Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Thursday, September 10, 1931 McCOKuIICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, SOUTH CAROLINA’ PAGE NUMRER THREQ RIH RIDES IRE RUBLE Copyright 1931 by the Author (BY ETHEL HUESTON) NINTH INSTALMENT . Rackruff Motors hire Rowena to accompany Peter on a na tion-wide tour, in their road ster as an advertising stunt. At the last minute Little Bob- by is engaged to act as Chap eron. A few miles out Bobby be comes tearful at being parted from her sweetheart and Row- rr\?» insists on taking her place in the rumble so that she can r'de with Peter and have him to talk to about Carter. Row- gets Peter to consent to divide the expense money each week as soon as it arrives, and astonishes Peter by eating too economically. The th-^e tourists reach T>e^ver, oftor passing through- Ruffalo. Chicago and St. Louis. Peter and Rowena have many tiffs on the wav while Carter beeus ■wwin'? Bobbv to return to New York. The morning after they reach Denver, Peter and Rowena discover Bobby has deserted them and return ed to New York bv train. They are foeed with the impossible condition of continuing their $rip without a chaperon. Rowena suggests to Peter \ that they make a “companion ate” marriage. They are mar ried and ro to Cheyenna, where *heir actions, when they ask for rooms on separate floors, aror*se the suspicions of the hotel clerk. They finally suc ceed in getting rooms, but not without exciting the laughter of the hotel loungers. Thev wire the company they have been married. They resume the trip the next day and are overwhelmed by a cloudburst in an arroyo and are thrown out of the car. A party of tourist campers "ives them dry clothes and food. Spokane is finally reach ed and the hotel clerk smiles when they register. They find Rackruff Motors have arranged a public reception and dance for them. They are deluged with presents. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY When Peter went out for a look around town she hurried away with her share of the wedding pres ents in Search of .a p^wn-shop. where she left them securely locked away from danger of theft or loss, and stopped for an express money order on her way home. There wasn’t enough money for the suit but she bought a new, frilly gollar and cuff set to bright en up the old one which she ex travagantly sent down to the hotal cleaners .for pressing. She had a small electric iron and a folding board in her big suitcase, but she felt seme hesitancy about resorting to such an economy with Peter in the sitting-room. The reception was a huge success. The best people in their best (-clothes were properly impressed. Pettr and Rowena in a mound of flowers in the Rackruff roadster were photographed for the local papers, interviewed by representa tives of the press, and congratul ated on every hand. Peter was given a pearl-studded cigarette lighter, which worked successfully, and Rowena a wrist-watch with the. same design in chip diamonds. She accepted it with a glowing smile and inner regret that she had not had it earher in the day to provide the coveted suit. Mr. Meeker told her confidential ly that the only reason he had not told her about the wristwatch was because they had evidently planned it as an afterthought and he hadn’t heard of it. When the reception was over they were driven triumphantly back to the hotel in a procession of Rackruff roadsters, so that a considerable crowd gathered in the streets to cheer them on. “Peter, don’t you love it?” de manded Rowena when they were again alone in the bridal suite— alone, but with the door noticeably ajar. “Don’t you adore being a husband? Aren’t you glad we got married? Why. if I had known it was such fun I’d have been mar ried dozens of times before this.” Peter waited in the lobby down stairs while she dressed for the big affair of the day, and when she was ready he took possession of the bed-room and bath while she sat in the flower-filled sitting-room— the door into the corridor wide open, you may be sure— and wrote a long gay letter to Buddy, enclos ing the money order. At seven o’clock Mr. Meeker called to escort them down in person. He brought a a huge corsage of orchids and or ange blossoms for Rowena and a gardenia for Peter’s buttonhole. “Guess we better let her stick it in for you,” said Mr. Meeker. “Seems like it gives more of a bridal touch to things.” Rowena rose to the occasion. She kissed the gardenia prettily and then flicked it coquettishly on Pet er’s chin before she tucked it care fully into the lapel of his coat—all this to the beaming delight of Mr. Meeker and the confusion of Pet- ed. Flushing with rosy pride, Mr. Meeker led them down to