Officer 666 Part 13

"There, Gladwin--that's a clincher--you don't know Hogg."

Whitney Barnes was up to his ears in clover.

"How do you know I don't know him?" asked Gladwin, a little wildly.

"Why, how could you?" said Helen, accusingly.

"How could I know Mr. Hogg?"

"Yes."

"Why, just go out to his pen, introduce yourself and shake his tail."

Helen failed to see the humor of this sally and again the tears struggled for an outlet.

"Now you're making fun of me," she said, turning away. "I think it's very unkind."

Travers Gladwin felt a sharp pang of remorse and hated himself for his break. In his eagerness to repair the wound, he stepped to the young girl's side and said with great seriousness:

"I wouldn't hurt you in any way for the world."

Helen looked up at him and read the soul of sincerity and sympathy in his eyes. She was both rea.s.sured and embarra.s.sed by the intensity of his look.

"Really?" she managed to murmur, backing away and sitting down again.

The mention of Mr. Hogg had inflamed Whitney Barnes's curiosity, and he desired to know more of that unknown.

"Well, I don't see what Mr. Hogg has to do with it," he spoke up.

"Why, Auntie insists upon my marrying him."

Helen blurted this out involuntarily

"That's dreadful!" exclaimed Whitney Barnes, and Helen rewarded him with a smile of grat.i.tude.

CHAPTER XV.

HEROISM, LOVE AND SOMETHING ELSE.

The embarra.s.sment of both the girls had begun to wear off. The two strange young men, notwithstanding the unaccounted-for absence of the object of Helen's quest, began to appear less strange. Both possessed potent attractions and undeniable magnetism.

The shy and shrinking Sadie was sure she liked that tall and slender young man with the easy drawl and bright, humorous eyes immensely. The boldness of his glances made her heart beat pleasantly. To her he seemed to possess the master will and wit of the pair, and she felt she could repose perfect confidence in him.

For her part Helen was uncertain just how to sense the situation. One side of her will urged her to leave a message for her betrothed and hurry away. Another strain of consciousness held her fast.

Travers Gladwin's psychic waves that had so utterly failed in the grill room of the Ritz may or may not have had something to do with this. He felt inspired with a desire to prolong the interview indefinitely. He could not recall ever having been so attracted by the charming personality of any girl as he was by this distressed maiden who was so eager to see her Travers Gladwin.

He was flattered, even by the compliment of having the same name as the unknown. As a further expression of sympathy with Helen in the matter of Mr. Hogg he said earnestly:

"Do you mean to tell me that your aunt insists upon you marrying this--hog?"

"Yes," replied Helen, pa.s.sionately. "And he's awful, and I hate him, and I won't--I just won't."

"I think you're absolutely right," Gladwin agreed with her.

"Oh, you do?" cried the delighted Helen. Then, turning triumphantly upon her cousin she exclaimed:

"There!"

But Sadie's one idea did not include Mr. Hogg. She considered the elopement as a separate matter in which Mr. Hogg was in no way involved, wherefore she said:

"But you've only known Mr. Gladwin two weeks."

"I know," retorted Helen, "but I've loved him for four years."

"You've loved Travers Gladwin four years," said that young man in a voice hollow with wonder.

"And only known him two weeks," cut in Whitney Barnes. "By Jove, he must be one of those retroactive soul-mates."

"I've loved him four years," said Helen stiffly.

"You've loved him four years in two weeks," said Barnes in the tone of one trying to do a sum. "I give up. I can't do it."

Helen faced the heretic Barnes and announced impressively:

"Ever since the time he so bravely risked his own life to save that girl. It was splendid, n.o.ble!"

Travers Gladwin decided it was time to call a halt on the borrowing proclivities of the unknown double. It was bad enough for some one to appropriate his name, but also to take unto his bogus self the glory of the real one's heroism was too much.

"You mean that time at Narragansett?" he opened.

"Yes," said Helen. "Four years ago when he dashed into the roaring surf"----

"Yes, and fished out a cross-eyed colored lady," said Gladwin hotly.

"That's just it," returned Helen with flas.h.i.+ng eyes and heaving bosom.

"If she had been beautiful or some one dear to him, it wouldn't have been half so n.o.ble. Oh, it was fine of him!"

"And he told you about that?" asked Gladwin, numbed for the moment.

"No, he didn't. He's much too modest. I knew of it the day it happened, and he has been my ideal ever since. But would you believe it, when I first spoke to him about it he could hardly remember it.

Imagine doing such a brave thing, and then forgetting all about it."

"Oh, I've forgotten lots of such things," said the unrecognized hero.