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Show SKelferiivd ifPM Be A Now Romattco oPtho Storm Cotwtrn I two men stood waiting, until suddenly beyond them to the south a curly head came above the water's edge. Then they leapt to the shore and raced toward to-ward the place sho must land. To the panting girl it was a race for life. Suddenly, like a flashing glimpse from Heaven, the words, "Stand Still and See the Salvation of the Lord," floated before her eyes like a flame of gold. Philip MacCauley's deep voice seemed to speak them in her ringing ears immediately after. "Goddy," she groaned, "Salvation of the Lord, oh, darlin' Salvation." Just then her feet touched the pebbles peb-bles on the bottom of the lake.' With one wild leap she was on the shore and up the bank, Uriah screaming at her to stop. She heard the two men crashing after her. That her short, swift leaps could outdistance them for long if she tried for the boulevard, she had no hope. But all about ner were giant friends with outstretched arms, offering offer-ing her shelter. For one Instant she paused, then sprang Wo the air, caught the lower branch of a great pine tree and like a squirrel scurried up it. Almost at the top, spanned over by the blue sky, she crawled out to the end of a big limb and clung to it. Beneath her the wen paused and shouted curses up at her. Tonnibel cared nothing for curses. She'd heard them all her life, used them, too, when she felt like it. Suddenly there came to her cars the lapping of a paddle in the lake. She flung up her head, peeped out and saw a canoe taking Its leisurely way toward to-ward Ithaca. She bent over and looked down. "Duddy," she cried, "there's some one rowin' on the lake. I'm goin' to holier like h 1. And when he comes, I'll tell 'im how you banged Ede, and If she's croaked you'll both get jailed. . '. . Here's where I holler!" She sent out a quick birdlike trill, and the man in, the canoe held his pnddle suspended In the air as he studied the forest .' This didn't interest inter-est Tonnibel as much as did the fact f 1 "MY BABY, CAROLINE." Synopsis. Lonely and almost friendless, Tonnibel Devon, living on a canal boat with a brutal father fa-ther and a worn-out, discouraged mother, wanders Into a Salvation armyhall at Ithaca, N. Y. There she meets a young Salvation army captain, Philip MacCauley. Uriah Devon, Tony's father, returns to the boat from a protracted spree and announces he has arranged for Tony to marry a worthless companion com-panion of his, Reginald Brown. Mrs. Devon objects, and Uriah beats her. - She Intimates there Is ' a secret connected with Tonnibel. CHAPTER III. The Picture of a Baby. Tonnlbel'8 heart jumped almost Into J, her throat, then seemed to cease beat ing. There stood her father growling, enraged and drunk, and as if she were dead and no longer able to help her child, her mother lay almost within touching distance. If Uriah carried out his plans, then the horrid fellow N there would soon claim her as hia woman. That thought frightened her so that she stepped back as the new-coiner new-coiner came upon the deck. "What's the matter, Ry?" he asked quite casually. "lie's killed mummy," burst forth the girl. "And if both you fellers don't want to get pinched, you'd better scoot offen this boat." Uriah laughed, and Reggie's high-pitched high-pitched cackle followed. "Been giving your woman a little discipline, eh, pal?" he demanded, turning on Devon. "Well, they all need It now and then. But she's the liveliest breathing corpse I ever saw. Did you hit 'er, Dev?" ; " "Yep," growled the other man, "and I'm goln' to beat Tony, too. The Impudent Im-pudent brat says she wouldn't ' marry "you if you was the Inst man llvin'. . j( You watch the brat there, Rege, while I duck Ede in the cabin." Tonnibel, wide-eyed and suffering, saw her father lift her mother up In dlehaven, Pendlehaven Place, Ithaca, N. Y." Money was what . Edle needed. Money, food and a doctor. If she could find this Paul Pendlehaven, perhaps per-haps iu exchange for the picture he would give her a bottle of medicine for her mother. Hastily changing her wet clothes, she slipped the baby's pictured face Into her blouse; turned down the lamp and crept from the canal boat and with Gussie In her arms