The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-05-24
Patty of the
Swings
By WILL 7. AMES

y BY WILL !. AMES -
g. 1922. by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
jeff Macallister didn't join out with
the All America Shows till the circus
had been OF the road for three weeks
and Harry Thomas, the head ticket
wagon man, was IN the point of jack
ing his job. Then the "old man. came
to Jeff's terms and wired for him to
relieve the amiable but impossible Her
bert as soon as the limited would bring
him. Big show ticket sellers are born.
jeff was as good as the best. Thomas
and he made the finest team In the
business. 1t was big money that the
old man had to pay to get jeff. my
last year at it," jeff told Thomas when
the latter had joyfully greeted him.
This seasons pay will fix me for the
peach orchard"
Herbert was working out his last
show, a slim matinee. So jeff, shak-
ing hands with old acquaintance by
the way, drifted over to the big top.
He was swapping jovial insults with
McCarron, the shows detective, neal
the performers entrance, when two
girls, wearing robes Of flame and
white, passed close Oh their way to
Nc. l ring. "Who's that?" demanded
jeff, with his eyes on the second of
the pair.
Lay >off, bo," laughed McCarron.
They're the Montrose Sisters-do a
pip of a double on the swings. But
the black one'll bite your eye out If
she sees you looking at the yaller
haired one. They're sisters, all right,
and the brunette's boss"
"Humph !" was all the rejOinder
Macallister made, for his eyes were
on the girls as they flung their gay
robes to an attendant and ran into the
ring. Vetehan of the circus as he was,
jeff to his amazement found himself
~curiously concerned about that slen-
der, infinitely graceful figure with the
golden hair that was being lifted by
the running rope to that perilous
perch far up under the canvas. He
didn't stop to think that he had seen
scores of women risk their lives on
the trapeze, on hundreds of occasions,
without a tremor; he only knew that
he wished this girl, If she must needs
be a circus PERFORMER at all, were In
some less perilous line than that.
1t proved to be, indeed, a splendid
act, as McCarron had said, with three
fourths of the risk devolving OF the
l~ight-haired sister. But jeff Mac
allister only enjoyed its very end,
when, with the running rope spiraled
about one 'avender-clad leg, the girl
slid slowly, with extended arms, back
to sol2f earth again. Then he drew
a long breath, like any of the hicks
in the audience.
1t was stout Mrs. Boyle, an old
time loyal friend of Jeff's, who, by
virtue OF her office AS dresser and, an
INFORM love 81 matchlnad nG, INTRO
sseea
solicitation. - -
And when Patty Montrose-Patty
Kaw, at home as she promptly con-
fided to him-met Jeff's earnest brown
eyes with her own almost violet gray
ones, her heart beat faster thar it had
ever done when she looked up the far
length of a 50-foot center pole at the
reckoning trapeze.
Within a week-though nowhere is
there a more time-filllng business than
that of "A circus on the road-Jeff
Macallister had made so many oppor-
tunitles for confidential talks with
Patty Kaw despite the expert Opposi-
ton of the handsome, dominating
Laida, that Patty knew all about the
peach orchard down in Delaware, and
would have been binder han any cir
u girl ever was had she not realized
whom 1t was that Jeff hoped to make
mistress of his home. So when jeff,
on the Sunday lay-off, circumvented
Laida and took Patty for u drive In
a hired car, she was prepared for his
proposal.
"If l wasn't a h%ard-boiled show
guy" declared jeff, "and didn't know
that the second season was the safest,
I'd have you off those swings and quit
the game tomorrow, eve If l had to
stick a plaster on the orchard. But
never again, sweetheart, after next
fall-no more of the road or the high
perches, for my WIFE"
He took 1t so for granted that Patty
only sighed happily.
1t was In the sleeper, over on the
siding that night that Patty, not with
out misgivings, confided the great
news to Laida. Laida. bending over
her black train trunk, was ~portentous-
ly silent, seeking self-control. When
she faced Patty pity was written on
her ~countenance. "You poor kid ~ she
exclaimed, "If l had only known
You'll have to get over this, grille
all over 1t. That jeff Macallister Is
all wrong"
"All wrong? Laida, what do you
mean? What do you know about him?
You said you didn't know him at ALL"
at was today, dearie, Mrs. Boyle