The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1923-07-19
The Secret Of the
Attic
By r SCHULTZ


passed tnrOuSn mduy uduuS bclOIS II
came into those Of the Batemans. Ed
Bateman was a chief clerk with a big
s~tockbroking firm, Annie Bateman was
a good housekeeper; there was a boy,
Cyril, and a girl, Mile.
A very ordinary family; but Grand
father Bateman was different. Had
always been different. A dreamer and
inventor, whose son was supporting
him in his old age, much to his wife's
disgust. Annie Bateman was busy all
day long over her homework, n she
resented the presence OF the old man.
At first Grandfather Bateman had
the best room in the house Annie
drove him out Of that with her clean
ing and meddling, and so a room on
the second floor was turned over to
him. But even then Grandfather Bate
man was always in the way. And hor-
ribIe smells came from his room, where
he vas dabbling in his futile chemical
experiments which were in some mys-
FERROUS way to make them all rich
some day. So at last the attic was
given to him.
There he lived, slept, walked, did
everything but eat. And Grandfather
Bateman was happier up there than
In any other part Of the Bateman
house. The old attic, at first grudg-
ingly, and then gladly, gave up its Sc
crets to him.
Here, it told him, a little boy had
dreamed great things-a little boy who
would have been President some day
If be hadn't died. And here a young
girl had fled, the night before her
wedding, to wonder whether marriage
was going to NEAR happiness for her,
and to dream over the lover she a
lost long before.
Here, too, an old woman used to sit
sometimes, one Of the original build
ers Of the house, turning over piles
of children's clothing, and wondering
what had happened to the wearers OF
the little shoes-Whether they could
really be the men and women who
came back to see her, once in q while,
from the great outside world.
And here Grandfather Bateman con-
tinued his experiments that were to
bring fame and fortune to all OF them.
His rubber ~formula-his method Of
manufacturing synthetic rubber that
would revolutionize the rubber indus
try-it was almost perfected. lt was
the burning rubber that filed the house
with smells and had been the cause OF
grandfather's Punishment to the attic.
Sheets and sheets of paper, covered
with formulate, lay on grandfathers
old desk. Grandfather was running
I'D huge electric light bills. He worked
into the small hours Of the morning.
ed, you'll have to put a stop to
tbis~ said Annie Bateman. 1.-THE
house is full of smells all the time;
I declare, I'm ashamed to bring PEG
Die into it. Do you know, | think
your fathers gone out of his mind,
with his mania about money!
aOh, let the old man a%lone,' an
swered Ed. "It amuses him and
doesn't hurt u.s."
Annie Bateman frowned. She could
not bear the idea of that dilapidated
old attic, into which she had peered
occasionally. It was like a pigstye.
Some day she meant to clean up the
whole place. If grandfather had to
have his mania, at any rate it should
be carried on in a clean attic.
'T'm going into town tomorrow to
see a man about my invention" said
grandfather at the supper table.
Hope he buys it," answered Ed,
winking at his wife.
Then and there Annie Bateman came
to a resolve. While the old man was
In town she would put the attic "to
rights"
He set off next morning in high
spirits. and Annie started in to make
a gala day of it. She went up to the
attic with Wa~ste-basket, broom, mops,
pals of water, and all the artillery for
her campaign. She secured the attic
from end to end. She emptied all the
lars and retorts of their evil-smelling
mixtures. Every scrap of paper was
taken down to the furnace and burned.
"Well. 1 think he's going to buy
said grandfather, when he came home.
"He says If the Inventions genuine it
means a hundred thousand cold cash.
Wen all be rich"
Ed winked at Annie. go to 1t,
dad" he said.
Grandfather went up into the attic.
He stood still, staggered, wounded al
most TO death. Everything was gone,
every scrap of paper, his treasured for
mula, his hopes, his dreams, the work
Of twenty years. Never again could
he begin and rediscover that elusive
thing that he had dragged out of the
treasure-house of Nature.
He sank down with a groan and
hid his face IN his hands.
And that was the latest secret that
<hn o+fin h{G