The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 28, 1904, Page 15

L] them to dull cheerfully. “we simply t the girl He shut his the oa whole st el round > se 1 growing he knew that “you'd bet- ek t of distance in her dug the oars sav- desperately, ht, you'll think when I marry me, g s D as I've been t to get up the cour- & f ge to do wee that I'm 5 prompted tc s e of obli- > " v atior It ill be no such thing, but . 11 think so, just the same. There- re, I want to make the yachts and you I would have asked you was sflent. McCusker fan- d a low chuckle from the icinity of the stern sk but pro- stening « failed to f her poise that she the truth of t st matter of fact art ed away with all his might. noticed that but we've over- ‘ - y he the tend i, r rose and fell. They were in . PO t waters of the harbor. He ‘ & have shouted for joy. He bent with a new energy born at her with undis- | . . . . . . . . . fog there suddenly ap- There was a shock of t nearly threw them from really 1 it a lot ea an tell g her into on the thwa ¢ “We've sald. Mec- 1 Y > n nd then to a voice of. ey fled them from the dark, “I - 1 she de- re's the Vesta, old man? Sec- . ] to starbe ? ‘Thanks!" e’re out in the bay later they stood on . nt, and heaven Tom Patterson and . k we can find the nd the rest of the rift round ail night ring for an account of f £ help it,” he ended have been just said Patterson, “but I d turn up all right. You're ort of a chap.” ker laughed. Then he looked Miss Carey. “ he asked. “I—1 ¢ dispute Tom,” she said, flushing beautifully. rs and stood up. we can raise any- mouth and n at the top wering signal The in CISCO SUNDAY CALL. (13 DoHT GO,PL J EASE . 1 Know vou CARF, FOR GRACE FOE HER OWHN SAKE,. » The King Goes A-Begging (Continued From Page 14.) course of the law.” “It's not the first time I've done s0,” sald the beggar, with great composure, and shortly after they heard the thun- der of horses’ hoofs coming from the north. “Thank God!” said the Sheriff when he heard the welcome sound. The mob dissolved and left a free passage for the galloping cavalcade. The stout Baldy Hutchinson and his two com- rades stood alone to receive the onset. The King took a few steps forward, raised his sword aloft and shouted: alt, Sir Donald!" Sir Donald Sinclair obeyed the com- mand so suddenly that his horse's front feet tore up the turf as he reined back, while his sharp order to the troop be- kind him brought the company to an most instantaneous stand. Sir Donald,” said the King, “I am for Stirling with my two friends here. See that we are not followed, and ask this hilarious company to disperse quietly to their homes. Do it kindly, Sir Donald. There is no particular hurry, and they have all the after- noon before them. Bring your troop back to Stirling in an hour or two.” “Will your Majesty not take my horse?” asked Sir Donald Sinclair. “No, Donald,"” replied the King with a smile, glancing down at his rags. “Scottish horsemen have always looked well in the saddle; yourself are example of that, and I have no wish to make this costume fashionable 2s a riding suit,” — The Sheriff, who stood by with dropped jaw, now flung himself on his knees and craved pardon for lay- ing hands on the Lord’'s anointed. ‘“The least said of that the better,” remarked the King., dryly. *“But if you are sorry, Sheriff, that the people should be disappointed at not seeing a man hanged, I think you would make a very good substitute for my big friend Baldy here. The Sheriff tremulously asserted that the populace were but too pleased at this exhibition of royal clemency. “If that is the case, then,” replied his Majesty, ‘“we shall not need to trouble you. And so, farewell to you.” The King, Baldy and the cobbler took the road toward Stirling, and Sir Donald spread out his troop to inter- cept traffic in that direction. Advanc- ing toward the bewildered crowd, Sir Donald spoke to them. “You will go quietly to your homes,” he said. “You have not seen the hanging, but you have witnessed to- day what none in Scotland ever saw before, the King intervene personally to save a doomed man; therefore, be satisfied and go home.” Some one in the mob cried: “Hurrah for the noor man's King! Cheer, lads, cheer!” A great uproar was lifted to the skies; afar off the three pedestrians heard it, and Baldy, the man of many friends, taking the clamor as a public compliment to himself, waved his bonnet at the distant vociferous mul- titude. o OrLR e —. 