The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, October 06, 1920, Image 9
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VOLUMWE XXXVI LAURENS, SOUTH CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1920.NUBR1
7:EEDI
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CHAPTER I.
The "Troops"
"Jr wIa hard luck., said Searles,
"that I should spenl a year writing
a play for a woman ,only to find that
4 she had vanished-jumped off the
earth into nowhere. This was my
highest flight, Singleton, the best writ
ing I ever did, and after the vast
pains I took with the thing, the only
woman I ever saw who could possibly
act it is unavailable; worse than that,
absolutely undiscoverable! Nobody
knows I have this script; I've kept
(uIet about: it simply because I'm not
going to be forced into accepting a
stalr I don't want. I have a feeling
about this play that I never hadl about
my other things. The public has been
s kind to my small offerings that
I'm trying to lead 'em on to the hest t
c.in do; something a little finer and
toore imaginative, with a touch of
poetry, if you please. And now "
1He glared at me as though I were
responsible for his troubles. As he
knew I had been flying In the IFrench
aviation corps for two years and had
just been invalided homse, I didn't
think It necessary to establish an
alibi. atle had been kind to Dick
Searles. In college lie had written a
play or two that demonstrated his
taleut, and after a rigid apprentlco
ship as scene-shifter and assistant
producer he had made a killing with
"het George Do It." a farce that earn
ed enough to put him at ease and make
possible an upward step into straight
contedy. Even as we talked a capac
ity house was laughing at his skit,
"Who Killed Cock Robin?" just around
the corner from his lodgings. So his
story was not the invention of a re
jected playwright to cover the non
appefrance of a play which nobody
wouhl produce.
"isn't it always a mistake to write
a play for a particular star?" I sug
gested. "Seeius tr nie I've read some
where that that is among the beset
tin g sins of you playwrights."
"Old stuf, my boy; but this Isn't
one of those cases. The person I had
In mind for this play wasn't a star,
" but a heginner, quite unknown. It
was when I was In London putting on
'fhairy Gkold' that I saw her; she had
a small part lioa pantomime, and
pantomime Is the severest test of an
actor's powers, you know. A little
ltter se appeared In 'Honorable Wo
men,' i capital play that died early,
but there again I felt her peculiar
charm-It was just that. She was ex
quisite! No one ever captured my;
imauglnatlon as she (lid. I watched
her nIght aifter :hight. I was -afraid
that when I heard her voIce It would
bireak the spell, and I actually shook
lIke a mian wIth an agiie when she
trlpped1 out on the stage as the In
genue in 'llonorable Women.' And
her laughter ! Yon -know how hollow
the usual stage mirthi is, but that, girl's
laughi had the Joy of thle lark ascend
ing !"
"By Jove!I" I eJacuilatedI, "there's
more here than appears. You're in
love with the gIrl!I"
"'liubbishi." he crled impatiently.
"You'll tin uk I'm talking rot, but thIs
girl wvas the visuaillzat Ion of a char
octer 1 had d reamed of and1( grope'd
after for years. That's all ; but It's
a whole lot. I cani tell you I"
"Let us hie practIcal for a moment,
Sce'," I urged. "E~mperors, presi
dlents, iand liolar murderers are ngtI
miore conlspleuous than the people of
the stage. No gIrl tailented enough to
get two engagernents, even for small
parts. Ini a first-class London theater
could vanish. WIth your acquaintance
in the profession you'd be able to
trace lier- anywhiere on earth. By thei
waty, what did( the paragon call her
self?"
"Violet DewIng was lier stage name
andio the only name the mainagers knew
her by. I assumed thait, of course,
auli 1 had( to (10 wa's to finish my play
and then have Dalton, who represents
nme over there, make an appiolinent
to readl It to her; but Dalton worked
for three months trying to find her,
withiout success. I wasn't the only
person who was Interested In her.
Dalton said1 that half a dlozen mana
gers had theIr eye on her, butt after
'Jlonorale Women' closed she stepped
into the void. I knew what you're
thinklie-that the othe members of
his shy fashion h~e was kind and
generous and mighty good to me."
"If you hadn't gone to war, but had
kept right at his elbow, the marriage
might have been averted," suggested
Searles. "Ile dlid leave you some
thing, didn't he?"
"Fifty thousand cash and the rlgh'
to use the garage at the Barton farm,
Calling it a farm Is a joke ; it's rocks
mostly. He hought the house to have
a place to store his prints and .iap
ceramics. le hated motoring except
in taxis up and down town, and when
I urged him to set up a machine, he
told he to go ahead and buy one and
build the garage. Told me I'd better
flx up the studio in the garage and
ine It a .pac to work in. His
will provides that I may lodge in the
garage for life."
"The estate footed a million, as I
reinember, No I enn't praise his gener
osity. But the widow, your unknown
auntie, the body-snatcher who annex
ed the old boy-what of her?"
"I've asked the trust company peo
ple whether she's in sight anywhere,
and they assure me that she is not on
these shores. Torrence, the third
vice president-you know Torry ; he
was in the class tih1etad of us at. col
lege, the man who never smiles
Torry Said she neknowledged the last
remittance thit'ee months ago from
Bangkok-wherever that. is. I suppose
the old girl's resumedi her tour of the
world looking for another retired
merchant to add to her list."
