Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, January 26, 1917, Page 2

Novelized from the Motion Picture Play of the same name by George Kleine. Compote, 1910, by Addade DM Hagan SYNOPSIS. Pierpont Stafford, with his Gloria, is wintering at Palm Beach. Glo- ria is a vivacious but willful young lady who chafes under the restraining hand of & governess from whom ahe repeatedly Her childish capers cause young Royce to fall love with her rgiaden she fa daughter in Gloria fall neau, I in love wi rs later she and meets Freneau at the t fore Later wun ter-in-law, an ally She sees fr there ria's airy and worrted. Gl sed. Royce endeuv- e difficu she faces. vid's country i who flees at once. Gl mets Mulry wists on going to Paim Beach. Ag sees Mulry there. He leaves t North. She is recognized by her one-tim captor, » young Indian chief. He tells toycee ang not Fr au was ber rescuer at that time. Gloria attendsmigh court; she sees also tramp who attack But Juc follows the urt and falls n, She finds | Il, and is | ‘is part- | lows her Freeman rel tramp when t into the hands of hold-up mi herself in a low saloon dance selected by one of the patrons as ner. Doctor Royce, however, and when he attempts a rescue, calls down a riot on their heads. The hall is | raided and the crowd, including Gloria n before feature ,orters surround the house. arrives with the child loria promised to adopt. She or @ to tak simir’s wife to tt te home follows Trask and lands houseboat to ear him accused of au's murder, FIFTEENTH EPISODE on a F The Murderer at Bay. Pierpont Stafford cherished his ma- Jestic country place principally be- cause It furnished him an ample sol- itude, He could wander about it for hours and never meet a soul. If he wanted company, there was room for it in the pal » and in the formally yardened grounc¢ And he could look down on the tremendous peace of the Hudson river, admiring its strength as one strong man does anothel, and com- plimenting it on the efficiency with which it did such a big business with 80 little fuss, He asked few persons to visit him, and those few only when the mood moved him In his everyday life as a man of big affairs he met so many peo- ple and was so pointed out when he walked the streets that he acquired a kind of shyness in his hours of leisure. Gloria Seized a Dish Towel Gagged Him. and He was touched in a tender spot when he heard that his scapegrace daughter Gloria had invited three guests to make his sacred retreat their more or less permanent home. She had not consulted him and the guests were the last people in the world he would have invited. It was nice enough for Gloria to take pity on a poor waiter and his forlorn child. It ‘was sweet of her to adopt the child. Pierpont had even forgiven her by now for compelling him to hunt employ- ment for the waiter. But then what followed? Gloria invited the boy's al- most hopelessly invalid mother and the boy and the father to make themselves home in Pierpont’s own sanctuary! at move was far more than too much, “This has got to stop, and I'm going to stop it,” Pierpont stormed to Doc @r Royce, who bad, at Gloria's com- mand, transported the three to Pier- pont’s country place. Royce smiled. Pierpont grew more furious. “Oh, I'm not afraid of her just be- cause she is only a child. She's got to obey me and get rid of them.” e ll her so, sir,” id Royce, amused at the old man's helpless blus ter, “Oh, T'll tell her!” Pierpont swag gered. “Where is she?” No one knew. she had probably gone to the place r new Pierpont motored out with Royce. He told Royce that he would really have to get rid of the unwelcome guests, if only to prove to Gloria that she was not yet the absolute boss of the family. Royce suggested that “That victory will be worth going miles te .” sald Royce. They reached the country place, only to find that Gloria had not been seen nor heard of. Her three guests were there, however, installed for a long stay. The butler was so horrified at having a waiter’s family to wait on that he offered his notice. Plerpont decided to evict the walt- er’s family and save the butler. He would do it at once, before Gloria got home. He staiked forth ilke a con- stable with a writ of eviction, The boy Stas caught sight of him and ran and flung his arms about his neck and began to tell him of the won ders of his own country place, ef trees and flowers and birds and animals— commonplace things to Pierpont, but miracles to the boy from the slums. Casimir had guthered an armload of flowers for his sick wife, and he was aglow with the feeling that she was better already. Piorpont had a great deal of Gloria’s impulsiveness and a great deal of her abounding tenderness, He lost his temper in flashes, but his charity burned steadily and deeply, and now Stas had won his heart. He could not unclasp that child's arms. In fact, he lifted Stas to his arm and held him there while he told the butler he could leave without notice if he did not like the guests of the house. Also Pier- pont told Royce that he must take par- ticular care of Casimir’s wife. Royce laughed at the old man’s complete