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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blacksheep! Blacksheep!, by Meredith Nicholson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blacksheep! Blacksheep!
+
+Author: Meredith Nicholson
+
+Illustrator: Leslie L. Benson
+
+Release Date: June 21, 2007 [EBook #21887]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKSHEEP! BLACKSHEEP! ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+  BLACKSHEEP! BLACKSHEEP!
+  LADY LARKSPUR
+  THE MADNESS OF MAY
+  THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Illustration: Her "Very glad, I'm sure," was uttered with reservations]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BLACKSHEEP! BLACKSHEEP!
+
+BY
+
+MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY
+
+LESLIE L. BENSON
+
+NEW YORK
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+1920
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Maybe, in spite of their tameless days
+  Of outcast liberty,
+They're sick at heart for the homely ways
+  Where their gathered brothers be.
+
+Meanwhile, "Blacksheep! Blacksheep!" we cry,
+  Safe in the inner fold;
+And maybe they hear, and wonder why,
+  And marvel, out in the cold.
+
+--RICHARD BURTON.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+Her "Very glad, I'm sure," was uttered with reservations _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                            FACING PAGE
+
+At the crack of the gun the fugitive stopped short                   32
+
+"It's all right about you, Governor, but the kid had better
+shake the tree"                                                     112
+
+"We must be in a hurry or that woman will catch you"                234
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+BLACKSHEEP! BLACKSHEEP!
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+I
+
+
+Mrs. Howard Featherstone spent much time thinking up things for her
+brother Archibald Bennett to do, and as Archie was the ideal bachelor
+brother, always remembering the children's birthdays and turning up
+dutifully for Christmas dinners, he accepted her commissions in the most
+amiable spirit and his services were unfailingly satisfactory. He knew
+perfectly well that most of the jobs she imposed upon him had been
+politely but firmly declined by her busy husband, but this made no
+difference to Archie, who had all the time in the world, and infinite
+patience, and he rather enjoyed tracing express packages and matching
+ribbons.
+
+"The agent who's been looking up a summer house for us says this is an
+unusual opportunity, as there are few places to let at Bailey Harbor and
+this one is unexpectedly on the market. The owner is obliged to leave
+just after settling in it, so it's all in perfect condition and if it
+meets our needs we can go right up. Howard's simply swamped with
+work--he's conducting some sort of investigation with night meetings and
+that sort of thing--and we'd all appreciate it if you could run up there
+for us."
+
+The many preoccupations of his brother-in-law, who held a seat in
+Congress and took his job seriously, were well known to Archie.
+Featherstone was an important cog in the governmental machinery while
+Archie had nothing on earth to do, so it was eminently fitting that he,
+as an unattached and unemployed brother-in-law, should assume some of
+Featherstone's domestic burdens. Archie had planned to leave for the
+Canadian Rockies two days later, but as no urgent business called him in
+that direction, he obligingly agreed to take a look at the Bailey Harbor
+house that had been placed so providentially within reach of his sister.
+
+"The owner belongs to that old New England Congdon family," Mrs.
+Featherstone explained; "they date from the beginning of time, and some
+of them are a trifle eccentric. You remember one of them--he must be the
+father or an uncle of the owner of this house--Eliphalet Congdon, who
+lives in Boston and is horribly rich but is always doing weird things.
+There was a perfectly killing article in the paper just the other day
+telling of his latest exploit, which was getting arrested for refusing
+to allow them to check his umbrella at the Metropolitan Museum. They
+thought, of course, that he was a crank who wanted to poke holes through
+the pictures, and he made such a fuss that they had to arrest him and he
+wouldn't give bail but had his lawyer get him out on a writ of habeas
+corpus."
+
+"The same philanthropist who had a bus built just like the Fifth Avenue
+busses and wanted to run it himself to pick up women and children the
+regular busses wouldn't stop for," laughed Archie. "If you're renting a
+house from that family it's just as well to look into it carefully. All
+right, May; I'll inspect the premises for you."
+
+In spite of his good-natured assent she continued to pile up excuses
+for her husband and explained in great detail the rundown condition of
+the children which made it necessary to get them out of Washington as
+quickly as possible. Archie was already mentally planning the details of
+his trip with his customary exactness. As he traveled constantly in the
+interest of his health, which had been a cause of solicitude to himself
+and all his relatives as far back as any one could remember, he knew
+train schedules by heart, and by catching the Federal Express the next
+night he would be able to connect with a train at Boston that would land
+him at Bailey Harbor at two o'clock the same day.
+
+With any sort of luck he could escape from the Harbor, reach New York
+the following morning and proceed immediately westward. A few telegrams
+would readjust matters so that he would lose only a day in setting out
+for Banff, which his newest doctor had told him was an ideal spot for
+him. Many other doctors had posted him off to numerous other places in
+pursuit of the calm or stimulus or whatever it was he needed to make him
+a sound man capable of taking some part in the world's affairs. Archie's
+condition was always a grateful topic of conversation and now that his
+sister had told him how many bedrooms her menage required, and warned
+him particularly to be sure that there was a sleeping porch and a
+garage, and not to forget to look carefully into the drainage system of
+the entire Maine coast; having watched him make notes of these matters,
+Mrs. Featherstone, in her most sisterly tone, broached the subject of
+his health.
+
+"Your troubles, Archie, are all due to the scarlet fever you had when
+you were a child. I've thought that if you could ever get into some
+active work it would cure you. These sanatoriums you live in most of the
+time never do you any good. They just keep you thinking about yourself.
+What you need is a complete upsetting,--something that would give a new
+turn to your life. And, you know," she went on softly, "I'd hoped,
+Archie, that the right girl would turn up one of these days and that
+that would prove the panacea. But the girls I've picked out never
+pleased you, and here you are, the finest brother in the world, and the
+most conscientious man alive, always doing generous things for
+people--you know you do, Archie--with nothing ahead of you but just one
+sanatorium after another. I haven't much faith in this idea of your
+going to the Rockies; you know you tried the Alps five years ago and the
+altitude nearly killed you."
+
+"I seem doomed to sit on the sidelines and watch the game," Archie
+agreed gloomily.
+
+"But sometimes, I think you yield too easily to discouragement. Please
+don't think I mean to be unkind or unjust, but if at some turn of the
+road you were obliged to put your back to the wall and fight for your
+life! Really, dear, I think you would win the battle and be a very
+different man afterward."
+
+Archie smiled wanly. He had the lively imagination of the neurasthenic
+and very often he had dreamed of vanquishing single-handed a dozen
+enemies, or plunging into a burning house and staggering out half dead
+bearing a helpless child in his arms. To look at him no one would
+believe that he had a nerve in his tall frame. Once a friend carried him
+off to a farm where an autocratic athletic trainer rejuvenated tired
+business men; and Archie survived the heroic treatment and reappeared
+bronzed and hardened and feeling better than he had ever felt in his
+life. But a winter spent in an office and leisure to think of himself as
+an invalid brought back the old apprehensions, and there being no one at
+hand to drag him again to the trainer's, he renewed his acquaintance
+with the waiting-rooms of specialists.
+
+"There will be a few people in for dinner tonight," remarked Mrs.
+Featherstone as he rose to go; "very simple, you know; and Howard just
+telephoned that he can't possibly come, so if you can arrange it,
+Archie--"
+
+"All right, May. Weld and Coburn are in town and I was going to have
+dinner with them at the Army and Navy, but if you really want me--"
+
+"Oh, that's perfectly fine of you, Archie! You are splendid to break
+your engagement with them when you three don't meet very often; but it
+will be a real help to me to have you. It's so late now that I can't ask
+any one else in Howard's place. And Isabel Perry will be here; you know
+she's the dearest girl, and I always thought you really did like Isabel.
+Her father lost all his money before he died and she's had a position as
+gymnasium teacher in Miss Gordon's school. This summer she's to run a
+girls' camp up in Michigan and she can't help making a splendid success
+of it."
+
+Archie did not at once detach Miss Perry from the innumerable host of
+young women his sister had introduced him to; they were a hazy composite
+in his memory, but when Mrs. Featherstone insisted that he couldn't have
+forgotten Miss Perry's smile and merry laugh, he promptly declared that
+he remembered her perfectly. When he found himself sitting beside her
+later at Mrs. Featherstone's table, with a lady on his right who was
+undoubtedly most distinguished in spite of the fact that he failed to
+catch her name and understood very little of her rapid French, he was
+very grateful for Miss Perry's propinquity. The smile and the laugh were
+both better even than Mrs. Featherstone's specifications, and her
+English had a refreshing Western tang and raciness that pleased him.
+
+"I passed you on the street the other day and made frantic efforts to
+attract your attention but you were in a trance and failed to see my
+signals."
+
+"I was taking my walk," he stammered.
+
+"'_My_ walk!'" she repeated. "You speak as though you had a monopoly of
+that form of exercise. I must say you didn't appear to be enjoying
+yourself. Your aspect was wholly funereal and your demeanor that of a
+man with a certain number of miles wished on him."
+
+"Four a day," Archie confessed with an air of resignation; "two in the
+morning and two before dinner."
+
+"Then you were doing your morning lap when I passed you. Only four miles
+a day?"
+
+"By the doctor's orders," he assented with the wistful smile that
+usually evoked sympathetic murmurs in feminine auditors.
+
+"Oh, the doctors!" remarked the girl as though she had no great opinion
+of doctors in general or of Mr. Bennett's medical advisers in
+particular. He was used to a great deal of sympathy and he was convinced
+that Miss Perry was an utterly unsympathetic person.
+
+"What would you call a good walk?" he asked a little tartly.
+
+"Oh, ten, twenty, thirty! I've done fifteen and gone to a dance at the
+end of the tramp."
+
+"But you haven't my handicap," he protested defensively. "You can't be
+very gay about walking when you're warned that excessive fatigue may
+have disastrous consequences!"
+
+She was not wholly without feeling for her face grew grave for a moment
+and she met his eyes searchingly, with something of the professional
+scrutiny to which he had long been accustomed.
+
+"Eyes clear; color very good; voice a trifle weak and suggesting
+timidity and feeble initiative. Introspective; a little self-conscious,
+and unimportant nervous symptoms indicated by the rolling of bread
+crumbs."
+
+"I've paid doctors large fees for telling me the same things," he said,
+hastily hiding the bread crumbs under the edge of his plate. "I wish
+you'd write those items down for me. I'm in earnest about that."
+
+"When did you say you were leaving town?"
+
+"Tomorrow evening. If you'll write out your diagnosis and any
+suggestions you may have as to my habits, diet and general course of
+life, I promise to put them into practice."
+
+"Your case interests me and I'll consider this matter of advising you."
+
+"I shall expect the document tomorrow afternoon!"
+
+"I should want to be very sure," she laughed, "that you were really
+leaving town and that I shouldn't see you for a long time--perhaps never
+again!"
+
+"That has an ominous sound, as though you were going to give me a death
+sentence! Is my case as bad as that?"
+
+"Not at all; but it calls for that disagreeable frankness we all dislike
+in our friends and very properly resent in mere acquaintances. I should
+be enormously embarrassed to meet you until after--"
+
+She paused and surveyed him once more, questioningly. The French lady
+was telling a story to the whole company, and they were obliged to give
+heed to it; and as Archie failed to catch the point of it Miss Perry
+very kindly gave him the clue. The talk was general for a few minutes
+and then he begged her to finish the sentence that had been left in the
+air.
+
+"Oh, it doesn't matter! I think I was going to say that it would be
+embarrassing to see you until after you had given my little hints a
+trial. I'll say now that just the orderly course of your life, with four
+miles a day, no more, no less, isn't a bit likely to get you anywhere.
+My treatment for such a case as yours would be very drastic. I'd set you
+some real stunts to do if you were my patient. May tells me that they
+won't have you in the army, the navy, or the flying corps, but I believe
+I could find some excitement for you," she ended musingly.
+
+"As, for example--?" he asked, finding the French lady conspiring with
+an attache of the Italian embassy. "To meet the competition of the nerve
+specialists, you'll have to be very explicit and tell me exactly what to
+do."
+
+"Right there is one of your troubles--living by fixed schedules. You've
+never felt the world's rough hand; you don't know life! Clubs and
+sanatoriums and week-ends in comfortable houses don't count. You're a
+tremendously formal person, Mr. Bennett! What you really need is a good
+hard jar! Every morning you know exactly what you're going to do every
+hour of the day. It's routine that kills! Now just suppose when you're
+out on one of your walks you were to overpower the chauffeur of, we will
+say, the British ambassador, and drive the car bearing his Excellency
+into some lonely fastness of the Virginia hills, and hold him for a
+ransom, and collect the money in twenty-dollar gold pieces and escape
+with it and then come back to Washington and spend it all on a big party
+with the ambassador as the guest of honor. There would be a real
+achievement--something that would make you famous in two hemispheres."
+
+"And incidentally lock me up for life if I escaped being shot! Such an
+escapade would very likely spoil our cordial relations with England and
+cause no end of trouble."
+
+"There you are!" she exclaimed, "thinking always of the cost, never of
+the fun! Of course you would never do any such thing. Let me try again!
+Suppose you were to hold up a bank messenger in Wall Street and skip
+with a satchelful of negotiable securities and then, after the papers
+were through ragging the police for their inefficiency, you would drive
+up to the bank in a taxi, walk in and return the money, saying you had
+found it in the old family pew at Trinity when you went in to say your
+prayers! Here would be an opportunity to break the force of habit and
+awaken your self-confidence."
+
+"Am I to understand that you practice what you preach? I don't mean to
+be impertinent, but really,--"
+
+"Oh, I'm perfectly capable of doing anything I've suggested. I'm merely
+biding my time. Parents are pardonably fussy about the sort of person
+they turn their children over to, so I must have a care. I mean to dig
+for buried treasure this summer, realizing the dream of a lifetime."
+
+"That appeals to me strongly. Perhaps you'd let me assist in that
+undertaking?"
+
+"Impossible! I want all the glory and eke the gold if I find the hidden
+chests. Talk about romance being dead! My grandfather was a planter in
+Mississippi before the Civil War. In about 1860 he saw trouble ahead,
+and as he was opposed to secession he turned everything he had into
+gold, bought several tracts of land in Michigan and New York and
+secretly planted his money. His wife and children refused to share his
+lonely exile and he sent them to England but clung to America himself,
+and died suddenly and alone the second year of the war on the very acres
+my father inherited in Michigan. That's where I'm opening my camp."
+
+"And the gold hasn't been found?" asked Archie deeply interested.
+
+"Not a coin so far! You see grandfather made his will in war time and
+only divided the land, being afraid to mention the buried treasure in a
+document that would become a public record when he died."
+
+"This is most exciting. It's only unfortunate that it's not pirate gold
+to give zest to your enterprise."
+
+"Oh, the pirate in the story is a cousin of mine, who inherited the land
+up near the St. Lawrence and has dug all over it without results. My
+father gave the Michigan scenery to me, but this cousin has been
+digging on my land, most unwarrantably! He's rather a dashing young
+person!"
+
+Archie was so enthralled that he forgot the typewritten dietary he
+always carried in his pocket and ate most of his portion of beef
+tenderloin before he remembered that red meats were denied him. He laid
+down his fork so abruptly that she asked him what was the matter.
+
+"Nothing; only you've interested me so much that I've eaten a whole lot
+of stuff that's positively forbidden. You've already scored a victory
+over my specialists!"
+
+"Splendid!" she cried. "Eat when you're hungry and never think about
+your food. Don't let a mere piece of beef know that you're a coward.
+Have you ever committed murder? You pale at the suggestion and yet a
+pleasant little murder might be the very thing to set you on your feet
+again!"
+
+From time to time he caught Mrs. Featherstone's eyes fixed upon him
+approvingly, and he knew that she was thinking that at last he had met a
+girl who interested him. The impression that he was an invalid in
+imminent peril of death caused his friends and acquaintances to talk to
+him as though he were a sick child, and it was refreshing to find a girl
+who openly chaffed him about his health and went the length of
+prescribing a career of riotous crime as a cure for his ills. This was
+enormously amusing for in prep school and college he had been guiltless
+of the traditional pranks and in the six years that had elapsed since he
+emerged into the world he had walked circumspectly in the eyes of all
+men.
+
+Isabel Perry was not afraid of him and she didn't treat him as girls
+did who had an idea that if they talked to him very long he might faint
+or even die on their hands. He noted her fine rounded arms and supple
+fingers that spoke for strength, reflecting that very likely she could
+pick him up and pitch him through the window. He had always disliked
+athletic girls, fancying that they nodded to him patronizingly as they
+passed him on country club verandas all aglow from golf or tennis. This
+amiable Isabel was quite capable of making him dance through a set of
+tennis and with her high spirits and strong will might even bring him
+out alive. It was obvious that the sudden sweeping away of her father's
+fortune had not troubled her in the least. He marveled at this, for he
+had a great deal of money that had been conferred upon him in the cradle
+and what he should do if he lost it was a depressing possibility that
+had contributed not a little to his neurasthenia.
+
+When it came time for Isabel to say good-night to her hostess Bennett
+was hovering near to offer his services in calling her car.
+
+"Nothing like that for me! I brought walking shoes and shall foot it
+home, thank you. But--" she hesitated and said with mock gravity, "if
+you're not afraid of the night air or the excessive fatigue, you might
+take me home. That will add a mile to your prescription but you can ride
+back!"
+
+The other guests had gone when she reappeared, wrapped in a long cloak
+and bearing a party-bag containing her slippers. She spoke of her plans
+for the summer with charming candor as they set off at a brisk pace.
+Little bits of autobiography she let fall interested him immensely. She
+was born in Wyoming, where her father had been a ranchman, and she had
+first known Mrs. Featherstone in college. She was enthusiastic about the
+summer camp; if it succeeded she meant to conduct an outdoor school for
+girls, moving it from Michigan to Florida with the changing seasons.
+
+"People have been so kind to me! And I shall have a wonderful lot of
+girls--just think of it,--one hundred dear young beings from all over
+the country. It's a big responsibility but that land of my grandfather's
+is a lovely site for the camp. It's on a bay, where the swimming will be
+perfectly safe, and there's a wonderful forest, with Indian trails that
+run back to Marquette's time. We shall have a doctor--a woman, of
+course--and two trained nurses and some splendid young women to act, as
+councilors."
+
+There was no question of her making a success of it, he said, marveling
+at her vitality, her exuberance, the confidence with which she viewed
+the future.
+
+"I wish you all good luck," he said when they reached the house of the
+friend she was visiting. "The camp will be a great success,--I'm sure of
+that."
+
+"Oh, it's a case of sink or swim--I've got to make it go!" she replied
+with her buoyant laugh. "If I don't succeed I can't emerge from the
+woods next fall and face my creditors!"
+
+"There's the buried treasure; you mustn't neglect that! I'm greatly your
+debtor for all the interesting things you've told me. This has been the
+happiest evening I've spent since----"
+
+"Since you began taking everything so hard? Please quit looking on your
+life as a burden; try to get some fun out of it!"
+
+The door opened to the key she gave him and the light of the hall lamp
+fell upon her face and glinted her brown hair as she put out her hand.
+
+"Don't forget me in the rush of things! And particularly don't forget
+that note of instructions. I'm counting on that!"
+
+"Not really?" she exclaimed. "I was just in fun, you know."
+
+"If I don't get it before I leave tomorrow evening, I shall be terribly
+disappointed. I shall take it as a sign that you don't think me worth
+bothering about!"
+
+There was a pleading in his voice that held her for a moment; she
+surveyed him gravely, then answered lightly,
+
+"Oh, very well! You shall have it, sir!"
+
+
+II
+
+Archie didn't know that the note caused Isabel a great deal of trouble.
+It was one thing to promise to tell a man who was all but a stranger
+just how to alter his way of life with a view to a happier existence,
+but to sit before a sheet of white paper and compose a letter on the
+subject was a very different matter, as Isabel's waste-paper basket
+could have testified. Her first experiments had been very serious, with
+urgent recommendations of hard physical labor; but this proved
+unsatisfactory. Then she attacked it from an ethical angle and suggested
+social service as a means of destroying the selfishness which she
+honestly believed to be one of his troubles.
+
+She scribbled on a pad the titles of half a dozen hooks designed for
+weary and disconsolate souls, but they hardly touched his case and
+besides he had probably been deluged with just such literature.
+Moreover, she must write a note that would not require an answer; this
+she felt to be imperatively demanded by the circumstances. She thought
+Archibald Bennett a nice fellow and she was sorry for him, but no more
+and no less sorry than she would have been for any one else who failed
+to find the world a pleasant place to live in. Something a little
+cryptic, yet something that would discourage further confidences without
+wounding him--this would solve the problem--and she spent an hour
+turning over the pages of a book of quotations searching for some
+stirring epigrammatic utterance. The wise of all the ages seemed to have
+been strangely unmindful of the needs of neurasthenic young men, but
+finally she hit upon these lines and copied them in her best hand:--
+
+    He either fears his fate too much,
+      Or his deserts are small,
+    That dares not put it to the touch
+      To gain or lose it all.
+
+She wondered who the Marquis of Montrose was who had lived in the
+seventeenth century and bequeathed this quatrain to posterity, but this
+didn't matter, and after reading the lines aloud several times she
+decided that they would serve her purpose admirably. If Mr. Bennett took
+them seriously, well enough; and if he didn't like them it made no
+difference as she would probably never meet him again.
+
+She wrote on a calling card, "Best wishes and good luck," and put this
+inside the note sheet, and as the hour was late she despatched it to Mr.
+Bennett by special messenger.
+
+The note reached Archie just as he was leaving his sister's house. When
+he was seated in the train he drew it out and inspected the envelope
+carefully, held it to the light and speculated fearfully as to the
+nature of its contents. His thoughts had played about Isabel Perry most
+of the day and he had listened to his sister's enthusiastic praise of
+her with an unusual attention that had not been lost upon Mrs.
+Featherstone. He had hoped for a long letter in the vein of the girl's
+chaffing humor, and the size of the missive was a distinct
+disappointment.
+
+He opened it guardedly, and his face fell as he pondered the verse. It
+was a neat, well-bred slap at him as a man without initiative or
+courage. At the dinner table she had expressed much the same thought
+that was condensed in the verse, but the quotation, unrelieved by her
+smile, carried a sting. He read it over until the lines marched with a
+nimble step through his memory. There was something oddly haunting in
+them, and he experimented with a variety of emphases and pauses,
+particularly as to the last line, which he found might be read in a
+great number of ways. He decided finally that it was best interpreted by
+a little pause after "gain," with the remaining words vanishing in a
+despondent sigh. Perhaps this was the way Isabel Perry thought of him,
+as a loser in the game of life; but he experienced a pleasant tingle in
+the blood when he reflected that this may have been the wrong reading
+and very different from the sense she meant to convey. His spirits
+soared as he decided that the last line was intended to be read
+unbrokenly and that it constituted a challenge, flung at him with a toss
+of her head, a flash of the brown eyes.
+
+This thought was wholly heartening and he dwelt upon it a long time. She
+must have thought him capable of deeds of high emprise or she would not
+have chosen this fragment as her last word to him. Her choice of a
+message implied a certain faith that he might, if he chose, break the
+shackles of fear and custom that bound him and do something that would
+lift him out of himself. The card with the good wishes gave a soothing,
+saving personal touch to the communication. She had drawn the pen across
+a Chicago street number and supplied no other address; but after a dark
+moment in which he accepted this as a delicate hint that the incident
+was closed, he concluded that very likely she had deleted the address
+hastily for the reason that she was to disappear into the woods for the
+summer. Still, she might have substituted the camp address and he
+fretted over this for an hour. She left him without excuse for a reply,
+and he gravely reflected that the Marquis of Montrose was the only
+person to whom he could protest, but as she had copied from the
+quotation book the figures "1621-1640" and added them to the name for
+his illumination, it was clearly impossible to ask the author for an
+interpretation of his stanza.
+
+Archie was lulled to sleep by the encouraging thought that what she had
+done was to give him a commission to redeem himself by strange and
+moving adventures, and he dreamed that he had climbed to the remote
+fastnesses of the Rockies, and captured a mountain sheep alive and
+walked into his sister's house with the animal under his arm and
+presented it to Miss Perry at the tea table.
+
+He changed trains at Boston and again at Portsmouth, where he checked
+his bag. At two o'clock he reached Bailey Harbor, where he verified his
+memorandum as to the return trip and found the telegram he expected from
+the New York brokerage office in which he was a silent partner, saying
+that his booking for Banff had been changed as requested. He never took
+the chance of being stuffed into an upper berth, or riding in a day
+coach, and he congratulated himself upon his forethought and the ease
+with which he was proceeding upon his sister's errand.
+
+He stepped into the only taxi in sight and drove to the village
+druggist's for the key to the Congdon house.
+
+"Just go in and take your time to it," said the man. "Lights and water
+haven't been turned off and if you take the house your folks can step
+right in. Mrs. Congdon left only yesterday. Suppose you'll be going on
+the five eleven; it's your only chance of getting back to Boston
+tonight. If you don't find it convenient to stop here again, just leave
+the key under the door mat."
+
+"I guess you'll find the place all shipshape," said the driver, as they
+set off. "Folks came up early but didn't stay long. Left in a hurry;
+kind o' funny, skippin' the way they did."
+
+"There hadn't been sickness in the family?" asked Archie, apprehensively
+thinking that he might be stumbling into infection.
+
+"Lord no! Family troubles, I reckon! They been comin' here a long time
+and usually came earlier and stayed later than anybody else. I don't
+know nothin', mind ye, but there's talk she had trouble with her
+husband."
+
+"You mean Mr. and Mrs. Congdon have separated?"
+
+"I'm sayin' nothin'! But the Congdons are all queer. His pap used to
+have a house here and he was the worst ole crank on the shore. Young
+Putney's a pretty decent fellow. Mighty fine woman, his wife. Ever'body
+likes _her_."
+
+The confidences of the weatherbeaten chauffeur only mildly interested
+Archie, who was bent upon inspecting the house as quickly as possible
+with a view to footing it back to the station, and thus crediting two
+miles to the day's exercise account. It was unseasonably warm and the
+air was lifeless and humid.
+
+"Think it will rain?" asked Archie.
+
+"Yep," replied the driver with a glance at the sea. "There's goin' to be
+a lively kick-up before mornin'."
+
+Archie eyed his top-coat and umbrella with the pardonable satisfaction
+of a man who travels prepared for all weathers. To follow the shore path
+in the teeth of a storm would do much toward establishing his
+self-confidence and prove that he was not a mollycoddle. Isabel Perry
+and her note were firmly imbedded in his subconsciousness and were
+causing curious slips and shifts of his mental machinery. Certain of her
+utterances at his sister's table rankled, and his thousandth conjecture
+about the note was that it mocked his weaknesses and defied him to
+prove that he was far from being the worthless social parasite she
+believed him to be.
+
+
+III
+
+He discharged the driver and in a moment was standing in a big
+living-room that exhaled an atmosphere of comfort and good taste. On
+every hand were the evidences of a hasty abandonment of the house by its
+recent occupants. A waste-paper basket by a writing table in one corner
+overflowed with scraps of discarded letters; the family had evidently
+snatched a hasty luncheon before leaving and the dining table had not
+been cleared. A doll lay sprawled on the landing as he made his way
+upstairs, and in the bed chambers empty chiffonier drawers gaped as
+though from surprise at their hasty evacuation. He made a survey of the
+whole premises and then went through again from cellar to garret
+checking off his sister's queries. There was something disconcerting in
+the intense silence of the place broken only by the periodic thump of
+the sea at the base of the cliff.
+
+The house would serve the Featherstones admirably. There was even the
+sleeping porch opening from the nursery that his sister had expressly
+stipulated and a tiny retreat back of the living-room with desk and
+shelves that would meet the requirements of his congressman
+brother-in-law at such times as he might find it possible to join his
+family.
+
+Fully satisfied with his investigations, Archie picked up a book with a
+paper-cutter thrust through it to mark the place of its last reader,
+became absorbed and read until he, was roused by a clap of thunder that
+seemed to shake the world. Hurrying to the window he found that the
+storm had already broken. There was a greenish light over the sea and
+the waves had begun to smite the rocks with dismaying ferocity. To catch
+the five eleven he would have to leave at once, and he seized his
+belongings and opened the door, but upon stepping out upon the veranda
+the walk he had contemplated along the shore path to the village seemed
+a foolhardy thing to undertake. An unearthly darkness had fallen upon
+the world and a misstep in the rough path over the rocks might pitch him
+headlong into the sea. He had marked the presence of a telephone in the
+house and decided to summon a taxi, but as he clapped the receiver to
+his ear he was startled by a blinding glare and the crack of a mighty
+whip overhead. He snatched the instrument again and bawled into it, but
+it was buzzing queerly and he sprang away from it as another glare lit
+up the room.
+
+He turned on the lights and sat down to think. He might return by the
+highway over which he had reached the house, but the driver had told him
+it was the longer way. The roof and walls rang under the downpour and he
+decided that after all to spend the night in an abandoned house would be
+fully as heroic as to subject himself to the ruthless fury of the
+hurricane. It would be a lark to camp in the Congdon villa, a break in
+the deadly routine of his days which Isabel Perry had pointed out as a
+possible cause of his invalidism. He made himself comfortable and
+studied the sheaf of time tables he had brought with him, methodically
+formulating the messages he would be obliged to despatch in the morning
+to change his westward passage.
+
+The storm showed no sign of abating and as nightfall deepened the gloom
+he set the broad fireplace in the living-room glowing, drew the shades,
+and feeling twinges of hunger explored the kitchen pantry. The Congdons
+had left a well-stocked larder and, finding bacon, eggs and bread, he
+decided that the cooking of a supper would be a jolly incident of the
+adventure. He laid aside his coat and rolling up his sleeves soon had a
+fire going in the range, which smoked hideously until he mastered the
+dampers. He removed the dishes that had been left on the dining-room
+table and carefully laid a cover for one. The roses in a bowl that
+served as a centerpiece were still fresh and were a pathetic reminder of
+the mistress of the house. In rearranging the table he found a telegram
+under a plate at what he assumed to be Mrs. Congdon's place. To read a
+message not intended for his eyes was decidedly against his strict code,
+but his curiosity overcame his scruples and these words met his eyes:
+
+  New York, June 10, 1917.
+  Mrs. Alice B. Congdon,
+  Bailey Harbor, Maine.
+
+  Your letter has your characteristic touch of cruelty. We may as
+  well part now and be done with it. But the children you cannot
+  have. Remember that I relinquish none of my rights on this
+  point. I demand that you surrender Edith at once and I will
+  communicate with you later about the custody of Harold until such
+  time as he is old enough to come to me.
+
+                                                     Putney Congdon.
+
+The cautious hint of the taxi driver that domestic difficulties were
+responsible for the breaking up of the Congdon household found here a
+painful corroboration. He chivalrously took sides at once with the
+unhappy Alice; no matter how shrewish the absconding wife might be, only
+a brute of a husband would fling such a message at her head. Archie
+hated discord; the very thought of it was abhorrent. He had never had a
+care in his life beyond his health, and quarrels of every sort he left
+to underbred people with evil tempers. Here was a furious lunatic
+telegraphing his wife of the severance of the most sacred of ties and
+demanding the immediate transfer of one child to his possession and
+relinquishing only temporarily the custody of the other, presumably
+younger and the lawful owner of the doll he had picked up on the stair
+landing.
+
+He now visualized the whole scene that followed upon the receipt of the
+telegram; the hurried, tearful packing, the bewildered children, the
+panic-struck servants rushing about obeying the orders of a hysterical
+mistress. The more he thought of it the warmer became his defensive
+attitude toward the unknown Alice. She had met the situation like a
+woman of quick decisions,--perhaps she was a little too unyielding and
+this had caused the rupture; but no man worthy to be called a gentleman
+would commit to the wires so heartless a message directed at the mother
+of his children.
+
+His attention had been arrested several times by a photograph of a young
+girl, of eleven or twelve, set in a silver frame on the living-room
+table, whom he assumed to be the Edith mentioned in the telegram. She
+was a lovely child, with a wealth of hair falling about her shoulders,
+and roguish eyes that looked at him teasingly. It was a thoroughly
+feminine face with an unusual perfection of line. Very likely the child
+was the reembodiment of her mother who must, he thought, be a very
+handsome woman indeed. His resentment hardened against the husband and
+father, the author of the brutal message that disposed of his marital
+obligations as coolly as though he had been canceling an order for a
+carload of merchandise, as he held up the picture for the joy of meeting
+the gaze of the merry eyes.
+
+Though the breaking of eggs into the skillet had proved a fearsome
+matter and the bacon sizzled strangely, the cooking had proved much
+simpler than he had believed possible. He burnt his fingers handling the
+toaster, but after ruining a considerable quantity of bread he produced
+three slices of toast that were the equal of any offered by his favorite
+club. As usual when frustrated in his plans (something that had rarely
+happened in his whole life) he made the most of the situation, eating
+slowly while the rain poured in an unbroken sheet down the windows. He
+wished Isabel could see him and know that for once the routine of his
+life had been interrupted only to find him resourceful and the easy
+master of his fate.
+
+He made a point of washing the dishes and cooking utensils and putting
+them carefully away. These matters attended to, he roamed over the house
+which now had a new interest for him since the Congdon family skeleton
+had come out of its closet and danced round the dinner table. In one way
+and another he found it possible to make a fair acquaintance with the
+late inmates of the house. In a bedroom adjoining the nursery there
+were books in abundance, and very good books they were--essays, poetry,
+a few of those novels that appeal only to sophisticated readers, and
+children's books, including a volume of Bible stories retold for the
+young. He could readily imagine Mrs. Congdon reading aloud from these
+volumes to her youngsters as they stood beside the wicker rocker in the
+bay-window. Only a few hours earlier the house had rung with the happy
+laughter of children; he fancied he could hear them calling to their
+mother up the stair. Mrs. Congdon was a blonde, he decided, from the
+presence in a closet of a blue peignoir overlooked in her flight and a
+bolt of blue ribbon that had rolled under the bed as though seeking
+refuge from the general confusion.
+
+In the adjoining room he sought traces of the hard-hearted husband, but
+in his departure, presumably sometime earlier, Congdon had made a clean
+sweep; there was nothing to afford a clue to his character beyond a
+four-in-hand tie whose colors struck Archie as execrable. Below in the
+snuggery fitted up for masculine use was a table, containing a humidor
+half filled with dried-up cigars, and an ill-smelling pipe--Archie hated
+pipes--and a box of cigarettes. A number of scientific magazines lay
+about and a forbidding array of books on mechanics and chemistry
+overflowed the shelves. He threw open a cabinet filled with blue prints
+illustrating queer mechanical contrivances. They struck him as very
+silly and he slammed the thing shut in disgust, convinced that Congdon
+was a crank, or he wouldn't have indulged in such foolishness. In a
+drawer of the desk was an automatic pistol and a box of cartridges. At
+a country house where he once week-ended a burglar scare had inspired
+feverish intensive pistol practice among the guests and Archie had
+learned to load and fire and even developed some skill as a marksman.
+There were three cartridges in the magazine and Archie thrust it into
+his pocket thinking it not a bad idea to be prepared for invasion.
+
+He was oppressed with a fleeting sense of his isolation as he drew back
+a shade and pressed his face to the pane. The house stood at the edge of
+the summer colony and a considerable distance from its nearest neighbor.
+The landward horizon still brightened at intervals with a languid
+mockery of lightning, dimmed by the fog that was dragging in from the
+sea. The siren in the harbor had begun its mournful iterations, and he
+caught the occasional flash of the revolving light that gleamed now and
+then through breaks in the fog.
+
+He switched off the lights in the lower rooms and established himself in
+the guest chamber. The bed had been dismantled but he found blankets and
+linen and addressed himself to the novel task of making a couch for
+himself. If he had consulted his pleasure in advance he would have
+shrunk from camping in a lonely seaside house for a night; but now that
+the experience was forced upon him he was surprised to find that he was
+not afraid. The revelation was an agreeable one. He, Archibald Bennett,
+was a perfectly normal being, capable of rising to emergencies; and when
+he saw Isabel Perry again, as he had every intention of doing at the end
+of the summer, this little trip to Bailey Harbor would make a very
+pretty story which could not fail to convince her of his fortitude and
+courage.
+
+Sleeping in his underwear was distasteful but this was only another
+small item that proved his resolute fiber and ability to accept
+conditions as he found them. He opened the windows and performed his
+usual before-retiring calisthenics, tested the reading lamp beside the
+bed, placed the pistol within easy reach and became absorbed in a volume
+of short stories.
+
+He read the book through, put out the light and was half asleep when he
+was roused by footsteps on the veranda below.
+
+
+IV
+
+It was close upon midnight and the presence of a prowler on the premises
+caused his heart to gallop wildly. He seized the pistol, crept to the
+window and peered cautiously out. Between the crash of the breakers he
+listened intently and had decided that the steps had been the illusion
+of a dream when a sound in the room below renewed his alarm. He gained
+the door in two jumps. He could hear the opening and closing of drawers
+and see the flash of an electric lamp as the thief moved swiftly about,
+apparently taking it for granted that he had the house to himself. The
+swish of the swing-door between dining-room and pantry marked his
+investigations in the rear of the house. He evidently found nothing
+there, for he was back in the hall again in a moment. Then through the
+vast silence of the big house the unknown gave voice to his anger and
+disappointment:
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!"
+
+This, reaching Archie very clearly, added nothing to his comfort. He
+debated making a dash for the switch and flooding the lower rooms with
+light, but a burglar angrily damning himself for his stupidity in
+entering a house where plated silver was the only booty in sight was not
+a person to provoke unnecessarily. Then a series of quick flashes on the
+wall of the stair gave warning of the intruder's invasion of the upper
+rooms.
+
+Archie drew back and waited. His thoughts and emotions in this hour of
+danger interested him. He had always imagined that he would collapse in
+any moment of peril. The fingers of his left hand sought the wrist of
+his right that grasped the automatic and while his heart was still
+beating quickly the pulse was regular. This was immensely gratifying and
+he resolved to report the fact to his medical counselor at the first
+opportunity.
+
+The thief had become more cautious and was tiptoeing up the uncarpeted
+treads of the stair, still sending occasionally a bar of light ahead.
+All the doors of the bedrooms stood open, Archie remembered, and the
+thief would not be long in discovering that the recent occupants had
+left behind them nothing of the slightest value. His courage was
+mounting; he was enormously surprised to find that his hands were quite
+steady, and his mind had never functioned more perfectly. The burglar
+was now in Mrs. Congdon's room, where he stumbled over a chair that
+rocked furiously until stilled by the invader. He was now coming boldly
+down the hall as though satisfied that the house was empty. A flash of
+his lamp fell upon the door frame just above Archie's left hand.
+
+He crawled hastily across the bed and swung round and waited with his
+back against a chiffonier in the corner, sternly resolved that not
+without a struggle would he be shot and his body left lying crumpled in
+a corner with no one to tell the tale. He had the advantage of the
+knowledge of the enemy's approach, and he raised the gun and covered the
+door in readiness. A flash clipped the dark for an instant. Then a hand
+groped along the wall seeking the switch. Archie could hear its soft
+rasping over the wall. As the switch snapped the room flooded with
+light. The bewildering glare leaping out of the darkness held the man in
+the doorway and he raised his arm and passed his hand over his eyes to
+shield them from the light.
+
+Between the front windows stood a long mirror swung in a movable frame,
+and as he measured distances and calculated chances Archie found himself
+staring at the reflection of a tall man with a cap pulled low over his
+head and with the collar of a yellowish raincoat turned up about his
+face. The eyes of the two met, the gaze of each gripping and holding
+that of the other.
+
+The burglar's shoulders drooped as he gaped at the mirrored apparition.
+Then swiftly he jerked a pistol from his pocket and fired point blank
+into the mirror. The report crashed horribly in the room, followed by
+the tinkle of fragments of glass. Archie aimed at the doorway, but his
+shot seemed only to hasten the man's flight. A rug slipped and the
+fugitive fell with a frightened yell that rang eerily through the house.
+
+In the hall Archie turned on all the lights and gaining the landing
+fired at the retreating figure as it plunged toward the front door. At
+the crack of the gun the fugitive stopped short, clapped his hand to his
+shoulder and groaned, then sprang through the front door and Bennett
+heard immediately the quick patter of his feet on the walk.
+
+The lock bore no evidence of having been forced. It was a curious
+business and Archie closed the door, placed a heavy chair against it,
+and feeling a little giddy he threw himself down on a davenport in the
+living-room. He began thinking very hard. He had shot a man and for all
+he knew the victim might be lying dead somewhere on the premises. To be
+sure the shooting of an armed housebreaker was justifiable, but the
+thought of coroner's inquests and dallyings with the police filled him
+with horror. The newspapers would seize upon the case with avidity, and
+his friends would never cease twitting him about his valor in firing a
+bullet into the back of a fleeing burglar.
+
+The frame of the photograph of the young girl that had so charmed him
+lay on the floor face down. Bennett picked it up and found that the
+picture had been removed. He wondered a little at this but dismissed the
+subject from his mind to consider the graver business of how to avoid
+the disagreeable consequences of his encounter. He must leave the house
+and escape from Bailey Harbor before daybreak, and he went upstairs and
+hurriedly began dressing.
+
+[Illustration: At the crack of the gun the fugitive stopped short]
+
+But for the tangible evidence of the smashed mirror (the bullet had
+pierced the wooden back and was imbedded in the wall behind it) he might
+have dismissed the whole thing as a nightmare. Instinctively he began
+building up an alibi and planning his flight. The druggist who had given
+him the key and the taxi driver both supposed that he had inspected the
+house and taken the evening train for Boston. As he got into his clothes
+he decided to make a wide detour of the town, perhaps tramping on to
+Portsmouth, and there recover his bag and be off for the Rockies.
+
+At one o'clock he was drinking coffee and munching toast and jam to
+fortify himself for his journey. He had shot and perhaps killed a man,
+and his mind surged now with self-accusations. He needn't have fired the
+shot--the thief was running away and very likely would not have molested
+him further. He was sorry for the fellow, wounded or dead; but in a
+moment he was shuddering as he reflected that the bullet that splintered
+the mirror had really been meant for him, and it had struck with great
+precision just where the reflection of his head had presented a fair
+target to the startled marksman.
+
+He turned out the lights and placing the key under the door mat stole
+through the garden. The man he had shot might even now be lying dead in
+his path, and he lifted his feet high to avoid stumbling over the
+corpse. But more appalling was the thought that the fugitive might be
+lying in ambush, and he carried his pistol before him at arm's length
+against such an emergency.
+
+He gained the road, glanced toward the house and set off in the general
+direction of the New Hampshire border.
+
+
+V
+
+There was neither star nor moon, and a chill wet wind bore in from the
+sea. His immediate business was to get as far away from Bailey Harbor as
+possible. He started with a long swinging stride that was quickly
+arrested as he splashed through pools left by the rain or stumbled off
+the road where it turned sharply. Once he wandered into a driveway and
+seeking a way out crashed into a sunken garden. His feet were wet and
+his trousers flapped heavily about his legs. The shrubbery pricked him
+like barbed wire and a scratch along his cheek bled most disagreeably.
+He hurriedly felt his way along a hedge to the highway, hating himself
+with the greatest cordiality. If this was the adventurous life it was
+not for him, and he solemnly resolved that if he didn't die of pneumonia
+as the result of his indiscretions he would stick close to clubs and
+comfortable hotels for the remainder of his life.
+
+He had no way of keeping track of his progress, but on bumping into a
+cross-roads sign-board he struck a match and read "Bailey Harbor 5 M.,"
+and the discovery that only five miles lay between him and the Congdon
+house filled him with rage and terror. A little later he caught the
+first glimmer of dawn breaking over a gray world. This was heartening
+but it brought also new dangers for he had no idea of where his tramp
+had brought him and mud-splashed as he was and with the scratch across
+his face stinging uncomfortably, he was in no haste to meet the
+strangers who would soon be passing him in the road.
+
+A curious whistle, a long pipe and then a short quick one, in the
+roadside a little way ahead brought him to a halt. He drew the gun from
+his overcoat pocket and stood perfectly quiet. In a few seconds the
+whistle was repeated and Archie, grown suddenly bold, checked an impulse
+to fly and imitated it.
+
+A man rose from behind a stone wall on the right and walked toward him.
+
+"That you, Hoky?" he called sharply, peering through the mist.
+
+Seeing that it was not Hoky but a stranger with a pistol, he sprang
+forward and wrenched the gun from Archie's hand.
+
+"Stop squealing! Bad enough for you to fool me with that whistle without
+pulling a gun. Now you get right over there by the fence where I'm
+pointing and we'll consider matters a little!"
+
+"I was just walking to Portsmouth," began Archie in a blithe tone he
+hoped would prove convincing.
+
+His captor laughed ironically, and throwing open Bennett's coat,
+demanded:
+
+"Where's your badge? Don't lie to me! You're one of these village
+constables or a plainclothes man from Boston. Either way you'd better
+show your hand."
+
+"If you think I'm connected with the police," Archie faltered, "you were
+never more mistaken in your life!"
+
+The man clapped his hands over Archie's pockets and then struck a match
+and surveyed his face with care. This done he stuck his nose close to
+his captive's mouth and bade him breathe.
+
+"You haven't the bouquet of an inebriate, son. You stepped along like
+Hoky, my pal, and that's why I whistled; and you warbled the answer like
+a mockingbird. Now listen to me! You've been up to something, so don't
+tell me again that you're taking a little before breakfast stroll to
+Portsmouth to work up an appetite. In the first place, have you seen a
+man about your size along the road anywhere?"
+
+"Not a soul!" declared Archie solemnly.
+
+"Mighty queer Hoky doesn't turn up! I warned the beggar against these
+seaside villas; they're all outfitted with fancy burglar alarms that
+make a deuce of a row when you step on the wire. Electricity is the bane
+of the craft; you light a wire that rings a gong loud enough to wake the
+dead and then some chap jumps out of bed and turns on all the lights in
+the house and very likely opens up with a gun before you can say
+Jerusalem. But Hoky thought he knew better."
+
+Archie clutched at the stone fence against which his captor had pushed
+him and his breath came in long gasps.
+
+"You mean," he faltered, "that you fear your friend has been shot!"
+
+"That, my dear sir, is exactly what troubles me! Hoky didn't need to do
+it; that's what rouses my indignation! He's been running free for two
+years, and not a thing against him--wiped out all his indictments with
+good time like an honest thief, and now very likely he's been potted by
+some large prosperous householder as he was trying to lift a bit of
+silver; and these country houses never have anything worth risking your
+life for! My dear boy, can you blame me for being peeved, enormously
+peeved, when I reflect that Hoky, one of the best pals in the world, is
+probably lying as dead as a pickled mackerel somewhere back yonder? Or
+if he has escaped death in his felonious enterprise he may have met the
+constable and be awaiting the pleasure of a grand jury of righteous
+farmers of the old commonwealth of Maine!"
+
+Archie's tongue clung to the roof of his mouth as he tried to murmur
+his sympathy for the stranger's sorrow. The thought that he was probably
+talking to the accomplice of the man he had shot was terrifying; the
+stranger seemed enormously fond of Hoky and if he knew that he had
+within his grasp the person who was responsible for Hoky's failure to
+return from his visit to Bailey Harbor he would very likely make haste
+to avenge his friend's death. It seemed to Archie that the gods were
+playing strange tricks upon him indeed. The man's speech was not the
+argot he had assumed from his reading of crook stories to be the common
+utterance of the underworld. There was something attractive in the
+fellow. He carried himself jauntily, and his clean-shaven, rounded face
+and fine gray eyes would not have suggested his connection with
+burglary. He was an engaging sort of person, and overcoming his
+discomfiture at having sent a bullet into the foolish Hoky, Archie
+decided suddenly that the man might be of service to him. He was in
+pressing need of a change of clothes but he was in no condition to
+proceed to Portsmouth to redeem his suitcase; an impression that was
+confirmed unexpectedly by his captor.
+
+"You will pardon my candor, but you certainly look like the devil.
+There's a rip in your trousers that needs explaining and that swipe on
+your face reminds me of a map of the Mississippi done in red ink. Let me
+introduce myself to you as the Governor. Among the powers that prey that
+is my proud cognomen, not to say _alias_. Now please be frank--what
+mischief brings you here at this pale hour?"
+
+Archie gave serious thought to his answer. If he could convince this
+singular person that he was a crook he would be less likely to suspect
+that he had been the instrument of Hoky's undoing. And there was the
+possibility that if he met the Governor's friendly advances in a
+reciprocal spirit the man might help him out of his predicament. The
+Governor was waiting for his answer, humming pleasantly as he surveyed
+the heavens.
+
+"I've got to make a getaway and be in a hurry about it," declared Archie
+with a confidential air that caused a humorous light to play in the
+Governor's eyes.
+
+"A little trouble of some sort, eh? Perhaps fearing a collision with the
+revised statutes of this or adjacent states?"
+
+"Something like that," Archie answered huskily.
+
+"It rather occurred to me that you were not promenading for mere
+pleasure," replied the Governor, drawing his hand across his chin. "The
+causes that lead people to travel have been enumerated by no less an
+authority than Mr. Laurence Sterne as--
+
+"Infirmity of body,
+
+"Imbecility of mind, or
+
+"Inevitable necessity.
+
+"Unless my memory errs the same authority classifies travelers as the
+idle, the inquisitive, the lying, the proud, the vain, the splenetic; to
+which he added the delinquent and felonious traveler, the unfortunate
+and innocent traveler, the traveler without aim and the wandering
+sentimentalist. From the looks of your clothing I should judge that you
+belong to the necessitous group, though from a certain uneasy expression
+I might easily place you among the delinquent and criminal. A
+fashionable defaulter perhaps? No. Then let it go at murder, though I
+confess you don't look as though you'd have a stomach for homicide."
+
+"I came damned near getting pinched!" asserted Archie stoutly. "The cops
+back there in that town gave me a hard run for it."
+
+Feeling that he was making an impression on the Governor he warmed to
+his work.
+
+"I was just crawling through the window of a drug store when here comes
+a chap tiptoeing through the alley flashing a dark lantern, and I bolted
+for the tall timber as hard as I could sprint. The fire bell rang and
+the whole town woke up and I got lost running through a garden back of
+one of those swell's houses on the shore. That's how I got this slash in
+the face, and I'm in a pretty pickle now. There'll be a whole army
+looking for me; and if your friend Hoky's been killed they'll be keen to
+pinch me as another member of the gang."
+
+The Governor listened patiently as Archie jerked this out, nervously
+trying to conceal his Harvard training in the use of the English
+language by resorting to such terms as he imagined bold bad men employ
+in moments of mental stress.
+
+"An amateur, I take it?" remarked the Governor with the humorous twinkle
+that seemed to be habitual with him.
+
+"Hell, no," grumbled Archie scornfully. "But I always play the game
+alone; I never had any use for pals. They get in the way."
+
+"Wrong, my boy; wrong! A good partner like me is essential to the
+successful prosecution of the art or craft felonious. As for myself I
+rarely venture to expose myself in these little affairs; but I advise
+and counsel the brethren. I am their confidant and assist them in
+innumerable ways purely for the joy of it, I assure you. Now Hoky and I
+had been on the road all spring, and he made a good haul or two under my
+direction; but he wouldn't let well enough alone. I warned him against
+making an attempt back yonder last night. A stormy night always makes
+honest householders wakeful. Take it from me, son, there couldn't be a
+worse time for a burglary than a night melodious with rolling thunder.
+You haven't the judgment of a month-old infant. I bought a toothbrush at
+that drug store yesterday evening and there's a light right over the
+safe at the end of the prescription counter. Your attempt, my son,
+speaks for courage but not for discretion. You should always ask me
+about such things."
+
+"I'm sorry," replied Archie meekly, "that I didn't run into you sooner."
+
+"The loss is mine!" cried the Governor heartily. "But let us be
+practical. The coast will ring with this, particularly if Hoky is lying
+cold at the undertaker's. He must be dead or pinched or he'd be here by
+this time. We shall make a long jump, son, and ponder the future."
+
+He walked off briskly with Archie close beside him.
+
+"When Hoky persisted in his ill-chosen enterprise I felt a weariness
+upon me and lifted a little roadster that I've tucked away down here in
+a peaceful lane. Thought I'd be all ready to give the old boy a long
+pull for freedom when he came back, but alas--!"
+
+Sure enough the roadster was there; a very handy little car indeed, and
+Archie was profoundly interested to know that it was in this fashion
+that a man who from his own confession was counselor extraordinary to
+thieves, toured the country. The Governor had become suddenly a man of
+action. Kneeling down he detached a New York license tag from the
+machine, drew from his pocket a Maine tag and attached it, humming
+meanwhile.
+
+"The rural police haven't learned this simple device," he explained, as
+he sent the discarded tag skimming into a corn field. "I've got about
+forty miles to run inland. The back roads only and Providence our
+guide!"
+
+He jumped in and bade Archie take the seat beside him. The car was soon
+bumping merrily over a rough road that wound through a pine wood. As
+near as Archie could reckon from the sun that was crawling into view
+they were bound for Halifax, but to be going anywhere was an infinite
+relief, and to be traveling with a man whose comrade he had shot and
+probably killed only a few hours earlier, imparted a piquant flavor to
+the journey. This astonishing person who called himself Governor might,
+for all he knew, be hurrying him to some lonely place to murder him, but
+if this was his plan he was most agreeable about it. He had taken off
+the mackinaw coat in which he had first appeared in the road and the
+brown coat underneath was of modish cut; and as his foot played upon the
+brake Archie noted that he wore silk hose. He had never dreamed that
+outlaws were so careful of their raiment. And the man's talk was that of
+a cultivated gentleman who wore his learning lightly and was blessed
+with an easy conscience; not at all like the philosopher and guide of
+criminals.
+
+"You seem to know this country well," Archie remarked as they penetrated
+more deeply into the woods and followed a grass-grown trail that ended
+abruptly at an abandoned lumber camp.
+
+"Oh, I know most of the whole United States just as well," remarked the
+Governor, steering the car slowly among the deep ruts. "We'll shoot the
+car around behind that pyramid of sawdust and walk a bit to stretch our
+legs."
+
+There was no trace of a path where he struck off into the woods but he
+strode along with the easy confidence of one who is sure of his
+destination. They brought up presently beside a brook and in a moment
+more reached a log hut planted on the edge of the high bank.
+
+"What do you think of that, Sir Archibald?" inquired the Governor
+carelessly.
+
+Archie paused, wavering in the path. The man had called him by his right
+name, throwing in the prefix with a tinge of insolence.
+
+"Oh, your name?" remarked the Governor turning from a leisurely survey
+of the dwelling. "Perfectly easy! Archibald Bennett was neatly sewed
+into your coat pocket by your tailor as I observed when I rubbed my
+hands over your waistcoat to see if you wore a badge. Your bill-fold is
+there intact--it's rather indelicate of you to feel for it! If I'd meant
+to rob you I'd have biffed you on the head long ago and thrown your
+carcass to the buzzards."
+
+"I got these duds out of a suitcase I sneaked from an auto in Boston,
+and that's no name of mine," Archie explained hurriedly, still anxious
+to convince the Governor that he was a thief.
+
+"A deft hand, son; but very careless of you not to rip out the label.
+Men have been hanged on slighter evidence. But Archibald is not a name
+to sneeze at, and I rather like Archie; and Archie I shall continue to
+call you. Now we'll see what we can do to shake up a breakfast."
+
+He drew out a key and opened the door of the hut. On one side stood a
+dilapidated cook stove of an obsolete pattern, surrounded by a few
+kitchen utensils. In the far end were two bunks, one above the other,
+and on a chair beside them a pile of blankets neatly folded. In the
+middle of the room was a table littered with old magazines.
+
+"Not a bad place, Archie! I stumbled upon it a couple of years ago quite
+by accident and use it occasionally. The retreat of some artist who
+probably starved to death. When I first found the shack it was full of
+impressionistic studies that looked as though the poor boob stood on his
+head to paint. I made a burnt offering of the whole lot to outraged
+Nature." He opened a cupboard revealing a quantity of provisions. "Poor
+old Hoky was a great lover of ham; I never saw such an appetite for
+smoked pork, and he had just stocked us up with a few specimens he
+lifted somewhere."
+
+Besides three hams there were coffee, cartons of crackers and cans of
+condensed milk.
+
+"We fellows who live by our wits need the open air just as much as bank
+presidents, for our business makes a heavier drain on the nerves,"
+continued the Governor after they had prepared breakfast. "Your pallor
+suggests that you may have emerged quite recently from one of those
+institutions designed for the moral reconstruction of the weak and
+erring."
+
+Archie's eyes fell under the Governor's keen gaze. But he realized that
+he must firmly establish himself in the man's confidence by palming
+himself off as a crook with a prison record. In no other way could he be
+sure of the assistance and protection which the Governor alone could
+give him.
+
+"Three months' jail sentence," he replied smoothly.
+
+"Ah! A minor felony, I judge, from the brevity of your incarceration,"
+replied the Governor, emptying the coffee pot into Archie's cup. "I have
+never been in jail and to the best of my knowledge I have never been
+indicted; or if I have the sheriff has never caught up with me! My heart
+bleeds nevertheless for these poor devils who are always in the toils,
+and in my poor weak fashion I try to help them. Really, my dear Archie,
+thieves as a class are shockingly deficient in intelligence. Until I
+dropped into the underworld they were a peculiarly helpless lot--like
+dear old Hoky whose loss I shall mourn to my dying day."
+
+Archie flinched, but he was beginning to feel at home in his new role of
+a fugitive from justice, and murmured his sympathy without a quaver.
