The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-23
HALLE
 ERrUrNE RNES
(Continued.)
Copyright, 1910. by the Bobbs-Merrill
 Company

.1- Nontinuedo
 "The cursed cIockwork in the th1ngy' he said. q could hear it all the way. l thought every one would hear it. can't get the ticking out of my brainp He set down the glass and turned a glittering gaze on the other.
 Its worth all that comes from it." he said. You play me fair! Do you understand? You'll play me fair or I'll settle with your'
 The doctor smiled, a smile of hor. rible cunning.
 "As you settled with your brotherY' he said.
 Phil shrank into the chair speeches.. booking at him with trepidation in his eyes. The shot had gone home.
 "Pshawp' said Bers> nin. Do you take me for fool not to guess? Come. we needn't quarrel. Our, interests are the same. Go home. now, to your Jap anese butterfly and waitr
 The chapel was but sparse1y filled. From where she sat Barbara through the open door could see the willows along the disconsolate roadway whip ping in the feering dashes of wind. She had reached point in these few tragical days where her mind. over- wrought with it's own pain, had ac- Quired a kind of benumbing lassitude that was not apathy and yet was far removed from spontaneous feeling. Daunt's presence that dreadful night on the hillside, his confusion, his bleeding hand. his roundabout return to the hotel-an this at the sight of the Damascene crop in the bushes had flashed to her mind in damnable se- Quence. And yet something deep and unfathomed within her had driven her to the obliteration of that mute evi- dence. Austen Ware had slipped and fallen, such was the universal verdict. The truth was sealed forever in the urn now bound overseas to it's last resting place. She alone, she thought, knew the secret of that Nikko trage- dy. q
 The pity offered her, though not openly expressed, since her engage ment had not been formally an- nounced, hurt her like physical blows, and the quiet of the Ts'kiji rectOry was some solace. Tonight an unwel- come task lay before her. She was to visit the yacht, now by satiric freak of chance legally her own. to seal the private papers of the man whose deed of gift might not now be recalled
 As she sat listening to the meaning less reading and the signing of the wind above the chapel roof Barbara's eyes on the stained glass figure in the rose window were full of wistful loneliness. If her father were only alive if he could be near her now Unconsciously her gaze strayed across the hedges to the gray roof of the old temple where lived the eccentric soli tary to whom her thought insistently recurred. In her trouble she longeo to go to him with longing the great CT because it seemed fantastic ano illogical.
 She was startled by sound outside horse in some stable near at hand. II cut through pause in the service sharp, curdling, like a cry of morta fear "A baby near Barbara awoke and began to cry. and the, mother soothed 1t with whispered murmurings.
 Suddenly there arose strange rat ting. a grooming of dmbers. The bish op ceased reading. People were rising to their feet. The building was shift ing. swaying, with sickening upward vibration as though it were being trot- ted on some Brobdngnagian knee Barl,ara felt a qualm like the first touch of mai de mer. "Ji-shini Ji- shin!" rose the cry. and there was a rush for the open air. In another moment she found herself out of doors with the frightened crowd.
 It was her first experience of earth quake, and the terror had gripped her bodily.
 The air swelled with horrible, crunching, grinding roar like the com plaint of million riven timbers. Across the lane a sinister dust cloud sprang into the air like a monstrous hand with spread fingers. Ut is one of the temples" said the bishop. and hurried with the rest, Barbara follow ing him.
 The newer temple faced the open space as usual. but across the hedged garden no ornate roof now thrust up its Tartar gables. Instead was a hud- dle of wreckage upon which lay the huge roof, crumpled and shattered like AL A
 room. From the tangle projected beam ends coiied about with painted mon sters. and here and there in the clut. tered debris lay great images of unfa- miliar deities. Over all hung a fine yellow dust. choking and penetrating.
 What was under those ruins? Bar