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Show GREEN FANCY 1 1 0 GEORGE BAM Ptefe. McCUTCHEON M-WMMiML Author of "GRAUSTARK," -THE p -lf ' HOLLOW OF HER HAND," "THE A,PR NCE OF CRAUSTARKT ETC ' ' Copyright by Dotid Mead ani Company. Inl Ftrapxlinpc out of tliP nlfrtit w'ln-n thoy stole ucross tlifi road al)Ove Hart's Tavern and made their way through the Klahle yard (o the rear of the house. I lis one thought was to get her safely inside the Tavern. The dour was locked. He delivered a series of resounding kicks upon its stout faee. Kevolver in hand, he faced ahout and waited for the assault of the men who, lie was sure, would come plunging around the corner of the building in response to the racket, lint there was no attack. At last (here were sounds from within. A key grated in the lock and a holt was shot. The door flew open. Mr. Clarence Dillingl'ord appeared In the opening, partially dressed, his hair sadly tumbled, his eyes blinking in the light of the lantern he held aloft. "Well, what the " Then his gaze alighted on the lady. "For the love of " began the embarrassed Dilling-ford. Dilling-ford. "What the dev I say, can't you see that I'm not dressed? What the" "Give me that lantern," said Barnes, and snatched the article out of the unresisting un-resisting band. "Show me the way to Miss Thackeray's room, Dillingford. No time for explanations." "Well, for the love of " "I will take you to Miss Thackeray's room," said Barnes, leading her swiftly swift-ly through the narrow passage. "She tlPl111' - ill mm y lfp Kill owners, Mr. Barnes a loyal prince of the blood." "But why here?'' he insisted. "He was to take them into Canada, and thence, in good time, to the palace of his ancestors." "I am to understand, then, that not only yon but the committee you speak of, fell into a carefully prepared trap. The treachery, therefore, had its inception in-ception in the loyal nest. You were betrayed be-trayed by a friend." "I am sure of it," she said bitterly. "If this man Sprouse does not succeed suc-ceed in restoring the oh, I believe 1 shall kill myself, Mr. Barnes." The wail of anguish in her voice went straight to his heart. "He has succeeded, take my word for it. They will be in your hands before be-fore many hours have passed." "Is he to come to the Tavern with them? Or am I to meet him " "Good Lord!" lie gulped. Here was a contingency he had not considered. Where and when would Sprouse appear ap-pear with his booty? "I I fancy we'll find him waiting for us at the Tavern." "But had you no understanding?" "Er tentatively." The perspiration started on his brow. He was thinking of something else: his amazing stupidity stu-pidity in not foreseeing the very situation situa-tion that now presented itself. Why had he neglected to settle upon a meeting place with Sprouse in the event that circumstances forced them to part company in flight? Fearing that she would pursue the subject, he made haste to branch off onto another line. "What is the real object of the conspiracy con-spiracy up there, Miss Cameron?" "You must bear with me a little longer, Mr. Barnes," she said, appeal-ingly. appeal-ingly. "I cannot say anything now." "You said that tomorrow night would be too late. What did you mean by that?" She waited a few seconds and then removed her head from his shoulder. He heard the sharp intake of her breath and felt the convulsive movement move-ment of the arm that rested against his. There was no mistaking her sudden sud-den agitation. "I will tell you," she said, and he was surprised by the harshness that came into her voice. "Tomorrow morning morn-ing was the time set for my marriage to ihat wretch up there. I could have avoided it only by destroying myself. If you had come tomorrow night instead in-stead of tonight you would have found me dead, that is all. Now you understand." "Good God ! You were to be forced into a marriage with why, it is the most damnable " "O'Dowd God bless him ! was my only champion. He knew my father. He" "Listen !" he hissed, starting to his feet. "Don't move !" came from the darkness dark-ness outside. "I have me gun leveled. I heard me name taken in vain. Thanks for the blessing. I was won-derine won-derine whether you would say soine- '1 am ready to return -with yon, Mr. O'Dowd," she said distinctly. "There must be no niggle, ,uo bloodshed. Anything hut that." O'Dowd spoke out of the darkness: "You forget that I have your own word for it that ye'll be a dead woman before be-fore the day is over. Wouldn't it be better for me to begin shooting at once and spare your soul the everlasting torture that would begin imniejiately after your self-produced decease?" A little cry of relief greeted this quaint sally. "You have my word that I will return with you quietly if " "Thunderalion !" exclaimed Barnes wrathfully. "What do you think I am? A worm that " "Easy, easy, me dear man," cautioned cau-tioned O'Dowd. "Keep your seat. Don't be deceived by my infernal Irish humor. It is my way to be always polite, po-lite, agreeable and prompt. I'll shoot in a second if ye move one step outside out-side that cabin." "O'Dowd, you haven't the heart to drag her back to that beast of a " "Hold hard ! We'll come to the point without further palavering. Where are ye dragging her yourself, ye rascal ras-cal ?" "To a place where she will be safe from insult, injury, degradation " "Well, I have no fault to find with ye for that." said O'Dowd. "Bedad, I didn't believe you had the nerve to tackle the job. You may be interested to know that up to the moment I ieft the house your absence had not been noticed, my dear Miss Cameron. And as for you, my dear Barnes, your visit is not even suspected. How the divil did ye do it. Barnes?" "Are you disposed to be friendly, O'Dowd?" demanded Barnes. "If you are not, we may just as well fight it out now as later on." "Y'ou are not to fight !" she cried in great agitation. "What are yon doing? Put it away! Don't shoot!" "Is It a gun he is pulling?" inquired O'Dowd calmly. "And what the deuce are you going to aim at, me hearty? 