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About The Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 19??-1984 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1937)
Thursday, January 21, 1937 THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON. Sunbonnet Gills Make Light of Your Chores = DEPUTY OF THE DEVIL By BEN AMES WILLIAMS € Copyright, Ben Ames Williams. SYNOPSIS Dr. Greeding, a wealthy and talented middle aged surgeon, is possessed of seem- ingly supernatural powers. Occasionally he can wish for something extraordinary to happen and have the wish fulfilled. Greed« ing 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 tls Jerrell he has a clear field. Nancy, however, is in love with Dan Carlisle, an assistant professor at the University who has little means. They discuss marriage, but decide to delay talking to her father about it. Nancy, who has been playing ten nis with Dan that afternoon, tells her father she had been playing with a girl friend. Greeding knows this is untrue and is secret ly enraged. Stepping into his wife’s room, his eye falls on a marble statuette which he dislikes. He picks it up. wishing be could smash it to bits. Suddenly it is snatched from his grasp as by an in visible force and burst asunder. Mrs. Greeding is greatly disturbed over the mys terious destruction of the statuette. The doctor reveals that Ira Jerrell wants to marry Nancy. On the way to a dinner party a car cuts in front of Greeding’s. He angrily expresses the wish thät the driver would break his neck An instant later an accident occurs in which this very thing happens. At the dinner the Greedings meet Prof. Carlisle. Dan's father, and his daugh ter Mary Ann. Dr. Greeding is intrigued by Mary Ann, who is a surgical nurse. Mrs. Greeding tells Prof. Carlisle about the de struction of the statuette and he indicates it might have been caused by a ’'polter geist," a "racketing, mischievous spirit." Greeding pretends to Nancy that he has no objection to Dan. More interested in Mary Ann. Dr. Greeding induces her to take a position in his office. Eventually he finds he loves her. Jerrell continues to see Nan cy, whose love for Dan is unchanged. The Greedings invite the Carlisles to dinner Dr. Greeding discusses with Prof. Carlisle the subject of "poltergeists," the doctor tell ing of some of his own experiences, but at tributing them to a friend. CHAPTER III—Continued —5— “The subject is pretty extensive,” Professor Carlisle explained. “Fires are a common manifestation, ap pearing in many of the tales.” He added: “There was a man named Charles Fort—he is dead now—who made a study of such things. Prob ably with his tongue in his cheek. In one of his books he said these fire phenomena look to him like the survival of a power that may once have been common, when primitive men needed fires and didn’t know how to make them. He talks about vestigial functions in the human body, just as you surgeons talk about vestigial organs ... Of course, this is all in the highest de gree fanciful.” “But it's an amusing subject for speculation,” Doctor Oreeding in sisted. “Your man Fort, I gather, thought these functions were orig inally of some use to their possess ors. But what possible good can it do to project a plate across the room and allow it to break against the wall?” The professor answered good-hu moredly: “Well, Fort suggests that these poltergeist disturbances may emanate from some malicious mind. If your fl lend in the hay mow wished the hay to burn up, for instance, so that he would not have to work so hard on a hot day—” Doctor Greeding laughed, sudden ly expansive. “Like Mrs. Greed- ing's statuette,” he suggested. “She told you about that, the other night. As a matter of fact, I had the stat uette in my hands when it fell— though I haven’t dared confess as much to her. She’d blame me for dropping it; but 1 didn’t. I was thinking that it was rather hideous, when the thing simply flew out of my hands and crashed to bits.” He saw the other’s curious glance, added quickly: “If this chap had been in the house. I’d suspect him!” “What was his name?” asked Professor Carlisle. "Tompkins,” said Doctor Greed ing readily. “But he's dead now.” The older man was for a moment silent; he lighted his pipe afresh, looking intently at the bowl But at length he asked curiously: “Did you—notice anything unusu al about the way the statuette fell? You said it flew out of your hands?” Doctor Greeding nodded, forget ting