Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-02
The Spitfre
Continued from page ~


| most profoundly.
| He bowed to that woman but she passed
| the curtsy without acknowledgment, and
put pointed question.
lone moment, Mr.. Ormond. If it was
~ part of your plan, as understand it, to
| lure this Mr-er-Mr. Brown on board our
yacht and hold him prisoner, then why did
| you refuse to pick him up wnen he was thrown
from the tug bOat!
Ormond smiled. MY dear young lady, how
could do otherwise? l wished to display no
personal interest Whatever IN the man. and
correctly Judged that you yourself would be
come his preserver. Result-what! He IS
brought aboard, martyr and hero IN the
nobility of your spirit, you accuse me OF IN
humanity. l am forced to implicate your good
father in order to secure your unsuspicious
cooperation. You harbor doubts OF me, IN
| spite of evidence, and demand the gems, which
you lock securely in the yachts safe. Very
good. But let go little deeper / warn
YOU against Mr. George c. Brown; but you
refuse to accept my word You interview
| the man himself, being predisposed to believe
| in him; vet, by your own astuteneSS, you see
| through his artfulness withdraw your mis-
placed sympathy, and force him to work his
passage-a position in which he could give
the least possible trouble to you-and to me.
Believe me, my dear Miss Girard, had you
been one of my own agents. you could not
have rendered me greater help"
Valda stared at him. In the light of GER
tain recent occurrences, there were grounds
for thought. True, the statements of Ormond
seemed similar to a carefully built house OF
cards that eventually must tumble by reason
of its very flimsiness; yet, VIXEN she went
| back, step by step, picking up half neglected
| little incongruitles she saw faint, TAR, gm-
| mering possibility that this house of cards
would stand.
That she had fallen in love with George c.
| Brown, she acknowledged to herself: but
acknowledged it with shame. That she wanted
to believe in him, was the dearest wish of her
| heart and soul; but something had happened
recently,-a something of which she could not
speak because of the pain of it and her own
humanity,-a something that had wiped away
her faith and caused Ormond's accusations to
ring in her ears like redhot bells of truth.
NOV this passive acceptance of the situa-
ton on Valda's part began also to affect
her father, who was striving to obllterate the
personal equation and to work his business
head To him, likewise, Ormond's story
smacked of feathers and flea bites" and yet
he had seen men in Wall Street make fortunes
in the very teeth of apparent impossbility.
| Everything had been against them with the
| exception of few ridiculous trivia1ities; but
these same trivialities had swelled in the man
ner of balloons, till presently some believing
batch of disgruntled bears to shuttle at sew
cred anchor rope. Therefore Marcus Girard
| began to consider trivialities.
"Mr Ormond, he said. discarding his atti-
tude of buster, Il would like to ask you some
questions"
do SO by all means, - begged that compla-
cent man. Il am here for the purpose, and
request you earnestly not to consider my per-
sonal feelings in the least. AS Miss Girard
once put it, the matter is business one"
| Girard eyed him thoughtfully, then asked,
If you considered Mr.. Brown a dangerous
character, why did you not arrest him when
first he came aboard, or Immediately after my
daughter had forced him to work his passage?"
| Because" returned Ormond, with a smile
and a careless shrug 1.-THE Captain of your
yacht was not disposed to honor me with his
complete official confidence; while your
daughters code of mercy might also prove a
bar to drastic measures. An arrest would
| have merely precipitated trouble. Your crew.
to man, was on the side of Mr.. George c.
Brown Mr.. Tracy and myself would doubt
less have become ballast till the Spitfire
reached New York, when the dashing hero
would have dashed away, plus liberty and
the laugh on me"
Girard grunted and tried again: why did
YOU take the precaution to direct Captain
Larris to lie off Sandy Hook and fly private
signalss"
For the reason" replied Ormond, "that
these signals would be answered by New
York police boat waiting to back my poor
| authority in the matter of a prOtracted arrest