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The sound of the shot had aroused curiosity at the Old Soldiers‘ Home, â€"andâ€"now. half _ a â€"dozen _ of_ theâ€" most nearly complete of the inmatesâ€" by Colonel Stewart came â€"downâ€"the road in military ofder. They ‘were! arrged with rifies and had bayonets: fixed. I learned afterwards that the weapons were Spanishâ€"American War trophies which were not loaded and hand not been fired for sixteen years. A complete circle of the field gave us no clue. (The snow was falling more rapidly now and even our own tracks were filled in very soon after we made them. I was anxious to get started, too, while the roads were not badly drifted. ‘ We had only one lantern. or ‘we could have searched to better adâ€" vantage and by spreading out might have picked up the footâ€"prints withâ€" out much delay. . As it was we workâ€" ed slowly and ineffectually. * "I think we‘ve done all we can toâ€" night," I suggested to Colonel Stewâ€" art. _"That fellow is going to have a hard time traveling very far in this storm and probably he‘ll lay low somewhere until it lets up. The sherâ€" iff can organite a big posse and pick him up after daylight." ly. There was enough wind blowing so that the snow was kept clear in some placesâ€" and drifted in others. He had evidently avoided the drifts. _ He obeyed meekly enough. "Will you‘ answer one question ?" he asked deferentially. _ a "Yes.â€" What?" > o "Are you a ghost?" 3 3 “No.,’ -' ' P "Then what are you?"_ _ "L only agreed to answer one quesâ€" tion." e geiXx> “Oh!” '._ " suppose." He had broken away from the road ‘and gone into ‘a patch of woods that lay alongside, as we could easily tell by his fresh. tracks in the snow. . It seemed as if it was going toq be a compartively‘ simple matter to trail him. es ¢ â€" â€" We changed our minds, however, when the tracks led out of the comâ€" parative quiet to the timberâ€"land to a meadow. Here they.ceased abruptâ€" â€" We told the Colonel what had hapâ€" pened and he sent one of the old men back to the Home with the ladies with instructions to telephone the sherif.. _ The rest of us went after the other escaped® prisoner. $ * The Sheridan Dramatic Club, of which Tom Bilbeck, the narrator, Maryella, the girl â€"he cares for, and Jim Cooper, his rival, are members, start a performance of Pygmalion and Galatea . at the Old SoDI?li:In tI;l::lm. :gf are “‘_"“'P.’.’,,‘E‘!l".:fi:'.:_.a L:.m hnshand convicts. CFHHL > = He was obviously disappointed. â€" "What are you going to do with 92 a strugi‘e. NowW GO ON WITH THE STORY in their costumes of players is hels players is held up by two escaped one of whom is eaptured by Bilbeck Bilbeck is accused byâ€" you over to the sheriff, I ~It was ~only a few hundréd yards to where the automobile was standing, There were no ~"I‘ll go out andâ€"start the car," I notified them, "andâ€"back up to the gate once more. When you hear me outside you can come out." â€" I would .just as soon have gone aloné, but there,seemed no way of declining his assistance, so we trailed out in the .gnow tagether with an oil l:ntem flickering unsteadily in the wind. . s "Let me go with you," Jim Cooper offered. y * There were no handcuffs in the inâ€" stitution, naturally, so we bound our prisoner to a chair pending the arâ€" rival of the sheriff. He looked disâ€" consolate enough. I was suddenly sorry for _ him. Poor fellow, all he had done was to. make a break for liberty. It was only because we were all. against ‘him that he was against Us. _ s _ > â€" "Not unless you‘re going to tell me what you are wearing those white things for. Did somebody ~steal yourâ€"" > ga ks ca f uen . "No, they didn‘t," I snapped, turnâ€" ing away. : "Ain‘t you going to tell me?" “NO.” 8 J . _I rejoined the rest of our group around the fire. "Hard luck, old chap," I said to him. 4 s > es g â€" _ He looked up at me. â€" "It‘s all right," he said. "I don‘t mind a bit. I‘m glad to stay in here overnight, where it‘s warm." I‘m kind ‘of worâ€" ried about Julius, though, out there in the snow. I wish you‘d got him, too. He‘s delicate, and I‘m afraid he‘ll catch cold." â€" ie "Well, I‘m going home," I said by way of farewell. "But before I go is there anything I can do for you?" The â€" colonelâ€"agreed.