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watching some one else. But she spoke’
to me'after the show. She said" your jp
date with her tonight was canceled.”
tny’s tone didn’t change. His eyes
didn't pugnien or dull. vt presume so,”
he said sober! ° ‘
“But about *Sourselt,”
red-head changed the subject.
“the diminutive
“Where
A Maid There Was. Ds :
tatives of Hazeiton to struggle for. At
- least it signified more than that to
- Kearny; for to him it meant the total
A maid there was in our town ’
Whose modesty was rare;
CHICAGO LEDGER 9
And the parting nn that bit of yarn,
_Signified more than t mere winning
- . of a race—more even than the retention’
9 longer could
he be branded a quitter by Miles and his
2: . .
te Sethe fa vou get trom that cabinet - Of autumn trees she'd never speak . crowd. For today Kearny was complete
pistol? And where did you go when you “| Because their limbs were bare. it was whispered that Kearny'a time
got into that automobile outside the * When night its sable shadows threw : had been caught, unoffclally as forty=
stage door? I’ve been on pins and . She'd tumble i in @ swoon ~ six second: t. ut individual relay
needieg since then. lant jenow,what ff if curtain did not hide from view ~~ =f aare not entered, tn the revord books
Despite his preoccupation, Kearn The man up in the moon. . When Kearny opened his eyes, and
contd nek retrain ‘trom smiling. “Bie _ A plumber caused her death one day, ~ rage Regmatng Bench fo whlch Bigelow
what you saw at the theater was only
the trickery of a down to date wizard.”
So the story goes—-
By asking her in a careless way
“But the whole thing was so darned - . the silver trophy to the~slight woman
Impossible! ‘Then, when I saw you light, . To let him see her hose. seated in the chair om the platform—
out in ee machine——" Madame Rhea.
“You got my note, didn’t you?” Ty} hm
“Yeres But 7 — 21S fa” CHAPTER Xv.
“Then you had nothing to worry “e : NOT AS PROGRAMED.
about. - What you need is an oculist, but if she can’t do it on the square— the two third-lappers. , Menneberry EARNY, - flushed, exhausted, yet
Frank. Your eyes played you all kinds well, let her lose!” And to Singleton's
of -tricks last night. mfoundment the little man with the
magician’s business consists of—tMe tattooed anchor’on his wrist got up and
ability to make liars of the five senses. started to leave.
And in: your case, anyway,” Soracco sure “Tm with you, Singleton,” the
succeeded. ut there! They’re calling cataract-eyed fellow added. “I've been
for hurdlers, You better toddle,” he ad- thinking over. that cup episode, and I’m
vised, to Bigelow’s disgust. peginning to doubt that it was stolen
al
. ‘om you a
‘THE quarter-hour passed, “and with ventas Benson been spilling , the beans?”
them the rival scores grew. By 4 roared the shyst 7
, o'clock it was evident that the outcome “So you admit Te" Bilky' managed to
would be close“ At half past-4 every smile. “No; Benson didn’t say anything
event save the relay had been contested, to me about it. But you'll not cause me
and Kearny, glancing to the blackboard any more trouble. You see, I got caught
at the upper ene of the track, became when I carried the cup back to where it
cognizant of or the odd belonged last night. Naturally I had to
tension that had settled over the bleach- explain. I didn’t say anything about
erites. Brentwood h: two-point lead! Miles or Kearny, but I told. about it’s
Then the Tealization came: to-him of having been in your possession for nearly
how important this relay was to be. On week. Instead of getting fired, I hold ~
its decision rested not alone the winning my job for telling the truth.” _.And with
of today’s tournament. It was far more a look of outraged virtue in his eye, he
important than that. Brentwood had stamped away.
taken the last two annual meets.
she repeated, Hazelton never again could ILES’ being shifted to first lap had
compete for the Norton trophy. But been the direct result of a brief
Hazelton could win, there still remained parley between Benson-and Murdock the
a@ chance, in the years to come, of per-~ coach, “Do you think
manently attaching the silver cup.
