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Show KlW: IVESi MASCOT tL Wl'l, " hji. Egbert"; WPI ILLUSTRATIONS BY (copyright leii Vv' ff O.IRWIN MYERS wo .chapman) Anne," Fstelle Christie confided, "when you reflect that the adult voting population of Cedar Plank number only four hundred and fifty, or thereabouts." there-abouts." She had drafted a letter to the lord chamberlain embodying her request. I feared that It would elicit an unsatisfactory unsatis-factory response, and in order to divert di-vert her thoughts, I picked up tha newspaper and said: "In the meantime, Estelle, why shouldn't we go to see the great aeroplane aero-plane contest at South Norwood?" She sprang up, clapping her hands. Estelle had a very volatile mind, and my little scheme had succeeded admirably. admir-ably. "I dote on aeroplanes, Anne," sh cried. "When la it?" "This afternoon," I answered. "Listen, "Lis-ten, Estelle, 'Eight competitors, representing repre-senting England, America, France. Italy and Germany, will enter their machines In the soaring and speed tests. A novel feature will be the soaring soar-ing with one passenger and descending with the motor cut off, a prlxe of five 1 CHAPTER I. Introducing a Pair of Scoundrels. (In which I Ball to e the Coronation and, InnMtmtally, discover that 1 am a much-odvertleed-for person.) "But, goodness gracious, Anne, you aren't going to England, are you? Walt till school closes In June, and we'll make up a party." My room-mate, Mary Jenner, Is meek enough when she Is alone with me, but company lends her a fictitious persuasiveness. Besides, all the rest of the girls curled up among our cushions cush-ions agreed with her I could eee it In their faces. "If his sacred majesty. King George the Fifth, will consent to put oft his coronation until July, I shall be glad to wait for you," I answered, with some asperity. "But I don't think it's likely, do you?" "Well, but, Anne " Mary was beginning, begin-ning, when Agnes Pomeroy broke In. Agnes In a plump girl with a vein of common sense amounting almoet to genius. "Look here," she said, "what's the use? You won't see a thing except the street processions. You might Just as well stay in Winnipeg and read all about it In the illustrated London papers. pa-pers. Nobody can get Into the Abbey without carrying a peer." I put my nose in the air. "Well, even at that " I suggested brazenly. v erty. He's heavily mortgaged, and It seems only a matter of a few months now before father gets tfren with the old fool. He'd have done it long ago, only he was bringing off a coup of his own which meant millions to him." My heart was hammering so hard it scarcely seemed possible that I could control my emotion. The plot was thickening and I was in the very heart of It! "Yes,' he continued, putting up his feet on the ship's rail, "theree only three of them alive in the direct line today; the comte, a very old man now, a daughter by a second marriage, and her son, the comte's grandson, a young fellow of twenty-five. There was a son by an earlier marriage, but he went to America and died there. I traced him to California and lost him there. The burning of San Francisco had destroyed all the records. I advertised ad-vertised in all the Paciflo coast papers without result. There had been a marriage, mar-riage, and I believe there was one daughter. But she has vanished completely." com-pletely." The uneven glow of his words, and a sudden suspicious odor on the night air, convinced me that the scoundrel had been drinking not enough to render ren-der him tlpey, but just sufficient to unlock un-lock the doors of his secrets. "8o I told the old donkey" by that phrase I Interpreted him to mean Mag-niff, Mag-niff, Sr. " "you'd better hurry up with that revenge of yours,' I said, 'or they'll all be dead.' He'd cut my allowance al-lowance to a beggarly ten thousand a year. He told me I was a bad egg, as he elegantly phrased it, and had disappointed dis-appointed all his hopes of having me succeed him in the banking business. 'All right, old boy,' I thought, 'I'll show you something original In the financial field.' You see, Mlse Howard," he continued, con-tinued, lurching toward me. "I knew the secret of the bonds." "Yes, what was It?" I cried. He sobered immediately. "Now you'd like to know, wouldn't you?" he drawled. "You tantalizing little devil" I rose with great dignity and walked away, leaving him calling "Miss Howard! How-ard! Miss Howard!" in desperate apology. Thereafter, although my curiosity was burning, I avoided him sedulously, sedulous-ly, cutting him directly when we met and ignoring his advances at the dinner din-ner table. But he was so persistent that I was driven to all sorts of expedients ex-pedients to avoid