Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 January 1941 — Page 20

~ Serial Story— Conscript's Wife By BETTY WALLACE

“YESTERDAY: Martha decides to spend week-ends in camp, gives up the apartmen? “» save money. She meets Suzanne Decker and the girl threatens to tell Bill of - the Country Club dance. Martha realizes that Bill might believe even the most malicious gossip. She determines to tell Paul to stop Suzanne. A telegram summons her to her sister’s. Helen is ill. Martha must come at once.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

' THE HOUR AND A half on the train, after hurried packing and a quick dash downtown in. the cab, was like a nightmare to Martha Marshall. The rumbling wheels seemed to be saying, over and over, the words Eugene had used in his wire. : “Helen critically ill. Helen critically ill. Helen critically ill.” The sick shock, the sudden allconsuming fear for her sister, drove everything else out of Martha's mind. Helen had never been strong, but. she stood up to life and battled s0 valiantly! There was Eugene, and his little garage that seldom made money. There were the three small children, the oldest only 17. Helen did her own housework, her own washing, her own ironing. And now, she was in the hospital. All those letters Helen had written later—those letters asking her to come and stay with them while Bill was in the Army—had they been Helen’s indirect, hesitant way of- telling her that she needed help? Help for which Eugene was unable to.pay? .A mounting panic shook her as the train neared Bayville. She was standing on the platform, suitcase beside her, her hat on, her gloves on, clasping ‘her handbag very tightly, when at long last the train rolled in. . Eugene was waiting for her. He was a'short, stocky man, whose usually ruddy face looked pasty and green. There were deep rings under his eyes. He was worn, haggard, as if he hadn't slept for nights. “How’s Helen?” Martha shot at him immediately: “What was wrong with her? How long has she been in the hospital?” “She’s had a hard time,” Eugene evaded. “They operated this morning and I—I ket hoping I wouldn't have to wire you.”

» ” ”

{ HER FINGERS were tight on his arm. “Do you mean Helen’s— Helens—"’ Her voice seemed to give out, She couldn’t utter the horrible word which was searing into her. No. No. It couldn’t be that bad. It couldn’t be. “She isn’t rallying,” said Eugene dully. “Theyre doing everything, but she won't rally.” “What was it?” He couldn’t look at her. He muttered, “Complicated. She didn’t tell me right away—" : Martha bit her lip. She didn’t ask him anything else as they drove to the hospital. She could guess, now. Helen was so small and slender—Helen who had borne three children so quickly, one after another . . . : : It. was after visiting hours at the hospital, of course. The quiet lobby was dark, with a pool of light over the switchboard. A nurse sitting there looked up. She recognized Eugene, for she said at once, “Go right up, Mr. Nugent.” A nurse at the .chart desk rose and walked toward them. Her rubber heels were almost soundless on the tile floor. “Shé’s not sleeping, Mr. Nugent. You may go right in.” Martha braced herself as the nurse opened the door of a room just beyond the bay-windowed waiting ‘room. She tried to pin a smile to her lips, in case Helen should be lying there, watching the doorway, waiting for them, But. Helen wasn’t caring who came or went, she realized in the next shocked second. Helen . lay white and bloodless on the bed, with parched lips, with tumbled hair to which the odor of ether still elung. Her fever-bright eyes were fixed on the ceiling. “Oh, Helen! Helen!” was torn from her. Helen's head moved on the pillow. She looked at her sister, but her expression scarcely changed. Martha ran to the bed and bent over it. “Helen, darling! You're going to be all right, aren’t you, sweet? You're going to get well, aren't you?” The too-bright eyes didn't seem to understand, at first. Martha .took her sister’s thin fingers in hers and squeezed them. “Helen, it's Martha. Don’t you recognize me?” :

The cry

AND THEN HELEN smiled, and suddenly she seemed to have come back front the far land to which she had journeyed so strangely, with her eyes wide open. ‘ Next morning, Martha waited for the doctor in the hospital corridor, “How is my sister?” she asked him bluntly. “She seemed so strange last night—for a little while—" {The doctor had kind, shrewd eyes, and a reassuring smile. “She wasn’t doing very well yesterday. But she’s better: now. I think your coming hag helped her.” “Is—is she out of danger?” He made a tent of his fingers ~ and said carefully, “It’s hard to *- judge. But if she has nothing exjtraneous to worry about—if she can be made to think of nothing but getting well—" : “1 see.” . So she telephoned Air Transport from the coinbox in the hospital lobby. Paul wasn't in his office.

