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Show THE GIRL, A HORSE AND A DOG II I B " By FRANCIS LYNDE ' I " yw, K - -..OorrUhl by Oharles Berlbncr's Bom H sTANNIE, OLD BOY, THERE'S YOUR FORTUNEI" i'oir portion of Grandfather Jasper's property was worth, at m(sl valuation, something like $1,1,0,000. It lies in a perfectly Repository, situated between 105th and 110th degrees of longli-Mctst longli-Mctst from Greenwich, and the 85th and Wth degrees north lati-B lati-B When you find it, you will be able to identify it by the prcs-Bf prcs-Bf a girl with brown hair and blue eyes and small mole on her Rouldtr, a piebald horse which the girl rides, and a dog with K face half black and half white. You will be more than Bfo find the three together; and if you make the acquaintance K qirl you'll be on the trail of your legacy." Hd there't that! Stanford Broughton it an attractive young ioclo. H, relying on tho fortune his grandfather ! going to leave him. H, will gives all the tariglble property to Sanford'i coutln, Percy. Tercv writes Stannie, as in the foregoing, sagely adding, "All HB got to do is to go to work and find it." HB Stannie, shocked into reliance on his own resources, sets out. HKds the dog and the horse. Next ho finds the girl. And then he HB" that the "perfectly safe repository" is a drowned-out gold He mine was flooded and shut down, but as soon as Stannie gets HBtrmK around it he finds that other people want it, just the HBln fact, they want it bad enough to try to kill off Stannie and HBrl's father, caretaker of the mine, in order to get possession. HB dynamite, sulphur fumes everything goos. Stannie gets his Hp and turns out to be a regular fellow. And as for the girl HBrorlh a dozen gold mines, HEncis Lynde wrote this thoroughly good story. He long ago HBlmielf famous by his railroad stories. Dollars to doughnuts he's HBof this mining story 1 H CHAPTER I. Hiln Percy's Little Joke. HBee every one has had the ct-Hof ct-Hof waking In tho middle of H to find everything perfectly HB quiet und norinnl, nnd yet HB Impression persisting tlint HB been n tremendous Crash of HBt Just before tho waking HBre alive enough to realise It. HBine such razing Jolt ns this HB given me on the. morning HBas called In, with the other Br ,l,e fm,i' to ,,sttn to ti,e HBf ray gmtulfnthct's will. HBst, however, to give some HBe conditions precedent, ns n onld sny. My 'rnther good. He. cfimfort-'lovlng Dad I HB whnt Ornmlfntlier Dud- Bi; lils thin lips nnd snnpplng HB3 out, culled "the money tV an architect high In his Hft and with line artistic feel- Bie beautiful In buildings, he Hwiberul Income nnd spent It: B'1 of " that there was barely BB't after his denth to provldo Bother and sister, nnd to keep BK as you might sny. In nn ex- B modest manner. Without Bean. I may as well confess, Blmt I had never acquired the Bt. I was nlwnys "going to." Hjf3 R0 fl,n".v easy to keep on B' the chilling plunge. I sup- HP ,,een r('lu,y on nt least half BcciMlons to take a dive Into fl) with n snlnry attachment ; B) "omo good friend would B sny, "Oh, come on, Stannie, B we're lacking Just one more Bap the hiincli. Don't he a Bmo enough to settle down. Bhavo to," and then It would BB you sec, there wns always BB?r Jn6Ilc'r I" the background. Boaey lashings of It, so wo BBJ; and It hnd been a family BK for years that he In-Httlng In-Httlng the bulk of It, fifty-Been fifty-Been niy COl,s,,, Percy nnd He we R any fnrther.'let mo n tlint Cousin I'ercy was BB1' the seventeen different Minings that 1 am not, and 'Bed to be; smooth, neut, well- ! "erlnd" In college and n ' with the girls, am- B(,'e very devil, nnd mcosur- B'"'1 by the amount of "pull" .BB bo able to exert In his be- ; you have him from the BWlls well brushed llttlo head HtrnMeather pumps. :HJ,B fright, Stunule." ho would BB curefully polished dlplo- ?er7,,e ll111' n hlllut In the 'BB1 of state nt Washington, BB" training for tho legation BK !? T"J'"U nru n