The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1924-02-01
CHAPTER TX
Below the Falls.

From the ninth of October, when
Joe telegraphed Jennie for informa-
ton on the totals of the drafts that
were coming in, his Office heard no
word of him until within a week of
the expiration of Williamson's offer.
II was an anxious time for Jennie,
saved from being desperate only by a
continual asseveration of her faith
that Joe would turn up in time bring
ing some sort of means of salvation
with him.
But on Tuesday, the second of No
vember, just as she was getting ready
to leave the Office at the end of the
afternoon, a boy from the Strstford
hotel brought her a note written In
lead-pencil, in a hand so little like
Joes that momentarily she doubted
the signature. 1t asked her simply to
come up and see him as soon as she
could, telling her the number Of the
room he was in. He had scribbled the
words, ITS all right" after signing,
but this she took as referring merely
to the propriety of her visit.
that everything that mattered had
utterly gone wrong, she went along
with the bellboy to the hotel and
had him show her up to Joe's room.
He called in answer to her knock.
"Come in. Jennie, If that's you"
1t was then nearly six o'clock, fully
dark long since out-of-doors, yet his
room was unlighted save by a small
nightIamp upon the bed-stand. Joe,
all alone, was sitting in an easy chair
that had been drawn up TO one of>the
windows. a rug across his knees. He
looked round at her and nodded toward
another chair that shared the en-
brasure. but made no other move.
Ii was all she could do not to weep. |
1t did not seem possible that the six |
weeks since she had last seen him, in /
Fargo, could have made such devas-
tating changes in the man she knew.
He was shrunken, chilly-huddled I'M
der his rug; the hand he finally Of
fered her was slack and his voice spir-
itless, despite the pitiable effort he
made at his familiar manner. She
stood speeches., holding the limp
hand he had given her in both her own.
"Oh, let's get it over with" he ex-
claimed at last. "Sit down. You want
to know what's happened, / suppose.
I'm Iicked-that's the short of it,"
you're sick" she retorted That's
he main trouble"
"See that in the dark, can your" he
Isked, with a drawn grin. "Well,
-oure wrong. What you see is only a
,y-product of the biggest drunk l ever
lad, / guess it must have been.
wasn't there. except at the start, till
lfter it was all over, but that's my
'est judgment on it,
Celebrating something, were your
he asked, keeping back the tears.
''You might say l was, in a way.
wasn't over having sold our fax,
hough, nor borrowed the money to
ay for it, Not a pound nor dollar. !
tut celebration isn't a bad word for
/, at that"
They've really beaten us, then, :
ave they, JoeY
There was long -Stretched silence. 4
II wasn't they that beat me" he said
t last. ''They couldn't have done'it.
! was the other thing | guess you
now that, don't you? Didn't you see
nything queer when you came up to
argo in September? Not about
lem; about me7"
She nodded. whisky. you meanT s
Then slowly and carefully Joe told s
DIV things had seemed about. to break #
ght for him in New York, only at h
lie last moment he had taken a drink
nd that had led to big drunk, at
e end of which he found himself in
ellevue. III
When he became master of himself L
Jain he had wired Doctor Bennett, in