The evening world. Newspaper, September 6, 1916, Page 15

ee THE RE of an find himself” until he aoe hme! SBORONA took the wateh and stopped the hammock awing nearest window fall upon the photograph, “She ts very beautiful; beautiful,” sho ad, returning the watoh, And an inmtaut later: “I don't see how you could say what you did about the seutiment. man’ The colone! had mounted the steps and was coming toward them, The young Woman slipped from the ham. mock and stood up. “Don't go," said Srtth, feeling as if If l were w he Wore losing an opportunity and nt his, teer pon leaving much unsaid chat ought to be ‘ ntion'to Nota on at| sald. the answer was @ quiet At nll costs, If Jostah “good night” and sho was gone. Y should come back to Bralth went back to town with the ut Smith would not allow colonel the next morning p ink of this. At the worst rested, to be sure, but | 1 of peril could not be long. hat mind bordering again donic. In the ve ing day, after-dinner « With the best-beloved, showing up all the inadequacies ‘Two things and two alone, stood out clearly: one was that Was most unmistak: in love y with Corona Baldwin, and the other was that he had shown her the Weakest side of himself by appealing callow boy to her sympathies, And thus matters stood AR one evening Smith, having chan, his @treet clothes for dinner in the cafe, Went downstairs and stopped at the @esk to tomas his room key to the one hotel registe: open 16 hotel ir was lying on tho counter, and from force of habit ho ran his eye down the list of late arrivals. At the end of tho list, in sprawling characters upon which the ink was yet fresh, he read his @entence, and for tho first time in his life knew the meaning of panic fear. newest entry was: “Josiah Richlander and daughter, Chicago. Smith was not misled dy the place- Bane. There was only one "Josiah Richlander” tn the world for him, and he know that the Lawrenceville mag- nate, in registering from Chicago, was only following the example of those who, for good reasons or no reasor place for @ registry address, CHAPTER IX. OR the length of time it took F him -to read Josiah Rich- Hophra House register and to grasp the full meaning of the Lawrenceville magnate’s pres- ence in Brewster, Smith's blood ran tack of shocked consternation, com- parable to nothing that any past ex- perience had to offer, Mise Verda and her father could alent visitors in brewster, Possibly he might be able to keep out of their way for the needful day or so, To resolve in such an urgency was to @ passing autocad at the hotel ea- trance, and the four miles between the city and Co! B ‘dwin's ranch had been tossed to the rear before he re- olined a dinner invitation for that @ame evening at Hillcrest, the de- clination basing jtself upon business. weeny, the small social offe: in use the name of their latest stopping lander’s signature on the old and there was a momentary at- be anything more than tran- aot, One minute later he had hailed membered that he had expressly de- it unremarked, or at least un buked. Smith found his welcome the ranch that of a man who has the privilege of dropping in unannounced. Smith, especially in this later m- carnation which bad ao radically changed him, believed as little in the psychic as any hardheaded young business iconoclast of an agnostic century could, But on this particular evening when he was smoking bis after-dinner pipe on the tlagstoned porch with Corona for his companion, there were phenomena apparently un- explainable on any purely material hypothesis. ure T have much less than half of the curiosity that women are gald to have, but, really, 1 do want to know what dreadful thing has hap- ened to you since we met you in the High Line offices this ‘morning— mamma und 1," was the way in which ae of the phenomena was made to “ecur; and Smith started so nervously Set he dropped bis pipe. “You can be the most unexpected yerson, when you try,” he laughed, Sut the laugh scarcely rang true, 4 What makes you think that any- thing has happene A “1 don't think—I know,” the small seeress went on with calm assurance, You've been telling us in all sorts of dumb ways that you've had an upset~ ung shock of some kind; and I don't believe it's another lawsuit, Am 1 right, so far?” “Wha-what!” the ejaculation was fairly jarred out of him and for