The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1912-04-11
His Arms Went Out and. Around Her

10 N'Hs went Out anu Around Her.
back on him. He sat up suddenly.
NO. he had gone back on it! He had
gone back on himself. He had gone
back on Dede. She was right, a thou.
sand times right, and she had sense
enough to know 1t, sense enough to
retuse to marry a money-slave with q
Whisky-rotted carcass.
He got out of bed and looked at
himself in the long mirror on the
wardrobe door. He wasn't pretty. The
old-time lean cheeks were gone. These
were heavy, seeming to hang down. by
their own weight. He looked for the
lines Of cruelty Dede had spoken OF.
and he found them, and he found the
h~arshness In the eyes as well. the
eyes that were muddy now after all
the cocktails Of the night before, and
OF the months and years before. He
looked at the clearly defined pouches
that showed under his; eyes, and they
shocked him. He rolled up the sleeve
OIL, his pajamas. No wonder. the ham
mer-thrower had put his hand down.
.lnose weren't muscles. A rising tide
OIL fat had submerged them. He
stripped off the pajama o Again
he was shocked, this time by the bulk
OF his body. 1t wasn't pretty. The
lean stomach had become a paunch.
The rigid muscles of chest and shout.
ders and abdomen had broken down
into rolls OF flesh. And this was age.
Then there drifted across the field OF
vision of his minds eye the old man
ne had encountered at Glen Ellen.
coming up the hillside through the
HIRES of sunset. white.headed and
white7hsarded. e~ighty-four, In his hand
the pail of foaming milk and In his
a all the warm glow and content
or the passing summer day. That had
been age. Yes stree, eighty-four. and
spryer than most" he could hear the
old man say.
Next he remembered Ferguson. the
little man who had scuttled into the
like a rabbit. the one-time man.
aging editor Of a great newspaper.
was content to live In the chapar.
raj along with his spring OF mountain
and his hand-reared and mani.
fruit trees. Ferguson had solved
/ problems A weakiing and an alco-
lolic. he had run away from the doc.
.ors and the ~chicken-coop of a city,
md soaked up health like a thirsty
iponge. He sat down suddenly on the
ed. startled by the greatness of the
dea that had come TO him. He did
iot sit long. His mind, working in it's
customary way. like a steel trap, car.
assed the idea In all fits bearings. II
'as big-bigger than anything he had
aced before. And he faced 1t .square-
=. picked 1t up in his two hands and
1t over and around and looked
IL The simplicity of II delighted
I'm. He chuckled over 1t, reached his
ecision. and began to dress. Midway
the dressing he stopped In order to
the telephone.
Dede was the first he called nm
Don't come to the Office this morn.
g." he said. I'm coming out to sec
for a moment"
He called up others. He ordered
s motor-car. To Jones he gave In.
ructions for the forwarding OF Bob
i'd Wolf to Glen Ellen. Hogan he
lrprised by asking him to look I'M
g deed Of the Glen Ellen ranch ana
axe out a new n In Dede Mason's
me. @Who?" Hogan demanded.
,ede Mason" Daylight replied i'm
rturbably-"the phone must be n. 4
stinct this morning. D-e-d-e Mason.
Il it,"
Half an hour later he was flying ont
Berkeley. And for the first .ime
. big red a halted directly before
. house. Dede offered to receive
n n the parlor. but he shook his
I'd and nodded toward her rooms.
In there" he said. mo other plau
uld suit"
As the door closed. his arms ver1
! and, around her. Then he .too1
n his hands on her shoulder -
king down into her face.
cTo BH CONTINUED, :