Show h 6 W 0 IS B v J w afi JP B H fl t IT r a k rm 4 4 by AGNES MILLER seral 0 by the century co SYNOPSIS on a certain momentous monday borni ff miss constance fuller cataloguer and seller of rare aar books at dabrowa Dar rowa new and secondhand second hand bookshop now new york notices that the farst customer Is a dignified white bearded old gentleman who raun tern into the alcove pla carded medical works CHAPTER I 1 continued I 1 2 1 ithen I 1 then devoted my fingers to the 66 index and my thoughts to wondering it peter come came and explain himself I 1 whirled to the tee window for more cards and I 1 whirled back there was peter himself sitting in the abig oak chair at my left oe be had fand stolen docu the gallery stairs behind ime I 1 managed not to gratify him by I 1 jumping but I 1 had bad to stare he ele who I 1 was habitually as vent neat as a fresh gardenia gari was attired in a suit that wrinkled all over his bis athletic form his bis shoes were dusty three cinders clung clong to 40 one side of a much swollen nose nom ille gazed at me so trustfully that I 1 longed to weep I 1 good morning constance this to Is a heck beck of a kersjes mers yes jes he be stig suggested simply i something happened peter I 1 tal fal not oh no nothing mr darrows Dar rowa nil ready to fire me all mercy 1 why oh dont let me disturb you I 1 find that card catalogue more interesting In gihan than I 1 am peter I 1 am obliged to put this catalogue in apple pie order for this afternoon when mr darrow has commanded me to expound its principles and nd workings to his nephew capt caal eric ashland informing me as he be did per telephone lione that I 1 have his entire confidence captain ashland as you know Is chief cataloguer for Ash landa lands of london and he has boa como come the whole way across just to pay us a vt visit sit I 1 am informed that he keeps stock lists I 1 in manuscript in a notebook such as was brought over by cullam ithe the conqueror and while I 1 really idon don tsee why ho he if he likes to tind and cAni can make malid it work l we mr darrow wes hopes he be can get the some same system of classification aaion used in the two houses for the sake of aim business so it Is my buet business to convince nephew of the cod corn superiority of the american ime method now ive told goumy you my vou bles tell me yours gee whize I 1 hope you you enjoy yourself self I 1 remarked peter comfortingly constance youre a real sports ill bet a whole cent against ten billion rubles that forgive me tor for being naughty when I 1 tell you my sad story etory ive left my happy home and I 1 only wish it could have been tor for you for or whom was 14 it may I 1 ask my stepmother what I 1 know I 1 had bad one myself until saturday well I 1 certainly hope your father will be very w awk well he wont she wore a pink hat bat and called me petey so you had bad to quit not precisely that the real reason son confided peter distractedly was nancy she eloped that Is she did for a while she got tired of it and came back I 1 was distinctly bewildered tor for ti while alle a fortuitous stepmother in it 0 yink hat bat Is indeed a frightful atlon tion I 1 should have been sure that peter peiter would see bee his sister nancy through anything lie he said once that fight against it as ag you might you had to get fand of a kid brought up since she was ten peter had find just parted his bis lips to explain when again the front door opened this time it admitted not a customer but an extra band sent up by nn an employment agency for the crisis i in ID the shipping office he was a rough young man indeed I 1 glanced at peter questioningly as we watched him start down the alde aide however he was mr biggs business not ours my telephone then rang rana and just jus st as I 1 finished answering the inquiry peter P ad 1 I l exchanged an other obber glance mr riggs biggs had evident ly been ready to put up op with anybody for peter and I 1 heard beard a click which signified to us that the appia icart leant bad punched the time dock clock as an employee already what ive been beeh trying to tell you peter resumed ree umed la 19 that I 1 got out of jail early this morning what were you in for aorl I 1 inquired courteously but dazedly disturbing the peace and assault with intent to kill I 1 guess if so the second item etim Is correct but the alist Is a misapprehension for it happened in philadelphia anyway when they heard aheard the whole story they let me ine go jyoo you know a little while ago mr dar arow row sent bent we roe olf off on a long trip to clia chase ve biow boo ks well the last place which I 1 reached last chiji thursday aday was richmond vo iva where I 1 was to laok loo over the late judge leavitts famous lew library just due to be auctioned there were a number of bootes books in it which we wanted amo amons ug them one that the legal federation has bait been forever pestering us to find for them its iti called notes oni on medical statutes in the clr virginia code by justice Wh ortley clarl how hew dated ten and A nd I 1 since observed peter watching nie me closely that announcement does not seem to unnerve you particularly ill add that this Amer american lead law book cont contains altis a colfax coif ax bookplate boob pi ate CHAPTER 11 II the odyssey of peter 1 I now jumped