Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-12-04

tCliSNi Oue, III Tie UdchSTOuuuA Out III |
the eyes of the third he read pity. the |
same tender pity which he had seen in
her eyes when Helen Morgan had |
stopped to pick up his trick rabbit as |
the frightened animal, escaping from |
his pocket and trembling at the shouts |
of the children, had run to the girl for |
protection.
Its jail for you, young man, unless |
you produce my wife's rings. She left |
them behind the rock crystal vase in
the music room, and we don't propose
to have them disappeared as you do
handkerchiefs and rabbits"
The scene which followed was hor-
rible nightmare to the young magician
his own protestations of innocence
drowned in Mrs. Morgan's Mysteries.
Senator Morgan's orders for an officer.
Helen's pleading for time to search
and finally the discovery of the rings
by maid in Mrs. Morgan's dressing
room. And when it was all over Will
liams was thrust out in the night
through a side entrance, feeling more
like a thief than an acquitted man.
Then suddenly a gentle hand fell up
on his arm, and a gentler voice muir
INJURED in his ear:
Just minute, please. 1 want to
| tell you how sorry l am. 1 hoped this
would be the greatest night Of your
| life
For one long minute the young man
who had his own way to make and the
| girl whose future had been assured so
s., tel, 4 4,
feat looked into each others eyes. And
the soul of the man, suddenly born,
went out to the divine tenderness Of
innate womanliness which is Il great
er power than mere physical beauty.
/ He spoke quietly, but with new found
| confidence.
at has been a wonderful, wonderful
night to me, and some day l am COM
ing back to tell you why"
Under the chaperonage of n dow
ager duchess who knew how to turn
her title TO financial account Helen
| Morgan was doing" the London sea-
son. In a Mayfair drawing room she
sat, and beside her was a man with i
monocle, an English accent above re-
proach and a patroniZing air. OF course
the Morgan millions would mean the
remantling of his ancestral but crum-
bling castles, but then the utter indif-
ference of this girl irritated him even
while it commanded his admiration.
II suppose you saw Erskine III Paris
He's been the go over there-made by
the American set. understand. They
; say it's his manners as much as his
art that got the women all going. He
never speaks during his performance
and has the most inScrutable eyes.
Never could understand why women
went in so heavily for eyes. Con
jurers bore me, as Il rule. but I'm curl
GUS to see this man."
Helen Morgan hardly heard what the
man with the monocle was saying.
"Erskiner'
In u secret drawer of her jewel case
there lay Il card. Frank Erskine vii
liams," the card of the man who had
never come back. never sent her q
message in Eve years, the man who
had forgotten, But no; this could no
be he, for the man who had promised
1 had ready tongue-yeS. ready
tongue. as all men had-who promised
: A futter of fans and a murmur o.
: subdued interest announced that the
lion of the evening had arrived. 4
. quick inclination of the head, snap
: ping of long, slender fingers. and the
performance was under way. Will
: lightning rapidity and wonderful deft
ness the Nconjurer worked and tn,
GREATNESS audience watched, not S,
much the tricks as the unsmiling lips
Il the inscrutable eyes. which seemed no
: to see either the sea of faces appraised
to his nor even the assistant who di,
his unspoken bidding.
: Only one person in the FASHIONABLE
l. audience saw something more. ant
that quivering, blue eyed girl VIII
: for one brief second had met and he'll,
the magician's glance and seen burn
ing in those inscrutable eyes n fir
, which had burned there on Il night fiv
years before, q fire lit centuries agon
:. In the eyes of the worlds first man
Adam.
II The assistant called for ring wit
r which his master would work, ne,
J. trick. Mechanically Helen Morga
/ handed him a magnificent hoop @
l. pearls. Erskine took the ring gravel!
, raised n silver hammer and apparent
- ly smashed the trinket into a thousan
pieces on an anvil of curiously wrougt
rs silver. Then he produced a scale
h casket of water, in which swan a gol,
lie fish, and in the mouth of the fish b
"a found the hoop of pearls. But til
> ring was not returned to its owner b
i the assistant. Instead, as the rool
ST rang with applause, the magician hin
self walked quietly down the aisl
c. formed by the parting of many silke
re skirts. and placed the ring on the girl
De trembling white hand. Not even IL
- =, man with the monocle noticed that tt
- conjurer for an instant held the sill
a fingers in his with a pressure tn;
" threatened to crush them, nor did
We dream that within the girls palm la
lie another ring at which she dared n
IL look.