Williams news., 1922-09-08

| "WnatT
 Recalling how her blood had run
 when Alan had told her that, Henry's s
 whiteness and the following suffusion
 of his face did not surprise her.
 "I told that fellow long ago not to
 start stirring these matters up about
 Ben Corvet, and particularly told
 him that he was not to bring any of 1t
 to you. It's not-a thing that a man
 like Ben covered up for twenty years
 till 1t drove him crazy is sure not to
 be thing for girl to know. Let it
 alone, l tell you.'
 She stood flushed and perplexed,
 gazing at him. She never had seen him l under stronger emotion.
 | You misunderstood me once Con-
 niel' he appealed. You'll understand
 me nowl"
 She had been thinking about that | injustice she had done him in her | thought-about his chivalry to his | partner and former benefactor when
 Uncle Benny was still keeping his
 place among men. Was Henry now | moved, in a way which she could not
 understand, by some other obligation
 to the man who long ago had aided
 him? Had Henry hazarded more than | he had told her of the nature of the
 thing hidden which, if she could guess | it, would justify what he said? She had made Alan promise to write | her, if he was not to return, regarding what he learned; and a letter came to her on the fourth day from him in
 Manitowoc. The post office employees had no recollection, he said, of the person who had mailed the package; 1t simply had been dropped by some
 one Into the receptacle for mailing packages of that sort. Alan, however, was continuing his inquiries.
 She wrote to him in reply; in lack of anything more important to tell him, she related some of her activities and inquired about his. After she had written him thus twice, he replied, de- scribing his life on the boats pleasant ly and humorously; then, though she immediately replied, she did not hear from him again.
 A new idea had seized Constance. Captain Caleb Stafford was named among the lost, of course; with him had perished his son, a boy of three. That was all that was said, and all that was to be learned of him. the boy.
 Alan had been three then. This was wild, crazy speculation. The ship was lost with all hands; only the Drum, believed in by the superstitious and the most ignorant, denied that. The Drum said that one soul had been saved. How could child of three have been saved when strong men, to the last one, had perished? And, if ha had been saved, he was Stafford's son. Why should Uncle Benny have sent | him away and cared for him and then | sent for him and, himself disappear ing, leave all he had to-Stafford's | son?
 Or was he Staffords son? Her thought went back to the things which had been sent-the things from mans pockets with a wedding ring among them. She had believed that the ring cleared the mothers name; might it in reality only more involve it? Why had it come back like this to the man by whom, perhaps, 1t had been given? Henry's words came again and again to Constance: "It's a queer con- cern you've got for Ben. Leave it alone, I tell youI" He knew then something about Uncle Benny which might have brought some terrible thing which Henry did not know but might guess? Constance went weak Uncle Benny's wife had left him, she remembered. Was it better, after all, to "leave it aloneF'
 A telegraph envelope addressed to her father was on the table in the hall. servant told her the message had | come an hour before and that he had , to Mr. Sherrills office, but MT. Sherrill was not in. There was no .. reason for her thinking that the mes- sage might be from Alan except his | presence in her thoughts, but she went 1t once to the telephone and called | Ter father. He was in now, and he ' 1irected her to open the message and | cad 1t to him. I
 Have some one," she read aloud: he choked in her excitement at what a anne next-"Have some one who | new MT. Corvet we'll enough to recog- [ lize him, even if greatly changed, N meet Carferry Number 25 Manitowec Wednesday this week. Alan Conrad" e Her heart was beating fast Are 'ou there?" she said into the phone.
 "Yes" "Whom shall you sendT' There was an fnstant's silence. "1 s hall go myself" her father said. a She hung up the receiver. Had Alan f ound Uncle Benny? He had found, U pparently, some one whose resem- U lance to the picture she had showed i'm was marked enough to make him elfeve that person might be Benjamin Tho, from the account he had received, u e thought might be. She read again y ne words of the telegram "even ol