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Show LBYE1 CT0IEI1 CHAPTER VI Continued 6 But the minister's wife was still a rivldly handsome woman. She had taken good care of herself; 8he had made a business of keeping young In looks as well as In spirit. In a clear, full voice, trained to reach remote perches in lofty theaters, she spoke to her husband from the coach steps: "Herbert, dear, have you the checks for my baggage, or have I?" "I I will attend to the trunks " he began huskily, only to be Interrupted Inter-rupted by the indefatigable Sammy. "Don't give 'em another thought, Mr. Sage. I'll see to everything. Give me the checks and right this way, please, Mrs. Sage." "Thank you thank you so much.'' said Mrs. Sage graciously, and, as Sammy bustled on ahead, inquired In an undertone of Jane at whose side she walked: "Is that the wonderful Oliver October I've been hearing so much about?" "No, mother-that Is Sammy Parr. I I don't see Oliver anywhere. I wrote him the train we were coming com-ing " A few pace ahead Sammy was explaining ex-plaining loudly to Mr. Sage: "I guess something Important of a political nature na-ture must have turned up to keep Oliver Oli-ver from meeting the train. We had It all fixed up to meet you with my car and he was to be here at four sharp. Doc Lansing's up at Harbor Point, Mich., for a little vacation. Won't be back till Sunday week. Muriel's out here in the car, Mr. Sage. She'll drive you home while I see about the baggage." bag-gage." Mr. Sage had recovered his composure com-posure by this tlnte. He leaned close to Sammy's ear and said gravely: "Luggage, Sammy luggage." "Sure I get you," said Sammy, winking. "But just the same I'll call it baggage till I've got it safely out of the hands of Jim O'Brien, the baggage master. Here we are! Hop right in, Jane. Permit me to Introduce myself, Mrs. Sage. I am " "I remember you quite well," Interrupted Inter-rupted the great actress (pronouncing It "quate"). "You are Sammy Parr little Sammy Parr. "I say, Herbert, old thing, you can't make me believe this Is Rumley. You are deceiving me. I don't recognize a single Oh, yes, I do ! I take it all back. I would know that man if I saw hlin in Timbuktu. The old Johnnie in the car we Just passed. It was Goocli the amiable Gooch and, my word, what a dust he was raising !" Oliver, pedaling furiously, arrived at the parsonage ten minutes behind the Sages. The minister greeted him as ho came clattering up the front steps. "Sh 1" he cautioned, his linger to his lips. "Don't make such a noise, Oliver Oli-ver if you please. She's she's resting. rest-ing. Sh! Do you mind tiptoeing, lad?" "Whore is Jane, Uncle Herbert?" broke in Oliver, twiddling his hat. He was struck by the dazed, beatific, and yet harassed expression in the minister's minis-ter's eyes. "Jane? Oh, yes, Jane. Why, Jane Is upstairs with her dear mother helping help-ing her wilh her hair, I think. I am sure she will not be down for some ' - time, Oliver. After the hair I think she ruhs her back or something of that sort. Do you mind strolling around the yard with me, Oliver? I was on the point of taking Henry the Eighth out for a little exercise." "Henry the what?" inquired Oliver, still gripping the pastor's hand. "The Eighth," said Mr. Sage, looking look-ing about the porch and shifting the position of his feet in some trepidation. "Bless my soul, what can have become of him? I hope I haven't been standing stand-ing on him.. I shonld have squashed him Ah, I remember! The hat-rack hat-rack !" lie dashed Into the hall, followed by Oliver, and there was Henry the Eighth suspended from the hatrack by his leash in such a precarious fashion that only by standing on his hind legs was lie able to avoid strangulation. "I am so absent-minded," murmured Mr. Sage, rather plaintively. "Poor doggie! Was he being hanged like a horrid old murderer? Was he " "1 say. Uncle Herbert, don't you think .ls-ne may have finished er rubbing Mrs. Sage's back by this time?" Interrupted the impatient Oliver. "Possibly," said the other. "Come along, d'ggie let's romp a lilt." Meanwhile. Jane, having brushed her mother's hair, was now employed In the more laborious task of rubbing the lady's back. "You have a great deal of magnetism In your hands, my dear." droned Mrs. Sage, luxuriously. "As I say, my maid always did It for me in London, but she never had the touch that you have. The right shoulder now, please." "I tli ink Oliver is downstairs with father," began Jane