+
+"My friend," said the Governor soberly as they rose from the table, "we
+have dipped our hands in the same dish and broken bread together. I'm
+strong for the old traditions of Arab hospitality and that sort of
+thing. There's honor, you know, among thieves, and I'm rather keen for
+the sentimental side of the business. You may trust me, telling me as
+much or as little of yourself as you please. I don't mind saving that
+you're a likable chap, but pathetically helpless in emergencies like
+most of our brethren. It's well for you that you fell in with me, with
+that little episode of the drug store hanging over you. I'll be a good
+pal to you and I ask you to be straight with me. Are we friends or--"
+
+He put out his hand questioningly. Archie grasped it, meeting the gaze
+of the keen gray eyes squarely, but with something of an appeal in them.
+
+"All right, Archie--for such you shall be to the end of the chapter,
+whether you lied about it or not. And now let's deal with practical
+affairs. I'm going to spend the afternoon on that stolen machine we've
+got back there; you'll hardly know it when you see it again. I'll
+paint'er white to symbolize our purity. There's an assortment of clothes
+the boys have left here from time to time--all sizes and ready for any
+emergency. You can pick'em over while I'm working on the car. I've got a
+bag of my own stuff stuck around here somewhere." He filled and lighted
+a pipe, walked toward the kitchen end of the room and kicked a long box.
+"If you'll just push that aside you'll find a door in the floor--quite a
+cellar underneath--made it myself. Candles on the shelf there. Don't
+break your neck on the ladder."
+
+He gathered up several cans of ready-to-use paint, and paused in the
+doorway to deliver a final admonition.
+
+"If Hoky _should_ turn up--tall chap, a little bent in the shoulders,
+clean, sharp profile--call him Hoky and yell Governor before he shoots.
+He's very sudden with the gun, that Hoky; a lamentable weakness; spoiled
+him for delicate jobs, but I'm afraid that at last somebody's got the
+drop on him."
+
+The cellar was really a cave gouged into the earth and piled with trunks
+and hand bags stuffed with all manner of loot. There was enough
+silverware to equip a dozen households, and Archie amused himself by
+studying the monograms, thinking that quite possibly he was handling
+spoons that he had encountered on happier occasions in the homes of his
+friends. The trunks contained clothing in great variety and most of it
+was new and of good quality. He carried up an armful and found a gray
+suit that fitted him very well. Another visit yielded shirts, socks and
+underclothing, a slightly used traveling case with shaving materials and
+other toilet articles.
+
+He bathed in the brook, shaved, dressed and felt like a new being. Only
+a few hours had elapsed since he walked uprightly in the eyes of all
+men; now he was a fugitive, and for all he knew to the contrary a
+murderer. He had accommodated himself with ease to lying and the
+practice of deceit; and even the taking of human life seemed no longer a
+monstrous thing. If he were caught in the Governor's company he would
+have a pretty time of it satisfying a court of his innocence; but he
+considered his plight tranquilly.
+
+In doffing the clothing he had acquired honestly and substituting stolen
+raiment, it was almost as though he were changing his character as well.
+In transferring his effects from the old to the new pockets he came upon
+Isabel Perry's note, and grinned as he re-read it. He wondered what
+Isabel would say if she knew that he had already slipped the leash that
+bound him to convention and performed even more reckless deeds than she
+had prescribed for him.
+
+"No callers? Well, I must say you're a credit to our gents' clothing
+department!" the Governor remarked on his return. "That stuff was
+accumulated early in the spring by a couple of the boys who had no more
+sense. Silver, yes; you can melt it and sell it like pig iron; but how
+absurd to risk your neck stealing mere raiment! Still the word's gone
+down the line and any of the brethren who're in need of shelter and a
+change of clothes will find what they want here. You've picked about the
+best of the lot. What do you make of this? Found it in the car."
+
+He extended a crumpled telegram which read:
+
+  Bailey Harbor, Me.
+  June 11, 1917.
+
+  Putney Congdon,
+  Thackeray Club, New York.
+
+  I am offering the house for rent. Shall take every precaution
+  to protect my children from your brutality.
+
+                                                       A. B. C.
+
+Archie felt the hut whirling round him. What he held was beyond question
+the reply of Mrs. Congdon to her husband's telegram that had been left
+lying on the dinner table. And if Congdon had left New York for Bailey
+Harbor immediately to put into effect his threat to abduct his child, it
+might have been Congdon he had shot--not Hoky! The Governor, scrubbing
+the paint from his hands, called over his shoulder:
+
+"An odd message! It had slipped under the seat. Good thing I found it."
+
+"Where did you find that car?" asked Archie with an attempt at
+indifference.
+
+"Oh, the bloomin' thing was run up under a clump of trees on the back
+road on the far side of Bailey. I thought maybe it was a stolen car.
+Hoky and I separated there when the storm started. So I drove the
+machine to the place you found me waiting for him. Mr. Congdon has
+probably notified all the world of his sad loss." He held out his hands
+for Archie's inspection. "This is certainly hard and fast paint, but it
+did the work all right. The owner of that machine wouldn't know it now.
+And not more than a spoonful of gas gone out of the tank; so we can make
+a long jump, Archie."
+
+No jump they could make would be long enough, Archie reflected. He was
+afraid to ask further questions about the car and his senses were numbed
+by the effort to determine whether it was Hoky he had shot or Mr. Putney
+Congdon. If his bullet had impinged upon Congdon's person, the man would
+undoubtedly believe his wife had ordered him murdered, and Archie found
+no consolation in the conjecture that he had added to Mrs. Congdon's
+distress. If Congdon wasn't dead he would be sure to make diligent
+inquiries in the village as to his assailant and the stolen car. The
+druggist would know who had taken the key and Archie had stated his
+purpose to walk to the station and take the five eleven train. But
+beyond Bailey Harbor he saw his alibi crumbling.
+
+The Governor's ceaseless flow of talk fortunately diverted his thoughts
+to more cheerful channels. He must stick to the Governor, who to be sure
+showed no inclination to desert him. Indeed the Governor evinced a
+sincere pleasure in his society, and if he behaved himself he might fill
+the void created in the man's life by the loss of Hoky. He would remain
+in hiding until the whole thing blew over, whether it was Hoky or Putney
+Congdon he had shot in Congdon's house.
+
+He obeyed with alacrity a hint that he prepare luncheon; and after this
+had been consumed the Governor suggested a game of chess, produced a set
+of ivory chessmen from a cupboard and soon proved himself a skilful
+player.
+
+"It's wonderful for sharpening the wits," he explained. "When I've got a
+difficult job on hand I find a game stimulating to my faculties. Let me
+see, who was that telegram addressed to? Congdon; yes, that's right.
+Dropped into a chess club in Boston about a month ago and watched a chap
+playing, highly nervous fellow but a pretty stiff player at that. They
+called him Congdon all right and he may be the owner of that car. The
+thought pleases me. Heard him asking for his father, Eliphalet Congdon,
+who's a chess fiend, too, it appeared. Had heard of him before--the old
+boy carries his will around in his umbrella just to tantalize his
+relations, who are all crazy to know what he's going to do with his
+money. Something pathetic in a man chasing his own father over the
+country; doesn't gee with our old ideal of the patriarchal system with
+father at the head of the table serving the whole family from one
+miserable duck. Ever notice a queer streak of eccentricity in people who
+toy with the chessmen? Of course you're thinking I'm no exception to the
+rule, but the thought isn't displeasing to me. That was a neat
+move--you're waking up, Archie! Well, sir, young Congdon was offering
+something handsome to any one who'd steal the old man's umbrella so he
+could get hold of the will. I've sunk pretty low, Archie, but stealing
+umbrellas is distinctly not in my line!"
+
+At the end of two hours the Governor declared that they must take a nap
+before setting out and turned into one of the berths and was soon
+snoring. Archie was glad of a chance to be alone with his thoughts, but
+he found them poor company. After kicking about restlessly for a time he
+slept but only to wander through a wild phantasmagoria of crime in which
+Isabel Perry, dressed precisely as he had seen her at his sister's, led
+him on from one wild scene to another, clapping her hands with delight
+at each exploit.
+
+"You are doing splendidly," she laughed, as he turned to her, pistol in
+hand, after shooting a gigantic policeman with fiery red whiskers.
+"Really you exceed my expectations. I am proud of you, Mr. Bennett," she
+was saying when a vigorous shake brought him up standing.
+
+"To gain or lose it all," he stammered rubbing his eyes. But it was not
+Isabel he was addressing but his confederate, blandly smiling.
+
+"The boy quotes poetry!" the Governor exclaimed. "Archie, you've come in
+answer to my prayers! Together we shall drink of the fount of Castalia.
+We shall chum with Apollo and the Muses Nine! But the gods call us
+elsewhere! We'll snatch a bite and be off! And we've got a job all
+waiting for us. One of the brotherhood has commissioned me to dig up
+some boodle he's planted over in New Hampshire. You may recall the
+incident. Red Leary, a rare boy, who pulled off some big enterprises in
+Kansas and Missouri a dozen years ago, emerged from Leavenworth and
+floated into good old conservative New England where he held up an
+express messenger and sauntered off with fifty thousand dollars in new
+bank notes fresh from the Treasury. I've been in touch with Red
+lately--he's been up in Nova Scotia but doesn't like the climate, and he
+wants his boodle. Do you follow me?"
+
+"He hid it somewhere and wants your help in recovering it?"
+
+"Right the first time! In the summer there's a lot of travel north and
+south and Leary, who's had an honest job up there since he made the
+haul, is even now wandering down Lake Champlain to meet me. No, Archie,
+communication through the underworld is much less difficult than you
+imagine. Regular post offices and that sort of thing. That cash is
+tucked away in the cellar of a church and by this time tomorrow night
+we'll have it, all ready for old Red and check the item from our
+tablets."
+
+"But the numbers of those notes are in every bank in the country,"
+suggested Archie; "the police are only waiting for the bills to get into
+circulation to pounce on the thief."
+
+"I am more and more delighted with you, my son! That point had given me
+no little worry. But something will turn up; there will be a way out of
+the difficulty. Chuck your old duds into the creek and close the
+windows. We'll hit the long trail!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+I
+
+
+Out of the woods and once more on a smooth highway the stolen car sped
+like a frightened ghost through the starry night. The Governor drove
+with the assurance of a man who knows what he's about. Huddled in a long
+ulster he had found in the cabin, Archie, whose ideas of motoring had
+always been extremely conservative, yielded himself more and more to the
+inevitable. He was no longer a free agent but a plaything of
+circumstance. In no exaggerated sense he was a captive, a prisoner of
+the man beside him, whose friendliness was flattering and alarming in a
+breath!
+
+At any moment they might be held up and subjected to scrutiny and
+questioning, and Archie experienced a tingle at the prospect; but the
+Governor had declared with apparent sincerity that he had never been in
+jail and this in itself was reassuring, for presumably a man who so
+keenly enjoyed his freedom was a skilled dodger of the law. The
+Governor, who would have passed anywhere for a successful banker or
+lawyer, had more of the spirit of the debonair swashbucklers of romance
+than any other man Archie had known. He might be a great liar, and
+Archie suspected that he was; and doubts of the man's sanity troubled
+him not a little; but it sufficed for the moment that his comrade was
+steering him rapidly away from Bailey Harbor, and so far had managed
+the business with excellent judgment.
+
+Occasionally the Governor lifted his voice in songs of unimpeachable
+literary and musical quality that rang sonorously above the hum of the
+engine.
+
+    "Who is Sylvia? What is she?
+    That all our swains commend her,"
+
+he sang through to the end to the old familiar air; followed by "Drink
+to Me Only with Thine Eyes."
+
+They struck a stretch of road under repair and slowing up the Governor
+remarked carelessly as he picked his way through a line of red lanterns:
+
+"Speaking of women, my dear Archie, do you share the joy of the lyric
+poets in the species?"
+
+"Women?" gulped Archie, as surprised as though he had been asked
+suddenly his opinion of the _gazella dorcas_.
+
+"The same, Archie. It occurs to me that you have probably had many
+affairs. A fellow of your coolness and dash couldn't fail to appeal to
+the incomprehensible sex. I'm thirty-four but I've loved only one
+woman--that's the solemn truth, Archie. Occasionally small
+indiscretions, I confess; and I sometimes weakly yield to the temptation
+to flirt, but with my hand on my heart I declare solemnly that only once
+have I ever been swayed by the grand passion. And strange as it may seem
+she's a bishop's daughter, though a saint in her own right! O wonderful!
+O sublime!"
+
+This confidence, vague as to the identity and habitat of the lady of the
+Governor's adoration, nevertheless made it incumbent upon Archie to make
+some sort of reply. The Governor would probably be disappointed in him
+if he confessed the meagerness of his experiences, and he felt that it
+would be a grave error to jeopardize his standing with his companion.
+
+"Well, I'm in the same boat," he answered glibly. "There's only one girl
+for me!"
+
+"Magnificent!" cried the Governor. "I hope she's not beyond your reach
+like my goddess?"
+
+"Well, I'll hardly say that," Archie replied. "But there are
+difficulties, embarrassments, you know."
+
+"Possibly your choice of the open road as a career is a bar to marriage?
+Such situations are always deplorable."
+
+"It is quite the other way round with me," Archie protested. "It was she
+who put me up to it!"
+
+"What! Your inamorata wanted you to be a crook?" cried the Governor.
+"She must be a wonderful girl! Shoplifter, perhaps? There are some jolly
+girls in that business! Or, maybe she's one of these confidence women
+who play a sure game and usually get by with it?"
+
+"Nothing like that!" cried Archie hastily. "She just fancies the
+life--thinks it offers me a good chance to prove my mettle. She hates
+conventionality."
+
+This reference to Isabel Perry, remote and guarded as it was, he
+defended only on the ground that it was necessary in some way to meet
+the Governor half-way in his confidences. And what he had said was
+really true, though to be sure Isabel could hardly be held responsible
+for the shooting at the Congdon house. He wondered what Isabel would say
+if she could see him with a criminal beside him, joy-riding in a stolen
+car. And it was no lie that he sincerely believed that he loved her. No
+other girl had ever roused him so much, or given him so good reason for
+standing off and taking a look at himself. His thoughts of her had led
+him far afield when the Governor remarked ruminatively:
+
+"Do you manage to see her? That's the devil of it in my case! The lady's
+forbidden to recognize me in any way and the right reverend father is a
+tart old party and keeps sharp watch of her. You'd think a girl of
+twenty-two or thereabouts who spends her time in good works for the
+heathen and runs a Sunday-school class in a slum would be indulged in
+her admiration for a jolly rogue like me! But the facts are decidedly
+otherwise. She's never quite brought her nerve to the point of breaking
+home ties and bolting with me; but she's declined to marry all the
+bachelor and widower dominies in the paternal diocese on my account. And
+a young bishop of the brightest prospects. Actually, my dear Archie!
+There's a steadfast soul for you! But I can't see her and the regular
+mails are closed to us. Nevertheless we have an arrangement--highly
+romantic, by which if she ever needs me or thinks I can serve her in any
+way she's to leave a note in a certain place. It's her own idea and very
+pretty. Savors of the good old times when bold knights went riding up to
+the castle and yelled to the flinty-hearted duke inside to lower the
+draw-bridge and send out his daughter to be married on the spot or he'd
+be dropped in the moat with all his armor for a sinker."
+
+Archie thought it would be a fine thing if he could make an arrangement
+with Isabel by which he could hear from her on his travels and he
+mustered courage to ask the Governor how he managed his line of
+communication.
+
+"The device is the simplest possible. In our jauntings we shall pass a
+town where she visits a good deal--the home of an ancient aunt. It's a
+jolly old place, big grounds, with elms and maples all round, and
+there's a tea house with a tile floor, and there's a particular blue
+tile under a bench that can be pried out with a pen knife. That's our
+post-office, and much safer than registered mail. Of course my business
+correspondence is a different matter. I pick that up in countless places
+between here and California--reports of the boys, their hopes and
+ambitions and hints of schemes for acquiring sudden wealth. If you'd
+like to use some of these addresses and have mail forwarded I'll be glad
+to oblige you. You know how fussy the government is about the use of the
+mail for irregular purposes? Well, it rather tickled me to get some
+envelopes with S. S. S. P. printed in the corner and the number of a
+vacant lot in Sioux City as the address. A careless eye would think the
+initials stood for some sort of learned society but the real translation
+is Society for the Segregation of Stolen Property. I always use these in
+communicating with the brotherhood."
+
+"There's a good deal about the business I don't know," said Archie with
+twinges of envy and admiration. "My bridges are all burned behind me and
+I'm not getting mail anywhere; but I'll remember your offer."
+
+Further conversation was ended by the swinging of a lantern across the
+road.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the Governor, with a curious rising inflexion. "I've
+been looking for that."
+
+He slowed up instantly and in a moment halted car. The headlights played
+upon two men standing belligerently in front of the roadster.
+
+"Good evening, gentlemen!" cried the Governor. "Short of gas or what's
+the trouble?"
+
+"We're from the Portsmouth police," answered one of the men while the
+other ran to the rear of the car and swung a lantern over the license
+tag.
+
+"Maine tag," he shouted.
+
+"Certainly a Maine license," replied the Governor. "We're deputy
+sheriffs from Cumberland County looking for two crooks who've been
+robbing houses up our way. Got blank warrants all ready to serve if we
+catch the scoundrels."
+
+Archie shuddered at the Governor's assurance. The Portsmouth officers
+manifested the deepest professional interest and sympathy as the
+Governor with an authoritative air flourished two documents.
+
+"Burglar shot at Bailey Harbor last night," explained one of the
+officers; "they found his body this morning and we're looking for his
+accomplice. Guess he didn't come this way; we been on the road all
+night."
+
+"We've held up everybody that looked suspicious all the way down and
+haven't seen a soul," the Governor replied in official tones. "Think the
+chaps we're looking for skipped by train. What did the dead burglar look
+like?"
+
+"I talked with the Bailey mayor over the telephone and he said the dead
+man was a big fellow, clean-shaven with the scar of an old knife wound
+under his left arm. One of the cottagers shot him in his house, but he
+got away--crawled down on the shore and died. Boston police
+department's sending a man up to look at the body. Never knew so many
+burglaries up this way. Must be a whole gang at work."
+
+"Certainly looks like it," the Governor assented. "Well, if you see a
+tall chap and a short thick-set fellow anywhere nail 'em for us. Old
+criminals with long records. They've been enjoying themselves up our
+way. The tall one doesn't say much, but the little chap is a smooth
+talker--can talk himself right out of jail if you give him a chance."
+
+"We'll shoot first and get an explanation afterward if we see 'em,"
+declared the Portsmouth officer, as his companion buttoned up his coat
+preparatory to getting back into the car.
+
+"Glad to see you, boys!" exclaimed the Governor, backing the stolen
+machine and then calling a cheery "Good luck!" as he passed their car.
+
+Archie had been sitting pigeon-toed expecting that at any minute the two
+officers would discover points in the stolen car to arouse their
+suspicions; but the Governor's jaunty tone had evidently thrown them
+entirely off guard. He had hoped that the Governor would press for
+further details as to the killing of the burglar at the Harbor, but as
+matters stood he had learned nothing except that a burglar had been shot
+in one of the Harbor cottages and he was again torn with anxiety as to
+the identity of the man he had fired at in the Congdon house.
+
+The Governor began to chortle after a quick glance at the vanishing red
+light of the Portsmouth car.
+
+"Not the first time I've used warrants in that way! And they're good
+warrants too. I plucked a bunch of such literature from a deputy sheriff
+who got too inquisitive last summer and I had to grab and tie him to a
+tree up near Moosehead where I'd gone for a conference with some of the
+boys who were coming out of Canada. But I guess it's a sure thing those
+Portsmouth chaps were looking for me! I'd been strolling round quite
+freely with poor Hoky up the shore. If that chap had stuck his finger
+into the paint this machine would have gone no further. We'll do well
+to leave the main road for a while, then step briskly into a train
+somewhere."
+
+"Your nerve in describing us--you and me, sitting right there before
+them--to those officers gave me a chill," confessed Archie. "If you'd
+talked to them much more we'd have been pinched for sure."
+
+"You flatter the intelligence of the police. There are not a half a
+dozen detectives worthy of the name in the whole country. Possibly we
+may have a contest of wits with some of them before we close the
+season."
+
+It had always been Archie's habit to greet courteously the policemen he
+passed at night in the Avenue, little dreaming that the day would come
+when he would view the policing of the world with contemptuous disdain.
+The Governor spoke of policemen and detectives with pity; they were so
+stupid, he said, though he admitted under Archie's cross-examination
+that they could be a nuisance at times.
+
+"Make yourself as conspicuous as possible and they're hardly likely to
+bother you. There are times, of course, when one must hide, but the
+mistake our boys make is in hiding in places where the police can call
+them up by telephone and tell them to pay their own taxi fare to the
+nearest police station. I call on police chiefs in a purely social way
+now and then, and talk to them about the best way of reforming crooks.
+It's their philosophy that no crook ever reforms; an absurd idea, of
+course. But there's no surer way to ingratiate yourself with a big fat
+detective than to ask how you can help poor repentant sinners, which
+gives him a chance to discourage you. There's nothing in it, he warns
+you. You thank him for his advice and ask him out to lunch. I've bought
+expensive dinners for some of the highest priced crime-ferrets in the
+game just for the joy of hearing their pessimism. They're all swollen up
+with the idea of their superior knowledge of human nature. But it serves
+a good purpose to cultivate them, for you're perfectly safe so long as
+you listen and don't try to tell them anything."
+
+
+II
+
+Toward morning the Governor again had recourse to the Elizabethan bards,
+then he lapsed suddenly into a meditative mood.
+
+"It's always a bad sign when the season opens with the potting of some
+of the comrades. When there's one such catastrophe there are bound to be
+others. Now that Hoky's dead you'll hear of the killing of other
+burglars. Every householder on the coast will buy himself a gun and wait
+for a chance to shoot some misguided stranger he finds collecting
+bric-a-brac in the dark watches of the night. But Hoky's death is a loss
+to the underworld. At his best he could achieve the impossible. Once he
+spent a week on the roof of police headquarters in Cincinnati; really he
+did. Good weather and perfectly comfortable; used to stroll down through
+the building and go out for food; then back again. Chatted with the
+chief of detectives about his own crime, which was holding up the
+paymaster of a big factory. Bless me if Hoky didn't bury the money in a
+graveyard and hurry uptown and live right there with the whole police
+system right under him. He was a dear fellow, Hoky! By the way, you're
+mighty lucky that you didn't get a neat little chunk of lead right
+through the midriff, fooling with that drug store!"
+
+In the rush of his thoughts Archie had forgotten his imaginary exploit
+at the Harbor drug store and realized that he must have his wits about
+him if he expected to retain the Governor's regard and confidence. The
+ease with which the supercrook rode around policemen vastly increased
+his feeling of reliance in his strange companion, and his only misgiving
+was that the daring resourceful rogue might abandon him.
+
+As dawn broke the whistle and rumble of a train caused the Governor to
+stop the car and dive into his pockets for time tables of which he
+carried a large supply. He scanned one and hummed his satisfaction.
+
+"We'll get rid of this machine right now as there's a station over there
+a little way where we can pick up a local right into Portsmouth. Don't
+be nervous. We'll pass for a couple of city men owning farms up here and
+just riding into town on a little business.
+
+    'Virtue is bold and goodness never fearful,'
+
+as well said by old William of Avon. We shall be bold, Archie, but not
+too bold."
+
+He stopped, opened a gate and ran the car--thoroughly disreputable from
+its nocturnal bath in mud--through a barnyard and into an empty shed.
+
+"Now for a brisk walk! The owner of this place sleeps late--not a sign
+of smoke from the kitchen chimney. And yet so many students of farm life
+wonder at the meager earnings of the honest husbandman! However, we've
+given that chap an excellent roadster and if he keeps his mouth shut he
+can run it till it falls to pieces for all anybody will ever know it's a
+stolen vehicle."
+
+They crossed the railroad and were soon buying tickets from a sleepy
+stationmaster. The Governor talked briskly through the window as the
+agent stamped their tickets while Archie cowered at the door marveling
+that any one could face the problems of a precarious existence so gaily.
+
+They alighted at Portsmouth without mishap, and Archie, recalling the
+primary object of his travels, stepped to the telegraph office and wired
+his sister as follows:
+
+   "Have been motoring with friend; hence delay in reporting. The
+   house will not do. Plumbing in wretched condition, and house
+   generally out of repair. Sorry but you will have to look further."
+
+Then he wrote a telegram to his office in New York explaining that he
+had been motoring, which accounted for his failure to call for his
+passage to Banff, thoughtfully adding that the cost of his unused
+sleeping car tickets should be charged to his personal account. After
+composing these messages he redeemed his suitcase in the check room and
+dropped it beside the Governor's battered kit bag on the platform.
+
+"Ah! Burning the wires a little? I hope you are committing no
+indiscretion, son. I was admiring your baggage; that suitcase of yours
+would hold a king's wardrobe. We'll drive to the hotel, get a bath and a
+solid, old-fashioned breakfast, a hearty meal such as old Ike Walton
+recommended to fishermen eager for the early worm, and plan our further
+travels."
+
+The Governor commanded the best service of the inn, obtaining two
+adjoining rooms with bath. He registered elaborately as Reginald Heber
+Saulsbury and wrote Archie down as Ashton Comly, dashingly indicating
+the residence of both as New York. In response to an inquiry for mail
+for Mr. Saulsbury the clerk made search and threw out a letter which the
+Governor opened indifferently and after a glance crumpled into his
+pocket.
+
+"A note from Red Leary," he explained when they had reached their rooms.
+"He's slipping along slowly toward Brattleboro, where we're to deliver
+that loot we've got to pick up. You will pardon my cheek in registering
+for you; unwarrantable assumption. I choose Ashton Comly as a dignified
+and distinctive _alias_; sounds a little southern; you may consider
+yourself for the present a scion of an ancient house of the Carolinas.
+As for me, Saulsbury's a name I saw chalked on a box-car in the Buffalo
+yards and Reginald Heber is a fit handle to it. When I was in prep
+school we had a lecture by an eminent divine on the life of Reginald
+Heber, hymn writer, and that sort of thing. I'm rather ashamed of myself
+for borrowing the name of a man of singularly pure life, but it's the
+devil in me, lad! It's an awful thing to be born with a devil inside of
+you, but it could hardly be said that my case is unique. Here you are,
+also the possessor of a nasty little devil, and obviously, like me, a
+man of good bringing up. That's why I've warmed to you. You tried
+pulling rough talk on me at our first meeting, but you've got Harvard
+written all over you. No, not a word! We are two brunette sheep far
+astray from the home pastures and not apologizing for our color or
+previous condition of servitude."
+
+Archie had always enjoyed the ease of good inns, and being in a
+comfortable house with his own effects at hand, he might have forgotten
+that he was a fugitive if it hadn't been for the propinquity of his
+companion, who was addressing himself with elaborate ceremonial to the
+preparation of his bath. The Governor's bag contained an assortment of
+silk shirts and underwear, a dress suit, a handsome set of toilet
+articles, and as Archie scrutinized them approvingly the Governor
+smiled, stepped to the door, and locked it.
+
+"The property of a fastidious gentleman of breeding, you would say! You
+would never dream that thing has a false bottom!"
+
+Archie would not have dreamed it, but the Governor dumped the remaining
+contents on the bed, fumbled in the bottom of the bag, lifted a
+concealed flap, and drew out a long fold of leather.
+
+"You might think it a surgeon's pocket-kit, son, but you would be
+greatly in error. Drills, jimmies, even a light hammer--and here's a
+little contrivance that has been known to pluck the secret from most
+intricate combinations--my own invention. The common yegg habit of
+pouring an explosive fluid into the cracks of a strong box is obsolete.
+I hold that such a procedure is vulgar, besides being calculated to make
+an ugly noise when not perfectly muffled. By George, Archie, it occurs
+to me that you must have left your kit behind you in that absurd drug
+store at the Harbor! It is just as well that you are no longer
+encumbered with those playthings. Trust the Governor in future. I'm
+yearning for a cool grapefruit, so bestir yourself."
+
+"I want to learn all the modern improvements," said Archie, fingering
+the burglar tools. "I've been playing the game wrong--decidedly wrong!"
+
+"My favorite pupil!" cried the Governor, from the tub in which he was
+already rolling and splashing. "You shall be my successor when I pass on
+to other fields. Destiny has thrown you in my path for this very
+purpose. You will rank high among the crooks of all history, the king of
+the underworld, feared and loved by the great comradeship who prey upon
+the world by night!"
+
+Archie felt very humble under these promises and prophecies, and
+wondered whether there was really deep down in his soul some moral
+obliquity that the acute master crook had detected and responded to.
+There had been clergymen and philanthropists among Archie's forebears,
+but never murderer or thief, and he was half-persuaded that he was the
+predestined black sheep that he had always heard gave a spot of color to
+the whitest flock.
+
+At the breakfast table the Governor scanned a local paper and with a
+chirrup passed it to Archie, pointing to a double-column headline:
+
+                  A CARNIVAL OF BURGLARY IN MAINE
+
+Archie's eyes fell upon the bizarre photograph of a dead man with which
+the page was illustrated, and he choked on a fragment of grapefruit as
+he read the inscription: "Dead Thief, Identity Unknown."
+
+It was a ghastly thing with which to be confronted; and his perturbation
+increased as he read an account of the killing. It was in the house of
+Mr. Waldo S. Cummings, a cottager, that the man had been shot, the
+mortal wound being inflicted by the householder's son, after an exciting
+battle. The dead body of the burglar had been found on the shore and the
+whole coast was being searched for his accomplice.
+
+"That's poor old Hoky all right," murmured the Governor, buttering a
+piece of toast reflectively. "How indecent to prop up a corpse that way
+and take a snapshot merely to satisfy the morbid curiosity of a silly
+public! As you seem to be entranced with the literary style of our
+Bailey Harbor correspondent, I shall take the liberty of helping you to
+a fried egg."
+
+However, Archie's appetite was pretty effectually spoiled by this
+paragraph:
+
+   An odd circumstance, more or less remotely connected with the
+   killing of the burglar in the fashionable colony still remains to
+   be explained. Officer Yerkes shortly before two o'clock, the hour
+   at which the thief was shot in Mr. Cummings's home, saw a man
+   hurrying through Water Street. He bore the appearance of a
+   gentleman, and the officer did not accost him, thinking him a
+   yachtsman from one of the boats in the harbor who had been visiting
+   friends ashore. Yerkes says that the man walked oddly, pausing now
+   and then as though in pain, and was carrying his right hand upon
+   his left shoulder. Owing to the poor lighting of Water Street--a
+   matter that has been a subject of frequent complaint to the city
+   authorities--Yerkes was unable to catch a glimpse of the stranger's
+   features. This morning drops of blood were found on the board walk
+   crossed by the stranger where Officer Yerkes had seen him, and it
+   is believed that this was another of the burglar-gang who was
+   wounded in a struggle somewhere in the interior and was seeking the
+   help of his confederate, presumably the man shot in the Cummings
+   house.
+
+As the paper fell from Archie's hand the Governor took it up.
+
+"You seem agitated, Archie! You must learn to conceal your feelings!"
+
+When he had read the paragraph he glanced quickly at Archie, whose fork
+was beating a queer tattoo on his plate.
+
+"Your work possibly?" murmured the Governor. "Compose yourself. That old
+lady over there has her eye on you. I'm afraid you lied to me about the
+drug store, for if you'd done any shooting in that neighborhood you
+would never have got out of town alive! No!"--he held up his hand
+warningly--"tell me nothing! But if we've got a murder behind us, we
+shall certainly be most circumspect in our movements. That's all piffle
+about Hoky having any confederate except me. And there's not a single
+one of the great comradeship on this shore--I know that; no one who
+knows the password of the inner door. You interest me more and more,
+Archie! I congratulate you on your splendid nerve."
+
+Archie's nerve was nothing he could admire himself, but a second cup of
+coffee put warmth into his vitals and he recovered sufficiently to pay
+the breakfast check. If it was Congdon he had shot there was still the
+hope, encouraged by the newspaper, that the wounded man was in no haste
+to report his injury to the police. But Archie found little comfort in
+the thought that somewhere in the world there was a man he had shot and
+perhaps fatally wounded.
+
+He must conceal his anxious concern from the Governor; for more than
+ever he must rely upon his strange friend for assistance in escaping
+from the consequences of the duel in the Congdon cottage.
+
+
+III
+
+"I was thinking," remarked the Governor, after a long reverie, "that it
+would be only decent for me to run back to Bailey Harbor and attend poor
+Hoky's funeral."
+
+Archie stared aghast.
+
+"Hoky was my friend," the Governor continued. "The newspaper says he's
+to be buried in the Potter's Field this afternoon, and it will only set
+us back a day in our plans. I can imagine how desperately forlorn the
+thing will be. Some parson will say a perfunctory prayer for a poor
+devil he believes to have gone straight to the fiery pit and they'll
+bury him in a pauper's grave. There will be the usual morbidly curious
+crowd hanging round, wagging their heads and whispering. I shall go,
+Archie, and you can wait for me. It will take only a few hours and we
+can spend the night here and resume our journey tomorrow."
+
+"But a stranger appearing there! It's dangerous!" Archie protested.
+"I wouldn't go back there for a million dollars!"
+
+"Hoky would have taken the chance for me," said the Governor, firmly.
+"The whole shore teems with tourists, and I'll leave it to your judgment
+whether any one would take me for a crook. Be careful of my feelings,
+Archie; I'm just a little emotional today. Hoky and I have run before
+the hounds too often for me to desert him now. The people up there may
+think what they please and go to the devil! Hoky had ideals of a sort;
+he never squealed on a pal; he was as loyal as the summer sun to
+ripening corn."
+
+The Governor's interest in Hoky's obsequies was chivalrous beyond
+question, but Archie resented being left alone. The Governor's departure
+struck him in all the circumstances as a base desertion, and forlorn and
+frightened he locked himself in his room, expecting that any moment the
+police would batter down the door. The waiting for this catastrophe
+became intolerable and after an hour of it he went downstairs meditating
+a walk to the wharves. A young woman stood at the desk talking to the
+clerk, who scanned the pages of the register and shook his head.
+
+"No Mrs. Congdon has registered here within a week, I'm sure. Will you
+leave any message?"
+
+She said no and asked about trains.
+
+"Did you want something, Mr. Comly?" the clerk asked courteously.
+
+Archie had paused by the desk, staring open-mouthed at the young woman,
+who was asking the boy who held her bag to summon a taxi. If he was
+still possessed of his senses the girl in the gray tailored suit was
+Isabel Perry. The walls of the hotel office appeared to be tipping
+toward him. Isabel might have come to Portsmouth in answer to the prayer
+of his heart, but not Isabel asking for Mrs. Congdon. Isabel had glanced
+carelessly in his direction as the clerk addressed him as Mr. Comly and
+he had promptly raised his hat, only to be met with a reluctant nod and
+a look of displeasure with connotations of alarm. Having dramatized
+himself as appearing before her, a splendid heroic figure, to receive
+her praise for his exploits, this reception was all but the last straw
+to his spirit. Moreover, she was walking toward the door as though
+anxious to escape from him.
+
+He darted after her, resolved to risk another snub before allowing her
+to slip away ignorant of the vast change that had been wrought in him
+since their meeting in Washington. A taxi was not immediately
+forthcoming and she frowned impatiently as he appeared beside her. A
+frowning Isabel had not entered into his calculations at all; it was a
+mirthful, light-hearted Isabel he was carrying in his heart. He would
+affect gaiety; he would let her see that he was a dare-devil, the man
+she would have him be.
+
+"Really!" he exclaimed, twittering like an imbecile, "isn't it jolly
+that we've met in this way?"
+
+"I'm not so sure of that! May I ask just why you are here under an
+assumed name?"
+
+"Well, you know," he began, his lips twitching as he mopped his face,
+"you told me to throw a brick at the world and I've been following your
+advice." Under her stoical scrutiny his voice squeaked hysterically.
+"It's perfectly jolly, the life I'm leading! You never heard of anything
+so wild and devilish! Miss Perry, behold your handiwork!"
+
+Perspiring, stuttering, with the glitter of madness in his eyes, he was
+not on the whole an object to be proud of, and there was no pride or joy
+manifest in Miss Isabel Perry as she observed him critically, with the
+detachment of one who observes a wild animal in a menagerie. Her silence
+moved him to further frantic efforts to impress her with the fact that
+he was now a character molded to her hand.
+
+"You were asking for Mrs. Congdon; Mrs. Putney Congdon, I suppose? Well,
+I certainly could tell you a story if you would give me time! What I
+don't know about the Congdon family wouldn't make a large book! Ha, ha!
+But if I had known Mrs. Congdon was a friend of yours I should have
+acted differently, very differently indeed."
+
+He was attracting attention. The porter, the bell-boy supporting
+Isabel's bag, and a few passers-by paused, amused by the spectacle of a
+heated gentleman earnestly addressing a young woman who seemed greatly
+annoyed by his attentions.
+
+The taxi drew up and she stepped into it, but he landed beside her,
+flinging a handful of silver on the walk and taking her suitcase on his
+knees.
+
+"This is unpardonable! If it hadn't been for making a scene I should
+have told the porter to throw you out!"
+
+His teeth chattered as he tried to throw a conciliatory tone into his
+speech without losing his air of bravado.
+
+"You know you're responsible for everything! I see life differently,
+really I do! And this is so beautifully romantic, running into you here,
+of all places!"
+
+"I think," she said, sweeping him with a look of scorn, "that you've
+been following me or were put here to watch me!"
+
+"Oh, that's unkind, most unkind! Purely chance,--the usual way, you
+know! How do you imagine I should be watching you with anything but the
+noblest intentions?"
+
+"You went to Bailey Harbor to look at a cottage for Mrs. Featherstone,
+didn't you? Putney Congdon was there, wasn't he? And why are you
+loitering here when you were so eager to get away to the Rockies?"
+
+At the mention of Putney Congdon a laugh, the sharp concatenation of a
+lunatic caused the driver to glance round apprehensively.
+
+"That's the scream of it, you know!" Archie cried. "I don't know for the
+life of me whether it was Putney Congdon I shot at the Congdon house or
+Hoky, the burglar. They're burying Hoky today and my partner in
+crime--wonderful chap--insisted on going to the funeral. You couldn't
+beat that! And it's so deliciously funny that you should be looking for
+Mrs. Congdon, who may be a widow for all I know!"
+
+"A widow!" Isabel, with her hand clutching the door, swung upon him with
+consternation and fear clearly depicted in her face.
+
+Her astonishment moved him to greater hilarity. Seeing that he had at
+last impressed her, he redoubled his efforts to be entertaining.
+
+"Oh, that's the mystery just at present, whether poor old Putney is dead
+or not! No great loss, I imagine! But where do you suppose Mrs. Congdon
+went to hide her children from the brute?"
+
+"That's exactly what I suspected!" she exclaimed furiously. "You are
+waiting here to find that out! How can you play the spy for him! You
+talk about shooting a man! Why, you haven't the moral courage to kill a
+flea! The kindest interpretation I can put upon your actions is to
+assume that you are hopelessly mad."
+
+They had reached the station, and she jumped out and snatched her bag.
+He gave the driver a five dollar bill and dashed across the platform
+only to see her vanish into the vestibule of a Boston train just as it
+was drawing out.
+
+He walked to the water front firmly resolved to drown himself, but his
+courage failing he yielded himself luxuriously to melancholy
+reflections. Instead of expressing delight at finding him reveling in
+villainy, Isabel had made it disagreeably clear that she not only was
+not delighted but that she thought him a dreadful liar, a spy upon her
+actions and possibly other things equally unflattering. Why she should
+think him capable of spying upon her movements, he did not know, nor was
+he likely to learn in the future that hung darkly before him. As he
+pondered there was nothing more startling in the fact that he had not
+hurried on to Banff than that she should be in Portsmouth when she had
+told him she was leaving Washington immediately for the girls' camp in
+Michigan.
+
+Congdon was a name of evil omen. What business could Isabel have with
+that unhappy lady that would cause her to delay her departure for the
+West? His intimations that Putney Congdon might be dead had filled her
+with horror, and yet she had hinted at his sister's dinner that the
+taking of human life was a small matter. That a girl so wholly charming
+and persuasive at a dinner table could be so stern and unreasonable at a
+chance meeting afterward, shook his confidence in her sex, which that
+memorable meeting had done much to establish upon firm ground. He had
+been wholly stupid and tactless in pouncing upon her with what he
+realized, under the calming influences of the brisk sea air, must have
+struck her as the vaporings of a dangerous lunatic. He had never been
+clever; he smarted now under the revelation that all things considered
+he was an immitigable ass.
+
+He went back to the hotel bitter but fortified by a resolution that
+nothing should check him now in his desperate career. He had quarreled
+with the inspiration of his new life, but in the end Isabel should have
+reason to know how unjust she had been. It was something after all to
+have seen her, perplexed, anxious and angry though she had been. She was
+still the most wonderful girl he had ever met, the more remarkable for
+the fact that now she had gone he had not the slightest idea of what had
+brought her into the strange world inhabited by the quarreling and
+fleeing Congdons. But men had suffered before for love of woman and he
+would bear his martyrdom manfully, keeping the humiliating interview
+carefully from the Governor.
+
+The Governor returned from Hoky's funeral somewhat wistful, but he
+described the burial with his accustomed enthusiasm.
+
+"It will be one of the satisfactions of my life that I went," he
+declared. "They didn't have the decency to bring in a minister--fancy
+it! Blessed if I didn't step into the breach and make a few remarks
+myself! I did, indeed, Archie, right there in the undertaker's joint,
+with a lot of bumpkins staring! No man sinks so low that he hasn't got
+some good in him; that was the burden of my argument. The sheriff came
+up and wrung my hand when it was all over. He had heard my little
+sermon and I suppose thought I was some rich and influential
+philanthropist; so I let it go at that."
+
+
+IV
+
+The next morning he announced Cornford as their next stopping point, a
+town, he explained, whose history thrust far back into colonial times.
+When they were seated in the parlor car he tossed a bundle of magazines
+into Archie's lap.
+
+"It will amuse you to know that one of the policemen we met on the road
+looking for Hoky's accomplice is standing on the platform. He's just
+inspected the day coaches;--never occurs to him that knaves of our
+degree travel de luxe."
+
+He yawned as the train started and drew a small volume from his pocket.
+
+"I shall lose myself in old Horatius Flaccus for an hour. It's odd but I
+always do my best concentrating with a poet before me. And what you said
+yesterday about those new bank notes Leary has hid up here disturbed me
+just a little. You can't trust fellows of old Leary's type with a matter
+so delicate as launching new money, where the numbers, as you so sagely
+remarked, are being looked for by every bank teller in America. I have a
+hunch that something unusual will happen before the summer's over, and
+we must be primed for every emergency."
+
+Archie saw that it was really a volume of the Horatian odes in which his
+singular companion had become engrossed. The Governor was utterly beyond
+him and he stared out moodily at the flying landscape, hating himself
+cordially as he thought of Isabel Perry and living over again the
+exciting moments in the Congdon house that preluded this strange
+journeying with a scholarly criminal who evidently derived the deepest
+satisfaction from the perusal of Latin poetry. The Governor broke in
+upon his reflections occasionally to read him a favorite passage or to
+ask questions, flattering to Archie's learning, as to possible
+interpretations of the venerated text.
+
+The Cornford Inn proved to be a quaint old tavern, modernized, and its
+patrons, the Governor explained, were limited to cultivated people who
+sought the peace and calm of the hills. After a leisurely luncheon they
+took their coffee in a pleasant garden on one side of the house.
+
+"One might be in France or Italy," remarked the Governor, lighting a
+cigar. "An ideal place; socially most exclusive, and I trust we shall
+have no reason to regret our visit."
+
+"That depends," said Archie, inspecting the end of his cigarette, "on
+whether we are transferred to the county jail or not."
+
+"Your apprehensions are as absurd as they are groundless, my dear boy.
+We could cash checks for any reasonable sum in this caravanserai merely
+on our appearance as men of education and property. Even in stolen
+clothes you look like a capitalist."
+
+Two men came into the garden and seated themselves at a table on the
+other side of a screen of shrubbery. They ordered coffee and one of them
+remarked upon the recent prevalence of crime in New England.
+
+"A thief was shot at Bailey Harbor night before last and there seems to
+be a band of crooks operating all along the coast."
+
+"We need a better type of men in Congress," said the Governor in a loud
+tone, with a wink at Archie. "There's a steady deterioration in the
+quality of our representatives in both houses."
+
+"You are right," Archie responded, remembering with a twinge of
+conscience his congressman brother-in-law.
+
+The Governor nodded to Archie to keep on talking, while he played the
+role of eavesdropper.
+
+"You oughtn't to have carried that cash up here," came in a low tone
+from the hedge. "The old man is a fool or he wouldn't have suggested
+such a thing."
+
+"Well, he wrote that he was coming here to spend a week and in his
+characteristic fashion said if I wanted his stock I could bring the
+currency here and close the transaction. The Congdons are all a lot of
+cranks, you know. This old curmudgeon carries a small fortune around
+with him all the time, and never accepts a check in any transaction."
+
+The Governor grew more eloquent in his attempt to convince Archie of the
+decadence of American statesmanship, while their unseen neighbors,
+feeling themselves secure, continued their discussion of the errand that
+had brought them to Cornford.
+
+"You're paying the old skunk a big price for his shares!"
+
+"Well, I've got to to keep them out of hostile hands," said the second
+voice irritably. "I don't like the idea of carrying yellowbacks around
+in a satchel just to humor a lunatic. And he's had the nerve to write
+that he won't be here until tomorrow!"
+
+"But the cash--"
+
+"Oh, it's all safe enough. No one knows but that I'm here just for a
+rest."
+
+"Let's stroll about a little," said the Governor. "We're not getting our
+usual amount of exercise and there's a good bit of colonial history
+tucked away in Cornford."
+
+He led the way through the garden to the street, and bade Archie proceed
+slowly to the post office while he walked toward the main entrance of
+the inn.
+
+Archie was buying stamps for which he had no immediate use when the
+Governor joined him.
+
+"These chaps were quite providentially in the office calling for their
+keys so I had no trouble in identifying them. Seebrook and Walters are
+the names. Seebrook, the older chap, has his daughter with him. They
+have rooms on the floor below us."
+
+"You don't think they've got any considerable sum of money with them, do
+you?" asked Archie breathlessly.
+
+"That remains to be seen! Did you notice their reference to a man named
+Congdon? Singular how I keep running into members of that tribe. I'm
+beginning to think there's a fatality in the name!"
+
+Archie glanced at him covertly. He too felt that there was something
+decidedly strange in the way the name haunted him, but the Governor had
+picked up a local guide book and was pointing out objects of interest as
+they wended their way along the street. Archie's wits had never been so
+taxed as since he had fired a pistol, more or less with intent to kill,
+in the house of Putney Congdon, but it was incredible that the Governor
+could know aught of that matter. The Governor, however, was manifesting
+the greatest interest in Cornford history, halting citizens to propound
+inquiries as to landmarks, and pausing before the town hall to make
+elaborate notes of a tablet struck in memory of the first selectmen.
+
+When they reached the green, which the town's growth had left to one
+side, he sat down on a bench and directed attention to a church whose
+history he read impressively from the book.
+
+"That carries us back quite a way beyond the Revolution. No longer used
+but reverently preserved for its associations. And in the cellar of that
+simple edifice where the early colonists used to hide from predatory
+Indians, is hidden fifty thousand dollars. A suitcase all ready to
+snatch, thrust under the bin where the worshipers of old kept the Sunday
+wood!"
+
+"I suppose it might rot there and nobody be the wiser?" muttered Archie,
+glancing at the venerable meeting house with awakened interest.
+
+"Quite true! But it must be saved from destruction. We mustn't fail
+Leary; he's put his trust in me. It's our job to recover the funds, and
+if I never ask you to join me in anything more perilous you'll have
+occasion to congratulate yourself. There are two automobiles at the
+church door now--tourists, having a look at the relic, and their
+presence will neatly cover our visit."
+
+They found half a dozen visitors roaming through the church, opening and
+closing the doors of the old pews. Archie was accosted by a stout lady
+in quest of just the information he had gained from the guide book. He
+courteously answered her questions and found the other sightseers
+pressing round to share in his lecture on the Cornford meeting house.
+When he had imparted everything he knew and added a few fanciful touches
+to improve the story, he turned to look for the Governor.
+
+"If you want to see the cellar, don't tumble down the steps as I did,"
+called a cheery voice from the entry; "it's an abominable hole!"
+
+Being an abominable hole the visitors laughingly surged toward the door
+to explore it, and the Governor struck matches to light their descent.
+
+He brushed the dust from his knees and mopped his face until the voices
+below receded.
+
+"All safe and sound! Stuck it out through a back window into a lilac
+bush, and we'll pick it up at our leisure. You may not have noticed that
+this old pile is built up against an abandoned mill. We shall loiter
+back to the inn carrying the loot quite boldly with us. You might lug it
+yourself as I'm a little warm from digging the thing up--Leary had
+burrowed under the wood bin and hidden it for keeps."
+
+To be sauntering in broad daylight through the principal thoroughfare of
+a serene New England town carrying a suitcase filled with stolen money
+was still another experience that made Archie feel that he had indeed
+entered upon a new manner of life. The Governor with a spray of lilac in
+his lapel had never been in better spirits.
+
+"That's a very decent suitcase and you can hand it to a bell hop and
+bid him fly with it to your room. You were a little short of linen and
+made a few purchases--the thing explains itself. Who could challenge us,
+Archie! We'd make a plausible front in Buckingham palace."
+
+They followed the suitcase upstairs, where the Governor unlocked it
+with an implement that looked like a nut pick. Archie's last vestige of
+doubt as to the Governor's powers vanished when he saw that the bag was
+filled with packages of bank notes in small denominations.
+
+"One might object to so many of the little fellows," remarked the
+Governor, "but on the whole we have no reason to complain of Leary's
+work. The rascal is anxious to settle down in some strictly moral
+community and open a confectionery shop--one of these little concerns
+where the neighborhood children bring in their pennies for sodas and
+chewing-gum, with a line of late magazines on the side. A kind, genial
+man is Leary, and he swears he'll abandon the road for good."
+
+Archie picked up several bundles of the bills and turned them over,
+reflecting that to his other crimes he had now added the receipt and
+concealment of stolen money.
+
+"Dinner in an hour, Archie," said the Governor, who was drawing a
+diagram of some sort on a sheet of inn paper. "The evening meal is
+rather a ceremonial affair here and as I notice that you carry a dress
+suit we shall follow the conventions. Meanwhile I wish you would look in
+at Barclay & Pedding's garage, just around the comer, and ask if a car
+has been left there for Mr. Reginald H. Saulsbury. You needn't be afraid
+of getting pinched, for the machine was acquired by purchase and I'm
+merely borrowing it from Abe Collins, _alias_ Slippery Abe, the king of
+all con men. Abe only plays for suckers of financial prominence who'd
+gladly pay a second time not to be exposed and he's grown so rich that
+he's retiring this summer. He was to send a machine to me here so I
+could avoid the petty annoyances of travel in a stolen car We'll leave
+here like honest men, with the landlord bowing us away from the door."
+
+That there should indeed be a handsome touring car at Barclay &
+Pedding's, awaiting the pleasure of Mr. Saulsbury, increased enormously
+Archie's respect and admiration for the Governor. It was a first-class
+machine worth four or five thousand dollars as it stood, and Archie was
+cheered by the thought that he enjoyed the friendship of a man who
+satisfied all his needs with so little trouble.
+
+When he returned the Governor was dressing and manifested no surprise
+that the car awaited his pleasure.
+
+"Yes, of course," he remarked absently. "You can always rely on Abe.
+It's time for you to dress, and we must look our prettiest. I caught a
+glimpse of Miss Seebrook strolling through the garden with her papa a
+bit ago. It may be necessary for you to cultivate her a trifle. A little
+flirting now and then is relished by the wisest men."
+
+"If you think--" began Archie warily.
+
+"Of course I think!" the Governor interrupted. "We've got fifty thousand
+dollars of nice new bills here and we're not going to the trouble of
+staining and mussing them up for safe circulation if we can dispose of
+them _en bloc_, so to speak, in all their pristine freshness. There's to
+be a dance in the dining hall as soon as dinner is over. The house is
+quite full and we shall mingle freely in the merry throng. I'll go down
+ahead of you and test the social atmosphere a little."
+
+When Archie reached the parlors half an hour later he found the Governor
+engaged in lively conversation with a gentleman he introduced
+immediately as Mr. Seebrook.
+
+"And Mr. Walters, Mr. Comly, and--"
+
+"Mr. Saulsbury and Mr. Comly, my daughter, Miss Seebrook."
+
+The girl had just joined her father and his friend. She acknowledged the
+introduction with an inclusive smile and nod. Archie's spirits, which
+drooped whenever he was deprived of the Governor's enlivening presence
+for a few minutes, were revived by this fresh demonstration of the
+rascal's daring effrontery. Seebrook and Walters were apparently
+accepting him at face value in the fashion of socially inclined
+travelers who meet in inns. To Archie's consternation the Governor began
+describing Hoky's funeral, which he did without neglecting any of its
+poignant features or neglecting to mention the few remarks he had
+offered to relieve the bleakness of the burglar's obsequies.
+
+"That was pretty fine, wasn't it?" Miss Seebrook remarked to Archie.
+"Any one would know that Mr. Saulsbury is just the kind of man who would
+do that."
+
+"There's no limit to his kindness and generosity," Archie replied with
+unfeigned sincerity.
+
+"You are motoring?" asked the girl. "We drove through here last fall to
+see the foliage,--it's perfectly wonderful, but I didn't know it could
+be so sweet at this season. I adore summer; don't you adore summer, Mr.
+Comly?"
+
+Miss Seebrook was the most obvious of sentimentalists and Archie thought
+instantly how different she was from Isabel. But being thrown in the
+company of any girl made possible the concrete comparison of Isabel with
+the rest of womankind very greatly to Isabel's advantage. Miss Seebrook
+was about Isabel's age, but she spoke in a languid purring voice that
+was wholly unlike Isabel's crisp, direct manner of speech. Her father
+had come up on some tiresome business matter, bringing Mr. Walters, who,
+it seemed, was his attorney, and she confessed that they talked business
+a great deal, which bored her immensely.
+
+"I judge, Mr. Comly, that you are one of those fortunate men who can
+throw business to the winds and have a good time without being bothered
+with telegrams from a hateful office."
+
+Her assumption flattered Archie. As his immediate concern was to escape
+the consequences of his folly in shooting a fellow mortal, he assured
+her that he was always glad of an opportunity to fling business cares
+aside. She explained that the inn was much affected by cottagers in
+neighboring summer settlements and that many of the diners had motored
+in for the dance. Seebrook and Walters were undoubtedly enjoying the
+Governor, proof of which was immediately forthcoming when Seebrook
+suggested that they should all dine together.
+
+"You do us much honor," said the Governor. "Mr. Comly and I shall be
+pleased, I'm sure."
+
+Archie had often eaten alone in just such pleasant little inns from
+sheer lack of courage to make acquaintances, but it seemed the most
+natural thing in the world for the Governor to establish himself on
+terms of intimacy with perfect strangers. Their party was the merriest
+in the room, and Archie was aware of envious glances from other tables
+that were not enlivened by a raconteur so affable and amusing as the
+Governor.
+
+"It's so nice to stumble into a place like this where every one may
+speak to every one else and be _sure_, you know!" said Miss Seebrook.
+
+"It does rather strengthen one's faith in the human race," Archie
+agreed, reflecting that if she had known that upstairs in the amiable
+Mr. Saulsbury's room reposed fifty thousand dollars of stolen money her
+confidence in the exclusiveness of the Cornford Inn would have been
+somewhat shaken. But the ironic humor of the whole thing overmastered
+his sense of guilt and he managed to hold the table for a little while
+without the Governor's assistance as he talked of the French chateaux
+with honest knowledge. The Seebrooks had motored through the chateau
+country the year before the war and as Archie had once made the
+excursion with an architect he was on firm ground.
+
+"There's a thorough man for you!" exclaimed the Governor proudly when
+Archie supplied some dates in French history for which Miss Seebrook
+fumbled.
+
+They continued their talk over coffee served in the garden. When the
+music began Seebrook and Walters recalled a bridge engagement and the
+Governor announced that he must look up an old friend who lived in
+Cornford. He produced a piece of paper on which he had scratched one of
+the diagrams he was eternally sketching as though consulting a
+memorandum of an address.
+
+"I shall be back shortly," he said as they separated in the office.
+
+Seebrook and Walters found their bridge partners and Archie and Miss
+Seebrook joined the considerable company that were already dancing. Only
+a few days earlier nothing could have persuaded Archie to dance, but now
+that he was plunged into a life of adventure the fear of dropping dead
+from excessive exercise no longer restrained him. Miss Seebrook
+undoubtedly enjoyed dancing and after a one-step and a fox-trot she
+declared that she would just love to dance all night. It had been a long
+time since Archie had heard a girl make this highly unoriginal remark,
+and in his own joy of the occasion he found it tinkling pleasantly in
+remote recesses of his memory. As Miss Seebrook pouted when he suggested
+that she might like him to introduce some of the other men and said that
+she was perfectly satisfied, he hastened to assure her that the role of
+monopolist was wholly agreeable to him. In this mad new life a
+flirtation was only an incident of the day's work, and Miss Seebrook was
+not at all averse to flirting with him.
+
+She thought it would be fine to take a breath of air, and gathering up
+her cloak they went into the garden for an ice. This refreshment ordered
+he was conscious of new and pleasant thrills as he faced her across the
+table. His youth stirred in him again. It was reassuring to have this
+proof that one might be a lost sheep dyed to deepest black and yet
+indulge in philandering under the June stars with a pretty girl--a
+handsome stately girl she was!--unrestrained by the thought that she
+would run away screaming for the police if she knew that he was a man
+who shot people and consorted with thieves and very likely would die on
+the gallows or be strapped in an electric chair before he got his
+deserts. His mind had passed through innumerable phases since he left
+his sister's house in Washington, and now as he shamelessly flirted with
+Miss Seebrook he knew himself for an unmoral creature, a degenerate who
+was all the more dangerous for being able to pass muster among decent
+folk. He had always imagined that citizens of the underworld were
+limited in their social indulgences to cautious meetings in the back
+rooms of low saloons, but this he had found to be a serious mistake. It
+was clear that the elite among the lawless might ride the high crest of
+social success.
