The review. [volume], September 02, 1915, Image 3

About The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??

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0V CHARLES GOODA&D .W
" GUUVTKNtUK MORRIS
NOV'cLIZCO FROM THE PHOTO PLAY OF
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SYNOPSIS.
Professor Stlllifer, psychologist, and
flordon
Barclay, millionaire, plan to
a, h to the world the gospel of effl
cieiu
7 ... t
hroush a young and beautiful
who shall believe that she is a
..'n-sent messenger They kidnap the
frnhaned little Amesbury girl, playmate
Tnmmy Steele, and conceal her in a
of
cavt
,ni in care ui a. wumaii. to ue momea
.i. T.i:in n.s sne stows iitv h'tftnen
iv but loses his heirship and on a
CW - jj .i. -).,,
hunt 'Hi? 'riP uisi;uveiB eicsuit. oiuuier
takes Celestia to New York. Tommy fol
lows she gets away from both of them,
and real work begins. At Barclay's
invitation she meets a dozen of the busi-
irW go
an imi
el. She attends a ball and makes
t....ccinn on thf snnietv wnrlH
an "" V 7'r. .7 '
Tommy Jo
:n lilt; muui idiina.
NINTH INSTALLMENT
CHAPTER XII.
The Triumvirate and Professor
5tilliter were together when Kehr's
.jjphergram was handed to Barclay,
and although they imagined that its
contents were important they couldn't
help laughing at its wording.
Suckers won't bite. Your muttering
carbureter Tommy has tickled Aphro
dite. Please pound his whiskers
quick.
Something about this blessed son
of mine' said Barclay. He opened a
drawer in his writing table and took
out a code book, and then with the aid
of the others deciphered the message.
The plain English of it was this:
Strikers won't fight. Your adopted
son Tommy has spoiled our plans.
Please call him off quick.
"Well," said Sturtevant, "what will
you do?"
"Kehr," said Barclay, "is blood
thirstily anxious to teach the strikers
a lesson. He being the man on the
spot. I have felt obliged to give him
a pretty free hand. But I'm glad
there has been no blood shed. It
seems to me that this is a matter for
Her to settle. Silliter can you make
Her call this strike off and bring
about a state of amity in Bitumen?"
Stilliter simply reached for a tele
graph blank and wrote:
Kehr, Bitumen, Pa.
Am sending Her,
and signed it Barclay.
"What will you do about Tommy?"
he asked. "He'll be even more in the
way when Celestia gets there."
After a moment's reflection Barclay
wrote a telegram to Tommy:
"Come home at once, must see you
on important business."
These telegrams dispatched, Sturte
vant and Semmes took their leave,
while Barclay and Stilliter sat on for
a time in silence. Barclay was the
first to break it.
"You will have no trouble in per
suading her to go?"
' She dislikes me, but she does what
I tell her only I don't tell her. I
don't understand her aversion to me.
She knows that I am with her heart
and soul for the common good. And
she is willing to work with me. But
I repel her."
Parclay smiled grimly.
' You have never made any great
effort to please the ladies," he said.
"A mistake of youth of which I be
gin to repent in middle age. I have
made the mistake of imagining that
I could live and die an abstract In
tellect. It's my eyes I suppose. They
made me hypersensitive."
"But you weren't born with weak
eyes."
"No when I was at college a retort
burnt in my face. I had splendid eyes
as a child. Nobody ever had a better
Physical equipment than I had a
stronger body or a stronger brain. I
am the kind of man who ought to
marry and have children."
Both were silent again. Then Stil
liter said:
"I've been giving the matter more
and more thought It seems to me a
sort of duty."
Stilliter sat gazing off into space
through the thick lenses which gave
him sight, and Barclay, a troubled
smile on his lips, sat and watched
Stilliter's face.
"You must have someone in mind,"
he suggested presently.
Stilliter gave a kind of guilty start.
"And suppose I have?"
The smile faded slowly from Bar
day's mouth.
"I do suppose that you have," he
said sternly: "but don't tell me that
ur plans are to be wrecked because
you have turned amorous in your mid
dle age."