caution. “Exactly.” he as sured the other man. "It was as though some one snatched it away; and I remember it seemed t hang in the air for a moment before it fell.” Professor Carlisle smoothed his pipe-bowl in his hands. He said after a moment: "Well, that hesi tating, uncertain flight is often men tioned in the accounts of polter geist disturbances.” He added apologetically : "But I'm afraid I'm a skeptic at heart 1 can discuss these absurdities so long as the discussion remains em piric; so long as I confine myself to things that are reported to have happened to others, far away. But when you tell me things that hap pened to your friend, and now to yourself, I lack he courage of my conversation." Doctor Greeding felt a faint irri tation rising in him at this dis belief. He said: "You sound rath er like an incredulous scientist your self!” "It's much less disquieting,” the Professor pointed out, "to assume that there is a credible explanation for these—incredible occurrences." Doctor Greeding watched him narrowly, till pique at the other’s | WNU Service. attitude drove him on. "Are there before their wheels, and the night he warned her. “That brother of “This is for a good little girl,” any cases,” he asked challenging- was jeweled by the headlights of yours is so conscientious he might he said. “Good night!” ly, "of actual injury or death, approaching cars. Apple orchards feel bound to step into the back She turned away, quickly, in through this sort of thing?” were bright with belated blossoms ground and give Jerrell a clear something like flight—darted toward “Yes,” Professor Carlisle assent along the roadside, and the night field. I don’t want him to do that. the house. He waited till she had ed. He was grave now. "There was warm and fair. I want Nancy to make up her own disappeared, before driving on to have been persons found dead, their ward his own home. The car he Doctor Greeding drove rapidly mind, freely, between them.” bodies charred to a cinder, their and surely, and Mary Ann slipped “I know Dan feels he—isn’t good left at the side door. clothes not burned at all. There are down low in the seat and relaxed enough for Nancy,” she admitted, Upstairs, he undressed slowly, even one or two cases reported there, her wrap loose about her and added loyally: "Personally, I trying to face and measure this of men killed by a bullet, or shoulders, her hair flying in the think she’s lucky to get him. Dan’s new passion in his life. When he stabbed, but with no rent in their a peach!” She looked at him, sur came into the bedroom he and Mrs. clothing to correspond with the breeze. He told her the nature of this summons. “The idiot is an old prised. “But I didn’t know you Greeding shared, gray dawn was in wound in their bodies.” the windows. His wife roused sleep- knew about them?” she said. "What does your friend Fort say friend of mine, or I wouldn’t go,” he ily; her face was an unlovely mask explained cheerfully. "Some one “ I have Nancy ’ s confidence, ” he of such incidents?” of cosmetics, her hair awry. else coula do it just as well, or he retorted; and she nodded. He con "He only points out that ‘wounds “Ned?” such as might be imagined by hat could wait till tomorrow But his tinued: “Did I take the right atti “Yes, Myra,” he said shortly. tude? Would you have said the ers of people have appeared upon wife is alarmed, wants me.” She nodded, and he said in same? Do you feel that—a girl “Go back to sleep.” the bodies of people,’ ” the pro “What time is it?” makes a mistake to marry a man amused irritation: fessor cautiously explained. He protested irritably: “What “The visited us at the lake last twenty years her senior?” Doctor Greeding nodded. “I sup She was silent for longer than he difference does that make?” pose most of us, in fits of anger, summer. I told him the. that this "It’s ridiculous,” she protested, liked. He looked at her, smiling. have wished that unpleasant things operation was inevitable. Tried to “for you to be out all night. You “ Tell the truth, ” he insisted. would happen to certain people,” he persuade him to take care of it; but could have sent Doctor Mayhew!” "Not if she loves him,” said Mary reflected soberly. “It would be rath he’s a headstrong old man.’ He got into his own bed without er disturbing to a man if those ma And he added after a little; “You Ann at last. She added, almost replying. licious wishes on his part began to and Dan must come up to the lake reluctantly: “Not if there is no— “I believe you like this sort of come true.” He chuckled. “Na sometime. And your father. We’ve reason why she shouldn’t love thing,” she asserted. “I declare, tions might enlist an army of good a pleasant place there: an island him.” And after a moment she re Ned, you ought to have some sense marked, half to herself: “Some effective haters to win a war by times a girl is wiser to choose a of your own position.” wishing their enemies dead!” "Don’t talk, Myra,” he said proved man. Then she knows what Professor Carlisle shook his head. “That’s outside the bounds, of she is getting. Young men may sharply. "I’m dead tired. Let me sleep in the morning.” change as they—mature.” course,” he commented, not smil "It’s morning now,” she remind ing. He laughed in a sudden swift de “I wonder whether it is,” Doctor light; but when she asked why he ed him. “And I sha’n’t close my Greeding stubbornly demurred; laughed, he would not tell her. Si eyes again, you may be sure of that. and he said thoughtfully: “You lence embraced them again, draw You might have some considera know, the human body has an infi ing them together; the car ran tion—” Her voice went on, un nite capacity to rise to emergencies. smoothly. The moon now was low; heard, till suddenly a word fixed his attention. “—and driving all If a man loses sight, or hearing, and Doctor Greeding’s eyes fixed over New England all night with his other senses become more upon the flowing road in a sort of Mary Ann! Is that necessary? Of acute. If a vein is destroyed, even fascination. He drove automatically, course, I understand ; but people the jugular, others take up the bur his thoughts elsewhere. are so ready to think and say un den. If fingers are amputated, the It may have been that for a mo kind things about a girl who thumb redoubles its usefulness. ment he slept. But at a certain works—” Isn’t it possible that in some cases, point where the road forked and He made no reply; but he was when a man approaches old age and their way lay to the left, he kept the impairment of his muscular straight ahead; and where just be conscious of a rising tide of anger strength, he may by way ot com yond the fork, this right-hand road at her chidings. He checked and pensation develop such a—power?” turned, he did not turn. The car curbed his own wrath, startled, full “Old men acquire wisdom,” the plunged through a shallow ditch and of a quick and vivid terror, afraid Professor pointed out. "That is into the meadow beyond. His foot of his own thoughts. He was like weapon enough!" jammed home on the brakes, and a rider who reins back his steed "But in a primitive society,” Doc he came to a breathless stop, at the brink of a precipice. He felt in himself dark, terrifying pow tor Greeding urged, “old met:, when thrown forward against the wheel, ers, which must be restrained. their increasing weakness made Mary Ann in a heap on the floor of He closed his ears to his wife’s them a burden to the tribe, would the car beside him. words, found solace and content have been eliminated, unless as He was in dismay. “Are you ment in remembering Mary Ann— their strength failed they learned hurt?” he exclaimed. “I’m sorry! whom incredibly, he loved! other ways to defend themselves. I must have gone to sleep!” For instance, to imagine a wound, Incredibly; and also with a great She scrambled up on the seat futility. Doctor Greeding was es and have that wound appear—” again. “I don’t think so,” she ae- sentially conventional, accepting And he said, his eyes gleaming dared, laughing. “No, I seem to be the decent standards of his world, “That’s Outside the Bounds, of strangely: "A man able to do that all here. My eyes were closed. Course,” He Commented, Not abiding by them. No matter what would be a dangerous enemy.” I had no warning—” Smiling. he might feel for Mary Ann, he Professor Carlisle said reflective “I must have gone to sleep," he would still cleave loyally to Myra, ly: “I expect he would be more of our own, a couple of good boats, so long as they both should live. dangerous to himself than to others. tennis court, golf near by if you repeated. She touched his hand, on the Or—so long as Myra should live! The world seems to be organized want it, target-shooting and so on.” wheel. “You're so desperately for the general rather than the in Thus insidiously, as he lay half "I like tennis,” she confessed. tired," she said gently. His blood, dividual benefit. Probably some “Dan and I often play.” She spoke dreaming, there