+
+His only nervousness was due to the fear that he might betray himself.
+It was wholly possible that Miss Seebrook knew some of his friends; in
+fact she mentioned a family in Lenox that he knew very well. She was
+expert in all the niceties of flirtation and he responded joyously, as
+surprised and delighted as a child with a new toy at the ease with which
+he conveyed to her the idea that his life had been an immeasurable dark
+waste till she had dawned upon his enraptured vision. Her back was
+toward the inn and across her shoulders he could see the swaying figures
+in the ball room. The light from a garden lamp played upon her head and
+brightened in her fair hair.
+
+Miss Seebrook was speaking of music, and reciting the list of operas she
+loved best when Archie's gaze was caught and held by a shadow that
+flitted along an iron fire escape that zigzagged down from the fourth to
+the first story of the long rambling inn.
+
+"You seem very dreamy," remarked Miss Seebrook. "I know how that is for
+I can dream for hours and hours."
+
+"Yes; reverie; just floating on clouds, on and on," Archie replied,
+though the shadow moving on and on along the side of the inn was
+troubling him not a little.
+
+"The stars were never so near as they are tonight," she said. "Was it
+Shakspere or Longfellow who said, 'bright star, would I were steadfast
+as thou art!'"
+
+It was neither, Archie knew, but he said he thought the line occurred in
+Hamlet.
+
+"Do you think Hamlet was insane?" she asked.
+
+"I sometimes think I am," replied Archie, watching the shadow on the inn
+wall.
+
+"Why, Mr. Comly, how absurd!"
+
+It was really not so absurd at the moment, but he again had recourse to
+the poets, devoutly praying that she would not look toward the inn. He
+had surmised that the Governor's declared purpose to call on an old
+friend in Cornford was merely to cover his withdrawal from the party;
+but that he could have meditated a predatory excursion through the inn
+had not entered into Archie's speculations as to his friend's absence.
+There was no mistaking the figure that had moved swiftly down the
+ladder. The Governor for a man of his compact build was amazingly agile
+and quick of foot and hand. He was now creeping along the little balcony
+at the third floor. He paused a moment and then vanished into an open
+window. The Governor had said that the Seebrook party had rooms just
+under their own; but--
+
+"I have chosen a star for you," Miss Seebrook was murmuring.
+
+Archie, in his preoccupation with the Governor's strange performance,
+was so slow to respond that Miss Seebrook, thinking that he was
+deliberating as to which star he should bestow upon her in return,
+generously broadened the scope of her offer.
+
+"You shall have Orion or Arcturus with his sons."
+
+"I never could find Orion even with a sky map and a telescope," Archie
+roused himself to protest.
+
+Something very unlike a star but more like the glimmer of a match in a
+room on the third floor held his fascinated gaze, and it was difficult
+to be interested in the conversation of even so pretty a girl as Miss
+Seebrook when an audacious thief was at work only a little way beyond
+her. For all Archie knew it was her own room that the venturesome
+Governor was ransacking and at that very moment he might be stuffing his
+pockets with her belongings.
+
+Venus, Archie gravely announced, had always been his favorite star; and
+he set her to searching for it in the bright expanse while he watched
+the Governor reappear, bending low as he crept out of the window and
+ascended rapidly to the fourth floor. He had risked detection by a dozen
+people who were idling about the garden. The intermission was over and
+music floating through the open windows again invited to the dance.
+
+"We must go back, I suppose," said Miss Seebrook with a sigh.
+
+"I shall never forget this," declared Archie, hoping with all his heart
+that there would be no occasion for regretting the hour spent in the
+garden.
+
+They danced again, and in the handclapping that followed the first
+number he turned to find the Governor, calm and with no marks of his
+escapade upon him, bowing before Miss Seebrook.
+
+"Really, I must break in! Just a little fragment of this waltz! More
+capricious and jazzy measures have their day but the waltz endures
+forever! Don't frown at me that way, Comly! My old friend kept me longer
+than I expected and the night grows old."
+
+The Governor danced with smoothness and ease. Archie, his back to the
+wall, saw the rogue laughing into his partner's face as lightheartedly
+as though he had not, within a few minutes, imperiled his freedom in an
+act of sheerest folly.
+
+He brought the girl back to Archie, and then ingratiated himself with a
+shy elderly woman who was having a difficult time finding partners for
+her granddaughters. The Governor introduced himself with a charming
+deference, a winning courtesy, that gained her heart at once. He not
+only danced with her young charges but found other partners for them.
+Archie marveled; a man of the Governor's intelligence and address could
+hardly have failed to gain a high place in the world, yet his
+performance on the fire escape proved all the man had said of himself as
+an outlaw. The Governor was not one man but a dozen different men and in
+despair Archie gave up trying to account for him.
+
+
+V
+
+At midnight Seebrook and Walters came in from their card game.
+
+"We've certainly had the best of you, papa! It has been a wonderful
+evening!" exclaimed Miss Seebrook.
+
+"I knew it was going to be a good party," said the Governor warmly. "I
+regretted every moment I had to spend with my friends in Putnam Street.
+And yet should auld acquaintance be forgot, you know!"
+
+"You were perfectly lovely to that nice old lady and her frightened
+little granddaughters. They will never forget you as long as they live!
+And I'm afraid Mr. Comly will always remember me as the girl who kept
+him all to herself for a whole evening."
+
+"I didn't make it a hard job for you," Archie protested. "I shall mark
+the evening with a white stone on the long journey of life."
+
+"I hope, papa, you will add a word to my invitation to these gentlemen
+to come and see us at home."
+
+"Certainly," Seebrook assented cordially, drawing out his card-case.
+
+"We shall be ready for a little sociability," remarked the Governor,
+"when we return from the West. We are motoring from Portland to
+Portland, with a few little side trips like this, and we ought to have
+some good yarns to tell when we get back."
+
+"You are not running off immediately?" asked Walters. "Mr. Seebrook and
+I are really here on business, but we've been delayed and may have
+another day's time to kill. We'd be glad to play around with you."
+
+"It's most lamentable," replied the Governor, "that we've got to run
+away tomorrow. It's now the hour when ghosts walk but we shall see you
+in the morning."
+
+In Archie's room the Governor hummed one of his favorite ballads as he
+slipped out of his coat and picked a speck from his snowy waistcoat.
+Then he produced a tiny phial from his pocket and touched his upper lip
+with a drop of the contents.
+
+"It's a very curious thing about perfumes," he said meditatively. "I
+carry an assortment of these little bottles. The psychology of the thing
+is most interesting. Fragrances differ astonishingly as to their
+reactions upon the nerves. Only two hours ago I fortified myself for a
+little foolishness that required nevertheless a steady hand by sniffing
+the bouquet of a rare perfume known only to a few connoisseurs,--a
+compound based upon attar of roses. But this that I have just had
+recourse to is soothing and sedative. It is made from a rare flower
+found only in the most inaccessible fastnesses of the Andes, and is
+believed by the natives to be a charm against death. At some time I
+shall be glad to show you a treatise on the plant written by an eminent
+Spanish botanist. Its effect upon me is instantaneous and yet it might
+serve you quite differently, as our sensitiveness to these reactions of
+the olfactory nerve are largely idiosyncratic. Let me tap your upper lip
+with the cork--ah!"
+
+There was nothing more repulsive to Archie than perfumes and he
+impatiently jerked his head away. The odor proved, however, to be
+exceedingly delicate and not the miserable chemical concoction he
+dreaded. But he was not to be thwarted in his purpose to learn just what
+the Governor meant by endangering their security so recklessly. He
+slammed the transom tight and drew down the shades.
+
+"Well?" he demanded sharply.
+
+"It is evident," remarked the Governor good-humoredly, "that you do not
+react to the soothing influences of the _rosa alta_. You seem perturbed,
+anxious, with slight symptoms of _paralysis agitans_. Pray be seated and
+I will do my best to restore your peace of mind."
+
+"You needlessly exposed yourself to observation by sneaking down the
+fire escape of this hotel--I know that!"
+
+"My dear boy, I was merely gathering a few blossoms of the crimson
+rambler from the ancient walls of the inn. You may have noted that I
+wore a spray of buds in my lapel when I joined you in the ball room."
+
+"You had no right to plunder the house without warning me! I don't
+relish the idea of being jailed for your foolishness. And those people
+were mighty decent to us! If they knew we were two crooks--!"
+
+"They merely yielded to our charms! They feel themselves honored by our
+acquaintance! Now seat yourself on the bed and I'll tell you the whole
+story. When I left you I hastened into the village, bought a stick of
+shaving soap in a drug store and a few cigars in a tobacconist's. In
+each place I conversed with the clerk, thus laying ample ground for an
+alibi. Hurrying back to the inn I avoided observation by entering by the
+side door, skipped up to our rooms--and there you are! I did run a
+chance, of course, in climbing down the ladder, but all's well that ends
+well. I exchanged our new bank notes for sixty well-worn
+one-thousand-dollar gold certificates negotiable in all parts of the
+republic. That means a net gain in the Red Leary trust fund of ten
+thousand dollars. Seebrook had the stuff in the collar tray of his
+trunk. As the trunk was otherwise empty and the lock a special one that
+gave me a bit of trouble he's not likely to bother with it until old man
+Congdon turns up to close the stock transaction. When he opens it he
+will find fifty thousand dollars of good bills neatly piled there and
+if he has the imagination of a canary he will think the fairies have
+played a trick on him!"
+
+"My God!" moaned Archie. "You don't think you can get away with this!"
+
+"I think," returned the Governor imperturbably, "that _we_ must and will
+get away with it." His emphasis on the plural pronoun caused Archie to
+cringe. "It strikes me as highly amusing that we have unloaded those
+bills of Leary's on a good sport like Seebrook. As I locked that stuff
+in his trunk I got to laughing--really, I did--and a chambermaid roaming
+the hall must have heard me, for the key rattled in the lock just as I
+slipped out of the window. There's Leary's suitcase and I've packed it
+with our soiled linen and stuck in a pair of shoes for weight.
+Seebrook's legal tender is neatly rolled up in my best silken hose in my
+kit bag. Hark! There's Seebrook tumbling into his bed, which is just
+beneath mine!"
+
+"You're getting me in pretty deep," mumbled Archie dejectedly.
+
+"How about those blood stains on the sidewalk at Bailey Harbor?" asked
+the Governor in his blandest tones. "When you speak of getting in deep
+you forget that some one besides Hoky was shot back yonder. You came to
+me red-handed from a deed of violence, and I took you in and became your
+protector, asking no questions. It's the basest ingratitude for you to
+whimper over a small larceny when you have added assault or murder to
+the liabilities of our partnership! But don't forget for a moment that
+we're pals and pledged to see each other through."
+
+The reference to the blood stains reported by the Bailey Harbor police
+threw Archie back instantly upon the Governor's mercy. Complicity in
+the robbery of Seebrook was as nothing compared with the haunting fear
+that the man he had shot in the Congdon house had died from the wound.
+Unable to determine this question he was floundering in a veritable sea
+of crimes. The Governor was undressing with provoking indifference to
+his companion's perturbation.
+
+"Sleep, lad, sleep! You may be sure that nothing will harm us tonight,
+and I have faith that more stirring adventures are ahead of us. I
+forgive you your qualms and quavers, the pardonable manifestations of
+youth and inexperience. We walk in slippery places but we shall not
+stumble, at least not while the Governor keeps his head!"
+
+Nothing appealed to Archie as of greater importance than the retention
+by his companion of the head that now lay chastely upon a snowy pillow.
+A handsome, well-formed head, a head suggestive of family and the pride
+of race, though filled with the most complicated mental machinery with
+which a human being had ever been endowed.
+
+"Put out the lights and get you to your couch!" the Governor muttered
+drowsily.
+
+The man certainly wore his crimes lightly. He was sound asleep before
+Archie had got into his pajamas.
+
+
+VI
+
+When they reached the dining-room at ten the next morning they found
+Seebrook and Walters just finishing breakfast. Miss Seebrook was having
+coffee in her room, her father explained in response to Archie's polite
+inquiries.
+
+"We're hoping to get away this afternoon," he continued. "It will take
+only a few minutes to transact our business when the man I'm waiting for
+appears; but he's an uncertain quantity, and there's no telling when
+he'll show up. But we're having a good time and I shan't mind another
+day or two. If only you gentlemen would bear us company!"
+
+"Ah, you are very kind!" said the Governor; "but we must resume our
+ramble toward the Pacific. We are more or less dated up for little
+entertainments on the way."
+
+"I certainly envy you," said Walters ruefully. "Seebrook and I belong to
+the large class of men who work for a living."
+
+"Well, Comly and I have our own small jobs," the Governor protested.
+"We're interested in some water power schemes through the West and hope
+to make our expenses."
+
+Seebrook and Walters lingered in the office as Archie and the Governor
+paid their account. As they waited for their car to be sent round from
+the garage a machine drew up and discharged a short, wiry, elderly man
+in a motor coat that was much too large for him. He was accompanied by
+an enormous amount of luggage and from the steps of the inn gave orders
+in a high piping voice as to the manner of its disposal. As the various
+pieces were hustled into the office he enumerated them in an audible
+tone as though inviting the cooperation of all the loungers in making an
+inventory of his effects. When this had been concluded Seebrook stepped
+up and accosted the newcomer.
+
+"Mr. Congdon, I am very glad to see you. I hope you are not worn out by
+your drive."
+
+"Worn out!" snapped the little man. "Do you imagine a run of a hundred
+miles would fatigue a man of my constitution? I assure you that you are
+greatly mistaken if you think I am feeling my age. Seventy! And I don't
+feel a day over fifty, not a day, sir. But I shall rest for a few hours
+as a precaution, a mere precautionary measure and be able to meet you
+for our little business at two-thirty sharp."
+
+"That will suit me perfectly," replied Seebrook.
+
+Archie hung about impatiently waiting for the Governor to make his
+farewells to the old lady and her granddaughters on whom he had expended
+his social talents at the dance. Mr. Congdon was quarreling with the
+clerk over the location of the room he had reserved; he wanted no room
+with a western exposure as such rooms were always so baked by the
+afternoon sun that they were as hot as tropical jungles at night. Having
+frightened the clerk into readjusting the entire registration to
+accommodate him, he demanded to know whether his son, Mr. Putney
+Congdon, was stopping in the house.
+
+"Mind you, I have no reason to believe he _is_ here, but I've been
+asking for him everywhere along the road."
+
+Assured that Mr. Putney Congdon was not in the inn and hadn't been there
+within the recollection of the office staff, the senior Congdon exploded
+violently upon Seebrook and Walters.
+
+"Things have come to a pretty pass in this topsy turvy world when a man
+can't find his own son! For three days I've been wiring his clubs and
+all other places he could possibly be without result. And I have learned
+that his wife has left Bailey Harbor and the house there is closed.
+Closed! How dare they close that house when I was about to pay them a
+visit? I spent thirty-five dollars last night in telephoning trying to
+find out what's become of my son and his family and I got nothing for my
+money--nothing!"
+
+Seebrook and Walters expressed their sympathy in mild tones that roused
+the old gentleman to greater fury.
+
+"Can a whole family be obliterated and no trace left behind? Is it
+possible that they've been murdered in their beds, servants and all, and
+the police not yet aware of it?"
+
+At the mention of murder Archie began stealthily feeling his way along
+the cigar counter to a water cooler. He drank two glasses of ice water
+while he listened to Eliphalet's grievances against all things visible
+and invisible. There seemed to be no escaping from the Congdons and here
+was the father of Putney boldly publishing to the whole state of New
+Hampshire his fear that his son had been murdered.
+
+"I called up everybody I could think of at Bailey Harbor, that dismal
+rotten hole, and got nothing for my trouble. Nothing! A fool druggist,
+who pretended to know everything about the place, had the effrontery to
+tell me Putney hadn't been there for a week and declared that his family
+had left! Why should they leave? I ask you to tell me why my
+daughter-in-law should leave a comfortable house at the shore at this
+season and tell nobody her destination?"
+
+As no member of his growing audience of guests, clerks and bell-hops
+could answer his questions, Mr. Congdon swept the whole company with a
+fierce, disdainful glare and began mobilizing the entire day watch of
+porters and bell-boys to convey his luggage to his room. One of the
+young gentlemen was engaged at the moment in winking at the girl
+attendant at the cigar counter when the agitated traveler thrust the
+point of an enormous umbrella into his ribs with a vigor that elicited a
+yell of surprise and pain.
+
+The concentration of the hotel staff upon the transfer of Mr. Congdon's
+luggage to his room left the Governor and Archie to manage the removal
+of their own effects to the waiting car. Seebrook and Walters obligingly
+assisted, laughing at Congdon's eccentricities.
+
+"The arrival of that enchanting old crank increases my grief at
+leaving," declared the Governor. "A delightful person. The son he
+mentioned with so much feeling was in Boston looking for _him_ a month
+ago."
+
+Seebrook seized the Governor's kit bag containing the sixty thousand
+dollars and carried it out to the car. The sight of it in Seebrook's
+hand gave Archie sensations of nausea that were not relieved by the grin
+he detected on the Governor's face. Within an hour or two at most the
+substitution and robbery would be discovered and the country would ring
+with the demand for their detention. But the Governor was carrying off
+the departure with his usual gaiety. It was clear that he had made the
+most favorable impression upon Seebrook and Walters; and in the cordial
+handshaking and expressions of hope for future meetings Archie joined
+with the best spirit he could muster. A cheery good-by caused him to
+look up. Miss Seebrook with a red rose in her hand waved to him from her
+window.
+
+As he lifted his cap she dropped the rose with a graceful sweep of the
+arm.
+
+"Like the old stage coach days!" cried the Governor, applauding Archie's
+catch.
+
+He jumped into the machine and Archie scrambled after him. Archie's last
+impression of the inn was the blur of a waving handkerchief in Miss
+Seebrook's window.
+
+"We are a success, my boy! You bore yourself marvelously well," said the
+Governor testing the gears. "As I remember we pass town hall on right
+and cross railroad at bridge; then follow telephone poles. We don't need
+the guide book; it's all in my head. Ah, that little touch of the rose
+was worth all our perils; nothing in my experience was ever prettier
+than that! A lovely girl; you might do worse if you were not already
+plighted. If she had come down to say good-by it would have been much
+less significant. But the rose, the red, red rose! It wouldn't be a bad
+idea to stick it in an envelope and mail it to the girl you were telling
+me about--the one who sent you forth to shatter kingdoms. I guess that
+would jostle her a little, particularly if you were to enclose a line
+telling her that it had fallen to your hand from a curtained lattice."
+
+"I don't know her address," mumbled Archie, fastening the flower in his
+buttonhole.
+
+He still martyrized himself in his thoughts of Isabel. Her contumelious
+treatment of him at Portsmouth rankled; but he had satisfied himself
+that it was all his fault. In some way the curse of the Congdons lay
+upon her as upon him. If he had not burst upon her so idiotically she
+would probably have listened to his story with some interest if not
+with admiration. He meant to be very loyal to Isabel in spite of the
+disheartening contretemps at Portsmouth and he drew the rose from his
+coat and cast it from him.
+
+"So soon!" exclaimed the Governor. "I rejoice in your fidelity. Hope
+rides a high horse and I'm confident that in due season we shall find
+our two adorable ones. But it will do you no harm to indulge in a little
+affair now and then on the way; merely practice at the approach shot,
+you know, to keep your hand in. You are undoubtedly thinking of your
+beloved with a new tenderness because you found Miss Seebrook kind.
+Such, lad, is the way of love, true love, the love that never dies."
+
+Love as a subject for discussion seemed wholly incongruous in view of
+the fact that they were running off with Seebrook's money and pursuers
+might already be hot on their trail. He suggested the dangers of their
+situation, thinking that here at last was something that would sober the
+Governor. But the Governor merely laughed as he swung the car round a
+sharp corner.
+
+"Don't you believe that I hadn't a care for our safe flight! You must
+learn to use your eyes, son. There was one of the brotherhood of the
+road right there in the office when we left. I gave him instructions
+last night. He's a sneak thief of considerable intelligence who gave me
+the sign as I was pretending to leave for that call on my old friend. I
+smuggled him upstairs to keep watch for me and he proved himself a
+fellow of decided merit. He'll be hanging round Cornford today and as
+the absurd police will be obliged to make an arrest to save their
+reputations he will put himself in their way and encourage the idea by
+subtle means that he _might_ have been the malefactor who robbed
+Seebrook's trunk and left Leary's bills behind. They will be unable to
+make a case against him but he'll probably get thirty days for
+loitering. Then he'll walk out and draw a thousand dollars from one of
+our little private banks further along the road for so chivalrously
+throwing himself into the breach! There are wheels within wheels in our
+game, and these fellows who make sacrifice hits are highly useful. They
+also serve who only go to jail, as John Milton almost said. Even the
+police recognize the sacrificial artists; and encourage them--on the
+quiet, of course. It calms public complaint of their inefficiency. I can
+find you men who will do a year's time to save the men higher up. This
+satisfies the public as to the zeal of its paid protectors and makes it
+possible for men of genius like you and me to walk in high places
+unmolested. A damnable system, Archie, but we learned it from the greedy
+trust magnates. You take the wheel; it just occurs to me that you said
+you were a fair driver."
+
+Archie had always imagined that men slip gradually from the straight and
+narrow path, but he felt himself plunging down a steep toboggan with all
+the delirious joy of a speed maniac.
+
+Of one thing he was confident: if he ever returned to his old orderly,
+lawful life, he would be much more tolerant of sinners than he had been
+in the old tranquil times. He had always found it easy to be good but
+now he was finding it quite as easy to be naughty, very naughty indeed.
+His speculations as to just how long he could be imprisoned for his
+crimes and misdemeanors to date resolved themselves into a question
+with which he interrupted the Governor in a sonorous recitation of
+Tennyson's Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.
+
+"If you shoot a man but don't kill him, and pile on top of that
+receiving stolen goods and complicity in burglary, how much can they
+hand you?"
+
+The Governor answered with disconcerting promptness.
+
+"Shooting with intent to commit murder--they always put it that way
+whether you meant the shot as anything more than a little pleasantry or
+really had murder in your heart--that would be a minimum of ten years in
+many of the American states and a hard-hearted judge might soak you for
+twenty. Then pile on that from one to five years for hiding stolen
+property; and then a first-class burglary, might run you pretty high,
+particularly if they landed you on all three charges and showed that you
+were viciously hostile to the forces of society. But there's no cause
+for worry. If you behaved yourself they'd knock off a generous allowance
+and a fellow of your enlightenment and tact might be put to work in the
+warden's office, or set to collecting potato bugs in the prison garden
+patch. But it's highly unprofessional to bother about such trifles. We
+haven't been nabbed yet, and if you and I are not smart enough to keep
+out of trouble we ought to be locked up; that's my philosophy of the
+situation. You must conquer that morbid strain in you that persists in
+looking for trouble. I find it highly depressing."
+
+He sang a bar of "Ben Bolt" to test his memory of the words and then
+urged Archie to join him in the ballad, which he said was endeared to
+him by the most sacred associations. Archie hadn't indulged in song
+since he sang "Fair Harvard" at his last class reunion, but the Governor
+praised his singing and carried him through "Robin Grey" and a few other
+classics with growing animation.
+
+"You respond to treatment splendidly! The sun and air are bringing a
+fine color to your face until you don't even remotely suggest a doleful
+jail bird. We'll soon be able to stroll along Fifth Avenue and pass for
+members of the leisure class who live on the golf links. You need
+hardening up and if you stick to me you'll lay up a store of health that
+will last you forty years."
+
+The Governor was amazingly muscular, and his shapely hands seemed
+possessed of miraculous strength. When a tire went bad he changed it
+with remarkable ease and dexterity, scorning Archie's offer of
+assistance.
+
+"No lost motion! The world spends half its time doing things twice that
+could as well be done once. I am blessed with an orderly mind, Archie.
+You will have noticed that virtue in me by the time the frost is on the
+punkin and the fodder's in the shock, to quote the Hoosier Theocritus."
+
+And so, to the merry accompaniment of old tunes and mellow rhymes, they
+crossed the Connecticut.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+I
+
+
+With all his outward candor the Governor had, Archie found, reserves
+that were quite unaccountable. He let fall allusions to his past in the
+most natural fashion, with an incidental air that added to their
+plausibility, without ever tearing aside the veil that concealed his
+origin or the manner of his fall, if, indeed, a man who so jubilantly
+boasted of his crimes and seemed to find an infinite satisfaction and
+delight in his turpitude, could be said to have fallen. Having mentioned
+Brattleboro as the point at which they were to foregather with Red
+Leary, the Governor did not refer to the matter again, but chose routes
+and made detours without explanation.
+
+As a matter of fact they swung round Brattleboro and saw only the faint
+blue of its smoke from the western side. It was on the second afternoon
+out of Cornford that the Governor suddenly bade Archie, whom he
+encouraged to drive much of the time, pause at a gate.
+
+"We linger here, son. May I suggest that you take your cue from me? Bill
+Walker is an honest dairyman to all intents and purposes, but really an
+old crook who got tired of dodging sheriffs and bloodhounds and bought
+this farm. A sober, industrious family man, you will find him, with a
+wife and one daughter. This is one of the best stations of the
+underground railroad; safe as a mother's arms, and you will never
+believe you're not the favored guest of a week-end party. Walker's an
+old chum of Leary's. They used to cut up in the most reprehensible
+fashion out West in old times. You've probably wondered what becomes of
+old crooks. Walker is of course an unusual specimen, for he knew when
+the quitting was good, and having salted away a nice little fortune
+accumulated in express hold-ups, he dwells here in peace and passes the
+hat at the meeting house every Sunday. You may be dead sure that only
+the aristocracy of our profession have the entree at Walker's. His herd
+on the hillside yonder makes a pretty picture of tranquillity. The house
+is an old timer, but he's made a comfortable place of it, and the wife
+and daughter set a wonderful table. Here's the old boy now."
+
+A gray-bearded man with a pronounced stoop, clad in faded blue overalls,
+was waiting for them at the barn.
+
+"Just run the machine right in," he called.
+
+The car disposed of, the Governor introduced Archie as one of his
+dearest friends, and the hand Archie clasped was undeniably roughened by
+toil. Walker mumbled a "glad-to-see-ye," and lazily looked him over.
+
+"Always glad to meet any friend of Mr. Saulsbury's," he drawled with a
+mournful twang. "We've got plenty o' bread and milk for strangers.
+Somebody's spread the idea we run a hotel here and we're pestered a good
+deal with folks that want to stop for a meal. We take care o' 'em
+mostly. The wife and little gal sort o' like havin' folks stop; takes
+away the lonesomeness."
+
+There was nothing in his speech or manner to suggest that he had ever
+been a road agent. He assisted them in carrying their traps to the
+house, talking farmer fashion of the weather, crops and the state of the
+roads. The house was connected with the barn in the usual New England
+style. In the kitchen a girl sang cheerily and hearing her the Governor
+paused and struck an attitude.
+
+"O divinity! O Deity of the Green Hills! O Lovely Daughter of the Stars!
+O Iphigenia!"
+
+The girl appeared at a window, rested her bare arms on the sill and
+smilingly saluted them with a cheery "Hello there!"
+
+"Look upon that picture!" exclaimed the Governor, seizing Archie's arm.
+"In old times upon Olympus she was cup-bearer to the gods, but here she
+is Sally Walker, and never so charming as when she sits enthroned upon
+the milking stool. Miss Walker, my old friend, Mr. Comly, or Achilles,
+as you will!"
+
+A very pretty picture Miss Walker made in the kitchen window, a vivid
+portrait that immediately enhanced Archie's pleasurable sensations in
+finding a haven that promised rest and security. Her black hair was
+swept back smoothly from her forehead and there was the glow of perfect
+health in her rounded cheeks. Archie noted her dimples and the white
+even teeth that made something noteworthy and memorable of her smile.
+
+"Well, Mr. Saulsbury, I've read all those books you sent me, and the
+candy was the finest I ever tasted."
+
+"She remembers! Amid all her domestic cares, she remembers! My dear lad,
+the girl is one in a million!"
+
+"You'd think Mr. Saulsbury was crazy about me!" she laughed. "But he
+makes the same speeches to every girl he sees, doesn't he, Mr. Comly?"
+
+"Indeed not," protested Archie, rallying bravely to the Governor's
+support. "He's been raving about you for days and my only surprise is
+that he so completely failed to give me the faintest idea--idea--"
+
+"Of your charm, your ineffable beauty!" the Governor supplied. "You see,
+Sally, my friend is shy with the shyness of youth and inexperience and
+he is unable to utter the thoughts that do in him rise! I can see that
+he is your captive, your meekest slave. By the way, will there be
+cottage cheese prepared by your own adorable hand for supper? Are golden
+waffles likely to confront us on the breakfast table tomorrow at the
+hideous hour of five-thirty? Will there be maple syrup from yonder
+hillside grove?"
+
+"You have said it!" Sally answered. "But you'd better chase yourselves
+into the house now or pop'll be peeved at having to wait for you."
+
+On the veranda a tall elderly man rose from a hammock in which he had
+been reading a newspaper and stretched himself. His tanned face was
+deeply lined but he gave the impression of health and vigor.
+
+"Leary," whispered the Governor in an aside and immediately introduced
+him.
+
+"The road has been smooth and the sky is high," said the Governor in
+response to a quick anxious questioning of Leary's small restless eyes.
+
+"Did you find peace in the churches by the way?" asked Leary.
+
+"In one of the temples we found peace and plenty," answered the Governor
+as though reciting from a ritual.
+
+Leary nodded and gave a hitch to his trousers.
+
+"You found the waters of Champlain tranquil, and no hawks followed the
+landward passage?"
+
+"The robin and the bluebird sang over all the road," he answered; then
+with a glance at Archie: "You gave no warning of the second pilgrim."
+
+"The brother is young and innocent, but I find him an apt pupil," the
+Governor explained.
+
+"The brother will learn first the wisdom of silence," remarked Leary,
+and then as though by an afterthought he shook Archie warmly by the
+hand.
+
+They went into the house where Mrs. Walker, a stout middle-aged woman,
+greeted them effusively.
+
+"We've got to put you both in one room, if you don't mind," she
+explained, "but there's two beds in it. I guess you can make out."
+
+"Make out!" cried the Governor with a deprecatory wave of his hand. "We
+should be proud to be permitted to sleep on the porch! You do us much
+honor, my dear Mrs. Walker."
+
+"Oh, you always cheer us up, Mr. Saulsbury. And Mr. Comly is just as
+welcome."
+
+The second floor room to which Walker led them was plainly but neatly
+furnished and the windows looked out upon rolling pastures. The Governor
+abandoned his high-flown talk and asked blunt questions as to recent
+visitors, apparently referring to criminals who had lodged at the farm.
+They talked quite openly while Archie unpacked his bag. The restless
+activity of the folk of the underworld, their methods of communication
+and points of rendezvous seemed part of a vast system and he was ashamed
+of his enormous interest in all he saw and heard. The Governor's cool
+fashion of talking of the world of crime and its denizens almost
+legitimatized it, made it appear a recognized part of the accepted
+scheme of things. Walker aroused the Governor's deepest interest by
+telling of the visit of Pete Barney, a diamond thief, who had lately
+made a big haul in Chicago, and had been passed along from one point of
+refuge to another. The Governor asked particularly as to the man's
+experiences and treatment on the road, and whether he had complained of
+the hospitality extended by any of the agents of the underground.
+
+"You needn't worry about him," said Walker, with a shrug. "He asks for
+what he wants."
+
+"Sorry if he made himself a nuisance. I'll give warning to chain the
+gates toward the North. Is he carrying the sparks with him?"
+
+"Lets 'em shine like a fool. I told 'im to clear out with 'em."
+
+"You did right. The brothers in the West must be more careful about
+handing out tickets. Now trot Red up here and we'll transact a little
+business."
+
+Leary appeared a moment later and Archie was about to leave the room,
+but the Governor insisted stoutly that he remain.
+
+"I'm anxious for you and Red to know that I trust both of you fully."
+
+"What's the young brother,--a con?" asked Leary with a glance at Archie.
+
+To be referred to as a confidence man by a gentleman of Leary's
+professional eminence gave Archie a thrill. The Governor answered by
+drawing up his sleeves and going through the motions of washing his
+hands.
+
+"Does the hawk follow fast?" Leary asked, as he proceeded to fill his
+pipe.
+
+"The shadow hasn't fallen, but we watch the sky," returned the Governor.
+
+The brushing of the hands together Archie interpreted as a code sign
+signifying murder and the subsequent interchange of words he took to be
+inquiry and answer as to the danger of apprehension. He felt that
+Leary's attitude toward him became friendlier from that moment. There
+was something ghastly in the thought that as the slayer of a human being
+he attained a certain dignity in the eyes of men like Leary. But he
+became interested in the transaction that was now taking place between
+the thief and the Governor. The Governor extracted the sixty
+one-thousand-dollar bills from his bag, and laid them out on the bed. He
+rapidly explained just how Leary's hidden booty had been recovered, and
+the manner in which the smaller denominations had been converted into
+bills that could be passed without arousing suspicion.
+
+"Too big for one bite, but old Dan Sheedy will change 'em all for you in
+Bean Center. You know his place? You see him alone and ask him to chop
+some feed for your cattle. He makes a good front and stands well at his
+bank."
+
+Leary picked up ten of the bills and held them out to the Governor.
+
+"If that ain't right we'll make it right," he said.
+
+"Not a cent, Red! I haven't got to a point yet where I charge a fee for
+my services. But our young brother here is entitled to anything he
+wants."
+
+Archie grasped with difficulty the idea that he was invited to share in
+the loot. His insistence that he couldn't think for a moment of
+accepting any of the money puzzled Leary.
+
+"It's all right about you, Governor, but the kid had better shake the
+tree. If his hands are wet he's likely to need a towel."
+
+"Don't be an ass, Comly," said the Governor. "Leary's ahead of the game
+ten thousand good plunks and what he offers is a ridiculously modest
+honorarium. Recovering such property and getting it into shape for the
+market is worth something handsome."
+
+"Really," began Archie, and then as the "really" seemed an absurdly
+banal beginning for a rejection of an offer of stolen money, he said
+with a curl of the lip and a swagger, "Oh, hell! I'd feel pretty rotten
+to take money from one of the good pals. And besides, I didn't do
+anything anyhow."
+
+The Governor passed his hand over his face to conceal a smile, but Leary
+seemed sincerely grieved by Archie's conduct and remarked dolefully that
+there must be something wrong with the money. The Governor hastily
+vouched for its impeccable quality and excused Archie as a person hardly
+second to himself for eccentricity.
+
+[Illustration: "It's all right about you, Governor, but the kid better
+shake the tree"]
+
+"No hard feeling; most certainly not! My young friend is only proud to
+serve a man of your standing in the profession. It is possible that
+later on you may be able to render us a service. You never can tell, you
+know, Red."
+
+Leary philosophically stowed the bills in his clothing.
+
+"You're done, are you?" asked the Governor; "out of the game?"
+
+"I sure have quit the road," Leary answered. "The old girl has got a few
+thousands tucked away and I'm goin' to pick her up and buy a motion
+picture joint or a candy and soda shop somewhere in the big lakes--one
+of those places that freeze up all winter, so I can have a chance to
+rest. The old girl has a place in mind. The climate will be good for my
+asthma. She knows how to run a fizz shop and I'll be the scenery and
+just set round."
+
+"On the whole it doesn't sound exciting," the Governor commented,
+inspecting a clean shirt. "Did your admirable wife get rid of those
+pearls she pinched last winter? They were a handsome string, as I
+remember, too handsome to market readily. Mrs. Leary has a passion for
+precious baubles, Archie," the Governor explained. "A brilliant career
+in picking up such trifles; a star performer, Red, if you don't mind my
+bragging of your wife."
+
+Leary seemed not at all disturbed by this revelation of his wife's
+larcenous affection for pearls. That a train robber's wife should be a
+thief seemed perfectly natural; indeed it seemed quite fitting that
+thieves should mate with thieves. Archie further gathered that Mrs.
+Leary operated in Chicago, under the guise of a confectionery shop, one
+of the stations of the underground railroad, and assisted the
+brotherhood in disposing of their ill-gotten wares. A recent reform wave
+in Chicago had caused a shake-up in the police department, most
+disturbing to the preying powers.
+
+"They're clean off me, I reckon," said Leary a little pathetically, the
+reference being presumably to the pestiferous police. "That was a good
+idea of yours for me to go up into Canada and work at a real job for a
+while. Must a worked hard enough to change my finger prints. Some bloke
+died in Kansas awhile back and got all the credit for being the old
+original Red Leary."
+
+This error of the press in recording Leary's death tickled the Governor
+mightily, and Leary laughed until he was obliged to wipe the tears from
+his eyes.
+
+"I'm going to pull my freight after supper," he said. "Walker's goin' to
+take me into town and I'll slip out to Detroit where the old girl's
+waitin' for me."
+
+The Governor mused upon this a moment, drew a small note-book from his
+pocket and verified his recollection of the address of one of the
+outposts of the underground which Leary mentioned.
+
+"Avoid icy pavements!" he admonished. "There's danger in all those
+border towns."
+
+Walker called them to supper and they went down to a meal that met all
+the expectations aroused by the Governor's boast of the Walker cuisine.
+Not only were the fried chicken and hot biscuits excellent, but Archie
+found Miss Walker's society highly agreeable and stimulating. She wore a
+snowy white apron over a blue gingham dress, and rose from time to time
+to replenish the platters. The Governor chaffed her familiarly, and
+Archie edged into the talk with an ease that surprised him. His
+speculative faculties, all but benumbed by the violent exercise to which
+they had been subjected since he joined the army of the hunted, found
+new employment in an attempt to determine just how much this cheery,
+handsome girl knew of the history of the company that met at her
+father's table. She was the daughter of a retired crook, and it had
+never occurred to him that crooks had daughters, or if they were so
+blessed he had assumed that they were defectives, turned over for
+rearing to disagreeable public institutions.
+
+The Governor had said that they were to spend a day or two at Walker's
+but Archie was now hoping that he would prolong the visit. When next he
+saw Isabel he would relate, quite calmly and incidentally, his meteoric
+nights through the underworld, and Sally, the incomparable dairy maid,
+should dance merrily in his narrative. In a pleasant drawing-room
+somewhere or other he would meet Isabel and rehabilitate himself in her
+eyes by the very modesty with which he would relate his amazing tale. It
+pleased him to reflect that if she could see him at the Walker table
+with Red Leary and the Governor, that most accomplished of villains,
+eating hot biscuits which had been specially forbidden by his physician,
+she would undoubtedly decide that he had made a pretty literal
+interpretation of her injunction to throw a challenge in the teeth of
+fate.
+
+Walker ate greedily, shoveling his food into his mouth with his knife;
+and Archie had never before sat at meat with a man who used this means
+of urging food into his vitals. The Governor magnanimously ignored his
+friend's social errors, praising the chicken and delivering so
+beautiful an oration on the home-made pickled peaches that Sally must
+needs dart into the pantry and bring back a fresh jar which she placed
+with a spoon by the Governor's plate.
+
+At the end of the meal Walker left for town to put Leary on a train for
+Boston. The veteran train robber shook hands all round and waved a last
+farewell from the gate. Archie was sorry to lose him, for Leary was an
+appealing old fellow, and he had hoped for a chance to coax from him
+some reminiscences of his experiences.
+
+Leary vanished into the starlit dusk as placidly as though he hadn't
+tucked away in his clothing sixty thousand dollars to which he had no
+lawful right or title. There was something ludicrous in the whole
+proceeding. While Archie had an income of fifty thousand dollars a year
+from investments, he had always experienced a pleasurable thrill at
+receiving the statement of his dividends from his personal clerk in the
+broker's office, where he drew an additional ten thousand as a silent
+partner. Leary's method of dipping into the world's capital seemed quite
+as honorable as his own. Neither really did any work for the money. This
+he reflected was both morally and economically unsound, and yet Archie
+found himself envying Leary the callousness that made it possible for
+him to pocket sixty thousand stolen dollars without the quiver of an
+eyelash.
+
+
+II
+
+The Governor, smoking a pipe on the veranda and chatting with Mrs.
+Walker, recalled him from his meditations to suggest that he show a
+decent spirit of appreciation of the Walkers' hospitality by repairing
+to the kitchen and helping Sally with the dishes. In his youth Archie
+had been carefully instructed in the proper manner of entering a parlor,
+but it was with the greatest embarrassment that he sought Sally in her
+kitchen. She stood at the sink, her arms plunged into a steaming dish
+pan, and saluted him with a cheery hello.
+
+"I was just wondering whether you wouldn't show up! Not that you had to,
+but it's a good deal more fun having somebody to keep you company in the
+kitchen."
+
+"I should think it would be," Archie admitted, recalling that his mother
+used to express the greatest annoyance when the servants made her
+kitchen a social center. "Give me a towel and I'll promise not to break
+anything."
+
+"You don't look as though you'd been used to work much," she said, "but
+take off your coat and I'll hang an apron on you."
+
+His investiture in Mrs. Walker's ample apron made it necessary for Sally
+to stand quite close to him, and her manner of compressing her lips as
+she pinned the bib to the collar of his waistcoat he found wholly
+charming. His heart went pit-a-pat as her fingers, moist from the suds,
+brushed his chin. She was quite tall; taller than Isabel, who had fixed
+his standard of a proper height for girls. Sally did not giggle, but
+acted as normal sensible girls should act when pinning aprons on young
+men.
+
+She tossed him a towel and bade him dry the plates as she placed them on
+the drain board. She worked quickly, and it was evident that she was a
+capable and efficient young woman who took an honest pride in her work.
+
+"You've never stopped here before? I thought. I didn't remember you.
+Well, we're always glad to see the Governor, he's so funny; but say,
+some of the people who come along--!"
+
+"I hope," said Archie, turning a dish to the light to be sure it was
+thoroughly polished, "I hope my presence isn't offensive?"
+
+"Cut it out!" she returned crisply. "Of course you're all right. I knew
+you were a real gent the first squint I got of you. You can't fool me
+much on human nature."
+
+"You've always lived up here?" asked Archie, meek under her frank
+approval.
+
+"Certainly not. I was born in Missouri, a grand old state if I do say it
+myself, and we came here when I was twelve. I went through high school
+and took dairying and the domestic arts in college and I'm twenty-three
+if you care to know."
+
+He had known finishing-school girls and college girls and girls who had
+been educated by traveling governesses, but Sally was different and
+suffered in no whit by comparison. Her boasted knowledge of the human
+race was negligible beside her familiarity with the mysterious
+mechanisms of cream separators and incubators. Fate had certainly found
+a strange way of completing his education! But for the shot he had fired
+in the lonely house by the sea, he would never have known that girls
+like Sally existed. As he assisted her to restore the dishes to the
+pantry, she crossed the kitchen with queenly stride. Isabel hadn't a
+finer swing from the hips or a nobler carriage. When he abandoned his
+criminal life he would assemble somewhere all the girls he had met in
+his pilgrimage. There should be a round table, but where Isabel sat
+would be the head, and his sister should chaperone the party. When it
+dispersed he would tell Isabel, very honestly, of his reaction to each
+one, and if she took him to task for his susceptibility it would be a
+good defense that she was responsible for sending him forth to wrestle
+with temptation.
+
+When the kitchen was in perfect order they reported the fact to Mrs.
+Walker and Sally suggested that they stroll to a trout brook which was
+her own particular property. The stream danced merrily from the hills, a
+friendly little brook it was--just such a ribbon of water as a girl like
+Sally would fancy for a chum.
+
+"We must have a drink or you won't know how sweet and cool the water
+is!" She cupped her hands and drank; but his own efforts to bring the
+water to his lips were clumsy and ineffectual.
+
+"Oh you!" she laughed. "Let me show you!"
+
+Drinking from her hands was an experience that transcended for the
+moment all other experiences. If this was a rural approach to a
+flirtation, Miss Seebrook's methods were much safer, and the garden of
+the Cornford tavern a far more circumspect stage than a Vermont
+brookside shut off from all the world.
+
+He had decided to avoid any reference to the secrets of the underground
+trail, but his delicacy received a violent shock a moment later, when
+they were seated on a bench beside the brook.
+
+"Do you know," she said, "you are not like the others?"
+
+"I don't understand," he faltered.
+
+"Oh, cut it out! You needn't try to fool me! When I told you awhile ago
+I thought you were nice, I meant more than that; I meant that you didn't
+at all seem like the crooks that sneak through here and hide at our
+house. You're more like the Governor, and I never understand about the
+Governor. It doesn't seem possible that any one who isn't forced by
+necessity into crime would ever follow the life. Now you're a gentleman,
+any one could tell that, but I suppose you've really done something
+pretty bad or you wouldn't be here! Now I'm going to hand it to you
+straight; that's the only way."
+
+"Certainly, Miss Walker; I want you to be perfectly frank with me."
+
+"Well, my advice would be to give yourself up, do your time like a man
+and then live straight. You're young enough to begin all over again and
+you might make something of yourself. The Governor has romantic ideas
+about the great game but that's no reason why you should walk the thorny
+road. Now pop would kill me if he knew I was talking this way. It's a
+funny thing about pop. All I know about him I just picked up a little at
+a time, and he and ma never wanted me to know. Ma's awful nervous about
+so many of the boys stopping here, for she hung on to pop all the time
+he was shooting up trains out West, and having a husband in the
+penitentiary isn't a pleasant thing to think about. Ma's father ran a
+saloon down in Missouri; that's how she got acquainted with pop, but ma
+was always on the square, and they both wanted me brought up right. It
+was ma's idea that we should get clean away from pop's old life, and
+she did all the brain work of wiping the slate clean and coming away off
+here. We were a couple of years doing it, trying a lot of other places
+all over the country before they struck this ranch and felt safe. Pop's
+living straight; you needn't think he isn't, but he's got a queer
+hankering to see the sort of men he used to train with. It's natural, I
+suppose."
+
+"I suppose it is. But you must have suffered; I can imagine how you
+feel," said Archie, who had listened to her long speech with rapt
+attention.
+
+"Well, I don't know that I've suffered so much," she replied slowly,
+"but I do feel queer sometimes when I'm around with young folks whose
+fathers never had to duck the cops. Not that they've any suspicions, of
+course; I guess pop stands well round here."
+
+"I can understand perfectly how your father would like to see some of
+the old comrades now and then and even give them shelter and help them
+on their way. That speaks highly for his generosity. It's a big thing
+for me right now to be put up here. I'm in a lot of trouble, and this
+gives me a chance to get my bearings. I shall always remember your
+father's aid. And you don't know how wonderful it is to be sitting
+beside you here and talking to you just as though nothing had ever
+happened to me; really as though I wasn't a lost sheep and a pretty
+black one at that."
+
+"I'm sorry," she answered. "When I told you you'd better go and do your
+time and get done with it, I didn't mean to be nasty. But I was thinking
+that a man as sensitive as I judge you to be would be happier in the
+long run. Now pop had an old pal who drifted along here a couple of
+years ago, and pop had it all figured out to shoot him right up into
+Canada, but, would you believe it, that man simply wouldn't go! The very
+idea of being in a safe place where he was reasonably certain of not
+being bothered worried him. He simply couldn't stand it. He was so used
+to being chased and shot at it didn't seem natural to be out of danger,
+and pop had to give him money to take him to Oklahoma where he'd have
+the fun of teasing the sheriffs along. And he had his wish and I suppose
+he died happy, for we read in the papers a little while afterward that
+he'd been shot and killed trying to hold up a bank."
+
+Archie expressed his impatience of the gentleman who preferred death in
+Oklahoma to a life of tranquillity in the Canadian wilds.
+
+"Oh, they never learn anything," Sally declared. "I wouldn't be
+surprised if pop didn't pull out some time and beat it for the West. It
+must be awful tame for a man who's stuck pistols into the faces of
+express messengers and made bank tellers hand out their cash to settle
+down in a place like this where there's nothing much to do but go to
+church and prayer meeting. I don't know how many men pop's killed in his
+time but there must be quite a bunch. But pop doesn't seem to worry
+much. It seems to me if I'd ever pumped a man full of lead I'd have a
+bad case of insomnia."
+
+"Well, I don't know," remarked Archie, weighing the point judicially. "I
+suppose you get used to it in time. Your father seems very gentle. You
+probably exaggerate the number of his--er--homicides."
+
+He felt himself utterly unqualified to express with any adequacy his
+sympathy for a girl whose father had flirted with the gallows so
+shamelessly. Walker had courageously entered express cars and jumped
+into locomotive cabs in the pursuit of his calling and this was much
+nobler than shooting a man in the back. Sally would probably despise him
+if she knew what he had done.
+
+She demurred to his remark about her father's amiability.
+
+"Well, pop can be pretty rough sometimes. He and I have our little
+troubles."
+
+"Nothing serious, I'm sure. I can't imagine any one being unkind to you,
+Sally."
+
+"It's nice of you to say that. But I'm not perfect and I don't pretend
+to be!"
+
+Sympathy and tenderness surged within him at this absurd suggestion that
+any one could harbor a doubt of Sally's perfection. Her modesty, the
+tone of her voice called for some more concrete expression of his
+understanding than he could put into words. Her hand, dimly discernible
+in the dusk of the June stars, was invitingly near. He clasped and held
+it, warm and yielding. She drew it away in a moment but not rebukingly.
+The contact with her hand had been inexpressibly thrilling. Not since
+his prep school days had he held a girl's hand, and the brook and the
+stars sang together in ineffable chorus. It was bewildering to find that
+so trifling an act could afford sensations so charged with all the
+felicity of forbidden delight.
+
+"I wonder," she said presently; "I wonder whether you would--whether you
+really would do something for me?"
+
+"Anything in my power," he declared hoarsely.
+
+"What time is it?" she asked with a jarring return to practical things.
+
+She bent her head close as he held a match to his watch. It was half
+past eight.
+
+"We'll have to hurry," she said. "When I told you pop and I didn't
+always agree about everything I was thinking--"
+
+"Is it about a man?" he asked, surmising the worst and steeling himself
+for the blow if it must fall. He would show her how generously
+chivalrous a man could be toward a girl who honored him with her
+confidence and appealed for his assistance.
+
+"It would be a long story," she said sadly, "and there isn't time to
+tell it, but the moment I saw you were so big and brave and strong, I
+thought you might help."
+
+To be called big and brave and strong by so charming a person, to enjoy
+her confidence and be her chosen aid in an hour of need and perplexity
+profoundly touched him. He wished that Isabel could have heard Sally's
+tribute to his strength and courage--Isabel who had said only a few days
+ago that he wouldn't kill a flea. He had always been too modest and too
+timid, just as Isabel had said, but those days were passed and the man
+Isabel knew was very different from the man who sat beside Bill Walker's
+daughter under the glowing Vermont stars. Drums were beating and bugles
+sounding across the hills as he waited for Sally to send him into the
+lists with her colors flying from his spear.
+
+"I wouldn't trust the Governor; he's too friendly with pop for that.
+It's just this way," she went on dreamily. "There's a young man, Abijah
+Strong, who owns a farm just a little way down the road. He and I have
+been in love with each other ever since we went to school together,
+really and truly lovers. He was at college when I was, so I know him
+very well. But pop doesn't like him, and when he found how matters stood
+he refused to allow me to see him any more. And he's been very hard
+about it. We've been waiting for a chance to run away and get married. I
+met him last night in the lane and everything's arranged for us to leave
+tonight, run into Brattleboro and be married there and then go on to
+Boston and wait till pop's disposed to be reasonable."
+
+"He will be very angry, of course," said Archie, his ardor somewhat
+chilled now that he knew the nature of the project in which she asked
+his cooperation.
+
+"Yes; pop will be perfectly crazy," she affirmed with a lingering
+intonation that seemed to imply a certain joy in the prospective
+disturbance of her parent's equilibrium. "He wants me to marry a
+preacher at Saxby Center who's almost as old as pop, and has three grown
+children. I thought maybe you could pretend to take me out for a little
+ride in your car, and pick up Abijah and give us a lift. My things are
+all packed and hid away in the garage; so all I need to do is to get my
+hat."
+
+"Of course I couldn't come back here," Archie suggested. "Your father
+would be sure to vent his wrath on me."
+
+"Oh, I'd thought of that!" she exclaimed. "But you could go on and wait
+somewhere for the Governor to catch up with you."
+
+"I'd have to make sure he _didn't_ catch up with me! He'll be mighty
+sore about this."
+
+"Well, if you're afraid of him--"
+
+"Pooh! I certainly am not afraid of him," he declared contemptuously.
+"He and I were bound to part sometime."
+
+In the half hour they had spent together by the brook he had forgotten
+his dependence upon the Governor and his earlier fears that the master
+crook might desert him. Through the cajoleries of a girl he had known
+only a few hours he was ready to break with his comrade by mischievously
+upsetting the domestic affairs of a host who doubtless had not forgotten
+how to kill men who incurred his displeasure. Sally had affected him
+like a strong cordial and as they walked to the house he grew
+increasingly keen for the proposed adventure. Sally, like Isabel, had
+dared him to be brave, and he screwed his courage to the sticking point.
+
+"If you don't mind I'll take Sally for a little run down the road," he
+suggested casually when they found the Governor and Mrs. Walker still
+gossiping on the veranda.
+
+No objection was raised by Mrs. Walker beyond an injunction not to be
+gone long and a warning not to go without her jacket. The permission was
+given so readily that Archie was moved to make the polite suggestion
+that they might all like to go and his heart sank when the Governor
+promptly seconded the invitation. But to his immeasurable relief Mrs.
+Walker professed weariness and quickly disposed of the matter.
+
+"No joy riding," the Governor called after them. "Sally's a valuable
+asset of this family and I'll hold you personally responsible, Comly,
+for her safe return."
+
+III
+
+At the garage Sally produced a satchel which Archie tossed into the car,
+and they were quickly humming through the lane and into the highway.
+
+"Abijah expected me to walk down to meet him if I could get away
+tonight, so he'll be surprised when I come in a machine," she said as
+they emerged into the open road. "He was to wait for me every night
+until I saw a good chance to skip. His car is only a little dinky thing
+and he'll be tickled to death to see this fine machine."
+
+A quick spurt of ten minutes and Sally bade him drive slowly.
+
+"Run by the school house when we come to it and then stop. Abijah will
+be there."
+
+When the car stopped Sally jumped out and was immediately joined by a
+young man to whom she spoke rapidly out of Archie's hearing. Her
+explanations finished she brought him to the car and presented him as
+Mr. Strong.
+
+"Mr. Comly is going to the minister's with us and then give us a lift
+toward Boston. That's ever so much better than anything we'd thought of,
+'Bijah!"
+
+"Whatever you say, little girl! I'll shut off the lights on my machine
+and get my traps."
+
+Archie, testing his searchlight, let its beam fall upon Abijah as though
+by accident and found Sally's lover a very well-dressed, decent-looking
+fellow. All his life he would be proud of his daring in saving Sally
+Walker from marriage with the odious widower and mating her with the
+youth of her choice. The bride and groom elect were established in the
+back seat and he experienced a sharp jealous twinge, when, turning to
+ask her a question about the road, he caught them in a rapturous kiss.
+This was what it meant to be young and free, and youth and freedom were
+things he had never until now appraised at their true worth. Having
+captured and mounted destiny he would ride with a tight rein and
+relentless spur. The immediate affair was much to his taste, and he
+meditated making it his business in future to befriend lovers in
+difficulties.
+
+"How long do we stop at Brattleboro?" he asked over his shoulder.
+
+"Only long enough to get the knot tied," Abijah answered. "I was in town
+this afternoon and everything's set."
+
+"I hope," said Sally, "you'll give the bride away; it would be just fine
+of you, Mr. Comly."
+
+"I was hoping you'd ask me," he flung back. "I want to be as prominent
+in the wedding party as possible."
+
+The last time he had figured in a wedding he had been best man for a
+college friend who had been married at high noon in Grace Church, before
+an audience notably distinguished in New York society. Sally's nuptials
+were blest in a little parsonage, with the minister's wife and daughter
+and Archie as the sole witnesses. The minister had only lately come to
+town and therefore confined his inquiries to the strict requirements of
+ecclesiastical and Vermont law. When he lifted his head to ask who
+giveth this woman Archie bestowed Sally upon Abijah with just the touch
+of grace and dignity he had long noted as the accepted manner of giving
+a woman in marriage in the most exacting circles.
+
+The groom sheepishly dug two one-dollar bills out of his trousers pocket
+and the sum striking Archie as a pitifully inadequate fee he slipped a
+ten-dollar bill into the minister's hand as the bride and groom were
+hurrying from the house.
+
+"Well, Sally," Archie remarked, as he joined them, "for better or worse
+you are married. I certainly wish you all good luck."
+
+"We'll be back in a week and everything will be smooth as butter," Sally
+declared lightly.
+
+The wedding journey from Brattleboro to Bennington was marred by tire
+trouble and freakishness on the part of the engine, and as neither of
+his passengers knew the roads Archie's good nature was severely tested
+by the exigencies of the night drive.
+
+Abijah helped with the tires but only stared helplessly while Archie
+poked at the engine. Sally was far more resourceful and lent her
+assistance with her usual good cheer, a cheer which Archie felt he would
+miss when he bade them good-by at Bennington. As a mark of special favor
+she moved to the front seat to keep him company and facilitate the study
+of sign posts.
