Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1927 t THE CLINTON CHRONICLE, CLINTON, S. C. “ 1 °n Meredith Nicholson COPYRIGHT CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS - RELEASED THRU PUBLISHERS AUTOCASTER SERVICE INTRODUCTION Archibald Bennett, wealthy bache lor, travels constantly in the interest of his health. He meets Isabel Perry, who recommends a life of crime, ad venture, romance and excitement as a cure for his nerves. Archie groes to Bailey Harbor to investigate a sum mer house for his sister. A heavy storm forces him to spend the night there. During the night he is awaken ed by footsteps, and in an encounter with the intruder, who sees Archie’s figure reflected in the mirror and shoots. Archie fires in return, wound ing the intruder, who makes his es cape. Archie plans flight to evade publicity. He starts cross-country afoot in the night. At dawn he is stopped on a lonely country road by “The Governor,” master-mind criminal who mistakes him for a fellow' criminal. Archie, fleeing, is afraid to tell the truth— falls in with “The Governor,” is whisk ed across country in a stolen car. Sees story in newspaper of killing at Bai ley Harbor and, frightened, decides to say nothing but stick- with his strange friend and await developments. Now read on: AN UNEXPECTED MEETING “No, Mrs. Congdon hasn’t registered here within a w-eek, I’m sure. Will you leave any message?” Archie paused by the desk, staring open mouthed at the young. woman who was asking for Mrs. Congdon. If 4ie was still possessed of his senses the girl was Isabel Perry. She glanced carelessly in his direction as the clerk, addressing him as Mr. Comly, ask ed if there was anything he wanted. Archie promptly raised his hat, only to be met with a reluctant nod and a look of displeasure with connota tions of alarm. She was walking to ward the door as though anxious to escape from him. A taxi drew up and Isabel stepped into it, but Archie, resolved to risk another snub before allowing l\ter to slip away ignorant of the vast change that had been wrought in him since their meeting in Washington, jumped in beside her. “This is unpardonable!” she ex claimed angrily. “May I ask just what are you doing here under an as sumed name?” “Really!” he exclaimed, “isn’t it per fectly jolly that we’ve met in this way ? You know,” he added, “you told me to throw a brick at the world and I’ve been following your advice.” Having dramatized himself as ap pearing before her, a splendid heroic- figure, this reception was all but the last straw to his spirit. Her frown ing silence moved him to further fran tic efforts to impress her with the fact that he was a dare-devil, wicked person—the man she would have him to be. . “You were asking for Mrs. Congdon. when she had told him she was leav ing immediately for her girls’ camp in Michigan? He had been wholly stupid and tact less in pouncing upon her with what he realized under the calming influ ence of the brisk air, must have struck her as the vaporings of a dangerous lunatic. He had never been clever; he smarted now under the revelation that all things considered he was an immi tigable ass. . He went back to the hotel, bitter but fortified by a resolution that noth ing should check him now in his des perate career. He had quarreled with the inspiration of his new life, but in the end Isabel should have reason to know how unjust she had been. Af ter all, it was somethinng to have seen her, perplexed though she had been. He would bear his martyrdom man fully, keeping the humiliating inter view carefully from the Governor. Isabel was still the most wonderful girl he had ever met! CHAPTER V The next morning the Governor an nounced Comford as their next stop ping point, a town, he explained, whose history thrust far back into Colonial times. When they were seat ed in the parlor car he drew a small volume from his pocket. Archie saw that it was really a volume of the Ho- ratian odes. The Governor was utter ly beyond him and he stared moodily at the flying landscape. The Comford Inn proved to be a quaint old tavern, and after a leisure- from Abe Collins, alias Slippery Abe. We’ll leave here like honest men, with the landlord bowing us away from the door.” When he returned the Governor was dressing and manifested no surprise that the car awaited his pleasure. “Yes, of course,” he remarked ab sently. “You can always rely on Abe. It’s time for you to dress, and we must look our prettiest. I caught a glimpse of Mr. Seebrook’s daughter a bit ago. It may be necessary for you to cultivate her a trifle.” When Archie reached the parlors half an hour later he found the Gover nor engaged in a lively conversation with a gentleman he introduced imme diately as Mr. Seebrook. “And Mr. Walters, Mr. Comly, and 99 “Mr. Saulsbury and Mr. Comly, my daughter, Miss Seabrook.” Seebrook and Walters were un doubtedly enjoying the Governor, proof of which was immediately forth coming when Seebrook suggested that they should all dine together. “You do us much honor,” said the Governor. “Mr. Comly and I shall be pleased, I’m sure.” CHAPTER VI Dinner over, they continued their talk over coffee served in the garden. When the music began, Seebrook and Walters recalled a bridge engagament and the Governor announced that he must look up an old friend who lived in Comford. You oughtn’t to have carried that cash up here. The old man is a fool or he wouldn’t have suggested such a thing.” The Governor nodded to Archie to keep on talking while he played the role of eavesdropper. “Well, he wrote that he was coming here to spend a week and said if I wanted the stock I could bring the cur rency here and