er’s ear, shortly after leaving the west
sired endowing to this being his last bleachers.» Until. Bilky Andrews had
young man name,
Hazelton athletes. Tho Murdock evinced curiosity, Arthur
t he started across the fleld. when Busy was very close-mouthed. But the
the velay runners were summoned, _ hint was sufficient for the astute coach,
After-two hours of tormenting un- He assigned Miles to an éasier lap, the
certainty, Singleton, the Brentwood first one. _Perhaps he frightened him
criminal lawyer, was gradually experi- with his veiled questioning, for when
encing an easier frame o. na When the gun had-set them off Miles ran lke
the broad jump—the final fleld event—
was taken by an agile Brentwood “ieaper,
and the valley college’s score soared two
Even before the first turn was reached
he had attained a lead of three yards.
points over that of Hazelton, all fear And he retained it all along the back
jeft him. Stretching forth his long legs, stretch,and up the opposite course of
he remarked ow voice, but quite straightaway. . In the final Dit of going
affably, to Bilky Andrews: “We'rt “h
the safe side at la
Arthur Busy Beason had ett them be-
fore the meet was half o
Bilky's good eye Tooke "golemnly at
mate while his opponent was still five
ds from“the line, «.
vt Miles had deliberately “fallen back -
the pawyer. “You're sure vin the quarter-mile, he certainly had
ust’ as” certain as im breathing, “atoned for it. Even Benson was ready
puky.* He lowered ‘his voice even to admit that. The truth of the matter
more, for there were others sitting not was, however, that Miles, even had be
far away. “Wait till the third lap in tried his utmost, would have been out-
the relay. See what Miles-does. He’ll be ‘classed in:that grueling four-forty.
pitted against, Brentwood’s second bes Peterson held his own for three-quar-
man, ‘80 it won’t look raw atall. It cost tersof the way; but gradually the Brent-.
me fifty dollars, but——' wood man took in the slack-—all but a
His pause was caused by what he saw yard of it. The third teg of the jour-
taking place directly. across-the oval. ney was entered by Dalton, a stumpy,
short-legged Hazelton runner, slowest
man on the ssquad—and Henneberry,
start Brentwood’s second-best. :“
cover a lap and a quarter.
Henneberry’s legs were’ long, and in
and finish of the éntire race were one
and the same ne, The starter had ay fifty yards he pulled abreast, a feat
ready stepped behind the mark,, which certainly :must ha brightened
crouched before him were the rival Rrst- the horizon of the disgruntled Single-
lappers. -It was sight of the dark-haired ton.
runner in Hazleton uniform that caused It was along the back stretéh,
Singleton’s thick that Henneberry showed up to bes
‘What in the devil, ut- vantage, <earny, standing nervously
“Miles told me he’d been given at his mark, beside the redoubtable Bur-
third lap, against Henneberry of Brent- gess, watched the race with apprehen-
wood—and here he’s taking the first!” sion. . .
“ Bilky appeared to be interested, bu Burgess, big, cognizant of his” own
he was uncommunicative. Somehow, the ability, but with a wh®lesome respect
Brentwood caretaker didn’t seem partic- for Kearny’s, turned to the tall Hazel-
ularly concerned about. the wina- -up of ton man as nneberry forged ahead.
the day. “I'm afraid it’s all off with you this time,
“What ails you, Bilky snapped the youngster,” he remarked with good-na-
shyster, “Can't yoy see that we both tured complacency. “You're a runner—
stand to lose reat ney. if Miles doesn’t a But with gre advantage old
play square with us? And he'll have a Henn‘s going to han
dickens of a time throwing this lap to Kearny did not hear the rest. Un-
Squires without rousing suspicion. For consciously, and for the first time that
and afternoon, he had allowed his hazel eyes
ws it.” .-to rove to the east bleachers.
