The Ordway new era., 1917-10-05


hon at the doors eiiclted the Informs.
tion, from Innocent and disinteresteo
bystanders, that . young woman
clothed beautifully in white had run
madly from the church. met young
man at the gate, and with MN hau
vanished in taxicab whose chhui'
feur unquestionably placed little Vaiue
in his license.
At twenty minutes past eight tha.
taxicab, having eluded all attempts Ut
pursuit (lf any such there were) are"
up before the apartment house IN
which Captain Parr maintained MS
New York home.
A moment later the door OF his quar-
ters closed upon Patria ChanninG anu
the lover Of her choice. II thought you
wouId never comet" she stammered.
"I had to work very quietly" he ex-
planned. at was obvious from the hrst
that this arrangement couldn't con-
tinue-you couldn't go on hoodwinking
Huroki and ut the same time keep out
of marrying de Lima. And wheh
Huroki found out that you had made
n fool of him, you would have to De
mighty safely hidden to escape repri-
sal. SO fixed things up for you here
I've moved over to the vanderbilt
got hold of Anne, sent her to the titz
with an order for your belongings-she
was there within ten minutes OF the
time you left for the church-brought
everything of yours here and :.
We'll here we nre I"
"But how did you ever find out de
Lima had wlfe?"
II didn't" Donald explained grave
ly. "She wasn't his wife"
There came n knock ut the door.
"Thats Ryley. Let him in, please,
Anne. l left him to protect the wom-
an in case either Huroki or de Lima
became violent"
The grin of the detective as he en-
tered was evidence of the fact that he
had experienced no great trouble.
There had been bit of rumpus, he
reported-nothing to speak of.
His account was interrupted by the
shrill, imperative Glamour Of the tele-
phone. Donald answered, and sobered
to sudden gravity as he carried on a
brief conversation with Bertram in
Town.
"Trouble at Claiming" he an
as he hung up. "Betram says
our man Barnes was shot In street
fight this afternoon by some loafer
who interrupted him when he was
phoning me. In addition the town
seems strike-mad all Of sudden
ngitators, even now, are preaching
strike and destruction of property.
Bertram thinks we'd better run down
md look the situation over for our
selves. 1t may prove necessary to call
On the governor for militia to protect
The mills"
"Donald-please! I am SO afraid
FOR you"
II must go, dear-I must. You
q dozen men down there who will help
Ryley take care Of me. Not that /
any serious trouble. The
rabble have no excuse for rioting till
the company refuses the strikers de-
1t can't do that till to-
He found a timetable, scanned 1t
snatched up his hat.
"With luck and fast taxi-man we
can just make the next train, the last
tonight"
The door banged; incredibly, Patria
was alone-alone. that Is, except for
Anne.
She threw. herself into chair, when
she had suffered Anne to change her
bridal garments for negligee.
Womanlike. she was stubbornly bent
on spending a sleepless. wretched
night. In spite Of herself, toward
eleven o'clock, she nodded in her chair,
then slept.
It was two when the telephone
aroused her.
One of her force Of private secret
service agents was calling from Pow
der Town for Captain Parr, in ignor-
ance Of the fact that, according to the
timetable. and providing he had
caught his train, Donald should have
been there with Ryley for matter of
three hours.
In response to her catechism the
agent reported that the situation at
Channings was one of imminent emer-
gency. A strike had been called at
midnight; the employees Of the pow
der mills who had come of shift at
that hour had not been replaced; riot