The evening world. Newspaper, October 7, 1922, Page 13

Po IT ETT TORE MEN RIM EIEN THE EVENING WORLD, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1922. ™~“ “2 a _THE EVENING WORLD'S COMPLETE NOVELETTE S Sin — Tr 7M ANS ESE ool SF! = eC sp Cc By Samuel Hopkins Adams. A. Story of Youth and Love and Hate.and Treasure THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY. GILBI | HAYDEN, youthful and susceptible, set to work to ild his shattered nervous system ZELDA TREFAYN somewhat older, IR. WES iS herves NANCY of Broadway I the cause, in part, of Hayden's neurasthenia. TON, who prescribes work as the best cure for Hay- musical comedy NELLIS, also a patient of Dr. Weston, who becomes bly interested in Hayden's occupation cure HARRIS HALTON, six’ feet emphatically acquainted with Nellis. NE asset and one liability inaes ‘tely balanced th xistenc young Mr bert Hayden The et was several square of New Jer- cy. ‘The lability was a Ruined Life had ac- quired t he asset san offset # the his ad- liability, on ihysician’s & vice. ou buy u lot somewhe: old Dr. Weston, who t H for thirty years in Morristown, hich young Hayden had removed personal wreckage, ‘and build sex a shack on it with your hands. By the time it's done I have sweated her out of your Vho said anything about a her?” Mbasied the patient with the exas- of badly frazzled nerves yhen a young foul of twenty-four sleep o' nights and drops fifteen 4s’ weight and loses his appetite nything heartier than bootleg key, there's usually the flutter of irt. somewhere, Wouldn’t she you?”’ sho wouldn't," growled the ih. ‘at's lucky,’ opined the brutal Me ‘for both of you.” Mr. Hayden deemed it most ky for himself and highly repre- ible on the part of Miss Zelda yne, then singing with marked ss a minor but piquant part tn Broadway triumph ‘'The Musical Warly in the previous spring had picked him up, dusted bim and finding him an amusing and hetive human toy, petted him p as much as was good for either hem, But when he developed monial ambitions, she, being a ible and honest individual, wad ised and disconcerted. Vho, me?” said she. “What do want to do that for? You're only d and I'm twenty-seven if I'm a When I marry, it'll be real cash, fee I'm looking him over now, et it, honey."’ Gilbert pampered vounded egotism with so profound of the sulks that his private and » diagnosis of a broken heart Ri in a fair way to be justified he fell into the hands of Dr. ton. . Ibert attacked the burdock growth is Plot with sustained fury and fe slaughter, Having cleared the he built him o toot shed and pro- 4 with a grim determination to hid property. His hands blils- with toil. His nose pecled with yun, His temper got worse and ‘ He hated ey thing and Fypody, and particularly Dr. Wes- But he began to get an occa- 1 ‘night's sleep into the deep iness of which troublous dreams elda did not penetrate: NE day he began to whistle at his work. The very mext afternoon trouble arrived, Me sat on a rocky mound, with #-tilted head, delightfully breath- the spring. She was a golden- n creatures, brown of skin, brown rb, ruddy, brown of wayward |, with russet gleams and dreams ler tawny eyes. Her hat, a small impudent affair, teetered atrily on Now as if it might burst into song ny moment. Her slender body, forward to let her hands‘ join her knees, soemed to pulsate to ncy of the warm, sweet earth. ng Mr. Hayden interrupted his long enough to give her ono "ge of savase gloom. What was Ging on his property, anyway Id he ask her? No; why bother? turned to his shoveling. iftteen minutes passed. ‘The tres- ier said: Don't you ever stop to rest?’ @ toller said, ''No."’ ‘pat ended that. Ten minutes more The girl said: wish you'd tell me what you're ding this lot.’” As; but why?” 0 build a bungalow on." © deeper hues turned golden in id eyes as sho ened them very she began to chuckle. “That's "she remarked. ‘That's very y. You don't really know how vy it is. Haye you been at it week."* t's odd I haven't seen you. I nearly eve afternoon.’ work in the mornings.'' ‘ou're grading it beautifully for a ut,’’ she continued persuasively ome mysterious reason this ed to afford her further amu: . “You must have been working hard haven't had any interruptions,” jointed out, “np to now.'’ 1’? Said’ the brown girl. Then, pusly, ‘I believe you're getting PEt having me around, She rose, her hat, set it in place at a or mote, who becomes suddenly Hayden, through the diplomacy of disturbing angle, and strolled a few paces away to the side of the mound where she seemed to be alternately examining a sign-boavd and consult- Sng a document which ‘she had taken from her pocket. When she returned she was undergoing some sort of inner struggle which ended in her complete surrender to amusement. Gilbert drepped his shovel, stood up straight and glared the best glare he had in stock, It worked. The girl sobered down “Goodby,"’ she said, quite plead. ingly. But there was a suspicious twinkle somewhere back of the ap- ness he barked ain?’ she insinuated. As this elicited no response she added “1 was thinking of coming back to morrow. Yes? No? Oh, well; just as you say. On the morrow she was there, The indignant delyer was not. Something else was, a sign-board planted con spicuousty on the very spot where’sh had been sitting, Tt wqs freshly let tered and obviously of home manu facture. NO TRESPASSING {t announced to all and sundry. The girl regirded it with ‘kindling eye “y or that,’’ said she, and left the sion of the threat to the un- born r " HE door of the office slammed Doors always slammed behind Nancy Nellis, as if imbued by her mere touch with some of her blithe and irresponsible young vigor She darted over to Dr. Weston, plant ed a kiss on his left eyebrow, per formed a series of dance steps, and janded with a flying squirrel effect In t chair, “Behave yourself,’ protested the “Don't you know you're an “Do I look it? I feel about five years old. When are you going to buy me a trowel and rake? ? I want to grub in my new property “Walt a week, other patien “That violet-eyed grouch! He awful. No boy has any right to eyes like that with long, curly lashes to make ‘em worse. Girly stuff." “He can't help his eyes. He came by ‘em honestly; I used to know his Did you see my mother, years ago."’ “Oh, did you!’ Miss Nellis’s own eyes regarded him with suspicion. “So that's it. I wondered why the special interest in him. Telling me to be nice and friendly with my neigh- bor on the Development. Well, \t was all wasted, He's about as friendly as a rattlesnake."* The physician chuckled. “I told you his nerves were a little on edge." “You told me he needed a gentle stimMlus. As a gentle stimulus to vio- let-cyed nerve-wrecks, £ thought L might do. But I don't “All that I hoped of you," said the doctor with apparent innocence, ‘was that you might give him a renewed interest in life by making love to him a little.”’ “Me? I don't make love to men," said Miss Nellis primly. ‘Sometimes they make love to me," she added less Do they?" marvelled Dr. “T wonder why?’ to chuckle very Weston. The girl began much as she had chuckled at Gilbert Hayden's toilful,agony. ‘‘He hasn't been working on his lot.'’ “He hasn't! Dr. Weston's words snapped. ‘‘Don’t tell me the young slacker has been shirking.’’ ‘Not that, either. It's too good to keep. Promise you won't tell? Bol- emn, silent, strike-you-dead oath?" ‘The physician erossed: his hands on his chest and closed his eyes sol- emnly, “Wil right, He lot."" ‘Your lot? What the —— " “Grading it, and getting all the mean little stones out, and fixing it so neat and pretty for my garden. Only, he thinks it's for his bungalow. “How does he get that way? Has his brain gone wrong?'’ “Some mix-up over the numbering of the parcels, I suppose. He's 16 M and I'm 16 N and he got the wrong location; that's all." “But surely he'll t@entify the sisn Sooner of later,"’ “He might,’’ agreed the girl placid- ly, ‘jf I hadn't changed ‘em. ‘That was after he put up his hateful ‘Trespassin’ board."* OR the ensuing fortnight Mr. Gilbert Hayden led the life of a sideshow. The brown girl was exhibitor and ballyhoo, Whoever her companion chanced to be—and he was usually young, male and good-looking —the effect was the same, inextin- guishable hilarity. It was perfectly evident to young Mr, Hayden that he was getting funnier and funnier all the time. He went grimly on work- ing There came a heavy, moist, tepid May morning when all ambition oozed out of the Hayden soul.