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Show Wm 3h MAY DAY MYSTERY JA r h Octavus Roq Cohere SYNOPSIS linette Peyton, senior at the ;sity of Marland, resents Pat-: Pat-: Thayer's attentions to Ivy , seventeen-year-old coed, and is a stormy scene, the tension increased by Max Vernon, an-rstudent, an-rstudent, reproaching Ivy for : inf? a date" with him. Thayer 'ernon threaten each other. Welch, Ivy's brother, profes-- profes-- the university. Is appealed to ly to end his sister's friend-,.ith friend-,.ith Thayer. Welch and Tony r are In love. Welch does not " at he can do. Tony then tell9 !:e Is married to Thayer, but Is j..'e only In name. compromise, Larry. You go chat with Ivy. See If you can do anything any-thing with her. Of course she mustn't know that I'm Pat's wife. But see If you can't get her to do what you want to stay away from Pat. And meanwhile I'll go to Pat right now. I'll tell him that If he -continues running around with Ivy I'll tell the whole campus. That will spike his guns. Don't you see that's the sensible thing?" He looked at her keenly. "Do you think you can bluff him, Tony?" "This time, Larry," she said, "I'll make him understand that I'm not bluffing." The main building of Marland university looks down from the top of a modest hill upon the quiet, far-flung far-flung residential town of Marland. The roadway which descends somewhat some-what precipitously from the main building to Marland road Is lined on both sides with fraternity houses. Halfway down the hill stands the home of Psi Tau Theta, by all odds the largest of them all. Shortly after noon of May first at the very hour when Tony Peyton and Larry Welch were having their conversation in Larry's classroom two young men descended the hill, turned in at the Psi Tau Theta house, and sought accommodation ; one In a saggy hammock, and the other In a somewhat decrepit wicker wick-er chair. The lad who flopped in the hammock ham-mock was "Rube" Farnum, a tall, angular, gangly junior whose nickname nick-name fitted his appearance rather more snugly than his background. Actually Rube was an urban product. prod-uct. Phil Gleason, his companion, was also a junior; but even In the first hot wave of approaching summer, he was immaculate jaunty, even. He was short and slender and inclined in-clined to be dynamic. He spoke always al-ways in explosives, whereas nothing noth-ing ever excited Rube to more than a slow, amused drawl. The verandas of the various fraternity fra-ternity houses were not empty nor were they particularly filled. On several of the porches, young men slept calmly in hammocks. A few were reading. Phil Gleason glanced at his watch ; frowned ; shook the time- did see Max looking like that. Reckon Reck-on they pulled him for speeding, or something?" There was no mistaking the fact that Max Vernon was in an ugly mood. He moved toward the house with short, positive strides, keeping his eyes focused on the ground and would have passed into the house without a word of greeting had not Rube Farnum bailed him. "Hi, Max!" Vernon responded without glancing glanc-ing at them. '"Lo, Rube." His manner was forbidding. Farnum, Far-num, somewhat nonplused, made a gallant attempt at cordiality. "Pat Thayer just came in," he called cheerfully. "He's up in his room." Max Vernon stopped short. "I don't give a d n where Pat Thayer is !" he growled. As he vanished inside the house the two boys stared in amazement. The thing was so startling that even Rube Farnum was moved to shed his habitual lethargy. "Well, I'll be licked for a two-cent two-cent stamp! I ask you, Phil: did you hear little Maxie?" "Did I? Say . . . what you reckon?" "Something hit him hard." Rube cocked one eye at the ceiling. "You reckon it's that little blond, Phil? Max has been awful keen for her, and they do say she's been rambling ram-bling around a heap with Pat lately. You never can tell I" They gazed off toward the street, each busy with his own thoughts. Their reverie was interrupted by the arrival of a visitor. They did not notice her until she turned In on the walk and came straight toward to-ward the veranda. Then their faces broke into smiles and they jumped to their feet. "Hey, Tony !" they