Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, January 11, 1917, Page 2

4 GLORIAS 1 RDOMANCI— Picture Play of the Coprrigh, 1910, by Adelate M. Hughes SYNOPSIS. Pierpont Stafford, banker and railroad magnate, with his sixteen-year-old daugh- ter Gloria, (a wintering at Palm Beach, Gloria ts vivacious, but willful young lad 10 chafes under the restraining hand of a governess from whom she re- peatedly escaper, Her childish capers cause young Doctor Royce to fall in love with her. She steals from her room at night and in an auto plunges into the wurf where she leaves the car SECOND EPISODE Little Miss Stafford wandering in @ a#ilk frock through the jungle of the everglades at midnight did not even know that she was lost. The terrors that were in store for her, she was not imagining. She was still giggling over her imaginations of the excitement at Palm Beach when her governess discovered that she had run away. Miss Sidney woke as Gloria ex- pected, sprawled as well as Gloria hoped, her feet on high and the rug waving in air. She knew who played the trick and ran into Gloria’s room She saw that the bed was empty, the sleeping suit tossed aside, the din ner gown gone. She flung into her bathrobe and ran to give the alarm to Gloria's father. Her costume made & sensation even among the sensa tional costumes of Palm Beach. She found Pierpont playing cards with young Dr. Royce. What she told them sent them run ing in opposite directions, frighten- ing the dancers and the loiterers about the tables in the gardens and various couples surprised in loving embraces among the inviting nooks. On the lawn the two men came together and shook their heads in signal of failure. They saw David and Lois. David mentioned the loss of his automobile. Neither he nor Pierpont thought of Gloria as the thief. They continued the search among the crannies of the enormous hotel and among the cottages of their friends. But Dr, Royce had been speaking of Gloria’s rebellious heart only that afternoon. He ran at once to a park- ing space where automobiles where kept. The chauffeurs were not about and he did not pause to haggle. Ho threw away a “For Hire” card and, leaping into the saddle, so to speak, of a six cylinder thoroughbred, dug his spurs into its side and plied the lash. The car broke into such a run that its own chauffeur did not recognize it as it shot into the main road. Royce checked his speed only when he met occasional saunterers along the roads. She Did Not Like the Manner of the ! Boy. From most of these he got no infor- mation. From one negro on a bicycle chair he had the comforting answer: “Yassa, I done seen a barheaded young missy in a auterbile licketty split—yassa. She turned sothe at the next corner. If I hadn't a throwed this year wheel over mighty peart Td a——" Royce was not interested in the Negro’s might-have-been. He was al- ready at the next corner, and he turned south, too. Now and then a red light ahead cheered Royce on, but whefi he over- took it it was never on the car that carried Gloria. In one or two of the villages he found someone awake who had seen a young girl or a comet shoot through. He had about decided to turn back end endure the laughter that would greet him. Long ago, no doubt, Gloria bad reappeared and been resentenced iy Mrandrs. Rupert Hughes Novelized from the Motion name by George Kleine. i? same But even as he slowed up for the turn he caught sight of tire tracks swerving wildly and turning off into the sand between two dunes. He shut off his power and set his brakes, drew into the side of the road, and jumped out. He passed the barrier of the dunes and caught sight of David's racing car in the waves. The billows flam- ing with moonlight were sweeping over the little machine with terrifying ruthlessness, now tossing up spray which the moon turned to jewelry, now smothering it all from view. Royce gazed aghast. He tore his hair at the vision. He could almost see Gloria caught in the wheel and held fast while she drowned, slowly choking. He was about to dash into the sea and fight it for the body of the little runaway when he saw footprints in the wet sand. With a cry of relief Dr. Royce fol- lowed them across the sand to the highway. But Gloria had not turned north in the road. She had heen wooed into the dense, lush foliage. The doctor regarded it with dread. He could not imagine how tempting it had been to Gloria’s truant heart. He was afraid that she might have lost her mind with fear He had hardly plunged into the thicket when he lost track of her. He ran back, hoping that he might find some courier with news. In- stead he met a boy from a pine- apple plantation Royce hailed him and learned that he was going for a doctor. He had heard and seen exactly