Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

The address, Shore Road, Linv/ood, had been added in pencil; the cheque was for five hundred dollars, and was made out in favour of Mrs. Ella Whitman. Laura walked up and down the room with the telegram in one hand and the cheque in the other. It seemed to her that here was something that ought to be in- vestigated, and finally she telephoned to a garage and arranged for a car to pick her up at the corner of Westport Avenue and Jackson Street. She slipped out from the oflice, and m the hired car she travelled to Linwood. In a pleasant tree-lined road the car drew up outside a gate in a palinged fence, and beside the gate .was a large signboard which read: "Mrs. Whitman's Home for Boys." A number of youngsters who had been playing in the grounds beyond the fence began to run towards the gate as the chauffeur descended from his seat and opened the door of the car for Laura. "Hi. fellas, it's Mi-. James!" bellowed a small boy. " Come on!" The yoimgsters streamed out at the gate and flocked round Laura as she alighted. "Where's Mr. James?" demanded one of them dolefully. "Ain't he comin'?" "Hi, what happened?" howled another. "Shut up, will ya?" shouted the small boy who had started the rush, and he took off his can to Laura. " Oh. I'm sorry, lady, if we seem rude. We kids was kinda lookin' for Mr. James to-day." Laura, who was quite as much aston- ished as they were disappointed, sum- moned a smile. , , "Mr. James hated to let you down," she said, "but he couldn't come out to-day.' "Aw, that's all right," returned the little spokesman with an effort at cheerful- ness. "We know how busy he is. Are you Mrs. James?" Laura felt herself flushing and was annoyed about it. "Oh, no," she said emphatically; "nothing like that!" From the wide porch of a large but quite unpretentious building a plump, grey- haired and sweet-faced old lady in a print frock hastened across the grounds to the gate. "Land snakes!" she exclaimed. "You boys get away from that car!" "two of the youngsters lumped off the running-board they had mounted; three returned from the roadway to the pave- ment. Laura walked over to the elderly dame , . „ , . "Are you Mrs. Ella Whitman?" she in- quired. "Yes, dear," was the reply. "Your telegram came this morning." Laura opened her handbag. "Mr. James asked me to see that you got this cheque." Mrs. Whitman's eyes were moist as she received the cheque. "I felt like an old blackmailer when I sent that telegi'am," she confessed, "but I .iust had to raise the money somehow." "Did something unforeseen happen?" asked Laura. " Why, those old local authorities threat- ened to close us up unless we put in a fire- escape. If Mr. James hadn't sent this money, I'd have had to go to the county authorities for help." "I see," said Laura. "How long have you known Mr. James?" "Oh about three months. He's a fins man. We were going to close up once before, when along he came ana helped us out. But, of course, you know how good he is." " I'm learning more and more about him every day." "Would>you like to see our home?" Laura replied that she would, and she was escorted all over the establishment, saw for herself how happy the children were and how well they were treated, and felt almost ashamed of herself on the way back to the city. Steve and Red were out when she re- turned to the office, and she saw nothing more of either of them that day. On the following morning she went into Steve's Ni,vi.mti<r 2.5tli, 19:19. BOY'S CINEMA room with some reports that had come in concerning the whispering campaign against the Basque Steamship Line. " I'll look these over later," he said, and leaned back in his chair to light a cigar- ette. "Did you take care of that cheque yesterday?" "I did more than that," she informed him smilingly. "I took the liberty of taking it out to Mrs. Whitman myself." " Why, you didn't have to do that!" "I thought it was very urgent." "It was urgent," he nodded. "Tell me, what did you think of the place?" . "I thought it was very interesting," she replied, " and a little surprising." "Surprising? Why surprising?" " Somehow it's difficult for me to recon- cile this business with—that." He smoked in silence for a few moments, a curious expression on his face, and then he said, almost wistfully: " You see, Miss Martin, I haven't always been in this business." "Why are you in it now?" The question was blurted, and it con- tained more than a hint of reproach. But he did not seem to be in any way annoyed by it. "It's a long story," he said. "Maybe some day I'll tell you about it." There might have been more of the con- versation, but just then Red Barrett in- vaded the room with his hat on the back of his head and a sparkle in his eyes. "Hallo!" he waved. Laura sped back to her own room, feel- ing certain that something important had happened, and she switched on the dicta- phone in the drawer of her desk and listened at the doctored dictograph. Red, as soon as the door had closed be- hind her, had said jubilantly : "I've just come from the Higgins Chemical Company. The business they've done the past thi'ee months is almost un- believable^and is our pay-off a honey? We close the Higgins account with a cheque for twenty-seven