Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1917 — Then I’ll Come Back to You [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Then I’ll Come Back to You

By LARRY EVANS

Author of "Once to Every Man" Copyright, 1915, by the H. K. Fly Company

SYNOPSIS Caleb Hunter and his sister Sarah wel•ctne to their home Stephen O’Mara, a homeless and friendless boy, starting from the wilderness to see the city. Stephen O'Mara catches a glimpse of Barbara Allison. The girl is rich. The O'Mara boy falls in love with her. She io ten. he fourteen. O’Mara daily becomes more convinced that some one is trying to stir dp trouble among his meh. . Wfckersham and Allison have a conference. They agree that Harrigan, their tool, has messed things trying to stir up trouble among the men. naran says uiat the regeneration or Garry is on- of tha things tr.at has made her life most happy. Sarah plans a meeting between Stephen and Barbara. Womanlike, ehe is convinced that, despite her engagement to Wickersham, Barbara cares for ©'Mara. O’Mara arranges a meeting between Garry and Miriam. Garry no longer is a drunkard. O’Mara has worked wonders with him. O’Mara returns to find the reconciliation of Garry and Miriam. Barbara is present, and her comments puzzle Stephen. Wlckersham and Allison begin to realize that O’Mara cannot be defeated. Sarah’s plan to unite Barbara and O'Mara seems to be working smoothly. Stephen gives Harrigan a beating. Wick•rshaon secs the fight. O’Mara thsn challenges W’ckersham to fight. Wickersham refuses. Barbara disappears. Steve rescues her. She sends Wickersham his ring and Wickersham orders Harrigan to kill his rival. Harrigan kills Big Louie and wounds Steve. CHAPTER XXIII. In Real Life Too. HERE was no longer any ob- { jection raised by Miss Sarah, gwoMwj and Barbara spent every hour of tier days with him. It grew warmer with aging spring, and almost immediately he was able to sit with her and watch the stream of logs coming in over the line from Thirty Mile and beyond. Miriam and Garry were married in that week which followed directly Steve’s first days of convalescence. Steve and Barbara were at the window together, Steve outwardly still a little pale and haggard, but for the rest his old serene self again. He managed not to smile at her small and serious face. “It certainly has" not strengthened my vanity a little bit, either,” said he, “to learn how smoothly things can move along without me.” Day by day the girl was finding her way deeper into that innermost heart of him which he had never shared with other woman or man. Hour by hour she was learning to know him better, and yet his whimsical gravity still could deceive her—she was sometimes thoughts behind his thoughts. Hard upon his reply her eyes flashed with indignation. “Pooh!” she scoffed. “Pooh! Most any old clock will run after somebody’s wound it up!” It was a trick of speech that she had learned from him, but his employment of parallel, lazily amiable for the most part, had never been so hotly partisan as was hers at that moment. And suddenly self conscious, suddenly confused and warmly disconcerted at the quality of his gaze, she had to hide her head. But she hid it upon a shoulder most conveniently at hand. Spring gave way to early summer, and now Steve was able to be on his feet again, so absurdly uncertain of balance at first, however, that she ridiculed him unmercifully one moment, only to rush to him in a panic of solicitude the next. There came long walks and longer trips in the saddle; came hours of silence that were the more wonderful; for want of words—hours in which, in a hushed voice, she gave him shyly of her plans. But always. too. the interruptions grew more and more frequent and insistent. Fat Joe and McLean and even Hardwick Elliott made more and more pressing demands upon his time, until finally he insisted that be could no longer play shamelessly the invalid. He must look in upon the works up river if only for the moral effect which it would have upon the men. She assented grudging ly. It would be. but a day or two. and then —then he would come back to her. The next morning, at the moment when Barbara and Steve were mounting their horses, for she wanted to ride with hip. a little way, Dexter Allison chose to disclose something which had been but lately in the process of preparation. He joined them at the edge of the lawn before the white columned house on the hill. “Easing back into harness, I understand,” he began, hot quite comfortably, however, for he was aware of a gleam of disapproval in his. daughter’s eyes at this interruption. “Well, there’s no great rush, but it’s wise no doubt to see that things don’t , lag.” He hesitated and shifted heavily to the other foot “We’ll want to-start through to the border by fall, I suppose.” “We’ll be ready.” Steve had to laugh at his lack of ease. “No doubt—no doubt” Again Dexter hesitated momentarily. And then

there came to the surface that proneness to' accept men for what they were in a mttn’s world which had long before convinced Caleb Hunter of Allison’s inherent bigness. “Elliott resigned the presidency of the East Coast Compaq last night” The statement was brief to actual crispness. "I merely tell yon this so that you can begin to lay f tentative plans accordingly, because in view at ’the immediate need of filling that vacancy I feel sure that there will be too manv demands upon your time here at the Morrison office for you to plan on much field work for yourself in the future.” . ' ’. - ' J • To Barbara at the beginning the speech seemed merely another : of her father’s rather involved, entirely labored attempts at the facetious. But when she saw the blood steal Up and stain Stephen O'Mara s face she realized that it was the very sort of suggestion from which on her lips be

had turned roughly away. Coming from the lips of her father, Steve accepted gravely, with a matching briefness that could not hide a surge of triumph. She rode with him that day until he told her that it was time for her to turn back. With Ragtime standing quiet, she laid her face against his and' complained that he had promised her she should never be allowed to go more than arm’s length away from him once she was his. 4 “This is the last time.” he told her in a voice vibrant and low. “This is the last time—for you and me.” He.held her closer for a moment “You will be ready when I come back?” She bobbed her head. “Ready—and waiting,” she said. The next night, in the cabin up river, after Miriam had left them alone to what she termed their complacent silence, Garry Devereau and Steve sat a long while before the former raised a face alight with his rare mirth. “Well, here we are,” chuckled Garry —“I, poor, but honest, already in the toils of matrimony, and you. a plutocrat in sudden danger of a government investigation, I’m told, and hovering on the brink!” “Here we are!” echoed Steve. And that was as close as either of them came to outspoken emotion. With a lightness somewhat self conscious. Garry had alluded to the property which Caleb Hunter had turned over to Steve. There was a trace of like humor in the latter’s reply. “I certainly am oppressed with the cares of sudden wealth,” said he. ♦ ♦ * • * • • Only her father and Miss Sarah and Caleb were present when they were married. And then, and not alone because she knew he wished It, but because it was the dearest wish of her own heart, they turned their faces toward the cabin on the balsam knoU. He dismounted and lifted her to the ground, for suddenly she wanted to go the rest of the way on foot. She let her weight lie against him, the top of her head scarce higher than his chin, and sighed a little. “Tired?” he asked with that gentleness he saved for her alone. The bright head shook. “Happy?” he asked again as gently. She swung around and clung to him then. “I’m so happy!” she whispered. “Do you suppose that any one will ever be as happy again?” There was ineffable content in bet question. Whimsically her own phrase rose to his lips. “Maybe,” he said, “maybe some time —in books!” She lifted her face then. He had the dusky glory of her eyes. “Maybe,” she echoed, her voice tremulous—“some time —but this time in real life too.” ' THE END.

“I am so happy,” she whispered.