Show 6 0 the invader if by HOWART FIEL 2 bu oarl tr book 0 tini HE city editor of a chicago paper sent me down to stanchfield a distance or forty miles to write a funny story about a misfortune which had befallen one of the best men in the state of illinois his name was samuel brandon and he was known far and wide asa genuine american a man whom great wealth had not spoiled in every way broad minded and thoroughly democratic in the best sense of tho word the joke was that mr brandona Bran dons only daughter had recently become engaged to a titled briton lord colewan Co lewyn whom malicious fate had sent to the little city of stanchfield this was a source of pride ana joy to mrs brandon who was a born aristocrat and of deep cha crin to her husband choso whoso patriotism was intense to add to the humor of the situation lord colewan was to be a guest 0 the brandona Bran dons on the fourth of july upon this day mr brandon always threw open hla splendid estate to the populace and gave his fellow citizens such an entertainment tain ment as spared the city all expense for a celebration it was mr brandona Bran dons one day in the year upon the other mrs brandon ruled the demesne in a fashion highly exclusive I 1 agreed with the city editor that this affair partook of the nature of a jest the sense of humor dawned upon the world when one of our monkey ancestors pushed another off the limb of a tree and was amused to see him light upon his head instead of on his feet and fun has not changed much in the intervening millions of years an early train took me to stanchfield where my friend tom mason met me at the depot he was employed in mr brandona Bran dons bank and I 1 depended upon him for such of the bacs as were really common property arid might le told without indelicacy indeed tom had already given me some of them in a queer letter written about the almo of the announcement of the engagement in the middle of june he deemed to buffer for mr brandon whom he greatly admired and to expect me to sympathize fully in company with my friend I 1 went to the stanchfield hotel for a bit of breakfast As soon as we entered the dining room my attention was attracted by a person who had the unmistakable air of a gent lemans gentleman he was su per intending two waiters in the arrangement ran gement of a table the most favorably situated of all in the room for it was on a dais in a corner and was almost surrounded by open windows lord Cole valet said tom his lordship evidently intends to breakfast in public this morning why he at the brandona Bran dons I 1 asked he want ta crowd the old gentleman too hard I 1 guess replied I 1 tom my lord Is not such a fool as he looks 4 mr brandon really takes this to heart eh 7 said I 1 does he said tom with most expressive emphasis and yet hes euch a thoroughbred absolutely a man of principle he believes that a mother Is the natural and proper guardian 0 her daughter in this matter he has advised his wife but he would never attempt to control her toward lord colewan he Is strictly just hell be a model father in law in every way including the pecuniary way said I 1 tom smiled bitterly As to that said he let me tell you a story not for publication of course for we are keeping it quiet his lordship had about in mr brandona Bran dons bank one day last week a man presented a check to me as paying teller at the bank for drawn by cole mg VALET ministered TO HIS WANTS wyn to his own order and endorsed indorsed Indor sed by him signature and endorsement indorsement Indor looked all right and I 1 took the man to be that flunky over there who had cashed one or two similar checks for small amounts at appears that the check was a forgery and that bitters as bolg wyn iff pleased to call his valet was impersonated by a swindler who had 1 had a room in this hotel next to my lords for about a week and has now skipped for parts unknown I 1 could have sworn that the man was bitters but he because bitters was at the brandon place at the time who says so I 1 demanded everybody answered tom gloomily miss brandon among the number bitters was undoubtedly there with his master and it was on me ot course 1 ought to have lost my job but sam brandon Is a prince he instantly made good Cole wyna loss and lighted a cigar with my resignation and the whole affair la dead except that a detective Is secretly chasing the swindler As I 1 was about to ask a question lord colewan entered the dining room and at the sight of him I 1 laughed A moment later I 1 began to be surprised that h should have appealed to me in that way lie was a big blond englishman naturally rather good looking indeed he might be called handsome but he was the absolute ideal of self complacency in costume carriage expression everything to the minutest detail he was entirely beyond criticism as the representative of a type of character the picture of self satisfaction was so perfect that it even transcended nature and my laugh was a tribute such as I 1 might have given to a comedian who had appeared upon the stage tn a make up that surpassed all possible anticipation the noble lord at breakfast was such a study that I 1 forgot the trifling matter of which my friend had mentioned and thought only of the refinement of manner which enabled colewan to preserve a lari guld indifference