anc/be s
^ mi/Sore
k Peggy Pern ^ w.mu. release
THE STORY THUS FAR. “Alicia
Stevenson has been murdered!" The
■tory was all over Pleasant Grove In
minutes. Late In the afternoon Tom
■topped by to get milk, and they talked
•bout Alicia’s death. Meg was upset,
•nd Involuntarily Tom put his arms
around her and called her "darling."
That evening Meg and her father sat
looking at each other, each remember
ing that the other was out late the night
before. “Did you do It?" she finally
asked. "No—did you?" She was stunned.
Jim MacTavish suggested they make a
bargain: “You forget that I was out of
the house—I’ll forget you were trysting
with Tom Fallon." A hot tide of crim
son covered Meg.
CHAPTER XI
She caught her breath and could
not believe she had spoken, though
the words seemed to quiver in let
ters of fire between them. Her fa
ther stiffened with a little Jerk. His
face was white and hard and his
eyes were veiled, so that she could
not guess his thoughts.
For a moment that seemed a cen
tury long his eyes met hers, and
then he said very softly, "No, my
dear—did you?”
"Father! ” It was a shocked, in
credulous gasp that came scarcely
above her breath. "How—how can
you even—think—"
Her father lifted his shoulders in
a gesture that was not quite a shrug
and drawled coolly, "Why not? You
seemed perfectly willing to believe
I had!”
"Oh, no. Dad." In that breathless
moment the endearing diminutive
came easily from her tongue. "I
didn’t think you had—I couldn’t ever
believe you had—”
“Yet you put the question very
easily,” he reminded her dryly.
"It—it was only that I heard you
come in last night—a little after
one—” •
"A few minutes after you came
in, if I remember,” said her father
calmly, his eyes never leaving her
white, ravaged face,
r “Suppose we make a bargain, my
dear Megan.” Her father’s voice
came softly, low-pitched, scarcely
above a whisper, in the tone of one
conspirator to another.
"A — a bargain. Father?” she
managed faintly.
He nodded. "You forget that I was
out of the house—I’ll forget that you
were—er—trysting with Tom Fallon
on the Ridge,” he said in that gen
tle, yet somehow terrifying drawl.
A hot tide of crimson poured over
her face and reached from the collar
of her neat cotton print frock to the
very roots of her hair.
"I wasn't—trysting with Tom Fal
lon!” Her mouth twisted with dis
taste at the thought, and the impli
cation.
"But you did meet him there—”
"Purely by accident!” she flashed.
Her father smiled thinly. "I be
lieve you, my dear—though I am a
little doubtful as to whether other
people would, if it ever became nec
’’ essary for other people to know of
that—er—accidental meeting.”
She put her face in her hands for
a moment and her father watched
her with a curious tensity.
"But, oi course, I can see no rea
son why anyone save the two of us
should know anything about it,” he
went on smoothly. “Surely if my
daughter and I wish to go for a
walk in the fresh night air, it is no
body’s business but our own. Un
fortunately, in a murder investiga
tion a great many seemingly unre
lated facts come out. Of course,
there’s no likelihood that we should
be in any way connected with this
terrible affair. Neither of us had
any motive to want Alicia out of the
way—that is, I had none. I hoped
to marry her!”
She stared at him, caught by some
odd note in his voice. And after a
moment he answered the look in her
eyes, "Of course if it should become
known that you were violently op
posed to me marrying her, that you
resented the thought of having her
here in the house, and had been un
able to persuade me to give up my
plans to marry her—well—” Once
again he lifted his shoulders in that
gesture that was not quite a shrug,
but that was an effective dismissal.
Megan drew a long, hard breath.
“You know I couldn’t possibly
have—” She set her breath against
the sob that clutched at her throat.
"Of course, my dear—I know that
you are completely incapable of any
such deed of violence!” her father
assured her, and there was a
warmth that was very close to ten
derness in his voice. “But it won’t
be what I know that will count, Me
gan—it will be what we can prove
—or disprove!”
