Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 51, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 May 1936 — Page 15

MAY 9, 1036

■‘today's Short Story FREE LUNCH By Milton Matthews

■JI4TOLLY met him on a crisp New ■*-’•*• York evening in April, about 40 seconds after she had decided to become a racketeer. It was in one of those savory appetizing grills which hug their open-windowed fronts to the fringes of Times Square. Gloating gently over a string of young squabs browning and sizzling on a dripping spit in the window, Molly wiggled her toes over the cardboard in her shoes and murmured suddenly: “Tonight I cat—even if I go to jail.” She pulled last year's spring coat and the remnants of a long-suffer-ing sense of humor about her and entered. The idea—and she’d been brooding on it since the Automat h?> swallowed her last few nickels in the remote hungry hktory of yesterday afternoon—was to sit down at the same table with a young man •who was prosperous looking and alone and not too hard-boiled. “Not to say, tall, dark and handsome!” she added under her breath. it h tt HER cautious glance met the young man’s faint smile. Had he, she wondered, already guessed that if things went smoothly he would pay her bill? Waiter! for Heaven's sake hurry! Can't you see I've quite recovered from that beef pie and bran muffin of 23 hours and eight minutes ago? He was waiting for his order, and that meant that if she hurried she could finish first and—oh if he only knew how she was going to hate saying distressfully, expectantly, "I—l seem to have lost my purse . . . !’' If only he could just sense through some sort of telepathy that ladies must eat, and that she was a lady, really, though you wouldn’t believe it, w'ould you, tall-dark-and-handsome?) and that she hadn’t lost her purse but had pawned it on Third-av for 50 cents yesterday morning. tt tt tt THE filet rnignon had become one with her soul, and now it ■was time to say “I seem to have lost my purse” but her heart was pumping such surges of frightened blood to her head that her throat contracted. The waiter was presenting the bill and she was blushing. Finally she did gasp, “My—my purse!” and felt shakily in her lap. She saw the young man smiling a quiet, very amused smile, and resentment thudded furiously through her burning veins. Well, she thought fiercely, what was the floor waiting for? Why didn’t it nerform a gracious open-ing-up-and-sv.allowing act? But lo! an even greater miracle was accomplishing itself nainlcssly. The waiter, who she realized had a legitimate right to lift a jaundiced eye. at the lost-purse gag. had stooped beside her chair. Now he straightened, murmured courteously: “Here it is, ma’am.” Molly gasped and clutched at tenuous reality with one hand: at the purse with the other. Tire young man across the table laughed softly. He knew it wasn’t hers, of course . . . Still—why should he? tt tt u MOLLY swallowed, staring at the expensive alligator purse; then she set her lips. ‘‘Oh, thank you!” she said to the waiter. And with a flashing glance of defiance at the beast across the table, she opened the clasp coolly—anything to escape the humiliation!— and handed the waiter a bill from a Sheaf of several. Guilty! Oh—criminal! Molly knew 1t... but she’d pay it all back: she’d find the owner, explain, make things right . . . “I say, that’s good luck, isn’t it?” He was smiling still, leaning’ toward rier. "I’m awfully glad you found it. It’s awkward as hell to lose one’s —” But Molly stood up swiftly, and Without waiting for her change (or those ever change it was!) hurried hit of the restaurant. The hotel was in the lower Fifties !ust off 7th-av. Molly gritted her hrth when she stepped out of the ilevator, to keep them from clicking !ke nervous castanets. She looked igain at the card from the purse md pressed the button under 9-B. BUM A COLORED maid answered the V door. “If Miss Gillette is in,” Molly id, “I’d like to see her. I’ve aund her purse.” “Yes’m, you can ” ‘ Please come in.” interrupted a leasant and cheerful feminine Sice across the foyer. A moment Iter the maid had Molly’s coat, Iks Ann Gillette had her purse, Od Molly had her nerve. “ and so,” Molly concluded It h a helpless shrug, ; I did it. I fts in a spot and the way he was oking at me and laughing at me, 10. I’d have shot two policemen. “Instead, all I had to do was cornlit fraud, misappropriation of nds, drag the waiter into acceptE stolen money, and so on and so l!" Ann Gillette laughed, and that ugh told Molly that here wsa a iter under the skin. ‘You”re perfectly welcome to the oney,” Ann said carelessly, and Idcd, “for bringing back the purse, id that young man who irked h so, if I mistake not, is the same low who had just finished rousgmy ire. My fiance, in fact; he is a habit of making girls angry ! * W made me so mad I walked

