HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1940-01-18, Page 6e>
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1040
s
“MARK 1702
by Eardley Beswick
A grunt was the only answer. It i place.’
came actually from beneath the He
mattress, but it was hardly to be | thick
.Bout
much
sound
Cocking an inquisitive eyebrow, he
glanced over to watch Geoffery
Hendringham roll slowly,
grunting, subside again. He
ied the wrist watch again and
ed himself as if satisfied.
“No hurry,” he remarked sooth
ingly towards the bed. “You’ve a
couple of minutes yet, bld man.”
The man on the bed tossed and
grunted sleepily. After a moment
or two. however, he relaxed again
and subsided. Then abruptly his
t lunched hands shot up over his
head and he yawned eavernously.
Now he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“Hullo Cope.” said Geoffery
Hendringham as his eyelids came
stickily open at last.
"Morning, Geoff. How’s it feel
now?”
Hendringham replied succinctly.
"Headache.” he said. “Mouth like
a lime-kiln.* Where the deuce was
I last night?"
The other rose and his fingers
fumbled once more in his waistcoat
pocket as he approached the bed.
"Better swallow one of these and
then have a drink of coffee,” he
said in his soothing, family doctor
tones. “Have to use my cup, tho’.
I didn’t like to order two. And I
hope you don’t feel well enough to
want any breakfast, because I’ve
iaten all there is.”
Hendringham swallowed the pill’
held to his lips. “Breakfast!” he
snorted distastefully.
“Bit of toast and marmalade if
you like,” Cope encoura'ged him.
“I can send for some more toast
and the marmalade’s my
ing so well I needn’t
how good it is.”
“Couldn’t face it, old
rolled back on his pillow.
Where on earth did I get to last
night? What a fool! What a
fool!”
“You can spare yourself the re
morse, old man. For once you don’t
entirely deserve them. However,
perhaps it’s good practice. Coffee?”
Cope watched him drink and ther*
left him to lie there while he him
self leisurely completed his meal,
and, having completed it, restored
what was left of the marmalade to
its leather cash bag. Then he re
seated himself in the sunlit bay and
lighted a cigarette. There he sat
silently smoking, his great head
slightly bowed, the sunshine incar-
nading his wing-like ears, his eyes
half-closed his whole long body
relaxing, ^Luxuriously, as if only his
brain was active any longer.
The cigarette had burnt to a
stub when Hendringham suddenly
sat bolt upright. “What’s the time?’
he demanded alertly.
actually from beneath the
‘ss, but it was hardly to be
expected that a busy housemaid at
that hour of the morning would be
sufficiently alert to recognize this.
“It’ll he cold if you don’t make
Haste, sir,” she insisted, a trifle
louder, and again that sleepy, sat
isfied grunt, replied.
Tossing her head in a gesture of
contempt for the irresponsibility of
young men at waking time, a phen
omenon with which her duties had
rendered her tiresomely familiar,
she flounced our of the room. As
if to complete the awakening in the
easiest possible way she banged the
door violently as she departed.
At once Johnny Cope emerged
wormlike from behind the valance.
He rose to his feet, dusted himself
fastidiously, and, going to the wash
stand. carefully cleansed his hands.
Then he approached the figure on
the bed and rolling back the blan
kets. proceeded to expose the arm
to above the elbow. He felt the
pulse, nodded satisfaction to him
self, and produced from one of his
waistcoat pockets another slim me
tal case containing this time a hy
podermic set, pocket size. After
swabbing a spot on the bare arm
he plunged in the needle and com
pleted an injection in his habitually
efficient manner.
A glance at his wrist watch and:
“Seven-twenty and a half,” he not
ed precisely. “Give you fifteen
utes, old
sorry you
breakfast.”
