Evening Star Newspaper, January 9, 1921, Page 60

2 EVER, EVER GREEN ARMERS' wives at the close of a voiceless day have ‘been known to turn stark mad. Si- beria, where men learn to be- come enamored of death, is a land of _strange silences. Where the desert Is stillest men's bones lie bleaching. Prairle dogs bay loudest in that soundless moment before the dawn, and as if they would rend to ribbons the mysterious veil of silence. But the prairie has no secrets; it is like an open hand, palm upward. Across the great upturned palm of Tilinois dusk fell sadly over miles and miles of close-bitten prairie lands and runty corn flelds that met the gray horizon with the fluid, easy joinder of a river meeting the sea. A last tinge of sunset., pink behind a regiment of black-stemmed trees, cooled and died. | An arrow-shaped flock of swallows flew low and southward. Alongside an isolated watering station the inter- state accommodation slowed, shriek- ed on its rails, stopped. Miss Lola Laladay protruded a shin- ing head out of a_coach window and sniffed to the evening. full of restless glancings and hard as sunlight on bayonets. Al to the stillness out ou! Ugh, it's so thick you isten, there, will can cut it. Her companion on the red plush seat beside her unwound his long, agile limbs, and leaned across her slim figure and out into the moody evening and the plains sweeping away to the horison. “Looka them birds, will you, Lo— scooting south like an arrow shot sut of a bow. Gee!” He followed their course, his eve level beneath level brows. “If this is the great middle west, Al that you been labeling God's country all along the circuit, give me a ninety- nine-year lease on Statan Island or Bronx boulevard every time. Gee, rid- ing five hours straight and not even an ant hill to muss the scenery! Don’t shove, Al. Don’t shov. He ‘withdrew his heavy head and shoulders and slumped back to his position, feet perched on his dress suit case and knees high. The peculiar quiescence of rapid motion suddenly arrested descended over the coach voices monotonous as the droning of bees rose languidly. The noises of travel that lay beneath the song of the rails sprang out sud- denly—paper rattling, leather hand- bags that squeaked in the opening and closing, the every mysterious creak- ings of woodwork, the engine cough- ing at even intervals. Miss Laladay's brilliant Mead lolled back against the red plush inert. She fanned her moist little face with a lacy fribble of hand- Kkerchief. Whew! ay, a little kid like you that's never been west of Trenton don't know enough about the map to find her own home town if it’s got a pin stuck through it. Wait till you been doing coast to coast long as I have. s a tank circuit till we get on the dinkier God's country he calls “Say, they don’ than the last four we played?” He leaned to her and placed a large muscular hand over hers. In the shadow of his overpowering shoulde: ‘wispish. “You're all wrong. Lo. There's little tanks in this part of the cou: try, with flower beds set out around the station and Main street paved. and white frame houses set inside of white picket fences. and shady streets with trees meeting right over them and-—well, I tell you there’ nks out here that makes 42d street look like a bad dream.’ She crumpled up against the win- dowsill, her chin cupped in her palm. “Like the dump we played in last night, eh?" Where the white frames was all shacks and the hotel up over the grocery store makes the Briggs House in Newark look like the Rits.” “Higginsville is a rotten dump, Lo. You don’t find it on any of the vaude: ville circuits, but leave it to extrava. ganza every time not to overlook a dump. But take tonight's stand, though: there just ain’t a prettier }l:’l‘l‘e town on the map than Adalai, She squinted her little face into an amazing grimace. “Adalai®” G 1 know a young fellow. Ben Collings, started there an errand boy fn a box factory and now owns half the town—two box factories of his own, the opera house. half of Main Street and nearly every cbttage on the hill. Say. I'd brush the Broad- way lint off my coat tomorrow to settle down in a pretty little tank like that. I've told you often enough my, feelings on the small-town stuff, “Adalai' Lordy. I says to Lee when I read it on the route list, I says, ‘What is tha th tank or a new breakfast food? “It's a great little town, Lo. I been there three times and lived once for two weeks right with Ben Collings in his own swell house. He'd gimme his shirt if I asked him— that's what he thinks of me. met him on a train once too. seen some of my wood carvings and he’'d gimme a job right in one of his box factories doing the high-class handwork any day in the week I by the kind of friends we are. She pressed her fingertips to her 1lips, then blew at them lightly as if she would waft him a rose petal. * % * % €PAVE on, AL Rave on!” He leaned to her with an en- tire flattening of tome. “You're the only thing in the world that I can rave about. Lo: you and your tan- talizsing ways. Ever since I ran away from a orphan asylum in Utica to join a show I've had a picture of a little girl like you hung on my heart. 1 can't see this or any other country, hon, without you the biggest part of the scenery. You're the only thing I ever had time to rave about in my life. Lo.’ She threw him a smile that was full of quirki “Me d the meadow The you're always piping about. Listen to meadow! look at ‘em out there! the grass growing.” The train jolted, jerked, moved for- ward. A porter passed down the swaying aisle, lighting lamps. A gassy turbid glare fliled the coach, shutting out the darkening landscape, and the windows suddenly reflected the murky interio “You—you sweet little kid, you. You sweet little, soft little kitten.” She collapaed in an attitude of mock prostration against his shoulder, her cheek, the quality of thick, cream- colored _velvet, crushed against the grain of his coat.’ “How that boy loves me!" He withdrew sharply. “Always kidding. Ain't you nothing but a doll: ain’t you got nothing but sawdust inside of you? Ain't you got no feelings, no nothing, no heart?’ Hle leaned to her in immediate con- tion. Lo, 1 didn’t mean it, only some- times with ‘your cutting up like you didn’t care, you drive me crazy, that's all. 1 ain't said nothing to you about last night, have Ain't been keeping it inside of me? Only some- times you drive me crazy; you drive me crazy Leggo my wrists.” “I tell you when I see you cutting up from the swing with him down there in the wings nad nearly forget- ting to hurl the bar to me, I get to sceing things so black that — that it's a wonder I don't miss the bar and break my neck—break my neck. “Leggo my wrists.” “You got me started on last night; I never started it; 1 was keeping it boiling inside of me. “Leggo my wrist: “I tell you it makes a crazy man out of me to see you cutting up with 1 see black. I see black, I tell 1 get dizzy with blackness. ‘Where the length of his arm rested against hers she could feel the con- traction of his great whipcord mus- cies, but her cyes when she turned to- ward him were banked with the red coals of scorn. “Gee, the way you keep raving for iear 1 won't swing that bar straight! Don’t be -atyaéd, little boy, I bee: Her eyes were | her own slenderness was |J Only He's | P shirt. He rammed the cigar in his waistcoat pocket and opened his mouth in a downward slant, cupping his hand around it to inclose his “Thirty-five minutes late. _ Com- pany report direct to Opry House." “For goodness sake, Lee, us girls have gotta eat—say = “Cut _it! If there's anybody in this company don’t like the runnings of this show, go holler down a well” “Aw, Lee, whatta you think th's is, a four-a-day show. I'm sick. I gotta get some rest or——' “Say, the next member of this com- pany that lets out a squeal can dig down in his jeans for a fine before this train pulis in. The muttering rose like wind in a lonely place and the speaker threw a little girl like you white, when she acts so cold and touchy the minute a fellow tries to get loving with her. | You bet your life Flossie would have | flung me her wreath last night if 1 had winked for it; she ain't a cold little baby-doll like you.” “What's the use trying to help a little girl that ain't got no tempera- ment, when she's as cold as ashes? Them ain't my kind. Temperament is what you got to have in this business | —ginger !" here the trees met darkest above their heads, so that not even the stars peeped through, she stood suddenly on | tip-toe so that her eyes, bluer than | Italian waters, were parallel with his. “How—how ‘much—temperament does a girl have to have, Lee, to—to get ahead? Huh? Honest, Lee, I'm green it to you somehow for a cou- hundred performances, ain't Don't be scared, Al; Ul take care of you.” A slow red spread to his ears and down into his collar, but his voice remained carefully below the rumble of the train. “You wouldn't dare talk that way | to me, Lo, if it was me instead of your friend who was directing the show. You know pretty well you Botta be as eareful each time You swing that bar out to me as if you'd never done it before. You don’t want me to land with a broken back, do you?’ tokl you little boy." “You can't tantalize me that way! You know that ain't what's eating a me. I wasn't with Reno's Star Acro- | out his oratorical tones above it. bat Act for four years to be bluffed | The procession, a slow file of mut- off by a little extravaganza specialty | terings, charivari, shoulderings and act that—that I could do in my sleep.” H “Well, if you ain't scared you hol- ler enough.” “I didn't open Rigley's vaudeville bill with a solo trapeze act for two years not to learn how to grab a bar that's swung out to me by a girl that's too busy flirting with the stage director down in the wings to watch out what's she’s doing.” “It didn’t even swerve half an inch last night; you said so yourself.” “Lordy. the nerve of a_little kid like you! Afraid. am I! Say, I was an oxpert acrobat already when I was turning somersaults in the or- ! phan asylum's backyard and you was making fake flowers in a 23d street loft. Me, afraid of a bar act! could do that turn in my sleep if I got the right kind of a feeder!” | She burrowed into her handker- | chief, her little travel-stained figure hunched and abject. “I wish I was dead “Aw, now, Lo darling, T—" “It just seems like nothing 1 do— fdon’t suit nobody.” : | "%Lo, darling, just to show you how you suit me. let's do what I been begging you to. Let's quit! Then we! won't have nobody to suit but our- selves. Let's you and me quit, that's how much I think of you. That's how much you suit me. Let's quit!” | “Quit!” i Yeh, quit! Let's jump. Lee; can't hold us after the way he faked the circuit on this show. You say the word, Lo, and we'll do it right here in Adalal. With the sixteen i hundred 1 got saved, Lo, my friend | | Ben Collins “ll set us up in anything from a ice cream parlor to the box i business. He's a big gun there;] alderman an’ everything but mayor. | | He's offered to set me up, Lo. every time I've played the town. Gee, Lo. | last year he. was putting up some | little red-roofed cottages near the | station. 