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Show J I deSmith, but Mrs. Burgoyne-IIayescended on me. I must present you to the prince, Your greatCourtlandt, she said. grandfather on your mother's side, I think, was a soldier of our King George. Yes, madam," 1 said, but the grand drew his duke of pay. I did not see the note which Mme. von Hubert wrote to Randolph Mason; but it was effective. He requested me to return after dinner and acstreet. company him to Eighty-sixtThe von Huberts have a residence on Eighty-sixtstreet. We arrived there on the hour and were shown Into the library. Randolph Mason at once sat down in a heavy black oak chair before the fire. This chair was a massive and curious piece. It was carved by the peasants of the Black Forest for the baron's grandfather. The tortuous shapes forming its arms and legs are like the gargoyles to be seen under the roofs of castles on the Rhine, and now and then in Paris. I was impressed by the picture of Mason in this massive chair. His long, sinewy fingers gripping the writhing features of the hideous oaken monsters, his face thrown partly into shadow by the flaming logs on the hearth. The masterful iron face, !ie lean, hard jaw with its projecting chin, the fearless, bony nose appearing in the fantastic light flattened a little at the end, like that of a beast Of prey, and the craggy forehead all colored, browned, reddened by the fire. I heard lhe latch of the door click, and looked up to see Beatrix Prr.ith standing on the threshold, looking at Mason with profound Interest. Her lira were parted and her eyes wide. She had not thought to come on this curious picture of the middle ages taken down from some Italian gallery and s The Corrector of Destinies Being Tale of Randolph Mason as Related by Ilia Private Secretary, Courtland Parks , Hesse-Darmsta- The nmu Dinner Burgoyne-Haye- s By Melville Davisson Post h Copjnelit by i. award J. t'iode The dinner given by Mrs. Burgoyne-llaye- s quite content to go out there and live to Prince Edward of Hesse quietly on a captains pay, and love will be always re- her big Englishman and be happy. But membered by New York. The proud she wants bis debts cleared off; his old dowager cut society like a butch- honor untarnished, she calls It. It er. The list was a slreak of blood. seems to mean a lot to her, and she is No luassaue of King Philip's war so absurdly in love with the tall solever left more savagery skulking in dier that it Is enough to break a body's the bushes. The terrible old woman heart. Now', Courtlandt, where are we openly declared that she intended to to get this money former? I replied, I do give New York the bayonet, as her Unfortunately, not at this moment think of a convengreat relative did In 1777. I shall always remember this din- ient orphan to rob. llow would it ner for another reason. It was the do to rifle the poor box at St. first appearance in America of Beatrix Thomas? Waldo after her marriage with Capt. Sarah Lemarr Ignored my second ofGordon Smith of his majesty's lines in fense after the manner of a woman, South Africa. There were a lot of and, likewise, true to the same manfloating, disconnected rumors about ner, gave the remainder of the story this marriage. Beatrix certainly posed after having asked a decision in the as an heiress before the Englishman midst of it. went under the yoke, and we got You remember Beatrix owned sevthe impression, doubtless directly, that eral thousand acres of forest land back he had a large estate somewhere on somew here in the Alleghanies, in some Loch Codan, 3,000, at any rate, over county of the Virginias. Let me see, his pay. Then we heard later on, she said the name had been a fortuthrough Jimmie Dale, I think he al- nate one for the first Captain Smith in ways knew (he foreign gossip that the America, and ought not to fail the secEnglishman did not have a brass, far- ond one. thing over his pay, and was rathI suggested. Pocahontas, er worse oft than that by a fat budget How stupid! she said. Of course, of debts. We knew that Beatrix had Well, some lumber comno income to speak of her aunt kept Pocahontas. to steal half of pany has s the going for her. There Beatrixs managed and some other and it, land, were wild lands, back inland somenow want to buy the rival companies, where, that Beatrix used to turn into remainder of her. They will give dll, coal and spruce lumber when she $20,000. They have been dogging her to gat dreaming, but the in did aunt used to pay taxes on them, footsteps ever since she landed But this is only $20,000, ftnd I think that was about the only New York. she reminder of the fortune that ever and Beatrix needs $10,000. If has could get back the land which