View.--The "Modus
Vivendi."--Letters to Sir Donald.--Oswald and the Newsboy.--Escorted
to "Old Slip."--The Arraignment.--"Turn Your Kidnaper
Loose."--Diplomatic Man-Catcher.--Oswald Attends
Church.--"Overcoming the World."--Meets Claude Leslie in
Central Park.--Enigma to Social Belles.--Claude Leaves for the
West.--Marco Salvini.--At Saint Vincent's.--The Delirium.--"The
Star! The Star! Mother!"--Inverted Spike-Prints.--Mystic
Whisperings--The Letter.

CHAPTER XXV 387

The Evening's Meeting.--Angles of Cross-Purpose.--Sir Donald's
Letter to Oswald.--Paul Committed as a Madman.--Pierre's Odd
Ethical Caprices.--"Do Equity."--Esther Inspects Postmarks
and Consults Ship Schedules.--An Expected Proposal.--A Sad
Home-Coming.--A Northfield Reunion.--Ingenuous Assurance.--Puzzling
Interrogatory.--Wordless Betrothal.--Pierre's Release.--Double
Wedding.--Hopefully "Shadowed."

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
"THE STAR! THE STAR! MOTHER!" _Frontispiece_

"THERE WAS A FLASH OF STEEL, A BLOW AND THRUST,
FOLLOWED BY THE SPLASH OF TWO BODIES" 60

"WITH UPLIFTED HAND THE APPARITION SLOWLY ADVANCED
TOWARD THE COWERING PAUL, AS IF TO
STRIKE" 98

"WHEN WITHIN ABOUT A HALF-MILE, THE FOUR RAISED
THEIR WEAPONS" 149

"RAPTLY GAZING AT THE CHILD'S INNOCENT FACE, PAUL
SOFTLY CROONS SOME CRADLE MELODY" 283

"PO' SICK CHILE! YO' WHITE FACE 'MINDS ME OF MY
OWN MANDY CAR'LINE JUST 'FO' SHE DIED!" 306

"THEN BEHOLDING PIERRE IRONED AND HELPLESS, PAUL
BURST OUT IN A HYSTERICAL LAUGH" 359

"THIS SAGE REPLY IS HEARD BY THE EAVESDROPPING
BESSIE" 407

PREFACE

Though to explain incurs a risk, the author accepts the hazard of a word
in advance.

While the novelist's license has been so used that there is need neither
to resent an innuendo nor to prove an "alibi," yet, substantially, the
incidents narrated occurred within the time stated, and nearly all the
actors are still upon life's "boards."

The conscientious tourist in search of that "beautif