PWoct whole years out of col-Bu col-Bu "uven't dono u single, BB?U thing yet. When are BB beslu? And, Incidental- 'Hutogr i,)U Kol"K to kcep Hl'T.'8!11 ",ero wns nnother -''" nd I-some BB" " B,,vnco of Qrnnd. bK utK an,! Wo w',r BBn m. "NS1. nnd had K fromCn" l" ,hnefl' ,,,ut K B l'n""Kh to """ry en vl y of fm,r K'rlB In a ' hht B ,0UrplW. ntl there K en? ,0l('"" on " th- B M' " "utally In t giT'-'nlrendyheen A, 8? "' "J-" I. witnessed lf-S Gner.r GrUndfn' "' m"y rve to bring us D bnck to that nlghtmnre efTect regis-tcrcd regis-tcrcd at the start. When the Dudley will wns taken out of the Icebox nnd rend to the ussembled members of the rnmlly, there were nt least two shocking shock-ing surprises. Jasper hadn't been anywhere any-where near ns rich os we had all been thinking he wns; that his modest manner of living had been, perhaps, as much a mutter of necessity us of choice, nud Investments of which the family hnd never beard so much ub n whisper hnd cut bis fortune down to something less than half n million, nil told. That was shock Number One; nnd shock Number Two wns strictly personal to me: Grandfather Grand-father Jasper had left me his love nnd best wishes, and hnd willed the money and property all of It, mind you to Cousin I'ercy, giving as his renson that he thought I'ercy would make better use of It. Of course, I hnd everybody's sympathy sympa-thy and condolence even Percy's, for tlint matter. My mother wept; and, ns I recall It, Llsctte managed to compass com-pass a tear or so when I told her whnt had happened; or rather whnt had so Ignomlnlously failed to happen. "Whatever will you do?" she faltered. fal-tered. "1 suppose you will reully have to go to work now, won't you, Stan-nler Stan-nler "Perish the thought 1" I told her; then I gave the good reasons why there was no hope for us In that direction. di-rection. "A fnt chance I'd have to cam nny real money. I can navigate a yacht a little, drive a motor, ride a polo pony, und play n fair hand nt bridge and the other great American game. I think these nre the sum total of my shining accomplishments. You needn't return the ring," I grinned, seeing that she wns looking nt It rather regretfully. "You enn wear It on Fomo other finger, you know." "Yes; I suppose 1 could do tlint." she agreed; and I'm blest If she didn't shift It to n linger of the other hand right there nnd then I It wns less thnn n week offer this little fade-out scene with Llsctte that Percy's letter enme. This Is what It snld: "Dear Stnnnle: "1 know Just about how you felt last week when you heard Grandfather Grandfa-ther Jasper's will read, and It Isn't going to make you feel any better now when I tell you that I knew of Its pro-visions pro-visions more thnn a year ago. When tho will was drawn, grandfather nhowed It to me, and gave me i sealed envelope, which 1 was to open after his denth. That envelope, ns 1 knew nt the time, contained, among other things, n codicil to tho will. Hy Its provisions you are to receive a legacy under certnln conditions which were to be revealed to you nt such time as I might think best. "Your portion of Grandfather Jasper's Jas-per's property was worth, nt Its latest valuation, something llko 5110.000. It lies In a perfectly safe repository, situated situ-ated between the lOTith nnd 110th de grees of longitude west from Green wlch. nnd the 35th nnd loih degree north latitude. When you find It .vim will be nhlo to Identify It by the pies enco of n girl with brown hair and blue eyes and small mole on her left sltn'ulder. a piebald horse whhh Hie girl rides, and a dog with a split faT half hlnck nnd half white. You wnl ba more thnn likely to llnd the threi together; und If you nmke the tie qunlntnnce of the girl, you'll be on the trail of your legacy. "So there you are, Stnnnle. old boy; m your fortune. All you've got o o go to work nnd find It. Per- 1, tlint tlmo you will hnve ac- thu working habit which Is t ,:dfather .Inspcr hoped might ( t , the case. ' ,g you great Joy In your search, I am, "Your affectlonnte cousin, "I'EUOY." f Naturally, I bad a quiet llttlo laugh over this screed of Percy's, taking It for a Joke; n poor Joke and In rnther bud taste, I thought. Iu that mood 1 handed the letter to Usette for her to read. Kbo didn't lau3h, but she did look a bit scornful and put about, If you know what I menn. "I don't suppose the blue-eyed girl would appeal to you," she suld. "though the horse nnd the dog might. When do you stnrt?" We discovered tlint Meridian 105 west of Greenwich split the state of Colorado Just beyond Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo, and the hunting-ground hunting-ground plotted out for me took Iu three-fourths of tho remainder of the state, a slice of Utah, a good hit bigger slice of New Mexico, with a bite out of the northeastern comer of Arltona, Just for good measure. "Me for tho wild and woolly I" 1 hrnyed. "Don't you see mo rigged out In n nice, hnlry pair of 'shops' nnd riding hell-bent-for-lenther I believe that's the phrase over the snow-copped snow-copped peaks or the boundless prairies, as the case mny be? Hut Just Imnglne I'ercy tho Immaculate pulling u bone-head bone-head Joke like this I" "You nre taking It for n Joke?" she questioned. "Sure I am ; nnd It's n rather rotten one at that, I should say considering the source." "Then you won't go to look for the blue-eyed girl with nut-brown hnlr nnd the cunning little mole? Think of whnt you mny be missing 1" For Just one crnzy mlnuto I hnd a hunch, or a premonition, or whatever you like to cnll It, that the letter might not be n Joke. Grandfather Jnsper bad always been a bit eccentric a rich ninn's privilege and a rich old man's Incontestnble right. Whnt If he had actually done this thing to me? n thing senrcely less devastating than cutting mo off without n penny? On the spur of the moment I suld: "If 1 should go, would you wait for me, Usette?" She took her time about answering u good and sufllclent plenty of It. "I think perhaps I'd better not chnnge the ring bnck, Stnnnle," she said, sort of wlntrlly, "If there Is nny money nnd you Miould happen to And It, you would prohnbly lllng It nil away before you could get back to Hos-ton. Hos-ton. Uesldes, there In tho blue-eyed girl; If she slwuld bring you n fortune, you'd have to marry her, wouldn't you? You oro big and atrong, and well er nlco In a good many ways, Stannie, and much too good-looking for your own good; but when you marry If you do marry you'd better bo sure that the girl has money enough to buy her owu hats. I haven't enough, us you know." "I know only too well that tho love-ln-a-cottagc Iden hns. never appealed to you," I said, with the regretful stop pulled all the way out la deference to the sentimental decencies. "Not In the least, Stannie, dear; not In the littlest least." This appeared to be the end of our rnther lukewarm love-drenm, and to be ready honest nncTnbovcboard about It, I am obliged to confess that It didn't break as many bones for mo as I suppose it slionld hnve. Anyway, n half-hour or so after I had said good-by good-by to Usette I met Jack Downing; nnd when ho nsked mo If I didn't want to go with him and a bunch of the fellows for n-llule spin down tho coast You Can Figure MS If You Please, Spinning the Wheel of One of the Nattiest Little Boats on the North Shore. of MrIU' I" his motor cruiser, I fell for the liulta'tnu no 'uddenly that he hadn't a ghoit of a chance to buck out. If he had wanted 'o. So, n few hours beyond that touching touch-ing little sceno ut "Tho Itockerle." you may figure me, If you please, spinning tho wheel of one of the nuttiest little boats ou the North shore, with a fresh nor'enster blowing and tho sen getting up to give mo tho tlmo of my young llfo to hold the Gulncvcro to her course, nor' nor'enst, half a point cast, as we lifted tho Shoals on our port bow. In such Jolly good company as we had aboard the stout