Show I 1 the D ARK LOUIS JOSEPH author by of VANCE the false faces the lone ma R R 0 R illustrated wolf by IRWIN etc MYERS MERS copyright 1920 by tho the author Bg Sg 4 4 THE HAUNTED WOMAN synopsis V vaguely 11 guel ly conscious of a double cerrona personality but without any idea of 0 its ita in meaning eanni the girl leonora mak makes es her accustomed nay As into the street ot of strange faces thoroughly at home in the underworld of new york leonora akes her course to her appointed fouz marto marlo joins her greatly in love and seeing heeln the alno alne qualities which the girl i eally posses possesses Bes 14 marlo arlo becks to turn her from the path of art inevitable la destruction she premiers premises to marry him at cale cafe gathering place pace of criminals leonora meets her partner red carnahan Carn ehan find and his associates and in accused of 0 betraying a fellow ellow criminal to the police she savagely defends herself and the ensuing argument Is interrupted by tile the appearance of leo Blell In elinsky fleeing from tile police one ai ot whom he has killed officers cers in pursuit crash into the room and two art are killed by carnahan Carn Car ehan lichan leonors leonora find and the rest escape in 11 her er studio priscilla maine wealthy artist awakes from troubled sleep with a distinct feeling of having lier her life linked with leondras Leo noras priscilla has painted a picture dictus ot herself in fancy dress a gypsye gipsy which seems beems to have a hypnotic effect on her unnerved and fearful that her mind Is affected priscilla decides to call to her aid a dear friend dr philip 0 lit philip FOSDICK continued 4 but philip you do it so poorly youre so professional you transfix roe me alth the penetrating eye of diagnosis and prescribe love niel me tor for all the world ns its it I 1 love were bread pills or distilled water in a bottle lale labeled led shake well before using I 1 and I 1 really dont feel run down enough 1 I see you iou want love slipped over on you like bi bribing lang the cook to put pat a in your coffee she laughed delightedly it philip subtlety does it thanks for the tip im making a note of it so dont be surprised if you wake up one fine morning and find yourself madly in love ua with th me 1 I wont be and I 1 even mind al priscilla but im not now so dont lose bour our head why not ihen rny my heart r please I 1 called up tip to ask a very serious question shoot 11 a psychoanalyst psycho analyst philip well im one a cross between a quack and a confidence man 1 I know but what do you do N when hen youre duly functioning as such you mean how do I 1 make a living no only what do you do to make people pay fat fees why I 1 pry into their souls if they happen to have any and ferret out all their secrets those they purposely try to keep from me and those they themselves dont know am thing about 1 I see philip will you yoi dome a favor psychoanalyze psycho analyze me the good I 1 did that long ago really philip misgivings put a tremor into her voice what did you find out that youre the dearest sweetest 1 no please I 1 im in earnest link ive got a burled buried secret and I 1 want you to exhume it and see what Ws its made of are you serious desperately sim mm what are you doing this athla afternoon Ifa having ving you to tea it if you can come ill come uli whether ether I 1 can or not but cihat hat about aunt esther we cant have a present it if were to talk confidences lets have tea at the studio same objection ada moyer A ill get rid of lier her somehow hyght o the studio what time poll four r please ril ill be waiting IV LOVE ada moyer was a pretty vivacious fluffy little woman thoroughly mon inon daino and contented with liers herself lf lier her husband her world entirely lacking in any special aptitude for painting she dabbled in olla oll a bit partly because it afforded lier her an outlet for much superfluous enar energy y that might otherwise have bale got her into mischief partly because she aas as fund fond of pris calla believed her by way or of being a genius and was glad to lend the girl the show of chaperonage without she must hive have had a difficult time of 0 it with aunt esther but mrs lira moyer was az aa apt as not to absent herself from tile studio for days at a time and on this afternoon priscilla found nothing to indicate that the other had been there at all glad to be spared the necessity of explaining that hat she wanted to be alone ach philip fosdick the girl moved alertly round the room tending the preparation of tea by tho the maid she had bad brought with her placing the table and the chairs the way she abo wanted them setting the stage tor for a scene which she aha felt instinctively might affect wast all hor bar days to come she was lai always wilys pleased when philip was about consciousness of the love lie he ila had for her was wag something ole he would not willingly ly have forfeited she was only sorry she love him in return at least not in the lie way philip wanted and deserved to be loved vastly different from such love as had thrown leonora into the onus firms of marlo she paused a slight frown puckering her delicately lined brows strange how the memory of that edress had power to tug at her heart strings i stronger stranger still that any anything thic as fantastic