RICHARD HOFFMANN
COPYRIGHT BY RICHARD HOFMANN_
W.N.U. SERVICE
SYNOPSIS
Following his father’s bitter criti
cism of his idle life, and the notifi
cation that he need not expect any
immediate financial assistance, Hal
Ireland, only son of a wealth? bank
er, finds himself practically without
funds but with the promise of a sit
uation in San Francisco, which city
he must reach, from New York,
within a definite time limit. He takes
passage with a cross-country auto
party on a “share expense" basis.
Four of his companions excite his
interest: a young, attractive girl,
Barry Trafford; middle-aged Giles
Kerrigan: Sister Anastasia, a nun:
and an individual whom he instinc
tively dislikes, Martin Crack. Barry’s
reticence annoys him. In Kerrigan
he finds a fellow man-of-the-world,
to whom he tpkes at once. Hal is
unable to shake off a feeling of
uneasiness. He distrusts Crack, but
finds his intimacy with Kerrigan
ripening, and he makes a little prog
ress with Barry.
CHAPTER III
—5—
Wednesday.
THE morning light looked washed,
the air carried the semblance of
refreshment from the night, and the
rich smell of the exhaust seemed
hopeful as they started off, aiming
for breakfast at some near town.
Miller seemed to think nothing had
changed since yesterday for, after
he had lashed the luggage under
the tarpaulin behind, he climbed
into the driver’s place. “Not today,’’
Hal said to him. “Better try your
invention, in back.”
Hal looked over at Kerrigan,
whose eyes were smiling as he
peeled a peach with a large knife.
The knife caught Hal’s eye; the
single, tapering, four-inch blade was
set to a handle of natural stag
horn, also tapering, with a ring at
the thick end.
“Nice knife,” he said.
“French,” said Kerrigan, regard
ing it. “Laborers use ’em to cut
their bread at lunch and each other
Saturday nights.”
“Is that what you’ll use to—when
^ you round out your collection?”
Kerrigan gave an Innocent, gener
ous smile. “Might,” he said. He
finished his neat peeling of the peach
and held it over the wheel where
Hal could see it. “Manage that?”
“Oh, thanks,” said Hal, and took it.
The car, with its age, ailments,
and unnatural load, was cranky,
and Hal guessed that it might be a
good thing that the driver’s rear
vision mirror didn’t give him
Barry’s face to look at. Instead, it
showed Sister Anastasia’s, tran
quil and immaculate, below the ob
long of the back window. And when
Hal glanced up, out of an habitual
alertness for motor cycle police, he
saw the nun’s head occasionally
turned toward Barry, her lips mov
ing, her expression one of comfort,
of trust, of intimacy almost. He
strained his ears for a hint of what
they might be talking about, but
their murmurs were unintelligible
among the dry and labored songs
of the car’s antiquity.
Hal remembered yesterday's sense
of portent, of the shadow of some
thing impending—like a presence
with them. It had been odd, almost
vivid, and he had been half wait
ing for it to come again. If it
came, and he could see Sister An
astasia look like that—her serenity
made deep, limpid, cool round the
traces of an unforgotten sadness
near her eyes—the feeling wouldn’t
make him uneasy again. And it
might not come. Purged of his
own confusion of spirit, with Mil
ler’s outrageousness on the road
and his sleepy thievery disarmed,
the atmosphere was healthier. He
must get Kerrigan at lunch time
and decide what was best to do
about Miller In Detroit: turn him
off loose, try to get him blacklisted
with the agencies, if they bothered
with blacklists, or let the police
have a go at him. The man oughtn’t
to be at large, and yet It might
“Say," came Crack’s Indolent,
confederate murmur close to Hal's
I ear; “thought any ’bout what you’ll
do to this bird Miller?"
Hal snatched a bite of breakfast
and, to save time, went off to have
the ear sustained with water, gas,
and oil, while the others either
joined or watched the Pulsiphers
celebrate the earnest ritual of eat
ing. Barry’s eyes were soberly, In
ternally thoughtful again: and the
transient civility that had stood
w in them for a moment when Hal
f met her look was no recognition of
their advance of the night before.
When he came back to the break
fast place, she gave him her polite
recognition and would have turned
away If ne hadn’t held her eyes
with the steady, curious twinkling
of hla
She raised her eyebrows—simple,
cleanly traced, barely curved— and
prompted him. “What?”
