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Show XW Sealed m V , TRUNK 6kJS henry VrS KITCHELL SAt"! i WEBSTER Jjl ? conrmcHT h rh feavict "Til tell you what HI do," he said. "If you won't let me take you home, I'll follow you myself and see that he doesn't" She was angrier than he now, and apparently colder. "Why are you so anxious to flud out where I llveT' she asked. "Because you think I'm Rhoda McFarland? And there must be a story about me If Ho advertised for and you want to get It for the paper) Is that the way reporters do J" It didn't occur to him until quite a bit later to wonder bow she knew he was a reporter. For the moment mo-ment he Just sat and stared at ber, stupefied at the gross Injustice she had done him. Before he could get himself together to controvert the monstrous charge, he perceived the harmless, unnecessary Illgglns standing before them. Ithoda sow him too and sprang to ber feet "Do you want me to dance this one with you?" she asked him. "I'd love to." Martin, boiling away Inside like a teakettle, folowed them as far as the edge of the dance floor and stood there a while making up his mind what he should do next Not really that, perhaps, he conceded con-ceded afterward, so much as fanning fan-ning bis perfectly righteous Indignation Indig-nation and rather enjoyed It Presently, though, his reflections censed to be even dubiously enjoyable. enjoy-able. A chill misgiving blew over him that Ithoda might be right after all Lewis, he noted, was dancing wltb Babe Jennings with V time, and for a while though whether it was days or weeks she couldn't remember they'd made a sort of pretense of having school at borne wltb him for teacher. Interrupted In-terrupted harassed days those were, with people coming to see him and being sometimes told that he was out even when she knew be wasn't ; reporters and men wltb battered-looking battered-looking cameras taking pictures of the house, when they couldn't get anything else. There were a few days toward the end, just before they left California Cali-fornia for good, when be had been away from borne all the time and she bad known, somehow, that the trial was going on. Also she had known before she saw him on his return, though again the source of her knowledge eluded her memory, thnt the outcome of It had been favorable to him, that he had "got off." She must be right about that since she still so vividly vivid-ly remembered her disappointment and perplexity, when she saw him again, over the fact that there was nothing triumphant about him; that he had been, If possible, whiter and more bitterly silent than ever. She'd hoped he would tell her what the trial had been about He had never, even In after years, told her that Only once, tbat she knew of, had lila spirit flashed up. This had happened when her Uncle William he must have been her dead mother's brother; he couldn't have been ber father's had come to see them, after the trtnl nnrl hpfnro thpv atnrtpfl pfifit. WHAT WENT BEFORE At a dnnc Martin Forbes, newspaper reporter, meet "Rhoda White." He overhears m convema-tlon convema-tlon between Mas Lewis and a. woman which he believes concern con-cern Rhoda, He recalls a "blind , ad" Inquiring tor "Jthoda McFar-i McFar-i land" and semes a newepaper tory. Ha bellevea that Ithoda' real nam I McFarland. CHAPTER I Continued 2 Something had happened to him. He'd never felt like that before. But when you told me your name was Rhoda, and my saying I had an association as-sociation with the name that 1 couldn't spot Well, I have spotted It now. For the last week there's been an advertisement In the personal per-sonal columns of the News for the address of Ithoda McFurland. The reason I'd jotlced It was that It was always a blind ad ; the advertiser, adver-tiser, I mean, never giving his own name." He had Instinctively avoided looking at her while he was speaking, speak-ing, but the quality of the silence after he'd finished drew his eves now wasn't the time to go Into that He must find Rhoda and tell her what he'd overheard. Then if she needed help, he'd help her. The music stopped sooner than he'd expected It to, and he got up precipitately. If he'd seen Babe Jennings coming along he'd have sat still for another three seconds and let her go by. As It was she saw him and sang out to him as she approached, "Hello, Marty l What have you done with Red Whiter He could think of nothing better to do than stay where he was and answer her. "1 had to let her dance away with another man," he said. "But I've got the next one with her and I'm going to find ber EOW." The thing he feared, but hadn't seen how to avoid, happened. With a mighty upheaval the big man on the other sofa got to his feet and turned around. Babe gave a sort of gasp or squeal of surprise, and then waited to see what was going go-ing to happen. "Ob, hello!" Max