"Very likely. To what nation,
trile, or human group does this pred
M<
H
W I
mers.
in the r
ductions
high Lev,
custome
are selli,
bought I
you will
other st,
we have
,the pres
far in re
Li (
i0
the two companies she pt ittpeared
with must have had some inkling of
her Identity, but I tell you )nlton and
I exhausted the possibilities. It was
by accident that she got her chance in
the pantomime--some one wouldnt't do
at the last minute, and they gave Miss
rewtIng a trial. She was well liked
by her associates in spite of the fact
tha t she was a bit offish and vanished
from their world the nil mite the cur
"A elever governess out of a job.
ntid ying i craving for excitenent
ault i.,ying the mysterious rase as r.
part of the adventure. Am I to as
Htune Ihat you've bined your play
and that the incident is closed?"
"Oh, I dildn't burn it; I have a copy
locked in a safety vault, and Dalton
left one 'te&vily sealed at a small ex
clusive London hotel where, he found
after much difficulty, the girl had
lodged during her two engagements."
"You're morbid," I said. "Show me
her photograph."
He laughed Ironically. "Never a
chance, Singleton ! You haven't yet
got the idea that this young
woman 1i out of the ordinary.
She refused to be photographed
wrote It into her two contracts that
this was not to be asked. I never
saw her off the stage, and I can't give
you a description of her 'that would
be of the slightest assistance to It he
keenest detective alive. In that panto
mime she was a frolic, the 'clown's
daughter, and, although nobod' saw it,
she- was the whole piece. the elusive
sprite that could evoke laughter and
tears by a gesture, a lifting of the
brows, a grir.iace. By utterly differ
ent methods in 'Honorable Women'
she proved her wide range of appeal.
Tiers was the one true characteriza
tion in the piece. When Terry was in
her prime you remnember how w e used
to say 'that only one bird sang like
that, and from paradise it flew? Well.
this bird sings on the some branch!
Her voice was her charm m tade audi
ble!"
"IRave some more !" I pleaded.
"You never talked better in your life."
"Don't he an ass," he said sourly.
"Let's forget her and take a squint
ut your affairs. Just what do you
mean to do with yourself?"
"My shoulder still creaks a little, and
the doctors advise me to 31t around
for a while. They offered ie some
jobs in Washington, but desk work
and inspection duty are too tate after
a couple of years spent in star climb
ing. I'm going up to Barton-on-the
Sound and I'll camp in the garage on
my uincie's place."
"Your uncle playedl you a nasty
trick," interrupted Searles; "getting
marriedl and then judding to the crime
by (lying. You couldln't beat that for
gener'il! spitefulness."
"Do you remember the immortal
lines:
Y 'Oh, skip your dear unclel'
The Itellmnan exclmed
As he angrily tInkled his bell"?
"OImnot knocking the dead !" he
protested. "Mr. Batshford -always
struck me its a pretty dlecenlt, squaire
sort of chap, and not ,at all the
faililar grouchy uncle of fietioitnial
the drama. I tmad~e notes on him from
time to time with a view Io building
a play itrotted him-- the per'feclti cr et,
unobt ru.'ive. never bl1ustering at his
n'phtew; transltinlg the avuncular
relationship into soimethitig remiole andi
chatste' 'like a distanit view of M.ounit
Washington in witer. It was just
like himt to retire from busliess on
hiis sixtj ethi birt hdlay anad depatrt for
Ithe Orienit, there to comi!t the
shameless indis(cret ion of mtirlion."
"Like him!h It was the grt'ateset
shock of mty life. To thle bs of my~
koldehe never knew any womein
exet h widow of his partnter in the
importing house. Slhy -'a' abtout
eighty and1( perfectly safe. lIe spent
I tnty years in Ithe TIyringhinam, thie
dutllest andit most resp'ectable h~otel
in the world, tand his chief reerea
tiona was a leisurtely walk in the park
befotre goig to bed. You could se~t
your c'oc'. by him. fretty til pick
lng f'ut a dri~ aatist, I shou)lb think.
Ike ust'd to take mec to the theater
roauil ar ni very other lThurgday-it
;.'ats a datc--andl his favorite enter
faceor Imtlelisliaun I rw..-A. ..'tin..a. in
atory person belong?'
"I'll tell you all I know. Just as I
was sailing from France I got a letter
from Uncle Bash stating in a most
businessilke fashion that he was
about to be married to a lady he had
met on the trip out to Japan. The
dire event was 'o occur at the Amer
lean embassy the following day.
From which I Judged that my presence
at the ceremony was neither expected
nor desired. Oddly enough, months
afterward, I picked up an English
paper in a French inn that contained
an announcement of the marriage in
the usual advertisement form. The
lady was succinctly described as Mrs.
Alice Wellington Cornford, widow of
the late Archibald Reynolds Cornford,
I'epperharrow road, IIants. All Tor
rene knows of the subsequent pro
eeedings is what he got in offiTcial re
ports of Uncle Bash's death from the
.consul-general at Tokyo. Whether
the widow expects to come to Amer
ict ultimately or will keep moving
through the Orient marrying husbands
and burying them is a dark mystery.
If she "hould turn up, the house at
Barton is hers, of course, but with
her roving disposition I fancy my
aunt Alice wouldn't like the place.
The .111Ja stuff is worth a hit of money,
and if the lady is keen for such
things and not a mere adventuress
she may take it into her head one of
these days to come over and inspect
the loot."
"I can see the vampire," said
(Continued on Page 5.)
eting
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witzer
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On a recent trip North a waist manu
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A complete stock of Hosiery and No
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ouu
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staple dry goods have shown
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-ompany
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