The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-08-30

heard they got a twenty-five-hundred dollar reward out for you-' Of course, you deny it and say there is mis- take-but all the same 1t gets over | with Sprogget and he drops you flat on the lot He'll be through forever and he'll beat back to Oklahoma on the first train out" '-fm a man of quick decisions. There's the plan. It might be Nick Carter stuff, but it will work, What do you say?''
 sIt's askin' me an awful lot-they ain't no girl on earth that would 1 He cut her objections off by pro- | ducing a silver half dollar from his pocket
 l 'Lfe's a gamble-love, marriage and divorce-au a. gamble Are you willing to take a gamblers
 chance?"
 "Am I willing? What else do you
 think I've been taking since five o'clock this afternoon?" Tomnie spun the coin halfway to
 the ceiling.
 Heads win-tails you losti" he
 called as 1t was still in the air. It fell in his palm and he stretched
 his hand out to Kittie. Heads. she breathed. | '1 win. I'm going to slaughter 1 your own good"
 '+Wait a minute,'' said Kittie
 doubtfully. What chance did have
 to win on this heads-I-win-tails-you
 lose business?''
 1 Again the Jazz band boomed out its music like mad
 l What chance did you have? About
 as much as a man like Sprogget had playing this Broadway game" f Ty Intervention. 1 Tomie returned Ktttie to her table with a light apology for having kept
 her So long, Sprogget and Maud
 Smith, left a16Ae, together, had felt 1 something of a strain in each other s company, for both were aware that
 there was a. tension in the air. The l conversation had been detached, an-
 fable and guarded.
 Tonic excused himself, temporar-
 fly, with the crude envention that he
 had to talk to a friend. In common with few other inhabitues in high
 standing he had the run of the place | and 1t was easy for him to enter the
 more or less restricted precinct of the dressing rooms on the floor below
 where the musical comedy actors
 made their frequent changes of
 wardrobe and spent their time, smok- ing and chatting, between their ap- pearances before their dining aud fence.
 l Bert Bowles, who had heard many strange stories in his life, listened to
 another one from Tonic, What he was asked to do was cut his line, ir-
 regular and almost unprofessional
 Yet between the eloquence of the
 youth and the temptation of a fifty
 dollar bank-note. the actor was mov- 1 ed to consider it.
 | 'It'H only take ten minutes, al
 most,' Tommie had pleaded. "You can wear the same clothes you use in l the Back To The Farm number. Just wipe off the grass paint and glue a 1 little bunch of whiskers on your chin its the well-known lead pipe ctnch
 for a man of your ability, Bert" Still, Bert, hesitated.
 "I don't know another man in the
 profession who could get away with
 a stunt lfkt this-but you can," Tom mic assured him, consciously appeal ing to the mans professional pride. ''It takes art, but" l "You're on," the comedian deeid- | ed.
 When Tommie rejoined the new l friends he found that Kittie. some how. seemed to have lost something | of her effervescence. 'sThe little lady's sure fast on her 
 feet" he told Sprogget and Maud. Out in Oklahoma she'll be a riot. l The compliment had no sweetness 1 for Kittie. She wasn't eating her food and her glance was roaming l furtively around the cafe. When she looked at the smiling, confident, Sprogget, her conscience stabbed her, and she glanced away quickly. "I was wonderin' Miles," she said. at iength-deliberateIy with a note of
 regret in her voice, "I was wonderin' | if you could forgive a girl if she had
 a. secret in her past. I don't mean
 that if she was a bad girl mean l that if she had been in trouble. or anything like that?"
 | Listen. little girl,' he smiled. I'm not much of a judge of human na-
 ture, but I'm sure of one thing:
 There's nothing very bad about you" "You don't know nothin' about my pas-it's the future m l. okin' to-, To Be Continued Tomorrow.
 (Copyright 922, Thompson Feature Service.