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Show f Vrl ' yVr.-g Jgl WNU Service. HJS&S&cjf SYNOPSIS THE STORY SO FAR: Janice Trent runs away from wedding: Ned Paxton, rich, but a cay blade. Unbeknown to Bruce Harconrt, a family friend, she becomes be-comes secretary of an Alaska camp of which he Is chief engineer. Millicent Bale, wife of the man whom he succeeded, suc-ceeded, Is also attracted to him. Bruce at first wants to send Janice back. On a trip to the city, she encounters Paxton and tells him she is married to Har-court. Har-court. The latter hears It and Insists on a wedding that day. That night, after a wedding party arranged by the Samp sisters, elderly owners of the Waffle Shop, Mrs. Hale breaks In on the newly-weds newly-weds with the cry that her husband had been shot dead. She also says: "If you only had waited, Bruce." Bruce spends the night investigating the mnrder. A Commissioner arrives to conduct an official offi-cial probe. Jimmie Chester, Mrs. Hale's brother, who hated her husband, runs off In a plane. Bruce and the Commis-' Commis-' lioner set out to find him. Now continue with the story. "I will take yon down the coast In my yacht." CHAPTER XIV A yell of horror cracked in Bruce's throat. He seized his rifle, climbed down from the cockpit, tumbling, slipping, raced toward the man wielding a gun like a club as a great polar bear charged at him. Another, smaller, bleeding, roaring horribly, was struggling up from the Ice. Harcourt stopped. Raised his ri-v. ri-v. He. Fired. His gun cracked again. Again. Both animals crumpled into mounds of white fur. The man who had been defending himself jumped back, turned. "Bruce! Bruce!" The universe steadied. Panting, bleeding, ashen, dripping with moisture, mois-ture, Chester stumbled forward. His eyes were the eyes of a man who has stared death in the face. " "Just in time! I shot the cub didn't know there was another and and " he swayed. Harcourt caught him. "Take it easy, Jimmy, till I can get you into the cockpit." With, moans, Chester pulled him-elf him-elf up. As he climbed into the cockpit, Chester mumbled deliriously: "Take me back Chief. Crazy tunt to run away. Milly heard me threaten Joe. I'll come cross with " His face contracted in pain. His eyes closed. Grant's usually clear voice was . toneless. l'Did you get those notes - typed?" "Yes." He picked up the sheets Janice Indicated. In-dicated. "You're good, you are certainly cer-tainly good. When you leave us you'd better take a turn at the reduction re-duction of the Public Debt." "Leave! What do you mean?" "Don't like the way this guy Paxton Pax-ton has been hanging round since i Our Hero left. He and his 170-foot yacht, with its twin 550-horsepower engines, make headquarters look as bare and unlovely as a plucked chicken. I'll bet Bruce would be fit to tie if he knew that bozo was here." "Ned arrived before he started." "He did! And he went off and left you?" "Of what Importance am I in comparison com-parison to his job?" "Says you." Grant's always ruddy rud-dy skin took on a deeper tint. He clearly gave her the impression that In his opinion Harcourt was deeply In love with her. But he quickly changed the subject. "I've just found out that Kadyama didn't appear at all at the squaw-dance squaw-dance the night Hale was shot." "He told the marshal that he was there after nine." I kinder think Millie ent's goin' to enjoy widowhood like some folks enjoy en-joy poor health. She's talkin' an awful lot about missin' Joe. Now, makin' allowance for the shock, an terrible unhappy with him." "You don't understand folks who aren't hacked out of Plymouth Rock, as you are, Martha." If one of the scarlet-coated Hessians Hes-sians on the hearth had slashed with his gold saber, Janice wouldn't have been more surprised than she was at the younger Samp sister's outburst. out-burst. Martha stared at her with faded agate eyes. "Mary Samp! What foolish talk! Have you gone plumb crazy?" "Crazy! I've just come sane. I've spent over two years of the precious few I got left cookin' waffles up in this wilderness, where you don't ever see anybody, when I might have been seeing places, real places, an' having clothes, real clothes. Great things are goin' on in the world, an' all I