INTO THE MISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19390, 27 July 1926, Page 16

INTO THE MISTS.

BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM

CHAPTER XXX. A shade of anxiety clouded to some extent Bessie's welcoming smilo as shf 1 watched her husband twelve months later, bent double over his bicycle, turn the corner of the street and make his somewhat painstaking way to where she was standing. To the bicycle was attached a light wicker trailer, covered over with a mackintosh. A few yards off he sprang to his feet and wheeled the machine for the rest of the distance. You come in and get your tea before you unload," she suggested. " Leave your bicycle in tho entry. Tired, ain't you ?" Reuben admitted the fact. He wheeled his machine into the entry, and followed his wife into the front room. It was scarcely changed during the ten months which had elapsed since their marriage. There were still rows of bottles in the window but a little more furniture in the room. A baby in a cot made strange noises as Reuben waved his hand. " I'll have to think about one of those motor attachments," Reuben declared, as he took his place at the table and sniffed appreciatively the atmosphere Jaden with the smell of fried fish. "Maybe 1 get one cheap from Mr. Goodess." " I wish you wouid," Bessie agreed, as she finished laying the table and seated herself opposite to her husband. " The bicycle's bad enough without the trailer, and those bottles, they do weigh heavy! Had a good day ?" " Gets a little better every time," he confided. "It was market day at FakenJiam. I paid a sweetstuff man two shillings to let mo have a corner of his stall, and I had 'em all around in less than ten minutes. That sweetstuff man wanted to go into partnership. Do you hear.that, Bessie —partnership!" They both laughed.. Reuben began to eat with appetite. Every now and then he waved his hand to the baby, who was sucking contentedly at his rattle. " Sometimes," Bessie rejoined, " baby almost frightens me, he's so clever. I'll swear he takes after you, Reuben. He'll bo trading his toys before he's grown up. Look at those eyes of his. He looks around all the time as though he were trying to make up his mind how much everything was worth." "He'll be a money-maker," Reuben assented. " It's in his blood all right.'

"Why don't you ever talk about your folks, Reuben ?" Bessie inquired as she poured him out his third cup of tea. A look came into his face which she had seen there once or twice before, a look of uncertainty. He helped himself plentifully to fish, frowning al! the time. "][f you'll believe me, Bessie, I can scarcely remember a thing about my father except that he always seemed to be wearing new clothes and smoking cigars. Lived in a big house, too. only I can't remember any of it clearly." "Is he dead ?" she persisted. " I dun'no. I sometimes think, Bessie, I must have come here after some sort of an illness. I remember bargaining for this cottage and buying the bits of furniture from old Mother Crurton, but how I came here and where the money came from I had in my pocket, I don't know." "You don't suppose you've got a wife anywhere else, do you ?" Bessie asked sharply. " I'm jolly sure I haven't, and if I had she wouldn't count no more," Reuben assured her. " First of all there's that, he continued, pointing proudly to the bassinet, " and there's no one could fry fish like you, Bessie." She was beginning to clear away now and she produced a packet of cigarettes from the mantelpiece. " I pinched these from uncle. Better than buying them, eh ? What about that motor attachment, Reuben? How would it be if we were to walk round and see them things at Miller's ?" " Presently," Reuben assented. " Only, listen, Bessie. We'll pretend we want to buy it by instalments —that we ain't got the money, eh ? Then, when we've beaten him down as low as possible we'll try him for . spot cash. It's a pity to have to part with any money, anyhow," he sighed. " You'd have more time to be selling and get over the ground quicker," she reminded him. " Time's everything with you. While the .clock strikes you're making money. You can't do ifc while you're pushing them pedals." " I shan't be happy till I've made up what the thing will cost," he confessed. " You know what will happen to us two years' time, Bessie?" " What's that?" she demanded. "Soon," he said, "I begin to look out for a good, second-hand Ford car. Then I have it all painted on the back —' Klask's Remedies '—and maybe sometimes you go out with me when I go to sell." " A motor-car!"