I thought," said Stilliter, "that I
had myself in absolute control."
This is frightful!" said Barclay,
simply.
m Oh, don't worry," said Stilliter;
"the great work shall be accomplished
first. But it seems only right to tell
Gu what my intentions are after the
is finished. Has anyone so great
a claim on Her as I?"
You repel her. You have said it."
. "1 have willed her to like me. It
ls the one thing I cannot successfully
Ul her to do. . . I'm just say
lnS what my ultimate intentions are."
"Don't you think," said Barclay,
that when her work is done, the poor
child ought to be turned free to live
to love aod to be happy."
"I do not," exclaimed Stilliter, "for
the good of the human race, I do
not"
He rose and started slowly for the
door.
"Wait a minute," said Barclay, and
he interposed himself between Stil
liter and the door; "have I your word
of honor that you will attempt noth
ing against her, that she will be safe
with you until her work is done?"
"You have my word of honor," said
Stilliter, but the dog did not look his
master in the eye.
CHAPTER XIII.
Meanwhile, Tommy had been in
vited to live with the Gunsdorfs, and
had carried his belongings to their
house.
As leader of the discontented, Guns
dorf ran an open house. There was
always talk and something to drink in
the front room downstairs. Here, poli
cies were hatched just as they are in
the cabinet room in Washington, and
here drinks of the most vile rye
whisky could be had by the initiated
for the askiDg.
From the very first Mrs. Gunsdorf
had done her best to make Tommy
comfortable. Not a tidy woman by
nature, she put her house in order
for his benefit and kept it so. From
the looking glass in the kitchen at
which you combed your hair before
meals, she scrubbed the fly-specks.
She bought a new comb with a full
complement of teeth to hang on the
chain, she washed the roller towel,
and for the first time in her life took
an interest in cooking, seeking instruc
tion from neighbors who had reputa
tions in that line. But she managed
for a time to confine her amorous
feelings toward Tommy to deeds and
attentions. She tried to make her
manner toward him just what it was
to other young men who came to the
house. But when discussion was hot
in the front room, and the whisky
was going, and nobody was noticing
her, she feasted her eyes on his
brown face and her ears on his quiet,
resonant well-bred voice.
All the time her mind was filled with
thoughts and visions of Tommy. Some
times she would take his coat from its
hook and strain it to her breast. Some
times when he was out of the house
she would go to his room and sit by
the hour, feasting herself on day
dreams of him.
In her mind at least, she was al
ready faithless to her husband. But
this did not trouble her in the least.
One day there was a violent social
istic discussion going on in the front
room. Mrs. Gunsdorf had appeared
twice at the hall door to listen, and
gaze surreptitiously at Tommy and
had twice vanished upon some house
hold duty or other.
Having closed the door softly, she
turned swiftly to where Tommy's coat
hung, and pressed it passionately to
her cheek, a paper rustled in the
breast pocket, where she knew no pa
per had been earlier in the day, and
after a moment's hesitation, and Im
pelled by a sudden unreasoning jeal
ousy, she snatched it out of the pocket
and examined it:
Thomas Barclay, Bitumen, Pa.
Come home at once, must see you
on important business.
Barclay.
Mrs. Gunsdorf felt as if she had
been struck a heavy blow between the
eyes. Was her godlike champion of
labor only a hypocrite and a spy? For
a moment it seemed as if her knees
had turned to water. She put the tele
gram back in its pocket, and having
pulled herself together, once more en
tered the front room.
It was five o'clock when the sitting
broke up with everyone except Guns
dorf and Tommy (who drank nothing)
the worse for liquor.
Gunsdorf had business elsewhere,
and he hustled his guests out of the
house, feeling rightly that they were
sufficiently primed for the time being.
Tommy and Mrs. Gunsdorf remained
seated, side by side. Mrs. Gunsdorf
reached for the whisky bottle and
Tommy laid his hand on her arm and
said: "Don't; what's the use?"
"I'm sick," she said in a thick voice;
her arm trembled under his hand.
