© BLIND Mlustrations by SYNOPSIS CHAPTER 1.—Gabriel Warden, Seattle capitalist, tells his butler he is expecting & caller, to be admitted without question. He informs his wife of danger that threatens him if he pursues a course he considers the only honorable one. War- den leaves the house in his car and meets & man whom he takes into the machine. When the car returns home, Warden is found dead, murdered, and alone. The caller, a young man, has been at War- den’s house, but leaves unobserved. CHAPTER IIL.—Bob Connery, conductor, receives orders to hold train for a party. Five men and az girl board the train The father of the girl, Mr. Dorne, is the rson for whom the train was held hilip D. Eaton, a young man, also boarded the train. Dorne tells his daugh- ter and his secretary, Don Avery, to find out what they can concerning him. CHAPTER IIl.—The two make Eaton's agquaintance. The train is stopped by snowdrifts. CHAPTER IV.—Eaton receives a tele- gram addressed to Lawrence Hillwara, which he claims. It warns him he is being followed. CHAPTER V.—Passing through the car, Connery notices Dorne’s hand hanging outside the berth. He ascertains Dorne'’s bell has recently rung. Perturbed, he investigates and finds Dorne with his skull crushed. He calls a surgeon, Dr. Binclair, on the train. CHAPTER VI.—Sinclair recognizes the injured man as Basil Santolne, who, al- though blind, is a peculiar power in the financial world as adviser to “big inter- ests.” His recovery is a matter of doubt CHAPTER VIIL.—Eaton is practically placed under arrest. He refuses to make explanations as to his previous move- ments before boarding the train, but admits he was the man who called on arden the night the financier was mur- ed. CHAPTER IX.—Eaton pleads with Har- riet Santoine to withhold judgment, tell- ing her he is in serious danger, though jitocent of the crime against her father. feels the girl believes him.’ CHAPTER X.—Santoine recovers suffi- elently to question Eaton, who refuses to reveal his identity. The financier re- Qujres Eaton to accompany him to the ntoine home, where he is in the posi- tion of a semi-prisoner. CHAPTER XIl.—Eaton meets a resident of the house, Wallace Blatchford, and a young girl, Mildred Davis, with whom apparently he is acquainted, though they conceal the fact. Eaton's mission is to secure certain documents which are vital ww his interests, and his being admitted to the house is a remarkable stroke of luck. The girl agrees to aid him. He becomes deeply interested in Harriet San- toine, and she in him. (Continued from last week). She halted suddenly as she saw him and grew very pale, and her gloved hands went swiftly to her ‘breast and pressed against it; she caught herself tozether and looked swiftly and fearfully about her and out into the hall. Seeing no one hut himself, she came a step nearer. “Hugh!” she breathed. Her sur- prise was plainly greater than his own had been at sight of her; but she checked herself again quickly and looked warningiy back at the hall; ‘then she fixed on him her blue eyes— ‘which were very like Eaton's, theagh ‘she did not resemble him closely in any other particular—as though ‘waiting bis instructions. , “Stay where you are, Edith,” he ‘whispered. “If we hear anyone com- ing, we ‘are just passing each other in the hall.” “I understand; of course, Hugh! But you—you're here! In his house!” “Even lower, Edith; remember In Eaton—Philip Eaton.” “Of course; I know; and I'm Miss Davis here—Mildred Davis.” “They let you come in and out like this—as you want, with no one watch- ing you?” “No, no; I do stenography for Mr. Avery sometimes, as I wrote you. That is all. When he works here, I do his typing; and some even for Mr. San- toine himself. But I am not con- fidential yet; they send for me when they want me.” “Then they “cnt for you today?” “No; but they have just got back, and I thought I would come to see if anything was wanted. But never mind about me; you—how did you get here? What &ne you doing here?” Eaton drew further back into the alcove as some one passed through the hall above. The footsteps ceased overhead; Eaton, assured no one was coming down the stairs, spoke swiftly to tell her as much as he might in their moment. “He—Santoine—wasn’t taken ill on the train, Edith; he was attacked.” “Attacked!” Her lips barely moved. “He was almost killed; but they concealed it, Edith—pretended he was only ill. I was on the train—you know, of course; I got your wire—and they suspected nie of the attack.” “You? But they didn’t find out about you, Hugh?” “No; they are investigating. San- toine would not let them make any- thing public. He brought me here while