The Mena weekly star., 1909-04-08

| | felt for that reporter of the Chicago paper he was evidently getting | photographic record now, he made an lnarticulate rumble of sympathy in his i throat which was as the clucking of the driver to the mettled horse. Mrs. Melville gesticulated with Delsartian | grace as she poured forth her woes.
 They accused mo of domineering | spirit; they said I was trying to set up machine. 1! I worked for them. many time. half the night, at my i desk; never was a letter unanswered: 1 l did half the work of the correspond ing secretary; yet at the crucial mo ment she betrayed mel I learned more in those two days of the petty Jealousy, the pitiless malevolence of some women than 1 had known all my | life before; but at the same time. to l the faithful band of friends"-the | colonel had the sensation of listening | to the record again-"whose fidelity | was proof against ridicule and cruel misrepresentation, l return a grati. tude that will never wane. RuDert"- | she turned herself in the seat and 1 waved the open palm of her hand in graceful and dramatic gesture,
 those women not only stopped to malignant falsehoods, they not only trampled parliamentary law underfoot, ! but they circulated through the hall cartoon called the Making of the Slate. Of course, we had our quarters | At hntpl and ha l ing. after l had retired, in fact, bell 1 boy brought me a message; it was l necessary to have meeting at once, | to decide for the secretaryship, as we l had found out Mrs. Ellennere was l false. The ladies in the adjoining | rooms and the others of us on the board who were loyal came into my chamber. Rupert, will you believe it, l those women had a grotesque picture of us, with faces cut out of the news | papers-of course, all our pictures were in the papers-and they had the audacity and the meanness to picture me in--in the garments of nighti"
 That was pretty tough But where 1 does Miss Smith come in?"
 "She was at the convention. She Is a Daughter. I've always said we are | too lax in our admissions"
 "Who drew the picture?"
 Tt may not be Miss Smith, but she does draw. I'm sure that she worked against me; she covered up her footprints so that have no proof; but suspect her. She's deep, Bertie, | she's deep. But she can't hoodwink me I'll find her out''
 The colonel experienced the embar- man trying to defend one woman l against another; he retreated because | he perceived defense was in vain;
 but he did not feel his growing opinion l of Miss Smiths innocence menaced by Mrs Melville's convictions.
 She played too square a game for kidnaper-and Smith was the com honest of names. No, there must be some explanations; Rupert Winter had | lived too long not to distrust the plaus- | ible surface clew. Tt is the improba- ble that always happens, and the im- possible most of the time," Aunt Re- becca had once said. He quite agreed with her whimsical phrase.
 Nothing happened to arouse his sus
 picions that day. Haley reported that Cary Mercer was going on to San Francisco. The conductor did not know his name; he seemed to know hir. Keatcham and was with him in | his drawing room most of the time. | Had the great man a secretary with him? Yes, he seemed to have, little ! fellow who had not much to say for 1 himself, and jumped whenever his boss spoke to him. There was also a valet, an Englishman, who did not re- spond properly to conversational over lures. They were all going to get off at Denver.
 Haley was not misinformed, as the colonel perceived with his own eyes and he saw Cary Mercer bow in part | ing to the great man. who requited the low salute with gruff nod. Here was an opportunity for nearer glimpse of Mercer, possibly for that explanation in which Winter still had lurking hope. He caught Mercer just in the car doorway and politely greeted him: Mir. Mercer. think? You may not remember me, Col. Winter. I met you in Cambridge, three years ago."
 It seemed a brutal thing to do. to re- call meeting under such circum- stances; but if Mercer could give the explanation he would excuse him; it was better than suspecting an inno- cent man. But there was no oppor- tunity for explanation. Mercer turned a blank and coldly suspicious face to- ward him. q beg pardon" he said in his southern way. q think you have made mistake in the person"
 And are you not Mir Cary Mercer?" The colonel felt the disagreeable re- semblance of his own speeches to those made in newspaper stories by the gentleman who wishes his old friend to change $50 bill or to en- gage in an amusing game with thim- ble. Mercer saw 1t as well as he. "Try some one from the country" he. remarked with an unpleasant smile, brushing past, while the color mounted to the colonel's tanned cheek "The next time you meet me" Rupert Win ter vowed, you'll know me"
 A new porter had come on at Den yer; a light brown, chubby, bald man Fri