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Show mvnm DLAGiioino I By HUDSON DOUGLAS Author af "A Million Mlnuto," at a. Copyrit ht, 1512, hy Ltttlt, Bipwn I C: at laai a duaty. 111 amalllBi, jraa lirhtad room, iuhabiuy only br ahaubT, ahook haaded hobbledehoy of naoartaia aaa had anprepoaaoaains appaaraaea, wno waa porcbad on a prapoataroualT high atool at a still kigher desk, bohiad a aaaolika parUtioa. ''I want to aaa Mr. Joblin at oaea," Blyno anaonaoad to him. And Mr. Joblin J 'a "managing eierk" looked elowly around, with a anakelika and diaroarerting affect due to a very long seek and a very low collar. "Rho-w My. Blyao in immodiataljr, Mullina," ordered a pompons voice from within; and Mr. Joblin g kimaelf, a black aoaied, portly, important personage per-sonage there, came bustling out from hla private offlee to welcome his visitors. "How d'ye do, how. d'ye do, Ldy Joaeeline!" he exclaimed, and eoekea aa arched eyebrow at bailie 'a most besoming be-soming costume; although tha effect ha intended waa somewhat impaired by tha fact that he was atill suffering front a black eve, painted over la haste and by an incompetent artiit- "I can see now what's been keeping yon In Paris!" ha added, facetiously, and, having ahakea hands with Hlyae, who seamed to think that enperflnoos, turned to receive Captain. Dors with the same politeness. "Phewf" whistled Mr. Joblinjr sad drew back and stared at tha old man. I'd never have recognised yon in that rigont." Captain Dove pulled off s pair of amoked glasses he had been wearing, the better to look him, with offensive intent, in Us Injured aye. For Oaptala Dove was still enduring mncb mental aa wall aa physical diacomfort in disguise dis-guise which ha had only been Induced to adopt a couple of days before, aad after an embittered quarrel with Blvne The atiff white collar round his eorded neck was still threatening to ehoke him and then cut hia throat. Ha had beea infinitely more at hia ease in hia scanty, short tailed frock coat and furry CHATTER XV. Continued. He . did not give her time to ear more. "That's settled far good, then," he asserted. "Your promiaa steads, and I know you 11 keep H when the time cornea after I've dona my 'part. , "I'm only sorry I haven't been able to get rid of Captain Dove right asmy, but it won't fee long now till Yu needn't worry any more about him. I'll are that be behnves better. "If there's anything else I eaa do for your comfort, you must let me know. And now. I'll leave yon to vonr own devices until it's time to "start on our travels. Better get a rest while you eaa. eh f We've a very busy week ahead of ua." She aaw that ha did not intend ta tell her any mora in the meantime, end arns glad to ee him go. Then ' abe called Ambrizotte in for eompaor, and aat down by tha window again, to try to sort out for heraelf tha bewildering bewilder-ing tangle that life had once mors become be-come within a few hours. Gating out across the familiar aea with wistful, faraway eyes, shs muted for a time over what Captain Dove had totd Mr. Joblisg of hsr hlatorv, and strove to piece together with that all shs heraelf eould recall of that dim and alwaya more mysterious psst out of which aha had corns to be Captain scarcely lssa thaa bafora. But aha did aot sea how she eould have chosen otherwise. oth-erwise. And, in anY ease it waa too late sow to revoke the promise aha had mada hia. bha was still afraid to place any faith ia the premieee ha had made her. tbe bal no idea how ha had coma at his alleged discovery of her real identity. But Mr. Jobling a obvious belief in that recurred to her mind, and aha fell to wondering timidly what life would be like aa Lady Joseeliae Justice. Her impressione on that point wars very hazy, however, and she had atill to pusxle out the problem added by Justin Jus-tin Cart how. But aha Anally gave up tha attempt to solve that at tha moment, mo-ment, contenting heraelf with the tremulous trem-ulous hope that aha might soon be an I her war to that cear, unknown droam borne for which her hungry heart had I so often ached. I Of the exorbitant price so soon to ba paid for tha brief glimpse of happiness Slyne had agreed to allow her, she took so further thought at all. She had sl-isiv sl-isiv made op ba.? mind to meet taat without complaint. Aa hour or more later. whea'Slyna looked in to tell bar that it was time to start, she was still seated at tho window, win-dow, gazing ont over the steel gray aea with wistful, far away eyea. At his instigation aba veiled heraelf very eloselv. And he had bronirhx with Dove's property, bought and paid for, at s high pries, aa he had repeated several sev-eral times. Her owa earliest vague, disconnected, a ineffectual memories were all of some Tta. dark, savage mountain country; of snd-leso snd-leso days of travel; of campflres in the cold, and hungry camels squealing for fodder i of the fragrant cinnamon smell ' of the eteam that came from tha cooking cook-ing pott. Bel ore, or. it might have beea, after that, she had surely lived on some seashore, sea-shore, in a ihimnieriBg white village with narrow, crooked laoes for streets and little fist roofed botieee huddled together among hot eandhille where tha suadra grew and lean goats bleated al-wave al-wave for their kids. then, aa if in a very vexing dream, she eenld almost, bnt sever quite, see through the thickening mist of tha vests, once familiar fseee white men, with awords. ia ragged uniforms, aad big. brown onea with wicked eyes and long, thin guns, glaring down nt her ever a high wall, through smoke and . tire, and fighting, and the acrid reek of powder And there remembrance grew blank 1 altogether, until it connected with Captain Cap-tain Dove, on the deck of a slaving dhow far ont of sight of anv land. Bha . had been only s little child when he - had -carried her up the aide of hia owe ship in his arms, while she laughed ' ' gleefully in his face nnd pulled at hia shaggy 'mustache, hut she could still re-member re-member eoroe of- tba incidents of that day. She had lived on board hia successive ships ever since. Aad ever since, until . , eacsntly, be bad always been very good aV, kar, in his own queer, gruff way. Ha aja had always treated her as though shs wera a . child of hia own, shielding her, . in so fax aa he could, from evea the knowledge of all ihe svil which ha had done up and down the world. She had , grown up In tha belief that his despotic ' guardianship waa altogether for her I good and aot to be disputed. J But now she waa no longer a child. J ind all her old. unquestioning faith in a his inherent good intentions, toward her at least, was finally "battered. Mil s ksew sow that he really looked upon J her as a mere chattel, with s cash value ' a just aa if she hsd been one of the i hapless cargo of bumaa cattle confined a in tha pestiferous hold of the dhow on J whose deck he had found her at play, i She knsw now thnt ha had bought and J paid for them, aa well aa her, and aold a them again at a fat profit; far across I the seas all but the dumb, deformed e black woman whom ha had picked from j J among them to act as her nurse. 1 - And if it did not occur to her to 1 S question either his power or hia perfect I. right to dispose of her future also as ha 3 might see fit, had sot all her experience , a rone to prove that might ia right every-J every-J Jaafft-here, that law and justice ara merely y additional pretexts devised by the . strong for oppressing tha weakf Bhe a had had to choose betwasn remaining os board the Olive Branch or paving i Jasper Birrs bis price for the ensure thf rescue he had offered her in pursuance pursu-ance of bis own aima. ' She disliked and distrusted Rlvne a him a hooded cloak for Ambriaette, No one took any particular notice of the inconspicuous partv which presently left ths Hotsl de Paris In s hired ear, as if for aa excursion along tha coast. At a statioa fifty miles away they left tha ear and caught the night mail for Paris. Blyna'a baggage waa en board it, in tba cars of a sullen chauffeur, chauf-feur, and there were alao bertha reserved re-served for them all. "Did you see any more of Dubois"' Pallia heard 61vne ask tha man. who shook hia head indifferently in reply. The long, nivht journey passed without with-out other incident thaa a dispute between be-tween Contain Dora and hia sleeping car attendant, which raged until Blvne threatened to have the train stopped at Ihe next station and send fnr the police. And tha sun was shining brightly when they reached Paris. Mr. Jobling went straight oa to London, but Slyae took bailie and Captain Dove to a quiet but expensive hotel, where they remained for a few days, which passed in a perfect whirl of novelty and excitement for her. And whea they ia their turn erossed the channel she bad for baggage at least a dosen new trunks containing the choie-est choie-est spoils of ths Rue da la Pair. Slyae had pooh poohed all her timid protests agaisst his lavish expenditure on bar account, and had also provided for Captain Cap-tain Dove and Ambrizette in their de- free. He had evidently a fortune at his isposnl ami waa bent, en showing her how generous he eould be. He wss also unostentatiously displaying display-ing other good qualitiea which had all gone to maka those days pass very fileasantlv for her. 8ha eould aot fail o appreciate the courtesy and consideration consider-ation which he consistently showed her now. His patience wiln Captain Dove, a trying companion at the best of times and doubly troublesome idle, more than onea made her wonder whether he could be tha aama Jasper Blvne she had knowa on tha Olive Branch. Prosperity seemed to have improved him almost beyond be-yond recognition. He had a cabia at her disposal oa the Calais-Dover steamer, but shs staved oa deck throughout the brief passage, glad to breathe the salt sea air again, while he entertained her with descriptions of I,nndoe aad she wstched ths twinkling lights that were guiding her borne. And thea came london itaelf, at last, somewhat gray, and cold, and disconsolate disconso-late looking oa a wet winter morning. But after breakfast ia a cosy milts at the Hsvoy, a blink of sunshine slong the Embnnkment hslped to better that first hasty impression. Aad thea Slyna took Captain Dove and her In s taxi-cab taxi-cab along tha thronged aad bustling Strand ta Mr. Jobling 'a office In Chancery Chan-cery Lane. They got out in front of s dingy building aot verv far from Oureitor ttreet. It waa raining again, and Bailie, looking up and down tha narrow, turbid thoroughfare, felt glad that aha did sot need to live there. Indoors, the atmosphere was scarcely lrea depressing A dismal pannage led toward a darkSilairwav, oo which tkev hsd to-elimh flight sfter flight to reach top hat thaa he waa ia tha somewhat ' baggy if more becoming black garb ha had donned in ita place, with a soft i wide swaka alwaya flapping about hia ears. ( "Coma Inside." Mr. Jobling bagged hurriedly, and, looking round aa ha followed fol-lowed them into his aanetum, "Mul-lins," "Mul-lins," ha snapped, "doot stand there i atartng. Get on with your work, at once. ,T "Ten 're later thaa I expected " lie remarked to Slyna aa ha closed tha , door, "but Just ia time. The court's closed, of course, for tha Christmas vacation, va-cation, but I've filed as applicatioa for a hearing in chambers, and" He pauaed aa a telephone bell rang shrilly outside, and a moment later the shock head of his "maaagiag clerk" Srotrudrd into tha room, almost aa if It id not belong to a body at all. "Mr. rtpettigrew savs that eny application appli-cation in chambers will be beard by Mr. Justice Oaunt, in 67B, at eleven-thirty sharp this forenoon.'' announced that vouth. and, with a final wriggle of his loag aeck, withdrew. "Devil take him!" exclaimed Cap-tale Cap-tale Dove, somewhat startled aad much incensed. "I wouldn't keep a created cobra like that about ma for" "Let 'a are those aeeaunla af yours, bow," said Slyna, disregarding that la-terruptioa, la-terruptioa, aad Mr. Jobling, having first looked at his watch, produced from another an-other drawer a great sheaf of papers, all carefully docketed. 11a slipped off tha ton one and sotnewhst reluctantly handed that to bis friend. blyna took it from him eagerly and sat for a time gloating over it wit eyea which presently begaa to glow. But when Captain Dove, growing restless, rest-less, would have glanced over hla ahoul-der ahoul-der to see what was tickling his fancy so, ha frowned and folded that document docu-ment up and returned it to Mr. Jobling. "Diva it here, bow!" growled Captain Cap-tain Dove, menacing Mr. Jobling with a clenched fist) and the lawyer, after af-ter an appealing, impotent glimpse at Slyne, had no recourse but to comply com-ply with that peremptory order. "Are vou quite sure of your fig-urea' fig-urea' " Slyna asked, with a scowl. Ha ssemed eoaacloue that he, in his haste, had made a fslxe step. Aad Mr. Jobling' nodded with aervous assurance. as-surance. "I have inside sources of informs-tloa informs-tloa as to the revenue of the dilates,'' he replied, "snd a note of all the investments. in-vestments. I've allowed a wide mar-gia mar-gia for all sorts of incidentals. 1 think you 11 find, in fact, that Ladv Joseeline'e inherltsnce will smoun't to even more thaa I've estimated." Slyna smiled again, more contentedly. content-edly. (Nor was hie complaisance overcome oven when Mr. Jobling put to him a half whiapered petitioa lot a farther small cash advance to account ac-count of expenses. "I waen't avaa able to pay Mullina' wagsa with what you gave ma ia Paris," ssid the stout solicitor vexed! vex-ed! v. "Pees and so on swallowed it all up, and I'm awfullv short of rah taV." . n . fTo ba continued-) |