Show rV Mc Clure INSTALLMENT ELEVEN The Story So Far J-aura wile of Mine happy-go-lucky editor and mayor of Is mother to four not too well treated by the whose real estate Job In the big city came profitless and who proposed moving to Covington rather than depend on the earnings of Mary his secretary to a big unable to get a runs around with a CHAPTER XV Continued Nevertheless Kathleen had felt in a way And then Ruth had spoiled She was one of those saccharine persons whose mission in life is to shed She cooed like a mourning dove at every opportunity and was quite pretty in a ash-blonde Her elders said she had a beautiful But she was apt to cloy if taken in steady For that reason Ruth was always avidly interested in the appearance of a new man in And somewhere she heard about Ritchie She promptly telephoned Kathleen and insisted that he be to the All things considered Kathleen arrived home practically ready to throw Laura was lying down with a touch of headache or so she had given But when Kathleen heard about Tom she surmised that J J I I ner molner had gone to bed of a heavy Privately Kathleen thought her brother was well rid of an unpleasant To Kathleen's surprise Shirley was also going to the swimming They didn't usually run in the same crowd except at very large affairs to which the whole town was But Shirley gave the show away when Kathleen in all innocence asked if they couldn't all four go Away from Kathleen was not at all anxious to be alone with Gene said Shirley Connie Mays asked us to ride over with her and Lance said staring fixedly at the red leather belt she was fastening about She did see a Of course Connie had engineered the whole She had probably refused to go at all unless Jaird was And Ruth was one of Connie's But to get Shirley had to be Only with her usual brazen disregard for other people's had arranged that too to her own Ostensibly a weak little baa-baa was Connie's Actually he was taken along for the as Kathleen And of course so did even if she did not breathe out fire and brimstone as Kathleen would have In the end they went off with their respective Shirley Both Kathleen and Laura noticed that Connie had waited till the last to collect the second And when her smart car she was driving as she usually did with one while she faced the back seat and carried on an animated and conversation with a rather silent Jaird and a totally silent Hot Shot Mays drove up almost before his sister's dust had He was in a terrific hurry to be on his He did not bother to exercise his famous charm on it was not necessary with most As a rule they were overwhelmingly on his Laura knew he would always be like Unnecessarily brusque unless forced to be But Kathleen for once missed the little telltale pucker between Laura's Kathleen had worries of her Gene Mays was a bit There was no getting around that He had a smooth way about him when he strove to And he had every intention of pleasing She baffled him a Oilier girls struggled to impress him in a big way Kathleen reversed the It was a new experience for Hot Shot Mays to sit in the uncertain Kathleen even laughed when he ladled out what he called I'm boring he said at the end of twenty when he seemed to have got no farther fast with his agreed Kathleen and By thc time they reached their destination Gene Mays felt a little like a dirigible in a high and equanimity was somewhat She might not have made any dent on Ritchie Graham's but she had Hot Shot Mays doing acrobatics against his He was a big as a menace to female or so it seemed She had him pawing the air and she could grin at his best She felt perfectly thc mistress of the situation and decidedly cocky and pleased with CHAPTER XVI The new Swimming pool was Ideally situated on the edge of town in a ravine between two fern-clad There were sixty acres of wooded a huge outdoor lake by a number of rustic dressing huts and the usual diving floats and soft drink stands But die big dining like the was more than The food as orchestra-or bh tiny flashy divorcee older than he and on a bet dates up Lou the town drunk's engaged to Jaird also out of work since his father closed up the factory to stop losses and whose marriage Is thus In whom a Ritchie also a Is Ma wants Jaird to marry Connie the banker's as Ruth brightly explained while Ritchie was helping her unload hampers and thermos so primitive to eat out under thc don't you he Kathleen darted him a Ruthie was going strong in her own sweet But Ritchie appeared to like his flattery If he was even aware that she was hanging around the he concealed Shirley was helping Ruth collect the various eatables in sheltered But Connie Mays never put herself to such bet you a that I beat you Into the she growled Hot Shot we come out here to swim or I'm hot as two Hot cried Kathleen slinging her bathing sort of make a feller pin his ears back in that said Hot Shot suit her for getting And don't be all day about When she emerged in her brief one-piece white a scarlet bandana about her Hot Shot was waiting for her at the diving but Jaird and Connie were already in the sort of make a feller pin his ears back in that said Hot Shot Mays as his hard blue eyes traveled over