1 have a bull's-eye lantern with me. From the luxurious, seat behind this rock I could spot ye in a second. Having Hav-ing said as much I now propose arbitration. arbi-tration. Would ye mind handing over that tin box in exchange for my polite po-lite thanks and a courteous goodby to both of ye?" "We have no box of any description, Mr. O'Dowd," cried she triumphantly. "Thank heaven, he got safely away !" "Do you mean to tell me you tame away without the your belongings, Miss Cameron?" exclaimed O'Dowd. "They are not with me," she replied. Her grasp on Barnes' arm tightened. "Oh, isn't it splendid? They did not catch him. He " "Will you both swear on your sacred honor that ye haven't the jew-els in your possession?" "Unhesitatingly," said Barnes. "I swear, Mr. O'Dowd." "Then," said he, "I have no time to waste here. I am looking for a tin box. I beg your pardon for disturbing disturb-ing you." "Oh, Mr. ODowd, I shall never forget for-get all that you have " "Whist, now ! There is one thing I i must insist on your forgetting completely: com-pletely: all that has happened in the last five minutes. WThat I am doing, Mr. Barnes, would be my death sentence sen-tence if it ever became known." "It shall never be known through me, O'Dowd. I'd like to shake your hand, old man." "God bless you, Mr. O'Dowd," said the girl in a low, small voice, singularly singular-ly suggestive of tears. "Some day I may be in a position to " "Don't say it ! You'll spoil everything every-thing if you let me think you are in my debt. Bedad, don't be so sure I sha'n't see you again, and soon." "Tell me how to find Hart's Tavern, old man. I'll" . ; "No, I'm dashed if I do. You ought i to be grateful to me for not stopping you entirely, without asking me to give you a helping hand. Good-by, and God bless you. I'm praying that ye get away safely. Miss Cameron. So long, P,arnes. If you were a crow and wanted to roost on that big tree in front of Hart's Tavern. I dare say you'd take the shortest way there by flying as straight as a bullet from the mouth of this pit, following your extremely ex-tremely good-looking nose." They did not wait for the break of , day. Taking O'Dowd's hint, Barnes directed his steps straight out from the mouth of the quarry and pressed confidently onward. In answer to a question she informed him that there ' were no fewer than twenty-five men in ' Green Fancy, all of them shrewd, reso- , lute and formidable. "I cannot, for the life of me, see why they took chances on inviting me to the house, Miss Cameron." She was silent for a moment, and when she spoke it was with great intensity. in-tensity. "Mr. Barnes, I had your life in my hands all t he time you were at Green Fancy. I shudder now when 1 think of what might have happened. Before you were asked to the bouse, I was coolly informed that you would not leave it alive if I so much as breathed a word to you concerning my unhappy plight. .The first word of an appeal to you would have been the signal for for your death. That is what they held over me. When I spoke to you on the couch that night, I oh. don't you see? Don't you see that I wantonly, cruelly, selfishly risked your life not my own when I" "There, there, now !" he cried, consolingly, con-solingly, as she put her hands to her face and gave way to sobs. "Forgive me," she murmured. "I didn't mean to be so silly." "It helps, to cry sometimes," he said lamely. The first faint signs of day were CHAPTER XIV Continued. 12 Lying there, he made swift calculations. calcula-tions. The quarry, no longer of use to the builder, was reasonably sure to be abandoned. In all probability some sort of a stone-cutter's shed would be found nearby. It would provide shelter from the fine rain that was falling and from the chill night air. He remembered remem-bered that O'Dowd, in discussing the erection of Green Fancy the night before, be-fore, had said that the stone came from a pit two miles away, where a fine quality of granite had been found. Two miles, according to Barnes' quick calculations, would bring the pit close io the northern boundary of the Curtis property and almost directly on a line with the point where he and Sprouse entered the meadow at the beginning of their advance upon Green Fancy. That being the case, they were now quite close to the stake and rider fence separating the Curtis land from that of the farmer on the north. "Good," he said, more to himself than to her. "I begin to see light. Are you afraid to remain here while I go down there for a look around? I sha'n't be gone more than a couple of minutes." "The way I feel at present," she said, jerkily, "I shall never, never from this instant till the hour in which I die, let go of j-our coat-tails, Mr. Barnes." Suiting the action to the word, her fingers resolutely fastened, not upon the tail of his coat but upon his sturdy arm. "I wouldn't stay here alone for anything in the world." "Heaven bless you," he exclaimed, suddenly exalted. "And, since you put it that way, I shall always contrive to be within arm's length." And so, together, they ventured along the edge