The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-12-13
When 4 Girl
 Marries
By ANN LESLIE.
CHAPTER ARA

CHAPTER 434.
 with queer dazed feeling I found 2 up l was lying on something strange I ly hard and unyielding. There was : no soft covers to enfo1d me and I be- came conscious of being frightfully cold I ached in every muscle and a it. of coughing shook me.
 Then I was suddenly wide awake, sitt1ng up in misery on the hard cement floor of the empty garage at Dreamwold.
 I'd gone to sleep at my post. Rue fully l stumbled to my feet, murmur- own voice as I rubbed my bruised and aching sides:
 You're fine detective, Barbara , 'suspicioning' things all evening long and where has it landed you? In a stone-co1d garage in the middle of the you sneeze your head off and wake the folks at Mason Towers as we'll as at Dreamwold. I'd advise you to go off sanely to bed"
 the doors open and squeezed through the aperture, started up the path in the gray light between night and dawn.
 Something seemed to halt me and i to pull me back to close the garage ; doors which in my hurry I'd left ajar. mere impulse did I realize what had warned me against leaving those tell :. tale doors open. It was the hum of a motor coming steadily nearer through the stiffness. 'It's Lyons." I breathed to myself with certainty. '"Thts is where he faces ] the music.''
 As stood waiting I realized that i the sound wasn't coming from the main road or the driveway in front [ of the estate, but that it was sounding down the valley from the old State : road which runs back of Dreanwold. The hum of the motor was very near i Suddenly it stopped. After minute ! or two I heard footsteps crunching ! across the frozen ground. Then voices, , hushed and guarded, came to me. I i could make out the words even be- i fore knew who the speakers were. : There was another man with Lyons. Running and stumbling in my haste, 1T rushed across the frozen ground and crouched in hiding back of the steps lea ding to the side door. ,+ .'Ain't cloud in sight bigger'n your first. Comin' on for a clear day." said j the first"
 ! Guess she's safe out there" replied 1 the second voice doubtfuliy. 'sure-she be. Now forget her. :! The cold don't disturb her none com , pared to what it do me. And I'm all : for a little warm sociability," rasped ,: the first voice again.
 This voice was completely strange to me I realized as I stirred uneasily why she should be left out in the cold. Then the second voice spoke again, but now it was close enough so that, in spite of its guarded tones, I recog- nized it belonging to Lyons. i; Guess it's better to leave her where i! she De than to run her in and risk waking the hull tarnation bunch. An if we get through in time I'll drive you over to your train. Slim" "Ain't takin' no train," grumbled the man called ''Slim."
 "Oh, yes, you be. You're gettin' out of here todayi''
 By now the two men had reached the garage. In another minute the doors swung open and Lyons showed t, his companion in ahead of him. switching the lights as he did so. : In the second that elapsed before the I was flooded with light. Involuntarily my eyes blinked to shut out the glare. But I forced them open and craned my neck forward, peering, anxiously of it-Lyons' companion was the bat cared man I'd seen this afternoon s sinking out of the alcove from which SDad Lee afterward had fetched his overcoat.
 And I trusted Lyons" I murmured again ''I gave him his chance"
 For a moment or two longer I ! knelt there in my cramped position, ! trying to tie up the three riddles of the day. First, Dad Lee and the bat cared man. Next, the prowler under our living room windows. And now. Lyons and the bat-eared man. I felt sure there was a connection, and that 1t boded i'll for Jim.
 1T must watch that garage I told myself grirnly- T can't stay out here, i for I'd catch my death of cold, which would profit nobody
 Suddenly I realized that from the little mullioned windows of the break fast room I could keep as strenuous and as undertaking a watch as I could from this cramped position on the damp ground. So I let myself into the house again and crept through the dining room to the little breakfast
 room. Then I sank down on one of the tiny window seats in the mullion- ed windows and fixed my eyes the garage.
 It seemed to me pretty certain that Lyons would get rid of his visitor long before the morning train, to which he always drove Pat.
 Moments that seemed hours dragged
 by. 1 had no wristwatch, and even if l had worn one I wouldn't have risked lighting my little flash to read the time. But felt sure it must be near ing T. The day was dawning, crisp
 and clear.
 , Suddenly figure 1oomed before me in the curtained dimneSS of the room
 and a hand was laid gently my arm. I looked up into the wide eyes of Lyons wife. Bertha.
 Gro Be Continued-) ! --usr u~a .E4 sv n sS1