HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, NOV. 10, 1927. PAGE FIVE RLACICSHEEP! JUS Xy Meredith Nicholson niiutruion by napiy jay Jb-9JBL-. 1 COPYRIGHT CHARLES 3CRIBNERS SONS - RELEASED THRU PUBLISHERS AUTOCASTER. SERVICE INTRODUCTION Archibald Bennett, wealthy bachelor, travels constantly in the interest of his health. He meets Isabel Perry, who rec ommends a life of crime, adventure, ro mance and excitement as a cure for his nerves. Archie roes to Bailey Harbor to ln vestiErate a summer house for his sister. A heavy storm forces him to spend the night there. During the night he is awakened by footsteps, and in an encounter with the intruder, who sees Archie's figure reflected in the mirror and shoots, Archie fires in re turn, wounding the intruder, who makes his escape. Archie plans flight to evade pub licity. He starts cross-country afoot in the night. At dawn he is stopped on a lonely country road by "The Governor, master, mind criminal who mistakes him for a fel low criminal. Archie, fleeing, is afraid to tell the truth falls in with "The Govern- or," is whisked across country in a stolen car. Sees story in newspaper of killing at Bailey Harbor and, frightened, he decides to say nothing but stick with his strange friend and wait developments. At uorn ford, N. H Archie oomes upon Isabel Per ry at the hotel desk but she refuses to rec ognixe him. The Governor, by a clever nlan switches stolen money for good money. Archie used as decoy making love to the niece of agent sent to meet eccentric uong don here next day. Archie and the Gov ernor drive away without creating suspic ion and speed cross state to deliver the 160,000 to train-robber Leary at Walker's farm, where Archie gets new insight into workings of the crime world. At the first opportunity Wslker's daughter appeals to Archie to help her elope with a young farmhand. He decides to assist, cutting away from the Governor and taking the couple across state in a wild night ride. Seeing Sally onto the trani he is reward ed with a fond farewell kiss and he turns to And Isabel Perry had witnessed the whole scene. Now read on : CHAPTER FOUR "You were on that train!" he ex claimed; the most fatuous of ques tions add the poorest possible open ing for conversation. "I thought I had made it sufficient ly plain at Portsmouth that I resent your following me! The meeting there might have been by accident, but see ing you here I am convinced I am convinced that you are spying upon me!" "But. Miss Perry" "I should think," she interrupted, "that knowing or suspecting what I am trying to do you would show me some consideration!" "But I can explain; really I can ex plain if you will give me a moment!" "I understand perfectly that but for me you shouldn't be loitering here! And you practically acknowledged at Portsmouth that you were interest ing yourself in the affairs of the Congdons! " "We are playing at cross purposes quite unnecessarily," protested Ar chie. "Why not confess just what your interest is in that family? I told you quite plainly at Portsmouth that I hud reason tj believe I had shot Putney Conge! jn at Bailey Har bt.l But l.ir tie courage you put in my liuart I shou tl never havj doi.e that!" "If you did tl :it you have ruined everyihing! A du tardly act for which I hope you will pay 1!-'? full penalty of the law! " . This was wlioliy unreasonable and quite beside! himself he shook his linger in her face. "You seem to forget that you ad vised me to flout the law; to do just the things I have been doing, roving the world, shooting and plundering!" "Everything has gone wrong," she said, "and you may have all the sat isfaction you con get from your in terference, your intrusion upon af fairs of the greatest delicacy, in which my assistance and my honor are pledged. That car standing yon der belongs to me and before I leave I want you to walk away from here as rapidly as possible and not turn your head!" He did not even confirm her state ment as to the propinquity of the car, but crossed the platform with the crestfallen air of a child in dis grace. - He knew nothing save that he was enormously tired and he went to the hotel and crawled wearily into bed. He was sitting on the edge of the bed when a gently insinuating knock caused him to start. "Come!" The door opened slowly, wide enough to permit a man's head to be thrust in. A face wearing an amused smile, a familiar face but the last he expected to see, met his gaze. "Hist!" The Governor widened the open ing in the door and squeezed thru, "My dear Archie!" he exclaimed as he locked the door, "how infinitely re lieved I am! I was afraid some harm had befallen you, but to find you here safe and Bound fills my henrt with gatitude." He flung down his cap and linen duster, chose a chair by the window and seated himself with a little sigh. "I hope," Archie ventured timidly, "that you came alone?" "Oh, yes; I'm alonel