Picture-Play Weekly (Apr-Oct 1915)

PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY 13 ::ning his theatrical office — might be parried out. And so he had deemed it ■jdvisable to take flight at once. But f hatred of Tom, who had driven him of the country, was bitter. He sent the young reporter a letter : the day that he sailed, which read: "You think you have succeeded in ruBning me, but I'll pay you back, Tom KVarder, if it takes the rest of my lifettime to do it. If ever I have the chance, ni kill you ! I5..\.\c Shum.^n." Three years had passed. Tom Warder and Ruth Shipman were married, |her experience with Shuman having caused her to yield soon after to Tom's persuasions that she give up the stage jand become his wife. They had a little ^girl of two, who had been given her (mother's name, and they were as happy ias any familj to be found throughout jthe length and breadth of the city. Then Shuman came back from abroad. He believed that the affair which had lied to his flight, having blown over, he could take up his business again where ^he had left it. Rose Beandet was with 'him, and his first step on returning to Broadwaj'. for which they had both been "pining during their exile, was to find a play for her. I Now, Tom, in common with most peo'ple who earn their living by writing, had finished one. He believed that it I would score a big success if a manager i, could be found to share his faith in 5 the four-act drama to the extent of proj ducing it, and Ruth was even more enthusiastic over its possibilities. fleeting Rose — whose relationship with Shuman her own refusal to listen to gossip when she had been in "'the profession," had left her ignorant of — on I the street one day. Ruth informed her I that she was married, and. when asked *, to whom, answered "to the author of I' the best play j'ou ever heard." J' She launched into a description of it. ' The leading lady was quick to see that i the play was precisely the vehicle for which she was seeking, and, taking Tom's name, and the telephone number 3f their apartment, she hastened away to Shuman's ofiice. "Get this pla\ for me," she told him. and sketched in the plot of it as Ruth had told it to her. Shuman listened with increasing interest as she did so. j, Before she had half finished he knew that she had discovered a "hit"' for him. "Who is the author?" he asked eagerly. But when she gave him Tom Warder's name his brow instantly darkened. He smote the desk before him with his fist. "I wouldn't produce a play by him !" he began fiercely. "I didn't ask you to produce it,'' put in the star. "I said 'get this play for me.' Don't j'ou understand? Have him bring the manuscript to you, and then '' She bent and whispered something in his ear. "Isn't that a bet ter way of taking your revenge on him for forcing us both out of the country?" A smile of cunning resting on his lips, Shuman nodded. He called up Tom, and greeted him cordially. "Let bygones be bygones, old man." he proposed. "I've heard you've written a play, and a good one. Bring it to me, and let me look at it, will j'ou ?" Tom hesitated ; but he wanted the plaj' produced, and here was a manager asking him to let him see it. Shuman might be sincere in his protestation that he harbored no ill feeling against him. Tom decided to believe him. "All right," he replied over the phone. "I'll bring the play right down to your office.'' But when, at the end of three weeks, Tom went back there for his answer, Shuman returned the four-act drama to him with the assertion that he could not produce it. Tom still had confidence in the play, however, and, as proof of it. he took it straightway to another manager. \\"ithin five da3S the latter sent for him. "My boy." said he, shaking hands with him heartih'. "I think your play is immense, and I'm going to produce it. I have the contracts here all ready for J'OU to sign." Tom went home to Ruth, highh elated. The manager had told him that he would start rehearsals on the piece at once, and promised that its production would take place within a month. But before a third of that time had passed Isaac Shuman announced that he was presenting Aliss Rose Beandet in a fouract comedy drama of everj-day life. Tom went to the first night of the plaj', and so did the manager who had accepted his piece. At the end of the first act it was apparent to Tom that Shuman had stolen "You've got my daughter in there," Tom heard the country girl's father say outside the locked door of the theatrical manager's office. "Let me in, or I'll go for the police."