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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1914)
1 ttome and farm maoazixe section 13 By Geo. Ban IfoCutcbeon HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION SERIAL. A Fool and His Money Copyright, 1913, By Geo. Barr MeCuteheon. BYBOPSIg OF PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS. In the opening instalmenta of "A A Pool tnd His Money," Geo. Bur Me- $ Ootcbeon'a charming novel, aerial rights for which have been specially obtained for tha Home and Farm Megaiine Section, we learn of John $ Bellamy Smart, the young man who it telling this story. He baa just written hia first novel, and at the S same time ha. fallen heir to an im- mense fortune left him by hii uncle. He la 85 yean of age. After a visit to London, mart A 7.. i ?"p on tlw Ri"r Dabe. $ After finding an aid-world town, he g ojreri an ancient castle, which he mTu 'rem iU evna' tb Count. Q With his secretary, Poopendyke, ha $ takes possession of the immense structure, which is supposed to be S tenanted only by the caretaker and family, the Bchmicks. To Smart's S amassment, the first night, he bears J, toe cry of a baby. Later he discovers $ woman's face at an upper window. . tit ,ii toa much interested to attend to His oorrespondenee, as is desired hy & tut secretary. Smart determines to J solve the mystery ef the east wing of a tha castle and enters a window by $, means of a ladder. He is blocked b a, a stout door, on which is pinned a S note reading: "Please keep out. This ia private property." Lester he meets .the woman, who greatly puiiles him. "No tourists enter this place tomor row or any other day," I declared, firmly. 'Well, I'd suggest waiting just the Mine, sir," said he, evidently inspired. "Confound them," I growled, some low absorbing his presentiment. He hesitated for a moment near the door, . 3 , i if , ': i "Conrad," said I, fixing the ancient with a stern, compelling gaze, "this has gone qinte far enough." "Yes, mein herr!" "Do you serve me, or do yon serve the lady in the east wingt" . "I do," said he, with a great deal more wit than I thought he possessed. For a moment I was speechless, but not for the reason yon may suspect. I was trying to fix my question and his re sponso quite clearly in my memory so that I might employ ttiom later in the course of a conversation between char acters in my forthcoming novel. "Will yon put in the telephone, sirf lie asked very respectfully. Very curiously, I was thinking of it u mat instant. "it really wouldn't be a bad idea, jsntwn," i said, startled into com mitting myself. "Save us a great deal legging it over town and all that ort of thing, eh!" "Yes, lir. What I was about to sug gest, sir, is that while wo're about it we might as well have a system of elec tric bells put in. That is to say, sir, in both wings of the castle. .Very con venient, air, you see, for all parties oneerned." "I see," said I, impressed. And then repeated it, a little more im pressed after reflection. ''I see. You are a very resourceful fellow, Britton. I am inclined to bounco all of the Bchmicks. They have known about this from tho start and have lied like thieves. By Jove, she must have an ex traordinary power over them, -or claim, or something equally potent. Now I think of it, she mentioned a grandfather. That would go to prove she's related in some way to some one, wouldn't itl" "I should consider it to be more than likely, sir," said Britton with a perfectly ttraight face. He must have been sorely tried in the face of my inane maunderings. "Pardon me, tir, but wouldn't it bo a tip-top idea to have it out with the Schmicks tonight! i Being, air, as you anticipate a rather wakeful night, I only make so bold as to suggest it in the hopes you may 'avc some light on the subject before you elose your eyes. .In other words, sir, a aa you won't be altogether iu the dark when morning comes. Bee wot I meant" "Excellent idea, Britton. Well have them up in my study." He went off to summon my double faced servitors, while I wended my way to the study. There I found Mr. Poopen dyke, sound asleep in a great arm chair, both his mouth and his nose open and my first novel also open in his lap. Conrad and Grctcl appeared with Britton after an unconscionable lapse of time, partially dressed and grumbling. "Where are your sons!" I demanded, at once suspicious. Conrad shook his sparsely eovered bead and mumbled something about each being his brother's keeper, all of which was Greek to me until Britton explained that they were not to be found in their customary quarters that 1 is to say, in bed. Of eourso it was quite elear to me that my excellent