OCR Text |
Show have laughed at me. I'll stop raaklng a ninny of myself. She'd never have me." Hoyt ascended the steps and reached the letter box. He strove to lift Its cover. It was in vain. "Locked !" he muttered. "Letter still in? Yes. That's lucky," for, shifting shift-ing the outside plate, he could see a white object beyond. "Well, I've just got to get back that letter! My combination com-bination tool knife it's all right," and he drew the article from his pocket and opened its screwdriver blifde. "There's no other way," decided Hoyt, and he proceeded to unscrew top and bottom fastenings of the letter box. He would have to carry it away with him to break it open, but in his present desperate mood he heeded no destruction. The box rattled as lie stole down the steps. Hoyt uttered a low chuckle ol exultation. Then suddenly two figures fig-ures dashed from the shadows. "He's a daring fellow, coming back a second time," spoke a gruff voice; "but we've got him !" "Here, unhand me!" ordered Hoyt, struggling in the firm grip of two paira of stout hands. "You keep quiet, or I'll give you a stunner !" growled the other of his captors. cap-tors. "Jim, ring the bell and tell Mr. Walters we've found one of the burglars." bur-glars." "Burglar? I'm no burglar!" shouted Hoyt. "What does all this mean?" "What does that mean?" demanded his captor, kicking aside the mail box which Hoyt had dropped. His comrade had rung the bell. In a few niinutes Mr. Walters came to the door, his wife behind him, Eva a shrinking third, all in attire hurriedly douned. "Mr. Walters," the man said, "wre haven't got a clew to the men who broke in here nor the stuff they took, but we just got this fellow on the porch there, stealing your letter box; see!" "Why !" exclaimed Eva, as the porch light was turned on, "it's Mr. Hoyt!" "I declare !" exclaimed the astounded astound-ed Mrs. Walters. Just then Hoyt began to gather his wits, recognizing the two men as village vil-lage officers. There had been a burglary bur-glary earlier in tlie evening, it seemed, and he had come around at a moment when the officers were prowling in the vicinity. "Why, here's a mystery," observed Mr. Walters, picking up the mail box. "I don't understand why Mr. Hoyt should steal' a mail box. Ah, there's a letter in it." "Yes, sir. It's mine. I I left it by mistake, sir. Please restore it to me !" "Left a letter?" echoed pretty Eva, coming forward. "By mistake. It was one I wrote in an ill-advised moment. Regret. Kindly restore it. About the burglars I just kicked some kind of a bundle in among the shrubbery yonder. Maybe the burglar dropped it." "Why, look here!" cried one of the officers, securing the bundle and opening open-ing it. "A fur cape, some jewelry, some silver." "Ob, I'm so glad !" exclaimed Mrs. Walters. "These are the things wo most cared for." "But the letter?" insisted the pertinacious perti-nacious Eva. "I wrote it," admitted Hoyt, with reluctance. re-luctance. "To whom?" challenged persistent Eva. "To you, Miss Walters. Thank you, sir," as Mr. Walters, unlocking the box, extended the letter. "No," demurred Eva', "it's mine. See : 'Miss Eva Walters'." "You'll you'll dislike me if you read It !" groaned Hoyt. "How do you know that, sir?" demanded de-manded Eva. Just then the embarrassed Hoyt ended end-ed the comedy of the night by retiring from the scene. He felt cheap, beaten, ridiculous, but the next day he received re-ceived a dainty note from Eva which read : "Mother wishes you to come to the house so she may thank you for your share in the recovery of her stolen treasures." And when he went, Hoyt received an answer to his letter from the sweet lips of Eva that set his heart beating with delirious joy. I TheTell-Tale I 1 Letter t jj i i 4 GEORGE ELMER COBB 3 1 1 ffTfTTtTtTfTTf;fTT'fS (Copyright, 1916, by W. G. Chapman.) "Tell her right out like a man that you love her, Hoyt." "I can't do It." "Why not?" "She might think me daring. She might laugh at me. I never have a chance to be alone with her. No, I'll write." Dale Bright placed an affectionate hand on the shoulder of his friend, Marvin Hoyt, but smiled quizzically. "Hoyt," he said, "you're a good fellow, fel-low, pure gold all of the time and all the way through. The matter is though that you underestimate yourself. Miss Eva Walters is a most charming young lady, but if she turns you down it will be because she isn't worthy of you, for a more deserving fellow I don't know. Write, if you think best, only get through with this dilly-dallying,' for you're getting sallow and peaked worrying over it." Hoyt was one of those young men having so profound a reverence for womanhood that he shrank at the thought of intruding his views upon the especial one of the sex who had won his heart. He really believed that if his suit was denied he would die j forthwith of heartbreak. His shyness and, as Bright had said, his low valuation valua-tion of his own merits, had kept him in the background with pretty Eva Walters for over a year. Now the indecision was becoming unbearable, and he determined to break the ice in some way. So Hoyt went to his lonely room and wrote the letter that was to solve his fate. He placed it in an envelope, Stole In and Out Among the Shrubbery. sealed it and at dusk started for the home of his beloved. Hoyt entered the front yard, but hesitated. hes-itated. Then he summoned up his courage and advanced up the steps and onto the porch. The front door was open. Looking through the screen he had a view of the dining room. He recoiled as there echoed a burst of rtu'rry laughter, as he noticed three or four girl friends of Eva seated at the evening meal. That was enough for B'lyt. He was loath to face so many. H n nervously drew the letter from his pc.tket. He pulled up the slot cover of the mail box and dropped the mis-si mis-si fe within it. Then he stole down the steps, feeling the coward, but also realizing that a long contemplated deed was over and done wTith. "She'll get it in the morning at the latest," he soliloquized, as he left the place. 'She'll answer tomorrow. My I It's a strain the suspense. Wonder if I've done the right thing?" Hoyt went home. Over and over in his mind ran all the pros and cons of the Incident. He went to bed finally to go over them again with alternate fear, hope, faith, doubt, gloom, brightness. bright-ness. He could not sleep. His worked-up worked-up mind had lost its balance. Now its rational processes weakened. He saw in the writing of the letter an amazing piece of effrontery. He was In a wild perspiration through anxiety. He marveled mar-veled how he had ever had the audacity audac-ity to leave that letter. "I'll get It back. It's the wrong way. I've made a dreadful mistake !" he fumed and fussed, and he got up and dressed himself. The disordered light in which Hoyt now viewed the circumstances made him eagerly anxious to recover the letter. let-ter. He hurried along the silent streets, almost utterly deserted. As he neared a vacant lot next to the home j of Eva he dodged from bush to busli. . As he stole in and out among the j shrubbery on the side lawn of the j house he stumbled over a bundle lying on the ground with a force that sent j it hurtling in among some thick shrubs out of sight. "A bundle of washing." he decided, and paid no more attention to it except ex-cept to recognize that the bundle had something hard wrapped up inside of it. "Clothespins, I suppose," he soliloquized. so-liloquized. "Now for the letter box ; and the letter itself. I shall feel re-' re-' lieved when I get it back in my pos-j pos-j session owe more. Eva would Just |