The evening world. Newspaper, July 30, 1914, Page 15

ae A NEW CRIME-MYSTERY STORY BY THE AUTHOR OF=~ Cec OCC COU OOO (Oopyriglit, 1914, br Rovbs-Merrill Co) SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAUTENS, Casaiet, an Englishman, who tvs emigrated tm Aumbrala, is retuming to Bnalvud, His cabin iste om the steamahip from iteiy on is Bilton ‘Fore, an American, (ne night, in hia sien, Canalet Pouta: “Henry Craven! 1 Noth wd Tore remember Craven; a crooked who has seized Cazalet’s old home and his friend, Scruton, sent to prion, Cas. Preparing to help Keruton to the latter's arly releare, In London they team that Craren been muntered a fow slays earlier; also that who hated Craven, f# ont of prlom, ‘, x Scruton le arrested, Cazalot refuses to believe in the old Gonvict’s quilt, Casalet and Mianche visit the gene of the crime, There Cazalct shows the deteptivo tm charge a seurct compartment under 1A tie oor of @ cxboard, In this hiding place are foumid the dead men's wate and money, thus ptowiag that roblery was not the motire of the murderer, The clud with which Craven was Killed fs also found, Cazalet and Toye discuss thie new development in the mystery, Toye asks earthing questions ax to tbe discovery of the ‘avtow atticies in the secret compartment, CHAPTER VIII. (Continued) Finger-Prints. DON'T follow you, Toye. ‘I'm thinking of finger- prints. If he'd just've laid those things right down, he'd have left the print of his hand as large as life for Scotland Yard.” “The devil he would!" exclaimed Casalet. “I wish you'd explain,” ho added; “remember I'm @ wild man from the woods, and only know of these things by the vaguest kind of hearsay and stray paragraphs in the papers. I never knew you could leave your mark so easily as all tha’ Toye took the breakfast menu and placed it face downward on the tabie- cloth. *Lay your hand on that, palm down,” he said, “and don't move It for a minut Cazalet looked at him a moment before complying; then his fins, shapely, sunburnt hand lay etill ae plaster under their eyes until Toye tol4 him he might take it up. Of course there was no mark what- ever, and Cazalet laughed. “You should have caught me when 1 came up from those foundations, net fresh from my tub!” said he. “You wait,” replied Hilton Toye, taking the menu gingerly by the edge and putting it out of harm's way in the empty toast-rack. “You can't eee anything now, but if you come reund to the Savoy I'll show you something.” what?” A “Your prints, sir! I don't say I'm Geotland Yard at the game, but I can @ It well enough to show you how ft's done. You haven't left your mark pon the paper, but I guess you've left the sweat of your hand; if I snow @ little French chalk over it, tho obalk’ll stick where your hand did, 7 and blow off easily everywhere else. “The rest'’s as simple as all big things. It's hanged a few folks al- ready, but I judge !t doesn’t have much chance with things that have lain buried in brick-dust. Say, como *) round to lunch and I'll have your prints ready for you. I'd like awfully t show you how It’s done. It would ‘ really be a great pleasure.” Cazalet excused himself with deci- aton. He had a full morning in frout of him, He was going to see Miss Macnair's, brother, son of the late head of the father’s old firm of solicitors, and now one of the partners, to get them either to take up Scruton’s case themselves, or else to recommend a frm perhaps more accustomed to eriminal practice. Cazalct was always apt to be elab- o in the first person singular, iter in the past or in the future + tense; but he was more so than usual in explaining his considered inten- tions in this matter that lay so very near his heart. “Going to see Scruton, too?” said Te ‘Not necessarily,” was the short reply. But it also was elaborated by Casalet on a moment's consideration, The fact was that he wanted firat to know if it were not possible, by the Intervention of a really influential lawyer, to obtain the prisoner's imme- diate release, at any rate on bail, If impossible, he might hesitate to *, force himself on Scruton in the Prison, but he would see, “It's a perfect scandal that he should be there at all,” said Cazalet, ap he rose first and ushered Toye out into the lounge. “Only think: our old gardener saw him run out of the drive at half past seven, when the gong went, when the real mur- derer must have been shivering in the Michelangelo cupboard, wonder- ing how the devil he was ever going to get out again.” “Then you think old man Craven— begging his poor pardon—was get- ting @ut some cigars when the man, ‘whoever he was, came in and knocked him on the nead?” Cazalet