1 bet they're ready now—‘ | getting Ble of 17 Td take care of you, little red-roofed cottages on the hill, with a weather-cock on the peak of | the veranda and a white picket fence, and—and, he rents ‘em, Lo, we—" | “Honest, Al, you must be crazy, with the heat. I thought you was| Jonly guying all along—or 1 would | have given you a brain test.” “Guying nothing; the idea has had me for & month like a house afire. I wanna get out of this business, hon, before you much more than get in. We can start together in a clean little | town in a clean little way, kitten. I wanna get you out of the show busi- ness, Lo, before you more than get in. - Get you out, Kitten, take care of you. “Honest, Al, you're enough to scare a girl. We can't do a crazy thing like that. What'll Lee say if we jump? I wanna get on in this busi- ness, AL I'm just starting, only six months in the game, and 1 wanna get on. I ain't the kind of a girl that could settle down in a tank in a million_year: “All right, in the big town then, Lo, it— “Gee, wouldn’t .Lee be sore!” ‘Lee,” always Lee. 1 think you're cracked over Lee and that's what hurting you. I think you wanna stick around with the director of this show, that's what I think.” “What's it to you? You ain’t my . I'm a good girl, I am, and no man can cast insinuations about me. § Lo, darling.” 2 * ¥ ¥ % SHE ‘was sobbing again—hurt, jerky little convulsions that racked her. Beneath the rumble of the train her oice was throaty and full of tears. “Where'd I be now, I'd like to know.” “Shh-h-h, Lo, Lee hisself don't need to hear you.” “T'm an ambitious girl, T am. I ain’t ready to settle down yet in a fank by & long shot. I gotta keep my stand-in. 1l be doing & single on the Amsterdam roof bygnext summer, soe if T don't. And salving it on 18 What'll get me there. 1 gotta look ahead. I'm keeping my weather eyes on Broadway, I am “Take it from me, hon, and I'm your friend for telling you, you're cute and all; gad, I never seen any one_ could fouch you, but there ain’t no future to little soubrette and chorus stuff Iike yours. You ain't got the voice, hon.” You're pretty as peaches, and explosives, squeezed out upon the little geranium-hedged station plat- form. A line of omnibuses, lopsided, scarred and travel-weary, their rear doors hanging open, backed up against the platform, and into the half dozen of them, full of travelers’ splenetic excitements, piled the thirty members of the ‘“Forty Thieves” Company; chorus girls who Jjent their feathered heads and flounced in with a display of too much ankle how girls, full-busted, but ever temperament does she have to have, Lee?” For answer he leaned over and kissed the curved line where her lips met. * % k % 'HE acte de resistance of the “Forty ‘Thieves” extravaganza opened with a stealthy plucking of muted violin strings—a device popular for the mys- tery it twangs and insinuates. Gradual lights disclosed a papiermache cave glowing with tinsel-pointed stalactites and stalagmites and a bent-backed, pus- winding ugh 1 labyrinths. Tip-toe! Tip-toe! Tip-toe! A tremolo of drums rumbled to an ear-splitting crescendo, and four wind- sprites, toesing their veily draperies, bounded from the red mouths of four up-stage caves, singing an off-key sup- pliance to the Storm King and sustain- ing_high C_with faces strained and stained to deep vermilion. From the right wing, in shirt sleeves and with an eye to nature, Mr. Charley Lee directed the lightning, and between flashes manipulated the wind machine. Above the song of the gale his voice rose and fell through the improvised megaphone of his cupped hands. “Hurry them ponies back there— swing ‘em on—dang it, swing ‘em o Speed ‘er up back there—speed! Speed Suddenly from behind a stalactite drop the raindrop, chorus descended from heaven in a carefully selected shower. A patter of applause passed through the audience. - Dangling midair from silver wires, a score of the effulgent creatures swung pendent, silver legs floundering, silver skirts flounch and showering silver roses from shallow silver baskets. And in their center, dangling highest from the stalagmite floor and further distin- guished by a silver wreath placed as if in blessing on her brow, Miss Lola Laladay sparkled like dew in sunshine. ‘All Hall the Storm King,” sang the ballet, dangling on their wire: From the gloom of the right wing Mr. Charley Lee let out a generous lightning flash and in its white flare clapped his hands together and smiled up at Miss Laladay. She tossed him a token from her shallow basket. “‘All Hail the Storm King,” trilled the four winds, waving their bony arms. ““All Hail the Storm King,” chanted the pussy-footed gmome: turning cowled heads toward the left wing. Suddenly the silver wire jerked Miss Laladay higher still and she poised, limbs distended like a bisque angel de- pending from a chandelier. A flower entwined trapeze descended from be- hind the stalactite drop, framing her from the waist up. The spotlight togl!;'sed. PR e song of wind suddenly r! across the stage. yigiople In the gloom of that left wing, taut as a gladiator, Mr. Al Delano, clad in gold-colored tights, with a zig-zag of silver lighting down his front, bal- anced in waiting on the tip of the titillating spring-board in readiness for his fiight across the stage. His muscles sprang out and his bi- ceps swelled to capacity, and beneath the gold-colored tights his diaphragm suddenly contracted, throwing his great chest upward. “All hail the Storm King!" Miss Laladay drew backward the bar until it lay across her little bosom and, as the silver wire jerked her ever so slightly higher, flung it from her with one hand, and with her free arm tossed her silver wreath déwn- ward toward the figure beside the wind machine, and a little thrill of laughter went with it. “Both hands there—cut that—wait! Al—wait—wait!"” On that outward swing of the tra. peze Mr. Al Delano leaped from his spring-board with the grace of a wild thing, turned his double somersault midstage, in midair, and reached out for the flower-twined horizontal bar. It swung