Shifting
SAN DS
Copyright by
The Penn Pub. Co.
WNU Service
SYNOPSIS
The future of the still youthful and
comely “Widder” Marcia Howe, recently
released by death from her idling hus-
band, is a conversational tit-bit among
nousewives of the little hamlet of
Wilton. Eligible bachelors and widow-
ers also are interested. Marcia is lonely,
and has Invited her late husband's
niece, Sylvia Hayden, whom she has
never seén, to visit her. A stranger,
on the verge of exhaustion, finds his
way to Marcia's home. Secretly, he
asks Marcia to hide a package contaln-
ing jewelry. She does so. Elisha Wins-
low, town sheriff, brings news of a
Jewel robbery nearby. The stranger
gives his name as Stanley Heath, Syl-
via, by chance, discovers the jewels,
and naturally believes Heath is a rob-
ber. She realizes that Marcia must have
hidden them, and decides to say noth-
ing, putting the gems back in their
hiding place. Marcia admits to herself
that she has altogether too deep an
interest in her guest, but is powerless
to overcome it. Heath has wired “Mrs.
8. C. Heath,” New York, saying he is
safe. He also orders a man named
Currier to come at once. Sylvia, in her
room, bedecks herself with the jewels.
At M®rcia’s approach she hides them
there.
CHAPTER V-—Continued
nn wn
Therefore, a very different Marcia
Howe responded to Stanley Heath's
summons,
She was now all gentleness, friend-
liness, and shyly penitent,
Stanley, again master of himself,
welcomed her with amazement. Could
man ever fathom a woman's moods,
asked himself? Why this chastenel
and distractingly adorable Marcia?
Well, If he could not fathom her, he
at least was grateful for her under
standing.
Nevertheless he did mentally observe
he had not dreamed her to be so many-
sided or credited her with a tithe the
fascinations he had so unexpectedly
discovered her to possess,
“Here I am, Mr. Heath. What can
1 do for you?" was her greeting.
This time she did not hesitate, but
went directly to the chair beside his
bed and sat down. He smiled and,
meeting his eyes, she smiled back.
This was better. Heath sighed a sigh
of relief.
“I've been thinking, since you went
down stairs, about Currier. He ought
to arrive late tonight or early tomor-
row morning. He will start the mo
ment he gets my wire, Although he
will not know in which house I am
quartered, he will have the wit to
inquire, for he has more than the ordi-
nary quota of brains. 1 don't know
what I should do without him. I shall
have him leave the car in the village
and after he has delivered over the
clothing he ig to bring, he can take
the noon train back to New York, car-
rying the jewels with him.”
“1 see,” nodded Marcia.
She did not see. Nevertheless she
heartily welcomed the Intelligence
that the jewels with their damning evi-
dence, If evidence it was, were to be
removed from the house. The sooner
they were out of the way the better,
If they were not damning evidence
they at least were a great responsi
bility.
Suppose something were to happen
to them? Suppose somebody suspected
they were in the house?
“80,” continued Stanley Heath, *I
think sometime today when you have
a good opportunity you'd better get
the case and bring it up here. 1 shall
then have it here in my room and I ean
hand It over to Currier without any
trouble.” *
“I'll go fetch it now. Sylvia has
gone to the village and this is a splen-
did chance,” cried Marcia,
“Fine!”
“I'll be right back.”
He heard her speed down the stairs
and listened to her step in the room
below.
Then there was silence,
A few moments later she came rac-
ing back, white and breathless,
“They're gone!” she cried. “The
place 1s empty! The jewels are not
there I"
Her terror and the fear lest her
pallor foreshadowed collapse produced
in Heath that artificial calm one some
times sees when a strong nature reins
fteelf In and calls upon its reserve
control.
The man thought only of how to
quiet her. Reaching out, he touched
her hair.
“Hush, Marcia. The jewels will be
found. Don’t give way like this, |
cannot bear to see you. The whole
lot of them are not worth your tears.”
“But you left them In my care. It
was I who suggested where to hide
them,” she moaned.
“I know, And it was =» splendid
fdea, too. I could not let that sheriff
of yours peel off my clothes and find
the diamonds on me. He iso’t a man
of sufficient imagination-—or perhaps
he is one of far too much. I am not
blaming you--not in the least. We did
the best we could In the emergency.
