Evening star., 1918-08-18

ment at the point Of death, which
sssd s1cn as n fs ssdy s % os .ny
such purely speculative. expedition ss
Without With s'piSs@ the cSmpanionship. to say
nothing Of the assistance; rafr OF
sTs'iwsaii,sa ssis ,S:si,:a IN whSM %ithdraslng from
the task he had given him. So he
picked out q fellow named Perry; and
together they took the West Shore
into Greene county, where they
stopped at a station from which
branch road ran to the small town
whittier the package addressed to Ell
vira Brown had preceded them.
Accidents frequently determine our
course, as we'll as turn us from one
we had mapped out for ourselves.
BY accident ! mean. in this case. an
actual one which had occurred on the
branch road i have mentioned, by
which the trains were held UP and
further progress in that direction made
Impossible. When this came to the
knowledge of Mr.. Gryce he found 1t
necessary to choose between trusting
himself to an automobile for the rest
night In the town whore the train
had stopped, A glance at the hills
towering up between him and his
goal decided him to walt for the rum
ming Of the trains next day; and after
an Inquiry or two, he left the station
on foot for the hotel to which no had
been recommended.
A philosopher in many regards. Mr..
Gryce Quieted himself, under the trrt-
tation of this annoyance. with the
thought that in this world we do not
always know just what Is best Tor
us; and that the few hours OF rest
thus forced upon him by the seeming
ly unfortunate break in his plans
might prove in the end to be the
best thing that could happen to him.
He accordingly took a good room. en-
joyed good dinner and then sat down
smoke. He chose q chair which gave
him a prospect Of the river. and Tor a
long time; while vaguely listening to
the talk about him. he feasted his
eyes on the view and allowed some
Of it4 calm to enter his perturbed
spiritl But gradually, as ne Looked looked
caught, first by what q man was say
ing in his rear. and secondly by some-
thing he saw intervening between
himself and the flow Of shining river
which had hitherto filled his eye.
The sentence which had reused MIN
was one quite foreign to his thoughts
and seemingly of little imortance to
him or to any one about. 1t was in
connection with a factory on the
other side of the river. which was
running overtime, and had not help
enough to fillSits orders.
TITS women we want" he heard
shouted out. young women. middle-
aged women, any sort Of women who
are anxious for steady work and good
wages"
The emphasis with which this an
nouncement was made perhaps gave
1t point; at all events this one brief
fnfn Mr. GrVraQ
just as he began to notice woman
who sat with her back to him on the
hotel piazza.
He was not thinking of Nine. Du-
clos at that moment; nor was there
the least thing about this woman to
once his eyes had fallen on her, they
remained there for several minutes.
Why?
Perhaps because she aat SO un-
naturally still. In all the time he
stared at her simple bonnet and de-
ette she made against the silver band
of the river did not change by an .iota.
He had been agaxe upon the land
scape, too, but he was sure that he
had not sat as still as this, and when.
after an interval during which he had
was who had spoken SO vigorously.
he wheeled back into place and
glanced out again through his win
dow, she was there yet hat. shoulders
and all, immovable as an image and
almost as rigid.
Well, and what Of tit There was
surely nothing very remarkable in SO
commonplace q fact; yet during the
ensuing half hour, during which he
gave, or tried to give, the greater
part of his attention to the political
talk which followed the statements
he had heard made in regard to the
needs Of certain factory, his eye
would turn riverward from time to
time and always with view to see
II this woman had moved. And not
ol.ce did he detect the least change
in her attitude.
"She will sit there all night" he
muttered to himself; and after a
while his curiosity mounted to such
q pitch that he got up and went out
on the piazza for one Of his short
strolls.
CHAPTER XXI.
He Remembers.
Just an ordinary woman, lost in o
dream Of some kind while awaiting
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