he is trying to find out about me. So I'm here, Edith—here! Is it here too?” ! Again steps sounded in the hall above. The girl swiftly busied her- self with gloves and hat; Eaton stood stark in suspense. The servant above —it was a servant they had heard pefore, he recognized now—merely crossed from one "room to another overhead. Now the girl's lips moved again. EYES BY WILLIAM MAcCHARGEDWIN BALMER. COPYRIGHT BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. MAN'S R.H.Livingstone “It? noiselessly. “The draft of the new agreement.” “It either has been sent to him, or it will be sent to him very soon— here.” “Where will it be when it is here®" She formed the question “Where? Oh!” The girl's eve. went to the wall close to where Eaton stood; she seemed to measure with them a definite distance from the door and a point shoulder high, resist the impulse to come over and put her hand upon the spot. As Ea- ton followed her look, he heard a slight and muffied click as if from the study ; but no sound could reach them through the study doors and what he heard came from the wall itself. “A safe?” he whispered. “Yes; Miss Santoine—she’s in there, isn’t she?—closed it just now. There are two of them hidden behind the books, one on cach side of the door.” Eaton tapped genfly on the wall; the wall was brick; the safe undoubt- edly was backed with steel. “The best way is from inside the room,” he conciuded. She nodded. “Yes. “Look out!” Someone now was coming down: stairs. The girl had time only to whisper swiftly, “If we don’t get a chance to speak again, watch that If you—" vase.” She pointed to a bronze an- tique which stood on a table nenr then. “When I'm sure the agreement Is in the house, I'll drop a glove but- ton in that—a black one, if I think it'll be in the safe on the right, white on the left. Now go,” Eaton moved quietly on and inte the drawing room. Avery’s voice im- mediately afterward was heard; he was speaking to Miss Davis, whom he had found in the hallway. Eaton was certain there was no suspicion that he had talked with her there; indeed, Avery seemed to suppose that Eaton and to! was still in the study with Harriet Santoine. Tt was her lapse. which had let him out and had given him that chance; hut it was a lapse, he discovered, which was not likely to favér him again. From that time, while never held strictly in restraint, he found himself always in the sight ! of someone, Faton let himseli think, idly, about Harriet—how strange her life had been—that part of it at least which was spent, as he had gathered most of her waking hours of recent years had been spent. with her father. Strange, almost, as his own life! And what a wonderful girl it had made of her—clever, sweet, lovable, with more than a woman's ordinary ca- pacity for devotion and self-sacrifice. But, if her service to her father was not only on his personal side but if also she was intimate in his busi- ness affairs, must she not therefore have shared the cruel code which had terrorized Eaton for the last four vears and kept him an exile in Asla and which, at any hour yet, threat- ened to take his life? A grim set came to Eaton's lips; his mind went again to his own affairs. CHAPTER XII The Man From the Train. In the supposition that he was to have less liberty, Eaton proved cor- rect. Harriet Santoine, to whose im- pulses had been due his first priv: leges, showed toward him a more con- strained attitude the following morn- ing. She did not suggest hostility, us Avery constantly did; nor, indeed. was there any evidence of retrogres- slon in her attitude toward him; she seemed merely to be maintaining the same position; and since this seemed difficult if they were often together. she avoided him. Eaton understong that Santoine, steadily improving but not yet able to leave his bed, haa taken up his work again, propped up by pillows; one of the nurses had been dismissed; the other was only upon day duty. But Eaton did not see Santoine at ail; and though ne iearned that Miss Davis or another stenographer, whose name was West, came daily to the house, he never was in a position again to encounter any outsider either coming or going. There was no longer room for Ea- ton to doubt that Harriet had the con- fidence of her father to almost a com- plete extent. Now that Santoine was fl, she worked with him daily for hours; and Eaton learned that she did the same when he was well. But Avery worked with the bdnd man too; he, too, was certainiy in a confidential capacity. Was it not probable then that Avery, and not Harriet, was en- trusted with the secrets of dangerous and ugly matters; or was it possible that this girl, worshiping