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Show n BEN AMES WILLIAMS UC eU drive In-fore the ImU'l. "Here you arc, kInUt. I'll curry your bugs." She followed htm Indoors. At the desk Mr. Jenkins said to the clerk: "Give her b good room, , Dnve. That oonior room, second Moor, Is empty. Isn't It'.'" Ho winked, but Robin wns registering, did not see him. The clerk minted Dnve looked admiringly nt her bowed hend nnd pursed his lips In a soundless whistle. whis-tle. Ho culled n boy, nnd Robin turned to tlinnk Mr. Jenkins; but he went with her townrd the stairs, the boy with her bug nnd pncksiick preceding pre-ceding them. At her room, she thought for nn nlnrmed moment thnt Mr. Jenkins wns coming In; but he put a key Into n door opposite hers. "I'm just ncross the hnll," he snid. "If you get lonesome, sing out. Wnnt to tnke a wnlk before dinner?" "I think not." "I'll see you nt dinner, then." She locked her door nnd told herself her-self that he wns just friendly. She henrd a steamer whistle, and went to her window and snw the White Queen departing, and that made her feel lost and nlone, and she lny down, nnd for a while she cried, lying ly-ing on her face ncross the bed. She cried, very quietly, for a long time. Then she began to think nbout Angus McPhail. It was to find him and try to comfort him that she had come ashore. He would undoubtedly un-doubtedly be staying nt the hotel, so after a while she went down to the office to enquire for him. "Is Mr. Angus McPhail staying here?" she asked. "Mr. McPhail?" He seemed sur- ( l Ml MA i ' ' . i I VtIK SWHY Si F AK: Aftrr in Id Oinu(hlp Wilt Mi-t'h.tH itarta tor ft um xwtr job ftf Mttosti llAy, ipAvlnt MoMn lt lo wimitrr how ft rartrr Ktr! could be o complelrly swept off her feet. She knows Utile o( Wilt, eicet that he Is n engineer mt thAt he has ft brother itAiuetl Angus, ft ctour Scot who hntes nmrn. Kohln declites to follow Will to Mooe Uav, tint she doesn't see him. Shortly nfler the White queen docks, Kobtn toes swimming. As she stands on the deck will Mrl'hall sees her. In tliaj moment he loses his balance mid the crane in which he Is rldtnc falls Into the water. Annus Mcl'hall blames Robin for Will's death. Now continue with the story. CH.VrTKR V The purser found a car; nnd he was putting her bags in it before she saw that Mr. Jenkins wns driving. Mr. Jenkins said, in a pleased tone: "Decided to stay, have you? Say, you change your mind, don't you? You're right, though! It's a great place. I'll take you to the hotel." Mr. Lewis helped her into the car. She thanked him, and Mr. Jenkins started toward shore. She looked straight ahead, not as a defense against him but because she did not want to see what the workmen were doing; but almost at once he pulled over to the side of the dock and stopped and pointed. "That's my boat down there." She saw a gray motor cruiser, long and low with a high deck forward, moored beside the dock. "Care to go aboard her?" he asked. "She's comfortable, neat as a pin." "I'm rather anxious to get settled. set-tled. Do you mind?" "I have to stop a minute, myself. You'd better come see what she's like." "I'll wait here." So Mr. Jenkins dropped down to the deck of the cruiser and disappeared dis-appeared into her cabin. A man came purposefully across the dock to look down at the boat, and then at Robin; and Robin closed her eyes and was very tired. When Mr. Jenkins Jen-kins got in beside her again, and she opened her eyes, the man had disappeared. "We're pulling out Monday," Mr. Jenkins told her, driving on. "Say, ' I'm glad you're staying. I'll show you the town tonight You'll get a kick out of it." They were approaching approach-ing the landward end of the dock. "Tough about young McPhaiL The kid got fancy with that crane and it killed him. You can't monkey with those babies." The car jolted over I the rough road, and suddenly he I used the brakes and stopped and I spoke to a man walking toward the J dock. The man was dressed like a I workman, but he looked at Robin in I a way she felt. He said to Mr. Jen- I kins: "I was looking for you." 1 Mr. Jenkins asked the man a curi- I ous question. He asked: "Got the I tickets?" I The man grinned faintly, and I looked at Robin again. "All collect- I ed, yeah," he said. I Mr. Jenkins nodded. "Then we'll I let 'em in tomorrow." He added: I "I'll be taking a walk tonight. I