The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1915-10-27

~11e's rot a lot Of money on him.
and he'll give you some y you nnd
him and he's stilI alive"
"DeadY
~Maybe." And Tommy told briefly
what had happened and what Celestia
believed had happened The Indian
set OF at o great pace toward the COL
umn Of smoke which marked where
the Are had been checked BY the lake
Then Celestia and the two others
lighted candles and went INTO the cave
They went in silence from cavern TO
cavern. Here the electric plant stiil
looked In good running order Here
a man might hide and pretend to be
voice. They did not explore the whole
extent of the great subterrane; only
enough to prove that someone had
lived there for many years In state
Of pseudo-magnihcence something IKE
the settings Of an expensive Broad
way production.
"Doesnt any Of II seem familiarl"
Tommy asked
She turned TO him and threw her
arms round his neck and began to CRY
like a little child
"Helll" said Freddie.
"No." said Tommy. stoutly, It's
turned out to be heaven after all. Beat
it, Freddiel"
To Celestia the train seemed to
move no faster than snail. To get
back to the world in time to undo
what she had done. before 1t should
he too late, occupied her mind to the
exclusion of almost everything else
Stilliter was dead. His influence had
no longer power on her. She became
more rational and human with every
nassed hour, and she became no less
sweet.
They had waited at the cave until
old man Smellsgnnd came hack with
definite news of Stilliter's death
Him plenty enough dead he said,
and nodded repeatedly. Then, with ?
mouth so innocent that even butter
wouldn't have melted in it. he said:
"He not got a lot of money on him."
mot now. know that" said Tom
my, "as well as you do
When at last they reached New
York they proceeded at once to Madi-
son Square Garden, where a tremen-
dous pro-Barclay meeting was in ses-
sion. The triumvirate were all pres
ent. Celestial In q dark cloak, with a
veil over her face, waited outside with
Freddie until Tommy should signal to
her to enter.
He came presently.
"Sturtevant is speaking" he said
quickly. Hes explaining how you.
your work done. have gone back to
heaven-and, by heaven, Celestia.
they believe him! You might think It
was Matthew, Mark, Luke or John ad-
dressing lot Of early Christians; pco-
pie are sobbing. Better come now and
get It over with"
Sturtevant broke off in the midst Of
his peroration. A slim, white. COM
manding figure was moving slowly to-
ward him. His jaw dropped. Then he
dropped to his knees and, look Of
rapture on his face, he cried In voice
OF thunder, Celestial"
Even this piece of play-acting could
not save the situation for him. The
people had caught in his face the first
swift-feeting look of unutterable fright
and dlsmay And now they had caught
sight of Celestia, and rose to her with
great roar of sound.
She passed slowly through them,
mounted the platform, turned, lifted
one hand little, and there was ST.
lence.
She asked them to be patient with
her. She had wronged them. Per
haps she had done irreparable harm
iii the world. But it would be wonder
ful If they would listen to her once
more-they had always been so good
/ % her
And presently she had them en-
thralled in the spell of her clear, sweet
voice. And she told them her story
from the beginning. And when she
had finished she Just stood and looked
straight ahead of her. And murmurs
\ swept the vast place, as little breezes
90 dappling over smooth water. Then