INTERNATIONAL FALLS PRESS PAGE THRE1J "Milliard, the best man in the world, 1 age anil especially Dy carrying out a to that extent. Thank" "you, Hut— for him to spear:. ~-o—yes, 1 .. I'll sit down!* has promised to bring you this letter. volunteer duty, under heavy fire on Mr. Cullen stopped him by an inclusive He was himself and he was not himself Her eyes seemed magnetized to Hilliard's. the night of the sixth of May, has I hope you'll be glad to see him, and 77ie MAN gesture. he was ostensibly Henry Hilliard, "Only I want to hear—I want to hear his side of the story. This Is given to his whole detachment an extraordinary "You won't disturb us In the slightest! a man in whom it couldn't be suspected to hear!" my apology and my blessing, If that's example of loyalty and heroic I wish you'd come with us, Mr. that the heart and soul of Dicky "Tell her from the beginning," said sacrifice.'" worth anything to you. I send a kiss NOBODY Hilliard. I should feel much better Morgan were embodied he was transcendentalist Cullen, mopping his forehead. Get He gave the newspaper to Mr. Cullen. to Angela. than having you stay downtown." a spectator at his own a glass of water anything "And here—is his Croix de "R. M." "Well—" said Hilliard, dubiously. funeral. Sight of the Croix de Guerre else, Carol?" Mr. Cullen ended with a falling inflection, His soul was filled with unholy joy, KNEW of poor Pierre Dutout, who in bequeathing She shook her head. "Tell me!" she and let the hand which held but his outward demeanor was deprecatory. that Impressive bit of said. "I want to know!" the letter drop to his knee. "It's ever so kind of you bronze to him, hadn't dreamed that So that Hilliard, inspirited by the "The letter, as you might guess from still—" he was leaving a heritage of chicanery realization that he was under the protectorate the looks of it," said Hilliard, "was "As a favor to me," urged Mr. Cullen. along with it, engendered in Hilliard of the shadows, and gathering written at several different times—according By a thrill which nearly found its outlet fresh assurance with every sentence, to his strength. I want you "As a favor to me," echoed Ancela, in a paroxysm of wild laughter. And went through that tragic narrative to realize, too, Mr. Cullen, that it was and Hilliard looked attentively nt her. the newspaper, with Dutout's most a second time. And as he told no small effort for him to write it. Holworthy Hall 3 and was obviously swayed. Slip noted genuine citation in it! And the old the tale of Dicky Morgan, he was And then I was in Switzerland when it he had intended her to notice passport photograph which he had greatly engulfed by the surge of Dicky A he died, and his possessions had afl it. He gave her a smile which had hidden for fear that his real name, Morgan's grievances his voice trembled gone to one of those tape-bound bureaus, the power, even in her somber mood, indorsed on It, might be cabled home, with righteousness he gradually Copyright by Dodd, Mead ft Company. Inc. so that I had a fearful time to to draw a faint response in kind. together with proof to the world that lost his loathing for the part he played, identify myself and get what he had "If you're sure it won't be a hardship he hadn't been a hero—that he had and played it with every atom of meant me to have, and after that, I to you—" failed In this, as in every other undertaking his energy he was a defendant, and had to make a sudden trip to Russia, "Nonsense! It's settled, then, is it? of his life. And all the a witness and a judge for Dicky Morgan SYNOPSIS. and back to England again. There I'll send one of my cars down for your dates in accuracy! And if anyone all in one—and his verdict was for were delays—delays. I was 111 for things." cared to trace back the story, where acquittal. Miss Durant's eyes never I.