Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-05
TWENTY-SKTH INSTALLMENT.
Back numbers be obt aimed The Star office3

right. And I've heard all about Elsie, too;
go you needn't explain. How is the
stranger getting on?"
I'm I'm feeling much Letter DOCTOR" said
button, looking up.
You look it," and the doctor felt his
Pulse and tested his temperature
NOT going to play sick much longer,
are your he asked abruptly
Dutton opened his eyes wider.
Play sick?' he repeated, in a grieved
tone.
Yes; it gives the physician a good deal
OF annoyance. you know, though. of course
you can't fool him long. 1 should say that
II you think you've waited long enough
you're pretty nearly able to get up"
You're rough on a fellow, doctor.
thought I'd been pretty sick man."
"Oh, yes; you haven't been well; but YOU
put on good deal of delirium, you know
l don't mind If my friends here don't; but
! thought I'd speak of it. SO that you'd
understand me. The medicine you need is
exercise"
With that the doctor went into the sitting
room, where he chatted while with Elsie
and Will. When he went away he said in
all undertone to Mr.. Warren:
You must get that man out of your
house for your wife's sake. She endures
wonderfully, but it isn't the physical
strain 1 fear. His presence weighs on her
for some reason that perhaps you under
stand. Get him away"
Suppose. DOCTOR" returned Mr.. Warren,
that l was certain Martha would feel the
o.
presence?"
The doctor shrugged his shoulders
You must decide for yourself, then. I
only know that your wife Is in danger of
nervous proStrat!on, and not all the ter
rihle anxiety about you and Elsie has af-
fected her so much as this man. I suggest
that something ought to be done. and that
it is something beyond the province of
physician"
Mr.. Warren felt very gloomy after this
conversation. He went to the barn, and in
the short time that interviewed before din
ner he tried to distract his mind with farm
duties. He could not succeed. How Ghould
he when all the excitement of arrest for
murder and the disappearance of his daugh-
ter had not availed wholly to Danish the
trouble that had come into his life with
the coming of Dutton?
VIII stayed to dinner, and everybody eX
cept Gran'pa Kirk assumed an air of
cheerfulness. With the young people the
atmosphere was more real than assumed,
pei haps. though both We're beginning to
suffer from the reaction of the previous
day and nights adventures. Elsie. too. felt
again. now that the immediate transports
Of joy over her rescue had subsidized, that
chilling sense of unknown, underlined trou-
BILE that had been the first step to all the
rest.
Gran'pa was crotchety. Like all old peo-
pie he had his fits of restless peevishness,
and though they were not so frequent as to
make Elm al all troublesome to those who
understood him and loved him, they were
recognized with patient smiles and general
ly ignored. The Warrens naturally attrib-
uted his present temper to the breaking Of
his rest by the confusion attendant on
Else's return, but after dinner he told
Mr.. Warren that he wanted to talk to him
and led the way soemrly to the tree in the
orchard. where he spent the afternoons
when the days were hot and sunny.
He turned with a scowl when he had
come to his tree and said:
Mick. what is he doing here?"
The question surprised Mr.. Warren, al
though his wife had prepared him for some
expression from Gran'pa the subject of
Dutton's presence.
"Granpa," he replied, addressing him by
the affectionate title that everybody used
in speaking to or of him, Il don't know