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Show t . f TYTYTTYYVTYT YYYYTYYYYY" t What the c - E Gray House : t Hid I - " Tc? Mystery of llaunlcd Mansion t fyYTyinLh.im M.irtyn -J V. N. V. Service Copyright by Wyiulhum Martyn E ' ll THE STORY Hilton Itanby. prosperous New York nurvh;ini. haa purchuseil a country phue the Gray house, near Pine I'lains. Miss SoUmius, a former tenant of the t-Jrftv hojse., oulls Ht his cilice and warns him that the house ts under un-der a curse, further alarmms details are Impressed upon Adolf mucker, llanby's secretary, by a man who claims to have been c h an ff e u r for Sir Stanford S e y -ni o nr. former occupant of the place, . CHAPTER I Continued "Julius Caesar was a sum 1 1 man." .. . - he said suddenly, much to bis host's v uma.-.ement. "So was Napoleon. So Is . Lloyd lleorge." lie bout over the table, as if imparling a profound secret. se-cret. "So was the master of them all my Idol, I.etiiu." Mr. Smucker touched his receding forehead with a dramatic gesture. "Dou't think, because be-cause you are twice as big, that you can outmatch rue here!" Again he smote his brow. "That's all right." said the other pacifically. "Kenny Leonard ain't a bis man, and 1 guess he's pretty pood. So was the baby that steered Black Sind and won one thousand Iron men for daddy. You wouldn't bi where you are today If you hadn't V got the gray matter. Say, do yon believe be-lieve Ln haunted housesi" "1 don't believe In haunted houses," Smucker asserted, "nor tu the Immortality Im-mortality of the soul. I'm away beyond be-yond that religious bunk!" "1 didn't believe In haunted houses when 1 first went up there with Mr. Seymour. I was like you conceited bone-headed. I thought 1 knew It all and then some." The stranger had a cold and compelling eye. lie looked at Mr. Smucker in a way that dispelled dis-pelled many of the secretary's theories. the-ories. He leaned over the table. "'It's ne and dandy to hold thera beliefs wheD you ain't beeD put to the test I" "I don't get you," said Mr. Smucker Smuck-er Irritably. "You will," said the other simply "1 used to be chauffeur for Mr. Sey-mour Sey-mour up at the Gray house. Uis two kids died np there. There's a curse on thtt place. The man that had It before lost his wife. Nothing the matter with her until she went up to Dutchess county. Ko, there's tome-thing tome-thing In the lake there that calls people peo-ple to it. The man who had It after Seymour and me was warned. Seymour Sey-mour said he went there on bis own responsibility. I'll say Seymour was square about warning him. Well, sir. that man wa3 found drowned In that d d lake. The doctors couldn t find i a thing the matter, except he was ' v " drowned. It's a bad place to live In. I know I i was there for two years " The stranger's voice sank to a whisper. whis-per. "You feel like people are watching you all the time," he went on. "When you wake up, you think there's people peo-ple at the foot of your bed, and when you switch on the light It seems like you catch thera going away out of the tail of your eye. The help won't stay there. They know ! Mr. Seymour he's a lord or something now brought out an old cook from England. Eng-land. She went bughouse from what ' she saw." "Do you expect me to believe that?" Smucker said. "No," said the other. "Yon ain't got the education to understand. Mr llanby may. All 1 ask you to do. if you want to keep your Job, Is to try and prevent him from taking his fam iiy up there to live." Smucker bitterly resented the strictures on his education. He thought of many cutting things to say. but words did not come easily. His brain seethed with brilliant stillborn still-born speeches. After a time he gathered gath-ered his wits together. "It amounts to this," he said. "You want me to warj Uanby before It's too late." "1 don't give a d n whether you do - k or not." returned the stranger. "I've got It off my conscience. Lf yon want them to go to their death. It's up to you. Any mar taking his family there Is killing 'em. Just as much as lf he fed em strychnine in their soup. What do I get for thisj Not a d D thing! I'm out a dinner. "That," said Srrnicker quickly, "Is your own financial liability." "I'm no piker," said the other. "Uey, Pat, bring a couple of them cigars that Morgan 6mokes, and some black coffee. My friend here has an Important date." CHAPTER II At nine o'clock Mr. Smucker stood outside the Gothic entrance of the i 1 1 11 l 1 nt; whom IIIKoii llanhy main tallied it duplex apartment. Mr Sniuckcr was In an unusual frame of in 1 ) it . Whereas hi viewpoint was ofleu confusiM, Hint IiIh rebellion a silent one, he now saw things with a ilioadlul clarity. Ilo was vocal. Ilo told the subway guard thai ere long I hose who cheerfully wore the livery of oppressing capitalists would be oiTered Hie opportunely to revolt. If I tu y refused, they would loll In deep mines, ul.Ject serfs of tin emancipated proletariat. When the liveried elevator starter at I lit lliinliy apart incut house In toroepUHl Mr. Smucker and desired to know his business, the WeehaivUen philosopher saw ln this precaution only another Instance of the tyranny or the rich; and when, after some delay, he was shown Into his em ployor's rooms, ho was overripe for speech. The girl who o'iied the door looked at hi in coldly us she do-luamled do-luamled his name. "Tell llanby, Smucker Is here I" he said loudly. "A. Smucker I" "1 asked your name, not what you were." she retorted. "My name Is Smucker Adolf Smucker and -llanby has to see uie at once !" Ilo was shown Into n small room which led, as Investigation proved, to n gallery running along one side of the apartment. ISelow him was a "What Do I Get for Thi? Not a D d Thlnjjl I'm Out a Dinner." spacious drawing-room. Through an arched opening Smucker could see a party of diners. lining, and It was past nine o'clock I This. then, was what a duplex apartment meant. The