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Show i .. - V TV- ''''''-'''t i ' . . - -- ' s 'jt Tr? TTA7T5 TTA7 9 77!? ? P lis Mai wia wast e himself 1 By EGBERT AMES BEKIIST Copyright by V,'. G. CHAPMAN j 1 ' . CHAPTER XIV Continued. 13 "Doctor!" eri .! tin- girl. "You've come to loll us he has been I'miii'! 1" "Sony, Sweei lu :' rt not y. I'nt bp has been so. -n. We wont out to City .'ark and " "Wo ir; ood ,ira to nn m'mivl ear."' broke in Mrs. Kirkland. "We thought " Thought ho miht have come Jioinn." ImT husband cnl.lplcti d till' 8l'l-(eUee. 8l'l-(eUee. "You're sure ho hu-m't. my dear?" breathlessly questioned tin1 hiily. "Will home'.'" exclaimed Amy. "Why, I : i 1 . ii :imi I have been right in by Ike telo.li.i:ie ever si;ire Charlie rushed out to go to City Park No. Hi), not upstairs: She's bad; here Come into the library. Yon both look hot. I'll have Tillie bring lemonade." lemon-ade." Amy, who was nearest the parlor, hoard a step behind her and shin -ed over her shoulder. "Oh!" she cried. "Why diil you come down? Coed-cess! Coed-cess! you're pale! that look: You're ill !" "Will!" screamed Ellen. Amy was recoiling, but the other girl advanced low ai d the dazed young man in the doorway, her arms Tmploringly outstretched. out-stretched. "Dearest! forgive me .lease, please forgive me ! I was cruel, but I did not realize Forgive me and give me your ring again, dearest!" "My Ood !" groaned the young man. lie put his hand to his head. "Is it aU coming back again? That hallucination hallucina-tion upstairs now this!" "His his voice too!" gasped Amy. "It is because he is is insane?" "Nonsense!" boomed Dr. Kirkland. "He looks rational only dazed. He has shaved." "Ah! that Is it!" agreed Mrs. Kirkland. Kirk-land. "That accounts for" "That and the terrible strain of the . . , -i e ltl,,.j mgnt ami uns ciKinge ul ui-h." which he managed to get hold of," con- -firmed her husband. "My dear boy, why do you look at us that way? Have no fear. I admit my mistake. You need not return to the sanitarium. Had I knowu how it would affect you " The young man's face relaxed a line. "Not return, doctor? You really think It unnecessary?" "Quite! quite! Never fear. You shall stay quietly at home, if I have to mortgage my house to secure your bail." "My bail?" ejaculated the young man. "Surely the bank has not charged rue wiili " "Have you forgotten that already?" pitifully broke In Eilen. "Dearest, can it be you have forgotten me too?" "Forget you. darling?" he protested "Never !" Shaking off his enervating daze, be sprang to her with ardent eagerness and caught her to him in an Impassioned embrace. "Ellen ! darling Ellen!" he cried. "To have you again after all those months! You are no hallucination you are real! I feel your arms about my neck ; your heart beats against mine!" "Will. Will : my Will !" she ecstatically ecstatical-ly babbled. "You. yourself yourself! your-self! You've came back to me. your own real self!" "To be sure to be sure," affirmed her father. "This complete change of expression, manner, intonation absolute ab-solute nroof of full restoration to bis true personality." "O-o-o-oh ! Is that it?" sighed Amy but she continued to gaze at her restored re-stored brother with brows peaked and a troubled look in her brown eyes. She burst into tears and ran to fling herself on the shoulder generously gener-ously left free for her by Ellen. He met her with an affectionate kiss. "There! This is better. Isn't it?' he asked, squeezing her with the arm that was not about Ellen and patting her vigorously on the back. "Y-yes." she penitently agreed. "Of course you and Elli n I'd never "nave believed I could be such a s-self-ls!i pig I'll.' I'-ll.' laughed at the absurdity of the confession. "What? You fanny little lit-tle Toodlums. Who was so anxious last year for me to be the lucky man?" lie kissed the blushing forehead of his blissfully happy fiancee. "I don't care." Amy sought to defend de-fend herself. "You've been jealous of Charlie. You know you have." He frowned. "You've nut encouraged that fellow? I warned him " "Don't worry." she interrupted. "Ellen "El-len has settled him." "Eilen?" he queried. "My dear boy!" interposed Mrs. Kirkland. "You are still leaving us out." "Never!" he gaily rejoined. "It's only that