Jack and Susan in 1913 Read online

  Jack and Susan’s week-long honeymoon was made up of equal parts of their bedroom and the sea. On one afternoon they took Tripod to the zoo, where he was the only animal with three legs. Junius Fane and Ida drove down toward the end of the week, and the two couples had dinner at the hotel together. Their table on the terrace overlooked the cool, sparkling Pacific.

  Ida and Fane were celebrating not only Jack and Susan’s wedding, but also the fact that Fane’s wife in New York had just run off with a partner in Essanay, one of the members of the Patents Trust. So Fane was going to get not only his divorce. He could marry Ida, and—ultimately—he was going to have the satisfaction of seeing his wife’s new lover fail.

  It was becoming apparent the Trust was on its last legs.

  “There are two anti-trust trials coming up this fall, in New York and Washington,” Fane said. “Guess who’s going to be a star witness? Hosmer Collamore, in return for our dropping a conspiracy charge that was tacked on to his attempted murder. When the Trust brings up how we’ve stolen their patents, we’re going to put Hosmer on the stand to testify how the Trust paid him to steal your invention. That’ll take a little of the wind out of their sails,” said Fane. “We’ve already instituted a suit to recover your property.”

  “Property?” echoed Susan.

  “That device has already brought in more than thirty thousand dollars,” said Fane. “We’re suing for that, we’re suing for damages—we’re suing them for the polish on their shoes.”

  “Thirty thousand dollars?” Jack exclaimed. “Maybe I should invent something else.”

  “No,” said Fane. “I want you and Ida to go on making pictures. I don’t want you tinkering with machinery. That can be dangerous—and the last thing in the world I want is for you to go off and get yourself hurt.”

  Bad fortune never comes singly; in balance, nor does good fortune. When Jack and Susan returned to Jack’s cottage on the edge of the oil field, a telegram awaited them. Jack’s uncle was forgiving him his former betrayal and begging him to return to New York.

  “I know what happened,” said Jack. “He discovered that his stepsons knew nothing about the business, and that they were driving a hundred-year-old company right off the track. That’s what my uncle found out, and now he wants me back to help him out of his difficulties.”

  Susan blinked and looked around. “What are you going to do? Are you going back to New York? Or are you going to stay here in California?”

  “We’re married now,” said Jack. “Isn’t the question, ‘What are we going to do?’”

  “Not necessarily,” said Susan. “I like it out here.”

  “That speaks volumes for my capacity to inspire love and devotion. You mean that if I went back to my uncle, you’d remain here with Fane and Ida?”

  “And Tripod,” said Susan. “I didn’t marry a rich young broker. I didn’t marry an impoverished inventor. I married the Lover of the Decade.”

  Jack read the telegram again. “Uncle says he can hardly wait to meet Ida Conquest. He’s seen every one of our pictures, and greatly admires her beauty and her courage in the face of danger.”

  “What are you going to tell Junius?” Susan demanded, as she unpinned her hat.

  Jack considered for a few moments, and then said, “I’m going to tell Fane that I’m moving back to New York.”

  Susan’s face fell, and the light of love fled from her eyes.

  Jack grinned. “Then he’ll double my salary again, and I’ll stay on here, as the Lover of the Century.”

  Susan hit Jack over the head with her hat, crushing the plumes.

  “Bite him, Tripod,” Susan commanded.

  Tripod stood silently in the door of the room and wagged his stumpy little tail. Tripod had evidently forgiven Jack, possibly because Susan had married the man, and possibly because he was just too well pleased with the new leg—handsomely carved of whalebone ivory—that Jack had commissioned an old retired sailor to carve for him in San Diego.

  THE END OF

  JACK AND SUSAN’S ADVENTURE

  IN 1913

  For Ann Leigh

  All the characters and events portrayed in this work are fictitious.

  JACK & SUSAN IN 1913

  A Felony & Mayhem “Wild Card” mystery

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  First edition (Ballantine): 1986

  Felony & Mayhem print and electronic editions: 2013

  Copyright © 1986 by Michael McDowell

  All rights reserved

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-937384-63-0

  You’re reading a book in the Felony & Mayhem “Wild Card” category. We can’t promise these will press particular buttons, but we do guarantee they will be unusual, well written, and worth a reader’s time. If you enjoy this book, you may well like other “Wild Card” titles from Felony & Mayhem Press.

  “Wild Card” titles available as e-books:

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  Jack & Susan in 1913

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