Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, April 17, 1910, Page 23

WAKING THE CARDEN READY Sijng Scenes at the Busy New York Seed “Emporiums, ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS IN IT s Fall Vietims to Ann to Grow Something— Helpful Salesman Admite He Never Had a Garden, “NEW YORK, April 16—If you see a man in one of the local trains coming from Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Westchester, Rye or from any one of the. hundred other mearby towns with his head buried in a pamphlet decorated with red and pomies you may know at once that are watching a suburban garden maker All winter he has cursed beneath or Above his breath, according to temperament, at the rising bell, the necessity of ting his bredkfast in haste and speeding through tnow and slush to catch a certain train. and he has wondered bitterly if after all It has pald to give up his cosy flat Hundred and Forty-sixth street within thres blocks of the subway to eke out a miserable existence in a three-story villa bought by monthly But just now he much. The first green thing that has aprouted fn the earth at the corner has brought to him the annual message from nature. Little by little forgetting his artificiality and becoming the primitive being. The struggle with the soll, resulting in the sprouting of radish plant & to g‘l‘m & gregter victory than a successful ®Woup in Wall street. He walks about and considers where he can best put tomato plants ahd where beets, and the fact that & neighbor has purchased & new motor no longer causes envy Beginning with Barclay street in New York and extending as far south as Court- Jandt there are many plant and seed “em- poriums,” some of which are largely allur- ing with heaps of papier-mache fruit and flowers negligently. placed in the big plate glass windows. Little dishes of seeds ‘usually form outlying borders and from the | sidewalk to the interior baskets of grains and grasses, rubber plants and Boston ferns, pots of flowers and perhaps a tiny &lobe of gokifish are the traditional adorn- ments. Through the alieys promenades the procession of subutbanites with thelr slips ©f paper, their decorated annuals and their #et expressions, vellow you in One nstallments remorsing over one | come a rose garden that shall fill the sou Little do the pretty stenographers realize that in the very shops they passing heads of offices who will on condescend to present bouquets aweet pea pansies, saying bef preliminary cough of dictation: “Thought might like to have & posy grown place Litue glancing T @ghbor or e the you m truth does th superior in ¢ the chicken farme disdain at the rural who oceuples time and tention with trisialities like fiowers, fruit | and vegrtables, realize that In the course | of time, wien he, too, has discovered that It has cost him as much to produce one | home made egk as it would to buy & whole cold storage chicken, he will form one of the procession and gladly turn his sub urban sensibilities to gardening. Scparating the population of one of largest of these seed emporiums Into component parts learn that the re- | pentant chicken farmers are by no means | an unimportant part of the whole. You discover this 1ot by any tremendous amount of 1, but because there | seems (0 be something about one of these places which acts like the atmosphere the confessional corner of & ehurch, and a nsiderable part of the duties of the 1 heads of the several depart ments consists in listening to the history of their clients, learning why they determined (o live in the suburbs sults thereof and heart hea of potato and petunia disappointments or pleasures Having overhcard about wers deftly given by ploye you hazard the must have quite & where He shakes his head and in his turn be comes confidential: “Never hud a garden | in my life; never had time to live in the suburbs; too busy selling goods to the | Tubes Then he listens sympathizingly to & middie-aged man of rather robust argument, who having convinced a chance acquaintance that the only egg plant fit for the table of a respectable man is the New York improved spincless,; describes to him the waste desolation of a back yard which two happy years ago was the | hunting ground of five score Leghorns and | one Plymouth Rock, but which is now be- | his at the ™ acum: in had re expose the to a hundred an a rosy-cheeked conjecture that he | arden of his own some. em in rieties of 1910 which is called “The Silver