"That stuff won't help any. I'll go
for the doctor."
"I'll be all right. I'm faint, that's
all." .
To Tommy she seemed to be mak
ing an effort to pull together.
"It's the air in this room," he said.
"Let me take you oiitaide."
She seemed to acquiesce, and he
helped her to her feet, and toward, the
door, his left arm around her waist.
She leaned more and more heavily
against him, until it took real strength
to keep her from falling. In the front
hall she appeared to collapse entirely.
Her head dropped backward as if her
neck had been suddenly dislocated,
and she lurched against Tommy with
all her weight.
It was necessary, he felt, to go for
the doctor at once, but he could not
leave her lying in the front hall. So,
not without difficulty, for the stairwas
jry narrow, he carried her up to the
THE REVIEW, HIGH
room which she shared with her hus
band, and laid her on the bed.
Then he was for leaving her, but she
had flung her arms about his neck,
and was holding nim tight. Her eyes
had opened and shone brilliantly in his
face. Her cheeks and temples were
crimson, and there was no longer any
fear of him in her, or shame.
For a moment, so innocent was Tom
my, he thought that her sudden faint
ing sickness had culminated in a sort
of fit, and it was not until he felt that
her lips were greedily seeking his that
he realized his position.
He shook himself free, not gently,
and without a word, turned and
marched out of the room, and down
the stair. He took his coat from its
hook and put it on, laid his hand on
the knob of the front door, hesitated,
turned on his heel and went back up
the stair. He had closed the door of
Mrs. Gunsdorf 's room behind him.
Now he knocked on it, and in a stern
voice, for youth and innocence are
very stern, said: "Mrs. Gunsdorf."
There was no answer. He raised
his voice a trifle.
"Do you need the doctor, or don't
you?"
This time she answered him:
"I don't need any doctor, and you
can go to hell."
Tommy shrugged his shoulders,
went to his own room, bolted the door
and prepared to read till supper time.
But he couldn't read. The new prob
lem which had suddenly risen in his
life was too disturbing.
Presently he heard Mrs. Gunsdorf
stirring in her room. She came out,
and stopped in front of his door.
"Are you in there?"
"Yes."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm thinking."
"Are you going to tell on me?"
"No. I'm not going to do that. But
I must find some other place to live."
Silence. Then Mrs. Gunsdorf:
"Please don't. . . . Won't you
open the door? We can talk better."
It seemed such a confession of cow
ardice not to open the door, that Tom
my opened it, and they faced each
other across the threshold.
"It was the liquor," she said. "I'm
like that when I drink. If you won't
go away, I won't drink any more."
Her hair was disheveled and she had
been crying.
"If Gunsdorf found out why you
went away, he'd skin me alive. I
won't trouble you any more."
She looked very frightened and pa
thetic. "Then you'd better fix yourself up,"
said Tommy. "You look as if well
Tommy Couldn't Believe That They
you look as if you'd make your hus
band suspect something or other."
"I know. I've put my curling tongs
on to heat. I'll look all right when he
comes back."
There was a somewhat awkward si
lence, which Mrs. Gunsdorf broke.
"I know you despise me. But oh,
you wouldn't understand."
"I'd try, if you told me."
"Would you forgive me? I wouldn't
have done it, only, only I feel about
you the way a dog feels about her mas
ter, and oh, can't you give me a
chance ?"
"A chance?"
"I'd follow you to the ends of the
earth; I'd slave for you, and when you
sickened of me, I'd take my medi
cine." "But, Mrs. Gunsdorf, you are a mar
ried woman."
"That's no reason. That's an ex
cuse. What does marriage matter to
a woman like me?"
"I don't know ; but I'm afraid it mat
ters a whole lot to a man like me.
I'm terribly sorry for you."
"Sorrow never filled an empty
heart."
"What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to cherish me when
you're in temper, and to kick me down
stairs when you're out. I want "
"Mrs. Gunsdorf, I'm not that kind
of a man. If you're sorry I'm sorry
but really now, do be reasonable,
suppose I feel the same way about
somebody that you feel about me?"
