Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-20

COURIER
Freddie Ha1lam go like thief in the
nigh to secure property that's his
beyond dispute? I don't
really think you owe your father any
farther consideration"
He waited patiently. Eventually,
Moo" the girl sobbed assent.
Its this way: Calendar, counting
On your sraring him in the end, is go
ing to hound US. He's doing it now:
there's Hobbs in the next car, for
proof. Until these jewels are returned
whether to Frognall street or to young
Hallam, we're both in danger, both
thieves in the sight of the law And
your father knows that, too. There's
no profit TO be had by discounting
the temper OF these people; they're
as desperate gang of swindlers as
ever lived. They'll have those jew
els if they have to go as far as mur
der"
"Mr. Kirkwood!'' she deprecated in
horror.
He wagged his head stubbornly
ominously. s'I've seen them in the
raw. They're hot on our trail now;
ten to one, they'll be on our backs be-
fore we can get across the channel
Once in England we will be compare
| lively safe. Until then . But
I'm a brute-I'm frightening you!"
Your are, dreadfully," she con
fessed in a tremulous voice.
! Forgive me. If you look at the
dark side first, the other seems all the
brighter. Please don't worry; We'll
pull through with flying colors, or my
names not Phillip Kirkwood!"
Il have every faith in you,' she in,
formed him, flawlessly sincere
When think of all you've done and
dared for me, on the mere suspicion
that l needed your help"
WED best be. getting ready he
interrupted hastily. Here's Brus-
sells"
| 1t was so. Lights, in little clusters
and long, wheeling lines, were leap
Ing out of the darkness and flashing
back as the train rumbled through
the suburbs of the little Paris of the
North. Already the other passengers
were bestirring themselves, gathering
together wraps and hand luggage, and
preparing for the journeys end.
Rising, kirkwood took down their
] two satchels from the overhead rack,
and waited, in grim abstraction plan
ming and contemplating against the
Vaccinations in whose wiles they two
had become SO perilously entangled.
Primarily, there was Hobbs to be
dealt with; no easy task, for Kirk
wood dared not resort to violence nor
! in, t1a oft oft I,n
authorities, and threats would be an
idle waste of breath, in the case of
that corrupt and malignant little cock
ney, himself as keen as any needle,
adept in all the artful resources of the
underworld whence he had sprung and
further primed for action by that mas
ter rogue, Calendar.
! The train was pulling slowly into
the station when he reluctantly aban-
doned his latest unfeasible scheme for
shaking off the little Englishman, and
concluded that their salvation wad
only to be worked out through ever
lasting vigilance, incessant move.
ment, and the favor of the blind god
dess, Fortune. There was comfort
of sort, in the reflection that the
divinity of chance is at least blind
her favors are impartially distributed:
the swing of the wheel of the world
is not always to the advantage of the
wrong doer and the scamp.
| He saw nothing Of Hobbs as they
alighted and fastened from the sta.
ton, and hardly had time to waste
looking for him, since their train had
failed to make up the precious ten
minutes. Consequently he dismissed
the fellow from his thoughts until
with Brussels lingering in their mem
cries garish vision of brillian streets
and glowing cafes, glimpsed furtively
from their cab windows during it's wild
vards--at midnight they settled them
selves in a carriage of the Bruges ex
press. They were speeding along
| through the open country with noisy
clatter then minutes investigation
sut1iced to discover the mate of the
Alethea secretly ensconced In tbs
coach behind.
I The little man seemed rarely com
placent, and imprudently greeted Kirk
woods scowling visage, as the latter
peered through the window in the
coach door, with a smirk and a wag
glSh wave OF his hand. The Amerl
can by main strength of will powel
mastered an impulse to enter and
wiring his neck, and returned to the
girl more disturbed than he cared tt
let her know.
These resulted from his review o.
the case but one plan for outwittine
Mr.. Hobbs, and that lay in trusting tc
his confidence that Kirkwood anG
Dorothy Calendar would proceed as
far toward Ostend as the train would
take them--namely, to the limit of the
run, Bruges.
Thus inspired, Kirkwood took coun
sci with the girl, and when the trair
paused at Client, they made an unos
tentatious exit from their coach, find
ing themselves, when the express hat
!, rolled on into the west, upon a sta
ton platform in foreign city at nint
minutes past one O'Clock in the morn
ing-but at length without thei
shadow Mr.. Hobbs had gone on tt
Bruges.
Kirkwood sped his journeyings will