back, but too slowly to meet his straining clutch. Too late to gather his strength against a fall, he gyrated for a second in a ghastly simulation of an acrobat, and then with the directness of a fowl shot on swift wing, hurtled down- ward, legs doubled up under him and his neck strained backward. v collar sizes and next year's cut of coat; principals with extrasluggage and 1ips too painted or too proud to smile, and up and down the narrow platform, snarling, swearing, shout- ing, Mr. Charley Lee walked, the cold cigar dangling from his mouth, his coat collar turned up against the November chill. “Quit your gabbing ther Leave that lunchstand alone. Pile in. Hurry, girls, there’'s plenty room for all. Here, pile in the:last bus, some of you. “Get in, Al; what you hanging around for? Fer Gawd's sake, Floss, quit chewing your rag and pile in. Now ready, boys, drive on!" “Come on in, Lee, there’s room here on my lap. ' “Naw, I'll walk—let ‘er whip up them nags. The procession moved off. creak. ing, swinging—across the railroad tracks, up a slight incline of hill, baggage swaying perilously, drivers shouting and barricaded in with more luggage, horses straining at their groins; laughter drifting backward. And from the rear windows of the rear omnibus Mr. Al Delano’s white face, staring backward. - The sweet, clean smells of the open stole out over the country-side and after its flurry the little station re- lapsed frankly into its habitual quiescence. Charley Lee exhaled loudly, wiped at his hatband and started across the tracks. At his side & step, light and full of indecision. “Lee'™ “Lo A cloud spread over his brow, im- mediately evaporating into a smile. “If it ain't the baby-doll! Why ain’t you in one of the busses, kiddo?” She slid a timid arm into his. “I—aw, there wasn't any room. They burst into a simultaneous ex- plosion of laughter. “Wasn't any room! The little devil wanted to wa)k up with me. Wasn't any room! Gad, can you beat some of 'em for nerve?” ‘1 can dress in filve minutes, Lee. I—1 got my knickerbockers for the prance on—on underneath. “Gad, 1 oughta fine you out of half a week’s salary for traveling in your wardrobe.” “Like fun you would!” “Gad, can you beat it for nerve? How the little devil talks back!" They turned up a quiet street where trees met over their heads in @ melan. choly arch and on both sides of the road, well back, lights glowed behind drawn shades and the gabled silhou- ettes of cottages showed through the darkness. ‘Say. air't this a swell little town, Lee, The first decent tank I've seen. ‘“ou—you'd take the life out of any girl with your joy killing. Ever since we left Higginsville and you came and crowded Lee out of this seat, you been sittin’ here joy killing.” ‘But, Lo, darling—" “Lemme alone.” “Can’t you understand, dear, that Maybe I'm nothing but a _little baby-go1l and maybe I ain't! Maybe I'm all the names you call me right here on_this seat and maybe I ain’t. Maybe I'm nothing but a little flirt and maybe I ain’t. .Maybe I'm going to flirt with Lee in the wings tonight and maybe I ain't. Now whatta going to_do about it?” She threw down the gauntlet from a high hand, the rod of resolve straightening her back. don’t need to stand for no man sitting here and running me down to my face all the way from Higgins- ville to Adalai. I'm an ambitious girl. 1 am, and no man can say the things you sald to me right here in this train and get away with them. Lemme out!” He unwound his feet and jerked his coat lapels together angrily. Be. neath his tiny clipped hedge of mus. tache his straight lips were com. pressed. “What you need, my little lady, a good spanking.” “You try it. “A good garden variety of spank- ing to bring you to your senses!" “Lemme out, you! I don’t have to sit here and be talked to by a fellow that ain't a gent! Spank m just dare to lay a hand on me. You!" 3 She was edging past him to the le. ‘Shh-h-, you don’t need to air your temper to the company. Lo. Here— put on your coat. Here we are at Adalai.” Down the length of the coach, heads rumpled with sleep appeared slowly above the backs of the seats as if emerging from trenches. Bag: were swung down from rac Voices thick with drowsiness and querulous with travel rose to a hum. The “Forty Thieves” “ompany straightened stiff limbs, yawned, ad- justed straps and hats and sat for- ward on the edge of seats in a state of quasi coma, luggage across knees and gazing out into the blackness, ‘Without, the first lights of Adalai began to flash past, here-there, here- there; then a neckiace of lamplights defining an outlying street; & hollow rattling over a trestle and black water reflecting beneath. Last came the busy twinkling lights of the township; an illumin: yellow as a ‘8o, boys, is all lantly heralding the *“Forty Thieves Spectacplar Surprise.” i I t] - (‘:n 'Aw, looka that cute little red-roofed on the back of his polished thatch of hair. A cold cigar sagged at an oblique from his mouth, his tan waistcoat, open its full length, swung apart to reveal the bold design of his folks. Neat, ain't it? “Looka— kids and a return in April. Neat, clean, little dump, and jammed suddenly into the aisle. all. Say. ain't that cute? Gee, for rent, man, whose face was eons older than | self. Look at it up there on the little plush-covered seats waving his light | town. Say, ain't that cute—I wouldn't kiddie, and see if what I tell you about Roof true Looka in_there, will you? All eaunx‘ the old granny and all. _Looka !’ : retu a g0od show town. ‘Within the coach the thirty mem- | cottage with the w r-cock whirling At the far end of the coach a young | too. 1 wouldn't mind renting y. Im. flesh, sprang upon the first of the ! hill ri brown derby hat, and then slapped it | mind renting that myself the Amsterdam Roof dom't come “Honest, Lee?" supper around the table like Tegular ood little town. We play bers of the “Forty Thieves” Company | around over the porch, brand new and ght between the depot and the “Yes, you would. You stick to me, “Aw, but what's the use egreating gh-h A moment of indecision. A woman e | shroud around them, the watchers b y 1 THE SUNDAY STAR, JANUARY 9, 1921-PART 4. A Story of Real People by Fannie Hurst in the balcony shrieked and hid her) for in the hospital? face. Another. The West Wing faint- ed back against an iridescent pillar. The director's baton fluttered. then You can’'t jump a show like this without “You go chase yourself, Charley Lee. You can’'t bluff me. I'm going waved onward. the music clattering | to stick, and whatta you going to do manfully after it. A gnome fell weak-kneed in her tracks. The cur- tain slithered downward. * ok kK AT 3 oclock, with the quiet of dead o' night thick as a side a property couch moved simul- taneously. A doctor rose from his Stiff knees, his lips pursed and per- plexed beneath his mossy beard. Char- | ley Lee lifted a basin and towel from | the floor and placed them noisclessly | Miss Lolo | in this game and I want more'n a girl | Laladay, her silver skirts crushed to|ain’ ever did to—to get ahead. How much'her figure, rose from her crouching'at me. on the gold property table. “DOC! DOC! DON'T YOU KNOW YET? YOU WANT US TO DIE WAITING, DO YOU? DON'T YOU KNOW attitude at the base of the couch, and beneath the mask of rouge her little face seemed suddenly as fleshless as the feet of a bird and slashed with tears, as if rain had beat against it. “Doc, Doc, don’t you know yet? You want us to die waiting, do you. Don’t you know nothing yet? “We gotta catch that 4:10 train, Doc, and she feels like before we go we Sughta—" “Can’t you tell a girl, Doc? Ain't he ever coming to again? Ain’t he, Doc? Oh, ain’t he?” The doctor snapped his spectacles into a case and regarded her above a remairniing pair that straddled his nose half-way down. .His voicp was deliberate and as slow as treacle in the pouring. “We are going to move him now, young lady, just as soon as the hos- pital wagon arrives. Then we can tell more.” Fear lay on her face like a death ask. e he - “I have set three fractures, but I can’t look at that back until we get him to_the hospital, little lady. *“Oh! His back!” Mr. Charley Lee smoothed a nerv- ous hand up and down the back of his glossed hair. ““What she's trying to get at is this, Doc. We gotta get that 4:10 train out and—" “Don’t listen to him, Doc, we—" “We gotta get that train out and if he ain't done for she wants to know it he'll come around all right. He will, won't he, Doc?” B “I won’t know how much, little lady, until we get him to the hos- pital, but it looks to me like he will come around all right.” ‘See, now go get your duds.” “Oh, Doc.” She caught at his hands in a frenzy of suppliance and fell on her knees a huddle at his feet. “Just pull him around, Doc. That's all I ask. Pull himself around, Doc, and I'll make it up to you. I'll work my fin- gers to the bone for you. I'll black your shoes and walk on my knees for ou. Only don’t let him die, Doc. Don’t let him die” The incoherence of frenzy muddled her tones. “Aw, cut it, Lo. Don't you see that Doc's doing all he can. Go get your duds on, Lo. You see, Doc, it's this way. She kinda feels like it was her fault, but there’s nothing to that. It just like he got dizzy all of a sudden the way he missed that bar. T've seen it happen a dozen times. She flung it all right enough, but she kinda feels to blame about it. It's dead sure it, Doc. Tell her. 1 done it! I dome it, Doc, but I didn’t think it would swerve. I done it. Oh, Doc. I done it!” He stopped and drew her gently from her crouching attitude at his feet and as if anticipating that she would sway like a silver reed, placed @ firm hand between her bare shoul- der blades. “There’s no immediate danger of anything right now, little lady. You just keep up your courage until we have a look at that back and see what can be done.” “rll_walk on my knees for you, Doc. I— “Aw, Lo, cut the sob stuff. Didn't you hear the Doc tell you a lay-up is all he's in for? Flyin' acts is used to that. “There, there, little lady, you just ‘waittuntil we look at that back.’ “We got to be beatin’ it, Doc. We gotta catch the company down at the station for the four-ten. I gotta wire ahead to Chicago for a dummy act, too. He—Al—he's a great fellow, Doc. Treat him white as you know how. You'll keep us wise about him, won't you? Here's our route list, and you let us kinow ‘how he's mending up. He's a fellow with a fund, Doc, and if—if it ain’t elastic enough to stretch, let us know. Take good care of him, Doc. The best ain’t none too good for him, Be glad to send you paper to the show when we play a return in April, Doc. Glad to take care of you if you wiil call around at the box office. Come, Lo, we gott: hustle.” ‘Whatta you think I am—crazy? I—I ain't going:' He shuffled toward her. “None of that. You gotta—we can’t miss connections for—" “ ain't going. ‘Cut it now. L % {I'm immense | if h, | a that he'll come around all right, ain't | hi; 1 Aln’t ¥ all arranged| about (2" “Tell her, Doc, she's crazy with the e at “That won't thaw no ice with me. going to stick with him and—and e—he will have me I—I—Al—AL" The figure on the couch stirred be- neath its gold brocade property cov- erlet. ‘Where—Lo—where?" he sprang to his side with the octor’s restraining hand light on her rm. 1, darling! Oh, my darling!” She leaned to him as if she would lay her heart palpitating at his feet. “You ain't mad at me, Al—you are you, darlin, u ain’t mad NOTHING YET?