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THF FLOHT.PS CO!.LECTfOW X5he House of a Thousand >* By MEREDITH WICHOLSOA 7 , Author “Uhe Mala Chancer Etc Copyright, 1005—The Robbs-Merrill Co. CHAPTER XXTI. 'I fIF. RETI’RX OF MARION DEVE- RET'X. I ST E It THERESA has ’.oft !Bi ii Bates hail been into An- namlRle to mall some let ters, ami I was staring out upon the park from the library "windows when he entered. Stoddard, hav ing kept watch the night before,wti6 at home asleep and Harry was off some where In the house, treas ure hunting. 1 was feel ing decidedly discouraged over our failure to make any progress with our investigations, end Rates' news did not interest me. •‘Well, Whitt of It?" I demanded. w out turning round. "Nothing, air; but Miss Devereux has come buck!” •'Tim devil!" I turned and took it step toward t « d oor, "I said MIhb ‘Devarmix." lie repealed in dignified rebuke, "She flame up this morning and the sister left at once fur Chicago. Hiater Theresa depends partic ular! y upDn Miss Devt.eux—so iv« heard, six", Mies XAeveruux fiuite takes charge when tlie lister goes away, A few of the students are staying in Buhoo! through the holidays," "You seem full of information," l re marked, taking another step toward my hat and <.uat, "Ami I’ve learned something else, sir,” "\Vel!V r "They aU oarna together, «... - -Who came; if yau please, Rales? •vV » came; u y«u , - rh« peqple who've been travel ing with Mr, Bickering came back with him iiiid Mies JJevereu# cam« with them from Cincinnati, That'S What I learned in the village. Aed Mr, Pickering !e go ing to stay—" "Plckerlsig stay;” "At his cottage on the lake for a while. The reason is that he's worn out with his work, ami wishes quiet. The other people went bock to New York In the car,” "He’s opened a summer cottage In mid-winter, has lie?” 1 had been blue enough without tills news. Marian Devoreux had come back i,» Annandale with Arthur Pickering! my faith in her snapped iike a reed at this astounding news. Rite was now en- tit ed to my grand father's property and she had lost no time in returning as soon as she and Piokerlng bad discussed together at the •ArmsbroiigB’ my flight from Annandale. Her return could have no other meaning but tiiat there was a strong tie ’between them, and. ho was now to stay on the ground until I should be dispossessed and her rights established, fcine bad led mo to follow Tier, and my forfeiture had been sealed by ihat stolen interview at the Arm strongs'. Jt Tins a black record and tlia thought of it angered me against myself and the world. "Tell Mr. Donovan that I've gone to St. Agatha’s," 1 said, and I was soon striding toward the school, A sister admitted me. I heard the sound of a plan-,, ermiawhere In the building, and i consigned the Inventor of pianos to hideous torment as scales were pursued endlessly up ami down the keys. Two girls passing through the ha!! made a prolaxl of looking for a ISilwok and came in and exclaimed over fit heir Inability to ilrnl It with much sup- I <8 jirossed giggling. j jtl | Tlie plano-poundliig continued and I [4 l.alted for wluit seemed an lnterinina- »' io time. It was growing dark and a |P' r- Id lighted the oil lamps. X took a t:i!.r from the table. It was "The Rife r a " ,-fuiuto Ce.iinl" nud “Marian Dev- "U-Ul... * ■ o ... ,,,.. .... Mw. H,. l*,„r 1.,. man is written on the fly leaf by .,vly this iiume hand tiiat penned ■ for Olivia's performances. clear flowing lines of the ,n their lack of superfluity. ""' I r .' n ease, grace and charnt; and. r *oe deeper stroke with which the x teas crossed. I felt a challenge, a readi- O’ss to abide by consequences cnce her I bid was given. 8 Ken my own inclination to think well H her angtred me. It was only a pretty of chirography, and 1 dropped the (cAJ, 3»Lk impatiently when 1 heard lier step the threshold. am sorry to have kept your walt- Mr. GJonarm. Rut this is my busy shall not detain you long. 1 came’— sitated, not knowing why 1 had took a chair near the open door bent forward with an air of at- , n that was disquieting. She wore —perhaps to fit her the bettor into ouse of a somber Sisterhood. 