The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-07-06

we'll run away-Constance! You've
kept me off so long! You don't be-
lieve there's anything against me.
dear7 Do you? Do your"
.No; mol OF course not !"
Then we're going to be married.
:. Right away. well have 1t then;
up here now!"
mo; not now. Henry. Not up
herew
mot here7 Why notf"
She could give no answer. He held
her and commanded her again; only
when he frightened her, he ceased.
why must 1t be at once, Henry?
don't understand"
Its not must, DEAR" he denied.
TITS just that want you sol"
When would 1t be, he demanded
then: before spring. she promised at
last. But that was all he could make
her say. And 10 he let her go.
The next evening" In the moonlight,
she drove him to Petoskey. He had
messages to send and preferred to
trust the telegraph office in the larger
town.
Alan was driving northward along
the long. sandy peninsula which sep
arates the blue waters Of Grand Trav-
erse from Lake Michigan; and. think
ing Of Constance, he knew that she
was near. He not only had remem-
bered that she would be north at Har-
Dor Point tSis month; he had seen In
one of the Petoskey papers that she
and her mother were at the Sheriff.
summer home. His business now was
taking him nearer them than he had
been at any time before; and, II he
wished to weaken, he might convince
himself that he might learn from her
circumstances which would aid him In
his task. But he was not going to her
for help; that was following in his ia
theirs footsteps. When he knew every
thing. then-not till then-he could go
to her; for then he would know exact
ly what was upon him and what he
should do.
His visits to the people named on
those sheets written by his father had
been confusing at first; he had had
great difficulty In tracing some of
them at all; and, afterward, he could
uncover no certain connection either
between them and Benjamin Corvet or
between themselves. But recently, he
had been succeeding better In this lat
ter.
He had seen-he reckoned them over
again-fourteen Of the twenty-one
named originally on Benjamin Cor
vets lists; that is. he had seen either
the Individual originally named, or the
surviving relative written In below the
name crossed of. He had found that
the crossing out Of the name meant
that the person was dead. except in
the case of two who had left the coun-
try and whose whereabouts were as
unknown to their present relatives as
they had been to Benjamin Corvet.
and the case of one other who was
In an insane asylum.
He had found that no one Of the
persons whom he saw had known Ben
jamin Corvet personally; many Of
them did not know him at all, the
others knew him only as name.
Bur. when Alan proceeded. always
here was one connotation with each
of the original names: always one cir
cumstance bound all together. When
he had established that circumstance
us influencing the fortunes Of the first
two on his lists. he had said to him.
self. as the blood pricked queerly un-
der the skin, that the fnct might be
"a mere coincidence. When he estab-
ished 1t also as affecting the fate Of
the third and of the fourth and Of
the fifth. such explanation no longer
sufliced; and he found 1t In common
fo all fourteen, sometimes as the de-
Gliding factar of their fate snmetimeS