The Mena weekly star., 1909-05-06
CHAPTER K.


 The Aqent of the Fireless Stove.
 The time was two hours later. Rupert Winter was sitting on one of the stone benches of the colonnade about the patio. The court was suffused with the golden glow presaging sunset. Warm afternoon shadows lay along the flags; waving silhouettes oi lc1t- age or plant: blurred reflections rom the bold bas.reliefs of Spanish war riors and Spanish priests sculpturcd between the spandrels of the arches. Winters dull eyes hardly noted them; the exotic luxuriance of foliage, the Spanish armor and Spanish cowls were all too common to a deniZen or a Spanish colony in the tropics, to dis tract his thoughts from his own ugly problem. He had been having 1t out with himself, as he phrased It. And there had been moments during those two hours, when he had ground his teeth and clenched his fists because of the futile and furious pain in him.
 When he recognized Janet Smith, by that same Illuminating flash he
 
 been tricking him was the woman that he loved. He believed that he had said his last word to love, but love. aft CT seeming to accept the curt dis missal, was lightly riding his heart again. Fooled second time, he thought with inexpressible bitterness, recalling his unhappy married life Ae alr who had caused him such humiliation. Yet With her there had been no real wrong doing, only absolute lack Of discretion and childish craving for gayety and adulation. Poor child! what woe ful ending for it all The baby, the little boy who was their only living child, to die of a sudden access of an apparently trifling attack of croup, while the mother was dancing at post ball! He was east, taking his examination for promotion. The fran tic drive home in the chill of the dawn had given her a cold which her shock and grief left her no strength to re- sist-she was always frail little crea- ture, poor butterfiy!-and she followed her baby inside of month. Had she lived. her husband might have found 1t hard to forgive her, for already sore heart was turning to the child for comfort; but she was dead. and he did not let his thoughts misuse her mem ory. Nowhere was another, so diff ferent. but just as false. Then, he l brought himself up with a jerk, he would be fair; he would look at things as they were; many a man had been l fooled by the dummy He would not 1 jump at conclusions because they were | cruel, any more than he would because | they were kind. There was such a thing, he knew we'll, as credulous sus- picion; 1t did more harm than credu- lous trust. Meanwhile, he had his de- | tail. He was to find Archie; therefore,
 he waited. They were in the house;
 it were only folly to give up their ad-
 vantage under the stress of any of
 Mercers plausible lurings to the out
 side
 | Moreover, by degrees, he became | convinced that Mercer, certainly to some extent, was sincere in his pro- | fession of belief in Archie's absence | and safety. This, in spite of hearing several times that Archie was not re- turned. Mercer did all the speaking, but he allowed Bjrdsall to hold the re- ceiyer and take the message from Mrs. | Winter.
 The telephone was In an adjoining room. but by shifting his position | number of times the colonel was able to catch a murmur of the conversa- | tidon. He heard Mercer's voice dis tinctly. He had turned away and was | following the detective out or the room. q don't understand 1t any more than you do, MT. Birdsall," he said; you won't believe me, sub, but am right worried"
 "Of course 1 believe you, purred the detective, so softly that the colo nel knew he did not believe any more than Mercer suspected. "Of course, believe you: but don't know what to do. It ain't on the map. guess US up to you to throw little light I've called the boys of twice already and told 'em to wait an hour or a half hour longer I got to see the colonel.
 q can trust my munitions, or can trust the circumstantial evidence" thought the colonel He jumped up and began to pace the court.
 Seems to be like a game of bridge before one can see the dummy" he complained; and, as so often happens in the crises of life trivial illustra- ton struck a wavering mind with the force of an argument. His thoughts reverted whimsically to the card table: how many times had he hesl- tated over the first lead between even Iy balanced suits of four; and how often had he regretted or won, depend ing solely upon whether his card in stinct had been denied or obeyed! IL might be instinct, this much-discussed "card instinct" or 1t might be sum. ming up of logical deductions so swift that the obscure steps were lost. and F ~;t 2, S 't+1 | " S z S,g/TLL. N ~NA