close the transaction. The Congdons are all a lot of cranks, you know. This old curmudgeon car ries a small fortune around all the time, and never accepts a check in any transaction.” “Let’s stroll about a little,” said the Governor. He led the way through the garden to the street, and bade Archie proceed slowly to the post office while he walked toward the main entrance of the inn. When he joined Archie, he informed him that the two gentlemen were See brook and Walters, and they had rooms on the floor below them. ”iou were asiciiiB | “You don’t think they’ve got any Well, 1 certainly could tell you a story j considerable sum of money with them, if you would give me time. If I hadido you?” Archie asked breathlessly, known Mrs. Congdon was a friend of “I shall be back shortly,” he said as ly luncheon they took their coffee in I they separated in the office, a garden on one side of the house. | Archie and Miss Seebrook joined Two men came into the garden and the considerable company that was al- seated themselves at a table on the j ready dancing. After several dances other side of a screen of shrubbery. Miss Seebrook thought it would be They ordered coffee and one of them fine to take a breath of air, nad gath- remarked, in a low tone: ering up hed cloak they went into the yours I should have acted differently, very differently, indeed.” “I think,” she said, sweeping him with a look of scorn, “that you’ve been following me or were put here to watch me! You went to Bailey Har bor to look at a cottage, didn’t you? Putney Congdon was there, wasn’t he 9 ” “That remains to be seen When they reached the green, which garden for an ice. Miss Seabrook was speaking of mu sic, and reciting the list of operas she loved best when Archie’s gaze was caught and held by a, shadow that flitted alonjf an iron fire escape that zigzagged down*from the fourth to the first story of the long rambling inn. “You seem very dreamy,” she re marked. “I know how that is for I can dream for hours and hours.” “Yes; reverie; just floating on clouds, on and on,” Archie replied, though the shadow moving on and on along the side of the inn was troubling him not a little. nor’s declared purpose to call on an He had surmised that the Gover- old friend was merely to cover his withdrawal from.the party; but that he could have meditated a predatory- excursion through the inn had not en tered into Archie’s speculations as to his friends absence. There was no mistaking the figure that had moved swiftly down the ladder. He was now- creeping along the little balcony at the third floor. He paused a moment and then vanished into an open window. The Governor had said that the See- jofned yo.i in the ball room." Now seat youtself on the bed and I’ll tell you the whole story. When I left you I has tened into the drug store and bought a stick of shaving soap. Then I bought a few cigards in a tobacconist’s. In each place I conversed with the clerk, thus laying ample ground for an ali bi. Hurrying back to the inn, I avoid ed observation by entering by the side door, skipped up to our rooms—and there you are! I exchanged our new bank notes for sixty well-worn one- thonsand-dollar gold certificates nego tiable in all p$rts of the republic. This means a net gain of ten thousand dol lars to Red Leary.” “I think,” returned the Governor im perturbably, “that he must and will get away with it.” His emphasis on the plural pronoun caused Archie to cringe. “You’re getting me in pretty deep,” mumbled Archie dejectedly. “How about those blood stains on the sidewalk at Bailey Harbor?” ask ed the Governor in his blandest tones. “When you speak of getting in deep you forget that someone besides Ho- ky was shot back yonder. You came to me red-handed from a deed of vio lence, and I took you. in and became your protector, asking no questions. It’s the basest ingratitude for you to whimper over a small larceny when you have added assault or murder to the liabilities of our partnership! But don’t forget for a moment that we’re pals and pledged to see each other through.” The reference lo the blood stains reported by the Bailey Harbor police threw Archie back instantly upon the Governor’s mercy. Complicity in the robbery of Seebrook was as nothing compared with the haunting fear that the man shot in the Congdon house had died from the wound. Unable to determine this question he was floun dering in a veritable sea of crime. The Governor was undressing with pro voking indifference to his companion’s perturbation. “Sleep, lad, sleep! You may be sure that nothing will harm us tonight, *nd I have faith that more stirring adven tures are ahead of us. I forgive you for your qualms and quavers, the par donable manifestations of youth and inexperience. We walk in slippery places but we shall not stumble, at least not while the Governor keeps his head!” Nothing appealed to Archie as of greater importance than the retention by his companion of the head that now lay chastely upon a snowy pillow. A handsome well-formed head, a head suggestive of family and the pride of race, though filled with the most com plicated mental machinery with which a human being had ever been endow ed. “Put out the lignts ana get out U> your couch!” the Governor muttered drowsily. \... The man certainly wore his crimes lightly. He was sound asleep before Archie had got into his pajamas. (Continued next week.j ANNOUNCEMENT I am glad to announce thaU the New York ance Company has transferred me back their agent. Service on any insurance policy ¥ill be gladly fur nished by me. "4 _ HUGH L. EICHELBERGER NEW YORK LIFE MAN Clinton Hotel IF YOU HAVE APPENDICITIS YOU DON’T SEND FOR A