Loading...
Zurich Herald, 1930-09-11, Page 6Conscience Money H a r r y Jobling Finds That Honesty is Still the Best Policy Ry. A, D. GREENWOOD 1"lverybody vrho knows Stacey Park, London's newest suburb, knows the little general shop which old Jobling built out hi front of the ancient and ramshackle Manor House. Young Harry Jobling lived there oW, alone, except for Mrs. Briggs, who kept house for hint. But things weren't groin., well. Multiple shops had sprung up, and competition had become fierce. If you went into Jobling':, a girl with light brown, bobbed hair and dark brown, bright eyes served you. Daisy King was Harry's only assist- ' ant. It was on a Friday—the thirteenth of the month, too!—when. Daisy, who had been even quieter than usual all the morning, lingered bfore she went off to lunch, and then said nervously to Harry: "I'm worry, Mr. Jobling; I've got to give notice." She went on the explain *at her father was joining his brother in part, ner•ship on a farm in Canada. The whvle family were leaving England for good. Her uncle would find jobs for Peter and Dick, her brothers. When she had gone to her lunch, Harry stared at her usual seat in the dark corner behind the counter and the perfumery showcase. She was leaving England. Never had he im- agined such a disaster. Never had he realized the truth with such blazing eerety. Did she know? No, never had he hinted by deed, word or glance: How could he speak of love to any girl when he had , nothing—less than no- thing—to offer? It was then theM he suddenly thought how splendid it would be if he too, could go. Was it impossible? Her father, he learnt, had sold his business -and his house,.and was putting capital into his brother's farm—paying his footing. Swiftly calculating,, Harry believed he could meet his liabilities and have a few hundreds overpro- viding he could find a real purchaser for the freehold of the old house. He night make inquiries at the estate agents, anyhow, and see if he could get a good offer. That same evening Mrs. Briggs, the housekeeper, called Harry into the kitchen. Since the dry weather had set in, she explained, the crack be- tween window and fireplace had been widening. Something ..'tight to be done, said she. Harry investigated. In the passage above the crack, hidden by a cupboard, gaped widely. On the first floor, in one of the disused rooms, he could put his fingers into it. On the second floor, in yet another empty room, past rains had driven in and rotted the floorboards. A settlement of old standing, made more apparent by the draught, said a friend—a clerk in a London survey- or's office—who came down that week- end at Harry's request and investi- gated. With a very long face he made his report. "The old house is doomed, old boy," he finished; "underpinning would cost a mint o' money." "Nobody -would buy, I suppose?" said aHrry. "Only for the site value, I'm afraid, old man. The house itself is worth less than it would cost to pull it down and clear the site." In bed that night, with a high wind filling the old house with strange noises, Harry, calculating, realized that his capital, too was a minus quantity. Without the price he had set against the house, he was no longer solvent. Day -dreaming of Al- berta and Daisy was folly. He wouldn't think of her. Tomorrow he wouldn't: even look at her. "But he did look.—constantly. The presence of a rat in the base- ment, where stock was stored, changed his plans. The rat .caused Daisy's wav- ering cry, which -est Harry bolting- downstairs. oltingdownstairs. She had leapt up on a crate. "Darling, what's happened?" The words were instinctive. Not till he noted her expxrexsxsixonx xdix till he noted her expression did he realize what he had said. The rat, by running again across the floor, caste to Harry's rescue. He snatched up a bundle of firewood and let fly at it. The bundle glanced off a barrel tied brought a pyramid of paint pots to the floor. Simultaneously Daisy jumped down. Her foot landed on a rolling tin. She fell, scrambled up as Harry darted forward, then drew a loud breath ot paint and stood balanced on one leg. "You're hurt? It was all t .y beast- ly fault! I—I say, I am a clumsy idiot! Is --is it your ankle?" She nodded and blinked. Two tears glittered on her cheeks. She put her fent to the ground and went very white. .Harry's arm shot round her. "Sprained? Oh, I say, I am R4 frightfully sorry! Don't walk on it. Let nae—" He lifted her as though she was trade of glass. He carried her, star- Ing steadfastly ahead, upstairs and. Into his little parlor, "Mrs, Briggs!" he shouted. A Giracef Ul Escape Striking action photograph taken as Tom Farndon crashed into and over Phil BIshop, already down, and E. Willis tont to lower her on to the sofa its her mother's sitting -room. Left alone with Daisy, while Mrs. King was up., stairs fetching bandages, he Ieant over the sofa. "I'm so — frantically—frightfully sorry," he said. "I'd rather harbor