The Dolores star., 1924-04-25


for him. She must know her mind by
now
There were sheets and sheets OF
this.
The utter recklessness of Dispatch
ing a missive of this sort TO woman
who was living upon any sort of terms
with her husband was apparent
enough to him. bur 1t suited his mood.
He gathered the scrawled and blOtted
sheets into an envelope, addressed and
stamped 1t. took 1t out, and dropped it
down the chute by the elevator. Then
he came back into his room, lay down
on the bed, dressed as he was, and al
most at once fell deeply asleep.
He was awakened several hours
later by pounding on his door, and
when he opened 1t and angrily de-
manded what the devil the row was
about, he was told by an obviously re-
lieved bellboy that Chicago was trying
to get him on the telephone. They
had rung his bell several times with
out rousing him. He was still in a
half.stupetied condition when he went
TO the telephone. He made out that
It was Jennie Macarthur who was
calling him. She was talking about
some stock. Had he been selling any?
Stock in what?" he asked.
Stock in the Greer company, joe"
she told him. Have you been sell
ing any of yours?"
10 +AIl -.
ask him "A thing like that. OF course
he hadn't What had put such an idea
into her head?
well, there's a lot of it for sale"
she told him. Up in Fargo and other
places. There's lot of 1t sold already,
l guess. It's the other crowd that's
selling II, then"
He asked her angrIly what other
crowd she meant.
I'll write you all | know about 1t
tonight she told him, in rather odd
sounding voice. I'll send II special
delivery SO you'll get it the first thing
Monday morning" He told her this
would be all right, he guessed, and at
thar she hung up. He undressed and
vert back to bed.
His memory of this Incident when
he awakened Sunday morning was,
oddly enough, perfectly clear. And of
course now that his mind was work
ing again, the inference from what she
had told him was clear, too. For n
long time he fay contemplating it
it and other matters, too in sort
Of crystalline detachment.
Williamson and Corbett and Craw-
ford had sold out-stood from under.
They had sold their stock right ND
there in the fax country, too. Under
his own nose. But why had they done
it, They were playing him for fool.
We'll, he was one. He had been quite
unaccountably a fool-for months,
blindly unaware of what was going on
about him. Williamson had started
back to Chicago under the satisfied
conviction that he had been fool.
He didn't waste much time trying to
forecast the terms of the offer they
would have ready for him Wednesday
afternoon. The broad outline of the
situation was plain enough. In default
OF selling his fax. he would have to
borrow the money to pay for it, and
as the price of finding the money for
him they would exact their pound of
flesh namely. his share in the enter
prise which his Imagination had con-
ceived and his energy made reaI.
What particular form of hocus-nocus
under the polite name OF reorganiza
ton they resorted to didn't matter.
Well, he was broad awake now. Ger.
tainly he would need all his wits TO
meet this next week. No good vast
Ing time going to Chicago to listen to
the terms of the bargain they'd pro-
pose to him. He'd tell Jennie to 90
to the meeting.
He wanted drink. That was the
first thing. He went over to the hap
There stood the bottle, but II was
empty. Queer! 1t had been nroctI-
cally full when he had opened If on
coming in from his lunch with Will
hanson. and he hadn't been out Of tho
room except to walk down the corrI-
dor to mail that letter to Violet
The contents of that letter, forgot
ten until now, began coming back into
his mind as he stood staring at the dis
ordered desk and the empty whisky.
bottle.
He had been drunk when he wrote
that letter. No getting away from
that. He had been drunk, too, when
Jennie telephOned and she had known
it, That letter to ylo'?t What could
he do about it? 1t was too late to risk
the comparative publicity of a tele-
gram. Williamson himself would he
home before 1t arrived. Then the fat
would be in the fire He needed q
drink. He would be able to think
after he had had dr.nG.
He was on the way to the bell to
summon the boy who provided him
with liquor when he stopped short
turned back, and lay down again upon
the bed He was clamrnv Wifi, ..