Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-04-09
The Co,rier's Magazine and Home PAGE

UP now ana start DOWN, TeckOH.
Your train goes at half past six
Mrs. Norton jumped up. proclaiming
that she must be aboard that train at
any cost. Miss Thornhill, the profess
sor and Kendrick assembled the stairs,
and in moment Magee followed.
He stepped softly into number
seven, for the tragedy of the rooms
was still in the air. Vague shapes
seemed to fit about him as he lighted
a candle. They whispered in his ear
that this was to have been the scene
of achievement; that here he was
to have written the book that should
make his place secure. All, we'll, fate
had decreed it otherwise. 1t had set
plump in his path the melodrama he
had come up to Baldpate to avoid.
Ironic fate, she must be laughing now
in the sleeve Of her kimono. Feel
ing about in the shadows Magee
gathered his things together. put them
in his bags, and with last look at
number seven, closed the door forever
on its many excitements
A shivering group awaited him at
the foot of the stair. Mrs. Norton's
hat was on at an angle even the most
imaginative milliner could not have
approved. The professor looked older
than ever; even Miss Thornhil seemed
a little less statuesuue and handsome
in the dusk. Quimby led the way to
the door, they passed through it, and
Mr.. Magee locked it after them with
the key Hal Bentley had blithely given
him on Forty-fourth Street, New York.
So Baldpate Inn dropped back into
the silence to slumber and to wait. TO
wait for the magic of muslin. the Tilt
of waltzes, the tinkle of laughter the
rhythm of the rockers of the fleet on
it's verandas, the formal tread of the
admirals boots across it's polished
floors, the click Of dimes in the peck
cts of it's bell-boys. For few brief
hours strange figures had replaced
the unromantic Quimby in it's rooms,
they had come to talk of money and
of love, to plot and scheme, and as
they came in the dark and moved
most swiftly in the dark, so in the
dark they went away, and Baldpate's
startling winter drama took reluctant
ly its final curtain.
Down the snowy road the five fol-
lowed Quimby's lead; Mr.. Magee pic
turing In fancy one who had fled along
this path but short time before; the
others busy with many thoughts, not
the least of which was of Mrs. Quinn
by's breakfast. At the door of the
kitchen she met them, maternal, con-
cerned, eager to pamper and to serve,
just as Mr. Magee remembered her
on that night that now seemed SO long
ago. He smiled down into her eyes,
and he had an engaging smile, even at
fourthirty in the morning.
"Well, Mrs. Quimby," he cried,
there is the prodigal straight from that
he's pretty anxious to sit down to some
trouble since the world began, had
hand in"
Come right in, all of you." CHR
|ruped Mrs. Quimby, ushering them into
a pleasant odor of cookery. Take off
your things and sit down. Breakfast
most ready. My land guess you
must be pretty nigh starved to death.
Quimby told me who was cooking for
you, and says to Quimby: What
says, that no account woman-hater
messing round at woman's job, like
that says. Heaven pity the people
at the inn,' | says. Mr.. Peters may
be able to amuse them with stories Of
how Cleopatra whiled away the quiet
Egyptian evenings, ! says, and he
may be able to throw little new
light on Helen Of Troy, who would
object to having it thrown If she was
alive and the lady I think her but
I says, when 1t comes to cooking,
guess he stands about where you do,
Quimby.' You see, Quimby's rep
ertory consists of coffee and soup. and
sometimes it's hard to tell which he
means for which"
$50 Mr.. Peters has taken you in on
the secret of the book he is writing
against your sex?" remarked Billy
Magee.
"Not exactly that Mrs. Quimby
answered, brushing back wisp Of
gray hair, 'but he's discussed it in my
presence, ignoring me at the time.
You see, he comes down here and
reads his latest chapters to Quimby
O. nights, and I've caught quite a lot OF
it on my way between the cook stove
and the sink"
II amt no Judge of books" remarked
Mrs. Norton from comfortable rock
ing chair, "but I'll bet that ones the
limit
you're right. maam,'' Mrs. Quinn
by told her. 81 amt saying that some
of it amt real pretty worded, but that's
just to hide the falsehood underneath.
MY land, the lies there is in that book!
You don't need to know much about
history to know that Jake Peters has
made it over to fit his argument, and
that he amt made it over so well but
what the old seams shows here and
there, and the place where the braid
was is plain as daylight
After ten more minutes Of hustle.
Mrs. Quimby announced that they
could sit down, and they were not
slow to accept the invitation. The
breakfast she served them moved Mr..
Magee to remark:
II want to know where stand as
Judge of character. On the first night
saw Mrs. Quimby, without tasting a
morsel of food cooked by her, said
she was the best cook in the county"
The professor looked UP from his
griddle cakes