'
"I laughed it off, and we separated. But at two o'clock Bronson called
me up again. I met him in his office at the theater, and he told me
that Jennie Brice, who was out of the cast that week, had asked for a
week's vacation. She had heard of a farm at a town called Horner, and
she wanted to go there to rest.
"'Now the idea is this,' he said. 'She's living with her husband, and
he has threatened her life more than once. It would be easy enough to
frame up something to look as if he'd made away with her. We'd get a
week of excitement, more advertising than we'd ordinarily get in a
year; you get a corking news story, and find Jennie Brice at the end,
getting the credit for that. Jennie gets a hundred dollars and a rest,
and Ladley, her husband, gets, say, two hundred.'
"Mr. Bronson offered to put up the money, and I agreed. The flood came
just then, and was considerable help. It made a good setting. I went
to my city editor, and got an assignment to interview Ladley about
this play of his. Then Bronson and I went together to see the Ladleys
on Sunday morning, and as they needed money, they agreed.
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