Show PICTURES cs v by d N A 0 I 1 aar a C synopsis mad alad dan maitland Malt land on reaching reaching his hill N new tork bachelor club club me met an attractive e youns young woman at the door janitor Ol ohagan lagan insured ansu reil him no one had been within that day dan discovered a worn wom 1 ans finger prints printa in dut dust on his d ask e e k kinf alonar with a letter from his hi attorney malland dined with bannerman his hi attorney dan set met out tor for greenfields t to set get hla his family jewels during his walk to the country seat beat he met the young woman in gray whom lie he had seen leav inc his bachelors club tier her auto had broken broken down ile he fixed it by a ruse she ohe lot lost hlin him Walt altland land on reaching home surprised lady in gray cracking the arafe tte containing hla his gems she apparently took him for or a well known crook dant daniel 1 anasty halt half hypnotized maitland Malt land opened his safe took the jewels jewels and gave them to her first farst form ermine ng 0 part in crime the real dan anesty sought by police of the world appeared on the same mission maitland Malt malti land and overcame him lie ho met the girl outside the house and they sped on to new tark in her auto lie he had the jewels and she promised to meet him that day martland Malt tand land received a mr snaith introducing him himself elf as an a detective to shield the girl in gray maitland Malt land about to show him the jewels a supposedly p 0 sedly lost was waa felled by a blo blow w from sn alphs cane the latter prove proved d to be anasty himself avid and he secured the gems anisey who w was maitlandt Malt Mait lands double masquerades masqueraded masquera ded as an the latter the criminal kept Mait maitlandt lands engagement with the girl in gray ile he give gave her ier the gems after failing in love at first light sight they were to meet and divide the oot loot malt land revived and regretted missing III his engagement anisey masquerading as an maitland altland tl narrowly avoided capture through mysterious tip the girl in gray visited Mait maitlandt lands apartments during him absence and returned gems being discovered on return maitland Malt land without cash called up his home and mard heard a womans comans vole voce expostulating anesty disguised as a maitland Malt land told her his rea real identity and realizing himself tricked tried to wring from her the location of th the gems then he proposed marriage A terms er crash was heard at the front door maitland started tor for home lie ha found anisey and the girl in his rooms again he overwhelmed the crook allowing him to escape to shield the young woman moman don dan himself narrowly avoids arrest janitor ohagan wined and dined the officers of the law hackey a detective duped by anasty anesty refused to partake and mused on his il fate CHAPTER XII continued hat tilted over his eyes one elbow on the another on the table flabby jowls quivering as he mumbled the indispensable cigar puffy hands clasped across his bis ample chest he be sat at for many minutes by the side aldo of his unheeded drink pondering turning over and over in hla bit mind the one idoa idea it wax wac capable of harboring at a time ile he cud ve wrote that letter to himself lies hes wise enough yeh yea cant fool hickey all the time ill get bet him yet got tub make good r its the sidewalks vir tr mine me bryin hard bard to make an onest lonest alvin 11 via nd lim him with all kinds of moneal money the fat mottled fingers sought a waistcoat pocket and fumbling therein touched caressingly a little pellet of soft paper its possessor did not require to examine it to reassure himself as to its legitimacy as a work of art nor as an to the prominence of the roman C in its of engraved arabesques A century he be reflected sullenly one lonely little century for mine nd he be had a wad like a ham 0 on n him nd I 1 might ve had i it t all tor for my very own it if his brow clouded blackly sleuth hickey ground the epithet vindictively between his bis teeth and spat sleuth ah heill recalled to himself by the very vehemence of his bis emotion he turned hastily drained to its dregs the tall glass of lukewarm and vapid beer which had bad stood at his elbow placed a nickel on the tha table and rising waddled hastily out into the night it was being borne in upon him with much force that II if he be wished to save his name and tame fame so methin had got to be done about it 1 I left him so long I 1 guess he told himself but ill get him all right and turning lumbered gloomily eastward rapt with vain imaginings Imag laings squat squab swollen figure blending into the deep meaner shadows of the tenderloin and so on toward maitlandt Malt Mait lands rooms morose misunderstood malignant coddling hta his fictitious wrongs somehow pathetically typical of the furce force hu he represented on the corner of fifth avenue he paused startled fairly out of his dour mood by the loud echo of a name already become too hatefully familiar to his ears earn and by the sight eight of what at first glance he be took to be the beginning of a street brawl CHAPTER allt flight in the alcove the girl waited torn in the throes of incipient hysteria at first too weak from reaction and re of feeling to do anything other than lean heavily