halted her. "How goes it?" Antoinette Peyton gave each of them a brief smile. "Hello," she said. Then her question came with startling sharpness. sharp-ness. "Do you boys know whether Pat Thayer is in?" It was Phil Gleason who answered. an-swered. "Yeh. He's up in his room. I'll call him for you." And then Tony Peyton did an amazing thing: a thing so staggeringly stagger-ingly unprecedented that neither boy was able to move a muscle. Quite calmly Tony Peyton walked through the door and into the sacred sa-cred precincts of the Psi Tau Theta fraternity house. "Never mind," she called over her shoulder. "I'll go right up to his room." Tony Peyton had done the impossible impos-sible and thereby scandalized the two members of Psi Tau Theta, who stared in dumfounded amazement at the door through which she had passed. With quiet dignity and smiling determination she had calmly calm-ly announced that she was going to visit the room of a fraternity member, mem-ber, and, what was even worse she had carried out her threat. The two boys did not know that Tony deliberately had selected this bold method of approach so that Pat Thayer would understand clearly clear-ly that she was not bluffing. When a girl visits a man in his room, explanations are often necessary, and Tony thoroughly aroused wished the man to understand she he didn't Intend to keep the bargain." bar-gain." " Her cheeks were flushed and Larry's were dead white. "No need to go into detail. It wasn't very pleasant. I didn't regard re-gard myself as his wife and told him so. He was rather nasty about it. One thing led to another . . . and then we had our first quarrel." She gave a short, bitter laugh. "One can find out a good many things about a man when be is thoroughly thor-oughly angry. I found out about Pat Thayer then. Before we had finished I told him that he might have saved himself the trouble of going through with a marriage ceremony. cer-emony. I told him I intended to get a divorce immediately, and then, Larry, was when the cloven hoof became be-came unmistakably visible. "He refused to consider a divorce. I had married him with my eyes open. He didn't intend that I should have any grounds for divorce. And if I cared to bring action, he'd fight it in such a way that the Marland campus would become a thoroughly uncomfortable place. "I hated that idea, Larry. I love Marland. I wanted my degree from here. I stalled him off and was surprised sur-prised that he seemed content to wait. Then one day he came to me and asked the loan of a large sum of money !" "Good Lord ! You don't mean. . . ." "Precisely. Blackmail. I refused and he threatened to spread around the campus the story I had been trying to keep secret. No divorce, mind you ; no -annulment. He intended in-tended to insinuate ... to let the student body form its own opinions. opin-ions. I called him a blackmailer, and he cheerfully admitted that he was. He said I'd never miss the amount he wished to borrow which was true and, anyway, I loaned it to him. In the months' that fol lowed I loaned him mpre money. Larry just to keep his filthy mouth shut. ' And it isn't the amount. But it was terrible to feel that I was being bled by a man whose name I legally bore. Time after time I determined de-termined to end it by suing for an annulment. Then I'd think about the embarrassment of staying on at Marland after the gossip became general and I wasn't brave enough. It was my plan to wait until after I had my degree . . . then to end the affair legally." She paused for a moment, then turned impulsively toward the young man. "I wonder if you understand?" "Of course I do, dear." "And you think I was cowardly?" "Not a bit. I think you've been ! IH APTER II Continued l: -4- 1 ' Thayer proposed to me dur--j last five minutes of that I game, Larry. He kept in-tt in-tt that Marland was going to x score and I kept saying that iVen't trying to bring us good ife" talking like a jinx. 'I'll bet i ito win,' said Pat. 'We won't !' Eered. 'I know (we haven't a ' 'You're not game to bet,' ited. Of course I said I was. ane leaned so close that no-1,,'lse no-1,,'lse could hear and whis-ei;.o whis-ei;.o me : 'Let's see how game f f, Tony. If Marland gets as ;,,-! a tie out of this, you're to , fnie right after the game.' 5Lbe silly,' I said, and he in- that he was serious. 'And etter say yes quick, Tony Jinx the whole team.' " ""joked away, and there was a I ' in her voice. j can't understand it now, There's no use trying to lctou understand." la;, though." don't I You can't ! It isn't sitting here in your ciass-e ciass-e "oking over a period of eight-islnths eight-islnths and trying to make a understand how a kid girl w"'et drunk with football ex-e ex-e st: and plunge into a serious -ce marriage. It isn't sane. Isn't reasonable to expect inderstand something which 1 can't fathom now." the same," he said gently, II nderstand." D' pe so. . . . Anyway, I e bet. You know what hap- fter that. We tied the score. iFjdy went crazy. Then the jtlidcd and Pat and I drifted Qyii the crowd. And once we wl'ide and into a taxi Pat an-e an-e m that we were going straight odicmrt house and get a license, voii! i thought he was joking, iens saw he was serious. I ' j" at him, and he accused me "ff a bad sport. "Ain't He Too Sweet 7" piece violently, and then turned to his friend. was prepared to let the campus know of their marriage. "Well, I'll be everlastingly dog-bit dog-bit !" Phil murmured. "Can you beat it, Phil : I ask you." "No !" snapped Gleason. "1 can't and neither can anybody else." "Do you reckon anybody saw her go upstairs?" "No." "Suppose they did?" "They couldn't, you poor simp. Say, what the h l's happening around here, anyway? First Max Vernon says he don't give a d n where Pat Thayer is, and then Tony Peyton goes up to Thayer's room. I'm worried." They reflected heavily upon the situation, fear for the good name of their own fraternity forming their paramount worry. "What you reckon . . ." starter start-er Farnum, and Gleason answered the unfinished question. "Nothing, except that Tony Is straight as they make 'em If they were pulling any rough stuff you can bet your last dollar they wouldn't do it in the open that way. It's 0. K., Rube but dog-gone indiscreet." in-discreet." For twenty minutes Rube Farnum Far-num and Phil Gleason sat on the veranda in miserable uncertainty. At twenty minutes past one Tony appeared on the veranda again. They glanced at her and saw that she seemed to be laboring under stress of some powerful emotion They also noticed that she was making mak-ing a brave effort to appear casual. Awkwardly the two boys rose and bowed. Tony gave them a hard little smile and said good-by. She walked to the street and turned uphill to ward the Old Main. Rube sank back into his hammock with a sigh of In finite relief. "And that." he remarked "Is most decidedly that" "Yeh. But what is it?" "Durned if I know. Say, Phil-did Phil-did you get a good flash at her?" "I didn't get anything else." "She seemed kind of worked up Right mad. I might say." "She did. Sore as a goat. What you reckon?" (TO BE CONTINTED.) rather fine about It." She noticed his manner of talking talk-ing ; there was nothing soft or gentle gen-tle in his voice. It was obvious that he was making a distinct effort to keep himself under control. She was surprised. It was the first time in four years she had known him that she had ever seen him gripped by anger. There was something primitive in the ugly set of his lips and the blue of his eyes had changed to an Icy gray. "I've kept pretty quiet, Tony," he said, choosing his words with meticulous care. "At first I was all with Pat. Goodness knows I'd be the last one to blame him for wanting want-ing to marry you. I even" he hesitated for the briefest fraction of an instant, and his cheeks flushed "I even didn't blame him when you told me that he wasn't awfully keen nbout keeping his part of the bargain . . . about about waiting until summer for a honeymoon. "But the rest of it. . . . It's pretty rotten. That any man should have married you because you have a little money; that he should have blackmailed you for two years; that lie should have been well nasty in his attitude toward you. That bits me pretty hard, Tony ; perhaps because be-cause I care for you so much. "Then there's Ivy. I was fair to him about that. Ivy's a nice kid. and pretty even If she is my sister. sis-ter. If he