He let her sit huddled in a heap
for a moment as though to think
that over. And then he said quiet
ly, “That’s why I say there is no
reason why anyone should be told
that you and I were out of the house
—though, unfortunately, not togeth
er—for several hours last night!”
"Whom did you think I’d be likely
to tell?” she asked him huskily,
after a moment in which she fought
to pull herself together so that
speech was at all possible.
“There will be an inquest, of
course.’’ he reminded her. “Un
doubtedly we, as her closest neigh
bors—and I suppose her closest ac
quaintances—will be called to testi
fy. And if we simply say that we
went to bed a little after ten—”
"But that’s perjury," she whis
pered faintly.
Her father’s face darkened an
grily. "Don’t be an idiot! You did
not kill her. Neither did I. So what
possible difference can it make—if
nobody knows that we went for a
walk? I’m absolutely positive that
I wasn’t seen; I feel equally sure
you were not. So where’s the harm
if we protect ourselves in a situa
tion that could easily become very
unpleasant?"
She hesitated and he said quietly,
"Because, Megan, if it becomes
known that you and I were not in
bed and asleep—that you were out
on the Ridge with Fallon—it’s not
only going to be extremely unpleas
ant for you, but it’s going to finish
him, once and for all. He’ll never
be able to get another Job as a
teacher no matter how innocent and
accidental your meeting was. Peo
ple will remember Alicia’s little
thrust about your spending 'hours
together on the Ridge,’ and people
are good at adding two and two and
getting six or seven."
Megan said quietly, "Where were
you. Father?”
" ’Scuse me, suh—but could I talk
to yo’—fo’ a few minutes?”
He sat very still for a moment,
his eyes clinging to hers, and she
thought he scarcely seemed to
breathe. And then he said casually,
‘‘I went for a walk.”
And as proof that he had had his
say on the subject and no intention
of speaking again, he got up and
left the room.
She couldn’t oelieve that her fa
ther had killed Alicia Stevenson. It
was an incredible thought; but he
had been out of the house, and he
was very anxious that no one should
know about that. And she thought
of herself and Tom Fallon, on the
Ridge.
And then she remembered his
face tonight and the tone of his voice
when that little word ‘‘darling” had
slipped out — the look in his
eyes, naked and poignant and un
ashamed, the warmth and tender
ness in his shaken voice that had
been like a shining garment wrapped
about her chilled body.
“Oh, no—no—I won’t hav< it like
that! I won’t be in love with him—I
won’t!” she wailed, deep in her
frightened, stricken mind. But her
heart went relentlessly on, "You
can’t help it! You can’t stop it.
You didn’t ask for it—but you can
never deny it! He knows it, too—
he feels as you do—you saw it in his
eyes, heard it in his voice tonight.
You love him and he loves you—and
he has a wife who has a greater
claim on him than if there were
children. Your love can never, nev
er mean anything except heartbreak
and self-denial! You know that—
but you can’t stop loving him! Any
more than you can stop breathing!”
The Inquest was held the following
afternoon in the rickety, nondescript
little frame building where the Draft
Board met, and it seemed that, ex
cept for the few bedridden in the
town, everybody was there.
Everybody, that is, except Megan
and her father. For contrary to
Jim’s uneasy fear, neither he nor
Megan had been called to appear.
Little Betty Hendrix, Bill Logan,
Mrs. Stuart, and a few of the others
who had been first on the scene had
been called. Megan did not quite
know whether to be more relieved,
or more frightened that neither she
nor her father had received orders
to appear. But she had firmly
declined Mrs. Stuart's hearty invi
tation that she go, anyway,
Megan made herself keep busy
throughout a day that seemed age
long. When Annie put midday din
ner beside Megan and asked, a faint
uneasiness in her voice, “Miss Meg
gie, is Mist’ Larry cornin’ tomorrow
night?”
