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Show I ! iSERlAbf: teSTORV THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES By MEREDITH NICHOLSON Aatlur 1 "THE MAIN CHANCE." BAME10N," Etc. CapjiWM UN by botUM-tUm- ZELDA Ca. CHAPTER VI. I Continued. turned to stand face to face with ?the girl In the red "I beg your pardon," I said, stepping away from th canoe. She did not wear the covert coat of the morning, but a red knit Jacket, buttoned tight about her. She was young with every emphasis of youth. A pair of dark blue eyes examined me with curiosity. She was on good terms with the sun I rejoiced in the brown of her cheeks, so eloquent of companionship with the outdoor world a certificate indeed of the favor of Heaven. Show me, in October, a girl with a face of tan, whose hands have plied a paddle or driven a golf-bal- l or cast a fly beneath the blue arches of summer, and I will suiter 'her scorn in joy. She may vote me dull and refute my wisest word with laughter, for hers are the privileges of 'the sisterhood of Diana; and that soft 'bronze, those daring fugitive freckles 'beneath her eyes, link her to times when Pan whistled upon his reed and all the days were long. Her rubber-sole- d outing shoes had made possible her silent approach, and 'She enjoyed, I was sure, my discom; fiture at being taken unawares. I had snatched off my cap and stood waiting beside the canoe, feeling, I must admit, a trifle guilty at being caught in the unwarrantable inspection of another persons property particularly a person so wholly pleasing to the eye. I believe I believe that 13 my paddle, she said, a little timidly I thought, and yet with definiteness. I looked down and found to my annoyance that I held her paddle in my hand, was in fact leaning upon it with a cool ait of proprietorship. "Again, I beg your pardon, I said. "I hadnt expected She eyed me calmly, with the stare of the child that arrives at a drawingroom door by mistake and scrutinizes, the guests without awe. I didnt know what I had expected or had not expected, and she manifested no intention of helping me to explain. Her short skirt suggested 15 or 16 not more and such being the case there was no reason why I should not be master of the situation. As I fumbled my pipe the hot coals of tobacco nurned my hand and I cast the thing from me. She laughed a little, then caught herself and gravely watched the pipe bound from the dock into the water. "Too bad! she said, her eyes upon It; but if you hurry you may get it before it floats away. Thank you for the suggestion," I said. But I did not relish the idea of kneeling on the dock to fish for a pipe before a strange school girl who was, I felt sure, anxious to laugh at me. She took a step toward the line by which her boat was fastened. Allow me. If you think you can, safely, she said; and the laughter that lurked in her eyes annoyed me. The feminine knot Is designed for the confusion of man, I observed, twitching vainly at the rope, which was tied securely in unfamiliar loops. She was singularly unresponsive. The thought that she was probably laughing at my clumsiness did not make my fingers more nimble. The nautical instructor at St. Agatha's is undoubtedly a woman. This knot must come in the course. But my gallantry is equal, I trust, to your patience." The maid in the red continued silent. The wet rope was obdurate, the knot more and more hopeless, and my efforts to make light of the situation awakened no response in the girl. I tugged away at the rope, attacking its tangle on various theories. A case for surgery, Im afraid. A truly gordian knot, but I havent my knife. she exOh, but you wouldnt! I think I can manage. claimed. She bent down I was aware that the sleevev of her jacket brushed my shoulder seized an end that I had ignored, gave it a sharp tug with a slim, brown hand and pulled the knot free. There! she exclaimed with a little laugh; I might have saved you all r. -- good-humore- d -- I shouldn't say so! Im a great exception, and I really shouldnt be talking to you at all! Its against the rules! And we dont encourage smoking." The chaplain doesnt smoke, I suppose." Not in chapel; I believe it isnt done! And we rarely see him anywhere else." She had idled with the paddle so far, but now Bhe lifted her eyes and drew back the blade for a long stroke. But In the wood, this morning by the wall!" I hate myself to this day for having so startled her. The poised blade dropped into the water with a splash; she brought the canoe a trifle neater to the wharf with an almost imperceptible stroke, and turned toward me with wonder and dismay in her eyes. So you are an