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To get back home, Hemmringway must travel by foot, and â€" Bilbeck offers to go with him. in violent. disagreement, ~they ;.ne'vertl}(eleas start out together onâ€"snowshoes __and skis and. soon Bilbeck . tumbles: over .â€"Hemmingway, the going being difficittt. * . They lost their sense‘of diréction. s MV TTRI DE ues ~Fermest EBPAE The captured thief is tied to a chair at the Old Soldier‘s Home. Unable to leave the home as the car refuses to budge, the players must stay there, and Mr. Hemmingway,â€" hearâ€" ing this over the phone, says he is coming right to the homeâ€"as he is suspicious of his wife and Bilbetk. Meanwhile the Sheriff arrives. â€" â€"Hemmingwayâ€"@arrives just when RBilbeck is assisting Mrs. Hemmingway, who has fainted, ‘ __ NowW Go ON WITH THEâ€"STORY . . Just by way of diversion we now had an argument as to which way the nearest farmâ€"house lay from where we were. We had determined to postpone trying to reach .. Fair Oaks until morning and wanted food and shelter for the night. I thought that I had seen farm buildings on our right, about a mile back on the trail: Hemmingway inâ€" sisted that they were on the left. "There is no use quarreling about it," I said finally. "There is nothing to prevent each of us going the way he thinks is right. It‘s a‘cinch we will both find shelter if we keep going far enough." ~â€" ~â€" ' §y 5. and of course thinks the worst.. Meanwhile a disturbance is heard in the cellar, and all in the house rush «down to it. § & ‘The Sheriff‘s horse has broken loose. . Meanâ€" whils Hemmingway suspects Bilbeck more and more, and Jim Cooper mixes in to tell Bilbeck he has arranged that the Hemmingâ€" ways be divorced and that Bilbeck is to marry Mrs. Hemmingway. § § WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE , The Sheridan Dramatic Club; of which Tom Bilbeck, the narrator, Maryell2, the girl he cares for, and Jim Cooper, his rival, are members, start a performance of <Rygmalion anrd Galatea at the Old Soldiers‘ Home, but are interrupted by a fire. During the rehearâ€" sals Tom Bilbeck is accused by the husband of one of the actors, Mr. Hemmingway, of being in love with his wife. Riding away from the scene of the illâ€"fated play in their costumes and overcoats, the group of players is held up by two escaped convicts, one of whom is captured by Bilbeck after a struggle. P So we separated.. We had grown intensely tired of one another anyâ€" way; especially since. hunger had put an edge on our tempers. Hemâ€" mingway started southwest and I branched off. over toward the north. It grew wark very rapidly after the sun was gone, but the snow on the ground made it fairly easy to see and I was able to hit up quite a fast pace. . mae | »$ But the farmâ€"house I thought I had seen did notmaterialize. I could have sworn it was in that diâ€" rection, too. Rather than give up I pushed on further. I_did not like the idea of going back to Hemâ€" mingway and admitting that I was wrong. Surely if I keptâ€" on in the same direction I had been going I would eventually reach some sort of shelter and food! ; It was a long time, though, beâ€" fore I saw a welcoming light. I can‘t * say just how long, but I would have guessed several hours. Anyway I was so thoroughly faâ€" tigued that I could just barely drag one ski after the other. . But when I saw the light I quickâ€" etred my pace and made for it. I was afraid that the people who lived there would go to bed before I could arrive. & â€"As I passed over the snow I had a curious sense of familiarity, a feeling as if I had been there before. It wasn‘t so much that I recognized anything specific, but I just felt more or less in the air. ._All at once the moon came out, and as it did the building toward which I was heading loomed= large against the sky. y mud : zs °C I knew at once .why . the neighâ€" borhood had seemed familiar. The building. was â€" theâ€"Old _ Soldiers‘ Home, and I had walked all day to returnâ€"at ~night â€"toâ€"the very. â€"spot from which I had started! I had no very cheerful vision of a warm welcome upon my return to the Home, but it was‘a case of any port in a storm, so I continued on my way.= The home was still halfâ€" a mile ~distant when the light went out. But I plugged on. I felt pretty sure that I could get in without waking any one up, which I.decided would be much the better way beâ€" cause I could avoid explanations. . As I drew nearer in the shadow of the woods that bordered the road I saw a figure dart suddenly from their protecting shade" across the patch of intervening moonlight to the Old Soldiers‘ Home. I thought it over quite a while as I stood there waiting for something else to occur. M That struck me as rather curious. Why should any one be in such a hurry and why so furtive? The chances were that he wanted to get back into the sanitarium and release his partner. * As soom as I arrived at that deâ€" diiction I, too, hastened in the same diréction that he had gone. By the time Igot to the front of the buildâ€" Then a solution occurred to me. It was doubtless the other escaped prisoner, the one who had held us up in the road when we had started for home the first time! . Sitting bolt upright in bed, with a revolver levelled at me, was Maryella, e e s . T H E PR ES S ing <he had disappeared. An open window, . however, indicated â€" very plainly where he had gone, and reâ€" moving my skis I had no hesitation in following him. It was hard work for me to climb through, but I man« aged it. s f There was enough . . moonlight coming into the livingâ€"room where I found myself for me to see that there was no one there. I hardly exâ€" pected that he would linger long. He was doubtless searching for the room in which Bill, his partner, was confined. 