her father as she did, could know and be sure that, because her father approved these matters, they were right? A hundred times a day, as Eaton saw or spoke with the girl or thought of her presence near by, this obsessed him. A score of times during their then, | - five years ago. casual talk upon meeting at meals or elsewhere, he found himself turned toward some question which would aid him in determining what must be the fact; but each time he checked himself, until one morning—Iit was the fifth after his arrival at Sax toine’s house—Harriet was taking him for his walk in the garden before the house. She had just told him, at his inquiry, that her father was very much stronger that morning, and her manner mecre than ever evidenced her pride in him. They walked on slowly. “I wish you could tell me more about your- self, Mr. Eaton.” “I wish so too,” he said. “Then why can you not?’ She turned to him frankly; he gazed at her a moment and then looked away and. shook his head. Did she know all of what was known even under her father’s roof; and if she knew all, would she then loathe or defend it? A motor sped near, halted and then speeded on again; Eaton, looking up, saw it was a runabout with Avery alone in it; evidently, seeing them in the road, Avery had halted to pro- | and | test, then thought better of it gone on. But other motors passed now with people who spoke to Har- riet and who stopped to inquire for her father and wish him well. “Your father does not seem to be one of the great men without honor in his own neighborhood,” Eaton said “Every One Who Knows Father Likes and Admires Him!” She Rejoiced. to her after one of these had halted and gone on. - “Everyone who knows Father likes and admires him!” she rejoiced. “I don’t mean exactly that,” Eaton went on. “They must trust him too, in an extraordinary way. His asso- ciates must place most complete con- fidence in him when they leave to him, the adjustment of matters such as T understand they do. He tells them what is just, and they abide by his decision.” 7 Harriet shook her head. isn’t quite that,” she said. “What, then?” “You are correct in saying that men of the most opposite sorts—and most irreconcilable to each other — con- stantly place their fate in Father's hand; and when he tells them what they must do, they abide by his de- cision. But he doesn’t decide for them what is just.” “I don’t understand. What does he tell them, then?” “He tells them what would be the outcome if they fought, who would win and who would lose and by how much. And they believe him and abide by his decision without fight- ing; for he knows: and they know that he knows and honest.” Eaton was silent for a moment as they walked along. “How can he come to his decision?” he asked at last. ‘ “How ?” “I mean, much of the material pre- sented to him must be documentary.” “Much of it is.” “Then someone must read it to him.” “Of course.” Eaton started to speak—then re- frained. “What were you going to say?’ she questioned, “That the person—or persons—who reads the documents to him must oc- eupy an extremely delicate position.” “He does. In fact, I think that po- sition Is Father's one nightmare.” “Nightmare?” sn The person he trusts must not on’y be absolutely discreet but ab- solutely honest.” “I should think so. If anyone in that position wanted to use the in- formation brought to your father, he could make himself millions over- night, undoubtedly, and ruin other men.” “And kill Father too,” the girl added quietly. “Yes,” she said as Eaton looked at her. “Father puis nothing above his trust. If that trust were betrayed-—whether or not Father were in any way to blame for it— I think it would kill him.” “So you are the one who is jn that position.” “Yes; that is, I have been.” “You mean there is another now; that is, of course, Mr. Avery?” “Yes; here at this house Mr. Avery and I, and Mr. Avery at the oflice. Before Mr. Avery came, I was the only one who helped here at tlie house.” “When was that?” “When Mr. Aver, “No; it came? About Father had an im- mense amount of ‘work at that time. Business conditicns were very mucn is absolutely unsettled. There was trouble at that time between some of the big eastern and big western men, and at the same time the government was prosecuting | Nobody knew what the! outcome of it all would be; many of | the trusts. the biggest men who consulted Father were like men groping in the dark. I don’t suppose you would remembz- the time by what I say; but you would remember it, as nearly every- body else does by this: it was the time of the murder of Mr. Latron.” “Yes; I remember that,” said La- ton; “and Mr. Avery came to you aut