ekme along to New York. would bring the other J had Sarah Lamarr on my right at been stolen, it know how they manI don't $20,000. this dinner, and, fortunately, an imto get it. Beatrix has the aged on German her possible person right. w'hole story in detail, with maps Who kept his nose well In his wines and so forth. I think she failed and pates. I wanted to ask Sarah at some time, about Beatrix, and was glad of to pay the taxes It that way. Now, the Teutons exclusive interest in his and they stole must Mr. Mainduce Courtlandt, you I Stomach. shared a rather general son to Beatrix's land for her. curiosity. The Englishman was here She is get stopping with me, you know. With Beatrix, putting in his leave of house tomorrow for him to Mechel-Schwere- n gown-maker- tho horde of dangerous and unscrupulous land thieves said to Infest the fountain districts of the Virginias. But her great care was not sufficient against the Ingenuity of these pirates. After one of the periodic assessments of real estate, one thousand acres of her estate were listed on the land books under the name of Walden, returned delinquent, and sold for taxes. The land was purchased by Gilbert Williams, president of the Black Creek Lumber company, for $36.83. She had paid no attention to the sale, not recognizing her land under this name until she came to have the estate surveyed a few months ago, some five or six years after Its purchase at the tax sale by Gilbert Williams. She also learned that the whole thing was a well planned snd effective scheme of this owner of the Black Creek Lumber company to s'eal her land. These wild lands had vastly increased in value. This company and a rival one, the Export Spruce company, were exceedingly anxious to pun hasp the remaining iraet. They would give, she thought, twenty dollars an acre for it. The agents of the two companies had been at her heels ever since she arrived in New York. Gilbert Williams was now' at the Fifth Avenue hotel. He had endeavored to reach her by teleihone this very evening, lie offered a little better price than the Export Spruce company, but he could well afford io, since he it was that had stolen half the land. The agent of the Kxjieit Spruce company was at the Holland. Ills note, on the table, requested an interview with her at any hour she would name, day or nghl. This indicated how very desirous they were for the land. Such a sale would yield her twenty thousand dolars. All the lands would have given her the forty thousand which 4he needed. Her name now' was Bt-t- rix Smith; she had married Lieu- - the land to Williams? the man who robbed me! How can that help? Madam, said Randolph Mason, do not worry me with petty bickering, I signaled Beatrix Smith to a conDo exference with me in the hall. actly as he says, I whispered when we were outside the door, and hurry. She promised and went swiftly up- stairs to the telephone. In a very few minutes Gilbert Williams arrived. He was a old fellow with a face like a fox, and heady eyes set obliquely lu his head. Randolph Mason arose when be came in, and explained that as Mrs, Smith wished to leave America at once, she had determined to sell her lands, provided cash was paid. Tho lands were worth thirty thousand dollars, but her husband was absent and could not convey his curtesy in the deed. She would therefore take twenty thousand cash and make a deed on the spot. Gilbert Williams snapped up the offer, lie did not care anything about the The laud curtesy of the husband. itself was worth nothing, the timber only was valuable. Ilis mills would cut it off in a year, and he was willing to take the chance of Mrs. Smiths living that long. He produced a deed, which he had brought with him to New York, and ran a pen through the blank which it contained for the husbands name. Beatrix signed the deed, and thj notary who accompanied Williams filled in the acknowledgment and affixed his seal in proper form. Gilbert Williams wrote out a check on the Imimrters Bank of Commerce for twenty thousand dollars. We ascertained by telephone to the cashier at his residence that the check was good. Williams then folded his deed, put it in his pocket and departed with the notary. The whole matter had taken less than tw enty minutes to bring to a close. Randolph Mason Inquired at what red-haire- d over-draine- d Le-ma- rr absence. If they mooned for vans ished Eldorados, one saw no in it. I thought the pair of them at the far end of the table looked happy enough, pretty comfortable for disillusioned fortune hunters. Presently I got Sarah Lemarr to myself, and wa3 about to inquire Into the mystery when ahe took the very subject from the tip of my tongue. "I have been hoping for a word with