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Show demanded. "No matter what, your quarrel with Mr. West may In-, you should not drag an innocent girl into it." "Innocent girl, indeed! I like that! Site j u t my nose out of joint in less than a week, anyhow. If you don't believe it:, come and see for yourself. The brother is just as bad as the sister. sis-ter. If you want him now, you'll find him in a poolroom, playing up the money you are fool enough to give him. I'.ut I'm not worrying about: ililliiillli?. 7 ' -.: , -fl . AUTHOR OF "THE WINGS OF "THE MORNING," f kP-V'THE PILLAR OF LIGHT," "THE TERMS -T'II WCS OF SURRENDER," "NUMBER 'mm ymB0 etc. liiH--j 'i 'Swf ...NOVELIZED FROM THE SERIES OF PHOTOPLAYS OF THE SAME NAME RELEASES j snorted like the bull which had : threatened his daughter. "This foolishness has got to slop j right here," he growled. "You, I'elei', will be u farmer like me, and Jessie will be a farmer's wife, like her mother, moth-er, or I'll know the reason why." Then, in dour brutality, he tore up the girl's drawings, and, turning to the bench, seized a mallet with which he .smashed each of his son's models. Jessie burst into tears and ran out. Peter's face blanched, and his fists clenched, but John caught him by the shoulder and restrained him by a warning pressure. He well knew that protest was useless where a man of Fanner Simnis' bovine intelligence was concerned. The next day happened to he a Sunday, Sun-day, and a Sabbath peace descended on the household. John accompanied the Similises to church, where the fanner was evidently held in high esteem, es-teem, benTs-Hii elder of the community. After the service, when groups of residents resi-dents gathered for a few minutes' chat belbre going their separate ways, a big, hulking fellow approached aud hailed the Simnis family with gruff cordiality. Simnis introduced the newcomer. "This is Mr. Thorpe," he said, with a significant look at Burton. "He's the man wdio has spoke for Jessie, and he'll make her a good husband, too." The significance of this needlessly frank statement was not lost on John. It was clearly meant as a climax to the strained situation of the previous night. Thorpe grinned, and at once took Jessie away in the direction of the farm, so John merely uttered a casual ','Iudeed !" and followed with the others. Thorpe did not go far. Waving a hand to Simms, he lifted his hat in awkward farewell to the girl, and turned into a path leading to his own homestead. After the midday meal, Burton invited in-vited the two young people to aecom- pose. Setting the girl on the ground in front of her astonished father, who, with Mrs. Simms, was seated in the porch, he bawled angrily: ".Nice thing, ain't it. that a feller should find the girl he's going to marry mar-ry carryin' on with a dude down there in the woods'.'" "What d' y' mean?" cried Simnis, rising slowly and blinking at the accuser ac-cuser and his captive. "Just what. I've said," was the furious furi-ous answer. "Some artist chap is layin' around Freshfield, and your Jessie Jes-sie was down there settin' ier him, fer a picture, on the Sabbath." Each phrase formed a wrathful crescendo which seemed to arouse in Simnis an almost maniacal rage. He eyed the girl vindictively for a few-seconds. few-seconds. "You just hold her right there," be said at last to Thorpe, "aud I'll teach her a lesson she won't forget in a hurry." Lumbering into the house, he emerged em-erged with a rawhide whip and, without with-out further ado, began lashing the shrieking girl mercilessly. The unhappy unhap-py mother tried to interfere, but Simnis pushed her aside with a violence vio-lence that almost amounted to a blow. This, then, was the scene which met the eyes of John Burton and Peter Simnis as they ran up a frantic girl held in the grasp of one human brute, and quivering under the blows inflicted in-flicted by another, while her hapless mother could only stand by in tearful tear-ful dismay and witness her degradation. degrada-tion. The Outcome of Tyranny. No matter what the consequences, Burton resolved to put a stop to this outrage. He rushed forward and was dimly aware that Peter, who had uttered ut-tered an inarticulate howl when he saw his mother struck, had raced ahead of him into the house. Grappling Grap-pling Simms, he stayed the infuriated man's arm for a moment, whereupon Thorpe closed with him and, finding an opponent of different metal to an - . Iliiil -V ly unprepared for being cast adrift iu this fashion. He went after them. "Here," be said, pressing some money anil a curd into the boy's hand. "This will serve your needs during tile next day or two. Look after your sister. Peter, and come and see me. I shall return home at mice, and will make it my business to help you." Peter was sulIicienUy self-possessed to murmur some words of thanks, but poor Jessie could only weep as though her heart was broken. Thoy passed away down the road until hidden by a bend, and Burton was left to face the two infuriated men and a nearly distraught dis-traught woman. Realizing that argument was useless, use-less, and. seeing that: Thorpe was by no means keen on facing him once more in fair fight, John entered the house and packed his few belongings. Then he made his way to the village and found Mike, who drove him to the station. There was no news of the two young people, and Burton did