© Gilbert Patten
WNU Service
CHAPTER VIlI—Continued
13m
On the road, he saw them pass
over the crest of the hill, Inza still
clinging fast to the saddle and
Hodge urging his horse in the el-
fort to overtake her.
Frank talked to his horse, en-
couraging him, and the creature
seemed to understand. It took the
hill grandly, It had stamina as
well as speed.
Ceming over the crest, Merry
saw them again. Now Inza was
fighting her frightened horse and
Bart was gaining. Again Frank
faster. And the splendid creature
flew still faster.
Then, above the staccato drum-
ming of the animal's feet on the
brown road, he heard another sound
that gave his nerves a nasty jerk.
It was the distant whistle of a loco-
motive. The whistle of the Limited.
There were crossing gates, of
course, but Inza’'s horse, now crazed
and blinded by terror, would crash
into them unless stopped or turned.
The picture of a frightful tragedy
impending brought Frank's heart
into his mouth.
But Hodge was gaining fast now.
He was close. Urging his mount
with hand and voice, he was draw-
ing alongside. He reached for the
bridle of Inza's horse—and missed
itt The animal he bestrode had
swerved. Off he went to sprawl In
the dust of the road.
The Sabbath quiet of Fardale was
shattered by the mad clattering of
horses’ feet on the town's main
street. Persons astir were electri-
fied as they saw the runaway,
with Inza still frantically fighting to
check it, go tearing along that street
toward the railroad cros They
shouted or were
shock as they saw the
boy, his face white and
with
pursuing
set, furi-
greater efforts.
The Limited,
mile a minute,
crossing.
The crossing man saw
away coming, with the pale-faced
and almost exhausted girl fighting
with the last bit of her ebbing
strength to check the
dened creature. He saw Frank Mer-
whistled for the
the lowered gate bars.
And the flying Limited, roaring
through Fardale, would reach the
crossing a split-second after the run-
away must hurtle head-on
one of those bars.
Even if the bar withstood
shock, nothing could keep the girl
from catapulting horse's
head—over the bar and
railroad track.
The gate
over the
on
tender gasped and
was a useless, a ridiculous thing to
do. Like puffing against a hurri-
cane,
But the long run had told on In-
za’'s horse a little. Her last des-
perate effort to check him
slowed him up some. It was enough
to let Frank come alongside.
cried:
“Lean this way! Let go! Now!"
Until that moment she
known he was in pursuit, but some-
ly.
her, dangling, tight against him as
horse.
They just missed the rear of the
one motor car that had stopped
some distance back from the gate.
The Limited boomed over the
crossing as horse, rider and res
cued girl disappeared into a nar-
row alleyway between two small
wooden buildings.
People were coming, on foot and
in autos, breathless with excite-
ment.
They found the boy and girl at
the end of the blind alley, which
was cut off by a shed. He was
standing on the ground, his arm
still round the girl, holding her up.
Near them stood the sweat-covered
horse, its sides heaving,
Frank was speaking to Inza as
calmly as he could, which was hot
very calmly; for now hé was very
much shaken himself. He was tell-
ing her she was all right, which
he realized was quite needless to
tell her. She was holding her shak-
ing hands over her eyes, but she
took them away and looked at him
without saying a word.
Nothing had ever happened in
Fardale to cause quite such a sensa-
tion as Frank's performance in
snatching Inza off a runaway horse
just before the animal crashed into
the crossing gate and went down
with a broken neck. The story of
his battle with the mad dog had
been given a kidding twist by Pete
Smith that had caused skeptics to
chuckle or scoff, but this was dif-
ferent. Too many eye - witnesses
were prepared to silence doubters.
Merriwell took Inza home in Tony
Accero's taxi after making sure the
stout-hearted horse he had ridden
would be taken back to Snodd’s.
Hodge, covered with dirt and gasp-
ing from his run, staggered up just
as Frank was helping her into the
car.
‘“‘Is—is she all right?’ Bart pant-
ed. “I-—I tried to—""
“You did all you could to stop her
horse,” Merry admitted. *1 saw
you try."
Inza was still too shocked and
dazed to say anything at all, but
before her home was reached she
had recovered enough to warn
Frank not to tell her father what
‘““He's an invalid,” was
planation. ‘“‘He’s had
breakdown and we don't let him
hear anything that'll upset him in
the least. We've never told him
what happened that day in Mr.
Snodd’'s grove. The doctor won't
allow him even to read the news-
papers.”
Bernard Burrage was taking his
daily afternoon rest in bed when
and that
“Now, Don't Forget, Not a Word
to My Father.”
Inza,
nervous
it easier for
her own
made who had
feared condition
might cause him to suspect some-
“Now, don't forget, not a word to
father, should he awaken,
she pleaded.
word,” repiied Frank.
the being she with-
some the truth from her
Rist =
NOL a
For
time
of
come frightened and run with her
a nasty accident.
