Chapter V: Part 5

"When I shouted, 'Clew up your ace of spades,' they were after that mizzen-royal in a jiffy. Mr. Smith, the cook, and myself took turns at the wheel. 'Double reef your deuce of diamonds,' and they made snug the fores'l to a nicety. All's well that ends well. I never had a smarter lot of sailors. I know the men all called me 'Solitaire' Bill behind my back, but henceforth and hereafter, every fo'c'sle hand and the cook calls me 'Solitaire,' or they don't sign articles on the trimmest brig that sails the Atlantic."

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JUST A PAL

By Elsie D. Knisely

Jim Doyle--sent to Sing Sing last year--is innocent. I done the job he was sent up for. I was broke and out of work and Mary, my wife, had consumption and needed food and warm clothes and medicine. I held up a guy with more than he needed that didn't come by it any honester than I done when I cracked him over the head and took it out of his belt. Then Jim cooked up a scheme to own he done it and take my medicine as long as Mary lived, so she wouldn't know and so's I could be with her and look after her. She died to-day. There's one hundred and fifty dollars under the mattress along with the proof that I'm the guilty guy. Bury my wife decent and give the rest to Jim to get on his feet after you turn him loose. Get a kind-hearted parson to say a prayer over me and then plant me in Potter's Field. I'm going the gas route. Jim's no kin of mine--just a pal. He allowed no one would care a darn if he was in the pen or not. He loved a girl once, but she turned out bad and spoiled Jim's life. Tell him "God bless him."

P. S.--I'm sorry I killed that guy, but I just had to have money for Mary. Mebbe I can square it with him where I'm going.

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WHEN "KULTUR" WAS BEATEN

By Lieutenant X

Knee deep in the mud, the French "Alpines," the "Blue Devils," as the Germans called them, were watching the shelling of the enemy's positions. Huge columns of black smoke crowned the white line of trenches below the thicket of spruce, and at each of the terrific explosions chunks of dirt, sand-bags, and armour plates flew high in the air.

In the expectation of the rush the "Blue Devils" stood leaning on the rifles, some of them laughing and joking, while others, grave and stern, read once more the last letters of the beloved ones.

Corporal Dupin sat down, looking at the photograph of the wife and baby. When hell broke loose Dupin was quietly living in Canada, and he had come as a man of honour to join the colours, leaving his little family on the safer side of the ocean. The morning mail had just brought him news that wife and baby had sailed on the _Lusitania_, to be nearer to him.... How his heart beat hard!

... Surely he would come safe out of this struggle, though he would bear himself as gallantly as usual, and perhaps be fortunate enough to get twenty-four hours' leave and meet the wife and baby somewhere, perhaps in Belfast or in Nancy. He could already imagine that meeting. He was happy. How heartily he went to his duty to-day!...

He caught the voice of the lieutenant.

"Here, boys!" was the brief command. "You've always done your duty. To-day you have to do it doubly, for Germany has added a new crime to the list. One of her submarines has sunk the _Lusitania_. There are innocent victims to avenge."

The _Lusitania_! Greet her! Eagerly Dupin tore the paper from the officer's hands. He read and reread the list of rescued. Two seconds later there was no more room for doubt, and he knew that all he loved in the world had gone down.

Oh, kill! Kill the murderers and avenge!... Kill and torture!... How long would the shelling last? When would the signal of the storm come?...

Ah! the welcome starlike rocket! The French guns lengthened their shots, shelled the upper line of trenches.... A loud shout and a mad rush.... The "Blue Devils" were in action.

Ta, ta, ta, ta.... The German machine-guns. Sh! Cirr! Shrapnel burst with a quick flame and little yellow clouds.... Dead men fell.

But the remainder kept on running and bouncing until they reached the German works. The "75s" shells had made a mess of the entanglements, and the main trench was a ruin, spotted with corpses.... Bullets whistled, grenades exploded, injured men shrieked.

From a black aperture a bullet missed Corporal Dupin as he passed, bayonet forward, after a flying man. He gave that prey off, threw a bomb in the den, and as soon as it had exploded he rushed in.

Covered with blood, a German officer lay down. He menaced Dupin with his empty pistol, when, realizing that everything was over for him, he threw the gun, with a wild laugh, and defiantly and haughtily looked at Dupin. The cold, blue eyes of the Teuton did not mistake Dupin's sentiment. To the corporal's dark, glancing eyes they returned hatred for hatred. Dupin thought that the submarine's commander must have had the same likeness. Yes, this man would pay dearly for the cold-blooded murderer's debt. The hour of vengeance had come.

Dupin did not strike yet. He found sweet to contemplate the agony of his enemy.... He thought of torturing the man.... The fellow must suffer....

From loss of blood the German officer suddenly fainted, and Dupin found himself kneeling over the enemy, bathing his wounds, stopping his blood, nursing him as a brother....

Again shrapnel burst. The German artillery was already shelling the conquered trenches. Ready for a new fight, Dupin, before he left the wounded officer, wrapped him in a blanket, left him his own water bottle. A last time he looked at him with a sad but proud smile and said:

"No, we are not the same race. We cannot do the same things."

And they were his last words, for a bullet went through his heart, and, still smiling, but this time very sweetly, Dupin went to meet the beloved ones.

* * * * *

The above story was accompanied by the following letter:

Dear Mr. Editor:

Just fancy the shelling of the trenches and a little French officer trying to keep up the morale (excellent, I should say) of his men, to teach them the contempt of death, or, rather, to show that he is not in that respect inferior to them.