a monient he fancied ho could feel a cool breeze blowing up the back of his neck, “You told me once that a woman was adorable in the exact degree in wifich she could afford to be visibly transparent; yes, you said ‘afford,’ T've been holding it against y I'm going to pay you back. You Mee crexsparent one, this tine By FRANC Vastern justice in the rugged West, f magnificently Yio AL. MAN IS LYNDE man d not became a fugitive from 4 Jou beve a0 gved os admitted th lett | nured, and aa once Defore there was aw little gasp to go rd. ‘Phen © wouldn ¢ sid’ snmweret) “ahe wouldn't; r father would” ~ from the Hill owing morning, & water by as much aay in the matter f sheer time-kiliing, It was a little before noon when he reached town by the roundabout route, and after put ling the horse up at the livery-stable In which Cel Haldwin was a hair owner, he went to the hotel to reeon. noiter. The room clerk who gave hin his key gave him algo the information ne craved. “Mr. Hichlander? Oh, yeu; he lett orning by the atage. He in some gold properties nee b y y pon life] his man and was weil] at tt would take sor | more alluring than a gold mine| he Lawrenceville milliona 6 away from his business at home for any considerable length of tima, CHAPTER X, T was dinner time when Smith closed the big roll-top | desk in the new private sulte in the Kinzie Building offices and went across the greet to the hotel. The dining room of the Hophra House was well filled, but the head waiter found Smith @ emall table in| the shelter of one of the pillars and brought him an evening paper. pamitn save his dinner order and exan to glance through the i Half absenuy he realized that the head wailer Was seating some one the place opposite his own; then the faint odor of violets, instantly rem! niscent, came to bie nostrils, b knew instinctively, and before he could put the newspaper aside, what had happened. Hence the shock, when he found himself face to face with Verda Richlander, was not so completely paralyzing as it might have been, Sho was looking across at him with a lazy smile in the glori- ous brown eyes, and the surprise was quite evidently no surprise for her, “I told the waiter to bring me over hero,” she explained; and then, qui Pleasantly: “It te exceedingly little world, isn't it, Montague?" The waiter had come to take Mi Richlander’s dinner ord.:, and tl taik paused, After the man had gone she began again, ‘The beard is an improvement—it makes you look older and more deter- mined—but it doesn’t disguise you. I ould have known you anywhere, nd other people will, You knew we were here?" e made the i” of assent, nd yet you didn’t think {t worth while to take your meals somewhere else?" He made a virtue of necessity, “I should certainly have takea the small precaution you suggest if the clerk hadn't told me that your father had gone up to the Gloria district. I took tt for granted that you had gone with m, The lazy smile came again in the brown eyes, and It Irritated him, “T was intending to go on up to the mines with him,” she said evenly. “But last evening, while I was wait- ing for him to finish his talk with some mining men, I was standing tn the mezzanine, looking down into the lobby. I saw you go to the desk and leave your key; I was sure I couldn't be mistaken; sc I told father that I had changed my mind about goin, out to the mines and he seem: greatly relieved. Ho had been trying to persuade me that I would be much more comfortable {f I should walt for him here.” Tt was no atirring of belated senti- ment that made Smith say: “You— you cared enough to wish to see me?” “Naturally,” she replied, — “Bome people forget easily: others don't, I suppose I am one of the others." “Put you believe me guilty, don't you? The handsome shoulders twitched in the barest hint of indifference, “I am not the judge and jury to put you in the prisoner's box and try you I suppose you knew what you were doing, and why you did It. “But I do think you might have written me a yntague. That would ha least you could have done. serving of the salad course n just here: and for some time d the talk was not resumed, not until the dessert had been that the young woman took thread of the conversation ag if it had never been served up the preeisely dropped, “[ think you know that you have no reason to be afraid of