was soon lost In the forest. CHAPTER IV. The Pendlehavens. ' In all of Tompkins county no family hod more prestige than Pendlehavens'. John and Paul Pendlehaven had chosen medicine and surgery as their vocation when they were In college. John was a bachelor, and Paul a widower. wid-ower. At the time this story opens the latter was an invalid, his Infirmity brought about by the death of his young wife, who had died at the birth of their daughter, and the disappearance disappear-ance of the little girl when she was but a year old. Pendlehaven place comprised a whole city block, on which stood a house, almost a mansion. In the family were John, Paul, and Mrs. Curtis and her two children,. Katherine and Reginald. Mrs. Curtis was a sec-, ond cousjn to the Pendlehaven brothers broth-ers and had made ner home with them since her children Jjad been left fatherless. father-less. Mrs. Curtis had buried two husbands, hus-bands, Silas Curtis, the father of Katherine, and Edmund Brown, the father of Reginald. For over a year now Paul Pendlehaven Pendle-haven had not left his apartments in the southern wing of the house. Many times he had told his brother, John, that he only waited with what patience pa-tience he could for the call to go away, to follow after his girl-wife, and perhaps, well, perhnps his child might now be with her mother. On the day that Uriah Devon returned re-turned from his week's bout, Doctor Pendlehaven was seated opposite his cousin, Mrs. Curtis,, at dinner. "Sarah," he began gravely, "I wish you'd consent to fmy taking Reginald in hand for a time. He will be absolutely abso-lutely ruined if something isn't done with Mm." . - The coquettish smile which Mrs. Curtis afcvays used In the presence of the eminent doctor left her face, and her lips drew down at the corners. "What's he done now?" she cried.' "He Isn't going to college at all," said the doctor. "He v.-on't pass any of his examinations If he doesn't go to class and get his hours in. , . He paused a moment and then went on, "Another thing I dislike to Speak J of, but I must. Reginald has no Idea of mine and thine. I'm very much afraid he takes what doesn't belong to him." , . Mrs. Curtis uttered a squeal. "Goodness gracious, you accuse him of stealing," she screamed. "I'm afraid he does, Sarah" he answered an-swered gently. "Constantly I'm missing miss-ing money and things. It will hurt you to know that some one almost stripped my wardrobe of clothes, and now I find there 'isn't much left for poor Paul. Paul Is very much distressed! dis-tressed! I suppose if Reginald did take them, he thought they were of no value!" "Were they?" queried Mrs. Curtis, leaning over the table, still very angry. "Whether they were or not, Sarah," replied Doctor Pendlehaven, ignoring his young cousin's appeal, "they didn't belong to him. And they were valuable val-uable to Paul In that they held something some-thing he prized highly. It hasn't been my habit to interfere between you and your children, Sarah, but I do wish you'd ask the boy if he did take Paul's clothes. If he's sold them, I'll pay whatever the amount is." "How perfectly disgusting," snapped Mrs. Curtis. "If the child did sell them, thinking they were no good, you'd certainly not want them back from a second-hand shop." Doctor Pendlehaven rose from the table. "Ask him about the suits, Sarah," he said, walking toward the door. "Perhaps if you tell him Paul will give hira a hundred dollars for them and the contents of their pockets, he'll look them up." Mrs. Curtis rose with dignity, her damp handkerchief clenched in her hand. "I'll not Insult my only son,", she snld distinctly. With a gesture- of despair, Doctor Pendlehaven went out of the room. For a moment after he'd gone, and the. sound of his footsteps had been lost in the corridor, the mother stared at her daughter. "The fact Is," she burst out, "it's as his brawny arms and carry her down stairs, none too gently. When he had disappeared, a throat sound made her swing her eyes to the other man. He was contemplating her with a smile, an evil smile, such as she hated In men. His white teeth seemed like many gleaming knives, sharp, strong and overhanging, his red lips spreading spread-ing away from thera, He took a step toward her and stopped. "Why