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Show H I I CAPTIVATING MARY - - I - C-A.RSTVkXRS nor Harrison. Herewith is presented the second installment of an absorbingly interesting r.ew aerial by Henry Sydnor Harrison, one of the most popular of the living writers f fiction. Mr. Harrison is the author of " Quced " and " V. V.'s Eyes" two novels which sprang into the lead of the best sellers at the time of their publication end held that lead for a long period. It has a more ingenious plot than any of his other I novels; it is written with that easy grace which has made the author famous, and it will hold your attention to the end of the last installment. ISYNTSIS OF I NITfAl l.MF.NT ONE. Acr.t Klt'crt CsntallS, capitalist, CKtrnnz.vl from hi wlfo in his -U K'. I'lOS for the eomruilon.hlp of his Jn risbter Mnry who Hres with Mrs. Carstalrs at HnnatOD on tbl Hudson. The Child rrfuo to corns suil visit him. Mr. Cnnttalra refuses to force her to do o. und hence old larntaira encages tarry Varney to take tlie Carstalra yacht up Ujc Hudboa and kidnap kid-nap Mnry. who Varney belleTM Is hut 12. Vnrney ecu tuo help of Teter kflflnnll In the TcnMre. THEY EMBARK UPON A CRIME. L A I EVER! Tliink of slipping a cog in our plans making a false start. having somebody get on to us! Why. man, there may be Jail for us both In this! " He examined Peter's face hopefully, but found unaffected apathy there. " Suppose," he cried boastfully. " that the Associated Tress got on to it! Think of the disgrace of it' ' Millionaire Maginnis Caught Kidnaping! ' Think of being fired from the Curzon and having to leave New York a hunted and broken man' Think,'1 he added in an inspired climax, "of having your photograph pho-tograph in the Sunday Herald! " Maginnis perked up visibly at this. " There Is no chance of that really, do you think?" " None in the world," said Varney desperately, des-perately, lie felt sure that this had cost him Peter, whom he had come to as his oldest and best friend. Having no idea whom he could turn to next, ho rose, tentatively and for the moral effect, to go. " After all," ho said aloud, " I have another man In my mind who would, on second thoughts, suit me better." " O, sit down'" cried Teter impatiently. Larry sat down. His face showed, In epite of him, how really anxious he was to have Peter go. There was a brief pause. "Since you are so crazy to have me, " said Peter, " I'll go." "Thank you," said Varne. He picked up his glass, which he had hitherto not touched, drained it at a gulp, and pushed the bell vigorously. " I knew," he cried. " that you d see the possibilities when once your brair. began to work." Peter's faint smile was an Insult in its way. "Three things have decided me to go with you, old son, and none of them has anything to do with your possibilities The first Is that I'm the one man in a million you really need in case of trouble." " Peter, your modesty is your curse." " The second is did you read the Sun this I morning? It seems that this little town of Hunston is having a violent spasm of politics right now. Rather lucky coincidence. I should say. The dispatch I read was pretty vague, but I gather that there's an interesting interest-ing fight on between a strong machine and a small but firm reform movement" " Ha! Occupation for you while I beat the woods for little Mary." "I'll need it." "Well, what was your other wonderful reason?" " Don't you know? It Is that sixty horse power oath your uncle made you swear " " Because it committed me. you mean?" The door opened, men entered noisily, and Peter had to draw Varney aside to explain darkly. " Because it committed me to wondering won-dering what difficulties foxy old Carst&lra made a point of concealing from you ." "Meet me upstairs, in ten minutes." said Varney, " and we'll talk about plans." Varney was wrong in one thing, Mr. Car-stair's Car-stair's Cyprian! was not ready to start anywhere any-where at half a day s notice. For that reason it did not start for Hunston on the following afternoon. As always happens, the preparations for in little expedition took four times as long as anybody would have thought possible Peter, however, was delighted with it Gazing at himself with smirking satisfaction satisfac-tion in the hat shop mirror, he ordered the old one sent home and was all ready to go to Hunston and kidnap Mary Carstalrs. But other preparations could not be com plcted with such speedy satisfaction. The j! yacht had to coal, take on supplies, and pick -1' JP two or three extra men for the crew. A Sunday camo in and threw every thing bach. a day. Lastly, the sailing master's wife, fl