Evening star., 1925-11-08
THE CONGENIAL CROOK
In the Role of the Towns Bad F-And

exercise seemed to have stimulated 1t.
The Uphams were about to leave for
Florida. She resolved to go with them
and when the illness of Mrs. Upham S
mother kept them at home she went
alone-a perfectly healthy young wom-
) an drawing every penny of her
scanty savings out of the bank and
going off to Florida all by herself!
She knew that Lurton still reverberat-
ed with that.
AS she told the story Dick Pixley' s
funny, piggy little eyes twinkled and
snapped with appreciation.
I've a room in the Merriweather
Apartments over there, only two
blocks from here, she told him. The
room. in fact, was more expensive
than she could well afford, but its
window did command view of the
bay and 1t was near the beach Every.
I thing was more expensive than she
had expected. At least every other
day she counted the thin sheaf of
bills in her stocking.
But she had n return ticket home;
rent on her room was paid to the end
of the season: she meant to stick II
out If she had to live on crackers.
X
THEY were strolling down thronged
Central avenue from a motion pic
ture matinee. The show window dis
played several street dresses on wire
frames. 1t was the dark red one that
caught her eye; that was her color.
Her feet Jagged a little as she specu-
lated once more on how it might feel
to walk into shop and buy every
thing new. everything to match, at
one stroke.
Her companion put a large, warm
hand on her shoulder.
See here, Els"-for he had taken
to shortening her name after the first
day-"I've got a roll that would choke
a camel. Be a good sport. Come in
and I'll buy the outfit for you"
"Oh. no, Dick. You're a good fel-
low. but 1 couldn't do that"
Come on, now, OF course you
could" He was pushing her toward
the door.
She braced herself against the push.
The laugh died. Her lips made a
at him. NO! It's out Of the ques.
ton. Stop
He knew it was final. and his hand
dropped from her shoulder.
Next day he brought up the subject.
Member those red clothes, Els? On
the level, III put you in the way of
making some money. You can do it,
easv as falling off a log.
1T amt any business of mine
lust putting YOU in the way of it out
Of ndship for you. I know a fellah
here-name's Seymour. Prof. Albert
Seymour. He's a spiritualist medium.
They say he's one of the best in the
country. But It's just like anything
eise-you can't make any money out
OF 1T unless you get in touch with
people that's got money"
Seymour wants to get acquainted
with somebody" she asked.
Sure. You got it." He nodded ap.
proval of her ready apprehension.
That's just 1t. There's an old dame
here from Oklahoma. Names Mrs
Henry Meggs. She's a pea out of the
same pod as the farmers wives up at
Iurton. You'd get on with her fine
They was farmers till they struck oil
Meggs dropped off eighteen months
: ago and left her seven hundred thou
sand bucks. And this old birds got
about as much use for the money as
I'd have for harp.
You see, Els, 1t would be a favor
, to her If you was to get her in touch
with Seymour. He couldn't possibly
do her any real harm with all that
money. Probably he'd get her to talk.
ing with Henry. They had a daughter
that died before they struck oil. Sey-
mourd get her on the wire, too. This
old bird must be mighty lonesome"
X X X X
He explained 1t in such a sober,
matter-of-fact way that she could
only stare and ask, But what do YOU
expect me to do?"
why, it amt my business at all.
Els he replied. II amt doing any
thing here myself. I've got plenty of
money. Only. l know Seymour, you
see. and / could put you in '',e way
of dining vo,rrca1p oood +,,r,, 7.
would be just like earning a commits
sion my taking patient to a doctor
You wouldn't have any responsibility
at all-only get her in touch with him
and then drop out of 1t. And I'd see
that Seymour paid you a commission
of two hundred and fifty dollars.
That's pretty good money for an after
Moons work-and no responsibility on
your part, you see; soon's you got
him in touch with her. you'd drop out
| Of it-go over to Miami or Palm Beach
If you want to-
| But what would l do. Call on
. herr"
| He negatived that promptly. THAT
: would be no good. Shed be suspi-
) cious. You've got to show her some.
! thing that gets her excited to begin
with. One way to do it would be like
this: She goes over there in the park
, and sets on a bench almost every
, afternoon. She takes to that new
park where we was because there
: amt anybody there-f1ocks by her
self, you see. Well, she's setting on a
, bench all by herself, and you come
along the path. all excited-in a
hurry, You know, kind of out of
breath. You get down and look under
the bench. and fetch up a woman s
, handbag. Then you set down on the
bench with her. all of a lather, as
you might say: all stirred up, you
know. You show her the handbag
you've found under the bench and
tell her you was distracted about it.
You'd lost it, you see, and it's got all
your money and your railroad ticket
home in it. You show her the money
and the railroad ticket" He inter-
rupted himself to inquire with a sud-
den interest:
Maybe you got a railroad ticket
home?"
Yes"
Back to Lurton?"
Back to Kalamazoo"
Fine" he announced. "Thatll save
the bother of buying one, and it'll be
more convincing, too, because you can
talk about Kalamazoo and Lurton
without losing confidence. Well, you'd
lost your handbag with all your money
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