The Red Cloud chief., 1900-12-21

"Gladdy? I'm sure I don't know.
mother dear"
Gervis yawncd. lie was pinlng to
get off his Santa Claus trappings. and
to have u quiet pipe by himself.
A quarter OF an hour later nearly
every soul under the Temple Dene
roof was echoing Lady James ques-
ton.
Where was the bride?
Not In her own room, not in the
hot. deserted ballroom; she was not
In the upper gallery, where the lights
were already being put out.
All sense OF fatigue was put to flight
by a vague terror of some evil hang
ing over the house Of T:mple-Dene.
Under the ancient root only two
persons did not share the terrified ex-
element when II was discovered that
Mrs. Gervis Templeton was nowhere
to be found-its master and the Amer
lean guest.
Gervis himself was petrihed. He had
brought all his strength OF will to
bear on nobly doing his duty to the
m he had won for his wife. No
one but he would ever know how
lard the fight had been.
And o II was all in vain, for
GLADLY had gone-where, no one knew.
Since the journey on the Canadian
Pacific railway. over the snow-covered
prairies. GLADLY had been a bewilder-
Ing puzzle to her husband. Her vagar-
les had made him secretly wonder at
times IL he had married a l%unatic.
Then again a great fear would loom
up that his wife had inherited some
terrible wasting disease, and was about
to slip through his fingers and out OF
life itself.
night eclipsed all that he had even
dreaded.
GLADLY gone! She who had been the
merriest, gladdest. happiest OF all the
"goodly companie!" 1t was inscrut-
able, horrible, maddening!
Out into the freezing night went
parties Of searchers. Not a man I'M
der Temple-Dene's roof. gentle or
simple. save two-its master and the
American guest, Paul Ansdell-but
Joined the anxious hunt.
All was in vain!
Nothing more can be done until the
daylight comes" hoarsely said Gervls,
az he strobe into the still gayly lighted
hail. and stamped the hard iced snow
Off his boots.
His face was gray, and a strange
look OF age had crept owed 1t, which
made 1t startlingly like that Of his
mother.
Lady Jane. worn out and spent.
crouched down beside the great yule-
log, that cracked and reared. the only
CHEEKY thing around.
She and Gervis gazed blankly at each
other. What had they done, the two
were asking one another silently, that
this disgrace should have come to
shame them?
Can anybody tell me who saw or
spoke with my wife last?"
There was a catch In the young
husbands voice as he put the question
to the circle of anxious-eyed searchers
round him.
"She said she was going to hide.
Don't you remember" Bobby Vane.
who had rocited. craned his neck for
ward to say.
Then everybody did remember what
they had forgotten-Gladdy's wild pro-
posal to enact the bride In the "Mistle-
toe Bough," and a gasp Of relief came.
why. she's In the house somewhere,
safe and sound, laughing in her sleeve
at us all; and we've been for the last
hour tearing our clothes and the skin
off our hands In that thicket of holly
bushes round the pond!"
Lets go all over the house again."
suggested somebody else.
Perhaps she's crept inside one OF
the suits of armor," suggested Bobby.
with protruding eyes. What a tale It
was going to be to carry back to
school!
Another hour was spent in search,
but all fruitlessly.