while stowing away meal that would have tilled an alligator his valet ministered to his wants alth well trained deference and the waiters with amusement tin d with admiration of his magnificent appetite tom and I 1 spent the forenoon lazily lunched at his fathers house and about 2 rode all across the city and a little way beyond its verge to the brandon place description had not prepared me for the beauty of this estate nor for the remarkable effect of old world which it produced the great house upon the crest of the vast green wave of lawn dominated the scene and its windows stared haughtily at the public highway which presumed to pass within a thousand yards of it gigantic elms flung down broad masses of shadow upon the green and it is painful to speak of the number of the vulgar who were enjoying these refuges from the burning heat ot the day the common people are always most distressingly tres singly plebeian when accompanied by their children and I 1 judged that these could not have left any at home upon a veranda at the rear of the house we found mrs brandoff nf and her 1 daughter drinking tea with a select few culled from society sirs 1 brandon was one 0 those annoying aomen who make up or a fall face arlew with no thought of any other rom the front and at the proper als ance and in just the right light she vaa a fair young creature of less than harty bummers eum mers seen in aronie ehe a mask in figure she was lean and ager as a greyhound and the placidity if demeanor which she affected was as arlly detached from her real nature by in observing eye as was tho film of ouge from her face her daughter was an amazingly girl healthy and natural but ob bously loo young for her years A lance at her convinced me that she lad not accepted lord colewan at her no behest or because of any aln ul craving for a title but merely be ause he had had the good fortune to ie idealized in her childish imagination would have given 1000 considering it n excellent literary investment to buy in accurate knowledge of what lord alewyn seemed to be when viewed in SOMETHING DREADFUL HAS HAPPE ie enchanted mists of this schoolgirls reams at twenty qiya little later she be as sensible almost young wo ian and then she would see him at the beat as a hollow and conceited ankey at the worsteds worst eds a selfish and cad the thought mada me lok at mrs brandon in wrath she to be standing so that a rone light poured over her shoulder id I 1 saw the rouge upon her cheek as it had been a great smear of blood at athla moment the appearance of ord Cole carriage reduced tom id myself to a state tt invisibility ined he miracle so that our et made no audible sound upon the of the veranda ag we hurriedly ft that place in a grove beyond the house we found mr brandon a picturesque figure tall and active he waa clad in a rough gray cult and an old straw hat waa tilted bach upon his head revealing his wavy emte hair abundant as in youth ills face was smooth and ruddy and the hand ho gave roe was steady and strong lie wag clearly a cultivated man and there was something in his manner which suggested the splendid democracy of a col legeas it used to be before it was the to ride to chapel or the lecture room in ones private automobile mr brandon was conferring with his fellow members of a committee on sports and the others listened to him with a deference which disappointed me until I 1 discovered that it was due to hla great knowledge of the subject and not to any less worthy consideration A fine official of the games was old sam brandon and under hla eye the best man had to win I 1 discovered presently that he had a great affection for tom mason and as they stood together there ideal figures of american youth and age suddenly the whole truth leaped into my mind here was the man whom mr brandon had chosen in his own heart I 1 understood in a hash toms letter to me which had been a cry of anguish for the ear of a frend the cry 0 a man crossed in love then there arose in me the desire that I 1 feel too seldom and can never summon at will the desire to do a tremendous men dous amount of work in the shortest possible time boundless confidence always accompanies this impulse and a clearness of thought which I 1 vainly seek SM daya in athe year I 1 excused myself to tom and mr brandon and for the remainder of that afternoon 1 was th man in the state of illinois shortly before S having had no dinner meanwhile though apparently it was being served all over the place I 1 hunted up mr brandon who was supervising the arrangements tor the display of fireworks which was to begin at 0 I 1 found tom also and we had a serious talk to sum up the matter in the briefest form let me say that I 1 laid lievore them evidence to support these allegations on the morning when fh check swindle wan perpetrated at the bank lord colewan and bitters had started from the Stanch neld hotel on foot for the brandon residence they had proceeded to a certain place beside the wall surrounding the grounds and had climbed over there they had found another man in some shrubbery where the ground had fortunately been in an excellent condition to receive and preserve footprints the nan whom they had met had been dressed and made UD in imitation of bitters who after a brief conference had again climbed the wall lord