07 [} HE Institution was too new to Scarcrest to be. treated with aught save reverence and awe, but there was more than one who dared suggest that David Pres- ¢ott had erred in making his daughter Marion his paying teller. Not that Marion was not suited to the place, but that even Scarcrest knew that a woman teller was unusual. Comment did not worry Prescott. His holdings in the bank amounted to more than $0 per cent of the capi- tal invested and at the directors’ meet- ing he had offered to make another choice if the board could suggest any one Dbetter qualified through ac- quajntance or experience at figures. That settled the matter officially, and when the spick and span new office opened it was Marion’s pretty blonde head which was seen through the plate-glass square lettered *‘Paying Teller.” Bert Howard was the receiving teller, and this was further cause for gossip, for Bert had been a willing slave to . Marjon ever since the days when he used to drag her to school on his sled. Many comments had been made In the postoffice and around the stove in Van Zant's grocery, but after Ned Davic had been soundly thrashed by Howard for suggesting that if the pair of tellers held their positions long enough they would have no trouble starting life properly there was an abrupt cessation of this sort of gossip, and the bank officers weére accepted without further comment. But it was not pleasant sailing for Bert and Marton. He had been given his positign not because Prescott ap- proved of his suit for Marion’s hand, but because, like Marion, he had been the most available person for the posi- tion. Prescott, in his hard, deep-pitched voice, had assured the ynung man that if he ever caught a g pse of love- making in business hours there would be an imported teller in the bank with- in twenty-four hours. So it was that man and mald were perforce content with such satisfaction as could come from the knowledge of the other’s propinquity, and even Tony Dwight, who would have been glad to see his rival disposed of, could find no cause for tale-bearing. Dwight, with Prescott, Bert and Marion, constituted the clerical force of the First National and oddly enough Prescott, usually an excellent She felt as young and took as keen an interest in youthful pleasures as any 18-year-old girl. Sitting there in the moonlight she realized that once robbed of youth a woman could not buy the lost treasure back price. Her childhood had been penned in by poverty and an invalid mother, pettish and exacting. Death had carried away one burden, that of unappreciated nursing, only to upon her shoulders another, that of part housekeeper, part bread winner. She had gone into a shop as cash girl and had attended to the househbld duties night and morning. When she was 16 years old she sat up until nearly daybreak three nights in suc- cession to set stitches in her sister’s confirmation dress. The sister went through the high school, so did the younger brother, and while they stud- ifed Anna was steadily advancing in the store. When she became buyer for her department and took her first trip abroad it brought back the pink In her cheeks that fled before her at any narrow, lay tenth birthday, but Anna was now three times ten. On her return from Europe she found that the same disease which had wrecked her childhood and carried away her mother had again entered her home. This time it carried away in quick succession brother and sister. Anna found herself alone and Ilone- some. She fled to the bachelor malds’ apartments for companionship and was made welcome by these girls ten years or more her junior. With them she had grown young again. She had almost forgotten the gray hair. It had taken the thoughtless boys In blue serge and white duck to drive the iron into her heart. They were nice to her because they knew that the girls would not forgive them if they were otherwise. But that was not youth and the right to be young and joyous and silly. Anna sat up very straight. She had become possessed of a sudden desire to giggle, yet many a time and oft she had reproached the little cash girls in her own depart- ment for giggling. Laughter and music floated across the lawn. They hurt. She rose ruptly and fled to her room. The headache now was real. She tore off her pretty gown and flung it heedless- ly across the bed and slipped into an easy flowing kimona. Then she sat down by the window, thinking bitterly that fate had cheated her out of the greatest thing, the joy of belng young. Suddenly as she sat In the quiet the sound of a sob reached her ear. Some- thing very like a patter of bare feet came to her from the hall. She sprang up and threw open her door. A small figure, huddled against it, fell in toward her. “Oh, please, I'm so alope. May I come in?"” She recognized her now. serious-faced little girl who had a room two doors beyond. She Smd often seen ab- frightened all It was the THE WIT OF MARION By Henry Winthrop judge of character, favored Tony's as- pirations for Marion's hand. The one unpleasant feature of her position was MARJORIE HENDRICK®? - BX <« ) eg ‘ Q her on the sand and on the porch with her nurse. It did not take Anna very long to learn that the child was moth- erless, In the care of a young and heed less aunt and an ignorant nurse girl The fo was abso: in the social rs at the inn, and the latter in the That was the beginnig of a new holi- day for Anna Whelan. The young aunt had Ui time on save to provide physical wa Anna 1t companio S ¥ d to give this shy all the companionship, the simple, unaffected pl