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Show I The Man Nobody Knew i By HOLWORTHY HALL f from the underwriting project, be thought, tli.'tn from his character. He had tleposited with Culleii ul he owned, except for his private belongings, belong-ings, his runabout, and a trivial sum fur current expenses. The runabout he would offer for sale; It meant a few hundred dollars more to be divided among his contributors. Beyond that, there was nothing else he could restore re-store to them. lie didn't believe that Harmon would ever carry out his promised betrayal; be-trayal; not that be hud faith in Harmon's Har-mon's code of ethics, but because he trusted Harmon's horse sense. If Milliard Mil-liard were alone to be accused, Harmon Har-mon would gain nothing and might, If he offered any adverse testimony, even implicate himself. Indeed, if Harmon should say enough to establish the proof in the dangerous status of au accessory ac-cessory before the fact. No . . . this was the same procedure; to let HI is time," sin; reminded him triumphantly, "and this is the time !" "Think so?" 'T know so!" All at once she became be-came demurely sober. "I'm awfully glad, honestly ... it isn't out yet, of course, but everybody knows about J'"ii and Carol, especially since Jack Armstrong lost out, and went West, just the way they do In novels. I'm just as glad as 1 can be. Only you might have given me a wee little bint just to me, you know, mightn't you?" "Angela!" He caught at her hand. "(lb! That wakes you up, doesn't it?" Her manner changed to the maternal; ma-ternal; if Jlilliard had been in a dif-fernt dif-fernt frame of mind It would have convulsed him. "Now, just be calm and tell me all about It," she instructed instruct-ed him indulgently. "Tell me evcry-Ihing evcry-Ihing I won't repeat it to a single soul ! I'm awfully excited about It. Please tell me." "Angela ! Where did you " She pouted instantly. "Not just plain 'Angela' put some (rimming on it." "Well Angela, dear . . . what's (hat about Jack Armstrong? Say that again and tell me everything you know about it. Be serious fur once. That's a good girl !" Her eyes were mischievously tender; somehow she reminded Hlllinrd of that moment in the hallway of the Du-rants' Du-rants' bouse the most precious of all his recent memories. "Will you tell me if I tell you?" "Yes. I guess so." Her finger was upraised in warning. warn-ing. "Say 'Yes, dear.' " "Y'es, dear," said Hilllard, writhing. She settled herself with a little flounce of excltemnt. "Well . . . Jack asked her, arid she refused him. . . . Flat as a pancake. That's gospel truth ! She told me she'd refused hira, and he told me the pancake part. And everybody's every-body's glad of It he's a nice boy; awfully nice but nowhere near as nice as you are. And he's just naturally natu-rally gone away to get over It. And you're the only one left. So that's finished." He stared at her unblinkingly. Had he really been at such cross-purposes with Armstrong at the station, then? The conception was Illuminating. "Everybody?" he repeated, red and white by turns, and mightily hushed. "What does that mean?" "Just that. Everybody. That Is" Her accent was deliclously superior. "That is, all the people one knows." "They think . . . they think I'm the . . . the one?" "Silly!" She patted his head. "I didn't believe you'd try to camouflage me. No honestly Isn't It true?" He studied her a moment. "What would you say If It were?" he asked soberly. so-berly. She returned his gaze with engaging frankness. "Oh, I want It to be I want it to beTrshe said. "Carol's the sweetest thing In town, and as for you . . . well, sometimes I almost wish I could marry you myself!" His heart leaped dangerously. One complication the less! Oh, the respite of it! Angela removed from the prob- Presently he sensed a subtle supercharging super-charging of the atmosphere whenever be met a male acquaintance; he couldn't deny that the greeting of his bankers was suddenly less informal, more impersonal ; he perceived, with a sinking spasm of foreboding, that fewer people stopped to chat with him on the street and that those who still were willing to halt and pass the timo of day were uncommonly restive about it. Syracuse hadn't yet arrayed itsel officially against him, and a part o Syracuse was outwardly as pleasant as ever, but there wasn't the slightest question that the story had leaked out, and that it had got Itself adherents. The end was plainly In sight; Armstrong's Arm-strong's report wns due. Only the Cul-lens Cul-lens and the Durants and one or two other of the James street families were quite as cordially attentive as formerly; former-ly; and to Milliard's vast chagrin, they rather overdid it . . . he seemed to feel in the steady warmth of their friendship a sort of blindly unseasonable unseason-able resolution to support him, whether or no. This, Infinitely more than the cooling manner of the majority, galled him incessantly. It was as though they rallied to his defense before the need of It . . . It w as as though they conceded in advance the necessity of such a defense. So Hilllard waited, waited . . . smiling upon the wqrld