CHAPTER XI-—Continued
wn]
Fifteen minutes later, they were
entering the crowded rooms of the
Club Torquay. The scent of expen-
sive perfumes, cigarette smoke, and
food in the offing, filled the place.
Men in dinner coats, women in eve-
ning gowns sat around the gaming
tables, while persons wishing they
had seats stood behind them, watch-
ing the play.
Two seats were finally vacated,
and Aunt Linnie and Mrs. Bascom
hurriedly slipped into them. ‘‘Are
vou going to play?’ Miss Cotswell
asked Mary over her shoulder.
‘“‘Heavens, no!’ Mary answered,
and glanced across the table just
in time to see two more people get
up, a defeated expression on their
tired faces, and Lelia and Balianci
slid into their little gilt and rose-
velvet chairs.
Miss Cotswell opened her evening
bag, extracted a fifty dollar bill, and
asked the long-faced banker for fifty
one-dollar chips.
The game went on and on.
placing of new bets before
Here, there,
winning number.
Mrs. Bascom had lost consistent-
ly; had purchased one batch of chips
after another; but Aunt Linnie, bet-
ting, as she said, *‘‘like a piker,”
had been fairly lucky.
Balianci, after a brief time, re-
linquished his seat to Mr. Bascom,
and was now standing next to Mary,
his moist hand encircling her elbow.
Linnie had asked her again and
again if she did not wish to play:
had even offered her a bunch of
counters when an adjacent seat had
suddenly been vacated; and again
and again, Mary had firmly re-
fused.
Eventually, however, Linnie had
risen from her chair. ‘Listen, Ma-
ry,’ she whispered, ‘I simply have
to go to the powder room. Now
here are five chips for your very
own. Please play them while I'm
gone. Hold this seat for me, or
someone’'ll grab it the minute I
leave. Whatever you win with them
is yours. Go on, darling.”
Thus importuned, Mary grudging-
ly took Linnie’s place at the table.
Everybody about her was intent
upon placing chips on their chosen
numbers or colors before the next
turn of the wheel, but Mary, never
having played roulette before, just
sat there, the chips Aunt Linnie had
given her clasped tightly in her
hand,
“Go on and play,” Mrs. Bascom
whispered. “They don't like it when
people just sit around doing noth-
ing.”
The "‘guests’ were again placing
their bets on numbers or colors: and
rousing herself to action, Mary
dropped just one of her five chips on
Black. Again the croupier spun his
wheel, and the ball dropped on Red:
bounced out and landed on another
Red; fitfully leaped out and settled
itself comfortably on Black. “You've
won!" hissed Mrs. Bascom, who had
again placed her chips on a losing
number. “Leave it there! It's worth
two dollars now.”
“Just leave it?" Mary inquired
breathlessly.
“Of course! Leave it on Black.”
Again the croupier spun his wheel.
Again Black won.
“It’s worth four dollars now,” said
Mrs. Bascom. “Black's evidently
your lucky color!”
“Oh, but maybe it won't win
again! Perhaps I'd better try a
number now!”
“Faites votre jeu!" admonished
the croupier coldly, and before Mary
had time to do anything at all, his
wheel had again been turned, and
her four dollars’ worth of chips had
remained, willy-nilly, on Black.
Again the bouncing of the ball
here and there—and again Black
won. “Mary! This is uncanny!
Leave it there, darling, Your chips
are now worth eight dollars!”
“But it can't go on this way!"
Mary demurred. “I ought to stop
now, or place those chips on some-
thing else!”
“Well, do as you like, but I'm
switching to Black.”
Mary grabbed her chips and
looked about the table in search of
a magic number. “My birthday's
the fourth of April," she told Mrs.
Bascom. “I'm playing number four
this time. Eight dollars on number
four!”
The wheel spun. The ball bounced
here and there. ‘‘You'll be sorry,”
Mrs. Bascom whispered. “Black’ll
win! I'm playing on your luck, Mary
-—fifty dollars’ worth of chips!”
The ball was still bouncing. Then,
with a spasmodic jerk, it rose in the
air, and fell with a brittle thud on
«number four. “I won again!” Mary
cried, turning around and looking
at Count RDalianci. “How much is
it now, Umberto?"
