6 !The Man on the Box By HAROLD MacGRATH \ Author of " The Grey Cloak," ,4 The Puppet Crowu." * * Copyright, i. During this speculative inventory, W sir bur ton's face was gravely set; indeed, it pictured his exact feelings. He was grave. lie even wanted Pierre's approval. He was about to pass through a very trying ordeal; he might not even pass through it. There was n i deceiving his colonel's eyes, hang liitn! Whatever had induced fate to force this old Argus-eyed soldier upon tit.- scene? He glanced into the kitchen mirror. He instantly saw the salient 11 aw in his dress. It was the cravat. Tie it as he would, it never approached the likeness of the conventional cravat of the waiter. It still remained a pol ished cravat, a worldly cravat, the cravat seen in ball-rooms, drawing rooms in the theater stalls and boxes, anywhere but in the servants' hall. Oh for the ready-made cravat that hitched to the collar-button! And then Hi: re was that servant's low turned down collar, glossy as celluloid. He felt as diffident in his bare throat as n debutante feels in her first decollette ball-gown, not very well covered up, as it were. And, heaven and earth, how appallingly large his hands had (L'iuvmi, how clumsy his feet! Would the colonel expose him? Would ho keep silent? This remained to be f;>und out; therein lay the terror of suspense. Jti'iuembair," went on Monsieur Pierre, after a pause, feeling that be had ,i duty to fulfill and a responsibil ity to shift to other sh&ulders than his own. "remembair, eef you spill zee Koup. 1 keel you. You carry zee tureen in. zeu you deesh out zee soup, and nairve Zee oystaires should be on zee trilile t'ree minutes before zee guests liaf arrive,. Now, can you make zee American cocktail?" I can," —with a ghost of a smile. "Make hoem," —with a pompous wave of the band toward the favorite iugredients. "What kind?" "Vot kind! Eez zare more cocktails, ?.en ?" "Only two that arc proper, the maa hat tan and the martini." "Make zee martini; I know heem." "But cocktails ought not be mixed before serving." "I say, make zee one cocktail," — coldly and skeptically. "I test heem." Warburton made one. Monsieur sipped it slowly, making a wry face, for. true Gaul that he was, only tw® kinds of stimulants appealed to his palate, liqueurs and wines. He found it as good as any he had ever tasted. • Ver' good,"—softening. "Zare ees zen. one t'ing zat all zee Americans can make, /.ee cocktail? I am educate'; 1 learn Now leaf me till eight. Keep zee collect head,"—and Monsieur Pierre turned his attention to his partridges. James went out of doors to get a breath of fresh aid and to collect his thoughts, which were wool-gathering, whatever that may mean. They needed collecting, these thoughts of his, and labeling, for they were at all points of the compass, and he was at a loss upon which to draw for support. Here he was, in a devil of a fix, and no possible way of escaping except by absolutely bolting; and he vowed that he wouldn't bolt, not if he stood the chance of being exposed 50 times over. He had danced; he was going to pay the fiddler like a man. He had never r tn away from anything, and he wasn't going to begin now. At the worst, they could only laugh at him but his secret would be his no longer Ass that he had been! How to tell this girl that he loved her? How to appear to her as his natural self? What a chance he had wilfully thrown away! He might have been a guest tonight, he might have sat next to her, turned the pages of her music, and perhaps sighed love in her ear, all of which would have been very proper anil conventional. Ah, if he only knew what, was going on behind those Med iterriin-aij eyes of hers, those heavenly "apphires. Had she any suspicion? No, ii (()uUI no t be possible; she had humiliated him too often, to suspect tilf ' imposture. Alackaday! Had any one else applied the dis rt*P"tah|,. terms he applied to himself would have been a battle royal. When he became out of breath, he re entered the house to have a final look the table before the ordeal began. Covers had been laid for 12; immac linen, beautiful silver, and spark li'c outclass. He wondered how much the giri A . as worth, and thought of his " w " miserable $4,500 the year. True, ,lis f-apitai could at any time be con v ' r,e 'l into cash, some $75,000, but it would ho no longer the goose with the golden .jrg A great bowl of roses stood on a glass center-piece. As he leaned toward them to inhale their per fume he heard a sound. He turned. ,S| "' stood framed in a doorway, a picture Nl , c i, as artists conjure up to fit in siiiiin corners of gloomy studios; beauty, y ou th, radiance, luster, happl- To his ardent eyes she was su beautiful. Ho'" wildly .his i .p h j s W as the first time he fciid her iu all her slory. Hi# emotion was so strong that he did not. 1 observe that she was biting her nether , lip. "Is everything well, James?" she ; asked, meaning the possibilities of ser vice and not the cardiac intrauquility ! of the servant. "Very well. Miss Annesley,"—with a sudden bold scrutiny. Whatever it was she saw in his eyes it had the effect of making hers turn aside. He grew visibly nervous. "You haven't the hands of a servant, ! James," —quietly. He started and knocked a fork to : the floor. "They are too clumsy," she went on | maliciously. "I am not a butler, Miss; I am a | groom. 