Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1919 — Page 2

The Thirteenth Commandment

CHAPTER XlX—Continued. “What they us»d to call Sent thing we call indecent. Yotisaid yourself that marriage without love w tt* horri bh-. Amlit is : i t‘>’ nll qUa rrel and na ggi nga nd decel t. If peopl v are faithful to each other morally they seem to quarrel all the Long ago I vowed I’d never marry, and I don't intend to.. I don't want to marry you. But I want your life.” “Mr. Duane! Really, this is outrageous.” “No, it isn’t! Hush and listen. honey—Miss Kip—Daphne- —whatever you’ll let me Call you. I told you I was stark, starving, crazy mad about you. AVhen I think of ytm looking for

She Was More Afraid of Him Now Than Ever.

“vork, living"in thafawTuT spare room of those awful Chiwises—when I think of you going from place to place at the mercy of such men as you're sure to meet —when I think of you waiting for poor Wimburn to get out of the poorhouse, I want to grab you in my arms and run away with you. ]t breaks my heart to see yoti in distress and anxiety: for I want you to have everything beautiful and cheerful in the world. And 1 Can get it all for you. Let me I Let me love you and try to make you huppyi wonj you?” „ •' He had crowded nearer and he held her fast against the door of the car. His right hand clung to hers; his left slid down to her waist. He drew her toward, him. staring up beseechingly. He laid his cheek against her left side like a child, the big man pleading to the little woman for mercy. ' ——— She* felt ..forty for him and for herself. She regretted that cruelty was oiip —G U t"V; Sllf Ji Mil .no right^taJie-kind. -would be a sin. She wrung her hands free from his with slow persuasion and “ shook her head pityingly. He accepted the decision with a nod, but before she could escape from his arm she felt that he pressed his lips against her just above her heart. It was as if he had softly driven a nail into it. Tears flamed to her eyelids and fell on his hands as he carried Z tht ni -to his bent brow. He crossed them on the wheel and hid his face in them, groaning. “Daphne. Daphne I” She was more afraid of him now than ever. All the splendors he could promise her were nothing to that proffer of his longing. While she waited in a ballle of fmpulses. he regained self-control with self-contempt, in a general clench of tesoTutlon. “I apologize.’'' he mumbled. “I’m a fool to think that you could love me.” :

CHAPTER XX.

Duane did not speak till miles and miles of black road had run backward beneath their wheels. Then he grumbled, “What ; a fool I was to dream of such a thing!” More miles went under before her =curiosityled her to say. faintly? “What were you dreaming of?” i He laughed' and did not answerYoF another while. Then he .laughed again.' - “Do you really want to know?” **l think so.” j . “Well, you couldn’t hate me any more than you do, so I’ll tell “' you. I said to myself that I would never be tip- slave of any woman. “It’s not that I am stingy about my money, not that I wouldn’t take the greatest pleasure in pauperizing myself for the woman I loved, but that I want her to take my gifts as gifts, not as a tax or a salary. Sdme of these women thidk they are doing a man a tremendous favor by letting him support them. That doesn’t get me a little bit I believe a man does » woman just as much honor as she

does him. and sacrifices a blamed sight more. He gives up his freedoin, and if she gives up hers she’s only„ giving up something, she_.doesn.t know how to use anyway.” Daphne had rarely found a man •who would talk to her with Duane’s frankness, and if there is anything that interests a woman more than another it is to hear womankind an*ii lyzed, even satirized. She was eager for more vinegar. “You won't be shocked and angry?' he asked. ■* “I don’t think so.” 1 “You don't knowhow pleasant, It is to talk life and love to a woman who doesn't rear up and feel insulted at everythingr At_ti rst you gave me a couple of how-dare-ypu’s, but they, don't count. And -if you do hate me a little mure, why, much the better. When 1 thought you had broken with Wimburn I said to myself, ‘She's the one girl In the world for me. I’m going to ask her to marry me.’ But I was afraid to. for I was afraid of marriyge. And then —1— Well. I'd better not — Yes, J will. I . said. ’She believes that fiien and women are equal and have equal rights, and'she’s goinc to get out ami bustle for TiefselL like a little man. Maybe she could fearn to love me well i-nmigh to go into a partnership of hearts.’ “TTiatswhat I said to myself. You mustn’t think it's because I don't’ want to <:!.<-ayc to one woman:. it 's, becausel do?” Btff - Dtr~yOtr see? And now you know what I was dreaming of. What do you think of it?” The answer to Ijis long oration was complete silence. Duane waited for Ids answer, and. noT getting it, laughed harshly: “Well, that's that. The next number on our program will be a ballad entitled ‘I Never Dream but I Bump My Head.’ Go on! Marry Clay Wimburn on nothing a year and live miserably ever after.” She said nothing to this, either. Duane was in a wretched state of bafflement. He put the car to its paces, and it ripped through space at fifty TmTesanhour. Daphne had a new terror added to the load of —her nerves.