his hollow smile, carrying through the city the body of a knave and the face of a martyr and the soul of a gentleman . . . and In the watches of the night, he was perplexed to find that his eyes were sometimes wet, but never when he was thinking of himself always when he was thinking of Angela, or Carol, or unexplainably of a common-enough representative of the French bourgeoisie named Pierre Du-tout. Du-tout. On the eighth day, he chanced to meet Dr. Durant by accident In front of the Physicians' building at nigh noon. "Hello, there 1 You're just In time," said the Doctor, cheerfully. "I'm going go-ing over to the University club for lunch. Won't you join me? I . want your advice. I'm the worst business man in the world you probably know that by this time. And I trust my friends for friendship; but when I want advice, I go to an expert. So you qualify on both counts. Come along over." Hilliard was flattered, but not deceived. de-ceived. "I'm not sure that my advice Is worth anything .half as expensive as a luncheon, Doctor." The older man took him by the arm, and impelled him across the street. "That depends on your appetite," he laughed. "Come along, and help me out on a decision I've got to make. About an Investment." Hilliard hung back for a moment, while suspicion dawned on him. "What sort of investment, Doctor?" he queried. "You come and sit down," urged the Doctor, seductively. "And we'll talk It over later. But first of all" He patted his waistcoat. "Let's eat." Milliard was almost too grateful to speak ; the Doctor's strategem was patent, pat-ent, but In all chivalry the invitation couldn't be declined. Once Inside the doors of the club, however, he became panicky ; for his first sweeping recon-noissance recon-noissance included half a dozen men whose late behavior had indicated that they knew. The Doctor drew Hilllard under the mantle of his own unassailable position, posi-tion, and plowed ahead with the utmost serenity. He nodded here and there, he spoke to members right and left ; he bowed across the room; always his personality, rather than his person, seemed to be escorting and guarding Hilliard; and Syracuse couldn't decline to acknowledge a man who was under the Doctor's adequate protection. Those who spoke to the Doctor also spoke to Hilliard; there was no way out of it, and they spoke as casually as they could. They also nodded to him, and bowed, but when his back was turned, they became low-voiced and communicative, communi-cative, and he knew It. (TO BE CONTINUED.) CHAPTER XII Continued. ' 13 "Oh, he's going to lake a look at it on his way West," said Hilliard, dilli-denlly, dilli-denlly, and added, with more generosity generos-ity than Waring had anticipated. "Hiiftis and I both asked him to. Let Kufus and .Lick handle it logeiher. Between them, they'll make rather an exhaustive study, don't you think? And they might turn up something that all of us would want to know." "That's right! It's a (bought. Well " Cullen looked at 'tis wnloh. "1 can't waste any more time on this tomfool tom-fool business. I ought to have been In the ollice an hour ago. Anybody going go-ing downtown?" "I am but I'll walk," said Waring millonly. "Can I stay?" asked Hilliard of Angela, An-gela, in an undertone. "I want you to," she said. Her eyes followed Waring to the doorway. After (hey had been alone for a full minute, and neither of them hail uttered ut-tered a syllable, it came to Milliard that the chief dltliculty In being evil Is to mak-3 an end of It, but thai Hie chief dillleully In being virtuous is to begin. His brain was active and his emotions were placid; but vp his mild perplexity he had no compelling desire de-sire to make a start. There was no restraining Impediment working against him. as on the occasion of his Interview with Carol; his Impulses were merely lazy. Indeed, he was rather highly gratified at the course of things this morning; he argued that Waring's zeal and Armstrong's itinerary had relieved him from any necessity of an out-and-out avowal of his innocent fraud ; It was much more satisfactory, since all the Issues were so confused, to turn bis affairs over to Cullen, and to await the Inevitable verdict on an impersonal basis. In the meantime, he was deeply touched by Culleu's confidence in b:iu; Cullen and Carol Durant alike had refused to believe be-lieve the obvious truth ; he wondered stolidly what it would have meant to him to have had such a reputation from his youth onward ; the gratification gratifica-tion now would have been superlative provided only that he had been entitled en-titled to his pride. "He's jealous of you," said Angela abruptly. "That's all he's jealous. Simply wild with it. You know that don't you?" Milliard started; "for It wasn't an emboldening beginning. Not the least so; it Implied exactly the sort of rivalry rival-ry which he bad feared, and which he had come to relinquish. "Who is? Oh! Uuf us Waring?" "Terribly jealous. Perfectly crazy with it. That's what all this whole mess Is about." She tossed her head willfully. "I don't care; do you?" The unreserved bluntness of it nearly near-ly took him off his feet; renewing the devastating