“Must you be so solemn?” he
said. “You look as if you couldn’t
remember whether you’d turned off
the gas at home."
She smiled without especial Joy.
“The morning’s always solemn,”
she said. “Everything’s so clear. In
the morning you know it’s silly to
be afraid of the dark, but you know
that when the dark comes you’ll be
afraid again.”
“Are you afraid of the dark?
She shook her head a little. “Not
in the morning,” she said. “Ker
rigan wants a paper. If I find a
place open, do you want one?” Not
a personal favor.
Hal bowed with a smile as po
litely reticent as hers. "Love it,”
he said.
She left him, and Hal rummaged
in the car for a tire gauge. Then
Miller came out, blinking in the sun
“Got a tire gauge?” Hal said.
“Sure," said Miller.
“Throw it on all around and see
what we’ve got, will you?”
Mrs. Pulsipher came through
the door then, followed by Sister
Anastasia and Crack. Miller half
turned his grin toward them, and
said with an air of sleepy clever
ness: "You're drivin’. Why’nt you
do it?’
Hal looked up smartly: at once
Miller’s bleary grin was less cer
tain of Itself. Was the man pos
sessed of some animal loathsome
ness that could affect others? He
commanded Miller's flimsy effront
ery with his eyes, conscious that
the golf ball in Crack's lazy
hand had stopped joggling, as
if sharing its master’s curiosity to
see what Hal would do.
“Check the tires," said Hal quiet
ly. As he watched Miller go for the
gauge, Hal’s hands hung clear of
his body, carefully, as if he had
been handling sewage.
So this day too was started with
something wrong, something almost
stealthy In It—something besides
the infirmities of the car and the
heat that grew to a slow embrace
of everything in the hazy, still
landscape. To get to Detroit quick
ly, to be quit of Miller and the
car—that was the focus for ur
gency.
The engine was little by little
making up its mind to quit, discour
aged by the brevity of easier gradi
ents and cowed by a team of three
busses that charged down—a fierce
happiness in their flapping tarpau
lins—from the Alleghany summits.
“This is bad enough," said Kerri
gan. "But think of hopping the
Atlantic. Listening for the horses
to cool off every second for thirty
hours would harden all my arteries,
give me a million dollars’ worth of
persecution complex.” And over his
shoulder he asked Miller, “What’s
the matter with this studio-number
of yours, Robin Hood?”
“Little warm,” said Miller, like
a doped horse-trader. “How far do
you reckon it to Detroit?”
There was a sort of lazy triumph
in Crack’s saying, as if he had a
map and a speedometer In his lap:
“Betw’een three and three fifty.
’At’ll make it a long trip for today."
"We’re going to do it.” said Hal,
"if we have to trade this barge
for bicycles.”
It rained as they dipped down
the last rolling land of Pennsylvania
to the straight roads of Ohio. For
two miles a short passenger train
hurried darkly along the straight
track that converged upon the
straight road. Kerrigan musing on
it, Llal glanced at him and at if
witli a pleasant sense of intimacy
deepening between them. Then the
locomotive cried exasperation at the
crossing.
“Train cornin’,” Pulsipher mur
mured.
Miller chuckled. “I seen that
quite a ways back.” he said.
Then they came to Akron, a
spread of buildings that grew ir
regularly higher toward a nnbbln
of the tallest, in the modern style.
Mrs. Pulsipher knew it was Akron
tty the smell of rubber.
The city had lunch places, and
that was Important. It was near
three o’clock.
Miller frankly distrusted the “Tea
Shoppe” that had caught Mrs. Pul
sipher’s bright and hungry eye, and
he wouldn't go In. But the lady
made it hard for the others—impos
sible for John—not to follow her.
The dog bad dragged Barry down
the street on a good scent, and
Hal and Kerrigan let the others
fill one table, avoiding the solicita
tion of Crack’s lazily hopeful look.
"You and the princess aren't still
walking round each other stlfT
legged, are you?” said Kerrigan.
"Wouldn’t be sure," said Hal,
watching the friendly brown eyes
quizzically. “Why?”
“Oh, I haven’t got auy Kreuger
blood In me,” said Kerrigan quickly.
“I Just wondered If we could begin
having a happy time—the three of
us—or whether I had to be a ref
eree."