Lewis sold. "I dldnt know you were here. Did I hear you say you were going to around to her face. She was deeply flushed. "Well," she asked, as she encountered encoun-tered his gaze, a sharpness that Bounded like panic audible In her voice, "what has that go to do with me?" He wanted to say. "Too are Rhoda McFarland, aren't yon?" but his nerve railed him. He didn't try to answer her question. "Was it Rhoda McFarland you heard them talking about?" she asked at the end of another silence, her voice now In better control, "and did you think there couldn't be more than one person named Ithoda?" , . At last his mind was on the rails again. "I didn't hear any name mentioned at all. I'll tell you what I did hear. The man said, 'She's the girl, all right' The woman asked him bow he knew. He said the girl was a cagey little brat-meaning, brat-meaning, I suppose, that she hadn't told him as much about herself as he tried to find out but that he had got her first name. That name, apparently, cinched it since the woman had already half recognized your face the girl's face, I mean." She noted the slip and pounced She couldn't remember ever having seen him before, but she did re-"member re-"member the falsely gentle smile with which he had reproached ber for having forgotten him. He'd been an ogre to her ever since. Her father had not been afraid of him. He'd sent her from the room on Uncle William's saying that her father could probably guess what he'd come to see him about She'd obediently gone, but only as far as her bedroom, and the boom of the ogre's voice had come through the thin walls all too clearly, ne'd come to try to make her father give her away, for ever, to him. He'd spoken of her, terrl-fylngly, terrl-fylngly, as "the child"! But her father, though quiet and conciliatory concilia-tory at first, had finally defied her uncte and told him to go straight to h 1! She'd never heard blm swear before be-fore or since and she had thought that the reason of his asking her, after her uncle had gone, whether she had heard any of their talk. Anyhow, It had been why she told blm she had not - She hadn't understood much of It at the time, beyond her uncle's assertion as-sertion that her father had dls- U(i tt.v v.', UHUVB will, 0IIDO TUIlCf , "I suppose that's what you heard," Martin replied. "I said It" Then he had what he welcomed as an Inspiration. "Ob, I beg your pardon," he went on, as If Just awakened to bis social obligation. "Miss Jennings, will you let me Introduce Mr. Max Lewis?" Babe said she was delighted, and It seemed to Martin that her enthusiasm en-thusiasm was unfeigned. Apparently Appar-ently Lewis thought so, too. Anyhow, Any-how, neither of thera objected when Martin nodded them a cheerful cheer-ful farewell and slipped away into the crowd. Later, but not until an hour or two later, going over the evening on foot as it were, he was able to surmise that his complacency over the apparent success of his maneuver, getting rid of both Lewis and Babe with a single well-placed introduction, might have had something some-thing to do with his discomfiture in the scene which followed with Rhoda. She, of course, couldn't have known how much deeper he'd plunged into ber affairs while she'd been finishing out the dance with the negligible Higglns. And It wasn't surprising, if she'd felt when he came up and took her arm, detaching her from her most recent re-cent partner with barely a word, that his manner was assuming a good deal too much, as If their friendship had been a matter of upon u angniy. - oy ao you seep talking about me? What makes you think it hus anything to do with me?" "I beard the woman call him Max," be went on doggedly. "He was Max Lewis, all right I got a look at him later. I don't know who the woman was. 1 didn't even see her properly. It came out In their talk that she'd been going by on the sidewalk Just as Just as this girl they were looking for turned in. The woman thought she recognized her, got hold of Lewis somehow, and had him come to the dance to scrape an acquaintance with you. I can't help It I do think It was you they meant I knew he told you bis first name, but I didn't know until then that you'd told hira yours." "1 dldu't," she Instantly put in. with the emphasis, he thought of sudden relief. "The only person I told my name tonight was you. He might have heard me tell you, though," she added. "I saw blm crossing the floor fight near us while we were talking about It" For a moment he thought she'd given In and admitted she was Rhoda McFarland. He moved his hand to cover hers as he said, "Then It's my fault really that be found out and that makes me the natural person to help you." He thought It wasnt his touch she minded, for It wasn't until he Martin Nodded Them a Cheerful Farewell and Slipped Away Into the Crowd. a contented