Amanda was enthroned in his heart, he knew it at last! How blind he had

been! He knew now what his mother had meant one day when she told him,

"Some of you men are blinder'n bats! Bats do see at night!"

As he rode from Lancaster on the little crowded trolley his thoughts

were all of Amanda--would she give him the answer he desired? Could he

waken in her heart something stronger than the old feeling of

friendship, which was not now enough?

He stepped from the car--now he would be with her soon. He meant to

stop in at the Reist farmhouse and ask her the great question. He could

wait no longer.

"Hello, Landis," a voice greeted him as he alighted from the car. He

turned and faced Lyman Mertzheimer, a smiling, visibly happy Lyman.

"Oh, hello," Martin said, not cordially, for he had no love for the

trouble-maker. "I see you're in Lancaster County for your vacation

again."

"Yes, home from college for Thanksgiving. I hear you've been away for

several weeks."

The college boy fell into step beside Martin, who would have turned and

gone in another direction if he had not been so eager to see Amanda.

"Yes, Landis," continued the unwelcome companion. "I'm home for

Thanksgiving. It'll be a great day for me this year. By the way, I saw

Amanda Reist a number of times since I'm here. Perhaps you'll be

interested to know that Amanda's promised to marry me--congratulate

me!"

"To marry you! Amanda?" Martin's face blanched and his heart seemed

turned to lead.

"Why not?" The other laughed softly. "I'm not as black as I'm painted,

you know."

"I--I hope not," Martin managed to say, his body suddenly seeming to be

rooted in the ground. His feet dragged as he walked along. Amanda to

marry Lvman Mertzheimer! What a crazy world it was all of a sudden.

What a slow, poky idiot he had been not to try for the prize before it

was snatched from him!

Lyman, rejoicing over the misery so plainly written in the face of

Martin, walked boldly down the middle of the road, while Martin's feet

lagged so he could not keep pace with the man who had imparted the

bewildering news. Martin kept along the side of the road, scuffing

along in the grass, thinking bitter thoughts about the arrogant youth

who walked in the middle of the road. The honk, honk of a speeding

automobile fell heedlessly upon the ears of both, till Martin looked

back in sudden alarm. His startled eyes saw a car tearing down the road

like a huge demon on wheels, its driver evidently trusting to the

common sense of the man in the way to get out of the path of danger in

time. But Lyman walked on in serene preoccupation, gloating over the

unlucky, unhappy man who was following. With a cry of warning Martin

rushed to the side of the other man and pushed him from the path of the

car, but when the big machine came to a standstill Martin Landis lay in

the dusty road, his eyes closed, a thin red stream of blood trickling

down his face.




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