Show anif A anity LOUIS JOSEPE by TE VANCE CE I 1 etli A I 1 he 11 D X r ML au author thor or of ll 11 is the rt T lone the false faces sak ST W W tek W T 31 a afi wolf etc vy fr 0 M ix i lyal A jal illustrated by IRWIN MYERS copyright 1320 1220 by the author now she was vas in indis his arms and glad his lips closed on hers for a long breath she was a mere thing of reeling senses you love met mel 1 I dont know slie she murmured ma may y be b e tomorrow you will marry me and we will go away 1 1 I doyet dont know perhaps yes I 1 will trill but not tomorrow not right away A rattle raffle of shots sounded and looking back she saw the plainclothes plain clothes man pitch forward on his knees then fall prone the policeman scrambling up pistol in hand received the balance of the clip in reds beds automatic and sank slowly down upon his side screaming with horror th the e girl fell back fro from in the window red ked dragged her after hint him still screaming like a madwoman rousing housing on an elbow priscilla maine fo found und herself awake with a racing heart a throat swollen with a strangled cry of horror and a mind through thi ough whose tainted murk the reflections of a womans comans screams ran like a thread of purple light it was true then she was safely restored to her own intimate environment where nothing resembled even remotely that frowsy drowsy room where here w murders had been dons done from which it would appear that priscilla Pris ciHa maine the fashionable young heiress hel resi had had a particularly vivid dream in which sho had promised to be the wife of one man and had been rescued from the police by another a red handed gunman but that entirely explain things because became the encounter with the police in the slums was described in detail in in the evening newspapers and of course priscilla been there though a girl just like her had been in the fight in short in the dark mirror louis vance whose fame as a writer of mystery stories is international has told a most fascinating tale of something that resembles dual personality sona lity but you will not be able to solve the mystery until the very end for it almost baffled a young physician clan who was doing his best since he was iu in love with priscilla and naturally want to give her up to her dream lover and you will enjoy this exceedingly lively and quite unique story CHAPTER ONE the street of strange faces 1 THE DARK CORNER the way of the thin thing was ever ener the same came it befell without warning or rather mathei the girl had never learned to take heed of signs which seemed plain enough in retrospect when she sat silone alone and puzzled her pretty head with the dark riddle of this shadow life which set her so widely apart from every girl she knew and indeed from all the rest of humankind she had a day of restlessness whose every hour brewed its new peculiar mood eliose chose every mood was purposeless with times of almat feverish gayety gaiety causeless fitful fugitive and other times when tor for no reason in her knowledge she caught tier belt belf sighing long fluttering sighs ahat shook her strangely so might ones writ spirit sigh in weariness faint with the burden of incessant strife with borno great antagonist of identity toward nightfall all these were soothed away into a feeling of serene poise and self posse iou and saturate with consciousness of the rich strong atron wine of vitality that quickened led lier ber she thought of life in the likeness of a wide vide placid river wherein she drifted like a fearless swimmer swi miner a stream whose waters were x aarm arm sweet and edw alth a penetrating quality of delicious calm slie never dreamed could be bc disturbed so absolute it seemed sd so permanent so imperturbable only the he signs persisted oddly na as if her spirit knew moments of melan choly ot of which tier her mind knew ew noth ing and insidiously the tranquil surface of that contentment was flawed by apprehensions of nameless danger of peril latent stealthy and implacable as though the swimmer surmised some monstrous shape of evil skulking unseen in those opaque deeps or felt herself heiselt subtly ensnared by a current whose irresistible set was altogether toward destruction jow ow at length perceiving what was vas to come panic paralyzed in her tile the instinct of self preservation though horror brimmed the cup of being she made no effort to fight free but as one who knows that struggling roust must provo prove vain resigned herself and let the baneful current work its will with her fascination too was at work depp deep within tier her a mad desire to go again that wild way she had so often gone and once more be and do and see so go it 1 is so it must be with those to whom a drug lias has made itself a tiling thing of life and death on oil alfend like a bend in the river waited that turning in her psychic life which she knew as the dark cornor corner while c she he lay passive in the arap of that power which so obscurely had its rise in her yet was repugnant to tier her being at once berwalt her ber will Wilt and her necessity and as the dart dark corner drew momentarily more near the transfusion which she termed the change was a as effected by what nay may only be described as a convulsion of tier lier very soul after which came lassitude