I've already got my arms full. If I bad a third arm and an extra hand to grip Doctor's!" He beamed hack at them; but suddenly iturncd to cast an inquiring look :around him. and demand: "Hut jwturo's Monisey';" "Why, you're still muddled," romark-r-d Amy. "Don't you remember?" His face twitched with npprcheti-'Bion. npprcheti-'Bion. "Kemember what? They refused re-fused to give me any letters! I've (not beard a word all these fearful months! What Is It? Has Momsey "No, no, dearest," Ellen reassured him. "She is all right." "Then why isn't she h'ere?" "Hut she has not yet returned from the Springs," replied Mrs. Kirkland. "She is down at the Springs?" "Don't you reni"mlior ':'' "My dear." said the physician, "you and the girls forget that he knows nothing of what h is happened to his other personality, nothing whatever." "Other personality?" sharply queried quer-ied tite young until. "What do you mean. I lector '.'" "Keep calm, my hoy. It is a- not unusual occurrence nothing to worry about a condition easily curable with proper treatment. You may find it difficult to believe, but ever since we met you at the station " "Met me? I didn't see you. I " "In your other personality." explained explain-ed the physician. "And took you home to dine with us." added his wife. "You didn't remember even me." reproached re-proached Ellen. "Nor inc. when doctor brought you home." chimed in Amy. He stared at Doctor Kirkland in consternation. "Heavens! You all talk as if Delusions! more , delusions, de-lusions, when I was so sure!" "Now. now. my boy ; there is nothing noth-ing serious about yvmr condition," replied re-plied the physician. "It is only that " "More delusions!" muttered the fr'-j'-'iteneil young man. "It's all a (iaze a dream ever since I gave that attendant the slip . . . caboose, sleeper, daycoach a blurred jumble. Yet it seem? yes. I did take the Tark Hill car. Then the park; then hut that's all dark nothing till I was lying ly-ing there in the old brick-yard pit. the blood trickling down my face, but my head clear " "Oh ! you fell ! you hurt yotir head !" cried Ellen. "Let us see! Papa, look at it !" "But it s nothing, nothing at an. darling," replied her lover. "Or rather, rath-er, it's everything the luckiest bump i mm "Quick! Is It Hallucinr.tion? Tell Me." that ever happened. I don't know, but it must have jarred loose something in my brain. Ever since I came to. my head has been as clear as crystal. The very tirst moment I recognized the pit as the place in which " "l'.ump ! vIimi'I; !" boomed Doctor Kirkland. "Proves my diagnosis: functional func-tional h'-ion, or possibly a blood clot physical shock My hoy. you're ail right now nothing to fear. Ail that is past your amnesia, dissociation, this secondary personality that nas caused you to fail to recognize us1 all these days." "Hut I have not failed to recognize you. I knew yen all at once." "Why, Will," replied Amy. "Don't von really remember? You've been with us ever since two evenings before last." At the statement his face became vivid with renewed alarm and consternation, con-sternation, lie thrust the girl from him. to grope desperately inside his. waistcoat. The others stared apprehensively appre-hensively nt these signs of frenzy. From his bosom he jerked out a large bulging earth-stained envelope and waved it frantically at Doctor Kirk-laud. Kirk-laud. T.ook! look!" be panted. "Quick! Is it hallucination? Tell me!" The physician seized and ripped open the envelope. "Hey? what?" he exclaimed "Honda. . . . The bonds!" "A-a-h ! Then they are real . . . real as you. darling Ellen!" The girl met the eager lip? that beut down to her upturned face. "Yes, yes, dearest," she whispered. "Now you're your real self all is real!" The physician's lips were moving in rapid count of the bonds. His voice became audible: " seven, eight, nine, t(.n ten ! . . . everyone for ten thousand" Ills voice boomed Joyously: Joy-ously: "One hundred thousand! All there! the full amount! not one lost!" "Thank Heaven!" cried the young man. "That saves me ! . . . All those mouths, those dreary awful mouths worry, worry, wnrry ; groping, grop-ing, trying to remember. Yet it was there, tiie memory, down under. I knew it was there. It was that which compelled me to keep trying to escape from them rime after time. And win n at hist I did. it led me in that half-bli'id iltize all the way home it led me to the pit." "The pit?" questioned Mrs. Kiik-land. Kiik-land. "In the abandoned brickyard beyond City Par'.;. . . . The moment 1 came to, and looked arm. ml. I recognized rec-ognized tite place. 