me, Mon- tague; but I can't say as much for father, He will be back in a few days, and when he comes it will be prudent for you to vanish, That ts a future, however, Again there was @ pause, and again it was Miss Richlander who broke tt, “What will you dogo away from Brewstor ayd stay until father has finished buying his mine “No; L can't very Well go away—for business reasons, ‘The slow smile was dimpling agatl at the corners of the perfect mouth, ‘Can You Dn Do You Taina ) | MUGHES was A oral i ) ) ) 1 Don’ - al now ( Beat It? 4, \\) “You are going to need @ little clared Smith enthusiastically, “We help, Montague—my —help—aren't closed the deal to-day for the last you? It occurs to me that you can half mile of the main ditch right of well afford to show me some little friendly attention while I am Robin- son-Crusoed here waiting for father to come back.’ “Let mo understand,” he broke tn, frowning across the table at her, “You are willing to tgnore what has happened—to that extent? You are not forgetting that in the eyes of the law 1 am a criminal? She made a@ faint little gesture of impatience, “Why do you persist in dragging that in? 1 am not supposed to know anything about your business fairs with Watrous Dunham body else, Hesides, no one knows me here, and no one cares, Besid again, I am a stranger in @ etrang city And we are—or we used to bo— old friends.” Her half cynteal tone made him frown again, thoughtfully, this time. “There ts a play of some kind at the Opera House, I believe,” said, rising and going around to draw her chair aside, “If you'd care to go I'll eee if I can't hold somebody up for a couple of seats.” “That is more like ft. I used to be afraid that you hadn't a drop of sporting blood in you, Montague, and Tam glad to learn, even at this late day, that I was mistaken, Take me upstairs, and we'll go to the play y ne dining room together, and there was more than one pair of eyes to follow them in frank admira- tion, “What @ strikingly handsome couple,” said a bejewelled lady who sat at the table nearest the door; and her companion, a gentleman with restloss eyes and thin lips and @ rather wicked jaw, sald: “Yes; I don't know the woman, but the man {ts Col. Baldwi: new financler; the fellow who calls Aimeelf ‘John Bmith.’” The bediamonded lady emiled dryly. “You say that as if you had @ mortal uarrel with his name, Crawford. If were the girl, I shouldn't find fault with the name, You say you don't know her?” Stanton had pushed his chair back and was rising. “Take your time with the fce-cream, and I'll Join you later upstairs. I'm going to find out who the girl 1s, since you want to know.” | When the “handsome couple” re- turned from the play the trust field captain saw them as they crossed the lobby to the elevator and again marked the little evidences of famili- arity, "That settles it," he mused, with an outthrust of t pugnacious jaw. “She knows more about Smith than anybody else in this neck of woods—and she's got it to telll” CHAPTER XI. HE work of construction had now reached its most criti- cal stage, and Williams was driving it strenuously, Zach twenty-four hours with the recurring night rise from the melting snows, the torrenting river reached a higher water mark, and three times in as many weeks tho engineer bad changed from a@ quick-setting cement to @ still quicker, Ume-saving and a swift piling-up of the great dike wall being now the prime necessities, Returning from the dam site quite late in the evening, Smith spent a hard-working hour or more at his desk in the Kinzie Building offices; and it was here that Starbuck found him, Starbuck Jack-knifed himself com- ably in a chair. ow's tricks with you now "We're strictly in the fight,” ge way, which puts us up on the mess slope above the lante Grant, If they knock us out now, they'll bi to do it with dynamite.” “Yes,” id the — ex-cow-man, thoughtfully; “with dynamite.” Then; “How is Williams getting along?” “Fine! Tho water is crawling up on him a little every night, but with no accidents, he'll be able to hold the flood rise when it comes. The only thing that worrles me now is the time Nmit."