against the wall and light fight with all her strength and will against this crawling shuddering creeping horror of nerves that threatened alike her self control tier her consciousness ness and her reason but insensibly binl the tremor wore itself away leaving her weary and worn but mistress of her thoughts and actions and she ehe dropped with gratitude into a chair bending an ear attentive to the war of words being waged la in the room beyond the port leres at first however hov over she failed to grasp the ilia import of the altercation and when in time ste understood its trend it was with incredulity resentment and a dawning lest a worse thin thing might yet befall her bar worse by tar far than aught that had gone before but to be deprived of his protection to feel herself forcibly restrained from the shelter of his bis generous care I 1 A moment gone she had been so sure that all would now be well with her maitland Malt land succeeded u ridding himself of the police lie would woul shut the door and and then she woula woul come forth and tell him toll tell I 1 hi him everything and withholding naught that damned her bar in her own esteem estee throw herself upon his bis mercy bruised with tio but serene in the Ps s a arance that he would prove kind I 1 she bad such faith la in his tender and gertle she had divined so ao clearly the motive that had permitted Ani anistes escape lu in or der that she might be saved not alone from rori anisey not alone from the shame of imprisonment but from herself as well from herself as aa maitland Malt land knew her the burglar out of the way by ruse evasion or subterfuge she che would be ba a secreted cret ed from the prying of the police smuggled out of the house and taken to a place of safety given a new chance to redeem herself to clean her hands of the mire of theft to become worthy of the womanhood that was hern here but now abe thrust fingernails finger fanger nails cruelly belly into her soft palms palma striving tu 4 contain herself and keep her tongue from crying aloud to those three brutal blind men the truth that she was guilty of the robbery she ahe with anisey that maitland Malt land was maitland Malt land a word synonymous with man of honor bonor in the beginning indeed all that restrained her from doing so BO was her knowledge that maitland Malt land would be more pained by her sacrifice than gladdened or relieved lie was so sure of clearing himself i it was inconceivable to hr her that there could be me men so stupid and crassly unobservant as to be ablo able to contuse confuse the identity of the two men for a single instant what though they did resemble each other in form and feature the likeness went no deeper below the surface and rising through it with veryl every word and look and gesture lay jay a worldwide world wide gulf of difference in every shade of thought feeling and instinct she herself could never again be deceived no beverl never 1 not for a second could she mistake the one for or the other what were they saying the turmoil of herb her indignation subsided as she listened breathlessly to Mait maitlandt lands story of his adventures and the joy that leaped in her for his frank mendacity in suppressing every incident that involved her was all but overpowering sho she could have wept tor for sheer happiness and at a later time she would but not now when everything depended on her maintaining the very silence ot of death how dared they doubt him the Insolent st the crude brutish insolence of 0 her anger raged high again and as an swiftly was quenched extinguished in a twinkling by a terror born of her excitement an and d a bare suggestion thrown out by hickey explaining explain in how a crook like anisey made three tries in one day to steal some jewels and got get dant em cm where were they all this th time almet malt adb cool retort was lost upon her what matter it if they disbelieved alibe him persisted in calling him anasty in natural course they would undertake to search the flat and it if seq sh were I 1 found ob she sh ranst must I 1 spare III him that sa she bail bad given him cause tor for suffering enough she must get away end that instantly before from a distance tomorrow to morrow morril morning ng tonight to night even by telegraph she could communicate with him at this juncture ohagan entered with his parcel the rustle of the paper as be brushed against tho the doorjamb was in itself a bint to a mind keyed to the highest pitch of excitement and leeking a way of escape from a position conceived to be perilous bus in a trice the ibe girl had turned and sped to the door opening on the private hall here halting for a brief reconnaissance she determined that her plan was feasible it if hazardous she ran the risk of encountering some one ascending the stairs from the ground floor but if she were cautious and quick she ehe could turn back in time on the other hand the men whom she most feared were thoroughly occupied with their differences dead to all save cave that which was happening within the rooms four walls walla A curtain hung perhaps a third of the way across the study door tempering the light in the halt hall and the broad shoulders of the cabby obstructed the remainder of the opening it was a chance she poised herself on tiptoe halt undecided and the