wistfully. "She was my dresser, too," went on Mrs. Sage drowsily. "Really. I wonder now that 1 endured her as long as I did. And I shouldn't if she hadn't been so kind to Henry the Eighth. I do hope your father Is giving him a nice little romp in the front " "Shall I run down and see, mother?" moth-er?" broke In Jane eagerly. "Presently, my dear, presently. I shall be uklng my tub in a few you say wi have a bathroom now? Dear me. how the house has grown. How mauy servants have we?" "One." said Jane succinctly. "One?" gis;ed Josephine. "I never nard of such a thing." "One lg tli we need, nnd besides one Is all we can afford. I am afraid you will bnv u lot to put up with, mother CLOIU " By George Barr McCufchecn WNU Service Copyright. Bell Syndicate Josephine was silent for a long time. Suddenly she lifted her head and looked up into her daughter's face. "My dear," she said, with. a wry little twist at the corner of her generous mouth, "I've come home to stay. I daresay you will find me capable of taking things as they are. I did It once before, and I can do It again." The express wagon with Mrs. Sage's trunks arrived as Oliver, in despair, was preparing to depart as he had come, on Marmaduke Smith's bicycle. He took fresh hope. Here was a chance to see Jane after all. "Where do you want the trunks, Jane?" he shouted from the bottom of the stairs. There was no answer. "Where shall we put them. Uncle Herbert?" Her-bert?" he asked, his hands jammed deep In his pockets. "Bless my soul, I I haven't an idea," groaned Mr. Sage, passing his hand over his brow. "Unless you put them in my study," he suggested brightly. Fifteen minutes later, the trunks being be-ing piled high In the pastor's little study, Oliver mopped his brow and expressed ex-pressed himself feelingly to Mr. Sage from the bottom of the porch steps. "Uncle Herbert, I think Jane might have been allowed a minute or two to "Sh! The Windows Are Open, Oliver." say hello to a fellow. Good Lord, sir, is is this to be Jane's job from now on?" "Sh ! The windows are open, Oliver." Oli-ver." "Is she to be nothing but a lady's maid to Aunt Josephine?" "We are so happy to have her with us, my dear boy, that er nothing er " "I understand, Uncle Herbert," broke In Odver contritely, noting the pastor's pas-tor's distress. "I'm sorry I spoke as I did. Tell Jane I'll call her up tills evening. And please tell Aunt Josephine Jo-sephine I am awfully keen to see her. I used to love her better than anything any-thing going, you know." Then he pedaled slowly away on Marmaduke's wheel, looking over his shoulder until the windows of the parsonage par-sonage were uo longer visible. CHAPTER VII Oliver Is Worried Three days later, the sheriff of the county served papers on Oliver October. Octo-ber. Tile prosecuting attorney had refused re-fused to lay the luatter before the grand Jury, as requested by Horace Gooch.- but had grudgingly acceded to his demand that an official investigation investiga-tion be instituted and carried to a definite conclusion by the authorities. "I want you to understand. Oliver," explained the sheriff, "that this is none of my doing. Goocli has obtained an order from the court, calling for a search of the swamp and your premises, prem-ises, basing his affidavit on the suspicion sus-picion that his brother-in-law came to his death by foul means and er so on. He agrees to pay all the costs arising from this investigation in case nothing comes of it. On the other hand, if your father's body Is found, and there is any evidence of foul play, the county naturally Is to assume all the costs. The old man has hired two detectives to come down here and take active charge of the work. I hope you won't have any hard feelings toward me, Baxter. 1 am only doing my duty as ordered by the court." "Not the slightest feeling in the world, sheriff." said Oliver warmly. "I wish you would do me a favor, however. how-ever. The next time you see my uncle, please remind him that my offer to give $.",000 if he finds my poor father dead or a'ive still holds. You can start digging whenever you are ready, sheriff. If any damage is done to the property, however, I shall be obliged to compel my uncle to pay for it. Don't I forget to tell him that, will you?" The sheriff crinned. "I wonder if this old bird knows how many votes he's going to lose by this sort of tiling." Oliver frowned. "His scheme is to throw suspicion on nie, sheriff. Tliat'4 what he Is after. It Is possible that a good many