Balianci removed a cigarette from
his mouth, “Two b ndred and eighty
dollars, fearatasy ,/ not counting the
eight dollars you played.”
“Two hundre | and eighty dol-
lars!” Mary ex laimed. “Well, it is
time for me t¢ stop!”
“Don’t you dare!’ cried Mrs. Bas-
com, grabbing a iifty dollar bill
from her purse, and signaling the
banker for more chips. ‘Play just
once more, Mary. If you win this
time, you'll really get something
worth while.”
“Faites votre jeu!" the croupier
commanded icily.
“lI want my chips, please,” Mary
hastily informed the assistant crou-
pier nearest at hand; and, with a
quick motion of the man’s rake, her
winnings were deftly deposited in
front of her.
state of helpless indecision, casting
an almost angry look at Mrs. Bas-
com. “If only that woman would
stop urging me on," she told her-
self, “I might be able to figure this
thing out.”
The phrase
eighty dollars . .
eighty i»
“Two hundred and
. Two hundred and
dollars! whirled dizzily
Mary jumped from her chair.
“I'm through!” she announced.
around in her mind. “How much
that would mean to Dad! Yet, how
wonderful
itm
It was unthinkable, of course, that
she should risk one cent of those
why not take one last chance, win or
lose, with the eight one-dollar chips?
Before she could act on this de-
cision, however, the wheel had again
been set in motion, and the croupier
was now calling out, "Rien
pas
plus!
spin. She would have her chips
ready when the croupier again gave
notice.
she was still gripping in her left
hand four of those five original chips
which had been Aunt Lipnie's gift
to her, and, with a feeling of com-
plete abandon, she added them to
her prospective stake. “One more
play!’ she told herself sternly.
“Twelve dollars! Win or lose!”
“Faites votre jeu!"
command.
Mary placed her final bet on num-
ber twenty-two. ‘‘That’s my age,”
she told Balianci. “Maybe it'll bring
me even more luck!”
The croupier turned the wheel,
and with enchanted eyes, she saw it
go around again and again. The
ball now clicked on to four; bounced
out; now dropped into number sev.
en; popped out! Now it bounced up
again and then, incredibly enough,
settled on number twenty-two,
“You've won again, Mary!" Bali-
anci almost shouted. "Four hundred
and twenty dollars!”
Mary jumped from her chair.
“I'm through!” she announced to
the table at large, and the croupier
in particular. “Take my chips off!
I'm going to cash them!"
“Piker!’” jibed Mrs. Bascom. |
“I don't care if I am,” Mary re-
torted. “I'd be a fool not to quit
now."
“Yes, you would, Mary,” Aunt
Linnie, who had just returned from
the powder room, agreed in a low
voice. “Cash in!"
“l want my chips cashed,” Mary
told the banker, and her voice trem-
bled with excitement.
“Oh, Aunt Linnie,”” Mary breathed,
“isn’t it just too miraculous?”
“Yes, darling,” Linnie replied.
“I'm very happy for you.” Then,
turning to Mrs. Bascom and to Bali-
anci, whose swarthy face was as
blank as the croupier’s, “We'll see
you later in the foyer!"
“All right,”’ Mrs. Bascom replied.
“I'm nearly through.”
Balianci bowed, but said nothing.
“Come on into the powder room,
Mary,” Aunt Linnie murmured, “to
count your winnings, and-—regain
your equilibvium."
“I must have won about seven
hundred dollars,’ Mary whispered
as they made their way through the
crowded room. “But, Aunt Linnie,
it really belongs to you. It was
your money I played with.”
|
“Fiddlesticks!"” said Miss Cots-
well. “I gave you those five count-
ers, and it was your own good luck
that made them win."
*“Then,’”! said Mary, ‘‘you must,
at least, take half. If you hadn't
given them to me, I'd never have
played.”
“Hush!” commanded Miss Cots-
well. ‘Not another word out of you
about my sharing your little for-
tune. Every dime of it is yours!
Here's the powder room. Come in
and freshen up. You look as if
you'd been in a cyclone.”
In the meantime,
that she had
her
Balianci
her side immediately.
frown between his brows,
dark eyes smoldered.
behind for the pas
appeared
eign she could hardly understand
him.