a vast ener enervation Tation in which all lingering traces of reluctance were obliterated now she was no longer herself but another woman than the one she knew a strange woman clothed in her own ile flesh ii but in no other way akin to her self of everyday having do thought impulse or emotion with fill which that self could sympathize save such ns as may be considered cornmon to all tier her sex yet incomprehensibly hen sibly consciousness of the old self identity survived and though as slie she conceived it dispossessed from its tenement her self continued by tier her blodys side observant critical intrigued tri gued rl something amused in tills this wise rounding the dark cornor corner she passed into that place which she lie had named the street of strange faces and the enigma of this concu sion of self with non self was forgotten in the rush of exotic sensation and emotion excitement and lawless joy i which ich invariably accompanied definite and final commitment to renewed pursuit of those these transcendental adventures 11 LEONORA together with the faces its windows made neade the street being of many sorts sons to each its own significant illumination mi hard bard plate glass masks of saloons beaming false fellowship mean shop fronts of ingratiating shine windows of homely golden glow others through whose latticed shutters filtered sinister gleams be speaking the unspeakable others a gain again that gave only dull reflections in grimed be panes of naphtha flames flaring luridly above pushcarts push carts arrayed in unbroken lines jines along the curbs through this welter of light and shadow in the sidewalk channels tile the faces passed and re passed lurking darkly in forbidding doorways seeking brazenly the brightest glare corning coming and going without rest in uncouth carnival kind and brutal cunning and naive wicked and I 1 innocent cent sar swarthy thy fair unique commonplace faces that ds disgusted faces that alured aured allured alured faces faces that meant nothing that were mere empty mouthing masks faces of oriental cast yellow and red and brown ne negro gro faces in every shade of quartering she knew them all they all knew tier lier the sense of strangeness ebbed with every step with every look around with eiery breath she drew she was losing touch with her othor other self which had so singularly renounced its authority and faded into impotence at the dark corner but which still kept step with he lier r clung to tier her more closely thin than tier her shadow and like a wraith of the living watched noted and compared while taking part in fictions actions wholly foreign to its nature and experiencing reactions obscure to it and unintelligible now the girl moved swiftly with ease and bold boldness iless oven even with a hint of arrogance giving tile the filers facts took look for look smile for smile frown for frown lang laughing bing impishly up at a tall policeman who bo knitted black brows over indulgent blue eyes eves flinging Ill ngin racy retorts to tile the I 1 banter anter of a knot of men emerging from a gin pin mill chilling with glance find and word the advances of those who should have known better clin chatting tring adio lm bawled in tier her ears cars the tawdry virtues of their wares vares pausing now and again to exchange more kindly persiflage sill fige with folk who held title to hei thing liking cutting an impudent figure as confident and unabashed as a coil cit turned loose in home pastures her sharp perceptions took in everything not one considerable detail es their remark and she liked it il she liked it nil she was burlous curiously ly pot per to tier her vc very ry marrow with delight in sounds and sights and smells famil familiar lvir lo 10 her senses since time beyond iligir eari earliest lest record tl TI v street never wide was the narrower for its double rank of pushcarts push carts det cen these an occa occasional lonal automobile or horse drawn vehicle went gingerly to spare the multitude of urchins half dressed and less than ili n n half washed w ched of every age and almo almost at every nationality that swarmed nied upon the asphaltum tenement houses their fire escapes converted into balconies lavishly draped with candid bedding and still more candid women drew ir confidential heads together on high leaving visible only a slender bibbo ribbon n of cobalt sky in between the air was sluggish thick with unnatural haze laze and rank with many odors an unholy alliance of garlic fried fish boiled cabbage and stale beer maintaining debatable over the native aroma of a stratum of society which holds soap less necessity than luxury and the night was tumultuous with screams of children at crude piny howls of babies wallowing in neglect bawling of street vendors each ea ell striving to his nearest competitor clatter of tinny pianos blare and whine of jaded phonographs all relieved against a wholly normal undertone of incessant gossip all and bickering the girl hugged to herself the joy of living this was to tier her the breath of life even more it was enterprise adv adventure future the very stuff of romance she went tier her way smiling with a conscious smile bred of knowledge that she was dressed in her best in her very newest best at that garments of a cut and cost and quality such as