ST Qf
JWJ2Lr-SJCML CO.
u
8YN0P6IS.
At' a private view of tlie Chat worth
personal estate, to be Hold at auction, the
Phatworlh ring, known as the Crew Idol,
mysteriously disappears. - Harry CresBy,
who was present, describes the ring to
lila fiancee. Flora Gilsey, and her chap
eron, Mrs. Clara Rrllton, oh being like a
heathen god, with a beautiful sapphire
set In the head. Flora meets Mr. Kerr,
an P.ngllshnian, at the club. In dls
eusslng the disappearance of the ring, the
exploits of an English thief, Farrell
Wand, are recalled. Flora has a fancy
that Harry and Kerr know something
about tho mystery. Kerr tells Mora that
he has met Harry somewhere, but cannot
place him. $'0.0i) 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 exquisite sapphire
el In a hoop of brass, Is selected. Harry
urges her not to wear It until It Is reset.
1'ho possession of the ring seems to cast
a spell over Flora. 'She becomes uneasy
and apprehensive. Flora meets Kerr at a
ho parly. She Is startled by the effect
on him when he gets a glimpse of the
apphlre. The possibility that the stone
la part of the Crew Idol causes Flora
Patch anxiety. Unseen, Flora discovers
lara ransacking her dressing room.
Flora refuses to give or sell the stone to
Kerr, and suspects him of being the thief.
Flora's Interest In Kerr Increases. She
decides to return the ring to Harry, but
he tells her to keep It for a day or two.
F.lla Boiler tells Flora that Clara- Is set
ting her cap for her fnther. Judge Buller.
Flora hell.-ves Harry suspects Kerr and
Is waiting to make sure of the reward be
fore unmasking the thief. Clara seems to
be Intent about something.
( CHAPTER XVII. (Continued.)
l!oyn!ul the looming roofs as they
descended the hill she saw white sails
.sink out of sight. All the panorama
upon which she had looked down
prang up around her, large and liv
ing. He whistled to the car as he
helped her down the last steep pitch,
whistled and waved, and they ran
for It.
This was never the car one went
out the front door to take. This creak
ed and crawled low, taking the cor
ners comfortably, past houses with
all their windows blinking recogni
tion. Hadn't it passed them so for 20
years? Old houses in long gardens,
and little houses creeping back behind
their yards, not yet encroached upon
by fresher ties of living. Past all
these and gliding down under high,
ragged banks, green grass above with
wooden stairways straggling up their
naked faces; past these again; past
lower levels; past little gray and
cluttered houses; past loaded carts of
vegetables; past children playing
6hrilly, bearing down always on the
greon square of the plaza wide, worn
and foreign, and the Greek church
"domed" with blue and yellow, bear
ing down as If it had fairly determined
to make Its course straight through
this stable center. Then In the very
shadow it swerved aside to clatter off
In quite another direction along a
wider street with whiter shops, and
more glittering windows with gilded
letters flashing foreign names, with
more marked and brilliant colors mov
ing in the crowd, with a clearer
stamp on all of Latin living.
Then suddenly for them the slid
ing panorama ceased. The car had
stopped and they had left It, and were
standing upon the corner of a still
street that came down from the high
hills behind them and crossed the
car track and climbed again a little
way to curve over into the sky. Dingy
houses two blocks above them stood
silhouetted against the blue. They
were walking upward toward this ho
rizon, leaving color and motion be
hind them. With every step the street
grew more empty, lonely and color
less. Many of the windows that glim
mered at them, passing, were the
blank windows of empty houses. Were
they taking this way, this curious
roundabout, out-of-the-world way, of
dropping over into the shipping which
lay under the hill? For all she knew
, this might really be his notion, for
since they left the garden gate,
though they had looked together at
the light and color of the pictures
moving past their eyes,, they had not
exchanged a word.