Kathleen's lithe young if I was staging beauty contests you could be Miss you Kathleen made a beautiful flip-Hop in the air for a perfect He dived after hitting the water a split second But he failed to overtake her she crawled up on the raft between Jaird and The latter looked distinctly annoyed at the which did not afflict She even enjoyed it and thought she might stay where she was till Shirley joined But Gene Mays had other He dragged Kathleen off her perch although she fought him like a tigress and sent her to the clawing and He howled with mirth when she came up choked and He managed to pinch her for which she boxed his But there was no peace from him except to keep swimming just out of his And that was a little big she thought aware of a catch in her side as she dodged one of his Jaird swam in to shore to meet Shirley while Connie It looked as if Ruth was going to get into the water at Ritchie was already in his suit and lounging on the end of the pier waiting for a cigarette in his Kathleen paused long enough in her hectic from Gene Mays' caveman tactics to observe that Ritchie looked provokingly handsome in his black jersey She felt she could bear him better if just once he showed to a Hot Shot Mays seized upon her momentary preoccupation with another man to her head under water until her lungs caught Thc catch in her side was more pronounced when she again took to She began to feci a little like a heavy She tried to edge up to the but Gene yanked her off- She made for the ladder which Tom and Mary Etta separate when she refused to give up her Banker Mays threatens to break for criticizing his banking and Ritchie Joyously laugh at Kathleen Is critical of their thc banker's Invites her to a swimming Ritchie grins when she I led up to the diving Only he was there daring her to foot on a She was to wish that he'd go off somewhere and die for a week or Her pointed face took on a slightly gard She did not beg for Somehow one didn't with But there was still that catch in her only more of it j A little grimly Kathleen made for the big buoy at the upper end of the It was quite a but ordinarily no swim for strangely it seemed to come no nearer however many strokes she and her limbs felt Lethargy attacked hen She glanced over her She was quite far away from Even Gene had paused to filch a pair of water wings from a small girl who was doing her utmost to hang onto Kathleen measured the distance between going back and struggling and decided the buoy was Even then it did not occur to her she might not make it Again she risked a glance over her Hope clanged a brazen bell in her Gene had draped the water wings about his neck and was again swimming after Kathleen sobbed She knew by thc of her relief how nearly she had lost her She had only to stay afloat till Gene reached She turned over on her But the cramp in her side doubled her She went gasped and almost lacked the energy to come would run off and make me wear myself out chasing shouted I He was only a few feet flail- ing water like a and ing If her 1 again Kathleen was suddenly She tried to call to tell him she was But the muscles in her throat locked with panic that goes down is bound to come bawled Gene and made a dive for hc He meant to drag her With a terrible bitterness Kathleen realized that he would probably repeat the process with appropriate brays of laughter until finally she did not come up at alL And then he would feel dreadful of But she wouldn't be there to witness his She tried again to call and saw Gene gathering his huge muscles for the damned can't you see she's in cried a sharp But Gene didn't He Only a fist caught him on the jaw and dropped him back in his your hand on my Ritchie Graham commanded But she was past doing even that White as she slid down into the She thought listlessly that it was perilously easy to Only Ritchie's hand closed on her He had dived after They rose to the Keeping one arm about her waist he towed her to the picked her up in his long strong arms and laid out her full length on her face like a wet paper After a while Kathleen's shuddering breaths subsided to something approaching She sat up she said in an unsteady mention He did not look at Apparently he was a little bored at having dragged her from a. watery Or did he realize that it had been as' bad as She and sudden tears burned her you'd better throw me back in if that's the way you feel about she said He turned with one of those quick movements that always surprised He was very And his gray eyes blazed at don't he said in a rough uneven told you once before I'm no ladies' I wouldn't flirt with you or anyone don't know what you know exactly what I Ever since the first time I saw your eyes have dared me to do this and this and His arms were about Gripping her in a fierce embrace that His lips hurt Because his kisses were more antagonistic than And they pushed Kathleen across the border of everything she had ever known into a region of strange pain and a heartbreaking hate she He made her a little mocking we were meant to hate each other like hell or else his voice shook love each other that don't love she But Ritchie had slid off the float and was swimming BE |