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?I " C2 VOLUMWE XXXVI LAURENS, SOUTH CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1920.NUBR1 7:EEDI *LA * L I(KI, CHAPTER I. The "Troops" "Jr wIa hard luck., said Searles, "that I should spenl a year writing a play for a woman ,only to find that 4 she had vanished-jumped off the earth into nowhere. This was my highest flight, Singleton, the best writ ing I ever did, and after the vast pains I took with the thing, the only woman I ever saw who could possibly act it is unavailable; worse than that, absolutely undiscoverable! Nobody knows I have this script; I've kept (uIet about: it simply because I'm not going to be forced into accepting a stalr I don't want. I have a feeling about this play that I never hadl about my other things. The public has been s kind to my small offerings that I'm trying to lead 'em on to the hest t c.in do; something a little finer and toore imaginative, with a touch of poetry, if you please. And now " 1He glared at me as though I were responsible for his troubles. As he knew I had been flying In the IFrench aviation corps for two years and had just been invalided homse, I didn't think It necessary to establish an alibi. atle had been kind to Dick Searles. In college lie had written a play or two that demonstrated his taleut, and after a rigid apprentlco ship as scene-shifter and assistant producer he had made a killing with "het George Do It." a farce that earn ed enough to put him at ease and make possible an upward step into straight contedy. Even as we talked a capac ity house was laughing at his skit, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" just around the corner from his lodgings. So his story was not the invention of a re jected playwright to cover the non appefrance of a play which nobody wouhl produce. "isn't it always a mistake to write a play for a particular star?" I sug gested. "Seeius tr nie I've read some where that that is among the beset tin g sins of you playwrights." "Old stuf, my boy; but this Isn't one of those cases. The person I had In mind for this play wasn't a star, " but a heginner, quite unknown. It was when I was In London putting on 'fhairy Gkold' that I saw her; she had a small part lioa pantomime, and pantomime Is the severest test of an actor's powers, you know. A little ltter se appeared In 'Honorable Wo men,' i capital play that died early, but there again I felt her peculiar charm-It was just that. She was ex quisite! No one ever captured my; imauglnatlon as she (lid. I watched her nIght aifter :hight. I was -afraid that when I heard her voIce It would bireak the spell, and I actually shook lIke a mian wIth an agiie when she trlpped1 out on the stage as the In genue in 'llonorable Women.' And her laughter ! Yon -know how hollow the usual stage mirthi is, but that, girl's laughi had the Joy of thle lark ascend ing !" "By Jove!I" I eJacuilatedI, "there's more here than appears. You're in love with the gIrl!I" "'liubbishi." he crled impatiently. "You'll tin uk I'm talking rot, but thIs girl wvas the visuaillzat Ion of a char octer 1 had d reamed of and1( grope'd after for years. That's all ; but It's a whole lot. I cani tell you I" "Let us hie practIcal for a moment, Sce'," I urged. "E~mperors, presi dlents, iand liolar murderers are ngtI miore conlspleuous than the people of the stage. No gIrl tailented enough to get two engagernents, even for small parts. Ini a first-class London theater could vanish. WIth your acquaintance in the profession you'd be able to trace lier- anywhiere on earth. By thei waty, what did( the paragon call her self?" "Violet DewIng was lier stage name andio the only name the mainagers knew her by. I assumed thait, of course, auli 1 had( to (10 wa's to finish my play and then have Dalton, who represents nme over there, make an appiolinent to readl It to her; but Dalton worked for three months trying to find her, withiout success. I wasn't the only person who was Interested In her. Dalton said1 that half a dlozen mana gers had theIr eye on her, butt after 'Jlonorale Women' closed she stepped into the void. I knew what you're thinklie-that the othe members of his shy fashion h~e was kind and generous and mighty good to me." "If you hadn't gone to war, but had kept right at his elbow, the marriage might have been averted," suggested Searles. "Ile dlid leave you some thing, didn't he?" "Fifty thousand cash and the rlgh' to use the garage at the Barton farm, Calling it a farm Is a joke ; it's rocks mostly. He hought the house to have a place to store his prints and .iap ceramics. le hated motoring except in taxis up and down town, and when I urged him to set up a machine, he told he to go ahead and buy one and build the garage. Told me I'd better flx up the studio in the garage and ine It a .pac to work in. His will provides that I may lodge in the garage for life." "The estate footed a million, as I reinember, No I enn't praise his gener osity. But the widow, your unknown auntie, the body-snatcher who annex ed the old boy-what of her?" "I've asked the trust company peo ple whether she's in sight anywhere, and they assure me that she is not on these shores. Torrence, the third vice president-you know Torry ; he was in the class tih1etad of us at. col lege, the man who never smiles Torry Said she neknowledged the last remittance thit'ee months ago from Bangkok-wherever that. is. I suppose the old girl's resumedi her tour of the world looking for another retired merchant to add to her list." "Very likely. To what nation, trile, or human group does this pred M< H W I mers. in the r ductions high Lev, custome are selli, bought I you will other st, we have ,the pres far in re Li ( i0 the two companies she pt ittpeared with must have had some inkling of her Identity, but I tell you )nlton and I exhausted the possibilities. It was by accident that she got her chance in the pantomime--some one wouldnt't do at the last minute, and they gave Miss rewtIng a trial. She was well liked by her associates in spite of the fact tha t she was a bit offish and vanished from their world the nil mite the cur "A elever governess out of a job. ntid ying i craving for excitenent ault i.,ying the mysterious