The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-25
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 Dan flung open the door, but his words of greeting frozes His smile of chfef.s forbidding visage-
 Murray was in no mood to waste worlds He began roughly
 Did you tell Miss Gerard that Poult- ney His is backing meF
 Dan stammered. | - perhaps - I = What has gone wrong; chief2''
 '.Did you tell her the inside-the sto- ry of his agreement with the steam boat people 2,
 Dan paied beneath his tan, but his eyes met Murray's without dfnching. ssI think did-ten her something. don't quite remember But anything I may have said was in conh''
 'I thought so. merely wished to make certain. Well, the whole thing is in the papers
 Appleton laid his hand upon the ta- ble to steady himself
 Then it didn't come from her. She RouIdn ,tss-
 Gordon has spread the story broad<i cast It couldn't have come from any. other source. It couldn't have reached him in any other way, for none of my boys has breathed a word. His voice rose despite his effort at self control t.I1lis' agreement was illegal he said savagely. 1t win probably forfeit the charter of the North Pass or land him in court suppose you realize thati I discovered his secret and assured him iE was safe with me. Now you peddae it to Gordon, and the whole thing is public Here's the first result He shook the London cablegrann in Dams face. and his own was distorted with rage. There was stir in Eliza,s room which neither noticed. Appleton wiped his face with uncertain hand He mcistened his lips to say:
 sI-Im terribly sorry But I'm sure Natalie wouldn't spy I don't remeTn- ber what told her or how came to know about the affalr. Doc Gray told me, l think. ip the drst excitement butshe wouldn't knoR ingIy''
 sGordon fired you for talking too much. thought you had learned your lesson. but 1t seems you hadn't Don't blame NE1ss Gerard for pumping you her loyalty belongs to Gordon now But require loyalty too. Since you lack il. you can go
 0'Nen turned as EIiza's door open ed. she stood before him, pale, fright ened, trembling.
 couldn't help hearing, she said You discharge us ?''
 Re nodded. I'm sorry. I've trusted my boys 50 implicitly that the thought, of betrayal by them never occurred to me. can't have men close to me who make such mistakes as this 2
 Perhaps there was an excuse or the shadow of one, at least When a man 1s in love, you know
 Murray wheeled upon Dan and de manded sharply:
 Whats th1sg Then in a noticea- bly, altered tone he asked, ''Do you love -NataIfe?'
 y1es.
 Does sEe love you9''
 seNo, sir.''
 O,EeiI turned back to the girl, say ing: ''I told Dan when hired him chat he would be called upon to dare much, to suffer much and that nay in terests must be his He has disregard ed them and he must go That's all There's little difference between treaeh- cry and carelessnesss
 He left them standing there unhapZ. pi1y dumb and stiff with shame Once outside the house he plunged down the hlIl as if fleeing from the scene of some crime He rushed through the night blindIy, for he had loved his assistant engineer, and the memory of that chalk faced startled girl hurt him abominabiy.
 To think that spent the best part of two years studying this sFot!' he told Gray as they started for the office
 fred Appleton.1 he broke out at last Gray looked up quickly. He acknowledged that he did 1t. had 10 choice. It came hard, though
 He did some great work, cIiefr'
 II know That affair at the Cross Ing-I intend to pay him well if he'll Rccept It's not that like those Kids, stan.ey. Eliza took it harder than he It wasn't easy for me ei- B1o.O00 if it hadn't happened. She looked as if I'd struck her
 ~What did they say?r
 Nothing. He has been careless, dis loyars--
 sYou told them so7'
 ONeil nodded
 '-And they said nothingT'
 Nothing What could they say?''
 Gray answered gruf1y .sThey might have said q good deal They might have told you how they paid off your men and saved a wnlkout when had no money
 O'rseiI stared incredulously. What hre you talking about P he demanded
 When he had the facts he rose with m exclamation of dfsmay
 Heavens! Why didn't you tell me? Whv didn't they speak out7 H. nvl7v fbafss 1cvattv sssf tbe finest kind