The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-01-24
The girls knees shook under her. SO

: The girls knees shook under her, so
that she could scarcely stand, but again
and again she uttered her desolate cry.
Again and again it was echoed, with mo
other following sound, except that the air
seemed to the girl to be full of mysteri-
Gus rustlings. She looked this way and
that, half expecting to see door in the
wall, open, and a jealous tiger-woman
spring out to stop her cries. =,
4 Once; when Eve Markham had been
very little girl a cruel nurse had locked
her into a dark wardrobe built into the
wall Of an. old fashioned house. There
she had been left for hours, until she had
nearly died from fear Of the imaginary
horrors which her excited fancy had con-
jured: up. Now she began to feel as she
had felt then, as If she was sitting, dying.
She ran to the barred windows and
screamed for help until her voice broke,
and she burst into a passion of self-pity-
ing tears. *:y 49,. +
Out there on the blue sea tho Lily Maid
lay at anchor-the pretty white yacht
which had been her home for weeks, and
where she had been SO happy with Dick.
There was her dear little stateroom wait
Ing for her, and the kindly, middle aged
maid who had been with her ever since
she left school. Soon her dinner dress
would be laid out and her bath would be
got ready; soothing warm water, scented
with eau: de Cologne, to rest her after the
lOIlS, LlI1IlS Gay Oh sightseeing. would
she ever so on board : the dear Lilly
Maid again? Would she ever see any Of
the people she loved, and who cared for
her? Oh, where was Dick? How could
he, how could he let. such horrible
thing happen to poor child like her?
But, Of course, it was not Dicks fault
| Perhaps it was all a trick from beginning
| to end, and he was not even in Tangier.
Yet why, she asked herself desperately,
| should anyone in the world wish to steal
| her away from her father even If they
could have found out enough to make UP
| such story as this which had trapped
| her? She thought Of many things, and
decided it was possible that she had been
kidnapped for. ransom, as it might have
!, got abroad that her father was a million
aire It. seemed too dreadful, too strange
to be: true, for, although one read of such
affairs in the east or, in far southern
countries, they always happened to other
people-the kind of other people one never
! knew but only read Of in the newspapers.
She remembered how she had been
warned to destroy the letter, and would
| have given much if she had disregarded
/ the warning. because If she had dropped
! the cruInpled ball Of paper in the hotel,
it would be- comparatively easy FOR her
father to trace her when he returned from
1 the long drive and found that she had
1 myst eriously disappeared. Suddenly she
| cfloked with the fear that her father
I might fancy she had run away to join
Dick knight. Oh. If he thought that he
i would not look for her at all III the town;
4 he might never find her. The Lily Maid
i might sail away, and she would be left
behind alone in this terrible place, at the
a mercy Of cruel people who had tricked
. and imprisoned her here. She began tc
4 hope now that she had been kidnapped
4 with ransom as an object, for then word
i OF some kind would be sent to her father,
4 and, besides, they would not dare to muir
i der her.: because until she was redeemed
i she would be a valuable asset. 81:
i This idea was SO cheering that Eve
j stopped crying, and looked at her watch
4 others had expected to finish their drive
i and be back at the hotel by six. In hall
4 an hour more they would know that she
4 was gone. q Then-but who could tell what
4 would happen then?
d AS the girl asked herself this question
4 disconsolate1y she heard sound ct the
door. It was being unlocked. She sprana