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bupert mam Kmwoipm IRE GOttEDY OF TflE SAME MME. T T T Il^VSX?ATED FROM, PHOTOGRAPHS or THE PLAY AS P?OI>UCED ? ? OOPY?ICJMT 1011 M.K.flV CO? From behind the first mass of pac'r egei came a brisk, military answer: "Ton black bound! About face forward march! Section number one." The porter retreated down the aisle, apologising glibly. "'Sense me for questioning' you. but you-ell's baggage moled kind o' eccentric at first" The two young men dumped their parcels on the seats and began to un? wrap them hastily. "If afallory catches ue. hell kill ue." eald Lieutenant Shaw. Lieutenant Hudson only laughed and drew out a kmg streamer of white satin ribbon. Its glimmer, and the glimmering eyes eg tbe youna man excited Mrs. Whit eomb ma nach ttuU ?Tter m. little heel Uac* afee moved forward, followed by tbe feats? a en torn -Ob. what's upr* she ventured. "It looks like something bridal." Talk shout womanly IntuitionI" eald Lieutenant Hudson, with an in? gratiating salaam. And then they explained to her that their classmate at West Point, being esdeied suddenly to the Philippines, had arranged to elope with hie beloved hfsrjorle Newton; bed ssked them to get the tickets and chock the baggage while he stopped at a minister's to "sat spliced and hike for Manila by this train." Having recounted this plsn In the foil belief that It was even st that mo? ment being carried out successfully. Lieutenant Hudson, with a ghoulish ensile, explained: "Being old friends of the) bride and groom, wo want to fix their section up m style and make them truly comfort? able." "Delicious! - gushed Mrs. Whitcomb. "But you ought to hare some rice end old shoos." "Here's the rice," eald Hudson. "Here's the old shoes.- said Shaw. "Lovely!" cried Mrs. Whitcomb, but then she grow soberer. "1 should think, though, that they?the young couple? would hare preferred a stateroom." "Of course.'' eald Hudson, almost blushing, "but it was taken. Tola waa the beet wo could do for them." "That's why wo want to mako It alee and bride-like." eald Shaw. "Per? haps yon could help us?a woman's touch?" "Oh, I'd lore to." she glowed, has? tening Into ths section among the young men and the bundlee. The un? usual stir sttracted tbe porter's sus? picions. He came forward with a look of authority: "Scuse me, but wha?what's all this?" , . "Vsnlsh?get out," said Hudson, poking a coin st blm. as he turned to obey, Mrs. Whitcomb chocked him with: "Oh, Porter, could you get us a hammer and some nails*" The porter si most blanched. "Good Lewd. Mise, you ain't allowin' to drive nails In that woodwork. Is you?" That woodwork wss to him what the altar Is to the priest. Mm nuaeon. resorting to heroic measures, r < ?not lied him with a two dollar bill: "Here, take this and soe nothing, bear nothing, say nothing. ' The porter caressed it and chuckled: "I'm blind, deaf and tpeechleee." He turned away, only to come back at once with a timid "*8cuee me!" "Tcu here yet?" growled Hudson. Anilously the porter pleaded: "I just want to sst one question. Is you all gain' up for a bridal couple?" "Foollah question, number eight million, forty-three," eald Shaw. "An? swer, no, we ore." U The porter's 7aoe glistened liko fresh stov? polish ss be floated over the prospect. "I tell you, It'll be mahty refresh in' to have a bridal couple on bode! Thle dogon Reno train don't carry not hin' much but divorcees. I'm tust nachally bongry for a bridal cou? ple." "Brlla coup-hlc-se?" oamo a voice, like an echo that had somehow be? come tntoxlcated lu transit It was Little Jimmle Wellington looking for more sympathy. "Whass sis about Nrile couple?** "Why, here'e Uttle Duttercup!" eang out young Hudson, looking at him In amascd amusement. "Did I un'stsn' somebody say you're preparing for brlle ooupl'?" Lieutenant Shaw grinned. "I don't know what you understood, but that's what we're doing." Immediately Wellington's great face began to churn and work like a big eddy In a river. Suddenly he was weeping. "Excuse these tears, zhent tlemen, but I once?I was once a b-b-bride myself. " "He looks like a whole wedding par? ty," was Ashton's only comment on tbe copious grief. It waa poor Welling? ton^ fate to bunt as vainly for sym? pathy ae Mogcnee for honesty. Tho decorators either Ignored him or shunted him sslde. They were Inter? ested In a strange contrlvsnco of rib? bons snd a box that Shaw produced. That," Hudson explained, "la a lit? tle rice trap. Wo hang that up there and erben the bridal couple alt down --biff! a shower of rice all over them. It's bad. ehr Everybody agreed