the street et seldom saw nevertheless tier her show of nonchalance cloaked circumspection if tier her looks were free and roving they were likewise keen and watchful though Y you know I 1 love you I 1 make no secret of that the width of the street was between them she was mas well aware of two plainclothes plain clothes men who turned to stare when nhen she had bad gone by and conferred together concerning her craftily after the absurd manner of their kind out of the corners of their mouths months cut but that was wag a minor circum circumstance st rine e I 1 more tun fun than reason for worry they jug a girl for wearing good clothes even if they know where she had got them or how the stress of her attention was alue ue to considerations far more weighty and when of a sudden at a crossing she descried its cause she checked in unfeigned dismay with startled pulses III fit THE MAN MARIO on the far corner a tall man simply clothed comp composed oed of habit stood st friess hands clasped lightly before him in a gesture with which tile the girl mas us well acquainted lead head and shoulders lifting above the crowll crowd against the tawny janny flames of naphtha torches toi ches his profile was sharp find black the he silhouette of an ascetic gravely fine but none better than she knew how low its austerity vas belled by haunted eyes bosc sincerity could wring truth from lips that moved to frame a lie and lie he was looking for tier her she knew that too in a lurry flurry so real that it touched tier her anger she ile swung aside into tile the oy street a grim street that led anywhere but the nay she i shoil to go yet she welcomed its sullen gloom and wont went swiftly li heedless cedless of everything thin but tile the necessity of escaping knowing in ili her heart she fould not escape escalle iler was called in a voice of se sonant timbre Leo leonora noril I 1 beg of i N oil nil it Is 1 I marlo marjo slie she stopped and swung round with a specious show of surprise Url irle I 1 into indifference bace tone aud were discouraging but tier her heart wait wai taint faint 11 oh its you the man paused hat in hand blind his attitude one of pleading and reproach yet ret informed with an ineffaceable dignity you saw me leonora why did you run from me she tossed tier her head what makes you think I 1 did 1 I do not think I 1 know you turned up this street to avoid me leonora why if you thought that that I 1 wanted to bo be left alone rhyd yo you u follow roe me the roan man lifted his hands palms hiim uppermost per most and let them fall you know I 1 love you I 1 make no secret of that I 1 have told you how many times a hundred yes liis his enunciation grew more rapid and you are not indifferent to me you never said so but I 1 know oil oh I 1 like you sou all right no more than that too much to wish to hurt me Is it not so why I 1 dont want to hurt you of course but if youve got to know I 1 was in a hurry ive got a date and im i late 1 to and I 1 am detaining you forgive me but let me go with you a little way the girl shot hunted glances right and left then since nothing in sight promised diversion said ungraciously nobody can stop your walking with me nobody but you leonora one word one word from me and do exactly as you please with a nervous laugh oh come along slie she turned back walking hastily the he man marlo mario falling in at tier her side id just as leave you yon come all the way you do not wish roe me to know where you go ile he nodded sober confirmation of an unuttered guess 1 I see 11 you see a terrible loll 1011 lot tile the girl had a spasm of irritation youre always seeing things well what aliat do you see now you go to meet those others ot liers his tone was sad those whom I 1 have so often bogged begged ou on guess its my business who my friends are certainly you eive me no right to make it mine that cannot affect the truth that such associations are unwise maybe im best judge of that too leonora why pretend to me deceive yourself if you must and mn an but not me not one who loves you as I 1 do do not attempt it even it Is so useless with a courtesy the more gratifying because it was so novel mario put his hand under her arm lightly piloting tier her through the human mazes of the brawling braNI ing street which they crossed squarely and quickly left behind after a little ittle while being in the wrong slie she said sulkily 1 I dont see why youre always making out im trying in to put something over on oil you I 1 never promised premised true but you know what these friends of youra your sare are and their ways whither they lead their inevitable end you know if you persist your fate must be as theirs 1 I buess guess u hats good enough for my friends is good enough for rne no leonora you are too good for or that or I 1 could not love you the roan man paused and ills his hold of on tier her arm drew tile the girl to an unwilling pause with nith him midway down a dark dead block of industrial buildings with a window less wall beside them and not in a soul nearby to hear the girl was distressed more than a little humbled in tier lier own esteem by this revelation ree ladon of an affection more enduring and Le generous nerous and frank than any she had ever knain 1 I am not a common man 11 alario was stating s simple fact innocent of |