The car went bounding up a steep incline toward the swerve of a headland cut in rigid silhouette by the farreaching searchlight of a car approaching from the other direction. Duane kept well to the outside of the ‘road, but just as he met theother motor and winced in the dazzle of its lamps, a third car trying to pass it on the curve hurtled into the narrow spaceJwith a. blaze like lightning sear-., ing the eyes.' There was a yelling and hooting of horns and a sense of disaster. Daphne bent her heat! and prayed for life, but without faith. Duane.. halDblinded, swung his front wheels off the road aud grazed a wall. The rear wheels were not quick enough. The other car smote them, crumpling the pindgmird and slicing off the rear lamp. Daphne was thrown this way and that.-and-+t —seemed —that —het —spine -musDhasesnapped in--a dozenplaces. When she opened her eyes again the car was standing still. Duane turned to her wit h t erritied questions, and his hands visited her face and her 'arms, and shoulders. He held her hands fast and peered into her eyes while she promised him that she was not dead. The car that had bested his did not return, but the other did. offering help from a safe distance till its identity was established. In the light of its lamp Duane got down and examined his own car. Besides the damages, in the rear, it had sustained a complete fracture of the front axle, a twisted fender, and a shattered headlight. « The driver of the other car came up arid joined the coroner's inquest He stared at Duaner and 1 cried in the tone of an English aristocrat. ‘‘Gobbi ess my soul, ain't you’ Tom Duane?” Dnnue. blinking in the light, peered at him and said: “Top’ I Can't see you, but the voice would be We.thereH's.” ' <

“Right-o; it's me. Oh, pardon me. you’re not alone. Nobody hurt, I hope ami pray.” “No. but' we're pretty far from home and country.” “I see! Hum-m! Pity I couldn‘t get the number of the swine-that hit you. I rather fancy I'll have -to give you a lift—-what ? I was out on a taneiroo Hunt, but'thatywill wait—if you don’t mind trusting yourself to bad company." ' ■ -J.. . "'w Duane lowered his voice anxiously. “Is it very bad?” - Wetherell put the mute on his voice. “As good as yours. Til wager. But let’s not go into family history. Come along and we’ll take you to the neSt neutral port. That would be—”

“Yonkers.” “Oh, yes. I fancy those were the Yankees we came through a few miles back. Well, come along.” Duane was embarrassed, but he could do nothing except take Wetherell to his car and introduce him to Daphne. “Miss Kip,” he said, *Tve got to present Mr. Wetherell. He wants us to ride with him ffe fax as

THE EVEXfNG REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. TND.

By RUPERT HUGHES

Yonkers. We’ll get another car there.” Wetherell enmo rinse nnd “Did he say Mrs. Kip? I can’t see you, but I hope you are the fascinatIhgMrs. Kip I met at Newport. Have you forgotten me so soon?” “I am Miss Kip,” said Daphne. "Oh, so sorry! I don’t mean that, either. But my Mrs. Kip was a siren —Leila vas her first name. I called her De-leila, you see. And she called me Samson. She was a—” “She is my brother’s wife,” said Daphne. ‘ • “Oh, you don It tel Ime! ” _ Wetherell gulped, and his pbrupt silence was full of startling implications that alarmed Daphne, angered Duane,and threw Weiherell into confusion. Duane helped Daphne to alight from file derelict and transferred her to the other car, where Wetherell introduced ‘ them to a mass of shadow whose ntfine, “Mrs. Bettany,” meant nothing to Daphne and everything to Dmme. Duane arranged to have a wrecking crew sent out to his roadster, and charfered a touring car and a chauffeur for the trip into New York. He Sat back with Daphne and murHHired prayers—sor —forgiveness —

