New Britain Herald Newspaper, January 18, 1929, Page 27

‘The Show-up = Jac After All, Love Is the Biggest Thing cut young man and she a modest- looking, pretty girl. It wasn't a crude flirtation. Some- how, their eyes met and he smiled, and she smiled, and—no use running the routine; those who know how don’t need it and those who don’t won’t learn it here—let them find out for themselves. But, anyhow, Jerry got off a mile this side of what would have been his destination, and walked as far as the boarding house where “Janet left him, afte: having consented to a “date” on the steps of the public library next day at noon. They weht to lanch eon. Jerry told her he was a clerk in a bank $ —receiving teller, K to 8. And she told him she was a stenogra pher, secretary to the fourth vice - president of asteam-shove! manufacturing corpor ation, They met frequent. ly thereafter, went to shows, for drives (Jerry owned and operated a roadster), took in’ movies and such to gether. It wasn’t long before they fell in love with one another. Jerry asked her to marry him and she didn’t say no; she asked him to be patient, though, be. cause she had to straighten out a whole lot of things before she could be anybody’s wife—she had a de pendent mother in a small town back home, and the likes of that. Jerry said he’'d wait, all right. As long as he knew she I&wed him and would marry him, he had something to sustain him. They met one Satur- day afternoon for lunch. Janet started to tell him she couldn’t spend the half holiday with him—she had to do some extra work; but Jerry cut in, saying he was just going to tell her the same thing—unexpected job that afternoon —s0 it was thutually O. K. He ar- ranged to meet her later and take her to the theatre in the evening. Jerry flipped a street-car and rode toward that part of the town known as the Valley, the rat-nest of the thugs, thieves and toughs. He alighted, made his way down a long, dark passage be- tween two shabby rookeries, and knocked three times, then once, then twice, on a dismal, dingy door. A slot slid back. Then a chain rattled and a bolt grated, and the door was opened to let him in. It was'a low speakcasy, a hangout for crooks and other criminals. For a bank teller, Jerry seemed to have a solid acquaintance with the inmates. There were greetings back and forth, not effusive, but the commgnplace nods, hellos and hand-waves of those who frequently meet on planes of mu- tual familiarity. When Janet parted from Jerry, she hastened to the boarding house, and half an hour later she emerged and hailed a taxi. In placa of her modest cloth coat she now wore a handsomely befurred one. Her chic hat smacked of the smart milliner and not the bargain basement. Around her neck was a string of costly semi-precious bgads that had cost someone plenty pennies. She didn't resemble, except for her pretty features, now palpably made up, the cute young wren that Jerry had met on the bus. Janet’s cab pulled up at a curb in 8 fashionable residential district. She paid off, then walked around the cor- ner and entered an old-fashioned dwelling-house. She rang the bell and was admitted by a sw: y little man She passed down a TREY met on a bus. He, a clean- 2vy daor of metal. the sound of a 8 jazzv syncope, was T passed e threshold . crossing toward a table were other girls and about as many men. It was, beyond any hair-splitting, a cozy " which is refined for The men were well dressed, and so were the girls. On the tables were champagne and highballs. A emall floorspace was covered with linoleum, waxed, which served as a dancing sector. The costly mechanical piano was the orchestra. They all appeared to knew Janet. One, in particular, to whose table she went immediately, greeted her smil- ingly and looked at his watch as though to see whether she were late. The instrument got into action, and he danced her about the tiny square until the end of the roll. They and the others were just seat- ing themselves again, smiling, gossip- ing, when vq'th a crunch of a jimmy tearing away a lock, the back door opened. All turned to see two men, one young and the other middle-aged, with handkerchiefs over their faces below their eyes, enter. “Get against that wall and stick up your hands!” The older man was giving the com- mand. They Scrambled, frightenedly, to obey. ~The younger man ran across the room and put the piano between himself and the victims. From his barricaded vantage position he leaned forward, brandishing a long-barreled six-shoater. “The first one moves an eyelash gats a tunnel through the head,” he warned. The older one started through the crowd. With one hand holding a snub-nosed magazine gun and the other nimbly running through men’s pockets and abstracting rings and necklaces from women’s persons, he was rapidly gathering the loot and dropping it into the capacious pocket of his coat. Janet, standing furthest in the rear, had been relieved of her beads and a small diamond bracelet. She was i ith shock and the stun r of a surprise such as nat dizzied her more was ber behind the piano. e fArst daze of bewiider mer:* sne had ncticed b and his jumped “The First One Moves an Eyelash, Gets a Tunnel Through the Head!” Her eyes were riveted on him. He, too, was staring at her. His handkerchief was slipping down his nose. He made a frantic grab at it, but too late, It slid down, wrinkled, on his neck, exposing his features. Under the felt hat pulled well down and shading his face, Janet saw the countenance of Jerry! The other thief was finishing his job. He motioned to Jerry. They backed out, holding their guns pointed and sweeping the guests. “Anybody what tries to foller us’ll get plugged,” growled the stout one. They slammed the door to, ran across the small yard, scrambled over a fence with the aid of a little ladder, which they had placed there, and which they pulled up and over after them to cut off immediate pursuit, and disappeared. Janet sank into a ehair. All of them were shaky and pale. But she was breathing hard and quivering like a sail in a hurricane. Her escort re. covered enough composure to slide an arm about her, protectively, and say something meant to be soothing. Janet didn’t feel him or hear him. Her heart was pumping and her pulses were pounding. There was no police report. They all decided to take their losses rather than risk inquiries that would reveal