Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-02-27

/ 1Ou Cdl CAPSSI hAS W StSNAe
that" she said. II must go up now
and read mamma into the pleasant
land Of thin girlish figures that is her
afternoon siesta. 1 may come back
and talk to you after while, but 1
don't promise to explain"
Come back" pleaded Mr.. Magee.
| THAT is all I ask"
"A tiny boon," she smiled. II grant
it."
Laughing, Mr.. Magee sought the
solitude of No. Z.
After all, I'm here to work." he
told himself. alarms and excursions
and blue eyes must not turn me from
my task. Let's see-what was my
task? A deep heart searching novel,
novel devoid of rabid melodrama.
1t becomes more difficult every minute
here at Baldpate inn. But that should
only add more zest to the struggle.
devote the next two hours to thought"
He pulled his chair up before the
blazing hearth and gazed into the red
depths. But his thoughts refused to
turn to the masterpiece that was to
be born on Baldpate. They roamed
to far off Broadway; they strolled
with Helen Faulkner-the girl he
meant to marry If he ever got around
to it-along dignified Fifth avenue.
Then joyously they trooped to far
more alluring, more human girl, who
pressed a bit Of cambria to her face
in a railway station, while ginger
i haired agent peeped through the bars.
Soon Mr.. Magee's thoughts were
climbing Baldpate mountain, there
to wander in a mystic maze Of ghost
ly figures which appeared from the
shadows, holding aloft in triumph gi-
gantic keys Mr. Magee had slept but
little the night before. The quick
December dusk filled No. when he
awoke with start.
He remembered that he had asked
the girl to come back to the office and
berated himself to think that probably
she had done so only to find that he
was not there. Hastily Strengthening
his tie and dashing the traces of sleep
from his eyes with the aid of cold wa
ter, he ran down stairs.
The great bare room was in dark
ness save for the faint red Of the fire.
Before the fireplace sat the girl Of the
station, her hair cleaning with new
/ ;,, hot liohf Shn 1nnRa6 in
mock reproval at Mr.. Magee.
For shame" she said, Ito be late
at the trysting place"
| "a thousand pardons." Mr.. Magee
replied. II fell asleep and dreamed
of girl who wept in railway sta
ton, and she was so altogether charm
ing I could not tear myself away
II fear" she laughed. you are old
in the ways of the world. A passion
for sleep seems to have seized the her
mits. The professor has gone to his
room for that purpose, and Mr.. Bland
his broken heart forgot, slumbers over
there" She pointed to the haberdash-
er inert in big chair drawn up near
the clerks desk. "Only you and in
all the world awake"
Pretty lonesome, isn't it?" Mr.. Ma
gee glanced over his shoulder at the
shadows that crept in on them.
"I was finding it very busy when
you came" she answered. "You see,
1 have known the inn when it was
gay with summer people. and as I
sat here by the fire pretended I saw
the ghosts of a lot of the people /
knew fitting about in the dusk. The
rocking chair fleet sailed by
1.-The WHAT"
BLACK flags flying. decks cleared
for action-I saw the rocking chair
fleet go by" She smiled family. 1--WE
always called them that. Bitter. un-
kind old women who sat hour after
hour on the veranda and rocked and
gossiped and gossiped and rocked.
and I saw some poor little ghosts
weeping in the corner" she went on;
"a few that the fleet had run down
land sunk in the sea of gossip. A little
ghost, whose mother had not been all
she should have been, and the fleet
found it out and rocked and whispered
and she went away. And few who
were poor-the most terrible Of sins
to them the fleet showed no mercy.
And a fine proud girl, Myra Thornhill,
who was engaged to a man named
Kendrick, and who never dared come
here again after Kendrick suddenly
disappeared because Of the whispered
dishonors the fleet heaped upon his
head"
What wicked women!" said Magee'
"The wickedest women in the
world" answered the girl. But every
summer resort must have its fleet.
doubt if any other ever had its ad-
miral. though. and that makes Bald
pate supreme"
Its admiral?"
Yes. He isn't really that, ! imag-
ine-sort of a vice or an assistant, or
whatever it is, long ago retired from
the navy. Every summer he comes
here and the place revolves about him
!; It's all so funny! I wonder If any
other crowd attains such heights OF
snobbishness as that at summer re-
sort? It's the admiral this, and the
admiral that, from the moment he en-
terS the door. Nearly every day the
manager of Baldpate has new pic
ture of the admiral taken, and hangs
it in the hotel. I'll show them tc
you when it's light. There's one over
there by the desk Of the admiral and
the manager together, and the man.
ager has thrown his arm carelessly
over the admiral's shoulder with See
how we'll I know him. written all oveI
his stupid face. Oh, what snobs they
are!"
and the f1eet?" asked Magee.
; "Worships him. They fish all day
for a smile from him. They keep track
Of his goings and comings, and wher