The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 14, 1906, Page 6

THE. SAN RANCISCO SUNDAY south- ry day the Just tle a clanced saring beach so terribly in an ag- es should was indeed that opened clasp one who or manlin. 6 rough owning to pfain Kettle ad the back- the sea. Al- 5 NRIN. elle’s little left 10ck’s edge, BY ¥ YMONA P! n the or motion at the mist was almost in- penetrable—the stiliness was oppres- sive—not a soul in sight and mot even the glimmer of a candle to assure me that other human beings were also keeping The long wailing howl of a distant malamute dog suddenly broke upon my listening ears, only add- & to the dreariness of the situation recalling my mqrbid imagina- on wild stories of wolves and coyot 7 had thrilled me in days of child- when my only impression of Alaska consisted of an ,imaginary Eskimo spearing a seal and a polar bear floating upon an jeeberg. I turned up my light, dvew necarer stove, and, picking up @ home , tried to divert my thoughts into r channels, but of no avail, so threw it aside, and sat moodily star- ing into space, regretting that I had not gone with my pardy,~ wishing I were back in California, almost wish- and to wh hood ing I, to, had gone down on the rocks in company with the good ship Lane grew more slow; it eased to a mere gale, and they held their place on the lip of t surf: and then with a gasp it to quictude, and a great oily swell up as if by magic from the bowels the degp d the littie ahead and the hel; liner away from the perflous b 1es of the ¢ incles, and this tropic: progress in « 5 spurned them from its clutch and let them float on a charmed ring of calm Cortolvin bowed thar . but the shipma; “How's umpire?” sa James vorth hang I've got a wife, sir, and kids, and I'm remembering this moment that they’ll al- ways have full bellies’from now onward, and good clothes and no more cheap lodg- ngs, but a decent house semidetached, i money to plank down in the, plate when they go to chapel on Sundays. The per of that Dutchman will be Tuined r this last half-hour’s job, but I can’t myself 1 have to think of ne o in this world, or no one will, and, Mr. Cortolvin, I'm a made hanks to McTodd—" ym below there came a sudden whirr of machinery, as though the engines had momentarily gone mad, and then a bumping and a banging which jarred every plate of the Saigon’'s fabric, and then a cilence, broken only by the thin distant scream of a hurt man. Presently the boom of steam broke out from the escape pipe beside the funnel, and a minute Jater the chief engineer made his way leisurely up to the bridge. He was bleeding from a cut forehead, and another gash shc among the grime on his stubby cheek, He was shredding tobacco with a clasp- kpife as & walked, and seemed from his mauner to be a man quite divorced from all responsible occupations. He halted a minute at the head of the bridge ladder, renlaced the tobacco cake in the pocket of pajama coat, and rolled up the shreddings in the palms of his crackled hands. Then he filled a short brier pipe, lit it, and surveved the ayail- able universe. brielle,” I cried, *where—" She smiled at me serenely, without mov- ing her hands. en 1 slipped “Mr. Phelps brought it this morning,” prarls. We had ghe said. “I've been waiting for you to een e host two months, notice ji. a gless engagement Ign't jt beautiful?” Gabriclle appealed se ¢ 2 ring was to me sweetly i “It is,”" said 1, shortly. she cried now, “why—oh, you Gabrielle looked first at one ring and the other, with charmipg par- I shou rsisted “Be- i et g B new rings,” she said musingly. i are legal 't the girls envy me! What a pity g % t 1 will b to wear gloves at the e I brielle, but Holdons' to-night.”” ere was 1 her fore- “Gabric I cried. “Surely you will " there to warn e—and e —when she was e I watched her ) secre te of her pro- { tes ¥ e would have preferred { . t w he said positively § w s 1 wouldn't. } W demanded L pal- ¢ i X r » know now,” ¢ € body will see it } Sngx ! d 1 ats what 5 N way ou know we said | g said G { was disquliet y stic e j e sing th phrase for two § . ed the matter ) s places T won't - ~for vittle § HINK of milking cows by ma- “ Il just wear g cliinery. > Wae. mrver we MiliEaN { And imaging, if you can, a me- § chanical contrivance so ingeni- 8 m:kn'vzm‘dl :'; ,;fju,\ly constructed and propelled that a sald a ring 'was because you ;Pull can be employed to furnish the a Phelps and the jpower to do the milking. e 1 hadn’t thought ) 4 few of the more skeptical may v wasp't,” flashed Gabri- |SCOf at the suggestion and remark insanely suspicious, {that it is an old story. But neverthe- . ps” she finished. Smas the fact is that cows are