eavesdropper and detective, are you? I beg that you will give your master my compliments! I really owe you an apology; I thought you were a gentleman," she exclaimed with withering emphasis, and dipped her blade deep in flight. I called, Btammering incoherently, after her, but her light argosy skimmed the water steadily. The paddle rose and fell with trained precision, making scarcely a ripple as she stole softly away toward the fairy towers of the sunset. I stood looking after her, A glory of goaded with purple and scarlet and gold filled the west Suddenly the wind moaned In the wood behind the line of cottages, swept over me and rippled the surface of the lake. I watched its flight until it caught her canoe and I marked the flimsy crafts quick response, as the shaken waters bore her alert figure upward On the swell, her blade still maintaining its regular dip, until she disappeared behind a little peninsula that my grandfathers strange, house had been chosen for the investigation. Clearly I was not prepared to close the incident, but the idea of frightening my visitors appealed to my sense of humor. I tiptoed to the front stairway, ran lightly down, found Ihe front door, and, from the inside, opened and slammed it. I heard instantly a hurried scamper above, and the heavy fall of one w ho had stumbled in the dark. I grinned with real pleasure at the sound of the mishap, hastened to the great library, which was as dark as a well, and, opening one of the long windows, stepped out on the balcony. At once from the rear of the house came the sound of a stealthy Btep, which increased to a run at the ravine bridge. I listened to the flight of the fugitive through the wood until the sounds died away toward the lake. Then, turning to the library window, I saw Bates, with a candle held above his head, peering about Hello, Bates, I called cheerfully. I just got home and stepped out to see It the moon had risen. I dont believe I know where to look for It In this country." He began lighting the tapers with his usual deliberation. Its a trifle early, I think, siT. About eight oclock, I should say, was the hour, Mr. Glenarm. There was, of course, no doubt whatever that Bates had been one of the men I heard in my room. It was wholly possible that he bad been compelled to assist in some lawless act against his will; but why. If he had been forced into aiding a criminal, should he not invoke my own aid to protect himself? I kicked the logs fn the fireplace impatiently at my uncertainty. The man slowly lighted the many candles in the great apartment. He was certainly a deep one. -- post-gradua- te the bother." How dull of me! But I didnt have the combination," I said, steadying the canoe carefully to mitigate the ignom- iny of my failure. She scorned the hand I extended, but embarked with light, confident step and took the paddle. It was growing late. The shadows in the wood were deepening; a chill crept over the water, and, beyond the tower of the chapel, the sky was bright with the glory of sunset With a few skillful strokes she brought her little craft beside my pipe, wtilcb she deftly caught on the paddle blade and tossed to the wharf. "Perhaps you can pipe a tune upon It" she said, dipping the paddle. "You put me under great obligations," I declared. "Are all the girls At St. Agathas as amiable?" There was no doubt about his surprise; he fell back, staring at me hard, and instinctively drawing the hammer over his shoulder as though to fling it at THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES By MEREDITH NICHOLSON Alkr 1 THE MA1H CHANCE." DAHE10N," Etc. CupjrttifSI Itttt ZELDA Uo. bj CHAPTER VII. Continued. One thing only I found the slight Uobbt-Mtm- on the oak scar of a hammer-heapaneling that ran around the bedroom. The wood had been struck near the base and at the top of every panel, for though the mark was not perceptible on all, a test had evidently been made systematically. With this as a beginning, I found a moment later a spot of tallow under a heavy table In one corner. Evidently the furniture bad been moved to permit of the closest scrutiny ot the paneling. Glenarm House really promised to prove exciting. I took from a drawer a umall revolver, filled its chambers with cartridges and thrust it Into my hip pocket, whistling meanwhile Larry Donovans favorite air, The Marche Funebre de Marionnettes." My heart went out to Larry as I scented adventure, and I wished him with me; but speculations as to Larry's whereabouts were always profitless, and quite likely he was in jail somewhere. The ham of whose excellence Bates had hinted was no disappointment. There is, I have always