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Show A Terrific Storm Rages Outside Alan's Home Telegram Serial t Tony played, as he had looked down on another occasion In the days when he was a man. He remembered that occasion so well Jacky asleep In her small bed, Tony kneeling on th hearth. She had worn pajamas and a dressing gown then, too, but they had not been five alsea too big for her. She had looked different And h had regarded her differently. He had thought of her, not as a little friend, but as a bad little fool who only redeeming trait was lov for her small sister. Wall, he had been wrong.' "Tony, It's after midnight Tou must go to bed." "But may I sleep In your sitting room ?" "You're no safer there, my child. If something dreadful cam, ' I couldn't help you. I'm of no more use than a week-old pup." Sh glanced at him. "I would never b frightened if you were near, Alan," ah said quietly. Strang. It was a if b heard tho word not with hi mind, but with his heart They would linger there, h knew, ilk music. But whyT "'Very well Xou..caa Sleep where you like, Tony," h said abruptly. ab-ruptly. "Run along now, but give me a dgaret first." Sh smiled. She stretched out her band to th glass dgaret box. Th too-long sleeve of her pa-Jamaa pa-Jamaa caught H by th corner. An Instant later It waa awpt to the floor. "Darn!" aald Alan. In a flash, at th sound of his vole her hands flew up. White' with terror, sh flung herself back. Her shoulders struck a small table. It and everything on It fell with a deafening crash to th hearth. "Oh, please oh, please!" Th dreadful, broken whisper cam from Tony's lips. He couldn't se her fac. Her head was covered by her arms. Like som llttl dog about to be kicked or beaten, ahe had, he saw, mad hrlf a small as possible a small shaking body. There waa a long sllenc. Slowly her hand came down. They twisted together. Sh looked away from him, down at th floor. - "Tony" hi vole was very gentle, gen-tle, as If at any moment shs might lis from those trembling knees and escape from him, out of his house Into th storm. "Did you think I would hurt you? I can't move from my bed." "I had forgotten that" ah muttered. mut-tered. "Do you really think I would hurt you If I could T" Sh looked at him now. "No. I know you wouldn't But I couldn't remember that" h said. "Tony," Alan aald quietly after a moment, "come here." Sh roe. Timidly ah advanced. ad-vanced. "Sit down," he said. Sh did aa sh waa told, seating herself on his bed. But there was still wariness In her glance. It was aa if part of her mind could not trust him, even though sh thought of him aa friend. Was he, h wondered, her only friend? H looked at her, curled up there, trying to smile aa If her deep-rooted deep-rooted terror had never betrayed Itself, and he felt auch daslr to comfort and understand aa caused him to forget his own pitiable state. He did not look pitiable as he said, "You're still trembling, Tony." "You mustn't mind me," she re- Slied. "I'm stupid sometimes." h looked down at th floor, at th wreckage of th carat and glass that had stood on th llttl table. "I'm very sorry." For moment Alan was silent choosing his words with car. Into that alienee there floated th chun of a distant clock striking th quarter after midnight This, h reflected, waa a Strang llttl Interview. He remembered that other midnight seen of many week ago. How certain he had been then that h knew everything every-thing thst all this child needed was discipline. How blind he had chosen to be. Had not th truth been clear in her swift nervous movements, her silences, even in her quick defiance? For Matthew Lake had read her fear in a few short minutes. (To be continued Wednesday. CHAPTER lg The wind raged. It shook the house, wreched at th windows, and for a moment died away. That moment waa very atllL Th eur-; eur-; tain of th bed awsyed a little la th draught Th shadows moved In the corners, flickering with th light of th fir. Somewhere Some-where the old paneling cracked ; t sharply. Then one more th wind waa howling, flinging th snow ' against th window. Tony glanced around. Fear of th dark that legacy of an unhappy un-happy childhood had never left her. And now In this strange bedroom bed-room It held her rigid. The snow, whirling on th wing Of this storm, had made It Impossible Impos-sible for her to return horn. Or so Alan and Robert had said. Sh had tried to telephone to Oaken, i but th line waa down. Then at th thought that Jacky would be ' frightened, ah announced her Intention In-tention of making her way through the blisxard. Alan, however, had given his orders to the contrary, I and somehow It hadn't been possible pos-sible to disobey. And now, clad ' In hla dressing gown and pajamas, so much too Big, she cowered on a stool by th fir. Th room wa Sir Matthew no : other bedroom In th large house 1 ' waa prepared for a guest. Som of hi belongings were left In It hla dispatch case, a tobacco tin, a tray of paper on th table, Their presence didn't cheer her. ' But If they had been Alan possession pos-session sh would, she knew, have been a little comforted. No one else slept In this wing. In th whol house thr were only her- ' self and Alan and Roberta. Alan was tar away, oa another floor. ' With longing sh thought of th l dials longu In th sitting room next hi bedroom. If sh could . hav slept there her heart would not now be beating out Its terror. But she had not the courage to sk. The storm roe again to a wild walling. A picture clattered a llttl against th wall. Th door, Shaken by that gust opened. ' With a gasp, Tony rote. Sh j gaxed down th gallery who ' darkness waa illumined for a few feet by th light from her room. With fumbling finger ah tied th length of Alan's dressing gown round her waist Sh dragged th clothe from her bed and flung them over her shoulder. . Then, torch la hand, her heart beating la her throat sh trailed , out of th door. Down the wide , gallery, so full of moving shadows, . ah went, and down th broad I slippery oak-smlling stairs. Would I Alan be very angry? His anger 1 would be lees frightening than her . solitary room and th voice ef the storm. ' Th landing outslds Alsn's rooms was black as pitch. Noiselessly she opened th door of th sitting room. Th light la his bedroom I t was on, and th door was ajar. Sh had hoped to find It closed. , J Sh moved forward, her hand out- j stretched, and bumped Into a ! chair. "Who Is there ?" cam Alan's ; voic. "It's It's only m, Alan." ; Tony!" i Blinking a Uttl In th light ; still mbradng her blankets, th i leg of her borrowed pajamas la ' folds around her ankles, sh n-I n-I tered hi room. Alan wa lifting up la bad. For what seemed to her a long moment he content- I listed har. Ha was smiling a ItU. But that she remembered, might mean that h was angry. "Please don't be cross with me," she said. "What oa earth do you think you're doing?" Hi vole was cold, i He did not Intend har to know that her sudden ludicrous appear-I appear-I ance had saved him from a black t hour la a desert of sleeplessness. , Th book h hsd tried to read had been useless. His mind had been spinning back and forth. "I'm very sorry,. Alan. But my J room la so far away. I heard noises. I thought It waa a ghost J and then my door burst open." "You'r not very brav, ar S "Oh, no," sh replied, as If It were no us to deny such an ob-. ob-. vlous fact "So I thought I'd ' com and sleep la th sitting room. , But I didn't mean to disturb you." "You're shivering." ! "Well, It Isn't a warm night, to nr ', She came forward to the fire and knelt down oa th hearth. ! And now ahe wa quit near him. H could hav touched her. H J could look dowa on her hlntng head la whose curls th firelight |