" Why not ? That don't cost much to run if one's careful, and it will do instead of a stall to sell from. The only trouble is," he went on, his face clouding a little, " people will begin to think we've got money." " So we have," she declared, " We don't want folk to know that," he confided. " They'll think we're making too much profit. Mr. Green was saying up at the bank yesterday that I should have a motor-car for my business. I don't like it that they think I'm making money," " There isn't one of them would guess how much we've got," she 'said. " Hush ! " he begged anxiously. "We don't talk of that even to ourselves. We should have all these idle young men trying to, make medicines and buying our herbs. Maybe I tell you what, though, Bessie, the old man Jarold that has the second-hand shop at the corner of the alley; e's got a diamond ring for sale—a very good stone, worth money. Every time T see him on tho pavement outside I ask him how mush., and laugn. Yesterday he aisk me two pounds less. I seen his landlord in there twice the last few days and I guess he's behind with his rent. He's come down to eighteen pounds now. Maybe I offer him fifteen tomorrow." " Honest!" Bessie exclaimed. Reuben nodded. " You say you bought it with some of the money your aunt left ycu," he warned her. " Don't you ever let anyone know I gave it to you—to take care 'of," he added hastily. " It's kind of an investment all the time, you see, Bessie, only you wear it." " How much is it worth?" she asked. " In a London shop perhaps forty," he answered guardedly. " It's badly set and that don't matter to us. Hullo! Come in!" " How are you, Ernest ? You remember me. I am your cousin, Samuel. Can I eat some fish ?" " Why, of course you can. You take my seat. Bessie, "this is my cousin Samuel." Bessie, as soon as she had recovered from her first surprise, shook hands hospitably. " Never told me you had one," she remarked, as, she bustled around. I had forgotten," Reuben confessed. "Seems silly, don't it? I remembered as soon as he walked in. " Very good fish," Samuel declared. " How's business?" " Frettv good," Reuben admitted grudgingly. " Not enough of it and profits might be bigger." " I've come to help you," his cousin announced. It takes two to run a business—one of us to make the drugs and the other to go out and sell them. You can't do both." " He's managed to, so far," Bessie pointed out a little sharply. " That's because there hasn't been anyone like., me" Samuel insisted. "Stands to sense that while he's at home making drugs, he can't be out selling them," " I've thought of that more than once," Reuben acknowledged. " You leave them with someone else to sell," Samuel continued. "You give him a commission—not the profit. What does he care about selling? The man what sells best is the man what's making the profit." Reuben glanced toward Bessie.

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"My cousin speaks good," lie said. 'I don't believe in no travellers or ag - C "You won't need any," Samuel assured him. "You and I are going to make money. That your baby, Reuben " That's mine," was the proud replj. " He'll make money, too, when he grows up. How much money have you got, thrust his hand into his pocket and laid a bundle of notes upon the table. "I got a hundred pounds, he anno" A hundred pounds is not very rnuch money," Reuben pronounced. I had two when I started." Samuel hesitated for a moment and finally thrust his hand with some reluctance into his other pocket. "There!" he exclaimed, laying another roll * down in triumph. " I got two hundred. I put that with yours, Reuben." „ , ~ "I want you to know, Samuel Reuben said, * " that my two hundred isn't two hundred any more. 1 can t take you as equal partner. t4 How much have you got. Reuben whispered in his cousin s ear. "Not only that," Reuben went on, raising his voice to its normal pitch, " but I got the business, I got the connection. I know how to mix these medicines so people like them. " I can mix them all right, Samuel declared, " and I bet I sell them as well as you Reuben. We take it in turns, eh ? One day you buy herbs and make medicines and I sell; another day we do it different." , "That's all right," Reuben assented, " but you don't get no equal profits, Samuel."' ~ . " Very well," the latter agreed. 1 take one-third. When my capital is as big as yours, I take half. I think I save money quicker than you, he added, with a glance at the bassinet. " Maybe we find you some nice girl here," Reuben suggested. Samuel shook his head. For a moment there was a look of trouble in his lace. " 1 got a girl somewhere,' he confided. " I wait for her.