held, nothing better in this world than a properly baked ham, and the specimen Bates placed before me was a delight to the eye, so adorned was It with spices; so crisply brown its outer coat; and a taste, that first tentative taste, before the sauce was added, was like a dream of Lucullus come true. I felt that I could forgive a good deal in a cook with that touch, anything short of arson and assassination! Bates, I said, as he stood forth where I could see him, you cook amazingly well. Where did you learn after the flying figure of the caretaker. He clearly had the advantage of famlliai ity with tho wood, striking off boldly Into the heart of it, and quickly widening the distance between us; but I kept on, even after I erased to hear h!m threshing through the undergrowth, and came out presently at the margin of the lake about 50 feet from the boat house, I waited in its shadow for some time, expecting to see the fellow again, but he did not appear. I found the wall with difficulty and followed it back to the gate. It would be Just as well, 1 thought, to possess myself of the hammer; and I dropped down on the St. Agatha side ot the wall and groped about among the leaves until I found it. Then I walked home, went into the library, alight with its many candles just as 1 had left it, and sat ' own before the fire to meditate. I had been absent from the house only forty-fivminutes. me. Just tay where you are a moI said ment. Morgan pleasantly, and dropped to a sitting position on the wall for greater ease in talking to him. He stood sullenly, the hammer dangling at arm's length, while my revolver covered his head. "Now, if you please, Id like to know what you mean by prowling about here and rummaging my house!" Oh, its you, is it, Mr. Glenarm? Well, you certainly gave me a bad scare. His air was one ot relief and his teeth showed pleasantly through his beard. It certainly is I. But you havent answered my question. What were you doing in my house He smiled again, shaking his head. Youre really fooling, Mr. Glenarm. I wasn't in your house 1 never was in it in my life!" Ills white teeth gleamed in his light beard; his hat was pushed back from bis forehead so that I saw his eyes and he wore unmistakably the air of a man whose conscience is perfectly clear. I was confident that he lied, but without appealing to Bates I was not prepared to prove it. But you can't deny that youre on I had my grounds now, can yoil?" dropped the revolver to my knee, but I raised it again. If "Certainly not, Mr. Glenarm. youll allow me to explain "Thats precisely what I want you to do. "Well, It may seem strange," he laughed, and I felt the least bit fool- - e to-da- CHAPTER VIII. String of Gold Beads. after I had flung myself down before the fire, Bates entered A A moment I with a fresh supply of wood. watched him narrowly for some sign of perturbation, but he was not to be caught off guard. Possibly be had not heard the shots in the wood; at any rate, he tended the fire with his usual gravity, and after brushing the hearth paused respectfully. "Is there anything further, sir? I believe not. Bates. Oh! here's a hammer I picked lip out In the grounds a bit ago, I wish youd see if it belongs to the house." "It doesn't belong here, I think, sir. But we sometimes find tools left by the business? I can hardly say I know it, sir. Your lamented grandfather grew very captious, Mr. Glenarm. I had to learn to satisfy him, and I believe I did it, sir, if youll pardon the conceit." He didnt die of gout, did he? I can readily imagine it." No, Mr. Glenarm. It was his heart. He had his warning of it. Ah, yes; to be sure. The heart or the stomach, one may as well fail as the othei;. , I believe I prefer to keep my digestion going as long as possible. Those grilled sweet potatoes again. If you please. Bates. The game that he and I were playing appealed to me strongly. It was altogether worth while, and as I ate guava Jelly with cheese and toasted crackers, and then lighted one of my own cigars over a cup of Bates unfailing coffee, my spirit was livelier than at any time since a certain evening on which Larry and I had escaped from Tangier with our lives and the curses of the police. The day had offered much material for fireside reflection, and I reviewed its history calmly. There was, however, one incident that I found unpleasant In the retrospect. I had been guilty of most unchivalrous conduct toward one of the girls of St Agatha's. It had certainly been unbecoming In me to sit tin the wall, however unwillingly, and listen to the words few though they were that passed between her and the chaplain. I forgot the shot through