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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 1922)
3 The World Outside By Harold MacGrath TflE hUNUAf HKK: OMAHA. AUGUST IS. 1922. The iorf Thu Ftr. A deniut lor o,iii)0 biaif offer Riade'tO Celling wo.nl Jeremiah Bancroft, who hat Just iiihrnie J hit lather'i 7nxl by a itraugrr who Mr Ik represents lit Great Adventure company, and who I toated into Jeiry's ramshackle dwrlliutr by terrific . lorm. Jerry, tilting among hit rurit ni l the I books he i read ing, at drtt acofft and then ponder, rcrIUna hit' father' wyiterioul death, yet to be tulvrd, ami hit own thi'ltrrtd, unevrtitful 24 yean. Il fail to tiollif llic malevolent he. lit f Hat il granger dart at him. The nun explain! that he hat told many successful adventure ami tliat j'lry'i it to begin at owe, provided be ign a con tract to go into great world outside and inert It. SECOND IS'STALLMt NT. A Girl In DUtres. ASK at many questions a you like," etui the teller of adventure in response to Bancroft's query, "Supposing I signed a contract for an adventure," said Bancroft. "Ijsler 1 fall in love. Wouldn't it lt likely 1'ir me to distrust her a one of your paid puppet!" I low about that" "You resd the oroieftu a little hurriedly. All we offer i man- attiff. T'r love it not a ubject of reasoning, hut of feeling, and tliernoie there are no common principle upon which one tan per tuade another concerning it. So ay our mutual friend Botwell. If a young and pretty woman en tered the game (he would enter it naturally, in the true adventurout tyle. And, if the right tort, your I f 10,009 will have been well incit ed " "You have an answer for every thing." "A man who tIU anything ihould have, Well. I'll leave the pros pectus, a photograph of George Bellman, who bought one of our adventure, together with a syn opsis of what befell him, I'nder ttand, part of the adventure it ourt, part of it the natural sequence of events." The adventurer placed the photograph and tyiiop-.it on the dek. "Here ia our regular ad dress. "The Bolivia Emerald company, read Bancroft, "Went Forty-sec-end, near Broadway." "That it the aign on our doort, ,W thould hesitate to use the Great Adventure company, for reatont already explained. Ostcn aibly we arc manipulating not promoting a tmall emerald mine from which we are really taking a quantity of marketable emeralda. -These stones cover our expenses during dull timet, when we find nothing but wishy-washy youth. Bancroft grinned. "If I could go on an adventure with you as a tide partner, why, I don't '" "Then it would become a Cook t tour. Still, I'm obliged for the lought, the adventurer aoflca dryly. "We may get together. Who can say?" lie strapped the portfolio and rote. At this moment there came a , tremendous rumble of thunder; forked lightning darted hither and yon; the wind rote " to tempest strength, and the old house trembled. The two men stood listening, abstractedly perhaps. The adventurer turned his eyes twinkling with fictitious merri ment. "All that is needed," he said, shift ing the portfolio under his arm, "to perfect the moment is for me to vanish in a cloud of sulphurious intone." "I wonder if it would astonish me?" said Bancroft, laughing. Then he observed Mrs. Home in the doorway. Her attitude was hesitant. "Supper is on the tabic, sir" she announced. "I tay," laid Bancroft, with- that ready hospitality which ia still to be found among the country folk, "have supper with me. Come along. The local hotel is pretty poor, and 1 can give you steak, fried potatoes, talad and some apple pie to remember. The worst of the blow will be over in an hour." "Supper?" The adventurer's head came about with a jeik. "Supperhere?" Another tableau, except for three roving glances: there was difli dence in old Mrs, Home's toler. ance in Bancroft's, hut in the glance of the adventurer there was something akin to Ihe look of a maruading wolf who unexpected ly find himself caught in a trap. "Ye, come and have supper," nrged Bancroft, who wouldn't have turned forth a tramp into tuch a strm, Not thit this chari table inl,inl was wholly account able f' t' present 'imitation- There wat udlen-born craving for company and entertainment ; and th't odd ttrangrr, lie would be both, "Come along. It'i quar ter of mile Irom here to the ho tel, and the walk will.be no picnic in this downpour," Bancroft wat young. He had by constant study acquired formid able array of fartt, even diested them; but at yet few of these fact had ben exercised, lie wat, then, tomething like a fine book, wait ing for someone to cut the leaves. Those outside forces which sharp en a nun'i wilt and ttrcngthen hit defense had not yet touched him tave in a negligible degree. Hi knowledge of physiognomy wat at present ordinary, in no wise run out or deliberate, He had never had any came to ttudy the human countenance. Here, ill the village, he new everybody by their arts; then faret were indicative of this 'or that person, riot of thit or that character. So then, throughout thit remarkable interview he missed the . cold menace which from time to time revealed itscll from behind Ihe smiling blue eyes of the unknown. Wh tuddenly began to