crept into his counter-force would arise to deal sleepily, relaxed and at ease be at the touch of her fingers raced thoughts a hideous possibility, one through his veins. “Let me drive of those monstrous specters which with him.” side him. I’m awake now.” need only to be recognized to be “Yet it's a fascinating thought," "We go up for all of August,” He looked at her hand on his, at abhorred ... Yet which, if a man Doctor Greeding insisted. he remarked. "You can take your her. “I'm not tired,” he said huski contemplate them long enough, may Professor Carlisle retorted grave ly, breathlessly. cease to affright him, may come to ly: "I should be inclined to re vacation at the same time.” "I hardly rate a vacation so She withdrew her hand, abrupt wear an aspect treacherously beau mind such a man that he who eats ly; but his eyes held hers. He tiful. with the devil will need a long soon,” she demurred. “You've earned one,” he insisted. thought that even in the moonlight Sometimes, in retrospect, it is spoon!” There was something monitory in He added, as a saving phrase: he could see her cheeks flaming. possible to say that on a certain Lis tone; the Doctor felt it, and sud “Mrs. Greeding will insist on your Then she spoke defensively, laugh day, or even at a certain hour, ing, her head high. “Give me the there occurred in an acquaintance denly wary, was silent. Before he coming, I know.” could speak again, Mrs. Greeding He had, he reflected in a faint as wheel,” she insisted. “You men a fundamental change; to recognize came to the door. tonishment, been near forgetting are all idiots—don’t know when that he became , from that moment another person, almost a stranger. “You two have been alone long that Myra would be at the island, you’re tired. Come!” He did not trust his voice. With enough,” she suggested. “Dan and had thought only of himseli and There was this summer such a Nancy have disappeared, and Mary this girl and Nancy and Dan. In out speaking, he got out of the car change in Doctor Greeding, but ev Ann and I are talked dry. Pro sudden caution, he curbed his and went around to take the other en those who knew him most inti fessor, I thought you might care for tongue, and they were silent for seat. She backed into the road mately were not afterward abie to bridge?” a while. Through Newburyport, and again. fix definitely its beginning. His “By all means,” Professor Car beyond, the road led smoothly on. “Now shut your eyes and do go wife’s death, it was sometimes sug lisle assented, and rose so quickly They drove swiftly. Once he thought to sleep,” she commanded. gested, might have been the cause; that Doctor Greeding suspected the she slept, but when he looked at He obeyed her; he Fid shut his but Mrs. Greeding had in fact her other man was glad to see an end her, she was watching him. Or eyes. But he did not sleep. It self remarked the difference in him, to this conversation. They settled rather her eyes swung to meet his. seemed to him he had never been and had more than once spoken of at the table in the other room, the He was dangerously near missing sc wide awake before. There may it to Doctor Greeding himself, be Doctor and Mary Ann as partners the road before he turned his head be in the mere circumstance of fore she died. But almost at once the telephone away. sharing together even a passing (TO BE CONTINUED) rang, and Ruth came to cal) Doctor He had never felt so awake, so peril something mystic and compel Greeding. When he returned, it was alive. He grudged the ruct that ling in its effect on man and wom Moonless Month Period with apologies. they came presently to their desti an. For a moment, it might have "I'll have to break up the game,” Without the Full Moon nation, and had a task to do; and happened that he and Mary Ann he explained. “This is a call 1 Moonless month is the name he attacked this business in haste, would die together ; it seemed to can’t very well refuse. Up m Ken him now that after that moment, popularly given to a month in which nebunk. An old friend, an emer eager to be done and on the road their two lives could never take no full moon occurs. Under our again with her; and Mary Ann be gency.” He looked at Mary Ann, calendar February is the only came an automaton, supplementing completely separate ways again. smiled. “It’s a grand night for a But if Mary Ann had any such month that is shorter than the lunar | his own hands with hera, antici drive. Miss Carlisle,” he suggested pating his