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Show IlliWffilJj llllll K Jane Corby mccluhe syndicate. -w.n.u. featur.es lLUuUUllULffl (IIS Paul Harris, manager of the Devon Arms, fives Jan Payson the lead in the hotel floor show when he Ends that William Anthony Deverest, rich and popular, pop-ular, knows her. But Jan thinks he is Tony Williams, the chauffeur, and he is afraid to tell her the truth because he knows she hates Deverest. She breaks with Tony believing, him dishonest. Dr. Curtis, who has cured her Invalid sister, asks Jan to marry him. Just before he goes to his northern eamp. When she learns that Deverest is to announce his engagement at a Christmas party at the hotel she decides to go to Dr. Curtis' camp. The bus takes Jan north and runs Into a bad snowstorm. Tony picks up her trail. CHAPTER VI "I'm sure it wasn't there," said Paul. "Dora certainly would have mentioned it to me." "Go back and ask her," Tony urged. "We've pot to know!" Wheh he rejoined Tony, Paul found that young man almost beside be-side himself with impatience. "Dora hasn't seen the cat " "Then what are we waiting for?" cried Tony, hustling Paul down the Itairs and out into his car. "Let you oft" at the hotel," said Tony between clenched teeth. "I am going to make a round of the railroad rail-road stations." He had about given up when he liscovered a man who remembered leeing a girl, in a green coat and tarrying a basket with some sort jf animal inside, buying a bus ticket. tick-et. Tony's informant decided that it nust have been a northbound bus. At every bus station he stopped ind questioned the attendant Gen-trally Gen-trally somebody remembered the firl in the green coat. But the an-iwer an-iwer to the one question that matured mat-ured was always the same. No (he girl hadn't got off at this station. The telephone rang. Everybody straightened as the bus driver took down the receiver. "Yeah? . . . Good! . . . Okay ... I get it" He hung up the receiver and started for the door. "The bridge Is safe. Come on, folks. Step oa tt Got to make up for lost time." The bus with a sudden lurch slid sideways; the bride screamed. Instinctively In-stinctively Jan felt for the ana of the teat with one hand and braced herself as she reached for Pussy-puffs Pussy-puffs slipping basket with the other. oth-er. The bus seemed to hang suspended suspend-ed for a second as if undecided whether or not to rum over. Then, slowly, so that Jan felt she could almost al-most see the wheels sink gently into the snow covered ditch, the bus tilted tilt-ed to one side and lay there, panting. pant-ing. Surprisingly enough the lights of the village did not seem to come any closer. Tony tried desperately to see if a road led off from the main highway, which, evidently, ran some distance from the town, but the soft unbroken snow effectively effec-tively concealed any such road, even if there were one. The little wayside stand before which he finally drew up did not seem firm enough to withstand the fury of the wind that rushed at him as he opened the door. "You'd better shut that door, mister," the young man tending the counter said brusquely, "it's one freezing night!" "Do you suppose that the buses try to get through on a night like this?" "Oh, sure. Nothing stops them." "Just tell me if the last bus went through," asked Tony, impatiently. "Sure, about two hours ago. But, as I was sayin' " "Two hours ago?" "Yeah. They was late on account ac-count of the bridge bein' unsafe" "They had to go over a bridge that wasn't safe?" "I'm tryin' to tell you. The bridge got fixed." Tony gave a sigh of relief. "But they never did get to the next station. Had a call from Moose Eiver an hour or so ago. Must have been some sort of accident." "You fool!" Tony shouted. "Why didn't you tell me there'd been an accident when I first came in? How badly were they hurt?" "Say, mister," the young man said aggrievedly, "I'm no receiving receiv-ing set! Just an accident that's all they told me. Somewheres along the road . . ." But the last words were lost on Tony as he slammed out of the station sta-tion and flung himself Into the car. The next minute, careless of drifting drift-ing snow, he was driving headlong around hairpin turns and down the iteep grades of the mountain road. A moan? Singing! The gratitude that enveloped Tony made him realize how miserably miser-ably sure he had been that he would come upon a silent and frightening scene. Of course Jan, brave as she was, would sing In the (ace of disaster. But aa the chorus swelled louder and he heard many voices Joined with hers, he vos definitely reassured. "O come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant " As the beautiful old hymn rolled forth toward him Tony felt that he v.jnted to siriK. to. Vere all runaways an Kind to he hack home n fhe was? Jan won-rjered. won-rjered. Kven runav;ays who had :ernjr:herj nothing hy their esca pades, who were still faced with all the problems they had tried to escape? es-cape? Dora was still thin almost to transparency, but she sat up really straight in her wheel chair and her blue eyes were radiant when she announced that Paul was going to take her to the party. Now that she knew Dora was going, go-ing, however, there was no help for it; Jan had to go too. But she lingered lin-gered so over brushing Dora's curls and fastening a sprig of holly at one side, that Dora protested. There was a soft knock on the sitting room door. "From Mr. Deverest" said the boy who handed her a square white box. Jan undid the ribbon after glancing glanc-ing at the name, "Miss