The Honorable Unde Lancy
By ETHEL HUESTON
O Bobbt-Merrill Co. WNU S.rvlc«
CHAPTER Vlll— Continued
—lo—
wonder Gabriel knew more
about things than I do,” Helen said.
“I’d know things too, if I were paid
a salary for learning them. I’m
afraid he wasn’t the old palsy-walsy
I thought him; he didn’t tell me
what he was finding out.”
Even Aunt Olympia thought it was
amusing. She said she wasn’t at
all surprised; she declared that half
the ambassadors and all of the dip
lomats in Washington were spies.
She said, “I give you my word, be
fore I go to an embassy reception
I take the safety pins out of the
broken straps on my slip and have
Hilda sew them on. I’m too proud
to have foreign spies looking through
me at those safety pins.”
“It’s an outrage,” said the Sen
ator, bristling all over with Ameri
canism. “They ought to be shot.”
“Not just for looking at a safety
pin, Del, surely,” said Aunt Olym
pia.
On the next Sunday Len Hardesty
arrived at Shires, too late for church
but in ample time for dinner.
“I’m supposed to be down in
Washington touching the Committee
for more funds,” he explained cheer
fully. “We’re running short. In
fact, we’re low. We were reduced
to hamburgers last night, though I
see you have an abundance of fried
chicken here. Farley must be do
ing all right by you.”
“You’d better get along down to
Washington,” said Aunt Olympia,
“or you’ll be reduced to canned dog
food.”
When dinner was over the Sena
tor begged to be excused; he had
important work on hand. Aunt
Olympia got up and walked off; she
was going to take a nap, but whose
business was it? Helen had letters
to write and Limpy took the box of
nuts and the funny papers and
went out to the porch. Adele and
Len Hardesty, thus considerately
left alone, wandered down through
the garden and on out into the or
chard where they selected a big ap
ple tree, far removed from the house
and sheltered by a hedge, and sat
down.
For a long time they devoted
themselves to the tender, personal
things natural to a young couple
very much in love, but eventually
settled down to speak of other
things, of politics, their daily activi
ties, their hopes, their plans.
“Oh, Lenl” Adele cried suddenly.
“Wasn’t it exciting about Gabriel
d’Allotti?”
“Exciting! I don’t see anything
exciting about it, but that they didn’t
catch him months ago. Quote: ‘The
lousy worm.’ End quote.”
“But that he should turn out to be
a spy I We never dreamed of such
a thing! We've had no end of fun
with Helen about it.”
“With Helen?”
“Don’t you remember? Gabriel
d’Allotti was the man who spent all
last spring studying the American
system with Helen. 1 told you about
It.”
Len, who had just started to light
a cigarette, paused suddenly, his
hand in midair.
“The American system! With Hel
en," he repeated.
“Oh, it was perfectly all right,”
she said hastily. “There was noth
ing flirtatious about it. Helen is dead
serious about being engaged to
Brick, you know . . .Shi It’s a
surprise for Aunt Olympia . . . Ga
briel said he was gathering material
lor a book on the American picture
and ho got Helen to help him.
Though she says he knew more
about it than she did. They used
to argue for hours about pacificism
and armaments and military pre
paredness and all that. Why, he
even warned her against Canada —
in an indirect way. We call her
the First Assistant Spy.”
Len lit his cigarette slowly. “Did
ahe see much of him?”
“Oh, he was hardly ever out of
our sight. He went every place we
did—not with us I He just met us
there by accident, the way you do.
He came to the house three or four
times a week, afternoons, mostly.
“I see.” Len stood up. “Well,
beautiful, I’ve got to be a-flying my
self down to Washington, so don’t
sit there blinking your lashes and
looking lonesome, trying to get my
mind off the salvation of the na
tion. According to the papers, Slop
py is taking a few days off to rest
his corns. Will you be here the
rest of the week?”
“Till Thursday. It isn’t for Un
cle Lancy’s corns. It’s so Hilda can
get us mended and laundered and
fed. It's terrible cooking in that
trailer. We all have to work at
»nce, you know, for the sake of the
photos, and there’s not room for
three. Our digestions pay the pen
alty.”
“I’ll be over before Thursday.
Thank Ollie for the chicken . . .
Hamburgers! . . . And to think if
It hadn’t been for the shortsighted
*ess, the hopeless inefficiency of
old Sloppy, I’d be with you on fried
chicken instead of over there with
the brats on hamburger.”