whom Mr. Carstalrs was sending along to take charge of Mary on the homeward trip, chanced to be down with an influenza. A details of getting ready multiplied ,J about him, Varney's interest in his novel ;.T Undertaking imperceptibly grew The thing J liad come upon him so unexpectedly that it Si bad not yet by any means lost Its strange- ness. To the old friend of his mother's girl-hood, girl-hood, Libert Carstalrs. he was sincerely de-otrd. de-otrd. though knowing him for an indulgent w man whose indulgences were chiefly of hlm- self- But when, responding to his excited -jjj summons that night, he had sat and listened 'M while Mr. Carstalrs unfolded his mad little V domestic plot, ho had been first utterly amazed and then utterly repelled. And it w-as not until a final sense of the old man's genuine need wat borne in upon him, of his loneliness, his helplessness, and his entlro dependence upon him, Varney, that he had consented to undertako the extraordinary commission. "Not to put too fine a point on it," mused he, glancing out of his twentieth story window, win-dow, "they flock to me, children do. I'm their good old Undo Dudley. But why tho deuce Isn't she five years younger? " ----1 - uiuvn, to Peter, and locked up his desk. To his office ho casually gave out that pressing business matters were calling him out of town for a day or two. The two young men ha" been as furtive as possible about their proposed Journey. They had not met since the night Varney had dangled the hope of jail and disgrace into Peter's lightening face, and so, or other wise, cajoled him Into going along. Both of them had kept carefully away from tho Cyprlani. Now they proceeded to her by different routes, and reached her at differ ent times, Peter first Their luggage had gone aboard before them, and there was no longer a thing to wait for. At 'J, oY;.-.-'.;. Varney's signal, the ship's bell sounded, her whistle shrieked, and she slid off through tho waters of the bay. About the start there W-as nothing In the least dramatic, that nad merely oegun moving mov-ing through Die water and that was all. The Cyprlani, for all her odd errand, was merely one of a thousand boats which indifferently crossed each other's wakes in one of the most crowded harbors in the world. "For all the limelight we draw," observe Maginnis. drinking in the freshening breeze. " we might be running up to Harlem to address the fortnightly meeting of a Clrls' Friendly society." Varney said. " Give us a chance, will you? " Tho landscape near Hunston, as it happened, hap-pened, was superfluously pretty, Tt do-served do-served a group of resident artists to admire and to catch it upon canvas; and It had, roughly speaking, only artisans out of a job. The one blot was the town, sprawling hideously hid-eously over tho hillside. Set down against the perennial wood, by tho side of tho everlasting ever-lasting river, it looked very cheap and common. com-mon. But all this was ty day. Now night Clearly. It was the next step that wac tho most delicate getting Mary aboard the yacht. This was both the crux and tho finale of the whole thing, for Uncle Fiber: was to be waiting for them in a closed carriage car-riage at a private dock near One Hundred and Thirtieth street (Peter remaining in Hunston to notify him by telephone of the start down) and Varney's responsibilities were over when the Cyprlani turned her nose homeward. But here lay the thin ice. If anything should happen to go wrong : . the moment when they were coaxing Mary on the yacht, if there was a leak in their plans or anybody suspected an. thing, he saw that the situation might be exceedingly awkwaid. The penalties for being fairly caught with the goods promised to be severe. se-vere. As to kidnaping, he certainly remembered remem-bered reading in the newspapers that some states punished it with death At any rate, maybe the natives would try to thrash Ijim and Peter. In hopefu, moments he conjured up visions of the deuce to pay. This thought came to him. definitely and for about the seventh time, at 130 o'clock on the third day, Monday . At the same moment mo-ment his telephone bell rang sharply It was the sailing master to say that his good spouse had come aboard and that every thing on tho Cyprianl was In readiness for the start. " I'll be on board Inside of an hour." said Varney- IIa t Alonhniir.fi In Tnr Ia VILA- , ... I 1. . . , .1 fell upon the poor little city and mercifully hid it from view. They had made the start too late for hurry to bo ny object. It was only a three hours' run Cor the Cyprlani. but it took it slowly, using four At 6:30 o'clock, when their