The evening world. Newspaper, January 28, 1916, Page 17

33 3: In the Bi (Copreigtt, 1918, by Street & Smith Co.) SYNOPATS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS, Lif bas CHAPTER XII. { (Ooutinoed.) A Business Proposition. 4 HAT ts all the clerical W work about?” she in. Dossi quired. “Reckoning your Aascts and Habilitieat* Bill emiled and pushed aside the paper. “I'm going to promote a mining @ompany,” he told her, quite onasu- ally. “It has been put up to me as a business proposition—and I've got to the stage where I have to do some- thing, or I'll have the Willies. She overlooked the latter s ment; tt conveyed no special signif- Cance at the time, But his first state. ment opened up possibilities such as of late she had sincerely hoped would @ome to pass, and she was all in- “Promote a mining company?” she Tepemted. “That sounds extremely businesslike. How—when—where?” “Now—here in Granville," he re- pied. “The how ts fargely Paul Lorimer’s tdea. You see,” he con- tinued, warming up a bit to the sub- Jeot, “when I was prospecting that oresk where we made the clean-up last summer I ran across a well- defined quartz lead. I packed out @ few samples in my pockets, and I happened to show them as well as one or two of the nuggets to some of these fellows at the club a while Lorimer took a piece of the quartz and had it assayed. It looms Up as something pretty big. So he and Brooks and a couple of other fellows want me to go ahead and or- ganize and locate @ group of claims in the Twenty or thirty thousand dollars capital might make ‘em all rich. Of course, the placer end of it will be the big thing while the lodo fg being developed. It should pay well from:tae start. Getting the start is easy. As a matter of fact, you could @ell any old wildcat that bas the magic of gold about it. Men seen to get the fever as soon as they r the real yellow stuff. T! lows I've talked to are dead anxious to get in.” ‘But''—her knowledge of business methods ested a diffculty—"you can’t sell stock in a business that has no real foundation—yet, Don'y you have to locate those claims first? ree head; you have the iden, all right.” He smiled, “But this ts net a stock-jobbing proposition, I wouldn't be in on it if It were, believe me, It’s to be @ corporation, where not to exceed six men will own all the sued, And so far as the rned, I've got Whitey Lewi: and I've been burning the wires and spending a Dundle of real money getting him He has got four men be- if all ready to hit the trail if you end of it,” she pursued ligh pose you'll have an office downtown. “I suppose #0," he returned laconi- ifn informed her from time to time as to the progress of his venture. Brooks and Lorimer had put him in touch with two others who were ready to chance money on the strength of Bill's statements. Tho company was duly incorporated, with an authorized capital of $100,000, $8,000 worth of stock being taken out by each on a cash basis, the re- maining $75,000 lying in the company treasury, to be held or sold for de- velopment purposes as the five saw fit when work began to show what w claims were capable of produc- I nitey Lewis set out. Bill stuck a map on their living room wall and pointed off each day's journey with a In early March came a telegram from Whitey Lewis saying that ho had staked the claims, both placer and lode; that he was bound out the Telegraph Trail to file at Hazelton. Bill showed her the message—wired from Station Six. The filing completed, there was am- ple work in the way of getting out and whipsawing timber to keep the five men busy till spring—the five who were on the ground, Lewis sent word that thirty feet of snow lay in the gold-bearing branch, And t ‘was the Inst they he: from him, He was a performer, Bill said, not @ correspondent. So in Granville the affairs of the Free Gold Mining Company, remained ta etandetill until the spring floods should peel off the winter blanket of the North. Hazel was fully occupies and Bill dwelt largely with his book. or eketched and figured on operations at the claims, Their domestic af- fairs moved with the smoothness of a nerfectly balanced machine. To the gery uttermost Hazel enjoyed tho svelt-appointed orderliness of it ull, the unruffled placidity of an existence where the unexpected, the disagree~ able, the uncouth, was wholly elim!