Aunt Olympia, shrewd as she was,
could not understand Cecil Dodd. In
the beginning, though she had cer
tainly made it clear that as assistant
director of publicity he was chiefly
to take care of the woman angle, he
had flung himself into the campaign
with such assiduity that she could
I hardly get hold of him long enough
to take the girls horse-back riding.
Dave Cooper assured her the kid
was doing all right, that there was
real stuff back of his gentle smile,
but Aunt Olympia felt that her plan
had been somewhat of a failure.
Now suddenly all this was changed.
Cecil had become übiquitous, con
stantly underfoot, as Olympia com
plained. When Dave, who had come
to rely on him, flatly ordered him
off on certain missions, he went, but
with reluctance.
“He’s beginning to miss the so
fas,” said the Senator sympatheti
cally. “That’s the worst thing about
cushions—-they become habitual.”
“Oh, I knew he couldn’t keep it
up,” grumbled Aunt Olympia.
“These fireworks that go off with
the biggest explosion always sput
ter out first.”
Still, Dave assured her, once he
was dragged away from the insidi
ous comforts of Shires or the clubby
attractions of the trailer entourage,
he worked both hard and well; “like
a dog,” Dave said; “and does what
he's told.”
On Saturday when the cavalcade
returned to Shires for rest and reno
vation, Dave said he and Cece would
go to town and do some intensive
groundwork at Headquarters. Cece
objected; objected gently, but firm
ly. He said he needed rest and
renovation as much as anybody.
“Call up Headquarters and tell
’em we’re coming,” said Dave firm
ly. Aunt Olympia gave him his hat.
On Sunday, except for the visit
of Len Hardesty, which they had
come to expect, the day was rest
fully calm and quiet. And then, on
Monday evening, as they were hav
ing coffee in the cool of the east
veranda, Hilda announced disap
provingly.
“It’s Mr. Dodd on the ’phone and
he wants Miss Limpy.”
You could have knocked Aunt
Olympia down with a feather. She
said so herself, at least a hundred
times in the days that followed. She
couldn’t open her mouth. She just
sat, as if she had indeed been
knocked there.
Limpy ran back from the tele
phone. “Oh, Aunt Olympia, Cece
says the Young Democrats are get
ting up a dance rally at the Fire
House and if he comes and gets
me and drives carefully and brings
me back early, may I go?”
Aunt Olympia, still suffering from
the feather-blow, couldn’t speak.
“Would you like to go, girls?”
asked the Senator mildly.
"Did he invite all of us, Limpy?”
asked Adele significantly.
“Um—ah—well —ah—perhaps not
specifically. I’ll go and ask him,
shall I? He only mentioned me—a
small party, I believe.”
Aunt Olympia came to. “You can’t
go,” she said in a strangled voice.
“You can’t go a step. And you
needn’t say ‘Aw, Uncle Lancy,’ for
I’m running this nursery and you
can’t go.”
“He says all right,” announced
Limpy. “He doesn’t care about the
dance. He says he’ll come over
and make a report to the Senator.”
“You call him right up, Del, and
tell him to stay where he is and not
interrupt our rest with any reports.
You tell him to stay where he is and
do as Dave tells him. Here I am,
just getting somewhere with my ex
temporaneous speech and now get
ting all upset about lumpy . . . You
call him right up, Del. Tell him
when we want him we’ll send for
him.” Aunt Olympia tried to still
the under-chin with a few fierce
jabs. “With a feather,” she mut
tered feebly.
On Tuesday morning, a surprising
announcement temporarily distract
ed her from her maternal anxiety.
Every paper in the state announced
that Governor Wilkie had suddenly
decided the time was ripe for him
to make the most important speech
of the campaign over a nation-wide
hook-up. He was quoted as saying
that “certain dramatic develop
ments in Washington had impelled
him to alter his original schedule
and since the revelations he was
about to make concerned not only
their sovereign state but the entire
nation, he had arranged for the na
tional audience.”
The family at Shires discussed it
at length over their breakfast.
"It’s a fake,” said Aunt Olympia.
“There’s nothing more he can say.
He’s said everything already, and
more, too.”
“Maybe he has found some new
words in the dictionary,” said
Adele.
“Do you suppose he’ll pause for
applause so the listening world can
hear the brats wave lollypops?”
wondered Limpy.
Before they left the table there
was a call from Dave at Head
quarters.
“See the papers, Senator?”
“Yes, what’s up?”
