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Show JL TsV J. Adventure ll . i Be, By George Agnew Chamberlain : KOmance 1 ili .1 .. nut tn tititl rrif niiinit H.lti. i. SBK. i "MY! WHAT A BUMP!" "You generous, careless, adorable little fool!" he growled. growl-ed. "Why you're the most desirable de-sirable and precious bundle of lovable charm that robber man ever trembled to hold in sacrilegious sacri-legious arms I" She stared at him amazed. "Why don't you kiss the way you talk?" she demanded Another delightful itory by George- Agnew Chamberlain. He'i the man who wrote "White Man." What more can anyona ay? It's romance, comedy and adrenture with jutt enough real heart throb thrown In to make the right combination. O O PART I. . 1 Moral Emblems. IMenso don't skip this dcscripi Itobert Hervey Itnodolph si straight up and down, broad of shoulder shoul-der and narrow of hip, sandy-haired, blue-eyed, noso slightly up-ended nnd wearing a saddlo of faint freckles, clean shaven, well groomed, very correctly cor-rectly dressed, nnd twenty-six years old. Let It be added that his eyes were placed Just far enough apart to stamp him forever honest; he bad an open and most prepossessing countenance. coun-tenance. At the moment of the start of this rapid yarn, he was standing In the Van Tclllers' library, looking down in pained and flushed surprise at Miss Madge Van T., who was sitting In a huge leathern chair half facing tho firo Ih tho open grate, ono leg very much under her, the other waving a satln-and-sllk combination of foot and ankle In distracting accompaniment to her disturbing speech. "Ilobby," said Miss Van T., "you are darned good-looking; you're strong, straight, and a gentleman; there arc times when you are wholly adorable, but, nevertheless, I'm not going to the show with you tonight, or to tho opera tomorrow, or anywhere any more. There, there, dear boy; you don't havo to say anything. You have one of those faces that is absolutely beyond the aid of a vocal organ. It says everything that Is In your heart of gold before your brain has time to tinkle a bell." "Look here. Madce." said the ta!ncd Mr. Randolph: "are you making fun of my faco or of my brain or of bothr "My dear," said Miss Van T. quite gravely, "I'm not making fun of you In any way whatsoever. I'm merely telling tell-ing you how lovable you are, so that you will understand how serious it Is when I say that Pve decided not to love you any more." "B-but how can you help It?" stammered stam-mered Mr. Randolph, his tongue for once saying the samo thing as his face at the samo time. Miss Van T.'s breast fluttered as though rising ngalnst Its mistress to the defense of this disingenuous young man, and sho was obliged to swerve her eyes from his and draw a long breath beforo she answered. "I can, because I will," she said, her face palfng. "Oh, Bobby, can't you wake up? Look round you and come to enrthl You are bom nnd bred on Mnnhattnu, yet you've never seen New York." "I guess you're right." said Bobby thnnplitfitllv "T.tAlf tin. nr.i. ... should I try to see Now York, and why should we be talking ash-cans when I've got you to look at In ono of the most bewitching nnd abbreviated bits of dress goods that ever revealed a completely adorablo person? Tell me that." "Well,"sald Madge, her face hard-enlng, hard-enlng, "I will. It's a long story, not In words but In generations. Tho Van Tclllers havo lived In Kast Ninth street since tho year ono of tho Island That Is. thoy used to live hero; now they hardly exist. They are merely an assorted lot of nnlmntcd corpses that crawl out of their tomb periodically to tako n strange air, lennlng on n rotten stave called the 'Old Order.' LlRten to this, Bobby: Tho new New York Is a fever, and I've caught It. I want a ralny-dny enr, a calllng-cnr, and a touring car; I want dresses that will stab with envy the heart of every woman that looks at them ; I want my Jewels to run to size and quality, nnd I wnnt a yacht Just for tho papers -o talk