not care to set gossiping tongues wagging by telling tell-ing what had befallen at the farm. He half expected to find them at the depot, but they did not put in an appearance, ap-pearance, so, with a sad heart, he took the next train for home. However, the pair turned up at his house on the following afternoon. Intrusting In-trusting them to the care of a reliable manservant, he secured them respectable respec-table lodgings, gave them sufficient money to purchase a small stock of clothing and promised to look after them until Peter was established in an engineering works and Jessie had undergone a thorough training in an art school. Out of evil might come good, he fancied. Some weeks passed in this way. Jessie Jes-sie attended an art school, but Peter did not at once avail himself of a proffered opening in the mechanical department of an iron works. He explained ex-plained that his utter ignorance would prove a serious handicap and wished to devote some time to textbooks before be-fore undertaking practical work. Burton, Bur-ton, mindful of his own early experiences, experi-ences, fully approved of this project. He could not devote much time to actual supervision of the young people's peo-ple's studies, but contented himself with a weekly visit, when it was his habit to settle their accounts in the boarding house and hand to Peter a few dollar bills wherewith the inevitable inevit-able expenses of residence in a city might be met. Generally he called on a fixed day. though Peter was supposed sup-posed to be always at home in steady devotion to his books, while Jessie's hours at the art school were limited to the mornings only. One week-end Burton decided to go out of town, so he paid his wonted visit to Peter and his sister a day earlier than usual. They were at home, as he anticipated, but even he, a preoccupied man, never inclined to be suspicious of his fellows, could not help noticing that while Jessie, to all intents and purposes, was dusting the furniture, her jacket and a decidedly smart hart had evidently been thrown aside in a hurry. Peter, too, though seated at a table with an open book and a copybook in front of him, had clearly not made many notes of late, because the ink was dry on the paper and the pen he held in his hand had not been plunged in the inkstand at that sitting. house and inquired his business. Before Be-fore John could utter a word Mike explained. "Beckon this young man wants to board here for a spell," lie said, with a knowing wink. The very tone of his voice told that prices were to be raised for the newcomer's new-comer's benefit. Mike, taking charge of the situation, situa-tion, yelled to two bent figures hoeing in a distant turnip patch. They straightened, and came at the hail. Soon John was talking to Farmer Simms and his son, Peter, the latter a sturdy and bright-faced boy of eighteen. The youth was very like his sister, and John imagined, rightly as it happened, that the girl was some eighteen months younger. The whole party entered the house, Peter carrying John's portmanteau at his father's somewhat gruff command. In the sitting room John met Jessie, and the eyes of the two flashed an understanding. Nothing was said as to their earlier encounter, however, since John imagined that day-dreaming would not be encouraged by the hard-working farmer and his wife. That evening after supper John was going out for a smoke, but was given to understand that the family gathered for prayers, and would be honored by the presence of their guest. Nothing loath, he listened to the elder Simms reading a chapter from the Bible with an unction which condoned a great many verbal inaccuracies. He could not help noticing that both the boy and girl were restive, but attributed their attitude to the natural exuberance of youth. When the reading was finished, Peter sprang up eagerly and invited John to come with him to his attic. Farmer Simms frowned but said nothing, and his manifest disapproval was not noticed by the stranger. The reason for the boy's request was soon laid bare. He had fitted a small workbench in his garret, and had constructed several crude but ingenious in-genious models of various sorts of machinery. "I am crazy to be an engineer," he confessed, "but father won't hear of it. Some day I'll have to git out on my own. That's just all there is to it." I The door opened, and Peter swung ! round in a sudden alarm difficult to I understand. But the intruder was only his sister. Jessie had recovered from her fit of shyness, and now carried car-ried a portfolio of drawings which she was anxious to exhibit, yet girlishly diffident as to the opinion this tall, reserved man, with the singularly sympathetic sym-pathetic face, would express on them. John soon put the girl at ease. Examining Ex-amining the drawings, he found, as was only to be expected, that they n JolVn Burton, a worker In a steel mill, suddenly inherits an English title and $10,-000,000. $10,-000,000. He decides he will spend li is life, If necessary, in an attempt to solve the question "Is Humanity in the Grip of Evil?" Each episode of this series forms a distinct story in Itself depicting his experiences ex-periences in his search for the truth. SIXTH EPISODE The Hypocrites The Tyrant. Utterly dispirited, John Burton, tenth marquis of C'astleton, sought peace after his last disillusionment. His thoughts