~ nated, where all the strange shifts and struggles of her two years beyond the Rockies were altogether absent and Impossib Bil views he kept largely for himself. And Hazel beran to jay the idea that he was looking upon civilization with @ kindlier eye, ‘Ultimately, spring overspread the provinces. And when the snows of winter successively gavo way to muddy streets and then to clean pavementa in the city of Gran- ville, @ now gilt sign was lettered ty the windows of the brokerage of im which Paul Lorimer was LD UG COMPANY, Brooke, Gee.-T: Weavtat, Manas, A Romance of Love and Fortune and the original stakers agent for these other fellows in the company, staked five mor I tool him a chance to make a . v yen in sizing up Northwest oT ct So ft ran. Bill was commissioned in the army of business at last, —_ CHAPTER XIiil. A Business Journey. HAVE to go to the 66 Klappan,” Bill apprised bie wife one evening. “Want to come along?” Hazel hesitated. “I see you don’t,” he observed dryly, “Well, I can't say that I blame you. It's @ stiff trip, If your wind and muscle are in as poor shape as mine, I gueas it would do you up— the effort would be greater than ible pleasure.” ar “I'm going to-morrow,” he aid aud- Sunt ua well i you dou'e gor Btay hare well if you don't go. Stay here and enjoy yourself. I'll transfer some more money to your account, I think I'll drop down to the club.” She followed him out into the hall, and, as he wrigglied into hig coat, she had an impulse to throw her arms around his neck and declare, in all sincerity, that she would to the Kappan or to the north pole or any place on earth with him, if he want- ed her, But by some peculiar femi ine reasoning #he reflected im the me instant that if Bill were away from her a few weeks he would be all the more glad to get back. That closed her mouth. So ehe kissed Bill goodby at the sta- tion next day with perfect good bu- mor and no parting emotion of any particular keenness. And if be were @ trifle sober he showed no sign of resentment, nor uttered any futile wishes that ete could accompany him. “So long,” he sald from the car stops. “I'll keep in touch—all I can.” Then he was gone. Somehow, his absence made le difference than Hazel had anticipat- ed. She had secretly expected to be very lonely at first. And not, She began to realize that, un- consciously, they had of late so ar- ranged their manner bf life that separation was a question of degree rather than kind. Early in June came a brief wire from Station Six, Three weeks later the Free Gold Mining Company set up a mild ripple of excitement along Broad Street by exhibiting in their office window a forty-pound heap of coarse goldi raw, yellow gold, just as it had come from the sluice, Every day knots of men stood gazing at the treasure, The Granville papers dé- voted sundry columns to this remark- ably successful enterprise of its local wee, or BABY CARRIAGE | HAVE ENGAGED ONE NURSE ano | HAVE EVEN BoudaT ONE RUBBER do E IN PACIFIER. AND ONE business men. Bill had forwarded the first clean-up, And close on the heels of this—ten eve later, to be exact—he came ome, CHAPTER XIV. The Bomb. “a 'U great laughed, in the shelter of his encircling arms, ‘My, it's good to see you again.” They elected to spend the evening quietly at home, as they used to do. To Hazel it seemed quite like old times. Bill told her of the Kiappan country, and their prospects at the mine, “It's going to be a mighty big thing.” he declared, “We've got a group of ten claims. Whitey Lewis hold an in- I, acting as terest in their claims. in eight more men—and, believe me, things were humming when I left. Lewis is a great rustler, He had out lots of timber, and we put in a wing dam three hundred feet long, so she can flood and be darned; they'll keep the sluice working just the same. And that quartz lead will justify a fifty-thousand-dollar mill, So I'm told by an expert I took in to look it over. And, say, 1 went in by the ranch, Old Jake has a fine garden. He's still pegging away with the mule ‘und Gretohen, der cow.’ I offered t little stake at the mine, but he didn’t want to ve the ranch, Great old feller, Something of a philosopher in y. Pretty wise old head, He'll make cood, all right.” In the morning Bill ate his break- fast and started downstairs, “That's the dickens of being a buni- ness man,” he complained to Hazel in the hallway, “It rides a man, once it gets hold of him, I'd rather get a machine and go joy riding with you than anything else. But I have to go and make @ long winded report; and I suppose those fellows will want to talk gold by the yard. Adios, little person. I'll get out for lunch, ‘Dual- ness or no business.” ven-thirty brought him home, preoccupied and frowning, And he carried his frown and his preoccupa- tion to the table, = “Whatever in the, matter, Bill? Hazel anxiously inquired, “Oh, I've got a nasty hunch that there’s a nigger In the woodplle,” he replied. Vhat woodpile?" she asked, . I'll tell you more about it to-night,” he said biuntly, “I'm going to pry something loose this afternoon or know the reason why.” “Is somethingsthe matter about the mine?" she persisted. . “No,” he anawered grimly. “There's nothing the matter with the mine, It's the mining company.” And that was all he vouchsafed. He finished his luncheon and left the house. He was scarcely out of steht when Jimmic Brooks’ runabout drew up at the curb, A half minute later he was ushered into the living room, “Bill in? was his first query. “No, he left just a few minutes ago,” Hazel told him. Mr. Brooks, a short, heavy set, neatly dressed gentleman, whose rather weak blue eyes loomed preternaturally large and protuberant behind pince-nez that straddled an insignificant snub nose, took off his glasses and twiddled them in his white, well-kept fingers. “Ah, too bad!" he murmured. “Thought I'd catch him, “By the way,” he contnued, after a pause, "you—alh—well, frankly, | have Teason to believe that you have @ good deal of influence with your husband in business matters, Mrs, W. Kitty 0, and she don't mistakes situation.” I don't know: perhaps I have,” Hazel smiled noncommittally. She wondered what had led Kitty Brooks to that concluston, “Well—ah—you rather lamely, where Mortimer was transacting busl- what la the diMoulty Mr. Brook: . once course to polishing hi “Bill is opposed to the whole plan, he said, pursing up his lips with evi- dent disapproval of Bill is pince-nez. I serve notice on you right now,’ he said loudly and angrily, ‘that if another dollar's worth of “The fact is—I hope Free Gold stock I'l put you out of you'll regard this as strictly confiden- tia, Mrs. Wagstaff. Biull to think @nd all bis works. that we should not have taken this He declares that no more stock must be sold; that there must be no enlargement of capital. we must peg along borse way we started. Would be a shame. the Free Gold Mining Company. the thing on the ma ourselves on Easy Street. He spread bis hands in a gesture of real reget. “If Bill mentions it, you might sug- gest that he look into the matter a lit- before he takes any def- 4 Brooks concluded, rising. “I must get down to the office, It's his own interests I'm thinking of, 48 much Of course, he couldn't block @ reorganization—but we want in every particular, and, at the same time, carry out these a big thing for all of us, 1 wouldn't want “He seems to feel I, or any of us, was try- ing to bring pressure on him. But the fact is, Bill's got a mistaken tm- pression about the way we're conduct- ing the financial end of this mining You understand? Vi man, your husband, but head- strong as the deuce. speak frankly—he'll creato a lot of un- pleasantness, Might disrupt the com- pany, in fact, if he sticks to the post- ye on he took’ this, morning. run in an it over Fellow's general humor you know, when hi “Mortimer appeared to lone his tem- Some word was passed which ised Wagstaff, and the broker smote the Wagstaft's punch credit to a champion pugilist, from the execution It wrought, diately left the Stock Exchange, and not long afterward Broad Street was electrified by sounds of combat in the Free Gold office, Wagstaff had tho situation and his three opponents well in hand when the the little one- We could make I'm afraid—to good humor, hs = lunched com- tie more fully ‘None of the men concerned would discuss the matter. marks dropped by Wagstaff, however, {t appears that the policy of market- ing Free Gold stock was inaugurated without his knowledge or consent. “Be that as it rumors are in circulation, and Free Gold stock, which has been sold dur- ing the past week as high as a dollar forty, found few takers at par when Change closed. There has been a con- siderable speculative movement in the stock, and the speculators are begin- ning to wonder If there t# a screw loose in the company affairs, “Wagestaff's case will come up to- A charge of dis- From the re- ui e dark,” Hazel con- ‘Bill fae wane put out about somethin, as my own, “Shall ican ? Mr. Brooks sug- "You'd understand—and might be able to help. we rule believe in bringing business into but this bothers me, hate to see a good thing go wrong.” to satisfy him I don't as a Six passed. The half-hour chime struck on the mantel clock. | grew impatient, petulant, aggrieved. Dinner would be served in twenty Still there was no sign of And for lack of other ocoupa- tion she went into the hall and got the evening paper, which the carrier had just delivered A ring headline page stiffened her to scandalized at- Straight across the tops of two columns it ran, a facetious cap- WILLIAM WAGSTAFF I8 A BEAR. Under that the subhead: Mining Man Tumbles Prices rokera—Whips Four Men in Street Office—Slu: on Change—Hie M Hineste-rinally Lands y n Hazel promptly replied, can help, I'll " Mr, Brooks polished his glasses industriously for a second and replaced them with painstaking morrow f ‘ow forenoon, turbing the peace was placed against He gave a cash bond and was When the hearing Somes ems of the parties to the af- ir may perchance divulge what la: at the bottom of the row 4 “Any fine within the power of the court to imposé is a mere begatelle, compared to the distinction of soien- tifleally manhandling four of society's finest in the one afternoon, bystander remarked in of the street: Wagstaft's a bear,’ he broker co: company was ineluding your nough stock to husband, took up at once released. finance the preliminary work of the undertaking, ‘The remaint amount, was left in the treasury, to be held or put on the market as the situation warranted. conservative in his first statements concerning the property, and we all felt Inclined to gu slow. Bill got out there on the grounc and the thing began to pay enormously Bil was quite red might con- sider this to have a double meaning.” Hazel dropped the paper, mortified The city jail seemed the very Pit Itself to her. And tho lurid publicity, the lifted eyebrows of her friends, maddened her in prospect. Plain street brawling, such as one might expect from a cabman or a taxt mahout, not husband. She involuntarily the blame to him. —the cause was of no whatever to her--but for the act It- 1s, the four of us here, decided we ought to enlarge our scope, “With the first clean-up, BIN for- warded facts and that we had a property far The body of the article Hazel read in what a sob sister would desoribe as a state of mingled emotions. “William Wagstaff is a mining gen- f tleman from the northern wilds of He is a big man, To prove this and wrahtful, figures to show Britigh Columbia. @ natural-born fighter. he inflicted a black ey@ and a split lip on Paul Mortimer, a broken nose and sundry bruises on James L. Brooks. Also Allen T, Bray and Edward Gur- ney Parkinson suffered certain con- tustons in the melee. curred in the office of the Free Gold ". course, we saw at once that the thing was ridiculously undercapitallzed, putting the balance of the stock on the market we could secure funds to Work on a much larger scale, this first shipment of gold ts equal to an annual dividend of ten per cent, on four hundred from a man Not for the causo thousand dollars It's Immense, for six weeks’ The fracas oc- a Their best friends! hardly realize Jimmie Brooks, jovial Jimmie, with a broken nose and sundry bruises! mer, distinguished Paul, who had the courtly bearing which was the de- spair of his fellows, and the manner of a dozen generations wherewith to charm the women of bis He with a bla ! So the paper stated, The act of a “So we held a meeting and author- ized the secretary to sell etock, Nat- urally, your husband wasn't cognizant move, for the simple reason that there was no way of reaching interests were thor- treet, at 3.30 this afternoon. hammering the brokers cer arrived on the scene and Wa staff was duly escorted to the city Prior to the general encoun- ter in the Broad Street office Wag- staff walked into the Stock Exchange and made statements about the Free Gold Mining Company which set all the brokers by the ears. was on the floor, and received his dis- colored optic there, “Mortimer is a partner in the bro! erage firm of Bray, Parkinson & and is President of the Free Mining Company. And Paul Lort- him—and his oughly protected, anyway. Was lated on Chi A good bit was d of privately, We now have in the treasury, wot the property, and ough to pay dividends on @ The decision of the stock- holders is unanimously for enlarge- ment of the capital stock. quicker we get that property to its maximum output the more we make, There's a fine vein of quarts op, expensive machinery to in- It's no more than these outsiders who are clamoring to wet aboard should pay thelr whare of the expense of organization and pro- You understand? You fol- “Certathiy,” Hazel answ and a split lt It was vulgar, She was dn the verge of tears, And just at that moment the door opened and in walked Bill, CHAPTER XV. The Note Discordant. ILI. had divested himsalf of lle smiled as a has solved some problem to his en- Brooks 1s manager of the Acme Advertisers and Secre- tary of Free Gold. son are stockholders, and Wagstaff is @ stockholder and Also manager of the Free Gold properties In B, C. well known about town ‘A reporter was present when Wag- staff walked on the floor of the Stock » He strode up to the post Bray and Parkin- “ thip true?” she asked tremu- ONE BABY CHAIR atlence You made this trouble here, I won't go back to Pine River, or the Klappan, I won't, I tell youl” Bill stared at her moodily for a seo- “Just as you please,” he said quietly. CHAPTER XVI. The Aftermath. HSY exchanged only bare ctvilities at the breakfast table, and Bill at once went | downtown, When he was gone Hazel fidgeted uneas- ily about the rooms, She had only a vague iden of legal processes, ‘having never seen the inside of a courtroom. She wondered what penalty would be inflicted on Bill, whether he would be fined or sent to prison, Surely it was ® dreadful thing to batter men like Brooks and Lorimer and Parkinson. They might even make tt appear that Bill had tried to murder them. Her imagination magnified and distorted the Incident out of all proportion, And brooding over these things, she decided to go and talk # over with Kitty Brooks, Kitty would not blame her for these horrid man troubles, But she was mistaken there, Kitty was all up in arms. She was doubly injured. Her husband had red inwult and brutal injury. Moreaver, he was threatened with financial lo: Perhaps that threatened wound In t | pocketbook loomed larger than the | physical hurt. At any rate, ghe vented some of her spleen on Hagel. “Your husband started this mining thing,” she declared hoatedly. “31 mio says that if he perslats in trying to turn things upside down ft will mean a loas of thousands, And we \haven’t any money to lose—I'm sure |Jimmie has worked har. for what ‘he's got. I'm simply sick over it. It's bad enough to have one's hus- ‘band brought home looking as it ‘he'd been to have the papers go on about It ao. | But to’ have @ big lose Infilcted on us just when Rut Pay Pigg BO a4 ead, 100 5 lously, pointing to the offending head- "wiv ‘you'd never’ introduced your iit frowned MEME ppeest. ot biiterated Fy . * ‘hat speech, of course, o! Substantially eorrect,” he AN- friendship on the spot, as far as Haxel oh coolly, 1a . wan concerned. “Bill, how could you?" she cried. * ; " “Ten simply disgraceful. Brawling in Lilt failed to, appear, at eee on public like any saloon loafer, and get- jaintan Ying in Jail and all, Haven't you any TUmMPOr Of | Men tl manner cunsideration for me—any pride? of their kind they buzzed with the His eyes narrowed with an angry one absorbing tople, Some were elint, vastly amused. Some were aympat “Yes,” he said deliberately have. thetic. One and all they were con- Pride in my word as a man, A sort sumed with curiosity for detailed in- of pride that won't allow any bunch aide information on the Free Gold of illy-tingerd crooks to make me a saybble, One note rang consistent- party to any dirty deal, L didn't pro- ty Mn their gossipy song: The Freo bose to get the worst of it in that Gold Company was going to lose a way. I won't allow myself to be pot of money in some manner, as a tarred with their stick.’ consequence of the affair. Mr, Wag- “But they're not trying to give you staft had put some surprising sort the worst of it,” she burst out. of spoke in the companya wheel Vistons of utter humiliation arose to By what power he had accom confront and madden her, ‘ou've plished this remained a mystery to the insulted and abused our best friends ladies, Singly and collectively they ~-to say nothing of giving us all the drove Hazel to the verge of distrac- benefit of newspaper scandal, We'll tion. When the house was at last ba notorious!" clear of them she could have wept, “So Brooks came around to talk it Through no fault of her own she had over with you, eh?” Bill aneered, given Granville another cholce morsel “Told you it was all on the square, to roll under Its gossipy tongue. did he? Explained tt all very plaus: So that when six o'clock brought Ibly, T suppose. Probably suggested BIN home ahe was coldly disapprov- that yow try smoothing mo down, too. ing of him and his affairs in thelr en- It would be like ‘em. tirety, and at no pains to hide her “Ho did explain about this stock feelings, He followed her into the liv- selling businens,"” Hazel replied de- Ing room "when the, uncomfortable ennively. can't see why you meal—uncomfortable by find t usocensary to make a fuser TE curclergod atmwapbare—was of aa don't seo where the oheating and end crookedness comes in. Everybody — “Let's get down to bed rock, Hazel,” who buys stock gets their money jo sald gently. “Doesn't ‘It seem Paiese cea cour oid ene GAT? rather foolish to lot @ bundle of out- It's this fighting and quarreling wich #130 troubles get up go much frietion people who are not used to that gort parveed lua YWO) 7 aunt Met te of brute action—and the horrid things Mtr AOYUNNe | Up: Ot Cand this cold they'll say and think about us." q ’ be Bosco i ness and reproach from you, It's un- ‘About you, you mean-—as the wife just, for one thing, And {t's 6o un- of much & boor that's what's rubbing wise—if we value our happiness as @ you raw,” lung out passionately tYou're acquiring the clase peychol- (Ling, Worth making some effort to oxy good and fast. Did you ever ©, , 0 ” think of anybody but yourself? Have I don't care to discuss It at all, Lever betrayed aymptoms of idiocy? he flared up. ‘tive heard nothing Do you think {t natural or even likely ¢#¢ all day but this miserable mining for mo to raiso the devil ina business business and your ruManly method of affair like this out of sheer malice? sttling a dispute. I'd rather not talk Don't I generally have @ logical baaly about It for any position I take? Yet you “But we must talk about it," he don't wait or ask for any explanation persisted patiently, “I've got to show from im You stand instinctively you how the thing stands, so that with tho crowd that has swept you you can seo for yourself where your in the last six months. misunderstanding comes in, You ke another man's word that can't get to the bottom of anything it's all right and I'm all wrong, with- without more or less talk.” out waiting to hear my side of it. “Talk to yourself, then,” she re- And the petty-larceny incident of my torted ungractously, And with that knocking down two or three men and she ran out of the room, belng under arrest as much as thirty But sho had forgotten or underesti- minutes looms up before you as the mated the titke quickness of her utter depths of disgrace. Dingrace to man, He caught her in the doorwa: you! I I} you-you! How do you and the grip of his fingers on hi suppose ft strikes me to have my arm brought a cry of pats. wife take sides against me on snap “Forgive me. I didn't mean to Judgment lke that? It showa a heap hurt,” he said contritely, “Be a good of faith and trust and loyalty, doesn’t girl, Hazel, and let's get our feet on it? Oh, it makes me real proud and earth again, Sit down and put your glad of my mate, It does. By thun- arm around my neck and be my pal, der, if Granville had ever treated mo like you used to be, We've got no as it tried to treat you one time, ac- business nursing these hard feelings, cording to your own account, I'd It's folly, I haven't committed any wipe my feet on them at every op- one I've only stood for a square portunity.” eal, Come on; bi “If you'd explain,” Hazel began i are She harkens, hesitatingly, “Ul explain nothing," Bill flashed to be free stormily, “Not at this stage of the kame. I'm through explaining, I'm going to act, I refuse ta be raked over the coals ike a naughty child, you to tou " md then asked to tell why I did it. en ay mea es sald sternt: I'm sught, and when I know I'm right “I've stood about all of your non. I'll go the limit, I'm going to tako sense I'm able to stand. T've had to the kinks out of this Free Gold deal fight @ pack of business wolves to inside of forty-elght hours, Then keep them from picking my carcass, Um through with Granville, Here- and, what's more important ¢¢ ma Sho sobbed, struggling h-hate youl” little person, I