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About The Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 19??-1984 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 31, 1936)
Thursday, December 31, 1936 THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON. DEPUTY of the DEVIL Copyright, Ben Ames Williams. SYNOPSIS Dr. Greeding, a wealthy and talented middle aged surgeon, is possessed of seem ingly supernatural powers He is able to anticipate what people say before they ut ter a word; occasionally he can wish for something extraordinary to happen and have the wish fulfilled. Greeding meets Ira Jerrell, a wealthy business friend of his own age, who tells him he loves his daughter Nancy and would like to marry her. Dr. Greeding is pleased and tells Jerrell he has a clear field. Nancy, how ever, is in love with Dan Carlisle, an as sistant professor at the University who has little means. +- CHAPTER I—Continued “It was terrible," she assured him, smiling through tears. “I thought I'd die! Nothing ever did hurt so. Please be sorry for me.” "Sorry? Honey, I’d—” He hesi tated, and his eyes clouded, and he released her. He said awkwardly: "I’ll get your coat. You’ll be chilled." "I’ll never be cold again, dar ling,” she vowed. But he left her while he fetched her coat and his sweater. She looked ruefully at the red blaze on her knee. "That’s going to be black and blue,” she told him, when he re turned. “And red, and orange, and yel low,” he predicted. You let your father look at it. It might need something." "I think it’s grand,” she said, smiling at him as he knelt beside her, drawing him near. “I hope it stays that way for days and days." And a moment later she said: “If I’d known it took that to make you—do this, I’d have let a ball hit me long ago!" I He frowned miserably. “Nancy, I shouldn’t have—kissed you." "Why not?” she demanded. “I liked it. I think you should do it again.” He protested: “You know darned well—I can’t, darling.” “Why can’t you?" she chal lenged. "It’s just a matter of common sense,” he urged. “You know what your father and mother—" "Is it them you want to marry?” she demanded hotly. "Dan, you make me tired!” “I know,” he said. “And I’m sorry. But—my salary is less than your dress-allowance. And it will never be much larger. I’ll be a professor, eventually, of course; but you know what that means. It might be years before we could even manage to keep a cook!” "Will you please get It through your thick head,” she insisted, "that I want to marry you. Do you think I’m afraid of workirg, of be ing poor, or anything, as long as I have you?” "It isn’t what you think, sweet,” he said. "It's your mother and fa ther!" She said after a moment, serious ly: “Mother’s all right. I can count on her. She knows you, your peo ple—knows how fine you are. But father might be unreasonable." Her brow furrowed. “I've never felt that I—know father very well,” she confessed. “He’s given me ev erything, done everything for me; and I know he's proud of me. But I always have a feeling it's a sort of impersonal, possessive pride. Some times I’m—afraid of him!” “Nonsense,” he urged. "He’s a mighty able man, and a fine man. I don’t blame him; but Nancy, from his point of view, you rate some one a lot better than me!” She drew the coat more snugly around her shoulders. “He sha'n't interfere,” she said, a faint des peration in her tones- and suddenly she clung to him. “Dan, Dan, I want you. I want you.” He held her close and tenderly; and when he spoke, his head was high. “All right, Nance,” he said simply. “I don’t know how we’ll manage it, but what you want is what it’s going to be. We’ll work it out, somehow. I'll see your fa ther." He saw her eyes shadow with faint fear. “Not yet,” she objected. "Let's not tell anyone yet.” He chuckled reassuringly. "What ever you say,” he assented. “Now run along and get that shower! Good-by.” When, an hour or so later, Doctor Greeding came home, he alighted from the car at the side door, and came into the house while Thomas took the car to the garage. But in the small side hall, he paused, at tentive, and stood for a moment motionless, almost as though he were listening; but there was noth ing to hear. Yet his posture sug gested that he heard something, or sensed something. And this was in fact the case. Aft er an instant he saw the rackets and balls where Dan had laid them down ; and he crossed and picked up a ball, and then a racket, and held them in his hands. He frowned faintly, and looked right and left. The question in his mind was an swered now, and the answer was unwelcome. He put down the tennis gear and ascended the stairs. Nancy's room WNU Service. “Who With?” He Asked, Care fully Casual. draperies, that hideous, ridiculous malformed chunk of marble, shape less, meaningless. All the anger aroused in him by the knowledge that Nancy had lied, and what her lie implied, concentrated suddenly upon