least desire ... An thought or feeling, she did not be cycle and consequently it is the only “But if you'd rather not—” tray it. Somehow she found the month that can have fewer than 1 Mrs. Greeding protested: “Ned, hour of this, like machines. Then proper road again; somehow she four moon phases. The absent low-toned conversation with the it can't be necessary to subject brought them back to Cambridge. phase, however, need not necessari Mary Ann to this—nor yourr elf ei Doctor, words of reassurance to the For all that time he neither spoke ly be the full moon, but may be i ther. You could send Doctor May patient’s wife, instructions to the nor opened his eyes; but his any one of the four. Likewise five | nurse. So toward two o'clock in thoughts were a millrace. Only hew!" phases of the moon occasionally fall Mary Ann insisted: “Oh. 1 don’t the morning they set out on the re when she stopped the car did he in the other months. turn to Cambridge. mind After all it's my job, you rouse from his abstraction. The average time from one full They had been urged to stay the know!” 'Can you manage the res’ of the moon to another is twenty-nine and ‘1 don’t know at all,” the older night, but Doctor Greeding would way alone?" she asked lightly then one-half days, and the time from woman argued. On the surface not. “I've five cases scheduled for "Or shall 1 take you home and one phase to the next varies from there was in her words no more the morning,” he explained. tuck you in?” less than seven days to more than On the road again, Mary Ann than solitude for Mary Ann. "Sure They were, he saw, at her fa eight. About every six years Feb- | said: “You might have been wiser ther’s door. ly your regular work is—" ruary has only three phases. When But Doctor Greeding interrupted to stay. There aren't five cases. “I can manage, of course,” he as it is without a full moon, the pre "Tosh. Myra.” he said cheerfully There are only two, and Doctor sured her. She alighted; and he ceding January and the following “A doctor’s work is never done; and Mayhew could do them.” got to the ground, and extended his March may have two full moons I Doctor Greeding chuckled “He hand. a nurse is just as much abused as a each. This remarkable sequence, shall,” he assented. "I intend to doctor. Come. Mary Ann." "Thanks for taking care of me.” astronomers estimate, will not occur And Mrs Greeding yielded, sleep till noon. But 1 wouldn’t miss he said. “1 needed some one." Her again for some 2,500,000 years. Feb- | though reluctantly. So they were this drive home with you ’ hand was in his. “Anything might ruary was without a full moon in | presently upon the road. “1 expect a night’s sleep would have happened,” he confessed. 1885, 1915 and 1934, and from ap- | have done you more good ” she “But nothing did!” she remind proximate computations made by insisted, smiling as though his ed him, smiling "Except that it’s the United States naval observatory CHAPTER IV almost daylight, and we ve lost a lot that month will be without a full words were a jest. moon in 1961. He shook his head, intoxicated, of sleep ” There was in Doctor Greeding Februaries without new moons or | impulsively, he lifted her hand to when he set out tonight with Mary alive; and after a little, he began Ann a deep intoxication which he to talk. He was in a confidential his lips: and then he saw the star either of the other two phases occur | rigorously controlled. They took the mood; and he found himself telling tled light in her eyes, and was at about the same intervals, but, o' roadster, ano the top was down her about Ira Jerrell and Nancy quick with a word to make that ges course, in different years.—Indian ture meaningless. apolis News. "But don't repeat this to Dan,' The long miles unrollec in a ribbon Pattern 918 They’re never without their sun bonnets, these seven diminutiva maidens who make light of their own chores, and yours, too. See how pretty they’re going to look, embroidered on a set of seven tea towels? Stitches are of the easiest—mostly outline, with lazy daisy, running stitch and some French knots. Keep them in mind tor gifts. Pattern 918 contains a transfer pattern of seven motifs averaging 5 by 712 inches; illus trations of all stitches needed ; color suggestions and material re quirements. Send 15 cents in stamps or coins (coins preferred) for this pattern to The Sewing Circle Needlecraft Dept., 82 Eighth Ave., New York, N. 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