as that shadowy love of shadows should seem so real more real than till all else in ili the content of her drama even its culminating tragedy more real indeed than anything in this world of reality wherein she moved and lived and had her being in a long loii stare slie she comprehended the studio its as with strange ees perceiving afresh the substantial beauty of if its time mellowed furnishings furnishing s the well chosen pieces of period mahogany with contented luster the handsome draperies of rich stuffs matchlessly colored and aal toned bro cades tapestries embossed velvets velvety vel vets illuminated leathers of antique spanish artistry the framed canvases on its walls and those untrained unframed others that turned to them bashful basli ful faces standing on the floor the fine old rugs whose collection had been her fathers fat bers lobby hobby the darkly polished floor door darkly mirroring all things that caught the light the great wide fireplace with its massive dogs of brass the bookshelves laden with well bound works of art the wide mullioned ned window in the south wall whose heavy draperies had thrown back to let in ili the sun she gave a gesture of doubt and anxiety it if this were not love what was it not sanity how could one loe a phantom she began to regret the weakness ie akness which had moved her to call up lip fosdick ilow how could she bring herself to confess this secret even to him ilow how keep it hidden bidden from him how flow hope to deceive that keen insight which had lifted him to his present high place in the ranks of ests slie she sang no more but awaited phillps philips coming with more misgivings than she liked V confession philip fosdick had bad a way of ex or ising elsing constraint and implanting confidence enen em in those who had no special liking for him and priscilla llla was genuinely attached to him more so than she knew and when hen she saw liow how well lie he looked how very much alive and alert mentally and phyll physically phillp philip always seemed at concert pitch and never to know a letdown let down hesitation and doubts were swept away like leaves before an autumnal wind 1 I suspected it he announced nodding sagely youre a fraud and thank god for that now give me tea please and tell me all she made a little move of petulance 1 I knew laugh at me 1 I hoped I 1 would philip flopped boyishly hovish ly into ills his favorite chair helped himself to a alg aret and watched priscilla narrowly while she sugared his cup with the traditional two lumps added the slice of lemon and drowned both in tea never had she seemed more beautiful or moie perfectly poised impossible lie he told himself there could be anything amiss with a creature of such radi ancel some girlish notion nothing more serious liow how long have you known roe me philip lot illet tile me see to the heit bet of my recollection since you were about a year old I 1 remember coming inlo the he nursery unexpectedly and f finding indin you A never mind ilae ila e you ever observed anything ani thine in me that led you to believe I 1 was mas abnormal in any way vf ly lie he contemplated a frivolous reply hut but seeing tile the gravity in in lier her eyes refrained fra ined never said philip solemnly well there Is something philip cilmi I 1 have dreams the strangest dreams let me tell you and please dont laugh philip it 11 t any laughing matter lie he drew the soberest face of sympathy imaginable go on As far back as I 1 enn can remember ive every now flow and then had a special sort of dream dren that seemed very real to me even as a little girl though then I 1 think they so definite kut but when I 1 began to grow into long dresses the dreams took on a certain form kept ever since such as what I 1 fancy slums must be b like the self I 1 see in dreams belongs 6 here dresses sets acts talks precisely like a girl chos never had any advantages advantage to speak of much education or contact with the pleasant side of life all the same she Is myself much as if I 1 put on some disguise so complete it disguised even my speech and habits of thoughts even my sentiments and impulses this girl does and says things I 1 never could and wake nave bave never thought of but to her they seem quite right the natural find right things to do and say the truth Is most of the time ashes rather self satisfied find pleased with every ilian ihling the life she leads the people flie file knows the tun fun site she lias has everything 1 I understand now intrigued philip had abandoned all pretense of treating the matter lightly and was sitting forward smoldering between ills fingers his eyes intently searching face tell me something about the content of these dreams go hack back as far as yon ann cnn my first memories are very vague priscilla told him film they were childish and simple impressions of another little girl who nho was rather unhappy most of tho the time I 1 think she lived with an old woman a wretched old cald witch of a woman who was cruel to her scorned to liate hate her and enjoy beating her in a mean little flat somei somewhere bere the old woman used to tell sell fortunes with cards in the front room but all very vague now I 1 dont remember much more except that the little girl used to play a grent great deal in the streets but when slie she or