"I suppose so, Annie," Megan an
swered, and quivered a little inside
at the thought of facing Laurence
with the thing that was in her heart;
the thing that had been there—who
could say how long?—but whose
presence she had not discovered un
til under the shock of Alicia’s death.
"I like to talk to him, Miss Meggle
—ef yo’ think he aln’ cornin’ any
how, how 'bout yo’ calling him up
and askin’ him to? So I could talk
to him?" Annie was grave-eyed and
portentous.
Megan, Jerked out of her unhappy
abstraction by Annie’s tone, looked
up at her curiously.
"Why, Annie, what’s wrong? Why
do you want to talk to Mr. Larry?"
she asked, puzzled.
Annie drew herself up a little and
there was a gentle, yet implacable
dignity about her as she said firmly,
"It’s a private matteh. Miss Meggie
—but it’s powahful important. Yo’
call him to’ me?"
“Yes, of course, Annie," Megan
answered and Annie thanked her
and went out of the room, padding
softly in the heelless felt slippers
that she wore to "ease" her feet.
But Megan did not have to call
Laurence, for at about four o’clock
he came down the road and turned
in at the gate grinning at her warmly
and happily.
“I came over with the coroner and
some of the county officers," he told
her cheerfully, dropping down on the
steps at her feet and baring his head
to the soft wind. "Pleasant Grove’s
certainly getting her name in the
papers. There was a newspaper
correspondent for one of the Atlanta
papers at the Inquest.”
Megan asked, after a moment,
“What—what did the inquest find—’’
“Death by means of a sharp in
strument at the hands of a party or
parties unknown,” answered Lau
rence, looking up at her white,
drawn face with surprise. "Oh look
here, darling, I had no idea you
were such a close friend of hers.”
"I—wasn’t, really," admitted Me
gan. “But—I knew her and—it’s
been a shock—’’
"Of course," said Larry gently.
He took her hand in his and held
it closely. "We won’t talk about
it—’’
"Yes!" said Megan so sharply
that Laurence turned surprised eyes
upon her. Megan managed a faint
smile and said, "I—I really want to
know—whatever they could learn—”
"Well, it wasn’t much," said Lau
rence. "No trace of the weapon, a
knife or a dagger of some sort. No
trace of robbery or anything of that
kind. The girl at the bank said she
had cashed her usual monthly in
come check for fifty dollars, a few
days ago, and her purse was found
with more than thirty dollars in it.
They feel sure that if she had sur
prised a burglar at work, he would
not have left the purse. They be
lieve that she was killed by someone
she knew—or at least, someone she
was not afraid of. There were no
signs of a struggle in the place."
Megan sat very still, her hands
locked tightly in her lap.
Killed by someone she knew!
Someone she was not afraid of!
“There was one sensation,” said
Laurence after a moment, not look
ing at Megan. His eyes were on the
garden, where, despite the fact that
it was almost Christmas, a few late
zinnias and marigolds were still in
bloom and the chrysanthemums
were great shaggy things of glowing
beauty. “That was when the tele
gram from her husband arrived—’’
“Her—husband?" she repeated in
credulously.
Laurence nodded. “That seemed
as much of a shock to everybody
there as it is to you,” he told her.
“But it seems that when the detec
tives were going through her papers
yesterday they found that she had
a husband and that he was the one
who was sending her fifty dollars
a month. They wired him and the
answer was brought to the inquest
this afternoon. The husband is
somewhere in the west, but he’s fly
ning east to claim the body. Should
be here tomorrow or next day, they
thought.”
“But she was a widow!” Megan
protested, dazedly.
“Apparently not,” said Laurence,
looking up as Annie appeared be
hind the screen door that led into
the hall. “Hello, Annie—how about
putting another plate on the table
and letting me stay for supper?”
“Yessuh, Mist’ Larry—us sho’ be
glad to,” she assured him, beaming,
and then asked uneasily, “ 'Scuse
me, suh—but could I talk to yo’—to'
a few minutes?”
