Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1909 — PAID IN FULL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAID IN FULL

Novelized From Eugene Waller’* Great Play

By JOHN W. HARDING

BYNOP6IB OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. CHAPTER I—lntroduces1 —Introduces Captain Amos Williams, president of the Latln-Amerl-can Steamship company, In very bad humor over a threatened strike of his dock laborers. Joseph Brooks, underpaid accountant and collector for Williams, expresses his sympathy for the strikers and is ridiculed by his fellow clerks. ll—The president sends for James Smith, superintendent of the company's dqcks, and instructs him to spare no expense In crushing the strikers. Smith advises pacific measures, but Is overruled and prepares to obey orders. Ill —Mrs. Emma Brooks, the handsome young wife of the discontented clerk, tries to encourage him on his return to their bandbox apartment, but he is bitter against his employer and also against his wife's mother and sister, who dislike him on account of his Inability to gain position. In his desperation he turns on his wife and suggests that she must regret her choice of him when she might have had Smith, who had offered himself. IV —Smith, who Is the intimate friend of the family, makes his appearance on the scene, and Brooks continues his bitter arraignment of his employer and violent protest against his own impoverished condition. The discussion becomes rather personal, and Brooks takes his hat and leaves the premises. V—Accompanied by Captain Williams, who is an old friend of the family, Mrs. Harris and daughter Beth, mother and sister of Mrs. Brooks, enter the room. During the visit Brooks returns and makes a scene, accusing Williams of being the cause of his unhappiness. Mrs. Brooks reminds her husband of his breach of hospitality, and he apoligizes and leaves the house. VI When Brooks returns he astonishes his wife and Smith by Inviting them to go to the theater. Bmith offers to lend him $lO, but he declines. Brooks extracts $lO from a roll of money collected for the company. Vll—Smith prevents a ■trike. VIII —Williams and Smith go to South America, and Brooks' prospects Improve. Brooks tells his Wife that he has been promoted and money is plentiful. The couple move Into an expensive apartment hotel, and Mrs. Harris ceases to reproach them for their poverty. IX— Smith makes his appearance suddenly and Informs Brooks that Williams knows of his dishonesty and that the going to South America was only a scheme to entrap him and that he Is shadowed by detectives. X and Xl—Smith tries to prepare Mrs. Brooks for the exposure by telling a story. Williams enters, and Emma thanks him for the change in their circumstances. He looks amazed, and Smith tries to avoid a climax. The captain takes the cue and holds his peace. Brooks enters suddenly and is terrified. Williams goes, and Smith tries to keep up the delusion, but Brooks breaks down and confesses all to his wife. She asks Smith to leave them. CHAPTER XI. FOR a long time Mrs. Brooks stood gazing in silence at her husband, her heart rent with conflicting emotions. Her happiness of the past few months, then, had been built upon the precarious foundation of peculation. Oh, the horror! Oh,-the shame of it! On the very morrow the name she bore would be held up to disgrace and derision. He would be cast into prison. The misery of their struggles with poverty was as nothing compared with that of their sudden downfall. Numbed though her heart was with the shock, shrunk by the terror of their ghastly position, it was yet not impervious to pity, and the hopeless wretchedness of her husband inspired It She thought of how he had lavished his stealings upon her, how he appeared to be moved by the one desire to make her comfortable and happy. She went to him and put her hand on bis head, smoothing his hair. “Oh. Joe! Oh. my boy!” she said brokenly. “How could you do It?” Didn’t you know sooner or later you’d be found out? Now I know why you’ve been Interested In the races—you’ve been betting on the horses.” “I—l wanted to get the money back,” he sobbed. "But didn’t you know you couldn’t? Oh, why didn’t you leave things as they were—the flat, the struggle and all that? Why did you bring me here and show me all this—this happiness—with money that you stole?” His sobbing ceased, and he pushed her away and rose. “That’s right. You call me a thief! If there was one person in the world I thought I could turn to it’s you. and you turn on me.” “Joe, you mustn’t say that. I haven’t turned on you. Only I can’t help but think”“What? That man Williams drove me to taking money.” “Drove you?” “Yes, he did. He went away so I could take it. I expected you to stand by me. Do you know the hole I’m in? There are three central office men downstairs watching. If I make a move I’ll be nabbed. It’s ail very well for you to stop and preach—you always were so d d saintly—but what o r me? That’s the question—what of me?” He thumped his breast violently. She drew back, hurt by his reproaches. “If I thought you were yourself I’d never forgive you for saying that to me,” she declared. "I’m not asking your forgiveness, nor your mother's, nor your sister’s. What I want now is somebody to help me out. I don’t want to go to JaiL It would kill me.” “Do you think I want you to go to Jalll Do you think I want the disgrace"— "The disgrace—that’s ltl I knew that would come sooner or later, but I didn’t think It would come from you. There’s always somebody to hammer that Into a fellow when he’s down.” “I'm not trying to hammer anything Into you. What I wagt to know is

