Evening Star Newspaper, October 4, 1936, Page 89

el ' October 4, 1936 L3 v 3 i E OLD SAFE ON THE LIGHTER. JENK WENT DOWN TO GLOAT. n its exhilarating effects even the next day. had no intention of going to the auction he alley behind the bank, nor of buying the . Nancy Freeman, indirectly and quite with- intention, did her part in betruying him 0 both these indiscretions. A pretty girl is hdy wine. Small boys, knowing such a one is tching, turn cartwheels, stand on their ; and grown men may be betrayed into equal folly. enk, by his exploit of the mght before, was eady made vulnerable. He went to the auction cause he saw Nancy and Bob Eyer going at way together. He joined them; and in alley found a crowd already gathered. Bob nt to inspect this and that, and Jenk stayed th Nancy. The auctioneer, old Dan May- w, used to handling sheriffs’ sales, opened ifoceedings in his high, nasal voice. ‘‘All right, ladies and gentlemen, you've read conditions of the sale. Every lot goes. Terms . All purchases to be removed from the emises before Monday morning at nine clock. First lot . . . "’ The gavel banged again; e sale began. d Jenk told Nancy jubilantly about Bob's dis- mfiture in the poker game. She laughed, but fie warned him: ‘‘Better look out. He'll get ven) “J “Not a chance,” Jenk assured her. “Bob's \darned fool. Listen to him, bidding on every ht. People go crazy at an auction.” { “But it's such fun to bid,”” Nancy retorted. A don't see how you can stand here and not d on anything!" The auctioneer put up a flat-topped desk of ‘mahogany. ‘‘Oh, anyone can bid,” Jenk lssured her, and called: ‘‘Five cents!” veryone laughed, and Nancy said in ap- droving mirth: ‘““You idiot!" Jenk found it firprisingly pleasant to be called an idiot in hat tone. On the next item, he tried a varia- jon. ‘‘Four cents!"” he shouted, and was re- arded by scattering mirth. The bank’s old qfafe followed. Dan Mayhew described it elo- uently. { “Nine feet by eight by six,” he told them. , Wal!s of solid Harveyized steel, eighteen g - THIS WEEK inches thick. Combination lock of the finest make. What am I offered?”’ ‘“Three cents!” Jenk bellowed, playing to the hilt his new and intoxicating role of clown. But the joke was stale; the auctioneer said sharply: ‘‘Now, now, no more foolishness! Do I hear a thousand?'’ He did not. ‘“Well, seven fifty? Who'll give seven fifty? All right, highest bid takes it. Five hundred? Four hundred? Three hundred ? Do I hear two fifty?" He hesitated. ‘“Come, come!"” he said re- sentfully. ‘“We've a lot of items still to sell. Don’t waste my time and I won't waste yours. Who'll say a hundred? Fifty?" Someone suddenly laughed, perceiving un- suspected possibilities in the situation; and Bob Eyer shouted: *‘Mr. Chairman, I move the nominations be closed!” There was a spreading billow of mirth, and many eyes turned toward Jenk. Jenk grinned — a little feebly. ‘“Twenty-five dollars?”” Dan Mayhew de- manded. “Ten? Five? One?”’ He threw up his hand. “I had a bid of three cents, from that gentleman over yonder,” he recalled. “‘Do I hear a better? Going once? Going twice?'’ The gavel thumped hard. “Gone!” Jenk cried hastily : “‘Hold on, wait a minute! I don’t want the darned thing. I just bid for a joke. I withdraw the bid.” “‘I'mnot joking!" said Dan Mayhew sharply. “The safe’s yours. You have till Monday to take it away. The next item, gentlemen . . . A great storm of laughter interrupted him. His gavel banged for silence and Jenk got redder and redder. “Blasted fools!” he mut- tered to Nancy. *“The joke’s on them. That safe’s worth a lot of money."” ‘It must be,” Nancy agreed; but she was smiling too. While the sale continued, Jenk slipped away. He was not yet alarmed, but — quick action was indicated. He went into the bank to see Jim Huston, the president. “Jim,” he said, *“I put in a bid of three cents on your old safe, just for a joke; and I got it. I don't want to take advantage of you. That safe’'s worth a lot of money. Give me five dollars and you can have it back.” Huston was a polite man. ‘“Well, Jenk, I'll tell you,” he replied. “That’s an old safe. No bank would buy it, nowadays. And it's too big for anyone but a bank. No, we're glad to get rid of it, Jenk. But you'll have to move it between now and Monday. We start Monday to dig foundations for the new wing."’ Jenk exploded. ‘‘Move it? I won't touch the blasted thing!"” Huston warned him: “It’ll cost you money every day you leave it there after Monday."” So Jenk, in a wretched fury, went away. He met Doc Fillmore. Doc called: “Hi, Jenk. Got a good trade on that safe yet?" He met Will Morley. “‘Hi, Jenk,” said Will. ‘I hear you're going to start a bank!” Jenk escaped to his own office in the garage. Chet Baines, who was his chief mechanic, said: ‘“Well boss, I hear you're going into the junk business!" Said Jenk grimly: “I'll show 'em. Chet, there's a drive-away truck due in tonight with four new cars. We'll load the safe on it and send it to the junkyard in Ba Chet shook his head. ‘‘It'd mash any truck flat. No, that safe’s a job for a house-mover."” “‘Ike Staples used to do house-moving," Jenk recalled. “Ike's dead.” “I know. But his gear's probably still around,” Jenk decided hopefully; and he called Mrs. Staples on the telephone. “‘But I sold it to Bob Eyer after Ike died,” she explained. ‘‘They wa'n’t no good to me.” Jenk hung up the receiver with a clash! This was bitter. Nevertheless, he must locate Bob Eyer. At a guess he called the Freeman home. Bob was there. “‘Oh, hullo, Jenk,”” he said. *’Kind of thought I'd hear from you." “‘Come up here,” Jenk said harshly. *I want to talk to you."” ““Won't Monday do?’’ Bob suggested. *‘Nancy's bound I sh'd stay to supper. Kind of *“GOING TO GIVE HER AN OCEAN VOYAGE FOR HER HEALTH?"' HE ASKED hate to disappoint her.”” Jenk made some in- articulate sound; and he heard Bob chuckle, Then Bob said: “‘All right, Jenk. Hold every- thing. I'll be there.” Ten minutes later he came in, tossed his hat. on Jenk's desk and said cheerfully: ““Well, Jenk, what's on your mind?"’ “You ever do any house-moving jobs?*’ “Why, I bought Ike Staples’ gear after he died, more to help Mis’ Staples than anything else, and I be'n using it when I got a chance, yes!"’ “Where is it?"” “Right now it's loaded on that lighter of mine."” ‘‘What'll you charge to move that safe for ?'l ‘‘Where to?"”’ Jenk had not thought. Bob suggested: “‘I've got a vacant lot down by the Harbor that I ‘took in a trade. I'm not using it right now. Want I should move the safe down there?”’ “Yfl, all rlgh' ” “‘I'd have to charge you rent.” “‘Never mind that yet. How much to move it down there?’’ ““Well, let’s see,” Bob reflected. “It'd have to go down the alley, and around two corners. Must be close on to a quarter of a mile. Can't tell how much of a job it'd be; but I'll tell you, Jenk. I'll take a chance at a dollar a foot.” Jenk cried: ‘“You're crazy!"” ““Why, I'm giving you a good trade, Jenk," Bob insisted. ‘‘Chances are I'd lose money.” - ““It’s all downhill,” Jenk urged. ‘‘All you've got to do is to get it on rollers and let it roll.” Bob shook his head. ‘I don't hold much with letting forty tons of safe roll, Jenk.” “If I had the gear, I could do it myself, I'll rent it from you.”’ *“That way it'll cost you ten dollars a day, 4 and you make good all breakage." “It’s a trade,” Jenk said curtly. ““The boys intheshopcandothejobtonightandto- morrow."’ Bob grinned and rose. *The stuff’s all down on the lighter. Help yourself.”” He paused in (Continved on page 12)