Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1911-06-29

worry; that he has my pearl corar
spotted, and that young ladies' will
have their jokesi"
Yes. as ! said before. It was cheer
full, joy-producing situation
sat and thought 1t over after
Anne's parting shot, when Leila had
flounced downstairs. Things were
closing in; gave the situation "a
hours to develop. At the end of that
time Flanagan would accuse me open
ly of knowing where the pearls we're;
would explain my silly remark to
him, and the mine would explode
under Aunt Selma.
l was sunk In detected reverie when
some one came on the roof When he
was opposite the opening in the tent.
] saw Mr. HARRISON, and at that mo
ment he saw me. He paused uncer-
tainly, then he made an evident effort
and came over to me.
you are-better today7"
quite well, thank you"
Il am glad you find the tent use
full. Does 1t keep off the wind?"
ut is quite a shelter"-frigidly.
He still stood, struggling for some
thing to say. Evidently nothing came
to his mind, for he lifted the cap he
was wearing, and, turning away. be-
gan to work with the wiring of the
roof. He was clever with tools; one
could see that II he was a profess
sional gentleman-burglar no doubt
he needed to be. After a bit, finding
1t necessary to climb to the parapet,
he took off his coat. without even a
glance in my direction, and fell to
work vigorously,
One does not need to like a man to
admire him physically, any more than
one needs to like racehorse or any
other splendid animal. No one could
deny that the man on the parapet
was a splendid animal; he looked
quite big enough and strong enough to
have tossed his slender bridge across
difficulty. and coordinate enough to
have crossed 1t with a flourish to
safety
Just then there was a rending, tear
ing sound from the corner and a NUT
tered ejaculation. l looked up in time
to see Mr.. HARRISON throw up his
arms. make futile attempt to regain
his balance, and disappear over the
edge of the roof. One instant he was
standing there, splendid, superb; the
next, the corner Of the parapet was
| empty, all that stood there was a
| broken, splintered post, and tangle OF
| wires.
could not have moved at first; at
least, It seemed hours before the full
significance Of the thing penetrated
my dazed brain. When / got up 1
seemed to walk, to crawl, with leaden
weights holding back my feet
When / got to the corner / had to
catch the post FOR support I knew
somebody was saying: "Oh. how terri.
ble!" over and over. 1t was only after
ward that knew 1t had been myself.
And then some other voice was say
| ing: Don't be alarmed. Please, don't
be frightened. I'm all right"
/ dared look over the parapet final
ly, and instead Of crushed and UNI
speakable body. there was Mr.. Harbi-
son. sitting about eight feet below me,
with his feet swinging into space and
long red scratch from the corner
of his eye across his cheek There
was sort of mansard there, with win.
dows, and just enough coping to keep
him from rolling off.
81 thought you had fallen-all the
way" l gasped, trying to keep my
lips from trembling. I-oh, don't
dangle your feet like that!"
He did not seem at all glad of his
escape. He sat there gloomily, peer
ing into the gulf beneath.
IF 1t wasn't so-er-messy and gen.
orally unpleasant" he replied without
looking up, 81 would slide off and go
the rest of the way"
You are childish" said. severely
See If you can get through the win
dow behind you. II you cannot, I'll
come down and unfasten it." But the
window was open, ard had chance
to sit down and gather up the scat
tered ends Of my nerves. To my sur
prise, however when he came back
he made no effort to renew our con
versation. He ignored me completely
and went to work at once to repair
the damage to his wires, with his bach
to me.
(TO BE CONTINUED