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Show jgfj v muJLovo, SI msMZSs Pf GGV DrJQA w.n.u. release )Y Mmk I'm afraid well have to sell whether you want to or not." Megan drew a long breath and said quietly, "I don't think so, Dad. The place was left to us jointly; neither can sell without the consent of the other. I am certain that I can't be forced to accept a deal that you and Matthews have cooked up without even consulting me." "Well, perhaps not," he admitted reluctantly. "But of course, we will have to. pay him his -commission, even though the sale doesn't go through, since it was our fault yours, rather and not his, that it did fail!" "And his commission Is ten per cent," said Megan quietly. "That's seven hundred dollars." She stared at her father In despair, de-spair, but he merely extended his cup for more coffee and said pleasantly, pleas-antly, "So I think it would be much better If we just let the sale go through don't you? I'm afraid seven sev-en hundred dollars is rather a lot of money in the present state of our finances isn't it?" "Quite a lot," she agreed, pushing back her plate. She had no longer THE STOKY THUS FAR: Pleasant Grove accepted without any surprise Meg'l engagement to Larry Martin. People generally supposed Meg would ell the old farm and go to the county seat where she and Larry would Live. Jim MacTavlsh continued to "take walks" each evening, and Meg suspected sus-pected he was going to see Alicia, the widow. Atop the ridge she sat and thought it over a long time. She loved the old (arm, every rock and every tree. Finally she knew she could not marry Larry and leave the (arm. She O roust tell him. As she walked back to the house she glanced toward the Fallon borne. In the backyard was a figure in white, dancing weirdly. CHAPTER VI She knew she could not sell the farm. She drew a long, hard breath. But Laurence could not drive to and from the farm to Meadersville, where his own destiny lay. Perhaps Per-haps when the war was over and ears and tires and gasoline were once more everyday matters it could be done, but not now. It all boiled down, she decided at last, to the fact that she could not, must not marry Laurence, not now. Suddenly she felt very tired, but she had reached her decision. She could not marry Laurence and sell the farm and go to live In a small D bungalow with a backyard-garden j and one cat and one dog. Her life 1 was here. Somehow, she must make ; Laurence see that. It wasn't going to be easy, but her mind was made j up. And as though the achieving of a decision had relieved her of : some great burden, she threw bacK her shoulders, and stood up suddenly, sudden-ly, spilling a startled and indignant Susie to the ground. Feeling suddenly sud-denly light and free A' movement in the backyard behind be-hind the Westbrook place caught her startled attention. At first she thought It was merely something white hanging on the clothesline, fluttering in the soft mild wind. And then she realized that it was a human hu-man figure, a woman in white, moving mov-ing oddly, bending as though to pick something up, straightening to fling her arms wide, her head back. At this distance, she could tell nothing more than that. And then suddenly, with a little creeping feeling of discomfort, dis-comfort, she realized what the woman wom-an was doing she was dancing! Megan stood stock still, her heart pounding, as she watched the dancing danc-ing woman down below in the backyard back-yard of the Westbrook place. A queer, oddly rhythmic dance, grotesque in its lack of grace, clumsy clum-sy and awkward. The sun glinted on the woman's golden hair, as she pers, caught up her cotton crepe kimono hanging across the foot of the bed, and went swiftly to the window win-dow that overlooked the backyard. "Who's down there?" she called quickly, and remembered to wonder why neither Bessie nor Dixie had barked a warning of the stranger's approach. The man who had been knocking stepped back from the door, and full into the white moonlight, lifting his face to her, and she recognized Fallon. "I'm terribly sorry to awaken you," he said swiftly, and his voice was taut with uneasiness. "But I have to use the telephone there has been an accident we want a doctor. Megan said instantly, "I'll be down in a moment." There wasn't time to do anything but tie her kimono about her, and to shake back the leaf-brown burnished bur-nished curls from her face. She went swiftly down the stairs, and unlocked the kitchen door. "Your