White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-06-16
A Novel by Henry Kitchen Webster

and what he can't, fooling himself and
making himself miserable at the same
time"
Bert wasn't in the mood for gen.
eralities "All right" he said, "only
go ahead Tell me the rest of it."
"There isn't great deal to tell. I
went back and saw Vane the next
morning Told him wanted a desk
and a chance at few big fish that
had proved hard to land. I've been
having the time of my life the last
two weeks. I've got two or three OF
them already. Can you understand
how I could see that game going on
under my nose for twenty years and
never want to play it?"
II always thought you knew too
much about It," Bert said.
perhaps I thought I did," Edward
conceded obviously. Then he laughed.
ut was selling thing I didn't know
anything about that walked ME up,
anyhow" he went on.
He told Bert about Steinfeldt and
the sale of the first carton of two
dozen chokes.
"Good lord, old MANI Bert said, 81
didn't know If you'd told me
that story the morning l came home
from Asheville :"
"Well then, it's lucky I didn't" Ed
ward remarked. eff you hadn't jolted
me out of it, might have been down
1nnnnr
deeper in the mud"
"You haven't told me yet how you
got out of it." Bert reminded him. II
thought you were coming back to me,
if you decided to do that"
81 would have" Edward said, and
added, with grin, eff I'd had to,
but I found certain satisfaction in
getting by without doing it. I've a
feeling that I'm bit Of crook, but
well. there's a sort Of satisfaction
in that, too. This is what happened:
/ got letter-oh, a couple Of weeks,
perhaps before the smash-it was
while you were down at Asheville-
from firm of patent lawyers in town.
A client of theirs was interested in the
Mariner patent, they said, and would
consider buying it.
"After the smash, when I was figur-
ing I'D my debts and what I could pay
them WITH it struck me that l might
as we'll get what I could on the patent.
So I told the people that If they want
| ed to make a serious proposition, I'd
consider it.
"Just about then I got letter from
Mariner. The choke wasn't any good,
he pointed out, and if l got chance
i to sell it, he thought I'd better take
it. Well, I put two and two together
| | could just see him out there in Los
Angeles, talking to another boob ex-
| actly as he'd talked to me-somebody
who hadn't liked his vaporiZer very
well and was taken with his choke. I
knew how he'd tell his story; the
! thing was going in a small way, but
had fallen into the hands of piker
| who had neither put any real money
into 1t nor allowed him to make the
improvements in design that he wanted
to make. But if he could persuade
me to sell it out cheap, there was
fortune in it.
"I never had any doubt from the
moment I thought Of II. that that was
the explanation. 1 fgIed up it would
need little over three thousand to let
me out didn't include my own in
vestment in that, of course-and
named that as my figure for the patent
lawyers.
"They tried to bluff me out Of 1t, but
T stuck. Incidentally, confirmed my
guess as to who their client really was,
and that made me hold on all the
tighter. We closed the deal today.
I've got the certified check for thirty
five hundred in my pocket.
ooh. I've come home in barrel all
right. as far as anything goes that you
can show in the ledger. I've sunk
about twelve thousand dollars in 1t
and was lucky to get out at that. The
thing was a predestined failure just
as YOU saw the day told you I'd gone
into it.
"And vet, Bert, was right was
right all the way through. 1 was q
fool but it was time for me to be 6
fool, and down inside, knew it."
|
When dad first suggested that sh'
90 back to school Edith thought sh'
didn't want to do it. She felt long
way out of it all. 1t struck her a.
rather beneath her dignity to be I
schoolgirl again.
"Td feel awfully funny learning les
sons and mnding rules, having to ge
permission before I could go an
speak to anybody. Don't l seem NOR
grown up to you than that, dad"
81 don't want you to seem So" h
told her. AFTER all, you are onl
seventeen. You ought to feel like
schoolgirl for long while yet"
He pretended to go back to hi
paper, but she could see he WASH
reading, really. 1t was Sunday morr