Bilky’s good “tT ‘don ‘t topmost seat sat grizzled-Norton, ‘Allee
stand to lose anything on it,” he mused Murdock d.a gray-haired. stranger—
alou byiously “not a stranger to Alice, tho,
oyeu- don't——~’ The massive man tor she.was speaking to him. And then
‘beside him glanced at Andrews suspl- Kearny realized that there was ,some~-
ciously.' “What do you mean, Bilky— thing vaguely familiar about this third
«thee you don’t stand to lose?” he de~ B was too far away to te
just what it was,
“smiled Soracco’s former Suddenly Alice’s eyes- met MMs. In-
ploye, “T _bet, on Brentwood—for stantly she flashed her pennant toward
I'm loyal to the college that hires me. him. Up went his arm in glad salute, a
But I didn't bet on the meet as.awhole. second before the crunch of cinders a
Tonly tackled the quarter-mile. That was little way behind called him, arrt,. to
a draw; so I’m nothing In‘and nothing. duty. uty,
out—and I'm glad of it. I'm sick of the It was Henneberry. Dalton seemed
crooked stuff, I'd like to. see Brent-* miles behind to Kearny’s eyes. In reality
“tho,
tered.
s
®
g
a
°
P
o
wood take the relay and win the cup; about elght yards of void lay. between, the track, . \ .
passed his baton to Burgess, and Kearny
\Seemed to live an hour before he re-
ceived the other from his exhausted
teammate.
Kearny realized to ‘the full the handi-
cap he worked under, He no longer had
ranks that pressed close about the plat-
form of Soracco the Seer. Right beside
him, head uplifted, eagerness in his gray.
eyes, Kearny recogn' man. who
the freshness with which he had en- }.q' sat ‘opposite kim in the theaterd
tered the ~ quarter-mile. Neither had Norton’s and Alice's companion on ‘the
jurgess, for that matter, he mused, as_ bleachers,
he tore after the blond leader, But Bur-
gess was his equal from a scratch start,
and vith eight yards’ advantage to pe-
Sitting in @ low chair, Madame Rhea,
her slight frame tense, save for an oc-
casional tremor, eyes wide open, but
seeming not to see, held the Norton cup
by its stem jn one white hand, and with’
the other's slender forefinger traced ‘the
tho,
even before the Brentwood: runner. as-
saulted the north turn; for, the past outline of the pfeture en.
graved on
a = new. Kearny had been born. At sige of the trophy. ‘Her eyelids quivered,
the present moment Walter possessed hen thin lips parted.
information that was a powerful stimu-_ ~The words she spoke seemed not her
lant for thought. er who will not, but, rather, an isolated voice. “I
ree in these wee, tened days, see,” Kearny heard, “a field of green—an
wholesome thought®can and does affect ova} field, About it runs a path of slate-
favorably the mind's objectified concept colored cinders.
-—the human bod: ’
(It will be recalled that, In “1837, a
group of the world’s most eminent physi-- yy er paused at the lef! th -
cal scientists ‘unanimously rejected the tavine’s toregroun d. ve Tere of the en~
“In the background,” the strange voice
was inconeeivable that con inued, as Madame Rhea’s finger trav-
the ultimate subdivision of matter be it ¢led to the right of the engraving, “leans
“called atom, molecule or what not, if it the black: stump of an aged oak. nd
really consisted of anything at all, could between the two—on a direct line join-
not be further subdivided. In its place t the v.
they promulgated.the newer theory, that ing the post and the stump—at the: very
all matter is merely .the objectification —
of ideag of the human mind, Soe ete dentin
apparent substance thru
see a tan bark-filled
deriving its rectangle, evidently a jumping pit. This
ppar the offices silver spike«the runner's pent oot—
the five sense: Stands exactly at its corn
Despite ‘the earlier grueling“ contest, without looking at the trophy, she was
Kearny ran with a feeling of freeness describing in detail the engraved picture
jhe never before had experienced. Hither its “surface bor
to he had been in bondage to an {dea— She. continued: “It Is “moonlight.” I
now his mentality was clear of the seem to Bense two figures approaching the
obsession. The special delivery letter spot—a yeung man and a yotthg woman.
had affected him thus. Not a thought They appear to be burying some small
did he waste the possibility—the object at the very corner of the pit.
probability—of defeat. The very opposite Many months fly by. This time a single
guided his-every stride. Nothing seemed, figure approaches the pit—the woman.
