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26 WHAT HAPPENED so FAR . Tom Bilbeck is the narrator. He is-a fat newspaper writer who drives a 1tumltLe-d.p.rrt car he calls Grand- mother Page. He is in -love with MhryioUhis rivirrtreintt Jim Cooper. The three are members of anamo- teur dramatic group. -Pltins for a 'play at the Old Soldiers' Home are under way. Grandmother Page has engine trouble while Maryann. is out driving with Bilbeck, and Cooper, passing in a big roadster, taunts him. After Maryella has left Bilbeck is able to start his car attain. . The amateur, players are to give Pygmalion and Galatea. at, the Old Soldiers' Home, In their version Bil- beck is to act as the statue, and Mary- ella despairs when she discovers his bow legs. Mrs. Henmingway late? flatterti Bilbeck and talkie him about the play. Bilbeck pats. her hand, only to find a rough hand grasping him by the shoulder and lifting him out'of,~his seat.' . NOW Mr. to the the; D nights galls f from 1 at at one am I'Fhn. J interposed for guite. ' _ "I ea'n see that," he retorted, not taking hit eyes from my face. “(Now all I want to know is Who You are,» he shouted at me. "Take ‘03 that mask before I yank it,oft." A T He made a motiotttoward me with his open hand. _ His wife stopped him. "Don't, John. 'It's Tom Bilbeck. That's his .real face.'" T ,John Hemmingway’s jaw fell. He and I are close friends. We went through all our schooling together, and we belong to the same secret societies. I suppose we havesworn eternal friendship and brotherly love on a dozen oceasions.' It was partly owing to him that I held down my ‘star job on the newspaper. A ' 'ioilt." he exclaimed} dnd turned to his wife. "But---," . ' She had stepped out in the aisle and his’ eye fell on her costume' for the first time,' He was speechless - sVith'admiratioit., I thought. . "What have you trot "ont" he de- manded hoarsely. "Is it anything at all, or have I merely got a speck in my eye Y' "This ismty costume for the play, "This irmy costume for the plsy, she explained carefully. "Your costume t" he repeated: puz- zled. 1Where is the rest of Rf." "This is van." . _ "All? 'What do you represent-a Clothespin?” . "No." _ . ' Mrs. Hemmingway his the virtue guy! the fault of literalnes. . '. Hemininttway e' club.. Hg_is_1gy Daiff mil: Iii ts too" often. fer his wife t rehearsals. a stood in the 1e another. nw,. John!", M GO ' while Yet see that," I eyes from t to know i WITH , , Mrs wasn't my does not managing Ci in}! "his "ti , But he to aisle" take Hemmingrwa'y expeéting you and ot belong ' editor of "to -ir'ifiE e usually her home STORY glared 'INost, are,?’ , that "I am a Greek boy." _ . _ l, “Not any more," her husband stated.' firmly. "You can quit right Jtere. .I won't have my wife parading around in that kind of a - whatever it is." "ft's a Greek tunie." , ; "It is not," he declared,. looking at it more closely. "1t'a my best silk sport shirt with the neck cut out and a little embroidery around the tails! Go and, get on some clothes and I' will take yotrhome." P e"Oh, John! You don't mean itl" Mrs. Heiismintrwtw' watt. genuinely alarmednow, andefeared that he was in etirniiist. . T "This is all for Art." “I don't care whether it is for Art or for Tom Bilbeck. ‘Go, cover 'em pp.". . . IBY, this time the rest, of the com- pany had heard the discussion, which had been conducted in the same tones as those ordinarily used on the blenehd. . Ae "i thought, you mitrht.wtot these . . . " . ' era at a baseball game. They gath- away during. a dreiss “rehearsal?” ered around. _ I said Jim_Cgoper. . V _. "Please, Mr. Hemmintrwag," plead- ed Maryella. “You couldn’t make Helen withdraw now. It will break up the show." "Is Mr. Hemmingway here t" in- quired a voice loudly from the rear of the auditorium; It was the boy from the boxrirffiep. ' f "Yer" replied John. "What is it?" "You're wanted on the Telephone." Hemmingwa-y left' us, a dejected group. 