a million rats than hurt one hair of your head." She lay there, looking up at him. "What—what was it you said when you first carie in?" she asked. He felt his cheeks burn. Then he noticed that her pale lips were quiv- ering. "Are—are you in frightful pain?" Le asked. "No. I'm trying not to laugh." "At me?" -at said simply. She nodded. "Because it took a rat to do it!" she said. Then Mrs. King appeared and said she felt sure Harry must be anxious to get back to his business. Nor would she listen to protests. So back he went, his thoughts busy, alternately so happy and miserable, exalted and floored, exulting and despairing. Harry's blissful dreams didn't last long. All his worries seemed sudden- ly to niome to a head. Wholesalers became avid for payment. and his friend's the danger,' of collapse. "Can't Mr. Miers see it for himself, then?" asked Daisy. "No. He doesn't know a thing about. building. That's obvious. The man's simply a fool. Anyone could de him" "Then he must be told, Harry," she sai, without hesitation. Mr. Miers looked in the next morn- ing. His cheeks were more yellow, his lisp more pronounced than ever, -and he was evidently in the worst of tem- pers. "Can't wait any longer," he said. "It's now or never, Mr. Jobling. I'll raise another, $500. Not a penny more. That's flat," Harry sighed, smiled, and shook his head. "You've heard?" ejaculated Miers abruptly, eyes glitering like beads. "Heard what?" asked Harry startled. Mr. Miers flushed, and turned orange. "$1,000 then, and thats' final!" he exclaimed. "It's a go! Yes?" „ here, said Harry. "Look 1 ere, Ivv something to show you." He led Mr. Miers downstairs. "See that? It's a settlement. Come. upstairs. It runs right through the report of And then, one day, a little dapperhouse. I want to sell, heaven knows. man, with a saffron skin, a black smudge of moustache, and black eyes behind tortoiseshell glasses, sauntered into the shop. He introduced himself as Mr. Miers. On behalf of a client he was looking for—well, pretty much what he now saw. Had the idea of selling ever struck Mr. Jobling? "Well," said Harry, his heart tick- ing, "more or less." It ended with Harry taking Mr. Miers over the house. It wasn't till they stood in the garden—a fine, long garden, now mostly jungle, lay behind the old house—that Harry felt he had been a little unscrupulous in standing in front of the crack on every floor they visited. "P'r'aps," said Mr. Miers, at the finish. "I might have the first refusal for a month or so?" In a few months 'the house night have collapsed; so Harry said: "Sorry. If I sell I want to sell quickly." That night Harry went round to inquire after Daisy. They were alone together for the first time since that wonderful afternoon. Harry told her all about Mr. Miers and how in the end he had, to Harry's astonishment, made an offer for the house. "More than I expected to get," said Harry. "And the funny thing is that he didn't say anything about it being subject to surveyor's report. Just said he'd buy it as it was. His solicitors are investigating the title already. Seems in a hurry." "You accepted? It's sold?" Barry shook his head. He had not nctual'y accepted. He had longed te. Something had held hint back. That crack, that fatal settlement, had pre- vented his leaping at the offer. All very well to argue that a purchaser must look out for himself, but no pru- dent man buys a house without his surveyor first reporting on it. Well, Miers was imprudent 'then. Miers was the fool he looked, then. Still, that didn't justify doing him. His surveyor friend, over the tele- phone, declared, however, that only a fool would point out the settlement. "It's up to Miers to find out. You keep your 'mouth shut, old boy." Harry did. He ]rept his mouth shut so firmly that he couldn't say' "Yes," to Mr. Miers' firm offer the next day. To his dismay the only result was an. increase of $500 in the price. Evi- dently Miers was keen on the place for some unknown reason. "Give me till the morning," said Harry. That night he laid the matter be- fore Daisy. Ile told her all that de- pended on it. If he kept silent and let the sale go through, he could clear, all his liabilities and land in Canada The old woman came bustling. bre havered, gazing .at Daisy, saying: "A. with several hundi:ed dollars at least.. doctor? !)'you think I'd better get n "In Confide., Harry?" c out: 191doctor? Sure it's all right`! hadn't ? Yes, 1 mean to follow you better telephone?" . grit a job somewhere within riding Animist later he shut up the shorts distance. I'll ;.ee' you sometimes— and took Daisy home in a taxi. To enol :•o rrc'r:tiv." front it'lee carried her. He was mine. h •r'1 `h^n he Iola her of the crack, I'm not sticking out for a bigger price. I'd have jumped at your first offer. But I couldn't, though I wanted to. The Horse is. rotten, tumbling down. Barring the site" ' Mr. Miers sat down on a crate, staring up at Harry and rubbing his podgy hands together. Then his sol- emn face crumpled up, and abruptly be began to laugh. "What—what's up?" demanded Harry. In answer Mr. Miers pulled out his fountain -pen and the contract he had so often before put in front of Harry. "I'm still on," he said. ':What's your price?" "What you first offered. But, man, you—" Mr. Miers' poised pen descended like a hawk, then rose and hovered. "No," he snapped, frowning fero- ciouslyt ".i offered you iu all $1;150 irore. We'll split the difference, Mr. Jobling, just put your name here, please." "So I signed," Harry told Daisy that evening. "I shall have the money in about a month. Oh, I do wish I could come out with you in the same boat!" "You are to," she said. "I told father all about us last night. He's going to make uncle take you on. But, Harry, why didn't Mr. Miers mind about the settlement?" "He's acting for a syndicate," Harry said. "He laughed like any- thing at my getting the extra cash. He called it conscience money. The sliding clear, at recent English race. The School Bell • 'Old Bell. That cheats the schoolboy of his hours of play, • And callest hint to lessons day by day, The brazen tongue shalt now inspire my lay, "Old laughing Bell! • Thy piercing voice seems sadly o'a't of tutee, Swlugiug aloft from new to waning moon, , With oircling years, like leaves, arond these strewn. "0 mournful Bell! Thou hriug'st my boyhood back to me again, Its golden tropes which now I seek in vain, The fleeting joys that danced about its train, "0 solemn Bell! Tatou seentest in mine ears to sound the knelt Of those dear playmates whom I loved so well, • Who by the wayside is the spring• time fell. "0 mocking Bell! Laughing the years away with heed• less sound While young life, ebbs and flows in endless round! syndicate's going 4. build a big the- Cats Latest Additions Wilt thou survive and they no more atre and every bit of the old house be found? fs to be demolished.—"Answers." • The Queen's Handiwork for Baby Princess to Vegetarian Fad Vegetarians are congratulating 0 dismal Bell! themselves on new converts just now Ring as thou will, thou shall not tiring —and converts in rather unsuspected dismay; daces. Thou are a thing of earth's swift London.—Baby clothes for the grin- For instance, it was :recently report- passing day, Gess born to the Duchess ot York .ed from Aberdeenshire that a fox. and But Life and Love shall never fade included woollen garments which Queen Mary crocheted, threaded with Pink ribbons, it was revealed. The Queen also made a cot cover dotted with tiny pink embroidered rose, buds which was sent to Glamis Castle be- fore the birth of the child. The Queen's choice of pink was taken as an indication that she anti- cipated the birth of a girl, as most, royal women still adhere to the old idea of "blue for a boy and pick for a girl." Latest Bulletin Glamis, Scotland. -The progress of the Duchess of York and the new princess continued satisfactory. "Her royalva1 t i hues and the infant princess are both very well," said an. official bulletin issued on Aug. 29th leaving their neighbors alone, even when they are a kind that would make a tasty meal. Thus, if there is a rabbit warren near a fox's quarters, the fox will ignore it when he is hunting, and travel some. distance to a rabbit hadbeen found sharing the same burrow, and bringing up their respective families in it. But this doesn't necessarily mean brated its 150th anniversary. that the fox in question had turned ;.------ vegetarian. There have been cases of Th a similar kind before,and the rabbits away." —Bedford Pollard, in the Friend. Ackworth School has Just cele• e Prince's Empire Accent who share quarters with Bxer Vox The "King's English" is not the aren't quite so foolish as we might Prince of Wales' English, according suppose. Quite possibly they go on to the speech experts. The Prince has the same priuciple as the criminal who a different pronunciation from his prefers to live right under the .rose father. of the police, because he thinks they A newspaper man, who has listened e c a't look for him there. 4 to a good many speeches of the Prince, In the case of criminals this plan summed the difference up by saying has sometimes worked—at least, for a that there is a Dominion flavor about bine. Where rabbit and fox are con- his accent. And undoubtedly the cerned, it almost always works, be- Prince's travels have left traces in his a teen • suggestion isin it a cause foxes have a curious habit of speech. There ga of the cadences of ' Canada, and a touch of the tones you hear "Down Under" in Australia. The Prince seems to have acquired the accent peculiar to the officers and engineers who than the ships trading to Australia, Canada, and South Africa. These men, fellow -travellers of the Prince on many occasions, all speak in much the same way. It is not an obvious accent,. but a keen ear noon detects it. As fast liners, wireless, and talking films abolish distance, shall we see the evolution of an Empire accent?