Those Lucky Pullens

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 228, 26 September 1929, Page 30

Those Lucky Pullens

L By MALCOLM DUART -—

THE STORY SO FAR. The Pullen family (Fred, his wife, Elsie, and their pretty daughter, Julia) buy a Chinese lacquered chest, and later sell it to tw.o Chinaiv*a for dollars. Immediately a flood «•*? costly #<ts cornea to their iiome a houseful of furniture,. a motor car, and, among other things, a giant oblong diamond. A newspaper item says that 680,000 dollars reward is offered in China for the return of seven such diamonds, believed to have been concealed in such a chest as the Pullens owned. Mrs. Hamilton, a neighbourhood gossip, has caused Mrs. Pullen to be "cut" by her women friends on account of these gifts, which she connects with a certain fat man visiting in San Francisco. A .crooked young lawyer has talked with Mrs. Hamilton, and goes to see the fat man. Julia gets a telephone message from her employer, an old lawyer named Murty, telling of the meeting of Parka and the fat man, CHAPTER LIV. Mrs. Pullen was dusting pepper over the frying potatoes, but now the box dropped from her hand. "Who told you? What did they do?" Pullen laid doAvn the chops he had just unwrapped. "Spill the news, kid," he advised. "We're nervous." "It was Mr. Murty on the 'phone," said Julia. "He says Mr. Parks and Mrs. Hamilton went to the hotel to see the fat man. It must have been a short tim 6 after you saw them, mama. And they went up the elevator together, and before long there came Mr. Parks tearing down the stairs, the fat man after him! And they ran out into the street and Mr. Parks got away." "Lord A'mighty," commented Pullen. "Then," the girl resumed, "the fat man came back all out of breath, and he met Mrs. Hamilton coming down the elevator. She. was terribly fluatered. He stopped her, and yelled at her so loud that everybody in the lobby could hear. And what do you think?" "I don't think," said her father. "I'm listening." - • "Go on, Julia," urged Mrs. Pullen, her hands clasped and her eyes wide. "He told her she and Parks couldn't get any money out of him, and if they came back he'd have them arrested! Isn't that wonderful ? Isn't it superb ?" . Pullen looked at his wife, then back to his daughter, and whistled. "Phew! I can't make head or tail of it, but that story's sure a bird. How did Murty come to know all this?" "He says he's had a detective following Parks $ver since I told him about what Parks said to mama," Julia told him. Her father clapped her on the shoulder. "Babe," said he, "go ahead and marry Murty. I'll give my blessing. He's there!" He repeated, for emphasis. "The lad's there!" The girl passed over her father's matrimonial suggestion. In eager excitement she continued her report of the telephone message. "Mr. Murty says he thinks the fat man misunderstood. He says Parks is a fool and probably started in the wrong way, and gave the fat. man the idea that they wanted to make him give them some money." "Julia," said Mrs. Pulien, "why didn't you call me to the 'phone?" The girl waited for her to continue. "I would have told him how mean Mrs. Hamilton looked at me this afternoon," the mother explained. "What good would that do 1" demanded Pullen. "Then he'd understand what a bad woman she is," said his wife, as she returned to her duties at the cookstove. The husband laughed and tweaked her ear.-J' "You always get right to the root of every question, don't you, Elsie? Never . waste any time on side issues!" "I suppose you're making fun of me," she said, resentfully, but she did look mean." "I told Mr. Murty about the fat man's coming to see "you,", Julia interposed. "Why did you do that?" her mother asked. "He might get the wrong idea, and tell it around town and start a lot more talk." "Bunk," said her husband, rudely. "But I've got to hand it to that fat squab! Chases Parks around the block, throws me out of his machine—if I hadn't registered one piiinch on his nose, that time we ran into his car, he'd have a perfect score." "I don't see anything to admire about him," said Mrs. Pullen. "I j don't think he has acted well, at all. He didn't even take off his hat, or say good-bye, or act the least polite when I saw him to-day." "We'll scratch him off our visiting list," said her husband. "Now let's get busy and eat. I'm starved." , They had barely started their meal when the telephone rang again. . Pullen answered, and almost instantly let out a whoop that brought his wife and daughter running. ■ "It was .Murty again," he ■ exclaimed. "We're rich, • Elsie! Julia, you're the daughter'of a rich man!" He seized them both and whirled them around.. . '• ' ,„ 4 ' ' „ "Murty's got definite word from China, he said, as he dumped them breathless on the couch. "That Chink general will give a hundred thousand dollars for the return of the diamond —>- the long one ve've got. The money's ours! He'll give eighty thousand reward for any one of the five rose-cut stones that were • stolen, and an extra hundred and eighty " thousand for the big square one!" • 1 "I wonder if Sam Carlile's got the rest of those diamonds," said Mrs. Pullen, ; puffing, briskly. ;■ . .< f *Why should he have them ?"herhus- ] band asked. ' • •