colewan and the other man had then skirted the majl on the inside until they had como to a path by which they had approached the house the double of bitters had stopped at a small summer house on he edge of the lawn in plain stew from the veranda and had remained there an hour or more while lord colewan Co lewyn with miss brandon and her mother for a part of the time had sat on the veranda during this period lord colewan had frequently directed attention to seated in the summer house finally and doubtless upon a signal he had sent a servant to summon bitters and the real bitters had responded coming up to the veranda where of course he lad been unmistakably recognized by hrs brandon and her daughter ahe alter of whom was able to declare from he depths 0 honest conviction that ha lad not been out dofher sight yet the tact was that bitters had cen to town and had cashed tho check secretly into the arbor atter vard in a way which I 1 was able to out and even in part to trace by I 1 RAN DOWN THE FLEEING ashen actual markings thus taking the place of his double who then crept out as bitters had come in returned to town packed up his belongings in the hotel and fled the resemblance of the double to bitters had been strong enough to permit of this deception at the distance ot the arbor from the veranda but would not have sufficed for the fraud at the bank when mr brandon had heard my story and had hastily verified a part of it his natural impulse was to give cole wyn a chance to defend himself but aa we were about tp summon him mrs brandon broke in upon us having overheard so much that the remainder could not be concealed mrs brandon at first supposed that I 1 was attacking the validity of lord cole title that I 1 vas trying to prove him a bogus lord such had been her own fear in regard to him he had seemed too good to be true she had read the newspapers and she knew that bogus lords are permitted to exist by an inscrutable providence and to disappoint the fondest hopes of ambitious mothers so she had taken shrewd measures to assure herself of lord Cole genuineness and in this crisis she overwhelmed me with proofs of it in vain I 1 protested that his title and my accusation had nothing to do with each other mrs brandon seemed incapable of perceiving the possibility that a real lord could do wrong th scene was fast becoming hysterical and mr brandon wisely broke t oft aad went in search of colewan Co lewyn tom and I 1 led mrs brandon to the darkest and quietest spot on the veranda and in a few minutes ethel came alyin around an angle of the house mother she cried dreadful has happened father baa taken lord colewan up to hewing room the sewing booro echoed mrs brandon the house la overrun aalde the arl it was tha only place where they could be alone tell me but 1 her mother had sunk into a chair an l seemed incapable of speech turned to tom but I 1 aland by and see that happen telling that tory would not help tom in his lovema kinc afterward for girls have an Ind tena memory of those that hurt them it seemed much better that bho should have a disagreeable recollection ot DM and BO I 1 deftly got in toms way and began my painful task I 1 was interrupted by a dull efty sound that seemed to be directly dovw my head I 1 paused looking upward up there eald the atri pointing tom I 1 cried do you know tb way before he could reply there was a bound of shuffling feet and then a alg ure swung into view from the edge ot the veranda roof and dropped to th ground exclaimed he take that plunge for nothing both tom and I 1 sprang to the veranda rail but all was in deep shadow on that side and we could not tell which way colewan had gone in an instant we both were over the rail the fugitive bad taken no harm from his fall of fully twenty feet and had made off for perhaps a seconds space we stoos baffled and then a great flare of light struck sharply across the darkness the whole space between us and tin arbor with its background of trees ans bushes was brilliantly illumined and in the midst of this expanse was cole wyn running as if for his life A mighty chorus of yells from bayon the house told us the cause of the wel come light alie fireworks display haa begun with an enormous set piece showing the american eagle sketched in white fire and in the light of ehlt glorious bird of freedom I 1 ran down th fleeing without difficulty it Is no great feat for a trained runner ft overtake a man who has never special study to that exercise A nice easy tackle brought Cole nose ana the soil of my native land into dost touch with each other and then ton came up and helped me lead the back to the house there we learned that the interview between the noble lord and his pro lve father in law had ended with fi threat of a criminal prosecution whereupon colewan had struck down th white haired old man with a somewhat remarkable weapon one of those long round needle cushions stuffed with emery powder an ideal sand club the blow stunned him but inflicted no lasting injury that Is it inflicted no lasting ln jury upon mr brandon but it smashed miss ethels ideal of an english lord into ten thousand pieces mrs bran dons fear of scandal saved colewan from a jail and he departed from that house forever that evening under tb flaming eyes of a flery portrait 0 george washington |