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