The Washington herald., 1912-06-30

/ lake II easy, nlan-and have a cigar.
II MacGregor had suddenly gone into
a ft Philip could not have been more
surprised than at these words, as he
stood with cap in his hand before the
desk Of the hery-mustached inspector,
VINO was passing his box of choice Ha-
vanas. There are tightly drawn lines
of distinction in the Royal Mounted.
As Philip had once heard the commits
sioner say, Every man in the service
is a kng-but there are different de-
grees of kings" and for a barracks
man to be asked to sit in the inspectors
ONCE and smoke was a sensational
breach of the usual code But az he
had distinctly heard the invitation to
sit, and to smoke, Philip proceeded to
do both, and waited in silence for the
next mine to explode under his feet
/ And there was a certain ease in his
manner of doing these things which
would have assured most men that he
was not unaccustomed to sitting IN the
presence of greatness.
The inspector seemed to notice this.
For a moment he stood squarely In
front Of Steele, his hands showed deep
into his pockets, twinkle in the cold,
almost eolorless eyes which the rock
les dreaded even more than the 6ercely
turned red mustaches. Then he laugh
| ed, a rumbling. chuc<ling, companion
able laugh, such as finds its vent in
the fellowship of equals, but which is
seldom INDUCED in by a superior be-
fore an inferior in the R. n. w. NJ.
Police.
Mighty good cigars, eh, Steeie%
he I'D eli ~ r..
window The commissioner sent 'em
up to me from Regina. Nothing like
a good cigar on a dreary day like this.
lWhew, listen to the wind-straight
| from Medicine HatF'
For a few moments he looked out
upon the cherries drab roofs of the
barracks, with their wisps of pale smoke
swirling upward into the leaden sky;
counted the dozen gnarled and scrub
by trees, as had become a habit with
him; rested his eyes upon the black
and shriveled remnants Of summer flow
er beds thrusting their frost-shrunken
stalks through the snow, and then. al
most as if he were speaking to himself.
he said. Steele, are you beauty-proof2 p.
There was no banter in his voice Il
was low, so low that it had in II the
ring of something more thap mere de-
sire for answer, and when the Inspector
turned, Philip observed a thing that he
had never seen before-a flush in Mac
Gregor's face. His pale eyes cleaned
His voice was filed with an intense
earnestness as he repeated the question.
Il want to know. Steele. Are yoH
beauty-proof"
In spite of himself Philip felt the FIRE
rising in his own face In that mo-
ment the inspector could have hit on
no words that would have thrilled him
more deeply than those which he had
spoken. Beauty-proofI Did Mac
Gregor know? Was it possible He
took a step forward, words came to his
lips, but he caught himself before he
had given voice to them.
Beauty-proof!
He laughed, softly, as the inspector
had laughed few moments before But
there was a strange tenseness in his
face-something which MacGregor saw,
but could not understand
"Beauty-proof;" He repeated the
words, looking keenly at the other.
yes, | think | am, sir"
You think you are?"
u am quite sure that ! am, inspector.
That is as far as can 60
desk and opened a drawer From It
he took a photograph. For some time
he gazed at it in silence. putting out
clouds of smoke from his cigar Then,
without lifting his eyes from the pic
ture. he said: Il am going to put you
up against a queer case, Steele. and the
strangeSt thing about it is its very sim
plicity. It's job for the greenest rook-
ie in the service. and vet l swear that
there isn't another man in Saskatche-
wan to whom I would talk as | am
about to talk to you. Rather paradox
icaL isn't it,"
Rather" agreed Philip.
And yet not when you come to un-
derstand the circumstances continued
the inspector. placing the photograph
face down on the table and looking at
the other through a purple cloud of to-
bacco smoke. You see, Steele, I know
who you are. 4 know that your father
is Philip Steele, the big Chicago banker.
/ know that you are up here for ro-
nance and adventure rather than for
any other thing there IS in the service.
| know, too, that you are no prairie
chicken, and that most Of your life has
been spent where you see beautiful
women every hour Of the day. and
where soft voices and tender smiles
aren't the most wonderful things in the
world. as they sometimes are up here.
Fact is. we have a way of our own of
running down records"
And a confounded clever one il must
be-" interrupted Philip irreverently
Had you any-any particular reason
for supposing me to be 'beauty-proof,'
as YOU call it?" he added ooldly.
I've told you my only reason" said
the inspector, leaning over his desk.
you've seen so many pretty faces.
Steele, and you've associated with them
so long that one up here isn't going to
turn your head. Now"
MacGregor hesitated. and laughed
The flush grew deeper in his cheeks,
and he looked again at the photograph.
I'm going to be frank with you" he
went on. This young woman called
on me yesterday, and within a quarter
Of an hour-hfteen minutes, mind you!
she had me going like fool Under
stand? I'm not proof-against her
and vet I'm growing old in the service
and haven't had love affair since-a
long time ago. I'm going to send you
up to the Wekusko camp, above lie
Pas. to bring down a prisoner The
nan is her husband, and he almost
tilled Hodges, who is chief of construc-