Show m rj HALL V HE SEND SOME WORD TO ME synopsis in a base hospital at hieu llly france his ace disfigured beyond recognition an american soldier serving in the french army attracts attention by his deep despondency asked by the surgeons or a photograph to guide them in making over his ace he offers in derision a picture 0 the balor bidding them take that as a model they do so making a remarkable likeness invalided Invalid ed home on the boat he meets martin harrion new york broker who Is attracted by his remarkable ea tures the ex soldier gives his name as henry and his home as syracuse isea lork lie led there under a cloud and Is embittered against his former fellow townsmen harmon makes him a proposition to sell raining stocks in syracuse concealing his identity lie accepts it seeing in it a chance to make good and prove he has been underestimated in Sra cuse in reality richard morgan Is accepted as a stranger he visits james cullen a former employer relating a story ot the death of richard morgan and Is surprised at the regret shown by cullen and his youthful daughter angela CHAPTER discontinued with angela peering hard over his th mr cullen strul ned to decipher the uneven penmanship lie began to read aloud dear mr cullen 1 I am asking mr henry to bring you this letter personally I 1 want him to tell ou what im not writing too and you can tell other people it you care to 1 I want sou to know hint since ive tad time to think changed my mind about a good many things ive come to the conclusion that you were right and I 1 was wrong mabe you wont remember the last tall we had together but I 1 do you told me thea that I 1 have it in me to make good unless I 1 learned eliat I 1 was about the most worthless young ann in town and the one with the hardest row to hoe in order to make something out of myself and set out from there well ive learned it I 1 had to of course agree with you at the time that have been expected dut over here I 1 ve had one lesson after another some of them were pretty bitter but all helped and since may when I 1 was hurt ive bad lots of time to think them over 1 I never deserved your sundnes and now I 1 cant ever repay it but it may please ou to know tint this war has taught me what you tried to and that I 1 was as close to zero value at home as a m in could be it s only through this war that ive got any pride in myself and im sort of like kippings Kip lings gentleman ranker im proud of myself because ive done away with all the other kinds of pride I 1 used to have and I 1 believe ive made good not as a great general but as a private soldier that was the trouble at home I 1 was only fit to be a private and I 1 thought I 1 could be a general off hind you said id do well it I 1 learned that and I 1 have aliey gave me the croix de guerre i nd in a way that proves it doean doesn T notice that they dlan t even make ie a corporal though I 1 that s nil right 1 had enough training yet to be a corp braU its curious that admit tint t 1 I want you to know that avs thought of you a great deal I 1 dont blame you for letting me go I 1 did once but I 1 don t now please of me though as a man who came through at the finish ev en it he d been pretty hopeless before the best man in the world has promised to bring you this letter I 1 hope you 11 be glad to see him and to hear his side of the story this Is my apology and my blessing it worth anything to you I 1 send a kiss to angela R M mr cullen ended with a falling in and let the hand which held the letter drop to his knee the letter as you might guess from he looks of it said Hlll lard was written at several different times according to his strength I 1 want you to realize too mr cullen that it was no small effort for him to write it and then I 1 was in switzerland alien he died and his possessions had ah gone to jone 0 those tape bound bu beaus so that I 1 had a fearful time to identify myself and get what he had meant me to have and after that I 1 had to make a sudden trip to and back to angland again there were dalai s delays I 1 was ill for several months myself I 1 had typhoid in london I 1 should have mailed these things to you long ago but he hid hogged me to come in person and I 1 had promised and every d ay iy I 1 expected that in another week or two I 1 should start tor home I 1 feel that I 1 owe you this explanation and a great plea for forgiveness tor what roust seem to you like gross indifference on ray but I 1 landed hard ly two weeks ago and I 1 came up to you at the earliest possible moment in some ways he was a roost remarkable young man said mr cul len irrelevantly nobody ever understood der stood why lie turned out such a imlack sheep came from a fine old finlly I 1 suppose his father was one of the loved men n onondaga rinD lck for ears on his fathers reputation after people stopped noticing him on his own up count juat took advantage of the fact that nobody could quite bear to be harsh to his fathers son but he was aln ays a wild young chap noth ing MO bail except thai just too much of anything including liquor was just enough for almi had too quick a temper to be diplomatic enough to hold a job and care much about working hard and finally the tide turned and he began to get treated just as it his father haan hadn t been a sort of popular idol and then his