Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1911 — THE FORTUNE HUNTER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FORTUNE HUNTER

Novelized

by LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE

From the Play of the Same Name by WINCHELL SMITH

Copyright. 1910, by Winchell Smith and Louis Joseph Vance CHAPTER XVII. PROBABLY nothing ever gave rise to more comment In Radville than Betty Graham’s departure to spend the winter at a hoarding school near Philadelphia. Hardly any one knew. anything about it—in fact, the rumor of it was Just being noised about and contemptuously discredited on all hands—when' Tracey galloped down Main street Monday morning with the news that she had left on the early train. Radvilie was at first stupefied, then clamorous, but there was little information to be got out of old Sam. Duncan himself refused to be Interviewed. He told everybody who had the impudence to mention the matter to him that it wns Mr. Graham’s affair. Mr. Graham was a substantial business man. he said, and if he chose to seud his daughter away to school he had a perfect right to do so. One direct, result of it all was to hasten .Josie's owu leave taking. It wouid never let the Grahams eclipse the Lockwoods, you see. Josie had been talking of goiug to a school in Maryland, but Betty's move to a

fashionable center like Philadelphia made her change her mind, and arrangements were made by which Josie was able to go Betty one better. A young ladies’ Seminary in New York city itself received Josie. She left us bereaved about a week after Betty vanished from our ken. but promised to be back for the Christmas holidays. Betty was happy, she protested in every communication, and wholly content She was getting along. The other girls liked her. and she liked them, these statements being made in the order of their relative importance. Lots of them, of course, were frightfully swell (Betty annexed ••frightfully” at school, by the byei and had all sorts of clothes. The drug store, not to be outdone, supplied her with a party gown for state occasions, Josie kept her promise and came home for Christmas. She was reticent as to her impressions of the New York seminary, but seemed extremely glad to be borne, notwithstanding the fact that Nat had apparently contracted no disturbing alliances with the other belles of our village. And Roland remained true —a reliable second string to Josie’s bow. Roland was working bard at the bank, with an application that earned Blinky Lockwood’s regard and outspoken approbation, and his Christmas raiment proved the sensation of the season. In passing I should mention that Betty didn’t come home once throughout the entire school term. The Christmas and Easter holidays she spent with a girl friend at her Philadelphia home. Meanwhile life in our town simmered gently. r Duncan continued to make progress. For one thing I recall that he put in hot soda with whipped cream, which helped a lot to hold the trade regained in the summer from Sot hern & Lee., Occasionally Dupcan visited some of the towns in the county to develop the

mall order business which he had successfully inaugurated and which Increased materially the profits of the firm. There was a certain night along toward the Ist of January when trade was dull, as it always is after Christmas. and there wns nobody in the store save Nat and Tracey. Each had their task, whatever it may ha ve been, and each was busied;with It. but of the two Tracey seemed the more restless. Duncan broke, a long silence ‘in the store. “Wlnit’s the trouble. TraceyV” Tracey pulled up wi:h a stare of confusion. duUno. Mr Duncan: I was thinkin', I guess,” "Anything gone wrong?" “Not yet ” “Somebody been demonstrating that

your doll’s stuffed with sawdust, Tracey?” “No-o; but, shy, Mr. Duncan”— Tracey’s confusion became terrific. “Say on, Mr. Tanner,” Tracey struggled perceptibly. The words when they came were blurted, “Ab, I was only thinkin'. 'bout Angie.” “Do you ever thiuk about anything else?” - Tracey admitted honestly, “not mqtL put I was wonderin' srm _ “Feu Y' “Are sou stuck on Angie, Mr. Dun can?” demanded Tracey desperately. “Great snakes! I hope not!” The boy sighed. “Thank you, Mr.

Duncan. 1 was only worryin’ because you and Angie is stagin' together in the choir now Josie Lockwood's gone to school an'—an’ Angie’s the purtiest girl in town—an' I was 'fraid 't you might like her best when .Tosie’s away. An’ I Wanted to ask you to pick out s’mother girl.” . : Duncan chuckled silently. “Tracey,” he said presently, “it strikes me you must be in love with Angie.” The boy gulped. “I—l am.” “And I think she's rather partial to you.” “Do you. really. Mr, Duncan?” “I do. Do you want to marry her?" “Geel 1 can t hardly wait! Only,” Tracey continued, disconsolate, “it ain't no use, really. She's so purty an' swell an’ old man Tuthill’s so rich—not like the Lockwoods, but rich all the samee—an’ I'm only the son of the livery stable man an' fat qn’— all that—an’ * “Nonsense, Tracey!” Nat interrupted