1 went straight ro the hole where I had hidden the bonds." "You hid them out there?" exclaimed exclaim-ed Ellen. "Yes. All Hashed back into my mind all about that day when Hor.uu brought me down from Pueblo the fear that drove me half ins-aue when lie flippantly suggested that we might get away with the bonds by smashing and setting tire to the car and pretending pre-tending the bonds were burned up in the wreck." "He did that? Charlie did that?" cried Amy. "Hut he is a detective!" "Yes, I found that out afterwards, Toodlums. I suppose he was trying to test my integrity. I can't believe worse of him. Hut I was then in a bad way, and w hat he suggested completely com-pletely unbalanced me. I was certain he meant to steal the bonds from me. I must have been half insane. To save them from him, I rented a safe deposit box and pretended to him that I had put them in it; but instead I want out past City Park and wandered about until I found the hiding place in the clay pit." "So that was it," remarket. Amy. He did not reply. He was engrossed in gazing into Ellen's tender gray eyes. The fond parents beamed upon the blissful couple. Amy sighed and stole out of the room, unheeded by the others. Ellen snuggled closer to her lover. "You fell into the pit," she recalled the mishap. "Your poor dear head !" "Only a little cut," he reassured her. "I wiped the blood off my face, and hurried home with the bonds to see Monisey and Amy before rushing down to the hank. I did not wish to see you until I could tell you I had restored the bonds. There was no one in the front of the house; so I went direct to the bathroom. I washed my head and started in to my room Who is the man visiting here?" "Visiting here?" repeated Mrs. Kirkland. Kirk-land. "What made you think that? There has been no man staying here except yourself, Will." 1 "No one!" he cried. "You say no one? Then I'm not cured! it was an hallucination !" "Here. here, keep quiet ! This w on't do," ordered Doctor Kirkland. "What was? it? Explain." The young man sought to repress his shuddering. "I when I when I opened open-ed the passage door there was a a something across at the mirror It-it" It-it" "Pooh!" ridiculed the physician. "Your own reflection." "Then why why was it's back to me?" "It's back?" quavered Ellen. "Oh. Will !" "Pooh! pooh! Nothing to it. my boy." insisted the physician. "Merely a freak of vis-inn. Think no more about it. Amy What! Where is Amy?'' 'Indeed, where ?" murmured Mrs. Kirkland. gazing about the room. "She has gone out. . . . Perhaps she has gone to call Tillie. Would it, not be well to telephone the good news that Will is safe home?" "Yes. yes, to be sure police, l ank, sanitarium all!" shouted her husband, hus-band, and he rushed out to the telephone. tele-phone. "They'll come here, dearest." whispered whis-pered Ellen. "You .-hall not leave me!" "How could L?" be rapturously re-plhil. Mrs. Kirkland sank into a chair to dab her tearful eyes and smile upon the lovers. CHAPTER XV. The Man Himself. Pensive and depressed. Amy went out through the side door and around into her garden. lie had not looked nt her all his loving glances had been for Ellen. So lost was she in the despondency of her mood that she failed to heed the hurried footsteps in the path behind be-hind her until they were very close. Vexed at the intrusion, she started to move forward across a small opening. From behind her came a low, vibrant call : "Amy !" She stopped, trembling. It was his voice yet so different. That deep, ardent ar-dent note! his voice as he had spoken spo-ken to her in the night. P.ewlhiered, quivering with mingled Joy and fear, she timidly looked about. He stood before her transfigured, no longer pule ntid haggard, hut as he had been until there in the library erect, ruddy-cheeked, ruddy-cheeked, and in his eyes that look 1 Swiftly the girl's expression cluuigei from bewilderment to perplexity, from i perplexity to hysterical alarm and an- . ger. ! "You! What