people will hesitate about voting for a man who is suspected of killing his own father." "Don't you worry, Oliver," cried the sheriff, slapping the young man on the back. "Things are coming out all right for you !" Fully a week passed before a move was made by the authorities. The newspapers devoted considerable first page space to the new angle in the unsolved Baxter mystery, but not one of them took the matter up editorially. Notwithstanding the reticence of the press, the news spread like wildfire that Horace Gooch was actually charging charg-ing his nephew with the murder of his father. The town of Rumley went wild with anger and indignation. A few hotheads hot-heads talked of tar and feathers for old man Gooch. And yet deep down in the soul of every one who cried out against Horace Hor-ace Gooch's malevolence lurked a strange uneasiness that could not be shaken off. The excitement over the return of Mrs. Sage was short-lived on account of the new nnd startling turn In the Baxter mystery. Acute Interest in the pastor's wife dwindled into a mild, almost al-most Innocuous form of curiosity. Ladies of the congregation, after a dignified season of hesitation, called on her that is to say, after forty-eight hours and were told by the servant that Miss Judge was not at home. She would be at home only on Thursday Thurs-day from three to six. Some little confusion was caused by the name, but this was satisfactorily straightened straight-ened out by the servant, who explained ex-plained that Miss Judge and Mrs. Sage were one and the same person, and that she was married all right and proper except, as you might say, In name. Mrs. Serepta Grimes, being an old friend, was one of the first to call. And this is what she said to Oliver October that same evening: "You ask me, did I see her? I did. I told the hired girl to say who it was, and In a minute or two she came back and told me the barefacedest He I ever heard. She said Mrs. Sage wasn't at home. Well, do you know what I did, Oliver? I just said 'Pooh' and walked right up the stairs and Into her room. She got right up and kissed me five or six times and well, that's about nil, except I stayed so long I was afraid I'd be late for supper." "Did you see Jane?" broke In Oliver. "Certainly. Do you want to hear what Josephine said about you?" "Ni, I can't say that I do. By the way. Aunt Serepta, there is something I've been wanting to ask you for quite a while. Do you think Jane is pretty?" Mrs. Grimes pondered. "Well," she said judicially, "it depends on what you mean by pretty. Do you mean, is she beautiful?" "I suppose that's what I mean." "What do you want to know for?" "Eh?" "I mean what's the sense of asking me that question? You wouldn't believe be-lieve me if I said she wasn't pretty, would you?" "Well, I'd just like to know whether you agree with me or not." "Yes, sir," said she, "fixing him with an accusing eye, "I do agree with you absolutely." "The strange thing about It," he pursued defensively, "is that I never thought of her as being especially good-looking until recently. Funny, isn't It?" "There are a lot of things we don't notice," salt she, "until some one else pinches us. Then we open our eyes. I guess some one must have pinched you. It hurts more when a man pinches you 'specially a big, strong fellow like Doc Lansing." A pained expression came Into Oliver's Oli-ver's eyes. "The trouble Is, I've always al-ways looked upon her as' a well, as a sort of sister or something like that. We grew up just like brother and sister. sis-ter. How was I to know that she was pretty? A fellow never thinks of his sister as being pretty, does lie?" "I suppose not. P.m. on the othpr hand, he never loses his appetite and hopes and has t he blues if his sister happens to take a fancy to a man who isn't her brother. That's what you've been doing for two or three weeks. If you had the least bit of gumption, you'd up and tell her you can't stand being a brother to her any longer and you'd like to lie something el.-e If It isn't too late." "Ore!" exclaimed he ruefully. "Rut suppose she was to say It Is too late?" "That's a nice way for a soldier to talk." said Mrs. Grimes scathingly. Oliver saw very little of Jane during the days that followed Mrs. Sage's return. re-turn. Her mother demanded much of j her; she was constantly In attendance i upon the pampered isdy. Oliver ; chafed. He complained to Jane on 1 one of the rare occasions when they were alone together. I (TO BE CONT1.STKD.; I |