Newspapers / The Alleghany News and … / Feb. 21, 1946, edition 1 / Page 7
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CHAPTER V “As a matter of fact, I did,” he told her and his voice was curt and unfriendly. ‘Too bad. I understand—it was an attempted burglary. Some prowler, per haps—” Ann sat very still for a mo ment and there was a drumming 'in her ears. “Only,” she said after a long moment, “there seems to be quite a bit of doubt now that it really was a prowler! Dan regained consciousness long enough to tell the ambulance men that he shot TKBKSiTf by accident, while clean ing his gun—at four in the morn ing.” Ann set her teeth and clenched her hands more tightly. “And so,” she answered him after a moment, “my city editor has sent me out to see what I can dig up in the way of a story about the shooting.” Startled, Lyn said sharply, “Oh, come now, Ann, you must not do that! Julie’s a friend of yours—and as for me—” he bit down on his truant tongue, but it was too late. Ann drew a long, hard breath and nodded. Ser • suspicions were confirmed. And she felt like weeping. She had stood up and was look ing at Lyn in a long, level stare. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her head throbbed as she desperately tried to get con trol of herself. “So you were mixed up in it,” she said evenly. “And it was Julie, not a burglar, who shot Dan! Oh.'Lyn!” “The whole thing was the rot tenest damned luck you can ima gine,’’ said Lyn. “Old Mrs. La tham—you know the Lathams that live out on the Hardeeville Road? Well, the old lady had a heart attack! Jjhe’s been a pa tient of mine for years; so na turally, they called me. When I got there, I found the Lathams had been having a bridge party— two or three tables, and Julie was there. Mrs. Latham had rather a bad time of it, and I stayed until she was quite com fortable. It was after two and the rest , of the guests had gone home a good while before. But Julie knew I had to pass right by her place on my way home, and she took' it for granted I would be glad to give her a lift and save any of the others from driving out of their way to bring her home. That’s understanda ble, isn’t it?” “Quite understandable,” Ann said curtly. “This is going to be hard for you to believe, but it really hap pened,” said Lyn grimly. “Five miles out I had a flat tire and the devil’s own time getting it off the rim, and the spare in place. Julie was an awful good sport about it. Dan was out of town on a business trip and wouldn’t be back until the next day, and of course, the nurse was with the baby, so she took the whole thing as a lark—for which, I might add, I was extremely grateful. When I got her home, at a little after three, Dan had cut his trip short and had got home a little after midnight. He’d called the Lathams just after we left—and • • • It pays to buy the best YOU CAN ALWAYS BE ASSURED THAT YOU ARE BUYING THE BEST QUALITY WHEN YOU BUY FROM FARMER’S HARDWARE AND IMPLEMENT COMPANY, LONG RECOGNIZED AS A FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE OF ALLEGHANY COUNTY. It might cost a little more right now, but it’s cheaper in the long run. . . Farmer’s Hdw. & Impl. Co. SPARTA, N. C. —well, he was a bit hard to get along with because we had tak en so long on the road. “Dan was pretty stuffy,” Lyn went on. “He—well, he said some quite unpleasant things and I tried not to mind too much, be cause, after all, the situation did look a bit compromising. He— well, suddenly he threatened all sorts of things—so I had to take the revolver away from him—” “And in the struggle it went off and — Lyn, was it you who shot him?” Ann gasped, stricken. “Hell, no!” snapped Lyn short ly. . “That was only a few min utes after three. Dan wasn’t shot until—four o’clock.” “How do you know the exact time when he was shot?” Ann asked carefully. Lyn shot her an angry glance. “Because Julie told me, of course. The baby’s nurse, knowing I was Julie’s physician, called me. The police had already tried to ques tion her, and she had flung them that damned yarn about being awakened by a prowler, her hus band going down to investigate, and then the shot; I gave her a sedative and put her to bed, for bidding all callers, either in per son or on the phone. While I was busy with her, the police ambulance had come and taken Dan away.” mere was a taut little silence and then Lyn said very carefully, “The truth of the matter is, Ann, that—Dan shot himself—but—it wasn’t accidental.” Ann said under her breath, “Oh, poor Dan!” “His—aim was bad. The wound is—more or less super ficial.” Ann breathed a little heartfelt sigh of relief and comfort. She sat still for a moment, and Lyn stood leaning against his desk, studying her, his handsome brows drawn together in a little anxious frown, and suddenly he burst out, ‘Look, Precious, this is one most unholy mess! If my name gets mixed up in anything like this, I’m a dead pigeon! A doctor whose patients are nine ty per cent of them women and children, can’t afford a breath of