Show 0 followed her lighting the way PICTURES a by copycat foxy I 1 SYNOPSIS mad dan maitland Malt land on reaching tits his new ew boik bachelor club met an attractive yo young woman at it the door janitor n soured assured him no orie ore hod had been within th that t day dan discovered a wo wom M ans finger prints in dust en cn his desk along with a letter from MB bin attorney maitland Malt land dined with bannerman Ilan nerman his at torney dan set out for or to get his family jewels during his walk to the country seat he met the woman in gra gray si whom 0 m ho he halil se been e ri youn leaving elt llin his b bachelors a cherr v club 1 ab her e r a auto u tu had bad I 1 broken down ile he fixed it by a ruse rime she sha lost him maitland Malt land on reaching home su surprised lady in gray cracking the safe c containing hla his gems benin she apparently took look him for a well known crook daniel daniel anasty halt hypnotized mateland Malt Matt land opened his safe bare took t er efrom the tha jewels ewels and gave them to her tint first forming a partnership in crime the real dan anasty sought by pollee police ot of the world appeared on the same mission maitland Malt land overcame him ite ife met the girl outside the house and they sped on to new york in her auto lie he had the jewels and she promised to meet him that day maytland Malt blatt land received a mr air snaith tbt introducing himself as aa a detective to r shield the tha girlin girl girt in gray maitland Malt land about to show him the jew els supposedly lost was felled by n gp blow i from cane the latter proved to be anesly himself and he seen secured the kerns gems anisey who was wan maitlandt Malt Mait lands dou b bla a masque masquera masquerades masqueraded rd ded ed as an the latter the e criminal r a kept maitlandt Malt Mait lands engagement with the girl in gray ile ha gave tier lier the gems after falling in love at first sight they were to meet meat and divide the bot malt mait land revived and regretted missing miming his engagement anlita masquerading as an maitland Malt land narrowly avoided capture through mysterious up tip the girl I 1 in n gray V visited Malt Malti lands ands apartments during hla his absence and returned gems being discovered on return CHAPTER IX continued out but not to rest the portion of the mentally harassed sleeplessness was his and for an hour or more he tossed upon his bed upon which he had thrown himself without troubling to undress pondering to no DO profit of his the hundred problems difficulties and disadvantages suggested or created by the events of the past 24 hours the gray girl anisey the jewels himself unflagging his bla thoughts cir cuhna cum navigated the world of djs romance touching only at these four ports dorta and returning always to linger longest in the harbor of senti t the gray girl strange that her personality should have come to dominate his thoughts in a space of time so briehl and upon grounds of antl macy so BO slen slender derl who and what was a she be what cruel rigor of circumstance had impelled her to seek a livelihood in ways so BO sinister at whose door must the blame be laid against what flaw in the body social racial should the indictment be drawn that hat she should have been forced into the ranks of at the powers that prey a girl of her youth and rare fiber of her cultivation her charm and beauty the sheer loveliness of her her grace and gentleness her ingenuous sensitiveness her wit they combined to make the thought of her to him at least at once terrible and a delight remembering that once he had sold her in tits his arms and gazed into her starlit eyes and inhaled the impalpable fra arnce of tier her he be trembled aws both glad and anda fold 1 and her ways so hedged about with herual while he must stand aside I 1 am M W potent a pillar ot of the social order in its shelter and see her hounded and driven by the forces of the law harried and worried like an unclean thing thine forced as it might be to resort to stratagems and expedients unthinkable to preserve her liberty it was altogether intolerable ile he could not stand it and yet it was written that their paths had crossed and parted and were never again to touch or was it it must be so written they would never meet again after all her conceio with her interest in him could have been nothing permanent they had encountered under strange auspices and be had bad treated her with common decency for which she had repaid him in good measure by permitting him to retain his own property ty their account was even and she for ever done with b him ra that must be her attitude why should 11 be anything else oh ob the devil I 1 exclaimed the young man in disgust and rising took his distemper to the window leaning on the sill he thrust head and shoulders far out over the garish abyss of metropolitan night the hot breath of the city fanned up in stifling waves into his face from the street et below upon whose painted pavements men crawled like insects round moving spots to each his romance under his hat the window was on the corner overlooking the junction of three great highways of humanity twenty third street with its booming crosstown cross town cars stretching away into the darkness on an I 1 either hand broadway forking off to the left its distances ging into a hot glow of yellow radiance fifth avenue branching into the north with sidewalks oddly patterned in areas ot of dense shadow and a cold clear light over the way the park loomed darkly for all its scattered area arcs a black and silent space apace a well of mystery it was wag late quite late the clock in front of dorlena Dor lona lons ho he craned his neck to see made the hour one in the morning the sidewalks were comparatively ively deserted even the pillared portico of the I fifth avenue hotel destitute of loungers A timid hint of coolness fo rerunning the dawn rode up tip on the tha breeze lie he I 1 looked up and away northward tor for many minutes over housetops stenciled black against the glowing baky his gaze yearning into vast distances of space melancholy ting tingling tingeing eing the complexion of hlo his mind ile he fancied oppressed by a vague uneasiness unaccountable as to cause unless front from the sublime to the ridiculous with a vengeance Ms his thoughts tumbled gone gona the glamour glin of romance in a twinkling banished by rank materialism lie he could have blushed for shame he got slowly to his feet lr ir revolute re blute trying to grapple with a condition that never before in hla his existence had he been called upon to consider lie ile hail had just realized that he be was wait flat strapped for cash he had bad given his last quarter to the cabby hours houra back ile ha was registered at a sti hotel under an assumed name unable to beg credit even for hla his breakfast without declaring his identity and thereby 1 laying himself open to clon discourtesy insult of course there were ways out lie ile could telephone bannerman Dan nerman or any ther other of halt half EL a dozen acquaintances in tho the morning ing but that involved exola nat loar nr and explanations involved making himself the butt of hla his circle for many a weary day there was waa money in his lodgings in the chippendale escritoire escrito lre but to got get it ho he would have to run the gaunt let of reporters and detectives which had bad already dismayed him in prospect Ol donagan lagan ahl at the head of his bis bed was a telephone impulsively inconsiderate of the hour he be turned to it give we mo nine o eight atno madison please he be said and waited receiver to ear there was a slight blight pause a buzz the voice of tho the switchboard operator below stairs repeating the number to central centrals appropriately mechanical reiteration another buzz a silence it a prolonged buzz and again tho the bounding silence I hello fello he said softly into the transmitter at a venture no answer then central irritably go ahead youve got your party I hello fello hello A taint faint hum of voices rising and fa falling III n g beat against the walls walla of his understanding were the wires crossed ile he lifted nn an impatient finger to jiggle the hook book and call central to order when something c rashed crashed heavily ile he could have likened the sound without a strain of imagination to a chair being violently overturned and then a womans comans voice clear accents cents a informed with anger and pain not and then hen say my mistake that line you hads out of order I 1 had a call for them a while aro ago and they answer guess have to wait contrail central he be pleaded desperately 1 I say central give me that connection again please tse ah bayl the matter with you anyway I 1 tell you that line was butof out of order biting boffl automatically maitland Malt land returned the receiver to its rest and rose white lipped and trembling that womans comans voice CHAPTER X consequences consequence wreathing athing convulsively wide eyes a little wildly fixed upon his face in the lamplight the girl stumbled to her feet and for a moment remained cowering against the wall terribly shaken a band gripping a corner ot of tho the packing box tor for support the other pressed against the bosom of her dress as ae it if in in a attempt forcibly to quell the mad hammering of her heart in her brain a turmoil of affrighted thought but one thing stood out clearly now sho she need took look for no mercy the first time it had been different she hal haj not been a woman wom a n had the ehe been unable then to seo see that the adventure intrigued maitland Malt land with its spice of 0 novelty a new sensation fully as in much uch as aa she herself tho the pretty woman WOMA n out of place inte interested rented and attracted him ile he had enjoyed playing the part had been amused to lead her to bellevo believe him an adventurer of mettle and caliber little to her own 0 w ri ash aa ho understood he her r unscrupulous impatient of the quibble of et but adroit and keen witted and distinguished and set apart from the herd bord by grace of gentle breeding and chivalric instincts how far ho he might or might not havo have lot this enjoyment carry him she had bad n no 0 means of surmising not very far not too far she was inclined to believe strongly as she knew her personality son sona allty lity to have influenced him not far ar enough to induce him to trust her out of sight with the jewels ile he had demonstrated that to her humiliation the flush of excitement waning manlike soon boon had he be wearied of the game she thought to her mind in distorted retrospect his