It was as if he had given her a
detailed explanation. For she cried
in a grim, desperate sort of voice:
"So that's it." and turned abruptly
POINT, NORTH CAROLINA
and went back to her own room. But j
she had no sooner passed the thresh
old than she turned and exclaimed:
"For God's sake, come quick, the
house is on fire."
Tommy darted after her, and per
ceived that the alcohol lamp with
which she heated her curling tongs
had run over and set fire to some pa
pers in a scrap basket. It was the
work of a few seconds to subdue this
incipient conflagration with water
from Mrs. Gunsdorfs wash pitcher,
and when he had reduced the paper
to a wet blackened mass, and blown
out the alcohol lamp, he turned, and
found Mrs. Gunsdorf laughing at him.
"I don't know why you are laugh
ing," he ssfid coldly; "it might have
been serious."
She was between him and the door,
but she stepped aside and let him
pass.
"What's the matter with this door?"
he asked, after a fruitless effort to
open it.
"It's locked."
"Why?"
V'Bepause We've got to have our talk
out. And I don't want you running
away from it."
"Do be reasonable, Mrs. Gunsdorf.
Let me have the key. This won't do
at all, you know. Where is the key?"
She smiled at him, half closed her
eyes, and held up her hands high
above her head, as people do at the
command of a highwayman.
"If you won't give me the key, I
shall have to break the door down."
"Yes, and I'll say you broke it
down. But not from inside out. I'll
say you broke it down from outside
in."
"You had better give me that key,"
said Tommy.
She smiled inscrutably, for she had
hidden the key in a very safe place.
It was at the moment reposing in the
right-hand pocket of Tommy's own
jacket, into which she had dropped it,
while he wras busy putting the fire
out.
"Did you ever hear that a woman
scorned was more dangerous than a
loaded gun?" she asked. And added
sweetly: "Gunsdorf ought to be get
ting back."
"I hope so," said Tommy., "I shall
feel obliged to tell him the whole
story."
Mrs. Gunsdorf laughed out loud.
"You're too good to be true," she
added. "You blessed innocent!"
"We shall see," said Tommy. He
started toward the window and stood
looking out.
"Your husband is coming home
now," he said; "hadn't you better let
Really Meant to Hurt Him.
me out? You've only a moment to
make up your mind."
They heard the sound of the front
door being opened and slammed shut;
and then voices in the hall.
"Promise to be my feller," whis
pered Mrs. Gunsdorf, "and I let you
out."
It was not easy for her to face the
scorn in Tommy's eyes. For a mo
ment she met his gaze, and then her
eyes fell before it, and began to glance
stealthily this way and that.
"Don't ruin yourself," said Tommy;
"think this thing xver. Let me go
now. Tomorrow if you still wish to
make a row I will come back, you can
lock the door. Everything will be as
it is now. But for your own sake
don't do anything in a hurry. Take
24 hours to think it over. Perhaps
what seems good enough today, won't
seem good enough tomorrow.
Her answer was a piercing scream
for help. Repeating this scream again
and again she began to storm about
the room, overturning a chair and the
washstand. Then, with an insane
swiftness for which he was ill-prepared,
she flung herself upon Tommy,
struck him a heavy blow on the mouth,
rumpled his hair, and then flung her
arms round his neck and half
strangled him. All the while her
screams for help pierced through the
walls of the house.
Tommy was in a position at once
ridiculous and terrible. He strove to
free himself without hurting the wom
an. Then came a rush of heavy feet
up the stair, and the bedroom door
was carried inward clean off its ;
hinges, and through the opening came
Gunsdorf. Rage had transformed
him into a beast. It was fortunate
that he was unarmed.
To him it must have appeared as if
his wife had just torn herself free
from Tommy. At the threshold of the
room stood Gunsdorfs three friends,
at once menacing and abashed.
' "What is it?" thundered Gunsdorf.
"He was hiding behind the door,"
she said; "when I'd passed into the
room, he slammed it shut and went
for me."