"Well, if he got one he must have the others," she said firmly. "I don't think that was a fair way for Sam to act. Just think, we might have nearly eeven hundred thousand dollars if it hadn't been for him.'- / . - ' • : ; "Elsie - ! For the love of Mike! Have a heart!" her husband pleaded- "AH that boy did was to deliver a package that had been sent to him—and we get a hundred thousand dollars out of it. You ought to buy him a bouquet, instead of knocking him." , . , "Anyhow, it is very strange," pronounced Mrs. Pullen. She looked downward at her dress, much rumpled by her husband's late whirlwind dance. "Look what you've done to my clothes! I've got to go upstairs now and change!" Pullen and Julia returned to the dinner table, in excited discussion of their newly-ateured fortune. P, a y for the new house, and all the stuff your-mother,wants, and a bi» lot of change will be left to do what we please w>th, he explained. "Murty savs there wtsre a lot of smaller diamonds and the cablegram eays the finder can keen them—this General Tin only hopes to set the big ones." . 6 - At this moment Mrs. Pulleri's voice could be heard calling from upstairs "Yes?" shouted Pullen, without leavinir his seat. ■ - . ° "Did you put a package on my bed?" his wife cried. ySo." .Her brisk footsteps could be heard descending the stairs, and she re-entered

the dining room, carrying a small parcel. Clearly she had discovered it after starting, to take, off her dress. Her: waist was open down the front, and the belt that she usually wore was unpinned and danging from her side. "I vow and declare I never saw that before," said.she, extending the package. "What is it, do you suppose?" She weighed it in her hand, and turned it over and over. "Better open it," suggested Pullen. . She did so, .breaking-the thin cord that held the wrappings in place. . A small pasteboard box was inside,' and this •in turn contained a hard object surrounded by wadded tissue paper. Mrs. Pullen's cheeks flushed. "I wonder," she said, "I wonder —" She removed the last layer of thin paper. "Another one!" she cried. A diamond, as large almost as the one that Carlile had brought to the house, lay on the white tablecloth, before her., "A hundred and eighty thousand!" gasped Pullen, leaning over to examine the huge gem. "We get nearly two,-hun-dred thousand!" > , Julia extended her hand and touched the diamond lightly. "Isn't it beautiful?" she asked. "Isn't it exquisite ?" » Their heads close together, the threei marvelled at the new mysterious gift. The jewel, unlike the one that had come before, was regular in outline, cut as solitaires usually are fashioned for engagement rings, though larger than any stone that they had ever beheld in a jeweller's shop. "Maybe," quavered Mrs. Pullen, "this isn't the right diamond. Maybe it doesn't belong to the general!" "I'll; bet it does," said her husband. "That other one surely does —and I'll bet there isn't another batch of diamonds like this floating around the world without an owner. Sure as you're a foot high, Elsie, this was hidden with the other in your Chinese cheer." He picked up the diamond and held it between him and the light, marveftfng at the colours that flashed from each tinyfacet. "Countries used to go to war for rocks like this," he went on. "Maybe thousands "of men have died for this very one!" ! Mrs. Pullen shuddered! '. "Don't say things.like that," she protested. "You give me the creeps." She was watching the flecks of light that the, gem cast upon the ceiling. "If only.Mrs.:Hamilton could watch us now," she breathed. "Wouldn't, it make her jealous?" It was a long time before they were able to let the diamond rest, while they resumed their stone-cold meal. Mrs. Pullen, suddenly recalling that she "looked scandalous," pinned her dress together at the throat, and refastened her white linen belt. They took an occasional bite, looking lovingly at the sparking stone before them, and discussing what 'they would do with their overwhelming fortune. They had not finished with this pleasant indoor sport when Sam Carlile came opening the front door without ceremony. "Say, folks —hear the dirt about Mrs. Hamilton and your fat man?" he asked, poking his head into the .dining room. Julia nodded. "Well, among those present in the hotel lobby was my own mama." He grinned. "And now 6he's spilling the news up and down the street. Ain't life gorgeous?" . (To be continued daily.)