Show CHAPTER IX Continued IX-Continued Continued 9 9 Ill His little gimlet eyes had hall been boring horIng bor hor- ing right Into her all the while she talked Now at her first Iau pause l' l he barked out Who was this woman She he told me answered that her name was Claire Cleveland A sudden suffusion lon of ot blood In la his face tao turned It purple purple- lie Ile bent beat feebly but furiously upon his desk dek with a II loosely clenched hand So o youve you've Joined up UI with that blackmailing woman woman woman wom wom- an hat have o a you your he saidI saidI said I haven't Joined up UI with her at ut all Rhoda retorted Ive 11 Just been blen telling you I think she ahe stole my trunk She talked to me the about you quite a lot at lunch lunch after after shed she'd come back bak from the telephone that Is She said shed she'd seen leen your advertisement for me In the newspaper He lie pounced upon her here with a question My advertisement ad How flow did she ahe know It was waa mine It wasn't signed Come to that how did you know yourself A friend of ot mine on the paper found cut out for me Rhoda said Rut Hut RutI ButI I was wrong In saying laying that Claire knew She said she thought It probably probably probably ably was you you Call her Claire do you he commented commented com com- when you never saw her betorI before before be be- fore torI today This slip had rattled Rhoda Shed She'd been bern aware of ot It as It left her tongue She a asked ltd me to call all her that that she explained and I dirt did though I hated to because I hated her And the real reason I came ame to see you ou was because she he be urged me ml so strongly not to I thought she he must have some BOUle reason of ot tier own for not wanting me to come She said that you'd you'll been the cau cause auoe e of ot all her trouble She said you jou ou were a terrible person on that liked to get young girl girls Irl He lie broke In with an nn ugly uly laugh And Ami on the strength of ot that you thought you'd come come felt her face fure burning and didn't know whether her voile voice would obey her ber or not but she answered the thee thet t t e 0 D D III P s ll Com Come to That How Did You Vou Know Yourself sneer as If It had been a real ques qUIS tion I thou thought ht she was wu lying I 1 didn't think you were like that Id I'd seen feu you tills thIs morning when ben you jou OU took I os us to work In your car He lie dismissed that explanation with witha a mere snort of ot contempt Well Weil 1 go goon on on on he be continued What els did she he tell you your She told me that you'd been ben In business In a 11 way with my father nd that you'd oud played some sort of ot trick on him She said It was her personal per per- lonal opinion that you jou OU were responsible reason sible for ray my fathers father's trouble out In I I California California 1 I lIe He fairly yelped the word At t her ler Now I know youre you're I ly ly- ing This Cleveland woman work worked d In my office For a while she was Will my rny private secretary Ie Then I found out what sort she was and fired her She may have hue known that McFarland was working for me but I dont don't believe It ItI I dont don't believe belinI she ever saw lOW him In her life Anyhow she didn't know he came from California She didn't know that until you told her about It while you were working up this plan between you yon to blackmail me Come across now l I Tell me the whole story and Ill I'll let you yon go nut Hut If It I catch yon yen In any more lies you'll spend the night In 10 Jail And nd And to begin with he hI wound up nIl after a lon long stare Into her face who are you anyway Bewildered now b by the suddenness of ot his attack she could only echo In amazement Who am I n nYI YI Yes Thought you'd cooked up something pretty good did you when you got together and swapped stories with a discharged employee of ot mine mint faked up the red hair and came around here pretending to be Rhoda McFarland I am Rhoda McFarland she told him furiously I dont don't know who you yon think I am I dont don't know what youre you're talking about I 1 dont don't mind telling you what Im I'm talking about Im I'm talking about what happened to Professor sor McFarland six years ago when he hI got on a train here In Chicago o to go o back bak to the coa coast t t Had Hed been ben east to read a ft paper paper pa pa- per before the Oil Chemists' Chemists Institute and he found a young girl on the train across the aisle from him crying because because be be- cause all e shed she'd had her pocketbook stolen after shed she'd got on In the train lie Ill was U sorry for her and paid her fare torr pullman and all nil so they wouldn't put her off ort the train According to his hll story that was all nil he hI did dill And nd she promised him her friends would pay him back hack the till money a as soon lIoon a as she got to the coast Hut But what hat she did was to make a complaint before the district attorney out there that hed he'd taken advantage ad of ot herlie her He lie claimed It was a n frame up and when It went to trial the the Jury acquitted him although he couldn't show v any reason why anyone should want ant to frame him that way and no noone noone noone one else Ilso could either And the scandal scandal scan scan- dal of ot the