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Show m J I CONDENSED I 1 I CLASSICS I B!I. I ;; f t Hf ' I OUR MUTUAIJ i D I FRIEND MM I I Hv , .'X B7 CHARLES DICKERS X V lit i 4 Condensation by X HI I Alfred 8. Clark $ 1 H i 'A SINISTER bird of prey seouicd T J,,H8I Ilcxni" crouched In tho K -. A. ytt,rn f (Jrty r0Wl,0Qti ,j, Bji eyes fixed upon the brond waters of H I the Thames, his linns Imre, his lmlr B matted, his clothe tnud-begrlmed. HI ' Twilight deepened the shndows cast Ha' l,y the huddled buildings of London, Hi' hut his gnzo did not swerve. Ilia Hj daughter, n girl of twenty, rowing In Hj obedience to Ids nods, rognrded him Bfl with n fascinated dread. Suddenly lie HJ , stiffened; the bird of prey hnd sighted HJ the quarry. A few minutes later bo- HJ ' hind the bout a body bobbed nnd Hj ' i lunged. Hexnm had found another BB '' corpse, the pockets of another drowned BH I soul to rllle. It wan this grisly llvell- HU ' ' hood that was reflected In tho fright BBI ' cned eyes of Lizzie Ilexutu, H The story of thnt And was to bo HJ talked about In drawing rooms; In HH dingy homes along tho waterside nnd Hft ' ' In tho comfortable bar of the Six .Tolly HUF Fellowship-Porters; In tho musty shop HB' J of Mr. Venus where skeletons leaped HHj out of corners us tho fire brightened; Hp in Dollln's Dower behind which rose HR ' ",0 dust-mounds that had created the Hw Harmon fortune. For tho body was HB Identified as that of John Hnr- H , mon, returned to Knglnnd to claim H n forttino of $500,000, left him by an H& eccentric father upon condition Unit H)' he wed n girl whom ho hud never HKi HfJ John Hannon was decreed dead nnd HJ tho furtuno en mo to Nlcodcmus Doflln. BAY He remained tho snmo unafTcctcd and H lovable- man ho had been In tho past Hmf ' when ho was foreman In chnrgo of tho Hj dust heaps. They wcro singularly HJ happy, wcro Mr. and Mrs. Doflln. Men H nnd women laughed at their oddities HK but never with malice. Commonplace HBf ns thoy were, there was a sterling HHu worth to them. HHf Eager to atono for his lack of school- HW ing, Mr. Iioflln hired Silas Wegg, HBi wooden-legged vendor of sweets nnd HHpJ ballads, to read aloud Gibbon's story Hr of Home. Ills eyes popped with HHh Hstonlslfhient as Wegg plowed stolidly Hj ahead, making havoc of Roman names. HB) "I didn't think there was half no many Hfi Bearers In print," Mr. Doflln muttered HBH Ho acquired, too, n ward and a scc- HH rotary. Delia Wllfer had been named HBJi in the Harmon will as tho son's futuro HH bride. Her blighted hopes so troubled BH&( Mr. Doflln that he Installed her In his HH homo, treating her llko a beloved HBH daughter. And soon after John liar- BBpN Bion disappeared there cntno Into Lon- HH don u mysterious John Ilokcsmtth, who HH obtained tho position of secretary. A HBB secretive man was John Rokcsmtth, BBpJ unwilling to speak of his past HBfl j Itoguo Rldcrhood, former partner HBM 'and now sworn enemy to Jesse Ilaxam, BBB act afoot suspicions that Hexaro hnd BBpJ Kurdcred John Harmon and tho law HBM trailed tho vulturo of tho Thames. It HV, found Jesso dangling behind his boat HBb as so many had dangled thoro before, BBBj swept overboard and caught In his HBK rope. Eugcno Wrnyburn was one of HBS tbe trailers, and again ho looked Into HBm the clear eyes of Llrzlo Hoxnm. H Ltzzlo found rcfugo with Fanny BBBS Cleaver, bettor known as tho Doll's HBfl Dressmaker, a fantastic llttlo crcaturo HBS, with n tonguo ns Bharp ns tho needle HBB she bo Incessantly piled. Intruding HBM Into Lizzie's Ufo cntno tho lovo of HBflp Bradley