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Show 1 f ' IUtUSTRAmi) BY JU r .ram sy. - r (SYNOPSIS. Three Rlrls Kllssabeth, Qabrielle nnil " Kllso stni-tcd for Cumuta to spend tho BUnuner there. On board steamer they f, worn frightened by an apparently dement-- dement-- " ' cd M runner, who (hiding u bug belonging to one of them, took enjoyment In scru- ,3 tlnlzlng a photo of thii trio. Ellse shared her Btnturoom with a Mrs. Orahain, also , hound for Canada. Thu young women on fllghtneelng tour met Mrs. Oralwun. , -.; anxiously awaiting her hnsband, who hud V a mania for nailing. They were Introduced Intro-duced to Lord Wilfrid and Lady Edith. A, cottage by tho ocean was rented by " the trio for the summer. Elizabeth learned that a friend of her father's was to cull. Two men called, one of them ' being tho iucer-actlng stranger on tho . 3J Bteamer. The girls were "not at home." W : hut discovered by the cards left that one J. . of the men was Elizabeth's father's i? " f.r.Ieml Tho ,npn proved to be John C. ' v, Wake nnd Gordon nennett. The party A' was 0,(' "f the search for smugglers la f the vicinity of the cottage. Ellso visited ' , . Mrs. Graham to nnd that her life was if- . not tho happiest. She learned that tho i J "Graham and Lady Edith were acqualnt- g. ' pd. A wisp of yellow hair from Mr. Orals' Ora-ls' ham's pocket fell Into the hands of Ellse. tJLt'i Mrs. Grnham's hair was black. During ' iV , a storm the young women heard a crash l?fl . In tlm basement of thu cottage hnd a mo- U, . inent later Mury Anne, their woman serv-int. serv-int. entered, her arm bleeding. To as- jC" " euro them there was no danger. Mary Sii- Anno descended to the. basement alono iX'' and quieted their fears. I.nd.v Edith -told HW? "o Blrls of a robbery of Jewels at tho r-.-Ji hotel. Kearing for the safety of her own ) 'rtVi Boms, sho left them In a safe at tho cot- ? , ii tugfc. Mr. Gordon Hennott was properly l-t- 'V, Introduced, explained his queer actions, " .returned the lost bag. I CHAPTER VI. Continued. " , "I aru glad It amuses yori" I remarked, I-.' In my most frigid manner, which' I mr have been told la oxtremoly chilling. mp "Oh, I say," ho said quickly, "don't l 1 1 .look at It that way. Why, It was noth- Ijf, . Ing after all. I had made two trips on TiK- that old boat this summer, and one of tgti ' those dilapidated chalrB broke down f.,-, with mo and nearly pitched mo over- 1 ' ' board. I complained, but the compnny bV would not got now ones, which' put j i, my back up a bit, so I got Into .the j t' habit of examining them, and when t 5 . I found bno weak In tho back or logs t; 1 juat pitched It overboard. That " J, ji ' wasn't so bnd, was It? Of courso I , 5 "' never thought how' It looked, nnd I iji.- did 'mutter,' but I'm heartily glad you did not hear what I said." It was a vory simple- explanation j- . so simple, in fact, that I felt provoked 1. It had not occurred to me, and I hated to think how ho would rolnto tho In- 1 cident to his friend Mr. Blake, and how they would laugh over It. Sq I y ' . merely looked out nt tho ocean nnd js mado a frosty, impersonal remark j ' about tho view. ' nut instead of the familiar land- J scape I found myself looking straight I . ' into two very blue oyes with a trace I " of anxiety In them, and a sunburned hand was extended toward mo appeal- II -- Ingly. d "Let's shnke and be friends," ho . . said heartily. "I'm sorry I alarmed ! ' ;! you, but I'm glad I found out my of-fenso, of-fenso, . I was determined I would know ' - what it was. When tho general wrote ' . mo his daughter was here, and I dls- 4 . covered who it was, I was delighted, " . for of courso I saw you all on tho boat, " ; , and I wanted awfully to know you. You don't mind my saying bo? Then 9 ' when I got snubbed so unmercifully t , ( I could not understand it. Shall wo start nil over again, and will you ox- . plain to your friends that I am In 5 nossession of all my senses nnd hono : to keep them a while longor?" Well, It was impossible not to smile yv also, and Indeed I was vory glad of a. - ' chanco to descend gracefully from my high horse, so wo shook hands gravely grave-ly nnd started all over again, as ho had suggested. I Inquired where he spont tho night, I and he mentioned tho hotol wo had deserted, so I told him about tho rob- 1i bory. Hq had heard nothing, having fl , left very early in tho morning, mean- II . lug to sail homo in timo for breakfast. I aBlced, him If his boat suffered any ill offects from tho storm, ond his manner man-ner grow all at onco constrained and V 111 at ease, so I changed tho subject, fearing that It might have been ir-,.' ir-,.' ' rovoenbly damaged against our slip, " . and feollng somewhat responsible. I spoko of the cottage, and how we en-" en-" . " joyed llfo hero, and tho contrast It wns to tho hotel. "Yos," ho said absentlj'; "It's a Jolly llttlo i)lace. Hut, toll mo, how did you ( hear of it, and how did you mnnngo to v ". got It? I undorstood It was not for. ' ront." ." I told him ho was mistaken; that wo had no trouble nt nil In securing - V It, and thnt tho rent wns ridiculously " . low, all things considered. "I would liko to know to whom It , , belongs," I remarked. "I understand y It was some woman'B whim, and sho has tired of It. Perhaps we might got .