attitude when leaving her at dawn had been insincere contemptuous that of a man relieved to bo rid of her rell relieved eved to bo be able to get away in unquestioned possession of his treasure true the suggestion that they lunch together at eugenes had been his hut but ho be had forgotten the engagement it if ever he had bad mount meant to keep it it if the notion had bad been more than a whim of the moment w with ith him and Ol lagan had told her by telephone that maitland Malt land had bad loft left his rooms at one in ample time to meet her at the restaurant no he 6 had bad never intended to come he had bad wearied yet patient with her true to the ethics of a gentle man he had been content to let her g go 0 rather than to send a detective to take his bis place and this was by the way to cause her to revise her theory as to the manner in which anisey had managed to steal the jewels it malt halt land had gone abroad at one and without intending to keep his engagement at eugenes then he be must have been despoiled before that hour bour and without hla his knowledge surely if the jewels had bad been taken from him with his bis cognizance the hue buo and cry would have been out and anisey would not have dared to linger so long in the neighborhood to be just with herself the girl had not gone to the restaurant with much real hope of finding maitland there curiosity Cur lasity had drawn her just to see geo if but it was too preposterous to credit that he be should have cared enough quite too preposterously it was wab her cup her bitter cup to know ahat she had learned leaded to care enough enouch at sight A and d eho recalled a 1 led w with th ab amedec what pangs 4 of r is ellaroe u and n d m mccry 1 begged espre expression salon how bow her heart had been stirred when she had bad found him as sho she thought true to hla his tryst even as aa sho she recalled the agony and distress of mind with which she had bad a moment litter later fathomed Ani anistes impersonation for of course the ahe had known tut that maitland Malt land was wait maitland Malt land and none other from the instant when ho he told old h her er to good tier her escape and leave bim to brazen it out cut a task to taunt daunt even as bold and resourceful a criminal as anasty and more especially it gewere he were called upon to don the musk mask at a minutes notice as ail maitland had pretended to ot or if she eho had bad not actually known she tio had been led to suspect and it had hardly needed what she ehe had bad heard him say may to the servants when he thought her flying hotfoot over the lawn to safety to harden suspicion into certainty and now that lie be should find her here bore a second seronil time a trespasser doubly an ingrate that he should have caught her red handed banded in this abominably ungrateful trea treachery cheryl sho she could pretend of 0 course that she had returned merely to restore th the e J jewels a w 00 I 1 and the cigarette case anil and ho he would believe her for or ho he was generous she ah could but the she could not not now yesterday the excitement had buoyed her she had anvil gained a piquant enjoyment from be fooling him playing her part of the amateur cracksman in this little comedy of tho the stolen jewels but bilut therein lay the difference yesterday yeste iday it had bad been comedy but today to day dayall abl to today oday o day she could no longer laugh for now she cared A little ile ho would clear her yes nut but it was not to bo be cleared that sh sha u now low at BO passionately desired it was wa i i to have him believe in tier her oven even v against the evidence of 0 tits his senses even in the face of the worlds condemnation dem nation anti and to prove that he ha too cared cared for her as tits his attitude toward her had taught her to care liver since leaving him in the dawn she had fed her starved heart with the th hope bp faint hope though it were that lie ho would come fi to care caie a little that he bo would not utterly despise her that he ha would went understand and forgive when lie he learned why slie she had played out her part nor believe that she was wan the embodiment of all that was ignoble coarse and crude that lie he would show shane a little faith in her a little faith that like a flickering taper might light the way for love hut but that hepe was now dead within tier her and cold she had but to look at him to see eee how bow groundless it had bad been how utterly unmoved he was by her distress lie ile waited patiently that was all seeming so very tall a pillar of righteous strength distinguished and at ease la in his bis evening clothes walling waiting patient but cold dispassionate and disdainful 1 I am waiting you see bec might I 1 suggest that wo we have not all week for our our mutual matual differences ills tono tone was altogether changed she would hardly have known it for his voice its incisive alvo clipped accents w were ere like a knife to her sensitiveness sh bhe 0 summoned the reserve of her strength stood erect unsupported and moved forward without a word il ile stood aside holding the lamp high and followed her lighting the way flown down the hall to the study once thero there she sank quivering into a abair while ho he proceeded gravely to the desk put down the lamp superfluous now the ran |