this ugly marble. He crossed and picked it up in his hands, turning it over and over, hat ing it. He wished to break it into bits, smash it to dust. He abhorred this harmless chunk of marble with an unreasoning venom. It was the scapegoat upon which he poured out his wrath. And while he stood thus, holding the marble in his band, a strange tiling occurred: Suddenly the stat uette was no longer in his grasp. Rather, it was snatched away from him as though by an invisible force. The thing left his hands, and for an instant, while time stood still, it seemed to waver in the air. Then it fell to the floor. The fall was no more than a few feet; yet the solid marble, even before that impact, appeared to burst apart in midair. It lay in a litter of shards and dusty fragments Doctor Greeding’s eyes distended with an incredulous astonishment, with something like dismay. He stood for a long time looking down at this rubbish. Then he wiped his brow and went softly back into his own room. CHAPTER II Doctor Greeding closed the door behind him. as uneasy as a guilty small boy. Mrs. Greeding. he knew, treasured that absurd statuette; she would be when she saw it broken, querulous and angry. But this in it self was not enough to account for the inward disturbance which shook him. It was Incredible that a fall of three or four feet upon a hardwood floor should have shattered that sol id chunk of marble into a hundred pieces; yet it had I Another man would nave dismissed the incident as casual mischance; but Doctor Greeding even tn this moment sus pected that something within him self, something violent and explo sive, had struck the statuette and shivered it to dust. He rejected the thought with all the power of his logical and scientific mind; yet it persisten. And he had, too, that sensation common to every man: the cer tainty that somewhere, somehow, this had happened to him before. He was even able presently to iden tify this memory. As a boy on the farm he had been whipped one day, and sent to his room to reflect upon his sins. There a lamp, at which he was staring unseeingly through a mist of angry tears, somehow top pled off the table beside him and fell and was broken. Accused, he denied—in honest sincerity—that he had touched either table or lamp, and was whipped again for his de nial. His father, between strokes of the strap, said vehemently: “One thing I can’t stand is a ly ing young one, Ned! I’ll take it out of you!” And Doctor Greeding remem bered that hour now. That day, sent to his room, he had been in a brooding fury at the thrashing he had just received. This day like- wise he was filled with a tempestu ous rage. After his conversation with Ira Jerrell, the discovery that Nancy had been playing tennis with Dan Carlisle was enough in it self to disturb him. Dan, from Doc tor Greeding’s point of view, was a penniless instructor, with no pros pects worth considering—and no discoverable ambition likely to lead to financial success. Certainly he was not equipped to rival Ira Jer rell. Yet he was young, and even Doc tor Greeding could perceive a cer tain charm in him. So, finding that Dan and Nancy had been this day together, the man was quick to a jealous alarm. When Nancy lied to him, his uneasiness became anger —which, translated and focused up on a material object, had shattered solid marble into dust! Doctor Greeding contemplated these facts in silence, conscious of strange stirrings in himself. Pres ently he pressed the bell. Ruth, the second maid, answered. She was a thin, pale, black-haired woman, who habitually wore an expression of pained disapproval. She and Margaret, the fat cook, had served Doctor and Mrs. Greeding loyally for many years. “Fetch me a cocktail,” Doctor Greeding directed. “A cocktail?” Ruth echoed, in protesting astonishment; for Doctor Greeding was an abstemious man, net given to drinking alone. “Certainly," he said crisply. Then with a cautious feeling that some explanation was necessary: “I’m tired. I’ll lie down awhile. Are we dining at home?” “No sir,” she told him. “At the Jordans’.” And she disappeared. He had removed his outer gar ments and put on a dressing-gown before she returned with the shaker and a glass upon a tray. She set them grudgingly on his table and withdrew; and he drank two or three cocktails, quickly, standing at the window where he might watch for Mrs. Greeding’s return. There was a deep impatience in him; and when his wife’s open roadster pres ently turned in from the street, he swung about toward her dressing- room, waiting for her to come up stairs. He could hear her in the hall be low giving some instruction to Ruth; and he resented the delay. Then he heard her come up the stairs, heard her open the door of her dressing-room, next his own; and then her instant cry of con sternation, and then her call: “Ruth! Ruth!” The maid came hurriedly up the stairs, and Mrs. Greeding demand- ed: “What happened