The Frisco Journal (Frisco, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 38, Ed. 1 Friday, November 4, 1927 Page: 3 of 6
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Meredith Nicholson
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Introduction.
Archilbald 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 goes 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 awak-
ened by footsteps, and in an encount-
er with the intruder, who sees Arch-
ie’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 pub-
licity. 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 whisked across country in a stolen
car, sees story in newspaper of kill-
ing at Bailey Harbor and, frightened,
he decides to say nothing but stick
with his friend and await develop-
ments. Now read on:
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.
“No Mrs, Congdon has registered
here within a week, 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.
It he was still possessed of his sen-
ses the girl was Isabel Perry. She
glanced carelessly in his direction as
the clerk, addressing him as Mr. Com
ly, asked 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
connotations of alarm. She was
walking toward the door as though
anxious to escape him.
A taxi drew up and Isabel stepped
into it, but Archie, resolved to risk
another snub before allowing her to
slip away ignorant of the vast change
in him since their meeting in Wash-
ington, jumped in beside her.
“This is unpardonable!” she ex-
claimed angrily. "May I ask just
what you are doing here under an
assumed name?”
“Really!" he exclaimed, “isn’t it
perfectly 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
frantic efforts to impress her with
the fact that he was a dare-devil,
wicked person-»-the- man she would
have him be.
“You were asking for Mrs. Cong-
don. Well, I certainly could give you
a story if you would give me time.
If I had known Mrs. Congdon was a
friend of 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
Harbor to look at a cottage, didn’t
you? Putney Congdon was there,
wasn’t he?”
“That's the scream of it, you know”
Archie cried. “I don’t know for the
life of me whether it was Putney
Congdon I shot at the Congdon house
or Hoky, the burglar. And it’s so
deliciously 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, Bwung upon him
with consternation and fear clearly-
depicted in her face.
► "Oh, that’s the mystery just at
present, whether the poor old Putney
is dead or not! No great loss, I im-
agine! But where do you suppose
Mrs. Congdon went to hide her chil-
dren from the brute?”
"That’s exactly what I suspected!”
she exclaimed furiously. “You are
waiting here to find that out. How
-van 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 interpretation I
can put upon your actions is ti> as-
sume 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
across the platform, after her, only
to see her vanish into the vestibule
of a Boston train just as it was draw-
ing out.
He walked to the water front, firm-
ly resolved to drown himself, but his
courage failing, he yielded, himself
luxuriously to melancholy reflections.
Congdon was a name of evil omen.
What business could Isabel have with
Mrs. Congdon? Why should she be-
* lieve him capable of spying upon her
movements? Why was she in Ports-
mouth when she hid told him Che. was
leaving immediately for her girls’
camp in Michigan?
He had been wholly stupid and tact-
lees in pouncing upon her with what
he realized under the calming influ-
ence of the brisk air, must have struck
hair as the vaporinga of a dangerous
lunatic. He had never been clever;
he smarted now under , the revelation
that all things considered he was an
immitigable ass.
He went back to the hotel, bitter
but fortified by the resolution that
nothing should check him now in his
desperate 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. After all, it was something to
have seen her, perplexed, anxious
though she had been. He would bear
his martyrdom manfully, keeping the
humiliating interview carefully from
the Governor.
Isabel was still the most wonder-
ful girl he had ever met!
CHAPTER V.
The next morning the Governor
announced Cornford as their next
stopping 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
Horatian odes. The Governor was
utterly beyond him and he stared
moodily at the flying landscape.
The Cornford Inn proved to be a
quaint old tavern, and after a leis-
urely luncheon they took their coffee
in a pleasant garden on one side of
the house.
Two men came into the garden and
seated themselves at a table on the
other side of a screen of shrubbery.
They ordered coffee and one of them
remarked, in a low tone:
“You oughtn’t to have carried that
cash up here. The old man is a foof
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 com-
ing here to spend a week and said
if I wanted the stock I could bring
the currency here and close the trans-
action. The Congdon’s are all a lot
of cranks, you know. This old cur-
mudgeon carries a small fortune all
the time, and never accepts a check
in any transaction.’
