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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1921)
jXmmwmt t mi hi in ■ ■■ ■■ » i mnmmmm ! THE ENCHANTED BARN copyright 1918. t»> J. B. Upplficott Co. 1 B Outside laborers were busy building up a terrace, where a witle cement-floor piazza with foundations and low stone walls •was to run across the entire front. Another chimney was rising from 4.he region of the kitchen. A white enamel sink with a wide drain-shelf attached appeared next, with sigus of a butler's pan try /between kitchen and dining room. A delightful set of china cdose.t doors with little diamond panes that matched the windows was put in one corner of the din ing room, and some bookcases with sliii.ng doors began to de velop along the walls of the Jiv ing room. Down in the basement A man was fitting stationary tubs for a laundry, and gut J?Oth the jirsOioer and“slteond bath ropms were being made. If the place hadn’t been so big, the workmen would have got in one another’s way. Closets big and little were liping put in, and parts of a hand some staircase were lying about, luntil you wouldn’t know the place at all. Every evening the old servant and .the neighbor next door, who used to rent the .old barn before he built his own nwrew one, came together to look over what had been accomplished . /during the day, and to discourst v. vrpnp !Jii* worl<l and the -y’TfifJers pi if. The farmer, in fact, learned a gPMtt deal about anodern improvements, and at once set about bringing some of them to bear upon his own mod est farmhouse. lie had money in .the bank, and why shouldn’t he ‘“Jiave things convenient for Sally t When Sidney Graham reached the city ou Monday morning he scarcely took time to read his mail in the office and give the aiecessary attention to the day’s . work before he was up and off again, flying along the Glenside Hoad as fast as his car would carry him. Ilis mind certainly was not on business that morning. He was as eager as a child to see iiow work at the old barn was progressing, and the workmen stood small chance of lying down on their job that week, for he meant to make every minute count, no matter how much it cost. He spent a large part of Monday hovering about the old barn, gloating over each new sign of progress, using his imagination on more things than the barn. Hut when Tuesday arrived an ac cumulation of work at the office in connection with a large order that had just come in kept him close to his desk. He had hoped ito get away in time to reach Glen side before the workmen left in the afternoon, but 4 o’clock ar rived with still a great pile of let ters for him to sign, before his work would be done for the day. Ho lmd just signed his name for the 49t.h time and laid his pen down with an impatient sigh of relief when the telephone on his desk rang. He hesitated. Should be answer it and be hindered again, or call his secretary and let her attend to it while he clipped away to his well-earned respite 1 A second insistent ring, However, brought him back to duty aud he reached out and took up the receiver. “Is this Mr, Sidney GrahamT Long distance is calling!” The young man frowned im patiently and wished he had sent for his secretary. It was prob ably another, tiresome confab on that Chicago matter, and it really wasn’t worth the trouble, any way. Then a small scared voice at the other end of the wire spoke: “Is that, you, Mr. Graham! Well, this is Carol. Say, Mr. Graham, I'm afraid something fuvful has happened tto Shirley 1 I don't know what to do, and I thought I’d better ask you.” Her voice broke off in a gasp like a Aob. A cold chill struck at the young tnan’s heart, and a vision of Shir ley battling with the ocean waves •was instantly conjured up. “Shii^ey! Where is she! Tell me, quick I” he managed to say, j though the words seemed to stick tin his throat. , “.She’s <jown at Washington,” Answered Carol. “Mr. Barnard ptioned her last night. There was something special nobody else could take notes about, because it was for a government contract, And has to be secret. Mr. Bar nard asked her to please go and tsb) went this morning. Mother tlidn’t like her to go, but she ad dressed a lot of postal cards for Jier to write back, and one came posimurkeu isaiumoie in this ai'i* ernoon’s mail, saying she was having a nice time. But just now a call came for mother to go to the telephone. She was asleep and George was crabbing so I had to come. It was a strange man in Washington. lie said he had just found three postal cards on the road addressed to mothe”, that all said ‘Help! Qiek! Two men were carrying off Shirley and please to phone to the police.’ He took the postals to the police station, but he thought he ought to phone us. And oh, Mr. Gra ham, what shall l do? I can’t tell mother. It will kill her, and how can we helj^Shirley ?” “Don’t tell mother,” said Gra ham quickly, trying to speak calmly out of liis horror. “Be a brave girl, Carol. A great deal depends on you just now. Have you phoned Mr. Barnard? Oh, you say he’s in Washington? He was to meet your sister in Balti more? He did meet her you say? The postal card said she had met him? Well, the next thing is to phone Mr. Clegg and find out if he knows anything. I’Ll do that at once, and unless he has heard that she is all right I will start for Washington on the next train. Suppose you stay right where you are till half-past five. I may want to call you up again and need you in a hurry. Then you go back to the cottage as fast as you can and talk cheerfully. Say you went to take a walk. Isn’t Elizabeth with you? Well, tell