know is waffles an' then more wafHes." Martha Samp opened her lips. "Mary Samp!' Your head's been turned readin' those fashion magazines. maga-zines. Foolish things." "They ain't foolish. They're like fairy tales to me. When I read 'bout slim, slithery women in trail-in' trail-in' silver dresses an' ermine capes an' emerald bracelets glitter-gleam-'-"J-Tn- thei? arms, I'm them. You an' I are not poor. You like to pile up money. I don't. I'm going to spend my half. I'll stay here till the last boat goes out, then I'm through with pots and pans and waffles." She sank back, visibly shaking. Her sister's voice was as sharp as a razor, though Janice saw the glint of tears in her eyes. "Sakes alive, Mary Samp! I didn't know you had so much spunk. An' here I've been layin' awake nights wonderin' what would happen to you if I died. I guess I'm not so important im-portant as I thought I was. You'd probably get on a heap sight better bet-ter without me. If that's the way you feel, you needn't wait for the last boat. Go as soon as you like. I don't need you." Paxton, who had been standing by the mantel smoking, flung his cigarette ciga-rette into the fire. He laid his hand on Mary Samp's heaving shoulder. "Call her bluff. I will take you down the coast in my yacht. I'll give you the time of your life. I will take Mrs. Hale too, if she'll come." Mary Samp wiped misty eyes with a shaking hand. "I'd like it, Mr. Paxton." after him, didn't you?" "And got him!" Janice banged the door behind her. Humiliation succeeded fury. If moments of crisis revealed one's true self, she and Millicent Hale had not shown up well under the late passage-at-arms. Two tenement-house tenement-house women fighting over a man would have stripped down to the same basic frenzy. "And got him!" What would Bruce think if he heard what she had claimed? The question which haunted Janice's waking hours, intruded in-truded on her dreams, . bobbed up again! "Was Bruce in love with Millicent Mil-licent before I came?" As she opened the H house door she heard a thud. Pasca, his plaid shirt of a blinding brilliance, was laying a log on the fire. "Set up the card table," she said. "Lay the cloth and arrange the Chinese Chi-nese pewter tray the way I showed you. Be sure that the water for the tea has been freshly boiled. Grate cheese on crackers and brown them, put others together sandwich fashion fash-ion with guava jelly and chopped nuts." The man's stolid face brightened in a childish smile. "How many tea? One? Two? Tree?" "Four cups. Put on your white coat." As she removed a faded flower flow-er from the bowl on the table desk which had been full of red roses the first time she entered the cabin, she asked casually, "You like the white coat, don't you? What do you wear when you go to dances? Feathers Feath-ers and blankets or just ordinary clothes? Perhaps you don't dance? Perhaps you weren't at the squaw-dance squaw-dance the night the Samp sisters had the party for me?" He stiffened into immobility long before she had finished speaking. Before he answered he shuffled across the room, removed the embroidered em-broidered tea-cloth from the dresser dress-er drawer. "I not go to dance, no sirree. Work all time at Waffle Shop. Tell Kadyama, 'You help. Then I get through much quick, tfien we two go squaw-dance.' He say ho. He plenty lazy all time." He spread the cloth carefully and pattered into the kitchen. Later, seated on the spavin-legged stool before the crooked dressing-table, dressing-table, Janice thoughtfully buffed her already polished nails. Had the party come? Janice flung open the door in response to a knock. Her smiling lips stiffened. Ned Paxton. Pax-ton. Alone. She feigned enthusiasm. enthusi-asm. "Come in. Where are the others?" "Coming. I'm the vanguard. As the relations between the Samp sisters sis-ters seemed a little strained, I left them to fight it out." Back to the fire, he lighted a cigarette. Janice was conscious of his critical scrutiny scruti-ny of the room as he inhaled and exhaled a long breath of -smoke. His cynical eyes came back to her in the fan-back chair. "So you chose this in preference to what I could give you?" His amused incredulity stung her. She struggled to keep her voice as lightly contemptuous as