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Show FJI" ' 74 f XV Harry PuTJ jj 1,4V SMcCiuRt W.N.U.Ser!?er INSTALLMENT TWELVE The Story So Far mis is me story or an American iam-Uy iam-Uy In depression years. Laura Maguire, wife of Mike Maguire. happy-go-lucky editor and mayor of Covington, is mother moth-er of four children: Tom, whose real estate job In the big city near Covington is shot and who separates from his wife, Mary Etta, secretary sec-retary to a big shot, when she refuses to give up her job to return to Covington Coving-ton with him. Alec, who, unable to get a job, runs tiiuunu wun a nasny uivuruee, oiuer limn he, and who, on a bet, dates Lou Knight, daughter of the town souse. ' Shirley, engaged to Jalrd Newsum for three years, but whose marriage is deferred de-ferred because Jaird too is out of work, his father having closed his factory to cut down losses. Ma Newsum wants Jaird to marry Connie Mays, the banker's bank-er's daughter. Kathleen, society editor on her father's fa-ther's paper, in whom a newcomer. niii'iiie ui cinctiii, uisu a newsydpei man, is interested. Banker Mays threatens to break Maguire Ma-guire for criticizing him. Mike and Hitchle laugh at him. Kathleen is critical criti-cal of them. Peeved, she goes to a swimming party with "Hot Shot" Mays, the banker's son. Ritchie saves her from drowning when she is seized with cramps. He tells her he loves her. She hates him. she says. But does she? . from the fire. Lou clasped the straggly strag-gly red geranium in its forlorn tin can to her breast. Like the rest of the women she stared as if fascinated fascinat-ed into the roaring red flames. Tears ran slowly down her cheeks. Lou seemed dazed by the completeness of the disaster. "Lou," said Alec huskily. She turned slowly and stared at him. Her eyes were a little blank and they returned at once to their fascinated study of the crackling, leaping flames which were feeding greedily from roof to ground on flimsy buildings. Alec looked around for her father. He thought It likely the old sot was dead to the world somewhere in a gutter. Pete had failed Lou on every other occasion. It was too much to expect him not to now. But Alec discovered Pete Knight almost at once just out of range of the flying sparks. A tragic yet ludicrous figure, as usual. Reeling Reel-ing a little as his bleary eyes stared into the inferno before him. Once he attempted in a clumsy way to aid with the fire hose but he succeeded only in drenching himself. People laughed hysterically. Even at that grim moment shambling Pete Knight furnished the comic relief. "I don't know what we're going to do," whispered Lou suddenly. "Everything's gone except what we've got on our, backs." "Gee, Lou, I'm sorry " he began, be-gan, but paused abruptly. A tremendous shout went up from the crowd swelled by the wails of CHAPTER XVII Alec Maguire gravely balanced himself on one foot like a stork and squinted along the bottle of gin as if it were a shotgun. "Ready, fire!" he said with vast solemnity and killed the bottle dead. Myra laughed herself into hiccoughs. hic-coughs. "You're so comical," she said. Alec surveyed her with bloodshot eyes that would not quite focus. "That's right. I am. Comical as hell. When I'm liquored up. Guess I'd better stay that way." They were seated in one of the alcoves which lined the large dining room at the Porterville Swimming Pool. They had been sitting there since four that afternoon. According to the original plan they had intended intend-ed to start back home when they had their swim. Only Myra had dared them to go somewhere else where they could dine and dance. To do Alec justice he had meant to go home for dinner. But he felt unusually low that day. The only relief was to get so cockeyed he could laugh and laugh. Natalie, who so far had been more sleepy than convivial, suddenly giggled. gig-gled. The mechanical orchestra at the other end of the big pavilion was playing an old record, "Shuffle "Shuf-fle Off to BufEalo." "Why don't you two stop fooling and pull a real one?" she suggested. The others stared at her. "I mean elope. Get married. I mean middle-aisle it. Or what have you?" Alec stared. Marry Myra Boone! For a moment he was jolted back to himself and saw the woman beside be-side him with painful distinctness the coarse blowsy face, the weak self-indulgent mouth, the metallically metallical-ly yellow hair which was drab at the roots. Everything within him revolted. Marry a woman like that! Take her home to Laura as his