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Newspaper Page Text
svop;nRBgQeB9ippP9ppP94nB9nppppiMIPiPMl9 I ? SECRET PASSWORD By Augustus Goodrich Sherwin. & (Copyright by W. G. Chapman.) i A fair youngs girl was scrolling along the beach just1 beyond the city walls of Aylhi. The sun was hot, as swas it ever at this, the sultriest town 4n th dominions of the Rajah Afendi, $-et she had. her sunshade closed. SSver and anon she would pause, ven ture in chase of a receding wave, use sthe end of the dainty parasol as a v i. "If I Could Speak to Her." tylus, and then, tripping back lightly, 'would laugh at the grim pursuing ele ment she had cheated. A young man followed her at a worshipful distance, and she all un aware of it. He urged or retarded " progress according to the chances of discovery. At last he came to one of the spots -where the girl had written in the sand, and where the waves had not washed out the clearness of the letters. J "E-p-O-I-S-E." That was the name of the graceful young lady Miss Eloise Wharton, Ralph Evans knew that. Yet he gazed with fondness and interest at the fad ing letters reminding him of her. He followed a dozen of these fanciful traceries, some clear, others one-half obliterated. Then there was a final one and two names this, time. But the Eloise was blurred. The E was missing, the I and S merged into a sort of V, so that what remained read "L-O-V-E," and added to it were the letters, "R-A-L-P-H." Was it fancy on his part that a demure yet expressive inclination f the golden head of the beautiful girl indicated that she had espied him; that in wayward mischief she had set a lesson in the sand for him tp con strue? He hoped it and the sentiment fed his longing heart. He quickened his step. The girl had entered a street of shops. Then proceeding less than half a hundred yards, she disappeared within the broad open doorway of a curio store. Young Evans came to a halt, scanned the place so he would re member it and reflected. His envir onment was a peculiar one. He had been sent to the province as a silk buyer for a Boston house. There were a few English speaking people in Aylhi. He had met most of these a few evenings since at a social func tion, Miss Wharton and her brother, Harold, among them. Once having met Eloise, he could never forget her. She had told him that she and her brother planned to leave for Bengay and then thecountry at once. There was a warning token pf dis quiet in the air the days following. Ralph was a comparative stranger In Aylhi and did not entirely understand what it alt meant He noticed, how ever, very few English speaking peo ple on the streets apd had been told that most Qf them had gone to Ben gay. He inferred that rumors f an uprising of natives in the near neigh borhood was the cause of this but this was a permanent cause of van