Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1897-03-11

house,"
every well, indeed" she replied ct
is the sign of the Hand and Glove one
door out of the Rue Platriehe. have
been in Master NIirepoiX's shop more
than once before. l came here yester-
day to deliver the message, leaving my
maid in the street, and 1 was asked to
come upstairs, and still up until I
reached this room. Asked to wait a
moment, / began to think it strange
that should be brought to SO wretched
Il place, when I had merely message
for MirepoiX's ear about some gaunt-
let's. l tried the door; I found it was
locked. Then 1 was terrified, and made
a noise.'
We all nodded. We Were busy build
ing up theories-or it might be one and
the same theory-to explain this.
YES" said, eagerly.
"MirepoiX came to me then. What
does this mean?' I demanded. He
looked ashamed of himself, but he
barred my way. Only this he said, at
last, that your ladyship must remain
here a few hours-two days at most.
No harm whatever is intended to you.
My wife will wait upon you, and when
you leave US all shall be explained He
would say no more, and it was in vain
that I asked him e he did not take me
for some one else; if he thought was
mad. To all he answered.: No And
when I dared him to detain me he
threatened force. Then I succumbed.
I have been here since, suspeCting I
know not what, but fearing every
thing"
''That is ended, madame" answered,
my hand on my breast, my soul in arms
for her. Here, unless l was mistaken,
was one more unhappy and more deep
ly wrOnged even than Kit; one too who
owed her misery to the same villain.
'Nere there nine glovers on the STAIRS
T. declared roundly, eve would take
you out and take you home! Where are
your husbands apartments?'
In the Rue de Saint Merri, close to
the church. We have house there
on. de Pavannes,' suggested, cum
ningly, SIS doubtless distracted by your
disappearance
ooh, surely" she answered, with ear
nest simplicity, while the tears sprang
to her eyes. Her innocence-she had
not the germ Of a suspicion-made me
grind my teeth with wrath. Oh, the
base wretch! The miserable rascal!
What did the women see, l wondered
what had we all seen in this man, this
T'avannes, that won for him our hearts,
when he had only stone to give in re-
turn?
drew Croisette and Marie aside APP
rarently to consider how we might
force the door. what is the meaning
of this?" I said, softly, glancing at the
unfortunate lady. what do you think,
Croisette?''
knew well what the answer would
be.
''Think!" he cried, with fiery impa-
tience. what can anyone think eX-
cept that that villain Pavannes has him
SELF planned his wife's abduction? Of
course it is so! His wife out of the
way, he is free to follow up his in
tTigues at Caylus. He may then marry
Kit or Curse him!'
NO. I said, sternly, "cursing is no
good. We must do something more.
And yet we have promised Kit, you
see, that we would save him-we must
keep our word. We must save him
from Beers, at least
Marie groaned.
But Croisette took up the thought
with ardor. From Beers ?'' he cried,
his face aglow. cay, true! So we
must! But then we will draw lots, who
shall fight him and kill him.
I extinguished him by a look. I'VE
shall fight him in turn said, until
one Of US kill him. There you are
right. But your turn comes last. Lots
indeed! We have no need Of lots to
learn which is the eldest
I was turning from him-having
very properly crushed him-to look for
something which we could use to force
the door, when he held up his hand to
arrest my attention. We listened,
looking at one another. Through the
window came un1nistakable sounds of
voices. ''They have discovered our
flight. I said, my heart sinking.
Luckily we had the forethought to
draw the curtain across the easement
Bezers' people could, therefore, from
their windows, see no more than ours,
| dimly lighted and indistinct. Yet
they would. no doubt, guess the way
we had escaped, and hasten to cut off
our retreat below. For a moment
looked at the door of our room, half
minded to attack it, and fight our way
| out, taking the chance of reaching the
! street before Beers folk should have
recovered from their surprise and gone