* “The time Hmit,” echoed Starbuck. “What's that?” “It's the handicap we inherit from the original company. Certain State rights to the water were conveyed in the old charter, on condition that the Project should be completed, or at least be far enough along to turn water into the ditches, by a given date. This time limit, which carries over from Timan- yont Ditch to Timanyon! High Line, expires next week. We're petitioning for an extenston, but if we don’t get it we shall still be able to back the water up so that it will flow into the lower level of ditches by next Thursday; that 1s, barring accidents.” “Yes; with no accidents,” mused Starbuck, “Can't get shut of the ‘tf, no way nor shape, can we? 8o tl why the Stanton people have been fighting @o wolfishly for delay, is it?” Then he switched abruptly. “Where did you corral all those good looks you yar a) the opera-house last night, ohn?” Smith's laugh was strictly perfuno- ry. “That was Miss Verda Richlander, an old friend of mine from back home, Bhe is out here with her father, and the father has gone up into the Topas country to buy him a gold brick.” “Hm; chasing up?" "Oh, no; it wi one of the near- Bh know I was here, and I had ry no bint that she was Miss Rich-folks has had only one day here in Brewster, but she's used it in getting mighty chummy with. the Stantons, Did you know that?” Wha ejaculated Smith. 80," smiled Starbuck. “She had her luncheon with ‘em to-day, and for an hour or go this evening the three of them sat together up in the Hophra inside veranda parlor, Does that figure as news to you?" “It does," said Smith simply, and he added, “I don't understand it, “Funny,” remarked the @x-cow- “It didn't ball me up for more minute or two, Stanton fixed it some way-—because he needed ta Tell me something, John—could this Miss Rich-garden help Stanton out in any of his litue schemes if she took @ notion?” Smith turned away and etared at the blackened square of outer dark- ness lying beyond the office window, “She could, Billy=but she won't,” he answered, ‘i'm; that's Just what I was most afraid of." “Don't be an ass, Billy.” “I'm trying mighty hard not to be, John, but sometimes the eara will te of the devil, What I mean fs this: When @ Woman thinks enough of @ man to keep to his 8 think too samo rots, she’s mighty likely much of him to keep secrets’ from spreading billboards when the pinch comes. ‘I'm no good at conu ” pald Smith. “Put tt in plain words’ “So I will,” snapped Starbuck, half ‘ » rrr ere a ss + tas By Maurice Ketten bi 2) m a 2 al Me Oe wee: o | \ Tar's ————— Taar'sS A / FUNNY UAT my FUNNY Galt) ey { EAaLe!} v neunanamneas (p> aa | u —— a) * ie” Z 2 = ¢ eA - ey . wr - ee ) =) - ur, ? py i, ¢ ee ee im THAT'S A MY, THAT'S A PLEASE Funny | FUNNY " WANE UP \ aera UNCLE SAM! \ (NCL AN Gone DRERMING — : x > mh pine OF HUGHES = Ou hire a body-guard or go heeled. I'm las you right here and now, that une morosely, “I eaw you two when you came out of the Hopbra dining room together last night, and 1 saw the Jo0k in that girl's eyes, Do you know what I said to myself then, John? : ‘Oh, you little girl out at the tt ranch--goodby, you!" grin was half antagonistic. “You are an ass, Billy,” he asserted. “I never was in love with Verda Rich- lander, nor she with me.” “Speak for yourself and let it hang there, John, You can't speak for the woman—no man ever can. What I'm hoping now js that she doesn't know anything about you that Stanton could make use of.” Again the High Line's new secre- tary turned to stare at the black backgrounded window. “You mean that she might hear of— of Miss Corona?” he suggested. “You've roped it down the friendly enemy. “‘Stantoi her—he'll tell her anything and every- thing that might make her turn loose @ny little bit of information she may have about you. As I said a minute ago, I'm hoping basn't got any- thing on you, John. Smith was still facing the window when he replied. “I'm 01 to have to disappoint you, Starbu What Miss Richlander could do to me, if she chooses, would be good and plenty. The ex-cowboy mine owner drew a Jong breath and felt for his tobacco- d rice-paper, ‘All of which opens up more talk trails,” he eald thoughtfully, “Since you wouldn't try to @ care of your- self, and since your neck happens to be the most valuable asset Timanyont High Line bas, just at (riggs 2 I've been butting in, as I told you. to my tale of woe, if haven't any- money!” ou say Stanten sald he had one more string to pull: he didn’t give it @ name, did he? ut I've got a