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Show T - - -- . . ( i ... . . ..... . .... . ........... ......... I f tf wwwwwwww www www ww www wwmwwww9WWW99.WWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwW9 ' , I J t III Diamond Gut: Diamond j ill By JANE BUNKER jjj i t i i!i I 1 i Copyright, by Eotjbs-Mr;rrUI Company.) i I E . I i"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THOSE HYACINTHS?" Synopsis, While fn Hip little Swis.s town of Vevay, where the "staid, proper RpliiMtfr" who ttrllrt the .story in hih-ii'IImk ft vacation, Hhe Is aaked to allow a ywuntf Kill, Claire de Kavenol, to he her companion bark to the United States. vMlhoLiKh forming an attarhment to the Kill, the heroine takes a dislike to Monsieur fie Kavennl, Claire's father, and declines. On the boat she finds Claire In the rate of a casual ai'ouaintaure, Mrs. Delarlo, whom she had met while each was purrhasinir a pair of slippers, exactly alike, which figure largely in Hub.seipient events. When they reach New York, where Claire was to have been met by tier mother, the latter does not appear, and Claire perforce goes to Mis. fit-larlo's home. In the confusion at the custom house, the spinster carries off one fif Mrs. Iielario's slippers. Through that happening she learns later that someone unknown to her has been in her Hat. Calling on Mrs. Delarlo, that lady shows her some remarkable gems, believing them to be rubies, but which are really blood-red diamonds, and easily wortli a million dollars. Mrs. iJelarlo admits the gems were smuKU'led, hut offers no explanation. While they are talking, a pounding on the door throws them Into consternation. The culler asserts he Is an oftlcer of the law, with a warrant for the arrest of Mis. Iielarlo'a son on a charge of stealing the diamonds. She outwits him and persuades the spinster to take the gems to her home for safe keeping. Next morning, realizing the responsibility In her possession of the diamonds, the spinster takes them hack to Mrs. Delarlo, but while, there she learns that that lady's son has been kidnaped, supposedly on account of the gems, and agrees to keep them for a while. She hides them In a bunch of hyacinths and has the lock of her door changed and a chain-bolt added. Over the telephone Do Ravenol Informs her Mrs. Delarlo has met with an accident and urges her to call at once. Hastening to her friend, and leaving the gems, the heroine Is met by De Ravenol, who claims the diamonds are his, stolen from Claire on the boat. He accuses Mrs. Delarlo or our friend the spinster of the theft, and demands their return. She defies De Havenol, who threatens her with a revolver, and escapes. Alarmed for her personal safety, and almost believing Tie Ravenol, the heroine fears to return to her flat, and while uncertain what to do meets an old-time friend. Hilly Rivers, newspaper reporter. They spend the evening at a theater, and Rivers accompanies her home. There they find tho fiat has been thoroughly searched but nothing taken. She does not confide In Rivers. CHAPTER VIII. 8 , Mrs. Jimmson Again. I had felt myself going nnil let myself my-self down us gently lis I could, untler the circunistuncos. flow long I wns unconscious, I have no wiiy of knowing, know-ing, lint it eiutie to me terminally Hint my Hut liml been robbed of what and hy whom, I couldn't imagine but as for the diamonds, I forgot them, totally. to-tally. I undressed and went to bed, pulling the blankets up over me, camp fashion, without waiting to make the beil or cleat- up any of the wreckage inn! wit limit feeling any particular apprehension, ap-prehension, only a deathlike exhaustion. exhaus-tion. I woke In the early dawn and still It hadn't come buck to me about the diamonds; dia-monds; but what did swoop on me with a rush was that Mrs. .Timmson was coming to clean anil would be there not n minute later than eight-thirty. eight-thirty. She was n refined little woman who hail seen better 'days before she wedded the decently lamented Jimm-fon Jimm-fon and had to support him through "tuberculosis" by day's work and fancy washing and Ironing. My interest inter-est In her had been the main prop In her struggles for several years and she reciprocated said interest in n way that would have been Insufferable Impertinence Im-pertinence hail It not been so sincere and devoted. She loved me and all my works particularly my works, on which she regaled the neighbors at such times as she was joyfully permitted permit-ted to go home with a new one under her arm. And she'd be here at eight-thirty ! "Heaven help us !" I cried, hopping out of bed and slipping on