7 K . '"rt. she doesn't irwill break urrthe Hemmingway family," he declared firmly. , _ v “What can we dot" failed Mary- ella disconsolately. J'Whiril1.the old soldiers dot" l _ "Don't worry," Mrs. Hemmingway said. “I'll manage him some. way. I’ll fix the costume up so that he will apptiiire all right." She sighed.with wet at the idea. Hemmingway rammed. 's _ . "Get dressed. Tom." he said to me. "We've got to go over to the Mflee." "Whnt happened?" I asked. - "There has been a jun-delivery " the Penitentiary, "and twenty prison- 3/ Ci 'trt, " "7 Inn l " _,, I x ‘ R w . ig j'r5' 1 fic') l NI As I , , "ttlil. _ / _ T "IN , 3,417“; l] 1 “$131? a 'i? ' i2illl I [fl m '8Si'giSc':icTCl, , '4' I r ".: u' h"N I ' . , I . It 1tr'rii_i_i,-'i'ii"s1i'ic't I / I ‘ 'J!")'] I l k I r ia ',,l,i6l, e, {g}: . " A se" I p, ‘ ‘ ‘ I N . T f , Lh I ‘ 'sa-hee - q . " I.. q PN, I x , lb I w . Lr"e.1. t ' E I ' u M It ' , I ‘ [l _ ' KW, T f sl5c5, ’\ I I , ‘ , \ I Lei ,7 ' 's, “ I V st. Sh 'n I 1 _-lick',:, r I th & 'a r l _" - r _," Ia" 'rij,ti.irsl-tti" w' r , “t/ . ‘ _ - S r-rel-trs? t lil ' I c1i'o2' [ l I l , 1 (ijt), . my, l . II t I v' an (if? , a *\\_ ll I 5% . , crfel. if?“ - e ‘ . we" P2 View? rd' I 'sCr liiia ri's'it(j',), - I; Ill 542A .- J-rl-?-,-:',?,,-',?-,!")?;',;;,";",' - Us,» 9, f. T Ti)'))'))' THE"‘PIEBS érjs haw éscaped‘. It’s a. big story, and we’ll have to have you handle 'tF" A. chorus of protests went up at the idea ‘of my leaving the rehearsal. I wad just peeved. enough so that it did not make any diffrence to. me. They had made fun of me, and now that I had a good excuse for with- drawing they could see how they could get along without me. . The idea of taking the long, cold trip out to the -urersitentieiry" did not appeal to me inuitself, but I was glad to be able to leave the theatre.' if Hemmintrsyay had gone ~after- tell- ind his wife that he' would send a taxi to take her home. ' Tturieoacls came out in front of the cumin to announce that the stage was all set for thethird act. .. ed.- _ V ' ,_ 'FV - - I" did not respond. T _ "Surely you' are not going to go f‘I really have' to go," I replied, and added bitterly:, "It doesn't make any particular difference. I believe that you will find the dummy more pleas- ing to. some of the members of the east, and if you we it Pm sure it Will. save -riis. a lot of trouble.” Maryella looked at me with a cold- ly flashing eye, - 77 - A . "Marye1la"----Jim turned to her--- "can't you say something to make' Tom remain 'Y He'll do it for you." " Doubt," she hesitated, "whether anything I could say would have any effect. I imagine that his interest in the rehearsal will cease with Mrs. Hemmingway's departure." _ . I could scarce believe my ears. How could (she be so unreasonable? I turned on my heel and made down the aisle for the front entrance of the theatre. "Tom," someone shouted after me. I contingeit my way unheedinit.