Newspapers / The Eagle (Cherryville, N.C.) / May 25, 1944, edition 1 / Page 7
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CHAPTER VI Dr. Warner upon meeting tin postman offers to deliver two let ters to Mrs. Maturin, owner of tin Pole Star House. One of these'let ters is from the British govern nient ordering her to hold hersell modations for four people "in i less she prefers to take care of de pendent relatives. Mrs Maturin is much upset over these orders, bui dutifully mails an advertisement U the London Times offering accom modation sfor four people "in t hotel far from military ob.iec. tives.” John Wynter reads the ad and decides to go to Pole Stai House. He tells his chief about il and departs. Monsieur Victor, £ Frenchman, arrives at Pole Stai House. John Wynter on his wav tc Battle Point meets Odette Han nan and happily discovers she lives there. Mrs. Manvers-Pollock, a guest at Pole Star House, believes that signaling is going on at the hotel. “I see.” Mrs. Man vers-Pollock was advancing toward the c;as fire. "I think I shall write a lew let ters,” she said. ‘‘Not to the people in author ity?” Forgive me, Mrs. Maturin,” said Mrs. Manvers-Pollock, "it I ask you refrain from questioning the authenticity of my correspond ence as well as that of my Wold.” And with this she showed much unmistakable desire to be alum that Joan took liie hint and left. Wretched and uncertain, she walk ed slowly downstairs. "Always a mistake to admit a woman into your house,” she groaned as she walked into the kitchen. But directly after dinner Mrs. Manvers-Pollock decided it was best to buttonhole the tall man whose name she had ascertained was Vvynter. “This morning 1 spoke to atis. Maturin about this matter,” the began. ‘ Last night about mn.night I was still awa»t and, as my window was rattling, 1 got out to slip in a wedge that 1 had seen lying ready on the win dow sill. To do this 1 had to draw the curtains and switch out >ie iight. And having none Lids 1 su v below me an intermittent flushing of what looked Iiki a torch. :Sig ruling, in fact.” "Half a minute,” John said. ‘ Lo I understand you to say that you I have already told Mrs. MhUlivn tins'5’' “Yes”. "And what did she sav,” "She pooh-poohed it, saying that it was the light from a hurricane lantern carried by some old sliep “I see.” Though the smoke that ' hovered between him and the fire . John saw the pale, lovely face ofj Odette “Would you mind telling! me me exactly where it was." I “Wait until the beam comes from the lighthouse,” said Mrs. Manvers - Pollock importantly. 1 “There,” she said, as the great orange shaft of light swept across the sky and vanished behind the! headland. “That’s it; now it's gone. ! But I ought to have pointed out tlit* rock I meant; we must wait till it comes again.” “Did you mean the pointed rock with the white top to it?” “Yes. It was just to tlie left of that,” she said. [ see. John spoke sharply, r or unless he was very much mitaken he had seen something else as well. "Vou set back to the fire,” he said, “and I’ll stay here with the curtains well drawn. Yes, I insist; you will get cold." John spoke hur riedy. For he was particularly an xious for Mrs. Manvers-Polloek to, pet out of the way before anything happened again. A tiny winking light shone far below on the rocks. Dot dash, dot dash John read it easily enough. ; “Not tonight; not tonight, not to-1 night.” Not tonight what? He would wait a little longer. Besides, who could he taking the message if it was one? “Do you see anything?” Mrs. j Manvers-Polloek asked. “No, nothing at all.” “No?” Mrs. Manvers-Polloek suddenly felt old and foolish. It might have been a bond between them if only they could have seen a light. Now he would only think ! her a stupid old woman who fan cied things and made a fuss about them. “Well. 1 think I’ll get along.” John stood there smiling “And I don’t think we need worry about the signaling.” “Oh, well, perhaps not.” The next day was beautifully fine. John decided to explore the vil aee and see Fraser as soon as he conveniently could. He would tell him about the signaling and get his ideas as to their