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Show "mo Hoffmann lnL.lfHABP"',,MANN W.N. U. SERVICE. SYNOPSIS ..Ms father's bitter crlti- ' M. life. "d tl,e not,(1" t n ed not expect any "hi assistance. Hal , ,s,n;0f wealthy bank-y bank-y fr.c.ic.Uy without '"Sh the promise of a slt-::;" slt-::;" n FrS1!ciSco, which he - ; (rem New York, within 3 lin.it He takes pas- ! oss-country auto par- ' ",J expense basl, Four. ' anions sre younp. M- ? Ferris; Sister Anasta-VI Anasta-VI t d an individual whom ' '.""..VelT dislikes, Martin - rv's reticence annoys him. k 1 he takes at once. Hal '517 rack but his Intimacy "I on ripens, and he makes i'sress with Barry. Ex-Z Ex-Z reminiscences, she learns Ik, ... ,on of the wealthy Fred-v'j-d Through a misunder-Ub misunder-Ub .V'tiit night, Hal Is directed 4, mom, instead of his own. w . :t ms to soften Barry's jl J 'unfriendliness, and they . n kisses. Ill -J4PTER V Continued till ' 8 1 :-trjah-nfc yorj," said Sister k a her eves grateful and !ri -:ai her diction trying i to elude the accent that a an enchanting voice In :sess of grace and Inner : that still, as Barry had ' ' a von from rising the word Hal smiled in pleasure as L . iti her. And since Barry a meet his eyes not ac-omi ac-omi 'Holding them but seeming lliir i no use in meeting them ala J doable welcome for an irn-oil, irn-oil, - tenderness, brought his tray ' :1 to the empty place be- I rite only when she was u; but the restrained ease 1 .:ie said, the smooth, quiet l iibe gave to each sentence it 'delightful to go on prompt- i They talked of nothing ut Hal remembered clearly ; orll :: she tad been In America, bai sm and imperfections of '.: the ocean, the view from f' -Sire State building, the oinence of American cities 's of summer heat And then :i u Innocent, urgent desire ' - ter blush a little, once, to a she might have been like k :lf Siri with a first beau. I i -Kid; rl 'iron heard, Sister, that 1 - Is a place where the 7 a "o Savor, the flowers no 2 -ftlle ladies no charm?" J !i aid, looking at him in interest "I 'are not 'eurd J it true?" t know surely, because ) 3 there," said HaL .baling his pleasure In I tasted oranges from . -t were sweet; and I've 80 J "at their orange blos-!0f blos-!0f .est have the scent they -f' P'aces. As for the last . a-vlng, I know It will tlii M to California U i!stant Harwas afraid -J to be ashamed of v CJrhstasJa glanced !G i 'Wd ae other end . where Barry Mt, her 3 1 th,t" sle said ;'' S'faintHal'S P,eas-71 P,eas-71 er i ""rain ' ;STrarrd is beautiful ' ' behind Barry Vh0maa' P her ed ,UM be free a 8Potght to , ?.,vefy mascara on ' 'lX ,a ke-up of t'-S tightness of 112 bated Barry L '''C f helnaught: " 3'll, caurve1 frm de- "i C?tln8 the com- Viy at: her pet"- Vheck terSt When tf5 It-tor Can-SI Can-SI hiV t0 start "'m ' Pnke her low. she recognized l!:in-y, she said, "Hollo, cuteuess." "Hot out," siaKl Harry. "Hot Is rl.u-ht," said" the woman. "Koop outa tlie sun." "Will," snld Harry, a quiet sort of thanks In her smiling; and her easy lons-losrgod walk took her toward the door, the woman's look following fol-lowing her lu contented approval. Now, why did she do that? Hal risked himself ln uninvited, consciously con-sciously unreasonable Irritation. He caught up with her outside the door to the street that seemed baked, not only by the sun but by a fanatic furnace just under the pavement, too. "Going to walk the Doctor, or sit in the car?" he said. "Walk," said Barry, hardly look-lug look-lug at him. With a single mirthless laugh at the beginning, he said, "D'you rather I sat ln the car till you're finished?" She looked at him as If she hadn't quite caught his meaning. "Come If you like," she said. They walked toward the principal princi-pal street and turned into It without with-out speaking. Then the restive need to clear something up, to purge something out of his gathered dissatisfaction, dis-satisfaction, took srudden charge of his tongue and he said, "Barry, I want to talk to you." And thepoint-lessness thepoint-lessness of that was apparent to him even before he'd finished. "All right," she said lnconse-quently. lnconse-quently. "What about?" "Not on the main street of Peoria Pe-oria at two o'clock in the afternoon," after-noon," he said. "Why not?" "You know d n well why not." Barry looked at him unsympa-thetlcally unsympa-thetlcally but without anger, and her low, steady -voice said, "In the first place, I wouldn't've asked If I knew why not, and ln the second place, throwing d ns around doesn't help me understand you." "Oh h 1," said Hal, more ln vague disgust with himself than anything else. "That's not necessary, either," she said. "Barry, what's the matter?" "Not a darn thing with me," she said. "Oh," he said; and they walked for another ten paces or so of silence. si-lence. Then, as an accusation, he said to her, "Yon didn't know that woman you spoke to down there. Why did you speak to her?" Barry waited an instant before she said, still not turning to him, "Because I liked her looks; because some day I may have to put up with what she has to put up with, and I hope people speak to me without