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Show r . , - I CjAl1x3 JL --IR3 Henry Sydnor Harrison. ' SYNOPSIS. H t Affcd Elbort dratalm, capitalist, estranged from H ( Ms wlfo In hl old age, longs for ino companionship H of his daughter Mary, who Uvea with Mrs. Cnrotalra H , at Hutmton-on-the-Hudson. Tho child refuses to H come And visit hlni. Mrs. Carstalra refuses to forco Hh her to do so. mid lienco old Carstalrs engages Larry H Varncy to take tho Carstnlra jncht up the Hudson H and kidnap Mary, who Varncy fccIlocs In but li. H Varncy gets tho liclp of Petor Maglnnla In the ven- H' ture. Three daja after tho stall Is made. On the H way up the rlcr tho name of the yacht, Cjprlnni. Is H erased to throw reporters off tho rrnck. Arriving at H Uunston the two ally thomsches with Hare, a cara- H ' palgncr for reform ssalnst tho dictatorship of Uosa H Rjaii. Ryan so completely dominates tho town that H tho reform people arc denied tho uko of public halls. Hl Varncy Is accubed by Colltmy Smith, owner of tho H Gasetto, which 19 under llann thumb, of being H Ferris Stanhope, author of pink tea. literature, and H Is advl6cd to lcao town unless ho want 3 trouble H I The B.inio ovenlnp Varnoy. fleeing from a heavy rnln- H etorm, t.ikca shelter iu a cottage and finds a atrango jouns woman tbero, Sho proves to bo Mary Car- ttalrs. Further sho accunc3 him of bolng Stanhope. H SIXTH INSTALLMENT. H THE ACTION SPEEDS UP. BUT ho recovered in a flash, aware of the crlticalncss of that moment, and met her bewildered graze steadily. H "Terrible? Certainly not. Your H namo surprised mo a little. That was all. 1 I thought, you sec, that you wcro somebody M "Yes? Who?" Hl " I really do not know exactly. Do for- H givo my stupidity," won't you? As I say, T H was Just a little surprised." H "You would explain to a man," sho said, H "and don't you think you ought to to mo? Hj If you did not know exactly who you Hj thought I was, why should my namo sur- H priso you so?" Hl He picked up a hideous china swan from H a smart Uttlo oak stand and examined it . Hj with excessivo intertst. H l " It was merely that I happen to know H Gome one in New York who had mentioned H you and done it in a way to make me H think you wcro not very old. In fact, I H had supposed that Miss Mary Carstalrs H wore short dresses and a plait down her H back. You see," he said, with a well planned H smile, " how absurdly wrong I was. And H then, just now, somebody pointed out your H house to me. There was a girl standing In Hf the doorway a small, dark girl, with " H A peal like chimes cut him short. "Dear isaeS M Jenny Thurston! Our seamstress' little girl. H Sho is spending the day with my mother, H while I've been spending most of the day M with her mother! Turn aboutl But I wish H you'd tell me," sho said, "who it is that H could havo spoken of me to you. How In- M terestlng that wo have a friend in common!" H "Not a friend," he said grimly, at tho B window. " Only a former acquaintance of H yours somebody that I imagino you have Hl pretty well forgotten. I'll tell you another H time. But I see it has stopped raining, j Miss Miss Miss CarBluirB. 'Perhaps wo Hl had better take advantage of the lull to H start for I hopo you are going to let me 1 act for Mr. Hare, and walk homo with Hl "0 would you! Then Indeed we had!" Hl she said, rising at onefc. " I am horribly Hj late now: I know my mother is frantic. I Hl don't mind your not tolling me that, really! H But It is odd that you should havo spoken H of my ago twlco tonight. Shall I tell you Hl something, Mr. Stanhope to show you H why I have had to give up pigtails? This H in my birthday: I am 19 today!" H She raised her eyes, shining, heavy H fringed, deep as tho sea and bluer, and H looked at him. His own foil instantly. A H shade of annoyance flitted across His still H "It is a delightful surprise," he said, m mechanically. "But you must not call mo H Mr. Stanhope, please, Miss Cars talis." Hj "Why mayn't I caNyou by your name?" H "My name," said Varney, "in fairly legl- H blc print, is on the card which you hold in H your hand." H Sho raised her eyes and looked at hiin, H perplexed, hesitating, a little mortifled, like M one who has encountered an unlooked for M rebuff. "Forgive me," Bho ventured rather H shyly, " but do you think it would be possl- H ble for you to to keep an incog here ' H where you must have so many friends? If H you want to do that to try it of course H I'll not tell a soul. But I'd like it very much H if you could trust me, who havo known H you through your books for so long." H " I should be qulto willing to trust you, H Miss Carstairs, but there Is nothing to trust H you about. I am not Incog. I am not tho H author. I have written no books what H ever " H " Ail! Then good-by." she said with a H swift change of manner, starting at once H for tho door. " I shall not trouble you to H walk home with me. Thank you again for H giving mo shelter and light- during tho H storm." H ""Will you be good enough to wait one H minute?" H She paused with one gloved hand on the H knob, cool, resolute, a little angry, the blue H battery of her eyes flxing him across her H Vr'hito embroidered shoulder. But he had H turned away, hands thrust deep into tho H )ockcts of his coat, brow rumpled Into a H frown, Jaw set to anathem'a of tho plight H in which a needless fortune had plunged .n If ho let Uncle Elbert's daughter go Uko this, ho might as well put the Cypriani about at once for New York, for ho knew that ho would never have tho chance to talk with her again. With engaging young friendliness which overrode reserve, she had been moved to ask his confidence, and ho had angered her. even hurt her feelings, it seemed, by appearing to withhold It. In return sho had thrown down the issuo be-foro be-foro Win, immediate and final. Abstract questions of morals, and there were new ones of great seriousness now, would havo as now suddenly revealed, was to be nothing noth-ing but one continuous and colossal 'one? "Miss Miss Carstairs," said Varney. "with yoy I shall not argue this. I am going to let you think I am whoever you want. We needn't say anything more about It. need we? Only I'll ask you to call mo by the name I gave you, please, and, so far as you can, to regard mo that way. Is that a bargain?" Mary Carstalrs stood at tho threshold of the lighted room, looking at him from under her wido white hat, eyes shining, lips smiling, smil-ing, cheeks faintly flushed with a sense of tho triumph sho had won. " Of course," she said. " And I don't think you'll need ever be sorry for having trusted me Mr. Varney!" Tho road was dark and wet. Raindrops from tho trees fell upon them as they talked, gathered pools splashed shallowly under their feet. Suddenly Varney said: " Do you happen to be interested in yachts, Miss Carstairs? Mine is anchored just opposite op-posite your house, I believe, and it would be a pleasure to show it to you some time." Peter had not yet returned to tho yacht when Varncy went to bed that night. Liko the Finnegan of song, he was gone again when Varney rosd next morning. Indeed. It was only too clear that his Celtic Interests Inter-ests had boot, suddenly engrossed by matters much nearer his hcurt than tho prospect, as he saw the thing, of spanking a naughty child. " Ho was 6ff by half past S, sir," the steward, stew-ard, McTosh, told Varney at breakfast. "He said to tell you to givo yourself no uneasiness, sir; that he was only going to Mr. Hare'-s I think was the name for a short call, and would return by 10 o'clock." "What else did he say?" "Well, sir, ho wa3 saying how tho poltlx of the village is not all they might bo, but he seemed very cheerful, sir, and took throo times to the cho'ps." At dinner time last night such extraordinary extraordi-nary behavior from his fellow, conspirator would havo both disturbed and angered Varnqy. At breakfast time tills morning it hardly Interested him. Ho had employed his walk from tho cottage of refugo to the Carstalrs Car-stalrs front gato to unbelicvablo advantage. In fact, his mission In Hunston seemed to bo all over but the shouting, and until the moment of final action arrived there appeared ap-peared no reason why Peter should not employ em-ploy his tlmo In any way ho saw fit. The heavy storm had scoured the air, and the world was bright as a new pin. In tho shaded solitude of tho afterdeck Mr. Carstairs Car-stairs agent sat in an easy chair with a jcigarct and thought over tho remarkable happenings of his first night in Uunston. In retrospect young Editor Smith seemed to bo but tho ordered instrument of fate, dispatched dis-patched in a rowboat to draw against his will from the yacht to tho town, whero all his business was neatly arranged for his doing. do-ing. Certainly it appeared as if tho hand of intelligent destiny must havo been in it somewhere. No mero blind luck could havo driven him half a milo into tho country to the one spot in nil Uunston impossibly unlikely un-likely as it was whero ho could becomo acquainted ac-quainted with Undo Elbert's daughter without with-out the formality of an introduction. Uncle Elbert I How desperately tho old man must deslro his daughter to havo planned a mad scheme liko this with a sub- , lerfugo at the'expensc of his best friend cun- ' nlngly hidden away in tho heart of It. Yot, nfter tho first staggering flash, VaVnoy had found it Imposslblo to be angry with Mr. Carstalrs. He only felt sorry for him, sor-' rier than he had ever felt for anybody in his life. The old man's