Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 22, 1935)
* BY ^ RICHARD HOFFMANN COPTrWICHT RvRICHARD HOFFMANN W-HU. SfcRVICC CHAPTER IX —15— Tuesday HEN daylight began to heat the sky outside, Hal still lay fawaka and sweating on his bed, • with only his coat off. He had meant not to doze, so that Crack, in the next room, shouldn't have a chance to send his telegram with out Hal’s knowing It He couldn’t think of Barry except as he had last seen her—"golden head a little bowed, staring over her satin knees Into the corner. And though he kept putting the dark I portrait from him, he found himself later regarding It again, Intently, •without knowing how It had come •back, or why. Then the light was broader over the wide street. He heard the creak ing of Crack’s bed next door, light •steps, and then the running of wa ter. Crack wouldn’t send the tele gram now before he found an open office somewhere. In Las Vegas probably, where—with luck— they ; would eat breakfast. With luck? What did so slight a thing as luck jon the road matter? It didn’t. But, lyes, It did. There was Sister Anas Itasia and her serene, beautiful ac ceptance of sorrow. She counted most In this day, rather as If she [had always counted most and Hal ;had not seen It for the glare and dazzle of his moonstroke. , Hal washed without refreshment and went down to unlock Raspu tin. He sat on the running board eat ing one of Mrs. Pulsipher’s oranges, when Kerrigan came down, brown ^eyes bright in a combination of greeting and alertness for signs of news. “Don’t look as If you’d slept well," he said, his voice dubious In .disappointment. "Plenty,” said Hal. "Wasn’t as tired as I expected.” Hal watched him, tasting—still through that internal numbness— his rich affection for the quick, ♦kind eye, the tough cheeks with their labyrinth of minute red veins, 'the straight lips with their implica tion of readiness and gusto. Then the Pulsiphers came out, not wholly awake but bustling in tandem al ready. Then came Crack, his bag in one hand, golf ball loose in the other; he pushed the ball nerv ously into his side pocket as he made his insecure good morning to Hal. And after him came Sister Anastasia and Barry. The cool peace of the nun’s face was softly animated in the prospect of this last day between her and her brother, and Hal knew Barry hadn’t told her everything. Barry, simply groomed as ever in her creaseless tailleur, gave him acknowledgment of nothing—nothing. The defensive mistrust of the journey was her brief look; no suggestion of a smile framed her curt good morning; even Doc’s lead was held short, as if to keep him from friendliness. Rasputin put behind him the hun dred and thirty-odd miles to Las Vegas in less than two hours and a half. The telegraph office was across and down the street from the place where they stopped to breakfast. Hal saw Crack’s care less looking for it, saw him find it and stand for an indecisive moment before starting toward it. Hal drank orange juice and wolfed a bowl of cereal at the counter; it was nat ural enough he should pay his bill and saunter out to the street when Crack should return. In the telephone booth next door, he called the telegraph office, and putting a shade of flat slowness In his voice, he had the girl accept him promptly as the person who’d just handed In a telegram for Fred erick Ireland, In New York. Hal said: “I’d like to mike It clearer In that part where it saya he claims he Is your son account trouble which will explain after you wire . . I want to say, ‘Claims he Is your son because asks credit for live hundred dollars to cover ex Snses including transportation to n Francisco stop.’ After that It goes on the same: ‘Wire Martin Crack, Orand Hotel’ and what you’ve got there.” Hal went back with a certain small, grim elation to look at Ras putin's oil gauge. Poor old Pop; free, honest anger for a little while wouldn’t hurt him much, wouldn’t be new to him; and his prompt de nial of parenthood would give Hal more time In Los Angeles. * When his numbed mind began to respond to old disciplines, It might try to tell him that the Idea of his —Hal Ireland’s—taking the soft throat of another human being In his hands and extinguishing the life that breathed there—that It was fantastic, preposterous. Would Crack, dead, still look old-fashioned and tidy, Indolent and secret, sex less and immature, subtly and slyly hateful? If yon beat a basking vi per dead In the dust with a stick, it didn’t look pitiable at all, surely. California welcomed them offi cially at its agricultural quaran tine station, where the luggage had to come down off the roof and be opened for an Inspection. Drop ping the bags to Kerrigan and Crack, Hal didn’t resist