The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound | Page 5

a receipt for
it. I am not a business man--never was one. I trusted Dan Merley, and I
should not have done so."
"Why?" asked Ruth.
"Because he came to me to-day, for the first time in several months,
and demanded his five hundred dollars. I told him I had paid it, and
tried to recall to him the circumstances. But, as I said, he was slightly
intoxicated when I gave him the bills, and his mind was not clear. He
declares positively that I never paid him, and he says he will make

trouble for me if I do not hand him over the money in a short time."
"But you did give it to him, Daddy!" exclaimed Alice.
"Of course I did; but I have no proof."
"Did you pay him by check?" asked Ruth, who was quite a business
woman, and keeper of the house.
"Unfortunately I was not prosperous enough in those days to have a
bank account," answered Mr. DeVere. "A check would be a receipt; but
I haven't that. In fact, I haven't a particle of evidence to show that I paid
the money. And Dan Merley has my note. He could sue me on it, and
any court would give him a judgment against me, so he could collect."
"But that would be paying him twice!" exclaimed Alice.
"I know it, and that is the injustice of it. It would be out of the question
for me to raise five hundred dollars now. My throat treatment has been
expensive, and though we are making good money at the moving
picture business, I have not enough to pay this debt twice."
"He is a wicked man!" burst out Alice.
"My dear!" Ruth gently reproved.
"I don't care! He is, to make daddy pay twice!"
"Yes, it is hard lines," sighed the veteran actor. "I have begged and
pleaded with Merley, imploring him to try and remember that I paid
him, but he is positive that I did not do so."
"Do you suppose he really thinks so--that he is honest in his belief that
you never paid him?" asked Ruth.
"Well, it is a hard thing to say against a man, when I have no proof,"
replied Mr. DeVere, "but I believe, in his heart, Dan Merley knows I
paid him. I think he is just trying to make me pay him over again to
cheat me."

"Oh, how can he be so cruel?" cried Alice.
"He is a hard man to deal with," went on her father. "A very hard man.
This has been bothering me all day. I simply cannot pay that five
hundred dollars; and yet, if I don't----"
"Can they lock you up, Daddy?" Alice questioned, fearfully.
"Oh, no, dear, not that. But he can make it very unpleasant for me. He
can force me to go to court, and that would take me away from the film
studio. I might even lose my engagement there if I had to spend too
much time over a lawsuit.
"But, worst of all, my reputation will suffer. I have always been honest,
and I have paid every debt I owed, though sometimes it took a little
while to do it. Now if this comes to smirch my character, I don't know
what I shall do."
"Poor Daddy!" said Ruth, softly, as she smoothed his rumpled hair.
"There, girls, don't let me bother you," he said, as gaily as he could.
"Perhaps there may come a way out."
"Why don't you ask the advice of Mr. Pertell?" suggested Ruth.
"I believe I will," agreed her father. "He is a good business man. I wish
I was. If I had been I would have insisted on getting either a receipt
from Merley, or my note back. But I trusted him. I thought he was a
friend of mine."
"Well, let's have supper," suggested Alice. "Matters may look brighter
then."
"And I'll go see Mr. Pertell this evening," promised Mr. DeVere. "He
may be able to advise and help me."
The meal was not a very jolly one at first, but gradually the feeling of
gloom passed as the supper progressed. Mr. DeVere told of what had
happened that day at the film studio where the moving pictures were

made.
"Now I think I'll go see Mr. Pertell," the actor announced, as he rose
from the table. "He said he would be in his office late to-night, as he is
working on some new plans."
"What are they, Daddy?" asked Alice. "Are we to go off to some farm
again?"
"Not this time. I believe there are to be some winter scenes taken,
though just where we will go for them has not been announced. Well,
I'm off," and, kissing the girls good-bye, Mr. DeVere went out.
Ruth