Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1920 — Ring Three [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ring Three

By WILL T. AMES

(Copyright. 1»1». by tb» McClure paper Syndlcata.) The telephone In the east room of the Hanford homestead rang zlng-zing-zing. Miss Hanford, who was writing notes, glanced inquiringly at the instrument. The house was on a party line, to be sure; separate wires in that locality were not to be thought of; but Eleanor did not remember having heard a “ring three” call that year. Zing-zlng-zing! Zing-zing-zing! clamored the phone. Miss Hanford was wondering, as teg thousand other people have wondered under similar clrcumsthnces, whether she shouldn’t really’ answer, on the chance of the operator having made a mistake, when a man burst into the room. The man was a total stranger. Eleanor had never seen him before. He was a large man and young, and obviously stark, raving mad; for not only had he made his entrance to the house uninvited and without permission of anybody, but now, without the first word of apology and without even glancing at Miss Hanford, he rushed wildly to the telephone, grubbed the receiver and yelled in a lavishly redundant voice, “HeH«!” To Eleanor’s ordinarily calm eyes his entire demeanor was that of a lunatic, perhaps a dangerous " one. Without too much fuss she shifted her position so that the drawer with the pistol in it was just beside her right hand. The intruder, who had flung himself into the none-too-strong Windsor chair beside the telephone table and made it creak alarmingly in doing so, appeared still to be utterly unaware of Miss Hanford’s presence. “Hello! Hello!” he bawled, the look of wild anxiety on his countenance becoming still wilder as he appeared to wait, in desperate impatience, a reply that did not come. Miss Hanford, who was never precipitate, had almost made up her mind to flee and seek the protection of old Mark, the gardener, or Hannah in the

kitchen, when a great change came upon the man at the phone. The strained, eager look disappeared, a happy light sprang into his gray eyes, and he smiled broadly. Miss Hanford mentally classified the smile as a grin. “Like a Cheshire cat’s” she indignantly concluded. “Sure, this is Les," the uninvited guest was saying into the phone. "Never so glad to hear a human voice in my life, sweetheart! Don’t seem as if I could wait another minute to see you. What’s that? Yes; didn’t know but you’d be up on the two-eighteen. ‘Yes; gets here at five-twenty. You bet; I’ll be there. Good-by honey !” When about half way through this monologue the man twisted about on his chair till he was facing the mistress of the Hanford establishment. Then, still grinning broadly and with the receiver still at his ear, he winked at Eleanor —winked at Miss Eleanor Hanford, if you please! The nerve of him J Miss Hanford arose, to the full height of her sixty-three majestic inches. She no longer felt any fear of this madman ; she was experiencing instead a mighty indignation. Much —anything —might be forgiven In a mere lunatic; but for a vandal like this to violate your privacy, to seize upon your property, tp set at defiance all the conventions and safeguards of society—for the purpose qf making love over your phone —to some other woman—Ugh! Miss Hanford was all icy calmness as the trespasser, hanging up the receiver, uncoiled his tall length from the trembling Windsor chair and stood erect. She gave him.no time for a first word —there is no strategy in that. “May I be privileged,” inquired Eleanor, “jo know to whom I have the honor of being hostess—and why? It would be interesting to learn What there is about this house to give strangers the impression that it Is a hotel or an office building; I do not think it has ever been regarded as a mere public utility before.” “I’m awfully sorry. Miss Hanfora — you are Miss Hanford, are you not? But what’s the use of thgt I

know you are. I am —honestly—awfully sorry to come tearing in that way, but I’ll tell you how it was. “You see, I’ve had that little bungalow • that sets back in the woods a quarter of a mile above here for a week. I’ve been away for a good while on that little business overseas and she’s been in California, so we haven’t seen each other. She got home to New York yesterday and wired that she’d be out here on this afternoon’s train. There are two trains, you know, and I put In a telephone call for her at New York. After it was in, and I’d waited half an hour, I realized that if I waited any longer I couldn’t meet the two-eighteen, and she might be on that. So I started. When the phone man hooked up the bungalow he told me that this big white house and that stone one below were the only other subscribers on the line. My number was three. “Just as I was passing here I heard the ring. Golly!_JVhat was I going to do? If I stopped to be polite they’d calmly say. Tarty’s hung up; excuse It, please!’ by the time I got the receiver down. I know it was rotten manners, but you’ve got to make allowances for a fellow’, sometimes, now haven’t you? My name’s Grey—Lester Grey; I scribble foolish things that foolish people print sometimes. I hope you’ll pardon my headlong intrusion.” Miss Eleanor Hanford with all her dignity and all her responsibility as a woman of position and not a little wealth was, as a matter of fact, just a mere girl. And this big, utterly natural, blundering boy with the marks of overseas still ~on him, was good to look upon. Somehow it wasn't the ingenuous Impropriety—quite shocking in itself—of his receiving his sweetheart in a lonely bachelor bungalow that made Eleanor feel a new and different kind of Indignation toward him. Away down in her secret heart she knew that it was because there was a sweetheart at aih “Oh, very well,” she laughed—for, of course, under this new circumstance, being a woman, she could no longer show indignation of any sort lest It be construed in a certain way—“lf you put your defense on the ground of temporary aberration, there is nothing else to do but pardon you, I suppose.” Grey should have gone away then. Of course he should. , A young man in his peculiar position would be doing very well, you'd think to get out of the situation without complicating it further. But the more he looked at this marchionesslike little person the more he didn’t want to. The only thing he could think of to say, however, was: “May I uot bring her to see you, Miss Hanford?” If looks could kill, Lester Grey should have been at least a serious casualty. “Bring whom, pray, Mr.

Grey?” Eleanor Inquired clillHly, with her eyebrows a quarter of uu inch higher than normal. “My mother, of course." Whisper: Secrets: Just between you and me: There was the gladdest little thrill that ever was, right through the middle of Eleanor’s heart, as she said —very nearly gasped—- “ Why, I should be positively delighted.”

“Hello! Hello!" He Bawled.