that it was a happy thought, and even Jimmie Wel? lington, like, a great baby, bounding from tears to laughter on the instant, waa chortling: "A riebe trap? That's abslootly splendid?greatea' invensh' modern times. I must stick around and see her when she flops." And then he lurched forward like a too obliging elephant "Let me help you/' Mrs. WhHcomb, who had now mounted a step ladder and poised her? self aa gracefully aa possible, shrieked with alarm, aa ehe saw Wellington's bulk rolling toward her frail support. If Had son and Shaw bad not been football T?t*rmn? ?t W??t I\>lnt and bad not known Just what to do wben the center rush comes bucking the line, they could never have blocked that flying wedge. But they checked him and Impelled him backward through his own curtains Into his < berth. Finding himself on his back, he de? cided to remain there. And there be remained, oblivious of the carnival preparations |;olng on Just outside his canopy. CHAPTER VII. The Masked Minister. Being an angel must have this great advantage at least, that one may alt in the grandstand overlooking the earth and enjoy the ludicrous blunder of that great blind man's buff we call life. This night if any angels were watching Chicago, the Mallory mix-up must have given them a good laugh, or a good cry?according to their na? tures. Here were Mallory and Marjorle, still merely engaged, bitterly regret? ting their inability to get married and to continue their Journey together. There in the car were the giggling conspirators preparing a bridal mock? ery for their sweet confusion. Then the angels might have nndgcd one another and said: "Oh, it's all right now. There goes the minister hurrying to their very car. Mallory haa the license in his pocket, and here cornea the parson. Hooray!" , And then the angelic cheer must have died out as the one great bur ruh of a crowded ball-ground is quenched In air when the home team's vitally needed home run swerves outside the line and drops useless as a stupid foul ball. I 1 !ti a shabby old hack, were two of the happiest runaways that ever sought a train. They were not miser? able like the young couple in the taxi cab. They were white-haired both. They had been married for thirty years. Yet this was their real honey? moon, their real elopement The little woman in the timid gray bonnet clapped h n hands and tittered like a schoolgirl. 'Oh, Walter, I can't believe we're really going to leave Ypsilantl for a while. Oh, but you've earned it after thirty years of being a preacher." "Hush. Don't let me hear you say the awful word," said the little old roan In the little black hat and the close-fitting black bib. "I'm so tired of it, Sally, I don't want anybody on the train to know it." "They can't h-?lp guessing it. with ycur collar buttoned behind." And then the amazing minister act? ually dared to say, "Here's where I change it around." What's more, he actually did it. Actually took off his collar and buttoned it to the front The old carriage seemed almost to rock with the earthquake of the deed. "Why, Walter Temple!" his wife ex? claimed. "What would they say in Ypsilanti?" "They'll never know," he answered, defiantly. "But your bib?" she suld. '"I've thought of that, too," he cried, as he whipped it off and stuffed it into a handbag. "Look, what I've bought." And he dangled before her startled eyes a long affair which the sudden light from a passing lamp-post re? vealed to be nothing less than a flar? ing red tie. The old lady touched it to make sure she wuj not dreaming it. Then, omitting further parley with fate, she snatched it away, put it round his neck, and, since her arms were em? bracing him, kissed him twice before she knotted the ribbon into a flaming bow. She sat back and regarded the Mrs. Walter Temple. vision a moment, then flung her arms round him and hugged him till he gasped: "Watch out?watch out Dont crush my cigars." "Cigars! Cigars!" she echoed, in a da%e. And then the astounding husband produced them in proof. "Genuine Lillian Russells?five cents straight." . "Put I never saw you smoke." "Haven't taken a puff since I was a young fellow," he grinned, wagging his head. "But now it's my vacation, and I'm going to smoke up." She squeezed his hand with an earlier ardor: "Now you're the Old Walter Teinplo 1 used to know." "SaHy," lif* wld, Tt6 be en traveling through life on i< half?fare ticket. Now I'm going to have my little fling. And you brace up, too, and be the old mis? chievous Sally 1 Used to know. Aren't you glad to be away from those sew? ing circles and gossip-bees, and ?" "Ugh: Don't ever