Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1940-05-31
CHAPTER v1n-continued

" hAOW tk1A4A6S wv ~ WCAC pau
a salary for learning them. I'm
afraid he wasn't the old palsy-walsy
I thought him; he didn't tell me
what he was finding out"
Even Aunt Olympia thought it was
amusing. She said she wasn't at
all surprised; she declared that half
the ambassadors and all of the dip
lomats in Washington were spies.
She said, 81 give you my word, be-
fore I 60 to an embassy reception
I take the safety pins out of the
broken straps on my slip and have
Hilda sew them on. I'm too proud
to have foreign spies looking through
me at those safety pins"
cts an outrage" said the Sem
ator, bristling all over with Ameri-
canism. 'They ought to be shot,"
''Not just for looking at safety
pin, Del, surely" said Aunt Olym-
pia.
On the next Sunday Len Hardesty
arrived at Shires, too late for church
but in ample time for dinner.
'Tm supposed to be down in
Washington touching the Committee
for more funds" he explained cheer
fully. Were running short. In
fact, we're low. We were reduced
to hamburgers last night, though I
see you have an abundance of fried
chicken here. Farley must be do
ing all right by you"
you'd better get along down to
Washington, said Aunt Olympia,
"or you'll be reduced to canned dog
food"
When dinner was over the Sena-
tor begged to be excused; he had
important work on hand Aunt
Olympia got up and walked off; she
was going to take a nap, but whose
business was it? Helen had letters
to write and Limpy took the box of
nuts and the funny papers and
went out to the porch. Adele and
Len Hardesty, thus considerably
left alone, wandered down through
the garden and on out into the Or
chard where they selected big ap-
pie tree, far removed from the house
and sheltered by a hedge, and sat
down.
For a long time they devoted
themselves to the tender, personal
things natural to a young couple
very much in love, but eventually
settled down to speak of other
things, of politics, their daily activi-
ties, their hopes, their plans.
"Oh, LenI" Adele cried suddenly.
"Wasn't it exciting about Gabriel
d'Allotti?"
Exciting! l don't see anything
exciting about it, but that they didn't
catch him months ago. Quote: The
lousy worm End quote"
"But that he should turn out to be
a spy! We never dreamed of such
a thing! We've had no end of fun
with Helen about it."
with Helen?"
Don't you remember? Gabriel
d'Allotti was the man who spent all
last spring studying the American
system with Helen. I told you about
it."
Len, who had just started to light
a cigarette, paused suddenly, his
hand in midair.
"The American system! With Hell
en-" he repeated.
"Oh, it was perfectly all right"
she said hastily "There was moth
ing fiirtatious about it. Helen is dead
serious about being engaged to
Brick, you know Sh! It's a
surprise for Aunt Olympia Ga
briel said he was gathering material
for book on the American picture
and he got Helen to help him.
Though she says he knew more
about it than she did. They used
to argue for hours about pacificism
and ornaments and military pre-
paredness and all that. Why, he
even warned her against Canada
in an indirect way. We call her
the First Assistant Spy"
Len lit his cigarette slowly. did
she see much of him?"
''Oh, he was hardly ever out of
our sight. He went every place we
did-not with usl He just met US
there by accident, the way you do.
He came to the house three or four
times a week, afternoons, mostly.
81 see." Len stood up. well,
beautiful, I've got to be a-fying my
self down to Washington, so don't
sit there blinking your lashes and
looking lonesome, trying to get my
mind off the salvation of the ma
ton. According to the papers, Slop-
py is taking a few days off to rest
his corns. Will you be here the
rest of the week."
It'll Thursday. 1t isn't for I'm
Gle Lancy's corns. It's so Hilda can
get us mended and laundered and
fed. It's terrible cooking in that
trailer. We all have to work at
once, you know, for the sake of the
photos, and there's not room for
three. Our digestions pay the pen
atty"
ssI'n be over before Thursday.
Thank Ollie for the chicken /.