Evening Star Newspaper, May 31, 1931, Page 76

Have. Tongues A New Story by a Master Story Teller, Cosmo Hamilton NY one would have thought from their expressions of amazement that those four men had fallen frrm a star and were looking at a woman for the first time in their lives. They saw her at the same moment —slim, Fraeetul; brown hat, brown skirt, brown stockings, brown shoes. What was the betting on brown hair, brown eyes and a brown—that js, mellcw outlook? She was away below in the valley between a high-perched tee and a green cocked up on the hill, 400 yards away. Her mashie flashed in the sun of that in- spiring morning, with the sweet odor of apple- blossom in the air. Her style was Bobbie Jones, and, what was altogether a different thing, her stroke was Bobbie, too. Any one would have been right abcut those four men, because they weré looking for the first time at a woman who had dared to tres- pass on the nine-hole golf course which formed the chief attraction of their equal property. Never before had a human creature of the feminine species set foot on that mascu- line preserve. The cottage on the hill and its numerous acres had been sclected after wide and lengthy search. Golf maniacs, it you will, their intention in buying it was to achieve a gorgeous freedom, and they had spent more money than they could afford in perfecting this privacy. At the sight of this brown creature, then, they were shattered and un- strung. But when Knox went up to her, pre- paratory to a short, blunt statement of the facts, the other three sent off Marconigrams to let her lightly down. She was so enchant- ingly brown, so, in fact, hazel; straight eye- brows, long lashes, large gulleless eyes, sensi- tive virginal mouth and a skin like apple blossoms; so friendiy and so expectsnt of friendship; so feminine and therefore so confi- dent of chivalry from men. 11} HOPE you like o\l'r course,” said Knox, “and will use it every day. We can only put in week ends. The little Scotsman who looks after the greens hits a decent bell, and I'M tell bim to hold himself at your disposal at all times.” And that was the beginning of what turned eut to be a bloodless revolution—Eve's com- plete possession of the not only hitherto ser- pentless Eden, but one in which the appleish temptation had never cropped up. Pessimists will take it for granted thst before a month had gone the serpent that follows a woman—wherever men are gathered idealists will hardly believé that the rivalry to play with Hazel, and the desire to sit at her truth must be told that pessimists and ideal- wrong in this case. The jnflu- ence of the brown girl, with her mellow out- faith to her, swore by her and set her on & stand. It was frankly confessed by each man that he was madly in love, but unanimously sagreed that each would play the game as friends and men of honor, the proposer to ke the man to whom she should show eventually a marked preference. And so the cottage was Wi 1 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, B. & WAF BI, WX " . - su “Hazel,” he said, “I have the great honor to ask you to be my wife.” that day, to say nothing of 27 the previcus afternoon? He thought not and put down the letter as having been written by a friend. What he would bave thought if he had been gifted with second sight, or, forgetting that ne was Knox, had read these words inside. . . . Because they ran like this: “Darling, I must see you. Where. are you hiding ycursell? Come up for another of our happy interludes. Send a wire. Doc.” The answer, “Expect me Monday, all my love,” had been sent on Sat- urday morning by telegram, and the spinster in the post office, tightening her lips, bad thought, “I told you so.” 2 N the middle of what they hoped was to be the second week of Hazellessness—the four men ieft their apartment to the mercy of the painters and took two double-bedded rooms im the Mayfair Hotel. And so it was there, on Friday night, as they were going along the corridor at half past 12, having attended a Great War Veterans’ dinner, an annual affafr, that & bomb filled with high explosives blew them into the air. It was Knox who, as usual, led the way. The others, following quietly arm in arm, saw him draw up sharp, gaze at something outside No. 501 and turn as white as a sheet. “What's all this?” he asked. small, brown and neat, and the other large, square-toed and black. A girl's and a man’s, and on the girl's were the two old silver buckles which Knox had given to Hazel on her birthday weeks before. And all of them had tongues. The following afternoon they drove silently ' to.the golf cottage, looking as though they had attended the funeral of a dead ideal. Instead of leading the way upstairs to change, as he always did, Knox turned in the sitting room and held the eyes of his friends. “I Ex-Rulers Hold Their Great W ealth Continsed from Fifth Page merry time when