her to help keep your mother from suspecting anything. Above all things don’t cry! It won’t do any good and it may do lots of harm. Get George off by him self and tell him everything, and tell him I said he was to make some excuse to go down town af ter supper and stop at the tele phone office till 10 o’clock. I may want to call him up from Washington. Now be a brave girl. I suspect your sister Shir ley would tell you to pray. Goodby.” “1 will!” gasped Carol. “Good-by.” Graham pressed his foot on the bell under the desk and reached out to slam his desk drawers shut and put away his papers. His secretary appeared at the door. “Get me Barnard & Clegg on the phone! Ask for Mr. Barn ard or, if he isn’t, in, Mr. Clegg. Then go out to the other phone and call up the station. Find out what’s the next express to Washington. Tell Bromwell to be ready to drive me to the sta tion and bring my car back to tho garage.” ' He was working rapidly as he talked; putting papers in the safe, jotting down a few notes for the next day’s work, trying to think of everything at once. The secretary handed him tho phone, quietly saying, “Mr. Clegg on the phone,” and went out of the room. Excited conference with Mr. Clegg brought out the fact that he was but just in receipt of a telegram from police headquart ers in Washington saying that a book with Barnard & Clegg’s ad dress and an appeal from a young woman named Shirley Hollister who-was apparently being kid naped by two strange men in an auto, had been flung into a pass ing ear and brought to them. They had sent forces in search of the girl at once and would do all in their power to find her. Mean time they would like any infor mation that would be helpful in tho search. Mr. Glegg was much excited. He appeared to have lost his head. He seemed glad to have auother cooler mind at work on the case, lie spluttered a good deal about the importance of the case and the necessity for sec recy. He said he hoped it wouldn’t get into the papers, and that it would be Barnard & Clegg’s undoing if it did. He seemed more concerned about that and the notes that Shirley probably had, than about the girl’s situation. When Graham brough him up rather sharply he admitted that there had been a message from Barnard that he would be detained over night probably, but he had attached no significance to that. He knew Barnard’s usual hotel address in Washington but hadn’t thought to phone him about the telegram from police headquarters. Gra ham hang up at last in a panic of fury and dismay, ringing vio lently for his secretary again. “The next ♦»-ain leaves at 5 o’clock,” she said capably, as she entered. “Broinwell has gone after the car. I told him to buy you a mileage book and save your time at this end. You have 40 minutes and be will be back in plenty of time. “Good!” said Graham. “Now call up long distance and get me nolice headauarters in Washing ton. Nol Use the phone in fath er's office please, I’ll have to use this while you’re getting them.” As soon as she had left the room he called up the shore again and was fortunate in getting Carol almost immediately, the poor child being close at hand all in a tremble, with Elizabeth in no less a state of nervousness, brave and white, waiting for orders. “Can you give me an exact de scription of your sister’s dress, and everything that she had with her when she started this morn ing?” asked Graham, prepared with pen and paper to write it down. Carol summoned her wits and described Shirley’s simple outfit exactly, even down to the little black pumps on her feet, and went mentally through the small hand-bag she had carried. “Oh, yesl” she added, “and she had a book to readl One she found here in the cottage, it had a red cover and was called, “From the Car Behind.” Graham wrote them all down carefully, asked a few more de tails of Shirley’s plans, and bade Carol again to be brave and go home with a message to George to be at the phone from 8:30 to 10. There was no comtort irom Washington police headquarters. Nothing more had been discov ered save another crumpled pos tal lying along the roadside. They received with alacrity, how ever, Mr. Barnard’s Washington hotel address, and the description of the young woman and her be longings. When Graham had fin ished the hasty conversation he had to fly to make his train, and when at last he lay back in his seat in the parlor «ar and let the waves of his anxiety and trouble roll over him he was almost over whelmed. He had led a compara tively tranquil life for a young man who had never tried to steer clear of trouble, and this was the first great calamity that had ever come his way. Calamity? No, he would not own yet that it was a calamity. He was hurry ing to her! He would find her! He would not allow himself to think that anything had befallen her. But wherever she was, if she was still alive, no matter how great her peril, he was sure she was praying now, and he would pray too! Yes, pray as she had taught him. Oh, God! If he only knew how to pray better! What was it she had said so often? “Whatsoever ye ask in my name”—yes, that was it—“I will do it. ’ ’ What was the talismanic name? Ah! Christ! “Oh, God, in the name of Christ—” But when he came to the thought of her she was too exquisite and dear to be put into words, so his petition went up in spirit form, unframed by words to weight it down, wafted up by the pain of a soul in torture. At Baltimore it occurred to Graham to send a telegram to Barnard to meet him at the train, and when he got out at” union station the first person he saw was Barnard, white and