Trust me for that; but my friend Walker was not easily shaken. And his provocation! O my boy, his provocation to justi fiable homicide and all that soit of thing!" "Well, I only did what I thought was right," Archie declared dogged ly. "I wasn't weighing the conse quences." "Splendid, my doar Archie, to see how beautifully you rose to the si.ua tion a situation that spoke power fully to vour generous heart! If there has been any error it is mine. I should have known from the way vou Dlaved up to the Seebrook girl that you were far too susceptible to be trusted with women. The error is mine; not yours, Archie; I don't blame you a particle. Sally Is a win some lass; she has a way with her, that girl!" "If you don't mind," said Archie with dignity, "we'll stop talking non sense. What happened?" "Just a little curious, are you, as to what followed your amazing breach of hospitality? Ran away with a pretty girl, assisted In marrying her to an undesirable son-in-law, and now you want to know how the old folks take it! Oh, Archie, for sheer in nocence you are a wonder!" "Walker had no right to force a girl like Sally to marry an old cur mudgeon she hated. I never hesitat ed as to the course I should take after she told me her story. The marriage was in proper form and I haven't a single regret! "What you did, Archie," the Gov ernor resumed paternally, "was to marry Sally, the incomparable, Sally the divine, to Pete Barney, the dm mond thief." "You mean you mean 1 married the girl to a crook?" gasped Archie. "One of the smoothest in the game! And Sally knew he was a crook! I suppose it was the diamonds that fetched her. If youd looked at his hands you would have noticed that he hadn't the paws of an honest Green Mountain farmer. Pick-pocket originally and marvelously deft; but precious stones are his ture metier. The trifling little neckless he had on his person when he Btruck Walker's is worth a cool hundred thousand. He'll have to break it up and sell 'em in the usual way and it will take time." Archie sank upon the bed; he had done a horrible thing, hardly second to murder, and his penitence weighed heavily upon him. It doesn t seem possible that the girl would have deceived me!" 'We never know when they are de ceiving us, Archie! Sally hated the farm and was crazy to escape. She lifted a couple of hundred dollars the old man kept under a plank in the parlor floor an emergency fund in case he ever had to run for it. A nasty trick, I call It; most unfilial on, Sally's part. The Walkers are crush ed by her conduct. And I had vouch ed for you at the Walker's. It's al most as bad as though had betrayed them myself. You will not, of course, make the serious error of knocking at the Walker door again! That would be rubbing it in." 'I don t want you to think me un grateful," Archie stammered. "The girl made a fool of me; I see it all owl" "She made a fool of you, but you in turn made a fool of me! And while I'm not caviling, you will par don me, son, if I suggest that here after you play square with me. I don't mean to :urb your personal en terprise, or set any limit on your lit tle affairs of the heart. But let's have no more foolishness." "I haven't a thing to say for my self!" blurted Archie, who was at the point of tears. "I was weak, miser ably weak. I had no idea that any one could lie as that girl did. And it's not fair for me to stay on with you. I can't ask you to trust me again. We'd better part' company right here!" "How completely you misjudge me, Archie! There's a charm in you be gotten of your very innocence and helplessness, and I should be very unhappy if we parted now. We've shared some danger together and in sopite of your weaknesses I'm fond of you. And if I left you to your own devices something quite disastrous might happen to you." The Governor was unconcernedly sketching one of his diagrams with which he seemed to visualize his plans. Archie was startled now to hear his companion muttering to him- selm: "Aries, the Lamb, the Fishes! For a time I stumbled and walked in darkness but the leading light is clearer now. The moving finger writes wntesl" Archie had caught one day a glimpse of several of the zodiacal signs drawn on the margin of a news paper where the Governor had ne glected to erase them; but he was astounded to find that he was in the company of a man who took counsel of the stars. " 'Ne sous une mauvaise etoilel' You catch the Bense admirably. When you see me scribbling I am calculat ing the potency of the dark fate that overhangs me and trying to eitimate when if ever the cloud will pass. Don t trouble your head with those fancies; leave them to me. Hope is buoyed in me by the fact that never yet have my figures erred." "To return to practical affairs, we shall abandon Collins' machine and I'll wire him where to pick it up. Then we'll entrain at our leisure." "If you don't mind my asking, I'd like to know