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Show I THE RETURN of I 1 ANTHONY TRENT j j By WYNDHAM MARTYN STORY FROM THE START Anthony Trent returns to New York after nearly four years' absence. ab-sence. Once known as the master mas-ter criminal, Trent Is going straight. The purser accuse Trent of Jumping overboard from the Poitlanla at Liverpool, but Is disappointed when Trent shows no surprise. He learns Us friend, Capt. Frank Sutton, is In Sing Sing. At New Tork Trent ' is startled to find somebody occupying oc-cupying his house. The stranger Is Sutton Campbell, the brother of his best friend, who is serving ten years in prison. Trent is asked by Campbell Sutton to force Payson Grant to a written confession, having crookedly obtained ob-tained all of Captain Sutton's possessions and later married his wife. Trent, after long hesitation, hesita-tion, consents. Trent starts on a campaign to accomplish the downfall of Payson Grant. He learns from an old friend, Clarke, that Captain Sutton has escaped from Sing Sing, and also learns that Captain Sutton . has no brother. Coming home one evening eve-ning threatening to expose Campbell Sutton, Trent finds, to his great surprise, that Campbell Is the escaped Captain Sutton. CHAPTER IV Continued Neither of them knew that Sutton's lare mining interests in South America Amer-ica were la a parlous state from the beginning of the World war in 1014. Sulton curried his burdens alone. And when he knew he was to go overseas and had those premonitions of death which are as often wrong as right, he made over nearly all of his fortune to his wife. And to Payson Grant he gave larger control of the office. There was nn old and trusted bookkeeper book-keeper who was left to watch. This aged and deserving keeper of accounts ac-counts was dismissed by Payson Grant while Sutton was still on the troop ship, eastward bound. His protests pro-tests were ineffectual. The old watchdogs watch-dogs who had the traditions of an honorable firm In their blood followed the head bookkeeper. It was fortunate for Grant that a loaded revolver was found in Sutton's pocket when he was dragged from belaboring be-laboring the man who had wronged him. It was, to hegin with, an Infraction In-fraction of the Sullivan act and as such punishable with seven years' imprisonment as a maximum. And every minute of the trial swelled Grunt's ultimate triumph. It had been easy lo ouy false testimony from a former maid as to cruelty. And Sutton Sut-ton insulted Hie judge and turned the jurors against him. It seemed that fare, nfier smiling on Sutton's career and bringing him fortune and honor, was now bent on his utter destruction. Considering Sutton's long absence abroad, and the martyred years his wife hurt spent, the divorce and marriage mar-riage lo Payson Grant seemed to the sympathetic world neither hurried nor unjustified. And. since Payson Grant had plenty of mouey to Indulge his tastes, and had not yet met a woman he liked more than Natica, happiness seemed in a fair way to be a settled state. Then Frank Suttrn escaped from Sing Sing and, notwithstanding the precautions Grant had surrounded himself with, he was uneasy. "Nat," he said, coming tip to the room where she was breakfasting in he. "Frank has got oul of Sing Ring I" Her alarm was not so noticeable as his. "They always capture them," she observed. That he was troubled did not escape her. She knew he was physically afraid of her ex-husband"! I'ul I lie modern society woman Is not to he won by the hard-hitting male as are the women of other spheres. She thought fighting was a stupid, archaic ar-chaic practice and counseled Pavson to get a permit to carry a revolver. "You think he'll come here?" she demanded. A vulgar brawl which might he seized upon by the Saffron Press distressed her Immeasurably. Why couldn't Frank stay In prison, she wondered He hud been tried and convicted. She felt she would always detest her former husband for the notoriety no-toriety he had brought her. It was quite easy for her to forget that she was the cause. All emotions of a vlo lent nature were wrinkle-producing, she believed. "lie's after me," Payson said gloomily gloom-ily "And he may get me." "Not If you're careful." she said "Frank was always a most obvious person without subtleties or nuances of nny kind The sort of man who remains a grownup hoy Is fatiguing. He is lust ns Itkelv to ring the front door hell and ask vou to step Into the hall and he killed." Paysou Grunt frowned. This was callousness he did not suspect. "O n It, Nat," he expostulated, "you might be serious. I tell you Frank Is n whole lot deeper than yon ver suspected." "1'ear ',oy." Natka pleaded, "yon 8re trilling with my digestion. I've b must Important luncheon party and 1 want to feel at my best. Don't worry ub,,ut It. I'm not." "You taUe It altogether too lightly," he :ii! frownlns. lie started as he hen.-, ,i knock on the door.' J - - V wo y i y ij "It's probably Mademoiselle Dupin," Natica told him. "I tnke an hour's conversational French now." A quietly dressed woman entered. He hardly glanced at her. It was .the lady of distinguished French family who was to enable his wife to converse con-verse in polite and Idiomatic French. She had set her mind on a chateau near Paris next year and the capture of the old noblesse. Although Nutica Grant allowed her husband to think she was not concerned con-cerned about Sutton's escape, It, In truth, bothered her more than she admitted. ad-mitted. When be had been sentenced, and public Interest had centered upon other matters of the moment, she sup posed the scandal would soon be forgotten. for-gotten. And now there was to be more of It. It might conceivably Injure In-jure her in her campaign against the noblesse who were destined to be her neighbors. Mademoiselle Dupin was coaching her In the foibles of the people she desired to conquer. Since two weeks had gone by without with-out the apprehension of Frank Sutton and the police confessed themselves without clews of value, Mrs. Grant hoped he had escaped. He had spent some of his early years In South America at his father's mining property, prop-erty, and knew a little Spanish. Frank was one of those strong men who could readily do laboring work. Pay-son Pay-son was different ; she could not Imagine Imag-ine her present husband in overalls. Payson, for all his air of carelessness careless-ness about the result, was in secret eaten