Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-09-07

=
/ the game that countsi l had expected
Drawer things of you. The game that
counts, my girl" he preached it at her
with his long white hand, 'the game
| that is going on out here is the big,
| red game of life That's the only one
that's worth guinea; and there's no
F., winning or losing, there's no right or
wrong to it, and it doesn't matter
what man is in it as long as he's a
good one"
Even if he is a thief?" The ques-
| ton was out of Flora's lips before she
could catch it. 1t was a challenge
She had meant to confound him; but
he caught it as if it delighted him.
well, what would you think?"
He threw it back at her
What hadn't she thought! How per-
sistently her fancy had played with
the question of what sort of man that
one might be who had so wonderful
| ly put his hand under glass case and
drawn out the Chatworth ring.
"Oh," she laughed obviously, 81 sup
pose he is good one as long as he
isn't caught"
| What" His face disowned her.
you think he's renegade, do you?
A chap in perpetual flight, taking
things because he has to, more or less
pursued by the. law? Bah! It's a
guild as old, and deal more honor
able, than the beggar's. Your good
thief is born to it. It's his caste. It's
in his blood. 1t isn't money that he
wants. If he had a million he'd be
the same. And it isn't a mania eth
er. It's a profession" The English
man leaned back and smiled at her
over the elegance of his long, joined
finger-tips
She looked at him with a delighted
alarm, with an increasing citation; but
whether these arose from his lawless
declarations and the singular way
they kept setting before her more
wildly moment by moment the pos
sible character of the present keeper
of the Chatworth ring, or whether it
was just the sight of Kerr himself as
he sat there that stirred her, she
didn't try to distinguish.
''But suppose he was your own
thief" she urged; took your own
things, mean" she hastily amended
"and suppose he turned out to be-
some one you knew and liked She
hesitated. She had come at last to what
| she really wanted to say. She had
brought out question that had been
teasing her fancy at intervals all the
while he had been talking, and he had
not even heard it. He wasn't even look
ing at her. She had caught him off
his guard He was looking across her
shoulder straight down the dim vista
of the room to the little blaze of Dor
dering light. He was looking at Har-
ry. No, Harry was looking at him.
Harry was looking with a steady, an
intent gaze, and Kerr meeting tit
might have been merely the blank
! glare of his monocle-seemed, to
Flora, to meet it a little insolently.
She fancied in the instant something
| to pass between the two men, some
thing which, this time, she did not
for defiance or suspicion, a deep
scrutiny that struggled to place some
thing, some one.
Flora felt a sudden wish to break
! that curious scrutiny. 1t had broken
her little moment. 1t had shattered
the personal almost intimate note
that had been sounded between them.
The look Kerr turned back to her was
vague and stirred in her a dim re-
sentiment that he could drop it all so
easily.
Shall we join the others?" 1t was
the voice with which she had begun
with him, but her eyes were hot
through their light mist Of lashes, and
he threw her a compromising glance
of amusement.
ooh, no." he assured her, eve can't
help ourselves. They are going to
join u.s.
Ella Butler, in the van of her pro-
cession, was already descending upon
them Her approach dissipated the
last remnant Of their personal mo-
ment. Her presence always insisted
that there was nothing worth while
but instant participation in her gen
iality, and whatever subject it might
at the moment be taken up with.
This conviction of Elias had been
wont to overawe Flora, and it still
overwhelmed her; so that now, as
she followed in the trail of Ella s
marshaled force, she had guilty feel
ing that there should be nothing in
her mind but a normal desire for sup
per-
Yet all the way down the great
stair, 1.-The Corridors of Time" where
the white owl glared his CLASSY Wis
dom on the passings and counter
passings, she was haunted with the
thought that Harry had seen the ex-
traordinary Kerr before; not shaken
hands with him, perhaps-perhaps not
even heard his name; but somewhere,
across some distance, once glimpsed
! him, and had never quite shaken the
memory from his mind. For there
was something marked, notable, unfor-
getable in that lean distinctiveness.
Against the sleek Sorm of the men
they met and shook hands with, he