had been d She did not drean when they were n her stiff, ing a da Grace’s was her o nied know of the resentment wh =oul against the well-paid an: caretakers of his child, and hair and pink cheeks who was r ing his bairn. For Grace assured him in every way that Miss Whelan was quite as young as “Aunt Hattle.” When he finally came down to spend a Sunday with his daughter his first step was to meet Ann He smiled as his daugt ed her as “My friend, Miss Whelan.” They wers ch an absurd ditr nt e, and yet so very much alike in interests an pleasures. He found his gaze traveling constantly over the Lrown head of his daughter to the gray head of his new- found friend, stand the lett On Monda | back to town, but t that he had or realize how the offl dow He needed a and he began to under- atter. Three nights later he was sitting in a sheltered corner of the veranda with Miss Whelan when two members of the elderly porch brigade strolled slowly by, talking in a high-keyed voice which for being so cle the child’s fathe T 1 “No; I und he is not wo anything of the so Ha is only a corporation lawyer and I think she liked Grace for her o© The two women [ ing. The pink had face, leaving it tired and » unstead he man v by the arm ar w her back to her chair. “Don’t go, please. I know you care for Grace for her own sake. Do you think you could care for me for mine? I wanted to ask you this t first h am out of hear- from Anna's took her Instinctively Anna's hand reached up to her hair. h, I couldn't. such a short time- m—really I've known you people would talk o old to have a love a She did not speak bitterly, just stm- ply, as if a thought long unspoken had found utter . The man took beth of his. “My dear girl and neither wi er grows old, POTTTOTIrves b our reserve on deposit in town and for local use we have stly small bills.” to “Gold will 4 responded Curtis the fact that she had frequently consult Tony as bookkeeper and he never let pass an opportunity to press his suit. Then the agent of the Chester Bank Vault Company came to Scarcrest o:s the noon hour, driving over from nearest rallroad town behind a of spanking bays. Curtis was the n in one corner of the card he pre: ed to Prescott as he strolled unan- nounced into the president’s office. But selling k vaults was appar- ently not his rincipal business, for after a while scott came out of his office. ‘“Here is a check for which Mr, Curtis wa h,” he said, thrusting the slip of . paper through Marion ou have a ind dollar bills in the corner of the small safe. There are twenty-five of those. He will take the other half in hundreds.” Marjon looked curiously at father's face, white and drawn. “Are you sure this is all right?” Curtis laughed ' lightly. He moved closer to the bank pres- ident and Prescott, with the muzzle of a révolver pressing into his side could only nod his assent. Curtis had as- sured him that at the first sign of attempted communication with any of the two clerks all would be shot and he would be safe in the country be- fore the crime was discovered. Pres- cott was a brave man, but he agreed with Curtis’ argument that the money would do him little good if he were to be shot for refusing it. Marjon gave one more curious glance at the pair and turned toward the vault. In a moment she reap- peared. “Oh, Bert,” she called, “will you please come here and help me to move this box?" Howard went to her aid, while Cur- tis fidgeted about, urging Prescott to make haste. There was small danger of interruption from a custom or from Tony, who lunched at that héur, but being a skillful workman he liked to see a job done expeditiously. In a couple of minutes the pair re- turned. Marion carried a package of bills, while Howard swung a bag cov- ered with wax seals. “I shall have to give you somse gold,” said Marion sweetly, as she tumbled the bills on the shelf beneath the window of her cage and prepared to count. ““You see we keep most of the window to package of thou her amiably. “T am of course the handle. Howard came around the corner with the gold, but before Curtis could grasp the bag of coins it descended upon his th force suffi vy felt hat ov him before the ready p pocket could be d. Ten minutes lat under the reviv- ing Influence of ice water applied ex- ternally and brandy in internal appil- cations, Curtis woke up. Howard stood over him, iplet the work of se- g him with r “You will par not particular, though large bills are easier to & you you see the slip sent Tacoma gave your , alias Mauvel and In fact, Miss Prescott Ir g name as P other names. ear. “I saw h Kk him over the head. Constable Post looked abo aw wardly. “I'm afraild there’s some mi take,” he growled. “You didn’t tell me it was Mr. Howard you wanted a shouted Prescott ed out one of the slick st ban hieve and saved my life as of here, you Be I oub cer to headache powder. I g after that cl going to the tel and Marion s up.” F >m his whether he fice: or more matters. But Bert and Marion knew, or at least they used their own judgment.