"WHAT'S HIS NAME"

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 212, 12 October 1914, Page 2

"WHAT'S HIS NAME"

iCfcpjjfeJst n» Gecoze Heir MeCutelieoaO

SYNOPSIS. THE reader is ushered at once "wigiont tiresome passages into the story. What s-His-Name, the incongruous husband of J* popular actress, is thrown upon the canvas with a short snappy twist of the author's wrist, as is also Ms Httle daughter, Phoebe, with whom he Uves in the suburbs while his wife occupies sumptuous apartments in town. £?llie Duluth, What's-His-Names famous wife, leads him a merry life. She literally fell fato prominence from her box in the chorus jt an early age. Realizing that the legs that -brought her into the limelight cannot last forever, she uses her keen brain to feather her nest, with the result that her husband sees little of Ter and Broadway a great deal., She Fairfax, her latest admirer, with the information, cruelly imparted, that she is carried. Nellie's diminutive husband, whom she delights in calling Harvey, is approached by Fairfax with a proposition that Phoebe be sent to a convent, while Nellie shall go to Europe. Harvey demurs. m . ■•. , ... . . Harvey insists that his wife depart with him, and in order to avert a "scene," which both she and Fairfax fear, she complies. They argue over a separation until he yields. On_Christmas Day Nellie sends gifts for every onebut him., A package from Fairfax contains a diamond «lipper.for "his little Cinderella,", Phoebe. The eift enrages What's-His-Name and he confis-, fates it. A telegram summons Phoebe and her nurse to the Christmas matinee and to supper in Nellie's dressing room. He accompanies them, and while they are at the performance strolls alone Broadway. He orders a soft drink in a . Se g and takes! seat at a table, only to be put out as a loiterer. Again he roams the street When he returns to the theatre he finds that lie Stage doorkeeper has orders not to admit him He waits outside and sees Phoebe and the nurse whisked away in an automobile. Herejoms them on the. train for Tarry town. A few days later he conceives the idea of threatening tcrcommit suicide. Taking an old revolver he goes ta New York, forces his way into xnent and lands in the midst of a party. There is consternation among Farrfax Snathe other guests, and Idrevolver they beeome panic stricken. ,T£p a<f mirer, harking back to other notorious, case% SnclUdes' he if about to be. murdered and hides beneath the table. ~-• CHAPTER Vl.— ; tCohtinued.) THE REVOIiVER. RACHEL was stealing down the hall. The little Napoleon suddenly realized her purpose and thwarted it. - "Come back here!" he shouted. The trembling maid could not obey for a very excellent , reason. She dropped to the floor as if shot, and, failing in.the effort to crawl under a low hall seat, remained there, prostrate and motionless. He then addressed himself to Nellie, first cocking the pistol in a most cold blooded manner. Paying no heed to the commands and exhortations of the men, or the whines of the he announced:"That's just what I've come here to ask you to do, Nellie; think of Phoebe. Will you prom, ise me ty— — "I'll promise nothing!" cried Nellie, exasperated. She was beginning to feel ridiculous, which was much worse than feeling terrified. "You can't bluff me, Harvey, not for a minute." "Fin not trying to ibluff you," he protested. "I'm simply asking you to think. You can think, can't you? If you can't think here with all this noise going, on, come into the parlor. We can talk it all over quietly and—why, great Scott, I don't want to; kill anybody!" Noting an abrupt change in the attitude of the men, who found some encouragement in his manner, he added hastily, "Unless I .have to, of course. Here, you! Don't get up!" The command was addressed to Fairfax. if l'd kind of like to take a shot at you, just for fun." '•Harvey," said his wife, quite calmly, "if you don't put that thing in your pocket and go away I will have you locked up as. sure as I'm standing here." "I ask you once more to come into the parlor and talk it over with me," said he, wavering. "And I refuse," she cried furiously. "Go and .have it put with him, Nellie," groaned Fairfax, lifting his head above the edge of the table, only to lower it instantly as Harvey's hand wabbled unsteadily in a sort of attempt to draw a bead on him. "Well, w T hy don't you shoot?" demanded Nellie curtly. "No! No!" groaned Fairfax. "No! No!" shrieked the women. "For tw-o cents 1 would," stammered Harney, quite carried away by the renewed turmoil. "You would do anything for two cents," cried Nellie sarcastically. "I'd shoot myself for two cents," he wailed