absorption Inexplicable under the hypothesis thut his only Interest toulght lay In taking or following another girl home. When Martin perceived this, he turned away disgustedly and went home himself. CHAPTER II Why 8h Changed Her Name. RHODA tried to tell herself she was glad she had snubbed Martin Forbes. She enjoyed, after a fashion, the consciousness of his glaring at her from the edge of the dunce floor, but when she perceived per-ceived that he was no longer there and came to the conclusion that he'd really abandoned her, she found rather suddenly thnt she was tired of the Alhunibra for tonight to-night and wanted to go home. And although she maintained thnt Martin's Mar-tin's suspicions of Max Lewis were wild nonsense, she was rather glad that Leander Higglns offered to take her home. Their trip, mostly by trolley car, was entirely without Incident Of course It would bel Martin bad made up the whole thing out of bis own head. She was as friendly friend-ly as she knew how to be to Le- Dtuln. oil tl.A ,n n .l.A . n , 1 1 Ann graced nimseir ana wasn t a fit person per-son to bring up a child. She must though, have stored up a good many uncoinprehended phrases of that talk, or how could she have been so sure, two or three years later, when she read In the newspaper of a sensational prosecution of another professor under the Mann act that this was the kind of trial her father had had. Her father, of course, hadn't been sent to prison. He had "got off." But why. If he hadn't done the horrible thing, hadn't he gone , back to the college and she to school and Ann and Alice and Amy come to play with her again? Probably because people had thought he'd done It, anyhow. Their departure from the little university town out In California had felt like running away to her and, she was sure, to her father also. There was one Incident about the Journey which she remembered very clearly. .. Her father's voice had flagged and she'd looked up to see If he'd fallen asleep. He wasn't asleep, but staring out over the desert with such a look of pain In his face that she burst Into tears. He'd comforted her very tenderly and had said to her the only thing, she thought, that he'd ever, said In direct reference to the catastrophe: "I've got you," he told her, "and fhpv pnnt tnkp vnn nurnv from ma months rather than of minutes. He'd been entirely unconscious of this manner at the time. All he'd been thinking of was the Importance Impor-tance of what be had to tell her and of what she in return would have to tell him. He was aware that she looked at him a little oddly as he started to lead ber away, and he explained bis action, adequately be felt, by saying, "We've got to find some place where we can talk. Sha'n't we get out of this? I'll take you home if you like." At that she got rid of bis hand rather brusquely and turned to stare at him, still half perplexed but in rapidly mounting exasperation. exaspera-tion. "I don't want to get out of this," she said. "I came here to dance." Before he could speak, she added, more amiably, "We can talk now. though, can't we? And look, there's a place we can sit." The sofa she darted off to take possession of occupied oc-cupied perhaps the most public place In that entire public dance ball, opposite the head of one of the flights of the grand staircase. "That's all right isn't it?" she asked. "I suppose so," he agreed discontentedly. dis-contentedly. "At least It's got Its back to the wall and no one can hear what we say without stand lng right in front of us and listening." lis-tening." "But what have we got to say," she demanded, "that anybody shouldn't hear?" "Please," he told her. "Of ' course. I don't know how serious it la. You'll know better than I. - It sounded to me like something you ought to be told about." "Sounded? Do you mean you beard people talking about me?" "I think they were talking about you. I'm practically sure thev were." H8 chain of Inferences had been stratxtit enough once, but It wax tangled now. "I'll start with something else," he said, after a , moment's silence. "Do yoa remember remem-ber asking me why I looked funny I spoke of helping ber tbat she snatched her hand away. "But I don't need any help," she told him vehemently. "I haven't anything to do with these people. I don't know who Max Lewis Is, but I don't believe that he had any reason In the world for getting Introduced to me except that he thought. I'd be nice to dnnce with." "They were trying to find you," he stubbornly persisted, "before somebody else did; somebody they are afraid, of, or are trying to take advantage of; an old man they spoke of as 'C J.' Do you know who It Is?" "I haven't the remotest idea in the world." There was no doubt she meant that. Apparently the question was a relief to her, for she added: "Can't you see how It's all nonsense?" "Sit still another