If things have gone wrong, it is no
Joule of yours.”
he
“But you trusted me. 1 ought to have
watched, 1 should not have left the
kitchen day or night,” declared Mar.
cia, lifting her tear-stalned face to his,
“You have been there most of the
time, haven't you?"
“I went to see them get the boat off
yesterday.”
“Still, some one was here,
was in the house.”
“Yes, but she knew nothing about
the jewels and therefore may rot have
realized the importance of staying on
deck. All I asked her to do was to
remain within call. She may have
gone upstairs, or into another room.”
“When she comes back, you can ask
her. Now we must pull ourselves to-
gether, dear,” went on Stanley gently.
“It Is important that we do not give
ourselves away. Sylvia may know
nothing and if she does not, we must
not let her suspect.”
She rose but he still held her hand,
a common misery routing every
thought of conventionality.
The firmness and magnetism of his
touch brought strength. It was a new
experience, for during her life with
Jason, Marcia had been the oak-—the
one who consoled, sustained. For a
few delicious moments, she let herself
rest, weary and wunpresisting, within
the shelter of Stanley Heath's grasp.
Then she drew away and, passing her
hand across her forehead as If awak-
ing from a dream, murmured:
“I'd better go down. Sylvia will be
coming.”
“Yery well
ip."
“I will—I'll do my best.”
Even as she spoke the outer door
opened, then closed with a bang.
“There's Sylvia now. I must go.”
The girl came in, aglow from her
walk,
“I'm awfully sorry 1 banged the
door,” she apologized. "A gust of wind
took it. I do hope I didn't wake up
Mr. Heath, Here's the marketing. And
Marcia, what do you suppose? I had
Sylvia
Now keep a stiff upper
“Mush, Marcia. The Jewels Will Be
Found"
a letter from Hortie Fuller—that fel
low back home that [I've told yon
about. He's sent me a five-pound box
of candy and he wants to come to
Wilton and spend his summer vaca
tion.”
The girl's eyes were shining and she
breathed quickly.
“Of course I don’t care a button for
Hortle. Still, it would be rather good
fun to see him. It seems ages since
I've laid eyes on him. You know how
it is—you get used to a person who Is
always onder foot. You have to think
about him If only to avoid stepping
on him. And after all, Hortle isn't so
bad. Thinking him over from a dis
tance, he really is rather nice, Come
and sample the candy. It's wonderful,
He must have blown himself and sent
to Chicago for It, poor dear! I'll let
you see the letter, all except the part
which is too. frightfully silly, You
wouldn't care about that. I don't my-
self.”
Sylvia shrugged her shoulders,
Alas, this was no moment to talk
with her, and artfully draw from her
the happenings of the previous day.
Inwardly distraught but outwardly
calm, Marcia took the letter and tried
valiantly to focus her attention upon it,
To her surprise, it was a manly, In
telligent letter, filled with town gos
sip, to be sure, yet written in delight
fully interesting fashion.
“Your Mr. Fuller sounds charming,”
she sald as she gave it back.
“Oh, Hortie is all right—Iin some
ways.” Patronizingly slipping the let-
ter into her pocket, Sylvia shifted the
subject, Nevertheless, a betraying flush
colored her cheeks, “Now we must
start dinner, mustn't we? Don't you
want to ask Mr. Heath which way he
prefers his eggs-—poached or boiled?
And Marcia, while you're there, do put
a pair of fresh pillow-slips on his pil
lows. The ones he has are frightfully
tumbled. 1 meant to do it this morn.
ing.”
As the door closed behind the elder
woman, artful young Sylvia smiled,
“There! That will keep her busy
for a few moments at least. I know
those pillowcases. They fit like a
snake's skin and are terribly hard to
get off and on”
She crept Into the hall and listened.
Yes, Marcin and Stanley Heath were
talking. She could hear her aunt's
gentle insistence and the man's pro.
tests, That was all she wished to
know, The pillow-cases were in proce
ess of being taken off,
Up the otuiry few Sylvia,
in its loose wrappings,
“If I can only scramble It in there
before she comes,” whispered she, “1
shall draw the first long hreath I've
taken since last night”
An anxious Interval elapsed before
the brick was pried out and the case
slipped beneath it. Nevertheless the
feat was accomplished, and trium-
phant, relieved, happy Sylvia set about
preparing dinner,
What a long while Marcia was stay-
ing upstairs! Why, one could change a
dozen pillow-slips In this time,
“1 guess they are tighter than I re-
membered them. I needn't have rushed
as 1 did,” pouted Sylvia, “What can
she be doing?”