mention them," she shuddered. Then she, too, felt a tinge ol recurring springtide. "If you start to smoking, 1 think I'll take up flirting once more." Hi pinched her cheek and laughed. "As the buying ie, jo as far as you de? sire and I'll leave the coast clear." He kept his promise, too, for they were no sooner on the train and euug ly bestowed in section live, than he was up and off. "Where are you going?" she asked. REV, TEMPLE'S FIRST CIGAR. "To the smoking-room," he swag? gered, brandishing a dangerous look? ing cigar. "Oh, Walter," she snickered, "I feel like a young runaway." "You look like one. Be careful not to let anybody know that you're a"? he lowered his voice?"an old preach? er's wife." "I'm as ashamed of it as you are," she whispered. Then he threw her a kiss and a wink. She threw him a kiss and winked too. And be went along the aisle eyeing h'^ cigar gloatingly. As he entered the smoking-room, light? ed the weed and blew out a great puff with a sigh of rapture, who could have taken him. with his feet cocked up, and his red tie rakishly askew, for a minister? And Sally herself was busy disguis? ing herself, loosening up her hair co quettishly, smiling the primness out of the set corners of her mouth and even?let the truth be told at all costs ?even passing a pink-powdered puff over her pale cheeks with guilty sur reptition. Thus arrayed she was soon joining I the conspirators bedecking the bower for the expected bride and groom. She was the youngest and most mischiev? ous of the lot. She felt herself a bride again, and vowed to protect this timid little wife to come from too much hi? larity at the ha:ids of the conspirators. CHAPTER VIII. A Mixed Pickle. Mrs. Whitcomb had almost blusved when she had murmured to Lieuten? ant Hudson: "I should think the young couple would have preferred a stateroom." And Mr. Hudson had flinched a lit? tle as he explained: "Yes, of course. Wo tried to get it, but it was gone." It was during the excitement over the decoration of the bridal section, that the stateroom-tenants slipped in unobserved. First came a fluttering woman whose youthful beauty had a certain hue of experience, saddening and wiserlng. The porter brought her in from the station-platform, led her to the stateroom's concave door and passed in with her luggage. But she lingered without, a Peri at the gate of Paradise. When the porter re? turned to bow her in, she shivered and hesitated, and then demanded: "Oh, porter, are you sure there's no? body else in there?" The porter chuckled, but humored her panic. ?T ain't seen nobody. Shall I look under the seat?" To his dismay, she nodded her head violently. He rolled his eyes in won? derment, but returned to the state? room, made a pretense of examination, and came back with a face full of re? assurance. "No'm, they's nobody there. Take a mighty small-size bur? glar to squeeze unda that bald?er? berth. No'm, nobody there." "Oh!" The gasp was so equivocal that he made bold to ask: "Is you pleased or disappointed?" The mysterious young woman was too much agitated to rebuke the Impu? dence. She merely sighed: "Oh, por? ter, I'm so anxious." "I'm not?now," he muttered, for she handed him a coin. "Porter, have you seen anybody on board that looks suspicious?" "Evvabody looks suspicious to me, Missy. But what was you expecting ?especial?" "Oh, porter, have you seen anybody that looks like a detective in dis? guise?" "Well, they's one man looks 's if he was disguised as a balloon, but I don't believe he's no slooch-hound." "Well, if you see anybody that looks like a detective and he asks for Mrs. Fosdick?" "Mrs. What-dick?" "Mrs. Fosdick! You tell him I'm not on board." And she gave him another coin. "Yassum," said the porter, linger* lng willingly on such fertile soil. "I'll tell him Mrs. Fosdick done give mo her word she wasn't on bode." "Yes!?and if a woman should ask you." "What kind of a woman?" 'The hideous kind that men call handsome." "OJj, ain't they hideous, them hand? some women?" "Well, if such a woman asks for Mrs. Fosdick?she's my husband's first wife?but of course that doesn't Interest you." "No'm?yes'm." "If she comes?tell her?tell her? oh, what shall we tell her?" The porter rubred his thick skull: "Lemma see?we im^ht say you?I tell you what we'll t?'!l her: we'll tell her you took the train for New York; and it she runs mighty fast, tshe can just about ketcb it."' title, tine!" And rhe rewarded his genius with another coin. "And, porter" He had not budged. "Por? ter, if a very handsome man with lug nous ? j 8 an 1 a soulful smllo aska lor me?" 