The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-10-11

couldn't work it then for lack of the | principal picture, though I needed | the money damned badly at the time. l Forsythe had no photos of himself, 1 It was not until long afterward that 1 I ran across a halftone of Forsythe in a brochure he had published and
 then I dugalp my manuscript. l Ut was even more valuable then.
 No one could interview him short of | a. shotgun. He had shut himself up ! entirely, I ran down the original pie ! ture, tucked away in the publish er' S ffiles, and got a copy made of it. Dal-
 zell, my god-dady gave me a picture of the Butterfly Orchid. I had one
 of that gloomy pile, Cypripedium 1 Lodge. and there I was launched. But why don't you tackle Da1ze1l about
 the scarlet blossom? He knows all
 about it. Gave me a lot of stuff couldn't include"
 q barely know him. said Cairns. "A prime rule of this club is that 1 members leave each other severely alone.''
 Wonder if the old chap is here l today?" said Grantley. 'T'n tntro- | duce you. Can you talk shop about | orchids? If he thought you were
 ferreting anything out about Forsythe 1 he'd be dumb as a dead clam. He 1 abhors publicity"
 l we II spare TlIl Sd10 Sa1rnS. ''I'll find out if he is in the club.' 1 The god of chance had so arranged
 it that Joel Dalzell was in the library. To that tomblike room Cairns led Grantley. Grantley spied his god l father and, in an appropriate whisper, | introduced Cairns.
 | "Ah. a fellow member!" said Dal- zell, in a piping voice. Glad to meet 1 you, indeed"
 i Mr., Toj 3- int
 suggested Grantley.
 ! The elderly fossil seemed suddenly
 to grow ten yeaE8 younger. | "Rea1ly?" he said. That is most interesting. I never suspected. God | bless my soul! We must have a chat I don't drink. But I do smoke. Let | us have cigar together | They found a niche in the smoking room and Cairns mustered all his
 knowledge, prefacing that he was but l a humble amateur seated at the feet
 of an expert. Deftly, slowly, he led 1 tho conversation around to the But | terfly Orchid.
 l "A wonderful plant" said Dalzell l Remarkable adaptation. have l one. Unfortunately not now in bio on Forsythe brought 1t out from British 1 Guiana. I have the data concerning | its habitat somewhere, if you are in- terested. You remember Forsythe Ralph? I gave you a letter to him | for an interview that was sadly dis appointing. Full of Forsythe, and 1 showing a lamentable ignorance of
 orchids. Great opportunity wasted to enlighten the public. But you did your best and you are doing better now. Eh? Quite famous?" Grantley tactfully demurred. Too bad, Forsythe's death,'' ram bled on Dalzell. He was once just an orchid hunter but he had the dt- vine affatus. He wouldn't sell the Butterfly Orchid after he got it. And he could have got ten thousand dol lars for it. He had found diamonds on the same trip, it appeared, but his spirit was most praiseworthy. He amassed his fortune and devoted 1t to the one study. Contributed much to the lore of epiythes and air-plants a remarkable man. "I should like to get the notes on the habitat of the Butterfly Orchid" said Cairns, with just the right amount of eagerness. Compiled by Forsythe?"
 Exactly. I will see you get a CODY shall make a note of it at once." And he did so. sending a page for paper and pen. "It was a quarter of a century ago when Forsythe brought 1t out of the British Guiana hiuter- land',' said Dalzen. f'1 wonder how
  in the jungle before that?'' Half an hour later Dalzeu declared that he must be going home, renew ing his promise of the data. The next afternoon Cairns received it. some what ruefully. as he reflected that If he was going to trace up anything about the finding of the orchid in connection with F'orsythe's evident special significance attached to the bloom, he would have to dig back to the time of more than two-thirds of
 h1s own lifetime and, perhaps, let himself in for a long adventure in the wilderness.
 But he did not falter. Obstacles were the milestones of progress, he believed, and Re booked passage that would ultimately take him to George town, British Guiana, in an endeavor to supplement the somewhat meager details of the discovery of the orchid Cairns wrote a farewell letter to Miss Carroll. fired with his own Whipped-up but none the less deep seated conviction that he was on the trail Why I feel this way. I don't know he wrote ''It s that fourth dimension feeling we spoke of. It seems a far cry from British Guiana to St. Louis, and to White Plains but to use modernisnls, I still have the 'hunch'. Do not expect to hear from me until my return, when I hope to find your own affairs straightenine if not altogether happy"
 And, two days at sea, he got a wire lesss~ To his engagement and sattsfaci- ion it was jointly signed by Blatch1ey and Claire Carroll. It was very brief. Just two words. Good luck"
 To Be Continued Tomorrow.
 Copyright 1922. Thompson Feature
 Service).