1 ‘Sunshine
dow space with a warm golden
glinting on the crockery and on the
metal dome that conserved the kid
neys and bacon, lending vividness
to the rich hues of the toast that
stood, as if martialled for inspec
tion, in its little china rack. His
long fingers caressed one another
as he stood for a moment and sur
veyed it all. Then: “Ah, marma
lade! ” he remarked in the tone of a
man who remembers something su
premely important and going over
to the wardrobe he found a small
strapped leather bag of the sort
commonly carried by wages clerks
and cashiers in the City, From
this he extracted a pot of marma
lade carefully swathed in news
paper, and, bearing it triumphant
ly to the table, he seated himself
and began his breakfast. He might
have been an abnormally ugly Don
at one of the older universities pre
paring himself for a morning’s
browsing in some cloistered library
It only needed a copy of that morn
ing’s ‘Times’ propped against the
tea cosy to complete the illusion.
Strictly "Confidential
Perhaps it was the want of
such provision for the mind
Ted him presently to remove
the window ledge a thin, paper-
covered volume that an earlier oc
cupant had left there, being doubt
less too hatefully agitated to re
member it at the moment of his de
parture. He raised it with the cas
ual air of a man who anticipates
no possible quickening of his in
terest but is prepared to read the
title his munching mouth pursed
significantly and his eyebrows arch
ed until the etched wrinkles on his
astonishing forehead concentrated
into
ing.
OF
BY
CONFIDENTIAL.
ISED USE ONLY.”
• He leaned back and whistled
gently.
Presently he left his meal to rum
mage among the’drawers with which
the old-fashioned furniture of the
room was abundantly supplied. It
djd not take him long to find a
sheet of tissue papei’ and carefully
wrap Mr. Pamphlett’s reading mat
ter in this. “Might still be a finger
print or two,” he murmured as he
-settled himself down to his break
fast again. “Never know. Anyway
it’d be useful to know out of whose
hands Pamphlet! got in in the first
was eating buttered toast
spread with the marmalade
which he had gone to so
trouble when there was a
of stirring from the bed.
and
stud-
nodd-
man.
can’t
filled
Meanwhile
even smell
the pleasant
min-
I’m
that
win
light
some
that
from
CHAPTER IV
own mak-
emphasize
man.” He
“Oh, Lord
a rememblance of a deep plow-
“MEM0TR ON THE MEAN'S
DEFENCE AGAINST ATTACK
AIR,” he read. ‘‘STRICTLY
FOR AUTHOR-
Cope Takes His Shoes Off
Cope glanced at his watch, the
habitual glance. “One and a half
minutes to eight,” he announced.
“I must get up,” announced .Hen-
dringham, “I’ve all sorts of things
to see to. I’ve just remembered.”
“No hurry, old boy. You can take
it easy for a bit. Everything’s all
right at the Gresham Works, or at
least it was three and a half hours
ago when the new inspector from the
Controller’s department they sent
down overnight made his first in
spection. Smart chap, he is, too.
You can safely leave that end of it
to him for a bit. The real focus of
affairs seems to have shifted to this
boarding house for the present.”
“What’s that about a new in
spector?”
“Me,” said Cope, and then, as if
that did not after all explain every
thing: “I had to be someone offic
ial to get in at all, you see. They
were all quite nice about it though.
I only had to show the night watch
man my passport and after that
everybody kowtowed in the most
obliging way. Lucky the fellows evi
dently hadn’t so much as eyed a
passport before. I had to chance
they’re extraordinarily
if ever you take the
read one, though this
dearly too awed to at-
II
and all that.
Brines and
lass fellows by
hard at it. I
a look at the
too much publicity,
Messrs. Hammond,
Crowder, three first-
the way, were all
found time to have
scene of the explosion, too. Some
thing more than petrol—I under
stand that’s the official theory—
did the damage there, probably nit
ro-cellulose. I imagine the petrol
had been squirted into the switch
box so as ’to make sure of a start
the moment you put the switch on.”
“Good heavens! You don’t mean
to say that was planned?”
“Why not? Seems pretty obvious
to me. If there’d been an explos
ion concentration of petrol vapour
big enough to fetch the lid off
’ike what happened you’d have spot
ted it infallibly, coming into the
room freshly. Then you might have
wanted to investigate before
put the switch over.”