—In a at CHAPTER base hospital several months myself I had typhoid Hilliard's eyes flickered at the ingenuous was the flaw? Where was there a left his face. Neuilly, France, his face disfigured beyond In London. I should have mailed vanity he had recently loophole? And who would recognize recognition, an American soldier "And that," she said presently, "is these things to you long ago, but he learned that Mr. Cullen had made serving in the French army attracts attention Dick Morgan in his cloak and mask of all there is to tell?" had begged me to come in person, and by his deep despondency. Asked more money during the past twelve utter miracle? "That's the end," said Hilliard simply. by the surgeons for a photograph to guide I had promised. And every day I expected months than during the previous Who had? them in making over his face, he offers And in the long hiatus which that in another week or two twelve years. Lightninglike, his brain included all lnjlerision a picture of the Savior, bidj^Sg followed, he was wondering I should start for home. I feel that "Well," he said, "if you're so charitable them take that as a model. They do the salient items of the picture in a wondering vague aimless I owe you this explanation and a so, making a remarkable likeness. as to insist—" single flash. There was Dicky Morgan, thoughts, with no beginning and no great plea for forgiveness for what "I do, sir, I do! You're at sailing away to France—which CHAPTER II.—Invalided home, on the conclusive outcome, but the central figure, must seem to you like gross indifference the Onondaga, of course?" could be proved. There was a number, boat he meets Martin Harmon, New York flitting, elusive, was always Carol on my part. But I landed hardly Angela, who had been listening intently, broker, who is attracted by his remarkable and a name attached to it, and— Durant. He told himself fiercely that two weeks ago, and I came up to features. The ex-soldier gives his started up at the unmistakable since Hilliard's sturdy defense of he hated her, that for two vengeful name as "Henry Hilliard," and his home you at the earliest possible moment." echo of footfalls on the walk. Dicky Morgan had had a grain of as Syracuse, New York. He left there years he had hated her, that he had "In some ways, he was a most remarkable truth in it, and one of the steps of "Here comes Carol!" she gasped. under a cioud, and is embittered against "And Here Is His Croix de Guerre." come back to Syracuse to primarily young man," said Mr. Cullen, his former fellow townsmen. Harmon his many-sided progress carefully "And and Jack! Oh, Mr. see her again, with his whole soul for makes him a proposition to sell mining irrelevantly. "Nobody ever understood Guerre." On Impulse, he handed it omitted—a name had really been assumed, Hilliard! Oh, dad! Who's going to the wounds in his heart, the wounds stocks In Syracuse, concealing his identity. why he turned out such a not to Mr. Cullen, whose palm was tell her?" and had endured from the date He accepts it, seeing in it a chance of his body, still O God! black sheep. Came from a fine old to make good and prove he has been underestimated. ready for It, but to Angela. of enlistment to the date of discharge. As Mr. Cullen flinched, Hilliard put why couldn't the surgeons have cut family. I suppose his father was one It was the individual's recorded name She had taken the decoration half out his hand in a motion of supreme away his memory, and left him peace! of the most loved men in Onondaga fearfully, and she had glanced at Hilliard in the army and at Neuilly—and it restraint. "Whatever Dick Morgan CHAPTER III.—In Syracuse "Hilliard" He was prodigiously relieved when county. Dick lived for years on his wasn't Morgan and it wasn't Hilliard (In reality Richard Morgan) is accepted with an expression so curiously may have been at home," he said, "I Mr. Cullen, well-meaning but awkward, father's reputation, after people as a stranger. He visits James Cullen, a and it wasn't Dutout. No one here combined of awe and joy and jealousy knew him after he offered his life for blurted out a paradox of eulogy. former employer, relating a story of the stopped noticing him on his own account. knew it, or ever would know it even that his own eyes wavered, and he a great ideal, and I'm proud that he death of Richard Morgan, and is surprised Armstrong, eager to relieve the congested Just took advantage of the Harmon didn't know it it was the at the regret shown by Cullen and had momentarily averted his gaze. ways of thought, ventured into fact that nobody could quite bear to his youthful daughter Angela. While at first sobriquet of a shell-torn individual When he had ventured to turn to her the realm of phjtitude—and something the Cullen home Carol Durant, Morgan's be harsh to his father's son. But he who had been taken to Neuilly, again, she had carried one hand to in his manner caught Hilliard's attention. former fiancee, makes a call. was always a wild young chap, nothing and had been made whole again. No her breast, pressed tightly, she was The man was actually possessive very bad, except that just too CHAPTER IV.