Those Lucky Pullens

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 229, 27 September 1929, Page 16

Those Lucky Pullens

r THE STORY SO FAR. —— r Costly gifts—furniture, 'a motor car, diamonds—have come to the home of Fred Pullen in San Francisco, from an unknown friend. The gifts follow the sale by Pullen of a Chinese lacquei-ed chest I his wife, had lately bought. Mrs. Hamil- ; ton, a'. neighbourhood gossip, links the 1 gifts with a certain fat man, and the 1 neighbours "cut" Mrs. Pullen's acquaint- ! ance. HA,' crooked young lawyer meets i Mrs. Hamilton and goes with her to see I the fat! man. The fat man drives them j out of his hotel. Sam Carlile, whose own | mother! has "cut" Mrs. Pullen, brings | word that Mrs. Carlile saw the rumpus 1 in the hotel, and herself is "spilling the i news" 'about Mrs. Hamilton. Sam loves \ Julia, the Pullens' pretty daughter. I !••' '~~ ———— 0 CHAPTER LV. Sam's -'eye caught the sparkle of the diamond-upon the tablecloth. He stared a moment in growing excitement. "Holy Moses!" he exclaimed. "Another one?" He reached across the table and lifted the stone. "Where'd it come from?" Mrs. Pullen told him, adding a lively account of the eventful day, while he sank into' a chair and listened, toying with the; jewel. When she came to the news of''Mr. Murty's proposal of marriage Julia attempted to stop her rush of words,' hut was not successful. "I think it is right that Sam should know," Said her mother. "If you are going to marry Mr. Murty, Sam will be interested, I am sure." He turned to the girl. "Going to marry him 1" he asked tersely. "No," she said. "That's better," said he, in evident relief. "It would interfere with my own plans. But say, dog-gone it!" His eyebrows puckered ruefully. ' 'You're going to be too blamed rich for me!" "Of course, Sam," said Mrs. Pullen. "Now that we're so wealthy, Julia will make a great match someplace. I'm sure she will.: We'll go to Europe, maybe, or to a fine resort somewhere and meet millionaires." Her eyes lifted in happy contemplation. "So many ladies have their pictures in. the paper in short skirts, showing their knees. Julia and I both have nice knees, Sam." j The girl emitted a little cry of pro- i test. . ] "You have so," rejoined her mother. "Hasn't she, Fred?" " Well,'' he said, "if she has I wouldn't < lie chatting with Sam about it." < "Sam's just a boy," declared Mrs. Pullen. ; He's been like a brother to ( Julia. But you understand, Sam," she , lidded, turning to the youth, "that as " noon as the money comes I must be ■ looking ;f or a suitable match for her." ITis buoyant air had given place to ■ /•cute discomfort. "Is that straight ' goods?'!,he asked, appealing to Julia. looked at him with serious eyes, lin sure," she said demurely, "that that's exactly what mama will do." He got up abruptly, kicking back his chair. All right," ho said. "If you were poor it'd be different, but I'm no money-hunter. J j ßn . t bo „ . ft m girl to marry mc." 1 B

By MALCOLM DUART.

Stooping, he picked up his hat from the floor, where he had thrown it on entering. j "I just came to say," he added stiffly, - "that my mother is telling all the ® women around here • that Mrs. Hamil- . ton was trying to squeeze money out of s that fat man. Good-night." \ He turned into the hall, and the door 3 closed after him an instant later. 1 "It's too bad Sam isn't a millionaire," , Mrs. Pullen resumed when he was gone. 3 "He's real lively company sometimes. ' I remember he took me once and j tumbled me on the couch and made me stay there." "What's the difference," asked her husband, "whether he's a millionaire or not ? He's a good square kid." ( "But Julia must marry into society I now," the mother said. "We'll have a fine house and over a hundred thousand dollars—" . "That's a long way from a million," her husband observed. 1 "But millionaires don't always marry girls as rich as they are," his wife, pointed out. "We can dress Julia up : in fine clothes, and take her to. an ele- ' gant hotel some place, and the rich men will just buzz r around. ■ Look at Mr. Murty. He's rich." Julia sat back ip silence, and studied her mother as the older woman rattled on. "I wish we could keep this diamond." Mrs. Pullen touched it with her forefinger. "It would make such a lovely pendant. She could wear it on a chain. And when any rich strangers came up and asked to be introduced, I could say: 'Miss Pullen has so many engagements. Can't you drop in next Thursday?- 1 That would show she wasn't running after them. She's so pretty, and with the nice clothes we'll buy I wouldn't wonder if we'd be prancing around in the most exclusive circles before long." "Don't you want Sam to come and see me any more?" Julia asked. ' "I think you'd better keep him at a distance, dear. You'll move in different circles now." I Pullen pulled a cigar from his pocket and lit it. "Elsie," said he, "you're raving. I'd rather Julia would marry a kind, smart boy like Sam than any of these young squirts with a lot of money they don't know how to. spend." His wife flourished her hand, as if to wave his objections away. "Men simply don't understand these things,!' she'said. "Only a woman knows." With this she entered uppn the task of clearing the table, waving her daughter and husband from the room. Pullen, however, lingered in the doorway. _ ■ ; "With all these high-hat ideas of yours," said he, "are you going to give up <( housekeeping?" ' Why, have you lost your senses ?" she countered, pausing with an armful of I (in 9"' course I'll keep house." J 9 i ß «-« do the cooking?" he per- ; flll » 8(lid - "I Hke ' J<?i! to Beo anybody try to i %!? Z 7 \ m a , Wft y from ™> and my - nice now stove we're going to get." i