nothing of Gloria. He was about to let the boy go when it occurred to him that Gloria's father would be frantic for some word of her whereabouts. He found a prescription pad in his pocket and a bit of pencil and he wrote a note. Pierpont Stafford, Royal Poin- ciana: I found Gloria’s car in the surf and her footprints leading into the everglades. I am follow- ing them, but think you had better organize searching parties to beat the whole district. STEPHEN ROYCE. He gave this to the boy and a bill from the small roll he found in his pockets. He made the boy promise to go to the nearest telephone and transmit the message to the hotel. | Royce returned again to the chase, in- creasingly applied at the thought of Gloria alone there. Now and then he found some hint of her, a shregl of silk from her Paris frock torn away by a clutching thorn. Ce eet at ee Gloria had not been long in finding out that there can be too much liberty as well as too little. No calm wander- ing in a dream through nightmare- land could have seen a more fantastic world than that Florida entanglement. She was entranced at first, but at length she had had enough She had read of people who walked in circles till they died of exhaustion. She felt ready to die so already. But mainly she was yawning her pretty head off. She beat about the bush and said “Shoo!” to any crocodiles or boa constrictors that might be in hiding. Then she stretched herself out and be- gan a little prayer. She could not keep awake to finish tt. In her sleep she dreamed herself back in the beau- tiful bed she had foolishly left. She dreamed that she was asleep in her own room. Meanwhile Dr. Royce stumbled and groped through the jungle in search of her, and her father and brother were in conference with the Palm Beach police, The message that Royce had given to the boy from Colohatchee reached them a little before dawn. It only in- creased their alarm, but it gave them something to do. They made no further secret of Gloria’s disappear- ance. They called on everybody for help. Cars went scurrying along the little railroad that pushes a short distance into the forest; boats of every sort glided along the drainage canal; motor boats, canoes, skiffs, dugouts were spinning hither and yon among the thousands of waterways, ' David forgot Lois Freeman and the engagement he had to play golf.with ber that morning. He and his father had anticipated the dawn in the bayous. Freneau, strolling across the lawn to open the office of the New York brokers he represented, found Lois Freeman and her father reading tho morning papers. They spoke of the loss of Gloria and the $5,000 offer for her restoration to her father. Freneau meditated. He could use $5,- 000 or less to great advantage. When Lols invited him to play golf he said that. he had another engage- ment. Whatever motive it was that moved Freneau, he resolved to forego ag, THE CASPER his opportunity to court Lois witnout the disturbing presence of his wealthy rival. He bade her good-by, but he did not go to his office. He sauntered to the water’s edge and chartered a motor boat. Almost everybody in Florida must have been aware of Gloria's disappear- ance except the family of shiftless paupers named Sipe Gloria had lain down to sleep just about where the Sipe fence would have been if there had been a fence. She had not seen their shack beyond the heavy growth. When she awoke and yawned and rubbed her eyes and looked about she decided that she must have fallen asleep in the horticultural building at Bronx park. © She rose to her feet and Imped aimlessly. the Sipe hovel. It was a tumbledown hut, but it looked like the Royal Poinciana to her. The pigs and the DAILY TRIBUNE Just about the time that Gloria Stafford was feeling her way through the thickets about the Cypress Wolf village Shonolakee led the old horse out to slaughter. She was weeping so bitterly that she did not heed when the sacrificial knife fell from her belt. She tied the horse, said her prayer, and reached for the blade. It was gone. She turned back to look for it. She had not gone far when Gloria Stafford parted the palmetto leaves and saw before her the steed she had prayed for. She approached it with coaxing words and untied the halter. The pony shied and tried to caress her with its heels. Gloria had been well schooled in horsemanship from child- hood, and she soon had her hands in She caught sight of |+n» rane of the unwilling mustang and vaulted to its back. She had no sooner set her heels into its ribs than the old squaw re- mangy dogs might have been gazelles in a park and the ragged man and woman and boy might have been a group of royal blood. She ran toward them for shelter. They received her with stupid wonder and with no hospitality. The