The Lightning Conductor Discovers America

a, Long

ch

st Me

thlessly on the fate of Patricia Moore; but I suppose I'm subconsciously judging you by Jack a

y last letter, which was a sort of "to be continued in my next" affair. But it was a case of de

es. It takes a lot to flabbergast Jack, as I learned when he was my "Lightning Conductor"; but he certainly did look flabbergasted th

e he'd left me, because I didn't want to go over the house till he could go, too

s, I dare say she hoped to head you off. A wonder she didn't! But perhaps she's gone down to the water t

"I didn't find anybody

find anybody but Lar

d to find

aren't there

you'll be mad about it; so I decided to investigate elsewhere. I tried my luck at two side entrances and then at the back. Not a sound. Not even the mew of a cat. Palace of the Sleeping Beauty! Not to be discouraged, I wandered along till I found the stables-fine big ones, and a huge garage. Locked up and silent as the grave. Farther on I discovered a gardener's house: door fastened, blinds down. I went back and told our chauffeur: Jekyll, his name is. He knew no more about Mr. Moore's affairs than we-

Patsey!" I moaned. "H

or talking at the tops of our voices in front of a long

on. But there it was. She knew! And she behaved like a heroine. She wasn

did. Rats leave sinking ships, don't they? I always thought it stupid of them, because they might have to swim miles with waves mountains high. I shan't desert the ship! You've both been angels to me, but now I know that Larry isn't at Kidd's Pines just over

over directly after l

instant that unless I sent for wild horses to tear her to pieces, Patsey would start for Kidd's Pines within the next ten minutes, chauffeur or no chauffeur. To ask her mildly h

's well-regulated clockwork servants thought we'd lost our heads, for luncheon had already been put back for Jack's return, and now here we were proposi

t, she imagined, be useful in a servantless house. I don't know how much Angéle had heard or underst

inning to find out that this combined English-ness and Italian-ness is characteristic of Long Island, where I am even a greater stranger than Patricia Moore. And yet the most winning charm, the charm which seems to link all other charms together, is the American-ness of everything-oh, an utterly different American-ness from what most people mean when they say "how American that is!" I do wish I could explain clearly; but to explain a thing so delicate, so illusive, would be like taking a soap-bubble in your hand to demonstrate that it was round. It's an effect of imagination and climate: imagination which gave graceful lightness and simplicity to Georgian models; climate which has playe

ome of them in French, for the benefit of Angéle, who

of dishes and dish towels unwashed. We wandered about, Patsey pretending to remember this or that, and really half paralyzed with fright lest she should find that Larry had committed suicide in one of the beautiful s

with pride of the United States. While Jack and I (starved) were trying not to eat too much for sympathetic friendship, and Pat was trying to eat enough to please us, we heard a d

happened to face. We others turned to face it also, and saw coming in a del

. It can't be a father of anything! Impossible it should be a ruined ba

ead, smiling. I assure you I never saw a more engaging smile, not even Pat's own-or Peter Storm's. Theirs are quite different. Pat's is childlike and winningly ignorant of life; the Stormy Petrel's

cted a statement that he could be sorry about anything: the sort of voice which you know means a light singing tenor

nd beam through a few tears. "You darling!" she gasp

Jove! You've grown up a dashed pretty girl. We shan't make a bad-lookin

the outside twenty-eight, wavy bronze-brown hair; big, wide-open eyes of yellow-brown like cigarette tobacco; low, straight brows and lashes of the same light shade; a clever, impudent nose and a wide, laughing m

to pay them with, I'd been prepared to loathe Larry. But to loathe Pan would be a physical impossibility for any one who loves the bright

nd he said in French that he had the hunger of seventy-seven wolves. He then approached the table to examine the food with interest, and put down his hat. It dawned upon me only at this instant that the hat was a shiny "topper"; and as

here was a fellow who looked, but he was the right sort. A hundred-dollar-bill fixed up a get-away for me, but not till a couple of hours ago. Eyes turned the other way till I'd passed the danger zone. Then I taxied down here without waiting to eat, for I thought the poor girlie would be sure to come home to roost. All's well that ends well! Am I or am I n

was in his own eyes and in Patty's the hero of a great adve

was so bored in my life! But I kept consoling myself with the thought, 'I'm sure to bob up serenely in the end. I always have and I always shall.' Now here's this money for instance. If I can make a thousand out of seventy-five, what

duty," Pat ventured, wistfully reluctant to dash his high spirits, yet

e come home and can sign papers, we'll mort

to anything he advised, but there must have been a sensible ancestor behind the girl somewhere. "Oh, I wish we needn't mortgage Kidd's Pines!" she sighed. "It is such a dear place. I'd almost forgotten-but such a rush of love has come over me for it to-day.