BY GEORGE BARR MXUTCHEON

A Romance of the Theatrical World—Story of an Actress, a Star, Who Possesses an Obscure Husband

dismally. "I'm no use any way. I'd be better off s dead." "For God's sake let him do it, Nellie," hissed Fairfax. "That's the thing; the very thing." Poor Harvey suddenly camo to a full realizaHon of the position he was in.- He had not counted on all this. Now he was in for It and there was no way out of it. A vast sense of Shame and humiliation mastered him. Every? thing before him turned gray and bieak, and then a hideous red, He.had not meant to do a single thing he had already done. Events had shaped themselves for him, He was surprised, dumfounded. overwhelmed, The oniy thought that now ran through his addled brain was that he e imply had to do something, He couldn't stand there forever, like a fool, waving a pistol, In a minute or two they would all be laughing at him, It was ghastly. The wave of self-pity, of self-commiseration submerged him completely, Why, oh why, had he got himself into this dreadful pickle? He had merely come to talk it over with Nellie, that and nothing more. And now, see what he was in for! ♦'By jingo," he gasped In the depth of despair. "FII do it! I'll make you sorry, Nellie; you'll be sorry when you see me lying here all shot to pieces. I've been a good husband to you, I don't deserve to die like this, but"— — His watery blue eyes took in the horrified expressions on the faces of his hearers. An in* nate sense of delicacy arose within him. "I'll do it in the hall." "Be careful of the rug," cried Nellie gayly, not for an instant believing that he would carry- out the threat. / ? '-, "Shall Jdo it here?" he asked feebly. "No!" shrieked the women, putting their fingers in their ears. •■■-•■•. "By all means!" cried Fairfax, with a loud laugh of positive relief. To his own 'as well as to their amazement Harvey turned the muzzle of the pistol toward his face. It wabbled aimlessly. Even at such short range he had the feeling that he would miss altogether and looked over his shoulder to see if there was a picture or anything else on the wall that might be damaged by the stray bullet. Then he inserted the muzzle in his mouth. Stupefaction held his audience. Not a hand was lifted, not a breath was drawn. For half a second his finger clung teethe trigger without pressing it. Then he lowered the weapon. "I guess I better go out in the hall, where the elevator is," he said. "Don't follow me. Stay where you are. You needn't worry." "I'll bet you ten dollars you don't do it," said Fairfax, loudly, as he came to his feet. "I don't want your dirty money, blast you," exclaimed Harvey without thinking. "Goodby, Nellie. Be good to Phoebe. Tell 'em out in Blakeyille that I—oh, tell. 'em.anything you like. I don't give a rap!" He turned and went; shambling down the hall, his back very stiff, liis ears very red. It was necessary; to step over Rachel's pros* trate form. He got one foot across, when she, crazed with fear, emitted a piercing shriek and arose so abruptly that he was caugnt unawares. What with the start the shriek gave him and the uprising of a supposedly inanimate mass, his personal equilibrium was put to the severest test. Indeed, he quite lost it, going first into the air with all the sprawl of a bronco buster and then landing solidly on his left ear where there wasn't a shred of rug to ease the impact. In a twinkling, however, he was on his feet, apologizing to Rachel. But she was crawling away as fast as her hands and knees would carry her. From the dining room came violent shouts, the hated word "police" dominating the clamor. He slid through the door and closed it after him. A moment later he was plunging down the steps, disdaining the elevator, which, however fast it may have been, could not have been swift enough for him in his present mood. The

police! They would be clanging up to the building in a jiffy, and then what? To the station house! Half way down he paused to reflect. Voices above came howling down the shaft, urging the elevator man to stop him, to hold him, to do ail manner of things to him. He felt himself trapped. So he sat down on an upper step, leaned back against the marble wall, closed his eyes tightly and jammed the muzzle of the revolver against the pit of his stomach.

"I hate to do it," he groanedj and then pulled the trigger. The hammer fell with a sharp click. He opened his eyes. If it didn't hurt any more than that he could do it with them open. Why not? In a frenzy to have it over with he pulled again and was gratified to find that the second bullet was not a whit more painful than the first. Then he thought of the ugly spectacle he would present if he confined the mutilation to the abdominal region. People would shudder and say, "How horrible he looks!" So he considerately aimed the third one at his right eye. Even as he pulled the trigger, and the hammer fell with the usual click, his vision centred on the black little hole in the end of the barrel. Breathlessly he waited for the bullet to emerge. all of a sudden, he recalled that there had been no explosion. The fact had escaped him during the throes of a far from disagreeable death. He put his hand to his stomach. In a dumb sort of wonder he first examined his fingers, and, finding no gore, proceeded to a rather careful inspection of the weapon. Then he leaned back and dizzily tried to remember when he had taken the cartridges out of the thing. "Thank the Lord!" he said, quite devoutly. "I thought I was a goner, sure. Now, when didltake'emout?" The elevator shot past him, going upward. He pfti4 no attention to it. it all came back to him in a flash. He remembered that he had never'loaded it at all, A loaded pistol is a very dangerous thing to have about the house. The little box of cartridges that came with the weapon was safely locked away at the bottom oi the trunk, wrapped in a: thick! suit of underwear for protection against concussion. . Even as he congratulated himself on his remarkable foresight the elevator, filled with excited men, rushed past him on the way down. He heard them saying that a dangerous luna-

