Show HAROLD c MACj Mn Au flior the place efa CHAPTER continued 15 he saw her walk bravely the length vt the dining room out into the office what a misfortune 1 argument was out of the question elsa was not a child to be reasoned with she was a woman and she had come to a worn an a understanding of her heart to place before her the true angles of the case the heartless banishment from the world she knew the regret which would be hers later no matter how much she loved the man he pushed back his chair leaving his colee he possessed the deep understand ing of the kindly heart and his one thought was elsae future happiness could he save her from the day when she would learn romance bad come from within no all he could do was to help find the man he sent five cablegrams cable grams to saigon to the consulate to the principal hotels the most difficult composition he had ever attacked dut because he had forgotten to send the sixth to meet the packet boat against the pos of warrington changing his mind and not landing his labor was thrown to the winds meantime elsa stopped at the office desk I 1 left a note for mr warring ton who has gone to saigon I 1 see it in his key box will you please re turn it to me the clerk aid not hesitate an in beant he gravely returned the note to her manell ng at her paleness lisa crushed the note in her hand and moved toward the stairs wondering if she could reach her room before she broke down utterly he bad gone he had gone without knowing that all he n anted in life ws his for the tak ing in her room she opened the note and through blurred vision read what dhe had so happily inscribed the night before taul I 1 love you come to me elsa she had written it unashamed f she flung herself upon the bed and there martha found her elsa child what Is it martha cried kneeling beside the bed child what has happened lisa eat up seized martha by the shoulders and stared into the faithful eyes ell I 1 love this man war arington rington and be loves me but be has gone cant you see dont you un der stand have you been as blind as ia he Is paul ellason Ell lson arthurs brother his twin brother and they him it Is arthur who Is the ghost martha the phantom ah I 1 have cai sed ou a good deal of worry and I 1 am going to cause you yet more I 1 am going to saigon up and dov n the world east and west until I 1 find him shall I 1 go alone or will you go with me martha did what ever after en dcarl a her to the heart of the stricken girl she mothered her elsa my baby of course I 1 shall go with you alwais t or you could not love any man it be was not worthy then followed the strangest quest doubtless ever made by a woman from singapore to saigon up to bangkok down to singapore again to batalla Ba tavla over to hongtong Hong kong shang hat manila hongtong Hong kong again then yokohama patient and hopeful alsa followed the bewildering trail she left behind her many puzzled hotel managers and booking agents for it was not usual for a beautiful young woman to go about the world ing for a blond man with a parrot sometimes she was only a day late many cablegrams cable grams she sent but upon her arrival in each port she found that these had not been called for over these heartbreaking disappoint ments she uttered no complaint the world was big and wide be it never BO big and wide elsa knew that some day she would find him in the daytime there was the quest but ah the nights the interminable lairs of inaction the spaces of time in which she could only lie back and think up and down the coasts across islands over seas the journey took her until one day in july she found herself upon the pillared veranda of house in which her mother had been born v CHAPTER the two brothers from port to port sometimes not stepping off the boat at all moody res tiesa and irritable warrington bended wended his way home there was nothing surprising in the fact that he never inquired tor mall who was there to write besides he sought only the obscure hotels where he was not likely to meet any of his eret while fellow passengers the mock cry and uselessness uee of his home going became mare and more apparent as the days slipped by often he longed to fly back to the jungles to james and leave matters as they were here and there along the way he had tried aalt of luxury but the years of econ my and frugality had robbed him of he ability to enjoy it he was going booe to what surely there would be no welcome for him at bis journeys end he would return after lie manner of prodigals prod igals in general S fisl Si Sl not scriptural to find that be was not wanted of his own tree will he bad gone out of their lives he fought grimly against the thought of elsa but he was riot strong enough to vanquish the long ings from his heart and mind always when alone she was in fancy with him now smiling amusedly into bis face now peering down at the phosphorus res cence seething alongside now stand ing with her chin uplifted her eyes halt shut letting the strong winds strike her full in the face many a good night he sent over the seas an incident that would be all his first day in new york left him with nothing more than a feeling of foreboding and oppression the ex pecked exhilaration of returning to the city of bis birth did not materialize so used to open spaces was he to als and the circle of horizons that he knew he no longer belonged to the city with its Hl malayan gorges and cannons whose torrents were human beings and whose glaciers were the hearts of these A great loneliness bore down on him for months he had been drawing familiar pictures and to find none of these was like corn ing home to an empty bouse the old life was indeed gone there were no threads to resume A hotel stood where his club had been the bouse in which he had spent his youth was no more he wanted to leave the city and the desire was with difficulty over come early the second morning he started downtown to the offices of the andes construction company he was ex nervous cold sweat con moistened his palms change change everywhere change trinity was like an old friend when the taxi cab driver threw oil the power and indicated with a jerk of his head a granite shaft that soared up into the blue warrington asked what place is this the andes building sir the con company occupies the top floor very good replied warrington paying and discharging the man from a reliquary of the dutch an affair of red brick four stories high this monolith had sprung with a sigh warrington entered the cavernous doorway and stepped into an express elevator when the car arrived at the twenty second story warrington was alone ho paused before the door of the vice president He recalled the old man thin lipped blue eyed arup A man like you made for idleness live it was all very strange this request to make the restitution in per son well he would soon learn why he drew the certified check from bis wallet and scrutinized it carefully twelve thousand eight hundred dol lars he replaced it opened the door and walked in A boy met him at the railing and briskly inquired his busl ness I 1 have an appointment with mr tell him that mr ellison Is here the boy returned promptly and alg that mr was at liberty but it was not the old man who looked up from a busy man s desk it was the son so tar the one fa face warrington had seen since his ar rival there was no hand shaking there was nothing in evidence on either side to invite it ah I 1 sit down paul let no one disturb me for an hour the young vice president advised the boy and close the door as you go out warrington sat down the bridge builder whirled hla chair around and stared at his visitor not insolently but with kindly curiosity youve filled out was all he said after fully satisfying his eyes he added I 1 dare say you expected to find father he s been gone six years indicating one of the two por traits over his desk it was not at the old man warrington looked longest who Is the kotlier ot lier he asked LL t art bi u what you worked four years with this company and don t recollect that portrait frankly I 1 never noticed it before warrington placed the certified check on the desk with interest he said the vice president crackled it ran his fingers over his smooth chin fold ed the check and extended it toward the astonished wanderer we dont want that paul what w e wanted was to get you back there was no other way your brother made up the loss the day after you went away there was no scandal only a few of us in the office knew never got to the newspapers it was impossible for warrington to digest this astounding information at once ills mind could only repeat the phrases no scandal only a few of us in the office knew never got to the newspapers for ten years he had hidden himself in wildernesses wilder nesses avald ed hotels read no american pers never called for mail oh bonu mental fool and I 1 could have come home al most at once he said aloud address ing the crumpled check in his hand rather than the man in the swivel chair yes I 1 have often wondered where you were what you were doing you and your brother were upper class men I 1 never knew arthur very well but you and I 1 were chummy after a fashion arthur was a little too book ish for nay style dlan t we use to call you old galahad you were always walloping the bullies and taking the weaker chaps under your wing to me you were the last man in the world for this business moreover I 1 never could understand nor could ta ther how you got it for you were not an office man women and cards I 1 suppose father said that you bad the making of a great engineer fierce place this old town waving his hand toward the myriad sparkling roots and towers and spires have tobe strong and hard headed to survive it built anything since you ve been away in cashmir to have thrown away a decade glad you kept your hand in I 1 dare say you ve seen a lot of life to the young man it was an extremely awk ward interview yes I 1 ve seen life dully orient mostly I 1 suppose your letter about the strike in oil was mighty interesting heap of money over there it they d only let us smart chaps in to dig it up now old man I 1 want you to wipe the slate clear of these ten years well call it a bad dream what are your plans for the future plans warrington looked up blankly he realized that he had made no plans for the future yes what do ou intend to do A man like ou gasn wasn t made tor idle ness look here paul I 1 in not going to beat about the bush wove got a whopping big contract from the achl nese government and we need a man to take charge a man who knows and understands something of the yellow people how about a salary ot ten thousand a year for two years to be gin in october warrington twisted the check work rehabilitation could you trust me he asked quietly with anything I 1 have in the world understand paul theres no string to this offer youve pulled through a devil of a hole you re a man I 1 should not be holding down this chair it I 1 coulden couldn t tell a man at a glance we were together two months in peru I 1 m familiar with your work do you want to know whose portrait that la up there well its general Chet woods the founder of this con cern the silent partner the man who knew kings and potentates and told em that they needed bridges in their back yards this building belongs to his daughter she convert ed her stock into granite about a month ago I 1 received a letter from her it directly concerned you it seems she learned through the consul general at singapore that you bad worked with us ashes like her fa ther a mighty keen judge of human nature frankly this offer comes through her advises advices to satisfy yourself QU can give us a surety bond tor fifty thousand it s not obligatory however elsa chetwood Cb she had her fa eyes and it was this which bad drawn his gaze to the portrait chet wood and arthur had not known any more than he had what irony tea years wasted for nothing I 1 warrington laughed aloud A weak ness seized him like that of a man long gone hungry duck up paul warned the good samaritan all this kind of knocks the wind out of I 1 know dut what I 1 ve offered ou Is in good faith will ou take lt yes simply that s the way to talk supposing you go out to lunch with me well talk it over like old times no I 1 haven t seen to be sure I 1 forgot do you know where they live your mother and brother iso I 1 expected to ask you the vice president scribbled down the address I 1 believe you 11 find them both there though arthur I 1 un der stand Is almost as great a traveler as you are of course you want to see them you poor beggar the southwestern will pull you almost up to the door after the reunion you hike back here tind well gatt down to the meat of the S ahlness john said warrington huskily you re a man oh its not all john the old man left word that it you ever turned up again to hang on to you you were valuable and there a miss chetwood it yon want to thank anybody thank her warrington missed the searching glance which was not without its touch of envy you d better be off hautle back as soon as you can dimoro offered his hand now gad I 1 but you haven t lost any of your old grip I 1 hi a bit dazed the last six months have loosened up my nerves nobody s made of iron id sound hollow it I 1 tried to say what I 1 feel be back a week from today look for you As the door closed behind warrena ton the young millionaire sat down scowling at a cubby hole hi bis desk he presently took out a letter post marked yokohama Yoh he turned it about in bis hands musingly without read ing it for he knew its contents well he thrust it back into the cubby hole women were out of his sphere he could build a bridge within a dollar of the bid but he knew nothing about beyond the fact that they were always desirable A few monosyllables a sentence or two and then good day the average man would have recounted every dent of note during those ten years he did not admire warrington any the less for bis reticence it took a strong man to hold himself together under all these blows from the big end of for tunes horn paul was a born engineer arthur had entered the office as a makeshift paul had taken eight thousand one day and de camped arthur had re funded the sum and disappeared elmore could not understand nor could his father perhaps some of the truth would now come to light somehow paul with his blond beard and blonder head his bright eyes his tan hla big shoulders somehow paul was out of date he did not belong to the times and eisa bad met him over there practically ordered though she had no authority that he should be given a start anew that moreover she would go his bond to any amount funny old world well he was glad paul was a man a big man and that was the sort needed in the foreign bridge building he rolled down the top of his desk and left the building he was in no mood for work the evening of the third day found warrington in the baggage car feeding a dilapidated feather bolting molting bird who was in a most scandalous tern per rajah scattered the seeds about spurned the banana tip tilted the wa ter cup and swashbuckler swash buckled generally by and by above the clack clack of wheels and rails came a crooning song the looked up from his and lowered his pipe he saw the little green bird pause and begin to keep time with its head it was the urdu lullaby james used to sing it never tailed to quiet the little parrot warrington went back to bis pullman where the porter greeted him with the information that the next stop would be his ten aln utes later he stepped from the train a small in one hand and the parrot cage in the other he had come prepared tor mistake on the part of the natives the single smart cabman lifted his hat jumped down from the box and opened the door warrington entered without speaking the door closed and the coupe rolled away briskly he was perfectly sure of his destination the cabman had mistaken him for arthur it would be better |