6YN0P8I3. ' At I private view of the Chatworth personal estate, to be (old at auction, th Chatworth ring, known aa the Crew Idol, mysteriously disappears. Harry Creasy, jrho waa present, deacribea the ring to 'fcla fiancee, Flora Gllsey, and her chap iwran. Mil. Clara Brltton, aa being; like a ealhen god, with a beautiful sapphire set In the head. Flora meet Mr. Kerr, 'aa Englishman, at the club. In dis missing the disappearance of the ring, the .iplolti of an English thief, Farrell Wand, are recalled. Flora has a fancy that Harry and Kerr know something Rbout the mystery. Kerr tells Flora that has met Harry somewhere, but cannot place him. $20,000 reward Is offered for the return of the ring. Harry admits to flora that he dislikes Kerr. Harry takes Flora to a Chinese goldsmith's to buy an .engagement ring. An exqulBlte sapphire at In a hoop ot brass, Is selected. Harry 'Urges her not to wear It until it Is reset. The possession of the ring seems to cast a spell over Flora. Bhe becomes uneasy and apprehensive. Flora meets Kerr at a box party. She Is startled by the effect on him when he gets a glimpse of the Sapphire. The possibility that the stone Is part of the Crew Idol causes Flora much anxiety. Unseen, Flora discovers Clara ransacking her dressing room. Flora refuses to give or sell the stone to Kerr, and suspects him of being the thief, CHAPTER. XIII. j Thrust and Parry, My dear Flora: I am going out early and (hall not be back to dinner. CLARA. Flora let the little note (all aa If he disliked the touch ot it. She was relieved to think she would not have to see Clara that day. It was her de sire never to see Clara again. It only they could part here and now! How he wanted to shake the whole thing off her shoulders! How foolish not to have gone to Harry when she bad first made up her mind to! For why, after all, make him any explanations? Suppose she should just take the ring to him And say: "It gives me the shiv ers, Harry. Let's take it back and get something else." It he didn't suspect the sapphire already, he would never uspect it from that. But did she really want Harry to tld her of the ring? She would get hold of him first and then she would see what she would do. She stepped Into the hall with all the confidence of one who hag fully made up her mind to carry matters with a high hand; but at the tele phone she hesitated. Calling him up at such an hour of the morning de manding his attendance on such a fanciful errand wouldn't he think it odd? No, he would think it the most natural thing in the world for her to lie so flighty. Reassured, she gave the club number and stood waiting, listen ing to the half-syllables of switched off voices and the crossing click, click, that waB bringing her fate near er to her. She heard some one com ing up the stairs and down the hall toward her. Marrika stood stolid at her elbow. 'Mr. Cressy," she pronounced. "Yes, yes," said Flora, with the club clamoring in her left ear. "He is down-stairs," said Marrika. Flora nearly let the receiver fall. Harry here? What a piece of luck! But here on his own account, at such an hour how extraordinary! "Hello, hello," persisted the club. "What's wanted?" "Why, I " Flora stammered. "It's a mistake; never mind. I don't want him now." She hoped that Harry had not heard her as he came In, since it was his informal fashion to await her In the large entrance hall. She didn't want to spoil the chance he had giv en her of seeming off-hand about the ring. But the hall was empty, and as she descended the stairs she amused herself with the fancy that Shima bad had a vision, and that she would still hare to ring up the club and explain to the attendant that, after all, she wanted Mr. Cressy. . , Then from the drawing-room thresh old she caught sight of Harry stand ing in the big bay window of the drawing-room, in the same spot where Kerr had awaited her the afternoon before. Harry was tall and large and freshly colored, and yet he did not fill the room to her as the other man had done. He met her, kissed her, and be turned her head so that his lips tnet her cheek close beside her ear. She did not positively .object to bJs . kissing her on the lips, but her Li stinct was strong to offer him her cheek. He had sometimes laughed at this, but now be resented It. He in sisted on his privilege, and she was passive to him, conscious of less love In this than assertion of possession. "You are not going to Burllngame, are you?" she asked him with her first breath. He looked down at her with a flushed and Bulky air. ".What differ ence would that make to you? I am, as it happens, but I suppose you think that's no reason for disturbing you so early." He was angry, but at what, she wondered, with creeping uneasi ness. "What is the matter?" she urged. "Are things going crookedly at Bur llngame?" . "Things are going as crooked as you please, but not at Burllngame. Sit over there," he said, nodding toward the window-bench; "I