the temp tation which the last two offered. “That—” he said to Crack in a voice casual enough, but plainly audible: “that’s Kerrigan’s and that” —when Crack reached for It— “that's your wife’s." He knew Barry wouldn't turn; but Sister Anastasia and Kerrigan both looked up at him as if he had cursed, and he had to drop his eyes to hide deep self disgust. In the middle of Mrs. Pulsipher’s statistics on the thyroid Hollywood ladles took to keep their figures, John broke into frustrated sounds. He snapped his fingers In a mo ment and said, “It-tlt-tlt-tlt said that way. It-tit-tit—” Hal half turned toward John with a feeling near absolute tenderness for him and said: “These darn signs seem to point in any direction for Los Angeles. What place is this, d’you know?” “Pasadena,” said Crack warily. “You can run out to Hollywood this way if you want.’’ And he added, the insinuation of his voice unsure of its own shyness, “Whyn’t you drop—us off there on the way?" “Do that," said Hal briskly. It awed him a little to think again what might happen If Crack uned that “us” when they were alone. Guiding Rasputin to Crack’s di rections, Hal made a final attempt to fancy how it would be—to put Barry’s bag down on the sidewalk and leave her there with her hus band. Something might move and give him a remembrance other than chance to round out your collection of experience, how would you do your man in? Knife, I mean? Or gun? What?” "Would depend,” Kerrigan said cautiously. “Why?” “Interest,” said BaL "Interest” A bad poke; try something else, quick. “Look here,” said Kerrigan, sit ting forward with a slight Jounce of decision, “do you mind If I ask If you’re making a fool of your self?” "No,” said Hal, pretending cool ness. “Not a bit But you don’t expect n:e to be an authority, do you? Or do you think I’m such a fool that I make one of myself consciously ?” "I don’t like butting Into other people’s business,” Kerrigan went on. “The curse of the world Is people trying to run other people. And I’m not asking you this for fun, or because I like to hear my self talk." tiai looKea at Kerrigan s com plete, quiet gravity and felt the disrespect of being stretched on the bed while his senior sat solicitously forward. He raised himself from the pillows and swung his feet to the floor. “I’m sorry, Colonel. I don’t see why you should give a curse about my business. I'm thank ful that you do." He’d tell Kerri gan all about it—everything. That might be good to do; perhaps, tell ing him, his blood and his brain would rouse out of their coma. Kerrigan began soberly. “If you don’t want to tell me what’s hap pened, say so. But If you want to break It out, I want to hear It. And I said ‘want to’ not ‘willing to.’" “Colonel, I want to tell you,” said Hal, a gentleness on his mind as well as on his voice. “I—I just wanted to wait, that was all. Here —If you’ll listen—here’s the whole thing: start to—finish.” Hal told him a story so orderly and simple that he surprised him self—from the first hour In New York, when Larsen had been so sure Barry and Crack were together, from his first sense of something wrong that rode with them In the car through to watching Barry go up the walk to the hotel In Holly wood. And all the while he spoke, Barry sat in shining green satin, holding herself hard on that bed four hundred and more hot miles away, staring darkly into the shab by corner. Would she move if he told, too, how he meant to go to Crack later to be alone with him? Could he, having told It, keep Ker rigan from the disquieting duty of opposing him—uselessly? “That’s it,” said Hal in quiet conclusion. “And I can’t tell you —can’t tell myself—what It was THE STORY FROM THE OPENING CHAPTER Following his father’s criticism of his idle life, and withdrawal of financial assistance, Hal Ireland, son of a wealthy banker, practically without funds but with the promise of a situation in San Francisco, which he must reach from New York at once, takes passage with a cross-country auto party on a “share expense” basis. Four of his companions are a young, attractive girl, Barry Trafford; middle-aged Giles Kerrigan; Sister Anastasia, a nun; and an individual whom he Instinctively dislikes. Martin Crack. Barry's reticence annoys his. To Kerrigan he takes at once. Through >a misunderstanding, Hal Is directed to Barry's bedroom Instead of his own. Her apparent unfriendliness disappears, and they exchange kisses. The following day Hal tells her he loves her. She answers that she mustn't love him, without giving any reason. On his insistence, Barry tells Hal that shortly before his death her father had urged her to marry a man many years older than she. Trusting her father implicitly, she did so, and on his deathbed