"Is this true?" Gunsdorf faced him
and advanced toward him, with
clenched hands.
"She'll tell you next," said Tommy,
"that I locked the door and put the
key in my pocket."
He spoke with so much scorn and
assurance that Gunsdorf hesitated,
and turned toward his wife.
"It's just what he did do," she said;
"he locked the door and put the key
in his pocket."
Tommy's hands dropped into the
pocket of his jacket, and his right
hand closed upon the door key. He
did not need to speak. His face
told the story. Slowly he withdrew
the key from his pocket and tossed it
on to the thread-bare carpet.
"This looks bad, Gunsdorf," he said;
"but if you'll listen to me . . ."
"I will listen to you in hell," said
Gunsdorf. "Take him, boys."
Gunsdorfs three friends came slow
ly forward.
"They're going to kill me if they
can," thought Tommy; "and I don't
want to be killed."
He drew a long breath and clenched
his fists.
"Don't kill him," cried Mrs. Guns
dorf suddenly, "not yet!"
"Why not yet," growled Gunsdorf.
"Because, you fool, if you kill him
here in my room people will
think"
"What will they think?"
"They will think oh don't make me
say it."
Gunsdorf began to scratch the back
of his head.
"That is true," he said presently
"We had better 'take him away some
where. For now we will tie him.
When it is dark we will take him
away somewhere in a carriage. We
will take with us also a stick of dy
namite. A stick of dynamite with a
lighted fuse makes a fine gag to go
in a man's mouth. It keeps him quiet
forever."
"You don't need to take him away,"
said Mrs. Gunsdorf; "there's a fine
strong elm tree in front of the house.
Take him downstairs, call in the boys,
and read them the telegram he's got
in his inside pocket. Nobody need
mention me and the boys'll do the
rest. . . . The dirty spy!"
Gunsdorf and his three friends
closed in upon Tommy from three
sides. Mrs. Gunsdorf crept stealthily
along the wall to take him in the
rear.
"Gunsdorf," said Tommy suddenly,
"just read that telegram. You can't
hang a man on that. It's from the
man who adopted me and brought me
up. We differed because I am on the
side of labor. He says he wants to see
me on important business. That
doesn't make me a spy, does it? Be
reasonable."
Ordinarily, for Gunsdorf had an In
telligent mind, he would have placed
a just value upon the telegram as evi
dence against Tommy. Just now his
reason was blinded by jealous rage.
At that moment, seeing that the
affair had passed beyond reason and
debate, Tommy stepped quickly for
ward and lifted Gunsdorf clean from
the floor with a terrific right hand
blow under the point of the chin.1
Swift as lightning he turned and
struck the nearest of Gunsdorfs
friends between the eyes. This
cleared the way to the door, and he
sprang toward it, but only to fall
heavily on his face, for Mrs. Gunsdorf
had grappled him from behind about
the ankles.
A minute later they had overpow
ered and tied him hand and foot.
Fifteen minutes later Tommy stood
on the top of a stepladder, surround
ed by an enraged mob of men and
women who showered vile epithets
upon him.
Tommy was not frightened. He was
dazed from rough handling, and some
how he couldn't believe that they real
ly meant to hurt him. It was merely
an unpleasant dream from which he
would presently waken safe in bed.
It was only very gradually that the
truth dawned on him, and. a great
lump rose in his throat and pressed
against the rope which encircled it.
Yes. They were going to kill him.
He would never see Celestia again.
He began to think of her, intentionally
witlTall his will.
Presently she seemed to be directly
beneath him, looking up into his face.
He smiled at her. He couldn't help
It. Then she turned her back to him,
her face to the others, and she spoke
in a gallant loud voice:
"What has he done?"
A shiver went up and down Tom
my's spine. In the name of all that
was miraculous that hallucination in
white with the gallant voice was really
Celestia. Yes. And there, hanging
back in the crowd was Professor Stil
liter with his thick glasses, and Fred
die the Ferret, Freddie brandishing
that big automatic which his father
had forbidden him to carry. Celestia
was answered with cries from here
and there: "
"He's a traitor, a spy! He was going
to betray us!"