wife?" asked Megan. Tom shook his head and she saw that his face was white and set. His jaw looked rigid and his eyes were bleak. "It's Martha, my wife's sister," he said curtly. "She fell and hurt herself. What's the doctor's ring? I have to hurry they're there alone both of them completely helpless." help-less." Megan said quickly, "You go back, and I'll call the doctor. If he's not at home, and out on a call somewhere it may take a little time' to get him. So let me do it " Tom said huskily, "Thanks. You're you're more than kind." He turned and went swiftly out into the moon-washed darkness and Megan went to the telephone. The doctor was out, and it took some little time for her to locate him, and then it was with the assurance that it would be an hour at least before he could make the call at the Westbrook West-brook place. Megan put down the telephone and hesitated for a moment. Then she ran upstairs, got swiftly into outdoor out-door shoes and stockings, a skirt and a light, warm sweater, because the night was chilly. She tied a scarf about her head, caught up the little First Aid kit that she had acquired as part of her civilian First Aid work, and let herself out of the house. She was answering the call of a neighbor's need as instinctively, as thoughtlessly, as had always been Pleasant Grove's custom. People who had been enemies for years, who never spoke when they met, laid aside all personal animosities bent and postured and straightened and whirled, her arms outflung! Suddenly a shorter, darker figure hurried out of the house to that weirdly dancing figure. The dark figure, a short, rather stout woman In a dark dress, put her arm about the dancing figure, and managed to draw it into the house. Megan shuddered and put her hands over her face for a moment, as though to shut out the remembered remem-bered figure swaying and posturing postur-ing and turning. Tom Fallon's poor wife, of course. "Mentally ill," he had said. Her own period of troubled indecision inde-cision seemed absurd and childish, compared to the horror that must live with Tom Fallon all the days of his life. She went back down the Ridge and across the meadow to ths house. Annie was getting the midday dinner din-ner on the table as she came in, and by the time it was ready Jim came down, a little bloodshot and drawn about the mouth, but freshly shaven and neatly dressed. "Well, my dear," said Jim happily, hap-pily, "I think were going to be able to get an excellent price for the place. I was talking to Matthews yesterday, and he tells me that we fhould get seven thousand at the very least. I confess I would have been delighted at six thousand, but Matthews says the farm land is at a high peak " "We're not going to sell the farm, Dad," Megan told him quietly. "Aren't you being a little ridiculous, ridicu-lous, Megan?" He seemed to bite the words off. "After all, you've had a pretty hard time of it these , last few years, and especially since Annie's two sons and the rest of the ; available farm labor in the section i was drafted, or went into war ! plants. How do you propose to run the place without help?" "I don't quite know. Dad," she admitted humbly. "I just know that I'm not going to sell." Jim said furiously. "Well, you've certainly put me in a tough spot! You might at least have given me some inkling of the way you felt before be-fore I gave Matthews the listing on the place." In swift alarm. Megan said hurriedly, hur-riedly, "Oh, Dad. you didn't " "I most certainly did." her father told her curtly. "I happened to run into him up at the service station and he was looking for a place for some people who want to move down in here though Lord knows whyl A more forlorn and ghostly place to live I can't imagine." "But if you listed the place and he made you a bona fide otTer and you accepted it " she protested. "Which is exactly what I did,' her father told her with obvious satisfaction sat-isfaction In his voice. "And he's going go-ing to bring the people down here to see the place the first of the week when the enemy was ill or in trouble, trou-ble, and "pitched in" to help. It , was unthinkable, in Pleasant I Grove's creed, that one should do anything else. She went quickly down the moon-silvered moon-silvered road, crossed the little i wooden bridge, and went on up the j low hill, turning in . at the weed- , grown, gateless drive, and through j the shrubbery that had run riot and ' that tonight gave the house an air of mystery and furtiveness that was almost