She glanced at him sharply. Had
the man been drinking?
“1f you like.”
suggested.
thing."
Without a word,
the fover, Balianci at her heels.
Once there, she turned about and
confronted him. "Well," she said
coldly, “what do you want?"
“It is this,” he began in a low
voice. “Why is Mary so extremely
excited over winning a few hundred
mad with joy."
“Well, why shouldn't
countered. “Seven hun
are not to be sniffed
body, particularly Mary.
that money, Balianci, and she needs
it badly."
The Italian looked stunned.
how can it mean so much to her if
she is an heiress?"
she?” Lelia
dred dollars
at by any-
disdain that she felt for the man.
“And where did you get the
idea that Mary was an heiress?”
Balianci spread his long thin
hands, the palms pointing to heav-
en. "But she is Miss Cotswell's
niece! Miss Linnie Cotswell's own
leads a life of luxury!"
Lelia regarded Balianci for one
long, burning moment. “So, that's
you proposed to Mary,” she
nally said. “lI might have known
Ev.
knows you're a fortune
A gigolo!"
“Perhaps it would be better to
Lelia regarded his smiling face as
It's
isn't a mon-
eybag for you to marry.”
“You mean, then, she has noth-
ing? Absolutely nothing?”
“Yes, I mean just that. Mary's
father is a lawyer in a small town.
Mary worked in a book shop until
she came to New York to be the
guest of her aunt. And, by the way,
as rich as you think. Besides, she
expects to enjoy a very happy life
for many years to come; and what's
more, I don't know that Mary would
be her heir—even were Miss Cots-
well to die tomorrow." .
“Unfortunate,” purred Balianci.
“Very unfortunate. I am crushed.”
“Oh, I guess not!" Lelia retorted.
“In fact, I think you'll survive very
happily. I might even recommend
something to speed your recovery.”
“And that is?" Balianci mur-
mured.
“That you book passage on the
Iroquois sailing for Havana tomor-
row noon! I happen to know that
Mrs. Ulmstead, widow of the soap-
flakes potentate, and her two home-
ly, but, oh, so well-endowed daugh-
ters, are listed among the passen-
gers.”
‘Ah, Mrs. Ormsby! How you
wrong me! How can you think , . .?"”
Lelia pushed past him, her head
high, her face flaming. “Good night,
Count Balianci. You'd better run
along now, You haven't a moment
to lose.”
A second later, she joined Linnie
| and Mary in the powder room. Mrs.
Jascom, having lost three hundred
| dollars, had finally left the roulette
i table, and was there, too.
“Balianci's not feeling well,
{ Mary,” Lelia said. “He's asked to
i be excused.”
“Oh, all right," Mary replied,
| thinking, “Maybe, with this nest-egg
{ to see Dad and along for a
, 1 won't have to marry Bali-
{| anci or anybody! I'll tell him to-
morrow that I've changed my mind.
| Of course, it was never made up!
{ He simply took things for granted.
Oh, thank heavens, this happened!
| Aunt Linnie says she won't take a
cent of the money—that I earned it
{ all—that every bit of it is mine. Sev-
{ en hundred ‘ and twelve dollars.
| What a windfall at this time! I'll
send Dad a money-order for six
i hundred and twenty-five of it tomor-
row. Maybe I'd better send him
| more, yet with Aunt Linnie going
| away and my being left on my own,
i I really believe I'd better hold out
the remaining eighty-seven in case
of an emergency!’
Mother
’
CHAPTER XII
Mary woke early the next morn-
with happy
ney she had won
juay. She wondered
i dare get up and
the nearest branch post.
» wanted to get a money-
| order off to her father as quickly as
possible. She wanted, too, to send a
note by special delivery to Balianci.
She must tell him at once that her
apparent acquie
al of marriage, the night before, had
been a mistake; that she did not
love him; that she could not gc
through with the thing.
Suddenly, the door the hall
opened sof and Addie’s face ap-
peared in the wedge. Mary raised
her hand to be quiet,
but Addie tiptoed in, holding up to
view a Western U lope; qui-
etly approached Mary's bed, and,
without a word, ped it on the
coverlet. Then, undlessly,
she made her way to the door and
closed it behind her.
