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Show pfJ ft ... i Who Qxme Back Jack Woodford - ga yon ope alongside of the Jaw so that yon won't do any n.ore yelling for a week. Now come on, say that I cun drive you down." Selecting the lesser of two evils, she finally consented. Walking downstairs down-stairs with him, rather than trust herself with him in the automatic lift, which he might halt between the floors, she accompanied him to the snappy little gray roadster which stood at the curb and was just climbing climb-ing In when a voice that struck a strange sort of surprised terroi at her heart sounded at her elbow. "So that's the kind of a double-crossing double-crossing you are!" came to her startled ears In Harvey's familiar voice. She turned In terror, but he-fore he-fore she could speak, there was a si.und like an apple being thrc -n against a brick wall, as the owner of the roadster suddenly crashed bis fist against Harvey's Jaw. Leaning against the side of the automobile au-tomobile weakly she watched while the most terrible eight she bad ever seen In her life went on before her eyes. She had seen boys fight many times, but she had never before seen grown men engage In a serious encounter. en-counter. It was almost unbelievably dreadful. The very air seemed to seethe with hate. It was as though thousands of years of civilization had dropped away and both ef the men had reverted to the primordial beast. Their faces were expressions such as she had never seen upon men's faces before, not even in pictures of fights in the movies. Their lips were drawn back from their teeth like the lips of a mud dog she had once see. The blows that they delivered were so murderous that it seemed to the girl that each one must surely kill one or the other. Presently the blood began to run In a horrifying stream from Harvey's mouth. A moment later blood Issued from the other man's nose. A crowd was beginning to collect. col-lect. Subconsciously ebe beard a policeman's whistle give one of those eerie blasts that she had sometimes heard late at night. Suddenly, stooi ing as though to pick up something from the ground, Harvey's antagonist hit him such a terrific blow upon the chin that his head snapped back as though his neck was broken. He fell to the walk, his head striking the cement curb with a sound more sickening sick-ening than any of those previous. Harvey lay very still. His face Indescribably In-describably softened, even with the blood upon it took on the most Inno cent, guileless expression that Lolita had ever seen there. At this moment several policemen arrived and un-unceremoniously un-unceremoniously shoved their way through the crowd. The son of the owner of the Grantham apartments was leaning against the hood of his car breathing as though his1 windpipe had been shut off except for a very small passage through which his breath whistled toriuously. He was bloody, it seemed to Lolita, all over. One of his eyes was turning a frightful fright-ful shade of blue. His collar hung down the back of his coat, his hair was ruffled and his hat was gone. One sleeve of his coat was torn almost off. An officer who had been leaning over Harvey suddenly straightened up and looked at the others. "The guy's dead," he said. he had that Indefinable air of com plete assurance that Is Indelibly associated as-sociated with ready money. He was not, she reflected Irrelevantly, really bad looking; In fact, he was quite distinctly dis-tinctly good looklnj She turned to face him. "If you don't go, I shall oron the window end call out. Yon ought to be arrested, forcing your way in here like this." "How do I know hut what you ought to be arrested?" he countered. "1 find you here In a guest's room, despite the fact that It Is strictly against the rules for the girls who live here to have guests overnight without registering regis-tering them. For til 1 know you may have been about to ransack the room." "Don't be silly." snapped Lolita Again she started for the door. "Silly, my eye!" he retu.ned Inele gantly. "I never was more serious In my life; for that matter, jll I've got to do Is to 'phone them downstairs to call the wagon and have you taken to the police station and helfl n suspicion. sus-picion. It would be a long time before be-fore the thing would be straightened out, probably twenty-four hours. Ever sleep all night In a police station? sta-tion? I have It's b I!" He was p.p-p-rently very serious. She was appalled ap-palled at the thought that in all probability prob-ability It would be easy enough for him to do Just as he bad indicated, claiming that she was in a guest's room without any apparent right to be there. It would, in fact, be pretty pret-ty hard to get hold of Gertrude and get the tiling straightened out quickly. "Of coursr " he added lovlally, "I wouldn't do anything like that, but I could easily. Give us a little kiss and we'll call It all square." "I'm not accustomed to kissing every man 1 meet," asserted Lolita stiffly, "pleas'1 let me go." "My dear girl, 'f you're hanging around with Gert, there's no use your pulling this 'innocent' stuff, Gertrude is a great little kid, but she's no nun, and her room has never ben anything any-thing at all like a nunnery." Lolita felt her.faee flaming. Worst of all was her own secret knowledge that, in one way, she was really no better than Gertrude. She started again for the door. Suddenly be grasped her in his arms. His was brutally strong and had no difficulty In finding her lips with his wn. He piessed a hot kiss upon her mouth and leaned back exultant, white, breathim In THE STORY , Influenced by loneliness, with out relatives, or real friends, in Chicago, Lolita Forbes, young and pretty, yields to the Importunities Impor-tunities of Harvey Torrence, with whom she fancies herself In love. She discovers his true character and leaves him, taking refuge with an acquaintance, Gertrude Watson. CHAPTER II ! 3 Lolita wakened in the morning, long after Gertrude had gone to work. Bhe sprang up and reacheJ for the phone to call the store, grateful that Gertrude bad thoughtfully permitted her to get all of the sleep that she could In view of the events of the night before. When she bad gotten her department at the store she star.