I might see you." I "Okay," the man assented. "I'll I be around." I The road, with a railway along I one side to carry freight from the I pier head to the towTi, rounded a j rocky point where the whole face of I the precipice had been blasted away I to let it pass. Robin began to be I interested, to ask questions. Wher- I ever a trickle of water came down I the steep slopes, there were signs I warning passers not to drink the wa- j ter; and she spoke of them. He I nodded. "That's all bog water," he J explained. "It'll make you sick. I They cut a tunnel six feet square I through that mountain up there and I they bring water down from Bear 1 Lfke now." They approached the j first buildings; and he pointed to I one. "There's the police station. I Five cops. They'll stay indoors and I have a poker game tonight." j "Why?" I "Saturday night. Three thousand I men out for a good time can use up I five cops pretty quick." I "Oh! What do they do for a good I time? Movies?" I He laughed. "Liquor up, mostly. I No women here. Drink, and gam- I ble and fight." j She remembered a passage in I Will's letter which had puzzled her. I "What's 'alky?' Alcohol?" I "Sure." I "But why don't they drink whisky, I or beer, or something?" j "Can't get it. Alky means small- er bulk, so it's easier to run it in, j and the men get quicker action when I they drink it. Here's the mill. They I set up the machinery first and then I build the mill around it. Here's the I warehouse where they'll store the I paper. You could play football in j it. It's big enough." I "Imagine enough paper to fill it! I Where will it all come from?" I "They've a tract of spruce here I two hundred miles square. It'll take I fifty years to cut it, and by that time j a fifth of it will be big enough to I cut again." He spoke as of a per- 1 sonal achievement. "This is big busi- I ness, sister. They've spent a million I dollars a month here now for over a I year; building churches, freezing I plants, schools, houses. There's the j bank." The car bounced and I groaned over bumps in the raw mud j of the road, weaving among trac- I tors and workmen and scrapers and j teams, to turn at last into a grav- "WU cntiii him nt his bout when he comes to bed." "Mightn't ho bo there now, plruso?" "Well, It's easy to find out." They drove out the long dock. Under floodlights, men were busy nt the spot where the barge nnd crime nnd sunk. Mr. Jenkins went down a ladder nulled ngulnst piles to the deck of what ho snld wns Mcl'luill's boat; but the cnbln scuttle wns padlocked, pad-locked, nnd he climbed the ladder ngnin. "Nobody home," he reported. "But he'll be along. See here, If you don't wnnt to mix with that crowd of drunks In town, let's wait on my boat till ho comes." "Do you think he'll come here?" "He's bound to. Either here or the hotel," "We might find him quicker, If we kept hunting, mightn't we?" A group of men, singing as they enme out along the dock from town, nppronched nnd snw Robin. Mr. Jenkins wns on the other side of the car, hidden from them. They stopped beside the car and pressed near, nnd one of them demanded cheerfully of his companions: "Say, do you see what I see?" lie spoke to Robin. "Kid, you've come to the right place. You're going to have lots of friends here." Mr. Jenkins moved nround In front of the car so that the headlights head-lights struck him fair. He said to this man: "Do I know you, buddy?" His tone was quiet enough, but the man stared at him and mumbled mum-bled sudden apologies; and he and his companions went hurriedly away. Robin said in some surprise: "Why, they were afraid of you!" "I told you I'd take care of you," said Mr. Jenkins. "You're pretty enough to start a riot, you know. But you don't want to do that. We'll keep you out of sight. Come aboard my boat while we wait for him." In the end she consented. His boat proved to be almost luxurious. He began to talk about the trip toward to-ward Labrador upon which he was about to start; said it was a pity she could not go along. "You'd be mightily interested, and you'd see a lot to paint, up that way." "I'm sure I would." "I wish there was some way we could manage it." He seemed to have a sudden inspiration. "See here, Marm Freel has been after me for a year, wanting to go up there. I go once a month, selling my line. She's Dad Fred's wife, sixty-odd, a good sport. Suppose