laugh. Now, while it it true that Ban croft's eyes were untrained in the art of reading expression on human faces, hit ears were sharp enough in the translation of founds. Once more he tensed the hollowncst of thit laughter, the wall or dark cav ern from behind which or out et which it cane. There wat, how ever, one visible point: the laugh ter, which began abruptly and end-, cd abruptly, did not signal its ftp-' proach by a tunic nor its passing "You are asking me to stay to tupper?" "Sure, therc't plenty.' The stranger became conscious of an unalterable face that thit boy was no fool, that lie wat edu cated far beyond hit yean; that if he were romantiral he regulated such flight by the leash of reason. He might he reckless, but he would never be absurd. Refute the tupper and the boy would for get all about the Great Adventure company. He must, then, In order to promote hit sinister plant, pho tograph himself indelibly upon re youngster't memory. But to break bread under this roofl He flung hi portfolio upon the chair. "Hang it!" he laid with a gai ety which would have deceived the Cumacn Sibyl, "I'll go you. I feel that I shall be perfectly at homel" "Another plate, ' Mrs. Home." 'I put another one on, iir, no knowing" . "Come along, then, Boswcll," laid Bancroft, jovially, "I tay, do you drink?" "Occasionally, but I am more or lej a temperate man, Mr, Ban - croft." i "The cellar it full of the ttuff, though I've never opened any of it. Sometimes, in the fields dur ing harvctt. I've taken mv crhma of eggnogg, made with hard cider." 'Nobody in the village told me your father drank." "He didn't. He wat a teclo taler." "Ah! Anotlier one of those fore closure!." "Possibly, I'll take the candle and we'll explore, You can pick out the brand you like." "That's royal, I must say, Lead on." Inwardly the adventurer smiled. He reached into the othcr'a mind and opened the nebulous idea forming there, as he might have opened a ripe plum. Get him drunk, eh, so he would babble? Decidedly the boy had an old head on his shoulders. The whole south end of the cellar was lined with sloping racks, upon which reposed 300 or 400 bot tles, covered with dust and cob-, webs. The adventurer seized the candle and bent to scrutinize a bottle, Komanee Conti. So the wine was here, too? Romanee Conti, Cm de Vougeot, and Chateau Yquemt He leaned , against an apple barret and began to chuckle, unmindful that the taHow from the candle dripped upon his thoet. "In a dead world like this!" he said. "Have you any opinion of what you have got here?" "No." "How Jong has it been here?" "O, ever since I can remember. Pick out your bottle, The steak will be getting cold." The adventurer returned - the candle and adeeted a bottle of Romanee Conti, which he wrapped in hit handkerchief, careless of the dust, and tucked under his arm, He followed Bancroft into the din ing room. "You will have to drink it out of an ordinary goblet,' said Bancroft. "I suppose there are some formali ties, some ceremonial, in opening a bottle of this ktull; but I'm a. green hand on tht score " "Wdl j mi join me?" "Well, I d'm't suppose a gUit will be my utter damnation." "You never can tell." "How miuth it the ttuff worth?" "Sometimei around IU.0W " Bancroft sensation was out of indifference; and he egan imme diately to anlye this indifferent . Not to long ago Ihe information would have wrenched t about of incredulity out of him, while now he accepted it at tomething ofdi nardy possible, A millionaire, why shouldn't hit wine cellar be worth tomething?" "1 could tell it for you tomor row," said the adventurer. "Bootleg it?f "Something like that, of course. Bancroft laughed contentedly, and began to atiark hit steak. But ihe significance of the laughter did not escape the keen ears of hit gueit, "There are boothggert and bootleggert," he tad ' gravely, "You know noth ing about real wine, and I do. It will be crime to permit thit nec tar eventually to turn to tedimenl and bitternest. Wines die, young man, the tame at human beings. A certain number of years, and they reach the top of their vigor: then they begin to decline. Oh, I know what it going on in the back of your head. You have written me down some kind of a crook, and your suvpiwont have been con firmed by my offer lo lake the wine off your hands." Bancroft was conscious of a warmth in hi therka. ''Honestly, now, ean you blame me?" , "All right. We'll say no more about the Great Adventure com pany. Keep the prospectus and laugh over it in the days to come." There are tome rctrcatt which turpan in advantage the most tenaciout defenses. A man who lad something to sell and. did not care particularly whether you bought it or not. Bancroft was impressed. He eyed hit goblet of wine, took a swallow and found it good, A mellow fire teemed to . set about invading every vein in hi body. "Vint lot of chairt." "What?" laid Bancroft, who had been, studying hi sensation. "These chairt here. A fine lot of Dutch cherry, worth about $J00 each; probably more, since the act it complete. My word, thit house it like Ali Baba'i cave; the fur ther you go the more wonderful it becomes. Romance Conti and antique Dutch!" "And both are over my head,'' Bancroft