trial cost him his Job at nt the university So he tie came amI back here and told me roe his story and I believed him and gave gate hint hIm a Job fob lie He felt dl disgraced graced about It ItHe itlie lie He was like a man hiding out from the police didn't wa want nt anybody to know who he was WRIt or what he was doIn do do- In Ing Well I could see how he felt so soI soI I II I never told a soul any anything thIn about It It I II I even en paid him ills his wages In cash ash every week Claire Cle Cleveland Cleeland eland couldn't have found out anything about him e even If It shed she'd tried to He lie never tr came near my office nor where whre I lived He lie worked at a place I 11 fixed x 1 up for him and I used to go around there once a week to B see how v he was getting on and to pay him hi his money montY Im I'm dead dad sure hI be never ne told his Ills daughter anything anything any any- thing about that California mess She I nothing but n a kid lIed Hed have was u kept Il It from tier her if tr tie lie a 4 been telling everybody t else In sight And It If you want to know who I think you really are I dont don't mind telling tIn you that either I believe youre you're the one person per person son lion alive today who really knows whether Walter McFarland was telling te the truth or not not Until hed he'd finished she Rhe hadn't seen lIen what he was driving at And when she did dill she could do nothing but stare at nt him confounded by hy the mere mon mono of ot hi his mistake To complete complete com tim her discomfiture discomfit lire she he found she wn was beginning to cry ery You can cun cry ry tan all you Well Neil It worked 1 with him but It wont won't with me Ole So you may as well lie III broke brokl of ort off there and what had bad Interrupted him both made her hr blink away her tears and checked l their coming com corn I In Inc ing A ABort sort of ot little trap door In the front of or Napoleon had silently s fallen forward and revealed as he reached toward It t a telephone Instrument Inside seemed rather startled by bythe bythe the till mt message he was getting that he harked barked Who does dill he say saylie he lie Is All right after listening for fr a minute Ill see Sl him but hut not In here Have lIn him shown up to the library Ill I'll Sl see him Lint there And find l t and tell him I want him him He lie put the telephone back and clicked the little door trap shut upon It Then he pressed an electric button button but but- ton on his bis desk Im going to e leave you here for a awhile Rhoda Khoda think while he ho said to to things over and you'd better Netter think straight If It you can an Im I'm ln I to get this Cleveland woman Ive I've got her now no as u far tar as that goes gol But Hut Ive I've got nothing personal n against you And If It you can ran make up III your our mind by the time I come back bark to come ome through clean and tell me the whole hole conspiracy Ill I'll let you go Ills His ring had been answered while he ht was speaking not by Conley but by hy a sort of ot overgrown page In livery He lie helped the old man to his feet anI and conducted him to the door Rhoda had come In by Rhoda Khoda sank back In her chair hair What possessed her mind wa was the story Forster For For- or- or ster had lied been telling her about the girl hed he'd preposterously taken her to be he Did IMd he hl really believe that Was there a scrap of ot genuine doubt In bU his mind that she was Walter Watter Mi McFarlands daughter Wasn't the whole thing a bluff to put her on the defensive and frighten her Into doing eventually e whatever er It was that he wanted her to todo todo todo do It w would have harp been a rather satisfactory sat explanation If It she could r ny lay Henry Kitchell Webster Copyright II ty by The n. Bobbs Co eo wholeheartedly whole heartEdly have hue adopted It It If It for tor no other reason than that It brou brought ht him out In tn a clearer le less s ambiguous ambiguous am am- light But nut sh she found she couldn't adopt It II ItHe He lIe wasn't a much better actor than she wa was Ills manner while white he had been trying to convince her ber that he hI had been led 1111 by nothing but disinterested benevolence In trying to find her had been sleek and shy utterly But some of ot the things hed he'd told tot her she knew to be true Her lIr father father tat fa ta- t ther had been paid every week regularly regu lady lorly through the whole four years they'd lived at the hotel In cash Forster Forster For For- ster wouldn't have hav known that unless hed he'd paid him himself elf or It wa wasn't nt likely that he be would What hed he'd said about her fathers father's feeling fl dl disgraced raced and having lived practically In hiding was confirmed too by Innumerable memories of ot his having cautioned her hr hernot hernot not to talk to people nor tf ans their que questions nor make friends with them Claire Cleveland somehow had found the secret out Shed She'd spoken with perfect confidence of the laboratory labora tory where her fattier father had worked Had llad she really worked for him there evenings as she said she he had It h L was WU po but nm OU It u 1 thin man i t seem very likely At any rate It was wn flatly unbelievable unbelievable un un- believable that he would have confided to