“But, johnny, my dear chap,
too much for me! Altogether
much. I know it’s an important
contract and all that, and in the
devil of a hurry seemingly. But that
doesn’t justify people blowing up
buildings and drugging a chap just
as if there was a war on.”
“Doesn’t it?” johnny Cope care
fully lit another cigarette, drew in
the smoke luxuriously and puffed it
slowly out before adding in his most
casual tones: “As a matter of fact
there is a war on as near as makes
no matter, only for the time being
you
it’s
too
♦
»
the sort of bomb that you drop but
one that you fire into the air in
stead, It looks like being the first
really effective reply to attacking
aircraft. In my humble opinion a
ualvo of Mark 1702’s would clear
the air in case of an attack like one
of these spraying solutions clears a
room of flies. It’s gyroscopically
directed of course. You'll have ga
thered that from the mechanism.
THE EXETER TIMES-ADVOCATE
j^m'Si.7,atari:
it’s an underground war with fel
lows like you and me In the firing
line. It’s up to us, I fancy, to see
it doesn't become more than that
for the pr^ent."
Hendringham stared at him with
wide open eyes. “No, it’s no good.
I can’t grasp it yet,” he said hope-
1 lessly,
“Well, if your head's clear enough
to stand it I’ll open up a bit gladly. |
It’s time you knew more than your j But when it gets within a certain
official superiors care to tell you, f range it steers itself, or rather it is
more than they care to tell me ei-; steered by the magneto radiations
ther, for that matter, only I have,
as you know, unusually big ears
and a faculty for deducing a good
deal more than I’m told. Always did
reckon to know a hawk from a
handsaw, as a matter of fact."
Cope was sitting now with his
legs stretched out and his brightly
covered feet resting on the window
ledge. Presently, however, he low
ered his feet and bent to take off
his yellow shoes.
“Pinching•you?” asked Hendring
ham solicitously.
“Pinching jne! I’d have you know,
young man, there isn’t a pinch in a
sliop-windowfull of shoes of this
qaulity. No, the fact is I have a
hunch that I’d be better off in my
stocking feet for a bit.” He picked
up the shoes, and, having tied
laces together, rested
window ledge.
“Let the sunshine
leather," he said. “I
it’s occurred to you
part of a shoe that never
fair share of sunshine-is the sole.
All animal products need sunshine
to keep them healthy, pity so few
people are sole-conscious nowadays.
Save ’em a lot
imagine.”
He shifted his
er the bed and
probably guessed that Mark 1702’s
a sort of aerial bombi. What you
mayn’t have guessed is that it isn’t
of the very thing it is attacking so
that it goes for it like a wasp."
Visitor Expected
was a sharp spat of sound
of his yellow shoes kicked
air and, dragging its fellow
them on
the
the
theget into
don’t suppose
that the one
gets its
of foot troubles, I
chair a little near
resumed: “You’ve
1
There
and one
into the
with it, landed on the ground at his
feet,
He groaned as he bent to pick up
the fallen shoes. “Heart-breaking,"
he said after studying them for a
moment, and tossed them on the
bed.
Examining them closely, Hendring
ham observed a neat puncture pass
ing through one sole at the waist.
His brows wrinkled and his
looked a Question.
“First shot in the next Great
I shouldn’t wonder,” remarked
thoughtfully. “Pretty good for an
airgun too. Must be all of fifty feet
to the shrubbery where for the quite
have been
be caused
an ostrich,
thinks I’m
long time,
eyes
a long time now there
movements too great to
by any bird smaller than
Fellow who got that one
going to be lame for a
no doubt. I wish I could have let
out a yell to increase the illusion
for him, but it wouldn’t have done
to alarm the house.”
‘‘I’d been wondering why you tied
them together so carefully. I sup
pose if they hadn’t both moved al
most at once it wouldn’t have looked
as if there were feet inside ’em.”
“Precisely. Well, now, as I was
Biliousness is just another name
for a clogged or sluggish liver. It
is a very common, complaint, but can
be quickly remedied by stimulating
the flow of bile. This softens the
Accumulated mass, the poisons are
parried out of the system, and the
liver and bowels are relieved and
toned up.
Milburn’s Laxa-Liver Pills quicken
and enliven the sluggish liver, open
ing up every channel, by causing a
free flow of bile and thus cleansing
the liver of the clogging impurities.
They are small and easy to take.
Do not gripe, weaken or sicken.
Tlw T, Milburn Co., Ltd.. Toronto, Ont.
that. And
impressive
trouble to
fellow was
tempt that."
> “How about that job? The new
! sample I mean."
I “Everything’s all right except
J that they can’t find that armature
• that ought to be in the office of the
1 Winding Shop foreman. Someone
’ seems to have got there first, Per-
> haps though the one in the damag-
i ed model will be useable. We’ve got
I that up our sleeve as it were, for
I what it’s worth, or I fancy we
j have."
I “That's an idea,” Hendringham
I agreed.
; “There was a policeman in the
i toolroom—sound move of yours,
j that, though, as you know, the de
partment does not approve of mak-
ing too much of a splurge with the
| police. Tends to give the matter
explaining when I was Interrupted.
Murk 1702’s a kind of aerial bomb
but the mechanical side of it’s no
longer the secret it ought to be. Sev
eral countries have the idea by now,
some of them a good deal more than
the idea. Where we still have the
pull is in the explosive and it’s the
composition of that they haven’t
got hold of yet.” He held up a
bony hand as if to still the interjec
tion forming itself op Hendring-
ham’s lips. “Yes, I know no one
ever told you how vital those two
tubes of powder some ass dished you
really happened to be. You see, you
are only supposed to have dummy
tilled with a harmless powder—
and old family favorite, Doctor
Gregory’s Powder, it happened to
be, indistinguishable except for its
effects which, of course, are of a
slightly different order. When that
girl told me you’d blow yourself up
I at once jumped to the conclusion
that you’d been testing' with the
tubes the powder in which couldn’t
have been all it was supposed to be.
It as an error actually, but it put
me on tp the right line in the end.
Of course I saw at once, for one
thing, that if it had been the real
thing there wouldn’t have been a
shred of you left big enough to
telephone about, and, thinking it
over, all I could imagine you’d be
doing would be testing the insula
tions, first go off. You wouldn’t
need the tubes except to make sure
they fitted.”
Hendringham nodded.
(To be Continued)
Established 1873 and 1887
at Exeter, Ontario
Published every Thursday jaonjunfc
SUBSCRIPTION—|2.00 pep'year ip
• advance
RATES—Farm or Real Estate for
sale 50c. each insertion for first
four insertions, 25o. each subse
quent insertion. Miscellaneous ar
ticles, To Rent, Wanted, Lost, or
Found 10o. per line of six word*.
Reading notices 10c, per line,
Card of Thanks 50c. Legal ad
vertising 12 and S.% pei line. I»
Memorlaia, with one verse 50c.
extra verses 25c. eg/’h.
Member of The Canadian Weekly
Newspaper Association
Professional Cards
GLADMAN & STANBURY
(F. W, Gladman)
BARRISTER, SOLICITOR,
Money to Loan, Investments MaO
Insurance
Safe-deposit Vaults for use of ou^
Clients without charge
EXETER and HENSALL .«
CARLING & MORLEY
BARRISTERS, SOLICITORS,
LOANS, INVESTMENTS,
INSURANCE
Office; Carling Block, Mjain Street
EXETER, ONT.
Bill: I’m learning to fly, grand
ma. Pretty soon I can take You
to the city in an aeroplane.”
Grandmother: “You will not!
When I want to go to the city I'll
go in an automobile — the way
Providence intended me to go.”
Dr. G. F. Roulston, L.D.S..D.D.S
DENTIST
Office: Carling Block
EXETER, ONT.