< ati.-e of the” dangers he had carried Tlfr into ami for the things he' had said. Daphne’s nerves had been overworked. She had been rushed from adventure to adventureofsoul ami hoily. She' had been invited to enter a career of gorgeous sin. and she had been swept along the edge of a fearful disaster Mrs. Chivvis met Daphne at the door. Her recent affection had turned again to scorn, and she glowered at Daphne, who crept to her room In hopeless acceptance of the role of adventuress. Tired as she was she could not sleep. The clangor of the morning called her to the window. A gray day broke on a weary town. The problem of debt and food and new clothes dawned again. Everything was gray before • her. „ Wisdom whispered her to take Duane at his word and try the great adventure. How could it bring her to worse confusion thaff she found about her now? And then the morning mail arrived and brought her a large envelope addressed in a strange hand. She opened it and took from it a sheaf of photographs..■ Her father’s image a dozen times repeated lay before her. The untouched proofs omitted never a line, never a wrinkle. One of the pictures looked straight at her. She recalled that once she had'stood back of the photographer and her father had caught her eye and smiled just as the bulb was pressed. She made him smile like that. What would his expression be when he 1 earned that she had “listened to Tea's, >n.” ceased to be his daughter, and Tom Duane’s —• 'She shuciaered back from the word and the thought. She forgot both in the joy of reunion with_-her.~tatherr AI! the philosophies and wisdoms and TnxtnTeS'WereTanslvefeS“by' the" logic of that smile. She lifted his pictured lipg_tQ_herk wiih filial eagerness' and her tears pattered ruinously on the proof. She

Tired as She Was, She Could Not Sleep.

' ■ . • ■ .-« ■ . • was Satisfied to be what the jeweler in Cleveland had stalled her to Clay Wimburn—“old. Wes Kip’s girl.” Suddenly she remembered Wetherell and his massages’to Leila. She felt so renewedly virtuous herself that it seemed her duty to go down and rebuke Leila for her apparent philandering nt Newport. She was also curious to see’ how guilty Leila would receive the news that Wetherell had asked.for her. But she found Bayard at home for luncheon and she was neither mad nor mean enough to confuse Leila before

him. And this was rather for his sake than Leila’s. ■ Leila was just informing Bayardthat the butcher hkd delivered the morning’s order no farther than the freight elevator, and instructed his boy to send tfie meat up only after the money came down. Bayard had no money and the chagrin of his situation was bitter. He snarled at Leila: “Tell the cub to take the meat back and eat it himself. Then I’ll go over and butcher the butcher.” ’Leila dismissed the boy with, a faint-hearted show of indignation. Then she came hack and said, “And now we have no meat to eat.” Bayard was reduced to philosophy, the last resort of the desperate: “.Well, the vegetarians say. we ought never to eat meat, anyway. We’re poor, but, my Lord! we’re in grand company. Look at this cartoon of Cesare’s in the Sun —Father Knickerbocker turning his pockets inside obt and not a penny in them. New York city has to borrow money on shorttime notes at high interest to pay its own current hills.

“Look at Europe. All the countries over there were stumbling along qnder such debt that they wondered how they could meet the interest on the next pay day. And now they are mortgaging their great-grandsons’ property to ppy for shooting their sons. Thirteenth Commandment that we’ve all been smashing to flinders. And, my God! what a punishment we’re all getting! And it’s only beginning.” They sat down to a pitiful meal — meatless, maidless, mirthless —hardly more than the raw turnips and cold water of Colonel Sellers. Leila fetched what victual there was. After the meal Bayard shrugged into his overcoat and left without kissing his wife or his sister goodby. Daphne and Leila went out to the kitchen, set the dishes In the pan, and the pan under the faucet. Leila turned on the hot water. Daphne was glad to beat work. “There’s one good thing about a small meal,” she chirped, “it makes less dishes to wash.” Then, with as much trepidation as if she had been the accused instead of the accuser she faltered: “Oh, say, Leila, do you remember a man named Wetherell?” Leila dropped a plate. She said it was hot; But other plates haff been hot. “Wetherell? Wetherell?” she pondered, aloud, with an unconvincing uncertainty. “I believe I do remember meeting somebody of that name. English, wasn’t he?” “Very.” “Oh, yes. He was at Newport, I think. Why?” “Oh, nothing. I met him last night and he thought I was you.” “How eould he?” Leila gasped. “We don’t look the least alike.” ’“lt wa sin t he-flarkrL^^^^==~—--“In the dark! Good heavens! Where?” , 7' Already Leila had gained the weathta her outing With Duane? the crash of the collision and the return to Yonkers in Wetherell’s car. Leila took advantage of the situation to interpolate: “Good heavens! How could you? You of all people! And with Tom Duane! What would Clay think?” Daphne knew that she had no right to reproach Leila for having known Wetherell in Newport. She had no right even to suspect that Leila had overstepped any of the bounds of propriety. And still she was not convinced of Leila’s innocence. She was merely silenced.