1 promise to do the very best j I can." Wrath mingled with the | diame on his face. "A man who can do what you did I this morning ought not to be afraid of > a dinner-table." "There is some difference between a dinner-table and a horse, Miss." He stooped to recover the fork while she touched her lips with her handker- j chief. The situation was becoming unendurable. He knew that, for some j reason, she was quietly laughing at ' him. Never put back on the table a fork or piece of silver that, has fallen to the floor," she advised. "Procure a clean one." "Yes, Miss." Why in heaven's name didn't she go and leave him in peace? "And be very careful not to spill a drop of the burgundy. It is '7B, and a particular favorite of my father's." j Seventy-eight! As if he hadn't had j many a bottle of that superb vintage 1 during the past ten months! The : glands in his teeth opened at the mem ory of that taste. "James, we have been in the habit I of paying off the servants on this day of the month. Payday comes especial ly happy this time. It will put good feeling into all, and make the service vastly more expeditious." She counted out four ten-dollar notes from a roll in her hand and signified him to approach. He took the money, coolly counted it, and put it in his vest poc*ket. "Thank you, Miss." I do not say she looked disap pointed, but I assert that she was slightly disconcerted. She never knew the effort he had put forth to subdue the desire -to tear the money into shreds, throw it at her feet and leave the house. "When the gentlemen wish for ci gars or cigarettes, you will find them in the usual place, the lower drawer in the sideboard." With a swish she was gone. He took the money out and studied it. No, he wouldn't tear it up; rather he would put it among his keepsakes. I shall leave Mr. Itobert, or M'sieu Zhames, to recover his tranquillity, and describe to you the character and qual ity of the guests. There was the af fable military attache of the British embassy, there was a celebrated Amer ican countess, a famous dramatist, and his musical wife, Warburton's late commanding colonel, Mrs. Chadwlck, Count Karloff, one of the notable grand opera prima-donnas, who would not sing in opera till February, a cabinet officer and his wife, Col. Annesley and his daughter. You will note the cosmo politan character of these distin guished persons. Perhaps in no other city in America could they be brought together at an informal dinner such as this one was. There was no question of precedence or any such nonsense. Everybody knew everybody else, with one exception Col. Raleigh was a com parative stranger. But he was a like able old fellow, full of stories of the wild, free west, an excellent listener besides, who always stopped a goodly distance on the right side of what is known in polite circles as the bore's dead-line. Warburton held for him a j deep affection, martinet though he was, for he was singularly just and merci ful. They had either drunk the cocktail or had set it aside untouched, and had emptied the oyster shells, when the ordeal of the soup began. Very few of those seated gave any attention .to my butler. The first thing he did was to drop the silver ladle. Only the girl saw this mishap. She laughed; and Raleigh believed that he had told his story in an exceptionally taking man ner. My butler quietly procured another ladle, and proceeded coolly enough. I must confess, however, that his cool ness was the result of a physical ef fort. The soup quivered and trem bled outrageously, and more than once he felt the heat of the liquid ou his thumb. This moment liis face was pale, that moment It was red. But, as I remarked, few observed him, Why should they? Everybody had something to say to everybody else; and a butler was only a machine any way. Yet, three persons occasionally looked in his direction: his late colonel, Mrs. Chadwlck and the girl; each from a different angle of vision. There was a scowl on the colonel's face, puzzle ment on Mrs. Chadwick's, and I don't know what the girl's represented, not having been there with my discerning eyes. Once the American countess raised her lorgnette and murmured: "What a handsome butler!" Karloff, who sat next to her, twisted his mustache and shrugged. He had seen handsome peasants before. They did not interest him. He glanced across the table at the girl, and was much an noyed that she, too, was gazing at the butler, who had successfully completed the distribution of the soup and who now stood with folded arms by the sideboard. (How I should have liked to see him!) When the butler took away the soup plates, Col. Raleigh turned to his host. "George, where the deuce did you CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1906. pick tip that butler?" Annesle.v looked vaguely across the table at bis old comrade. He had been far away in thought. He had eaten nothing. "What?" lie asked. "I asked you where the deuce you got that butler of yours." "Oh. Betty found him somewhere. Our own butler is away on a vacation. I bad not noticed him. Why?" "Well, if he doesn't look like a cub lieutenant of mine, I was born without recollection of faces." "An orderly of yours, a lieutenant, did you say?" asked Betty, with smol dering fires in her eyes. "Yes." ' That is strange," she mused. "Yes; very strange. He was a dare devil if there ever was one." "Ah!" "Yes; best bump of location in the regiment, and the steadiest nerve," — dropping his voice. The girl leaned 011 her lovely arms and observed him interestedly. "A whole company got lost in a snowstorm. You know that on the prairie a snowstorm means that only a" compass can tell