Laurence looked surprised, but got
to his feet.
“Of course, Annie—don’t tell me
you want to divorce Amos, after all
these years!” he laughed, excusing
himself to Megan as he moved to
wards the screen door which Annie
held open for him.
"I ain't suah, Mist’ Larr.,. dat I
ain’t gwine git rid o’ dat shif’less,
no’-count nigger, sho’ nuff!” she as
sured him darkly as she led the way
to the kitchen.
Megan got up from the chair
where she had been sitting for more
than an hour. In the late after
noon, the sunlight had been warm
and pleasant here, but with the com
ing of dusk, a chill little wind got
up and tiptoed through the trees,
and she went into the living room,
where she built up the fire, making
it brisk and cheerful.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Potatoes are plentiful In supply
and will spoil If you don’t use them.
Use them In place of scarce wheat
products as the starchy food for
dinner, as stuffing or even in bak
ing.
Wheatless Meals
If you want to have fun, and at
the same time, test your ingenuity,
ao wnat some oi
the public eating
places are doing
during the wheat
) shortage: On one
day ot the week,
serve completely
wheat-free meals.
You may even learn to like it so
well, that you can stretch this to
tw'o days of the week and thereby
help feed the famine-stricken coun
tries. Why not try it?
What are some of the foods to use
in place of bread and flour? Here
is a partial list to help you: pota
toes. corn and cornmeal, com cere
als, hominy, oatmeal, rice and other
wheat-free cereals.
You might start off breakfast with
cornmeal muffins or potato pan
cakes in place of the customary
rolls, coffee-cake or toast. Use po
tatoes plentifully for both luncheon
and dinner, and if you want bread,
make some oatmeal gems, 100 per
cent rye bread, or corn sticks. The
family will appreciate them as a
welcome change.
Non-wheat cereals like cornmeal
and oatmeal can be used for stuff
ing and crumbing in place of bread
or flour. Only in a very few cases
will you be able to tell the differ
ence, and even if you can, you won’t
find that difference unpleasant.
Now that the vegetable and fruit
season is here in earnest, fill the
family on salads and fruity des
serts. Everyone yearns for in-sea
son produce and large quanti
ties of fruits and vegetables will
spell both health and pleasant eat
ing to the family.
Look over these recipes which
I’ve dished up for you today. Per
haps they will start you thinking
about how you can help in serving
some wheat-free meals every week
and still give the family complete
satisfaction at the dining table.
•Potato Cups With Tuna Fish.
(Serves 4)
114 pounds potatoes
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
14 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons vinegar
% teaspoon grated onion
14 cup diced celery
14 cup diced chopped olives
14 cup grated American cheese
Lettuce
Wash and peel potatoes and cut
into pieces. Cook until done in
salted water. (Water should be evap
orated by the end of the cooking
time.) Press through a ricer, add
milk. 14 of the mayonnaise. 4 tea
spoons of the vinegar and y« tea
spoon of the grated onion. Beat un
til well blended, then spoon and
shape into nests or cups and chill.
Add remaining ingredients to one
7-ounce can of flaked tuna fish,
chill and then serve into potato
cups. Sprinkle top with cheese and
garnish with crisp greens.
LYNN SAYS:
Save flour when you bake: You
can stretch your flour supply by
adding fruits, meats and vegeta
bles to your hot breads and dinner
dishes.
For example, when you make
pancakes or waffles, any of the
following may be used to give
you more from your recipe, with
out additional flour: chopped ap
ples. mashed bananas, blueber
ries, diced ham and cheese, sau
sage meat partially cooked and
drained, canned or cooked corn,
and nuts.
When making home - baked
breads, use dried fruits and oat
meal whenever possible, in muf
fins. bread and biscuits. Prunes,
raisins and figs are fine for flavor
and texture.