a kimono. "If she gets hold of this robbery, I'm done for I'll see my name In the papers tomorrow, sure!" With feverish haste I got the books back in the cases, hit or miss as they came to hand ; the pictures hung and the rooms in order. The kitchen was In a state! I gave an apprehensive glance at the window as I scraped up spilled breakfast food and threw it in the garbage can I knew how my unpleasant un-pleasant visitor had got out and wondered won-dered how he had got in, but I wasted no time thinking of it. I was soon enough to know, however. I had barely finished with the kitchen and was opening the bathroom door to clear up there when my dear Jimmson rang. I let her In, first asking through the door who it was a precaution adequately ade-quately explained by my attire; and telling her to begin at the kitchen for I hadn't had my bath, I piloted her with a seemingly affectionate arm to her quarters. Then I bolted myself Into the bathroom and with stealthy moveniits cleared away the evidence " cf the search. My bath refreshed me, and I was clothed and somewhat near my right mind when I came out of the bathroom. bath-room. I had called out to her, just before be-fore I got into the tub, asking her to make my coffee and get ready the rolls and butter, and she was occupied In setting my tray and did not hoar me as I passed the kitchen door. Thus I had time to see what lay on the dining-room dining-room table before she told me. It was a long thin dagger, sharp as a razor. Mrs. Jimmson pulled open the kitchen door and bounced out just as-1 had taken the dagger in my hand. "That's what I found on the kitchen floor back of the scrap basket," she exclaimed. ex-claimed. Her eyes were rolling. I managed to say carelessly, "Yes my new paperknife. I was wondering where I'd dropped It. I wish you'd bring in my breakfast I'm in a tremendous tre-mendous hurry this morning." "Oil it's only a paperknife, is it?" rne murmured in a disappointed tone. "I didn't know but it was " "W s what?" 1 demanded, wondering wonder-ing '.. she had. will) her uncanny interest inter-est in me ami my affairs, sensed something some-thing queer and wrong about the flat. "Well, it give me quite a turn to see Unit Jagg'" layin' on ihe Moor." she admitted with some spirit, "and nat-chelly nat-chelly I couldn't help thlnklu', now Timid I?" "Oh, naturally," said I, and laid It on the tray along with the scissors and paste and the pen box that had, only yesterday, held a million dollars' worth of diamonds; and then I asked her would she please bring in my breakfast. break-fast. And my knees were shaking under un-der me and I thought, "Oh, boy you saved my life last night for a fact, by talking to me while he was up here waiting. Oh, Billy you saved my life, taking me to a silly show. But how long will it last? Where is It going to end?" "You look real sick this morning," observed Mrs. Jimmson, setting the tray on the dining-room table. "I don't feel very well." This was the truth. 'Terhnps you better go right back to bed and let me stay and take care of you I'd like nothing better " "Mrs. Jimmson if you don't mind I think I'll get you to boil me an egg this morning." "If you don't mind me givin' you the hint I feel you ought to find out what My Revolver Was Gone. ails you before you eat any more you may need one of those fasting cures the papers are telling so much about." "I may but I need a soft-boiled egg now, if you will be so kind as to cook it for me " I had broken my roll to crumbs in the effort to control my wrath at her, though the general situation was nothing noth-ing new. " Unless you wish me to boll the egg myself," I added severely. "Oh, yes the egg. They do say raw eggs when a person gets run down " With that, I rose and stalked to the kitchen. She sidled past me, hastily snatching snatch-ing a saucepan off the shelf and filling it with water. I went back without a word. What little appetite I had was gone. When the eg finally arrived, I couldn't eat it which convinced dear Jimmson, not that she had made my eating impossible, hut that I was having hav-ing an "attackt" and needed her watching watch-ing to see I didn't get any worse! She tagged me up, when I went to my bedroom, bed-room, to know if she hadn't better telephone the doctor to look in just as a precaution. It was in the tip of my tongue to tell her, brutally, that what she'd better do was to attend to her own affairs and let me attend to mine, when 1 realized that she too might be standing between be-tween me and sudden death ! So long as she was in the flat I was relatively safe. I smiled at her a pleasant and deceiving de-ceiving smile to prove that she. was wrong and she immediately went back to work. I had been standing by the bureau while we spoke and something to my eye seemed missing on It. She hadn't more than left the room when I knew what my revolver was gone. It lay always on the corner where I could put my handn It in the night in the dark. I knew I hadn't seen it when I cleared up the room ; I knew monsieur couldn't have helped seeing It when he cleared out the bureau. And by the token, I knew that he had taken it. "The cur!" thought I. But the loss was a good tonic, for after the first minute of fright at finding myself without defense, I got so hopping mad at the sheer meanness of the creature also so pleasing- glad at the little compliment he was paying me by ad-, mining thus he was afraid of me and a revolver in combination that I'd have sailed into him with a hatpin if he'd shown his face at the door. And at that moment I heard the sound of a latch-key working in a door. I thought it was my own, and dashed out and threw it wide. It was the lady in the adjoining flat. She said: "How these keys do stick, sometimes ! I wonder if anybody has been tampering with my lock." Tampering with the lock ! I closed my door without thanking her for the reminder I had been in the act of getting get-ting a new lock when monsieur called me to Mrs. Delarlo's supposed deathbed. death-bed. Oh, if I only had had It put on ! Then I remembered that other key on Friday night the key working in my own door and that I assumed belonged to Mr. Man-down-stairs. No wonder he didn't swear at me when I called out to him he had the wrong flat: Mr. Man was monsieur! I flung on my wraps, telling Mrs. Jimmson I had an errand out, and in less than fifteen minutes I had a locksmith lock-smith putting on a new Yale lock and exchanging the small chain-bolt for the heaviest in the market. I had rung when I returned with the man to give color to my tale of a lost key. Mrs. Jimmson let me in and seemed greatly astonished to see a man begin at once taking out screws. "So you lost your key?" she observed placidly just her way of taking everything every-thing I hanDen to be doing as a per sonal matter of her own. She was now prepared to superintend the operation. op-eration. "Well, that's too bad to have to go to the expense of a new lock. Couldn't the man find a key that would fit? The key would cost only a quarter quar-ter and you wouldn't have to buy a whole lock." Her "arms were folded and she showed she meant to see the new lock on to the last screw. I gazed at her in sheer wonder that a person could be. so stupid, so obtuse as not to know she wasn't wanted ; and from her, my eyes traveled along the hall, to the dining room, to the table my heart jumped, mid stormed : the hyacinths were not there ! , "What have you done with those hyacinths?" I demanded, as soon as I could control my voice. "You mean those faded things in a glass on the table?" "Ye3 what did you do with them ?" "If you'd mentioned them before you went out " "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THEM?" "Why, they were so faded I never thought you wanted them " She was beginning to quail and slide away. I caught her wrist my fingers left marks she showed them to me later. "What did you do with them? Answer me instantly!" "I threw them out." As Mrs. Jimmson said those words that she had thrown the hyacinths away the locksmith handed me the two keys, saying that the lock and the bolt were all right and that was all. I had paid him at the shop in order to hasten matters at the house, for I hoped, if possible, to get the job done so quickly that even George wouldn't find out what I had brought the man in for. I was still digging my fingers into her wrist while he gathered up his tools and he gave the two of us a curious look, half amusement, half wonder at my vehemence, before he closed himself out. As, for Mrs. Jimmson. she had been too paralyzed with fright to move. The instant the door was shut, I dropped her wrist and made a dash for the kitchen, hoping the garbage hadn't yet gone down. As I did it. I let out one short unpleasant word. That word was "Damn !" and into it I crowded all the pent-up feelings of the last twenty-four twenty-four hours. I saw her look of horror as I closed the door she thought I had gone insane! in-sane! Now, I'm not given to profanity, but 1 am willing to admit that it may have its uses on occasion. as for instance in-stance when your scrubber-hidy litis just thrown away your uiiliion-d.iiiar hunch of hyacinths and "didn't know yi cji wanted those faded thiiv.