1 1 suddenly to remember her front e long gone, anil the effort of •y threw me off guard. Stoddard id there were several Olivia Arm- • there were certainly many Mar- -vereuxs. The silence grew in- e; she was waiting for me to and I blurted: ppose you have come to take >f tiie property.” m?" she asked. Du came back with the executor to facilitate matters. I'm glad to see tiiat you lose no time." "Oil!” she said lingeringly, as though she wore finding v.’lth difficulty ilic note in which 1 wished to pitch the conversa tion. Her calmness was maddening. ”1 suppose you thought it unwise to wait for the bluebird when you had be guile 1 me into breaking a promise, when ! was trapped, defeated—" Her elbow on the arm of the chair, her hand resting against liar cheek, the light rippling gnldenly in her hair, her eyes bent upon me inquiringly, mournfully— mournfully, ns I had seen them—where? —once before! My heart leaped in that moment, with that thought. “I remember now ihe first time!" 1 exclaimed, more angry than I had ever been before in my life. «T! tat is quite remarkable," she said, anil nodded her head ironically. "It wit s ut Sherry's; you were with Tinkering—you dropped your fan and he picked II up. and you turned toward me for a moment. You were in black that night; it was the unhappiness In your fane, in your eyes, thaq made me re member," T was intent upon the recollection, eager to fix and establish It. "You are quite right. II was at Rher- ry'n, I was wearing black then; many things made me unhappy that night." lier forehead contracted slightly and alia pressed lier lips together, "l suppose tlinL even then tue con- Bpiraey was thoroughly arranged,” 1 said tauntingly, laughing it. little perhaps, and wishing to wound her, to take vengeance upon her, Sim roue and stood by her chair, one hand resting upon It. 1 faced lier; her eves ware Ilka violet seas. She spoke vurj^ qtiluii.v. Hint' when !t occurred to you' park, when 1 risked unpleasant gossip in receiving you In a house where you had no possible right to be, that I was counting upon something—foolishly and stupidly—yet counting upon it?" “You probably thought I wag a fool," I retorted. * No;”—she smiled slightly—"! thought — I believe I have said this to you be fore!—you were a gentleman. I really did, Mr. Glenarm. I must say it to Justify myself. I relied upon your chiv alry; I even thought, when I played being Olivia, tiiat you had a sense of honor. Rut you are not the one and you haven't the other. I even went so far, after you /knew perfectly well who I was, as to try to help you—to give you another ehiinee to prove yourself the nmu your grandfather wished you to be. And now you come to me in a shocking bad humor—I really think you would like to be insulting. Mr. Glenarm, if you could.” "Hut Pickering-—you came back with him; lie Is hero and lie's going to stay! And now that the property belongs to you, there i;< not the slightest reason why we should make any pretense of anything but enmity. When you and Ar thur Pickering stand together 1 take the other side of the barricade! I sup pose chivalry would require nte to va cate. so tiiat you may enjoy at once the spoils of war." "I fancy it would no* be very difficult (o eliminate you as a factor in the sit uation." she remarked Icily. "And i suppose, after the unsuccess ful efforts of Mr. Pickering’s allies to assassinate me. us a mild form of elimi nation, one would naturally expect me to sit calmly down and wait to lie siiot In the hack. Rut von ir.ay leil Mr. Pick ering that I throw myself upon your mercy, i have no oilier home than tli.s shell over ihe way, and 1 beg to be al lowed to remain until—at least—the blue birds come 1 hope It will not embarrass you to deliver the message." "1 qiilLo sympathize with your