her father secured her promise to stick to her husband, "no matter what happened," for ten years. That was four years ago, and though she knows of her husband’s unwcthlness, she is determined to keep her promise, while admitting her love for Hal. No argument Hal can make will move her. That night, though she tries to dissuade him, he goes to her in her room and he secures again the admission of her love for him. Crack appears, and at once makes his position plain. He is Barry’s husband, and finding her and Hal together, his object is black mail. Hal, appalled at what he can only consider Barry's duplicity, laughs at him and his threat to go to Hal’s father with the story, to secure “hush money,” and takes an anguishing leave of Barry. the fixed image of last night It might be the last time he saw her. Some little thing should happen, must happen, to show him where he was. But it was nothing. Hal, on the roof, heard the good-bys said below him and saw Barry go a little apart with Sister Anastasia, write some thing on a slip of paper and give it to the nun before she kissed her. Her blue eyes came slowly to his. the hostile unremembering screens fixed against him. Perhaps she watched an instant longer than suit ed her negligence, but that was all. He knew she wouldn’t speak; and he looked away first, bending over to take Doc’s muzzle in his hand and shake it gently. “ 'Bye, poodle,” he said. And then he was; watch ing the ingenuous, unsurprising grace of her boy’s stride take her away, beside the terrier’s bright trotting. And this might be the last he ever saw of her! Good G—d, why did that still mean nothing? • •••••• The room was nondescript and comfortable and Kerrigan, in shirt sleeves by the window, swept his paper down when Hal came in, smil ing a faintly disturbed welcome, and said, “Well, here we are. When d’you shove off for Santa Barbara?” “In a while,” said Hal. “She’s see ing a priest who knows her brother —what’s on his mind, how he is and all. You knew her brother was dying? He is. That’s why she’s In a rush, bless her heart. She’s going to call up when she’s ready. When do you have to be on the job, Colonel?” he asked. “The End of the Trail?” he said, his eyes barely livened for a mo ment. “No hurry. Any time this month.” Hal watched him consider an opening for what he had to say and carelessly thought to head It off with: “Colonel, If you got the when I saw Crack standing In her room and knew why he could be there. Since then It’s been like coming out of fever: you know something’s happened inside you but you don't know what. I loved her, I guess—must’ve. I don’t hate her now—don’t seem to be able to feel about her at all. I only hate him; and I’d hate him even if he’d done nothing to me, even if he didn’t hate me, too." ‘‘So, what?" said Kerrigan. Hal gave a single, flat laugh. ‘‘Nothing,” he said: “except I’m going to keep my father out of this dirty mess if I have to—If it kills me.” Kerrigan sat down casually and said, “Out of what dirty mess?” Hal looked at him sharply for a hint of the joke, but there was no joke in Kerrigan’s gravely com manding eyes. “I mean why is it suddenly dirty after Crack comes into it?” Kerri gan explained in a patient, schol astic manner. “You knew she was married. Who did you expect her husband to be?” “I didn’t expect him to be a stealthy, pale louse of a man, watch ing us, right there making his dirty plans while his—his girl got a pros pect ready.” Kerrigan said, “Oh,” lifting his head in slight, Ironic comprehen sion. “She made you come to her room last night.” “No,” said Hal defensively. “As a matter of fact, she asked you not to.” “Yes, but—" “But when you came, she didn’t keep you out. W’hen you were In side, she didn’t do the perfectly natural thing—throw you through the window or scream for help. That it?” “When that—that lazy spider came In and locked the door,” said Hal; “when he stood there as if he owned her, as if he had me backed into the slimy comer where he wanted me, she never said a word, never made a sound. She went over and sat on the bed and stared Into the corner, and I don't believe she even listened. G—d, Kerrigan, d'you think 1 wanted to believe it?” “Believe what?” said Kerrigan, still gravely waiting, “Mind telling me what’s this 'if you didn’t want to believe?” Hal curbed his miserable exasper ation. “I didn't want to believe what I had to believe—that she didn’t mind her rotten little hus band’s catching me; I didn’t want to believe that it meant more to iier to keep her promise, her rot ten bargain with Crack—much more —than to—to—'” “Hal,” said Kerrigan in an un moved patience of voice that left Hal’s Insurgent anger dangling, “have you thought back? Have you thought of