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" = I K&jtfbi V| - ^^SSiBjfc* ^l^n GfcOftOfc /' 4 *Jt*tti& ..^^T mi Her Telegram Had Is GI OR] ROMA ^ffT\r. &rvcl T\rs. T< Novelized from the M Picture Play of the name by George Klein* Copyright, (91b, by Adelaide M Hwghn * , SYNOPSIS. Plerpont StafTorU, banker and rallrotd magnate, with his slUtecn-year-old (laughter, Gloria, is wintering at Palm Beach. Gloria is a vivacious but willful young 1 lady who chafes under the restraining 1 hand of a governess i rum whom she repeatedly escapes. Her childish capers cause young Doctor Royce to fall in lcve t with her. She steals from her room at night and in an auto plunges into the surf where she leaves the ear. Becoming lost in the everglades she falls into the hands of the Seminole Indians. She is rescued and returned to her father who had offered a reward for her return. Gloria falls in love with her rescuer, Freneau. Five years later she leaves school and meets Freneau at the theater; his attention having been occupied with her aister-in-law he hus forgotten Gloria. Gtoria feels that her one dream is shattered. Luter Freneau persuades her to forgive him. Gloria's sister-in-law. Lois, becomes Intensely jealous and Doctor Royce discovers in her an ally to assist in thwarting Freneau. Doctor Royce warns Freneau that there is another woman besides Gloria; Freneau goes sleighing with Gloria without her father's knowledge. It results in pneumonia for Gloria, whose family becomes incensed at Freneau when they learn tlie truth. Royce is summoned to alleviate Gloria's suffering. Freneau's finances being low lie approaches Pierpont Stafford for a loan. Doctor Royce again warns Freneau of his conduct. But I<ois, learning of Freneau's betrothal to Gloria, threatens him with dire punishment. Her husband. Gloria's brother David, becomes auspicious; he plans a trap for his wife. Freneau driven to desperation by Lois' threats agrees to send a week with her in the Catskills. ' plans to have Mulry Fend Gloria a bum u of telegrams. lx>is' husband threatens to kill a man. After Freneau takes leave of Gloria she sees from her window an attack made upon him when he goes to meet Lois. EIGHTH INSTALLMENT The Mesh of Mystery. Was it delirium or was it truth? Or j part truth and part delirium? If part of both, where did truth leave off and delirium begin? This was the problem that confronted Miss Emily Richards, night nurse to Gloria Stafford. Miss Richards sat quivering in her chair by the night lamp and watched the exquisite girl who, though quieted now by drugs, was conscious enough to be troubled. Her eyes, still filled with something of the horror they had seen or thought they had seen, turned every now and again towards the door. She was j waiting for the doctor to appear Where. Ho was searching for the body of her i lover, whom she had seen?or said aho had seen?murdered. Before this unhappy moment Gloria had been progressing swiftly towards recovery from the attack of pneumonia that had struck her down on the very threshold of her marriage to 1 Dick Freneau. Nurse Richards' heart had already troubled her in this affair, and her heart was an orgau she made a point of ignoring; at least she had cased it in such iron determination that she seldom felt it throb. But this particular patient had been so beautiful^* favored by the gods otherwise that her untimely illness seemed incongruously cruel. Some day Richards might congratulate Oloria upon this disaster and realize that the gods had been cruel to be kind; but just now the knowledge could not come to sustain her. All she could see was a young girl of great beauty, great patience in the face of trying and tedious disease, one who had all to live for?wealth, a devoted father and brother, and an ex* Jot Been Delivered. HZtrl L\ipGrtf1k^KG5 .raordinary handsome bridegroom ?> iiki uu iiioucu uio nuai mum IU mu picture. it was really the Insouciance nrftf diablerie of the dashing Freneau, with his charming manners and somewhat wicked glances cast her way that wilted Nurse Richards' starch?though she would not have acknowledged this, heaven knows, and bless us, never! Richards had arrived as* uf.ujjI to relievo the day nurse. She buckled on her armor of white linen in the room next to Gloria's own and as she looked from the window facing Riverside drive, she thought she had never beheld so beautiful a night or so beautiful a scene. * Already the young moon was up and gleaming softly but purely on the noble beauty of the soldiers' and sailors' monument opposite the Stafford house. The white marble columns of that magnificent tribute to the heroes dead and gone stirred her strangely. Richards sighed her last tribute to sentiment, romance and the beauty of the night, and, moving towards her patient's room, assumed her usual crisp and cheerful manner. As Richards came in Gloria turned to her with a wan little smile of welcome and put her hand out towards her. She looked like a small child lying there, and the color scheme of her room?soft grays and powder blue? made an exquisite setting for the girl's own colorful type. The blue of }|pp pv ou Pfinf roctinfr "tWI. * I - va vj VM VUIIVI UOllll^ 1111 llIU UCIT cate red of her hair, her peach-blosHorn skin, a bahy chin, a girl's mouth, and a woman's soul, made up a total of