Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1919 — Ring Three [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ring Three

By WILL T. AMES

<Copyrl«Mt. l»i». by th. McClur. N.w.- _______ paper Sy b die at a.) _ The telephone in the east room of. the Hanford homestead rang zing-zing-sl ng. __Miss llanford. tarho. was, writing glanced inqnirlutglx...it-the instrument. The house was on a party line, to be sure; separate wires in that locality were not to be thought of; but Eleanor did not remember having heard a "ring three" call that year. Zing-zing-zing! Zing-ztng-zing I clamored the phone. Miss Hanford was wentferffigras ten thousand other itete T>le have wondered tinder similarcirreally answer, on the chance of the Spec a torleaving In ade aTii isfa ke, wh e n a man burst into the room. , The man was a total stranger. Eleandr had never seen Idm before; He was a large man and young, and obviously" stark; tor not oniy~ had he made his entrance ter the house uninvited and without permission of anybody, but now. without the first word of apology and without even glancing at Miss Hanford, he rushed wildly to the telephone, grabbed the receiver and yelled in a lavishly redundant voice, '‘Hello!” To Eleanors ordinarily calm eyes his entire demeanor was that ot a lunatic, perhaps a dangerous one. Without too much fuss she shifted her position so that the drawer with the" pistol In it was just beside her right hand. —; — The intruder, who had flung himself into the none-to-’-sirmig Windsor chair beside the telephone table ami made it creak alarmingly in doing so, appeared stilt to be utterly unaware of Miss Hanford’s presence. •'lle-dlO! Hello."’ he bawled, the look es- wild awxiet y wm - his—countenancebecoming still wilder as he appeared to wait, in desperate impatience, a reply that did not come. Miss Hanford, who was never predpitate, had almost made up her mind to flee and seek the protection of old Mark, the gardener, or Hannah in the

Mi<iiHii. ~a great rli>in>;e viuie.. ■upon the' man at the phone. The strained. eager look disappeared. . a happy light sprang into his; gray eyes, and he smiled broadly. Miss Hanford mentally classified the smile as a grin. “Like a Cheshire cat's" she indignantly concluded. ‘‘Sure, this is Les," the uninvited guest was saying into the phone. “Never so glad to hear a human voice in my life, sweetheart! Don’t seem as if I could wait another minute to see you. What's that? les; didn't know but you’d be up on the two-eighteen. Yes: gets here at five-twenty. You bet; Til be there. Good-by honey !" When - about ha’.f wuy uirough This monologue the man twisted about on his chair till he was facing the mistress of. the Hanford establishment. Then, still grinning broadly-and with the receiver still at his ear. he winked at Eleanor—winked at Miss Eleanor Hanford, if you please ! The-nerve of him ! Miss Hanford arose.’ to the full height - c ;xt y-t i.t >e---Irfajestic inches. She no longer felt any fear of this madman; she was experiencing instead a mighty indignation. Much—anything —might be forgiven-in a mere lunatic: but for a vandal like this to violate your privacy, to seize upon your property, to set at defiance all the conventions and safeguards of society —-for the purpose of making love over your phone—to some other woman—ugh ! Miss Hanford was all icy calmness as the trespasser, hanging up the receiver, uncoiled his tall length from the trembling Windsor chair and stood erect. She gave him no time for a first word —there is no strategy in that. “May I be privileged,” inquired Eleanor, “to know to whom I have the honor of being hostess—and* why ? It would be interesting to learn what there is about this house to give strangers the impression that it is a hotel or an office building. I do not think it has ever been regarded as a mere public utility before.” “I'm awfully sorry. Miss Hanford — you are Miss Hanford, are you not? But what’s the use of that talk—l

know you are. I am —honestly—awfully sorry to come tearing in that way, but I’ll tell you how It was, “You see; I've had that little bltngaIdw that setsback in the woods a quarter of a mile above here for a week. I've been away for a good while she's been“ln California, so we haven’t seen each other. She got home to' New York yesterday nndewired that she'd be out here on this afterncoh’s train. There are two trains, you know, nnd I put In a telephone mil for her at New York. Afte-r it w-asin, and I’d waited half an hour. I realized ibat if I waited any longer I couldn't-meet the two-eiebteen and she might !■? on that. So I started. When the phone man hooked up the bungalow he told me that this big white house and that sb>ne one dfiKU below were the only iHlut Mibsvriln-rs <>n the line. My humher w ns three. - "Just as I was passing here I heard •h, ■; - <; dly ' What was I going to db? If I stopped to >be polite they’d ca Iml v sa v, ‘I *n rty’s hung up; excuse it. please!' by the time I got the reeeiver “down. —F kTiovv tt*vtTiS Totten manners. but you've got to make allow:time- for a fellow, sometimes. now hav• ■ FTt y., u ? My name's (I rey—Lester -Grey; I scribble foolish tilings that foolish people print so me time s. I hope you'll pardon my headlong intrusion." Miss Eleanor Hanford witli all her dignity ami all her responsibility as a woman of position nnd not a little wealth was, as a matter of fact, just ■a mere girl. And this big, utterly natural, blundering boy with the marks of overseas still on him, was good to look upon. Somehow it wasn't the ingenuous impropriety —quite shocking in it_seif - -of his reCeiving hiAAweetlieart in aT lonely bachelor bungalow that made Eleanor feel a new and differeiTt~ktnd~ of Indignation toward him. Away down in her secret heart slie knew that it was a sweetheart at all. "Oh very welt," she lamrhed—for. of course, under tlds new circumstance, being, a vvumam she could no longer show indfgnatlon of any sort lest it be construed in a certain you put your defense on the ‘ground of temporary aberration, there is nothing else to do but pardon you, I suppose."” Grey should have gone away then. Of course he should. A young man in ids peculiar position .would be doing very well, you’d think to get out of the situation without complicating it ther. But the more he looked at this mareliionessllke little person the more he didn’t want to. The only thing he could think of to say, however, was: - MayT-iinrTJTtngnrerto see you, Miss Hanford-?" ' . ~~~ If . looks could kill, Lester Gtey should have been at least a serious casualty. "Bring whom, pray, Mr. I Grey ?” Eleanor inquired chillily, with her eyebrows a quarter of an inch higher than normal. "My mother,"Of course/’ Whisper: Secrets: Just between you and me: There was the gladdest little tlirili that -ever- was, rightthrough the middle of Eleanor's heart, l as she sald—verv nearly pWhj” 1 should be positively de- | lighted.

“Hello! Hello!” He Bawied.