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Show and when her grandmother Is convinced con-vinced that I am no fortune-hunter nnd that I am a steady going young gentleman with no bad habits hab-its and the ability to make Deborah happy." "Oh, no, she Isn't," Tubby contradicted. con-tradicted. "Isn't she?" Tubby straightened. lie put his hand on Bryn's arm. "Look here, Bryn," he said, "what's the use of your trying to hold out on me? Why don't you come across with the whole story? I know what it Is, anyway. It's another of those crazy quixotic notions of yours. 'What are you trying to put over now?" "Nothing." I nently respectable hotels. Tubby, hands In pockets, stared unseeing-ly unseeing-ly at the candle sconces on the wall, fitted now with weary electric elec-tric bulbs which gave out barely-enough barely-enough light to disclose the dangling dan-gling crystal ornaments on the sconces themselves. The grandfather clock In the corner cor-ner ticked slowly. "You're crazy," Bryn murmured, and took out his watch. "Me?" Tubby asked In amazement amaze-ment and sat down in a comfortable comforta-ble chair. "The clock. It's slow. My watch says ten minutes to nine." "Oh. So you were talking to the clock?" licnieym&oiv far ance5Kglletj WeJ!JL-ri "Merely a slip." "Slip is right," Tubby muttered. "Talking to clocks!" Tubby went so far as to say that If Bryn, at the "You lie. The girl can't be marrying mar-rying you to get her grandfather's money, because you're not Stuart Graham, and you said yourself that the will stated specifically that unless un-less Sbe married Graham and Graham Gra-ham only, on or before her birthday today she wouldn't get the money. Didn't you? And you're not Graham." "Well," said Bryn at last, "not-specifically. "not-specifically. Not very specifically. I've read quite a few legal documents docu-ments . . . this was a ferociously legal document, Tub, with a lot of whereases and in-as-much-ases and party-of-the-second-parts, and that kind of thing. If Deborah's grandfather grand-father hadn't told me what It was that he intended, I wouldn't have been too sure." "But Is it ambiguous, after all the fuss? Why make a will like that and leave it ambiguous? Can the girl get around it? Marry anybody any-body at all and still get the money?" "Well," Bryn admitted slowly, "no." age of six, had not fallen upon him violently one day as they rolled off a roof together, he would not have bitten the end of his tongue and so begun a lisp which would endure to bis dying day. "Thlip ith right," Bryn repeated absently to himself. "Talkingh to clockth." "Go to hell," Tubby said bitterly. He folded his hands before him. There was a long silence. "Bryn," Tubby said abruptly, and stopped. "Tubby," Bryn answered politely. "Bryn, what are you doing it for?" "There Isn't any reason why I shouldn't do It." "Well," Tubby exploded, "you're not getting anything out of It. That's what I mean. You're getting get-ting into an awful mix-up with all kinds of possible consequences, and you're not getting anything out of wasn't like that: Grandmother had said so herself, blushing furiously. She said the love a woman had for her husband was something quite different, more wonderful. Stuart Graham was writing to her now. He had begun when she was twenty, and over the first letter Gary had shaken his head and said It sounded very sudden, somehow; and over the second he said the fellow fel-low seemed to want to know an awful lot about what kind of Investments In-vestments Grandfather had left his money in. He and Deborah talked it over, and Deborah had said, with those cold fingers at her heart and a smile on her lips, that it didn't matter whether Stuart had any money or not, that surely she had enough for two, and the situation was that If she didn't marry him, poor 'or not poor, there wouldn't be SYNOPSIS I vn (James Bryntldson HI) a bronzed young; man of wealth, bl3 chum, Tubby Forbes, are ft isslng Bryn's coming marriagre 4 believes it a scheme to get t:-' I wealth from him. Should the K T)eborah, whom Bryn had met ,V,e office of his attorney, Ted Hol-t Hol-t ''hy marry Stuart Graham before 'twenty-first birthday, she will t. it a vast fortune from her "father. Stuart had greatly dis-r- Ted Deborah, who refuses to !v him. Bryn, posing as an ungloved un-gloved engineer, offers to marry ran as Stuart, for $30,000, they - to live as man and wife. Twen-'ree Twen-'ree years previous, Anne Lar- had eloped with an adventurer BMie day set for her wedding to !S--rtney Graham. Two days after Pn- birth of her