The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-12-04
The Daily Short Story

rather sad. Perhaps I'd better re-
turn that money If I can find the
owner. I'd never have any peace il
l kept 1t, anyway. Maybe Geof will
be in good humor and I'll tell him
all about it."
"But n glance at her brothers
face drove all thought Of her re-
cent adventure from her mind.
what's wrong, Geof " she cried,
when he came in. Tell me, has
anything dreadful happened?"
Geoflry dropped YEARLY into>the
nearest chair. Don't worry, little
sister. We had a hectic day in the
office, th1ts all. l never remem-
Der seeing the place SO completely
upset as it was today"
what happened, dear?" WESTON
ed Sheila alphabetically.
t"Oh, poor Luke Hawley had bed
news this afternoon and. with all
OF us trying to help him, We only
made matters worse"
THAT nice Mr.. Hawley who was
here to dinner one night?"
"Yes, the same. His wife is ILL
she's away-up in the western part
of tie state somewhere. This aft
ernoon, right in our busiest time.
Luke got word from her to come
at once-she felt it was the end"
"Oh, how sad" exclaimed Sheila-
HE seemed such a nice man."
The best ever" agreed GeOf.
"Well, of course, the boys wanted
to do something to help him-by the
way, Sheila, get of your apron; /
expect a man here almost any min
ute"
Company! Oh, DEAR" bewailed
the girl, there isn't a thing In the
house," and she unfastened her
apron hurriedly.
Don't worry, it isn't real COM
pany," Geof reassured her, 'it's
Just our western man. He's COM
ing here to let me know If he had
any luck"
| ANY luck? But. Geof, 1 don't
under stand! Do tell me the rest!'
well, you see, dear, Hawley
doesn'. get a very big salary, and
: of course it has cost him a lot tC
take care Of his wife. So the boys
in the office got together and col
lected some money for him. HI
had only 20 minutes to make his
train, so, without a word to him
we Switched his wallet from his
! pocket and slipped three tea dollar
bills into it"
Three $40 bills!" Sheila sal
up with q jerk.
"Yes," Godfrey continued. well
to make a long story short, in tn,
hubbub of getting OF, we forgot t.
put the wallet back, and Luke wen
of without a cent"
"Oh," said sheila weakly, "hov
awful!"
stephen Granger, our western
man, just happened to blow in
then. He's Sn old-time college ath
lete with about six feet Of length
to him, SO he volunteered to maxi
a run to the station to try and reacl
Luke before the train pulled out"
"And did he?" Sheila's voic'
sounded queer.
mo, he didn't" growleds he
brother; but that isn't the worst
On the dead run, he had to buml
into some silly little lapper VIII
didn't know enough to look wher
she was going, and in his rush b
never noticed that the wallet fel
out of his hand. So, not only di'
Luke not get the money-we've los
it in.o the bargain"
"How- STRANGE" murmured Sheila
q funny little twinkle beginning t
dance IN her brown eyes.
Changers going over every ste
j of the way again." continued Geo.
'but"-a1d went TO answer . rim
at the door instead Of completinI
his sentence. nfntroductions ovel
in a voice ~suspiciously meek, She'll
asked:
what sort OF a girl was 1t 20
bumped. into!
ITO tell the truth" answere
Granger. Il really didn't get a loo
ct her. She must think me q rul
fan, all right, for I never eve,
stopped to md out whether l In,
hurt her. I'd give q whole lot I
se her again, though. It'll bet Oh
could tell me something about ths
wallet"
! aIrl bet she could. too.. sal
Sheils dramatically. And what
Imore-she will. And she held on
The htli-sqld