nodded vigorously, “That's the Hkeliest thing of all!" he cried, “Then the gong went—there may even have come a knock at the door “Raffles” —and there was that cupboard stand- ing open at iis elbow.” “vith a hole in the floor that migth haye been made for him?” “As it happens, yes; he'd search every Inch like a rat in a trap, you wee; and there it waa as I'd left it twenty years before.” “Well, it's a wonderful yarn!” ex- claimed Hilton Toye, and he iNghted tae cigar that Cazalet had given him. “T think it may be thought one If the police ever wn how they made their find,” agreed Cazalet, laughiag and looking at his watch. ‘Toye had never heard him laugh so often, “By the way, Drinkwater doesn't want any of all this to come out un- til he's dragged his man before tho beak again.” “Which you mean to prevent?” “Lf only I can! I more or less prom. ined not to talk, however, and I'm sure you won't. You knew so much already, you may just as well know the rest this week as well-as next, if you don’t mind keeping # to your- self.” Nobody could have minded this particular embargo less than Hilton Toye; and in nothing was he less like Cazalet, who even now had the half. regretful and self-excusing air of the imuplatve person who has taiked too freely and discovered it too late, But he had been perfectly delignt- ful to Hilton Toye, almost too ap- preciative, if anything, and now very anxious to give him a lift in his taxi, Toye, however, had shopping to do in the very street that they were in, and he saw Cazalet off with a smile that was as yet merely puzzled and not unfriendly until he had time to recall Miss Blanche’s part in the strange affair of the previous after- noon. Say, weren't they rather Intimate, those two, even if they had known each other all their lives? He had it from Blanche (with her second re- fusal) that she was not, and never had been, engaged. And a fellow who only wrote to her once in a year—still, they must have been darned intimate, and this funny affair would bring them to- gether again quicker than anything. Say, what a funny affair it was when you came to think of It! Funny all through, it now struck Toye; be- ginning on board ship with that dream of Casalet's about the mur- dered man, leading to all that talk of the old grievance against him. and culminating in bis actually finding the implements of the crime in his Inspired efforts to save the man of whose innocence he was ao positive. Say, if that Cazalet had not been on his way home from Australia at the time! Like many deliberate speakers, Toye thought like lightning, and had reached this point beforp he was o hundred yards from the hotel; then he thought of something nd re- traced his steps. He retraced them even to the table at which he had sat with Cagaint not very many minutes ago; the wait- er was only now beginning to clear away. “Say, walter, what have you dono with the menu that was in that toast. rack? There was something on It that we rather wanted to keep.” “I thought there was, sir,” said the English waiter at that admirable hotel, Toye, however, prepared to talk io him like an American uncle of Dutca extraction. “You thought that, and you took it away?" “Not at all, sir, I ‘appened to op- serve the other gentleman put the menu in his pocket, behind your back as you were getting up, because £ passed a remark about it to the head walter at the time!" CHAPTER IX, Fair Warning. T was much more than a map of the metropolis that Toye carried In his able head, He knew the right places for the right things, from his tailor’s at one end of Jermyn street to bis batter's at the other, and from the man for collara and dress shirts, in another of St, James’ to the only man for soft shirts, on Piécadilly. Hilton Toye visited them al! in turn this fine September morning, and found the select team agreeably dts- engaged, readter than ever to suit him. Then he gazed critically at his boots. He was not so dead sure that he had struck the only man for boots, There had been a young fallow aboard the Kalser Fritz, quite a litte bit of a milltary blood, who had cone ashore in a palr of cloth tops that had rather unsettled Mr. ‘Toye's mind just on that one point. Hoe thought of this young fellow when he was through with the soft- shirt man on Piccadilly, They had diced for a drink or two in the smoxk- ing-room, and Capt. Aylmer had sal! he would Ike to have Toye see his club any time he was passing and cared to look in for lunch, e Wey’ BERY, MURORR pe” He had said so as though he would like it a great deal, and suddenly Toye had a mind to take him at bis word right now. The tdea began with those bogts with cloth