Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1931-02-01

~~ - 1880 Na4 A&<a asa a.
though II wasn't clear that he had
any property OF his own, had a
vested right. 80 to speak. IN an Au-
t~hentically rich bachelor uncle who
might BE- expected 10 come down
and settle the girls claim.
Tie only direct find for Martl1
10 the mess was the uncle's zane
and address. II was Charles ].
Forster" and he was spoken Of as
q capitalist with large oil interests
In various parts Of the country
Charles ]. Forster. &C. J.ri That
practically tied II up. but not quite.
Not well enough for Martin. who
was a good reporter.
He went downstairs. stopping on
the way TO copy the want nd I'D the
personal column for the address or
Rhoda Mcfarland.
az think I'm on a story" be told
Snow. in charge OF the advertising
file IF I'll promise TO be discreet
about It. Will you find out for me
who the X-203 IL who's been run
ming this adf~
Snow thought he might do that
and went or to look II up, coming
back within Eve minutes with the
name written on a slip OF paper.
X-20S was @. J. Forster. Just as
Martin had thought he would be.
His address was the Worcester
hotel.
The next step would be TO inter.
view Mr.. Forster and try 70 per-
suade him to tell why he was ad-
vertising for Rhoda Mcfarland.
This was a step be didn't want 60
take without Rhoda's permission.
SO he made his way to the local
room and went to work for the
newspaper.
At half past five that night he ar
rived at the address Rhoda had
given him and paused for a survey
OF the premises from outside. II was
a remodeled dwelling with a con-
verified basement which was now an
antique shop. and a first floor.
guessing from the sign painted on
the glass, that housed a dreSsmRking
establishment. Ii served some com
mercial purpose during the day.
anyhow. but Il was now dark. II
must be a rather lonely place at
night he thought.
Something had happened In the
studio; az least something had hap
pened TO one OF its tenants since
he'd seen them that morning. He
s@nsed IL the moment they let him
in- and he grew surer he was right
a. time went on. There was no
lack OF cordlality about their well
come. They e trying hard. he
saw. to keep up the festive spirit
.os a party. They'd got up a really
good unprecedented sweetbreads
with fried bacon was the founda-
ton Of 1t. The studio was an at
tractive place TO live I'm. once you'd
got inside the door. and IL was plain
the girls were proud OF IL. But
tonight something had gone wrong.
IL might, OF course. be nothing
more than some small domestic
quarrel that had fiared up between
them, but it didn't seem like that.
All that Rhoda betrayed was a
lack OF the buoyancy he'd felt In
her last night and again during
their brief encounter this morning.
He noted that when he and Babe
were keeping things up between
them and she went 80 to speak.
or duty, she seemed 70 be lIstless
and depressed As for Babe. she
seemed to be bursting with some
thing. She was excited and she
was trying to be mysterious.
Martin found himself getting
rather imaginative. One minor
episode while they were at supper
made him wonder whether he was
imagining the whole thing:
The bell rang from downstairs
and the rather nondeacript visitor
whom Babe admitted announced
himself as d name-taker for the
new city directory. He wanted to
get the names and occupations Of
everybody who lived In the apart
ment. Babe recited them while he
wrote them down In a little leather
bound notebook. He had 10 have
Rhoda's name spelled for him.
There was no real reason for
doubling that he was what he pre-
tended TO be. yet Martin did doubt
the ma almost to the point OF ask
Ing him to show his credentials
Also he thought the man turned a
rather penetrating look on him. But
he don't want TO DO something
ef1icious every time no was with
Rhoda, nor 10 DO anything tonight
that would add to her dIsQulet- It
was probably nothing but imaglna-
ton
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