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Show fSS BJIIFE IF fisiiif f I "" i!,' 0 D. AppUton Contuiy Co., Ino. WKTT C i funny if he knew it." "Doesn't he?" "No. He's too absorbed in his own big problem. He's an unhappy man, mid with good reason. But he wants everyone around him to be contented. He has always seen himself as a benevolent god in the machine, working his miracles to benefit others. It is to laugh!" Hale moved abruptly in his chair and Amsworth took the hint He" had finished his liqueur. He got up. "I'll be oft now," he said. "See you at Halcyon Camp. Shall I tell Miss Hosanna you'll join our happy band in time for dinner tomorrow night?" "Yes, thanks." "The dinner hour is half past seven, sev-en, and the run down takes almost two hours. You'd better come on the half-past four train." "I will. Thanks again." They shook hands and with a strong sensation of relief Hale watched Ainsworth's departure. He T wants a new car," Mrs Nash hefsenaetdarent,She if h I I" the 3erk' "He thi"ks he wrecks this, he'll have one mTann ,En reminded you that my annuity d.es with me. You'd have to go right to work, probably don't turn ; And' darling' of n J 1 Pmt out th beauties J""1 t0 us when you're driv- mnr V Speed' There's n ght more beautiful to me than a young driver who keeps his hands Irmly road." W Ws eyes on toe The cub turned and waved a care-Ms care-Ms paw. He was lightly clad in a low-necked khaki shirt, khaki shorts, and a pair of dirty white tennis shoes. He had a brown skin, brown hair, and brown eyes. She returned her full attention to Hale, and gave him a few details about the neighborhood. "They're very casual at Halcyon Camp, ' she told him, when she ; 1 willing to be approached or disturbed. dis-turbed. It spread over a lot of ground. A large screened-in veranda veran-da ran along the entire front of the frame building. Another extended along the right side. French windows win-dows opened on these. There were a number of outbuildings. Several tents were set up on pine board foundations and entered by roughly built steps. There was an impressive impres-sive out-door oven for camp cooking. Down on the beach he saw what were evidently private bath-houses, a boat-house and a pier. A good-sized good-sized float loomed up some distance from the shore. Yet with all this, Halcyon Camp did not suggest a hospitable home. Throughout his life Hale had been subject to what, for lack of a better word, he called "hunches." His hunches were sudden and strong convictions. Without understanding them he had developed a certain respect re-spect for them. He had a hunch now, and he did not like it. I It was a long time since be had experienced a hunch so definite and disturbing. ;vV'a'f 'successful but Ci Ve tells Hale of aV,kuS L insane Invites him H'on Camp, his ml a d promises him .'$5r scerc,a,y V the American outfit ii1 -:(or several years, Hale ' ", rk "Been living abroad. ;r , certain satisfaction in AT" ftan the ground up." I agreed and led him $ '".fie socks, underwear and "' Hale bought a lot of them ?3l C, in a new dressing-gown. P ;:;ehisold one, he decided, i who cleaned his boots I) modest hotel. It was cer-I cer-I hand-me-down condition. Ji : -be bills with undiminished ;:.i!S and went to a popular IT 'Tjt'at one o'clock for needed T "a refreshment The restau- -soneKneeland had recom- Z in the final moments of 3 .-imew. ilj .'..his excellent luncheon with i fc!; .yment It was great to eat ''M (cod again. iT" 'i teflon his shoulder. -L. Goldman. Maxim ought to is a i ""tere in his restaurant as a -sal exhibit You look like m 'Tijj gobbled the canary." ''X"! ; like her. So would you if : been eating omelets and ieel in Spain. I got back Pti -ae yesterday." ,sl5 :,i:eeland said." " ; ion know Mr. Kneeland?" ' is! He sent me here to look ijj," .:, Said he had advised you 3 here today, and he thought itiii..i ' ,. ' Kll RED :iJcomer dropped into the nri . H;!e indicated. -a will you have?" Hale W : . i but a cordial, thanks , ,, irandy. I've had my lunch." iniiji .uimmoned his waiter and or- ie liqueur. He was not en-at en-at lit a over the encounter, but ; pleasant to see almost any H -J lace. He had had to think Li to remember who this fel- :i Someone he had known at ;;! No. At Cornell? Yes he jeow. Ainsworth, Frederick tifmri :1l & looked exactly as he ied then-dark, thin, sleek, Biiio -fed, cat-like, sardonic. KM I on Mr. Kneeland' s mind asked conversationally. - .. reply showed that he b rU. ::jed as little in character as stance. "a :d deal, I fancy," he said iii as he sipped his liqueur. ing to pass on to you. That S ' send yu any mes-J'EU mes-J'EU I think he told me. to look you Co, lie wanted to get rid of , dropped into his office at "a and he didn't care to take k3 :ta lunch." Liri fnvery successful," Hale -si w" : ' to odd expression fell jQ worth's smooth face. It ;; 1 dark mask settling into jUJ! to hand. AH stentatiously he ; the subject. "He tells me T'e'0 Halcyon Camp." !