notion of m; was tho ready ans ‘ trying to get next to you thi women, with this Miss Richpasture for his can-opener, But when every- thing else fails, he 1s to send @ pass- word to Lanterby, one of two pasa- words, ‘Williams’ means dynamite and the dam. “Jake’ means the removal from the map of a fellow named Smith, Nice prospect, isn't it?” Smith was jabbing his paper-knife absently into the desk-biotter, “And yt we go on calling this @ civilized country!” he said, meditatively, Then with @ sudden chi front: “I'm Int fight to stay until I win out or die out, Billy; you know that. A: T have said, Miss Verda can kill me off if she chooses to; but she won't choose to. Now let's get to work. It's pretty late to rout a fustice of the peace out of bed to issue @ war- rant for us, but we'll do it. Then we'll go after Lanterby and make him turn State's evidence, Come on; let’ wet bus; But Starbuck, reaching softly for a ghalr-righting handhold upon Smith's lesk, no reply. Instead, he snapped lthe body out of the chair and launched it in a sudde: tiger-spring at the door. To Smith's astonishment the door, which should have been latched, buck's wrenching bringing with It, the breath startled out of him, Stan- ton's spy, Shaw. “There's your State's evidence,” rough the : Miss seid Starbuck, grimly, pushing the Riete nncnte “epiied (ery a ball dased door-listener into 5 chair, “Just put the auger a couple of inches Rouble OF otBere Want to bear ebows 4210 this fellow and eee what you Smith nodded, an find. *All right. A little while past dinner Measured by any standard of human this evening, Stanton had a hurry call discomfort. Richard Shaw had an ex- to meet the ‘Nevada Flyer.’ ceedingly bad quarter of an hour to onto the train there was @ private worry through when Smith and Star~ luxury car, and in the private car sat buck applied the thumbscrews and & gentleman whose face you've seen Sought by every means known to plenty of times in the political car- modern inquisitorial methods to force toons, usually with cuss-words under @ confe#ston out of him, it. He ts one of Stanton’s bosses; and Caring nothing for loyalty to the Stanton was in for a wigging—and got man who was paying him, Shaw had, it. I couldn't hear, but I could see-- nevertheless, a highly developed anx- through the car window, He bad tety for his own welfare; and know- Stanton standing on one foot before ing the dangerous ground upon which pulled out and let Crawford he stood, he evaded and shuffied and ‘ay. You guess, and I')l prevaricated under th arges and ft was about questionings until {t became app: this Escalante snap which ie aiming ent to both of his inquisitors t to be known as the Escalante fizzle, nothing short of bribery or physical Ain't it the truth?" torture would get the truth out of Again Smith nodded, and said: ‘him, Smith Was not willing to offer on." the bribe, and since the literal thumb- screws were out of the question, Shaw was locked Into one of the va- cant rooms across the corridor until his captors could determine what was to be done with him, “He ts @ pretty amooth article,” “After Number Five had gone, Stan- ton broke for his auto » looking lke he could bite @ nail in two. I happened to hear the order he gave tho shover, and had my cayus hitched over at Bob Sharkey'’s joint ” “ “ Naturally, T ambled along after Craw. #4 Starbuck reflectively: “ite used ford, and while I didn’t beat him to th (0.00 Oe ae etd up in some 2 Oe) Grace S008 SBOUER. 1) Was Out kind of cropkedness, I don’t remember ‘Topaz trail, and Stanton was shut up Just What. u inthe back room. with ® sort of, tine Brith cought quickly of the eug horn ‘bad man’ named Lanterby.” minute, Billy," he broke tn; RO nd then: "thers no doubt in your “ff mind that ho's a spy? ‘Right you are, And they fooled me. “sure, be 4s,". waa the prompt re- henves were on tap; one polnt- er, t Williams and the dam, and the ““] was just thinking—he has heard at you. These were both ‘last what was sald here to-night—which *; Stanton said he had one more ty enough to give Stanton a’ pretty to pull first. If that broke-- good chance to outfigure us again.” “Right you ar , I've said tt half @ dozen times already, Jonn: you'll elther have te In which case tt would be little © aA new,” es-com men, and instead “ foah act, he went to ahut , 2 swund-proof telephone | When he emerged & few minu later he Was grinning exullingly, 1s going to got you, even If It ony The Evening World Daily Magazine. Wednesday. Sentember 6. 