about, because I bate to ride in tho smelly things." Bobby's oyci. had grown rounder and wider as the list progressed. "Do you thlntr vnn mnl.l '-, ,.. , j,ou coum gct a, on a hundred thousand a year?" ho asked very softly. "I don't know," she said slowly, rve been going into the subject rather thoroughly, and a hundred.thou-Hand hundred.thou-Hand would be running it on n pretty close margin. By (he way, Just what Is your nllowanco under that crazv will?" ' crazy Ten thousand." said Bobby. "Well," said Miss Van T.. "there you trei Just enough to keep you com- fortnbly In debt, nnd you want to marry me on It I It wouldn't bo quite so out ot the question if you knew you were gong to havo it torcver, but you don't. It may bo cut off" "Any day," said Bobby promptly. "It Isn't likely, after all theso years, but It may." "Well, there you are I" Miss Van T. repeated herself. "I'm not altogether a pig, Bobby. Ten thousand with you thrown In Is enough to make any woman think three times, but the truth Is. you lmvo been killed by too little and too much kindness. If you hnd never gone on as super for a disappearing dis-appearing heiress, you might have amounted to something by now. Instead In-stead of making you, that money has burled you." "You don't know me altogether. Madge," said Bobby. ."Do you think I've never thought things out? -When I need to make monoy, I'll do It. Tho great thing nowadays, it seems to me. is not to hnve too much." "Not to have too much!" exclaimed Miss Van T., n puzzled frown on her forehead. "Bobby, do you know that vou've said something orlglnnl? No; I Won't put it quite us strong as that, but I will say that you'vo given birth to an exotic idea. "But It doesn't alter things as far as I am concerned," she cqntinucd, almost al-most without a pause. "In fact, It only simplifies matters. You've signed the warrant. I want loads of money; you're afraid of having too much. So we'd better turn our backs on each other and march." Mr. Randolph looked nt her through narrowed eyes. "I suppose," he said, "you have picked out tho man with a hundred thousand a year?" "Not Anally," said Miss Von T., "though they are not so scarco In this hurly-burly world as your question implies. im-plies. After all, It isn't tho cash I'm keen on, but what It will bring. If necessary, I'll earn my own living." "Earn your own living 1" exclaimed Mr. Randolph. "Will you pleaso tell me how you could cam anything?" "Well." said Miss Van T "I've hod a couple of offers without even ask- "It Would Take Me Years to Learn to Kiss You Again." Ing. When I tried to Jow Simon Simon down on this very frock on tho grounds that I was hard up, he said, in the nicest way, that he would take me on at sixty a week any day during the next five yenre." "And the other?" asked Mr. Randolph. Ran-dolph. "The other," said Miss Van T., dropping drop-ping her eyes, "was Beadier Tremont. Ho wasn't quite so nice, but ho offered more. He Bald ho was looking for a private secretary, who could name her own price." ' "During tho next five years at your own price," repeated Bobby, his mind dazed but nevertheless going straight to tho kernel of each proposition. "Mndge, do you know what you're saying? Do you know tho horrible things you Infer?" Sho moved one hand Impatiently. "Bobby," she said, "don't get thw atrlcal. I tell you New York is a fove I've caught It, nnd I'm not a bit sorry-. The choice between being a Van Tei-ller Tei-ller corpse and a fnstlsh woman n easy. The semi-declassees of New York, If they ploy for high enough stakes, lmvo a worl.d of their own that Is worth moving In. Money Is merely an adjunct to It-nothing but tho bridge ncrose which clever men come to show themselves off at their un-trammelert un-trammelert best." "Madge,- sold Bobby, at once fright-ened fright-ened nnd earnest, "you only half know what you're talking abouL There Is such a world as you speak of-fs tho w. Lm '"8aUnbly """-enr women. Its brilliant and fascinating for a whllo, but It breathes a poisoned