OCR Text |
Show P1 fo) PI1 0 (? pN fn n Nnra f hi ini L u & OLXIiLy Kl E i ;j "" By SOPHIE KERR j xyiiiiii'iiiiiiiiiM iiiiMlllilllmlilliiii,,,,ll, imnmnimiiiminnniiniiiPS feeling i0 well today. If the mi-dame mi-dame gets In before you get back I'll explain why you'ro out." "I'd love to go," said Rachel, "I need some fresh air." The man on the servants' elevator eleva-tor told her her cheeks were like tho pink roses of Killarney as sho camo In, a compliment which Rachel received re-ceived with pleasure. lie was a jolly soul nnd Rachel liked him. She unlocked the door of the apartment apart-ment gaily and found Towers nnd Lena waiting for her, their faces drawn nnd doubtful. "The master wants to see you In the library," said Towers, "right off. Don't take olf your tilings." Still clutching the curry powder, Rachel hurried in to Mr. Cayne. lie was pacing the floor. "Well, Miss Vincent," ha began, "the thief's been nt It again. It's a sapphire bracelet tills time." Rachel's lips parted In amazement. amaze-ment. "Are you sure? When did you miss It?" "Right this minute. I came home early because I knew Mrs. Cayne would be out and I wanted to check K bU. cour." She w;ll . k ' V.r. 'lVn'isi Sr.iMvd his i I . ri'siit on d'ini: 1 you've ' V '"I"!,?. a vou'U turn up some- - f.t'Ws that'll give us the ;'c'.,7fr l ' certain of It. lot " !v K '.'r fro-.i vou as often us you J-.';; ' I l"." h'iJ suiSstEort. "We'll to i IVli't;.' Cub I Know about nnd ' ' u ' i soCCi and liston to the-P. the-P. r't, t wench there who J'; "Jn.y Weather' like no-, no-, '., , Ws. I'll ion for , J ' j CHArTKK X U 'lto'.l vou. Elinor, that if he V ',"'t rvr in February he'll have ' over until next fall." Mr. -iid ir.vaJed his wife's room . S.vA the picture ef exasperat- V ver'.ejs p.'-wer. rejected by j-irwrs h every direction. She 'ifl, too, the ir.doir.itab'.e l jji- ; gu". which d.-es not com-away com-away untouched from : r'rjs iti force, her peach vol-" vol-" - iu&it lay around her shoul-' shoul-' js cire'.essly ar.i she adjusted it ' tt!-re becoming line. Rachel. t-t curl banished, neat as a nun t;r Fy aiterr.oon ta:Teta. con- t;-:;i cn the tiny darn she was C ic-.S ever a cigarette burn In .- r:.'Mrs. Cayr.e's lace slips, tried ss t'.ar.k as '.r. Terriss and ( -:;s a syiiab'.e. -3; y:u Lke this color en me. s;."'" EUr.cr Cayr.e asked at last. "s weren't talking about that. " r.;:. I '2nt Kc'.brock to enroll in s;?:-s term cf the university." J yl3 I thought this year's classes all arranged, or enrc'.'.ei. or i '-'."ever they co." t. :' vHj caa take special work. Bet- t f:r him than loaf.ng and run-; run-; if sr;ur.J to parties with a'J these x t-7 i:is." L:ial wendered if Elinor's In-1 In-1 fe.-ence c;a!d be as contp'.ete as lei-ei She stitched more s'.ow- , , !ie rr.uit know what "r. Cayr.e .. is ffit'e had to say about Kol-xi's Kol-xi's friends, for so far she had 8 able to discover octhir.j s:g-."" s:g-."" kut abcat them. "Tiiy're really very sweet, Ee-, Ee-, Ci crarse they're young and gi-e;s." Eer tone Implied: C " - -i yca're old and set." Cayne caught the br.plication "Oh, I know you think I'm ry CTd;'.3ge, hut that's beside the Tl"i- Ec'lbrock must have an edu-Sea. edu-Sea. this is the time of his life ..e be ought to be studying - id-" : "Ecrock would study hard If -t'i let htm go to art school." J"; .icw, Elinor, look here, I've gone this art racket thoroughly. r-z.- it get the boy? He can be illustrator of stories for maga--;: cr te can draw pictures to - ; ;rl'i advertisements or into cat- 11 Sftp I'hel over her shoulder. "Anyway I'" glad you came what did father fa-ther say about tho school?" "That's what I wanted to talk to you nhout go nhead, Rachel, attend at-tend to your work." Rachel went out, very straight nnd tall nnd angry. Her feelings "gainst these two had darkened and Increased. "I don't like theml" she thought with nil the ruthlessness of youth. "I don't like theml Mr. Cnyne's the only decent person in the family and he's the only one not nny kin to mo." She went back to the kitchen where Lena was preparing dinner. "Can I wash that salad for you?" she asked mechanically. "I vlsh you would, I can't see when the skill's clean nny more. My glasses oughta be changed, but I can't seem to get round to it," Rachel took tho salad to the sink, filled a pan with water nnd turned on the light Just above It. "Lena," sho said, "I'm going to tell you something because I'd liko your nd-vice. nd-vice. Mr. Holbrook just nsked mo to lend him my wages till ho gets his allowance first of the