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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 1916)
THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, AUGUST 13, 1916. 11 had not struck me as being made of criminal material. Then I went indoors. Miss Willougby was waiting for me in the big drawing-room,. She stood op posite the door leading into the hall, and with her back to the wide fireplace, wherein burned a ruddy pile of great girthed logs as I stepped across the threshold. I caught my breath in delight and ap preciation at the vision of beauty con fronting me. She was clad in a loosely fitting house gown of dark gray. I said that it fitted her loosely, and that Ls trjie. but somehow, doubtless due to Its cling ing tozfture, it managed to follow and reveal the superb lines of her figure the figure which had struck me as being ex ceptionally blautiful the night when I first looked upon Clarice Willougby as ehe struggled with her terror-stricken mother at the head of the staircase. Miss Willougby came eagerly forward to meet me and held out her hand with a rare grace and total lack of that con descension that one occasionally encoun ters in those who have the least right to assume It. Somehow the. effects of all those trials which she had recently undergone seemed to fall from this beautiful girl as she came across the room with an easy long-leg movement, that Diana might have envied. She held my hand for the fraction of a second, during which I felt the warmth that was in her pervade and envelop me. "I'm bo glad the messenger found you," she said, her rich contralto voice lingering over each word as if In caress. I stood staring down at her, on my face a vacuous expression and all my love for her shining in my eyes. She was the most beautiful woman that I had ever known and the sweetest, Mr ring my mother, and there was that In definable something about her that coaxed to life the nameless quality which completes love and makes it perfect. And she had voiced nothing more than a banal greeting and a no less banal ex pression of pleasure that her note had not miscarried. How much may silence express when windy words would fall by the wayside! She threw herself la a reclining pos ture on the lounge and motioned me to a chair near by. I seated myself, in a maze of wonder as to why she had sum moned me t-her. Until that night her appeal to me had been strong, but touched with an innate quality of girl ishness. Now it seemed as if she had swept aside this virginal, curtain, reveal ing herself for tfie full-blooded, vital woman that she was. I sat silent, waiting for her to speak, to tell me why she had called me to her through the night. Her first words sent the blood singing through me with quick ened movement. "I sent for you tonight because I was lonely and because I want someone strong to lean upon and have close to me in the time of our danger." There was a short pause, as if she waited for her words to take effect. I had been gazing Into the fire, but in the interval I stole a glance at her. She was leaning back among the cushions, the tips of her slipper touching the rug, her hands clasped behind her head, and on her face a deeper flush than had stained 1-at the moment of my coming. "And," she went on, "I wanted to-ask you again if you if your friend also be lieves that the facts related to you by mother Rave any bearing on our present trouble. I thought that maybe after you had seen and talked to him you might have arrived at some conclusion." She was looking me straight in the eyes as she spoke, but as her voice her wonderful golden voice sank again in silence, the long lashes drooped and her eyes closed. "I tried to sleep," she went on, "but I couldn't. Mother Is asleep and Reggie. And the nurse must watch him. With all these strange men about the house, I am nervous and shaken and lonesome. I -wanted some one to talk to some one who knew of our trouble you knew; I wanted you." Now as Clarice spoke the sudden real ization came to me that the same new and wonderful , thing which had com into my life at the moment when I first looked upon her and which had been made certain and irrevocable in my heart during the few brief times when we had been together had come also to her. She loved me. She loved me, and had taken this method of showing me me, whom she knew would never have dared lift eyes to her, anyway for a long time to come. For she was hedged about by wealth and my way to success and fortune stretched a long road before me. Sheer happiness for a time made me speechless. That she, the petted darling of millions and the daughter of two houses that were great in two old-world countries, had given me her love was a consummation that I could hardly realize at first. I tried to speak, but couldn't. She still kept her position among the pil lows, her cheeks flushed and her eyes closed. Her breathing was caught in quick little gasps, as if a great fear might be in her that after all she might have misread my heart and that I did not love her. - Then with a low cry I sprang to her side and gathered her close. I held her thus for a full minute, tast ing of such happiness as I had never be fore known. Suddenly she pushed me from her. Unconsciously I looked across the room and every nerve and muscle in my body became suddenly taut. For there framed in the open door stood the menacing figure of a man, unshaven and unkempt, and with an evil umile on his lips. My eyes caught the gleam of the long, keen knife in his hand. Clarice's attention was caught by my rigid position and her eyes followed mine. She voiced a little scream of fear. I bade her be quiet. Halfway across the room lay my great coat across the back of a chair ad with my revolver in one of its pockets. CHAPTER XXIV. I Make a Discovery. IT SEEMED to me that he who con fronted me from lb doorway was al most as taken aback as I was, despite the evil smile on his face, and yet I could not tell, for there was that ghastly im mobility about his facial contraction that could be misleading. For an instant he hesitated, and then turned as If for flight. It was a fatal move for him to make, for the next moment I had dashed across the room and was close upon him. He whirled, with his weapon lifted, but be fore he could strike I was at grips with him and held his right wrist in a grasp as near to iron as I could make it. For a minute he fought me like a wild cat, albeit noiselessly, while Clarice stood speechless anf