woman upbraided Gloria for being out in such rags and Gloria of- ferei 10 buy anything they had. Mrs. Sipe refused to sell what she had on, which was all she had. The only ex- tra covering was a new suit she was making for the boy out of some hemp sacking. Gloria did not want a boy’s clothes, but Mra. Sipe sneered that they were more decent than what she had on. Also that she might pass some rough characters or even some Seminole Indians on her way back and that she would be safer as a boy than as a girl This convinced Gloria. the clothes with the ring and into the shack to change. When Gloria was dressed the Sipe She paid for went which would eventually lead her to the main road It was easier walking in breeches than the skirta she had worn. But she did not like the manner of the boy. He began to pay her crude com- pliments and finally grew so impudent that she boxed his ears. He took his boy was ordered to take her to a path | turned with the recovered knife. She saw the sanctified charger being car- ried off—and by a ragamuffin evident- ly from one of the white trash fami- lies that even the Seminoles despised. She gave a wild cry of alarm, the fierce “Yo-ho-ee-hee!” that had once made the Indian-hunters’ blood run cold. The tribe answered in wonder- ing haste. She pointed to Gloria and the vanishing horse. It was not van- ishing very fast, for the wilderness was thick and Gloria did not know the way. The Seminoles divided and ran in various directions tc head her off. In a few moments the young chief hi If leaped from ambush, and caught the horse by the nose and ear. The old squaw was not far behind and Gloria dragged to the ground and threatened with the death of a thief— a sacrilegious thief. Old Shonolakee raised her knife and was about to plunge it into the heart of the shivering captive when some- |thing about the captive made her pause. She saw that the lad was a lass Her rage was forgotten in amazement for a moment She grunted “The boy is one squaw.” The other Indians stared at Gloria and the pallor of her horror was red- |dened with shame. The blush was She Paid for the Clothes With Her Ring. revenge by pointing her in the wrong direction. He turned back and laughed. He had an_ illnourished sense of humor. Gloria pushed on and on, growing more and more doubtful of the way and dismally footsore. Suddenly a turn in the path -re- vealed what she took to be an answer to her prayers—a horse! It was a doleful looking animal, yet it was a horse. She ran forward and spoke to it soothingly. But it backed and reared. It was not a white man's horse and it hated the whites even as its red master had hated them. There- by hung a tale. Ly A Fr Oa eT J The family known as the “Cypres: Wolves” was the sole remnant of one of the flercest tribes the paleface had met in the Seminole wars. If Gloria Stafford, who was strolling slowly into the very heart of the Cypress Wolf region, had come among them as a young girl in distress, they would have treated her with chivalry, But her first action out- raged their most sacred beliefs. The old chief Hitakee cf the Cypress Wolf tribe bad more dignity than weaith. But he owned a horse. It Was an ancient mustang and its man- ners were bad; hut it was ‘at most the only horse owned by an everglade Indian. At the very tim’ that Gloria had been helped to solve her algebra prob- lems by Dr. Royce old Hitakee was solving all his problems with the aid of the medicine man of his tribe. He died with great dignity. The young brave Katcalani was the logical successor to the chiefship. He had his eye on that horse and dreamed of himself astride it. The widow of Hitakee had another {dea. j very becoming to her. The young chief stepped forward for a closer look jat it. Thinking him a possible rescuer Gloria turned on him one of her ninety candlepower smiles. The ef- fect was greater than she had ex- pected. Katcalani was dazzled. He blinked, then turned his eyes on the smoky Indian maidens clustered about. Each of them had ambitious dreams of being his wife. But shabbily as Gloria was dressed she was a tearing beauty in any company. Compared | to the unkempt daughters of the ever | glades she was a goddess. Katcalani’s heart beat with a new kind of excitement. He resolved to begin his new chieftainship with an | act of courage. He would defy not only the men, but even the women! He seized Gloria's hand and shouted: “If boy is squaw he is my squaw.” Gloria did not understand the mean- ing of this. But she saw that it had not endeared her to the Indian women. They murmured their wrath and would have struck her down if Katcalani had not protected her. She drew closer to him and he took that for consent. They led her into the village, a huddled group of palmetto