“Let’s stroll about a little,” said
the Governor. He led the way thru
the garden to the street, and bade
Archie proceed slowly to the postoffice
while he walked toward the main en-
trance of the inn.
When he joined Archie, he inform-
ed him that the two gentlemen were
Seebrook and Walters, and that they
had rooms on the floor below them.
“You don’t think they’ve got any
considerable sum of money with them
do you?” Archie asked breathlessly.
"That remains to be seen.”
When they reached the green, which
the town’s growth had left to one
side, he sat down'on a bench and di-
rected attention to a church whose
history he read impressively from the
book.
“And ixi the cellar of that Bimple
edifice where the early colonists used
to hide from predatory Indians, is
hidden fifty thousand dollars. It must
be saved from destruction. We can’t
fail Leary.’
They found half a dozen visitors
roaming through the church, and
while Archie courteously answered a
question asked him by a stout lady,
the Governor disapperaed.
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 S back window into a lilac
bush, and we’ll pick it up at our lei-
sure. It’s a very decent suit-case
and 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 ex-
plains itself.”
When they reached the hotel, Ar-
chie following the Governor’s instuc-
tion, gave the suitcase to a bell hop,
and shortly after, they followed the
suitesse upstairs, where the Gover-
nor unlocked it with an implement
that looked like a nut pick. Archie
picked up several bundles of the bills
and turned them over, reflecting that
to his other crimes he lwd now added
the receipt and concealment of stol-
en money.
"Dinner in an hour, Archie,” re-
marked the Governor, "meanwhile, I
wish you would look in at Barclay A
Padding’s garage, just around the
corner, and ask if a car has been left
there for Mr. Reginald H. Saulsbury.
Tow needn’t be afraid of gutting
pinched, for the machine was acquir-
ed by purchase. I am merely borrow
ing it from Abe Collins, alias Slippery
Abe. We’ll leave her* like honest
me* With the lamUoard hewing us
away ftpm the dost,”
Whan he returned the Governor
was dreasing and manllseted no sur-
prise that the car awaited his pleas-
ure.
“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 Gov-
ernor engaged in lively conversation
with a gentleman he introduced im-
mediately as Mr. Seebrook.
“And Mr. Walters, Mr. Comly, and
“Mr. Saulsbury and Mr. Comly my
daughter, Miss Seebrook.”
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 engagement
and the Governor announced that he
no mistaking the figure that had
moved swiftly down the ladder. He
was now creeping along the little
balcony at the third floor. He paus-
ed a moment and then vanished into
the open window.' The Governor had
said that Seebrook party had rooms
just under their own; but—
“I have chosen a star for you,”
Archie was murmuring.
Archie, in his preoccupation with
the Governor’s strange performance,
was so slow to respond that Miss
Seebrook, thinking that he was de-
liberating as to which star he should
bestow upon her in return generously
broadened the scope of her offer.
“We must go back, I suppose,” said
Miss Seebrook with a sigh.
But something very unlike a star
—more like the glimmer of a match
in a room on the third floor held his
fascinated gaze—
They danced again, and in the hand
clapping that followed the first num-
ber he turned to And the Governor,
calm, and with no marks of his es-
capade upon him.
At midnight Seebrook and Walters
came in from their card game, and
after a few pleasant words, the party
broke up.
In Archie’s room the Governor
hummed one of his favorite ballads
as he slipped out of his coat and
picked a speck from his snowy waist
coat. “It is evident,” he remarked
goodhumoredly, “that you are per-
turbed, anxious, and have slight sym-
ptoms of paralysis a itans. 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
Archie promptly rais-
ed his hat, only to be
met with a reluctant
nod and a look of dis-
pleasure. ..........
She was walking to-
ward the door as tho
anxious to escape him.
must look up an old friend who lived
in Cornford.
“I shall be back shortly,” he said
as they separated in the office.
Archie and Miss Seebrook joined
the considerable company that were
already dancing. After several dan-
ces Miss Seebrook thought it would
be fine to take a breath of air, and
gathering up her cloak they went in-
to the garden for an ice.
Miss Seebrook 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 along an iron Are 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 troub
ling him not a little.
