The Nevada County picayune., 1909-03-04

he had blundered in on a naked soul. Noiselessly he slipped out of the range or vision. He spoke loudly, halting to ask some question about the rooms; this made moments pause
 It was sufficient; in the study they found a quiet, calm, although rather haggard-looking man, who greeted winters companion courteously with southern accent, and very good manner. He was presented to the col onel as Mir. Mercer. He would have excused himself, protesting that he was just going, but the colonel took the words out of his mouth: Ralph, here, has cigar for me-that is all came for; see you at the Touraine, Ralph tomorrow for luncheon, then" He did not see the man again; neither did he see Ralph, although he made l good, so far as in him lay, his fiction of an engagement at the Touraine. 1 But Ralph could not come; and Winter had lunched, instead, with an old l friend at his club, and had watched, through a stately Georgian window the shifting greenery of the common in an east wind.
 All through the luncheon the sol diers mind kept swerving from the talk in hand to Cary Mercers face. l Yet he never expected to see it again. l Three years later he did see it; and this second encounter, of which, by the way, Mercer was unconscious, was the beginning of an absorbing chapter in his life. A short space of time that chapter occupied; yet into it crowded l mystery. peril wonderful and awful | spectacle, the keenest happiness and i the cruelest anxiety. Let his days be ever so many. the series of events which followed Mercer's reappearance will not be blurred by succeeding ex- periences; their vivid and haunting pictures will burn through commoner and later happenings as an electric torch flares through layers of mist. Nothing, however, could promise adventure less than the dull and chilly late March evening when the chapter began. Nor could anyone be less on the lookout for adventure. or even in- terest, than was Rupert Winter. In truth, he was listless and depressed. When he alighted from his cab in the great court of the Rock Island sta tion he found Haley. his old orderly, with a hand on the door-hasp. Haley's military stoicsm of demeanor could not quite conceal a certain agitation at least not from the coloners shrewd eye. used to catch the moods of his soldiers. He strangled kind of sigh. Doesn't like it much more than l." thought Rupert Winter. This is mighty kind of you, Haley" he said.
 Yes, sor," answered Haley, salut- ing. The colonel grinned feebly. Haley, busy repelling youthful DOT ter. did not notice the grin; he stroce ahead with the colonel's world-scarred hand-luggage, found an empty settee beside one of the squaretiled columns of the waiting room and disposed his burden on the iron-railed seat next the corner one. which he reserved for the colonel
 me LTdlu dlIl III yCt, Noiohti, o"AN he. I'll be telling you
 No Haley" interrupted the col onel. whose lip twitched little and he looked aside; best say goodbye | now: don't wait. The fact is, I'm thinking of too many things you and l have gone through together He held out . hand Haley, with stony expression, gazed past it and saluted. while he repeated: Yes, sor; I'll be back to take the bags whin the trains made up." Whereupon he wheeled and made off with speed.
 Just the same damned obstinate way he's always had" chuckled the colonel to-. himself. Nevertheless, something ached in his throat as he frowned and winked.
 ."Oh, get a brace on you, you played out old sport.' he muttered. The games on the last four cards and you haven't established your suit; you'll have to sit back and watch the other fellows play," But his dreary thoughts persisted Rupert was colonel m the regular army of the United States. He had been brevetted a brigadier general after the Spanish war, and had commanded, not only brigade, but a division at one critical time Tn tho Philippines but for reasons prob ably known to the little knot Of poll ticians who hung 1t up,' although in- comprehensible to most Americans, | congress had failed to pass the Dlll giving the wearers of brevet titles the right to keep their hard-worn ana onntv honors: wherefore Gen. Winter had declined to Col. Winter.
 He had more substantial troupies' including a wound which would prop ably make him limp through life ana