+
+"We're only making half time," said Archie after a long interruption.
+"We'll not get into Bennington before daylight."
+
+"I've put you to an awful lot of trouble," Sally remarked with real
+contrition. "And you've left your friend the Governor far behind. I
+suppose they started out to look for us in pop's machine when we didn't
+show up and they may be close behind us now. The only thing I'm sorry
+about is missing hearing pop swear when he found I had skipped. It
+would be funny if they thought I'd run off with you, wouldn't it! I'd
+just love that!"
+
+"I don't think it's so funny you didn't," Archie answered. "I think it
+was my mistake!"
+
+The groom had drawn up his knees and was attempting to sleep on the back
+seat. It was quite improper to flirt with the newest of brides but Sally
+gave tolerant ear and even encouraged Archie's protestations of
+admiration while Abijah bumped about in the tonneau and now and then
+rolled off the seat when the enraptured driver negotiated a sharp turn.
+But for Sally's disposition to make the most of her last hours with him
+the drive would have bored Archie exceedingly. By two o'clock he was
+hungry and at three he was bringing all his powers of eloquence to bear
+upon the obtuse owner of a village garage who was stubbornly hostile to
+the idea of leaving his bed to provide a lunatic with gasoline. Archie's
+vociferous oratory had the pleasing effect of filling all the windows in
+the neighborhood with unsympathetic hearers and the village policeman
+appeared and made careful note of car and contents.
+
+"I guess you're used to getting what you go after in this world," said
+Sally as they resumed their journey. "You certainly told that man where
+to get off."
+
+"Just a little firmness will go a long way with such a chap," Archie
+answered, marveling at his newly discovered command of the unattainable.
+A week earlier he would have been incapable of threatening a whole
+village with frightful reprisals unless it responded to his demands.
+
+"I didn't like that cop poking round the car," Abijah complained. "He
+took your number all right."
+
+"Don't you worry about policemen," Archie answered scornfully. "If they
+fool with me I'll knock their blocks off!"
+
+"I'll say you would!" cried Sally in a tone of conviction that made him
+regret that no policeman's head was in reach that he might demonstrate
+his valor on the spot.
+
+Sally and Abijah were eager to leave Bennington as soon as possible.
+
+"Don't think we're not appreciating what you've done for us," said
+Abijah, "but Sally and I had better shake you and that machine right
+here. Sally's folks'll be sure to be after us and they'll just about
+argue we came this way."
+
+Archie laid to his soul the flattering unction that Abijah was jealous.
+Justification of this suspicion was supported by the bridegroom's sudden
+anxiety to depart out of Vermont with the utmost expedition. Archie had
+every intention of ordering as gorgeous a breakfast as Bennington's best
+hotel could provide, but Abijah promptly vetoed this suggestion and they
+ate at a lunch counter, which Archie found a most disagreeable
+proceeding. Abijah left Sally and Archie eating scrambled eggs while he
+set forth to acquire information about trains. He returned while they
+were still at the counter to report that a train was almost immediately
+available. His haste annoyed Archie, who hated being hurried at his
+meals. At the station Abijah hung about the baggage-room, where he had
+no business whatever, as though trying to create the impression that he
+was traveling alone. When the train came along he climbed into the
+smoker with his own bag, leaving Archie to assist Sally into the chair
+car.
+
+"Abijah's just a little afraid pop might have telephoned, you know, or
+be coming after us. He'll move in here when the train starts."
+
+"I don't like to leave you like this," said Archie mournfully.
+
+"Oh, it will be all right," Sally answered bravely. "Abijah's nervous;
+that's all. That was certainly some ride we had last night. I hope
+you'll go up to the hotel now and get a good sleep."
+
+"Oh, I'll look out for that," Archie replied.
+
+His arrears of sleep did not trouble him; but the thought of losing
+Sally broke his heart. The hard night ride had left no traces on her
+face. Her cheeks were aglow and her eyes were bright. When he said
+again, a little tremulously, that he hated to leave her he had never
+made a more honest statement in his life.
+
+"I suppose we'll hardly meet again," he said with a dejection which he
+hoped would elicit a promise of further meetings.
+
+"I'm afraid it will be a long, long time before I see you," she said
+with a lingering tenderness and wistfulness.
+
+"I hope you're going to be very happy, Sally. And I shall think of you
+always as you were last night. I shall never forget our talk by the
+brook."
+
+"Neither shall I," she murmured. Her lashes were wonderful; not till
+that moment had he done justice to her lashes.
+
+"I want to give you a little present--something you can hide away to
+make sure you are not embarrassed in any way until you get settled. I
+wish it were gold, but you won't mind. You understand, don't you,
+Sally?"
+
+He always carried a five-hundred-dollar bill against emergencies and
+this he had clung to through all his adventures. He now produced it from
+his inner waistcoat pocket and slipped it into her hand.
+
+Her brow clouded for an instant; then she smiled radiantly.
+
+"I oughtn't to take it; but I know you mean it all right. It's dear of
+you," and her tone and the immeasurable kindness of her eyes were easily
+worth five hundred dollars.
+
+Belated passengers were now brushing past them in the aisle. The
+conductor, walking briskly along the platform, shouted all aboard with
+heartless finality. It seemed like the voice of doom to Archie.
+
+"Good-by, Sally!"
+
+He put out his hand, but with a quickness that took his breath away she
+flung her arms round his neck and kissed him. The touch of her hand by
+the brook under the stars was as nothing to this. Two young girls
+seeking seats giggled at the frankness and heartiness of the salutation.
+In old times Archie would have perished of humiliation; but an
+overwhelming joy filled his soul. The giggles of bread-and-butter misses
+who knew nothing of life and love were beneath his notice. Sally's arms
+were still about his neck, her lips were parted expectantly.
+
+"You must go, honey," she whispered and his kiss fell like a punctuation
+upon her last delectable word.
+
+If she hadn't given him a gentle push toward the door he might never
+have reached the vestibule. Another person who shared his haste to
+leave the train materially assisted him by gentle pressure to the
+platform. His brain whirled from the intoxication of Sally's
+kiss--indeed the two kisses, or specifically the kiss received and the
+kiss returned. But his exaltation was of brief duration, for there
+beside him stood Isabel like an accusing angel, severe and implacable.
+It was she whose gentle impulsion had facilitated his exit from the
+parlor car, and beyond question she had witnessed the kissing, a
+disagreeable circumstance that fell smotheringly upon his ecstatic mood.
+
+"You were on that train!" he exclaimed;--the most fatuous of questions
+and the poorest possible opening for a conversation.
+
+She ignored his inquiry. It was now her turn to give way under the
+stress of emotion and the indignant tears shone in her eyes.
+
+"I thought I had made it sufficiently plain at Portsmouth that I resent
+your following me! The meeting there might have been by accident, but
+seeing 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 explain if you will give me a moment!
+It probably hasn't occurred to you that I'm a good deal mystified by
+these little journeys you are making over New England! My own dallying
+in these parts is due to circumstances I can easily explain. In fact,
+but for you I should not be here at all!"
+
+This, uttered with a conciliatory smile and quite calmly, not only
+failed to mollify her anger but produced quite the opposite effect. Her
+agitation increased, and for the second time they presented the picture
+of a man and woman involved in a quarrel in a public place.
+
+"I understand perfectly that but for me you shouldn't be loitering here!
+And you practically acknowledged at Portsmouth that you were interesting
+yourself in the affairs of the Congdons!"
+
+"We are playing at cross purposes quite unnecessarily," protested
+Archie. "Why not confess just what your interest is in that family? I
+told you quite plainly at Portsmouth that I had reason to believe I had
+shot Putney Congdon at Bailey Harbor! But for the courage you put in my
+heart I should never have done that!"
+
+"If you did that you have ruined everything! A dastardly act for which I
+hope you will pay the full penalty of the law!"
+
+This was wholly unreasonable and quite beside himself he shook his
+finger in her face.
+
+"You seem to forget that you advised me to flout the law; to do just the
+things I have been doing, roving the world, shooting and plundering!
+There's a policeman at the other end of the platform; call him and turn
+me over to the authorities!"
+
+She glanced hurriedly in the direction of a policeman who had niched a
+banana from a bunch providentially exposed to his rapacity on a truck,
+and was hastily consuming it.
+
+"Maybe he is watching me!" she gasped.
+
+For a young woman who had prescribed outlawry as a cure for obstreperous
+nerves her alarm was astonishing.
+
+"May I ask, Miss Perry, what reason you have for fearing the
+authorities?"
+
+"That of course is what you would like to know!" she replied tearfully.
+"But you know too much! If you have told me the truth your
+meddlesomeness will have far-reaching consequences too dreadful to think
+about! Your assumed name tells its own story and convinces me that you
+have not told the truth. I went aboard that train to look for some one I
+hoped I might meet, and you know perfectly well why I am here."
+
+He could only stammer a futile expostulation at the gross injustice of
+this.
+
+"Everything has gone wrong," she continued, "and you may have all the
+satisfaction you can get out of your interference, your intrusion upon
+affairs of the greatest delicacy, in which my assistance and my honor
+are pledged. That car standing yonder 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 statement as to the propinquity of the car
+but crossed the platform with the crestfallen air of a child in
+disgrace. She had loftily ignored the kissing of Mrs. Abijah Strong. The
+osculatory adventure with Sally shrank at once in importance from the
+fact that Isabel had not only ignored it but had made it wholly
+unnecessary for him to explain that transaction.
+
+He knew nothing save that he was enormously tired and he went to the
+hotel and crawled wearily into bed.
+
+
+IV
+
+It was close upon six o'clock when a knock roused him from a sleep that
+had not been easily won.
+
+"It's yo' baggage, boss!"
+
+"Baggage?" repeated Archie.
+
+He had told the clerk he had no baggage and had paid in advance for his
+room. His suitcase was at Walker's and it was hardly possible that
+Walker had forwarded his effects. He opened the door cautiously and saw
+at a glance that the bag was undeniably his. He groped for his trousers
+and gave the waiting porter half a dollar.
+
+"How did it get here?" he asked with attempted indifference.
+
+"Don't know nuffin' 'bout it, suh; gemmen tole me tote 'er up. If it
+ain't all right--"
+
+"Oh, it's all right enough!" Archie exclaimed hastily, fearing to pursue
+the inquiry.
+
+He opened the bag and found that it not only contained all his
+belongings but they had been packed neatly by an experienced hand. The
+unaccountable arrival of his luggage sent his thoughts flying to
+Walker's farm and the Governor.
+
+Pleased as he was by the arrival of his effects, the reappearance of the
+bag brought him back to earth with a reverberating jar. He was confident
+that malevolent agencies were responsible; and to be reminded thus
+sharply of the powers of evil just when he craved nothing so much as
+slumber's oblivion was disturbing and ominous.
+
+He was sitting on the edge of the bed idly smoothing the wrinkles out of
+a pet necktie when a gently insinuating knock unpreluded by a step in
+the hall 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 opening in the door and squeezed through.
+
+"My dear Archie!" he exclaimed as he locked the door, "how infinitely
+relieved I am! I was afraid some harm had befallen you, but to find you
+here safe and sound fills my heart with gratitude."
+
+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 alone! Trust me for that; but my friend Walker was not
+easily shaken. A strong passionate nature, Walker; a man long habituated
+to the lethal knife, the unerring pistol. No easy task you may well
+believe to get rid of him. And his provocation! O my boy, his
+provocation to justifiable homicide and all that sort of thing!"
+
+"Well, I only did what I thought was right," Archie declared doggedly.
+"I wasn't weighing the consequences."
+
+The Governor, filling his pipe, lifted a hand to emphasize the
+"splendid" with which he received this statement.
+
+"Splendid, my dear Archie, to see how beautifully you rose to the
+situation--a situation that spoke powerfully to your generous heart! If
+there has been any error it is mine. I should have known from the way
+you played 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. Indeed the incident warms my heart to you. Sally
+is a winsome lass; she has a way with her, that girl!"
+
+"I would have done the same thing for any girl in like circumstances,"
+Archie declared, pacing the floor with shoulders erect.
+
+"I dare say you would! Your heart and your sword are at the command of
+any pretty jade who squints at you! But when I suggested that it might
+be well for you to keep in practice I didn't mean for you to make a
+monkey of yourself. Your true love--what did you say her name is?"
+
+To recall Isabel to his memory was a greater mockery than the Governor
+knew, but Archie met the question with well-feigned unconcern.
+
+"I didn't say," he answered; "but her name is Isabel."
+
+"Ah! One of the few really perfect names in the whole list! Rather more
+style to it than Sally! And yet Sally has been used to good advantage by
+the balladists. To 'Sally in Our Alley,' we might add Sally at the Churn
+or Sally Softly Singing in the Corn, or Sally Leading Archie by the Ear.
+The possibilities are exquisite."
+
+"If you don't mind," said Archie with dignity, "we'll stop talking
+nonsense. I want to know 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 innocence you are a wonder!"
+
+"Walker had no right to force a girl like Sally to marry an old
+curmudgeon she hated. I never hesitated 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!"
+
+The Governor rocked with delight.
+
+"You didn't miss a stroke!" he exclaimed wiping the tears from his eyes.
+"The marriage satisfied all legal requirements. Your work was only too
+well done!"
+
+"I'm glad you're satisfied," said Archie spitefully. "And if Walker is a
+sensible man he will welcome the young couple home and make the best of
+it."
+
+"It saddens me to be obliged to speak the grievous truth when your
+conscience is so pleased with itself. Let me deal in surmises a moment
+before I hand you a few unhappy facts. Sitting with Sally down by the
+brook and probably holding her hand"--(Archie flinched)--"holding her
+hand perhaps, and strongly tempted to kiss her, you fell an easy prey to
+her fascinations. She told you a plausible yarn as to Walker's cruelty
+in wanting her to marry a tottering old widower and asked you to assist
+her to elope with a sturdy young farmer who was even then waiting for
+her by the old mill or the school house, or something like that. And
+your heart swelled to bursting with the thought of serving one so fair!
+Wholly natural, Archie, for I too have dwelt in Arcady! If that minx
+hadn't told you she had a lover loitering in the background, you'd
+probably have thrown yourself into the breach and eloped with her
+yourself. Yes, you would, Archie! I must have a care of you or your
+Isabel will never meet you at the altar!"
+
+"We're not talking of Isabel," Archie interrupted haughtily. "I'll
+trouble you to say all you have to say about Sally and Abijah."
+
+"Abijah!" squeaked the Governor, again overcome by mirth.
+
+For the first time Archie disliked the Governor. His unsympathetic
+attitude toward the elopement was intolerable. A round of abuse would
+have been more palatable than this ironic jesting. The Governor saw that
+he had gone too far and immediately shifted the key.
+
+"What you did, Archie," he resumed paternally, "what you did was to
+marry Sally, the incomparable, Sally the divine, to Pete Barney, the
+diamond thief. He took refuge with Walker a couple of weeks ago, and the
+old man extended him his usual generous hospitality. Barney had been
+well vouched for and had all the pass-words and countersigns of the
+great fraternity, but Walker mistrusted him. A week is the usual limit
+for a pilgrim's stay, and seeing how Sally and Barney were hitting it
+off the old man gave the chap a hint to move along. He didn't go, it
+seems, but hung round the neighborhood waiting for a chance to pull off
+the elopement in which you so kindly assisted even to the extent of
+bolting with Slippery Abe's car."
+
+"You mean--you mean I 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 you'd 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 true metier. The trifling little necklace he had
+on his person when he struck 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, twisting his hands together. He had done a
+horrible thing, hardly second to murder, and his penitence weighed
+heavily upon him.
+
+"You are not chaffing me! It doesn't seem possible that the girl would
+have deceived me!"
+
+"We never know when they are going to deceive us, Archie! I hate to
+think that Sally inherited a strain of lawlessness and yet she hated the
+farm and was crazy to escape. I forgot to mention that 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 crushed
+by her conduct. They have tried to shield her from all the sorrow and
+shame of the world; and there was really a very decent young farmer wild
+to marry her, old New England stock, revolutionary stuff, aristocrats,
+you may say. And if you hadn't muddled everything it would have come
+about in time. But you will have your fling, Archie! You certainly
+spilled the beans. And I had vouched for you at the Walkers'; it's
+almost as bad as though I 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; but I hope you have learned your lesson. It
+probably didn't occur to you that I might have been sore enough to
+mention somewhere your connection with certain blood stains on the board
+walk at Bailey Harbor. You should have a care of yourself!"
+
+"I don't want you to think me ungrateful," Archie stammered. "The girl
+made a fool of me; I see it all now!"
+
+"She made a fool of you but you in turn made a fool of me! And while I'm
+not caviling, you will pardon me, son, if I suggest that hereafter you
+play square with me. I'm no saint, but I wouldn't desert a comrade or
+stick a knife in his back. Please understand that I don't mean to curb
+your personal enterprise, or set any limit on your little affairs of the
+heart. You are not the first man who thought he understood women, and
+you are not the last victim of that deplorable delusion. But let's have
+no more foolishness."
+
+"I haven't a thing to say for myself!" blurted Archie, who was at the
+point of tears. "I was weak, miserably 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 begotten
+of your very innocence and helplessness, and I should be very unhappy if
+we parted now. We've shared some danger together and in spite of your
+weaknesses I'm fond of you. And if I left you to your own devices
+something quite disastrous might happen to you."
+
+Discomfited and humiliated as he was the very thought of going out into
+the world alone filled Archie with horror. Under Sally's hypnotic
+influence he had concluded that the Governor was a negligible factor in
+his life; but away from the girl and rankling under her deceit he
+grasped at the Governor's friendship with the frantic clutch of a
+drowning man. The Governor drew out his bill fold and extracted from it
+a newspaper cutting.
+
+"Note this, Archie, from a Boston paper of today. Our old friend Congdon
+has stirred up the Boston police about the disappearance of his son. I
+don't ask you to make any comment on that item; I merely call your
+attention to the fact that Putney Congdon is on the missing list and
+like ourselves Putney Congdon was at Bailey Harbor. Nothing particularly
+startling in all this, as the police records show something like an
+average of one thousand four hundred and thirteen missing or unaccounted
+for persons in the United States every year. This paper says that
+Congdon was seen by one person and one only at Bailey Harbor. That was a
+garage man who sold him some gas--it was a stormy night--and
+incidentally that night poor Hoky set sail for the happy isles. And the
+date is further memorable from the fact that it was the occasion of our
+first meeting. And the blood stains on the board walk of one of the
+streets at Bailey--"
+
+"Stop, for God's sake!" cried Archie. "I'll tell you everything; I'll--"
+
+"You'll tell me nothing, because I refuse to listen! Confessing is a
+habit. If I encourage you to confess to me you'll be pouring your tale
+into the ear of the first policeman you meet. As things stand you are
+not suspected, and if we follow my program you are likely to walk the
+world in safety for the rest of your days. If I knew the circumstances I
+might become nervous and I must retain my poise or we perish. Your
+autobiography for the past week or so would make a ripping narrative,
+but you'd better learn to forget. Our yesterdays are as nothing; it's
+tomorrow we've got to think about. Those Congdons are rather a
+picturesque lot as I catch them in cinema flashes. It appears from the
+paper that young Putney's wife had left him, and there was some sort of
+row about the children. The old boy we struck at Cornford will probably
+be charging the absconding wife with killing Putney the first thing we
+know!"
+
+"Charge Mrs. Congdon with killing her husband! O my God!" wailed Archie.
+
+"Control yourself, my dear boy! One would infer from that item that Mrs.
+Congdon dropped off the earth after she left Bailey Harbor. She and her
+children motored out of Bailey and haven't yet reached their house in
+New York, for which she was presumably bound. By Jove, it's woozzy the
+way these Congdons keep bobbing up! I'd give something handsome to know
+how the old chap and Seebrook came out at Cornford. I learn that they're
+holding Silent Tim, the chap I told you would be arrested, and our part
+in the delicate transaction is already obscured."
+
+Archie was giving the Governor only half attention. His nerves were
+unstrung by the bald, colorless report of Putney Congdon's
+disappearance, which shocked him all the more from the fact that it was
+so hideously commonplace, merely a bit of journalistic routine. He
+wished the Governor would stop reading newspapers. Now that the man's
+disappearance had been heralded the police of the entire country would
+be searching for him dead or alive and if his body were found there
+would be a great hue and cry until his murderer was apprehended.
+
+The Governor was unconcernedly sketching one of the diagrams with which
+he seemed to visualize his plans. These he made in small compass, any
+scrap of paper serving his purpose. Archie had supposed this was a means
+of recalling places and highways and determining the time required to
+reach a certain point, but the Governor was always at pains to conceal
+these calculations or memoranda. Archie was startled now to hear his
+companion muttering to himself:
+
+"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--writes!" He dropped his pencil and gazed blankly into space.
+
+Archie had caught one day a glimpse of several of the zodiacal signs
+drawn on the margin of a newspaper where the Governor had neglected 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 etoile!_ You catch the sense admirably. Yes, I
+was born under an evil star; just that! But if I haven't pondered the
+mysteries unprofitably I shall emerge from the shadow in due season.
+When you see me scribbling I am calculating the potency of the dark fate
+that overhangs me and trying to estimate 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. The
+night before I picked you up in the road I knew that you were walking
+toward me out of nowhere, and I was charged by the planets to befriend
+you. So here we are, pilgrims under heavenly protection!"
+
+"I'm sorry; I don't want to leave you; I couldn't make it alone," Archie
+answered, awed and meek under these revelations.
+
+"It's very curious, Archie," the Governor resumed, making a little pile
+of the scraps to which he had already reduced the sketch; "it's quite
+remarkable that the light still hangs in the west for us. Since you
+joined me it has been more brilliant. It may be that after all you are
+destined to bring me good luck!" He paced the floor for several minutes,
+then struck his hands together sharply. "All right!" he exclaimed. "It
+has never failed me! The light is mild, feminine, we shall say, gentle,
+persuasive, encouraging. It would be fatal to ignore its message."
+
+Archie watched him for some gleam of humor, but the Governor had never
+been more serious. His face lighted as he found Archie's eyes fixed upon
+him.
+
+"You were thinking just then that I've gone crazy; but I assure you that
+I'm perfectly able to give myself all the tests for insanity; I should
+recognize the symptoms immediately, from my ability to look into myself
+with the detachment of a man who stands at a window and peers into a
+lighted room. 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
+Rockies. It would be a risky business for me to show up in town! I might
+at any turn run into relatives or friends who know I left for a two
+months' absence in the Rockies. And incidentally, the same people
+_might_ know I had been to Bailey Harbor."
+
+"You're a frightful egotist, Archie! This is a large world and man's
+memory is short. The man you dine with most frequently at your club
+wouldn't remember in a week whether you told him you were going to the
+Rockies or the Himalayas and if you met him on the Avenue he'd merely
+nod and pass on trying to remember who the devil you were. But I renew
+my sacred promise to take care of you; you may rely on me, Archie. Now
+as always we invite the most searching scrutiny! If you see any 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, 'Blacksheep,
+blacksheep!'"
+
+
+V
+
+As the train flew along the Connecticut shore Archie realized with a new
+poignancy the tremendous change that had occurred in his life since he
+left New York, his birthplace and the home of his family for two hundred
+years. Instead of lounging in clubs and his luxurious apartment he would
+now go skulking through the streets with a master crook, and his
+imagination was already intent upon the character of the lair to which
+the Governor would guide him. He still swayed between the joys of his
+mad adventure and its perils. He might, he knew, bid the Governor
+good-by at the Grand Central Station, step into a taxi and walk into the
+door of one or another of his clubs and bid the world defiance. The
+serenity of his life as known to his friends would be a sufficient
+refutation of any charge that might be made against him. No one would
+believe the mysterious Governor if he were to declare on oath that
+Archibald Bennett was a criminal who had left a scarlet trail across
+three states.
+
+It would be an interesting experiment to defy the Governor; but he
+dismissed this as foolish and hazardous. The Governor had a long arm,
+and having trifled with his good nature at the Walkers' it would
+certainly be ungracious and in all likelihood disastrous to offend him a
+second time. But the Governor's fantastic talk about the joining of
+their stars in the west had touched his imagination. With all his
+absurdities, and strange and unaccountable as he was, the Governor did
+make good his promises. If he wasn't in league with occult powers he at
+least possessed a baffling sort of prescience; and what was more to the
+point he had apparently reduced to a fine art the business of keeping
+clear of the authorities. If he could escape from the Governor it would
+be to take up his old eventless life, with a recrudescence no doubt of
+the ills that had so long beset him; and he had utterly forgotten that
+he had ever been an invalid. He grinned as he reflected that he had been
+obliged to shoot a man to find a cure for his nerves.
+
+As the train drew out of New Haven the Governor, seemingly absorbed in a
+magazine, covertly kicked him. A man passed slowly through the car,
+carelessly eyeing the passengers. When he reached Archie's chair he
+paused as though steadying himself against the swaying train. For a
+moment he clung to the back of the Governor's chair, which was turned
+toward the window, and his eyes surveyed the luggage piled under the
+windows. The Governor swung round presently and remarked indifferently
+without changing his position:
+
+"Rawlings, the best man they have in the Department now. He's looking
+for some one but let us hope it's not us. A very keen eye has Rawlings.
+Not one of these sleuths in a black derby and false mustache you see in
+the movies, but a gentleman and a man of education. He's probably
+looking for that teller who cut a slice out of the surplus of a
+Massachusetts bank last week. It's not our trouble, Archie. Embezzlers
+and defaulters are not to my taste; we rather look down on that breed in
+the brotherhood. A low order of talent; no brains; they're not in our
+class."
+
+"But it isn't necessary to advertise our sins to the whole train!"
+whispered Archie, eyeing apprehensively their nearest neighbors in the
+crowded car. "You haven't convinced me yet that we're not making a
+serious blunder."
+
+"Cease grumbling! If we wanted to play safe we'd both enter some home
+for aged and decrepit men and sit among the halt and blind and toothless
+until we became even as they. Rawlings' defaulter is encumbered, most
+disgracefully, with the usual blonde, in this case the lily-handed
+cashier in a motion picture shop; and a man of Rawlings' intelligence
+would know at a glance that we are not villains of that breed. I
+haven't traveled by this route for some time and I mean to keep awake to
+enjoy the pleasant view. My historical sense is always tickled as I cut
+across Rhode Island and contemplate the state house at Providence. If we
+were not really upon business bent we might have run down to
+Narragansett Pier or even to Newport for a breath of air. Newport!
+Newport is adorable! I am far from being a snob, Archie, but Newport is
+really the loveliest place in America. I grant you that Bar Harbor has
+its points and even Bailey Harbor is not so bad--do pardon me, Archie! I
+forgot for the moment your unhappy memories of that place--but Newport
+alone is perfection gone to heaven! It would please me enormously to
+join you in a little excursion to Newport, by yacht preferably; but if
+it leaked out that we had been flying so high it would injure us with
+the simple-hearted comrades of the great brotherhood. You can imagine
+what a man like Red Leary would say if he knew we were dining at tables
+where the jewels run into millions. And your young friend Abijah, alias
+Pete Barney, would certainly cut our acquaintance if we failed to take
+advantage of such glorious opportunities."
+
+"How are you going to know whether we're watched?" asked Archie in a
+frightened whisper when "Forty-second Street" flashed at him from the
+wall of the tunnel.
+
+"In a few minutes we'll know the worst," replied the Governor blandly.
+"I beg of you be confident, be assured, be cheerful!"
+
+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. Have an eye to Mr. Comly's bag; he's stopping with
+me."
+
+Archie dragged himself into a handsome limousine that was brought to the
+curb by a chauffeur as impeccably tailored as the footman.
+
+"Well, George, how are things with you?" asked the Governor pleasantly.
+
+"Very good, sir; things running very smoothly, sir."
+
+"Drive directly home, please.
+
+"We may wander to our hearts' content, Archie, but there's no place like
+home, particularly when it's little old New York," remarked the
+Governor, sinking back contentedly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+I
+
+
+The car crossed to the Avenue and bore north. Archie was again left high
+in air. He had expected to be piloted by circuitous routes to some vile
+thieves' den in the intricate mazes of the East Side, but the car and
+the smartly appareled men encouraged the hope of a very different
+destination. The Governor, evidently enjoying his companion's
+befuddlement, talked of the changes that had taken place in the upper
+city in his memory. His reminiscences did not interest Archie greatly.
+He thought it likely the Governor was uttering commonplaces for the
+benefit of the men on the box, who could easily hear their passengers'
+conversation through the partition windows. The car passed two clubs in
+which Archie was a member in good standing and he caught a fleeting
+glimpse down an intersecting thoroughfare of the apartment house in
+which he was a tenant with a recurrence of the disagreeable questionings
+he had experienced so frequently as to whether he was himself or some
+other and very different person.
+
+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 streets, and the car,
+swinging east, stopped midway of a block of handsome residences. There
+was 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 distinguished in sight. The door was
+opened by a manservant, whose face expressed 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
+understand, Baring, that we dine at seven-thirty--places for three?"
+
+"Very good, sir: I received your telegram."
+
+Amid the various phases of surprise through which he had passed since
+reaching the station Archie had kept his ears open, thinking the
+servants would address their employer by a name, but no such clue was
+forthcoming. The house exhaled an atmosphere of luxury and taste, and
+the furnishings were rich and consistently chosen. Archie recalled
+twenty houses in which he was frequently a guest that in nowise
+approached the Governor's establishment for comfort and charm. If he had
+been puzzled before he was stupefied now. The enormous effrontery of the
+thing overwhelmed him. He knew the general neighborhood too well not to
+be sure that it was not a region where a housebreaker of even the most
+exalted rank could live unchallenged. To be sure this was summer, and
+most of the houses along the street were boarded up; but the Governor
+would certainly not be invading in broad daylight premises to which he
+had no claim, and the retinue of trained and decorous servants disposed
+effectually of any such speculations.
+
+On the second floor the Governor lingered in the drawing-room to call
+his guest's attention to some pictures, contemporary American work,
+which Archie recognized instantly. Indeed he knew several of the
+painters very well.
+
+"We must encourage our own artists," remarked the Governor. "It's the
+only way we shall ever develop an American art."
+
+Continuing up another flight (there was an elevator, the Governor
+explained, but he preferred the stairs) Archie surveyed approvingly a
+lounging room, half library and half office.
+
+"If you have a taste for old leather there's stuff here that will please
+you. No rubbish, you see; a man's room, a little quaint as to furniture,
+and the telephone and electric fan are the only anachronisms, a
+concession to the spirit of modern life. Here I have worked out some
+most abstruse problems in astrology. A capital place to ponder the
+mysteries. If anything on that tray interests you, help yourself."
+
+Archie tottered toward the stand on which decanters, syphons, and a
+silver bowl of ice had been placed. He helped himself generously to
+Scotch; the Governor contented himself with a glass of mineral water--he
+never took anything else, he explained.
+
+"Odd, but I've never used the stuff at all. Bless you, no fanatical
+notions on the subject! If you don't see what you like there just press
+a button and it will probably be found for you. And now, my dear
+Archie"--he closed the door and turned on the fan--"you are my guest, in
+every sense my guest. You wouldn't be human if you didn't wonder about
+me rather more than at any time since we first met; you had not the
+slightest idea that I should bring you to so decent a shack as this. It
+may have occurred to you that I may be an interloper here, but such is
+not the case. I own this house and the ground it stands on and
+everything in it. You are, of course, not a prisoner; not in any sense,
+and there's a telephone in your room--you shall see in a moment--by
+which you can talk to all the world quite freely,--no restrictions
+whatsoever.
+
+"My name is not Saulsbury, of course, but something quite different. The
+servants in this house do not know my true name. They might, of course,
+work it out, for I pay taxes here, and my family history is spread in
+the public records, but the people you see about here are trained to
+curb their curiosity; I trust them just as I trust you. They are all
+from under the crust,--the man who met us at the station is a daring
+housebreaker; the chauffeur a second-story man, the only one I ever knew
+who had the slightest judgment; the butler is a hotel thief, and a
+shrewd operator until he got too corpulent for transom work. 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 doing,
+invest their ill-gotten gains in some legitimate business. When Baring
+offers you the asparagus or serves your coffee you may derive a thrill
+from the knowledge that the man at your elbow has enough rewards hanging
+over him to make any one rich who can telephone his whereabouts to
+police headquarters 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 everywhere."
+
+Archie wiped the perspiration from his face and groped for the decanter.
+
+"You're not afraid--not afraid of _them_!"
+
+"Ingratitude, my dear Archie, is reserved for the highbrow moralist; I
+trust these people with my life and liberty, and they know I'll not only
+protect them but that my facilities for shielding them and assisting in
+the liquidation of their loot is theirs to command. While they are here
+their lives are wholly circumspect, though they are not without their
+temptations. With a place like this to operate from they could raid this
+whole block and back vans up to my door and cart it away. Officious
+caretakers and hidden wires connected with detective agencies would only
+stimulate their wits. But nothing doing, Archie! A policeman on this
+beat suggested to Baring, over a bottle of beer in the basement, the
+lifting of plate in a house round the corner, but what did Baring do but
+show the fellow the door! And yet Baring has stolen thousands of
+dollars' worth of stuff of all kinds and has it well planted waiting for
+me to turn it into cash. By the way, you saw the chap who brought in the
+tray? You probably noticed his melancholy air? I had just told him of
+Hoky's death and he's all broken up. He and Hoky ranged the Missouri
+River towns a few years ago and the police out there are still trying to
+explain their plunderings."
+
+"I suppose, I suppose," Archie timidly ventured, "you've told them about
+_me_?"
+
+"Not a word! They'd be jealous: wouldn't understand how I made you a
+guest when all the rest of 'em have to work for a living. You will act
+exactly as though you were a visitor in the house of an old friend. And
+now I must go through this mail--I've got a chap who collects my stuff
+from some of the unofficial post-offices up-state and here it is all
+ready for inspection. The first room to the right is yours.
+
+"A few pretty good pastels stuck around here," he continued, opening a
+door. "That 'Moonrise on the Grand Lagoon' is rather well done.
+Everything seems to be in order; if you want your clothes pressed poke
+the button twice."
+
+Archie snapped his fingers impatiently. When he went to Washington to
+say good-by to his sister he had ordered a trunk packed with the major
+portion of his wardrobe and held for orders. How to possess himself of
+the trunk without disclosing his presence in town to the valet of the
+Dowden Apartments was beyond his powers.
+
+"If you have something tucked away that you'd like to get hold of--"
+suggested the Governor with one of his intuitive flashes.
+
+"It's a trunk at my--er--lodgings. A man who works there packed it for
+me--"
+
+"Why don't you come out with it and say that the syndicate valet in one
+of these palatial bachelor chambers somewhere uptown packed it for you?
+I can tell a man who's been valeted as far as my eyes will reach. Now I
+have no curiosity whatever about your personal identity or affairs of
+any sort, as I've told you before. I'll ring for my own valet, who was
+an honest tailor before he became a successful second-story worker, and
+you may confide your predicament to him. He'll ride home on the trunk.
+There was never yet a valet who wouldn't steal the trousers off a bronze
+statue, and I'll lift the ban on crooked work here long enough for
+Timmons to call at your lodgings and either by violence or corruption
+secure your trunk. No! Not a cent. Remember that you are my guest."
+
+The trunk was in Archie's room in just one hour. Timmons, who had
+received his instructions without the slightest emotion, gravely
+unpacked it.
+
+"You've got to admit the service in 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. He had assumed, when the
+Governor reminded Baring that dinner was to be served for three, that he
+was to be introduced to some prominent member of what the Governor was
+fond of calling the great fraternity. But the threatened projection of a
+woman into the household struck Archie unfavorably. The Governor's tale
+of his love affair with a bishop's daughter he had discounted heavily;
+it was hardly possible that any respectable woman would dine in the
+house. The Governor, with his usual quick perception, noted his
+companion's displeasure.
+
+"Your qualms and your concern for the proprieties are creditable to your
+up-bringing. But how ungenerous of you to suspect me of wishing to mix
+you up with anything even remotely bordering upon an intrigue, a vulgar
+liaison! One thing I am not, my boy; one thing I may, with a degree of
+assurance, say for myself, and that is that with all my sins I am not
+vulgar!"
+
+"Of course I didn't mean that," said Archie clumsily, knowing that this
+was exactly what he had meant. "But I thought you might be--er--more
+comfortable if I didn't appear."
+
+"The suspicion had sunk deep! But once more I shall forgive you. Your
+presence will help me tide over a difficult situation. I am not only
+showing you once more the depth of my confidence and trust but, more
+than that, I pay you the compliment of asking your assistance. You bear
+yourself so like a gentleman that your presence at my table can hardly
+fail to reassure the lady and contribute to her own ease and peace of
+mind. And without you we might quarrel horribly. You will act as a
+buffer, a restraining influence; your charming manners will mitigate the
+violence of her resentment against me. The lady--"
+
+Archie waited for what further he might have to say about the lady. The
+Governor had grown suddenly grave. He crossed the room, stared at the
+floor for a moment, and then said from the door:
+
+"The lady, my dear boy, is my sister."
+
+
+II
+
+The Governor maintained so evenly his mood of irresponsible insouciance
+that the soberness with which he announced that it was his sister who
+was to join them at dinner sent Archie's thoughts darting away at a new
+tangent of speculation. He had so accommodated himself to the idea that
+the Governor was a man without ties, or with all his ties broken, that
+this intimation that he had a sister who was still on friendly enough
+terms with him to visit his house--an establishment which with all its
+conventionalities of comfort and luxury was dominated by a note of
+mystery--left Archie floundering. As the man himself had said, it would
+not be so difficult a matter to penetrate the secret of his identity.
+Archie knew several men in town who were veritable encyclopedias of the
+scandal of three generations, and if the scion of some old New York
+house had gone astray these gentlemen could furnish all the essential
+data. But he had given his word and he had no intention of prying into
+his friend's affairs. However, the sister might let fall some clue, and
+as he dressed he tried to imagine just what sort of woman the Governor's
+sister would prove to be.
+
+"Julia is usually very prompt but she is motoring from Southampton and
+we must allow her the usual margin," the Governor remarked when they met
+in the drawing-room. Traces of the same nervousness he had manifested in
+announcing that it was his sister who was coming to dine with them were
+still visible.
+
+The clock had struck the three-quarters when they heard the annunciator
+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 without your hat?"
+
+"No, I'll keep it; thanks!"
+
+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 than the Governor and carried herself with a suggestion of
+his authoritative bearing. Her face 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 picture hat.
+She might have been younger or older than the Governor, but her maturity
+was not an affair of years. She was a person of distinction, a woman to
+challenge attention in any company. Archie was not sure whether she had
+been warned of a stranger's presence in the house, but if she was
+surprised to find him there she made no sign.
+
+As Archie advanced to meet them he moved slowly, and unconsciously drew
+himself up, as though preparing to meet a personage who compelled homage
+and was not to be approached without a degree of ceremony. She was
+entirely in black save for the roses in her hat. She might have retained
+the hat, he thought, for the sake of its shadow on her face; or from a
+sense that it emphasized the formal and transitory nature of her visit.
+
+"Julia, this is my friend, Mr. Comly."
+
+Her "very glad, I'm sure," was uttered with reservations, but she
+smiled, a quick sad little smile.
+
+The Governor had introduced her as Julia, carelessly, as though of
+course Archie knew the rest of it. The whole business was as utterly
+unreal as anything could be. The Governor asked perfunctorily about her
+drive into town, and whether it had been hot in the country. Dinner was
+announced immediately and they sat down at a round table whose
+centerpiece of sweet peas brought a coolness into the room.
+
+The dinner was served with a deliberation befitting the end of a summer
+day. Julia was the most tranquil of the trio and it was in Archie's mind
+that she was capable of dominating even more difficult situations. She
+was studying him--he was conscious of that--and it was clear that she
+was not finding it easy to appraise and place him. The Governor had
+given him no hint of the possible trend of the table talk but the woman
+took the matter into her own hands. As though by prearrangement she
+touched upon wholly impersonal matters, recent movements in European
+affairs, a new novel, the industrial situation; things that could be
+broached without fear of embarrassment were picked up and flung aside
+when they had served their purpose. The Governor was often inattentive,
+the most uncomfortable member of the trio. It seemed to Archie as he met
+a puzzled look in Julia's eyes from time to time that she was still
+trying to account for him, and her manner he thought slowly changed. Her
+first defensive hostility yielded to something much more amiable. It was
+as though she had reached a decision not wholly unflattering and might
+be a little sorry for her earlier attitude.
+
+The Governor roused himself presently at the mention of a new book of
+verse she had praised, and threw himself into the talk thereafter with
+characteristic spirit and humor.
+
+"Mr. Comly shares my affection for the poets. He has been a great
+resource to me, Julia. I'm sure you'd be grateful to him if you knew the
+extent of his kindnesses. A new friend, but it's not always the old
+ones, you know--"
+
+"My brother is hard to please," said Julia. "You score high in meeting
+his exacting requirements."
+
+A slight smile dulled the irony of this, but the Governor, evidently
+concerned for the maintenance of amity, introduced the art of the
+Aztecs, to which he brought his usual enthusiasm.
+
+The Aztecs carried them back to the drawing-room, where Archie, feeling
+that the Governor and his sister probably had personal affairs to talk
+about, lounged toward the door; but the Governor was quick to detect his
+purpose.
+
+"Julia, if you brought those documents with you I'll take them up to my
+room and look them over. It's only a matter of my signature, isn't it?
+You and Mr. Comly can give the final twist to prehistoric art. I'll be
+down at once."
+
+"Very well; you will find them in my bag in the hall. I must start home
+very soon, you know."
+
+"I had hoped you would spend the night here," said the Governor; "but if
+you won't I'm grateful even for this little glimpse."
+
+If Julia was displeased by the Governor's very evident intention not to
+be left alone with her she was at pains to conceal the feeling. Archie
+turned toward her inquiringly, but he met a look of acquiescence that
+carried also an appeal as though she wished him not to interfere.
+
+The Governor left the room and reappeared with a small satchel, took out
+several bundles of legal papers and glanced at their superscriptions.
+
+"Those are chiefly deeds and leases," Julia remarked carelessly.
+"They're all ready to be signed by the trustees. There are forms for our
+approval attached to all of them and you'll find that I've signed."
+
+The Governor shrugged his shoulders as though business matters were not
+to his taste and in a moment they heard his quick step on the stair.
+
+The novelty of the situation that left Archie alone with a woman whose
+very name he did not know was enhanced by the sumptuousness of the
+background furnished by the house itself. It was the oddest possible
+place for such an adventure. Julia sat with one arm flung along the back
+of a low chair. She fell naturally into poses that suggested portraits;
+there were painters who would have jumped at the chance of sketching her
+as she sat there with the spot of red in the big hat and the shadowed
+face and the white of her throat and arms relieving the long black line.
+
+"It is no doubt clear to you," she remarked without altering her
+position and with no lowering of the habitual tone of her speech, "that
+my brother prefers not to be alone with me."
+
+"I rather surmised that," Archie replied with an ease he did not feel.
+She might ask questions; it might be that she would cross-examine him as
+to the Governor's recent movements. 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 to be
+confidential. 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 dining-room. He nodded reassuringly and she
+indicated a seat a little nearer than the one he had left.
+
+"Please don't be alarmed, but it's a singular fact that I know you; we
+met once, passingly, at a tea in Cambridge; 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." Archie didn't remember; he had attended many teas at
+Cambridge during commencement festivities and had always hated them. "It
+was not until we were at the table that I placed you tonight. I'm
+telling you this," she went on, "not to disturb you but to let you know
+that I'm relieved, 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. I want you to promise to
+be kind to him, and to protect him so far as possible. I only know
+vaguely--I am afraid to surmise--how he spends his time; this is my
+first glimpse of him in a year, and for half a dozen years I have met
+him only in some such way as this. You have probably questioned his
+sanity; that would be only natural, but there is no such excuse for him.
+Once something very cruel happened to him; something that greatly
+embittered 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. She was superb, and he had listened with a shame deepened by the
+consciousness that, remembering him from a chance meeting, she
+attributed to him an honor and decency he had relinquished, it seemed
+to him, in some state of existence before the dawn of time. What she
+knew or did not know about her brother was not of importance; it was the
+assumption that he was capable of exercising an influence upon the man,
+protecting and saving him from himself that hurt, hurt with all the
+poignancy of physical pain. She did not dream that she had got the whole
+thing upside-down; that if the Governor was a social pariah he himself
+was no whit better, and had thrown himself upon the Governor's mercy.
+
+"I shall do what I can," he said. "You can see that I am very fond of
+him; he has been enormously kind to me."
+
+She gave little heed to this, though she nodded her head slowly as
+though she had counted upon his promise.
+
+"You probably know that with all his oddities and whimsicalities he has
+some theory of life that doesn't belong to our day. It may help you to
+know that there's a crisis approaching in his affairs. He has hinted at
+it for several years; it's a part of the mystery in which he wraps
+himself; but I never know quite how to take him. He wears a smiling
+mask. Please understand that it is because I love him so much that I am
+saying these things to you; that and because I know I can trust you. You
+are remaining with him, I hope--"
+
+"Yes; we plan to be together for some time."
+
+"If anything should happen to him I should like to know." She paused a
+moment. "It was distinctly understood between us when he called me by
+telephone this morning that I was not to hint in any way as to his
+identity, or mine for that matter, and I shall not break faith with him.
+He would be greatly displeased if he knew what I have said to you; but I
+resolved after I had been in the house half an hour that I could count
+on your aid. We have but a moment more."
+
+She mused a moment and then with quick decision stepped to a writing
+table, snatched a sheet of paper and wrote rapidly, while he filled in
+the interval by talking of irrelevant things to guard against the chance
+that the Governor might be on his way down and would note their silence.
+
+She thrust the sheet into an envelope and sealed it.
+
+"I trust you completely," she said, lingering with, a smile upon the
+last word. "I shall be at that address until the first of October. You
+can wire me in any emergency."
+
+When the Governor reappeared they were seemingly in the midst of a
+leisurely discussion of the drama.
+
+"Back into the bag they go," said the Governor. "Everything's all right,
+Julia. I checked up the items with my inventory and am entirely
+satisfied. I'm delighted that you two get on so well together; but I
+knew you would hit it off. Mr. Comly has been most kind and considerate,
+Julia. In my long pilgrimage I have never before met a man so much to my
+taste. The Wandering Jew and the Flying Dutchman had no such luck. Sweet
+it is to wander with a good comrade, taking no care for the morrow, but
+letting every day suffice unto itself."
+
+He walked to a grand piano at the end of the room, sat down and began to
+play.
+
+Surprise was dead in Archie where the Governor was concerned; he could
+only marvel at the ease and finish with which the man made the room
+vibrate with the most exquisite melodies of Schumann, Chopin, MacDowell.
+He played for half an hour without airs or affectations, things that
+bruised and hurt the spirit by their very tenderness and wistfulness.
+
+"It's as though some one had been flinging handfuls of rose leaves into
+the room," said Julia softly when the last chords had died away.
+
+The music had at least served the purpose of dispersing any unhappy
+hovering ghosts, and she was quick to seize the moment as a propitious
+one for her departure. The Governor did not demur when she asked him to
+see if her car was waiting.
+
+"You are not afraid to drive out alone? I should be glad, you know, to
+make the run with you."
+
+"Not in the least afraid," she answered lightly.
+
+Fear, Archie thought, was not a thing one would associate with her. The
+Governor brought her coat, a long garment that covered her completely.
+She produced from the bag a cap which she substituted for the hat and
+Archie had thus his first view of her handsome head and abundant dark
+hair and her face freed of the baffling shadow.
+
+In carrying her wrap into the room the Governor had frustrated any hope
+she may have had for a private word with him; but she betrayed no
+resentment.
+
+"It's really much nicer changing indoors," she laughed, standing before
+a mirror to adjust the cap. "Coming in I shifted my headgear just before
+we reached town. Behold me now, a woman transformed!"
+
+The Governor plucked Archie's sleeve as a sign that he was not to drop
+back and she walked to the car between them.
+
+With a smile and a wave of the hand she was gone and they stood at the
+curb looking after her until the limousine was out of sight.
+
+"Thank you, lad," said the Governor quietly.
+
+They went up to his den, where they smoked for some time in silence. The
+Governor seemed to be gathering himself together after the strain of the
+three difficult hours and when he spoke finally it was with a deep sigh.
+
+"Well, Archie, we must bear ourselves as men in all our perplexities. We
+are put into this world for a purpose, every chick of us, and there's no
+use kicking the shins of the high gods. I feel a leading; there's
+something pulling us both; unseen powers knocking us about. Tomorrow I
+shall be engaged most of the day; there are some of the brotherhood to
+meet and it must be managed with caution. I suggest that you stretch
+your legs in the park and feed the swans as a tranquilizer. Soon we
+shall be abroad on the eternal quest. The quest for what, I see written
+in your eyes! For peace, Archie; for happiness! It may be nearer than we
+think--there's always that to tie our hopes to!"
+
+"It would be possible, I suppose," said Archie slowly, "for us to cut it
+all out, settle back into our old places--"
+
+"Never!" cried the Governor., "I tell you we've got to complete the
+circle! If we stop now we're ruined, both of us! We've got to go right
+on. I know what's the matter with you; it's that dear sister of mine who
+has wakened in you all manner of regrets and yearnings for your old
+life. Ah, she couldn't fail to affect you that way; she's so wholly the
+real thing! Seeing her probably made you homesick for your Isabel.
+There! I thought you would jump! And maybe you think I haven't been
+troubled in the same way about my little affair! There would be
+something fundamentally wrong with us, lad, if we didn't feel, when we
+stood before a beautiful noble woman, as though we were in a divine
+presence. That's the test, Archie; so long as we are sensible of that
+feeling there's some hope for us in this world and the next."
+
+
+III
+
+Archie learned from Baring, who brought up his breakfast, that the
+Governor had left the house.
+
+"It was our orders to take good care of you, sir; if there's any way we
+can serve you--"
+
+"A morning paper; that will be all, thank you. I shall be going out
+presently."
+
+"Very good, sir. The master thought it likely you would spend the day
+out. He will hardly be in himself before six."
+
+Here again was an opportunity to abandon the Governor, but keen now for
+new experiences and sensations, Archie dismissed the idea. The appeal of
+the Governor's sister had imposed a new burden upon him, and the
+Governor's voluble prattle about fate and the inevitable drawing of
+destiny had impressed him. He could depart for Banff and take the chance
+of never being molested for any of his crimes, but to do this would be
+cowardice, just that fear of his fate that Isabel had twitted him
+about.
+
+He chose a stick with care from a rack at the front door, walked to the
+Avenue and turned determinedly cityward, walking jauntily. Beyond
+Forty-second Street he passed several acquaintances, who nodded, just as
+the Governor had predicted, little dreaming that he was a reckless
+criminal, a man with an _alias_ and a fortnight's record that would make
+a lively story for the newspapers.
+
+He was rather disappointed that no one followed him, no hand was clapped
+on his shoulder. He reached Madison Square unwearied, wondering whether
+the obliteration of his moral sense had destroyed also his old fears
+about his health. He climbed to the front seat of a bus and rode up the
+Avenue, a conspicuous figure.
+
+He grinned as he saw seated in the upper window of the most conservative
+of all his clubs one of his several prosperous uncles, an old gentleman
+who for years was to be found in that same spot at this same hour of the
+day.
+
+Having sufficiently exposed himself to the eyes of the world he
+determined to eat luncheon in the park restaurant. His appetite demanded
+an amount of food that he would have been incapable of consuming a month
+earlier, and having given his order he surveyed the pavilion tranquilly.
+Women and children were the chief patrons, with a sprinkling of
+sightseers resting from their contemplation of the city's wonders.
+
+He watched idly a young woman with two children who occupied a table
+directly in his line of vision. He was sure she was their mother, and
+not a governess; she was smartly dressed, and her manner with the
+youngsters was charming. She occasionally glanced about nervously, and
+he detected several times a troubled look in her face. The children
+chattered gaily, but it was evidently with an effort that she answered
+their questions or entered into their talk. Children always interested
+him, and the boy was a handsome little fellow, but it was the girl who
+held Archie's attention, first as the embodiment of the beauty and
+innocence of youth, and then with a perplexed sense that he had seen her
+before. She suddenly turned toward him, her fair curls tumbling about
+her shoulders, and glanced idly across the pavilion. The fine oval face,
+the eyes dancing with merriment at something her brother had directed
+her attention to, sent his thoughts flying to Bailey Harbor. As though
+consciously aiding his memory, she fell into the relaxed pose so happily
+caught by the photograph, with the same childish archness and
+captivating smile.
+
+Their luncheon had just been served and he continued to inspect them
+with a deepening conviction that the woman was Mrs. Congdon and these
+the children mentioned in the telegram he had found tucked under the
+plate of the Bailey Harbor house. The resemblance between the young
+woman and the child with the roguish smile was unmistakable. She might
+on occasion present the same smiling countenance, though in unguarded
+moments a tense, worried look came into her face, and she continued her
+anxious survey of her neighbors.
+
+It was a dispiriting thought that there under his eyes, so close that
+the babble of the children occasionally reached him across the
+intervening tables, was the family of the man he had shot.
+
+Their ignorance of that dark transaction gave him little comfort, nor
+was there any extenuation of his sin in the fact that the wife had fled
+to escape from her husband's brutality. He tried to console himself with
+the reflection that the thing had a ludicrous side. He might walk over
+to Mrs. Congdon and say: "Pardon me, madam, but it may interest you to
+know that I shot your husband at Bailey Harbor and you have nothing
+further to fear from him. I am unable to state at the moment whether the
+wound was a mortal one, but from my knowledge of your family affairs I
+judge that you would hardly be grieved if you never saw him again."
+
+He was shocked at his own levity. The thing was not in any aspect a
+laughing matter. Amid other experiences he had freed himself for a few
+days of the thought of Putney Congdon lying dead in a lonely cleft of
+the Maine rocks, but meeting the man's family in this fashion was almost
+as disconcerting as a visit from Congdon's ghost.
+
+The Congdons had eaten their meal hurriedly and were already paying
+their check. He watched them move away toward the interior of the park,
+marked their direction and chose a parallel course with a view to
+keeping them in sight.
+
+Occasionally he caught glimpses of the children dancing ahead of their
+mother. The remote paths she chose for the ramble confirmed his
+suspicion that she was on guard against the threatened seizure of the
+youngsters by their father, and having been driven from Bailey Harbor
+was now in town to formulate her plans for the future, or perhaps only
+whiling away the hours until she could escape to some other place in the
+country. Unable to argue himself out of a feeling that Mrs. Congdon's
+troubles were no affair of his he was beset by the fear that he might be
+doomed for the rest of his life to follow them, to view them from afar
+off, never speaking to them, but led on by the guilty knowledge that he
+was a dark factor in their lives.
+
+He became so engrossed that he lost track of them for a time; then a
+turn of the path brought him close upon them. Mrs. Congdon was sitting
+on a bench under a big elm and the children were joyously romping on the
+lawn in front of her, playing with a toy balloon to which a bit of bark
+had been fastened. They would toss it in the air and jump and catch it
+while the weight prevented its escape. A gust of wind caught it as
+Archie passed and drove it across his path, while the children with
+screams of glee pursued it. The string caught under his hat brim and he
+seized it just as the girl, outdistancing her brother, plunged into him.
+
+"Edith!" called the mother, rising quickly. "Children, you mustn't go
+into the path. There's plenty of room here for you to play."
+
+"The wind was a little too much for you that time!" laughed Archie, as
+the children, panting from their run, waited for the restoration of
+their plaything. He measured the buoyancy of the balloon against the
+ballast, and let go of it with a little toss that seemed to free it,
+then he sprang up and caught it amid their excited cries.
+
+The little girl curtsied as he put the string in her hand.
+
+"Thank you very much!" they chorused.
+
+Mrs. Congdon had walked a little way toward the path but now that the
+children were again scampering over the lawn she paused and made a
+slight, the slightest, inclination of the head as Archie lifted his hat
+and continued on his way.
+
+Edith was the name used in the telegram he had found in the Bailey
+Harbor house, and this coupled with his closer view of the child
+disposed of Archie's last hope that after all it might not be Mrs.
+Congdon and her children he had stumbled upon. She had no business to
+throw herself across his path, he fumed. The appearance of Putney
+Congdon's father at Cornford had shaken him sufficiently, but that he
+should be haunted by the man's wife and children angered him. He wanted
+to fly from the park and hide himself again in his room at the
+Governor's house, but he was without will to leave. The decent thing for
+him to do was to take the first train for Bailey, and begin diligent
+search for Putney Congdon, dead or alive. He had no right to assume that
+the man's serious injury or death would be any consolation to the wife
+and children. And the quarrel between husband and wife might have been
+only a tiff, something that would have been adjusted without further
+bitterness but for his interference. There was no joy in the fate that
+kept continually bringing his crime to his attention. Thoroughly
+miserable, he threw himself upon a bench and lapsed into gloomy
+meditations. The light-hearted laughter of the children--Putney
+Congdon's children--was borne to him fitfully to add to his
+discomfiture, but he was held to the spot. There was something weirdly
+fascinating in their propinquity, and in the thought that he alone of
+all men on earth could ever tell them just what had happened in their
+house when their father went there to search for them.
+
+He sat half an hour pensively, noting an occasional pedestrian or the
+flash of a motor that rolled through the unfrequented driveway. But for
+the hum of the cars the deep calm of a June afternoon lay upon the
+landscape.
+
+Then a piercing scream, the shrill cry of a child in terror, brought him
+to his feet.
+
+"Help! Help! Oh, Edith! _Edith!_"
+
+The cries sent him at a run toward the place in which he had left the
+Congdons.
+
+Rounding a curve in the path he saw a man rushing down the road with
+Edith in his arms. The mother was racing after him, while the little boy
+lay wailing where he had fallen in his frantic effort to follow. In the
+distance stood a car, with a woman waiting beside the open door.
