Judsonia weekly advance., 1920-03-11
CHAPTER XII.
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said. And I give them most frankly, although perhaps with more difficulty than you suppose"
 "You are very good, Mir. Conward," she acknowledged.
 'I could not wish you anything but 1 happiness" he returned And had l been so fortunate as Elden in making your acquaintance first, I might have hoped to contribute to your happiness more directly than I can under the present circumstances" He was speaking in his low, sedulous notes, and his words sent the girls blood rushing in a strange mixture of grati- fication and anger. The tribute he implied-that he himself would have been glad to have been her suitor- was skillfully planned to appeal to her vanity, and her anger was due to 1 it's success. She told herself she should not listen to such words; she should hate to hear such words. And yet she listened to them, and was not sure that she hated them. She could only say:
 You are very good, MT. Conward"
 He pressed her hand at the door, and again that strange mixture of emotions surged through her.
 Conward proceeded to the business section of the town, well pleased with the evenings events. He found his way impeded by crowds in front of the newspaper offices. He had paid little attention to the progress of the war scare, attributing it to the skillful pub lieity of interests connected with the manufacture of armaments. To the last he had not believed that war was possible
 "NoboGy wants to fight" he had as- sured his business aeduaintances. "Eyen the armament people don't want to fight. All they want is to 1 frighten more money out of the tax payers of Furope.n To Conward this explanation seemed very complete. It covered the whole ground and left nothing to be said.
 But tonight he was aware of 9 keener tension in the crowd atmos- phere. They were good-natured crowds, to be sure, laughing and cheering and making sallies of heavy wit; but they were in some way more intense than he had ever seen before. There was no fear of war; there was, rather, an adventurous spirit which seemed to fear that the affair would blow over, as had so many affairs in l the past, and all the excitement go for nothing. That war, if ii came to war, could last no one dreamed it would be matter of 3 few weeks, 8 few months, at the most, until a thor oughly whipped Germany would retire behind the Rhine to plan ways of rais- ing the indemnity which outraged civ1- lization would demand.
 ConWard elbowed his way through the crowds smiling, in his superior knowledge, over their excitement. Newspapers must have headlines.
 At his office Conward used a tele- phone. Then he walked to a restau- rant, where, after few minutes, he was joined by a young woman. They took a table in box. Supper was dis posed of, and the young woman began to grow impatient.
 "Well, you brought me here," she said, at last. "Xou've fed me, and you don't feed anybody, Conward, without a purpose Whats the consideration?
 'I'm pulling off little joke, and I want you to help me. You know Elden Dave Elden?"
 Sure. I've known him ever since that jolt put him out of business up in your rooms, ever so many years ago. He was too rural for that mixture"
 q want you to get him down to your place some night to be agreed upon-Ill fix the date later-and keep him there until l call for him, with his fiancee."
 "Some joke," she said, and there was disgust in her voice. "Who is it Oh Elden, me, or the girl?"
 "Never mind who it's on," ConWard returned. I'm paying for it. Here's something on account and if you make a good job of it I won't be stingy."
 He handed her a bill, which she kissed and put in her purse. 'sI need the money, ConWard, or I wouldn't take it."
 This part of his trap set, Conward awaited a suitable opportunity to spring it. In the meantime he took Mrs. Hardy partially into his confi- deace. He allowed her to believe, how ever, that Elden's habits would stand correction and he had merely arranged to trap him in one of his favorite haunts. She was very much shocked and thought it was very dreadful, but "of course we must save Irene."
 But concerning another part of his program Conward was even less frank with Mrs. Hardy. He was clever enough to know that he must observe certain limitations.
 At length all his plans appeared to be complete. The city was in tumult of excitement over the war, but for Conward deeper interest centered in the plot he was matching under the unsuspecting noses of Irene and Elden.