so much fuss about nothing, my little one?" he said, cooing. "Daddy said I had to marry you," breathed the girl, brushing back a stray curl from her, brow. "But I don't! I'm goln' to slay . with my mother on the Dirty Mary. There ain't no law forcing a girl to marry a man she don't like. And I hate you, see? Huh?" f. "Who spoke of a law?" smiled A 1 Brown. "I didn't! But I do know, my "i little Tony-girl, that you'll say a very meek ,'yes' when I get through with you." Tonnibel suddenly shuddered and a K hopeless, helpless feeling went In waves over her. Oh, to be anywhere in God's clear, clean world ! Away from those gleaming lustful eyes! But she saw no opportunity to escape. Reginald Brown was blocking the small space through which she must fly if she were to be saved at all. She knew very well If she could hide for a little while the two men would drink until they slept. Then she could come back and help her mother. Plainly she had heard the woman weeping be- low In the cabin, and even more plainly plain-ly to her suffering ears came Devon's blows, and nfter that silence. Her heart thumped like a hammer against her side. Behind her lay the shining lake. And one hnsty glance over her' shoulder only added to her fear. There was not a sign of a boat anywhere. She was frantic enough to scream If It would have one her any good. "I think I'll kiss you, my little bird," said Reggie, suddenly, narrowing his eyes. "You're pretty enough for anyone any-one to want to kiss. By Jove, I never realized until today Just how much I liked you. If I kissed you, well perhaps per-haps you'd change your mind about about things." ; Tonnibel slid backward to the1 beat rail. When sh touched it, she whirled about and dove headlong into the lake. When Reginald Brown saw the girl's feet disappear under the water, he uttered ut-tered an oath and cried out. He hadn't expected such an action on ber part. He ran ' to the cabin steps . and creamed to Devon. ' "She's in the lake, Ry," he shivered as the other man sprang to the deck. When Tonnibel felt' the wnler over her, she swept to the lake's bottom with one long stroke. Then deftly she . rid'hersplf of bet" dress skirt mid be gan to swim sfflftly under rlie waiuv. They 1 inhiu:oy liu.i Li-.- She Looked at the Picture Curiously. that Devon and Reggie Brown Jumped to their feet and raced away toward the boulevard. Tonnibel from her perch saw them disappear toward Ithaca before she slid to the ground. The man in the canoe, too, made but a short pause before hes dpeil his poddle and shot away. On the deck of the boat Tonnibel picked up Gus-sie-Piglet and, dripping wet, went swiftly down the cabin steps. s There site found her mother on the bunk, her face discolored by her husband's blows. She looked as If she were dead, and for a moment the forlorn child of the wilderness uttered heartbroken little cries for help. The cabin was cluttered In the struggle Uriah Devon had had with hia wife. In ' despair Tony looked around. The old clothes daddy had brought hon were strewn over the cabin floor. Tonnibel heaped them together, then began to examine them. They needed nothing but pressing. This she'd do to save her mother the work; and perhaps the fact that he had something ready to sell would make Uriah less brutal when he came back. In raining her fingers over a coat, searching for sinull rents, Tony felt something between the lining and outside, a book it seemed like, which she, hastily pulled out. It was small and much worn. There wasn't any money in It, in fact nothing but a picture, pic-ture, wrapper! up in paper. She looked at the picture curiously. A baliy's face smiled up at her, and her own lips curved a bit in answer to the laughing challenge in the little one's eyes. , Then she turned it over. On the buck was written: "My baby, Caroline Pendlehaven, agwl Vix mimUis. If this picture Is ever lost lie liiHler will receive a money re-i re-i iv'jrd l-y letui'r.lns )X to Dr. Paul Pen- 1 ' Cousin John says, I haven't much Influence In-fluence over Reggie, but I don't believe be-lieve he's as bad as people say. In a little town like this a person can't take a step sideways without old wags commenting on It. I hate Ithaca for Just that reason." Dr. John ha a visitor, (TO BE CONTINUED.) |