CHIROPODIST — THEN — Why not send your belt troubles to us. Today is the day of Specialists. Our life’s work has been in: Leather BELTING PICKERS STRAPPING SHEEP AND CALF GREENVILLE BELTING CO. TELEPHONE 2218 GREENVILLE, S. C. We Are Still Giving That Good Old Reliable Service. We Call For and Deliver Buchanan’s ‘M “Kleaners Who Klean” Phone No. 28 the town’s growth had left to one side, brook party had rooms just under he sat down on a bench and directed attention to a church whose history he read impressively from the book. “And in the cellar of that simple edifice where the early colonists used to hide from predatory Indians, is hid- en fifty thousand dollars. It must be “That’s the scream of it, you know!” saved from destruction. We can’t fail Archjed cried. “I don’t know for the! Leary. life of me whether it was Putney Congdon I shot at the Congdon house or Hoky, the burglar. And it’s so de liciously funny that you should be looking for Mrs. Congdon, who may be a widow for all I know!” “A widow!” Isabel, with her hand clutching the door, swung upon him with consternation and fear clearly de picted in her face. “Oh, that’s the mystery just at pres ent, whether poor old Putney is dead or not! No great loss, I imaging! But where do you suppose Mrs. Congdon went to hide her children from the brute ?” “That’s exactly what I suspected!” she exclaimed furiously. “You are waiting here to find that out. How can you play the spy for him! You talk about shooting a man! Why, you haven’t the moral courage to kill a flea! The kindest interpretations I can put upon your Actions is to assume that you are hopelessly mad.” They had reached the station; she jumped out and snatched her bag. He tossed a bill to the driver and dashed They found half a dozen visitors roaming through the church, and while Archie courteously answered a ques tion asked him by a stout lady, the Governor disappeared- When he reappeared he called out in a cheery voice: “If you want to see the cellar, don’t tumble down the steps as I did, it’s an abominable hole!” He brushed the dust from his knees and mopped his face until the voices below receded. ' “‘All safe and sound. Stuck it out through a back window into a lilac their own; but— “1 have chosen a star for you,” Miss Seebrook was murmuring. Archie, in his preoccupation * with I the Goverrlor’s strange performance, was so slow to respond that Miss See brook, thinking that he was deliber ating as to which star he should be stow upon her in return, generously broadened the scope of her offer. But something very unlike a star— -more like the glimmer of a match in a room on the third floor held his ¥ fascinated g*aze-r •‘We must go back, I suppose,” said Miss Seebrook with a sigh. • They danced again, and in the hand clapping that followed the first num ber he turned to find the Governor, calm, and with no marks of his esca pade upon him. At midnight Seebrook and Walters came in from their card game, and af- bush, and we'll pick it up at our leis-. ter a few pleasant words, the party ure. It’s a very decent suit-case and | broke up. you can hand it to a bell hop and bid him fly with it to your room. You were a little short of linen and made a few purchases—the thing explains itself.” When they reached the hotel, Ar chie, following the Governor’s instruc tion, gave the suitcase to a bell hop, and shortly after, they followed the suitcase upstairs where the Governor unlocked it with an implement that looked like a'nut pick. Archie picked across the platform, after her, only to up several bundles of the bills and see her vanish into the vestibule of a'turned them over, reflecting that to Boston train just as it was drawing out. ' - * He walked to the wtter front, firm ly resolved to drown himself, but his courage failing, he yielded himself luxuriously to .melancholy reflections. Congdon was a name of «vil omen. What business could/lsabel have with Mrs. Congdon? Why should she think him capable of spying upon her move ments? Why was she in Portsmouth his other crimes he had now added the receipt of stolen money. “Dinner in an hour, Archie,” re marked the Governor, “Meanwhile, I wish you would look in at Barclay and Pedding’s garage, just around the cor ner, and ask if a car has been left there for Mr. Reginald H. Saulsbury. You needn’t be afraid of being pinch ed, for the machine was acquired by purchase. I am merely borrowing it In Archie’s room the Governor hum med one of his favorite bhllads as he slipped out of his coat and picked a speck from his snowy waistcoat. “It is evident,” he remarked good-humor edly, “that you are perturbed, anxious, and have slight symptoms of paralysis a itians. Pray be seated and I will do my best to restore your peace of mind.” But Archie was not to be thwarted in his purpose to learn just what the Governor meant by endangering their security so recklessly. He slammed the transom tight and drew down the shades. “You needlessly exposed yourself to observation by sneaking down the fire escape of this hotel—I know that!” “My dear boy, I was merely gath ering a few blossoms of the crimson rambler from the ancient walls of the inn. You may have noted that I wore a spray-of buds in my lapel when 1 Some drivers claim they never lake chances-.yet they often purchase motor oil without knowing its name. H 4 ] T f If you stop to think how much depends on ■ 4 '— ... ^ correct lubrication—mileage, freedom from repairs, resale value, even personal safety' —you will always insist upon a reputable brand like rr Standard” Motor Oil. All of the best qualities are united in ‘Standard”. - \ “STANDARD” MOTOR OIL The Measure of Oil Value : . ’ STANDARD