disposition soured and he made ame bad mistake I 1 gave him the last job he ever had in syracuse but I 1 had to let him go and I 1 told him some plain facts when I 1 did what he refers to 1 I assumed said li that nt one time he had been what you might call disappointed ip love something was weighing on him he practically admitted but that was one point that he dlan t appear to want to confess even to me he was engaged to carol durant angela had taken the cross again and held it like a previous relic she broke it off just before he went away the dav before added sir cul len that was one of the two rea sons why he went nodded 1 I see on account of his habits that was the gossip said mr cul len heavily doctor durant was sup posed to have he write to her asked an gela raising her eye bisot that I 1 lie stopped quickly 1 I trust you 11 forgive me but I 1 d imagined from various remarks he made at different times that he was really tint he was great ly attached to you this last was ad dressed to angeli alio was both fled and by the suggestion her father however nodded in the e angela w aan t much more than nf teen sir they were great friends he vaa very fond of her no it was carol durant he was engaged fo he ask you to see her iso but you will I 1 hope wont you you can eo carol hero tonight if you care to said angela uncertainly she and and a friend of hers are coming oer to talk about another red cross drive carols on the coin they ought to be here any minute now les said Hlll lard if I 1 in going to see her I 1 think I 1 should rather see her here f mr cullen sighed well perhaps it s better and I 1 shall want to telephone this to the herald it QU don t object its the least we can do all things coald ered he reflected a mo ment how long are you staying in town mr ive made no plans whatsoever f he said after n slight pause sold my interests to a british syndicate of bankers two months ago my home Is where my baggage Is I 1 m thinking of taking a day or two to see certain of dicks frands the ones lie talked about jostand mo after that the future Is on the knees of the gods mr cullen regarded him with sincere 1 give me great pleasure he 1 a trifle pompously it you would be my guest for the time you re here mr it would please me very much indeed a heart pounded and me too said angela gently s heart to suffocate him bof entirely because the game was going so infinitely better than he had dared to hope but also because it was angela who entreated him its wonderfully of you he protested but I 1 coulden couldn t disturb you to that extent thank you but mr cullen stopped him by an inclusive gesture you wont disturb us in the slightest 1 I 1 wish aoud come with us mr Hlll lard I 1 should feel much better than having you stay downtown well said dubiously his soul was filled with unholy joy but hla outward demeanor was depra batory its ever so kind of you still As a favor to ane urged mr cullen As a favor to me echoed angela and looked attentively at her and was obviously swayed she noted its he had intended her to notice it he gave her a smile which had the power even in her somber mood to draw a faint response in kind if youre sure it wont be a hard ship to you its settled then Is it ni send one of my cars dow n for our things eyes flickered at the ingenuous allty he biad recently learned eliat sir chillen had made more during the post gwehe months than during the previous twelve sears well he said if jouie so charitable as to insist I 1 do sir I 1 do 1 you re at the onondaga of course angela who had been listening in bently stalled up at the unmistakable echio of footfalls on the walk here comes carol 1 she capped gapped and and jacl I 1 oh mr Hlll lard oh daal chos going to tell her As mr cullen flinched put out ills hand in n motion of supie nie restraint whatever dick morgan ma leave been at home he sold I 1 knew him after he offered his life for a great ideal and I 1 m proud that called me his friend tell alq durant please it s mv right and turned to face the girl he had tried to die for and failed CHAPTER IV she had always been when he last paw her the outstanding beauty of syracuse but he was astounded to be hold what the of two jears had done for lier she had taken tap on heisele a new her figure exceptionally graceful was still slon der but suggestive of a more woman li a more inclusive charm he was being presented to her I 1 he who had kissed her a thousand thou times was undergoing the ritual of presentation I 1 and she was smiling at him with those grave sweet esa of hers and calling him by lilg adopted ills mask of protection had never seemed so slight so insufficient the fragrance of her and the illusion caused by this threatened his bal ance and set his nerves on edge for tely the routine of the conventions intervened to save him from his inarticulateness bior one thing there was the rite of introduction to arm strong and after that there was a basli of promiscuous conversation with not a little weather philosophy in it then came the inexorable hush caused by the presence of a stranger whose fads and fancies a matter of conjecture and out of that hush a question and Hlll lard was suddenly visited by a species of self hypnosis if lie had been moved at all by the sight of angela whom he had loved as a aunger sister he was by om carlson par