He had surmised that the Gover-
nor’s declared purpose to call on an
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 friend’s absence. There was
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
w ore a spray of buds in my lapel when
I joined you in the ball room. Now
seat yourself on the bed and I’ll tell
you the whole story. When I left
you I hastened into the drug store
and bought a stick of shaving soap.
Then I bought a few cigars in a to-
bacconist’s. In each place I convers-
ed with the clerk, thus laying ample
ground for an alibi. Hurrying back
to the inn, 1 avoided observation by
entering by the side entrance, skipped
up to our rooms—and there you are!
I exchanged our new bank notes for
sixty well-worn one-thousand-dollar
gold certificates negotiable in all
parts of the republic. That means
a net gain of ten thousand dollars
to Red and Leary.”
“My God!” moaned Archie. "You
don’t think you can get away with
this!”
“I think,” returned the Governor
imperturbably, “that we must and
will get away with it.” His emph-
asis on the p!ural pronoun caused
Archie to cringe.
“You’re getting me in pretty deep,”
mumbled Archie dejectedly.
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“How about those blood stains on
the side walk at Bailey Harbor?”
asked the Governor in his blandest
tones. “When you speak of getting
in deep you forget that someone be-
sides Hoky was shot back yonder. You
came to me red-handed from 3 deed
of violence, and I took you in and be-
came your protector, asking no ques-
tions. It’s the basest ingratitude for
you to whimper over a small larceny
when you have added assault or mur-
der to the liabilities of our partner-
ship! But don’t forget for a moment
that we’re pals and pledged to see
each other through!”
The reference to 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 he had shot in the Congdon
house had died from the wound. Un-
able to determine this question he
was floundering in the veritable sea
of crime. The Governor was undress-
ing with provoking indifference to
his companion’s perturbation.
“Sleep, lad, sleep! You may be
sure that nothing will harm us to-
night, and I have faith that more
stirring adventures are ahead for us.
I forgive you for your qualms and
quavers, the pardonable manifesta-
tions 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 thk retention
by his companion of the head that
now lay chastely upon a snowy pil-
low. A handsome well-formed head,
• head suggestive of family and the
pride of race, though filled with the
most complicated mental machinery
with which a human being had ever
been endowed.
“Put out the lighta and get out to
your couch!” the Governor muttered
drowsily.
This man certainly wore his crimes
lightly. He was sound asleep before
Archie had got into his pajamas.
When they reached the dining room
at ten the next morning they found
Seebrook and Walters just finishing
breakfast. Miss Seebrook was having
coffee in her room, her father ex-
plained is response to Archie’s po-
lite inquiries.
“We’re hoping to get away this af-
ternoon,” he continued. “It will take
only a few minutes to transact our
business when the man I’m waiting
for appears; but he’s an uncertain
quantity, and there’s no telling when
he’ll show up. But we’re having a
good time and I shan’t mind another
day or two. If only you gentlemen
would bear us company!”
“Ah, very kind of youP said the
Governor; “but we must resume our
ramble toward the Pacific. We are
more or less dated up for little en-
tertainments on the way.”
the office aa Archie and Gw
paid their account As they waited
for their ear to be sent round frees
the garage a machine drew up and
discharged a abort wiry, elderly nun
in a motor coat that was mnch too
large for him. He was accompanied
by an enormous amount of luggage
and from the steps of the inn gave
orders in a high piping voice as to
the manner of its disposal. As the
various pieces were hustled into the
office he enumerated them in an audi-
ble tone as though inviting the co-
operation of all the loungers in mak-
ing an inventory of his effects. When
this had been concluded Soabrook
stepped up and accosted the new-
comer.
"Mr. Congdon, I am very: glad to
see you. I hope you are not worn
out by your drive?”
"Worn out!” snapped the little man.
“Do you imagine a run of a hundred
miles would fatigue a man of my con-
stitution? I assure you that you are
greatly mistaken if you think I am
feeling my age. Seventy! And I
don’t feel a day over fifty, not a day,
sir. But I shall rest for a few hours
as a precaution, a mere precautionary
(Continued on Next Page
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O'Neill, Matt E. The Frisco Journal (Frisco, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 38, Ed. 1 Friday, November 4, 1927, newspaper, November 4, 1927; Frisco, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth507644/m1/3/: accessed June 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Collin County Genealogical Society.