Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1917-02-02
EIGHTH EPISODE
The Stroke of Twelve.

Enoch Golden had never been known
as a half-hearted fighter. He was, in
fact, of that pertinacious breed who
fight best when half defeated. And
as he grew into fuller realization of
the virulence Of Jules Legar's hatred
for him and his house, he proceeded to
take more effective steps to protect
himself.
One of his precautions was to place
an armed guard about the home which
had been repeatedly and audaciously
invaded by Legar and his agents.
But the mere posting of a couple
OF paid sentinels about his doors did
not mark the limit of his activities.
He strove for still more substantial
protection by installing in one of the
upperfTooms of his house a huge bur-
glar- Pof vault of chromium steel.
The stallation of so pondcrous a
vaul however, involved much mate
rial Strengthening of a structure not
primarily designed for the support of
seven-ton safes, and for days small
body of expert workmen had been busy
putting in pillars and Orders and
Disgusting these ponderous supports
under a veneer of mahogany ceiling
beams and oriental teakwood columns.
In the ornamentation of the latter, in
fact, the owner of the house found a
valued assistant in Count Luigi Da
Espares who, with his finished taste
I'd h So % en- o,@c Cd
vanced many suggestions for beautify-
ing what might otherwise have been
an ungainly and cumbersome innova-
ton.
1t was Margery Golden, even more
than her father, to whom Da Espares,
in these small efforts, looked for graft
tude. And the more Margery Golden
saw Of that gallant young antiquarian
the more mysteriously impressed she
became.
David Manley, who was not alto
gether ignorant of this new turn in
the tide Of events, found little to add
to his happiness in this evergrowing
intimacy between Margery and her
guest. For Manley, by this time, did
more than merely distrust Da Es-
pares; he hated him.
These vague misgivings of Man
ley's extended even to the costume
dinner-dance which this esthetic for
eigner undertook to engineer for Mar
gery's amusement. And in talking
over his plans with Golden himself,
as the latter was making ready for
one of his hurried trips to Washing
ton, the young nobleman even ven
tured the hope that this fete might
be made the occasion of an even more
suspicious announcement.
But the morose-eyed old millionaire
did not quite follow the others line
of thought. So Da Espares was driven
to the expedient Of openly yet cour-
teously requesting the privilege of
pressing his suit for the hand of this
fairest daughter of america.
What d'you mean by that?" de.
manced the astounded financier. Are
you trying to tell me that you want to
marry my daughter"
That is the honor of which have
dreamed" was Da Espares' quietly in
toned reply.
We'll, the point is, has my Margery
been dreaming along the same liner
That l cannot venture to say" re
piled that unctuously gallant sutton
We'll, in America that's about the
first thing that counts! And / guess
we'd better call off this courtship tall
until we find out how the girl feel.
about it,"
The disappointed, but not disheart
ened, count, accordingly, proceeded
quietly yet earnestly tc sound Marger!
Golden herself as to her feelings il
the matter. But here, too, he W.
met with a reply which, if graciousl.
.worded, was at least noncommittal.
But you at least know that ! wisl
to bring you happiness. that / wa
your friend in the past, that Away
in the future want to be you
friend!"
But when friendship remain
masked, it remains harder tc under
standi"
Then the mask may be withdraw
and withdrawn sooner than you e,
pert"
Just what does that mean?" aske
Axe clear-eyed girl. studying his fac,