â€"Hewasanâ€" xious to get his men under cover. We took our prisoner back to the Home. â€" There ~we« found â€"the â€"lady Greeks: sitting . around ‘disconsolate withâ€"their â€"wraps.on .amid Aa group of the exrta attraction. of .a thiefâ€"hunt. handcuffs . . . so we bound our prisoner to a: chair pending the arrival of the sheriff. â€" T H BE PR E 8 S frvnreifretemr Ne but theswind, which wasincreasing, threw the snow into our faces. in stinging ‘blasts that made walking diffieult and conversation practically impossible, _ _ _ es 1o tragn The seats were covered with snow. So was the windshield; around each wheel was a little heap. . «~â€""You can get inside if you will," I told Cooper, "and advance the spark as soon as I get an explosion." * "I didn‘t notice anything special," Jim observed, which remark put him by unanimous vote into the Loyal Order of Henwethers. Pilk had fiothâ€" ing on him for saying the wrong thing. taa . ‘In silent exasperation I lifted the hood and with the aid of the flickering He did as I‘ directed. . I primed the motor thoroughly. <I had no parâ€" ticular reason to. suppose that the engine would start now when it had refused to do so half an hour before, except that from long experience I had great faith in the perversity: of inanimate subjects, especially interâ€" nalâ€"combustion éngines. Grandmother Page had thrown me down in an emâ€" ergency, but now that the immediate danger was over I had no doubt: that she would start up cheerfully. There is something unmistakeably feminâ€" ine about a gasoline engine. The first explosion was followed by a hideous clashing sound and then a terrifying thumping which could be heard even above the explosion of the motor. No t‘ "Cut her off!" I yelled. : When Grandmotheér_Page had subâ€" sided â€"Jim Cooper‘agked solicitously: _ "What‘s the matter?" f "Didn‘t you hear the racket she was making ?" I asked sarcastically. "Al ready," I said as I gave the crank a sharp pull upward. . 3 I noticed that it pulled rather hard, but I bent an extra effort and yanked it over compression. _ â€" * â€" "Bang!" responded ~Grandmother Page enthusiastically. ,69 warcoRd â€"**Nonsens set" lantern examined Grandmother‘s gizâ€" u!‘d. f # : One look was enough. I closed the hood once more and stood silent, comâ€" muning with nature.‘ ; Something : in my . manner . must have penetrated Jim Cooper‘s conâ€" sciousness. f T beryf® als "Is anything the matter ?" he asked. "There is," I announced briefly. "The pump froze while we were huntâ€" ing for escaped convicts, and ag soon as I started the engine she stripped her gear. She won‘t run again until I get some new parts from the facâ€" tory." ; I turned out the acetylene lights and started: home. .: Jim Cooper: folâ€" towed.silently.:. : ;. ..%;:2%,";.â€", ; 2. Â¥ oi d m £ w ho mA i8 n C id chacr Th * Sun is H“'!»‘.‘a“"" _ The rest of us tried to talk about something else so as not to appear to be listening, but we couldn‘t help it, and a sudden silence fell at her next remark. ' i to e how glad the automobileâ€"repairmen will be." i "Is that you, John?" she asked in the â€"telephone. â€" Apparently it was. 3 "Well, listen, John dear, I can‘t get home toâ€"night. I‘m going to stay all night at the Old Soldiers‘ Home." ~"I didn‘t hear you : come," said Maryella. "The carâ€"is awfully quiet toâ€"night, isn‘t it?" â€"â€"‘ .3 ~â€"*"It is," I assented glumly. . "And will be for several days to come. . "I promised John I would: come right home as soon as the performâ€" ance was over, and he will be terribly anxious," she wailed. "It‘s probably. all for: the best," chirped. Jim Cooper like a parrot. .. "Spend the night here?" Mrs. Hemâ€" mingway exclaimed in dismay. "It‘s impossible. I have to go home!" “How?!’ + > "I don‘t know how, but you must think: upâ€".some way." ~.~â€"_â€":*<>+>=>â€"«â€" After considerable delay in getting a longâ€"distance connection, Mrs. Hemâ€" mingway managed to get the ear of kKerâ€"husband, who fortunately had not left the office. When we entered the ladies stood up ready to go. Paled x When I had explained what had happened a cry of dismay escaped the lips of Mrs. Hemmingway. _ . ~The telephone was conveniently located in the livingâ€"room so that all private conversations were disâ€" tinctly audible to any one in the buildâ€" ing. ~"I â€"wish I had gone homeé in the funeral bus," bemoaned Mrs. Lillieâ€" love:;~ â€" o : 7 ~â€"~(Ornithologist‘s note: Parrots do not chirp.)} . . :. 4 "Where do youfind the‘ ray â€"of comfort in this?" I ‘demanded sarâ€" castically. â€" s o9 That‘s easy," Jim explained. ‘"Forâ€" one thing I am ilad that it wasn‘t my car. For another it will give us all a chance to spend the night in an Old Soldiers‘â€"Home, which is: someâ€" thing most people who aren‘t veterâ€" ans can‘t do." â€" be done toâ€"night. There‘s no train until morning. You can call up your husband and explain it to him." "T‘ll try," Mrs. Hemmingway said cheerfully. . . "I wish you had," I echoed feelâ€" ingly. :. _ : 5 ie es 2 aay & "Oh, is there a telephone?" *‘ "Sure. . There must be," said Jipn Cooper. "You talk to John and tell him it‘s all for the best." 5 Thursday, May 30, 1929