want to talk to you." Harry had the olr of one about to scold, and certainly Flora thought If anybody was carrying matters with a high hand. It wasn't herself; but she didn't follow hit direction. She con tinued to stand, while he, siting on the table's edge, drumming the top ot his hat, gloomily regarded her. "Well?" she persisted, troubled by this look of his, and this silence. "Look here," he began, "I have to be away a couple of days and I wish you'd do me a favor." Flora's thought flew to the ring. Was he going to ask for It back, to have it reset, as he had promised on the threshold ot the goldsmith's shop? Here might be the chance Bhe had hoped tor of getting rid of It. She grasped at it before she had time to waver, "I wonder if it's the very favor I was going to ask ot you?" But he didn't take It up. He seemed hardly to hear her, as If bis mind was too much absorbed with quite another question a question that the next mo ment came out flat. "What was that Kerr doing here yesterday?" She was taken aback, so far had her apprehension ot Harry's jealousy slipped into the background in the last 21 hours. But her consciousness that Harry was not behaving well, even for a jealous man, made her take it up all the more lightly. "Why, he was calling, chatting, ta king tea what anybody else would do from four to six. What in the world gave you the idea that he was doing anything extraordinary?" "Well," he said, "you shouldn't do the sort of thing that makes you talked about." "That makes me talked about?" It made her pause In front of him. "Why, yea. It Isn't like you. It nev er happened before. Look here. I drop Into the Bullers' yesterday; And Clara sidled up to the judge; look around for you. 'Hello,' I say, 'Where's Flora?' 'Oh,' says Bhe, 'Flora's at home amusing Mr. Kerr. 'Amusing Mr. Kerr!'" he repeated. "That's a sice thing to hear." Flora wont red. She walked down the room from him to give her sud denly tumultuous heart time. How ever little he might guess the real trend of her interview with Kerr, she couldn't hear him come near it with out apprehension. She was angry, helplessly angry at Harry that he had taken this moment for his stupid jealousy. But she was more angry at Clara, since such a speech on Clara's part wasn't carelessness. She tried to laugh him out of it. "Why, Harry, I never saw you jealous before!" "It's all very well to say that and you know I've never made a row about the other Johnnies. I knew you didn't caro for any of them." Her eyes narrowed and .darkened. "And you take It for granted I care for Mr. Kerr?" "Oh, no, no!" He pushed his hand through his hair with an irascible gesture. "Hut It's plain enough you like him you women always like a fellow that flourishes but that's not the sort of man I care to see hanging around my girl." Flora stood leaning on the table, breathing a little hurriedly, feeling rather as if she had been shaken. Harry, standing with his hands in his pockets, looked not unlike the threat ening image he had appeared in the back of the goldsmith's shop. "Of course, the fellow can talk," he admitted, "and he has a manner. But Lord knows where he comes from or who he is. Why, even the Bullers don't know." Fiora turned sharply on him. "Who told you that?" "The judge. He picked him up at the club." . "Well," she kept it up, "some one had to introduce him there." Harry smiled. "You wouldn't care to bow to some of those club mem bers." "Harry, do you know how you sound to me?" She was trembling at the daring of what she was going to say. "You talk as if you knew something against him." Her statement seemed to bring him up short. "No, no, I don't,", he said hastily. She made a little gesture of des pair. How was she to count on Harry if he was going to behave like this? How trust him when he was shuffling SO? - She made one more bold stroke to make him speak out. "Harry, you do know something about him! I know you have seen him before." "Why, yes, I've seen him before. But that's got nothing to do with It" He looked surprised that she should seem to accuse him of it, and she wondered if he could have forgotten how he had denied It before. "And that isn't why you distrust him?" Tbo devil's tattoo that be beat on his hat Btopped. "I don't distrust him." "Well, dislike him, then. When was it you saw him before?" "Isn't it enough for me to tell you that I don't want you to see him?" "Oh!" She turned away from him. Every nerve in her was in revolt Then he really wasn't going to' tell her anything. He was keeping her out of it as if she were a child. She bad re lied on him to return the ring. She had counted upon bis indifference and good nature. And he was neither in different nor good-natured. All desire of even mentioning the ring to him left her and as to giving him her con fidence These hints that he bad thrown out about Kerr they might be- mere jealousy but he might have "Why, Harry, I Never Saw You Jeal ous Before I" 1 actual