But all at once he Btopped at the
intersection. of two dusty streets, and
his eyes veered down the four per
spectives like a voyageur taking his
soundings. Elegant as ever and odd
enough, yet he wasn't any odder here
at the jumping oft place of nowhere
that he had appeared in the box at
the theater or in the. picture gallery.
She had the clear impression all at
once that he wasn't too odd for any
thing. "Here, we are!" he said, and indi
cated with his glittering stick straight
before them a little house. It was low,
as If it crouched against the wind,
faded and beaten by the sun to the
drab of the rock itself, and made so
secret with tight-drawn curtains that
it seemed to have shut Itself up
against the world forever.i She wa
vered. She wasn't afraid of herself
out here, out-of-doors under the sky,
but she was afraid that those four
walls might shut out her new un
reasoning joy, might steal away his
new tenderness, and bring her back
faee to face with the same ugly fact
that had confronted her in her draw
ing room. . '
"Oh, no," she said, and. put her
hands behind her with determina
tion that she wasn't going to move.
"Oh, yea," he said, but he didn't
mile. He looked at her quit grave
(7, reproachfully, and the Uracil of his
fingers on her arm was fine, was del
icate, as if to say, "I wouldn't hnrm
you for the world."
She blushed a slow, painful crim
son. She hadn't meant that. She
hadn't even thought of it; but, since
he had, there was nothing for it but
to go in. The door shut behind her
sharply, with a click like a little trap;
and she breathed such an atmosphere,
flat, faint and stale, the mere ghost
of some fuller, more fragrant flavor.
In the little anteroom where they
stood, whose faded ceiling txl! but
brushed their heads, and in the lr.rger
little room beyond the Nottingham
lace curtains, prevailed a mild shab
biness, a respectable decay. Curtains
and table-cloths alike showed a dull
and tempered whiteness as if the
shadow of time had fallen dim across
the whole. The little restaurant
seemed left behind in the onward
march of the city, and its faded, kindly
face was but a shndow of what had
been of the vigor and flourish of bour
geois Spain 30 years before.' There
was no one eating at the little tables,
no one sitting behind the high cash
desk In the anteroom. Not a stir of
human life in all the place.
"Hello," said Kerr among the tables
looking around him, "we've caught
them asleep." He rapped on the wall
with his cane. Flora peered at him
between the curtains, all her fascinat
ed apprehension, of what was to fol
low plain upon her face. "Shall it be
a giant or dwarf?" he asked her.
"There's nothing I won't do for you,
you know." ,,
. The door opened and a little girl
with a long black, braid and purple
apron came in.
; ' !'A dwarf," cried Flora. She
laughed with a quick relaxing of her
strained nerves. It might almost have
been the truth from that old little
swarthy face and sedate demeanor that
hardly noticed them. The child walked
gravely up to the desk and mounting
to the high Btool struck a faint-voiced
bell.
"There," said Kerr, "ends formality.
Now let the real magic begin!"
"Not black magic," Flora took up
his fancy.
He had drawn out a chair for her.
"That depends on you. I'm not the
magic maker. I have no talisman."
She felt the conscious jewel burn in
her possession. She looked up be
seechingly at him, but he only
laughed, and, with a swing, lifted the
chair a little off the ground as he sat
her up to the table, as if to show how
easily he could put forth strength.
There was nothing defiant in him. He
was taking her with him taking her
upon the wings of his high spirits;
but mischievously, obstinately, he
would not show her where the flight
was leading, nor let her listen to any
thing but the rustling of those wings.
He was determined to make holiday,
whatever was to follow. For the
glimpse of blue through the dim win
dow might be the Bay of Naples; and,
ah! Chianti. Perhaps the sort one
gets down Monte Video way, where
France fades Into Italy perhaps, at
least if her fancy could get the bet
ter of the reality.
"She wouldn't care If you jumped
up and threw me out of the window,"
he affirmed. "That's why this hole Is
so harmless. Oh, Isn't that harmless?
What's more harmless than to let one
alone? There's only one dangerous
thing here," he grinned and let her
take her choice of which.