you grew up tile dreams became more real yes about that time something happened to the old woman I 1 presume she died find and the girl was left alone to look out for herself I 1 dont know what she did for a living because I 1 never haw faw her except at night then I 1 would meet her or rather find myself with her in the street of strange bacs 11 A questioning look obliged priscilla to break off here and explain about the river the dark corner and the street and then we she resumed or she would start oft off and have curtails curious experiences she somehow fell in with a sort of desperado a gang leader such as one sometimes reads about la 11 the newspapers named red carne han ban so you remember names oh ob perfectly places too and this red carnahan Carn ehan fell in love with her and they became eng engaged aged I 1 you you dont think it means insanity do you guess she was brighter more intelligent than lie and slie she planned things for hirn him to do with his gang robberies and such thin ti lings as 08 far as 1 I know and how to escape the lie consequences quen ces another man named danied marlo toyed her too but lie one of reds gang in III fact he was bitterly opposed to liar having anything to do 10 with it and always begging her to give it up and marry him gut but she was afraid of red and always refused I 1 think she always meant to marry red carnahan Carn ehan until last night priscilla paused and was so to long silent storing staring at the floor lost in thoughts and emotions conjured up hv bv this near benr approach to her latest dri dream drislain lain that philip found it necessary to prompt lier her what happened last night tile dream that frightened tile me so I 1 had to tell somebody and thought glit of you then tell me slie slid rose crossed to a desk c ime cime back with the manuscript id rather read it if you dont mind philip I 1 wrote the story out last night as clearly as ae I 1 could remember and here it Is but first tell me what you think you you dont think it means insanity do you his laugh reassured even more abo his words bless your heart no the insane dont have coherent dreams or talk about them intelligibly dont worry about that but frankly I 1 dont know what to think there must be an explanation because nothing in nature Is without its rausa cause but in this case its irs something that will want a deal of hunting im afraid I 1 and well have to get all our facts together before I 1 call even hazard a guess now let me road rend please if lie concentrated so completely over tile the the he seemed utterly forgetful of her presence ord did not so much as look up when ihen sifter lifter a time wenry jeary of studying ills his expression without knowin what thoughts ronld mold ed it priscilla rose and began to wander restlessly about the studio it seemed that lie would never finish reading VI thle EVENING PAPER she was standing to one side of the south window abstractedly looking down over macdougall alley when she heard philip utter a startled exclamation and jump up from his chair turning she saw him approaching the lie scribbled pages of her narrative crushed in ills hand band his face dark with amazement this Is more than extraordinary he declai declared ed its impossible incomprehensible priscilla tell me have you by any chance seen the afternoon papers premonition started a hand band fluttering toward her bosom why no youre sure but of course philip and then alar alarmed nied by lils his look of doubt what Is it why do you ask half it a minute philip crossed to the console table near the door where lie he had left his hat and stick and a folded newspaper and came back with the latter hastily shaking out its sheets 1 I remember noticing a news story on my way here he said abstractedly edly as he be scanned the columns A story astory curiously like yours in some respects about some gangster or other on the lower east side who shot a detective in the street last night then took refuge in a restaurant an and escaped after shooting two others im not sure the names the same but ah the backs of his big fingers tapped the paper smartly here billere it Is you see A headline smote her understanding like a blow in the face GANG MURDERS ON LOWER EAST SIDE but the text swam alleg illegibly ably under her blurring gaze even philips voice seemed remote at times barely audible yes the same names leo bie linsky the gangster a russian su sus 4 pecked of being a bolshevik agent naturally all russians are nowadays ennis and corbin plainclothes plain clothes men Rl storis restaurant no mention of mr carnahan Carn ehan though or anybody else except the proprietor of Bi who swears he never saw Blell Bl elinsky before last night apparently yo r friends friend fi made a clean getaway too toc priscilla caught ills his arm with imploring hands it truel true it cant bel yell tell me it I 1 seeing her face of waxen pallor her dilate allate eyes in which horror flickered lie he dropped the newspaper freed ills his arm gently and took her hand in tile hie firm calming and encouraging clasp of the physician steady cilia old girl steady oni of bourse course it true not the way you mean theres an explanation somewhere short of witchcraft and ill find it for you yoa priscilla ill dig it out if I 1 have to chuck my practice to the dogs and |