madness and his deceit wcrp but the measure of his desire for hla daughter. And the moro he desired her, so It seemed to Varney. the more he was entitled en-titled to have her. Interrupting his meditations, tho steward approached on silent feet, bearing a flat brown paper package in ills hand. It ap-peared ap-peared that tho understcward had just returned re-turned from a marketing tour In Uunston, had met Mr. Maginnis on tho street, and " been ordered to take back tiio parcel to Mr. Varney. " All right, McTosh," said Varney. He broko the string with some curiosity and pulled off tho wrappers. Within was nothing but a copy of a current literary monthly. A present of a magazine from Pecr! This was a-delicate apology for his remissness, indeed. "He will bo sending mo chocolates next," thought Varney, not a little puzzled. He turned the pages curiously. Soon, observing ob-serving a bit of brown wrapping paper sticking stick-ing out between tho leaves, he opened the magazine at that point and found himself looking at a picture; and he sat still and 'htared at it for a long time. It was the full page portrait of a young man of some 30 years a xatl.cr thin young man with a high forehead, a straight nose, and a smallish chin. The face was good looking, look-ing, but somehow not quite attractive. About the eyes was an expression faintly unpleasant which the neat glasses did not hide. On tho somewhat slack lip was a slight twist, not agreeable, which the well kept mustache could not conceal. SHU, It was an interesting face, clever, assured, half insolent. To Varncy it was exceptionally interesting, for, removing tho mustache and eye glasses, it might havo passed anywhere for his, own. Below the portrait was printed this legend: "FERRIS STANHOPE. " The popular author of ' Rosamund,' etc., who will reopen the old Stanhope cottage near Uunston, N. Y., and spend the autumn thero upon a new novel. Mr. Stanhope's health has not been good of late, and his physicians havo recommended an extended stay in this quiet Hudson river country." Hero was that "Mr. Ferris" whom the young lady of the grocery had coyly saluted; the "Beany" whom tho palo young editor had bluntly bidden to leave town; and tho literary celebrity whom Miss Mary Carstairs so evidently and so warmly admired. Varney Var-ney stared at the portrait with a kind of fascination. Now ho saw many points of dlfferenco between tho faco of " tho popular author " and his own. The resemblance was only general, after all. Still, it was undoubtedly un-doubtedly strong enough to warrant all kinds of mistakes. , What' a v$ry extraordinary sort of thing to have happen I Suddenly his oyo fell upon a penciled lino In the whito margin above tho plcturo which had at first escaped him: " On no account leavo the yacht till I como back. Vitally important" Varney pitched tho magazino across tho deck with an irritated laugh. Petor utterly ignorant of how matters stood attempted v mr' . for him ho would have fallen on my neck except that ho isn't that kind. That was this morning. I worked out my Idea in tho still watches: couldn't sleep for thinking of 'it. It just means this: if my plans carry through Hare gets the biggest hearing tonight to-night that this old town can givo. And I think they'll carry all right. You wouldn't be interested in the dctw'itj. Now, this other tiling " . 9 he was another man. or should ho bid her ftSff' $k &.JbB& ' W K, ' ' ' 'fSiP'' ; that unmistakable. Ills oath to her father "P , "!- &mf V 'iSU " Who should face mc but came suddenly into his mind. After all. was , '&)k''v" l' ?W ' 0 that pale faced rascal wc it not a little absurd to boggle over on " &$$$&t&x, W- ' - ''iM0 w Paying dead in the row- 1 small deception when the wholo enterprise, , " ksA i&?tds boat." ' to flro off long distance orders and direct his movements. The splendid gall I As It chanced, ho had no occasion tj leavo tho yacht, either before or after Peter got badk. His work was done. Ho made himself comfortable with morning papers and a novel not one of Mr. Stanhope's and began to seek begullement. But Ills reading went forward rather fitfully. fit-fully. There wcro long intervals when his book, "eleventh printing" though It was. slipped forgotten to Ills knees and lie sat staring thoughtfully over the sunny water. Peter failed to keep his promise about returning re-turning to the yacht at 10 o'clock. In fact, it was 4 o'clock that afternoon when ho arrived, ar-rived, and, at that, the manner In which ho sprang up the stairs indicated him as a man who had but few moments to spare to yachts and that sort of tiling. , Varnoy, at his easo upon tho transom, watched his friend's npproacli with a quizzical quiz-zical eye. "Greetings, old comrade! How did you leavo them all In