1916 i pe nner nee nore jNENT WEEK'S } | My ! j detective.” a master criminal as ecient fic BEGINS IN NEXT MONDAYS EVENING WORE That was oure & emoulh one of you John lnek eave me the facts. thaw @ thief, but be has @ alck sister on bis hands or aid be had—and the railroad dt prosecute, Dick eay for us to Jug him to-night and | row morning oomary Toget they want across the cor. rider, and Hintth unlocked the door the disused room. oN wi was on the door jamb an single Incandescent from the ¢eiling ep showed the two men at the door an empty room and an open window, The bird haa’ flown, CHAPTER Xtt. ITH all things moving favor- edly for Timany High Line up to the night of fas- oa, the battle of the great water-right seemed to take sudden slant inst the local pro: moters, after the failure to cripple Stanton by the attempt to suppress two of bia subvrdinates. Bariy the next day there were panicky rumors in the air, all pointing to @ possibie torprii to any dounite starting point. Smith fought mechanically, devel. oping the wachine-like dogged irresmwubly againet him and amites oo in sheer desperation. He saw the carefully built reorgan- isation structure, reared by his owa effurta upon the foundation laid by Col, Baldwin and his ranchmen asso- ates, falling to pieces. in spite of all be could do, th lc of stock~ welling continued; the City Counell, alarmed by the persistent story of the unsefety of the dam, was threat- ening to cancel the lighting contract with Timanyont High Line; aod Kin- aie, though be was doing nothing openly, had caused the word about the proposed compromise with the Escalante people to be passed far and wide among the Timanyoni etock- holders, together with the intimation that disaster could be averted now only by pfompt action and the swift cement of their rule-or-ruin sec- and ry treasurer. hey're after you, John,” was the way the Colonel put it at the close of the second day of back-allppings. “They say you're fiddiin’ while Rome's a-burnin,’ Maybe you know what they mean by that; I don't.” Smith did know. days of stress Mise Verda had been very exacting. There had been an- other night at the theatre and much time-killing after meals in the par- lora of the Hophra House, Worse eull, there had n @ daylight auto trip about town and up to the dam. The victim was writhing miserably under the price-paying, but there ned to be no help for it, ‘l know,” he said, replying, after the reflective pause, to the char, passed on by Col, Dexter, “There friend of mine here from the Bast, THE SCIENTIFIC GU AKTHUR DB Crag Kennedy” dory the fired fa wriad which wil detail the caplats of ta “oie In this he pits himeelf againa ineer io tell the story of ¢ wh of wi the svidier who sees the battie going During the to 4 OMPLETE NO MA REEVE methals are as las owen whose had already set in, wiped section of conerete & broad gap through whic! threaténed (0 pe ur, ondaay only the heath it, atmo the ture of the dam itnelf, The stagings were black verre back and forth wlare of the electrics, and ange Were laboring r the wreck made crumbling mass, to the end Pratt the rising 4 Williaing had caught sight to, and he came u ping 2 with « red handkerehvet ft “ The Oulkhead’s tn, and dumping concrete in another a narrow ‘ful narrow squeak!” mith turned to permission ia he: duced Williains, he was Celling tte the eae a tellin, | another ‘auto rose above ‘the the stagings, ‘8 gray ron the borrowed Tunabout’ “smien one glance at the small, trimly figure in the mechanician’s Beat bis Die Aros in helpless in wi 10" or tot, Males Richianaer: Cute see the construction battle at range and Williams w<3 open door of the about. The was afoot and Was helping his ter to alight. Smith swore a oath to keep his place, and he uve wae already in and Corona to lander. There was a bit wen Place talk, and then th walked down the embankment out upon the finished portion of dam, ity explaining the near- Cinaater ag they went. Smith sat back behind the wheel of the runabout and of Corona thi it she wae in hold upon lung in her derind of the sage an of the wee ie oueam, of pouring ¢ the ed spouts, Smith comel te ace Colonel and