him, and, when my need of a walk became urgent, I resorted re-sorted to the long deck of the steerage, steer-age, which was practically deserted, elnce few steerage passengers were returning re-turning to Europe at that season of the year. It must have been on the third night after when, while pacing the steerage deck after successfully eluding my pursuer, pur-suer, I became aware of a stir in the shadows of the sailors' fore-cabin, under un-der the stern. Then a black shape came flying toward me, clasped me by the arm, and fell on lte knees behind me, whirling me round to Bhleld It against its pursuer, who came, cat-like, out of the darkness. Before I had time to be afraid I recognized that It was Zeuxls clutching me, Zeuxls In desperate des-perate fear, while, like a panther, his wife followed him, a knife in her hand, crouching for a spring. "Safe me, safe me. Miss!" the Greek babbled frantically. WelL Mary, to whom I wrote the incident, in-cident, said I wae brave, but I haven't taught In the immigrant class for nothing. I simply stepped forward and took the knife out of her hand. She gave It up like a lamb and burst Into tears. "What is this about?" I demanded of Zeuxls, In my most scholastic tones. "She's Jealous of you, Mlse Howard,' How-ard,' he explained, rising sheepishly to his feet "She's got It Into her head lilf Really, I could be angry no longer. Stifling a hysterical peal of laughter, I ran up to my deck and flung myself breathlessly Into my chair. I h3d escaped from the frying pan into the fire, however. For out of the dark another shadow arose an unsteady un-steady shadow that quickly merged Into In-to a more substantial but still unsteady form. Magniff sat down deside me. "You cruel little girl," he began inanely, in-anely, "why have you fled from me all this time? Was It because you read my secret In my eyes? Miss Mary " He tried to seize my hand. The reception re-ception which I gave him seemed to sober him. "Don't go, Miss Howard," he begged in maudlin tones. "Forgive me. I guess I'm a bad egg after all, as the old asinine party characterized me. I've knocked about the world and never found a friend but yon. Stay with me, Miss Howard, and I'll tell you a secret. There's millions In It If we can locate lo-cate the party." "Well?" I said coldly, my curiosity getting the better of my Judgment. "It's a girl," he babbled. "And she's got some Panama bonds and don't know the value of them. If we can trace her " "Yes, Mr. Magniff?" I answered artlessly. art-lessly. "Why, we can hold a club over the asinine party and extract a cool half million. You see, If she were to meet the old comte and he adopted her and took the bonds what am I saying about the comte? I mean a certain elderly party " he explained craftily "why, he could pay off the mortgage that the asinine party holds over him. That would mean an end to the asinine party's schemes of revenge. Now, Miss Mary, If we can locate this girl and get the bonds from her at a trifling cost, pretending that they are worthless, worth-less, we can threaten the asinine party that well deliver them to the other old party unless he pays us what we demand. de-mand. See the point? Two birds In the hand; a fortune for you and me, and a club for the asinine person." "And why do you make this proposition propo-sition to me?" I asked. "Because I love you, Mary," he cried, seizing my hand. "That's nothing to the next trick Zeuxis and I have up our sleeves. There's millions for all of us. I think you're an angel. What do you think of me?" "I think you are a miserable scoundrel," scoun-drel," I answered furiously, rising out of my chair. To my astonishment he received my outburst with a peal of laughter. "That's what I like," he cried, trying try-ing to seize my hand again. "Give me a girl with some spirit In her. Mlse Mary! You can't imagine how much I've been thinking of you since we met aboard this old boat. Let's make a date In London. Want to see the coronation? coro-nation? Maybe I can get you a seat and show you round. Let's go " I turned on him, my eyes flashing, my anger so furious that for a few moments I could hardly find my tongue. I think I must have overawed him, for he seemed to wilt away under the blast of my rage, and waited dumbly. "Listen to me, Mr. Magniff," I cried, shaking my finger at him. "Some of my friends have been good enough to tell me that I am a mascot and bring people good luck. I've brought good luck to you, better than you deserve, at any rate, because I am the woman whom you and your servant have been looking for. My name Is not 'Miss Howard.' I am Anne Ives, and my father was Jules d'Yves, born at Cli-chy, Cli-chy, in Normandy." I saw him stagger at that; the blow went home. "Here," I cried, snatching