daughter, Anne died. M y after, the father died. The Seds grandparents, took the child 'ti them to Oregon where, without 3 companions, Deborah grew up. safeguard her from seme for-V for-V hunter her grandfather had Ffnged for her to marry Stuart, of Courtney Graham, when of lan' "No? No? But . . ." "But we told her she could. I told her. Holworthy told her. Of course, if she's gone off and tried marrying anyone else, he'd have been forced to explain to her that on second reading . . . and so on." "So," Tubby said with the man- anything for any of them. The time was desperate. Gary said miserably that they wouldn't be able to pay the taxes on the only home they had, If they didn't get some money soon. So of course there was nothing noth-ing to do but go through with it. And then the very worst thing of all happened. For some reason that Grandmother couldn't understand, except that since a Graham had 1 done It there must be a reason and a good one, Stuart had Joined the navy two or three years ago. And now something had occurred, something some-thing he didn't quite explain. As a result, he was not going to be able to leave his ship by Deborah's twenty-first birthday. For a few days, Gary and Grandmother Grand-mother and Deborah were thrown into consternation ; and although for a moment when his letter first it." "Consequences?" Tubby still sat In the big chair and considered, his blue eyes on Bryn's gray ones. "Pilar, for one. You'd make a very nice couple. That is . . ." "Pilar would make a nice couple with anybody. And we've settled about her, so don't go back over that again, Tubby. Only there's a suggestion I'd like to make. If I were you I wouldn't rush over to Pilar's tonight right after the ceremony, cere-mony, because if you were to get down on your knees in my pants there would certainly be a catastrophe." catas-trophe." He stopped In front of the grandfather grand-father clock and gazed earnestly into its dingy face until Tubby had stopped making his spluttering noises. There was another long si- ner of a talkie villain. "Well," Bryn said for the third time, "what of it? It gets her out of a jam, doesn't it?" "And you pay over a million of your own dollars at the end of a year, and she gives you fifty thousand thou-sand for your services. Is that the way It works, noble Sir Galahad?" "Oh, I don't know. I think we can break the will. Holworthy's going go-ing to do his damnedest. And, if he can't .. . . well, the money means quite a bit to her. If when you meet her you'll understand a Tt?- CHAPTER I Continued 2- was here that Mr. Larned VVed that his unhappy expense expen-se had not gone for nothing. He 14 i determined to leave nothing to le:-nce. He was determined that '-rything should contribute to-!tTj to-!tTj making the young people will-:'--to marry each other. He made e r- will, and it was a model of in-ral-uity. In it he said that his ntklaughter Deborah should In-LS!lt In-LS!lt the large part of his fortune, jj;;)unting to something over a niil-ijM niil-ijM dollars in government bonds, if r only if she married Stuart Gra-ua Gra-ua on or before her twenty-first ";hday. On her twenty-first birth-oB birth-oB i her grandfather, if he were lotjre, would be eighty-five years of .(:;. It was not likely that he would ,'trj long after that date, so the old l faced the situation squarely: he should die before her twen- irst birthday, she and her grand-?lier grand-?lier were to live on the income lilm a selected list of more profit- came, Deborah had run out and hugged a tree for sheer joy, she had seen in no time that something had to be done. Stuart had a plan. He had gone on to explain that, fortunately for-tunately enough, his ship would be with the rest of the Pacific fleet, anchored in Golden Gate harbor in San Francisco bay; and that it would be quite simple after all. little better, Tub!" "Humph," Tubby said. They both stood up. Bryn looked at his watch. Ten minutes past nine. The grandfather clock choked, muttered, cleared its throat and gasped out that it was nine o'clock. "Just the same," Tubby said explosively, ex-plosively, shaking down his trouser leg, "just the same, a year is too long. An ignorant, unsophisticated, unsophisticat-ed, dowdy backwards country girl, who's never been anywhere or seen anything . . . milk and water, as uninteresting... after Pilar!"