The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1914-04-16

meanwhileY"
The receiver pursed his lips. 81
knew his father" he said. "He had
he same crazy quixotic streak"
He gathered the scattered docu-
ments and locked them carefully with
the satchel In a safe. Spectacular
young asst" he said explosively.
Il should say sol" agreed Fargo.
DO you know I used TO be afraid my
Katharine had a leaning toward him.
But thank God. she's a sensible girl"
Dusk had fallen that evening when
John valian,'s Panhard turned into a
cross-strcet and circled into the yawn.
Ing mouth OF his garage.
a little later, the bulldog at his
heels. he assembled the steps OF his
club, where he ~lodgcd--he had dis
POSED 81 his bachelor apartments a
fortnight ago.. The cavernous seats OF
tnc lounge were all occupied, but he
did not pause as he strobe through
the hall. lie took the little pile OF
letters the boy handed him at the
desk and wen slowly up the stairway.
He wandered into the deserted libra.
ry and sat down. tossing the letters
on ;he magazine-littered table. lie had
suddenly remembered hat II wal his
twenty.hfth birthday.
In the reaction from the long strain
he felt physically spent. lie thought
OF what no had done that afternoon
with a sense OF satisfaction. A re-
versal OF public judgment. in his own
case. had not entered his head. He
knew his world-lts comfortable facul.
~ OF forgetting. and the multitude OF
sins that wealth may cover. To pre-
serve at whatever personal cost the
one noble monument his fathers
genius had reared. and to right the
wrong that would cast Its gloomy
shadow on his name-that had been
his only thought. What he had done
would have been done no matter what
the outcome OF the investigation. But
now, he told himself, no one could say
the act had been wrung from him.
That. he fancied, would have been his
fathers way.
He smiled-a slow smile OF reminis.
cence-for there had come TO him at
that moment the dearest OF all those
memories-a play Of his childhood.
He saw himself seated on a low
stool. watching a funny old clock with
a moon-face. whose smiling lips curved
UP like military mustachios. and wish.
ing the lazy long hands would hurry.
lie saw himself stealing down a long
corridor TO the door OF q big room
strewn with books and papers, that
through some baleful and mysterious
spell could not be made to open Mt
all hours. When the hands pointed
right. however. there was the open
~Sesame"-hls own secret knock. two
fierce twin raps. with one little lone.
some one afterward-and this was un-
falling. Safe inside. he saw himself
standing IN a big. polar.bearskin. the
door t~ight.locked against all corners.
an expectant baby figure with his III.
tie hand clasped In his fathers. The
white rug was the magic entrance to
the Never-Never Country. known only
to those two.
He could hear his own shrill treble:
"Wishing.House. Westinghouse.
where are your"
Then the deeper voice quite unrec-
ognizahle as his father's' answering:
"Hers ! am. Maste-; hlre l ami"
And instantly the room vanished
and they were In the Never.Never
Land. and before them reared the big.
gest house In the world. with a row OF
white pillars across It's front a mile
high.
John Valiant felt an odd beating oil
the heart and a tightening OF the
throat. for he saw a scene that never
faded from his memory. II was the
n hushed and horrible night. when
dread things had been happening tina,
he could not understand. when a bic