destination was drawing near, the two men went below and dined At 7, while they were . ill at table, they heard tho slow down signal, and, a moment later, the rattle of the anchor line. Now at quarter pasi 7, Varney lounged alone by the starboard star-board rail and acquainted himself with the purview. They had run perhaps a quarter of a mile aboye the town for reasons which he had not communicated to the saillngmaster in transmitting his orders. One was that they might be removed somewhat from native curiosity. The other was, they might be near the Carstalrs residence, which was up this way somewhere. So between the yacht and the town lr.y hill and wood intervening. The Cyprlani, so to say. had anchored in the country. Only a light glimmering here and there through the trees indicated tho nearness of man's abode. A spprlflc quality lurked in the quiet solitude, soli-tude, and Varney, sunk In a deck chair, yaw&ed. They had decided a' dinner that they would do nothing that night but go to bed. for it seemed plain that there was nothing noth-ing else to do, little girls did not ramb'.e abroad alone after dark. Dp the companion-way companion-way and over the glistening after deck strolled Peter, an eye catching figure in the flooding moonlight. For, retiring to his stateroom from the table, he Had divested himself of much raiment and encased his figure in a great purple bathrobe He was a man who loved to be comfortable, was Peter Topping the robe, he wore his new i Panama. Varney looked aroXind at the( sound of footsteps, and was considerably itruck by his friends appearance "Feeling well, old man?" he asked, with solicitude. " Certainly " " Not seasick at all? You won't let mo fetch you the hot water bottle?" " No, ass." I'eter sank ,'jwn in an upholstered wicker chair with pillows in It. and looked out appreciatively ap-preciatively at the night. The yacht's lights wero set, but its deck bulbs hung dark; for the soft and shlmmeiing radiance of tho sky made man's illumination an offense. However, aesthetics, like everything else, has Its placo in human economy and no more. No one aboard the Cyprlani becamo so absorbed In tho marvels of nature as to become Insensible to other pleasures. Tho air, new and fine from the hands of its maker, acquired a distinct flavor of nicotine as It flitted past the yacht. The thought of the essential common-placeness common-placeness of this sort of thing recurred to Peter Maginnis For all his life of idleness, which was, as It wore, accidental. Peter was essentially a man of action; and life's sedentary sed-entary movements irked him sorely. "Who is the individual monkeying around at the bow?" he asked presently. " It is Mr. Bissett. the ship's engineer, who is putting a coat of white lead over the yacht's name." "Aha! Aren't ve old sleuthy though! And what's that piece of stage play for?" " All these littlo hookers," said Varney. ' arc listed in a book, which many persons own. Why have tho local press tell everybody every-body tomorrow that tho yacht Cyprianl belonging be-longing to Mr. Carstalrs, husband once removed re-moved to our own Mrs Elbert Carstalrs. is anchored off the'je shores''" " It seems," said Peter, " liko a lot ot smoke for such a little fire. ' He got up and sprawled on the rail, his yellow Panama pulled far over his eyes, his gaze fixed on the shining water. "First and last. 1 vo ' seen rivers In my time." he said presently, "big and little, pretty and not, clean and soiled, decent and Indecent. Yes, boy." said he, " you can take It from me that I've seen the world's darnedest darn-edest in the matter of rivers, and I have liked them all. from Ganges to the Sacra mento and back again There was a time when I didn't have that sort of personal feeling for 'em. but a little chap up in Canada, Can-ada, he helped me to the light. He was the keenest on rivcis I ever knew" He broke off to yawn greatly, started to resume, thought better of it, checked himself, him-self, and presently said in an absent voice: " No, that's too long to tell." " There's two hours till bedtime." Peter straightened and began strolling aimlessly about the deck, half regretting that they had decided to spend the evening on the yacht. Varney looked after him with a certain s.mse of guilt. Against this background of quiet night and moonlit peace, his enterprise began to look small and easy A ramble through the pleasant woods over there, a little girl met and played with, a leisuiely stroll hand in hand down a wood land path to the yacht was it for this that he had begged the assistance of Peter Maginnis. Ma-ginnis. of the large administrative abilities and the teeming energies? Varney began to be a little ashamed of himself. To follow out Peter's owntfigure. it appeared that he had called out the fire department to help him put out a smoking sheet of note paper on a hearth. Soon, in one of his goings and comings, feter halted. "There '':..'