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Show I The Man Who Wasn't Himself I I By ROBERT AMES BENNET 5 Copyright by W. G. CHAPMAN f 1 Q "I DON'T BELIEVE IT." S7NOPSIS. AUphtlriff from a train at .Denver a well-dressed travel trav-el t;r is familiarly accosted by a man about his trtvn ae. The traveler trav-eler i (mores the advance. A few minutes later he is greeted as "WiH" by an elderly lady and gentleman, gen-tleman, who stop their auto to speak. lie imagines it a case of mistaken identity and announces himself hp "Richard Clinton," on his way to the coast. The couple yppe.ir greatly surprised, and learning learn-ing he if to he in town until mid-niKht. mid-niKht. the iady, introducing herself us Mrs. Kirkland, and her husband as Doctor Kirkland. invites him to dinner, explaining" the action by his truly remarkable resemblance to a friend of theirs. He accepts. At the Kirkland home he meets a young lady who greets, him as her fiance. Sue is Ellen Kirkland, and plainly is greatly hurt by his assertion asser-tion that he is Richard Clinton. At dinner Clinton learns that his host is a medical specialist and that he is believed to be Will Lowrie. a younp man who had been suffering- from a nervous breakdown and had gune east for medical treatment. treat-ment. Lowrie had had in his possession pos-session bonds of the value of 5100.-i)00. 5100.-i)00. belong! ns; to the bank where he was employed, which have disappeared dis-appeared and of which he has no recollection. With Doctor Kirkland Clinton goes to the Lowrie home, the doctor being satisfied that Amy Iwrie. Will's sister, will convince Clinton he is really Lowrie, suffering suffer-ing from loss of memory. Amy declares de-clares at once he is her brother, and insists on treating him as such, to his great embarrassment. Doctor Doc-tor Kirkland sends a telegram to he sanitarium where Lowrie is undergoing un-dergoing treatment. Ellen and Amy try in vain to convince Clinton he is Will Lowrie. They manage, however, how-ever, to prevent his going. Bemm, a suitor of Amy and an agent of the hank, moves in the matter of the missing bonds. The sanitarium telegram proves nothing. c Q CHAPTER VII. Continued. "Karl! It's not possible you can mean ?"' "I do not say. as yet. It may be due to subconscious impulse his opposition opposi-tion to Charlie before he went East." "But this is frightful !" "I give it as a possibility." said the physician. "Stop and consider, my dear. Suppose him what he believes himself to he a stranger to us all." "I cannot !" "You must. As a double personality, lie is in effect a stranger. To avert this possibility of a disaster, he must be led to choose Ellen." , "Ah !" "You -see now that it is a matter of preater urgency than we thought; not merely a question of trying to recall " "Yes. yes! Amy is fond of Charlie. If we can get her out of the way for a while Sit still until I let you know." Rising leisurely. Mrs. Kirkland went into the library. Bemm was taking in the winning trick of a game. She smiled and shook her finger at him. "How have you done it? You've won every time, in spite of Amy. It's wonderful won-derful luck." "All due to my partner," replied Bemm. "She is the best of luck." Amy jumped up to curtsey. "Really, my dear. I did not come in to But if you wish a change," murmured mur-mured Mrs. Kirkland, and she took the girl's place at the card table. She met Bemm's attempt at a cordial smile with a look of playful severity. "No, you shall have no more chances to defeat poor Will and Ellen." "Er to be sure, if Doctor Kirkland wishes. to play" said Bemin, and he rose with alacrity. Doctor Kirkland stopped in the doorway door-way and stood waiting. His wife had gathered up the cards and was quietly .shuffling them. Amy. who had drawn aside closely followed by Bemm, looked at Clinton and Ellen with a sudden change from merriment to grave delight. de-light. Bemm caught the opportunity of her softened mood. "Theie's a full moon," he challenged. "Dare you to go out Id the garden !" "You think I'm afraid or the glamor?" gla-mor?" she whispered. "I'll show you." Clinton settled back in his chair and took up the cards dealt him by Mrs. Kirkland. Doctor Kirkland had taken Bemm's place. Soon all four players were intent on the game. Clinton gave closer attention to the cards ami played better than when pitod against Bemm. Evident as it was to her as well as. to her parents that he still regarded her as a comparative stranger, Ellen was blissfully happy. Every time Clinton looked at her she blushed and smiled ontraneingly. Under his gaze, her eyes, melting with tenderness, veiled themselves behind their long lashes, but at no time seemed able to turn nwny from him more than a moment. mo-ment. Though usually a better player than her mother, she was so overcome with ecstasy that she chose her cards at random. Ah lH)CTor Kirkland announced the ncore, Clinton suddenly tore his gaze away from Ellen, and rose from the table, his face for the second time Hushed arid consclence-sl ricken. "J'ardon me, I it Is nut right!" he cxrhilmid. "I must g' " "Away?" cried Ellen. "Nil. only " Ue pointful upwards, and hurried out into the hall, to rush upstairs. Instead of Intruding upon old Til-lie's Til-lie's domain, Amy and Bemm had gone out through the porte-cochere. The grape thatched pergola was ghostly dark. Amy darted ahead and out Into the moonlit garden. "I say," remarked Bemm when he overtook