The Key West citizen., 1940-04-19

of Timothy Toland's will and
A. j. Morris, listening, nodded as
though he understood better than
Toni.
When she had concluded, he re-
marked, "The old fellowlhaS given
you sporting chance to. show
your stuff" - = y y
''If you call dumping a million
frogs into the lap of a Stenog-
rapher who has never before seen
one in the raw, sporting" flashed
Toni.
A. J. drummed on his. desk for
a few minutes then ordered, Call
this fellow over here. l want to
talk to him. AS long as the family
is acting as usual, someone had
better investigate him"
+ Toni wondered at her breath
less excitement as she waited for
her operator to reach Bartelps
hotel; for the hotel operator to
locate Bartell. When she heard his
voice. she marveled that she could
give her message in the crisp,
busineSslike tone she achieved.
However, when he replied with
a brief and all-inclusive quite"
she longed to tear the telephone
out by the roots and hurl it at
him.
Another period of calm enSued.
Toni called Leola Lloyd from the
outer Office and introduced her
INTO ;the mysteries of A. US pri-i
'vate business life. &
For a little while, she forgot
.BRrtell. the farm, the frogs and
the family. Then came an erup-
ti6n.H .'A f+5S
Allen Bartell and Major John
7 Q Ia n d arrived simultaneously.
The Major quivered with wrath,
BarteH with poorly suppressed
laughter.
1T is an outragep the Major
proclaimed, Vancing upon
Toni. Hannah is prostrated with
modification. Have you seen
this?" He thrust a newspaper at
Toni and she had a second
glimpse of herself going into a
cab.
Yes" she admitted.
"And this?" He thrust a later
edition at her.
Toni looked at a glarirg head
line.
} FRENCH FEMME FAVORS
FROGS TO FAMILY
mo, hadn't seen that" Toni
murmured and wondered how the
newspapers had learned of her
preference. d
And t4is?" It was Bartell who
handed hbr sthe third newspaper.
, YQLANDS} TQUCHY ON
u TONI TOPIC Y
The story below this head re-
vealed that a door had been
stanmedl inl the face, of the in
curing reporter, but not before
ite lkgl 8 lSarRadl that Toni didn't
live there any more; that the To-
lands didn't know where she had
gone, and cared less.
Insane?
"YE1ELL, now," grunted the Ma
" jor, what do you think of
those headlipes?"
The ALTERATION" murmured
Toni, SIS practically perfect"
"Alliterationp roared the Ma
i0r You speak of ALTERATION at
a time like this. Young lady,
we've had enough. We've stood
for you for twelve years. We
know you planned this campaign
of publicity. You've Dragged of
your ability to write advertise
mentS; promote campaigns. You
knew that no Chicago newspaper
would be interested in a thirty
thousand-dollar legacy. And you
knew they would be vitality inter-
esteG in a million frogs. You
knew they would play such RI
diculous tagline to finish"
Toni looked at Bartell. She
hadn't thought of the feature
value of frogs. Could he have
been the one to instigate this
newspaper publicity? The Major
was Grating:
We forbid you to use the name
of Toland further. We are giving
statement to the press. We are
telling the world that our broth
er, our own blood brotlfer Timo-
thy Toland, was insane when he
drew up that Willis
major Tolandn, Toni stared
as Bartell spoke, May k suggest
YOU do not broadcast such a state
mcnt unless you want it generally
known that there is strain of
insanity in the Toland blood?"
Insanity in the Toland blood?"
roared the Major. "How dare you
suggest such thing? Young man,
we trace our family back to the
year fourteen hundred. and neuer
has there been even a taint or
suggestion of insanity!"
Toni, who had wondered at
BartelrS signal to Leola Lloyd
and had watched her taking the
Majors words down in shorthand,
looked up as the young attorney
spoke.
"And of course you will sign a
statement to that effect" he was
suggesting.
Gladly, young man, gladly"
agreed the Major, and proceeded
to elaborate on the theme.
Toni watched Leola'S fingers
dying over the keys, saw her
handing out duplicate copies of
the statement, and watched the
Majors signature go down and
be witnessed. She felt she should
do something. but didn't know
what.