The Ocala evening star., 1921-12-09

The less you dig In nv private gar
den patch. the better we shall get
along told him.
He was silent for a moment He
had picked up bit Of iron rod and
was tracing hierogIyphic figures with
a IN the dust Of the shop floor. Pres
emily he looked up with sort Of mock
ing leer.
Been trytsg to carry sentimental
water op both shoulders. haven'r your
I'm telling you right now, Broughton.
it's no use. / fled on the little Blue
eyes claim over yonsier in Twombly's
cabin long. long time before you ever
saw or heard of IL"
That remark of his carried things
over the edge for me.
See here. BuIlerton." / said. and /
suppose / stuck out my Jaw at him as
people say l do when I'm beginning
TO feel ugly. there are limits. and
I'll pay you the compliment Of assum-
ing that you are not quite born fool.
We are going TO leave Miss Twombly
out of il; completely and absolutely
out of it"
You may; but shan't." he grinned
back at me. In point of fact. my
dear fellow, now that come TO think
Of IL. you'll have TO leave her out"
Not for anything you may say or
do, or leave Ensaid or undone.'
yes. yod will; and for something
that / may say. And l guess this is
as good a time as any to mention it.
Have you forgotten that you have ad-
vertised yourself In this Out-Of-the-way
corner Of the world rather successful
ly as one of two things: a pretty
dangerous sort of lunatic. ora Grim
inal? AS a matter of fact. the rail-
road detectives have been looking high.
low and level for you ever since you
stole that inspection mutor at the An
gels platform and got il smashed"
"TwOmbly knows about that; and
so does Miss Twombly." 1 cut in
'They wouldn't give you away, of
course; in a certain sense you are
Twombly's guest. and in another you're
his employer. But you'll notice that
neither Of these restrictions apply to
me. Now, perhaps. you can understand
just why you are obliged. in ordinary
prudence, to leave the girl out Of it,
and why am not so obliged"
Miss Twombly, herself, has tha
casting vote on that" Is what 1 fung
at him.
"She has already voted" he said
coolly. Then: You're not In the
game, R=ougnton; you don't hold any
thing higher than a seven-spot. and
you are bucking straight flush. Do
you take fifty thousand and vanish?
That is the one live question Of the
/ moment"
"No."
Every well; I'll give you another
day to think 1t over; but I'm warning
you here and now that the price will
shrink. 1t is fifty thousand today, say
up 70 sunset: tomorrow 1t will be for
| ty thousand"
l slid from the anvil and half un-
consciously picked up the blacksmith's
hand-hammer.
You go straight to h-I," l said ;
and at that he left me.
sat down to try once more to think
things out 70 some sort of an action
focus Should take Bullerton's fif-
ty thousand and quit? Common sense
said Yes, spelling it with a capital and
underscorfng 1t for emphasis. What
was the use In hanging on? Hadn't
we proved that the mine was undrain-
able, save. perhaps. at the enormous
cost of driving an undermining tunnel
from lower slope Of the mOuntainf
Then there was Jeanie Then. again
there was Lisette. Fifty thousand
dollars at six per cent would buy neI
hats-but it wouldn't buy much else
| could picture the calm and collected
WAY in which she would say, "Yes
Stannie: you've succeeded nicely In
financing the hats But you know al
well as do that we couldn't buy hats
and keep car on three thousand {
year"
had just climbed down to this bot
tom round of the ladder of detection
when heard bit of noise and lOoke'
up TO see a small, trim figure darken