- Bomo of our relatives to buy it and "J ' como hero every summer." u- ' ' ' "Don't you know anything about It?" ' '. t he was looking at mo curiously now. ' " "Not a' thing," I said lightly; "do " ' ' ' ' - you?" , 'A dull red Hush was distinctly visible visi-ble beneath his coat of tan as he replied re-plied to my question. "I'm not a nntlvo, you know. I was hero for n bit last year, and I liked It; so when I had a chance to buy an Island, Is-land, house and all, I Jumped at it. Hut I'm not wlso nbout my neighbors. 1 do know that this cottage was occupied oc-cupied last summor, and I heard tho people were vory unsocial and never recolved a guest or entered tho village while they wore hero; and, of courso, there wcro stories. Gossip nourishes on a mystery, you know." "Well," I returned, "I don't caro how mysterious the form6r tenants were, but I'm glad they did not como back. Perhaps they wore In mourning, or invalids,, in-valids,, or something of that sort." "No doubt," ho agreed hastily; "no doubt." And then wo changed tho subject forming a sort ofnlloyway, which wag very dark ond unprepossessing and soomeii to bo n repository for old boxes, bits of paper, kindling wood, nnd the usual accumulated trash of a household. At tho oxtromo end an empty packing case largo enough to hnvo contained n plnno rested against the wall, which looked nnd smellcd very damp and mouldy. Elizabeth glanced about nnd curlod her Hp contemptuously; tho zcnl of tho horn housokcoper shono In hor oyo, and I know sho had visions of nicely whitewashed, walls, with eminently proper reccptnclcs for kindling and waste paper, and foresaw trouble abend for Mary Anno. We could hear tho ocenn outside, for tho collar was an excavation in tho bluff, and It convoyed such nn unpleasant un-pleasant Impression of a vnult-llko cavo that I was not sorry when Elizabeth Eliza-beth proposed nn adjournment. "And here is tho hanging sholf," I remarked, as I almost ran Into it. "Mnry Anno has lost no timo in putting put-ting It up again on chains this time, so I hope It Is safe." "How niBty thoy nro!" said Elizabeth, Eliza-beth, pausing to cxamlno thorn. "Thoy look ns though thoy had been hero for yenrs, but I suppose thoy are old ones she found Bomowhere. This plnco must bo well aired; It Is awfully musty." Sho gathered up her skirts as sho spoke, preparatory to going up tho steps, and I was nbout to follow whon something caught my eyo, and me- "It Must Have Belonged to tha People Who Were Here Last Year." and talked of other things till tho sound of voices and laughter told mo Elizabeth and Gabrlollo wero returning return-ing from the village. Thoy brought Lady Edith and Lord Wilfrid both homo with them to dlnnor, and it was not difficult to porsuado Mr. Bennett to stay also, so wo had tho first of somo vory merry repasts, where morning costumes wore allowed, and whore Mary Anno, to quote her own words, "dished up hanythlng that camo 'andy nnd prayed the Lord It would bo onough." That night I asked Gabrlello to look in hor bag nnd give mo my sido-comb; sido-comb; but sho found thnt It was not thore, and that our picture also was missing. ' "Wo will ask for It tho noxt time wo seo him," remarked Elizabeth. "I don't think It is vory nice in him to have taken it out." "Oh, no," I objected; "don't say anything about it. I don't want to glvo him tho satisfaction of knowing . wo missed It." And wo nil agreed that this wns our most dignified courso. CHAPTER VII. Elizabeth inspected tho collar noxt "morning, and I went, with hor, by request. re-quest. "Not that'I'm afraid," sho oxplatned elaborately; "but it is always nicer to have somo "one to speak to, nnd, besides, be-sides, ono of you, at least, ought to take an Interest In Btich things." It looked vory much liko other cellars, cel-lars, with paved floor, coal bins, and so on, except that It run far back, clianlcally I stooped and picked It up from a crack between