The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1920-05-14

Her voice was her charm made audi
BILE 4"
"Rave some more!" pleaded.
you never talked better in your life.'
Don't be an ass" he said s0urIy.
Lets forget her and take a squint
at your affairs. Just what 10 you
mean to do with Yourself"
my shoulder still creaks a little. and
the doctors advise me to sit around
for a while. They offered me some
jobs in Washington. but desk work
n inspection duty are too tame after
a couple OF years spent in star climb
ing. Pm going up to Barton-on-the-
Sound and I'll camp in the garage on
my uncle's place"
"YOur uncle played you a nasty
trick" interrupted Scarles; getting
married and then adding to the crime
by dying. You couldn't peat that for
general spitefulness."
lines:
"Oh. skip your dear uncle!'
The Be!lman exclaimed
Az he angrily tinkled his bell'?
"Oh. Pm not knocking the dead" he
protested. mr.. Bashford always
struck me as u pretty decent, square
sort of chap, and not at all the
familiar grouchy uncle of fiction and
the drama. l made notes on him from
time to time with Il view to building
a play around him-the perfect uncle.
unObtruSive, never clustering at his
nephew; translating the avuncular
relationship into something remote and
claste like "A distant view Of Mount
Washington in winter. 1t was just
like him to retire from business on
his s'xtieth birthday and depart for
che Orient, there to commit the
shameless indiscretion of matrimony."
Like hint 1t was the greatest
shock Of my life. To the best of my
knowledge he never knew any women
except the widow OF his partner in the
importing house. She was about
eighty and perfectly safe. He spent
twenty years i'm the birmingham, the
dullAst and most respectable hotel
IN the world, and his chief recrea-
ton was a leisurely walk in the park
| before going to bed. You could set
! yOur clGck by him. Pretty thin pick
ing for a ~drafnatist, l should think
He used to take me to the theater
regularly every other Thursday-it
was a date-and his favorite enter
tainment was vaudeville with black
face establishment preferred. Blu in
his shy fashion he was kind and
generous and mighty good to me-"
IF you hadn't gone to war. but had
kept right ut his elbow, the marriage
might have been averted," suggested
Searles. "He did leave you some
thing, didn't he?"
Fifty thousand cash and the right
to use the garage at the Barton farm.
Calling it a farm is a joke; it's rocks
! mostly. He bought the house to have
a place to store his prints and Jap
ceramics. He hated motoring except
in taxis up and down town. and when
l urged him to set up a machine, he
told he to go ahead and buy one and
| DuIIu Tile garage. lotu luC u UclleI
fix up the studio in the garage and
have it as a place to work in. His
will provides that I may lodge in the
| garage for life"
'.The estate footed a million, as l
remember, so l can't praise his gener-
| 0sity. But the widow. your unknown
auntie, the E~ody-snatcher who annex
ed the old boy-what Of her?"
1--WE asked the trust company peo-
pie whether she's In sight anywhere,
| and they assure me that she is not on
these shores. Terrence. the third
vice president-you know TORY; he
was in the class ahead of rs at col
lege, the man who never smiles
TORY said she acknowledged the last
remittance three months ago from
Observation-Disclosures that is. suppose
the old girls resumed her tour OF the
world looking for another retired
merchant to add to her list"
"Very likely. To what nation,
tribe. or human group does this pred
atory person belongs"