confessed. "Yet I have alwayi admired these chairs with out knowing why." The adventurer rose and shifted the chair about in his hands, with loving tenderncst. It occurred to Bancroft that a lover might thus .smooth, a woman's hand. He glanced at the neighboring chair, but could not tee what there wa to fondle. "By the way," taid the adven turer, setting down the chair. "1. believe I law a volume back there on antiques," "The one book I never took much interest in." "I'll get it,' He was gone but a minute. It struck Bancroft as odd the ease with which the man found the book. "Sec?" taid the guest, at he laid the open volume at the tide on Bancroft'i plate. "Hang me, but here's a photograph of the identical chairs !" "Dors it say who owned them?" asked Bancroft, with an cagcrnes all out of proportion with hi actual interest in the chairs. He had always been curious about the hooks, the cases and thk chairs. They did not belong ia a house of this ordinary quality. "It tays here that the chairs are owned by the author." The ad venturer turned back to the title page. "Well, that doesn't get us anywhere. C. J. K. Of course, the publisher would know who C J. K. is or was." .The adven turer returned to his chair. "An tiques are not valuable, because they are old, but for two reasons; the artistry of the maker and the shadowy associations . which cling to the objects. Take that chajr there with the arm. Three hun dred year old. You have imag ination. Think of conjure up all the women who have tat in that chair, their bright faces, their lace cap . , , and nonit of them with a child in their arm." To Bancroft' wonder, the imile for which he had been waiting broke. It wa directed at the chair a smile that was tender and wist ful, lending a strange beauty to the harsh (are. Bancroft decided that his opinion of the man must undergo considerable reconstruc tion, No rogue could smile like that. Still, when the fare came around again there was mockery in the eyes. "I suppose there must he a cask et about filled with prat Is and ruin-, mid d'n!Kl," "1 Ioiiht it," said Bancroft, "flow did yu two get onf" "O, tolerably. He was not svbal you would call roinpamoAalr; but the aloof neii wat terene. He left early in the morning and returned late in the day. In the summer he would tit tut a white on the porch; in the winter, before the fire there. He Uyt went to bed at half past ft. Then I'd steal in and begin my reading 1 at al ways a little afraid of him, tlmugh 1 don't know why ) thould have been." "Did h ever give you any rea ton for living in tint fiole" "No. He never confided in rue in the least. He never laughed, hummed tune or teemed to lake any inures! in the action going on about him, 'I bough he often tmiled, 'If it attitude wat alway that c.f a run deeply absorbed in thoiiKht,' "Did he ever answer the bell?" "No. ruber 1 or Mr Home answered the hell. He bad signi fied that he wanted nothing In do with the villager, who called him miter, which doubtless he wa; for he had the miter' instinct of frugality. I never haled him: and now I feel sorry for him. Not a friend in the wot Id, so far at 1 know," The adventurer flared Into hi wine. v "Take the Mrrrhant of Venire," went on Bancroft, defensively, "Why does the world hate him so? They took his money and they took hi daughter. What did he get out of that dial that all should detest him?" The adventurer emptied hit glas of Burgundy and refilled it. He looked inquiringly at Bancroft, who pushed hi goblet toward the bottle. "How about the time they stoned you?" "So you heard about that? If I hate anything, it will be this town and its . inhabitants Though, I wuli no harm lo either," "And you never frit the des're lo clear out and see what the world wa like?" "A thousand times. But caution always held me in. Kupposing I failed and had to come slinking back? It wa the fear that I might , fair miserably that kepi me here. That sound like timidity. I'er hap it i. I am no judge. But it will be tern that I lost noth ing by having patience, I'm young. The law of average give me plenty of time to go a-venturing. But how about you? Yon must have teen something of this world." The adventurer welcomed this opening with tacrct tatitfaction. To thrill thit young mind, tanta lize it, bewilder it, So he poke of Europe. Asia, Africa, the South Sea; book, the great picture gal leries, cathedral and temple. Through it all Bancroft sipped hi wine and tried to visualize these verbal enchantment. Here were the place he had dreamed of when a boy the great and glowing world outside, A temple in the Burma dust, a smiling lagoon in the summer ea. , . , "I am going to give you a little advice," concluded the narrator, "Go away for a few months." "Why?" "Because, an toon as the world learn about your riches, all man ner of mendicant will be milling in your hallway. Crook in for eign car, charily committees, re lief organizations, oil promoter, hook agents, female vampire, ordinary thugs in hope of your, being fool enough to keep large sums of money about, Your mail will mount waist-high, for you will be on every tucker list in -the country. There will be 10,000 in genious plans to separate you from your money, and 