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. Y.
Write plainly your name, ad
dress and pattern number.
FEEL A COLD COMING?
Do these 3 things
O
0
6
Keep your head clear
Protect your throat
Build up your alkaline
reserve
V meagre
MENTHOL
•• waied
• COUGH DROPS
HELP YOU DO ALL 3
In Moderation
Common sense also lies in not
expecting too much.
Old Folks
TELL EACH OTHER
THE SECRET OF THE
ALL VEGETABLE
CORRECTIVE
OR many years
folks nave
F older
been telling each
other about the
wonderful all-vege
table corrective
called Nature’s
Remedy (NR Tab
lets). From one per
lon to another has passed the news of this
purely vegetable laxative. It means so much to
people past middle life to have a laxative that
thoroughly clears their bowels of accumulated
wastes. It means fewer aches and pains—more
happy days. And Nature’s Remedy is so kind to
thesystem.Non-
s*.
habit forming.
UTTONICHT
Get a box at any
IT.
TOMORROW ALRIGHT
drugstore—25
tablets for 25c.
YOU CAN THROW CARDS
IN HIS FACE
ONCE TOO OFTEN
HEN you have those awful
cramps; when your nerves
W are
all on edge—don’t take it out
on the man you love.
Your husband can’t possibly
know how you feel for the simple
reason that he is a man.
A three-quarter wife may be
no wife at all if she nags her hus
band seven clays out of every
month.
For three generations one woman
has told another how to go "smil
ing through" with Lydia E. Pink
ham’s Vegetable Compound. It
helps Nature tone up the system,
thus lessening the discomforts from
the functional disorders which
women must endure in the three
ordeals of life: 1. Turning from
girlhood to womanhood. 2. Pre
paring for motherhood. 3. Ap
proaching "middle age."
Don’t be a three-quarter wife,
take LYDIA E. PINKHAM’S
VEGETABLE COMPOUND and
Go "Smiling Through."
/
inai)
Rid Yourself of
Kidney Poisons
DO you suffer burning, scanty or
— too frequent urination; backache,
headache, dizziness, loss of energy,
leg pains, swellings end puffiness
under the eyes? Are you tired, nerv-
ous—feel ell unstrung end don't
know what is wrong?
Then give some thought to your
kidneys. Be sure they function proper
ly for functional kidney disorder per
mits excess waste to stay in the blood,
end to poison end upset the whole
system.
Use Doan’s Rik Doan’s are for the
kidneys only. They ere recommended
the world over You can get the gen
uine, time-tested Doan’s at any drug
store.
D oans P ills