tic was at large and that he ought to be • But lie couldn't hear the rest of it, the car being so far below him. "By jingo!" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet in consternation. "They'll get me now. What a blamed fool I was!" Scared out of his wits, he dashed up the steps, three at a jump, and, before he knew it, ran plump into the midst of the women who were huddled at Nellie's landing, waiting for the shots and the death yells from below. Tbey scattered like sheep, too frightened to scream*,

and he plunged through the oj)en door into the apartment. "Where are yon, Nellie?" he bawled. "Hide me! Don't let 'em get me. Nellie! Oh, Nellie!" The shout Would have raised the dead* Nellie was at the telephone. She dropped the receiver and came toward him. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" she squealed, clutching his arm. "What an awful spectacle you've' made of yourself—and me! You blithering little idiot, I" .-£ "Where can I hide?" he whispered, hopping up and down in his eagerness. "Hurry up! Under a bed or—anywhere. Good gracious, Nellie, they'll get me sure!" She slammed the door. ■ •■■ "I ought to let them take yoju and lock you. up," she said, facing him. The abject terror in his eyes went straight to her heart. "Oh, you poor thing!" she cried in swift compassion. "You—you wouldn't hurt a fly. You couldn't. Come along! Quick! I'll do this much for you, just this once. Never again! You can get down the back steps into the alley if you hurry. Then beat it for home. And never let me see your face again." Three minutes later he was scuttling down the alley as fast as his eager legs could f carry him. Nellie was holding the front door against the thunderous assault of a half dozen men, giving him time to escape. All the while she was thinking of the depositions she cottld take from the witnesses to his deliberate attempt to kill her. He had made it very easftfor her. CHAPTER VII. THE LAWYER. HE was dismally confident that he would be arrested and thrown into jail on Friday. It was always an unlucky day for him. The fact that Nellie had aided and abetted in his undignified flight down the slippery back steps did not in the least minimize the peril that still hung like a cloud over his wretched head. Of course, he understood; she was sorry for him. It was the impulse of the moment. When she had had time to think it all oyer and to listen to the advice of Fairfax and the others she would certainly swear out a warrant. : As a measure of precaution he had slyly tossed the revolver from a car window somewhere north of Spuyten Duyvil, and, later on at home, stealthily disposed of the box of cartridges.

All evening long he sat huddled up by the fireplace, listening with all ears for the ominous sound of constabulary thumpings at the front door. The fierce wind shrieked around the corners of the house, rattling the shutters and banging the kitchen gate, but he heard nothing, for his own heart made such a din in response to the successive bursts of noise that all else seemed still by comparison. His efforts to amuse the perplexed Phoebe were pitiful. The child took him to task for countless lapses of memory in his recital of ofttold and familiar fairy tales.

But no one came that night. And Friday, too, dragged itself out of existence, without a sign from Nellie or the dreaded officers of the law. You may be sure he did not poke his nose outside the door all that day;; Somehow he was beginning to relish tne thought tha£ she "* would be gone on Sunday, gone forever, perhaps. He loved her, of course, but distance at this particular time was not likely to affect the enchantment. In fact, he was quite sure he would worship her a great deal more comfortably if she wsre beyond the border of the ./...State."-: .'■».■ - '■;'.;.: '"■;' The thought of punishment quite overshadowed a previous dread as to how he was' going to providerfor JPhoebe and himself up to. the time of assuming the job in Davis* drug store. He had long since come to the conclusion that if Nellie persisted in carrying out her plan to divorce him he could not conscientiously accept help from.her, nor could he expect ;toretain custody of the child unless by his oya efforts he made suitable provision for her. His one great hope in the face of this particulai difficulty had rested on the outcome of the visit to her apartment, the miserable result of which we know. Not only had ,he tipset;all *>f &** fondest calculations, but he had heaped unthinkable ruin in the place he had set aside fo* them. There was nothing consoling in the situation! no matter how he looked at it. More than one* he regretted the- emptiness of F that • confounded cylinder. If there had been a single,.,bullet.in the thing his troubles would now be Pleasing retrospective! But not for all the money in the world would he again subject himself to a similar risk. f : It made him shudder to even think of it. It was hard enough for him to realize that he had had the monumental courage to try it on that never to be forgotten occasion!. As a matter of fact he was rather proud of it, which wouldn't have been at all possible if he had succeeded in the cowardly attempt. <.? -:. . Suppose, thought he with a qualm—suppose there had been a bullet! It was'notvSaturday. His funeral would be held on Saturday. By Saturday night he would be in a 1 lonesome, desolate grave. Nellie would have seen to that, so that she could get away on Sunday. Ugh! It was most unpleasant! The day advanced. spirits were rising. If nothing happened between then and midnight he was reasonably secure from arrest. But in the middle of the day the blow fell. Not the expected blow, but one that stunned him and left him more miserable than anything else in the world could have done. [To Be Continued.*