you, Courtlandt, she said; its about Beatrix Smith.' She needs your astear-stain- sistance." I am not a divorce I lawyer, aid. Nonsense, Courtlandt, she answered; they love each other. They are lovers. Can you gather the significance of such an undreamed of ending to the effort each of them made to marry a fortune? Then, I said, Beatrix cannot need assistance. Poets tell us that lovers do not dwell in this land of trolley cars and spindles, but somewhere on blessed islands they are happy. But, my dar boy, said Sarah Lemarr, one might take a stone bruise or a thorn in the thumb even on a blessed island." Not so," I answered; the Well at the Worlds End is there, and whosoever tasteth thereof shall be perfect as his dreams are perfect, and around and all about this land Lethe, the River of Oblivion, rolls its watery labyrinth. Nay, do not Interrupt me; the human heart longs with a longing that cannot be uttered for this enchanted country w here, you tell me, Beatrix walks with her Englishman. Well! said Sarah Lemarr. "Who is the girl, Courtlandt? "There you go," 1 said, demonstrating the greatest unwritten truth about a woman; namely,1 that every reflection arises from a personal experience. If one deplores sin, he has robbed his employer In his youth; If one apostrophizes love, he is about to marry Miss street. The girl Jones of Forty-eightin my case, dear Madame von Hubert, is that mysterious daughter of Abu Jaffer, surnamed the Victorious, second Caliph of Bagdad under the dynasty of the Abbasldes, asleep on her silk carpet in Arabia. Here the Impossible German person interrupted to inquire if I thought the truffles were canned. I did not think they were canned, and he was content; but the moment gave Sarah Lemarr a lead and she seized It with the practical directness of a New Bedford sklp-pe- r. h fairy-woma- . t she said, "be "Now,. Courtlandt, sensible. - Beatrix needs-$40,00- 0. How original of Beatrix, I replied, "Most' of us need only a couple of hun-dre- d. . ' - If you are going to lie nasty about will never It, Courtlandt," ,she said, You must help speak to you kgaln. Beatrix to find this $10,000. The poor girl 1$ dreadfully worried about it. You see, Courtlandt. when the two of them nwoke after the honeymoon to And their estate all Castilian haze, Instead of a conventional separation they fell In love with each other likfe a couple of Breton peasants. Beatrix told mo all about it; she Is lovely. She does hot want the money for herself; she wants It. to pay Lieut. Gordon Smith's debts. When hi debts are paid, he will be made a captnin and transferred to his old regiment In In.Beatrix adores India; she 1 dia. T -- .I my Bring dinner. Lieut. Gordon Smith is going to Washington tomorrow to call on the British legation and will not return until very late; hut he knows nothing about It. Beatrix Is the business agent for the pair of them. I smiled at the artlessness of- Mme. von Hubert. Certainly, I said; but why not bring the man in the moon, too, and the Witch of Endor. Randolph Mason is hardly the sort of person that goes out to dinner. Well, then, said Sarah Lemarr, bring him after dinner. I will write him a little note. I could have laughed In the girls face. What will you say In your little note? I Inquired. Oh, well, what any one would say, she answered, that I wish to see him on an important business matter. And do you know, I said, what would happen to your little note? What would happen to it? she said. Her chin went up. She was a social overlord, this Mme. von Hubert. Her invitations were commands. The social aspirant dreamed of their coming, as of that of Abou ben Adhems Angel. This would happen, I answered. "Randolph Mason would rip open the envelope with his long finger, fold back the paper where you creased it across the middle, and drop it into the waste basket. A red flush sprang up along her dog collar of diamonds. I hurried to explain. "I beg your pardon, I said; but you must think of Randolph Mason as you would of an eccentric scientist Darwin or Agassiz an intellectual recluse without emotions, a sort of Hindoo ascetic of a high order. You could not write any of these such a note; neither could you write such a not to him. Now, there Is a sort of note which you might write to any of these, and you might try such a note on him, although I have little hope of It. Mme. von Huberts head was Btill In the air. You mean, she said, such a note ought to run: Will the ogre kindly meet a kissable fairy on the north side of the hawthorn thicket at moon-riseI believe your scientist, no matter how old, usually comes out of his shell for this sort of thing. But she could not keep her exquisitp good nature under a bushel for long. She began