that time?” “Yes; just at that time I was thrown from my horse, and could not do as much as I had been doing, so Mr. Avery was sent to Father.” “Then Mr. Avery was reading to him at the time you spoke of—the time of the Latron murder?” “No; Mr. Avery came just after- ward. I was reading to him at that time.” “The papers must have been a good deal for a girl of eizhteen.” “At that time, you mean? were; but Pather dared trust no one else.” “Mr. Avery handles those matters now for your father?” “The continuation of what was go- ing on then? he took them up at the time I was hurt and so has kept on looking after them; for there has been plenty for me to do without that; and those things have all been more or less settled now. They have worked themselves out as things do, though they seemed almost unsolvable at the time. One thing that helped in their solution was that Father was able, that time, to urge what was just, as well as what was advisable.” “You mean that in the final settle- ment of them no one suffered?” “No one, I think—except, of course, poor Mr. Latron; and that was a pri- vate matter not connected in any di- rect way with the question at issue. Why do you ask all this, Mr. Eaton?’ “I was merely interested in you— in what your work has been with your Father, and what it is,” he answered quietly. They had been following the edge of the road, she along a path worn in the turf, he on the edge of the road tself and nearer to the tracks of the motors. Suddenly she cried out and clutched at him. As they had stopped, she had heard the sound of a motor approaching them rapidly from be- hind. Except that this car seemed speeding faster than the others, she had paid no attention and had not turned. Instantaneously, as she had cried and pulled upon him, she had realized that this car was not pass- ing; it was directly behind and almost upon him. She felt him spring to the side as quickly as he could; but her cry and pull upon him were almost too late; as he leaped, the car struck. The blow was glancing, not direct, and he vas off his feet and in motion when the wheel struck; but the car hurled ‘him aside and rolled him over and over, As she rushed to Eaton, the two men in- the rear seat of the car turned their heads and looked back, Yes: but without checking its speed or | swerving, the car dashed on and dis- | appeared down the roadway. She bent over Eaton and took hold of him. He struggled to his feet and. dazed, tottered so that she support- ed him. As she realized that he was not greatly hurt, she stared with hor- ror at the turn in the road where the car had disappeared. “Why, he tried to run you down! He meant to! she cried. “No,” Eaton denied. don’t think so. ap accident. He when he saw what he had done.” “It wasn’t at all like an accident!” she persisted. “It couldn’t have heen an accident there and coming up from behind the way he did! No; he meant to do it! Did you see who was in the car—who was driving?” He turned to her quickly. ue demanded. “One of the people who was on the train! The morning Father was hurt. Don't you remember—a little man, nervous, but very strong; a man al- most like an ape?” “Oh, no, “Who?” He shuddered and then controlled pimself. “Yes, I remember a fellow the conductor tried to seat me oppo- site.” “This was the same man!” Eaton shook his head. “That could nardly be; I think you must be mis raken.” “I am not mistaken; it was that man!” “Still, IT think you must be” h2 again denied. She stared, studying him. “Perhaps I was,” she agreed; but she knew she had not been. “I am glad, whoever it was, he didn’t injure you. You are all right, aren't you?” “Quite,” he assured. “Please don’t trouble about it, Miss Santoine.” They walked back rather silently, she appreciating how passionately she had expressed herself for him, and he quiet because of this and other thoughts too. They found Donald Avery in front of the house locking for them as they came up. Eaton succeeded in walk- ing without limping; but he could not conceal the marks on his clothes. “Harriet, I've just come from your father; he wants you to go to him at once,” Avery “Good morning Eaton. Wha 's happened?” “Carelessness,” Eaton deprecated. “Got rather in the way of a motor and was knocked over for it.” Harriet did not correct this to Avery. She went up to her father; she was still trembling, still sick with horror at what she had seen— an attempt to kill one walking at her side. She stopped outside her fa- They He tried to hurt you!” | 7 It must have been— | was—frightened | a —_— ther’s door to compose herself; then she went in. The blind man was propped up on his bed with pillows into almost a