White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1927-06-10

"Sneed," said the other kindly, 81
tell you that by remaining here go
will embarrass me and imperil ce'
tain plans 1 have determined ON, vii
you still want to stay?"
"I'd do anything for you, Mr.. Peter,
he said brokenly.
81 knew you would. / will. say this
If, by any turn of the wheel, things
become better, will have you back.
"The papers say nothing is left,
Sneed returned dismally.
IF the papers were always correct
this would be direful world"
Sneed looked into the face of ;
Peter Milman he did not know, ant
he had believed he knew his employee.
in every mood. 1t seemed to the but
Ter he had discovered a new person
atty, someone more ruthless, harder
bitterer.
"The man who comes tomorrow
will never take your place. You ma!
regard him as temporary expedient
When you go, Sneed, l shall see one
of my few friends depart"
The butler knew that there was nc
argument he could use to change his
employers determination. But he was
cheered by the faint hope that some
day he might return. Mr.. Peter, he
reflected, had never been like other
men. Reserved, communicative
aloof and austere, but inflexibly man
of his word. Six months was not SO
long. Sneed thought he would spend
the period in foreign travel. He had
understood that during the past quar-
ter century certain improvements had
been made in the world.
When Peter Milman told Sneed that
his presence would imperil certain
plans, he was speaking sober truth
In the upper rooms of his home there
had been born the determination to
save the things he loved from being
disposed of at auction. 1t seemed
almost as though the shades of his
forbears, lingering about the things
that had been theirs, had concentrate
ed their influence upon their ultimate
man museum to say farewell. BE
had put down his ancestors sword
with the determination to fight. And
in this fight Sneed, for all his faithful
ways and honest heart, could have no
part. Any deviation from the way of
life he had followed for so many years
would alarm the faithful butler He
would inevitably have imagined his
employer was i'll and buzzed about him
like an anxious fly.
Milman's way of life changed direct
ly Achille Lutry entered his service.
To the Frenchman it was nothing I'M
usual that Milman went out frequent
ly Lutry knew nothing of the former
secluded existence.
A few days after Sneed's hegira had
begun, Achille Lutry dropped three
letters into a nearby mail-boX. The
letters were addressed to-: Fleming
Bradney, Edgewater, N. j.; Floyd
Malet of Philadelphia Neelan'l
Barnes of Peekskill- on the Hudson.
Fleming Bradney, returning home
from a tedious day of work in the lab
oratory of an oil refinery, found his
letter on the table where his meal was
set He was big, untidy man of
middle age, taciturn, and unpopular
with his fellows because he invited no
condolences nor answered personal
questions. At the Edgewater refinery,
as In that at Bayonne from which he
had come two years previously, he
was known as #. Bradney. None sus.
pected him of being the great physt
cist, Fleming Bradney, once the fore
most man in his line America had
produced.
He slit the envelope and looked at
the address and signature. The name
Peter Milman meant as little to him
as his own name to Edgewater. Brad
ney had never read a Social Register
in his life. Between the pages was a
money order for one hundred dollars.
II beg YOU" Peter Milman wrote,
mot to imagine that by inclosing this
money l suppose you to be an object
for charity. | urgently desire you to
dine with me today week at half-past
seven O'Clock, and 1t may be that you
must engage substitute or be put
by my request-to some expense
not otherwise necessary.
"You may ask yourself why you
should go to this trouble for man
unknown to you. l would answer that
I am thoroughly acquainted with your
life history and entertain a great adj
miration for your genius. Think OF
me as one anxious to see you regain
your rank as. one of the great scien-
lists of the world. Perhaps at this
dinner you may be offered the oppor.
tunity.
(To BE CoNTINUED.)