what you have a right i■—— i ■ " •> “When D’You Shove Off for Santa Barbara?” to think? I tell you you sound as If you were talking just 'o hear a ncise, sticking up for what you’ve done Just because you did it." “Stick up!" said Hal, leaning for ward to look at Kerrigan from under drawn, Incredulous brows. "What the devil d’you s’pose I’ve been doing for a day and half a night except thtnklug back? What—” He Jerked his head aside, a sound of exasperation breathed in his throat. Think back! As if he needed to, supposing he could. Coming back from Santa Barbara he’d think—and find his rightness twice as strong. Kerrigan said, politely, "Will you listen to me a little longer?” and waited for Hal to answer. “Certainly,” said Hal, with an ironic inclination of his head. “She made no secret of being married?” "No,” said Hal. "That wasn’t so stupid, either.” "Did she ever want you to leave her alone, ask you to make up your mind to separating—here?" “Yes,” Hal agreed readily. “And of course it was to be expected I’d do it right away—especially after she’d told me she cared for me.” "Mm,” said Kerrigan. "Telling you she loved you made it harder for you; but your telling her shouldnt’ve amounted to—” "The point is,” Iinl interrupted in listless quiet, "she never did care.” Kerrigan stnrted into something vigorous, but he took palpable hold of himself before his breath wits fully drawn. And his voice was leashed to some fragile stanchion of patience as lie said: “All right, she didn’t care. But It's, not impose sible to think of somebody fn her place who would’ve. Take another girl, then, with a built-in feeling about a promise to her dying fa ther. She's got warm, quick blood in her veins, not New England spring-water. She falls for a fella as she never expected to—a fella in just your position. She wants to And some way out for both of tfiem, and she wants to keep him out of harm. But she isn’t any more super human than she should be; she’s made of flesh and feel ing, weakness and desire—not bil liard-ball composition and mission ary tracts. How would you have that girl behave? "I s’pose she should’ve told you It was Crack she was lied to, right at the beginning. That would have made everything simple, wouldn’t It? You could've wrung his neck In Iowa somewhere and gone to jail with the happy knowledge that you’d made everything perfect for both of you.” ‘‘I couldn’t’ve bought him, could I?” said Hal, his hot tone Just oft trembling. “Wringing his neck would’ve been the only thing In the world to do.” “Sure you could have bought him,” said Kerrigan. "And he’d have stayed bought, too—never bothered either of you again. You could have bought him. and a dead man’s dread of shame and a last promise and fifteen or twenty years of love and care and teaching. And with all that bought and paid for, she wouldn’t feel that somebody’d shoveled dirt all over her In a thing she wanted to keep decent.” (TO BE CONTINUED) ) “Dutch Girl’* String Holder for Kitchen By GRANDMOTHER CLARK As a decorative hanger for the kitchen, this little girl will add an other smile to your home. It’s an attractive string holder and costs only a few cents and a little spare time. An acceptable gift novelty, and after you make up one you will want more of these Dutch Girls to serve you. This package No. A 1 contains stamped material ready to be cut out, also died out girl's head and shoeB printed In colors on heavy board. This material and direc tions how to make It up will be mailed to you for 15c for one pack age or four packages for 50c. Ad dress Home Craft Co., Dept. A, 19th and St. Louis Ave., St. Louis, Mo. Enclose a stamped addressed enve lope for reply when writing for any Information. Accepting • Job A woman whose dignified and re served husband was among the un employed but who, like Mr. Mlcaw ber, was expecting something to turn up momentarily, was advised by him each time he left home for the day, that If an offer for any sort of a position nt all should come for him to wire an acceptance with speed. And when at long last the wire did come from Washington the wife was so thoroughly Imbued with thrift that she couldn't bear to send only a one-word answer like “Yes” or “Accept” to the “Will you accept?” etc., message, so she sent the fol lowing : “Yes thank you ever so much love and kisseB.”