ship Guinevere, three full days clnpsed before a thought of I'ercy dr his Joke ever entered en-tered my hend again; nnd It's n'ten-to-ono shot that I wouldn't have thought of him, or It, during the remainder re-mainder of the crulso If we hadn't been obliged to tic up nt Itockland for motor repairs. This, as I recall It, was on the fourth day, and It wns a dog that made me remember; n mongrel mon-grel cur that followed tho motor re-pnlrmnn re-pnlrmnn down to the wharf; n most disreputable looking mongrel, nt that, but by Jovel he hnd the mnglc markings mark-ings I Half of his face, measuring from a line drnwn straight down over the tip of Ids nose, whs black, and tho other oth-er half was a dingy, dirty white. So then 1 did n little rapid figuring on train schedules. If I'ercy had left Washington as I know ho was planning plan-ning to, my diplomatic cousin should have been, nt that "figuring moment. Just nbout due In San Kranclnco. That being the case, or the likelihood, I toddled tod-dled up to the telegraph ofllce and sent a message, addressing It In care of the captain of whatever might be the next stenmer due to ill for ports In Chlnn. All 1 snld was: "Your letter was as funny ns nn hour In n dentist's clinlr. Don voyage to you." Night found us still tied to the Itockland wharf; und Just ns wo were getting up from dinner In tho yacht's saloon, here came n boy with u telegram. tele-gram. The wire wns from I'ercy, nud It snld : "Don't be a complete fool. It wns no Joke at all. Ask my lawyer." Uven then, I didn't go off nt half-cock, half-cock, though I hnve often been called an Imputslvu Jackass. The thing wns still Urn ridiculous to bite very hnrd. nut further along In the evening, when 1 got to thinking it over, and more especially when It was shoved In upon me that I really did owe It to Usette not to turn down even tho tenth part of n chnnco to provide her with the means of buying her future hats, the die wns cast, as the play-writers sny. I made some sort of a foolish excuse to Jack Downing nnd tho other fellows, fel-lows, caught n night train for Boston, stopped off at the home stntlon long enough to pack a couple of grips and to tell my mother nnd sister good-by. nnd tho thing wns oh, no; not done nothing llko that. It wus only Just begun. CHAPTER II. A Needle In Haystack. Since my happy hunting-ground began be-gan In tho middle of Colorado, I took n ticket to Denver by way of Chicago and Omnha. As I recall It now, It was after tho train bad passed North Platte that I first became sensibly conscious, con-scious, as you might say, of the fact that the man In the opposite section of the sleeping-car hud a llttlo Pullman table set up In front of him, nnd wns Studying maps and blue-prints lie wus ii rather efllclent-looklng fellow of maybe thirty-two or three, with dark hair and eyes, and what Usette would have called n determined nose, and ho sported a beard and mustaches, nut-brown nut-brown as to color, und neatly trimmed. Further along we met In the smoking room, nt a time when the stuffy little den bad no other occupants. Mr. Opposite Op-posite Section's only cigar turned out to have a broken wrapper, so I naturally natural-ly tendered my own pocket-ease. That fccrvcd to break tho Ice and we talked, dribbling along from one commonplace to another until finally Drouu-bciird suld : "You don't by any chance happen to be n mining engineer, do you?" "Fur be It from me," I laughed; "nothing so useful ns tliut." "1 didn't know," bo hastened to sny, half apologetically. "I saw ynu study--lug maps as we came along." Now, ordinarily I'm apt to talk a lot loo much filmut my own affairs I'll admit it ; but this was one time when 1 bad a sort of bunch not Iu. So I meiely suld: "I saw you doing the same thing." "Sura you did," he admitted cheerfully. cheer-fully. Then he told me hU name which I got ns llulltoii, or Itulletlii, or something like that and said be wns u milling engineer, which was the