what can be done, what are we golhg to do?” “I don’t know—unless”— • “Unless we can get the money to pay back. There’s Jlmsy.” “That won’t do. It’s too much. He hasn’t got it. Besides, it’s too late Williams means bnsiness. He wouldn’t take the money. He’s not that kind.” "Oh. if I only knew a way—if 1 could only help!” She wrung her hands and sank hopelessly into a chair by the tpble. Brooks paced the room restlessly, like a wild animal In a cage. Now and then he shot a peculiar, furtive glance in the direction of hts wife. Finally he sat opposite to her, leaned toward her on the table and said In a low, intense voice: “If anything is to be done it’s got to be doue tonight, Emma. Williams is the only man. Yon can square it with him.” “1 can?” “Yes, and no one but you.” “What can I do?” He looked at her meaningly. “He likes you.” Startled, she returned his gaze inquiringly. “Yes, he does.” he went on. “He always did. Women are his weak point He’s liked you for years. That’s why he hangs around. I’ve seen it and heard what he said tonight about what he’d do for u girl like you. He meant that, Emma. He’ll do anything you ask him if—if you go to him right” Beginning to understand what he wanted of her, she rose slowly, incredulous horror In her eyes. He rose also and went toward her. “He’s home now,” he urged eagerly. “You can go. No one will know but Just Williams, you and me. And you can do more than that—you can make him give us money, more money, to keep on living like this, and there won’t be any risk.” She recoiled from him, consumed with rage and shame, her eyes blazing. “I hope 1 don’t understand aright!” The words came in quivering gasps. "You mean me to go to his apartment tonight to see him—and—and”— “No one will know the difference,” he coaxed softly. “You can handle him all right. Besides, you know how far you can let a man go—all women know that" “Oh, 1 can’t believe I’m listening to you! A husband to ask a wife”— She stopped, pressing her cheeks between her clinched hands, appalled at his Infamy. "Then yon won’t do It?” he cried angrily. “You won’t come to the front? I suppose you don’t think I ought to ask. Why shouldn’t I? Who did I steal the money for? I did It because you made me!” “That’s a lie!” “You know It’s the truth. When I married you your father was to help me, and he died, and then you had to do your own work, and you whined and complained.” “That’s another He!” “Oh, you never said so In so many words, but I saw It—for four years around the house. I saw you sighing and moping because you didn’t have enough to live on. Then there were that mother of yours and your sister—they never stopped. You tried to make yourself a martyr. Every moment of your life was a mute protest against our poverty—yes, it was, and you know it Do you remember that night when you said you couldn’t go to the theater because you didn’t have clothes? That was the first time I took money. That’s when I began.” “You knew 1 wouldn’t have gone if I had known.” “But you did go—you kept on going, and 1 kept on stealing for you. God, how I’ve suffered for you, for the clothes on your back. Every night has been a nightmare. Now I’m going to jail, you know that, I’m going up there on the river for years because you won’t do your part.” “1 can’t do what you want.” He became satantically persuasive again. “Why can’t you?” he urged. “Other women have for less reason—one to get control of a transcontinental railroad for her husband. I’ve risked everything for you. If you go there tonight I won’t go to jail; I won’t be hauled Into court; no one will know but ths three of us. No one will think the less of yon. I’ve gone through to the limit for you; it’s up to you to go through for me.” “Then if you go to Jail you mean that I’ve sent you there?” “Yes. and down in your heart you know you have.” Every Instinct of her pure womanhood, every fiber of her flesh, revolted at this cynical exhibition of his vlleness. She contemplated him with loathing. “Now thnt I see you naked In all your nasty meanness, your contemptible viciousness, I wonder how I ever the mistake of thinking you even half a man,” she said. This scathing denunciation made no impression on his deadened sense of honor and decency. “You can’t dodge the responsibility with tine speeches,”-he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “I’ve gone wrong for you. What are you going to do? Be square with me and take this chance—an easy chance —and you know you’re safe.” She did not answer, but stood there, her fnce set In Its expressipn of abhorrence and Indignation, deliberating ns to the best course to pursqe townrd this unspeakable villain to whom she was bound and who watched her with anxious, cringing mien. She addressed him finally In cold, harsh tones: “Whatever 1 may do or promise to do, I promise simply because you blame mo." “Emm*. I knew you'd”— “Don’t make the mistake that 1 care for you. Whatever I felt for you, and I thought It was love, you've assassi-

nated In the last ten minutes. But I don’t want you to go to jail pointing a finger of accusation at me.” “Then you'll be square—you'll help—you’ll— “You understand that if I bargain with Captain Williams for your freedom I make the bargain.” “I know, i’ll never ask.” “It will be my business alone.” “Yes. just yours.” “Is he home?” “Yes, I think so. He said he was going there.” “Telephone and ask him If he can see me—now—alone.” He jumped to the Instrument, but as his hand grasped the receiver he hesitated, and a flush suffused his white, drawn cheeks, brought there by the first true consciousness of the enormity of bis crime. He looked around guiltily at his wife. She was standing rigid, her back toward him. He took down the receiver. “Seven-six-eight-four Bryant,” h« called. r* ! (To be Continued.)

“You can make nim give vs money."