+
+Archie redoubled his pace, passed Mrs. Congdon and gained the car as the
+man with the child in his arms jumped into it. The woman, who had
+evidently been acting as watcher, stumbled as she attempted to spring in
+after them and delayed flight for an instant. The door slammed viciously
+on Archie's arm as he landed on the running board. The car was moving
+rapidly and a man's voice bade the driver hurry. Within the child's
+screams were suddenly stifled, the door swung open for an instant and a
+blow, delivered full in the face, sent Archie reeling into the road.
+
+When he gained his feet Mrs. Congdon stood beside him moaning and
+wringing her hands. A mounted policeman rode upon the scene, listened
+for an instant to Archie's explanations and, sounding his whistle, set
+off after the car at a gallop. A dozen of the park police were on the
+spot immediately, followed by a crowd of excited spectators. Mrs.
+Congdon had fainted and several women were ministering to her. The
+little boy, sobbing plaintively, tried to answer the questions of the
+sergeant who took charge and despatched men in every direction to search
+for the kidnapers and send the alarm through the city.
+
+Archie's nose bled from the rap in the face and his back ached where he
+had struck the earth. The sergeant plied him with questions which he
+answered carefully, knowing that in all the circumstances of his having
+loitered in the vicinity he might not unnaturally be suspected of
+complicity. When his name was asked, he answered promptly.
+
+"John B. Wright, Boston; stopping at the Hotel Ganymede."
+
+"Business?"
+
+"Broker, Nanonet Building, Boston."
+
+These items officially written down, he described truthfully how he had
+first seen the woman and her children in the pavilion, the subsequent
+walk, and the episode of the balloon. He pointed out just where he had
+been sitting when the screams attracted his attention.
+
+"This is a serious case and you will be wanted as a witness," said the
+officer. "You didn't know these people--never saw them before?"
+
+"No. I had come to the park to kill time until four o'clock, when I have
+an engagement at the Plaza Hotel."
+
+The officer noted carefully his description of the woman who had
+assisted in the kidnaping and such meager facts as he was able to give
+as to the man who had carried off the little girl under the very eyes
+of her mother.
+
+The sergeant glanced at Archie's ruddy handkerchief and grinned.
+
+"Guess that let's you out! You didn't get the number of the taxi? That
+would help a little."
+
+"There wasn't time for that. I was trying to hang on till help came, but
+this smash in the face spoiled that."
+
+To the jostling crowd anxious to hear his story Archie was a hero, or
+very nearly one. He heard their murmurs of admiration as he described
+the manner in which he had attempted to board the car. There were
+enormous hazards in the whole situation and every consideration of
+personal security demanded that he leave the park at once, but Mrs.
+Congdon was now recovering, and he was reluctant to abandon her and the
+frightened boy to the mercies of the park police and staring spectators.
+
+She had recovered sufficiently to tell her story, and to Archie's relief
+corroborated his own version in a manner to dispose of any question as
+to his innocence.
+
+The woman's composure struck Archie as remarkable and her replies to the
+officer's questions were brief and exact. Several times she appealed to
+him for confirmation on some point, and he edged closer and stood beside
+her defensively. Her inquisitor had neglected to ask her name and
+address in his eagerness for information as to the appearance of the
+kidnapers. Her reply gave Archie a distinct shock.
+
+"Mrs. George W. Kendall, 117 E. Corning Street, Brooklyn."
+
+"Have you been threatened in any way? Have you any enemy who might have
+attempted to steal the child?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind. I brought the children to the park just for an
+outing and with no thought that anything so horrible could happen."
+
+It was incredible that any one could lie with so convincing an air. He
+was satisfied that she was Mrs. Putney Congdon, and that the child she
+had called Edith was the original of the photograph he had seen at
+Bailey Harbor. And the stealing of the child was in itself but the
+actual carrying out of her husband's threat. He knew far too much about
+the Congdons for his own peace of mind, but he was unwilling to desert
+her in her perplexities. When the owners of several machines offered to
+take her home, she glanced about uncertainly and her eyes falling upon
+him seemed to invite his assistance.
+
+"Pardon me, but if I can serve you in any way--"
+
+"Thank you," she said with relief. "I must get away from this; it's
+unbearable."
+
+He put her and the boy into a taxi, whose driver had been early on the
+scene, and drove away with them, with a final promise to the sergeant to
+report later at the park station.
+
+"Brooklyn!" he ordered.
+
+For a few minutes she was busy comforting the child and Archie deep in
+thought turned to meet the searching gaze of her gray eyes.
+
+"You are a gentleman; I am sure of that; and I feel that I can trust
+you."
+
+That the wife of a man he had tried to kill and possibly had slain
+should be paving the way for confidences, gave him a bewildered sense of
+being whisked through some undiscovered country where the impossible
+had become the real.
+
+"I'm in a strange predicament, and I'm forced to ask your help. The name
+and address I gave the police were fictitious. I know it has a queer
+look; but I had to do it. I know perfectly well who carried away my
+little girl. The man and woman you saw at the car were servants employed
+by my father-in-law, who cordially dislikes me. There had been
+trouble--"
+
+With a shrug she expressed her impatience of her troubles, and bent over
+the boy who was demanding to be taken to Edith.
+
+"You'll see Edith soon, dear, so don't trouble any more," she said
+kindly.
+
+Having quieted the child, she returned to her own affairs, glancing out
+to note the direction of the car. She had done some quick thinking in
+making her decision to hide her identity from the police. There was
+fight in her eyes and Archie realized that he had to do with a woman of
+spirit. He waited eagerly for a hint as to her plans.
+
+"Of course I'm not going to Brooklyn," she said, as the taxi swung into
+Fifth Avenue. "Please tell the man to drive to the Altmore, ladies'
+entrance. I'll walk through to the main door and take another taxi. I
+mean to lose myself," she went on, after Archie had given the
+instructions. "I have every intention of keeping away from policemen and
+reporters, but there's no reason why you should bother any further. I'm
+only sorry your name had to be brought into it. The moment they find
+I've deceived them they'll be after you for further information, and I
+regret that exceedingly. I wish to avoid publicity and keep my domestic
+affairs out of the newspapers; but this of course will only center
+attention the more on you. If there's anything I could do--"
+
+"You needn't bother about that at all," replied Archie with a reassuring
+smile. "The name and address I gave were both false."
+
+"You mean that really!"
+
+"I mean that; just that! My reasons are of importance to no one but
+myself, and have nothing to do with the loss of your child, I assure
+you. I give you my word that neither the police nor the reporters will
+ever find me. I know nothing about you and of course it is quite
+unnecessary for me to know."
+
+"Thank you; you are very kind," she murmured.
+
+It struck him as highly amusing that he should be conspiring with the
+wife of a gentleman he had shot. In every aspect it was ridiculous and
+not since boyhood had he felt so much like giggling. And Mrs. Congdon
+was wonderful; it was a delight to be the repository of the confidences
+of so handsome a young matron and one who met so difficult a situation
+so courageously. They were both liars; both were practising a deceit
+that could hardly fail to bring them under sharp scrutiny if they should
+be caught.
+
+Women were far from being the simple creatures he had believed them to
+be. The heart of woman was a labyrinth of mystery. Mrs. Congdon,
+altogether lovely and bearing all the marks of breeding, had lied quite
+as convincingly as Sally Walker. The ways of Isabel were beyond all
+human understanding; and yet her contradictions only added to her charm.
+Isabel's agitation over the affairs of the Congdons led him close to the
+point of mentioning her name to note its effect upon Mrs. Congdon, but
+to do this might be an act of betrayal that would only confirm Isabel's
+opinion of him as a stupid, meddlesome person. Nothing was to be gained
+by attempting to hasten the culmination of the fate that flung him about
+like a chip on a turbulent stream. Fiends and angels might be battling
+for his soul, and Lucifer might take him in the end, but meanwhile he
+was having a jolly good time.
+
+He looked at her covertly and they laughed with the mirth of children
+planning mischief in secret.
+
+"The little girl," he ventured; "you are not apprehensive about her?"
+
+"Not in the slightest. My father-in-law is most disagreeably eccentric,
+but he is very fond of my children. It was quite like him to attempt to
+carry off the little girl, always a particular pet of his. I was
+shocked, of course, when it happened. I thought I should be safe in the
+park for a few hours until I could catch a train. I meant to put the
+children quite out of my husband's way. I didn't know he was in town; in
+fact, I don't know now that he is or anything about him. But he's
+undoubtedly in communication with his father. It's rather a complicated
+business, you see."
+
+It was much more complex than she knew, and not, all things considered,
+a laughing matter. He spent an uncomfortable moment pondering a
+situation which he viewed with the mingled joy and awe of a child
+watching the fire in a fuse approach a fire-cracker.
+
+"I shall be glad to assist you if I can aid you in any way. You will try
+to recover the child--?" he suggested.
+
+"It's generous of you to offer, but I think you had better keep out of
+it. Of course I shall have Edith back; you may be sure of that."
+
+"You have some idea of where they are taking her--?"
+
+"No, I really haven't. But she will be safe, though I hate to think of
+her being subjected to so hideous an experience. It's rather odd, as I
+think of it, that my husband didn't personally try to take the child
+from me."
+
+This, uttered musingly, gave Archie a perturbed moment. But the car had
+reached the Altmore. He lifted out the boy and accompanied them to the
+door.
+
+"Thank you, very much," she said in a tone that dismissed him.
+
+Archie drove to another hostelry for a superficial cleaning up,
+explaining to the brush boy who scraped the oily mud from his trousers
+that he had been in an automobile accident. He rode downtown in the
+subway, strolled past the skyscraper in which his office was situated
+and returned to the Governor's house feeling on the whole well pleased
+with himself.
+
+
+IV
+
+Refreshed by a nap and a shower he was dressed and waiting for the
+Governor at seven. On his way through the hall he ran into a man whose
+sudden appearance gave him a start. He was not one of the servants but a
+rough-looking stranger with drooping shoulders and a smear of dirt
+across his cheek. He would have passed him in the street as a laborer
+returning from a hard day's work. The man did not lift his eyes but
+shuffled on to the door of the Governor's room which he opened and
+then, flinging round, stood erect and laughed aloud.
+
+"Pardon me, Archie, for giving you a scare! I couldn't resist the
+impulse to test this makeup!"
+
+"You!" cried Archie, blinking as the Governor switched on the light.
+
+"I went and came in these togs; not for a lark, I assure you, but
+because I had to go clear down under the crust today. Turn the water on
+in my tub and I'll be slipping into decent duds in a jiffy. Here's an
+extra I picked up downtown. The scream of the evening is a
+kidnaping--most deplorable line of business! Have you ever noticed a
+certain periodicity in child stealing? About every so often you hear of
+such a case. Despicable; a foul crime hardly second to murder. Hanging
+is not too severe a punishment. Clear out now, for if we begin talking
+I'll never get dressed!"
+
+The account of the kidnaping in the park was little more than a
+bulletin, but Archie soon had it committed to memory. The police had not
+yet learned that the two most important witnesses had given fictitious
+names, for both pseudonyms appeared in the article.
+
+In spite of the Governor's frequently avowed assertion that he wished to
+know nothing about him, Archie felt strongly impelled to make a clean
+breast of the Bailey Harbor affair, the two encounters with Isabel and
+his meeting with Mrs. Congdon. His resolution strengthened when the
+Governor appeared, dressed with his usual care and exhilarated by his
+day's adventures. At the table the Governor threw a remark now and then
+at the butler as to the whereabouts and recent performances of some of
+that functionary's old pals. Baring received this information soberly
+with only the most deferential murmurs of pleasure or dismay at the
+successes or failures of the old comrades. Baring retired after the
+dinner had been served, and the Governor, in cozy accord with his cigar,
+remarked suddenly:
+
+"Odd; you might almost say singular! I've crossed old man Congdon's
+trail again! You recall him--the old boy we left to the tender mercies
+of Seebrook and Walters?"
+
+"Yes; go on!" exclaimed Archie so impatiently that the Governor eyed him
+in surprise.
+
+"It's remarkable how my theory that every man is a potential crook finds
+fresh proof all the time. Now old Congdon is rich and there's no reason
+on earth why he shouldn't live straight; but, bless you, it's quite
+otherwise! He's a victim of the same aberration that prompts people
+apparently as upright as a flagstaff to drop hotel towels into their
+trunks, collect coffee spoons in popular restaurants, or steal flowers
+in public gardens when they have expensive conservatories at home. You
+never can tell, Archie."
+
+Archie, with the Congdons looming large on his horizon, was not
+interested in the philosophical aspects of petty pilfering.
+
+"Stick to Eliphalet," he suggested.
+
+"Oh, yes! Well, I met today one of the most remarkable of all the men I
+know who camp outside the pale. Perky is his name in Who's Who in No
+Man's Land. A jeweler by trade, he fell from his high estate and went on
+the road as a yegg. The work was too rough for him for one thing, and
+for another it was too much of a gamble. Opening safes only to find
+that they contained a few dollars in stamps and the postmaster's carpet
+slippers vexed him extremely and he then entered into the game of boring
+neat holes in the rim of twenty-dollar gold pieces, leaving only the
+outer shell and filling 'em up with a composition he invented that made
+the coin ring like a marriage bell. While he was still experimenting he
+ran into old Eliphalet sitting with his famous umbrella on a bench in
+Boston Common. Perky thought Eliphalet was a stool pigeon for a con
+outfit, but explanations followed and it was a case of infatuation on
+both sides. The old man was as tickled with the scheme as a boy with a
+new dog. He now assists Perky to circulate the spurious medium of
+exchange. Perky says he's a wonderful ally, endowed with all the
+qualities of a first class crook."
+
+"You'll appreciate that better," said Archie, "when you hear what I know
+about the Congdon family. You've been mighty decent in not pressing me
+for any account of myself but you've got to hear my story now. We'll
+probably both be more comfortable if I don't tell you my name, but you
+shall have that, too, if you care for it. So many things have happened
+since I left Bailey Harbor that you don't know about, things that I
+haven't dared tell you, that I'm going to spout it all now and here. If
+you want to chuck me when you've heard it, well enough; but I don't mind
+saying that to part with you would hurt me terribly. I never felt so
+dependent on any man as I do on you; and I've grown mighty fond of you,
+old man."
+
+"Thank you, lad," said the Governor.
+
+He listened patiently, nodding occasionally or throwing in a question.
+When Archie finished he rose and clapped him on the shoulder.
+
+"By Jove, you've tossed my stars around like so many dice! I've got to
+consult the oracles immediately."
+
+He darted from the room and when Archie reached his study the Governor
+was poring over a map of the heavens.
+
+"Your Isabel's all tangled up in our affairs!" declared the Governor
+with mock resentment. "It's she who has upset the calculations of all
+star-gazers from the time of Ptolemy!"
+
+"Isabel!" cried Archie excitedly. "I don't catch the drift of this at
+all!"
+
+"I should be surprised if you did! Note that countless lines converge
+upon my diagram. Isabel will dawn upon your gaze again very soon--I feel
+it coming. Our next move was clearly outlined to me before we came to
+town, but I must verify the figures in the light of this pistol practice
+at Bailey." He covered many sheets of a large tablet with figures and
+threw down his pencil with a satisfied sigh.
+
+"Rochester!" he muttered. "Rochester of all places!"
+
+"Would you mind telling me just what Rochester has to do with all this?"
+Archie demanded testily.
+
+"My dear boy, Rochester is one of the suburbs of Paradise! The commerce
+and manufactures of that city are nothing; it's an outpost of Romance,
+like Bagdad and Camelot, a port of call on the sea of dreams, like
+Carcassonne! You may recall that I told you of a certain tile in a
+summer house where my adored promised to leave a message for me if her
+heart softened or she needed me. Well, the secret post-office is at
+Rochester; there the incomparable visits her aunt and about this time of
+year she's likely to be there. And if you knew the way of the stars and
+could understand my calculations you'd see that your Isabel is likely to
+have some business in that neighborhood just about now."
+
+"Rubbish! I happen to know that her business was all to be in northern
+Michigan this summer. Your stars have certainly made a monkey of you
+this time!"
+
+"Cynic! The thought seems to please you! You want to see me discomfited
+and defeated. Very well; you can drop me right here if you like, but
+I'll wager something handsome that you'll regret your skepticism all the
+rest of your days. Resistance to the course of events marked by the
+stars is bound to result in confusion. And here's another striking
+coincidence: You mentioned casually that Isabel spoke of buried treasure
+in the far north. I'm overpowered by that. The sweet influences of
+Pleiades have long beguiled me with the promise of a quest for hidden
+gold; for years, Archie, the thing has haunted me."
+
+"You talk like a nonsense book! How much luggage are we taking?"
+
+"Take everything you've got! This is going to be the most important of
+all my enterprises, Archie. It's just as well to be fully prepared."
+
+He rang for Timmons to do their packing and fell upon a time table.
+
+"We shall take it easy tomorrow, arriving at Rochester, the city of
+dreams, just as the shades of night are falling fast. Run along now;
+I've got a lot to think about."
+
+Archie was roused the next morning by the Governor, who flung an armful
+of newspapers on his bed.
+
+"The police have confessed with unusual frankness that they were duped
+in the park kidnaping. You and the attractive Mrs. Congdon both stepped
+into the void. The names and addresses are found to be imaginary and
+they're in the air! You stirred up a pretty row, you two."
+
+"I'd give something handsome to know where she went," said Archie. "I
+ought to have stood by to help her instead of leaving her and her
+troubles at a hotel door."
+
+"Having shot her husband, your concern for her safety and happiness does
+you credit! If the fellow died on the beach and his body was washed out
+to sea Mrs. Congdon is a widow. And in that event it's rather up to you
+to offer to marry her. The conventions of good society demand it. Your
+story gave me a restless night. I'm flabbergasted by the way things are
+happening. For a modest fellow you are certainly capable of stirring up
+a queer mess of situations. And the singular thing about it is that for
+thousands of years we've been moving toward each other out of the void!
+And all the other people who were to influence our destinies were on the
+way to join us--scores of 'em, Archie!"
+
+"Detectives, policemen, and all the rest of them! Grand juries,
+prosecuting officers, judges of criminal courts and prison wardens!"
+
+"You're going to bore me one of these days by that sort of prattle. On
+to Rochester!"
+
+
+V
+
+They wrote themselves down on the hotel register at Rochester as
+Saulsbury and Comly and were quickly in the rooms the Governor had
+engaged by wire.
+
+"We dress, of course; unless I give you explicit directions to the
+contrary we always dress for dinner," said the Governor. "It's a lot
+more distinguished to be shot in a white tie than in a morning suit.
+Always keep that in mind, Archie--you who go about popping at men in
+their own houses with their own pistols."
+
+"Not going with me!" he exclaimed after they had dined sedately in the
+main dining-room of the hotel. "This is truly the _reductio ad
+absurdum!_ Three times I've invaded the premises of my beloved's aunt
+and twice nearly got into trouble with policemen and gardeners. I need
+you, Archie; really I do; and you're not a chap to desert a pal."
+
+Under this compulsion Archie found himself whisked away to a handsome
+residential area where the Governor dismissed the driver at a corner and
+continued afoot for several blocks.
+
+"Our silk hats would disarm suspicion in even more exclusive
+neighborhoods. In fact we lend a certain distinction to the entire
+Genesee Valley. Alleys are distasteful to me, but into an alley we must
+plunge with all our splendor."
+
+Alleys were not only distasteful to Archie, but he thought the search
+for a message in the grounds of the handsome estate the Governor seemed
+bent upon exploring utterly silly and foolhardy. The Governor ran his
+stick along the top of a wall that grimly guarded the rear of the
+premises.
+
+"Glass!" he exclaimed, and cleared a space with a sweep of his cane. He
+caught the edge of the wall and was quickly on top. When Archie hung
+back the Governor grasped him by the arms and swung him up and dropped
+him into a dark corner of the garden. The house at the street end of the
+deep lot was a large establishment that argued for the prosperous
+worldly state of the aunt of the Governor's inamorata.
+
+The Governor left him with the injunction to remain where he was, and he
+saw in a moment the glimmer of a match in the summer house. He was
+gazing at the tender, wistful new moon that suddenly slipped into his
+vision in the west, when he felt the Governor's hand on his arm.
+
+"Archie! Oh, Archie!" the Governor whispered excitedly, brushing an
+envelope across the bewildered Archie's face. "Strike a match before I
+perish."
+
+He tore open the envelope, and his fingers trembled as he held the note
+to the light. He read the two sheets to himself eagerly; then demanded a
+second match and read aloud:
+
+... "If this reaches you, remain near at hand until I can see you.
+Please understand that I promise nothing, but it is very possible that
+you may be able to serve me. My aunt is giving a party for me Thursday
+night. I must leave it to you as how best to arrange for a short
+interview the day following. A very dear friend needs help. The matter
+is urgent. You will think it a fine irony that I should call upon you
+for a service that may be disagreeable if not dangerous, when your
+unaccountable way of life has caused me so much unhappiness."
+
+The match curled and fell from Archie's fingers. A tense silence lay
+upon the garden. A bat slanted eerily through the warm air. The Governor
+clasped Archie's hand tightly. He seemed swayed by a deep emotion, and
+when he spoke it was in a husky whisper.
+
+"It has come as I always knew it would come! And something tells me I am
+near the end. Even with all my faith, boy, it's staggering. And this is
+the very night of the dance. Ah, listen to that!"
+
+They had moved out into a broad walk and Archie saw that the house was
+brilliantly lighted. Suddenly the strains of a lively two-step drew
+their attention to a platform that extended out upon the lawn from the
+conservatory, and at the same moment electric lamps shone in dozens of
+Japanese lanterns along the hedge-lined paths. The Governor looked at
+his watch. It was half-past nine.
+
+"It's about time for us to clear out," Archie remarked.
+
+"What! Leave this sacred soil when _she's_ here? Not on your life,
+Archie! I shall not leave till I've had speech with her."
+
+"She mentioned the day following the dance in the note," Archie
+protested. "You'd certainly make a mess of things if you tried to butt
+into the party."
+
+"On the other hand the festal occasion offers an ideal opportunity for
+the meeting! It's going to be a big affair; already machines are dashing
+into the driveway in large numbers. We can merge in the happy throng and
+trust to our wits to get us out alive. The aunt is seventy and very
+wise; she'll know us instantly as men of quality."
+
+He urged Archie, still resisting, through the grounds to the front
+entrance, where they were admitted with several other guests who arrived
+at the same moment. The gentlemen they found in the dressing room merely
+glanced at them carelessly or nodded. An old gentleman, mistaking
+Archie for some one else, asked assistance with an obstreperous tie and
+expressed his gratitude in the warmest terms. The Governor, primping
+with the greatest deliberation, had never been calmer. To Archie this
+intrusion in the house of perfect strangers was a culminating act of
+folly, bound to result in humiliation.
+
+"We maybe a trifle early," the Governor remarked, lighting a cigarette
+and settling himself in a rocker. "We shall receive greater
+consideration if we linger a few moments."
+
+As Archie had counted on slipping downstairs heavily supported by
+properly invited guests, he paced the floor for a quarter of an hour
+while the Governor imperturbably read a magazine.
+
+The room had cleared when at last he expressed his readiness to go.
+
+"The receiving line is probably broken up by this time. Our hostess
+doesn't know either of us from the lamented Adam but I shall introduce
+you quite casually, you know. Her name, by the way, is Lindsay. There
+are scads of people here; the very first families. We may mingle freely
+without fear of lowering our social standards."
+
+The stately old lady they found in the drawing-room lifted a lorgnette
+as they approached, smiled affably and gave the Governor her hand.
+
+"Mrs. Lindsay, my friend, Mr. Comly. He arrived unexpectedly an hour ago
+and I thought you wouldn't mind my bringing him along, so I didn't
+bother you by telephoning."
+
+"I should have been displeased if you had hesitated a moment--any friend
+of yours, you know!"
+
+"Ruth is with you, of course? I haven't seen her since the last time she
+visited you."
+
+"She's the same wonderful girl! You will find her dancing, I think."
+
+Other arrivals facilitated their escape. As they passed down the
+drawing-room the Governor directed Archie's attention to a portrait
+which he pronounced a Copley, and insisted upon examining closely. It
+was with difficulty that Archie persuaded him to leave it, so enraptured
+was the Governor with the likeness of a stern old gentleman in powdered
+wig, who gazed down upon them with anything but a friendly eye.
+
+As they stepped into the conservatory the music ceased and there was a
+flutter as the dancers sought seats, or stepped out upon the lawn.
+Archie, acutely uncomfortable, heard the Governor stifle an exclamation.
+
+"That is she! Stand by me now! That chap's just left her. This is our
+chance!"
+
+A young woman was just seating herself in a chair at the farther corner
+of the conservatory and her partner had darted away toward a table where
+punch was offered. The Governor moved toward her quickly. Archie saw her
+lift her head suddenly and her lips parted as though she were about to
+make an outcry. Then the Governor bowed low over her hand, uttering
+explanations in a low tone. Her surprise had yielded to what Archie,
+loitering behind, thought an expression of relief and satisfaction. He
+moved forward as the Governor turned toward him.
+
+"Miss Hastings, Mr. Comly."
+
+The girl had risen, perhaps the better to hide her agitation, Archie
+thought. She absently accepted the cup of punch brought by her partner,
+who, seeing her preoccupied with two strangers, pledged her to another
+dance and left them.
+
+"My name here," the Governor was saying, "is Saulsbury."
+
+A slight shrug and a frown betrayed displeasure, but it was only for a
+moment and she smiled in spite of herself. The Governor's occasional
+references to the woman who had enchained his affections had not
+prepared Archie for this presentation to a Ruth who might have passed
+for seventeen in a hasty scrutiny and upon whose graceful head it seemed
+a wickedness to add the five years the Governor had attributed to her.
+She was below medium height, with brown hair and eyes. There was
+something wonderfully sweet and appealing in her eyes. Imagination had
+set its light in them and the Governor was a man to awaken romantic
+dreams in imaginative women. The tan of her cheeks emphasized her look
+of youth; she would have passed for a school girl who lived in tennis
+courts and found keen delight on the links. How and where the Governor
+could have known her was a matter of speculation, but in his wanderings
+just such a charming gipsy might easily have captured his fancy. The
+Governor had never, not even in the presence of his sister, been so
+wholly the gentleman as now. He was enormously happy, but with a subdued
+happiness. He was upon his good behavior and Archie was satisfied that
+he would in no way abuse the hospitality of the house he had entered
+with so much effrontery. The girl would take care of that in any event.
+The humor of the thing was appealing to her, and her eyes danced with
+excitement. How much she knew about the Governor was another baffling
+matter; but she knew enough at least to know that his appearance was an
+impudence and with all discretion she was enjoying her connivance in her
+lover's appearance. A wise, self-contained young person, capable of
+extricating herself from even more perilous situations. Archie liked
+Ruth. The Governor had said that she was a bishop's daughter but for all
+that she might have been the child of a race of swarthy kings.
+
+"You couldn't have thought that I would wait when I knew that you were
+in a mood to tolerate me or that I might serve you!" said the Governor
+gravely. "If our presence is likely to prove embarrassing--"
+
+"Oh, Aunt Louise doesn't know the names of half the people here. She
+never goes out herself; she merely asked old friends and the children of
+old friends. I really didn't want this party for I'm here on business,
+and it's about that that I want to speak to you, please!"
+
+"I think," said Archie, ill at ease, "that the moment has come for me to
+retire."
+
+"We shall not turn you adrift!" cried Ruth. "I have a very dear friend I
+must introduce you to. Oh--" she hesitated and turned to the Governor,
+"is Mr. Comly a roamer? Has he a heart for high adventure?"
+
+"He speaks without accent the language of all who love the long brown
+road."
+
+"Then let him come with me!"
+
+She laid her hand on Archie's arm, and walked toward the wide-flung
+doors. The orchestra was again summoning the dancers.
+
+"Oh, Isabel!"
+
+Following her gaze he was glad of the slight pressure of her hand on his
+arm. Here at least was something tangible in a world that tottered
+toward chaos. For it was Isabel Perry who turned at the sound of Ruth's
+voice. She was just at the point of gliding away with her partner.
+
+"Miss Perry, Mr. Comly!"
+
+The eyes that had haunted him in his wanderings flashed upon him, then
+narrowed questioningly.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Comly!" There was the slightest stress on the assumed name.
+"After this dance--"
+
+She slipped away leaving him staring.
+
+"Please take me back to Mr. Saulsbury," said Ruth. "I've got to cut this
+dance. I will introduce you to some other girls."
+
+But as no other girls were immediately available he protested that he
+would do very well and guided her to the Governor.
+
+"Isabel is very busy, as usual," said Ruth, "but if Mr. Comly is a good
+strategist, he will not fail to find her again. Isabel, you know--"
+
+"Isabel!" exclaimed the Governor. "Not really--"
+
+"Yes, really," Archie answered, his voice hoarse as he raised it above
+the music.
+
+The Governor struck his gloved hands together smartly. Ruth, turning
+from a youth to whom she had excused herself, asked quickly:
+
+"What has happened? You both look as though you had seen a ghost."
+
+"It's more mysterious than ghosts. Come; we must make the most of these
+minutes. Your next partner won't give you up as meekly as that last one
+did."
+
+Archie saw them a moment later pacing back and forth in one of the walks
+a little distance from the house. He stationed himself at the door with
+some other unattached men, and followed Isabel's course over the floor
+with intent, eager eyes. The dance, to a new and enchanting air, was
+prolonged and he died many deaths as he watched her, catching
+tantalizing glimpses of her face only to lose it again.
+
+No one in the happy throng seemed gayer than she; and once as she
+tripped by he assured himself that there was no hostility in the swift
+glance she gave him. Seeing her again rilled him with a great happiness
+untinged with bitterness. Among all the women of the bright company she
+alone was superb, and not less regal for his remembrance of her anger,
+the anger that had brought tears to her lovely eyes.
+
+At the conclusion of the number, she remained, to his discomfiture, at
+the farther end of the platform, and when he hurried forward in the hope
+of detaching her from the group that surrounded her she did not see him
+at all, which was wholly discouraging. A partner sought her for the next
+dance and as the music struck up he made bold to accost her.
+
+"I am not to be eluded!" he said. "I must have at least one dance!"
+
+"My card is filled--but I am reserving a boon for you! You shall have
+the intermission," and added as by an afterthought, "Mr. Comly," with a
+delicious mockery.
+
+He passed Ruth, returning to put herself in the path of her next
+partner.
+
+"This is your punishment for coming late!" laughed the girl. There was
+happiness in her eyes. "How perfectly ridiculous you two men are!"
+
+"Suppose we talk a bit," said the Governor when they had found a bench
+on the lawn. He was silent for several minutes, sitting erect with arms
+folded.
+
+"It's nearing the end!" he said solemnly; "there are other changes and
+chances perhaps, but the end is in sight. The whole thing was
+unalterable from the beginning; it makes little difference what we do
+now. And it's you--it's you that have brought it all about. We are bound
+together by ties not of earthly making."
+
+He laughed softly, turned and placed his hand on Archie's shoulder.
+
+"You are beginning to believe at last?"
+
+"I don't know what to believe," Archie answered slowly. "There's
+something uncanny in all this. Just how much do you understand of it?"
+
+"Precious little! Your Isabel and my Ruth are friends; quite intimate
+friends indeed. In college together, I'd have you know, but I never knew
+it till now. That's news to you, isn't it?"
+
+"Most astonishing news!"
+
+"And this is the very Isabel who shattered your equanimity; told you to
+shoot up the world and then treated you like a pick-pocket the next time
+you met! But as old William said 'Love is not love that alters when it
+alteration finds.'"
+
+"Don't jump at conclusions! I was just bragging when I gave you the idea
+that there was anything between us. The love's all on my side! She
+twitted me about my worthlessness that night in Washington; bade me tear
+down the heavens. And it oddly happened that from that hour I have never
+been a free man; I have done things I believed myself incapable of
+doing."
+
+"You did them rather cheerfully, I must say! But on the whole, nothing
+very naughty. And I'll prepare you a little for what I prefer you should
+hear from Isabel--I got it from Ruth--you're not quite finished yet with
+that pistol shot in the Congdon house. It seems to be echoing round the
+world!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+I
+
+
+"In spite of my warnings you continue to follow me!" said Isabel when
+they were established in the supper room.
+
+"Are we to have another row? I don't believe I can go through with it."
+
+"No; for rows haven't got us anywhere. And Ruth whispered to me a moment
+ago to be very nice to you. While the gentleman on the other side of me
+is occupied we might clear up matters a little."
+
+"It's not in my theory of life to explain things; I tried explaining
+myself at Portsmouth and again at Bennington but you were singularly
+unsympathetic. Please be generous and tell me why you were skipping over
+New England, darting through trains and searching hotel registers and
+manifesting uneasiness when policemen appeared. You recommended a life
+of lawlessness to me but I didn't know you meant to go in for that sort
+of thing yourself."
+
+"It occurred to me after the Bennington interview that I might have been
+unjust, but I was in a humor to suspect every one. When you said you'd
+shot Putney Congdon you frightened me to death. Of course you did
+nothing of the kind!"
+
+"This is wonderful chicken salad," he said, hastily. "I beg you to do
+it full justice. The people about us mustn't get the idea that we're
+discussing homicide. Now, to answer your question, I _had_ shot Mr.
+Putney Congdon and in edging away from the scene of my bloodshed I was
+guilty of other indiscretions that made me chatter like a maniac when I
+saw you. It was such a joke that you should turn up when I was doing
+just what you prescribed for me as a cure for my ills. I am quite calm
+now, and my health is so good that when the waiter brings those little
+pocket rolls this way I shall take a second and perhaps a third."
+
+"My own nerves had gone to pieces or I shouldn't have flared as I did at
+Portsmouth and I was even more irresponsible when I saw you in that
+parlor car at Bennington."
+
+"You saw me kiss a girl on the train. Miss Perry, I will not deceive you
+about that. She was all but a stranger, and I had assisted her to elope.
+Her husband was hiding in the baggage car."
+
+"He would have thrown himself under the wheels if he had witnessed that
+ardent kissing! I confess that I hadn't done justice to your
+fascinations. And you were not her guardian, or anything like that?"
+
+"Certainly not. She's a dairy maid I married to a diamond thief by
+mistake. My ignorance of women is complete. Sally Walker's duplicity
+wasn't necessary to convince me of that but your own conduct completely
+crushed my vanity."
+
+"The crushing has improved you, I think. Please don't think that because
+I am showing you so much tolerance I am wholly satisfied that you
+weren't trying to thwart my own criminal adventures. When we met at
+Portsmouth I was trying to meet poor Mrs. Congdon somewhere to help
+kidnap her little girl!"
+
+"Edith--a lovely child," Archie remarked, and picked up the napkin that
+slipped from her knees. He enjoyed her surprise. "Please don't scorn the
+ice cream; you will find it very refreshing. As you were saying--"
+
+"If I hadn't been warned by Ruth that you were to be trusted in this
+business I should begin screaming. How did you know the child's name?
+What do you know about the Congdons?"
+
+"Volumes! Let my imagination play on your confession. You were trying to
+find Mrs. Congdon and whisk the child away to your camp, when I ran into
+you. You had missed connections with the mother and thought I was trying
+to embarrass or frustrate you? I had troubles of my own and you couldn't
+have done me a greater wrong!"
+
+"Mrs. Congdon was in a panic, skipping about with the children to avoid
+her husband; but it was really her father-in-law who was pursuing her.
+He's a miserly, disagreeable wretch! I came here to meet Ruth, who is an
+old friend of hers, hoping she might be able to deliver the little girl
+to me undetected. I met both Mr. and Mrs. Congdon once, several years
+ago, at a dinner in Chicago, but I can hardly say that I know them.
+Ruth's to be the chief councilor of my camp--so interested in my scheme
+that she insisted on going up there to help me. And Mrs. Congdon thought
+that would be a fine place to hide her Edith while the family rumpus was
+on. I was to run with Edith as hard as I could for Heart o' Dreams, my
+girls' camp, you know, up in Michigan."
+
+"How stupid I am! With a word you might have made unnecessary our two
+altercations!"
+
+"The matter, as you can see, is very delicate, even hazardous. I had
+never been a kidnaper and when you saw me on those two occasions I was
+terribly alarmed, not finding Mrs. Congdon where she expected to be. And
+I must say that you added nothing to my peace of mind."
+
+"Please note that I am drinking coffee at midnight! I shouldn't have
+dared do that before your cheering advice in Washington. We have but a
+moment more, and I shall give you in tabloid form my adventures to
+date."
+
+It was the Isabel of the Washington dinner party who listened. She was
+deeply interested and amused, and at times he had the satisfaction of
+reading in her face what he hopefully interpreted as solicitude for his
+safety. He confined himself to essentials so rigidly that she protested
+constantly that he was not doing his story justice. Of the Governor he
+spoke guardedly, finding that Isabel knew nothing about him beyond a
+shadowy impression she had derived from Ruth that he was a wanderer who
+had charmed her fancy.
+
+"If he hasn't told you of the beginning of their acquaintance, I must
+have a care," said Isabel. "He and Ruth met oddly enough in a settlement
+house--I needn't say where it was--where Ruth was a volunteer worker.
+Your friend turned up there as a tramp and she didn't know at once that
+he was masquerading. Afterward he threw himself in her path, most
+ingeniously, in his proper role of a gentleman, in a summer place where
+she was visiting, and that added to the charm of the mystery. I can see
+that he's very unusual. You've told me more than she knows about him,
+but even that leaves a good deal to be desired. In all the world there's
+no girl like Ruth; there must be no question of her happiness!"
+
+"You needn't be afraid. In spite of his singular ways I'd trust him
+round the world. We can't stay here longer, I suppose; there's a young
+blade at the door looking for you now. Is there any way I can serve
+you?"
+
+"Ruth has explained all that to Mr. Saulsbury by now. She felt sure that
+he would help; and, believe me, I have confidence in you."
+
+"The first thing is to find Edith Congdon and you may trust us for that.
+I will seize this moment to say," he added quietly, "that you are even
+lovelier than I remembered you!"
+
+"You are very bold, sir! You wouldn't have said that a very little while
+ago."
+
+"You complained once that I wasn't bold enough! Now that I come to you
+red handed and for all you know with stolen silver in my pocket, you
+can't complain of my forwardness. I am a rascal of high degree, as you
+would have me be. And I now declare myself your most relentless suitor!
+I trust my frankness pleases you?"
+
+"Your adventures in rascality have added to your plausibility. I almost
+believe you--but not quite. You seem to be extremely vulnerable to
+feminine blandishments. There's Sally, the milkmaid. Remember that I saw
+you kiss her with rather more than brotherly warmth. Still, I suppose
+you'd earned some reward for your daring."
+
+"A bluff old man-at-arms ought to be forgiven for pausing in his wild
+career to kiss a pretty lass at the wayside!" he growled.
+
+His mock-heroic attitude toward his exploits kept her laughing, until
+she said, quite soberly:
+
+"Please don't think I'm so awfully frivolous, for I really am not. And
+to be sitting in a place like this among all these highly proper people
+talking of the dreadful things you've done is simply ridiculous. When I
+undertook to hide Edith Congdon from her father I couldn't see that
+there would be anything wrong in it! And yet I would have been a
+kidnaper, I suppose."
+
+"And you've cheerfully turned the job over to me," he said, finding it
+now his turn to be amused. "When you gave me your warrant to destroy all
+the kingdoms of the world you forgot that there might be unpleasant
+consequences. But I assure you that after a few days you don't care
+much!"
+
+"It's so deliciously dreadful! And only the other day you were in mortal
+terror of sudden death."
+
+"I've forgotten I ever had a nerve. To be sure our little
+misunderstandings nearly broke my heart, but now that you've smiled
+again I'm ready for anything. I might say further that in the end I
+shall expect my reward. If there are other men who love you they will do
+well to keep out of my path. We shall meet somewhere or other soon, I
+hope!"
+
+"From what you say of your friend's faith in the stars there's no use
+planning. I shall remain here a day or two in the hope of hearing from
+Mrs. Congdon. She loves her husband and from what Ruth says he's really
+devoted to her, but the father-in-law is a malicious mischief maker."
+
+"If I shot the wrong man I shall always deplore the error. I hope you
+take into consideration the fact that he might have shot me! He thought
+he had a man at the end of his gun when he popped away at the mirror."
+
+"I'm ashamed that I find it all so funny. Shooting any one can't really
+be a pleasant performance for a gentleman of your up-bringing; and yet
+you speak of it now as though it were only a trifling incident of the
+day's work. The Marquis of Montrose would certainly be vastly tickled if
+he knew what his little rhyme has done for you."
+
+"The Marquis isn't in the sketch at all; it's far more important that
+you should approve of me in every particular. You spoke of buried
+treasure at that never-to-be-forgotten dinner at my sister's. I've kept
+that in mind as rather a pretty prospect."
+
+"That cousin of mine is a great nuisance. He's not only bent upon
+finding my grandfather's buried money, but he thinks he is in love with
+me."
+
+"I have a rival then?" asked Archie, with a sinking of the heart.
+
+"You may call him that," she laughed. "A girl always likes to think
+there are others."
+
+"Your camp--you haven't yet told me how to find it?" he said eagerly.
+
+"It's a girls' camp, you know, and the male species is rigidly excluded.
+But Ruth will give Mr. Saulsbury full particulars."
+
+"Crusoe found a footprint in the sand! By the way, did my sister May
+ever find a summer cottage?"
+
+"She found a house at Cape May, which is much more accessible from
+Washington than Bailey Harbor. Do you imagine you can ever tell her all
+you've just told me?"
+
+"There are certain confidences permissible between sisters-in-law, so
+it's really up to you!" he replied glibly. "Don't trouble to answer; the
+Governor's waiting for me."
+
+They walked back to the hotel in the best of humor. As they crossed the
+lobby the Governor suddenly slapped his pockets and walked to the cigar
+stand. A tall man in a gray traveling cap was talking earnestly to the
+clerk, meanwhile spinning a twenty-dollar gold piece on the show case.
+The Governor purchased some cigarettes and while waiting for change
+nodded to the stranger, who absently responded and began tapping the
+coin with the handle of a penknife.
+
+"Not many of those things in circulation nowadays," the Governor
+remarked, thrusting the cigarettes into his pocket. The stranger
+carelessly inspected the two gentlemen in evening dress and handed the
+coin to the Governor.
+
+"What d'ye think of that?" he asked.
+
+The Governor turned the gold disk to the light and then flung it sharply
+on the wooden end of the counter, where it rang musically. He handed it
+back with a smile.
+
+"The real thing, all right! Wish I had a couple of million just like
+it."
+
+"It's a good thing you haven't!" the man remarked with a grin.
+
+He resumed his talk with the clerk, speaking in a low tone, while the
+Governor loitered at the magazine counter. Archie went to the desk for
+their keys and received a bundle of mail for Mr. Saulsbury, who walked
+slowly toward him apparently absorbed in the periodical he had
+purchased.
+
+"It doesn't seem possible we can lose!" he said when they reached their
+rooms. "There will be cross-currents yet; but a strong tide has set in,
+bearing us on."
+
+He threw the magazine with well-directed aim into a desk in the corner,
+and meditatively smoothed his hat on his sleeve.
+
+"That chap was Dobbs, a Government specialist in counterfeiters, and
+that twenty-dollar piece had almost the true ring, but not quite. The
+man who turned it out showed me the difference only yesterday. Perky?
+Certainly! He said Eliphalet Congdon had taken a bagful to pass on the
+unwary. The old boy had changed a lot of them in New England and the
+Government is not ignoring the matter. Eliphalet Congdon presents just
+such a case as we find occasionally where some perfectly sound
+conservative country banker feels the call of the wild and does a loop
+of death in high finance."
+
+"You don't think old man Congdon has been here lately?" asked Archie.
+
+"Only a day or two ago! I picked that up while I was buying my magazine.
+Congdon bought some stogies at the cigar stand and changed that twenty.
+We're all loaded for Eliphalet, Archie. After you told me your kidnaping
+story, I telegraphed to Perky for all the possible places where the old
+man might be. Perky has ranged the country with him and from his data we
+can keep tab on the old boy. Dobbs knows nothing of the kidnaping; it's
+the gold piece that interests him. I overheard enough to know we're on
+the right track. Eliphalet Congdon owns a farm in Ohio. Perky spent a
+month there boring out gold pieces. What we've got to do, Archie, is to
+find the Congdon child and turn her over to your Isabel and my Ruth. A
+very pretty job, demanding our best attention."
+
+He paced the floor for a moment, his hands thrust deep in his trousers
+pockets, his silk hat tipped rakishly on one side of his head.
+
+"A strange thing is happening; something the stars gave no hint of.
+We're being driven by circumstances utterly beyond our control from the
+side of the lawless to the side of the lawful and benevolent. In spite
+of ourselves, you understand!"
+
+"But we're not leaving here until--"
+
+"You were about to say that we can't shake the dust of Rochester from
+our sandals before we've made our party calls. Alas, no! We shall not
+communicate with our ladies again. First we must justify their
+confidence in us and find the Congdon child. Our wool can only change
+from black to white when we have performed some act of valor in a good
+cause. That is clearly indicated by my latest pondering of the zodiacal
+signs. Let me say that your Isabel is beyond question a girl worth
+living or dying for. I am delighted that she and Ruth speak the language
+of those of us who love the life adventurous, children of stars and sun.
+I shall be up early to make a few discreet inquiries as to the recent
+visit of Eliphalet and then I must buy a machine powerful enough to
+carry us far and fast. Luckily I brought a bundle of cash for just such
+emergencies."
+
+"But a day's delay can't matter," Archie pleaded. "Every hour matters
+when the woman I love sets a task for me. It's still the open road for
+us, Archie. Good-night and pleasant dreams!"
+
+
+II
+
+The new car proved to be a racer and the Governor drove it with the
+speed of a king's messenger bearing fateful tidings. Occasionally from
+sheer weariness he relinquished the wheel to Archie, whose disposition
+to respect the posted warnings against lawless haste evoked the
+Governor's most contemptuous criticism.
+
+"We ride for our ladies! Let the constables go hang!"
+
+Constables were not to Archie's taste but now that they were bent upon a
+definite errand and one that promised another meeting with Isabel at the
+end of the journey he shared the Governor's zest for flight. It was a
+joy to be free under the broad blue arch of June. Spring is a playtime
+for fledgling fancy but in summer the heart is strong of wing and dares
+the heavens. It was Archie who now initiated vocal outbursts, striking
+up old glee club catches he hadn't thought of since his college days. He
+was in love. He bawled his scraps of song that the world might know that
+he was a lover riding far and hard at the behest of his lady. His
+thoughts skipped before him like dancing children. The life he was
+leading was not the noblest; he had no illusions on that score; but he
+was no longer a loafer waiting in luxurious ease for the curtain to fall
+upon a dull first act in a tedious drama, but a man of action, quite
+capable of holding his own against the world!
+
+"You've caught the spirit at last! We're the jolliest beggars alive!"
+exulted the Governor.
+
+He dropped from the clouds at intervals; proved his possession of a
+practical mind; received telegrams in towns Archie had never heard of
+before, and tossed the fragments to the winds.
+
+"All the machinery, the intricate mechanism of the underworld is at work
+to assist us! I tell you as little as possible, but I neglect nothing.
+All communications in cipher, and you can see that the telegraph clerks
+think we are persons of highest importance."
+
+He dashed off replies unhesitatingly, emphasizing the urgency for their
+prompt despatch. Skirting the shores of Erie, he produced from a hollow
+tree a bundle of mail, wrapped in oil-skin. Soiled envelopes with the
+addresses scrawled awkwardly in pencil were reenclosed in brown
+envelopes neatly directed in typewriting and bearing the S. S. S. P. in
+one corner. The humor of his Society for the Segregation of Stolen
+Property tickled the Governor mightily and when Archie asked what would
+happen if these packets of mail went astray and fell into the hands of
+post-office inspectors, he displayed one of the notes which consisted of
+a dozen unrelated words, decorated with clumsy drawings,--a tree, a
+bridge, a barred window.
+
+"Only twenty men out of our hundred million could read that! Code of our
+most exclusive circle. The silly wretch has been raiding country banks
+in the middle west and carried his playfulness too far. He's in jail now
+but not at all worried--merely bored. He'd safely planted his stuff
+before they nabbed him, and he had fixed up his alibi in advance;
+that's the import of that oblong in the corner, which means that he can
+show a white card--a clean bill of health, legally speaking, and isn't
+afraid."
+
+"I suppose he expects you to find the stuff and turn it into non-taxable
+securities," Archie remarked ironically.
+
+"Precisely the idea! But I may not be able to serve him there. It will
+grieve me to leave the boys in the lurch; they've confided in me a long
+time."
+
+The Governor had lapsed into moods of silence frequently since they left
+Rochester. The imminence of his release from whatever power had
+dominated him might, Archie thought, have subdued him to this unfamiliar
+humor with its attendant long periods of sober reflection. The meeting
+with Ruth had worked this change, he believed, no longer marveling at
+the fate that had linked their lives and their loves together. But the
+hints the Governor let fall of an approaching climacteric, a crisis of
+significance in his affairs, filled Archie with apprehension.
+
+"Don't be foolish!" exclaimed the Governor, when Archie broached the
+matter. "Haven't I told you time and again that we shall stand together
+to the end of the trail!"
+
+This was in a town where they paused for a quick overhauling of the car.
+At their table in a cafeteria he rioted in figures and expressed
+satisfaction with the results.
+
+"If only the stars continue kind!" he said.
+
+Nothing was to be gained by pressing inquiries upon a gentleman who
+ordered his affairs by the zodiac. At Buffalo the Governor made earnest
+efforts to rent a yacht, without confiding to Archie just what use he
+expected to make of it. No yachts being in the market, the Governor set
+about hiring a tug, and did in fact lease one for a month from a
+dredging company, paying cash and the wages of the crew in advance, and
+reserving an option to buy. The _Arthur B. Grover_ was to be sent to
+Cleveland and held there for orders. He might want to negotiate the
+lakes as far as Duluth, he told the president of the company, who was
+surprised and chagrined when the singular Mr. Saulsbury readily accepted
+a figure that was intended to be prohibitive. The Governor was proud of
+the tug and expatiated upon its good points, which included sleeping
+quarters for the men and a nook where the captain could tuck himself
+away. He deplored his previous inattention to tugs; he believed more fun
+could be got from a tug like the _Arthur B. Grover_ than from the best
+steam yacht afloat.
+
+"We must be ready for anything," he remarked to Archie. "The signs point
+to a disturbance of great waters, and there's nothing like being
+prepared."
+
+At Cleveland Archie's last doubt as to his mentor's connection with the
+underworld of which he talked so entertainingly was removed. Reaching
+the city at midnight the car was left at a garage downtown, their trunks
+expressed to Chicago, and they arrived by a devious course at an
+ill-smelling boarding house. Here, the Governor informed him, only the
+aristocracy of the preying professions were received.
+
+The arrival of another guest, a tall man of thirty, who had been taking
+a porch-climbing jaunt through mid-western cities, added to Archie's
+pleasure. In his clubs he had lent eager ear to the tales of such of his
+acquaintances as had slaughtered lions in Africa, or performed fancy
+stunts of mountaineering, and more lately he had listened with awe to
+the narratives of scarred veterans of the Foreign Legion; but this
+fellow "Gyppy," as the Governor called him, who had mastered the art of
+scaling colonial pillars and raiding the second story chambers of the
+homes of honest citizens, seemed to Archie hardly less heroic. "Gyppy"
+recounted his adventures with a kind of sullen humor that Archie found
+highly diverting. He sheepishly confessed that the net reward of a
+fortnight of diligent labor in his specialty was only three hundred
+dollars. The Governor was very stern with "Gyppy," advising him to
+abandon porch-climbing as a hazardous and unprofitable vocation. Archie
+was dragged from the hardest bed he had ever slept in early the next
+morning.
+
+"No more scented soap!" cried the Governor. "No more breakfast-in-bed!
+Here's where we get down to brass tacks and let our whiskers flourish!"
+He threw a rough suit of clothes on a chair and bade Archie get into it
+as quickly as possible. "Jam the other suit into your bag and Wiggins
+will ship it with mine to a point we may or may not touch. We shall
+leave this thriving city as farm hands eager to step softly upon the
+yielding clod. We go by trolley a little way, and if you have never
+surveyed the verduous Ohio Valley from a careening trolley car you have
+a joy coming to you. A democratic conveyance; plenty of chances to plant
+your feet in baskets of fresh-laid eggs or golden butter! But don't
+assume that we shall ride all the way; it's afoot for us, Archie! We
+shall be tramps seeking honest labor but awfully choosey about the jobs
+we take!"
+
+An ill-fitting suit, with a blue flannel shirt and tattered cap
+completely transformed him. He surveyed himself with satisfaction in a
+cracked mirror while urging Archie to greater haste.
+
+"We'd cut a pretty figure on Fifth Avenue now!" he exclaimed, delighted
+to see Archie apparelled in a suit rather less pleasing to the eye than
+his own. "We'll roughen up considerably in our travels and by the time
+we reach Eliphalet Congdon's broad acres he'll never recognize us as
+gentlemen he's met before."
+
+"You don't expect to see the old man, do you?" demanded Archie with a
+sinking of the heart. "I thought we were going to find that little girl
+and hurry with her to Isabel's camp? This tramping stuff will merely
+cause us to lose time."
+
+"We're not going to lose any time. I'm as anxious to be on with the
+business as you are; but we're not going to make a mess of it. I've got
+some ideas I don't dare tell you about; you might get panicky and run!
+Steady, Archie, and trust the Governor."
+
+Trusting the Governor had been much easier while they were traveling in
+fast motors or in parlor cars. The trolley with its frequent stops, the
+proneness of the plain folk to lunch upon bananas and peanuts and cast
+the skins and shells thereof upon the floor pained Archie greatly.
+
+The first night they slept in a barn, without leave, begged a breakfast
+and walked until Archie cried for mercy.
+
+"What's a blistered foot more or less!" cried the Governor, producing
+an ointment which he forthwith applied with tenderest solicitude.
+
+From his ingenuity in foraging and the philosophy with which he accepted
+the day's vicissitudes, Archie judged that his companion was by no means
+new to the road. He showed the greatest familiarity with the region they
+traversed, avoiding farmhouses where no generosity could be expected by
+the tramping fraternity, leading the way through quiet woods to
+"swimming holes" where they bathed and solaced their souls. They must
+not get ahead of their schedule, he explained. When Archie, knowing
+nothing of schedules, timidly asked questions the Governor, feigning not
+to hear, would deliver long lectures on Ohio history, praising the
+pioneers of the commonwealth, and enthusiastically reciting the public
+services of her statesmen.
+
+At the end of the fourth day as they kicked their heels against the pier
+of a bridge that spanned the Sandusky, watching the stars slip into
+their places in the soft tender sky, the Governor's quick ear detected
+the step of a pedestrian approaching from the west.
+
+"Unless we've missed a turn somewhere, that's Perky. A punctual chap;
+this is the exact time and place for our meeting and he should bear
+tidings of interest in our affairs."
+
+The man, who was dressed like a farm laborer, responded carelessly to
+the Governor's greeting, and swung himself to a seat beside him on the
+abutment.
+
+"The young brother knows the wisdom of silence," remarked the Governor,
+laying his hand on Archie's knee. "It's a pleasure to bring you two
+together. He and I follow the leading of the same star. What news of the
+lamb in the pasture?"
+
+As though taking time to accommodate himself to the Governor's manner of
+speech Perky lighted his pipe and flicked the match into the river.
+
+"The little lamb is not happy. The father is expected tonight. I've got
+orders to chop wood while he's on the reservation."
+
+"The son is not wise to the metal trick and you drop into the
+background?"
+
+"The true word has been spoken, brother."
+
+"The son has been long upon the road. What caused him to linger?"
+
+"A broken arm, so the old man has it; and repairs have been made in a
+hospital at Portland by the eastern sea."
+
+The Governor dug his elbow into Archie's ribs. Archie caught a gleam.
+Putney Congdon had been in a hospital recovering from the bullet wound
+received at Bailey Harbor, but was now arriving at his father's Ohio
+farm, where his child, the lamb referred to, was concealed. Putney was
+to be kept in ignorance of the lure of the tampered coins that had
+brought Perky into alliance with his father, and Perky was to interest
+himself in wood-chopping during the son's visit. In the privacy of the
+bridge with only an uninterested river for auditor, there seemed to be
+no reason why these matters should not be discussed openly; but the
+Governor evidently enjoyed these veiled communications, though it was
+clear that Perky found difficulty in fashioning the responses.
+
+"Is there work in the fields for willing hands? Shall we find welcome as
+laborers keen for the harvest?" asked the Governor.
+
+"The slave driver weeps for lack of help and the pay is high. You will
+be welcome. When the sun makes its shortest shadow tomorrow you will
+sign papers for the voyage."
+
+This penetrated to Archie's consciousness as assurance that he and the
+Governor would find employment on Eliphalet's farm, where Edith Congdon
+was being concealed from her mother, and that the most fortunate time to
+apply for employment was at noon the next day.
+
+"The lamb must be carried to more northern pastures. We must guard
+against snares and pitfalls."
+
+"The old ram is keen but only one eye may be used at a knot-hole. He
+suspects nothing. We have spoken enough?"
+
+"Longer speech would be a weariness; you may leave us."
+
+Perky waited for a motor to clatter over the bridge and with a careless
+"So long!" walked away whistling.
+
+"A pretty decent chap, that," remarked the Governor, "with a highly
+developed bump of discretion. A man I hope to see with his feet on
+honest earth when I leave the road. There must be no slip, Archie. The
+responsibilities of the next fortnight are enormous. The happiness of
+many people depends upon us. We'll stroll back to that big farm we
+passed awhile ago. It's starred in the official guide books of the dusty
+ramblers and the milk and bread and butter there will be excellent. And
+the barn is red, Archie! A red barn is the best of all for sleeping
+purposes. An unpainted barn advertises the unthrift of the owner, and
+the roof is always leaky. The scent of moldy hay is extremely offensive
+to me--suggests rheumatism and pneumonia. And a white barn stares at you
+insolently. Whenever I see a white barn I prepare for bad luck. But a
+red barn, Archie, warms the cockles of your heart. It enfolds you like a
+canopy of dreams! I wouldn't have the red too glaring;--a certain
+rustiness of tint is desirable--"
+
+"Here endeth the lecture," Archie interrupted. "I am starving in a land
+of milk and honey. Do I understand," he asked as they crossed the
+bridge, "that tomorrow we're going to find jobs on Eliphalet's
+plantation and kidnap his granddaughter?"
+
+"Much as I hate to anticipate, Archie, it's not only little Edith we're
+going to kidnap! We're going to steal the old man too!"
+
+
+III
+
+"I never saw a tramp yet that was worth his breakfast," snarled Grubbs,
+the foreman of Eliphalet Congdon's farm. "But don't you bums think y'
+can loaf round here. It's goin' t' be work from now right through till
+the wheat's cut. Jail birds, both on y', I bet. Well, there ain't
+nothin' round here to steal. Y' can both sleep in the hands' house back
+yonder and hop to meals when the bell rings. There's some old hats in
+the barn; shed them pies y' got on yer heads and try t' look like honest
+men anyhow."
+
+They partook of the generous midday meal provided in a big screened
+porch adjoining the kitchen. Half a dozen other laborers, regularly
+attached to Eliphalet's section of rich land, eyed the newcomers with
+the disdain born of their long tenure. Perky was a capital actor; no one
+would have imagined that he had ever seen either of the new hands
+before. In the near-by fields the wheat shimmered goldenly in the sun,
+quivering into the perfection that would bring it under the knife a few
+days later. Help was scarce and the scorn of the foreman was assumed. He
+had every intention of clinging to the latest comers, inexperienced
+vagabonds though they might prove, until the pressing need was passed.
+
+The Governor was set to work with two other men ripping out an old rail
+fence and replacing it with wire. Archie's task was the rather more
+disagreeable one of trundling gravel in a wheelbarrow and distributing
+it in holes staked for his guidance in the road that ran from the
+highway gate to the barn. The holes were small; it seemed to Archie
+absurd to spend time filling such small cavities; and a wheelbarrow
+filled with gravel is heavy. The foreman explained the job and departed,
+reappearing from time to time for the pleasure of criticizing Archie's
+work. When Archie suggested that there would be an economy of time in
+loading the gravel into a wagon and effecting the distribution by that
+means the foreman stared at him open-mouthed for a moment, then burst
+into ironical laughter.
+
+"Give _you_ a team to handle--you!"
+
+The thought of trusting Archie with a team when teams were needed for
+much more important matters struck the cynical foreman as a gross
+impiety. The humor of the thing was too tremendous to be enjoyed alone;
+he yelled to a man who was driving by in a motor truck filled with milk
+cans to stop and hear the joke. Archie's soul burned within him. That a
+man of education who belonged to the best clubs on the continent should
+be proclaimed a fool by a hatchet-faced farmer in overalls, before a fat
+person on a milk truck was the most crushing of all humiliations. The
+foreman jumped on the truck and rode away, and Archie bent his back to
+the barrow, resolving that never again would he complain of bumps in a
+road now that he knew the heart-breaking and back-breaking labor of
+road-mending.
+
+On the whole he did a good job; it was remarkable how interested one
+could become in so contemptible a task. He tamped the gravel into the
+holes with the loving care of a dentist filling a tooth, and struck work
+with reluctance when the bell sounded for supper.
+
+The Governor was already on terms of comradeship with his fellow
+toilers, and as they splashed in the basins set out on a long plank near
+the kitchen, his quips kept them laughing. Two college boys had just
+arrived to aid in the harvesting. Farmers are not much given to humor
+and the young fellows were clearly pleased to find a jester on the
+premises. At the supper table the Governor gave his conversational
+powers free rein. This was the only life; he had rested all winter so
+that he might enjoy farm life the more. He subjected the collegians to a
+rigid examination in Latin, quizzed them in physics and promised the
+whole company a course of lectures on astronomy.
+
+Perky strolled away in one direction; the Governor in another and
+Archie, left to his own devices, fumed at this desertion. The two would
+meet somewhere and plan the next strategic move, Archie surmised, and he
+was irritated to find himself denied a place in their councils. He
+refused an invitation to sit in at a poker game that was being organized
+in the farm hands' house and wandered idly about the premises. The
+residence was a two-story farmhouse, with a broad veranda evidently
+quite recently added. As Archie passed the windows he noted that the
+rooms were handsomely furnished. This was not an establishment where the
+employees were admitted to social intercourse with the family of the
+owner. As Archie stole by, the voices from the veranda sounded remote as
+from another world. An aristocrat by birth and training, he found here a
+concrete lesson in democracy that disturbed him. The world was not all
+club corners and week-end parties. For a few hours at least he was
+earning his bread by the sweat of his face--a marvelous experience--and
+feeling very lonesome indeed at the end of his day's labor.
+
+"I don't want to stay with papa; I want to see mama!"
+
+A child's voice plaintively uttering this as he slunk round the house
+reminded him of the real nature of his sojourn on Eliphalet Congdon's
+acres.
+
+"Papa's sick; you must be nice to your papa. You must help him to get
+well, and then you can see your mama!"
+
+Through the parlor windows he saw the stolen Edith rebelliously
+confronting the tall woman who had been a party to the kidnaping in
+Central Park.
+
+Eliphalet Congdon entered the room clutching a newspaper and Archie
+heard him exclaim angrily:
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Edith. Your papa's just come and
+is sick and tired and your fretting's keeping him awake. Take her
+upstairs, Sarah, and put her to bed."
+
+As he surveyed the upper windows he caught a glimpse of a woman in a
+trained nurse's uniform. Putney Congdon was established on the farm and
+though it was nearly three weeks since the fateful night at Bailey
+Harbor, he was still feeling the effects of his injury. Afraid of being
+caught loitering Archie hurried down to the meadow that stretched away
+from the house and stumbled into a flock of sheep.
+
+He left the sheep, rather envying their placid existence, and was on his
+way to the laborers' shack when the Governor stepped into his path.
+
+"Mooning? Perky and I have been smoking our pipes off yonder in the
+woods. He's as sore as a boil because Putney's blown in and he's got to
+make a feint at honest labor. Perky has a very delicate touch with the
+tools of his trade and he'd just got his laboratory fixed up in the
+garret where he's been doctoring gold pieces to beat the band. He says
+old Eliphalet is more and more delighted with his work. The more he's
+delighted the better the sport for us."
+
+"I don't see where the sport comes in!" said Archie testily, pausing at
+the fence of the chicken yard. "It's a long way to that camp in Michigan
+where we've got to take the child; and you needn't think it's going to
+be so easy. The old man will be hot after us. Putney's still got a nurse
+looking after him, but if he's traveled this far he's not going to let
+go of the little girl without a fight. You've got to take this thing
+seriously; a mistake will be fatal and after all I've gone through I
+don't just relish making a mess of it."
+
+"Make a wish!" cried the Governor. "There goes a star sliding merrily
+toward the Pacific."
+
+But a shower of meteors would not have stopped Archie's questions as to
+the manner in which Edith Congdon was to be snatched from her
+grandfather's farm in Ohio and transferred to the inland seas. He
+resented his exclusion from the conference with Perky and said so.
+
+"My dear boy, suspense is good for the soul; I'm merely cultivating in
+you the joy of surprise. The discipline of waiting will sharpen your
+wits, which is important, as I mean to honor you with considerable
+responsibility and leave you here when I depart, which will be tonight
+as dewy eve spreads her sparkling robe--"
+
+"Leave me here! My God, man, I'm not going to be stranded in this
+wilderness! You've lost your senses if you think you can shake me now
+and leave me to get pinched and do time for your foolishness!"
+
+"Patience, little brother, and not quite so vociferous! You have a good
+natural voice with strong carrying powers but it shows a sad lack of
+cultivation. This much will I impart: tomorrow morning Perky will
+whisper to Eliphalet that the Government is wise to the gold piece trick
+and that they are watched. The old boy will be scared to death--his son
+on the place and all that sort of thing, besides the chance of facing a
+hard-hearted Federal judge for tampering with the Republic's coin. Perky
+will throw a scare into him that will stand him on his head and then
+he'll advise him to beat it and the old chap will throw his arms around
+Perky's neck and beg for protection. And Perky, with a reputation for
+never deserting a pal, will seize him firmly by the hand and away
+they'll go."
+
+"_Where_ will they go?" Archie demanded tartly.
+
+"That would be telling! Let it suffice that they depart in some haste.
+Next I take the little girl into my care and start for the camp. You,
+Archie, will remain here to watch Mr. Putney Congdon."
+
+"I didn't come here with you, did I? They won't suspect me of complicity
+or anything--oh, no!" moaned Archie.
+
+"Bless you, my boy, I'm far less stupid than you think. I'm leaving here
+at once and the little girl will be carried off with all circumspection.
+My lines of communication are working splendidly and some of the keenest
+wits in the underworld are assembling here and there to assist in my
+various enterprises. The part I'm assigning you flatters your
+intelligence. You are to watch Putney Congdon and follow him when he
+leaves."
+
+"Cut that rubbish and listen to me," said Archie, his voice quavering
+with anger; "you can't play the fool with me in this fashion. You mean
+to leave me here with a man I shot; and you think I'm going to _follow_
+him! What if he never goes; what if he stays all summer!"
+
+"He won't," the Governor answered. "He's going to follow that child of
+his if it leads him to kingdom come. If you want to see your Isabel
+again, follow Putney Congdon. You will of course be a model of
+discretion, but--"
+
+"Do you mean to say you'll tell him where you're taking his child? If I
+didn't know you for a sober man I'd swear you'd been drinking!"
+
+"Never more sober in my life, Archie. I shall not of course spoil the
+joy of the kidnaping by taking Putney into my confidence, but after the
+child's well out of the way I shall send him a wire telling him where
+his daughter may be found--a gentle hint, but sufficient to tease his
+curiosity."
+
+Archie stamped his foot in impotent fury.
+
+"You're leaving me here on this infernal farm, with a man I shot and
+nearly murdered! And you'll wire him where you're headed for when you
+haven't told me!"
+
+"Steady, lad; steady! Don't forget that the underworld is a labyrinth of
+mystery. I'm utilizing all my power among the brotherhood to pull off
+this undertaking. All about us--" he waved his hand--"with their
+functions duly assigned, are men I can trust and who trust me--some of
+them utter strangers to one another but bound by the same tie. But I'll
+just whisper the address in your ear and you'll do well to remember it.
+Heart o' Dreams Camp, Huddleston, Michigan; post-office, Calderville.
+When the victim of your ready gun rises from his couch and strikes out
+for the northwest you will not lose sight of him. If you do you'll
+muddle everything. Your hand baggage has been planted safely with the
+baggage master at the railway station at Tiffin, seven miles from where
+we stand, and here's the check for it. Once more you shall renew your
+acquaintance with scented soap. Observe my instructions strictly,
+Archie; meet all difficulties with a confident spirit and you will
+neither stumble nor fall. Good-by and God bless you!"
+
+The Governor's blessing failed to dispel the gloom that settled upon Mr.
+Archibald Bennett as he crept through the shed where the laborers were
+housed and found his cot. It was a hot humid night, with the chirr of
+queer insects outside mocking with weary iteration the lusty snores of
+the weary farm hands. He might bolt, now that he had Isabel's address,
+and suffer the Governor to manage in his own fashion the foolhardy
+enterprises, of which he had spoken so lightly; but to do this would be
+only to prove himself a deserter. The business of delivering Edith
+Congdon into Isabel's hands was his affair as much as the Governor's.
+And having twice had a taste of Isabel's anger his appetite was sated.
+To win her applause he must appear before her a heroic figure, but the
+part the Governor had assigned him was little calculated to develop his
+chivalric qualities. He found himself warmly hating Putney Congdon. If
+Congdon had only had the decency to die there would not be all this
+bother, and in his bitterness he resolved that if he got another chance
+he would make an end of him. Soothed by this decision he fell asleep.
+
+
+IV
+
+The morning opened auspiciously with a raking from Grubbs, who, finding
+that the Governor had decamped, most ungenerously held Archie
+responsible for his departure.
+
+"I swear every year," he declared, "I'll never hire another tramp and
+hereafter I'll let the crops rot before I'll have one on the place."
+
+Archie replied with heat that he knew nothing about the Governor or the
+reason for his precipitate passing. As the scolding the foreman had
+given him the day before still rankled, he protested his ignorance of
+the Governor and all his ways with a vigor strengthened much to his own
+edification by oaths he had never employed before. The foreman, taken
+aback by his onslaught, mumbled and then asked humbly as though ashamed
+of his lack of confidence in his employee: "Well, you two landed here
+together and I thought you might be gettin' ready to play the same
+trick. Look here, d'ye know anything about horses?"
+
+"Well, I've ridden some," Archie answered guardedly, fearing the
+imposition of some disagreeable task as a punishment for his violent
+language.
+
+"Ridden; where th' hell have you rode?"
+
+Archie's knowledge of horses had been gained by cautious riding in park
+bridle paths with a groom, but to confess this would be only to increase
+the wrath and arouse the suspicions of the farmer.
+
+"Oh, I've always been around horses," said Archie. "I guess I can handle
+'em all right."
+
+The foreman meditated, gave a hitch to his trousers, inspected Archie
+from head to foot and spat.
+
+"Humph! I gotta find somebody t' watch the old man's granddaughter ride
+'er pony, and I guess I'll give you the job if y' got sense enough to
+set on a horse and keep th' kid from breakin' 'er neck. What y' think o'
+that! I gotta waste a horse right now when I could use a dozen more, so
+a grown man can play with a kid! The old man's skipped this morning
+without sayin' whether he'd ever be back again!"
+
+"Mr. Congdon has left?" asked Archie, with all the innocence he could
+muster.
+
+"Not only has he gone but he's took a scrub I was usin' as handy man on
+the place. You can't beat it! There ought to be a law against city men
+ownin' farms an' makin' farmers do their work."
+
+Archie thought this sound philosophy and he expressed his agreement
+heartily.
+
+"Well, go to the barn and clean up that pony, and clap on a boy's saddle
+you'll find there; and there's a sorrel mare in the last stall on the
+left you can take. The kid'll be out lookin' fer y', and y' want to take
+mighty good care of 'er; she's the ole man's pet and he'll kill y' if
+anything goes wrong with 'er. Keep 'er out about an hour and be
+partickler careful. Between you and me there's somethin' queer about the
+kid bein' here; row o' some kind between her pa and ma. Her pa's here
+sick. Guess all them Congdon's got something wrong with 'em!"
+
+Archie restrained an impulse to affirm the last statement and set off
+stolidly for the barn. He felt himself a better man for his interview
+with the foreman, who proved to be human and no bad fellow after all.
+His appointment as groom for the daughter of Putney Congdon was only
+another ironic turn of fate. The child might remember him as the man who
+had rescued her balloon in Central Park, but in his shabby clothes and
+with his face disguised by a week's growth of beard this was unlikely. A
+more serious matter for concern was the possibility that the Governor or
+his agents might attempt to steal her away from him while she was in his
+care. But so far in his stormy pilgrimage he had gained nothing by
+yielding to apprehensions and he whistled as he rubbed down the pony and
+got his own mount ready.
+
+The child came running into the barn lot followed by the woman who had
+been a party to her abduction, and danced joyfully toward the pony.
+
+"Edith mustn't stay out too long; an hour will be enough for the first
+day. And please keep close to the gate. You're sure you understand
+horses?"
+
+Archie satisfied her on all points, submitting himself to her critical
+gaze without flinching. In his big straw hat he was not even remotely
+suggestive of the man who had attempted to frustrate the seizure of the
+child in the park. In her ecstatic welcome of the pony Edith hardly gave
+Archie a glance. A riding costume had been improvised for her out of a
+boy scout's suit, and with her curls flying under her broad hat she was
+a spirited and appealing figure. The woman followed them down the lane
+to the road, where she indicated the bounds to be observed during the
+lesson. The pony was old and fat, and only with much urging could he be
+brought to a trot. Archie delivered himself of all the wisdom he could
+recall from the instruction of his riding teacher as to seat and
+carriage. The companionship of the child cheered him; and as they
+patrolled the road she prattled with youthful volubility. When a
+traction engine passed towing a threshing machine the sorrel mare showed
+her mettle in a series of gyrations that all but landed Archie in a
+fence corner.
+
+Edith, watching him with trepidation, cried out in admiration of his
+horsemanship. The woman, satisfied that the groom was really a master
+horseman, sat down on the grass by the gate to read.
+
+Archie, in his anxiety to save the child from mishap, had given little
+attention to the traffic on the road until he awoke to the fact that the
+same touring car had passed twice within a short period. It was a smart
+vehicle with a chauffeur in gray livery whose figure tantalized his
+memory. It flashed upon him in a moment that this was either the
+Governor's New York chauffeur or some one who bore a striking
+resemblance to that person. The Governor had hinted at the summoning of
+many assistants to aid in his undertaking, and it was not at all
+unlikely that he had drawn upon his New York establishment. But for the
+child to be abducted during the progress of the riding lesson might lead
+to unpleasant consequences and was not at all to Archie's taste.
+
+The woman's attention was wholly relaxed and she scarcely glanced up as
+he passed her. There could be no better opportunity for the seizure, as
+the laborers were widely distributed over the farm. A stretch of
+woodland opposite the Congdon gate precluded the possibility of
+interruption from that quarter.
+
+The gray-clad chauffeur passed again, this time in a more powerful car.
+He made no sign but Archie caught a glimpse of the Governor busily
+talking with a strange man. Convinced now that the Governor's plans were
+culminating and that the car was making these circuits of the farm to
+enable the occupants to get their bearings, Archie awaited anxiously the
+next appearance of the machine. When at the end of a quarter of an hour
+it shot into view he was at the farthest point from the gate indicated
+by the woman as the range of Edith's exercise.
+
+"That girth needs pulling up a little; let's dismount here," said
+Archie, drawing up under a tree at the roadside. The woman was deeply
+preoccupied with her book and apparently oblivious to the traffic on the
+road. Archie pretended to be having trouble with the saddle, as he
+filled in the time necessary for the car to reach him. It passed the
+gate more rapidly than on previous occasions, but slowed down at once
+and a familiar voice greeted him.
+
+"Pardon me, but is this the road to Tiffin? I'm afraid we've been
+running round in a circle."
+
+"Straight ahead! And I suggest that you be in a hurry about it!" said
+Archie, seeing that the woman had risen and was now moving rapidly
+toward them. The Governor stepped jauntily from the running board, with
+his hands thrust into the pockets of his duster. There was a twinkle in
+his eyes as he noted Archie's trepidation. He glanced toward the woman
+indifferently, removed his cap and addressed the little girl, who stood
+beside the pony with her hand on the bridle. A second car drew up just
+behind the Governor's machine. The woman was calling loudly to Edith to
+come to her immediately.
+
+"Edith--Miss Edith Congdon," said the Governor, smiling. "Your mother
+wants you very, very much and I've come to take you to her. If you will
+jump into the car you will see her very soon. We must be in a hurry or
+that woman will catch you. You needn't have a fear in the world. Will
+you trust me?"
+
+The child hesitated, and Archie, enraged at the deliberation with which
+the Governor was managing the abduction, really leaving it to the child
+whether she should go or not, saw the look of fear she bent upon the
+approaching woman--a look that yielded to wonder and amazement and hope
+as she jumped nimbly into the machine.
+
+[Illustration: "We must be in a hurry or that woman will catch you"]
+
+At the same moment two men sprang out of the second car and rushed at
+Archie. One of them flung a carriage robe over his head and twisted it
+round his throat, then they gathered him up, head and heels, and tossed
+him over the fence. The thing could not have been managed more neatly if
+it had been rehearsed. The Governor leaned over the fence and gazing
+upon Archie, wriggling in a patch of briars, unconcernedly recited:
+
+    "'She who comes to me and pleadeth
+      In the lovely name of Edith
+        Shall not fail of what was wanted;
+      Edith means the blessed, therefore
+      All that she may wish or care for,
+        Shall, when best for her, be granted!'"
+
+The two cars were enveloped in a cloud of dust when Archie, tearing the
+blanket from his head, rose to confront the screaming woman. Twice he
+had seen the child stolen, and the first occasion had not been without
+its drama, but the Governor had made of the second the sheerest farce.
+The woman berated him roughly for his stupidity while he attempted to
+explain.
+
+"The man who talked to the little girl knew her--called her by name.
+They've probably just gone for a ride."
+
+This only increased the woman's indignation and he roused himself to
+placate her.
+
+"I had better run to the house and telephone to the Tiffin police," he
+suggested.
+
+To his infinite surprise she declared in alarm that this must not be
+done; she would go herself and tell the child's father what had occurred
+and let him deal with the matter. This was wholly beyond his
+comprehension and to conceal his emotions he fell back heavily upon his
+role of the country bumpkin, complaining of imaginary injuries and
+vowing that he would have the law on the men who assaulted him. The
+woman glanced carefully about, as though to make sure they had not been
+observed and then set off for the house. She took several steps and then
+turned to say:
+
+"Don't talk about this--do you understand? You're not to say a word
+about it. I'll see Mr. Putney Congdon and tell him just how it
+happened."
+
+"But if the police should ask me--"
+
+"Don't be a fool! The police are not going to know about this. Those
+were Mr. Putney Congdon's orders in case anything like this happened.
+And you needn't talk to the other hands about it either. I'll fix the
+foreman; all you've got to do is to keep your mouth shut."
+
+Her assumption that Mr. Putney Congdon would not be greatly aroused by
+the abduction of his daughter was anything but clarifying. Archie
+returned the pony to the barn and was sitting in the door brooding upon
+the prevailing madness of the human race when Grubbs found him.
+
+"Well, it certainly beats hell!" the man remarked, wiping his brow with
+the back of his hand.
+
+"There's a good deal in what you say," Archie mournfully assented. "I
+want you to know that it wasn't my fault. Those fellows--there were
+about six of 'em--jumped on me and tried to choke me to death and then
+pitched me over the fence and it was all over in half a second. I
+apologize if that's what you expect."
+
+"I don't expect a damned thing! That fool woman said I wasn't to pester
+you about it as you wasn't to blame, which makes me sore, for at the
+first jump I was goin' to call the sheriff and turn y' over. But from
+what she says we're not to say a word--not a word, mind y'! Y' can't
+beat it!"
+
+"I certainly shan't attempt to beat it," replied Archie sadly. "I'd like
+to catch a March hare just to tell him that some human beings are a lot
+crazier than he is. We haven't done justice to the intellectual powers
+of the rabbit."
+
+The foreman blinked but the remark penetrated and he burst into a loud
+guffaw. That a child should be picked up in the road and carried away
+was startling enough but that nothing was to be done about it was so
+egregious that words failed to do justice to it. It was only eleven
+o'clock and he told Archie that he might spend an hour at the woodpile,
+even guiding him to that unromantic spot and initiating him into the
+uses of saw and ax.
+
+
+V
+
+Three days in the harvest field brought Archie to a new respect for his
+daily bread. He found joy in the discovery that he had strength to throw
+into the scale against man's necessities. He was taking a holiday from
+life itself; and he was content to bide his time until the vacation
+ended. He was passing through an ordeal and if he emerged alive he would
+be a wiser and better man. He planned a life with Isabel that should be
+spent wholly in the open. Cities should never know him again. Isabel
+lived now so vividly in his mind that trifles he had not thought of in
+their meetings became of tremendous importance; foolish things, lover's
+fatuities. There was a certain grave deliberation of speech, more
+deliberate when the sentence was to end in laughter; this he knew to be
+adorable. There was the tiniest little scar, almost imperceptible, over
+one of her temples; it was the right one, he remembered. An injury in
+childhood, perhaps; he grieved over it as though he had seen the cruel
+wound inflicted. And she had a way of laying her hand against her cheek
+that touched him deeply as he thought of it. Her hands were the most
+wonderful he had ever seen; useful, capable hands, slim and long.
+
+When he thought of the castigation she had given him in those dark days
+when they so miserably misunderstood each other, it helped to remember
+her hands; they were hands that could be only the accompaniment of a
+kind and generous heart. There was the troublesome cousin who loved her;
+but he consoled himself with the reflection that she would not have
+mentioned the man if she had really cared for him; and yet this might be
+only a blind. He would have an eye to that cousin. The buried treasure
+he hadn't taken very seriously. In spite of all the remarkable things
+that had happened to him he still had moments of incredulity, and in the
+midst of an Ohio wheatfield, with the click and clatter of the reapers
+in his ears and the dry scent of the wheat in his nostrils, to dream of
+buried gold was transcendent folly.
+
+Gossip from the farmhouse reached him at the back door and he was alert
+for any sign that Putney Congdon meditated leaving. Eliphalet had not
+returned; he judged that Perky, probably inspired by the Governor, had
+frightened the old man into taking a long journey. The woman who had
+cared for Edith had left; he got that direct from Grubbs, who poured out
+confidences freely as they smoked together after the twilight supper.
+
+"Say, I guess I sized you up all wrong. You don't act like a bum at all;
+I guess you and me might rent a farm round here somewhere and make some
+money out of it next year. You're the first hobo I ever saw who could do
+a day's work without cryin'."
+
+The queer ways of the Congdons had not been referred to between them
+until the third evening, when they took counsel of their tobacco apart
+from the other men, sprawling on the grass in a friendly intimacy that
+Archie found flattering. A plain, hard-fisted farmer liked him and
+showed a preference for his society; the thing was unbelievable.
+
+"I get it through the kitchen that the old man's son's goin' to clear
+out tonight. Orders was sent to have a machine ready to take him to town
+at eleven o'clock. Guess there was nothing the matter with him nohow--y'
+know what these rich young fellas are, and they say the old man's worth
+a mint. The idea of a big grown man havin' a nurse take care of him
+makes me sick. I ain't seen that fella since he came. Telegram phoned
+out this evenin' made 'im jump out o' bed, they say, and he's off for
+somewhere tonight. Sees a chance to make a lot of money most likely."
+
+Archie cautiously changed the subject, but he was already planning his
+departure. The Governor had bidden him follow Congdon and here were his
+marching orders. The prospect of playing the spy upon Congdon had grown
+no less disagreeable since the Governor had told him that this was to be
+his next duty. The only thing that reconciled him to the unattractive
+task was the assurance that Congdon would set out at once for Heart o'
+Dreams Camp, where Isabel presumably was now established. To bother
+himself further with the Congdons was not to his liking; he had ceased
+wishing that he had killed Putney; he wished now that the whole family
+were at the other side of the world where they wouldn't so persistently
+interfere with his affairs.
+
+Grubbs complained bitterly because upon him fell the duty of getting
+Putney into town to catch a west-bound train at midnight.
+
+"You'd think we run a taxi joint here! Where am I goin' to get a night's
+rest, I'd like to know!"
+
+With the seven-mile tramp to town before him Archie was unable to
+sympathize with Grubbs' longing for slumber. He left the foreman
+tinkering the machine in which Putney was to be borne to the station,
+changed his hat for his cap and stole out of the sleeping quarters to
+the road.
+
+The thought that he was on his way to Isabel lightened his step, and he
+trudged along with frequent invocations of the stars. He carried nothing
+in his pockets but the sealed address the Governor's sister had given
+him; the verse in Isabel's writing, and a roll of bills the Governor had
+pressed upon him when they parted.
+
+Reaching town, he found himself with an hour to spare. He got his bag
+from the station and bought a ticket. There was only one upper
+available, said the agent with the usual optimistic suggestion of ticket
+agents that something better might be found when the train came in. He
+spent half an hour at a hotel cleaning up and changing to the clothing
+he had discarded at Cleveland.
+
+... Grubbs carried Putney's luggage across the platform with dogged
+stride, passing Archie without a sign of recognition. He was followed by
+a tall man in a gray suit whose left arm was supported by a sling.
+Grubbs took hasty leave and the two travelers were left alone.
+
+"A warm night," Congdon remarked.
+
+Archie agreed to this, a trifle huskily. Congdon was not a bad looking
+fellow; his tone and manner, and his face, as revealed by the platform
+lights, encouraged the belief that he was a gentleman.
+
+"No red caps here, I suppose," said Congdon with a glance toward the
+station.
+
+"I fancy not," Archie replied. "I'll be glad to help you with your
+bags."
+
+"Oh, thank you! I have a game shoulder,--nearly well now, but it gives
+me a twinge occasionally. The train's on time, I believe."
+
+A blast from the locomotive and a humming of the rails woke the station
+to life. Archie grabbed the larger of Congdon's bags and led the way
+toward a voice bawling "Chicago sleeper." Congdon showed his ticket for
+lower three and climbed in; Archie remaining behind to negotiate for
+space.
+
+"Nothing left but uppers; you can take upper three."
+
+He found Congdon in the aisle disposing of his effects.
+
+"I've got the upper half of the section," said Archie, "But I promise
+not to be a nuisance to you."
+
+"That will be all right. I asked for a stateroom but you can never get
+what you want at these way stations. I'm going to smoke for a while."
+
+Archie threw his suitcase into the upper berth and clung to the
+curtains as the train started with a jerk. Here was a situation so
+utterly confounding that his spirit sank under the weight of it. He was
+not only traveling with a man he had shot; he was obliged to sleep over
+him. The propinquity made it possible to finish the business begun at
+Bailey Harbor and be done with him. He felt the perspiration trickling
+down his cheeks. The possibilities of the next few hours were hideous;
+what if he were unable to resist an impulse to give Putney Congdon his
+quietus; what if--
+
+He staggered toward the smoking compartment and found it unoccupied save
+for Congdon, who had planted himself in a chair and was trying to light
+a cigarette. Archie sank upon the leather divan and struck and held a
+match for him.
+
+Congdon thanked him with a nod and remarked that the weather was
+favoring the farmers.
+
+Archie, satisfied that the rather melancholy blue eyes had found in him
+nothing familiar or suggestive of their earlier and tragic meeting,
+heartily commended the weather as excellent for the crops. Congdon gave
+a hitch to his shoulder occasionally and flinched when a sudden jerk of
+the car threw him against the window frame. The glint of pain in his
+eyes sent a wave of remorse through Archie's soul. Congdon bore his
+affliction manfully. There was about him nothing even remotely
+suggestive of Eliphalet Congdon's grotesque figure or excited, choppy
+speech. He had suffered and perhaps his wound was not alone responsible
+for his pallor or the hurt look in his eyes. As Congdon played nervously
+with his watch chain, he inspected Archie with quick furtive glances.
+
+"I'm all banged up--nerves shot to pieces," he said abruptly, turning
+his gaze intently upon Archie.
+
+"That's rough. Used to be troubled a good deal myself."
+
+The sound of his own voice and the consciousness that the victim of his
+bullet was reaching out to him for sympathy brought back his courage. He
+would be very kind to Putney Congdon. Even apart from the disabled
+shoulder there was a pathos in the man. Archie felt that in happier
+moments he could become very fond of Putney Congdon. He looked like a
+chap it would be pleasant to sit with at a table for two in a quiet club
+corner.
+
+"Chicago?" Congdon asked. It seemed to Archie that he threw into the
+question a hope that they were to be fellow travelers to the end of the
+journey. Here was something, a turn of the screw, that even the Governor
+could not have foreseen.
+
+The conductor came for their tickets and Archie took advantage of the
+interruption to ponder the ethics and the etiquette of his predicament;
+but there was no precedent in all history for such a synchronization of
+two gentlemen who had recently engaged in a midnight duel. Archie was
+appalled by the consciousness that he and Congdon were really hitting it
+off.
+
+The tickets surrendered, Congdon drew out his watch, said that he had
+been sleeping badly and hated to go to bed. He sat erect and tried to
+reach his coat pocket. His face twitched with the pain of the effort.
+
+"I had a bottle of dope I'm supposed to take to help me sleep; must have
+left it in my bag. Will you poke the button, please?"
+
+"Can't I get it for you?" asked Archie.
+
+"You are very kind. It's the small satchel--a lot of stuff in it all
+mixed up. A bottle about as long as your hand."
+
+Opening the bag in Congdon's berth Archie's hand fell upon a photograph
+that lay on top. The face swam before his eyes and he pitched forward in
+his agitation, bumping his head viciously against the window. It was a
+photograph of Isabel Perry, an Isabel somewhat younger than the girl he
+knew, but Isabel--indubitably Isabel! Another dive into the bag's
+recesses brought up the photograph of Edith Congdon that had been
+snatched from the frame in the Bailey Harbor cottage. This was
+explicable enough, but the likeness of Isabel in Congdon's satchel was
+utterly inexplicable and astounding. He groped for the bottle and crept
+back to the smoking compartment.
+
+"That's right; thanks. One teaspoonful in water if you don't mind. This
+is really quite unpardonable. You are very good to bother with me; I'd
+counted on the porter's help. Had a trained nurse for a while but you
+can't go traveling over the country with a nurse, and the woman had
+begun to bore me to death. I'd rather die than have doctors and nurses
+trailing me about."
+
+"They're odious," Archie assented. "There! Now have a cigarette to kill
+the taste."
+
+"Good idea! One more and I'll turn in."
+
+A cigarette is the most insignificant of peace offerings, and yet Archie
+experienced a pleasurable thrill as Putney Congdon accepted one from his
+case. They were very good cigarettes, of a brand with which Archie had
+supplied himself generously at Tiffin and Congdon expressed his approval
+of them.
+
+Congdon, the custodian of a photograph of Isabel Perry, demanded a more
+careful inspection, and Archie studied him with renewed interest. Isabel
+had in no way indicated that she knew Congdon; it was Mrs. Congdon that
+she was trying to serve, and Isabel was hardly a girl to bestow her
+photograph upon a married man. Congdon had no business with the
+photograph and Archie bitterly resented its presence in the man's
+luggage.
+
+He jumped when Congdon announced that he was ready to turn in, followed
+him to the berth, and helped him to undress, even touching the wounded
+shoulder.
+
+"That little scratch there's coming along all right now, but the bone's
+sore; suppose I'll feel weather changes as old chaps do who have
+rheumatism."
+
+"Whistle if you need anything in the night," said Archie, and allowed
+the porter to push him into the upper berth, the first he had ever
+occupied. Wakened now and then by unusual jars, he heard nothing of
+Congdon. He stifled a desire to steal Isabel's photograph and in time
+slept the sleep of exhaustion.
+
+When they were roused by the porter he helped Congdon into his clothes,
+chose a clean shirt for him and laughingly offered to shave him.
+
+Congdon regarded him quizzically.
+
+"You're a mighty good fellow! It's about time I was introducing myself.
+My name is Congdon. I live in New York; just taking a little trip for my
+health; going up into the lakes."
+
+"Comly's my name. No particular plans myself. Just knocking about a
+bit."
+
+By the time Archie had made his toilet they were running into the
+Chicago station.
+
+"Suppose we have breakfast in the station restaurant?" Congdon
+suggested. "If I go up to the University Club I'm likely to run into
+somebody who'll want me to do things. And I'm not up to it; really I'm
+not."
+
+"I understand perfectly," said Archie.
+
+"And see here, old man; I don't want to force myself on you, but you've
+been awfully decent to me. Don't be alarmed, but to tell you the honest
+truth my nerves are in such a state that I'm afraid to be alone. If a
+poor neurasthenic won't bore you too much I wish you'd let me tag you
+till my train leaves tonight. I promise not to be a nuisance and if it
+becomes unbearable, just chuck me!"
+
+They not only breakfasted together, but after motoring through the parks
+they spent an hour at the art institute and then Archie acted as host at
+luncheon. The fear of being accosted by an acquaintance made him
+nervous, and his anxiety seemed to be shared by Congdon, who chose an
+eating place unfrequented by travelers. By this time Archie was fully
+committed to the further journey into Michigan and contributed his half
+to the purchase of a stateroom for the trip.
+
+"I'm using you; you can see that I'm using you, making a valet of you,
+dragging you into the wilderness!" exclaimed Congdon. "But I always was
+a selfish whelp."
+
+He made the confession with a grim smile, and an impatient sweep of his
+free arm as though brushing himself out of existence.
+
+Archie's intimate friends were few; men thought him difficult, or looked
+upon him as an invalid to be left to his own devices; and yet he felt
+that he had known Putney Congdon for years.
+
+On a bench in Grant Park Congdon swung himself into a confidential
+attitude.
+
+"Life's the devil's own business," he said with a deep sigh. "I've got
+to a place where I don't care what happens--everything black anywhere I
+look. I've been trying for the past four or five years to do things God
+Almighty never intended me to do. I was happily married; two beautiful
+children; none finer,--but I'll shorten up the story so you can see what
+a monkey fate has made of me. My father's a crank, a genius in his way,
+but decidedly eccentric. My mother died when I was a youngster and as I
+was an only child father tried all sorts of schemes of educating me,
+whimsical notions, one after another. The result was I've never got a
+look in anywhere; unfitted for everything. After I married he still
+tried to hold the rein on me, wanted to put me into businesses I hated
+and kept meddling with my domestic affairs. All this made me weak and
+irresolute. I have a mechanical turn--not a strong bent but the only
+thing that ever tugged at me very hard. Almost made some important
+inventions, but only almost. About the time I'd get a good start father
+would shoot me off into something else, and if I refused he'd cut off my
+allowance. Never set me up for myself; keeps me dependent on his bounty.
+Humiliating; positively humiliating!"
+
+"I can imagine so," Archie agreed. He had now got the explanation of the
+blue prints in the Bailey Harbor house and found himself deeply
+interested in Congdon's recital.
+
+"Well, sir, I was about to offer myself as exhibit _A_ on a slab in the
+nearest morgue," Congdon continued, "when I met a young woman who
+_seemed_ to understand me, and right there's where I made the greatest
+mistake of my life. It was last spring when that happened. Talk about
+plausibility, Comly! The word never had any meaning until that girl came
+along. She made a fool of me; that's the short of it. I took her into
+dinner at the house of some friends right here in Chicago--I lived here
+about a month trying to learn a patent medicine business father had gone
+into. The thing was a fake; a ghastly imposition on the public. Such
+things have a weird fascination for father; it's simply an obsession,
+for he doesn't need the money."
+
+He was wandering into a description of various other dubious businesses
+that had attracted Eliphalet Congdon when Archie, nervously twisting a
+folded newspaper, brought him back to the girl who had played so
+mischievous a part in his life.
+
+"Oh yes! Well, I was ready to jump at anything and she diagnosed my case
+with marvelous penetration. Really, Comly, it was staggering! She said
+I faced life with the soul of a coward; she'd got an inkling, I suppose,
+of my father's freakishness and injustice; and she told me I lacked
+assurance and initiative. Suggested that I go armed and shoot any one
+who stepped on my toes. All this with a laugh, of course; but
+nevertheless I felt that she really meant it. She said a man can do
+anything he really determines to do; it's up to him. She recited a piece
+of verse to the effect that a man fears his fate too much if he won't
+put his life to the test. I was fool enough to believe it. I tried to
+follow her advice. It ended in my having a row with my father that beat
+all the other rows I ever had with him and he turned against my
+wife--said she was trying to estrange us. And when I ran away to escape
+from the nasty mess he sent her telegrams in my name threatening to
+kidnap the children and he did in fact kidnap my little daughter.
+Snatched her away from her mother and carried her out to one of his
+farms in Ohio. But my wife's a great woman, Comly; one of the dearest,
+bravest women in the world. She's played a clever trick on the old
+gentleman and got the child back again and I'm damned glad of it. I got
+a message that the little girl's up in Michigan, so that's really where
+I'm headed for. I don't dare believe that _she_ sent me the message, but
+I hope to God she did. That's the way things have gone with me ever
+since I listened to that girl. Everything all upside down. She's a
+siren; a dangerous character; I ought to have known better!"
+
+"She's beautiful, I suppose," Archie ventured, fanning himself with his
+hat.
+
+"Devilishly handsome!" Congdon exclaimed.
+
+Archie had suffered a blow but he was meeting it bravely. Having
+believed that Isabel had given him this same advice quite spontaneously,
+it was with a shock that he realized that she had offered it in similar
+terms to Congdon. There was no question as to the identity of the girl
+who had bidden Congdon plant his back to the wall and defy the world; no
+one but Isabel would ever have done that.
+
+"And this young woman," Archie asked after a long glance at the lake,
+"pardon me if I ask whether she affected you in a sentimental way? Did
+you well, er--"
+
+"If you mean am I in love with her," began Congdon, "I believe I can say
+honestly that it hardly amounts to that. And yet she made a curious
+impression on me. You know how it is, Comly! A man may love his wife
+with all his heart and soul and he may mean to be awfully square with
+her; and yet there may be a face or a voice now and then that will,
+well, you know, make him wobble a little. I did think about that girl a
+lot; it was damned funny how I thought of her. She'd pop up in my mind
+when I had absolutely willed that I would never think of her again. And
+yet the more I resolved to get her out of my mind the more stubbornly
+she'd keep coming into my thoughts.
+
+"I suppose in a way it was my pride; I hated to think that a girl as
+pretty and clever and attractive as she is thought me a contemptible,
+slinking coward. We all want to be heroes to women; it's one of the
+damned weaknesses of our sex, Comly. I'd ceased to be a hero to my wife,
+who's the gentlest and most long suffering woman alive, but this other
+woman rather gave me hope that I might qualify for the finals in _her_
+eyes. Now, Comly, I see that you're a steady-going fellow; never thrown
+off your balance; not a chap to be made a fool of by a girl who amuses
+herself at your expense at a dinner party. I wish you'd tell me frankly
+just what you think of this?"
+
+"I'd say," replied Archie, attempting to meet this demand with a
+philosophic air, "I'd say that the girl probably played the game on
+every man she thought she could impose on. Merely a part of her social
+technique; a stunt, so to speak, which she'd found would make us weak
+males sit up and take notice. If I were you I'd clean forget the whole
+business; on the other hand there's the suspicion that you appealed to
+her strongly, a girlish fancy, perhaps, and she thought you were the
+sort of fellow that would be hit harder if she roused you to action. I
+tell you, Congdon, women are curious creatures. Just when you think
+you've got your hand on a pretty bird she flutters away and sings
+merrily in another part of the wood."
+
+"Right!" ejaculated Congdon. "By George, that expresses it exactly!"
+
+"About your child, up there in Michigan," said Archie, pleased that he
+was scoring as a man of wisdom, "it's wholly possible that your wife
+sent you the wire as an approach to a reconciliation."
+
+"Oh, Lord, no! You don't know my wife, Comly. You see I got answers to
+the telegrams father sent her in my name and she hit right back at me!
+Don't you believe that she's coaxing me to come back to her. And here's
+the message I got out there in Ohio that caused me to jump for the
+train."
+
+He produced from his pocket a crumpled telegram which read:
+
+   Your daughter is in safe hands at Huddleston, Michigan. Proceed to
+   that point with serenity and contemplate the stars with a tranquil
+   spirit.
+
+This was so clearly the Governor's work that Archie found it difficult
+to refrain from laughing.
+
+"My wife," Congdon continued, "would never send a message like that; you
+may be sure of it. You may think it queer that I set off, when I was ill
+and not feeling up to the trip, on the strength of a message like that.
+But ever since that girl told me I oughtn't to hesitate when I heard the
+bugle I can't resist the temptation to act on the spur of the moment.
+I'm a fool, I suppose. Tell me I'm a fool, Comly."
+
+"I shall do nothing of the kind. There's always the chance that the girl
+had sized you up right and gave you sound advice. Don't answer if you
+don't want to, but have you really done anything, anything you wouldn't
+have done if that girl hadn't told you to step on the world a little
+harder?"
+
+Congdon's free hand worked convulsively; he bent closer to Archie and
+whispered:
+
+"I've killed a man!"
+
+"You murdered a man!" Archie gasped.
+
+"Not a question about it, my dear fellow! It was up at my house on the
+Maine shore. After father had driven my wife away I went there to look
+at the ruins of my home. A sentimental pilgrimage, feeling that I'd made
+a mess of everything and mighty blue. I was mooning through the house
+when I ran into a burglar. The scoundrel had gone to bed in the guest
+room. I was scared to death when I opened the door and spotted him but I
+thought of that girl's advice and pulled my gun and shot him. Couldn't
+have missed the fellow across a bedroom. As I ran down the stairway he
+took a shot at me; that's what's the matter with my shoulder. I got up
+to Portland and a doctor I know there fixed me up and kept the thing
+dark. I passed at the hospital as the victim of a pistol wound
+accidentally inflicted."
+
+"Well, I'd say you're out of it easy. Of course you didn't kill him or
+he wouldn't have been able to wound you. I congratulate you on your
+escape!"
+
+"Thanks, Comly; but you see he didn't die immediately, but crawled off
+and breathed his life out in some lonely place. It's horrible! Of course
+he was a thief and had no business in the house; but as I sit here on
+this park bench I'm a murderer! I never got beyond the headlines in the
+Portland papers; simply couldn't bear it and haven't dared look at a
+newspaper since. I shot a poor devil who had quite as much right to live
+as I have. The thing will hang over me till I die! I don't know just why
+I am confiding in you, but something tells me that you can look at the
+thing straight. If you say I ought to go to Maine and surrender myself
+and tell what I know about the shooting of that man I'll do it."
+
+"Most certainly not!" cried Archie with mournful recollection of his own
+speculations on the same point in the hours when he believed that he
+himself was responsible for Hoky's death. The emotional strain of the
+talk was telling on him. He had never expected to hear from Congdon's
+lips the story of their duel at Bailey Harbor. Congdon had no idea that
+he had fired not at a man but at a reflection in a mirror; and it was a
+question whether common decency didn't demand that he set Congdon
+straight. Congdon in all likelihood wouldn't believe him. Nobody would
+believe such a story! And certainly if he should tell all he knew of the
+Congdons and Isabel, and wind up by acknowledging that it was he who had
+been in the Bailey Harbor house on the night of the shooting, Congdon
+would probably be so frightened that he would run away in terror to seek
+police protection.
+
+Congdon, unaware of his companion's perturbation, rose and suggested a
+walk to freshen them up before train time.
+
+"I thank God I fell in with you," he said with feeling. "Just talking to
+you has helped me a whole lot!"
+
+Archie, his guilt heavy upon him, walked up Michigan Avenue beside the
+man he had shot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+I
+
+
+They breathed deep of the tonic air of the North as they left the
+sleeper. Huddleston was a forlorn village with one street that displayed
+a single line of buildings against a background of saw mill and sawdust.
+An unpainted structure bearing the inscription, "Grand Hotel;
+Fishermen's Resort" presented a picture of complete desolation to the
+travelers. The further arm of the bay was a strip of green in the
+distance.
+
+A fisherman posed in monumental majesty on a weatherbeaten pile of
+lumber on the wharf was the only human being in sight on the water side
+of the town. Just as the train pulled out he jerked up his pole,
+flinging a perch high in air and catching it with a yell of delight.
+Archie sighed with relief as the fisherman, now standing erect to unhook
+the perch, turned toward them. It was the Governor, rakishly trigged out
+in knickerbockers, with a cap smartly tilted over one ear and a scarf
+snapping about his face in the lively wind.
+
+"This looks like the end of the world," Congdon remarked dejectedly as
+they walked toward the hotel. "I was a fool to come here and drag you
+along."
+
+"Don't worry about me," said Archie cheerfully. "We'll make a lark of
+it. Your daughter's probably around here somewhere. We'll lay low and
+see what turns up."
+
+A man emerged from the hotel and crossed the street. Archie identified
+him at once as Red Leary, to whom the Governor had delivered the stolen
+money at Walker's farm. Leary made no sign of ever having seen Archie
+before but picked up the luggage and led the way to the hotel. Archie's
+admiration for the Governor soared to new heights at this manifestation
+of the thoroughness of his preparations. Something had been said at
+Walker's about Leary's retirement to northern Michigan, but at that time
+Huddleston had not, he was sure, figured in the Governor's plans. Leary
+walked round the counter and turned the register for their signatures.
+
+"We jes' opened the house last week; she's been shet up quite a spell
+but they're goin' t' open the mill ag'in. Jest now there ain't a soul in
+town. Those houses and the store are boarded up tight. The railroad
+agent stays here to run the water tank and sleeps in the station. Yep;
+one other gent's registered." He placed his finger on "Reginald Heber
+Saulsbury" in the Governor's flowing autograph. "All the way from New
+York. I guess you'll find him all right. Blew in a couple of days ago;
+says he come out here seekin' peace for his soul; them's his very
+words."
+
+"I judge there's a large surplus of soul stuff hereabouts," remarked
+Congdon. "By the way, you haven't seen anything of a little girl about
+here, have you--a child of eleven?"
+
+"Not one of 'em but a whole passel," replied Leary lifting his head
+after scrawling the numbers of the rooms against their names. "They's a
+camp o' city girls across the bay. The day I got here a whole trainload
+of 'em was hauled up from Chicago. Y' never saw such a lively bunch. And
+yestiddy I was over that way lookin' up fishin' places to recommend to
+our guests and saw the whole outfit swimmin'. A cute lot o' youngsters.
+Mos' likely th' camp'll bring considerable business to the hotel; folks
+comin' up to visit their kids."
+
+"Well, I suppose that's the trick," said Congdon as Leary started
+upstairs with their bags. "Edith has been put in a camp; her mother's
+work, of course. Not a bad idea. All I want to be sure of is that the
+child's in good hands. This is a beastly hole but I guess we can make
+out for a day or two and I'll see if I can get a glimpse of Edith."
+
+"Oh, we'll have to study the situation a little," Archie answered. "I
+don't question your daughter's all right. We can make out here for a few
+days anyhow."
+
+The house had been renovated and their rooms were better than the grim
+exterior promised.
+
+"There'll be dinner at twelve," said Leary; "and if you want to try your
+hand at trollin' for pickerel I'll fix you up later in the afternoon.
+Mr. Saulsbury's been snatchin' up perch all mornin'. I'm tired out jest
+from settin' on the porch and watchin' 'im."
+
+Mrs. Leary, in spite of the fact disclosed by the Governor at Walker's,
+that she had conducted a fence in Chicago and was prone to view precious
+stones with a covetous eye, bore all the marks of respectability. She
+entered the dining-room briskly, her motherly face heated from the
+range, and placed a large platter of fried chicken on the table.
+
+"Jes' help yerselves, gents. We've hardly got goin' yet but I got a
+waitress on the way from Chicago and she'll spare me some steps."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated the Governor, pausing dramatically in the door and
+eyeing the newly arrived guests as though their presence filled him with
+astonishment. He bowed to them and remarked upon the fineness of the
+day.
+
+"I guess you folks'll get acquainted without bein' introduced," observed
+Mrs. Leary. "It's always nicer in a summer resort when folks get
+together sociable-like. You wanted radishes, Mr. Saulsbury, and you'll
+notice I got 'em fer you."
+
+"Madam," said the Governor in his most elaborate manner, "I knew you at
+once for a woman of kind heart! I am not in the least surprised to find
+myself in the presence of the noblest radishes I have ever seen."
+
+In a moment more he had introduced himself to Archie and Congdon. He had
+spent a jolly morning, he announced. Not in years had he enjoyed himself
+so hugely. He delivered a lecture on fish only to celebrate in sonorous
+periods the humble perch, scorned by epicures. It was the most
+delectable of all the finny genus, superior even to the pompano.
+Congdon, first irritated by the Governor's volubility, was soon laughing
+at his whimsical speeches and by the time they moved to the narrow
+veranda to smoke he was both puzzled and amused. Archie had been with
+the Governor so constantly and was so familiar with his tangential
+mental processes that he was glad of an opportunity to watch the effect
+of his patter upon a man of his own world. It was clear that the
+Governor was at pains to make himself agreeable to Congdon. He touched
+upon public affairs, sensibly and convincingly, then turned handsprings
+through the arts and sciences.
+
+"Rather odd my being here," he rippled on; "and I need hardly say that
+it's a pleasure to meet on this bleak shore two gentlemen of your
+caliber. I told a friend of mine in Chicago that I was enormously fed up
+with cities and the general human pressure and wanted to go to the most
+God-forsaken spot in America. And he answered without a moment's
+hesitation that Huddleston, Michigan, would satisfy my loftiest ideal of
+godforsakenness. He had been here straightening up some land titles and
+camped out for a week with a surveyor and ate out of a skillet. He's one
+of these fussy fellows who sends an order of chops back to a club
+kitchen a dozen times before he's satisfied,--you know the type. He's
+probably laughing himself to death right now thinking how miserable I
+am. But I refuse to be bored; never in my life have I been bored! Even
+the sawdust pyramids and the stumps are magnificent in their desolation.
+I feel it in my bones that something extraordinary is going to happen.
+Something's got to happen or the lake will rise in one vast wave and
+destroy Huddleston. I hope you gentlemen share my feeling that our
+meeting has been ordered by the gods and that we shall stand or fall
+together."
+
+"If we've got to put the responsibility somewhere the gods may have it,"
+laughed Congdon. "I'm a cripple, as you see, but as Comly and I haven't
+a thing to do we'll give you a day or two to kick up some excitement. It
+may entertain you to know that my coming here was due to an anonymous
+telegram."
+
+"Excellent! I'm delighted to know that there's some of the old romantic
+spirit left in the world! It pleases me clear through to meet a man who
+will act on an anonymous telegram and not ring up the police to ask
+their stupid advice."
+
+With a wave of the hand he left them, declaring it to be his purpose to
+spend the afternoon in the woods.
+
+"What do you make of that chap?" Congdon asked as the Governor strolled
+away, swinging a stick, and disappeared at the end of the street.
+
+"He talks like a nonsense book," Archie replied. "I hope he won't become
+a nuisance!"
+
+"A cheerful soul, I should call him. He's likely to make the place more
+tolerable."
+
+When Congdon pleaded weariness Archie put him to bed and then sauntered
+away, following a dirt road that wound through the timber. In a little
+while he came upon the Governor lying with his back against a tree,
+reading Horace.
+
+"You arrive most opportunely!" he said, without lifting his eyes from
+the book. "I was pining for some one to read this ode to."
+
+He not only read the ode but expounded it, dwelling upon felicities that
+had eluded him before. With countless questions crying for answer Archie
+was obliged to feign interest in the poem until the Governor thrust the
+book into his pocket with a sigh and led the way to the beach.
+
+"Well, you landed him here!" he remarked, seating himself on a log and
+producing his pipe. "Or did he bring you? One would think you were old
+chums to see you together. Not a bad fellow, I should say."
+
+"He's really a good sort," said Archie; "but I'll tell you the whole
+story."
+
+The Governor listened placidly, interrupting only when Archie repeated
+what Congdon had said of Isabel.
+
+"A wonderful girl!" he ejaculated. "Makes it her business to tease the
+world along. Laughing in her sleeve all the time. I must say it's odd
+that both you and Congdon should be the victims of her wiles. My burdens
+are heavier than I knew, for I've got to get you both out of your
+scrapes."
+
+"You don't seem to appreciate how horrible I felt when I found myself
+liking that fellow. To say I was embarrassed doesn't express it! And I
+nearly gave myself away when he told me he'd killed a man, your friend
+Hoky, you know. I nearly confessed all I knew of that business just to
+ease the poor chap's mind."
+
+"But you didn't, Archie! You couldn't have done anything so foolish. My
+tutoring hasn't been wholly wasted on you, after all. You managed the
+trip admirably; I haven't a point to criticize; but now to get down to
+brass tacks. What you learned of old Eliphalet Congdon's meddlesomeness
+jibes exactly with what I know of his character. Let me show you
+something, Archie."
+
+He walked out upon the gravelly shore and pointed through the wide-flung
+arms of the bay.
+
+"Do you see a little blur of smoke out yonder in the open lake? That's
+the _Arthur B. Grover_ proceeding under her own steam, with all the
+dignity of a transatlantic liner. I took up my option and the bloomin'
+thing is mine. It's got a crew of the smartest crooks in all America.
+Men of genius in the field of felony, and a few of them talented in
+other lines. One chap a navigator, able to sail a ship round the Horn,
+and yet he prefers to play the shell game at rural fairs. And Perky's on
+board with old Eliphalet Congdon! Yes, sir; the old boy is right there
+as safe as King Arthur when the dark barge bore him away to the sound of
+wailing. Perky sent me a wire from Mackinac this morning saying that all
+is well on our frigate. They have orders to hang around out there till I
+signal them to come in. But, my dear Archie--"
+
+He refilled his pipe and when he had it going to his satisfaction waved
+his arm toward the camp.
+
+"There's a queer business going on over there. Ruth told me at Rochester
+that when I brought Edith up here I'd better leave the train at
+Calderville, the first station south of Huddleston, and drive to Heart
+o' Dreams Camp through the woods. Well, the road over there was only a
+trail and I had a hard job getting through, but made it all right. Ruth
+and Isabel were delighted with our success. That's all easy. But those
+girls are in trouble."
+
+"Well, hurry on!" said Archie, sitting up straight.
+
+"Oh, that cousin of Isabel's is not a myth at all as I rather thought he
+might be; and that money may be buried over there somewhere, you know.
+And the cousin's laying himself out to annoy the camp in every way
+possible, even going the length of trying to starve 'em out. There's a
+stack of supplies at the Huddleston station that they can't move."
+
+"You forget," cried Archie excitedly, "that there are laws even in the
+wilderness! If that fellow's looking for trouble all we've got to do is
+to telephone for the sheriff and land him in jail. The jails up in this
+neck of woods are probably highly uncomfortable."
