Last Son of Krypton Read Online Free
Author: Elliot S. Maggin
honest as the next guy," the Captain snorted. "Just that Jonathan and Martha aren't to be believed."
"He used my design. Every inch of it."
"Every panhandler in town knows Jonathan Kent's a soft touch. You just can't help taking advantage of his good nature, but I'm not one to talk."
"He told me he was trying to design the perfect recreational sailboat, and he showed me all his figures, and I did a little sketch on a napkin and here it is."
"A shame they never had any children. Maybe it's just as well, he never made any money with that farm of his."
The old man looked up. "What did you say, Captain?"
Captain Parker wondered if it was time he started being overtly suspicious of the eccentric man with the German accent. Parker thought better of it when Eisner unceremoniously injected himself into Sam Cutler's sales pitch.
"I could not help noticing that you were looking for a tractor, Mr...Kent?"
"That's what I'm here for."
Blasted jerry, the shopkeeper sneered to himself.
In the next five minutes the old man convinced Jonathan and Martha Kent that he had a tractor deal for them that could only come once in a lifetime. You see, he explained, family responsibilities had forced the old man to sell his farm and go east rather suddenly, and he had a brand new tractor, next highest model after the one the Kents were looking over, for just five hundred dollars.
"Well, I'd sure like to look at it, Mr. Eisner," Jonathan Kent threw the bemused Parker a wide grin, "but Sam here's nearly got me convinced on this one."
"If it's everything Mr. Eisner says it is, we should surely look at it," Martha Kent insisted. "I'm sure Sam would understand, and we don't have to take Mr. Eisner's if we don't want it."
The old man directed the Kents to meet him and the tractor at a certain place outside Smallville at precisely six-fifteen that evening. Not a minute sooner or later.
Outside the hardware store, Parker cornered the old man. "Listen, pal, anyone who goes out on a limb like that for a perfect stranger is all right in my book, but who are you, really?"
"I believe I will have to trust you to keep a secret, Captain Parker, though I must caution you never to reveal I was here. I cannot tell you why."
"Let's hear what the secret is before I agree to keep it."
"That is not the best of conditions, but I will need your help."
The old man pulled off the woollen cap and shook free his shiny white hair.
Parker's face registered his stunned recognition. After a speechless moment he said simply, "Welcome to Smallville, sir."
Chapter 4 T HE T RACTOR
B y noon James Morgan Stone had had three tranquilizers and four cups of coffee. The first cup of coffee was to wake him up when he came to the bank in the morning. The first tranquilizer was to calm him down from the effects of the coffee. The second cup of coffee was to counteract the work of the tranquilizer. And so forth. Stone was the president of the Smallville branch of Heartland Bank and Trust Company, and the only bona fide drug addict in town. If he did not have his curious mixture of caffeine and tranquilizers for a day he would be unaccountably bedridden and would often catch a bad cold. He had never spent a vacation in entirely good health, and for this reason he had not taken a vacation in over ten years. This was why, five years earlier when Stone was thirty-eight, he impressed his superiors enough to be appointed the youngest bank president in the state.
Stone's father, Alexander Hamilton Stone, had also been president of this bank. Everyone remarked on how like his father the younger Mr. Stone was. The older Mr. Stone died of stomach ulcers at the age of fifty-three. The younger Stone could now pass for a man in his late fifties.
When Captain Parker walked into the bank, followed by the disheveled old man in the ratty sweater, Stone was doing a fine job of looking dignified as he pretended to go over the previous day's transactions. Someday Stone hoped to be president of
"He used my design. Every inch of it."
"Every panhandler in town knows Jonathan Kent's a soft touch. You just can't help taking advantage of his good nature, but I'm not one to talk."
"He told me he was trying to design the perfect recreational sailboat, and he showed me all his figures, and I did a little sketch on a napkin and here it is."
"A shame they never had any children. Maybe it's just as well, he never made any money with that farm of his."
The old man looked up. "What did you say, Captain?"
Captain Parker wondered if it was time he started being overtly suspicious of the eccentric man with the German accent. Parker thought better of it when Eisner unceremoniously injected himself into Sam Cutler's sales pitch.
"I could not help noticing that you were looking for a tractor, Mr...Kent?"
"That's what I'm here for."
Blasted jerry, the shopkeeper sneered to himself.
In the next five minutes the old man convinced Jonathan and Martha Kent that he had a tractor deal for them that could only come once in a lifetime. You see, he explained, family responsibilities had forced the old man to sell his farm and go east rather suddenly, and he had a brand new tractor, next highest model after the one the Kents were looking over, for just five hundred dollars.
"Well, I'd sure like to look at it, Mr. Eisner," Jonathan Kent threw the bemused Parker a wide grin, "but Sam here's nearly got me convinced on this one."
"If it's everything Mr. Eisner says it is, we should surely look at it," Martha Kent insisted. "I'm sure Sam would understand, and we don't have to take Mr. Eisner's if we don't want it."
The old man directed the Kents to meet him and the tractor at a certain place outside Smallville at precisely six-fifteen that evening. Not a minute sooner or later.
Outside the hardware store, Parker cornered the old man. "Listen, pal, anyone who goes out on a limb like that for a perfect stranger is all right in my book, but who are you, really?"
"I believe I will have to trust you to keep a secret, Captain Parker, though I must caution you never to reveal I was here. I cannot tell you why."
"Let's hear what the secret is before I agree to keep it."
"That is not the best of conditions, but I will need your help."
The old man pulled off the woollen cap and shook free his shiny white hair.
Parker's face registered his stunned recognition. After a speechless moment he said simply, "Welcome to Smallville, sir."
Chapter 4 T HE T RACTOR
B y noon James Morgan Stone had had three tranquilizers and four cups of coffee. The first cup of coffee was to wake him up when he came to the bank in the morning. The first tranquilizer was to calm him down from the effects of the coffee. The second cup of coffee was to counteract the work of the tranquilizer. And so forth. Stone was the president of the Smallville branch of Heartland Bank and Trust Company, and the only bona fide drug addict in town. If he did not have his curious mixture of caffeine and tranquilizers for a day he would be unaccountably bedridden and would often catch a bad cold. He had never spent a vacation in entirely good health, and for this reason he had not taken a vacation in over ten years. This was why, five years earlier when Stone was thirty-eight, he impressed his superiors enough to be appointed the youngest bank president in the state.
Stone's father, Alexander Hamilton Stone, had also been president of this bank. Everyone remarked on how like his father the younger Mr. Stone was. The older Mr. Stone died of stomach ulcers at the age of fifty-three. The younger Stone could now pass for a man in his late fifties.
When Captain Parker walked into the bank, followed by the disheveled old man in the ratty sweater, Stone was doing a fine job of looking dignified as he pretended to go over the previous day's transactions. Someday Stone hoped to be president of
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