tops, but that was not all there was to It; there was something else that had been at the back of Toye’s mind all moruing, and now took charge In front. Aylmer had talked some about a Job in the war office that enabled him to lunch datly at the Rag; but what his job had been aboard a German steamer Toye did not know and was not the man to Inquire. It was no business of his, anyway. Reference to a card, traded for his own in Southampton Water, and duly filed in his cigarette case, reminded him of the Rag’s proper style and title, And there he was eventually enter- tained to a sound, workmanlike, rather expeditious meal. “Say, did you see the cemetery at Genoa?” suddenly inquired the visit- or on their way back through the hall. A marttal bust had been ad- mired extravagantly before the ques- tion, “Never want to seo it again, or Genoa either,” said Captain A: “The smoking-room's this way. “TI judge you didn’t care a lot about the city?” pursued Toye as they found a corner. "Genoa? Oh, I Uked it all right, but you xet fed up in a couple of days neither ashore nor afloat. It's a bit amphibious. Of course you can go to a hotel if you lik but not if soldier.” you're only a poor Britis’ “Did you say you weiv there two days?” Toye was cutting his cigar as though it were a corn, “Two whole days, and we'd had a night in the Bay of Naples just be- fore,” “Ig that so? I only came aboard at Genoa, I guess I was wise,” added Toye, as though he was thinking of something else, There was no sort of feeling in his voice, but he was suck- ing his left thumb, “I say, you" ut yourself!" “I guess its nothing, Knife too sharp; please don't worry, Capt. Ayl- mer. on at mb a@ room to myself, with Cazalet; much of him.” It was Toyo'a third separate and independent attempt to introduce the bame and fame of Cazalet as a natur- al topic of conversation, Twice his host had listened with adamantine politeness this time; he was enjoying quite the second best liqueur brandy to be had at the Rag; and he leaned back in his chair, “You were rather tmpressed with I was going to say 1 only, got couldn't give I had to go tn that's how I saw Jeno, and the} so him, weren't you?" sald Capt. Ayl- mer. “Well, frankly, I wasn't, but It may have been my fault. It d rather warp ono’s judgymeat to bo Bhot out to Ade on @ potty job at this time o' year.” So that was where he had been? Yes, and by Jove he hau to see man about it all at 3 o'clock, “One of the nuts,” explained Capt Aylmer, keeping his chair with ‘ne restraint. Toye rose with finer alacrlty “E hope you won't think me rude,” sald the captain, “but I'm afraid 1 really mustn't keep lim walting.” ‘Toye said the proper things all the way to the hat stand, and there took frontal measures as a last resort. “L was only going to ask you one thing about Mr. Cazalet,” he sald, “and I guess I've a reason for ask- ing, though there's no time to sta "ONE OF THE MOST UN Next Week's Complete Novel in The Evening World LEMME ® © © ® 6 USUAL STOPIES EVER WRITTEN. orld Da ily Magazi ne: ROD OL maoWws RAN END it now. What did you think of bim, Capt. Aylmer, on the whole?” “Ah, there you have me, ‘On the whole’ is just the difficulty,” said Ayl- mor, answering the straight question readily enough. “I thought he was a very good chap as far as Naples, but after Genoa he was another being. I've sometimes wondered what hap- pened tn his three or four days ashore.” “Three or four, did you say?” And at the last moment Toye would have played Wedding Guest to Ayl- mers’ Anclent Mariner. “Yes; you see, he know these Ger- man boats waste a couple of days at Genoa, so he landed at Naples and did his Italy overland. Rather a good Idea, I thought, especially as he sald he had friends in Rome; but we never heard of ‘em beforehand, and I should have let the whole thing strike me a bit sooner if I'd been Cazalet. Soon enough to take a handbag and @ tooth brush, eh? And I don’t think I should have run It quite so fine at Genoa, either, But there are rum birds in this world, and alwaye will be!" Toye felt one himsolf as he picked his way through St. James's Square, If It had not beon just after lunch, he would have gone straight and bad a cocktail, for of course he knew the only place for them, What ho did was to slue round out of the square and to obtain for the asking, at another old haunt, on Cock- spur street, the latest little thine. table of continental trains, This he carried, not on foot but in @ taxi, to the oy Hotel, where it kept bim busy in his own room for the best part of another hour, But by that time Hilton Toye looked more than an hour older than on sit- ting down at his writing