..." "Sh !" Bryn said quickly. He took three steps .toward the door at the end of the long room. Tubby stood up, too. The door was opening. A tall gentleman in black pushed the door open and held it. Behind lence. Seven minutes to nine. "What about this sailor, this Graham Gra-ham fellow?" Tubby demanded, abruptly. "Do you think he's going go-ing to let any man crack him in the jaw and then marry his girl without with-out doing anything about it? What about him?" "Oh, he's all right," Bryn said lazily. "His enlisted time doesn't expire for two months. And he isn't much to worry over, anyway." "Oh, Lord," Tubby said prayerfully, prayer-fully, and put his head in his hands. Bryn went over and sat down beside be-side him. He tweaked the yellow lock. "The whole trouble with you, Tubby, is that you're one of these sermons-in-stones people. I mean, you can't help looking for trouble. Why can't you take a thing at its ao securities chosen by him with .;at care; and if anything hap-J hap-J ed to prevent Deborah from 5- Trying young Graham, then the une was to go to charities, but S was to have the Income from m? securities for life. The latter Vi sufllcient to make her comfort-i&B comfort-i&B and keep her from want or .erty ; but it was not sufficient attract the attention of a scoun- lly fortune hunter such as her "! her' had been. Deborah could come down and meet him in San Francisco, and they could be married there. Quite simple for Stuart, perhaps, but a most upsetting Idea for Deborah Debo-rah and Grandmother and Gary. Obviously, if Deborah went, she must go alone; since Grandmother Grandmoth-er could not possibly go, and Gary could not possibly leave her. And Deborah had been so little In the world; she had never traveled anywhere any-where alone. The world was a huge noisy whirling place, and she had lived always in the quiet and peace of the mountains. Still, It was only a matter of a trip to San Francisco; Fran-cisco; because, once there, she could go directly to the hotel Grandmother knew about, the hotel at which they had stayed years ago; and from the hotel she could go to Mr. Holworthy's office where Stuart would meet her. Stuart was a Graham, and a gentleman, and as soon as she met him her troubles trou-bles would be over. This was what Grandmother said, and outwardly Deborah assented; but to her he was really a man and a stranger, and in her heart was a deadly terror of marriage and whatever what-ever It might meau, of meeting this strange man and being with him, being alone with him. . 'lie will was carefully planned I executed, and Grandfather '.led and nodded to himself when-Wlr when-Wlr he thought of It. An absolute MLj-proof and rogue-proof plan, he r.,iJ to his wife over and over, i ""inindfatlier had died when Debo-Ssji Debo-Ssji was just past fifteen; and "Qgs had gone quite smoothly for jffr'v three years longer, with rJy managing everything, the lse, tlie business letters, the mon-niatters. mon-niatters. But then something fljnnge nnd unexpected had hap-JHfried hap-JHfried out in the world, and Gary jun to go about with a worried wn. Finally and Deborah was iglli hteen then she had made him life :l her the trulh. r ft: There was something about a ish in New York something had ipleil nnd fallen, and their care- ' JK .'Ij.'.1 L I f rAH4 him came Mr. Holworthy, his smile astonishingly serene and content. For - years Mr. Holworthy had guarded the Golden Fleece; yet here he was, calm and undismayed, lending his arm and his moral support sup-port to this menace of Bryn's peace of mind, this girl who could wreak the most dire havoc in Bryn's affairs. Tubby looked at the girl. He choked. Bryn stood without moving. She was finishing a remark to Mr. Holworthy as she came through the door on his arm. Tubby did not hear the words, but he caught the melody of her voice. It was like that of a very young child, with an appealing break in it; one thought of small birds learning to sing, of hyacinths in spring gardens, of silver sil-ver bells at twilight. She was a very small girl as she stood hesitantly there. A very small girl, and she was dressed in white. Her skirt was so full that it stood around her in a circle, and only the tip of one tiny white slipper could be seen below it. She held it off the dusty carpet with the tips of careful fingers. The bodice was slim and pointed, and her waist could have been spanned by a man's two hands. There were little pulTel sleeves below her white shoulders; the neck of the dress was low, and above it her throat was creamy while and soft. She had pinned rosebuds against it in front, after a hasty, Hushed look Into the mirror, and they lay pink and fragrant against her delicate fl I i . Around her neck was a short strand of tiny pearls, and from her ears hung little