Mary hoisted herself to a sitting
position, hastily removed the
{ message from its envelope. It was
signed, she noted at once, “"Umber-
to Balianci,” and it read:
FORGIVE ME MY DEAR BUT
1 FEEL 1 SPOKE IN HASTE
LAST NIGHT AND THAT OUR
PLANS HAD BEST BE FORGOT-
TEN STOP AM SAILING FOR
HAVANA TODAY ON THE IRO-
QUOIS.
Mary slowly reread the message:
then, forgetting that Lelia was
| office.
cence to his propos-
into
as a signal
non en
dr
just as
5 rut
ana
that this was quite the funniest thing
burst into laughter,
“What's so funny?" Lelia inquired
drowsily.
“lel! Are you awake?"
“1 couldn't very well be asleep
after that wild peal of merriment
you just let forth! What's
about, anyhow?"
(TO BE CONTINUED)
One of the most famous cases in
American history had its beginning
in the old courthouse in St. Louis.
It was in the west wing of this clas-
sic structure that Dred Scott first
maintained that he was entitled to
his freedom, and thereby brought to
a head the controversy which was
to be settled only in thé bitter con-
flict of the Civil war, writes Ruth
Moore in the St. Louis Star-Times.
As the slave of an army surgeon,
Dred Scott had spent several years
in free territory before he returned
with his master to the slave state
of Missouri. Scott then sued, claim-
ing that he had been freed by living
in a territory where slavery was
prohibited.
In a decision which rocked the
state the St. Louis Circuit court up-
held his petition,
Scott was free!
The case was at once appealed to
the Supreme court of Missouri and
promptly reversed. Once more a
slave, Scott and his family were
sold to a New Yorker and his case
was carried to the United States
Circuit court of appeals, and from
there to the Supreme court of the
United States.
Chief Justice Taney, in one of the
most momentous rulings ever hand-
ed down from the Supreme court
bench, held that Scott was a slave
for the reason that congress had no
constitutional power to prohibit
slavery north of the latitude 38 de-
grees, 30 minutes, in the Louisiana
Purchase.
This had been the territorial divid-
ing line agreed upon by the pro- and
anti-slavery interests in congress
when Missouri was admitted as a
slave state. It was known as the
Missouri compromise.
With Taney's decision the entire
shaky structure regulating the ex-
pansion of slavery into the terri-
tories was abruptly wiped out. Many
historians believe that the Civil war
thereupon became inevitable,
Early Franking Privilege
The franking privilege of con-
gressmen in the United States pre-
dates the Constitution. An ordinance
was passed in 1782 by the Continen-
tal congress which provided that let-
ters, packages, and dispatches from
the members and secretaries while
attending congress on official busi-
ness should be mailed without pay-
ment of postage. The privilege has
continued and has been extended to
other government officials and de-
| partments from time to time,
WHO’S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
NEW YORK.—Filming of Kip-
+ ling's “The Light That Failed”
on the New Mexico desert, near
Santa Fe, was delayed the other
2 day when a
Sandstorm Mild savage wind
Compared to blew the tents
Director’s Past
away. The pug-
nacious William
Wellman, the director, long known
as “Wild Bill,” enjoys fighting sand-
storms, having licked one
single-handed when he was filming
“Beau Geste,”" in Arizona. He
probably got a few good shots of the
storm and will work them into
the film, with his gift for improvi-
zation,
He was the flying partner of
Tommy Hitcheock, the polo
player, in the Lafayette Esca-
drille in the World war, and re-
vealed an instinet for showman-
ship by playing tunes on Ger-
man tower bells with a machine
gun as he zipped around the
belfry. It was said that, before
the Germans dropped him in a
tree and sent him home, he
could peg out “Silver Threads
Among the Gold” without a
sour note.
In aviation
effectively both hi ic
and his training in air acrob
His film, "Wi " of 1928, to
off his
With Wings,
18, he has employed
by discernin
bracket film,
tion from the day
brothers’ first flight.
He was known at times,
around Hollywood, as “‘Serewball
Bill,” but has simmered down
considerably since he married
Dorothy Coonan, finding a des-
ert sandstorm only mildly di-
verting, considering his rough-
and-tumble past.
