Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-15
Septinn11s
By WI LIAM J.LOCKE
Copyright, 1903. BY the Phillips Publish
ire Company
Copyright. 1907 By John Lane Company


CHAPTER IV-Continued.
Fora came down coated and yelled. her
face radiant as a Romney In its frame OF
gauge. She looked so big and beautiful.
and Sypher looked SO big and strong. and
both seemed so full Of vitality. that Sep
timus felt criminally Insignificant. His
voice was Of too low q pitch to make it
self carry when these two spoke In their
full tones. He shrank into his shell. Had
he not realized, in his sensitive way, that
without him as q neutrality-suspicious.
spaniel that he was-Zora would not a.
cept Glenn Sypfer's invitation, he would
have excused himself from the dive. lie
differentiated. not conceitedly, between
Glen Sypher and himself. She had driven
alone with him on. her first night at
Monte Carlo. But then she had carr cd
him of between her finger and thumb. so
to speak, as the Brobd Monaghan ladies
carried off 0ulliver. He knew that he did
not count as danger in the eyes OF high
spirited young women A man like Sy-
have driven alone with Sypher any more
than with the wretch Of the evil eyes. He
did not analyze this out himself, as his
habit of mind was too vague and dreamy
But he knew it instinctively. as dog
knows whom he can trust with his mis-
tress and whom he cannot. So when Sy-
pher and Fora with a great bust)'- or life.
were discussing seating arrange ments IN
the car. he climbed modestl! into the
front seat next to the chauffeur. ami
would not be dislodged by Sypher's EN-
treaties. He was just there. on guard
having no place in the vigorous atnos-
phere of their personalities. He sat aioof.
smoking his pipe, and wondering whether
which could run on rails round a small
garden, fill the baby's lungs with air, and
save the British army from the tempta-
ton Of nursery maids. His sporadc dis
course on the subject perplexed the chauf-
feur.
1t was a day of vivid glory. Rain had
fallen heavily during the night. laying the
dust on the road. and washing to gay
freshness the leaYes OF palms and gold
spotted orange trees, and the purple bour-
on wayside walls. All the deep, strong
color of the south was there. making
things unreal-the gray mounta ms, fragi
masses against the solid cobalt OF the
sky. The Mediterranean met the horizon
in a blue so intense that the soul ached
to see it, The heart of spring throbbed
in the deep bosom OF summer. The air
as they sped through it was like cool,
spiced wine.
Fora listened to Glenn Sypher's dithy-
into his head. He spoke as she had heard
no man speak before. The turns OF the
road brought into sight view after magic
view, causing her to catch her breath
purple rock laughing In the sea, far-on
townlets flashing white against the noun
tain flank, gardens Of paradise. Yet
Glen Sypher sang of his cure.
First 1t was a salve for all external ills
that flesh is heir to. 1t spared humanity
its heritage of epidermatous suffering. 1t
could not fail. He reeled off the string
of hideous diseases with lyrical Tilt. 1t
was his own discovery. An obscure
chemists assistant in Bury st. Edmunds,
he had, by dint Of experiments. hit on
this world-upheaving remedy.
when / found what it was that had
done, Mrs. Middlemist,' said he, solemn
ly. IT passed my vigil. like a knight of
o d. in my dispensary, with a pot OF the
cure in front Of me. and l took q 9 eat
oath to devote my life to spread 1t far
and wide among the nations OF the earth.
1t should bring comfort, I swore. to the
king in his palace and the peasant in his
hut. 1t should be a household word in
the London slum and on the Tartar
steppe. Sypher's Cure could go with the
Red Cross into battle. and should be In
Rye. The human chamois that climbs
the Alps, the gentle lunatic that plays
golf, the idiot that goes and gets scalped
by Red Indians, the missionary that gets
half roasted by cannibals-if he gets quite
roasted the cures no good; 1t can't do
impossibilities-all should carry Sypher's
Cure in their waistcoat pockets. All man
kind should know it. from China to Peru.
from Cape Horn to Nova Zembla- 1t
would free the tortured world from
plague. I would be the Friend of HUI
I took that for my device. 1t
was something to live for. l was twenty
then. / am forty now. have had twenty
years Of the fiercest battle that ever man
fought"
And surely you've come or victorious
Mr. Qvnher said Fora
II shall never be victorious until 1t has
the earth!" he declared. And
he passed one hand over the other In a
gesture which symbolized the terrestrial
globe with a coating OF Sypher's Cure.
"Why shouldn't it?'
1T shall. Somehow. believe that with
you on nay side 1t will
"I?' Fora started away to the corner
Of the car and gazed' on him in blank
amusement; ~ What in the world
II don't know yet" said Sypher. Il
have an intu ton. I'm a believer in in
buttons. I've followed them all my life.
and they've never played me false. The
I learned that you had never
heard Of me I felt it,
Fora breathed comfortably again. 1t
was not an implied declaration.
I'm fighting against the Powers of
Darkness" he continued. II once read
a bit of Spencer's 'Faerie Queene.' There
Dragon-but he had fabulous kind Of
woman behind him. When l saw you.
you seemed that fabulous kind OF
woman"
At sharp wall corner q clump of tall
poinsettias famed against the sky. Fora
aughed full-heartedly.
Here we are in the middle of a fairy
tale. What are the Powers of Darkness
in your case, Sir Red Cross knight?'
"Jebusa Jones' Cuticle Remedy" said
Sypher, savagely.
CHAPTER V.