Hunston? " Peter, who, truth to tell, had been looking forward to bitter personal denunciation, looked somewhat relieved, and laughed. However, his manner suggested littlo of hang dog consciousness' of guilt; it was far too absorbed and businesslike for that. Ho dropped down into a chair by Varncy and swabbed tho back of his neck with a damp looking handkerchief. "Larry, -nho'd havo .dreamed last night that wo were parting for all this tlmo? " "Well, not I, for one." "Awfully sorry about It all, and I know you'll think I'm acting like a funny kind of helper. I hadn't the faintest idea of bottling you up on the yacht all day liko this, but-well, but-well, you might say, Larry, that a man couldn't help It to eavo his life. I certainly meant to be back by tho time you had finished fin-ished breakfast and explain the whole situation situa-tion to you thero aro a deuced lot of complications, com-plications, you know but ono thing led right on to another, and good Lord I I 'couldn't And a minute with a fino tooth 1 comb." " It's all right, statesman. You don't hear : niG making any complaints. All I ask is a little resume- of what you've boon doing sinco 1 you so cleverly lost me. In reform to the ears, I suppose? " Peter again looked rather surprised at his 1 chief's easy indifference., 1 "You want that part of it first? Woll," 1 he said rapidly, " I've been trying to do four days' work for reform in one, and a pinch r. it's been to mako both ends meet, I can tell 1 you. At it practically without a break since c I left you last night. J. Plnkney took mo I right In and bared his soul. Said ho was down and out and beaten to a fluid. A clover t little devil, fast enough, but no moro Idea of t how to play the gamo than a baby baboon. 5 When ho caught on to what I wanted to do r ""imij'nnDiii ! 1 ... ....! 1-y 1-y ) - "O, but I would, though I Give me at least a peep behind the scenes before you dash on. What about these plans of yours? " Peter laid down the newspaper with which he had been busily fanning himself. A sudden sud-den light came into his eyes. " I'll tell you just how it all happened," ho said in an eager voice. "Only I'll have to hurry, as I'm duo back in town right away that is, of course, unless you should need me for anything. Well. I left Hare last night, nfter only a couple of hours' talk, listening to tho same old story of bos"s rule, and giving giv-ing him, if I do say It, some cracking good practical pointers. Ey the way, we were interrupted in-terrupted at that. Hadn't got started before Hare remembered that he'd promised to bring some girl homo from somewhere, and dragged mo off a milo down tho road, only to find out afterward that sho'd gone home with somebody else. Made mo tired. I left him about 10 o'clock and started down Main street for tho river, meaning to como straight back here. But as I was footing it along, thinking over my talk with Hare and attending to my own business, who should brace mo but that palo faced rascal we saw Playing dead in theowboat. This time the poseur was lying flat on somo packing cases in front of a store, and who do you suppose ho turned out to bo? " " The brains of the machine," said Varney He told briefly of his own meeting with Coligny Smith at the same spot two hours earlier, and of the editor's stagey warnings Exactly tho way ho did me! " cried Peter. "Saved the announcement of who he was for the grand flnalo in act five. I sot mad as a wet hen, told him what I thought of him In simple language and thon. when the Sfter twitted me to go and do something' about it, lbroko loose and swore that I'd mako Hare mayor of Hunston if I had to buy the littlo two by twlco town to do It-told It-told him to pack his trunk, for all the' crooks would soon bo traveling toward the hir; f thon z turned r,eht arou Hiked back to Hare's, told him what I'd done gave him my hand on it, and pulled out the old family check book. " This morning I went to him and laid be-fore be-fore him tho greatest scheme that-ever was rou know Hare can't get a hall to speak In ror love or money-nobody dares rent him me; he nt buy an lnch of gazette; ho can't put spreads on tho bill wards without having 'em pasted out in the" light Tonight the whole things been done or him-Ryan's big town meeting. Well ve're going to try to swipe, that meeting J 10 you see? I'm gettIllK In somo hu ows from j Now York to see fair p,ay, aso n; O, ls a bully chance-you can see! e pent a nice bunch of father's money working the scheme up, and. by Qcorgo" j loUevo wo are going to get by with it. If h J VG ' W 1V thIS tOWn the bigge' hock 1 ' had in years, and that's the wav eform begins, Larry. Shock I " J Something of his contagious enthusiast spread to and fired Varnoy. Fato hadj thrown in their wa a plucky