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Show 1 SOKE THINGS IN A BASKET 2 By CHARLOTTE FREEMAN. I Hob, taking a sliort cut down the bluff, missed Ills footing and lauded right in the middle of a picnic of one. "Great guns!" he cried, picking his way out of trouble und shaking off a piece" of fresh jelly cake which clung affectionately to a barefoot. "Who'd ever think of finding you here? And why so exclusive?" Gladys screwed the top on the thermos bottle and brushed some, crumbs off her bathing suit before sht answered. "Exclusive ! This beach is about as private as a balloon ascension ascen-sion on the Fourth of July. Judo told you to hunt me, of course !" "Well, I" "She did, and you know It. Now, please help me pack things into the basket. Then you can trot it back to the cottage and tell my sister that 1 am going out in the boat alone!" "But you can't " "And that I won't be home until late and that she needn't worry. I'm neither with Mr. Harbison, Lieutenant Frick nor Jack Mabie, and she and the other girls can rest easy. And tell her, too, please, to find some pleasant employment em-ployment for you, as you are tired of your commission of keeping me occupied occu-pied and out of the way during the house party." He picked up the basket, but did not move. "See here, Gladys ! I don't want you to think I'm always hanging around at Judith's orders. I hang around because I want to. You know I love you. Only you won't listen. Where are you going?" "Out in the launch. Maybe over to the Point." Bob looked at the sky. "It's going to rain and the lake will be rough. I wouldn't go if I were you, Gladys!" "I'm going rain or shine. So good- by!" "Better let me go along !" "No, I won't. Now run along and eat your sandwiches !" All at once Bob got furious. It stung him to the quick to have her treat him as a little boy. He held uj the basket and hurled it high, over- head out into the water. "Well, I hope you feel better," said, Gladys sarcastically after the momentary momen-tary silence of surprise, but Bob cut . her short. "I've done as you wanted long-enough. long-enough. Now it's my turn and I'm not going to do another thing I'm told. Are you still going to the Point?" "Yes?" "Then I'm going too." They were beside the boat now. "Get in," he said sharply. i She stood still. "Get in," he repeated, re-peated, and Gladys climbed over the edge. Bob jumped in and started the en-; giue just as a flash of lightning split, the sky, followed by a crash of thunder. thun-der. The little launch pushed her nose bravely through the water and Bob t headed her for a point of land five miles away now fast becoming invisible through the mist. "I want you to know that bottle-cost bottle-cost three dollars !" "All right. I'll get you another!" "And the linen there were a veryl nice lunch cloth and a napkin that belonged be-longed to a set mother got abroad. You can't replace them!" "I'll buy her a whole new set whenr the war is over," he answered, unrelenting. unre-lenting. "You can't make me sorry.. It's your own fault you lost the bas- KOC. She looked at him a long time with! an inscrutable expression ; then.j. "There was something else in the bas-v ket," she said, tentatively trailing her-hand her-hand in the turbulent water. "What?" inquired Bob, without interest, in-terest, keeping au anxious eye on the clouds. "I can't tell you," she said. "All right," he answered. "Keep it to yourself. Say, Gladys, we can't make the Point." The waves were getting high now and crashing against the light little boat with terrible force and the wind was blowing a hurricane. "Then we'll go back!" she shivered. shiv-ered. "It's two miles. We can't!" ha shouted above the roar of the wind.. "I'll try to make the island." Be turned the boat toward a dark pa tcli in the water a quarter of a mile or so away, and the waves, coming com-ing for an instant broadside, nearly turned them over. Gladys grasped the sides of the boat and held on desperately. For the first time she was really frightened. Suddenly there was a crash that twisted the boat. Water surged over them and then oblivion! Gladys woke up on a flat, grassy place with trees all around. The suu was shining now and Bob was bending bend-ing over her. "Thank God," he said. "1 thought you were gone sure. That was a closi tall f::r us both. Don't move, Gladys. Just rest there until you are stronger. We will have to stay here until someone some-one sees us nnd takes us home. Tho boat is smashed to smithtreens." She smiled wanly and sat up lu spite of his protests. "Dear Bob," she said, holding out both hands to him, "don't you want to know what else was In the basket?" He had forgotten about il In the face of more serious things. But now ho was all interest. "What?" ho asked quickly. "My heart!" sho said, turning away with an odd little smile. (Coopyrlyht, intii. by tho Mct'luro Nwa pniiei- byndlcato.) |