Picture Show (May-Oct 1920)

Picture Show, October 2iid, 1920. Our SfrlencUd Serial TelUng of a Man's Fight Against Fate and of a ^fVonclerfut Love, lke^&U.\CEvoR HIS 99 Portallock Bay. " YSON ! Can you hear me ? This is \j Athalie. Are you ill?" John Galloway groped wildly for his sanity. It was the next morning, and Athalie was Speaking to him over the telephone. Her voico was buoyant with girlish happiness. She seemed to be bubbling over with the joy of life. It was ten o'clock, and outside the window the sun had conquered the mist and was telling the world to prepare for a gorgeous day. Galloway's head swam, but he steadied himself with an effort and tried to force some naturalness into his voice although, for the life of him, he could not understand what the girl was talking about. *' No, I am not ill, Athalie," he answered. " Not ill ?" Her voice came a little uncertainly. " You sound as if you are dying." " I assure you I am not," he answered. " Vulgarly, I am in the pink." There came the sound of an exaggerated sigh. " Then you have forgotten, sir. I am disappointed in you, and I think I am almost heartbroken. You have forgotten that this is our day — our great day, which we were to spend . entirely together. And here am I waiting with my hat on — waiting to begin the most glorious day of my life — and you have forgotten all about it." Galloway made a desperate rally, and laughed his loudest into the 'phone. " You poor thing !" he called. " It's a shame, and I'm a brute to be late." " Oh !" she murmured softly, '' is it only that ? I thought you had decided not to come, lest I should bore you to death with a whole day of nothing but me and my feeble chatter." " Athalie !" He heard her happy laughter. " Oh ! how you have relieved me. It is fivo minutes past ten, and if you knew all the horrible disasters which I have been imagining in those five minutes, I think you would be sorry for me." " I am just getting my boots on. I shall be with you in ten minutes." " Hurry ! Hurry !" sho cried. " Thoro are banners in the sky specially for us, and the bees are humming liko mad t hings. We have already missed more than five minutes of it, and I have a feeling, Dyson, that this is to bo my happiest day. and I shall always regret every minute I waste of it." Galloway wrenched himself clear of the black shroud of his thoughts, and literally plunged into a suit of flannels and white boots. He was out of the house in seven minutes. Ho stayed not to reason why but mado for her house across tho fields at his best pace. What did it all mean ? This was the stuff of madness. Ho had been awako all night, with tho exception of one hour. In that ono hour his dreams had boen so hideous that he had resolutely refrained from wooing sleep again. Last night lrma Gale must have told Athalie the truth about him — muni have done. Why else did she go to tho llailton's house, and go inside with her ? Consequently, although ho had not forgotten this appointment, he had not droamod of keeping it. lie expected perhaps a letter, porhaps a visit from her father. There wcro othor possibilities equally unpleasant. The only thing he bad not expected was over to seo her again. And here sho was, ca'ling to him joyously : speaking of banners in tho sky, and tho mad humming of bees . inviting him to spend the happiest day of her life with her. 1 1 was a mistake. There must bo a trap in this somewhere which had not yot revealed itself. Or else — he hardly dared frame tho CHARACTERS IN THE STORY. JOHN GALLOWAY is saved from the wreck of the , Sweet Alice. When he recovers he is mistaken for his friend. He protests, but no one believes that he is not. DYSON MALLET, whom John supposes to be drowned. Mallet was engaged to ATHALIE RAILTON, with whom Galloway falls in love. | ■ IRMA GALE was also on board the Sweet Alice, and John thinks she too was drowned ; but one d;lv she comes to see him. ALICE MERCER writes a letter addressed to Mallet, hinting at a past love affair. She goes to his house, and linds Galloway impersonating his friend. While they arc talking somebody shoots at them from the aardcD. thought— lrma Gale had not told. If she had, how could there be that bubble of sheer joyousncss in Athalie's beloved voice ? Grimly he thrust it all out of his mind. He deliberately delivered himself into the hands of fate : satisfied to be the sport of fortune. She wanted tliis to be the happiost day of her life, and if any act of his could help to make it so, he would not flinch. Until tho night ! But when the night came he must tell her the truth, if, by any weird flirt of fortune, sho had not already been told. She was dressed in white ; such a dream of sheer loveliness that his breath caught in his throat. She greeted him with portentous gravity, but behind the solemnity of her eyes he could see little elves of rare laughter peeping at him shyly. " Are you aware, sir. that you are going to spend a whole day alone with me — just our two selves, and nobody else in the world ? Are you aware of it, sir, and do you think