possible co operation. Headquarters thought quite highly of Fraser’s ability; he was fairly new to the job, but so far he had proved himself intelli gent Odette, nutting away silk stock ings iiii their flat cardboard boxes, saw .John coming up the hill. Mercifully the shop was empty so she could watch him. Yes, he was attractiye, desperately so. She felt herself trembling a little. There was something happening to hei knees. She turned away because she couldn't watch him any longer “Good morning, Madam, car von supply me with a pair of socks with two-wav tops?" John hati come in, smiling. She could not face him; well, all the better. She had not forgotten that kiss nor had he! “Hallo, is it you?” Odette swung around. “Yes, didn’t vou see me com ing un the road?” “No”. I ‘Liar.' John laughed out loud. 1 How the sun shone into the little shop. Delicious! 1 didn t. the lovely color flood ed up into Odette's paie cheeks. "f ou did, but I'll explain." John took oil his soft hut and laid it down on the counter. "You did see nie, he said, "but it was too much lor you so you had to turn away and recover yourself Now, am 1 not right?" I “Ho you know that you are a j very conheited man?” Do you know that you are a very conceited man?" I "Do you really think so?” Oh! | there was something actually squeezing her heart, thought Odette passionately. This was frigtfully, agonizing. And yet wh.it. utter bliss in the agony. This was love, of course, as she had always dreamed of it. She, the hurdheaded little huckster; she who traded with the enemy, dragging down tier last se mb la net* Of hotlesty in the mud. Liar, traitor, spy . . . vest, hut 1 have to. I have to! . . . her soul screamed the words in sudden i despair. [ "Well, have you got my socks?" John was 'watching Odette. It ' would be easy to find out. he thought brieily. He bad got her in ' the hollow of his hand, j “1 believe I have about three I pairs." Odette turned to the siiel j ves Her Tarnished nails moved among the boxes. "Yes." She look j them down and turned again. ■ "Nice" John was surveying them ■appreciatively. A fine pattern." ; 1 11 lake all these soeks. [low pleased my wife will he not. to . have to darn for a week or so." I "Yes." Turning to replace the I box on the shelf Odette felt her j gingers coud on the cardboard. ‘‘Wife. . . ." The magic gathered ! itself .up into a little soft jeering ! cloud. She could feel it all around “Are you married?'' said John lightly. “No.” I "Mow much, Miss?” Johnstood , there witli a handful ot silver, smiling. "Are you really married?''j Odette asked because' she simply i had to know. She was wrapping! up the socks and doing it badly, j ".No." "Really?" 'I he brown was tool small, thought Odette suddenly. She dragged the parcel open again ! and stooped under the counter to | find some more. "Didn’t 1 do it well?” "Why did you do it at all?"’ "Because 1 wanted to see if you I minded. Look here, you can't do I '.U|» a parcel any better than a child i ; of three." He laid his two brown j i hands on tiers and held them im 1 prisoned. | "Somebody may come in.” ‘\\ hat do 1 care? Kiss me. Quickly or I'll come round the counter and then that will be a scandal," John spoke with a laugh ! but his eyes were not laughing. At , last. . , ids heart sang the Words 1 . . at last. It had come to him j at last it had come. What he had j always dreamed of, the perfect thing. The light that never was on ; sea and land. God in heaven! He1 drew back shaking as he felt hei lips trembling under his. "1 must see you again. When?" -“Not today; 1 can’t.” Her eyes hung on his as she stood there. | "Tomorrow then." '\\ oulrin t it Ir> better “Nothing could be better that1] meant not seeing you. You shut at , about six, I suppose. I'll pick you ; up here this evening and we’ll go i for it drive and have dinner some- j where. Say yes, ouick, here's some old trout coming in to buy darning ' “1 don’t sell it,” Odette burst out laughing The shop was full of laughter, she could hear iti The " old was full of laughter; ugly! things didn’t exist any more. Pa.iit j didn’t exist any more, nor did lain- j ger. Treachery