his crown toppled from his head. He deposited large amounts of money in other countries' before he fled. The exact amounts are not known. But a legal action in London revealed that he had upward of $2,000,000 there. Perdinand abdicated in favor of his eldest son, Boris, on October 3, 1918, after war dis- asters. Abbas Hilmi, ex-Khedive of Egypt, is another deposed monarch who didn’t have to worry when his salary stopped. He is living the life of a retired millionaire in Paris with plenty of money of his own. The richest man in the world . . . and this doesn’t exempt the Rockefellers or Fords or any one else . . . is a royal ruler, the Nizam of Hyderabad, who lives in an obscure city in India. He is said to keep $500,000,000 worth of gold bricks and coins and jewels in his _palace strong box. He never invests for fear his fortune might become too cumbersome. Instead he takes out a lump of gold when he it. He is so important that he gets a 21-gun salute from the British Navy. If the late former Sultan of Turkey had been wiser he would have invested in some stocks and bonds and lands instead of keeping his of the Osman family, to which the Turkish rulers belonged, never as state jewels or treas- ure. Then Mohammed VI was driven from his He laid claim to the treasure, but he died m 1927 without receiving a single ruby. HARLES I, former Emperor of Austria- Hungary, took with him jewels valued at $7,500,000 when he fled from his ecuntry.. He mortgaged his family properties when he made his final attempt to recapture his throne, but he didn’t touch the jewels. They were left with a faithful servitdor, who was instructed not to touch them unless he received a written note from the Emperor, But the dash inio Hungary didn't bring back the throne. The Empercr and his wife, Em- press Vita, were sent into exile. Swiss creditors descended on the man who was holding the jewels and asked for their money. ‘The servitor was frightened. He confided the jewels to three well known jewelers, who, In turn, intrusted them to other agents. Only $60,000 was received for the jewels. éggggzg% 3 don’t know how ycu feel,” he said, “but I can't touch a club until I know what all this means. Hazel called me up this morning to say that she'd be here. I'm going round to see her right away . . .” There was & curious pause. Shoes have tongues, and they had said things to Falconer, Harding and Wingfield which had shaken their faith. But what none of them knew, except Wingfield, was that Hazel knew this, tco. On the spur of the moment, meaning well, Bill had sent her a letter in which, desiring to be kind, he had warned her of their discovery at the Mayfair Hotel. He couldn't bear the, idea of her coming back to the cottage, the course and their friendship, under the fright- ful handicap of false security. He thought that it was due to all that she had been to them to give her the opportunity to drop out and disappear. He was amazed that she had returned. * They followed Knox to the cottage in which Hazel had rooms.and up the narrow pathway to the open door. She was there. They heard her mellow voice. They saw her well known bag of clubs leaning against the wall. They had no more idea as to what Knox was going to say than they had had on the Sunday morning when they had seen her first. As then, though unfortunately for a very much stronger reason, they sent him Marconigrams to let her lightly down. Never, never, could lthgy forget what Hazel had meant to their ives. HEN she came to the door—brown hat, brown skirt, brown stockings, brown shoes, brown hair—there was in her brown eyes an expression they had never seen. Was it anger or disappointment? Or was it wound- ed pride? It certainly wasn’t the old, frank and most charming comradeship. “Ccme in,”. she said, without words of greeting, and in the small, quaint parlor, with its low ceiling and chintz curtains and con- ventional texts on the walls, she stood, they thought, at bay, like a deer run to earth by hounds. “Well?"” e Every stumbling, well meaning word of Wingfield's secret letter marked her like a knife. Why was it right that men should de- mand a reason for their faith? Knox went forward. He always took the lead. “Hazel,” he sald,. “I have the great honor to ask you to be my wife.” The amaszement that shot across the faces of the other men flashed into hers. But in her case it was followed by such a gleam of joy and gratitude, relit optimism and love, overcurtained little room was filled “Before I give you my answer,” she said, “ghere is some one that you must see. Some one with whom I have worked, who is the trustee of my small income, and who brought Knox and these three friends of mine. A grumble. A chair pushed back. heavy steps. = She waved her hand toward the entering broad- Slow, large tongues had lied to those men. 5 “I have the great honor to accept your offer,” she said. (Copyright, 1981.)