unpleasant. I There was a light in the kitchen and another in a corner room at the front. But the kitchen door was closed and it was there that Megan knocked. She heard the murmur of voices I before she knocked, then an instant silence, and the movement of feet coming towards the door. The door swung open and Tom stood there, his coat discarded, his sleeves rolled up; behind him she saw a kitchen : 1 that was spotlessly tidy, though de- i pressingly drab, and a short, stout j ; woman huddled in a chair, her face turned over her shoulder to look at : the door. j 1 , Megan said to Tom, "Dr. Alden 1 will be here as soon as he can make , it. I thought perhaps I might be of , some help, before he gets here. I've had First Aid training ' The woman said harshly, sharply, "Don't let her in, Tom don't you let her in!" Tom flushed darkly. "I am always glad to do anything I possibly can for a neighbor," Megan Me-gan assured him. She crossed the threshold to face the woman, whose dark, angry face and blazing eyes watched her angrily. "There's nothing you can do, and we can wait perfectly well for Dr. Alden," she stated grimly. "So you'd better go on back home." Tom turned on her and said, through clenched teeth, "Martha, be quiet she she knows," and moved his head towards the closed door at the left that would, Megan knew, open into that corner bedroom. Martha looked startled, incredulous; incredu-lous; and then anger lit up her face and she turned away, her teeth set hard above what must have been a furiously savage anger. Megan hesitated, looking down at the woman, and Tom bridged the tense, unpleasant moment by saying say-ing quietly, "Martha fell and hurt her ankle. I don't think it is broken, but it is swelling fast and very painful-" j "Would you like me to make you I a cup of cofTee?" suggested Megan i gently. "Or perhaps a cup of tea?" ! Martha wiped her forehead with . the back of her hand and said rinsk j ily. reluctantly. "Well. I guess you might as well it would ta;ie god j tea. not cofTee. "TXJ BE CONT1SUK')) "Larry, this is Megan I'm in a Jam." any appetite for the dinner Annie had prepared while she sat on the Ridge and reached the decision not to sell the old farm. "Maybe Laurence Lau-rence can figure a way out." "The only way out, if you are stubborn enough not to sell, is to pay Matthews seven hundred dollars," dol-lars," her father assured her grimly, grim-ly, looking at her with angry suspicion. sus-picion. "And if you've got seven hundred dollars available, to be thrown away like that, it will surprise sur-prise me a lot after I've been kept practically penniless for longer than I care to remember." "I haven't exactly found it difficult diffi-cult to spend what little money I've had either." she answered him with spirit. "And as for having seven hundred dollars on hand to pay Matthews that's a little bit funny." "Is it? I hope it's a joke you'll enjoy," said her father as he thrust back his chair, and leaving his breakfast half eaten, went out. She heard the outer door close hard behind be-hind him. Megan sat on for a little at the table, though her appetite for food had long since vanished; and then with sudden decision she got up and went to the telephone and called Laurence in Meadersville. His voice sounded warm and cheerful and eager, as though he was delighted to hear her say, "Larry, this is Megan I'm in a jam." "Not you, darling," he countered gaily. "I don't believe it you're covering for somebody else." "Well, perhaps in a way," she admitted reluctantly. Then as briefly brief-ly as she could, she related her father's fa-ther's conversation with Matthews. When she had finished, she asked anxiously, "Do I have to pay Matthews' Mat-thews' commission, even if the sale does not go through?" "Not unless you and your father both signed the papers with him authorizing him to make the sale,' Laurence assured her promptly. "Thank goodness!" said Megan youthfully. The night was superb. A full moon, silver-white in a pale blue sky, rode high, and beneatii the thicn dark of the shrubbery on the lawn 1 and the ancient live oaks, the shad-I shad-I ows were like soft black plush. Me-j Me-j gan's room was flooded with the silver-white light when she awoke, j puzzled to know why she had awak-J awak-J ened. And thrn the sound came j aain. a knocking at the kitchen j door downstairs, a knocking soft. urgent, re pf h led msisunt. With her h;i rl ha rnmering with sudden unt'.tsint ss. she slid out of j j beH. thruM rr feet into her slip- j |