turned with real zest to the quiet and seclusion of the open country. He cared not whither he went. So he packed a grip with simple necessaries, chose a remote district at haphazard, and boarded the train. He neither knew nor cared what sort of place Freshfield, Vt, might be, nor what sort of people he would encounter in the Simnis family, tenants ten-ants of the Meadowland farm. When he alighted from the train at Freshfield, he was pleased to find himself him-self the only passenger with business there that day. He asked the station-master station-master for directions. "The Simms farm lies a matter oi four miles away among them woods," said the official, pointing across an undulating landscape basking in the sun of a summer's afternoon. "There ain't no automobiles round about here, mister. You see that old feller over there near the buggy? That's Mike, and mebbe he'll take you to Meadow-land Meadow-land for a couple of dollars." Some bargaining with Mike ensued, but the price was quickly agreed on, and John climbed up beside the driver on the front seat of the vehicle which reminded him of the deacon's "Wonderful "Won-derful One-Hoss Shay" in all but the ' said shay's soundness of material. In effect, the poor old buggy contrived to keep Intact, but the rotten harness yielded on a hill towards the close of the third mile and repairs became necessary. Mike produced a prickler and some whipcord. Evidently he was prepared for such emergencies. "How long before you're ready to take the road again?" inquired John cheerfully. The delay did not irritate him. "Reckon I'll be ten minutes or more fixin' this darned trace," growled Mike. "All right," said John. "Give me a hail when you're ready. I'll not be far away." He sauntered Into a wooded glade and did some botanizing among the wild flowers. Flowers of many varieties grew in profusion on a steep bank at some little distance. Burton was busy among them, having found no less than six The Discarded Model Leads John to West's Studio. him. Jessie Simms is in West's studio at this minute. You have a car, haven't you? Take me there and you'll soon find out whether I'm lying or not." They alighted at a studio building. The lady, being well known there as a model, had no difficulty in leading Burton to West's flat without being announced. "Now," she whispered vindictively, halting in front of a closed door and producing a latchkey, "walk right in and put the double cross on Mr. Robert Rob-ert West!" " The woman seemed so sure of her position that, after a momentary hesitation, hesi-tation, Johu opened the door, traversed trav-ersed a. carpeted passage and entered a room which his guide indicated by a silent gesture. No intruder could have appeared at a more awkward moment. There was no sketching toward. Jessie Simms was in West's arms, and their lips had just met in a long and lingering kiss! Of course the two started apart. Jessie Jes-sie uttered a slight scream, but her pretty eyes sparkled now with angry dismay rather than girlish confusion. Putting a bold front on matters, West bellowed a demand for an ex-, planation. John did not answer, but gazed sadly at Jessie Simms, whose fortitude promptly deserted her, because be-cause she hid her flushed face in her hands and began sobbing. "I've nothing to say," he announced at last. "I neither explain nor apologize. apolo-gize. That poor girl can tell you why I am here." i " V t 3x s r X - 4 t - V t 1 j Thorpe Objects to the Artist Being With His Sweetheart. different species of buttercups, when he was startled and surprised by the unexpected vision of a young and pretty girl falling headlong down the bank. She rolled almost to his feet, having hav-ing obviously lost her balance at a critical moment. He would have picked her up, but she gathered herself her-self together with the agility of a fawn, and, after one shy and embarrassed em-barrassed glance, took to her heels again and ran swiftly out of sight. Not a word did the two exchange. For one instant their eyes met. Then the woodland sprite was in full flight and John was laughing heartily. John returned to the broken-down buggy and related his adventures to Mike. ; "That'll be the Simms gal, Jessie," John gave them their regular allowance al-lowance of pocket money. Something in Jessie's manner impelled him to hand her an extra five-dollar bill. "There," he said pleasantly, "you girls are always in need of some small frippery or other. You can be extravagant ex-travagant this week." She thanked him with a grateful smile, and he went out soon afterward. He would certainly have been surprised sur-prised and shocked had he heard brother and sister chortling with glee when the door closed on him. But enlightenment en-lightenment was nearer than he imagined. imag-ined. He had not been at home more than an hour, and a man was already packing a grip for the projected journey, jour-ney, when a visitor was announced a lady with whose name Burton was unfamiliar. He received her in the library, and found himself looking at a woman of very attractive appearance, appear-ance, but whose somewhat too flashy attire impelled him to give his manservant man-servant a secret signal which meant "remain within call." Unhappily such safeguards were essential if a young man of great wealth meant to avoid certain snares laid for his unwary feet. The lady, however, seemed to be in