month. D'you think I ought to do it I mean wouldn't Mr. nnd Mrs. Cayne be sore if they found It out?" Lena's hand paused above the roast she was larding. "Oh, he's begun on you, has he, the little devil? Well, I don't now what this world Is coming tol No, don't you let him have n nickel. You'll never get it back If you do. He's had let's see in the past year or so he's had over a hundred from me and half as much ngain from Bert, nnd he's never paid back a penny." "But doesn't he get an allowance?" allow-ance?" "He gets a bigger allowance than your wages or mine neither. He gets plenty! No fear of that." "What does he spend It on, then?" "The Lord only knows, helling nround playing the Crown Prince, I guess. I told him this summer whiles we was in the country that I'd not let him have another cent, and Bert did the same, and he tried It on Yates, then, but Yates was smart, told him he was all tied up In a mortgage and said to Bert and me that he'd lose his job before be-fore he'd let that young monster put It over on him. Don't you begin it, for mark my words it'll be a gift and not a loan." "Why don't you or Mr. Towers speak to Mr. Cayne?" "How can we, and him so good and kind and trying to do his best for the boy and her all the time hampering him and cutting across his Intentions! He's got so much trouble with them both Bert did threaten the boy he'd tell on him, but we can't do it, we think maybe may-be he'll grow out of it. Lotsa kids get a wild streak about this time, when their bodies've grown up and their wits are still children. See what I mean? I'd cut my hand off for Mr. Cayne, let alone bearing the loss of a hundred dollars. But you stay out of it. Let his ma wheedle the cash for him, she's done it before be-fore and she'll do it again." Rachel dropped the clean wet ro-maine ro-maine into the salad bag and whirled it blithely around. "Then I'm going to save my eight dollars," she said. "Thank you for telling me. I'll never mention it" "I know you're not the kind to blab," allowed Lena, handsomely. "I knew that from the first." It was two days later, in the afternoon, after-noon, when Lena called Rachel from the laundry where she was doing some of the endless pressing required re-quired by Mrs. Cayne. "Look at here," she said, "here's the master's mas-ter's special curry ordered for tonight to-night and blest if I'm not out of curry powder. Skip out and get it for me, will you, that's a good girl. There's just the one shop that carries car-ries the kind I use and they'll never get it here if I phone and Bert's not ! , 1 "You don't want rensimyou only want yinir ow Btllpu W;v j, I'll tight for my chlU-he's'not go-ing go-ing to l-rt ruined by your loathsome materialism." Mr. Cayne went out of the room, banging the door; his wife burst Into tears of temper. "I'm the most miserable woman In the world." she sobbed, "I don't know why I ever married him, I was nothing but a child. I was so young and so Ignorant oh and now I'll have to do my face nil over again! It's maddening to cryl" She turned sharply to Rachel, who was still working over her long nn-lshed nn-lshed darn. "Don't sit there like a dummy. Firing me my special cream out of the bathroom no, bring me a towel wrung out of hot water and get some ice from Lenahurry, Le-nahurry, hurry. I'll be as rod ns a lobster, nnd putty I could kill Fetor Fe-tor Cayne when he's mean and obstinate ob-stinate like this." Rachel, soon standing ready with lumps of ice wrapped in gau;e, trying to look impersonal nnd yet concerned, was thinking In an odd. lost way: "She loves Holbrook, she loves him In that crary possessive way I missed In Anne. I wonder why she loves him so much and didn't cara enough about me even to try to keep me? I wish I could understand her better. Queer. I've almost stopped thinking about her as my mother. It only comes on now and then." Aloud, "Here's the ice, Mrs. Cayne. if you'll hold It on your eyelids " "Don't fidget you're dripping it all over me. You are the most awkward awk-ward girl; here, give it to me. Now ga and see if Mr. Cayne's gone out. If he has. tell Mr. Holbrook I war.t to see him. If Mr. Cayne's still here, come back and tell me and don't speak to Mr. Holbrook." Rachel hurried into the library. No sign of Mr. Cayne. Towers was coming from the drawing room where he had drawn the curtains for the evening. He said yes. Mr. Cayr.e had left just a minute ago. but he wouldn't be gone long, he had said he was going to walk around the block nnd buy some cigars. ci-gars. Towers nodded knowingly