reason rea-son why he had asked nit; If I wasn't one. Past that, the talk ran mostly upon his profession, and since the mysterious mysteri-ous hunch wns sttll midgiug me. 1 let him hiivc the floor, so to speak, figuring figur-ing chiefly myself as u good listener. "Yes; we do run across some rather queer propositions In our trade," he wild, after he bad given me somu sort of an Idea of what u milling engineer's Job Is like. "In my own experience, for exuinple, the only suro shot I have ever bud or possibly ever will have got uwuy from me." it wns up to me to Lite, and, of course, I did It. "How wns that?" "The man died," he replied laconically. Tlint sounded rather Interesting, so I gave him nnother pinch. "Tell mo nbout It; If It won't bore you." Ho grinned good-naturedly nnd accepted ac-cepted another cigar out of my pocket-case. pocket-case. "You'll bo the ono to bo bored. It wns this way: A little over a year ago I was on my wny to Chicago with a report that I had been making on somo properties In the Crlpplo Creek district. In tho Dcnvcr-Omnba Pullman Pull-man I fell In with a nice old gentle-in gentle-in nn who had been buying himself n gold brick In tho sluipo of a flooded mine. Tho mine hnd nt one time been a 'producer,' though not by uny means wMit you'd call a 'bonanza.' After n rather extended dividend-paying period I don't know Just how long, though It wns somo years tho luck changed, as sometimes hnppcns. In slaking nnd drifting tho operators hnd uncovered another vein which wns exceedingly rich. Don't let me tntk your arm off." "Go uncoil," said 1. "My arms are Insured." "Well, nt about tho tlmo that they struck this new underlying vein, they also struck water; so much of It as to lead them to suspect that they had tapped an underground lake. The old gentleman wasn't exactly u woolly He Grinned Good-Naturedly and Accepted Ac-cepted Another Cigar. sheep In tho Wnl I Street sense of tho term. He hud owned stock In the mine for n long time, nud It hnd been laying lay-ing him dividends, right along. So naturally, after tho new strike was an. nounced, be was perfectly willing to own more. I don't know whnt his Investment In-vestment wns, but lie gave mo to understand un-derstand that It was something llko .half a million, in less than n mouth ufter the deal was closed tho mine wns drowned and went out of business." "Still, I don't see your lost opportunity," oppor-tunity," I threw In. "I'm coming to that. As It happens, my specialty as an engineer Is the un-watering un-watering of wet mines. Tho old gentleman gen-tleman had limps and profiles with him; the records of a very careful and excellent lopographlcil survey, I'm rensonnbly certuln that I discovered a wuy In which that mine can he drained nt comparatively small expense. "1 told him I thought I could do It; but I didn't give my plan away. Instead, In-stead, I mado him a proposition; offered of-fered to undertake the drainage Job nt my own costs. If I should succeed, ho was to deed me a fourth Interest In the property. If 1 didn't succeed, ll wus to cost hlm nothing sort of a contingent fee, as n lawyer would say." I laughed. "You made an offer like that to a stranger? and on u mine that you hod never seen?" He grinned good-naturedly und got back nt me, quick, "All business Is n taking of chances. As the matter stood nt that stage of the game, I hud everything to gain und nothing to lose, und the only chance I was inking was In the bet on my owu ability iih an engineer. Tliu old man was a queer old codger In some respects; re-spects; us secretive nud cautious as an old fox. For example: be hud carefully care-fully clipped the name or the mine from tbu blue-prints nud other papers, and In all our talk be never once let that mime slip, und never even mentioned men-tioned the inune of the district In which the mine wus located. Hut In spile of all thl caution ho drew up n sort of option agreement with me. "We found u lawyer and bad