t with explanations. He stumbled a little, for fear of hurting Mr. Moore's pride

Hiding place of Captain Kidd's Treasure in the Grounds.' What do you kno

y for the privilege of

igh, almost prohibitive price which limits the scope of operation to millionaires, then letting them have everything

at he took it that way, for, if only Larry didn't insist on m

ged his telltale clothes to tweeds, and the ruined bankrupt was the life of the party. His remarks about the expression of Angéle's

against Capital. Before we'd been back very long at Awepesha it arrived, bearing the lady and her host, but not Mr. Storm. He had preferred to travel independently, it seemed, and I rather liked him for it. No sooner were the introductions and first p

he could think of as "in her train," presented "Mr. Peter Storm to Mr. Moore."

Petrel's, stared at him. "I seem to know your face,"

seen it or that he had forgotten. And I vividly recalled how Pat, too, had had the impression that Storm's eyes were familiar

rm's brief absence to forget that it had originated in his brain. They spoke of "our plan," and for the moment he claimed no credit, as I should have been

est thing would be for me to advance any capital necessary to start the hotel enterprise: advertising

a voice quite low but keen as a knife. "The ho

was." She looked from one man to

was talking about; that his apparently mysterious past included the management of hotels, and this instinctive if reluctant credence was a tribute to the man's magnetic power. He did look the

r ought to have a voice in the working out of the sch

guments," remarked Caspian. "It isn't good a

Moore and his daughter for a small syndicate to be formed than for them to get the capital on a mortgage. They a

t him short. "That's why I came forward-so they

And apparently this one wasn't afraid, having only other people's axes to grind, not his own. "Forming a company or syndicate, Mr. and Miss Moore would have shares in the business, given them for what they could put into it: their

nce-temporarily dimmed by her old friend Ed in the m

nued the S. M. "But he, too, is an amateur. He may know how

n, if that's what you mean!" said Ca

have money," thought

e may take for gra

hat for granted

ed a box of games on the table where rested his elbow, and taking out some packs of cards he had mechanically begun to play "Patience"-a characteristic protest of the spirit against dull discussions of business, even his own. He would like things to be nicely arranged for him, I suspected, but he couldn't be bothered with petty details. He seemed just to take it happily for granted that people ought to be glad

ve no money, where do you come in?" the late sociali

at direction, I begin to see. If she's to have interests in this affair, I must protect them according to my judgment. My judgment tells me that they could best be prot

ty rang in Caspian's emphasis. "

l Monc

ughed a short

p his ease to manage a gilt-edged boarding-hous

"There aren't many emperors just

d give the pre

s as grand a chef as there is in the world, almost a classic figure of his kind, and a gentleman by birth, they say. Even Mrs. Shuster, who doesn't know much outside her own immediate circle of in

mean you can get the one and only Ma

an certainly persuade him to do so, an

n his point over the other. I thought-I must say-the odds were with Mr. Caspian, for gold weighs down the scales. But Marcel is worth his weight in gold. Put him in the balance, and the argument's ended. I didn't me

inquired girlie,

it of luck he ever had was getting hold of this Marcel as chef and general manager of his establishment. No one had bothered about Mr. Stanislaws before, rich as he was, but with Marcel at the helm, he could have any one he liked as his guest, from a foreign prince or an American President to a Pierpont Morgan. Of course they all tried to get Marcel away; but he was like iron to the magnet-none of us could ever understand why. It looked almost lik

the poor old man's murder and all the other tragedies, I offered Marcel a salary of fifteen thousand dollars a year t

rhaps," murmured Mr. Storm to a picture o

that no power except that of blackmail could induce Marcel Moncourt to take any i

ch in the same way now, to Pat's relief and Larry's disappointment. "Perhaps it is," he said. "I've always thought it must be exciting to be a blackmailer. Anyhow, it is my sec

him and the dev

cel and Peter Storm might turn out much the same thi

to find out all about our Ship's Mystery if it took h

h of our scheme and schemers

your

ll

n't be a blackmailer?