to laugh. Really, Courtlandt, to be serious, what ought I to write him? We must have his help for Beatrix." The sort of note, I said, that you would write to a famous archaeologist, If you wished him to call and examine a rare Egyptian pot, or to a numismatist if you possessed a coin of the time of Cyrus, or to a bacteriologist If you had a culture of the bubonic plague for him. Invite him to the examination of a case of rare and interesting injustice, at your residence on Eighty-sixtstreet at nine o'clock ?' h night." I was going on to explain about this note a little in detail, but the Impossible German suddenly realized that he ought to talk, and at once set about It with the persistence and regularity of a man filing a saw. We resisted as long as we could, and then gave It up for another Sedan. We were rescued finally by Mme. Castalgne, who gave some fragments from Moliere. 1 tried to get a further word with Beatrix Spruce company. Mason arose when (his agrnt entered, and explained, as he had done to Gilbert Williams, that Mrs. Smith was about to sail for England, and had decided to sell her laud. She would take twenty thousand dollars in cash for it, the deed to be executed and the money to be paid down. The agent agreed at once, and pro- duced his deed, lie was prepared a Williams was. Mason directed Beatrix Smith and her husband to execute the deed. 1 had no end of trouble with Beatrix-i'the hail this time. She did not want to make another deed; she had sold her land; she would not rob the Export Spruce company. It was not the company that had stolon her land; Mr. Mason had clearly gotten the two companies confused.' He was making an awful blunder. ,1 DiuFt call him out and set him right about ' ' ; it. Instead, I called Sarah Lemarr. She berated Beatrix like a pirate. Disobey Randolph Mason? the thing was unthinkable! Make a mistake? not that big, fine, bronze god brooding by his sacred fire. Why, girl,! she said, J would shoot every one of you In your tracks if that man told me to do is adorable. I could follow him around like a dog and bite people if he whistled to me. Not another word out of you, or I will come down with And she shook her the little clenched hand over the banis- 4a - it.-ll- . dog-whi- ters. Finally we got the matter over.J Beatrix and her husband executed the deed. I got a notary from the Plaza The agent gave certified draftsmen, Dexter & Company for the twenty thousand dollars, and, like Gilbert' Williams, folded his deed and depart-ed- . Beatrix Smith bearded the lion with Mr. Maeyes swimming in tears., son, she said, you have made a terrible mistake. The Export Spruce company 13 not the one who stole my , land. I cannot take its money; it will not get the property." And she went on with a torrent of lamentation. Madam, said Mason, rising, all this la drivel. I have made no mistake. The Export Spruce company will get every acre that It hag this night purchased. Then he directed Beatrix to cash the checks at the earliest hour in the morning and sail at once for England. When we went down the steps to his carriage, Sarah lemarr slipped out from behind the door and caught my arm. I shall see to It, she whispered. They shall sail on the St. aul at eleven oclock. Then she gripped me until her nails hurt through my sleeve. Oh, Courtlandt, she said, I1 have at last seen a man! and she' closed the big door behind me. The solution of the matter arrived a month later. I was taking a hasty ' luncheon at a dow'n-towcafe, when Freddie Ilarland of the firm of Milton, Ilarland & Gaynor, came In and seated himself In the chair beside me:' Old Wib Hclo, Parks, be said. liams tells me you were present when he bought a gold brick Ihe other ' night. You mean the Smith deed? I said. AVil- Well, rather, he answered. liams took It down to West Virginia to have It recorded, and discovered, to use his spectacular language, that it was not worth three hurrahs in hell' What was wrong with it? I said It did not convey the husbands curtesy, I know; but Williams knew that too. He did not care for that, he said; he could cut the timber eff in a year and he was willing to take the chance of Mrs. Smith - living until . then. That, replied Freddie Ilarland, "is a mere bagatelle In the trouble. It seems that the supreme court of West Virginia has decided that a deed made by a wife, In which the husband does not Join, conveys no estate of any character whatever, 13 merely a worthless piece of paper. The Export Spruce company has the land under a proper deed Mrs. Beatrix Smith has vanished Into the fog beyond Fire Island and the bob-cat- s have old Williams mills. "Good, I said, "good! Gilbert stole half that land, so the chicken Is home to roost. "We