@ Dead, drab working on my circles, “ monotony, He ‘would almost have welcomed the brown girl with her teasing laughter, as a break in the drear stillness of the day. He hurled rock at the No Trespassing ‘sign, and as he turned again caught sight of little approaching. ‘The brown girl was alone this time, The car stopped.” The brown girl got out car Did she hesitate and glance at him? At any rate she didn't laugh, That was something No; she was walking aimlessly across the land- scape away from him. Oh, well! He swung his pick around his f Whence had the puff of hot wind, a a high, susta The rock shattered storm come? A rush of cold air, ned roar overhead as if spring itself had turned Berserker, and the solid column of the rain came charging across the flat. He saw the brown girl running lightly ahead of rmount a fence, leap a ditch, gain the road and reach her car in a gallant sprint, just as the first drops overtook her. Meantime he had taken refuge in his tool-house. Somethir seemed to be wrong with her car; t) engine wapldn't start. Through half open door he could see her de: perntely manipulating the levers. She jumped out and undertook to lift the “THE TWO YOUNG GENTLEMEN THEN RUSHED INTO A FER- VENT EMBRACE.” hood, but the savagery of the rain beat her back to shelter. The roadway became a_ yellow smear, perilous to any wheel. Then the whir of the conquered engine wes borne downwind to him. The run- about moved, gathered Headway, seemed to drift to leeward os a tre- mendous burst of wind struck it, and slithered to the ditch's edge where it precariously, hung at a threatening angle. Catching up a bert dashed to the rescue. open the door. huddled back in the corner. sprays of water filled the air. “Come out,"’ invited Gilbert bran- dishing his poncho. “I don’t want to,'' she retorted. “You're not safe here,’ he urged. “You'll tip over any minute. Come along to the shack." “TL won't.” “What's the matter with the girl!"’ he cried in despair. “f j-J-just don't want to go on for- rubber poncho Gil- He jerked ‘The brown girl was Little “There! Don't be such an Idiot. Buddenly she leaned forward. ‘I'll eo! it—tt——' “Well? If—— “If you'll take down that horrid sign.’ Without clearly knowing how it happened, she found herself plucked powerfully out of the seat, swathe’ In rubber fods and carried lghily through (he wild swirl of alr ead water. An inexplicable reckless..ess swept her. She softened herself mm his grasp. Her head drooped lower and lower untl!, as he felt the stidden, sweet warmth of a wet cheelt pressed to his own, he staggered and atmost dropped her in the very doorway. Accidental, of course, and meaning nothing to him, anyway. Yet her eyes seemed to have taken on an in explicable lustre in the dimness and her voice awoke strange echoes within him as shé said soft! “To-morrow, W. to-morrow?" ou dig tt up “What? The sign? 1 certainty will." He was surprised at the con viction in his tone She chuckled. Not as she had chuckled at him that firet day, but a low, rippling, contented, mothering sort of sound, ‘Honor bright-and- bound?" she demanded. “Honor bright-and-bound,"" He re- peated the unfamiliar oath “That's all right then, Let's see,’ she mused, ‘You don't like gitls, do you?" Thus recalled to his wrongs, he an swered gloomily: "No. Though I his would don't know where you get it.” “Tt didn't take so much guessing Well, to-day we're just pals together. I'm a fellow workman. I'll tell you all about it HICH she did to the effect that, not having recuperated properly from ‘a tonsilitis operation she had been sent. to her uncle's country place a mile distant; had persuaded him to buy here a plot of ground of her own to play: w and was awaiting Dr. Weston’s pe mission to ®et busy on it. She in ended, she explained, to be a land- scape dener, Wouldn't he give her a job on his pla (With a threatening attack of the nekles again, the original kind) Maybe he would, if he could afford tt + eOh, well; she wouldn’t be dear. Not to him, anyway. What did he do, anyway, besides shovel dirt like human steam scoop? Half of every day he was a oes new advertising ideas and that sort of thing, out of which he some day derive vast wealth and glory, though at present the debtor universe was holdittg out on him Yes; but why (this © hours later) hadn't he called } ntlon to the fact that the storm was all over and the sun shinin . To tell the truth, he hado noticed it himself, Did she really have to go? So soon? When was she coming ba 5 Perhaps to-morrow, Perhaps the day after “{ wish you'd tell me one thing, though,"’ he said, appealingly, as he put her in the car. She had the grace to blush a little. “The joke? If I promise never to laugh at you again'’—— “IT don't want you to do that,” he interrupted, hastily. ‘I'd miss It. But {t isn't so pleasant when you bring other people into it."" “You are a nice boy, and I'll promise not to share you as a joke any more. But as to telling you— well, we'll gee to-morrow.’ As the car started she leaned out to call back: ‘‘Don’t forget about the sign." He waved reassuringly. He would 4o it that minute. Starting purposely toward the mound, he checked him- self in astonishment. Under the clawing of the rain nearly a fourth of it had come down in flaky ruin. He kicked about amidst the rubble. A queer looking pebble, roundish and the size of a marble, rolled from his foot. He picked it up. It was en- crusted, except in one place wich showed clear, warm and crystalline, as ruddy and lucent gleam Mke—like— well, like the look from a girl's brown ey Ibert stared and stared, while bits of all-but-forgotten geology from his college course buzzed in hi i: This was certainly the famous serpen- tine rock formation of New Jersey, decayed and flaky. Of a sudden the proprietor of Lot 16 M, abandoning pick and shovel and forgetful even of his hat, left that place ona run, ‘T matter of the offending sign had wholly lapsed from his intoxicated mind ALIS could aged und-lop r ISS NANCY NE hardly believe eyes, There on the stood the same old sign. Now was the perjured digger to be seen, although it was nearly eleven o'clock, “LL fix him for this!" she promised herself savagely. Back she drove to her uncle's and phoned to Mr. Hannis Holton, largest, huskiest, and most persistent of her coterie of adorers. Yes, indeed; Mr, Holton would come out to luncheon Meantime the delver Into earth's mysteries had made a hasty trip to Princeton to see an acquaintance tn the mineralogical department, and had come back rather mor excited than he went. In his pocket he brought a small globe of beauty over which he did much resticss dreaming, picturing its effect set in dull gold and pendant around a slender neck; but somehow it was not the clear pallor of Zelda Trefayne's blond skin, but warmer, richer-hued back nd. He roge late and rather frazzled out noon before he got to his job and at tacked the rotting serpentine rovk in with thrilling antictpations Tt was after- Three more encrusted cry' Is, all sma}! ones, rewarded his search, and he was burrowing like a badger when he heard the familiar purring “of the little car. Bagerly he turned, dropping his pick, and gtopped short, A Inrge handsome you€n was with the brown girl, She was talking to him with an bsorbed interest that ex all else, particularly Mr. Gilbert Hayden They reached the boundary line the climax of her taJo simultaneo and both burst into peals of laugh ter, directed obviously gt him, The s: stuff! Fury rose in had promised never again to s him ‘as a joke. Well, he'd stand about so much of it and then Giibert's soul “Hannis,"’ the brown dressing ler companion, sign down, won't you?” The sign! Wrath drained out of Kis veins and feft him feeling queer nd shaky, He thrust out a hand in appeal toward her, ‘W-w-walt a minute,” hg implored. She ignored him. “Tt around here, somewhe: the large youth. “Right-o!"" returned that six-footer cheerfully, and advanced. Gilbert swung his pick, ‘‘You get off my property, or I'll brain you."* Young Mr. Holton ceased to ad- vance. ‘That's something else again,"’ he conceded reasonably. “Will you brain me?" inquired the brown girl coolly. She walked up to him and took the pick out of his nerveless hand. “I want to explain,’’ he began “Please get off my property." “Your property?” He stared at her In @ daze. “Yes, mine. the wrong lot. the deed.” Mechanically he took the papers. Therein was indubitably set forth the ownership of Nancy Nellis in the parcel on which they stood. “Th-th-then,"" stuttered the stricken interloper, ‘the m-m-mound belongs to you and not to me. “It does, And It's going to stay . I ike it."* ‘And I've done all m nothing.”’ “For me with a hap: ‘The large, into a loud, 1); tol was ad- “take that re's a shovel she sald to You've been working Here's the map and th work for corrected Mins Nellis ile. ing Mr, Holton burst cclafive guffaw. Gil- bert walked over to the other. “You think this is funny, don’t you?? “I'l say it's funny," asseverated the escort. “Well, what do you think of that?!’ Synchronously with the final word Mr. Holton recetved and absorbed a flat-palmed smack on the jaw, which sounded like a toy pistol The two young gentlemen then rushed into a fervent embrace. The visitor was ualf as big again as the home talext, but the latter's weeks of toil ha¢ sinewed him lke a wildcat and he jought with all of that earnest feline's sincerity © the alone ani med specta- I tor It aeemed that some one might well | led or sert- ously damaged, but the victim was more likely to be the son of toil than the son of ease. Arbitration occurred to her ea timely. She es sayed it first by verbal appeal, and without tho slightest effect, then with the interposed handle of the pick, which only seemed to intensify mat- ters, and finally, as the combatants swung apart for breath, by the o! stucle of her own slender body. It was an ill-advised move. bert, lunging wildly forward to sume, swung a blind right, felt it land on something softer than his foe’s' countenance, heard a low cry, and saw the girl stagger back with fingers pressed to her mouth. She took them away, and a tiny trickle of blood smeared the brown akin, With a strangled gasp of dismay Gilbert caught her in his arms, Ho pressed her face against his, his tips to the cruelly bruised spot, cradiing For a moment her eyes looking up Into |, wondering, spec- She pushed him her 4o him, opened close to his, them with a startl ulative expression. uway. “You're a brute and I hate you,” said sh Then young Holton knocked Him flat All the fight was out of him néw Tt was the word, not the blow, that iad done it, He sat up, bowed his head on his knees and began to shake all over, fartly from fury at the up Just fates, partly as tho final lapse of his overtaxed and still supersensitive nerves, A hand on his shoulder. very low and not quite at to his ear. "Oh, don't do that He shook off the light touch *“L don't belleve you're much Don't be a bum sport. A bum sport! Frem her! That was the limit. He glared up.at her. “Oh, you go to blazes!" he snare: and dropped his head again “All right, If you feel that way about it." The voice had hardened. He heard the rustle of her dress, ber low-toned speech with ber esoort, and presently. the throb of the departing car, She was gone. He was glad of it. He hoped she'd never come back. He hated and despised her; wretched I\t- tle crook, to get all that work out of him! Suddenly he straightened up. There was a way to get even if he could keep her in ignorance of what that mound concealed. “Til fix her for this,” he promised himself savagely, A volee, dy, close hurt Nancy Nellis Gilbert the Dig- ger was now familiar; first #4 a rainy Gay pal, which had so en grossed him that he temporarily for- fot his broken heart; and second as a reversion to the feminine which lad left him bewildered and shaken, Now he was on his way to see ter tn # third , that of a business woman, He himself was all made up internally as WW" two manifestations of Miss ® business man, the hard-boiled variety, the kind that says “Business ts bw and under that legend does things from which a self-respect- ing murderer would shrink. By hook or crook, probably the Iatter, he was going to acquire possession of Lot 16 N which he had so disastrously mis- taken for his own 16 M. Of its prob- able value he now possessed a fair extimate, for he haa been surreptiti- ously working the serpentine lode for five nights, and the rewards of his criminal operations were astoundin Aw he approached the treasure spot and beheld the brown girl busy with @ trowel on the level which he had so painfully graded, a thrill which he identified es sheer hatred ran through his \yelns. Even Zelda Trefayne's maltreatment of his feelings retreated into the background, An ho crossed the limits of No, 16 N he delivered himself of @ chill, troductory cough, The brown girl half lifted her head, glanced coldly in his direction, pointedly in the di- rection of the ‘No Trespassing’’ sign (now consptcuousl: her name), and re “I've come on business, “Business? Wit! ‘Yes. “It isn’t for sal ly ornamented with verted to her work, "* he stated. h me I want to buy your lot."* lo." She eat down, selected « small bush from a bundle and proceeded to scoop out a hole for its reception, Vl! trade you mi fered persuasively. one; ‘flatter and for it," he of- ‘Mine's a better nearer the road. What do you say?’ She considered for a moment, yours isn't improved, calmly, “Improved! Well, I’m “But she pointed out —"* He atified his natural expression of resentment, realizing that for diplomacy, improved."