you where you are; and there wasn't one in the troop— a bad piece of carelessness 011 the cap tain's part. Well, this cub said he'd find the way back, and the captain wisely let him take the boys in hand." "Goon," said the girl. "Interested, eh?" "I atn a soldier's daughter, and J love the recital of brave deeds." "Well, he did it. Four hours later they were thawed out in the barracks kitchen. Another hour and not one of them would have lived to tell the tale. The whisky they poured into my cub—" "Did he drink?" she interrupted. "Drink? Why the next day he was going to lick the men who had poured the stuff down his throat. A toddy once in a wMile, that was all he ever took. And how he loved a tight! He had the tenacity of a bulldog; once he set his mind 011 getting something, he never let up till he got it.." The girl trilled thoughtfully with a rose. "Was lie ever in an Indian fight?" she asked, casually. "Only scraps and the like. He went into the reservation alone one day and arrested a chief who had murdered a sheep-herder. It was a volunteer job, and nine men out of ten would never have left the reservation alive. He was certainly a cool hand." "I dare say,"—smiling. She wanted to ask him if he had ever been hurt, this daredevil of a lieutenant, but she could not bring the question to her lips. "What did you say his name was?"—innocently. "Warburton, Robert Warburton." Here the butler came in with the bird 3. The girl's eyes followed him, hither and thither her lips hidden be hind the rose. CHAPTER XVIII. CAUGHT! Karloft' came around to music. The dramatist's wife should play Tosti's Ave Maria. Miss Annesley should play the obligato on the violin and the prima-donna should sing; but just at present the dramatist should tell them all about his new miiitary play which was to be produced in December. "Count, I beg to decline," laughed the dramatist. "I should hardly dare to tell my plot before two such military experts as we have here. I should be told to write the play all over again, and now it is too late." Whenever Betty's glances fell 011 her father's face, the gladness in her own was somewhat dimmed. What was making that loved face so care-worn, the mind so listless, the attitude so weary? But she was young; the spirits of youth never flow long in one direction. The repartee, brilliant and at the same time sting with drawn, flashed up and down the table like so many fireflies on a wet lawn in July, and drew her irresistibly. As the courses came and passed, so the conversation became less and less general; and by the time the ices were served the colonel had engaged his host, and the others divided into twos. Then coffee, liqueurs and cigars, when the ladies rose and trailed into the little Turkish room, where the "distinguished-looking butler" sup plied them with the amber juice. A dinner is a function where every body talks and nobody eats. Some have eaten before they come, some wish tliey had, and others dare not eat for fear of losing some of the gossip. After the liqueurs my butler con cluded that his labor was done and he offered a short prayer of thankful ness and relief. Heavens, what mad, fantastic impulses had seized him while he was passing the soup. Sup posing he had spilled the hot liquid down Karloff's back, or poured out a glass of burgundy for himself and drained it before them all, or slapped his late colonel on the back and asked him the state of his liver? It was maddening and he marvelled at his es cape. There hadn't been a real mis hap. The colonel had only scowled at him; he was safe. He passed secretly from the house and hung around the bow-window which let out on the low balcony. The window was open, and occasionally he could hear a voice from beyond the room, which was dark. It was one of those nights, those mild November nights, to which the novel ists of the old regime used to devote a whole page; the silvery pallor 011 the landscape, the moon-mists, the round, white, inevitable moon, the stir ring breezes, the murmur of the few remaining leaves, and all that. But these busy days we have not the time to read nor the inclination to describe. Suddenly upon the stillness of the night the splendor of a human voice broke forth; the prima-donna waa frying her voire A violin wailed a note. A hand ran up and down the keys of the piano. Warburton held his breath and waited. He had heard Tosti's Ave Maria many times, but he never will forget the manner in which it was sung that night. The songstress was rare-free and among persons she knew and liked, and she put her soul into that magnificent and mysterious throat of hers. And throb bing all through the song was the vibrant, loving voice of the violin. And when the human tones died away and the instrument ceased to speak, Warburton felt himself swallowing rapidly. Then came Schumann's Trau merei on the strings, Handel's Largo, Grieg's Papillen, and a ballade by Chaminade. Then again sang the prinia-donna; old folksy songs, sketches from the operas, grand and light, Faust, The Barber of Seville, La Pi lie ft QTF n O these Little Pills. ! \\tf\| \ I Ll\o They also relievo Dls f tress from Dyspepsia, In- ITTLE I digestion and Too Hearty, 3\JE* El Eating. A perfect rem- I w E» cdy for Dizziness, Nausea. P||tS Drowslnes3, Bad Taste r m tha JloUtll - Coated Tongue, Pain In the Side. ISBGBB ITOHPID LIVER. THEY regulato tbe Bowels. Purely Vegetable. SMALL PILL. SMALL DOSE, SMALL PRICE, Genuine Must Bear ™ Fac-Simile Signature ■Si—l REFUSE SUBSTITUTE?.