col- lapse and said: “It's a pity Gloria isn’t here to see you. I wonder where on earth she is.” “She's somewhere oughtn’t to be, that's sure,” Pierpont growled, as he stared at his section of the Hudson, where, fighting against the current, a little tug was visible, towing an old eanal barge loaded to the water line. Then he added: “She's probably on that barge now, adopting the barge- man's family He could imagine nothing more ex tr ugantly impossible to say than that. And yet, the truth kept pace with his extravagance. For Gloria was indeed even then on board just such n by just was not She she a barge being towed upstre: such a tug. Only Gloria adopting the bargemun’s family. was being adopted by it. She was a prisoner and her fe was In pawn. Gloria’s curiosity as to one problem was solved, She had found out that her vision of Freneau's murder was not a delirium. She had seen the as- sassin and heard him accused by his own daughter, One trouble with satis- fying curiosity is that every curiosity Satisfied opens up new curlositi Gloria now was frantic to know why Gideon Trask killed Freneau and how ‘Trasks’ daughter was involved in the crime. Next, she was curious to know how she was to escape with her knowl- edge, once she had It. When Trask heard Gloria's voice over his shoulder accusing him of the crime he was denying, he whirled as if an angel had spoken with the voice of conscience. An angel would have been hardly more surprising then the look of Gloria on the stairway of the barge. Trask had no idea of Gloria's iden- tity. He could not imagine who she was, whence she had come, or why she aecused him. He stood transfixed a moment, then moved toward her with menace. Gloria retreated up the steps, but he leaped at her and dragged her down and seized her by the throat, as he had selzed Freneau. She tried to scream, but she could not make a sound. Nell attempted to restrain her father, but he turned on her with terror and wrath: “If she gets away, I go to the chair.” He might have throttled her then and there, but there was a jolt, the barge shook as the towline dragged it away, and down the hatchway came the voice of Trask’s helper, Jed. ‘Trask hurled Gloria against the way and warned her that if she made a sound it would be her last. He would wring her neck and throw her into the river. * Gloria cowered in utter dread of him and remembered the fate of her poor lover, whose body the same stream had recelyed and kept for days. country | THE CASPER DAILY TRIBUNE When Trask stamped up the cabin stairs and banged the hatchway down Gloria studied the girl. She had been beautiful, and still was pretty but too sad. Just now she was too angry. Nell had been fighting against her father till this unknown woman appeared from nowhere. Now Nell was all for her father against the world. Gloria spoke to her, questioned her about Freneau. Nell did not answer at all, only in grumbling monosyUables. Gloria tried to bribe Nell to let her escape. Gloria offered larger and larger sums till Nell would have been dazzled if she had been convinced. At last she spoke: “S$: who do you think you are? The I e Savings bank? And who do | you think I am? I ain't on auction. | If your father had all the money you're | makin’ up he has, do you think you could buy my father with it? No!” 4 Glora liked her better for that, but she was none the less determined to es- cape if she could, She talked no more. But she thought harder than ever be- fore. Nell went on getting her father’s | supper at the little stove, clattering the pans and jabbing the fire with the pok er angrily. Gloria had often steamed Hu her father’s the This up yacht. Jed Went Over With a Cr Gloria Sidled Up the Stairs. was her first voyage on a canal barge. The place was extremely unlike her fa- ther’s yacht, but the savor of the fry- ing pan made Gloria democratically hungry. When Trask came back, how- ever, his cold eyes took her appetite away. But not his own. She watched him wolf his food; she felt that he was half insane, a relentless fanatic on a wild crusade. His eyes kept rolling in her direc tion. He found her so mysterious that he was half afraid of he He re membered the loneliness of that win- ter night by the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ monument. He remembered the ap- pe: ce of Freneau alone and no oth er human being in view. His very hands remembered the death grasp they took on Freneau'’s throat. He smiled. That was one good deed, at least, he told himself. But he could not imagine how this She wore the invisible cloak. she would leave as mystically had come. Finally he grew brave shout out at her: “Who What was Freneau to you Gloria knew that anyone who blus- ters Is likely to be weak, so she an- |} swered coldly: * er mind who I am. The main thing is, who are you and what was Freneau to you?” Perhaps enough to are you? | She snatched a pair of dish | from the wall and tied Nell’s feet to | the legs of the chair. | a mad woman in a straitjacket, but the | knots held. The very name Frenean seemed to madden Trask. He emitted a loud yelp of hate and derision and left the table. He