All-Story Weekly, March 1, 1919 — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

~ HAVE ONE Junior was puzzling over the big head- lines in the same newspaper, lying flat on his little tummy on the floor of the break- fast-room in the Riverside Drive apart- ment. One very big word stuck him. He climbed to his feet and confronted his mother at the table, holding out the paper and pointing to the incomprehensible word. In answer to his question, Helen ex-. plained the word was “ Prohibited ”—and even as she said it, she looked eagerly at the body of the article. Suddenly she jumped to her feet with a gasp of delight. The next instant she swept Junior off his feet and into her arms, showering his up- turned face with kisses. If he were amazed by this proceeding, his mother’s next action left him outraged. _For, as abruptly as she had picked him up she now set him down again, and fairly ran to the telephone. “Oh, Jefferson,” she said a moment later, into the transmitter. ‘Is it true: men in uniform are forbidden to drink?” . “That’s the new army order, dear,” said Jefferson. His voice was cheerful and pleasant as he added: ‘“ Of course, I’m not in uniform yet, but I feel the rule applies to me just the same. I’m on the wagon, ~dear—high and dry.” Helen told him he was the dearest man in the world, and,then hung up the receiver and made straight for the butler’s pantry. There, to the great horror of the English ® butler and the French chef, she poured into the sink every drop of liquor in the house— vintage champagnes, liqueur Scotch of great age and exquisite bouquet, cognacs— the almost priceless collection of a connois- seur. As Jefferson emerged from his office \ — Ae ot tg AVE am ht stairs leading to the Mecca Café. He halt- ed on the topmost step as he realized his self-imposed sentence of teetotalism. | He smiled at this instance of the force of ~ habit. To a passing acquaintance he con- fided his error. They both laughed. It was not so much a laughing matter— a little later, on his arrival at home—the news of the disposal of his wine cellar as told, smilingly by Helen. A shadow of an- aS } ae, oped his brow. oer ey oe bth he Ca “with a eee — vintage champagnes and that especially “ : building he started to turn down the stone > descend the steps to the Mecca Café, when — A ne aE hg > eg se Se Te eke = RF re an — a en ee : fie Sols - . ° Dae OS hee Fg ok rae ee x Se peer Ate eet ~ Sx * cas, ae <a" Z Bie <=> ae Hd Pegs a AS » awn Ee 3 5 ie — ~ “ am i > % Sa ee “= _—o a ~ A * = — Te és 3 +. r “tart A. whe OA ae ele ~s * - a ae —- ., < = it was really toa bad to waste all those choice liqueur Scotch. It was little less than a sacrilege to consign it to the river, via the sink. But when he saw the expression in | 3 Helen’s eyes, he kissed her and guessed, = after all, it was ‘‘ just as well.” ae He was on the wagon for the duration of = the war, and when the fighting was over the = wine cellar could be restocked, of course. — a Then Helen confessed a secret. She had never wished to seem silly—his great sucs cess made it patent enough that it was silly—but for a long, long time she * worried about his drinking. Jefferson laughed. One would think he was a drunkard. Why, he could take it or ; leave it alone.” It was, indeed, silly of her 4 to have worried, but then, all wives were | like that. Why, he had never been anys_ Z thing more than a moderate drinker. ee CHAPTER V. “HAVE ONE WITH ME.” HREE weeks passed—without a drink — for Jefferson. With each day his craving grew. Now, in his office, at” the end of a long, hot, June afternoon, he found his appetite almost beyond conn = For a fortnight he had been telling him- - ; self it wasn’t craving, it wasn’t appetite, He was sure it was a desire for the cheer- ing companionship of men, the sociability, al the glass, rather than the glass itself, In the same spirit he had ascribed his bad = : temper, his fretful sleep, his “mean ” feels 3 % ing to a dozen different causes. == ‘But now, at the end of the long day, the first he had spent in its entirety away from the training camp, he was willing to admit to himself that he wanted a drink for the sake of the drink alone, and wanted it more — a than he ever wanted anything before in all his life. He found it took giant will-power not to he left the building.a little later. It was as if he were a fleck of steel, and the Sis z ing doors of the Mecca a monstrous may: 7S net, pulling him down. "oa But he sgresed ies and got into h os