The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-07-30
copyright, 1915, by Arthur Stringer.
ELEVENTH EPISODE
The Saving of Dan O'Mara

The Saving of Dan O'Mara
R0l DUNG Peggy O'Mara was
AN troubled in mind. She had
become suspicious of her
own father. On more than
one occasion Of late that debt-harried
toiler from the Applewaithe works had
been visited by a stranger who i'm
pressed the sophisticated young
Peggy as anything but attractive.
And an honest man, Peggy argued
with herself, finds no need for stealing
up to house at night and closeting
himself with it's owner behind the
locked door of cellar workroom.
So the spindle-legged daughter of Dan
O'Mara, watching for her chance, de-
cided to investigate.
But the girls chances for investi-
cation were limited, for Peggy was a
hard driven young housekeeper, with
E. bedridden mother to look after as
best she could. Late one night, how
ever, when Dan O'Mara had led his
mysterious visitor into his cellar
workroom and locked the door be-
MIND him, the girl slipped off her
broken-toed shoes and stole silently
down to that underground chamber
of mystery.
There, with her ear to the keyhole.
she overheard enough to confirm her
darkest suspicious. She stole away:
stricken in spirit and struggling in
vain to keep back her tears, for the
girls love for her oil-hardened
father, if not always blind was at
least without limits. She waited
until the mysterious visitor had
stolen out through the house, with q
parcel under his arm, and then once
more made her way down to her
fathers workroom. The door, this
time, was unlocked. So she entered
noiselessly and crept over to where
Dan OMara sat staring at the wall
with unseeing eyes.
Pop, what're you thinkin' about"
suddenly asked a tremulous voice
close to his shoulder
He swung about like shot
"What should be thinkin' about?"
he demanded.
You're thinkin' about that man
who was down here ten minutes
ago." was the girls answer.
What mani" equivocated the Gull
prit.
Chinatown CHARLIE
"And how'd you know he's called
Chinatown Charlie?" demanded re-
bellious-eyed Dan O'Mara.
IT know more'n that, pop" said the
girl, with a gulp. II know that city
crooks ropin' you in for work never
thought you'd dol"
Work? What work."
There's a bunch Of opium SNUG
glers got wise to the fact that the
dye works is bringin' in tons Of that
Kaisow wood from China. And GER
tain O. them blocks is goin' to come in
hollow, with secret marks, and you're
goin' to dig the opium out O. them and
hide it here until that hop runner for
Chinatown Charlie comes and carries
1t away in laundry bag!"
Amt your mother got to have
medicine?" demanded her father.
"Ain't we behind in our rent?
but they'd promised to raise your
pay, over to the dye works!" she re-
minded him.
Instead O. which they took off me
machine and gave it to that one
armed snitch who claimed I'd been
workin' against the company by
tryin' to invent chemical color
that'd soon be sendin' their old log
wood plant t. the scrap heap!"
A fighting light came into the
Celtic eyes of the thin blooded young
girl.
They've never given you a chanel,
none O. them!" she passionately
avowed.
"Then see that you don't be spoilin'
me last one!" warned her father as
he got up from the table and pro-
ceeded to hide away an artfully hol-
lowed out block Of Kaisow wood.
Silent as Peggy O'Mara remained
on the subject Of her discovery, she
brooded long and darkly on this
heavier cloud that hung over her
home and her fathers good name.
1t haunted her thoughts as she
worked. 1t filled her blind young
heart with spirit Of revolt. 1t con-
verted her into diminutive yet
lowering browed Ishmaelite.
Yet the Ishmael-like young face
softened little as she looked at one
member of that approaching group.
For one fair-haired girl of about 20.
dressed in black. whom young APP
plewaithe piloted about amid the
roaring and Gathering machinery and
repeatedly addressed as Miss Gold
en-" was beautiful enough to bring
a hayward pang of envy to the
breast Of Peggy O'Mara. AS she
watched her eyes suddenly widened
in alarm. For Margory Golden, In
staring about the room, had uncon-
sciously moved closer to one OF the
ponderous machines. There the loose
end of her motor-cape was snapped
at by spinning cog wheel. as
hound snaps at bone. The next mo-
ment the whirling teeth had fastened
themselves in the fabric Of the gar
ment edge, carrying 1t back between
the jaws of the twin cogs that quickly
closed on the cloth and seemed to
reach out for more.
At the same moment that Margory