Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-07-25
The "Slacker"
Copyright. 1918. western Newspaper UniOn.)
BY L HAMILTON

ing the attentions of Alger Morton.
He was a stranger, he was fiashy ana
not dependable, Irma had decided at
a glance, but he came along at a time
when she had been having a tiff with
her regular escort, BARLEY Dunn, and
1rma felt perverse and fancied "a good
opportunity had arrived for teaching
BARLEY IA lesson"
The latter was in q environment ten
miles away, but Irma neither went to
see him nor answered his letters. An
other element in her fiighty ideas OF
the moment was the fact that the brill
liant young stranger had been quite
taken with Lucia Teller. That young
lady had once tried to steal BARLEY
away from Irma. At odds with all the
world in her present mood, Irma was
not averse TO showing Lucia that she
was still the regnant social queen Of
the village, and heartlessly began a
wild Irritation with Alger Morton.
She had to confess to herself at the
end of the week that she pinned for her
lover true, and the attentions Of Nor
ton had become wearisome. She was
.half-minded to decline his invitation
to an auto drive to the city and back
one afternoon. Then she resolved dur
ing the drive to make him clearly UNI
Iderstand that she was not inclined to
encourage his all too palpable adj
Iyances and then devise some woman's
way of winning back her soldier lover.
In%tuitively Irma fancied she read in
Morton's face an ardor as he drove up
in front of the house, indicating a
move towards learning her true senti-
ments as to himself as a sutton, and
Irma steeled herself to be very circum-
lspect and distant when the climax ar
rived. Morton was chatty and enter
tanning to his fullest ability until, hum
ming along the main road, he abruptly
halted the machine, and she noticed an
expression halfway between calcula-
ton and anxiety cross his face. He
mumbled something about "the car
Iburetor'' and got out of the auto and
lfumbled about the engine. More than
once, uneasily Irma fancied, he stole
ia swift glance toward the crossroad a
few hundred yards ahead, where four
men In uniform were stationed. She
observed that they signaled two auto
mobiles hat drove ahead of them,
looked over the inmates and, the in
spection seeming to be entirely salts
factory, motioned them to proceed on
their way.
"Why they are soldiers ahead" OBJ
served 4rma % + knew na66ww! y she
added quickly. "It was in the paper.
They are after the men who have not
registered in the draft"
Morton looked bored. Irma won
dered why. 1t had been his brag and
boast that a lieutenant's commission
was being worked out for him by some
influential friends in the city. He
finally pretended to have adjusted the
engine and got back into the machine.
His lips were set tightly and he drove
ahead, trying to appear natural and
unconcerned. Irma caught a quick
hiss of his breath as, nearing the cross
road, two of the men in uniform step
ped out In front of the approaching
automobile.
Have you your registration card2"
inquired one of the men, and Morton
made a pretense to search an inside
pocket. 81 declare - he laughed-"I
have left it home"
"H'm!' muttered his challenger.
'Where did you register?"
In the city, of course-District d.
Besides that, l am hoping to be eligible
for a %lieutenancy through influential
friends"
"Name, please? and as Morton loft
fly rendered a card the soldier passed
1t to his companion with the terse
words Telephone"
Morton squirmed and Irma discerned
lthat he was i'll at ease. All his usual
sbluster had left him. His face grew
quite colorless and he %nervously grip
ped the wheel as the soldier sent to
the telephone at a nearby farmhouse
returned, viewing him suspiciously and
shaking his head.
you seem to have made some mis-
take" announced the main challenger.
II shall have to detain you until an
investigation can be made"
"You don't mean that you arrest
Bne!" cried Morton.
They gave Irma the option of being
driven to the city, and for a moment
she wondered if she could help her es-
cort out of his difficulty. A glance at
his hangdog face, however, convinced
her that he had no registration card
ut home and no pending ~lieutenant's
commission. She got out of the ma
chine, which whirled off with Morton
guarded by two soldiers.
IrAa FASTENED TO get out Of sight,
Inundated and abashed. She crossed
O field to evade meeting anyone, lost
her reckoning, a heavy dash of rain
drove her TO the shelter of a shed
where a vicious dog menaced her. Her
dress was torn with barbed wire, her
cheeks tear-stained as, after two