Fancy that same officer reading your Vive La France Number of _Life_ and translating it to his men, then looking at your contest proposition, and finding very funny to fill his fountain pen and write on the first scraps of paper he can procure a very short story.

The author has not the boldness to say that his story is very interesting. He knows, too, that as a Frenchman he does not speak nor write very correct English; but he has sent it to you rather because of the originality of the thing and to show you that the French soldiers appreciate the friendship of America.

At any rate, it is a genuine story of the trenches and a souvenir of the war.

Yours most sincerely,
M. Constance.

From the Trenches, June 15, 1915.

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PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE

By Lyman Bryson

Into the judge's empty office came the attorney for the defense, followed by his client. The attorney for the defense wore belligerent hair and spectacles. His manner was more upright and simple than his speech, which was full of guile. His client was heavy, of the ugly fatness often characteristic of ward politicians, porcine, grossly genial. They had come to escape the gaping crowd. The attorney was recovering from his four-hour address to the jury. Sweat stood under his upstanding hair, and he wiped his wrists with a limp handkerchief.

"Honest John" looked at his lawyer with dull admiration. "Tom, that was a great speech." Then, as if this might be too humble praise for a politician to give his hireling, he added: "Best you ever made."

Tom Jenison made no reply. When he was tired there was a quality of frankness in his eyes as if cleverness had been assumed for business purposes.

"How long will they be out?" asked Honest John, thinking of the twelve who were debating in a nearby room on sending him to the penitentiary for stealing public money.

"How should I know?" Jenison spoke petulantly.

The politician sat quietly, his fat hands folded above the top of his trousers on his negligee shirt. He was thinking that generous public sentiment might avail little with the twelve men now busy with his destiny. He sighed tremulously.

"You're not worried, are you?"

"No--guess not. I'm all right."

The composure of the politician began to desert him. He flushed and sighed and slapped at flies. His jaw relaxed and slid down. His hands trembled.

"Tom," he began, "what are the chances?"

"I don't know. Scared?"

"I'm a little nervous. That's all."

Jenison had loved the fight for its own sake. Spectators supposed he defended Honest John only to earn his huge hire, but that had not been all his motive. It had not occurred to him before that his client was not as courageous as himself. He supported the "presumption of innocence" and pitted himself against machinery of prosecutor and court. But if his client was a coward his fight seemed suddenly unworthy.

Honest John's puffy eyes filled with tears. "You've been a good friend to me, Tom."

"Oh, cut that."

"Yes, you have. I appreciate it."

Jenison, looking at him, wondered that he could ever have thought this man a friend or worth an effort to save. The wretched face sickened him.

"You're the only man who knows how I feel." His client was trying to explain his collapse. "I can't face guilty. I know you'd keep up the fight as long as I kept up the money"--his attorney winced--"but I couldn't stand another trial. I'm ready for 'em."

"Ready? How?"

"I've got it here." Honest John tapped his chest, then drew out a narrow pill box.

Contempt came back into Jenison's eyes. "What are you telling me for? Go tell some one who'd care."

"I don't know what you mean, Tom."

"Oh, yes, you do. You'd never take that stuff. You haven't the nerve. You're stalling for sympathy."

The politician turned to an ice-water stand and dropped two tablets into a glass of water. He said with tremulous bravado, "All right--here goes."

"You might as well drink it," answered the attorney. "God knows you're guilty. You'll pay for it some time."

The glass went halfway to Honest John's lips and then back to the stand. "I think--I'll wait."

"I thought so. You'll wait until you're behind bars, and then you'll wish you'd taken your medicine." Jenison spoke as if it had been his professional advice to his client to drink the potion. "It takes a man to quit when the game's up. I suppose in a way I'm as dishonest as you, but there's a chance for me to clean up, because I'm not afraid. If I thought the name helping you has given me would stick, I'd be glad to take your poison."

They heard a shuffling of feet in the courtroom.

"There's an officer announcing that they've reached a verdict," said Jenison. He looked his client in the eyes and added, "I hope it's guilty!"

"Why--I don't--what's the matter? I'll pay you."

Jenison blazed. "Yes, you'll pay! It's all money to you! Do you think if I'd known you for a coward I'd have made this fight? I hate myself now to think I ever took your money!"

His client looked at him in stupid silence.

"And let me tell you something else. You're the last thief I'll work for. I'm done with keeping your kind out of jail." Huge self-disgust overwhelmed him. "I'll never take another cent of crook's money as long as I live, so help me God!"

They heard the slow procession of the jury filing into the court to deliver the speedy verdict. Jenison felt his soul crawling with shame. A convulsive sigh made him turn. Honest John had raised the glass to his lips. His eyes bulged with fear, and he spilled half the liquid on his shirt. Before Jenison could reach him he had swallowed it. Horror held the attorney for an instant, then he burst through the doorway into the courtroom.

A lank man in the jury box smiled as he entered. That meant "Not guilty." Without noticing the attorney's ghastly excitement the judge said, "If the respondent will return the verdict will be delivered."

Jenison controlled himself and stood straight.

"If your honour please," he said, "if your honour please"--he could only point through the doorway at Honest John's body straddled in a chair--"the respondent has delivered his own verdict."

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A MEXICAN VIVANDIÈRE

By H. C. Washburn

Night had fallen on the third day at Vera Cruz, and from navy headquarters the commanding officer, his orders snapping like wireless, was directing the clean-up of snipers.

"Lawrence," he said, "you'll find six machine-guns--buried in boxes--backyard of No. 17 Avenida Cortes."