'TH th'ow him off the train!" "Oh, no?no!?that's my husband? my present husband You may let him In Now is it all perfectly clear, porter?" "Oh, yassum, clear as Clear." Thus guaranteed she entered the stateroom, leaving the porter alone with his prob? lem. He tried to work it out in a seml-audible mumble: "Lemma see! If your present husband's absent wife gits on boda disguised as a handsome hideous woman I'm to throw htm? her?off tho train and let her?him? come In?oh. yassum. you may rely on j me." He bowed and held out fcTs I band. But she was gone. He shuf? fled on Into the car. , He had hardly left the little space before the stateroom when a hand? some man with luscious eyes, but without any smile at all, came slink? ing along the corridor and tapped j cautiously on the door. Silence alone I answered him at first, then wnen he had rapped again, he heard a muf i fled: "Go away. I'm not in." i He put his lips close and softly j called: "Edith!" At this Sesame the door opened a trifle, but when he tried to enter, a hand thrust him back and a voice again warned him off. "You musn't come in." "But I'm your hrsband." "That's just why you musn't come in." The door opened a little wider to give him a view of a down-cast beauty moaning: "Oh. Arthur,* I'm so afraid." "Afraid?" he sniffed. "With your husband here?" "That's the trouble, Arthur. What If your former wife should find us to? gether ?" "But she and I are divorced." "In some states, yes?but other states don't acknowledge the divorce. That former wife of yours la a fiend to pursue us this way." "She's no worse than your former hu?t>and. He's pursuing us, too. My c? was as good as yours, my dear." "Yes, and no better." Tbe angels looking on might have Judged from the ready tempers of the newly married and not entirely un? married twain that their new alliance promised to be as exciting as their previous estates. Perhaps the man subtly felt the presence of those eter? nal eavesdroppers, for he tried to end the love-duel in the corridor with an appeasing caress and a tender ap? peal: "But let's not start our honey? moon with a quarrel." His partial wife returned the caress and tried to explain: "I'm not quar? reling with you, dear heart, but with the horrid divorce laws. Why, oh, why did we ever interfere with them?" He made a brave effort with: "We ended two unhappy marriages, Edith, to make one happy one." "But I'm so unhappy, Arthur, and so afraid " He seemed a trifle afraid himself and his gaze was askance as he urged: "But the train will start soon, Edith?and then we shall be safe." Mrs. Fosdick had a genius for in? venting unpleasant possibilities. "But what if your former wife or my for? mer husband should nave a detective on board?" ""A detective??poof!" He snapped his fingers in bravado. "You are with your husband, aren't you?" "In Illinois, yes," she admitted, very dolefully. "But when we ccme to Iowa, I'm a bigamist, and when we come to Nebraska, you're a biga? mist, and when we come to Wyoming, we're not married at all." It was certainly a tangled web they had woven, but a ray of light shot through it into his bewildered soui. "But we're all right in Utah. Come, dearest." He took her by the elbow to escort her Into their sanctuary, but still she hung back. "On one condition, Arthur?that you leave me as soon as we cross the Iowa state line, and not come back till we get to Utah. Remember, the Iowa state line!" "Oh, all right," he smiled. And see? ing the porter, beckoned him close and asked with careless indifference: "Oh, porter, what time do we reach the Iowa state line?" "Two fifty-five in the mawning, sah." "Two fifty-five a, m.?" the wretch exclaimed. 'Two fifty-five a. m., yassah," the porter repeated, and wondered why this excerpt from the time-table should exert such a dramatic effect on tbe luscious-eyed Fosdick. He had small time to meditate the puzzle, for the train was about to be launched upon Us long voyage. He went out to the platform, and watched a couple making that way. As their only luggage waa a dog basket he sup? posed that they were simply come to bid some of his passengers good-bye. No tips were to >*? expected from such transients, eo he t llowed them to help themselves up the steps, Mallory and his Marjorie had tried to kiss the farewell or farewells half a dozen times, but she could not let him go at the gate She asked tho guard to let her through, and her beauty was bribe enough. Again and again, ?he and Mallory paused. He wanted to take her back to the taxicab, but she would not bo so dismissed. She must spend the luFt available socoud with him. "TO go as far as the steps of the ear." she sr.id. When they were ar? rived there, two jmrtc.rs. a sleeping ear conductor and several smoking Baunterers profaned tno tryst. So she whispered tha\ she would come aboard) for the corridor would be a quiet lane for the last rites And uow that he had her actually on tl ti " Mallory*! whole povl re v-'lte,! against Ltting her go. 