Jan Pay-son," Pay-son," on the outside of the box. Inside In-side was a mass of orchids. Jan looked at the enclosed card. There was a mistake the box was from Tony. She read: "Chin up! Christmas is coming. Tony." The roof garden had been transformed trans-formed into a regular dream of a Christmas party. In the center of the dance floor stood a Christmas tree, so tall that the electric star at the top seemed very far away. It was decorated as a Christmas tree should be decorated, Paul pointed out firmly. "I had no idea Paul could be so funny!" gasped Jan, choking with laughter after a particularly hilarious hilari-ous introduction of a "snowflake dance." Dora leaned forward, her cheeks suddenly pink. "You look as if it is a happy something," said Jan. "It is. Paul and I " Dora hesitated, hesi-tated, and began again. "I Paul oh, Jan, he loves me! He wants to marry me and take care of me always!" "Dora, darling," Jan jumped up and threw her arms around her sister, sis-ter, "I'm so glad!" Jan Jumped when someone behind her said suddenly, "Here I am!" Before she could turn, Tony had slipped into the vacant place by her side. "Oh, Tony!" she cried. Then, lowering her voice, "Is Mr. Deverest Dev-erest here?" "Yes. But don't you worry about him. I fixed that up all right." 'Shall I tell him?" Dora broke in, and without waiting for Jan's nod she made the announcement of her engagement "Dora," Tony began, "I'm in a spot I want to propose to a girl and I've never done It before. Now, as aa engaged girl who has experienced ex-perienced a proposal, I want your advice. Maybe you'll listen to what I've prepared, and see how it sounds to you. I know It won't be so good as Paul's, but let me rehearse it anyway." Jan, turning swiftly, opened her mouth to speak, but Dora forestalled fore-stalled her. "Go ahead, Tony," she' invited. "I'll be glad to tell you what I can to improve your technique." "All right here goes." Tony drew a deep breath. "Now we'll pretend I'm talking to the glrL I begin something like this " 'D-darling, I Move you . . ." " j "Good!" Dora interrupted, clapping clap-ping her hands. "You think that'll do? Then," Tony went on, "I thought I might say 'Will you marry me?' " "Jan will you?" "Yes, Tony." said Jan. "Well," Tony defended himself, "I told you I didn't know how to propose." Paul dodged over to their table, and after a while he tapped bis fork against a glass to get attention. atten-tion. "Ladies and gentlemen," he announced, an-nounced, "there's no need to ask if you're having a good time. And I'm sure you want to thank the man responsible for it. May I present pre-sent your host, William Anthony Deverest!" Tony bowed and grinned while they cheered him to the echo. "I can't begin to thank you for this reception," said Tony when he could make himself heard. "But I want to tell you that you'd better cut it short, because each person is to get a present from that tree and there are a lot of people here." He made his way to the center of the floor, and at a signal from Paul, several of the hotel employees employ-ees hovering in the doorway rushed forward to help him. Twenty-four Santa Clauses from the orchestra lined up behind them and as each present was detached from the tree Tony read aloud the name on the gift and then shouted: "Paging Santa Claus! Another gift for special delivery." At that point a Santa Claus would detach himself from the group, seize the gift and go in search of the recipient Soon the room was full of red figures bearing gifts and as Tony reached each name Jack and his friends took up the cry: "Paging Santa Claus!" Under cover of all the excitement excite-ment Jan, very white, leaned close to Paul "You've made a terrible mistake!" mis-take!" she whispered. "And it's all my fault. That's Mr. Deverest's chauffeur, Tony Williams. I introduced intro-duced him here as Mr. Deverest because you seemed to think . . ." 1 "What do you mean Deverest'i chauffeur?" Paul interrupted, genuinely gen-uinely astonished. "I know Tony Deverest I knew his chauffeur, too the last one he had. He fired him about a month ago: That's Tony Deverest all right, up there at the Christmas tree. Listen!" Tony's voice came clearly to Jan's doubting ears: "There's Just one present left on the tree and I'm going to call the one for whom it is intended up here to receive it Will Miss Jaa Pay-son Pay-son please come forward?" Jan sat motionless. "Go on, Jan," whispered Dora. "Don't you hear Tony calling you?" As in a dream, Jan rose and made her way through the tables. The blue dress rippled softly about her and her face, beautiful and serious, se-rious, was turned toward Tony. When she reached the tree he took her hand and guided It to a small white package almost hidden in the green branches. "Open it" he said softly, and she obeyed. The outer wrappings removed, there was disclosed a tiny jeweler's box. "Paul called you William Anthony Deverest" she murmured, bewildered. bewil-dered. "Paul was right," said Tony. "And you've promised to be Mrs. William Anthony Deverest" He took the box from her and out of it he took a ring. Jan scarcely looked at It as Tony slipped It on her finger. Her eyes were on his face and she did not move them even when be turned to the audience audi-ence and said, his voice, full of pride and tenderness: "I am happy to tell you that Miss Jan Payson has promised to marry me. That's true, isn't It?" ha added add-ed softly to the girl beside aim. For answer Jan took a step closer clos-er and Tony, bis arms around her, could barely catch her whispered, "It's a promise." THE END |