-eO star.-eO to speak glibly : "Miss Truxton, this Is Lolita Forbes speaking. I'.e overslept, It's pretty late, but I'll come right down." "Do!" said Miss Truxton a little Irritably; Ir-ritably; "I need yov. badly." Lolita hung up thfe receiver and sat thinking. think-ing. How ea.lly, almost unconsciously unconscious-ly her mind had formed a He. She had been fully Intent upon telling Miss Truxtoa that she was 111 and could not come down to work. By what easy, Imperceptible stages one slipped down. Before coming to Chicago Chi-cago it would have taken her a long time to decide to tell a He, and then 6he would only have told It If it were to protect some one else, and there were no other possibly way out ; since meeting Harvey, and since learning to tell the little lies that she had constantly con-stantly had to tell to people In con nectlon with him, lying had become almost as easy of accomplishment as breathing. She shuddered. In the clear light of morning, fighting back and up did not seem such an easy thing to do and, after all, was it really worth while? Being bad probably prob-ably got no one anything but unhap-plness unhap-plness ; but, on the other hand, what did being good get one, after all? Dressing before the mirror Lolita recalled the words of the girl in the dance hall the night .before. She did look Innocent, and sort of fresh and young. Her cheeks, even immediately after arising, were pink and healthy looking; her eyes were deep blue and bright, her short bobbed hair, all ruffled ruf-fled up and crinkled, shone and glistened glis-tened like fresh straw under sunlight. After all, she thought with some satisfaction, sat-isfaction, she was as pretty as she had ever been in ber life, prettier. The t-ought was tremendously reassuring. reas-suring. As she sat pulling ol her stockings, pleasantly enjoying the feel of soft, sleazy pink silk against silky, pink skin the wall 'phone rang sharply. Somehow she felt that It was Harvey. She could hear the blood pound In her ears. The 'phone rang again, Insistently. In-sistently. Probably he had simply asked them to ring Gertrude Watson's room, thinking that she might be there, with Gertrude still. He had met Gertrude at the store and knew her slightly. Presently the 'phone stopped ringing and Lolita finished dressing carefully. As she opened the door to prss out into t.hr hall she almost ran into a man who stood leaning against the door jamb, a eiga rette between his lips, his hat at a jaunty angle. "Well," he said, without apparent surprise; "they told me Gertrude hadn't gone out." "It was you. then, who called up on the 'phone." Lolita was conscious of a silly little inward pang at the thought that it hadn't, after all, been Barvey. "Yes, and I came up here to stand and wait Sometimes Gertrude gets nutty and won't let me in." "I see," returned Lolita stiffly She made as if to pass him, but he made no motion to get out of her way." "You sure are a pretty kid," he observed carelessly. "How did you come to be in here, anyhow?" "Let nie by, please," said Lolita stiffly, "1 am on my way to work and already late." "If you're already late, why go at all? Let me bring you up some breakfast, break-fast, and a cocktail." Again she tried to push past him, but this time lie deliberately blocked the way and. In fact, moved toward tier so that she was forced back Into the ijom. En tering, he closed the door after him Lolita started toward the 'phone upon the wall, but his easy laugh made her pause with hei hanr: upon the re celver. "('all them If you like, hut I'm the one lucky man who Is allowed to run around th's place- you see, my dad owns It-" Lotitn felt that h-e was telling the truth. He had the appearance of a young sum who was accustomed to every luxury. His clothes were faultless fault-less and evidently tailor made, and short little gasps. Lolita screamed at the top of her voice. He was a little startled. Holding her firmly by the wrist he walked over to the 'phone and called the office. "It's all right," he said calmly, and hung the receWer again. His attitude at-titude toward ber, however, had changed. "Gee, you're a funny kid to be hanging hang-ing around with Gertrude," he cora-1 cora-1 mented in plain puzzlement. "Tell yoi what I'll do. If you'll let me drive you down to where you work I'll take you right away, this Instant." "Thanks," she snapped, "but I pre fer the Elevated. Let me go at once, or I shall make such a commotion that it will be heard clear out on the street." His eyes blazed, but his voice wheedled. "Darn it. I'm not going to get fresh with you any more how could 1? My car's an open roadster, and It's broad daylight. Please let me drive you down to work ; if you don't I won't let you go. You're sore at me now, and I don't want you to be; 1 want to apologize and tell you how sorry I am for the way I acted. 1 can do that while I'm driving you down What's the. harm?" Seeing the refusal still in her eyes he added In a surly manner, "D n It. If you won't let me drive you down, I won't let you go, and u yon yell again I'll crack CHAPTER III That night Lolita slept, or rather lay In the dark and stared with wide, frightened eyes at the one electric bulb out In the cement corridor of the woman's annex to the police station. All afternoon she had read the papers. pa-pers. The girl whom they described as "Lolita" was a girl she didn't at all know, but who had done a few of the things that she had done, thereby making It possible for the rest of the things that had been said to be believed. be-lieved. It seemed that her mind was numb, so numb that she fortunately did not suffer as much as she would have, bad her situation been less terrible. Toward morning she dropped off Into In-to a dream-tortured sleep, only to wake in what seemed like a minute or two when she heard the steel door of the cell being opened. "Here's your breakfast," said an acid-faced Amazon. "Fellah bought it at the restaurant across the street and sent it In." Lolila looked down wonderingly at two white-and-gold fried eggs, still sizzling, a heap of crisply-brown. "American fried" poia toes, some thin, buttered toast and a steaming pot rtf coffje. "Who was the fellow?' she asked dully. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |