The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1918-05-17


Is some one in there / want to sur
prise, to play n joke on, so l am going
to break in the door"
"Ia haw laughed Bill. "She shall
be very funny yoke"
We felt our way to the door, which
was a solid one of plain wood with no
glass panels.
Gould you knock that off from its
hingesY" l whispered.
81 bet" Bill replied; "easy."
"All right, then. Get ready. One,
two, threew
Crashl Bill sprang at the door, and
It fell inward.
l stepped across the threshold and
leveled my monkey wrench like re-
volver.
Throw up your handsv l com
manded.
TO my surprise l found that l was
addressing a whiskered individual clad
in white swimming tights only, who
was backed up against door in far
corner of the room. He threw up one
hand, keeping the other one behind
him.
"'Up with the other handr' shouted,
advancing into the room to get better
view of its occupant, but keeping suf-
ficiently in the shade of the lamp so
that the real nature of my weapon
would not be Immediately evident.
'Throw up your other hand"
81 can't" said my prisoner stub
bornly.
"Can't?" repeated in surprise.
Why can't you?"
Because I've got my thumb over the
keyhole and there is a woman on the
other side trying to peek through
1 grabbed the lamp from the table
and held it so the full light fell on his
face.
"Lipton S. Clair!' exclaimed.
II admit that l did not expect to be
recognized in this island Wilderness"
he began pompOusly, careful to gestic
ulate, however, only with his free
hand, 'but why should not be here
as well as anywhere elseY
Because when i saw you last you
were going to swim to the mainland"
"Who are you?" he demanded in turn,
trying to see past the light which l
held in front of me.
"Montmorency Blainey," l replied.
"Yes, yes; / understand" Then sud
denly he shrank more closely into the
doorway. "Is that woman-my fiancee
Miss Dunmore-with you?"
reassured him and asked him how
he came to be where had found him.
81 found the swimming a trife more
than l had expected" he be-
gan. II discovered that it was prac-
tically impossible for me either to
reach the mainland or to get back to
Green's island. The general trend of
the waves was in this direction, and
was forced to go along, saving my
strength for keeping my head above
water.
1.-THE rest of my story is absurdly
simple. l saw land here and came
ashore. 1t was not quite dark, and
came up the path to the house without
the light in the window. 1
had no thought of there being any in
habitants, and my intention was to
around until l found some
thing to cat and some dry clothes
"As soon as 1 opened the door 1
saw that 1 had committed a social
blunder. There was a woman stand
ing at the telephone, and when she
saw me she screamed and ran through
this door, slamming and locking it aft
er her. 1t was useless to try to ex-
plain to a frightened female the in
nocuous nature of my visit, so l re-
Trained. l was about to partake Of
some of the food 1 found on the ta-
BILE there when heard the key being
carefully withdrawn from the lock on
the other side. Quick as a flash l
asked myself the question, why do
people withdraw the keys from locked
doors? The answer struck me in
so that they may look
through the keyholes, Of course
recollected my costume. With one
bound l jumped to the door and put
my thumb over the keyhole, where it
mas been ever since"
Surely you have heard the telephone
bell ringing"
"Yes, it has been making an infer
nal racket ever since l arrived, but |