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Show safe" COAST of ClANCE ' ssxfSi I She Read It, Reread It, and Read It Again, and after three yours It was still the i only thing that held them. As much of a tight as she had put up with the rest the people who hud taken her In she had put up the hurdest with (Mara. Vet of them all dura was the only one she hud failed to capture. Clara was always there In the middle of her affairs, but surveying them from a distance, nnd Flora's struggle with her had resolved Itself Into the attempt to keep her from seeing too much, from seeing more than she herself her-self saw. Their dubious Intimacy had created for Flora a special sort of loneliness i n loneliness which lacked the m I eurlty of solitude; and It was partly I as an escape from this that she hud accepted Jlarry Cressy. My herself she could never have escaped. The i initiative was not hers. Hut he had I presented himself, he had Insisted, I had overruled her objections, had captured her before she knew wheth-I wheth-I er she wanted It or not and held j her now, fascinated by his very sue J cess In capturing her, and by his beau-I beau-I tirul ruddy masculinity. She did not ! ask herself whether women ever mar-' mar-' rled for greater reasons than these. She only wondered sometimes If he ; did not stand out more brilliantly against Clara and the others than he Intrinsically was. Hut these moments when she was obliged to defend him to herself were always when he was not with her. Kven In the dusky carriage car-riage she had been as aware of the splendor of his attraction as now when they had stopped between the high lamps of the club entrance, and she saw clearly the broad lines of his shoulders awl the stoop of his square-set square-set head ns he stepped swlnglngly to the pavement. After all, she ought to be glad to think that he was going to stand up as tall and proteotltigly be-between be-between her and the world, as now he did between her and the press of people which, like a tide of water, swept them forward down the ball, sucked them back In Its eddy, and finally cast them, ruffled like birds that have ridden a storm, on the more generous space of the wide, upward up-ward stair. From here, looking down on tlx current sweeping past them, the little islands of black coats seemed fairly drowned In the feminine sea around them the flow of white, of pule blue and rose, and the high chatter, like a cage of birds, that for the evening held possession. "Ladles' Night!" Harry Cressy mopped bis flushed face. "It's awful!" aw-ful!" Flora laughed In the effervescence of her spirits. She wanted to know, teasingly, as they mounted, If thla were why he had brought two more to add to the lot. He only looked at i her, with his short note of laughter that made her keenly conscious of his I right to be proud of her. She was proud of herself. Inasmuch as herself her-self was shown In the long trail of daring blue her gown made up the stair, and the powdery blue of the aigrette that shivered In her bright, soft puffs and curls proud that her daring, as It appeared In these things, was still discriminating enough to make her right. She could recall a time when she had not even been quite sure of her clothes. Not Clara's subdued rustle at her side could make her doubt them now; but her security was still recent enough to be sometimes conscious con-scious of Itself. It was so short a time since all these talking groups, that made a personage of her, hud had the power to put her quite out of countenance. The women who craned over their shoulders to speak to her how hard she had had to work to make them see her at all! And tonight It was not the picture exhibition, nor the function Itself that elated her, but the fancy she had as she looked over the moving mass below her that the crowning excitement excite-ment of the day, the vanishing mystery, mys-tery, hovered over them all. It was fantastic, but tt persisted; for had j not the Chatworth ring Itself proved that the most ordinary appearance might rover unlmaglned wonders Which of those bland, satisfied faces might not change shockingly at the whisper "Chatworth" In Its ear? She wanted to confide the naughty thought to Harry. Hut no, he wasn't the one. If Harry were apprehensive of anything any-thing at all tt was only of being caught In too hot a crush. He saw no possibilities In the mob below ex cept boredom. He saw no wisslbll-Itles wisslbll-Itles