two bricks. "Have you lost anything?" called Elizabeth from tho stairs. "No," I replied; "I havo found something. some-thing. Look hore." Together wo examined my discovery dis-covery as It lay In tho palm of my hand a man's cuff link of dull, raised gold, tho head of tho Sphinx on one sido and tho under llnlc shaped liko a small key. Elizabeth turned it ovor curiously. "It must havo belonged to the peo-plo peo-plo who were hore last year," she conjectured. con-jectured. "It's vory pretty, Isn't It? I never saw ono anything liko it." "Look, Mnry Anno!" I exclaimed, as we ontored the kitchen. "Seo what I have found." Mary Anno advanced willingly, but as I raised tho button by tho llttlo key and held it toward hor, her jaw dropped suddenly nnd tho color forsook for-sook her ruddy fnco. "Whoro'd you find It, miss?" "In tho collar, right by tho stops." "You've boon down In the cellar?" cel-lar?" "Certainly; why not?" Mary Anno wiped hor face with a corner of hor gingham apron, and poked wood Into tho Btovo with reckless reck-less prodigality. "It's entirely too foro'andod you are, Miss Elizabeth," sho grumbled "tho collar lookln' liko distraction and you goln' down thoro tho fust time! What kind of 'ousokeepln' do you .think 1 do? This very day I laid out to put everything shipshape down thoro and tnko yon nroiind mcsolf. And tho collnr's damp-llko, and no plnco fur a lady any'ow, nnd you liko to take cold nnd sneozo ycr 'end off I" Elizabeth laughed and assured hor that this catastrophe was not llablo to happen to-day, and suggested that tho collar might bo Improved by tho Introduction In-troduction of fresh nlr and sunlight. "And how soon you got tho shelf fixed!" sho added, by way of soothing Mary Anno's milled feelings. "Sholf7" sho repeated vaguely. "Oh, of course, miss. 'Ow could I git along without it? And what olso did yo find In the collar, Miss Elsie, besides tho llttlo button?" I thought she watched mo keenly as I replied I had not looked for anything more, and wondered sho had not soon It on hor trips up and down tho stops. "Mo oyes nro not so good ns they onco wore, nor so bright as yours, Miss" Ellse," sho remarked. "It's n pretty thing, now Isn't It? What will you be doln' with it?" Hut I did not reply, for Gnbrlollo, who had been to tho vlllngo for tho moll, now appeared, and Eliznboth Immediately lost Interest In everything else.. I do not wish to aroilso false suspicions, sus-picions, but Elizabeth cortnlnly wroto n groat many very long lettors, and received re-ceived volumes nil In tho snmo handwriting, hand-writing, which always arrived on cer-tnln cer-tnln dnys of the week. Sho usod to open them with nn nlr of Indirferenco nnd glnnco over them carelessly, then In a few minutes sho would make somo excuse to go off alone, and wo could sometimes seo hor poring ovor them, dead to tho world as sho turned pngo after page, and smiling a smile which exasperated Gabrlello exceedingly, although al-though sho also did not a llttlo corresponding corre-sponding on hor own account that summor. sum-mor. To-day, howovor, she handed Elizabeth hor letter without comment, and only glanced cnsually at tho cuff link when I displayed It In triumph, for sho wns eager to relato tho news sho had accumulated ac-cumulated during her trip to tho village vil-lage "You know thnt smuggler?" sho bo-gan, bo-gan, seating herself on tho kltchon doorstep nnd removing her hat. "No," I Interrupted; "I'm happy to say I don't know him." "You know nbout him, don't you? It's nil tho same thing. Well, I've boon to tho hotel, and 1 heard that ho Is suspected of having boon on tho islnnd tho night of tho Btorm, nnd thoy think" sho dropped her voice cautiously cau-tiously "they think ho took Mrs. Uundy's emeralds." "Who thinks so?" "Oh, tho dotcctlvos, of courso. Lady Edith told me. And thoy say It was a vory foolish thing for him to do, be-couso be-couso ho can now bo arrested In Canada. Cana-da. And our government olllcials nro perfectly wild, too, for a whole lot of things wero smuggled In somehow right under tholr noses." "Is ho on tho Islnnd now?" "Oh, no. As Lord Wilfrid snid, it would bo madness for him to stay bore now. He must have been ono of the men who left tho hotol so oarly that morning before Mrs. Dundy discovered discov-ered her Iobs. Thoy are following them up, of course, but It was easy onough to register a false name apd address. I can forglvo his smuggling, but I can't forglvo his robbing thnt poor old woman slip's Just Beared to death, and expects to have hor throat cut every night, they say so I hope they will catch him." (TO BE CONTINUED.) ' |