you will bo able to support it without dying of fatigue ?" " I am awaro of it, Athalie," he answered, feeling as grave as she pretended to be. " And 1 think, for me at any rate, it is going to bo a day snatched from Eternity." She clapped her hands. " Oh ! what a beautiful thing to say. You know you keep on surprising me." She paused to look at him with a straightbrowed critical air. " You never used to say clever things like that, and nice as well as clever. Of courso, you stole it out of a book, but you never wero bookish seven years ago." " I am seven years older, Athalie." " Alas, and so am I. But to-day I am just ns old as I want to be, and younger than I havo ever been. And meanwhile, while wo are talking, the banners and tho bees aro waiting for us. Do you know what this is to bo, sir ? " " I am hoping a picnic," he said, having seen two baskets suggestively packed. " You aro right, sir. While you have been wasting this glorious morning in soulless slumber, I have been making sandwiches for you with my own fair hands. Do you know I have been horribly worried to know how many sandwichos a man can eat. But it doesn't matter ; • 1 think there will be enough. I will carry the sandwiches and the cakes — 1 baked them myself last night — and you shall carry tho drinkables. They aro nothing very serious — homo-made lemonade only, in bottles. 1 pray you will like it, Mr. Mallet. In the old days I remember you wcro a toetotaller." Her eyes Hashed daringly at him. I am now, at any rate," he ropliod. " Why are you calling mo Mr. Mallet to-day, Athalie V" " I don't know. It is just a mood, and you must give way to all my moods to-day, however f#ivolous, becauso this is my day, and — and yours. Do you promise to do exactly as I wish ?" — " Most solemnly I promise it." " You'ro a doar. And now do. you know whero we arc going, Mr, Mallet He shook his head. " To Portallock Bay ■" " What is it ? It sounds like an Egyptian official.". " Do you know," she murmured, " you have a short memory. Even in seven years you ought not to have forgotten Portallock Bay. But you need not blush at that, sir. I am in my most charitable mood to-day, and I am ready to overlook and forgive all your delinquencies of the past. Al! offthem. I wonder if you appreciate that. Well, take up your white man's burden, Mr. Mallet. No, I insist upon carrying tho sandwiches. It is threo miles to Portallock. Can you walk so far ?" " I can walk thirty with you, Princess." " It is nice of you to call me that. Do yon think nicely of me ? I believe you do. No, don't tell me, because I know you are always nice to me in your thoughts. Portallock Bay, sir, is a real bay ; th.'.t is, a geographical bay with water in it, and mud, heaps of mud ; and a little, just a little, sand. Many years ago you and I sat on that strip of sand with bare legs and feet, and you disfigured me for life." " Athalie ! — what are you talking about ?" " The Chinese dragon on my arm. Alone you did it ; and wasn't I just proud of it when it was done, although you were old onough to know better." It was an unspeakable outrage," said Galloway thickly. I love it," she answered. " I hated it until a little while ago, but now — I think I love it. And here we stand talking the most foolish stuff while this great day of ours is rushing into Eternity, bees And banners and nil. What do you say to a swim in tho North Sea, which used to be the German Ocean f" "Capital — if I may." " Oh ! yes. you may. Tho North Sea is free to all since it was re-discovered. And I think i' will be lather nice to be in the same sea with you, Mr. Mallet. I am considering the important question of a bathing costume for you. Mine is packed with the sandwiches." " 1 will buy ono as we go through the town," said Galloway. " Well spoken, sir." Neither her father nor mother put in an appearance, perhaps for diplomatic reasons. At tho door she paused for the barost fraction of a second, and he caught a half-wistful look in her face. Galloway drew back under pretence of adjusting the strap of his basket. To-day she seemed too bright and good for him to touch hor. She ran out into the gorgeous sunshine. " Forward to Portallock Bay t " she cried. What had lrma Galo told her when she came to tho house last night, ho wondered ? One thing was certain. She had not bot rayed his secret, and although it hung like a sword over the heads of both of them, Athalie, at any rate, know nothing of it. The Wishing Stone. JUST look at those gulls ! ' They wore in Portallock Bay. Athalie was pointing to a fishing-smack beached on tho mud. Over it a thousand sen-binW whirled screaming nnd towering upwards like a twisted column of smoke. " Now do you remember Portallock Bay, Mr. Mallet f " v • Galloway shook his head gloomily. " I have never seen it before,'' he said. A little flash of white alarm sprang momentarily into her face ; but she laughed it away quickly, almost nervously, and took his hand. "Come, then, I will introduce you to il-> chiefest distinction. It has only one, and you {Continued en pane 8.)