—Hilliard repeats to Carol one at Neuilly had ever set eyes on looking down at the bronze cross in —and Hilliard, having no envy of his his story of Morgan's death and is deeply much of anything—including liquor— Dicky Morgan's real face! But a certain her lap, and her shoulders were shaking possession, cursed him on general moved by the evidence of her deep feeling was just enough for him! Had too man named Dutout had been decorated perceptibly. Hilliard gripped the principles nevertheless. And then for the supposed dead man. He resolves, quick a temper to be diplomatic and died, and that could be arms of his chair, and every muscle however, to continue the deception. Hilliard was again in demand there enough to hold a job, and didn't care proved—was proved! Hilliard had of him was drawn tense his was a flood of incoherent questioning, much about working hard, and finally borrowed Dutout's name in perfect farce was sudden tragedy, and horror to recover, and lie knew it. And then and he was giving details, answering the tide turned, and he began to get safety and the trail was cold. And clutched at him. Angela was crying it came to him, blindingly and desperately, queries, volunteering information treated Just as if his father hadn't here was a fourth man, Hilliard—to stoical, by supreme effort, at that the world—that 1®, the which might never have been asked, been a sort of popular idol, and then take his word for it—and the world is the news of Morgan's death, she was world which had known him in his describing Neuilly, the hospital, the his disposition soured, and he made larger than the curiosity of sincere crying, now that she believed he had failures—would never hear what he surgeons, the nurses, the wholly indescribable some bad mistakes. I gave him the people to encompass. died gloriously. It was a hard problem had done. He had made his sacrifice, atmosphere of France in last Job he ever had in Syracuse, but for him to analyze ... It No—if a Neuilly surgeon ever told and it was useless. In hospital, wartime. He was strengthening his I had to let him go and I told was so magnificently complimentary as one of the mysterious chapters of he was Pierre Dutout, you see position, phrase by phrase his insouciance him some plain facts when I did. and Inconsistent the war what had happened to a certain and between that character, and his redoubled he had laid a rock That's what he refers to." gloomy individual that summer, own, was the barrier of the subterfuge "It would seem to me," said Mr. Cullen, foundation never to be successfully "I assumed," said Hilliard, hesltatly, the name would suggest nothing. And he had grasped so eagerly—his somewhat thickly, "that he wiped assailed. There came an abrupt "that at one time he had been what the slate clean enough for all practical as far as checking up the visits of jlas, and his false record. No one pause Miss Durant rose and came to you might call disappointed a mythical Hilliard to a very real Dutout would have any reason to doubt that purposes, anyway." He took the war him, and he was on his feet to meet in love? Something was weighing on was concerned, who would profess he wasn't what he purported to be. cross from Angela's reverent fingers, her. him—he practically admitted to remember? The testimony of He craved to tell someone to send and examined It curiously. He looked "Thank you," she said, giving him but that was one point that he didn't any jingle witness would be immaterial. back a message to his old friends at Angela, and slipped his arm around her hands. His heart missed a beat appear to want to confess, even to and I happened to be there—and he her she sat up straighter, and drew his blood ran gelid. "Thank you. If me." confided in me. And here I am, Mr. The voice of Carol Durant was echoing you can ... I wish you'd talk to me a shivering breath. "I may have been "He was engaged to Carol Durant." again before you go alone Cullen.