“I think you might tell me what the joke is,” the young man said.
“Well,” began Bollinger, “I was spending my vacation in Logansport one summer, where I met Mrs. Bollinger. She had come to see an aunt who lived near my hotel, and we saw a good deal of each other. By dint of many enquiries, I found out that her father was a tough customer, so I laid my plans accordingly. You see, I had fallen in love with the fair Camilla, and I could not rest until she was mine. Upon reaching home, Miss Knight was to pretend that she was ill. I was to bribe the old country doctor to declare that Camilla was beyond all hope of recovery. Then I was to step in, and, with my magnetic power, cure her, and, out of sheer gratitude, Papa Knight would give her to me. But when I did cure his daughter’s malady, like old Pharaoh, he hardened his heart, and instead of giving me his daughter he wanted to give me a kick. I threatened him with my magnetic power, and he finally gave her to me. There’s the story of the time when I practiced magnetic healing. Are you satisfied?” and, looking at Mrs. Bollinger, he burst into another roar of laughter, but this time his guest joined him, for he was thinking that the little ruse would bear repeating.
IN THE VALLEY OF
TEETH
IN THE VALLEY OF TEETH
y Jove, I’ve an idea!” Doctor Rothwell brought down his tilted chair with a resounding whack.
“An idea?” said Rodger Wilbur, throwing down the paper which he was reading, “really, let’s have it.”
“I was reading an account in a paper Frank sent me from Honolulu of a battle which took place there a number of years ago. They celebrated the anniversary or did something the other day worthy of the account occupying preferred position on the front page.”
“Well, what’s so interesting in that? Lots of celebrations here in New York have the report of their doings on the front page.”
“The account went on to say,” continued Rothwell, ignoring his friend’s remark, “of how a large number of men were sent to their death by some chief driving them over a huge precipice. That was a pretty long time ago; now the plain is covered with the skeletons of the warriors and it is visited by the Hawaiians occasionally, who have a secret trail to the place.”