Smuckers had never been quite sure. They were certain only that It was a symptom of the criminal extravagance of the untaxed un-taxed rich, won at the cost of the workers. "Old Smucker here?" Hanby exclaimed. ex-claimed. "Are you sure?" He turned to his wife. "Dina, do you hear that? Sirucker from the office Is here" 'That odious little manl Well, he won't mind waiting until we have finished. You'd belter send hlra a cocktail or something. You can't leave us. Just as you are going to spring this great surprise." Dina Hanby turned to one of the servants "Mary, ask Mr. Smucker to be kind enough to wait, and ask If he'd like a cocktail. See If he will leave a message." Mr. Smucker looked at the cocktail greedily. Some day pretty girls like this one In neat black and white should bring him cocktails when he thirsted; hut they should not sneer at him. If they sneered, they should be lashed. "Mr. Hanby asks yon to wait," snld Mary Sloan, not softening the blow "He's busy. They're In the middle of dinner." "At half past nine?" "That's what I said. Mr. Mucker." "Smucker, Smucker!" "As he won't be through yet awhile, Mr. Smuckersmucker, do you want to send -a message?" "No!" the man roared. "1 won't 1 Absolutely 1 will not I Tell him and his wife I come on a matter of life and death. Tell him to leave his boon companions for a moment, and he will go back to them a saddened man!" With the possible exception ot Adolph Smucker. llanby had not an enemy in "-e world. His children adored him, and his help remained until removed by marriage or death. Mary hurried back. She was Interested Inter-ested in the announcement her employer em-ployer was about to make. He was i.n his feet when Mho reached the dining room. "I' limliy nail friends I" he began. "Host of families, host of friends I I stand before you tonight at the ripe ago of four and forty. I have not only H ii announcement to make I havo also a confession. 1 have con coaled my luii.ie from even my who. You hao hitherto known me as plain Hilton llanby." "Not exactly plain," his wife luughoil. "I could never have married mar-ried a plain uian " "Host of wives 1" he murmured. "1 have deceived you. Almost half a century ui'o my mother was drown lug In one of our plct uresipio rivers. A handsome stranger sprung In 'ind rescued her. Later they were married, mar-ried, mid her first son she called by the name of that superb stream. M.V (rue name Is llousaloiile Hilton Hail by. At school I was known as Tonic. At college they culled me Tony. When 1 married I dropped the name he-cause he-cause my wife was from Cleveland, and would not havo understood. Tonight To-night 1 resume It publicly. There are reasons. I am now lord of the manor. I have territorial obligations Hoys and girls. I have 1ocn a hard worker, and I have prosporod. fifteen fif-teen years ago, when 1 was young In the woolen business, I took. In payment of a bad debt, sixty acres of land near Los Angeles." "And you've struck oil there?" asked Colin, his eldest daughter. "No this Is n true story. I have subdivided what was formerly a rockv. goat-Infested hill. It Is now Wvldwood, famous as the queen of hillside residential parks." "Preain on!" said Junior, llanby' son. who was a Yale sophomore, and therefore given to doubting the en thuslasms of his elders. "No dream, my worthless lad. but a fact I I have the money. Half of It 1 have spent this afternoon. Know, beloved otu-s. that I have realized the ambitions of a lifetime. About a hundred miles away, near the peaceful peace-ful village of pine Plains, llousaloiile llousa-loiile . llanby owns a lordly estate. In this historic home, this feudal fastness, he will dispense hospltiillty of the sort his position entails. (In his private golf course his friends will pry gobs of turf fiom their beds as they now do weekly at Wykagyl and Garden City. On his tennis courts, grass and concrete, his children chil-dren will play under his able tutelage, tute-lage, until they go In triumph to forest for-est Hills. There Sir Housatonic has a lake, wherein bass and trout await the anglers' fly. There his children will find a swimming pool not yet built, however which will make the best that I'asadena and Hollywood have to offer look like frog ponds." "Oh, dad!" CM In cried. "Is this real, or do we wake up now?" In answer he passed photographs around. The Gray house was a fact, not a mere hope. "Wonderful 1" said Mrs. Clshop. one of Ulna's close friends. "I'.ut the help problem In a thirty-room house Is appalling. You won't get any one to stay." "Mary I" Hanby called ouL The girl was arranging glasses In the anteroom. "You heard what I've been saying?" Mary flushed a little. "I couldn't help It, sir," she apologized. apolo-gized. "Go and' ask the others II they'll come to the Gray house." "They'll come," said Mary eagerly. "Ask them," Mrs. Illshop commanded. com-manded. "New York help simply hates the country. We tried It out, and we know." Mary came back. "They're crazy to go, sir." "I don't know how you do It," said Mrs. Illshop. "It's easy," said Uanby. "We treat em as If they were human. Uanby started as a strange but somehow familiar voice broke In. "They gave a feast the night before be-fore Waterloo!" shouted the voice, from the distant balcony. "It's that Mucker," Mary said. The ideal" "Smucker," Uanby corrected. "1 had forgotten all about him. Tell him I'll be there In a uiomeuL" "lie's got his nerve!" said Junior. "Presides, the people who gave the feast before Waterloo won the battle. bat-tle. Dad, 1 hate that maul I wish you'd fire him. Whenever I go to the oflice, he tries to head me off from seeing you." "He wishes to save me money," said Uanby, rising. Mary descended wrathfully on Smucker. He was conscious that his intellectual superiority was lost on her. in the slangy, expressive phruse of her class, she gave Smucker hei opinion of him. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |
