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Show -"- -'-:n"- irrTr.,fr.1-,gi- 1 - -------- - - .. .L- r Mi-It. 1K1 m. j Jill McFarlane, whose father, Richard, disappeared In World War I, falls In love with Lieut. Spang Gordon, She Is npset when she discovers her brother, Rlc, has fallen In love with Sandra Calvert, a divorcee of questionable character. Jill Is thrown from her horse and hospitalized. hos-pitalized. During her absence, Richard visits her mother, Julia. He tells her he assumed the name of Captain Mackey . and Is stationed at the same camp as Rlc. Ills father, John I., who has aided Julia In raising the children, denounces , Richard. Julia Is horrified at his cal lousness and refuses to tell her children the truth. At camp Captain Mackey tells Rlc he knew his faUier In France during the first war. CHAPTER XIII He had to take care of her, Rlc decided, she mustn't be hurt again. ' After the war when men had acquired ac-quired equality again he'd look up Lieutenant Colonel Win Calvert and hand him a good Jolt In the Jaw. In her own room Sandra Calvert shed her girdle with a relieved sigh. She'd done a stupid thing, letting Ricky see her in a morbid mood. Men don't like too much emotion in women, not unless it was directed at them. And dragging Win in had "You'll let young McFarlane alone, or he'll be called into my office of-fice for an interview," he said, icily. - "I sec." She waited a little before be-fore she spoke. "Blackmail!" "No blackmail Just a brief airing air-ing of the truth, and you wouldn't know about truth, would you, Sandy? How old are you now, for Instance?" "I'm old enough to see through your rotten game! But if you think you're going to force me to start seeing you " "You flatter yourself, my dear. I was never in your little red book. I was Win's friend. I want nothing from you. Lucky for me, for there's nothing about you that any self - respecting man would want!" Her features contorted, anger, hate and fear driving all the surface sur-face prettiness out of her face. Her skin took on a greenish cast, her eyes darkened and receded, behind a curtain of pure rage. "Your insults can't hurt me," she said. "I don't expect anything better bet-ter from vou. And I'm not afraid of your threats. But this interest in that Bordine fellow before you married mar-ried Win? Before you got that Mexican Mex-ican divorce? Were you a child bride? I think not." Her eyes flashed viciously. "You cowardly snoopl Go ahead and peddle your tales if you think it will do any good. There are a few things I could tell about you, too." "Nothing whatever that isn't known already," he said, coolly. "Nothing that could hurt me in the least, now." "You tell Ricky McFarlane a lot of tales about me and see what happens! hap-pens! He won't believe you. He'll want to fight you, but he can't because be-cause you're twice as old as he J-is J-is and you've got bars on your shoulders. He'll hate you. He hates you already. He told me he hated you." "All privates hate their officers. It's the American in them, the fierce individualism in this country coun-try that makes men fight for equality, equal-ity, or for superiority. It keeps them trying. It's what makes this army one that no goose-stepping mob of regimented slaves can lick. Ric McFarlane doesn't hate me. He's thinking about the day when I'll be a captain and he'll be a major, and I'll have to salute him. It's good for them, that feeling." "He hates you," Sandra persisted. persist-ed. "He won't believe a word you say." He lit another cigarette. He was smiling now. He put on his cap, tilting it a little, his eyelids narrowed nar-rowed arrogantly. "Want to gamble on Jt, Sandy? He may hate me. He may itch to hit me, but he'll believe me. Men don't lie to each other, often not about women. Think it over." He closed the door without a sound as he went out. Sandra Calvert sprang to . her feet, her hands tightened into livid fists. "You you. . . ." She choked on her fury. Why, when there were hundreds of posts all over the country, had Rod Mackey been sent to Ridley Field? She had chosen, the place because it was a small city, not too well known, and the living was cheap. She had followed the air corps because for so long her life had been bound up with it, and when Win left she had stayed because she liked being with men with wings on their collars. She had seen Mackey around but had kept out of his way. She picked up the telephone, gave a room number, stamping her foot impatiently. Her face was set and bitter, with hard lines around her mouth. But her voice cooed. been the clumsiest move of all. She had so Utile time. Soon Ricky would be sent off to officer's school, and she hadn't money enough to follow him. Win would be slow with her alimony, of course. He was always al-ways slow. It would stop if she married again, of course. But she ' was not dubious of the future. She was brushing her hair when the knock sounded on the door. Swiftly she shook the bright curls into a cloud around her face, picked up a Jacket edged with fluffy white fur, and opened the door. Then she drew back, her face stiff with fury. "What do you want?" she demanded de-manded angrily. Captain Roger Mackey quirked an eyebrow and smiled at her without mirth. "Very pretty, Sandy. You were expecting somebody else, I Infer?" "I was not! Go away before I call the house detective." "I think I won't go away," he answered coolly. "I came to talk to you." "You're not going to talk to me." Her face was livid. Her eyes blazed. "Get out of my door, or I'll telephone the office." "I don't think you'll do that, Sandy. Stop being dramatic and let me pass and shut that door." "I don't entertain men in my bedroom, bed-room, Rod Mackey." "All right. I'll wait while you put on a coat or something, and Tiro'll tnlt In Vi o littlo rnrlnr flnwn the hall." "And be overheard by a lot of soldiers and their dates? No, thank you. I'm not going to talk to you. We haven't a thing to say to each other. Get out now, will you?" He cocked his head and looked at her insolently. "I have some things to say to you. If you don't want other people to hear them I suggest that you let me in and close the door." "If you're seen coming in here I might be put out of the hotel!" Mackey Pays a Social Call "I think you're safe. No one saw me come down the hall." He walked in, shut the door firmly, and she backed away from him and put a big chair between them. "Sit down and relax, Sandy. After all, we're old friends." "You were never a friend of mine, Rod Mackey. I came here to get away from everything that I hated. I was unlucky when they sent you to this post. I don't want to be reminded re-minded of anything that happened In the islands. Please go away and leave mef alone." "I'm not going to talk about old times," he said, amiably. "I'm going go-ing to talk about now. About you." She flared at him. "No wonder they broke youl You are the most impossible, offensive person I ever knew." His eyebrow flickered again, the mocking trace of a smile hovered over his dry mouth. "You don't do that dowager stuft very well, Sandy. Stick to the old army game. Swear if you feel like it. I won't mind. But I'm going to give you a few orders now!" "I don't have to take orders from you. I'm not in your command." "You'll take these orders, Sandy Calvert!" He was grim now, his eyes were blue Ice. "I want you to let that boy alone." Her mouth curled scornfully. "Did they assign you to' be a nurse to that squadron out there?" "Take it easy, Sandy. You show your age when you blaze up like that. Very unbecoming, too. I'm not getting out till you promise to send that boy about his business and not to see him again." "What is this all about, anyway?'' she demanded shrilly. "I'll see Ricky McFarlane whenever I like, and you won't stop me!" He took a cigarette from the pocket of his blouse, lit it elaborately, elaborate-ly, dropped the match in the waste-basket, waste-basket, looked at her levelly through the smoke. "I think I can stop you," he said, coolly. "Try to do it! It's none of your u"au Gt ut of here." "Courage is a muscle of the mind." a young private just a boy at your post, is a trifle amazing. It might be interesting if you'd explain why you're so concerned about Richard McFarlane, all of a sudden." "There's no special explanation." He was watching her sharply, her quick shift of attack, which had not put him off guard. "I happened to know that boy's father in France. I know his family. His father was my friend. I owe a debt to that family. I can pay it a little by saving that boy from a woman like you!" She sat down in the , big chair with a little, pitiful, collapsing movement. She looked small and undefended, she looked naive and helpless. "What's the matter with me, Rod?" she asked. "Why are you so bitter against me? I'm not bad. I've never been bad. I've had a lot of heartbreak crowded into a few years. I was young when I married Win Calvert. He knew his way around in that wild set over there in the islands. I didn't I had to grope. I made mistakes. I did stupid things. I made Win furious, but I wasn't bad. Win was bad. He was rotten. You know that. I was only foolish. And then after they sent us home, and I got back into a sane atmosphere again I saw how Intolerable it had all been. I saw that I couldn't take any more and that I needn't take any more. So I divorced Win, and he didn't care. I think he was glad. He was glad to be rid of me. Now I've met this McFarlane boy, and he's nice to me, I'm not harming him. There are women who could harm him, but when he's with me he's safe from them. You're threatening threaten-ing to call him in and tell him things about me. Can't you see how useless use-less that would be?" Sandra Receives A Threat "No, I can't, Sandy. Not if I told him, for instance, about a certain Mexican divorce case," he said, coldly, "or about the Martins he might be interested in hearing about that." "Could I help it if a colonel's wife was a horrible old harpy, so ugly and jealous she made her husband's life miserable? She named me in that divorce purely out of spite." "You needn't begin crying. That won't work." "I'm not going to cry. You'd like that, wouldn't you? You'd like to break me. And you're lying about my age, and you know that,' too. I was nineteen when I married Win Calvert." "How long were you married to "Ricky, did I wake you up? Darling, Dar-ling, I'm so sorry! But I have to see you in the morning. Early. Oh, no, much earlier than. that. By nine, at least Ricky, you mustn't fail me. It's so terribly important impor-tant to us I" Jill came back to. Buzzard's Hill from the hospital, wearing a black sling and a pathetic face, and lay on a couch on the screened porch all day, Indifferent to everything that went on around her. She could not read, she complained, com-plained, because she couldn't manage man-age a book with one hand. "One-armed men do it," her grandfather told her. He went to town and returned with an elaborate elabor-ate contraption, a sort of book-desk with an elastic band to hold the pages of the book. But when he had arranged her favorite magazine maga-zine on it and showed her how to turn the pages, Jill smiled at him wanly and pretended to read, but an hour later Julia noted that no page had been turned. A Discussion About Jill "If she'd get a letter from that army feller, she'd have a different face on her," John I. complaind to Julia over his breakfast coffee. "But likely where he is, he can't even get a chance to sit down, much less write." "I'm disappointd in Jill," Julia said. "Didn't I give my children anything at alL John I.? Anything but charming manners and average aver-age intelligence and good looks? I had courage. I wanted to give them courage." "You never gave them courage because you never gave them anything any-thing to fight or be afraid of. You did all the fighting yourself. Courage Cour-age is a muscle in your mind. You've got to use it or it gets flabby on you." "What can I do with her? I can't send her back to school. She's lost interest in other men so parties bore her. She needs something to do when her arm knits, but what?" "Plenty to do right here." "She isn't interested. She'd mope over it and csrry that reproachful look around the bouse all the time. It's because she feels so unsure, 10 incomplete. If she'd married that young lieutenant" "My understanding is, he didn't ask her. Like as not she'll never see him again. He was so crzy to get into action that he asked for it, she said. That kind don't stay away from danger. They go looking look-ing for it" "That's why be didn't ask her. perhaps. He seemed like a hijjh principled lad. I likpd him, but I wish Jill had nevr rr.et him." (TO SK COJmXUED) |