Moon" and is the result of a cross from the “ Cherokee Rose, the flowers running four fwers pertinent questions in regard to 10- (anq a nhalf inches and even more in dia- catlon, woil, size, etc., and listens with In- | jnecer, clear, silvery white in color, petals creasing interest to the flattering descrip- |large and fine, the plazts when in bloom tions of two varletles which he selects |jjteraily covered with great clematis flow- from many offered of hardy, ever bloom- |ers borne on strong stems twelve to elgh- Ing. climbing roses suitable for the plot|teen inches long, the follage large and of ground set aside for this purpos ‘-mmd-m. a pleasing shade of bronze green His choice includes one of the new land the flower delicately fragrant. For a | dozen of these plants of the first size he |pays $19, and supplements this bargain | whieh he is assured is speclal, with an- | other variety of a new French’ rose “The Lyon,” the color of which is a shrimp pink at the edges of the petals, center an in- | tense red coral shaded with chrome vellow which 1s described as & free grower and abundant bloomer, the flowers large, full, with fine, smooth petals and pointed buds. Thelprice of this is §2 a plant, and haif a dozen are ordered. The rose grower then retires for a moment to a swinging stool and figures hastily. His sum com- puted, he again takes the clerk into his confidence and states that as a preliminary investment he considers chickens are far ahead of roses, but he supposes he'll at least be free from weasels and golf cranks now, and his wife, chicken for obvious reasons, fled at the change. There is something In -the atmosphere of the seed place which not only tends to confession, but abrog ites the usual sub- servience to etiquette. A nice, little old lady who has ilstened to the aforemen- ticred complaint walves the mere matter of introduction and bolsters up his hes tating bellef by enthusiasticilly describing her own garden, in which, after a couple years' care and a small expense, compara- ‘mn, speaking, she now has a dozen va- | rieties ard a yearly exhibit which is the | | talk of the country round. She has made |a specialty of the hardy, ever-blooming hybrid tea roses, and talks in learned man- of the “Countess of Gosford,” which | the gold medal of the National Rose of his nelghbors with admiration not u tinctured with envy. The salesman an- will be satis. ner got 13 AL B f‘)flyflnt. 1910, by Bobbs-Merrill CHAPTER XV-—Continue; It had reined in the early morning re. Klopton predicted more showers. In Tact, so firm was her belicf and 8o de- termined her eve that I took the umbrella #he proffered me. “Never mind,” 1 suid. “Wa can leave it mext door; I have a story to tell you, Richey, and it requires proper setting.” McKnight was puszled, but he followed que obedlently around to the kitchen en- trance of the empty house It was un- locked, as I had expected. While we elimbed to the upper floor I retalied the events of the previous night “It's the finest thing 1 ever heard of, MecKnight sald, staring at the ladder and Whe trap. “What a vaudeville skit It would | make! Only you ought not have pui your foot on her hand. They don't do it in the best circles.” 1 wheeled on him impatiently “You don't understand the situation at all, Richey!" 1 exclaimed. “What would you say 1f I tell you it was the hand of a 1ady? It was coversd with rin “A lady!" he repested. ‘Why, I'd say it was a darned compromising situation and that the less you say of It the better. Look here, Lawrence. 1 think you dreamed . You've been in the house too much. 1 take it all back: you do need exercise.’ “She escaped through this door, 1 sup- Co.) and o | tairly | who can’t even eat a | APRIL 17, | “NEW LARGE EARLY FLOWERING." | society, London, in 106. Her second favor- ite is the Killarney, which she instructs | him has, beyond any other rose, apparently | reveled in our climate and has made iteelt perfectly at home wherever it has been tried. She is not as optimistic as the clerk, mentions two to three years as a period | of getting under way, acquiesces in the statement of the reformed chicken raiser that she would find much to talk about with his wife. They finally walk off to- gether to a distant part of the establish- ment to look at & new hardy, ever-bloom- |ing white rose termed “The Priscilla,” an {American raised seedling, a cross between Kaiserin Auguste Victorla and Frau Karl ‘, Druschi. | The color of the