Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-07-16
PART Continued.

p
On that day she had been Miss Imo-
gene Pamela Thornton, petted darling
OF the gods and Mr.. Brewster Thorn
ton, banker and widower; two months
later had come Thornton's financial
smash and .aimmediately a%fterward, his
spiritual. moral and bodily collapse.
Everything that had made for life in
him having been swept away, he died
as a matter Of course, and was buried.
For sole Inheritance, little Genie
Thornton found herself possessor and
possessed of one Maggie O'Rourke, a
nurse of long standing, of earnest and
faithful face, and a monster heart I'M
prisoned In a pitifully thin chest.
1t had taken Genie's great-uncle,
Asa Thornton, six more months to for
get a quarrel of sixteen years stand
ing with his nephew, and by that time
child and nurse had been seeped into
that lower world which can't afford
morning and afternoon editions and is
too busy praying for daily bread to
look for q rain OF mama In the daily
press.
In short. Maggie and her charge,
traced down the ladder of reputable,
disreputable and impossible lodgings,
had slipped ultimately from sight and
the ken OF people with addresses, and,
as a result, Mr.. Robert Hervey Ran
dolph, whose relationship to Mr.. Asa
Thornton is Of no import whatever to
this tale of caus and effect, came into
ten thousand a year and a string-the
string being the possible temperance
Of Miss Imogene Pamela.
Bob" had said old Asa, on the
verge Of a tardy demise, I'm not In
Producing you TO a war between con-
science and seif-interest. There's no
silly story-book test about my money;
you are under no obligation to look
for Imogene or to shout IL you step on
her by any twist of chance. My law
yers have all the Instructions neces-
sary along those lines they are to
make every reasonable effort, and II
they succeed, why. you're man enough
to look out for yourself. Tit isn't
going to make a devil Of a lot of differ
ence to me where the cash goes so
long AZ l die with-dle with the
credit"
With that last sentence, his mind
had stumbled and wandered Off to
, memories OF his nephew Brewster.
Looking back from the vantage OF
twenty-six years, Randolph caught,
for the first time, the full import Of
Asa Thornton's farewell words to him
and to life: "Die with the credit"
They held the kernel of the old mans
carefully measured amend.
"Great old topi" murmured MI.
Randolph aloud, and half unconscious
ly turned to the left at Forty-second
street. Five minutes later he was
caught In the maelstrom Of the
Thanksgiving rowd milling around
Times square.
Presently he found himself on the
edge Of a human sea, banked up to
give passage to a honking empty taxi
cab. Here was another question for a
suddenly inqulring mind. Where did
taxi-cabs, empty ones, 60 to In such q
hurry? The door Of this n was
swinging open, and the proof of how
intent the crowd was on Its myriad
Individual goals is evidenced by the
fact that a dozen voices did not ln-
form the driver that the season was
or for fans on wheels.
The cab was moving more slowly
than Mr.. R~and0lph's subconscious
mind, which led him to step into 1t and
quietly close the inviting door. Upon
seating himself, he tried to a~nalyze
the impulse that had lifted him from
the curb. He decided that 1t was not
NJ much the curiosity as to the desti-
nation Of empty cabs as a natural and
ancient dislike for being pushed and
eibowed by people.
II was not long before the cab, I'M
Willingly loaded for bear, drew up
with a final honk at the stage-door of
the Crocodile. Immediately came a
rasping voice that was vaguely fa-
miliar" to Mr.. Randolph.
swell" 1t said, "you sure took your
pwn time getting here" The driver,
Expert in a%ggravating repartee with
out words, pressed the bulb of his
atrocious horn three times. "Cut II
utl" said the rasping voice. There
an't any hurry now
II was Incredible, reasoned Mr.. Ran.
t,pp W simself. that anyone should