wife? He'd rather die. "I said you weren't game," murmured mur-mured Myra. Alec drained his glass. "I'll call your blufl, Myra. Let's go." Her nostrils dilated. "No kidding?" kid-ding?" The drive back to Covington did nothing to clear Alec's confused brain. Myra put the gas throttle down to the floor board and the speedometer touched eighty more than once. They had just entered the suburbs of Covington, still at a maniacal speed. Each of them at the same moment saw the big fire engine careening ca-reening toward them down the middle mid-dle of the street. Myra was a true neurotic. She covered her face with her hands and shrieked. It was Alec who reached over and gave the steering wheel a tremendous jerk. It threw them into the opposite curb to the detriment of fenders and running run-ning board. But at least they did not meet the fire engine head on. "And was that a near thing?" laughed Alec. The others, still weak from shock, huddled in their seats and said nothing. noth-ing. "Where's the fire?" Alec asked of a man running down the street. "Over on Kirby Street." Kirby Street! Mike had always said those ramshackle buildings down that way were nothing but fire traps. He had begged the City Council Coun-cil for years to condemn them before be-fore they went up like waste paper in a bonfire, taking their dreadful toll of innocent lives. Alec's brow was wet with sweat. "Sit down and let's get going," muttered Myra irritably. "We've a little private matter to attend to." She meshed gears, and the big car shivered away from the curb and began laboriously to pick up speed. v Alec had, however, already snatched open the door and leaped out. By the time she had brought the big machine to a halt which burned the tires, Alec had picked himself up and disappeared toward that ominous coppery glow across the tracks. He knew before he was within two blocks that his hunch had been right The conflagration undoubtedly centered cen-tered in that section of Kirby Street where Pete Knight had a dingy flat. Alec began to run faster. Covington Coving-ton had a naive idea of adequate police po-lice protection. Usually there was little need for anything elaborate in that line. But in emergencies things were likely to get beyond the venerable ven-erable chief and his two men. They were doing all they could to hold the crowd back from the danger zone. But that amounted to little. Alec, already feeling the heat of the blaze on his face, slipped under the ropes. The whole row of dilapidated frame buildings was a strut of licking, lick-ing, crackling flames. Alec's heart turned over. Quite suddenly he saw Lou. She was standing in a little knot of weeping women and children. chil-dren. All of them hugged small possessions pos-sessions which they had rescued Pete Knight gathered his big uncertain un-certain body together. But it tricked him as it so often had before. He lurched, gasped, fell back. And with a terrible sucking roar the floor beneath be-neath him collapsed as the roof gave way. Street boys would never laugh at Pete Knight again. He was gone forever from the sight of men. CHAPTER XVIII The girl in Alec's arms had not fainted, although her slight trembling trem-bling body felt lifeless, as if a cord had snapped. Even the small hands no longer clutched him. He stared about wildly. What on earth was he going to do with her? The forlorn for-lorn human huddle of which she had been a part hovered near for a moment and. then, after a glance at Lou's ghastly still face slowly drifted drift-ed away, words sticking in locked throats. Words were so inadequate before the dumb tragedy of Lou's eyes. These people were her neighbors, neigh-bors, her closest acquaintances. Yet they too were bereft, helpless. Adrift, without a roof or a bed on which to stretch themselves. They had nothing to share with her except ex-cept their inarticulate pity. The fire having glutted itself was dying of its own passion. There was no longer anything to see but gaunt blackened ruins above red coals. Curious spectators began to drift away. It became possible for the police to erect ropes and have them respected. Gently Alec took Lou by the arm and moved down the street. Her face was stark. But she walked steadily along beside Alec. "I guess to everybody else," she said in a low strained voice, "he was just a drunken bum. But he never looked like that to me. And he was all I had." Alec's eyes stung. ' "At least he died magnificently, Lou." Her chin lifted a little. "He wasn't ever really bad. My my