what do you mean?" : she screamed. ! Hefore he could realize what she was about she had darted at him and plucked frantically at his mustache. ".love!" lie ejaculated, and he clapped his hand to his lip. "till! oh! oh!" she panted, shrinking away from him. her dilating t'ves fixed in a horrified stare upon the few stiff hairs in her clutched lingers. "It's real! Oh:". "My word! I should say it is!" he mumbled, pressing hard on his lip. . "Hut but how then oh. dear! oh dear ! Take me in to doctor ! I must he crazy! You had it; then you didn't have it : now you do have it!" "Have it?" "Your mus mustache 1 I thought you had shaved. It was gone I'm sure it was gone yet now '." "Gone! When?" "In there in the library not five minutes ago! Oh. dear! I must be raving crazy! It wasn't there then you've grown it again in five minutes min-utes '" He stared at her wildly, infected with the terror in her look and voice. Insane insane! That face in the mirror! mir-ror! She, too. had seen it! They glared at one another, overcome over-come with dread and horror. "I say," remarked a voice behind him. lie wheeled about and found himself him-self looking into the muzzle of an automatic au-tomatic pistol in the band of Bemrn. "Caught you nap.:;:.?, eh?" jeered the detective. "I learned that Kirkland Kirk-land was tracing in this direction. I did not rush up to the front door. Quietly slipped in from the rear, y'know; and here we are. Quite clever, I call it. No wonder you look flabbergasted." In a flash Amv flung herself between the two.' "Don't you shoot him I Don't you dare !" she cried. I Hastily he lowered the pistol and sought to explain: "I had no intention, none whatever only in self-defense. Can't you understand? If he is violent vio-lent attempts to resist But if you persuade him to submit I am sorry to have to use .handcuffs." "Handcuffs? Oh, shame! shame on you ! pretending to be his friend all this time! Shame on you!" Bemm bit his lip. - His bright, shallow shal-low eyes deepened and darkened with profound emotion. Hut he stood firm. "I made no pretense," he rejoined. "I offered to prove myself his frieud. I stood ready to save him, even at the cost of my professional honor." "Your professional honor !" she reproached. re-proached. "He is your brother. I thought you would understand. I am willing to give a great deal to clear him, if you will er accept my " ' "But if I cannot?" "Then I shall do my duty. Do you take me for a fool, to connive at the escape of an embezzler, unless you are considerate enough to " "Oh, you won't you can't ! Surely you'll not be so mean!" "I can send him to the penitentiary. What's more, 1 will, unless " "No-n-no: do not!" cried the agonized ago-nized girl. "Hot him go. please let him go! I will do what what Vou wisli !" "You will? You will marry me?" he demanded, and he stepped forward in eager elation. She shrank back with her hands over her averted face. The prisoner slipped a protective arm about her shoulders and quietly remarked to Heinni: "Hotter step aside if you are nervous. You might accidentally discharge dis-charge your pistol. There are people coming along the path behind you." Suspicious of a ruse. Henim edged around to the side of the opening and glanced swiftly over his shoulder. A few feet away two hats were visible over the shrubs, moving down the twisting path. "Here they are. Hurry up." boomed the voice of Doctor Kirkland. (TO UK CONTINUE!).) Kinds of Stage Humor. The French, who have an armory of critical terms both more exact and more abundant than ours, distinguish between three different kinds of stage humor, Brainier Matthews writes In Muusey's. There is, tirst of all. the mere witticism, the sentence laughable laugha-ble in itself, the so-called "epigram:" and this th.-y term the "mot de'esprlt." Second, there is the phrase which derives de-rives its comic effect not from itse'f. but from Its utterance at a given moment mo-ment in I lie movement of the story; and this they term the "mot d'esprit." situation." Thirdly, there Is the word or sentence whereby a character expresses ex-presses himself unexpectedly and characteristically, unconsciously turn Ing the flashlight on the unexplored re ,.,,sses of bis own soul ; and they arc wont to call this the "mot de curno tore." |