lson shaken as by a whirlwind by the of carol durant whom he had loed as a woman not on the train not at the hotel not even when he witnessed angelas severe grief had he remotely conceived that this instant would be so difficult to sur mount IV hat in new york had eem teem t ed a regeneration and earlier on this same evening had appeared a very dubious deception was rapidly taking upon itself the color of irremediable wrong his imagination was aroused beyond belief and ns he stared hi dumb suspense at carol recalling a thousand episodes and i thousand privileges of the long ago he was preyed upon by a slow stealing grimness of despair which left him sick with misery she was waiting for nn answer and the others were waiting too and watching him he felt that guilt hii stamped on his every feature and turned to face the girl ha had tried to die for he felt that every thought of his must be as crystal to the four who waited for him to speak he was himself and lie was not him he was ostensibly henry hohard a man in whom it be suspected that the heart and soul of dicky morgan were embodied he waa tran ast 1st a spectator at his own funeral sight of the croix de guerre of poor alerre butout dutout who in bequeathing que athing that impressive bitof bronze to him hadiat dreamed that he was leaving a heritage of chicanery along with it engendered in a thrill which nearly found its outlet in a paroxysm of wild laughter and the newspaper with cutouts most genuine citation in and the old passport photograph which he had hidden for fear that ills real name endorsed indorsed Indor sed on it might be cabled home together with proof to the world that he haan hadn t been a hero that he had failed in this as in every other un of his life and nil the dates in accuracy 1 and if anyone cared to trace back the story where avas the flaw where was there a loophole and who would recognize dick morgan in his cloak and mask of utter miracle lw had his brain included all the salient items of the picture in a single flash there was mor gan silling away to france which could be proved there was a num her and a name attached to it and t ance Hlll lards sturdy defense of dicky morgan had had a grain of truth in it and one of the steps of his many sided progress carefully care full omitted a name had been as fumed and had endured from the date of enlistment to lie date of it w as the indle bidual a recorded name in the army and at neuilly and it boigan and it Hlll lard uld it butout dutout 0 o one here knew it or ever would know it even aarmon know it it was the first sobriquet of a shell torn ual who had been taken to neuilly Neu llly and had been made whole again so one at eulley had ever set eyes on dicky morgans real face I 1 but a certain imn amed butout dutout had been decorated and died and that could be proved was proved I 1 had borrowed cutouts name in perfect safety and the trail w as cold and here was a fourth man to take his word for it and the world Is larger than the curiosity of sincere people to encompass iso if a surgeon ever told is one of the mysterious chapters of the war what had happened to a certain gloomy individual that summer the name would suggest nothing and as far as checking up the visits of a mythical to a very real du tout was concerned conyer ned who would profess to remember the testimony of any single witness would be immaterial alie voice of carol durant was echoing in s ears 11 and Hlll lard to a tidal wave of reckless ness and of swelling anger at imaginary wrongs looked squarely into carols eyes and spoke with winning urgency yes he said 1 I have news of morgan in fact I 1 m here in syracuse solely because I 1 have it ive just been telling mr cullen and miss cullen that I 1 was with him when he died she dlan t speak at first she merely looked at Hlll lard and grew very white and her lips quivered presently she swayed a little and reached out with her hand toward the back of a convenient chair armstrong stepped toward her and angela cul len slipped an arm around her waist lies dead she repeated ind her tone was not yet free from a certain incredulity as though the fact vere of itself impossible and the statement of t subject to discussion yes miss durant alio moistened her lips her eyes wera very bright unnaturally bright so that was fascinated and appalled YOU you know that she ed again with that queer Index lon of doubt yes I 1 know it the others were standing as statues mr cullen snatching at the first idea of consolation to present itself fumbled for his daughter s other hand still retained the trophy a better man had won heres what aliey gave him carol looka ohp croix de guerre t dont lets think of an thing but what he lets be proud of him I 1 I 1 oh jes she said and took the cross in her palm she dropped her ees for a moment then raised them to the level of Hlll lards lib send some word to roe no s nod was very aln aso im sorry but her eyebrows lifted and her nostrils dilated the merest trifle her breath was coming more rapidly now she vas nearing the breaking point of her resistance and all of them knew it alie moment was prolonged hilleard Hill lard gazing without a quiver at the girl he had thought he loved beyond nil else in this world or the next was related as he observed her symptoms she had really cared then so much |