Short Short Story " SOMETHING TO SPARE

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 17 (Supplement)

Short Short Story " SOMETHING TO SPARE

JACK STEWART sat at his J desk, white-faced and desperate, wondering just how bad it would be to be sent to prison. At the touch on his shoulder he looked up, forcing a smile to his lips at the man who stood by his side, grim and tight-lipped. It was Linsey, the elderly chief clerk. "You don't look very well, Stewart," Lmeey said, his eyes boring into Jack's. ' Come eut and have a coffee with me." "I'm all right, really, Mr. Linsev," Jack stammered, taken aback by this invitation from the man who had given him so many "jawings" of late. "Nonsense, boy! If you stuck to coffee, you young fellows, you wouldn't oe coming to the office with a 'hangover' —is that what you call it?—to interfere with your work. Come on, you won't need a hat." Linsey firmly clo'sed the ledger in front of Jack and gave him a compelling lift under the arm. Forcing himself to hie feet, Jack followed the chief clerk's tall and angular figure out of the office and across the street into the cafe opposite. Ignoring invitations from business associates to join their table, Linsey led the way to a deserted corner of the cafe and called out his order for black coffees, while Jack slumped into a wicker armchair. The coffees arrived. Linsey relaxed and sighed, as though his mind were made up. He pulled out a packet of cigarettes, took one himself and offered the packet to Jack, who extracted one almost greedily. "Got a match, Stewart," Linsey asked, in his sharp, clear voice, without meeting Jack's.eyes. Jack fumblingly produced a box, struck a match and held it towards his host. Linsey withdrew his cigarette before the flame and stared accusingly at the trembling hand that held it. Jack, his nerves snapping, dropped the match into an ash tray, "Light your own cigarette first, then give me the box," Linsey commanded. "11l light my own. It'll be safer. It looks as though you want to burn the tip of my nose."

Jack obeyed and inhaled the soothing fumes gratefully. His racing thoughts slowed down a little and he forced himself to meet Linsey's eyes, really for the attack he felt sure was coming.

8y... Nat Savage

"Well, Stewart, which is it to he?" Linsey asked, leaning across the table, through the cigarette haze. "Are you going to out and run—the coward's vv »y — or are you going to take your medicine like a man?" "How did you know?" Jack muttered hoarsely, taken by surprise, despite his preparedness, by "the bluntness of the attack. "Do you think I haven't got eyes in my head?" Linsey asked, 'contemptuously. "You never liked me. did you?" Jack jerked out the words in sick anger at the other's tone. Linsey's eyes narrowed. "If you lie low or clear out of the country you might have a chance of escape." "I see. You want me to cut and run, don't you?" Jack asked bitterly. "Then you'll be able to say, 'I knew Stewart was a dodger. Wasn't I always chasing the fellow 5' "

"Maybe," Linsey agreed. "Then you won't have that satisfaction," Jack exploded. "You said just now that I failed to face up to life, hut I'm going to face up to it now and make a clean breast to the director.'. I'll take what's coming to me." Linsey's hand pushed Jack down again into the chair, from which he had begun to rise. Jack paw, to his surprise, that the chief clerk was smiling at him approvingly, and then he felt himself being patted on the back. ''I wanted to hear you say that first. I felt you would, somehow," Lineey beamed. "Xow listen to me. I'm going to get you out of this fix, but first I'm going to tell you something. Did you know that I worked in the same oflice as 3'our father when we were both your ago, and I was very fond of him!" "I didn't know," Jack said. "You wouldn't, of course. He died when you were young. He was a sound, steady chap, your father, and I was a harum scarum youngster, very like you. Yes, old 'Leather-guts' was young himself once, and very foolish. That's why I've taken such an interest in you, niy boy, trying to persuade you to be a man like your father. Only you called it nagging and lecturing. Your father

used to nag and lecture me, young though he was, but I didn't listen to him and only laughed. Then something happened that turned me into a man, just as it ha« happened to you." "You don't mean—" Jack began incredulously, his eyes searching Linsey's face while the cigarette smouldered "to ash between hie fingers. "I, too, have known something of the hell through which you've been passing, Jack," Lineey eaid gently. "The feverish debate in the mind before you take the money; the dreadful feeling of finality when you hand it over to the bookmaker; the nightmarish hours before the race is run; the eick terror of waiting for the result—" "I can hardly believe it of you, sir," Jack murmured, his own problem halfforgotten in the surprise of this unexpected confession. '"The experience made me pull myself together. Some people take too long to grow up and I was one of them." Linsey cogitated. "It takes some soulsearing episode like this business of yours to turn us into men. Yes, and I rated my honesty pretty low, Jack. It was only £10 I 6tole from my firm—it was all the money that was on hand at the moment I got the tip. A red-hot tip it was, too, picked up from an overheard telephone conversation between the owner of the hocse and his trainer. I'm glad it was only £10 I put on." "Who gave you the money to put back?" Jack asked, as though be knew the answer. "Who do yon think it was saved m«r Linsey replied, a smile at the corners, of his mouth. "Not my father V Jack hazarded. "Is that why you have promised to help me, Mr. Linsey? But you don't understand. It was only a matter of £10 he let you have to put back. I took—l took £100. You won't be able to let me have all that?" "I suppose yon may aay it -was your father who saved me," Linsey said, with a reassuring smile at the boy's agitation. "I was in the mood to put the firm's' money on any horse, but it was your father who passed the tip on to use :;nd made me back Pink Lady. She romped home at 10 to 1, but the strain gave me such a scare that I banked the money and swore a great oath never to touch it. That's why I've £100 to spare."