As Lieutenant Lawrence left headquarters with his squad Ensign McHenry came in and reported.

"McHenry, you're next. This is Gonzales, who knows where you can round up Fernando Diaz. Get Diaz to-night."

McHenry started at once with Gonzales, listening to his flood of directions. The Mexican smiled in spite of himself at the American's burst of speed, but kept up with him easily. They turned corners into filthy by-streets leading to the market space.

At the entrance to a dark alley Gonzales stepped aside.

"After you, _señor_."

When the white uniform entered the shadow of an awning "Gonzales" whipped out his revolver and fired pointblank into the officer's back. Flinging away his weapon, he ran to No. 17 Calle de Zamora and whistled.

"Pava, Pava, _ven aca_! I have shot an American officer! The marines are hunting for our machine-guns. I said 'Avenida Cortes,' but that dog, Vicente, who betrayed us, will lead the Americans here."

"Let them come," said La Pava. She bolted the door as he stepped in. "What name did you give?"

"Emilio Gonzales."

"Listen, Fernando. Don't stay a minute. Let me think. What if I cut your head, a very little, so?" He winced under the knife, and she kissed him. "See, it bleeds enough on this bandage, which will hide your face. Quick! To the Military Hospital! Sleep there, safe among hundreds of our wounded. Go!"

Meanwhile Vicente, the informer, had followed Diaz. Hearing the shot and finding McHenry wounded, he scurried to headquarters. The news went to Lawrence, who took his squad "on the double" to Calle de Zamora. Rifle butts shattered the door, and Lawrence, automatic in hand, led the men in with fixed bayonets.

La Pava, the beautiful _Azteca_, stood facing the bright steel, a thin wisp of smoke drifting from her cigarette.

"_Buenas noches, señor?_"

"You have six machine-guns. Where are they?" Lawrence looked at his wrist watch. "I give you three minutes to answer."

La Pava had faced death before. A crack shot, riding in advance of Villa's army, she had drawn the enemy's fire, had stolen plans, food, money. She had sold herself to the opposing general and learned his strategy. She was a scout, a spy, a harlot--a patriot. Now she gazed innocently, admiringly, at the young lieutenant. His men, fascinated, unconsciously lowered their rifles.

"_Señor_," she pleaded, "you will do me a great wrong if you shoot, for I have no guns. Some one has lied. Search and you will see."

The marines turned the place inside out.

When Lawrence asked La Pava to take him into the courtyard she showed no hesitation, and his flashlight told him the ground had not been disturbed.

Stooping over, he caught the gleam of a knife, and in the same breath twisted it out of her fingers.

"You are quick, _señor_. But some day I will get you--you who would not take my word."

The sergeant returned and reported, "I can find nothing, sir." Then, seeing the knife, he added, "Put her in irons, sir?"

Lawrence knew her breed; she would be flattered by handcuffs and would consider him a weakling.

"No, sergeant. The lady will walk with me."

Through the streets to prison, wafting a powerful scent of perfumed powder, she walked at Lawrence's side, using her eyes with that dazzling effect known only to women of the tropics.

He would confront her with Vicente, Lawrence thought, but as the battlements of Ulloa Castle came in sight, the "Place of Executions" suggested another idea.

"Halt!" He formed a firing platoon and blind-folded the prisoner. Thinking of Vicente's story of the guns, he asserted, as if he meant it, "With my own eyes, during the fighting, I saw your gun boxes taken from the arsenal. Where are they now?"

La Pava gave no answer. She folded her arms and held her head proudly.

"Ready!... Aim!..." Lawrence raised the muzzle of the sergeant's gun; the men, following this lead, aimed high.

"_Squad_----"

It was too much even for La Pava. She dropped to her knees.

"Wait, _señor_! I will tell all, on one so small condition--that you spare the life of Emilio Gonzales. If not--you can kill me. On your word as an officer save him, and let me see him, and by the Blessed Virgin I will tell you the truth."

"Where is this man?"

"He is in the Military Hospital."

"I will do all I can for Gonzales--I'll take you to him. Now, where are the guns?"

"They are buried in the patio--in _front_ of my house."

Even then she smiled.

"Remember," he warned, removing the blindfold, "if you have lied, you will be shot. Sergeant, look for them; report to me at the hospital."

As the men marched off Vicente, the ubiquitous, who had trailed La Pava, emerged from the shadow of a doorway. La Pava, whom nothing seemed to startle, sneered at him. Lawrence gripped his automatic, recognized Vicente, and thereupon wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"_Señor_," whined the beast, "her lover's name is not Gonzales, but Diaz, the traitor." La Pava glared at him murderously. "It was Diaz," Vicente added with unction, "who shot the officer in the back."

"You gave me your word----" she began, turning to Lawrence.

"To save 'Emilio Gonzales,'" he reminded her.

"True, my captain, alas!" Her black lashes drooped over a message of love. "But you will set me free?"

"When I see the guns."

Furious, she sprang at Vicente, who stepped back. Haughtily she faced him and spoke shrilly in an Indian dialect. Despite this, her manner reassured Lawrence. Apparently, she was in a mad rage. In reality, she was telling Vicente to take the underground passage from Ulloa Castle to the hospital and warn Diaz. "Do this," she was saying, "and I'll see no more of Fernando. You will have me--you alone--for life."

She ended with what seemed a torrent of invective. Vicente played his part--with his heart afire, he seemed to Lawrence merely scornful.

"_Hasta la vista, señor._" Vicente, triumphant, sauntered toward the castle.

