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.