* this was a® occasion “Yours Isn't much “By several weeks of hard labor,” she answered. And improvements are worth money,’’ How much money?"’ “I heard you say one day that you wouldn't do that much work for any- body else for $1,000."" ‘igure of speech, “It's a good point,” “Starting point? further?’ “Well, figure as there's the tool shed. he said hastily a starting Are you going any Say a hundred for that. “Anything more? hard controlled vo! “N-n-no. tlat bill, $20. teeth loose. “Well, is that th You “You aren't sorry,’’ “Then there's the the trespass sign, you at least a hundred more, Just teach"'—— “Look hv Oh, yes; there fs. Miss Nellts, in desperately “it's he asked in a lice. Den- knocked two of my Aren't you sorry?" he total?’* she decided. broken word about That ought to cost to " he broke ‘8 @ rotten, sneak- ing trick you're working on me, but I've got to stand Will you take my dollars to boot? cash to bind the the agreement to dotted line, “fe that really all For an instant shot through him. for it, I suppose. lot and five hundred Here's a hundred bargain, and here's sell, Sign on the What do you say?" it's worth to you?" @ sickening qualm Was she only playing with him? Had she discover- cd the secret of the rocky mound her- self? No; more, “That's every if she had she'd be asking cent; he replied with outer firmness. “Very wel She took the pen which he extended and, after a mo- m1 ture, Tere's your hu celpt, too, please, She shook het head slowly. want it." Again he took entary hesitaney, affixed her signa- indred. Sign the re- “I don't alarm. Without a cash consideration the deal was not he vettled. “You sted. oT give tt to “What do you want of that thing have to take it,” you for that 1¢ demanded In astonishment, “Lwant it," she replied in a die, away yoice, ‘to r were decelyers ev Laughing at hh “Lt comes well fro} emind me that men er.” im again, was she! m you to talk about deceit,” he retorted, ‘Letting me work myself to the bone on your property and then charging me for my own Iabor, 1 guess that's fair and decent—from a girl's ipoint of jew!!! What do you know about girl's points of view?’ she came back at im. “You don't suppose I ever meant to take your money, do yo really intend to let you go 1 didn't on working here, but you were so mean and petty and snappiah I just thought {t would do you good to work t out, Ike And anyw you break your promt nr word, honor- “T forgot,’ he This was receiv (poiro proper to its weakness as ‘That's likely, isn’ staring you tn the face n \n your systen had po excuse to se when you gave bright-and-bound. said lamely ed with the scorn plea. t it, with the thing very minute.’ ‘There were other things that that" — His head was buzzing with the desire to square himself with her, even though she hadn't been quite square with him—or had she, after all? out betraying the but he couldn't well do it with- great secret, Until the transfer was registered he'd stick to the safe side of quiet. the sign ff you want {t,"’ he Sn- have ished sullent, nyway, you won't need it. “You can mn promise never to come om your prop- erty." For some reason this failed to fil him with the satisfaction which It should have inspired. "Besides, my name fe signed to ft. Can I go dig tt up now?"* “1'll dig it myself."* shack, mount tod the little ascent H* got his spade from the teot and started t girl rose, followed, o work. The brown and sat down near him under the screening hat to watch the process. Presently she inquired: “Why are you so anxious to own thin yours 1s bette! “Sentiment,” he sclence was doing inside him, “I should think sentimental as @ opined. ‘I'm the particular piece of property if mapped, His con- uneasy things deep you were about fence-post, ntimental one, try ing to play fair, letting you off easy on your bargain, though you're hateful and spiteful and just because, 8 a woman, and your word isn't worth @ peanut-shuck, there was just a minut He “When was that Just a weeny Di ute when I almost liked you. dropped his spade abruptly. ~ of a min- * ho demanded. “Never mind when tt was. Tt isn't now. And ft never will be again. "Oh!" he groaned. ‘What's the use! I can’t do tt.” “What's wrong now? demanded the brown girl In lively apprehension “You're not going to burst out Into sobs, you?" “No,"' he informed her, looking up with « rueful grin; “I'm going to burst out {nto raucous laughter at myself for being the biggest boob on earth to think I could put anything Nike that over on you." Like what she demanded. ‘Like this. From his pocket he drew a handful of pale, globular fires and dribbied them into her lap. Her breath quickened as she gased first at the clusters of strange fame and then at him, but chiefly at him. “They're lovely. What arethey?’ “Beryl, Out of this mound you're sitting on “TL don't them there © laughed shortly, ‘Old la@y Na- ture, She scattered a lot of pratty trinkets like these all over New Jer sey, and thin ts one of the places where she shook her Christmas tree." “Are they valuable?’ The brown xirl pursed her brows and stared at thé gems in her lap. “Worth about eight hundred del- lars, that lot. This bunch of serpen- tine rock sown with 'em. TI con- sratulate you, Miss Nellis, ‘Me! They're not mine," “Whore else would they bet’ ‘Why, yours. You found them, didn't you?" “On your p:®perty.’" “Yes; but I’@ never have tound them myself,’ she argued eagerly. “r wasn't going to disturb the mound,’ ‘Well, you can disturb it now to the tune of sixty or maybe a hundred thousand dollars."* The brown girl gianced up at him “You needn't say that as if you hated me for ft. It's all your fault anyway.'’ As no response wo vouchsafed to this she added “What are you going to do now?'’ “Go away, from here and stay,’ “But—but, suppose I don't wan| you to go, I think you might stay and help me dig out the Betty marbles,"’ “You can get plenty of other People to do that,"’ “Yes; but they might not be honest, How do I know they wouldn't steal my lovely Jewels?’ “You said I wasn’t honest.” “That was about the sign On: Realization began to dawn In he: eyes. “I'll Just bet It was when you found the beryls that you fergot al! about the sign, Wasn't it?” “Yes. “Well, you ought to be very muc ashamed of’ yourself,” she asserte:! primly. “Never mind; I know t 1 can trust you now,” she concluded triumphantly. “Maybe you can,” he blurted out “but T can't trust myself.” “With the pretty beryis?” she in quired innocently. "Blather the pretty beryla! you, if you want to know. Yor well, that's the reason [ couldn't & through with the deal, If it had been anybotly eise I might have." Her bat drooped a little more over shadowingly, but he¥ votco was quit brisk as she reminded him: “I thought you came here on business’ understand, Whe put With Ix that your Idea of talking bus all talked," sald he disconac “Not at all. How about our forty. ing a dittle partnership to work thi» mine of ours? D'you call it a mine or what?"' “What kind of partnership?’ “Ohy we'll let the lawyers fix. thet You see, I need some one I can trus: fo run the place, and you need an open-air life for your poor nerves’ ¢ No, I don’t. I'm cured of all that foolishness.’’ At this so queer a littic smile crinkled the corner of her mouth, visible to him that he cried angrily: “Whi nerves? “Not much,"’ she soothed han. “Just hint or two that I picked ap from Dr, Weston. & & wonderful phys!- clan, don't you think?’’ He's « rotten physician,” asserted the other passionately, “He put me out here to be cured and the cure is worse than the disease. “How unflattered she'd be—not tha: I know who she ts—if she heard her self called a disease,” ruminated ti mischievous Miss Nellis, She stretched out her hands, “Ilelp me up, please As he drew her to her feet he saw, fv the first time, the left eorner of he e@miling lips. A deeply discolore Patch marked |t, At this he stared | fascinated dismay. “That's what yeu @id,"" she ao cused, nodding at him. But her hands remained in Bis, “Tve done enough,” be said hoarsely. She shook her head; her eyes dance at dim, “Not enough,” she contra dicted, “or else too much. Why ary you staring so queerly? You-—yo, don’t see any No-trespass sign there do you A moment, a rather long moment, later she was readjusting a sme!! cross of court plaster whioh had in- explicably become displaced, “The X.” she observed @ iittle catchily, “marks the spot where the orime was com mitted. * * * And expiated,” she added after another interlude, “What again? Don't you realize that we've got business to talk over stil? What bout the partnership?” "Oh, we'll let the minister Ox that,” said Gilbert the Digger, ecatatioally. do you know about my Copyright. All rij Printed arrangeinen| News) vi Tih Matropelita wi ita ‘New Tork,