"Ugh!" said La Pava, with deep loathing. "He is but carrion. Because I do not give myself to him he would destroy his rival." She shrugged her shoulders. "Will you take me to the hospital?"

"We are going there now."

"I am very tired," she sighed, leaning against him. "I grow faint."

They walked slowly, Lawrence giving her the support of his arm. Finally, nearing the hospital, they turned into a plaza where the street lamp had been shot down.

In a flash La Pava swung under his arm, drew his pistol, wrenched herself away, and covered him.

"Ah! You are not so quick this time. Don't move! You Americans say you will shoot, and you do not shoot." She fired twice, rapidly, over his head. "But I have still four shots, and I am a _Mexican_."

A mounted figure, leading a second horse, whirled up and reined in with a jolt. Fernando Diaz showed his white teeth, smiling cordially, as he took the automatic from his mistress and levelled it at Lawrence.

"What say you, _querida_? I finished Vicente. Shall I do away with this _gringo_?"

La Pava mounted as Diaz spoke.

"Let him live," she said, "for he is a brave man."

"_Adios, señor!_ The machine-guns are safe through the lines. Take my advice, _teniente_, and never trust a woman----"

Diaz's spurs dug deep, and sparks flew from the cobbles.

"--unless," La Pava laughed back through the darkness, "unless, _señor_, she loves you."

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MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY PRESENT

By Carrie Seever

Lizzie was sitting in a corner counting her money. "Thirty-five, Kitty, thirty-five cents." When Lizzie's mother was away, washing, she made her kitten her confidant. "Talk about mamma'll be s'prised when she gits this birthday present, My-i! Third one I'm givin' her--when I was five I gave her peanut candy; only she didn't come home till the peanuts were picked out. Second time I gave her a blue hair ribbon; blue looks nice on my red hair. Now I'm seven--twice seven an' I won't have these freckles an' long skirt'll cover my skinny legs, an'," she continued, getting up and trying to stand dignifiedly, "my name'll be Elizabeth. Then I'll give mamma a' album! S'long, Kitty."

Out of the door she skipped, and down the alley toward the market. She forgot about the market when she reached the corner of the alley, for there stood a cart loaded with clocks, vases, jewellery, everything to satisfy one's birthday wish--even an album.

Lizzie joined the crowd that had gathered to hear what the owner of these articles had to say. She listened a moment and then danced for joy--the man, who seemed to be all stomach and voice, was actually inviting them to take a twenty-five dollar watch for five cents.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen," said the stomach and voice, "any article on this counter for five cents--every piece o' chewing gum wins something. You want to try, mister? Now, folks, watch him read the name o' one o' these handsome presents from the slip o' paper 'round that gum. Gold-handled umbreller? Here you are. Who's goner win the other one? Nothin' faky. That's right, try your luck"--to a man who was edging to the front. "Diamond stud? You're lucky--only a few more diamond studs left. Next! Any one else? Don't stop 'cause you won a' umbreller. That's it. Watcher got now? Gold bracelet? Five rubies and four emeralds in it, ladies and gents."

Lizzie began to realize that she wasn't dreaming--three prizes gone already!

"Lady, don't you want this linen tablecloth? Fifteen dollars retail. Or this album that plays music when you're lookin' at your loved ones?"

Lizzie gasped--there was only one album. "I want to win the album," she shouted.

"Come right up with your nickel. Here's a gal knows a good thing even if she did swallow two teeth."

Had this remark been made about Lizzie's teeth at another time she would have fired a red-headed retort, but now she thought of only the album.

She exchanged her five pennies for the gum, and with trembling fingers unrolled the tissue paper and let the stomach and voice read the name from the slip of paper--"Lead pencil," was announced.

Poor Lizzie's heart sank, and the stomach and voice was telling the crowd that there were a few pencils in the lot, and showed them a box containing five pencils.

At this Lizzie cheered up--she decided that if no one else won those pencils and she was unlucky five more times she would still have five cents left with which to win the album.

She won five more pencils, had given a last look at the last five pennies, unrolled the slip of paper and given it to her nearest neighbour to read--"lead pencil," was read.

"Since they ain't no more pencils I'll take the album," announced Lizzie triumphantly.

"Got more, sissy," said the stomach and voice, taking a few from his pocket and placing them in the box, handing one to Lizzie.

The crowd jeered and left. Lizzie was too dazed to go, and, sitting on a soapbox in the alley, stared at the album. She heard the shrill whistle the stomach and voice gave, and a few minutes later saw the winners appear, returning the articles they had won. She wondered why they did this, and, as a new crowd was coming, drew closer to the cart.

She listened again to the same harangue and saw the umbrella winner take another chance. She gave a start when he thundered "umbrella"--she saw through the performance, and her cheeks glowed with indignation.

"Ladies and gentlemen," she screamed, "this is a fake business--that man won a' umbreller an' brought it back, an' so did the other man." By this time she was out of reach of the stomach and voice, who threatened to knock two more teeth down her throat. But Lizzie's voice was not out of reach, and the crowd could hear her yelling, "Everybody else wins penny lead pencils." The crowd laughed and left.

Lizzie waited for the next crowd, and, coming from her hiding-place, gave them the same information.

After the crowd had gone the stomach and voice caught Lizzie, who, while trying to free herself from his grasp, bumped her lip, and the blood oozed from her tender gum.

"P'liceman, p'liceman, help!" she screamed.

Seeing the people in the neighbourhood coming to Lizzie's rescue, the stomach and voice promised to return her money if she would keep quiet.