she came along? You and she could have the cabin here to yourselves. There's room for me forward." He said he was leaving Monday night "You don't have to decide now," he aoded before she could speak. "We'll see Mrs. Freel tomorrow and talk it over, ani if you like her, you might decide to come." "There's no harm in talking it over," she admitted, smiling a little. lit-tle. "But I'm afraid I can't take the time. Who is Mrs. Freel?" "Dad Freel's the barber," he told her, and laughed. "Quite a character." charac-ter." "Do you suppose Mr. McPhail has come?" They climbed to the dock level again; and she stayed by the car while he descended and went aboard McPhail's boat. The companion scuttle was open now; and Mr. Jenkins Jen-kins called, got no answer, looked up at her, and then descended into the cabin. As he did so, someone spoke at her elbow. "What's Wanted here?" She turned and looked up into the ugliest countenance she had ever seen. She said hurriedly: "We want to see Mr. McPhail! We're just trying to find him." The affrighting man peered at her. "Did ye ever dive off the White Queen's bow?" he asked thickly. "Eh, bad cess to ye!" He gripped her arm with one hand, jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the men busy above the wreck of barge and crane. "If it's Will McPhail ye're wanting to see ye'll not want to see him. The diver's just got him loose yonder. They'll be bringing bring-ing him up now." Mr. Jenkins appeared beside them; he spoke quietly. "Hello, Pat." The big man turned. "Eh, Mr. Jenkins." He touched his forelock; but Robin saw that it was with respect, re-spect, not fear. "Where's McPhail?" Mr. Jenkins asked. "Yon?" "No, his brother." There was a wail of woe in the big man's tone. "Eh, the poor man has gone to walk the black hurt out of him." "Back tonight?" "Back Monday noon," he said. Mr. Jenkins looked at Robin. "Miss Dale here wanted to see him." The ugly man looked down at Robin again; and he shook his head. "Let her not," he said grimly. "Let her keep herself hid from the eye of him. Let her keep herself away." He turned and stalked off along the pier; and Robin watched him, strangely shaken. There was something some-thing mystic and uncanny about the man; an enigma in his tones, and an eerie wail of grief when he spoke of Angus McPhail. Mr. Jenkins, Jen-kins, beside her, said: "Well, we're wasting time, then." "Who is that man?" (TO BE CONTINUED) Mr. Jenkins said, "Give her a good room, Dave." prised, as though his preconceptions were somehow shaken. He repeated repeat-ed stupidly: "Mr. McPhail, the fisheries fish-eries man? Why no, ma'am." "Oh! But where would .he be likely to be?" "I don't know. He has stayed here, before." This clerk named Dave, she decided, de-cided, was a little stupid. She asked: "How soon are you serving dinner?" "Ready now," he said. Then he asked: "Want to wait for Mr. Jenkins?" Jen-kins?" "Oh, no!" Why should she resent that question? It was natural enough, since she and Mr. Jenkins had arrived together; but the clerk's tone annoyed her. She went into the dining room; but before she could order, Mr. Jenkins appeared and without invitation sat down at her table. "Well, everything all right?" he asked. She hesitated. "I want to see Mr. McPhail. The one who was on the White Queen. Do you know him?" "Met him today. I'll find him for you. He might be on his boat. It's tied up, out by mine. We'll take a look after dinner." She could discover no good reason for refusing his insistent helpfulness; helpful-ness; and she needed help. After dinner, the clear twilight soft and beautiful, the sunset's afterglow bright across the water below them, she and Mr. Jenkins began their search. They went in the car, and Robin was a little startled to see so many men everywhere, milling to and fro, shouting now and then for no apparent reason, staring at her in the dusk. Angus McPhail proved hard to find. They enquired first at the barber shop. "Freel hasn't seen him," he said. "We'll try the bunkhouse." While he was inside, a fight started not far off, and men raced to form a shouting shout-ing circle around the combatants. Mr. Jenkins, returning, had news at last. "They say he went for a walk," he reported. He looked toward to-ward the yelling crowd. "Want to see that fight?" She shook her head. "I'm really awfully anxious to find Mr. McPhail." |