can't eat ble ple more than once or twice. t me go," she panted, “I don't a What Would YOU Do— It you were on this earth and your sweetheart lved on act ath > Mare? That's NEXT WEER’S COMPLETE NOVEL IN THE EVENING WORLD, THE GODS OF MARS By Edgar Rice Burroughs (Auther of “TARZAN OF THR APES,” &c.) Did you read “UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS,” by Rdgar Rice Bur- lugged by footpade, and 4) thi take these. share a une. I've got ‘Weapons—and the thing le sadd last night I'd be through Inside a week. I'm through now— through here. I have business in the Klappan; to complete thie I've wet my hand to, Then I'm to the ranch and try to & t taste out of my mouth. I'm going to- morrow. I've no desire or intention to coerce you. You're your place is with me, anything about me. And T You know that, don’t you? de begging you like this if I haven't changed, nor had dazzled by any false gods, i ze Hi up to you. I don’t bluff. I'm going, and if I have to go without you i won't come back, ink It over, and just ask yourself honestly it's worth while.” He drew ‘ber up close to him and kissed her on one anger flushed cheek and then as be had done the night before walked straight away to the bedroom and behind him, Hazel slept little that night. A horrid welgbt seemed to rest suffo- catingly upon her. More than once she had an impulse to creep in there where Bill lay and forget it ali in the sweep of that strong arm. choked back the ips, would not forgive hin. hor suffer. For bis high sho would make him At least, sho would not ¢! begging forgiveness. 2 i F i Saas caaaiomannaiaenasnelioon Fi 55 # ‘When sunrise laid @ yellow beam, all full of dancing notes, across her bed, she heard Bill stir, beard Bim moving about the with restiess steps, After a time she also heard the unmistakable sound of a. trunk lid thrown and the movements of him as he his clothes—so she surmised. she did not rise till the maid sree on her door with the & o'clock tation: si ‘ “Breakt ma’am.” eating. living A few minutes after that Bil came in and took a seat facing her. “What are you going to do, Haselt” he asked sober!: your come tumbling about our out making the least effort vent?” he continued gently. ‘# not like you et never thought a bey By quit “I'm not a quitter,” she resentfully. “I refuse A yes beaten, that’s all, There appears to be only one choice—to follow a lamb. And I'm not lanbli ra ay that you were the quitter. You have stirred up all this ¢ bere between us. Now you' away from it. That's bow me, Go on! I can get along.” “I dare say you can,” he wearily. “Most of us can along somehow, no matter what Z pens, But it seems a*pity, little son. We had all the chance tn world, You've devel an normal streak lately. If you'd break away and come back with You don't know what good those old woods are. Won’ it @ while?” “Lam not by nature fitted to lead the hermit existence, returned sarcastical ‘And even while her tips were utter- ing these various unworthy little bitterneases she inwal at her own words. It ls not what ebe would have said, not at all what oe F e Fite half minded to say. a Ya belt msaneas spurred her, Bie was 1 of protest against every: teat Nee pooars Fema th Te od, C Br r had kiddie. ‘We'd ha @ fighting chance for happiness now; something to keep us sane, something outside of our own ego to influenge u “Thank God there isn’t one!” she main well” BIll alghed, "I queas “Ab, well,” 8 , there is no use, I guess we can't got together on anything. There doean't. seem to be any give-arld-take between ua any longer.” and walked to the door, hand on the knob, he turned. ‘0 fixed things at the bani for you,” he sald abruptly. ‘Then he walked on without waiting for an answer, She heard the soft whir of the cle- vator, A minute later she saw him on the sidewalk. He had an overcoat on tis arm, @ suit oase in bis hand. Sho saw him Itft @ finger to halt a ap er yee t seemed ine: j@ that he shoul go like that. Surely he woutd << back at noon or at dinner time. She had always felt that under his gentle- ness there was tron, But deep in her heart ahe had never believed 80 implacable of purpose where was concerned, Sho waited weartly, stirring with nervous restlessness from to TOCA Jancneen peaene . The 4 noon dragye toa ae And when the night. wrap ae ville 1 atte ere e, the street away eas rows she cowered, sobbing, in the chair by the window, He was SOAR emcee oe