Closed Wednesday Afternoons
*
Dr. H. H. COWEN, L.D.S.,D.DS
DENTAL SURGEON
Office opposite the Post Office.’
Main Street, Exeter
Office 36w Telephones Rea. 3 51
Closed Wednesday Afternoon*
ARTHUR WEBER
LICENSED AUCTIONEER
For Huron and Middlesex
FARM SALES A SPECIALTY
PRICES REASONABLE
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
Phone 57-13 Dashwood
R- R. No. 1, DASHWOOD
DOMINION OF CANADA
FIRST WAR LOAN
*200,000,000
The Bank of Canada is authorized by the Minister of Finance to receive
subscriptions for a loan to be issued for cash in the following terms •
3% Per Cent Bonds
To be Redeemed by Annual Drawbigs by Lot
as follows:
20% of the Loan on February 19 1940 at 100.00
20%February 19 1949 at 100.00
20%a February ,19 1950 at 100.00
20% w «February 19 1951 at 100.50
. 20%if February 19 1952 at 101.00
Issue Prices 1OO% and accrued interest.
•f •
The proceeds will be used by the Government to finance ^expenditures for war purposes.
Payment is to be made in full against delivery of interim certificates on or after
February 1, 1940.
Principal and interest will be payable in lawful money of Canada. Interest will be
payable without charge semi-annually at any branch in Canada of any chartered bank.
The Bonds will be dated February 1, 1940.
Denomination of Bearer Bonds: $50, $100, $500, $l9000
The Minister of Finance may, at his discretion, authorize the Bank of Canada to
accept applications to convert Dominion of Canada 3% Bonds maturing March 1, 1940,
into an equal par value of additional bonds of the above issue. The 3% Bonds accepted
for conversion will be valued at 100.17% and accrued interest to date of delivery.
Cash subscriptions and conversion applications may be made to the Bank of Canada,
Ottawa, through any branch in Canada of any chartered bank or through any approved
investment dealer or stock broker from whom copies of the official prospectus con
taining complete details of the issue may be obtained.
The Minister of Finance reserves the right to allot cash subscriptions in full
or in part.
Subscription lists will open at 9 a.m., E.S.T., on January 15, 1940, and will remain
open thereafter for not longer than two weelcs^ but may be closed at any time at the
discretion of the Minister of Finance, with or without notice.
Ottawa, January 12, 1940
1
•I
I
r
an
FRANK TAYLOR
LICENSED AUCTIONEER
For, Huron and Middlesex
farm' SALES A SPECIALTY
Prices Reasonable and Satisfaction
Guaranteed
EXETER P. O. or RING 188
USB0RNE & HIBBERT MUTUAL
FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY
Head Office, Exeter, Ont.
President ............. JOHN
. Kirkton, R. R.
Vice-President .... JOHN
Dublin, Ont.
HACKNEY
1
mcgrath
DIRECTORS
W.. H.. COATES .................... Exeter
ANGUS SINCLAIR .... Mitchell, R. 1
WM. HAMILTON .... Cromarty, R. 1
T. BALLANTYNE ... Woodham, R. 1
AGENTS
JOHN ESSERY ................. Centralia
ALVIN L. HARRIS ...... Mitchell R. 1
THOS. SCOTT .................... Cromarty
SECRET ARY.TREASURER
B. W. F. BEAVERS .............. Exeter
GLADMAN & STANBURY
Solicitors, Exeter
Our Prices are the Lowest they
have been for several years..
If you are building it will pay
you to call and get prices.
Just think Matched Lumber at
$35.00 per M. feet
A. J. CLATWORTHY
Phone 12 Granton
We Deliver
DEAD LIVESTOCK
Phone Exeter 235, Collect
DAY oil NIGHT
SEVEN DAYS'* A WEEK
Our drivers are equipped to
shoot old or crippled animals
DARLING
and Co. of Canada, Ltd.
CHATHAM, ONT.
I