spellbound. But the man was no match for me, for I suddenly felt khim wilt under my hands, and the next moment I had him on the flat of his back, with the knife tn my possesion. I called to Clarice, and under my di rection she took a h&udkerchief from my coat pocket. It was short work tying his hands, for he seemed now as weak as a kitten and thoroughly cowed. While I busied myself with the knot, the thought came to me that the man whose back I straddled was none other than he who had stabbed Reggie Wil lougby earlier irj the night; that he had been concealed somewhere in the house and that it would be no mean achieve ment for me to take him and make him disclose his place of hiding. I lifted him to his feet with a Jerk and commanded him to lead me to his place of conceal ment. At first he answered surlily: "I ain't been hidirr- no place. I jwt came in." His bloodshot, muddy eyes gazed into mine with a curiously t unning expression in their depths. I crossed to where my overcoat lay over tho back of the chair, stooping in my passage to pick up the knife from its resting place where I had tossed it on the floor. I laid the knifo on the chair, and drawing the revolver from my over coat pocket, recjossc-d the room and stood before our captive. Clarice drew near and gazed on the man with appraising eyes. I saw a little Involuntary shudder of disgust shako her I would havo threatened the follow with his own knife, but somehow it smacked too much of butchery and blood letting. Besides Clarice was watching me. "Now, my man," I said, with the pis tol at a half-cock, and held in a hanging hand, "you'll either show me where you were hidden or I'll see to It Jhat your mates will look a long time before flnd 'ing you above ground. This little can non doesn't look dangerous, but I assure you that Its teeth are sharp. Will you show us where you were hidden ?' He glared at me a moment before an sTOring: "I'll show yer." "All right, about face and lead th way," I ordered. (To be continued next tcctic) Copyright, 1916, by J. Kclc ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF LIFE Some Have to Be SIR CECIL. SPRING-RICE, at a din ner in Washington, praised the pen sions and allowances made by the Brit ish government in the present war. "The English government, after this war," he said, "won't have to be charged with neglect, parsimony or ingratitude. "After this .war the schoolboy's defini tion of a veteran won't have the ring of truth that it may have sometimes In the past "A schoolboy, you know, once wrote in his examination paper: " 'An old 'soldier is called a vegeta rian.' " x (No Wonder! lNJCW YORKER, who found himself for some days in a "jerk-water" town of the West, was obliged to submit to the ministrations of the local barber. He had a terrible time he was cut, k nicked, gashed, and generally mishan dled. When the job was completed the New Yorker sat up and said: "Give me a drink of water. V "You ain't going to faint, I hope," said the barber, observing the man's dis tressed expression. "No," was the response, "I just want to see whether my mouth will hold water." Does a Good Job "They say that lightning never strikes twice in the same place." "Well, it doesn't need to!" Bygone Memories PHILIP is an amateur artist who raves about nature. One day he was giving all his attention to a paint ing of a sunset of lurid red, with blue streaks and green dots. An old rustic crossed the meadow and stopped behind him at a respectful distance. "Ah," said Philip, looking up at the old farmer suddenly, "perhaps to you, too, nature has opened her sky pictures, page by page. Have-on seen the lam bent flame of dawn leaping across the livid east; the red-stained, sulphurous Islets floating in the lake of fire in the west; the ragged clouds at midnight, black as a raven's wing, blotting out the shuddering moon?" "Well, no," replied the rustic, "not since I give up drink." Agricultural Note Mr. Subbubs Here's an article in the paper saying that la the spring it is ad visable to prune fruit trees. Mrs. Subbubs Well, let's prune ours. I just love prunes. t Argued Loudly Jimmie had a scolding wife, but wtts never willing to admit it. "Now, Jimmie," said a fellow work man one day, "doesn't your wife really scold sometimes?" "Well," replied Jimmie reluctantly, "she doesn't really scold, bat she does argue sometimes so that you could hear Hoi- a mile away." Not Over Yet JOHNNY had just started learning his tory, and very proud of himself he was. One evening, as he sat studying his lesson, he thought he would test his grandfather's knowledge of the subject, eo he asked: "Grandpa, do you know what great war broke out In 1&Z0V The old man raised his head from the evening paper and looked thoughtfully at the lad. Then a sudden light came into his eyes. ' "Why," said he, "that wasthe year I married your grandmother!" Playing .Safe THE Man If I should ask for your hand The Maid I would refuse. The Man You positively would not marry me? The Maid Under no circumstances whatever! The Man Nothing that might occur would causeyou change your mind? You are absolutely sure? The Maid I am absolutely sure. The Man Fine! Then we can have the time of our lives being engaged this summer! Be Explicit! "Scotch mixtures seem to be very pop ular this season," remarked the dressy person. "To wear or to drink?" demanded the man with the impressionistic nose. Expert Testimony YOUNG Mrs. Cornell was a bride of but a shrt time. One afternoon she confided to her friends at a pink tea that she was sure her husband never played poker at his club. "How," queried one of the women, "did you find out?" "Oh," explained the young bride, "I met a couple of the members of his club the other day and I asked them: 'Can Perry play poker?- They looked thought ful for a moment and then answered very sincerely: 'No!' " Why, Thomas! WHY is it that the telephone oper ators are all women?" Mrs. Thomas asked her husband. 1) "Well," answered Mr. Thomas, "the managers of the telephone exchanges are aware that no class of people work so faithfully as those who are in love with their Job; and they knew that women would love their work at the switch board." "What ls the work of a telephone operator ?" Mrs. Thomas further in quired, "Talking," answered Mr. Thomas. Sore Eyes Comfort. Graanlated Eyelids, Eyes inflamed by expo sure to San. Dnat and Wind quickly relieved OV MWUM CM FlMIl Smarting, mm Eva 50c per Bottle 2 At Your Drvrgiafa Em fa Tal, to - m flp "k Dreggisu or Maris Eye