didn't exist either., "Tomorrow night then. Heavens,! I haven’t paid." Shoveling the si 1-1. ver out on the counter, John ; laughed. "How much, Miss?” j “Ten and sixpence.” Lifting his hat John went out. j Dr. Warner was met by Joan as j he sauntered up the little garden i path. She led him into her little sitting room where he laid down | his hat and held out his arms. | "Only because you look so un happy,” he said as he dropped it gentle kiss on her head. “Hugh, who is Mr. Wynter?” Joan asked. “Of course I can.” “Well, I think he must be in the Secret Service,” said I)r. Warner slowly, "Because I have been thinking it over ami why should a comparatively young and perfectly fit man come down here for a holiday?” “Secret Service! Heavens, how madlv exciting. Now I'll tell you something,” she said. “Mr. Wynter has fallen in love with Odette Han. nan !’’ “Whitt?” Looking down into the ! delighted eyes of the woman he loved, 'Dr. Warper wondered vag ' uelv whv he-hadn't thought of that II before. Odette Hannan, of course, Wynter had come down to Battle ' Point, to catch the girl out. To get to the bottom of the signaling, for ' | there undobtedly was signaling,go. ■ j in*r on. In spite of himself Dr. i 1 Warner felt a pang of pity. It ! | would he torture to have an sit - I j tractive man like Wynter make : j love to you simply with the object 1! of eventually handing you over to I I a firing squad. | “No, Hugh.” ?oan began to ox ■ i plain. Yesterday, she said. Mr. j Wynter had said he was frightfully ■ j sorrv he wouldn’t he in to dinner but he was taking a young lady out I for a treat “I asked him who and he said that it was the young lady who kept ajshop in the village, a ! Miss Hannan. And then I said that lie adn't wasted much time and lie [said that he never did when he had set ins mind on a thing, i told him i that 1 liked Oderte aw fully and .that people here didn't an susp.ec.t ( ed tier of all sorts of tilings which ! I always thought and said were not .—spying and tilings like that.” “Alid what did lie sav-to that?" "He looked pleased. I thought.” i here was a good deal of head wagging in the village of Battle Point when the long gray ear slid into tlie curb outside Odette Han nan s shop. Plie villagers were standing about, as it was six o eloek so the public house was “Found a young man, she have.” j It was old Peebles, who used to be head gardener at Lord Poster’s i "Looks like it." Old Burwash, .the postman, who knew a fair ! amount about Odette's correspond enee, and who also knew how to ■ keep silence about it, spoke j thought fully. Miss Hannan's cor respondence; clever they were, the way they stuck ii up again, he though and wondered how they did it so neatly. \o delay either, pond ered old Burwash, thinking hum orously of how he could make old Peebles look small if lie eared to talk. Bit! n n he lie wasn't in the eon tide rice of the police for noth ing. Bni there was one thing tlut.t old Burwa-h didn't know, and that was who John \\ \ liter was. "Really John was smiling up a1 Odette, who had thrust her head out of an up-tail's window to see who il ft as. As if she didn't know, j thought John whimsically And as j lie smiled and fell his heart leap j within him at lovely sight of her ! something awav inside of him was registering something else. (Jreen | utters to the. upper windows;! Shutters, shutters. Shutters—they! had manv uses. Dot dash, dot dash, you could do it beautifully with; the slip's of shutters . . . (TO BE CONTINUED) tLEAVES i OF Ilaurel I ELVIA t r.RAHAW | MELTON I 1 t oi k. X. \ .—It lias hap i> Winched. Kilgallen ami oluiiitrist";-luit never he me! I Intve as guestwriter Ketti tiing from \\ ashihgton, !*• t. ami stepping over in NY(‘ lm- a 'lav or mi hel'u-rc Immeward >>g in Denver, (\>lo., where lie is Regional Chief of the Offiee of War In I ormat ion Radio lfureau, mid also the production Manager if station k M \ H, lien liezolf not uily look'- up his old ft lends—he ats down at a typewriter and does mine of their "work The licit .ter to mve a good "wliaf new?;' session ind to partake of a noil-hurried So. . . here is Hen. pinch-hit liny for El via, and I only hope ay editors and readers do not de •ide to dispense with me entirely liter this. 1 a't it never be that you find i ourself in the position where this matter of life and living has be-i •ome so set that you find yourSelf! it odds with the world and its; ways. The other day [ had that sort of feeling, It was a gray day— the kind when the sky comes down to meet the earth and whatever space is left between the two is filled with the foreboding of New York paid no attention to what the elements were doing. Taxis sounded their horns as usual. Sue way trains shot down the I tracks with the scared speed of the | antelopes on the plain. Pedestrians I clamored for space on Fifth Ave-1 line Intsses which fumed their way i down tlm street of fabulous shops and the home o’f the Vanderbilt. I.um li-i minis were filled at noon ’ll the masticating millions of America’s heart-beat city. Ele vators whiz.zed to the dizzy heights ■ o' buildings that grew tall instead of broad. New York, in other words, "was conducting business as Still, to me. tin' day was filled | wit it nut lii nit'. There was no sun. j no wind. There was tin sky tin lies'; a dirty grey overcast tan he | called a skv. 1 didn’t hear the | sounds and fury that made up the city of love and have and jealousy. And so it was that 1 found my self in the position where this mat ter of life and living had become so set that 1 was at odds with the world and its w ays. I no longer had the urjre to find the lost dreams and future holies of this being called Man. After all, who can eon ] spire against the attitudes of Na jture'’ And who was I to regard i nivsetf as the purveyor of light and I sunshine In tTiis atmosphere of doom and discomfort? . As it usualh happens (always we sort of fall into an abyss of 1 thought this, way) I commenced to wonder why the grey day and it’s I seeming prospect of diaster should | put one into a blue funk? The day , "ns, whether it is hringht or | hlearv. The clock inexorably ticks off the seconds and minutes and | we are swept ahead fly the arc of I the pendulum. Why then does the matter of light and dark make any difference as concerns our atti tude toward the day ahead? It was natural that this trend of thought led to the light and dark aspects ol human existence. The pects of life we all know: a ho hie, a family, a love, a house*1 a bed of flowers, a newly painted room, arise, a pat on the back— Oli, so many things make the bright patterns of a life being invested: wisely! Hut the dark—the dark against which we always fight: the ugly, irremediable spiritual slaps which we take at ourselves and de liver against others. The incom petent manner in which we attach to others the faults of the flesh and spirit so common in ourselves. The lack of understanding and hope when a crisis confronts us; a crisis we might have avoided had we been more patient and tolerant of the human failings of others. Yes, that was the meaning of the clouds which obscured the sun. That was the reason the wind to come and sweep before it the dust which had accumulated in the gut ters of our lines of communication. That was the reason for the rain (which soon spilled' to come and wash away the debris of wale and wanton excess. Then it suddenly appeared, as clear and penetrating as a cock’s crow, that the hideous war which now encompasses us all is as the tin. the wind and the rain. And like the pressing, pushing clouds which shrink us into shells of lone liness and despair 1 he earth was darkened and overcast by a -horror which threat ened to crush from us the very breath which carried the flow of living through our lungs and hearts and souls; pressing ever down ward with a force unknown befpre 1 lie pressure became so intense, that we knew unless our fetters were torn as under our lives were worth nothing. And so it was we broke through Vour first introduction should tell you WHY BLACK DRAUGHT BEST SELLING LAXATIVE all over the South Caution, Uh Only at Dirocttd Extra Sugar for Canning is Available NOWi Your Government wants you to help in the present food shortage by pre serving fruits and berries this Spring ond Summer—and has allotted 20 pounds of extra sugar per person for this purpose—which you can get by applying (either by mail or in person) to your local Ration Board. Dixie Crystals Pure Cane Sugar I was some pest. I bothered the life out of auto service men after the curtain went down on new cars. 1 knew I’d be in some pickle if this car wouldn’t last, so 1 kept quizzing the fellows. Every man-jack of them had a good motor oil or some other life saver, if I could judge. By good luck 1 paid real attention to one chap who had his reasons why to oil-plate tliis engine with Conoco N rh oil. He said every explosion in your engine makes acids, which corrode bare metal. Sounds straight, eh? But with something synthetic in Conoco N*h oil keeping the metal oil-plated, you’d say the fine finish receives special pro tection to fight the acids off. When you see you’re not needing a trade-in nearly as soon as usual, you can give real credit to oil-plating. New cars will be going some if they’re half as far ahead as you can be right now by switching to Conoco oil. CONOCO the clouds of Kiev which bore down and held us fast as though we were shackled with the sins of ages past. We knew that the space be tween the earth and clouds belong ed to us— to Man. It was ours to do with its w'e willed. We knew too that if ever we were able to cast from our beings the gloom of de Ti cessing desparation we assert finally and fully our hope of sun shine and security. And so it was . . . we went to war. We sent, with our boys and men, the cleanness of the wind to wdpe from this earth the sordidness of slavery. We sent, with our troops, some whiling, spontaneous desire for the spiritual lesurgencC! of good. And we blessed them with the thought that their insinuation into the fight against evil would bring a soft and gentle rain to j w’ash away the sins of inhumanity I to man. h es, that is why, I thought, we ! went to war. Not hecause of the economics of business; not because j we were noble to go to the rescue of this country or that; not be-! cause our ships and men were drowned at sea. No. Because all mankind was drowning, drowning in a world uf insecurity and un certainty. Because man was being crushed between the earth of stone and the sky of lead Suddenly the overeat, which made New’ York a city of great tombstones spelling epithets over little men—lighted up and threw shadow’s into the river Hudson. The chains of dark which had held me in bondage disappeared as shackles untied from the innocent. Great weights lifted from mv soul as clouds disperse in the sunlight. And I knew that now the clouds | would never again press down up on the earth with the crushing, crassness that meant defeat and despair and derision that could i iii my life and all it held. I knew that hope was mine• that hope carried with it the assurance . of the brightness of love and hon-| esty and worth. I looked from my window again, ' and the sun was throwing a rat of | light into mv room—a rav which told me 1 had not been wrong. —Ben Zezoff PIGS Thrifty pigs on soybean* and iespedeza pastures will produce economical pork this summer and fall, says Ellis Vestal, Extension Swine Specialist at State College. M HOST MM OF A c O'-® w666 USE TABLETS. SALVE. NOSE MOPS IN DIGESTION Sfiumoiiii Keiiei Iron Iiufifiitiia One Do** Proves It I. tri' flrjt of tjxis pie* taut-taoi • *cfc t .t»i«l dncsr't brine jou the ftatoot ,Kf fillet t-mi have tflprrienced at r* u" *nd norBLE uoNur ma *19“ *®\. t*bl«i he.pe the itoma^f H« aUm the «ir«i %lomtrh fluid* hamlaaa _ fra *»t the nry -.ahtaf food* ym —m/L 9m ^2. urr.. *.>* hMtUrh* and inM«u m aftao etnanarh making rm t*m mmm »3 *k \IT «•* *\rOryp National Cotton V/eek May 22nd-27th Cotton and Victory Go Hand-In-Hand - North Caro lina Leads The Nation in The Manufacture of Cotton Textiles in Various Forms - Cotton is a War Material -■ We Cannot Win This War Without Cotton Town of Cherryville BUY MORE WAR BONDS AND STAMPS v 1 III '0% If
The Eagle (Cherryville, N.C.)
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May 25, 1944, edition 1
7
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