her, "what made you run away from me?" "Run away?" she replied. "Is that the thanks I get for leading you out of the darkness?" "I might have been lost." "Poor Chawles! But just so you did not lose your head I" "It is on. fast and level. The proof of it Is that I have lost something else to you !" "How bright the moon shines!" she bantered. "Miss Amy," he besought, "you know that for months there has been something I've wanted to tell you." "Oh, look; there's a star up there," she teased. "Look at me, and I'll see the brightest bright-est of nil the stars !" he declared. "How poetical ! YVe shall now hear Mr. Chawles Bemm declaim his so-lovely so-lovely ode to the silly night." "Why do you keep ragging me?" he complained. "You know I'm in earnest; earn-est; that I" "Really? really and truly?" "Don't!" he burst out passionately. "Can't you see? If I were only flirting flirt-ing you'd not have such an advantage. But when for almost two years You know I love you ! Y'ou know that you're the only one !" Again he sought to clasp her hand. Again she eluded him. But her look had sobered. She no longer regarded him with a teasing glance and bantering banter-ing smile. "I am sorry, Charlie," she said. "I did not believe you could be so serious." seri-ous." "Not serious?" he rejoined. "Just because I like to enjoy things as you do !" "But I am only a girl. It's different when a man " "Is there any one else?" he interrupted. inter-rupted. "No," she candidly answered. "There is no young man I like better than you except, of course, Will." He smiled with renewed hope. "Only your brother? Then I, of all the fellows fel-lows who Amy, you do love me! You must love me !" "Dou't be silly, just because I said I liked you."- 'Tf you like me you'll soon learn to love me." "I'm sure I don't know." "You'll try. Promise me you'll try." She looked at him, her eyebrows peaked with doubt. "I'm so sorry, Charlie." she replied. "Really I don't know what to say. Since Will came home I've I've felt rather differently." different-ly." Bemm frowned and rejoined in an almost blustering tone: "Then he has been knocking me !" It was the girl's (urn to flush. "Mr. Bemm, you forget yourself. Y'ou are speaking of my brother." "Y'ou are mistaken. It's he that forgets for-gets himself. He forgets " "Need you remind me? It's it's bad "nough without your reminding me! Be so kind as to stand aside. I am going in." "Not until I have told you how he forgets his best interests." "I asked you to stand aside." "Oh, certainly; by all means," said Bemm, and he sprang out of the way. His tone and manner caused Amy to pause. She looked at him, between anger and uncertainty. "There's something some-thing you're hinting at something about Will," she accused. Her upturned face was white and troubled. He stared at her doubtfully. "I'm not so sure," he hesitated. "It's a big risk for me to say anything about It now. If It were not for you " "Never mind me!" "Then he can go hang, for all I care." "What do you mean?" ' He struck a match, lighted a cigarette, ciga-rette, puffed at it nervously and flung it down. "If you want to know I'm risking everything by telling you. but here goes! This afternoon, I that is, I happened to hear that a key was found in Will's clothes a safe deposit key. The right box was located in the vaults of the of one of the safe deposit de-posit companies." "O-o-oli !" the girl sighed rapturously. rapturous-ly. "They've found the lost bonds!" "I said they found the box It was empty." "Kinpfy !" she gasped. "Yes Now do you see?" "Y'ou say empty? Y'et how why should he " "He has forty thousand dollars on deposit in a Chicago bank." "If cannot be !" - "It's true. 1 have it from a friend who telegraphed on nnd learned the facts." "Doctor Kirkland?" "Not he. Some one else one who may make trouble for Will. Unfortunately Unfor-tunately there can be no question as to the facts. The bonds are gone, and there Is that forty thousand on deposit under this assumed name." "Assumed ! You kuow It's because of the change in him the dissociation ! You kuow what a state he was In even before he went away forgetting everything!" every-thing!" "lie may have difficulty in proving that, even with the help of Doctor Kirkland. if it all comes out." "How do you mean? 'If it all comes out.' " Bemm moved closer to the quivering girl and lowered his voice: "It all depends on me, Amy. I can keep quiet about facts that would offset Doctor KIrkland's testimony. Without those facts. Will need only return the bonds, or the money he obtained from their disposal. The doctor will make affidavit affi-davit to the bank that he took them while Irresponsible; and the matter will he hushed up without any publicity." pub-licity." "You you can do that, Charlie?" "I will if" "Oh, you dear boy 1" she cried, impulsively im-pulsively clasping his hand. "Amy! You'll take me!" he exulted. ex-ulted. She thrust herself free from the arm that he was slipping about her. "Don't !" she exclaimed. "It looks too much as if as If you fished to make a bargain." "Bargain?" he muttered. "Wishing me to to let you kiss me because you are going to help Will." "Why not?" he asked. "If I agree to help him I nm the only one who can." She looked at him, pale but clear-eyed clear-eyed and very calm, and replied deliberately: delib-erately: "I do not believe it." "What?" he queried, completely taken aback. "I do not believe it," she repeated. Before he could recover