—Miss Ann Thorpe, In the Kansas City Star. UNIQUE HOBBIES BEING PURSUED BY COLLECTORS When an old man died In Chester there were found In his house four large boxes full of tram tickets from nearly every tramway system In the world. For 20 years he had collected every variety of tram tick et he could And, and these he had sorted In alphabetical groups ac cording to the cities they came from. That old man nnd his hoard of tram tickets is by no means the only case on record of strange hobbies Invented by Ingenious people to pass their leisure hours. In the case of a well-known K. C., rallwuy tickets are the great attrac tion—he Is reputed to possess more than 20,000. First numbers of news papers and magazines form a sec ond collection that he prizes highly. Incidentally, a number of people make It a practice to keep copies of papers In which momentous news Is given. A London man who was an ardent theatergoer had a whole library of theater programs—souvenirs of plays he had seen. Each had his remarks carefully noted In the mar gin. His collection was so complete that If you mentioned the name of an actress he could tell you in a few minutes all the plays she had ap peared In since her rise to fame. Stranger still was the hobby of a sailor. During a storm In the Pa cific some flying fish struck the fun nel of the ship and fell upon the deck. The sailor, who was ship’s cook, had the Idea of starting an aquarium on board, and evet-y fish * washed up or caught alive was rml luto a big tank. Unfortunately for him, fish caUgh, In the Pacific ocean stand little chance In a European winter, and a week of snow in the Thames killed them all. Courts Overloaded Obstinacy does much to support the courts. Quick, Pleasant Successful Elimination Let’s be frank—there’s only one way for your body to rid Itself of the wnste material that causes acid ity, gas, headaches, bloated feelings and a dozen other discomforts. Your Intestines must function and the way to make them move quick ly, plensnntly, successfully, without griping or harsh Irritants Is to chew a Mllnesla Wafer thoroughly, In ac cordance with directions on the bot tle or tin, then swallow, Mllnesla Wafers, pure milk of magnesia In tablet form, each equiv alent to a tablespoon of liquid milk of magnesia, correct acidity, bad breath, flatulence, at their source, and enable you to have the quick, pleasant, successful elimination *o necessary to abundant health. Mllnesla Wafers come in bottles nt 35c and GOc or to convenient tins at 20c. Recommended by thousands of physicians. All good druggists carry them. Start using these pleas ant tasting effective wafers today. BYERS BROS & CO. A Real Live Stock Com. Firm OMAHA and CHICAGO A TIME SAVER Prepare biscuit or muffin dough when convenient. Set in cool place and bake hours later if you wish. You save time in using Double Tested - Double Action KG BAKING POWDER Same Price Today as 44 Years Ago XS ounces lor SSo You can also buy Af II IS ounc* can for ISS IU11 Xf ounc* can for Xfe Blake makes a Fresh Start """." ' -:— NO! NO! THAT'S NOT THE t CLU6 I WANT/ LISTEN- W GREAT WORK !\, I GO BACK 10 THE CLUB f VOJ C6RTAINLW MADE^ I HOUSE ... VOU'RE THE I HlftA FEEL LIKE A d I WORLD'S WQgST CAPP^/ ^^MPlON^T-WlT// I'M 50RRV VOU FEEL j RATS/ WHO ¥ WHV 00 W S BADLW...BUT VOU | EVER HEARO f THESE SlLlV | WON'T FEEL ANV OF COFFEE |VOUN 6 KIDS 1 BETTER UNtiL VOU [ HARMING / 7 BELIEVE SUCH I GIVE UP COFFEE... I A 6R0WN CRACKPOT ’ * AS THE DOCTOR SAID.1! MAN ? f/ l THEORIES’’ it Vm, miss Slake, ffves... since he v I VOUR FATHER SURE §| SWITCHED To P09TUM ' I i HAS CHANGED! l’P || HE HAS FELT AND / : 1 RATHER CAOOV FOR ' ACTEO LIKE A / M HIM THAN ANV \ OlFFERENT MAM ! J MEMBER OF THE ClUg j'^—^ f"“---7 30 QMS LATER —-5—.—.— —...- —' WHY, t>ADOVr\/oH.WELL... } jfsWElL! l : THAT'S NO WAY I QUIT! I DON'T KELf BREAK UP 1 ! TO TREAT THE UKE PLAYING A THE GAME..1 I 60V! Ht DIDN’T I ANYWAY! I'VE f MAYBE THAT DO ANYTHING J GOT A TERRIBLE ^ WIU. TEACH * WRONG ! HEADACHE ! rf HERTo KEEP ( - V ,,... ,QYI£T! BUT SOU KNOW SOU IfOH, ALL RIGHT Wo/RSES ! 1 HAVE COFFEE-NERVES .. I WILLTRV STVMlEO AGAIN! ...AN01HE DOCTOR lT, To PROVE I CAN'T STAS < SAID SWITCHING TO THAT DOCTORS >HERE if HE'S POSTUM \NODLO HELP/JI DON’T KNOWJ SWITCHING To yoo MIGHT IRS IT f/SlT ALL POSTUM^^ “I always thought this talk about coffee being harmful applied only to children!” “Oh, no, Daddy ... many adults, too, find that the caff ein in cof fee can upset nerves, cause indigestion, or prevent sound sleep! • • • If you suspect that coffee disagrees with you... try Postum for 30 days. Postum contains no caflfein. It’s simply whole wheat and bran, roasted and slightly sweetened. It’s easy to make, and costs less than half a cent a cup. It’s delicious, too ... and may prove a real help. A product of General Foods. F R E E 1 Let us send you your first week’s supply of Postum free l Simply mail the coupon. General. Foods, Battle Creek. Mich. w n. u.—a-zs-ss Send me, without obligation, a week's supply of Postum. Name ■ ... . Street ... , . , . City-State Fill in completely—print name and address This offer expires July 1,1936