It from my purse and holding it up to him, "This Is the key to the box which contains con-tains my bonds, and I am going to Paris to redeem my property. It is mine, and I Bhall dispose of it to suit my Inclinations." He started toward me Incredulously. He made a desperate clutch at the key. But, with a hysterical laugh, I withdrew It from his outstretched hand and fled along the deck, down the stairs and locked myself In my stateroom. state-room. I did not leave it until we docked at Plymouth. But once, lying upon my bunk, I saw a shadow fall upon the wall, and looking out, saw him pacing the lower deck beside his hawk-eyed, eagle-beaked servitor, and an involuntary involun-tary shudder came over me. He was waiting to accost me at Plymouth, Ply-mouth, but I eluded him in the crowd. I ran the length of the station platform, plat-form, dashed into the train and out the opposite side, and had the pleasure of seeing him start for London without with-out me, under the firm conviction that I was in the train. CHAPTER II. The Mascot of the Monoplane. (In which I venture an ascension into the ether and nearly lose my dignity.) I found a nice little boarding-house in one of those large, quiet, old squares near the British museum, and was very comfortable there. I made several friends, notably a Mrs. Christie, an American widow about ten years older old-er than myself and twice as eager for amusement. One thing I soon discovered: discov-ered: It was impossible to get into the Abbey to see the coronation. Mrs. Christie was greatly distressed. "I must see it, Anne," she confided to me, as we sat together in her little room in the boarding-house. "Don't you suppose that the lord chamberlain would let me in if he knew that I represent rep-resent the city of Cedar Plank, la?" It appeared that the inhabitants of her native town had held a voting contest con-test for the purpose of sending their most popular society member to represent repre-sent them at the coronation, and Mrs. Christie had been elected by a very large majority I think of seventy-five. "Which was enormous, my dear fourth largest In Europe," he added complacently. "Not that I'll step into the old donkey's shoes, though. He hates me like poison. I grieve to Bay ' that my father has a mind purely commercial com-mercial and utterly Incapable of appreciating ap-preciating any of the refinements of life." It Isnt often that I wish I were a man, but that's what I did just then, so that I might have had the pleasure of kicking him. But I smothered my rage and struggled with my surprise. It seemed like the opening of some wonderful melodrama, my chance encounter, en-counter, with this man while on my way to Europe, to take my securities out of his father's safety deposit box. I murmured something and fled up to the deck. Later, Mr. Magniff appeared and Migaged me In conversation for about an hour, until I found some excuse ex-cuse to dismiss him and go to bed. During the next few days he made himself my constant companion. He seemed to time hlB appearances at the table bo that we should Bit down together. to-gether. When I paced the deck I was sure to encounter him, whereupon, altering al-tering the direction of his walk, he would keep step with me. At evening, no sooner cad I drawn up my chair In a comfortable and secluded place than he would discover me and immediately immediate-ly seat himself at my side. I made few acquaintances on the boat, so that my name was never mentioned In his presence, and it was characteristic of his complacency that he did not discover dis-cover It. When, by chance, I obtained a few minutes' respite from his odious presence, pres-ence, as sure as fate I would see him upon the lower deck In lengthy and stealthy conference with the villainous Greek for such I had discovered his nationality to be. There was a crosseyed cross-eyed woman, apparently the servant's wife, whom I had observed with him, and after the first day, when Mr. Magniff Mag-niff would bring his servant up on our deck and keep him near while he engaged en-gaged me In conversation, I began to notice that the woman would post herself her-self below and watch my face with somber, never-winking eyes. My curiosity became so great that I questioned Mr. Magniff about this strange pair of dependents. He burst into loud laughter. "Poor Zeuxis is unhappily married," he chuckled when he could epeak. "I took the fellow over to America with me, and his wife, who is Insanely jealous of the scamp, followed on the next boat. Ever since that she has stuck to him closer than a leech. I fancy she imagines that he's trying to leave her." "But why does she stare at me?" I demanded. He hemmed and hawed a little. "You're a good sport. Miss Howard," he confided at length. "I'll let you in. She's jealous of you. She thinks he'B planning to elope with you. Ho, ho, ho!" The cur collapsed into my chair and laughed. I started away indignantly, but he sprang to his feet and grasped me by the sleeve. "Don't go," he begged. 