firmly. “If you want her and will follow the rwCs I give you it's a cinch." “Honest, Mr Duncan?” j C “I guarantee It, Tracey. Listen to me” And Duncan expounded Kelloggs rules at length, adapting them to Tracey's circumstances, of course, and throughout maintained the gravity of a graven image. “Yqu try and' you’ll see if I’m not right,” be concluded ; s : -t.“Gosh, I b’lieve you are.”' Tracey cried admiringly. ‘‘l'm Just goin’ to see how it works.” "Do. if you'd favor me. Tracey,” “Say. Mist—Nat. vou've treated me? •omethin' immense ’ “Your mistake. Tracey I haven't. treated anybody since I've been here. I’m on the wagon " “I mean just now. when we was talkin’ ’bout me an' Angie. I'd—l'd like to help, you the same way if I COUld.” . ■■■.'. ' “You would?” Duncan eyed the boy apprehensively, wondering what was coming. “Y’es, indeedy, I would. An’ p’rhaps I kin tell you somethin' that wlIL” “Speak. I beg.” “You—er—you’re tryiu' to court Josie Lockwood, ain’t you?” “Ob!” said Nat. “So that was It! That’s a secret. Tracey.” he averred. “All right. Only if yon are she’s your’n ” “Just how do you figure that out?’ “Ob. I kin tell. She was in here tonight with Boland.” 1 “Tonight?’ “Y’es. just afore you come home from prayer meetin*. She was lookin’ for you, an' when she seen you wasn’t; here she wouldn't wait for no soda nor

nothin'; said she had a headache an' was goin'- home. Roland went with her, but she didn't want him to. Yon just missed seein’ her.” ‘‘Heavens, what a blow!” “But Roland’s takin’ her home needn't upset yon none.” “Thank you for those kind words, Tracey." Nat, sighed and passed a troubled hand across his brow. “You’re a true-friend.” “I’m try in' to be, Nat. same’s yon are to me.” Tracey thought this over. “But you ain’t foolin’ me. are you?” he asked presently. “I mean ’bout bein' a true friend?” “Why should I?” “Ah. I dunco. You're so cur’ns sometimes. I ain’t never sure whether you mean what you're sayin’ or not.” “Oh. don't say that.” “Well. I ain't the only one. Everybody in town says they don’t understand you half the time.” Duncan moved over to Tracey. His face was entirely serious. “Tracey,” he said, dropping a hand on the boy’s shoulder, “do you know, nothing in life is harder to bear than not to be understood?” J - Tracey wrestled with this for a moment, bnt it was beyond him. ‘Then why the dickens don't you talk so’s folks ’ll know what it's about?” he demanded heatedly. “Because—bm!” . Dnncan hesitated, with his enigmatic smile. “Well, because the rules don’t require ifc” “What d'you mean by that?” Tracey exploded. Nat couldn’t explain, so be countered neatly. “This is one of your Angie evenings, isn’t,lt Tracey?” a “Yep. but”— “Well, you hurry along. I’ll close up the shop.” To Duncan, now seated on the edge of an upturned box in a corner of the store, came an idea. He drew a roll of bills from his pocket and stripped off the top one. “Here's $5.” he said to Tracey. “Girls can usually be captured by Judicious expenditures. 1 wish you lock." “Ah, thanks, Mr. Duncan.” “But, Tracey”— The boy paused at the door. “What?” “Remember what I told you. Don’t you make too much love. Let Angle do that.” “Gosh, that 11 be the hardest rule of all for me!” A shadow clouded Tracey’s honest eyes. “Bnt 1 got to do it that way, anyway, 1 can't ask her to marry me yit. I can't afford to get married." “It’s a contrary world, Tracey, a contrary world.”’ sighed Nat in a tone of deepest melancholy. “What makes you say that? You kin git married’s soon’s yon want to.” “You think so. Tracey?” “All you got to do's ask Josie”— “I’m almost afraid you’re right.” “Why? Don’t you want to git mar-

r “Well"—Nat smiled—“no. Don’t believe I do. not Just now, at any rate.” “Well, you doD’t have to if you don’t want to. G'd night.” “Yes. I do.” Nat told Tracey’s back. “The rules say so. If the girl asks me I must.” f j He grimaced ruefully beneath his wisp of a mustache “Anyhow, I’ve got a few months left.”

- So the winter wore away, and as spring drew nigh upon our . alley Duncan seemed to grow" perturbed, even as he had been In the autumn before Betty went away Duncan urged Sam to move his hbusihold frqm over the store to a house. He pointed but that a separate residence distinctly befitted the dignity of a man who was at once a prominent inventor and one of Itadvfile’s leading merchants (vide a “Personal” in the late issue of the Radvilie Citizen), to say nothing of the social position of his daughter—meaning Betty. And the bouse Duncan had his metaphorical eye upon was large enough to shelter Nat himself in addition to the Graham family. Graham fell in with the scheme without a murmur of dubiety or dissent Whatever Nat proposed in Sam's understanding was right and feasible, and even if it wasn’t really so Nat would make it so They engaged the house and moved. Miss Ann Sophronsiba VYhitmarsh. a maiden lady of for-ty-five or thereabouts. popularly known as “Pbrony.” had been coming in by the day to "do for" old Sam in the rooms above the shop. She was engaged as resident housekeeper for the new establishment and entered upon her duties with all the discreet joy of one whose maternal instincts have been suppressed throughout her life. She mothered Sam, and she mothered Nat, and she panted in expectation of the day when she would have Betty to mother. (To Be Continued.)

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A PARTY GOWN FOR STATE OCCASIONS.

“I WAS ONLY THINKIN ABOUT ANGIE.”

DUNCAN TRA VELED TO THE NEIGHBORING TOWNS TO DEVELOP BUSINESS.

HE STRIPPED OFF THE TOP ONE.