leaves. Shonolakee first went aside and sent the dead chief's horse on the long road to the happy pastures. Then she returned to prepare Gloria for the honor of becoming the wife of the chief. She led her into her own hut and gave her the habiliments of an honest squaw in place of the boy’s dis- graceful togs. Seminole ladies are modest. Then she showed Gloria a little sewing machine. She had bought it with the proceeds of rattle snake skins she had sold to tourists in the village along the railroad. She promised Gloria that some day if she Shonolakee was her name. She did not intend that her dead husband should walk all the way to the happy hunting grounds. In her youth when the chiefs had horses and rode them, they rode also to the far-off paradise. Each chief's squaw saw to that, for she cut the throat of his horse and sent its ghoet after its master’s spirit. Katcalani tried to save Hitakee’s horse from sacrifice, but Shonolakee grew fo fierce and the other squaws So fierce that he felt his election in danger. were good she might be allowed to Play on the machine. The squaw’s idea of being good consisted largely of doing heavy labor. The frst duty of a wife was to gather wood for the fire. She set Gloria to work. see @ Royce was not the only one in the everglades hunting the estray. Fre- neau had gone as far as his motor boat would carry him. Then he had found a native Indian with a dugout, & cypress log hollowea. Tho Indian drove it with a pole. He had heard Her First Duty Was to Gather Wood for the Fire. nothing of Gloria's presence in the thicket, but he promised to guide Freneau to some of the scattered vil- lages. Meanwhile Dr. Royce, hunting in every direction, had happened upon the home of the Sipes, and had asked about Gloria. Fearing that he had come to demand the return of Gloria’s jewels they pretended not to have seen her. But Royce caught a glimpse of Gloria’s evening dress, which Mrs. Sipe was trying to hide. He charged the Sipes with deception, probably with murder. They hastened to confess that they had seen her and helped her on her way in the clothes of a boy. They sent young Sipe to show Royce which way Gloria had gone. Young Sipe, still angry at Gloria and his parents, sent Royce in a false direction, too. He laughed as he saw the crazy playing his blind man’s buff, not knowing that rivals were searching the wilderness, and knowing that Gloria was now in Indian servitude. The young chief, Katcalani, kept watching Gloria. Her whiteness, her delicacy, the unconscious daintiness with which she lifted the crooked faggot from the brushwood, and the luxurious aureole of her hair in the Florida sun, made him frantic to call her his own. He beckoned her to fol- low him and led her to a distance where the shambling, dusky women of his tribe could not see him bow his turbaned head to the chalk-faced squaw. Gloria hoped that the peculiar per- son was going to help her te escape, and she followed him with only a little fear. But he paused and began to declare his passion with all an In- dian'’s eloquence. His dialect was crude, but his emo- tion was fierce. He compared her with the most graceful palm, with the rarest orchids. He said that the sunrise was in her hair and the stars in her eyes. He compared himself with the great warrior Osceola, who had slain so many whites. He offered to kill all the white men in Florida to please her. He spoke of his wealth. His turban had a sliver band made out of four silver dollars. He had a gold watch, sixteen handkerchicfs, and eighteen shirts. He had six of them on. Gloria should have his grand- mother’s forty pounds of beads to wear—she should be a queen and she would not have to plow. Gloria had often dreamed of her first proposal of marriage. This was it. It did not accord with her dreams. She was disgusted, aghast, afraid. She could think of nothing to do. She caught sight of the dagger that Katcalani wore in his belt. In a sick horror of her fate she snatched it from him. She had not the courage to kill herself, or him, but she gave him the knife and begged him to plunge it into her heart. Katcalani glared at her in a frenzy of humilia- tion and wrath. Then the child- woman wavered on her tired feet and suddenly dropped to the ground in a dead faint. Katcalani’s rolling eyes made out a startling vision. Dick Freneau was standing before him. The Indian guide had put him ashore near the village and was waiting for him: to make in- quiries, Freneau had pushed through the palmettos just in time to see Gloria swoon. He recognized her by her fair skin and her bright hair. He approached Katcalani to claim her and the reward. But the young chief was in no mood fora parley. He gnashed his teeth and threatened Freneau with such blood- thirsty