The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1922-01-18
PART lll-Contlnued,

W Vus aunt harriet urged. Wh0t
Gid Noble dot"
why, his mother said he Just went
- to his room and changed his shoes
and tie"
Il thought 90" Aunt Fanny whis-
pere6 hurriedly. but sslemnly.
~Craxy."
"And then" Mr.. Atwater continued,
ne left the house, and she supposed
he'd gone down to the office; but she
was uneasy. and telephoned his IA
Their. Noble hadn't come. He didn't
come. all afternoon. and no didn't 70
back to the house: and they tele-
bhoned around to every place he could
90. that they know of-and they
couldn't dnd him or hear anything
about him." Mr.. Atwater coughed, and
paused.
But what" Aunt Harriet cried,
what do they thinks become Of him r.
~Old man Din said they were all
Deetty anxious" said Mr.. Atwater.
They're afraid Noble has-disap-
peared."
Aunt Fanny screamed.
Then. h perfect accord, they all
turned to look At Herbert, who rose
md would have retired upstairs had
- been able.
A that perturbing evening wore on,
word gradually reached the most out
lying members Of the Atwater family
connection that Noble Dill was miss
Ae. Ordinarily. this bit Of news
would have caused them no severe
anxiety. Mobiles person and intellect
were - insignificant"
was the term usually preferred In his
swn circle-that he was considered to
- ~ nearly negligible ~ 1t is charita-
BE to consider fellow being. True.
there was one thing that set him
apart: he was found worthy Of q su-
perlatfve wheS he fell in love with
Julia Atwater. OF all the large and
ardent group In like condition, he OBJ
tnined conspicuousness ~ 1.-THE
Worst" OF course, this distinction
caused him to become better known
pnd more talked about than In his
earlier youth.
However. the eccentricities Of per-
son In such an extremity Of love are
seldom valued except ~ comedy; and
sven then with NO warmth Of heart
eer the comedian, but rather with an
lncredulous disdain; 80 It IL safe to say
hat under other circumstances Noble
might have been missing, indeed, and
few Of the Atwaters would have
missed him. But 40 matters were, they
worried q great deal about him. fear
Ing that q rash act on his part might
reflect notoriety on themselves through
their beautiful relative-and through
the North End Daily Oriole. And
when nine O'Clock came and Mrs. Dill
reported to Herbert's father, over the
telephone. that nothing had yet been
beard from her son, the pressure Of
those who were blaming the OriOle
more than Julia became 30 wearing
that Herbert decided he would rather
spend the remaining days Of his life
running away from Wallie Torbin than
put h any more Of such a dogs eve
ming a. he was putting in-thus he
defined It.
He made q confession; that Is to
say. 1t was 4 proclamation. He pro
claimed his innocence. He began the
history Of It with q description Of
svents distinctly subsequent to the lit
to game with Patty Fairchild. and
explained how he and Henry had felt
that their parents would not always be
With them. and a. their parents wished
them to be polite. they had resolved
- bs polite to Florence. Proceeding,
be related m detail her journalistic
Sxpl0s,
OF the matter In hand he told the
eerfect and absolute truth-and was
Immediately refuted. confuted and
demonstrated to be . false witness by
Aunt Fanny. Aunt Carrie. and Cousin
Virginia. who had all heard him We
Aemently declare. no longer ago than
the preceding Sunday, that he and his
partner had taken secure measures to
0revent Florence from ever again SET
ting foot within the newspaper build
Ing. In addition. he was quite show
sr0d with definitions: and these, though
% variant. all sought to phrase but the
one subject: his conduct In seeking to
mag Florence through the mire, when
she was absent and could not defend
herself. Poor Florence would answer
later In the evening. he was told. Sc
vsreiy: and though her cause was thus
ehampioued against the Islander 1t Is
tue that some of them felt STRINGS Of
curiosity In regard to Florence. In
net, there was getting to be something
like cloud upon her reputation. There
were several important things for her
- explain; among them. her taking
Il upon herself to see that Noble re-
eaved q copy Of the Oriole. and also
hsr sudden departure from home and
rather odd pretraction Of absence
thsrefrom. It was not thought she
was In good company. Uncle Joseph
had tslephoned from q suburb that
they were dining at q farmhouse and
would thence descend to the general
region Of the movies.