to my statu ette, Ruth? Look at it!” The Doctor stood by the closed door between their rooms, listen ing. "I don’t know, Mrs. Greeding,” Ruth indignantly protested. “I didn't know anything about it. I haven't been in the room since just after you left.” “Who’s been here?" Mrs. Greed ing demanded. “Who's been up stairs? It couldn't just fall; and even if it did, it wouldn't break ail to bits like that! That statuette was valuable, Ruth. If you did it, you might as well tell the truth.” "1 didn't, Mrs. Greeding,” the woman insisted stiffly. And Mrs. Greeding said apologet ically: "Of course not. I didn't mean to seem to doubt you. But who else has been upstairs?” “Only Miss Greeding, and the Doctor," Ruth returned. Then Doctor Greeding opened the door between the two rooms. “Hel lo, Myra.” he said casually. "What's the trouble?" Mrs Greeding turned toward him. She was a large, fair woman, with hair a little too insistently ycl low. “Ned.” she cried. "Some one's broken my statuette! See!” “Probably fell off the stand,” he suggested. "Nonsense!” she cried indignant ly. "A fall might have cracked it; but it’s just ground to bits. Look!" “It must have been an accident, Myra,” he urged impatiently. “Nev er mind that now. You can get another. I want to talk to you!” He looked toward Ruth, and the woman grimly disappeared. “Another?” Mrs. Greeding cried indignantly. “Another indeed! Ned, don’t you realize that works of art don’t come by the dozen! That stat ue was unique! It was one of Pay son’s things, and he’s practically my discovery, and that would have been priceless when he became known. Another! Ned, sometimes you’re the most irritating man!” Doctor Greeding fought to keep his voice under control. The affair of the statuette was disquieting enough, certainly; but there were other matters better worth discuss ing. He managed a smile. “I’m sorry, Myra. Perhaps if you subsidize Payson sufficiently, he’ll de you a copy. I expect he’ll be glad of the commission.” "But he can’t, Ned! Works of art—” Doctor Greeding said sharply: "Tosh, Myra! Drop it, can’t you?” “But it looks as though some one had just pounded it and pounded it,” she urged, in an increasing mystification. “It couldn’t possibly break all up that way just by fall ing.” He said irascibly: “Will you be still! Forget the fool thing. It isn’t worth all this talk, surely I” She stared at him shrewdly. “Ned, you’ve been drinking!” she cried. “I can always tell. Your eyes are red. Whatever has hap pened to upset you? It isn’t like you to come home and get drunk and—” He cried in a deep exasperation: "Stop it, Myra!” She was, suddenly, pale. “Why, of course, Ned,” she sail placat- ir.gly. "I didn’t mean —’ She seemed puzzled, incredulous. She came to him, kissed him. “I’m sorry, Ned. I didn’t mean tc both er you. Had a hard day?” “No,” he barked. “Then you’re worrying about one of your patients.” He shook his head, patted her shoulder roughly. “Not at all,” he insisted. “I’m a little tired, noth ing more.” He released her, and she turned back to the dressing-ta ble. “We must dress now,” she said. “We’re dining at the Jor dans’, you know.” “Ruth told me,” he assented. She began to undress. "You’d , better hurry, or you’ll be late,” she said. He hesitated, but the time was in | fact short; and in such matters he was punctilious. He went to his own room, to the shower. But pres ently, fitting his studs, he came to the door between their rooms again, and saw that she was brushing her hair; he asked in a tone carefully casual: “Nancy going with us?” “No,” Mrs. Greeding told him. "She’s going somewhere with Ju dith.” His collar pinched his neck as he fumbled with the button; he made a wry face. “Not alone, surely,” he protested. His tone was light, | amused. “I don't suppose two girls as pretty as Nancy and Judith are likely to go anywhere alone." “I don’t know," she idmitted "I didn’t ask! Ford Minick, maybe, or Ethan, or Pete Master, or some of that crowd.” "Nancy doesn’t seem particularly interested in any special young man,” he remarked. “Or at least, ! if she is, she conceals the fact | from the paternal eye.” "Probably there will be, by and by,” his wife agreed. "Nancy’ll | tell us when she's ready." The Doctor was conscious of a reservation in her words. "How about Dan Carlisle?” he asked bluntly. "Oh, Dan hasn’t the money to— play with their crowd,” she said, after a moment. “Of course, Nan cy knows him.” “I’ve seen him here once or twice,” he assented scornfully. “He seems a pleasant youngster; but I can’t imagine any man worth his salt deliberately taking to teaching as a profession.” “I’ve heard Professor Carlisle lecture,” she commented. “He’s a charming old man!” “No doubt,” the Doctor agreed in a dry tone; but he said then rough- ij, impatient of indirection: “Yet the Professor’s charm does not jus tify Nancy’s imagining herself in love with Dan!” He saw her eyes widen, and rec ognized that