- Bringing credentials. Now, wrong in my judgment," said Mr. Cullen in Hilliard's ears, and Hilliard, Angela had taken the cross again, and in the first place, I have a photograph soberly. yielding to a tidal wave of recklessness, I wish it very much. You've made me held It like a precious relic. "She of him, taken from his original passport." Hilliard, who had been moodily sunk ... at least, I can be glad you were and of swelling anger at Imaginary broke it off, just before he went there ... to help him, but I want to He produced It from his pocket, In revery, fumbled a third time in his wrongs, looked squarely into away." and offered It to Mr. Cullen. "Is inner coat pocket. Carol's eyes, and spoke with winning know so much more ... so infinitely "The day before," added Mr. Cullen. there any mistake, sir? Or is It the urgency. much more ." "He sent you a letter," he said. "I And Turned to Face the Girl He Had "That was one of the two reasons Dick Morgan you know?" A fleeting impulse clawed at Hllliard's Tried to Die For. suppose you've been wondering, under "Yes," he said. "I have news of why he went." judgment he yielded to It Mr! Cullen switched on a standing all the circumstances, what brought me Morgan. In fact, I'm here in Syracuse called me his friend. I'll tell Miss Hilliard nodded. blindly. It meant the alteration of l&mp Angela hid her face, and shrank up here to you. It wasn't to eulogize solely because I have it. I've just Durant myself, please. It's my right." "I see. ... On account of his his plan of action, it meant a trifle back from the white electric glare. him particularly It was to bring you been telling Mr. Cullen—and Miss Cullen—that And turned to face the girl he had habits?" more of danger and a gratuitous risk "Yes—yes." He gave the tiny picture his message. And perhaps I'd better I was with him when he tried to die for, and failed. "That was the gossip," said Mr. Cullen at that, but it was genius—genius! to his daughter. "There's no question say now that he made me read died." heavily. "Doctor Durant was supposed about it, Mr. Hilliard." "Miss Durant!" He made sure that it ." She didn't speak, at first she merely CHAPTER IV. to have—" the others were beyond the range of "That's Dick!" said Angela agonizedly. With Angela peering hard over his looked at Hilliard and grew very "Didn't he write to her?" asked An. shoulder, Mr. Cullen strained to decipher white, and her lips quivered. Presently She had always been, when he last gela, raising her eyes. ith his signature, of course—you the uneven penmanship. He she swayed a little, and reached saw her, the outstanding beauty of "Not that I ." He stopped recognize it, do you?" began to read aloud: out with her hand toward the back Syracuse, but he was astounded to behold quickly. "I trust you'll forgive me, "It's his handwriting fast enough," "Dear Mr. Cullen» of a convenient chair. Armstrong what the Interval of two years but I'd imagined from various remarks conceded Mr. Cullen. He looked up at "I am asking Mr. Henry Hilliard stepped toward her, and Angela Cullen had done for her. She had taken upon he made at different times, that he Hilliard, and his brows were furrowed, to bring you this letter personally. I slipped an arm around her waist. herself a new maturity her figure, was really that he was greatly as though he were struggling to want him to tell you what I'm not "He's dead?" she repeated, exceptionally graceful, was still slender attached to you." This last was addressed comprehend what all this had to do writing, too. And you can tell other and her tone was not yet free from a but suggestive of a more womanly, to Angela, who was both dignified with the Cullen family. "Yes. Dramatic people, If you care to. certain incredulity, as though the fact a more inclusive charm. and shaken by the suggestion. boy, he was—always. Shows— "I want you to know that since I've were of itself impossible, and the He was being presented to her! Her father, however, nodded In the don't It?" had time to think, I've changed my statement of it subject to discussion. He, who had kissed her a thousand negative. "Dramatic—yes. That is—imaginative. mind about a good many things. I've "Yes, Miss Durant." times, was undergoing the ritual of "Angela wasn't much more than fifteen, Venturesome. And it's a quality come to the conclusion that you were She moistened her lips her eyes presentation!