In the evening but his conventional conven-tional duty; and Flora could read In his eye his Intention of getting through that as comfortably as possible. pos-sible. His suggestion that they hat a look at the pictures brought the two woman's eyes together In a rare gleam of mutual mirth. They knew he suspected sus-pected that the picture gallery would be the emptiest place In the club, since to have a look at the pictures was what hey were all supposed to b there for. T UK CONTINCKIi ) "Vanished!" Clara Ilritton leaned forward, peering hard In the face of this extraordinary statement. "Stolen, do you mean?" She made It definite. Flora flung out her hands. "Well, It disappeared In tliu Maple room, In the middle of the afternoon, when everybody was there and they haven't the faintest clew." I "Hut how?" For a moment the pre I posterous fact left dura too quick to. be calm. I Again Flora's eloquent hands. "That is It! It was In a case like all the other Jewels. Harry saw It" she glanced at the paper "us late as four o'clock. When he came back with Judge Huller, half an hour after, It whs gone." Flora leaned forward on her elbows, el-bows, chin In hands. No two could have differed more than these two women in their blomlness and their prettlness and their wonder. For Clara was sharp and pale, with silvery lights in eyes and hair, and confronted confront-ed the facts with an alert and calculating calcu-lating observation; but Flora was tawny, toned from brown to Ivory thioiigh all the gamut of gold hair color of a panther's hide, eyes dark hazel, glinting thruugh dust-colored lashes, chin round like a fruit. The pressure of her fingers accented the slight uptllt of her brows to elfish-ness, elfish-ness, and her look was Introspective. She might. Instead of wondering on the outside, have been the very center or the mystery Itself, toying with un thinkable posslbillt les of revelation She looked far over the head of Clara Hrltton's annoyance that there should be no clew. "Why. don't you see," she pointed out, "111111 Is Just the fun of It? It might be anybody. It might be you, or me, or F.I hi Huller. Though I would prefer to think It was some one we didn't know so well some one strange and fascinating, who will presently pres-ently go slipping out the Colden (late In a little Junk boat, so that no one need be embarrassed." Clara looked back with extraordinary extraordi-nary IntctitnehK. ''Oh, It's not possible the thing Is stolen. There's some mistake! And if It were" her eyes seemed to open a little wider to lake In this posi i blllty "they will have detectives all i around the water front by to-night, i Any one would find It difficult to get away," she pointed out. i "Of course; know." Flora murmured. mur-mured. A faint twitch of humor pull i ed her mouth, but the passionate romantic ro-mantic color was dying out of her i race. How was It that one's romances , could be so cruelly pulled down to earth? Hut still she couldn't quite como down to Clara. "At least," she ' sighed, "he has saved me an awful expense, whoever took It, for I should have had to have It." Mrs. Hrltton surveyed this stale ment consideringly. "Was It the most valuable thing In the collection? Flora hesitated In the face of the alert question. "I don't know. Hut i It was the most remarkable. It was a Chatworth heirloom, the papers say, i and was given to Hessie at the time 1 of her marriage." The thought of the death that hud so quickly followed that marriage gave Flora a little i shiver, but no shade of the tragedy touched Clara. There was nothing but speculation In Clara's eyes that, i and a little disappointment. "Then i they will put off the auction If It is I really so," she mused. "Hut there must bo something In It, Clara. Why. they closed the doors i and searched them that crowd! It's ridiculous!" Clara Hrltton glanced at the empty place. "Then that must bo what has kept him." , "Who? Oh, Harry!" It took Flora a moment to remember she had been i expecting Harry. She hoped Clara I had not noticed It. Clara always had I too much the assumption that she ! was taking him only as the best-look- i ing, best natured. safest bargain pre- t sented. "He will be here." she re- i assured, "but I wish he would hurry. ( His dinner will be spoiled; and, poor I dear, he likes his dinner' no much!" The faint silver sound of the elec- I trie bell, a precipitate double peal, c seemed to uphold this statement. The 1 women faced each