rustling of paper as ohagan Ol lagan opened the percel parcel afforded her an opportunity to escape by drowning the noise of her movements for two eternal seconds she was edging stealthily down toward the outer door then in no time at all found herself on the landing and confronted by a fresh complication ono one unforeseen how to leave the house without being observed stopped and perhaps detained until too late there would be men at the door beyond doubt possibly police stationed there to arrest all persons to leave no time for weighing chances the choice of two alternatives lay before her either to return to the alcove or to seek safety in the dar darkness kuess of the upper floors untenanted as she had been at pains to determine the latter seemed by far the better the less lens dang dangerous crons course courie to pursue and at once she took it there was no light on the first floor landing it having presumably been extinguished by the janitor early in the evening only a feeble twilight obtained there in part a reflected ren glow from the entrance hall partly thin and diffused rays ec caping from blatt lands study so bo it was that the first few steps upward took the girl into dark nesa so close and unrelieved its as to seem almost palpable at the turn of the staircase she paused tb tail rail slid and resting tor for an instant the while she ohe listened ere ascending ascend ln at a more sedate pace to a haven of safety more complete in that it would be more remote from the batall round ground below and resting so BO ats suddenly chilled through and through with fear sheer childish dread of tho the intangible anil and unknown terrors that lurked in the blackness above her bar 4 t was as if rendered supersensitive by strain and excitement the tb quivering filaments ot of her like spiritual tentacles feeling ahead of her had bad encountered and recoiled from a shape chape of evil a specter ot of horror obscene and kallsn crouching ready to spring there in the shadow of night and her breath was smothered lit III her throat and her heart smote 04 madly against the frail walls of its cage that they seemed like to burst while she ahe stood transfixed frozen in inaction limbs stiffening roots of her hair stirring fingers gripping the banister rail until they pained her and with eyes that stared wide into tho the black heart of nothingness until the night seemed pricked with evanescent periods of dlin dim fire peopled with monstrous and terrible shadows closing about her yet it was wag absurd she roust must not yield to such puerile superstitions there was nothing there there was something there something that like an incarnation of hatred was stalking her it only she dared scream it if only she dared turn and fly by back to the comfort of light and human company danyl there arose a trampling of feet feel in the hallway and she heard Mait maitlandt lands voice like a far echo as he bade the police rood good night and distant and unreachable as aa ho he seemed the sound of his words brought her strength and some reassurance and she grew crew slightly more composed yet the instant that he had turned away to talk to the cabman her fright of that unspeakable and incorporeal menace flooded her like ake a great wave sweeping her ber metaphorically olt off her feet and indeed for the time she felt as ag if drowning overwhelmed in vast waters sinking sinking into the black abyad of syncope then as a drowning person were told clutches cheB at straws she aha grasped again at the vibrations of his bis voice what was he be saying baying you will wait alt outside please until acome I 1 come out or send somebody whom you will take wherever directed speaking to the cabman thinking of her providing for her escabel escape I 1 considerate ana a as al amsl how flow she aho could have thanked himl the warmth ot of gratitude that enveloped her almost unnerved tier her she sh was put to it to restrain her impulse to rush ruh down the stairs and but no the she rabot not risk the chance of rebuff how could sho aha foretell what was in his bla mino mind and heart how probe tie the depths depth of hs his feeling toward her hrc perhaps he be would receive her protestations in skeptic spirit heaven know knew he had bad luse causa tot D dared jar d a she b to be repulsed repulse dl but no ha b bad ad provided ro id led d fila ala means for flight fligh na ish she would aldy adv advantage f ag 0 herself if ol of 1 it and I 1 an and rid bank him by letteri des best a 0 o for he be must ever think the worst of her ebe he could never undeceive him pride restraining and upholding her better to eo she he would go go quickly before he discovered her absence from the flat and incontinently she swung about and flew down the stairs silently treading as lightly on the heavily padded steps as though she had been thistledown whirled adrift by the th wind altogether heedless ot of the creeping terror she had bad sensed on the upper right flight careless of all save her immediate need ned to reach that cab before maitland Malt land should discover that she had escaped the door was waa just closing behind the cabby as sho she reached the bottom step and she ohe paused considering that it were bent beat to wait a moment at least lest be should be surprised at the quickness with which his |