her at those thoe times as ns she said saki he had the story of ot his California dis dis- aster And yet It win was clear that she knew about that Shed She'd spoken of the trial and the sensation that It created crated There'd been hardly nn anything thing else ele In Inthe Inthe inthe the papers paper at the she sold said said-at at least In the San Francisco co papers Rhoda sat erect orect and held her breath Why why hadn't she caught aught that slip Klip at nt the time All It meant all 1111 It could po possibly mean was that It had been In the San Francisco papers pa pa- pert pers that Claire had hall read about It Shed She'd been In San Francisco then during durin the trial She hadn't said so She hadn't meant to give that away Shed She'd pretended that It was wall from Walter Val Wal ter own lips III's that shed she'd heard this story long afterward here hereIn In Chicago Of Ot course our e I Claire Cleveland Cleveland Cleveland Cleve Cleve- land was the girl on the train She recalled her first Impre Impression olon of ot Claire her he momentary belief bellet that she couldn't be the woman because she looked rather nice and young not young not much over twenty Six years ago she he could have looked convincingly ly like an Innocent young girl crying forlornly forlornly forlornly for for- over the loss los of ot her ticket and her ht money and the that they'd put her off the train She had something some some- something something thing of ot that look took left Itt even now Martin Martin Mar Mar- tin had described her as 81 looking younger then than her voice vole sounded Why hadn't her voice ol e given Ihen her away to Walter McFArland Of course It was ns hard to tell where the truth left off ort and where the lies u LL began DIjan 3 s professed sea hatred 01 Ot of I Forster was Vas true though as yet specifically unaccounted for She had tried to convince Rhoda Khoda though with witha a t suspicious Insistence upon her own lack of ot knowledge that Forster was the person primarily responsible for forthe forthe forthe the plot a against her father tather That felt like the truth though It obviously ob wasn't I Forster had stopped being frightened and had bur burst t Into a rage of pure relief when she he had told him that Claire had said Mid that That disposed of the possibility that he could coull be the man luau who had compelled compelled com om or persuaded or coldly hired Claire And nd yet he couldn't be left out of the pattern altogether He lie had hij advertised ad ad- for Rhoda McFarland and no noone noone noone one but an Idiot could doubt after atter seeing him and hearing him talk that he had dune done so eo In the furtherance pf pt some FOme mean man purpose of It his own Claire who had once olle been his private secre tory tarr and Max Lewis who was WM his nephew knew or thought they Knew what that purpose was and had tried dF Eil E i to forestall him by bl finding ending her first Claire had bad It was her fathers father's papers tried to get a chance to rummage through and at her own mention to Forster of ot the theft of those papers he had started There mull most mast be something amon among tho those e papers that he be wanted pretty badly something that had nothing to todo todo todo do with the California episode but with the work he had done here In n Chicago Was Vas there or did dlf Forster Fonter believe there thre was among her ber fathers father's papers some precious lous secret ret formula Was that what with his dying breath hed he'd tried triM to tell her about And was that what Claire and Max had bad been trying to steal so that they could sell Bell BellIt It to Forster on their own o terms term Was Vas the conspiracy to ruin her father at the university an entirely unrelated thing except for the coincidence of ot Claires Claire's connection with It What should she Bhe do when For Forster ter came back to question her br further Stick to the truth which she wouldn't be able to make him believe If It he were hone convinced that she was an Impostor and a confederate of ot the Cleveland woman she was In for a pretty bad time when he be came bakIt back bak If It only shed she'd thought of ot telephoning to Martin before coming up here Her thoughtful gaze gue came suddenly Into focus tou upon the bust of ot Napoleon apoleon If It she he could find the way to open that little trap door she Bhe might be able to tot L h.- h. Baa b I n. n t h ome r U IU each Hun HU won u uv e a ui n. rby by now and she ml might ht be able to get jet word to him That was the thing to try anyhow It must have ha been some sort of ot electrical electrical elec elec- connection that opened the little trap door She he went over o and sat down In his chair and looked about It wouldn't dl do to press the wrong but button ton She he studied Napoleon Intently He had hod several buttons button but none of ot them looked as n. If It they pushed In She was guiltily restless sitting In that chair haIr She he couldn't help wandering wondering wonder wander ing whether bether some ome one lne mightn't silently silent silent- ly Iy have entered the room from one of those two doors behind her She could almo almost t feel the gaze of ot a pair of ot eyes boring Into her back and at last half halt Involuntarily she started to turn and find see se As she |