Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-01-04

I0SOlSS1On, ana leo the way down the
stairs.
| He said nothing when he saw Bella,
for which I was grateful. She was sit
ting at the table, with her arms in
front of her, and her head buried IN
| them And then I saw she was asleep
Her hat and veil laid beside her, and
! she had taken off her coat and draped
1t around her. She had rummaged
out cold pheasant and some salad,
and had evidently had little supper.
! Supper and a nap, while I worried my
self gray-headed about her!
"She-she came in unexpectedly
something about the butler" explain
ed under my breath "And-she
doesn't want to stay. She is on bad
terms with-with some of the people
upstairs. You can see how impossible
the situation is"
IT doubt if we can get her out" he
said, as if the situation were quite
ordinary. However, we can try. She
seems very comfortable. It's pity to
rouse her.
Here the prisoner in the furnace
as though he had taken lump of coal
and was attacking the lock. Mr. Har-
bison followed the noise, and could
hear him arguing, not gently.
Another sound" he flashed, land
you won't get out of here at all, I'M
less you crawl up the furnace pipe!"
When he came back, Bella was rous-
ing. She lifted her head with her
eyes shut and then opened them one
at a time, blinked, and sat up. She
didn't see him at first.
'You wretch!" she said ungrateful-
II, after she had yawned. DO you
know what time it is? And that"
Then she saw Mr. HARRISON and sat
staring at him.
This is Mr.. Harbison," I said to
her hastily "He-he came with Anne
and Dial and he is shut in, too
By that time Bella had seen how
handsome he was, and she took
hair-pin out of her mouth, and arched
her eyebrows, which was always
Bella's best pose.
II am Miss Knowles" she said
sweetly (of course, the court had
given her back her name), "and I
stopped in tonight, thinking the house
was empty, to see about IA butler.
Unfortunately, the house was quaran-
tined just at that time, and-here I
am. Surely there cannot be any harm
in helping me to get .out?" pleading
/ tone) 81 have not been exposed to
any contagion, and in the exhausted
state of my health the confinement
would be positively dangerous"
She rolled her eyes at him, and I
could see she was making an impress
| sion. Of course, she was free. She
had perfect right to marry again,
but l will say this: Bella Is lot bet
ter looking by electric light than she
is the next %norning.
The upshot of it was that the gen
tleman who built bridges and looked
down on society from lofty, lonely
pinnacle agreed to help one of the
| most cleaning members of the afore-
said society to outwit the law.
It took about Is minutes to quiet
the policeman. Nobody ever knew
what Mr. HARRISON did to him, but
for "a hours he was quite tractable.
He changed after that, but that comes
later in the story. Anyhow, the Har-
bison man went upstairs and came
down with a Bagdad curtain and a
cushion to match, and took them into
the furnace room, and came out and
locked the door behind him, and then
we were ready for Bella's escape.
But there were four special officers
and three reporters watching the
house as a result of Max Reeds idiocy.
Once, after trying all the other win
dows and finding them guarded, we
discovered a little bit of hole in an
out-of-the-way corner that looked like
ventilator and was covered with a
heavy wire screen. No prisoners ever
dug their way out of a dungeon with
more energy than that with which we
attacked that screen, hacking at it
with kitchen knives, whispering like
conspirators, being scratched with the
ragged edges of the wire, frozen with
the cold air one minute and boiling
with excitement the next. And when
the wire was cut, and Bella had rolled
her coat up and thrust it through, and
was standing on chair ready to fol-
low, something outside that had looked
like a barrel moved and said, ooh,
wouldn't do that if I were you. 1t
would be certain to be undignifed,
and probably it would be unpleasant
later"
We coaxed and pleaded and tried
| to bribe. and that happened, as it
turned out, to be one Of the worst
things that we had to endure. For the
whole conversation came out the next
afternoon in the paper, with the most
awful drawings, and the reporter said
it was the flashing of the jewels we
wore that first attracted his attention.
And that brings me back to the rob-
berry.
For when we had crept back to the
| kitchen, and Bella was fumbling for
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