rase as r. part of the adventure. Am I to as Htune Ihat you've bined your play and that the incident is closed?" "Oh, I dildn't burn it; I have a copy locked in a safety vault, and Dalton left one 'te&vily sealed at a small ex clusive London hotel where, he found after much difficulty, the girl had lodged during her two engagements." "You're morbid," I said. "Show me her photograph." He laughed Ironically. "Never a chance, Singleton ! You haven't yet got the idea that this young woman 1i out of the ordinary. She refused to be photographed wrote It into her two contracts that this was not to be asked. I never saw her off the stage, and I can't give you a description of her 'that would be of the slightest assistance to It he keenest detective alive. In that panto mime she was a frolic, the 'clown's daughter, and, although nobod' saw it, she- was the whole piece. the elusive sprite that could evoke laughter and tears by a gesture, a lifting of the brows, a grir.iace. By utterly differ ent methods in 'Honorable Women' she proved her wide range of appeal. Tiers was the one true characteriza tion in the piece. When Terry was in her prime you remnember how w e used to say 'that only one bird sang like that, and from paradise it flew? Well. this bird sings on the some branch! Her voice was her charm m tade audi ble!" "IRave some more !" I pleaded. "You never talked better in your life." "Don't he an ass," he said sourly. "Let's forget her and take a squint ut your affairs. Just what do you mean to do with yourself?" "My shoulder still creaks a little, and the doctors advise me to 31t around for a while. They offered ie some jobs in Washington, but desk work and inspection duty are too tate after a couple of years spent in star climb ing. I'm going up to Barton-on-the Sound and I'll camp in the garage on my uincie's place." "Your uncle playedl you a nasty trick," interrupted Searles; "getting marriedl and then judding to the crime by (lying. You couldln't beat that for gener'il! spitefulness." "Do you remember the immortal lines: Y 'Oh, skip your dear unclel' The Itellmnan exclmed As he angrily tInkled his bell"? "OImnot knocking the dead !" he protested. "Mr. Batshford -always struck me its a pretty dlecenlt, squaire sort of chap, and not ,at all the faililar grouchy uncle of fietioitnial the drama. I tmad~e notes on him from time to time with a view Io building a play itrotted him-- the per'feclti cr et, unobt ru.'ive. never bl1ustering at his n'phtew; transltinlg the avuncular relationship into soimethitig remiole andi chatste' 'like a distanit view of M.ounit Washington in witer. It was just like himt to retire from busliess on hiis sixtj ethi birt hdlay anad depatrt for Ithe Orienit, there to comi!t the shameless indis(cret ion of mtirlion." "Like him!h It was the grt'ateset shock of mty life. To thle bs of my~ koldehe never knew any womein exet h widow of his partnter in the importing house. Slhy -'a' abtout eighty and1( perfectly safe. lIe spent I tnty years in Ithe TIyringhinam, thie dutllest andit most resp'ectable h~otel in the world, tand his chief reerea tiona was a leisurtely walk in the park befotre goig to bed. You could se~t your c'oc'. by him. fretty til pick lng f'ut a dri~ aatist, I shou)lb think. Ike ust'd to take mec to the theater roauil ar ni very other lThurgday-it ;.'ats a datc--andl his favorite enter faceor Imtlelisliaun I rw..-A. ..'tin..a. in atory person belong?' "I'll tell you all I know. Just as I was sailing from France I got a letter from Uncle Bash stating in a most businessilke fashion that he was about to be married to a lady he had met on the trip out to Japan. The dire event was 'o occur at the Amer lean embassy the following day. From which I Judged that my presence at the ceremony was neither expected nor desired. Oddly enough, months afterward, I picked up an English paper in a French inn that contained an announcement of the marriage in the usual advertisement form. The lady was succinctly described as Mrs. Alice Wellington Cornford, widow of the late Archibald Reynolds Cornford, I'epperharrow road, IIants. All Tor rene knows of the subsequent pro eeedings is what he got in offiTcial re ports of Uncle Bash's death from the .consul-general at Tokyo. Whether the widow expects to come to Amer ict ultimately or will keep moving through the Orient marrying husbands and burying them is a dark mystery. If she "hould turn up, the house at Barton is hers, of course, but with her roving disposition I fancy my aunt Alice wouldn't like the place. The .111Ja stuff is worth a hit of money, and if the lady is keen for such things and not a mere adventuress she may take it into her head one of these days to come over and inspect the loot." "I can see the vampire," said (Continued on Page 5.) eting [OLESALE PRICES in reductions in the past fe these goods are passing c this is as it should be, anc rore desirable merchanc have not been so market el. Yet, to cope with the re half way, we have mai nig many lines at less pric For today. We invite a c find that our prices coti res anywhere carrying s made represent a saving ent market prices. We J: ducing the cost of living witzer Cash Chasers On a recent trip North a waist manu facturer offered to close out a lot of waists at a price. We secured all he had and they are unquestionably the greatest bargains we have seen for many seasons. They embrace fancy White Lawns and Crepe-de-Chines. Move quickly if you are after bargains. Just opened Taffeta and: Messaline Silks in new fall shades and many lines of other fabrics. A complete stock of Hosiery and No tions, Table Linens, Handkerchiefs and Drawn Linen, Towels and Counterpanes, with a full line of Sheetings and all lines of Domestics at W. U. Wilson & Co. ouu 0UU Half Way' staple dry goods have shown w weeks, and many dealers in in the reductions to their custo I we are doing the same. But use, in which we specialize, re I and goods still remain at the present situation and meet our ked our goods very low, and es than the same goods can be lose inspection of our stock and ripare favorably with 'those of imilar lines. Reductions which of from 20 to 25 per cent off elieve these reductions will go this year. -ompany South Carolina