his aplomb she had walked past him. She disappeared disap-peared into the back porch without looking about. CHAPTER VIII. A Hairbreadth Escape. Soon after Clinton's flight Doctor' Kirkland had been summoned to the sanitarium. When Amy came in by way of the dining room Ellen was "He Has Forty Thousand Dollars on Deposit." pensively watching her mother play solitaire. She looked up and. mistaking mistak-ing the cause of the color in Amy's cheeks, asked delightedly: "Oh, what is it. dear. Has Charlie ?" "The silly! lie made me dreadfully cross!" petulantly replied Amy. She glanced into the parlor, and her vexation vexa-tion suddenly gave place to alarm. "Where is Will? Surely you've not let him go off?" "No, no, my dear, not even with the doctor," reassured Mrs. Kirkland. "He has gone up to his room." A few moments later Clinton, brooding heavily over his pipe, heard i a tap at his door. He frowned. The tap became a rap. Ho called in a brusque tone: "Well, what is It?" "Me!" came back a soft whisper. "Miss Lowrie you?" be replied. "What do you want?" "Let me in." He glano.r! In consternation at bis stockinged feet nnd bare arms. "I I must beg you to excuse me." he stammered. "You see, I'm not that Is, I'm about to retire." "No. no. no!" the whisper shrilled In protest. "I musr have a talk wilb you ! If you don't let mo in I shall scream !' "Not that, not that." be called back. "Wait a moment. I'll be out at once." He dived into the closet to seize the lounging robe, which he slipped on as he hurried to the door. He slid back the bolt. Instantly the door was thrust in against him. Amy popped through tile opening. She closed the door and spoke to him in a tone as matter of fact as it was iifi'ectionnto : "The Idea of making such n fuss about letting me In. Now we'll sit down and have a good old-time talk while I do my hair." He stared at her, speechless. She had on a kimono of soft pink silk embroidered em-broidered with gold flowers. In one hand she held a silver-backed hairbrush. hair-brush. "Where are your manners?" she reproved, re-proved, and site went to set two chairs before the full-length mirror on the wall opposite the bathroom passage. "Come. I don't want to have to shout to you over there. Sit down and behave." be-have." He started to obey, and blushed as his stockinged feet appeared from under un-der the edge of his robe. But she had perched on one of the chairs and was studying herself in the mirror. He seated himself in the chair close beside her. She handed him the hairbrush hair-brush and put up both hands to her head. The loose sleeves of her kimono kimo-no slipped down, baring her dimpled white arms. He stared, fascinated, at them nnd at her shapely fingers, which were nimbly drawing the pins from her hair. Soon the thick coils began to sag. She shook her head. All the glossy brown locks came tumbling down about her slender shoulders. She turned sideways, with her back to him, and, clasping the hairpins in her lap. sat waiting. He gazed in wondering won-dering admiration at the wealth of rippling rip-pling hair and the shapely little head from which i.t flowed down. "Why don't you begin?" she impatiently impa-tiently demanded. "You'll never finish fin-ish unless you start." "Start ?" "Brushing, stupid !" "You do you mean you wish me to to brush your hair?" "Oh, no; I'm merely sitting here for you to look at," she bantered. "Don't be a goose." She caught the brush from him and made half a dozen vigorous strokes, each time running her free hand under the brown maze. He took the brush from her backward-stretched hand, and asked in a deep low tone: "Am I to hold it that way with my hand?' "How else can you do it right?" she replied. He cautiously took a full stroke from her forehead back across her dainty head and down the rippling mass of hair. His smile was now that of a man completely lost in blissful intoxication. in-toxication. "That's better," she said ; "only still harder. Don't he afraid. I'm not a paper doll There, that's the way. Now I can settle down and talk. First of all, I'm going to tell you the bad news and get through with it." "Y'es?" he asked, inhaling the delicious deli-cious fragrance of her hair. "You're not listening, and it's very Important. It has made me dreadfully cross at Charlie." He stiffened at the name, instantly attentive. "That fellow? What about him? Has he ?" "Y'es. But that's not the trouble, the bank has been making a fuss. It can wait. The horrid thing is that about those bonds you lost. They claim that you have a lot of money in a Chicago hank." "Yes. What of it?" "That proves what 1 told Charlie. Of course you don't realize you can't realize." "Realize what?" he asked, pausing in the midst of a long brush stroke. "Why, about the bonds." "You mean the bonds lost by your brother?" "Charlie knows some one who has found out all about them. It must have been n detective. He found the key of the safe deposit vault in your pocket " "In my pocket?" "Charlie said the man said the key was found in your pocket, nnd Oh, I forgot. He said it was all secret yet But of course you're my brother, and you ought to know, nnd you won't tell will you?" "Why should I? Please go on. I fail to understand about the key. But bow about it? If it was n detective that found the key, he must have discovered dis-covered where it belonged and found the missing bonds." "The mark on your arm below be-low the elbow." 1 mi' lr. eiJA llM KLi.l |