Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1919 - Feb 1920)

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30 Crooked Straight got to do. You tell the old gent this : Say that you knocked the game because you wanted to buy the pitting machine yourself. That's all you've got to do. Then to-morrow, when he pays me the five thousand dollars, I'll slip you one thousand of it for your services. Then I'll blow ; and when he wakes up to the fact that he's been trimmed, he'll never suspect you. A thousand dollars in your jeans for one day's work. Then you can go on with your own scheme and nick him for whatever else he's worth. I'll pinch mine and you can have the rest. Do you get me?" "I do," said Ben, with a hang-dog look. That night Ben took supper with the Owens. Lucius had drawn five thousand dollars from the bank that afternoon, and Ben saw him put it in the little iron strong box in his home. After supper Vera took two great hampers and filled them with the prize bread, cakes, and doughnuts from the exhibit at the fair. Then, while Ben carried this two-arm load, she took the kiddies by either hand and accompanied the little family back to their own house. Ben was thoughtful and moody, and it was only by a great effort of will power that he pretended to be gay. He forced himself to thank Vera for the cakes and buns, and to pretend that he was delighted with the thought of having all those good things to eat ; but in reality his thoughts were all on the money in her father's house. Even while he bantered with his sweetheart a voice within him kept saying: "Crack that crib, crack that crib." After Vera had gone and Ben had put the children to sleep, he crawled into his own bed, closed his eyes tight and tried to shut away the thoughts that had tormented him. He heard the clock strike hour after hour, and when it was two in the morning, he threw aside the covers in a despairing way, and slipping into his clothes, he went out into the starlight. A moment later he emerged from his vegetable cave with a kit of burglar tools under his arm, and stealthily slunk across the meadow to the Owens' home. He found it was unnecessary for him to pick the lock of the door or to use his jimmy on a window, for the window of Vera's room on the ground floor was open. He crawled in and stealthily let the glow of his flashlight play across her sleeping features. He slipped a note under her pillow to serve as an alibi in case things should go wrong. Then he tiptoed into the living room and opened the little iron safe without much difficulty. Just as he was thrusting the roll of bills into his pocket, he heard a scratching at the door. Ben quickly slunk behind a curtain, for his practiced ear told him that some one was picking the lock of the back door. A moment later another flashlight began to play along the floor and Larrabee came gum-shoeing into the room and went at once to the safe. When he found the strong-box open .and the money missing, the disappointed intruder swore under his breath : "The old skinflint has probably taken it to bed with him," he muttered. "This means trouble. I didn't count on any rough stuff, but I've got to get that cash and make my fade-away." "Crooked Straight" Written from the Paramount-Artcraft production based on the story by Julian Josephson, and played by the following cast : Ben Trimble Charles Ray Vera Owen Margery Wilson Lucius Owen Otto Hoffman Chick Larrabee Gordon Mullen Ben, listening behind the curtain, heard Larrabee go into the bedroom of old Lucius and arouse him from his sleep. A moment later the two returned, the old man in his nightgown, trembling while Larrabee held an automatic pistol to his head. When the terrified farmer saw that the safe was open, he gasped, and with a still more violent fit of trembling, said: "The money was in the safe ! You've got it already ! Give it back to me; give it back, you thief!" "Don't call me a thief, you foxy old devil," Larrabee stuttered between his gritted teeth. "You can't fool me with a stall like that. You've got the money hid in your bed. Dig it up, now, before I smash you \" The old man clutched nervously at his chest ; his face was as bloodless as white soap. "I — I " He said no more, but gritted his jaw as if in a palsy. "I'll waste no time," Larrabee commanded. "I'm here to get that money or kill you ! If you give it up, you will save your life. If I have to kill you, I'll get the money afterward. Old man, is your life worth five thousand dollars ? Make up your mind quick !" "Mercy — Mercy " gasped the old man, with the look of an animal in the hands of the slaughterer. Larrabee's fist smote him on the temple, and Owen fell, partially stunned. "I hit him too hard," said Larrabee, "If I put him to sleep it's all off." The crafty thief set one foot on the fallen man's right hand, and growled : "This will soon bring you out of it. I'm going to bite off one finger at a time — until you tell where the money is." At that moment the white gowned figure of Vera was in the doorway. Larrabee pointed his pistol at the girl and cried: "Move a step and I'll blow your head off !" Just then something struck him from behind. Ben had sprung to the attack. The two desperate men struggled furiously. Ben had a grip on the pistol and was trying to wrench it away. They wrestled about the room, and Lucius, free of Larrabee's feet, rose up dizzily, but was too dazed to give aid to his rescuer. A pistol shot sounded. Larrabee in his efforts to turn the muzzle toward Ben's heart had not swung it far enough and he caught the bullet in his own abdomen. He sank down with a death groan; and Ben stood panting and wet with sweat, facing his sweetheart and her father. "You've got my money !" the staggering old man cried weakly. "You're a robber, too. You tuck the money !" Ben did not reply with words. He meekly drew the wad of bills from his pocketand handed them to Vera. The girl looked at the money, then her eye swept the room where lay two burglar kits and two dark lanterns. "Is it possible that you are a common crook?" the girl cried in a voice of anguish. "Not a common crook," Ben said guiltily, "I may have been a crook, but I have always tried not to be common." Continued on page 88