'I be vision ol her standing on tiK> plat? form sad-eyed and lorn, while the . train swept him yii Into Bpace was unendurable. He shut in> <>h aga nsl It, but It glowed Inrlde the II Is And then temptation whispered him its old "Why not?" While it was working In his soul liko a fermenting yeast, he was saying: "To think that wo should owe all our misfortune to an Infernal taxi cab's break-down." Out of tho anguish or her loneliness crept one little complaint: "If you had really wanted me, you'd have had two '.axiea-ts." "Oh, how can you say that?' I had '. the license bought and the minister waiting." "He's waiting yet." "And the ring?tnere's the ring." He fished it out of his waistcoat pock? et and held it before her as a golden amulet. "A lot of good it does now." said Marjorie. "You won't even watt over till the next train." "I've tola you a tnousand times, my love," he protested, desperately, "if r don't catch the transport, I'll be court martialed. If this train is late, I'm. Rev. Walter Temple. lost. If you really loved me you'd come along with me." Her very eyes gaspecl at this as? tounding proposal. "Why, Harry Mallory, you know It's impossible." Like a sort of benevolent Satan, he laid the ground for his abduction: "You'll leave me, then, to spend three years without you?out among those Manila women." She shook her head in terror at this vision. "It would be too horrible for words to have you marry one of those mahogany sirens." He held out the apple. "Better come along, then." "But how can I? We're not mar? ried." He answered airily: "Oh, I'm sure there's a minister on poard." "But it would be too awful to be married with all the passengers gawk? ing. No, I couldnt face it. Good? bye, honey." She turned away, but caught her arm: "Don't you love mer* "To distraction. I'll wait for you, too." "Three years is a long wait." "But I'll wait, if you will." With such devotion he could not tamper. It was too beautiful to risk or endanger or besmirch with any danger of scandal. He gave up his fantastic project and gathered her in? to his arms, crowded her into his very bouI, as he vowed: "I'll wait for you forever and ever and ever." Her arms swept around his neck, and she gave herself up as an exile from happiness, a prisoner of a far off love: . "Good-bye, my husband-to-be. "Good-bye my wlfe-that-was-to-have been-and-wlll-be-maybe," "Good-bye." "Good-bye." "Good-bye." "Good-bye." "I must go." "Yes, you must" "One last kiss." "One more?one long last kiss." And there, entwined in ee.ch other's arms, with lips wedded and eyelids clinched, they clung together, forget? ting everything past future or pres? ent Love's anguish made taem blind, mute and deaf. They did not hear the conductor crying his "All Aboard!" down the long wall of the train. They did not hear the far-off knell of the bell. They did not hear the porters banging the vestibules shut They did not feel the floor sliding out with them. And so the porter found them, en? gulfed in one embrace, swaying and swaying, and no more aware of the increasing rush of the train than we other passengers on the earth-express are aware of its speed through the ether-routes on Its ancient schedule. The porter stood with his box-step in his hand, and blinked and won? dered. And they did not even know they were observed. CHAPTER IX. Ail Aboard! The starting of the train surprised the ironical decorators in the last stages of their work. Their smiles died out in a puddon shame, as it came over them that the joke had re? coiled on th?dr own heads. They had done their beat to carry out the time honored rite of making a newly mar* rlod couple as r.-.i ierabla aa possible? and the newl) married couple had failed to do its share The two lieutenants glared at each other in mutual contempt. Tbey had studied much al Waal Point about ambushes, and how to avoid them. Could Million have escaped the pit they bad digged for him? They looked at tht ir handiwork in disgust The cosy-corner effect ol white rib? bons and orange flowere, ^raceiuiiy masking the concealed rtee-trap, had seemed the wittiest thins ever de? vised. Now it loolted the silliest. The other passengers were eoualry downcast. Meanwhile the two lovers in the corridor were kissing good