reminded him of that, replied Freddie Ilarland, when he began to jump around in the office, n , ' - , d For the legal principle Involved "Madam said Randolph Mason, with petiy Mckerincf propped up here in the library of the von Huberts. She bowed to me, crossed the room and sat dow n by the library table a little beyond Raqdolph Mason, at the corner of the fire. Presently Mason looked up at her. "Is this Mme. von Hubert? be said, without rising, without an inflection of interest or courtesy, as he would have said: Is this the contract?" "The bond In question? She flushed a little. "No, she answered; I am merely the interesting case that you canie to examine into. said Give me the details of it, Mason. She began at once without introduction or verbiage and told her story with a brevity and directness that I rould not associate with that rather silly Beatrix Waldo who used to go up and down through the drawing rooms of Newport looking for a rich husband. She had Inherited from her father two thousand acres of wild forest land In the county of Pocahontas In the state of West Virginia. She and her aunt had watched It carefully and paid the taxes on It each year; they had even taken the little local newspaper, published at the county seat, in order that they might know what lands were returned delinquent for taxes and old. They had been warned against , "do in this story see Austin et aU v. Brown et M., 37 W. Va., 634. not worry me tenant Gordon Smith the year before. hour Lieutenant Gordon Smith would He was in Washington today, hut arrive, and was told that he would be would return before eleven oclock this at the house at half past ten. Direct the agent of the Export Spruce comnight. That was the whole history, brief, pany to he here at that hour," he accurate and devoid of superfluous said. Then he sat down In the oak , comment. She had there on the table chair In fora the fire. We were ail greatly puzzled. We the original deed, maps and tax re1 , ceipts. Masons face showed marked annoyance, as that of an eminent surgeon would, who, having been sent for in hot haste, arrives to find the patient with a bumped nose. he "Why do you send for me? said; any lawyer could adjust this problem." the It is vital to me," replied woman; it means my happiness and my husband's career. I beg you to help me." Her eyes begun to fill up and her lips trembled with distress. Randolph Muboii gavo no attention to the woman's emotions, lie sat, beating the tips of his fingers on the urms of the chair, with evident annoyance. Let us get the thing over, then," he said. "Call up this man Gilbert Williams. Say to him that Mrs. Smith has determined to sell the lands; ask him to come here at once with a notary." What! cried Beatrix Smith, "sell I Syllabus, Austin et at. v. Brown M. A. B., a married woman, not living separate and apart, but with her husband, undertook by deed . . . to sell and convey a certain tract of land, part of her real estate . . . Held, said pretended deed was wholly Ineffectual to divest M. A. B., the grantor, of her ownership of such land, and did pot, pass any Interest therein, " legal-oto the said equitable, et al., supra. did not see why this second purchaser should he invited to come. Beatrix Smith had nothing moie to sell. The transaction seemed to us to have arrived at its final act, the curtain down and the lights out. Sarah Lemarr came down to the hall and jumped thiough the door at Mason, whore ho sat motionless, "bis right elbow on the twisted arm of the grotesquely carved chair, his clenched fingers propping up his jaw.-"Courtlandt," she whlspe.ed, "he 1 think Is splendid! Iaincclot must have looked like that when he sat In Arthurs chair to umpire tho last tournament. Just fancy, with what freezing, acid Irony he would have said, 'Hast thou won? Art thou the purest brother? to such an unconscionable rake as Trlftan." Tlien she swore Beatrix to obedience and slipped bak up the great stair. way. A fewr minutes after ten o'clnek, Lieutenant Gordon Smith arrived, and, a little later, the agent of the Export douhle-dragone- r grantees." t, Unsinkable Ship. Mans for an unslnkabh trans-Alla, tic ship have been made by Otto Kretschmer, dean of the engineering tie-- ' partinent of tho Charlottenburg Technical high school. In them he embodies the principle of constructing a hull within a hull. The Inner body,1 which Is entirely Independent of the outer, contains all the engines and hollers and Is walled In with steel plating and with no doors to the outer structure. A Carping Friend. ' A college offers me a degree for a million. "Do you want to he a college youth? u No; hut Id like n degrt lu.t nmtu)' Oh, why spend all Join tho hoy stouts." |