Gunsdorf crept toward her, holding
in his outstretched hand the fateful
telegram.
"We fcur.d it on him," he said.
Celestia read the telegram and flung
it rnrily from her.
"Is that your evidence?"
Gunsdorf shrank from her.
She stepped toward him and he had
to look her in the eyes.
"Do you believe that he is a spy?"
Gunsdorfs chin dropped jpon his
breast and he began to shake his head
slowly from side to side. The crowd
began to murmur with astonishment.
"Then why did you accuse him?"
"I he" mumbled Gunsdorf.
"Why in the name of justice?"
"He he is a ravisher."
"A what?"
"He attacked a defenseless woman.
It was to shield her reputation that I
"If You Won't Give Me the Key I
Shall Have to Break the Door
Down."
said he was a spy. In any case he de
served to be hanged."
"He attacked a defenseless wom
an!" exclaimed Celestia and she
laughed with a kind of cold scorn.
Mrs. Gunsdorf crept slowly forward.
"It had to come out," she cried sud
denly, "he attacked me. If you got to
know."
"He attacked you?"
"I swear It by;
There was a battle of eyes.
"Look at me! Look at me!" ex
claimed Celestia. "If you are telling
the truth you can surely look at me."
Mrs. Gunsdorf lifted her defeated
eyes in one last effort.
"Now tell the truth," said Celestia.
Speak out, so that everyone can hear
you."
For a few moments the Gunsdorf
woman was silent. Then suddenly she
lifted her head defiantly and spoke In
a loud voice.
"I lied," she said. "He didn't attack
me. I loved him and he wouldn't look
at me. I trapped him in my room,
and locked the door and put the key
in his pocket. Then I screamed for
help. That's all. I did it because I
loved him and he wouldn't look at me.
If he wouldn't look at me, I said, he
shouldn't look at anyone ever. I'd
rather he'd be dead. And that's the
truth and the whole truth, so help me
God."
Then Gunsdorf spoke.
"Cut that man loose," he said. Then
he turned to his wife and very quietly
and methodically, but with all his
strength, struck her on the point of
the jaw and laid her senseless at his
feet. Low murmurs of approval greet
ed the act.
Meanwhile, the noose had beeto
withdrawn from Tommy Barclay's
head and the ropes which bound him
had been cut. He came slowly and
painfully down the ladder and stood
before Celestia, holding out both his
hands to her.
But she did not look at his hands,
and only for a moment at him. It was
as if she had never seen him before.
In the back of the crowd somebody
chuckled. It was Professor Stilliter.
"Celestia " pleaded Tommy.
But she would not look at him, and
her dark, deep eyes began to gather
eyes in the crowd, and then she began
to speak; began right In the middle
of a peech as was her wont, and
spoke to them of justice, and patience,
and brotherly love, and scolded them
a little for having flown at conclu
sions, and so nearly stained their souls
with iivuocent blood. And when she
Hold them quite simply that she had
come from heaven to make the world
a better place to live In, those who
succeeded in catching a glance of hef
eyes believed her. And the others
kept a dead silence and greatly won
dered. When she had finished, the crowd
opened for her, and she passed sweet
ly an quietly through, and vanished
after a while In the dusk, followed
only by Freddie the Ferret and Stilli
ter. "Stop her," somebody cried; "she's
going to the stockade. We want her
with us."
But' nobody made a move to follow
her.
The Gunsdorf woman raised herself
on her hands and moaned. Tommy,
all compassion, stepped swiftly for
ward and helped her to her feet.
His heart ached terribly, because
Celestia had not spoken to him. He
wondered why she had been so cruel
There were two reasons. Professor
Stilliter was the chief one; the ex
treme good looks of Mrs. Gunsdorf
was the other.
The thought of any physical cod
tact, however unwilling on his part
between Tommy and Mrs. Gunsdorf
had turned Celestia's not altogetUs
celestial heart to ice in her breajt
(TO BE COKTINI EDJ
f -