Connecticut western news., 1920-03-11

around which the buildings were set, slipped from her pony, and ran at once to the telephone. Bob was on a side porch mending a bridle.
 Have you heard anything from dadT she cried through the open door.
 Nope" he answered, hammering down a rivet.
 Kate called up the hotel where Ma loney was staying at Saguache, but could not get him. She asked in turn for Mackenzie, for Yesler, for Alec Flandrau.
 While she waited for an answer, the girl moved nervously about the room. She could not sit down or settle her self at anything. For some instinct told her that Fendrick's taunt was not lie cut out of whole cloth. The bell rang. Instantly she was at the telephone. Mackenzie was at the other end of the line.
 "Oh. Uncle Mac" She had called him uncle ever since she could remem- Der. "What Is 1t they are saying about dadf Tell me 1t isn't true," she begged.
 "A pack of lees, lassie." His Scotch idiom and accent had succumbed to thirty years on the plains, but when he became excited it rose triumphant through the acquired speech of the Southwest.
 "Then is he therein Saguache, I meanP
 Moo. He's not in town"
 Where Is hep
 "HootsI He'll just have gone some where on business"
 He did not bluff we'll. Through the hearty assurance she pierced to the note of trouble in his voice.
 You're hiding something from me, Uncle Mac. won't have 1t. You tell me the truth-the whole truth"
 In three sentences he sketched 1t for her. and when he had finished he knew by the sound of her voice that she was greatly frightened. Something has happened Ito him. I'm, coming to town. I'll bring Bob. Save us two rooms at the hotel"
 She turned to her cousin. who was standing big-eyed ct her elbow.
 "What Is 1t, Kate? Has anything happened to Uncle Luck?"
 She swallowed lump in her throat. Dads gone. Bob. Nobody knows where. They say-the liars-that he robbed the w. & S. Express company"
 Suddenly her face went down into her forearm on the table and sobs be- gan to rack her body. The boy, stag gered at this preposterous charge, could only lay his hand on her shoul- der and beg her not to cry.
 It'll be all right, Kate. Walt till Uncle Luck comes back. He'll make 'em sick for talking about him."
 His cousin nodded, choking down her sobs. "0f course. It-it'll come out all right-as soon as he finds out what they're saying. Saddle two horses right away, Bob." Sure. We'll soon find where he is, bet you"
 The setting sun found their journey less than half done. Kate was tor tured with anxiety. Deep within her something denied that her father could be gone out Of world so good. And If he were alive. Curly Flandrau would find him-Curly and Dick be- tween them. Luck Cullison had plenty of good friends who would not stand by and see him wronged.
 Any theory of his disappearance that accepted his guilt did not occur to her mind for an instant. The two had been very close to each other. Luck had been in the habit of saying smilingly that she was his major domo, his right bower. Some share of his lawless temperament she inherited, enough to feel sure that this particu- lar kind of wrOngdoing wasimpossible for him. He was reckless, sometimes passionate, but she did not need to re- assure herself that he was scrupulous- ly honest.
 This brought her back to the only other tenable hypothesis-foul play. And from this she shrank with a quall- ing heart. For surely if his enemies wished to harm him they would de- stroy him, and this was a conclusion NS"iAiSb " null Sllt IpuSAll dISpNldAfiAs
 The plaza clock boomed ten strokes as they rode into Saguache. Macken- zie was waiting for them on the steps of the hotel.
 Have they-has anything been-"
 The owner of the Fiddleback shook his grizzled head. Not yet. Didn't you meet Curly?"
 "No."
 ''He rode out to come in with you, but if he didn't meet you by ten he was to come back. You took the north road. I reckon?"
 "Yes."
 He put an arm around her shoul- ders and drew her into the hotel with cheerful talk.
 Come along, Bob. We're going to tuck away a good supper first off.