his. "But, you see, I didn't have to take you with it." " 'Touche!' Score one for you." Janice asked with honest curiosity: curiosi-ty: ''Why did you want to marry me, Ned? I am different in all my tastes from the girls with whom you play round." He frowned as he regarded her with appraising eyes. "You'd be surprised if you knew how many times I have asked myself that question. ques-tion. I went out of my way to meet you. I was curious. I had heard that in spite of the fact that you neither smoked, drank, gambled nor petted, men hung round you in smitten smit-ten swarms, that you had more friends than any girl in your set. I didn't believe it, but I fell for you like all the rest" "Smoking for some inexplicable reason makes me dizzy and cutting out the whoopee stuff was no virtue in me. I tried it all. I don't like the ugly and sordid, and more particularly par-ticularly the cheap things of life. They leave tarnished memories. My inhibitions ought to prove to you that I wouldn't fit into your scheme of living." (TO BE COSTIM EDJ "He sure did. But he wasn't." "Where was he?" "That's what I mean to find out. You're the only person I've told. Don't breathe a word to anyone. The Commissioner and Harcourt are sure that Mrs. Hale knows more about the late unpleasantness than she is telling. They radioed that they would be back at headquarters headquar-ters tomorrow. Didn't say whether they were bringing Chester. Get her up to the H house for a cup of tea this afternoon, can't you? I'll drop in. Philo Vance stuff. If your former for-mer fiance comes, all to the good. I suspect that the sunshiny presence of a multi-millionaire might help dispel her gloom." As she walked the short distance to the Samp cabin, Janice marshaled mar-shaled her memories. Where had Pasca been the evening of what he called the marriage-party? He had welcomed Bruce and herself when they landed on the flying field. She couldn't remember having seen him even for a moment during the festivities. fes-tivities. She paused abruptly on the threshold of the Samp living-room. Kfed Paxton was beside Miss Mary at the table from which books and lamps had been removed to make space for a profusion of unmounted photographs. Martha, in the wing chair, white-stockinged feet on a stool, shoes on the floor beside it, peered from behind a newspaper. "Sakes alive, aren't you through work early, Janice?" "Mr. Grant closed the office early. I had finished the work he left. I suspect that he didn't want to be bothered with me. Immediately I thought of a tea-party. Where is Mrs. Hale?" Martha Samp's voice was grim. "Sbe isn't what you'd call cheerful. Millicent Hale was seated at a desk littered with papers when Janice Jan-ice entered her cabin. In her black frock she seemed passionless, remote, re-mote, intangible as a shadow. The fire cast rosy shadows on her skin without warming it, flashed reflected reflect-ed flames into the strained eyes without lighting them. Janice felt her color rise in the face of her well-bred surprise. Mrs. Hale touched her black frock. "You are inviting me to a party?" Her pained surprise made Janice Jan-ice feel like a worm. "I didn't mean a real party. Merely a cup of tea. I thought coming to the H house for a while might shorten the day for you. It must seem horribly long." Millicent Hale's shudder was slight, quickly under control. "This day is neither longer nor harder than many other days have been in this horrible country. Has Bruce been heard from?" "They radioed that they would leave the northern camp early tomorrow. to-morrow. Would reach headquarters in the afternoon." "Have they found Jimmy?" "Nothing was said about Mr. Chester. At least Mr. Grant told me nothing." With a sob, relief perhaps, Millicent Milli-cent Hale laid her face on arms out-flung out-flung on the desk. Janice tried to comfort her. "I wish that I might help you." "Help!" The woman rose with a haste which catapulted the somnolent somno-lent Pekinese to the rug. Her voice shook with anger. "Help! You! You've snatched all the good in life there was left for me. You knew Bruce years ago, I hear. Met him again, ran away from the man you were to marry, disguised yourself as a boy, brought a trunkload of seductive clothes and came hotfoot |