already s ugh to pe my )being milked by machinery in Califor- nia, and not many miles from San give you G ® ) th ver: g E o, R0 At the Riverside ranch, a “how ridiculous! He fric in love with you,”I grimly supple- said Gabrielle, He has give me presents since However, that isnt the point the ring oh the right finger—I the right left finger—really | I'll wear it to the Holdons' to- h was six wear dear sweectheart?” said 1, pacified, d will you want to, Gabrielle?” ‘Of course, 1 want to wear it withyall heart,” she said simply. m She epread her two little hands on her blue muslin gown and looked at them: end then 1 caught sight of that other ring. She wore on her right hand a mag- ificently carved bit of gold, set with three exquisite white sapphires, ¢short distance from Stockton, €. D. Plerce two weeks ago installed the la- test innovation that threatens to revo- |lutionize the dairy industry in Califor- nia and other States and to force the Swiss milker to adopt 'some vocation other than the one hie and his ancestors {nave followed for years. It is a simple piece of machinery, Su vacuum pump, with extending rub- (ber tubes, like the arms of an octopus, that is to do the milking on Mr. | Plerce’s ranch in the future, and to Sf\"‘n‘lh work for a lot of Holstein (bulls, that have heretofore enjoyed a life of indolence. Hereafter Mr. Bull will be found, during -crtain hours of the day, on the Pierce ranch ped- alire along on a treadmill instead of \ ? g Francisco. ange e tion grew intolerabls and I impelled to again open my- door d look out into the gloom. As T gaze a picture passes before me that is photographed in”elibly on my brain. Out of the ghosily mist advance two silent figures with set faccs, bearing between them a stretcher upon which reposes an incrt form. “The blanket has fallen back—the features re turned toward me, in all their rigid palles and with a stony stare of those sight- less cyes. No need to tell me that the dread destroyer has claimed his own, and that cne miner less will ply his calling in Alaska's flelds of gold. No sign of recognition do the bearers give me—no sound is echoed from their foot- steps as they slowly mush onward, foremost with his arms bebhind him sup- porting the frame of the litter. The dead feet touch his iiving hands, but his is the easier buzden, for the eyes of his com- panion who follows in the rear look dowr into those staring orbs that will never close on earth agam. No wonder that I shudder and question their reality. They are nearing the toll bridge—I vaguely S S e “Yon'll be 'the tornado, ’'way ahead there, I'm thinking?” said he. “Are those blame’ engines broke down again?’ asked Kettle sharpl “Aye, ye may put it they're broke dow “Then away with you below again, Mr. McTodd, and get them ‘running again. You may smoke when we bring up in Aden.” McTodd puffed twice more at his pipe and spat on the wheel grating. “By James!” said Kettle, “do you hear o “My lugs are a bit muzzy, but T can hear ye for a’ that, captain. Only thing is, I can’t do as you'd like.” Captain Kettle - stiffened = ominously. “Mr. M odd,” he said, “if you force me to take u in hand, and show you how to set about your work, you'll regret it.” D N e N N e D N L DN 000000, wonder if a charge is cxacted for a corpse and if a stretcher constitutes a vehicle, are turhing now. and the gray is the winding sheet that hides them rom my view. s s It is morning. The sun shines brightly. 1 feel half-inclined to laugh at the fears akened by the vision of the previous night. I have just returned from a mush across the tundra, and a tiny bouguet, the first I bave gathered on Alaska soil, is on the stand before me. The vase is an empty condensed milk can, but the little Dblossonis smile up.to me and send forth a tribute of fragrance as freely as though their stems were encased in the costliest of Dresden. A knock is at my door, and I open it to admit a woman whom I have never met before. face and my heait warms to her. cuse me for intruding,” she says, noticed through the window your beauti- ful bouquet. I have been trying all the “Well, get on man, get.” “Weel, he -didn’t, that’s all; he's lying in the low-pressure crank »it this minute, and the tov of his skull'll be to seek somewhere by the ash lift. Mon, I tell von second o' mine’s an -uncanny sight. So 1 had to do his work for him, and then 1 bilew off my boilers and came up here. “It would have been verra comforting to my professional conscience if I could have steamed her into Aden. But I'm no as sorry as I might be for what's hap- pened. T have it in mind that yon Par- see owner of ours in Bombay'll lose siller over this breakdown, and I want that beggar bunished for all the work he's. given me to do cn a small wage. Mr. Cortolvin, ha’ ye a match?”’ A hail eome from the liner astern. “Saigon nhoy! Keep your hawser taut.” wmwmmw : ¢ sald the engigeer, “I can do me kind of impossibeelities. -~ Ye've seen me do them. Ye've seen me keep them' palsied rattle-traps running all through that blow. But if yve ask me to make a mnew propeller out of rod iron and packing cases, I'll have to tell you that yon kind of meeracle’s beyond me." ““Man,"” v. great James!” said Kettle, “you don’t mean to tell me the propeliers gon « “Either that, or else all the blades have stripped off 1he boss. If ye'd been below on my iootplates, ye'd have keened it fine. When it Went these puir engines raced like an auld cabhorse tryin’ to gal- lop, and they just got tied in knots, and tumbled down, and sprawled fifteen ways at once. 1w on the platform, oi'inz, when they jumped. and the nigger second of mind tricd to get at the throttle to close her down.” GABRIEL'S WHITE SAPPHIRES wear both rings to-day, of all “Why not?" Gabrielle wanted to know wonderingly. “Oh,’ don’t be stupid,” she crieq prettily. “Why, what.can you care for his ring, John? You might as well object to my wearing my baby locket that he gave me when I was in pigtafls. It's a beautiful ring—not nearly so beautiful as ours, but still beautiful. And I want to wear them both.” Gabrielles 1 d, in what I be- lieved to be my sternest though most reasonable tcne, “T cannot believe that you will be guilty of the—the bad taste of wearing both those rings to- night. And 1 particularly wish you not to do so.” basking in the sun in his rail-bound quarters. Tor more than thirty years ambitious invefitors and Government officials who are connected with the dairy and animal department of their respective States have been striving to originate some Mind of a mechanism that would successfully ‘milk a cow, but without any good results until recently. About ten years ago a machine was put to ‘an experimental test In the ¥ast, but proved an utter failure by reason of the fact that it milked the cows dry and not only injured the animals but also the-dairy interests. Trom the general mechanism of that thachine,*however, new ideas were ob- tained and cventuated in the present vacuum pump machine, which has al- ready entered into practical service t the Pierce ranch, where there exisi the largest herd of Holftein cattle in the world. The vacuum pump is a sim- ple arrangement connecting with the pall, that acts as a receptacle for the milk as it comes from the cow. From this pail there extends rubber tubes that are connected with the cow's ud- ders by means of rubber nipples, so flexible that the operation of the pump causes them to expand and contract in @ manner that brings the milk freely from the cow and transmits it to the FORTUNES ADRIFT N N e “You're all right for the present,” Ket- tle shouted back, “Der- vind might return get in the middle of him.” “Then if it dces,” retorted Kettle, “you'd onless you better agers to say their prayer: further help from me. I'm broken down myself. Lost my prapeller, if voly want to know.'} “Herr }ieb a1 ““t shoufdn’'t spyear if.1 were youg" said Kettle. “If the brceze omes thi§ way again, you'll he toeins the mark in the other place inkide five minutes.” He turned and ¢ an order: “Afterdeck, there. Mr. atroyd, you may cast Murg: off their rope; we’'ve done towing.” Now, after might have was quite b and all in_then up as battered can beach. a varioty of things cned. Among them it that botlt steamers, it have been spewed high' upon the Afri- Providence ordered “John,™ she said, “I won't let you be s0 stupid. Don't you See—you dear, silly thing’ She laughed most heart- lessly. wouldn't wear anybody else’s ring with yvours—but hi€” As if that were extenuation. Matters were now twite as bad. T rose, it being very mnearly dinner time anyway. I looked down at Gabrielle. “That is just it,"” said I with formal- ity. “He is the exception to everything. 1 am wretched over this man's con- tinual presence re, Gabrielle. And I ask you not to wear his ring to-night, with mine. Leave one or the other at home, please—whichever you prefer.” As I stalked down the veranda steps T carried with me a pieture of G- d EX WRET B VAGRN ] morning to find some flowers. Might I ask where you gathered these?"” “‘Near Fort Davis,” T answered. “Dear me! That is.too far to go now, for the funeral takes place in about an hour; besides I am all tired out, and these (extending toward me a handful of 8reen leaves) are all T was able to find. I liate to see him burled without flower: I' suppose ycu will attend the funeral,” looking at me inquiringly. The vislon of the night rises again be- fore me. ‘“Who's funcral?” I gasp, as I shiver at the recollection. “‘Oh! haven't you heard about it, then?” she answered. “A-young man, only 23, a stranger here, too, mining out at Anvil, was lost in a blizzard last Christmas. His body was revealed In the melting snow on Glacler Creck yesterday and brought in on the 10 o'clock train last night. - Two miners came to our cabin, knowing that we were acquainted with his folks back in the States. Poor lad,” she murmurad, “I must write to his mother; that is the hardest part of all.” 1 thought of my own dear boy away down in sunny California, and my heart it. the tornado circled down on them no more; a light air came off the shore which filled the scanty canvas and gave them just steerage way; and they rode over the swells In company, as dry as a pair of bridge pontoons, and about as heipless. Al immedlate danger was swept away; nothing but another steam- er could relieve them; and in the mean- time it was a time for philosophy. Captain Kettle did not grumble; his for- tune was once m®re adrift and beyond’ his grasp: the Parsee in Bombay would for a certainty dismise him from em- ployment, and Mrs. Kettle and her fam ily must continue to drag along on such scanty doles as he could contrive to send them. All these were distressing thoughts, but they were things not to be remedied, and he took down the accordion and made sweet music, which spread far over the moving plains of ocean. But Mr. McTodd had visions of more immediate vrotit. He washed with soap until his face was brilliant, put on a full suit of slop chest serge, took boat and rowed over to the roliing German liner. It was midnight when he returned afffuent in vocket agd rather deep in liquor. He went into the charthouse, without Invitation, smiled benignly and took a camp stool. “They thought they would get me down into the messroom oyer Yonder,” said he, “and I'l no" deny it was a temptation. 1 could ha’ telled those Duteh engine a thing or two. But T'm a’ for Lusiness first when there is siller ahead. So I went aft to the saloon. They were at dinner, and there were puir appetites among them. But some one gpied me standing by the door and lugged me into a seat, and gave me meal and drink—champagne, no less!— and set me on to talk. iord! once.l brielle’s bewitching. petulant face look- ing up at me in hurt surprise. “It's the dearest® ring, John,” she called penitently, “the pearl one. Ours, Thank you, dear.” P ‘Then, as I turned ready to take her in my arms in the friendly screen of the vines, she rosc and came to the steps, her litle flowery blue gown traiiing. “But I shall wear them both to-night, Mr. John Baden.” she said with pretty mischief. And. you shall apologize, too. 3 Neve id 1, with dignity. and came almost face to face with Gabri- ellg’s mother, idling ~p from the gar- den, looking a picture in white. 0 oy ! pail without danger of contamination with the ‘bacteria or other clements of disease in tue atmosphere. By dairymen throughout the country the experiments at the Pierce ranch have been watehed with a great deal of in- terest and the announcement several days ago that Mr. Plerce and his assistants had pronounced the machines a success bas brought several dairy experts here to personally watch the new milking op- erations at the Riverside ranch.” The greatest advantage and the one that the experts throughout the world have been trying to secure through the medium of a milking machine is ‘that of absolute cleanliness. E “Unless ‘the most rigorous conditions of saditation are maintained milking by hand carries with it the constant danger of Infection of the ' fluid by bacteria., Even when the most careful order prév_flh ‘at a dafry there is always a likelihood of bacteria getting into the milk, either from the hands of the milker, possibly from the cow itself, or perhaps ror 1d, or rbances in ' machine;, however. it is “danger is eliminated, in that the milk claimed that this 88 & means of motor power for his - bak milking apparat: ached for that othier mother whose Iife would soon be darkened. T could not speak. Silentlv T took the little bou- quet and extended it toward her. A mingling of tears for a moment, a warm hand-clasp and she was gone. SR Again I stand In my doorway. A lit- tle procession slowly approaches. Sev- eral women and ¥our or five men in mining garb follow a rude cart drawn by one poor horse, whose joints are swollen and distorted by rheumatism contracted from the damp semi-frozen tundra. The driver is also the minis- ter; the load is long and narrow, and I can dimly outline the shape of a cof- fin beneath the folds of the protecting tarpaulin, for this is» Alaska weather, and the sunshine of an hour ago has changed to a fine, steely sleet that plerces one's face like needles. One of the mourners raises her eyes in passing and motions me to come, and I follow as one in a dream. We traverse the full length of the got ‘my tongue wagging, you should have seen them. There was no more egting done; They wanted to kmow how near death they’d been, and T telled ‘em; and there was tbe old man and all the brass-cdged officers at the ends of the tables fit to eat me for giving the yarn away. 