When at last Marcia returned, some-
thing evidently was wrong.
“What's the matter?" demanded Syl-
via, “Is Mr. Heath worse?”
“Worse? No indeed. What made you
think so?"
“You look fussed.”
“Do I? You'd be fussed had you
wrestled with those pillow-slips as 1
have,” was the reply. “Either the pil-
lows have swelled or the cases have
shrunk frightfully, Well, they are on
now, anyway.”
“Come and get dinner then. I'm
starved. My walk has made me hun-
gry as a bear. You must go out this
afternoon, Marcia, It is a glorious
day and you need to be pepped up.”
To her surprise, Marcia demurred.
“Thank you, dear, but 1 think I
won't go out today. I'd rather sit
here and read.”
“Nonsense, Marcia! You're getting
middle-aged and lazy. You'll lose your
nice slim, hipless figure if you don't
watch out,”
*I'm too tired to go out”
“The alr would rest you™
“Not today, dear,” Marcia sald with
finality, “1 have some mending to do
and lots of other little things that 1
have been saving up for a long time
Since 1 prefer to stay, why don’t you
tramp up the shore and see ‘My Un-
known Lady’? She is beautiful and
you haven't seen her yet.”
“I'd love to—if | cannot coax you to
g0 out”
adamant on not
room.”
“You can't. I'm
stirring out of this
“Well, If your mind Is made up to
that extent, 1 suppose there Is no use
in my trying to change it. 1 would like
to see the boat™
“I'm sure you would. Stay as long
as you like. There will be nothing to
do here. Mr. Heath will probably
sleep and in the meantime I shall get
my sewing done.”
As Marcia spoke
mind was busy.
So Sylvia had not
kitchen on the
The theft of the
have taken place
the words, her
stirred from the
afternoon !
Jewels must, then,
during the night.
previous
Nevertheless, she puzaled, for
she had no memory finding any-
thing awry when she came down at
sunrise to lay the fire,
was
of
and
No wonder she
to ponder the conun-
however, not the
desired to be
When had the gems been taken,
who had taken them?
craved soli
drum! This,
paramount
alone,
tude
was
reason she
Despite the enigma of the jewels;
despite the mystery surrounding Stan-
ley Heath, deep in her heart some
thing that would not be stilled was
singiong—singing |
CHAPTER VI
In the meantime, the throng of neigh-
bors Sylvia had precipitately left In
the village post office had received
their mall and reached that antici
pated interval for gossip which never
falled to be stimulating.
the standbys
Zedas Henry was speaking :
“A mighty fine little girl—that Syl
via,” commented he, “A high stepper!
We'd oughter tie her down to Wilton
so'st she won't go back west,
too pretty to be spared from the Cape”
“1 figger you'd have trouble keepin’
her here,” rejoined
the postmaster, “She's got a bean In
her home town. Had a letter an’ a box
of candy from him today. Same writin’
an’ same postmark on both of ‘em, I
noticed.”
“Didn't by any chance see the name,
did you, Silas?” Eleazer Crocker In-
quired,
“Wal, come to think of It it dla
catch my eye. You know how such
things will. Fuller, he's called. Hora
tio Fuller.”
“Horatio Fuller,
peated, “Kinder high soundin’. Wonder
who he is? From Alton City, you say.”
Silas nodded.
“That was the address.”
“Never heard of the place”
Benjamin Todd put in,
his chin.
all the blasted places in the country
were, what use would they have for
maps? "Twould put the map-makin’
folks clean out of business. Say, Eph-
raim,” inspired by a bright idea,
“you're the mall carrier. You'd oughter
be primed on the location of places.
Where's Alton City?”
“Alton City? Hanged If I know, To
hear you talk, anybody'd thipk ‘twas
my job to tote round the country de
liverin' letters in person at the doors
of every house In the United States”
“But yon must have some notion
‘bout geography. Aln't you got no pock-
ot atlas nor nothin?”
“I may have a small map some
wheres; 1 carry most everything”
Ephraim grinned. With deliberation,
he began to disgorge upon the counter
the contents of his many pockets
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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"
Collecting Net,
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27 to August 7.
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4
Saprane, with the Fivestowe Choral
NAME.