The Sauk Centre herald., 1919-08-28
Sunk in the Pacific
r.
BY R. RAY BAKER
Copyright, 1919. by the Mcclure News.
paper Syndicate.)

lSOpyrlGat, 1919, Dy the mcclure NeWbs 70
paper Syndicate.)
If InZa Richardson had been less
quick tempered she would have missed
being the heroine of a story that
starts in San Francisco and ends in
the South Pacific.
She regretted it five minutes after
she uttered the words that sent Arthur
Westridge away from her home, and
she would have called after him and
pleaded with him to return if he had
not walked so swiftly down the street
and if she had been able to thrust her
pride into the background. While she
hesitated he disappeared from view.
He'll never come back" she told
herself, and she went to her room and
shut herself in. When a friend called
the next morning to take her motoring
INA had severe headache and could
not see her.
1t all started over nOthing-nOth-
ing when the results were considered.
Arthur was kept busy late one eve
ming at the office of the TranS-Pacitic
ship office where he worked, and was
half an hour behind time when he
called to take InZa to the theater.
That was bad enough, InZa thought,
but when it developed that he had
failed to get tickets and she had to
wait in the foyer while he stood in
line before the box office she felt that
the limit had been reached.
When he had bought the tickets she
made him tear them up and take her
straight home, where a warm verbal
battle, in which he took no part, Oc-
CURED. 1t terminated when she took
the engagement ring from her finger
and handed it to him with the words:
Don't ever show up here again. The
idea of humiliating me as you did this
evening! 1t shows how much you care
for me. Good by"
Arthur went, because he had a tenn
per of his own and was afraid he
would unleash it if he remained. He
felt she was unreasonable, because he
had told her he was detained by busi-
ness, but he complied with her wishes,
or what she stated to be her wishes,
and left her.
A week passed and Inza heard moth
ing from Arthur. By this time she
was worrying. Her love for him
could not be questioned, but there was
her pride to consider. When that week
terminated, however, with silence on
the part of her erstwhile fiance, she
crushed her pride ruthlessly under her
heel and called up the office where he
worked. 1t took lot of bravery for
her to ask for that number, but she
did it.
"Mr. Westridge is not employed here
any more" she was told over the wire.
"He resigned his office position a week
ago and took a berth as a sailor On
the steamer John Richard, which start
ed the next day for Australia.
1nza was aghast at this intelligence.
why" she faltered, why did he do
that?"
She knew very well why he did it,
because she knew Arthur. However,
she listened to the reply:
"Said he was tired of being cooped
up in an office, and wanted to get out
in the air and see some real life and
some foreign country"
Then real cloud of despair settled
over the Richardson residence. Inza
lost her usually healthy appetite, and
although she had no flesh to spare she
became as thin as a fence rail-" as
her father put it. She held no one to
blame but herself but that did not as
suage the pain in her heart.
Inza watched the mail carrier every
day from the time he came into sight
around the corner until he either passed
the Richardson home or mounted
the porch; and he never found it nee .
essary to use the mail box. Inza re-