Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 213, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1916 — The Slow-Coach [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Slow-Coach

By H. M. EGBERT

(Copyright. 1916, by W. Q. Chapman.) There was the greatest contrast imaginable between Dick Chester and Sammy Bent. Both were sons of old families, but that was the sole similarity. Dick Chester's father owned -the joint stock bank; Sammy went to work there' as an office boy after his father failed and committed suicide. Dick patronized the other with goodnatured * contempt. Sammy was out of his cIaMS. Myrtle Havens was out of Sammy’s class. Dick and she we're engaged, but it was plain that Sammy loved her in a moon-calf way. He’ran errands for her and made himself generally useful. In fact, Sammy had such manifest plodding industry that old Chester took 1 a fancy to him. gave him a clerkship, and sometimes invited the lad to his house. Dick might have married Myrtle, but her father died suddenly, forfeiting his $50,000 insurance, which, it was found, had lapsed months before, during the beginning of his illness. Dick threw Myrtle over. He was criticized for this, but he could afford to laugh at criticism, with a wealthy father. Old Chester was furious about it. The fact was, Dick had been, tiring of Myrtle, and when the girl chivalrously offered to release him he seized the opportunity. Dick got tired of the bank and stayed away so long that his father got him a position as secretary to an exclusive club. There Dick was in his element. But the great surprise came when old Reynolds died, and Sammy found himself promoted to the position of manager, at twenty-eight. Myrtle Havens had been living in retirement since the breaking off of her engagement. How Sammy got to visiting her nobody knew. Perhaps it was his plodding, kindly way that attracted the girl. But before very long she had turned to him with that understanding that a girl attains for the man who loves her without thought of

anything but herself. And after a while it was understood that they were engaged. aNow if Dick had had any decency he would have refrained from commenting on this which he went to Sammy. “Folks are saying that you and Myrtle Havens are going to hit it off together,” he said. Sammy turned white,, and for the first time in his life he experienced a desire to strike Chester. But he only assented. 4 “Well, I hope everything will turn out all right,” said Dick. “Myrtle’s all right in her way. A little slow, though. Sammy, I want to borrow a thousand dollars. And I don’t want the old man to know. It’s pretty ex- . pensive at the club, and I’ve dropped a good deal at poker lately. Let me have a thousand for three months on my note, will you?” mate business to lend the bank’s money to Dick. But he lent him the thousand, chiefly to get rid of him, and he indorsed the note so that the loss might fall on him if there were any. Dickeould not pay. He renewed the note and then failed. Sammy paid the money. A month later Dick came to him agaiu. “Sammy,” he said, “I’ve got the chance of a lifetime to make a'fortune. Lend me two thousand more.” Sammy refused, and Dick went purple with indignation. " , “What's the matter?” he yelled. “Ain't my name good enough? Say, are you going to take advantage of me, just because you know the old man and I don’t hit it off?” “I don't feel justified in making you the loan,” said Sammy. “Then lend it to me yourself. You're as rich as Croesus," blustered Dick. “Can’t,” answered Sammy. And Dick surveyed him with a malevolent glare. “All right!” he sneered. “I guess you've unmasked yourself now. Just wait till the bank comes to me, gammy!” And he stalked away in a fury. Sammy went to Myrtle that night. She cried a littleand agreed to wait a year longer. There was a good deal in Dick’s

threat. It was known that old Cheater could not live long. His end was curiously sudden, and old Sammy waa with him. The old banker was conscious until the end, and he had a confidential talk with Sammy before he died. It was a good thing he did not see Dick, half drunk, staring at his body an hour after his death and cursing ,Sanimy for not having summoned him. However, Dick had the bank. His first act was to give Sammy a month’s notice. “I told you you’d be sorry for that wretched trick you played on me,” he said, sneering. ‘‘See if you can get another job. Not in this town, Sammy.” Sammy’s answer, at the end of the month, was to marry Myrtle, and they went away on a honeymoon that lasted nearly two months. At the end of that time Sammy was back in town, looking spruce and smarter than he had ever looked before, and living in an elegant house. It was whispered that his wife had been left a legacy. “He won’t last long,” sneered Dick. But it was Dick who wasn’t going to last long. The bank was in a bad way. Dick had been speculating recklessly, and’no hank can stand the drain on its funds that wild management entails. At the end of the third month Dick saw himself at his wits’ end. His father's fortune had proved nonexistent. There" was nothing but the bank capital, and that was disappearing like snow in May. A meeting of the shareholders had been summoned, and there was talk of deposing Dick.