scandal. And if it got out that I was bringing Julie home at three in the morning—even with out the damning finish of Dan’s attempted suicide—do you care enough for me—for the work I’m doing—to do something pretty big for me?” he asked her quiet ly, yet with an urgent intensity 1 that made her blink a little. “If I only could, Lyn!” she said simply, eagerness in her eyes. “You can, Ann—and—I hope it won’t be too difficult for you,” said Lyn quickly, his eyes aglow. ‘If you would let Sarah announce your engagement to me—” Before Ann could marshal her scattered faculties to formulate any answer, or argument, Lyn rushed eagerly on, “It would be just a make-believe engagement, sweet. And any time you want ed to break it off, all you’d have to do would be give me the nod.” For a long moment she looked up at him steadily. And sudden ly a little warm rush of tender ness flowed over her and to her self she said in a litle gust of sur prise, “Why, this is Lyn! My To The People Of Alleghany County: In the past five years, a new industry has been developed in this part of the country and we are proud to be a party of this new business. We will be here as long as pipes are made from Ivy and Laurel burls. It would be unfortunate, indeed, if any one concern would have the power to control this new industry. Thank God, we live in a country of free enterprises built on a fair competitive basis. The price you are getting today for your Ivy and Laurel stools is not due to the love that any individual manufacturer has for you, but is due to the competition of the various manufacturers of pipe blocks. There fore, common sense will dictate that it is to the best interest of the individual farmer who digs the burls and to the best interest of the merchant who collects them, to sell .these burls to any and all pipe block manufacturers who are willing to pay a legitimate market price. In doing this, you protect your interest of the new industry at large. In conclusion, we ask you to remember us when you have burls to sell. Give y “8 our share and keep competition alive. Write or call: CABOLINA BRIAR CORPORATION West Jefferson, North Carolina Telephone: 127, 129-W or West Jefferson, North Carolina Telephone: 100-B TODD DRUG COMPANY and we will send our truck to haul the burls to our mill. Carolina Briar Corporation ROCCO CUTRI, President., HISASHI'S LOST SWORD ... This sword belonged to Adm. Hisashi Nito, Imperial Japanese navy. It was made about 350 years ago by Tadahlro. one of the most skillful swordsmiths of an cient times. Lt. Gen. Robert Elchelberger. D. S. 8th army, has presented it to the U. S. coast guard academy in honor of the coast guard’jj contribution to defeat of Japan. friend! My dearest friend! He couldn’t possibly do anything— rotten of underhanded! Of' course there’s nothing—ugly be tween him and Julie!” . “All right, Lyn, I’ll do it,” she said quietly. Ann reached the Courier office a little after two. But if she hop ed to escape Tracy’s eagle eye be cause of all the hurry and activi ty she was disappointed, for he had obviously been watching for her and now he yelled her name, and with a heart that sank a lit tle in spite of her, she crossed to him. “Well?” he demanded eagerly, his green eyes alive. “Where’s the story?” She said evenly, “There isn’t any story.” Tracy’s eyes blazed and he barked sharply, “What in blazes do you mean—there isn’t any story?” “It’s just as Julie said,” she told him quietly. She heard a noise, and Dan went to investi gate, and—well, his gun went off.” Tracy leaned back and studied her curiously for a long moment, and there was anger and con tempt in his eyes, and after a moment he said grimly, “So there wasn’t any story! And you want to be a newspaper woman!” “But I don’t want to be a muck-raking, scandal-mongering ‘tab’ reporter, writing lies that just barely manage to evade the libel laws,” she reminded him curtly. He was silent for a long mo ment, and then he straightened his chair, whipped out a memo and said sharply, “There’s a meeting of the Ladies’ Aid of St. Barnaby’s this afternoon. Sup pose you cover it. That sort of story ought to be about your speed.” Tracy turned away from her to pick up a clamorous phone and Ann walked back to her desk, olind with tears of anger. But when she came back into the office late in the afternoon, and found him temporarily free of other claims, she walked back to his desk, laid down, the brief otory about tl)e Ladies’ Aid meet ing, and said quietly, “Will there be anything else, Mr. Driscoll?” “After the way you flopped on the Barton case?” he snapped at her. “Then 1 11 get my things to gether. I imagine the classified ads would be about tny speed after all. Miss Marven can move up here—that is, if you think her health will permit,’’ said Ann gently, despite the anf>r in her eyes and the taut line of her jaw. “I’ll decide who moves up here and who stays in the classified ads,” he snapped. Sarah, looking handsome and almost regal in the severely sim ple black dinner