specimen displayed is clear white, the buds large and of per- "F(‘I oval; the one bloom is double on & |long stem with a dark green, highly pol- | ished leaf and its tag reads that a duplicate | plant, of the first size, brings §1 In the open | | market. As you pass the two heads bend- i low to examine the fine polnts you | hear him & ‘Just the color of my Plym- | outh rock,’ and she, in an absent-minded inquiry, ‘Hardy or greenhouse variety? | The owner of one of the Itallan villas which by some strange law seem to flour- | ish best on Connecticut soil waves aside the suggestion of another employe who as s00n as the magic descriptive Itallan villa s spoken of pats his coat lapel with an air of importance. “Given an Italian villa myself,” he be- gins, “T should preter—"' He is cut short immediately by the crisp sentences of the owner, who informs him that dahlias, being primarily an Italien flower, he intends to plant only those, which in connection With the formal garden, he opines will make & combination rare at it is beautiful. These he intends to have in three classes—the cactus, the deco- rative and the single. The employe meekly advises that they be planted before May 10 to make & proper showing and quotes prices, which vary from 15 cents to 3 cents aplece for the young plants. An order for 300 18 received tmmedlately, An authority on flowers joins the group and announces that the flower par excel- | 100k as it they 191 lence for the garden is to be the varie selected by the owner of the Itallan and prophesies that the coming IHH‘I old fashioned blosspom and tivated varieties will take the place of the » popular chrysanthemurn & shrub border the purchase Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, which grows about thirty inches high and does not require support of any kind. It has a large, perfectly white flower of immense size and fowers until Thanksglving, ®iving Immediate returns from May planting. This belongs to the decorative dahlias, which class differs from the formal rounded type of the show class, but does not have the twisted pet of the ‘cactus” variety, among which are selected some three score of the Pearlhilde, grown originally for the Philadeiphia markets. 1t bhas & beautiful bluish tint, almost white Three other attractive dahlias, selected after much discussion, are the Aurors, soft pink, the petals slightly tipped white, the heart brilliant gold; the Ambassador, which has an extraordinarily long stiff stalk and a lovely Liberty, a rose carmine with deep shading of amber. He adds to these some of the variety called La France, which are more like full blown in effect, some Mrs. Kentwells which measure seven inches across and a few of the rare Glants of Stuttgart, the largest dahlia in exist- ence of its color today, the double flower bDeing elght Inches In dlameéter, a velvety red in the center, lighted by a At the edge of the pet apiece. Like his predecessor, he secludes himself for a while with pencil and paper wnd finally announces that for the expenditure of some §#0 he will before the end of the summer have a selected exhibit, which opulence of color and mass, he believes, will mot be duplicated in his Immediate vieinity, He s followed by & bearded foreigner, who admits a French parentage, the temper- amental effects of which have been af- tected by many years residence In New England. “We've bought & new place,” he confides in an accented enthusiasm, “and ‘it' includes a garden. I'm going to plant halt an acre, the way we do In Eu- rope, grasses and flowers mixed. To my way of thinking, I've never seen anything prettier than the long, waving meadow grasses, with popples, rudbackias, | Kloves, larkspurs, forget-me-nots. He is interrupted by the salesman: “Sorry, but we don't sell ‘em mixed. | You'll have to get ‘em separate and mix ‘em yourself.” There is deep disappointment on the for- | elgner's brow. “Never heard of such a | thing; why I might get the wrong propor- tions. In Europe they make a specialty They are so beautifully arranged that they grew without any fore- and the ensemble is a ville this ts man¥ eul For selects the peonies fox- thought at blaze of color “Sorry,” repeats the salesman, as pushes the box of seeds, an ‘Annual’ and some colored prints toward the inquirer and turning to & smart looking woman repeats “Canterbury Bells? Yes'm. Right this way The woman's confidence is immediate. “You see I visited all last summer in Surrey, England. Oh, the most charming Elizabethan place with a Georgian front, and you passed to the front door with its dear old knocker by a flagged path, on each side of which grew rows of canter- | bury bells that nodded a welcome as you | came along. 