Show A ur WAS in arror CHAPTER XI continued 15 she dian didn look lat lak no lady what was coln on no he muttered darkly I 1 baurle rushed back to his r rooms with pounding heart end and on tie the way opened and read at a glance his first note from doris it was wag written in pencil seemingly on a scrap of paper torn from the pod pad he had seen on her desk long island I 1 think an am old house on the sound bound somewhere near sea cliff remember your promise jno NO police that was till all there was to it there was no address no signature no date the writing though hurried was clear beautiful and full ot of character in his rooms he telephoned the garage for his car and read and reread the little note then still holding it in ills hand he thought it over two things were horribly clear shaws plan had matured lie ile had taken doris away and this was the staggering phase of the episode she seemed to have gone willingly at least she had made no protest though a mere word even a look of appeal front from her would have enlisted sams help and no doubt stopped the whole proceeding why she uttered that word the answer to this too seemed fairly clear doris had be come a fatalist she had ceased to hide or fight she was letting things go his way as she had declared she would do down that dark avenue she had called its his wa laurie dared not even glance ills 1119 mind was too busy making its agile twists in and out of the tangle granting then that she had gone doggedly to meet the ultimate issue of the experience whatever that might be she hall had nevertheless appealed to him laurie for help why and why did she know approximately where she was to be taken why wily why why again and again the question had recurred to him and this time it dug itself in despite his love for her ter and he fully realized that this was what it was despite his own experience of the night before he had hardly been able to accept the fact that she was must be jn actual physical danger when now the breath of this realize lion blew over him it checked bis big heartbeats heart beats boats and chilled his very soul in the next instant something in him f alert watchful and suspicious addressed him like an inner voice shaw will threaten this voice said he will fight and he will even chloroform chlor form cut but when it comes to a i showdown to the need of definite final action of any lind kind he simply wont be there lie he Is venomous hed like to bite but he has no fangs and he knows it the vision of shaws face when he had choked him during the alig struggle of last night again recurred to lourie laurie he knew now the meaning of the look in those projecting acting eyes it was fear though lie had carried off the rest of the with entire assurance during that fight the crea ture lure had bad been terror stricken hell have reason for fear the next time I 1 get hold of him laurie reflected grimly but that fear was of i j him not of doris what might not doris be undergoing even now i ile he went to the little safe in the wall of hla his bedroom and took from it all the ready money lie he found there olt oh it if only rodney were at home but mr air bangs had gone out the hall ball man said lie ile also informed mr devon that tits his car was at the door the need of consulting rodney increased in urgency as the difficulties multiplied laurie telephoned to bangs favorite restaurant to ep steins office to hotel at the restaurant he was suavely assured that mr bangs was not in the place at the the voice of an injured office boy informed hlin him that there never nobody there till half past nine oer tile lie hotel wire colorful tones held enough surprise to remind laurie that he could bardl hardly y hope that even budding romance would del drive ve him to the side of the lady so early in the morning lie he hung up tip the receiver with a groan of disgust and busied himself packing a small bag and selecting it a greatcoat for his journey also lie went to a drawer and took out the little pistol lie he hall taken away front from doris in the tragic moment of their first meeting holding it in his hand lie he ed heretofore throughout his short but varied life young devon had depended upon his well trained elsts to protect him from the Nf violence olence of others othera but when those others were the kind who went ent in for chloroform and this time there was dorla doris to think of ile he dropped the revolver into his pocket and shot into the elevator and out on the ground floor with the expedition to which the operator was now becoming accustomed accustom ed ills car was a two seated racer of slender and beautiful lines As he took ills his place at the wheel the machine pulsated like a living thing panting with a passionate desire to be off air lauries La wild young heart felt wabe same longing but its ills year in new york tork had taught him respect for its truffle laws and this was no time to take chances carefully almost sedately he made his way to third avenue then up to the Queen queensboro bridge and across that mighty runway to long island here his stock at patience slender at the best was waa exhausted with a deep breath he be by ELIZABE E LIZA BE 0 by the th conti benm let her ter out to a singing speed of 0 sixty miles an hour A cloud had obscured the sun quite 0 appropriately he subconsciously felt I 1 8 and there were flakes of snow in the air As lie sped through the gray atmosphere t mo sphere the familiar little to towns town he knew seemed to come fo forward forwar to meet him like rapidly projected pl pictures on a screen flushing Bily side e little neck roslyn glen head one by one they floated past 11 ha it made the run of twenty two wo m miles I 1 artl it something un under der thirty minutes to th bhag 9 severe disapproval disappio val of seven several I 1 ll 11 polac polices cd d men who shouted urgent invitation to him to slow down one of thes was so persistent that laurie prepared d to obey but just as tile the heavy hand d of the law was about to fall its representative recognized young devon and waved him on with a forgiving grin this was wag not the first time laurie had burned up that stretch of roadway at the sea fim station he slowed up then on a sudden impulse stopped tits his car at the platform with sharp precision and entered the tiny walting waiting room from the ticket window a pretty girl looked out on him with the expression of sudden interest feminine eyes usually took on oil when this young man was directly in their line of vision with uncovered curly liend head deferentially bent lie addressed id bf d to be tie in V he made the run of twenty two miles mile in something under thirty