irresistible appeal. Just now a heavy splash of scarlet on either cheek told the nurse of unusual fever, but with her newly awakened sense of romance she attributed the condition to Gloria's probable disinclination to parting with iter lover. For Freneau had told her that he must leave town on business for a wholo week, When he came to bid farewell the nurse left the room, returning when Freneau had gone. He left Gloria in a lonely gloom. Gloria was fretful and restloss, complaining that sho did not feel ready f^.r sleep. It was the nurse who was drowsy after the long strain of Gloria's illness. Richards put out all the lights save the one shaded lamp by the bedside, and then sho must have dozed, for the next thing she knew was that her ears were throbbing and her nerves jangling with the wild clamor of Gloria's screams. For an instant the nurse was too horrified to move, then as her wits returned to her the fact that the voice was Gloria's penetrated to her consciousness. Gloria, indeed, was tugging at her and crying to her incoherontly. Then she fainted as her father rushed in in his dressing gown. He and Miss Richards lifted the girl's body to the bed. Then Richards reached for the telephone to call Doctor Royce, blaming herself bitterly the while for having slept at her post. Doctor Royce was not at home. His secretary promised to send him the moment he returned. The nurse did what she could. Turning to the bed she was clutched by the groping hands of Gloria. She THE HOMY VCR beard her cry: "Save him, save him, father; they're murdered him! Let me go to him! Oh. Dick. Dick!" Richards held the frantic girl tight in her arms and tried to soothe her as she struggled to rise from the bed again. But the eyes that looked into hers were almost those of a maniac, and the nurse signed to the distracted father to help her. Qlorla was shrieking now as she found renewed strength: "There, there, look! Look down by the steps of the monument! Dick is lying there. 1 tell you they've killed him. Oh, my God, why don't you go to him instead of holding me here?" With one supreme effort she wrenched herself free from the two, only to be mercifully seized with another fainting spell. Swooning forward, her face would have been dashed against the footboard of her bed had not Richards recaptured her in her arms. At last Doctor Royce I appeared in the doorway. His foot struck the binoculars, which still lay on the floor where they had fallen from Gloria's hand. He started back from them, looked towards the prostrate Gloria, and, stooping swiftly, thrust the glasses into his pocket with what sounded to Richards much like an oath. Then he came forward to Gloria, taking her from her fathers ! arms. Gloria opened her eyes again and stared into the doctor's own with another outcry: "You will believe me and go to him, won't you?" Reason seemed to return to her now, and her eyes were overflowing with tears. Her father had to turn his own nwav, for Gloria's made him think of a child torn from its mother and beaten and pleading. When Doctor Royce spoke his voice was hoarse with emotion: "Gloria, you know that I would give my life to spare you any pain or to do you any service, but remember that you are still very ill, that any further excitement might bo fatal to you. You have a high fever and are not yourself. You are a very sick child. Tell me what is troubling you and what frightened yeu and 1 will do anything 1 can to help you." Gloria seemed to be lidding herself under extreme control as if to convince them of her sanity. "Oh, Stephen, you must believe. I tell you I saw it all?from the window here. Hut there is no time to lose. You must go to him. Dick Freneau is dead! Murdered! His body is down there at the base of the monument. "Miss Richards was sleeping. 1 couldn't. 1 looked through my glasses on the drive. I turned them towards th? mnnnmpilt I BMW a man nun. ? m v???? M. MM ff 111 V/ T Vy" ning dress loitering about. I couldn't see his face. IIo seemed to be waiting for someone. A policeman went by. The man stepped behind the monument till the officer had gone. Then ho came out again. He took a revolver from his pocket. Then he walked away as a tramp came along. "I saw the tramp?a slouching creature with a hideous face?a face I shall never forget. I saw it plainly under the light of the lamps as he dropped on a bench. Hut 1 thought nothing of him and turned my glasses down the drive. "I saw a man stop to light a cigar. It was Dick. I was surprised. I thought ho would have been 011 the train. He seemed to look up at my windows. Then ho walked on. I turned my glasses back to the tramp. I saw a terrilic look come over his face, under the lump-post?as he saw Dick approaching. I wanted to scream a warning, but he was too far away. I saw the tramp skulk behind a tree. "As Dick passed him the tramp leaped on him from behind. There was a struggle in the shadows. I tried to scream?not a sound came from my throat. 1 could only hold the glasses tc my eyes and watch. The tramp was like a mad gorilla. Dick hadn't a chanco with him. The fiend either choked him tc death or stabbed him, I don't know which. Hut I know that 1 saw these things. I know it's l V.