1 made up my mind, | he then, | that just as soon as the old lawsuit was seitied and we got the property that the lawyers have been fighting over for four or five years, I'd have canterbury bells or | know why—American people don't love them half as much as the English do and they grow here equally well." Like ll amateur gardeners the speaker is t00 anxious for results to bother with seeds. “I'll have to wait until next summer if I plant the seeds. Oh, I never could do that. Why, I might like something else next season.” The clerk leads the way to the “hardy biennial” department and recites the colors and descriptions on the way. “You can have rose, lavender, stripe, white, blue, indigo, chamols, pink, llac, violet. You N—— tor | an have the cup and tmperfal hybrid seed this year."” saucer No'm var the b they The woman stands in & trance of admi Oh, 1 must have them all. Can't yu ®ee them waving over the garden gate and all along the prim little path, made of round stones and gravel with tiny grass pinks for the borders? 1 ean.” The clork looks mildly and recites mechantc al Package, double mixed. 10, cents The plant forms perfect pyramids of bloom about twenty-four inches high and they bear frequently 100 of these ex quisite blossoms during the early summer." The impatience for quick results is shown by a couple of well known decorators who have bought and furnished a typical old- fashioned farmhouse in Darlen, Conn., for speculation and desire a garden right away. “It will cost perbaps $0 to have plants that bloom within & few weeks from insert and for a quarter of that sum, with seeds and bulbs in another sum- mer,” the patient salesman begins Oh, we can't one of them re- marks. “It's a garden while you wait.' She takes & photograph from her porte. monnale and shows “The Red with its colonial porch, the ample wings and the winding path to the open road The clerk compliments the business-lfke method. “If only other people n here and ask us all sorts of questions provide themselves with a phito f the and grounds to give | tion ™ bared cents. you on delay,” House," who come would &rap us. an “Now there would just be the place for herbaceous border.” He points where line should be placed border!” exclaims How perfectly dear! of house jdea! a a dlviding A herbaceous firm together never thought of that 1 could just eat a herbaceous border,” states the more enthusiastic of the two, | “just eat it. What do you have in a her- baceous border?" the We ““We can plant as great a variety as you wish, the point being that as fast as one flower ceases to come another takes its place. Blossoming at ditferent times and varylng in natural helghts, a very turesque effect is obtained with tively little outlay and troubls. land no garden is considered without {ts herbaceous border or hedge. You take the shooting star, which comes in May, as do the blue lungwort, rose sbe flower, the spring adonls, the the asphodel, nome of which fest high; follow thess in the butterfly flower, the cam- the white clematis, vellow delphinium, the aurora, the ragged cha- the foxglove, the sea hoily, the giant daisies, which grow five feet high; Adam's needle, which is sometimes elght feet; bleeding heart, the yellow senna and owing thess in August and September the Corcopsis, the false chamomile, willlam, snake root, hardy gerani the orimeon hibiscus, the ocardinal the meadow beauty and the ge; then come sunflowers, rud- ters and several other varieties I X ] panulas over thres ne with th momile, | are sweet ume flower. meadow beckiae, to cholce The photograph is then examined again, and a space of 100 feet i pointed to. “It ¥ou buy & quarter of a pound of swest peas and plant them about the middle of June you will have results this weason. We allow |that quantity to that space. My advics generajly would be to get a lot of annuals and bulbs for this year and perenninls for neft. The annuals, roughly speaking. | €lude candy tuft, carnations, dahlias, ger- |aniums, heliotropes, hollyhocks, salvias, portulacas, stocks, sunflowers, sweet peas, zinnas and the perennials have some varie- ties of most of thess mentioned, and be- | sldes thess include lavender, pansies, phiox, poppies, hardy roses, viclets and