9,000 of them within the law. You call the Great Adventure company prepos terous; wait until you see some of the other prospects I And yoti will fall for tome of them. Why? Be cause you can afford to risk a few thousand out of curiosity. Go away, and inside of ix month you will have been forgotten; ome other millionaire' ion will be Ihe target. Go to New York the New Bagdad I and take another name; learn tomething about hu man beings. Contact. All the learning there ever wa it worthless without contact. What's in your head now? Lumber. Contact will turn it into polished citron." To print hi personality indelibly upon this receptive mind; he be lieved he had accomplished this, Now to get ihe boy out of these protective environs, where he could say come in or go out, w here there was confidence and serenity. To get him into New York, where dif fidence would jostle hlin on one ide and confusion on the other, The boy had a tileusant, attrac tive face, slnau'ail)' clear in the kin; tfady, gry e, Jiome day, when ll.e.a eyes began lo ol trine and weigh human Its. l,y would difficult to W mate, lie wa well et up, loo. So then, t f snle hi imiiiiitui and lure hull awy from tin ion In. Id '1 be lo (Ism's of wine had e hilaraled fUncofl. Ife felt et. pantively chtrtiable toward h fu ture, toward lli pail, toward thil entertaining adventurer, K most interesting man h had ever met There wtt a mirt.ieout inebua lion to get the W.'MI, inn it be tide the mtii'i plate and demand a contract, if only tn tee bow be ' would ul m the thotk; bul im mediately he comprehended lbl It wit the wine whirh wa urging him lo make a fool of hunulf. lie laughed. ' "What't the joke?" "Well, nothing could I fianter than that. 1 bad proposed that we forget all about the Great Adven ture company; bul evwhi tl you are eat til mulling it over," "Only I a whimsical fcbsurd.ly." "Si month in a war ttmp bar trained you lo kepliilil," said !' adventurer, wi ly t'nftiiig the sub ject, "fjueer thing. You make no real friendship among the boy. You were a highbrow to them, and all the while you were crazy lo mix in, bul didn't know Imw. J. um ber; all you had learned from books wa lumber, since it hadn't taught yon to be a miser. When you wriit into ton the one near est your camp you went atone and hung around ti e public library, You didn't drink or tboot rrap or cur ti the power Hot be. You et'aped brawl because ymr buddie found out at the 'arl that you could u your fittie. Thai's where your one-eyed puiiit came in, Bul you never preached and you never acted Nobody liked yon, but all respected you beiause you made a tiptop sol dier by the time the war blew ur; But you got as far as Hoboken," "I wanted to et into it." "A war medal lo bring home and flaunt al the villagers. You didn't want bjnd and death; you wanted glamour, the excitement of rrrttsing the Ocean, of teeing foreign cinet, Ihe pretty girls, and all that. What this? Real apple pie, as 1 live, with cinnamon 1" , "And a second piece, if you want it, sir," said Mr. Home, buttling out. , "Would you hke another bottle; asked Bancroft, with ly inlet:!, "Would you? No, young man. you could not get me drunk under four bottles, and by that time you would be under the table, I use my education, and it tells me 'ware of trong drink. A little exhilaration now and then will not hurt any one. But how few of m are ttroug enough to halt thit tide of the hoe,' Would you like another bottle' ' "No," taid Bancroft, readily ad mitting hit failure, but free of chagrin. . "What are you going lo do wnh all thi money?" Bancroft'i hand went to l"t brow, hi finger into hi thit?, brown hair. "I don't kiuw, Spend tome of it, give tome of it away, 1 don't want, to wavtc it; I want to do good with it, and I want to have a decent good time, too. But how and where to be gin that' what bewilder me. With an income of 10,000 a year, . I should be very happy. But mote than a qtfartcr of a million, when a Mi bill Kill took a big a all outdoors! If you had set youi adventure at a million, I might have jumped at it." "My mistake," aid the other dry ly, "You can still offer it, how ver. You arc a free agent. Your father's will was without bequest-, or conditions." "I can spend it like a ai!or, or go on accumulating it. Did you set the will?" "No; but I wat given a git of it." "It's a literary curiosity; one of the shortest wills on record. Whenever I feel myself getting foggy'I take out my copy and read it. Here, read it yourself, and I II me what you think of it." He tailed Ihe envelope across the table. The adventurer stared at it. rather ilonily. "Go on, read it," taid Bancroft, impatiently, "It't worth reading." Thii urged, the ttranger drew the envelope toward him and en traded the instrument, and (month ed out upon the tablecloth. Know All by These J'rescnU: Being hale and sound mentally, whatever my body may be. 1 leave to my ton, Coliiugiwood Jeremiah Bancroft, all my real and personal property, unconditionally, without let or hindrance. There will be no debt t lo pay, I had .'0 odd yean of intensive pleasure in gathering these fund and properties. My son, if to he pleases, may dissipate it in a many months. Copy, SII.AS BANl'ROI I. , I