+
+"I grant all that," said the Governor sprawling at ease. "But the
+notoriety of the thing would kill the camp. Once it got into the
+newspapers every father and mother who has a child out yonder would go
+right up in the air. It would make a great first page story--buried
+treasure--a war for hidden gold centered about a girls' camp. That whole
+yarn about the haughty southerner planting his money in safe territory
+till he saw which way the cat jumped is fruity stuff for our special
+correspondent on the spot. No, Archie; ladies of quality like our Ruth
+and Isabel must be protected from vulgar publicity, and we don't want
+any sheriffs or newspaper reporters nosing around. It's up to you and me
+to smooth out their troubles without resorting to bothersome legal
+apparatus. The camp has no telephone; the road round to that peninsula
+is all but inaccessible. They have a launch they're in the habit of
+using to carry stuff across from Huddleston, but Mr. Richard Carey
+blocks the way! I got all this when I was delivering Edith over there at
+the back door. And Carey is camped at the land entrance, with an army of
+lumberjacks to help him maintain a blockade. On my way out I ran the
+gantlet, and if you think Carey is only fooling about this buried
+treasure business, gaze on this!"
+
+He took off his cap and pointed to a hole through the baggy top.
+
+"A bullet, Archie, fired from ambush with murderous intent."
+
+"But she said her cousin was in love with her! It can't be possible
+that he's resorting to violence to drive her off land that belongs to
+her, with the idea that she'll meet him at the altar afterwards."
+
+"There's no loving touch in that bullet hole! Heart o' Dreams Camp is in
+danger as long as that lunatic runs loose. They can't communicate with
+Huddleston or Calderville in their launch because Carey patrols the
+shore. It's a siege, Archie, and they're going to be hard put for
+provisions in another day or two."
+
+"Then it's our duty to relieve the beleaguered garrison?"
+
+"Nothing less than that! When I took Edith over to Heart o' Dreams,
+Isabel and Ruth wouldn't let me stay long enough to plan anything. They
+were pretty anxious, of course, with Carey trying to smoke them out; and
+they were afraid Putney would try to take Edith away from them. But from
+what you say it's only Eliphalet who's made the trouble and we don't
+need to fear anything from Putney. If it comes to a showdown I rather
+think he'll play with us. You're sure he doesn't suspect that Isabel's
+the head of Heart o' Dreams?"
+
+"He hasn't the ghost of an idea of it. I tell you his spirit's broken
+anyhow. With Hoky's murder on his mind and the general muddle of his
+family affairs he doesn't care much which way the wind blows."
+
+"That man needs occupation and we may find some way of using him. He
+looks as though he had red blood in him; a fighter if he was thoroughly
+aroused. If he knew the trick I've played on his father I guess that
+would tickle him considerably. The idea of old Eliphalet with his
+millions cruising the lakes with a band of the most accomplished
+outlaws in America is funny, Archie; real comedy I should call it. He's
+a prisoner on the _Arthur B. Grover_, only he doesn't know it. I
+mobilized that outfit thinking we might need some help up here and
+incidentally to keep Eliphalet where I could put my hand on him; but the
+whole thing's complicated, Archie. It's far more of a mess than I
+expected."
+
+He found a smooth patch of sand and with a stick drew a number of
+diagrams, carefully effacing them after they had served his purpose.
+
+"Humph! This is no time for weakening! Over there, Archie,"--he pointed
+toward Heart o' Dreams--"are the two finest women in the world. We're
+going to stand by them no matter whose head gets cracked."
+
+He spoke lightly, but his brow clouded. It was evident that something of
+unhappy augury had been, revealed in his last appeal to the heavens.
+
+"I want to be alone for a while," he said brusquely, "I'll turn up at
+supper time."
+
+
+II
+
+At the supper table a new direction was given to Archie's thoughts, for
+a time at least. Fortunately his nerves had grown accustomed to shocks
+and he was only dazed now by the intrusion of a new figure on the scene.
+The Governor and Congdon were already at the table when he reached the
+dining-room. Mrs. Leary had referred to an assistant she was expecting
+on the afternoon train, and as Archie appeared at the door a neatly
+attired waitress walked sedately before him to his place.
+
+Sally Walker had faded in a long perspective of crowding memories. He
+never expected to see Sally again, but if the girl who stood by his
+chair was not Sally she was her twin. He sank into his seat, watching
+her out of the corner of his eye as she passed through the swing door
+with a flutter of her snowy apron. He replied feebly to the Governor's
+bantering salutation and nervously played with his fork. The Governor
+was soaring and Archie's bewilderment was evidently affording him secret
+delight.
+
+Sally was not merely a past mistress of dissimulation; she was the
+undisputed reigning queen in that realm. She served the table with a
+strictly professional air, in no way betraying the fact that two of the
+guests had lately enjoyed the hospitality of her father's house or that
+she had beguiled one of them by the grossest misrepresentations to
+assist her to elope.
+
+"There's custard and apple," she recited finally, "or you may have wheat
+cakes with syrup," and as Archie covertly met her eyes she winked, a
+wink not sly or vulgar but a wink expressive of mischief on a holiday
+and quite content with itself.
+
+He was enormously curious to know how she had reached Huddleston and
+what her adventures had been on the way--matters as to which the suave
+Governor was no doubt fully informed, though he showed no disposition to
+disclose them.
+
+For a gentleman, the guest of an inn, to lurk round the kitchen door
+waiting for a chance to address a waitress is wholly undignified, but
+Archie was doing this very thing the moment he could escape from the
+Governor and Congdon. Mrs. Leary was upstairs preparing additional
+rooms against the chance of further arrivals and Sally was alone in the
+kitchen.
+
+"Well, I've got the same old job," she remarked carelessly, as Archie
+paused uncertainly on the threshold. "You're a pay guest here and I
+can't let you swing a towel, so if you want to talk take a chair on the
+side lines."
+
+Sally was as handsome as ever; he had not been mistaken in thinking her
+a very handsome and attractive girl with a distinct charm. It seemed
+aeons ago that he had kissed her; in fact it was almost unbelievable that
+he had ever kissed so radiant a being. She received him as an old
+friend, without a trace of embarrassment. Her ease put him at serious
+disadvantage. He was at a loss to know how to impress upon her the
+heinousness of the deceit she had practised upon him.
+
+"Sally," he began in a tone that he meant to be sternly paternal, "I
+hope you realize that you treated me very shabbily up there at your
+father's. You not only behaved disgracefully, but you threw away your
+life, and the bright promise of your future. I was very stupid to fall
+into your trap. If things go wrong with you I shall always blame myself.
+And I don't see any chance for happiness for you unless you change your
+ways."
+
+She deliberately concluded the drying of a plate, put it down, and threw
+the towel aside.
+
+"Look here," she began, folding her arms and walking slowly toward him;
+"I'm not the worst girl in the world and I'm far from being the best. I
+lied to you and it was a nasty trick; but I had to get away from that
+farm; I simply couldn't stand it any longer. And I'd worried a lot about
+being the daughter of a crook; I honestly had. I always knew it would
+come out in me some way, and I thought the sooner the better. I just had
+to do some rotten thing to satisfy myself as to how it feels. You can
+understand that, can't you?"
+
+"I think I can, Sally," he stammered. "But--"
+
+"There's no butting about it! I just had to try it once, and you came
+along just when I needed you. Yes, sir; I took advantage of you because
+I saw you were a gentleman and sympathetic and full of that chivalry
+stuff; and I played on your feelings and made you the little goat. It
+wasn't nice of me."
+
+"It certainly approached the unpardonable, Sally. And you not only
+ruined your own life but nearly caused me to lose my best friend. I'm
+still pretty sore about that. But what hurt me most was that you
+sacrificed your opportunity to be somebody in the world, to be a noble,
+useful woman. You linked yourself for life to a slinking, scoundrelly
+thief!"
+
+Sally laughed mockingly. Then, her hands on her hips, she regarded him
+pityingly.
+
+"You poor goose! You sure didn't get my number right! If you thought I
+was going to be tied up for the rest of my days with a miserable little
+wretch like Pete Barney you certainly had me wrong. I just had to turn a
+few handsprings, and you needn't tell me how disgusted you are when I
+say that all I wanted was to know how it feels to lie and steal."
+
+"Yes; you stole some money from your father; that was very wrong,
+Sally."
+
+"Say, you make me tired! What I borrowed from pop I'll pay back. The
+low-down thing I did was to take that string of diamonds away from
+Barney. He slipped 'em to me that night as we were on the way to the
+preacher's to get married. Married! Do you think I really wanted to
+marry that man! Do you think I _am_ married to him now? Why, I gave him
+the slip at the first station after I kissed you good-by and I haven't
+seen him since. And I never intend to see him again! I ducked round till
+I got to a place on the underground railroad I knew about from pop; and
+they took good care of me. Then I slid to Petoskey where the Learys were
+starting up their refreshment shop and was just learning how to make
+soft drinks look wicked when the Governor jerked a wire to Red and that
+grand old girl his wife to come here and open up this moldy old joint.
+My folks know where I am now and as soon as they coax me a little I'll
+go home and be a nice little girl for the rest of my life."
+
+"But the diamonds--"
+
+"Don't be so tragic or I'll burst out crying! I've got the sparklers
+hidden safe; and I'm going to get the Governor to help make a deal to
+give 'em back to the owner if he won't prosecute Barney. I wouldn't want
+that man, even if he's only my husband on paper, to go over the road on
+my account. I'm satisfied with my kick-up and you needn't be afraid I'll
+break any more Commandments."
+
+"Where's Barney now?" demanded Archie suspiciously.
+
+"In jail in Buffalo, if you must know! They pinched him on an old case,
+so you needn't blame me. I tell you I'm clear done with him. Love that
+worm! He just gave me an excuse to let my blacksheep blood ripple a
+little and it's all over now. And I'm sorry I played you for a sucker;
+honest I am. You gave me a lot of money for a wedding present and as
+the wedding doesn't count I'm going to give it back. You'll find it
+tucked away in your collar-box in the top drawer of your bureau. I guess
+that's about all, so you can trot back to the front of the house."
+
+With a finality that closed discussion she fell energetically upon the
+dishes, and he left her to join the Governor and Congdon. His
+enlightenment as to the complexity of human nature was proceeding. Sally
+was wonderful, astonishing, baffling. He did not question that this time
+she had told him the truth. He was touched by her confession that her
+escapade was merely an experiment to test her blood for inherited evil.
+There was an enormous pathos in this; Sally needed help and guidance. He
+would discuss the matter with the Governor the moment they had disposed
+of their more urgent affairs.
+
+
+III
+
+At nine when Congdon announced his intention of going to bed Archie
+assisted him as usual.
+
+"This air's setting me up," said Putney, as Archie inspected the
+crippled shoulder. "The doctor told me to begin exercising that arm as
+soon as the soreness left it. How does the wound look?"
+
+"Like a vaccination mark in the wrong place; that's all. You certainly
+had a close call, old man. Only a few inches lower and it would have
+pierced your heart."
+
+In their hours together Archie had never been able to free his mind of
+the disagreeable fact that he had so nearly killed Congdon; and he was
+beset now by the thought that sooner or later he must confess his
+culpability in the Bailey Harbor shooting. Congdon was accepting him at
+face value, and the thing wasn't square. Every time he touched the
+injured shoulder his conscience pricked him.
+
+"I've got to tell Congdon I shot him and that he was in no way
+responsible for Hoky's death," he announced determinedly to the
+Governor, whom he found pacing the street in front of the hotel.
+
+"Of course you'll tell him, but not yet. I'm mistaken in the man if he
+acts ugly about it. The proper way to tell a man you've tried to kill
+him and that he's carrying the scar of your bullet is to mention it
+incidentally, when you're walking home from church with him, or allowing
+him to sign the check for your lunch. Seriously, it was merely a
+deplorable error on both sides and I believe he'll see it that way. But
+until we get some other things cleared up we'll let him think he killed
+Hoky, just to keep him humble. And now that he's off the invalid list
+we'll let him share some of the little adventures that lie before us.
+Tonight we've got a matter on hand that's better done by ourselves. If
+you think he's safe for a few hours we'll go ahead."
+
+He stopped on the way to the wood-bordered shore and produced from a
+fence corner an electric lamp and two revolvers.
+
+"Stick one of these in your pocket. We're not going to add to our crimes
+if we can help it, but I owe somebody a shot for that nip in my cap."
+
+A stiff wind from the open lake was whipping up battalions of whitecaps
+that danced eerily in the starlight. At a point half a mile from the
+village the Governor flashed his lamp along a bank that hung over the
+beach and found a canoe and a row boat hidden in a thicket.
+
+"We're all fixed. Good old Leary planted these things for us while we
+were at supper."
+
+He gave the whistle Archie remembered from his first encounter with the
+Governor, and in a moment Leary stood beside them.
+
+They had carried the boats to the water's edge when the Governor
+suddenly stood erect. The monotonous tum tum of a gasoline engine was
+borne to them out of the darkness.
+
+"Carey has a boat of some power," the Governor remarked, "and as he
+carries no lights we've got to take the chance of sneaking round him or
+getting run down. We must impress it on Ruth and Isabel that they're not
+to attempt to run the blockade. Then we've got to get rid of Carey; put
+him clean out of business. You and Red take the row boat and trail me;
+I'll scout ahead with the canoe. If one of us gets smashed the other
+will pick up the casualties."
+
+The canoe shot forward, the Governor driving the paddle with a practised
+hand. The row boat followed, Leary at the oars and Archie serving him as
+pilot. As they moved steadily toward the middle of the bay they marked
+more and more clearly the passage of the launch as it patrolled the
+farther shore.
+
+Leary pulled a strong stroke and Archie was obliged to check him from
+time to time to avoid collision with the Governor's craft. At intervals
+passing clouds dimmed the star-glow and in one of these periods a dull
+bump ahead gave Archie a fright.
+
+"Steady! I'll be all right in a moment!" the Governor called
+reassuringly.
+
+He had run into a log that lay across his path and the canoe had
+attempted to jump it. When he reported himself free they went ahead
+alert for further manifestations from the launch, which for some time
+had given no hint of its position.
+
+They were two-thirds of the way across the bay when the Governor gave
+the signal to stop and they drew together for a conference.
+
+"They must be keeping watch," said Archie calling attention to lights on
+the shore. "If we could land without frightening the girls to death--"
+
+The Governor whistled through his teeth. Somewhere to the left of them
+as they lay fronting the camp, a sharp blow was struck upon metal. It
+was repeated fitfully for several minutes.
+
+"It's Carey tinkering his engine. He's been playing possum off there."
+
+The launch was so near that they heard the waves slapping its sides.
+Archie and Leary gripped the canoe tight while the Governor listened for
+any indications of a change in Carey's position.
+
+Suddenly Leary sprang up in the tossing boat.
+
+"Look ahead!" he exclaimed, leveling his arm at a shadow that darted out
+of the darkness and passed between them and the launch. The Governor saw
+it and stifled a cry of dismay.
+
+"Two women in a canoe! They're going to run for it!"
+
+"They are fools!" growled Leary settling himself to the oars and
+swinging the boat round.
+
+The Governor had already turned the canoe and was furiously plying his
+paddle. A lantern shot its beams from the phantom craft, but the light
+vanished immediately.
+
+"There goes his engine," the Governor called as he took the lead. "He
+spotted that light and will try to run them down."
+
+Isabel and Ruth, attempting to elude Carey's blockade and seek help at
+Huddleston, were forcing a crisis that might at any minute result in
+disaster. It was close upon midnight, and there was no help to be had
+from either shore. A fierce anger surged through Archie's heart. There
+could have been no safer place to commit murder than the quiet bay at
+the dead of night. Ultimately the bodies would be washed up; there would
+be the usual inquiries and a report of accidental drowning.
+
+It was incredible that Carey would attempt to run down two women on the
+dark bay and it was apparently his intention to circle round them and
+drive them back to the camp. Neither the canoe of the adventurous women
+nor the launch was visible from the row boat, though the engine's rapid
+pulsations indicated the line of Carey's pursuit. To shout to the daring
+women that help was at hand would only alarm them, and Archie crouched
+in the bow, peering ahead for the silhouette of the Governor as his
+canoe rose on the waves.
+
+The launch executed a wide half-circle, stopped and retraced its course.
+Leary, refusing to relinquish the oars, swore between strokes, the
+object of his maledictions being the invisible Carey, whom he consigned
+to the bottom of the lake in phrases that struck Archie as singularly
+felicitous. In spite of their steady advance and the frequent turns and
+twists of the launch, the canoe and row boat seemed to approach no
+nearer to the enemy. There was no doubt but that Carey knew a craft of
+some kind had put off from the camp and he was determined to intercept
+it; but he was still unconscious of the presence in the bay of the three
+men from Huddleston.
+
+The Governor called to Archie to stop following and move in the
+direction of the town, independently of his own movements, thus
+broadening the surface they were covering with a view to succoring the
+canoe. As though with malevolent delight in the fear he was causing,
+Carey rapidly changed the course of the launch, urging it backward and
+forward with a resulting wild agitation of the waters. In one of these
+evolutions it passed within oar's length of the row boat.
+
+"Keep on swearing!" cried Archie. "He's not a man; he's the devil!"
+
+The launch passed again, like a dark bird skimming the water, and he
+took off his shoes and threw aside his coat.
+
+"If that blackguard keeps this up we may have to swim for it! Give me
+the oars; I want to warm up!"
+
+They were changing positions when the launch, executing another of its
+erratic evolutions, again swept by. A second later they were startled by
+a crash followed by screams and cries for help. Leary whistled shrilly
+to attract the Governor's attention and bent to the oars.
+
+Carey shut off his power the moment he struck the canoe, whether in
+sudden alarm at the success of his design or in the hope of picking up
+the victims of his animosity was a question Archie left for a more
+tranquil hour's speculation. A shout from the Governor announced that he
+was hurrying toward the scene of the collision.
+
+The launch, running full speed, had struck hard and it was sheer good
+luck that the camp canoe had not been cut in two and the occupants
+killed. The drumming of the engine had ceased but a searchlight sweeping
+the water indicated the launch's position. The beam fell for a moment
+upon the Governor, paddling madly; another sweep of the light disclosed
+two heads bobbing on the waves some distance away from him.
+
+"Bear left!" cried Leary, seizing an oar. "Slow down! Stop!"
+
+Archie backed water and the bow sprung high as Leary plunged into the
+bay.
+
+The light playing upon the scene from the launch fell in turn upon the
+struggling women, the Governor and Leary swimming toward them, and
+Archie steadying the row boat ready to aid in the rescue. The appearance
+of unknown men evidently frightened Carey, for he turned off his light
+and retreated toward the inner recesses of the bay.
+
+The rescuers were now dependent upon sound and the starlight in the
+urgent business of marking the position of the young women. A hand
+grasped Archie's trailing oar and in a moment with Leary's assistance he
+had gotten one of the women into the boat. The men now redoubled their
+efforts to find the second victim of the catastrophe, shouting to keep
+track of one another and to hearten the girl who was somewhere battling
+for her life.
+
+A faint cry, hardly distinguishable above the commotion of the waves,
+caught Archie's ear and he jumped into the water and swam toward it. In
+making a stroke his arm fell upon the side of the overturned canoe. A
+pitiful little whimper startled him; he touched a face and his fingers
+caught in a woman's hair. The canoe still retained enough buoyancy to
+support him, and his lusty cries brought the Governor to his side,
+followed an instant later by Leary, laboriously pushing the boat before
+him.
+
+They worked in silence save for the sharp commands of the Governor. The
+boat had to be balanced against the lifting of the second figure over
+the side, and Leary managed this, while Archie and the Governor, after
+twice failing, with a supreme effort, got the second girl aboard.
+
+Leary was running the ray of an electric lamp over the faces of the two
+young women when one of them sat up and muttered in a choking,
+frightened tone, "Oh, Isabel!" Whereupon she began to laugh
+hysterically.
+
+"Thank God Ruth is safe!" cried the Governor. "But Isabel--?"
+
+"They were both taking care of themselves when we picked them up," said
+Archie, holding to the side of the boat. "We haven't a case of drowning
+to deal with."
+
+"We'll make for the camp as fast as possible. I'll take the oars," said
+the Governor. "You and Leary follow in my canoe."
+
+The Governor sent the boat swiftly toward the camp with Archie and Leary
+close behind. Ruth, protesting that she was only chilled by her ducking,
+vigorously manipulated the arms of her prostrate companion. When she
+hailed the shore a lantern flashed in answer and the camp doctor and
+Isabel's mother met them at the landing. They had heard the crash of the
+collision and the reassuring cries that had announced the rescue.
+
+"Lungs all clear; a case of exhaustion or shock," announced the doctor
+crisply, and Archie formed a high opinion of her as a capable person
+whom he should always remember gratefully.
+
+Ruth declared that she was able to walk but Isabel became the object of
+their immediate concern. She lay in the boat muttering incoherently.
+Archie gathered her up in his arms and bore her to the hospital tent
+where a nurse awaited them.
+
+"You gentlemen must go at once to the bath house on the shore," ordered
+the doctor with a brisk professional air. "Take one of these lanterns,
+and strip and rub yourselves dry. Hot coffee will be sent you shortly.
+As there isn't a man on the place we can't offer you dry clothing, but
+if you need medical attention let me know."
+
+The tent flap fell.
+
+"We're lucky devils," said the Governor, as they wrung the water from
+their clothes in the bath house. "If we hadn't been just where we were
+those girls would have drowned. In their skirts they couldn't have made
+the shore. Lucky I say!"
+
+"We have some unfinished business," remarked Archie. "We're going to
+take up this little matter with Mr. Carey before I sleep again."
+
+"Patience!" cried the Governor, now in high spirits though his teeth
+chattered. "It was his inning; he kept them from reaching Huddleston,
+but we don't want to waste our chance of scoring when we go to bat.
+Patience; and then more patience!"
+
+"You don't mean to say that you're not going to notify the authorities
+now?" demanded Archie. "It would give me the greatest satisfaction to
+send him over the road for attempted murder."
+
+"We could do that beyond question; but I've already told you, my dear
+boy, that we are going to be the sole judge of the law and the evidence
+in these matters. I mean to end my career as the prince of villains with
+a flourish. There shall be no loose ends. My time is short. Before the
+week is out I've got to tie all pending matters up in neat packages
+adorned with pink ribbons. Moon, stars and all other influences are just
+right for a successful termination of my seven years of servitude to the
+powers of darkness, and if I don't shake 'em off at the exact moment
+ordained by the heavens I'm committed to another seven years of
+wandering. There you have it in a nutshell. Marriage, home, a life of
+tranquil respectability with the women we love; that's ahead of us if we
+play the cards right. When you speak of calling sheriffs into
+consultation you make me slightly ill. Old sinners like Leary and me
+have no confidence in the law's benevolence; and it may occur to you
+that inquiries as to our immediate past might be embarrassing. We shall
+hold to our course, Archie!"
+
+A pot of coffee and a basket of sandwiches were left at the bath house
+door and they partook with the zest of shipwrecked mariners. At the end
+of an hour, reclad in their wet clothes, they huddled at the landing
+waiting for news from the hospital tent. Mrs. Perry came down presently
+to report that Isabel and Ruth were asleep.
+
+"Isabel has a badly bruised hand--no bones broken but it was an ugly
+smash. She will have to carry it in a sling for a few days."
+
+"Her hand," Archie murmured, so quaveringly that Mrs. Perry looked at
+him curiously.
+
+That one of Isabel's adorable hands should be injured enraged him; he
+felt the hurt in his own heart, and he resolved that Carey should pay
+dearly for an offense that surpassed all other crimes that had ever been
+committed from the beginning of time.
+
+"We have taken every precaution to guard against any unhappy
+consequences of their immersion," Mrs. Perry continued. "There's some
+danger of cold, but Dr. Reynolds is a skilful young woman, and of course
+Isabel and Ruth are strong, vigorous girls. They will be laughing at
+their misadventures by noon tomorrow."
+
+"You're lifting our spirits a lot," said Archie, and Leary, standing a
+little behind him, chokingly ejaculated a heartfelt "thank God!"
+
+"I wish," said Mrs. Perry, "we might proclaim to the world your gallant
+conduct; but for any report of this matter to get abroad would be
+disastrous, a dire calamity, as you can see. The camp day begins early,
+and it would be best for you to return to Huddleston and keep silent as
+to the accident."
+
+"We appreciate all that, and you may count on our discretion," said the
+Governor. "Let me say first that as to the danger of starvation, you
+need have no fear on that score. I wired yesterday for a tug I'm
+somewhat interested in to pick up supplies at Harbor Springs and it will
+put in here some time during the afternoon."
+
+"You are wonderful!" exclaimed Mrs. Perry. "After you ran past the
+barricade so successfully and delivered the little Congdon girl I've
+been sure Ruth's confidence in you isn't misplaced."
+
+"That was a trifling matter. I wish you'd tell me before we leave just
+how much credence you give this buried treasure story? While we're
+about it we must go to the bottom of that."
+
+The rays of the lantern Archie held disclosed an incredulous smile on
+Mrs. Perry's face. She was a tall handsome woman, very like Isabel, even
+in the tones of her voice and in an occasional gesture; and she had
+Isabel's fine eyes.
+
+"I've never thought that more than a fairy tale," she said. "I should
+not want you gentlemen to waste time or run the risk of bodily injury in
+looking for chests of money that may never have been buried here at all.
+There was, to be sure, a considerable fortune, but my father-in-law,
+whom I never saw, would have been much likelier to distribute it among
+banks in the northern states or in Canada. Richard Carey evidently
+believes the story, though from his actions I'm inclined to think him
+utterly mad. He's going to desperate lengths to search for the treasure.
+His conduct is tinged a good deal with resentment because Isabel has
+repeatedly refused to marry him. He's a ne'er-do-well, a blacksheep and
+a disgrace to his family."
+
+The Governor sighed deeply.
+
+"I sometimes wonder that there's any white wool in the world; there are
+so many of these skittish little black lambkins scattered over the
+pastures!"
+
+"They make uncomfortable neighbors!" Mrs. Perry exclaimed, so heartily
+that they all laughed.
+
+On the silent shore with the tents of Heart o' Dreams Camp slowly
+emerging from the shadows of the surrounding wood in the first
+glimmering of dawn, Archie wondered just what Mrs. Perry's feelings
+would be if she knew that she had been countenancing three rogues, two
+of whom were far-wandering sheep with badly spotted fleeces and the
+third, the solemn, silent Leary, with a trail of crime that reached from
+ocean to ocean.
+
+She walked with them to the landing and waved the lantern in farewell as
+they set forth across the brightening waters for Huddleston.
+
+
+IV
+
+When the Governor and Archie went down to breakfast at nine o'clock they
+learned that Congdon had risen early and, declaring that his arm was
+fully recovered, was fishing from the wharf.
+
+The Governor drew from his pocket a telegram which Leary had carried up
+to him while he was dressing.
+
+"A cipher from Perky at Harbor Springs. He's got the provisions aboard
+but reports that he suspects the tug is being watched. It's possible of
+course that he and old Eliphalet were spotted at Cleveland when they
+boarded the boat and that the Government is keeping an eye on the
+_Arthur B. Grover_."
+
+Archie fidgeted uneasily.
+
+"We've got enough trouble on hand right here without bucking the Federal
+authorities. Of course you'll warn him at once not to put in here!"
+
+"My reply was sent instantly. I wired him to hold on to Eliphalet but to
+drop all the men he didn't need to handle the tug at the first
+convenient point and send them singly into the woods beyond Calderville
+to await instructions. This is a dead port; nothing but driftwood has
+landed here since the mill shut down three years ago."
+
+"I tell you I don't like this at all! You can't run a pirate ship
+through the Great Lakes without attracting attention. A policeman can
+stand on the shore anywhere and throw a brick on board anything afloat."
+
+"Really, you exaggerate, Archie," replied the Governor gently. "These
+wide and beautiful waters invite the adventurous mariner and if piracy
+appealed to me at all I'd rather enjoy levying tribute upon the
+unprotected cities of the saltless seas."
+
+Sally brought in a fresh pot of coffee and they waited for her to leave
+the room.
+
+"Only one thing interests me," declared Archie, "and that's the
+immediate cleaning up of Carey. The Congdons have begun to bore me, if
+you'll pardon my saying it! The old man and his plugged gold pieces and
+the will he's reported to carry in his umbrella and the family row are
+none of my business. If you want to give me a thrill of delight you'll
+chuck everything connected with the name Congdon and concentrate on
+Carey."
+
+"Not so easy, with our friend Putney living here under the same roof.
+Again I warn you that we must practise patience. Here comes Putney now."
+
+They had reached the veranda, where Congdon joined them, proudly
+displaying his string of perch. When Leary had borne his catch to the
+kitchen Congdon became serious.
+
+"Something's happened that bothers me a little. A man motored up here
+awhile ago, looked the place over and asked me a lot of questions about
+the hotel and its guests. You understand, Comly--"
+
+He hesitated, glancing questioningly from Archie to the Governor.
+
+"You may trust Saulsbury. We have knowledge of some other things that
+make it necessary for us all to stand together."
+
+"This fellow seemed to have no business here," Congdon continued. "He
+said he was staying at Calderville, farther down the road, and pretended
+to be looking for a quiet hotel to bring his family to. He thought
+Huddleston might do. He looked me over in a way I didn't like. You
+remember, Comly, I took you into my confidence about a little difficulty
+I had before I came here--"
+
+"That little affair on the Maine coast? It was a shooting, Saulsbury,"
+Archie explained soberly.
+
+"Extraordinary!" exclaimed the Governor. "Mr. Congdon, you may command
+my services in any manner whatsoever. Now and then it has been my
+fortune to be able to pull a friend out of trouble. Pray consider me
+wholly at your service."
+
+He listened gravely while Congdon described the shooting at Bailey
+Harbor. He was convinced that he had shot a burglar who died of the
+wound, and that the injury from which he had just recovered had been
+inflicted by his victim.
+
+"You have troubled about this matter quite unnecessarily," the Governor
+declared with a wave of the hand. "I can see that yours is a sensitive
+nature, with imagination highly developed. You were in your own house,
+and had every right to be there; and certainly no jury would ever
+convict you of murder where you were only defending yourself against a
+scoundrel who did his best to kill you."
+
+Congdon brightened perceptibly at this broad-minded view of the matter
+and flashed a look of relief at Archie, who was quietly smoking.
+
+"It's most fortunate that we three have met here, gentlemen and
+murderers all!" the Governor went on airily. "Comly tells me that he too
+has been dodging the police. To make you both feel perfectly at ease
+I'll be equally frank and say that for nearly seven years I've been
+mixed up with the leading crooks of this country; not for profit; no,
+decidedly not; but merely for the fun of the thing."
+
+Archie pretended to share Congdon's surprise at this confession,
+delivered without the quiver of an eyelash.
+
+"I should never have guessed it," said Congdon. "I had sized you up as a
+college professor, or perhaps a lecturer on applied ethics," he added
+with a laugh; "we hardly look the black wretches we are!"
+
+"Let us hope not! But now to business. We seem to be fellows with a
+pretty taste for adventure, and I'm going to appeal to your chivalry
+right now to help me in a very delicate and dangerous matter that calls
+for prompt attention. Comly and I had a little brush with the enemy last
+night and in our further tasks we shall be glad of your help."
+
+He bade Archie tell the story, interrupting occasionally to supply some
+detail. When Isabel's name was mentioned as the head of Heart o' Dreams
+Camp Congdon sprang to his feet excitedly.
+
+"Isabel Perry! Why," he flung round upon Archie, "that's the girl I told
+you about in Chicago, who gave me the bad advice that got me into all my
+trouble with my wife. So it's Isabel who's the custodian of my daughter!
+This is a queer business, gentlemen."
+
+"Highly interesting, I must confess!" the Governor ejaculated. "But you
+must bear no grudge against Miss Perry; she's wonderful. She all but
+lost her life last night. Comly and I have solemnly pledged ourselves to
+clear up this whole situation, and we invite your fullest cooperation."
+
+"Certainly; I enlist right now. With my own child over there at the
+mercy of that scoundrel I couldn't refuse. I assure you that I cherish
+no resentment against Miss Perry. I was a fool, I suppose, ever to have
+let her influence me. I was pretty miserable at the time and she is a
+very attractive girl, and we men, well--"
+
+"Man," said the Governor, "is only a xylophone upon which any woman may
+exercise her musical talents. At times her little hammers evoke the
+pleasantest harmonies, but when it pleases my lady she can produce the
+most painful discords. To get back to business, the tug that's bringing
+the supplies for the camp is also towing a launch for our use. We'll
+meet Mr. Carey on land or water, or in the air if he chooses. Now,
+Congdon, if you've no objection to taking orders from me, I'll ask you
+to lie off Heart o' Dreams in the row boat, while the supplies are
+unloaded. Our landlord, a trustworthy person in every particular, will
+go with you. Comly and I will meet the tug and pick up the launch."
+
+"But how about this fellow from Calderville who's nosing round?" Congdon
+asked anxiously. "I'll say right here that I have no intention of being
+hauled back to Maine to be tried for murder."
+
+"Take my word for it, that Comly and I will die rather than give you up.
+We'll stand or fall together. That chap may not be looking for you at
+all. He may be on the lookout for me or some pal of mine on the tug;
+they're all outlaws, desperadoes!"
+
+"You're fooling, aren't you?" demanded Congdon incredulously.
+
+"Not in the least! Fugitives from justice, every mother's son of 'em!
+Only a few will be aboard when the _Arthur B. Grover_ puts into Heart o'
+Dreams, but there are enough crooks in the woods about here to plunder
+all Michigan. If that chap from Calderville's looking for trouble he's
+going to have his hands full."
+
+Congdon went into Archie's room just before noon and laid an automatic
+pistol on the dresser.
+
+"See that? That's the gun I shot the thief with at Bailey Harbor. Guess
+I'll take it with me this afternoon for I know the infernal thing
+works!"
+
+"It's always best to tote a gun you've tested," Archie answered,
+examining with unfeigned interest the weapon Congdon had discharged into
+the mirror in the Bailey Harbor house. The gun with which he had shot
+Congdon was in a drawer of his bureau, and the instant Congdon left he
+examined it for any marks by which its owner might identify it. He was
+relieved when the Governor came in and assured him that there was
+nothing to distinguish the pistol from a thousand of its kind.
+
+While they waited for the tug's appearance they hung off Heart o' Dreams
+shore, and the Governor and Archie paddled close enough to talk with
+Ruth at the wharf.
+
+"Everything's all right," she reported cheerily. "The doctor is keeping
+Isabel in bed today but merely to rest. The bruised hand is doing
+nicely and will probably heal without a scar. The camp's running
+smoothly and the girls don't know that they ate our last bread and
+butter for luncheon."
+
+"You're safe in putting cookies on the evening bill of fare," said the
+Governor. "Has Carey made any sign today?"
+
+"No, except that I went through the woods this morning toward
+Calderville and found the road piled with logs there at the bridge over
+the little brook. I peeped through the barricade and saw some men with
+guns--"
+
+"Don't you dare go near that place again!" exclaimed the Governor.
+"There's a good mile between that point and the camp boundaries and you
+have no business going off your reservation."
+
+"How terribly you scold! I was just reconnoitering a little."
+
+"That little might mean the end of the world! But it's worth while to
+know that you pout when you're scolded."
+
+The hazards of the night had left no mark upon her, and in the khaki
+Heart o' Dreams uniform she would have passed for a carefree boy.
+
+"You look shockingly young," the Governor remarked with mock resentment,
+as he fended the canoe away from the wharf. "It doesn't seem possible
+that a venerable relic like me would ever have any chance with a
+beautiful young goddess like you."
+
+"Maybe you haven't!"
+
+"Don't taunt me, woman, or I'll let you starve to death! Archie," he
+went on, his delight in her bright in his eyes, "this might be just the
+right moment to propose marriage. Your presence is a little
+embarrassing, but all the conditions here are unusual. Ruth, I'm so
+proud of myself for loving you that I feel like proclaiming it to all
+the world."
+
+She picked up a chip and threw it at him with a boy's free swing. He
+caught it and placed it tenderly in his pocket.
+
+"The first gift you ever made me!" he cried rapturously. "I shall ask
+you to autograph it later. I shall treasure it always!"
+
+"Who are those gentlemen out yonder?" she asked, spying Congdon and
+Leary in the row boat.
+
+"The gentleman idling at the oars is Mr. Leary, the honest innkeeper
+from Huddleston; the other is Mr. Putney Congdon!"
+
+"Not really! Please don't tell me we're to have another kidnaping!"
+
+"Certainly not! Leary was a valuable member of our rescue party last
+night and he's wholly friendly to our cause. Mr. Congdon came up with
+Mr. Comly merely to be near his daughter."
+
+"How did he know she was here? Please don't jest; this is very serious!"
+
+"He knew because he got a mysterious message from me hinting that his
+wife had sent the child here. He's a charming fellow--not at all the
+brute we've been thinking him; and while we've told him only what it's
+best for him to know about ourselves he cheerfully enlisted in our
+campaign to protect the camp. He's even now--"
+
+An exclamation from Ruth caused Archie and the Governor to turn toward
+the lake. The _Arthur B. Grover_ was steaming slowly into the bay. A
+moment later Leary whistled to call attention to the Carey launch, which
+was running rapidly toward the camp.
+
+"Keep out of sight," said the Governor, "and send your young charges to
+play in the woods. We don't want witnesses if anything disagreeable
+happens while we're unloading."
+
+"Please," she cried, turning to go, "take care of yourselves! We'd
+better give up the fight right now than have you hurt!"
+
+"It was pretty nice of her to say that, Archie," said the Governor
+soberly, watching her as she disappeared down a long lane of tents.
+"We'll see some fun now if Carey cuts any capers."
+
+"He'll hardly ram the tug, though he may be fool enough to try it."
+
+The _Arthur B. Grover_ had rounded the point and was feeling its way
+toward Heart o' Dreams.
+
+Archie recognized Perky, industriously taking soundings and lazily
+giving orders to the man at the wheel.
+
+"How much does she show?" called the Governor.
+
+"A coupla clothes lines deep," replied Perky without taking the pipe
+from his mouth.
+
+His air of unconcern, his complete absorption in the business of getting
+the tug in position to unload, the nonchalant manner in which he
+directed the pilot, greatly enhanced Archie's admiration for Perky.
+
+Two men were rigging up a crane to land the bags, boxes and crates that
+were piled on deck in prodigal profusion.
+
+"There's our new launch trailing behind like clouds of glory," said the
+Governor. "A very snappy little affair it is."
+
+"And a very snappy little man is hanging over the rail of the tug
+gripping an umbrella. How do you suppose Perky's explaining all this to
+Eliphalet?"
+
+"Trust Perky to be plausible. Wait till father Congdon sees Putney and
+you'll hear an imitation of the ichthyosaurus singing its song of hate."
+
+Carey's launch had effected a half circle round Heart o' Dreams landing
+and was now drawing nearer. There were two men aboard and Leary, having
+put himself between the launch and the tug, signaled the Governor by
+lifting one arm high over his head, and then extending it horizontally.
+A careless observer would have thought he was only stretching himself.
+
+"That means," the Governor explained, "that there's a suspicious person
+on Carey's launch; and," he continued, after watching Leary's further
+telegraphing, "that Congdon has identified him as the gentleman who
+interviewed him at Huddleston this morning. Everything's going
+smoothly."
+
+By the time the _Arthur B. Grover_ had warped in, Carey had brought his
+launch to within a dozen yards of the tug, and his companion was
+standing up anxiously scrutinizing the men on board.
+
+"Prisoners!" he bawled; "every one of you a prisoner! I know you, Perky;
+and you needn't try any tricks on me or it'll be the worse for you. And
+don't you fellows on that wharf try any funny business with me!"
+
+Perky, busily getting the crane in working order, paid no heed whatever
+to these threats uttered in the authoritative tone of one who is
+confident of the support of the army and navy of the United States.
+Carey loudly seconded the detective's demand for the immediate and
+unconditional surrender of the tug.
+
+"Trapped! Lost!" cried Eliphalet, tragically.
+
+"You're mighty right you're lost!" yelled the officer. "You're a nice
+old scoundrel, to be circulating plugged gold pieces, and a rich man at
+that! You're pinched; do you understand? You're under arrest!"
+
+The effect of this shot was to cause Eliphalet to attempt to climb from
+the tug to the wharf but the Governor seized a paddle and gently urged
+him back.
+
+"I beg of you, Mr. Congdon, don't be disturbed. That person in the
+launch can't harm you in the least. He may be annoying, yes; and his
+voice is extremely disagreeable, but really his utterances are unworthy
+of the attention of honest men."
+
+"Who the deuce are you?" demanded Eliphalet, leveling his umbrella at
+the Governor. "It occurs to me we have met before."
+
+"Thanks for the compliment!" the Governor answered, dodging a heavy
+crate, the first of the freight to be swung ashore.
+
+Perky was thoroughly prepared for the expeditious delivery of his cargo,
+even to wheelbarrows in which three men now began trundling supplies up
+the wharf and along the beach to the camp store house. The work was
+proceeding rapidly, without noise or confusion, and Archie and the
+Governor were busily assisting when the shore was startled by a yell.
+
+Leary and Congdon in the row boat had been stealing up behind Carey's
+launch. Leary sprang aboard while the two occupants were watching the
+landing of the stores.
+
+Carey, diving under Leary's arms, seized a club and knocked him
+overboard. The detective jumped into the water and swam to the wharf,
+where he was immediately overpowered and hauled aboard the tug. By this
+time Carey was steering for the middle of the bay, where he watched the
+tug for a while and then retired toward his camp.
+
+Leary had crawled upon the pier and was disconsolately shaking the water
+out of his shoes.
+
+"It was a good try, old man," said the Governor cheerily. "That fellow's
+not going to be easy to bag, but we've got a detective on our hands," he
+chuckled, "and I don't know just how we're going to let loose of him."
+
+Putney Congdon had rowed close to the wharf to pick up Leary. As the
+Governor had predicted, Eliphalet Congdon emitted a loud and not wholly
+melodious howl as he recognized his son.
+
+"Hey there! You've been following me! I told you to stay at the farm and
+here you come sneaking after me away up here where I've come for rest."
+
+"You were never more mistaken in your life!" replied Putney. "I came up
+here to see Edith and found that that fellow you saw in the launch was
+trying to starve out this camp."
+
+"Edith here? Who says Edith's here? You're out of your senses! You know
+perfectly well the child's in Ohio!"
+
+"Break in on that dialogue," said the Governor to Archie. "Those men
+will never get anywhere yelling at each other. I'll attend to Eliphalet
+after we land the freight."
+
+"If that wife of yours has stolen Edith I'll have the law on her!"
+screamed Eliphalet. "She's not fit to have the care of children!"
+
+Archie walked to the edge of the wharf and commanded Eliphalet to hold
+his peace.
+
+"Putney, row out a few hundred yards and watch Carey. You needn't worry
+about your father. We'll find some way of getting him out of his
+scrapes."
+
+The detective, who had been lashed to the pilot house, reused himself to
+shout:
+
+"You'll make a nice mess of it trying to get him away from the
+Government. The whole lot of you are crooks, and you're holding me at
+your peril."
+
+The discharge of freight had not ceased during this colloquy. The crane
+swung over the wharf at regular intervals, and the men with the
+wheelbarrows trotted back and forth with the spirit and agility of men
+intent upon finishing an honest day's work. As Putney Congdon, mystified
+but obedient, rowed away, his father began begging Perky to leave the
+place and steer for Canada.
+
+"You promised to protect me but you've made a fool of me," the old man
+wailed. "You betrayed me to the police; you--"
+
+The Governor flung a sack of potatoes into a wheelbarrow, and surveyed
+the infuriated Eliphalet for a moment.
+
+"Pray calm yourself, Mr. Congdon, and please be careful how you charge
+people with serious crimes. It seems to be an obsession with you that
+everybody on earth is a crook. The proposition interests me
+psychologically. When I get through with this freight I'll look at your
+data. Meanwhile I solemnly warn you to make no charge against me or any
+friends of mine that you can't prove."
+
+It was five o'clock when the last of the cargo was landed in the store
+house. The engineer (a gentleman whose grimy face and mournful eyes
+belied his record as a hold-up man) sounded the whistle.
+
+Ruth ran down to the shore and Archie and the Governor went to meet her.
+
+"O you angels!" she cried. "I've just taken a peep into the store house
+and you've given us enough food to last all next summer. It's perfectly
+splendid. I wasn't watching--really, I wasn't--for I had to keep the
+girls busy; but you did have trouble of some sort?"
+
+"Nothing of the slightest consequence," the Governor answered. "We tried
+to catch Carey but he was too quick for us. But we did pick up a friend
+of his--the gentleman you see giving an exhibition of haughty disdain
+out there on the tug. Keep everybody well under cover tonight and don't
+be alarmed by anything you hear. We'll soon be through with this
+business."
+
+"Who's that funny little man on the tug? He seems anxious to attract
+attention!"
+
+Eliphalet Congdon was engaged in an argument with the detective, who,
+being helpless, was obliged to endure a tirade the old gentleman was
+delivering to the accompaniment of an occasional prod of the inevitable
+umbrella.
+
+"That," said the Governor, "is Edith Congdon's paternal grandfather; an
+estimable person fallen upon evil times."
+
+"You don't mean Mr. Eliphalet Congdon!"
+
+"Most emphatically I do."
+
+"And have he and his son settled their differences?"
+
+"Not so you would notice it! But they'll be loving each other when I get
+through with them."
+
+"Do you know," said the girl, looking wonderingly into the Governor's
+eyes, "I don't suppose I could ever learn to know when you're fooling
+and when you're not."
+
+"After we're married I shall never attempt to fool you. By the way," he
+added hastily as she frowned and shrugged her shoulders, "when does the
+camp close?"
+
+"August twenty, if Mr. Carey doesn't close it sooner."
+
+"The date shall stand without reference to Carey's wishes, intentions or
+acts. Please write your father to be here on that last day and bring his
+episcopal robes with him. And by the way, you spoke of your
+embarrassments about mail. We'll send to the Calderville post-office for
+all the Heart o' Dreams mail; a boat will deliver it tonight and pick up
+the camp mail bag. Have you anything to add, Archie?"
+
+"You might say to Isabel," said Archie slowly, "that August twenty
+strikes me as the happiest possible date for our wedding."
+
+"You two talk of weddings as though we were not in the midst of battle,
+murder and sudden death!"
+
+She folded her arms and regarded them with an odd little smile, half
+wistful, half questioning, playing about her lips. The tug was drawing
+away from the wharf. Perky sat on the rail placidly sucking an orange, a
+noble picture of an unrepentant sinner. From the woods floated the far,
+faint cries and light-hearted laughter of the camp youngsters at play.
+In spite of his attempt to imitate the Governor's jauntiness Archie felt
+again, as so often since he left Bailey Harbor, the unreality of the
+events through which he had been projected with his singular companion,
+who had drawn him so far out of his orbit that it was hard to believe
+that he would ever slip into it again. Their affairs had never presented
+so many problems as now, when the Governor was predicting and planning
+the end with so much assurance. In the few seconds that Ruth deliberated
+he plunged to the depths in his despair that Isabel would ever seriously
+consider him as a lover.
+
+"I was just thinking," said the girl, stepping back a little into a path
+that led from the beach to the woods, "how we seem to be living in the
+good old times, when knights hastened by land or water to the rescue of
+ladies in distress. This is all very pretty and be sure we all
+appreciate what you have done for us. But I don't quite see through to
+the end!" The smile was gone and there was no doubt of the sincerity of
+the anxiety that darkened her eyes as she ended with a little,
+quavering, despairing note: "Something serious and dreadful threatens
+us, one and all of us maybe! It's only--what do you call such a thing--a
+presentiment!"
+
+"Please don't think of it!" pleaded Archie; "things are bound to come
+out all right. You mustn't lose faith in us."
+
+"Yes; it will be only a little longer," muttered the Governor
+listlessly.
+
+He had responded instantly to Ruth's confession of her premonition of
+impending evil, and Archie, troubled by his friend's change of mood,
+hastened to end the interview.
+
+"We're not going to lose!" he declared. "It's when the world is
+brightest that the shadow of a cloud sometimes makes us fear to trust
+our happiness. Good-by and good luck!"
+
+She was not reassured, however, and as she shook hands with them there
+were tears in her eyes.
+
+
+V
+
+The Governor quickly recovered his spirits and with characteristic
+enthusiasm began putting the new launch through its paces. Like
+everything that pleased him, the launch was wonderful. He called upon
+Archie to bear witness to its unsurpassed merits, and they ran out to
+the row boat to invite the admiration of Putney and Leary. Putney, they
+found, was skilled in the handling of such craft, and the Governor
+cheerfully turned the launch over to him.
+
+"You take it and run up to Calderville, where you'd better get supper.
+Pick up the Heart o' Dreams mail and bring it back to Huddleston, and
+meet us on the wharf at nightfall. We've got a heavy night's work ahead
+of us. Carey's probably jarred a good deal to find that we've got a tug
+and a launch to play with."
+
+"That's all right, and I'll obey orders, of course," said Congdon,
+wiping the oil from his hands; "but don't forget that my father's out
+there on that tug. I don't know what trouble he's in, but I can't forget
+that he's my father--"
+
+Archie, touched by his display of feeling, turned with a pleading glance
+to the Governor, but the Governor needed no prompting to be kind.
+
+"My dear boy," he said, "you may rely upon me to extricate your father
+from his embarrassments. Archie and I are going aboard the tug to study
+his case carefully. If we don't do anything else this summer we're
+going to take the kink out of your family affairs."
+
+"There's no reason why you should--" Putney began.
+
+"Reason!" exclaimed the Governor, snapping his fingers contemptuously,
+"reasons for things are a horrible bore. In this pretty good old world
+we must apologize for our sins and weaknesses but not for our kind
+intentions."
+
+As they boarded the _Arthur B. Grover_ Eliphalet made no attempt to
+speak to Putney though he leaned over the side and shook his umbrella at
+the launch as it drew away. The Governor told Perky to produce food and
+invited Eliphalet and the detective to supper. The officer, churlish
+from his bath in the bay and his enforced appearance in jumper and
+overalls during the drying of his garments, replied to a polite inquiry
+that his name was Briggs but that his credentials had been lost in his
+tumble into the water.
+
+"We shall waive all formalities," said the Governor, "as my guest your
+official connections, real or fictitious, concern me not at all."
+
+Corned beef, crackers, fruit and coffee composed the supper, and
+Eliphalet Congdon, Briggs, Archie and the Governor sat cross-legged on
+the deck and partook of it picnic fashion.
+
+"A truce to our difficulties, gentlemen!" the Governor cried, lifting
+his tin cup of coffee. "I'm sure there are misunderstandings involving
+all of us that time will clear up. It's mighty lucky for you, Briggs,
+that we succeeded in detaching you from that chap who brought you here.
+If you had remained in his company you would certainly have come to
+grief. With murderous intent he ran down two women right here in the
+bay last night. We saved their lives by sheer good luck. You were not
+with him, I suppose, and I'll charitably assume you don't know his
+purpose in attacking them."
+
+"He says the girls' camp is on his land and he's only trying to drive
+'em off," replied Briggs. "Whatever his game is it's none of my
+business."
+
+"It's any man's business to protect women and innocent children from the
+malice of a madman. To let you into a dark secret, he's got the idea
+that there's buried treasure somewhere on the land occupied by Heart o'
+Dreams Camp."
+
+"Treasure!" exclaimed Eliphalet. "Do you mean to say there's money
+buried there?"
+
+"That's the idea," said the Governor with a grim smile at the sudden
+glint of greed in the old man's eyes. He told the story, told it with
+flourishes and decorations that pleased Archie immensely.
+
+"It sounds pretty fishy," Briggs remarked, "but there may be something
+in it."
+
+"You never can tell," muttered Eliphalet. "It would have been natural
+for one of those old southerners who hadn't any confidence in Jeff Davis
+to plant his money in some lonely place like this."
+
+"In one way or another we are all seekers of buried treasure," remarked
+the Governor sententiously.
+
+His story had cleared the air, giving, as Archie reflected, a fresh
+illustration of the power of romance to soften the harshness of even so
+realistic a situation as confronted the tug's passengers. Eliphalet's
+imagination had been stirred, and he asked many questions about the
+treasure. Briggs lost his hostile air and showed himself the possessor
+of an unsuspected amiability.
+
+"You seem to be a good fellow," remarked the Governor; "and your
+interest in the _Arthur B. Grover_ is legitimate enough, I daresay. If
+you will promise to behave and not try to leave the tug or molest any
+one on board you're free to do as you like. But I want you to play
+fair."
+
+"I seem to be at your mercy. You've got to consider that my reputation
+is at stake. It's my duty to land Mr. Congdon and that chap you call
+Perky in the nearest jail and report their arrest to Washington."
+
+"Washington," replied the Governor, drawing his hand across his face,
+"is a beautiful city; but it's a long way from here. Be assured that I'm
+no anarchist and the delicate matter of your professional standing is
+something that shall engage my most earnest thought. Please make
+yourself comfortable."
+
+He bade Archie follow him to the bow where Eliphalet was moodily gazing
+into the water.
+
+"Mr. Congdon," the Governor began in his blandest tones, "as a mere
+looker-on at the passing show I'm persuaded that you're not getting much
+out of life. A mistake, sir; a mistake it grieves me to see you making."
+
+"What I do or do not do," cried the old man, lifting his umbrella
+belligerently, "is none of your infernal business."
+
+"An error, sir; an error of considerable magnitude, if you will pardon
+me! I wish my friend here to bear witness that I am qualified to offer
+you excellent advice based on exact information as to your intimate
+domestic affairs. You're a meddlesome person, Mr. Congdon, with a slight
+element of cruelty in your makeup, of which let us hope you are not
+wholly conscious. Morally you are skidding, but this I charitably
+attribute to your lack of a wholesome and healthy interest in life.
+Incidentally you've done all you could to destroy the happiness of your
+son, who is a fine fellow and a gentleman."
+
+"And his wife, your daughter-in-law, is one of the noblest women in the
+world!" interjected Archie, seeing that the Governor's arraignment was
+not without its effect on the odd, crumpled little figure. However, the
+mention of Mrs. Congdon instantly aroused Eliphalet's ire.
+
+"That woman ordered me out of her house--a house I bought and paid for!
+She did her best to make my son hate me! She compelled him to quit the
+businesses I started for the sole purpose of providing him employment!"
+
+"Your trouble is that you never knew when Putney grew up," declared the
+Governor. "You tried to boss him even after his marriage, and if Mrs.
+Congdon turned you out of her house she did only what any
+self-respecting woman would do. As the result of your miserly ways, your
+meddlesomeness and your selfishness, you've just about ruined your life.
+The penitentiary yawns for you." Eliphalet shuddered, and a look of fear
+not pleasant to see crossed his face. "But," the Governor went on, "in
+spite of your cowardly conduct I'm rather disposed to pull you out of
+the hole."
+
+"You will help; you really will help me?"
+
+"Not if you cringe and whine like that. If you will stand square on your
+feet and listen to me I'll make you a proposition. Don't flinch; I
+don't want any of your money! I've heard that you make a habit of
+carrying your will around in that umbrella, for the ludicrous reason
+that you think you are not one of us absent-minded mortals who forget
+our umbrellas. And you like to have the will handy so you can rewrite it
+when the mood strikes you. Give me that thing!"
+
+Eliphalet hesitated, but the Governor said, "If you please, Mr.
+Congdon," with all possible shadings of courteous insistence, and gently
+pried it from the old man's fingers.
+
+It was a heavy, bulgy, disreputable-looking umbrella with a battered
+curved handle. The canopy was held together by a piece of twine. Rather
+than be seen with so monstrous a thing any self-respecting person would
+cheerfully take a drenching. The Governor opened it, shook out a number
+of manilla envelopes, all carefully sealed, and flung the umbrella from
+him as though it were an odious and hateful thing. As it struck the
+water it spread open and the wind seized it and bore it gaily away. The
+Governor watched it for a moment with an ironic grin, then began opening
+the envelopes and scanning the contents.
+
+"I began life as a lawyer," he said coolly, "so you needn't fear that
+I'll not respect the sanctity of these experiments in the testamentary
+art."
+
+Archie, taking and refolding the wills as the Governor finished reading
+them, marveled at this unexpected revelation of his friend's profession
+let fall in the most casual fashion, as was the Governor's way.
+
+"It's evident from the dates of these wills that you've been steadily
+cutting down the amount of your bequest to your son," the Governor was
+saying, "so that if you died tonight he'd receive only a hundred
+thousand dollars, the remaining million or two going to humane
+societies, and one fat plum, I notice, to the Home for Outcast Cats. The
+eccentricities of testators have never impressed me by their humor,
+particularly when hatred and revenge are behind them. You would
+malevolently cut off your own blood merely because your daughter-in-law
+doesn't like your manners, which are bad, or because your son wouldn't
+fall in with your fantastic schemes of making money dishonestly. I
+suppose you've had a good time flourishing these wills before your son
+and his wife when you were peeved, to let them know how you planned to
+punish them. Watch me, Archie, so you can bear witness to the
+destruction of these things; they're all going to feed the fishes except
+this earliest one, which divides the property in generous lumps between
+Putney Congdon and his children, with a handsome personal recognition of
+Mrs. Congdon. That shall be preserved."
+
+Eliphalet sullenly watched the Governor as he tore the papers into bits
+and flung them to the breeze, all save the one, which he again scanned
+with sophisticated care and stowed away carefully in his pocket.
+
+"Now, sir; let us get down to business! If you will promise me never to
+make another will without consulting me, but will let this one I've kept
+stand, and if you agree not to interfere any further with your son's
+family or his wife or his children or his ox or his ass or anything that
+is his, for the rest of your natural life, I'll guarantee that in due
+season you'll leave this tug a free man."
+
+"You can do that; you are sure you can save me?" Eliphalet's voice shook
+and his hands, thrust out appealingly, trembled pitifully as he turned
+from the Governor to Archie.
