The weekly examiner., 1901-06-29

child had suddenly disappeared, stolen
 from her bed in the night while the
 nurse slept soundly, and no clew had
 ever been obtained as to her fate.
 The certificate of her birth had also been taken at the same time, for what reason was not known. Tie young mother had been frantic with l grief, and her husband had employed the best detectives and spent money freely, all to no purpose. His wife died year later. He continued the search as long as he lived at intervals and had his will drawn as described, with the additional testimony that one Harriet Carey had been deadly and vindictive enemy of his wife and that he knew of no other person who would l be likely to have stolen the child. What the reasons were for this enmity he did not state. As for a description of the girl, he could only mention one marked peculiarity which would be certain to remain as she grew up, and that was that while one of her eyes was a deep violet blue the other was more of dark gray. This was hardly noticeable unless one observed closely, | | by which she might eventually be i identified.
 It did not seem very likely that aft CT IS years of search this discovery | would ever be made. But handsome l Harry Marsden, in the honesty of his heart and his love of justice, fervently hoped that it might have been left for him to bring the discovery to pass. Harry was 26 and, strange as it may appear, had never been in love. He declared that the reason was that he had never met his ideal, not consider ing that the matter of an ideal has nothing to do with the divine passion as experienced on this mundane sphere.
 However, after he had received the inheritance before mentioned, he had come to wonder if a girl with a blue eye and gray one could be beautiful He had heard of the great beauty of his uncle's English wife and wondered if the daughter resembled her, always providing that she was living. After long deliberation he had come to the conclusion that the phenomenon of two colored eyes would prove rather a charm in fair face than otherwise and had contracted the habit of look ing carefully at every strange girl he met who might be about 20 years of age.
 How he did eventually meet the girl need not be related here. It was one of those accidents-as we count the workings of never erring fate-that happen every day. The world is full of them. So Harry looked into the delicate face, saw one blue eye and one gray one and saw his destiny.
 Elated at the discovery (of the eyes, not knowing yet of the other), he at once saw his way clear to the end, or thought he did, but found obstacles in the path. Mrs. Carver declared that the fact of the peculiar eyes was only a coincidence, that the girl was the daughter of her son and that no one could preFe that her name was other than Carver.
 But fate was working in manner of her own, and this brings us back to Spook, crouching on the stairs, ponder ing, perchance plotting and planning, as boy never planned before. There was something in the air, force re- volving about, which must be captured, put in the form of a thought, developed into a suggestion and thence to the exc cution or act that would bring about a desired result, a result beneficial to Laura Carver.
 A boy from the street threw fire cracker into the stairway. It fell close beside Spook. It hissed threateningly, then exploded triumphantly. A mo- ment before he would not have heard it any more than he heard the noises of the street. But now his mind was at point where the explosion came to him with terrible force, and he arose suddenly and made a motion across his eyes with his clawlike hand like the brushing away of cobwebs
 He looked down at the spot where the spent frecracker still glowed duly in the gloom; then he passed quickly down the stairs and into the street. He did not stop there, but hastened away out of the vicinity and up the street. He wanted some money. There was no money in that wretched place he called home, or if there was it was not for him. The drunken aunt who was sup posed to care for him had no money to waste on Fourth of July fun for the boy. She had sold herself long ago for what she could get. She would sell the boy himself at the same price, only there was no buyer. That there was money in the world that would ere long buy him from her and place him in the niche designed for him she did not dream. Neither did Spook. He only knew that with the explosion of the frecracker in the dark stairway some thing had come to him like the sudden opening and shutting of door through which he had seen clearly to the end.
 But he must have some money. Spook had never begged upon the street. His spectral face would have been an effec- tual one for the purpose, but there was something within him which absolutely