round pearl drops. She looked like a miniature of one's grandmother, grand-mother, painted on her wedding Grandmother was horrified when they came to contemplate Deborah's Debo-rah's wardrobe. She wanted to write immediately to Boston and have a large selection of articles sent out, but Deborah convinced her that there was no time, and that they would have to manage with what was in the house. So they made a traveling costume from one' of Grandmother's. It was quiet and reserved, although perhaps the lines were not such as a professional profes-sional dressmaker would have put into it. It would serve. The dress was made of brown cloth, very neat and plain. A hat was rather a problem, but they evolved one finally, a neat small black turban with a modest cluster clus-ter of velvet pansios on one side. Grandmother sent only one other dress, with Deborah; her own wed- ., list of securities had collapsed F" a careless heap which was .j linging them scarcely enough to jll'e on. Grandmother didn't know, course. Grandmother couldn't yj told anything like that. Gary 7 d been most relieved to tell Debo-and Debo-and It had been good fun at s ,5t, to think of themselves as Dt-or. Of course it would be only JftS'"1 r0',01'lh was twenty-one, and bwi?n they would be wealthier than iooiar. Until Deborah was twenty- "il;6"-11 11 nd Illn like a t,iroiul of jtJYR through everything they did, ruugh all the little subterfuges (Iw keep Grandmother from know- V,?. through the hard work, the ri'dening, the building of the i"l;e house to cure venison and for the larder. WAnd then, suddenly, Deborah was Bt,yeii(y and a half. "There Isn't Any Reason wny i Shouldn't Do It." face value and stop worrying? All that's happening is that I'm lending my name and my charming personality person-ality . . . because I have to win over the grandmother, too, perhaps I forgot to mention it . . . for a year. What's a year? The last pair of elephant tusks I brought home cost me a year, and I've been sick of the darn tilings for a long time. After all, an elephant tusk-is tusk-is not exactly a thing a man wants to look at more than two or three times a day, and it isn't a thing din" dress. When they tried it on, it fitted perfectly. Deborah looked at herself in the glass, and then quickly back at Grandmother, with dark startled eyes. "It's . . . it's . . ." she touched jjTwenty and a half, and marriage is something unknown and fright-.'"S- What was marriage? Why Sjl a girl have to marry a man, a nyurig man she had never seen, ami 3fJ- well, when she did marry him. day. And her face? A small white oval face, without a hint of color In the cheeks, but with a pair of the softest reddest lips in the world. They were the j kind of lips winch look like the hud of a red rose when they sny "no" and there was something about the firm little round chin which sug- j jested that she might often say I "no." Kyes like purple pansier, soft and velvety and dark; and as if eyes ami lips nnd tiny hands in white lace niinens were not emoiLrh, her hair was of red gold, curling and breaking Into a million misry teinlriis around her fare. (TO DE COMl.M'EDJ you ever get really fond of and like to cherish, you know." Tubby raised bis head. "Oh," he said ominously.' "i?o you're planning plan-ning to cherish this Deborah woman and get fond of her, are you? Now that I understand why you're marrying mar-rying her, do you mind telling me why she is marrying you? It doesn't work both ways, you know. It couldn't be, even if it's what I'm beginning to think it might he." 'T.ut 1 told you why she's marrying marry-ing me," r.ryn said kindly. "I really real-ly explained it very nicely. Sue's marrying me to get a million del- J lavs, one year from today when the conditions of Hie will are fulfilled TJilsWt happened? Grandmother Jgnildii't explain. She said Stuart lj:"13 gentleman, nnd -anything "jVeburah didn't quite understand, he j2,!f:ohl explain to her. T.ut It wasn't gClln"li. And, for the first time In jj.r life, Deborah couldn't ask Oarv. ,P.liey talked about love. Well, that yIMs easy. Deborah loved Grand- 'Vr dP!,rl-v' 1,cr s-eet, frnsllo' , P .!aCe' her t0,uipr hns, her soft ''' en e sn,ne. She-woul(1 hnve (,()ne njlhlng for Grandmother. But it the neck. "It Is for your husband, my darling," dar-ling," Grandmother said gently, and Deborah's blood was cold again In her veins. CHAPTER II TUr,r,Y had finally finished dress ,ig and now, after a hurried trip across the city in Bryn's roadster road-ster thev stood waiting in the bin parlor of one of the old and emi |