the character of the place and their identities. “l had $280,” said Jamet’s escort, “but I'd rather lose it than have it come out that 1 was in here. Wouldn't you?” Janet tried to speak. “I'd give all I've got in the world,” she said, unsteadily, at last, “not to have it known that 1 was here today.” There” was no more dancing and very little more drinking in that place that afternoon. One by one and two by two the party dispersed. Janet's companijon suggested Ke would go to nis club and cash a check and they could go elsewhere. But she begged off —said she had a frightful headache from the effects of the adventure and insi he should take her home Which he did. She washed off the excessive make- up, put on her simpler,frock and sat down to await the coming of Jerry— at the appointed hour. He came. His car was in front. He looked at her strangely, but said nothing out of the ordinary. “Go for a ride?” he asked. And she nodded. She put on a little hat and climbed in beside him. Jerry started the motor, slipped the lever into gear, and they were off. They got rolling in high before either spoke. Then Jerry, keeping his eyes front for driving, said: “Well—any explanation except an alibi that you want to offer, I'm ready to listen to.” She turned her eyes sharply toward him. “Explanation? YOU want one from ME?” “l certainly do. What were you doing in that bootleg dump, with other men?” “I certainly was NOT doing in there what YOU were.” “That’s another matter. We'll get to that soon. What 1 want to know now is the big idea of you lying to me that you had work to do, and then playing around in the kind of a ce where | never dreamed you'd go and where you know you'd never go if 1 knew it.” “You're very finnicky, Jerry—for a bandit.” “What’s my being a bandit got to do with your cheating?” Janet was gripping her nails into her palms. The tears, restrained all during the interim between her meet- with Jerry, mow burst their bounds. —1 should think you would ery, d Jerry. ‘“Cut it out!” Janet wiped her checks and eyes, then said brokenly: “Oh- ! You've ruined my life [ loved you so——" hat do you mean, loved? You still love m And T still Tove vou And I'm goi and gallivanting with s is strictly out—get that Janet looked at him curiously, as Copyright, 1929, Internations] Festure Sersice. Ine. Grest Britatn Rights Beserved. though she didn’t quite understand what he had said or thought he hadn’t. “J-Jerry,” she said, “you a stick-up man! And I thought you were the soul of honor and of honesty, a decent bank-clerk——" ““Oh, slop. I did use to be a bank- teller. Then I met you. My pay was $160 a month, and with the ordinary probabilities of advancement, in five yvears more behind thaf grating, caged like 8 pet monkey and handling mil- lions like a cash register, I might have worked up to maybe twice that much. I wouldn’t ask a girl to marry me on that kind of chickenfeed. . .50 I took the best way I knew how to raise soma jack. I've been on this racket with Pete, my partner, for three months now. And instead of handling other people’s dough in a bank, I'm putting other people’s dough in a bank—in my name. I've got a few grand salted—" “Stop!” cried Janet. “Stop it. Do you think I would start life with you on that kind of money?” “Sure—you would and you will. Any girl that plays that kind of joints and lies to the maf she loves and flashes clothes she’s been hiding from him—that she got nobody knows how —why wouldn’t she? Who was the party you were sitting with, by the way Oh—no one in particular. 1 like a little drink now and then—only wine. And an innocent dance. I didn't think you could afford such amuse- ments, so I let you out and let some- one else pay for them.” “Pay for the clothes, sneered. “Y.yes. . .gifts, only. 1 knew that man before | knew you. He has plenty. He's married, so he could never do for me what you can, but he enjoyed being with me in a nice, friendly way, and 1 wasn't aghamed of taking a few presents from him—he could well af- ford the price.” “That's a fine set-up, Janet—for the sort of a girl 1 took you to be.” “Fine enough, I'd say, for a robber’s girl. . . . I suppose Pete’s is not the place for a refined Christian who never looks right or left, who wouldn’t taste anything kickier than half of one per cent. and who wouldn’t let a man give her a dress or a coat—no, she'd prob- ably pull a gun on him and stick him too?” he up for his roll. Now, let’s have an understanding, Jerry—" “We understand too much already. I'm not all you thought I was and you're mot entirely exactly what 1 pegged you for, either. . .now, let's close the book; and let's start & new one, wide open, where we can write just what we want to. What'll we write to start off with?” “Very well,” answered Janet. this down in our book: “In spite of the terrible truth about you, I love you. In spite of your dis- appointment in me, you love me. That, after all, is the biggest thing in this life, and tops any and all other con- siderations. “Now—you pledge yourself pever again to do anything that isn’t honest. You pledge yourself to go back to re- spectable work. I pledge myself never again to touch a drink of anything al- cqholic as long as I have a breath in my body. We pledge ourselves to get married, to leave this town and go as far as we can and where no one will know us. Then you'll get a job and I'll get a job and we'll both work and behave and just live for one another, and stay within whatever means that allows us. . .how’s that for writing?"” Jerry threw on the brake and drew up before a “No Parking” sign. “Great,” he said, putting his hand in hers. “It's written! When do we pull this marrying business?” “Monday morning, as soon as we can get a license.” “That's a long wait, honey, but I'l take it. By the way, here’s your beads and bracelet.” A policeman came shuffling over to- ward them. “Hey,” he roared, pointing at the sign, “Can’t youse two read, or what?" Janet was just slipping her arms around Jerry's neck and giving him a ki “Put “H-m—can that necking,” said the cop, but rather gent “Sure, you can't read—you’re blin Jerry slid the lever in gear, started, turned his head back over hiz shoulder and, smiling broadly, called back: “Go on—instead of bothering decent people attending to their own busi- n you ought to be out catching criminals—thiz is all you got to do, and the town overrun with stick-up guys!”