haggard, looking for him through the bars of the train gate. He grasped the young man’s hand as if it were a last straw for a drown ing man to cling to, and demand ed in a shaking voice to know if he had heard anything from Miss Hollister. Une or the lirst questions that Graham asked was whether Bar nard had been back to the office where Miss Hollister had taken the dictation, to report her dis appearance. “Well, no, I hadn’t thought, of that,” said Barnard blankly. “What would they know about itf The fact is I was rather anx ious to keep the facts from get ting to them. You see they warned me that there were par ties anxious to get hold of those specifications. It’s government work, you know.” “They should know at once,” said Graham sternly. “They may have information whieh. would give iis a clew to follow. The secret service men are onto a lot of things that we common mor tals don’t suspect.” Mr. Barnard looked mortified and convinced. “Well, what have you done so fart We would better under stand tach other thoroughly so as to save time and not go over old ground. You have been in communication with police head quarters, of course T” asked Gra ham. “Why, no,” said the older man apologetically. “You see, I got | here just in time for the train, I and failing to find the young ; lady in the station where we had agreed to nj^et, I took it for granted that she had used the ex tra time in driving about to see a few sights in the city, as I sug gested, and had somehow failed to get back in time. I couldn’t understand it because she had been quite anxious to get home tonight. I could have caught the train myself, but didn’t exactly like to leave her alone in a strange city, though, of course, it’s perfectly safe for a steady girl like that. Afterward it oc curred to me that she might have gotten on the train and perhaps I should have done so too, but there was realy very little time to decide, for the train pulled out two minutes after I reached the station. I waited about here for a time, and then went over to the Continental, where my sister is stopping, thinking I would ask her to stay in the station and watch for the young lady and I would go home; but I found my sister had run down to the shore for a few days; so I had some thing to eat and while I was in the dining room your telegram came. I was hoping somehow you had seen Miss Hollister, or had word from her, and it was all right.” One could see the poor man had no conception of what was rue to a lady in his care, and Graham looked at him for a mom ent with rage, wishing he could take him by the throat and shake some sense into him. “Then you don’t know that she’s been kidnaped and th po lice are out on track for her?” said Graham dryly. “No! You don’t say!” ex claimed Barnard, turning white and showing he had some real feeling after all. “Kidnaped! Why—why—how could she ? And she’s got those notes! Why, Graham! You’re fooling! Why, how came you to know?” Graham told him tersely as he walked the man over to the tele phone booths, and finished with: “Now, you go in that booth and phone your government man, and I’ll call up police headquar ters and see what’s doing. We’ve got to work fast, for there’s no telling what may have happened in the last three hours. It’s up to us to find that girl before any thing worse happens to her.” White and trembling Barnard tottered into the booth. When he came out again the sleuth-hounds of the secret service were on the trail of Shirley Hollister’s cap tors. CHAPTER XXIV. The ear that was bearing Shir ley Hollister through the lonely wooded road at a breathless speed suddenly came to a halt in the rear of an old house whose front faced on another road equally lonely. During the, brief time that they had been in the woods, the sky, seemed to have perceptibly darkened with the coming evening. Shirley looked about her with increased fright. It was almost night and here was her prison, far from town or human dwelling place. Even the road was at some distance in front of the house, and there were more woods on either side. “This here is Secretary Bak er’s summer home,” announced the man who had done the talk ing, as he climbed but of the car and opened the door for her. “You can just step in the back door and go through the parlor; the help’s all out this afternoon. The secretary'll be down present ly. lie always takes a nap aft ;r noons about this time. I’ll tell him you’ve come.” There seemed nothing to do hut obey, and Shirley chose to let the farce continue. Surely the man must know she was not a fool, but it was better than open hos tility. There was nothing to be gained by informing him that she knew he was guying her. “Oh, Jesus Christ, I trust my self to you!” she breathed in her heart as she, stepped across the leaf strewn grass and looked about her, wondering whether she, should ever walk the earth again after she had stepped into the dim tree-shrouded house. But why go in? _ Continued next -week. A Sente of Duty. , FYom the Washington Star. “Do you think the public fully under stands your speeches on this rather ab struse subject?" "I didn't make ’em." confided Senator Sorghum, “with the expectation that they’d be understood. I merely wanted to show that I wasn't neglecting the duties of my office which compel ms to /ace every kind of intellectual responsi bility without flinching.” Marcel Dupre, organist of Notre Dame cathedral, leaves soon for the United States. Dupre Is one of the youngest of French musicians of great prom tnance sniniinnnisiiiRiuanuuiiiRiRnnRnnniissnERE.'ssss! 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