by dire fears. He added two alredales of blood to his establishment. establish-ment. He bought them because they were one-man dogs, he had heard, and turned them loose at night In the grounds. He was their first victim. The fact that he had paid for them was, perhaps, not sufficiently Impressed Im-pressed on the canine Intelligence, for they treed him as be crossed from the house to the garage to tell Regan, his head chauffeur, that a police officer offi-cer had warned him of a pilfering tramp In the neighborhood. Natica was shown this new and nervous mood when he threatened to assault a small, defenseless man who had called to Inquire If the new porch was satisfactory. "You are drinking too many cocktails cock-tails between meals." she said. "It may be am," he returned, "1 feel shot to hits, and that's a fact, Nat. H 1 '." he exploded, speaking truth for the moment, "Frank got a rotten deal all round, and some one's got to suffer." "A judge sentenced him. I didn't," she said coldly. She had convinced herself that Sutton merited punishment, punish-ment, and Payson's imputation seemed both annoying and false. Grant had not been so anxious to leave his own country for the untried delights of the French chateau as Natica. But he found a new pleasure In the Idea now. He could be more Inviolate in the Chateau St. Remy-les-Chevreuse than In Deal Beach. It had its consolations, being only an hour's motor trip from Paris. Fie told his wife he was ready to go whenever she pleased. "We shall stop here for the sum mer," she said. "We've Invited too many people to run away like that. Also, I've sworn my accent shall be perfect before I gd." Never during the long hours in which Frank Sutton spoke of the wrongs he had endured at the hands of Payson Grant did he use the threats which Campbell Sutton had swung over the head of Anthony Trent like a club. In one mood of despondency he advised Trent to give up an Idea born of hate that the atmosphere at-mosphere of prison nurtures. But he had reckoned without his friend's loyalty. The spectacle of Frank Sutton brought to the dust, his name dishonored, dishon-ored, the woman he loved married to the man who had doubly betrayed him, was not of a nature to lessen Trent's determination to Inflict pun Ishment. And it was not to be an act solely of vengeance. He resolved t' vindicate Sutton's name He was not sure how this would affect the convict's status legally; but there would be money enough to retain the best of counsel, and in the end no doubt a pardon could be won. "I shall seek quarters In a more fashionable locality," he told Sutton. "While 1 want nothing better than this, It Is not from Central Park, West, that those who storm society proceed." At a house agent's whose clientele was a distinguished one Trent learned of several furnished apartments for subtenancy along the Avenue. Be was looking at one In the rear of the house in the Fifties. "I'd like one facing the Avenue," he remarked. "Is the one in front occupied?" "That belongs to young Stratford Van Boden," the agent said. "I let It to him, but he's abroad now." Trent knew a good bit about this youngest disappointment of one of America's most celebrated families. He bad likeable qualities, but little moral stamina. And of course his enormous fortune had attracted to him the least worthy If most fascinating of the demi-monde. "Would he sublet?" The house agent was doubtful. He considered it unlikely because the monetary need did not exist. "lie Is always hard up," Trent remarked. re-marked. "I'll send a cable." It was a costly cable and the answer an-swer prepaid. Stratford remembered Anthony Trent well and was pinched for ready money. The terms were generous ones and acceptable. Within a week of meeting Frank Sutton, Trent was established In the most luxurious apartments he had ever seen ; the home of one whose place In society was unquestioned. It was Trent's Erst step. He had paid attention to his base as military tactics had Instilled In him the advisability ad-visability of doing. The advance was his next problem. He found In Van Boden's rooms the members' listc of all the exclusive clubs a Van Boden need belong to. They were clubs to which Trent could not hope to enter other than as a guest. He was not deceived as tc this. He glanced down the columns with interest. Presently be found the name he was searching for. It was .in the most exclusive young man's club New York possesses. Anthony Trent remembered very well his first meeting with Swithin Weld. He had gone into the super-smart super-smart Bachelors' club In Hamilton place. Park lane, with his friend, Arthur Ar-thur Grenvil. At dinner he was among a group of men of rank and fashion. And, since so many foreigners imagine all Americans of a type fit to be guests at such a club as the Bachelors' must be glad to meet one another, Swithin Weld was introduced to his fellow countryman by a marquis who thought they would fail into one another's arms. Swithin Weld had never heard of Trent, and said so. He remarked it in a tone that was not conciliatory. He thought he knew every eligible American. Those he did not know were not eligible socially. Weld supposed sup-posed that this Anthony Trent was one ot Lhose Americans, to be met with all over Europe, who have a genius gen-ius for understanding alien people, are welcome visitors In great houses, and visit their own country but rarely. One night, after a successful day at Sundown, Weld had gone to one of the most notorious supper clubs In London. There he had taken too much champagne for one of his temperate tem-perate habits, and had been inveigled into a secluded cardroom where three experts had taken what he had won at the races, and left him heavily in debt. It was while the winners were waiting for the check which he hesitated hesi-tated to draw because he had not sufficient suf-ficient balance at the bank to mee. It, that Trent came along. Trent knew the men with whom Weld was pla ii.g to be notoriously crooked. Apparently the gamblers would not accept I. O. U.'s. To obtain a check drawn wheo funds were not In the bank to meet it was a serious offense in London, I and would enable them to make the I Weld family pay through the nose for its return. The sum was two thousand pounds. Trent strolled over and spoke amicably ami-cably to his fellow countryman, ignoring ignor-ing the sharpers entirely. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |