Show SYNOPSIS THE STORY SO Bruce Alaska finds a alln slipper buckled with brilliants on Fifth When he answers an ad lor its return he Is amazed to learn the owner Ji Janice sister of his She had quarreled with her rich Ned a gay and was about to leave his auto she changed her Her slipper fell Bruce impulsively asks her not to marry But she turns away from the Returned to Harcourt saves a bridge from the chief responsible for the flaw In had teft before the spring The ramp has a new Jimmy a sickly youth who keeps much to but the Samp who run the Waffle take a motherly interest in Now continue with the CHAPTER III new secretary is quick and accurate as a said see him Harcourt Sticks close to the Samp I'D bet they baby Women have to have something to spots still in They wouldn't admit but I suspect the men steer clear of him It's a tough Curious I've never seen Logs were blazing In the roughly built stone fireplaces when Harcourt entered his cabin A tawny stretched at length on the lifted his head from the pillows and whacked a welcoming His master laughed as he rubbed his wide-apart suspect there's something wrong with this If we had a missus you wouldn't be allowed to sleep on that old fella The dog concurred with a guttural Returned from a shower and a change of Harcourt gathered up the mall heaped on the He lighted his settled deep in a comfortable Morris chair and opened a official What had the authorities to say to he Dark color rose to his face as he read the The authorities had to say that he had been made chief of the in place of demoted and Harcourt stared thoughtfully into the He had made He had come to this northern country after having been honorably discharged from the Engineers Corps of the army six years This promotion meant the doubling of his It meant that he could provide certain luxuries for a wife a wife in this Not so He had indulged in all sorts of wild visions since his return from the had pictured Janice in the fan-back chair which had been designed for a lovely woman Had she married Paxton of the golden tongue and With difficulty he switched his train of Hale was out of Would he be a good sport and make things easy for his successor or would he Harcourt answered his own question as he entered the candle-lighted Waffle Shop and met the malevolent glare of the demoted the Indian moved from table to a savage from the tips of her beaded moccasins to the top of her superb head Her face was tragically beautiful Her black parted in the was drawn with satin smoothness over her the blood flowed under her olive An immaculate white apron partially covered her gay cotton from her neck hung a string of evenly sapphire-blue Harcourt took the chair which Grant had reserved for He sensed the lull In talk as he Did the men already know of his change of Opposite him sat Stephen the coast A blond with the regular features of a Greek thickened and coarsened by over-exposure to loomed above the He dropped a hand on Har-court's that was your business in the To turn You think you've supplanted me In this as in another Harcourt shook off the heavy Clean well head he was the antithesis of the man glaring down upon His gray eyes were like black waste theatrical clap-trap on You have your I have I'll see that they are carried get Wait until I turn in my you you Grant sprang to his Hale lunged at The men in the room rose as in a body Harcourt seized his erstwhile superior in a grip of His voice was this You out of this don't yuu never step foot in it You're not boss no twanged i woman's voice from the door which Harcourt seized his erstwhile superior in a grip of led to the Martha Samp stood in the opening like an avenging Under one arm was a massive yellow She emphasized her ultimatum with the wave of a batter-covered Hale met her steady With a snarled imprecation he stalked from the A sigh of relief like the passing of a vague wraith soughed through the room as he banged Men resumed their seats and their attacks on the waffles heaped on their As the atmosphere cleared Harcourt demanded in a low the dickens did you fly at Keep out of this Disappointment plus his habits has crazed The very absurdity of his accusation should have held I saw vermilion when he insinuated wouldn't have been demoted had he behaved knows That's the tragedy of He has dug his own professional grave and realizes He's a wizard of an engineer when he's I've learned so much from him that I shall be everlastingly came over to Harcourt's table and Martha she say for you to go to her soon's waffles Walk she She come Stephen Mallory looked after her Shook his a puzzle to In a crisis she'd revert to the pagan creed of her which was to end a quarrel by the surest and easiest then she'll get Hale Hale will be off before she realizes that he's As he made his way to the living quarters of the Samp he reflected on Hale's vicious Evidently he intended to twist friendly sympathy for his wife into a sordid Tubby and he had been sorry for Dainty as a the little more than a had taken her marriage leaving all others cleave only unto She had followed her husband Into the Once or twice when her brother had been away from she had turned to him or to Grant in an They had done what they could to He obeyed instructions and walked into the Samp cabin without knocking The room was characteristically New furnished as it was with the Lares and the sisters had It had an atmosphere of homey An old-time melodeon stood in one a radio kept it Curious quaint silhouette portraits brightened the moss-chinked From the warm security of the hearth rug a coal-black cat regarded him with slightly disdainful green Over one arm of a wing chair drawn near the fire dangled a pair of legs and feet encased in leather leggings above heavy From its depths came the sound of regular Harcourt smiled Grant's secretary he'd bet a He tiptoed across the He noted the small for a boy His eyes traveled over the curled-up body in its rough brown tweed to the His heart suspended His glance flew from the vivid mouth with the faint red line of irritation above the upper hp to the tapering fingers from which dangled a small golden A wavy lock of black hair had fallen over one Long lay on the crimson The world crashed about his The boy asleep in the chair wasn't a It was the girl to whom he had said good-by in New It was Janice Trent Harcourt never knew how long he stood staring incredulously at the girl's face Janice What had brought her into this Had she married Paxton and found the marriage had she gone so far as that she would stuck it Had she run away before the ceremony to escape the publicity attendant upon a last-minute broken He remembered the frozen voice he had heard at the telephone the night he had returned the The black He could see the buckle of it A slight cough at the door drew his eyes as steel to gaunt Martha with admonitory finger at her lips beckoned with the hand which clutched a Without another glance at the Harcourt crossed the Martha Samp hooked one bony finger into the pocket of his coat and drew him outside the She soundlessly closed the Still holding him she led the way to a rude Put her close to his found He Lord be I won't have to take the What you to Towers of purple dusk were rising against the Far off snow like white dotted a rose-streaked indigo hot blue and white cool red stars spangled the Harcourt's eyes came back to the gaunt face of the woman beside her home on the first This is no place for a I'd like to see any harm come to her with Mary me Miss Marthal You don't think she should stay here masquerading as a now that you she hadn't oughter go back Read It came in today's Weeks I She opened the pointed with a knobby Bruce Harcourt stared down at the pictured faces on the Janice The letters of the caption under them danced Bride Disappears Four Days Before Janice had run away to escape Paxton Would he try to find She was in asleep in the cabin behind What should he What could he do but stand between her and a heart-breaking He looked at the paper tried to say absurd to think this has any connection with with Grant's The woman let's you and me not play at We're the only ones that child has to help I know that's her because she told me that she'd run away from When 1 saw this paper I guessed that she was the girl all Lucky she had spunk to throw him You kin tell from his handsome as a where women's he's as false as Mary's In spite of his anxiety Harcourt laughed as he visualized the guttering uppers and lowers of the younger Samp Miss Mary but she won't tell no Jimmy as she calls told me that she'd known you back in the she think that I suspect her She's sure you don't First time she laughed since she arrived she's got a laugh like music was after she came face to face with you up in the the time the bridge was you didn't recognize She's safe with Martha an We're tickled to death to have someone besides a black cat to make fools of ourselves The men haven't come near Jimmy They don't like the red spots on his Harcourt's throat contracted He had That lovely girl threatened he demanded don't think it's Martha Samp grunted Don't you know paint when you see She's as sound as I there sounder between here and India's coral She thought the red cheeks would be an explanation as to why she came up into this I BE |