—and she was smiling at sir. They were great friends he that sometimes makes heroes, Mr. right and I was wrong. Maybe you were very bright, unnaturally bright, him with those grave, sweet eyes of was very fond of her. No, It was Oullen. Would you have called won't remember the last talk we had so that Hilliard was fascinated, and hers, and calling him by his adopted him brave?" Carol Durant he was engaged to. together, but I do. You told me then appalled. name! His mask of protection had Didn't he ask you to see her?" "I'm not sure of that, sir. I—" that I didn't have it In me to make "You You know that?" she never seemed so slight, so insufficient "I would!" said Angela. "I would!" "No." good unless I learned that I was about asked, again with that queer inflexion the fragrance of her, and the illusion "But you will, I hope, won't you?" "Foolhardy, often. But brave the most worthless young man In town, of amazed doubt. caused by this, threatened his balance "You can see Carol here tonight, if "Walt, then!" said Hilliard, motioning. and the one with the hardest row to "Yes, I know it." and set his nerves on edge fortunately, you care to," said Angela, uncertainly. He was transfixed by the vision hoe in order to make something out The others were standing as statues the routine of the conventions of Angela Cullen, who had started up "She and and a friend of hers of myself, and set out from there. Mr. Cullen, snatching at the first Intervened to save him from his in passionate defense of an old-time are coming over to talk about another Well, I've learned It. I had to. Of idea of consolation to present itself, inarticulateness. For one thing, there playmate her cheeks were flushed, her Red Cross drive. Carol's on the committee. course, I couldn't agree with you at fumbled for his daughter's other hand, was the rite of Introduction to Armstrong, eyes were shining, she was ineffably They ought to be here any the time. That wouldn't have been which still retained the trophy a better and after that there was a appealing in her tearless grief and in minute now." expected. But over here I've had one man had won. dash of promiscuous conversation,, her loyalty. For the first time, Hilliard "Yes," said Hilliard. "If I'm going lesson after another. Some of them "Here's what they gave him, Carol! with not a little weather philosophy in could see how the passing years to see her, I think I should rather— were pretty bitter, but they've all Look! The Croix de Guerre! Don't it. Then came the inexorable hush bad brought out the woman in her see her here." helped. And since May, when I was let's think of anything but what he caused by the presence of a stranger he could see, under the dazzling light Mr. Cullen sighed stertorously. hurt, I've had lots of time to think let's be proud of him! I—" whose fads and fancies are still a mat* of the porch lamp, what an adorable "Well, perhaps it's better them over. ter of conjecture, and out of that hush, "Oh, yes," she said inertly, and took iplon he had left behind him. Her and I shall want to telephone thl| to "I never deserved your kindness and a question, and Hilliard was suddenly the cross in her palm. She dropped the Herald If you don't object. It's now I can't ever repay it. But it may "Miss Durant!" visited by a species of self-hypnosis. her eyes for a moment, then raised vehemence thrilled him his own the least we can do, all things consid­ If he had been moved at all by the them to the level of Hllliard's. "Didn't cheeks reddened, and his heart was please you to know that this war I I his voice. "Miss Durant! said he sight of Angela, whom he had loved he send some word to me?" v' abruptly quickened at the sight of ered." He reflected a moment. has taught me what you tried to, and sent no word to you th it was trae as •A "No." Hilliard's nod was very Ministerial. her at the same time that it congealed "How long are you staying in couldn't—that I was as close to zero far as I knew the truth, buf there's as a younger sister, he was, by comparison, "No, I'm sorry, but—" town, Mr. Hilliard?" from her father's estimate. "You one letter he started to write—Just at value at home as a man could be. It's shaken as by a whirlwind by "I've made no plans whatsoever," know," he said, "that bravery under only through this war that I've got the last ... it wasn't addressed to Her eyebrows lifted, and her nostrils the sight of Carol Durant, whom he fire has a peculiar reward. It's called he said, after a slight pause. "I sold any pride in myself, and I'm sort of dilated the merest trifle. Her had loved as a woman. Not on the anyone I didn't know who it was for. my Interests to a British syndicate of a citation. In orders. You think like Kipling's gentleman ranker—I'm breath was coming more rapidly now train, not at the hotel, not even when I brought it with me on the chance bankers