The Huttig news., 1908-10-03

ing stub described a fiery arc and took the water with a hiss. Warm whiffs of the rivers sweet and salty breath famed his face gratefully. and he be- came aware that there was moon. His gaze rowing at will he nodded an even-temrered appreciation of the nights splendor-in the city a thing unsupported.
 Never, he thought, had he known moonlight so pure, so silvery and strong. Shadows of gates and posts lay upon the forward deck like stencils of lampblack upon white marble Be yond the boats bluntly rounded nose the East river stretched it's restless. dark reaches, glossy black. woven with gorgeous ribbons Of reflected light streaming from pier head lamps on the further shore. Overhead. the sky. palid and luminous blue around the low-swung moon. was shaded to pro found depths of bluish-blaek toward the horizon. Above Brooklyn rested a tenuous haze. A revenue cutter. slim, pale shape, cut across the bows like hunted ghost Farther out a homeward bound excursion steamer. tier upon tier of glittering lights. drifted slowly toward it's pier beneath he new bridge, the blare of it's band swelling and dying upon the night breeze, mercifully tempered by dis tance
 Presently Maitland's attention was distracted and drawn. by the abrupt cessation of it's motors pulsing. to the automobile on his right. He lifted his chin sharply, narrowing his eyes, whistled low; and thereafter had eyes for nothing else.
 The car. he saw with the expert enced eye of a connoisseur. was te- cent model of one of the most ex. pensiYe and popular foreign makes; built on lines that promised deal in the way of speed, and furnished with engines that were pregnant with multi piled horse power All in all not the style of car one would expect to find controlled by solitary woman. es- pecially after ten of a summers night
 Nevertheless the lone occupant of this car was woman. And tlere was that in her bearing, an indefnable omething-whethar it lav in the car riage of her head, which impressed one as both spirited and independent, or in an equally certain but less tan gible air of self-confdence and re- liance-to set Mad Maitland's pulses drumming with excitement. For, un less indeed he labored gravely under a misapprehension. he was observing haV fNr ( 4s |. past few hours
 Could he be mistaken, or was this in truth the same woman who had fas he believedl made herself free of his rooms that evening?
 In confirmation of such suspicion he remarked her costume, which was all together worked out in soft shades of gray. Gray was the misty veil, drawn in and daintily knotted beneath her i chin, which lent her head and face ] such thorough protection against pry- ing glances; of gray suede were the light gauntlets that hid all save the slenderness of her small hands; and the wrap that. cut upon full and flow ing lines, cloaked her figure beyond suggestion. was gray. Yet even it's ample drapery could not dissemble the fact that she was quite small girlishly slight. like the woman in the doorway: nor did aught temper her impersonal and detached composure. which had also been an attribute of the woman in the doorway. And again she was alone, unchaperoned, unpro- tected.
 Yes? Or no? And. If yes, what to do? Was he to alight and aceost her, accuse her of forcing an entrance to his rooms for the sole purpose (as far as ascertainable) of presenting him with the outline of her hand in the dust of his desks top? Oh, hardly It was all very well to be daringly eccentric and careless of the worlds censure: but one scarcely cared to lay ones self open either to n unknown girls derision or to a sound pummeling at the hands of fel- low passengers enraged by the insult offered to an unsecured woman.
 The young man was still pondering ways and means when dull bump ap- prised him that the ferry boat was en- tering the Long Island City slip. The devili" he exclaimed in mingled dis gust and dismay. realizing that his distraction had been so thorough as to permit the voyage to take place almost without his realizing it. So that now worse luek.-it was too late to take any one of the hundred fantastic steps | he had contemplated half seriously In another two minutes his charming mystery, so hewtohingly incarnated, would have slipped out of his life. fl nally and beyond recall And he could do naught to hinder such a finale to the adventure.
 (To BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK9
 Ladies calling cards neatly