and whispered, "He's sore as a crab." So Rachel tapped at Holbrook's door. "Mrs. Cayne wants to speak to vou, Mr. Hoibrock," she said, primly. prim-ly. "Is that you. Rachel?" came the boy's voice. "Wait a minute." She opened the door and he beckoned beck-oned her inside. The dandified dark green and gold brocade of his lounge suit was a bad contrast for the distress on his too-old, too-weak face. "I say, Rachel," he began, "does father pay you by the week?" Rachel's first impulse was to say, "It's none of your business," but she reflected that this was her first chance to talk to the boy. "Yes, sir," she said, "he pays me by the week." "Well, look, I'm In an awful Jam, my allowance isn't due till the end of the month, couldn't you lend me something till then?" "How much do you want, sir?" "How much have you got?" Rachel seemed to be calculating. "I could let you have five dollars, I guess," she said haltingly. "Oh, damn, I've got to have more than that. Haven't you got any savings?" "No, sir but Towers and Lena have." "Yes, I know, the swine! They wouldn't let me have a plugged nickel to save my life. Can't you raise more than five dollars? When do you get paid again Saturday?" "I might let you have eight dollars, dol-lars, but I need my Saturday's money." mon-ey." "I need it worse than you do! The end of the month's next week, can't you let me have the eight dollars and the money you get on Saturday how much is it, anyway?" any-way?" "Fifteen dollars," lied Rachel, "but I need that myself. You ask your father, Mr. Holbrook, he's nice and kind, he'll let you have it. Or your mother would." "Nice and kind like a steel trap when it comes to money! And mother's moth-er's as hard up as I am. Look here, you put the eight dollars under my pillow when you fix my bed tonight, will you?" "What d'you need it so bad for?" asked Rachel. "My gracious, you're rich people, I shouldn't think you'd need to borrow anything." The door was flung open and Mrs. Cayne stood there. "What are you doing in here?" she said savagely to Rachel. "I sent you to tell Mr. Holbrook to come and see me" Holbrook broke in glibly: "I asked her to come in and look at the way that dumbbell Rosie did my new shirts, I wanted her to speak to Rosie, I never see her." "Oh. was that all? Where are the shirts?" . "She just put 'em back in the drawer and was going. I'm sorry I kept you waiting, beautiful. Don t he cross. It spoils you." He lounged over to his mother, put his arm around her neck and winked at Ra- "What Is It, Who've You Got in Mind?" up on her jewelry. I do that every few days now. And the bracelet' gone.". Rachel followed him into Mrs. Cayne's room, watched while he un. locked the safe and took out a worn blue leather box. "There peridot brooch, pink pearl pendant, topaz and enamel chain, moonstone cameo brooch, carved lapis bracelet and those three rings. The sapphire bracelet was here last Saturday. I haven't looked them over since." He put the colorful trinkets back in the box and closed the safe. Rachel had never felt less like a detective, but she followed her instructions. in-structions. "I'll find out who's been in the house since Saturday and will you notify Terriss, or shall I?" As she said this she recalled Holbrook Hol-brook and his need of money, and the fact that she hadn't put the eight dollars under his pillow as he had asked, nor had he said anything any-thing about the omission. She had supposed that he had got the money from his mother, as Lena had said he would. But now her suspicion came alive. Mr. Cayne divined her double thought. "What is it, who've you got in mind?" he demanded. "Was anyone here while I was out any of Mrs. Cayne's friends, or Holbrook's? Hol-brook's? Quick, think!" Rachel simulated intense thought. "No, no one came in for bridge, and Holbrook's had no friends except a couple of boys on Monday." (TO BE CONTINUED) ' "We Wcre"'t Talking About ', That." UnIess he'8 a topnotch- X'! 3 P00r livin8- " he paints H,.,, and 'andscapes and mur- l.v'aremi,my God' think (lt the evervC'S f canvas that are cov-jm cov-jm and what ler cent ar-i,."u e Poetical about it! ' r t0 be mighty good. '' 'UaM . ' and then he's got a - yherc" 3nd mayrl't land H'hmT twIsted in ge. her '':-! ' thir, t, "You never cared Jvast ' Holbrook, ever since rt into yuU'Ve wanted to make : ' .'-v ib'-r j;.,3 ard mierly money-th-r y"u are yourself! You i . n-s e"'s a!1 'here is in life! -;i"jtyrylh'"g you don't sce- :,r'3Udndh-asure-and-" W' thin, ericsag!Jin! " yo'-"'d ln'ng3 over reasonably." |