sitting position; the nurse was with him. riet asked. He had recognized her step and had been about to speak to her; but at the sound of her voice he stopped the words on his lips and changed them into a direction for the nurse to leave the room. He waited until the nurse had lett and closed the door behind her. Har- riet saw that, in his familiarity with her tones and every inflection of Ler voice, he had sensed already that something unusual had occurred; she repeated, however. her question as to what he wanted. “That does not matter now, Har- riet. Where have you been?" “I have been walking with Eaton.” “What happened?” She hesitated. “Mr. Eaton was ai- most run down by a motorcar.” Mr. “Ah! An accident?” She hesitated again. “Mr. Eaton said it was an accident,” she aw- swered. “But you?” “It did not look like an accident, Father. It—it showed intention.” “You mean it was an attack?’ “Yes; it was an attack. The man in the car meant to run Mr. Eaton down; he meant to kill him or to hurt him terribly. Mr. Eaton wasn’t hurt. I called to him and pulled him—he jumped away in time.” “To kill him, Harriet? How do you know?” She caught herself. “I—I don’t know, Father. He certainly meant te injure Mr.) Eaton. When I said kil’ him, I was telling only what 1 thought.” “That is better. I think so too.” “That he meant to kill Mr. Eaton?" “Yes.” She watched her father's face: often when relating things to him, she was aware from his expression that she was telling him only some- thing he already had figured out and expected or even knew; she felt that now. “Father, did you expect Mr. Eaton to be attacked?” “Expect? Not that exactly; it was possible; I suspected something like this might occur.” “And you did not warn him?” The blind man’s hands sought each other on the coverlet and clasped to. gether. “It was not necessary to warn him, Harriet; Mr. Eaton already knew. Who was in the car?’ “Three men.” “Had you seen any of them before?" “Yes, one—the man who drove.” “Where?” “On the train.” The color on Santoine’s face grew brighter. “Describe him, dear.” He waited while she called together her recollections of the man. “I can’t describe him very fully, Father,” she said. “He was one of the people who had berths in the for- ward sleeping car. I can recall see- ing him only when I passed through the car—I recall him only twice in that car and once in the diner.” j “That is interesting,” said San- | tolne. | “What, Father?” { “That in five days upon the train | you saw the man only three times.” | “You mean he must have kept out © of sight as much as possible?” “Have you forgotten that I asked | you to describe him, Harriet?” She checked herself. “Height about five feet five,” she said, “broad: shouldered, very heavily set; I re- member he impressed me as being un- usually muscular. His hair was black; I can’t recall the color of his eyes: bls cheeks were blue with a heavy beard closely shaved. I remember his face was prognathous, and his clothes were spotted with dropped food. I— ft seems hard for me to recall him and I can’t describe him very well.” “But you are sure it was the same man in the motor?” “Yes. He spemed an animal sort ef person, small, strong, and not par ticularly intelligent. It seems hard Zor me to remember more about him than that.” “That is interesting.” “What?! “That it is hard for you to remem her him very well.” “Why, Father?” Her father did not answer. “The other men in the motor?” he asked “TI can’t describe them F==I wa: excited about Mr. Eaton “Thank you, dear. Bring me." “He has gone to his room to Ox timself up.” “I'll send for him, then.” Santoine pressed one of the buttons beside his bed to call a servant; but before the bell could be answered, Harriet got up. “I'll go myself,” she said. She went out into the hall and closed the door behind her; she wait- ed until she heard the approaching steps of the man summoned by San- toine’s bell; then, going to meet him, she sent him to call Eaton in his rooms, and she still waited until the man came back and told her Eaton had already left his rooms and gone downstairs. She dismissed the man and went to the head of the stairs, hut her steps slowed there and stopped. She knew that the blind man’s thought in regard to Katon bana taken some immense stride; but she Aid not know what that stride bad or what wns ~~minz ner father saw Eaton. She went on slowly down the staris, | and when halfway down, she saw Ea- ton in the hall’ below her. He was standing beside the table which held LZaton ro hoon, tw When “What did you want, Father?" Har- | the bronze antique vase; he seemed to have taken something from the | vase and to be examining it. She | halted again to watch him; then she went on, and he turned at the sound of her footsteps. She could see, as | she approached him, what he had taken from the vase, but she attacked no importance to it; it was only a black button from a woman’s glove— one of her own, perhaps, which zhe nad dropped without noticing. He tossed it indifferently toward the open fireplace as he came toward her. “Father wants to see you. Eaton,” she said. He looked at her intently for an instant and seemed to detect some strangeness in her manner and to draw himself together; then he fol- lowed her up the stairs, Mr. CHAPTER XIII It Grows Plainer. Basil Santoine’s bedroom was so nearly sound-proof that anything going on in the room could not be heard in the hall outside it, even close to the double doors. Eaton, as they approached these doors, listened vainly, trying to determine whether anyone was in the room with San- toine; then he quickened his step tc bring him beside Harriet. “One moment, please, Miss San- toine,” he urged. She stopped. “What is it you want?” “Your father has received some an- . swer to the inquiries he has been hav- !' ing made about me?” “I don’t know, Mr. Eaton.” “Is he alone?” “Yes.” Eaton thought a minute. ‘“That is all I wanted to know, then,” he said. Harriet opened the outer door and knocked on the inner one. Eaton heard Santoine’s voice at once calling them to come in, and as Harriet opened the second door, he followed her into the room. “Am I to remain, asked. “Yes,” Santoine commanded. Eaton waited while she went to a chair at the foot of the bed,and seat- ed herself—her clasped hands resting on the footboard and her chin upon her hands—in a position to watch both Eaton and her father while they talked; then Eaton sat down. “Good morning. Eaton,” the blind man greeted him. “Good morning, Mr. Santoine,” Fa- ton answered. Santoine was lying quietly upon his back. his head raised on the pil- lows, his arms above the bed-covers, his finger-tips touching with the fin- gers spread. “You recall, of course. Eaton, our conversation on the train,” Santoine said evenly. “Yes.” “I want to call your attention in a certain order to some of the details of what happened on the train. You had rather a close call this morning, did you not?” “Rather, I was careless.” “You were careless?’ Santoine smiled derisively. “Perhaps you were—in one sense. In another, how- ever, you have been very careful, Fa- ton. You have been careful to act as though the attempt to run you down could not have been a delib- erate attack; you were careful to call it an accident; you were careful not to recognize any of the three men in the motor.” “Tl had no chance to recognize any of them, Mr. Santoine,” Eaton re- plied easily. “I did not see the car coming; 1 was thrown from my feet; when I got up, it was too far away for me to recognize anyone.” “Perhaps so; bnt were you sur- prised when my daughter recognized one of them as having been on the train with us?” Eaton hesitated, but answered al- most immediately : “Your question doesn’t exactly fit the case. 1 thought Miss Santoine had made a mistake.” “But you were not surprised; no. What would have heen a surprise tc you, Eaton, would have been—if you had had a chance tc observe the men— to have found that none of them— none of them had been on the train!” Eaton started and felt that he had colored. How much did Santoine know? Had the blind man received, as Eaton feared, some answer to his inquiries, which had revealed, or nearly revealed, Eaton's identity? Or was it merely that the attack made on Eaton that morning had given San. toine new light on the events that bad happened on the train and par ticularly—Eaton guessed—on the cl- pher telegram which Santoine claimed to have translated. “You assume that, Mr. Santoine,” he asserted, “because—" He checked himself and altered his sentence. “Will you tell me why you assume that?” “That that would have surprised you? Yes; that is what I called you in here to tell you.” As Santoine waited a moment be- fore going on, Eaton watched him anxiously. The blind man turned himself on his pillows so as to face Eaton more directly. (To be Continued.) Father?” she Bound to Qualify. The rules were strict at the college. Accordingly when Mr. Foster arrived to take Miss Joy out in his car, it was with very mixed feelings that she mentioned the matter to the principal. “You know, Miss Joy,” said that personage, “I only allow the students to go out with their fiances. Are you engaged to Mr. Foster?” “No-no,” was the reply; “but if you | will let me go, I shall be by the time | we get back!”—London Answers. ' ‘Subscribe for the “Watchman,”