she had known about Dan, and had wished him not to know; and his face congested with anger at the thought. She saw his countenance in the mirror, and turned pale; but she said nothing. “You knew she was?” ne said in a low voice, accusingly. "Nancy’s never spoken to me about it, Ned,” she urged defensive ly. “I’ve only—guessed. I’ve seen no more than you. It’s only that I’m perhaps a little closer to Nan cy—understand her better—” “Closer?” he ejaculated, in a rising wrath. “She’s afraid of you, 1 think, Ned," she confessed. “You do act, sometimes, as though you owned her, you know.” “Afraid of me?” His cheek was purple. “Why should my daugh ter be afraid of me? I’m no ogre!" “No, you’re not,” she assented honestly. “You’ve been generous with Nancy, given her everything; and you’re always calm, and kind. But—you’ve always had your own way. I've worried, sometimes, about what you might be like if— things didn’t go to suit you.” There were twisting snakes of fury in the man. He tried to laugh. “Is this some sudden discovery on your part, Myra? This sinister side of my character!” She rose and came towaid him. "Ned dear, please,” she said. “I’m sorry! You’re upset today, differ ent.” She smiled. "I suppose all fathers are furious when they dis cover that their daughters are be ginning to love some one else Some other man. But you’ll have to get used to it, Ned. Nancy’s a woman now, you know.” She would have put her arms around him, but he rebuffed her. “Never mind that,” he said sharp ly. “1 came home this afternoon and—found that Nancy had been playing tennis with this young Car lisle. I asked her about it, and she said she had played with Judith— didn’t mention him. She lied to me!" She locked at nim thoughtfully. "You're so sure of things, some times, Ned. Was Dan here when you came? How can you be sure?” “What difference does that make?” he exclaimed, twitching at his tie. She returned to her dressing-ta ble. “None, of course," she agreed soothingly. “But for that matter, Ned, what difference does i. make if Dan did play tennis with Nancy?” “I don’t object to that,” he re torted. “I object to her lying to me!” She said wisely: “That is—sig nificant, of course. A girl’s instinct to conceal, to be secretive, is one of the first—symptoms.” He saw her smile wistfully, tenderly, at her own thoughts. "I’ve realized for some time that Nancy was thinking a good deal about Dan,” she ad mitted. He said flatly: “It is not going any farther. It is going to stop right here.” “But why?” she protested "Dan’s a nice boy.” (TO BE CONTINUED) Worn Teeth in Predmost Skulls Puzzle to Scientists Who Welcome Suggestions What the ancient men of Pred most, in Moravia, carried in their mouths to wear down their teeth is puzzling European archeologists. As far back as 1571 fossil bones were found at this little hill not far from the modern university city of Brno. Fifty years ago a Moravian schoolmaster named K. J. Maska discovered bones of 20 or more human beings apparently buried in a common grave and enough like each other to make experts regard them all as members of the same family group. Bones of the extinct elephant called the mammoth disclose the Predmost dwellers as hunters of this beast. Skillfully carved objects of bone and other artistic remains, as well as the prevailing large size of the Predmost skulls, prove the people to have been one branch of the famous Cro-Magnon race. Re cently Dr. Jinrich Mategka, of the The Social Register. ANTA MONICA, CALIF. — Those who warm their aris tocratic hands at the social reg ister, take comfort from the latest issue of that priceless volume. It seems that, if a well- born lady weds a night club playboy with a head suitable for a handle on a dollar um brella, she stays put. S By Ben Ames Williams was opposite the head of the stairs ; he hesitated, then knocked on her door. She called sleepily: "Who is it?" "Mother home, Nancy?" he asked. "I don’t think so. I don’t know. I’ve been asleep." “All afternoon?" he protested, without opening the door. “On a fine day like this?” After a moment she replied. “No," she said. “I played tennis for a while.” “Who with?” he asked, carefully casual. Again it was an instant before her answer came. “Judith Plank came over," she replied at last. At that word, the man’s brows drew together, and a surge of un accustomed anger swept him; but without comment, he went on to ward his own room. He closed the door behind him and stood alone there, his head bent, his thoughts racing. For he knew that Nancy had lied; and that his daughter should lie to him, since it implied a criticism of himself, woke in the man a fretful rage. It was a moment Before he per ceived in her mendacity the fur ther implication that she was fond of Dan Carlisle; and Doctor Greed- ing’s eyes flickered at the thought, as heat lightning on a sultry day flickers along distant hills. He saw that the door into Mrs. Greeding’s dressing - room was open, and crossed to the door and spoke her name; but she was not here. He stood in the doorway, looking around this room furnished in a fashion so distasteful to nim. The black-and-white chairs, the gaudy about: University of Prague, reported a new study of all human skulls found at the Predmost site. Like the skulls of all primitive | people, these show much wear of the teeth, usually blamed on sand and grit in food. Among the Pred most adults, however, the right upper jaw shows a special kind of molar tooth. Tobacco was unknown in Predmost days so one cannot imagine this wear caused by stems of pipes, recently stated the Balti- I more Sun. A habit of carrying peb- ' bles in the mouth has been suggest- -ed but there seems no special reason for this. The climate was not dry enough to cause much thirst. Perhaps blow pipes of some sort were used but no remains of such pipes have been found. Dr. Matiegka and other Cze- | choslovakian archeologists will wel- come any reasonable suggestion. | But if she is married to a gen uine gentleman, such as Gene Tun ney is, or a gifted orchestra leader, such as Eddie Duch- in, out she goes. The charming granddaughter of a poor Irish immi grant qualifies as an entry, which is as it should be, in an" language. But when she takes for a hus band the son of a poor Jewish immi- irvin S. Cobb grant, whose blem ish is that he’s a professional song writer—and one of the greatest song writers alive — her name is scratched off the sacred scroll. Yet what’s an old family but a family that advertises that it’s old? And what is society except a lot of people who keep proclaiming that they are society until the rest of us believe them? Protecting Human Game. 4 OR the preservation of the less- - ening wild fowl, the govern ment stands pat by its ruling that ducks may no longer be lured to hunting grounds which have been baited for them and then bagged. But one shudders what would hap pen to Wall street if practically the same system now in vogue for gar nering in the human game was ever abolished on the stock exchange. Still, why not leave well enough alone? If there was no margin gambling available for cleaning the poor things, they’d bet their money on horse racing or the old Span ish prisoner game or something. • • • Liberty League Marriages. T HE rotogravure sections reveal - that they’ve just opened a fresh crate of du Ponts, too late to qual ify for membership in the Liberty League, because the Liberty League, alas, is dead of overnour ishment, but in ample time to fill up the background at the approach ing marriage of the President’s fine son, Franklin Delano, Jr., and a charming daughter of the royal family of Delaware. That’s one wedding where the ushers will do well to see that the families are seated in separate pews during the ceremony, because somebody might tactlessly be re minded of little things that came up during the heat of the late cam paign. Otherwise, in the customary re galia of shad-bellied coats and striped trousers, it will be difficult to distinguish a champion of the rights of the great common people from an entrenched wretch of the ruggedly individualistic group. High hats and neat spats make all men equal—and make some of them homelier-looking. * * • Playing the Ponies. R ACING starts soon out in Holly- — wood, and the stars and stat ines may have to make their pic tures between events at Santa Ani ta because they’ll have absolutely no time for fiddling around studios. To risk my modest wagers on. I’m looking for a horse named Vir ginia Creeper or else Trailing Arbu tus. Then when I lose, as I always do, I can’t say my choice wasn’t appropriately named. If I had a bet on Paul Revere’s nag, Paul never would have made that famous ride of his. Somewhere between Concord and Lexington, a constable would have pinched him for blocking the highway. I often wonder where the foot-sore plugs I get tips on really hail from. It can’t be a racing stable. Maybe — yes, I'm sure that's right — they’re exhausted refugees from a bide-a-wee-home. • • • Future Inventions. (‘ ELEBRATING the hundredth 2 anniversary of the American patent system, the assembled re search sharps declare that among the boons to mankind promised us in the near future by our native inventive geniuses are the follow ing: Clothes made out of glass (with curtains, I hope, for those of us who are more than six years old). Whisky aged instantly by power ful sound waves. (But who has thought of imitable relief for those who also will be aged instantly by drinking saia whisky?) Rats grown as big as cows by powerful sound waves. (I can hard ly wait for the happy day when we may afford a family rat the size of a Jersey cow.) IRVIN S. COBB. ©—WNU Service. Worse Than Termites Lumber experts call termites a minor factor of deterioration in building materials, compared with such factors as rust, decay and oth er physical and chemical changes.