. was another Hunston dispatch in Jk the paper this morning." he ouch- M. safed. '.'.,:;' fcffiflj " Politii -" " " Said the reform movement was flHBH a joke." 1 ( tood one? " "Good movement, you mean''" HH) " No good joke." y" " No reform movement is ever a good joke, under anyr circum- :V I stances whatever. Where it ap- p pears a joke at all, it is the kind mn mm , IIH IW that would appeal only to plnhe:-.ds of tho dottiest nature." " I see." " I'm going up thero tomorrow," said Peter, nodding toward the town. " and look into It a little. If thero is tirno I may even decide to show these fellows how a reform proposition ought to bo hand1" to ensure results." Presently Peter lolled around and looked at him. "H'm! Sunk in a sodden slumber. I suppose?" "Not at all. Interested by your conversation conversa-tion fascinated. Ha! Hero Is something to vary the evening's monotony. A rowboat Is drifting down stieam towards us. Let us mnko little wagers with each other as to who'll ho in It" He looked over his shoulder upward at the moon, which a flying scud of cloud had momentarily veiled. Peter, who had sat down again, glanced up tho river. " I don't see any boat." " Thero Is where the wager comes in, my son. Hurry up the moon will pop oui in another minute and spoil tho sport" " Drifting, you say. Bet you she's empty-broke empty-broke away from its moorings and riding down with the current. Bet you half a dollar. dol-lar. My second bet" ho said, warming to the work, "is an old washerwoman and her little boy out on their rounds collecting cloth.es. It's Monday. In case both firsts arc wrong, second choice get tho money " " My bet Is Ha! Stand ready with your half! There she comes Jove!" "Good God!" cried Peter, and sprang up. For the moon had jumped out from behind its cloud liko a cuckoo in a clock, and fallen upon the drifting boat, now hardly fifty yards away. In the bottom of it lay a man, sprawled over his useless oars, his upturned face white in the moon-light, limp legs huddled hud-dled under him anyhow. Something in tho abandon of his position suggested that ho would not get up any more. It was an odd sight against tho setting of pretty night and light, idle talk. Peter's lips tlgghtcned "He's dead, poor thai.' " he said in a low olce. "Murdered." " So it seems. We can't be sure from here, though. Where's that watch? Here, some of you ! Lower away the dingy ! Get , -fpP a move !" Jb The boats were on their hooks, swung outboard ready for in- slant use The crew, r'-"' tumbling out swiftly - at the call, cleared away one and let it y?i.'-- fall o er the side. The young men went down with it, Poter seizing ail tho oars as his by H right. The floating Jj boat with its strango $&$r . irgo had -Inn, I , ;. 1, 1 - .. ...v. ,., the ast black fp?7 -li iiluw of tl,,- ai ht. There Straight WBg& BP back Now a littlo Sh orty to tho light. Way enough !" Varney, In tho stern, leaned out and gripped tho drifting gunwale securely. But it was so dark here that ho could seo almost nothing. " He's breathing, I think," ho said, his bond against the strange man's chest. " Pull out Into the lighl " But just then the arm that lay under the still head unmistakably twitched. " Good !" cried Peter, and laughed a little. " Strike a match and let's have a look at him." Varney fumbled in his pockets, found one, arid scratched it on the side. Shielding the flame in his curved hand, ho .caned forward and held it close to that motionless face. The match burned Varney's finger s, went out, and dropped Into tho water. Ho said nothing Neither did Peter The man In tho boat did not stir So went by a second of profound stlllns. Then a somewhat blurred voice said: ' When a gentleman goes rowing In a private boat and is raided by a pair of unknown un-known investigators one of them wearing a Mother Hubbard who strike mat' h-.-s In his face and make personal remarks he naturally awaits their explanations." The speecn fell upon four of the most astonished as-tonished cars In the state of New York. Peter recovered first, the remark about the Mother Hubbard had stung him a little, if even In that dumfounded moment, but ho sV only laughed. . " The fact is, wo made absolutely -Hire that you were a corpse Our mistake." To be continued. ICopyrlght by Small, llaynard h Co ' . f f 1 fk J sW 4 ne lni th. mm ' .ft |