"I'm goner tell 'em all you knocked my teeth out 'less you gi' me the album," snapped Lizzie.

"A' right," meekly answered the stomach and voice, who had been collared by this time, but was released when the men received Lizzie's invitation to come up the alley and see her album.

"Good-bye, mister--thanks awfully for the gum an' pencils, too," and away she ran, the album in her arms.

When in the room, she locked the door for fear the album would be taken away.

"Kitty, look! A' album, and me on'y seven. They'll just have to call me Elizabeth, freckles an' legs an' all."

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RED BLOOD OR BLUE

By E. Montgomery

Dear Lou:

"This is the last letter I shall write to you, for to-morrow I begin the final stage of my transition. At four o'clock I shall become a lady. To be sure, you and I will know that I am only an imitation, but with an eighteen-carat setting every one else will take me for the real thing.

"Lou, I've been wondering how many generations it will take to make a real lady. My daughter perhaps will be one, and if not, then her daughter; but I will always be an imitation.

"My grandmother did day's work to give my mother a schooling, and my mother helped in the shop so that I could have dancing lessons before I was six. I can't disappoint them, and I can't shirk my duty toward my children yet to be born. They stretch out their hands to me, asking I know not what, so to-morrow I give them a gentleman father. Yes, Lou, he is a little man, not much higher than my shoulder, and he is fat and jaded and old; but he has a name which can unlock the holy of holies in New York, and I may enter it with him, for I shall be his wife.

"They tell me I should be proud of my conquest, and I am, for it is not my gold alone which has ensnared him, but myself; and I am beautiful, Lou. It is three years since you have seen me, and I grow lovelier every day.

"I am tall, divinely tall; slender of hip and full of bosom, with all the promise of ripening womanhood. And to-morrow my maidenhood is to be sacrificed on the altar of holy (?) matrimony, and the metamorphosis will be complete. I shall be a lady.

"Oh, Lou, why wasn't your father a gentleman? He might have been a rake, a roué, a gambler--anything, so long as he was a gentleman. But he is only my father's boyhood friend, and still a village carpenter.

"You had to work your way through college, and my father rolled me through on the almighty dollar.

"And yet I think for all my education there is something radically wrong with me. I am that hybrid thing, 'a lady in the making, an imitation lady.' And what troubles me most is the thought that perhaps I am only an imitation woman also.

"My ancestors had red blood in their veins, and my descendants' blood will be blue; but in my veins there is nothing but water.

"Listen, Lou; to-day I shut myself in my room and scrubbed the floor of my private bath. Down on my knees I went with soap and brush and scrubbed for all there was in me, and when I finished my back ached horribly, and still the floor was far from clean; and I the granddaughter of a woman who has scrubbed acres of floors, and could do it yet, though she is almost eighty.

"Oh, Lou, Lou, I wish I had dared to run away with you that last night three years ago. Do you remember--the moon, the gate that creaked, the smell of the dew on the grass, the chirping of the insects--a heavenly midsummer night, made for love--as we were made for love?

"I had to stand on tiptoe when you kissed me. And your dear eyes were filled with anguish when we parted. You told me I would find you there when I needed you. And, oh! I need you now!

"How many generations of our children's children would it take to make a lady, Lou?

"Everything is wrong with the world to-night. My head hurts and I can't think.

"See! Here on my desk I have a time-table, a brave blue time-table, which tells me that I am only four short hours away from you, and that I still have ample time to pack and catch the midnight train.

"If I join you, you need never see this letter--and if I do not, then you _must_ not see it. I will burn it.

"This is my hour, my future is in my own hands. It is all a question of courage: my ancestors had it, my descendants will have it; but have I?

"Your unhappy
"Ruth."

The wedding of a steel king's daughter into one of New York's oldest families is worth a column on the front page of any paper. Pictures of the happy couple stared out of every edition.

The weary housemaid spread one on the floor as she cleaned the disordered room her young mistress had left behind.

She gathered a little pile of ashes from the hearth and dumped them on the paper. They completely covered the smiling faces of the bride and groom--not that it mattered, for the ashes were cold.

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THE IMPULSIVE MR. JIGGS

By Roger Brown

Marathon Jiggs approached the day-clerk.

"Is Mr. George Jones here?" he inquired.

"He is registered here, but he's out at present," replied the clerk. "Would you like to leave any message?"

"Thank you, I believe I will," said Jiggs, reaching for the hotel stationery. He hastily scribbled a note, left it, sans envelope, at the desk, and took his departure.

About an hour later a large, overbearing woman of the superdreadnought type steamed majestically to the desk, a small and timid-looking individual in her wake. After taking the mail that had accumulated in the box she stalked imposingly to the elevator, accompanied by the timid person, who, by his conduct, appeared to be her husband.

When the couple got to their room Mrs. George Jones sat down and scanned the family mail. As she read, the colour flooded her expansive face like a sunset, then receded, leaving her chalky white with rage. Her unfortunate spouse cowered in a corner.

Rising to her feet in all the majesty of her five-feet-eleven, she thrust a note into Jones's hand. "Read that!" she commanded hoarsely.

With amazement and fear alternately expressed in his weak countenance, Jones read the following:

"Dear George:

Why don't you let me know when you get to town? I expected you yesterday. Call me up, the same old number, and we will have a time to-night.

"Yours as ever,
"Mary."

"You roué!" stormed Mrs. Jones. "I shall institute divorce proceedings immediately. To think _you_ have been leading a double life! You may expect a visit from my lawyer!" The door slammed behind her as Jones sank dazedly into a chair.