CHAPTER XXXI. It was Samue! who, one morning some months later, undid the padlock and threw open the door of the small actory Reuben stood a few yards back, studying his new acquisition. " A neat little place, Samuel, and cheap. Just what we were looking for. Iwenty pounds a year and rates and taxe. nothing to speak of ;> We should make money here, Samuel. They wandered over the two-storeyed building, planning how to make the best use of it at the least expense. It had jnce been a small shoe factory, and the wholesome smell of leather still haunted the place. They discussed eagerly the most economical way to make the necessary repairs. The painting of a wooden sign outside was a matter for serious consideration. Presently they locked up passed down the entry, and- into the street. A somewhat dilapidated-looking Ford car with " Klask's Remedies painted, in white on either side olthe bonnet, stood by the kerbstone They mounted and drove off. Samuel took the wheel, and Reuben leaned back with an al -wSerSlf' When 1 think how my back ached with pushing that old bicycle. Samuel!" " Yes, Reuben. , "Push back the throttle a little—so. We use less petrol then in the city. We don't need to go fast, Samuel Bessie ain't expecting us till seven o clock. They made their way along the narrow, crowded streets, past the down to the river, 'and on to an outlying <if the oitv. In front of the house where Samuel presently brought the car to a standstill, everything was "eat and clean. Grass seed had already been sown by the side of the tiled path, and in the window facing the street was a row of bottles, each bearing the name of one of " Klask's Remedies. There was a name-plate upon the gate, another m the window. It was impossible for anyone to go by without knowing that this was the home of Mr. Reuben Klask. "If you two didn't give me a stait. she exclaimed. '"What's the news, They've accepted," he declared. " We've got the factory. We ve been to order some drugs in first thing in the morning, and maybe Samuel and I will spend a day manufacturing instead of S6 " l ][f you two aren't ( the lads! Why, we're wholesale now! " Wholesale and retail manufacturers oE drugs," Sauel interposed. Klask s Famous Remedies 'will soon be known the world over. Maybe we -make them Fernhams in London take notice of us the kid ?" Reuben demanded. " Upstairs. Go and fetch him down if you like while I dish up the supper. Samuel, your room ain't straight yet. It you want to wash you'd better go in the back kitchen." , The young men separated. Reuben descended the Stairs in triumph, with the infant crowing upon his shoulder. Bessie, better-looking now than in the days when she had worked in the clothing factory, took hei place behind the teatray, and Reuben's attention still being distracted by his young charge, Samuel seated himself at the other ennof the table 4nd served the fish. Ihey al talked very fast, and they were all in a state of" high good humour. _ " Samuel," his cousin declared, you 11 have to get a girl, Maybe there ami another like Bessie, but we 11 > try and find you one as near as can be. "There's Dolly Higgins, Bessie murmured reflectively. ' Her iathei sin the coal and greengrocery half-way down the hill. She's crazy to get married, and I don't think she's a, bad manager. Hold up your finger for a minute, Bessie. Bessie obeyed, and Reuben looked ecstatically at the gem which glistened upon her finger. • , ~, " Fourteen pounds five I gave for that, T:e announced. " Fourteen pounds live, a hot brandy, and water and glass of beer is just- what it cost. It s worth .forty pounds if it's worth a penny Thats the way to spend money, Samuel, if -you must spend it." " It isn't all of us has your opportun- " You can all make them," Reuben insisted. "To buy cheap is as easy as to I wonder whether Mollis Bentley would do for Samuel ? " Bessie suggested. " Her father, maybe, hasn't got as much money as Mr. Higgins, but she's real careful and she's looking for a steady chap to keep company with." "J, don't want a girl at all, Samuel pronounced. " They're nothing but an expense to take round, and I'm not for marrying." " That don't seem natural to me," Bessie objected. " A young fellow like you, Samuel, ought to be thinking about it."

" You want a family, don't you ?" Reuben put in. "There ain't anything in life like seeing plenty of them round the table. That's what, I tell Bessie and get my ears boxed for it."

And serve you right too," the young woman retorted, " with your brazen talk." Samuel was looking thoughtful. " I've a kind of feeling as though I'd got a girl somewhere." " Perhaps you're married," Bessie exclaimed.

" No, I ain't married," Samuel replied confidently. " All the same I got a girl somewhere. Seems to have passed out of mv memory where she is just now. but I got the feeling just the same. I shall just wait. She'll come along some day."

(To bfj continued daily.)