moved toward Gloria, but changed his mind or deferred his purpose and went up the stairs, closing the hatch and fastening it above. There was nothing reassuring in his last look at Gloria. Nell was clearing up the table when she saw that Gioria was faint with hunger or terror. She offered Gloria the remnant of the supper. Gloria was glad to get it. She ate lke another pauper. She felt that she would need what strength she would acquire. Her wits were dancing as she tried to think out a means of escape. She could not fight Nell and her father and the big man, too, She could not overcome them with force, and she had no weap- on but her five wits, and they had nev- er been trained to such problems. She was as helpless before them as she had been when she was a little fifteen-year-old filly at Palm Beach and her governess had given her a problem in algebra (a-b)x(a-b)—? She had tared at that riddle as she stared at this one. Thactor Royce had happened along then and smiled at the easy task. He could probably solve this problem, too, but he was not here. She was alone ind the solution depended solely on her. She thought nnd thought while Nell ‘She offered to help itted to aid in the and cleared the table. Nell and was pe work. When the last dish moved to the wash basin Gloria Nell took opposite ends of the e tablecloth. When it was folded twice the two girls began to bring the two ends together, as people do who are folding tablecloths. Nell stopped short at the proper mo- ment; Gloria went toward her. The solution came to her in a flash. In- stead of putting the two ends of the tablecloth in Nell’'s fingers, she sudden- ly whipped the cloth over her head, brought it down around her elbows and, after a furious struggle, forced Nell back into a chair and knotted the tablecloth corners under the arms. towels was Nell fought like Gloria was out of breath, but she was proud as Punch over her victory. She stood up panting and exclaimed: “Well!” So far so good. But there was still Trask to settle with, and Jed, also. She had not tablecloths enough for all three, and she doubted if she could hoodwink those giants in the same way. Another scheme occurred to her. She had noticed Nell poking up the fire in the little stove. Now Nell was quieting down and it was sufe to leave her. She ran to the stove, lifted the lid and set the poker in the red coals. It was a grand idea and she was t mendously enthusiastic. But the pok- er was not. It was in no hurry what- ever. They say that a watched poker never glows. Gloria heard somebody wortting at the hatch before the poker had attained as much blush as a hard- sned sinner feels on his cheek at a lt- le mistake, She heard ‘Trask's footsteps. She could see his feet on the stairway She stared at the poker and whis- pered: “Hurry up.” in no hurry. Trask paused to call Jed, then he began to come down the stairway. Gloria was stupefied to see how much there was of him. His face appeared The poker was girl could have seen him. How could | /@8t of all and it appalled her. He he guess that she had sat at her win- | C@rried a rope In his hand. dow with binoculars her eyes and Trask did not see Gloria at first. watched the wh edy He be-| But he caught sight of the animated gan to grow supe Gloria was | bolster in the rocking chair and it apparently able to perform miracles. | frightened him. He stared back. But a muflled shriek came from the depths. “Pa! Pa! It's me! She did it!” Trask understood that the witch women had performed another of her feats and he was sure that he was un- der the voodoo, Then he saw Gloria standing by the stove. She looked so small and so timid that he regained cou He roared at Gloria and moved toward Nell. Gloria cried: “Stand back!” ] There Was a Hissing Trask was so astonished by her im- pudence that he laughed. | “Why, you little fluffy pullet, I'll tie you up and drop you in the river!" “Oh, you will?” said Gloria. She snatched the poker from the fir Trask laughed atit. She hit the} t with it and sparks flew, She rubbed it on the wooden top of the table and smoke aré¢ a hissing sound, Trask Gloria jabbed at him with sword. He could feel the s of it before it reached him. arrived where he was he | there. Gloria was a trifle over her success. | | And now, what next? She saw the } rope in his hand. He had brought it to tie her with. The next idea came. She gloated a trifle. “You thought you would tie me up, did you? Well, you can just tle your- self up!” Trask could hardly believe that any- one would be cruel enough to inflict such an Insulting injury. But Gloria’s arguments were pokes with. the poker. If Trask had been more intelligent and less confused, and had known how, he might have tied himself up as the cabinet tricksters do—so that he could slip out easily. But this was beyond him at the time, and Gloria was vig- ilant. She made him fasten the rope around a stanchion, then knot it about one wrist, then pass it around him till he tooked like a package of Gloria's own tying. The last knots she attend- ed to herself. She set the poker on a e. There shuddered. | her red-hot aring pain When