She talked to the chief engineer. |

. “My sister’s very ill in the hospital. Very ill. I must stay here. There are three children, and she’s been worrying. . . . I'don’t know how long I'll be gone. Until she’s well.” ‘He was very kind, ‘then. “All right, Mrs. Marshall, Don’t worry about anything. I'll get ‘a girl from Sales to help with your work until you're back.” * : : ‘Swiftly she planned her days. Morning visits to Helen, bringing the children. She'd bring them neat and clean! Then home, lunch, tidying up the house, putting the chil-

she'd slip back to the hospital, alone.

By 6:30, when Eugene came home, | - dinner would be fixed, the children

rested. In the evening, Eugene could

see Helen while Martha stayed with |

~~ the children. : © It was a good plan. But it didn’t

work. Genie, who was 5, and Sister, who'

| |

HOLD EVERYTHING:

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| COP. 1941 BY NEA SEIVICE, ING. T. M. REG. 0. 8. PAT. OR

“My compliments, Captain~—and how’s for a little game of ch sckers?”

FUNNY BUSINESS

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AN ANN

THIS CURIOUS WORLD

TOM REESE, HA WHEN GAME WARDEN NEAR. RAWLINS, WYOMING, CAJGHT SAGE HIN. POACHERS, BY DISGSUISSING HIMSELF AS A

OW MANY I2/BS HAS AM ADULT MALE; ADULT FEMALE;

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By William Ferguson

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IN SKIING, ONE OF THE GREATEST BAONGERS 1S SUN BLIRMN.

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FIEMALE: CHILD DP

Answer—Normally all have 12 pairs

\COPR. 1941 BY NEA SERVICE. ING.

baby, getting breakfast, feeding the beby, and somehow’ straighten herself out before they could go. By then the baby hac. to be changed, Genie had gotten his blouse dirty, the baby was crymg, and it was 10:30 and they were nowhere near thre hospital. In despair, she commandeered a taxi. ” ” 8

GENIE AND SISTER had to be desisted, violently, from climbing up oir Helen's bed. Oh, darlings!” Helen whispered. “Sweeties , . . ” The children, suddenly very grave, stood one at each side of the bed and Sister began to sob. “Mama, you're so white! l/4ama, you're not going to die, are you?” “Of course not, Sis!” Martha cried harshly. .“Of ceurse not!” Helen wanted the baby lifted so she could kiss him. There were tears of joy in ner eyes as she thanked Martha. “It’s so. good of vou, Martha'.” “Nonsense!” Mariha cleared her throat. “How are you feeling this morning? Chippe:?” The pinched wtiite lines of pain around Helen’s lips belied her brave !Fine.” They didn’t slay long. - When they reached the bungalow, the baby was a damp iness, Martha's (lress was ruined, Sister had blundered into a mud puddle, (3enie had found three stones which he insisted on bringing into the house with him. | “I don’t think well go to the hospital every diy,” Martha told

7, could dress themselves all t was’ weird

ght. But the effect

and |

the children. “I think we’ll have the lady next door in Jiere, mornings, to mind you while I go.” By Friday, with Helen definitely getting better. if slowly, Martha was almost in command of herself and the children. The baby had learned: that “No!” mesnt. he must

not pull the tablecloth, dragging all}

the dishes to destruction with it. Genie had leaimed that a big boy 5 years old could wash his own ‘face and hands, must not jump on the sofa, must drink all his milk, and must never, never let tiie water run in the bathroom until it overflowed the bowl and nade an ¢cean on the floor. And Sister had earned that a T-year-old young lasdly took her own baths and wheeled her little brother up and down the sidewalk —without a single spill—for an hour every afternoon, She also dried dishes with hardly any accidents. : Martha was cutting 1p a chicken, Friday afternocen, and hoping fervently that the no-spill record for baby-rolling had not .pbeen broken, when the doorbell rang. She raced to answer it, fearful of the baby’s safety. | i But when she flung the door open, it was Paul. Paul Elliott, his hat in his hand, his new car parked at the curb, and his eye: startled, “My God, Martha!” he said. ‘(What's happened to you? You logk all inl”. (To Be Continued)

(All events, names and characters in this ’ story are fictitipus.)

| fodays 8 Almanac Oddity

dren to bed for their naps. At 4,1 The Huds is a “drownad” river . . . the coatiline subsicied end

the river's former coursa has been traced 100 miles seaward.

(See page 61 of the 1941 World Almanac. On sole «! newsstands,

bookstores, 70k.)

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