'But a (hic) fat lot I cared. I set on the music, and they sent round the hat. Losh! There was £24 English when they handed it over to me. Skipper, ye should go and try it for yourself.” “Mr. McTodd,” said the little sailor, “I am not a dashed mendicant!™ The engineer started with a boiled eye, and swayed on his campstool. He had not quite gra d the remark. “I'm Scotch mysel'!” exclaimed he, at length. “Same thing,” said Kettle; “I'm neither. I'm a common, low-down Eng- lishman, with the pride of the Prince of Wales, and a darned ugly tongue; and don’t you forget it either.” McTodd pulled a charred cigar stump from his waistcoat pocket and lit it with caré> He nodded to the accordion. “Go on with your noise.” said he. Ceptain Kettle’'s fingers began to twitch sugsgestively; and Cortolvin, in order to keep the peace, offered to es- cort McTodd to his room. “I thank ye,” said the engineer; “it's the climate. I have malaria in the system and it stays there In spite of all that drugs can do and affects the perambulatory muscles of thes lower extremities. Speakin’ of which, ve'll na doot hjve seen for yousel'—" “Oh, you'd better come along to bed,” sald Corfolvin. “Bide a wee, sonny,” said the man in the blue serge solemaly. “There's a thought comne to me that I've a mes- sage to give. Do ye ken anybody called Calvert?” “Archie Calvert, by any chance?” ““Erchie’ was the name he gave. said -he kenned ye weel.™ ““We were at Cambridge together.” “Cambridge, were ye? Weel, I should He “What big, long words he uses! cried Gabrielle’s mother, gayly. “Mrs. Jocelyn,” sald I, “if Gabrielle becomes unmanageable Will you marry me?” ~ Mrs. Jocelyn has been a widow Years, What a commendable thrift for a rainy day,” she said, smiling. For some reason the question of the white sappliires took on a significance out of all prcportion. As I drove to Gabrielle’s that evening our love, our future, even her adorableness, which T was never tired of reviewing, were of less moment to me than whether or not she would disregard my wishes about the ring. It seemed to me “one of those or separators and from them to cold stor- age. Another advantage, and one that nat- urally appeals to all dairymen, is that of economy, which is accomplished in the new machine, for one man takes the place of six at a dairy, the nes having a capacity of six separate milkers, which are in charge of one man, who carefully watches the progress of the milking to avpld over milking of the cows. ‘When the machines were installed at the Riverside ranch the question of mo- tor power was an important matter for consideration. Several of Mr. Pierce’s friends suggested a gasoline engine and he was preparing to follow their advice, when he suddenly spotted one of his prize bulls proudly strutting around his corral. “By Jove! I've got a better idea,” he ex- claimed. “What is the matter with en- gaging the services of those bulls for neceded power?™” His friends doubted the fedsibility of his scheme, but he was miore confident of its success, and a week later he had ordered a treadmill. which is to serve An,g;n S8z aboat at by majesty, the bull, has A ROMANCE OF TWO RINGS « Sandspit, and then a quarter of a mile farther on until we reach a littls burial ground upon the tundra. 4 newly dug grave is half full of water, and two of the miners, in their high rubber boots. jump in and bail it out. It takes som! time. The minister stands with his open Bible and we all wait. The coffin. etill covered with canvas, for the sleet has now changed to rain, has been placed alongside the grave. The two bailers ascend. Ropes are adjusted, a - short service i1s read and the canvas removed. take dead “If there are any who wish to a last look upon the face of t! they have now the opportunity.” It is the minister who speaks, and I lean forward. “Yes! 