<v Came a 8pecial D ^ II" ALP, OOHWAT, 8. ft true, and I saw his body thrown down > lifeless. "The man In evening dress came back again. I thought he was going to save Dick. The tramp ran away at sight cf him. The man knelt down by Dick's body. I couldn't see very well, but he seemed to be listening tc his heart. I thought surely he would help Dick. Then 1 could hardly believe my eyes, for he began to search Dick's coat. He pulled out from the pocket a long envelope with seals on the back. "It was the very envelope that I saw in Dick's pocket tonight as he said goodby to me. I recognized it perfectly, for I laughingly asked him what important business it contained and he grabbed It from my hand so quickly that it startled me. 1 know it was the same?this man held up the envelope to the light to make sure of it, then put it in his pocket. Then I found my voice und screamed and screamed. And then I don't know what happened. "But, oh, Stephen, go over there now at once. Bring him back here dead or alive and tell me the truth! 1 promise to be brave, but tell me the truth?tell me the truth!" Her sobs choked her now so that she fell back exhausted on the pil! lows. Doctor Royce did not go to her. He was at the window, staring through i the binoculars. He seemed to be greatly astounded, then he said: "I can see the place perfectly; there is nothing there." | Gloria screamed: "Hut I saw him killed; I tell you! He must be there!" Doctor Royce handed the binoculars to Mr. Stafford. I "Mr. Stafford, do you see anything?" Piorpont stared through the glasses and shook his head: "Nothing." Ho passed the glasses to Miss Rich- ; ards. She also shook her head, then i exclaimed: "A policeman is com- i ing up the drive?ho is passing right . across the spot?he didn't stop!" Gloria saw this herself and won- | I dered if she were truly mad. Doctor I Royce turned to Gloria, stroked her j hand, and spoke to her gently. "There, there, Gloria, child, don't torture yourself so. You have sirn ! ply been delirious and imagined these j | things. But tc satisfy you I will go : over there at once?if you will promise to lio quietly here on your bed. | And try to believe that it is all a hideous nightmare?until I come back to assure you that it is?will you?" Gloria nodded her head to him, unj able to speak, but it seemed to Richi ards that the doctor's assurance had ! no effect upon her and that she held herself in leash only until she could get him out of the room. Then she turned to Miss Richards, sobbing: "Hold me, Miss Richards, hold me up quickly to the window? first give me the glasses. I must look again." Together they strained their eyes towards the monument. She felt every nerve and muscle of Gloria's body taut strung beneath her hands. And she likened it to a bow. Gloria's soul was the arrow and it was ready at' any moment tc speed on its swift and terrible Journey. She felt the agony as if it had been her ftwn, The not knowing was the most terrible part of it, for Richards seemed tc feel more bewilderment than the girl herself. Her instinct and the girl's conviction seemed tc point to the truth of Gloria's vision; yet her common sense told her that such a thing was almost impossible,: and that Gloria's fever would fully account for it all. They watched tho monument. The doctor appeared there shortly and j walked about the empty spot, signalling to the window what he had said befcre. "There is nothing here?nothing." And then Gloria began to muitar: "Lay him down there." She raised her arm and pointed toward the chaise tongue. The.- her arm dropped. Richards put her hand on Gloria's head, only to have it thrown off by the girl as she shrilled in a weak voice: "Loosen his collar ?he's choking. Dick?D'.c'fi?it'8 all jpMhflr' ^H|xQ| a'-'J'- Kjvw^^vi iv'.y ' ; . . vv!%,X*!i^Iv,*I'X">x">?/^x^>5"?J$*"*^svm ; " ri)'.v/. :;;^^>3H|H^^^^< > '. \ ->Z>' el I very Love Letter. i i I v^x ^ " *<3K*.\;.; Jpiiifca'i : '*H ^K^BNM -i!- Xv v'.v ' She Showed the Te ~ight now, dear; they shan't touch you again!" Richards felt a thrill of Joy mingled with pity go through her. This was bwlktuning uau coui^ understand at last?this was delirium. Then the rest must havo been delirium, too? The sound of ';lie doctor's step on the landing brought her grateful relief. He came ir. with a smile cn his face. Going at once to the bed, he took Gloria's hand to feel her pulse. Richards Si.iu; "She is delirious now, doctor, completely so. I>id you find anything?" "There was nothing there," but the doctor drawled the words with strange listlessness, and, sinking into a chair, covered iiis eyes wearily with his hand, though Gloria babbled faintly: "Has the mail come yet? Why don't you give me Dick's letter?" On the following morning Gloria awoke from her drugged slebp with a feeling of hovering calamity. Presently realization came. Her lover had been murdered. She hid her face in the pillows and moaned: "It can't be true; it can't be true." The day nurse tried to soothe her, bathing her face and hands, arranging her hair. Then the butler arrived with a telegram for Gloria, who took it from him with trembling hands. A glad cry escaped the girl's lips as she read it. "Arrived safely. Miss you terribly. Hope you slept well and dreamed of me. Am writing. Devoted love. DICK." ^ Gloria passed her hand across her brow in a daze. She read the telegram again and called to Miss Armstrong and Doctor Royce, who had just entered. She