- "Oh Tom!” "Wait a mhtutel", im- plored Jim. I did not answer. If I had I might have said something that Ivnhould have regretted exceedingly later. "Everybody on stage,” he request- T-Her- Some one was coming down the aisle after me. I quielrened ,my £912, determined to listen to no plea up. Maryellu had chosen to bring p%son- alities into it, and I would not stand for it, that was all. I reaéhed theanain entrance of the theatre and stepped through a Moor into the brilliantly lit lobby. A man who was buying tickets at the box office looked up and with a yell ran out into the street, leaving his change behind on the shelf. Some one opened the door I had just closed behind me. I did not look around. _ 7 "Tomr" It was Jim Cooper's voice. ,. "I thought you'might want these if you are going over to the off1ee." He thrust something into my hands, and then hastened back into the the- ater. . " was my trousers'. " _ _ CHAPTER, m. _ Watch for the Big Surprise'. . The penitentiary is, one of the things that places our city on the map. Therefore any happening of importance out there dominates the local newtr and figures largely also in the Associated Press dispatches. The prison authorities had been having etingiderable, trouble _beeantse of a number of men among the pris- oners who, Were agitating for Can eiirht-hour day, and some new fox- trot records for the phonograph, or something like that. The warden had not hinted their demands,” this jail-delivery practically amounted. to aftitriltec The t word that they until their .denit _Pf course 'it , serious than_thl in. that fashion serious than_tn in that fashior Not that I felt --far from it; paper style. T ployers expect What really i the "uhrr1etssisnt, parturfe from t club and Sim1 good graces oi in. that fashion dor the Daily. Mail. Not that I felt particularly facetious --far from it; but that is my news- paper style. The public and my em- ployers expect it of me. ' What really occupied my mind was the unpleasant. recollection. of my de- parture from the Sheridan Dramatic club and Simultaneously froth the good graces of one Maryella, emin- ently desirable spinner. I also had room in my consciousness for an un- easy speculation as to whether j or not John Hemminitway really thought that I was flirting with his wife. I could get another job, of course but my berth on the Daily Mail and its allied syndicate was very pleasant and' lucrative. They bed to hold the presses for me on the city edition until I re- turned from the "pen" so that it was after two when a finally. left the of- fice to get supper at an all-night lunehcounter, I turned in about three, but didn't get to sleep tor an hour or so after that. It seemed as if I had barely dosed off when my telephone rang” I got up and answeréd it. . "Ht1lo," I growled. . a “Hello, Tom, This is Jim Cooper talkini?." breath. "Don't swear,” he observed pleas- antly. "You ought to be glad I woke you up." - _ -_"_,__-a-----. "Glad?" I repeated, increduousiy. "What have I got to be glad about t" “Because Maryella wants to talk to you, fttone “thing. She naked me to tell you to come over to her house 'tWell t " muttered something under my :e that. Ths their dema practically 1e mien who ey would m Thursdny, Mar S, 1929 demands,” this sally amounted. to 1 who eseaped.Itft uld not come back 5 were sieteded-to. Rally-.3, lot . more but I wrote it up wrpte Daily mind was of my de- Dramatic from the ceded-to. 1.otpore ate it up ily Mhil. facetious my news- Thursday, an; “I should "verintt in Lung uthe After brea -ella's house. and a light had had co there was a on the river snowstorm. I went bad hut sleep WI the day, My What' did ably somethi the niekel-Ni ions. as troott as I all for the b 'fGo to the Still, it we: first movo tt the past tht part. Maybt the-wrong a Jheti an: out. I got l Mrsciistttt ella. The l Waite home materials, V e. ing-threiads. burning in 1 The two y floor euttirig cloth. The a1 and industri my grouéh say thap I , _ “We’re ma plained afte tled. T M "'For "C-for aryelta Then they an artfully I fur breast f Maybe fluttered creatioh And - th Cheeril; the for perilous crest, f tower o its desp are set heed at our dut: tibner I of all t sublime of all, h What Man