The spectator., 1922-06-09

amazed Sherrill to learn that COrVet, for twenty years. had kept trace of Alan but Corvet had kept trace in the same way and with the same secrecy of many other peope-of about Il score of people When Alan thought of Gorvet. alone in his silent house. he must think of him as soicitous about these people; as seeking for their names in the newspapers which he took for that purpose, and as re- cording the changes ill their lives. The deaths, the births, the marriages among these people had been of the intensest interest to Cevet.
 Ii was possible that none of these people knew about Corvet Alan had uot. known about him in Kansas, but had known only that some unknown person had sent money for his support But he appreciated that it did not matter whether they knew about him or not for at some point common to all of them, the lives of these people must have touched Corvet's life. When Alan knew what had been Chat point of contact, he would know about Cor vet; he would know about himself.
 Alan had seen among CoryetS books set of charts of the Great Lakes. He went and got that now and an atlas, Opening them upon the ta- ble, he loored up the addresses given on oorvet's llst. They were most of them, he found, towns about the north ern end of the lakS: very few upon other lakeS-Superir and Huron but most were upon OF very close to Lake Michigan. These people lived by means of the lake; they gos their SuS- tenance from it, as Corvet hPd lived, and as Corvet had got his wealth. Alan was feeling like one who, bound. has been suddenly unloosed. From the time when, coming to see Corvet, he had found Corvet gone, until now, he had felt the imposSibility of explaining from anything he knew or seemed like lY to learn the mystery which had sur rounded himself and which had sur rounded Coryet But these names and addresses They indeed offered some thing to go upon. though Luke now was forever still, and his pockets had told Alan nothing,
 He found Emmet county on the map and put his finger on it. Spearman, WaSsaquam had said, came from there. The Land of the Drum," he said aloud. Deep and sudden feeling stirred in him as he traced out this land on the ehart-the little towns and villages, the islands and headlands, their lights and their uneven shores. A feeling of home" had come to him. which he had not had on coming to Chi cag0. There were Indian names and French up there about the meetings of the great waters. The sense that he was of these lakes, that surge of feeling which he had felt first in con versation with Constance Sherrill was strengthened an hundredfold
 He gazed down at-the lists of names which Benjamin Corvet had kept so carefully and so secretly; these were his fathers people, too; these ragged shores and the islands studding the channels were the lands where his fa- ther had spent the most active part of his life. There, then-these lists now made il certain-that events had happened by which that life had been blghted. North, there by the meeting of the waters. was the NgiGn of the wrong which was done.
 That's where l must goW he said aloud. That's where 1 must gow
 
 Constance Sherrill, on the following afternoon, received telephone call from her father; he was coming home earlier than usual he said; if she had planned to % out, would she wait un- til after he got there? Tie afternoons mail was upon stand in the hall. She turned it over, looking through it--in- yitations social notes. She picked from among them an envelope ad- dressed to herself in firm, clear hand, which. unfamiliar to her, still Queerly startled her. and tore it open. Dear Miss Sherrill." she read.
 ''I am closing for the time being, the house which, for default of other hNlitt NlilI, I illu>l tNil lllllt. lit DOS- sibility that what has occurred here would cause you and your father anxi- ety about me in case I went away without telling you of my intention Is the reason for this note. But 1t is not the only reason. l could not go away without telling you how deeply ap- preciate the generosity and delicacy you and your father have shown me in spite of my position here and of the fact that l had no claim at all upon you. l shall not forget those, even though what happened here last night makes 1t impossible for me to try to see you again or even to write to you.
 ALLAN CONRAD"
 She heard her fathers motor enter the drive and ran to him with the let ter in her hand.
 Hes written to you, then?" he said, at sight of it.
 "Yes."
 q had note from him this after l,a ty. hn1