it was not conceited was | | | Sound. Trask Shuddered. bounced out of ber hands and just caped falling into the river. She dit up and chopped at the hawser Every third or pie where it was wound. fourth blow hit the cable and seve 1 a few strands. And finally the rope gave and flew. The barge quivered ut its release from the t lon, and the tug, suddenly unhitched from its load, jumped forward and sent the crew sprawling. Gloria ran to the tiller to steer her prize home. She was greatly disap- pointed when she heard the yells from the tug and saw that the pilot already plate within easy reach, and knotted, and knotted, and knotted. Trask guashed his teeth with rage, but he could not budge. He yelled just once, then she seized a dish towel, whirled It into a roll and gagged him so that he could not even gnash his teeth. Gloria heard footsteps along the deck overhead. Probably Jed was coming down, The poker v cold. There was no time for reheating it. Something must be done at once. She put out the lamp that Nell had light- ed, she set at the foot of the stairs a wicker rocker, she laid it on its side, and fell back to await developments. Jed came down the stairs in the | dark. As he left the t step he put | his foot in the wicker rocker as in a trap. Jed went on over with a crash that shook the barge. He was yell- ing that he was being bitten to death by a wildcat, loria sidled past him, ran up the sta ut on deck, She closed the ened it and voted herself ns She looked about her now and saw when that she was in the middle of the Hud- son river and a great distance from either shore. The view was magni- ficent in the glouming, but she had had enough of it and the hateful tug was furrowing the water and dragging the barge farther and farther north, She saw the tiller of the barge flopping idly, and it occurred to her that if she could get free from the tug she could steer the barge to shore her- self. Somewhere below was her fa- ther’s home. Stas and his father and mother would be waiting for her. Per- haps her own father was alarmed. It was time for her to go home, She | would take her prisoners back to her | father and deliver them to whatever punishment seemed right. She had never steered a canal barge, but she imagined that it would be about the same as a motor boat in general principles. Fortunately, she had been carried so far north that the | current would act as engine power. She was delighted with the scheme. She went forward and saw the big hawser sagged in the middle and cut the water. The tug had buckled down to its work, churning up a noisy wake. She could see the backs of the crew of the tug where they sat smoking and solemn and bored to death. They would have had a good laugh if they had seen Gloria trying to untie the knots in that hawser with her lit- tle hands. She was laughing to think how surprised they would be. later when they discovered by chance that the barge had disappeared. When a parcel came home from a shop Gloria always tried to untie it, then always went for the scissors. So now, when she saw that she could not | quite unknot the hawser, she looked for the shears. She found an ax on deck and attacked the big rope. She hit everything but the hawsef, and when she hit that at last it was Uke hitting a huge rubber band. The Suddenly Whipped the Cloth Over Her Head. to recapture the s soon as he could take in the haws Also she could faintly hear the howls of her cabined and confused prisoners. If the tug men came aboard and released them, what would become of Gloria? Gloria wondered. (TO BE CONTINUED.) CROWS’ ROOSTS NOT MENACE Federal Department of Agriculture Ex- plains How Nature Has Arranged Things Beneficially. was making ready barge ‘Bhe latest year book of the depam ment of agriculture gives an aceremt of one of the most interesting bird phenomena that still persist in the thickly settled eastern ana central states—in “roosts” where crows gather every night in cold weather. Although. even In the nesting season, crows are more or less gregarious, their habit of flocking is most conspicuously dis- played during the winter. In Septem- ber they begin to migrate toward a comparatively small area of the coun- try—the territory from Connecticut south to Virginia and westward be- yond the Mississippi river. Their roosts are usually stands of pine or other evergreens, although sometimes they pass the night in groves of de- ciduous trees. Roosts are often estab- lished in the near neighborhood of large cities; one at Arlington, Va., just across the Potomac river from Wash- ington, is supposed to have contained at times as many as two hundred thousand birds. Several other equally populous roosts have been observed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. For- tunately, the. crows do not feed to- gether, but as a rule disperse by day and forage over a wide area, so that the roost is not so serious a menace to crops in its vicinity as might be supposed.—Youth’s Companion. He'll Stay. “Still ving in Brooklyn?” “Of course Iam. You don't think Td move away now that the team stands a chance of winning the pen- nant, do you?”