— "Answers." by Sir Henry Simon at 5.30 p.m. 4ciupnl.etaoiu shrdlu cmfwyp bgkgjp British Dirigible Will Visit Egypt find another warren. Ottawa. — Commercial possibilities But there are cases of cats who of the British dirigibles will be tested have developed a taste for vegetables. in a series of Rights between Eng- Two of ;them, land and Egypt this winter, -accord- ing to Sir John. F. A. Higgins of the British Air Ministry, who is in Ot- tawa. The durability of the R-100 was amply demonstrated in. its trip to Canada, he said, but data on costs of operating - a regular service must be obtained. "The R-100 is far more robust in construction than the Graf Zeppelin," said Sir Join. The behaviour of both the R-100 and R-101 had been most satisfactory and the flight to Canada had been a source of gratification in the Old Country. Sir John's trip is iu the nature of a holiday, he said. His plans includes a short trip to Toronto and an inspec- tion of the airport at St. Hubert. Policeman: "Miss, you were doing sixty miles an hour!" She: "Oh, isn't that splendid! I only learnt to drive yesterday."—Tit-Bits. Young Brown got married. On pay day he gave his bride $20 out of his $25 salary and kept only $5 for him- self. The second pay day he reversed the process. "Why, Robert," she said in injured tones, "how on earth do you thinlz 1 can manage tor a whole week on a paltry $5?" "Hanged if I know," he answered. " I had a rotten time myself last week. It's your turn now." who • never bothered to interfere with such titbits as canaries and goldfish, were perfectly unscrup- ulous when it came to cucumbers, They could not resist this vegetable. But while many people cut off the rind before eating cucumber, it was this part of the vegetable that inter- ested the cats. They would nibble all the rind off, leaving the rest. Even instances like these, however, are hardly proof of vegetarianism. There is no evidence that the cucum- ber -eating cats refused meat or fish when offered them. And most flesh - eating animals and at least some fruit or vegetables to their normal dietary, and some pets—particularly dogs— would be healthier 'if they got fruit more frequently. ---"Answers." It makes a lot of difference whether your supply of. bone is in the back of the head. ' Hunger sharpens the wits, we are told. We know a few seaside board- ing-Itouses where the conversation must be positively sparkling.—London Humorist. "Eliza," said a friend of the family to the old colored washerwoman, "have you seen Miss Edith's fiancee?" "No, ana'am," she answered, "it aint been in the wash yet."—Jack-o'-Lan. tern. Submarine ,Adventurer Hui t .•, .lit '•otiruey to North ].'ole by submarine; ,soba 'with I. Sir TIt,, . - NV; erica to lu:••�':tilit,., for ci 1iF.ty c y J Wilkins and. illtjalinur Stefans,;on. . Are Skyscrapers Safe? The increasing extent to which steel is being used as a building material is causing the question of safete to be raised in countries where the summer may be very hot. During the recent heatw.ive in Am. erica, for instance, many rails expand. ed and buckled because of the heat, and anxiety was felt regarding the great steel skyscrapers. So a very careful study of the effects of the abnormal heat on these buildings eves undertaken. Up to the time of writing nothing has been found amiss. • This seems to confirm the opinion of Mr. G. E. J. Pistor, a member of the executive council of the American Institute of Steel Construction, who addressed a meeting of the Institu- tion of Mechanical Engineers in Lon- don (England) recently. He believes that skyscrapers are quite safe.. Indeed, he expressed the view that. they could safely be built to a height of 2,000 feet—which is much higher than the tallest skyscraper built or projected today.—"Answers." Mental Tests for Babies When. does a baby begin :10 show signs of intelligence? Tests have recently been trade by psychologists in order to answer this "r"..y. question, over sixty youngsters be- tween, the ages of fifteen minutes„ and fifteen days being the subjects. Their conclusion is that, at birth, a baby is not a mental unit, but that it quickly begins to display intelligence in its reactions to stimuli of various kinds. By the time it is one month old a baby may be said to be a complete. mental whole. That is why the early years of a child's life are so important. The truly formative period is before it goes to school at all, first impressions' being the most lasting—"Answers." -•r Indian Summer Along the line of smoky hills Tlie crititson forest stands, .And all the clay the blue -jay calls , Throughout the autumn lands. Now by the brook. the, ,maple leant With all his glory spread, ' And alt. the sumachs on the 'trills • Have turned their green . to red, New by, 'Vela marshes wraps ,iu litter" Or Past some river's mouth, Throughout the long, still autumn day 'Wild birds aro flying south. ---Wilfred Catnpboll,