Uendstone, n moroso mnn, and HK, of Eugcno Wrnyburn, conscious that S she was too far below him for 'mnr- B ringe, unwilling to do her hnrm, and HHB yet unabla to resist his longing to bo HBM near HHB Rejected, Dradlcy Headstone vowed HBB vengeance upon tho man whom he be- HBB llcvcd responsible. In tho Doflln BBB home, too, unhnpplness was brooding. HBB Delia Wllfor, her head turned by BBS wealth, remembering poverty at home, HBBk net her heart upon wedding a rich HBJBIL mnn and discouraged John Rokc HBBTl - smith. Tho secretary had other trou- BHB: bles. Ho was trying to put together HBm tho past. Ho recalled a voyage, a jHBBj ship upon which ho was known as BBBJr Jhn Harmon. Ho remembered com- HJ iC ashore and going with n mnto to 'BH t,le house of Roguo Illderhood. Some- HBM where was a room where ho drank cof- AHBjf 'co. Then stupefaction, with gleams HBB of memory concerned with n flght, a IHVJ elide, cold water swirling about him, HBS a rcscuo and a dorislon to test Delia BBS? by taking another nnme. After that BaBf tho discovery of tho mate's body, mis- HB taken for that of John Itarmon. BH, Suddenly Mr. Doflln seemed to loso HVJ' Ids amiability. He was gruff With his HJ secretary; ho turned to stories about HH xnlscrs. "Tho more I save, tho rnoro HHi yon shall have," ho said to Delta, but BS she did not llko tho cunning look In BR his eyes, Nor was Silas Wegg uloof BS from tho lust for money. Ho enst cov- BBJ 1 vtous eye-' upon tho mounds that had HB t luvip Mr. Doflln "tho Golden Dust- HH ' man." He explored their lowlands HJ. and Uielr summ'ts, poking about for HJHj treasure. Perinea there might ho nn- Hut h other will, Ho did And n later Ujv- I II 4 mon will and cherished It as u wenpon I BjE ' wherewith be would bleed his bene- ' H factor. j Llzzlo Hexnm, frightened by her lovers, disappeared. Neither Head-stono Head-stono nor Eugcno could traco her. Dut Ucadstono fancied that Eugcno would find her nnd for weeks he trailed his rival. Eugcno was aware of this morose figure that was never far behind be-hind him, and he took nn Impish do-light do-light In ronmlng nfter nightfall through all tho four quarters of London. At tho samo time, matters wcro np-pronchlng np-pronchlng a climax with tho Rollins Silas Wegg was preparing his trap; Mr. Doflln was dally growing more surly. At lost ho blazed forth and discharged John Roke.smllh for aspiring aspir-ing to tho hand of Delia to secure the Harmon fortune. Dut Delia took tho part of tho dismissed secrclnry and cried bitterly ns she recalled the lovable lov-able Mr. Doflln now transformed Into this terrible monster of greed. Sh sought again the poverty of her childhood child-hood home. It did not tnko John Roke-smith Roke-smith long to And her nnd tho cherubic Mr. Wllfer felt happily faint when he saw his Delia's head And whnt seemed n natural resting-place upon John's breast. Meanwhile Eugene hnd found Liz-zlo's Liz-zlo's hiding plnce. near I'loshwnter Weir Mill Lock. Eugene rowed up tho river to the hamlet, hut did not notlro tho Interested lock-keeper who swung open the gates for him. Nor did he know that n mnn dressed like the lock-keeper lock-keeper was near, watching him with hnleful eyes. Tho latter wns Dradley Headstone; tho gate-keeper was Roguo Illderhood, who was known to hnto Eugene. Rldcrhood puzzled more than a little when he saw Headstone, with murder In bis eyes, In clothes precisely pre-cisely like his own. Eugene walked at nlghtfnll with Llzzlo Llz-zlo by tho hanks of tho river. Headstone Head-stone ?ould not know that Llzzlo begged