“Here it is, ma’am,” said the waiter. The young man across the table laughed softly. He knew it wasn’t hers. out on him and didn't even take imy purse. And after I missed it, I wouldn't go back for worlds.” tt a u "yOURE . . awfully .. . kind .. she heard herself saying to Ann. And then Molly mustered all the self-condemnation she could lay hold of and pounded herself mentally behind one crisp little ear. Why should she care if the laughing young man, the tall, dark and handsome, alone and not too hardboiled young man, was another girl’s sweetheart? Certainly falling in love wasn’t as simple as all that ... as unpredictable and undependable as itching in an unscratchable spot. Or was it 9 ‘Th—thanks ever so much,” she said again. “But I’ll pay you back when ” “Oh, don’t be silly! And come see me soon if you can’t find work. Maybe ...” Molly passed Roxy’s Theater and i wistfully visioned the Rialto back home. She saw the blur of a hundred faces and forced back an aching memory of people she could call friends in Columbia, Mo. She dodged a taxi and remembered mournfully a certain antiquated automobile which had known joyrides—accent on joy—with her in college. Joyrides which had often ended in the Dugout for hamburgers and coffee . . . tt tt it SHE paused listessly to watch a half dozen hamburgers frying on a grill just beyond the string of squabs still on their spit, turning, turning. . . . And she came to with a start of recognition. Here was none other than the grill which had less than an hour ago turned out a minor masterpiece in steaks! And here oh wonder of wonders, horor of horrors emerging casually, was Miss Ann Gillette’s fiance. “Oh—it’s you! Hello, there.” Then he laughed aloud. “Say, beautiful, why did you run away?” “I—l didn’t run away! I just—well, I just left.” “Well, anyway, I’m glad you came back!” Molly frowned and wiggled one toe against the cardboard, to assure herself that this was hd dream world. She said coldly: “I left because I had to give your fiancee’s purse back to her.” “Really?” “What do you think?” she asked definitely. “You didn’t think I’d keep it just because I paid for my dinner with part of it, which I’ 1 ! pay back when—” He just stared at her for a moment. Then he tucked an ample hand under her elbow and wafted her back into the grill. And, telling herself that any mcment now she would call a cop, Molly found herself seated again across a table from the man who had for a few brief minutes made blue neon lights look rosy. n u tt IN the first place” he said grimly, “maybe you could go through the motions of telling me what my fiancee looks like.” “She's a cute little blond,” Molly faltered. “And she has big eyes and her name is Ann Gillette, and—” “Wrong on all counts except the eyes!” he laughed exultantly. “She —my fiancee, of course—has red hair; or practically red. And I don't know her name—yet. ‘You—” Molly said in a whisper. “No, you!” He closed his fingers over her hand. “Haven’t you got it through that red head of yours, yet, that you’re all off? That I’m nobody’s fiance except yours? That I just happened to see that purse myself, and that because my innate chivalry let you get away with it I had to wash dishes for an hour to pay for my dinner?” Presently, when she had repulsed him properly by telling him her name, she said in a daze: “The other man must have overlooked her purse, then ... but don’t you have a job, Rad? Not that it makes any difference,” she added hastily: “except that, once in a while, it feels so good to eat! And we can’t pull stunts like this every day, you know?” • tt 9 A WAITER had just deposited on the blatant red and yellow tablecloth two glasses of water, napkins, and silver. “The water will be plenty,” Rad told him carelessly. Then ne said to Molly. “Beginning two weeks from tomorrow I’ll have a swell job—assistant engineer with Valeo Air Conditioning. For myself. I wouldn’t have bothered them; but unless someone hands you the Bowery Savings Bank on a platter I’ll ask for an advance on my salary.” Molly smiled contentedly and looked and looked and looked. “Let’s walk up to Central Park instead," she said. THE END. (Copyright 18’9 by Newt Syndicate Cos., Inc.)