and honest hon-est man engaged in an apparently hope less fight against overwhelming powers of-darkness. of-darkness. Ho deserved help. And what pos slblo risk was there now when tho Cyprianl'a work was practically done? "I can't say," continued Peter dutifully, 0 " that this is exactly playing the quiet on. looker, as my orders read. As I said last night, I consider that this excursion into politics will help our littlo business, not in terfero with it- It will divert attention. H ' will seem to explain why we aro here. But 1 if you don't agree with me, if you want mg to drop it " " No," said Varney slowly, " I don'U" ? "Good for you, old sport I " cried Petet evidently relieved. " Needless to say, I'm F right on the job whenever you need me, And nothing's going to happen. Trust me, t Now, as to this other matter. You got that magazine I sent this morning? " " Yes. Thanks for tho picture of my twin brother. But why couldn't I leavo the yacht till you got back? " Peter stared. " Why, just that, of course. Deuced unfortunate coincidence, isn't it? Everybody In town is going to think that you are this fellow Stanhope." ' "Well?" "Well? -O, I forgot you haven't heard. i Well, from tho stories that are floating p around town today, Stanhopo Is a cad of ' the original brand. Ilo was born here lived here until ho was 21 or 22. Women were his 1 trouble. Tho climax came about twelve years ago. The girl was named Orrick I Mamie Orrick, I believe. Nobody knowa I exactly what became of her, but they practically prac-tically ran Stanhope out of town then. 1 Well there it is." Ho paused long enough to light one of I1I3 1 Herculean cigars, employing his hat as a wind shield, and rapidly continued: "It's very curious- and strange, and all that, but there It is. A month or so ago the Gazette announced that Stanhope was com-ing com-ing back to Hunston. Last night you were seen on tho square, and now the news has spread like wildfire that the author has arrived. ar-rived. Hare heard a lot of gossip on the street today. He's lived here only a few years, and doesn't know anything personally; person-ally; but ho says the old feeling against Stanhope seems to have revived as though It ' had all happened yesterday. Orrick. the 'v girl's father, a half wltted old dotard, was " heard to say that he would shoot on sight. f rhere are three or four others besides Orrick ' vho've got personal grudges, too. If any of :hese meet you thero is almost sure to bo :rouble. How is that for a littlo comnlica- tion?" ' "And this was the reason you sent me word to lock myself up on the Cypriani? You're a bird, Peter. Not that it mado any difference, but I ventured to suppose that my leaving before you got back would Interfere Inter-fere with some plans you had been making for me, and " "It would interfere with somo plans I have been making for you, in a general way, to havo you assassinated." "Stuff I Ten to ono all theso stories that somebody has been so careful to have get back to you are right out of tho wholo cloth " " What's tho use of setting up your cranky opinions against the hard facts? Tho plain truth is that everybody who ever heard of , Stanhope is going to givo you the cold shoul- der for a dog; we can depend absolutely on that." But Varney had his own reasons for depending de-pending on nothing of the sort. "You've been imposed upon, Peter. In fact, one of tho population mistook me for the author last night, and instead of giving the cold shoulder, as you sav, she eemed to think that being Stanhopo waa the best credentials that a man could have." ( She? Who're you talking about? " I'm talking about Undo Elbert's daugh-ter, daugh-ter, Miss Mary Carstalrs. I had the pleasure of meeting her last night." "The devil you did! " cried Peter. laugh-,kW laugh-,kW ,aStnlShment- "You certainly Ho , J1"1 th Prl2Q f0r romPt results. : H7 In the world did y0u manage It? " ,arnT ,t0ld Hlm SUc6lncy how he had ''managed it. afraTdnthafFin01 J 3 gettJn afraid that you never could do it at all, with We. renePUtaUOn ' plnned 0n 0U the on, n0Ugh ' StI11' U'a absurd to cite the opinion of a little child In a matter like chndt it?UPvf what you U a uttte Jk old." SS Carstalrs is 19 years -T un'rahi d '" "" ' & ' I othpr 1 m as'thO"Bh one or the f other had suddenly gQne makTMVhW ln Sam HU1 dld 5'0U ever "-"eh an asinine mIstake7 f barney gave an impatlentlaugh. Mv mn "" does that make now? been twelve tQ , " th ..i y thcr lmPresslon was that ave bl WaS abUt 4 at th t,mo' S ma o yeT I lnftCad- Ir " y merest iitu; a that th mistake UteZng."BeS,dC3UnClE,bCrtrather vhaVnh1Clbert rher lied to you-thafs L ;ulles0,dld',, 6aW PGt- T To be continued , (CoprrUht b, Smau, Maynrd & Co., SHCTBsMessesssswaiMM . , ... . 1 t .-SSsssl HMHHHBJBMejjBJJHHBJjl |