other In a mo- I ment s suspense, a moment of expec I tation, such as the advance column I may feel at sight of a scout hotfoot , from the field of battle. There were , muflied movements In the hall, then I light, even steps crossing the drawing I room. Those light steps always sug I gested a slight frame, and, as always. Flora was re-surprised at his bulk as now It appeared between the parted ( curtains, the dull black and sharp t white of bis evening clothes topped by i his square, fresh-colored face. t "Well. Flora." he said. "I know I'm ! late," and took the hand she held to t him from where she sat. Her face I danced with pleasure. Yes, he was I magnificent, she thought, as he cross- t ed with his light stride to Mrs. Hrlt-ton's Hrlt-ton's chair. He could even stand the I barsh lines and lights of evening i clothes. He dominated their ugly convention con-vention with his height, bis face so c ruddy and fresh under the pale brown i of his hair, bis alert, assured, deft i movement. His high good nature bad i the effect of sweetening fur blm even i Clara Hrltton flavorless manner. The -"We were speaking of you." with which she saw him to bis seat, had ( all the warmth of a smile, but a smile far In tbe background of Flora's Im- mediate possession. Indeed. Flora i bad seldom bad ao much to say to.t Harry as at tbla niouunt of ber x ' i She ftdt that she had !ecn stupid w here she should have been most dell-cute. dell-cute. "Hut you don't understand," she protested, leaning fur toward blm as if to coerce him with her generous warmth. "The Chatworth ring was nothing but a fancy I had. I never thought of It for a moment as an engagement en-gagement ring!" Hy the light stir of silk she was aware that Clara had risen. She looked look-ed up quickly to encounter that odd look. Clara's face was so smooth, so polished, so unruffled, as to appear almost al-most blank, but none the less Flora saw It all In Clara's eye a look that was not new to her. It was the same with which Clara had met the announcement an-nouncement of her engagement; the Mime look with which she had confronted con-fronted every allusion to the approaching ap-proaching marriage; the same with which she now surveyed the mention of the engagement ring a look neither neith-er approving nor dissenting, whose calm, considerate speculation seemed to repudiate all Interest positive or negative In the approaching event except ex-cept the one largo question, "What Is to become of me?" Many times Clara had hold It up before her, not as a question, certainly not as an accusation; ac-cusation; as a fiat assertion of fact; but to-night Flora felt It so directly nnd Imperatively aimed at her that It seemed this time to demand un audible audi-ble response. And Clara's way of getting get-ting up. and standing there, with her gloves on. poised and expectant, as If she were only waiting on oport unity to take farewell, took on, In the light of her look, the fantastic appearance of a final departure. "I'm afraid," she mildly reminded them, "that Shima announced the carriage ten minutes ago!" "Oh, dear, I'm so sorry!" Flora's eyes wavered apologetically In the direction di-rection of the waiting Japanese, i Clara'B flicker of amusement made j her hate herself the moment It was J out. She could always depend on her- j self when she knew she was on cxhl- f billon. She could bo sure of the right . thing If It were only largo enough, but she was still caught at odd mo- ! ments by the trifles, the web of a cer- tain social habit Into which she had j slipped, full grown on the smooth surface sur-face of her father's million's. Clara's fleeting smile lit up these trllles to her now ns enormous. It took advantage advan-tage of her small deficit to point out to her more plainly than ever to what large blunders she might be liable when she had cut loose from Clara's guiding, reminding, prompting genius, and chose to confront the world without with-out It. To be sure, she was not to confront it alone; but, looking at Harry, It came to her with a moment's qualm that she did not know blm as well as she thought she had. CHAPTER II. A Name Goes Round a Table. For to-night, from the moment he had appeared, she bad recognized an unfamiliar mood In blm, and it bad come out the more tbey bad discussed tbe Chatworth ring. Sim wondered, as he heaped ber ermine er-mine on ber shoulders, if Harry might not have more surprises for her than she had supposed. Perhaps she bad taken blm too much for granted. After all, she had known him only for a year. She herself was but three years old In San Francisco, and to ber new eyes Harry bad seemed an old resident thoroughly established. So firmly established es-tablished was he In his bachelor quarters. quar-ters. In bis clubs. In tbe demands made upon him by the city's society, that it hnd never occurred to her he had ever lived anywhere else. Nor had he happened to mention anything of his previous life until to night, when he had given ber. In that mention of a Ixmdon ball, one flashing glimpse of former experiences. Impulsively she summed up the possibilities pos-sibilities of what these might have been. She gave blm a look, Incredulous, Incredu-lous, delighted, as he banded her Into the carriage. She had actually got a thrill out of easy-going, matter-of-fact, well tubbed Harry! It was comradeship comrade-ship in itself. Not that she would have told blm. This capacity of hers for thrills she bad found need always to keep carefully covered. In the days when she was a shoeless child those days of her father's labor In shaft and dump she had dimly felt ber world to be a creature of a keen, a fairly cruel humor, for all things that did not pertain to the essence of the life it struggled for. The wonder of the western flare of day, the magic In the white eyes of the stars before sunrise. Ihn mystery In the pulse of the pounding pound-ing mine beard in the dark of such It bad been as ruthless as this new world that looked as narrowly forth st as starved a proseot with even keener ridicule. Instinctively she had turned to both the hard, bright face Ihey required. fatherless, motherless, alone upon the pinnacle of her fortune, she had known that such an extraordinary en-Irapce, en-Irapce, even at this rather wide social portal, would only be acceptable if toned down, u.sed o'er and drawn nut by a personality sufficiently neutral, neu-tral, sufficiently potent and sufficiently In need of what she hsd to give. The successive fM-ker of the gas lamps through tn- .irrlage window made of Clara's profile so bard and fine a little Medallion that It was lm;o. Ibl to ronceive It in need of anything And vet It was Just their mut'ial ned that bad dramo these two women together. ziMfmirQvstvY&sbrtner coryraamas &y t CHAPTER I. The Vanishing Mystery. Flora Gllsey stood on the threshold of her dining room. She had turned tier back on It. Sho swa d forward. Her bare arm were lifted. Iler hands , lightly caught the molding on either aide of the door. She was looking intently in-tently Into tbe mirror at the other end of the hall. All the lights In the . dining room were lit, and she saw herself rather keenly set against this brilliance. The t iralght -held head, the lifted arms, the short, slender waist, the long, long sweep of her skirts made her seem taller than she actually was; and the strong, blight growth of her hair and the vivacity of her face made her seem more deeply deep-ly colored. She hail poised there for the mere survey of a new gown, but nfter a moment mo-ment of dwelling on her own reflection reflec-tion she found herself considering It only as an object In the foreground of a picture. That picture, seen through the open door, reflected III the glass, was ail of a bright, hard glitter, all a high, harsh tone of newness. In its paneled ciak, In Its glare of cut glass nnd silver. In the shining vacant faces of Its lloors and walls, there was not a color that filled the eye, not a shad- low where Imagination could find play. As a background for herself It Htruck her as Incongruous. I.Ike a child looking nt the landscape tit-slde tit-slde down, she felt herself In a foreign for-eign country. Vet It was hers. She glanc ed over the table. It was I net for three. It lacked nothing but the serving of dinner. She looked at the clock. It wanted a few minutes to the hour. Shima, the Japanese but ler, c.