The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-12-07
THE POLLARDS OF WEST GAP
 By Henry Payson Dowst

expenses riding around inspect:n' rail- .oads; but hes quite a poker player, and some say he's lost money in them Wall Street stocks" Well, Ben, if you can get me that st of the w. G. and R. B. stock holders, it would certainly help heap"
 sure, Clarke; take me a couple days to cOpy@ 'em off, working odd times. Don't want Wilton should catch mel"
 At the bank Pollard spent quite a lot of time with MT. Burgess, presi- l dent of the bank. Any one would think said Lucy,
 MT. Burgess would let you have a | couple of hundred dollars | Do you suppose I'd ask him? Not
 much. That would be a confession l was broke. And yet want to make a trip East within a few days.' "On eighty-eight cents ?'' 'I want to go to Schenectady and see the Universal Electric folks. The road is underpowered. It needs a | lot of new equipment, and the refin- ancing is going to depend largely on l what arrangements can be made for credit with the Universal for a couple | Jf hundred dollars worth of" Honey said Lucy, reverently, "the
 way you speak of large sums of money tiIls me With awe" Machinery and stuff,'' went on Pollard. And then I have an errand In New YOrk." You can go," said Lucy. ''Here!" She opened that famous pocketbook 1 of hers, the one the thief had en-
 reavored to take by force on the morning of Clarke's visit to s. Gum peIs Restaurant and Cafeteria. It was the same pocketbook from which i had fluttered the manila envelope | containing some small photogra phic | prints.
 Now she extracted a neat roll of vel | low-backed bills. Would hundred dollars be l enough ?'' she asked. Holy smOke! remarked Clarke Pollard;- and something clutched him in the Dit of his stomach. He look | ed at his wife and gasped. "I don't wonder you're surprised,'' ,'' said she. Here boy take it."
 IT can't" stammered Clarke 'I can't
 ''I don't see why not; goodness gra- cious, it was hard enough toto get it. Now I want it to do you-us-
 some good. Here!'' She thrust a roll of bills into his pocket.
 here-where-'' began Clarke.
 Did l get it? Oh, l sh'n't tell you not now. Some day. when you've
 made a barrel of money. you can pay
 me back, but now-oh, I don't want
 to say anything"
 Then can't use it, said her hus-
 band, with an attempt at slerness
 'AIl right, then,'' said Lucy, calmly.
 Give it back to me 1 can. I can pay our hotel bill, and buy you some handkerchiefs and me a shirt-wa1st and lots of things"
 Lucy was a little piqued, and Clarke
 was en the defensive at once.
 We'll he said, lamely, If 1 knew
 that you didn't-hadn't weren't put sing yourself to some hardship-' Lucy became apparently angry. Clarke Pollard, what are you talk l ing about? Aren't you my husband .? 1 For goodness sake haven't I a right to do my share? Didn't you pawn
 almost all your clothes and your watch and everything else you could | urn Into money to buy me what l needed, and get us out here? Can't | have the privilege of doing some 1 thing?''
 But I thought" No. you didn't; you only thought i you thought. You imagined yourself
 m the act of thinking; but you didn't | really think. Otherwise you'd have oh, Clarke Pollard, you make me
 so mad!!"
 At this point the bride began tc cry and had to be soothed a little
 but she stubbornly declined to say | where she got the money. J q was just going to tell you" she said; "only for your being so stupid l T would have. Now youn have tc
 wait.
 And Clarke waited. While he | waited, he went to Schenectady, anC | New York City. and came back tC | West Gap; and all the time he kept wond and wondering about many 1 things.
 But Mrs. Regent, wife of the pro prietor of Regents Dry Goods Elm. porium and leader of fashion in Wes
 Gap still gr-eved for the lost $3,OO( ] brooch.