In place of bread, occasionally
use leftover cereals for the
starchy food for breakfast. Add
one cup of ground leftover meat
to cereal and chill, then slice and
fry. Or, add chopped apples to
cereal, fry as for french toast and
serve with syrup or honey.
Sweeten and flavor cereal and
bake with eggs and milk and
serve as a dessert.
LYNN CHAMBERS’ MENUS
•Potato Cups with Tuna Fish
Tossed Vegetable Salad:
Green Beans, Celery, Onions.
Radishes, Spinach Leaves
Corn Sticks Apple Butter
•Peach Melba Beverage
•Recipes given.
Here is a vegetable dish that is
substantial enough to fill in for both
bread and meat on some day:
Corn Cutlets.
(Serves 6)
% cup thick white sauce
% teaspoon salt
% teaspoon pepper
V* teaspoon paprika
2 hard-cooked eggs finely diced
1 cup cream-style corn
Combine ingredients in order giv
en. Divide into six equal parts and
shape into cutlets or patties. Roll
in crushed cereal crumbs and brown
in a small amount of drippings or
fat, turning once. Serve with melt
ed cheese, if desired.
Corn Sticks.
(Makes 14 corn sticks)
1 cup corn meal or water
ground corn meal
H teaspoon salt
% teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
% teaspoon soda
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
2 tablespoons melted fat
1 egg, slightly beaten
Sift corn meal, salt, sugar, baking
powder and soda together. Add but
terrmik and rat to
beaten egg. Add
to the corn meal
mixture all at
once, stirring
quickly and vig
orously until just(
mixed. Place in'
hot, greased
cornstick pans.
Bake in a hot (425-degree) oven
for 20 minutes or until done.
If you're looking for a hearty sup
per with a stick-to-the-ribs main
dish and a light, summery dessert,
you’ll want to clip the following
recipes to have on hand.
Savory Baked Beans
and Hamburger.
(Serves 4)
2 tablespoons fat or drippings
H cup sliced onions
H cup diced celery
54 pound chuck, ground
2% cups baked beans or cooked
kidney beans
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
94 teaspoon salt
94 teaspoon powdered sage
H cup water or canned tomato
juice
Heat fat in skillet, then add on
ions, celery and ground meat. Cook
uncovered for 10 minutes. Add re
maining ingredients and heat thor
oughly.
You don’t need bread when you
make meat loaf. In its place you
can substitute oatmeal, chopped
nuts, ground leftover vegetables or
leftover mashed potatoes.
•Peach Melba.
(Serves 8)
2 cups fresh raspberries
H cup currant jelly
% cup granulated sugar
114 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold water
8 canned peach halves
1 quart vanilla ice cream
Mash raspberries, add currant
jelly and sugar and bring to a boil.
Add cornstarch mixed to a smooth
paste with cold water and cook,
while stirring, until thick and clear.
Strain and cool. Place one peach
half, cut side up, in each sherbet
glass. All with ice cream and serve
with sauce poured over the ice
cream.
This sauce Melba may also be
served over orange ice cream or
lemon sherbet for delicious effect.
Mocha Peach Shake.
(Serves 4)
4 canned cling peach halves
2 teaspoons soluble powdered coffee
14 cup hot water
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1 cup light cream
Mash peaches and press through
sieve. Dissolve coffee with hot wa
ter. Combine peaches, dissolved
coffee, ice cream and cream, and
beat with a rotary beater until
smooth.
Released by Western Newspaper Union.
SEWING CIRCLE PATTERNS
Ijouth^uf, ‘Ueriatile Swo-Piecer
Wah Dltii Slim Princeii 3)reii
» « i m
.8056
34-48
8033
10-16
Smart Two-Piecer
DOPULAR with every teen-ager
* is the attractive two-piece frock
that makes up so handsomely in a
variety of fabrics. This exciting
version has a pretty square neck
and yoke edged in ric rac, and two
bows perched atop pepl&m pleats.
Straight smooth skirt.