mother was killed. In an automobile accident. acci-dent. He was driving. And he adored her. He never got over it. Every time 'he sobered up he heard her screaming." Alec shivered. "He'll not suffer any more, Lou." She drew a long quivering breath. "Where are we going?" she asked suddenly. "I'm taking you to Mother for the night," he said gruffly. It had come like a flare from a shell over no-man's land, that inspiration. inspi-ration. "Maybe she won't want me," said Lou. She flushed. "I'm just a sug-gin, sug-gin, you know." Alec winced again. Laura was a grand sport, but even she might wonder at her son appearing on the threshold with a girl he was not even supposed to know. "This is Lou Knight, Mother. She lived on Kirby Street and got burned out" tonight. And her father " "Yes, I know," said Laura quickly. quick-ly. "Mike just telephoned me." She had been sitting in the living room alone ever since Mike had rushed off to be of service if possible possi-ble or at least in the middle of things. Her eyes traveled slowly from the girl's drooping figure, the run-down heels and nervous twisting twist-ing hands, to Alec's haggard face. "You see, Mother," said Alec, "I've been taking Lou places. But she hasn't anywhere to go now. So I brought her home." Laura's heart beat thickly against her side. She could not move her tongue for a moment. Alec and this cheap little girl! Alec had been going go-ing around with drunken Pete Knight's daughter. Laura wondered if all mothers felt frantic at times. "I like her a lot, Mother," said her son in a queer rough voice. Lou's hand jerked violently in his and her little wistful face flooded with burning color. Alec gave her a glance that cut the heart out from under Laura. "It's all right," she said. But it wasn't. It was the bitterest dose she had ever swallowed. ' Shirley and Jaird went to the fire in Connie Mays' car, accompanied of course by that piece of excess baggage, Lance Ferguson. Connie was a glutton for excitement. She never missed anything of that nature na-ture if she got wind of it She was a thin, too - vivacious girl whose nerves crackled from overstimulation.' overstimula-tion.' The destroying flames aroused in her only a fierce exultation. That hundreds of distressed people were being burned out of their homes did not impress her. She clung to Jaird's arm and laughed hysterically hysterical-ly as the block of ramshackle buildings, build-ings, gutted by the blaze, collapsed upon itself. "What a short'!" she cried. Shirley shivered. In that moment she hated Connie Mays. With a wild savage hatred that frightened her. (TO BE COMIMED- Lou seemed dazed by the completeness com-pleteness of the disaster. women and the frightened whimpers whim-pers of small children. Alec followed fol-lowed strained pointed fingers with his eyes. A little boy stared from the window of' the flat to the left of the staircase. A small, white-faced boy with a crutch and eyes mad with terror. "It's Joey! Bess Wllklns' Joey!" shrieked a woman. Alec knew about Bess Wilkins. She was night operator in the telephone tele-phone office down town, a widow with one crippled child whom she had to leave alone while on duty. "Oh, God, everybody forgot Joey!" sobbed Lou. "They're spreading a net," yelled someone. "Jump, Sonny, we'll catch you!" The child, peering from the upper window, stared down at the web spread to receive his thin frail body. Then the little cripple slid-slowly to his knees and vanished out of sight behind the window frame. "He's fainted!" "Oh, God!" whispered Lou. "Stop that damned fool!" shouted a policeman. Alec whirled. A shambling figure was on the staircase weaving in his tracks, but fighting his way up against the ferocious heat and blinding blind-ing burning smoke. "Father!" wailed Lou Knight. Alec caught her in his arms. She fought him furiously, but he held her against his heart. Pete Knight had reached the top landing of the stairs. Flames licked out at him from the upper corridor. Then suddenly he was inside the burning building. A great sigh swept over the crowd. Lou hid her eyes against Alec's breast. He held her tightly in an agony of pity. There was a gasp, a tremendous cheer. People surged forward. Pete Knight stood at the window of the flat He had Joey in his arms. A limp, unconscious Joey! Awkwardly but gently Pete Knight, still swaying on his feet, tossed the child out The web caught the thin little body. Again a sigh rose from tightened throats. "Jump, man! Save yourself!" "Father!" screamed Lou. |