Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-11-27
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he descended, he wrote check on his
knee with SOLDERING fountain pen.
Lars" he said to the chauffeur, as
| dare say you've heard, things have
not gone exactly smoothly with me
lately, and I'm uncertain about my
plans. I've made arrangements to turn
the car over to the manufacturers, and
take back the old one. | must drive
myself hereafter. I'm sorry, but you
IL .ust look for another place"
The dapper young Swede touched his
cap gratefully as he looked at the
checks figures. Embarrassment was
burning his tongue. "I-I've heard, sir.
I'm sure it's very kind, sir, and when
you need another ="
THANK you, Lars" said Valiant, as
he Shook hands, "and good luck. I'll
| remember
Lars, the chauffeur, looked after
him. Going to skip out, he Is.
thought so when he thought that stuff
out of the safe-deposit. Afraid they'll
try to take the Doodle away from him,
guess. The papers seem to think he's
rotten, but he's been a mighty good
boss to me- He's dead swell. all right
anyhow" he added pridefully, as he
they'll have to get up early to catch
him asleep!"
A little later John Valiant. the bull.
dog at his heels, assembled the steps OF
his club. where he lodged-he had dis.
posed Of his bachelor apartment fort.
night ago. The cavernous seats of the
lounge were all occupied, but he did
Lot pause as he strobe through the
hall. He took the little pile of letters
the boy handed him at the desk and
went slowly up the stairway.
He wandered into the deserted IL
brary and sat down, tossing the letters
on the magazine Uttered table. He had
suddenly remembered that it was his
twenty-fifth birthday.
In the reaction from the long strain
he felt physically spent. He thought of
what he had done that afternoon with
sense of satisfaction. A reversal of
, public Judgment in his own case. had
not entered his head. He knew his
world-its comfortable faculty Of for
getting, and the multitude of sins that
wealth may cover. To preserve al
whatever personal cost the one noble
monument his fathers genius haC
| reared, and to right the wrong thai
VI uld cast it's gloomy shadow on his
name---this had been his only thought
What he had done would have beer
done no matter what the outcome OF
| the investigation. But now. he told
| himself, no one could say the act had
been wrung from him. That he fan
cied, would have ben his fathers way
| Fancied--for his recollections of his
| g. FROG a
They belonged wholly to his pinafore
years. His early memories of his
mother were, for that matter, even
more unsubstantial. They were Of a
creature Of wonderful dazzling gowns
and more wonderful shining jewels
who lived for the most part in an over
sea city as far away as the moon Che
was later to identify this as Paris)
/ and who, when she came home-which
was not often-took him driving In
the park and gave him chocolate
nacaroons. He had always held her in
more or less awe and had breathed
easier when she departed. She had
died in Rome year later than his
| father. He had been left then without
near relative in the world and his
growing years had been an epic OF
nurses and caretakers, boys school
en- the continent, and university
course at home. AS far as his father
was concerned, he hac had only his
own childish recollections.
He smiled-a slow smile of remines
cence-for there had come to him al
that moment the dearest of all those
nemories-a play of his childhood.
He saw himself seated on low
stool, watching a funny old clock with
a moon-face, whose smiling lips
curved up like military mustachios
and wishing the lazy long hands would
hurry. He saw himself stealing down
a long corridor to the door Of big
room strewn with books and papers
that through some baleful and mys
FERROUS spell could not be made to open
at all hours. When the hands pointed
right, however, there was the Open
sesame"-his own secret knock, two
fierce twin raps, with one little lone
some one afterward-andt this was un
failing. Safe inside, he saw himself
standing on big polar bear skin rug
the door tight locked against all com
ers, an expectant baby figure. with his
little hand clasped in his fathers. The
white rug was the magic entrance tc
the Never-Never Country. known only
to those two.
He could hear his own shrll treble:
"Wishing House, Wishing. House
where are your
Then the deeper voice quite unrec
ognizable as his father's) answering
"Here I am. Master; here I am"
And instantly the room vanished
and they were in the Never-Nevel
Land, and before them reared the big
gest house in the world, with a row
Of white pillars across it's front a mile
high.
! Valiant drew a deep breath. Some
magic of time and place was repaint
ing that dead and dusty infancy il
sudden delicate lights and filmy col
ors. What had been but blurred under
exposures on the retina of his braiI
became all at once elfin pictures
weird and specter-like as the dissolv
J ing views of camera obscura.
| He and his father had lived alone il
wishing House. No one else had pos
sessed the secret. Not his mother. No
oven the more portentous person
whom he thought must own the vas
hotel in which they lived lin sucl