"Hum," he said, apparently more at ease.; "I suppose there'll bo headlines in the papers: 'Society- Matron Cooks. Leg of Lamb.' • 'Noted : Hostess "Burn's Gravy."' She gave a defiant'sniff and went on into the kitchen, while he returned to the living-room, where Julia was curled up on the couch. "One thing I'll like about having a new,house," he; observed. "We won't have to sit on that cussed couch all the time. There'll be room enough to get L some of the chairs." t Julia did not answer. : "Going to fall for this society stuff?" , he asked, seating himself beside her. ' "Would you like me to?" she coun- ; tered. "Do whatever pleases you," he said. "This thing here—" he drew the dia- ■ mond from a pocket in which he had placed it —"is a sort of lucky piece. It > means you can do pretty nearly whatever , you want. But say, old kid, you don't care about a lot of sappy cake-eaters, [ do you?" t "I never got acquainted with any," she said, turning her head away. Her father sighed. "Well, if you . want to know 'em—go to it. They don't look very good to me. They drink too much, and they loaf too mu.ch, and they never do anything that's worth a hoot I —but whatever pleases you will pleast> ■ me. I'll pretend it does, anyhow." She leaned over and lightly kissed his forehead. Then she went upstairs, telling him that she was tired and wanted to rest. "Fred," said Mrs. Pullen, when she finally emerged from the kitchen, "did you ever order that dress suit I told you to get?" '."I forgot it," said he. "Just like a man! Well, you pick out one to-morrow. I've been thinking, and I guess we'd better go to Palm Beach or Santa Barbara or some place like that to start with, and you'll have to go along. I'm scared to death to travel on a train, Fred —I never did unless you were along." "But, Elsie, I can't dump my business and go rustling off to a winter resort now," he protested. "You've simply got to," she said. "It's important to get Julia started right. And won't you. be- proud when she goes marching up the aisle of some stylish church with a lot of flowers and a long veil!" "Not especially," he said. "It'd give me a pain. The bride's father has to trot along, and everybody grins at him because his knees shake and he does the wrong thing." She was opening her mouth to -continue the debate, but he lifted his hand. "There's something, else, old-timer," he said. "You know this business of mine doesn't really belong to me. But I like it. It strikes me that it might be a good hunch for me to take the money from the Chink general, and buy the business outright. There'll be about enough to swing it, and the profits are good." , Mrs. Pullen considered this, briefly. "I'd love to have you be a banker/* she,, said. "Couldn't you be president of a bank?" "Not with the money I'm going to have," he said. "But bankers don't go to work until ten, and they quit at three," she said. "They have'lovely hours!" ■"No chance," he responded. Anyhow, I like the real estate game, and I'm going to stay in it. Say, Elsie, how do you suppose that diamond got upstairs on your bed?" . . „ "It must have-come'while P'was out, said she. "I was gone a long while — you know, wheri-I Hamilton and.' the' stout gentleman.""^-'

"Then, said he, '"somebody's been roving through this house. I'm going to have a look around." He completed an inspection of the windows on the ground floor, and then turned into the cellarway. Mrs. Pullen oould hear him bumping against the barrels and other objects that cluttered the basement floor, and she laughed as his voice came to her in pained annoyance after a particularly sharp collision. She followed him as far as the cellar door. Just as she started to call to him a strong draught pressed against her from the rear. She hurried back to the hall. The front door had swung open, and Sam Carlile came staggering into view, propelled by someone from behind. (To be continued daily.) .