wall flow- ers.” Having spent as much Red farm as he can turns his attention couple who wants attention on the spare, the expert to a young married | grass for a croquet ground, then to the owner of An aban- doned farm who has invested largely in all sorts and kinde of flowers and piants, but has forgotten to purchase any garden im- plements ‘Fifty packages of seeds,' Interrupts the young man who has all the hall marks of & broker about him and little of the com- mon, garden, ordinary variety of farmer. ‘Oh, T don't care what kind, didn't know you had djfferent kinds. Morning glories evund good to me. Buppose you give me morning glories. Is that chicken feed the stuff that grows into the smelly things? Better give me 150" “Business good?' repeats the next sales- man interrogated. “Why, we are three weeks behindhand in our orders. Simply can't keep up. Never knew such a rush It's the early spring. “HOLLYHOCKS AND SICH." |#mell of closed buildings: even on that | warm September morning it was damp and {chilly. As we stepped into the sunshine | McKnight gave a shiver. “Now that we are out,” he said, "I don't mind telling you that I have been there be- fore. Do you remember the night you left, and the face at the window " “When you speak of ft—yes. “Well, 1 was curious about that thing." he went on, as we started up the street and I went back. The street door W unlocked, and I examined every room. I was Mrs. Klopton's ghost that carried a light, and clumb. Knight, who was a well spring of vitality and high spirits, ordered & strange concoo tion, made of nearly evervthing in the bar, and sent it over to the detective, but John- son refused it “I hate that kind of persom,” said pettishly “Kind thinks you're going to poison you offer him a bone.™ When we got back to the car line, with |Johnson & draggied and drooping tatl to the kite, I was In better spirits. 1 had told McKnight the story of the three hours Just after the wreck; I had not named the ®rl, of course; she had my promise of |seorecy. But I told him everything elee. “Did you find anything?" It was a relief to have a fresh mind on it Only a clean place rubbed on the Win- |1 ngq puzsled so much over the incident at dow opposite your dressing room. Splendld|ing farm house, amd the necklace in the ¥ew of an untidy Interior. If that house |gold bag. that 1 had lost perspective is ever occupled, you'd better put stained | He had been interested, but inciined to Slass in that window ¢ Dure. be amused. until | came to the broken Ar we turned the corner I glanced back. |ehajn. Then he had whisiled softly | Half a block behind us Johnsou was moy But there are tors of fine gold chains |ing our way slowly. When he saw me he | nade every yei he sald. “Why in the |stopped and proceeded with great deltbera- | world do you think that the—er—smeary |tion to light & cigar. By hurrying. plece came from that necklace™* gver. he oaught ihe car that we took. and| 1 pag looked around. Johnson was far sto0d unobtrusively on the rear platform. |y iav seraping the mud off his feet with |He looked fagged. and absent mindedly |, piece of stick | paid our farce, to McKnight's delight oy . " | “We will give him & run for his money.” have the shorc end of the chain in the Do declared, & the car moved countryward, | $0415Kin DAL I reminded him. “When 1 “Conduetor, let us off &t the muddiest lane |SOUI4M"t slcep that morning 1 thousht T would settle it, one way or the other. It | McKnight of a ftellow that his dog it you can find | elaborate carelessness ‘About Rich," 1 the—young lady of the train, sald, with what I suppose was ‘I dow't want you to gt & wrong impression. 1 am rather unlikely to see her again. but even if I do, 11 believe she is already ‘bespoke,’ or next thing to 1t He made no reply, but as I opened the dcor with my laich-key he stood looking up at me from the pavement with his quizgical smile. “Love is like the measies,” he orated. 'he older you get i, the worse the at- tack."” Johnson did not appear again that day A small man in & raincoat took his place. The next morning I made my initlal trip {to the office, the raincoat still on hand. |1 had a short conference with Miller, the | @lstrict attorney, at 1L Bronson was under surveillance, he sald, and any attempt to |well the notes to him would probably result {in their recovery. In the meantime, as I ‘knrw the commonwealth had continued the se. in hope of such contingency. | At noon I left the office and took a veterluarian to see Candida, the lnjured |pony. By 1 o'clock my first day's duties were performed, and a long Sahara of hot afternoon stretohed ahead. MecKnight, ways glad to escape from the grind, sug- gested a vaudeville, and in sheer ennul 1 |consented. I could neither ride, drive nor |golf, and my own company bored me to distraction. “Coolest place in town these d he declared. “Bleotric fans, breesy songs, alry costumes. And thers's Johnson just behind—the coldest proposition In Wash- ington.” He gravely bought three tickets and pre- sonted the detective with one. Then we | went In. Having lived & normal, buky lite, the theater in the afterncon is to me about on & par with ice cream for breakfast. Up on the stage a very stout woman in short pink skirts, with a smile that MecKnight | eclared Jooked like a slash In a roll of butler, was singing nasally, with a lebor- |1ous kick at the end of each verse. John- |#on, two rows mhead. went to sleep. Me- | Knight prodded me with his elbow. | “Look at the first box to the right"” he sald, In a stage whisper. “I want you to | come over at the end of the act.” | 1t was the first time T had seen her since |1 put her in the cab at Baitimore. Out- | wardly, 1 presume I was calm, for no one ;lflm!d to stare 4t me, but every atom of Wil shouts “The fools,” 1 out a card that sald eight. of glee by the audience. muttered. After a little I glanced over. Mrs. D las wi talking to McKnight, but she was looking stralght at me. She was flushed, but more calm than I, and she did not bow. I fumbled for my hat, but the next moment I saw that they were golng, and 1 sat still. When McKnight came back he was triumphast. TI've made an engagement for you,” he aid. “Mrs. Dallas asked me to bring you |to dinmer tonight, and I said I knew you would fall all over yourself to go. You |are requested to bring along the broken | arm, and any other souvenirs of the wreck that you posses: “I'll do nothing of the sort,” I declared, struggling against my inclination. “I can't even tie my necktle, and I have to have my food cut for me’ “Oh, that's all right” he said easily “I'll send Stogle over to fix you up. and {Mrs. Dal knows all about the arm. I told | her." | (Stogie s his Japanese faototum, called because he is lean, a yellowish brown in color, and because he claims to have been shipped into this country in a box.) The cinpematograph was finishing the program. The house was dark and the music had stopped, as it does in the eir- cus just before somebody risks his neck at 80 much & neek In the dip of death. or the hundred-foot dive. Then, with a sort of shoek, 1 saw on the Whils curtain the announcement: THE NEXT PICTURE s the doomed Washington Fller, taken a short distance from the scene of the wreck on the fatal morning of September 10. Two miles farther on it met with almost com- plete annihilation. 1 confess to & return of some of the ick- ening sensations of the wreck: people round me were leaning férward with tense faces. Then the letters were gone, and | saw & long level stretch of track, even the broken stone between the ties standing out distinelly. Far off under a cloud of amoke a small objeet was rushing toward us and growing larger as it came. Now It was on us, a mammoth In size, with huge drivers and a colosssl tender The engine leaped aside. as if just in time 10 save us from destruction, with a glimpse of & stooping fireman and a grimy engi- w0 | “He was just about that was my bag." “Could you see his asked in an undertone. him again? “No. His hat was pulled down and his head was bent. I'm going back to find out where that picture was taken. They say two miles, but it may have been forty.” The mudience, busy with its wraps, had not noticed. Mrs. Dallas and Alison West had gone. In front of us Johnson had dropped his hat and was stooping for it. “This way,” I motioned to McKnight, and we wheeled into a narrow passage be- side us, back of the boxes. At the end there was a door leading Into the wings, |and as we went boldly through I turned the key. The final set was being struck, and no one paid any attention to us. Luckily they were similiarly indifferent to a banging at the door 1 had locked, a bauging which, 1 judged, signified Johnson “I guess we've broken up his ence, McKnight chuckled Stage hands were hurrying in every di- |rection; pleces of the side wall of the |last drawing room menaced us; a switch- {board behind us was singing llke a tea | kettle. we stepped we were | in somebody’'s way. At last we were across, | contronting & man in his shirt sleev whe |by dots and dashes of profanity seemed 1o be directing the chaos. | “Well?' he sald. wheellug on us. |can 1 do for you? ‘I would llke to ask, to leap; TI'll swear face™ McKnight “Would you know interter- Averywihere “What 1 replied, “4t, you | have any idea just where the last cinnema | tograph ploture was taken.’ “Broken board—picnicke The Washington Filer anced at my bandaged arm. “The spnouncement says two McKnight put n, “but We should know whether it is raliroad miles, bile miles policeman miles ‘L am worry 1 ean't te he replied, more civily We get those pictures by contract We don't take them ourselves. ‘Where are the company's offices | ‘New York. He wstepped forward and | graspea a super by the shoulder. {In blazes are you delng with | chair in & kitchen set? Take that plece of |plok plush there and throw it over a soap box,, if you haven't got a kitchen | ehadr.” | T had not reaiized the extent of the shock, but now I dropped into & ahair and ~lakeT" miles like automo- | that gold it “What | Johnson. In the meantime, even if it was for the last time, I would see her that night. T gave Stogle a note for Mrs. Klop- ton, and with my dinner clothes thers came back the gold bag, wrapped in tissue paper. CHAPTER XVI, THE SHADOW OF A GIRL. Certain things about the dinner at the Dallis house will always be obscure to me. Dallas was something in the Fish | commission, and I remember his reeling | off fish eggs in billions while we ate our ' caviar, He had some particular stunt he had been urging the government to for | vears—something about forbldding the ‘es- | tablishment of mills and factories on river | banks—it seems they kill the fish, elther | | the smoke, or the noise, or something they ¢ into the water. i Dallas was there, I think ot course, 1 suppose she must have been; and there was & woman in vellow: I took her in to dinner, and I remember she loosened my clams for me so I could get them. But the only real person at the table was a girl across in white, a sublimated young woman who was as brilllant as T was stupid, who never by any chance looked directly at me, |and who appeared and disappeared across | the candles and orchids in a sort of halo | of radiance. When the dinner hed progressed from salmon to roast, and the conversatien had one the same thing—from fish to schndai— the yellow gown turned to me. “We have been awfully good, Baven't | we, Mr. Blakeley?” she asked. “Although |1 am crazy to hear, I have not sald ‘wreck’ | |once. I'm sure you must feel like & sur- vivor of Waterloo, or something of the | sort.” “If you want me to tell you about the wreck,” I sald, glancing across the table “I'm sorry to be disappointing, but I den't remember anything." “You are fortunate to be able te forget it” It was the first word Miss West had spoken directly to me, and it went to my head “There are some things I have not for- gotten,” I said, over the candles. “I recall coming to myself some time after, and that & ¥irl, & besutiful girl—" Ah!" said the lady in yellow, leaning forward breathlessly. Miss West was star- ing at me coldly, but, once started, I had to stumble on. peer. The long train of sieepers followed. | From a forward vestibule a porter in a|%iPed my forshead. ~The unexpected white coat wayed his hand. The rest of |EUmpse of Alison West, followed aimost|that she told me I had been on fire twice |the cars seemed still wrapped in slumber, | IMmediately by the revelation of the pic- |airendy.” A shudder /went around the A R isationa T aave R awe S4F \u_nh haé left me lmp wnd unnerved. Me- | tabje, | Ontario, fly papt, and then 1 rose to my ;""f":"‘ woa looking Bt his watch “But surely that fsn't oy s Mg Pk B e © says the moving picture people have |y orcti Qert¥ SO MU was hell (o go along the way 1 had hefl\l‘m' cried out at sigh{ of her. Bhe was doing. And—there's no doubt about u.‘.:':‘n""'":: :“",',’,',’}_,’l‘.’.'..:"'“m.",’f.r::'f:. Rich. It's the same chaln. 