the re ception room and introduced them once more to all the Rackruff dealers and their wives, and then to the ‘gentlemen of . the press— and editors one side and the head waiter on the other, led the procession into the ballroom for dinner. The seats designed for them were raised above the others in a royal mound of white roses. This, Mr. Meeker explained in a loud whisper, rep resented the solitaire diamond of an engagement ring, which was typified by the rest of the tables ranging the full extent of the hall in a great circle. . ' Never had Rowena been so beau- i tiful. Her eyes—the blue of a sum mer skv—sparkled with pleased ex citement. Her lovely lips quivered sensitively. Under the table she felt about with the toe of a silver slipper until she found Peter’s foot to press when she Wished to call his attention to anything particularly priceless that caught her eye or Peter stared and stared at her. Everyone else did, too, if it comes to that, but no one of all those pres ent was so amazed and so bewilder ed by her beauty as Peter himself. Over and over again he had to re mind himself that this radiant ex quisite creature, the cynosure of all eyes, whose sheer beauty fairly took away one’s breath, was the very same crisp and curt Rowena who kept such a stubborn finger on the steering wheel of their trip. 'When dinner was over and he danced with her for the first time he was startled and stirred to dis cover that she was a feather in his arms; that her gleaming hair was fragrant as flowers; her skin velvet to his touch—and that she seemed to melt into the music like music itself. “Row'ena,” he whispered, ‘it’s great isn’t it?—Really, it’s just corking! ” “It’s gorgeous, Peter, it’s glori ous! And, oh, darling, think how they’re going to feel in a couple of months when they read in the paper about, the annulment and krlow it was all a farce! Won’t they go down—plop!—like a flat tire?” “I suppose so,” he assented sob erly. “Looking at it that way, it seems rather a low trick to play on them. They mean so well.” “But it was Rackruff got us into it—it isn’t our fault,” she protest ed. * I soon have your husband call me— wh-when he comes in,” she said. Rowena’s smile was a little forc ed. “I will,” she promised. At five o’clock she asked for her again. “I feel worse,” she said. But she did not want a doctor. “I’m just nervous,” she explained. “Would— would it be asking too much—for you just to sit with me a few min utes? I’m sure it’s only excitement after the ball.” The housekeeper sat down beside i the bed. Rowena looked very young, ! very flushed, altogether adorable in her soft night things. In the dim light the housekeeper could not see how old they were, and worn. The housekeeper had her own opinion about men anyhow, and her face grew grimmer and grimmer. The i night housekeeper in a big hotel sees much. „ When Rowena seemed to have dropped off to sleep, she leaned over her commiseratingly. “Poor child,” she muttered, “a pretty young thing like that.—Him out all might and them just married!— i Thank God I found men out in time!” Rowena smiled comfortably to herself when the housekeeper had turned out the light and tip-toed softly from the room. She had a witness to the virginal privacy of her night in the bridal suite, j Rowena was about half through breakfast the next morning when Peter came in. He sat down op posite her and the waitress almost ran up to get the order. But Peter said he already breakfasted, would ^ake only coffee, very hot, please. “She’s entirely too good for him, the brute,” said the waitress to the i pastry cook. “She never said a word but ‘Good morning.’ Didn’t even ask him where he’d been all night.” > i Peter was a little self-conscious about it all and to the critical maids his constraint seemed that i of a guilty conscience. Rowena was sweetly gentle, even friendly, i “I only wish the hotel had given , them a pearl necklace instead of I that cocktail shaker,” said Mr. Meeker regretfully. “She’d get to , wear the pearl necklace if he didn’t pawn it, and it’s plain to see who They danced through the ball will use the cocktail shaker.” She drifted lazily in Peter’s arms. and .publishers among them,’ too, as well as mere report ers. TOe orchestra struck up the "Wedding march and Peter and Ro wena, flanked by Mr, Meeker on with a display of domestic devo tion that was thoroughly con vincing. At two o’clock when it was over they went, laughing, up stairs to the bridal suite and while he changed quickly from formal to street dress, she lounged in full display in the sitting-room before the chaperonage of an open door. When he went in to say good night he sat down on the arm of her big chair and cuddled her bright head, roughly, in his |ftm. “Why put me out, Rowena?” he began in a wheedlesome voice. “Af ter all, we are married. And I fancy we’re going to have the devil’s own time convincing any sane judge that there was nothing to it but the ceremony;” , “My judge will believe it.” “If he does,” said Peter moodily, “he’s going to think what a fool I am.