Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1925-05-22
THE
PRODIGAL
SON
BY JAMES F. DwYER
(@ by Short Story Pub. Coz

some time In his Wanderlngs,
said Gait, looking out through
the dirty window of Bhatto
CHAINS River Alley restaurant at
Singapore. 1T comes to every one of
us drlfters, and when the voice Is
strong enough we strike the home
trail"
"Ay, ay," murmured Maloney, lit
tie red-headed Irishman. who acted as
agent for Jew firm at Calcutta. ITS
right you are, Sandy"
There Is no such person as cos
mopolitan," growled the big Scotch
man. 81 thought met one once when
we were jerking a trestle bridge over
a stream up at Slmla, but he was
fraud. He left one night and when
went round to his bungalow In the
morning I found little scrap of pa
per stuck in the thatch. 1t just read:
Gone home to England Yes, by the
az Of Bruce, that was all-not an
other word. And that sun-tanned devil
had been telling me month after month
that he had neither home nor coun-
try"
"Ay, ay," chanted Maloney. 1--WE
said the same, bad luck to me-"
II cursed him overnight, the Lascar
serang," continued Gait, "but that old
monkey faced Niger told me to stop.
His mother looked at him last night
said he. His mother is in England,
d-n his brown hide l growled. Tt
doesn't matter ,sQueaked that old bag
Of bones, his mother has been seeking
him for years, and last night she
looked into his eyes as he slumbered,
and he has gone to her. It is always
so, Sahib. Some day the mothers
eyes will nnd them If they sit on the
rim Of the earth, and when they see
her In their dreams they go back"
Gait banged his glass upon the CEN
tury-old table, and when Bhatto Chan
had delivered the drinks, silence fell
upon the group. The hot sun turned
the street puddles into vapor masses
that floated upwards thick and sitting,
and the voices from the cafe chantant
came through in intermittent bursts as
If they had seized favorable moments
when the air was clear.
There were Ave In the party, and
no man was within three thousand
miles of his birthplace 1t was Ma
loney's recital of an attempt he made
to reach Cork that had caused the
ScOtchman to make his observations.
The little Irishman had shipped as
stOker on a big P. & o. boat at Mel
bourne, but the red mouths in the bow
els Of the ship had eaten up his home
longing before he reached Colombo.
There, Maloney deserted, and deferred
the pleasure of re-visiting Queens
town till his pocket could pay for SUI
perior travelling accommodation.
Presently Meehlln shifted his long
legs and knocked the ashes from his
pipe.
That's right about the voice." he
said, with the air Of man who knows
that his assertion is incOntrOyertible.
II know all about the voice. / struck
Wellington, New Zealand, In 1900;
rode down on leaking wlnd-jammer
from Vancouver, and the voice found
me the moment l was on the quay
One of the New Zealand Steamship
company's boats was just getting
ready to buck across to Sydney, and
the voice made me buy forty-shllllng
steerage ticket an hike aboard. Every
mile of that trip the voice got to whis-
perrin stronger. Iimmy,' It said, you
haven't seen yer old mother for seven
years-seven years, just think Of 1t.
Never mind about yer stepfather, jim
my; don't think Of yer little differ
ences with him. If he kicks yer again,
like he did before, don't take any no.
tlce OF him. That was the tune II
sang to me. Oh, yes, Gait Is Johnny
on-tne-spot when he gives lingo about
the voice. 1t gets you all right. The
one that called me was sort OF two
thousand-mile radius voice. While /
was buzzln' about up around Seattle |
didn't hear 1t, but the moment struck
windy Wellington, II fairly poured into
me sound accumulat0rs, and before we
sighted Sydney Heads | couldn't get
any sleep at night because 1t kept re-
preaching me for stayln away too
long.
"The moment l tumbled onto the
wharf, the voice swirled me up George
street to the railway station. /
bought a secOnd-class ticket for B0rke,
and then went across the road TO get
something to eat before the Western
Mall pulled out for Its run to the Darl-
Ing couldn't eat felt as II | had
a balloon in me lnsldes, so / came back |
and cursed the porters until we swung
out All the way up In the train that
voice made me sick with joy. The old |
bare gumtrees the tl-tree scrub, the
gray plains, the dusty drovers, every |
bloomln' thing got tuggln' at me heart
strings, an when got out at Bourke
| felt all sore round the ribs like as
II some one had been slammin' me
with slxteen-ounce gloves"
Maloney made a sound that resem-
bled a suppressed sob, and Meehlln
looked at him curiously.
MY dad had been a 'cOckatoo selec-
tor, you know. We had little patch
between two big patches, and the
squatters on the two big lots hated
dad like poison. When he died, mother
McCarty just to have a man
round the place to give back lip to
The boundary riders, and 1t was that
title mean-souled sOn-Of-a-gun who
snapped my home cable an set me
jrlftin' in the first place. However.
The voice told me TO forget all that, an