Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-04-10

fo0 A. aim Oul. NNnHn
you read this you are Amber,s on,u
relative. Do for her wateyer O thinI
l would do plus whatever Won would
do Yourself. Knowing that Won viii
makes me feel safe about her,
SO long, boy. st. Peter has inst
announced my act and I'm goinq nm
10 knock EN- of the clouds with a con-
pie OF my best Scotch stories and that
II about the taxi driver and the
duchess.
Yours as ever. AL.
81 that IA it. Joe sat with his
hands in his lap trying to reconstruct
al Baker from that angle. what q
boob he had been not to have eupssed
II. But then, neither had Amber. Per-
Aaps-
His meditations were interrupted by
The arrival OF a person who had been
indirectly IN his acknowledgements
Stanley.
stanley seemed much upset. even a
little violently out of key with the at
mosphere OF the stage setting.
I've got to know something and
you've got to tell me- he said with
distracted emphasis.
"Yes?"
You're not like the rest of these
people Stanley indicated the D D
o. The stage with an almost con-
temptuous wave of his hand. Amber
has told me about you. You're a COL
lee man, she says. Maybe you can
help me-
joe waited for further explanation.
For some reason or other he failed to
get much excited over the others per-
%turbation. 1t offended him a little that
stanley should be SO much affected by
his own troubles at all, just at this
time.
I've just heard something that
RUNS my entire future. They tell me
that Amber vas AL Bakers mistress,
that before 1 knew her She was his
'girl and hat everybody knew it. And
| am engaged to marry her, i'll spite
q The objections OF ny family! My
God, what shall l dop | suppose it
is .vue, but l must know the worst.
Tell me-
AT first Joe felt q little like kicking
Stanley through the stage door. Then
ne remembered that once, a long time
ago. he, too, had felt a sense of re-
vllslon at the idea of Al and Amber
beng anything to each other, and he
managed to get a slant Oh the other
mans frame Of mind.
Besides, he now had q new response
bAity conferred on him by that letter
which he had just read. Amber's hap
plaeSs was in his charge. And she
was engaged to marry Stanley. She
loved HIM that much, then. Joe had
supposed SO all along, but it was a
lllge chilling to plunge into actual
facts.
Would it," Joe asked idly, make
any difference to you If you found out
that the Woman you loved had once
loved another man so much that she
had belonged to him?"
Il don't know what you mean" STAN
ley was unable to consider any idea
oil the beaten track that he saw before
him. The sort of thing you speak of
Just isn't done among my people. Tell
me the truth. My life and happiness
are at stake
Joe laughed. Your life and happi-
ness don't mean two Whoops in hell
to me. But Amber's happiness is the
most important business l have on
you?"
Think? I know it."
well that's settled, then. If you'll
promise never to tell her that you
asked me I'll set your mind at rest"
III promise, but I don't see why"
Its for your own good-and Amber's.
1 have an idea that she would like to
think that she had given her love to
a man who had never wavered in his
regard for her."
sA11 rinbt - Cfon1axr t,rroI Ii,, Nv
impatiently. i've promised, haven't
1. What's the answer?"
1.-THE ansWer is that Amber is Al
Bakers niece. I didn't know it myself
until just now. Here's a letter from
him to me all about it."
Stanley took the letter and read it
through hastily twice.
"Gee," he said; Il don't see how I
can thank you"
You can't :" Joe was seated on a
folding chair near the microphone
through which the services would
shortly be broadcast. "All you can do
is make Amber happy. If you don't
I'll kill you myself"
Joe didn't seem to have anything
further to say, so Stanley, after offer
ing the letter without meeting with
any response, laid the open sheet Of
paper beside him and tiptoed off the
stage.
Joe did not know when he was gone.
Neither did he know when another fig
ure which had been kneeling at the
far side Of the coffin got up and ap-
preached him, picked up the letter,
read it and also left the theater.
Joe was too much occupied with his
own thoughts. He had done the thing
that he believed might make Amber
happy. But he was not particularly
happy about it himself, yet. And AL,
in his letter, had said that he would
probably find his own greatest happi-
ness that way. Well, perhaps that
would come later.
He sighed and went down beneath
the stage, where the orchestra was
assembling. He led them out to their
places in the pit just as if they were
to play a regular performance.
Joe looked at his watch. 1t was time.
He raped gently on the music rack
with his baton. The doors of the
theater opened and, as the friends who
had been waiting outside filed in, the
orchestra, with mufled drums and in
dead march tempo, began to whisper:
or Man Mountain, OF Man Noun
tain,