of the pit until they reached the wagon road at the bottom. As he had expected, there was a ramshackle ram-shackle shed hard by. It was not much of a place, but It was deserted and a safe shelter for the moment. A workman's bench lay on its side in the middle of the earthen floor. He righted it and drew it over to the boarding. . . . She laid her head against his shoulder and sighed deeply. ... He kept his tyes glued on the door and listened for the first ominous sound outside. A long time afterward she stirred. "Are you cold? You are wet " "It was the excitement, the nervousness, nervous-ness, Mr. Barnes," she said, drawing slightly away from him. "Isn't it nearly near-ly daybreak?" He looked at his watch. "Three o'clock," he said. There ensued another period of silence. si-lence. She remained slightly aloof. j "You'd better lean against me," he said at last. "I am softer than the beastly boards, you know, and quite as harmless." "Thank you," she said, and promptly ; settled herself against his shoulder. "It is better," she sighed. "Would you mind telling me something some-thing about yourself, Miss Cameron? 1 should like to know whether I am to address you as princess, duchess, or ! just plain Miss." i "I am more accustomed to plain Miss, Mr. Barnes, than to either of the titles you would give me." "Don't you feel that I am deserving of a little enlightenment?" he asked. "1 am working literally as well as figuratively fig-uratively in the dark. Who are you? Why were you a prisoner at Green Fancy? Where and what Is your native na-tive land?" "Mr. Barnes, I cannot answer any one of your questions without jeopardizing jeopar-dizing a cause that is dearer to me than anything else in all the world. 1 am sorry. I pray God a day may soon come when 1 can reveal everything to you and to the world. 1 am of a , stricken country; I am trying to serve the unhappy house that has ruled it or centuries and is now in the direst peril. The mnii you know as Loeb is a prince of that house. I may say this to you, and it will serve to explain my position at Green Fancy: he is not. the prince I was led to believe awaited me there. He is the cousin of the man 1 expected to meet, and he is the enemy of the branch of the house that 1 would serve. Do not ask me to say more.'1 "Your .sympathies are with the entente en-tente allies, the prince's are opposed? Is that part of Sprouse's story true?" "Yes." "And O'Dowd?" "O'Dowd Is anil-English, Mr. Barnes, If that conveys anything to you. He Is not pro-German." "Wasn't it pretty risky for you to carry the crown Jewels around in a traveling bag. Miss Cameron?" "I suppose so. It turned out, however, how-ever, that it was the safest, surest way. I had them in my possession for three days before coming to Green Fancy. No one suspected. I was to deliver them to one of their rightful "How Is She? Is She Resting? Does She Seem " will make you comfortable for the that is until I am able to secure a room for you. Come on, Dillingford." Miss Thackeray was awake. Through the closed door she asked what on earth was the matter. "I have a friend here a lady. Will you dress as quickly as possible and take her in with you for a little while?" There was no immediate response from the inside. Then Miss Thackeray observed, quite coldly: "I think I'd like to hear the lady's voice, if you don't mind. I recognize yours perfectly, per-fectly, Mr. Barnes, but I am not in the habit of opening my " "I guess I don't need to dress," said Miss Thackeray, and opened her door. "Come in, please. I don't know who you are or what you've been up to, but there are times when women ought to stand together. And what's more, I sha'n't ask any questions." She closed the door behind the unexpected un-expected guest, and Barnes gave a great sigh of relief. "Say, Mr. Barnes," said Miss Thackeray, Thack-eray, several hours later, coming upon him in the hall, "I guess I'll have to ask you to explain a little. She's a nice, pretty girl, and all that, but she won't open her lips about anything. She says you will do the talking. I'm a good sport, you know, and not especially espe-cially finicky, but I'd hate to" "How is she? Is she resting? Does she seem " "Well, she's stretched out on ray bed with my best nightie on, and she seems to be doing as well as could be expected," expect-ed," said Miss Thackeray dryly. "Has she had coffee and " "I am going after it now. It seems that she is in the habit of having it in bed. I wish I had her imagination. It would be great to imagine that all you have to do is to say, 'I think I'll have coffee and rolls and one egg' sent up, and then go on believing your wish would come true. Still, I don't mind. She seems so nice and pathetic, and iu trouble, and I " "Thank you. Miss Thackeray. If you will see that she has her coffee I'll I'll wait for you here in the hall and try to explain. I can't tell you everything at present not without her consent but what I do tell will be sullicieiit to make you think you are listening to a chapter of a dime novel." He had already 'aken Putnam Jones Into his confidence. He baw no other way out of the new and somewhat extraordinary situation. (TO BE CONTINUED.) "Don't Move!" Came From the Darkness Dark-ness Outside. thing pleasant about me and. thank the good Lord, I was patient. But I'd advise you both to sit still Just the same." A chuckle rounded out the gentle admonition of the Invisible Irishman. CHAPTER XV. Large Bodies Move Slowly But Mr. Sprouse Was Smaller Than the Average. There was not a sound for many seconds. She was the first to speak. |