As she flounced out the door of the hotel Marathon Jiggs again came to the desk. "Did Mr. Jones get my note?" he asked.

"No, but his wife did," replied the clerk.

"His wife?" came in gasp from Jiggs. "_His wife?_ Who--let me see the register, please."

He hastily scanned the list of guests until he came to Jones's name. "'Mr. George K. Jones and wife, Chicago, Illinois,'" he read incredulously, "and I thought it was George H. Jones of Pittsburg. What if his wife--I must see him immediately," and he hurried to the elevator.

As Jones sat in his room, bewildered at the events of the past hour, a knock startled him out of his reverie. "Come in!" he called uneasily, expecting his wife's lawyer to appear. The sight of the homely but benevolent face of Jiggs was a distinct relief.

"My name is Jiggs," stated the caller--"Marathon Jiggs, nicknamed 'Mary' at the university. I left a note for a friend of mine whom I thought was staying here, named George H. Jones. I understand that your wife got it by mistake. It is quite possible that she read it and misunderstand the matter; therefore I have come to clear it up, if such is the case, and exonerate you."

Jones drew up a chair. "Sit down," he said, "and we will talk this over. My wife has just gone out to see a lawyer about a divorce. You have already done me a favour; now what," taking out a checkbook, "will you take to keep quiet about the facts?"

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TOMASO AND ME

By Graham Clark

I can't talk good American way. In the carpet factory where I worked the Polacks, Sheenies, and Wops talked any old way, and I learnt to say American like them. But maybe I talk good enough to tell about Tomaso and me.

Tomaso comed from Italy. For that the peoples in this country calls him a Wop. I comed from Albania. Never did my father lets a Wop come to our house, for most Albanese hates the Wops. But first day I seen Tomaso I stopped hating _all_ the Wops. He comed to work in the factory, setting patterns like me. His eyes looked big and soft like our little dog's. His voice was like the big strings on my father's harp when he pulls his fingers over them gentle like. He was like American fellas--tall with a nice head. His neck, where the hair comed down black and shiny, was like a young girl's.

When I first seen Tomaso he was nineteen. But some ways I was an old woman, for the hunger that pulls your waist in tight and the cold that makes your blood black comed many times too many times to my bunch, for in our house was many kids, and my father couldn't makes enough money to buy plenty of food. So I went to work in the factory before the law lets me. The superintendent fixed it so I got the job all right. I said I was older than I was.

Always I thought about the bunch at home, till I seen Tomaso. Then I thought in my mind of him--and me. One day, soon after Tomaso comed to the factory, my mother said to me: "Maria, you're big enough to marry. In the old country you would have a husband. Your father will go to Brooklyn and tell your aunts to gets you a husband. In Brooklyn there's plenty of Albanese. You will marry one of your own peoples."

I said no word back. In my mind I was thinking I would marry only Tomaso. On Sunday my father went to Brooklyn to speak with my aunt for a husband for me. We lived in New Jersey, in an old shack like a pig's. Dirt and bad smell was everywhere. Always I wanted to live American way; but how could we gets clean with nanny-goats and chickens coming in the house like peoples?

Two weeks, and my aunt comed from Brooklyn with a guy. He looked like a rat. His hair was thin like lace, and you could see the yellow skin in spots, greasy like. He was just as high as my little brother Stephano, fourteen. And he was twenty-five!

"Here's Dimiter," my aunt said. "He's a nice fella. He drives a team for Brooklyn and gets good money. His father has a house in the old country. Each year he'll send Dimiter wine and oil."

My father gived Dimiter his hand to kiss. My mother said he was better than us, Albanese way. I said no word. At dinner my father said: "Maria, you are engage to Dimiter. He will be my son. I'll give him one hundred dollars and kill the old nanny-goat for the wedding. All the Albanese and some of the Wops and Polacks will come and make presents."

In my mind I was asking, "Where will you gets the hundred dollars?" I looked at Dimiter. He showed all crooked teeth when he laughed. In my mind I was thinking I would likes to spit in his face. To my mother I said: "I am too young to marry. Wait a year."

"A year!" My mother hollered and hit the table. "A fella don't wants a girl if she's old. You'll marry Dimiter now."

Something inside me got hard like a stone. I hated my mother. The whole bunch. Why should I marry the rat? Why shouldn't I pick my own fella, American way?

"When will I come to marry?" Dimiter asked my father.

My father said: "Sunday we'll speak to the priest. Next Sunday will be the wedding."

Up I jumps. Two weeks and me married to the rat? What about Tomaso? Two days ago he had walked with me from the factory. At the bridge we stopped. "You're my little sweetheart," Tomaso said, soft like. His eyes was shiny like dew. I got red as a pepper and runned away. But in my mind I was thinking I loved Tomaso. Sure, I would not tell my father, for the Albanese hates the Wops.

So I remembered Tomaso's eyes and voice. And I said: "I won't marry this guy." My father's shoulders went up high. My mother got mad like diavolo. The rat was yellow like sick. My aunt said: "Maria's just a young girl. Give her time for thinking over."

"No thinking over," my father hollered. "I give Dimiter my daughter. Two weeks will be the wedding."

My mother laughed with her tongue out, Albanese way. More than ever she looked like our old nanny-goat. I stood higher than her and said to her face: "If I am a little girl I will stay home with the other kids and my father to feed me. If I am a woman and works for the bunch I will find my own fella, American way."

My father made to hit me, but I runned upstairs and shut the door hard. My aunt and the rat went away. All day I put nothing in my mouth. I said no word.