Dick, moody and restless, glared at Sammy when he saw him, apruce and apparently self-satisfied, strolling jauntily down the street. He glared more when he was accompanied by his pretty wife. Marriage had given Myrtle back her youth and loveliness, and Dick, smothering his rage, renewed his acquaintance with her and her husband. “Sorry I had to fire you, Sammy,” he explained. “But I guess you’re pretty slow as a bank manager. No hard feelings?” “None whatever,” said Sammy. Dick was mad about Myrtle again. He took advantage of Sammy’s slowness to press his attentions upon Sammy's wife. He plunged blindly into the flirtation. He contrived to put Sammy in absurd positions—-as when he sent him into his own backyard to hunt for chicken thieves, while he sat in the parlor and talked amiable nonsense for an hour to Myrtle. It was soon the talk of the town that Myrtle was far from indifferent to Dick. People wondered why Sammy did not seem to realize it. They would have stared had they heard what Dick said to Myrtle on a certain evening. “I’m sick of.it all. And. I'm going away. I’ve got a big sum put by, Myrtle, and you can leave that boob and start in with me in the West. I’ve always loved you, and I’ll give you the time of your life, dear.” And Myrtle, very pale, promised to let him call for her upon a certain evening when Sammy was to be out. But she would not let Dick kiss her until they were in the train together. At the meeting of the shareholders Dick made no fight for his position. He casually indicated that he was tired of the job, and intended to resign. It they were able to keep things afloat without him, let them get another manager. If his father's fortune had not been dissipated, he would have made the bank pay 12 per cent. Then came the surprise of the evening. Old Chester’s fortune was found. And it .had been placed in Sammy’s hands, for reinvestment “as soon as my son. by his folly, has "wrecked my bank,” as the lawyer read to the* meeting. And Sammy was to lie president. That much went with his stock, which was now a majority after the planned reconstruction. Dick Chester put on his hat and glared about him. “So that’s the sort of trick that sneak and the old man put over on me!" he shouted. “Who could carry on a bank like that?”

“There was enough capital to give a conservative man a chance, Mr. Chester,” observed the lawyer mildly. Dick swung out of the office. He knew that Sammy would be out’ of town until the morrow. At nipe in the evening he called at Sammy’s house. Myrtle* met him, her face agitate< I, her ha t a wry on hwv head. “Are you sure, Dick?” she whispered. . _ “Dead sure, darling,” hiccuped Dick. “Come in a minute,” whispered Myrtle. Dick followed her into the parlor. Myrtle locked the door behind him. Dick found himself confronting Sammy. Myrtle took a whip from behind a curtain and put it in Sammy’s hand. “What the —” Dick began. “So, it’s a tra’p, is it? Let me out! Let me out, I say !” Sammy flicked him about the legs once or twice lightly, and Dick fell on his knees and howled. Sammy unlocked the door. “Is that all, Sammy, dear?” asked Myrtle reproachfully. * “Oh, yes, I guess so. He isn’t worth any more,” answered Sammy. “Hi! Get out ! And don’t show your face in this town again or I’ll have you arrested for embezzlement-. You know what I mean!” And this time the whip really descended with vigor upon Dick’s back. Sammy was losing his temper for the first time in his life. Dick cast one look at his face and rushed for the door. But 6 before he reached the depot, Myrtle and Sammy, m each other’s arms, had forg»tten all about him.

“Just Wait Till the Bank Comes to Me, Sammy!"