Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-02-05

1
| turned, but the door was stubborn.
With movement of Impotence she
| knuckled the panels with triple
knock of peculiar timing. A hum Of
voices In the closed room died away,
| heavy tread became audible, key
grated. the door swung open. She
went In, nodding lightly to the man
who had admitted her and, finding
! herself under the concentrated regard
of eleven pairs of eyes, paused In the
middle of the floor and struck a spir-
tied pose.
"Good evening, folksl Pipe my new
rags!"
The silence that answered her was
broken after little by Red Carnehan,
who said heavily: "Hello, kid. Sit
| down."
| Ignoring his invitation to an empty
chair on his right, she dropped her
pose but remained where she had
stopped, lifting her brows little and
reviewing the company with quizzical
gaze.
Though both windows were open,
| closed shutters prevented any draught
from vitiating the STIFFNESS of the
| ''private dining room"--a bed-chamber
in the intention of the architect. In
an atmosphere sitting with smells of
food, alcohol and a truculent perfume,
the smoke of imitation Turkish tobac-
co hung In lazy, lilac reefs. Discol-
ored paper of morbid pattern was
| parting in reluctant spirals from the
| walls. Dust of decades weighed down
an elderly carpet and obscured Its
| ford design. Scorbutic paint disfig-
| ured the fine old woodwork.
The man who had let Leonora In
having resumed his chair twelve were
seated at table Uttered with debris
of meal, unclean earthenware plates,
and those high-shouldered bottles of
| dark glass, guiltless of labels, which
seem to be the sole habitat Of the win
du pays so generally known as "red
ink" that to name 1t by this alias no
longer eAclleS Smile.
Because of the heat all the men but
| one-Mr Harry the Nut-had put off
| their coats and collars, while the wom-
| en- had loosened their blouses at the
throat. Sweat beaded faces of various
compilations, ranging from the san
| guine countenance of Red to the pasti-
ness of Charlie the Coke Leonora,
| looking from one to another, found
each, with the exception of Reds, sui
len of cast if not openly hostile. She
sketched lofty smile.
whats the funeralT
Red Carnehan-red of head and
hand-an Italo-Celtic product as slen-
der, supple and sinewy as a snake, and
as deadly-replied sufficiently, "No-
body's-yet," and again waved a hand
toward the vacant chair. "Whyn't you
sit DOWN. He added: You're pretty
late"
"What about it?" The girl 1ounced
to the table and threw herself side
ways into the chair
English Addie, blonde, blousy and
full-bodied, sprawled half across the
table and, without removing the ciga-
rette from her mouth spoke in accents
of cloying affection fatty denied by
her semi-sober stare of jealousy:
Maybe you won't mind tellhA us
wat mide you lite, dearie :"
Leonora experienced qualm of mis-
givings. Had somebody spied on her
and Mario and hurried ahead to tat
tlef Even So that was matter
between Red and herself, nothing to
excite ill-feeling In the others But
Red was apparently unruffled, although
unusually spbdued for him, and per-
haps a shade suspieiously impartial in
his attitude.
She lied readily, without qu'ver,
naming two plain-clothes men she had
noticed in the Street of Strange
Faces.
ennis and Corbin lamped me on
the way here-if It's anything in your
young life, Addle dear-and mad to
chase all over to lose 'em"
You did shake 'em, kid-sureY
Red demanded with keen interest.
Sure. If ~adn't I wouldn't be here
now"
maybe O." Charlie the Coke
dravled ia / voice as colorless as the
flesh Of his face -"maybe not"
"Where do you get that stun?
What's all this. anyway? I want to
know"
Her eyes ranged again the array Of
fsces, challenging each in turn, and
getting no satisfaction; for each in
turn averted his gaze with an express
sion more or less sheepish and discon-
certed. all but Red, Harry the Nut, and
Inez, the third and only other woman
present.
swell? What's II all about? Start
something, somebody-why don't you?
II anything's gone wrong, let me In the
snow. l guess I've got as much right
as anybody"
The Nut shrugged and with super
ciious nonchalance selected another
cigarette from the fiat gold case he
was fond of displaying; circumstance
which, according to ones bias, might |
or might not be taken as Indicating !
thaf fha coea had haan houpQtiv come |