CHAPTER XXL The next day her fears of Wetherell and of Leila were rekindled. She went down to ask Bayard to help her trace Clay. Bayard was out and Leila was on the point of leaving. She was dressed in her killingest frock and hat and generally accoutered for conquest. “Aren’t we grand!” Daphnfe cried. “You look like a million dollars. Where off to?” “Going for a little spin.” “Who with?” Leila hesitated a moment, then answered. With a challenging defiance With Mr. Wetherell. Any objection?” _J Daphnedisapprovedandfeltafratd; bnt when Bayard cajne ip unexpectedly early and asked for Leila Daphne lied inevitably and said she did not know where she was; She tri*d to be casual about it, but Bayard caught fire at once. He was already in a state of tindery irritability, and Daphne’s 'efforts to reassure him as to Leila’s innocence of any guile only angered him the more. He kept leaning out of the window and staring down into the street Finally* espying Leila in Wetherell’s car when it approached the apartment house, he dashed to the elevator nnd met the two at the curb. When Leila got out she was startled to see him standing at her elbow. Tliere was nothing for her to do but make the introductions.

Copyright by Harper A Brothers

' “Oh, it’s you, dear I” she fluttered. “I want you to meet Mr. Wetherell. Mrr'Wetlierell, my husband.” “Ah, really!” Wetherell exclaimed, trying to conceal his uneasiness,“This is a bit <pf luck! I’ve heard so much about you! Your wife does no tiling but sing your praises.” “Won’t you come up?” said Bayard ominously. “Er —thanks —no, not today. Fm a trifle late to an—er —appointment.” “Then I’ll have a word with you here,” said Bayard. “Run along, Leila; I’ll join you in a minute.” He said it pleasantly, but Leila was terrified. The spectacle of rival bucks locking horns in her dispute is not al-

"Had You Heard That Your Country Was at War?”

together enjoyable to a civilized doe. Leila went into the vestibule and watched through the glass door, expecting a combat. She could not hear Bayard saying: “Mr. Wetherell, I’d thank you to pay your attentions elsewhere?’ “What’s that?” Wetherell gasped at the abrupt attack.* , “Your attentions to Mrs. Kip are -very-distasteful to me.” “My dear fellow, I hope you don’t imagine for one moment that — Why, your wife is the finest little girl in the world!” “That’s for m e to say, not you!” “My word! this is amazing I” “It is, indeed; It will be more than that if you come around again. Had you heard that your country was at war?” “I had.” __J‘Well, a big, strapping fellow like you ought to be over there fighting for hiscountry instead of looking —for trbuble here.” Wetherell’s panic 'at the domestic situation was forgotten in the attack on his patriotism. He . drew. hi.mgglf.. up with an unconsciously military automatism and said, “I fancy I’m doing as much, servlce l could do over there.” “More, perhaps,” Bayard sneered, with contemptuous irony. “But that’s your business, not mine. Mrs. Kip is my business and I don’t intend to have her subjected to your—your attentions. I’m trying to be neutral, but by— Well, I’ve warned you. Good day!” Bayard joined Leila in the vestibule and they went up in the elevator together, She waited till they were in their own apartment before she demanded an account of the» conversation. He told her in a rage and she flew into another. She divided her wrath between Bayard and Daphne. There was enough for both. Daphfle tried to escape, but, being cornered, proceeded to fight back, whereupon Leila denounced her to Bayard and told of her ride with Duane. It was a right good fight and getting well beyond the bounds of discretion when the telephone announced that Clay Wimburn was calling. Nobody imaginable would have been welcome in that battlefield, but Clay seemed peculiarly ill timed. Bayard went tn the telephone and cnlleddown: —— “Tell him we’re out.” “Yes, sir.” Evidently the telephone was taken from the hallman’s hand, for Clay’s voice roared in Bayard’s ear: “I hear you, you old villain. I know you’re in, and- I’m coming up. It’s a matter of life and death. Tm on my way up now.” It seemed decenter that Leila and Daphne should disappear, since Bayard had said that they were all out. The women retreated to Leila’s room as a, good coign of audition. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

Have Much the Same Thought.

A luxury is something we are apt to think our neighbors cannot afford, and our neighbors are apt" to think we cannot afford themselves.

PAUL’S ADVENTURE

By HATTIE V. MOHR.