"I think she’s a grand girl," said
Hal calmly. “You’ll forgive my ask
ing what Kreuger blood’s got to do
with It."
“Kreuger made matches once
aloug with a Mr. Toll,” said Kerri
gan.
Hal laughed and started to say
something, but then Barry came in
to them. Her unstudied smile of
pleasure at having been waited for
barely included Hal in its beginning,
and the end of It, with a leisured
drooping of the eyelids, was all for
Kerrigan. And tlint piqued Hal
smartly, even while he pretended
to chuckle to himself.
I know a weakness In you, beau
tiful, and I’m still going to use It.
But lie found himself watching
her carefully, alertly, ns If he might
miss something pleasant.
“First,” said Kerrigan, when
they'd sat down, “we ought to be so
ciable."
Barry glanced up from her menu
in innocent inquiry. “I thought we
were,” she said; “aren't we?"
“All right, we are,” said Kerrigan.
“You admit it. Then let us bare our
hearts to each other. Here’s what
I thought—just for an awfully good
romp. Each of us gives a short
biography of him-, or tier-, self, you
see—like the suburban obitunrles In
the city paper—’’
“Jolly,” said Hal.
“Well, we don't have to die aft
erwards—unless we want to,” Ker
rigan went oil. “And it’s no fair
dying either till each of the others
asks one question. We draw lots to
see w ho starts."
He broke matches to different
lengths, offered them In his fist, the
“Must You Be So Solemn?” He Said.
ends protruding evenly. He said.
“Or don’t you want to do this?”
glancing at Harry.
“Mm,” said Barry, and held out
her hand. "Who goes first—long or
short?”
“Long."
There was a thin air of excitement
about It, as in u game of Truth or
Consequences. Barry studiously
kept her eyes on Kerrigan’s. Hal
rummaged in his mind for the right
question to ask her when his turn
came. And the little tenseness
stayed about them after Barry had
drawn the middle-length match, Hal
the short, with Kerrigan to begin.
“Frankly I don’t know why I start
ed this," said Kerrigan, his eyes
cheerful and wnrm, “so I’ll make it
dull as possible. I was born in Chi
cago, fifty-one years ago, with a
caul. My mother wanted me to
go into the church, my step
father wanted me in a bank,
so I decided to be a cowboy. I
entered the University of Chi
cago at the age of seventeen and
came out of it again at seventeen
and a quarter for a job on the range
in Wyoming. I wrote up a barroom
shooting and had the misfortune to
get it printed in a Cheyenne paper.
Since then I’ve worked on nineteen
newspapers, being fired from one
and resigning from eighteen in the
nick of time. I am on my way to
the twentieth, and last, run by an
old friend in Southern California. I
like horses, shad roe, and derby
hats; and 1 never take old brandy
except when I can get It. So there.”
“Ah, is that all?” said Barry, her
brows raised, her blue eyes tender
ly disappointed.
“Enough for today," said Kerri
gan. “Now It's—"
“But I get a question,” said Barry.
“So you do."
“Any question?”
Kerrigan said. “The more person
al, the more flattering,” in quiet
courtliness.
She looked at him, looked down
at the knife she fingered In her firm,
dexterous hnnd. then up again gen
tly. ‘Have you b n married?" she
said.
“Never,” said Kerrigan. “1 used
to keep coming down with love, but
there was always something hap
pened.”
She watched him a second longer,
the gentleness draining reluctantly
from her eyes. Then for the first
time since they’d sat down she
turned to Hal, Incuriously, and said,
“You get one.”
“The one time you were fired—’’
Hal began, watching to be sure It
was all right. Kerrigan’s look start
ed a plensed dancing. “Why were
you?” Hal said.
“Well, It's a long story—a long
story,” said Kerrigan.
"Then all the better," said Barry,
low and comfortable. "Come on—
you started this."
"Well, my friends, It seems I have
a half-brother," said Kerrigan, still
tasting the cheerful reminiscence:
“older—respectable, systematic as a
ball team, steady, worthy, ambi
tious.
"I used to displease him very
much in youth,” Kerrigan went on.
‘‘So we didn’t get along. He gave
up the job of reforming me—and
went into a bank and did well. Ten
years passed. I had a Job on a
paper in Montana. My hnlf-broth
er's bank sent him out to look at
some copper mines that were In
trouble and I was s’posed to get an
Interview. I knew the situation at
the mines, and I was pretty sure
the situation in m.v brother’s head
hadn't changed much in ten years.
