length over their breakfast its a fake said aunt olympia Olymp la theres nothing mote more he can say hes said everything already and more too 1 maybe faybe he has found some new words in the dictionary said adele do you suppose hell he pause for applause so the listening world can bear the brats wave loUy pops wondered limpy before they left the table there was a cau call from dave at headquarters see the papers senator yes up nobody seems to know but the reports are that their headquarters are agog hired a college professor to check the speech maybe wed better come out and listen in with you so we can cock up an I 1 answer yes do that its a good idea said the senator when he remarked mildly that the boys were coming out to listen in with them and hep help frame his reply aunt olympia bounded clear out of her chair you call him right back and tell him to leave cece where he she cried 1 I cant listen to speeches and look at that worm in the same breath adele the most perfectly mixed figure I 1 ever heard in my eifel said limpy admiringly its tripled its unique unI quel I 1 aunt olympia hear her my dear the senator remonstrated st we cant hurt the boys feelings dave says hes working like a dog and making a good job of it too why he what Is 1 he anyhow but a dog a yellow dog tool aunt olympia smiled ever so faintly in asprec appreciation at on of hers herself elf 1 I teu tell you what to say del you tell dave one of them had better stay there to get the general reaction to the governors drivel and cece can stay and dave can come that sounding reasonable the senator started tor for the telephone you tell te U him its my idea said olympia Olymp la im willing you should take the credit the governor began his speech with dignified and disarming mildness he explained that he had bad known the senator for many years as 11 his friend and I 1 more recently as governor of his state he made it very clear that knowing him thus antim intimately abely he could not brand brana the senator as a wicked man a vicious man or a traitorous man he was in merely a hopeless inefficient a courteous richly comfortable gentleman farmer one who knew nothing of me i a I 1 6 4 vic 1 ill be over ever before thursday chickene 7 thank ollie for the chicken the insidious intricacies of statecraft one who could be led as a lamb to the slaughter by those wiser more subtle more farseeing than he he said that hit hitherto hert 1 11 I say hitherto he repeated sonorously ou sly the senator had been saved from egregious and irreparable error by the firmly coercive hand of his party leaders 1 I say hitherto I 1 mean hitherto this time lacking coercive guidance he has fallen into error both egregious and irreparable the senator has denounced subversive un american Amerl can activities orally yes he has denounced them and in all fairness my friends I 1 believe the senator at heart is opposed to such activities act but my friends is the good senator and I 1 believe him to be a good it if not a particularly intelligent tell igent man is the good senator smart enough to recognize subversive activities when he meets them when he be encounters them in the luxurious drawing rooms at the lavish banquet tables of washington when he entertains them in his own home introduces them to his own friends it is this point on which we challenge the senatore Sena torl who during the last session cession of congress was one of the most constant and familiar tants in the senators luxurious apartment in washington who ate his food drank his imported wine danced with the women of his household who was their confidant on this point I 1 challenge the Sena senator torl last week three handsome ingratiating polished young foreigners were arrested in washington as spies for foreign governments they were educated men of cultured tastes and training they were well supplied with money they wore correct clothes did correct things were gracious suave and acceptable they were spies one of these men men was gabriel dAl dAUo lotti today gabriel dainotti dAllo dA Ilotti languishes in jail as a a spy while the senator dines on squab and rich aspics aspiss in his stately mansion at maysville while campaigning pai gning tor for reelection election re to his bis high office in washington this gabriel dal lotti was one of the most congden bial intimates of the family in their shoreham Shore ham apartment the senator was a member of the powerful committee on armaments he is now on the committee on naval affairs that deals closely with matters of national defense gabriel dAllo dAUo Is a spy what is the connection between these two why did they so constantly dine and wine together my fri friends enas I 1 do not suggest nor do I 1 believe that my old friend the he senator would deliberately betray his country and sell its secrets to any foreign inimical no nation tion I 1 know the senator he is my friend lie he Is an innocent trustful unsuspecting gentleman farmer lut but sad ly lacking in political acumen and farsightedness are you to trust to handle the intricate problems of statecraft to represent you in the senate of the united states a man who innocently ingenuously and most unwisely receives as his intimate a common spy on these points I 1 challenge the senatore Sena torl good night and thank you the senator was a good deal surprised olympia Olymp la scarlet with rage was at work on her under chin adele and limpy who had become accustomed to charges and counter charges and knew there was nothing in them snickered a little but hel hei en who had turned dead white twisted her slim hands nervously in her lap chos the ever hear of him asked dave briskly why the girls have been talking about himl him yes I 1 must have met him he never had dinner at our house in his life I 1 he just came to call shouted aunt olympia Olymp la howd he get in persisted dave 1 I invited him said olympia angrily he asked for it and I 1 invited him oh uncle laney lancy its all my fault 1 helen stammered hotst not at all not at all my dear said the senator soothingly every body goes everywhere in washington anybody calls on anybody theres no crime in that he said he was writing a book said helen weakly writing a book covers a multitude of spies said olympia uncle laney I 1 feel lust just terribly wailed helen terribly my dear wh what a t non theres nothing to feel terribly about it mean anything he cant substantiate his charges its just another red herring hes got hold of it mean a thing oh yes it does said olympia grimly it means that louse len hardesty is buckling down to business and weve got to mind our Ps P and d Q Qs he wrote that speech from bei beginning inning to end of course said the senator and davell write me one tomorrow that will show them up in great shape they can look at my record im m clean on that score anyhow everybody is entertained in washington and you cant go around at tea tables sorting sheep ir from om goats I 1 why that fellow dAUo dAllo has even horned into the white house dont worry my dear dave wa will li take ake care of it CHAPTER IX on wednesday morning after the governors speech they had hardly started their breakfast when suddenly aunt olympia bounded onto the porch she was in her dressing gown very red of face and had not taken time to remove the net from her permanent wave nor to powder although usually most punctilious about her appearance before the girls the senator his bathrobe draped not too neatly about him his thin hair standing up on a very pink head was close at her heels helen she said abruptly what in |