He is, however, as Irish as ever,
and his famous serial fight with an
unknown Paris antagonist probably
will continue. On leave in Paris,
he found it nec-
essary to re-
buke an offen-
give stranger
by knocking
Late, in Chi-
Engages in a
Serial Fight
With Unknown
him stiff as a plank.
cago, the stranger, spying Mr. Well-
man on the street, did the same to
A year or two later, in Holly-
known sparring
partn ! the street, Mr.
Wellman put himself one up by a
blow to the chin. There have been
other encounters. I believe the score
is now even. But he bears no grudge.
It is just a detail of his native ebul-
lience, which leads him to such de-
vices as galvanizing the chairs on
the lot so his working crew can't
sit down.
With Capra, La Cava and
Hitchcock, he is achieving a
sharp characterization and fin-
ished technique, as the movies
get into long pants and offer
adult entertainment. He grew
up in Brookline, Mass., tried
to sell chocolates and woolen
goods, but didn't, went to the
war with an ambulance unit
and won the Croix de Guerre
with the Lafayette Escadrille,
His friend, Douglas Fairbanks
8r., steered him to Hollywood,
soon after the war, as a mes-
senger boy for Goldwyn. In 10
years, he did almost everything
for every studio in Hollywood,
before he hit his stride with
“Wings.”
He is 43, slender, whippy, with a
touch of gray in his curly brown
hair, and is apt to sock anybody in
an argument and then affectionate-
ly buy him a drink,
Born’ hiked his fame considerably.
wt o—
formed persons if they knew
tary of the United States treasury.
. None of them
Women in Office gid. Mrs. Blair
No Longer Rate Banister, who
‘Scare Heads’
holds
fice, would find
encouragement in that.
the Regional Conference of Demo
cratic Women at Washington that
the decreasing public excitement
about women in office is a good
sign. Their status in public life,
if that’s what interests them, is so
assured that they no longer rate
“glaring headlines” when they are |
put in a responsible post.
Mrs. Banister is a sister of
Senator Carter Glass, one of
a family of six boys and six
girls, all following their father's
business—newspaper work. Her
CLASSIFIED
DEPARTMENT
We Have It=—
A Business Like Yours in California |
FOR SALE |
OPPORTUNITIES, INC. |
530 Broadway, San Diego, Californis ||
Ph
ALCOHOLISM
OUR HOSPITAL is Gevoled exciusively to
the treatment and correction of
CHRONIC ALCOHOLISM
GREENMILL INSTITUTE Jai. lone"
Write for information Bookiet. 10's FREE
PHOTOGRAPHY
FILMS DEVELOPEL
AND PRINTED 255 ¢ Coin
Any 6 or 8 Expose Rall. Velox Decide §
wdge Prte, Deluxe Enlergoment Coupon
FREE! Special Prices on Candid Film.
The PROTO FIRISHIRG SHOP
a
Valier Yous Bldg ROORITER, WY.
“Whaes Your Filo Mov Monde™
Strange Facts
|
Undersea Painters
9-Day Railroad
Thwarting Thunder
artists,
and
and
run
have
standing on
sometimes
water,
lussia.
ly 5,812
8 days
the inexpres-
ng safe with
wither to weigh
measure words, but
i out, just as
n togeth-
hand
» what
the
he rest
~ NERVOUS?
Do you feel so nerv 3 want to scream?
Are you cross and irritable? Do you soold
those dearest to you?
If your nerves are on odge and you feel
ou Bead 8 good peers] system tosic,
Jdia E. Piskham's Vegetable Compo
made especially for women.
For over 60 years one woman has told an
other how to go “smiling thru” with reliable
Pinkbam's Compound. It helps nature build
up more physical resistance and thus helps
calm quivering nerves and lessen discomforts
from annoying symptoms which often so
company female functional disorders.
Why not give it a chance to help YOU?
Over one million women have written in
reporting wonderful benefits from Pinkbam's
Compound.
Unbroken Heart
The heart that boasts it ne'er
was broken, is too hard a heart
for me.
Lice
Ants
OL RT Tel
2S
0 Potate Bugs
At Your Drug Store
Aphids
Bedbugs
Crab Lice
WNU-—4 27-29
Warming Fire
| Better a little fire that warms
than a big one that burns.--John
| Ray.
Watch Your
SLA
fi
a