-iuie In softly with the evening paper. She took them from him. Nothing bored her so much as a pa per, but tonight she knew It con tallied something she really wanted to nee. She? opened one of the clamp nheets at the page of sales. There It was at the head of the 'oliiinn In thick black type: AT At'CTK'N. IKIIIir.UtY IS fKlt.Sc IN l. KKTATK OK r:i.iZAniTii iii ntkh outwoiitii 4'iiNKISTINeJ K She reael the details with Interest flown to the end. where the name of the "famous Clint worth ring" finished the announcement with a flourish. Why "famous"? it was very provoking provok-ing to advertise with that vague adjective ad-jective and not explain It. She turned Indifferently to the first page. She read a sentence, re-rend It, rend It ngaln. Then, as If she could not read fast enough, her eyes galloped gal-loped down the column. It was the most extraordinary thing! She was bewildered with the feeling that what was blnring at ber from the columns of the paper was at once the wildest thing that could possibly have happened, hap-pened, and yet the one most to have been expected. For, from the first the business had been sinister, from as far back as the tragedy the end of poor young Chatworth Chat-worth and his wife the llessle, who, before her Fnglish marriage, they had nil known so well. Iler death, that bad befallen In fur Italian Alps, had made a sensation In their little city, and the large announcements of auction auc-tion that had followed hard upon It line! bred among the women who had known her a morbid excitement, a feverish desire lo buy. ns If there might be some special luck In them, the Jewels of a woman who had so tragically died. They had been ready to make a social affair of the private view held In the "Maple room" before be-fore the acution. And now the whole spectacular business was enpped by a sensntiou so dramatic as to strain credulity to Its limit. She could not believe It; yet here It was glaring at ber from the first page. Still It might be an exaggeration, a mistake. She must go back to the beginning and read It over slowly. The striking of the hour hurried tier. Shlma's announcement of dinner din-ner only sent her eyes faster down the page, r.ut when, with a faint, smooth rustle, Mrs. Hrltton came in, ahe let tbe paper fall. Sho always faced her chaiwron with a little nervousness, ner-vousness, and with the same sense of strangeness with which she so frequently fre-quently regarded her house. It's 15 minutes after eight." Mrs. Hrltton observed. "We would better not wait any longer." She took the plae-e opposite Flora's at the round table. Flora sat down, still holding the paper, flushed and bolt upright with her news. "It's the most extraordinary thing!" he burst forth. Mrs. Hrltton paused mildly with a radish In her fingers. She took In tha presence of the paper, and the uppressed excitement of her companion's com-panion's face seemed to absorb them through tbe large pupils of ber light eyes, through all er smooth, pretty person, before she reached for an explanation. ex-planation. "What Is the most extraordinary thing?" The query came bland and atuooih. as if. whatever It was. It could not surprise her. "Why, tbe Chatworth ring! At the private lw tau afternoon It simply vanished! And and it was all our own crowd whu wre there!" fitement over what ho had actually Re-en. For the evidence that he had Hieti something was vivid In his face. Slice shook the paper at him. "Tell us everything, instantly!" He gayly acknowledged her right lo make him thus stand and deliver. Ilu shot his hands Into the air with the lightening vivacity that was in him a sort of wit. "Not guilty," he grinned at her. "Harry, you know you were In It. Tho papers have you tbe most Im-Kirtant Im-Kirtant personage." "1'pon my word! Hut look here wait a minute!" he arrived delibcrato ly at what was required of him. "If you want to know the way It happened hap-pened here's your Maple room." He began a diagram with forks on the rloNi before blm, and Clara, who had watched their spnrrlng from her point f vantage In the background, now leaned forward, as If at last they were getting to the point. "This Is the case, furthest from the door." He planted a salt cellar In Ills silver Inclosure. "I come In very I'nrly, at half past two, before the rrowd; fail to meet you there." He made mischievous bows to right and left. "I go out again. Hut first I see this ring." "What was It like?" Flora demanded. de-manded. "Like?" Harry turned a specula-ive specula-ive eye to the dull glow of the can-lolabrum, can-lolabrum, as If between Its points of llame he conjured up the vision of the ranlshed Jewel. "I.Ike a bit of an old (old heathen god curled round him-elf, him-elf, with his head, which was most-y most-y two yellow sapphires, between his tnees. nnd a big. blue stone on top. ?oft, yellow gold, so fine you could elmost dent It And carved! Kven hrough a glass every lino of it la ight. I couldn't seem to get away rom It. I