the agreement drawn up In legal torui, The time limit was to be u year, nud each or iu was to put up a thousand dollars to make the 'igrcemcnt binding. bind-ing. If either of us should wish to withdraw within that time, he was nt liberty to do so by forfeiting Ids unte of u thousand dollars to tho other. If neither of us withdrew by or before tho end of tho year. I was to bo ut liberty lib-erty to go ahead with my drainage project, and the agreement hound the owner to turn over a one-fourth Inter- est In tho propirty to mo upon Utel B completion of tho Job nnd tho unwnter B Ing of the mine. B "At tho moment I wns under engage- B ment to go to Peru for a Chicago bjh- B dlcntc, and I expected to bo out of Um B United Stnles for at least six month. B and maybo longer. As It turned out, B tho South American Job wns n lot Wg- B gcr than 1 hnd anticipated, and re B that reason tho tlmo limit of n year B expired a week ago, on the day that I B landed In New York. Yesterday I M culled upon tho Omaha banker, and he B gnvo ma tho cheering Information that M my old man wns dead had died Jut M a few days earlier." H "Still, I don't sco how you havo lost M out," I put In. B "Walt; here comes tho funny part M of It. Mr. Hanker tells mo solemnly B Hint I nni remembered In my old gen- M tlpmnn's disposition of soma cash lega- B cles mndo Just beforo Ids death, and M I'm to hnve tho thousand dollars which B ho put upas a forfeit. I took tho prls down nnd spent some of It within the JM next few minutes wiring tho old man's B home lawyer, whose namo nnd address B tho banker had given nift. I briefed M tho sltuatlSn for tho lawyer, snld I was H ready to fulfill my part of tho con- M tract, and asked him to wire ma th H namo nnd location of tho mine. You'd B never guess In a thousand years the B kind of nn answer I got." B I shook my head. B "No; probably not. What was It?" B "It was n bolt from tho bine, all B light. Mr, Homo Lawyer wired that B his client hnd never owned n shnro of B mining stock In his life, tlint thcro wns B nothing In his papers or records bear- B lug upon tho subject of my telegram, B nnd Hint I must ho cither drunk or B crnxy. Of course, ho didn't put It Just JM Hint way In his reply, hut that Is whnt B he meant." B "How do you sort It out?" I Inquired. B "Tho lawyer's telegram? I put It up H that my cautious, secretive old gentle- B tnnn never told n ny body nt homo about B his mining Investments; kept them In B a scparato pocket, so to speak. Quite H possibly ho didn't have nny other ex- B ceptlng tho ono I've been telling yon MB nbout, nnd tho ono ho regarded ns a f'jB dead coclt In t,lt pjt. TU(t would ex- Mfl plain tlio situation nicely, don't yoil' M think?" The story hnd left mo n bit fogged M ns to the present stnto nnd standing M of the thing, and I snld bo, H "Well, It stacks up about this way H said Hrown-bcnrd. "Thcro Is n pej jH fectly good mlno somowhero west oT M us that Is worth anywhere from a' quarter to n half million, and at the. jH present moment It Is kicking around' H without an owner. So far as I can sec M I'm the only man on top of earth who) M has a claim on any part of It. And i H have no more Idea than tho man In tho H moon whera It Is 'at.' No; I'm afraid H my handsome fortuno Is a lost dog, bo M fur ns I'm concerned." M Ills mention of a lost dog hit mo H right In the center of tho solar plexus M and 1 laughed llko n fool. H "What struck your funny-bono?" he jH demanded, sort of dubiously, I fancied. M "Nothing," I gurgled; "nothlnc H worth mentioning only I'm hunting- IH for a lost dog, too." jfl Hut I didn't tell him any more. After IH we'd smoked n whllo longer, and M Ilrown-beurd bad apologized for mnk- M Ing mo listen to his rnther longtsh tnle H of woe, we took tho porter's hint that he'd like to havo the smoking room for M his nightly shoe-shine, nnd turned In. H "I could see by his exprei- B sion that he still thought me H crazy." H (TO UK CONTINUED.) IH |