The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-12-13
EDening Story
Solved by Woman's Curiosity.
BY FRANK H. WILLIAMS.


able to work for days Now she was
slowly recovering, tho there was q
sad, wistful look in her eyes. thai
hadn't been there before her illness
and a dull ache at her heart that
seemed tho it would never leave her
The trouble was that-young John
4 Hammond, the cashier in the office
where she had been employed and tic
whom she had been engaged, had dis
| appeared, his accounts had been shor;
and there had been but a brief word
/ of explanation to Susie for his con-
duct 1t was this brief word which
had brought on Susie's illness.
The only message from John since
his disappearance had come to her on
a postal card on the day after he
/ failed to come to work. 1t had been
mailed from a nearby town and 1t
bore these words in Johns unmistak-
| able handwriting:
Dear Susie: I've treated you pretty
roughly. Please forgive me. I was
married here today. Forget me.
john
OF course Susie hadn't believed that
John was a thief-she didn't vet, even
these many eekS after his disappear
ance when the shortage still stood I'M
explained against his record. 1t was
not because of the charge of theft
against John that her illness came, it
was because of those words on the
postcard, 81 was married here today"
She had loved him SO deeply, de-
votedly. whole-heartedly. There had
never been any man in her life save
John. Everything had looked so rosy
for them, too. The little bungalow in
which they were to have lived was
nearing completion and they were just
in the midst of happily buying furni-
ture for it when the blow fell.
No wonder there was a wistful look
in Susie's eyes, and a droop to her
young lips, and an unfading ache in
her heart.
Small wonder, too, that now, two
weeks after Johns disappearance, as
Susie was getting her normal strength
back, there should be a deep and abid
ing curiosity in her soul.
Who was it that John had married?
1t was Because this curiosity de-
manded an Immediate answer that
Susie, as soon as she was able, went
to the neighboring town of Brampton,
where the fatal postal card had been
mailed, and bravely mounted the steps
in the courthouse to the office of the
county clerk.
st want to look at the marriage
license book, please she said to the
clerk.
The clerk. looking at her curiously.
showed a big book across the counter
to her.
Susie covertly referred again to the
postal card to make sure she had the
right date when it was mailed in mind.
Then quickly she thumbed thru the
pages until the proper QdI6 was IOunQ
and then went over the licenses issued
on that day, one by one.
When, some moments later, Susie
left the courthouse there was new
light in her eyes and new resolution in
her step Her curiosity was satisfied,
but in satisfying her curiosity she had
found something that she must do-a
task-which she must put thru as
quickly as possible.
! In furtherance of this task she did
some. telephonfng to several different
people at a public booth. Then, late
in the afternoon. she boarded the train
for home.
In the train she examined her postal
card from John with new interest.
She held 1T to the light; she viewed it
from different angles. all with a new,
purpose in mind.
At last, as she caught the light on
the card from a new angle, she gave a
little gasp. She had discovered some
while
Susie returned to work the next
day.
sions of sympathy from fellow en-
ployes and from the executives, for
her story had become known in the
office on the day when she had re-
ceived the postal (Susie had prompt |
ly tainted upon receiving it, and the |
card had then been read by the others
in the office-)
But now Susie showed little of the
effects of her illness.
At the noon Hour she ate lunch |
with one OF her firm friends, Anna |
Habecker.
What's new at the office. Anna ?"
Susie asked. What are they doing
about John? Who's doing his work ?''
They've been trying to trace John
everywhere, but haven't got a single |
hint where he isl said Anna. lotto |
Duemling is doing his work.
Duenling had been Johns assista MT |
before Johns disappearance, and up
on returning to the officerSusie viewed |
Otto with great interest. Never be-
fore had she paid much attention to
nim. but now she looked at him care +
fully and thoughtfully
She saw in Duemling a sleek young
man of not very prepossessing ap- J
oearanCe, and no outstanding charac-
-eristics- There was nothing about
him that marked his personality He
vas self-effacing, very evidently eff
'icient, and not very much inclined to
1obnoh or chat with the other EN-
oioyes.
All the afterno-:u Susie was Dusty
OF the task She had set for
herself There was a, certain definite
iSmethinS she must do that night.
something which rather made her
'h1Ver as she contemplated it.
And it was to enable her to do this
.efiEI5e something that Susie. before
eavIng the office that afternoon, slvIy
one of the ground floor
windows. 4
= 1t was 1 o'clock that night before
'usie felt the time was propitious for
Icing this thing she had decided must
,e done. At that hour the night was
itch dark-there was no moon-andI
he town was almost wholly silent.
Thru the night Susie stole to the
window she had unfastened. SoftlyI
he raised this window and crept intoI
he dark office, her heart beating furi-
'usIy and only her determination to-
20 thru with the task she had set
lerself enabling her to push onward.
In the office she made her way past
zen Johns.
There was a certain locked drawer