4 Ther(:/‘vés nothing on the. main floor : except the living â€"room and the> service quarters. I glanced hastily in each room below .andâ€"then went upstairs, which was a more likely hunting ground. Iâ€" paused at the head of the stairs, scarce breathâ€" i"g,‘ "G4> .,11’1 52 § y . 3 ‘He was not there. ts While I waited,â€"senses alert and nerves taut, a figure glided out through a door and went down the hall away from me. It disappeared in a moment through another door. I waited perhaps two minutes. It reappeared again and passed on to the next room. % I was in â€"a quandary what to do. If I raised an alarm the chances were about even that he would esâ€" cape. It seemed better to capture him singleâ€"handed. â€"Therefore, when he disappeared into the next room I followed down, the hall. As I did I heard a door in back of me open, but was too intent on my quarry to pay. much attenâ€" tion to the sound in the rear. I came tq the door where I had seen â€"my â€" man disappear â€"last.. It stood open. I stepped in and closed it softly after me. Next I felt gropâ€" ingly for the‘ electricâ€"light switch, on the wall. â€" *s$ . Before I could find it there was a woman‘s scream in the room someâ€" where ahcad â€"of me, and then atâ€" my back I heard a clicking sound in the door 1 had just closed. My hand found the switch. 1 turned it on. Sitting bolt upright in bed, with a revolver leveled at me, was Maryâ€" There was no one else in sight! _ CHAPTER XII. p . _ SEVERAL . SURPRISES ; ._>~â€"â€"â€"â€"â€" "Throw up your hands,", Maryâ€" ella: commanded, undecided how to treat a burglar whom she knew by his first name, but choosing at length the conventional procedure. "I will," I agreed, "if you‘ll point that shoe hornâ€"in â€"some other direcâ€" tion." } She threw aside the weapon. . â€", "If you are a gentleman you will leave this room," she said firmly. "I‘ don‘t know what you mean by this unwarrantable intrusion.". _ "A man came in here and I folâ€" »lla. lowed him." ~â€" _*"*Nonsense! Where is he?" ~â€" â€" It did sound a trifle fishy, I‘ll adâ€" mit. > There was no one in sight. . I even looked under the bed. â€" "Now go,". she ‘orderedâ€" as if she were addressing an infant who had to be dealt with firmly. "IL don‘t know ‘ what is the matter with you lately, Tom Bilbeck. _You used to be a fairly sensible, dependable .man; but now you act like a lunatic twoâ€" thirds of the time." "Think how.this is going to look when they find you and me here! â€"Oh, Tom, how could you comproâ€" mise me so?" 7 "I‘ll go," I said mournfully; "but some day you‘ll realize. how unjustly you have treated me." e Iâ€"went to the door and turned the knob. It would not open. _ "What‘s the: matter?" ~ Maryella asked when I delayed. ‘ . "Absurd!" Maryella got out of bed and slipped on her fur coat. "How could it be locked?" f "I can‘t get out. This door‘ is locked: on the outside." < c~.> .3 . > She came over to the door. As she stood beside me I had a poignant spasm of heartache at the dainty desirability of her. .It was no time for sentiment in a situation that bade fair to become serious, but I challenge any man to be so néear the person of the woman he loves and not be conscious of rippling hair, espeâ€" cially if it flows over her shoulders, and the soft tenderness of theâ€"skin flushed with sleep. â€" ar k: She tried the door. â€" "It is locker," she admitted with incredulous. eyes that sought mine questioningly. "What does it mean?" I shook my head. "I don‘t know." Just to be doing something, I ratâ€" tled the knob. es > "Be quiet in there, consarn you," said a voice outside. "You‘re arrested in the name of the law, and anything you say will be used agin‘ you!" It was the sheriff. How had he become involved in the midnight parâ€" ade? What explanation could there be of an officer of the law being on the scene ofâ€" a crime? It was conâ€" trary to precedent. "What is it? What are you afraid of?" I gsked. â€"â€" ~__ s ersaamel I even told him so through the locked door. "Don‘t argue with him," pleaded Maryella in a whisper. _ A new look of concertn had. come into her eyes. "I didn‘t intend to. I wasn‘t even thinking of you." | f (Continued on following page) Thursday, July 4, 192« 90 Thursday, July (Continued fron "Oh," she mur "Mrs. â€" Hemming vour thoughts, I : My heart leape a moment of str be jealous. May! best. "I‘m sorry," I : "That won‘t « ought to be malfe_ "I‘ll do anythi fered.. "Shall I j dow?" +0 _â€" "You might br "It wouldn‘t 1 terly. She disregar speech. â€" "Suppos she suggested. out of the win they got out t could escape." â€""Clever plan," miringly. "Whe "Under the | practically I glanced dou enameled iron b to the floor. It it were underslu However, I‘n man you.ever n the floor and st Unfortunately .1 I could almos! gled hard to cor halfâ€"inch of gi me back. It w ‘Then I tried dismay, I found other way: eithe ~ "Throw up. y sheriff outside. if you move I‘ll How the deu my hands? I 1 my feet, but 1 4 of a motion of â€" . As the key heard a scur Maryella: was r â€"The door ops prise followed. "Come out," "I see you, you I reneweéd m myself. It wa too: much~ zeal under. _ _ "If you don‘ onds _ I‘ll shoot. this ultimatun "One, two, thr _The though! offered for ev man drove me a superhumar from: the: flo backed away Condemns Weddi That â€" many in Waukegan ill'-advised, w in court at A Judge Gregor part of hund ples of elopin martied was terms by th were made al plications "fo Milwaukee® c JSing (Contin