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Show t- ROW aniMARfflEDUnl j Btj. the noted author f I - Iggfe Mgcaone Gibson j II'H Two Letters I JH There was ;i light tup on ,thc door I IH and Hannah brought in two letters. I One was the Ions-delayed letter. I Charles had spoken of In his telegram 1 before John vent away, the other was I from John himself. f opened Charier' first In il nc I told me he war. sure there was some- I thing wrong going on in the oil fields. I "1 can not understand, dear Kather- I ine," I read, "why it is that greed will make men forget both honesty and I honor. I am investigating this matter I very carefully as you know one must B So slow if one wishes to accuse a man oi' a corporation of fraud. However. ' I think I have one or two very good jH lawyers and we have also hired a Hfa couple of good detectives who seem to HP be spry young fellows and always on the job. The other wells on the prop- Hj erty are not showing up very well and I jH it Is possible this fraud we are trying: I to unearth may have seme effect on I t!iem as well. It is a nasty business, 1 Katherine, and although I am vcryj glad to help you in every way I can, I wish you had not asked mo to dol Wk H this thing for you, because, if I do not H JH succeed John will always have a feel- j !H,H ing that I am in some way to blame. THiHIHI And if 1 do succeed It will perhaps 11 nake him feel as though you might 88 have given him a chance at it. How- jjgg ever, you may be sure I will do my best. Sincerely yours, Charles." jpS The -Difference in Letters Isg Nothing could hotter show the dif- Bp ferenco between two men than their pM letters. John's commenced as a mere ijS matter of form: ntt "My Dear Katherlne: It is a good wKk thing I came down here to this ,god- forsaken place. If I had not, you would SHI . have been cheated out of our rightful nharc. There is a bunch of crooks here that I am going to put over the -Trr lxa- bcfore 1 Sct through with il. You see, they bought the property directly adjoining ours and in some way that H I have not been able to fathom they H have deflected most of the flow of oil H to their own wells. Rk "We have gone over the entire L ground caroull and have found noj piping yet. Of course, I shall have to , A explain 'to you that our big well is on H the very edgo of our property, and of course they will not allow us to make L any inspection of theirs. I think. ' Bhowcver, that I have them thoroughly Kcared by now. Our running little faster Last night, how- Hkr, one our detectives, in making funvestigatlon. shot in the arm j A an ambush. This assures mo! more than anything else that thcro is ! crooked work. It is a good thing I came down here. Your cousin Charles is altogether too easy and I think by this time our holdings would he in the .hands of the enemy if I had not arrived on the scene. I hope you are feeling bettor. I will keep you posted. "Affectionately yours, JOHN." "Nice letter for a woman to rcceivo from her husband," 1 remarked casually cas-ually as I folded it and put it in the envelope. Alice Explains It i "I think it Ms a nice letter," said ; Alice seriously, and as I looked at her 'in surprise, cue said quickly: j "Thef trouble with you, Katherine is that you never have seemed to havo i learned that a man can only bo ooses-ised ooses-ised with one thing at a time. Just now John has thrown his whole life Into straightening out your affairs." "You notice he doesn't mention them as my affaire. He simply thinks of thorn ns our affairs." That is the fine point," answered Alice., "If ever any person has charge of anything for you and looks on it as something he himself is interested in, to such an extent that he speaks of it as his, you may be sure your interest will bo well taken care or. J "But ho might at least said, 'I love 'you," mightn't he, or am I silly to want j him to say it?" i "No, my dear, you arc just a woman (to want him to say it. but also just i little silly to expect him to say It, It , isn't John's way. In two years of mar- rlage to him have you not learned this?" 1 "No, I don't think I have. I am al-,ways al-,ways expecting what ho gave me bo freclv before marriage, LUlie confidence, confi-dence, little bits of thoughtfulness and little sympathetic speeches always. It .hardly scorns possible to mo ( that a :man can change." "Why my dear, John hasn't changed. I As you see him now he has always been. The John who appeared to you before marriage was John camouflaged I with the beautiful colors of a man in , love. I "But I must leave you now and fix i up my packing. I hate to leave you here alone because of your condition, .which makes you more or less morbid.' "Don't mind me, Alica. I shall certainly cer-tainly bo all right and I am going to try to get over my romantic foolishness. foolish-ness. But oh, I wish John would sometimes write me something like this" And I handed her the poem of Karl Shepard. Tomorrow John is in Charge. |