so BO promptly and openly as to gratify peter deeply harassed as he was I 1 recalled hugh colfax as one of the most gut Erule hed engravers of his big day a strange strang arresting character old when the nineteenth century was young the stoutest of british patriots from the outbreak of the american revolution to his death he be refused to execute any of the orders for bookplates which in those days of the infancy of design and engraving in this country cultivated americans especially bouthern ers were in the habit of sending to england I 1 had once lebn seen and care t V I 1 he was a lough young n g mari man fully studied se several veral colfax plates af the home of a collector who was one of our best customers alad abd had invited me to a private view but an american colfax would upset all history and t tradition 1 I do docant want to see it V I 1 cried Yot youre tre sure su reIts its a real coif colfax ax do bod you know bw augh hu gh colfax refused every american order he received and he could have always named his bli own price the owners name Is IV It dated give me a chancel begged peter its more than I 1 got upstairs this morning actually I 1 dont dare leave the building until mr darrow oh ob 11 4 11 1 there goes that infernal time alm clock again I 1 excuse me constance nerves are shattered go on about the bookplate well thursday morning I 1 had just picked up the catalogue in the exhibition room of the richmond auction galleries when my eyes lit on notes on medical statutes et ct cetera I 1 asked the clerk to bring it out he said another gentleman who hod had called for it was still examining it and would I 1 walt wait I 1 did nod and glanced up the counter casually at the other gentleman thinking I 1 could get a tine line on him if he be should be a rival bidder all I 1 could see of him was his back but it was enough I 1 considered him to be an exceedingly strange gentleman to be interested in an old law book lle be was young and dressed like a baj bad actor with a good job bright blue sult suit gray chats slick black hair while waiting his bis pleasure I 1 wandered off air to look at boad other ex near the door end and while I 1 was examining them a girl walked in from the street streel past me she was the loveliest girl constance ive ever seen gentleman of mhd the spats spate had vanished vanish ed I 1 was assuredly the word intrigued correct especially as aa I 1 at antei perceived that the young lady was completely absorbed in examining the cover of the book boob which she ibe wai ana bold hald In ing gopen open just as the man had that hat Is so as to took look at the inside lefthand left hand cover I 1 could see sec it bad a bookplate on it it well that girl suddenly laid down the book on the counter and fled out of tho the door that time I 1 got hold of it I 1 wondered why in thunder those two young people could apparently be so interested rested anan in an ordinary bookplate the first thing I 1 noticed about it was that one corner corner was was loo loose sethe the right fiand h and corner under the snake you know the snake what in the world ah I 1 have hae it I 1 you ou mean he Iser serpent peni twisted like a capital 0 10 1 that Colfax signed his best plates with a circle means eternity a serpents wisdom had taught him how io to draw immortal designs modest old chap it nice that the legal federation has baa already ordered the book so we shant have every bookplate collector in the city here to fight for the plate it be the first time it has been fought fort broke in peter bitterly you see I 1 judged those two young folks must be collectors of bookplates who each thought he or r she had stumbled on a real flod find in that old law book and were keeping it dark so BO as to snap it up at a bargain everybody knows that once in a while cataloguers catalo catalog guers ners miss a trick like anybody else now I 1 had general staf standing idIng orders to buy that book whenever I 1 came across it it I 1 spent the rest of the morning in libraries arles and museums tracking down information about bookplates with snakes 1 I finally discovered colfax and figured out what you imply that bebas so much against free Stater St aters sand and the near west polle policy y that no one had ever thought of his drawing a yankee book plate pla te but of of course what whai nobody no body thinks if f Is usually right I 1 felt sure pure id d come across something unique and I 1 have I 1 felt sure it if I 1 landed book and book bookplate pInte id get ag is reinforced cuDe rete with mr darr darrow w and chave cotil 1 B but you au gobat you give borttl for it five hundred and ten doll dollars a is peter eter burton I 1 I 1 was simply aghast with the best luck in the world and admitting that a rare book bookplate pinte would considerably increase the value of notes on cal statutes we could never get such an outrageous price for it it if the legan federation had bad not put in a request for it we might have had to hold bold it for some time before finding a purchaser who would be especially interested te and peter well and hitherto coolheaded cool headed noi not to say unimpressionable knowing these facts as well ns as the somewhat thrifty reputation os of the legal federation library committee had bod paid five hundred and ten dollars for a