showed them the telegram, trying to hold her lingers ever the words to let them see only "Arrived safely" and "Am writing." Doctor Royce started, but recovering himself, expressed great delight. "I told you it was a delirium." Yet the nurse, glancing from the telegram to the doctor, noted a puzzled look on his face that belied his words. At last the doctor was able to place the thermometer in Gloria's mouth. She tried to speak, but he ordered her to keep silence, and stood in a brown study. Gloria indicated by crude and impatient pantomime that she wanted paper and pencil. Sue proceeded to compose a telegram, shifting her position that the doctor might not see what she wrote. Doctor Rcyce took the thermometer from her lips, and she went on writing, without noticing him. Ho nodded his head, apparently satisfied. and the nurse entered the tempera' turo on the chart. Then bidding Gloria gcod-by, the doctor left the room, still musing. Gloria continued her task, apparently a difficult one, and chewed the end of her pencil to bits. At last the result, much underscored and scratched out, read: "Your angelic telegram received. It was terribly welcome. I did not sleep, but I dreamed a horrible dream about vou. Overioved to know von are safe. Please take care of your self and telegraph on receipt of this that you are still all right. Much love. GLORIA." Dispatching her telegram by a servant, Gloria gave her attention to the breakfast'tray her nurse placed on the bed. The Invalid turned up her little nose as she uncovered the plate of gruel, but ate it greedily, nevertheless, and then, worn out by her emotions of the night before, but in a peaceful frame of mind at last, she settled herself for a long, refreshing sleep. A few hours later when she awoke it was to receive another message. The telegraph company notified her that her telegram to Freneau at his hotel was not delivered: "Party not ? I - - fll Icgram to Doctor Royce. known there." Before she could recover from lier bewilderment, close on the heels of this message came a special delivery love letter from her lover written on the hotel paper and postmarked Albany. Gloria was completely dazed, lier brain in a whirl of contradictions. What could she do? Where could she iiiul her lover? Was he alive or dead? At this time, in the boudoir of her home, Lois Stafford paced the floor, staring at the photograph of Freneau which she had stolen from Gloria. Despair tore at her heartstrings. She sobbed and beat her breast. A knock at the door brought her to herself and uhe called: "Who's there?" The voice of her husband came through the door. She cast a look of anger at the door, then hid the photograph and dried her eyes hastily. Then she forced a smile and admitted David. He carried an offering of flowers in his hands. "I thought you were on your way South," Lois exclaimed as she embraced nim with apparent fervor. "I decided not to go and turned back. Are you sorry?" ho asked hungrily. She answered: "My love!" and , clasped him close. She was afraid to ask him any questions lest he ask questions of her. I The following morning Gloria, still ' see-sawing between Joy and anguish, received a telegram from Freneau at Buffalo. She telegraphed to him at his address there. Later the message was reported undelivered. Yet in due time a letter came from Freneau on the hotel paper. The next day a message of love from Cleveland. Now she called the hotel on the long-distance telephone. The clerk insisted that Freneau was not there and hod not been there. It was the same with messages from Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh. Gloria felt that she was being slowly driven Insane. But her bodily health improved throughout the week in spite of her mental distress and Doctor Royce told her that she might go down to the dining room for her breakfast. She was glad of this because Dick's letter from Pittsburgh had promised that he would call on her that morning. She wanted to welcome him in state. She herself had a royal reception from the servants. She was dressed in a trailing breakfast gown of orchid chiffon, and she bent to the bowing old butler as if he wero her prime minister. Her father escorted her to her place, then whipped open his paper to the financial page and vanished behind it. Gloria turned to the page of social gossip in another paper. She had I pretty well lost track of the world. She laughed as she turned to the front page and only now saw the big headlines announcing: "Freneau Dead. Body of Well-Known Clubman Found in Lowe Bay. Mystery as teal Death. Suicide Hinted. Financial Affairs Known to Have Been in Disorder." Gloria's eyes widened. Her fingers clenched and crumoled the naner in anguish. Her father, looking up from his paper, saw the wild terror in her eyes. He hurried to her. She handed him the paper, and while he read,, she rose to her feet unsteadily, leaning on the table for support. s soon as her father understood the news he put his arms about her. Hut she gently thrust him from her and stood gazing great-eyed into space. She was seeing again what she saw that night beneath the monument. All her girlhood seemed to drop from her. Her small figure grew terrible with agony, her little white mouth was drawn with determination to hare revenge. She lifted her hands to heaven In