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Show ltlt lVAMil.blU. Ifr, - 7 jij 3 if Tib ue Circle i j, I ZABETH JORDAN ! j By Ei I I (t) by The Ontury Co ) ! . : zJr- , .... I ; j WN U Service. j CHAPTER X Continued I -17- t ! "Leonl made us i:ll feel cref"now j t few weeks," she admitted. ' 'ie I fihe was on grandfather's nerwolu'or almost got on mine. It's a'!' Sl"',s 6he did not make us imagin servilllt t of things. As it was, we hi know." j on guard every night, yoi I "Inside the house?" j "Yes. And outside. or saw nn-v-j "And they never ' I thing?" am j. v a man stealing I "Hp or dfi.eway late one night, : alor-e ran as soon as he knew he was j bu overod, and Hart could not catch ; dis. Jenks saw two others several i h''"!y - times.- that's all they reported?" "Antiutely all." Verity started to "Absokhe staircase. Then, recall-descend recall-descend quest, she stopped. "But if Ing his rcare to go over the house," you stillj, "I shall be glad to take she ad-- you-" -re you have time?" " " shall we begin?" J"a Jo a,Uou Sl I know my ''1?P30 jo i: -Te- ' ';other about own ioiu, so we necdnt uV.pfoeips that. And I've seen Mr. Ci,s hug suite and the room Doctor Morn.vluij Also, I know where yours Is. brother br-other rooms are on this floor?" i., She told him as they walked down the corridor toward the left wing. There was an upper library and reading read-ing room, which no one used. She threw open the door and showed It to him. There were also two empty rooms and a balh running along the front of the house. There was Mrs. Pardee's bedroom and bath, and a rather elaborate guest suite occupied by Madame Hvoeslef of which one big room was assigned to Wanda and her nurse. Verity opened the doors of some of these, and pointed out the locations of all. Itenshaw soon had a mental map of the second floor. "Are there any long windows and balconies anywhere?" he wanted to know. Again she shook her head. The third floor, to which they presently pres-ently ascended, held a well equipped billiard room, which, according to Verity, no one ever entered, a gymnasium gymna-sium over Renshaw's room, which no one ever used, and several empty bedrooms and bathrooms. It also held, in the rear, the servants' quarters. Like everything else In the house, these were well lighted and modern as to their fittings. They included a large sitting room with comfortable chairs, reading lamps, and tables, an open fire, and a supply of books, newspapers, and magazines. "One understands why your staff Is so well satisfied," he remarked as he glanced in. "They don't seem so well satisfied lately." Verity's smooth brow puckered. puck-ered. "Even Jenks has changed a Kit 51 r ?m l v v life- 4 Verity Nodded Toward Half a Dozen I Foreign-Built "3oxes" That Occupied Occu-pied a Conspicuous Place in the Foreground. little, and James seemed almost sullen yesterday. I do hope we aren't going to have trouble with them, now of all times." j "Possibly It's the night watching they object to." "I suppose so. And yet, on the other hand. Leoni gives them the most amazing fees. We have begged her not to. for of course she can't afford It : but she is used to doing every-j every-j thing on a superb scale and she is not i able to change her ideas. Any ser-f ser-f vants, anywhere, would be glad to do ; what she asks for what she gives them. ' And after this, of course, they won't ! hai e to watch." I "Possibly that's what's the matter with them. Perhaps they see their fet fees departing." j "Possibly But I don't think so. ! They know her well enough by this ' time to realize that she will keen on ! sunslilizing them, uu one excuse or j twntner. It's Hip wav Leoni Is made j She Is Th N me world. '- . fus woniun in i i'ter she and I Wanda and Irma may have to live on a petty three thousand a year " She" added the last words as if she were thinking aloud. "You know about her?" she asked suddenly. "Doctor Stanley told me a good deal." "Then you know who she really Is? And Wanda?" "Xo; he did not tell me that. There's no reason why I should know." "I have asked her to leave Wanda here with me, to be educated in America. Amer-ica. I know she is trying to whip herself up to the point of doing it, but it will be very hard for her. Wanda is all she has left, you know." lie nodded. "Tes, I understood that. But I hope you will keep the child," he added, more warmly than he had ever spoken to her. It would be vastly comforting to think of his little friend as safe in this girl's care. They ascended to the fourth floor and dispassionately surveyed an enormous attic, given up to the largest collection of trunks Rensliaw had ever seen outside of a railroad station. Verity nodded toward half a dozen huge foreign-built "boxes" that occupied occu-pied a conspicuous place In the foreground. fore-ground. "Those are Leoni's," she said. "They hold everything she has, poor darling, aside from the precious memoirs." they returned to the second floor, "J Jiribed to him the plan of the she utvwi1it.,i however, he was first, with Eacl. Qf the Uvlng. fairly fanulia,. an( tWQ 61U(eg room, dining 'oJtiwntler.s pantl.Vi were a huge kitchen, "Vl sirs Par-and Par-and twin storerooms wdilcff's j wth dee had so ardently desired to '-t- sugar. "Would you like to go down and go through them?" Verity rather listlessly listless-ly suggested. Rensliaw looked at her with sudden compunction. "No," he said. "You're tired. I should have remembered that, and not dragged you all over the house." "Oh, I'm not tired." In a gallant effort to prove that she was not tired, she gave him her first really spontaneous spon-taneous smile. "And your room is all right? You have no complaint to make?" she added add-ed jestingly. "Xot a complaint except that I like a few dozen towels a day, and they are forgotten." Verity looked surprised. "Forgotten !" she echoed. "Are you serious? Why, that doesn't sound like Annie! She literally festoons my bathroom with