reluctance to deliver it yourself." she said. "Is this all you came to say?” rSL’vwiwf i hwrdlu shrdl shrdl uannan T came to tell you tiiat you could have the house, and everything in its hideous walls." I snapped: "to tell you ; hat my chivalry is enough for some situations and that I don't intend to fight a wom an. I had accepted your own renounce ment of the legacy in good pant, but now, please believe me, It shall be yours omorrow. i’ll yield possession to you whenever you ask it—'but never to Ai- t'liui" Pickering! As against him and liIs treasure hunters and assassins I will hold out for a dozen years!” “Nobly spoken, Mr. Glenarm! Yours is really an admirable, though somewhat complex character.” “My character is my own, whatever it is.” I blunted. ••I shouldn’t call that a debatable prop osition.” she replied, and I was angry to find how the mirth I had ioved in her could suddenly become so hateful. She half-turned away so that I might not see her face. The thought that she should countenance Pickering in any way tore me with jealous rage. ■•Mr. Glenarm. you are what I have heard called a quitter, defined in com mon Americanese as one who quits! lour blustering here this afternoon can hardly conceal the fact of your failure—your inability to keep a promise. I had hoped you would really be of some help to Sister Theresa: you quite deceived her— she told me as she left today that she thought well of you—she really felt that Imr fortunes iveie safe in your hands. Rut. of c ourse, hat is all a matter ol post history now.” Ill-' tone, changing from co!d indlfTer- i :.cc to the most severe disdain, stung roe into self-pity for my stupidity in hav ing s >ught h< r. My ange was not against her. bn against Pickering, who bad, I persuaded myself, always blocked my pac.ii. She went on. "You really amuse mi' exceedingly. Mr. Pickering is decidedly more ;han a match for you, Mr. Glenarm—even in humor." She left me so quickly, so softly, that r stood staring like a fool al the spot where she lini been, and then I went gloomily back to Glenarm house, angry, asliame 1 and crestfallen. While we were wailing for dinner I made a clean lircasi of my acquaintance with her *to Larry, omit:ing nothing—re joicing even to paint my own conduct as black as possible. "You may remember her.” i concluded, "she was the girl we saw at Sherry’s that night we dined there. She \vn« with Pickering, and you noticed her—spoke of her. as she went out.’’ "That littie girl who seemed so bored, or hired? Bless me! Why her eyes haunt ed me for days. Lord, man. do you mean to say—" A look of titter scorn cane Into Ills face, and he eyed me contemptuously. "Of course, I mean It!" I thundered at him. He took the pipe from his mouth, press ed the tobacco viciously Into the ’bowl, and swore steadily in Gaelic until I was ready to choke him. "R op!” I bawled. “Do you think that's helping me? And to have you curse in your blackguardly Irish dialect! I want ed n little Angio-Snxon sympathy, you fool! I diin’L mean for you to Invoke !-.fitiip’us gods againr-t Die Hflryj _ rchcnsiblo," he admonished with madden ing sweetness and patience. "What I \»ap trying to inculcate was ra.: her Die fact, borne in upon me through years of acquaintance, that you are—to lie bold, my lad. to be bold—a good deal of a damned fool.*' ‘ b" trilling of his r's was like the whirring rise o: a flock of quads. Dhr.ier is served." .announced Bates, m l Larry led the way, mockingly chant- :rg a:i Irish love song. CHAPTER XXI11. lill’I DOOR OF BEWl LUER41 EXT. Mh had established the birring nil ihe gates Ml. Ti: agiinut practice of tid doors at nlght- was no way of guarding attack from the lake, whose r<j,:eu surface Increased ihe danger fiom vthou:; but we counted on our night p:tr >! to prevent a uprise from Hint qi’lrto'. I war, well aware that I must pi’pitr., to resist the militant arm of the in", which Pickering would no doubt in to e to aid itlr.t. hut I intended to ex- *’ 13 «>e