-s." My one bad word, however, let of! enmiuli steam for me to realize liar 1 diiin't even know if the diamonds v. e; e tl. or not ! Hastily I pulled out the papers and rubbish and dumped them on the floor and had just pounced on the hyacinths, ' when the front bell rang. I Were the diamonds safe? I didn't j dare at the minute to investigate I j didn't dare even to be caught with i them in my hands. Suppose it were monsieur, coming now in broad daylight day-light ! The ring was repeated. I grabbed up a bit of newspaper and rolled up the hunch, cramming it into tin kitchen saucepan on the shelf an operation op-eration I hadn't more than finished, setting the lid on as softly as I could, when I heard a man's voice shout my name, followed by the words "special delivery." Without waiting for Mrs. Jimmson to decide If it were safe to call me, I steppetl out and signed for it. As I closed the messenger out I looked at the address the writing was unknown to me; and I was in the act of tearing open the envelope, when Mrs. Jimmson sank on a hall chair and began to weep. "To think oh, to think to think," she sobbed. "It's hard " "Yes, It is hard for some people to think," I observed, icily glaring at her and running my thumb under the flap. "It's hard after all these years I I I've tried my best to p-p-please you" "No you haven't. I have repeatedly repeated-ly told you never under any circumstances circum-stances whatever to throw away anything any-thing in my rooms without first asking me. Today, you have thrown away some flowers that I had reason to value " "You didn't tell me," she murmured. "If you had given me the tip, now told me you valued them " "Do you think I have to tell my private pri-vate affairs to you?" I cried hotly. "I hope I'm a friend," she interrupted inter-rupted at the word. "If I'd seen any reason " "It's not your place to see reasons" she took a sfep toward the kitchen at the reminder "but to obey orders. I'm under no obligation to give T'ou reasons why I value flowers or why I don't." The Indignation faded out of her thin face; a gleam of real intelligence took its place, and this is what she said when I stopped for breath : "I'm awful sorry I touched those flowers. As true as I stand here, I never once thought it might be a gent tleman friend give them to you." With that she started for the kitchen, adding: "And here I am keeping keep-ing you from reading your special delivery." de-livery." She smiled knowingly. Gentleman friend ! In those words all was explained and forgiven between be-tween the two of us there was nothing noth-ing but kindly sympathy woman to woman, you know as she said them. She closed the kitchen door tight I knew it was the better to wreathe me in new haloes and fresh glories of romance! ro-mance! I could have wrung her neck. Gentleman friend, indeed 1 The one gentleman actively interested in me was after me with a knife and had threatened me with a revolver. I had forgotten all about the letter still In my hand, and thought only of the diamonds. The front bell rang as Jimmson crossed the sill. She stepped back and asked if she should go, but I motioned her I'd answer it myself and she disappeared dis-appeared from view. It was a boy with a telegram. I found his "sign here" lino and scrawled my name. Then I came to myself. I had lost the special delivery letter! CHAPTER IX. . The Telegram. A telegram in the hand is worth two special delivery letters you can't find ; so I tore open the yellow envelope. Now, it is a habit of mine to read the signature before the message. The signature was my brother's name. My brother is not a telegraph person, except ex-cept for bad news, and the sight of his name gave me a shock, and for a good half-minute I could not go on with the message. But when I got the covrage to face what had happened in the family, fam-ily, this is what appeared : "I am obliged to ask you to come to Philadelphia tomorrow on urgent business. busi-ness. Take the train leaving New York at 11 a. m. I will meet you at Broad Street station." I think the first thing that struck me as queer in it was the large number num-ber of words words that no experienced experi-enced business man, using telegraphic communication ail the time, would have put in the "to's" and "the's ;" and then, "I am obliged to ask" my brother would say, "Must ask you come," or "Please come." The second queer thing was saying he'd meet me when his office is just around the corner from the station and he knows I don't expect him to waste time standing about waiting for a train that may lie late. From the spinster's brother or De Ravenol? (TO BE CONTINUED.) |