'Til stop the fellow's insolence if you say the word. But Zeuxis has been useful to me In many ways, and Just now we are planning to pull off a little coup in England which is going to net us a few thousands. Our last one failed, unfortunately." "What was It?" I asked, my curiosity stimulated. He looked at me leerlngly. I believe that, for some occult reason, the rascal considered that he had made a conquest con-quest of me. At any rate, he began blabbing his story quite proudly into my eager ears. "It's a long tale," he said. "To tell It I've got to go back to my father, and he ain't a pleasant Bubject." "0, please go on," I said, as enticingly entic-ingly as I could. Somehow the idea had entered my head that this rogue in some way was bound up with the success or failure of my enterprise. Try as I might, I could not rid myself of the thought. "Well," he began, drawing up a chair close to me, "you wouldn't think, to look at me, that my father started life as a humble horse-meat vendor in the Rue Strasbourg, would you?" "1 could believe it by a wild stretch of the imagination," I answered. "Quite so," he answered, flattered. "Well, to do him Justice, the old donkey don-key has one of the shrewdest brains in France. Somehow he got in on the ground floor of the De Lesseps Panama Pana-ma concession and made millions out of it before it went to pieces.. Then nothing would content him but that he become a country gentleman. With this end in view he bought a magnificent magni-ficent estate near Clichy, in Normandy, Nor-mandy, remodeled the castle In a ghastly manner, and laid out a deer park.. But It didn't get him anywhere. Clichy is Btill a feudal province, and the old bounder's manners are such that the nobles of the locality had no use for him. Our presence there was completely ignored. For several years father and mother struggled to obtain social recognition, until at last they gave up the attempt, sold the estate and went back to Paris to live. But you can't stand up against the old man with Impunity. He resolved to be revenged, re-venged, and the man he most blamed for his troubles was the Comte d'Yves, a poverty-stricken old noble of Clichy just a haggardly proud rat, Miss Howard who thought himself too good- to breathe the air that father did." I was glad that It had grown too dark for Magniff to see my face. "My father singled out the comte to feel the full weight of his hatred," he went on blandly. "The comte had been badly hit In the Panama bubble. He'd had some shares, but they disappeared dis-appeared In a mysterious manner. From that time onward my father bent all his endeavors toward bankrupting the comte and taking over his prap- flrst marriage, and when father was hardly more than a boy, he quarreled with grandfather, who turned him out. Father came to Canada to make his fortune, drifted to the coast, and finally final-ly married an American girl in San Francisco. I was born there, my mother moth-er dying when I was only a baby, and my father when I was seventeen. After Aft-er that I came to Winnipeg and taught for a living. Of course, things were hard sometimes, but father had a worse time than I, and for his sake I never could forgive grandfather for turning him out of doors. "Some day, Anne," my father used to say laughingly, "you'll go baok to France and be adopted and become heiress of Clichy." "I guess the rest of them won't leave much for me to be heiress of," I answered usually, and the subject dropped. Save for a fluent knowledge of French I had nothing about me to betray the fact of my foreign extraction, extrac-tion, and I never wished to meet any of my father's relatives never! Sometimes Some-times my father would speak about the property in the strong box. It was all in bonds worthless ones, too which had been left my father by his mother, whose dowry had been invested invest-ed In the old Panama canal, that glorious glori-ous enterprise that went down to ruin twenty odd years ago, carrying with it thousands of prosperous families in a general wreck. My grandmother had always had a pathetic belief that some day the bonds would be worth something. some-thing. She left them to my father, placing them in the strong box which she held In the vaults of Magniff & Co., bankers, of Paris and London. When she was dying she sent him the key. "Well, Anne, they won't do any harm where they are," my father would say. "Some day, when we're all rich, we'll go to Paris and take them out and sell them