New Britain herald., 1920-08-13

The Way Dicky Strovc to Quiet Madgc.
 What was it that I must not hear? ? As the door closed upon Major Grantland's urgent insistence I found myself trembling with vague fear.
 Something must have happened that he was afraid would upset my shattered nerves. and it must be something so important, something so likely that I would find out that he had been compelled to enlist Dicky's aid in keeping it from me.
 knew tho latent antagonism between the two men too we'll to con- sole myself with the thought that either would have appealed to the other in any trivial matter.
 With my imagination sharpened to a razor's cutting edge I began to con- sider the events of the journey. to sec if in them lay any confirmation of my fears.
 Had something happened to Jun for? Had the porter in that car, an- gered by Mother Graham's unexpect- ed niggardliness and the lecture she had read him taken revenge upon even my distorted mind had to laugh over that possibility! 1t would have to he the. millionth man who would resent an old woman's temper in any manner other than of sullen neglect or sly sabotage. Resides, I knew that Junior had passed from his grand mothers care to that of my fathers, and that a wounded tfgress in de- fence of her young would be a mild proposition compared to either de- voted grandparent If harm were to come near the child they idolize. If I could be sure of nothing else in the world was certain that neither would leave him for an instant alone.
 Had there been an accident to some member of the party? My fatheri I started up from my berth at the thought, theu sank down on 1t in swirlinE helplessness. No mat ter what had happened I could not leave tho room without assistance But again n glimmering of common sense came to my aid. Unless there had been an accident to the train itself what could possibly have hap pened to any ono upon a closed-in, protected car like ours?
 "Whas Has Happcned?"
 Then the solution came to me. Major Grautland's absences from the train at each station. the constant teleg ra phins which Dicky said ho had been doing. and which could not pos
  tensiblo object-the securing of cars for transportation from Aberdeen to Cedar Crest--there must be something happening in New York or Long Island which concerned mo vitally!
 Useless to speculate upon what it might be. but that did not prevent my imagination from running the gamut of every dire possibility. Finally, however. tho remembrance of Major unusual consideration for mo made mo listen 70 my common sense. which had been strenuously striving to bo heard above the c!amor of my jangling lervcs. and to ir1- press upon me the fact that tho of- ficer would be as inslstent that I be kept in ignorance of somo hitch in his motor transfer plans as he would be of something really vital.
 But Dicky's face. when he came back into the room. dispelled that Idea at once. His is not the poker faco" which Harry Underwood. Allen Drake and Hugh Grantland possess. There is something 700 boyish and about him for him to be able absolutely to control his facial mus I love him all the more because of it. My Peter Pan!
 He was making tremendous and visible effort to appear unconcerned IS he came back into the room, but [ saw that ho had received . piece If astounding news. It was affecting lim curiously, too. He had received ! shock. but there had been no hor- or in 1t. I could tell that from his ,yes. which held in them blank 'mazement. lively interest. the neces- ri;y for keeping his news n secret, 1 put nothing else.
 I had lost all control of myself by |