where we're bound for?" "New York, my dear boy; but you needn't be alarmed. It will be hot there and we'll only pause for a day or so. We both need to freshen up our wardrobe a bit." Archie shook his head stubbornly. "I haven't told you this, but I'm supposed to be in the Canadian Rock ies. It would be a risky business for me to show up in town!" "You're a frightful egotist, Archie! This is a large world and man's mem ory is Hhort. If you see ny old friends I beg of you do not attempt to dodge them; shake one and all heartily by the hand. We'll pretend that our black wool is as white as the drifted snow, and no one will run after us shouting, Blucksheep, blacksheepl ' " At the station gates a man in gray livery stepped up and touched his cap to the Governor, "Ah, Tom; glad to see you again!" "Thank you, sir; is this all the luggage?" "That's all, Tom. Drive directly tome, please. "We may wander to our hearts1 content, Archie, but there's no place like home, particularly when it's lit tle old New York," remurked the Gov ernor, sinking back contentedly, The car crossed to the Avenue and bore north. . The Governor had not warned him to avoid marking the route, which was as familiar to Archie as the palm of his hand, but somewhere in the Seventies he did for a moment lose track of the streetB, and the car, twinging east, stopped midway of a block of handsome residences. There vaa still the chance that this was all by-play, a trick for concealing their arrival in town; but the footman was already ringing the bell of a house whose facade was the most distin guished in sight The door was opened by a manservant, whose face express ed pleasure as the Governor passed him with all the airs of incontestable proprietorship, "I think we may as well go at once to our rooms," he said. "You under stand. Baring, that we dine at seven tl.irty places for three?" "Very good, sir;' I received your telegram." On the third floor, Archie surveyed approvingly a lounging room, half library tnd half office. He tottered toward a stand on which decanters, syphons, and a sil ver bowl of ice had been placed. He 'ielped hims-'lf generously to Scotch; the Governor contented himself with a glass of mineral water he never took i,nythiiig else, he explained. 'Odd jut rve never used the stuff at all. 31ess you, no fanatical no tions, -ny dear Archie' he closed the- d or and turned on the fan "you are n y guest, in every sense my guest. It n ay have occurred to you thot I maj be an interloper here, but such s rot the ease. I own this hous ana the ground it stands on and every thing in it You are, of course, not a priioner; not in any Bense, and there's a telephone in your room by wnicn you can talk to all the world quite freely, no restrictions whatsoever. "My name is not baulsDury, oi courses, but something quite differ ent The servants in this house do not know my true name. They might. of courses, work it out, for I pay taxes here, snd my family history is spread in the public records, but the neoDle you tee about here are trained to curb their curiosity; I trust them as I trust you. They are all from under the crust, the man who met us at the station si a daring house breaker; the chauffeur is a second story man; the butler is a hotel thief. Down to the scullery maid, who was a clever shoplifter, all the servants are crooks I:ve picked up and installed here until they can do what Leary s loine. invest their ill-gotten gains in some legitimate business-. Baring has enough rewards hanging over him to make anyone rich who can tele phone his whereabouts to police head quarters in any town in America. As all branches of the profession are represented here my retainers repay my hospitality by keeping me in touch with their comrades every where." "I suppose, I suppose," Archie tim dly ventured, "you've told them about me?" 'Not a wold! You will act ex actly as though you were a visitor in the house of an old friend. And now I must go through this nail I've got a chap who collects my stuff from some of the unofficial post-offices up-state.' The first room to the right yours. "You've got to admit the service n this house is excellent. If you don't mind we'll dress for dinner," remarked the Governor lounging in the doorway. "I forgot to say that there's a lady dining with us " "A lady!" demanded Archie with a frown. The Governor crossed the room, stared at the floor for a moment, and then said from the door: 'The lady, my dear boy, in my sis ter. "Julia is usually very prompt but she is motoring from Southhampton and we musl allow her the usual mar gin," the Governor remarked when they met in the drawing-room. The clock had struck the three- quarters when they heard the annun ciator tinkle followed by the opening of the front door. The Governor left the room with a bound and Archie heard distinctly his hearty greetings and a woman's subdued replies. 