The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-10
EVENING STORY
Dan Cupid's Special Delivery.
BY LOUISE OLIVER.

By LOUISE OLIVER.
They say love laughs at locksmiths.
1t does. And 1t has been proved that
it also laughs at gas bomb and shrap-
mel, bayonet and trench knife: the
depth OF the sea and the tops OF the
highest mountains, the icy terrors OF
the frozen north and the bitter agony
Of the desert.
But there is one thing left. we
shall learn how love conquered that.
Betty Barstow was a very pretty
girl, but spoiled. 1t was too bad, Tor
she was born with q wonderful Will,
and with proper guidance would have
certainly been a power for good. an
only child with a rich father and
practically all the money she wanted.
to spend.
But the moro she had, the less she
wanted what she did have. and the
more she wanted the unattaina BILE.
Perhaps that was why she merely
laughed at Jerome Gilbert. a young
superintendent in her fathers mil.
when he fell foolishly, desperately,
Betty" he plead, mo one ever
loved as 1 do. You see it's the only
thing / live for. Other people have
been in love. or thought they were.
but it was nothing to this. Can't you
feel it? Don't you see it. that can't
live without you LOU Al Aiho IL oue
some day, why cant you give me
little hope?"
Betty laughed. Eventually, why
not now?" she quoted from an adver-
tisament. You see she'd heard the
same thing before from a dozen suit
ors. They all said practically the
same thing. But she had plans Of
her own. Some day, when the war
was over. she was going to marry. Il
lieutenant-colonel, or a brigadier-
general. or perhaps a colonel. or even
a general, who had distinguished HIM
self in action. 1t would be so stupid
to marry or even to betroth ones SELF
to someone who would have to go
and fight, and then perhaps be killed
and have to be petted and pampered
all the rest of his life to make up for
1t. and spend all his time for the next
SO years explaining just how 1t hap
pened.
Jerome colored you're cruel, Bet
ty.. You don't near it. I know: but
1t hurts awfully. I cart stand it any
longer. I'm going to enlist and
hope 1 get killed"
But Betty had heard that before.
too. and it worried her not.
| I'm in love with sou. don't you know
You don't seem to care when 1 sigh,
Maybe II ! went away.
You'd change your mind some day"
she hummed from popular sorg:
But Jerome-Jerry they called him
seized his hat and departed.
He did enlist in the aviation corps.
| That was the next thing Betty heard
of him. and he was gone without say
| ing goodbye.
! Then she grew thoughtful. Perhaps
she had been little unkind. She
| really hadn't intended to go SO far.
/, She had only meant to tease him a
little and make it up the next time
| he came. AS the days went on with
! out any word rom him, she became
| indignant, then furious. And If a wo'
man is properly furious with a man.
| look out; it's an indication that she
cares entirely more than a mere bat
| ting average just what that man does.
HE doesn't deserve any credit for
going" she said to her father one
morning. He went because-because
he was cross about something. I be-
lieve."
II don't think So" returned her
parent. He confided to me a couple
| Of months ago that as soon as we had
certain important work done in the
mill he thought he would 60"
~"oh!" Betty's eyes filled with tears
of humiliation and she left the break
fast table hurriedly. Here she had
been feeling as guilty as murderer
and flattering herself he was risking
his life from sheer disappointment I
not getting her. After all he hadn't
meant a word of it! Then she was
more indignant than ever.
For the first time in her life Betty
had a rebuff, and with characteristic
wilfulness, fell in love with the unat-
tainable. And then she discovered
that she had really been in love with
Jerry all along. Why else, had she
always pressed his flowers, and saved
his letters r,,f TO he IN, a
shelf by themselves. when the others
had gone the way of many things
Betty took for granted?
Then her mind being serious for
the first time in her life, she began
to think earnestly of the war and of
what she could do to help. She went
in for Red Cross work for awhile,
and worked tirelessly in the woman's
motor corps.
But there were others who could
do her work and she wasn't salts
fled. She wanted something distinc-
tive. something that others would not
or could not do.
pigeons were needed in France. and
how difficult 1t was to get people TO
train them. And instantly she de-
cided that that was her work.
She went out to their house in the
country, with only the caretaker and
his wife for company, and started out
with IL birds
1t was interesting work and kept
her tHsy. She would take the birds
a short distance away from the farm
at first in her motor car. and let them
fly back. Then gradually she in
creased the distance, letting the birds
fly alone. At last it got impossible
for her to take them herself. as the
distance grew greater. and she would
ship them to friends in different cities
to release.
They came back unfailingly, always
with their little brass tubes contain
ing a friendly note. White Wing was
the swiftest of them all. Betty was
very proud of him.
One day she sent a message to her
self or rather to Jerry. She had been
so lonely all week and the solitude of