ulr. nnd all its roads lead down. Every woman that goes Into It with her eyes open has an Idcn that, with her beauty unci her brains, she can buck tho tiger and get nwuy with It. Sh0 Wl, ' over her shoulder and rend the izjH l of nn endless losing run on UieSB0' Miss Vnn T. smiled. u'ew.'BV "I'm already beginning 0n mt J Br', ward," she said. "You've never 1 mo well beforo In your life," BXr "It's nioro 'than talk," sald &.' flushing ungrlly. "And the wITM. nccessthat you have imagined" Me continued. "You read happy ,JIBH to tho public taste of Iuldlntltc,lW,' room girls, and drcss-modelK.sndtoW' haps you think they mirror the kM( Why, Madge, the taunts that tJflk girls fling Indifferently nt virtue uS' at vlccuro so vile that they coiimBT be repeated even among halMecJBL men. And the other way, the prlnjBt door for tho prlvato secretary, n. J a road of burned bridges, tteSi man, decent or Indecent, feels i qiZBt) sinking of the heart when he hetrtB a woman taking It." He looked tiles' shrewdly. "And yet you may d?B ho Raid, half to himself. "If y0j ! one of tho hungry women, GodlitkB you, for they all walk bllndfoldeiB "They don't walk," said MtleB flushing, and her eyes Kleitnjfl strangely. "Thnt's Just the points tfl rush, whirl, and" B "And crash," finished Bobby. Bh "That's tho very word," sold MidpB "If you'll only keep on tho way yotvB started, I'd love to talk to yon night." B "No chance of that," said BotbjB straight-lipped. "I'm through, and fB going." He turned toward the !h B "Not without kissing mo rooJtjB Bobby I" cried Madge. B He looked over his Rhoulder w1tlB pollto but Impersonal smile. B "I'm not. much on kissing strsiaB women." ho said lightly. "It vodifl take mo years to learn to fctu jnfl again." B He left the room nnd the house. B With his top-hat pushed backoelsfl head, the ends of his muffler IfrB loose, his overcont half uobuttoMiH ho swung up the deserted InH reaches of tlio Avenue, punctastBj his thoughts with the solid rap tflBj stick on the pavement. It talfUHBJ supposed that he was thinking ufl mourning over tho sudden demise B the Miss Van Tel Her he hud thouglfl ho had known for many years, he such was not the case. Mr. Randolph wns not "ouUt o mourning lines ; at tho moment tmJ review, he was thinking about hlmsei and the strange fate that had nil him n foster-child of fortune. He pi cecded to look back ten years. lost decade ago ho had had his onenx Ing with tho young lady whoso diaj penrance had brought him an uasuiH affluence. It had taken place oo U very avenua and less than forty (leu blocks away, no had reason tan member tho encounter, for It brought Into sudden conjunction i lovely Persian cat, a lovely wlre-ailn terrier, a lovely chllo- a,.d blots' The cat had dashed from a pM front door to cross Forty-some) street under the nose of a taxW tho dog had flown In yapping ptw and, In tho act, yanked his young d tress off her pins, ne, Mr. RandokJ had seized one of her flying f hauled her and the terrier back i safety, nnd no sooner placed her right and spioothed down her nbsuril short skirts than he, she, and esped ly It, the dog, became tho center id circumference or an animated ( wheel. Her unshaken determination to h to the leash, whatever happen brought disaster. The sold l wound thre times round her nH and those of Mr. Randolph, brlnf them both down kerplunk and ftdw each othor. "My, what a bumpl" thf had cried, In stnrtled tones, and tl thrown bnck hct curly head ea laughed. It wns so that he remembered btr a child of ten or eleven summers no winters, merry as a sunny W dark-haired, dark-eyed, pink-cheek" pnmpered but unspoiled. She risen and taken his hand, 'fB her name, thnnked him, ordered ' flurried nurso to thnnk him, fM her finger nt tho terrier, and ' "Good-by" nnd "Come on, Majglf. " while ho wns all" rubbing thesw'H his first long trousers. B HI "Do 70U would you truit o'" IB TO DHJ CONTINUED.) . No Return on Investment M "Gentlemen," said the "SBj nan't -If -Mil .vlttlflllf RAVlllg " .SB |