(copyright,* by the McClure newspaper Syndicate.) Little Paul, age four. was much dis- - gusted with the rules for the afternoon. ’ They were, “Not to dare go out pt the ygrd. or get ail mussed tip.” But he did go out of the yard, and he also got terribly mussed, and someone was provoked about it at the time. For the first five minutes, which. is a yoncidering-hbi TauTfollowed instructions. Then, looking up to locate the source Qf a loud humming noise, he spied an airplane circling above the arsenal, two blocks down the boulevard. In lesstime than it takes to tell it Paul wa» violating a very oM rule, “Never go on Mie boulevard." a.new one, “Don’t ~ go out t of the yard,” and, if running in.the tar and gravel as fast as his" short legs would carry him would muss him up, he was in. a fair way to violate a third. - HeTiaiT covered one block when thenoise became so loud that he looked up. The plane that before had seemed so small as it circled, high in the air, was now headed directly at him, and was a roaring, snorting monster. With good sense, far in excess of hisy ears, lie dropped down and rolled over the dirty tarred road to the grassy side, while the plane, passing over him, landed, with many bumps 50 feet beyond. The aviator, who a moment beforeRad been fighting for his life in a rrazy machine that, without any warning, had gone out of control, quickly unstrapped himself and rah back. Hewas white as the wings of Ins gas bird, as he picked up a crying baby. A terribly frightened young woman, who a. little later ‘forced her way through the crowd, found a greasv lieutenant of aviation hugging a miissy boy, while in a trembling voice he repeated, “Thank goodness.” Hardly able to speak with excitement, he said, addressing her, “I am sure he isn’t hurt; but I don’t want to ever go through the like again.” • “Let us hope not,” she answered as she took the chief cause of his nervousness in her arms. The crowd had _by this time grown so large, being augmented by a number of soldiers from the arsenal, that shestarted to go.

“Wait, please,” he spoke. “Can’t I Ijave the little chap’s address? I’d like to send him something.” “Oh,” she answered, “we live in the little red bungalow on the Wit. Paul can tell y»ou his own name.” “What is it, Paul?” asked the man. “Paul,” answered Paul, and then he was hurried away to be scrubbed, dressed again and scolded, for “If you had stayed in your own yard it wouldn’t have happened.” Paul’s defense was “I guess he didn’t know how to run it very well, anyway.” During the following week Paul continually entertained anyone that would listen with tales of what he expected to receive from the aviator. He was even heard on one occasion to confide to his woolly canine playfellow, Ino, that maybe "we’U get one of those big things, so we can go way up as high as the sky.” But later a letter came from a nearby government hospital felling Paul that the birdman had had atmtiier aceident. It said that if he wanted the present very soon either his papa or mamma would have to bring him tlierri because “a chap can’t walk with' a broken leg.” The following Sunday a tall man, a strikingly pretty woman and a talkative boy, who tightly clutched a bouquet of flowers so big that he had difficulty in handling it, called on the injured, lieutenant. Of course, among other things, the accident was discussed, at which time Paul assured them that he wasn’t scared at all, “Well, I was scared,” said the officer, and looking at the lady, “I guess your mother was scared.” The man laughed and the woman blushed as Paul blurted out, “I guess my mother ain’t scared yet, because she don’t know about it, ’carise she’s away her own self.” “I think,” said Paul’s father as he looked from the man to.the woman and chuckled at their embarrassment, “that it is time that /du folks were properly introduced. Lieutenant H— meet my sister, Miss C —. She is Paul’s acting mother just now. His own mamma will soon, we hope, be home from a stay in the country where she has been convalescing after a terrible Illness.” The first journey of any length that tbe flying man made after he received his crutches was over to Paul’s home. But it wasn’t the last one. - During Hie months that followed he made many. arid each time he brought Paul something. until the Mttle chap had accumulated a wonderful collection of toys that ranged all the way from a duck that quacked to a miniature airplaqp. His parents predicted that the lieutenant would spoil him. Later events proved that they were-mistaken. But lei Paul tell this uartml,.the.. Tiis Own words, as he .told it to his' mother in the kitchen. “The lieutenant jis took a box out of his pocket, and I thought it was sumpen for me, but he gived it to Aunt Mamie and she opened it. But I don’t care, for It was only a ring. But I-gaqss she liked it. for she said, HOw beautiful. dear.’ and then I corned out.” After a pause he continued. “But then he ought to give her something ’ca»se she took him lota of jam out of-the cellar when his leg wan broke.”