“I'll tell her the whole of it later,
Clayton left the room
de would have left her then and
but she asked
him not to go so soon.
“I've just got to have a talk with
ly. “We've got our wires all crossed
this rig and into something else. 1
won't be long.”
It was queer, or maybe it wasn't,
but he was willing enough to wait.
he was beginning to think it
that now
little waiting.
vealed herself to him as a widow
and Mr. Burrage's sister.
Of course Mrs. Clayton was nat-
urally curious about the details of
what had happened when Inza's
horse ran with her, but he escaped
seeming to be offensive by laugh-
ingly saying he would let Inza tell it
herself.
She came down shortly in a dainty
frock that had bewilderingly altered
her appkarance.
Outwardly at least, she had
shaken off the shock of her un-
pleasant adventure.
“But I've forgotten all about
Walter,” she said, laughing. “That's
me, the champion forgetter. Some-
body's sure to tell him about the
runaway, and he'll turn a hand-
spring. So I'm going to phone him
now and let him know I'm all okay.
I'll make it snappy, Frank.”
Mrs. Clayton smiled as Inza
danced lightly away into the next
room to telephone. “She's always
making things snappy,” she ob-
served. ‘'‘She can turn a dull mo-
ment into a blaze of fireworks when
she wants to.”
She excused herself now, and Inza
found Merry alone in the library
when she
straight to him and gave him both
of her warm hands.
“Now,” she said, “we've got to
find out where we go from here,
and there's only one way to do it.
I've got to talk to you about Bart
Hodge. I want to tell you why I
asked you to be friends with him.”
Inza's words gave Frank a small
jolt. She had kept him there to
talk about Bart Hodge, and that was
not so good. Almost anything else,
he thought, would be better.
She saw a faint cloud pass over
his face and spoke again quickly:
“Now don’t get me wrong, Frank.
Wait till you've listened in on what
I'm going to tell you.”
She made him sit down again and
then seated herself in front of him,
where they could talk quietly and
confidentially.
“1 know what you've thought of
my friendliness with Bart, for I'm
not dumb even if you've imagined
so."
He flushed.
reader?
“I'm going to betray a confidence
to you,” she went on frankly,
“‘though I didn't mean to do so un-
til today—until I heard you give
Bart credit for doing his best to stop
my runaway horse. That proved
something to me, something I was
pretty sure of before. It proved
you're fair enough, generous
enough, to give an enemy his just
dues. And it makes you different
from almost every other fellow 1
ever met."
His flush deepened. “I've never
found it gets you much to knock
anybody, even an enemy,” he said.
“Maybe I should have said,
cially an enemy. For when
knock an enemy people know you've
got it in for him and the knock has
Was she a mind-
espe-
tween the eves.
should call it a plain bit
of sense instead of generosity,
Wall
veil,
I'm going to shoot at, Frank.”
he was falling for the spell of it.
“1 had to work fast to get a little
to his heels and left you to
“He
very
here to see me that
and if ever a fel-
was sunk he was. You can't
how humiliated and
ashamed he was, Frank. He came
to say good-by, for he had made up
came
afternoon,
He knew
made himself look
didn't have the
he'd
he just
st what
ke, and
J
1
i
5
to burn him up my-
waiting to do
“1 was ready
self. 1 was just
That wa
Then he told me that all his
ever since he could remember,
had had an
dogs. It had made him
dogs. And suddenly I understood,
for I, too, am silly that way. I
s why
of dogs I know are perfectly harm-
A ridiculous little Dachshund
Isn't it
at me.
Frank!"
“I know. I'm coming to them.
appealed to his pride.
quitter if he did that, not just a
fellow with a silly fear of dogs.
That was how 1 got under his skin
to quit.”
“But your brother said you were
He said you
“Well, I was. 1 go off the deep
end that way sometimes, before I
get all the angles on a thing. 1
hadn’t seen the newspaper then, and
the way I heard it Bart had said
the old dog was merely sick and
not mad at all, but when I read it
I found Silas Gleason had said that.
Then I had another talk with Bart.”
“Just turned yourself into a
guardian angel, eh?"
“I'm no angel, Frank. I'll never
sprout wings. But I felt there was
a mystery about him that I wanted
to pry into. So I got out my pry
and went to work. Maybe that
wasn't nice, but I did it. Now,
Frank, I'm going to tell you some
things in strict confidence, and 1
wouldn't do it if I wasn’t sure you'll
never spill one of them to another
living soul—Bart much less than
anybody."
Merriwell was uncomfortable. He
didn't feel like being made the
sealed receptacle of Hodge's per-
sonal secrets, but she went on swift-
ly:
“Already, before coming here,
he'd made a flop in two schools,
and that had turned his father
against him. His dad's one of those
narrow hide-bound men without un-
derstanding or sympathy. I'd say
he's a cold fish.
“He inherited money and never
did anything else to speak of. All
his life he's been living by a pat-
tern, and he gets sore because his
son doesn't do so too. They don't
hook up very 3art’s father
never had a wild bone in his body,
and so he can't get it when his only
hopeful flies high and into a
nose dive or a
well,
goes
der
“But
“She's
ink-
Bart
re t}
3 ir her
trying.”
u believe he's trying, In-
you
wouldn't be still
“Then yc
za?"
“Sometimes, but handi-
capped. He was brought up as a
rich man’s son and he's apt to be
That's the way [I size
he's
“Well, what--"'
“Wait a minute, Frank. Let me
lay it all on the first Jart
went in for sports against the wishes
of his father, who never took any
interest in athletics. Now fa-
ther lays Bart's flops to the time
he's spent on football, baseball and
other things outside the usual cur-
riculum. And he's threatened that
blow-out is going to be
just too bad for Bart."
“But I don’t see how | can"
“But you can do a lot for Bart,
and all you need to do now is over-
iine
his
with him. He'll come
I've seen signs of it
has admitted to me
ing straight
round in time.
He
of fellow he figured you were."
“But you've asked me to be
friendly with him, Inza, and I can't
imagine our ever getlling on that
’
“You never can tell what'll hap-
pen, Frank. Don’t I know it! He
ful queer look when you said so
promptly he had done his best. The
for him, but you can make it sound
by telling how he tried.
That'll soothe his fallen pride a lit-
tle. Won't you do that much, at
least?”
Frank laughed now, his spontane-
ous, infectious laugh. “Why, that'll
be easy, Inza. And I'd do much
more for you.”
Laughing also, she flung out her
hands again, impulsively, and
caught his hands. “Now,” she said,
“1 guess we've got those crossed
wires all clear, Frank. Let's not
get them snarled up again.”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Sixteen million thunderstorms
sweep the earth every year.
Taking into account an average of
20 seconds between two lightning
bolts, mankind must get used to the
idea that 100 lightning flashes rip
across the skies around this globe
every second.
These figures have been gathered
by Dr. Popowsky, the German me-
teorologist, reports a London United
Press correspondent in the Phil-
adelphia Inquirer.
According to Dr. Popowsky, a
thunderstorm is the result of a
“thermic bubble” caused by sun-
heated air quickly rising into the
cooler heights of the heavens.
Thunderclouds carry up to 300,000
tons of rain, sufficient to fill 6,000
big rail trucks.
Two German scientists, Renard,
and Hochschwender, have con-
structed a “‘thunderstorm ma-
chine.”
They have estimated from it that
tension accumulated in a large thun-
dercloud could be anything up to
5,000,000,000 volts.
This tension, together with elec-
tric power quantities from 20.000
amperes, would suffice to supply a
big country with electric power for
a whole year if it could be collected
and utilized.
Two other scientists of the Berlin
Institute of Physics, Lange and Ur.
ban, have made efforts to collect
huge energies contained in thunder-
clouds for industrial power pur-
poses.
A huge wire netting was hung up
between the slopes of a rocky valley
in the north of Italy, which is noto-
rious for severe thunderstorms.
Electric energy accumulating in
the air was conducted to two poles.
A tension of 8,000,000 volts was
gained which could be used to devel-
op sparks 54 feet long.
Attain Majority at Marriage
In several states of this country,
male and female minors, upon mar.
riage, attain their majority, or the
legal age which entitles them to
manage their own affairs.—Collier’s
Weekly
Smart Fashions for |
Daytime in Spring
CHARMING basque frock for
growing girls, and a house-
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smart and becoming, both easy |
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Basque Dress for Girls.
wonder girls love a basque
The fitted waist
irrecis 4
irresi 0
No
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igque
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The Patterns.
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14 vears Size 8
ards of 39-inch nr
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re-
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yards ¢
sleeves
s designed for sizes 36, 38,
Size
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% yard, cut bias.
Spring-Summer Pattern Book.
Send 15 cents ;
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tains 109 attr
becoming de
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accuratel
Each
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cut and make
Send your order to 1
Circle Pattern Dept. .
Forty-third street, New York.
N. Y. Price of patterns, 15 cents
(in eoins) each.
& Bell Syndicat WNU 8
“TIPS.
ardeners
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yards of
for the Barb:
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pattern includes:
}
947
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Combinations
O INCREASE yield from the
vegetable plot, the home gar-
dener should grow ‘combined cul-
tures.”
The theory is to plant in closely
spaced adjacent rows vegetables
harvested at widely different]
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Combine cauliflower, lettuce and |
Plant cauli-
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Between the rows plant |
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rows plant radish.
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Following are several other |
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tute vegetable expert:
Carrots and parsnips in alter-
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Spinach rows two and one-half
feet apart; radishes between spin-
ach; pepper plants set between
spinach when radishes are pulled.
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