The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-01-11
FLoY's SILENCE.
BY ADA FERRIS.

SOMEBODY was nelplnR nlmSeiI lIOm
the valuable stock at Vaue & Hunts
big dry goods store and nobody knew
who or when or how. The employees
had been asked to use extra care and
vigilance, and the most light hearted
girl there felt worried and uneasy.
Was it clever shoplifter? Could
there be a thief among them !? Did
the firm suspect anyone? Was there
perhaps a detective watching them
even now? And-did detectives not
sometimes make mistakes? Every
one was painfully nervous, and impa-
tient to have the mystery cleared up
"Aud l believe you know some
thing about it, Floy," said Jennie
Burnham, under her breath, to fel-
low clerk.
"Why. what makes you think
that?" Floy asked, startled.
II know it. l know by-by the
way you hold your tongue when we
are all puzzling about it. Now what
is it?"
NO." said Floy Irving, very slow
ly, as if weighing every word, mo,
1 do not know any more than the rest
of you about this. don't even know
what is missing"
''But you have suspicion. Now
own up"
NO" even more slowly. "And
if l had, it might be doing great
mistake to tell" +"
ooh, you obstinate little mule I
wish there was an x ray SO we could
look through the peoples heads and
find out what they knew"
But some one came up just then,
and Floy seized the opportunity to
slip away, with deep breath of
thankfulness. For sne did know
something-only, had it anything to
do with this case? If she spoke, all
in the store-or all but two, perhaps
would say at once, "That solves
isitiis.',-R,st -vve,r1iri Or vvorsld
it only practically convict one who
might after all be innocent?
"Oh, if there were only some x
ray by which one might look into
soul and see if it were true ! There
he stood at an opposite counter, quiet
and faithful, although he must know
that one word from her would con-
centrate all this dark cloud of suspi-
cion on his head.
"Yet why should she not say, II
do not know who is the thief now,
but know who was responsible for
a similar course of petty losses a few
years ago, and not so many miles
away. He calls himself Robert Muir
dock now, but he was sent to the re-
form school then under the name of
Bob Jameson. I"
Yet was it quite fair to conclude
that because Bob Jameson, i'll fed,
ill-clothed and illadvised by an un-
scrupulous stepfather, had robbed the
employer who provoked the act by
refusing to pay fair wages, therefore
Robert Murdock, some years older,
wiser, and to all appearance strictly
honorable, was equally guilty
He had been in the store some
months now, and apparently she alone
knew of this old trouble. She hardly
knew why she had not told that he
was an old schoolmate of her own
partly, perhaps, because so much had
been said of girls inability to keep
a secret, and she resented the idea,
but more on account of kindly re-
luctance to make trouble for one try
ing to start anew. No one bur him
self knew that they had ever met
before.
Murdock's behavior had been fault
less-almost too good to be natural,
it seemed to Floy. Still, this might
mean only that he was determined to
retrieve his good name and bury the
old disgrace from sight forever. What
injustice, then, practically to convict
him of this new theft, without one
particle of proof, and make the cloud
above him darker than ever
Yet the word oEce spoken could
never be recalled. And there before
her eyes every day stood Robert Muir
dock, waiting the word that should
hurl him to destruction-yet neither
by word nor look appealing for mercy.
She slipped out hurriedly, when
the days work was over, lest Jennie
should overtake and ply her with
more questions. She did not want to
talk-or to think. What was the
use of puzzling ones brains over a
problem one had not facts to solve? !?
But before she had fairly reached her
boarding place she was stopped by
one of her comrades in the store, with
piteous appeal:
30 Floy Irving, I'm in such a
bother You'll help me out, won't
you? There's darling My head
aches fit to split, and there was such
a crowd at our counter 1 couldn't be-
gin to keep things straight, and some
of the ladies pulled the laces all round
and got them into such tangle l
do believe one of them was the shop
litter that is making us all SO much
trouble. l didn't dare to take my
eyes off her, and l just showed the
whole tangle back in drawer, out of
sight, till l had time to straighten
them out. And my head ached so
that 1 forgot them entirely. 0 Floy,
would you go and put them away for
me-like an angel? 1 don't feel as
if 1 could stand it to go back myself