'tis the face of my visios The eyes are still open, but they seem to smile upon me now as though conscious that upen his breast reposes my florgl offering. “Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.” My mind is vaguely answering, “There is no dust in Alaska,” but the sound of the earth falling upon the coffin recalls me, and again I wonder, “Does he know?" have been 'a DD of A-berdeen mysel’ it I'd done as my father wished. He was Free Kirk meenister of Ballind- rochater—" “Yes, but about Calvert?” “Qu, ay, Calvert! Erchie Calvert, ye say. Weel, I said we'd you aboard and th's Calvert—Erchie Calvert—sald he’d news for you about your wife.” All right, never mind that now. She's dead, I know; poor woman. Let me help you down to your bunk.” “Dinna be so offensive, man. and bide a wee to hear me naws. Ye're no a widow after all—widowman that is. Your guid wife didna dee as ye think. She’d a fall from a horse, which'll probably teach her to leave horserid- ing alone to men in the future, and it got in the papers she was killed, but it seems a shaking was all she earned. And, talking of horses now, when T was g bairn in Ballindro- chater—" Cortolvin shook him savagely by the arm. “My God!" he ried: say she's not de:*1? “Aren’t I tellind you?" i Cortolvin passed a hand wdarily over his eyes. “And 4 minute ago.,” he whi: pered. “T theught I was geing home.” His hand dropped limply to his side, and his head slid to the charthouse deck in a dead faint. McTodd swayed on the camostool and regarded kim with a puzzled eye. “Losh!” he said, “here’s him drunk as well as me. Two of us, and I never kenned it. It's a sad. immoral world, skipper. Verra sad, ' skipper, I say. Here's Mr. Cortolvin been—O Lord. and ke isn't listening either.” Captain Kettle had gone out of th charthouse. The th.1 of a propeller ha fallen unon his\ ear, and he leaned ver the Saigon’s rall and sadly wateh . a triangle of Jjghts draw up through e cool. purple night. A cargo stesraer freighted wita rafls for the Beira ~afl- way was coming gleefully toward tlem from out of the north. to pick upjthe rich gleanings which the ocean offerdl. “do yo: mean to straws which tell the wind which way fto blow.” When we went down to supper at midnight, Mr. Algernon Phelps joined us with his unbearable manner of be- ing wanted where, to be sure, he wa: wanted by every one but me. Was 1 wondered savagely, after we were married to persist In these visits and presents on the strength of “when Ga- bricile was six?” Then I watched Ga- brielle feverishly while she drew off the fingers of her gloves and tucked them, daintily and with pretty delibera- tion, in her long. loose glove wrists. The left hand first—and there was my modest band of pearls suiting her delicate little hand to perfection. Then the right hand, and there blazed the white sapphires. I looked away miserably—somewhere, anywhere. When I came to analyze it 1 did not care a continental about Mr. Algernon Phelp's white sapphires. I cared only that Gabrielle had not cared to please me. and the third one” Gabrielle was saying, “is going to be that new poppy figure. ['ve seen the favors for that. They are—why, John. What is 1t “Nothing.” said I, miserably. She had not even dome it to tease me purposely! There would have been some balm of bit- ter-sweet in that. My wishes had been simply neglected and forgotten. She did not even trouble to triumph in having carried out her threat. “Aren’t you having a good time?’ mur- mured Gabrielle, anxiously. Really, this was almost obtuse. For an- swer I stole one glance down at that Mte tle rigbt hand. and then buried my glances furiously in my salad. “Oh!" Gabrielle had a fascinating habit. of starting a little laugh and then think- ing better of it. She did this now and stopped to say. in the softest little voice: “Yeu think that I don’t love you?” “I know it,”" said I, morbidly, “I do—" still more softly. This would have been heaven had it not been for that stupid ring. “I love you so much,” she went on, “that it hurts me to have a secret from you. But I have had to—until to-night.”™ “:llth :: Phelps?” I ":'nhM to know y. was talking Mrs. Joce- 31: and heard nothing. “Yes,” sald Gabrielle, “and with some one else. Not until T followed her glance did my eye fall upon the glittering little hand of Gabrielld's mother. And on the third finger of her left hand was an exquisite ring of white sapphires and diamonds. Gabrielle was watehing me, “You dear,” she murmured, “haven’'t you guessed? Mr. Phelps brought her the ring to-day, and he gave me mine as a peace offering.” “They—you—they?" I wanted to know. “They didn’t -want both announced at once,” said Gabrielle. “That is why I didn’t want to wear the pearls. But 1 don’t care, rezlly, John." . 1 looked cver at pretty little Mrs. Joee- lyn sitting contentedly beside Mr. Alger- neon “Neither do 1 care!™ I sald rapturously. (Copyright. ‘15, by McClure. Phillips & Co)