So instead of listening to what he
thought lie ought to think about it
and getting ten years’ accumulated
Y. M. C. A. on the side, I snmckod
out a couple of columns of what I
thought lie ought to think and went
off to sit up with a sick friend.
“My brother made his tail pretty
big when he saw the interview, but
It was bigger when he found out
who wrote It. And before I could
get to the otlice, I was tired. It was
a dirty trick on him. But it made
a new man of me. That was before
I got used to having tilings mnke
new men of me all the time."
Barry watched him for a moment
of confidential pleasure, smiling,
and then said, “I like that." And
Hal suspected that If the tough
cheeks hadn't been so thickly peo
pled with tlie little red veins, Ker
rigan might have blushed.
“Now it's your turn," lie said to
her.
Her look at Kerrigan was unwor
ried, hut faintly reticent. And Hal
was ns intent for the parting of her
full lips as if she were going to tell
ids fortune. Then in quiet leisure
she said:
"I’m twenty-three. I was born In
Massachusetts, in Deerfield. Botli
my parents are dead. I finished high
school and was secretary to a coun
try lawyer for two years. I'd always
wanted to go on the stage, so when
I—when tilings changed, when my
father died, I got n Joti in stock. 1
had three years of that round the
East, without getting to Broadway;
and now I’m going to try to.get into
pictures." She looked down thought
fully, perhaps rellevedly, at the
knife in tier hand to show she
had finished. ‘‘Thanks for listenin’,”
she added, with a brighter glance
at Kerrigan. "You get questions,
too."
"What do you like best—to do?”
said Kerrigan at <>nce.
‘‘Bead," she said.
“You’ve rend a lot?” he said.
She smiled easily. “I learned to
read when I was six, and I’ve read
ever since. I've learned darn near
everything I know from reading—
what T like, what I don’t like, what
I—what I want. I copied charac
ters in books until one day I found
I didn’t have any idea who I really
was at nil. And tiiat frightened me
a little."
Lunch came then, and she seemed
to stop sooner that she had at first
Intended. Hal hoped the obituaries
would be ended too—including Ids
question to Barry. He couldn’t ask
lier any of the things he found he
really wanted to know; and such
passable questions as he thought of
sounded silly. But when the dishes
were settled and the iced-tea and
coffee situation straightened out,
KVrrigan looked at him end said,
"Now your question."
Barry looked up at Hal with a
frank, quiet confidence that gave
him unexpected pleasure.
“If you—when you make good In
the movies, and have lots of money,"
he said, "what will you do?’’
Her eyes wore faintly surprised
by interest and they stayed on his,
appraising the picture he'd provoked
for her. "I hadn’t thought,” slie
said. "If—If I should arrive. . . .”
That picture was dubious, but the
light lingered gently In her eyes,
neither reckless with hope nor In
timidated by disappointment. "If
I should arrive and they plugged me
and finished me, I’d go to England
—France, to see It, to see if it’s
the place I’ve thought It might be.
I’d live there for a wtiile. and
then ... I don’t know."
Her lighted eyes came back slow
ly and without bitterness to the
fragile, cheap tearoom. Hal won
dered if the loneliness in her look
was accidental; he felt that if she’d
been aware of It, she wouldn’t have
let it appear. “Now it's your turn,"
she said to him.
"i’ll tell you,' sum Hal. “I’m
twenty-six. I was born in New
York, but if I had It to do over
again, I wouldn't be born there;
I'd only go there when I felt like it.
I went to school and college in New
England, and then was sent abroad
—to decide what I’d do. I nearly
decided on a career of Just being
abroad, but one dark, rainy morning
I was carrying a sort of headache
past a steamship office, when I sud
denly went In and bought a steerage
ticket home. I was a runner in
Wall Street for a while. Then I
got a chance at a Job about throe
thousand miles away from the
Stock Exchange, and took it. That’s
where I’m going now—San Fran
cisco.”
(TO UK CONTINUED)
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Air conditioning Is an essential
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AB JENKINS ALSO RECENTLY
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These records are made possible by
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4.50- 21_
4.75-19_
5.00- 19_
5.25-18_
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12.75
14.30
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5.00-19
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