thinking they're smart, or wanting something." "Barry!" said Hal, in the quick authority he would have used for the dog. "You asked me," said Barry. Her eyes and brows disclaimed respon- ''iS f "But I Mustn't Love You. You Mustn't Love Me." slbllity for his reaction. "I supposed you wanted me to tell you." "Barry," said Hal, with forced restraint, re-straint, "tell me something else. Is last night gone clean out of your head? Did It mean nothing to you after I'd left" and he added with not wholly convincing bitterness "like an idiot." She looked round at him, the clean, long arches of her eyebrows raised. Then, not as a question but Ironically, to be sure that's what he'd said, she repeated, "Like an Idiot." lie watched her without speaking, almost wishing her eyes would at change bcMin 1 as so,np I 0 ?nV''esl.e had lo go al l,H,ke(l ahead too n,l Z . d ssa isned assurance, "I dldn t "t'..lU "Ke nn 1J1f and you know ankle h'T" " W,,S bp her "l ml, St'U'ted t0 tl,rn "er sj oul, er came siRllt,y aRangt , "t then her hand caught his -rought It half-way up, and pressed he back of It briefly aBa.st her Jacket, over her heart, before she save it back to him. And still she oked straight before her-a grave look, nt nnllil,, n,4 . .. . . : 6 was in tne street ahead. In the calm knowledge that flashed Into abrupt, reckless command com-mand of his spirit, that then Indeed became his spirit, his whole living conviction, he stopped her walking with his hand at her elbow. She let her body half turn to his hold of her, but not her head. That didn't matter: she would turn her face to him In another sure, plain moment. mo-ment. "Barry," he said, "I love you. You know that, too." She glanced down at Doctor Call-gnrl, Call-gnrl, as if she were trying to think of something that would show how sorry she was for him. . And when slowly she faced Hal at last, her eyes were soft with grieving helplessness. help-lessness. "I didn't make you say that," she said quietly. "I didn't want you to. Dear God! why did you have to say that?" "Because I meant It," he told her, strength from extravagant stores running up to help him pierce most deeply with the bright rapier of his knowledge. "Because I'm too full of It to wait one more second of loneliness to tell you in every, sharp, desperate way there Is that I love you, Barry love you, love you. Barry oh, blast Peoria and all Its sunlight!" "Darling," she said softly, just to say It under his watching. Then, more strongly: "Darling, I can't love you. I mustn't. That's true, true even If I'd I'd give my eyes not to have It. I'll tell you why truly; and you'll see. But I have to wait till I know how to tell you. I promise, my dearest, I shall know. But I mustn't love you. You mustn't love me." She looked at him as If she had known him very well and he were now suddenly sudden-ly going to leave her. Then quickly her eyes left his and she turned around, drawing at Doc's leash. "We must go back, Hal," she said hurriedly. "Please, we've got to." They were on the heat-shimmered road again by three, a hundred hun-dred miles from the Mississippi crossing. There was a current of gaiety which carried oft even the standard post-luncheon torpor, as If the atmosphere of the car were Infected by the profligate, exulting exult-ing buoyancy under Hal's own heart For Hal could dismiss the conviction con-viction of grief In Barry's eyes for his joy In the small marvels of their passage In the street; the quick touching of her shoulder to his arm; the pressure of her living liv-ing side against the back of his caught hand; the near-husky enchantment en-chantment of her calling him darling. dar-ling. What could she have behind her'blue eyes to stand against his Invincibility? Some fragile shadow of an obstacle the fact that he was Frederick Ireland's son, or the beckoning beck-oning of Hollywood; trifles which he could shatter when he had his time to speak, out of the strength which she herself had unleashed to surge up under the single neces sity left in the world. The time was coming today, as swiftly as the hard road under Rasputin's wheels. Excitement filled him, pushed newly In-each moment to escape his chest; and there was room for no more than a flash of shame at the niggardliness of hia spirit that had quibbled with his being most valiantly In love, for the first-good G-d, yes, the first real time In his life. "Hey my frand," said Kerrigan, bending gravely toward him, "where did you go In Peoria?" "Why, Colonel?" said Hal, grin- Dl"You look as though you'd slipped on a million dollars' worth of eternal eter-nal verities and found your initials qtamned on all of 'em." "Little place around the corner r found on my way from the Klondike," said Hal. "Run by an fx aide decamp to the czar whose 1 I saved at Port Arthur. Na-pofeon Na-pofeon brandy from original casks at a nickel a goblet. I've no secrets from you, Munchausen. Kerrigan's eyes danced merr ly unrrrtne,r ua,f mustaches , r. mire the toque hasn t taken char0e he si d "Wouldn't like to stop off foVa cold shower somewhere down th2Stopfor nothing, suh," said Hal. wiTt the Mississippi. wb-tW-j Lardner joking.y Fathe. of waters. It ' ulu r:?s thnt coming to the rim of a long Plateau which he conceived would reveal the Mississippi, flat and blue and broad, lying Infinitely off toward to-ward the veils of the horizon on either hand. Then, after they had settled down to what seemed another an-other whole country of unwatered farmland, Kerrigan took the dead cigarette end from his lips and leaned forward. "The old fella," he said quietly; and he added, as if he meant it to be all very casual, "Here, let me treat you to your first Mississippi crossing." He reached Into his trousers pocket, jingling change. They went out on the narrow track slowly, each slanted girder flicking a gentle echo at them, and neither Hal nor Kerrigan spoke. Halfway across Mrs. Pulsipher's voice bustled suddenly Into the car: "Why, this Is the Mississippi river." "It It Is," said John, as If she'd waked him out of guilty reverie. "Is It, Mr. Kerrigan?" "The original, mam." Hal said to Kerrigan, "Remember Huck Finn and that nigger on the raft; the loaves of bread with mercury mer-cury in 'em floating down and a cannon booming over the water from the ferry boat, to raise their bodies." "Gad, sir, wasn't I just thinking of that?" said Kerrigan half startled, star-tled, half pleased, as If it were a joint experience which he thought Hal might have forgotten. "I never cross the old rogue without thinking think-ing of It. I swear just that minute min-ute I was nowhere else but there." "Then there's more than one mind-reader along," said Hal drily, a faint check upon his full pleasure. pleas-ure. "Meaning?" said Kerrigan. Hal gave a brief shake of his head, aware of Crack sitting behind him, retrospectively aware that he had been there all afternoon. Hal had the curious impulse to recall what he'd thought and said ln that time, as you might try to remember remem-ber what you'd done in a room where you find you've been watched. Then he caught himself and shodk off the quick discomfort Crack might sit there as knowingly, as pleased with private, drowsy thoughts as he liked: he had nothing noth-ing to do with Hal or the Mississippi Mississip-pi or this moment Then Kerrigan tossed up a thick finger to Indicate the Burlington shore where their bridge ran over the railway. "That belongs," he said. Four white ex-Pullman cars stood on a siding, a patiently suffered suf-fered curvature to their wooden en.noo hrrtnI irnfa emnni-'hftA Anrw over open-end-platforms, window-arches window-arches gay with marbled glass. Along their white sides, gold letters were painted : "Davenport Bros. Great World's Fair Shows." "Gosh," Barry called from the back, "wouldn't it be fun to see their show?" "It would," said Kerrigan. "It'd be fun to see It, and stow away In those cars afterward." "It'd be fun," said Hal, "to do almost al-most anything." And in saying that there was a separate sharing of this moment with both Barry and Kerrigan, a thankful comfort that could put away the uneasiness of a minute ago almost put It quite away. The night was near now, and his coming to Barry, to the rout of fear from her bravery, and to his hope of Fortune In the world. Iowa rolled In tireless undulations, undula-tions, the road taped over them like the flat-healed scar of a careful cut, the coming loops visible from each rise. They crossed the Skunk river, and rolled on over the dips and rises toward the sinking sun. Ot-tumwa Ot-tumwa was close beyond, and they found clean tourist cabins ln a grove of trees beside the Des Moines river. The proprietor said that, given time, his old lady would throw together to-gether as good a feed, and better, and cheaper, than any they could get In them places uptown. Hal took Rasputin to a garage and supervised su-pervised his priming for tomorrow. And when he got back, the others were halfway through a meal that had even such Intrepid appetites as the Pulsiphers' working uphill. The full buoyancy that Hal had carried through "the afternoon still refused to take account of hunger. He did the swift best he could, so thnt the proprietor's old lady shouldn't be hurt; but when Barry pushed her chair back from the long table and squeaked her lips at Doc, he abandoned the business abruptly and followed her outdoors. Fresh eagerness exulted In his blood, tried to lift his body with a hundred different excitements, urged him to leap and shout out his joy for these hints of Immortality. He stopped her walking with his hand, turned her to him and held her while he said, "Barry, we've got to go somewhere quickly." In the light from her cabin under the trees, he saw that her smile was slow, the droop of her eyelids slow weary. "Hal, we can't," she aid as If he, had been urging her for a long time. "1 couldn't couldn't tell you what I have to. I'm too tired to be strong. I shouldn't tell you it's hoping, wish-In- praying about you thats made me so tired, but I want to tell vou. Because I I Hal, we can't go; I've got to go ln." She moved a little, as If she were j going to let her head go against his shoulder. But she stopped herself, and her low, lovely voice murmured. "M-y darling." I (TO BE CO.Y77.Yf. ED |