giants were off somewhere, serving tho inter ests of the bothersome lady in the east Wing. "I have been talking with the lady this evening," said I. "Yes, mein herr; I know," said he. "Oh, yon do, eht "Well, will you be good enough to tell me what tho devil the meaning of all this two-faced, underhanded conduct on your partf " He lowered his head, closed his thin lips and fumbled with the hem of bis smock in a significantly sullen manner. It was evident that he meant to defy me. His sharp little eyes sent a warn ing look at Gretel, who instantly ceased her mutterings and gave over asking Ood to bear witness to something or other. She was always dragging in the Deit "Now, see here, Conrad, I want the truth from you. Who is this woman, and why are you so infernally set upon shielding her! What crime has she com mitted! Tell mo at once, or, by the Lord Harry out you go tomorrow nil of you." "I am a very old man," ho whined, twisting his gnarled fingers, a sugges tion of tears iu his voice. "My wife is old, mein herr. You must not be cruel. Wo have been here for Bixty years. The old baron " "Enough!" I cried resolutely. "Out with it, man. I mean all that I say." He was still for a long time. looking first at the floor and then at me; fur tive, appealing, uncertain little glances from which ho hoped to derive comfort by catching me with a twinkle in my eye. I have a stupid, weak way of letting a twinkle appear there even when I am trying to be harRh and domineering. Britton has noticed it fre quently, I am sure, and I 'hink he rather depends upon it. But now I real ized, if never before, that to betray the slightest sign of rentleness would be to forever forfeit my standing as master in my own honse. Conrad saw no twinkle. Ho began to weaken. 'Tomorrow, mein herr, tomorrow," mumbled, in a final plea. I shook my head. "She will explain everything tomorrow, ' ho went on eagerly. "I am sworn to reveal nothing, mein herr. My wife, too, and my sons. We may not; speak until she gives the word. Alas! we shall be turned out to die in our "We have been faithful servants to tho Rotlihoefens for sixty years," sobbed his wife. And still are, I suspect," I cried angrily. Ach, mein herr mem herr!" pro tested Conrad, greatly perturbed. "Where are the keys, you old ras cal! " I demanded so sternly that even Poopendyke waB startled. Conrad almost resorted to the ex pediency of grovelling. "Forgive! for give!" he groaned. "I have done only what wts best." "Produce the keys, sir!" "But not tonight, not tonight," he pleaded. "She will be very angry. She will not like it, mein herr. Ach, Gott! She will drive us out, she will shame u- all! Ach, and she who is so gentle and so unhappy and so so kind to all of us! I I cannot I cannot! No!" Mr. Poopcndyke's common sense came in very handily at this critical juncture. He counselled me to lot the matter rest until the next morning, when, it was reasonable to expect, tho lady herself would explain everything. Further ap peal to Schmick was like brtting one's head against a stono wall, he said. Moreover, Conrad's loyalty to the lady was most commendable. Conrad and Gretel beamed on Poopen- dyke. They thanked him so profound ly, that I couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for myself, a tyrant without a backbone. "Jah, jahl" Conrad cried gladly. "Tomorrov she will explain. Time enough, Herr Poopendyke. Time enough, eoi" "Well," said I, somewhat feebly, where do I come in!" They caught the note of surrender in my voice and pounced upon their op portunity. Before they had finished with me, it was quite thoroughly estab lished that I was not to come in at all until my neighbor was ready to admit me. They convinced me that I was a meek, futile suppliant and not the mas ter of a feudal stronghold. Somehow I was made to feel that if I didi.'t be have myself I stood in considerable danger of being tnrned off the place. However, we forced something out of Schmick before his stalwart sons came tramping np the stairs to Tescue him. The old man gave us a touch of inside history concerning Schloss Rothhoefen and its erstwhile powerful barons, not to minimize in the least sense the peculiar prowess of the present Amazon who held forth tonight in the east wing and who, I had some reason to suspect was one of the family despite the un mistakable flavor of Fifth Avenue and Newport. About the middle of the nineteenth eentury the last of the real barons tho powerful, land owning despotic barons, I mean eame to the end of his four-score years and ten, and was laid away with great pomp and glee by the people of the town across the river. He was the last of the Eothhoefens, for he left no male