for old paper." So now I think I have explained how I came to sail for England on the thirty-first of May, with five $100 and one $50 bill In my purse and the key to the ancestral strong box. Mary wanted me to sew by bills into the lining of my drese. But I felt safer with the money in my purse, for, as I told her, I'd either have to -wear the same dress all the time or keep running run-ning Into my room to see whether It had been ripped open or not. If I had taken her advice I should never have had my adventure with the Man In the Buff Boots but that comes later. Mary, of course, was at the train in tears, waiting to bid me adieu. And who else should be there but that odious Mr. Spratt, who had once been enamored of me, half hidden behind an enormous bouquet. I've heard that his boys call him "The Sprat," which isu't a nice name to give a professor of civic and international law. He pressed the bouquet Into one of my hands and then put something else into in-to the other in a mysterious and portentous por-tentous manner. "My volume of the Code Napoleon, Miss Ives," he said, whispering cautiously. cau-tiously. "The only complete English commentary on modern French law. I've written your name on the fly-leaf. Don't lose it; youll need it when you get to Paris!" I could not but feel affected by the little man's kindness in presenting me with a copy of his epoch-making work. I introduced him to Mary, and we three chatted for a few moments until the conductor called "All aboard!" I stayed a day or two in Montreal, sightseeing, sight-seeing, and finally, owing to a last minute min-ute excursion to Mount Royal, nearly missed the steamer. But just as the whistles blew, I plunged hastily up the gangway, colliding at the top with a couple of foreign-looking men who stared at me for several minutes, apparently ap-parently deeply interested. I am usually quick to form my judgments of people. I did not like either of these fellow-passengers at all In a very 6hort time I had discovered that they were master and servant, or stood in some such relation. The one bore the hall-marks of wealth without refinement; the other was a coarse and villainous-looking Greek or Armenian, Arme-nian, as I judged. I was relieved when I saw him betake himself to the steerage. steer-age. But Judge my disgust when I discovered that I had been seated next to his master at the dinner table! He did not lose any time striking up an acquaintance with me. "May I pass you the mustard, Miss Howard?" were his first words. He had evidently evident-ly been looking me up and made a mistake mis-take in the name. I was about to disillusion dis-illusion him when his next words checked the words on my lips. "Allow me to introduce myself, since we are to see so much of each other during our voyage," he continued, with an odious smirk. "My name is Magniff Mag-niff Leopold Magniff a name tolerably toler-ably well known in Paris and elsewhere." else-where." "The the banker?" I managed to gasp. "The son of the banker," he corrected, correct-ed, much gratified at my ready recognition. recog-nition. "The old boy's my father. We now control the second largest combl-nUf combl-nUf of capital in France, and the "I Think You Are a Miserable Scour drei." hundred pounds being offered to th aviator making the highest record.' " "Have you ever been in an aero plane, Anne?" asked Estelle, already putting on her hat. "Indeed I have," I Bald. "I even know how to manage a monoplane a little. One of the men I know Is an enthusiast, and has given me several lessons." "How perfectly wonderful!" she ex. claimed, searching vainly for a velL "0, Anne, just think! There may be 1 a terrible accident." All thought of the coronation had already al-ready left her mind. I could hardly keep pace with her as we hurried along the streets towards the railway j station. And all the way down in the j train she talked Incessantly of tha V spectacle In prospect and asked me j countless questions. We arrived at "J the grounds Just as the competition opened and obtained seats In the very first row of the grand stand. The clerk wanted to put us somewhere at the back, but when I pleaded with him he changed his mind. "However did you get euch perfect seats?" asked Estelle as we found ourselves our-selves with an unobstructed view of the field. I laughed. "Did I never tell you that I am everybody's mascot?" I answered lightly. i "What's that?" she said. "O, it means a bringer of luck," I told her. "All my friends know that I bring success to everybody except myself." Estelle did not reply. She was looking look-ing Intently at the great machines which were being carried out of their sheds and placed at various starting points upon the field. There wae a huge monoplane