The Washington herald., 1910-06-25

Kit you know, and the pans and-all
that" she said vaguely. At that they all
took to guessing! And I sat stiIl. until
Mr.. HARRISON saw the storm in my eyes
and came over to me.
Have you hurt your ankle?" he said
in an undertone Let me help You up
II am not hurt" 1 said colby. land
even if I were, 1t would be unnecessary
to trouble you"
Il cannot help being troubled" he re-
turned. just as evenly. You see, 1T
makes me III fer days If my car runs
over a dog
Luckily, at that moment Del came in.
He pushed his way through the crowd
without word. shut of the lights.
crashed through the pans and CLAIMED
the shutters close. Then he turned and
addressed the rest.
"of all the lunatics-!" he began. only
there was more TO it than that. "A fell
low goes to all kinds Of trouble 10 put an
end to this miserable situation. and the
entire household turns out and sets to
work TO Illustrate the whole scheme. You
like TO stay here, don't you, Ike chick
ems In a coop? Where's Flannigan?"
Nobody understood Dars wrath then,
but IL seems he meant to arrange the
plot himself. and when il was ripe. and
the hour nearly come. he intended to
wager that he could break the quaran-
tine and to take any odds he could get
! that he would free the entire party In
half an hour. AS for the plan itself, II
was idiotically simple; we were perfectly
delighted when we heard It. It was so
simple and yet so comprehensive We
didn't see how 1t could fail Both the
erssFc nj
Of It. and Anne was furious Jim was not
so much pleased. for some reason or
other. and Mr.. HARRISON looked thought
fui rather than merry. Aunt Selma had
gone TO bed.
The idea, OF course, was 10 start an
embryo fire Just inside the windows. in
the pans. to feed t with the Orange-fire
powder that Is used on the Fourth of
July. and when we had thrown open the
windows and yelled FIRE" and all the
guards and reporters had rushed to the
front of the house. to escape quietly by
rear door from The basement kitchen,
get into machines Dial had in waiting,
and lose ourselves as quickly as we could.
You can see hpw simple it was.
We were terribly excited. of course.
Every one rushed madly for motor coats
and wells. and Dial shuffled the numbers
would have the same machine. We called
to each other as We dressed about Mama
rOneck or Lakewood or wherever we hap
pened to have relatives Everybody knew
everybody else. and his friends. The
Mercer girls were going 10 cruise until
the trouble blew over. the Browns were
going TO Pinehurst. and Jim was going
to Africa to hunt If he could get out OF
the harbor.
Only the Harbison mar seemed TO have
no plans; quite suddenly with the world
so near again. the world OF country
houses and steam yachts and all the rest
Of *. he ceased to be che Of us It was
not his world at all lie stood back and
watched the Kaleidoscope Of our coats
and wells, half-quizzically. but with
something IN his face that I had not
seen there before II he had not been
SO self-reliant and big I would have said
he was lonely. Not that he was pathetic
in any sense Of the word. or course. he
avoided me. which was natural and eX-
actly what I wished. Bella was far from
him and at the last she loaded him with
her jewel case and a muff and travelling
bag and asked him 70 her cousins on
Long Island. I felt sure he was going 10
decline, when he glanced across at me.
do co. I said very politely. They
are charming people" And he accepted
at once
1t was a transparent plot on Beila's
part, Two elderly maiden ladies, house
miles from anywhere, long evenings In
! the mushroom with an open fire and
Bella at the harp playing the two songs
she knows
When We were ready and gathered IN
the kitchen, in the darkness. Of course.
Dial went up on the roof and signaled
with a lantern to the cars on the drive.
Then ne went down stairs. took a last
look al the drawing-room. fired the pa
pers, shook On the powder. opened the
windows, and yelled fret
Of course. huddled in the kitchen. we
had heard little or nothing. But we plain
ly heard DaI on the first floor and Elan
nigan on the second yelling fire" and
the patter OF feet as the guards ran to
the front Of the house And at that in
slant we remembered Aunt Selma,
That was the cause of the whole trou-
BILE I don't know why they turned on
me; she wasn't my aunt. But by the
time we had got her out Of bed, and had
wrapped her in an eiderdown comfort,
and stuck slippers on her feet and a
motor veil on her head, the glare at the
front u the house was beginning to die
away. She didn't understand at all and
we had no time TO explain. I remember
that she wanted to go pack and get her
plate. whatever that may be. but jim
took her by the arm and hurried her
along. and the rest. who had waited,
and were in awful tempers. stood aside
and let them out first.
The door to the area steps was open,
and by the street lights we could see a
fence and a gate which opened on a side
street. Jim and Aun5 Selma ran straight
fol the gate; The wind blowing Aunt Sc
lina's comfort like a sail. Then, with
our feet. 20 to speak, on the first rungs