book which he be infiel it have expected to pick up cor car perhaps sixty I 1 how long this blow left me speechless and staring I 1 do not exactly know I 1 saw the white bearded old gent gentleman lilman saunter out of the medical alcove cross the aisle into that oli opposite the law book alcove then come out again directly and beckon emily james who was then corn cam ing up the alsie aisle with an ad armful of books to come and turn on the light for him RS as the law book alcove was dark I 1 saw him reenter re enter it I 1 watched her proceed placidly to her work in the front of the shop I 1 saw professor barrington s sidling idling toward the front door and then out of it with a pile of books and a quaint farewell bow to me theo then I 1 suddenly heard beard peter again proceeding with his odyssey 11 so as there was no use putting i it off directly I 1 go got t back this morning I 1 told ur mr darrow what id had bad to pay and he be gave me well a scolding of course I 1 stood on my cor orders td been told to buy that book whenever I 1 found it and be had bad never set any price limit III peter leter I 1 inquired suddenly why did you buy that book peter scarlet glared at me he fie fidgeted then he anally burst 0 out vi i mind im telling gils chia to you fou not mr darrowl darrow 1 I 1 bought it because au ae that girl want that fellow to get itil iff what wb atla V at the auction she sat across the alele aisle four rows alfear ab ead of me ive i never aeve seen any one look so frightened tho che first bid on the book was madel madaj by the agent of the auction firm who acts for absent buyers wap ohp glend in writ written bids i raised it and was thunderstruck to see that girl giri turn around and took right at me with absolute relief on ae her bacel the agent raised my b bid ld nobody I 1 e elsa I 1 se made any so eo as 1 1 hanseen had seen that girl bound away from that fellow that morning i naturally concluded putting two and two together that blat it must be his bid which I 1 was ans opposing the bids hla his and mine kept jumping up ten dollars do llara a minute like a taximeter give for two seconds I 1 hesitated thinking 01 ol 01 duty and darrow I 1 suppose and the auctioneer roared out his bis second going and the girl looked around at m me 6 as if she were dying I 1 knew some something thug terrible was the matter I 1 snap snapped out a new bid and kept on bidding until bye everybody in the room was getting br breathless eathle ss and jumpy the other bidders limit must have been five hundred which was the some same as giving an order for the book at any price i well live five hundred and ten land landed edit it in my net all about that constance im not a good liar remarked peter deprecatingly so 1 will not conceal the fact that something gave me cold chills down roy my spine whenever 1 I 1 thought of that pesky book and aid when I 1 w was A s at that evening my roo room in was entered and the lock joel of my sult caso broken gracious I 1 and the book was 1 in the hotel safe and as nothing was missing it was the the book the visitor wa was s lut interested ersted in 6 after my room was entered I 1 got it out of tho the safe and looked carefully all through it its an exceptionally cl clean an copy there was no old will or thou than sand dollar bill or indeed auy any other property orthodox or otherwise between the leaves it certainly y la Is not intrinsically worth so much effort no ll 11 Ih I 1 agreed greed even the bookplate by itself should I 1 be unusually lucky in a rather foell foolish h purchaser probably fetch abre more than seventy flie dollars wheres the book now mr darrow has it 1 I did you sm tel tell him a anything thing about it besides all the owr allusion can hurt my feelings any more morel I 1 no not one thing why peter 1 in your place I 1 should have bave explained to fo him about my great ond find yes you would t when you had just spent uvo five hundred and ten dollars 1 of his precious pre prec clousi ioui cash sunk it in the sea it if id told him about the bookplate id have hae ha e told him how I 1 really came to buy the book and all about the girl I 1 decided to let him discover it himself then hell be pleased to death and forget the past and remember the fatura the fu repeated peter with sudden anxiety recalling something further distracting listen coast constance ance th t kid sister of mine nancy will drive vae me out of left ol of my mind I 1 told you once 1 I that mr roberts linberts li promised her hei a position here as a stenographer ei ez as soon as she qualified fied for it well at that business college of hers she met inet ft my bly desk telephone hode tinkled peremptorily too bad with peters arrest hla his little sisters escapade the cl cinders Liders on his bis nose all ail unexplained that mr air darrow should be paging him through gl the housel house 1 but perhaps I 1 suggested hopefully our common commender der lo ln achl calaf had already made the joyful ery ery abo about ut the bookplate peter r refused comfort 0 a fathers got married nancy ive lost the only girl I 1 could ever stand looking at twice my busi bus nes ansa reputation is ruined and he concluded rising pits its all the fault of that thai darned colfix colfax bookplate book plate I 1 what next I 1 wonder murder I 1 shrieked a |