Williams bri: two women back to the camp What the light of the masthead arce showed him was the figure of one the wo returning alone, while two a the other woman on acro: stagings to the river bank where the patiery, oe maiz. ving lift, js @re fed the ewiftly mo Smith did not get out to go end andl a geen Sia to oe | her meet the returning 1 some attention, so they say I am age was not Reglecting ‘my Job They are also ee talking it around that I am your Jonah, and saying that your only hope {s to pitch me overboard.” He frowned gloomily. Then: “I am about at the end of my rope, Colonel—the rope I warned you about when you brought me here and put me into the saddle; and I'm trying desperately to hang on until my job's done. ‘hea it is done, when Timanyoni High Line can stand fairly on its own feet and fight its own battles, I'm gone.” “Oh, no, you're not, nied the ranchman-president in rouse pro- igen the roadster, was—and more, ee . mf ing hie freshly “eS ieee away ‘nd climbed out to “What do you think : mandea bhuntly, leans “What should I think? test. “I don't know-—you've never told scold you for Pa my & us— sort of a kettle of hot water that first evening? I'ee’ gee you've t into, but’ you've made @ thought better of it afterward.” few solid frionds here in the Timan- am not think! yon!, Jobn, and they are going to stand by you.” J Col. Dexter wot out of his chair and walked to the office window. When he came back it was to say: “Are they sure-enough chasing you, John?—for something that you have done? Is that what you're trying to tell_met “Th fe it—and they are nearly Baldwin fell back into his air and thrust his hands into pockets. It beats the Dutch how things tangle themselves up for us poor mor- tals every little so-while,” he comment- ed, after @ frowning pause. “Away along at the first, Williams and I both said you wasn't @ crooked crook, and i'm belleving it yet. When it comes to the showdown, we'll all fight for you, and they'll have to bring a d rick along if they want to snatch you out of the ‘Timanyonl.” ‘The telephoné-bell was ringing, Haidwin twisted his chair to bri himself within reach of the desk set, The message was a brief one and at its finish the ranchman-president was frowning heavily “Dy Jupiter! it does seem as if the bad luck all comes in @ bunth!" he protested, “Willams was rushing things just @ little too fast, and they've st a whole section of the dam by stripping the forms before the concrete was set. That puts us back another twenty-four hours, at least, Don't that beat the mischief?” And with that he cut the talk short and went his way, Brewster being only @ one-night stand on the long playing circuit be- tween Denver and the Pacific coast, there was an open date at the opera house, and with a k evening be- her, the Olympian beauty, mak- g the tete-a-tete dinner count for at it would, tightened her hold mo the one man available, de- quiet reply. t that, the Colonel Wiliams came up, bringin, Mise Richlaames, Smith drove the borrowed runabout back to town In sober silence, and the lous beauty in t seat beside id not try to make him talk. haps she too was busy with of her own, t Smfth had helped hi at the hotel entrance er as far as the elevator, shi him haif absently and took ‘nia eae cuse, that he must return the rum- about to Maxwell's garage, without Jaying any further commands upom im. bell. out of the and had ese ust as he was turning awa, boy came across from the clerk’ with @ telegram for Miss Richi Smith had no excuse for lingert with the air thick with threats be made the tpping of the boy answer Verda tore the envelope open read the inclosure with a fines! little frown coming and going Bee tween her eyes, glancing up at Smith, “Son has told him where we are, and he ie | following us. He says ‘he'll be on the evening train, Will you the mention of Jibbey, polled #on of the man stood neat to Josiah Richlander the credit ratings, and Law Smith's first emotion was one lef at the thought that Jibbey t least divide time with him entertainment of the bored once considered him a rival, the sham “rounder DI Brewster would constitute more’ threatening than all the for a momentary stop-gap. “It's from Tucker Jibbey,” she d tell him I've gone to bed Ville’s best imitation of a then he remembered that Jib! Put ASPET Be Continued) 4