™ Tears rained down her face and he made to touch them, but his arm could find no power to raise. “No, no, pussy cat, I ain’t mad. Why should I be mad?’ He lolled his head ever so slightly on the pink sateen property pillow It was the and smiled. “Sure I ain’t mad. spring-board that dldn't work.” From his closed eyes came tears that he could not wipe away. * x % % I}-’ 1ts imagery, plunge of the season. In front of a little cottage on a hill a fairylike carpet of white dog-vio- lets bloomed of a morning, and when Mrs. Al Delano opened her front door to the first kiss of spring she cried out suddenly as if something within her had thawed. 1 yard! “Where?" “Here; lemme wheel your chair out, a whole batch of|Pine table, improvised to a dressing- darling. Look, something or other spread out on the grass like a tablecloth drying. Here, lemme wheel you out.” “No, no, baby. It's fine he window with the sun on m for the spring to come. now for su darling. So darling. Smell! Here, She flung wide the window beside his chair, and the frilled . tain stirred. WhLe cur mell! “M-m-m! Like some ing a perfume atomize He relaxed his great shoulders back one was squirt- against the pillows, his face inert but smiling. “You'll be sporting that sunbonnet Ben brought you and hiking right out ‘| in the garden now, won't you, baby?'’ “Yeh. T'll show him we ’ oy ain’t such “It's Monday night and he’ll be stopping in after aldermen’s meeting. You better put out some bulbs to sur- prise him, baby.’ “Sometimes I wish Ben didn't stop in Monday nights after those meet- ings, hon. They last so late and it— Stmk‘e.epa you awake so, walting for “Nonsense. Lemme boss your den Job, %;:y'c right here “trom "the ndow. at you going to first—daftydillies?” SIS o She placed her cheek against his. ‘Silly! Are you comfy, darling? Shall I put' that new-fangled pillow Ben sent underneath your head?” L No.‘o(;ny 1 guess you better shut e window, Lo; the nip ain't out of the air yet. 2 pone “Ain’t you feeling well, darling?” “Sure I am, baby! only when a fel- low sits on his throne all day his cr‘?ovzln dsetl!‘ cold. , darling—you—you mustn’ like that.”” T teEhioke She drew the rug closer across his }olllke limbs, peering closer into his ace. “You ain’t of paralyzed are you, A17” ;fiurfibl ain’t, baby.” e bent down to kiss him. His head lay in the full glory of a bar of sunshine that crossed his pillow. “I'm going out now and dig up in the garden a little. Look out, Al at the lilac bush: it's getting ready.”’ , “Al it a beaut, Lo? I bet when it blooms it smells like sixty. We gotta wrap it up these chilly nights just like it was a baby. We gotta throw a sheet or something over it. Do:‘tdto!r;‘ze!. llt‘l’l' }gfif‘ovi'lekr it at night.” “And then’ it' e a the moonlight. e “I want it covered so it won't get etting that numb-kind eeling any further up, nipped. “Nothing you ever want me to member will get nipped, darling.” “Poor little kiddo; I keep you jump- ing, don't 17" re- 'm going out now before I do the dishes and spade up like Ben learnt m Maybe some of the girls will have time to run up for a minute to see us wWhen the show plays its return { Adalai spring comes shyly. A wil- low by the river, bending over at |1 like a woman stopping to immerse her halr, blooms suddenly .over night in long lacy strand. truant hides his shoes, sucks in his breath and shivers before the first A darling, look out in the front by the “But, Al, ever since we been livi, here you been waiting and w&ltl:: It's spring. & week from tonight. We little place to look swell, AL™ He was slow to release he IU1l seem funny to have fllfl ing in our town, won' She made a wide-mouthed grimace and pursed her fruitlike lip into pucker. “We should worry!” You don’t mean that, Lo." Poor little kiddo! kiddo! 9% His throat might have been fur- lined. ou_think I'm hankering, don't you? You think I'm hankering just because the show’s coming here next week. Like fun I ai “You wouldn't squeal if you was, baby, but don’t you think I know! Don’t you think I know what 1ivin’ in this amen corner is—" _ “Al—Al you make me ashamed to listen. Please, darling. I can't stand it when you talk like that. Ain’t you feeling right today? Ain't you? “I mean it, baby. Ther: be nothing that would set mq about you as that. Lo. I like to see him all lit up like a Christmas tree when you begin cut- ting up with your cute little ways. |He's so strong, Lo; and like a kid |n the same time. He could be so the show t it £ood to you, baby. I'd f or sure that—' lease—please cut it. ‘Al Please, P him coming |down the street on his way to the factories or when he stops by from the aldermen’s meeting; even when I hear his footsteps coming down the street, it’s like a soldier with new i He was slower st hand., “That's why, Lo, I—even if you can get the hankering out of your sys- t 8o 111 to release her item I ‘T ain’t hankering, Al; honest, darling, I. | “You don’t mean that, Lo.” 'Do! Do! Do! Lemme go, lemme put some bulbs out. hurry, darling. She’ broke from him with , show of raillery. * % k% B Y afternoon the sun had shifted 50 that the warm flood of light lay to the rear and streamed into the small ./ square kitchen with its rows of uten- sils reflecting and gleaming. A few gray chickens prinked in the open doorway and on the window sill a votted geranium lifted its head grate. ful to the light. On that same win- dow sill a coffee pot, lid back, turned its black mouth to the sun. Mrs. Lola Delano swabbed out a great shining dish pan and hung it in its row along ithe wall. The pink was high in her her fingers would recoil. darling; Lemme a great at, Lo. “Nothing, Al. T'll be in there right in a minute. The dishes is do Shall I wheel you back here, hon?’ “No, no. like to watch the kids oming from school She wrung out her dish cloth after the immemorial fashion of those to ‘whom falls this ancient and greasy rite, slapped it open and hung it across the sill. Blonde tendrils of - hair clung to oist face. ‘Comin’ AL In the front room, quite in the atti- tude of the morning except that his head lay against the pillows i more completely De. relaxed, Mr. Al - lano gased to the white ceiling. The clean litter of wood carvings lay iscattered on the carpet, and on the i table beside the implements of his {handicraft. Otherwise the small room, with its sticks of decent oak furni- ture, hand-painted swinging lamp and great Japanese fan spread like a pea- cock tail before the cold fireplace, was spick and carefully ordered. A ca- nary hopped in its cage, silent. “You—why ain’t you working, AlI?” “I dunno, hon.” She placed a quick hand upon his row. “It’s because you ain’t feeling right, and you won't tell me. I'm going for Doc. Tell me, darling, are you hav- ing that numblike feeiing up around your heart?” “Sure I ain’t, Lo. It's spring fever's got me. Even in my act I used to go dead like a tire when spring came.” “Take a little nap, darling. You ain’t slept in daytime ever since you started the carving. Lemme pull down the shade and fix you for a nap, AL” He was mildly reluctant. “I gotta finish the grapevine design for them lids, Lo. “Didn’t Ben say the minute you get working too hard not another job does he send up from the factory.’ ‘“Like it makes any difference. Poor old gink, he thinks T don’'t know that if he wasn't in back of us, my little wood carving wouldn’t keep us in shoe lace: “Sh-h-h-h; ow. “What'll you do all alone th noon if 1 doze off, ? Put on your little hat, baby, the pink one that Ben likes, and stroll uptown past the office 80 he can see you. Don’t stick around here so much. baby.” “No, 1 gotta clear out that trunk, Al All winter I been standing around and I wanna get at it and get it down in the cellar and out of the way. She leaned over and kissed his cheeks where the hollows darkened them, lowered shade and tip-toed out, closing the door after her. The boxlike bedroom, hedged in between the kitchen and front room, might have been the builder's after- thought. A white pine bed and white ere, lemme fix your pil- is after- stand, left an area between them the size of a door mat. Jammed between the bed and the wall, a black galvan ized trunk trowded sole aisle. The drone of midafternoon de- cended. A million motes swam in bar of sunshine which started through the windows and lay across the black trunk. The two-ten accom- modation pulled out of the nearby sta- tion with a great clanging and after a time whistled back twice from out over the greenlike prairie. A child throbbing with freedom rattled his lunch bucket along the picket fence. Mrs. Delano tidied the dressing stand top and with a handkerchief rubbed g speck from the mirror until it squeaked. Then she fumbled in a drawer among a litter of keys, un- hooked a small one from its ring and, spreading herself beside the trunk in the cross-limbed attitude of a -shah, flung open the lid. The musty odors of the theater, which are as ingratiating as the fumes of Circe’s cup, rose immedi- ately like steam. Her lips parted and she delved. It was as if something cheeped within her and her heart took flight, soaring backwalrd through resilient time and space into yesterdays. Fa- tigue vanished ss rage before Abra- cadabra and Oh-la-la was her song. “Oh-h-h-h- -0 3 She paused, poised on her toes, her arms flung in a circle over her head and the quick color draining out of her face—paused in this tableau vi- vtn“[!"u ,l»‘ caught in a paralysis. For a frozen instant she glanced about her, dragged at the bed cover- ing as a cloak for her finery, but it clung to its moorings and, abandon- ing it in her frenzy, she burst through the door into the darkened front room. “Al!” She caught at his hand which lay atop the rug. It was limp and strangely cold. * % ¥ ¥ AT 6 o'clock Adalal finished its day with a bdleating of factory whi tles and a sonorous booming of the First Presbyterian chimes. Main street closed its shop doors and white arc lights sprang out befors two cine- matograph theaters, Joe's Place, Fray- |1 ca ley's Ice Cream Parlor and the Red Trunk Five and Ten Cent Store— open evenings. At 6:10 the prairie flyer thundered into the station, with a row of 3 ters swaying on its coach steps, stools in hand. Beside the statior Frank Gill's all-right lunchreom placed a dish of fried halibut and a platter of red chopped meat, surmounted with a circle of onien, on its open-air counter. The “Forty Thieves” theatrical troupe rallled round to a man. At 7:30 grilling arc lights sprang out before the opera house and at that same moment Mr. Charley Lee bound- ed up the front steps of & cottage on the hill. A light burned through ? crack in thg blind and through thal Poor little | th, ® ] everything _else, same crack hé could see the hand- / Ppainted "E' ing lamp burning softly. He knocked, then stood for & mo~ ment in the cocked tude of lis {ening, hia bead inclined. and four knuckies poised. Knocked again and the door & g back on silent hinges and in the wavering brown shadows & small black figure peered outward. ‘Lo “Wh—who——" Her hand flew to her breast and 18y e white against the black. W ho—! “Don’t you know me, kiddo? It me; howdy, Lo. Gee, you look so lit- tle and black I couldn’t see you firs! Don’t you know me, kiddo. It's me.’ *“That's me. “If it ain't Lee! Come in, Le Her voice was faint as a tinkling bell. He entered. exhaling loudly and with a great ado of rubbing his hands together in a dry wash. “Well 1—well!’ “I—come right in, Lee. Gee, gee, but you're a sight for sore eyes. low’s things? The girls? Sit down in that rocker, Lee. Here, lem: take your stick. I—gee, ain't you a sight for sore ey Gee!" She was fluttering and full of small ways. Dragged the rocker a bit far ther beneath the swinging lam ed his slender cane in a corner; low ered a shade. Pink, as delicate as bloom, rose in her wan little “Sit down, Lee. I—sure, I knew the show was playing Adalia tonight, but —bul—? , you look right slick, Lee. How’s the show—how's the gang?" He ated himself rather gingerly on the edge of the seat. the rocker tilting forward with the weight of his body, his gray-top shoes firmly plant- ed and his hat cocked backward. “So thi is the home-sweet-home you wrote the girls about, is it? Some neat little shack! Some neat little rest cure . He glanced about with quick ap- then back to her rose-pink - ome little rest cure.” “Tt—i such a sight now after— after- Her voice dled In her throat and she glanced away from him. He leaned forward, his own voice in a croaking whisper. he, “How is Lo? Won't he eved walk? Is he nalled for goos , Lee, don’t you know—" beat it while the company was in line for wardrobes so you wouldn't think the gang was forgetting. We got in just in time for make-up and we're out for Principia on the 'leven- seven. The girls squealed for time to come and see you both, but it's all we can do to run the show off and beat it out on the leven-seven. Is he nailed for good?” Tears rained down her cheeks and splashed to her black d “Don’t you know.,” heard? Don’t you know? “Know what?’ He could see her shoulders heaving. “A—a week ago today, Lee, he—y he—last Monday, I— A flash of understanding shocked him halfway to his fet and his hand shot to his hat reflexly. “Blinked! Aw, now whatta—whatta you know about that. Ain’t I the dub? Sure, Lo, we never heard. Blinked! Aw—Aw, Lo! Poor guy! Poor guy! He was strangely inarticulate and they sat for a moment in a lead-heavy silenc: Presently she raised her tear-daub- ed_face. He was game through up—up to the end, Lee. It—it came so sudden like I—he never let us know—but he must have known—he knew all the time—but he never let out a com- plaint or let us know he knew. He # ‘was the real stuff, Lee, if—if ever a tel‘l!ow v‘-ln“ I:f ‘;-In! He was! e twirl s ha “He was—was the real thing, Les, \ he—" » carefully shrouded She dried her eyes. “Ain’t I the silly? Only when I get started about him and what he was and all I—I just can’t keep 'em back. Lemme get you some cider, Lee. Ben sent us up the and we made it right here ourselves. Lemme get you som: “No, 1 gotta make a dash for the nrryoimu:o We, gotta ring up prompt 1 we wanna make the 'leven-seven getaway.” “How' Lee? Gee. night after the ’ll‘ll and all of them, aln't we sat here winter '!‘tvef m&m l‘m{l Lll‘:d about you all! ‘e used to follow the route list snowy evenings and laft ;:; taff thinking about the girls Kicki and nagging among themselves ‘bout, the hotels and tanks.” “That gang would kick in a canoe. 1 nearly canned them all in Lawrence- ville, Kan. We close in Sedalia next Saturday, and there ain’t ten of them would get another job out of me with a pair of pinchers. Mack’s meeting me in Trenton and then I"hlkl back to the big town with him. “Mack.” I told you T'd land that Am- sterdam Roof show of his, didn’t 17" “Broadway for sure, Lee! Say. you'll be giving Belasco lessons next. e ran a finger along the top of 1 collar. nle, ':‘ going to put on the biggest girl show that town ever seen.’ S but—but I'm glad for you, re > ced at her sidewise. e e o oing to do, sister—stick around ;h'l dump? *f—] LNNo. mn‘e :lm l!{l‘ a murder or a deaf and dumb school.” ' T aln't 20 bad, Lee, when you get used to the neighbors and friends they— “M-m-m-m. ur Wi "t Tike I was without any friends, Lee. There's Ben and— “B, ve spot for a kiddo “Yeh, Lee. e rent for it. He's the fellow that :-:33 us the chair you're sitting o on and the lamp you're seeing with. There never was a friend like him, Lee. Where would the money have come from all the months after they operations and all if—if he hadn't been sent to help us just like out of heaven. Givin' and_givin’ us so we wouldn't know it. Helpin’ us so we couldn’t see it, keeping up Al's nerve, helpin’ him to—— “Ben Collings?" “Yeh. Gee, don't I wish you could Lee. After the aldermen’s meeting tonight he'll be stopping in. I just wish you could see him for yourself, Lee, honest I do. You never met a fellow like him, honest, you wver did.” "Kee regarded her through a flim of abstraction as if her words only half filtered to him. His glance was for her white throat where it rose above the black and the limber easy line of her silhouette. «Honest. Lo, you're better looking. Kind of filled out and toned down bit. Country air, eh? Some littl looker! ‘Aw, Lee. He shifted his cold cigar. “GQuess you'll be pulling up stakes around here pretty soon, eh?” “]—Why, I dunno, Lee.” “There ain't many girl shows being booked for summer. Me and Mack’s got_the first grab at ‘em, too.” “The Amsterdam Roof is sure the swellest on Broadwa: . “You think I forgot my promise to you, kiddo, now—now that you' out in the swim again, don’t You tnln;t I've forgot?” What? “You think I forgot that I promised you last fall that there’s a forty. dollar job waiting for you in that .hg;'e grasped at the arms of her meet him, ) 1} / «)—oh—I—1 gotta stick around her:—-&r uvhlu.' Lee. Since vor{- eems like pened, it—it just s thing happened, J ey to think and s Just like my brain ou got to do is to say the e, Xagan tomight. with the show . -geven n w .I:z‘t‘.‘nuportnlon back to New York thrown in.” = “Lee “That’s the kind of a sport I am. You don't wanna hang around here nvln'gflmum.‘omoe_y hurts.” “All “Lee!” “The house is his, ain’t it? You sald go yourself. . I1t's the éaslest geot- ake, kiddo; “leven- Al \ P