the window; I forgot Bates and the interest my room possessed for him and his unknown accomplice; but the Budden distrust and contempt I had awakened in the girl by my clownish behavior annoyed me increasingly. I rose presently, found my cap and wood went out into the toward the lake. The tangle was not so great when you knew the way, and there was indeed, as I had found, the faint suggestion of a path. The moon glorified a broad highway across the water; the air was sharp and still. I followed the wall of St. Agathas to the gate, climbed up and sat down in the shadow of the pillar farthest from the lake. I drew out a cigarette and was about to light it when I heard a sound as of a step on stone. There was, I knew, no stone pavement at hand, but peering toward the lake I saw a man walking boldly along the top of the wall toward me. The moonlight threw his figure into clear relief. Several times he paused, bent down and rapped upon the wall with an object he carried in his hand. Tap, tap, tap! The man with the hammer was examining the farther side of the gate, and very likely he would carry his investigations beyond it. I drew up my legs and crouched in the shadow of the pillar, revolver in hand. I was not anxious to invite an encounter; I much preferred to wait for a disclosure of the purpose that lay behind this mysterious tapping upon walls. But the matter was taken out of my own hands before I bad a chance to debate it. The man dropped to the ground, sounded the stone base under the gate, likewise the pillars, evidently without results, struck a spiteful crack upon the iron bars, then stood up abruptly and looked me straight in the eyes. It was Morgan, the caretaker of the summer colony. Good evening, Mr. Morgan," I said, settling the revolver into my hand. -- made a harbor near the school grounds. seemed at The red last to merge in the red sky, and I turned cheerlessly to my canoe. CHAPTER VII. The Man on the Wall. I was so thoroughly angry with myself that after idling along the shores for an hour I lost my way in the dark wood when I landed and brought up at the rear door used by Bates for communication with the villagers who supI readily plied us with provender. found my way to the kitchen and to a flight of stairs beyond, which connected the first and second floors. I stumbled up the unfamiliar way in the dark, with, I fear, a malediction upon my grandfather, who had built and left a house so utterly preposterous. My unpardonable fling girl still rankled; and I was cold from the quick descent of the night chill on the water and anxious to get into some comfortable clothes. Once on the second floor I was sure of the location of my room, and I was feeling my way toward it over the rough floor when I heard low voices rising apparently from my sitting-room- . It was pitch dark in the hall. I stopped short and listened. The door of my room was open and a faint light flashed once into the hall and disappeared. 1 heard now a sound as of a hammer tapping upon wood-worThen it ceased, and a voice whispered: Hell kill me if he finds me here. I swear to IH try again God Ill help you, but no more now " Then the sound of a scuffle and again the tapping of the hammer. After several minutes more of this there was a whispered dialogue which I could not hear. Whatever was occurring two or three points Btruck me on the Instant. One of the conspirators was an unwilling party to an act as yet unknown; second, they had been unsuccessful and must wait for another opportunity; and third, the business, whatever it was, was clearly of some importance to myself, as my own apartments ih at-th- e and his case grew more puzzling as I studied it in relation to the rifle shot of the night before, his collision with Morgan in the wood, which I had witnessed; and now the house itself had been invaded by some one with his connivance. The rifle shot might have been Innocent enough; but taken In connection with these other matters It could hardly be brushed aside. Bates lighted me to the stairway, and said as I passed him: Theres a baked ham for dinner. I should call it extra delicate, Mr. Glenarm. I suppose theres no change In the dinner hour, sir? Certainly not, I said with asperity; for I am not a person to inaugurate a dinner hour one day and change it the next. Bates wished to make conversation the sure sign of a guilty conscience in a servant, and I was not disposed to encourage him. I closed the doors carefully and began a thorough examination of tfoth the sitting-rooand the little bedchamber. I was quite sure that my own effects could not have attracted the two men who had taken advantage of my