suspicion that Angela had grown to care too much for hlin too much for her own good. "Why, Angela !" he said lamely. "Of course I do. It hurts me." She hammered a gold-embroidered sofa-cushion with one tiny fist. "Oh, he's jealous of everything and everybody. That doesn't count any more. Only It made me perfectly furious. ... I wanted to scratch him . . . the very Idea of his daring to say anything like that about you ! Even if you do like me a lot!" She sighed heavily. "And yet If you stop to think about it, it was sort of brave, too standing up to all of us when it was three to one, and he was wrong poor dear !" Hilllard looked down at her with deep affection and troubled relief. "As long as I've a defender like you I wouldn't worry," he said, "but I'm afraid it won't be for so very long, Angela, that you'll feel like defending me." "Why not?" she asked. "Just a notion of mine. It strikes p me that you're fonder of Rufus than you let yourself think. And he needs a champion worse than I do; I'm more used to taking care of myself." The corners of her mouth were peculiarly pe-culiarly sensitive. "Such a queer notion !" she said. "Wbere'd you ever get It?" "Oh, It came of its own a cord. "It's been such a funny day," she said, musing. "Ruf.is was funny, and Dad was funny, and pou're so funny, and Carol was funnj this morning, sud I'm funny now, and " "Carol !" he echoed involuntarily. She laughed at him, enjoying his discomfiture dis-comfiture with the sweet insolence of a naughty juvenile; and It was note-Worthy note-Worthy that her arraignment of Waring War-ing stopped short at this point. "I know something about you !" she taunted wickedly. "What do you know, bright child?" Jie demanded, red to the temples. "I know!" Her tone was singing. "So do you! Look at the man blush! TV7iy, you guilty thing! Why, you red geranium !" He sat down beside her, staring at er vivid, flower-like face. "Angela, you little demon, stop laughing at me!" It was fresh incentive; she only bub-tled bub-tled the more. 'I tc!J jca I'd laugh at you some going to be once but ... 1 I like you better than anybody any-body else in the world all but two. . . . I liked to be kissed by people I like . . . and . . . you know it's sort of like sunlight; I need lots of it. Peopla have always fussed over me. . . ." Here she gave a poignant sigh for her lost youth. "Only . . . it's funny, too . . . but one of the two ieople I do like better bet-ter than I do you ... in a different dif-ferent way . . . Is ... Is Rufe Waring. He's jealous as a ... a torn cat . . . but somehow I don't uTind It from him; I always like It. , , , He was so frightfully jealous about you, and I ... I teased him about that. It was just because he I bought you weren't quite good enough for me, I guess. And you've got to give him credit for that, now, haven't you? ... And ... I hope you and Carol 'II be awfully happy together." to-gether." "Dear girl !" said Hilliard gently. "Do you understand?" Her eyes were very pleading, very misty. "Understand? yes. Can I wish you happiness, too?" "Not yet," she said, adorably prim. "He hasn't . . . oh, we both know about it, but he's got to graduate from law school first, and after that . . . maybe I can . . . travel a little." She blushed shamefully. "l'ou needn't grin like a Cheshire cut I guess I'll see Niagara Falls, anyway!" "I wasn't grinning?" he said. "I was smiling at you right out of my heart. . . . But I do wish happiness happi-ness to you always and always. And I'm happier myself than I've been for ages . . . dear . . . ." He stopped, stop-ped, swamped by . the recollection that it was Waring who wns to share in the demonstration of his perfidy. per-fidy. To wish happiness to an executioner exe-cutioner and not be a hypocrite? Incredible In-credible yet true. Hilliard wished him happiness. "What Is it?" she demanded, alert to his altered expression. "Nothing, . . . I'm just sorry I'm not a Mormon !" "You're fibbing ! Still . . ." Hilllard rose hastily. "Wait !" she said. "You can't go until you've told me one more thing . . . you don't honestly think Rufe's underhanded, now, do you?" "No oh, no, Angela. A man can be so upset that he can " "You know we were just shocked and surprised and Dad's awfully quick tempered. And It was so sudden sud-den ! We didn't stop to talk It over, we sailed right into him, and all of us got excited, and then you came in. We didn't know how frightfully jealous jeal-ous Rufe could be he's been bad enough before, but this time was the limit and it's only because he's a boy. It's . . . sort of primeval. You know." "Yes, dear yes !" "And ... he did know us long before he ever knew you. He thought he was protecting us. It was just an obsession " "It's all right quite all - right. Please !" He touched her hair lightly. "I wish I were as sure you'd always defend de-fend me as I am that you'll stijk to him, Angela." "That's twice you've said that . . . and you know what I think! I've told you. And ... are you going off without telling me anything at all?" Her voice betrayed the Irreparable injury in-jury In it. Hilliard moistened his lips. "Angela, dear, next to one other person