Kugcno to go away, but ho saw their llpn meet. A shadowy figure kept close to Eugene nfter that until something some-thing seemed suddenly to crash In his bead and the stnrs nnd moon reeled In his sight. Ho closed with his assailant, as-sailant, thero wns n scuflle nnd n splash. Lizzie, tormented by her talk, had not gone to her room. She henrd the splnsh and rushed to the river bank. When sho saw n face In tho river she hurriedly leaped Into n boat. No man could have been more skillful with onrs. Sho reached the floating body, caught It bj iho hnlr, secured It and screamed for nelp. Help did not come before she bud hound nnd kissed thnffneo thnt wn so dear to her. Scarred and mntrcd as ho wns, Eugcno Eu-gcno struggled back from tho border of death. Ho did not expect to recover re-cover when he nkcd Ltzzlo to marry him, but sho wns ns proud of h'm when sho wns made his wife ns though ho had been standing In full strength by her sldo Instead of lying hclplestly Roguo Rldcrhood remembered thnt Ucadstono hnd Intended him to suffer for tho crime. So he nnnounced thnt ho would dog neadstono until ho wns paid handsomely. Headstone knew thnt tho scoundrel would trail him forever, for-ever, ns ho had trailed Eugene. Ho walked nway without n word, with illderhood nt his heels. Ho stepped out upon tho hrldgo thnt held back tho Thames and then suddenly caught his tormentor with a grip thnt could not bo shaken. They wrestled back nnd forth on tho brink, stendlly near-Ing near-Ing the edge. Rldcrhood tried In vain to draw a knife, no fought, ho tried to Hqulrm free from that relentless embrace. em-brace. At last he went over backward with Ucadstono gripping hlra. They found tho bodies locked together. in mo mcnntimo anas wegg tightened tight-ened his screws upon tho hnplcss Dof-fln. Dof-fln. Dut tho dramatic scene that ho hnd planned did not work out, for thero was a later will than the ouo he hnd found, giving everything to Mr. Doflln. So Mr. Wegg wns suddenly swung out of tho houso nnd Into a passing scnvcnger8 cart. Ills wooden leg waved n gyrating farewell as ho passed out of tho Doflln house. Delia Wllfcr had becomo Delia Roke-smith, Roke-smith, and thero was a wonderful, tiny Delia before sho understood Mr. Dof-fin's Dof-fin's strango miserliness. Not till then did sho lenrn that her nnmo was Delia Harmon nnd that Mr. Doflln had been troubled by her hardness ol henrt. So ho had decided to try her. It was for that reason that ho had been so gruff and miserly. He wns glad ho had dono it, for It hnd proved Delia's worth and given her the mnn who loved her. And now, although tho Harmon fortuno hnd been left by tho Inst will to Mr. Doflln, ho resolutely reso-lutely refused to tnko It. Ho kept only money enough to llvo comfortably for tho rest of his happy days. Tho magnificence of tho new homo where Delia was to llvo Impressed even her Impressive mother, and Jio cherubic cheru-bic father was mado Jolu's secretary secre-tary and released from the numbing life thnt had been his for many years. Dut perhaps John and Bella nud tho Dofllns too who wcro living with them wero made happiest by tho long visit thnt they had from Mr. nnd Mrs. Eugene Eu-gene Wrnyburn. Eugene was slowly winning his wny back to health and tho old affected cynicism had departed. depart-ed. Ho was prouder of his wife from tho slums than ho was of his own distinguished dis-tinguished family and the place In society so-ciety that had been his. Copyright, lilt, br tho Post PublUhtnfl Co (Tho Boston Post). 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