minutes lier her had she happened to notice a dark limousine go by an hour or so before say around half past eight or nine the girl shook her head she had not come on duty until nine and even if such a car had bad passed she would hardly have observed it owing to the frequency of the phenomenon and her own exacting responsibilities spon ties laurie admitted that these responsibilities ties would claim all the attention of any inland but wis was there any one around who might have seen the car any one say who made a specialty of lounging on the platform and watching the pulsations of the towns life in tills this its throbbing canterl center no the girl explained there were no station loafers around now the summer was the time for them then perhaps she could tell him it if there were any nice old houses for rent near sea cliff nice old houses suy say overlooking the sound and a tittle little out of the town tonn lauries La urles newly acquired will power was proving its strength with every fi antic impulse in him crying for action for knowledge for relief from the intolerable tension he was under he presented to the girl the suave appearance of a youth at peace with hini himself elf and add the hour the abrupt transitions of the he gen tl emans interest seemed to surprise the lady she looked at him with will a suspicion which perished under the expression in his brillian brilliant eyes what he meant laurie soberly explained was the kind of house that might ap heartfelt exclamation of thanksgiving he be turned into this bypath lt it was narrow shallow rutted and apparently little used it might stop glop anywhere it might lead nowhere it wound through a field a meadow it a bit of deep wood through which he h saw the gleam ot of water then quite suddenly it again widened into a real road merging into an avenue of trees tree that led in turn to the entrance of a big dark gray house la in a somber setting of cedars laurie stopped his big car and thoughtfully nodded to himself this was the place ile he felt that he would have recognized it even without that gulding guiding flame of ribbon it was so absolutely sol the kind hind of place shaws melodramatic instincts would lead him to choose there was the look about it that clings to houses long untenanted a look not wholly due to its unkempt grounds and the heavy boards over its windows it had been without life for a long long time but somewhere in it he knew life was stirring now from a side chimney a thin line of smoke curled upward on the second floor shutters newly unbolted creaked ru rui in the J january ry wind and yes there it was 0 outside d of 0 one e of the windows as it if dropped there by n bird hung a vivid bit of ribbon rather precipitately laurie backed ills car to a point where he could turn it and then raced back to tile the main road his primitive impulse had been to drive up lip to the entrance pound the lie door until some one responded spon Pon ded and then fiercely demand the privilege of seeing I 1 miss hidayo but that he be knew would never do lie ile must get rid of the car come back on toot foot get into the house in some manner mander and from that point meet events as they occurred facing this prospect be experienced an incredible combination of emotions relief and panic recklessness and caution fear and elation lie ile had bad found her for the time thile being he frantically assured his trembling inner self she bite was sate safe the rest was up to him and he felt equal to it tie ile was intensely stimulated tor for now at last in his ears roared the rushing tides of life CHAPTER XII the house in the cedars cedar less than halt half a mile back along the main road laurie found a country garage in which he left his car it was in charge of a silent allent but intelligent person a somewhat unkempt and ba haggard gard middle aged man who agreed to keep the machine out of sight to have it really ready tit at any moment of the day or night and to accept a handsome addition to his regular charge in return for tits his discretion ile he was only mildly interested in his new patron tor for he had classified him without effort one of them college boys this young fella was and up to some I 1 lark a rk just what form that lark might take was wa 9 not a problem which stirred henry burkes sluggish imagination less than twenty hours before his seventh had been born and his wife was delicate and milk was seventeen cents a quart and the garage business was not what it had been to the victim of these ob reflections the flit appearance of a handsome youth who dropped five dollar bills around as it if they were seed potatoes was wag in the nature of a miracle and an overwhelming relief ills his mind centered on the five dollar bills and his lively interest in them assured laurie of burkes presence in the garage at any hour when more bills might possibly be dropped while he be was lingeringly lighting a cigarette laurie asked a few questions who owned the big house back there in tile the cedar grove on the blurt bluff overlooking the sound burke know all lie knew and freely told was ans that it had been empty ever since lie himself had bad come to the neighborhood most two years ago laurie strolled troll ed out of the garage with a well ell assumed air of indifference to the perplexities of life but ills his heart was racked by them As he hesitated near the entrance uncertain which way to turn lie he saw that behind the garage there was a tool shed and following the lie side path which led to tills this lie he found in the rear 0 of f the shed a workmans work mans bench evidently little used in these cold january days tacitly it inifred tile the discoverer to solitude holl tude and meditation and laurie gratefully dropped upon it glad of 0 the opportunity to escape burkes eye and uninterruptedly think things out but the path of calm reflection was wag not for him ahn theoretically of course hla his plan would be to wait until night and then sheltered shelter cd by tile the darkness to approach the hie house like a hero of met melodrama and in some way secure ear e trance but even os as this ready made campaign presented itself a dozen objections to it reared up tit in his mind the jerst of course was the delay it was not yet avio in the afternoon and darkness would mould not tall fall until five even unwisely assuming that it would be safe to approach the place as toon soon its is di darkness dark nesi came in three hours all sorts of things I 1 might happen find and the prospect of 0 marking time during that interval while his unbridled imagination r raa away with will him was one laurie boulo not face ito TO vim BB CONTINUED |