table with pencil, paper and the little book of trains; he looked horrified, ho looked distressed, and yet he looked crafty, determined and immensely alive. He proceeded, however, to take some of tho life out of himself, and to add still more to his apparent age, by repairing for more inward ight and leading to a Turkish bath, Now the only Turkish bath, accord- ing to Hilton Toye's somewhat ex- clusive code, was not even a hundred yards from Cazalet's hotel; and there the visitor of the morning again pre- sented himself before the afternoon; now merely a little worn, as a man will look after losing a stone an hour on a@ warm afternoon, and @ bit blue ayain about the chin, which of course louked a little deeper and stronger on that account. Cazalet was not in; his friend would wait, and in fact watted over an hour in the Uttle lounge. An eve- ning paper was offered him; he took it listlessly, scarcely looked at It ut first, then tord it In his anxtety to find something he had quite for- When you go out of town matter. reading for six cents a week. country dealer has not by the foremost living authors, HALLAM ELLIE NDTH WOMAN Are You Going Away for Vacation? difficult and costly to provide yourself with the right sort of reading Why send to the city for novels at $1.25 or $1.50 each or buy them at a fancy price in some country store? You can supply yourself with the best, most delightful summer By subscribing to The Evening World for the rest of the summer you will secure a complete novel each week. Not some old book a een able to sell, but the finest up-to-date fiction Bear this in mind, not only for yourself but for any of friends who expect to spend their vacations in the country. Zieh et gotten—from the newspaper end. But he was waiting as stoically as before when Casalet arrived in tre- mendous spirits, “Stop and dinel® he cried eut at once. “Borry I can't; got to go and see somebody,” said Hilton Toye, “Then you must have a drink.” “No, I thank you,” said Toye, with the decisive courtesy of @ total ab- etainer. “You look as if you wanted one; you don’t look a bit ft,” said Cazalet most kindly. “Nor am I, air!” exclaimed Toye. “I guess London's no place for me in the fall. Just as well, too, I judge, since I've got to light out again straight away.” “You haven't!" os, sir, this very night. That's the worst of @ business that takes you to all the capitals of Europe in turn. It takes you eo long to fit around that you never know when you've got to start in again.” “Which capital ts it this time?’ sald Cazalet. His exuberant genial- ity had been dashed very visibly for the moment. But already his high epirite were reasserting themselves; indeed, a cynic with an ear might have caught the note of sudden consolation in the question that Cazalet asked eo brisk- ly. "aot to go down to Rome,” said Toye, watching the effect of his words. “But you've just come back from there!” Cazalet looked no worse than pussied. “No, sir, I missed Rome out; that was my mistake, and bore's this sit- uation been developing behind my back.” “What situation? “Oh, why it wouldn't interest you! But I've got to go down to Rome, whether I like it or not, and I don't like it any, because I don’t have any friends there. And that's what I'm doing right bere. I was wondering if you'd do something for me, ‘azalet?” “If I can," said Casalet, “with pleasure.” But his smiles were gone. “I was wondering if you'd give me an introduction to thone friends of yours in Romo!" There was just a little pause, and Cazalet'’a tongue just showed be- tween his lips, moistening them. It was at that moment the only touch of color in his face. “Did I tell you I'd any friends there?” ‘The sound of his voice wae pere haps lees hoarse than pusszied. Toye made himself chuckle as he sat looking up out of somber eyes. “Well, if you didn't,” said he, “I guess I must have dreamed iti” CHAPTER X. The Week of Their Lives. 66 OY E'S gone back to Italy,” i said Cazalet. “He nays he may be away only a week. Let's make it the week of our lives! The scene was the little room tt pleased Blanche to call her parlor, and the time a preposterously early hour of the following forenoon, Cazalet might have ‘planed down from the skies into her sunny snug- gery, though his brand new Burberry rather suggested another extravagant taxicab, But Blanche saw only his worn excited face, and her own was not at its best in her’ dheer amazement. If she bad heard the last two sen- tences, to understand them at the time she would have felt bound to take them up first, and to ask how on earth Mr. Toye could affect her plans or pleasures. But such was the effect of