+
+"My friend can do what he says," said Archie. "You may trust him."
+
+"I promise," said the old man steadily. "But I must see Putney and
+explain about the coins. It was more in a spirit of playfulness, a
+curiosity to know how such things are done that I got mixed up in that
+business."
+
+"I daresay it was and I'm sure you'll not repeat the offense," said the
+Governor, lighting a cigarette. "As to Putney, I'll arrange the meeting
+as soon as possible."
+
+Eliphalet Congdon was the last man Archie would have expected to yield
+to the Governor's wizardry, or hypnotism, or whatever it was that caused
+people to submit to him; but the old man's face expressed infinite
+relief now that the Governor had so insolently assumed the role of
+dictator in his affairs. The pathos of the weazened little figure now
+stripped of its arrogance, and the assertion of a long-latent kindliness
+in his countenance, encouraged the hope that happier times were in store
+for all the Congdons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+I
+
+
+The Governor and Archie were waiting on the Huddleston wharf when Putney
+and Leary returned from Calderville, bringing two sacks of Heart o'
+Dreams mail. Putney had loafed about the Calderville post-office and
+made purchases in several shops to learn if possible whether Carey's
+purpose in establishing himself in the woods was known to the villagers.
+He had, it seemed, represented himself as an investigator for a lumber
+company engaged in appraising timber. This was the story he had told in
+Calderville and the villagers had not questioned it.
+
+"That's all right," said the Governor, "and serves our purpose well.
+Archie, you and Leary take the launch and carry the mail over to Heart
+o' Dreams. The tug will be within call in case you need help. At twelve
+o'clock meet me about a quarter of a mile this side of Carey's
+barricade; Leary's got the place spotted so he can find it in the dark.
+Use a canoe; no noise and no lights. Hurry along but don't blow up the
+launch."
+
+"I have a surprise for you," said Ruth when Archie delivered the mail at
+the camp office. "I'm going to be busy sorting this mail, but if you
+will step to the door, bear left ten yards and stop by a bench under
+our tallest pine, some one you pretend to like rather particularly may
+appear, but just for a moment, remember! You ought to be eternally
+grateful to me for this; I had to overcome both the doctor and the nurse
+and the prejudices and suspicions of the particular person--"
+
+"Isabel!" he exclaimed. He hadn't dreamed that he might see Isabel.
+
+She came toward him out of the shadows, wrapped in a long cloak,
+carrying a lantern, and paused by the bench.
+
+"These old-fashioned lanterns are a lot nicer than the electric flash
+things," she remarked.
+
+They sat down with the lantern between them, her right hand resting upon
+its wire guard for a moment. The glow emphasized its fine length and
+firmness. The left hand was bandaged and he saw her thrust it quickly
+out of sight.
+
+"You haven't let me say how happy I am that you are able to be up, or
+how grateful I am for this glimpse of you. It's always just glimpses."
+
+"Maybe it's better that way! But so much happens between our meetings;
+there was never anything like it in all the world. Never was an
+acquaintance so pursued by storms! I wonder where the blow will fall
+next?"
+
+"Not on your head," he answered decisively, "not if the Governor and I
+can prevent it. But let us not waste time on that; I want your assurance
+that you are really well."
+
+"Oh, perfectly; not an ache from the ducking; only this little reminder
+my hand will carry for a day or two; but that's nothing to worry about!"
+
+There was a restraint upon them, due perhaps to the calming influence
+of the stars, the murmurings of the shore in conference with the pines.
+
+"The things that have happened since we first met would make a large
+book," he said with an accession of courage, "but a separate volume
+would have to be written about your hands."
+
+She fell back at once upon her defenses.
+
+"Oh, are they as large as that!"
+
+"They are as dear as that!"
+
+"How absurd you are! Here we are with only a few minutes to talk; not
+more than ten--that's official from the doctor; and you're talking
+foolishness. If I were extremely sensitive I might imagine that my face
+was displeasing to you!"
+
+"The face is too remote, too sacred; I wouldn't dare let myself think
+about it. The hand encourages belief in our common humanity; but the
+face is divine, a true key to the soul. The hand we think of commonly as
+a utilitarian device of nature, and in your case we know it to be
+skilled in many gracious arts, but beyond its decorative values--"
+
+"Dear me! Just what are you quoting?"
+
+"Please suffer the rest of it! Your hands, I was about to say, not only
+awaken admiration by their grace and symmetry, but the sight of them
+does funny things to my heart."
+
+"That heart of yours! How did it ever manage to survive the strain and
+excitement of last night?"
+
+"Oh, it functioned splendidly. But it was at work in a good cause. Pray
+permit me to continue. Your hands are adorable; I am filled with
+tenderest longings to possess them. If I should touch them I might die,
+so furious would be my palpitations!"
+
+"The minutes fly and you are delivering an oration on the human hand,
+which in the early processes of evolution was only a claw. If you are
+not careful you'll be writing poetry next!"
+
+"The future tense does me an injustice. I've already committed the
+unpardonable rhyme! I never made a verse before in my life, and this
+hasn't been confided to paper. I thought it out at odd moments in my
+recent travels. The humming of the wheels on the sleeper coming up gave
+me the tune. If you will encourage me a little I think I can recite it.
+It needs smoothing out in spots, but it goes something like this:
+
+    "I view with awe and wonder
+       Her hands so slim and long,--
+     I must not make the blunder
+       Of clasping them--in song!
+
+    "But sweet the memory lingers
+       Of happy fleeting times
+     When I have kissed her fingers
+       And folded them in rhymes.
+
+    "Hands shouldn't be so slender,
+       So dear and white and strong,
+     To waken thoughts so tender
+       That fold them like a song!"
+
+"Charming! I never thought when I talked to you that night at your
+sister's that I was addressing my inanities to a poet. Those are very
+nice jingles. I'm struck by the imagination they show--in the second
+verse I think it is--?"
+
+He repeated the verse.
+
+"Are you daring me?" he asked.
+
+"I dared you once and got you into a lot of trouble. Please remember
+that we are unchaperoned and the dear little girls asleep in those tents
+back yonder would be shocked--"
+
+"I shall make the shock as gentle as possible," he said and kissed her
+unresisting hand.
+
+"The poem seems in a way to have been prophetic!" she remarked. "I must
+run now or the doctor will scold me, or I shall be scolding you! I must
+say one thing before we part. I've had time today to do a good deal of
+thinking, and my opinion of myself isn't very high. Out of sheer
+contrariness that night in Washington I teased you into doing things
+that led you into grave danger--and the danger is still all about us.
+I'm sorry; with all my heart I'm sorry! If anything should happen to
+you, it would be my fault--my very grievous sin! And maybe there are
+other men that I may have said similar things to--oh, you were not the
+first!" she laughed forlornly. "They, too, may have plunged into the
+same pit I dug for you. Oh, how foolish I've been!"
+
+There was no questioning the sincerity of her dejection and contrition,
+and he felt moved to tell her of Putney's confession in the park at
+Chicago, that they might laugh together at the curious fling of fate
+that had brought two of her victims together In deadly combat. But her
+mood did not encourage the idea that she would view the matter in a
+humorous light.
+
+"I wish you could tell me truly," she went on, "that what I said that
+night really didn't impress you; that it wasn't responsible for your
+giving up your plans for going to the Rockies?"
+
+"Honestly, I can't say anything of the kind! And if we hadn't had the
+talk, and if you hadn't sent the verse, I shouldn't be here trying to
+help you now."
+
+"But it was flirting; it was the silliest kind of flirting!"
+
+"That is always a legitimate form of entertainment, a woman's right and
+privilege! Please put all this out of your mind!"
+
+"It's not a thing to be dismissed so lightly. I'm very unhappy about it;
+I'm deeply ashamed of myself!"
+
+"You exaggerate the whole matter," he urged. "You are making me out a
+miserable weakling indeed when you think I ambled off toward perdition
+just because you dared me to assert myself a little!"
+
+"I want you to promise," she said slowly, "that you won't in any way
+interfere with my cousin here. I can't have you taking further risks.
+After last night I doubt whether he bothers us. Ruth feels as I do about
+it; you must go away. You will promise, please--"
+
+"You would have us run just as the game grows interesting! Of course
+we're not going to quit the field and leave that fellow here to annoy
+you! He's a dangerous character and we're going to get rid of him."
+
+She was depressed, much as Ruth had been a few hours earlier and his
+efforts to win her to a happier frame of mind were unavailing.
+
+"I love you; I love you!" he said softly.
+
+"You must never say that to me again," she said slowly and determinedly.
+"After my stupid, cruel thoughtlessness you must hate me--"
+
+"But, Isabel--"
+
+She seized the lantern and hurried away, her head bowed, the cloak
+billowing about her. He watched the lantern till its gleam was swallowed
+up in the darkness.
+
+It was ten o'clock. Leary had got the outgoing mail--a week's
+accumulation, and they crossed to Huddleston where one of Perky's men
+was waiting with a machine to carry it to Calderville.
+
+"The Governor didn't want the launch goin' up there ag'in," Leary
+explained. "He dug up that car somewhere."
+
+"The Governor's a great man," said Archie.
+
+"The greatest in the world!" Leary solemnly affirmed.
+
+
+II
+
+Shortly before midnight Archie and Leary left the _Arthur B. Grover_ and
+paddled cautiously toward the point fixed by the Governor for their
+rendezvous. They were fortified with a repeating rifle, a shotgun (this
+was Leary's preference) and several packets of rockets for use in
+signaling the tug. It was the strangest of all expeditions, the more
+exciting from the fact that it was staged in the very heart of the
+country. For all that shore or water suggested of an encompassing
+civilization, the canoe driven by the taciturn Leary might have been the
+argosy of the first explorer of the inland seas.
+
+Archie, keenly alive to the importance of the impending stroke, was
+aware that the Governor had planned it with the care he brought to the
+most trifling matters, though veiled by his indifference, which in turn
+was enveloped in his superstitious reliance on occult powers. Whether
+through some gift of prevision the Governor anticipated needs and
+dangers in his singular life, or whether he was merely a favorite of the
+gods of good luck, Archie had never determined, but either way the man
+who called himself Saulsbury seemed able to contrive and direct
+incidents with the dexterity of an expert stage hand. The purchase of
+the _Arthur B. Grover_ had seemed the most fantastic extravagance, but
+the tug had already proved to be of crucial importance in the
+prosecution of their business. The seizure of Eliphalet Congdon had been
+justified; Perky and Leary were valuable lieutenants and the crew of
+jailbirds was now to be utilized as an offensive army.
+
+Leary, restless because he couldn't smoke, spoke only once, to inquire
+Archie's judgment as to the passage of time. The old fellow, long
+accustomed to lonely flights after his plunderings, possessed the
+acutely developed faculties of a predatory animal; and the point at
+which they were to debark having been fixed in his mind in a daylight
+survey he paddled toward it with certainty. He managed his paddle so
+deftly that there was hardly a drip that could announce their proximity
+to any one lying in wait on the bay. Several minutes before Archie
+caught the listless wash of calm water on a beach, Leary heard it and
+paused, peering at the opaque curtain of the woodland beyond the lighter
+shadow of the shore.
+
+"We struck it right," he announced, returning from an examination of the
+shore markings.
+
+They carried the canoe into the wood and lay down beside it,
+communicating in whispers.
+
+"That girls' camp's on th' right; Carey's place to the left. Hear that!"
+His quick ear caught the faint moan of a locomotive whistle far to the
+south. It was a freight crossing a trestle, he said, though Archie had
+no idea of how he reached this conclusion.
+
+"Th' rest o' th' boys are away off yonder," and he lifted Archie's hand
+to point.
+
+"How many?" asked Archie, who had never known the number of men dropped
+from the tug to make the swing round Carey's fortress.
+
+"Ten; and a purty sharp bunch! You be dead sure they're right er ole
+Governor wouldn't have 'em!"
+
+Leary's confidence in the Governor as a judge of character reenforced
+Archie's own opinion of the leader's fitness to command. That he should
+have been received into the strange brotherhood of the road, which the
+Governor controlled with so little friction, never ceased to puzzle him.
+He was amused to find himself feeling very humble beside Leary, a poor,
+ignorant, unmoral creature, whose loyalty as manifested in his devotion
+to the Governor was probably the one admirable thing in his nature.
+
+"Somebody may get hurt if we come to a scrimmage," he suggested. "What
+do you think of the chances?"
+
+"When ole Governor's bossin' things I don't do no thinkin'," the old man
+answered. He raised his head, catching a sound in the gloom, and tapped
+Archie's shoulder. "It's him, I reckon."
+
+An instant later the Governor threw himself on the ground beside them.
+He was breathing hard and lay on his back, his arms flung out,
+completely relaxed, for several minutes. Archie had often wondered at
+his friend's powers of endurance; he rarely complained of fatigue, and
+very little sleep sufficed him. He sat up suddenly and said crisply:
+
+"Well, boys, everything's ready!"
+
+One by one his little army assembled, rising from the ground like
+specters. They gathered stolidly about the Governor, who flashed his
+electric lamp over their faces,--evil faces and dull faces, with eyes
+bold or shrinking before the quick stab of the gleam.
+
+"Remember, you're not to shoot except in self-defense," said the
+Governor. "It's Carey, the leader, we're after. Those poor fools he's
+got with him think there's big money in this; I've told you all about
+that. They may run and they may put up a fight, but Carey must be taken
+prisoner. Spread out four paces apart for the advance, and move in a
+slow walk. When you hear me yell I'll be on top of the barricade. That's
+your signal for the dash to go over and get him."
+
+Leary was already deploying the men. The Governor laid his hand on
+Archie's shoulder. In the contact something passed between them, such a
+communication as does not often pass from the heart of one man to
+another.
+
+"If it comes to the worst for me, you and Isabel will look out for Ruth.
+I needn't ask you that. Use the tug quickly to clear things up here;
+there must be nothing left to tell the tale. See that old man Congdon
+keeps his promise. That will of his is in my blue serge coat in the
+closet of my room. If I die, bury me on the spot; no foolishness about
+that. I died to the world seven years ago tonight, so a second departure
+will call for no flowers!"
+
+Tears welled in Archie's eyes as he grasped his friend's hand there in
+the dark wood under the world-old watch of the stars.
+
+Leary reported everything in readiness, and the signal to go forward was
+given by a hand-clasp repeated along the line. Archie kept at the
+Governor's heels as they advanced, pausing every fifty paces for a
+methodical inspection of the company by Leary and Perky, the latter
+having left the tug in charge of the engineer and joined the party last
+of all.
+
+When they reached the little stream that defined the boundary of Heart
+o' Dreams territory the Governor, Archie and Leary got in readiness for
+their dash across the bridge and over the barricade. The purl of water
+eager for its entrance into the bay struck upon Archie's ear with a
+spiteful insistence.
+
+"There must be no chance of these fellows breaking past us and
+frightening the women at Heart o' Dreams," said the Governor. "We've got
+to make a clean sweep. But it's Carey we want, preferably alive!"
+
+There was not a sound from the farther side of the stream. They crawled
+across the bridge and Archie ran his hand over the frame of logs against
+which stones had been heaped in a rough wall, as the Governor had
+explained to him. Archie had determined to thwart his friend's purpose
+to lead the assault, but while he was seeking a footing in the crevices
+the Governor swung himself to the top. His foot struck a stone perched
+on the edge and it rolled down into the camp with a great clatter.
+
+As though it had touched a trigger a shotgun boomed upon the night,
+indicating that Carey had not been caught napping. Orders given in a
+shrill voice and answering shouts proclaimed the marshaling of his
+forces. Archie and Leary reached the Governor as he was crawling over
+the stones. Some one threw a shovelful of coals upon a heap of wood that
+evidently had been soaked in inflammable oil, for the flames rose with a
+roar.
+
+It may have been that Carey had grown wary of murder as a means of
+gaining his end after the escapade of the previous night, for the first
+move of his men was to attempt to drive out the invaders with rifles
+swung as clubs. Carey screamed at them hysterically, urging them to
+greater efforts.
+
+"Fight for the gold, boys! Fight for the gold!"
+
+It seemed impossible that the men he had lured to his camp with the
+promise of gold would not see that he was mad. He flung himself first
+upon one and then another of the attacking party, a fanatical gleam in
+his eyes. Once, with two of his supporters at his back, he directed his
+fury against Archie. This invited a general scrimmage in which weapons
+were cast aside and fists dealt hard blows. When it ended Archie lay
+with friends and enemies piled upon him in a squirming mass. He got upon
+his feet, his face aching from a blow from a brawny fist, and found the
+two sides taking account of injuries and maneuvering for the next move.
+
+The great bonfire kept the belligerents constantly in sight of each
+other, skulking, dodging, engaging in individual encounters poorly
+calculated to bring victory to either side. One of Carey's men lay near
+the barricade, insensible from a crack over the head from a rifle butt.
+His plight was causing uneasiness among his comrades, who began drawing
+back toward the shadows. Carey, seeing that their pluck was ebbing,
+cursed them. Only seven of the Governor's party had entered the
+barricade, the others having been left outside to prevent a retreat
+toward Heart o' Dreams in case the enemy attempted flight.
+
+"We ain't gettin' nowhere!" growled Leary at the end of a third
+inconclusive hand-to-hand struggle with only a few battered heads as the
+result.
+
+"There's gold for all of you!" screamed Carey to his men, and urged them
+to another attack.
+
+They advanced again, but Archie was quick to see that they came into the
+light reluctantly and precipitated themselves half-heartedly into the
+struggle. The Governor, too, was aware of their diminished spirit and
+got his men in line for a charge.
+
+"We'll clean 'em up this time, boys!" he called encouragingly.
+
+He took the lead, walking forward calmly, and in a low tone pointing out
+the individual that each should attack. The quiet orderliness of the
+movement, or perhaps it was a sense of impending defeat, roused Carey to
+a greater fury than he had yet shown. As the invaders broke line for the
+assault, he leaped at the Governor and swung at him viciously with a
+rifle. The Governor sprang aside and the gun slipped from Carey's hands
+and clattered against the barricade.
+
+Angered by his failure, and finding his men yielding, Carey abruptly
+changed his tactics. He ran back beyond the roaring fire and caught up
+another rifle. Leary began circling round the flames in the hope of
+grappling with him, but he was too late. Without taking time for aim,
+Carey leveled the weapon and fired through the flames.
+
+Archie, struggling with a big woodsman, beat him down and turned as the
+shot rang out. The Governor was standing apart, oddly and strangely
+alone it seemed to Archie, and he was an eternity falling. He raised
+himself slightly, carrying his rifle high above his head, and his face
+was uplifted as though in that supreme moment he invoked the stars of
+his dreams. Then he pitched forward and lay very still.
+
+Carey's shot seemed to have broken the tacit truce against a resort to
+arms. There was a sharp fusillade, followed by a scramble as the
+belligerents sought cover. The men who had been left outside now leaped
+over the barricade. The appearance of reenforcements either frightened
+Carey or the success of his shot had awakened a new rage in his crazed
+mind, for he emptied his rifle, firing wildly as he danced with
+fantastic step toward the prone figure of the Governor.
+
+Archie, his heart a dead weight in his breast, resolved that the
+Governor's last charge to him should be kept. He saw Congdon beyond the
+light of the conflagration taking aim at Carey with careful calculation.
+Carey must not be killed; no matter what the death toll might be, the
+man responsible for it must be taken alive. He raised his hand as a
+signal to Congdon not to fire, and waited, hanging back in the shadows,
+watching the wild gyrations of the madman. Carey seemed now to be
+oblivious to everything that was happening about him as he continued his
+dance of triumph. In the midst of this weird performance, suddenly
+widening the circumference of his operations, he stumbled. As he reeled
+Archie rushed in, gripping his throat and falling upon him.
+
+The breath went out of the man as he struck the ground, and Archie
+jumped up and left him to Congdon and Leary.
+
+Perky was kneeling beside the Governor tearing open his shirt which was
+already crimson from a fast-flowing wound.
+
+"He's hurt bad; it's the end of him!" muttered the old man helplessly.
+
+"There's nothing to be done here," said Archie, tears coursing down his
+cheeks as he felt the Governor's faltering pulse. "We must cross to
+Huddleston as quickly as possible."
+
+At Carey's downfall his men fled through the woods, pursued by several
+of the Governor's party. Perky seized the rockets and touched one after
+the other to the flames of the bonfire. The varicolored lights were
+still bright in the sky when the answering signal rose from the bay.
+
+"The tug's moving up," said Perky.
+
+A thousand and one things flitted through Archie's mind. The Governor
+had not opened his eyes; his breath came in gasps, at long, painful
+intervals. To summon aid through the usual channels would be to invite a
+scrutiny of their operations that could only lead to complications with
+the law and a resulting publicity that was to be avoided at any hazard.
+If a doctor were summoned from Calderville, he would in all likelihood
+feel it to be his duty to report to the authorities the fact that he had
+a wounded patient. It was hardly fair to call upon the young woman
+physician at Heart o' Dreams, and yet this was the only safe move.
+While Perky and Leary were fashioning a litter he knelt beside the
+Governor, laving his face with water from the brook. He despatched two
+messengers to Heart o' Dreams, one through the woods and the other in a
+canoe.
+
+They would make the crossing in Carey's launch, while the tug, now
+showing its lights close inshore could be sent for the doctor. Two men
+had already started for the beach with Carey bound and gagged and he was
+to be kept on the tug until some way could be found of disposing of him.
+
+"I'll stay behind; I gotta clean up here; you don't need to know nothin'
+about it," said Leary gruffly.
+
+One of Carey's men had been shot and instantly killed and another still
+lay unconscious near the barricade from his battering on the head early
+in the fight. Leary grimly declared that the others would not be likely
+to talk of their night's adventure.
+
+It had been a foolhardy undertaking, with potentialities of exposure and
+danger that added fear to the grief in Archie's heart at the Governor's
+fall. At best the thing was horrible, and but for the coolness with
+which Leary and Perky were meeting the situation Archie would have been
+for abandoning any attempt at secrecy.
+
+"It was th' ole Governor's way o' doin' it," said Leary, as though
+reading Archie's thoughts. "Ole Governor never made no mistakes. We
+ain't agoin' to make no mistakes now, doin' what he tole us not to do.
+I'll go back and bury that poor devil and cover up the place. I guess
+he's luckier bein' dead anyhow. An' then I'll wake up that other cuss
+an' get rid of 'im. All you gotta do is t' ferget about it and take care
+o' ole Governor."
+
+
+III
+
+Archie was very humble as he reflected that he hadn't done justice to
+the intelligence and charm, to say nothing of the professional skill of
+Dr. Katherine Reynolds in his hurried glimpse of her at Heart o' Dreams.
+His fears that a woman doctor, who was really only a girl of the age of
+Ruth and Isabel, would not be equal to the emergency were dismissed an
+hour after she reached Huddleston. She brought the camp nurse with her
+and was fortified with bags of instruments and hospital supplies.
+
+She went about her examination without a question; made it as though she
+were daily in the habit of dealing with wounded men; specifically called
+for boiling water, laid out sponges and bottles and oddly shaped
+trinkets of steel, and the Governor's room in the ramshackle hotel was
+quickly transformed into a surgery. Perky had gone aboard the tug, which
+was to remain in the bay until the outcome of the Governor's injury
+could be learned. Putney Congdon kept Archie company in the hall outside
+the sick room.
+
+The morning was breaking when the door opened.
+
+"There's about one chance in a thousand," said Dr. Reynolds, looking
+very tired but smiling bravely; "but we've taken the chance. There are
+reasons, I assume, why this matter should be kept quiet, and of course
+you know the danger,--to you and all of us!"
+
+"It's splendid of you to accept the responsibility; be sure I appreciate
+it!"
+
+"But I have no right to take it. I've done all I know how to do, but
+there should be another head and a surer hand. Dr. Mosgrove of Chicago
+has a summer home twenty miles from Heart o' Dreams. He's an old friend
+of my family and one of the most skilful surgeons in America. I've
+written him a note and I'm sure he will come instantly."
+
+The note was sent to the tug for delivery and at eight o'clock the
+surgeon was at Huddleston. He was in the sick room for a long, a very
+long time. Archie pounced upon him eagerly when he reappeared. He eyed
+the young man quizzically, apparently immensely amused about something.
+
+"What does all this mean?" he whispered. "Pirates in these waters where
+I've been summering for years! Men shot and the police not notified! A
+girl doctor attending the case! May I trouble you for your name, sir?"
+
+Archie replied with all possible dignity that his name was Ashton Comly,
+and demanded a professional opinion as to the sick man's chances of
+recovery. The doctor became instantly serious.
+
+"The bullet pierced the right chest wall and of course there was
+immediate and copious hemorrhage. You needn't trouble about the delay in
+getting to the doctor; nature went to work at once, forming clots that
+plugged automatically the gaping mouth of the severed vessels. You men
+were fortunate to find Dr. Reynolds; she has handled the case admirably.
+Dear me! I'm constantly astonished at these girls! You don't know
+perhaps that your attending physician is a society girl who studied
+medicine over the solemn protest of her family? Sat on my knee as a
+child, and it tickles me immensely to see how coolly she takes this. I
+approve of her work in every particular."
+
+"Thank you," cried Archie. "Oh, thank you for that! One thing more:
+would you advise me to summon the patient's sister, his only close
+relative, I believe? I must do it at once if you think, possibly--"
+
+"Yes. There being always the uncertainties, I should certainly do so.
+I'll run up in my launch this evening."
+
+Archie accompanied Dr. Mosgrove aboard the tug and gave Perky the
+hopeful news of the Governor's condition. Eliphalet Congdon demanded to
+know what had happened in the night, and when he was to be released, and
+Archie spent some time trying to satisfy him that his solemn covenant
+with the Governor would be carried out in every particular.
+
+Leary, who had returned to the _Arthur B. Grover_ shortly after
+daylight, showed the strain of the night.
+
+"It was kind o' lonesome buryin' that poor devil over yonder. There
+wasn't a thing on 'im to tell who he was. That other chap came to and I
+did the best I could fer 'im, and gave him money; tole him to clear out
+and keep his mouth shet or he'd do a lot o' time for mixin' up with
+Carey. I tore down that lunatic's fort and Carey wouldn't know the place
+himself."
+
+The old fellow's succinct report gave to the burial of the victim of the
+night's encounter an added gruesomeness. A dead man hidden away under
+cover of darkness, without benefit of clergy, meant nothing to Leary,
+who smoked his pipe, and asked in mournful accents what was to be done
+with old man Congdon and Carey. These questions troubled Archie not a
+little, but when he suggested that the detective had also to be disposed
+of Leary grinned broadly.
+
+"Ole Governor don't do nothin' like nobody else; y' must a-learned that
+by this time. That chap ain't no detective; he's a gun man we sent to
+chum with Carey."
+
+Archie bared his head to the cool morning air. It was almost too much to
+learn that Briggs, who had so gallantly played the part of a government
+detective, was really an ally, shrewdly introduced into the Governor's
+strategy to awaken fear in Eliphalet Congdon.
+
+"Perky ain't no baby," Leary said, "an' you don't ketch 'im runnin' into
+no detective."
+
+"But Perky wired the Governor that he thought he was being watched?"
+
+Leary grinned again.
+
+"Ole Governor was foolin' you. That telegram was jes' to let Governor
+know Briggs was on the job. Got t' have his little joke, ole Governor.
+It tickles 'im t' fool us boys."
+
+Archie went at once to the Huddleston station, where he satisfied
+himself that the lonely agent knew nothing of the transactions of the
+night. The receipt and despatch of telegrams by the Governor had been a
+welcome relief from the routine business of the office, and recognizing
+Archie as a friend of his patron Mr. Saulsbury, he expressed the hope
+that they were finding the fishing satisfactory.
+
+Archie drew from the breast pocket of his waistcoat the envelope the
+Governor's sister had given him the night she dined in the New York
+house. In his subsequent adventures he had guarded it jealously as
+containing his one clue to the Governor's identity. Now that the evil
+hour the woman dreaded had come, Archie found himself hesitating as he
+listened to the agent's complaint of the fate that had stranded him in
+so desolate a spot. The man turned to answer the importunity of the
+instrument which was sounding his call and Archie tore open the
+envelope. In a flowing hand which expressed something of the grace and
+charm of the woman who had given it to him in circumstances so
+remarkable, he read:
+
+                  Mrs. Julia Van Doren Graybill
+               Until October 1, Southampton, L. I.
+
+The agent was taking a train order and was unaware of the agitation of
+the man at the window. It was the Van Doren that burnt itself into
+Archie's consciousness. It was an old name of honorable connotations,
+one with which he had been familiar all his life. It was chiseled in the
+wall of the church near the pew held for a hundred years by his own
+family; it was a name of dignity, associated with the best traditions of
+Manhattan Island; and this, presumably, was the Governor's name.
+Graybill was unfamiliar, and this puzzled him, for he knew and could
+place half a dozen Van Dorens, probably relatives in some degree of the
+Governor, but he recalled no woman of the family who had married a
+Graybill. Julia had said at the Governor's that she remembered him; but
+even now with her name before him he could not place her.
+
+He made his message as brief as possible:
+
+   Regret that I must act on my promise of several weeks ago and use
+   the address given in confidence. Encouraged to believe that the
+   patient will recover. Suggest, however, that you come at once.
+
+To this he added instructions as to the most direct route to Huddleston,
+and signed himself Ashton Comly.
+
+He and Congdon were at the supper table when he received the answer:
+
+   Thank you. I am just leaving. J. V. D. G.
+
+Archie was not permitted to enter the sick room, but from time to time
+he received assurances that the patient's condition was "satisfactory,"
+and at intervals Dr. Reynolds recited with professional brevity data as
+to temperature, respiration and the like. A second nurse was
+imperatively needed, but when they were considering the danger of adding
+to the number of persons who knew that a wounded man was fighting for
+his life in the abandoned village, Mrs. Leary suggested Sally--Sally who
+had been in tears from the moment the Governor was carried into the
+house. Dr. Reynolds accepted Sally on sight and the girl quickly
+adjusted herself to the routine of the sick chamber.
+
+At eleven o'clock Archie saw the Heart o' Dreams launch approaching
+Huddleston and leaving Congdon to answer any call from the Governor's
+bedside, hurried to meet it.
+
+Ruth and Isabel had crossed alone and their stress of mind and heart was
+manifest before they landed.
+
+"I felt it; I knew that it would come!" cried Ruth. "If only you hadn't
+gone there! It wasn't worth the sacrifice."
+
+"But we have every reason to hope! We must support him with our faith
+that he will come out of it!"
+
+"I should never have permitted either of you to come to this place,"
+said Isabel. "I shall always feel that it was my fault."
+
+The obligation to cheer them raised his own spirits as he explained the
+nature of the Governor's injury while they sat on the hotel veranda. He
+described the fight at the barricade with reservations, mentioning not
+at all the fact that a man had died as the result. They understood as
+fully as he that the whole affair must be suffered to slip into oblivion
+as quickly as possible.
+
+"The complications are so endless!" said Isabel with a sigh. "In that
+mass of mail you delivered last night I found a letter from Mrs. Congdon
+saying that she would arrive today--almost at once, in fact!"
+
+"The prospect isn't wholly pleasing!" he exclaimed, looking at his
+watch. "I've played the very devil in the Congdons' affairs. I suppose I
+should lift my hat politely as she steps from the train and tell her
+that I'm the brute who attempted to make her a widow. She will of course
+recognize me instantly as the gentleman who escaped with her in a taxi
+after the kidnaping of her daughter."
+
+"It seems to me," said Isabel soberly, "that from the very moment you
+and I unfolded our napkins on the tragic night of your sister's dinner
+the world has been upside down. If we should ever tell all that has
+happened, and how we have been whirled about and made to do things I'm
+sure we were never intended to do, there wouldn't be one sane person
+anywhere who'd believe it. I feel like crying all the time! And I'm not
+sure that I'm not responsible for all of it, every bit of it! Why, I may
+as well tell you now that I, poor, weak, foolish I, bade Putney Congdon
+take horse and ride gaily through the world, carving people with his
+stout sword! And I played the same trick on you!"
+
+"Oh, he told me all about that!" laughed Archie, glad of something to
+relieve the tension. "He told me without shame that he had almost fallen
+in love with you as a distraction from his troubles. But I didn't
+confess that you had started me for the penitentiary. There's the train,
+and you must permit me to satisfy Mrs. Congdon that her husband is in a
+mood for immediate reconciliation before I break the news that he is
+here."
+
+Mrs. Putney Congdon more than justified the impression he had formed of
+her in their encounter in Central Park by the manner in which she heard
+his story. He told it with all brevity on the station platform. First
+assuring her of Edith's safety, he made a clean breast of the Bailey
+Harbor visit, but skipped discreetly all that had occurred between that
+calamitous excursion and his meeting with her in New York.
+
+It was so incredible that it was not until he described his journey to
+Huddleston in Putney's company that she was able to see any humor in the
+series of events that had led them all into the north.
+
+"Poor dear Putney! And he doesn't know yet that you nearly killed him!"
+
+"Oh, there are a lot of things he doesn't know. Your father-in-law has
+given his solemn promise that he will not again attempt to meddle in
+your affairs. The umbrella that symbolized his tyranny is at the bottom
+of the lake and if he should die you and your children wouldn't be
+thrown upon charity."
+
+"This is all too wonderful to be true," she exclaimed. "After all the
+misery I've endured it can't be possible that happiness is just ahead of
+me. I had become resigned--"
+
+"Your resignation after Edith was snatched away from you there in the
+park struck me as altogether charming! Your conduct pleased me mightily.
+We were both awful frauds, fooling the police and running away!"
+
+"It was delicious! I had always had a wild wicked desire to fool a
+policeman. Isn't that a dreadful confession! What must you think of me
+for admitting such a thing!"
+
+"My own derelictions make me very humble; it's only a survival of the
+primitive in all of us. I shouldn't worry about it. It's terribly easy
+to become a lost sheep, even a black one. But this is not an hour for
+philosophical discussion. Let me assure you that the nasty telegram that
+caused you to leave Bailey Harbor in so bitter a spirit was the work of
+your father-in-law. Putney had nothing to do with it."
+
+"Oh, I rather guessed that; but I ran away thinking I might rouse my
+husband to a little self-assertion."
+
+"And when he asserted himself sufficiently to go back to you I was right
+there to shoot him!"
+
+"You are a highly amusing person! It would interest me a good deal to
+know your real name and a lot of other things about you."
+
+"In due season you shall know everything. Just now I haven't the heart
+to keep you from your husband, and I'm going to send him to you
+immediately. And as I shrink from telling a man I like so much that I
+tried to kill him not so long ago, I'm going to turn that agreeable
+business over to you!"
+
+
+IV
+
+That night the Governor's condition took an unfavorable turn and Dr.
+Mosgrove was summoned. He remained until the crisis was passed.
+
+"We must expect progress to be retarded now and then; but now that we've
+got by this we may feel more confident. He hasn't been wholly conscious
+at any time, but he's muttered a name several times--Julia; is that the
+sister? Then the sight of her may help us in a day or two when his mind
+clears up."
+
+Archie was beset with many fears as he waited the arrival of Mrs.
+Graybill. His utter ignorance of any details touching the life of his
+friend seemed now to rise before him like a fog which he was afraid to
+penetrate. And there was Ruth, with her happiness hanging in the
+balance; she was in love with a man of whom she knew nothing; indeed the
+mystery that enfolded him was a part of his fascination for her, no
+doubt; and if in the Governor's past life there was anything that made
+marriage with a young woman of Ruth's fineness and sweetness hazardous,
+the sooner it was known the better. But when he caught a glimpse of Mrs.
+Graybill in the vestibule of the train his apprehensions vanished. The
+poise, the serenity of temper, an unquestioning acceptance of the fate
+that played upon her life, which he had felt at their first meeting
+struck him anew.
+
+"Our patient is doing well. The news is all good," he said at once.
+
+"I felt that it would be; I couldn't believe that this was the end!"
+
+"We will hope that it is only the beginning!" he said gravely.
+
+"A capital place for a beginning, or ending!" she remarked glancing with
+a rueful smile at the desolate street and shabby hotel.
+
+Putney and his wife had moved to Heart o' Dreams for a few days. It
+would be a second honeymoon, Putney said. Mrs. Graybill was introduced
+into the hotel without embarrassment. It might have seemed that she had
+foreseen just such a situation and prepared for it. She won Dr.
+Reynolds' heart by the brevity of her questions, and expressed her
+satisfaction with everything that had been done. When she came down to
+the dining-room for luncheon she avoided all reference to the sick man.
+In her way she was as remarkable as the Governor himself. Her arrival
+had greatly stirred Mrs. Leary, who, deprived of Sally's services,
+served the table. Archie was struck by the fact that with only the
+exchange of commonplace remarks the two women, born into utterly
+different worlds, seemed to understand each other perfectly. He had
+merely told Mrs. Leary that the Governor's sister was coming and warned
+her against letting fall any hint of her knowledge of his ways.
+
+"I've never been in these parts before," Julia remarked to Archie; "I
+should be glad if you'd show me the beach. We might take a walk a little
+later."
+
+The hour in which he waited for her tried his soul. The Governor was the
+one man who had ever roused in him a deep affection, and the dread of
+finding that under his flippancy, his half-earnest, half-boyish
+make-believe devotion to the folk of the underworld, he was really an
+irredeemable rogue, tortured him. These were disloyal thoughts; he hated
+himself for his doubts. It was impossible that a man of the Governor's
+blood, his vigor of mind and oddly manifested chivalry could ever have
+been more than a trifler with iniquity.
+
+"I'm going to ask you to bear with me," said Mrs. Graybill when they
+reached the shore, "if I seem to be making this as easy for myself as
+possible. I know that my brother cares a great deal for you. He sent me
+little notes now and then--he always did that, though the intervals were
+sometimes long; I know that he would want you to know. Things have
+reached a point where if he lives he will tell you himself."
+
+"Please don't think I have any feeling that I have any right to know.
+It's very generous of you to want to tell me. But first it's only fair
+to give you a few particulars about myself. You said in New York that
+you knew me and I must apologize for my failure to recall our meeting."
+
+"It was fortunate you didn't! I've known some of your family, I think;
+your sister is Mrs. Howard Featherstone. Away back somewhere the Van
+Dorens and a Bennett owned some property jointly. It may have been an
+uncle of yours?"
+
+"Yes; Archibald Bennett, for whom I was named."
+
+"That's very odd; but it saves explanations. We are not meeting quite as
+strangers."
+
+"I felt that the moment I saw the name Van Doren. I had never seen your
+brother until we met in Maine; he was of the greatest service to me; I
+was in sorry plight when he picked me up."
+
+He was prepared to tell the story of the meeting, everything indeed that
+had occurred. He had imagined that she would be immensely curious as to
+all the phases and incidents of his relationship with her brother.
+
+"Just now I shall be happier not to know," she said, and added with a
+smile: "Later, when my heart is lighter than it is today you may tell
+me."
+
+She was magnificent, a thoroughbred, this woman, who walked beside him
+with the air of a queen who might lose a throne but never the mastery of
+her own soul. She was far more at ease than he, walking with her hands
+thrust carelessly into the pockets of her coat, halting now and then to
+gaze across the water.
+
+"My brother is Philip Van Doren, and there were just the two of us. An
+unusual sympathy bound us together from childhood, and there was never a
+closer tie between brother and sister. I married his most intimate
+friend. My husband betrayed him; it was the breach of a trust in which
+they were jointly liable. It was not merely a theft, it was a gross,
+dastardly thing, without a single mitigating circumstance. My husband
+killed himself."
+
+She spoke without a quaver of the beautiful voice, meeting his gaze as
+she uttered the last sentence as though anxious to spare herself nothing
+in her desire to convince him of her perfect composure. One might have
+thought her an amiable woman attempting to entertain a dull companion by
+summarizing a tale she had read that had not interested her
+particularly.
+
+"It broke Philip's heart; it broke his spirit! It destroyed his generous
+faith in all men. He was a brilliant student in college and promised to
+go far in the law; but he felt keenly the dishonor. The financial part
+of it he of course took care of; that was the least of it. There was
+always a strain of mysticism in him; and he had gone deeply into
+astrology and things like that; and when the dark hour came he pretended
+to find consolation in them. He was born under an evil star, he said,
+and would not be free of its spell until he had passed through a period
+of servitude. It sounds like insanity, but it was only a grim ironic
+distortion of his reason. He said that if honor was so poor a thing he
+would seek a world that knew no honor. I dread to think how he has spent
+these years!"
+
+"I have found him the kindest, the most loyal, the most lovable of men.
+He has simply mocked at life--the life he used to know."
+
+"Yes; I suppose that was the way of it," she said pensively. "In one of
+his brief messages he spoke of a young woman who had interested him, but
+I never can tell when he's serious--"
+
+Archie met the question promptly.
+
+"A charming young girl, Ruth Hastings, whose antecedents and connections
+are the best. You need have no fears on that score. You shall see her,
+very soon."
+
+She permitted him to describe the meeting with Ruth and Isabel at
+Rochester, and her face betrayed relief and pleasure as he made it clear
+that the Governor's romance was in no way discreditable.
+
+"It is curious, and in his own way of looking at things may be
+significant, that your telegram reached me on the day following the
+seventh anniversary of the beginning of his exile."
+
+"He had looked forward to the seventh anniversary as marking the end of
+the dark influences; he believed there would be a vast change in his
+affairs."
+
+"If only he lives!" she exclaimed. "Is it possible that he can ever step
+back into the world he left?"
+
+"You may be sure he has planned a return, with marriage at the very
+threshold."
+
+"Then God grant that he may live!" she said fervently.
+
+The following evening, after Dr. Mosgrove's visit had left their hopes
+high, Archie carried her to Heart o' Dreams. Happiness shone in the
+stars over the northern waters. Putney Congdon and his wife were
+enjoying to the full the peace that followed upon the storms of their
+married life. They had established themselves in a tent on the outskirts
+of the camp and declared that they might remain there forever. A girl
+bugler sounded taps and the lights went out, leaving tired and happy
+youth to the fellowship of dreams.
+
+Isabel gave Archie no opportunity to speak to her alone, and he found
+her aloofness dismaying. Her scruples against hearing protestations of
+love from a man she believed she had injured were creditable to her
+conscience, but Archie was all impatient to shatter them. She made a
+candid confession to Mrs. Congdon, with Putney and Archie standing by.
+
+"With malice aforethought I practiced my vampirish arts upon these two
+men! And, Alice, the crudest thing you could do would be to forgive me!
+I couldn't bear it. I flirted with Mr. Congdon; not only that but I took
+advantage of his distress over his father's efforts to estrange you two
+to counsel him to lead a reckless, devil-may-care existence. And I tried
+the same thing on Mr. Bennett, only he was much more susceptible than
+your husband and took me more seriously. I want you, one and all, to be
+sure that I hate myself most cordially!"
+
+"The end justified the means, I think," said Mrs. Congdon.
+
+"I found a friend I'm not going to lose as one result," said Putney.
+"And if the sick man across the bay recovers I hope I have another
+lifelong friend there."
+
+"Oh, it's all so strange!" cried Mrs. Congdon. "One might think that we
+must suffer tribulation before we know what perfect happiness is! And I
+never expect to understand all that has happened to you men. Is it
+possible that you'll ever settle down again?"
+
+"That depends--" Archie remarked, glancing meaningfully at Isabel,--a
+glance which Mrs. Congdon detected and appraised with that prescience
+which makes every woman a match-maker.
+
+On the wharf they lingered, like a company of old friends reluctant for
+even a brief parting; Ruth, lantern in hand, stood beside Mrs. Graybill,
+looking like a child beside the stately woman. As Archie cried "All
+aboard," Julia caught Ruth in her arms and kissed her.
+
+"Good night, little girl!" she said softly.
+
+It was like a benediction and the very graciousness of act and word
+lightened Archie's vigil as all night he watched outside the Governor's
+door.
+
+
+V
+
+On the eighth day Dr. Mosgrove announced that his visits were no longer
+necessary; he ran up to Huddleston, he told Archie, for the pleasure of
+meeting the agreeable people he found there. The Governor was making an
+extraordinary recovery, and the bracing northern air would soon set him
+up. Someone was always on the water between Leary's hotel and Heart o'
+Dreams, and clouds no longer darkened the bay.
+
+Dr. Mosgrove had made a careful examination of Carey, and recommended
+that he be sent to a sanatorium for treatment. Perky undertook to carry
+him to a private institution near Chicago suggested by the doctor, and
+this became another of the series of strange errands that fell to the
+lot of the _Arthur B. Grover_. Eliphalet Congdon had been importuning
+Archie to release him, but it had seemed wise to give the erratic
+millionaire more time in which to meditate upon his sins.
+
+When the tug returned Archie found that the old gentleman had taken
+advantage of a day's parole in Chicago to do considerable shopping. In a
+new suit of clothes he really looked, as Perky said, like a white man;
+but the change in him was not merely as to his outward person. He opened
+a bag on deck and displayed with pride a pearl necklace he had purchased
+for his daughter-in-law, a handsome watch for young Edith and another
+for his grandson, whom Mrs. Congdon had left with a friend in the east.
+
+"I guess I haven't been square with Putney," he remarked, "and now's a
+good time to let him know how I feel about it. Here," he continued,
+producing a bulky envelope, "is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
+in government bonds that he may use as he likes."
+
+"Grand; perfectly bully!" cried Archie. "Please consider yourself
+discharged from the ship. We'll go right over to Heart o' Dreams and
+spread the glad tidings."
+
+Though so many vistas were brightening, Archie was still troubled by
+Isabel's persistent refusal to see him alone, or to give him any
+opportunity to break down the barriers she had raised against him. After
+luncheon at the camp, where Eliphalet Congdon proved himself a very
+likable human being, he sought her as she was leaving the dining hall.
+
+Her young charges were skipping gaily about her; there was no question
+of their admiration and affection for her. He caught the spirit of their
+gaiety and took advantage of a moment when Isabel emerged smiling from
+an adoring group to plant himself before her.
+
+"You are running away from me!" he said sternly. "And that's not fair."
+
+"Oh, this is my busiest day! You mustn't think a place like this runs
+automatically."
+
+"I think nothing of the kind. But your studied efforts to escape from me
+are embarrassing. Ruth, the Congdons, Mrs. Graybill--everybody is
+noticing it!"
+
+"Certain matters are one's personal affair," she answered. "Really I
+must ask you to excuse me."
+
+"I refuse to be snubbed again! You are trampling me under foot, and I
+refuse to be stepped on any more. I wish to assure you, Miss Perry, that
+my love for you is not to be spurned with impunity!"
+
+"Please be careful! Those girls over there are watching us."
+
+"A wonderful opportunity for them to see a desperate man making love; an
+invaluable part of their education! They will never forget how I fell
+upon my knees and declared myself!"
+
+"Oh, you wouldn't! You really wouldn't! You forget that these children
+are highly impressionable!"
+
+"So am I, and extremely sensitive. It would be fine if you'd join me in
+a little walk. If you refuse I shall follow you the rest of the day
+singing. The Governor and I did a good deal of singing in our travels
+and--"
+
+As he filled his lungs as though about to burst into song she hastily
+turned toward the wood.
+
+"You seem to forget that I'm mistress here while you're merely a guest!
+I hate to say it, but you're in serious danger of becoming a nuisance."
+
+"You're not resentful and hateful enough yet to frighten me away.
+
+  'He either fears his fate too much,
+     Or his deserts are small,
+   That dares not put it to the touch
+     To gain or lose it all.'
+
+"It's a fact we can't escape from that you and I are not free agents and
+we haven't been from the very moment we met at May's house. And the
+lines converge here; you've got to admit that!"
+
+"But they lead away again in quite opposite directions. It is cruel of
+you to insist--"
+
+"I insist that I love you! That's the only thing that matters!"
+
+"Except," she corrected, "your cheerful assumption that I reciprocate
+the feeling, when--"
+
+"Let me begin all over again," he interrupted hastily. "You must realize
+that all the odd happenings that followed our meeting in Washington have
+come out pretty well; only this little affair of ours--"
+
+"You call it an affair! Calamity would be a better term for it."
+
+This silenced him for some time. Tradition held that the trail they
+followed was an inheritance from Indian times; it was like an
+ineffaceable line drawn in the forest by the red men in assertion of
+their permanent title to the soil.
+
+As she walked before him, carrying her head high, his heart ached with
+love for her. It would be best perhaps not to urge her further; to wait
+until the camp closed and then see her in a different environment. It
+might be that his sister would arrange this for him, and he took courage
+from the thought.
+
+"It has been in my mind for a day or two that May must be wondering
+what's become of me. I always write to her, you know; and she imagines
+me in the Rockies. There must be a stack of mail waiting for me at
+Banff; I must wire to have it forwarded."
+
+"You needn't necessarily give up the trip--"
+
+She turned her head to dodge an overhanging bough and he caught a
+glimpse of her face; she was crying; and new and world-shaking emotions
+were stirred in him by the sight of her tear-wet cheek.
+
+"Do you know," he said, "when we talk about clearing up things I'd
+forgotten about that buried treasure. I think it would be a mistake for
+me to leave without exhausting all the possibilities of finding your
+grandfather's buried gold. I wonder if poor Carey knew any more about it
+than you do!"
+
+"I'm sure he didn't. There are holes here and there in these woods that
+he dug in his search. He had an idea that it might be found in the ruins
+of grandfather's house, but that stood where I built the camp hall and I
+had the old cellar thoroughly explored. Why!" she exclaimed, stopping
+short and glancing about thoughtfully, "that's strange."
+
+"We're lost, I hope!"
+
+"Not lost; but there was a fork in the trail and I must have made the
+wrong turn. I don't remember that I ever saw that fallen tree before."
+
+At some time, perhaps several years earlier, a storm had evidently
+centered its fury about the place where they stood, and a big hemlock
+crushing in its fall several smaller trees lay prone across the trail.
+
+"That old fellow must have made a mighty crash when he went down. I'm
+sure that I never came this way before."
+
+"Here's an old scar," said Archie, "where some one must have blazed the
+tree years and years ago. It's the mark of an ax or hatchet. And look!
+Three other big trees bear the same mark. They define a square and must
+have been made for some purpose!"
+
+Discussion of the markings brought them immediately into accord. Isabel
+was perplexed to find herself in a spot she had never visited before
+though she had spent the previous summer on the land, planning the
+camp, and thought she knew every foot of it. She peered into the pit
+torn by the roots of the huge tree. The sunlight glinted brightly upon
+something that lay half hidden in the earth.
+
+"Oh, how wonderful!" she cried and placed a gold piece in his hands.
+
+They knelt together, tearing up the weeds and loosening the earth. It
+was Archie who quickly found a second coin, a ten-dollar gold piece
+stamped 1859. With a stick he dug into the hole and soon they had made a
+little heap of bright coins, laughing like children with each discovery.
+A deeper probe resulted in the unearthing of a splintered cedar plank
+evidently torn from a chest that had contained the money.
+
+"Of all the astonishing things that ever happened this is the most
+utterly paralyzing!" exclaimed Archie jubilantly.
+
+Using the board as a spade he scooped out a capful of coins--gold,
+American, English and French, which the Southerner had buried in the
+northern wilderness.
+
+"It won't do to leave this place unprotected, and we must stop or we'll
+have more than we can carry. We must bring Putney back to help. It's my
+guess that there's a chest of money at the foot of each of these blazed
+trees."
+
+"And pretty good hiding places, too, where the gold might have remained
+forever if--"
+
+"If you hadn't been hating me so that you lost your way!"
+
+They stood with the heap of gold between them, the bewilderment of
+discovery in their eyes.
+
+"This is the end of the rainbow and the gold lies at our feet!" he
+said, and he took her hands, and the one still wearing the bandage he
+held very, very gently. "Love we know to be better than much fine gold;
+and wouldn't it be a pity for the finding of these coins to mark the
+very end, with nothing beyond! And life is so big and wonderful I want
+your help to make mine of some use--"
+
+She looked at him long and searchingly, and her eyes were so grave,
+their questioning seemed so interminable, that he did not know until she
+spoke that her lips had trembled into a smile.
+
+"If you can forgive me," she said; and she laid her hands upon his
+shoulders, lightly as though by their touch she were investing him with
+her hope in life renewed and strengthened, and giving pledge that they
+would walk together thereafter to the end of their days.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During his convalescence the matter of the sixty thousand dollars taken
+from Seebrook at Cornford troubled the Governor greatly. While he had
+not personally profited by that transaction it was, he said, his nearest
+approach to actual larceny and he wished to make reparation, the more
+particularly as Eliphalet complained that the sale of his stock was
+frustrated by the mysterious substitution of Leary's stolen bills for
+the money in Seebrook's trunk. Whereupon Archie bought the stock from
+Eliphalet and sent it with ten thousand dollars in cash to Seebrook,
+enclosing in the packet he confided to Briggs for delivery a note
+explaining that the theft had been a mere bit of pleasantry for which
+the guilty person offered the sincerest apologies.
+
+Before he left the North the Governor made generous provision for all
+who had shared his fortunes. Perky sold the _Arthur B. Grover_ to a
+dredging company in Chicago and the proceeds were divided among the
+crew. To each man's share the Governor made a substantial addition with
+the stipulation that the recipient should engage thereafter in some
+honorable calling. It may be said that in every instance of which the
+present chronicler has knowledge the man thus endowed invested wisely in
+a lawful business and so far has kept his promise.
+
+When he closed the hotel Leary took Perky to his home further up the
+lake, and as Mrs. Leary was perfectly capable of managing the
+confectionery alone, the two old friends purchased a garage, where in
+the abundant leisure of the long northern winters they discuss the
+exploits of their lawless days and read the newspaper reports of the
+performances of their successors in the predatory arts, deploring, of
+course, the ineptitude of the new generation. The underground trail
+ceased to exist with the passing of the Governor, and as you tour the
+Green Mountain State you may pause at Bill Walker's farm and enjoy a
+glass of buttermilk on his veranda without fear of a raid by the
+constabulary.
+
+Eliphalet Congdon is at peace with all the world, and wherever a chess
+tournament is forward he may be observed, sometimes an interested
+spectator, but not infrequently a participant and a shrewd and dangerous
+adversary.
+
+Sally Walker deserves and shall receive a final word. When Mrs. Graybill
+left Huddleston, happy and wholly at ease as to her brother's future,
+she took Sally with her, with every intention of adopting the girl and
+carrying her abroad for a protracted stay. As Pete Barney was killed
+late in the summer while attempting to escape from the Ohio
+penitentiary, Sally was quite free to enter upon a new life, and from
+all accounts she is realizing fully the expectations of her
+benefactress.
+
+In the loveliest of Colorado's valleys you may, if you exercise your
+eyes intelligently, note three houses in the Spanish style, with roads
+that link them together as though publishing the fact that the owners of
+the surrounding ranches are bound by the closest and dearest ties. As an
+adjunct of his residence Putney Congdon maintains a machine shop where
+he finds ample time for experiment. The Archibald Bennetts are learning
+all there is to know about fruit culture; and they are so happy that
+they are in danger of forgetting the existence of cities. Farthest of
+the three homes from the railroad, and where the hills begin, Philip and
+Ruth Van Doren chose their abode. And you may see them any day that you
+care to penetrate to their broad pastures, riding together, viewing with
+contemplative eyes the distant peaks or the cattle that are the
+Governor's delight, a link, he says, between the present and the olden
+times when the world was young. And often at night, when they are not
+with the Congdons or the Bennetts, they ride for hours in silence, so
+great is their happiness, so perfect their understanding, so deep their
+confidence in the stars.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Books by MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+
+Lady Larkspur
+
+"This is pure comedy carried on in high spirits and mingled with the
+charm of romance."--_Outlook_.
+
+"There is a gracefulness to the dialogue and an artistic balance in the
+characterization that keep one reminded that this is an author who is
+also an artist down to the last word."--_Philadelphia Press_.
+
+"Mr. Nicholson keeps us entertained and uncertain to the end."--_Boston
+Herald_.
+
+
+The Madness of May
+
+Illustrated by Frederic Dorr Steele
+
+"May to Mr. Nicholson is neither a person nor a month. It is a state of
+mind and an intoxication of spirit. The little tale is a gay and joyous
+fantasy that plays with the imagination like the wind through new-leafed
+trees."--_New York Sun_.
+
+"No one who wishes to be charmed out of himself or herself for an hour
+or so should neglect to read the story."--_Philadelphia Ledger_.
+
+"Meredith Nicholson has written nothing more charmingly fanciful or more
+filled with the spirit of the springtime than 'The Madness of May.'"
+--_St. Louis Republic_.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+By MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+
+The Valley of Democracy
+
+Illustrated by Walter Tittle
+
+"It is a book which could have been written only by a Westerner; and it
+is a book for every American, Westerner and Easterner, Northerner and
+Southerner, to read, mark, ponder, and inwardly digest."--_New York
+Times_.
+
+"The book radiates the spirit that makes the West
+fascinating."--_Outlook_.
+
+"His chapters are set forth with that same easy facility in letters
+which has marked his works in fiction."--_New York World_.
+
+"A notably serious and thoughtful study of the American mind, character,
+and tendencies in the Middle West.... It is a book of fascinating
+interest and of the greatest possible civic and patriotic value."--_New
+York Tribune_.
+
+"Meredith Nicholson has done a great work in this masterly study of the
+Middle West. It is a national, nay, more, an international service which
+is performed in these illuminating pages, for in interpreting America to
+Americans the author is also interpreting America, or a very
+considerable section of it, to the world at large."--_San Francisco
+Chronicle_.
+
+"It is a study of the Middle West--which is the 'Valley' indicated--a
+portrayal of its people, its life, and its activities so vivid as to
+have almost the effect of a moving picture."--_Indianapolis Star_.
+
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Blacksheep! Blacksheep!, by Meredith Nicholson
+
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