'I'm sorry to be late, but we had to change a tire. No, I'll leave my wraps here." 'Won't you be more comfortable v ithout your hat?" "No, I'll keep it; thankj!" The door framed for a moment a young woman who in her instant's pause on the threshold seemed like a portrait figure suddenly come to life. She was taller thin the Gov ernor and carried Sierself with a sug gestion of his authoritative bearing. Her faci was a feminized version of the Governor's, exquisitely modeled and illuminated by dark eyes that swept Archie with a hasty inquiry from under the brim of a black pic ture hat. "Julia, this is my friend, Mr. Com ly." Her "very glad, I'm sure," was ut tered with reservations, but she smiled, a quick sad little smile. The Governor had introduced her -is Julia, carelessly, as though of course Archie knew the rest of it. Hie Governor asked perfunctorily ubout her drive into twn, and wheth er it had not been hot in the coun try. Dinner was announced imme diately and they sat down at a round tble whose centerpiece of sweet peas brought a coolness into the room. It seemed to Archie as he met a puzzled look in Julia's eyes from time to time that she was trying to account for him, and her manner he thought slowly changed. Her first defensive hostility yielded to some thing much mora amiable. It was as though she had reached s decision not wholly unflattering and might be a little sorry for her earlier attitude. "Julia, if you brought those docu ment? with you I'll take them up to ipy room and look them over. It's c-nly a matter of my signature, isn't it? I'll be down at once." "Very well; you will tind them in my bag in the hall. I mu t start home very soon, you know." "I harl hoped you wou'd spend the night here," said the Governor; "but if you won't I'm grateful even for this little glimpse." The Governor left the room and re appeared with a small sutchel, took cut several bundles of legal papers and glanced at their superscriptions. In a moment they heurd his quick step on the stair. "It is no doubt clear to you," Julia remarked, "that my brother prefers not to be alone with me." "I rather surmised that," Archie re plied with an ease he did not feel. He turned to drop his cigarette into the brass receiver at his elbow to avoid contact with her gaze, which was bent upon him disconcertingly. "We have but a moment, and we must have a care not to seem confi dential. He didn't close his door, I think." The , draperies at the end of the room swayed a little and Archie walked back and glanced into the din-ing-rcora. He nodded reassuringly and she indicated a seat a little near er than the one he had left. "PleaBe don't be alarmed, but it's a singular fact that I know you; we met once, passingly, at a tea in Cam bridge; it's a good while ago and we exchanged only a word, so don't try to remember. I much prefer that you shouldn't." Archij didn't remember; he had attended many teas at Cam bridge during commencement festiv ities and had always hated them. "It was not until we were at the table that I placed you tonight. I'm re lieved, infinitely relieved, to know that you are with my brother. How it came about is none of my affair. But you are a gentleman; in the strange phase through which" her lips formed to speak a name but she caught herself up sharply "through which he is passing I'm gratified that he has your companionship. Once something very cruel happened to him; something that greatly embit tered him, a very cruel, hard thing, indeed; and after the first shock of it " She turned her head slightly and her lips quivered. "That is all," she said, and faced him again with her beautiful repose accentuated, her perfect self-control that touched him with an infinite pity. Continued next week. STRAYED OR STOLEN. Small brown mare and colt Mare has hind foot damaged, slightly lame; invisible brand HI' on neck. Reward for information. B. F. SWAGGART. Seed Rye for Sale At Farmers El evator Co. warehouse. Mike Kenny. Enter This Contest How many words can you make from the letters contained in the words "Christmas Photos" as spelled here. The rules are simple: 1. Open to everyone. 2. All words must be written distinctly on ruled paper, in alphabetical order and numbered. 3. Words must be found in Standard English Diction ary. FIRST PRIZE 1 dozen $8.00 photos will be gvien to the one sending the largest number of words. SECOND PRIZE 1 dozen $3.00 post cards will be given the one sending second largest numbe rof words. THIRD PRIZE 1 Colored Calendar will be given to the one sending the third largest number of words. In case of a tie the winner will be chosen by lot. Answers must be received at Studio or by mail at time post office closes, November 25: Announcement of winners will be published in Hepp ner Gazette Times December 1st. Bogg's Photo-Art McMurdoBldg. StlldlO Main Street Heppner, Oregon F. W. Turner & Co. 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