navigator, all his fault."
Officials of the steam ship line are coming from London and New York to investigate the situation.
Continued on page 20
That's what it said, and, so help me, there was another photograph, big and clear as life.
I ran outside, and headed for Main Street. But the minute I turned the corner, I saw it,
There, exactly as the paper had said, was the Queen Mary, as quiescent and natural as though she'd been in dock. People were gathered all around the giant ship, jabbering and yelling.
In a dazed sort of way, I got interested and joined them.
Lydia Murphy, a school teacher, was describing the nautical terms to her class, a gang of kids who seemed happy to get out of school.
Arley Taylor, a fellow who used to play checkers with Dad, walked over to me.
"Now, ain't that something, Dick! I ask ya, ain't that something!"
"That, Arley," I agreed, "is something."
I saw Mr. Jones standing on the corner, swinging his cane and puffing his cigar. I galloped over to him.
"Look, Jones, I believe you. Okay, you're the devil. But you just can't do this. First a hippopotamus, now the world's biggest ocean liner in the middle of the street- You're driving me nuts!"
"Why, hello Dick. Say, you ought to see those subscriptions now! I'd say we have five thousand dollars' worth. They're beginning to come in from the cities now. Just you wait, boy, you'll have a newspaper that'll beat 'em all!"
Arguing didn't faze him. I saw then and there that Mr. Jones wouldn't be stopped. So I cussed a few times and started off. Only I was stopped short by an expensive looking blonde, with horn-rimmed glasses and a notebook.
"Mr. Richard Lewis, editor of the Danville Courier?" she said.
"That's me."
"My name is Elissa Traskers. I represent the New York Mirror. May we go somewhere to talk?"
I mumbled, "Okay," and took one more look at the ship.
Far up on the deck I could see a guy in a uniform chasing what couldn't have been anything else but a young lady without much clothes on.
When two big rats jumped off the lowest port hole and scampered down the street, I turned around sharply and almost dragged the blonde the entire way to my house.
Once inside, I closed the door and locked it. My nerves were on the way out.
"Mr. Lewis, why did you do that?" asked the blonde.
"Because I like to lock doors, I love to lock doors. They fascinate me."
"I see. Now then, Mr. Lewis, we'd like a full account, in your own words, of all these strange happenings."
She crossed a tan leg and that didn't help much to calm me down.
"Miss Traskers," I said, "I'll tell you just once, and then I want you to go away. I'm not a well man.
"My father, Elmer Lewis, was a drifter and a floater all his life, until he met the devil. Then he decided what would really make him happy. So he asked the devil to set him up in a small town with a small town newspaper. He asked for a monthly cash stipend. He got all this, so for fifty years he sat around happy as a fool, editing a paper which didn't sell and collecting lousy bugs-"
The blonde baby looked worried, because I must have sounded somewhat unnatural. But maybe the business with the boat had convinced her that unusual things do, occasionally, happen.
"Mr. Lewis," she said sweetly, "before you go on, may I offer you a drink?"
And she produced from her purse a small, silver flask. It had scotch in it. With the elan of the damned, I got a couple of glasses and divided the contents of the flask into each.
"Thanks."
"Quite all right. Now, enough kidding, Mr. Lewis. I must turn in a report to my paper."
"I'm not kidding, honey. For fifty-five years my dad did this, and my mother stuck right by him. The only thing out of the ordinary they ever had was me."
The scotch tasted wonderful. I began to like Miss Traskers a lot.
"All this cost Pop his soul, but he was philosophic and I guess that didn't matter much to him. Anyway, he tricked the devil into including me into the bargain. So after he died and
Officials of the steam ship line are coming from London and New York to investigate the situation.
Continued on page 20
That's what it said, and, so help me, there was another photograph, big and clear as life.
I ran outside, and headed for Main Street. But the minute I turned the corner, I saw it,
There, exactly as the paper had said, was the Queen Mary, as quiescent and natural as though she'd been in dock. People were gathered all around the giant ship, jabbering and yelling.
In a dazed sort of way, I got interested and joined them.
Lydia Murphy, a school teacher, was describing the nautical terms to her class, a gang of kids who seemed happy to get out of school.
Arley Taylor, a fellow who used to play checkers with Dad, walked over to me.
"Now, ain't that something, Dick! I ask ya, ain't that something!"
"That, Arley," I agreed, "is something."
I saw Mr. Jones standing on the corner, swinging his cane and puffing his cigar. I galloped over to him.
"Look, Jones, I believe you. Okay, you're the devil. But you just can't do this. First a hippopotamus, now the world's biggest ocean liner in the middle of the street- You're driving me nuts!"
"Why, hello Dick. Say, you ought to see those subscriptions now! I'd say we have five thousand dollars' worth. They're beginning to come in from the cities now. Just you wait, boy, you'll have a newspaper that'll beat 'em all!"
Arguing didn't faze him. I saw then and there that Mr. Jones wouldn't be stopped. So I cussed a few times and started off. Only I was stopped short by an expensive looking blonde, with horn-rimmed glasses and a notebook.
"Mr. Richard Lewis, editor of the Danville Courier?" she said.
"That's me."
"My name is Elissa Traskers. I represent the New York Mirror. May we go somewhere to talk?"
I mumbled, "Okay," and took one more look at the ship.
Far up on the deck I could see a guy in a uniform chasing what couldn't have been anything else but a young lady without much clothes on.
When two big rats jumped off the lowest port hole and scampered down the street, I turned around sharply and almost dragged the blonde the entire way to my house.
Once inside, I closed the door and locked it. My nerves were on the way out.
"Mr. Lewis, why did you do that?" asked the blonde.
"Because I like to lock doors, I love to lock doors. They fascinate me."
"I see. Now then, Mr. Lewis, we'd like a full account, in your own words, of all these strange happenings."
She crossed a tan leg and that didn't help much to calm me down.
"Miss Traskers," I said, "I'll tell you just once, and then I want you to go away. I'm not a well man.
"My father, Elmer Lewis, was a drifter and a floater all his life, until he met the devil. Then he decided what would really make him happy. So he asked the devil to set him up in a small town with a small town newspaper. He asked for a monthly cash stipend. He got all this, so for fifty years he sat around happy as a fool, editing a paper which didn't sell and collecting lousy bugs-"
The blonde baby looked worried, because I must have sounded somewhat unnatural. But maybe the business with the boat had convinced her that unusual things do, occasionally, happen.
"Mr. Lewis," she said sweetly, "before you go on, may I offer you a drink?"
And she produced from her purse a small, silver flask. It had scotch in it. With the elan of the damned, I got a couple of glasses and divided the contents of the flask into each.
"Thanks."
"Quite all right. Now, enough kidding, Mr. Lewis. I must turn in a report to my paper."
"I'm not kidding, honey. For fifty-five years my dad did this, and my mother stuck right by him. The only thing out of the ordinary they ever had was me."
The scotch tasted wonderful. I began to like Miss Traskers a lot.
"All this cost Pop his soul, but he was philosophic and I guess that didn't matter much to him. Anyway, he tricked the devil into including me into the bargain. So after he died and
Similar Books