towels." Her eyes fell on the closet door. "But If she does forget," she ended, "there are always heaps In this closet. At least, she's supposed to keep them here " She opened the door and entered the closet as she spoke. Rensliaw paused on Its threshold for a moment, and then casually followed her. This was the third time he had been warmly commended to that particular closet. He might as well see what was In It. What he saw was that it was a win-dowless win-dowless closet the size and shape of his long and narrow bathroom, but lined with shelves filled with linen. There was a really fine supply of linen on exhibition, such a display as any housewife might be proud of. Verity, contemplating It -with her back to him, tossed him a complacent sentence: "If you want dozens of towels, here they are. Any time you find your supply sup-ply short " She broke off with a gasp. "Why did you do that?" ' - "I didn't !" His voice came to her out of the sudden blackness that encompassed them. "The door slammed shut after me just this instant. And, by Jove " He had turned and was twisting the doorknob, at first easily, then fiercely. Now he leaned against the heavy oak, exerting all his strength to push It outward. It did not yield. "What's wroing with it?" The girl's words were breathless. He had had time to think. . "Why, nothing at all," he said in matter-of-fact tones. "The door slammed with such force that It stuck fast. I'll have it open in a moment!" "Oh !" He heard her exhale her caught breath on the word. She was reassured, reas-sured, but only momentarily. He himself him-self was not reassured at all. In his hand the doorknob was turning round and round without resistance. It did not catch and retract the lock. Yet the knob had opened the door. Of course. It was possible that the inner knob had got out of order, and that no one had discovered It. About the only way one was likely to discover It was by vainly trying to open the closed door from the Inside. All that might happen. All that was easily understood. under-stood. But why had the door closed? It had been half way open, at right angles with the threshold, and his hand had not touched it. There was no draft In the hall to swing it to. Moreover, only on the wings of nn incipient eve! one could a draft be borne to close a door with the violent slam that had accompanied accom-panied the closing upon them of this door. The motive power of the slam I was a strong human push. He was ''"nvinoed of that. Yet who could have il'm",l'-e,r--.t- r"sh? No ne had been in the hall no a-e- that Is, tliat he had seen. When he entereu u. closet and for that moment stood on Its threshold, the open door itself had cut off from his vision anyone or anything any-thing that might suddenly have come along the hall. As he thought, he worked over the knob, twisting It this way and that way, trvlna various combinations, pushing push-ing 'against the door quietly but with all his strength, hoping against hope that the mechanism would catch and turn. Unless It did cntch and turn, they were prisoners. All the time he realized that it would not catch and turn. And he had nothing In his pockets to work with, not even a small penknife. He redoubled his efforts. The knob whirled smoothly round and round. Perspiration broke out upon his brow. This was a devilish situation for the girl to be in I The closet was as black 4w Ii r ii I ,. ... . Towels Her If You Want a Dozer They Are; as an underground dungS., t . small that, though she hac s$ePPea ' , , woora to away fro "him to give him tl work, he could hear her quick lng and the soft rustle of her garn? 8 as she moved. v That wing was the loneliest spot la' the house. Even If they made the biggest big-gest kind of racket, It might be long before anyone heard them. Probably no one would miss them or begin to look for them till tea time possibly not till dinner time. It was now three o'clock, at the most. That meant a wait of hours. And In the Interval he 'would have to tell the girl the truth, i He would have to tell her the truth at once. She was plucky. She was trying to keep steady. But he realized that she was fighting an Incipient In-cipient panic. Yes, "devilish" was the right word for the situation. It was so absolutely the right word, and It fitted so perfectly per-fectly into the pattern of certain other episodes at Tawno Ker, that a cold conviction settled over him. Of course, the little accident was not an accident acci-dent at all, though It could so easily be made to seem one. The shutting of that door had been a malicious action ac-tion as deliberately malicious as the actions that had so disturbed his nights. From this conclusion to the next was a short step, and he took It as he patiently pa-tiently experimented with the useless knob. It was unquestionably another malicious outbreak from that same malicious source. Verity's voice came to him out of the blackness: "Can't you open It?" "Not yet." He spoke with robust cheerfulness, and even In her growing panic the girl took in tlie complete change In the quality of his voice. Renshaw's voice had been one of the things to which she objected in him. It was in itself an agreeable, even a musical barytone; hut It spoke with an odd flatness, as If Its possessor wereout of key with the harmonies of life. Now it vibrated with a vital quality she had never heard In It before. She appreciated the change, but It did not deceive her. She knew he had put on the tone for her, as he might have put on a reassuring reas-suring tone In speaking to Wanda If he had found the child lost and frightened. fright-ened. "What Is wrong? Ts It really only stuck or Is It locked?" She spoke quite naturally. Insensibly, Insensi-bly, she had been calmed and encouraged encour-aged by his matter-of-factness. "The knob turns without retracting the bolt." He explained the matter Id detail, glad to divert her mind by con. versatlon while he worked. (TO Bm CONTINUED. |