Impossible. Confidence, in’ its highest She digs with a trowel, for the earth is
form, had assumed control. soft.
Altho it was hardly apparent to the ca
breathless onlookers, until both men box. In ft is a letter, I think, and a pho-
were -in the back stretch, Kearny was tograph, She finds the little object she
pulling up on Burgess, inch by inch. ang her companion buried, and she drops
Halfway to the lower turn it became j¢*into the case, too. She plaeeS the metal
“mvre apparent. Less than sfx» yards case jn the hole, and scoops earth over It.
separated the flying forms of the two “Another void—the passage of time, I
on whose performance so much depended. gee the green oval covered with fresh
- Burgess, himself confident enough, earth. I see hillocks, queer, -an-
must have heard Kearny's nearing foot- gied ditches—I see a minute battlefield,
beats, for he let out a tremendous spurt I see a thousand student bayonets,
thirty yards from the turn. But the make out trenches, barbed-wire entan-
Hazelton senior was not-to be denied,
a
moil, what lies beneath the buried corner
stride. Four yards apart they spun from of the pit by a’miracle has not been dis-
the curve-into the last stretch. of turbed.
straightaway. “It S
And from ‘That point on Kearny seemed feld a
to lose sense o
physical Wody. His
chest, the side that popped him—all spike indicates. I discard the older, lost
apparently went numb, His, mind alone Tangmarks: I utilize the newer ones,
a mind filled with the exhilarating idea “Ifo nd of a cord, two hundred and
of freedom—seemed the source of the ninety ‘feet long, be tied at the gray post
inexorable power that forced him ever marking the southwest-corner of the
nearer the stretched tape at the upper open field adjacent to this one; and if
end of the course. another, three hundred and seven feet
The bleacherites were on their feet, be tied at the northwest corner
voices hoarsely shouting counsel—en- and if each
couragement—pennants fluttering,
stamping.~
scious of the demonstration. the sunken tan-bark pit, You who have
was barely conscious of the presence of digg: ed in vain--go ,you and try once
three spectators who had plunged their more" .
way from the topmost seat down to the medium’s hands seemed to grow
wire fence separating track and grand him: We body relaxed, “The eyelids flut-
tered; the eyes brightened—lost their.
Certainly he did not see Alice, Norton faraway look, Coior mounted the pale
and the stranger with his eyes; for they cheeks. Madame Rhea apparently be-
peered fixedly ahead. Nor did he hear came conscious of her surroundings.
with his ears the grayed companion of Walter turned again to the man on his.
‘the girl and the ola coach urging, vic- ite the man whose name he did not
tory; for the firing of six blank shots w yet. Already Neely Hawkins was
by an over enthusiastic ontooker failed pressing his way out of the crowd. His
to stir him. But—very dimly—he mind almost a.blank, Walter, falteringly
conscious of it a owed in his wake, irresistible
‘Nerve! Sheer nerve!” chattered Neely pressure seemed to shov im on, The
Iiawkins as the two sped toward the words of the letter Bigelow had given
goal. “I know how he feels—oh, I know! him rang fn his ears.
He doesn't know he's running; he doesn't They reached the old field—scene of
know -he's alive! e——" ’s hammer-throwing contest—and,
‘Ten yards from the tape the outward bewildered, Walter observed long lines
Kearny was abreast. It'was the chest already attached to the field's gray corner
of the blue upper symbolizing, Hazelton, posts—lines already measured, already
and all that Hazelton stood that stretched—their points of juncture
parted the strand of cotton spanning, ————————_»——
(Continued on Page 20.)
later, I see a peaceful, level
“of the silver trophy for future represen<—
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