“Nobody seems to know. But the
reports are that their Headquarters
are agog. They’ve hired a college
professor to check the speech. May
be we’d better come out and listen
in with you so we can cock up an
answer.”
“Yes, do that. It’s a good idea,”
said the Senator.
When he remarked mildly that
the boys were coming out to listen
in with them and help frame his re
ply, Aunt Olympia bounded clear out
of h*r chair.
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, PERRY, GEORGIA
“You call him right back and tell
him to leave Cece where he is!” she
cried. “I can’t listen to speeches
and look at that worm in the same
breath.”
“Adele, that’s the most perfectly
mixed figure I ever heard in my
life!” said Limpy admiringly. “It’s
triple! It’s unique!”
Aunt Olympia didn’t hear her.
“My dear,” the Senator remon
strated, “we can’t hurt the boy’s
feelings. Dave says he’s working
like a dog and making a good job
of it, too.”
“Why shouldn’t he? What is he,
anyhow, but a dog, a yellow dog,
too!” Aunt Olympia smiled ever so
faintly in appreciation of herself. “I
tell you what to say, Del. You tell
Dave one of them had better stay
there to get the general reaction to
the Governor’s drivel—and Cece can
stay—and Dave can come.”
That sounding reasonable, the
Senator started for the telephone.
“You needn’t tell him it’s my idea,”
said Olympia. “I’m willing you
should take the credit.”
The Governor began his speech
with dignified and disarming mild
ness. He explained that he had
known the Senator for many years,
as his friend, and, more recently, as
Governor of his state. He made it
very clear that, knowing him thus
intimately, he could not brand the
Senator as a wicked man, a vicious
man, or a traitorous man. He was
merely a hopeless inefficient, a cour
teous, richly comfortable gentleman
farmer; one who knew nothing of
“I’ll be over before Thursday.
Thank Ollie for the chicken.”
the insidious intricacies of state
craft; one who could be led as a
lamb to the slaughter by those wis
er, more subtle, more farseeing,
than he. He said that hitherto—“l
say hitherto”—he repeated sonor
ously, the Senator had been saved
from egregious and irreparable er
ror by the firmly coercive hand of
his party leaders.
“I say ‘hitherto.’ I mean ‘hither
to.’ This time, lacking coercive guid
ance, he has fallen into error both
egregious and irreparable. The Sen
ator has denounced subversive, un-
American activities. Orally, yes, he
has denounced them. And in all
fairness, my friends, I believe the
Senator at heart is opposed to such
activities. But, my friends, is the
good Senator —and I believe him to
be a good, if not a particularly in
telligent, man—is the good Senator
smart enough to recognize subvers
ive activities when he meets them?
When he encounters them in the
luxurious drawing rooms, at the lav
ish banquet tables, of Washington?
When he entertains them in his own
home, introduces them to his own
friends?
“It is this point on which we chal
lenge the Senator! Who, during the
last session of Congress, was one of
the most constant and familiar visi
tants in the Senator’s luxurious
apartment in Washington? Who ate
his food, drank his imported wine,
danced with the women of his house
hold? Who was their confidant?
“On this point I challenge the
Senator! Last week three handsome,
ingratiating, polished young foreign
ers were arrested in Washington as
spies for foreign governments. They
were educated men, of cultured
tastes and training; they were well
supplied with money; they wore cor
rect clothes, did correct things,
were gracious, suave and accepta
ble. They were spies. One of these
men was Gabriel d’Allotti. Today,
Gabriel d’Allotti languishes in jail
as a spy, while the Senator dines on
squab and rich aspics in his stately
mansion at Maysville, while cam
paigning for re-election to his high
office.
“In Washington, this Gabriel d’Al
lotti was one of the most confiden
tial intimates of the family in their
Shoreham apartment. The Senator
was a member of the powerful com
mittee on armaments. He is now
on the Committee on Naval Af
fairs that deals closely with mat
ters of national defense. Gabriel
d’Allotti is a spy. What is the con
nection between these two? Why did
they so constantly dine and wine to
gether? „ ,
“My friends, I do not suggest—<
nor do I believe—that my old friend
the Senator would deliberately be
tray his country and sell its secrets
to any foreign, inimical nation. I
know the Senator; he is my friend.
He is an innocent, trustful, unsus
pecting gentleman farmer, but sad
ly lacking in political acumen and
farsightedness. Are you to trust to
handle the intricate problems of
statecraft, to represent you in the
Senate of the United States, a man
who innocently, ingenuously—and
most unwisely—receives as his inti
mate a common spy? On these
points, I challenge the Senator I
Good night, and thank you.”