She came straight at it.
"You know I can't let you alone
lie laughed. "Well, isn't that why
we're here at last that you may dic
tate your terms?"
"I have. Didn't you get my letter?"
"Oh, indeed I did. Haven't I obeyed
it? Haven't I kept away from your
house? Have I tried to approach
you?"
"Haven't you, though?" she threw
at him accusingly.
"Ah," he deprecated, "you came to
me. I was down in the garden."
She looked at him through his
persiflage wistfully, searchlngly. "But
there were other things in that let
ter." "There were?" He regarded her
with grave surprise. Oh, how she
mistrusted his gravity! "Why, to be
sure there were things things that
you didn't mean one thing above all
others you couldn't mean,' that you
want me to drop out when the game
is half done, to slink away and leave
it all like this abandon you and my
Idol to each other! My dear, for
what do you take me?"
She burst out. "But can't you see
the danger?"
He met it quietly.
"Certainly. I have been seeing
nothing else but the danger to you.
Do you think I've been Idle all these
days? Every line I have followed
has ended in that It's brought me
finally to this.'' The gesture of his
band included their predicament and
the dingy little room. "You'll really
have to help me, after all."
"Oh, haven't I tried to? That is
why I wrote. Don't you see your own
danger at all?"
"No, but I'd like to." He leaned to
ward her, brows lifted to a quizzical
peak. .
"Oh, I can't tell you," she despaired.
"But somehow I shall have to make
you go."
"That will be easy," he said. Lean
ing back, nursing his chin in his hand,
he watched her with a gloomy sort of
brooding. "You know what it la I'm
waiting for. . You know I won't go
without It" Hit words came sadly,
but doggedly, with a trim finality, as
If he gave himself up to the course he
was following as something he knew
was inevitable. The falntness of de
spair came over her. Only the nar
row table was between them, yet all
at once, with the mention of the ring,
he seemed a long way off.
"Do you care for it so very much?"
she asked him, trembling but valiant.
"I care so very much," he repeated
slowly, and after a moment of won
der: "Why, don't you?"
"Oh, not for that," she cried sharp
ly. "Not for the sapphire!"
He stared. She had startled him
clean out of his brooding. "In heaven's
name, for what, then?"
Oh, she could never tell him it was
for him! In her distress and em
barrassment she looked all ways.
His quick white finger touched her
on the wrist. "For Cressy?"
The abrupt stern note of his ques
tion startled her. She held herself
stiff' and still for a moment, then:
"For every one in this wretched busi
ness. I have to."
"Ah," he sighed out the satisfaction
of his long uncertainty, "then Cressy
is in it."
"No, I didn't mean that you must
n't think it I can't discuss him with
you!" She was hot to recapture her
fugitive admission.
"Don't let that disturb you. You
haven't given him away to me. I had
all I'm likely to get from the man
himself."
"He he told you?" she faltered.
"He told me nothing. Don't you
know that he misdoubts me? I got it
out of him, by sleight of band where
we had met before. Has he never
told you anything of that morning
when we left your house together?"
"Never." The admission cost her
an effort
He mused at her. "As I said, he
told me nothing, but It occurred to
me when he came in that we might
be there on the same errand."
She paled. "You mean ?"
"I mean I thought It might be safer
all around that you should not see
him that morning; so I got him away.
He hasn't asked you for It since?"
"The sapphire?" she faltered. 'No!"
The more her Instinct warned that it
had been the jewel Harry had return
ed for, the more she repudiated the
Idea to Kerr.
"Why should you think he came for
that? What has he to do with it?"
she murmured.
"My God! how you do champion
him!" He leaned forward sharply
across the table. "What is this man
to you?"
He was going too far. ' He had no
right to that question. "The man; I
have promised to marry." Her hot
look, her cold manner defied him to
command her here. Yet for a mo
ment, leaning forward with his
clenched hands on the table, he looked
ready to spring up and force her
words back on her. The next he let
it go and dropped back in his chair
again.