genuine distress. She seated herself with an air of abandon. When she lifted lift-ed her veil, John saw that her eyes were swimming with tears. "I hope you will pardon this intrusion," intru-sion," she said, obviously speaking with a calmness induced by strong effort, ef-fort, "but I know you are interested in the welfare of a girl named Jessie Pie turned and went out, paying no heed to the bitter taunts which the discarded model was now flinging at the artist. Entering his car, he bade the man go home. He was minded at first to call and see Peter, but felt unequal un-equal to any further strain that day. When all was said and done, he had kept his word to the boy and his sister, and meant visiting them during the following fol-lowing week, when perhaps the girl might have repented her folly and be willing to start afresh. His mind was so taken up with brooding thoughts that he did not notice no-tice a disturbance in the street until the car stopped, being unable to advance ad-vance further owing to a dense crowd which had gathered in front of a saloon. sa-loon. John let down the window and leaned out. "What is the matter?" he inquired of a bystander. "Oh, nothing much, sir," said the man. "Just a couple of young drunks started fighting in the saloon. They wouldn't quit, even when they was chucked out, so now the cops have got 'em, and they're in for thirty days apiece." The car moved on. One of the policemen po-licemen was ringing for a patrol wagon, while the other held the would-be would-be combatants at arm's length. Anil one of them was Peter Simms. It happened that the man to whom Burton Bur-ton had spoken before was walking alongside, and John addressed him excitedly. broke every rule of art, even as he understood it. Yet they displayed some force of conception, and' the color sketches were distinctly good. To his thinking, both brother and sister sis-ter merely lacked training. Somehow, the girl seemed to be excited ex-cited to a pitch hardly warranted by the conditions of the moment. Her pretty face was flushed, her bright eyes were shining, and her hands manifestly trembled. "I don't want you to feel afraid merely because you are exhibiting your work," he said soothingly. "Oh, it isn't that, Mr. Burton," tittered tit-tered Jessie. "Soon after seeing you today I was chased by a bull " "You were not hurt?" he broke in. She reddened still more deeply, the hot blood incarnading even the shapely shape-ly throat and neck. "No," she said, with stammering hesitancy. "I might have been but a gentleraau, an artist ran up and and saved me!" Now, the fact was that Jessie had been rescued from a really grave predicament pre-dicament by a young artist named Robert West, who, like Burton himself, had fled from the city to seek inspiration inspira-tion in the country. West had quite valiantly chased away a young bull which, in the stupid manner of such animals, was angered because Jessie happened to stumble and fall while running across a field. He had thereupon there-upon picked the girl up in his arms and carried her to safety, and her whole being tingled yet with the memory mem-ory of that loverlike embrace, since Robert West, impressionable as any of his tribe, had been in no hurry to set this delightful sprite on her feet again. Peter Simnis was eyeing his sister curiously, and to save the girl further embarrassment, John turned the talk back to the sketches. "It seems to me," he said, "that if you were given lessons by a good master, mas-ter, you could accomplish some really excellent work. You have a sense of atmosphere, and your ideas of color strike me as daring, yet not too far-j far-j fetched." The three heads were bent over the sketch which provided a text for this ! criticism when rough hands snatched away not only the drawing which John held, but the whole of Jessie's collection. col-lection. The farmer, suspecting the purpose of this gathering in the attic, had crept stealthily upstairs, and now pany him for a walk. The farmer gave a grudging assent, and the three went off. John purposely steered the conversation clear of personal matters. He spoke of the benefits of education, even iu agricultural pursuits, and tried to show that farming ought to be as scientific as any other occupation. He laid particular stress on the quiet happiness attainable by reading good books, and, choosing a sunlit clearing near a stream, invited the others to sit down while he read a few selected passages from Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies." Peter Simms listened eagerly, but the girl's mind seemed to wander. f Whether by accident or design Burton could never determine afterwards, she got up after a little while and began picking flowers. Soon she was hidden by the trees, but John and her brother broth-er assumed that she was not far distant. dis-tant. Now, the fact was that Jessie either knew, or guessed accurately, where a certain good-looking young artist would be found at work. At any rate, she undoubtedly met Robert Rob-ert West, and the tw-o began an earnest ear-nest talk, which quickly developed iuto Jessie's posing as a model while West sketched her. This, of course, was very delightful to the artistic temperament of sweet seventeen, and the well-considered compliments of the town-bred man made strange music in the girl's ears. Iu a word, matters were progressing quite nicely when