wanted to flirt with her that was their business. But If he's a married man and that kind of a man . . ." He rose abruptly. abrupt-ly. "I'm going to have a pretty straight talk with Mr. . Paterson Thayer. A pretty d n straight talk." "No !" She was on her feet and her hand was on his arm. This new Larry frightened her. "Can't you see that you mustn't clash with Pat? He'd be liable to get nasty and spread the story. You mustn't go near him now." "I've got to. Leave yourself out of it if you wish. I've got to consider con-sider Ivy. Ilis affair witli her cant be permitted to run on." "That's true," she said thought fully. Then an Idea came to her and she looked up brightly. "Let's "D n thing's busted again I" he exploded. "What time, Rube?" Mr. Farnum reached into his pocket and extracted a large but reliable watch. "Twelve-thirty." "Humph I I got a class at one-twenty." one-twenty." Gleason's sharp eyes swung toward to-ward the street- a tall, graceful figure turned in on the concrete walk leading to the house. "Hello 1" he observed softly "Here comes What the Weil-Dressed Man Should Wear." Rube eyed the approaching figure of Pat Thayer with tolerant amusement. amuse-ment. "Golly I" said he "I wish I was a raw fresbie so I could get a kick out of just looking at that bird. Ain't he sweet?" Thayer, happily Ignorant of their caustic comment, mounted the porch steps and nodded to the occupants Of chair and hammock. "Hello, Phil. Howdy, Rube." Thayer passed through the door Into the big downstairs reception hall. Rube chuckled. "He's got it soft, that bimbo. Star boarder here. Ever been In thpt room of his?" "Yeh. Second floor, front Ray window and everything. Fixed up like a boudoir of one of Louis Four-tenth's Four-tenth's lady friends." "Ain't it so? And if" Rube cocked his head on one side and listened attentively. The soft summer sum-mer air was rudely shattered by the roaring of a high-powered motor "I think," said Rube, "that our most shrinking violet is about to approach ap-proach in his gasoline chariot." They looked down the hill in time to see a long, low gray touring car of heavy and expensive tyjie swing violently into Fraternity row from Marland road. It jerked to a halt under the two big oaks which dignified dig-nified the lawn. Vernon climbed from behind the wheel of his car and started toward the fraternity house. The two boys on the veranda gazed at him closely and turned inquiringly to one another. "What's the matter with hira?" inquired Gleason. "Gee. . . . The sun is downright down-right eclipsed, ain't it, Phil? Never achfn " Pretty wc" summarize IjjjjiPPciicd then. I tried every ;hdt::lie world to argue him out s2e wns gentle and consider-bitsl consider-bitsl firm. He kept talking ;iying my debt . . . and is sk Imagine how that struck il(Ies, I liked him. The ex-kj ex-kj of the game had thrown my balance. I retained sanity to strike a bargain m0Ji. I said I'd go through -"If he'd be willing to keep Jjjlflage a secret and merely it L)lly lIllt" vncntlon time. 1 t N hi in we'd take a honey-nilfthe honey-nilfthe slimmer If he'd do what Jlk He protested, but finally npped talking. Larry gazed ; at her averted face. J ,,)ien, Tony?" Lichen," she responded, wlth-Bfftiig, wlth-Bfftiig, "we were married." HI ij CHAPTER III V THING seemed to be lncd up In her simple state-fjlie state-fjlie spread her arms help-:jjjnd help-:jjjnd the young man stared J hoped not to tell you" !It speaking In a soft, tired Toyiiitil after wo should have -forced or had the marriage 0 SI". I detested the Idea of j is scandal or gossip or pcr.;' It would have been. I I"g until graduation. Then :liso')liig West or to France or be and quietly have the miserable affair ended. But IQK-y with him that rather jfl things, Larry." !Jlerstand. I wish you bad ! C before, though. And, going 'he beginning . . . what you to to become unln- ve a little smik of dis-pA'Several dis-pA'Several things, Larry. I'll lB.nkly because It Is your lw. Before we were mar-md mar-md I agreed that the mar-jhgjjis mar-jhgjjis to be a mere form until Tg" We were t0 be good fcV;:-'"st ns we had been since lVK to Marland but that was vasn't long nfter the cere-hat cere-hat he made it clear that |