Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-01-24
BY BERTA RUcK

Make way for the pay!" by sheer
luck l heard The horn Of Herrick's
taxi, and the waves Of hat khaki sea
shifted to left and right like. the waves
Of the Red Sea-
The taxi glided up the middle and
Herrick and two officers got out: he'd
raised two officers.
Well, l needn't so into details of
all h rest. In ten minutes n of
the Lost Property Offices had been
converted into a pay Office. and the
were >marshaling the men into sonc-
thing like order. / only said one
more thing to them. French money
will be taken at the canteen!" i
bawled. And then sprAns down
from my barrow. =.
As l did. I could almost have sworn
, l felt that friendly hand on my
shoulder, like Tim used TO put it. That
place on my shoulder fcl: warm, rs
il from his hand; on, it's all nonsense,
I know. Just imagination. But it
was thinking Of old man Tim that
had sort of helped me, and I still felt
up to my own ofrice-and to the
storm-and-a-ialf that was waiting for
me there.
Four fellows, my railway superiors,
were raging and Tuning and demand
ing where (the something) was Smith.
"Ah! There you are" barked Rob-
tnson. who'd got his overcoat cola.
bnttoned up over his pyjamas-he'd
evidently come straight from his bed
in Ealing. here. 'Where've o been
this half-hour, may ask: why
suddenly thought Blast all these
chaps I felt years older and more
experienced than the lot of them; I
felt like owning the blessed Line. !
took no notice OF Robinson for a min
ute. I was in for it, 50 1 might as well
fiddle the tune out. Neck or nothing
principally neck.
I grabbed the telephone.
War ONCE" l called. THAT r.
There are ter thousand troops here,
Sir. Yes. Yes.
| We've sent over to borrow their pay
from Terminus A, and they arc get
ting it now. Now. Yes;
given orders tina French money is to
be taken for their food. Sir. .
Altar that I suppose they r TO ne
allowed to continue their journey
I heard a. pleasant, iady-like mar &
voice coming thinly hack. oh, cap
itAl. Thank you so much. We were
wondering what had better/be done.
Yes! That's just wnat you ought ia
have done. Thank o 80 very
much" :
THANK you, Sir. Goodbye ]
hung up the receiver again. Ny work
was finished.
AZ meek as Moses I turned to the
others. knew I was in for it now,
Tomorrow would probably see me
sacked for exceeding my duty.
I rNssSA~sA he AACNAA 0o{A rn1kkA1V In
Robinson. II beg you pardon. Sir,
for interrupting you, 1 think alis
straight now: what were you asking
me?"
Then the storm-And-a-half broke
There was absolutely no doubt / de.
served what they said. No doubt
had scandalously exceeded my au-
thority, taken things upon myself Al
II were 4 manager. But
.t Ten thousand men were safely fixed
up, and . nasty lot Of trouble hnd
been avoided at bMh whitehall and
thu Terminal. Old rim would have
enjoyed the fun OF it, l thought.
At eleven O'Clock on the SUNDAY
morning, Slim lounssd in. Found me
buoy writing. had TO got out q Ye-
port-and 1t ran pretty long! Of what
N0A uUppcUQu kHo bJSht UOAVEc. J q
been assured that this repor. would
be nearly certain to mean the sack
straight away.
But sven while Robinson and the
others eytng 30 ia besn max.
ing up my mind TO something differ,
lent, II shouldn't mean tbs nank. II
should mean things setting iOt bes.
tor instead Of worse for me. Jack
Smith. Or. II It meant my leaving
this moth-eaten Lane with all these
old ladies' at the head o., affairs I'd
see that EomehoW--sornsfiow I'D get
q better job than thiss Handling tina,
situation last night-svan II 1t hadn'.
been q big t~hing--fcally It had given
me 4 taste for getting a bit Of authoe-
ity instead Of being . mere under
strapper for years and q on ju,,
enough to keep me going. al by my
sell. A fellow can't 60 IN living ~
I'd been living since the Armisfice
broke out. A fellows got to have pp.
sttion; money. Can't do without Dop-
sy--hoW can he be anybody. Or so
anybody, or marry anybody On cry
Ittls more than two guta Q vesk?
was fed ND with things az they were
}. They'd got 20 alter.