dropped Into the club and nlkeel to Huller about it. He got icon, and I wont back with him to lave another look at It. Well, at the loor Huller stems to speak to a chap rolng out a crazy Kngllshnian he ind picked up at the club. I go on. !ly this time there's a crowd Inside. ml I manage to get up to the case. KnA first I miss the spot altogether. nd then I see the card with his lame; and then, underneath I see the iolo In the velvet where the god had jeen." Flora gave out a little sigh of suspense, sus-pense, and even Clara showed a gleam f excitement. He looked from one o the other. "Then there were fl reworks re-works Huller came up. The deter-Ive deter-Ive came up. Kverybody came up. t'ohody'd believe It. fxtta of 'era hought they had seen It only a few nlnutes before. Hut there was the lole In the velvet and nothing more 0 be found " "Hut does no one know anything? las no one an ld-a?" Clara almost anted In ber Impatience. Not the ghost of a glimmer of a lue. There were upward of two hun Ired of us. and they let us out like 1 chain gang, one by one. My number vas 19.1. and so fnr I can vouch there vere no discoveries. It has vanished -sunk out of sight." Flora sighed "Oh. poor Hee hatwortb!" Harry stared at her. He had the air f a man about to give information. ibJ the air of a man who has thought etter of It. His vole-e consciously ibook off Its gravity. "Well, there'll be such a row kicked up, the probability proba-bility Is the thing II be returned and no questions asked. Hurdle's keen very keen. Ile-'s resMinslble, the executor exec-utor of the estate, you see." Hut Clara Hrltton leveled her eyes at him, as If the thing he had produced pro-duced was not at all the thing be had led up to. "Still, unless there was enormous pressure aomewbere and In thla case I don't see where I can't see what Mr. Hurdle's keenness will do toward getting It back." Harry played a little sulkily with the proposition, but be would not pick up the thread he had dropped. "I don't know that any one sees. Tbe question now Is who took It?" "Why, one of us," Bald Mora flippantly. flip-pantly. "Of course, it Is all on the Western Addition." "Don't you believe It!" he answered her. "It's a confounded fine professional profes-sional job. It takes more than sleight of hand It takes genius, a thing like that! There was a chap In Knglaud, Farrell Wand." The name floated In a little silence. "He kept them guessing," Harry went on recalling It; "did some great vanishing acts." "You mean, he could take things before their eyes without people knowing It?" Flora's eyes were wide beyond their wont. "Something of that sort. I remember remem-ber at one of the embassy balls nt St. James' he talked five minutes to Lady Tllton. Her emeralds were on ween he began. She never saw 'em again." Flora began to laugh. "He must have been attractive." "Well," Harry conceded praetlcnlly, "he knew his business." "Hut you can't rely on those stories," sto-ries," Clara objected. "You must this time," he shook his tawny head at her; "I give you my word; for I was there." It seemed to Flora fairly preposterous preposter-ous that Harry could sit there looking so matter of fact with such experiences experi-ences behind him. Kven Clara looked a little taken aback, but the effect was only to set her more sharply on. "Then auch a man could easily have taken the ring In the Maple room this afternoon? You think It might have been the man himself?" His brond smile of appreciation enveloped en-veloped her. "Oh, you have a scent luce a bloodhound. You haven't let go of that once since you started. He could have done It oh, easy but be went out eight, ten years ago." "Pled?" Flora's rising Inflection was a lament. ! "Went over the horizon over the r.nge. Ilelleve he died In the col- i onles." ! "Oh." Flora sighed, "then I shall ' have to fancy he has come back again. ' Just for the sake of the Chatworth ring. That wouldn't be too strange i lit all ao strange I keep forgetting It 1 Is real. At least." she went on ex- i plaining herself to Harry's smile. "It seems as If tnts must be going on a lnng way off, as if It could nt be so i close to us. as If the ring 1 wanted so i much couldn't really be the one that I has disappeared." All the while she i fell Harry's smile enveloping her wPh ' an odd. half protec ting watchfulness, i but at the close of her sentence be i frowned a little. , "Well, perhaps we can find another ' ring to tske tbe place of it" |