minute anyhow any-how and listen to the rest of It. Then perhaps you won't think It's nonsense. "It was the woman who seemed most excited about you. She told Max It was his Job to find out where you lived tonight. She said It didn't matter whether he took you home or followed yon home. She said that as soon as they knew thnt. they'd have C. J. whoever he is where they wanted him. She said there wasn't any time to waste because be-cause you might see that ad in the paper any day and answer It" She snntched her hand away long before he'd finished speaking Now, in furious exasperation, she cried. "I I I!" Why do you keep talking about me? Why should I answer an advertisement for Rhoda McFarland? I won't. I'll tell you that much, anyway. And 1 1 won't let Mas I?wls take me home. I either. If that's any satisfaction." "How will you keep him from ' following you home?" ' He saw she flinched at that, and added. "If me go with you now We can give them the slip Whv not? Why won't you?" "Because It's all nonsense." she said weakly. "Because I want to , stay and dance." I but at that point she said good night to him firmly. It had been only by the exercising of a good deal of resolution that she'd kept her mind on him up to that point And until Babe came home she wanted to be let alone. As she glanced around the studio after shutting the door on Leander Higglns her eye fell on tonight's News scattered about the floor, as her roommate had left It. Was that advertisement really In the paper, pa-per, or had Martin Forbes made that up. too? No, there It was in the personal column. Just as he'd said. "Rhoda McFarland will learn something to her advantage . . ." She dropped In to Babe's chair and the section of the paper slid from a slack hand back to the floor. It bad given her a surprising shock to see her discarded name In print like thnt. It brought things back that she'd thought she was done with for ever; some things that she hadn't thought about In years. Their yard at home, with the venerable ven-erable live oak In the middle of It. In whose branches she and ber i three Inseparable friends used to scramble about like young monkeys; mon-keys; the three A's they used to call them, because their names all began that way Ann, and Alice ! and Amy. They were all in the same grade; seventh It was, when her father told her one morning that she wasn't to go to school any more for the present For the present I Slre'd never gone to school again; not since that day. And Amy and Alice and Ann faded out of the picture. They didn't come to play In her yard any more And she had understood that It was because something that was spoken of. when it was mentioned at all. as the trial; her father's trial Prof. Walter Whifelmuse McFarland McFar-land She'd hnd a glimpse of his name once In black headlines In the newspaper Her father bad stopped being a professor at the same time she'd stopped going to school. He was at home all the And I'm going to see to It that you sha'n't be the loser by this thing that's happened to me. In the long run It may be Just as well for you that It did happen." At the time she'd had no Idea what he'd meant by that But the events of the later years of his life made It clear enough.. He'd had a scheme of some sort, now that he wnsn a college professor any more, for making her rich. A scheme that he'd never brought off, to be sure, but one that down to the very night of his death he'd never lost hope about As It bud worked out. It was that hope of his, always on the point of coming true, that had been the cause of most of her unhappl-ness unhappl-ness during the four long years they had lived In that Chicago hotel. ho-tel. She didn't know that she regretted re-gretted them now. That made a pretty hard sort of problem to work out. Most people, certainly, would say It . was a horrible way for a child to be brought up. The hotel itself was all right, one of the less pretentious ones of the new residential type. Their two rooms up on the tenth floor, furnished fur-nished in imitation black walnut and taupe upholstery, especially perhaps the floor lamp with Its heavy silk shade, had carried out the Idea that they'd come to live In a palace. The kitchenette, with Its electric stove, had seemed a marvelous toy to her; and their white tile bathroom, with Its modern mod-ern plumbings and Its neverfalllng abundance of hot water, had been a luxury. She'd taken It for granted, during dur-ing those first few days while breathless she explored the wonders won-ders of the hotel, thnt the wealth her father hinted at was already In his pockets. It wasnt until he expressed ex-pressed concern over her loneliness It was beginning to strike In a little that she asked him why. now that be was rich, he had to work so hard and couldn't take a little time iB to play with her. (TO BS OONTINUKD.) |