The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-03-05

Icumvallation (see cyclopedia)
about Greater New York. Mo-
nopoly end of deal absolutely
nailed down; brass nails; with
Waddy doubloons coming copious.
Up to you to produce flier. Get.
ting wabbly In head. Losing faith
in you as concrete entity. Have
you any aeronef? Answer Yes
or mo at once" This also was
signed I'D. j. of Caroline"
If the kilograms were inexplica-
BILE, his own yielding of command
to this man Craighead, whose an
tecedents and surroundings should
have made any one cautious, was
more SO. Yet Craighead had
taken control by sheer audacity.
These battling communications,
the odd skips and jumps of his in
telIect in conyersation-were they
the capers of insanity, or the fund
a mind showing its devious course
at intervals only, uttering things
which appeared unrelated because
the path from position to position
was passed so swiftly and directly
that the ordinary mind lost sight
of it, as one catches glimpses of
IA hummingbird only at the mo-
ments of it's rest before the
flowers?
What could lie mean by "an old
Broom" The old copy of Broom's
Legal Maxims in Craighe'.d's
library" was indeed minus a COW
Ter, and dog's-eared; but how this
Broom" could, even in metaphor.
yoke the whirligig to any car and
sweep The bowling skies. Carson
could not guess. Mr.. Waddy's de-
mand for aeronautical monopoly
was being complied with, to Mr..
Craighead's mind. and the last
telegram seemed to imply that the
bucolic financier had been con-
Ivinced. His falling lead"
might mean much or little; but his
"doubloons coming copious' was
eloquent Of faith. And what in
the name of all the gods at once
could a Universal Nitrates and
lAir Products Company" mean in
an aerial navigation deal? Or
those mysterious expressions
about surrounding" Chicago and
tGreater New York!
T Well, Aunt Chloe was in there,
lshuffling about, wondering where
he might be, and here he was,
looking on spectraliy and unsus-
pected. With the common human
Impulse to secret appi zach, TEeo-
dore walked on, concealed be-
tween the Spanish bayonets and "A
somber line CT red cedars, climb
ed the end of the veranda. scuttled
Into the broad hall and up to his
room, into which he stepped
quickly; breathing a little hard.
He opened the closet for a change
of clothes, and started back in
wonderment Quite as paralyZfng as
horror; for his clothes were gone!
Instead, there sat huge trunk
with it's lid back, its open tray full
of silken hosiery, corsets, laces,
gloves, handkerchiefs, and open
work things of mystery and ter
ror. On the hooks we're many,
many others quite as awful; frill-
ed and tucked and ruffled and
plated garments; silks, dimities.
cashmeres, linens. cottons and soft
light woolens, filling his closet;
and spread against the wall for
occult reasons connected with
keeping them in shape; and pro-
truding from the trunk were more
clothes, while in corners of the
bedroom were more trunks.
To make sure that he was in
his own house, and not a profan-
err of some divinity of lace and
open-work, he looked from the
window. Yes, this was Carson S
Landing. The gourds hanging
from tall poles; the martins chat
tering from them; the china tree
full of blossoms like lilac blooms,
humm1ng with bees and visited in
cessantlt by crimson bee-birds-
all these he knew. But this. this
corset: with it's lacings unrose it
lay there like a mold awaiting the
casting of a Phidian Psyche. The
name entering his mind made him
ltremble. He picked up the fra
grant garment with the pink rib
bons edging it, an. looked at 1t
with something OF the terror of
Charmides in the shrine Of Arte-
mis-. He had forgotten the mar
vel of their presence in that of
the things themselves; for he was
Enthusiastically innocent, an engi-
neering hermit.
A light step sounded without,
and he froze with the corset in
his hand to a statue of panic and
trance and paralysis. Someone
1entered, his heart bounded, and
ithen stood still; for it was Psyche
of the dunes, Shayne's niece. vir-
ginia, entering jauntily, madden
ingly, like a real woman taking
possession OF his bedroom as her
lownt She had a little subjective