the preceding statement that all the rest was several moments on the way to her comprehension, where it arrived, indeed, more incomprehgnsible than ever, but not worth making @ fuss about then, “Italy!” she had ejaculated mean- while, “When did he go?” “Nine o'clock last night. “But'"'—she checked herself—"T sim- ply can't understand it, that's all!” “Why? Have you seen him since the other afternoon?” His manner might have explained those other two remarks, now both- for vacation you may find it is BY FRANK L. PACKAR! Thursday: whey Chen Rie ering her when !t was too late to notice them; on the other hand, she was by no meane sure that it did. He might simply dislike Toye, and that again might explain his extra- Ordinary heat over the argument at Littleford. Blanche began to feei the alr somewhat heavily charged with explanations, either demanded or de- sired; they were things sie hated, and she determined not io add to them if she could help it. “I haven't set eyes on him again,” she said. “But he's been seen here— in @ little taxi.” “Who saw him? “Martha—if she’s not mistaken.” This was @ little disingenuous, as will appear; but that impetuous Sweep was in a merciful hurry to know something else. “When was this, Binnche? “Just about dark—say seven or #0. Bhe owns it was about dark,” said Blanche, though she felt ashamed of herself. “Well, it’s just possible. Hoe left me about six; sald he had to see some one, too, now I think of it, But I'a give a bit to know what ho wae doing messing about down here at the last moment!” Blanche liked this as little as any- thing that Casalet had eaid yet, and ho had said nothing that she did like this morning. But there were allow- ances to be made for him, she knew. And yet to atrengthon her know- ledge, or rather to let him confirm it for her, either by word or by his al- lence, she stated @ certain case for bim aloud. “Poor old Sweep!" she laughed. “It's @ shame that you should bave come home.to be worried like this. “I am worried,” he sald simply. “T think it's just splendid, all you're doing for that poor man, but es- pecially the way you're doing It.” “I wish you wouldn't say that, Blanche!" He paid her the compliment of speaking exactly as he would have spoken to @ man; or rather, she hap- pened to be the woman to take it as @ compliment. “But I do say tt, Sweep! I've heard all about it from Charile, He rang me up last night.” “You're on the telephone, are you?” “Everybody is in these days. Where bave you lived? Oh, I forgot!” And she laughed. Anything to lift this duet of theirs out of the minor key! “But what does old Charlie really think of the caso? That's more to the point,” said Casalet uneasily. “Well, he seemed to fear there was no chance of bail before the adjourned bearing. But I rather gathered he was not going to be in it himself?” “No. We decided on one of thone eportamen who love rushing in where @ family lawyer like Chartio owns to looking down his nose. I've seen the chap, and primed him up about old Savage, and our find in the founda- tions, He says ho'll make an exam- ple of Drinkwater and Charlie au: they call him the Bobby's Bugbear!” “But surely he'll have to tell his client who's behind him?” “No. just the type who would bave rushed in, anyhow. And it'll be time enough to put Scruton under obligations when I've got him off!" Blanche looked at the troubled eyes avoiding hers, and thought that she had never heard of a fine thing being done so finely. ‘This very shamefacedness appealed to her intensely, and yet last night Chariie had said that old Sweep was in such tremendous apirits about it all! Why was he ao down this morn- ing? She only knew a#ho could have taken his hand, but for a very good reason why she could not. She had even to guard against an equivocally sym- pathetic voice or manner, as ehe asked: “How long did they remand him for™ “Bight days.” “Well, then, you'll know the best or the worst to-day week!" “Yes!” he eald eagerly, almost him- self again, “But, whichever way it goes, I'm afraid it means trouble for me, Blanche; some time or other I'll tell you why; but that's why I want this to be the week of our lives.” Bo he really meant what he had said before, The phrase had been no careless misuse of words; but neither, after all, did it necessarily apply to Mr. Toye. That was something. It made it easter for Blanche not to ask ques- tiona. Casalet had gone out on the bal- cony; now he called to her; and there was no taxi, but a smart open car, waiting in the road, ite brasses blaa- ing in the eun, an immaculate chauf- four at the wheel. “Whore is that, Sweep?” “Mine, for the week I'm talking about! I