5 o X {had replaced what McKnight disrespect- We walked along in slience ‘until we |00 TORRON EEE e e Com: caught the car back to town. Fhacdigenogdortly 0 r A R-oprgsy g ] “Well.” he sald finally, “you kuow the|hause. she wee radisel girl, of course, and 1 dan't - g e o g TTRERA pose.” T 3aid as patiently as | could. “Bvi- | @ently down the back stairease. We might a5 well go down that way.” “According 1o the best precedents in theso affairs. we should find a glove about here,” he sald as we started down. Bul he was more lmpressed than he cared to own. At 1 o'clock, after a six-mile ramble, we entered a small country hotel. We had seen nothing of Johuson for a half hour At that time he was & quarter of a mile behind us, and losing rapidly. Befors we had finished our luncheon he staggered Into the inn. One of his boots was under his “That & girl was trying to rouse me, and the end of the In aggrievedly. But if you Mke | anoffice down town. We can make it if Ho examined the Justy steps carefully, and once, when a bit of loose plaster fell Just behind him. he started ltke a nervous woman. “What 1 don't undereiand is why you let her go.” he sald. sopping once, pur sled. “You're not usually quixotie. | “When we get out into the country | Richey,” I replied gravely. I am going to tell you another story. and'if you dom't | tell me I'm & fool and & eraven, on the strength of It, you are no friend of mine. We stumbled -nr the twilight of the staircase into the:Blackness of the shut- tered kitchem. The louse had the moldy n hit, old maa—1 about the chain in the gold purse. Just of the little colncldences that hang peopls now and then. And as for las |arm, and his whole appéarance was de- | plorable. He was coated with mud, streaked | with perspiration. and he limped as he walked. He chose a table 1ot far from us and ordered Beotch. Beyond touching his | Lat he pald no attention to us night—4f she's the kind of girl | “I'm just getting my second wind." Me- |she is, and you think she had as Kright declared. “How do you feel, Mr. |do with (hat, you—you're addled, thai's all Johnson? Mix or eight miles more ml'nu can depend on It the lady we'll all enjoy our dinners.”” Joburon put [down the glass he had raised to his lips | without replying. The fact was, however. that 1 was like Johnsen. 1 was soft from my week's inao- tion, and I was pretiy well done up. Me- wouldn't one night. And yet was In Altoona at that time. Just before we got off the car, veried (o the subject far back in my misd you say thing 1o ve- | again. 1t was lfld] nothing her—and 1 think myse'f you're rather hard |put joy at the sight of her. McKnight's give a "“[‘Ul"lnuch on my arm brought me back to s reality “Come over and meet them. ' That's the cotsin Miss, West Mre. Dallas. But 1 would not go. After he went I sai there alone, painfully conscious that I he sald is visiting. ! of the | was being pointed out and stared at from empty house last week Is the lady of last | yhe box. . your train mequiintance The abgminable Japanese gave WAY o yet more atrocious performing | dogs. How many offers of marriage will the young iady in the box have? The dog slopped sagely at “nene,” and thea pulled On the lowest step of the last car. one | foot hanging free, wAs a man. His black | derby hat was pulled well down 1o keep it | |from blowing away. and his cost fiy- | Ballop. There was no sign of the detective. |ing open to the wind. He was swung well | “Upon’ my word' Richey said, “I feel |out from the car, his free hand gripping o | lonely without him.’ |emall valse,, every muscle tense for a ' The people at the | Jump. |the cinematograph company were gery “Good God, that's my man!" 1 said|obliging. The picture had been taken, they | hoarsely, as the audience broke into sp- |said, at M—, just (wo miles beyond the {plause. McKnight half rose: In his seat|seene of the wreck. It was not much, but £head Johnson stified & yawn and turned (it was something to work 1 decided |10 eye me [no to go home, but to send McKnight's | 1 dropped into my chair Himply, and tried | Jap for my clothes, 4nd 1o dress at the lu- to control my excitement. ‘The man on |cubator, I was determined, If possible, 1o the last pistform of the train,” I sald |make my next day's investigations without we go now." £0 he calied a cab, and we started at & on, down town office of | | “Why, that's the most tantaliging thing 1 ever heard. “I'm afrald that's all” went her way and I went mine. If she recalis me at all, she probably thimks of me as & weak-kneed individual who faints |like & woman when everything is over. “What did I tell you?' Mrs. Dallas as- serted triumphantly. “He fainted, did you hear? when everything was over! He | hasn't begun to tell it 1 would have given a lot by that time I had not mentioned the girl But Me- | Knight took it up there and carried it ua, (To Be Continued.) I sald, ‘She