Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 39: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HOPELESS HOMESTEAD. during his visit he casually picked up a book that still lay open at the page she had been reading. It was a law book, and it was open at a chapter pertaining to the disappearance of husbands. “ Pardon me for becoming personal, Mrs. Carter,” he said, “ but would you mind telling me if you are a widow?” With a start of surprise and an expression of embarrassment, Alice Carter noticed that Kemp had taken account of the chapter that particularly interested her. For a mo- ment she said nothing, just gazed at him as though striving to make up her mind as to whether or not she should intrust him with some tremendous secret. She arrived at her decision in a moment, and some of the pain and worry which had lately settled upon her attractive countenance vanished. “IT am sorry to have to admit, Mr. Kemp,” she replied in a tone that was both sad and wistful, “that I do not know whether I am a widow or not.” Kemp dropped the book. “Great Scott!’’ he exclaimed. ‘ Mys- tery pHed on mystery.” He sat down in front of her. “TI really am your friend,” he told her. ‘If there’s anything I can do to help you I'll be only too glad to—provided, of course, that it doesn’t conflict with my duties.” For a moment Alice Carter seemed to hesitate again, then abruptly she said: “* T’'ll tell you my whole story.” III. ‘“‘ SEVEN years ago this month I was mar- ried to a man named Calvin Carter,’’ she be- gan. ‘I was quite a young girl at the time and not so good a judge of character as I am now or I would never have done what I did. He drifted into the Nebraska town where I was born and raised, and got a job as bookkeeper in the office of the local flour mill. He was well dressed and hand- some and he knew how to talk, and pretty soon half the girls in town were crazy about him. I thought it was a tremendous honor when he told me that he liked me bet- ter than any of the others. ; ‘“‘ As I say, we were married, and then I quickly learned that my husband wasn’t 829 quite the man I thought he was. He con- tinued to spend his money for good clothes and cigars and so on, instead of giving it to me to keep house with. I protested, of course, and he answered by going out for a good time without me. Pretty soon he was running around with girls again, just as he had done before his marriage, except that now it was only the lowest class that would have anything to do with him. In order to get the necessities of life I secured work in a real estate office, and that made him more angry than ever. ““'We lived that way for a few months, our existence a continual quarrel, then sud- denly he disappeared. A town girl disap- peared with him—also two thousand dol- lars belonging to the flour mill that he worked for. ‘* He was never caught and brought back. The last I heard of him he was headed to- ward northern Alberta. I have an idea that he is still up here somewhere—probably under another name—and that is why I came to this country and filed on this home- stead.” As he listened to her Kemp was both shocked and gratified. Shocked because such a woman as Alice Carter had been forced to suffer at the hands of an unworthy man; gratified because of her frank con- fession of the facts. Sadness descended upon him, too, as he reflected that she must still love the man who had grossly mis- treated her, otherwise she would not have come to the country where he had disap- peared. “With my husband gone there was, of course, only one thing that I could do,” Alice resumed. “I continued to earn my living by working at the real estate office. Three years later an aunt died and left me a small legacy, and, inasmuch as my employer wished to retire, I bought the business and started in to build it up. It happened that a boom struck the town and I succeeded to a rather surprising extent. ‘““Only a few weeks ago I learned that when a husband disappears and nothing is heard of him for seven years the law takes it for granted that he is dead and his wife becomes a widow. At that time Calvin Carter had not been heard of for comiclboooks C©