mean ours, if you'd only buck up and get ready to come out! A week doesn't lest forever, you know!" Blanche ran off to Martha, who fussed and hindered her with the best intentions, It would have been dim- A ROMANCE OF LOVE AND OF SUPREME SACRIFICE. GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN ‘yaly By ng E. W. Hornu OOOODHOOHON 009959090899000000 cult to say which was the more ox- cited of the two. But the old nurse would waste time in perfectly fatuous reminiacences of the very earlies, expeditions In which Mr. Cazalet had led and Biancho bad followed, and what a bonny pair they had made even then, etc. Severely snubbed on that subject, she took to peering at her mistress, once her bairn, with furtive eagerness and impatience; for Blanche, on her side, looked as though she had some- thing on her mind, and, Indeed, had made one or two attempts to get it off. She had to force tt even in the end. “There's just one thing T want to aay before I go, Martha.” “Yes, le, yes?” “You know when Mr, Toye called yesterday, and I waa out?” “Oh, Mr. Toye; yes, | remember, Miss Blanche.” “Well, I don’t want you to say that he came in and waited half an hour in vain; in fact, not that he came in at all, or that you're even sure you saw him, unless, of course, you're asked.” “Well, I don't know, but there seems to be @ Uitte bad blood between Mr, Toye and Mr. Cazalet.” Martha looked for a moment as though sho wore about to weep, and then fcr another moment c# though she would die of laurhing. But a third moment sho celobrated by making un utter old fool of hor- self, a@ sho would have been told to her face by anybody but Blanche, whose yellow bair was being disar- ranged by the very hands that had helped to imprison it under that mo- tor bat and veil. “Oh, Blanchie, t# that all you have to tell me?" said Martha. And then the week of thoir lives began. CHAPTER XI. In Country and in Town. HE weather was truo to T larger matter than it might have been, Thoy were not making love. They were actually told Martha, with annihilat- ing scorn, when the old dear looked both knowing and longing-to-know They were out to enjoy themselves, and that seemed shocking to Martha “unless something was coming of It.” her conditional clause to herself. Yet |. they were only out to enjoy themselves tn the way Misa Blanche her), they certainly had done wonders for a aetart. Martha could hardly credit all they sald they had done, them and this was a “not out for that,” as Blanche heraeif at the end of the first day's run, She had just senso enough to keep vowed and declared (more shame for and as an embittered pedestrian there was nothing that she would “put past" one of those nasty motors. It satd very Little for Mr, Cazalet, by the way, tn Martha's private opin- jon, that he should take her Miss Blanche out in ‘he car at all; if he had turned out as well as she had hoped, and “meant anything,” a nl boat on the river would have been better for them both than all that tearing through the air in a cloud of smoky dust; it would have beon much lens expensive, and far more “the thing.” But, there, to see and hear the child after the first day! She looked so bonny that for a time Martha really believed that Mr. Cazalet had “spoken,” and allowed herself to admire him also as he drove off later with his wicked lamps alight. But Blanche would only go on and on about her day, the glories of the Ripley road and the grandeur of Hindhead. She had brought back heaps of heather and bunches of leaves just beginning to turn; they were all over the little house before Cazalet had been gone ten minutes, But Blanche hadn't forgotten her poor olf Martha; she was not one to forget people, especially when she loved and yet had to snub them, Mar- tha’s portion was picture post cards of the Gibbet and other landmarks of the day. ‘And if you're good,” said Blanche, “you shall have some every day, and an album to keep them in forever and And won't that be nice when all over, and Mr, Cazalet's gone back to Australia?” Cruelier anti-climax was never planned, but Martha's face had brought It on her; and now It re- mained to make her see for herself what an incomparably good time they were having so far. “It was a almply splendid lunch at the Beacon, and such a tea at Byfleet, coming back another way,” explained Blanche, who was notoriously indif- ferent about her food, but al rule much hungrier than she to-night, “It must be that tea, my dear. It was too much, To-morrow I'm to take the Birram, and I want Walter to eee if be can’t get a billy and show me bow they make tea in the bush, A Complete Novel Each Week in THE EVENING WORLD COOOL POLAR AA ALIA LALA NASA LNAI " This Book on the _ Stands Will Cost You 1.25, You Get It for 6c, OOOO OO, but he says it almply couldn't be Geae without methylated. we The next day they went over @e 7] Hog's Back, and the next eM 2 4 through London into Hert! f This was a tremendous experiente = The car was a good one trom, food firm, and the chauffeur GAO like an angel through the traffle, @@ 97 that the teeming city opened betewe ” 94 them from end to end. ‘Then the Hertfordshire hedges and meadows and timber were the very things after the Hog's Back Hindhead; not so wonderful, course, but more like old Englan@ leas like the bush; and before day wan out they had seen, througl dodging London on the way back, the Harrow boys like a lot of young Jers who had changed hats with matds, and Eton boys as closely re sombling a convocation of slack B= rates. “ ‘Then there was their Buckingham= shire day—Chalfont, St. Giles and Hughenden—and almost detached ex- periences such as the churchyard at Stoke Poges, where Cazalet repeated Astounding chunks of ite @6g?, learned as long ago an bis prepari>— tory school days, and the terrible dim illusion of Hounslow Heath end ita” murderous trams. - Then there was the wood they found where gypsies had been campe Ing, where they resolved that mé- ment to do the same, just exactly tm every detail as Cazalet had so often done it in the bush; so that flesh and flour were fetched from the nelgt- boring village, and he sat on his heela and turned them into mutton and damper tn about a minute; and after that a real campfire till long after dark, and a shadowy chauffeur amol- ing his pipe somewhere in the other shadows, and thinking them, 6& course, quite mad, The critic on the hearth at heme thought even worse of them thas that. But Blanche only told the truth whon she declared that the whole thing bad been her idea, and, 6Be might have added, a bitter disap- pointment to her, because Walter simply would not talk about the bush: Itself, and never had since that firet | J hour In the old empty achoolroom ag Littleford, be (By the way, she had taken to calle ing him Walter to his face.) Of other | conversation, however, there was not and never had been the slightest dearth between them; but ~ it was, perhaps, a sad case of quate tity. ‘These were two outdoor souls, and the one with the Interesting fe ~ no longer spoke about it Neither was a great reader, even of the papel though Blanche liked poetry as she liked going to church; but each had the mind that could bate ten quite amiably on other people, So there was a deal of talk about neighbors down the river, and seme of it was scandal, and all was gos sip; and there was a great deal about what Bin days, but selves when Ba young than there bed been at Littleford that first day. And 90 much for their conversation, once for ail; it was frankly that eg. two very ordinary persons, place@in an extraordinary position to which _ they had shut their eyes for @ week, 9 ‘They must have had between them, © however, some rudimentary sense of construction; for their final fling, If not just the most inspiring, was a€ least unlike all tho rest, It was almost as new to Blanche” and now much more so to Casalet; 18 — appealed as strongly to thelr come mon stock of freshness and simplicity, Yet cause and effect were alike une deniably lacking In distinction, It began with cartloads of new clothes from Cazalet's old tailor and | it ended in a theatre and the Carltom, © Murtha surpassed herself, of course; a * she had gone about for days (or rather mornings and evenings) in an aggressive silence, her lips prove. catively pursed, but now the time had come for ber to speak out, and thas she did. If Miss Blanche had no respect for herself there werd those who had some for her, just as there were others who seemed to have forgotten * the meaning of the word, The @u- phemistic plural disappeared at the first syllable from Blanche, It was nothing to Martha that s@ || had been offered a place in the car | (beside that forward young maa) | more days than one; well did Mr, 4 Cazalet know her feelings about motors before he made her the offer, But she was not saying anythiag io about what was past. This waa the = limit; an expression which only sule@ — ~ Martha's lips because Blanche Be@ just applied it to her inference, * It was not behaving as a gentie- oH man; it was enough to work unpleas- ant miracles in her poor parents graves; and though Martha beredg would die sooner than inform Mr, Charlie or the married sisters, ether people were beginning to talk, when this came out she knew would get the blame. (To Be Continued.) —