per-son I love you better than any one else on earth." "That's nice," she said, with a sigh of perfect content. He bent to her, hut she eluded him. "Oh, no!" she gasped In fluttering protest. "Even If you . . . but I've told you about Rufe now you haven't told me about Carol, but it's plain as day it wouldn't be right I" "Angela !" She relented swiftly; his voice was something to rely on. "Well Just my cheek, then. Honestly, Hon-estly, I . . ." "No. dear," said Hilllard. He compelled com-pelled her chin upward, and smiled down into her lovely, startled eyes, and stooped and kissed her forehead . . . then her lips. "That's for good-by," he said, "to the dearest litt'e girl I ever knew. . . . We're both growing up, aren't we?" CHAPTER XIII. In the colorless days thaf followed, Hilliard listlessly set about the ordering order-ing of bis final plans. Fortunately, there were few of them; his mind would never have been equal to intricate intri-cate detail. It was a slight consolation to him to realize that the city bad a habit of judging men by personal rather than by financial standards; for all its pride nnd'wealth, It would censure him more for his wrecked personality than for whatever money losses ' he had caused. He was prepared to endure that censure; and because he understood under-stood the provocation behind It, he was all the more eager to aid In the salvage. Thers would oe more saved "That's for Good-by." the memory of Dicky Morgan rest in peace, and to let the brunt of anger fall on Henry Hilliard, who was a nobody no-body from nowhere, with a lying face, a lying tongue, and no claque to mourn at his exit. But then there was Angela's startling start-ling allegation . . . She had declared that "everybody" In town knew all about Hilliard and Carol. "Everybody" "Every-body" would have a different opinion. He had tried to explain himself to Carol, and he had failed; and in the light of Angela's revelation, it was difficult dif-ficult to decide whether Carol hers-eif, in protesting that she wanted to retain re-tain him as a friend, had meant that and nothing more, or that and a great deal more. But no matter what she had intended to convey, he dared not go to her again, he dared not see her and speak to her, for If he lied to her . . . but he couldn't lie to her now, and every word of truth would prove a boomerang. He was trapped ; and although his heart was breaking for the love be had almost won a second time, he remained steadfast to the ideals he had created. If Carol were to lose him as a suitor, she should never- know that her first and foremost suitor had gone to the devil. He told himself fiercely there was one definite and permanent way out of it. . . . Nobody would then have cause to gossip about Dicky Morgan ; no one after the first natural flood of excitement and denunciation would remember very much about Henry Milliard. It would save such a deal of needless trouble; It would save such a wearisome amount of shame. But against the pitiless background of the war, self-destruction as a means of avoiding personal difficulties, self-caused, self-caused, seemed curiously repellent curiously cheap. No ... It was a part of his own grievance that Carol and the others must grieve, too ; be had a dual responsibility re-sponsibility to society. He had no Sight to leave these matters clouded by any uncertainty of motive. Syracuse had a right to know the facts; and If the facts brought pain to those he loved, why, that was something he should have thought about In June, and not in November. As he clung comfortless to the last slipping hours of the reputation he had so carefully builded, he knew that it wasn't the punishment of the law that be dreaded, it was the ostracism which would accompany it. It wasn't bis own shame which gripped him, it was the consciousness of the shame which would attach to his friends. And so, for a day or two, all his faculties fac-ulties were strung upon the attitude of the public toward him; he was watching frantically for the first signs of adverse demeanor, and bracing himself him-self for the shock which was unavoidably unavoid-ably to come. For secrets will out, and although he had no reason to expect ex-pect Waring to break bis pledge, he knew that when rumor smolders among as many as four people, there comes there always comes a moment mo-ment In which It bursts forth in spontaneous spon-taneous combustion. That Wakes You Up, Doesn't It?" lem and be sank back wearily Carol coming into it again, and irrevocably. "'Almost?'" Its queried mechanically. mechan-ically. She looked at the floor; when she raised her eyes he saw the well remembered re-membered depths In tbem. She was half-child, half-woman and the woman wom-an was speaking with the child's tongue. Her hand covered his; the warm, timid pressure was very assuaging. assuag-ing. "Y'es, 'almost' ... I suppose I can really talk to you, cact IV I al-Vays al-Vays thought I could . . . well, when you first came here I was perfectly per-fectly crazy about you ... I am yet, in a way, only sort of boiled down . . . you know. Not like a sister at all, but . . . not the other sort, either. I thought It was |