The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-05-11

| to the pans, to the windows. to the
bric-a-brac on the mantel, and back
to me.
sat stonily silent. Why should ]
| explain? Whenever I got into a fool.
ish position, and tried to explain, and
tell how It happened, and who was
really to blame, they always brought
It back to me somehow. So / sat
there on the floor and let them stare.
And finally Lollie Mercer got her
breath and said: How perfectly
lovely; it's a ~charade!"
And Anne guessed kitchen" at
once. Kit, you know, and the pans
and-ali that" she said, vaguely. At
that they all took to guessing! And
| sat still, until Mr.. HARRISON saw the
storm in my eyes and came over to
me.
Have you hurt your ankle?" he
said in an undertone. Let me help
you up"
IL am not hurt" I said. coldly,
and ever If / were, It would be un.
necessary 10 tTOuDle you.
Il cannot help being troubled" he
returned, Just as evenly. you see,
1t makes me Ill for days IL my car
runs over a dog"
Luckily, at that moment Dial came
In. He pushed his way through the
crowd without a word, shut of the
lights. crashed through the pans and
slammed the shutters close. Then he
turned and addressed the rest.
"Of all the l~unatics-!" he began,
"A fellow goes to all kinds of trouble
to put an end to this miserable situa-
ton, and the entire household turns
out and sets to work to Illustrate the
whole scheme. You like to stay here,
don't you, like chickens in a coop?
Where's Flannigan?"
Nobody understood Dal's wrath then,
but 1t seems he meant to arrange the
plot himself, and when 1t was ripe,
and the hour nearly come, he intend
ed to wager that he could break the
quarantine, and to take any odds he
could get that he would free the en-
tire party in half an hour. AS for the
plan itself. it was idiotically simple;
we were perfectly delighted when we
heard 1t. 1t was so simple and yet so
comprehensive. We didn't see how it
could fail. Both the Mercer girls
kissed Dial on the strength of 1t, and
Anne was furious. Jim was so much
pleased, for some reason or other, and
Mr.. HARRISON looked thoughtful rather
than merry. Aunt Selma had gone to
bed.
The idea, OF course, was to start an
embryo fire just inside the windows,
in the pans, to feed it with the q
fire powder that Is used on the Fourth
of July, and when we had thrown
open the windows and yelled fire"
and all the guards and reporters had
rushed to the front Of the house, to
escape quietly by a rear door from
the basement kitchen, get into ma.
chimes Dial had in waiting, and lose
ourselves as quickly as we could.
You can see how simple 1t was.
Everyone rushed madly for motor
coats and wells, and Dial shufhed the
numbers so the people going the same
direction would have the same ma,
chine. We called to each other as we
dressed about Marmaronec,l or Lake
wood or wherever we happened to
nave relatives. Everybody knew
everybody else, and his friends. The
Mercer girls were going to cruise IN.
til the trouble blew over, the Browns
were going to Pinehurst, and Jim was
going to Africa to hunt, il he could
get out Of the harbor.
Only the HARRISON man seemed to
have no plans; quite suddenly with the
world so near again, the world of coun.
try houses and steam yachts and all
the rest OF 1t, he ceased to be one of
us. 1t was not his world at all. He
stood back and watched the kaleido-
scope OF our coats and wells. half-quiz-
zically, but with something In his
face that l had not seer there before.
If he had not been so self-reliant and
big, l would have said he was lonely.
Not that he was pathetic in any sense
of the word. OF course, he avoided
me, which was natural and exactly
what l wished. Belle never was far
from him, and at the last she loaded
him with her jewel case and a mum
and travelling bag and asked him to
her cousins on Long Island. I felt
sure he was going to decline, when he
glanced across at me.
DO CO." I said. very politely. "They
r charming people" And he accept
ed at once!