gown that only Sarah and her “little dressmak er” knew had been made over several times, beamed at Ann and Lyn when they stood in the living rom to receive her con gratulations. Ann, in a filmy yellow dinner frock with a callot of gardenias partly covering her pretty hair, looked lovely and useless; Lyn, in a white Tuxedo, was very handsome. They were en route to dinner and dancing at the Driving Club, and Lyn had just put on Ann’s finger the beauti ful old ring that had been worn by three generations of Frazier fiancees. “Well, Lyn, my dear,” said Sa rah, giving him both her hands and looking fondly up at him, “and so Ann has at last come to her senses and promised to mar ry you.” Lyn bent and kissed Sarah’s cheek with a grace that had in it something almost a little old fashioned and that Sarah liked find appreciated. “Well, I’m not sure that prom ising to marry me proves she has come to her senses, or lost them completely” Lyn agreed lightly, his eyes very warm and blue. “But it certainly proves my co lossal good luckt I don’t deserve it, of course—but—I’ll try my very darndest to make her hap py, Aunt Sarah!” Later, outside, in Lyn’s car he said soberly, ‘‘I’m sorry, Prec ious.” -. . > ' Ann looked at him, puzzled. “Sorry,” she repeated. “Why, for goodness’ sake?” “Didn’t you feel a bit guilty at letting Sarah believe our en gagement was on the level? I did,” he confessed, with a little wry grin. “Well, yes, I did, Lyn, though we could safely have told her the truth! Sarah is a trump—she’d understand,” Ann pointed out. Lyn nodded. “I know—want me to tell you the real reason I didn’t want Sarah to know that it’s only a make-believe engage^ ment?” he asked almost shyly. “Why?” asked Ann, puzzled. He grinned disarmingly. “Be cause I’m hoping that if only you and I know it’s make-believe, you may forget it—and suddenly it’ll be real! I’d—like it a whole heck of a lot if you would, Ann.” He started the car and as they turned from the driveway into the street that was throbbing with light and life at this dinner hour, he looked down at her and said anxiously, “Tired, darling?” “A little,” she admitted re luctantly. “That darned job! It’s no place for a girl like you, darling—a newspaper office—” he exploded angrily. Ann managed a little laugh. “That’s what they keep telling me at the newspaper office, pal!” she told him wryly. “I’m not what you would call a howling success at it—at least, they tell me I’m not.” “Driscoll was sore about—Dan Barton’s shooting?” Lyn’s tone made it a statement, not a ques tion. “He seemed to feel that Dan should have waited long enough to give us a formal statement of how, when, where, and by all means why, before he pulled the trigger,” Ann admitted grimly, and said with a little movement of her shoulders, “But let’s for get about it, Lyn. Let’s have fun and forget newspapers and their city editors.” (To Be Continued) Miss Elizabeth Gainey, Home Demonstration Agent in Cum berland County, N. C., for the past 32 years, was recently hon ored by the women of the countv Mt. Zion News Mr. and Mrs. George Pugh and P. C. Edwards visited Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Pugh. Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Smith and children, Edna Rae and Howard, who have been spending a few weeks at their home here, plan to leave tomorrow for Idaho to make their future home. Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Pugh have moved back to their home in the community. Mrs. Bonnie Pugh visited her brother, Pvt. Sidney Blevins, who is spending his furlough with his mother, Mrs. Bell Bin ins, of Topia. r BLOW YOUR OWN HORN la TIm Advertising Columns OF THIS NEWSPAPER Everybody’s Invited * to hear Fiddling Buck and his Blue Ridge Mountaineers Wednesday Night, Feb, 27 -AT Sparta Courthouse Entertainment for the whole family . . . and by people you know . . . many have said that this show excells any they have witnessed for fun, laughs, and good mountain music. EVERETT LUNDY, Mgr. EARL SMITH, Asst. Mgr. Galax, Va. Bay wood, Va. Mountain Music - Songs Comedians Hear them over WAIR, Winston-Salem, every Wednesday and Saturday at 12:30 P. M. Admission: 25c and 50c —SPONSORED BY— Sparta Lions Club I Announcement! y IN ADDITION TO REPAIRING YOUR SHOES FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, WE HAVE NOW ADDED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE, A LINE OF Second Hand Clothing » Including: Second Hand LADIES’ SLIPPERS. Second Hand FIELQ JACKETS. A^MY SHIRTS Cleaned and Repaired. Some New Hats, Shirts and Pants. REPAIRED ARMY SHOES. ARMY PANTS, Cotton and Yam. OVERALL PANTS and JACKETS. Men’s Socks and Children’s Anklets. +i WHEN YOU CALL FOR YOUR SHOES, LET US SUPPLY YOUR OTHER CLOTHING NEEDS. Wf 'i ■ M T& v‘ Sparta Shoe Shop J. P. ARSHER, Owner and Manager ; SPARTA, N. C/'
The Alleghany News and Star-Times (Sparta, N.C.)
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Feb. 21, 1946, edition 1
7
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