The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-28

on that warren of idlers and incompe- tents that warren that's always taxed up to the hilt. Ha! Not raise my own rents! guess Enoch Golden still knows enough to run his own business!"
 He stopped and looked at Manley, who was still whistling as he bent casually over his pocket camera.
 whats that gimcrack you're vast ing your time on?" he demanded. with the sharp impatience one might use to a child.
 "Gimcrack?" laughed Manley. "It's the neatest thing in cameras that ever came to America. That's a new Swiss telescopic lens I've just been adjusting to it. Take snap of a flea biting your ear eighty paceS away! And your income on those tenements, by the way. amounts to an annual return of just 4S per cent of the capital invested"
 "Well, supposing I turn them over to YOU and see what you could make out of them!"
 Manley, putting down the camera, stared at him in amazement.
 "Yes, young man, mean what l say. If you could ever show mo- ment's serious interest in my busi- ness you'd become the heir to that business and all that went with it!' "But I have other things to re- member" answered the ever-hlppant Manley.
 But Golden's patience was ex- fausted. Get out of here!" was his brusque command. "Get down to Griswold's bank with these checks and be quick about it!"
 Whereupon Manley meekly took his departure. Two minutes later, how ever, yet another figure was passing through the gloomy silences of Enocn Golden's home. It was a more pur- poseful figure than that of the lazy- eyed young secretary. And over the face of this intruder as he cautiously made his way through the great house was an odd-looking band of yellow cloth, cut in the form of a mask. The center of this, dropping apron-like almost to his upper lip. was marked by an inverted crescent, which at first glance lent to the partly covered face the faint sugges- tion of an ironically laughing mouth.
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 His exploring fingers plainly found there a secret spring, for the next moment panel slipped noiselessly to one side and he stepped into the room, so artfully fireproofed with pressed steel, panels and grained to look like oak, which Golden had once used as his bondroon
 That room, although not used for years, was at the present moment far from empty. For pacing restlessly back and forth, as the stranger quietly entered, was golden-haired woman of little more than 20. Plain as her clothing was, it in no way de- tracted from the singular sweetness of her almost too pallid features and the beauty of her timorous and troubled eyes. Yet the face under the mask smiled a little at her sudden movement and gasp of surprise as he confronted her.
 Are you still afraid of me?" he asked.
 ..N-no!' hesitated the girl.
 ''You can see, now, that I'm only trying to help you?"
 She nodded, a bit uncertainty.
 "But what must I do?'
 The man in the mask hesitated. To make things plain, apparently, was no easy matter.
 ''I want to take you to a man who may be interested in you, who may even prove to be very kind to you"
 ''You must put on a dress have ready, one exactly like the one his own daughter used to wear. And I'd like to let down your hair."
 So the girl, still touched with won- der, was cautiously led to another part of the great house, where she let down her hair and dressed herself in a girlish little frock which she found already laid out for her. And the wonder was still in her eyes as the masked stranger smuggled her quietly down through the house, and. as the aged millionaire bent low to unlock the bottom drawer of his desk, motioned her noiselessly into the library and into an armchair facing the desk.
 By the time Golden had raised his head again the mysterious stranger had slipped out of sight.
 Golden, as he sat upright, stared Y YY> TZ