absence to visit my quarters. Bates had helped unpack my trunk and undoubtedly knew every item ot my simple wardrobe. I threw open the doors of my three closets and found them all in the good order established by Bates. He had carried my trunks and bags to a store-rooso that everything I c.wned must have passed under his eye. My money even, the remnant of my fortune that I hadidrawn from the New York bank, I had placed carelessly enough in the drawer of a chiffonier otherwise filled with collars. It took but a moment to satisfy myself that this had not been touched. And, to be sure, a hammer was not necessary to open a drawer that had, from its appearance, never been locked. The game was deeper than I had imagined; I had scratched the crust without result, and my wits were busy with speculations as 1 brushed my clothes, pausing frequently to examine the furniture, even the bricks on the hearth. (TO BE CONTINUED.) French Is the language that carries est oer the telephone. moon-floode- d Like a Flash He Flung the Hammer ish to be pointing a pistol at the head of a fellow of so amiable a spirit. "Hurry, 1 commanded. Well, as I was saying, it may seem strange; but I was just examining the wall to determine the character of the work. One of the cottagers on the lake left me with the job of building a fence on his place, and Ive been expecting to come over to look at this all fall. You see, Mr. Glenarm, your honored grapdfather, was a master in such matters, and I didn't see any harm in getting the benefit to put it so of his experience. I laughed. He had denied having entered the house with so much assurance that I had been prepared for some really plausible explanation of his interest in the wall. "Morgan you said it was Morgan, didn't you? you are undoubtedly a scoundrel of the first water. "Men have been killed for saying less, he said. And for doing less than fire through windows at a mans head. It wasn't friendly of you. "I dont see why you center all your suspicions on me. You exaggerate I'm my importance, Mr. Glenarm. at a summer only the resort. "I wouldnt believe you, Morgan, if you swore on a stack of Bibles as high as this wall. Thanks! he ejaculated mockingly. Like a flash he swung the hammer over his head and drove it at me, and at the same moment I fired. The hammer-head struck the pillar near the outer edge and in such a manner that the handle flew around and smote me smartly in the face. By the time I reached the ground the man was already running rapidly through the park, darting in and out among the trees, and 1 made after him at hot speed. had struck my The hammer-handlmonth, and the whole lower half of my face stung from the blow. I abused myself roundly for managing the encounter so stupidly, and in my rage fired pvice wLh no aim whatever k e Over His Head and Drove It at Me. the carpenters that worked on the house. Shall 1 put this in the tool chest, sir? "Never mind. I need such a thing now and then and Ill keep it handy. "Very good, Mr. Glenarm." We were not getting anywhere; the fellow was certainly an incomparable actor. You must find it pretty lonely here, Bates? Dont hesitate to go to the village when you like. I thank you, Mr. Glenarm; but I am not much for idling. I keep a few books by me for the evenings. is not what you would exactly call a diverting village. I fancy not. But the caretaker over at the summer resort has even a lone'ier time, I suppose. That's what Id call a pretty cheerless job, watching summer cottages In the winter. "Thats Morgan, sir. I meet him occasionally when I go to the village; hes a very worthy person, I should call him, on slight acquaintance. No doubt of it. Bates. Any time through the winter you want to have him in for a social glass, its all right with me. When I plunged into the wood in the middle of the next afternoon it was with the definite purpose f returning to the upper end of the lake for an Interview with Morgan, who had, so Bates Informed me, a small house back of the cottages. I took the canoe I had chosen for and my own use from the paddled up the lake. The air was still warm, but the wind that blew out of the south tasted of rain. I scanned of the lake , the water and the borders for signs of life, more particularly, I may as well admit, for a certain maroon canoe and a girl in a red but lake and summer cottages were mine alone. I landed and began at once my search for Morgan. There were many paths through the woods back of the cottages, and I followed several futllely before I at last' found a small bouse snngly hid awiy' in a thicket of young maples. i vro E CONTINUED.) . j j ' ' I ' boat-hous- e r; . . . - |