knowledge, knowledge that, with her own fitted to it, would make for him a complete figure. She caught her breath at the thought of bow near she had come to actually betraying Kerr. Until that moment she bad not realized that through all her waver ings her one fixed intention had been not to betray blm. Harry had risen and was buttoning his overcoat. "You know you're nev er at home if you don't want to be," he said. She stood misleadingly drooping be fore him. But though her appearance was passive enough for the most ex acting lover her will had never been in more vigorous revolt. She knew Marry was taking her weariness for acquiescence, and she let him take it so. She even followed him into the hall, ami with a vague idea of further propitiation, nodded away Shima and opened the door for him herself. The fog was a chasm of white out side. Harry turned on the brink ot it. "By the way, Where's Clara?" "Why, do you want to see hei ? She will be out all day. She's dining with tho Willie Herricks." "No, I don't want to see her, but, by the way, she's not dining with the Willie Herricks; she's dining with the Bullers. I heard her make the en gagement yesterday." "Oh, no, Harry, I'm sure you're mis taken." "Well, it doesn't matter. All I want to know is, why did you show that ring to Clara fcefore it was set?" She was genuinely aghast. "I did not," Bhe flashed. "What made you think I had?" He shrugged. "Well, she asked me where we got it. I don't see why wo men always talk those things over." He was looking at her Inquiringly. . Well, I havro't," she said quickly. "Have you?" He looked out upon the fog. "Told her where we got It, do you mean? No, I just chaffed her. I'd look out, If I were you. She strikes me as damned curious." He stood a moment on the threshold, looking from Flora to the chasm of fog outside, as if he were choosing between two chances. "I think I'll take that ring this morn ing," he said slowly. The deliberate words cams to her with a Bhock. But in the moment, while she looked into Harry's moody face, she realized how impossible to make a scene over what must still be maintained as a trivial matter be twixt them the mere resetting of a jewel; what should she do to put him off? She looked up at him and saw with relief that his tace was turned from her to the fog, as if be had for gotten her. Then, still with averted head, as it be addressed the white ness, or himself, "No," ' he deter mined, "I won't. I'll take it when I come back." He pulled himself to gether with an effort, with a smile. "That is," he turned to her, "if you're In no great hurry about the setting? Very well, then. In a day or two." He plunged away Into the tog. A few rods from the door he disap peared, but she could still bear bis footsteps growing thinner, lighter, passing away in the whiteness. CHAPTER XIV. She stood where he had left her In the open doorway, with the damp ed- "I'll Speak to Clara To-night" dy of the fog blowing on her. She had had a narrow escape; but after the first fullness of her relief there re turned upon her again the weight of her responsibility. There waa no slip ping out of it now, and it was 'going to be worse than she had imagined. So much bad come out in the last halt hour that she felt bewildered by it. What Hurry had let Blip about Clara alarmed her. What in the world was Clara about? With one well aimed observation, she. had stirred up Harry against Kerr and against Flora herself. And meanwhile she was run ning after the Bullers. Twice, In two days, if Harry was not mistaken, and she was even nearlng another engage ment. - After all her fruitless mousiugs, Clara had too evidently got on the scent of something at last. How much she knew or guessed as yet. Flora could not be sure, but certainly, now, she couldn't let Clara go. For that would be turning adrift a dangerous person with a stronger motive than ever for pursuing he quest, and the opportunity for pursuing It unob served, out of Flora's sight. Clara was at It even now, and the only con solation Flora had was that Harry, at' least, would not play into her bands. For Harry had a special secret in terest of bis own. The last ten min utes of their interview had made that plain. His manner, when be had de clared his intention of taking the ring, had been anything but the man ner ot a care-free lover merely con cerned with pleasing his lady. Then they were all of them racing each oth er for the same thing the thing she held in her possession; and whether she feared most to be felled by a blow front Harry, or hunted far afield by Kerr, or trapped by Clara, she could not tell. She stood hesitating, looking out Into the obscurity of the fog, as if she hoped to read the an swer there. Presently she returned to the fact that Shima was waiting to close the door. Half-way across the hall she paused again, looking thoughtfully down the rose-colored vis ta of the drawing-room, and up at the broad black march of the