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

/67XT7 HA'R-B-BUMF-F VE6/ I JUST THESE HE aOESy^P C / 'RECEIVED A VABIET/ OF AFRICAN HOT-AI'RJWO rA JUMBO SEED FROM SIR BASIL illj? ME A6AJN ! EVERY % W \ £ALLWALLER,My OLD ARMY MATE TIME HE POKES M IM THE BOER WAR/A RARE SPECIES JUI, H,s BULBOUS fj YOU SCATTER AT RAM DOM, ijgf % BEEZER OVER BARELY SCRATCHIMCjTHE SOIL ! E<SADJ#\THE femce, his BAYTER, YOU WILL SEE RADISHES S OFF-SHORE” i # SPRINCr INTO BLOOM OVERNIC3HT —w C, BREEZE WILTS S #S_ SQUASH SO LAR6E THE NATIVES ) £ W TOMATO < w 700U6E THEM OUT AND USE THE PLANTS/ 1 Bavter 71936 BY SERVICE. INC. T. M. BtC. U. 8. PAT. Off. J

F. WCKLES AND HIS FRIENDS—

MAY be Iwe DIDWT FIND COINS INTO JUVENILE wJw IF j ANYTHING ID COURT IIF WUTY PAID PROOF W ™ AT I COIWS ' MR * kELLY * 1 MR. NELLY,THAT WE FOUND A \ COULD kNOCN j| WE DON'T < CHANGE THE -tuat Mpnir.MFr HE DROPPED A FIFTY \ THINN NUTTY CAN EX- DOZEN COINS UNDER THE FL00R.... )ME OVER WTJH MP.KEILY'/ . , WITH ONE OF THEM, CRACK IN THE FLOOR? / PERHAPS MR.TWIDGE S THE SAME DENOMINATION ? S*

WASHINGTON TUBBS II

BASV DIVES A&AIN AT | . /7'oT;'.'7;'., w : S' THE BLUE ROADSTER. ( 2 J „ ( , SACK END dH S CAR IS FULLO 6UUEt\ V V^uilq.

ALLEY OOP

NOW THAT GUZ HAS GOT TH' X J well , GOOD GIDDLTV - } W\ " WIZER UNDER HIS THUMB,WELL SEE WHAT §> t* S Jf, V" SO TSPEAK, LE'S GO ZSi CAM BE DONE? BY / f HAVE A LOOK AT / GAR, BOUT TAKIN'TH' f DiNNY- Jl WiZERS SPELL OFF'N /SrfTuMC 71, \ /

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD MEN

When Sobito uttered the dreadful name of the Taloned Death. Tarzan noted that a strange and ghastly horror crept into the faces of the villagers. Tarzan brightened. Now at last, perhaps, he could obtain some hint of the nature of this Thing for which he was seeking.

Always Choose DeLuxe Stockings/ 69c Pr i: ' (StHST AND ARDS) , / for QUAUTY-for BEAUTY-for ECONOMY! DOWNSTAIRS AT AYRES

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

“What is this Taloned Death?” he askecLcasually. Hardly had he spoken when his friend Orando leaped forward and clapped a hand over his mouth, shaking his head in earnest warning. From a distance, the w.tch-doctor beheld the tableau and chuckled.

With Major Hoople

OUT OUR WAY

( /HOW'S THAT FER \ / HE'S ABOUT TH 1 FURTHEST Y\ _ / FINE , PEACEFUL, / FROM A BANKER OF QUIET DIGNITY? ANV GUV IN TH‘SHOP—- [ HE'D OF MADE A / HE'S A SWEEPER, BUT \ FINE BANKER, / HE'S LIKE THEM ROYAL — —V THAT OL'BOY./CANADIAN POLICE—THEY Y GTAR e MAKE A SMALL PAVIN' JOB L., p^PT : LOOK LIKE A MILLION DOLLAR EXPOSITION- WE'D ALL BE HAPPY,y

THERE'S ONLY ONE PLACE HE COULD) ( \ k / RECKON rT'S UP TO A \ O' GONE, AND THAT'S DOWN \ ( AAE TO GO AFTER HIM / ' • > CANYON. HUMf A PLANE'S NO \ W ALONE. GOOD DOWN THERE, AND IF I GO X

YOU POOR OL* CRITTER - ( TH’CLIFF IS DON'T WORRY, OL FELLA, \ WgmffiM BUSTIN'/ IT'S \ (DAr^Wm^ I'LL HAVE YA DOWN / jIWmM GIVING AWAY/ )

“Your friend does well to warn you,” he shouted, “for no man dare mention even the name of the Taloned Death, except those of us who deal with demon things; It is mightier than the mightiest of men. Even the most potent spirits are powerless against it!”*

—By Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan saw a chance to encourage the peopl® to help him track down this mysterious thing. Ha would reveal himself as their fearless champion. He called out boldly: "Go you now, Sobito, and conjure up this Tiling against me. I would do battle with the Taloned Death!”

COMIC PAGE

—By Williams

—By Blosser

—By Crane

—By Hamlin

—By Martin