Guy Hammersley; or, Clearing his Name — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

GUY HAMMERSLEY, 65 **And you conclude?” interjected Guy. ‘‘That he never intended the company to consist of more members that at present constitute it. As far as I can make out, we ‘show,’ as they call it, only at one-night stands, so if the public in one town are disgusted, it will be too far away to affect the busi- ness at the next.” ‘In plain terms then,” went on Guy, ‘‘ you believe Colonel Starr to be a fraud.” ‘I’m afraid he is,” answered Ward, ‘‘but I wouldn't for the world have my sister know it. You see, she has signed with him for the season, and I suppose he could make things mighty unpleasant for her if she should attempt to break the contract. Be- sides, we'd be stranded without a thing to fall back upon; not money enough to take us home, and only euough to pay our expenses for about a week.” ‘‘But if you believe Colonel Starr to be an irre- sponsible person,” interposed Guy, ‘‘it seems to me that you will not be any better off by remaining with him.” ‘‘Oh, but you see it’s just this way,” responded the other. ‘‘ Ruth’s contract says that she is to have an eighth of the gross receipts. Well, ifthe thing doesn’t draw, he can’t get enough himself to go on with, and perhaps the little we should get would be enough to buy our passage back home. Of course if my sister was on a regular salary things would be dif- ferent.” ‘<“Then you are of the opinion that the only one to be cheated is the public, are you?” asked Guy, half laughingly. Gomicboo CS