—Anyhow, it’s been a nice night and there’s more of it. We’ve had a lot of fun and a little more wouldn’t do us any harm,” he argued persuasively. She laughed good-naturedly. “I’ve had all the fun I can stand for one night. Run along, darling, and be sure to get a receipt that will confound the skeptics.” When Peter had gone she sat on the edge of the bed and thought it all over. In a way, she decided, it was rather an awful thing v;hey had done. But it had been so tre mendously important for both of them—the trip had—the pictures and the stories. And the money— the money most of all! But it was too bad this sort of thing had to haopen—and to a sweet thing like Peter who really rather deserved a better break—he was so old- fashioned .at heart. Rowena stood up and yawned and got into bed. She would do her level best to insure that annul ment. in common fairness to Peter. Certainly it was for her to make sure of it. He was too careless, too sensitive to public opinion. He might get that receipt for his night’s residence and he might not. She would make sure. She lifted the receiver of her telephone and asked them to send up the house keeper. When she came in, an efficient, large, Scotch woman, Rowena look ed a little limp and wan. “I don’t feel so very well,” she said childishly. “ Iwonder if you could get me something hot to drink? I don’t want to be sick.” The housekeeper was surprised. It was three o’clock in the morning and the bridal suite, well lighted, showed itself guiltless of groom. His pillow had not been touched. But hotel »housekeepers are school ed to surprises. She brought Ro wena some hot strong tea with a little rum in It and gave her an aspirin tablet. r “If you don’t feel better pretty Peter had the receipt for his night’s lodging and Rowena folded it away triumphantlv in the pocket of her portfolio, along with the other proofs of their complete seg regation en route. She was full of enthusiasm, en- tii^ly satisfied with their future prospects, a*; she was packing her bag before the witness of an open door. “It’s a great little burg,” she said warmly. “When I am a thor ough old Aiaid I shall buy me a dog or something and come and live here. It’s just the sort of town 1 like. And if I am rich and famous T will rent the bridal suite by the year and you can give me an auto graphed picture of the Rackruff to adorn mv walls. And I’ll invite Mr. Meeker to tea every Sunday and we’ll discuss our past glories and remember-when.” “It’s pretty plain what thev think of me in these parts,” said Peter regretfully, “it seems a dirty crick to play them—they were so kind about everything. “One good thing about it,” en couraged Rowena, “if for any rea son my judge should hit a snag in getting us annulled, we won’t need anv other grounds after last night. We’ll call on the hotel force for affidavits.” “What a cad they must think me!” “Don’t you care, darling. Next time we come here, you shall have the bridal suite and their symoa- thy and I’ll step out for the night.” TENTH INSTALMENT It was indeed very plain what they thought about Peter. The friendly, admiring smiles with which they said good-by to Ro wena froze into cold disapproval in their curt nods to Peter. He felt quite cut up over it all. “Don’t you care,” said Rowena. “When they find out how things really are, they’ll be so mad at me for fooling them that they’ll re- i bound your wav and think you’re quite the nuts.” “Well,” said Peter, “there’s one thing sure. Everything in the world has happened to us now. From desert sands to mountain mud, from separate floors to bridal suite, we’ve run the gamut of the unexpected. Nothing will surprise me after this.” “Me, either,” agreed Rowena. “I’ve used up the very last of my surprise ; sensations. No matter what happens, I’m expecting it.” But they were both wrong. In credible ^s it seemed at the mom ent, they were due for many more surprising denouements and more sensational ones. Even climatic conditions conspired to add to their discomfiture. The sky had been overcast for hours, and a heavy downpour of rain was followed by a steady, dis heartening drizzle that showed no signs of diminution. They smiled at each other after a terrible day and in friendly com radely auiet pulled slowly up to the hotel. “Just ask for two singles,” advis ed Rowena. “And if they give us ^dioining ones we can’t help it. We’ve got Spokane to fall back on.” They followed the boy with their bags into the hotel lobby. And the first thing they saw there was lit tle brown Bobby Lowell sitting all hunched up in the biggest upholst ered chair in sight. “Bobby!” thev cried. “You little duck, you! Where did you come from? Where are you going? What in the world are you doing here?” Bobby dimpled, wept and giggled, kissing them both again and again with complete unpartiality. “You angels!” she said. “I’ve been so lonesome and T’m so glad to be back with you again. I feel like a poor little lonesome orphan that just found out it is a Smith!” “Where’s Carter? Is it your honeymoon?” The small brown nose uptilted it self to a very haugjity angle. “Never mention his name to me again,” she said thickly. “I never want to see him again as long as I live.” “Carter! You never want to see Carter? Oh, you can’t mean Car ter!” protested Rowena, who simp ly could not conceive of a Bobby with no Carter at the tip of her tongue. “It’s just not possibble!” “It is possible—it’s a fact. All is over between us for ever and ever. That’s why I came to go on the rest of the trip with you.” “But see here.” said Peter stern ly. “you can’t just be on and off with us like that. You left us in a terrible hole, running off the way you did ” “I knew I had done wrong,” said Bobby, “and so I said the best thing to do was to come straight back as fast as I could. That’s why I didn’t send back the money I borrowed, Peter. I needed it to come back on.” “Well, what happened?” demand ed Rowena. “How in the world did you ever get off with Carter?” “It was like this. At first he was simply overjoyed to have me back and then in about an hour we got to talking about it and he ■?ot madder and madder and said be reallv didn’t know whether he vanted to ruin his future by mar- ’ying a woman who had no more -erse than that. So naturally I broke the engagement and gave him back his ring. I out mv things ! n my bag and called up Rackruff o find out where I could catch you, and here I am. Oh. darlings. I’ve been so unhappy and it is so good bo see you again. They were none too well pleased about it. Bobbv was an expensive addition to the party, seemed doubly expensive now that they could dispense with her presence. It did not clear the atmosphere when they found waiting a tele gram 5from the company with per emptory orders to send her back at once. It said it was better publicity for the roadster to have the bridal couple continue their honeymoon alone. Bobby said it was n°ne of their business what she did. that she was responsible only to Carter. Was she going to let anv ten-cent com pany give her orders? Certainly not! Her arrangement with Ro wena had been for the entire tour and for the entire tour she would continue * So Rowena retired to the rumbl Q .-.cat, although Peter insinuated stronglv that he was not vitally in terested in the details of the fall- in^out with Carter. South to Portland proceeded the thoroughly chaperoned bridal par ty. It was in Portland that Bobby, who had been delighted into genu ine hysterics over their gay ac count of the big doings in Spokane, demanded to see the wedding pres ents. Peter brought out the cock tail shaker and the cigarette lighter and Rowena showed her the watch and the candy box with the kissing Cupids—It was the last time Rowena showed that watch for a good many weeks. She left it in extremely safe deposit—for a consideration—right there in Port land. They gave Bobby a lurid account of the desperate strait in which she left them, and how Rowena now—you know, they write best sellers about men falling in love with their wives—and it would be too romantic for words!” “Thank God we’re not nice then,” said Rowena. “With the example before us of you and Carter in love and all it leads to, Peter and I have entirely too much sense to be any thing but enemies.” In San Francisco Peter fopnd Rowena was starving herself to send money back East. He had susnected that she was in debt. Evidently her creditors were pushing her hard. He went abruptly out to the little park ""here they were snapping the pic tures. “You must have enough,” he said. “We’re both dead tired. Let’s lav off.” Rowena’s smile was grateful. “I am tired.” she confessed. When they got in the roadster to return to the hotel he said in a voice so offhand and unconcerned that if she had not been so vitallv interested in his words she must surely have suspected some hidden prompting. “By the way, I got the expense money today. Of course, we’re not supposed to have it ’till Monday but I cashed the check so you may as well have yours.” “P-Peter!” gasped Rowena. *And pressed the back of her hand quickly to her lips. Peter hoped she was not going to give anything away, confide any embarrassing details, but he needn’t have wor ried. Rowena shuddered her own worries. “I’m hungry as the deuce.” he said. “Let’s see if we can find a good chop house and get a decent steak.” • Rowena never said a word about soup. For himself Peter ordered the thickest, juiciest steak thev could get their hands on, and plenty of “French frieds.” “That ^ound* good,” said Rd- wena meekly. “Two.” She hoped Peter could not tell from her voice how the ve^v thought of it made her mouth water.’ “Well, there’s one nice thing about traveling trio,” said Rowena. “You know just what to expect of everv a be' 1 " —>^ ■f-.-.-* and no adventures. It seems a bit smug after the life of adventure Peter and I have lived.” Bobby so id nothing at all. She was brooding painfnllv over the probable state of affairs in New York and her heart was wrung with doubts. There was no letter for h^r at tb^ bo+el Los Angeles and she wilted visibly. It was probably her absorption 5 n her personal grief which kept her from sensing at the first mom ent, as the others did, that some thing was wrong. Peter registered for all three, and the clerk instead of consulting the room chart as clerks are supposed to, turned without a word and went into the adjoining office. “Peter,” Whispered Rowena. “I don’t like that clerk. He looks like the worst sort of manager to me. I don’t like this hotel either. I have developed a sixth sense about ho tels. Let’s go somewhere else.” “Oh, that’s all imagination.” said Peter, uncomfortably aware that it was not imagination and that Ro wena was right about it. But the clerk came back from the inner office at that moment, sum moned a bov. and immediately thev wer? on their wav up. Rowena and Bobby shared a large double room with Peter m a single one adjoin ing. the bptiH-oom between. He was thicklv lathering his hands with soap to get rid of his accumulation of motor oil and California dust when the r e was a knock at the door and Rowena opened it to ad mit three men, one the manager of he hotel. “^r. Bland'' here?” “His room is ov»r th-re.^He’s in ! th -5 bath now. i think.” “ r 'all him in. will you?” der arrest. All three of you. We have a complaint against you from New York. They say you’re not v married at all, traveling under false pretenses and want us to hold you. They say you’re keeping this young lady by coercion and that you have a demoralizing influence over her.” Rowena and Peter glowered at Bobby. “What,” they demanded sternly, “does this mean?” “I haven’t the faintest idea,” said Bobby. “I never saw any thing demoralizing about you.” “That,” said the officer kindly, “is because you are so innocent. But that lay out there*’—and at his indication they turned and saw a uniformed woman on guard in the corridor just outside their door— “that lady is from the Juvenile Courts She will take charge of you.” (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK) "\ ms ‘Pete r !” Rownrta called 4- th Q closed door. “Can you come in a minute?” Peter came at once, the towel still in his hands. “Hello,” said cheerfully. “What’s what?” “That’s what we went to know. Are you Peter Blande?” “I most certainly am.” “Is one of these ladies your wife?” “Yes. This lady—Rowena—is my wife.” it “I’m sorry, but you conceived the bright idea of get ting married as a sop to the re quirements of society. Bobby said she always did think Rowena was just too clever for words. “But aren’t you just as married as if you really were married?” she asked interestedly. < “Not at all. We’re just pre tending that way. In fact We’re the same old maids and bachelors we always were.” “Isn’t it too bad you are both so disagreeable?” said Bobby sweetly. “If you were just a little nicer you could fall in love with each other Mrs. ’re all three under arrest.” “Did you register as Blande?” “No, by my maiden name. I anf a writer and use my own name for professional reasons,” “You admit that you are his wife, however?” “Absolutely,” said Rowena. “I even br,ag about it.”. ' .“Why, they gave them the bridal suite in Spokane,” put in »Bobby helpfully. ~ ' . “Yes, we heard about that. Are you Miss Lowell?” “Yes. Roberta Lowell.” “Well, I’m sorry, but you’re un- ‘ WOMEN: watch your BOWELS What should women dc to keep their bowels moving freely? A doctor should know the answer. That is why pure Syrup Pepsin is so good for women. It just suits their delicate organism. It is the prescription of an old family doctor who has treated thousands of women, patients, and whi made a special study of bowel troubles. 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