stair. Vague mysteries peered at her from every side. Which should she flee from? Which walk boldly up to and dispel? She went up stairs slowly. She stood In her dressing-room absently before the mirror. She touched the hard. unyielding stone of the ring under the thin bodice of her gown. She re called the morning when she bad gone to get It, before anything had hap pened and the lure of life had been so exquisite. And yet she didn't wish herself back, but only forward. Now she had no leisure to Imagine, to pretend, to enjoy, only the breathless sense that she must get forward, The chatter ing clock on her mantel warned her of the passing time and set ber hur rying into her walking gown, her bat, her gloves, as it the object of ber er rand would only wait for her a mo ment longer. When, for the second time, she opened the bouBe door, she didn't hesitate. She descended Into the white fog that covered all the city. Above her the stone facade of her house loomed huge and pinkish In the mist Her spirits rose with the feel ing that she was going adventuring again, leaving that house where for the last two days she had awaited events with Buch vivid apprehensions. She hurried fast down the damp, glis tening pavement, seeing long, dim gray faces ot bouses glimmer by, see ing figures come toward ber through the fog, grow vivid, pass, and hearing at Intervals the hoarse, lonely voice of the fog-horn at "The Heads," reach ing her from over many intervening hills. She did not feel sure, what she should do at the end of her journey or what awaited her there. She knew herself a most unpractlced hunter, she, who all her life had been the moBt artful of quarries. She turned in at the low gate of Imi tation grill in front of an enormous wooden mansion, with towers and cu polas painted all a chill slate gray, with fuchsias, purple and red, clam bering up the front. She rang, and was admitted into a hall, ornate and very high, with a wide staircase sweeping down Into the middle of it The maid looked dubiously at Flora and thought Miss Buller was not at home, but would see. Flora turned Into the room on her left and sat down among the Louts Qulnze sofas and potted palms with a feeling that Miss Buller was at home, and, for one rea son or another, preferred not to be seen. She waited apprehensively, wondering whether Ella was not see ing the world-ln-general, or had really specified against herself. Could it be that Ella was one of those women whom Harry had alluded to as run ning after Kerr? In the short 24 hours every Individual help she had counted upon had seemed to draw away from hor Kerr, whose understanding she had been so Bure of; Clara, whose pro priety had never failed; Harry, whose comfortable good nature she had so taken for granted! It seemed as if the Bapphlrn, whose presence she was never unconscious of, for all she wore It out of sight, hnd a power like the evil eyo over these people. But if it could turn such as Ella against her, why, the Brussels carpet beneath her might well open and let her down to deeper abysses than Judge Buller's wine-cellar. She started nervously at the step of the maid returning. The message brought was unexpected. "Miss Bul ler says will you please walk up stairs?" Flora was amazed. That Invitation would have been odd enough at any time, for she and Ella were hardly on such intimate footing. But now she was ushered up the majestic stair, and from the majestic upper hall abruptly into a wild little cluttered sewing-room, and thence into a wilder but more spacious bedroom, large cur tains at the windows, large roses on the carpet, and over all objects In the room a clutter of miscellaneous ar ticles, as if Ella's band-boxes, bureaus and work-baskets .habitually refused to contain themselves. From the midst of this Ella con fronted her, Btill In her "wrapper" and with the large puff of her hair a little awry. Under It her face was curiously pink, a color deepening to the tip of her nose and puffing out un der her eyes. "Well, Flora," she greeted her guest. "You were just the person I wanted to see. ' Sit down. No, not there that's my bird of paradise feather! Oh, no, not there that's the breakfast. Well, I guess you'll have to sit on the bed." Flora swept aside the clothes that streamed across it and throned her self on the edge ot the high, white plateau ot Ella's four-poster. Ella, for all her eager greeting, looked upon her friend doubtfully, and Flora recog nized In 'herself a similar hesitation, as if each were trying to make out, without asking, what thoughts the oth er harbored. "I was afraid I shouldn't see you at all," Flora began at last. "Weil, you wouldn't If it hadn't hap pened to be you," said Ella paradoxi cally. "Look at me; did you ever see such a sight?" "You don't look very well," Flora cautiously admitted. "Why, Ella, you have been crying!" "Yes, I've been crying," said Ella, mopping her nose, which still showed a tendency to distil a tear