heir. Hia two daugh ters had married Austrian noblemen. and neither of them produced a male descendant. The estate, already in a state of financial as well as physical disintegration, fell into the hands of women, and went from bad to worse so rapidly that long before the last quar ter of the century was fairly begun the castle and the reduced holdings slipped away from the Rotlihoefens altogether and into tho control of the father of the Count from whom I purchased the property. The Count's father, it ap pears, was a distiller of great wealth in his day, and a man of action. Unfor tunately he died before he had the chance to carry out his projects in con nection with tho rehabilitation of Schloss Rothhoefen, even then a de serted, ramshackle resort for paying tourists and a Mecca for antique and picture dealers. The new Count my immediate prede cessor was not long in dissipating the great fortune left by his father, the worthy distiller. He ran through with the bulk of his patrimony by the time ho was twenty-five and was pretty much run down at the heel when he married in the hope of recouping his lost fortune. The Schmicks did not like him. They did not approve of him as lord and master, nor was it possible for them to resign themselves to the fate that had put this young scapegrace into the shoes, so to speak, of the grim old barons Rothhoefen, who whatever else they may have been in a high-handed sort of way were men to th core. This pretender, this creature without brains or blood, this sponging reprobate, was not to their liking, if I am to quote Conrad, who became quite forceful in his harangue agaiLSt the recent order of things. He, bis wife and sons, he assured me, wore full of rejoicing wtna they learned that the cattle had passed from Count Hohendahl's hands into mine. I, at least, would pay them their wages, and I might, in a pinch, be depended upon to pension them when they got too old to be of any use abont the CJtle. At any rate, it seems, I was a dis tinct improvement over the Count, who had been their master for a dozen very lean and unprofitable years. Things m;ght be expected to look np a bit, with me at the head of the house. Was it not possible for a new and mighty race to rise and take the p'ace of the glorious R thhoefens! A long line of Baron Schmarts! With me as the pros pective root of a thriving family tree! At least, that is what Conrad said, and I may be pardoned ior quoting him. I am tn ly sorry the old rascal put it into my head. But the gist of the whole matter was this: There are no more Rothhoefens, and soon, aod willing, there would be no more Hoheodahls. Long live th Schmarts! Conrad invariably pro nouiced my name with the extra eon sonants and an umlaut. All attempts on my part to connect the lady in the east wing with the his tory of the extinct Rothhoefens were futile. He vrould not commit himself. "Well," said I, yawning in helpless collusion with the sleepy Gretel, "well let it go over till morning. Call me at seven, Britton." Conrad made haste to assure me that the lady would not receive me before eleven o'clock. He begged me to sleep till nine, and to have pleasant dreams. I went to bed but not to sleep. It was very clear to me that my neighbor was a disturber in every sense of the word. She wouldn't let me s'eep. For two hours I tried to get rid of her, but she filtered into my brain and prodded my thoughts into the most violent activity. She wouldn't stay put My principal thoughts had to do with her identity. Somehow I got it into my head that she was one of the female Rothhoefens, pitiable nonentities if Con rad's estimate is to be accepted. A de scendant of one of those girl-bearing daughters of the last baron! It sound ed very agreeable to my fancy's car, and I cuddled the hope that my sur mise was not altogether preposterous. My original contention that she was a poor relation of old Schmick and some what dependent upon him for charity to say the least bad been set aside for more reliable convictions. Instead of being dependent upon the Schmicks, she seemed to be in an exalted position that gave her a great deal more power over them than even I possessed; they served her, not me. From time to time there occurred to me the thought that my own position in the household was rather an ignoble one, and that I was a very weak and incompetent succes sor to baronial privileges, to say noth ing of rights. A real baron would have had her out of there before you could mention half of Jack Robinson, and there wouldn 't have been any sleep lost over distracting puzzles. I deplored mj lack of bad manners. (To Be Continued.) 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