Bill Thorpe broke in on the idyl. By unfortunate chance, he happened to pass that way while making for the Meadowland farm, and his anger at the sight of what he regarded as desecration of the Sabbath Sab-bath was heightened by jealousy. He approached so threateningly that Jessie screamed, and West sprang up to protect her, whereupon he was sent reeling by a blow from a man twice his weight and of much stronger physique. Disregarding his prostrate rival, Thorpe seized the girl, lifted her in a bearlike hug and carried her home. Naturally, she screamed and struggled, but her appeals fell on deaf ears. They did. however, reach Burton and her brother, who feared that some evil had befallen her, and could not at first determine where to search. When at last they hit on the right direction and ran in swift pursuit, pur-suit, they were too late to prevent Thorpe from fulfilling his loutish pur- effeminate artist, put forth all his great strength. John, therefore, had to defend himself, and was bitterly aware that the elder Simms was not to be deflected from his cruel intent, but was now holding the terrified girl with one hand and wielding the whip with the other. It looked as though a very serious struggle was imminent when every eye turned at a hysterical yelp from Peter Simms. The boy was standing in the doorway and covering his father with a shotgun. "Stop that!" he cried. "Stop it, I tell you, or I swear I'll shoot !" That horrible whip, raised for another an-other blow, dropped to the farmer's side, and the man gazed in sheer astonishment as-tonishment at the son who thus dared to threaten him. He could scarcely believe his ears. Never before had any member of his family flouted his authority. Thorpe, . equally amazed, wrenched h'mself free from Burton, and was obviously more inclined to witness wit-ness this new phase in a dramatic situation than continue a struggle in which he was likely to be worsted. "Put down that gun, Peter!" shouted shout-ed John, authoritatively, striding toward to-ward the desperate boy. "Not me !" came the defiant reply. "I'll not see my mother and sister ill-used by any man, whether he's my father or not! This horsewhippin' proposition has to stop right now, or I'll end It with an ounce of buckshot. ... You hear me, father? I mean j what I say! Drop that whip, or I'll blow the top of your head off." Farmer Simms recovered his senses. He pointed toward the highway. "Get out of this !" he said, mouthing mouth-ing the words with bitter emphasis. "Get out now! Y"ou ain't no children of mine no longer. Neither bite nor sup will either of you have under my roof again. Get out, just as you are! You can both starve by the roadside for anything that I care." The hapless mother broke in, but her appeal was ruthlessly swept aside. "Good," Peter said defiantly. "That's what we want both of us. Good-hy, mother. We'll see you later, I guess. Come along, Jessie. I'll take care of you all right." Giving his father and Thorpe a wide berth, and still clutching the gun, he led his sister to the gate. Burton, quite at a loss to know how to act for the best, realized that these two waifs were purely penniless and whol- Simms " "Yes, what of her?" he broke in anxiously, because this woman's manner man-ner conveyed a bint of threatened disaster. dis-aster. "She's going the same way as I've gone, and hundreds more like me," carne the passionate outburst. "That's why I'm here, Mr. Burton. I'm not dead set on saving her. Why should I be? But I'm playing my own. hand. Until she came to this city I stood all right with Robert West, the celebrated cele-brated artist, you know. I was his model, and everything was O. K., but now he wants no one except Jessie Simms. He's simply crazy about her." Robert. West ! AY as not that the name of the man whose devotion to art on a certain unfortunate Sunday had led to the disruption of the Simms household? Burton glanced at his informant in-formant keenly. r "Are you sure of your facts?" he "Why, I know one of those boys," he said. "His name Is Simms, and I can vouch for it that little over no hour ago be was no more under the Influence of liquor than I am." "Are you the gentleman who pays his board bills and gives him money'" inquired the other curiously. "Yes." "Well, take my tip, sir, and let up on the game. He's just playing you for a sucker. I was In that very saloon sa-loon when he came In' and told the crowd you had flashed an extra five-spot, five-spot, on him and his sister this week !" Utterly disheartened, John sank back into a corner of the luxurious limousine. Evil showed no signs of relaxing Its grip on humanity. His well-meant assistance had only made easy the downward path for Jessie Simms, and opened the prison door to her brother. END OF SIXTH EPISODE, Burton Supports Jessie and Peter. was all the information vouchsafed by the grumpy driver. John reflected that if the remainder of the farmer's household was up to the first sample he had seen, some streak of belated luck must have led him to Arcady. In due course the buggy drew into the farmyard of Meadowland. The surroundings were somewhat squalid, but that element did not worry John at all. There was no sight of the fugitive Jessie. An elderly woman, all a-flutter because fif the arrival of an unexpected visitor, visi-tor, and wiping soapsuds from her hands on an apron, came from an out- |