"Quite so," he said. "But I didn't
believe it" He stared at her with a
dull, profound resentment "Yet it's
most possible; since it isn't the sap
phire it would be that." He mused.
"But, you extraordinary woman, why
on earth " he broke off, still looking
at her, looking with a persistent
sharp, studying eye, as if she. were
the most puzzling and, it came to her
"Arc You Afraid of Cressy?"
gradually,' the most dubious thing on
earth. ,
"Then what are you doing here
with the ring on you?" he demanded
solemnly. "Why are you dealing with
me? What do you think you'll get
out of it? Great God! women are
hideous! How can you betray the
man you love?"
"Oh," she cried, with a wall of hor
ror. She stood up trembling and pale.
"I don't I don't I don't! I've kept
it from them. I'm standing against
them all. I shall never give it to
them. . When have I ever betrayed
you?"
He drew back, away from her, as If
to ward off her meaning, but she
leaned toward him, her hands flung
out, holding herself up to him for all
she meant. He got up slowly and the
creeping tide of red, dusky and vio
lent, rising over his face, swelling his
features, darkening his eyes, hung be
fore her like a banner of shame.
"I didn't know, I didn't know," he
repeated in a low voice. His eyes were
on the ground. Then, with a sharp
motion, as if merely Btanding in front
of her was unendurable. "Oh, Lord!"
he said, and, turning, walked from
her toward the window. He went
precipitately, as It he meant to go
through it but he only leaned against
it and stood motionless; and from her
side of the table, trembling, breath
less, she watched bis stricken sil
houette black upon the gray, fading
light
The knowledge of how far she had
gone, of how much she had betrayed
herself, swelled and swelled before
her mind until it seemed to fill her
life, but she looked at it hardily and
unabashed. All the decencies in the
world should sink before he thought
her a traitor. She came softly up be
side him.
"Don't be sorry for what I told
you."
"I'm not," he said. His voice sound
ed muffled. He did not look at her,
only held out his arm in a mute sign
to her to come. She felt it around her,
but It was a mere symbol of protec
tion. It lay limp on her shoulder,
and he continued, to stare through the
window at the street. "I'm not sorry
for what you said," he repeated slow
ly. "I'm glad; but, child, I wish it
wasn't true."
"Don't, don't!" she besought him,
"for I don't."
He gave her a look. "That's beau
tiful of you, but" and he turned to
the window again and spoke to him
self "It puts an awful face on my
business. All along you've made me
think for you, and of you, more than
you deserve, more than I can afford."
The stare she gave this forced out of
him a reluctant smile. "Why, didn't
you know it? Do you think I couldn't
have had the sapphire that first
night I saw it on your hand, if it
hadn't been well, for the way 1
thought of you? I fancied you knew
that then." He made a restless move
ment. His arm fell from her shoul
der. "There's been only one thing
to do from the first," he said, "and I
don't see my way to It."
"Oh, don't take it! Leave it!" she
pleaded. "Leave It with met What
does it matter so much? A jewel! If
only you would leave it Sud go away
from me!"
He whirled on her. "In heaven's
name, a fine piece of logic! Leave the
sapphire to people who can make no
better use of it than I? Leave you to
go on with this business and marry
this Cressy? Even suppose you gave
me the sapphire, I couldn't let you
do that!"
"If I gave you the sapphire," Flora
said, "oh, he wouldn't marry me
then!" She couldn't tell how this had
come to her, but all at once it was
clear, like a sign of her complete
failure; but Kerr only wondered at
her distress.
"Well, If you don't want to marry
him, what do you care?"
"Oh, I don't I don't care for that"
She sank back listlessly in her chair
again. She couldn't explain, but in
her own mind she knew that if she
lost the sapphire she would so lose in
her own esteem; so fail at every point
that counted, that she would never be
able to see or be seen in the world
again as the same creature. Even to
Kerr even to him to whom she would
have yielded she .would have become
a different thing. She realized now
she had staked everything on . the
premise she wouldn't have to
yield; and now it began to ap
pear to her that she would. His
weakness was appearing now as
a terrible strength, a strength
that seemed on the point of crushing
her, but it could never convince her.