Next day I set the patterns wrong. The boss sweared. In the evening Tomaso walked with me. "Why are you to cry?" he asked. His voice was like all his peoples was dead. I told him about the rat. He put his head high and his eyes looked like two pieces of fire in the dark. His lips got tight over his teeth and I seen him make hard fists.

Then he comed close. His arm was by my arm. In my mind I said I would like to put my head on his shoulder and my lips to his lips. But Albanese girls don't do that way till they're married.

"I hates Albanese! I hates Italians! I hates the old country!" said Tomaso. His voice was like a knife. "They makes their girls to marry any old guy. I likes American way--a fella and a girl to love and then marry, and other peoples stay out of it."

"I will do American way," I said. Tomaso's hair rubbed my cheek; I got warm and happy. Only Tomaso and me. Just us in the world.

"And _I_ will do American way," Tomaso said in my hair. It was dark, but I seen his face, warm like the sunshine. Before I knowed, Tomaso's lips held mine tight. Sure, it was wicked. Don't the priest tell you so? But how could I help it? Tomaso was so strong--and we loved together.

"We'll get married American way," Tomaso said, soft like. His face was like fur on my face. "I have two hundred dollars from my last job. My father is not a poor man, and I am his only child. Shall it be that way, my sweetheart?"

Sure, there was a big scrap at our shack next day when I runned off with a Wop. But Tomaso and me should worry! We got married American way. I stopped the factory and made my house nice. One month married, and comed my father and mother to see me.

"Ta, like Americanos!" my mother said. But she didn't laugh with her tongue out. She wanted to be good. I was her first child. My father gived his hand for me to kiss. "Bless my daughter," he said. Then he gived his hand for Tomaso to kiss, and made tears to run out of his eyes. Then he borrowed ten dollars from Tomaso and everything got all right.

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THICKER THAN WATER

By Ralph Henry Barbour and George Randolph Osborne

Doctor Burroughs, summoned from the operating room, greeted his friend from the doorway: "Sorry, Harry, but you'll have to go on without me. I've got a case on the table that I can't leave. Make my excuses, will you?"

"There's still an hour," replied the visitor. "I'm early and can wait."

"Then come in with me." Markham followed to the operating room, white-walled, immaculate, odorous of stale ether and antiseptics. On the table lay the sheeted form of a young girl. Only the upper portion of the body was visible, and about the neck wet, red-stained bandages were bound. "A queer case," said the surgeon. "Brought here from a sweat-shop two hours ago. A stove-pipe fell and gashed an artery in her neck. She's bleeding to death. Blood's supposed to be thicker than water, but hers isn't, poor girl. If it would clot she might pull through. Or I could save her by transfusion, but we can't find any relatives, and there's mighty little time."

The attending nurse entered. "The patient's brother is here," she announced, "and is asking to see her."

"Her brother!" The surgeon's face lighted. "What's he like?"

"About twenty, Doctor; looks strong and healthy."

"See him, Nurse. Tell him the facts. Say his sister will die unless he'll give some blood to her. Or wait!" He turned to Markham. "Harry, you do it! Persuasion's your line. Make believe he's a jury. But put it strong, old man! And hurry! Every minute counts!"

The boy was standing stolidly in the waiting-room, only the pallor of his healthy skin and the anxiety of his clear eyes hinting the strain. Markham explained swiftly, concisely.

"Doctor Burroughs says it's her one chance," he ended.

The boy drew in his breath and paled visibly.

"You mean Nell'll die if some one don't swap his blood for hers?"

"Unless the blood she has lost is replaced----"

"Well, quit beefin'," interrupted the other roughly. "I'm here, ain't I?"

When he entered the operating room the boy gave a low cry of pain, bent over the form on the table, and pressed his lips to the white forehead. When he looked up his eyes were filled with tears. He nodded to the surgeon.

Doggedly, almost defiantly, he submitted himself, but when the artery had been severed and the blood was pulsing from his veins to the inanimate form beside him his expression changed to that of abject resignation. Several times he sighed audibly, but as if from mental rather than bodily anguish. The silence became oppressive. To Markham it seemed hours before the surgeon looked up from his vigil and nodded to the nurse. Then:

"You're a brave lad," he said cheerfully to the boy. "Your sacrifice has won!"

The boy, pale and weak, tried to smile. "Thank God!" he muttered. Then, with twitching mouth: "Say, Doc, how soon do I croak?"

"Why, not for a good many years, I hope." The surgeon turned frowningly to Markham. "Didn't you explain that there was no danger to him?"

"God! I'm afraid I didn't!" stammered Markham. "I was so keen to get his consent. Do you mean that he thought----"

The surgeon nodded pityingly and turned to the lad. "You're not going to die," he said gently. "You'll be all right to-morrow. But I'm deeply sorry you've suffered as you must have suffered the past hour. You were braver than any of us suspected!"

"Aw, that's all right," muttered the boy. "She's my sister, ain't she?"

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THE OLD GROVE CROSSING

By Albert H. Coggins

More mother's tears, and the fourth prisoner discharged! The judge began to fear permanent softening of the heart and therefore took grim satisfaction when the name Timothy McMenamin, alias "One Eyed Johnny," was called and there shambled into the dock a chronic old jail-bird whose appearance left no remote possibility of the further painful exercise of discretionary powers.

Silence reigned while his Honour scanned the card. From highway robbery and safe cracking the record of Timothy ran the entire gamut of inspiring action, and by some subtle mental telepathy the crowd knew that he had indeed been a man of parts. But now Timothy was in the sere and yellow and had fallen on evil days. The Judge read aloud from the present indictment, to which Timothy had sullenly pleaded "Guilty."