possibilities in searching for llnjost treasure before I yielded. Ploke:- Injlmlgtit, if he would, transfer fho csit*'' of John Marshall Glenarm to Mfiian Devereux and make the most iie oouf of that service, but he should not dr! i me forth until T had satisfied my- seliaf Dm exact character of my grand- fi'.ilr’s fortune. If It had vanished, if Picking had stolen it and outwitted me t making off wiin it. that was an- oGufmaUer. T, phrase. ‘ The Door of Bewilder- mi-r. * had never i eased to reiterate I’.set In niy mind. Wf discussed a thou- *an.»xp!anations r.f it as we pondered iivorho scrap of paper I liad found in toe irnry. and every book in the house was :nmined in th e search for further elf ws Thehssage between the house and the chapetseeincd ,,, fascinate r«arry. He brlci ill ii must have some particular use ai ne devoted Ills time (o exploring lie etc up at noon—It was the 29ih of Decemr- with grimy face and hands and a in on his face. I had spent my moriiinju the towers, where it was beastl.vjld. to no purpose ami was not in a md for the ready acceptance of new t ivies. "I’ve Jr.d something," he said, filling his pipe "Not fc>, evidently!" No, bj'm going to say the last word on tile tlie], and within an hour. Give me a glo of beer and a piece of bread, and neiti back and see whether were sold ngh or not." Let tixplore the idea and be done with it. yit till 1 tell Stoddard where we’re bo\" The eiUiin was trying the second floor waitind I asked him to eat some luncheon <1 stand guard whil e Larry and I w>' to the tunnel. M e too^ith us an iron bar, an ax and a coe of hammers. Larry went ahead wilp lantern. "Y'oii setjie explained, as we dropped through tiaap into the passage, ’’I’ve tried a co^ss on this tunnel and find that we’vqpn working on the wrong theory. Thassage itself runs a straight line from house under the gate to the crypt: (ravine is a rough crescent shape and a short distance the tun nel touchesJiow deep does that ravine average—ab(30 feet?” “Yes; it'siilowest where the house stands. It tls sharply from there on ;be lake: “Very geiput the ravine is all "Good Morning, Mr. Glenarm.’ tlie Glenarm side of tlie wall, isn't it? Now when we get under the wall I'll show you something.” "Here we are,” said Larry, as th e cold an* blew in through tlie hollow* posts. "Now we're pretty near that sharp curve of tiie ravine tiiat dips away from the wall. Take the lantern while I get out the compass. AY hat do you think tiiat C on the piece of paper means? Why, chapel, of course. 1 have measured tlie distance from the house, the point of de parture, we may assume, to the chapel, and three-fourths of it brings us under those beautiful posts. The directions are plain as daylight. The passage itself is your N. W.. as the compass proves, and the ravine cuts close in here; therefore, our business is to explore the wail on the ravir.e side.” Good! but this is just wall here—earth with a layer of brick ar.d a thin coat of cement. A nice job it must have been to do tlie work,—and it cost the price of a tiger hunt,” I grumbled. "Take heart, lad, and listen,"—and Lar ry began pounding the wall with a ham mer. exactly under the north gatepost. We had sounded everything in and about the house until the process bored me. "Hurry up and get through with it," I jerked impatiently, holding the lantern at the level of his head. It was sharply cold under the posts and I was anxious to prove the worthlessness of his Idea and be done. Thump! thump! “There’s a plac e here that sounds a trifle off the key. Y*ou try it." t snatched the hammer and repeated his soundings. Thump! thump! There was a space about four feet square In the wall that certainly gate forth a hollow sound. z "Stand back!" exclaimed Larry eager ly. "Here goes wuth the ax. ” He struck into the wall sharply ar.d the cement chipped off in rough pieces, disclosing the brink ber.eat'b. Larry paus-eg when he had uncovered a foot Continued on Page Pour. .if' v'