That strength of his had brought her
here. Was it to happen here, that
strange thing she had foreseen, the
end of her? Was it here she was to
lose the sapphire, and him?
She looked vaguely around the
room, at the most impassive aspect
of the place, as at a place she never
expected to leave; the darkening win
dows, th.e fast-shut door, the child
leaning on the desk, watching them
with sharp, incurious eyes this would
be her niche forever. She would be
left forever with the crusts and the
dregs. And Kerr's figure in the twi
light seemed each time it moved to be
on the point of vanishing into the
grayness. He moved continually up
and down the narrow spaces between
the tables. He troubled the dry re
pose of the place. Sometimes he
looked at her, studying, questioning,
undecided. Once he stopped, as If
just there an idea had arrested him.
He looked at her, as if, she thought,
he were afraid of her. Then for long
moments he avoided her, until, as
though he bad come at last to his de
cision, he walked straight up to her
and stood above her. She rose to
meet him. He was smiling.
"Don't you know that you could
easily get rid of me?" he de
manded. "Cressy would be too glad
to do it for you; and there are more
ways than one that I could get the
sapphire from you, if I could face the
Idea of it but really, really we care
too much for each other. There's only
one way out for you and me and the
sapphire. I'll take you both."
Her clenched hands opened and fell
at her sides. A great wave of help
lessness flowed over her. Her eyes,
her throat filled up with a rush of
blinding tears. She put out her bands,
trylDg to .thrust htm off, but he took
the wrists and held them apart, and
held her a moment helpless before
him.
"Oh, no," she whispered.
"But I love you."
Her head fell back. She looked at
him as If he had spoken the incred
ible. "I love you," he repeated, "though
God knows how it has happened!"
The blood rushed to her heart
He was drawing her nearer.
She felt his breath , upon her face;
she saw the image of herself In his
eyes. She started to herself on the
edge of danger, and made a struggle
to release her wrists. He let them
go. She sank down into her chair.
"Why not? Why won't you go with
me?" she heard him say again, still
close beside her.
"I can't I can't!" She clung to
the words, but for the moment she
had forgotten her reasons. She had
forgotten everything but the wonder
ful fact that he ' loved her. He was
there within reach, and she had only
to stretch out her hand, only to say
one word, and be would cut through
the ranks of her perplexities and ter
rors,' and carry her away.
"Why not, if you love me?" he in
sisted. "Are yob afraid of those peo
ple? Are you afraid of Cressy? He
shall never come near you."
She shook her head. "No, it Isn't
that."
He stooped and looked into face.
"Then what keeps you?"
She looked up slowly.
"My honor."
"Your honor!" For a moment her
answer seemed to have him by sur
prise. He mused, and again it came
dreamily back to her that he was
looking at her across a vast differ
ence no will of hers could ever bridge.
"Don't you see what I am?" she
murmured. "Can't you imagine where
I stand in this hideous business? It's
my trust I'm on their side; and, oh,
In spite of everything, I can't make
myself believe fn giving it to you!" .
He pondered this very gravely.
."Yes, I can see how you might feel
that way. But is the feeling really
yours T Are you sure they haven't
put it on you? Might not my honor
do as well for you, if you were mine?"
It struck her she had never connected
him with honor, and he read her
thought with a flash of humor. "Evi
dently It hasn't occurred to you that
I have an honor."
She looked at him sadly. "In spite
of everything I'm on the other aide.
I belong to them,"
"You belong to me." His band
closed on her. "Mine is the only honor
you have to think of. Can't you trust
that I am right? Can't you see It
through my eyes? Can't you make
yourself all mine?" His arm was
around her now, holding her fast, but
she turned her face away, and bis
kisses fell only oa her cheek aad
hair.
"Oh," she cried, "if only I could!"
"Don't you love me?"
"Oh, yes, but that makes me see,
all the more, the dreadful difference
between us."
"You silly child, there is no differ
ence, really." ,
"Ah, yes, you know it as well as
I. You were afraid of it, too. All
that long time you were walking
around you were wondering whether
you dared to take me."
He denied her steadily, "Never!"
She loved him for that gallant de
nlal, for she knew he had been afraid,
horribly afraid, more afraid than she
was now; but that strange quality of
his that gave to a double risk a dou
ble zest had set him all the hotter on
this resolution.
He sat for some long moments
thoughtfully looking straight before
him. She, glancing at his profile,
white and faintly glimmering in the
twilight, thought it looked sharp, absorbed-
and set She could see his
great determination growing there in
the gloom between them, looming and
overshadowing them both.
"I see," he said at last. "I simply
have to take you in spite of it" He
turned around to her, and reached his
hands down through the dusk. She
was being drawn up into arms which
she could not see. Her hands were
clasped around a neck, her cheek was
against a face which she had never
hoped to touch. Her reason and her
fears were stifled and caught away
from her lips with her breath. She
was giving up to her awful weakness.
She was giving up to the power of love.
She was letting herself sink into it aa
she would sink into deep water. The
sense of drowning in this profound,
unfathomable element of shutting her
eyes and opening her arms to it was
the highest she had ever touched; but
all at once the memory of what she
was leaving behind her, like a last
glimpse of sky, swept her with fear.
She made a desperate effort to rescue
herself before the waters quite closed
over her head.
She pulled herself free. Without
his arms around her for the first mo
ment she could hardly stand. She
took an uncertain step forward; then
with a rush she reached the white cur
tains. They flapped behind her. She
heard Kerr laugh, a note, quiet ca
ressing, almost content It came from
the gloom like a disembodied voice of
triumph. Her rush had carried her
into the middle of the anteroom.- At
this last moment was there to be no
miracle to save her? There was no
rescue among these dumb walls and
closed-up windows. The purple child
gave her a sharp, bird-like glance, aa
If the most that this wild woman
could want was "change." Flora
looked behind her and saw Kerr, who
had put aside the curtains and was
standing looking at her. He waa
bright and triumphant In that twilight
room. He was not afraid of losing
her now. He knew in that one mo
ment he had imprisoned her for ever!
She saw him approaching, but though
all her mind and spirit strained for
flight something had happened to her
will. It tottered like her knees.
He stooped and picked up an arti
ficial rose, which had fallen from her
tint and nut If Intn her hand A mn.
mpnt. with hlfl head bent. Ma utnnA
looking into her face, but without
touching her.
"Sit down over there," he said, and
pointed toward a chair against the
wall. She went meekly like a pris
oner. He spoke to the child in the -purple
apron, who was still sitting
behind the desk. He put some money
on the cash-desk in front of her. It
was gold. It shone gorgeously in the
dull surrounding, and the child
pounced upon it Incredulous of her
luck. Then he turned, crossed the
room, soundlessly opened the door,
and went out Into the violet dark of
the street. '
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
One Trip Nearly Paid for 8chooner.
Dealers at T wharf were given a
surprise when Capt Horace Hlllman
of the 14-ton schooner Eliza Benner
of Edgartown offered 20,000 pounds of
fish to buyers at the exchange. No
one believed that a schooner the size
of the Benner would attempt rounding
P.ha riA D t this HBonn n .(...1.
loaded. But the captain had recently
purchased the vessel and thought if
he could reach Boston at a time of
high prices he might be able to nearly
pay her purchase price.
With five young men belonging on
Martha's Vineyard Capt Hlllman took
the schooner out on the ocean side of
Nantucket and in a short time filled
the craft to the hatches. The venture
proved so successful that the crew
earned about $30 each and the Ben
ner almost paid for herself. Boston
Herald.