Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-27
eqfsq0 MICE WILL PLAY ~oGnoo 4
BY. O. Henry.

r1I9SIrl<I&INN
and business of Helen Grimes at the point where
her jealousy overcome her. Hart yielded to all her
structures without argument She had at once put
her finger on the sketch's weaker points. That
her woman's intuition that he had lacked At
sthe their talk Hart was willing to stake the
judgment, experience and savings of his four years
of vaudeville that Mice viii Play" would bios
into perennial flower in the garden of the
circuits Miss Cherry slower to decide After
many puclerngs of her smooth young brow and
tappings her small, white teeth with the end of
a lead pencil she gave out her dictum.
MIR. Hart" said she, ~ believe your sketch is
going to win out That Grimes part fits like
shrTkable flannel after its first trip to handless
hand laundry. l make it stand out like the
colonel of the Forty-fourth Regiment at a Little
Mothers Bazaar. And I've you work l
know what you do with the other part But
business is business How much do you get week
for the stunt you do now?"
Two hundred" answered Hart.
II get one hundred for mine," said Cherry.
That's about the natural discount for a
But live on 1t and put a few simoleons every week
under the loose brick in the old kitchen hearth
The stage is all right | love it but there's
thing else love better-that's little country
home day with Plymouth Rock chickens and
six ducks wandering about the yard
IF you want to make this business partner
ship Mr.. Hart, with all nonsense cut out of it, I'm
in on it. know something about vaudeville teams
in general; but this would have to be in par
ticular. want you to know that I'm the stage
for what can cart away from it every pay day in
little manila envelope with nicotine stains on it.,
where the cashier has licked the flap. It's kind Of
a hobby of mine to want to cravenette myself for
plenty of rainy days in the future. I want you to
know just how am. don't know what ALI
night restaurant looks like; drink only weak tea
/ never spoke to a man at stage entrance in my
life, and I've got money in five savings banks"
Miss Cherry" said Bob Hart in his smooth Sc
rious tones, you're in your terms. I've
got strictly business pasted in my hat and stem
ciied on my makeup box. When dream of nights
l always see ive-room bungalow on the north
shore of Long Island, with Jap cooking clam
broth and duckiing in the Kitchen, and with the
title deeds to the place in my pengee coat pocket
swinging in hammock on the porch, reading Stan
1eys Exploration into Africa And nobody else
around. You never interested in Africa, was
you, Miss Cherry?"
mot any," said Cherry What I'm going to do
with my money is to bank 1t. You can get four
per cent. deposits. Even at the salary I've been
earning, I've figured out that in ten years I've have
an income OF about $50 month just from the in
terest alone Well, I might invest some of the
principal in little business-say, trimming hats
or beauty parlor, and make more"
Well said Hart, you've got the proper idea
all right. all right anyhow. There are mighty few
actors who amount to anything at all who couldn't
fix themselves for the wet days to come If they'd
save their money instead of blowing it. I'm glad
you've got the correct business idea of it. Miss Cher
ry. think the way; and 1 think this sketch
will more than double what both Of us earn now
when we get 1t shaped up"
They rehearsed it by the old-fashioned boarding
house clock in the rarely used parlor until it's
ing click at five minutes to the hour would occur
every time exactly half second before the click
of the unloaded revolver that Helen Grimes used
in rehearsing the thrilling climax of the sketch.
Yes, that was thriller, and piece of excel
lent work. In the act a real 32-calibre revolver
was used loaded with a real cartridge. Helen
Grimes, who is Western girl of decidedly Buffalo
Btllsh skill and daring, is tempestuously in love
with Frank Desmond, the private secretary and con-
fdential prospective son-in-aw of her father "Ara-
pahoe Crimes quarter-million-dolIa cattle king
owning ranch that, judging from the scenery is
in either the Bad Lands or Amagansett, L. I. Des-
mond Tin private life Mr.. Bob Hart) puttees
and Meadow Brook Hunt riding trousers and gives
his address New York, leaving you to wonder
why he comes to the Bad Lands Amagansett Gas
the case may be) and at the time to mildly
conjecture why cattleman, should want puttees
about his ranch with secretary in EN-
We anyhow, you know well 1 do, that we
all like that kind Of play whether we admit it or
not-somethng along in between "Bluebeard, Jr,"
and "Cymbeline' played in the Russian.
There only two parts and half in mice
WiH Play" Hart and Cherry the two, of
course; and the half a minor part, always
played by a stage hand, who merely came in once
in Tuxedo coat and panic to announce that the
house surrounded by Indians and to turn down
the gas fire in the crate by the managers orders.
There another girl in the sketch-a Fifth
Avenue society swelless-who visiting the
ranch and who had nrened Jack Valentine when
he wealthy clubman on lower Third Avenue
before he lost his money The girl appeared on
the stage only in the Photographic state-Jack had
her Sarony stuck up on the mantle of the Amagan-
of the Bad Lands droring-room Helen was jeal-
Gus, OF course.
And now for the thriller. Old "Arapahoe" Grimes
dies of angina pectoris one night--so Helen in
forms in a stage ferryboat whisper over the foot
lights-while only his secretary present And
that same day he was known to have had S647-