two months ago. My home is that Morgan wasn't brave, Mr. Cullen. proud of myself because I've done she was nearing the breaking point he witnessed Angela's severe grief, that I'd find out. I didn't want to where my baggage is. I'm thinking of But there's proof. A proof that even away with all the other kinds of pride of her resistance, and all of them had he remotely conceived that this speak of it before every one, because taking a day or two to see certain of you must recognize." He tempered I used to have. And I believe I've knew it. The momeht was agonizedly instant would be so difficult to surmount. if it's yours, I thought you'd Dick's friends—the ones he talked his voice. "For here," he said, whipping made good—not as a great general, prolonged. Hilliard, gazing without a What in New York had seemed you understand, don't yon? I'm almost about most—and after that, the future a folded paper Into view, "is what but as a private soldier. That was quaver at the girl he had thought he a regeneration, and earlier on this positive it was meant for you. Ifs is on the knees of the gods." the republic of France says about the trouble at home—I was only fit loved beyond all else in this world or same evening had appeared a very only a few lines ... he wasn't ever Mr. Cullen regarded him with sincere him Here is the record that will endure to be a private, and I thought I could the next, was singularly relaxed as dubious deception, was rapidly taking strong enough to finish it I've respect. as long as France does. Here, be a general off hand. You said I'd he observed her symptoms. She had upon itself the color of irremediable got it at the hotel now. May I bring Mr. Cullen, is Dicky Morgan's citation "It would give me great pleasure," do well if I learned that, and I have. really cared, then ... so much wrong. His imagination was aroused it to you tomorrow?" he said, a trifle pompously, "if you 1 They gave me the Croix de Guerre, the greater pity that she hadn't kept beyond belief and as he stared in She held her breath for an instant would be my guest for the time you're Dead quiet—for second after second. and in a way, that proves it, doesn't him caring ... as she mlg.. dumb suspense at Carol, recalling a t. her mouth quivered. She looked at here, Mr. Hilliard. It would please Angela had turned pale she was it? Notice that they didn't even make "Can that be possible?" she said, thousand episodes and a thousand him searchlngly. me very much indeed." Hllliard's lng hard. me a corporal, though! That's all hardly above a whisper. privileges of the long ago, he was "Surely. I ... I live Just across heart pounded. "His citation !H Mr. Cullen right—I haven't had enough training "I'm sorry—but—" preyed upon by a slow-stealing grimness on the corner, Mr. Hilliard. The brick mopped his forehead. "And me too," said Angela, gently. yet to be a corporal I It's curious "I wouldn't have believed It could of despair which left him sick house. Can you come early?" Hllliard's heart threatened to suffocate "His own copy of it was lost, but I that I'll admit that, isn't it? be true." She gave a long, tremulous with misery. "How soon?" He was telling himself brought the official journal him not entirely because the "I want you to know that I've breath, and looked about her, halfdazed She was waiting for an answer— that his former passions were game was going so infinitely better shall I translate? thought of you a great deal. I don't and half-perceptive. Her eyes and the others were waiting, too, and atrophied she was no longer able to 'Pierre Dutout, private of the sixty-ninth than he had dared to hope, but also blame you for letting me go. I did strayed back to Hilliard. "Tell me watching him. He felt that guilt was disquiet him. His Inspiration was because It was Angela who entreated Territorials, during the batties once, but I don't now. Please think about it," she said, almost lnaudlbly. stamped on his every feature fflmmorclnl of the fourth of May and the days him. of me, though, as a man who cam's "Carol, dear!" Angela was stimulated he felt that every thought of his must "It*s wonderfully good of you," he following, has made exhibit/of the through at the finish, even if he'd been to active sympathy. "Sit down— be as crystal to the four who waited wouldn't disturb von highest devotion and the gr**t««t mur­ (Continued next week) pretty hopgkagL .before. please! Oh. Mr. Hllllnrd i? .vcyv ». 'V-» V&