(IJ0 , lm going tomorrow after- ll r out there my- S.JW interest me very J'"" in V ? see what yu in :p ure In for some g is rather cryptic," jv !fCplace- Onthesur- & is sweetness and LOPE :r.u earCehfarrmed tomorrow : CLB"don;t scratch 1m i lo mSeU u mem-,sb mem-,sb 'shost mment he was . . -Hall, ..mi. , ent on '',fr?C,'m- "There's 3t0r ' asfc--blonde lady with ' "end of Berfs. :r, 3"1 e. Bm Us person. y hhteTv 811 myste- ?"S Study, Y0U'U flnd us fe. ;l sea and 'our romantic S) is n,,S y and woods- ooJ1, Je Zl Kneeland told t 'Ssu t6d ironically. . mp Vi 6 Contrast ntitl 1 reai;y is. Utt be, is awfully reached that point of interest. "It never occurs to them to meet guests, or to get them to trains, for that matter. Time means nothing to them, and they're no respecters of persons. Mr. Kneeland talks about living close to the soil. He lets his guests do it, but he makes himself thoroughly comfortable. You won't catch him ploughing through the underbrush and along muddy country roads to the Camp. Miss Hosanna and Joan do it half the time. Mr. Kneeland keeps his car for his own journeys back and forth. Bert has a four-wheel wreck that he disappears in every day, when he isn't off in his motor-boat Here we -are. Sorry I can't take you to the door. Follow those excavations exca-vations at the right. They represent a road." Hale thanked her and jumped out of the sedan. He grasped the bags and his hat-box and started off along the branch road that ran at an angle to the so-called highway. At a rather unexpected turn in the road, he saw the Camp. He stopped, put down his luggage, and looked it over. It was not a camp or a bungalow, bunga-low, but a big mid-Victorian house set in a wide clearing. Seen at that short distance, it had something some-thing of the effect of a brooding gray hen with outspread wings, crouched close to the earth, and un- Hale straightened, drew a quick breath, and picked up his luggage. It was a long time since he had experienced ex-perienced a hunch so definite and so disturbing. He approached the strangely silent si-lent house. There must be a number num-ber of human beings in and around it, but not a sound suggested their presence. Many of the windows were open, and their chintz curtains billowed in the breeze. Not a voice was heard, not a note of music came out to him, not a dog barked. One would think they'd have dogs in a place like this. If they had, the dogs were inside, hidden like the humans. Hale strode up the wide steps leading to the front veranda, passed through the screen door, reached the double front doors, and pressed a compelling finger against an electric elec-tric button on a side-panel. Light steps came along the inner hall and the right-hand door swung open. A young and pretty girl, in a maid's uniform, gave him a welcoming smile and stood aside to let him pass, even before he spoke. She was so pleasant to look at, so matter-of-factly reassuring, that the newcomer newcom-er experienced an absurd sense of relief. He smiled at her as at a familiar friend. (TO BE CONTINUED) told himself irritably that the fellow fel-low had pricked his balloon, and the next instant reproached himself for being so susceptible to the man's influence. in-fluence. Hale finished his shopping and saw an amusing play that night. It diverted him even more successfully than the shopping had done. He took a calm mind to bed with him and into dreamland. But his dreams were troubled. Kneeland had told him to leave the train at a certain station, adding add-ing that it was three miles from the Camp and that probably he would be met. Hale left the train at that station ' shortly after six the next evening and was not surprised to find no one in sight who seemed to be looking for a red-headed stranger. stran-ger. It was a lonely little station and only one passenger had got off with him. This was a slight woman, wom-an, coolly dressed in blue voile. She had bent a furrowed brow over a note-book during most of her journey. jour-ney. She seemed to be unsuccessfully unsuccess-fully adding columns of figures that annoyed her. A small sedan car with a youth at the wheel was waiting wait-ing for her. On her way to it she heard Hale question the station agent, who stood on the platform, as to the direction of Halcyon Camp. She turned and came toward him. She was a woman in her forties, with prematurely white hair, a youngish face and a worldly smile. "You must be the young man Miss Kneeland is expecting today," she said cheerfully. "Hasn't anyone met you?" Hale jerked off his hat and returned re-turned her smile with warmth. He liked her on the instant. "No, but it isn't far to the Camp. I'll enjoy the walk." "You won't enjoy three miles of it with all that luggage. Put ft in my car and I'll take you to the edge of the camp clearing. I don't like the road that leads to Halcyon Camp itself. I can drop you when we come to that road, within a quarter of a mile from the house." "That's awfully good of you. My name is Hale." "I know.- You're the young engineer engi-neer who has just got back from Spain. Miss Kneeland told me about you last night. I'm Mrs. Wilbur Nash, one of her neighbors. This is my son, Wilbur, better known in the neighborhood as 'the Nasn cub.' " ,. Hale had put his luggage into the car. Now he got in himself, and took the seat Mrs. Nash indicated beside her. The boy started the car with a jerk that lifted his passengers from their seats and sent it along the narrow rutted country road at almost al-most 50 miles an hour. |