10 Story Book, August 1938 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

INTRIGUING STORIES, SPICED WITH PRETTY GIRLS! 31 to get out. She threw a water glass at him, and she would have thrown the pitcher, but she was too weak. She would rather die than have anyone around. So Doc got out. Doc says she is a misanthrope, which is just his way of saying she is crazy. Jakob is a taxidermist, and has his shop right in the house. We all feel very sorry for Jakob, because his wife is with him all day long and nags him because he likes to play poker with us on Saturday night. Jakob’s wife doesn’t have much to nag him about, because he is very good to her. He makes plenty of money. It is Jakob who invented the new way to mount animals with papier mache forms, and he is very famous all over the world. Some of his work is in the Smithsonian Institute. They send musk oxen from Siberia and water buffalo from India for Jakob Kamber to mount. I don’t see Jakob any more for a few days, and then Doc tells me Jakob’s wife has had another stroke. Jakob has been to see Doc and get all the right dope to take care of her. We all feel very sorry for Jakob. He gets a wheel chair for his wife, and in the evening he wheels her out on the porch where she can watch the mountains. She keeps her hand up over the side of her face that is twisted. We tip our hats when we pass, but she never speaks. Jakob is very good to her. He buys dresses for her, and silk underwear. But now he is always on time for our little game, which is a good thing. Jakob gets more beak nosed and gray as the years go along. We can see that Gretta’s hair is turning white, too. Jakob never complains. Tessie Snow- den, who lives in the Ace Hotel, makes a play for him because he has plenty of money, but Jakob gives her a cold eye. Everyone is very sorry for Jakob, be- cause he is so good to his wife. One day there is a fire in the Ace Hotel. A fire is pretty serious in this town. We don’t have any fire engines. Everybody grabs a bucket and gets to work. Jakob is right there with the rest of us. The fire gets too much of a start. Pretty soon the right wall falls out. We all get out of the way except Jakob. He is killed. It happens very suddenly, just like that. After awhile we think of Jakob’s wife, and Doc and I go to tell her. We feel very funny about this, because there is no way to tell what she will do. She doesn’t answer the door, so we finally walk in. Jakob’s wife is sitting there in her wheel chair, staring at us, with her hand over one side of her face. We can see that her face is twisted up behind her hand. Doc clears his throat, very nervous. I guess he thinks she might throw something at him again. “Mrs. Kamber,” he says. ‘We are very sorry to intrude like this, but Jakob has had an accident.” Jakob’s wife never bats an eye. She acts like she doesn’t even hear us. Doc coughs. “He is dead, Mrs. Kamber.” Still Jakob’s wife doesn’t make a sign. I am watching her very closely, because I am interested in what she will say. She is dressed very neatly in a new dress that Jakob bought. Then I notice that she is not breathing. I step up close and put the back of my hand against her cheek. It is not cold. It feels like leather. She is stuffed. She is a work of art, but Mort insists on burying her. Conmicboooks.c©