"Soliciting alms upon the public thoroughfare and vagrancy."

Then fraught with deep agrieve, his "Why--Timothy!" caught the levity of the crowded courtroom.

The Judge pursed pondering lips. Then a playful thought was his.

"Are you represented by counsel, Timothy?"

Timothy was not.

"Mr. Wallace!"

If a room may be said to gasp, that courtroom gasped.

William R. K. Wallace!

The rubber rattle of an impromptu assignment, usually thrown the teething tyro, given to the very leader of the bar!

His Honour was indeed facetious.

Wallace, engaged in an undertone confab with a court clerk, looked up, converted the instinctive gesture of impatience into one of good-natured acquiescence, and stepped forward. The crowd's tribute to supremacy: a hush so distinct as to seem almost audible.

The Judge assumed due solemnity.

"Mr. Wallace, we have here a knight-errant of most distinguished parts. He has sojourned in many public institutions. A most cosmopolitan citizen and of unquestioned social standing; having met some of the best wardens in the country. Some twenty years ago he committed a little indiscretion up in Montour County, dwelling there subsequently for a period of six months. That being your own native heath, Mr. Wallace, would it not be chivalric and neighbourly upon your part to volunteer your professional services!"

The crowd enjoyed the speech and scene. In all his years at the bar no one had ever seen William R. K. Wallace nonplussed. Now his Honour had succeeded in "putting one over" on him. His "Certainly, your Honour," was but instinctive. Of the purport of a possible plea Wallace had no remote idea. So he turned and indulged in a critically professional survey of his client.

As he took in the sullen figure, unshaven, unkempt, and hard, the forbidding aspect painfully accentuated by the patch over one sightless eye--what came of a sudden to the attorney? Masterful and adroit though he was, did he feel the utter futility of it all? It certainly seemed that Wallace--William R. K. Wallace--trembled through an acute second of actual stage fright, the horrible unnerved instant when the mind gropes and finds no substance of thought. Yes, his Honour had scored.

Then, himself again, he addressed the Court. Quietly, almost conversationally and entirely away from the subject at hand; but this was Wallace, and no one stayed him.

"I was born in Centre County, your Honour, not Montour, but so close to the county line that your Honour's impression is to all intents and purposes correct. So close, in fact, that right down the driveway, scarcely a hundred yards away, one could step into Montour County by crossing the railroad tracks, for _they_ were the county line at that corner."

Then for a few seconds he indulged in memory's visualization of early days. Still in a desultory way he continued:

"We lived there contentedly, your Honour, a good father, a sainted mother, myself a grown boy, and--and a baby sister.... She had come late.... Perhaps that's one reason we made so much of her. Just turned two she was, and a little bundle of winsomeness.... She gathered to herself all the glinting morning sunlight of the mountain tops."

People stirred restlessly. This was not like Wallace. True, he sometimes indulged in sentiment before a jury and ofttime moved the sturdy yeomanry to free some red-handed rascal regardless of the facts. But to parade his own early rural days and his little sister--well, it only indicated that he was sore pressed.

But now the discerning could note the least little shade of resonance and purpose. And, too, he half turned from time to time toward the man in the dock.

"Through that valley the magnificent Blue Diamond Express went thundering by, bearing its burden of the prosperous and contented.... But then there were other trains, the long slow freights that wended their way, laden, down the valley. They, too, carried passengers ... on the couplings ... cramped up underneath ... or smuggled into the corner of a box car. These were of the underworld--the discontented and the disinherited. The tramp, the outcast ... perchance the criminal, making his getaway from city to city."

He glanced keenly, quickly; his client was beginning to emerge from stolid indifference.

"The Old Grove Crossing, as they called it, was not so well guarded twenty years ago as now, your Honour. And one day this little two-year-old took it into her baby head to roam. Perhaps childish fancy paints the wild flowers on a distant hill brighter, perhaps some errant butterfly winged its random way across the tracks--who knows?

"At all events, the wanderlust seized her tiny feet and she had come just so near Montour County that she had but to cross the far track to have completely changed jurisdiction. And there she stood, for a big, slow-moving train of empties occupied that track. Puzzled? Perhaps a little; but still it was a matter of no moment.... Neither, your Honour, was the big, thundering Blue Diamond. Why should it be? There existed in all this world no such thing as either evil or fear.... And so she waited, transfixed only by wonderment as the monster thing bore down on her.... I'm aware, your Honour, that in every well-appointed melodrama the hero always appears at the proper instant.... But in real life sometimes--well, we _have_ tried cases in our courts, the purpose of which was to determine the dollar value of that for which there can be no recompense--a baby life crushed out."

He paused for an impressive second.

"And this was my baby sister.

"Oh, yes, they saw her ... when less than two hundred feet away. Along that straightaway the Montour Valley Railroad Company, in its corporate wisdom, shot its Blue Diamond seventy miles an hour. The engineer was the best man on the line--and he fainted dead away. That's what their best man did. He had a baby of his own. Instinct made him throw on the brakes ... as well, a child's bucket of sand on the tracks! ... Down, down it came, shrieking, crashing, pounding, and swirling from side to side; belching its hell of destruction and rasping its million sparks as the brakes half gripped.... Only one small mercy vouchsafed--by its awful might and momentum--instant death!"

Dramatically Wallace passed his hand over his forehead. The Judge had done the same. So well had he played upon their emotions that he sensed to perfection the proper pause duration....