1939-05-30 — Page 8

MUTT AND JEFF

NOW THEN, WHICH,

THERE YOU

TOOTH IS IT?

THIS

ONE!

FIVE DOLLARS? WELL, YOU OWE

ARE, SIR-- FIVE DOLLARS, ME FIVE DOLLARS SO THAT MAKES PLEASE!

US EVEN!

I OWE YOU FIVE DOLLARS? HOW DO YOU

FIGURE THAT?

WELL, YOU ASKED ME WHICH TOOTH

IT WAS, DIDN'T

You?

4-21

J

THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 30, 1939.

By RUD FISHER

WELL, I'M A LAWYER!

CERTAINLY!

IM CHARGING YOU

DIPLOMA

FIVE DOLLARS

FOR THE ADVICE!

at

REPULSE BAY HOTEL

Geo. Pio-Uiski's String Quintette

every SUNDAY for Tiffin 1 p.m. to 2.30 p.m.

Fred Carpio's Dance Orchestra

every WEDNESDAY for Dinner 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

A la Carte & Table d'Hote

THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD.

KAIPING COAL

FOR ALL PURPOSES

HOME,

FACTORY

AND

BUNKERS

POWER

HOUSE,

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LOCOS

THE KAILAN MINING ADMINISTRATION

Head Office:-TIENTSIN.

Agents:-DODWELL & CO., LTD., Hong Kong.

IF YOU ARE TOO BUSY TO WRITE HOME – DON'T. Just Post a Copy of the Oberland China Mail

which gives all the News there IS-

Both Local and Coastal

THE DAILY SHORT STORY

THE COUNTERFEIT

"So sorry. So very sorry.

It is, you must understand, a little unusual.

Vincent took the thousand-dollar bill from his wallet and examined it close- ly, first peering at it beneath the I mean, one-thousand-dollar bills-" powerful "bulh of the table lamp, then squinting at its markings through a hand magnifying glass.

rang.

"So that's it, eh?" Vincent roared, looking outraged. "You suspect me of trying to pasa bogus money. O. K. give me back the bill and I'll trade elsewhere."

"But-but-you see-er-one of our

After about fifteen minutes a smile creased the corners of his mouth. As he suspected, the note was counterfeit. Vincent lighted a cigarette and lay back, thinking deeply. Why had Serge men stepped across to the bank- given him a counterfeit thousand- Just then a man entered the dor and dollar bill?

came up to them all smiling and in- The telephone at his elbow

gratiating. "Sorry to inconvenience We have to be careful. Of "Hello," he said, disguising his voice. you, sir. Then he smiled. "Oh, it's you, Jenny course, the bank confirmed our belief

What? Yes, I'm packed." that the note was all right. Meet you at the boat at 5. Couple of have your change in a moment." things I want to do first." He hung up "Yeah? Well, get this! I'm not and took a long pull on his cigarette. trading where I'm suspected of being Could Jenny be the reason? His a crook!" He anatched the note from mind drifted back over the past year. the startled and chagrined clerk's hand He remembered things now that he and stomped out.

You'll

hadn't noticed before. The way Serge An hour later, his anger apparently had looked at Jenny. The way his face having cooled, Vincent returned to the had always lighted when Jenny came store. "The fact is," he admitted. "I into the room. His solicitousness in haven't been able to find a stone cut in inquiring about her the time she was exactly that manner or with exactly down with the grippe.

that setting. If you want to treat me Yes, Jenny must be the reason. But like an honest, self-respecting citizen, why hadn't he thought of her before? I'll buy your rock." Suddenly he knew. Serge had been too clever. Serge had been willing to bide his time, waiting for just the right break. That was Serge's way. He was smart, thorough.

a

The clerk was not only delighted, but went throush another long apology. Vincent handed over his thousand- dollar bill, received his change and box containing the rings, and departed. A taxi rushed him to the pier. He Vincent picked up his hat and went got aboard just as they were hauling He walked two bloocks along in the gangplank. Jenny, looking Broadway, turned up a side street and lovely and blonde, but worried, greeted

out.

By Richard Hill Wilkinson

crossed it toward Solomon's jewellery him severely.

store.

As he did so a man slouched "Tony Vincent, if this is your iden away from the doorway. Vincent of" She stopped, her eyes growing smiled to himself. Serge wanted him wide at sight of the gleaming stone out of the way. He had given him the nestling in its downy box. "Tony! For thousand note as an anniversary pre- me? Oh, Tony, how could you afford serit and told him to take his wife on -Oh, Tony, it's gorgeous!"

a binge, Nothing wrong about that. Tony chuckled. The steamer gave Serge treated men he liked that way. three long blasts of its whistle and Vincent was sure Jenny didn't know, noved away from the dock. "Serge," Jenny would never know, Serge would he said. "Serge didn't think I'd have gradually wean her away from him, a thousand-buck banknote of my own. Vincent, as soon as he was out of the A good one, I mean.” way up the river.

"Serge? Why, Tony, I don't under- Vincent entered the store. It was a stand." big place, one of the largest of its "Don't try, honey. Forget Serge. kind. Two dozen people milled around He's a rat. We're through with him inside. Vincent waited until the clerk for good." He laughed again, and kiss- he had talked to before was free. ed his wife, Why bother to explain "Let's see the rock I was looking at how he'd outsmarted Serge by pass- the other day."

ing the counterfeit. note--the very note The clerk, obsequious and cager, pull- that Serge had thought would send ed out a tray of diamonds and laid it him up the river. Why worry about

the counter. From it Vincent Serge now?. selected the largest ring. "How much did you say?"

"Three hundred and forty dollars. Such a bargain! Diamonds right now are lower than"

on

·

"O. K. Wrap it up and take it out. of this." Vincent shoved a thousand- dollar bill under the clerk's nose. The clerk locked at it a moment, hesitated.

"Just one moment, please," he mut tered, and disappeared.

Vincent lighted a cigarette and wait. ed. Minutes passed. He began to look around in annoyance. Presently he saw his clerk skulking at the far- end of the counter. “Hoy!" he called;" attracting attention, "Where's the change for my htousand bucks?"!

The clerk tried to appeared.com I posed, and failed.-

(Copyright, 1939, by The Associated Newspapers.)

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