at its tip. "And it's perfectly awful to me to think you've been living so long in the same house with her." Flora murmured breathlessly: "What In the world do you mean?" "If you don't know, I certainly ought to tell you. I mean Clara," said Ella distinctly. Flora, siting up on the edge of the high bed with the tips ot her little shoes hardly touching the floor, looked at Ella fascinated, her lips a little, apart Ella had so exactly pronounced' her own secret thought ot Clara. She was breathless to know what had been Clara's performance at the Bul lers". "Of course I've always known she was like that," said Ella, leaning back . in her chair with an air of resigna tion. "She's always getting some thing. It's awful. It was the same even when we were at boarding school. I suppose she never did have enough money, though ber people were awfully nice; but she worked us all for Invitations and rides In our car riages, and I remember she got lots through Llllle Lewis' elder brother, and he thought she was going to mar ry him, but she didn't. Bhe married Lulu Brltton's rather; and I guess she worked him until he went under and they found there really was no mon ey. So she's been living on people ever since." Ella rocked gloomily. "But she does it so 'nicely," Flora suggested. She still bad the feeling that it was not decent to own up to these most secret facts of people's fallings. "Oh, yes, she's a perfect wonder," Ella admitted grudgingly; "look at what she's done for you!" Ella's ges ticulation was eloquent of bow much that had been. "But don't you Imag ine she cares about you any more than she cares about me!" Ella began to cry again. "You were an awfully good thing for ber, Flora, and now that you're going to be married she's got to have somebody else. But I do think she might have taken somebody besides papa." Flora gasped. "'Taken!' Ella, what do you mean?" "I mean married," said Ella. "'Married!'" For the time Flora had become a helpless echo. "Oh, not yet," Ella defiantly nod ded. "Not while there's anything left of me." Flora stammered. "Oh, Ella, no. Oh, Ella, are you sure?" She felt a hysterical impulse to giggle. "Well, I'd like to know why?" Ella snapped. "I'm sure papa Is twice as rich as old Brltton was, and twice as easy." She went off into sobs be hind her handkerchief. "Oh, don't, Ella, don't cry!" Flora . begged, petting the large expanse ot heaving shoulders, "I didn't mean anything. I was just silly. Of course It may be that she wants to marry him. But she never has before at . least, I mean, I don't believe . she wants to now. What makes you thins: she does? What has she done?" "Well," Ella burst out, "why i she coming here all the time, when she never used to, and petting papa? Why does she bother to' be so agreeable to me when she never was before? Why does she make me ask ber to dinner, when I don't want to?" Each question knocked on Flora's brain to the accompaniment of Ella's furious rocking. She could not an swer them, and Ella's explanation, ab surd as It seemed, coming on top ot her high expectations, wasn't impos sible. It was like Clara to have more than one iron In the fire; but when Flora remembered the passionate In tentness with which Clara bad de molished the order ot her room, she couldn't believe that Clara would pause in the midst of such pursuit to pounce on Judge Buller. "Oh, Ella," Flora sympathetically urged, "I don't believe there's really any danger. And surely, even if Bhe meant it, Judge Buller wouldn't be " "Oh, yes; he would," Ella cut her short. "Why, when she came yester day he was just going out, and she went for him and made him stop to tea. Think of it papa stopping to tea! And be was as pleased as Punch to have ber make up to him. He has not the least idea ot what she's after. Papa isn't used to ladles. He's always just lived with me." This astonishing statement looking at Flora through Ella's unsuspecting eyes had nevertheless a pathos ot its awn. "But I'll tell you one thing," Ella' ended, Btill rocking vigorously; 'd she comes here to-night to dinner when she knows I don't want her I shall tell her what I think of her, be fore she leaves this house! See If I don't" "Don't do that, Ella," Flora entreat- -ed, "that would be awful." She was certain that such an Interview would only end in Clara's making Ella more ridiculous than she was already. "Let me speak to her. I don't mind at all," she declared bravely, and in a manner truly, though she was fully aware that speaking to Clara would be anything but a treat "ph, would you?" said Ella eagerly. "I really would be awfully obliged. I hated to ask you. Flora, but I thought perhaps you might be able to to, well, perhaps be able to do some thing," Bhe ended vaguely. "Do you think you could?" "I'll speak to Clara to-night," said Flora heroically, "or to-morrow," she added; "I'm afraid I won't see her to-i night" (TO BE CONTINUSDJ
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