fury, that Freneau fell back. He felt his hair rise and his scalp al- ready going. He retreated in such haste that Katcalani did not pursue him far. He stood watching for him to reappear, Meanwhile, by another roundabout land path, Dr. Royce had found the Seminole village. He saw Gloria where she lay on the ground. He thought her some young Indiah maiden asleep. He paused to wake her and ask if she had seen Gloria. He saw that she was Gloria. Before he could stoop to lift her he saw Katcalani turn and stare. The Indian had a knife in his hand. he had put one white man to flight: he charged on this other. But Royce did not fall back. He advanced. He was half mac with his night’s wandering and he was afraid of nothing. With his bare hands he went straight into the fight. stranger in that tattered evening dress | adoration. at all. He dodged the blade, clutched the chief's wrist, and closed. He whipped his heel round Katcalani’s knee and tripping him, fell on top of him. But the Indian was agile as a panther, and he rolled over. Then Royce was on top, then the Indian brokefree. Then the men circled and feinted and finally clinched again, went to earth again rolled, broke, rose, and clinched, curs- ing and grunting in mortal hatred. Freneau from the thicket where he hid witnessed the fight; watched it in fascination a moment. At length, seeing that the battle had carried the two warriors away from Gloria's vicinity, he made so bold as to run to where she lay, and pick her up. Her eyes opened. She found her. self in his arms. She stared, then recognized him. He was like a rescuing angel. She embraced him with a little wail of gratitude and She had not seen Royce Freneau led her away from the struggle down a twisting path to the landing place, where the Semi- nole guide waited for him. He helped Gloria into the canoe and ordered the guide to push out into the bayou. If he felt any impulse to go back to the aid of Royce, he sup- pressed it, for Gloria’s sake. He ne- glected even to mention that Royce was even then in a death grapple with Katcalani. It would only have ex- cited the trembling child still further. Indeed, when Gloria poured forth her gratitude to Freneau for his fearless- ness in her behalf, he shrugged his shoulders and smiled. He was too much the gentleman to contradict a lady. The Indian pulled his dugout along the tortucus channels, until finally it was hailed from the shore. * Gloria's father and brother had caught sight of them. When Gloria was landed and in her father’s arms, she told what hideous danger Mr. Freneau had saved her from. Then Pierpont embraced the young man, and David wrung his hands, forgetting that they had lately been jealous rivals for Lois Freeman’s smiles. *e © © @ Royce and Katcalani fought on without thought of truce. Katcalani could have brought help by crying out, but he had the knife and he would not bring his people to see him worsted by an empty handed white man. Royce had the skill of a college wrest- ler, the coolness of a surgeon, and the determination of a lover. But he was dulled with fatigue and wearing down rapidly. At last, however, he broke free and stood off for a moment's breath. Katcalani, dripping with sweat, and a little dizzy with the struggle, went at him to finish him. He ran like a wolf and leaped like a wolf. But he ran straight into a most beautiful uppercut. Before the point of his knife could reach Dr. Royce, the point of his jaw met Royce’s fist. The world went to pieces in an earthquake, and it was some minutes before Katcalanf found himself lying flat on his back with no enemy in sight. Royce had picked up the Imife and turned to Gloria. She was not thera He nearly fell down with amazement Then he caught sight of something moving near the water's edge. He staggered as fast as he could through the underbrush. He reached the shore in time to see Gloria and Freneau in the dugout just rounding a barrier of Saw grass. He ran along the shore, trying to get near. He was glad that she was safe, and it cheered him no little to feel that he had been able to do something to earn a place in her heart. ; Staffords holding a family reunion. Pierpont had his arm about Freneau. Gloria was clinging to Freneau’s hand. She told Dr. Royce that Freneau had saved her from worse than death. Royce looked at Fre- neau to hear him tell the truth. Freneau did not speak. Royce could not. he was too muscle and soul. And it was custom to boast of his He simply could not lay to their gratitude. After all neau had restored Gloria to arms. He turned away with a smile. The Stuffords were sorry he should permit jealousy of Freneau to embitter him. It hurt Gloria es- Decially. She had liked Dr. Royce so But he loved her. ‘ (TO RE CONTINUED) de Bae? Wey