The Lightning Conductor Discovers America

R CELEBRAT

DEFENCE

S CRI

ord, Lon

mething

a slave

Stric

own? I ask you that! You like it. You thrive on it. With your uncanny talent for character reading, you should never have expected anything of me but the unexpected. And the whole embroglio is your fault, if you com

ave cropped up I prefer to do it in my own. You ought to be pleased at this, because I've now definitely determined to answer the call. I hadn't at first. I'd made up my mind

t never One. Trust you to see the distinction! Have you been pumping Marcel? You may as well admit it if you have, for I shall ask him when I

lities of a detective among his many gifts. He has plenty of others! But what does it matter what he thinks, or you screw out of him? I don't mind telling

American child, just unfolded from the pink cotton of a French convent. I am human, however. I'm not a stone, but a man. I saw the girl on the ship, and before I heard her name something stirred in m

s interested in her. And though I thoroughly enjoyed the patronage of Mrs. Shuster and some others who condescended to v

ghter. I heard on the dock, and the child heard on the dock-from Caspian, who had come to meet my present employer, Mrs. Shuster. It was easy to see (knowing what we know of him now) that Caspian had decided at first sight to go for the girl, who has grown astonishingly pretty and attracti

And the child couldn't be expected to look farther ahead than her father looked. Marcel was my next inspiration-a bait to decide Moore that I was not to be despised as an adviser. Now, I am the power behind the throne-very much behind, it's true, not in the pala

ns on Miss Moore myself: "the pauper adventurer who has already taken advantage of his influence over an older woman to gain access to the heroine." Sounds like a moving picture "cut in," doesn't it? Not only does he (the sel

k sharply, "How d

the forest who scents the unseen hunters when still very far off. If the villain, Peter Storm, is "unmasked"-well, so much the

t expresses my point of view. I am having fun. I'm having the time of my life. Afterward-"let come what come may, I shall have had

his head till it's necessary to salute the sunrise; and the hens consider it bad form to boast loudly because a mere egg has been given to the world. For this accommodation I pay four dollars a week, and ten cents a day for having a rubber bath filled. Breakfast of bread, butter, and coffee is brought to my room by a timid fawn of a dressmaker's

e to give up for her. Besides, there are a thousand other obstacles between me and love. If she wastes a few thoughts on me-as perhaps she does sometimes-it's only curiosity concerning the "Ship's Mystery." That's what

!), to see pretty well all that goes on, and the demoniac joy I feel in acting as deus ex machina I can't

so held my peace until-well, several things happened first. Among them was the coming of Castnet, the chauffeur engaged by Marcel himself-a Frenchman, too young to be mobilized, but supposed to understand a Grayles-Grice. He looked a smart fellow, and a lesson or two went off well,

ed to drive an enemy of his country. The sturgeon demanded the sprat's discharge. Miss Moore sought her father. "Larry" was teaching the Russian Countess tennis, and gaily gave his daughter carte blanche. She, overwhelmed by responsibility, temporized. France, you see, is her second home! The Austrian was in no mood to stand half measures, and gave notice of departure. Meanwhile, Castnet

e and powerful was drawn up almost nose to nose with the Grayles-Grice, and the road was becoming congested with vehicles of various sorts. The Grayles-Grice blocked the way. It was impossible for

ierce Arrows, dashing Cadillacs, and even from peace-loving Fords; but what should you say was happening in the prese

you what w

know whether excitement makes a girl's hair curl-but anyhow hers was doing it, in little rings and spirals which fluttered in the breeze and blew across her cheeks and eyes. By the way, she has the bluest eyes I ever saw in human head. She was thanking her courtiers charmingly whenever they came within speaking distance, rolling her "r's" in a fascinating French fashion she has, and whenever a heated red man would lift his head from the open bonnet or pop up from under the car she woul

nd old who sat desiring the return of their cavaliers looked as pleased as the wives of C

was, the thing wouldn't roll. I am pretty sure that not one of the men engaged was in a hurry for it to budge; for you know as well as I that all men are deeply romantic at heart, the oldest boys as well as the you

felt I was not liked. "You see I've br-roken down!" she explained with the smile of a child. "The poor car wo

r mysteries. It didn't seem likely that where so many men had failed I should succeed;

ngs about cars?" she question

ome small favours for her, she hadn't known about them, so she had never thanked me except in the most casual way. I thought it would be rather

?" I inquired of every one in g

s lot came," the school teachers' chauffeur defended the crowd's intelligence and his own. "I thought it might be a ball broken

d. "The traffic can't be held up here all night. Pre

ried Miss Moore. "There was the most hor-r-r-rible noi

s, risked the mystic peril that lurked behind the "hor-r-rible

wd. But no man near enough to have seen Miss Moore stirred until I had made a further discovery. The deep-rooted trouble which had defied the gray matter of all exp

-G., having drunk long and deep, was once

will you?" I mild

?" she i

I drove a Grayles-Grice once for

challenged, won't you? It was th

quite an audience looking on, when two policemen came bumping along in a short-nosed

ought they meant to hurry on. They went past her, one on each side. But they muttered something to each other, stopped suddenly, and jumped off their machines. They were laughing together as they came running back. They said, "All right, Miss," and took hold of the Grayles-Grice as if to wheel her to the edge of the road. But then there followed a fear-r-ful bang, like a pistol shot, and Miss Moore noticed a queer smell-a little like the Fourth of July when you were a ch

the watchdogs come along a few minutes earlier they would have found their way blocked effectively. One of the thieves had fired a torpedo in the road just behind the G.-G. to scare the chauffeuse (one of those big, fat t

ecretarial work for Mrs. Shuster. I'm not sure yet how the two parts are to be doubled successfully, but I'm sur

letter in a hurry. You may take time to think. Mrs. Shuster is not only willing, but anxious, for me to drive for the party. I can't imagine why. But I shall certainly know why, and perhaps to my sorrow, when I get back. If I hadn't taken on the job, Caspian would. He spent two days away from Kidd's Pines, and Moncourt (just back from a trip to town as I finish writing) saw him in N. Y. in a Grayles-Grice, apparently taking a lesson how to drive. (His own car is a Wilmot.) When

ur

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ollow us like a tame dog. If my hand has not forgotten its