New Britain herald., 1926-12-16
Broken {: k! x @l,lareads
 
O026 NEA 6ERNlCEm
WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

| Elwell in Camdenville, Ind, one
 night in October, 1898, comes Mar
 tha Dalton, nurse, bearing with
 her a woman who had tainted on
 the train on which Martha had been | travelling.
 l Elwell is an artist He has a
 son, Jim. aged s. Late that night the
 woman gives birth to twin girls and then dies without revealing CT
 identity. Her attire had indicated she was person of wealth and re-
 finement.
 The story then moves forward to 1 June, 1916, and the reader is intro-
 duced to Jim Elwell, now p and
 his fathers partner, and to the
 twin girls. who have been adopted
 by the Elwells. They are now IT,,
 and one of them has been named
 Margaret and nicknamed Rusty;
 the other, Elizabeth, is called Betty.
 April, 1917, comes and the
 United States enters the World
 War. Jim enlists.
 NOW BEGIN THE STORY
 CHAPTER VI | There were to be many happy
 days together, though, before Jim i went away He was told to wait for
 his call to active duty, and following close on the heels of his enlistment came a hllrry-up order from Chi ! cago to fit out two theaters with complete scenic equipment. It was a job entailing a nice profit of S30o0 l to the Elwells.
 Delivery not later than August | 2O," was the stipulation made in the contract accompanying the letter.
 "Grab It," Jim advised his father I when Prof showed him the order. T can help you till I'm called, and it's likely to be couple of weeks or month-maybe more-before that happens. Three thousand in the clear is pretty tidy business, too much money to let get away, even if we have to cut it with somebody else"
 If we could get Dick Garfield to help, it would
 You said it, son." cut in Prof El- we'll with emphasis. Dicks the very boy That is," he qualified, If We can get him."
 Jim would duck right over to the telegraph office and send wire, he said. Did Prof think he'd better?
 The other nodded. "Tell him we'll sleep him and eat him and pay him the scale" he advised.
 Jim grinned with pleasurable an- ticipation. It would be great, he told himself, to have Garfield as visitor and to work with for week or two. He recalled the two jobs on which Prof and he had worked with Dick, and the friendship that had dated from that period, two years previous !
 Both of them had liked the Chi | cago artist from the day they had met. Later they had visited him at | the home of his aunt in Chicago. Dick Garfield had told them that his parents had died when heswas ten years old, and while he was younger than Jim by year, he was COnSlueItu by FIJI il hi lDe of more than ordinary ability.
 And so Jim sent the wire, hoping to goodness that it would fetch him, flor besides needing him right now I've got a hankering to see the cuss again."
 He chuckled softly to himself. And what a line of gab he used to have! l wonder if he's got it yet?"
 An hour later the message was de- livered in Chicago, and a red headed young man who had just enlisted himself smiled when he read the ap- peal from Jim Elwell. He sent his acceptance immediately.
 At noon Jim got his telegram: Will arrive six p. m. today. Meet me-"
 Father and son were at the sta tion to welcome their guest and as- sistant when he arrived.
 You'll have to bunk in with me tonight" Jim told him as they ap- preached the cottage. Tomorrow Molie will have cot up for me. I gotta big room"
 "Mollie." repeated the visitor from, Chicago trifle vaguely, Tets see, .hat-'
 My mother" explained Jim.
 Dick Garfield laughed.
 And how is-er-Rusty and Betty" he asked casually.
 "Oh they're feelin' fine as usual" said Jim, and added magnanim ously, Kids, of course, but they gotta lot ,f sense at that. You'll like 'em."
 Prof Elwell smiled to himself at ( Iim's snug complacency and won tered If this good-looking young ,rtist from the city wouldn't be like ] y to find something more than 'kid' qualities in Rusty and Betty. {
 From the moment of Dick Cam fields introduction to the two girls Prof knew the answer to his self-put luery. To the most casual observer { would have been plain that the ,oung man from Chicago had found distinctly to his liking. It vas apparent, too. that both of the wins found in him a charming per ,onality, a young man who not only ; ,ould talk well but who could listen n a manner that made conversation ,ith him a pleasure. Dick Canfield possessed that rare trait of being lble to draw out the best in the other fellow and make him talk we'll, too. Thus it was that Jim ; vho had never won any medals as ,onversationalist, discovered to his surprise that he himself had a "line # gab" that was registering in way with the home foF's.
 And both the girls beamed on { heir big pal in a pridefu, way. Nor : id either of them suspect that it ,as Dick Canfield's clever sugges- ions that had blazed the way for inns new oraeular displays. As for pick, the though never occurred to i'm that his was the steel on which ther people sharpened their facul-