• • •
Pattern No. 8033 comes In sizes 10, 11,
12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. Size 11, blouse, 2
yards of 35 or 39-lnch; skirt, l^fc yards;
2>,i yards ric rac.
I ASK ME A \
} ANOTHER * 1
? ■ i
7 A General Quiz 7
1. How many capitals did the
United States have since the Dec
laration of Independence?
2. Where did Portland cement
gets its name?
3. Did spaghetti originate in It
aly?
4. The walls of what city came
tumbling down because of the
shattering effects of sound waves?
5. What former President was
chief justice of the United States?
6. Who made the comment by
song, “I’ll never, never find a bet
ter friend than Old Dog Tray”?
7. Where does ambergris come
from?
8. What did the Greeks worship
under the name of Boreas?
9. The name given the steers
man of a racing shell is what?
10. Submarines spend more time
on the surface than submerged,
even in wartime. Why is this?
The Answers
1. Nine.
2. From “Portland stone” which
comes from England. It bears a
close resemblance to Portland ce
ment.
3. No. Marco Polo introduced
spaghetti to Italy from China.
4. Jericho.
5. William Howard Taft.
6. Stephen Foster.
7. It is yielded by sick whales.
8. The north wind.
9. Coxswain.
10. To conserve and recharge
their batteries, which must be used
when submerged.
Hungary’s Inflation
The greatest inflation since Ger
many’s financial collapse in the
early 1920s is now disrupting the
economic life of Hungary. Its pen
go, whose par value is 17% cents
in United States money, has
dropped to the point where 3,500,
000 pengo are required to purchase
an article that cost one pengo be
fore the war.
Slimming Princess
THIS delightfully slenderizing
princess dress is ideal for th*
beginner—no belt to bother with,
just smooth easy sewing. Narrow
lace is used to edge the scalloped
neck, front closing and cool wing
sleeves.
• • •
Pattern No. 8056 Is designed for sizes
34 . 36, 38 . 40 . 42. 44 . 46 and 48. Size 36.
4 yards of 36-tnch fabric; 3ti yards of
39-Inch.
New—Exciting—Different—the sammei
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gestions by nationally known fashion edi
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sboolder pad pattern printed In boph.
SEWINfl CIRCLE PATTERN DEPT.
530 Sontb Wells St. Chicago 7, HI.
Enclose 25 cents in coins for each
pattern desired.
Pattern No_Slxn
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Address__
Gas on Stomach
Relieved In 5 minutes or doable yoar money beeb
When exstomach add Cannes painful, auffbeert*
Ing gM, aour stomach and heartburn, doctor* usually
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Table ta. NolaiaUre. Bel l-iut* bring* comfort Init
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n DAB Jt XMK
Keeps p 0*inv»ir
New cream positively stops
*underarm Perspiration Odot
1. Not stiff, not messy—Yodora spreads lost
like vanishing cream I Dab It on—odor tone I
X Actually soothing-Yodora can be assd
right after shaving.
X Won't rot delicate fabrics.
4. Keeps soft I Yodora does not dry in jar. No
waste; goes far.
Yet hot climate testa—made by nurses—
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arms immaculately sweet—under the most
severe conditions. Try Yodora t In tabes or
jars—10*, 30*. 60*. McKesson A Robbins,
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YODORA
DEODORANT CREAM
J WANTED WE WILL BUY 10,000 used
I SINGER SEWING MACHINE HEADS
I TVt 'P<xu
*15.00 for ong Shuttle Drop-Heads
$20.00 forround Bobbin Drop-Heads
Mention , , . If yew have an eld drop
head SINGER in any tonditian, break-off or remove
•he tewing head, crate and thip to the address
below. Payments, will be made by return mall. We
will accept only drop-head SINGERS. Box-tops or
I any other makes not acceptable.
SEND YOUR MACHINE HEADS BY PARCEL POST OR EXPRESS TO
MAJOR SEWING MACHINE COMPANY
5718 WALNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA 39, PA.