In front of us, which we could see quite plainly. Its driver, a tall, good-looking man In gray and blue, with a pair of Intensely penetrating pene-trating eyes and a calm smile, was seating himself in the machine, ready t for flight, and looking as quiet and col-' lected as though his enterprise were a thing of no consequence. While I watched him, breathless with excitement, excite-ment, somebody must have given a signal, for suddenly I saw hiB hug machine run a little way along ths course and then, with a swift, gliding movement, suddenly rise Into the air and wing its way around the field. "O," gasped Estelle, clutching my arm. "0!" as the driver made a circuit cir-cuit and whirled past us, the wind from the pinions almost sweeping our faces "Isn't he handsome!" Her words made me quite cross. "Don't be so silly, Estelle," I answered. an-swered. Then, inspired by some malicious ma-licious spirit, I asked: "Do you still hope that there will be an accident?" "No, no," she cried terrified. "0, Anne, he musn't fall." "Do be quiet," I urged. "People are looking at us." (TO BE CONTINUED.) I Put My Nose In the Air. "Well, Even at That" The girls laughed, and Agnes shied a chocolate cream at me, missing me by about three feet, "I don't believe even having red hair and being a mascot would accomplish a peer by coronation time, my dear," she said. "But by all means go ahead if you've set your heart on it. After school Is out we'll join you." "You let my red hair alone, Pomeroy Pome-roy Sec." I retorted wrathfully. "I'm twenty-two years old, and I guess I know how to take care of myself. And if you've got a determined temperament, tempera-ment, and want something badly and all your friends put stupid obstacles in your way why, it's enough to make a plaster angel feel annoyed." Agnes only laughed, and ate another chocolate, though she knows they make her fatter, and my decision was accepted as an established fact, which I thought was another proof of my determined de-termined temperament. It seems strange to look back on that kimono party now. I felt so old and capable and assured that nothing could possibly happen to me. If I had dreamed of the mad adventures that were so soon to begin ah, well, perhaps per-haps I would have gone forward just the same. It is hardly twelve months since we sat by that crackling fire, but I feel as if it had been a thousand years. After all, twenty-two is very young. But, at any rate, I had a perfectly good reason for leaving school two months before the end of the term. The doctor, who is an old friend of mine I used to pull his mustaches when I wore pinafores told me I had been working too bard, and was on the verge of a complete breakdown if I didn't at once have complete rest and change of scene. So I asked him if the air of any particular place would benefit me especially, and he pulled a curl for me and said he felt sure English Eng-lish air was the one thing for my ailment. ail-ment. "Are you going to visit your ancestral ances-tral castle?" asked Mary as I was packing. pack-ing. "It doesn't really seem polite to go so near and never say 'Bon jour.' " "Of course," I answered, though really I hadn't thought about it before. "I'm going to see the Chateau Clichy, and also I'm going to try to recover my ancestral property. I've a bundle of bonds stacked up in a romantic old vault in Paris. Maybe I'll come back an heiress, or something extra nice about this adventure. I haven't mentioned anything about my castle in France, have I? One doesn't talk about one's family, of course, but really, mine was very in-terestirg. in-terestirg. My grandfather is the Comte d'Yves, and owns a large feudal property in Clichy, which is in Nor-mandj. Nor-mandj. My father was his Bon by his "Safe Me, Safe Me, MTss!" the Greek Babbled Frantically. that you're a rival of hers," he continued, con-tinued, caressing his long mustache proudly, as though he were a hero. "Bah!" I exclaimed, in unutterable disgust. "Quite so, quite eo," said the Greek hurriedly. "If you would pretend to hate me miss, If you'd show your pretended pre-tended contempt a little more openly, miss, you might convince her." "Pretended?" I cried in fury. "You you " "Say It, miss, say it," he whispered eagerly. "I can't find words vile enough to characterize you," I answered, and turned upon my heel. Later that evening he came creeping up to me. "You've done it, miss," he whispered. whis-pered. "And if you ever want a friend, call upon me and I'll protect you." "Done what?" I ejaculated. "Convinced her, miss. You eee, miss, Mr. Magniff, he's a Joker, and he pretended pre-tended that you was In love with me, Just to torment her. But I've made her think I've jilted you, and I'm grateful, miss. Indeed " |