thousand, two hundred and four dollars!" Laura heard only the last few words of that statement, but what followed was both heard and recorded. "Is Higgins satisfied?" asked Steve. "Is he satisfied?" laughed Red. "He oughta be—we put Higgins Products on every shelf in this country where Cran- dall's used to be!" "It seems as though we had half the country whispering against Crandall's," chuckled Steve^ "and the other half listening." " And that's what I call killing two birds with one stone! " Steve became businesslike again. "Well, now that Higgins is off our minds," he said, "you can concentrate all your efforts on Kimball's. Get busy!" "Okay, boss." Laura flipped up the speaking-key of the dictograph, then stooped to stop the dicta- phone. She had obtained some real evidence at last, and she wondered why she did not experience a feeling of triumph. She took the record from the machine and put it in an envelope, and she was closing the drawer when the buzzer sounded. It was Steve, and he wanted her to go back to his room. She went, smoothing all expression from her face on the way, and he held out to her across his desk the cheaue Pied had obtained from Walter Jonathan Higgins. " Will you deposit this? " he said. " Not bad, eh? And yesterday we closed with Kimball for twice that amount!" She looked at the cheque, and she looked at him. Far from sharing his elation, she was frowning. "What's wrong?" he ask'^d. " I suDpose it's none of my business," she shrugged, " but I thought vou'd de- cided not to go into that campaign." "Well," he admitted, "I did decide not to go into it. But they boosted the money yesterday, and I couldn't let the oppor- tunity slip b.y." "I'm not talking about money," she re- Every Tuesday turned vehemently. "I'm talking about right and vvTong. Kimball is fighting to keep down the price of milk—the milk racketeers have cornered every other company in the city. You know it is those racketeers who are behind this campaign, and you know they've only engaged you because Kimball's held out against them." Steve screwed up his mouth. "They'd ruin Kimball whether I was in it or not," he contended. "You must admit it's pretty rotten to keep milk away from babies!" "Well," he said, avoiding her accusing eyes, " this business I'm in—you—er—can't afford to be choosey." "That's all I wanted to hear! " she cried scathingly. "Yesterday, with those boys, I thought you were different; but I'm afraid my first impression of you was right. Why, you're not even human!" She ran out from the room in a fury, back to her own room; and she put on her hat and furs and gloves, while he remained at his desk, gnawing his underlip and brooding over her outburst. She had picked up her handbag and the record, and was advancing towards the door of the outer office, when he walked in from the little lobby—and stopped short in dismay. "Why, Miss Martin," he exclaimed, "where are you going?" "I'm leaving," she flamed at him, "and my name isn't Miss Martin! It happens to be Laura Crandall, of the House of Crandall. Perhaps you've heard of it?" Only his eyes registered his amazement; his teeth were clamped together. "I came here to get evidence," she went on, "and I've got it!" She held up the record in its envelope. "Your own voice— admitting you wrecked my business!" He looked into her blazing blue eyes and a little ironic smile spread across his lips. " Well, that's fine,"' he drawled. " You're very clever, Miss Crandall. But you're not quite clever enough." " And how is that, Mr. James?" she chal- lenged. "My name isn't James. I happen to be Stephen Brewster, formerly head of the Brewster Pi'oducts, Incorporated." Rage gave place to bewilderment. "You?" she gasped. "You're Stephen Brewster? " "Yes," he replied grimly. "You asked me how I happened to get into this busi- ness. Well, I'll tell you—you're the cause of it!" "Oh, why—why, you're mad!" "No, I'm not. You and your company put me out of business by starting a whisper-' tng campaign that my products killed Linda Morgan. If you doubt me, ask your general manager, Mr. Harley. He'll tell! .you about it! " He turned on his heel and went back t his room without another glance for her, and it was she who felt crushed. A SHOCK FOR RED BACK in New York, two days after-j wards. Laura entered the building ir Fifth Avenue just after one o'clock, wher .she knew that George Harley and Free Bowman would be out at lunch. She went straight into her own room from the cor-^ ridor, and as she looked round it she reflected bitterly upon the difference b£ tween this home-coming and her last. Bernice Laker was in charge of th« general oflice between one o'clock and twd o'clock, and it was she who answered Laura's summons. But Bernice knei nothing about the original whispering campaign against Brewster Products, Ii^ corporated. and was startled by the ques tions that were put to her. Correspondence files were opened upo| Laura's desk, but they contained no teli tale letters for the very simple reason thai all papers concerning the campaign haf been destroyed. Some of the books of thJ firm were examined, but Laura had not extracted anything of great significancj from them when Bernice reappeared wit some long sheets of paper which opened out across the desk. 1