The Senator was a good deal sur
prised. Olympia, scarlet with rage,
was at work on her under-chin.
Adele and Limpy, who had become
accustomed to charges and counter
charges and knew there was nothing
in them, snickered a little. But Hel
en, who had turned dead white,
twisted her slim hands nervously in
her lap.
“Who’s the wop? Ever hear of
him?” asked Dave briskly.
“Why, the girls have been talking
about him! Yes, I must have met
him.”
“He never had dinner at our house
in his life! He just came to call,”
shouted Aunt Olympia.
“How’d he get in?” persisted
Dave.
“I invited him,” said Olympia
angrily. “He asked for it and I
invited him.”
“Oh, Uncle Lancy, it’s—all—my
fault!” Helen stammered.
“Not at all, not at all, my dear,”
said the Senator soothingly. “Every
body goes everywhere in Washing
ton. Anybody calls on anybody.
There’s no crime in that.”
“He said he was—writing a book,”
said Helen weakly.
“Writing a book covers a multi
tude of spies,” said Olympia.
“Uncle Lancy, I—feel just terri
bly,” wailed Helen.
“Terribly, my dear? What non
sense! There’s nothing to feel terri
bly about. It doesn’t mean any
thing. He can’t substantiate his
charges. It’s just another red her
ring he’s got hold of. It doesn’t
mean a thing.”
“Oh, yes, it does,” said Olympia
grimly. “It means that louse, Len
Hardesty, is buckling down to busi
ness and we’ve got to mind our P’s
and Q’s. He wrote that speech
from beginning to end.”
“Of course,” said the Senator.
“And Dave’ll write me one tomor
row that will show them up in great
shape. They can look at my record.
I’m clean—on that score, anyhow.
Everybody is entertained in Wash
ington, and you can’t go around at
tea tables sorting sheep from goats.
. . . Why, that fellow d’Allotti has
even horned into the White House.
Don’t worry, my dear. Dave will
take care of it.”
CHAPTER IX
On Wednesday morning, after the
Governor’s speech, they had hardly
started their breakfast when sudden
ly Aunt Olympia bounded onto the
porch. She was in her dressing
gown, very red of face, and had
not taken time to remove the net
from her permanent wave; nor to
powder, although usually most punc
tilious about her appearance before
the girls. The Senator, his bath
robe draped not too neatly about
him, his thin hair standing up un
brushed on a very pink head, was
close at her heels.
“Helen,” she said abruptly, “what
in the world did you tell that man?”
“What man, Aunt Olympia?”
asked Helen.
“That dastardly varmint, Gabriel
d’Allotti.”
“Gabriel d’Allotti!” repeated Hel
en. “Why, I didn’t tell him any
thing! He knew lots more than I
did. I couldn’t tell him anything.
I don’t know anything.”
“There you see, my dear! Just as
I said. She doesn’t know anything,”
said the Senator triumphantly.
Aunt Olympia looked up from the
papers. Her eyes went first to Lim
py, then to Adele and then to Helen.
The three of them sat like one piece
of sculpture, white of face, wide
eyed, motionless. Tears came to
Olympia’s eyes. Better betray the
nation (and let the army save it,
she thought treacherously) than lose
these girls.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,
Helen,” she said cheerfully. “Del,
ring for hot coffee . . . It’s nothing
to worry about, girls, Limpy, you’d
better eat your breakfast; your toast
is getting cold. There’s nothing to
it, of course, Helen; we know that.”
“What is it?” Helen asked, with
white lips. “What has happened?”
“Oh, you know how those foreign
ers are! They love the limelight,
even when they’re in jail. Not like
us Americans who commit our
crimes confidentially . . . Fill their
cups, Hilda! Del’s, too . . . Yon
see, Helen, it seems he told the
press that he got his informatics
from you—”
“From me!”
“He did not!” cried Limpy pas
sionately,
“Of course not, darling. But nat
urally the papers are making quite
a splurge of it. They have your pic
tures and—quite a lot of dope about
you, and about us, too, for that
matter. They’ve even got some pic
tures of him juxtaposed among you;
fakes, of course, but it gives the
effect. He told the press it was
you who told him about our nation
al defenses.”
“But I don’t know a thing about
our national defenses,” cried Helen.
“Except what I asked Uncle La»
cy.”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
p % .
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